Eljayem

Please share your experience as a streamer on your first day

I was terrified, I had wanted to be a YouTuber, and Streamer since I was 15, it’s why I became a Filmmaker, why I studied Film and Video at university, and worked as a freelance documentary filmmaker for 8 years… then at the start of February 2020… I went live for the first time so nervous at the idea of failing, that fear is also why I hadn’t attempted streaming at all despite wanting to do it for so long.

I spent a week preparing for it, and then I loaded up X-com 2, one of my favorite games, and went live with Streamlabs, with nothing but the game, some music, and my voice… I had 5 viewers who were all just my friends, but I had a blast, fighting the alien menace, naming characters after chatters and their ideas, the moment I actually hit “Go-live” all the fear was gone, and when I finished the stream I realized there was no reason to be scared because everyone starts somewhere, and when you’re that small if you make a mistake, nobody even notices.

When and why did you start streaming?

As I mentioned above, I had wanted to be a YouTuber, and Streamer since I was 15, but I didn’t start till February 2020… I probably wouldn’t have gone live if it wasn’t for a good friend of mine encouraging me.

One day we were just chatting about games in a discord call, and I recommended Divinity Original Sin 2, and rather than try explain it, I started screen sharing me playing it for him. He interrupted me midway through a battle I was doing to tell me this was great and that I should start streaming on Twitch as well.

I shrugged it off, but he and another mate kept encouraging me for about a week straight… and finally, I went live. I owe all of my success to those two encouraging me, and I try do that for new creators now.

How do you balance streaming and daily life?

Admittedly early on there was no balance, I worked 3 jobs when I started streaming, I was a freelance Videographer, a contract video producer for a small tech company, and I did social media/tech support.

Not willing to drop anything, I changed my entire schedule to allow 5 weekly streams, Tuesday to Saturday, 7:15PM to midnight.

For the first year, I didn’t miss a single stream, or a day of work.

About 6 months into that, I started making videos for Stream Scheme where I released one a week non-stop for 2 years as well.

My personal life, seeing friends, dinners, etc did suffer a lot because of all this work, and I don’t recommend it, but this was during the lockdown so I had a lot of time and was lucky enough my work was flexible. I just knew if I didn’t take it seriously, I never would succeed.

I went full-time as a Content Creator when I was earning 3x more than my 3 jobs paid me, and that’s when I scaled my streams back to 4 days a week, and began being more flexible, focusing on exercise, family, friends, etc.

I wish I had eased off sooner, but at the end of the day, I’ve found my balance now and I am much healthier, it just took time.

Besides the first day, can you share some memorable moments during the live streaming?

There are so many times that I will never forget, like raising $14,000USD for charity, or when I reached 1000 Followers for example.

But, I think the one I want to highlight the most is less obvious, it was a normal stream, no special events, no big concepts, just me playing Detroit Become Human for the first time.

I had around 150 average viewers at the time, but I was still really new to streaming, I don’t know what it was but I was having so much fun, cracking jokes constantly, laughing at the game, at chat, who were so active, probably the most active they’d ever been, but it wasn’t just me talking to them that made them active.

In fact, I was barely addressing chat, they were just responding to all the jokes, and moments I was having on stream, I remember thinking, “Wow… this is amazing, this isn’t me talking about pineapple on pizza to boost engagements, I’m just being myself, making jokes, and people love it… I’m a streamer, I love this.”

https://clips.twitch.tv/BlueBadCardShazBotstix-OXXSGBNtGIRz3sHx

How many times have you considered quitting? How to change your mindset?

Dozens, or even hundreds of times to be honest. I haven’t in a while, because I’ve found a better balance now, but for a long time there the constant live grind was really making it hard.

The obsession with needing more average viewers, more subs, more bits, more revenue, more chatters by any means possible was exhausting.

Shifting my focus to streaming as the engagement tool, the side project to engage with viewers, and focusing on instead Videos and Short format made me love streaming again. It took the pressure away, and made it what it was when I started… just a fun way to play games.

What tips or advice would you give new streamers?

Just start, but also… don’t just start.

I know that sounds strange but you should Go-live, and start streaming so you can practice, but you should make sure you do the legwork as well. Research the platform, how others are discovered, what works, what doesn’t, etc.

Most new creators are hilarious, talented people, who simply haven’t done the research or haven’t spent much time on the platform so they aren’t making content that will work, just an hour or two a day of research will change your entire outlook on streaming and help you grow.

Which features of the MSI B760 Build do you recommend?

"While there are many things I love about my MSI PC build, one feature that stands out to me is the three slots for SSD's on the MAG B760 TOMAHAWK WIFI motherboard. As someone who has been streaming for close to 3 years, and likes to edit my streams into YouTube videos, I can go through 6 - 12gb of storage PER stream, 5 streams a week means we're looking at a lot of data, so I need ample storage space to store all of my files and projects. With three dedicated slots, I have the flexibility to expand my storage capacity as needed without sacrificing speed or performance.

Of course, the Gungnir 110R case is another aspect of my build that I adore. Its sleek and minimalist design is not only aesthetically pleasing but also incredibly functional. The spacious interior and optimized ventilation keep my components cool and running smoothly, while the tempered glass panel and customizable RGB lighting add a personal touch to my workspace."

What are your favorite tools and software for streaming and content creation?

Other than the obvious like OBS, StreamElements, etc. For me, it has to be Mister Horse Plugins for Premiere Pro, they are the most in-depth tool for typography, animation, effects, sounds, transitions, heck you name it they have it, its game-changing for new creators.

For Streamers wanting to learn to make Short Content, JoinCombo is a go-to as well. Auto-imports Twitch clips, and lets you convert them to vertical, edit them professionally, and even let’s you mass-convert clips to a template you premade.

And finally, VidIQ is the go-to extension for TikTok and YouTube when you’re trying to learn about content creation, understand topics, competition, and just generally research where you should begin.

All three of these are my favorites hands down, no competition.

Social channels:

Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/eljayem_
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Eljayem_
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiSvrPC9yQkNavS7GmKv4OQ