Are you overwhelmed as a streamer or content creator on Twitch or YouTube?

Today, TyfloRen and Moorph talk about why streaming and content creation can feel overwhelming, and give some of their own strategies on how to deal with it because it is no secret that being a streamer on Twitch can be overwhelming, as it involves a lot of work and commitment. The pressure to consistently create and stream high-quality content, engage with viewers, and grow your audience can be stressful. Additionally, the pressure of maintaining a consistent streaming schedule and growing a community can make it hard to take time for self-care.

However, many successful streamers have found ways to manage the stress and make the most of their experience:

1. Set realistic goals: Break your content creation and streaming schedule into manageable chunks and set specific, achievable goals for each session.
2. Prioritize self-care: Make sure to take regular breaks, practice good sleep hygiene, exercise, and eat well to maintain your physical and mental health.
3. Seek support: Connect with other content creators and streamers through online communities, or consider working with a therapist or counselor to talk through any feelings of overwhelm.
4. Learn to say no: Avoid overcommitting yourself by learning to say no to opportunities or projects that don't align with your goals or that would cause undue stress.
5. Organize your time: Use a calendar or planner to keep track of deadlines, meetings, and other commitments, and make sure to schedule in time for relaxation and fun.
6. Take time for yourself: Make sure to take time for yourself and your interests outside of content creation and streaming. This will not only help you to recharge but also give you new ideas to bring back to your content.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:00

The stat I've always thrown out is 60% of streamers quit within six months because we expect too much, we want too much, we work too hard, and we ignore ourselves and we get burnt out, we quit. Welcome to Down the Rabbit Hole, a podcast for creators, where we stream live every Wednesday, 8 p.m. on Twitter Spaces. Tonight, Ty Flo and I are going to be talking about the topic of why do streamers feel overwhelmed. This is definitely something that if you're a streamer, if you're a creator, content creator, you relate to this. If you aren't growing, you relate to this. If you grew really, really fast, you probably relate to this.

SPEAKER_00: 0:38

To fit with this topic, a little bit overwhelmed, honestly, when it comes to like all aspects of content creation. I think that's the thing too, to give that relatability. You're probably ever a lot of people are probably familiar with Lieutenant Colonel Smash on TikTok, but I wanted to bring up a quote from one of his past TikToks that relates to this topic so well. To quote him, too many of us streamers have family, a full-time job. Some of us are paying for college, and uh that's taking up our time. On top of that, we have live streaming video recordings that we need to do in order to grow as streamers. We don't have time to provide equal uh amounts uh of effort to each segment of our lives, and that quote by itself really resonated with me as a creator, just because all of those points you made are essentially like what I'm going through, what I'm sure several people in our chat uh are going through as well. Yep. And I think that ties into our first question that we have here. What strategies do you use to balance aspects of your life and content creation if you do even find some balance?

SPEAKER_01: 1:47

I think it's hard. This is definitely a topic that I have have talked about on stream um numerous times about balance and priorities. I know that I give people good strategies to prioritize their time. I will be honest that I don't always follow them myself. I definitely get to a point where I'm as obsessed with uh content creation, with being successful, with growing, you know, my streams or the podcast or whatever it is, and I do a pretty poor job of balancing things sometimes. Um one strategy that I do employ is making sure that I talk to you know the important people in my life and say, okay, I'm going to do this and this and this on these days during this time, and I will hold myself to that.

SPEAKER_00: 2:39

Right. And there is a follow-up uh question to that. What apps or any daily planners that help you balance these things? And for myself, I'm I'm using Notion more often, and I guess that's the thing too, is it's a great way to organize my thoughts. And I actually have a section called Content Journal. In fact, I'm using it right now while I'm speaking to you to sift through some of our talking points and our questions as well. And I believe there's a calendar planner too, just like with a daily agenda. Yeah, but it's one thing to have those apps, it's another strategy of if you're even going to use them effectively.

SPEAKER_01: 3:17

You definitely need some kind of organizational method. And I say that, and I'm sure there's people sitting out there like, I don't use anything, I don't need anything, I just sit down and I play my game and I do whatever. You know, you can be casual about anything, but when you want to achieve some things, I personally feel you have to up your level of organization, and that's gonna require you to think about prioritization as well.

SPEAKER_00: 3:39

Uh, that's the thing, too, is uh with prioritize prioritizing organization, um, it's it's more difficult and easier said than done, too. I've had talks with several viewers where they'll say, like, oh, I just like going live, I don't really like planning. And yes, there are benefits to it, but are they long-term benefits? And uh you're leaving everything up to chance at that point. Sure, like it helps with like improv and then coming up with ideas on the spot or like talking points uh that really resonate uh with you or your viewers at that point in time, yeah. But it does not beat out a well-planned or well thought out uh content or um or special event, I should say. One of my uh next questions that ties into what you just said is when you're organizing everything, and if you don't balance parts of your life, what do you specifically sacrifice? This could be sleep, time with your family, time with the your close friends, which I'll even openly admit to everyone right now. I've been sacrificing time with friends, and there are consequences to that. It could also be uh personal self-care. What are what are you willing to sacrifice for it?

SPEAKER_01: 4:53

I uh I've definitely sacrificed a lot, and you know, I see comments from people have all the time saying, I admire your work ethic, and I'm like, honestly, don't because I'm a mess. I have become obsessed with this, with doing this and growing and just seeing how far I can push myself, how far I can take this, to to my detriment. I have two young kids and I I I used to sacrifice some time with them by doing this earlier in the day. Now at least I don't do this until they're in bed, right? So I'm not sacrificing that time during the day with them, but that means I'm sacrificing time that I could be spending with with my wife. I will maybe do some things during lunch, so I'm sacrificing eating, I'm sacrificing personal health. I used to work out a lot more. I'm not working out at all because I have got to edit the next video, I've got to plan the next thing, I've got to shoot a TikTok. Yes, am I getting things done? Sure. Have I created a a platform for myself over the last couple years? Sure. Am I less healthy personally and relationship-wise than I was two years ago? Without a doubt.

SPEAKER_00: 5:58

Everything you said right there, I myself can relate to, and I'm sure some of our listeners could relate to as well. That brings up a follow-up question that I have here that I just posted too. Would you sacrifice live streaming days and times to provide more time for other parts of your life? I guess that's sort of like a vice versa question to what I just asked too, where if you feel like something within content creation or with your stream days is affecting some something that's personal to you, would you be willing to do it? And I'm going to include what Soar Big E has said in one of his previous YouTube live streams. He basically said that he's had to sacrifice plenty of personal friendships and relationships to get to where he's at right now, and he's continuing to do so too.

SPEAKER_01: 6:46

Yeah, that's a that's a great question. And the answer is yes. There have been times where I have done it. Like, if uh an event that I need to do, like for my for my children or for my wife or other relatives has come on a stream day, I will absolutely cancel it. If a holiday falls on a stream day, I have no problem canceling. And it usually my wife's like, You're not streaming tonight? I'm like, no, it's it's whatever holiday. You know, like she expects me, she knows how obsessed I get, she expects me just to have start to do that other thing. I will cut back because it does no good to be successful in here and have the rest of your life uh struggle. Because when you hit end stream, if everybody else hates you and you're real in IRL, that's not gonna be pleasable pleasurable at all. So I think that it's it just comes back to that prioritization, that balance that the exercise I give people is list everything you have to do IRL outside of this, everything, and by day and by t by hour if you have to. So come up with like a calendar, a schedule, weekly schedule that you have of stuff you have to do. And then list it everything you you need and want to do for content creation, stream times, all that stuff, and how much time each of that stuff is all that stuff's gonna take, by task, and then try to fit it in, right? And make sure that you're prioritizing things in the actual order they should go. Just see how it falls and kind of go from there in terms of um what you uh can fit in. Mental health is a big component, and we we've talked about that in previous weeks. We put a lot of that pressure on ourselves, we make ourselves feel overwhelmed, and we sometimes give ourselves that anxiety, that social anxiety, or other mental health issues that we might not normally have got had we simply done a better job of managing time and managing the expectations that we're putting on ourselves. Yes, sometimes imposter syndrome can come up, you know, or you can get some negative feedback and really take that to heart and let that get get to you. But sometimes it's what we're doing to ourselves that makes us feel the way that we do.

SPEAKER_00: 8:52

And to hone in on the last points that you made, I think that's the thing too, is being self-aware, catching uh how you're feeling before like it starts to get out of control, like even earlier today when I sensed I didn't have like the energy to be live on Twitch and that something was bothering me, which is why I had to cancel. And like that's that's uh the early catching signs of me saying, like, oh, I need to address this, and also I spoke to you about this too with like masking uh and uh like your previous talk with Strive. How I wasn't giving my like the full details of why I wasn't feeling good to be live on Twitch today, but I wanted uh to like just be transparent and say, like, oh hey, not today, I'll give an explan an explanation next time. The mental health talk, it ties into um Macha Mello's uh tweet earlier. Um, over the past to quote her, over the past couple of weeks, my mental health has been um in a fairly bad place. Part of it is that you're putting so much pressure on uh myself to succeed and continuing to grow. But that's not but that's not why I started streaming. I started streaming to make friends, to be myself. Part two, not to try and play this capitalist game of continual growth. So, my plan going forward to stop looking at my numbers and my for my streams. I might uh do bi-weekly check-ins with my numbers, but I cannot uh keep up watching the view count like it's some measure of my worth. I'm only sharing this because I want other creators to know that if you experience this sort of thing, you aren't alone. All we we all have struggles and are all susceptible to moments like this. As a streamer, I want to have a space to be myself and let others be themselves too. And also, I want to address um Hawking Load's comment here. I'm in the middle of a life nightmare and keeping up three different content styles across four platforms while being called to work overtime at my job. Dude, I got great insight on this issue. So that right there, I cannot tell you, Hawk, how much I really empathize with you on that, especially with um three different content styles across four platforms. Like, I know Morph knows this, several of my other friends know this too. Is like I have I think similar to Hawk, is I have I also have um different content styles. Like I have like an alternate TikTok. Well, I did have a main TikTok account that kind of became my alternate as I started um like providing more time for my the current TikTok account that's focused on streaming and lifestyle content. Outside factors can greatly impact our analytics um and keep us from creating the content that we want. Do you think that mental health resources could help with balancing, having a therapist or even mutual creators to vent to and open up about how things are overwhelming for all of you?

SPEAKER_01: 11:52

Oh, yeah, I I always advocate for that if you if that's something that is available to you um through like health insurance or whatever. Um, I've seen therapists on and off for for years, and having that third part the unbiased third party to just kind of vent to and and hopefully get some strategies for coping or moving past stuff, I think is absolutely invaluable.

SPEAKER_00: 12:15

There is one specific quote that I want to bring up from Harris Heller. If you're trying to turn streaming into a career, you will hit a couple emotional walls, and it's important that you recognize that. And this could be either like on both extremes, too, like what you said earlier. If you're having problems like growing your audience or even your viewership, like you'll experience that emotional wall. Does true actual balance exist for creators?

SPEAKER_01: 12:44

I think that true balance does exist. I just don't think uh many of us want to do what we need to to achieve that balance. I think that we get so excited about what the prospect of what we could achieve that we turn a blind eye to our own mental and physical needs and kind of ignore what should be a balance. The stat I've always thrown out is 60% of streamers quit within six months because we expect too much, we want too much, we work too hard, and we ignore ourselves and we get burnt out, we quit. Look at all of the big streamers, right? Even Amaranth, who uh says in a recent interview that you know between her multiple platforms, she's streaming al on Twitch alone 200 plus hours a month on Twitch alone, and that's just the streaming. That's not her making content or doing anything else, any sponsor responsibilities. That is just insane. I I the human body cannot keep that kind of work effort up. You can't. You can't. So um even someone who's as big as her, it's just it's it's it's a lot. It's an awful lot. I know that we all want to be, you know, make six figures doing content creation, but think about what you have to give up and maybe don't shoot as that as your main goal. Find something that's gonna be attainable. If you get there, awesome. But don't kill yourself to get there.

SPEAKER_00: 14:15

And it's so easy to lose track of that when the platform you're streaming on and others who also stream are also talking about growth constantly, everyone has different goals, but it's important to remember what your goals and purpose is when it comes to streaming.

SPEAKER_01: 14:30

That's why I love this podcast and in the in the topics and the tone of this podcast, because there are so many more things to think about than your overlays in your in getting a new audio mixer, a new camera. There's so many more things. The things that we're talking about here are going to make and break your streaming and content creation career far more than worrying about getting a new camera, far more than worrying about getting a new camera.

SPEAKER_00: 14:55

If if you want to take our advice and some of our personal experience uh to heart, like go for it. But also, we need to like give a little caveat and a little asterisk and say, like, just because some of the stuff that worked out well for us doesn't mean you're going to achieve the exact same results. And I guess that's another thing that leads to the overwhelming feeling for us for us as creators. Like you and I were talking about before we went live, it's hard to fathom that we have people looking up to us. In fact, like when someone in my chat, um, like I've noticed more often people are saying, like, oh, we look up to you, we yeah, like we see you as kind of like a mentor figure. I will admit and you guys might laugh at this too. Like, I cop out and say, like, oh, if you look up to me, here's like the people I look up to, or like I draw inspiration from. Like, you say that I'm uh um good at engaging and also like a good public speaker. I look up to people like Mwust, um, and I like recommend their streams, or like if you think I'm good at like educating, like I learn from you and Pastor Gaines, and I try to like um talk to my chat about you guys. Like, that's it's a cop out on my end, but like uh I try to give credit where credit is due.

SPEAKER_01: 16:11

If you're good, I'm I think I'm gonna wind down here because we're talking about social battery. I can feel myself just running out of energy. Um anything you want to say as we're wrapping up?

SPEAKER_00: 16:21

I think the closing statements I want to make are that if you're in content creation, at some point you're gonna feel overwhelmed. It could be just for like a day, it could be for a span of like a few weeks or even a month. Just understand that there's going to be times for you as a creator where something in your life will feel overwhelmed. And like I'm speaking right now to all of you, like I myself feel overwhelmed with other things outside of my life as a creator, and that it's going to happen at some point in time, and that you have to accept that it will happen, and you need to find ways to prepare for that or ways to address it when that happens. So I hope that our talk here helps prepare you, any of you, uh, for when that inevitably does come.

SPEAKER_01: 17:09

Priorities, people, understand what you have to do in life outside of streaming content creation, and understand that that comes for unless this literally is your full-time job, most of the things that you have to do are more important than this, because those are the things that allow you to do this, so you have to take care of those things, or you probably might not have the ability to do this. So make sure you're prioritizing, make sure you understand that this is not a sprint, it is a marathon. Pace yourself, and you're going to find that yourself in a lot better mental space to continue to do this for a lot a longer period of time than so many other people who don't know those things do. Thanks so much for hanging out, everybody. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to like and share the podcast. Don't forget we are here every Wednesday on Twitter Spaces at 8 p.m. If you have a comment or an idea for a future episode, make sure to drop us an email at downtherabbithole at elevated.media. Thanks. Have a great day.