tough love for small streamers

[Music] hey everybody welcome back to my channel i'm hey shady lady and today i would like to talk about something that's been on my mind a little bit lately in regards to small streamers and the small streamer grind when i say that i've prepared a script for this oh my gosh i mean that i've prepared a script lately i've been noticing some comments here and there that have been getting to my sensitive little hearts oh you've been streaming for almost six years now and you still only have 10 000 followers shouldn't you be further along by now shouldn't you have more to show for all that time invested and my knee-jerk reaction to this was indignation i'm plenty far along i thought 10 000 followers is a lot of followers to me and honestly i'm really proud of how far i've grown but the question lingers in the back of my mind it's really hard to put it completely to rest couldn't i have been farther along in my career by now shouldn't i be weren't there a lot of bumps in the road that i encountered as a small streamer that really shook me up and threw me off of this metaphorical horse i've been pondering a lot of the major hurdles that really prevented me from accelerating my growth as a content creator and i think i've boiled it down to a few talking points that i noticed i've been having repeated conversations about with some of my quote small streamer friends lately when it comes to their own journeys so in today's video i'll be offering up some tough love for small streamers thoughts and advice i wish that i could give to myself as a streamer a few years ago as she struggled to find her place and gain momentum in this crazy world of content creation hopefully you might gain some insight from my little mind journey as well but please don't take any of this too close to heart if you find it to feel too hurtful i've framed this video around the small streamer who's in need of some blunt feedback to nudge them out of a self-imposed stagnation it's not for content creators who suffer from any ailments or illnesses that might interfere with your ability to hustle every day please give yourself grace and only take from this video what resonates with you and motivates you before we jump into the meat of today's video though i do want to say a big thank you to the sponsor of today's video which is placeit.net playset.net is a wonderful resource for content creators on twitch and youtube they have a very large directory of ready-to-use templates that make design for your brand easy they have a large library available they have animated logos plain logos gaming freebies obs stream overlays merch designs starting soon screens twitch overlays twitch panels for your about section offline banners they also have intro outro videos youtube banners in cards youtube thumbnail creators so this would be a great resource if you are a content creator and you don't necessarily have the tools or knowledge available to create your own graphics from scratch and they do have a lot of free options available but there are premium services as well and if you happen to find anything in their premium services that you really like if you use my discount link in the description box below you will get 15 off any purchase happy hunting i hope you'll find something you like there and thank you again so much to placeit for sponsoring the video and let's jump back into the discussion so this leads us into our first hurdle number one you're afraid this is the first hurdle we need to overcome on our journey downloading your broadcasting software for the first time and looking at your own face and the webcam preview and deciding that you're too ugly or you're too lame for anyone to want to watch so you delete the webcam source and maybe you even shut down your streaming software altogether maybe you'll try again tomorrow but when tomorrow comes now you've decided that the video games you want to stream aren't trendy enough and you won't get any viewers anyway so why bother and actually now that you think about it maybe you should just wait to start streaming at all until you've upgraded your graphics card so you can actually play all these nice new fancy video games right when they come out yeah that'll get you all the viewers every single day there's a new reason for you not to go live a new reason for you not to even try but what's actually standing in your way are you afraid of the big bad goose egg of zero viewers why would that really be so bad anyway all this would take is shifting your mindset away from the viewership and onto the idea of creating content in a live format that could be edited up for later use elsewhere multitasking and making the most use of your time and effort are you afraid of trolls and getting made fun of being judged looking foolish unfortunately this is just part of the job the first couple of mean comments might rattle you a little bit but over time you'd be surprised at how quickly your confidence grows on this journey it will get easier and easier to just ban a troll and move on without letting it consume your mind and hijack your mood and energy so what else are you afraid of failure but what actually defines the failure though no viewers no money waste of time if these are the factors then you really need to do some self-reflection and adjust your motivations for streaming also how can anything be a waste of time if you're having fun i think you might actually be afraid of success it's like that cliche quote what if i fall and the reply oh but my darling what if you fly and the thought of flying terrifies us there's a lot of psychoanalyzing we could dive into about how a fear of success results in self-sabotaging and imposter syndrome where a haunting shadow of guilt and insecurity hang over our head convincing us that we don't deserve exactly what we need to be happy but let's save that discussion for a day when i've had a little more coffee what fear of success does result in is a half-hearted attempts where you'll put in minimal effort but not your full ability that way when you end up failing which is likely since you're not trying to the best of your ability you can rest assured that you weren't really the problem because you didn't even try anyway so it doesn't matter if you failed what a convenient little mental trap you've woven for yourself and you've even convinced yourself it's a comfortable nest and not a trap at all if we're going to step over this hurdle then we're going to have to get comfortable with the idea of being uncomfortable really wiggle in and start to enjoy the idea of being out of your comfort zone your comfort zone is the normal the predictable the boring even and you're stuck there because outside of that is the fear zone if you can just push beyond other people's opinions your lack of self-confidence and your exquisite ability to create a million excuses then you'll enter the learning zone where you can acquire some new skills and eventually grow and find your purpose and live all of these beautiful day dreams that you're so comfortable resting in this leads us into topic number two you're boring so now let's say you've pushed beyond the fear and you've fired up your webcam and said crack it i'll do it live and then you press that shiny red go live button you live stream for a couple hours playing your favorite video game but you end up sitting there hardly talking out loud or expressing any of your thoughts and opinions please learn how to talk to yourself when no one is there i have a whole video on it if you didn't already know it's just that you're so used to just playing video games but playing video games and creating content are two totally different things when you're creating content you have to ask yourself how can i turn this into a group activity how can i make this engaging and entertaining a boring streamer will not ask themselves these questions they will stay in their comfort zone streaming the same game with minimal commentary over and over and over again for months wondering why they still only have two viewers we are not going to be boring streamers we are going to innovate experiment and express ourselves loudly and proudly loud doesn't necessarily mean constantly talking and shouting and being whoa super high energy super epic gamer move loud means projecting as one would on a stage in theater confidently expressing our thoughts and opinions of a scene in the game sharing why our dinner that night was a total disappointment or pondering that awkward shower thought out loud and inspiring some silly banter in our community chat we will also expand our skill set by watching relevant videos on vocal training improv skills storytelling skills and other things that might help improve our ability to excel in the entertainment industry which is what streaming is by the way welcome to the new hollywood it is also possible that you're bored so as a result you're boring to watch so make sure that you're focused on passion and fun and not getting stuck in a routine that fills you with dread for example i was supposed to stream my normal game a couple days ago but i wasn't ignited with passion at the thought i was actually kind of not looking forward to my stream so instead i streamed myself screen sharing etsy while i was window shopping for some new tarot decks definitely not your run-of-the-mill stream but it was so much fun for me in my community and i was really proud of myself for trying something new i was able to connect with my audience in a new and different way and i think that added excitement for both me and them so don't be afraid to follow your passion even if it seems a little unorthodox moving into our next step you are trying way too hard so now you might have learned a bunch of relevant skills to the entertainment industry you've researched marketing strategies you've studied the algorithm and you're ready but when you come in swinging you come in swinging a little too hard this is a marathon and you are full-on sprinting do you remember that scene in princess mononoke when ashitaka wanted to try pumping the iron mills and toki laughed at him and said i'm impressed but you'll never keep that pace up this is while her and the other women in iron town were used to pacing themselves steadily so their energy could sustain over a four day shift ashitaka would surely fizzle out his energy after only a couple of hours probably and this is what i see so often in streamers who are really excited to get their career started with a bang so they come in with their personality amplified to the highest degree and start streaming four or five days a week six or more hours at a time but they're also releasing two youtube videos a week putting on a tick tock video every single day managing an instagram and a twitter and a discord and spending hours and hours networking with other streamers in their channels and in their communities after about three to four weeks they might and probably will start to grow frustrated if they only see a small change in their numbers or worse if they see no changes at all or downward change this is a recipe for burnout pouring more energy into something than you're receiving in return it's also possible that you could just be amplifying your personality so much that you don't even recognize yourself anymore and it becomes too much effort for you to put on the character for stream this happens a lot with some people who do a lot of makeup you feel like if you don't dress up all the way then you're not worth watching you might start to feel like your everyday self isn't good enough because you have to amp it up so much when you're live and this can lead to some serious imposter syndrome and self-doubt problems which would inevitably lead to less and less streams it's likely before this type of streamer fizzles out their content may start to get infected with their cynicism frustration doubts and insecurities while it's good to share your vulnerabilities this could also if done to an extreme degree actually end up chasing away some of your budding community members because oftentimes when people are seeking online entertainment they're not looking for bad vibes they're trying to be distracted from their past due bills and the pile of laundry they've been ignoring i'm not trying to encourage the toxic positivity i obviously want you to be comfortable and vulnerable and honest with what you're feeling when you're feeling it but if you get to a point where you're always angry and frustrated you might need to step back and readjust a little bit share yourself authentically but also stay self-aware and check in to make sure you're not setting yourself up in a burnout cycle that might be tainting your public presence aka your brand a good way to combat this hurdle is to slow down and look at streaming as more of a journey man pace yourself monitor the hours you're spending prepping your streams editing videos making graphics live streaming networking etc and check in with yourself to notice trends and patterns of what amount of hours overloads you and starts to create this frustration and resentment this is going to lead us into the discussion of the next hurdle you're impatient we live in a society tm with overnight shipping and on-demand streaming services we won everything yesterday and as content creators we tend to pile more and more onto our plate because we feel like we're not growing fast enough and we think the solution is upping our stream hours or adding in a new social media platform like tik tok when really we all know the actual annoying answer which is consistency that's the real solution to sustainable growth impatience is the result of thinking that we're owed something oh yeah entitlement has reared its ugly head impatience also comes about especially when we're overly stressed out like trying too hard and overbooking ourselves and it also comes when we're comparing ourselves to other people's growth and journeys we might look at another content creator who started months and sometimes years after we started but they're already so much further along they have three times our average viewer count why did they blow up and we didn't that isn't fair they're not even that good at the video game it's probably just because they're pretty or they have a rich dad or they got a handout from a bigger content creator now they have a leg up that isn't fair why not me i'm just as good as they are in fact i'm actually funnier than they are and so the mental spiral continues what an awful mindset to get stuck in and it's no wonder that resentment and cynicism would start to boil it's time to check in with ourselves and do some lovely internet self-care practices like unfollowing and muting people who might be habitually triggering this emotional response out of you ideally we'll resolve our insecurities and jealousies but for now it might be simpler to just remove the trigger trust me when i say that you would be surprised at my mute list on twitter it would certainly make me look like an insecure little baby but honestly the more inspiring my feed is and the less my feed makes me feel inferior the more in tune with myself i've become and the more productive i've become this is a practice i've been employing on my social media for the better part of this year and i really think my analytics and my social media presence would easily reflect that even if we're just looking at something like my upload frequency so don't be afraid to unfollow and remove people from your feed if they are constantly making you feel not good enough or constantly comparing or bitter or angry moving on you're flaky so now we're looking at a pattern of being afraid to start but when we start we might be a little boring and slow so we amp it up to the point where we're trying too hard getting frustrated and impatient which might lead you to giving in to your excuses and cancelling your streams a little more easily than you would have in the beginning that little headache or oh i'm just really tired today or i gotta wash the dishes and i gotta cook dinner i'm just not gonna stream tonight sorry but i love everyone so much and i'll stream again soon join my discord and i'll tell you when the next live is and then a few days turns into a few weeks and then maybe you stream once because you're starting to feel a little guilty but your numbers are down because you've lost the momentum and your viewers have fallen out of the habit to checking and seeing if you're live so now you're discouraged since the ever looming view count is just a constant reminder of what a failure you are so you flake a little bit more cancel this stream you stop uploading your youtube videos you know it's really easy to cancel and procrastinate because you're continually celebrating hollow or superficial victories you're chasing artificial goals that don't actually feed your soul and give you purpose yeah you hit 20 average viewers but you've become so busy with stream stuff that all of your plants are dying and you haven't gotten outside of your house in two weeks and so you become flaky and unreliable your community has no idea when to expect you to be live and they've learned not to trust you when you give them a date and time because you cancel so much oddly you find comfort and power in taking your schedule back and this is likely because during your tryhard phase you way over scheduled yourself some people who find themselves in this phase never find their way back out even when a month or two passes and the frustration wanes and they start to miss streaming some creators might have convinced themselves to just give up on the dream our next hurdle is laziness how easy it is to just not turn all these lights on not have to adjust and mess with your microphone or fix the green screen chroma key when you go to boot up your streaming software you're gonna have to troubleshoot so much stuff anyway and isn't it so much more comfortable to just play your video game with the lights off in the dark completely silent stuffing handfuls of tortilla chips in your mouth without worrying about remembering which username belonged to who or thanking someone for following you but having to stumble through mispronouncing a pun in their username that you just don't get anyway yeah you could edit that youtube video but you could also just rewatch the second season of x-files the problem is you don't know how to manage yourself and quite possibly you may just be uninspired by your own goals and then you'd have to address your discord server that's starting to form cobwebs in the corners and then you're going to have to explain to everyone why you took such a long break in the first place and what if nobody shows up when you finally go live again oh no we're back to fear aren't we it's a never-ending loop we gotta break this cycle and trust me it is not easy it's almost a constant temptation to fall into any of these easier habits streaming and building a community and momentum around you takes constant effort and willpower it's recognizing that whatever you imagine you have all the tools you need and you're fully capable of manifesting that dream you are the creator the content creator look it's cheesy as hell but you have to believe in yourself at a certain point you have to start respecting yourself and what you're doing as a career you can be a hobby streamer and go live a few times a month just to share a fun moment with your friends if you want to sure that's fine but if you want this to be your full-time job if you want to create your own lifestyle and career out of online entertainment then you have to step up and take it seriously you have to take yourself seriously there is a little bit of ego necessary to make this work obviously we want to balance that ego out but you have to believe that your thoughts and opinions are worth listening to the louder the ego usually the larger the following unfortunately but i hope that while you're here learning to light up your ego you will also tender the fire with a gentle humbleness and self-awareness so if you found yourself feeling busy busy busy but you have no idea why maybe a good place to start is a nice week or two totally off of streaming and creating and socializing on these various social media platforms stop over scheduling yourself slow down take a nice deep breath hit the pause button and have a good look around get back to a base level with yourself and readjust your strategy are you in line with your actual passions or are you chasing metrics that are leading you off of your path while you're taking a moment to assess where you are and where you're going take care to not get too comfortable and get stuck in this limbo for so long that you stand in your own way of leveling up just because you feel like you need to research more or upgrade your equipment or practice more or lose more weight or get better at this skill or that skill just start where you are and let your community join you on your journey that's exactly how a dedicated and invested community is built anyway vulnerability and imperfection blended together in a word authenticity [Music] and i think that wraps it up for my little script and my tough love for small streamers as you can probably tell it was in a very philosophical mood yeah i hope this video might have inspired you or helped you share your thoughts in the comments what do you think one of your biggest hurdles as a small streamer has been when it comes to getting into the routine and lifestyle of being a career streamer i would like to thank you all so so much for watching this video and supporting me on my journey especially a huge thank you to my fan house subscribers and i will actually be launching a coffee and a patreon coming up soon and next wednesday november 3rd at 7 p.m eastern standard time will be my live stream q a session here on youtube so i'd love to see you there if you have any fun questions that we could chat about and also throughout the month of november i will be adjusting what type of content i share here on youtube i will continue to do twitch tutorials and stream tutorials but i would also like to integrate my other interests back from the side channels i created so my weight loss journey and anime reviews and game play throughs and makeup tarot related witchy kind of journey stuff so i appreciate y'all so much for supporting me my journey thank you thank you very much i hope you have a wonderful weekend please stay safe for halloween and i will see you all next week bye everybody and honestly i'm incredibly proud of harf toasty

Channel: HeyShadyLady

Views: 4,988

Keywords: small streamer, my twitch channel isn't growing, how to grow your twitch stream, how to get more viewers, twitch tips, burn out, content creator burnout, growing my twitch channel, twitch advice, how to be a streamer, being a streamer, twitch streamer, how to grow my channel, how to get more views, social media, burnout, twitch burnout, sick of streaming, i cant grow on twitch, growing on twitch

Id: _fmVEXK0qAs

Length: 20min 13sec (1213 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 29 2021