MEET THE FAMILY
FABUMOM
My biggest love is my family, and I can’t get enough of laughing and spending time with them. My daughter, Fabu, is my greatest inspiration. Fabu, short for FABULOUS, became her nickname when she was born. With my love and best friend FabuDad, our goal is to create a fun and safe environment that will allow Fabu to be herself.
FABUDAD
Nothing brings me more joy than the happiness of my family. This is why I have dedicated myself fully to Fabu and the creation of FabuRocks. If you ask Fabu and or FabuMom to describe me, they would most likely say, I Am a jokester, I’m a prankster, I’m very loud *but that’s because I’m Cuban, Love video games, and would do anything for my family.
FABU
I’m FabuRocks but my family calls me FABU. I have been creating content since I was 7 yrs old as a form of therapy for ADHD. I’m the youngest Facebook Gaming Partner and content creator for Turtle Beach, ROCCAT, Neat Microphones and Epic Games.
Miss CLEO
At the beginning of 2020, Fabu wanted a small dog. To make things more interesting, the FabuRocks family decided to involve the FabuFam community in naming the little dog, and that’s how MISS CLEO got her name. Miss Cleo’s name is something the Family would jokingly call FABU during most live streams every time Fabu tried to guess what was going to happen next in a game or guessing badly about any game. Now, the funny part is that she now has a daily reminder of that.
FabuRocks started with creating a YouTube channel by FabuMom and FabuDad as the main tool used at home to help Fabu overcome speech and learning disabilities. From the time Fabu was 3 yrs old, she was diagnosed with speech and language delay, and by the time she was in elementary school, she was found to have learning disabilities. We started traditional speech therapy immediately, but after 2 years with no significant results, the FabuRocks family decided to control the situation and sought alternative intervention methods to help Fabu.
FabuMom, who has extensive experience working with children and a Master in Mental Health and FabuDad with his computer science knowledge, came together and developed a therapeutic strategy using FabuRocks YouTube videos as the main therapeutic tool. They found the methods and techniques they were using produced a quicker and more significant improvement in Fabu’s speech than ever before. Based on the quick and positive results, the FabuRocks family made some hard decisions but easy to comprehend. FabuDad closed his successful Private Lending business and decided to make the best investment of his life by fully dedicating his time to the family and Fabu’s therapeutic intervention. FabuMom works from home and can spend even more time with the Family, and is committed to Fabu’s therapeutic intervention.
After seeing the positive results, the YouTube video therapy was having on Fabu with improved school performance and social skills; the FabuRocks family wanted to spread the word to others. The YouTube channel FabuParents was created to help other parents in the same situation. However, they quickly understood that having a second YouTube channel (all the filming, video edits, SEO, etc..) was taking away valuable time from Fabu and the positive progress with her YouTube video therapy. That is when we decided to put a pause on continuing to create content for the FabuRocks channel.
The FabuRocks family took Fabu’s therapy to the next level when they began to do LIVE Gaming streams on the YouTube and Twitch streaming platforms. Live streams offer Fabu the opportunity to engage in lengthy conversations with FabuMom and FabuDad. She can practice her vocabulary to express herself effectively while engaged in an activity that is fun for them. There is NO surprise that the results were even more impressive than before. The FabuRocks family quickly found a growing viewership with every LIVE stream, with countless parents involved in the stream and many others expressing how they admire what the FabuRocks family is doing. We created a Discord server so the growing FabuRocks community could come together in a safe environment where they could interact and socialize off streams.
During this time, a new streaming platform gained momentum, as BEAM was acquired by Microsoft and soon changed its name to Mixer. At that moment, Mixer was a brand new and exciting streaming platform that offered an amazing way to interact with viewers with FTL speed never seen before. Based on those facts, the FabuRocks family decided to make MIXER their new HOME!
The FabuRocks family continued to use the same successful therapeutic techniques with Fabu while streaming on Mixer, only now we introduced the Family Guests in the stream. With the Family Guests, Fabu was now able to comfortably practice a wider range of vocabulary, learn to establish and maintain conversations, and socialize with different personalities, all happening in an environment of fun roleplay. After seeing the overwhelmingly positive results obtained with the Family Guests, they became permanent FabuRocks Family Guests, recognized and LOVED by all the community.
MIXER LIVE STREAM HIGHLIGHTS
Like most everyone in the world, the COVID pandemic in 2020 caught everyone by surprise. Many of the FabuRocks family goals and plans had to be placed on hold, such as the participation in the PAX events panels to talk about the importance of parents supporting and empowering their kids that want to become the next big content creator and on how to utilize gaming as a form of therapy for speech delay and learning disabilities. After PAX South, all gaming events were canceled for the rest of the year. Still, other opportunities opened, like the idea of creating a FabuRocks Podcast where the family can do the same as they planned on those PAX events but in the comfort of their own home at the FR Studios.
NOT all plans were placed on hold, as the FabuRocks family knew the value of creating content on different platforms, and having their fan base (the FabuFam) on ONLY one platform was NOT a great idea as they learned from their transition from YouTube to Twitch where they lost 80% of their fans. Later on, they got the same results when they transitioned from Twitch to Mixer, losing around 90% of their fan base. They knew that even though Mixer feels like HOME, they needed to expand their fan base (FabuFam) before the end of 2020 and before any drastic platform change again.
NO one imagined that a New streaming platform, owned by one of the biggest corporations in the US and linked to one of the most successful Gaming Consoles globally, “XBOX,” would close its doors so quick. NOT even FabuDad, with a Master in Business Administration, saw that coming.
Sadly, Mixer closed on July 22, 2020, and at the peak of the FabuRocks family popularity and in the middle of the 2020 road map, goals and plans for the FabuRocks brand had been planned at the very beginning of 2020 (pre-COVID).
After a few years of Live streaming on Mixer with great success, FabuMom and FabuDad started to notice that Fabu was NOT being very talkative during each live stream and began taking more of a backseat approach during live streams as FabuDad was the one that interacted with the viewers the most and FabuMom was too busy answering chat questions and interacting with FabuDad with Fabu NOT talking much and making no noticeable therapeutic advance. At that moment, FabuDad and FabuMom understood it was crucial to return to basics, or they were at risk of losing all that we achieved during the past 3 years.
The plan since Jan of 2020 was to become FaceBook Gaming partners as both Facebook Gaming and Mixer didn’t have exclusivity with another platform and return to YouTube and create once again unboxing videos, gaming reviews, and creative IRL streams as the main therapeutic tool for Fabu once again.
When Mixer closed their doors to everyone in July, FaceBook Gaming welcomed all Mixer Partners. The FabuRocks family was already working with the FaceBook Gaming team on securing a contract that allowed them to do what they planned to do since the beginning of 2020, which was to have the freedom to stream on other platforms like Twitch and YouTube plus the freedom of having time to create YouTube videos during the week so they can continue with the therapy for Fabu.
Quickly the FabuRocks family started doing Live streams on different platforms, as they knew from experience that with quick platform changes, they were at risk, for the third time, of losing 80% – 90% of the FabuFam. They knew they needed to change the platform but based on their plans, it would be by the beginning of the 4th QT and not at the beginning of the 3rd QT as it happened. The first place they started streaming on was Twitch to see how many of the FabuFam would welcome Twitch’s idea.
Many of the FabuFam had expressed concern with FaceBook Gaming due to their privacy policy. Each user needs to use their real information, which most are not used to with the other gaming platforms. This was the main reason most of the FabuFam was NOT going to make the jump to Facebook Gaming. If a new option was not given, FabuRocks was at risk of losing over 80% of the FabuFam again.
Twitch was great, and the family started to work with the partnership team, but quickly realized that Twitch does have an exclusivity content contract, and they were not going to have much time to spend on FaceBook Gaming and much less on YouTube. After a few weeks on Twitch, FabuRocks left and started to create Live streams on FaceBook Gaming and faced the reality of how many people had issues with using their real name as a FaceBook Gaming viewer.
Soon the FabuRocks family realized that ONLY a few were willing to watch them via
Facebook Gaming. Those few had been with the family from the start 4 years ago and were the foundation of the FabuFam and the FabuArmy. At that point and after a few weeks of streaming via FaceBook Gaming
it was important to realize how many would watch them via YouTube as a second option
so they stopped streaming on FaceBook and started streaming on YouTube, where they noticed
that they were getting back all of our viewers and even those that had to watch them 3
years ago, and we’re still happy to watch their stream and interact with them once
again.
Everything was happening so quickly. The FabuRocks began to notice that their community was suffering together with them, as the real-time FTL stream with 0 latency from Mixer was NO longer an option. Their stream was based on interaction more than just playing video games; it was a true Family FUN Time that we were providing every day for everyone in their community. A few hours every day providing entertainment, NO stress, and NO issues for all, including ourselves. The 15 to 20-second delay was causing us to lose moments that were hard to capture or recreate, which made playing games like Jackbox or Monopoly near impossible to play.
At that moment, the FabuRocks family understood that they had planned things for the beginning of 2020. Still, life had other plans, and with everything that was happening in their lives with COVID, worldwide quarantine, and Mixer closing their doors, they had a basket full of lemons and needed to start making lemonade. QUICK!
The FabuRocks family understood that hard decisions needed to be made and that they needed to return to basics with their family and concentrate on what and why they started this journey, to begin with, and that was right in front of their eyes; all the time, FABU! They needed to keep providing her with effective ways for her to keep improving and overcome issues with speech delay and learning disabilities; that although she has much improved since we started, she still has obstacles, and she still needs us.
By the 4th QT of 2020, the FabuRocks family returned to YouTube creating videos with Fabu once again Monday to Friday at 3 pm EST and creating a Live stream during the weekends on FaceBook Gaming “Family FUN Time” Friday, Saturday, and Sunday 5 to 8 pm EST.
As you can see, the FabuRocks family was able to accomplish so much during 2020 thanks to the support of the FabuFam (fans), the FabuArmy (young content creators), and especially thanks to their Partners and Sponsors that continue to empower and support what the FabuRocks family represents for many people.