Creator turned founder: How Henry created the #1 Apex Legends podcast and founded CreatorOS

Who are you?

My name is Henry, and I am the co-host of the Third Party Podcast, co-founder of Third Party Productions, and founder of CreatorOS. I am equally passionate about video games and entrepreneurship, and have really found my place in the creator community.

What is your personal backstory that motivated you to get into entrepreneurship?

I always knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur. It sounds odd to say that “I always knew what I wanted to do,” but it’s true! Since I was in middle school, I had a distinct desire to start my own business and was always coming up with new ideas and ventures.

You have to follow your passions. Even if your mom wants you to go to law school and become the attorney general… you have to create the life you want to live. I have always felt that starting my own business was the best way I could provide for my family, impact people in a positive way, and do something that truly excites me.

When you first started your entrepreneurship journey, what kind of businesses did you try to launch?

Over the years, I have tried a ton of different businesses ranging from branded apparel to emergency preparedness kits to an esports platform.

In college, I was really inspired by a local clothing brand and tried to launch my own apparel company called Seattle Classics based on my hometown. This was the first venture I took really seriously and invested a lot of time into social media. I think I started around five to six Instagram accounts solely devoted to Seattle Classics. Each one had similar names such as IG.Seattle, Seattle Black and White, and, of course, Seattle Classics.

After that did not work out, I started an emergency preparedness company that created natural disaster kits that would go in each dorm room. This was my first attempt at a business-to-business approach as I intended to sell to universities directly.

When that did not take off, I then started an esports platform that would introduce tournaments directly into game interfaces. In other words, you would be able to participate in tournaments directly within the game through an overlay screen. My goal was to sell this to game publishers as a white-labeled solution. I think the moral of the story is that every entrepreneur has likely tried tons of different businesses, and even if they don’t pan out — that’s okay! I like to think of each business as its own science experiment, with each successive attempt, you learn something valuable.

Talk us through your journey into content creation and the inception of your first, successful podcast.

My first project in content creation was not actually the Third Party Podcast. It all started around Seattle-based Instagram content to fuel my clothing brand, Seattle Classics. Then, in the summer after freshman year, my best friend Shay and I tried starting a hiking-vlogging channel on YouTube. We put a ton of time into this. The hike itself would be an all-day trip, but then we would spend at least 2–4 hours planning the hike and 20 hours editing footage for just a 10-minute video. We tried to create very high-quality content for YouTube that people would enjoy, but it took so much effort and did not pay off in the end.

After that is when the origin story for the Third Party commenced. During the pandemic, I was spending the majority of my free time playing video games (Apex Legends and Titanfall 2 in particular) because there was not anything else I could do! While I loved playing Apex, I also felt resentment for it — I felt as if I was wasting time playing video games that could’ve been spent on entrepreneurship. All I wanted and had been trying to do is start some sort of business and pursue my true passions.

So, I decided, along with Shay, that we would put the video game to work and start a podcast around it. In the beginning, I didn’t think this was a good idea. I wasn’t a listener of podcasts at the time, and I couldn’t fathom how video games, which are inherently visual, could translate to an audio-only platform. But Shay convinced me to “turn off my business brain,” and just to do the podcast for fun. And thus, the Third Party Podcast was born.

What Was Your Approach to Starting The Third Party Podcast?

The core motivation was to do something productive that was also fun. Shay and I would talk for hours on end about strategy, gameplay, and the Legends and decided to organize and record those conversations we were already having. As we started the podcast, I saw an opportunity arise because I could not actually turn off my business brain. There weren’t many Apex Legends podcasts out there and I knew we had good back-and-forth chemistry.

We wanted to be an educational podcast to help people improve in the game and we also wanted to keep it clean. Our goal was to be super consistent and only put out high-quality episodes that people of all ages would enjoy. There’s this stereotypical “toxic gamer” vibe that results in heated, negative emotions, and that’s not what we wanted to cultivate. More than 300 episodes later, I am so proud of the content we created, the community we’ve gathered, and the fact we never missed an episode.

How did you get your first 1,000 listeners?

It was an absolute grind. Neither my co-host nor I have ever started a podcast, and podcasts don’t have the greatest of search engines. It was very difficult to get discovered organically. With that being said, I was able to apply the things I learned from marketing Seattle Classics on Instagram to the Third Party brand. Over the course of the next six months, I posted on social media platforms every single day — 3 times per day to the feed and 5–10 times to my story. And after those six months, we grew to over 10k followers on Instagram, and that’s what really enabled us to funnel our first few hundred listeners to eventually thousands.

What was the most important driver of your growth?

The truth is, I don’t really know. And I don’t think anyone really knows. But I like to believe that it was the consistency. Like I said, we lived and breathed social media, posting every single day, multiple times per day. With our podcast, every week, we uploaded and posted our episodes on the days we said we would. So, if anyone was a follower or listener, they could rely on our content being there and even see new content every single day. And once you get listeners and viewers consistently enjoying your content, you now have fans, and fans root for you and share your content with their friends. I believe that is what led to the momentum we needed.

What has been the most difficult challenge in building your podcast?

Our biggest problem was that we had a very limited audience since we were focused on just one specific game. We also plateaued very early. Within 4–6 months, we were already the #1 podcast on Apple Podcast and Spotify for Apex Legends. Since we hit our ceiling so early, it was really hard to break out of that. We tried doubling the amount of content we did and we even tried starting separate podcasts focused on different niches.

What is the most important lesson you’ve learned in growing your business?

Maintain positivity. Especially in the field of gaming, there can be a lot of toxic energy and negativity. If you don’t know how to keep things positive, practice! If you don’t keep things positive, you are going to be in a negative headspace, and this directly impacts the atmosphere of your fanbase. At first, people thought we weren’t being authentic since it’s so common to see that “toxic gamer” behavior. But the truth is we were 100% authentic! We loved the game, we enjoyed doing the podcast, and we tried to communicate that positivity as we went along. We still critiqued the game, but our critiques were never the center of an episode nor reactive.

The beauty of this approach is that our positivity translated to our audience. For example, we started a Discord, and it was the most positive community I have ever seen. We didn’t need moderation and we didn’t need to ban anyone. So, I would recommend that whatever you’re doing in your creative or entrepreneurial journey — do your best to stay positive.

What’s in store for your future?

Recently, I have decided to shift my attention away from the podcast towards a new goal, which is to build tools to support creators. A little over three months ago, I founded a company called CreatorOS, which is the operating system for content creators. CreatorOS is an all-in-one platform where creators can track social media analytics, brand deals, maintain their content calendar, and manage their finances. It’s the type of tool that I wish I had when I was creating content.

What do you want to achieve in the next 5 years with CreatorOS?

Within 5 years, I want CreatorOS to be the de-facto platform for creators to manage everything within their business — content, finances, analytics, and more. We are laser-focused on organization so that creators can finally have a central dashboard that makes sense of their business. Beyond organization, I want CreatorOS to help creators scale their business. Since creators will be able to track their social media analytics, visualize their finances, and so much more, they will be able to identify areas to optimize their business and ultimately scale. My goal is to get as many creators on the platform, learn from their experiences, and see them grow.

Finally, if you were to give one piece of advice to an aspiring entrepreneur or creator that is afraid to take the leap, what would you say?

Follow your passion — you simply have to. There are a ton of great ideas in the world, but if you’re not working on the one you love, you won’t be successful or happy. The Third Party Podcast grew to the community that it was because I was doing something that I loved.

As a creative entrepreneur, it’s very tempting to orient yourself towards what you think might be “successful” or “trending,” but you have to identify what you truly love to do and then do that. Ask yourself what gets you up in the morning? What makes you excited about life? What makes you feel proud of yourself? Whatever that thing is — that’s what you should be focusing on growing and investing in. And even if you haven’t figured out the “business” side of it yet, that’s okay! When we started the Third Party, we didn’t know whether it would be a viable business or remain a hobby. Yet, our passion for the game and overall enjoyment fueled us to think big.

In this next chapter of my life, my passion is to help and support creators, and that’s why I started CreatorOS. If you want to learn more from me while you’re starting your first business or growing as a creator, feel free to visit my mentorship page.

If you are content creator who wants to get mentored by Henry to land your first brand deal, gain more subs, manage your creator business, and grow on multiple platforms, get started for free here.

If you are a brand who wants to work with Henry to nail your marketing campaigns, become a social media expert, and get product feedback, please see here.