We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Th3beardedbaron a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Th3beardedbaron, appreciate you joining us today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?
Hello there, yes I’ve been able to make a full time living from my creative work. I’m a horror variety content creator, so anything that goes bump in the night, generally we are there. I started off doing streaming as a hobby of mine while I was a software developer outside of Atlanta. I remember the person that introduced me into streaming, he was my supervisor at the company I worked for and I remember him telling me all about his son “chocotaco”. Well chocotaco is a very big streamer in the pubg community and I remembered thinking “wow I can’t believe people watch folks play video games, I’d rather play them instead.” So I did, I started up my channel and within 3 weeks of streaming almost everyday, no one had shown up lol. It wasn’t until I started playing an older game (left for dead 2) that people started showing up to my live streams. From there I switched to a more popular horror game called dead by daylight and streamed that game for 3 years. During that time two things happened, Covid hit and I got really burnt out of playing dead by daylight for over 3000 hours lol.
Since COVID was just in full swing, everyone was being sent home or laid off and I was no exception. With my wife being 6 months pregnant at the time, we were considered with how we were going to handle the new baby in our lives as well as me finding a new job. After some discussions, we determined that I’d become a stay at home dad until our son could sleep through the night. Once Oliver was born, I would stay up, feed him, change him and go back to streaming from 6pm to 6am in the morning so my wife could sleep. The other change I made was changing from dead by daylight to a game called phasmophobia. Without the competitive nature of dead by daylight weighing us down, I was really able to thrive in the new environment and within 3 months, I got partnered on twitch. From there I’ve been able to stream video games for the past 3 years full time and I absolutely love it. It’s almost an addiction to want to stream, always calling me back. I enjoy the feeling of providing a safe and comfortable place for people to interact and have fun.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I think I explained how I got into the industry already lol but I use the normal pc set up that everyone thinks about, pc, mouse, keyboard. I do however have other things to help me out like, stream decks (for setting up hotkeys) an expensive microphone, mixers, lights, green screens and multiple webcams.
The thing I’m most proud of is the community I’ve been able to create. They are a crazy bunch of folks but I love all of them dearly and they really do care about me as a person which is an amazing feeling to have.
My brand is about spreading love and positivity while playing video games. I strive to create a safe and carefree atmosphere for folks who are going through the best and worst days of their lives. We’ll laugh, cry and everything in between but we do it together and that’s the important part.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
The most rewarding aspect of being a content creator is when folks come into a live stream or see me in person and say “hey you helped me get through a hard time in my life.” To know you have that kind of impact on folks is a very powerful feeling and not one I take lightly.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
You have to continuously pivot in this business. Everyone is constantly competing against each other so if you aren’t AT LEAST matching what others are doing, you are going to get left behind. You have to constantly keep up with different socials, formulate strategies for your streams, work with other creators to do collaborations and probably step on a few feet in the process. It’s so fluid, if you hit the right thing at the right time, your career can soar to the absolute top.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.th3beardedbaron.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/th3beardedbaron
- Twitter: @th3beardedbaron
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/th3beardedbaron
- Other: https://twitch.tv/th3beardedbaron