---
title: 'What''s the Biggest Mistake Small Content Creators Make?'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=He2Wakb158w'
video_id: 'He2Wakb158w'
date: 2026-08-05
duration_sec: 661
---

# What's the Biggest Mistake Small Content Creators Make?

> Source: [What's the Biggest Mistake Small Content Creators Make?](https://youtube.com/watch?v=He2Wakb158w)

## Summary

The video discusses the biggest mistakes small content creators make, emphasizing that success is not just about hard work but also about luck, patience, and creating a meaningful connection with the audience. The creator shares personal experiences and insights, arguing that creators should focus on discoverable platforms, be patient with themselves but impatient with ideas, and give viewers a reason to follow them beyond just content.

### Key Points

- **Biggest Mistake** [00:16] — The biggest mistake small streamers make is not focusing enough on entertaining content, according to a Reddit post. The creator's answer has remained the same for years, but he acknowledges that social media has changed, so his advice should evolve.
- **Discoverable Platforms** [00:42] — The creator's standard advice is to make content on more discoverable platforms to build an audience that will come to Twitch. However, he admits this advice is vague and lacks actionable steps.
- **Luck and Preparation** [03:25] — Luck is when preparation meets opportunity. The creator emphasizes that even with preparation, success is not guaranteed; you can do everything right and still fail. He shares his own story of getting lucky with a viral Vine.
- **Competition and Attrition** [05:19] — Over 30% of kids want to be YouTubers, making competition fierce. The creator reframes success as a battle of attrition: it's not about being the best but about who is willing to go the longest before giving up.
- **Impatience with Ideas, Patience with Self** [07:43] — Creators should be incredibly impatient with their ideas, jumping from new idea to new idea, while being inhumanly patient with themselves. This combination is hard to learn but crucial for growth.
- **People Follow People** [08:40] — The mantra 'people watch videos, but people follow people' means that without a personal connection, viewers will move on to the next shiny thing. Creators must give viewers a 'why' to follow them.
- **Example: Dad, How Do I?** [09:51] — The creator illustrates the importance of a channel's reason to exist by contrasting a generic tutorial channel with 'Dad, How Do I?'—a channel started by a man who grew up without a father, aiming to be a father figure. This gives the channel a compelling reason to exist.

### Conclusion

The video concludes that the three biggest mistakes starting creators make are: not focusing on discoverable platforms, lacking patience with themselves while being impatient with ideas, and failing to establish a meaningful reason for viewers to follow them. Success requires a combination of preparation, luck, and a strong personal connection.

## Transcript

a bit of a disservice by oversimplifying a topic that's really nuanced and is is a fascinating topic anyway. And so when this post came up on Reddit and I read it, I've been trying to work through my modern updated thoughts just
biggest mistake small Twitch streamers make? Everyone talks about how to grow biggest mistake holding small streamers back? For me, I think a lot of people enough on entertaining content. What's your take? And then a lot of the answers
actually super interesting. I'd recommend you read it. I'll I'll leave a link in the description down below, but my answer has never changed over the still the same today. And I think that that's a little bit of a problem. I
because social media isn't the same as it was 8 years ago. Twitch is not the same. YouTube is not the same. My answer should not be the same, but I've always is to make content on more discoverable platforms so you can build your audience
that will come and watch you on Twitch. Do you hear a problem with that? I hear the problem with that. The problem is it's really vague. Like how? Where? What What does that mean? What What do you do to do that? How do you do that? And by
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really know when I stopped. Probably around the time I became a parent like 4 years ago and I realized that I knew very little, but I've also been deep on the inside of the professional content creation space for a very long time. I
have a tendency to experiment and to take heavy risks more than would be considered responsible, meaning I have more than your average YouTuber's share of weird success stories, and also way more than my fair share of failures. So,
we're just going to pretend that this is not an advice video. I'm just uploading my experience, my consciousness into our collective hive mind. So, you know, I'm not the only one learning from these experiences because
>> [laughter] >> That's a funny That's a funny paragraph. really hope that this deep dive into this question and talking about what's really required to make it doesn't
know that it will. Most people only succeed on social media one time. They usually once they're in there and to success with the clarity of hindsight, they realize like the how
hindsight, they realize like the how much the planets aligned and really how of this, my parents really don't like when I say that I got lucky. My parents are super supportive of me. They love me. They're also boomers. They came from
the pull yourself up by your bootstraps era, and because I succeeded, it must be because I pulled harder on my bootstraps. But, I got really lucky. What's the phrase people say about luck? Luck is when preparation meets
opportunity. That's what luck You've all heard that one. And there is usually truth in that statement. Like, I was more prepared than most because of my previous careers and efforts before it. I also saw an opportunity that very few
people had seen, but it still has to work out. You can do everything right and still fail. Like, that's just how life works. But, I got really lucky.
Like, my YouTube origins are weird. My wife and I originally blew up on Vine playing music together. We had a song go totally viral. Second most watched Vine on the entire app. We went from 1,000 followers to over a million followers in
followers to over a million followers in like a month? Month and a half? And half of the truth that I like thinking about more is that we did a ton of preparation for this moment. I spent 4 hours editing that Vine and I just spent 8 months
learning the motion graphic software that I used to make that Vine. I worked harder on that one Vine than I would venture anyone has worked on a Vine ever. But, there is another half to the truth. Vine blew up like a couple months
later. We got in early and the wave took us with it. Also, that Vine performed really poorly for the first like 12 hours which is usually the lifespan of a Vine at the time. Someone huge shared it the next morning and it just totally
took off. There's no bootstraps you can pull hard enough to make those kind of things had happened, I would not have a YouTube career today. So, the lesson here is this. If working harder than everyone else in your industry gives you
everyone else in your industry gives you a slim chance of success, then not your fields, I mean, you can probably auto-complete to grow on Twitch or YouTube or any social media platform, doing the extra
things like cutting up more discoverable clips to post on things like TikTok and whatever, that's not a secret code that guarantees the success. That's the bare guarantees the success. That's the bare minimum. The extra is not extra. Over
30% of kids nowadays say that they want to be a YouTuber or some kind of content creator when they grow up. The competition is fierce, you guys. What I'm not saying is that most of you will fail, but a select lucky few of you will
succeed. What I'm really saying is all of you will fail. That's just how the first idea works. It doesn't. One of my favorite pastimes is go to the channel of some of my favorite YouTubers and look at their very first
videos, especially like OG YouTubers, because almost never is their first video anything like their current successful stuff. This channel, originally called the Alpha Gaming Channel, was a team channel that played
Halo together. I found an investor, I paid the players, we rented a house for a summer, and I could tell you all about how terrible that summer was. But when that idea inevitably didn't pan out, I continued the channel myself, and I
switching to Mixer for a little bit. I streamed there like 5 hours a day for 3 could possibly think of. And it was just a 4-year sequence of failure after
failure. I think people see YouTube success, or any type of content success, videos, making the best live streams, doing You do the best, you succeed. While I've started to understand YouTube
as more of a battle of attrition. Like it's not about being the best, it's about who's willing to go the longest before giving up. Because when this channel did finally take off, like it would have been so easy to credit my
work ethic, or my unique skills, or my understanding of the industry, you know, about the channel. Like the channel just made sense. Most people at the time were still using webcams, headset mics. I'd been developing my video and audio
skills, producing really good, in my opinion at the time, producing music videos to the best of my ability. I think I was the first person on Twitch to plug a DSLR into a capture card to use it as a webcam. And doing
things like that helped build my reputation as some kind of expert on the channel. But it's easy to ignore the 4 years of failure that came first. Now, again, I would like to clarify what I'm not saying here. What I'm not saying is,
empty chat room for 3 years, give it 1 more year, and things will change. It's a battle of attrition." What I'm saying is, a lot of creators start creating one thing, and then they keep making that one thing
forever, and they're unwilling to accept that maybe that one thing doesn't work, and we've got to try something new. It requires this weird dichotomy of of being incredibly impatient with your ideas and and jumping from new idea to
new idea to new idea while also being inhumanly patient with yourself and your that combination of those polar opposites, it's really really hard to learn. But here's the thing, there's a third thing that gets overlooked or done
included. And I even think most of the creators that get it right get it right accidentally. It's just a really hard thing to manufacture. So, a mantra is like a personal resolve or a statement that sounds really profound, but it
doesn't actually mean anything unless you really nice act it. Things like if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. They're meant for bumper stickers and selling overpriced online courses. And my meaningless mantra has always been
that people watch videos, but people follow people. And I promise you that statement on its own means nothing. Just sounds really wise. But the idea is that you can make beautiful, exciting, entertaining livestreams, videos, any
substantial audience, but the people will move on to the next shiny new thing as soon as they see it. There are endless, beautiful, entertaining videos on YouTube. The bar is insanely high, and it's never been easier to make them.
So, if you want people to subscribe after the very first video, to show up for every single video you make, and then still be around 5 to 10 years connection. And that I don't mean you have to have a
parasocial relationship. It just means you have to give them a why. Why do they watch? Why do they hope that you're there every time they open Twitch or YouTube or TikTok? And more importantly, that why is not something the viewer
creates on their own. That why comes from you, and that why relates to the content. And I think an example will explain this better than just sounds coming out of my mouth. Imagine a channel that gives everyday tutorials on
on things a person might not know, but they need to know. Home repair, It's very broad, very useful videos, applies to almost anyone. Now, imagine a channel started by a man who grew up without a father.
Didn't have anyone to teach him how to shave or how to tie a tie. And he decided that he wanted to be that father figure for all the kids growing up called Dad, How Do I? And his fourth most popular video is just called I'm
proud of you. I just described the same channel in two different ways, the same content in two different ways, but one has a really good reason to exist. One is something you think about, and it's something you tell your friends about.
your channel exists is a really good litmus test for why people will keep this is one of my favorite topics. I could probably continue yapping about it These are my three things I think most starting creators do wrong. Okay, bye.