How I Overcame Internet Hate and Built My Brand | Lacy DSH #1167

Like I've I've said this on stream before um when I first face revealed that night and the Twitter pages started posting it and people were like damn he looks like this like he's fat.

I'm not watching him anymore.

I was like genuinely thinking about like killing myself.

Holy shit.

Yeah, it was the darkest time of my life that week.

Damn.

It was that bad.

Yeah, I didn't stream for the whole week.

Wow.

Because I didn't really know what to do with it.

I was living by myself.

All right, guys, Lacey here today at the Celebrity Poke Tournament.

What happened to you, man?

I lost.

What happened, though?

So, I'm going to be honest, I was on my last leg.

Ninja told me, he said, if you got a good hand, you know, go all in.

And I don't play poker, so I don't know what a good hand is.

But I had an ace, so I thought that was good.

You know, I went all in, and then Adrian Peterson, he had three sixes.

Damn.

Yeah.

Good old trips.

I guess.

I don't know.

I mean, you made the right call, honestly.

I thought I did, too.

Like, by the books, that was the right.

Yeah, that's what I thought, too.

But God, I'm lucky.

Sometimes it runs out, man.

So you don't play often, poker it was my first time oh that was your first time ever i had no idea what i didn't even know what a check was i was saying check to everything when i was supposed to call i think it's called yeah yeah but i'm never raised oh that's when you put more in right yeah yeah i did that a few times

not too much though do you gamble at all other

uh sports sports betting yeah you're big on that not big just here and there are you up or down overall

so I actually haven't done it in a while.

I used to do it in college.

So when I was in college, I started with like $2,000 and I would just put money on games like Sunday, Sunday football.

And I went up to like 12K and then never did it again.

Damn.

You're up.

Yeah, I'm up.

Technically, have you bet on like Polymark yet or those sites?

What's that?

It's like a site where you could bet on just random stuff.

Like you could have bet on Trump to win the presidency.

You didn't see that?

No.

I saw people were betting on it, but I don't know.

Never done it.

I think Aiden put up like a lot on it.

Yeah, he did.

I think it was like a mil or something.

It was something crazy.

Yeah.

XQC put up two mil on Kamala, I believe.

Jeez.

How could you even bet?

I feel like betting on that stuff that you have like a say in is weird.

Yeah, yeah, they do have a lot of poll, right?

Yeah, because like if Aiden bet a mil and then he like promotes Trump, it's kind of like, oh.

It skews it a little bit.

Yeah, I feel that.

How's the streams been going?

Pretty good.

I've been traveling a lot.

Yeah.

Do you stream the IRL stuff too?

Yeah, it's pretty much all I've been doing this month.

I went to Mexico, then New York, then Austin,

and then

Vegas, back to LA, and now I'm back in Vegas.

Jeez.

What were you doing in Mexico?

Streaming.

Like any any type of content?

It was Day of the Dead.

Day of the Dead.

Oh, is that a music festival?

No, it's like the

biggest Mexican holiday.

Oh, that's dope.

Yeah, it's their Halloween.

What did you see there?

That was interesting.

Nothing.

Really?

I mean, they wear masks.

Nothing crazy in Mexico?

Not really, no.

The food was great.

I love Mexican food, so that was amazing.

You probably see crazier stuff walking out of your house in LA.

Yeah, no, you want to hear a crazy story?

Yeah, it will happen.

First week in LA, I'm driving down the block and I see a dude on the side of the road pulling his pants down, jerking off just on the sidewalk, like on a busy road.

Dude, like just dick out, jerk, like actually just rubbing one out in the middle of the road.

Welcome to LA, right?

Yeah, I wasn't expecting it.

I don't know how he's not arrested.

He was just there with his, yeah, he was their jails are probably full over there.

Probably.

Where'd you move from?

I was in Texas before LA.

Big change.

Yeah.

Dallas or Dallas, yep.

Downtown.

What do you like more?

Or no, I was in my, I lied.

I was in Miami.

Okay.

What do you like more?

Miami or LA?

It depends.

I'd rather live in Miami, like, when I'm ready to settle down, but for what I do now, definitely L.A.

Yeah, I mean, that's where all the streamers are and everything, right?

Yeah, and living with my friends.

So it's all like.

Have you ever done a sub-a-thon?

I have.

Dude, those are nuts.

I've been watching Kai's every day.

Big celebrities coming on.

Yeah, well, we just did one September.

Oh, yeah.

Two months before Kai.

Yeah, we phase as a group did a 30-day.

Holy crap.

So you were live for 30 days straight.

Yeah.

Damn.

It was draining.

You don't feel like it's an invasion sometimes.

Oh, no, it definitely was.

There were some

interesting stuff that happened on that sub-a-thon.

Um,

you know, on camera 24-7, it's crazy.

Yeah, because you can't hide anything at that point.

Oh, I hit a few things, but

you hid your side girl?

Nah, not even a side.

No,

I didn't really hide.

I didn't hide anything.

I mean, they know, but like, there were some times the camera had to go off.

Okay.

Yeah.

Had to do your thing.

Yeah, you know.

You know, out here in LA, successful.

I mean, I've seen your leaked numbers.

Nah, it's not even like that.

It's not even like that.

Mr.

Humble out here.

Kind of clearly.

Those streamer numbers, though.

Crazy.

But I heard this month it's getting messed up, right?

Yeah.

Twitch.

It's insane.

So it's down like what, 50%?

It's a lot.

I don't, it's on it.

Like, I'm, I'm very open about, like, there's like a lot of streamers who don't say how much they make.

You know, they want to, for some reason, keep it a secret from their audience.

I'm, I've always been since the jump very open about how much I make, like, how much streamers make.

So I don't.

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Keep that secret at all.

But yeah,

it's pretty down this month.

Damn.

Why are you so open though?

Because yeah, like you said, most people are closed off.

I just feel like

why not be transparent?

It's, it feels deceiving if you're like, oh, I only make X amount of money, so you can gift me more money.

Yeah.

I feel that's deceiving to the people that watch me.

Like, I don't need you to donate me as long as you're watching me.

And enjoying the content, I don't really need the donations or anything.

I feel like you and your group were the first ones to really like share those numbers, honestly.

Yeah.

Because for years, like no one knew.

People keep it a secret.

I don't understand, but

I guess they felt maybe some shame because they're making so much, you know?

Maybe it could, yeah, maybe.

I could see that.

I genuinely think that people just keep it a secret because they,

if they show the public how much they make, they won't get donations as much.

Right.

I think that has a big play in it, but it also could be they're like embarrassed to show it.

Yeah.

So how long did it take to see some traction?

Cause I'm sure sure this took some time for me personally, yeah.

Um, yeah, it's it took a pretty good amount of time.

I mean, like, I started

three years ago, and for a while, I was just streaming to zero viewers, you know, one viewer, two viewer.

For

I wasn't streaming full-time then, but I was just streaming here and there, and there'd be no one watching.

The only person watching was my brother in the other room.

Wow, you'd always watch it.

Shout out to your brother.

I know.

He would, he always kept me going.

Even when I wanted to like stop, he would pull up my mom's laptop, pull up that my dad's phone so i'd have three viewers that's a real one right there well yeah he is and um but then i i met clicks through the fortnight scene yeah and started averaging like 70 80 viewers and over the course of the last two years i'd say just worked its way up obviously have your ups and downs but damn shout out to you for sticking it out because most people would have given up at one viewer two viewers yeah a lot of people do And you had that for a year?

A year, yeah, but I wasn't like consistently streaming.

It was just like once a month?

no probably twice a week okay dang yeah no shout out to you man yeah it was i would just do it because it was fun that's awesome so clicks you met through fortnite so you're really good at fortnite then oh i'm pretty good yeah i wouldn't say really i'm i mean compared to the average person i'm really good but yeah i'm not on like pro level so you weren't playing pro level i was playing pro yeah i was playing pro level but i wasn't at the top of the top i was just like middle of the pack yeah i play a little fortnight oh for real zero build though oh that doesn't count oh yo come on i mean maybe a couple tournaments here and there but

you don't don't respect zero build players?

No, I respect them.

It's just I've never

played builds.

So it was just when they dropped zero build, I was kind of like, oh, okay.

Those kids are sweats, dude.

In zero builds?

No, it's in builds.

Yeah.

Like, I understand it for the public.

Yeah.

But from a competitive standpoint, which is what I played, I don't really understand the zero build.

Well, that's where the money is.

There's no money in zero build.

No.

For like 500 bucks.

Yeah.

I've seen like the tournament.

I mean, the zero build cash.

But now the money isn't even in the tournament.

It's in the streaming.

Yep.

So you made the right move.

Yeah, 100%.

did you pivot were you like wait a second the money in competitive is not that good um i was very people don't even know this i was very strategic with how i did it so i knew i always i knew when i started playing fortnite and started like streaming that it's not what i wanted to do i wanted to shift to irl content

but when you have a fan base who watches you for fortnight you can't just snap a finger switch and they're gonna stay so i knew that i i found i waited for a dead spot in the game when there were no tournaments it was kind kind of like dead, people weren't really interested.

And I started slowly shifting over to GTA.

Like I'd play GTA a couple times a week, and then I'd do a couple IRL streams a week.

So I like kind of strategically trained my audience to switch over and start enjoying other content.

And then that's kind of how I got smart.

Yeah, you slowly eased your way into the IRL.

Yeah, because if you just switch right over, you're not going to, it's not going to be successful.

No, it's not.

It's like the dream face reveal.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Like

that flopped, yeah.

I think it was too quick.

He should have shown like a piece of his face.

You know?

Yeah.

Maybe shown a piece, maybe like taking like half of it off, showing a bottom of it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It should have been like a piece a week and then the full thing.

But I think it was too.

See, that would have built more hype.

It was too sudden.

It was like, you know?

Yeah, I was like, yeah, that was wild.

But these days, you got to show your face.

I think it's hard.

You have to.

To not have a face to your brand.

That's how I started out.

Yeah.

Oh, you started off no face?

I was too embarrassed.

I was, I was super overweight and

like genuinely like scared.

Like it was like a fear of mine to show my face on stream there's even a point where i fake face revealed and showed my roommate yeah seriously yeah that's how scared i was because you know how the internet is it's like it's a horrible like it's a really bad environment especially for people who are fat or you know bad looking and i was like terrified to show my face and um i finally did and I knew exactly what I thought would happen would happen.

I show my face, you know, the Twitter pages post it and then people are making fun of me.

And for like a week, I was like, I didn't want to stream anymore.

I didn't want to do my face cam, but I pushed through it.

You know, I got in the gym, started losing weight, and I'm comfortable.

I'm kidding.

I'm ruthless, dude.

Shit.

How much weight did you lose?

Like 90, 95 pounds.

Yeah.

So you were up there.

Yeah, I was 296.

God damn.

How tall are you?

5'9.

Wow.

You lost almost 100 pounds.

Yeah, almost.

Hold on, bro.

I'm at 205 now.

Thank you.

I had the opposite issue.

I was a twig.

You put people lifted?

Yeah, people bullied me because I was too skinny.

You could see my rib cage see it's like why like uh and i like you though i was scared to like post shirtless pics and stuff you know i didn't want girls making fun of me or whatever and guys so i was pretty insecure just how the internet is it's just ruthless i mean we used it for the better we got bullied into bettering ourselves but that's true a lot of people would take it the other way and just get in a deeper hole yeah i mean i was there i've like i've i've said this on stream before um when i first face revealed that night and the twitter pages started posting it and people were like damn he looks like this like he's fat I'm not watching him anymore.

I was like genuinely thinking about like killing myself.

Holy shit.

Yeah, it was the darkest time of my life that week.

Damn.

It was really good.

Yeah, I didn't stream for the whole week.

Wow.

I didn't really know what to do.

I was living by myself.

Oh, shit.

I had no one by myself in an apartment.

Dude, yeah.

You didn't even tell your parents or anything?

No.

Your brother that was supporting you?

It was just too embarrassing.

It's always been like an insecurity of mine.

So wow.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Judging off looks is just, it's like a low IQ move to me.

Yeah, it is.

It's like, you're that shallow.

Yeah.

Like, like, let's judge the character.

Exactly.

I know this is going to sound kind of weird, but you know, no, it's true.

It's true.

People, people judge off looks, especially on the internet.

Yeah, and especially in LA, where you're at.

Looks are like currency out there.

Yep.

Like, as a woman, as a man, like, looks, people won't even go up to you.

That's true.

You don't look a certain way, wear some jewelry or whatever.

Exactly.

You ever get caught up in that materialism stuff?

Never.

Never?

No.

Never bought a car, watched.

I bought a car.

Okay.

But that's pretty much it.

I mean, one car is fine.

I bought a car just because I genuinely enjoy driving.

What car was it?

BMW M4 Comp.

Let's go, baby.

Therapy.

I love

at night going and driving.

It's like best thing in the world.

Driving is therapeutical.

It is.

I love blasting the music and just flooring it.

Yeah, it feels good.

I love that, man.

What do you got planned up next this year?

Well, we are doing the, we have something planned.

All the phase we're doing.

This huge thing we have planned.

Not huge, but it's an event we have planned in December for Christmas that we've been planning to working on, putting some money into.

So I'm excited for that.

We have this big month-long stream that we're doing.

I can't talk much about it, but it's going to be in 2025.

It's going to be a lot of planning and funding going into that.

But other than that, just I'm just going to keep streaming

as much as I can.

It's cool to see you revive, be part of the revival of phase.

Yeah.

I mean, I doubted the comeback of it, but you guys are pulling.

A lot of people did.

I did.

I'm not going to lie.

I mean, no, I don't blame you.

A lot of people did.

A lot of people were like, why the hell are you putting this group together?

Yeah.

But it ended up working out.

Yeah.

You had a ton of hate at first, your whole group, and now it's like almost all love, right?

I'm honest.

I'm in a stage right now where I'm getting a lot of hate.

Really?

Yeah.

Why?

I don't know.

It's not the overweight thing anymore.

So what do you think it is?

I really don't know.

And the worst part is, is it's the communities within phase.

Maybe it's the OG fans.

No, it's not.

I honestly have no idea.

I try to be like super nice to everyone.

I try to not invade content, but also give my touch in it.

But people just, I don't know, I've been getting a lot of hate recently in the past like week or two.

That's weird.

It's really mentally taxing, to be honest.

Yeah, that's tough, man.

Well, you got good support with banks now, right?

Yeah.

That's cool.

He's probably been through everything you're dealing with.

Yeah.

They all have, especially.

Adapt's been a huge, like big brother for me.

Yeah.

That's wild.

I don't know what the hell's wrong with people.

I don't know.

I really don't.

Cancel culture, man.

Shit.

Maybe I need to stop rage baiting.

It could be not.

Well, dude, it's been cool.

We'll link your stuff below.

Thanks for coming on.

Of course.

Yep.