We recently had the chance to connect with Xavier Ray and have shared our conversation below.
Xavier, so good to connect and we’re excited to share your story and insights with our audience. There’s a ton to learn from your story, but let’s start with a warm up before we get into the heart of the interview. What are you most proud of building — that nobody sees?
I’m pretty sure people don’t notice it, but I’m proud of the community I’m building around my platform.
I try to create a safe space in my streams so anyone is welcomed as long as you’re not toxic.
We’ve banned a few people who were either really mean or toxic in general. I’d rather lose one person’s follow than have them be mean to me, my friends and everyone else in the chat.
Even though we crack a lot of jokes in my stream, I like to think my streams are a safe space for people to hang out and watch.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
Hi. My name is Xavier Ray. I’m a live streamer on multiple platforms, including Twitch and Youtube. I live stream with my friends, play fun videogames, any co op games that my friends like to play and anything fun under the sun. I even built my first Gundam model on stream pretty recently. So if you’re into that, I might start doing that once a month. My stream can get a little chaotic, but we like to have fun.
My goal is to have every stream I do feel like a party. So come by and hang out. We’d love to have you.
And once a year, I like to do a charity stream to raise money for other organizations that need help. Those streams are a lot of fun and they help a lot of good people. Maybe when I have a bigger community, we can do these charity streams more than once a year.
Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. Who taught you the most about work?
A lot of people I worked with have taught me a lot about the industry.
I worked on this one project with one of my friends. The experience felt like a mini bootcamp and intro into the industry. One of my colleagues basically taught me about the whole production side of things and how to balance being creative and being productive. I learned to manage our team and at the same time, I was able to be creative and give the best production we could at the time. I’m so proud of our team and the work we did.
I had other friends I worked with who taught me to embrace who I really am, to not be shy and get out of my shell. Before streaming, I used to be super shy and I was always in my own headspace. But now I’m pretty comfortable streaming from zero to a hundreds of people. It used to be scary, but now I just worry about audio and if the video will look good later. I really used to be scared of streaming, but now it’s just another Tuesday to me.
Honestly, I’m grateful for everyone who has helped me through the way and I wouldn’t be here without them.
What fear has held you back the most in your life?
Funny enough, it was the fear of what other people’s opinions and what they thought. I know I come off as someone who doesn’t care, but I still do. Before streaming, I used to have total control of every little thing in the video. If I didn’t like a take or a line read, I’d just do it over again and edit it out. But now in streaming, I didn’t have that control. If I messed up, I messed up and I learned to be okay with it.
Fun story, the first time I actually did a live stream to a lot of people was an interview in the Philippines. I won a Vlogger award in their group and had a chance to be interviewed on their channel. A lot of people were watching that stream so I got nervous. It was literally the worst stream I ever did. No fault to the group or or hosts. It was bad because I never streamed to that many people before. I had that fear of saying the wrong thing and I had no control over their video. Plus it was live. I was so scared of not looking professional and scared of other people’s opinions that my performance suffered.
During the interview I had no personality and I only gave them one word answers. I was so scared to talk that I didn’t talk.
My friends and family watched the stream and asked me why I sucked so much. Honestly, them roasting me literally after that stream was the best thing that could have happened to me.
I used that experience to never be that rigid and stale on camera ever again. And 2 or 3 years later when I did my first stream, I made sure that I was never that boring on camera. And sure there were a few dead air moments since my first real stream, but I never had a stream as bad as that first stream/interview.
Something one of my colleagues said that stuck with me was, “at least any stream you do, will be better”
Honestly that was really funny and actually true.
So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. Whom do you admire for their character, not their power?
I’d like to say Keanu Reeves. I don’t know him personally nor have I ever met him, but he always seemed like the nicest actor you can ever work with. From him donating his salary to crew members and different charities.
I’d like to think kindness is actually power. We have the power to make people’s days better, we have the power to change their lives.
I’d like to be at a level where I can comfortably donate my salary to other people and charities. But I’m not there yet. That’s why I really love doing charity streams. It feels good knowing we’re raising money for people who really need it. I really love doing these streams cause it’s my way of giving back. I’d love to do them more than once a year, but I don’t think I’m at a level where I can ask my viewers to donate more than once a year.
I’d love to have character like him and help more people with what I do.
Thank you so much for all of your openness so far. Maybe we can close with a future oriented question. Could you give everything your best, even if no one ever praised you for it?
Yes. I always give my best energy before every stream. Even if no one says anything. I like to give it my best every time I go out cause people watch you. They might not say anything, but people still watch and they see everything. And depending on what platform you stream on, your VOD can potentially stay online forever.
I like to make sure before that camera turns on, that my viewers get the best energy I can give them even if my day was draining, I hope that in my stream, they can have a little fun or laugh.
I had an eye opening experience when I attended a streamer conference in 2024. I met and talked to several people who love watching streamers but they themselves don’t stream. Some of things a lot of them had in common were that they just want to hang out with us the streamers and/or our community, some of them felt like our stream was an escape and some just don’t want to feel alone. I really believe as streamers, we can make people’s days better. That’s why it’s very important to me that we build good communities in our streams. I believe our streams can be safe spaces for people who just want to hang out with us. Honestly, that conference changed my perspective on why we do what we do.
And that’s why I give it my all every time I stream, even if no one praised me or says good job.
And total disclaimer, if you’re a streamer, we need to set boundaries before things become parasocial, but I still believe we can create safe and welcoming communities for our viewers.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Twitch.tv/XavierRayTwitch
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/xavierray_
- Twitter: https://Threads.com/@XavierRay_
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/xXavierRay
- Youtube: http://youtube.com/XavierRay
- Other: Discord: https://discord.com/invite/u5eve3FF7G
Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@xavierray_
Personal Website: https://ovou.me/xavierray
Image Credits
Rich Benares: Creator of the Fallout 4 thumbnail
