This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Angie Baker, who manages her son CaseOh’s YouTube channel with 10 million subscribers. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
I’d been working for the city in our Arkansas hometown when Case started his livestreaming career. He was 24 and had been working in maintenance and mowing grass after work.
One day, he posted two or three funny videos of himself playing NBA 2K, and he gained 15,000 TikTok followers overnight. We were just dumbfounded. I suggested he go live, so he started on Twitch. As he gained more and more followers, he said, “I want to give this a go and try and go full-time.”
I was nervous, but his dad said, “Let him — he needs to try.”
Four years later, he passed 10 million subscribers on YouTube. I brought balloons and got people he admired, like Nadeshot and TimTheTatman, to do a congrats video. When he stood and hugged me when he crossed the 10 million line, this mama’s heart was bursting with joy for him.
His dad and I were both new to streaming at first. I was the media manager at our church, so I got us up and running and learned all I could about Twitch and Discord while working full time. His dad helps with moderating on Twitch. We had slow internet speed, so it would literally take me all day long to get a video up. A year after Case started streaming full time, we quit our jobs and joined him full time.
Case wasn’t really interested in YouTube when he began. I’m like, “Let’s do YouTube, because it’s just a huge platform.” I didn’t know the difference between Twitch and YouTube or how to make a vertical Short. I taught myself how to make thumbs watching YouTube videos and looking at popular YouTubers like CoryxKenshin and Markiplier for inspiration. I was in a meeting with CaseOh’s YouTube rep the other day, and he looked back at his first thumbnail, and he started laughing. I think I just titled it, like, CaseOh’s full stream and the date.
It helped that I’m very inquisitive. I love to get into the analytics, learning things like when you’re supposed to upload based on when your viewers are watching.
Normally, with male streamers, their followers skew male. Case started at 70%, and now it’s 50/50. He gets marriage proposals all the time. I think it’s because he’s so relatable. And he’s not just playing shooting games. He played “Dress to Impress.” He doesn’t mind being silly. He’s just a good guy.
Now, we have three full-time editors who upload to each channel and do the thumbnails. That took a big weight off. The only thing they edit out is when he goes to the bathroom, because the community hates edits and wants his raw stuff.
I still oversee both his YouTube channels, the editors, and the mods. I remind him about upload times, and he’ll title and approve thumbnails. I communicate with his sponsors, and talk to his talent agency and his attorneys regularly.
Balancing mom and manager
People think I have control. But this is his business. He’ll get offered a lot of money to play a game, and it’s not his style — he’s turned down millions. I’m thinking, it could bring in more viewers. But he knows his community won’t watch it. He’ll play games off-stream that he knows his community won’t watch. He loves his community.
Streaming isn’t a 9-5 job, but it’s mentally draining. He streams four hours every night. Last summer, he had an ear infection and TMJ and took a full week off, his longest ever. It’s hard. Sometimes I can see he’s not as full on as he normally is. He’ll sound so drained sometimes. I’m like — mom hat — “Babe, it’s OK to just not stream tonight.”
It’s hard when people post the rare negative comment about him, but he’s taught me to just let it roll off my back. I have to step back and realize he’s a grown man who makes his own decisions.
We do get along pretty good. He does ask for mine and his dad’s opinion all the time. He may not take it. But he’s always been a good kid.
The family stays grounded
We’re still just the same old regular old country folk, and that’s the way we want it. Case does not like to flaunt money at all. He bought me a car, and I won’t even drive it back home because I don’t want it to be like we’re flowing in money.
He was still young when all this happened, and we didn’t have time to prepare. But we still do life. We have our friends, we attend church. The kids in my youth group get tickled that I know the online lingo.
I’ll keep doing this as long as he needs me. But I’m not that young anymore. I’m 51. I’ve got to have somebody that I trust that I know is going to take care of him after I’m dead and gone. And you have to vet people in this business.
