Today we’d like to introduce you to Nicholas DiBartolomeo.
Hi Nicholas, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
Back in 2020, at the height of the pandemic, my childhood friend Bruno and I floated the idea of starting a gaming podcast. This was back when a lot of people were doing exactly that, as staying at home and the concept of using a PC to remotely create content with others was becoming increasingly popular. The premise behind founding the Quit The Build podcast was pretty simple – we wanted to chat about news within the gaming industry while hitting the record button instead of just having the countless late-night chats we inevitably had while playing video games together.
Quit The Build wasn’t actually originally a podcast, we were a group of gamers who shared a love for the Halo franchise. But since we already had the name, we figured we might as well use it for the podcast, so QTB took on a whole new life in January of 2021!
Many people ask us what Quit The Build means – it is actually a developer term. Essentially when coding a game, if you are testing it and there are bugs causing major issues, the developer will “quit the build” and make corrections. We took that concept one step further and applied it to our mentality while playing video games. It is very important to us as adults with limited gaming time that we enjoy our hobby to the fullest, and online games in the modern day can easily cause a toxic mentality.
So if we get upset, or on some sort of losing streak, we Quit The Build and back out of the game entirely! We will go get a snack, reset our state of mind, and then come back to a fresh lobby with a cleared mind. While that may sound simple, that approach to mental health in gaming and beyond formed the core of our mission statement for creating a brand around Quit The Build. That mission was simply to create content centered around positivity, fun, and inclusivity.
Growing an audience as a podcast is not easy, especially in a time where just about anybody can start one with little or no starting expenses. But we persevered, finding our rhythm and interviewing indie game developers and content creators. Over time our Twitter following began to grow, and within a few months, we had even secured a sponsor for the podcast!
Once we transitioned into creating a video podcast instead of just audio (with the video able to be seen on YouTube and Spotify), things kicked up to a new level. We began to master short-form content like TikTok and YouTube Shorts, with many of those videos generating millions of views – needless to say, we were blown away! Our interviews began to progressively get bigger, until we created a spinoff show called QTB Legends, where legendary game industry veterans have joined us for exclusive interviews, like EA Sports co-founder Don Traeger.
Also around this time, we expanded from a podcast to much more as we created the QTB Network! This allowed us to bring in additional in-house shows like Gotta Watch, a movie and TV rewatch podcast and even game streamers like Kungfupenguin. As a result, we have created a network of entertaining family-friendly content across a variety of entertainment subgenres.
Our growth has only continued to skyrocket as we are about to cross 100,000 total followers, with our TikTok and YouTube accounts generating literally millions of likes as we seek out the content that our fans want us to produce. The journey for us is definitely just getting started, but looking back we’re amazed at how far we’ve come from just being a group of gaming friends to so much more!
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?
Is it ever a smooth road? Both myself and Bruno have created content in various ways over the years (Twitch, YouTube, etc.) but we always found ourselves hitting a creative wall and moving on.
So naturally, we both went into this venture with a cautious approach, wanting to make sure that we don’t burn ourselves out by doing too much too fast. What we quickly learned is that having other people on the team to rely on (instead of our content creation being a solo venture) helped to keep each other in check. About a year later we brought on Brad Parry as an additional co-host of the podcast and member of our executive team, and that further helped us to center ourselves and gain another valuable perspective on our vision and overall direction.
It is very easy in any form of independent content creators to get those dark clouds of self-doubt, and without others to lean on that can make it hard to keep pushing. But our sense of team and community, and our vision of creating a brand bigger than ourselves kept things moving!
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Quit The Build is a media production brand centered around the core tenants of being family-friendly, entertaining, and anchored by a community of inclusive, positive-minded fans.
Our flagship podcast, Quit The Build, is a weekly show where we talk about the latest gaming news, as well as various hot topics and pop culture conversations. We aim to make the show fun and lighthearted while still ultimately being an informative show that our listeners can walk away with real knowledge about what is happening in the video game industry.
Additionally, we have an entire network of content creators through the QTB Network that offers various gaming and entertainment-themed shows for every taste, including podcasts, streamers, and even musicians!
The thing I’m most proud of with our brand is how fast we’ve been able to grow without spending a dime on marketing. In a little over a year, we’ve generated almost 100,000 followers between YouTube, TikTok, and other platforms, and our momentum is stronger than ever!
We’re always looking for the lessons that can be learned in any situation, including tragic ones like the Covid-19 crisis. Are there any lessons you’ve learned that you can share?
Definitely. Isolation was a challenging concept for many people but learning the importance and value of meeting people remotely and preserving relationships through video conferencing apps was a big takeaway for us as we founded the podcast in the middle of a pandemic.
While I am from Clarksburg, MD the other co-founders of Quit The Build (Bruno and Brad) are on the west coast, so being able to master remote content creation was an important skill for us. We formed a very close bond over the last few years despite our physical distance, and in a way, the pandemic gave us an opportunity to consider a new venture that may not have happened if we were still going on with our normal lives in 2020.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://quitthebuild.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/qtbnetwork
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/quitthebuild
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/quitthebuild
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/quitthebuild
- Other: https://tiktok.com/@quitthebuild
