S2 E5- KRNG Stallion: Community Content Creator & Twitch Partner

This week, we stay across the pond, with none other than my good friend Marco AKA "Stallion." I have known this amazing human being since I started my journey creating. He was the first real role model of mine that I told myself "I need to do it as he does." Although our paths are different, I can confidently say I emulate the same hustle.

Marco boasts 21k followers on Twitter, but his most impressive milestone yet has been 50k on TikTok, as he has been hitting it extremely hard. He accomplished making the top 100 in the Faze 5 challenge.

Currently, he is a part of the amazing organization, Karnage Clan. I'll put their site below.

Stallion Socials

Karnage Clan

Transcript

Kyle Warren: 0:01

Good morning, and welcome to the Boonafide experience podcast. I'm your host, Kyle. But really people just call me buena. This is a business podcast with a hyper focus on esports and the creator economy. If you're not subscribed or following on your platform of choice, please go in, hit that follow or subscribe button. Doing so supports the channel and gets his content in front of people who need to hear it. If you're listening on an Apple device reviews help. Plus I'll shout out reviews and future episodes. So exciting new enhancements and content options planned to be released by the beginning of May. So if you're not following me on Twitter, which is at bonafide gaming, I suggest you do so for the most recent updates. But that being said, let's go and get started with the show. Good evening, Stali. How are you man?

Stali: 0:53

I'm doing good, bro. How you doing today?

Kyle Warren: 0:55

I'm doing fantastic. It's a it's it's a nice it's a it's a cloudy day here. We're here in Austin, Texas. You know, I know. I know. You're a little bit farther away, you know? So, it's it's not too bad. You know, I've had some coffee has some tacos, you know? But I can't. I can't remember if it was you that likes or doesn't like avocado, but it had a lot of avocado in it. Yeah, I'm

Stali: 1:16

not a big fan. personally. I don't really. I don't really tacos all too often but like, Yeah, not the biggest fan of avocado to be honest.

Kyle Warren: 1:25

Yeah, you know Irish, right? Like, you know,

Stali: 1:28

yeah, yeah, he's

Kyle Warren: 1:29

the same way. Man. I don't I don't get it. You know, I don't I don't. It's okay. You haven't you haven't had one in Texas. So I'll give you a pass.

Stali: 1:35

Yeah, I might change my mind. Who knows?

Kyle Warren: 1:38

Well, man, welcome on to the podcast. I'm glad to have you here in for you know, you're like in the streamer community. I can't find one who anyone who doesn't know your name. But for my audience and for the new people listening in? Who are you, man? What do you do?

Stali: 1:51

Yeah, so as all that sound stream, I'm Stallion, I am from the East Midlands in the UK, we've actually had a really nice day outside today, for the first time in a long time. It's beautiful. So I was out there this morning. You know, just getting on the daily walks and runs and stuff. At the moment, you know, due to change. I am currently a Call of Dutycontent creator. But I would classify myself as a community content creator, we put the heart You know, the community at the heart of everything that we do all about good positive atmosphere, and just trying to bring a positive mental impact on all the content that we create. That is the heart of everything that we do. And yeah, what about bringing like that kind of like family vibe, we have a very kind of special feeling when people come into our stream. So I'm really proud to spearhead and continue on day by day.

Kyle Warren: 2:35

Yeah, man, I mean, I can I can speak with that. Because I first I first found, you know, before all of this, you know, before before I will get into all your achievements here in a minute, you know, and some of the journeys to that. But like, when I met you, it was it was a you know, I think it was like Yeah, like 20 or 30, maybe 40 viewers playing marbles on Christmas Day, man, you know, and I interacted with you with you for 10 minutes and I'm like this, there's something about this dude. Like, I just want to keep coming back like you know, the everyone not only you, but like the chat. "Hey, man, welcome in" or "Hey, see you later" I had like five people welcome in and, and also, you know, say See you later whenever I left. You know? So, you know, so you are man like, let's let's just let's just hop right into a man you know, how long have you been your your streamer? your content creator? Like how long have you been doing this for man?

Stali: 3:24

So I started on February the fourth 2018. So it's been nearly three years and two months now. I've got into it through a friend of mine who I actually met on the Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 over ten years ago now. We, you know, we became friends over the game, we stayed really close friends ever since. And he actually convinced me to get into streaming. Because gaming and you know, just like viewing stream stuff is something we've always done for let's say over the last 10 years since the days of like Justin TV and such. And yeah, he convinced me to do it. I started it up twitch.tv forward slash I can't even remember my first name was it had some sort of variation of Stallion. But it's it's now just Stalli, which is nice. And yeah, I've ever since I started I got addicted and you know, three and a bit years later here we are still going so

Kyle Warren: 4:13

yeah, man. I mean, so, I mean, you mentioned three and a half years. I mean, there's there's people, you know, like I look at like TimTheTatman I look at it took like seven, you know, 10 years for them to get to where they're at. So I mean, you know, what, what is it about? You know, I, I guess I'm trying to find the question like, what is it about? Like, what is it about content creation that allowed you to, like, grow so fast, man?

Stali: 4:35

I mean, gaming is something I've done my whole life. It's not something I really just got into because of the the trend behind it because obviously, you know, live streaming over the last 10 years has been very much you know, front force and now these days especially, it's all about being an influencer and a creator and you know, gaining an audience and you know, these young kids who grew up now see all these famous people and they'll all want to do that. And it's you know, now more than ever, it's more trendy than anything to Get into this industry and get involved. But, you know, when I, when I started off, I've been gaming since the age of about four years old, I'm 29 now, so it's always been something I've wanted to do, or enjoy doing. Yeah, and then I never really had the PC or the setup for it when I first started. So I just thought, there's no point me doing it, because I don't have the right stuff for it. And then my friend said, Look, just try it out, you know, give it a go, and just see how you get on with it. And then you know, piece by piece, we started building it up, you know, for for someone who's been doing this for three years, I've changed direction a few times, in terms of my content and what I'm doing, you know, naturally as creators do. And I think the reason that we've managed to get to where we are now is because we always stuck to the core of what we were about and you no matter where we go, or what content we create the ethos of creating a positive atmosphere, and just somewhere where people feel like they can be at home is more powerful than absolutely anything, you know, we may not be there in the hundreds of 1000s, or even millions of viewers. But if you come in there and just, you know, feel the energy of what's going on, and the people that are there, you can see what we have is extremely tight knit, and it can feel like there are or the support of hundreds of 1000s of people in there. And then one day, which you know, it will happen get to that it will be such a strong movement that wherever we go, we bring that that kind of vibe with us. So yeah, three and a bit isn't very proud to, to say where I've got to so far, it's been a lot of hard work. It's been times where I sat there. And I've just thought, you know, this isn't working out, not like my whole career, but like different segments of what I've done. And I've said I wanted to tear my hair out, I just think people just ain't interested or people aren't watching, understand what's going on here. Honestly, it's the most up and down emotional roller coaster ever these last three years, but I wouldn't, I wouldn't change it for the world. Because end of the day, I I now work for myself, and I know that all the effort that I put in is in, it's for me and those around me, you know, who've helped me get this far. So

Kyle Warren: 6:45

I think it's fantastic man, you know, like I want to, when it when it comes to when it comes to like you mentioned, shifting different kinds of directions with your content, you know, you mentioned like changing directions. You know, the first time you did that, you know, what was that experience like, when you when you had built this community, you're like, Okay, I'm gonna try something different? Like what Talk Talk to me a little bit about that process. And like, what, what was that, like?

Stali: 7:08

I mean, it's extremely scary. I mean, it and it gets even more scary every day. I mean, when you first start, you know, if you're only a very new creator, you can be pretty experimental on what you're doing. Because, you know, regardless, if you've got just a couple of years, or you're just starting off, you can even dive in to different things and try different things and be like, Oh, this isn't for me to try this or try this, you know, but when you've been doing it for three years, and you've built up an audience, for example, in the situation that I'm in right now, and you change it, it can be very scary. When I first changed. I think the first major change that I went from was variety, to one game streaming. And that came just over about a year in. And that was really scary. Because, you know, I people came in for both myself and the game as well. But now it was like, well, we're not gonna do any more variety. Now. Now I'm just gonna be depending on one game or one franchise and give this a go and see how it goes with this. And you know, that's that's treated me very well, the last two years and no Call of Duty people say what they want about it, it's pretty much made of life for me over this last year or so.

Kyle Warren: 8:07

Yeah.

Stali: 8:08

And allowed me to get to where I am right now. And I can now use the platform that I have to move into other directions that I've always wanted to do. And that's because of the life choice that I made a year and a half ago. And um, yeah, I have no regrets. So.

Kyle Warren: 8:21

Yeah, I mean, cuz I'll tell you, you know, FPS FPS streaming is is one of the hardest things to do. You know, because when I when I when I created content, you know, it's it's a delicate balance of focusing on because you want to provide a high level, you know, of gameplay to you to your viewers, but you also can't ignore your chat at the same time.

Stali: 8:37

Yeah

Kyle Warren: 8:37

I mean, especially with with a content like kinda critters such as yourself, like you built this on community, it's like that is one of the brand values that you have. So, you know, when it comes, I got to ask like, do you fit? Do you favor more of the one game? Or do you did you like, were there aspects of the variety that you liked more than the one game? And do you miss any of that?

Stali: 8:55

Yeah, actually, now it's been a solid year and a half of doing it. And again, it's funny that we're doing this this podcast today, because literally 27 minutes ago, I literally just tweeted the direction of where I'm on where I want my content to go. And actually, I'll come up with I've got a very good analogy. And this is something I thought of the last couple of weeks. And this is I'm trying to make creators see it from a different point of view. Right now, when you're a gaming content creator, we create content reactively mostly, right, we depend on the studio or the franchise to drop updates to drop, you know, new things into a game for us to be able to provide content for our viewers and our community to say, "Hey, guys, here's the new gun update" or "this is what's happened in the game right now." This is what's going on, this is what's going on. But the scary part about all of that is the franchisee they get you know, like lackluster with it, or the updates they provide just not interesting, or people just don't interest in the game anymore. Your whole your whole career is at stake right there. And, you know, in Modern Warfare, it was great because there's this giant hype of the first call of duty being cross platform. Everybody could play with everybody. It was great. It's beautiful new engine. It was a great time to be a Call of Duty content creator and over the last half a year or so with Cold War, which, you know, I personally kind of enjoys to playing it. But in terms of like being a multiplayer content creator, right, it's rough now. And even as a warzone content creator, unless you're one of the guys at the very top, getting out of that, yeah, bracket in the middle and the bottom is extremely, extremely tough. If you're not winning tournaments, left, right and center, it's very hard to get your name out there. And, you know, you know, we can all be honest to that Call of Duty haven't made the smartest choices over the last half year or not, the game is riddled with cheaters.

Kyle Warren: 10:26

I was just gonna say that.

Stali: 10:28

Yeah, it's just not as interesting as it was this time last year. And, you know, I sat there, and I thought to myself,"I'm literally basing my whole career in life of a franchise and dependent on these publishers that don't even care about us, on the most part, for me to develop on my content," I was just like, "I don't want to do that anymore. I don't want to be a reactive content creator anymore." I mean, in some aspects, yeah, it'd be nice to, but I shouldn't be the forefront of my content. thinking more of like a businessman and whatnot, I want to start creating proactive content, I want to be able to have that following in that base behind me because I'm a content machine. And I can just keep pushing out this top quality content on whatever I choose to do. And that's the content that you know, the direction I'm going down now. But it wasn't until I tried variety, and then moved into one game, where I've now come into this middle spiral of, maybe I don't even need to do just gaming anymore. Maybe I can go into all the interest that I've always wanted to, and use this already gained exposure that I've got into our where I am in the community, to take myself to new heights not depend on anybody anymore. And just and run with a brand new content plan. And that's exactly what we're doing right now. So, yeah, probably reactive versus Yeah, I mean, it's definitely a very different way of looking at it. But it's, it's something that content creation, definitely think about.

Kyle Warren: 11:43

Yeah, I mean, I went through that myself, you know, I, I coined myself as a Halo streamer, you know, then I was a Gears of War, you know, and then, but I, I'm really glad that you said that, because I didn't, you know, I understood that, but the way you put that into context really helped. And it's, you know, I think that's really important. So I'm just gonna, like recap that or, like, packaged up for the viewers, and like, a nice bow is like. YUou know, when, when you're like, if you are actually serious about doing, you know, going into business for yourself, and you are dependent on another brand, another company, especially, even if they're making good decisions, you know, the good you know, the funny thing about brands is that they're filled with people. And sometimes people make really bad decisions, you know, and no one's perfect. So it's extremely important to, it's very similar to what I'm doing is that I've taken like, let me do this for me, like, let me be the person, let me be the machine. Let me be doing this. And if I want to incorporate that, that's all secondary. It's all it's all secondary, I think, because that I can't imagine because I'm not full time, you know, in doing what I'm doing, but I can imagine someone's being full time. That is a very scary feeling. You know?

Stali: 12:45

Very

Kyle Warren: 12:46

Yeah. Cuz, I mean, I'll be honest, I haven't played war zone in two months. Like I don't I don't play it you know, it's it's unenjoyable. It is it's, it's terrible and cold war I enjoy, like playing zombies. And you know, do all that, you know, shit's fun. But I would agree with you know, now, you mentioned I really liked the day you use the term businessman, like think of this more like a business, you know, when it comes to all the stuff that you're doing behind the scenes, I without saying a whole lot. I know you can't I know, there's some some things you can't say. But what it what does that mean? You know, what do you fill your day with? Like, what are what are these things that you're that you're trying to create? Or what is it that you're building here?

Stali: 13:25

I mean, I'm a workaholic. But I just, there are some times we're actually annoying myself because it just don't start like my I'll give you my typical day to day for example. So yeah, you know, I'll wake up, then go for a walk slash run for about an hour to an hour and a half. within that time, I'm usually replying to comments on my phone when I'm walking whether that's ticktok, usually tiktok is the one that fills most of my day because of, very active audience now towards a lot of people. So there, then you obviously get into Twitter. And then discord is really important for me, because that's where the, you know, the streaming community in the Stallion fam is. So I want to make sure I speak to them. And then out of that time, usually get around 15 to 30 minutes to go for a run. So I then do that towards the end of it, and then I'll get back shower, have some food and then it's just content, then it's just focusing on "Alright, what can I get done out of my day before I go live?" I then will stream from, let's say 2pm until 9pm. And after that between nine and 11 is gathering clips and content so I can send to my editors to get posted up. And then after 11 o'clock, I go into bed, put YouTube on, I get my tablet out with my keyboard and plan the future on my keyboard right there. So literally, it just doesn't stop. But I mean, if you want to if you want to be successful, real quick, sorry, go on. ganya

Kyle Warren: 14:37

Yeah, I want to interrupt you real quick. You didn't always have an editor. You know, you always have an editor I imagine. So when you didn't have an editor What did it look like?

Stali: 14:47

Awful. I mean, when I first ever started, it was just it was just raw clips going out and then that was it. I mean, what can you do as a creator? At the end of the day trying to save your money. You know, get various upgrades and other different bits and pieces and whatnot, and you can't afford the top level editing. And even now, like, even though I am full time, and you know, I do earn well from Twitch and whatnot, but I'm trying to say I'm in the same position to try and save for a house, I'm trying to put money away so I can make the house look good. I have a lot of content plans that I want to do with that house, I can't just, let's say throw away money for the hell of it. I always budget, it's a full business, this is something that people really do not understand when they first get into streaming this thing ohh, I'll just play games for fun, and I can earn enough money to go full time No, it is a full business, you have to be business minded, you have to be you are I am literally self employed, I am just the equivalent of equivalent of somebody who owns a shop, or somebody who has their own business, there is no difference on that. And the decisions I make even though you know, it's let's say in this position or more of an influencer around the creator at the same time, it's very scary because one does one bad decision and it could drive my whole career down the pothole. So you have to be you have to be very business minded, on what you're doing. And you know, I'm glad that I went to University for let alone a lot of important things University and whatnot. And, yeah, it's it's, it's no joke, if you really take this seriously, and you want to be full time you want to put, you know, get something really rewarding out if you've got to put a lot of time and to get here. But

Kyle Warren: 16:11

Yeah, I mean it especially in the in, I try to I try to focus as much as I can on like, I enjoy esports. And so like, you know what I see in esports, and the content scene and they go hand in hand. This is like, if you're not like trying to be at the best of your game. And if you were not doing something that's the next level, and if you are not doing these things, someone else is an incredibly competitive space. Because guess what, guys we get to play video games for a living, you know what I mean? Yeah, go head.

Stali: 16:40

Yeah, I was just gonna say at the forefront. That's what most people think it looks like. But what they don't see is the is the absolute haul of content goes on in the background. Right?

Kyle Warren: 16:49

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like, is because if you're not producing someone else is and you know, then you're not going to be in the algorithm, then you're not going to be in all these, you know, people. But I think I think there is I think there is and correct me if I'm wrong, you know, you've you've done this for long have you built a strong enough community to where if you decided that you were going to take a break for like, a couple days, you know, like, you wouldn't lose anybody, You know what I mean, like, and if you did, like they weren't going to be there anyway, you know what I mean?

Stali: 17:12

Yeah. And that's the best, I think that's the best of the best feeling ever. And that's where I really thrive, I think, in being in a community career is that regardless of, you know, average viewer account, regardless of what's going on with the game, I'll always have that core group there. And, honestly, for security of myself, and for being in the career that I really enjoy and what I do, there's no better feeling than that, you know, if my whole career was based on me, being a pro player, or somebody who was really good at a game, but wasn't really so much of a personality, or didn't have really a community that was there for me more for the game, what happens if the game dies? or what happens if I no longer have interest in that game, and well, that community isn't gonna care about me anymore, they're going elsewhere. But it's different when you have that dip that in the individual connection with every single person, which is the reason that I got into this in the whole, you know, the whole thing in the first place. And yet, even though even though this way, the way that I do is probably a hell of a lot more work. Having to talk to every single individual person making way more time to communicate with your audience, in the long term is way, way, way more. My opinion, firstly, enjoyable, and secondly brings out much more positive impact in what you're trying to create.

Kyle Warren: 18:17

Yeah, I mean, that's what and that's what people remember you by as I mentioned earlier. And that's, that's like the end and it doesn't have to be for a long time, it can be for a 10 minute period, you know, and that makes all the difference. Question though. You know, you mentioned like, you know, if you were going to be a professional player, did the thought of a professional Call of Duty player ever cross your mind? Like Did you ever like kind of toy with that idea of wanting to pursue that?

Stali: 18:37

Funny story about that, actually, so I've been playing cod for about 14 years now. I started I started on COD 4 Modern Warfare, which is my original one cause it Call of Duty Modern Warfare came out in 2007. And back then I was doing my I don't know what you guys call over there is "A level" so it's, it's like you do you do High School and then it's like advanced high schools. It's like the equivalent college kind of thing. Yeah, it's like, just get to university.

Kyle Warren: 19:02

Yeah.

Stali: 19:03

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And I wanted to get into professional playing in I think it was around the Halo 3 Modern Warfare 2 time mostly screaming both games. Yeah. We did really really well it was I had a got a good team solid enough GB's, you know, you know, the vibes or the competitive stuff, but I had to give that all up to go to university It was a decision for me do I do I attempt to chase something that I have no idea if it's gonna work, or do I still solidify myself for something and then come back round the other way and say, right, well, I'm back now and now I've got something behind me here. So you know, my family very academic, and they were like, you know, even though I'm not necessarily the most academic, I went to uni to go and make sure that I had that piece of paper that wherever I go, I'm like, guess what, I have this I have a plan B right here. And I went to uni. And after that, I got a two one bachelor's degree in events management, which is the equivalent of you know, a B, a B grade. And I went and worked out in you know, hospitality and events and whatnot for around Five years a bit of sales experience as well. And then I started streaming. And the best part about it is, is, you know, if anything did ever go wrong or something was to happen, which you know, fingers crossed, it never happens, I can walk straight back into a job, my experience and what degree behind me now, whereas if I went down the path number one dropped out of school, that didn't work out, then what? So So anybody who is potentially watching this, please make sure you have a plan B, before you execute Plan A, there's no plan B, what do you do if Plan A fails? So

Kyle Warren: 20:27

it's and honestly, right now I'm, I'm seeing this, it's a, it's been like this for a long time, it's a it's a tough market right now, you know, especially if you if you don't have a degree, if you don't have anything like the support you, if you don't have anything that you know, because you may be the hardest worker, but unless you have a connection at that, at that business, you'll say you were to have to go down that path. No one's gonna know that, you know? And so that's, that's, that's the challenging part. You know, I want to want to talk about, I want to talk about the business for a little bit, you know, when it comes to you've been, you've been partnered by a couple companies now, you've been doing a couple deals I want to get into, I wanted to get as I wanted to get into some of that, you know, in, you know, when it comes to partnerships, you know, what is it that number one they're looking for? And number one, how do you fit that? How do you fit partnerships into your brand? How big of a revenue source is that? You know, and when did you kind of start exploring those options?

Stali: 21:15

Umm, I don't think I ever look it in terms so much as revenue, I mean, it helps. And the more of a reputation you get with that brand, the better they'll treat you. So in terms of G Fuel, for example, the G Fuel now for about a year and a half, maybe a bit longer, actually, a year and a half actually signed my second contract about half a year ago. And they gave me you know, very favorable terms, because I proved to them that I could sell that I was very loyal that you know, the way that I am as a person and how I built myself, and that they came to me, well, we want to resign, here's our offers. And you know, I took their maximum length contract and said, Well, I'll sign this, but you give it on my terms. So I've built that report, where I can say well, now I've done six months of doing really well now it's time for you guys to listen to how I want it to be. And that's how you do it, you have to be business minded. Again, in terms of Gamers Advantage with glasses, I recently signed with them, they have a great ethos very I like the way that the company operates and of the products and to aspiring content creators, several things I want to mention. One, do not just partner with anybody just for like a clout move, or anything like that. If you're not passionate about the product, don't bother doing it, because it's not going to be worth it, you're not going to be interested in selling it, sure, it's great, you'll get your initial announcement. But then what do you do, then you're stuck in the partnership, which is not going to benefit you anyway, if your audience has no interest in it, or that you aren't actually interested in the product itself. Two, please define what a partnership actually is. So if they're saying that they're giving you a partnership is actually a partnership, or is it an affiliation. So if they're saying hey, well, we'll give you have codes for 10% off to use on all of our products is like we won't give you anything until you buy stuff that's not partnership right there. That's an affiliation, they just give you a code and expect you to buy stuff before they even give you anything. So it's just like, make sure you read before you sign the dotted line, because a lot of companies are out there that ways with exploiting, you know, contact craters and people at certain levels, to try and get what they want out of it. And then kind of screw you over at the same time. So I would say when it comes to partnerships, they will come around when you least expect it. So as you know, you can chase them if you like and be proactive with them can I do in certain aspects. But funnily enough, Gfuel and Gamer Advantage both kind of came up, let's say a mutual level where I was interested in them, but they were interested in me, it wasn't me chasing, chasing, chasing. Yeah, and it feels better like that as a content creator, because you've come to a certain point, and you've grown yourself to a point. And you know that companies investing in you as well as you're investing in them, you're not begging to be part of something. And I think that right there, straight away, you know, you're shaking hands at the deal. Go and you both get yourself onto the same wavelength. You're not feeling exploited by that particular company, you know, so,

Kyle Warren: 23:50

Right. Yeah, I mean, it's, it's a whole different level. Because I mean, I went through it in the beginning, you know, it's like you like, I felt that, you know, like, if I tie myself to these brands, it's gonna make me a better content creator, to say, it's the same bullshit that like, I need, I need this badass computer, you know to be a good content creator, I fell into that trap, man. Now I love looking at my computer and waking up and it makes me smile. So you know that that part's great, but it didn't, it just put me really far into debt and put me really far behind on you know, what I could do, and you know what I like, instead of investing in myself, I invested in other people because I had no confidence in myself. You know what I mean?

Stali: 24:26

Yeah.

Kyle Warren: 24:27

But I like that. And the reason why I wanted to go into that as because, you know, you mentioned you had some sales experience. You mentioned you had some work experience you did go to you did go to university, you know, and so I feel that it's it's a it's something that I'm starting to recognize, like if you just take choice A like to me, you're shooting yourself in the foot, like if you just choose to do content, and nothing else around it, you know, it just goes to show that there is so much more and just because I really want to say this because I was twenty...I was 26 before I got started in any of this like don't say that because going into a university or having a job, or like choosing to do something, it's not going to benefit you in this in the long run. There's so many. Now that this is becoming real, it takes a real life skills to make this thing real. You know what I mean? Yeah, I mean, so yeah. 100 in I really liked that. So, one thing that stuck out to me from you that that, that I didn't, that I don't know, if a lot of other creators do is your your usage of LinkedIn, the social profile, or the social platform. When it comes to when it comes to social media platforms? You know, how often you know, when it comes to LinkedIn, specifically? How do you use LinkedIn?

Stali: 25:36

Um, I used to use a lot more. I think it's kind of I mean, LinkedIn for me was previously just to kind of keep an up to date, CV. And yeah, just have like a record of everything that I've done and how long I've been doing it for. I mean, I'll be honest, over the last kind of maybe two years, I think I've haven't really used it, maybe just keep up with connections from work. Yeah, I mean, it's definitely a good tool, especially if you're seeking new opportunities, because you'll be able to get through to people that are guarantee you will have no clue who they are on social media. And the best part about LinkedIn is it you know, finds their job title, that's what it's about. And you can see right there, if you're looking for the marketing manager in the UK, for a particular brand, I guarantee it will say marketing manager for blah blah in the UK, straightaway, you're through to the person that you need to get to. So you know, it cuts out the middleman process. That depends if they obviously won't speak to you if they're willing to accept your message, etc. But it's kind of like a fast track to get in there. I just I just think LinkedIn is a good place to keep your updated CV keep in contact with, with with any good contacts in the industry stuff. And just, you know, if you're looking for more business opportunities, it's definitely a great place to do that as well.

Kyle Warren: 26:44

Gotcha. Gotcha, man. Yeah, cuz I remember when you had said that, like I because I follow you on LinkedIn. And I, you know, and there was a, there was an opportunity that you had from LinkedIn. I'm like, that was pretty. That's pretty dope, man. It's the first time I actually saw someone on Twitch, like, actually, like going into LinkedIn, you know, because it's not typically a platform that you know, that most people go on, you know?

Stali: 27:02

Yeah.

Kyle Warren: 27:02

Want to switch directions to another platform. TickTok. recently celebrated 50,000

Stali: 27:07

Hello, yeah man.

Kyle Warren: 27:08

50,000 man.

Stali: 27:11

Feels good. Dude. What?

Kyle Warren: 27:13

Yeah, go ahead.

Stali: 27:14

Yeah, it's just it's kind of that that platform is nuts. Yeah. What do you even say about ticktok, it's just, it's so Yeah, dynamic. It's so diverse. And it's changed everything. For so many creators to share. I mean, I feel so much more confident with the new route that I'm taking, knowing as weird as it sounds, that tiktok is there, because I know the direction that I'm going in, and the equipment that I have, and the team that I have behind me, we can put some badass stuff out and ticktock, and you know, if you get the favor of ticktock, that will translate almost anywhere if you do it properly. So ticktok has just been this kind of a revolutionary platform to allow content creators to just really get themselves and their personalities out there short, quick ways of doing it. And yeah, it's just it's just changed everything over the last year or so for me. So.

Kyle Warren: 28:06

So what how does your content like so what? You know, when when you produce content on tiktok? Do you derive that from anywhere? Is that all from your live streams? Or like what it what what do you do you keep it like one, I guess, one style? Or do you mix it up? What does that look like?

Stali: 28:19

I mean, I'll be honest with you, right now, I'm all over the place at the moment. I don't mean this in a way that I've told it to my community right now I'm just, I'm just waiting for a time period to turn over. Right now I'm waiting until I have this meeting with my broker until I can find out more about what's going on my house, so that I can get to a point right now I'm just, you know, covering time to get there. So at the moment, I'm just getting clips from Twitch, you know, you know, my best friend actually does my editing for me, and he's gotten a lot better over time. So he's my like, official editor now. And, you know, I get in twitch clips and some other funny moments. And other things that happens, most of it derives from my live streams, because you know, it's good to recycle content and do things with it. But then I also like to make some, some live videos as well. But I noticed that on a platform like that, the higher your production quality, and the better camera quality and all that stuff, the better the videos will do. And that's something that I'm really planning on thriving when I get to where I want to be later on this year. So like I said, right now it's very much dead periods, where it's just kind of waiting for time to turn over. Obviously, lockdown is not doing anyone any favors that's extended everything. I would have been moved out by now if it wasn't for lockdown changing everything in the country. So yeah, I mean, you know, put my update out today, I've let my community know about it. And we've tiktok off we're just kind of just, you know, just going through day by day and building up what we're doing, but we're still growing, which is great. And we're still putting the content out there but right now it's just like I said, it's a waiting period for what's to come the future. So

Kyle Warren: 29:47

Absolutely, man I got I'm going to ask a stranger in a different different type of question because it's been my experience but I want to hear from you is that when it comes to the pandemic or when it comes to lockdown as as terrible as it's been, you know, like, it has Has COVID affected you positively and has like it has in any ways affected you positively? And has it affected your content? How has it affected your content?

Stali: 30:10

It's a hard? What is it because you can always say that you've got more viewers or things just because COVID was there and people weren't able to go in. And you know, I've had loads of comments saying that you. I even get people to come back to me now saying "Stallion, I remember when you're when you when lockdown first happened, and you were blowing up on MW. Everybody was come, we were coming in, and you're strange really helped me out back then." And I had somebody say literally the other day, he was like,"dude, thank you so much for what you did for me last year." And it's just, like you said, leaves that mental note in their head, right. So having a platform like mine and creating the content, the way that we do it is, especially now with how things are in the world, I think more important than ever. People need that mental release and need that positive space with everything that's going on in the world. Because I think sometimes it can just feel like everything's just going the wrong way. So I would say yes, it definitely, of course, it has helped. I mean, you know, people being inside, we're gonna watch games and not score the night. Well, sure. But in other ways, in other ways, not I mean, my own mental health has definitely deteriorated. And if I didn't have the my family, my girlfriend, you know, my community and all these amazing people around me. God knows what would happen to me over this last year. And especially in my my career and work, I didn't have all this stuff going on to keep myself busy. I probably would have gone insane. But yeah, man, it's been it's been a, it's been a life changing experience. And it really makes you realize that we can't take anything for granted anymore. I miss my social life so much. I'm a big party animal. We love going out with friends. I see laughing as you can tell by the atmosphere industry that we're being on parties and big music, allow music and raise festivals. And that's our that's what that's what I'm all about. I just ooose that energy. I love that kind of stuff. So I'm all about that good feeling in the atmosphere. We've just we've just not had that in the last year in the country. So I'm very excited for lockdown to end. And even though necessarily it might impact my Twitch stats a bit I couldn't get my life back. And I'm excited.

Kyle Warren: 32:05

Yeah, exactly. And then this, I think there's a, I think there's a general, a lot of people have been impacted negatively. But I don't feel that there's enough talk about some of the positive impacts that this has had. And it's in this is not to say that, you know, my like, there, there has been some in with me, I've gone through some extremely tough learning processes. But at the same time, though, I've gotten to learn who I am, I've gotten to like discover, I've discovered a level of motivation I've never been able to discover before and I think it's I'm trying to normalize like talking about the successes that we have had and some of the positive things that are coming out of it. Because I don't think that that is getting enough light or enough attention at all, you know?

Stali: 32:40

Yeah.

Kyle Warren: 32:41

It's I mean, it's easy to say how bad things suck, and they end they do suck, but it's like my opinion, my thing is like, Okay, I know they suck, right? We we know that. You know, so what's good about this? So second follow up question. You know, when it comes to I think you answered it a little bit, but want to go look more in depth, when things start opening back up? I has the thought crossed your mind of how that is going to impact it. Are you worried about it? You know, what are your thoughts on that?

Stali: 33:07

Definitely not worried right now more excited than ever to take to go down my new path and direction. I definitely, you know, touching on what we said earlier, need that for not not only people that watch my content, but for my own personal gain as well. Like, ever since getting into content. I love creating content, it's so much fun. And the thing that really sparked it for me when I first started thinking like this was Faze Five. And phase five had me doing all these crazy projects right? Now, it was so much fun, right? going out and recording videos in the wild and doing all this stuff. And I was just like, I didn't even that was really nerve racking. I didn't want it to end because I felt part of something. And I felt like I was going out of my comfort bubble and doing things that I've never done before. And it made me also realize how much I enjoyed doing IRL content and being out and about and not just having to be at a computer and playing games like me realize that even though I love gaming, and I want to consider that incorporated, I want to be tied down to anything. It was definitely around the Faze 5 time I started thinking like that. And that yeah, that is definitely where what has pushed me to where to where I am now in getting to where I am now. So I mean, yeah, in some ways, it's going to be weird not being a COD creator anymore, but I can tell that I feel like this because every time that they drop down and update or anything and people are talking about I can't wait to make a video on this. I haven't got that drive to make that video on a new gun anymore, or just my interests have changed. And it's just I've developed as a person. And this is just how I want my things to go I love Call of Duty there are aspects of it that I love about it and that's playing with the community running tournament's COD casting, you know, putting on like, let's say like five, top five top 10 best plays with the community, helping other people get the names out there, all that kind of stuff, but in terms of like, the ins and outs and patches and updates on stuff that that part of me I think is gone now. And and that's okay cuz we're all adapt as craters and it's I'm really excited this This year, right now my life in six months is gonna be completely different to what it is right now. And that and that, for me really excites me. So

Kyle Warren: 35:06

That's incredible. I want to there was something you mentioned it briefly, but I really want to, I think that there's a dialogue, especially on Twitter, in the twitch community in the Streaming community, is that this has to always be done for other people. And what I heard you say was that, you know, you know, for personal gain, and I really want to know, I want to normalize that shit as well, because like, it's like, y'all, like, we wouldn't be doing this if we didn't get something out of it. Like, there is like, we have to be happy in order to provide

Stali: 35:32

Oh, God, yeah. 100%. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, percent. I mean, I think it's getting a balance of both. And, yeah, one thing, one thing you'll see from my content that that comes forward is the community is definitely derived in the center of it all. However, as that continues to grow, I will also grow with the influencer and the creator behind it. So even though I incorporate talents, and you know, the interests of other people and stuff, and whatnot, the whole background process is still going to be to grow myself as a creator and get my name out there as well. So yeah, 100%of there has to be personal gain, this is the reason you're not going to gain anything from it. And, you know, as much as we would love to help other people out, there has to be something in there for you as well. So it's all about how do you get the most out of it? And then how do you use that content and also help other people because in this industry, we're a lot stronger together, if we, you know, if we're, if we're trying to grow, and you know, during our content, we're able to feature and support other creators, and it's all you know, it all ties in together hand in hand, when creator grows, the other creator grows. And if if you if you eliminate that thought process of everybody's competition, to everybody's actually on their own journey, and trying to create something, you can actually get in some really cool partnerships with people and make some really interesting content. Because people get really fascinated by seeing how three different individual creators work together. And you should never you should never ignore that. And that's something I'm definitely going to explore a lot more this year as well.

Kyle Warren: 36:57

That's sick, man. I mean, yeah, and you touched on a great point, like when there's, it's a really, it's a really big internet, man, it's a really big place. And there is there is there's actually endless amounts of opportunity. And I don't, yeah, it's, it's hard to see that in the beginning. But like, I really wish more people would adopt that. And I'm really glad that you said that, because it's, you know, we grow together, like we're stronger together, we, you know, we don't grow individually, we don't. Long are the days, where we had to step over people to get some sort of success. I mean, I can see that in the past, like, you know, in older generations, that's kind of what the norm was, if you really wanted to happy, you kind of had to do some shit that you didn't want to do. You know, and I and I'm so glad that we're not in that we have the number one the internet's incredibly transparent, you know, and it's really obvious and everyone, you know, everyone knows each other.

Stali: 37:42

Cancel culture and all, if you're going to start people in the back, then don't expect to not be outed for it. So you, you know, be be accountable for your own actions. If you're going to be nasty about it, you'll be treated nasty about it. And that's how I think it should be as well. So,

Kyle Warren: 37:56

Yeah, I mean, in and I think, though, you know, if, unless there's a unless there is a radical shift in a demonstration through action, that you have done something different, I believe you, you know, like, and that's, that's in real life. That's an IT DOESN'T, I mean, internet is real life, I really wish, you know, like, like, this is real life, because this is what we're doing, you know what I mean? Yeah, um, but yeah, man. And I, I think that it's important when we, when we do these is that it's, it's, it's an interesting blend of creativity, but also having that business aspect, you know, to where it's like, we both understand that this is there is a mutual gain to be had from this and there, and I think that's where a lot of.. including myself, you know, struggles, like, if I put myself out there, you know, then all of a sudden, like, they're gonna either take advantage of me, or it's not gonna work out, or it's only going to be for their gain. And I think that that really needs to be understood, which is why, you know, it's not that you have to go to university, but like, like, taking some, like, we have YouTube, everything is free. Now, you know, every everything's free, whether you go to university, whether you look it up on YouTube, whether you've just listened to a bunch of people that you look up to, I mean, you know, this is something worth investing in, because, again, going back to your original point, it's not just playing video games, it's not just doing this, you know, like, TimTheTatman, man, you know, and and Nickmercks like they do a lot of other stuff, but they're kind of in a breed that like twitch was different back then. You know, and now you see, it was very different. So the way people grew back then is not the way people grow now, you know, it's an incredibly different playing field. Wanna, wanted to want to dive as well like into the future a little bit, you know, when it comes to creating content, creating being an influencer, Is there ever any dreams of like, like running your own company? Or like having, you know, like, having a certain type of like, is there is there like, are you like, basically what I'm asking is are you reverse? Is this part of your reverse engineering of a bigger goal that you have?

Stali: 39:42

Oh, heck, yeah. I'm ambitious as hell. Yeah. This is and this is what it went when I was telling you about my, you know, my initial day and what it consists of that last part where I say, I'll be in bed and put YouTube run in the background. I get a lot of inspiration from a lot of big YouTubers that I watch and Thank, you know, just get my get my tablet out. And I'm like, right? Like even even, you know, as we speak right now over the last couple of nights I'm compromising a business plan similar to the tweet that I posted earlier is what I'm gonna be doing this year, you know, I have the start of what is a creative team that I'm going to be working with and how we're going to do it. And it's just going to be something that people just haven't seen before. And then that that is going to allow me to grow in industries that I've always wanted to get into, as well as staying gaming content creation, but then even expand even further from that my original goal in life was to be the owner of a franchise of nightclubs again, this goes down to my big aspirations of being a party goer and music is given that experience and when somebody gets excited about learning how to how they go on that now out of that whole experience, right there needs to be tailored to a particular person, I'm very detail with that. And one day, don't know how long it's going to be from now. I plan to have my own chain of clothes where you go in there and it's just dynamic as hell bumping house music just yeah, there's there's so much to it. But that's like way, way down the line. But yeah, God, yeah, there's so many aspirations. End of the day, we only live once, right? I've proved to myself time and time again, three years of starting with absolutely nothing. No experience in this not knowing anybody, I've got to where I am right now, just with hard work. So anybody tells me that you can't do it, I'll just be like, I'll just tell you what I've done the last three years and it's just be like, Don't ever tell me what I can and can't do i do whatever the hell I put my head, too. You know, I always say one human being can do it, so can somebody else. And these days people listen to influencers, probably more than anybody else in the world right now. And if I continue to grow in the next five to 10 years to where I want to be, and let's say for example, I'm to start my own chain of nightclubs and stuff, and I blow up and get to like a big level, who isn't what I want to come to a club like that, knowing that that is ran by that particular influencer, you know, getting selfies and pictures and they'll be like, yeah, I'm in club thingy right now on an invitation or something, you know, it's the The world is changing. Everything's more and more dynamic every day. And it's really exciting. So

Kyle Warren: 41:59

Yeah, I love that you touched on it, because like, you know, a one on one of the people that influences me the most is NadeShot, you know, of 100 Thieves like it to the point I'll be I'll be really transparent here on the podcast to a point where, you know, when he tweeted out, man, this new Justin Bieber album slaps, I don't listen to Justin Bieber, I actually listened to it man. And while I may not bump into my car, the simple fact that he tweeted that out, and I admit, there was no hesitation, there was absolutely zero hesitation from from the tweet to the listen. And I'm like, yeah, I'm gonna listen to that. You know, I think there's, there's something special in that, or it's honestly, to me, it's, it's a scary thing of like, as I as I grow, like, what if I say some wrong shit? You know? Like, what if I say like, because we have a lot of responsibility, and I think it's really important to touch on that point, you know,

Stali: 42:47

For sure.

Kyle Warren: 42:48

Yeah. I mean, so I love that. I love that you have something outside that you just wanted to, like, wanted to go to. Because I think that for me that North star is honestly the most important piece that allows me to stay present today. Like it's it's literally one of the only things and for me, it was, you know, when I told my grandfather that I wanted to run my own esports team, you know, and he and this was literally the moment where I started streaming on Twitch was like, you know, he just looked at me and he cried, and I'm just like, that was literally all I needed to know. You know, that was that was the only thing that gives me goosebumps when I say that today, you know?

Stali: 43:23

Yeah,

Kyle Warren: 43:23

But cool man. You know what, I want to start want to start wrapping things up here, man, you know, if you could give, man you know, I I got a really good response from this question. Last time I asked it. So if you were to die tomorrow, you know, what would you want to accomplish before you died?

Stali: 43:48

I think it's very different answer now to what it would have been a year ago. Firstly with lockdown. And yeah, it's a tough question. Tomorrow's not a long time. So

Kyle Warren: 44:01

It's not

Stali: 44:01

I dunno, I divide my day up so that I can do everything out what I'd probably do like one last stream, make sure me or my girlfriend makes me feel my best friends. Get them all together. See my family. Yeah, I don't know. Really. That's, that's a real tough one. I think it would definitely be dividing up my day with let's say probably the four things that I love the most aka streaming family you know, girlfriend and whatnot. And yeah, I think that's I think that's probably what I would do. And then probably in the last bit before it happens, just do some crazy shit that say I would never do that I'm gonna die anyway. So yeah, that's that's probably the route I would go down. So yeah, just glow up go out and a explosive ball of chaos. I guess. So. Yeah.

Kyle Warren: 44:50

I love it, man. I love it. And I want to I want to fine tune it and ask one more to that is that

Stali: 44:56

Yeah.

Kyle Warren: 44:56

If you if you were, you know, to this point right now have you accomplished everything that you want to, you know, if you were like it when people were like, say, say you were to, you know, to pass tomorrow, like would you feel satisfied with that? Like would there be any regrets?

Stali: 45:10

No. Definitely not, not not because there's any regrets but because I want to get I want to achieve so more so much more right with my life I want to I've got this like little thing at the moment where I've said I want to work so hard for the next 10 years, that the 10 years after that I can reap all the rewards that I've got from the first 10 years of working so you know, I want to turn 30 in September, I want to go through my 30s and work so hard and do so much stuff with content and all these other things that I plan to do that when I get to forty years old I'm sitting there I'm like "Yo, look at look at look at the last 10 years look." I'm already like that with the first three years already feel like that in some way. But you know, it's kind of we're just getting started still three years is nothing in any industry. So yeah, let's see what the next 10 years brings. And yeah, if it was if the day was to come tomorrow then you know i'd be I'd be I'd be proud but I'd be gutted because I want to achieve so much more. So yeah.

Kyle Warren: 46:04

I love that man. I love that so lastly wrapping up man where where can people find you? Where are you the most active Where do you want people to go? To the people listen to the podcast.

Stali: 46:13

Yeah, I mean Feel free to follow on any socials, Twitter and Instagram and both Carnage stallion KRNGStallion all one word Twitch stream every day apart from Tuesdays Saturdays 2pm to 9pm Uk GMT Twitch.tv/Stallion, tikok's also Stallion discord Team SSC which is Stallion Streaming Community. And yeah, if anybody ever wants to some across revived, definitely come over to twitch stream some time and do our best to try and make people feel at home. So

Kyle Warren: 46:43

I'll give you a voucher on that to vibe. Well,

Stali: 46:46

I appreciate it

Kyle Warren: 46:46

Man Stalli. It was it was a pleasure having you on here.

Stali: 46:49

Thanks for having me on here, man. For real honestly, it's it's always a pleasure to be on podcast. So thank you.

Kyle Warren: 46:55

Absolutely, man. Well, let's go ahead and we'll go ahead and call it and I'll catch you later my friend.

Stali: 46:59

Laters, bro.