Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Dee Rock. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Dee thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with 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?

I started video game content creation as a hobby back in March 2016. At the time I worked a full-time, office job as well. After work and on weekends I would stream on Twitch. Back then I was playing a game called Clash Royale. In this game, players could host in game tournaments for other players to earn in game cards. What helped my channel grow was hosting these to get players into the tournaments. As they competed, I would shout-cast the games. This is similar to calling the play-by-plays in sports. Months after doing this, a company reached out to me to host and cast a tournament live, in person, professionally. I booked my first gig up in Toronto, Canada. Once my foot was in the door, I got more calls to host similar live events for esports. This brought me to a crossroads with my full time job eventually. These esports gigs required travel typically, most international. Therefore, I was out of leave time at my job and needed to decide if I wanted to dive in full time. Next job that came up, I put in my 2 week! From there, I continued to stream gaming on Twitch and well as accept esports event work when it came my way.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

My day to day content creation is live streaming video games. I stream on a social platform called Twitch. It is similar to Youtube, except it is live versus recorded content. I have a camera and a live feed of my gameplay. People from my community come in to chat with me and other viewers as I play. I grew up playing video games. I attended a modeling/acting school as a teenager. After attending, I worked there 10 years as an instructor, then as a Director of Education. This gave me a background in hosting/stage presence. Video game content is a perfect marriage of those, it felt like an easy fit. I typically am creating content of my choosing. However, companies will hire me to play their game specifically or to promote their product.

I’m proud of work I have done in esports, especially representing women in the gaming community. My most proud moment was hosting the CCGS World finals in London. This was an international game event with a massive live audience at the Copper Box Arena. It was a blast and a moment I’ll never forget!

Most people who are not familiar with this style of work wonder how it is possible to make income. As mentioned, sometimes this comes from paid sponsorships or advertisements. However, content creators also earn ad revenue. It is also the nature of the social platform that viewers donate or “tip” a creator they like! Viewers can also subscribe to someone’s channel to unlock in chat badges, specific emotes to use, or other perks set up by the content creator. For example, they may set a day they play a game with their subscribers.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

One of the hardest parts of being in this industry is having thick skin. People have anonymity on the internet. As a live streamer, with a chat, that means people came come in and make comments and see your reaction live. Creators have full control of chat moderation. That doesn’t mean creators don’t read these messages. I got my feelings hurt several times starting out, just by silly things viewers would write. One day in particular I learned a valuable lesson. A new chatter came in and wrote something rude. I don’t even remember what exactly! This person got “timed out” for 10 minutes, meaning they could not type until time was up. Once time was up they came back into the chat and wrote “you look beautiful today!”. It opened my eyes! I realized this person’s messages were empty. They were just trying to get my attention. Made me realize these comments from “trolls” on the internet have zero value to me or any any opinion of me. It helped me be able to ignore those types of comments easier!

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My long term goal would be to work in esports or in TV hosting full time. I have the luxury of working from home, on my own PC setup. However, that cannot compare to working in studio! The energy and experience is more fun to me. My hope is to do that on a more regular basis eventually.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.twitch.tv/bbxh
• Instagram: @bb_xh
• Twitter: @bbxh_twitch
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/bbxh
• Other: TikTok: @bb_xh

Image Credits
EverywhereSean