Have you ever signed a bad contract? Or found yourself knee-deep in a lousy business deal you can’t find your way out of? Well, you’re not alone. Far from it.
Whether you’ve been working for several decades or are in the early stages of your career, it’s easy to fall foul to a less-than-ideal partnership when you don’t understand the full breadth of what you’re agreeing to.
This is especially true in the age of digital content.
With new forms of media cropping up left, right, and center, content creators are navigating uncharted territory when it comes to understanding contracts, negotiating wages, and maintaining ownership of their creative work. And no one knows this better than Andrew Callaghan.
Here’s his story.
The All Gas No Brakes origin story
When you’re young, bright-eyed, and bushy-tailed, it can be all too easy to get wrapped up in the excitement of beginning something new — especially for up-and-coming creators trying to make their way in the intoxicating world of entertainment.
Andrew Callaghan learned this the hard way. In 2019, when Callaghan was an aspiring journalist, he launched his own YouTube channel, Quarter Confessions. The series saw the college student conducting street interviews, asking intoxicated people to spill their deepest, darkest secrets. This fantastic premise, combined with Callaghan’s unique interview style (basically, he let people speak uninterrupted), made for a hilarious yet somehow poignant watch.
Around the same time, Callaghan published All Gas, No Brakes: A Hitchhiker's Diary, a memoir made up of stories from a hitching trip he’d taken across the U.S. His work soon caught the attention of Doing Things Media, a digital media company, which agreed to fund a new YouTube show titled All Gas No Brakes with Callaghan at the helm.
The concept was simple: Callaghan would travel across the country in an RV, interviewing people from all walks of life in an attempt to capture America's often bizarre subcultures.
To an outsider, Callaghan seemed to have hit the jackpot.
Not only was he able to travel the country with his friends-turned-crew, but his dream of working as an independent journalist had come true. All Gas No Brakes was an instant hit, and the channel quickly grew in popularity thanks to its unique blend of humor and social commentary.
Yet, the agreement came with more than a few strings attached…
The contract that almost ended Callaghan’s career
In 2020, the All Gas No Brakes channel suddenly went dormant. Ironically enough, the Doing Things Media team hit the brakes pretty hard, ousting Callaghan and his co-contributors in the process. So, what happened?
In simple terms, Callaghan was refusing to adhere to the terms of his contract. But the truth is a lot more nuanced. According to Callaghan, when he first met with Doing Things Media, he was offered an employment contract that would grant him a yearly salary, access to funding and resources, and a percentage of the show’s Patreon income.
To 21-year-old Callaghan, this sounded great. He was, by his own admission, so excited by the opportunity that he signed the contract without reading it. Uh-oh.
What Callaghan didn’t realize was that he was to be a salaried employee and little more. In signing the contract, he’d agreed to be the face of the YouTube channel but had given away the intellectual property rights to the All Gas No Brakes brand, including his image and his story in the process.
In other words, he practically handed his brand's full creative control to Doing Things Media.
While everything went smoothly for a period, Callaghan’s trouble started when Doing Things Media decided they wanted the show to focus more on comedy and less on politics. Callaghan, who wanted his show to take a deeper look at American subcultures, understandably felt limited. When he asked to renegotiate his contract, his team was kicked out of the brand’s social media profiles and later fired.
A lesson taught is a lesson learned
While Callaghan has bounced back from his mistake, launching his own channel, Channel 5, and releasing a documentary about the 2020 United States presidential election with HBO Max, this situation could have cost him his career.
Thankfully, his story can be a cautionary tale for those navigating the tumultuous early days of their careers online. Here’s what aspiring creators can learn from the All Gas No Brakes controversy:
1) Read. Your. Contract.
Every contract, agreement, or business deal comes with risks. You can avoid the worst ones by simply reading your contract before signing, ensuring you understand the full implications of what you’re agreeing to.
2) Always prioritize your creative vision
Integrity is valuable in every profession. It’s especially valuable in journalism. Callaghan could have bent to Doing Things Media’s will and steered away from the political topics he wanted to explore, but this would have damaged his journalistic integrity. If you find yourself at odds with a partner, it’s likely time to part ways.
3) Hold onto your IP
When a business agrees to give you money, they’ll be expecting something in return, whether that’s your time, your ideas, or your intellectual property. In this story, Callaghan lost control of his IP and was forced to start again from scratch. While he’s bounced back, he could have spared himself a lot of pain by not handing Doing Things Media his best ideas on a silver platter.
4) Get a lawyer
You can’t expect to understand all the legal and business aspects of content creation. When entering into a contract, it’s always worth having a lawyer look over your paperwork first.
