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

Jeff, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

Jumping into full-time content creation has honestly been one of the biggest risks I’ve taken. The circumstances around the time I made the decision made it slightly easier, though, but only slightly, as it happened during the hardest time of my life, thus far.

My mom’s stage 4 breast cancer took a turn for the worst in April of 2017, around the same time I lost my social media manager job at a men’s underwear company. I had just recently started streaming on Twitch regularly, and because the money-making potential of it at the time was little to none, I was still applying for jobs to support my dreams of full-time content creation coming true. As time went on, and my mom’s condition worsened, focusing on anything that wasn’t a pure source of joy felt like energy I couldn’t spare, as streaming became the only time of the day when everything felt okay. I could spend time with other queer individuals who loved gaming, forgetting, if even just for a few hours, that the home around me no longer felt like home.

As the money-making potential of streaming increased, and more knowledge of what I would inherit after my mom’s inevitable passing, I had more thoughts along the lines of “what if I just pursued streaming full-time?” I battled guilt around using this inheritance even years after she passed, but even at the time, another thought that was so pervasive was “if not now, when?” Not everyone gets the opportunity to have all of their expenses covered for a period of time when it comes to pursuing content creation/full-time creative pursuits. Even though it felt wrong to use the money to support what felt like an outlandish goal, the idea of turning away from the opportunity to create content full-time felt worse. Fighting for my dreams to come true felt like the best way to honor her memory.

The biggest risk here was knowing that I had a fixed amount of time to make content creation profitable. It’s come with balancing passion projects vs. projects I know will bring in growth/income, dealing with burnout on several occasions, and trying to maintain a health work/life balance when self-employment can often mean not working = not making money. I love what I do, and hope to be able to do it for as long as I can, but it’s a constant balancing act that’s taught me just how important it is to find time to unwind in ways that have nothing to do with content creation. Living life outside of my work helps me put more life back into it, and that’s important when my main goal is to uplift and inspire through entertainment.

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?

When you’re at my Twitch channel, you’re at The Bru-Latté, a gaming cafe on the internet curating all things magical, kooky, and spooky. While there, you can enjoy some chill vibes, fun stories (from both the games we play and the stories we tell each other), and queer company (it’s me, I’m the queer company, but so is a lot of the community!) We have a big focus on how games can tell a story (English Creative Writing and Lit. major, so I tend to get super nerdy about it), mental health discussions, cannabis advocacy, and food, all with an upbeat vibe so we can all brighten each others’ day.

I first heard of Twitch in 2013, when a gaming Youtuber I watched regularly, Scott Tumilty, started to do weekly gaming segments on Twitch that he called Garlic Bread Mondays, which included him livestreaming games, and all of us bringing garlic bread to the occasion. It was the first I had heard of Twitch, and learning there was a platform for people to create communities around gaming immediately piqued my interest. I didn’t have the hardware to produce a livestream at the time, so I didn’t do my first successful gaming livestream until 2017. I was too scared to play Resident Evil 7: Biohazard on my own, and knowing I could stream directly to Twitch with my PS4, I told a friend I’d be live, booted up the stream, and did my first ever show on my Twitch channel. Another friend stopped by, and a couple other people popped in to say hi, and it ended up being so much fun, I decided to do it consistently, especially when the friend I told said I could be good at it. That meant a lot, considering she’s been on Twitch longer than I have.

When I’m livestreaming, the idea is to entertain in an uplifting way, but also stay true to who I am and what I stand for. While the vibe is always meant to be a mix of chill and upbeat, bad days happen, and negative emotions can arise (especially during horror games), so I try to keep things real and allow the tougher conversations to happen in a way that’s both welcoming and light. While some streams may be more entertainment-focused depending on what’s scheduled for the day, the vibe is always “we’re here to chill. If you need a place to chill, then grab something to drink, and come sit with us.”

I’m proud of how far I’ve taken this space, having worked with big names like Verizon, Xbox, Trixie Mattel, and LogitechG. While I do love to toot my own horn about the big brands I’ve worked with, I think what I’ll always be most proud about are the times when someone says my channel brings them joy in an otherwise gloomy day. My initial goal with the channel was to create community around games I love, and the fact that it grew to a point where it’s a regular spot for chill vibes and fun times for so many people makes all I’ve accomplished with it even sweeter.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

Hype up your favorite creators, artists, etc. the same way you’d hype up your favorite celebrities.

A successful career in content creation can’t happen without an audience hyping up their work. Whether that’s liking, commenting, and sharing their work on social media, tipping them when you can, or just letting them know how much their work means to you, doing SOMETHING to help fill their cup can be the difference between “I’m not feeling creative, today” and “I think I’m ready to start that project, today.”

At the end of the day, being as loud and vocal as you can be about our work can be what leads us to opportunities that make doing what we love full-time (if that’s a goal) even more possible. Supporting monetarily will always be what tells us whether or not our endeavors will be profitable, but sometimes money is tight, so the next best thing is spreading the word about how cool you think we are. Companies with big marketing budgets like seeing when a ton of people enjoy our work.

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

The creative journey often comes from a place of wanting to inspire emotion, see beauty in the world through our lens, tell stories that impact those around us, and hear sounds that speak directly to our soul. It’s taking a piece of us, molding it into a shape we want others to see (a process that can sometimes take years), and releasing it into the world. Being creative is often so vulnerable, because it’s almost impossible to separate the passion for the work we do and how we want others to feel when they see it from the creative process.

But that’s also what’s so beautiful about the creative process. There’s often such a human vulnerability to it that speaks directly to people’s souls. When we’re being creative, especially when we want it to be our full-time job, the works we create are often meant to connect with another person through aesthetics, sounds, performance, or whatever else we can inspire in the person we’re speaking to through our creativity. What we put into that work isn’t always just labor of the mind, because it’s very often labor from the heart, as well.

The heart we put into our work is uniquely ours. No one has the exact perspective on the human experience that you do. No human, machine, being, or otherwise can earnestly and perfectly replicate your creations, because no one is exactly like you. The combination of color you bring to this world is so fine-tuned to who you are, what you’ve been through, and where you want to go, and how you apply that to your creativity will always be individual to you.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://jeffbrutlag.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/jeffbrutlag
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/jeffbrutlag
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@jeffbrutlag
• Other: All links can be found at jeffbrutlag.tv

Image Credits
Article screenshots from GameRant and Buzzfeed News