When I started doing reviews...
I started out by doing written reviews.
Writing reviews was a pastime hobby. It was a way for me to write about how I felt, or what I thought about things I liked or loved (and on occasion loathed).
I distinctly remember about 1:50-2:00 am Eastern US on a cool November night (in 2015) I received an e-mail, while sitting in my make shift little office in an unused bedroom at home. The e-mail was from an event coordinator with Newegg. It was pretty simple and straight forward...something like...
'Hi Matthew (I prefer Matt to Matthew, don't get any ideas nublets), we've seen your reviews. You have written a lot of reviews and the community has found them helpful. Newegg would like to nominate you for a Golden Eggie Award and send you out to Las Vegas to attend and accept the award.'
Of course I was skeptical so I confirmed with Newegg that this person was authentic, and this was a real thing.
Fast forward a few months.
I arrived in Las Vegas, checked in to my hotel and met with the contact who emailed me initially. She explained the event and what to expect.
Fast forward a little more.
After touring Las Vegas a bit and viewing some of CES I got ready for the event. A Tron type spectacle that was pretty impressive to witness. I met some big wigs from PayPal who sat at my table, as well as the CEO and CFO of an inter-chat third party service that lets consumers connect to vendors. Everyone I met was extremely kind, fun to talk to, and all around enjoyable.
The Slow-Mo guys were there, some of you may be familiar with them. They sat across the room in a mirroring booth. I Greeted them with a hello but did not chat with them. (I'm a pretty 'keep-to-myself' type of guy in person).
After the event was under way it was all about enjoying some drinks, some company, and listening to all the brands and their reps being called and honored for various categories by Newegg.
Around the end I was called up and handed mine (Prolific Reviewer Award). I was able to meet the Newegg top brass on stage, shake hands, be told thanks, and sent on to enjoy the party back with my new acquaintances. I learned a lot of their accomplishments, and goals. A whole new world was unfolding in front of me and I knew I wanted to do something different. I wanted to try and extend myself. Networking and community have never been my forte. I have made it a goal to try and change that.
Here is a link to the 2016 Award Winners
So where am I going with this?
My now wife encouraged me to grow. She encouraged me to reach out of my comfort zone and start trying to do what I love to do. Her endless support pushed me in to some of my first attempts at video reviews (they are terrible...I'm my own worst critic. Those videos feel like they become more terrible as time progresses). Each time I make a new video I try to add a little extra spice, or do something a little different. My primary target for my content has always been based around a pretty basic formula:
Budget = Your Price + Bang for the Buck
Budget doesn't mean cheap. Budgets can range from small to high-dollar amounts...My goal is to find the better, or best budget options in the tiered tech arena...The best bang for the buck is paramount.
A clear problem I see is that there is a lot of product bloat. I want to weed the good from the bad. I want to show people my findings. There are some real winning (not well known) brands out there, and there are some real wallet thieving brands out there. From low to high, I aim to find "Price+Product=Satisfaction", which is derived from my "Budget=Price+Bang for the Buck". Ideally I think everyone wants to feel like they got more than what they paid for, and not the other way around.
One of the struggles is being an unknown. Not only am I 'unknown' I aim to to show people things they aren't necessarily looking for because they don't know about it (or the products respective under-advertised brands I dig for). This means my exposure is limited, and growth is slow for our community.
I'm going to return to writing a little more. Nothing quite like I used to write, but some quick written overviews to go with my videos as I produce them. Hopefully it will be another step in the right direction for Eight-Six Media. Our Humble budget tech/media channel.
I hope this article provides some context to my mission for Eight-Six. I hope it shows you a little bit about who I am and why I make attempts at doing what I do. I have a very positive few of you that always know how to lift it up and carry the charisma forward. I couldn't ask for better mix of random strangers from the inter-webs who step up and join in topic discussions and conversations on the videos. :)
You guys have a great day, night, or whatever it is. I'll see you in the next video I do, or be read by you in the next article I finger vomit on this website.
-Matt [Eight-Six]
To be direct, and to keep it simple, prolific means plentiful. I see more than just a hunk of metal shaped like an egg on faux marble. To me it's the silly trinket that emboldens me to strive for something more, and to try and build a community.
prolific adjective pro·​lif·​ic | \prə-ˈli-fik \ Definition of prolific 1 : producing young or fruit especially freely : FRUITFUL 2 archaic : causing abundant growth, generation, or reproduction 3 : marked by abundant inventiveness or productivity a prolific composer