A lot of times people will kind of throw this gem at me like it's some kind of insult. I guess they think that everything I do is for attention. That's not entirely too far off from being the truth. I'm a Content Creator. The only way I get viewers in my streams is to have the attention of people. I won't lie. It's kind of fun to be the center of attention too.
That being said...the first time that I had large amounts of attention put on me, and the first time I was legitimately accused of just doing things for attention, was a time that I genuinely wasn't even trying to get attention. Well, I was trying to get attention, but I was only trying to get the attention of one very specific person. We'll go into that more later on in the post.
I, like many Americans, found Wrexham Football Club through the "Welcome to Wrexham" documentary created by Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney. If you haven't already watched it then I highly recommend that you do. I've always been an enoyer of pretty much all sorts of sports. The only sport I've never been able to find a way to enjoy is Baseball. Sorry, it's just something that I've never been fond of watching.
If you're wondering how this gets to me liking attention...just hold on there a second...we'll get there before you know it. I binge watched the first season of "Welcome to Wrexham" in a day or two, and I immediately fell in love with the team, the town (now a city, but it'll always be up the town to me), the people in the town, and the culture around the club. At the time I had a really good job so I had disposable income. I was talking to my wife about everything...everything from the people, to the team, to the show.
She told me that I needed to take a trip to visit. So, because I could afford to do so at the time, I did. I'm going to keep this part short. I've actually probably already dedicated more words to this part of the post than I was initially intending to. Here's where I explain things. When I traveled to Wrexham I fully intended to do so as an outsider that just wanted to experience the atmosphere and the environment of Wrexham on a game day, and to witness the electricity of being at a match in the fabled Racehourse grounds.
I was NOT going to make the trip about me. I didn't want to make the trip about me. I was currently in the process of doing a video series where I went a minute without blinking every day until Ryan Reynolds agreed to have a staring contest with me. I knew Ryan Reynolds was going to be at the game. So....part of me really did want to get the attention of Mr. Ryan Reynolds, but all of the other attention I got was definitely not something that I was trying for or that I even really expected.
I'll probably do a longer post about my Wrexham trips at some point, but like I said...that really isn't the topic of this post. I just needed to do a little back story to show you how I kind of had a mental discovery of, "Hey, maybe I actually do like attention." Pretty much the day after I arrived at Wrexham I started having news sources reach out to me. I really want to put emphasis on the fact that they...reached out...to me. I wasn't in the DMs of the BBC, ITV, Sky Sport, and all these other places. They...somehow found me.
I was interviewed by BBC Breakfast, Good Morning Britain, ITV Wales, Sky Sport, the Guardian. It was pretty crazy. To be someone that people back in the states couldn't really give two flying f*&^s about. It was really hard for me to wrap my head around. By the time of the last game I was going to on that trip I couldn't go more than 5 feet or so down the road without someone wanting to take a selfie with me.
I still have never had anyone in the states want to take a selfie with me.
Anyway, the trip that had no intention of being about me getting attention. The trip where I just wanted to experience the magic of being in Wrexham for a game. Well, it somehow did become an experience where I got a shit ton of attention. I mean a SHIT TON of attention. Ya know what. I enjoyed it. I don't know if that's a weird thing for me to say or not. I genuinely enjoyed it.
Now any time I go back it's much more subdued. Sure, I'll have people recognize me and buy me pints and things like that, but it's nowhere near as wild as it was the first time I came out to visit. I guess that was my 15 seconds of fame.
I'm a streamer though. I make YouTube videos. I sell merch that HAS MY FACE ON IT. People often point to that when they're trying to throw insults about me being an attention seeker. I'm trying to make a career out of being a content creator. Of course to some degree I have to be an attention seeker. Hell, I would love to have as many people in one of my streams as I had talking to me and taking pictures with me.
That would be the dream.
Is it just about the attention? No. Not really. I love the creativity of getting ready to go live, loading up the game that I'm going to play, and playing it while trying to briefly briefly put my viewers in a mental space where they don't have to worry about the problems that they have. They don't have to worry about anything negative that they have going on in their lives. They can just hang out and have fun.
That's the kind of attention I like. Sure, negative attention comes too. Unfortunately people always like to try to ruin the party. I try to ignore those people though. Again, that's not really why I do this.
I don't know if anyone is every going to want to buy a shirt adorned with mustaches or my face. I just wanted to create a brand. My goal was to create a brand that people would associate with me...and who I am. There's not many other things that people associate with me other than my mustache...and my face.
This is probably borderline merging on a topic for another post. It's actually something that I probably will make another post about. I want my merch to not really just be merch. There's nothing wrong with merch. Some creators have merchandise lines that do incredibly well. I want it almost to be looked at as a clothing line as much as it is looked at as merch. When I designed the shirt below I tried to keep in mind what kind of things I like to wear.
Another reason I started designing my own shirts was because most of the designs I liked were all designer clothes brands...and they were all things I couldn't afford.
Dear god why do y'all let me ramble so much? If I don't pay attention to what I'm typing then we'll be 5 more pages in and I'll be talking about why I like the color combinations of white, gold, and rose. I really do though...the color combinations of white, rose, and gold are fire. The Atlanta United King's Kit is one of my favorite kit designs I've ever see.
Stop Rambling Joe!!! So I've told you when I first noticed that I like attention. I've told you why I still like attention. I guess I've also told you how I like to try to get attention.
So that's me. I'm Joe. I'm an attention seeker. I'm a content creator. I'm a creative. I'm someone that wants to be able to spend the rest of their life trying to make other people happy. I'm not particularly popular on any of the platforms I'm on. I try not to pay too much attention to the numbers, but holy crap are they nice when they start rolling in.
A couple weeks back I had Twitch drops in a game I was playing and at one point during that week I got up to as many as 91 viewers. It was wild! They were mostly empty views though. People who watch for Twitch Drops basically just keep the stream tabbed up and do as little as possible to interact. Don't get the impression that I don't like lurkers though. I love every single person that lurks in my stream. People that only want Twitch Drops aren't lurkers. Lurkers come back. Twitch Drop viewers are scavengers. They come, get what they want, and leave to never come back unless you have something they want again.
That's it though.
Yes, I like attention.
No, I never was able to get a staring contest with Ryan Reynolds. The challenge is still on the table though Ryan...if you're not scared.
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