Who made up this thing where all of a sudden we have to change everything at the beginning of the year? I’m not really sure, but we all believe it. What if I told you that change isn’t marked by a date, but rather when you choose too. That’s right! Change isn’t something that is done on a certain day, it’s something that happens naturally. Whether some major life event happens, we keep hitting our head on the wall for the 500th time and it hurts, or we’re inspired by someone’s message/work ethic that a switch just flips.

When change is forced, we’re doing it because someone told us we should, or it’s a new year and you have to reinvent yourself, which is exactly why it only lasts a finite amount of time before you go back. So before you write down your resolutions this year, ask yorurself “Are these the same resolutions as last year?” And “Why am I putting these down?” “What is actually going to be different?”

Questioning yourself and being honest with yourself is one of the key’s to self awareness, which will allow you the freedom to change at the rate you’re supposed to.

Who is this voice? And how the fuck did it get there? That answer, I’m trying to figure out for myself as well, I’ll let you know when I do. Until then, here’s what I can share.

We’re all created uniquely, and not by mistake. We each have our own purpose, our own path to forge, and our own hardships to walk through. We’ve all grown up differently and walked through many challenges in life that make us who we are right now. There’s an immense amount of freedom that comes from the awareness that you’re exactly where you’re supposed to be, and you have the power to change it. Once this is recognized by your inner most self, all of the judgement from yourself and others just rolls right off of you and decision making becomes much easier.

If you don’t like where you are, awesome, now is the time to change it. You are in ABSOLUTE control of yourself, and what circumstances you choose to put yourself in, and the future you choose to make for yourself. Whatever experience that you’re going through right now is a stepping stone to getting you there. Just remember, if you ever feel that this isn’t fair or that it shouldn’t be happening to you, remind yourself that this experience will also make you uniquely qualified to reach somebody that no one else can.

Then came the Xbox.. Little did I know that my gameplay was about to be taken to the next level with Halo, Gears of War, and Call of Duty (Yes, in that order). These games sparked a reaction within me that no game had ever done before, I was obsessed, and couldn’t put it down. I would grind one of these games for 6–8 months straight, switch it up and do the same thing over and over…. And over 😜. I had spent so much money on other games that ultimately became decoration in my drawer or book shelf.

I learned through the years that I play games to improve myself within each moment. I live for out smarting the opponent, and working on the small in-game mechanics that separate the men from the boys. I refuse to be mediocre at any game I play, seriously, what’s the fun in that?

This has greatly helped me within my Twitch broadcasting channel, as I am able to stay consistent and build a community around the games that TRULY make me happy. What I have learned is that when you have genuine love for what you do, you’re always winning, and people love seeing that.

Until another game series comes out that can give me the same reaction, I’ll stick with the 3 that have provided so much joy to me in the past 15 years.

What’s the game that sparks your reaction?

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What a time to be alive…. We live in a world full of instant, and unlimited options. The technology we have today is stuff I used to dream about as a kid, and we as a society are just getting started.

I myself have embarked on a creative journey to play videogames for a living, and am using this vehicle to one day own my own Esports team. I had no idea what I was doing at the time when I started (and still don’t), all I knew was that I was unhappy at my job, I’m great at helping others, and videogames make me happy. It was that simple. In fact, I was so unhappy, that I received one of the greatest gifts of all… I listened to my own voice, and didn’t give a shit what you thought of it.

All of a sudden it got real quiet in my head. I started executing, and fell in love with the process of manufacturing my own happiness. Since then, I have been able to connect with like minded individuals who share the same drive and core values as myself. I have smashed the delusion that everybody on the internet is fake, and well, I just think that’s amazing. The hardest part is getting started, once I did that, it became effortless and I lost my fear of failure in this space.

I stopped listening to the voices in my head that said “You’re not Ninja, so you’re not shit”. I realized that anyone who has made it, not only in this space, but in any space started exactly where I did, with 0 followers, 0 likes, 0 engagement. Internalizing that gives me hope, and unleashes an energy that is intoxicating in the best way possible, it smashes through that fear of failure, and to tell you the truth, it welcomes it. Nobody who has achieved greatness got there without failing, in fact, the amount of failures drastically outweigh the success people have had.

These are just facts, black and white facts, no gray. The gray symbolizes the indecision, the doubt, the negative self talk, and fear. It’s lonely and paralyzing, and burns up so much creative energy. It’s why I keep things simple, don’t over think it.

I’d much rather you see me fail, and pick myself back up to do something better, than deny something useful I could offer you and the world that just might be what you need at that moment.

Keep it simple, don’t over think things, live in the Black and White of it all. Once you get out of that gray area, and start executing, you’ll find that life is pretty effortless.

Yes, you heard that right, you don’t need to get your ears cleaned.

For the past couple of years, I have been close minded about what videogames I play. I always tell people that it’s because I don’t enjoy other games as much, I play them for 2 weeks and then they collect dust. This is only partially true, the reason they collect dust is not because they’re not fun, or I don’t enjoy them as much, it’s because I’m stepping outside my comfort zone, and I don’t like it. I now have to learn a whole new set of controls, movements, meet new friends, etc.. No thanks.

Turns out it’s GOOD to dabble with new titles because it introduces a new way of thinking and provides new challenges to solve.

Imagine if you spent your hard earned cash on a game, popped it in, hit start, and you didn’t have to follow a story, fight a boss, find that hidden treasure, or hit that insanely hard button combo. The game would be pointless because there was NO challenge whatsoever! Apply this concept to your personal life, if we don’t have to face or overcome challenges, life would be pretty boring and we would become numb to it’s existence.

If you stay thinking a certain way for too long, you tend to get stale, close minded, and unwilling to explore anything outside your cave, and it will ultimately make something you love not enjoyable anymore. If you’re a streamer, people will pick up on this, and not stick around.

Now… This doesn’t mean that you need to abandon your favorite titles and only play new games all the time JUST to say you’re always trying new things. That’s not genuine at all, and robbing you of the games that make your heart sing 💓.

It’s about playing these games In addition to your favorites, not in replacement of.

Just remember, time and change are the only constants we have. Use your strengths to life up your weaknesses, if you’re not evolving with The Stream of Life, this world will leave you behind.

That’s not what I want for you to do with your ONLY life here.

Now GO, get out there, prove yourself wrong, get uncomfortable, challenge yourself, and beat that level that you almost broken your controller over 😂.

If you found this article of any value, please highlight your favorite parts, and don’t be selfish, share it ❤️

You are probably asking yourself, “What does BoonaFide mean?” Sounds pretty goofy, but there was some thought behind it……I promise this will all be explained.

I couldn’t have asked for a better upbringing from my family, born an only child from the unconditional love of my parents. My journey called life started in a little (at the time) town called Katy, TX. Growing up, I played soccer, basketball, baseball, and finally landed on swimming, only because I had a passion for not running. My mother, of course, didn’t mind this as she was a swimmer herself! My parents told me it doesn’t matter what you do, as long as you enjoy it, and so I did. I continued to excel in swimming, and my academics until neither of those two activities were what I really wanted to do at the time.

So what happens when a teenager decides to strip all things that condition the mind and body to be healthy? Why experimental drug use, of course, the exact opposite of productive. This activity landed me in some serious trouble right off the start, I was arrested twice within the first six months of starting. An ominous warning which I failed to heed. Not caring about my academics, and without a purpose, I somehow was accepted to Texas State University where experimental turned into habit and a need. You name it, I did it, I won’t get into specifics here, let your imagination do the work. Let’s just put it this way, classes were the last thing I was interested in and only made it two semesters before being put on scholastic probation.

By this time, I was 19 and had already had experiences that most people don’t have in their lifetime. This behavior continued and escalated until my family had enough, they stuck me in a treatment facility to get help. I didn’t much care for it, I was very sick spiritually, and wasn’t much in the mood for attempting to change, only to appease my family and let them turn a blind eye again. I ended up completing this program, only to go door to door to another facility in a beautiful town called Carbondale located in Colorado near Aspen. The house was beautiful, we had a personal chef, and we got to go snowboarding every weekend, it was paradise. I was illusioned of the shining lights and fancy things we got to do that I didn’t pay a dime for. If this was sobriety, I wanted it, however, I didn’t realize the price tag this came with. After completing this program, I relapsed after having about 9 months of continuous sobriety put together. This last bender went on for about a year. This isn’t all a grim story here, I did have lots of fun in the process. But the longer I continued down this path, the bad times began to outweigh the now moments of good times and I was running out of options, and fast. By this time, my family cut me off, I was 120 lbs, about to be evicted, and about $6,000 in debt. Those are some pretty serious accomplishments by age 21.

I had a moment of clarity and realized that this was not who I was, or wanted to be anymore, finally, a spark of willingness ignited in me that I had never felt before and I haven’t turned back since.

I have been completely sober for a little over four years now, and let me tell you, the blessings I have received in these four years are priceless. I am becoming the man I was meant to be, and have used my experience to help countless others, and will continue to do so.

You still asking yourself, “Kyle, that’s an amazing story, but you still haven’t told us what BoonaFide means!”. Ahh, yes, now we will get to it. One of the areas that I have been waking up to the most is how much my decisions are based on what others think and how they view me. Much of my life has been aimed at making sure I am spending my money the way my parent’s think I should, being the superficial guy to impress the lady, being the robotic employee and just collecting a paycheck, and the Agreeable Andy of the group who avoids conflict.

What do all of these things have in common?

They are not genuine and all based out of fear. So, as I was thinking of my brand, I thought, what word selection can encompass genuineness and be bold enough for someone to remember? Taking a word such as bonafide which means genuine; real and adding an extra O to add the individuality of my nickname I used to be so embarrassed about as a child. I own who I am today, and am glad I will be able to inspire others to do the same. Whether that is failure, success, or opportunity, it is mine and nobody can take those things from me, and don’t let them think they can take it from you either!

Image by Zdnet

My journey started exactly how it was supposed too, it was different than yours, and for some reason, that deeply concerned me. I invested in a heavy duty PC and capture card right after I put myself in a mountain of debt with multiple credit cards on a 14 month no-interest plan.

Smart, right?

I didn’t think so at the time, I again thought that I was just being wreck-less and chasing an idea that wasn’t going to work out, but I trusted my intuition again and went for it. Now, I would love to tell you that I was able to rise to the top, quit my job, and stream full time all in 2 months time. That sounded real great in my head, but I still had (and still do) so much to learn about streaming and marketing.

I had to start with the basic question of “Who am I ?” and “What makes me so different?” and “how much time do I have to commit?” The truth is, I had no idea, all I knew was that I love Halo, I’m good at it, and I want to compete. This all had enough passion and momentum to get me started. Now what?

I did my research, read countless articles, started actually listening to Gary Vaynerchuks content, and purchased courses from Udemy to not only understand streaming, but Esports as well.

Starting off, I learned all about the different softwares and overlays, buttons, emotes, badges, bios, and different platforms this could be broadcasted too. I had no idea how much work this actually was going to take to be successful. It was overwhelming because streaming is so new still that the software applications are still buggy and take some fine tuning. Nonetheless, I learned in chunks, as I made mistakes, and by other streamers giving me feedback. There’s a lot of truth in the saying “if you do what you love, it doesn’t seem like real work”. Yes this is a ton of work to manage, but to me, it’s exhilarating, and keeps me hungry to learn more each time I find something new I can add to my content.

Next, it’s NOT about the amount of time streaming, it’s the quality, which any gamer can agree takes great discipline not to grind it out for 6–8 hours a day when you have a full time job with other commitments outside of work. This is the one lesson I’ve learned the hard way. Too much of one thing becomes a bore, and isn’t as exciting, it just becomes escapism and shuts me off from the world, which can become a lonely place in a hurry.

The irony in this was that when I don’t sacrifice all of my time to the stream itself, I am able to create additional content like this blog, posting videos on IG, and reading new content to help me grow and promote my brand. Who would have thunk it?

Probably the greatest thing streaming has taught me is quite simple, but so easy to forget. When I focus on providing value to the world without expecting anything in return, my content comes alive and people are attracted to it. When I focus on numbers and followers, it allows for that insidious fear of “I’m not good enough” to take hold, all of my energy is drained by this fear and I am not of use to anyone, nor providing anything of real value.

I am amazed by how much streaming has taught me in 60 days, I can’t wait for what 6 months looks like 🙌.

When I tweeted out that I was hopping online to broadcast my normally scheduled stream, I instantly received a DM from one of my buddies that I play with regularly saying

“I literally checked your countdown on twitch about 5 seconds ago to see when you’re going live hahaha, that’s timing.”

I am always excited to play with him because of his raw skill in the game combined with his selflessness and compassion to teach everyone around him to be a better player. I felt this excitement along with something else that I couldn’t quite identify. It then hit me.

I provided value to someone that he actually took time out of his day to check my streaming schedule because he was looking forward to tuning in, and playing with me. I actually stopped in my tracks and jumped up and down in my apartment with sheer excitement!

When I hopped online, the Xbox live servers were down and nobody could play.. Great. I reset my Xbox multiple times thinking it was me, and was about to hop off.

Then, the thought came to mind of when I have been at work and a certain system was down, we still had to be productive. So I decided to continue the stream and play the story mode that I hadn’t finished. This lead to my viewership spiking to 9 viewers at one point, the most I’d ever had since I started last month, and my first subscriber!

This shattered the fears I had going into this thing. The voices in my head that said I wouldn’t be able to achieve success, I wasn’t good enough to inspire, and that this was destined to fail, all vanished in that moment and were replaced with motivation to continue creating. I learned that my stream doesn’t have to consist of JUST matchmaking, it can be anything, and people love to see something different every once in a while.

I had listened to a podcast from Gary Vaynerchuk talking about how everyone is so focused on the actual numbers of followers vs. the amount of those people who are not only following, but interacting because they’re genuinely excited for what you create.

My first self-made dollar was truly miraculous, but the DM of a player I look up to was the best feeling in the world since I started my journey in Esports on Twitch. The more I genuinely focus on what I can do for others, the more followers become interested and want to contribute to my success.

Why I started streaming Twitch

By now, most of the world knows what Twitch is, or has a general idea, and no I’m not talking about your muscles twitching from a lack of hydration. I’m speaking of the innovative platform where videogame play is broadcasted for the world to see. What started out as a small community has mushroomed into a massive social platform where gaming is now considered “cool”.

The birth of the internet has now made endless forms of entertainment, what used to be considered a “waste of time” is now a form of entertainment that people are tuning into watch just like a TV show. The best part is that you don’t need to sell your pitch to a big time producer to get airtime, you literally create everything from the ground up and set your own rules and be your own star.

I have been enjoying first person shooter games since I can remember, games like Halo, Gears of War, and Call of Duty to name a few. Growing up however, this was not what the kids were talking about in school, they were talking about that sick rager last night, or some new top 50 song that had been overplayed for months that made people’s ears bleed. Nobody really cared about the sick triple kill I had last night, or how I finally achieved level 40 in the ranking system. I spoke a different language than most. My generation still viewed videogames as a past time to chill and hang out with friends. This is how it started for me, but has evolved to something so much more.

There is nothing more exhilarating to me than working together as a team to achieve a common goal, no matter the circumstances. This was a belief that my family ingrained into me at a young age and still to this day “We will get through anything together.”

I get to live this belief every 12 minutes when playing videogames, working together to achieve a goal, no matter the skill level or circumstances. I constantly surround myself with and play against people that are better than me to improve my skill, there’s nothing like going into a match with a head full of confidence and getting completely inhialated. I’ve learned so much from these matches, and are what motivate me to be the best.

It has been my childhood dream to pursue competitive Esports, and I couldn’t think of a better time than now to do so. Streaming on Twitch exposes my game play to the world and allows me to be authentically me. This platform provides the wide open door that I have been searching for all these years.

My greatest wish is to inspire the confidence in one gamer to continue doing what they love. Whether that is using their game play to provide entertainment for the masses, or to be the best in the world, and anything inbetween.

See you online!