Transcript
Introducing Marcel Cunningham and BasicallyIDoWrk
Kwame:
Hey, everybody. Welcome, today, to our episode of Beyond Influence. We are very lucky to have with us today what some would call a "YouTube and Streaming Sensation." I know him as Marcel. Some of you may know him as @BasicallyIDoWrk. He has amounted an incredible following all over so many different channels. He is an original streamer who has grown his platform through the generations and so we are extremely happy to have you today. Thank you so much for dropping by, Marcel. How are you doing?
Marcel:
Doing pretty good. Thanks for having me. Appreciate the premium gas. You know what I'm saying?
Kwame:
Yes, for sure. And obviously, Scott as well. Scott, how are you doing?
Scott:
Doing good. Big week. Just came back from New York. Been pretty excited, not going to lie, for this conversation. Marcel has got a huge following. We're doing amazing things. Yeah, I'm really excited for this conversation.
Kwame:
For sure. So before we get into it, I'm going to talk a little bit about how I met Marcel at first. It's a bit of an interesting conversation. It all starts when I'm supposed to have poker night with Zack. Zack from our season (of Love is Blind) invites me out. Then I get a text from one of my friends from Delaware that says, "Hey, are you playing poker with some guys in Seattle?" I'm like, "Hey, Josh, how did you... How did you notice?"
Marcel:
So random.
Kwame:
Yeah, so random. He goes on to tell me that, "Hey, I'm listening to a streamer, and he said he's playing with another streamer who said that he has to get off (the stream) because he has to actually play poker with a bunch of guys from The Love is Blind Season 4." I had to imagine it. I'm like, It is so crazy to imagine that. And the funny thing about that was that was our second scheduled poker night. The first poker night, Marcel couldn't make it because that was the night that the Eminem Skin was being released on Fortnite.
Marcel:
It was a big event, bro. I was like, I can't miss it. I got to play it. I was like, "Hey, I can't make it. Eminem Skin is dropping." I couldn't make it.
Kwame:
Oh, man. Then to round it off, I think the funniest part about this is when I did finally get to meet you, I remember the first thing that you told me about was that one of your most viral TikToks was reacting to me and Chelsea's wedding on Love is Blind.
Marcel:
Yeah, on that suspense. They left us hanging on that episode, and I was just like... I got super upset. And then your wife actually posted it on her Instagram and stuff like that. That's where I saw it. I was like, "Oh, he saw it!" It was crazy.
Kwame:
But that just goes to show you how the Internet connects all of us together in social media. With that being said, man, I'm going to actually stop talking and I'm going to pass it off to you, man, because you have done such incredible work. You have amounted your following and your streaming life and journey into this incredible final product, man. Tell us, how has everything been for you? How did it all start and how did you end up here, man? How did streaming begin?
Marcel:
I mean, I come from a time where this wasn't a real thing. It was just something that we did for fun. It was creative: editing videos and uploading them to YouTube. So it's been a long grind. I mean, I created my channel in 2011 and I started uploading in 2012 so I never had this massive rocket ship increase. It's been a... I would get an email every time I got a subscriber. So it was like, I was checking it every day. And it's been interesting to see how the world has adapted and how it accepted social media as a career because before it, it was like, "So you get paid... How?" It didn't make sense to people, but it's been a grind. It's been a grind for me.
Scott:
It's crazy. When you first started, was there even a thought about monetizing it or making money? Is it just like, "Hey, I love games. I want to share this. Youtube's cool. I'm watching videos. I want to get in on it." How did that even... A lot of people today have this end game in mind. I want to be rich. I want to be the next whoever. Back then, it just seemed like a passion project.
Marcel:
Yeah, it definitely was. It was just something that I was already doing. I was playing video games a lot, and I had the equipment to record what I was doing, and there was no sense of making money at all. I remember I had two roommates at the time, and they were like, "What's your goal starting this?" I was like, "10,000 subscribers." No, I said 100,000, actually. He was like, "That's way too many." I was like, "No, I think I could do it." He was like, "Try for 10." I was like, "All right, bet." Then it was just something... I really enjoyed editing and making a short film out of Call of Duty and stuff like that.
Money was never, ever... I had no idea until the money started coming in. So, yeah, it's interesting. I feel like today it's even more difficult to start because you know that you can make money on it, and it puts you in a different mindset going into social media and everything.
Scott:
I think it was such a cool time back then. I played a lot of Counterstrike back in the day. I remember watching when YouTube and the whole gaming content started coming out. It was so cool because there were so many different lanes. There was the funny guys, there's the super competitive guys, there's tips and tricks, but there's just the dumbest memes and funny stuff. I think no matter... And video games is that for a lot of people. I think it's a different type of release. It's a different type of entertainment for different people and there was a lane for all those different people. And it's just been so cool to watch those communities get built. Did you just pick what game you were playing or how did you pick what content to create?
Marcel:
At the time, I was broke. All I had was my Xbox and a laptop so it was Call of Duty. It's what everybody was playing at the time and I didn't have a computer that could run PC games. So it was just me playing with whoever I could play with and just recording the genuine normal reactions that you would have every day. I thought I was good at video games. I was like, I could be a pro, but that wasn't the case so I just leaned into just having fun experiences and trying to make it as entertaining as possible.
And also trying to play games in a way that most people weren't playing the game. So it's like, Search and Destroy is my favorite game mode, like Counterstrike in a way, versus it's just like, all I would do is go for Ninja Diffuses, or Diffuse the Bomb without killing people and just make it fun. I just leaned into it really hard.
Kwame:
I've seen some of your streams. You know what's really funny? People don't really know about this, but when Call of Duty: Black Ops 1 came out, I was (ranked) #16 in Hardcore Search and Destroy for about a month and a half in the world. I was nasty. People don't know about this, so we might need to put together an all-time-
Marcel:
I'm down.
Kwame:
But I love origin stories and the way they came up. But I want to know what came up or what gave you the idea of @BasicallyIDoWrk?
Marcel:
Oh, man, so the gamer tag. We had an Xbox that had... It was the family Xbox in the living room, and it had five free one-month trials and I would just burn through them because I didn't have money to buy a new one or to pay for a year's subscription. And this is when Rob & Big, Rob Dyrdek, was super big on TV, and they always said, "Do work, do work." I started saying it all the time, too.
One time, I was (playing) Halo 3 or something like that. I had a really good game, and some guy was like, "Man, that guy did work. That guy basically does work." I was like, "That's my next gamer tag." And I made it my gamer tag, and I just never changed it. I moved out of my parents' house, took the Xbox, and that was my Xbox. I was stuck with it. I was stuck with it. It just happened. I have no idea.
Scott:
You started off on YouTube. How long did it take? Do you remember about how long it took you to get (to) 1,000, 10,000 (followers)? Was it really just throwing videos out into the dark? Was there any initial response? I'm curious how long that process took.
Marcel:
I'm not sure how long it took me to get a thousand, but I really leaned in and utilized the community channels that were big back in the day. So it was like Top 5 Clips of the Day (or) Top 10 Funniest Moments of the Day. But it took me, I want to say, six months to a year to hit 100,000 subscribers on YouTube. And then it took me another year to hit a million. And then the year after that, I hit two million. Then the year after, I hit three and then I slowed down a little bit. It was a long time.
Kwame:
That is a crazy amount of growth. When we just think about society today, I think it's been a beautiful evolution of there being a point in our lives where people said, "Hey, you have to stay in school, and you have to get good grades, and you have to do all these perfect things so much better than everyone else." So we were kept to this finite amount of things that we had to do much better than everyone around us. But now it feels like we've created this opportunity for everyone to just hyper-focus on the things that they are good at.
Marcel:
Yeah, they're interesting.
Kwame:
And it doesn't have to be this crazy straight path and I love that. I love being able to see people cling to and hold on to the things that they love. When I watch your videos, they really are hilarious. You're having a good time. And obviously, sometimes they're a bit over the top, but that describes your personality. It is funny. I saw that one of your nicknames is the Master of Disguise. Tell me a little bit about that.
Marcel:
I don't know where this idea came from. I think it's because I just watched the movie The Master of Disguise on Netflix or something like that. But I was just like, "Oh, it'd be really funny to impersonate some people that I know." I went to their YouTube channels and I downloaded, I want to say, almost every video that they had on their channel that was good audio quality. I listened to it and I would stop. I'd cut out sentences and phrases and words, and I just had a folder on my entire computer screen with just everything that they had said. And then I was like, "Okay, how can I take it a step forward?" Then I created a gamer tag that looked just like their gamer tag. Then I joined their game and talked to them using... It was so ratchet set up. I just had my headphones like this and I would press play. It turned out to be really entertaining.
I was just like, "All right, who's next? Who's next? "The best part was they had no idea who I was the whole time. It was a blast to do. Now, it would be really easy, but I don't think the payoff would be worth all the effort that I would have to go through unless I used AI but it's a possibility. It's a possibility. Yeah, the master of disguise came out of nowhere. It just worked. I don't know. It just worked. I was like, This is dope.
Kwame:
Yeah. No, I love to hear that. It's cool seeing the different parts of what helped you grow through your journey. It is funny, though, because now it seems like a lot more people could do those things like you said. Somebody could pick up AI and just make it happen. This last decade of social, when you think about the transitions, even from like, Vine and then when Instagram started really, really breaking through and there were people trying to replicate the success of Instagram right?
Now it does feel like we've gotten to a point where there are a lot more people doing a bit more copying and taking a little bit more from a little bit of people. And you've gone through a really cool generation where you did have the ability to identify yourself as this person and grow through that generation. What would you say has changed the most through your journey as a streamer? What's the biggest thing that you've seen that you're like, "Wow, this is way different from when I started?"
Marcel:
Obviously, the world's acceptance of being like, "I record myself". That's a little bit... That's very interesting to see and how common it is. Kids say that they want to be a content creator or they want to be a streamer, or they want to lean into the internet as their career and stuff like that. I get asked to go to career days. I'm just like, "I don't know what to say to these kids. Stay in school." But it's like, I dropped out. You know what I mean? That's been interesting.
Also, just the availability of the equipment, that's been really interesting for me to see because this technology keeps getting more advanced. But the first box that I had to buy, I had to get Craigslist, meet a dude in a McDonald's parking lot, and it was a VCR type of thing. And now it's just you just go on Amazon and it's click, click, and they've got one store sells everything that you need and that's really interesting to see.
And obviously, the amount of people that are leaning into it. I know COVID had a big effect on that, too. Everyone's just like, "I'm going to order this equipment on Amazon. I'm going to try it and see how it works out." Yeah, I think the equipment and how far the technology has come, how easy it is to record, and then just the world accepting that it's a viable career. Because it took a while for my parents to even understand it and then they can't explain it to people. But now it's just like, even your grandparents know what a streamer is and stuff like that.
Finding Community and Inspiration on YouTube
Scott:
How much, as you came up and you're putting content out and trying different ideas, how much did you look at others around you for inspiration? Were you just trying to do your own thing? It's always that weird balance of not trying to copy, but also seeing good ideas that are working. How did you balance maintaining your own identity, your own personality, but then also this inspiration and seeing others who are having success and trying to fuse that with your style I imagine that was like, it's been a long process.
Marcel:
I got fortunate that when I was coming up and starting to gain growth, I met a group of guys that were around the same size as me. We formed this little group and we really just bounced ideas off of each other. So it was like, "I watched a video yesterday. How did you edit that? What is that process?" So it became a friendly creative competition between us so it wasn't difficult to stay in your own lane.
And I feel like the thing that worked the most with our group of us, because I think there's 12 of us at the time, was we each fit a role. So it was like, I'm the angry guy. I'm also the only Black person in the group. You know what I mean? So it was like, boom. It's like we have the village idiot who's not really an idiot. So it was... We just leaned on the role that we had in the group. And so it was pretty seamless. It wasn't too difficult to be like, "Okay, (this is) my identity", and then just editing it and stuff was a bit of a challenge, but you just take inspiration from whatever you're watching on TV. I'm going to edit an intro like Parks and Rec, or I'm going to edit an intro like an anime.
Kwame:
One thing that we keep encountering whenever we talk to people is that community is so massive.
Marcel:
Massive.
Kwame:
Massive when you're starting these things out. You even think about when there were the TikTok dance houses, which... I think there's a documentary on those right now so might not want to give those too much props, but ultimately, community means so much. And if you are able to find like-minded people who are pushing for the same goal, all push each other and also all encourage each other. That speaks volumes because it means you're all continuously progressing in the right direction. And as you were starting out, you had those. But did you also have somebody to look up to, would you say? Did you have a favorite streamer or somebody that you thought was like, I want to be this person?
Marcel:
There was another crew that were bigger than us at the time. They're called The Crew, and they had a similar vibe to us. So we would... It would be interesting because if we discovered a glitch in the game, it'd be a race to see which crew could get their video up first and edit it the best. And obviously looking up to them and one person in their group had a series where it was like, "Stuff from Last Week", and it was just a random compilation of things that were said. So it was like, "Oh, I'm going to lean into that." And then mine was called "Good Times from Last Week", and it was just that same format. It was just watching other people that I found entertaining, like that group.
Then there was the OG OGs. SeaNanners was a big guy back then. Then WhiteBoy7thst, who was the first gamer to hit a million. It was actually tough to even find gaming content on YouTube. I watched everything. It's so hard to pick. Then community channels, trick-shot compilations, all stuff like that. I looked up to everybody because I was a fan. And then even people that were around my size, I found them really entertaining to watch. I remember when we would first collab, I would just mute my mic and freak out in my room, even though this guy's got 8,000 subscribers, you know what I mean? And I've got two (thousand subscribes). I'm like, "I'm playing with this dude!" You know what I'm saying? Yeah, it was cool. I appreciated everybody. It was awesome. It was an awesome experience.
Scott:
I love that. I think about the specific thing with streaming, I always... It's in the back of my mind, is two thoughts of just... How do people create the amount of content? And just the pressure to be on for hours and just have something to say and not just run out of content or run out of engaging ideas or just getting burnt out. Especially with the consistent streamers, I can't imagine being on for that many hours. We do it in a different context in work, but it's not the same as having 10,000 people live watching you. They're looking for you to be entertaining or great at the game or whatever. How do you manage that burnout? Did you have to set certain schedules that allow you to be successful? I feel like it's got to be a ton of work.
Preventing Burnout as a Streamer
Marcel:
Early on, it was like... A lot of us were in college and stuff like that. So it was after three o'clock, be on between three o'clock and midnight and pick your slot window. We're going to be subbing in and out. We're young, we've got work and stuff after school. And then when Fortnite really took off, we broke it down into two four-hour shifts. We had the early morning four-hour shift, and then we'd have lunch and dinner, and then we'd have the evening. It was just breaking apart that eight-hour window.
But now it's called "transition time" in our house. So it's just like, when I'm getting ready to go to work, I need 30 minutes of just like, "Don't talk to me. I got to get into the mindset of, Boom, I'm on." But it's hard to explain to people that the fatigue you feel after streaming is like... You don't know. You've never experienced it. I'm exhausted. (People are like) "Why? All you did was play video games in your office for four hours." And you're just like, "No, you don't understand." You got to be back and forth, back and forth, talk to this person.
It's so hard to tell people that are streaming and stuff that you have to take breaks. The social media ad-revenue arc... It peaks in December and then it goes down in the early spring. Take that January, February off. Like, legit, just don't stream. Stream once a week, take it off because it's so important. I took a year off after COVID because it was like, for the first time, I felt forced to stay home and play video games, and it was my choice. It was my choice up until that point. But now it's just like, "I gotta stay home and play video games? I don't like this anymore." And I was just like, I'm walking away for a year. But yeah, take breaks.
And it's so hard to tell people. It's like, Hey, your growth is going to grow. You might lose... I look back at my sub-count. I've lost 1.5 million subscribers over the entire course of my career but I wouldn't change anything. Take breaks. Otherwise, it's hard. It's hard to come into my office and sit here and be like, "Man, what do I want to play?" if I don't take that time off to just reset.
Scott:
I was going to say I love that. I think the humanity behind it, a lot of... Especially, I think about performers and a whole variety... I view streamers as an extension of performers. You're part comedian, part performance art, part whatever. But they have to be on. It's funny because I'll go on Twitch and watch something and I can barely digest what's happening in the the chat. It's just so chaotic. Then I think about trying to do this almost performance art, be funny, be relevant, have something to say, digest what's happening in chat, the game, thinking about my camera set up, what do I look like while all this is happening?
This is nerdy, but there's a chess streamer that I follow, Hikaru Nakamura. The dude streams for six hours of incredibly high-level chess. I'm just like, I played a lot and I can't focus for more than 45 minutes before I'm out the door. To do that day in, day out, it's just like, it's ridiculous.
Marcel:
It's one of those things, too, that I didn't realize that certain people can't like... Mario Kart and Mario Party, you know how everybody's screen is on the same screen? Some people can't watch or look at other people's POV and talk. I didn't know that that was rare. We'd be playing, I'd be like, "Oh, here comes a green shell, Kelly." And they'd be like, "How do you know?" I'm just like, "How do you not know that I'm in first place? I thought that was easy to do." They're like, "No. Why are you talking? How are you talking to me?" It's just like, you can't have a conversation. So it's definitely a learning curve. But the energy levels, they've got to be there.
And I've seen certain streamers now, they've cut their hours down because they're like, I used to stream 10 hours a day. Now I'm high energy for four hours and then I'm gone. But then you go on Twitch right now and it's like, KaiCenat, who's killing it. He's been streaming live for 120 hours and he's sleeping on stream. I'm like, "That's not me. That is not me. You're not going to get the version that you get from me all day."
Finding Your Niche as a Creator
Scott:
I'm dying. I'm remembering (being) in high school playing Golden Eye with my friends. I'd be like, "Don't be a screenwatcher. Don't be a screenwatcher." You're playing Proximity Minds.
Marcel:
You're screen peeking? You're screen peeking?
Scott:
Yeah, no. It's so funny.
Kwame:
That is so funny. You know what? I know a lot of nerdy things about you, Scott, but I do think the chess streaming is probably the nerdiest thing, and I can appreciate it.
Scott:
Yeah. I mean, he's top 10 in the world, but the dude is-
Marcel:
I do watch all those TikToks and Instagram reels when people are playing chess.
Scott:
He's one of the smartest dudes. He's just like, "Oh, yeah, here's the next 27 moves. This game is clearly lost."
Marcel:
He just locks in. He's just like, "What? Why?" Then he runs through the whole scenario. That's crazy.
Kwame:
All right. Okay. You might have to send that to me later then.
Scott:
If you want something equally nerdy, there's this dude, Rainbolt, who plays Geoguessr.
Marcel:
Oh my God. He'll be like, Eastern Europe, boom, boom. That bush is only native to Africa, pow. You're just like, "Within a mile? How?"
Scott:
Yeah. He's like, "Okay, trying to guess where I'm at in 0.1 seconds, pixelated, and I can only see a third of the screen." He's like "Oh, yeah, those are clearly trees from Eswatani." And you're like, "Dude, bro, come on, really?" He can find the right road in the entire world. It's just, yeah. That level of gaming I'm like, I would rather try to be funny, and I'm not that funny of a guy, than try to be that good at a video game any day.
Kwame:
Oh, man, that is insane. I think I've seen a couple of those clips on Instagram before, and I am pretty blown away. And I feel like, I don't know, shouldn't that guy be working for the government or something?
Marcel:
Yeah, for real.
Scott:
That's always the joke. It's like, he's working for the CIA. He knows every road in the world.
Kwame:
(He) has to but it's funny.
You do have all these different streams now, all these different areas, all these different places that you could focus your energy on when it comes down to it. I think people who are starting out sometimes want to know where they focus their energy. We don't have to get specific on your... I don't want to check your pockets. But where would you say that out of all the different social media mediums that you're currently using, where do you make the most money? Where do you focus your time?
Marcel:
Definitely for me, it's YouTube and the uploads. I mean, long-form content will always make more money than short-form content, but short-form content will put more eyeballs on you. So it's a healthy balance.
For me, I've always looked at social media as posting more of the outside of my gaming content. So it's like the Roomba is stuck or watching Love is Blind. That's where I've focused that attention on. But I'm starting to see the value in just uploading a snippet from the gaming video or a snippet from the video too as an added benefit.
But long-form content is... I mean, unless you can get a streaming deal, which is where the crazy money was, but long-form 100%. Like uploading and editing videos but there's cost for me to do that because I got to pay my staff and my editing team and stuff like that. But streaming is hard for me because when I started, you had to pick. It was like you either uploaded edited videos or you streamed, or you streamed and uploaded just a compilation, and there wasn't a lot of creativity (being put) into that.
So streaming for me is scheduled. I'm live Monday, Wednesday, Friday at these times, and I've never operated in that like, Okay, guys. Boom. So it's a bit of a challenge to get me to be like, "Okay, guys, consistently stream." But streaming and uploading longer videos is where... I mean, that's where my money comes from.
Transitioning from Streamer to Business
Scott:
I love that you mentioned your team, and that was a question that I had is, as you're coming up and you mentioned you gained the first 100,000 (followers) and then a million. At what point did you take the leap and you're like, "Hey, I've got to get someone here to help me out"? And then what does that look like? And now in its evolution today, 4.8 million (subscribers) on YouTube, what does that team look like? I imagine it's a business. It's got to operate like a business. And how do you navigate that transition from streamer to leading a business?
Marcel:
I remember my friend had hit 5 million, maybe, and he was like, "Yeah, I'm bringing on an editor." I was like, "Sell out. You're not going to edit your own videos anymore. Boo! You know what I'm saying? I think that's cheap. It's cheap tactics."
Then when I hit around, I want to say 2 million, I was just like, "I can't listen to my voice anymore." Because it was like, I play for eight hours or six hours, and then I got to cut that footage up. To make it bearable, I would play back, in my editing software, I would play back the audio or the video at 1.5 times speed so I sound like a chipmunk. That way I could (feel) like I'm just editing a video. And one of my friends had... He had started YouTube around the time that I did, and then he went to college. I don't know if he finished college, but he was like, "I'm coming back to YouTube or I want to get back into it." But we had taken off and I was just like, "Yo, are you looking for work? You know what I'm saying?"
So he was like, "Oh, yeah, I would love to edit videos." And then he started editing for me. And then he was like, "I really appreciate the opportunity. We were doing very, very well but I wanted to get back into streaming, too." And I was like, "Cool." I'm saying, "Get your own hustle, 100%." And he was like, "We should bring someone else in to offset the time." So then I was like, "Now I have two editors." And then I was just like, "Oh, we could go every day. Let's get another editor."
But then I always wanted them to have their own free time, too, because I know how draining was for me to edit gaming videos for six hours every day or eight hours every day. So I was like let's have a few people so that they can pursue other things. If they wanted to edit full-time, they could edit for a plethora of people. So it just grew. I don't know how it happened. Now, let me see... I have four editors. I have a full-time thumbnail artist, and then three backup thumbnail artists. And then I have one person, my boy Sal, who does all of the work.
So I just play video games now and then I give it to him, and he does all the talking. I don't want to have the like, "Hey, I need this video back by (a certain time)." He does all that for me. So it's hands-off now, but it took a while to get there.
Scott:
That's got to be reinvigorating to be able to just get back to the essence of what you started and just play the games, produce the content, and then let all that work be offloaded. Do you jump back into it at all or try to mix it up? Or, "Hey, I want to try this new idea." Or are you happy to let them... They've left them to their own devices?
Marcel:
I definitely think that I'm trying to transition a little bit into incorporating more IRL lifestyle content. And that's where I'm trying to figure out how to make it me and creative, but also stay true to my audience. And that's where I lead the direction. And luckily, I've had these guys for a while, so they know where my head space is, and I'm able to just be like, "Boom, this is my idea." And then, if you follow the footage that I'm giving you, you can see where I was going with it.
I tried to edit one of my videos recently and I got frustrated. I was like, "I don't even know the commands anymore. I don't know." So now I'll just cut out the parts that I want and then give it to them sometimes and be like, "Okay, this is my idea. As you can see where I was going with it, can you make it a video that people will be proud to watch?" So yeah, no, I would never edit again. I would rather walk away from social media forever than edit videos again.
Working with Brands as a Streamer
Kwame:
I love it. Looking at it and you're like... You've been doing this since 2011 now. And you have all these people who would want to wake up and be streamers one day. And I think that that's amazing because that really is people are looking at the "overnight success". It's not overnight success. It is years of grinding to get to the point you now have. So getting this level of stature in social media and in relevance in the world, it's a lot of hard work. And it's incredible to see it all matriculated into beautiful things. And I know, obviously, you have your streaming that you're working on and your YouTube videos that you're making money from. But have you worked with any brands? And if you have, what are your favorite ones?
Marcel:
Yeah, brand deals, they come very often. Sometimes just an email form. It's tough because there's a lot of mobile games and stuff that have the bag, and you're just like, "I don't really play mobile games." So it's hard for me to be like, "Hey, guys!" If I have to do it like that, I get a little frustrated.
Definitely, my favorite brand shoot was we did a Hummer ad for Call of Duty because they had the electric Hummer in the game. We were out in LA in the desert, and we got to fly in a Black Hawk helicopter, and we got to drive this $120,000 electric Hummer. It has this mode called Watts To Freedom, or WTF mode, where you just floor it and it just takes off. Max Holloway, UFC fighter, was there and he was super chill. They were like, "Alright, you guys got 30 minutes to just do whatever you want in the car." We were full on drifting this Hummer in the desert. That was insane.
It's hard for me to get a brand deal that gets me out of the office. I think those are my favorite ones where it's just I get to go out and do something that I wouldn't normally do. It's hard for me to sell something that I don't really care about.
Oh, yeah. Laptops. I love laptops. I get laptops all the time and anything that's a keyboard or stuff like that I get excited about, but I can't promote things that I don't really... I don't use a VPN for certain stuff, so it's hard. Like, "Hey, are you guys using NordVPN?" I can't do it. I can't do it.
Kwame:
The follow-up to that question is always... Because obviously you're on a show or on a podcast, which hopefully has a bunch of marketers' ears out there. I want to know from you, if you could get a brand deal that you haven't gotten yet, which one would it be?
Marcel’s Ideal Brand Deals
Marcel:
Man, I just got one, I think two days ago, that I was excited about. I got a Nike Jordan brand deal for the new Jordan 11 Space Jams (that) are coming out. I got those. They're coming, but I had to stream their new game, like a little retro game.
Anything that I use in real life I feel like is awesome. I would love a toilet paper or paper towel brand. That'd be dope. Gas car, Chevron, you know what I'm saying? 7-Eleven. Anything like that is peak for me. Candy, any candy, food, you know what I'm saying? That's where I lean my focus on. Cars, anybody want to send me a car? Energy drinks, beverages, stuff like that. Just anything that enhances... A plane ticket, an airline, they want to hook me up? That'd be dope. Anything that just enhances my life, that's my favorite brand deal to get. Alaska Airlines, where you at, you know what I'm saying? Hit me up.
Scott:
That's the second shout-out for airlines. And by the way, it's...
Marcel:
Hotels? Come on, bro.
Scott:
The Hummer story is so funny because we just talked to someone, and her top experience was going out to the desert in these Jeeps, getting flown in a hot air balloon, taking a helicopter back to LA. I'm like, what is this desert vehicle helicopter influencer situation? It's weird. Who knew this was a thing? It's awesome.
Marcel:
Something about the desert in brand deals.
Kwame:
All brands take notice. If you want to make a great influencer experience, you got to add a desert and some cars.
Marcel:
But I also feel like with brand deals, it's a lot more fun and interesting. I'm more open to do a brand deal when they give us the creativity. I don't like following scripts and being like, boom, boom, boom, boom. This is what we want you to do in the video. I'm just like, give me my talking points and let me run with it. I think anything like that is just perfect.
Scott:
Something you said hit, and it's a consistent thing that we see, which is just like, "I don't want to support products that I don't really believe in, that I wouldn't use." And it's funny because you joke and you rattle off all these things you use in your daily life. And I think there's such an opportunity there because at the end of the day, we're all real people doing real things, living our life. And there's this weird intersection of being a normal person, but then also having this huge community of following who are, by the way, also real people who have normal lives and consume all these same products.
And so I think thinking beyond, "Oh, he's a gamer, let's just send him keyboards and laptops and headphones and whatever." there's such a missed opportunity, I think, to hit your following who are normal people whose interests expand well beyond games, and they follow you for more than just your gaming content. I think to follow someone for that amount of time, the amount of content you're putting out for so many years, there's got to be more than just the gaming there. They have to resonate with you personally and the message you're putting out into the world.
I think it's a good lesson of not sticking to tradition and not needing to pigeonhole people into their specific lane and only offering products on that lane.
Marcel:
It's definitely something that I feel like the industry has to figure out. Obviously, for them, it's risk-reward. So it's like, "Yeah, of course, they're going to give the gamer gamer products or streaming products." But there's so many other things that I could advertise, that I would love to advertise, but they just don't really fall on my lap.
I mean, I love clothes. I love clothes. Like, yo, I'll do an Abercrombie (ad). You know what I'm saying? I like looking nice. I wear a suit. What do you want? You know what I mean? Cologne? Where are you at? You know what I mean? Anything.
(To Kwame) I be seeing you. I be seeing you with your fits and stuff? Your workout fits and everything.
Kwame:
That's what I've been trying to get. I talked about this just a couple conversations ago, a couple of episodes ago: I wanted to mould myself more around fashion and fitness because I just feel like that is my brand. And like, blessings to On, which is the first sneaker/athletic gear company that reached out. (They reached out) via JD Sports. And so like, hey, let it be known now, brands: you work with me, you end up on the podcast.
But that was a really cool moment for me. When I saw that, I didn't care about how much money it was. I was just like, "Whoa, I'm excited" because I could throw on some athletic gear and just walk around my neighborhood and take photos of it. I did them over the weekend, and for the rest of the weekend, I actually just wore my On shoes because we just moved...
Marcel:
Congratulations, by the way.
Kwame:
Thank you. That's why I'm in my new studio. Still got a little bit of cleanup to do, but we just moved. But also we were dog sitting for my mother-in-law, and so it was great to be able to be there and just throw my sneakers on and not have to worry about getting anything else. And so that was really important for me. And I feel like just having access to that and knowing that I got to do this one thing that I always wanted to do, I don't know. It felt really good.
So all in all, it all worked out. And so as we transition here to wrapping up this call, what do you see for yourself in the next couple of years? We'll call it the dating question when people say, "Where do you see yourself five years?"
What’s Next for Marcel?
Marcel:
Well, obviously, there's something really cool that I can't talk about that's on the horizon. I'm excited to announce it when I'm allowed to. I'm curious to see what that does for my social media and stuff like that.
Obviously, transitioning into uploading more types (of content) like vlog, travel, anything like that. That's where I want to steer a little bit (while) also maintaining the gaming. I'm getting older. I'm 34 now. So it's like, I don't just sit at home and play video games all the time. I've got a girlfriend who wants to travel and go places. So trying to figure out a way to incorporate a lot of the milestone lifestyle stuff like that.
But I'm a guy who just looks at any opportunity as an opportunity and just do it and take whatever comes and have a good time doing it. It's interesting because I feel like I'm a weird example of... People can see the things that I've done that work and the things that I do that don't work. And to have like, I play video games, but now I bought a drift car. I'm starting to learn how to drift and stuff like that. So they get to see me make new hobbies and do new things. And I just want to share all of it.
I started cross-stitching and embroidery, bro. I be popping off. Look at this. I be popping off! You know what I'm saying? So it's like stuff like that. Just bringing that content. I'm going to stream me making a rug with a tough gun in a couple of days. So it's just whatever. Just be myself.
And I'm in a lucky position that I've created a brand that you're going to get me doing the same things I would be doing if I was gaming, but just in a different environment.
Scott:
I love that. And I think it's such a good message. Seeing the human behind the content. I think it's great to bring your audience on that journey and let people know that it's okay to like cross-stitch, (or to) like watching chess streaming or Geoguessr or whatever.
But no, it's been amazing to have you on. We're super thankful for the time. We're so happy for your success on all the different fronts and (we'll) be looking out for what comes next for you. But it seems like you're in such a good spot, and there's really great things to come, and couldn't be more thrilled for you.
Marcel:
Thank you, guys. Appreciate you guys. You guys are awesome. This was fun.
Kwame:
Yeah, man. Thanks so much for following through with it. I know we scheduled this quite a while back, and certain things derailed for a little bit, but I'm really, really glad we got you on. And so we appreciate you, both Scott and I, doing (the podcast). Before we go, we have to make sure to mention, Scott and I did not know nor were we aware we were going to be wearing the same color hoodie today. We had to say that.
So we'll end on that note. Thank you so much for joining us, Marcel. See you all next week. Bye.