PirateSoftware Reveals How He Grew on Twitch

[00:02] like fast and data driven you are like I'm like okay I to to talk to this dude you're like oh yeah chat said this like how are you reading that at the same reading your chat the entire time like the whole thing F first of all I'm

[00:17] a lot of [ __ ] posting going on because we don't moderate very well lot of good yeah yeah like like pretty good [ __ ] posting yeah like as in like you know yeah there's like that's it's that's an insane skill man it actually

[00:31] that's actually crazy I think it's just a practice thing though I don't even literally just like when you just read chat all the time and you do you kind of faster reading and that kind of stuff to do it it um it helps a lot and I think

[00:45] the hardest part for me was going from 400 viewers to 15,000 in like a month happened wild it happened so fast dude it was like it was like 400 to 10,000 in about a month and you attribute that basically to shorts is that right it's

[00:59] 100% % shorts so we had we had 400 average viewers and uh I put up YouTube shorts and I was like Hey I want to go from 13,000 subscribers to 15,000 by the doing shorts and the way that I targeted them was like every day I'm because I

[01:13] put it out at exactly noon noon is the because they're going on lunch break looking at for that kind of content and get it in their feed and it worked way

[01:26] too well like way more than I thought it would ever work like I was just like a this makes sense so I'm going to try this and uh 2.5 million subscribers as of this month now God that's crazy been one year yeah bro my uh my team and I

[01:38] like um we we went on this uh uh so I've like never created content seriously I I've always been kind of part-time because I have full-time job and like set a challenge that I wanted to hit a million subs or I think what's more

[01:51] realistic is probably on YouTube do 100,000 av30 which means like my views one of those or a million Subs is like the the goal and um I like uh I did like first time like I'm going to post consistently I'm going to do this and

[02:06] you have been a huge area of study um for for myself and my entire team on how for for myself and my entire team on how you did that I still don't understand how your shorts do as well as you do one thing I think that you've got and I'm

[02:19] curious on that that I have you here is like your storytelling is such that like when you begin a sentence and then you and you have a statement you say you have a beginning middle and end built into that like a narrative like there's

[02:34] there's like a story arc in literally almost everything you say it's an insane are you aware of this or like do you like yeah how does that work so that's that's fully practiced basically what I so cool to hear oh dude okay tell me

[02:48] have is I have the queing system like the TTS Q system and when I listen to the queue there are ones where I go I have a good narrative for this or I have a pretty good you know answer for you but it's going to take too much time

[03:01] right if I have a good narrative where I know in immediately I go I can answer story I know how to deliver this I look at the clock on OBS I know exactly how much time I have I turn off my audio so that I know it's going to be easier for

[03:14] and then I watch and I give the I deliver it to them while knowing that I have 60 seconds and that's the whole thing is within that time period I go this and people will notice too they're like oh he's doing the thing it's a

[03:27] short Moment Like CU they they see me in for that thing and it's like okay I have them are just like hey let's have a conversation about this it's a wider probably won't turn into a short it's just going to be a normal thing and

[03:39] learned behavior of trying to react to that kind of that stuff in chat the whole time and as I have found things on shorts that work better I've been able to deliver that better on stream every time I get asked questions so it's kind

[03:52] of a feedback loop for that did you practice this skill did you take any improv like how did you consciously develop this I practiced on stream the on stream because you get immediate

[04:04] effectively you'll see people in chat being like w w that was good advice that was great advice or you see nothing you know when it lands immediately you know when it lands and if if you have that kind of feedback it's very easy to like

[04:16] kind of improve very very fast to improve damn that's cool I I think one is because this is like the huge X Factor I had with you as like how does he do this how is everything a [ __ ] lure of the Rings to like story like

[04:30] what is going on and like to know that you can practice that and that that like is like a lot of people think it's like oh I can never be a broadcaster because like oh T like I don't have the talent right and it's like to know that you can

[04:42] practice that and that you can get better at that storytelling is super to see something that's wild to me and like just to kind of reinforce that you tracker real quick pull this up yeah I want you to go to December 2017 December

[04:57] 2017 okay yeah December 2017 you can Mouse over the channel performance over analytics page like the main page okay and just Mouse over the green bar down there and you'll find like December oh yeah okay yeah okay here it

[05:10] is yeah so you m m there you'll find December right and you'll find December in 2017 and you notice I had 90 viewers there right yeah go forward a couple of months you'll see me drop down to about 20 I dropped down to 23 in August 2018 I

[05:24] sucked dude I was [ __ ] at delivering a story and I knew it I had an opportunity where I was found by a largic Creator they shut off my content people flooded he's boring and they were right because I was I was super awful at delivering

[05:38] information I was nervous all of the time I didn't have any of that Cadence watched a bunch of insult comics on YouTube I was like how do I stand up in people and I watched insult comics and I studied insult comics and I tried to sit

[05:51] doing wrong how do I react to an audience how do I react to a Heckler and studied every one of those and it was a learned behavior and over time if and more effective at this as people were starting to stay until I got to

[06:06] about 400 average viewers in September 2023 and then YouTube found 2023 and then YouTube found me why why just insult Comics I like biting humor is quite fun I really enjoyed that and I also find that it is

[06:20] snap immediate interaction for an an insult comic I find that when someone comic it's very hard for them to react to the Heckler they may be caught off insult Comics love that [ __ ] they eat it up instantly and when you're getting

[06:33] heckled all the time on Twitch dude like heckling on Twitch is constant so like the moment I get there I like okay time to fight back right you know like and funny moment for the people in chat it sets a standard for your channel so if

[06:45] make a little bit of a joke out of it people go oh so that's what it's like audience of people that you actually want to hang out with and it worked man like it worked in a a way that I think was very beneficial to the community

[06:59] much more fun for me and much more effective as a business model you know yeah so so you you basically attribute your your rise almost entirely to this seven years that you spent developing that yes yeah like 100% is from that and

[07:13] it's scary that it takes that long but I know it does I mean you're top z z 1% be yeah it's it's the joke of seven-year that's really what it is and and yes this is lightning in a bottle moment

[07:25] YouTube shorts exploded Way Beyond anything we ever thought was possible mhm but I don't think they would have stayed if I was [ __ ] at this like I was in the beginning and I I think that is that is always going to be the case for

[07:37] anyone that's doing anything you you basically spend time like that 90 viewer bottle moment that I believe that was in Jack Septic I played our game oh really like two and a half million viewers right and it it blew up it was a huge

[07:51] deal and they didn't stay that first lightning in the bottle made me go the issue isn't Discovery the issue is me it was like that moment you have in in like wait a minute I'm bad at the game not my teammates that was it for me dude

[08:05] like I am [ __ ] I need to fix me and like had I had gotten the visibility and it left right and you you said you said you're 37 yeah I'm 37 I didn't know that so so

[08:18] decision a lot of people think that they can't do it by then right yes yeah yeah funny people come in like I'm I'm 22 am I too old to be a programmer shut up dude I get that all time yeah not even all that a few ways about you can't even

[08:31] run a car come on bro yeah you can barely drink like come on like yes some countries you're not allowed in certain rooms like come on like yeah it's crazy worry about that don't put like arbitrary barriers in front of yourself

[08:44] they think that it's over that life is so you know oh God I'm 22 now that cultivate a skill it's like dude I went to college to be an entomologist an that [ __ ] now I didn't know that that's crazy yeah I dropped out too I wasn't

[08:59] call do psychology I ain't doing that [ __ ] yeah you know this is uh I mean that's that's the funniest part about it man is like it's it's all learned it's what like what even looking at the followers gained at this time you can

[09:12] see the spike and then you go down a few months you can see the follower game drops off because like you said um like the storytelling isn't there and so and what they what you had to see and and I think this is one of the reasons why

[09:25] that are kind of like quote waiting for their moment lightning kind of strikes i' I've seen so like almost always if I if someone's to four years there will be a point where they Spike like something will

[09:41] happen that their equp will get notoriety like I think one of the reason that has happened to me many times like I I like even just a few weeks ago I had a Twitter post that got two million impressions right um but when people

[09:53] because I don't tell good stories and I'm like a and so so you know it invariably kind of drops off to like like I I'm a very nuanced very Niche stuff right and I don't have that storytelling skill and so I I I've I've

[10:08] also with other creators that's so fascinating but but like you're the first person ever to show me on a chart like how that works and that you one of the most inspiring things ever man is to look at a person in the top Z 1% of

[10:21] or like a Shack or something like that or or or like I know The Rock has like a he talked about where he literally The Rock's a good example like like you he the old interviews of of the rock they're he's like closed off he's like

[10:38] then you go to the new interviews and that like he can tell stories he can evoke in a certain way and and and he's the most inspir inspiring things ever is to be like oh it's actually possible to

[10:53] design this thing that you want it's it's not just built in you can do it no thing is this actually made me too because I was I was a weird shut in

[11:05] was nervous all the time like I'm I'm a I was like a big nerd you know and like but as I got better at this on stream I got better at that in real life I was to explain things better better at storytelling better at communicating

[11:18] inside of work like all of that kind of stuff improved because I was practicing this every single day I think one of the most interesting things is people ask me didn't in the beginning you can actually go back and look and see all the the

[11:30] them are quite short because if I talked more than 3 hours straight my throat would hurt man and like you can see that slowly increasing over time it's mostly like that and now if you look at this year it's 12 hours every day that I

[11:44] stream like 12 hours every day except for one of them we had a a Blackout um 14,000 homes without power the other day oh yeah including this yeah it was like oh well that's done some of these are like 18 16 18 hour streams oh yeah oh

[11:57] yeah I think my Max limmit is like 30 six is like as far as I can possibly go yeah I love it dude like it's it's super amping for me so like it gives me a lot of energy to do that stuff and my voice used to give out like 3 four hours in it

[12:10] got to this point where it's like I know how to talk in a measured way where I'm not going to blow my voice out all of that is practiced everything is because and you learn the limits of where you're good and not you know you also have very

[12:23] speech like people people in chat I don't know if I'm not reading it but like I I you might be thinking I'm making like nuanced uh takes or things like that um everything like in broadcasting or

[12:35] entertainment every detail matters like like the pausing and the pacing at which you speak is very intentional and and you speak with a lot of confidence and and you don't have stutters like I have like you just when you talk you're just

[12:49] [ __ ] crazy you want to know something funny I actually used to have a stutter stutter and it it it was mostly because I was nervous so whenever I was very things like that because I was trying to second guess myself in the middle of the

[13:05] overthink it rethink what I was about to say think about the possibility of the other person perceiving it wrong stutter in the middle of a conversation and then continue on and it would just be a mess right and as I gained more confidence in

[13:17] speaking that just disappeared that's so cool like it just went away because you weren't thinking on another track in your head yeah it whole time of how am I being perceived I feel like [ __ ] oh God I hope that person

[13:31] doesn't hate me that was it and once I I got over that and I was like no no I can just talk it's okay and some people won't like what I say and some people okay and once I got to that point it was like I don't Setter anymore it's gone

[13:46] crazy the fact that you can do this thing yeah yeah the fact the fact that so neat to hear I can't tell you like I hope that other people are as inspired by that as I am because it's like this is a top 1%

[13:59] telling you that he literally built himself up to be this kind of person by like block by block and and and like dude I you know I I help content

[14:11] creators grow and like I've done that for years um I have so many people have the talent to be a broadcaster I don't think I have the talent to be a YouTuber or whatever like I can't do it I just don't have the personality I'm

[14:23] too shut in um and like you are a awesome use case of taking like an awesome use case of taking like an absolute cool it's so cool there's nothing more inspiring than that [ __ ] I I think it's

[14:39] to understand that because they'll they'll come to me like I I only streamed to two viewers and I was like cool I did that you know like keep doing the viewers and don't think about like you know I I need to have this right now

[14:51] it's funny too because some people come to me they're like hey why don't you raid this person that has 50 viewers and I'm like because it would destroy them mhm like if you drop 15,000 people on a person that has 50 viewers they won't

[15:04] to get a bad showing and that may actually give a negative impression to a content and they may not check them out again so like whenever I do types of those types of things I have to look at where is that person kind of in that Arc

[15:18] they are I'm going to choose the one that feels more steadfast to that and then stream them or like raid them and it's funny because this comes across this sort of like weird inside guy stuff where it's like oh they only they only

[15:30] raid their friends it's like no I raid streamers that are like well put together enough that they can take 15,000 people without a meltdown right and that's that's very important to understand because if if you give

[15:42] shitload of viewers 90 viewers for me that from 12 was a big deal for me and up being a Growing Experience for me for a lot of people that's devastating dude they see that success and they're like oh I fell off so hard I can never see

[15:58] that again but not true yeah and I'm I'm very cognizant of that and try to make sure that that doesn't happen so it's it's that's the tough thing on that you talking to people about that stuff but yeah no I used to be an absolute like

[16:12] degenerate Goblin unable to talk to people and I I've made a lot of strides it's just practice a lot it's practice and a lot of it is also just like hard work like I'm G to pull up another chart like this is Ben's chart Co Carnage and

[16:25] right you just look at the purple filled in here this guy does not miss a day he he's just he's every day like like I used to do that first two years I did

[16:38] insane right that's crazy and and there there's similar charts um a lot of broadcasters here's another one that like a lot of people don't know quin69 like a lot of people don't know quin69 this guy is a Madman he is on every

[16:51] this guy is a Madman he is on every single day he like he has been on during single day he like he has been on during like his child's birth like this guy what yeah dude this dude like look at his chart this chart is insane like like

[17:04] like Co carage is the craziest one cuz like Co Carnage in the year of 2020 okay the year he missed three days like like what dude I I was doing seven days a

[17:16] week for the first two years and it it imploded me right in a way that was like week whatever right CU I had a job at the time and everything I was working explosion was like I'm going to do 12 hours a day six days a week and I I held

[17:31] where it's like oh no I actually have to do like a real people thing like we're to be there you know like I can't be on stream you know things like that and then like after a while I was like okay I can do 12 hours a day five days a week

[17:45] business and the fet rescue and everything else that goes along with it work on heartbound and everything like that and I still have enough time to be like reasonably on stream a whole bunch cuz 12 hours a day is a hell of a schu

[17:59] for a lot of people but for me I love it right so like I'm happy to do I I would there are so many other obligations when you're running a business you just can't I've got like what do we have like 16 staff members now like I gotta I gotta

[18:13] run all that [ __ ] it's crazy you stream as much as you do man I'm full-time I've business we're running ad Revenue I've got like um we had we had a bunch of like um like uh part-time and and and

[18:26] everybody we have is remote um after like Co and everything and we didn't we never went back to like an office um but pre like starting the year we had 17 full-time employees 45 contractors and like dude um I can't I can't get I'm I'm

[18:38] like dude um I can't I can't get I'm I'm a Tuesday Friday um four or five hours that I have to protect like with everything I've got because there's just like dude I clicked the start streaming button today and um and like like what

[18:51] what's talk ad budget like what's going to I got to go in I got to stream like like like I'm sorry you know the business world like really makes it so hard to do any kind of broadcast like

[19:05] crazy that you do faret rescue and then all the other stuff but it makes sense hours offline like you don't take days off I assume like you just yeah you just work offline yeah I just work offline I think my my daily schedule is more like

[19:17] 16 hours a day at minimum every day do 12 hours on stream another four hours off stream and there's like a float hour that's kind of in there oh my God and then I'll sleep and do it again is like really the whole thing do you do you

[19:29] ever uh like play games offline anymore or anything like that usually I don't play it on stream it's actually one of the reasons I've been playing ashes so ashes of creation like it's actually very fun and um I've been very much

[19:42] and trying to build all that kind of stuff because I played Eve online for 15 stuff because I played Eve online for 15 years I had I had like a huge amount of now and hashes and you're doing all the Ministries and everything too that you

[19:55] did on E yeah I love that we're actually rebuilding that now to have Ministry of Industry um the the newest one is the ministry of mentorship which is mom so like we're doing that which is great so if you have a problem you go ask Mom and

[20:07] that we get to do which is like hilarious for me and it it makes the on stream and some of it off stream but at the same time it also gives the so they're getting more value out of that it gives people more kind of

[20:21] carry that over to other you know areas of their career if they want to leave this kind of adds up and gives people cool value and it it lets them play the I just I literally can't thank you enough for like for for coming out like

[20:35] to like show up in chat and like I I'm really glad we got to have this convers actually super cool and I'm also gonna update my Twitter as well um as soon as as soon as I get back and I'll I'll like make a statement about it too real you

[20:47] out of this man just put it up on you like talk yeah do 100% I think people would find it very compelling to talk about it because I think we had a like a very different sides of the argument and then came an agreement and understanding

[20:59] in the middle and I think that that kind of a thing is rare on the internet and useful so what would you title that video um I talked to Pirate software and he hates you now like pirate software loves ads and is a

[21:12] shill for twitch you know like dude I don't know the the number one the way to get the most amount of views would be confronting pirate software it'd be if we want views that's the way to do it

[21:26] I like to be more wholesome than that usually yeah be more I always name mine like very sterile if you notice it'll be like pirate offer and Deon Nash ad discussion you know like just

[21:38] like yeah it's just like the lamest thing imag and then I put like a five minutes because that's the funniest thing imaginable to me it do you do your own thumbnails I do so I have um actually Sunder does some of them now

[21:51] but I I usually do all my own thumbnails like for a lot of stuff and uh the rule in 5 minutes then it's fine because I wanted to try something that was the basically the anti- Mr Beast Cuz Mr Beast has the heav heavily curated ,000

[22:05] per thumbnail $10,000 thumbnail and I'm just like what if I made a [ __ ] post for and what I found was like people click on it because they're like in a field of Mr Beast thumbnails there's this dude's face making a stupid face at me what is

[22:19] that was it it was just kind of a strategy of like I wonder if I could the trend is and do it in a way that's funny to me and see what happens that's so cool damn dude like like I I got so many more questions to ask about

[22:34] even get into that like I I hope we can do a follow-up sometime and like if you if you ever have time you can hit me up anytime no worries dude you you rock seriously oh my God that's that's awesome but I I would love to have that

[22:46] conversation I will um I I will make it a video and and um maybe two actually conversation and then like just about the ad stuff and then one on like just the other [ __ ] yeah yeah do it up 100% do it up [ __ ] yeah dude dude thank you

[22:59] it's I'm so glad we got to connect finally like it's it's awesome yeah no on if dude of course yeah if you ever need anything on the on the ad side or like the um or like the agency side let me know um like I'm G have a shitload of

[23:13] that you have like oh yeah like a little the other side of understanding about ads that I just don't have dude I'll give you all that and I I you after I get back from dinner too so because I I I gave you a couple of notes

[23:25] that are pretty wild uh in the in the in the DMS and uh yeah I'll show you some crazy [ __ ] um but but but yeah like um we're not a talent agency so we you're currently reped by somebody like it's no like conflict of interest to

[23:40] give you money directly even if I wanted to um like uh so so like but like we to um like uh so so like but like we have a lot of good data and a lot of uh um I don't know if you're ever looking for somebody um to like a particular

[23:55] or something like you're like I want to be sponsored by these people we can we or talk to an agency that reps you or whatever for that and we can get either through sidequest media right now and the reason why I ended up doing that

[24:08] when I started I was like I'm going to be very Discerning on this I'm going to turn down 99.9% of these oh yeah and like like that's just how that's going to go because I realize very quickly is the only thing that I have is my

[24:20] like the brand just wants to get the eyes right they don't they don't give a about the content that I have they they care about getting access to your your don't want to do is I never want to screw that up I never want to like sell

[24:34] screw that up I never want to like sell out a thing that is dangerous or not something that is very obviously not something I can get behind so it's got there that actually makes sense for me where it's like I can see the benefit of

[24:47] this this might benefit you here you go right and if I can't do that then I just I don't do it bro let me tell you as a person who has sponsored thousands of creators that never I I know I don't even need tell you it but like for

[24:59] people listening like that having that kind of Integrity is the most important thing I have seen so many communities burn out because they decide to take the burn out because they decide to take the bag and the fact that you have that me

[25:12] that that mindset about sponsorships is insanely healthy absolutely you you take short-term bag and you lose everything longterm you lose all your integrity you could do y it's the biggest withdrawal from your bank account that you can do

[25:26] that single rug pull your community learns okay like that that like that person I can no longer trust that person yeah no and it's funny too because like certain things like people are mad about Ash's Christian like it's a it's a scam

[25:40] and I was like what about it's a scam they're like it just is you know well I be getting paid by these guys to do this you're like no like I just enjoy the thing and it's it's one of the things where I have specifically not taking

[25:53] sponsorships from some things like I liked the war within World of Warcraft was like this is the best expansion I've played since Legion I really enjoy this you and I was like nothing and they have approached me to try and sponsor me for

[26:05] approached me to try and sponsor me for stuff and I turned it down in the past because I I didn't want that money to muddy my actual opinion of the game as biggest problem with it is people were like oh no he's he's got to be paid he's

[26:19] paid I refused the money because I don't want you to think that I was paid to it you know yeah yeah I mean that kind of integrity what we need to see more of on Twitch like with as far as we go we're probably locked into basically

[26:33] every Ma I'm one step away from every major brand like like every every f500 really love love I'll just forward that to your agency and like I'm not going to sure you get in contact with those people if you if you're like dude I

[26:47] the time like like let me know and I'll just like I'll make an email like yeah you're not my customer like like it's just because I just like if if there let me know we'll do yeah know thank you very much hell yeah cool man um dude

[27:02] like this is this is awesome like um I I hope I'm sure we'll connect again and I'll I'll DM you a few interesting things yeah hell yeah dude okay I I'll good sauce on the back end well thank you very much all right

[27:17] bro take it easy man I will see you around all right later