DadMode: Parenting, Gaming, Streaming, Life
"DadMode" is a podcast where two gaming-loving dads discuss everything from live streaming to fatherhood in a humorous and relatable way. Join Josh aka Moorph and Bearded Nova as they share gaming adventures and parenting anecdotes, offering a unique blend of entertainment and insight for fellow gamers with kids.
DadMode: Parenting, Gaming, Streaming, Life
Getting to know Moorph
Have you ever fumbled your way through the dark, only to find that the very thing you stumbled over was a hidden treasure? That's exactly what happened to me with Twitch streaming during the peak of our world's health crisis. Join me and my co-host, bearded Nova, as we regale you with tales from the frontlines of digital content creation. This episode is a deep dive into the transformation from novice to pro streamer, complete with the nuts and bolts of lighting, camera angles, and those all-important personal flairs that make a channel uniquely yours.
Juggling the kaleidoscope of modern life, career, and our passions for content creation is no easy task, and we're not afraid to get real about it. We'll share the highs and lows we've faced while trying to keep the content train chugging along amid changing work environments and ever-evolving schedules. Taking a leaf from the playbooks of the heavy hitters in the industry, we dissect how to keep that creative fire blazing without succumbing to burnout. If you're a content creator at heart, hunting for that sweet spot where passion meets practicality, we've got a map you might want to see.
And for the dads among us, we haven't forgotten the greatest adventure of all – fatherhood. We explore how to navigate the demands of being a parent while still feeding our need to connect and create in the gaming world. So, fellow dads and content creators, if you're looking for camaraderie, inspiration, or even just a good laugh about the trials, tribulations, and triumphs of dad life, you've come to the right place. Let's walk this path together, one podcast episode at a time.
Josh aka Bearded_Nova
I'm from Australia and am what you would call a father who games. I have 5 kids so not as much time to game as I used to. But I still game and stream when I can. So come join me on Twitch in chat as we chill out.
Business Inquiries: Bearded-n0va@aussiebb.com.au
Josh aka Moorph
I'm a US-based husband and father of two boys. I work full-time and have been a content creator since 2000. I'm a YouTube partner, Twitch and LiveSpace streamer who founded a content creation coaching company called Elev8d Media Group (elev8d.media). I'm a blogger, streamer, podcaster, and video-er(?).
Business Inquiries: josh@elev8d.media
Stand by, stand by Switching from Human Mode to Dad Mode, initializing Sequence in 3, 2, 1. This is Dad Mode, the podcast where we navigate the chaotic realms of parenting, gaming, content creation, work and hell just life in general. We're diving into the challenges of raising kids in the digital age, from social media madness to navigating the gaming landscape. We're talking about it all, especially from a dad's perspective. Whether it's conquering the littest game, creating content that's more than just a hobby, or just trying to keep up with the ever-changing tech landscape, we're right there with you. We want to help you navigate this wild journey of parenthood and modern life, from balancing family time to managing your career and still squeezing in some gaming and content creation. It's all about fun, some dad wisdom and a whole lot of dad mode. Now your hosts bearded Nova and more.
Speaker 2:Okay, we're back again this week, but we're going to spin it around. Last week, cool. A little while ago, morphe, you did talk to me. This time I want to ask you similar questions to what you asked me with content creation journeys, like where did you start? As the best way to start off, I guess?
Speaker 3:I got started doing content on Twitch, it was during the pandemic, as a lot of people did. A buddy and I were gaming all night and we're I don't know, maybe drinking a lot, and we're thinking we're really funny, we're like we're hilarious, we got to do this on Twitch. And then I'm like what's Twitch? Because I don't go and watch it usually. But we got on there and it was fun. It was a lot of fun right from the start and that's how I got started.
Speaker 2:I think I think learning everything around Twitch is also that excitement. I mean, I still get really excited when it comes to doing stuff. No shit. I was out of shop the other day and I saw a camera for sale that was used but it was like a really good price. I'm like I don't need it, but possibly you know where could I do this? It's an evolving journey, I guess, with seeing your progression from start to now, like do you see that?
Speaker 3:Like looking back to how your first bits of content were compared to where they are now, yeah, for me personally, like I think I had a couple of my very first streams and then I deleted them immediately once I realized I still had them, because it's oh, it's embarrassing.
Speaker 3:But like from that time when you start and you don't know what you're doing. You know I wasn't yes, I've spoken to groups before, but like it was another medium that I wasn't comfortable with. So I could tell I was a little bit shy, the quality of the stream was garbage. And then, you know, I flash forward to today where I'm very comfortable talking, you know, in front of the camera and keeping the conversation going, and the quality is better than it was. But yeah, so it's interesting to see how I've changed. But I will say that I feel like at some point in learning how to stream, you hit a point where it's good and like it's really small tweaks from then, like I don't feel I've changed that much in the last year, like I feel like it's. I hit a point where I'm like I feel very comfortable and I like the way it looks. I like the way things come out.
Speaker 2:It's all fine-tuning. What's that? It's all fine-tuning where you're like looking at your camera, you're like, why does change that exposure down? One, let's just see what that looks like. And it's, it's, it's a tiny change.
Speaker 3:You know, when you're setting up lighting, you want to have good front lighting and you want to have something in the back that kind of separates you from the background. And so I'm like, okay, cool the light. And now I'm like looking at the recording right now and I'm like, okay, it's a bit too much glare. And like the two different color lights I don't like the way they're like it's small things that maybe people don't notice, but I think at some point everybody kind of hits the same level. And now you have to find a way to differentiate yourself a little bit. So you want to focus on those details.
Speaker 2:you know, I think, even doing this podcast, because I know my background has changed slightly with this house, because I got through that stage where I just wanted to rearrange things the other week but even still, week by week, I've slightly adjusted my lights to some way, just trying something else. Because I look at people on probably the same for you. You look at people on TikTok or whatever, and you see their setup or their lighting. You're like how did they do that? You know there's a night out. Okay, creator, he does phenomenal. You know videotography, but you see he's room. He's rooms no deeper than what mine is, but to me I'm like how the hell does he get that background so dark?
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, you know, you know that's. Do you find yourself looking at other creators at times just going? I just kind of want to take a little bit of you know, try and figure out what they've done.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm not wanting to, I have. I steal as much as I can and, by the way, night out, if you're listening, I would love to have you on the podcast, Anyway. So, absolutely, I think myself, just like with a lot of streamers. Imagine we first person we saw was Harris Heller.
Speaker 3:Yes, you know, and you're looking at the quality of his video, of his lighting, of everything. Yeah, and you know, it's like how do I do that? You know, and and you like the elements of it, and then you see somebody else. You kind of want to get elements of it, Like even with my own stream. Now I want, I'd love, to have the podcast where, like, the camera is in such a position that you see the desk in front of me you know what I mean when the camera's a little lower and see the desk, and so it looks clean versus the, the, the angle that the camera is at now, which means nothing to everyone listening to this. But just go to our Tik Tok or our YouTube Camelsplug and check those out, You'll see what I'm talking about we use expensive cameras to make sure it's Right, right.
Speaker 3:So it's like figuring out the angles you want and you learn all this as you're going on and you start figuring out what you want to do and I think with everybody, like you start emulating somebody and then you do this on and on and on and then eventually you start to figure out what your own style is, what works best for you and the space that you have, and then you kind of fine tune it until you get to that point where like, okay, this works really good for me in my space.
Speaker 2:Did you find the guess with, like you said, finding that style and you mimicking our first microphones? For me was massive one, and it wasn't the microphone to use as such, it was more. So I was looking at it, we've all done it. You jump on YouTube, you look up how to set up an EQ and then you see someone else's EQ and you're like that's going to work for me. You know it's a normal cut the low bass up in the midst a little bit lower, then drop off again. That's what nearly everyone, the basic curve that nearly every streamer starts off with. Yeah, I realized recently that that is not. That's not for my voice, but I've got to adjust that again.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I, twistfully, I've never got too much into audio balancing. I do it, but I've never dug into it the same way I have with, like, lighting and video. Yeah, Because there are elements to it that are can be pretty complicated, I think you know. And getting what sounds right Because, like, I remember listening to an audio engineer on YouTube who was saying, hear how muddy it is. And I'm like, no, like I don't hear what you're hearing, man, no, I know exactly what you're talking about. I like my voice to be a little on the deeper side because I think it sounds better on on on there. Yes, I mean when you're listening to it. But like, finding that part point where it's like it goes from being cloudier, muddy, I guess, is the guy was saying, to like a good lower volume, Mumbling, mess. I struggle with it, you know, but but I will say audio is super important. You know I've argued with this for years with people that audio is is more important than video, because it's what your brain processes first.
Speaker 2:So you're not necessarily in terms of watching the stream. A lot of people ain't directly watching the street, if you know what I mean. Right, most of the time it's on a second monitor or it's on their phone. It's they might be working, they could be doing something completely else, and it's a background. You know it's. It's it's not the latest episode of you know law and order or suits or something where you're trying to sit down on TV and watch it as set time or something like that, and you've got your attention on it. It's it's. Streams are usually a second. It's a background. So you know, I find that audio is way more important than, especially when you're this tiny little box in the corner. Yeah, to be honest, most streamers starting out, that's. You know you're not doing the just chatting, you're just streaming gameplay with your little head in the corner somewhere. That's it. Mm, hmm.
Speaker 3:Yep. So for people listening, I'm curious what you guys think. Do you think audio is more important than video or vice versa, and why? But no, I agree with you that the audio is definitely more important. I have, I know that I have people in the community for my Twitch stream who only listen while they're at work, and listen while they're at work, oh, I know, so it's, it's it's important.
Speaker 2:I chime in. Every solution is go, hey, you're too loud, that's too quiet, or vice versa. Yeah, I'm going to tell you what.
Speaker 3:I'm hearing right now I'm sure you've been to streams that like there's something wrong with it For me if the video is a little bit shitty, but audio is good, I'm more apt to listen or stay on there versus if it's off. Opposite. Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:That's. That's the audio is a killer for me when it comes to people's streams. If I don't like what I'm hearing, I'm far more out of it than what I'm actually seeing on the stream. Going back to a little bit of the start, what were the biggest hurdles for you? I guess?
Speaker 3:Um, I mean, there were, there were, a lot of learning curves, um, if you're streaming or podcasting or making videos, whatever it is you're doing, create content there, you have to learn the tools, and there's a lot of tools to learn, um, and you don't need to understand, like, how to get people to your stream or to listen to your podcast or whatever.
Speaker 3:But, I think for me the biggest hurdle was time management. I know we've talked about that a lot, but it's because it's such a big thing. You know, when I first started I'm like I told you know, um, my wife, hey, I'm going to go stream. She's like, oh, okay, whatever, you know.
Speaker 2:So I do it, and then I don't understand what it is.
Speaker 3:Right, yeah, four days a week, yeah, five days a week. She's like, wait, what are you doing? Like, what is it? Where is all this time going? Yes, um and so, and then you get into it whether, again, whatever kind of content is you're doing, um, and then you realize that, oh, I have a problem here. I've got a, I've got to balance things a lot better and you kind of balancing between what keeps your, uh, your job happy, uh, what keeps your family happy, and what do you does that mean you have left to do for this hobby that you're really into? And so for me, it was definitely time management, um, and I do think that I got a benefit because I started during the pandemic and I was home all of the time, yeah, so I could come out before work and do stuff. I could. If I was on launch, I could do stuff at right after work, before I went to make dinner, I could do stuff. You know what I mean. So I had all the, all the, all the data, just that could be a detriment too.
Speaker 2:That ruins your time management because that's not you know. You get back to post COVID world where you're out and about doing things. Uh, that time quickly disappears.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yep yeah.
Speaker 2:Whether a little bit.
Speaker 3:Like I worked from home from March 2020 until full time until um June of 2023. Yeah, I was able to have. I had all that time I could do stuff and you know, that's why I was able to get a lot out. People are like I love your work ethic, how much you get done. I'm like, cause, cause it's all I do, and I'm working from home, you know, um, still doing my job, if anyone from my job is listening Um, but uh, when I knew I was going to go back to work, I was like I'm going to go back to work, uh, three or four days a week.
Speaker 3:I started to ramp it down, cause I'm like I can't keep up this same amount of output once I'm back in work, cause I'm going to lose, you know, the hour before work, the hour after work and the hour during lunch. Um, so there's three hours a day at least that I've been to lose from creating content. You know that's a lot of time if you have that video is edited and stuff. So I tried to ramp it down and, um, and to a point that I knew that would work for me with my new schedule. That's fair, that's fair.
Speaker 2:The. Was there a particular type of content that you cherished more Cause? Obviously, when you're doing this content and journey, you experiment, you try whether it just be game genres, but you do try different styles, I guess.
Speaker 3:Yeah, um, I started off as a gamer just on Twitch, like everybody else does, um, and I'm not good at a lot of games, cause I don't. There's a lot I just don't like and I'm just I'm not. I'm not good. I just let's be honest about that for a moment, um, and then I started to get into teaching people stuff and that seemed to work well and I enjoy doing that, um, you know. But it it gets boring and I want to change things up. You're repetitive, I guess, very, very repetitive.
Speaker 3:Now, anyone knows like I, you know, have elevated media, which I don't do as much with it now. But you know, um, I did head classes of of where I was mentoring people on how to be a better content creator. Yeah, and you know, I'm always like pick a niche and stick with your niche, cause people need to identify who you are with this thing and then you can branch out. And that's what I did. I, I did exactly what I said to. You know that I told people to do Um, but three years of doing it I got, I got bored. Now I think if your niche is something else, like gaming or a genre of games, I feel like that'd be a lot better, but my niche was very limiting.
Speaker 2:I find I would say it's exactly the same with whether whether it is games or not, because realistically, when you're a gamer and streamer, you can't, you can't be a variety streamer such quickly, especially starting out, because you you're building a community, most of you as a coming from that set game that you're playing or whatever it is.
Speaker 2:So you kind of stuck and we know creators that have stuck playing particular games and that's all they play, basically, um, that's all their content is, because that's the that's where they stuck at the moment and once you get to a threshold, then you can branch out. You can kind of, you can play whatever you want, but it takes a while to get there, I guess, and it's the same, like no different, than what you were doing. You. You're doing the same thing over and over again. It'd be just the same if you had to play the same game over and over again. Eventually you get burnt out. I mean, I know there's a couple of creators I still watch that are massive on Twitch and that they only played set games. Do you look at doctor? Disrespect, I guess, would be a great example of this. You know PUBG, warzone card, etc. But I've seen him play golf. You know. You know what I mean. Like he's. He's at that size now that he can just quickly venture from people. Still watch him play that.
Speaker 3:Right. Um, it's like the people that only do cod or only do Fortnite, you know their audience is like it. Until the audience has to fall out of love with, the game gets unpopular, you know. So I'll say one thing is I gaming never really worked for me before because I was known for the one thing as I wanted, but now I've mainly if I do anything or I'm just bullshitting with people in the community when I stream, and that seems to slowly be catching some interest, because people enjoy coming and making fun of me gaming, which is fine, I guess. But like I think of our friend, friend of the show, damn, daniel.
Speaker 3:he always made quality content on TikTok Nice and then, he got into cyberpunk and he blew the fuck up, yeah. And then he's like we're talking and he's like, well, what should I do next? I'm like, well, try, because I really want. I don't want to do that forever, I want to get into other stuff. So I'm like, well, just do a few, but stick with it. And now it's interesting.
Speaker 3:So he does game reviews in the same exact style, very similar style to his, his cyberpunk videos. That looks the same, same guy, same energy, but they do a third of the visibility or the views that his cyberpunk ones do, even though it's just as good. So he'll release a video, not for people that don't get this, like me. It sounds like he shouldn't complain, but he'll get 10,000 views on a gaming review video. So the very next day he'll get 70,000 views on a cyberpunk video. The next day, 10,000 views on a gaming review video. So it's, it's interesting. Like you, your core is this right, but people are like so when you do the other things, they're like I don't like it as much, even though it's the same thing really.
Speaker 2:It's a game reviews. I have my two cents on that. Mainstream games Don't bother. To be honest, if you're a small creator, most people ain't going to want your opinion of mainstream game because most people are going to test it out themselves or follow someone else or etc. Etc. Go indie it sounds weird, but if you pick some really niche indie games that you know that not many people are going to do a review on and it might, even though it might not have a massive player base and I just went through my head at one stage I can do a review on YouTube for a mod of a game or an indie game that I played and knowing that there's probably only going to be four videos of other people reviewing it. So if I put my nap there, anyone that comes across a game that just wants to know what the game is, they're going to find your content because you're picking something that's very small base. It doesn't mean you have to focus on that game, but you've made a content for something that has a small base that doesn't have much attention. So when someone does get attention to it, it's got a funnel to.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think back to the AI auto camera switching software that I found that I used to streams or something, but I figured out how to use it with streamlabs. So I made a video for YouTube on how to make it work for streamlabs, because the creator actually said streamlabs doesn't isn't supported and that video is still getting views because there's only a handful of people that looked at that software at the time. I'm on the website for that software. The creator saw the video and put it on the website going. I thank you so much. Just create it and it's on there. This is how to get around it. Go check out his video and it's still getting videos because not many people have done content and I was. You know, there was me on the web page right underneath me it was EposVox. That was huge to me to be on the same web page next to him.
Speaker 3:Yep I want to talk about. I want to mention something about strategy real quick, but I will say the closest I ever got to something like that was I released a video reviewing the GoXLR several years ago, like the same day that Harris Heller happened to release one, and like for two days. No, not two days, for one day. We were right there and then his community saw it. He just blew it. But yeah, it was for like and for a whole week. Like if you Googled Google GoXLR tutorial or whatever, we were both on like the same page at least. Oh great.
Speaker 2:But he had to hear it. I can't hear you or what you were doing, no, but the opposite is fantastic.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but the bad thing is my. It was one of the first videos I did on YouTube. It was terrible. It was terrible.
Speaker 3:That was the same for that tutorial for me, I've actually since gone in and hid, I hid some of the ones I've done. Some I remade completely and some I re-edited to make them look better. But yeah, oh, my God, Anyway. But what I was going to mention is the point you were just saying about, you know, going indie games instead of mainstream games, because you get more attention and that's actually a really good strategy for a lot of the things that you do in content and creation. Bear with me for 30 seconds people listening.
Speaker 3:So when you get in here, you know you could have a few different goals, but if one of your goals is to grow financially, grow the size of your platform and stuff, or grow you get sponsors, things like that. Focusing on smaller companies, the smaller game shops, is better than going big ones like like Beardinova was saying, because those smaller companies, those smaller game shops, they're looking for all of the press that they can get you know and when they notice that you're supporting their game or you're buying their product and talking about their product, they're very likely to want to work with you as they're trying to grow, because even if you don't have a big audience, at least somebody's doing something to help them out, right, Like a lot of the sponsors that I got during my busiest times on as a streamer came because I noticed a small company that just launched. I'm like, oh, it's a cool product. So I just talked the shit out of it about on stream or on TikTok, and then they reach out to me, the one that works out really well.
Speaker 2:The company. That reminds me when you said that was Repurposeio, because I came across that and I said to you guys hey, you should check this out, this is interesting and you wear this.
Speaker 3:It's a nice thing, I love it.
Speaker 2:You can do it in content for it.
Speaker 3:And then, yeah, so I loved it. I made a couple of videos where I just this is really great, and then they reached out, and or sometimes you have to reach out to them too. Just be persistent, it doesn't hurt, like making some content for free, essentially ahead of time, I show them that you're actually interested and if you say, well, I'm not doing anything for free, the world does not always work that way. Sometimes you have to show a little bit before you can get something coming back to you.
Speaker 2:I guess think of it as building a portfolio, yeah exactly.
Speaker 2:It's the best way to put it, that's how I do it. All my success with gaming studios. I had more success with the smaller ones, sorry, I can say that the more involvement I got with games and there's one game trying to think of called Tinkertown. It's great, it's an awesome game. It's a little isometric, kind of like Terraria, I guess. When you play that game you're building stuff, but it's pixelated graphics.
Speaker 2:When I got into contact with them, they were all. I said I was interested in the game. They gave me like three, three or four keys. To begin with I said here you go. You know, this is great. To play with friends is get keys for your friends. So I was like cool, got a mate involved. We mean, him played a lot.
Speaker 2:I gave it to another person and then, maybe six months later, they, they finally got out of the early access and they went to 1.0. And launch. And I saw it pop up and I'm like, oh yeah, that's cool. And I remember back in the other one they said if you ever want anything more, reach out. So I actually messaged the developer to say, hey, I've done stuff that you gave before. I'm keen to really look at this game now that it's back, that it's final release is C. You know I'll reply from the start.
Speaker 2:And they said yeah, that sounds great. Do you need anything of us? I said, no, no, no, I don't. They said well, we hear you go. They gave me 10 free keys. They said there you go, give them to people. Give them to people, do what you want with them. It was, you know, I didn't get paid for it, but it was. It helped build me because I was building a game that not many people knew of. There was a niche group of people that love that type of game and at the same time, I was able to build it up for them and it worked two ways. You know what I mean. It was a two way street.
Speaker 3:That's exactly how I approached things like that too, because really it's like if you, if you go the route of going to a smaller or newer company, they're not going to have huge budgets to give you tons and tons of money and stuff. And sometimes, you know, the deal I worked out quite often with smaller companies was sometimes I would say, don't pay me, do promote my posts or whatever it is I do for you. You know, linking my name because I'm. My theory was, as they grew in popularity and they're promoting my name, it promotes my brand and that helps me a lot more than the hundred dollars they're going to give me. You know, I guess maybe depending on your financial situation, but for me, getting the brand promotion was better than a little bit of a little bit of cash.
Speaker 2:I. I got paid by Power Games, which did Stuntfest, which is now Jumpfest. I talked about it when we talked last and you know I don't ever said I did a stream across all their platforms, which was cool, like I thought that was a great thing. They did pay me to do this game, but the one thing they did that I didn't mention last week that I thought was phenomenal was they were owned by THQ Nordic. So when I was coming into stream they're game for you know the hour to hours that it was THQ Nordic actually did a post with my name and my channel on it to say, hey, this creator is going to be streaming this game. I thought that was amazing. Just one post from such a big company met more to me than the 50 US or something I got paid for the hour.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I agree, there's this. I won't name this company, but there was this company that had reached out to me a year ago a game studio, and I did a one stream for them, I remember, and then I promoted it for them and I think they did some promotion back for me. But I haven't really worked with them because, well, they probably won't listen to this but truthfully, I didn't love the game. And they just reached out to me again on TikTok, I mean on Twitter. It's like, hey, you know, we want to know if you want to do a spot to stream. And I'm like, okay, and you say it's sponsored, you're going to pay me up front this time. Yeah, yeah, we figured like they won't go away for a day to come back. Yeah, we'll pay you 20 for the stream. And I'm like no, like I don't want to be picky, but like that just wasn't worth it for me because they weren't offering to promote me or anything. It's just here's $20 stream for two hours and you already had the game you already had.
Speaker 2:You already had free to play game. Wasn't that a Ferrari?
Speaker 3:Yeah, Free to play game Free to play game, I don't know. So that's me saying, yeah, you want to be able, you have to take some hits as you're trying to grow, you know. But you also sometimes just think about is it worth it for you Like, you know what I mean. Is it worth it for you to do it? I don't mind $20. If you're going to do something else as well, I will say to your creators don't discourage $20.
Speaker 2:So, depending on what it is, I know a lot of what are you saying is more for just being the leadest, $20 is $20. No, what I mean by that is more. There was a lot of games I've streamed. It was only for an hour. I might have done a three hour stream and there was days where I did this. I did a three hour stream, three games. Each game paid me $20. And I wasn't just paid $20. I was given the CD key to the game. That was good for the final version.
Speaker 2:So to me I wasn't $20. It was $20 plus I got a $30 game. Plus I got a $40 game. I got a $50 game that I could use. If I really loved that game, I could use that to make more, you know, for future strips. And there was many games that I did use that in the still games in my steam library that I haven't played in a while that I look at. I'm like that was a really fun game that I got for free and I should. I should load that up right now and play it because that was just so much fun.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I never got games because you know I wasn't gaming much.
Speaker 2:You were in that scene.
Speaker 3:Game studios and I actually found it. Thinking back, I found it hard to get sponsors when I was doing some things because of the kind of content that I had on Twitch, you know it was. It was like, you know, ray, a razor would want to do something, or like a gaming company, and it's just like but yeah, I'm not going to show your product, I'm not going to play your game, like it's just not what I do, and like I was on with damn Daniel in the way his audience, his views, would go up and down based on his niche. You know, if I had a guest, we're doing really well, if I'm gaming, we're doing crappy, you know. So that's just just how it went. So finding for me, finding sponsors was was challenging. So I would go for things like Vis me or repurpose IO or mix it up or stream labs like that worked with what I did.
Speaker 3:That's what.
Speaker 2:I'd say Pick a pick a pick a pick a brand. Set, support who you are and the type of content you create. The idea, as you said, you did a lot of. A lot of the branch you worked with were around content creation, making things easier for content creators and for myself. I did a lot of indie studios because I got into niche gaming and I also pushed myself for a wallet someone who played every type of game I didn't play Then it was any type of game. Yeah, no clue what you were showing up to. I think I turned Wednesday streams into indie night. Basically, it's like show up, we don't know what, we're going to, open up my inbox and see what CD key is and we're just going to roll the dice. Basically, yep, and it was fun.
Speaker 3:Yep. So, like, as we're doing the podcast and we're looking to get, you know, sponsorships to podcast, now I'm finding this is a new challenge. It's exciting, but it's a challenge because we're going to. It's odd, it's going to be audio. Like one of my sponsors that still works with me on my any video stuff I do, I was like, hey, well, we have the podcast, you guys want to sponsor that? Like, we'll sponsor you and you can do an audio ad. But we're not going to continue to do audio ads because our product needs to be seen and I'm like that makes sense, you know. So it's like now I'm trying to try to find, like, how do we? We're talking about, like, who's going to work with us? I don't want to work for this format.
Speaker 2:I thought about that one. We can talk about that one later because I'm like you know what we can actually use the podcast and that together. They're not saying how this works together. This kid work Right. Clips.
Speaker 3:Exactly, exactly. Now this is going to be like behind the scenes for a minute, but like I'm thinking, like you know, maybe we can do this Like, yeah, it'll be on the audio podcast, so it'll be, but everyone will hear it.
Speaker 2:But when we make a clip for it, we could actually, as you're hearing about it, you know what that was so great to say and I'm hoping your record, your audio recorded it, but it muted for me for a second. It was like you were redacting on words, like you know, and then we'd be, then we'd it was beautiful. It was beautiful. I know we're getting close to the end there, but I wanted to bring up what I guess mistakes. I guess you came across the time that you wish you could do differently for the people that are looking to get in creation or are in creation that may not have come across these hurdles is such a.
Speaker 3:I think. But though there are a lot of mistakes, my God, I'll pick a couple.
Speaker 3:No, I so one of the mistakes was not under the stakes, was not understanding exactly what I wanted to do and how long it would take me to do so I could structure my time in a way that would have allowed me to continue going without it disrupting everything else in my life. But that was that was my mistake of it was not not a lack of understanding of my limits, but a lack of a proper balancing, like if I hadn't pissed off my family by going you know a thousand miles an hour early on, it probably would have been easier for me down the road. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And also not asking, not sorry, not trying to collaborate or network with people. For the first year and a half that I did this, I was just on my own. I didn't think to reach out to anybody. Once I started to reach out to people and work on people, I was like this is so much better, it's fun, it's fun isn't it?
Speaker 2:Like there's I found a doing collapse with other people, even if you weren't on the same stream. There was a future guest of the show you know have on PS2. Him and I used to stream at the same time but we just jump into a discord together and play the same game and we'd be on the same team and it was great. Like it's just some of my early TikTok clips and some of the stuff that we done together and, oddly enough, it was interesting chemistry very quickly in our game and like it took, didn't take long for us to just move. You know gel, basically, yep, and you find new things doing that. I guess Like there's things I learned from creators in Collapse without even knowing it. Like, oh, I really like doing this type of content. Um, I hate horror games but I don't mind group horror games, if that makes sense, because it's a little bit more fun.
Speaker 3:We've done a fast more stream.
Speaker 2:We've done a fast more stream and I just spat stream with another creator, like I've done a couple of them where I'm like I hate horror games but this is kind of fun when I'm doing it with other creators. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yep, yeah, yeah, Uh, collaboration is is such a big deal, Um, and you know platforms like Twitch, you know in others, but Twitch makes it really easy. Now you know like, uh, you can both be live and they hit it. You hit a button. Join your yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:That's the. You know. We're going to use that future. We're going to use that studying, uh, in the future.
Speaker 3:Actually, I'm thinking that that's, that's, that's my plan.
Speaker 2:Well, that's my plan.
Speaker 3:Maybe by the time you guys hear this one, this gets released, we'll uh bearded and I will. We'll start doing some dad mode streams, either like Tik Tok or Twitch or something. Both, who knows? Both We'll see. So, yeah, by the way, uh, go follow us on every platform. It's dad mode podcast on every platform, I think. Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. Youtube, Twitter, Tik Tok.
Speaker 2:Twitch. I'm just going to add that at the end of this, Like that's a that's a great tip for content creators is get the same fucking handle across everything.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Remember when I rebrinked.
Speaker 1:well, last year, when I rebrinked.
Speaker 3:Yeah, because it was more. I had morphine, morph games, blah, blah, blah and I'm like, ah, so I'm like it's morph everywhere.
Speaker 2:That was a great thing about bearded and over. It wasn't taken, Right. That's that's how I got the. That's how I took the name bearded and over, because it wasn't taken.
Speaker 3:Having like people think about branding and I talked about branding at nauseam, you know previously but uh, your name is part of your brand. Like that's just something that that encapsulates who you are. It gives people an idea of like you know if they, if, maybe if your personality or whatever. That's a sponsorship safe, brand safe, because my original uh name of morphine was not brand space safe and I was told that by multiple companies and I think about it, no you want it to be consistent.
Speaker 3:You know how much easier it is for people to remember oh it's, it's morph on every platform and then, like even on graphics where you're showing your tag, you can just say it's morph on all of the platforms. Just so much easier.
Speaker 2:When you're doing a social pop up on your Twitch which, by the way, get one do a social reel. Um, having the same name, just but just changing the logo is way more easier than changing the logo and the name every time. I know, yeah, I've made these social pop ups for people in the past and they've given me their social handles and I'm like, ah, okay, it's some of them way longer than others and it's a, it's interesting, it is, it's the best way to put. It Makes my life interesting. But, um, thank you. Is there anything else you want to bring up before we wrap this up?
Speaker 3:Um, no, just, uh, you know, if you want to get into content creation of of any kind of content, you know, um, just understand what you want to do and set a plan and some goals for yourself and then work hard at it, because it takes a lot of work, but don't give up.
Speaker 2:Great chat to people Ask questions. Yeah, dms. No, I'm on, I'll do, I'll answer questions.
Speaker 3:I'm always willing to answer any questions about how to do different kind of content. Or you guys have trouble with it? Just reach out to me, reach out to the show.
Speaker 1:You've been listening to dad mode. Our passion is navigating this wild journey of parenthood and modern life, from balancing family time to managing your career and still squeezing in some gaming and content creation. And no matter what the women say, they will never be able to pry the controller out of our cold dead hands. Anyway, we hope you enjoyed the show. If you did find us on Twitter, tiktok and YouTube at dad mode podcast, and we can be found on every podcast site at dad mode podcast. Y'all be cool. See you next time.
