![Left to right are Zach Dykes, Robbie Rawls, and Derek Diamond, three friends from Jay who turned their passion for video games, movies, television shows, and pop culture into video and audio shows under the name Nerd Cave. [AARON LITTLE | Press Gazette]](http://127.0.0.1/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/ghows-DA-48fd670f-66b4-2432-e053-0100007fe921-1aacd149.jpeg)
JAY — Robbie Rawls, Derek Diamond and Zach Dykes, three friends from Jay, have turned their passion for video games, movies, TV shows and other pop culture aspects into potential careers on the Internet through multiple podcasts and YouTube channels.
Sunday, at Pensacola’s comic convention, Pensacon, Nerd Cave hosted a panel for people interested in starting their own YouTube channels.
NerdCave began as a podcast, an audio show. The ideal podcast is a conversation or a story between people, according to Dykes. That can include the podcaster with the audience, a guest or multiple co-hosts, he said.
Today, under the Nerd Cave banner, there are two YouTube channels: Nerd Cave and Nerd Cave Gaming, and five podcasts, “The Nerd Cave Podcast,” an interview podcast with Derek and guests called “The Derek Diamond Experience,” a wrestling podcast called “Battle of the Brands,” “Fantasy Football for Nerds” and “Pop Culture Palate,” Dykes said.
Diamond graduated from Jay High in 2004; Rawls and Dykes in 2008. They were all in the Jay High band and became friends acting in a few of Diamond’s short films, Dykes said.
After high school, Diamond and Rawls both attended Pensacola State College and Dykes studied at Troy University with Diamond and Dykes earning a degree in video broadcasting and music education, respectively.
While the members would like to eventually live off their Internet work, Dykes said that’s not what it’s about.
“The idea behind the Nerd Cave is to make a place where people feel welcomed and can be themselves. We also want to be able to bring on more people to help build the community, edit videos, write articles, (and) run social media. We are always striving to get to that point without losing focus on what we are doing now,” he said.
Earning money through YouTube is one thing he said many people don’t understand.
“Unless you have a huge following you aren't making ‘mad YouTube money.’ Everything we do at the Nerd Cave costs us some kind of currency; that being either time, money or resources,” he said.
When not working on Nerd Cave, Diamond works with the Blue Wahoos as the Creative Services Assistant. Rawls is an analyst with Fox Sports Radio and Dykes is the director of Bands at Gulf Breeze High School.
While Diamond included interviewing people like mixed martial artist and actor Jason David Frank, the three said their most memorable times with Nerd Cave were their own milestones.
“The first time one of our videos broke a thousand views was a huge moment for me,” Dykes said.
Diamond said his standout moment was their show’s one-year mark.
“Making it to one year I felt was a huge accomplishment,” he said.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Jay High grads talk 'Nerd Cave'