We recently connected with Christopher  and have shared our conversation below.

Christopher, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

I learned my skills via trial and error, in-fact I’m still learning to this day. What games to stream, what niche I fill, how to run an online community. These and many more are all important things that I have learned.

Knowing what I know now, I’m not sure I could have sped my process along a little bit. Granted there were times where I let my depression get the better of me and slow down my process. But that’s a thing that’s hard to control especially depending on your circumstances.

Skills that are essential – Things like, knowing a work/life balance. Planning and growing your content on multiple platforms. Learning how to effectively edit videos will save you tons of time. Also, knowing how to manage a community will save you headaches down the road.

Things that stood in my way was myself. I was my own biggest obstacle. Create what you want, when you want. Learn from each piece of content you make. This will help guide you to your target audience. Don’t sweat about what other creators have made, make your own version of videos/images/content.

Christopher, 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?

It was kinda a fluke on how I got into content creation. I was in the process of recovering from back surgery and found this website called Twitch. A buddy of mine signed up and pointed me in the same direction so I thought “why not?”. I love video games let’s watch some people play them. I eventually tried my hand at content creation and did it very casually for a few years while I recovered and was trying to get back to work unsuccessfully. I really started off in 2018 and became more serious about it when the dev’s of one of my favorite games (Don’t Starve) started their Twitch Drop system. From there my channel grew fairly quickly.

I create mostly on Twitch with livestreaming, make videos/let’s play on YouTube and share my clips on Twitter/Tiktok and post my random selfies on Instagram.

What sets me apart from other creators is my community. I stream mostly Indie Game titles but that’s not my main focus. My focus centers around interacting with my viewers, getting to know them and letting them share in the experiences of my gameplay. Because I run my community specifically under the banners of Mental Health and being LGBTQIA+ friendly I’ve niched out a very specific area for viewers to come and feel safe in. So far as such that one of the things that has humbled me over the years is having multiple viewers DM me saying that if they hadn’t found my community when they did, they might not be around to send me that message.

For anyone looking for a place to call home online, my community is a place you can check out for a safe space, dad jokes, puns and a relaxed time while I check out the latest updates and releases in the Indie gaming sphere.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

So far it’s been getting to know my audience and watching them grow up. Some of them have been following me for the better part of 7-8 years now and are becoming adults in their own right. Also the messages about how my content has helped people out of dark times. I’ve been there personally, I know how rough life can treat you. So I try to make everything lighthearted but genuine to who I am.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

It’s more than just hitting a “go live” button and succeeding. There’s hours upon hours of extra work behind the scenes creating everything from your layouts, social media posts, networking with developers/other creatives, collaborations, etc…

This is if you truly want to be a full time creator. Planning out for game releases can have a huge impact on the presence and growth of your brand. You can easily “work” 40+ hours planning out all of this and live streaming at the same time. Discipline is going to be very important, not only for your content creation but if you’re working a standard 9-5 job as well.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.griver84.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/griver84
• Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/griver84
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/griver84
• Other: Tiktok – https://www.tiktok.com/@griver84 Twitch – https://www.twitch.tv/griver84