Stream Key Podcast: Should Streaming Be Your Job Or Hobby? (7)

Should Streaming Be Your Job Or Hobby Link

This is a really great stream with great, actionable tips. I would read this very carefully. EXCEPT for the part where they say you have to make sacrifices. NEVER sacrifice your health, your real job, sleep, relationships for streaming. NO, Gabe, NO, you need at least 6 hrs of sleep!

1. Guest TomCruzMomShoes, Gabe, streams:
1. The Division
2. PUBG
2. Single favorite streaming memory:
1. Hosted by official Division channel x 3 PogChamp
2. 1 year anniversary, IRL stream, drawing in MS Paint
3. Gabe sees streaming as hobby for him
1. He takes it very seriously but doesn't see this as a FT job
2. Not even a PT job
3. Minute you think of it as a job, you'll stop enjoying
4. Do it for fun and grow a community, meeting people
4. Do people have unrealistic expectations? Yes!
1. with streaming, it looks "easy"but not everyone can be a Ninja or Lirik
2. only a few can break out
3. so don't be crushed if you can't get to the level of a Lirik
4. but does NOT mean you should NOT take streaming seriously
5. still put effort into it to have fun
5. Gabe's stream revolves mostly around Division
1. It's like the guy who plays golf on the weekends
2. He's still super competitive of his golf game on weekends
3. He gets best equipment, always at golf course
4. so Gabe makes sure he has quality content
5. he makes sure he networks and engages with others outside his stream
6. Gabe is live 12 hrs/week
6. You can put the effort into something without making it into a career, and feeling like you MUST be a success
1. This is the best way of viewing stream
2. Gabe understands as Gamers tend to be competitive, so they may start comparing to others: how come him (being a success), how come not me
1. that becomes a problem
2. b/c there's always someone 1 step ahead of you
3. If you depend on streaming to pay your bills, it's extremely stressful
4. Can definitely cause tension with your family if they're dependent on your streaming income
7. Benefits of seeing your stream as a hobby rather than a career
1. No pressure with paying bills
8. Gabe breaks down the math:
1. Avg US income is 50K, that comes out to over 2,000 Tier 1 subs/month! (affiliates get 50%) .  
2. That's a lot of subscriptions!
9. Gabe discusses burnout issues even as a hobby
1. Not sure what he wants to do in stream leads to burnout for him
2. If you're burned out, but see this as a hobby, you can take a break
3. You can't do that when you're dependent on the money
4. Any income he gets from streaming, it goes right back into his stream, supporting other streamers
10. Host explains streamers when they go FT, and it becomes detrimental, b/c of wrong expectations
1. It shifts into trying to bring in more money
2. Gabe sees that, and sees people overstepping boundaries
3. you play pickup basketball, and then expect to be as good as LeBron
4. Gabe feels that people don't educate themselves about Twitch, even though they don't know the basic etiquette, or even know how to use OBS
5. Gabe feels that people move too fast
6. Gabe finds that you should only go FT if you notice that you already are there with your subscription level
7. Otherwise, you start worrying about money
8. Patience is importance
9. Host sees someone streaming a couple of months, and then jump into FT which leads to disaster
10. Host notices that people don't do the math
11. Downsides of seeing your stream as a hobby instead of a job
1. Gabe finds that if he treats stream as a job, he'd be more successful
2. Gabe notices that he initially gets 15 viewers and then after 3 to 4 hrs, he hits 50 viewers, and wonders if he streams longer, can he get 75 and get partnership?
3. Gabe reports he never streams past 4 hrs because of other obligations, so he can't answer that question, but has a feeling, he can be more successful, which makes sense logically
12. Gabe puts in a lot of time networking, putting money in equipment
1. He definitely takes it seriously
2. He's a community manager of a Discord server
1. started with a few streamers who were trying to make Affiliate
13. Gabe notes that all sponsors care about is the viewers numbers
14. Gabe reports that having a try-hard hobby attitude doesn't hold him back (he works very hard)
1. he asks his viewers for feedback
2. success of his stream won't affect him like if it were a job
3. he's able to adjust his own goals any way he wants
4. if a job, you need to measure it by whether you can pay your bills
15. Those who are deciding b/w Job or Hobby
1. it's a numbers game
2. if you crunch the numbers, and you're very close to paying all your bills and lifestyle, go for it
3. but ONLY if you have the numbers
4. i.e. if you have 10 subscribers, you can't do this, b/c it's hard to go from 10 to 1000 subscriptions in a couple of months, necessary to pay your bills
16. Gabe also notes that you MUST enjoy it, you MUST love it, never feel like it's a burden
1. because if you make it a FT job, it's going to be disastrous if you do NOT love it and find it a burden
17. Gabe's best advice to new streamers:
1. Focus on educating yourself on stream as an art form:
1. Watch as many streams as possible
2. find great community that you can engage with
3. be friends with streamers where you are to grow together
18. Host asks Gabe's long-term goals
1. Plays Division on PS4 mainly, sometimes PC
2. If you're interested in a game that has so much content, do it, because you can teach, educate, answer question

Q/A:

• Variety vs 1-game (Gabe)
• Gabe has dabbled in variety as he has taken breaks from Division
• for Gabe, he's more of a community streamer so he knows everyone
• he likes to know his core people
• he notes that when you play different games, most follow b/c of the game you play so you'll get different viewers as you change games
• he notes that 50% is interested in him, and the other 50% is interested in him playing Division
• Work/Life balance while staying consistent
• When should people go FT?
• when you're young, when you don't have kids and you think it's sustainable
• you have to be efficient, don't waste time
• he sacrifices sleep (my input: this is NOT a good idea), he only gets 4 hrs/sleep
• if you have downtime at work, you should network, do your Discord
• if you want to get somewhere, you have to make sacrifices per the host
• I do NOT think this is a good idea at all (my input)
• You do NOT want to sacrifice your relationships, your health (my input)
• Networking is just making friends
• find people you like and who likes you, and become friends with them (my input: excellent idea)
• Gabe ends up knowing his viewers as much as his friends in IRL
• they are his true friends
• my input: this is researched, and shown that internet friends are still friends and social supports as IRL friends
• Gabe mentions joining communities. He found TruGaming and became sponsored by TruGaming 
• do NOT be self-serving
• don't do things to get things in return
• but watch out for those who keep taking and never giving back
• my input: I agree, cut off users who don't help despite your always helping them, those aren't true friends but rather leeches
• Be a nice person, be a person that you'd like
• How to get new viewers
• Gabe engages with the Division community a lot, including other Division streamers and viewers
• Gabe engages with the Division developers too! PogChamp
• At least be known in your game's community such as sub-reddits
• Gabe notes that he can't tell how many times he would go into Division stream and would get PM from that streamer saying he's honored to have met him b/c they know him in Division
• Talking to viewers end at the stream, what do you do to encourage people to come back?
• Gabe mentions he needs to improve on that, as he doesn't really think about ending the stream
• Gabe has good mods who give him constructive criticism such as "you suck at raids", so he improves
• Gabe would tell when he's going to be back--discuss your schedule
• He might mention his Discord as this is a place where you can keep in touch with him at all times
• What do you both think about looking into a Facecam directly when talking to chat
• Gabe mentions he's bad at that
• Gabe reports that he looks at the chat text instead
• Gabe would say to pose this to your community, he doesn't have a problem when other streamers don't look at the Facecam
• Gabe reports that you really need a Facecam
• Host feels that if you look at the Facecam, a viewer may feel more engaged
• LOOK at Facecam directly more, whenever you can!
• My input: however, I feel that I always need to look at chat to see if any comments show up to address immediately, so I'm not sure how to do that

The How of Happiness Review