The Stunning Transformation Of Sydnee Goodman
As an internet personality, Sydnee Goodman can't be easily defined, because she's done a bit of everything! Content creation, journalism, hosting, and streaming — you name it. She's got a wildly successful YouTube channel, and she spends plenty a great deal of time streaming games on Twitch. Once upon a time she worked for Buzzfeed, and more recently she was part of IGN as the host of "The Daily Fix." She's hosted events like The 2021 Game Awards and Twitch Rivals Streamer Bowl. Goodman seems to be one of those rare individuals who really can accomplish anything that she sets her mind to, which has earned her a significant following in the gaming world.
From her years covering gaming content for Buzzfeed, Goodman has slowly become one of the most recognizable faces in the gaming industry. She's worked in front of the camera and behind the scenes, and these days she's successfully managing her own business and working for herself. There's no one single secret to Goodman's rise to fame. She's put in the work day after day and year after year.
Her love of gaming began with Halo
Most gamers have a special place in their hearts for their first video games. Whether it was playing "Pac-Man" at an arcade or getting through the opening hours of "Ocarina of Time," everyone's passion for gaming had to start somewhere. Sydnee Goodman is just like any other gamer in that respect, and she's said that one of her earliest gaming memories still influences her career to this day.
Goodman talked with BossBabe about where her love for video games really began: with her father. "[My dad] loves video games, but he was really into 'Halo: Combat Evolved.' As a kid, he used to let me watch him play when I wasn't afraid of watching." Before long, Goodman was playing games alongside her father and brothers, and the rest is history.
Years later, she's still drawn to the "Halo" franchise, but now she finds herself also getting involved behind the scenes. In 2022, she was picked to host "Halo the Series: Declassified" on Paramount+. This weekly show features deep dives into the lore behind the "Halo" television series and exclusive interviews with its stars. Goodman said she was "honored and excited" to be hosting the show, bringing her love of the series full circle.
She's been creating content since she was a kid
Sydnee Goodman has already built herself an impressive and inspiring career. As she's been growing her audiences through the years, she's also had a front-row seat for some massive changes in the industry. The rise of professional gaming has led to opportunities that Goodman never could have imagined as a kid, and the development of platforms like Twitch and YouTube have given her a chance to create her own content and connect directly to her audience in ways that wouldn't have been possible just two decades ago.
"I think about how I was editing content as, like, a ten year old. It was so painstaking," Goodman said in a clip posted on Twitter. Changes to technology haven't just made video editing easier, they've also made new types of content creation possible. Goodman uses a mix of tablets, phones, and laptops to create videos for her audience on YouTube and to make content for her clients.
Technology has come a long way since Goodman started making videos as a kid, and she's shown her fans on YouTube the biggest tech upgrades she's made to her creative process since leaving college.
She was almost a dentist
In some alternate reality the sky is purple, rivers flow backwards, and Sydnee Goodman is a dentist. Believe it or not, Goodman actually took an admissions test for a dentistry school when she was preparing for college (via BossBabe). At the time, she wasn't expecting to do well on the test, but when her results guaranteed her admission to the school, she realized she still needed to change her plans. It was a scary moment for her, she says. "I remember the fear of telling my parents I didn't want to go." Goodman's parents supported her decision though, and she started down the path of becoming a content creator.
She's told her fans that, as a teenager, she'd been attracted to the "idea of opening [her] own practice and being [her] own boss." Her dad was an entrepreneur, and Goodman once viewed becoming a dentist or doctor as the only way to get some independence in her career. Her current job as an independent content creator might seem as far away from practicing medicine as possible, but by changing her plans, Goodman got what she really wanted: working for herself.
Her gaming career really took off with Buzzfeed
Sydnee Goodman didn't start her career on YouTube, or even in front of the camera. She took a job with BuzzFeed that had her working behind the scenes. At the time, she told BuzzFeed that she wanted to "understand how to make a great video" from the ground up, and so she started at the company in a position managing content strategy on YouTube and social media content on Instagram. That role gave her exactly the insight she wanted into creating engaging online content, and it opened the door to everything that would come later.
BuzzFeed didn't just give Goodman a shot at content creation, it also helped her to establish a greater niche in gaming. Goodman said her role at BuzzFeed "was kind of one of those right place, right time things." Because she already had a strong interest in gaming, not to mention some notable contacts in the video game industry, BuzzFeed would frequently turn to her when it wanted to cover gaming content. Naturally, she became one of BuzzFeed's main gaming experts, setting her further down the path to where she is today.
Hosting The Game Awards
Buzzfeed may have given Sydnee Goodman some more experience, but it wasn't fully responsible for establishing her as a gaming host. Goodman's first hosting opportunity came from The Game Awards. In a video explaining her unorthodox and inspiring career path, Goodman told fans she was originally approached with a hosting opportunity in "the middle of November of 2017," and was immediately excited to stretch her skills and make a big splash in the gaming world. Despite not having an official reel put together for the organizers to see, Goodman landed the gig and got to be the backstage host at the 2017 Game Awards.
Goodman knew that this hosting job could change her career forever. "Everybody in the industry watches The Game Awards," she said, adding that after she hosted backstage, "they saw that I could host and that ... it was something I was even interested in doing."
Now the entire gaming world, including Goodman herself, knew she had the skills to host, and it wasn't long before she was able to flex those skills again. She would eventually make her way back to The Game Awards. In 2021, she was once again hosting, and instead of being backstage, she had moved up to being the official pre-show host.
Her path to IGN host wasn't a straight line
After hosting at The Game Awards in 2017, Goodman wanted to find a way to keep doing similar work. It didn't take long for her to find a listing for a video host and producer position with IGN, which she's explained she was especially interested in because it wouldn't require her to move away from Los Angeles. Goodman knew that getting the job wouldn't be easy, so she began by updating her reel, resume, and website. After that, she reached out to friends at IGN, but she didn't exactly have a straightforward path to a job with the outlet. Her next journey started with a freelance gig covering the "Tomb Raider" movie that IGN offered her in early 2018.
After working on that, Goodman was asked to come in for a "test shoot" for IGN. She wasn't immediately offered a staff job, but instead IGN sent her to Arizona to cover an "Overwatch" competition, again as a freelancer. By the time March rolled around, Goodman was getting anxious about her full-time prospects at IGN. The company then asked her to cover Pax East, once more as a freelancer, but Goodman officially joined IGN shortly thereafter. She didn't get the video hosting role she had wanted right away, but after doing great work for the company, IGN wanted Goodman to take a front-facing position on its social media team.
Snapchat and The Daily Fix
Once Sydnee Goodman was working at IGN, the hardest part of her transformation into a gaming host was over. Goodman says she started at IGN covering big gaming events like Pax East, E3, Comic-Con, and Gamescom. She was the only gaming person at the IGN Los Angeles offices, which gave her a chance to really take charge of the content being produced. At that time, Alanah Pearce was hosting "The Daily Fix," but when IGN rolled out a Snapchat branch of the "Daily Fix," Goodman took the lead on it.
Pearce announced she was leaving IGN in June 2018, and the company suddenly had a major hosting role to fill. Since she was already involved in Snapchat's "Daily Fix," Goodman was the obvious choice — but at that time, "The Daily Fix" shot its episodes in San Francisco.
"We had to figure out how to shoot 'The Daily Fix' in L.A.," Goodman said, as she still wanted to stay near her home. Goodman and IGN were able to work out a new filming situation, and by September 2018, Goodman was hosting her first episode of the show.
She's learned how to deal with harsh criticism
Sydnee Goodman has spent years in the internet's spotlight, and as anyone who's been online for more than ten minutes knows, that isn't always a pleasant experience. And as a successful woman on the internet and in the world of gaming, Goodman has been the target of more than a few hateful comments. Over the course of Goodman's time at "The Daily Fix," she became adept at dealing with a deluge of negative comments, in part because there were so many of them.
"'The Daily Fix' is so personal to me," Goodman told BossBabe. "[I'd] always wonder when the bad comments rolled in if these people were actually right to say that I'm bad at my job or if I got the role because I'm 'hot.'" Thankfully, it seems the majority of comments on "The Daily Fix" were positive, but the negative feedback still stuck with Goodman for a while. Eventually she learned not to take that kind of criticism to heart, now taking in comments from people she respects and cares about while ignoring what comes from the worst corners of the internet. That kind of filtering has served her well — and it's probably something that many people could learn from.
These days she works for herself
After working for some of the internet's biggest publications, what was the next step for Sydnee Goodman? Going into business for herself.
Goodman announced she was leaving IGN in April 2021 to finally pursue her lifelong dream of becoming her own boss and continuing to create her own content. As excited as she was about the decision, it didn't come lightly. "I was so nervous about leaving IGN and that no one would want to watch me anymore or watch my content or hire me," she told her fans on YouTube.
Goodman's audience did stick with her, but that doesn't mean that her transition into this new career phase was totally smooth. One of her biggest challenges early on was learning to prioritize the projects she really wanted to be doing and finding a healthy way to balance that workload with the rest of her life. She told Esports Heaven, "I think in the first month I quickly realized... I was working until 11 every night, which is like, 'Is it sustainable?'"
Now she's found a way to balance streaming on Twitch, creating YouTube videos, booking hosting gigs, and living her life outside of work. Though she's incredibly thankful for her time at IGN, Goodman says, "I kind of have never looked back."
She's gone into game development
Sydnee Goodman has been a gamer all her life, and for years she's been working in various sections of the video game industry. Through hosting major gaming events, interviewing big figures in the industry, and playing games on Twitch, Goodman has fully embedded herself in gaming and the lives of fans. Now, she's taking an entirely new approach by getting involved with a title before it hits the market.
Goodman told her fans on YouTube that she's gotten involved in video game development as an independent creator. Unfortunately, many of the details of her latest venture are still under wraps. "I don't talk about it a whole lot because I signed an NDA and I just don't really know what I'm able to say and what I'm not able to say," Goodman admitted.
What fans do know is that her involvement in the new project came from her knack for meeting and impressing the right people at the right time and place. Goodman's conversations with some figures in the gaming industry, as well as her enthusiasm for the medium, landed her a creative role on a brand new video game. As of December 2021, the game is in pre-production, but Goodman will likely be the first to shout news from the rooftops when the game is finally ready to be seen.