ForrestDump, Ex-Mixer Partner | Community is More Important Than Follower Count

Episode summary introduction: Host Skylerguns talks with ForrestDump, ex-mixer partner turned Twitch streamer. With nearly 300k on TikTok and over 15k on Twitch in just under a year, Forrest knows a thing or two about fostering a community. Forrest talks about his struggles with mixer shutting down, the struggles of being a full-time content creator, and why the community you build is more important than a follower count. 

Topics discussed in this episode:

- Mixer Shutdown [2:39]

- Content Creation Background [9:15]

- What did you do marketing-wise before TikTok/How to Network? [16:42]

- Forrest's' Start on TikTok [23:00]

- Three Most Important Things In a TikTok [33:30]

- The Type of Community You are Building [42:40]

- Strategy for Converting TikTok Followers to Twitch [45:15]

- Review Forrest's First TikTok Videos [47:32]

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Transcript

Announcer: 0:00

Welcome to TwitchTok with Skyler guns How you doing my friend How you doing but Twitch streamer alright guys I'm dead and TikToker with over 80,000 followers. If you are a streamer or content creator trying to grow your audience, you're listening to the right podcast. Skyler chats with guests who've achieved success with streaming using TikTok So how'd you get started? What are your keys to success? How was your success on TikTok help grow your brand, learn their tips and tricks and everything TikTok related was it's time to showcase your content and grow your streams using TikTok So let the conversation begin. This is switched off. Here's your host Skyler guns. Hello, ladies and gentlemen, the TwitchTok. I'm your host Skylerguns. I have here with me Forrest dump, TikToker streamer ex mixer partner, and probably the only person with a bigger dump truck than me. Forrest, How you doing?

ForrestDump: 0:54

Good. That was a really good intro.

Skyler Gonzalez: 0:57

Yeah, I thought all day about it that all day about it.

ForrestDump: 1:01

Are you doing doing good we just got off and yeah, just came off for stream so I'm excited to be here to fat dump trucks.

Unknown: 1:15

Very excited to have you. This is the first episode that we're doing. So I assume that forest is your real name. Is it not?

ForrestDump: 1:22

No, it actually is not

Skyler Gonzalez: 1:24

really? Okay. Yeah.

ForrestDump: 1:26

Yeah, I am from Alabama, though. And I Well, a lot of people that know me probably know my girlfriend but Jenny. She's actually Jenny like that's that's actually her name, but I just wanted to be Forrest Gump on Xbox 360 like a long time ago, and I couldn't get it. Because I just wanted to Forrest Gump like a nice little Oji name. And I don't know why it just I couldn't get it. So I got dumped and yeah, a lot of people think force is my real name. It really isn't though. Oh, wow.

Unknown: 1:55

I thought we were in the same boat where I use like my real name for my online alias. I assume it's Forrest. Forrest Gump. I can't imagine it would have came from anywhere else.

ForrestDump: 2:05

Yeah, exactly.

Unknown: 2:06

I get you know, some hate on this, but I've actually never seen Forrest Gump.

ForrestDump: 2:12

It makes me cry if I watch it now, but you definitely should watch it at least once. It's a long movie, but it's a good movie. Yeah, it's a real good one.

Unknown: 2:20

I hear I hear it for me. I will I definitely will. After this. I'll watch it now just for you. Um, so I'm sure most people know that you're an ex mixer partner. So I kind of want to dive into that. You know, were you on tik tok when you were on mixer or did you start tik tok because of the shutdown on mixer.

ForrestDump: 2:40

So somewhere in between? I'm starting on mixer and it ending? Um, I started doing tic Tock. I don't remember where exactly, but I started on streaming on mixer. Three years ago this month, probably honestly, today, February 4, Oh, wow. And I did that for two and a half years up until this past January. And then it stopped being a platform. But, um, probably I think I made my first tic toc in 2019 or December 2018. I can't remember which one. But I i i've had Tick Tock for a bit now. But I just started doing it for fun. And I didn't realize that I could do gaming with it. I thought I was just going to be a spitting image of vine and it has a lot of similarities, but I don't remember seeing any gaming content on Vine. So I just started it just for fun just to have something cool vine 2.0 and then I realized like about a year ago that you can start putting gaming content on it and and getting somewhere with it. So I started going hard about about a year ago with it even though I've had it before. And yeah, I haven't looked back since with that.

Unknown: 3:59

Okay, and so would you say that part of your success on mixer because you had about I want to say what 80,000 or 100,000 on mixer?

ForrestDump: 4:07

I ended with 119,000 followers. Yeah, we racked up a good bit. We were the 51st most followed channel on mixer that includes like Xbox and a bunch of other like company's accounts. So So did you talk pretty far

Unknown: 4:26

did tik tok help you with getting to that point on mixer or more? Ah,

ForrestDump: 4:30

not really. I was. I was uh, I didn't really experience like a big exploding followers up until what when mixer shut down. I probably had somewhere around 50,000 followers on tik tok. And it was hard getting people to come by the stream because they always wanted to know what my twitch was. And obviously I didn't have one but I don't know a lot of people didn't have mixer accounts, so it was tough to get people over. I probably got a handful of people. Come over, but I don't remember any that definitely like stuck around and became like core pieces back when we were on mixer from tik tok.

Unknown: 5:07

Okay, yeah, I was very excited for this interview, because I know that there may be some listeners out there that are, you know, may have been on mixer and had a large following, or maybe they're, you know, on Facebook or YouTube or something else and they want to make a switch to another platform. So I definitely want to hear about your experience and like some of the issues that you had, and like how you felt when mixer shut down. And you know, what was your strategy? or What was your game plan for moving to a new platform?

ForrestDump: 5:33

So it was probably the biggest blessing I've had. As a content creator, I feel like because I always wondered, like, what would this be like, if I put all my hard work and effort into twitch instead of mixer, like what would happen? I always wanted to just try it. But I was scared to take a jump because I would leave behind a lot. But the day that they announced that they were not going to be a platform anymore, that they had a month left, and you had to figure out where you're gonna do. It was June 21, or something like that. I was streaming on Twitch that day, when I got the news. And I was like, shocked. But I was super excited. Because this is the that was the push that I needed. I needed to take that leap of faith. And it was just really cool. I was definitely shook, but I was excited for the future because I knew that nothing was gonna hold me back anymore. Like it didn't matter if I was on mixer. Very little platform compared to twitch like I knew like I was with the big dogs now. And yeah, it was scary. It was kind of weird, but it worked out like the fact that I was on Twitch the day it announced I was like, This is perfect. I didn't go back. Because I think they shut down. They announced that Jae Joon and then they shut down in July. Somewhere in late July, I never went back I was just like, I changed my title on mixer, my by all that stuff to say like come to twitch, come to twitch, come to twitch. And I was just all on board by then I knew that that's what I wanted to do. And I knew that that was like, exactly. Like what needed to happen that and I knew that twitch was going to be my home too. They did a thing where if you're a partner on mixer, you could be a partner on Facebook, it would just swap over. But I didn't even think twice about I was like I know I want to be in twitch I want to be I want to go to twitchcon First of all, so I want to be a part of that. And I had so many friends on Twitch already. And I was like Finally I get to share like a platform with Tim the tap man and all these big guys that I look up to Nick mercs and everybody, and including my friends also excited to be able to be a part of their journey on their platform as well. Instead of having to everybody like you know, come to my platform come to my platform, kind of my platform. It was just really cool to dive into it.

Unknown: 7:50

Yeah, for sure. So I'd say that you're probably happier on Twitch than you ever were on mixer.

ForrestDump: 7:55

Yeah, it's it's a struggle. I'm still rebuilding after seven months like it's still so tough but it I am very happy with how things ended up and where all this is gonna lead me to like it's it's gonna be a cool story to tell when I look back on it.

Unknown: 8:13

Yeah, so I believe you're at about 15 K or so on Twitch right now. I think so big difference. What were you averaging? You were wise on mixer before? Shut down.

ForrestDump: 8:23

Right before I left, it was 200 something viewers, but those numbers are super inflated. There was a big auto host thing going on on mixer if you know, if you host me with 20 people it you know, it's it's shoot up 20 people whether you were online or not if it was the auto host. So a lot of those numbers were inflated. But def is definitely not the same. There was still a large portion of people there, but the numbers aren't so true. And that was for everybody on the platform.

Unknown: 8:54

Got it. Okay, and you're averaging about I think you're almost going to be hitting partner on Twitch soon I see about 75 ish or so.

ForrestDump: 9:02

Yeah, I think we're right under 70 for the most part, which is is cool that we're continuously growing

Unknown: 9:09

for sure. Well, I'm excited for you. I can't wait for that to happen. Um, so what is your background in content creation? Because I believe that you You are a full time content creator, you do this as your full time income. Is that correct?

ForrestDump: 9:20

Yes, that is how but I still live with my parents. So you know what's full time?

Unknown: 9:25

I mean, hey, if you can you can I salute you to that. Man, how long have you been doing it for

ForrestDump: 9:31

so I've been full time. So I've practically been full time since I started. I do full time hours. I always have I'm cranking out a bunch of hours a week doing this. I used to do a lot more a mixer though, by the way, like I used to. I usually I cut it short a little bit. Now on Twitch, it's about four or five a day, maybe six or seven on a good day. Back then I used to crank out a every single day seven days a week if it was a it was a disappointing day. But um I was in school and I worked like a little part time job where I would package tomatoes and stuff for like stores and, and restaurants and I would get paid like 100 bucks a week, 150 bucks a week to work like eight hours. And I would go to night school for like, four hours for one night a week. It was like, I've always been full time, pretty much it was just kind of, I'm not relying on another source of income. And I don't have other obligations, because I graduated in 2019. In May. And then I quit my little part time job, like about a nine months or a year before that. So okay.

Unknown: 10:37

Yeah, that makes sense. So you haven't had a chance to like go to like a conventional, like full time job, because there's a lot of like other streamers that have to balance the two of those. That's, that's cool. I mean, it's lucky that I've been able to like do that, though. Like from the get go. So that's pretty cool. Yeah. So and how So how old were you when you first like, like, how do you how did you know that creating content was something that you wanted to do.

ForrestDump: 11:00

So I'm absolutely terrified to work a real job, I don't ever want to have to work a real job. So I initially when I went to college, I wanted to be a mechanical engineer, I took physics and dropped out of that program. Then I went into just some core classes in community college to figure out what I wanted to do. Industrial Design, try, that wasn't it. And then when I did that actually transferred to Auburn. For two days, I literally went to Auburn University for two days and dropped out of that program. Because I didn't know what I wanted to do. I came home, I remember crying, I was so upset, I didn't know what I wanted to do. And then I actually did work a full job, or I didn't, I worked a real job but not full time hours, I would work like one or two days a week. And I realized how terrible it was. So that motivation me not knowing what I wanted to do. But I knew that I loved video games. And I knew that I didn't want to work a real job like fueled me to make this happen. Like I went all in with it I'll make sure I was going so hard before YouTube and and tik tok and all that stuff. I was going so hard on stream, I wanted to make it a thing. And that's what I knew. I was like, I love doing this. I love waking up I love if I want to show up in pajamas, I can show up in pajamas. If I want to not stream that day not work. I don't have to like I knew from the start. That's what I wanted to do. And I had big inspirations from like all the other big streamers at the time. That just completely all of me that that was their job. I couldn't believe that. They played video games for a living. So I was like, why can't I do that? So I just, I just went in with it. So

Unknown: 12:36

yeah, yeah, it makes sense. I find it funny the term real job because it's like, I don't take offense sued or anything. I feel like there may be some streamers that might take offense to that. But you know, because it doesn't feel like a job. I mean, it's really is like living your best life. You know, your own, you're your own boss, you're playing video games, but at the same time it is it's as real as a job as any other job because it's a lot of hard work. And there's a lot of self discipline that has to come into that. Yeah, you know, there's, it's, it's very luxurious, but at the same time, you have to have that mental stability, and that self discipline to be like, you know, I need to do this and this and this, because if I don't do it, I'm not gonna get anywhere, you know, so it's very exactly interesting.

ForrestDump: 13:16

What I would like if somebody I wouldn't like if somebody outside the streaming world, you know, called my job that I wouldn't like it, but I feel like since I'm in it, I can I have like a little luxury to call it not a real job. But yeah, like it's, it's just because I don't have to physically go out and like, you know, do construction work or sales or whatever. It does not discredit it from being a real job at all. It's It's hard work in a lot of other areas that people just were not made for, like some people just they don't understand content creators, they they can't play games every day for months on in and stop like they that some people just weren't made for it. I feel like you know, some people love their real job.

Unknown: 14:02

Yeah, for sure. I've I've been saying for a while now. I mean, especially with Tick Tock I mean, it's it has, it honestly feels easier than ever to become a streamer and really grow a following and not just stream to three people, especially with Tick Tock I mean, tick tock is like the best marketing platform out there. And I've been saying for a while that I mean, anybody can do this, I really truly believe that anybody can get a following on Tick tock, and bring that following to their streams, but not everybody can because of that self discipline or people that you know, it definitely takes like a certain mindset. So that kind of ties into that. I mean, some people enjoy the construction and going and clocking in just doing it that is not the same same Oh man, I hard labor can't do it.

ForrestDump: 14:48

What are the what

Unknown: 14:49

are some of the struggles that you've had as being a content creator? Because it's not all ups and ups and UPS? I mean, there's a lot of lows in between. And I've been and I'm sure you have as well.

ForrestDump: 14:58

Yeah, I feel like Like the within the content creating world highs are high and the lows are low, you can feel like everybody is on your team. And you can feel like you're completely alone in this thing. Like, I think that's solely because everything we do is on the internet. So, you know, you show up one stream, you have so many people in there, it feels like you're surrounded like this is this is like this is it. This is exactly what you want to do. And then the next stream you get on man, there's no one there like it's tough nut like nobody's talking. There's, there's not anything going on. But it's tough. It really is tough. It's tough in different ways than another person's job would be that's not in the content creating world. One thing I definitely think is a struggle is I just mentioned a message somebody about this, that I I was very caught up on mixer about getting followers, it took me the longest time to realize it's not the followers that count, it's not the amount. It's the quality of those followers, because what's it to get partners, 75 average viewers, I have 15,000, you can have just 75 if those 75 are gonna be about you, then that's all you need. You don't need any more than that. But getting those quality people, those people that are really about you and really want to see you doing good is, is definitely a struggle. And I think you got to go through a lot of bad people to get to those good people.

Unknown: 16:31

So that makes sense that

ForrestDump: 16:33

that's that's a real struggle.

Unknown: 16:35

Yeah, I can see that. Um, so what did you do marketing wise? For mixer if you weren't really big on tik tok? How did you gather that 80,000 following, um,

ForrestDump: 16:48

I streamed a lot, like, compared to I stream so much less now than when I did a year ago. Like I said, I would crank out like 80 or eight hours a day, seven days a week, if I took a day off, it felt like it, it hurt me to take a day off. Which is still does to a certain extent now. But I understand that. It's not always my time online, it's more about my time offline as well creating tiktoks creating YouTubes and our YouTube videos and stuff outside that. mixer, I do definitely feel like it was you gotta be online, you got to be online, you got to be online. And that's not a toxic trait. But it's not a good trait to have. Because you could do so much more with such less and or so much less. And that was really it. I'll make sure I believe, because I'm not really good at networking. I don't, which I hate the term neck networking, too. But I wasn't really good at reaching out other people to play with them or check them out like anything like that. So I literally just would get online at first my channel started off being like an open lobby, hey, come play, like, let's have fun type thing. And then I moved away from that. And I just was putting in hell hours like it way too many than I should. And it's a complete change now. It's polar opposite now.

Unknown: 18:14

Yeah, I think I hear that a lot. Especially I mean, for people out there that are just streaming a 10 810 hours a day and doing nothing else to push themselves out there, Twitch is not really going to help you grow at all. posting on YouTube and Tiktok like you did is definitely the way to go. Speaking on the word networking, I find that Yeah, like you said, You hate it. It took me a while to realize that networking isn't about just, you know, meeting people and be like, Hey, how's it going? Like, hey, let's connect. Like, it's I feel like it's building those genuine friendships. You know? I mean, is do you mean you networked without even trying? You know?

ForrestDump: 18:51

Yeah, exactly. Like, it could be something so simple. Like, we both are on Tick tock, you know, I see that you stream pop into each other's channel and say what's up or Hey, how's it going, you know, get get to be in your life. And you get to be in my life and then that just creates a friendship and it's so simple. Yeah, it's so hard. Sometimes like I feel like sometimes I'm trying to meet new people and meet some some dope creators and it's just like, I'm hitting a brick wall. I'm trying to like be it be in your life, like be a part of what you got going on. And it's like No, I don't want you and I don't want you in and then some people you know, like you or like, say Mike or Tanner or somebody like that. Like it can just be right off the bat. It is it. Literally you say one message in chat and we're already connecting or something. Networking, whatever you want to call it. is so simple. And it can be so tough at the same time. It's It's wild.

Unknown: 19:52

Yeah. What would be your advice to someone that may not know how to network or know how to start? What would be your advice for them?

ForrestDump: 20:00

Well, I need to get somebody else's advice because I really need it bad. But, uh, I always tell people just like, it's usually when people come into my channel, so I'm like, hey, you're already a part of this community. So you might as well like start making friends in here. Like, don't be afraid to talk to other people in chat. Like some people that are core people in my community. Now, we're at one point, and they were in somebody else's. But, you know, I chit chatted with him a bit. And I got to know him. And, you know, say they threw me a follow or something, I follow them, and then they, they come check me out. And then I make their experience welcoming in my channel. So like, you know what, I really like this guy, like he, you know, we got a lot in common. He's welcoming. When I come by, like, I like this guy, I'm gonna be a part of his community. It just takes one person like that. And then if you're lucky, that person can tell somebody and then that person can tell somebody, and you'll just have a group of really good people around you. If you're putting out something you want to receive, like good vibes, or good times, good talks, whatever it may be. Just making friends. It's really,

Unknown: 21:11

yeah, I think that the tick tock streamer niche, I mean, especially Warzone, but I mean, even the streamer niche in general, it's, it's so small and tight knit, you know, I mean, you know, people that I may not know, so definitely feel like it's, you know, it's like a stepping stone, it's definitely pretty easy. I will say it's a, it's pretty uncomfortable trying to make connection with people with like, a bigger following, then, you know, I mean, you have like 250, almost 300,000. And I have about 1000. So, even there, you know, some people are a lot more welcoming than others in those scenarios. 100%.

ForrestDump: 21:43

And that's like, for me, I'm very happy that I have like, a large following or whatever, a relatively large following. Because I don't care how many followers I get, if I see someone that has more than me, I probably won't talk to them. Because I'm afraid of either being labeled as like someone that cloud chases or are just being denied friends, I love meeting people that like, either have like a smaller or the same, or whatever, like they just get good traction, because it's obvious, I'm not trying to do that. And that's usually where I stick I usually like people that are, like, on the same path as me, I don't want to, I don't want to keep jumping around and someone think that I want something out of them. That's anything less than a friendship, you know, I just want to make friends. And I'm scared to reach out to like, bigger people, because I don't want to be like coming off as something I'm not, you know, it's, it's very tough, because those are probably some of the people that are the nicest on earth. And they'll probably treat you with so much love and kindness, but you won't know if you don't try. So I don't know, it is tough. It is tough.

Unknown: 23:00

Yeah, no, that makes sense. I feel the same. So I kind of want to move into Tick Tock now talking about Tick Tock because obviously, that's what this podcast is about. There's a lot of people out there that you know, may have a much smaller following on Tick tock, and they don't know how to elevate to the next level. Or maybe they're just streaming eight hours a day. And they're like, man, I don't know what to do. I don't know how to grow. And I, you know, I think Tick Tock is that magic answer to be honest, it does take a lot of work, and you're going to be streaming less, but I'm, you know, talking on that aspect. Hopefully, people can listen to this podcast and find tricks that they can implement and things that you know, it took me and you like 100 videos to discover. So that's the whole whole point of that. So talking about Tick tock, how did you how did like At what point did you realize, Oh, this is a serious thing. And I kind of want to know about who some of your inspirations were and what pushed you to start taking Tick Tock is a serious platform.

ForrestDump: 23:55

Oh, I can't even remember. Like that feeling of Oh, we're onto something outside of all I remember all my birthday in August. I had 80,000 followers. I remember that. But you know 80,000 is a whole lot like I don't remember anything really before that. In terms of like, Oh man, this is really big. I remember all my birthday I posted a video and all I did was mentioned that it was my birthday. And I went up to to 200,000 followers in like two days from 80 to 200,000. In about two days. I think I gained 100 k in one night. It was insane. And I think people just wanted to wish me a happy birthday. That was really it. I got so lucky. But um I don't know that was really what I was like, oh man, like you get one good video and you're set like you literally can go from a certain amount to pass the people you look up to in one video. It just depends. But that was one of those times where I was like, Oh man, this is crazy. But shortly after that it was fortnight content that I posted on that post because that's what I gained a good bit out our good bit of followers on before I switched to Warzone. But if my birthday was in August, I think in October, I was like, Okay, look, I gotta really step up my content. I was using Adobe rush like the $10 version thingy. All you really do is cut and cut clips and edit them. And that's really you don't like, you can't crop your face in a circle or it's very limited. But I remember watching Lucci and Mark Clark, and I was like, these guys are doing some crazy stuff. Like, they, what, what I really wanted was the circle, crop that mark Clark hat I love using every now and then now, but he's definitely the person that straight up made me get Adobe Premiere and figure it out. Just because of the circle crop. I was like, This is awesome. And those two guys really helped me just from watching their content and seeing what they're doing. kind of find my style, I still am figuring out every day, something I like something I don't like. But those two guys really made me and Sally really made me want to step up my editing and get more in depth with it. And I still use Premiere Pro To this day, so almost six months ago. Wow.

Unknown: 26:38

Yeah, I think I use I use DaVinci Resolve, which is a free program, which

ForrestDump: 26:43

a lot of people do. I was shocked.

Unknown: 26:45

Yeah, I don't want to pay that subscription fee for Adobe. Adobe. But um, so was that birthday video? When was that your first viral video that you had? Or do you remember the first time that you went viral?

ForrestDump: 26:57

No, I remember the first time I went viral I so I back on mixer, December 28 2019. Ninja rated me. And it's my best video on YouTube or my most viewed one. And I use clips from that to make tic Tock. And that was like my first tic toc to hit 100,000 I'm not sure if it hit a million. But it's got a lot separately one of my better videos. And people were just excited that I got hosted by ninja and I don't even think it was right after. It wasn't right after ninja rated me. It was like months later, I'm pretty sure that I posted it. And the first post did good. But the second post blew up, I reposted it and I've reposted it probably four or five times now and people like seeing that, that that's one that definitely helped me out a lot and give me some followers give me some views. So literally just takes one video,

Unknown: 27:54

for sure. I definitely want to touch on that because I know that a lot of people the TIC Tock algorithm is tough. Nobody I truly believe that nobody truly understands it. It's always changing. It's really hard to game it there's definitely tips and tricks but there's a lot of people that will put out a really good video and you know, they think that it deserves more attention which it may or may not you know but it could be very well a good video. And you know, they repost it and it does well the second time. So touching on that. I mean obviously if you repost it and it blew up the second time, you knew that it had to have been a hit. So I kind of like I want to know about your thought process behind making that how you know it was going to succeed and that second time that you posted I really am curious to know if you change anything on it, or you just kept it exactly the same. Maybe Did you have a strategy on different time?

ForrestDump: 28:45

Yeah, um, so I don't think I touched it at all. I think I just took the same video and re posted it I don't think I was worried about the timing either. I think I just I knew it was a good video is not the best video but I knew it did good The first time I was like, as well repost it. I mean, it can't it can't do worse. And it just skyrocketed. For that that time and my following and all that it was huge. But yet the TIC Tock algorithm is is wild and I'ma be honest the people that say like you're not making the reason you're not getting views or likes or anything is because you're making good you're not making good content. I believe that's a total like that's just total BS like there I've seen so many good videos to terrible on my end and on other people's in I think it's just an easy answer to say get better content. To a certain extent the people that say that are right, but it's it's it just depends. Because I've seen been jamuns another great Tick Tock guy, he will post something on Tick Tock he was talking about one time and it get not that many views. He'll post the same video on YouTube for YouTube shorts and it will get taken Tom's amount of views that it did on tic tock, tic tocs funky, you just honestly, luck is such a big thing on there. But as long as you're getting better and producing better content and experimenting with a lot of different styles, that luck will will gain some traction, and you'll get more lucky, I guess. But tic tocs while the algorithm will will either bless you or completely tear you apart. Like this week, I've had videos hit 90,000. And it's sandwich a video that hit 2000 views like it makes no sense. But But yeah, it's it's tax wild, you just got to keep getting better, keep trying. And one thing for sure is definitely don't give up. Your worst video that you ever put out could be your best video that you ever put out. So as long as you're just kind of staying consistent, and not trying to get anything from the here. And now you know, you have your goal set way further on down the line, you'll be good to go. You just got to keep posting.

Unknown: 31:02

So something that you mentioned too, I I'm sure this happens with the videos that I make like, like a filler video, like something that I'm just like, throwing off like, Oh, this is whatever, like I'll just post it, you know, not my best. But those end up tend to do doing way better than anything else that I spend hours on. So it's really, you know, it's really scary. I'm a big believer in you know, post anything and everything that comes to your mind because you never know when it may be a hit. But on that note, I want to talk to you about like quality versus quantity. I think that depending on who you're listening to on tik tok, when it comes to tick tock advice, some people will say, focus on quantity post three times a day, post anything, everything blah, blah, blah, which has some merit. But then on the other hand, there's quantity where as long as you're posting high quality stuff, every video you post will be a banger. So there's definitely some discrepancies there. So what do you believe is most important when it comes to tick tock?

ForrestDump: 31:53

I think that quality is better than quantity. Because I've been on both ends, I used to post. At one point I was posting four or five a day, like I was going nuts. But I did a lot of that through the actual app. And I used to think like if I had to put a caption here, a caption there, and it takes like a 10 minute process. I was like, Oh my gosh, I can't do this every day, like 10 minutes. Like No, there's people that spend hours like literally half a day on a tic tac, I definitely think the quality is the way to go. I've been on the quantity side. I feel like it's good for a bit and it also depends on the content you make. If you're doing in app stuff, it's probably a lot easier and feasible to do it. But I think quality wins every single time if you just look at guys like Lucci Mark Sally, like Sally is, I think he was pretty much the first one I saw use green screens on it. And I've had I've had a green screen since I was four months into mixer back in 2018. And I never thought to use it and he used it and he uses it so well. It's I think it's definitely quality. All your quality isn't always gonna pay off. But as a whole, I think it will like you'll have four good videos one might not do as good as the other. But I think as long as you're posting quality, and it doesn't even have to be every day and it could be every other day it can be four times a week. I think as long as it's really really good and people realize and they see how much time you spent on it. They'll appreciate it.

Skyler Gonzalez: 33:30

For sure. Um, so when it comes to tick tock what would you say is probably like if you had to name three things that is most important to tick tock what would it be like to help you grow or help help your videos do better? What would be those three things.

ForrestDump: 33:47

Um, four, I think a hook at the beginning of your video is really big. months ago, I started doing loops and immediately they took off like immediately they were doing good, because people will not okay, so my loops, it's a really short clip at the beginning like literally not even a second into me talking about it and then it plays the rest of it comes back around. And people don't even realize like they get lost in the video and they just watch your whole video all the way around. So a hook and then that leads into a good hook leads into viewer retention, if you can make them watch all the way through. That's super huge. That goes for YouTube as well. You know, if you have videos that people are watching, all the way through or at least most the way through, it's going to do better than your ones that they're not. So hook your attention and um I feel like if you got a good personality that it will translate a lot better to your other socials as well. So Not just being good at a game or, or say we're talking about just gaming Tiktok side of things. If you're good at a game, that's, that's really awesome. That'll take you a good bit. But if you're good at the game and you bring some personality, like just Nick mercs, for example, you know, he's really, really good. He's one of the best Warzone players, I believe. And he's hilarious. He's so funny that some of the stuff he says you can't even make up, people like him because of him. The gameplay is just a plus. So I think if you can add some personality, and people can get to know who you are through them that will hold more than anything else. Because I'll look at some people's stuff, they'll get a small amount of views, but they'll get such a high amount of likes compared to it. And you can tell they got a core community around them because they like that person. They don't care if they get on tik tok. And they make a clip of them fart and all over the place. Like they like that person. They're gonna like it no matter what, because they see it come on their feed. So let people really like who you are. And you know, you can always get better at a game. So

Unknown: 36:07

yeah, viewer retention, a, you know, they say that's important for the algorithm, the higher viewer retention, the better your video will do. And there's definitely ways to get around that. I know like Sally is a dog for example, he gets very creative with trying to make sure that his viewers watch it twice through like he'll put secret messages in the background. Oh, no way. Yeah. Boy, I remember one video. I can't remember the specifics of it. But there was a whiteboard in the back, right. And it was it didn't say anything for the entire video. And then for like, two seconds in or two second clip, it changed to say something. And then in the caption, I believe he said, like answer on the whiteboard or something like that. So like that, but it's like that's gonna make people go back and watch it again. So on that note, I mean, have you found any like secrets or tricks that you use? I know that looping is kind of one of those. But anything else that you use to kind of game the algorithm to make your videos do better?

ForrestDump: 37:00

No, I think the loops are good, but they they start to fade. Now. I'm doing them a little bit here and there now, but loops have only gotten me so far. If I knew any other tricks, I'd have way more followers, but I don't I don't know what I'm doing half the time. What I'm really focused on right now because it's the only thing that does well, for me is like the TIC tocs that I've been pumping out probably the last five are like hey, whoever sent you this, then I loop it that's at the end, I loop it to the beginning. And it's like you know, you're a good teammate, you always help out blah blah, blah. And people like those because you know, if I say you're good at a game, they're gonna immediately think the first person in their squad you know, oh my gosh, this is blah, blah, blah. Oh my gosh, this one says, you know, you always thought of fall damage. Let me send this to whoever all my squad is this people like that they like getting involved. But yeah, I don't really know any other

Skyler Gonzalez: 37:58

tricks. Really?

Unknown: 38:00

Yeah. Hopefully we can discover more as as time goes by and you know, algorithm Tick Tock is changing in general too. And you know, I think it's also big to kind of be like a trendsetter to adding some originality because when it comes to tick tock, you can follow trends. And you can follow what other people all you'd want. But once you start producing some original stuff, and putting your own spin on things, I think that's where you really start to see growth past a certain

ForrestDump: 38:24

point. And that's what like, a lot of people get caught up in like copying or trends, but everything is you're gonna steal something from somebody, whether you know it or not, I'm there. I don't even know who I got that idea from. But I did it back before the summer where you would be like, Hey, you know, this tag this person in the comments who who this reminds you of, I one just came on my feed. Or in my, in my activity feed, some person liked one way back, I was talking about, hey, whoever This is, whoever sent you this said that you're a bush camper in fortnight I was I don't even remember making that but someone outside the gaming community I'm pretty sure was making that and I just brought it into the gaming community. I there's probably 1000s of other people that do the same thing as me. But it is just something that I've found that my community on Tick Tock enjoys just being able to send this personal video to somebody and and just, I don't mess with their squat about about it.

Unknown: 39:33

Yeah, it's funny you say that actually. because like you said, I think that's another huge trick that people can do is you know, find trends or find videos that you like and see if there's some way that you can make it related to your niche, whether it's gaming or streaming Tick Tock or something like that. Because I it's funny you say that because I think you actually found my account from a video that I did the same thing. There was this guy who made a tic Tock yelling into his microphone and he was like Hey, the person loudly playing this into the microphone wants to go get chick fil a right now. And I was like, Hey, you know, I think I could do that for Warzone, I posted a video yelling and I was like, hey, the person playing this wants you to buy them back in Warzone. And I think that blew up to it has almost a million views now. And that was a video that took me 10 minutes to make and you found my account from that. So it kind of just all ties into that. So I mean, if anybody else is listening, that's that's a good way to start. It's kind of you know, it's okay to take inspiration from other platforms, you're not stealing, you know, you that's what trends are. But as long as you're taking something and creating it to be your own, and bringing it to your niche, that's that's definitely a good strategy.

ForrestDump: 40:41

And another thing, it just hit me actually two things. I'll talk about your video real quick. I didn't even realize that was you? until like weeks later, someone put. I was playing with somebody and they literally use your Tiktok I think that was before I knew you. And they put it in the mic. And I laughed so hard. I was like, Oh my gosh, that is great. And then I saw your Tick Tock and then I didn't even make the connection two weeks after that. Another thing, talking about like, inspiration versus like, just straight up copying or whatever. I did a sound A long time ago, I did a video and someone took my sound. It was like, Hey, you know, I don't care if you play fortnight Apex Warzone. We're all gamers, you know, we're just trying to provide a positive community This is our way to get away is something like that. I've been tagging so many tiktoks people use my sound. I don't care if they tagged me. I'm glad that they're using it. But my video did pretty good. There were videos that had hundreds of 1000s of likes multiple of using my voice. And people were just like, that sounds a lot like you for us. I'm like that is me. And I'm not getting tagged by them or anything. But it's cool to see how someone could take what you do and put it in their thing, because when I saw had hundreds of 1000s of lights, they did a whole fortnight scene for it. But they use the characters of fortnight to talk about my voice. So it's kind of cool to see that.

Unknown: 42:05

Yeah, I mean, that's what Tick Tock is all about. And it is it is pretty weird seeing that, like somebody's making something and then other people taking the sound and getting bigger. I mean, it's Yeah, It's bittersweet. It's kind of like heartbreaking at the same time. But then you're like, Oh, that's pretty cool, I guess. I mean, it's mine, I made that and people are enjoying it, I guess. Exactly.

ForrestDump: 42:24

And I the weird thing was is they've never come up on my feed. Unless someone tags me, then I go see it. So like, if no one were to tag me, I would never know never have known that someone used my voice and got so many views and comments and likes for it. So it's wild.

Unknown: 42:39

Yeah. Um, another thing too is I see that you're you're very interactive with your community. I mean, there's you know, there's a different there's a different type of streamer people can be some people can be that a plus like gamer that's really frickin good at the game and is super ultra focused people enjoy that. Other people got that good personality. I think the same goes for Tick Tock I mean, I think that you have you know, some people have a certain personality or certain brand that they keep on Tick Tock. Is there any strategy behind that? Are you the type to like respond to all the comments so you like, you know, what's your brand strategy behind on Tick Tock?

ForrestDump: 43:13

So on Tick tock, specifically, I did get caught up a lot in replying to a lot of comments, but it just consumes you at a certain point, you really can't now I'll reply to just a couple mainly my friends. You know, if you comment on my video, I'll probably respond to it. But it's probably gonna be like a a good comment, I guess not to sound like a douche. I would love to reply to everybody if I could, but I just physically can't. If you say something slick or funny, I and I get a good laugh at it, or I see it. It's just a good quality comment. I'm more prone to like it. If you go first. If you say hi, it's gonna be tough for me to want to reply to you like what? What am I getting out of replying to you just saying first, like, half the time, those people only do it for one post and you never see him again? Like they fall off the face to Earth. But I tried to for the longest reply because I heard that it would help you know, boost your stuff as well. You're getting more engagement, you're getting that. And it was cool to kind of get a relationship behind a comment. You know, if you if you comment on all my stuff. You're just a name on a screen to me if I comment back on yours and you say something to me. And we say something like, well, we can form a relationship, but it at this point, there's so many comments and stuff, it's hard to keep up. So I just try to kind of pick and choose. It's hard for me to reply to something that has very little like, value. You know, like I'm I'm not used to reply to the first comments. No, I really don't. So I try to when I can, it just depends.

Unknown: 44:54

Yeah, no, I feel that I mean, it does get pretty overwhelming. So something else that I want to ask too because they Mostly because I actually struggle with this, but I'm sure there might be some other people that might be running into this. You know, a large Tick Tock following does not equal a large twitch following. It's very, very hard to get people to get over from Tick Tock because, you know, they have a short attention span, you know, they're, they're just used to those short form videos. So what is your strategy on converting those followers over to your twitch?

ForrestDump: 45:22

So I recently what I've been doing is I kind of knock out two birds with one stone. I'm trying to play my guitar a little bit more. So I'll grab my guitar, I'll pull up on my computer, some tabs of songs that I can learn. And I'll just sit there and I'll have my phone playing Tic Tac live and I'll just talk to whoever wants to come by and talk to me. And that helps out a lot. But it helps form a relationship. I don't think it even has helped that much getting people to twitch. But I don't know it's something I struggle with big time because I want to say something about my stream in the tick tock but every time I do it's a terrible Tick Tock. I can literally ruin it by saying I'm live or saying something with twitch or just putting my twitch in it without even saying it.

Unknown: 46:11

But

ForrestDump: 46:13

I don't know it's something that I'm trying to learn and I think the more you get a community of people on tik tok that like you for who you are, they'll come naturally but it's tough. It's definitely it's the biggest thing I struggle with on Tick Tock I feel like

Unknown: 46:28

yeah, I mean, I think most people do some people are better at it than others. And that's a good starting you know, tip for anybody starting out out there is that you can't be overly aggressive with you know, your twitch You know, there's there's theories that the algorithm doesn't like you promoting, you know, your your twitch channels, which it makes sense because tik tok wants to keep people on their platform, you know, they're not gonna want to actively push people who are taking viewers away from their their platform. You know, there's no saying if that's true or not, but even Aside from that, I mean, you can't make your content revolve around being Hey, watch me on Twitch. Hey, watch me on Twitch. Hey, watch me on Twitch, oh, you have to make that content. You know, whether it's just taking clips from your stream or adding like originality to it. Like you said, it does come naturally. There's definitely some people have better strategies and others. I've seen other people see great success in that sense. But like you said, I mean, that makes perfect sense as you can't make that your entire content or your personality on Tick tock, basically.

ForrestDump: 47:28

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well,

Unknown: 47:32

I think I think that's pretty much nearing the end. One thing that I want to I want to do for this series is I actually, I have your Tick Tock account pulled up here. And I've actually scrolled down all the way to the bottom, and I got some of the first few tic tocs here, I kind of want to just something fun, I kind of want to like you know, have it's maybe it's been a while since you've seen it. Nobody else has probably seen it. Nobody else probably goes that down that far. So I kind of just want to like deep dive into it and be like, what are your thoughts behind these tic? tocs? What would you change to because for me, like I'll go back to I'll go back to a tick tock I made a month ago and be like, Damn, that was crap. You know, even though it was only a month ago, I'm sure you feel the same way.

ForrestDump: 48:12

You know, a month ago will feel like a year ago.

Unknown: 48:16

For sure. I mean, things move so fast and you evolve so I'm going to share the screen here real quick. And we'll This is the very first one the least that's public I mean, who knows if you've got something else that you private it but

ForrestDump: 48:27

yeah, a lot of people like that first one. That's definitely what I shared it on Twitter, and a lot of people love that from the mixer community.

Unknown: 48:37

So for the listeners who because this will be on YouTube, too, but it's basically just you dancing in front of not using the green screen you just dancing in front of it. The Old Town road.

ForrestDump: 48:47

I had a messy room. That's why I pulled the broom. That's why I pulled it up.

Unknown: 48:52

Good way to hide it. And then you got a Nerf gun and you shoot it. So I mean, what was this one? So this is that point where you were just having fun, huh?

ForrestDump: 48:58

Yeah, that's like, at that point, I was like, this is fine. You know, like, let's have fun. I always wanted to be fun famous too. So I was like, screw it. I gotta post something. And that was at the high or not even the height of Old Town road. It was like, still growing. And I used it there. I wanted to put my own little twist, have fun with it. And a lot of people enjoyed it. It was a good first video I felt like and I shared it. A lot of people loved it. A lot of people didn't even know what tik tok was when I shared it on Twitter. So they made an account came over. And it was really cool. It was really cool. Oh, yeah.

Unknown: 49:36

I'm kind of off topic. I think that little NAS x is the best damn marketing expert out there. If little NAS X was not as talented of an artist as he is. He would definitely be like a marketing expert for like Gen Z and millennials because that man knows how to market he sure I don't know if you know this. Maybe you do but little Gnostics he basically was like a meme. On Twitter and tik tok, and he got old town road to number one by just making his own memes with it. He would make his own videos or make this random stuff up or make memes out of it using his songs, even though nobody's heard it yet, but he just made memes and just threw them out there.

ForrestDump: 50:15

Yeah, for me, too. That was like the that was that's like what showed what the power of Tick Tock had, like it was literally a tick tock song. What I what I consider a tick tock song they got on the radio. It was insane. Like, it was so funny, like you hear on the radio, and you would imagine you would immediately think of Tick Tock. It was crazy to me.

Unknown: 50:35

Yeah, and then it looks like this is the first gaming related one right here. So this one's like the first one. You've actually posted a gaming clip.

ForrestDump: 50:44

I don't think I'm gonna be honest, I don't even remember that one. When they say when this game and I'll give you$100 right. Oh my gosh. Wow. I still have that scene. Um, OBS by the way. I forgot about Oh, gosh.

Unknown: 51:13

So for the, for the audio listeners. It's just a it's a gaming clip from a switch. And the caption says winning all donate $100 he switches to a scene. And it's got the old meme where it's the guy saying why you lie and why you always lie. staring blankly into the camera. So that one's pretty interesting because it's, it's it's cute. It's curious to see how much stuff has changed. Because looking at this, I could see a lot of stuffs that could be changed, and it's stuff that we wouldn't have thought about back then. So what are your thoughts on that video?

ForrestDump: 51:47

Ah, that's my peak right there. No, I think that was it. I think that's it. Like I think that's an example of a good way to how to get I didn't really do anything. All I did was just switch a scene in and stare. I think it's a good way to get your personality on it. I definitely should start thinking about doing that more. Maybe even put, literally use my old my old Tick Tock video. As an inspiration for a new Tick Tock video. I'll probably do something just off the top of my head you remember like last week two weeks ago and everybody came in and did has donated blah blah blah. And all they did was like change the font of their literally could do that in and do the exact same thing. But uh yeah, that that's crazy. I forgot about that video.

Skyler Gonzalez: 52:38

That Uh, yeah, it's

Unknown: 52:39

it's it's just so weird to go back. I mean, anybody out there too, maybe you're already on Tick Tock I definitely encourage you to go back and look at your own Tick Tock videos because you could like you now you have an idea to repurpose a video you could definitely repurpose some some videos but not only that, he kind of learned to you kind of look at your old stuff be like how can I prove this? Because I think that when when you wait a while to look at your old video, you can see it a lot more objectively rather than subjectively. You kind of because you kind of lose the sense that that was that something you created you know? Yeah, so that's a good way to kind of improve and grows I feel like well, other than that, I think that we've we've learned a lot talking to you for a stump ex mixer partner, biggest dump truck on Twitch aside, together guns. Is there anything else that you want to talk about specifically in anything that you want to plug and you know, feel free to plug your socials and all that as well let people know where they can check you out.

ForrestDump: 53:35

I think we talked about a lot more than I was thinking about so that's really good. But as far as plugging you guys can find me on Twitch just force dump. And then I think my socials are just forced dump TV. Tick Tock is an exception that was just forced dump as well. So yeah, check those out. If you like them follow if you don't good.

Unknown: 54:00

They will said alright, well I want to thank you for taking your time to speak with me and all the listeners out there. I thank you for listening. I hope that you guys learn something, make sure you guys hit that subscribe button on whatever platform that you are on. And stay tuned for future episodes. Thanks, guys.

Announcer: 54:16

Thanks for listening to twitch talk with Skyler guns. Hopefully this podcast inspires you to elevate your creation and pushes you to achieve your goals. Okay, if Skyler can do it, anyone can do Don't forget to subscribe to this podcast. You can stay updated with all new episodes and make sure to follow Skyler on all socials at Skyler guns. This has been a Skyler guns production