Streaming & The Content Grind

For the past 4 months, I have been consistently streaming at least once a week. Time really does fly by! While this isn’t my first go at streaming, it’s been the longest and the most energy I’ve put into it. It’s absolutely the most fun I’ve had. I wanted to reflect on how streaming, for me, has shaped my view of content and my personal journey with consistent content creation over the years, as it’s something I’ve really struggled with.

I’ve created covers on YouTube for nearly 10 years, with little regularity. I’ve tried my hand at consistent covers, vlogs, tag videos, you name it. I thought maybe I needed different types of videos to keep myself interested and motivated. Anytime I set a schedule for myself, it set this huge pressure on my shoulders. And for what? It wasn’t an income source for me, nor did I want it to be. In addition to all the stressors of my personal life over the years, it was impossible for me to manage. Or at least, it felt impossible. I admired friends I had and those I knew who were able to put out weekly, even monthly videos with consistent quality. I’m not sure exactly when my mindset changed, but I reached a breaking point eventually where I said to myself “This is a hobby. It should not be this much of a stress to me. If it is, I’m doing something wrong”. I should be enjoying it. Otherwise, what’s the point?

I went through this cycle of trying something new, really enjoying it, trying to set a schedule, planning too much, getting overwhelmed, crashing, and burning behind the scenes with just about everything I tried. YouTube, Instagram, Etsy, Twitch several years ago… I wasn’t learning my lesson and I felt like I was letting those who supported me down. So after watching a few friends get into streaming again, I was inspired to give it another go. After the first few streams, I was feeling so good about it. I wanted to hit the ground running. I really felt like, okay this is amazing, I need to commit to this. Let’s up the schedule, let’s set all these high plans and goals.

In mid-November, I stopped myself and said: No, I have to take this slowly. I needed to learn from my past mistakes. So, that’s what I’ve been trying to do. I’m not a particularly patient person, so this was difficult for me. But, it’s been so much easier for me to handle in between my other projects, work, and personal life. I worked on things when I felt excited about them and I think that, in turn, made me excited about them more often. I didn’t let it be a chore or something daunting on my to-do list.

This process has translated over to my other projects as well. Between original music, covers, my artwork - I cannot force myself to do it. I’ve found out this doesn’t work for me. I’ve been so proud of the content I’ve created over the past few months and I think a huge reason is that I let myself enjoy it and took all of it slow. I worked on things as I felt inspired by them. Does that mean the content output is much slower? Yes. But that’s okay, I still have plenty of time. I’m only (nearly) twenty-six!

So while for some, streaming one day a week doesn’t seem like much, and going up to two days a week doesn’t seem like that much of a stretch either, I’m really excited. This form of content creation is something that I think works really well for me, from a mental health standpoint. I can frequently interact with people, and still have plenty of time to work on other things, which YouTube videos did not give me. This is what works for me! I still plan to make YouTube covers, and actually have plans for some other YouTube content, as well. But even that has been about 6 months’ worth of experimenting, failing, and seeing what works. It’s that experimentation, trying new things (like blog writing!), and taking it slow that have let me continue feeling excited without burning out.

If you want to join my streams, I will be streaming each Monday & Wednesday at 5 PM MST (7 PM EST) on Twitch!

Love & Stars,
Alex