Uploaded and Unfiltered: Conversations about Personal Growth, Mindsets, and Advice with BIPOC Creators for Creators

Breaking the Cycle: One Creator's Authentic Voice

• Jermaine Pulliam • Season 1 • Episode 97

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In this episode of Uploaded and Unfiltered, host Jermaine interviews Stroopwaffel, a content creator who shares his journey from console gaming to PC gaming and content creation during the COVID-19 pandemic. They discuss the importance of authenticity in content, the mindset needed for success, and the challenges of navigating criticism in the gaming community. Stroopwaffel emphasizes the significance of consistency and emotional regulation in content creation, offering valuable advice for aspiring creators. The conversation concludes with Stroopwaffel promoting his content and the importance of community engagement.


You can follow Stroop's journey here:

www.tiktok.com/@cdaddychill
www.youtube.com/stroopwaffelyt
www.instagram.com/stroopwaffelgg

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Speaker 1:

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 their journey thus far. This week, as most weeks, I have a special guest on the line. Before we get in line and have a great conversation, I'm going to read their bio, get a little bit of information on them and then we'll get this thing started. Stroop Waffle is 38 years old, born in Detroit and raised in Rochester, new York. He comes from a music background and has also worked as a photographer. Throughout it all, he's always been a gamer and with that I'd like to introduce my guest for the evening. Stroop, welcome to the podcast. How you doing today, I'm doing good man.

Speaker 2:

I appreciate you for having me bro.

Speaker 1:

Hey, no problem at all. I'm glad we were able to knock this out quickly. This is one of the quickest turnarounds that I've had in a while, so I appreciate your uh effort on this?

Speaker 2:

yeah, of course, man, you know, I like to stay on the top of the work. Yes, you know so these opportunities, you can't pass them.

Speaker 1:

Exactly. And with that you know what. Let's go ahead and jump right into it. Stroop, how did you get started in content creation? What is your origin story?

Speaker 2:

As far as the gaming side of things, this all started back during the whole COVID situation. I was a console gamer and I was watching a commercial for Valorant for about the 47th time and we were sitting there I mean, we were getting crazy checks every week, you know, just to be at home and I was like you know what, maybe I should just take some of this money and buy a PC. And I did, and I started playing Valorant and I started messing around, just going through Steam and seeing all the games that they had to offer. And then I was like, well, since I'm sitting here, we'll do some YouTube stuff. And it just kind of escalated from there.

Speaker 1:

OK, wow, you know a lot of people. It seems like COVID, everybody was at home, you really have nothing to do and I feel like that sparked a lot of people's creative juices. They're like you know what Let, and I feel like that sparked a lot of people's creative juices. They're like you know what.

Speaker 2:

Let me do something with this time. I mean, it was just really sitting there with all that idle time of just staring at a television or reading a book or whatever the case may be. Just I think a lot of us just had to find some type of outlet and I figured I was already gaming. And it's like you know, console man, you're extremely limited. So making that crossover to PC, I think, was probably the best decision I've ever made.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, for sure. I'm trying to tell everybody I used to be a console only. Every time one came out I'd pick up them all. This next go around, I think I might get the Switch 2 and that's it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I'm telling you, man, I'm not getting consoles, but I'm 100% a full supporter of just playing on the pc. Oh yeah, 100, like don't get me wrong.

Speaker 1:

I'm going through an issue. Right now. I'm playing clear, obscure expedition 33. Every time I get five minutes in that game my computer crashes and I'm like I don't want to troubleshoot this.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, man, that's I mean. You know it comes with the territory a little bit, that's true but it's worth it.

Speaker 1:

like, like those visuals. I can't knock that. So when you first started, was there any hesitation into jumping on camera or showing up in these spaces, or how did that?

Speaker 2:

look for you. Not really. I mean ever since I was probably about 13,. I've always been on stage. I started with music a very, very, very long time ago as a much younger man, so I used to battle rap in front of the school crowd and all that kind of stuff. Yeah, I used to do a lot of poetry writing and then my English teacher, miss Morano, shouts to her. She really pushed me on those efforts. So I spent a lot of time on stages and in front of big crowds. It just never really bothered me to be on camera or be around a bunch of different people. Okay, that's solid. I was always. Yeah, I've been used to it for a very long time perfect.

Speaker 1:

So there's no hesitation. Like that's one of the biggest things that newer content creators like they don't want to show up on camera, but once you get past that, like sky's the limit.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it really is, but it is one of the most important pieces because it's the best way to get people to connect to who you are as a person. No, uh, your face says a lot.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, agreed, especially when you're black, cause there's not many of us out there you know what? I'm saying like, hey, there's another one, all right, yeah like oh, he's one of the what they always say he's so well spoken, right? Oh, my god, oh, anyways, yeah, let me. I need to know, because I, I, uh, he was at the beginning before we started. But stroopwafel, where did this name come from? What's the origin of this?

Speaker 2:

man, it's funny, it's really simplistic. Every time I tell somebody they're like that's it, I'm like, yeah, that's it. I'm a big man, I like food, I like cookies, I like stuff, and I spent some time in the Netherlands.

Speaker 2:

A nice chunk of time and every morning we would get coffee and this girl I used to know she would get them the Stroopwafel cookies they're like wafers with caramel in the middle, she put it on top of the coffee, she let it sit, she breakfast, blah, blah, blah and then she kind of drink her coffee and eat it at the same time and it was incredible. So when I came back to the States I would buy them all the time, like through Walmart or whatever. And one of the guys I game with a lot, my man Doug, we were talking one day doing this COVID stuff and I was telling him about kind of sort of getting into YouTube. But at the time my username was that's my purse, which was like a King of the Hill reference, but I knew I couldn't use that.

Speaker 1:

I was like I don't want to get in trouble, you know.

Speaker 2:

And then somehow we got on the subject about something, just something food related, and I was talking, I think, a cookie debate and I said it was the best cookie ever, like we talked for like two hours about it and then after that, yeah, I was like you know what? I think that might actually be a good YouTube name. That's because it would be so random, and it's just kind of stuck since then.

Speaker 1:

And it's easy to like, because I was probably 10 years ago when I had my first Stroopwafel. I just randomly picked it up. I'm like, all right, I want something sweet. And then I read the package is like put this on top of your coffee. Well, it like melts the caramel in it. I don't know what it does, but oh my God.

Speaker 2:

It slaps man.

Speaker 1:

When I saw your nails, I ain't no way.

Speaker 2:

It's funny All my folks. They're always like I can tell you're serious because of that piece, because most people just eat them out the package. So when you mention that like now, you put it on top of a hot cup of coffee or just let it sit Like, oh yeah, ok, now this guy, he knows his stuff. Yeah, man, it's different. It's different.

Speaker 1:

All right. True, we're going to switch gears here. I'm very interested in everybody who comes on the podcast. My whole goal in life is to get content creators to think more about their mindset, more about being consistent and the things that they're doing so they can show up as their authentic self. And I feel, like all the content I've seen I've I'll stress this by saying I've only seen the tiktok stuff, because that's where I've been mostly but every video you put up, I feel you in it, it feels like it's genuine, it feels like it's coming from the heart. So my question is what is your current mindset in regards to the content you're putting out now and where do you see yourself in, like, let's say, three to six months?

Speaker 2:

Well, I mean, when I first started doing it, I was kind of following the trend of just putting out gameplay, always says about stuff like you know, this is a clone and this is going to die and this and that. I'm like what the heck has happened to the gaming community, Like no one seems to enjoy gaming at all anymore. Right, and it kind of a fork in the road came up for me, Like I can keep doing this whole funny stuff or I can start talking about these issues and then I've always just been told the way I talk it just comes off like Right. So once I knew that, I said, OK, well, let's start testing the waters here. And I did. I was doing like green screen videos when it came to talking about gaming subjects etc. But I felt like it was a little bit too profane, which I got a lot of, and I kind of want to segue from that.

Speaker 2:

And then I met this guy named the Mindful Gamer. Now, mind you, I met a lot of the Mindful Gamer, but a lot of the mindful gamer I always bring him up and give him the most credit, because the content that you see now 100 percent, kind of gave me the key to make it that way. Ok, he had a conversation with me of like man, you really need to start connecting people to your journey and maybe start a series to help bring people in to want to be a part of your journey. That's why I have the whole break the cycle series now and the let's talk about it and stuff. None of that existed before this man.

Speaker 2:

So you know, I give all credits to over to his way, yeah, but I'd say, in the next three to six months, the way that I'm doing content now, I really think I'm just going to keep on that path, in that direction of that. You know how I'm doing things. So I'm hoping in the next six months, man, we finally hit this 10 K on Tik TOK. We hit the 10 K on YouTube. We build a bigger community. We get more and more people back to just enjoying games and thinking for themselves and stop regurgitating the same crap they hear on the internet just because it sounds cool and just start enjoying games again. You know these are my hopes anyway and just start enjoying games again.

Speaker 1:

You know, yeah, these are my hopes anyway. No, I love that. There was a. Probably a couple years ago, I noticed a weird trend. Every time I said I liked something it didn't matter what it was I was like, oh man, I'm really enjoying this, and I was streaming on Twitch it would always be at least one or two or maybe three people I hate this and two or maybe three people I hate this and explain why they hate this.

Speaker 1:

I've noticed it not just in gaming, just like in life. Like when you are happy about something, there will be at least one person is going to try to shit on it, and I never understood that. Like when, let's say, you were playing something that I don't like, I would ask you like, so why do you enjoy this? Like what makes it fun to you? Because I'm interested in the like positive side. I don't really get like I'm not going to come to you, but, like yo, I hate this shit and shit on it, and so I think it was a piece like that that I saw from you. I was like, oh shit, somebody else is saying things that I've been thinking, and I think that's the biggest bonus, I guess, of putting out content like that, because you never know A who's watching and B who that's going to resonate with.

Speaker 2:

And that is my thought process, because for me, I don't make my content. For me I make it to just see who does it resonate with, because I know there's people out there that feel this way and they're fearful of kind of saying it because of how people are on the Internet. But for me, like I said, what really helped me push through and go you know what I'm going to continue doing things this way is when I would make these type of videos and people would leave those same old low level brow comments. I would always ask. Instead of getting mad, I started asking articulate your point, elaborate. And not a single person ever was able to do so. They either said something toxic or they didn't speak again at all and I was like this is what I'm talking about. So, yeah, I'm just going to stay on the path I am.

Speaker 1:

Hell yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, people don't like pushback. They're like, oh wait, you're questioning my one throwaway comment that I'm supposed to leave and just go about my day. About my day, yeah, comment that I'm supposed to leave and just go about my day.

Speaker 2:

No buddy, Articulate the point.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, no, they don't like that. They don't like that at all. Okay, that's dope. I love that. It aligns with everything that I've been trying to do for the last couple years. We are out here, we're watching. That's wild. That you mentioned the Mindful Gamer because I haven't talked to him yet. I want to. I'm going to have a conversation with him at some point. But the way that he's been, he first started I saw when he was like I don't know, he didn't have that many followers and I instantly fell in love with his content because it was real. He was talking about some of his struggles and now that you mention giving your story to have bringing people in, that's what he did. I was walking through the city and like learning about his life and I'm like, oh, this is dope.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, he's very good, he's very. What I love about the mindful gamer is he's one of those people. First off, he has in a very extensive vocabulary, Right and but he's also still like cool black guy, so it's like you put these two together. He's very good at making his point in a way that almost makes you feel kind of goofy, Like God. The man just beat me down with just pure logic and he doesn't do it on purpose. He's just that well-spoken and just that good at just being of saying how he feels about something, and I think that's probably one of my favorite things about the guy man. Yeah 100%.

Speaker 2:

I really hope you get a chance to talk with him, man.

Speaker 1:

Oh, it's going to happen. It would be great it is going to happen. He's been on the list for a while, so I started this podcast almost two years ago in July, and my goal was A have Black conversations with black creators so we can have more people out there, so the younger generation could be like oh wow, I didn't know these people existed yeah but it was more, it was, um, it was more selfish than that.

Speaker 1:

For me, like, doing the podcast helped me get into consistency and so for the last 97 weeks I put up an episode every week. Haven't missed a week, just to show myself that I could do it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, man.

Speaker 1:

And then once you get into that rhythm, once you get into that groove, and once it becomes a habit, like there's nothing to it, Like I can let's say we didn't have a podcast today I would just jump on at like 11 at night, speak of stuff. And have a podcast today. I would just jump on at like 11 at night, speak himself, like, say something that's been on my mind, cut it up, edit it, throw it up. It's an episode and it's that easy. Like content creation can be that easy once you have the right systems in place to get things done.

Speaker 2:

I mean it is. I've been living by the philosophy for the last five years. Every single thing we do, every decision, opinion you make. It's all simple. We, as humans, just complicate stuff, but everything is always something simple. You want to learn how to play basketball. You pick up a ball and you shoot. The thing where you start getting messed up is like well, I'm not tall enough or I'm not fast. And then there goes the complication. If you were just to remove that and just pick up the ball and shoot, you'd be much further along, 100% 100%.

Speaker 1:

This is a perfect way. In the lessons learned, I feel. What is a lesson that you have learned personally that came out of creating content.

Speaker 2:

I'd say one of my biggest things I learned was properly using my emotion. When I make content Okay, because I can be a passionate guy and I'm very outspoken I mean I'm not a loud screaming person, but how I feel, I have no problem with you know what I mean. Like if you say something to me, I have no problem. You know exactly how I feel about it and the way that I grew up. You know my dad and my uncles and I. You know they from Detroit, man that I grew up. You know my dad and my uncles and I. You know they from Detroit.

Speaker 1:

Man, they need some, you know.

Speaker 2:

So it's like it doesn't come off always as friendly as it should be, and I had to really learn, like you can't, you know, approach that way at all times, at that harshness. So you have to figure out a way to put your passion out there in a way that will, you know, people can digest it a little softer. I really think that also helped a lot for me, because I used to get that a lot in my comments, you know, gotcha.

Speaker 1:

So did you take that lesson in the real life now? Absolutely.

Speaker 2:

Okay, absolutely yeah, cause, like I said, man, the whole, just when I speak to people and they have something to say to me that I feel like it's a little judgmental or they're being emotional about it, I always remember that. Ok, well, articulate your point piece. And when I once I just started realizing most people don't have much to say, it's just that, bare raw emotion I started realizing, like this is what I was also doing. I'm like it's not good. I said so. Now we're chilling.

Speaker 1:

OK, no, I like that, that's. That's the first time I've heard that emotional regulation. Basically Very dope. All right, let's go ahead and move on to words of advice. This is where I have this section open to whoever you want to give advice to new streamers, old streamers, anybody in between. What is a piece of advice that you would like to give to those people?

Speaker 2:

I'd say one consistency is definitely key. You know, I know a lot of bigger creators and people always say that, but that's just because it is true, and you have no excuse not to not make content. Like I hear that all the time where I can't find the time, but I'm like, hey, man, well, did you go home and sit down and watch TV for an hour? Well, yeah, but I just got off work, okay, well, you had an hour to make content and you chose not to do it.

Speaker 2:

Nobody said that this stuff was supposed to be just easy and lackadaisical. It requires effort If it's something that you really want to do now. If you're not serious about it, that's one thing. Anybody who's serious about it you can always find time every single day to work on some type of content. If you say and that's not true you're lying or you're just not that serious about it. So I think that's my biggest piece of advice, because you really have to make as much as you can, because practice makes perfect. You'll never learn how to improve on it. You'll never figure out how to make it any better whatsoever if you're making a video that's 45 seconds long once every two weeks. There's nothing to be learned there. So that would be it for me.

Speaker 1:

I love that. I've been trying to think of a succinct way to get this information out and I'm just going to keep saying it until I'm blue in the face, I mean.

Speaker 1:

I guess, I can't believe blue in the face. I don't know why I said that shit. I hate old sayings anyway, but the piece that you said, like practice makes perfect. My youtube channel is mad old, like 2006, and I like ignored it for a while. But as I look back at the history of all the videos I made, I can see the progress. I can see where I learned new editing styles. I can see where I learned how to finally duck the music under my audio.

Speaker 1:

Thumbnail game was getting better and if you don't put out a video like, put yourself on a consistent, let me do a video a week. That video a week at the end of the year. That's 52 videos, 52 opportunities where you learn something and like just that in itself, I was like you know what? Yes, and the bonus point is like if you make an evergreen content, meaning something that, like I made an OBS tutorial on how to do vertical streaming, like two years ago, that video is still getting hits.

Speaker 1:

Yes, like that's what, the consistent kind of long tails, like people will go back to your old content and personally I love if I find a new creator, like I just found Stroop not too long ago. I'm going through his whole back out. I'm going to like his very first video on TikTok and I'm just scrolling Like that's fun to me and you get so much information. You get to see the growth of this person and I think that's exciting. So when you're out there thinking about, oh, I don't want to make this video, remember that the person's out there is going to watch all your content and then like for lack of a better word fall in love with who you are as a person and then that's it. They're in your community.

Speaker 2:

Sure will, sure will man, the biggest thing I preach, like you know, when I'm streaming and stuff and people ask me this thing, I'm like hey, man, you really need to figure out and define what success means for you. Because I think that's another big problem with people. They want to get into this space and then they feel like their mindset is kising that level of money, Like I want $3 million every month, I need Cuban chains, I want a bands, I want the, and I'm like dude, that's just not fathomable for everybody. But imagine if you were making content and you were making an extra five or $6,000 a month. Just easy, that's. That's actually really decent money.

Speaker 1:

Right.

Speaker 2:

And I said people don't think about this stuff. You immediately jump from where you are at a level to Bill Gates type of thoughts and it's like what are? Where's all the in-between?

Speaker 1:

exactly, exactly I don't think about the in-between man. That's why I said for me.

Speaker 2:

look, if we make this and it becomes bigger than you know, whatever cool, but if this turns out to make me like seven or even ten grand, I am chilling. I'm happy there's no complaints there. I don't need nothing over that, not a dollar more.

Speaker 1:

Shoot man and I don't think people realize how close 10K a month for, I would say I would even say a smaller content creator. I've talked to a lot of brand agencies and people who work with content creators to get products out there and she was telling me she was like alright, so there's a streamer on twitch. He has 750 followers. He gets probably like an average of like six or seven views or six or seven um concurrent viewers a stream. They cut this man a thousand dollar check to make a like hour-long stream about some game.

Speaker 1:

Those stack up and the only reason that he got it is because he's very personable. He like when you watch him, he's very engaging, he has a lot of energy, and so what happened was because they are a bigger brand, they sent people to his stream. So when they were doing the uh sponsorship, he had like 100 200 people in there. Granted, that was not his community, but it's up to him to like convert those people to his community. So he got paid and he got an extra like 100 200 people in his stream and he was chilling and I was like that's like people don't know that those opportunities are out there. You think you gotta have like 4 000 people watching you and all that shit. That's not true and that's it.

Speaker 2:

But you'll never know that if you're not out here making content every day, you will never find that out. Yes, and that's where the problem lies 100%.

Speaker 1:

The worst thing is to be at the end of the year and you only put up three videos on your YouTube channel, knowing good and well that you could have had like 49 more bangers out there. Seriously, so, yeah, get started, be consistent. I love that. I've got to remind myself of that sometimes. Yeah, man, we all do, it's true. Thank you for this conversation. I knew it was going to be dope, just based on the conversation or the content that you put out there for the people, but I truly appreciate you coming through and I got to give you a opportunity to brag about all of your socials. You have anything coming up? Uh, the floor is yours.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely, man. First, appreciate you for having me Right, Um, but right now it's really like I said, we're just trying to grow the tick tock into YouTube, man. So tick tockcom slash see daddy chill. Youtubecom slash fruit waffle Y T. The tick tock dot com slash see Daddy Chill. Youtube dot com slash fruit waffle YT. The tick tock has tons of content. You know, as you've seen, about just the healthiness and positivity in gaming and just bringing some awareness to the tropes that we're all falling under. That need to go away. And the YouTube just has tons and tons of new and upcoming games. If you're tired of playing Apex and Fortnite every single day, you you're looking for something different. You can definitely hit the youtube and go learn about something new. But that's pretty much it for me at this point. We're just praying we get into the stream university you know what I'm saying hi, where you at, are you listening?

Speaker 2:

because please, shit, you know, hook your boy up, man. I know I'm old, don't worry about it everybody.

Speaker 1:

If you're a content creator, I highly suggest. I don't know if they still have applications open, but just go put it in. You never know what's going to happen. We can't miss them opportunities, exactly. And this one is just out there to create. There's enough people screaming about it. Your brain should be like you know what, I'll just put it in. If I get it, I get it. If I don't, it was an that's right nature of question, but it's on, it's unfiltered. I'll probably answer it anyways. Other than that, true again, thank you. I can't wait to see what you do next and I do plan on having a more panel style podcast. So, because you are up there in age with me, I do want to have an older content creator puts it like a panel of two or three people and we just talk about the things that we see from our perspective, and I think that would be a dope conversation. So if you're down, I will send you the invite yeah, man, I'm in I think it would be great.

Speaker 1:

All right, dope. Well, other than that, y'all know what it is. Uh, share this with another content creator who can get some benefits from these conversations. And, other than that, protect your mental, keep creating content and I'll see y'all in the next one. Peace.