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

Dwight, appreciate you joining us today. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?

For the last two years, I have been a full-time content creator on YouTube and Twitch. Originally this business started out as a way to promote a local streetwear brand I started up. At the time, influencer marketing was getting huge and I had spent a good portion of money investing into it, especially on Instagram. Meme pages were huge on the platform back then, so I decided I would create my own and take advantage of that engagement to promote my separate business while also making some extra pocket money doing shoutouts. I ended up creating one of the largest anime based meme accounts (specifically centered around Dragonball Z). Once I saw the popularity of the page, I decided to pivot into making merch targeted to that specific niche and it ended up being more successful than my original brand which was a passion project. I decided to continue to focus on my anime targeted business and eventually started up a YouTube channel for fun. I would talk about anime, manga and reviewed figurines. Eventually I brought my best friend in and we ended up creating a video that went viral and the channel exploded. From there we navigated the YouTube algorithm carefully and settled into our current niche which is mainly anime reaction videos. Along with my wife the three of us have grown a community of over 640k subscribers on YouTube and we also have one of the largest Patreon accounts on the platform. If I knew then what I knew now we could have definitely sped up the process but that’s the beauty of the journey, you learn as you go!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Dwight Morrison but online I go by YaBoyRoshi. I started the channel as a hobby/way to make some extra money and it has now grown into a full scale business with a team of four including our editor. We create reaction videos which we see as a new age form of reviewing content (music, TV, movies, etc). Think of it like DVD commentary with comedic takes and engaging edits. Definitely something that sets us apart is the level of comedy we provided along with analysis. We are one of the top channels in our niche averaging around 11 million views per month. What I am most proud of is how through being ourselves, unapologetically nerdy black creators, we have shown others its okay to be open and not ashamed about your interests and we have created a community that finds comfort and familiarity in the entertainment we provide. In some cases we have even inspired other creators to start channels themselves, and there are even channels overseas in Japan that add subtitles to our videos so they can enjoy! One of the things that lets me know I am doing the right thing are the messages from those who may not have friends that share similar interests so they use our content as a way to connect with others. For me It shows how powerful social media is as a tool of positivity and I am glad to take part.
One thing I want people to know is that even though it looks easy, content creation is hard work and there are a number of moving parts to what you see as the final product. To anyone looking to venture into this as a career path, the grind is long and you have to put just as much effort into this as any other job. It’s a lot of work but its definitely rewarding!

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

There was a point in time where our channel was deleted. We had just hit our stride, just crossed over the 100k subscriber mark and the channel was terminated over false claims. It was definitely crushing since we were just seeing signs that this could be a full time thing, but instead of letting it get me down I got to work. I spent the next two months sending email after email, utilizing contacts from a previous area of work and even hiring a lawyer. Eventually, our channel was restored along with all of our content. I always look at that as a defining moment because if I had just given up, we would not have achieved the level of success we have today. If there is something you love make sure you fight for it!

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

This may be a hot take, but I feel society is already doing what it can to support. Theres no way to force people to support what they don’t want to, but that is why the internet is such a wonderful tool. Often times I see creatives complain about the lack of support from the local scene, friends and family but I think the better approach is to get out there and find your target audience. Society has provided us with a plethora of social media platforms that allow us to reach the WORLD! Theres no reason to limit yourself and there are a vast amount of creators who have already realized this and make a living doing what they love. So its up to the creatives to take advantage of what society has already provided to achieve their goals. Apply yourself and you will thrive!

Contact Info:

• Website: yaboyroshi.com
• Instagram: instagram/com/yaboyroshi
• Twitter: twitter.com/yaboyroshi
• Youtube: YouTube.com/yaboyroshi
• Other: patreon.com/yaboyroshi

Image Credits
photos by Roberto Rivera for Animus Visual