You know what time it is. It’s Crimbus season, and it’s feeling mighty holiday-ee around my house this year. I even put up a wreath. #HolidayKing I know, I know.

What do you readers do to get in the holiday spirit? To be completely honest with you, I always listen to Christmas with DOOM, an incredible mix of Christmas tunes overlaid with MF DOOM songs. 23 minutes of holiday cheer with everyone’s favorite villain puts me right into the x-mas mood, but I’m curious, is there any content or music that’s a must for your holidays? Let me know by replying to this email, and who knows, I may even feature you in next week’s issue so we can all get into the holiday spirit together!

-Luke

Simone Giertz is A Badass

• Do you know the story of the creator who is an inventor, entrepreneur, actress, survived a brain tumor, and so much more that I can’t even wrap it up into one cohesive sentence?

• Meet Simone Giertz, one of the most badass creators that I’ve ever had the pleasure of doing a deep dive into. Her background is insane, her track record of inventions will blow your mind, she boasts over 2.7M subscribers, has collabed with some of the biggest names in popular science, hosted a show, built robots for HBO, and that’s just scratching the surface.

• Simone started her maker career around 2013 when she began studying at a school in Stockholm and began exploring the world of open-source hardware (aka free tech for people to customize).

• One of her first inventions is actually what led her to YouTube! After making a toothbrush helmet for a show that was not picked up for airing, Simone uploaded the invention and video to YouTube, and the rest is history.

• With the success of this video, Simone began creating even more “tech solution” type videos, beginning her career as the self-described, “shitty robot queen.”

• Simone went on to create even more videos, pairing deadpan humor with her bizarre inventions like the “chopping machine,” and the “applause machine,” Simone began creating a cult following of viewers, and eight years later she’s among the highest regarded maker YouTube channels, racking up crazy collabs and features on major TV shows like Westworld.

• In 2018 and 2019, Simone announced that she was dealing with a brain tumor, and throughout the entire process, she kept her upbeat yet cold humor flowing while updating her audience on the progress. She’s not only an incredible creator and engineer, but she quite literally laughs in the face of danger while keeping her audience uplifted. Now that’s a badass creator if you ask me!

• Simone popped up on my radar after I found this Kickstarter for one of her inventions, Coat Hingers. Now, I’m not in the market for hangers (shoutout Costco) but the Kickstarter campaign caught my eye after seeing the raise goal get absolutely smashed. A $50k goal was almost 10x’d over the last few weeks, with the raise now sitting at just under $500k.

• To me, this is the beauty of being a creator and doing what you love. Creators like Simone can be a perfect showcase of reaping the benefits of creating content that is true to you and your heart.

• The creator journey, as I’m sure Simone can attest, is nothing short of dynamic. The winding path will lead you down some interesting roads, and on the journey you will continue to learn and grow with your creative pursuits, allowing you to hone in on making what you love while building out your audience.

• So creators, learn from Simone’s journey and keep pushing forward. No matter how many turns you take or the paths you explore, you’ll end up where you’re supposed to be. 😌 

Merry Thanksmas from this Creator

• Over the last six years, massive creator Jacksepticeye (Sean McLoughlin) has hosted ‘Merry Thanksmas,’ a charity event where the creator raises money for several different charities.

• While this year, like years past, was a massive success, Jacksepticeye has reached a significant milestone for this event that deserves a shoutout in this week’s newsletter.

• This creator just reached over $25M raised throughout the six years that this event has been going on.

• That $25M goes to charities that provide some incredible services such as World Central Kitchen which provides meals to those in humanitarian crisis; Red Nose Day which provides children with funds, education, empowerment, and beyond; and housing for homeless individuals through New Story.

• While creators like Sssniperwolf and Jacksfilms bicker over stolen content (as they rake in cash hand over fist), creators like Jacksepticeye is here to make a change and show you what being a creator is all about.

• So creators, be more like Jacksepticeye. Use your platform for good, lift up rather than tear down, and make a difference where you can. Tis the season!

Ludwig Pushes for YouTube Changes

• Don’t stress peeps, Ludwig isn’t actually going back to Twitch. Well, that’s sort of true, let’s dive into the details below:

• In an admitted clickbait titled video, Ludwig shares that he’s returning to Twitch, but there’s a catch. He’ll be back on his former go-to platform for events and co-streaming on both platforms to continue expanding his reach. But why did one of the platforms’ largest creators cut his exclusive ties? In short, YouTube apparently wasn’t delivering on some long-sought-after changes, and Lud is sick of it.

• Ludwig feels YouTube hasn't addressed major streaming issues throughout his time on the platform, as YouTube promised when he first came on board.

• One of the main reasons that Ludwig feels YouTube is ignoring streamers and their needs is that he feels YouTube undervalues live streaming because they’re fighting against the TikTok boogeyman to stay relevant.

• Ludwig also points out that Twitch & YouTube may have a sort of “unspoken agreement,” leaving live streaming improvements untouched on both platforms.

• With YouTube not stepping up to the plate and putting their focus elsewhere, Ludwig has also realized that an exclusive deal to stream on the platform doesn’t play into his long-term goals. He doesn't care about maximizing viewership or money, just creating cool events with mass appeal and being the "best-multifaceted creator" across platforms. In short, he’s not looking to be just another high-viewership streamer.

• So what does this news mean? Well, Ludwig is no longer exclusive to streaming on YouTube. To maximize reach for his events, Ludwig plans to co-stream on Twitch & YouTube, but his regular daily streams remain exclusive to YouTube. Gotta get that Alphabet company money. 😎 

• But YouTube isn’t in the clear just yet. Ludwig says that while the data shows YouTube coming out on top (peak viewership on streams and long-form views being higher than ever before), he’s still open to moving back to Twitch full-time if YouTube doesn’t step up to the plate and fix the necessary changes.

• While this may not seem like positive news, it absolutely is. This shows that creators can make significant changes to these massive platforms. Without these creators, especially massive ones like Ludwig, these platforms would be nothing. And with the rise of creators making their own platforms that better suit their needs, these major companies need to step up their game or be replaced by a new player in the game.

• What do you think of Ludwig’s switch-up of platforms? Is this a sign for the Twitch bull run of 2024? Probably not, but it’s a show that no platform is safe, and if the right changes aren’t made, they can easily be replaced by someone who’s doing things right!

• Good on Ludwig for not sitting idly by and instead, stepping up to the plate to make changes for the betterment of the creator community.

Building a Gaming Empire

Massive shout out to CreatorPad’s very own in-house creator, Alex Velez for this week’s creator spotlight recommendation! As a killer creator himself, Alex’s recommendation is highly regarded, so buckle up!

This week I’m spotlighting Burr, a gaming creator who is racking up the subs with his reviews, breakdowns, tier lists, and beyond.

Burr is a streamer and YouTuber who began his career almost nine years ago as a streamer. Over the last three years, Burr has begun posting consistently on YouTube, where he’s amassed a solid fanbase in a relatively short amount of time.

When swapping from streaming to YouTube, Burr began posting eclectic videogame playthroughs and highlights across several different titles, setting up early viewers for what would soon be his bread and butter.

While a majority of Burr’s videos over the years would rack up a few hundred to a few thousand views, the fuel was really added to the fire when he released a tier list of the best roguelite games.

This long-form video amassed over 1.3M views and seemed to give Burr the well-deserved push into the algorithm that will allow him to continue to reach the masses.

Now sitting at just under 9k subs, Burr continues to push out solid video after solid video, bringing in the subs with his insights and incredibly deep understanding of game knowledge.

I’m excited to follow along with Burr throughout his content journey and watch along as he continues to develop his content and find more fans.

Thank you again to Alex for the amazing recommendation, if you want to see your favorite creators spotlighted, and get a shoutout yourself, reply to this email and let me know who you want to see in this spot next week!! 👏 

Keep pushing out the killer content, Burr! 💪 

❤️ What Readers Are Saying

As I always say, reader feedback is my favorite way to evolve this newsletter. So I figured I would create a section that shouts out you fantastic readers who help me make this newsletter what it is today!!

This one is from an incredible creator and someone who has been a massive help in the recent developments of these issues. Here’s the most recent review from Alex the Grape 🍇

This comment made my entire week and let me know that I’ve been going in the right direction. Thank you so much again, Alex! 🍻 

Be sure to reply to this email and let me know how you’ve been enjoying the recent changes to these issues for a potential feature in this section next week!

🤔 An Exclusive Offer?

Fancy seeing you here, I’m glad you made it to the end!! 👏 

As a thank you for being such an incredible supporter of my work, I wanted to take this opportunity to offer you an exclusive spot on our waitlist to access the 2.0 version of CreatorPad before anyone else.

If you’re interested in checking out what we have in store and being among the first creators with a profile on the site, reply to this email and we can set up some time to chat. You’re not going to want to miss this opportunity. 👀 

🚀 Up Your Career as a Creator

Hope you enjoyed this week’s post. See you next week ✌️