We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Andre Anderson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Andre, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Do you think your parents have had a meaningful impact on you and your journey?

As a kid, I was always myself. I grew up playing soccer at a high level and I was always free spirited! I remember all of the soccer trips I took all across the United States and even having the chance to play in Scotland, my parents always gave me their blessing and support. No matter where I was, even if I had to miss school because I had to attend soccer tournaments, my parents saw how much I loved soccer and supported what I wanted to do.

Fast forward to around the year 2015. Two of my friends and I came up with an idea for us to move to Orlando, Florida from Maryland to pursue our early YouTube/Content Creation dreams. My parents thought I was joking. You want to move where, to do what? Back in 2015 social media was not what it was today. To be honest, the word influencer might not have even been a thing. My parents were very skeptical of our plans, but the proof of how much we wanted to do this was in the pudding of all the work we were doing unpaid. Every single day for over a year, creating Youtube videos for the love of self expression and creating content for the enjoyment of others.

What I believe my parents did right was allow me to believe that anything in life is possible with hard work, dedication, self belief and a support system. A couple days before I left Maryland and moved to Florida, my parents said to me “As a parent, all you want and hope for is that your children are healthy and find love and passions for things in life. This is your passion and we will not take it away from you.”

Andre, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

To be completely honest, I had no idea that I would fall in love with content creation at any form. I was a soccer player from the ages of 3 until about 20ish. I didn’t have much of a passion for anything else really until I bought my first camera in 2013 and downloaded Final Cut Pro.

In the year 2015 two of my friends and I took a chance of a lifetime and moved to Orlando, Florida from Maryland. To some, this may not seem like a risk, but to us it was. Kids in their early 20s with barley any money. Just Hopes and Dreams. 2015 was the early days of social media. There were not as many influencers or content creators posting their videos online like there are today. The idea of becoming rich was not the name of the game for us, rather it was the hope that the freedom of being able to express ourselves through social media would be the reason we were paid. 9 years later, I have a joint Youtube Channel with one of my best friends that has over 15o,ooo subscribers, my own Youtube Channel has over 145,000 subscribers, I went back to college and graduated and now work as a Social Media Manager for a college while continuing to create content that I love on my Instagram and Youtube.

I started my journey around the age of 20 or 21 and I am now 31. Over the years my love for content creation has changed. In my early years I was a gamer. Dre Drizzle is my YouTube Channel and on occasion my friends and I would do vlogs around the house that we lived in or other IRL (In Real Life) videos that we could think of, but the core of it all was gaming. Having the opportunity to work alongside companies like EA Sports, AXE and other big brands, I was able to travel to places like Los Angles California, New York and Berlin Germany for free, and when I say free I mean flight, hotel, Ubers, were all free. Gaming was what made me. Now a days, it means everything to me to express myself emotionally. I am a very positive person who does not miss an opportunity to be grateful for the life I have and the life I have lived. With this being the case I try to never miss an opportunity big or small to capture my current emotions and share them through content creation with my peers in hope that someone can emotionally connect with things in life the way that I do.

I am most proud of my younger self. It is not always good to not think everything through, but because the only idea I had in my young mind was that at the end of this journey I am going to come away with something positive, I was not worried about the early struggles we would have to face before things really started to pick up.

At the end of it all I am a Digital Creator who brings, as I say, vibes to life. To me it’s not about how long a video is or how short. Content creation is about creating videos or taking pictures and having your audience feel the same way you feel about your product, service or honestly, about you.

Everything in life is about creating Peace, Love and Positivity.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

To me, this answer is simple. When I am able to create a video that I want to watch over and over again. For 6 years of my life I was dependent on analytics. Being a full time content creator is hard and does not always allow you to post everything you want and feel because you have to appeal to your audience. Although I do not get paid for every video I create now a days, I feel a lot more fulfilled as I have total control of whatever I want to create and at the end of the day, that is what all creators are striving for. Creative Freedom.

How did you build your audience on social media?

STAY on BRAND, STAY on BRAND, and did i mention STAY on BRAND!? I can promise you that the best way to build an audience on social media is to BE YOU “STAY ON BRAND”. The hardest thing to do in social media is to create an image of yourself that people love and then years and hundreds of thousands of followers later, try and switch up. The thing about the internet is that no one knows who you are besides you. I know the internet may sound like an idea for a “Fresh Start” but, this is the reason why it is even more important to be yourself. We are all special people. No one is like you. Why not showcase who you are and creative content that you want the world to see?

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://instagram.com/dredrizzle4
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/dredrizzle

Image Credits
Hyunjo Choi