What It's About
A professor creates a money making alter ego.
Business Model
Skills Required
Complexity
Profit Potential
Words of Wisdom
If you're looking to do something similar, here’s the strategy you should use:
“Make a video every day. Even if it's just you staring into a camera talking. No one will watch at first and that's a good thing! You want to make your mistakes when no one is watching and find your own voice/platform before you really take off.”
Fun Fact
Shane’s alter-ego has been revealed to his students, and he loves incorporating his Marvel-lover side into his lesson plans.
Notes from Chris
Episode 872
Shane Hoffman leads a double life. Each morning he gets up, puts on his clothes, and drives to his job as a multimedia journalism professor at Oklahoma State University. His students love him, and he loves his work. But once the day is over, and the sun sets on the city of Stillwater, he transforms into Prof Hoff. A game-playing, Oreo-reviewing, dad-joke-cracking YouTuber with over 12 million views. Much like Peter Parker and a plethora of other superhero alter-egos that came before him, Shane has an origin story with pretty humble beginnings. Back in 2017, he found himself at one of the lowest points in his life. He’d just broken off an engagement and was fighting an uphill battle against depression. He felt like he’d spent all his time and energy on the wrong things—he wanted to focus on something that he enjoyed, and he wanted to help people. Most of his free time was spent playing a strategy-based video game called Marvel: Contest Of Champions. In the game, players assume the identity of a Marvel superhero and go to battle against other people the world over. He was pretty good at it. One day he was chatting with his twin brother, who suggested that he try turning his gaming into a YouTube channel. It would give him something creative to focus on and bring him closer to a wider gaming community. Shane had spent the last few years reviewing Oreos and pizza on his channel, without much success. So, he figured why not try and mix it up a bit? After that encounter, he went home to play the game, recorded a video of what he was doing, and posted it on his channel. He didn’t expect much, but to his surprise, the video gathered more views in a couple of hours than any of his Oreo videos had in the last three years! Each video uses YouTube advertising to generate income. Because his content is safe-for-work, he’s the perfect candidate for advertisers to place their products at the start of his videos, and he rarely has issues with videos being de-monetized, a problem that some other YouTubers have experienced. Shane also receives donations from his fans who enjoy the videos he creates. How much money are we talking about? Well, this year he’s on track to earn $36,000 from his side hustle, which is almost the same as his teaching income. And, if it keeps growing at this rate, it won’t be long until he surpasses it!
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
- YouTube | Prof Hoff: Check out Shane's videos over on his YouTube channel!
SEE ALSO:
- Nestle Employee Doubles Salary By Playing Video Games at Night: Hard work pays off! After three years of streaming video games to an audience of thousands every night, this marketing manager now earns more from his side gig than he does from his day job
- 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
- College Student Pays Off Loans by Flipping Classic Video Games: Wanting to get out of debt, a college student pays off a $4,000 student loan by buying and reselling classic video games
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Resources
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Quote of the Day
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To infinity and beyond,
