If you think back to yourself at the age of 21, what were you up to? What had you achieved and what were your dreams?
For 21 year old Tibo Belpaire, living in Belgium, he’s well on his way to achieving his dreams and doing what he loves most — creating gaming videos. At the age of 14, Tibo started creating these videos — and this hobby drove his decision to study Multimedia first and now Audio Visual Design at the College University of Artevelde. While in his teens Tibo was approached by a gaming producer who asked him to create a video for his game. Naturally he obliged, and this sparked the start of his freelancer career in video game creation. This is his story…
Using YouTube and other means to gain clients
Tibo learnt what YouTube has to offer, created his own channel and is monetising the videos he creates. He takes great encouragement from the positive comments left by his subscribers, sitting at about 2,720 currently, and the support he’s received from this platform has been overwhelming. Tibo also makes use of listing his services on a number of platforms and forums which has seen more clients queuing for his services.
Covid-19 and the positives that came from this
The Covid-19 pandemic forced millions of people to stay at home and scour YouTube, which helped grow his network and increased his ROI – the more views the higher the returns. Tibo also joined forces with an American friend and together they created a game Immortal, due to launch officially in April 2021 – One of many projects lined up together.
Balancing the student and freelancer life
Tibo’s motivation lies in being supportive towards his family and providing for himself as a student. There are many costs to be covered and his regular student job and his freelancing goes towards these expenses. And, being a student and working means Tibo needs to be organized and be sure to divide his time between his studies, dealing with clients and the recording and editing that needs to be done on each job.
Dreams and hopes for the future
His dreams are not small… Tibo aims to get into producing music videos — this genre offers limitless possibilities and the level of creativity is endless. What’s more, Tibo has been offered the opportunity to create a short documentary as well, filming the life of a convicted drug trafficker.
A code to live by
A thankful attitude goes a long way. Tibo is aware that his successes are directly related to the support he gets from his family, community, and clients. Tibo’s code to live by is; ‘Dreams don’t work unless you do.’ He urges budding freelancers — “If you don’t try, you’ll never get there. Never give up… your hobby could become your dream job, a successful business, and profitable returns.”
