We recently connected with Brett Yanoski and have shared our conversation below.
Brett, appreciate you joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
It’s really important that everyone has something they do that they’re passionate about. It may not be your full-time job, but passion projects drive us forward. They encourage us to learn new things we otherwise wouldn’t have and they can lead to positive, new relationships. My passion project for years has been The Inner Gamer. It started with a night drinking some beers with friends and quickly turned into something way more than that. I love to talk video games but I don’t have many people in my life that share the same enthusiasm. The podcast gives me an outlet to continue to explore this world and discuss it with anyone who will listen. We have listeners all of the world, many of which i’ve never met. It always fascinates me when people reach out about a game we talked about. They share the joy they had in the game and how they’re thankful we were able to share that with them. As we grow older, time is more sacred. With The Inner Gamer, we’re hoping to help people make the right choices in how to spend that sacred time with their gaming. Not all games are great, but many are. Many you wouldn’t ever think about. They can trigger so many different emotions and offer a time of escape from the real world. It means so much to me that we can help provide that for our listeners. I’m passionate about building meaningful connections that impacts lives in a positive way.
Brett, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
We founded The Inner Gamer in 2015 with a focus on the casual gamer. There were plenty of podcasts out there serving a general audience, but no one was serving the casual gamer. Many of our friends are working adults and they don’t have the same amount of time to play as they did as kids. How do you find out what’s worth your time? Enter The Inner Gamer. We serve as that source for the best and the worst. We also have a lot of deep dive discussions around the gaming industry. How does AI impact gaming? Will the Microsoft acquisition of Bethesda affect our future games? How do you find time to game as an adult? All of these questions and more are topics we’ve discussed on our podcast. It resonates with our listeners because it gives them an insider look at the industry through the lens of people just like them. We’re not journalists and we’re not game developers; we’re people just like the listeners. I think that means something. Beyond our podcast, we eventually launched a YouTube channel which is a form of our podcast split into multiple videos. We also stream on Twitch weekly. One of the most important pillars of our brand has been our game nights. We host video game nights at local breweries to bring gamers out in a social environment. Over the years we’ve not only grown our community, but we’ve built friendships. It’s been amazing to see people come together in a space for a common interest. The podcast and all the content we produce continues to be a passion project for us and something we really enjoy. Games mean so much and we want to share that love with the world!
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
We appreciate that everyone listens or watches our content, but making and producing content isn’t easy. It takes time, money and dedication. I think the best thing someone can do is give back either via donations or sharing the content with their friends. Everyone out there producing for themselves has some form of Patreon or other platform they use to raise money. I’d recommend donating. It’s so hard to make a good living off the platforms we publish content to (i.e. YouTube, Twitch, Facebook) because they’re all adjusting their algorithms for the benefit of them, not the content creators. To really support creators, you should give them money through their sources they own even if it’s only a dollar a month. Patreon, for example, just takes a regular percentage just like a credit card fee. Ideally, no money is taken away, but this is the price we pay for convenience. Beyond monetary contributions, share the content with your friends. Post your favorite podcast to Facebook, Instagram or TikTok. Whatever platform you may use, let others know you’re watching it and tell them why! Every little bit goes a long way.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
The most rewarding part of being a creative is literally the act of being creative. The fact you can make something out of nothing is amazing. Even better is if you solved a problem while doing it. I love creative problem solving. By day I work on Digital Experiences. There are countless problems to solve when developing digital platforms whether it be a website, app or some other form of interaction. There are always constraints, but with those constraints we can arrive at amazingly creative solutions. I love when I spend time on a project and then it just clicks. The solution is right in front of you then it’s just a matter of execution to see it to the finish line.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://theinnergamer.net/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brettyanoski/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brettyanoski/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/byanoski
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@theinnergamer