Find Your Balance

So I just want to share something that’s been on my mind lately as a streamer, something I believe all streamers can learn from, no matter if you’re just starting out or you’ve been partnered for a long time. It’s been something that I’ve been dealing with for years and something I’ll probably continue to deal with in the future. It’s a topic that I think is kind of hush-hush with a lot of streamers, but I think it’s definitely something that needs to be talked about more when it comes to streaming.

YOU WILL NEVER BE SATISFIED WITH THE GROWTH OF YOUR STREAM

This is something that I’ve come to terms with lately and something that I feel a lot of streamers struggle with on a daily basis. I’m not saying you won’t be happy with the growth of your stream, I’m saying that you’ll always want to improve, always want to grow, and always want to see the numbers go up. And that’s good, you should always be striving for growth! The main trap I see a lot of streamers fall into, myself included, is putting too much focus on the growth and the numbers and ignoring everything else that is going on life. You let the stress of the stream and the dip in numbers over certain days hurt the rest of your personal Iife.  I’ve seen countless tweets from streamer friends who say they miss doing certain things and put more of their time and effort into streaming in the hopes that growth will continue. No matter what level you are at in streaming, the sooner you can find balance in your real life and your stream life, the happier and more successful your stream will be.

As Twitch grows, and more and more streamers join the website, the fear of falling behind is a real and present fear for many streamers. I can’t tell you how many times that I stressed out about losing X amount of subs, even after having huge weeks of growth on my channel.  As I grew, I always kept raising the bar on what the standard was for a good stream in terms of viewership. When I first started, I wanted to average 100 viewers. 100 quickly turned into 200, then 500, then 700, and even now 1000. You start to put ridiculous expectations on yourself when one or two streams don’t pan out with the numbers you want, or you go a stretch where you’re losing and not gaining subs. You start to question what you’re doing wrong, and then you determine that you need to stream more and push yourself harder to keep those numbers going.  The reality is streaming isn’t something that has a magic formula to it. One week you’ll be killing it on stream, the next week you’ll see a decline playing the same game the same way.

2018 has been a pretty awesome year for my stream. I’ve been able to find a ton of games that my audience loves, I was picked up by a management company (OP Group) that is incredibly awesome at providing me with the security I need financially to stream for the long term, and I feel like I’m just generally taking my channel in the direction that I’ve wanted to for years. But even with all this success, it’s so easy to fall into the trap and feel like you’re falling behind.

Here’s what you need to do. Find the balance and find the outlet. If you’ve been following my twitter account for the past few days, you’ll notice I just became the proud owner of an English Bulldog pup named Gumshoe. He’s the sweestet, bestest, goodest boy there is, and although there’s been some bumps along the way, I’m so happy I made the decision to bring him into my life. But for a long time I lived in a world of fear that by taking on a ton of responsibility to raise this puppy, the hard work that I put into my stream these past 6 years of streaming would vanish. I let that fear of falling behind keep me from the important personal growth that I needed. Ever since picking up Gumshoe, my world has completely changed and for the better. I’m still nervous that my stream isn’t on the consistent schedule that it normally has been on, and that it could be a while before it gets back there. I’m still nervous that I could lose huge amounts of revenue and subs because of that inconsistency.  I’m still nervous that my viewers will move on from my channel and that I’ll fall behind others who are putting in all the time into streaming. And while I’m nervous of all these things, I know that in the long term, I’m making the 100% right decision.

Streaming is a marathon, not a sprint. I could name countless streamers that did not find that balance and continued to stream with the fear of falling behind. Eventually it catches up to you and you will burn out. You will eventually get tired, and you will lose the passion and love that you have. Slow and steady wins the race. Find that fun you use to love doing before streaming and get back to doing it again! I’m not saying go buy a dog, I’m just saying balance yourself with your stream and know your limits. If you’re an affiliate seeking partnership, don’t throw everything into getting partnership right now. Once you hit it, there are more mountains to climb. Pace yourself and enjoy the ride, enjoy the excitement of growth. You’ll get there in due time, but don’t burn yourself out just as you’re about to accomplish your goals.

Gumshoe has been a huge blessing these past few days, and I wouldn’t change it going forward. My words are this, find your Gumshoe, find your balance. Your future streaming self will thank you, I promise.