Well done on the first month. Reflect on what has made you successful; you have a distinctive brand, you have a collective that is interesting to the audience (Josh, Michael, Chris, Justin, George etc) which makes us feel like it's a community, you have an engaging style. Keep the quality up and don't worry about the quantity. Remember that members / subs are interested in you and your life, not just your Simracing (Jimmy and SuperGT do this brilliantly) so perhaps give your audience wider access? Beyond that, and with apologies for the unsolicited advice, I'll still be watching and good luck!
All good stuff, mate. I will underscore the "community" dimension and think it's an important part of the secret sauce, especially in the gaming space. Most importantly, though, Ollie, is for you to be you. You've got a great personality and great energy. As people are fond of saying, "you do you" and everything else will take care of itself. :)
Firstly, I think your story is super inspiring. I left a comfy job to go on my own 5 years ago. I can tell you the anxiety never really goes away. You're always kind of micro managing the small details. RUclips is a job and you're looking at this in the right way. Having worked myself for a really big channel in the sim space actually, I know you will be just fine. You create good quality engaging content and the partnership deals are coming. It's gravy from there. Stay consistent bro! I've just upgraded my membership just to do my 2 cents to support you.
May I offer a suggestion? When I visit your channel, the “videos” tab shows only a couple of videos per week. If I think to go to the “live” tab, then I see a long (2-6 hours) video pretty much every day from your livestream. I personally usually won’t open the long livestream video after it’s over, given how long they are. So my suggestion - consider perhaps choosing maybe one or two of your favorite races each day, and cut them into their own videos and upload them? I think you could just record a 30-second intro to each one, or something, and then just use the livestream footage from that race…so hopefully it wouldn’t take too long, and I think it could very well lead to a significant amount of additional views. You should do whatever feels right to you - this just seems like a way to create a significant amount of additional content, which is shorter and more digestible, and show up in subscribers’ feeds more often. Just a thought! :)
I'm very jealous of the fact you are doing something you enjoy for a living rather than working for someone else. How successful you become is largely down to you. I wish you every success 👍🏻
put it this way, in the last month I have good retention, 360,000 views, but only 58,000 watch hours. So your streams pump your watch hours dramatically!!! well done :)
Ollie, honestly I don't think many people would actually care how much you actually earn. As long as you enjoy what you are doing and we enjoy what you are doing then that is good. I wish you all the very best in your endeavours to entertain us. I do hope it does not becomes a chore and you have to force yourself to race and entertain us. You have a lot of fans out there and some true friends from being you and what you do. You are the first person I have ever become a member on RUclips and I find what you are doing entertaining, informative and the people in the chat are great. I will be sticking around for a long time yet. I try and contribute what I can and when I can be that monetary or whatever I can. Your BRT members are great guys and entertain us as well. You have a good set of people in place to help you achieve the greatness you deserve. Give Chloe a big hug and thank her for understanding and allowing you to live your dream and keep us entertained. Keep being Basic Ollie and all will be well in the world. Thank you Ollie.
Just started sim racing properly (and joined iRacing) this popped up in my feed. I also do something I love for a living (I'm a self employed developer). Whilst what we do for a living is very different, if I can give you one piece of advice on being out there on your own, it's determination and staying power that will keep you in the position long term. People think working for yourself is a walk in the park but you got it right month 1 when you say I have worked harder for myself this month than I did for any employer. You will have good times and you will have some seriously crap times but stay determined, stick with it and it will be all good. Sub'd myself and look forward to watching your content man ;) Stay safe !
Another thing to keep in mind when you have a good month is to build an emergency fund, your sim rig is now a tool to earn a living, if your PC/wheel/etc fails then you need cash on hand to replace it and get back to work, if you build a stash for it now it won't be stressful when it happens :)
Came across you a month or 3 ago. Genuine good guy giving respect, always staying positive, you tend to lighten up the vibe when you're in the race, thumbs up man. We need more drivers like you on the community, it would make it a lot more fun. Let's try to change them "egocentric - agressive - no room giving - ruining the fun 50% of the time" mindsets one at the time. :-)
Ollie, thanks for being as honest as you could be, long-time watcher, noticed I hadn't subbed, solved that today. All the best, I too hope to do what you're doing, so this vid helped me heaps. Thanks mate.
As a content creator and business owner, there's never an "off" switch. Constantly thinking of what can be done, created and improved to make more revenue and grow....but the freedom you get is much better than being stuck in a cubicle, making someone else's dream come true.
Super impressive what you are doing right now. I know first hand how hard it is and how stressful it is trying to push out content that that the algo will pick up. Just know that whatever your goals are you have already succeeded. And if or when you go back to a more conventional job that that isn't a failure, because you have won in a way that so many of us wish we could. Massive respect man.
One of the genuinely nice personable and entertaining sim racers out there. Exactly what attracted this old bloke to your channel in the first place. You have a style that very few others could emulated I wish you continuing success, you deserve it and will undoubtedly keep going from strength to strength. You're a good man Ollie!
Keep being you Ollie. You are doing great. The content is on point. Mental health is huge in solo enterprise. So make sure you get out and do something fun for yourself every now and then.
Liked & Subscribed - The content you are making is continuously improving and as a viewer/fan, the full transparency says a lot about you and wish you success. Your content is making me want to join back in sim racing after a 5 year absence.
You know what? I think you will be quite succesful. I know this isn't worth anything when I say this to you, but you have original ideas. Like this video. And even though it might not be directly relevant to your viewers, it's really interesting to watch. And you tell the story well. Kudo's to you, and all the best in your new carreer!
A tip my friend told me a few years back. Every bad day is as important as every good day, regardless of which they all shape us so don't ever get discouraged by them, working for yourself is never "easy" but 8yrs on and still going strong from when I left my job to do my own thing I can look back happy that I did it. GG keep it up ;)
Hey Ollie, you have a lot of us supporters wanting you to do well. As someone that has been working their own business for decades, you are not working for yourself, your customers (viewers) are your employers - (3:33 time stamp). It takes a certain kind of person to do that, and being anxious is normal. As a BTW, I work every day of the year, every year - have done for as long as I can remember - sometimes only a couple of hours, other days - all day (100 hours a week - if it is required, you'll do it). You get used to it - it is a lifestyle thing.
Ollie, great video, really appreciate the frankness. A few remarks from the watching person's perspective: 1. Remember that people watch _you_ and choose _you_ because of what you're like. Of course, the quality of gameplay is significant, but personality trumps it hands down. And I don't want to flatter you and the last thing I'd want is to have this get to your head or something, but you're just a cool guy to hang around with. So, the people who already like watching your stuff, will probably continue to do so, although some will find something or somebody else to entertain themselves with. You won't be able to do much about it. So, to reiterate my main point here: the quality of your racing on a particular day is of secondary importance. (As long as you're decently committed, of course, and not just being careless.) If I might offer you some advice on this point: try to stay who you are and be authentic. Of course, everybody changes with time, that's normal, but do your best not to become a RUclipsr celebrity, a showman. I used to watch Jimmy as I watch you now, but there came a point when he started being sort of bossy and rowdy, agressive or overjubilant, and he also started to repeat constantly some catch phrases he had coined over time and this has become so tiresome and unpleasant that I just stopped enjoying it at all. I mean, he's got his audience and its big, but I think that one of the attractions of freelance entertainment (like Twitch or RUclips) over the traditional television is that there's less commercial faking and more real people. 2. In terms of content, I personally prefer streams over videos. There's more excitement to be found in something that is happening here and now. Even if I can't watch a race or part of it live, I prefer to use timeshifting or just watch a recorded stream than an edited video. The only downside of streaming is that it probably distracts you from the driving a little bit, so the driving quality might be higher on recorded videos, but there's no guarantee of that and, as I mentioned before, that's not such a big thing. 3. Don't get too dependent on series created by RUclips. Sure, the endurance series races are the best, but I think that any good racing is good racing. The only thing you might need is a bit of organization, perhaps. Like have a day in the weak for GT3, a day Porsche Cup, stay with one car in GT3 for a week, etc. Something to give your streams some kind of continuity and a thing that might make people try to arrange to catch your next stream, so that they wouldn't miss your progress. 4. Don't get frustrated by occasional failures. I know it's easier said and done. I'm not a streamer myself, but I also play games -- I don't drive sims, though -- so I know that underperforming can really get into you. However, while for me it's just a hobby and when I'm not having fun it may be said that I'm wasting my time on the game, for you it's also a job -- so you're never wasting time! :) Also, failing/losing is an unalienable part of competing -- I know it's a trite thing to say, but that's an obvious truth that we, players, so often have too much difficulty in accepting and internalizing. And from the perspective of being a sportsman whose performance is being watched, failure makes for as good a show as success, if not better. I know it sounds brutal and I don't want to say that the public is mean by nature. It's just that watching somebody struggle and overcome difficulties is more engaging that watching them just breeze through stuff all the time. Sorry for the long post.
Happy for you mate, truly. I've come across many youtube sim drivers and you are among the best in skill. Keep at it and expect continued channel growth and certainly continued viewership on my end hands down. There will come a day where you won't need to worry or be pressured to meet a certain month's end goal.
Great honest video Ollie. Nice to see you tell honestly how it feels being a fulltime youtuber. I would love to see you do a video every month about this and reflect on how you feel. It can give young would-be youtube racers a good insight on how great but also how stressy being a youtuber is. I can imagine that you think all the time what to do next, worry about the next month, start panicing when you see 1 video with less likes... Keep these kind of vids up mate... and to give you a tip : Check out new race games and play them as well. Try F1 23 when it comes out... play the game. It will attract new viewers. Take a look at Aarava, he is a bit too 'happy' but doing a great job being a you tuber.
I watch all the main streamers on YT/Twitch for iRacing and ACC. Rory Alexander, Jimmy, Dan, Dave and few more smaller ones. Your channel is the best of them. Your community is awesome and with the guys you do the races with, Josh and Michael etc, you make the races fun to watch. Just keep doing what you're doing and the success, whatever that is, will come.
Excellent video pal. Your self employed so now everything depends on your work I out, can't have a lazy day. Also your analytics are your life, its like me going over my profit and loss sheet. Excellent work pal. 👏 keep jt up. My only advise would be don't loose your hobby, don't loose your way because it's how you make your money, if you reql,y enjoy your job you retire early.
Ollie - Thanks for the update! I love iRacing, love endurance racing, and love your streams. Since I’m “new”, I’ve learned a lot from you and the team. More importantly, you guys are hilarious and wildly entertaining. Keep it up. See you @ Daytona in lucky week 13…
Really enjoyed the openness and honesty of this video. The quality of life, the pros and cons, the finances and how it affects relationships. A great insight. Great video Ollie
Ollie, I’m loving your content, and more importantly, the spirit you’re bringing to your content. I think the most important thing to keep in mind is to guard your mental health and to avoid burnout. This is a long slog, so just keep plugging away at it and take care of yourself in the process. Cheering you on from the Motor City!
Congratulations on your first month, I hope you're proud of yourself because I'm sure there is others like myself that are proud of what you have achieved. Personally I think it is good that you've talked about the other side of making RUclips videos/streaming full time and that it isn't all sunshine and rainbows. Wishing you all the best going forward
Many people will urge you to jump into the deep, but few will show you how deep the water is. I appreciate your insights and candor. Best of luck, Ollie!
In terms of anxiety and "constantly" looking at your analytics, make sure you treat that like a job too. Set boundaries for it or you'll burn yourself out with it. Enjoyed tuning into your streams occasionally midday when I'm working and on weekends when I see them pop-up. It's been great.
Of course as everything it's very time consuming but the huge difference happens when you have the privilege to do the things you love for a living thats the moment the "necessary Job" turns into having fun all day every day and so 8hrs fly by in light speed ^^ And imo every minute life time spend on things you love is worth it 300% 😎
Fair play to you Ollie, 36k subs is a great number but going forward your going to have to turn this job into a business. Now start looking for brands for sponsorship & affiant links for long term income.
We are excited to be on this journey with you, and i personally wish you the best in the future! You are without a doubt one of the best content creators out there
Power to you Ollie! To take something you enjoy doing and turning into a living is something not many get to do. You make some really good points, the biggy for me was not to let it feel like a job you feel you have to make yourself do. It has to remain fun, so stay chill. Good luck!
There is absolutely no need for you to tell anyone except the wife as of what you earn. This has been your decision to go full time and there are a lot of people out there wish you the best. Keep up the good content. Greetings from Germany 🇩🇪
I’m very new to the Channel but really enjoying the streams, and glad that you are able to do sim racing full time, must be great being able to do what you love and create awesome content for viewers to watch and enjoy.
Glad first month went well. I know what it's like to not know what next month will bring and the stress of working for yourself. Make sure you prioritise social contact and give yourself some time to do your own things. Loving the amount of content you are putting out and wish you well going forward. Looking forward to the day when you are earning enough for the blob eye and doing real life racing on the channel. You deserve it.
Wish you the greatest success and considering you really haven’t been sim racing very long your driving is just excellent I really think this will help you in your career.
Just keep doing what you’re doing Ollie, I’ve been a subscriber to a certain well very known RUclipsr since he had about half your current subscribers but I personally feel it’s lost a little something. I love the connection you have with your crew and us in chat and your enjoyment of what you do really shines through, hopefully as you get more well known the momentum of the channel will increase.
Excellent content, mate! I'll never be a full time youtuber, but this is very interesting, and very 'human' content! You should do more content like that, 'behind the scenes' stuff and so forth.
all i wanted to say is that keep doing what you do, being honest and real.. that makes you different from all others! also dont forget to take some time to have for family... keep up the good work mate!
Nice video Ollie the one thing I really liked is that you kept how much you made to yourself to me personally others don't need to know that it's a personal thing and we as viewers don't need to know that. I also liked that you added the bit about how many extra hours you put in would have been cool to have had a ballpark figure what that would have been in a hourly pay rate. To many people when they do videos like this make it out that a youtube career is easy money and to me that give the younger people watching a false sense that it is the way to make big money
I would say you could add the BRL events as psudeo special events but there will be a little over 500 drivers spread over 3 splits. Hopefully they will drop in on a break and drop a like so not to affect you viewer average. Ollie you have one of the best communities among sim racers. We got your back. Give Queen Chole our best and Knobdog an extra Bacon Beggin Strip from the channel mods.
Congrats on your first month, Ollie. Where finances are concerned, its none of our business how much you earn so don't worry about having that level of transparency with us. Just remember, if you have a job you love, you'll never work another day in your life. Appreciate this video and the explanation. Keep it up! You're doing just fine, Sir.
Very well done, fellow Ollie! A thought to put your increased working hours into perspective: You have to subtract from your weekly working hours now the time you used to spend on RUclips in addition to your full-time job as a content creator. I hope that makes it a little easier for you. Love your work!
Well deserved mate. IMO this is only the beginning for you. That paycheck will of course go up and down, but in the long run it will probably be like an s curve going up. At least I hope so because you deserve it. 🎊 Personally I would like to see you do a little more Gran Turismo, but it’s your show, go with your gut.
Very good video, well done Ollie! Honestly, I enjoy my sim racing as a hobby now but you do give me some idea how to become a full time sim racing youtuber in my future, I understand that it is not easy but first thing first, I need more subscribers :)
I think it's beneficial letting us know what months are light on the schedule and what months are loaded with events. Not all of us are racers ourselves, we may not know the schedules. It would be good to know that if there's only 1 or 2 events in a month, that's our opportunity to contribute for the month vs a month with one every weekend.
I am really enjoying the content. Pretty much the only streams that I make an effort watching live. I would love some mixed content. I love the iRacing stuff but it would be awesome seeing some ACC,F1 or other games. But only if its games you actually enjoy playing.
Great video Ollie, thanks for your honesty. If I was in your boots and I'm doing ok financially I think it's very important to put money away so if you get any lean months you have a back up. Don't get blowing it all but I think you're much too sensible to do that anyway. I think you have to appreciate that there will be "off" days when things don't go according to plan. Watch Dave Cam and the number of times he gets taken out by wild drivers, but he turns it all around and makes an interesting video about what happened. Don't rage quit because people want to watch your videos and if you end early you might geta bad reputation.
Very happy for you, man I know it might sound strange, but you create a service. And that service is enjoyment for other people. I've been thinking about it myself, but I'm 55 and new to pc racing, but I've been doing it on console for yrs. Hmm, maybe that's a idea, old guy new to pc sim racing ..lol. Good luck mate, very happy for you.
hi Ollie, thanks for sharing your experience with us. I watched couple of your videos and streams and I think that's to soon to go full time simracing streaming for you. Why is that, you could ask - as I don't know you personally. You seem very tense, first of all about the finances - which I 100% understand, as I became a freelancing software tester last month and the beginnings are very tough, especially when you've got bills to pay - but you also seem very aggressive and angry while driving. I subscribe to Jimmy, to SuperGT, BoostedMedia, Unleashed Drivers and couple of other simracing youtubers - they all seem so much calmer and relaxed than you are. Of course, they also have bad days and get triggered sometimes, but your anger is just on another level. I myself like to simrace a bit and I know that feeling of being pushed, crashed into or just raced unfair, but that's life - people are different and won't behave the way you like or expect - they also want to win and not give you any space or advantages. I guess it won't end well in longer run - I mean in terms of your mental health and self confidence. Keep up the good work though, I'm gonna be back in couple of months checking your future videos. Regards!
first of all - congrats!! This has been really a good start and not thinking that this is always going as well is good habits. Just from my perspective as a regular viewer I think concentrate on the things which are going really well, which are iracing indurcance races (especially with Josh who is a major asset). Maybe you dont know but at least I feel that many viewers are really looking forward to a weekend with you racing for like 12 hours - that "basic"ally saves their weekend (mine included). Apart from that thanks for being honest on how it goes!!
Firstly congrats on taking the leap to being your own boss. A couple of suggestions from a 19 year veteran of breaking away from a ‘real’ job 1. Goals, don’t set outcome based goals, set process based goals… aka make a goal of doing x number of live streams, x number of recorded, x number of shorts per month. Focus on the process and the results will come 2. Treat it like a real business. I’ve done limited companies even for the smallest project, it means the money is owned by the business, and you set yourself a set income from it. Tax wise more efficient plus you have more ability to control finances 3. Find multiple revenue streams for your business. YT direct income is just one way to earn. Paid sponsors, affiliate income, merch, patreon, coaching… etc etc etc. all great ways to bolster your business revenue. Eg. I have an affiliate income still today that pays me over 1000 gbp per year, and I’ve not promoted for over 10 years 4. Find pleasure in trying new stuff, break the mold of your niche, take inspiration from other industries. Running your own biz is not right for everyone, but you sound like you’re on the right path. I genuinely wish you all the success
when you're in the game, winning or losing doesn't matter. it's not more entertaining when you win or lose, and this is subjective, but it's more entertaining when there are a couple of battles. and you can't expect to win all of the time at all especially with how competitive these sims are. you take it on the chin though in a cool way when you get knocked out of a race though ollie
Dont let the statistics consume you. I have seen many youtubers get paralyzed and burnt out by those numbers. Just stay authentic and the statistics will follow.
Maybe on the months that you can see there are less iracing events maybe look at things like my team in f1, exploring mods in assetto corsa or join a decent league and get into league racing. Daily type races are great but I quite like it when someone is racing familiar names and rivalries etc can develop
Thanks for doing this Ollie, very interesting. I don't blame you for not showing your earnings, I wouldn't show you my payslip either! I'd be interested in monthly or maybe quarterly updates like this.
Personally, I wouldn't set sub goals as they're largely out of your control and will just drive you crazy always thinking about them. Keep producing the content you do and the subs will take care of themselves. Goals you should focus on are what you want for the channel. Like if you asked someone "who comes to mind when you think of iracing on RUclips?" for me, it's you. You're the go to for endurance races. If you get enough people to think like that, which you will if you continue doing what you do then you'll have a very happy life on RUclips! Just don't dive yourself crazy on analytics. They will take care of themselves with the content you make. Very happy for you though! First time I found you was on Acc driving the lambo in the career 😂 come a long way since then. Good luck mate 👍🏻
Some ams2 would be good don’t see much of it on RUclips there is probably a reason for that mind 😂 but I can’t be the only one that likes it and it’s getting updated all the time and getting better in my opinion great work by the way 👍
Welcome to the world of being self employed!! Its hard but then you dont have to work for some horrible boss. Anyway, well done for being brave and following your dreams!
Hi, great video, nice to see someone be honest with how it's going. That being said you asked the question about watch time and how your not sure how important it is, from what I gather, trying to launch a simracing youtube channel myself, watch time is just as if not more important than views. I "think" youtube is more likely to recommend a video with a higher watch time than a higher view count, ie, if a video has 1m views but 99% of people click away after 3 seconds VS a video that has 20k views but 99% of people watch till the end then youtube will be more likely to recommend the 20k views video The "experts" seem to think this is how it works
Well done on the first month. Reflect on what has made you successful; you have a distinctive brand, you have a collective that is interesting to the audience (Josh, Michael, Chris, Justin, George etc) which makes us feel like it's a community, you have an engaging style. Keep the quality up and don't worry about the quantity. Remember that members / subs are interested in you and your life, not just your Simracing (Jimmy and SuperGT do this brilliantly) so perhaps give your audience wider access? Beyond that, and with apologies for the unsolicited advice, I'll still be watching and good luck!
All good stuff, mate. I will underscore the "community" dimension and think it's an important part of the secret sauce, especially in the gaming space. Most importantly, though, Ollie, is for you to be you. You've got a great personality and great energy. As people are fond of saying, "you do you" and everything else will take care of itself. :)
agree entirely, one comment i leave, especially after an endurance race is, good job team, and like to think we are all a part of it.
Firstly, I think your story is super inspiring. I left a comfy job to go on my own 5 years ago. I can tell you the anxiety never really goes away. You're always kind of micro managing the small details. RUclips is a job and you're looking at this in the right way. Having worked myself for a really big channel in the sim space actually, I know you will be just fine. You create good quality engaging content and the partnership deals are coming. It's gravy from there. Stay consistent bro! I've just upgraded my membership just to do my 2 cents to support you.
May I offer a suggestion? When I visit your channel, the “videos” tab shows only a couple of videos per week. If I think to go to the “live” tab, then I see a long (2-6 hours) video pretty much every day from your livestream. I personally usually won’t open the long livestream video after it’s over, given how long they are. So my suggestion - consider perhaps choosing maybe one or two of your favorite races each day, and cut them into their own videos and upload them? I think you could just record a 30-second intro to each one, or something, and then just use the livestream footage from that race…so hopefully it wouldn’t take too long, and I think it could very well lead to a significant amount of additional views.
You should do whatever feels right to you - this just seems like a way to create a significant amount of additional content, which is shorter and more digestible, and show up in subscribers’ feeds more often.
Just a thought! :)
I'm very jealous of the fact you are doing something you enjoy for a living rather than working for someone else. How successful you become is largely down to you. I wish you every success 👍🏻
put it this way, in the last month I have good retention, 360,000 views, but only 58,000 watch hours. So your streams pump your watch hours dramatically!!! well done :)
Ollie, honestly I don't think many people would actually care how much you actually earn. As long as you enjoy what you are doing and we enjoy what you are doing then that is good. I wish you all the very best in your endeavours to entertain us. I do hope it does not becomes a chore and you have to force yourself to race and entertain us.
You have a lot of fans out there and some true friends from being you and what you do. You are the first person I have ever become a member on RUclips and I find what you are doing entertaining, informative and the people in the chat are great. I will be sticking around for a long time yet. I try and contribute what I can and when I can be that monetary or whatever I can.
Your BRT members are great guys and entertain us as well. You have a good set of people in place to help you achieve the greatness you deserve.
Give Chloe a big hug and thank her for understanding and allowing you to live your dream and keep us entertained.
Keep being Basic Ollie and all will be well in the world.
Thank you Ollie.
Just started sim racing properly (and joined iRacing) this popped up in my feed.
I also do something I love for a living (I'm a self employed developer). Whilst what we do for a living is very different, if I can give you one piece of advice on being out there on your own, it's determination and staying power that will keep you in the position long term.
People think working for yourself is a walk in the park but you got it right month 1 when you say I have worked harder for myself this month than I did for any employer.
You will have good times and you will have some seriously crap times but stay determined, stick with it and it will be all good.
Sub'd myself and look forward to watching your content man ;)
Stay safe !
Another thing to keep in mind when you have a good month is to build an emergency fund, your sim rig is now a tool to earn a living, if your PC/wheel/etc fails then you need cash on hand to replace it and get back to work, if you build a stash for it now it won't be stressful when it happens :)
Came across you a month or 3 ago. Genuine good guy giving respect, always staying positive, you tend to lighten up the vibe when you're in the race, thumbs up man.
We need more drivers like you on the community, it would make it a lot more fun.
Let's try to change them "egocentric - agressive - no room giving - ruining the fun 50% of the time" mindsets one at the time. :-)
Biggest compliment I could give you Ollie, your daytime streams which is when I'm at work. I watch 99% of them when I get home the whole way through!
Ollie, thanks for being as honest as you could be, long-time watcher, noticed I hadn't subbed, solved that today. All the best, I too hope to do what you're doing, so this vid helped me heaps. Thanks mate.
Well done fella. Mrs Ollie sounds like a great partner. I was one of the subs you got from your race with Super Gt and often watch your streams.
You basically described what a person feels when he is doing his passion ❤️
As a content creator and business owner, there's never an "off" switch. Constantly thinking of what can be done, created and improved to make more revenue and grow....but the freedom you get is much better than being stuck in a cubicle, making someone else's dream come true.
Super impressive what you are doing right now. I know first hand how hard it is and how stressful it is trying to push out content that that the algo will pick up. Just know that whatever your goals are you have already succeeded. And if or when you go back to a more conventional job that that isn't a failure, because you have won in a way that so many of us wish we could. Massive respect man.
One of the genuinely nice personable and entertaining sim racers out there. Exactly what attracted this old bloke to your channel in the first place. You have a style that very few others could emulated I wish you continuing success, you deserve it and will undoubtedly keep going from strength to strength. You're a good man Ollie!
Keep being you Ollie. You are doing great. The content is on point. Mental health is huge in solo enterprise. So make sure you get out and do something fun for yourself every now and then.
I can honestly see you hitting 60k subscribers by the end of the year, I think you'll see exponential growth.
Liked & Subscribed - The content you are making is continuously improving and as a viewer/fan, the full transparency says a lot about you and wish you success. Your content is making me want to join back in sim racing after a 5 year absence.
You know what? I think you will be quite succesful. I know this isn't worth anything when I say this to you, but you have original ideas. Like this video. And even though it might not be directly relevant to your viewers, it's really interesting to watch. And you tell the story well. Kudo's to you, and all the best in your new carreer!
Been loving the content since I was introduced to it! I will continue to support you! Keep doing your thing!
A tip my friend told me a few years back. Every bad day is as important as every good day, regardless of which they all shape us so don't ever get discouraged by them, working for yourself is never "easy" but 8yrs on and still going strong from when I left my job to do my own thing I can look back happy that I did it.
GG keep it up ;)
Hey Ollie, you have a lot of us supporters wanting you to do well. As someone that has been working their own business for decades, you are not working for yourself, your customers (viewers) are your employers - (3:33 time stamp). It takes a certain kind of person to do that, and being anxious is normal. As a BTW, I work every day of the year, every year - have done for as long as I can remember - sometimes only a couple of hours, other days - all day (100 hours a week - if it is required, you'll do it). You get used to it - it is a lifestyle thing.
Very glad you decided to publish this, great video! ❤️
Ollie, great video, really appreciate the frankness. A few remarks from the watching person's perspective:
1. Remember that people watch _you_ and choose _you_ because of what you're like. Of course, the quality of gameplay is significant, but personality trumps it hands down. And I don't want to flatter you and the last thing I'd want is to have this get to your head or something, but you're just a cool guy to hang around with. So, the people who already like watching your stuff, will probably continue to do so, although some will find something or somebody else to entertain themselves with. You won't be able to do much about it. So, to reiterate my main point here: the quality of your racing on a particular day is of secondary importance. (As long as you're decently committed, of course, and not just being careless.) If I might offer you some advice on this point: try to stay who you are and be authentic. Of course, everybody changes with time, that's normal, but do your best not to become a RUclipsr celebrity, a showman. I used to watch Jimmy as I watch you now, but there came a point when he started being sort of bossy and rowdy, agressive or overjubilant, and he also started to repeat constantly some catch phrases he had coined over time and this has become so tiresome and unpleasant that I just stopped enjoying it at all. I mean, he's got his audience and its big, but I think that one of the attractions of freelance entertainment (like Twitch or RUclips) over the traditional television is that there's less commercial faking and more real people.
2. In terms of content, I personally prefer streams over videos. There's more excitement to be found in something that is happening here and now. Even if I can't watch a race or part of it live, I prefer to use timeshifting or just watch a recorded stream than an edited video. The only downside of streaming is that it probably distracts you from the driving a little bit, so the driving quality might be higher on recorded videos, but there's no guarantee of that and, as I mentioned before, that's not such a big thing.
3. Don't get too dependent on series created by RUclips. Sure, the endurance series races are the best, but I think that any good racing is good racing. The only thing you might need is a bit of organization, perhaps. Like have a day in the weak for GT3, a day Porsche Cup, stay with one car in GT3 for a week, etc. Something to give your streams some kind of continuity and a thing that might make people try to arrange to catch your next stream, so that they wouldn't miss your progress.
4. Don't get frustrated by occasional failures. I know it's easier said and done. I'm not a streamer myself, but I also play games -- I don't drive sims, though -- so I know that underperforming can really get into you. However, while for me it's just a hobby and when I'm not having fun it may be said that I'm wasting my time on the game, for you it's also a job -- so you're never wasting time! :) Also, failing/losing is an unalienable part of competing -- I know it's a trite thing to say, but that's an obvious truth that we, players, so often have too much difficulty in accepting and internalizing. And from the perspective of being a sportsman whose performance is being watched, failure makes for as good a show as success, if not better. I know it sounds brutal and I don't want to say that the public is mean by nature. It's just that watching somebody struggle and overcome difficulties is more engaging that watching them just breeze through stuff all the time.
Sorry for the long post.
Happy for you mate, truly. I've come across many youtube sim drivers and you are among the best in skill. Keep at it and expect continued channel growth and certainly continued viewership on my end hands down. There will come a day where you won't need to worry or be pressured to meet a certain month's end goal.
Great honest video Ollie. Nice to see you tell honestly how it feels being a fulltime youtuber. I would love to see you do a video every month about this and reflect on how you feel. It can give young would-be youtube racers a good insight on how great but also how stressy being a youtuber is. I can imagine that you think all the time what to do next, worry about the next month, start panicing when you see 1 video with less likes... Keep these kind of vids up mate... and to give you a tip : Check out new race games and play them as well. Try F1 23 when it comes out... play the game. It will attract new viewers. Take a look at Aarava, he is a bit too 'happy' but doing a great job being a you tuber.
I watch all the main streamers on YT/Twitch for iRacing and ACC. Rory Alexander, Jimmy, Dan, Dave and few more smaller ones. Your channel is the best of them. Your community is awesome and with the guys you do the races with, Josh and Michael etc, you make the races fun to watch. Just keep doing what you're doing and the success, whatever that is, will come.
Wish you the very best mate! I really enjoy your channel and I hope to see it continue growing ♥️
Excellent video pal. Your self employed so now everything depends on your work I out, can't have a lazy day. Also your analytics are your life, its like me going over my profit and loss sheet. Excellent work pal. 👏 keep jt up.
My only advise would be don't loose your hobby, don't loose your way because it's how you make your money, if you reql,y enjoy your job you retire early.
Ollie - Thanks for the update! I love iRacing, love endurance racing, and love your streams. Since I’m “new”, I’ve learned a lot from you and the team. More importantly, you guys are hilarious and wildly entertaining. Keep it up. See you @ Daytona in lucky week 13…
Really enjoyed the openness and honesty of this video. The quality of life, the pros and cons, the finances and how it affects relationships. A great insight. Great video Ollie
Keep it up mate, definitely one of the most genuine sim streamers on the tube. Stay Basic 👌
Came here because of Jimmy, but stayed because of you! Keep it going!
Great to hear it goes your way Ollie 😁👍
Ollie, I’m loving your content, and more importantly, the spirit you’re bringing to your content.
I think the most important thing to keep in mind is to guard your mental health and to avoid burnout. This is a long slog, so just keep plugging away at it and take care of yourself in the process.
Cheering you on from the Motor City!
Congratulations on your first month, I hope you're proud of yourself because I'm sure there is others like myself that are proud of what you have achieved. Personally I think it is good that you've talked about the other side of making RUclips videos/streaming full time and that it isn't all sunshine and rainbows. Wishing you all the best going forward
Many people will urge you to jump into the deep, but few will show you how deep the water is. I appreciate your insights and candor. Best of luck, Ollie!
In terms of anxiety and "constantly" looking at your analytics, make sure you treat that like a job too. Set boundaries for it or you'll burn yourself out with it.
Enjoyed tuning into your streams occasionally midday when I'm working and on weekends when I see them pop-up. It's been great.
Of course as everything it's very time consuming but the huge difference happens when you have the privilege to do the things you love for a living thats the moment the "necessary Job" turns into having fun all day every day and so 8hrs fly by in light speed ^^ And imo every minute life time spend on things you love is worth it 300% 😎
Cracking to see where you’ve come from 2 years ago.
Fair play to you Ollie, 36k subs is a great number but going forward your going to have to turn this job into a business. Now start looking for brands for sponsorship & affiant links for long term income.
Really appreciate this honest look at your career path. I'm trying with the idea of starting to publish some sim racing videos (not full time).
Living my dream man, hope your future is bright!
We are excited to be on this journey with you, and i personally wish you the best in the future! You are without a doubt one of the best content creators out there
Power to you Ollie! To take something you enjoy doing and turning into a living is something not many get to do. You make some really good points, the biggy for me was not to let it feel like a job you feel you have to make yourself do. It has to remain fun, so stay chill. Good luck!
There is absolutely no need for you to tell anyone except the wife as of what you earn. This has been your decision to go full time and there are a lot of people out there wish you the best. Keep up the good content. Greetings from Germany 🇩🇪
Thanks for sharing Ollie! It's refreshing to see someone taking a leap and chasing their dream!! Cheers mate
Keep up the good work Ollie, it's been a great start. You're smashing it!
Cheers for the update, Ollie. It's very interesting watching this journey you are on! All the best mate :)
I’m very new to the Channel but really enjoying the streams, and glad that you are able to do sim racing full time, must be great being able to do what you love and create awesome content for viewers to watch and enjoy.
Glad first month went well. I know what it's like to not know what next month will bring and the stress of working for yourself. Make sure you prioritise social contact and give yourself some time to do your own things. Loving the amount of content you are putting out and wish you well going forward. Looking forward to the day when you are earning enough for the blob eye and doing real life racing on the channel. You deserve it.
Wish you the greatest success and considering you really haven’t been sim racing very long your driving is just excellent I really think this will help you in your career.
Just keep doing what you’re doing Ollie, I’ve been a subscriber to a certain well very known RUclipsr since he had about half your current subscribers but I personally feel it’s lost a little something. I love the connection you have with your crew and us in chat and your enjoyment of what you do really shines through, hopefully as you get more well known the momentum of the channel will increase.
Thanks for sharing this Ollie. As someone working toward a similar goal, I appreciate the insight.
Excellent content, mate! I'll never be a full time youtuber, but this is very interesting, and very 'human' content! You should do more content like that, 'behind the scenes' stuff and so forth.
Good luck to you Ollie and thanks for the entertainment as always. Great bloke, great channel, loving it.
all i wanted to say is that keep doing what you do, being honest and real.. that makes you different from all others! also dont forget to take some time to have for family... keep up the good work mate!
Nice video Ollie the one thing I really liked is that you kept how much you made to yourself to me personally others don't need to know that it's a personal thing and we as viewers don't need to know that. I also liked that you added the bit about how many extra hours you put in would have been cool to have had a ballpark figure what that would have been in a hourly pay rate. To many people when they do videos like this make it out that a youtube career is easy money and to me that give the younger people watching a false sense that it is the way to make big money
I would say you could add the BRL events as psudeo special events but there will be a little over 500 drivers spread over 3 splits. Hopefully they will drop in on a break and drop a like so not to affect you viewer average. Ollie you have one of the best communities among sim racers. We got your back. Give Queen Chole our best and Knobdog an extra Bacon Beggin Strip from the channel mods.
Congrats on your first month, Ollie. Where finances are concerned, its none of our business how much you earn so don't worry about having that level of transparency with us. Just remember, if you have a job you love, you'll never work another day in your life. Appreciate this video and the explanation. Keep it up! You're doing just fine, Sir.
Great video. Subscribed 👍
Very well done, fellow Ollie!
A thought to put your increased working hours into perspective: You have to subtract from your weekly working hours now the time you used to spend on RUclips in addition to your full-time job as a content creator. I hope that makes it a little easier for you. Love your work!
Hope I'm lucky enough to one day do this as well, or at least build an audience. I'm happy it's been going well for you man, good luck in the future!
You are such a nice person, I hope it works out for you.
Good luck to you wish you hadn't given up gt7. Possible to do both for all your fans out there. Wish you the best.
09:50 If that is the case, its the most important. If you can live of it you are good.
Happy for u Ollie!!!
You can do a driver series where you brake down each track and and show braking zones and different cars on the track. just an idea for content.
Well deserved mate. IMO this is only the beginning for you. That paycheck will of course go up and down, but in the long run it will probably be like an s curve going up. At least I hope so because you deserve it. 🎊
Personally I would like to see you do a little more Gran Turismo, but it’s your show, go with your gut.
Very good video, well done Ollie! Honestly, I enjoy my sim racing as a hobby now but you do give me some idea how to become a full time sim racing youtuber in my future, I understand that it is not easy but first thing first, I need more subscribers :)
Have the lap times improved?
I remember you saying way back that your dream would be to go full time, fantastic to see it being fulfilled.
well done buddy very proud of you so inspiring keep up the great work we all here for you. :-)
I think it's beneficial letting us know what months are light on the schedule and what months are loaded with events. Not all of us are racers ourselves, we may not know the schedules. It would be good to know that if there's only 1 or 2 events in a month, that's our opportunity to contribute for the month vs a month with one every weekend.
All the best hope it all works out for you
I watched an endurance race of yours last weekend and had a blast, very good stuff and entertaining!
I am really enjoying the content. Pretty much the only streams that I make an effort watching live. I would love some mixed content. I love the iRacing stuff but it would be awesome seeing some ACC,F1 or other games. But only if its games you actually enjoy playing.
Long may it continue
Good luck
Great! I Hope you go full into shorts. Some streamers I almost only watch there shorts like Rory and Kireth.
Great video Ollie, thanks for your honesty. If I was in your boots and I'm doing ok financially I think it's very important to put money away so if you get any lean months you have a back up. Don't get blowing it all but I think you're much too sensible to do that anyway. I think you have to appreciate that there will be "off" days when things don't go according to plan. Watch Dave Cam and the number of times he gets taken out by wild drivers, but he turns it all around and makes an interesting video about what happened. Don't rage quit because people want to watch your videos and if you end early you might geta bad reputation.
Very happy for you, man
I know it might sound strange, but you create a service. And that service is enjoyment for other people.
I've been thinking about it myself, but I'm 55 and new to pc racing, but I've been doing it on console for yrs. Hmm, maybe that's a idea, old guy new to pc sim racing ..lol. Good luck mate, very happy for you.
hi Ollie, thanks for sharing your experience with us. I watched couple of your videos and streams and I think that's to soon to go full time simracing streaming for you. Why is that, you could ask - as I don't know you personally. You seem very tense, first of all about the finances - which I 100% understand, as I became a freelancing software tester last month and the beginnings are very tough, especially when you've got bills to pay - but you also seem very aggressive and angry while driving.
I subscribe to Jimmy, to SuperGT, BoostedMedia, Unleashed Drivers and couple of other simracing youtubers - they all seem so much calmer and relaxed than you are. Of course, they also have bad days and get triggered sometimes, but your anger is just on another level. I myself like to simrace a bit and I know that feeling of being pushed, crashed into or just raced unfair, but that's life - people are different and won't behave the way you like or expect - they also want to win and not give you any space or advantages. I guess it won't end well in longer run - I mean in terms of your mental health and self confidence. Keep up the good work though, I'm gonna be back in couple of months checking your future videos. Regards!
BRL stuff could be fun to do in Feb/March, just to pick up the slack of where iRacing events are lacking. Feeling good about that.
Very useful knowledge! Keep up the great work mate🙏
good on you for showing us how it is
first of all - congrats!! This has been really a good start and not thinking that this is always going as well is good habits. Just from my perspective as a regular viewer I think concentrate on the things which are going really well, which are iracing indurcance races (especially with Josh who is a major asset). Maybe you dont know but at least I feel that many viewers are really looking forward to a weekend with you racing for like 12 hours - that "basic"ally saves their weekend (mine included).
Apart from that thanks for being honest on how it goes!!
Firstly congrats on taking the leap to being your own boss. A couple of suggestions from a 19 year veteran of breaking away from a ‘real’ job
1. Goals, don’t set outcome based goals, set process based goals… aka make a goal of doing x number of live streams, x number of recorded, x number of shorts per month. Focus on the process and the results will come
2. Treat it like a real business. I’ve done limited companies even for the smallest project, it means the money is owned by the business, and you set yourself a set income from it. Tax wise more efficient plus you have more ability to control finances
3. Find multiple revenue streams for your business. YT direct income is just one way to earn. Paid sponsors, affiliate income, merch, patreon, coaching… etc etc etc. all great ways to bolster your business revenue. Eg. I have an affiliate income still today that pays me over 1000 gbp per year, and I’ve not promoted for over 10 years
4. Find pleasure in trying new stuff, break the mold of your niche, take inspiration from other industries.
Running your own biz is not right for everyone, but you sound like you’re on the right path. I genuinely wish you all the success
when you're in the game, winning or losing doesn't matter. it's not more entertaining when you win or lose, and this is subjective, but it's more entertaining when there are a couple of battles. and you can't expect to win all of the time at all especially with how competitive these sims are. you take it on the chin though in a cool way when you get knocked out of a race though ollie
Keep being real Ollie, love your videos
Dont let the statistics consume you. I have seen many youtubers get paralyzed and burnt out by those numbers. Just stay authentic and the statistics will follow.
I would like to see feet cam if and when possible, for me to see the footwork of good drivers is amazing.
Maybe on the months that you can see there are less iracing events maybe look at things like my team in f1, exploring mods in assetto corsa or join a decent league and get into league racing. Daily type races are great but I quite like it when someone is racing familiar names and rivalries etc can develop
Thanks for the insight.
Your gonna be fine . Just need to streamline your process maybe🤘🏼🏁
Thanks for doing this Ollie, very interesting. I don't blame you for not showing your earnings, I wouldn't show you my payslip either!
I'd be interested in monthly or maybe quarterly updates like this.
Personally, I wouldn't set sub goals as they're largely out of your control and will just drive you crazy always thinking about them. Keep producing the content you do and the subs will take care of themselves.
Goals you should focus on are what you want for the channel. Like if you asked someone "who comes to mind when you think of iracing on RUclips?" for me, it's you. You're the go to for endurance races. If you get enough people to think like that, which you will if you continue doing what you do then you'll have a very happy life on RUclips! Just don't dive yourself crazy on analytics. They will take care of themselves with the content you make.
Very happy for you though! First time I found you was on Acc driving the lambo in the career 😂 come a long way since then. Good luck mate 👍🏻
Some ams2 would be good don’t see much of it on RUclips there is probably a reason for that mind 😂 but I can’t be the only one that likes it and it’s getting updated all the time and getting better in my opinion great work by the way 👍
Welcome to the world of being self employed!! Its hard but then you dont have to work for some horrible boss. Anyway, well done for being brave and following your dreams!
Hi, great video, nice to see someone be honest with how it's going. That being said you asked the question about watch time and how your not sure how important it is, from what I gather, trying to launch a simracing youtube channel myself, watch time is just as if not more important than views.
I "think" youtube is more likely to recommend a video with a higher watch time than a higher view count,
ie, if a video has 1m views but 99% of people click away after 3 seconds VS a video that has 20k views but 99% of people watch till the end then youtube will be more likely to recommend the 20k views video
The "experts" seem to think this is how it works
Well done knobdog, best alarm in the business.
Nice video! Thanks