Today we’d like to introduce you to Xavier Ray.
Hi Xavier, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Hi my name is Xavier Ray. I’m a content creator from San Diego.
I started streaming gaming content in 2024 when my friends gave me their old pc for my birthday.
I started creating content on YouTube back in 2019 with my wife when we were a travel channel.
When I came back to California, I pivoted to reviewing camera gear and that got expensive and it took forever to make videos due to saving up or borrowing gear from friends and family to review. So when my friends gave me their pc, I took the opportunity to start streaming. It’s been a blast learning how to stream, learning to be more of myself, learning to be more entertaining and I made a lot of friends and had many wonderful opportunities since starting streaming.
One opportunity that I am grateful for is the ability to give back. Once a year I like to do a charity stream and the funds that we raise go to worthwhile charities. One charity that I love working with is the Starlight Children’s Foundation. They make hospital stays a lot easier for their patients. They’re not paying me to say this. I just had a good experience working with them.
Funny story, I didn’t know it at the time, but I was one of the children they helped in their early years.
I was telling my wife that when I was a kid, I got to play the Nintendo 64 after one of my surgeries. Turns out, it was Starlight and their team that provided that console, so in a cool way it’s like I’m giving back to help other children get through their stays.
So recently I pivoted my content from playing a bunch of different games to focus on Sim Drifting in hopes my wife won’t buy a motorcycle lol I’ll tell you more about that later. I’m trying to learn how to drift on a game that most sim drifters and people who drift in real life recommend as having the most realistic physics and that can translate in real life. I’m talking to someone who owns a drift track and teaches you how to drift. I set a day with them out in the future to give me time to build the skills before I see them. I’ll be drifting on their track and I hope won’t scratch their car.
Follow along my drifting journey over on my YouTube if you want see that video sometime in January of 2028 lol
But in the mean time, I’ll be documenting my journey and making little diary videos about my progress along with my drifting streams and playthroughs.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
One of my biggest obstacles was financing the channel. I remember when I used to review camera gear and any tools for content creation, The hardest part was getting my hands on things to review and make videos about. I used to always borrow my friend’s cameras, gimbals, microphones. It was so hard to be consistent when each video would take a month or two to make from borrowing equipment.
When I was gifted my current gaming pc, it was a godsend. I made the decision to pivot my content from gear reviews to gaming content. I was able to make gaming content weekly. I started streaming consistently and grew a small community.
So going from making one video a month or two, now the workload is much much more lol
My biggest obstacle now is editing all the content and scheduling all my posts. I went from posting once every few months to streaming once or twice a week, posting short forms everyday and making one long form video a month. The workload is very different now lol
I’ve been making content on my channel since 2019 and I pride myself and our small team on not using ai to create content or to run this channel.
Every long form video, every thumbnail, all the art that comes from this channel, including our merch (t-shirt designs) has been done without the use of ai. We’re just a small handful of people, not robots. If there’s a task that I know I can’t do (drawing) I give that to someone in our team instead of using ai. I know not everyone can afford to hire someone to help out with their content, but I felt like bringing on another person was essential if I wanted to continue running this channel ethically. With that said, I did make the mistake of using the text reader and have it read the first 2 to 3 seconds for the hooks of my shortform content. In my defense, we all had Siri and the old school robot that would read text long before ai and I thought it used the same technology. I didn’t even know till pretty recently that you needed an internet connection for instagram to read your texts in their video editor. Anyway, that was my big mistake. So now I just record my voice instead of using a text reader. I just wish I knew earlier so I could’ve stopped using that feature much earlier. We’re really a small team behind this channel and we try to create our content ethically even though my channel isn’t really safe to watch in church lol. Anyway, we believe that ai is not only theft but it very harmful to our environment. Anyway we could talk about that for hours so let’s get back to the content journey.
I’m also learning how to drift, but trying to get a little better every week. One day I’ll get good enough to not get a single scratch when I visit that drift track.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I make gaming content on all my platforms. Specifically drifting content. I’m pretty easy to find, just search Xavier Ray on YouTube and I’ll pop up. Hopefully by the time this publishes I’ll have more drifting content on my channel. I’m learning how to drift so my wife won’t buy a motorcycle.
Don’t get me wrong. I love my wife and I believe in her skills in riding a motorcycle. I just don’t trust other drivers out there. Especially on the freeway when people don’t always pay attention while they drive. I don’t trust the life of my wife in their hands.
My compromise with her is, if she’s wanting the rush of riding, maybe we can get that rush on a drift track. Where a mistake can cost us a bumper, not a life.
What sets me apart from other professional sim drifters, is that I’m literally a beginner so instead of a professional drifting YouTuber, you get someone cracking jokes, someone having fun and talking with his friends and chatting with whoever is in the chat. My value proposition is entertainment and journaling my drifting journey. I won’t teach you how to drift cause I’m learning too. You probably know more than me. You’re here to hang with me and have a good time and follow along my drifting journey.
Yes I’m passionate about getting better and one day we’ll have our own drift car and drifting on the tracks. But in the mean time, I’m just learning to not scratch the car when I drift next year. My streams are always fun. I’ll talk to you and to my friends about anything. I’m not going to teach you how to drift though. This isn’t a school, it’s a stream and we’re here for a good time, not a study time.
What would you say have been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
The biggest lesson I learned as far as drifting? I don’t know. “Don’t use the e-brake?” lol
The biggest lesson I’ve learned in my streaming career has been to take breaks. Get it? Breaks? E-brake?
Anyway, I have a tendency to work a lot. After a long stream, I usually go to edit mode and try to get as many short form videos I can from that stream. It’s pretty bad cause sometimes after a night of streaming, then editing, I see the sun rising and I sometimes go and start my day.
There was a time when I entered a small competition. I think it was 800 creators and it was I believe 8 weeks. Every week they’d eliminate 100 creators. Honestly I thought I’d get eliminated the first week. But I only entered it to see how far I’d get and how much I’d grow. I remember editing and posting so much that I went a few weeks going on 2 hours of sleep. there were a few days when I’d just push through and just pull a couple all nighters in a row. Anyway, I didn’t get eliminated on the first week, or the 2nd or 3rd. I made it to the top 300. There were a few weeks I’d just just barely passed. I was happy I got as far and lasted as long as I did in that competition.
But hey! I was able to compete for 6 weeks of the 8 🙂
Way further than I ever expected 🙂
What I learned from that competition, other than always be making content so you don’t lose that muscle, was to pace myself. I knew posting 3 shortform videos a day along with streaming a few times a week wasn’t sustainable with the recourses I had. Maybe one day I’ll go at that pace again if we get a bigger team.
To be completely vulnerable and honest with you, this is a lesson I’m still learning. It’s hard for me to take breaks or take a week or two break from streaming knowing bigger creators are out there posting way more than me.
But yeah. Taking things slow and taking breaks is still a lesson I’m learning.
To be honest, I’m happy that I’m struggling with this rather than struggling to be consistent. That was something I struggled with for years. Now I’m at the opposite end of that spectrum lol
Contact Info:
- Website: https://ovou.com/xavierray
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/xavierray_/
- Youtube: http://youtube.com/xavierray?sub_confirmation=1
- Other: Merch https://xavierraytwitch-shop.fourthwall.com/
