A couple of weeks ago on the podcast, I brought on content creator Force Gaming. If you’re not familiar with him, he creates comedic and informative videos on YouTube about video games.

Force started off in the summer of 2010 creating Starcraft videos. He was inspired by other gaming YouTubers at the time and decided to give it a shot for himself. He refers to his early videos as garbage but that really isn’t the case. In fact, his loyal, early viewers would disagree with that statement a lot.

In his early video making days, he got a contract from Machinima, as signing on with someone like them was the only way you could make money off of videos back then. If you’re not familiar with Machinima, they are an entertainment company owned by WarnerMedia. …

In this week's episode of the podcast, I recorded my thoughts during a car ride from my office back to my house for some intimacy and authenticity. I just came off of a 10-hour stream where I interviewed 8 different people — it was such a different experience.

Recently I’ve been streaming back-to-back and it’s been awesome to see Tarkov really taking off. Streaming so much has brought a lot of new viewers to not only my content but also brought many new fans to Tarkov. It has me feeling super grateful. …

Pestily, or Paul, has been my friend for a while now. If you’re unfamiliar with him, he streams on Twitch, posts on YouTube, and more.

While we were playing Tarkov, I did a mini-interview with him that lasted the duration of a raid on his 18.5 hour of streaming.

Which is nothing compared to his longest stream which lasted 42 hours.

He recently hit 50,000 viewers on his stream which is a huge deal! To put it in perspective, about 3,000 viewers is normal for him after about an hour. Pestily hit 10,000 without a host but channels began to host him and the viewers came rolling in. It got to the point where he began calling family members as he hit goals. …

WolvesAtMyDoor, aka Jay, is a Twitch streamer and clothing designer. I recently had the chance to interview him on my podcast.

Before streaming on Twitch or designing clothes, Jay worked as a graphic designer for a publishing company, creating designs for book covers. It was through graphic design that he also found his first success online.

Jay created fan art for YouTubers and streamers that he watched. One of those YouTubers, BdoubleO, saw his work and was impressed. He ended up hiring Jay to create the thumbnails for his videos.

When I asked Jay whether a graphic designer should work for free to get their foot in the door, he had a unique answer. …

Recently, I had to go out of town on short notice to visit a sick family member.

Since I was not live on Friday, I had Zane the editor put together a prerecorded show. This was important to me because I always want for there to be a show and a place for the community to hang out even if I’m not there.

Although trips such as this are always difficult, I am glad that I went as it gave me the chance to have some final conversations with this person who I love.

This was a new type of experience for me and meeting with this family member helped me gain some perspective. Specifically, it reinvigorated me to take advantage of the time that I am given. …

Edmund McMillen is a legendary game designer with an extremely interesting back story. He has created hits like Super Meat Boy, The Binding of Isaac, and The End is Nigh — and most impressively, he did it all independently, so when I had the chance to sit down and talk with Edmund, needless to say, it was an awesome experience.

From Comics to Videogames

There is a big difference between wanting to make video games and actually doing it. However, Edmund McMillen didn’t even know he wanted to make games at first — he kind of just fell into it.

Originally, Edmund started by making comics between the ages of 15 and 18 but soon got frustrated. He didn’t like that he couldn’t see the joy in people’s faces as they read his work nor did he know the number of people even reading it! As a result, he was unable to measure success on a personal level. Before he was posting them online, he would sell them in stores by just asking the owner. Who would have thought it was that easy? …

Today, I decided to compile five things I’ve learned over the past week in the hopes of providing some value to your day to day life.

1. Creativity Takes Time

Over the past few months, I have been working with a very talented graphic designer and friend of mine, Jay, more commonly known as Wolvesatmydoor, on a rebrand for the channel.

What I’ve learned is that when it comes to creative jobs and things that need to be highly polished like that, it always takes longer than you expect.

That’s perfectly ok though. You just need to be patient and look at it long-term. When it is something big like a rebrand, you don’t want to cut corners. …

Today, Deadly averages over 2000 viewers on Twitch and is one of the leading content creators for the immersive survival game Escape from Tarkov.

However, when Deadly first started streaming in 2014, he quickly realized that making a living off of the platform would not be as easy as he first thought and struggled to grow his viewership. Since then, things have obviously changed as Deadly is now one of the most successful streamers in his space.

I had the chance to talk with Deadly and interview him for the podcast. During the interview, Deadly was adamant that his success was not due to any natural talent; rather, it was hard work and dedication. …