Notes from Chris

Episode 654

Growing up, you could say that Doug Veney was a bit of a troublemaker. When school became too easy for him, he’d often shift his focus to trying to make other kids laugh and finding different ways to act out. Although most of it was relatively harmless, it almost landed him in juvenile center. He says now that he was dealing with a lot of anger and frustration, and he was afraid to talk to anyone.

Playing sports made a difference, but something else helped even more: playing video games. He was always grabbing and thumbing through the gaming magazines at the grocery store to find out the latest news, and then reading gaming websites after school.

And each night, basking in the warm glow of his monitor, Doug had an opportunity to escape the day to day—to fight his way out of the Black Mesa or destroy the Horde. It helped him to work out the pent-up anger and frustrations that caused him to act out in school, and it came with a bonus that helped him level-up in a different way. Through gaming, he learned a lot about people—and he learned a lot about himself.

This “love of the game” continued through high school, and when he was 17, he realized that perhaps it could be more than just a hobby. When he started writing game reviews on a website as part of a senior project, it ended up doing even better than he planned. He even had several gaming companies requesting to fly him out to their studios for early access to their games so that he could provide feedback!

It was a great way for him to do what he loved while bringing in a lucrative little side income, so he ended up continuing it even after landing a job as an Influencer Marketing Manager at Nestle.

When gaming on YouTube started to take off, Doug spotted a new opportunity.

Being a part of the community, Doug took note of what top gaming creators in the industry were doing … and was impressed. The best ones weren’t just playing the games—they actually engaged with their viewers. And they were funny and entertaining.

In a way, what they were doing was a lot like sports commentating, which he was also a fan of. He figured that content creation via video like this would allow him a chance to pay homage to some of the best commentators while simultaneously creating his own path.

Plus, it didn’t hurt that he’d been fine-tuning his sarcastic banter since grade school. He had a feeling that it would translate well to video, so he decided to jump on the YouTube Gaming train and started streaming under the gaming handle GoodGameBro.

In the beginning, he played sports games: Major League Baseball, John Madden Football, and FIFA Soccer. But he’s also add in some FPS (first-person shooters) games like Titanfall, Assassin’s Creed, and Overwatch as they came out. And in following the model he’d observed, he didn’t just play the games—he had online conversations with anyone who wanted to watch his channel.

By 2015, he’d accumulated 10,000 subscribers. By 2016, that number had more than doubled to 25,000, and today, he’s built that community to over 120,000 subscribers. He says there’s a lot of grinding that goes into building a following on YouTube, but all of that hustling has really paid off.

In January of this year, Doug was accepted into Facebook’s Gaming creator program as a partnered creator. In that short amount of time, he’s racked up close to 90,000 followers due to the popularity and support of the platform. The community is tightly connected, and despite the large community, it still feels very one-on-one.

So, what does being a gaming streamer like this pay for someone like Doug? Well, it’s allowed him to more than double his salary from Nestle, thanks to what he brings in from sponsors and the support of the community, which can make direct donations through the Facebook Gaming platform. It’s also made it to where he’ll be able to completely pay off the student loans that both he and his wife have accumulated.

At this point, Doug says he could feasibly leave his full-time at Nestle to be a full-time content creator as his sole source of income. However, he receives far too much joy in his day job to leave just yet.

For now, he’s happy to balance that day job, his family, and what he calls his “bonus life” online where he gets paid a lot of money to play video games.

 

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  MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• GoodGameBro: Get in on the action—head on over to Doug's Facebook Gaming profile to catch some of his streams and to learn more

• Facebook Gaming Creators: If you're interested in learning more about the Facebook Gaming Creators community (or want to sign up!), head to their website

SEE ALSO:

• Facebook vs YouTube vs Twitch for Live Streaming Games in 2019?: Where are the best places to put videos and to do your live streams, especially for gaming? Check out this thorough review on the differences between the three most popular streaming platforms for gamers
• Living the Dream: Man Gets Paid to Play Video Games All Day: When he began live streaming his video games for a faraway friend, he had no idea he’d end up building a 30,000 person community and earning up to $3,000 a month
• Gamer Levels Up Life With eBay Side Hustle: This production supervisor always loved buying video games—but it wasn’t until he stumbled upon some of his favorite games on eBay that he thought about selling them

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

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