 to the wide world of eSports, a show devoted to all things eSports. I'm your host, Catherine North. Today we're going to discuss pathways in eSports career. My guest is eSports thought leader, Danny Martin, the CEO and co-founder of eSplosure. Welcome, Danny. Thank you so much for allowing us to be a part of this particular podcast, engaging to be able to talk to individuals about eSports. Fantastic. Okay, so what is eSplosure? So, eSplosure is a technology eSports company that focuses on providing a pipeline for talent, for careers, for corporate entities, institutions and individuals who are aspiring to be eSports pros. All right, let's show the video. This is your pathway to pro. Opportunities are there in eSports. Wow, that's a really, really awesome question. And the fact that is, there's five segments in eSports that we coined. There's marketing in eSports, management in eSports, production in eSports, technology in eSports and the competition element of eSports. And in each of those segments, there are so many career opportunities within them. So let's break it down from a management perspective. You have general managers of eSports organizations. You have founders. You have individuals who engage with building out technology companies in regards to that of the management sector. And when it comes down to marketing, you have CMOs and marketing strategies and social media directors when it comes down to, you have to have publicists and PR companies when it comes down to the actual technology aspect. You have ATEM directors and individuals who operate that of OBS and StreamLab and VMIX. The individuals who are creating the equipment that allows the actual events to take place. And when you break it down to the competitive standpoint, you have the athletes that are competing on a daily basis from a professional and a aspiring gaming perspective. And then all the way to that of the production perspective. So you have, you know, ATEM directors, like I stated. And then you also have when it comes down to like marketing, management, production, technician, and then also the competition element. So each segment has several career opportunities that are involved in it. And I've been really fortunate to have a lot of those people and people who are on my show. And so how does exposure help people get into a career in the sport? Yeah. So we really started from an organic standpoint. Like when I was in college, I was running tournaments. I was fixing consoles and just understood the fact that when you run a tournament, you can allow the gamers to come in to showcase their skills. So that's number one. That's the first organic way of, you know, helping individuals showcase their skills so they can be on the top of the leader charts and ultimately obtain a job as a competitive gamer. And then we quickly recognize that, you know, if more people know us as helping professional gamers, because at this point, we have over eight gamers that have turned pro. One of those gamers, Dave Fry, $1.4 million prize first winner along with his team. And, you know, that NBA 2K League champion, who's not going to say, hey, I want to be in that same position just as much. And so when people ask us, it's like, okay, well, we can help you. But then we got to recognize like, okay, well, you need branding. You need to understand how to utilize your social media. You need to understand, you know, where to go in regards to traveling, your budget and accounting. You know, you need a lawyer. You know, you need someone to be able to look over your contracts. And so for us as an entity, we just naturally started doing that for competitors because we really want to see them in higher lights. And then we recognize that, you know, those career opportunities, those can be available amongst individuals who are tenured in their backgrounds or individuals who are coming out of high school or college. And so ultimately, we just went out and started to find individuals that can help us fulfill the needs and the goals of the competitive gamers, the individuals who are aspiring to turn pro. So we just organically done it. And to the point where we're just like, wow, this is a business model, right? We're ultimately being able to help the, you know, the companies find talent. We're also helping the actual competitive gamers brand themselves better while at the same time providing opportunities for the individuals who are looking to support those aspiring gamers by way of their services. Sure. And I'm a lawyer and an eSports mediator as well. So, you know, I definitely understand that. And, you know, it's interesting in this environment where there's such a need for employees. Have you found that eSports companies are seeking employees? Yeah, it's even a higher need, even at this point. Just kind of think about COVID. You know, COVID from the eSports and gaming industry was one of those things where it's like, it forced individuals to learn about eSports and gaming and technology due to the fact that everybody was at home. Now, when you look at it from a founder perspective or let me take that back, a BC perspective or an angel investor or someone is looking to start a company, they have to fulfill talent. You know, they got to, you can think, you can have an idea, but you actively need individuals to help you push that all the way through to the finish line. And so when you think about it, you know, if you don't have anywhere to go to find the talent, then it becomes this big bubble, which ultimately that bubble will burst to the point to where if you, if you can't find the people that can support you, you're literally like, okay, like, like I am, I don't want to do this anymore as I'm losing capital, is not fulfilling as I thought. And that's something that we just don't want to see. Right. So from our perspective, it's filling that pipeline of talent by allowing individuals to showcase what's on their skill sets, what's on their portfolio. So therefore it can help the individuals who have been interested in getting into this space because the fulfillment of talent is, is, is, is a hard thing within this industry because there's not a lot of resources out there to identify where is the talent. I know for, for a good minute, you know, when I as, you know, building a company, I would look at, you know, hit marker, right? Hit marker is our way to find that of eSports talent, but it's only hit marker. If you think of outside of the industry, you have Monster, you have Andy, you got, you got so many pipelines and pathways to find talent and the eSports gaming industry just didn't have that side. And ultimately now you're starting to see more companies that are developing that pipeline. And that's where we follow that because we've seen that it was an incredible need, right? It was a credible need that needed to be fulfilled. All right, let's talk about your program. Now you have a physical space in Dallas. Is that right? Yes, ma'am. Definitely. It's in, it's definitely in Dallas. We've had multiple spaces that we built that we're actively building out a brand new facility in the Duncanville, Texas, which is a southern sector of Dallas. And we're so anxious to be inside of this space because just like the space that you're seeing right now, it's where we did our educational eSports program. So tell us about your immersive experience. That sounds really valuable. Yeah, I think it's because, you know, after once COVID hit, you know, the need for actual space was like, wow, we can't, we can't do anything in this space. So we ultimately had to create a technology platform and utilize the space to create content. So we broke down all five segments, management, marketing, technology, competition and production and we created over 20 videos per that of topic, per that of segment and was like, okay, now we need somewhere to store it, you know, and if we have, if we're a tech company, let's build our own learning management system. And so what we did was we stored that content on there and provided that to institutions and schools to allow them to learn about eSports. And then we quickly recognize that once you learn, you're like, okay, what's next? You're like, okay, what's next? And so we were just like, we got to figure out how to make the experience more immersive for the students. And so we actively was like, okay, how do we actively allow the students who've learned to really start to apply? Right? That's the biggest day as a founder. I look for individuals who have done it. When people come to me, they're like, hey, I want to get an eSports and they're like, I'm passionate about eSports. The next question for me is like, okay, what have you done in eSports? Right? Because that helps me really identify how much time is going to take before you actually are able to acquire the skills to help us return revenue to sustain our business. So I naturally have those perspectives and I know many other companies would have that same type of thought process. And so given the students any immersive experience is very critical to the success of that student. So for our immersion program, we were just like, what are we going to do to be able to bring education and entertainment together? And we was just like, okay, the students have to learn. Then how will they apply? And as an eSports company to focus on competitive competition, like true live competition and have eSports players that are actively trying to go pro, we were just like, well, we got to give them a fan base while at the same time giving the students an opportunity to really apply their skill set. So we were just like, we have to create a program. So what we did was we build our technology platform solely focused in on our immersion program. We called it the eSports immersion program. And so what we ended up doing is allowing the students to facilitate a four week program. That first week, the students are utilizing our learning management system to actively go through that of the management marketing technology competition and production and take some assessments just so they can get acclimated to the industry. By that second week, the students are breaking up into groups of five. So we have 25 students per actual institution. You've got five groups. Each student pairs up into a role of a manager, general manager, a head coach, a marketing specialist, a production technician, and then also a software developer, right? Because those are just those are common jobs inside of the eSports industry. And then these students are able to collaborate and draft their real eSports athletes from our entertainment side. So we have a qualifiers and we do a league where we pick four teams, which is 20 individuals total, and the students get a chance to actually draft by way of the overall scores of each of the actual highly competitive gamers. And now they are in the driver's seats of saying, I want this person or I want this person on our team. So our goal for this program is to allow the students to actively build their own eSports organization, just like your team in these, just like your face cleanse, just like your luminosities of the world. And we want the students to feel what that feels like. While by then the third week, they're actively are assigning, they're doing their assignment. So let's say the head coach is picking, looking at the data of the players and picking their players that monitor in the data and the performance of each of the players that they pick. The marketing specialist is creating a marketing strategy in which they're utilizing our functionality on our platform, which we call the Ecolab. And it's like an internal social media. So they get to actively take their marketing strategy and apply it in a form of a social media. And ultimately when it comes down to the software developer in our technology platform, we created a functionality that's a micro website builder. So just like you will use GoDaddy or Squarespace in our technology platform, you can actively create your own website. So that's like a software developer. You don't actively as a student, you don't actively have to know how to code because that's just where the world is going. Software platforms are making it easier to build your own websites. So we want the students to actively feel like what it's like to build their own websites. And even when it comes down to the general manager, general manager, what do they do? They make sure that everything runs properly. So engaging with all the different roles from underneath or not even underneath, alongside of their team, just ensuring that if there are any questions that need to be answered, if there are any suggestions that need to make, if the organization that they've come in together is maintaining their mission and their values, like that's the job of the actual general manager. And every role has a specific assignment by way of the actual program. Let's even break it down to the production technician. Production technician will take clips from the actual players, from Twitch and give those clips to the software developer, while at the same time giving those clips to the actual marketing, marketing especially. So therefore they can post it on the social media internal. So these students are actively engaging with each other. So therefore they can, by that fourth week, they're looking back and saying, well, we got to present now, and they're presenting their eSports organization and how they've done as a team. So therefore they can be able to showcase their website. And guess what? By the end of this program, they can take that website and give it to their parents, their teachers, and most importantly, their prospective employers. So what is the general age of those who were involved in your program? 13 to 25. Like right now we're really focusing on the high schools because in this industry, high school students have two choices to make once they graduate. They go into the workforce or they go to college, right? We want to make sure that that option is viable on both ends. Everybody do not have the resources to spend a lot of money in college. While at the same time, some individuals may have the opportunities to obtain a scholarship in eSports or gaming or technology or any other field. So we want them to be equipped no matter what decision that they make. And that's one of the biggest focal points for us as high school students. Now you may have some Brainiac middle school students which we all love and you may have some individuals that are in college or even outside of college that are looking to engage in this industry by actively having something on their portfolio because that's all it takes. It's just what experience did you have whether it's a little experience or whether it's a lot of experience. We just want to give experience. And from there you can spread your rings and grow as fast or as slow as you want to. I would think that even people that might be older than 25 might be interested in it because there's so much interest in this area. So is the program presented in person or virtually or a combination? Yes, that's pretty awesome. It's all virtual. Now the cool thing is that students all across the actual world can participate in our program. We do it every month. So July 12th is our first public day and so it starts from July 12th for a whole month for four weeks and then we start a whole new cycle the next month. We're going to do this month after month after month throughout the whole year. Now the cool thing that we're experiencing is because we have a facility on that third week the students who are locally based they will get bused to our facility and go through our facility and look at an eSports organization as it's running while they'll be able to get to sit in the stands and see the players that they pick and real time. So it gives a perspective for a student to look like if they're a general manager in their box office like Jerry Jones and they get to watch how their team is performing in real time. So that's the benefit of being locally based for our ISDs in this area. They just get to come on that third week and see it. If you're not locally based then on that third week you're watching the production live via that of Twitch. So what's the cost of this program and are there any scholarships? Yeah, so there's two elements on the cost. So it's $300 for the program if you just want to go through the one month experience. It's $600 for the program if you want to go through the one month experience plus that of have 12 months of access to the technology platform after that meaning any updates any new content any new functionality that we build into the site you have access to that. So we really try to make it to where it's similar to that of a program like a summer program where the students were actively or the youth would actively enroll in a one month program or so whether it's basketball or football or soccer or any type of thing like we really wanted to make it comparable to that. And then also from a scholarship perspective we're engaging with that of corporate entities that actively want to engage and add value to that of the students and they are actively given scholarships from that perspective. I know for July 12th we're interacting with the entity by the name of Foro Cliff which is a non-profit organization that works with corporate entities and they've had several corporate entities provide them with funds in which they can give scholarships to that of the students to participate in our exposure immersion program. So we're definitely open to engage with any entities that want to be able to give back and just being able to provide a student with a scholarship to our program would mean the world to that student. So we're open up we open to it we're actively engaged with corporate entities as part of our exposure for all foundation like literally this is a great opportunity because everybody we all know 300, 600 some people may just not afford it right and so ultimately we know we just want to make sure that we still make that available to individuals but most importantly we want it to be a value we really wanted to make sure that when someone leaves this they have something tangible that they can go with a great it's a certificate it's great but when you actually are able to combine a certificate with an actual experience with something on your portfolio it's even better when it comes down it's just like icing on a cake and it makes it more attractive to that of employers when it comes down to hiring. So I think that this is really valuable for employers I would think employers would want to send people there for education. Yes for sure. So I do have a question from a viewer and this is kind of about burnout do you think burnout in eSports jobs is less equal or greater than with regular I mean other types of industry? Right now the industry and I want to make sure that I catch this right but right now the eSports and gaming industry well eSports industry the jobs are not as available as other industries and it's just because of the empathy of the industry but ultimately when you look at the stats and the data the actual jobs in eSports are growing double each year right? So if it's 6,000 jobs right now we need to guess what it's going to be 12,000 jobs and 24,000 jobs and then it's going to compound like that and even with COVID there's even more companies that are that are developing within this space because of the attractiveness of it and eSports is actively helping the gaming industry just as much and the gaming industry is really really massive when it comes down to it you know so ultimately when you think about that and you look at an eSports entity or industry being a 1.5 to 2 billion dollar industry and you're looking at you know a gaming industry being you know 200 to 300,000 300 billion dollar industry you know you're seeing that there are way more opportunities in the actual gaming space but the cool thing about gaming in eSports is that the skill sets that are developed in these industries are applicable to any industry right and that's what we like to talk to students and parents and you know stakeholders about is like you know you don't actively have to be in the industry of eSports and gaming if you don't want to but the skill set that you're building within here is fun and engaging but the skill sets that you're building are applicable to any industry so the jobs that are available now it opens you up to many because I can guarantee you employers they want to see skill sets and that's collaborative that's creative thinking that's you know socializing that's understanding the impact of personality that's understanding the concept of organization so the skill set that you or competition is really big so the skill sets that you are learning in gaming in eSports can still open you up to so many other career opportunities that are out there you're just not limited to gaming in eSports what advice do you have for people who want to try and break into the eSports industry? Get out there I can tell you from experience it's I know a lot of people say just get out there but really it's so true for me in the industry getting in there and being interested was like I would travel all around you know drive my truck or car miles and hundreds of miles and thousands of miles just to go to events and watch what's transpiring in these events from you know call the duties to the NBA 2Ks and I would just watch everything that's going on in these tournaments and I will see the tournament organizer I'll watch I'll see somebody monitoring the brackets I'll see the competitors gaming I'll see the sponsors I'll see the the vendors at the tournaments I will see the you know the ticket booth I'll see the venues and how they make capital and ultimately you just go around you ask like you know do you need some help you know like how can I help right and when you go and make those friendships and those partnerships then you start to build your portfolio where somebody's for the next tournament or next event they say hey I remember this guy he was a cool individual he helped me I have so I have a budget now you know would you mind helping me for this tournament and then you do that job and then it comes with another job so ultimately it's just about getting into the space and really adding you know whatever you can you know because everybody has something to offer and ultimately you may not get you know capital right off top but as you start to build your portfolio you will find that you are a value and someone will say hey I want to pay you for what's your value what's your worth because ultimately I want you to do it at the highest level because everybody in this industry is trying to grow and they're trying to get bigger and bigger and offer better and better and it takes resources to get to that point and when someone has resources if you've done a good job of showcasing your portfolio you can be a part of those resources so I would say just get out there and look at it and say what skill set that you have within yourself that you can add to the industry Okay before we wrap up I'd like to show that second video yes for sure everything overnight right like you have to really have a plan as far as whether it's equipment gathering or purchasing or just to Wayne's point reinvesting people after hearing you talk about exposure that it it draws people to your company how can people get in touch with you or or find out more yeah so you know we just try to be as open and you know organic and authentic as a company so we utilize as many channels as possible when it comes down to Facebook exposure Instagram exposure Gigi you know even Twitch when you go to exposure studios so ultimately we love to be able to utilize any channel when it comes down to what we do you know based off of just even looking at that video the people behind the scenes are students they're a part of our company and it just can show you how much opportunity that they've been able to provide on their portfolio could you imagine someone in high school working with the New York Giants right and able to put the New York Giants on their portfolio as a graphic designer or as you know a videographer this is the opportunities that we provide as an esports organization and we advise any entity out there to provide those exact same entities and opportunities and you know Catherine you're doing that exact same thing right now by providing a platform for individuals to be able to speak their truths their passion and it's amazingly awesome to be able to be on this podcast to talk with you well thank you so much Danny we've learned a lot and I can't wait to see your new space it's gonna be awesome all right anyway thank you to the viewer who has sent in the question and thank you for joining us today make sure to to the next week my guest will be Amanda Solomon the CEO of Iris TV a gaming talent management agency see you then