Today we’d like to introduce you to Eric Inocencio
Eric, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
When my son Rykers was very young he spent a lot of time watching other YouTubers. He would tell me at times that he needed to watch his subscribers. I know he was referring to the creator as his subscribers because they were always referring to the audience as subscribers while enticing them to subscribe. So I knew where he got the term subscribers from. This went on for about a year or longer until he finally asked when he would start a YouTube channel so he can have subscribers. So I figured why not. It was a win win for me. I got to spend time with my son, and I believed that Ryker and my bonding on camera would be an open invitation for a younger audience to join in on the bonding with us. I just wanted to fill a void if someone was lacking quality time with someone positive. I wanted to make the viewer feel like they could be part of the fun with us. I also understood that creating videos and posting them on YouTube was like free infinite storage where I could store family videos. I could just keep them private and share with family to allow them to keep up with what we were doing as a family. Especially family that didn’t live close enough to see us on a regular basis
One thing led to another, I started to fall in love with the entire creative process and the new hobby of learning how to build a brand. After some time creating I was starting to see the types of comments on videos, some would encourage me, some would make me mad, but others would make me feel sad. I knew based off the comments we were achieving our goal and spending just a little more positivity into the world. Being that we are devoted Christians it wasn’t long before I felt like God has blessed us with a platform to do good things for His glory.
If we could just make one persons day and have them go from mad, sad, or depressed to being filled with joy then the effort we put into the creation process was worth every minute. We just pray that God gives us the strength and perseverance to keep making a positive difference where we can.
Our next step is hopefully starting or working with nonprofits to continue to do what we can in our local communities. We get to focus so much on viewers all over the world we would love to do something twice an impactful for our local communities
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Being an active creator is not easy. I’ve cried, been upset, felt defeated, burned out, been happy, filled with joy, been excited, and have felt like giving up. It’s hard because I do about 90-95% of the process by myself while still maintaining a full time job and having Ryker in extra curricular sports. I have to edit, work with editors, plan out more content, work with designers that can craft a thumbnail. Sure it sounds easy. But it takes a lot of time working with people that are not on the same time zone or time schedule as I am. I know of two accounts during our 5 years as a creator where I have wanted to quit. So the biggest obstacle is staying dedicated to your passion even when times get discouraging
We have had our fair share of challenge’s outside the metal and physical stress. Starting with the Covid lockdown in 2020. This was about 6 months after starting the channel. Making content in lockdown was hard but we tried to make it as fun as possible. I remember when store would allow limited people to shop, I would get all bundled up head to the store to grab any board games, toys, or anything I would think would make fun videos to have fun with Ryker
The next challenge was the winter freeze in Texas in 2021 that displaced us from our house due to water pipes busting and ruining 1/4 of our home. We had to live in a hotel for over 6 months while waiting on our house to be repaired. We would sometimes film videos at the hotel our return to our damaged house just to film in the backyard.
Outside that some of the biggest challenges came early on. Starting with learning how to edit. Coming from a sales position where I work this was a foreign task for me. I began to grow a big interest in learning something new. Then the next challenge was learning how to understand the analytics on our videos performance. Now this part was the most intimidating but once i started to buy courses and read books i slowly became easy to notice patterns in the metrics. Now the challenge is having to remember everything I’ve learned during the creation process. Sure I know what I need to do, but I also understand why companies scale their business with multiple employees with specific jobs.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
We create YouTube videos around Airsofts, BB Guns, Nerf, Gel Blasters, and any items around the shooting sport. We will film vlogs, unboxing, challenge, and shopping videos that we can share with anyone that wants to spend time with us and feel like they are part of the family.
Who else deserves credit in your story?
Most of all we give credit to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ first and foremost. We also credit my wife/Ryker’s mom, my Daughter/Ryker’s sister for all the support they gave us in the start. They are both very supportive and some of the biggest contributors to what we do. They have sacrificed a lot of their time to do things or go places with us to film for the channel
Our extended family have been very supportive also, from my parents and siblings doing what they could to spread awareness of the channel
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @therykerstoybox
- Facebook: @rykerstoybox
- Twitter: @rykerstoybox
- Youtube: @rykerstoybox
