The Truth About Streaming: 3 Misconceptions That Keep You Stuck

[00:00] There are hundreds of major misconceptions  spread about what it takes to become a   streamer, what it's like to be a streamer, and  generally about the streaming industry every single day. Today i want to cover not one not two but three  major misconceptions that i think are part of  

[00:16] the reason why new creators such as yourself will  feel burned out disheartened and eventually quit   streaming or worse continue and never grow  an audience and never understand why let's go  

[00:32] i want to tell you guys the truth about  streaming but i have been terrified to   make this video now for months because i've  been scared of the comments and the backlash   from the people who are upset to hear the truth  about three things in particular the first we're  

[00:45] going to talk about is what it takes to actually  be successful when starting out on twitch the   second how much money you'll actually earn and  the third which we're going to say for the end of   the video because it'll upset the most people the  reason why you might not be growing on twitch and  

[00:59] why you might never grow on twitch you guys know  me though i hate negative videos that don't give   you actionable steps and places to grow so with  every single negative misconception i cover in   today's video i am going to give you a series of  actionable tips to break out of that misconception  

[01:15] and start growing as a content creator there are  time codes in the description and top comments   so feel free to skip ahead to whatever you want  but before i jump into that you know what isn't   a misconception how fantastic our sponsor own.tv  is i want to say a serious thank you and shout out  

[01:29] to own.tv for sponsoring this video and all of our  videos they are a fantastic service for everything   a streamer will need as always they have animated  overlays alerts panels graphics for anything you   might need they even have sound alerts and so much  more on their service they're constantly adding  

[01:45] new packs and every single pack is modular meaning  you can pick and choose the parts of it you want   to use and mix and match and make it unique to  you owned are a massive friend to this channel   this community and to every single streamer so if  you want to support me guys go and support owned  

[01:59] the link in the description and thank you again  to owned for continually supporting this channel   the first misconception of this video that i need  to cover is about your motivation what is driving   you to hit that go live button and create content  when nobody is watching or when you hit plateaus  

[02:14] or difficulties in growth some of the most common  motivations that i see coming from you guys are   because the job looks fun and easy or because you  like to be the center of attention or probably the   worst motivation i see which is also one of the  most common is how much money the top streamers  

[02:30] make and how people want to earn that as well  which we're going to cover in its own tip in a   second this is going to be brutal to hear but  if either of these three motivations are your   core reason for becoming a content creator then  you will most likely quit very early on in your  

[02:44] journey not because of anything wrong with you but  because none of these things exist for a very long   time don't get me wrong there's nothing awful or  evil about wanting these as your motivations it's   just when you're starting out this isn't enough  to keep you going you need a core passion or core  

[03:01] keenness to fuel you in this journey when you  start out if you're going to be upset that you   appreciate that you have five to ten viewers who  love watching your streams or maybe you've got  

[03:13] five to ten people paying to subscribe to you then  you're doing this for the wrong reasons it's okay   to want to have growth but you need to appreciate  what you have now as well and understand how far   you've come the internet has absolutely ruined  yours and my concept about how many viewers  

[03:30] is good if i have 30 viewers watching me that's  about the same size as my high school class   and i loved when i made all 30 of them laugh  so why wouldn't i be happy to have 30 viewers   i get asked daily what my secret to motivation is  and how to start motivating yourself as a creator  

[03:45] and i will let you in right now there isn't one  i see the word motivation being thrown around in   hustle culture or like some magical spell like you  have to wait to feel motivated so you can start   working on your projects but spoiler that isn't  how it works motivation is literally just the  

[04:02] reason to act if you say that you aren't motivated  it just means you don't have a good enough reason   to act or you can't see a good enough reason  to act so ask yourself why aren't you motivated  

[04:14] why is your reason not good enough before we move  on to covering the truth about money and to the   tip that i'm most nervous about at the end let  me give you three actionable tips about what it   takes to get motivated the first i want you to  write down why you want to be a content creator  

[04:30] and you have to be very honest with yourself here  for me i love making people laugh i love talking   to others and i love connecting with people and  also i didn't get enough attention as a child  

[04:44] the second step is to start using smart goals  s-m-a-r-t it's an acronym i have a whole video   covering it it is your secret weapon to  productivity i swear i will link it in   the description and potentially on the cards at  the end of this video check that out after this  

[04:59] one the third and final step is to stop looking  at motivation like it is a magical feeling and   start looking at discipline and routine jerry  seinfeld is the best example of this strategy   he is probably one of the top 100 comedians  of all time everyone knows his name he uses a  

[05:15] concept that is now called the seinfeld strategy  he got a large whiteboard calendar that had 365   squares on it for all 365 days of the year and  he said that he had to write jokes every single  

[05:28] day and if he wrote a joke he would put a big  x up on that board and he would do his best   to never break the streak of exes if he kept  at it the streak would get longer and longer   and because it got so long the motivation not  to break that streak got stronger and stronger  

[05:44] what he was actually doing was kickstarting a  routine and the discipline but the most important   part about this is he didn't say the jokes he  was writing had to be good he just said he had   to put the time in and work in and this will  surprise you but by doing it every single day  

[06:00] he got better at it he got faster at writing the  jokes became funnier and he had more material   to work with i want you to find your streak that  you can do daily and then never break that streak  

[06:12] because by finding your streak you will find your  motivation and you'll be able to continue to learn   and become a better creator if you're curious what  streak i do mine with it's actually scripting i   script every day for a minimum of 30 to 45 minutes  and it always keeps me three to four scripts ahead  

[06:28] the second misconception is all about money this  was recently highlighted because of the twitch   leak that leaked everybody's revenue specifically  people were really caught up with the top   streamers the twitch leak got everybody talking  about how the top streamers earned millions every  

[06:43] single year and it also sparked a huge influx of  people wanting to become streamers i got a massive   amount of comments from people wanting to as they  say get that bag which if you're hip like me means  

[06:56] make all that money the reality that the twitch  league should have highlighted though is how   actually the majority of streamers earn almost  nothing off the platform recently myself and a few   other creators were having a chat we're all around  100 to 200 viewers and we got into the incredibly  

[07:12] depressing and idiotic job of looking at the  hourly earnings we made on twitch for our first   year i can't go into too many specifics about this  because obviously there are contracts in place to   cover our revenue but if we're talking about our  streams in our first year first total revenue  

[07:27] earned well then it actually came out that most of  us had around one dollar to four dollars an hour   earned in our first year now depending on how  fast you grew in that first year you would be   higher up on that list for example i was around  the three dollars to four dollars mark whereas  

[07:40] a lot of people were around the one dollar to two  dollar mark here's the thing that makes it so much   more depressing though is that you're not just  working as a streamer when you're live no you're   also spending two to four hours every single  day planning out your content posting on socials  

[07:54] editing tick tocks or videos and just generally  prepping to make sure your content can be as good   as possible and when you take all of those hours  into account pretty much every single one of us  

[08:06] ended up earning around 50 cents an hour for our  first year and i'll tell you what i streamed a lot   less hours than the majority of new creators  do in their first year for the love of god  

[08:18] do not get me wrong i am not complaining this  is not a woe is me moment i don't want pity or   anything like that and you can probably tell this  definitely isn't a flex i'm just trying to show   you guys that even someone like myself who grew  to partner as a variety streamer in under a year  

[08:34] still did not make anywhere near a livable wage  from twitch i started streaming in march 2020   and i didn't quit my other two full-time jobs  until march 2021 and i didn't quit because of  

[08:47] my twitch revenue i quit because of my youtube  ad revenue and my youtube sponsors if i didn't   have this channel even now i could not be a  twitch streamer and content creator full time   on the time of year the month to month and  just generally what you're doing on stream  

[09:06] and also how it comes directly from your viewers  pockets in the forms of donations subs and bits   making it one of the least sustainable and least  ethical ways to earn revenue as a content creator   i will say though all of that is coming in next  week's video so subscribe and now for the truly  

[09:21] depressing part of the money misconception i see  comments every single day telling me that this   is your only hope to make income you've had an  accident you're in debt your family needs help   and you've heard how good twitch is for earning  revenue as a creator so you're jumping in this  

[09:37] absolutely breaks my heart because as i've just  shown you and as how so many creators can attest   you won't earn money as a content creator and  a twitch streamer for so much further down the   line but i see it being perpetuated over and over  and over again how much money you can earn as a  

[09:53] twitch streamer but in reality you don't earn that  until you're much larger and you don't get there   until you've worked for hours on end for nothing  i promised you an actionable tip and i'm a man of  

[10:05] my word if you want to become a content creator  to earn money then i recommend diversifying as   soon as possible have as many different platforms  going as you can such as a youtube channel to have   passive ad revenue or a patreon where you  post exclusive content and most importantly  

[10:22] do not quit your job until you are completely  sustainable because these platforms are fickle   and it can all go away overnight and then you're  going to end up making how-to guides on youtube

[10:38] it is time for the final misconception the final  truth and this is the one that i'm honestly so   nervous to talk about i considered cutting it  entirely because every time i even try and say   this every time i even try and hint at this i get  told i'm the scum of the earth and i'm crushing  

[10:53] dreams and i'm not being understanding this truth  is the fact that viewers and potential viewers   just want good reliable content that is  entertaining viewers do not care about your  

[11:05] day job that means you can't have a consistent  schedule they don't care that you can only   stream from console or that you can only do 480p  they don't care about your terrible microphone   because it's all you can afford at the end of  the day viewers don't care about the reasons why  

[11:19] you can't do the things that others are doing to  be successful if a viewer joins your stream and   it is low quality maybe it's blurry maybe it's  only 480p maybe it sounds terrible maybe it's   boring and not engaging they won't stick around  to watch more and the really hard part to hear  

[11:37] is they don't have to if they do follow and they  come back the next day but you're not live at the   same time or potentially you don't even have a  schedule so they can't find when you will be live   next maybe you've changed your content drastically  because you just got bored of the playthrough you  

[11:50] were doing well then they're likely to leave  and find someone else find someone who is more   consistent find someone who's more reliable that  they will be live when they want to watch content   or just generally has a higher quality stream  that is just the truth of content creation it  

[12:05] is incredibly saturated there are hundreds of  thousands of streamers out there for viewers to   choose from nobody owes me or you viewers and  if we make low quality content well then there   are other streamers just a few clicks away that  are making better content that people can go and  

[12:21] click content creators need to remember that we  are delivering a service just like any business   and if we don't perform that service or we don't  deliver on what we promise well then people will   go to someone else who delivers a better service  i love clicking on random streams in the stream  

[12:34] scheme discord when people are asking for  feedback and actually giving them actionable   tips and actionable feedback but one of the most  disheartening things that seems to be happening so   often is when i give you those actionable tips to  hear someone turn around and say yeah no i'm not  

[12:49] doing any of that i have a job so i can't have a  schedule my pc's from 2010 my internet [ __ ] and   i hate editing my cat's plotting to kill me and i  just don't feel like being entertaining or funny   until i already have viewers what am i supposed  to say to that okay well good luck the actionable  

[13:07] tip here is to stop looking at all the reasons why  you can't do something and start looking at them   as reasons why you have to work harder on the  things you can do in order to be successful if   you can't have a consistent stream schedule fine  make a consistent posting schedule on youtube or  

[13:21] tick tock or wherever take the time that you would  sporadically go live and instead invest that time   sporadically editing scripting filming all your  videos and tick tocks and releasing them build an   audience on consistency on a different platform  that you can actually achieve and then when you  

[13:36] want to stream they'll already be there for you  and this goes for every single reason as well   terrible internet upload other content instead of  trying to stream don't like editing tough luck it   learn how to do it i don't understand why people  try so hard to get out of editing obviously some  

[13:55] roadblocks are easier to overcome than others  i'm not saying this is simple or easy quite the   opposite i'm trying to explain that it is such  a small percentage of content creators who are   allowed or lucky enough to do this long term  that you have to take every single opportunity  

[14:12] you can to increase the likelihood that you  will be successful because at the end of the   day if i start making terrible content tomorrow  if i start ignoring what you guys want to see   if i make an honest but harsh video about what  it takes to actually become a streamer or i stop  

[14:27] improving my content and stop trying to make it  better then you guys will stop watching it and the   only person to blame is me it isn't the biggest  streamer's fault it isn't the female streamer's  

[14:40] fault it isn't twitch's discovery or the youtube  algorithm's fault and i'll tell you what it   certainly isn't the viewer or the audience's fault  or the guy making youtube guides his fault no it   is my responsibility whether or not i take action  at the end of the day it is my responsibility  

[14:55] whether i grow or not whether i make good content  and how hard i work and how much i motivate myself   which is why i work hard to improve my content  because you guys deserve good content you deserve   interesting informative and honest advice about  what it takes to do this and about the journey  

[15:11] that i'm going on as a content creator so  thank you for always watching me speaking   video and try it out why don't you give it a  go see if youtube is right and see if it helps   improve your content and to help grow your  stream i'll see you guys next week subscribe