I am a content creator. Among my pantheon of creation escapades, live streaming is a prevalent part of these efforts. There are a lot of great things about streaming, but there’s also a lot of not-so-great things to go with it.
I’ve already covered the good things about live streaming. It’s an incredible experience that allows you to meet people in the most unlikely of ways. It’s also a great outlet creatively and great for someone with no real talents or artistic skills to express himself.
Now we’ll take a look at the less-than-pretty parts of live streaming.
Photo by Ben Neale on Unsplash
Breaking in is harder than giving up
“It’s not what you do, it’s who you know.” This is an incredibly salient quote when it comes to streaming. I’ve seen some of the best content creators never make headway. I’ve seen some people make it big not because of talent but because of friends or family in the industry. It can be quite harmful to one’s psyche.
While this ultimately doesn’t matter to you and your content creation efforts, it is very easy to get jealous of folks who have “meteoric rises” due to having the advantage of connections in this industry and can often lead to burnout.
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Networking, making friends with fellow streamers and actively working to make connections outside your normal comfort zone greatly helps assuage this pain point.
More drama than a high school lunch room
White guys saying the n-word. Trash talk on stream. Cheating on a significant other in a very public way. There are tons of examples in the past couple years of drama rocking the space. In my opinion, it’s even worse in the smaller streamer circles.
There are tons of examples in the past couple years of drama rocking the space.
There’s a lot of clique-building, high school-style backstabbing, and juvenile beefs that happen with streamers. It’s very important to understand that you can either be part of it, or avoid it entirely. Avoiding it may cost you quicker growth, but can often help you keep sane.
Numbers will do a number on you
It’s very easy to get lost in analytics, and it’s obvious why. We look at them so we know our growth, our progress, and to help us define what works and doesn’t work for us. These analytics are also crucial in generating partnerships, sponsorships and other opportunities.
However, at an early stage these numbers will more often than not be discouraging. Even at later levels of streaming, having a rough or slow patch can cause discouragement and lead in some cases to quitting. It’s best to avoid numbers entirely at the very beginning and just try to have fun with it.
I don’t share these things to discourage you – in fact quite the opposite. If I had known these things before jumping into the deep end, I would’ve felt way better equipped to deal with them instead of learning the hard way.
Live streaming is equally massively rewarding and incredibly stressful; not everyone makes it, and that’s okay. It’s about persistence, consistency and a genuine passion for the craft. There is nothing wrong with accepting it’s not for you, but it’s also important to persist even when you feel like giving up.
Title photo by Caspar Camille Rubin on Unsplash
A live streamer, podcaster, and game lover hailing from the Tampa Bay area of Florida. Regardless of the game, Tim thoroughly enjoys what each game can bring to the table, whether it be visuals, audio, writing, or a combination of the three. He wants nothing more than to have a positive impact on gaming in some manner.
If you want to support Tim’s efforts in content creation, please consider becoming a Patron on Patreon.
