Hey guys, I just uploaded a documentary style video that I always wanted to make, learning how to fly FPV drones. All feedback is welcome 🙏🏼

Yesterday I made the decision that I am starting a brand new channel. This is a VERY (very) long post but I hope it's provides insight into my thought process and my strategy behind starting from 0. For those of you that don't know, my name is CupppaJoe and I am a Full-Time Call of Duty content creator who has almost 400,000 subscribers (350,000 on my main Call of Duty channel and 50,000 on my 2nd Call of Duty channel). Why am I making a new channel? To expand beyond the Call of Duty space. I started playing Call of Duty (again) 4 years ago and before that I didn't play video games from 2013-2020. Growing up I only played Call of Duty and sports games like Madden and MLB which means there are HUNDREDS of games that I haven't played. - Assassin's Creed - Red Dead Redemption - Halo - Fortnite - The Last of US - Old Call of Duty's - Destiny - Minecraft You name it...I probably haven't played it. What is my WHY? Think back to the first time you played a certain game. You weren't 100% sure what you were doing, just sort of figuring it out. It was fun, it was challenging and at the end when you beat it, you had a certain feeling, whether good or bad. If you go back and play it today, you can NEVER replicate that first time play through experience. But I can... Where do I begin? - First thing, is there a market for this? Quick YouTube search of "First Time Playthroughs" immediately shows that there is. - Then, even before diving too far into what games I want to play, etc. I created the channel. Now you might say "well duh" but for me, that puts it in motion. We now have a channel with zero content. Name - CupppaJoe Plays. Keeping it simple. - Next I came up an initial list of games which was about 25-30. - Let's talk about Style and Tone: my mindset throughout every game/video is going to be "I literally have no idea what I'm doing" because I don't. And I want that to come through the camera. It's something I'm going to remind myself of before I start recording and throughout the video. I want you to feel that NEW experience even though you might've played the game. - Then, I announced it on my main YouTube channel (through a Community Post) and in my Discord. I absolutely wanted to leverage my current audience to gain some initial traction which has given me around 300 subscribers in the first 24 hours. - Finally, and this is ongoing, I want to consume other First Time Playthrough content. I want to see what other people are doing. What are they doing videos on? What games do well? What games didn't do well? How long is the video? How edited is the video? I'm looking for patterns and things that can help guide me to more views.

Hello hello all you Grindstone Creators! As some of you may have seen, at the end of each month the top person from the 30-day leaderboard wins a prize! 🎁 If you need a quick crash course on earning points: • Create quality posts that spark conversation. • Drop helpful replies that get people talking. • Get likes and comments on your content to rack up those points. To put it in Colby's famous one liner: the more you contribute, the higher you climb. Now, without further ado, our October Winner is...... 🥁 @Houston Bernard! 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉 This is his 2nd month in a row topping the charts. Congratulations! I'll be reaching out sometime this week so you can give the prize wheel a spin. I know you have been killing it with the content. Keep up the good work! That's all for this month on the Grindstone Games! Will we see Houston for a 3rd month in a row or will you usurp the crown in November 🦃? Best of luck everyone and may the content ratios be ever in your favor.

The game I have been waiting to blow up my channel is coming out in 3 days! I was very lucky enough to get one-week early access to the game, but as I was under an NDA, I could not speak about it. The embargo has now been lifted, and it feels amazing but also overwhelming. I feel like I have a million ideas, and when I go to build, nothing. I know exactly the aim of my channel and the content I want to make (Tutorials, helping and inspiring people to play the game) but I also feel this overwhelming anxiety, like an imposter. I'm desperate to learn as much as I can and teach as I go but it's a lot! I am trying to take one idea at a time. Do one video well and upload it as soon as it's ready, not caring about time zones. It's a scary thing. Usually, I would schedule one video to go out only at the weekend but I'm giving myself the freedom to do it now. Upload, let it fly, and move straight to the next video idea. If your interested in this little journey in classic YouTube style (I'm getting my practice in) give me a thumbs up.

Im pretty excited about these wins. I have been nominated for 2 awards for the New England Music Awards and 1 for The Boston Music awards which are regional and for national, I won a Josie award and I got to give a short speech at the Opry. If you know anything about the opry its country music's church and standing in the circle is part of that. here is a short video of my speech. Thanks everyone for the community and the encouragement to keep moving forward. I hope you are all doing the same. https://www.instagram.com/houstonbernardmusic/reel/DBr6953y_aO/