We were lucky to catch up with Justin Gates recently and have shared our conversation below.

Justin, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

The first time I knew I wanted to pursue being a creative professionally happened the first time me and my team The Gaming Illuminaughty went to E3 for the first time. I started off just making videos on Youtube in 2011. Fast forward a few years later, and I’m writing articles about video games on our own website. Through that it turned into being classified as media, which turned into us being able to apply for press badges at the Electronic Gaming Expo. This has been something I have been wanting to go to since I was a little kid. It was literally a dream of mine. Our audience even donated to us so we could buy plane tickets and a hotel room for the week. Being able to go to the convention and go behind the scenes to play games early really solidified that this would be something that I can do for a lifetime.

Justin, 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?

My name is JG (otherwise known as UTxJGTheDon). I am mainly a video game content creator and podcaster. I also create content centered around sports and music. I helped co-found the Gaming Illuminaughty, a group of 12 POC, and our goal is to enlighten the youth.

What sets my content apart from others is my relatability. I don’t add any extra sauce to my content. My viewers know this the same person on video/stream, as I am if you see me in real life.

My proudest moment is being able to maintain the friendships I’ve had since I’ve began creating content. There have been so many fallouts in the industry, and I cannot say that me and my crew have ran into anything major that would derail the entire operation. I pride myself in being able to tell who is real and who to stay away from.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My ultimate goal is to create my own production studio and usher in the next wave of content creators. At this point, I feel like it’s my duty to keep the independent black media alive. I also want to help bring up anyone who has ever looked up to me or relied on me for any advice, whether it’s dealing with content creation or general life. I know I cannot achieve this goal if I don’t work on my smaller goals first and get to a comfortable level where I can fully invest in others.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on NFTs. (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)

NFTs are the new artform. There’s no way we’re going to get around that as technology advances. People live on the internet, and the metaverse will be the new way that we will communicate with each other. You cannot bring a physical painting into the internet, so now we have found digital art and put a lot of value and stock into it. An NFT can be anything as well, so it really expands the creative prowess and opens up what you can create.

The current problems with NFTs stem from the degree of difficulty to get in. The first major roadblock is money. It’s not a thing that anybody can get into in order to buy or sell NFTs. Only the big boys can play, so it turns a lot of people off. The second thing is that it’s way to volatile. Coins can gain value one day, and then the next day absolutely tank and become worthless. This isn’t the same thing as a regular business stock, so you have to be extra careful when you’re playing around with digital currency.

On top of everything else, it’s not easy to obtain a lot of digital currency. You have to do your research and look up tutorials on how to purchase some coins. It’s even harder than buying a regular stock on sites like Robinhood and WeBull. All of these things create multiple roadblocks to entry.

Contact Info:

• Website: giupdates.tv
• Instagram: instagram.com/utxjgthedon
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UTxJGTheDon/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-gates-89a411137/
• Twitter: twitter.com/utxjgthedon
• Youtube: youtube.com/utxjgthedon
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@utxjgthedon