Interview with Content Creator, Pestily
Pestily is a Twitch streamer and YouTube content creator. This past year, his channel has blown up with his Escape from Tarkov content. I recently had the chance to sit down and interview him.
Starting Fresh
Before he became a Twitch streamer, Pestily was in the Australian military’s infantry where he was stationed in Southeast Asia. Since he spoke Indonesian, he often worked as a translator. After eight years however, he was ready to move on to something new.
“There’s a point in your career where you think to yourself, ‘Am I going to do this for the rest of my life or am I going to do other things?’”
After leaving the military, Pestily set aside a three month break for himself to just relax, fish, and play video games.
“I wanted to take that time to go back to being a normal person.”
However, the isolation of relaxing all day, when everyone his age had kids and jobs, especially since he lived out in the country for his fiance’s job, began to get to Pestily. He decided to start streaming as a way to socialize and meet people while playing video games and fishing.
He enjoyed streaming so much that when his three months were up, he decided to make it serious with a YouTube channel, streaming schedule, and everything.
Going All In
Pestily had never done anything on YouTube before so he spent time teaching himself how to use Adobe and make videos. He began making video guides for the game Escape from Tarkov, an immersive first person shooter and survival game, which he also streamed on Twitch.
Pestily decided to do YouTube in addition to Twitch because it was an additional way for people to find you. It was only a matter of time before his hard work would pay off.
The day was April 17th. It was the day of the latest Escape from Tarkov wipe (a recurring event when the game is updated and everyone starts back at square one).
Pestily made a point to be the first one to make new guides for the game, grinding out and uploading videos mere hours after the wipe. His YouTube channel positively blew up, and because of that, his Twitch stream did too.
His channel went from 400 to 30,000 subscribers in just three days.
Paying Dividends
With the newfound growth of his channel, Pestily is focused on growing a community where people help people.
That culture starts with him. Pestily reads every YouTube comment, tries to answer every question in Twitch chat, and has an open-door policy where anyone can message him directly. In addition, he has a community Discord with channels committed to Escape from Tarkov players helping out those newer to the game.
When I asked him where the desire to create a community like that comes from, Pestily said that it comes from a couple different areas.
For one, he comes from a big family as one of eight kids. As a kid, his parents always focused on helping out your family and others. Pestily has carried that mentality into his adult life as well.
“It’s a natural trait for me. It’s not something I force.”
However, there is another reason, one that goes back to when Pestily first started his streaming career, feeling isolated after leaving the military.
“When you get older, it’s a bit harder to make friends, and it’s harder to just talk to people…The community gives people a place where they can just feel comfortable and relax with friends. I think that is important.”
