From iPod Touch to Twitch [Guest: RayLiveTV]

Ever wondered how a high schooler's curiosity with an iPod Touch could lead to a thriving career in content creation? Join us on "Uploaded and Unfiltered" as we chat with Raylive, who transformed his early passion for video editing into a remarkable journey. From the humble beginnings of capturing band trip memories to becoming inspired by legendary YouTubers like Dashie Games, AfroSenju, and CoryxKenshin, Raylive's story is a masterclass in starting with what you have and growing through experience.

Chapters

• 0:07 Content Creation Journey With Raylive
• 6:32 Content Creation and Lessons Learned
• 15:27 Content Creation Wisdom and Success

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:07

Welcome. Welcome back to another episode of uploaded and unfiltered, the podcast in which I, your host Jermaine, interviews another content creator in regards to the journey thus far single episodes, solo episodes but today we got a guest. I am excited to talk to him, but before we do, I'm going to read his bio, get a bit of information on him and then we'll start this conversation. Just another guy trying to make it out here, ray live, likes playing video games, loves technology, tv movies, anime and watching youtube. He's a casual gamer for the most part, but if he locks in, then watch him cook. If you're down with chilling and having a good time, raylive is your guy. And with that I'd like to introduce my guest for the evening. Raylive, thank you for being here, ray. How are you doing today?

Speaker 2: 0:59

Hey, I'm doing good, I'm doing good. I am Like I usually say, like in my streams, like I'm chilling.

Speaker 1: 1:20

Well welcome.

Speaker 2: 1:20

I'm glad you were able to slice out some time to do this. I'm gonna go ahead and jump into it. We're not gonna pump the brakes, we're going full steam ahead. Ray, what got you like started with content, we can go a bit like. I remember like high school I was like just watching like some simple stuff on like youtube. Um, like I was watching, you know, the epic rap battles of history at that time. Oh yeah, like the old day storm power videos where he started off, I say, and what's up? World, another day, another challenge. Yes, that was for me, that was like peak right there. But I remember back, going back like 2012, 2013.

Speaker 2: 1:52

I was like I was like you know what I got like a.

Speaker 2: 1:54

I got an ipod touch that has a camera on it I was like, let me, you know, just see like I do like some trips or whatnot. I was like let me like record, like you know, just see like I do like some trips or whatnot. I was like, let me like record, like you know, like our band trip that we do when we go to the Gatlinburg, Tennessee. And so I just like you know like just took like a little like five second video here, something there, and then put that all together, edit it on the iPod.

Speaker 1: 2:23

What Hold on hold on hold on. You edited this video on the ipod how I didn't know you could do that I don't remember what app I had on that thing.

Speaker 2: 2:32

Like it was like the most simplest thing in the world just just being able to put things together, have, like you know, little text pop up every now. And then, yeah, I was like some like video effects. But I started, I, I did that and I was like, oh, okay, this was I kind of like it. I kind of like it. You know, I did like three of those. I upload those to like a channel that I don't even know if it's even active or not, but those, like that is, those were like oh, like that was like a senior year high school for me. So like, yeah, I did those but then later on for me.

Speaker 2: 3:04

So like yeah, I did those. But then later on, you know, I kind of like paused on that because you know I was going off to college. I was like, ok, let me, let me try to lock in here, let me try to try and not screw up all this money that we're trying to put in Exactly.

Speaker 2: 3:27

But then later on, I say 2016 school year, me and the homies we were. You know, we're just in the, we're in our apartment in college and, yeah, you know we're just playing games or whatnot and I think, overwatch the overwatch one came out and I was like you know what? We are having so much fun on this and I figured out how you could like record videos on your playstation and have like other people's voices in it okay so I was like okay, okay, like let's play, let's play some overwatch we.

Speaker 2: 3:53

And we're just gonna play it like normal, like we ain't gonna do nothing special, just raw overwatch. Like this is us, and I recorded and all those videos on my playstation, what there was a thing on the playstation called share factory oh yeah I edited.

Speaker 2: 4:12

I edited a whole lot of videos through share factory. That is awesome and it was simple, but some things just didn't want to look right. But after you rendered the whole video it looked perfect, with the little slow down and speed up effects. Yeah, that initially was like okay, I'm making videos on YouTube, that's how I'm going to do it. Because at that time now I'm watching people like Dashie Games, I'm watching Axl dashi games, I'm watching afro send you, I'm watching corey x kenshin, I'm watching the bigs at the time you know for in the community, and so I'm just watching them. And I was like I can do it, I, I can do it. So, yeah, that's how it initially started. And now I can say I can edit videos on a laptop. So, yeah, we graduated.

Speaker 1: 5:12

Oh man, that is awesome. I I've said this on numerous signs and for y'all who've listened, I'm sorry I'm saying it again. I love when the beginning is as simple as possible, because who would have known you could make a damn youtube video off an ipod touch and edit it and get it up, like the fact that you even thought about that. You were like no, I'm doing this, that's huge. Like most people have been like well, I don't have a camera, I'm not doing anything and leave it at that. But you're like nah, I got a damn, I got a camera right here, right?

Speaker 2: 5:42

I got.

Speaker 1: 5:42

I got something. Yeah, that was a great start to the podcast. I like again, I love hearing those beginning stories. Let's go ahead and slip into now. We're going to step into the present, where you're creating content. Not only what does that look like for you and how's it, how's it feeling, how's the journey been thus far?

Speaker 2: 6:03

Creating the content for me now has been a bit on the slower end, because now I'm trying to do Twitch and also YouTube, so I'm trying to figure out a good management for both of those, as I can. But I mean creating content, say it's. It is a process I have. I can't tell you how many times I recorded a video and I was like, okay, I'm gonna edit this, I'm gonna have it uploaded this day and we'll go on to the next. I have been been like on high A's on YouTube for a good minute now and I look like legit. I put out. I was like I put out a video saying, ok, we're going to do this, we're going to do this, we're going to do this and we're going to do that. I didn't do neither one of those things.

Speaker 1: 6:58

Yeah, that's how it goes sometimes, so right now are you?

Speaker 2: 7:06

are you streaming to youtube as well, or just to twitch? Okay, so now what? What I wanted to do was the the stream on youtube again, because before I did twitch, I was the streaming on youtube, and the old thing that was called used to be called mixer.

Speaker 1: 7:24

Oh, yeah, microsoft's mixer yeah yeah, on my playstation.

Speaker 2: 7:29

I was like streaming straight to uh youtube on my playstation and then on my xbox I was streaming straight to mixer. Right then mixer microsoft was like, yeah, mixers, no more, um, but if you want, you can go over to uh facebook gaming and we can, you know, merge an account and make that happen.

Speaker 2: 7:48

I was like, yeah, no, I'm good yeah, only told me about twitch and I was like, okay, I'm like do twitch, but as of right now I haven't been um streaming on youtube. I'm trying to figure that whole process out again and how I'm going to make that different than just my usual Twitch stream, because I mean, as of right now I'm doing both.

Speaker 2: 8:11

A I'm doing like a multi stream thing where, like, the mainstream is on Twitch but I have a. Since I can't stream on TikTok for some odd reason, I found a plug in for OBS and it allows me to like stream vertically on youtube. So it looks like like a youtube short. Okay with their, yeah, and so you can like scroll through like live streams in the short format and I was like, okay, that'll work, that'll work nice.

Speaker 1: 8:38

Okay, that's dope. I didn't realize. I didn't know you could do that. I didn't know youtube was allowing you to stream in the short form format. That's dope. So the goal is to have both of those going at the same time, both YouTube and Twitch.

Speaker 2: 8:52

Yes, I would like for both of them. You know when I'm going to be streaming. You can go on Twitch and you know I'm going to upload a video on these certain days. You can go over on YouTube, so you always have something that I am doing to occupy your time. However you want to occupy your time.

Speaker 1: 9:10

That makes sense. And if you the, I think what I didn't learn when I started? Okay, so I went from youtube just like playing around and then I went to twitch and I was doing twitch heavy but not doing youtube. I think the smart thing.

Speaker 1: 9:26

Uh, I've been telling a lot of new new who have started, especially when you just start because you have the bandwidth to do it, try to do both. Even if you are taking your VODs and cutting them up or just taking like highlights of your VODs and throwing it up on YouTube, I would say, do both. Only because YouTube allows that back catalog to just sit out there. I got videos from like 10 years ago that are still doing numbers because it's up there.

Speaker 1: 9:53

I think I want everybody to get a youtube channel, because I went to this uh festival creator fest a couple weeks ago, right, and the overall story was all of these content creators were like I wish I would have started my youtube channel earlier and I'm like why? And they're like well, now I'm two years in and I'm finally making money, but all of those ideas that I thought nobody cared about or nobody was going to watch, those are the ones doing numbers. For me it's like random generic stuff. But just throw that content up and I was like, all right, you're right, you're right, I'm going to get on it and I, I'm gonna get on it and I'm currently working on reviving my Channel.

Speaker 2: 10:33

I like to have my, my youtube back going how I initially had it, because at a certain point, like I Did like a whole like the month of February, I was like, okay, getting a video every day, like mother February, you're gonna get that video every day for the month of February. Yeah, so I, you're gonna get that video every day for the month of february. Yeah, so I, I did that one, I did that one year and I was like I'm gonna do it again, but I just I failed at it. But I was like that's something like if I can't upload a video for like 28, 29 days, depending on if it's a leap year or not, like then, like all these other months are longer.

Speaker 2: 11:07

It's like I need to be able to like, do, like, make this happen and I can make all these other things happen yeah, I don't think people realize how hard it is.

Speaker 1: 11:19

No, I don't want to say hard, I don't want to think. I don't think people realize how much of a challenge it is to do a piece of content daily.

Speaker 2: 11:26

Oh yeah, no like I'm doing, you know, nine to fives and I'm like trying to like I'm work, I'm working here, I'm doing this, and then I got to go record this, edit something else, like make sure everything is getting uploaded scheduled on time. So yeah, it's a whole lot of management and I'm just trying to get better at that.

Speaker 1: 11:48

Exactly, and all the time that time just hearing other people's processes, like you're just gonna refine that and it's gonna be dope. I can't wait to see it because I haven't heard anybody. I did a challenge on tiktok. To me it was easy because tiktok are shorts. Uh, for christmas I think. I didn't do two years. Yeah, I did it two years. I bought an advent calendar. The first year was a Marvel advent calendar Funko Pop Marvel calendar they're like these little miniature figures and the second time I did Pokemon, because I don't know shit about Pokemon and I was like all right.

Speaker 1: 12:23

I know, I know.

Speaker 2: 12:24

Listen, so on.

Speaker 1: 12:28

TikTok. I opened these boxes and, like some of them, I knew, I knew who Pikachu was, I knew Charizard, I knew, like the big ones, but some of the small ones, I'm like I would just make up names for them and I told them from the beginning I'm like, hey, I don't know who the hell this is Today. This one is Dergy Derg and people were like shit. They're like that is not, that is not dirty I'm like, hey, listen, I don't know, bro, I didn't.

Speaker 1: 12:52

I didn't get to watch pokemon as a kid, so, oh my god, I missed all that. But doing that like just it, it helped me two things a, it showed me that I can do that on a daily basis if I wanted to. And b, I saw the process like by the like knife video. I had a format ready. I was like, all right, I'm gonna set the camera up here, I'm gonna open it, I'm gonna talk as I'm doing it, show the thing, react done. Those things were like 45 to a minute, 45 seconds to a minute, and just that repetition like kept it going.

Speaker 1: 13:24

And so when january 1st hit, I was sitting there like, oh, what am I? What am I supposed to do now? I don't have an advent calendar and that's the kind of where we left that. But yes, if y'all listening out there, push yourself like that, make, make a challenge. You know I'm gonna make a video a day for two weeks and just to see how it feels. If you fail, figure out why you failed. But I think doing that as a content creator is a nice exercise and just understanding your process and maybe figuring out a new one. All right Ray, we are going to jump into one of my favorite sections. They're all my favorite sections. I don't know why I say that this is Lessons Learned, where I ask my guests what is the lesson that you learned?

Speaker 2: 14:08

because you started creating content I will say the biggest lesson I learned is you do not need the fanciest things out there because, like, like I said earlier, like I started off by just doing stuff on an ipod and then like I just did everything off of a playstation for the longest amount of time and so, you know, eventually I thought got in my head and I was like, well, you know, I'm going to need like this type of face cam, I'm going to need like this like key light here. I'm going to need like this fancy like mic. I'm like, okay, I didn't need like all that know high grade, like special type ones, like this green screen.

Speaker 2: 14:54

I got behind me yeah this thing costed me only 30 that's what I'm talking about only 30 dollars from gamestop. Mind you really, what from gamestop? So I went there one day. I was like hey, this green screen, how much is it? I'm a pro member and they're like we can give it to you for $30. And I was like I'll take it.

Speaker 1: 15:20

What that is. Yo, I love a good deal and again to your point, you don't need the most fancy stuff. If I was going to start over today from streaming, honestly I would yeah, if you have a nice phone uh, 14, iphone, I would say even 12, or galaxy I can't remember where they up to now but almost every video I shoot if you see a video on me on tiktok or on youtube, it's from my phone. Like I have two like nice cameras for the stream anything that is shot content it's from my phone. Like I have two like nice cameras for the stream. Anything that is shot content-wise is from my phone. Because these phones are crazy, like they do so many amazing things. Don't sleep on the phone, oh no, oh no, they are great. That's hilarious, all right.

Speaker 1: 16:06

Next, next up, we have a piece of advice or two, or however you want to do this. This is a section where we drop even more knowledge on someone who's either want to create content or somebody who's been doing it for a while. What type of knowledge would you bestow upon these people?

Speaker 2: 16:31

upon these people. One thing I will say for for anybody trying to get in this space is something that I heard, that kind of you know stuck with me and I probably heard, just like many different ways, like I'll just be you or just be you. It was. But I heard like one day at church I was like um, the person that was speaking, they were like in a room full of them, be you. And I was like um, the person that was speaking, they were like in a room full of them, be you. And I was like that's a different way of saying just be you. But I was like I don't know why, but that resonated with me and like, in this space, don't try to be like your favorite content creator. Yes, they, they do stuff that you like. Let people know what you like, without trying to be somebody else.

Speaker 1: 17:12

Yes, that takes a while to learn and, like you said, you heard it a few different flavors, but that specific way that it was said to you stuck and I feel like that's why another reason I keep doing a podcast is we hear from creators. We're 59 deep Different creators, all of them different. Everybody has a different style, the way that they interact with community. Some read, chat, some don't. There's no right way to do this, but if you're doing it your way, that is the right way. I think with that comes less guessing. You don't have to guess. If you're doing it correctly, you don't have to guess. If you're doing it correctly, you don't have to guess if what's the next move is because you're doing it your way. So you basically you're making a blueprint as you go, which to some sounds scary. I personally think it's not only freeing but it's exciting because anything that's in your head, if you want to put it it out, do it like there's no barriers and I love that. Yeah, more people need to be authentic and do them.

Speaker 2: 18:14

Do what makes you unique, what makes you you oh yeah, 100, because like one thing I tell like some of my friends like that also, like want try to do like content and they're like well, this isn't really hitting like I thought it would and I, I just straight up be like, well, you like this, you, you like this, like this is something you like. If you like it, do it. Yes, like eventually other people that also like what you like will see it and it will just.

Speaker 1: 18:49

It will like take off from there yeah, exactly, I think the one thing I told one of my friends I was like listen, if I told you it's going to take you 10 years to be successful in content creation, would you do it? And if you say no, then this might not be for you, because unfortunately we don't know when that thing is going to pop. It could be tomorrow. Hell, you could be sitting on a video right now and you don't even know it. It has a million views. Like you get off of here, you go check your email and you're like what the what huh? That could happen and I've seen it happen to numerous people. But I think the thing that you got to remember is is, if you enjoy it, just make the content and eventually, those who also enjoy it will show up like it's gonna happen. As long as you believe that, don't worry about anything else. Just keep doing what you love, have fun and, uh, all the good stuff will come with that.

Speaker 2: 19:39

I 100 believe that oh no, yeah, like, and other than that like, because, like I remember I posted, like I was like that's how I'm like trying to post stuff on tiktok, and I was like I'm just gonna post things that you know I'm either doing or I like to do or whatnot, and so like on the ps5, like there was a game like pre-installed, called like um astro's playroom oh yeah okay, I was playing it and the the best thing about that game is, like, at the end of every level it's the um startup sound from different generations of playstation.

Speaker 2: 20:20

Yeah, and one tech toggle blew up because it was the playstation 2 sound. It was like it was just like this open like galaxy type area, and then when you walked up closer to like the end, it like did everything and it took me back and then, like I uploaded it and I was like, okay, whatever I upload it, that's all I know. Like in the next couple of days, I'm like such just like like video, like video, like video, like video, like video.

Speaker 1: 20:54

I'm like huh. I was like okay, okay, it's only on this last flight.

Speaker 2: 21:00

You know, like today, maybe tomorrow two weeks go by like video like I'm like what yo, that is awesome that that video is like the most like tiktok I have in, the most view tiktok that I have, and like I have so many comments on that and it's it for me. It's crazy because some of them are also in like different languages, but I know like I was just like okay. I was like okay, this one hit.

Speaker 2: 21:29

I don't know why this one hit, but I was like yeah, this is probably like a good point for reference for like different people that grew up like around the same time I did like that ps2 startup was was like it was it was like I hear it in my head as soon as you said it.

Speaker 1: 21:46

I'm like I'm in space. Now let's go that's awesome and again that speaks to your point. Like, just put the content up, you never, never know what's going to happen with it, 100%. Well, ray, we have reached the end of our destination. I thoroughly enjoyed our talk, but before we go, we got to let the people know where should they go to check out your content well, if you wanna see more of me, I guess you can go over to my twitch.

Speaker 2: 22:18

It's just RayLiveTV all together. There's no spaces in it. Apparently I thought I put a space in there. I didn't, but I thought I did, I didn't so I, I was like okay ray live tv just all together. But if you want to see like some of my older stuff, you can go to my own youtube, because eventually I'm gonna get back on youtube. I do have things planned for it.

Speaker 2: 22:45

Those are the places you can find me, it's just ray live tv basically everywhere at this point. Are the places you can find me? It's just RayLiveTV Basically everywhere at this point?

Speaker 1: 22:49

Hell yeah, if you can't spell RayLive, I got you. There will be links in the comments of this episode, as well as all the socials. If you haven't already, go ahead and subscribe to the podcast Uploaded and Unfiltered. Every week on Tuesday, we put out a podcast I don't see any signs of, I don't see any signs of stopping Ray. I want to thank you again for doing this. Everybody who's listening. I appreciate y'all listening. If you out there listener can think of a guest that you want to have on the podcast, let me know and I will do my best to get them on. Other than that, I will let you guys go, appreciate y'all and, as always, protect your mental, mental, keep creating content and we'll talk in the next one. Peace.