While grinding in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, I converse with a lot of amateur poker players. When we speak about goals and aspirations, the number one reoccurring goal is to become sponsored and play professionally.
Unfortunately, becoming sponsored is now a pipe dream of the poker world. Sponsorship deals don’t fall out of the sky like they did in the early 2000’s. Back then any flash in the pan tournament winner could don a patch and rake in the appearance money. There are many charismatic poker professionals who are more than worthy of sponsorship. However, in the post Black Friday poker world, sponsorship deals are scarce. Which means it’s a highly competitive struggle to be seen and stay seen. As an amateur your main goal should be improving your play from the ground up. Building a strong foundation, establishing productive study habits and focusing on your hourly rate. With your game being the main priority, only then can we talk about building a brand.
When building your poker name and/or brand, via social media, consistent content can generate a following, but great content still remains king. The first step would be to create content that showcases your draw to the public. Poker players can stream, blog, vlog, snapchat, and instastory their entire lives. Potential sponsors love seeing large numbers of subscriptions, views, visits, clicks, and interactions. You’ll have to grind and earn these numbers like anything else you want in life.
Here are four common characteristics I see in successful poker content:
Vulnerability
Put trust in all of your hard work and life experiences and put it out there. Take leaps, take risks with your self promotion. If you’re creating a poker vlog, Twitch stream, or YouTube channel, portray the content as if you’re talking to your closest friend or even yourself in the mirror. Include your most intimate self when recording. What do you do when no one is home? (Keepin’ it PG of course) Monologues? Dancing? Ranting? Acting? Roleplay? Do it all with disregard of judgement. Be true to yourself and put it out there, people dig it. No one is perfect, you will still get animosity from the trolls, and criticism from people who don’t agree with what you are doing. Dealing with constructive and non-constructive criticism will be your biggest asset going forward. Learn to silence the malicious voices with bans or blocks, interact with a positive tone, and avoid being defensive. Criticism is a part of life as much as it’s a part of the game. If you can’t take criticism maybe being in the spotlight with a sponsorship deal isn’t for you.
Transparency
Being completely transparent is key in this new instant information age. It is imperative to start adjusting to the new life of living in a glass house as soon as possible. Own your insecurities, own your flaws, and make yourself vulnerable. Social media is instant publication dissected by the public for the public. If reality television has taught us anything about the content that is being consumed, it’s the real life endeavors and day to day adversity that sells. It’s a peek into a life that others are not accustomed to. Make it your own and make it public.
Authenticity
Be passionate about your content, don’t continue doing it if you don’t love it. No one likes being cheated, lied to, or bamboozled. Be authentic, be the real you in the moment, don’t lie to yourself and the audience by portraying only the best parts of you. Don’t fall into the trap of romanticizing who you want to be through your content. Don’t try to copy someone else’s success story. People don’t want to see the person you think they want to see, they want to see you. Voice your goals, voice your wants and ask questions when you are not sure of the answers; avoid assumptions. Expose your true self and all your flaws. Watching a perfect person do perfect things everyday sounds boring. Besides DudePerfect has that market covered. Do your own thing.
Inclusiveness
Include others, be easily accessible and keep it positive. It should never be you against the world, it should be you within the world. Know yourself, adjust properly, and reap the benefits. There’s enough success at the top, bring others along the way, their success is also your success. Become the bandwagon others want to jump on.
With your goals in mind, it’s not conceited to self promote. Start bragging and keep bragging. Don’t try to one-up anyone, just make your progress be known. Have fun and be passionate about your content.
Thank you for reading and run well.
Here are some examples of channels and/or streamers who are creating content the right way:
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