When Sean Gurr decided to quit his 9-5 job and dedicate his days to live-streaming games online, he did so with a matter of caution.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
But four months after making that life-changing choice, he has started to reap the benefits.
"It's always a risk with stuff like this," Mr Gurr said.
"There were a few things at my other job that made me want to look at other options and streaming at the time was paying about 70 per cent of my basic bills.
"I had some savings, so once it got to that point, I thought if I spent all of my time devoted to this, rather than just some spare time outside of my 9-5, I would be able to get to that 100 per cent mark."
In July, he finally hit that magic mark.
Last month, Mr Gurr earned close to $5800 from his online escapades, enough to pay all of his monthly bills and then some.
"It's a very validating feeling to know that what I'm doing is valuable to people," he said.
"I'd been streaming on Twitch for four years and I was doing a bit on Youtube as a hobby before this decision.
"When I got the NBN and the internet speed came up a bit, it became possible for me to livestream. I didn't enjoy editing that much, so it made sense."
Using the streaming site Twitch, Mr Gurr - or BloodyDrongo as he is known on the online platform - enjoys some advertisement revenue, but his income is heavily reliant on his audience, either through one-off payments, or on a reoccurring basis.
"It's not mandatory that they subscribe or support the content they're consuming in a financial sense, because it is free to watch," he said.
"It's people making that decision to say they value this entertainment enough to pay."
As such, Mr Gurr has to cater a wide variety of interests to make sure he can attract as big a viewership as possible.
"Entertaining people and engaging with them has always been something I've been very passionate about since I was very young. I think when I left school I said to the career advisor that I wanted to be on TV or radio, so it makes sense that I ended up here," he said.
"People associate Twitch with gaming, but it's a lot more than that. There's also people that stream cooking, art, sports and people just doing day-to-day life.
"The whole premise is people can watch and observe, but they can also interact with what's happening by chatting along."
While PC gaming is Mr Gurr's predominant form of entertainment - with games like RimWorld and GeoGuessr popular amongst his audience - he also dabbles in art, cooking and showcasing his day-to-day activities.
But there is only so much room for growth while working from his Orange home.
That's why in July, he decided to take up an offer to travel to Amsterdam to take part in the internationally renowned TwitchCon.
"The convention that just happened was the first one since COVID and there were around 15,000 people across the weekend," Mr Gurr said.
"It's a great opportunity to network with other streamers and meet with game developers and others in the industry."
This was the first convention of its kind that Mr Gurr had been a part of and he hoped that it would help him further his streaming career even further.