Today we’d like to introduce you to WILL RAINES
WILL, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I started the Rangers Savant Instagram account two months ago after tossing around the idea of starting a new page like this for about 6 months. I’ve been making content since 2019 under the account name of “willieilish” and got my start on TikTok by dancing around and using the captions of my videos to tell dad jokes. Those videos helped me accrue over 1 million followers over a span of 3 years and by 2022, I felt pretty tapped out from making these kinds of videos. I began to lose followers on TikTok and Instagram and turned my focus towards my digital marketing business and career.
I hardly posted in 2023, but at the beginning of 2024, I started diving into YouTube and became infatuated with creating a new style of content that was fully representative of me and my interests. For the first time in a long time, I was fully satisfied with being a creator for just my friends and family, and even today I still have that mindset. Starting a baseball oriented Instagram account was my biggest step in venturing outside of what I knew as a creator because I knowingly was starting over, but I was pursuing one of my greatest passions at a whole new level.
Baseball has been a huge part of my life since 2009, and I’ve been a Rangers fan for almost 15 years. I played baseball through high school, and today play in both wiffle ball and slowpitch leagues because anything that keeps me close to the sport brings so much joy into my life. I believe that joy and passion for baseball has been what’s helped me find success with the Rangers Savant Instagram account.
Today, I’m posting a few times a week to a really solid core of followers that have been nothing but supportive and encouraging with the videos I’ve made. It’s been a dream getting to connect with so many incredible people just in the last couple of months who all care for, and support the team I’ve been enamoured with for so many years.
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?
I’ve posted well over a thousand pieces of content over the last 5 years and have learned that if you don’t take care of yourself, and don’t enjoy what you make, you will get burnt out really easily. There can be a lot of pressure when creating content for an audience, and so feeling compelled to churn out videos with frequency and regularity can be hard especially when these videos don’t pay the bills.
Starting anything from scratch is incredibly difficult, but starting a fresh account to post content on is a whole different animal. That first video you post is a super vulnerable position to put yourself in because you have to be authentic with nobody watching and nobody knowing who you are.
That being said, I believe the things that are the hardest to work for in life bring the greatest sense of pride and joy when working on them. I made the choice to fully separate from my previous audience with the Rangers Savant account, fully expecting that it would be a challenge. But being able to grow this new account to where it is now has been so incredibly fulfilling with everything that I have worked towards in my journey as a content creator.
Just like with starting anything you have big hopes for, there are always bumps in the road, but I’m confident in myself and fully believe in the work that I do.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
For my day job, I am the digital strategy director at a church in Carrollton called Bent Tree Bible Fellowship. On the weekends, I have my own consulting firm where I teach and empower people how to feel confident on social media. And then any other time I’m working, I’m Rangers Savant–video content creator making baseball videos specifically about the Texas Rangers.
There genuinely aren’t many other baseball creators out there that are making videos similar to mine. I believe I have a very unique editing style that combines data with humor and like to think I also have a good pulse on understanding how my audience engages with my videos. Some people come to me for hard data about the team and its players, but I’m sure plenty of people watch for the more entertaining bits along the way too.
There are some truly great fan pages for the Rangers out there right now, but no one is creating content the way that I do. I love the way that I get to inform and entertain people about baseball and it’s what sets me apart from the other baseball creators out there.
Can you share something surprising about yourself?
Like I mentioned prior, I have played competitive wiffle ball for about 10 years now in a league that has been run by friends and even at one point, myself up in Little Elm. We have advanced stats, tournaments, a podcast, and in my opinion, some of the best wiffle ball players in the world.
I also am a percussionist and was originally going to go to school for music and now play drums for churches and youth camps on my free weekends.
Pricing:
- Following my account: (FREE)
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rangerssavant/
Image Credits
Portrait Photo Credits to: Morgan Danielle Smith
