Mark Phillips Bet On Friendship And It’s Turned Into An Online Community Of Millions And Dream Con – AfroTech
Creator Mark Phillips and his longtime friends built a community that grew far beyond a viral moment.
It was his father who introduced him to television shows, movies, comic books, and eventually anime such as “One Piece,” “Naruto,” and “Bleach.” Those influences continue to impact his creative vision and sketches today.
“I think that one of the main themes of anime in general, especially Shonen anime, is just never giving up no matter what the odds are. That’s why it shaped my journey so much,” he told AFROTECH™ at Dream Con 2026.
Phillips jump-started the content creation group RDCWorld (Real Dreams Change the World) with a friend. The group is known for its skits, vlogs, and short films, which center on anime, video games, music, sports, and Black culture, YouTube reports.
Phillips always wanted to change the world through film, he said, and, in 2012, while in Waco, TX, he started making, acting in, and editing videos with his longtime friend and later co-founder, Affiong Harris, GQ reports. His other friends, including Leland Manigo and Desmond Johnson, later joined the videos he began sharing consistently online.
Initially, the YouTube videos struggled to gain traction.
“We would get like 2,000 views,” he said in a video uploaded to the RDCWorldGaming YouTube page.
The group eventually went their separate ways for college, and Phillips continued creating videos on his own while attending the University of North Texas, according to YouTube. He began sharing 15-second Instagram clips, including one on how math was made, which went viral, earning 1 million views. He followed it with several more clips that surpassed 3 million views, he noted.
The success of those videos encouraged Phillips to convince his friends to move into a house together and create content with him, confident the money would eventually come, he said on YouTube.
“When we moved into the first house, we did not have enough money for rent. I said, ‘No, we’re gonna make hit videos and make enough money to live in this house,’” he said in the YouTube video. “Then we moved to the next house. I moved to a more expensive house on purpose … Then we made enough money for that rent too.”
Staying the course has helped RDCWorld — which consists of members Phillips, Harris, Manigo, and Johnson, as well as Ben Skinner, Dylan Patel, and John Newton — grow into a community of 7.32 million YouTube subscribers and garner 96.7 million likes on TikTok.
By building its own audience, RDCWorld created opportunities on its own terms, an approach Phillips always saw as an advantage, he shared with AFROTECH™.
“I think Hollywood can tell you no and then you just try it on your own … We had fan bases from sports, we had fan bases from comedy, and then looking at anime, it was like, ‘What is that?’ I think that them being turned off from that … just building a small fan base in every one of those types of categories just lets me walk into Hollywood with my head a little higher regardless if they like something that I’m making or not,” Phillips explained.
On the business side, Phillips said the group is “terrible” at fundraising. They have largely funded their projects themselves.
“I’m already so stuck in my ways of just doing it myself ’cause I was doing it myself when I was younger. It started with not really any money and just making videos. Then once I got a little bit of money, I [started] putting all of that back into the video … I invested a lot, and I’m gonna keep investing a lot,” he explained.
Dream Con
RDCWorld expanded its community beyond the screen in 2018 with the launch of Dream Con in Waco. The annual celebration of anime, gaming, sports, music, film, and digital creators has grown to a record-breaking 45,000-plus attendees at its three-day gathering in Houston, most recently held July 10-12, 2026, according to an Instagram post.
“The power of community is extremely strong,” Phillips told AFROTECH™. “Even starting Dream Con, I think 1,000 people showed up the first year … I had it in Waco, TX, too, which is where we made all the videos in general from, and our community helped with everything on that. My family would play every role in the videos. Leland obviously, but even my nephews, my nieces, I count them as part of my community. My friends from school, they would always help out for no money. Now every chance I get, I try to give back to them for how much they helped me along the way.”
Among the many highlights of Dream Con was a live edition of the State Farm Gamerhood competition, which brought Phillips together with creators including Cinna, JasonTheWeen, and PlaqueBoyMax, as well as the ultimate champions, Berleezy and Krystalogy, who won 1,000 gift subscriptions each.
State Farm Gamerhood will return for a fifth season, premiering July 31 at 6 p.m. ET, with a cast featuring IShowSpeed, Cinna, PlaqueBoyMax, Marlon, Emiru, and Jasontheween.
