Dad Logs - A Glimpse Into the Mind of a Broadcaster

Today I want to chat about branching out. It's been a minute since I've created a Dad Log, so apologies for that. When you find yourself getting comfortable in the group of creators you've made friends with, it can be easy to support them and consistently go to them to create content together. And if you're at that point, it's important to continue to support them in those ways. But it's also important to seek new creators to support. It's an opportunity in two ways, the first being an opportunity to see how different creators do things. Inspiration for you to continue to innovate. But it's also an opportunity to meld communities and to strengthen the platform from a viewership standpoint.

My encouragement for you, especially if you are comfortable in the group of creators you support, is to branch out. Find a new creator to support today! Make a new friend, you never know where it may take both of you! God bless!

Today I wanted to try something different, we did the Dad Log live on our morning cast. And we talked about motivation. As people, it can be really hard some days to get out of bed, to pull your bootstraps up, and to be motivated to do whatever you need to do during the day. This might be going to school, going to work, or creating content. Whatever it is, motivation is usually derived from a core attribute or purpose.

My encouragement for you, especially if you're struggling with motivation, is to focus on your core purpose. What drives you to do whatever it is you do day in and day out? Remember that purpose, and use it to drive yourself forward. God bless!

Today we're going to talk about the hot topic of the week, stream coaching. This has come up and been fought about on Twitter and even some of the biggest folks in streaming are weighing in on it. Current status? Remains to be seen. There are many variables that impact the success of a broadcaster, from game and platform selection, to personality, to technology expertise, and many other variables that are completely outside the control of streamers everywhere.

My encouragement for you, is that if you are a broadcaster considering getting a stream coach, is to do your research and set expectations appropriately. Like any consultative service, track record is everything. Make sure that the expectations and outcomes of the engagement with a stream coach are defined and know that there are MANY free resources out there available as well. And know that stream coaching isn't a "magic bullet" for success. God bless!

Today I want to talk about dealing with chargebacks. As a streamer, you inevitably will end up at some point dealing with charged back tips. There are a few ways to combat those chargebacks though. The first is to make sure in Streamlabs that you don't allow anonymous tips. There is an option to require people who tip to login, which then puts a name with a tip. Another option is to not take tips at all. As a growing stream, you then have the power to ask people to share the stream in lieu of tipping. This can be a fantastic way to grow your channel.

My encouragement for you, is to consider all your options regarding tips, turn on authenticated tips only, and when you do get a chargeback, reaching out to Paypal to ask the fees to be removed. Renee Reynosa put that little nugget on Twitter, and so far the chargebacks I've received using her advice, has help me combat at the very least the fees associated with the chargeback. God bless!

Today I want to talk about the hard work that no one sees when you become a content creator. The reality is that to succeed in content creation, you have to put in the time off screen. There are many things that go into being successful in content creation, like editing video, scheduling instagram posts, updating overlays, creating new ways to engage with your community. Many people think that streaming is just firing it up and playing video games all day. But you have to do the not fun things if you want to succeed and do the fun things.

My encouragement for you, is to consider all the hard work you have to do on the backend if you want to succeed in content creation. Realize that just streaming isn't enough, and that you need to be prepared to put in the work if you want to see the results, just like any other job or endeavor. Being prepared and setting expectations is half the battle fam! God bless!

Today I want to chat about finding your purpose. I think as content creators we have a tendency to jump into creation almost like a pipe dream. We dream some day of being a huge star, and don't really realize how much work goes into it or that behind every creator there should be a purpose. We all got started creating content for a reason, whether it was for the love of sharing our video game experiences or to build community or to make money.

My encouragement for you, if you are just getting started, thinking about getting started, or even a veteran content creator that is in a lull, find or re-find your purpose. Take a minute to step back, reflect on why you create content, and find that purpose. Then double down on it! God bless!

Today I want to talk about utilizing good ideas, regardless of where they come from. The saying goes, "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery". And every tech company out there, imitates their competitors in one way or another. Often times, companies like Apple, Microsoft and Amazon aren't the first to market with an idea. But that doesn't mean they aren't successful. As content creators, we should be looking for every opportunity to learn and grow, and that includes figuring out how to take other creators ideas and morph them into something meaningful for our channel.

My encouragement for you, especially if you are a creator, is to get it out of your head that if someone does something well, that you aren't allowed to do it as well. It's a matter of taking that idea, and making it your own so it is received in a genuine way! God bless!

Today I want to talk about being genuine. We were chatting last night about the differences between Mixer and Twitch, and one of my folks commented about how Twitch felt "fake" to them. How many folks put on an act for the sake of making money, instead of focusing on community. I think as a content creator, one of the most important (and often overlooked) traits that a great creator has is the ability to be genuine.

My encouragement for you, is to really focus on making sure you're as genuine as possible when it comes to content creation. Playing a persona and amping up natural traits is fine, but being someone you aren't or attempting to match someone else's style of delivery will likely fall flat. You do you, and let the rest fall into place. God bless!

Fortnite Save the World - Dad Log - Stardate 11052018
Today I want to do a State of the Game address on Fortnite Save the World. This side of the Fortnite franchise doesn't get a whole lot of press, and I think it's mainly because it's not a free game. But if you're a fan of the looter shooter genre of games, this is a solid entry into this category. The Save the World side of Fortnite has you diving into the development of heroes on a quest based story mode, and developing your heroes to save humanity from impending doom. As with any looter shooter, there is materials gathering, crafting, quests and repeatable missions.

My encouragement for you, if you are fan of the looter shooter genre, is to pick this game up. If you play the BR, you will earn v-bucks that can be used to buy skins and season passes. The expansion actually pays for itself if you intend to continue to play the franchise. God bless!

Today I want to share my thoughts on Mixer Season 2. This includes the updates that dropped like Skills, Sparks Patronage, and the ideas yet to come like Embers and the loyalty system. With Season 2 dropping yesterday, we got a bunch of technical upgrades like automatic bitrate switching, video debugging tools, and site stability improvements. They also released skills, in which viewers can spend sparks to put stickers, gifs, animations and games in the chat. I provide my overview here of all of the new items.

My encouragement for you, is if you're a partner, is to go for the 5 million goal, hit those milestones and enjoy the sparks patronage program. But don't let that stop you from support non-partnered streamers just the same. If you are a non-partnered streamer, keep creating great content! Invest in your viewers, your community, and stay focused on making the best content you can. God bless!

Today I want to chat about depth versus breadth in your community. As a content creator, one of the easiest metrics to measure is follower count. It's front and center everywhere, there are 25,000 different tools that track it, and it seems to be of maniacal focus for most creators. But something that doesn't get talked about often is the depth of your community. How deep are the relationships you've built with your followers. When gaining followers is slow, what do you focus on?

My encouragement for you today, is to focus on the depth of your community if you're at a place where the breadth of your community is slower than normal. When you aren't focused on welcoming a ton of new people into your community, focus on building those relationships with the people that are there. God bless!

Today I want to chat about creating a schedule that works for you. There are two types of schedules for people, schedules that work and schedules that don't. Creating a schedule that works means creating a schedule that you can maintain day after day, after week, after month, after year. It means you can be consistent in that schedule every week and your viewers can expect you to be live every week at that time. Consistency is what breeds growth, and will always be good for your channel, community and for yourself.

My encouragement for you is to find a schedule that works for your life. Even if you can't be live at the same time every day of your schedule, setting a time each day you cast and sticking to it will yield the best results for YOU and for your community. So find a schedule that works for you, and stick with it! God bless!

Today I want to chat about content creation and how it's a marathon, not a sprint. I've been doing consistent content creation for the last year, and as a "young" content creator, it can be easy to wonder when you'll see enough success to go full time. And the reality is, if you look at those that are doing full time content creation, the majority of them have been in the game for at least 3 years. It takes time to build a community that can support you as a full time creator.

My encouragement for you, especially if you're a creator that has been in the game less than 12 months, is to remind yourself that you have a long way to go. That may be discouraging for some, but being able to do content creation full time in less than 12 months is like winning the lottery, it's one in a million. So take a breath, remind yourself to stay the course, and keep creating content. God bless!

Today I want to chat about the differences between a green screen and a cambox. I chat about the pros and cons of both, the personal preference side of them, and how to execute the delivery of them. These two delivery methods for broadcasters with cameras can drastically change the interaction and dynamic of the content, but the nice thing is that both of them are attainable and can be interchanged as needed.

My encouragement for you, is to try them both out if you have the ability to. Start with the cambox since it's the easiest to do and takes the least investment, and when you have the opportunity to, invest in some cheap green fabric and the nicest lights you can afford and try out the green screen as well! God bless!

Today I want to talk about innovation, and innovation as a content creator. The top creators are always innovating, tweaking, coming up with new ideas and experiences for their audience to drive engagement. It's important that in the thick of things, you take a moment to step back and brainstorm. Whether it's streamlining your existing experience, or creating something brand new, you have to take the time to innovate.

My encouragement for you, especially if you find yourself in a rut, is to take a step back. Evaluate what makes you and your content unique, and if you're struggling to answer that question, then start brainstorming ways that you can showcase your personality and what makes you unique. Then you can truly take that innovation and turn it into something people love. God bless!

Today I want to talk about different types of agreements. There are many different ways to engage with companies, andy many different ways that engaging with those companies can be mutually beneficial to you and to them. Affiliate agreements are generally the "lowest tier", providing little benefit to the content creator and massive benefit to the company. Partnerships are usually a next step up, and often involve more than just discount codes. Sponsorships are the top of the spectrum, and offer the most benefit to a creator.

My encouragement is to consider long and hard what types of agreements you're willing to engage in long term. Make sure that the contracts have distinct benefits to you, and if the "benefit" entails "additional exposure" for your brand and that's it, I'd be very concerned. Any opportunity doesn't always mean it's a good opportunity. God bless!

Today I have a heart to heart with you content creators and future content creators out there. This is not to discourage you in your pursuits in content creation, but to lay it out there for you. What are you getting into when we're talking about content creation? The reality is that you're in for a LOT of work if you want to see success in the creation space. Expect to put in 2 to 3 times as many hours as you are streaming. You are your own IT guy, marketing guru, sales specialist and owner. You determine your path, so make sure you're prepared to put in the work.

My encouragement for you, is to figure out if content creation is truly something you want to pursue. The dedication and hard work and variable aspects of creation can be very demanding mentally and physically. There are many opportunities outside of directly creating content that allow you contribute and even be a leader in the communities you're a part of. Consider all your options, and no matter what you do, give it all you've got! God bless!

Today I want to chat about what appears to be a departure of droves of creator from Mixer back to Twitch. There are a lot of folks that are upset about the site's stability, about growth on the platform, and many other factors that play into those decisions. I can see where they're coming from. There are many items, technical and otherwise, that need to be addressed by Mixer as a platform. The beautiful thing is, they are addressing them!

So my encouragement for you, if you are looking at leaving (or moving to) Mixer, is to really figure out why you stream and make your decision based on that. If you're just looking to fund your gaming hobby, Twitch is a great place to be. If you want to grow with a platform, and possibly do this for a living someday, Mixer is right where you should be. It all comes down to your willingness to be patient. The reward will be huge if you can get through the short term pain. God bless!

Today I want to talk about getting back on the horse. It can be really easy when we slip up and take an unscheduled day off, get sick, or stop doing something, to say it's not worth doing any more. This is especially true in content creation, but applies to things like working out, eating healthy, and any number of other activities we do in our daily lives. It can be really hard to get yourself back mentally to a state where you can perform, pick yourself up by your bootstraps, and start doing again whatever it is you stopped.

My encouragement for you today, is to get back on the horse. Whatever it might be that you recently stopped doing, do it again today. Did you quit working out? Do it today. Even if it's 5 pushups and 5 squats, do it today. Did you quit eating healthy? Find the healthiest mean in your cabinet, and eat it for lunch and dinner today. Whatever it is, start back up. God bless!

Today I want to talk about shaking it off. It's one of the toughest things to do as content creators, but it's a vital part of what we do. There are going to be days and times of year that are naturally slower. School starts, holidays, work, it all digs into the time we have to be entertained. When it's slow, remind yourself that it's not because of you or your content.

My encouragement for you, is to look past the bad week of casting. Look beyond the numbers, remind yourself it's ok to have slow times. I'm a content creator, and this is normal. Keep creating content, be consistent, and good things will come. Patience, patience, and more patience. God bless!

Today I wanted to talk about taking time off. Since I just got back from vacation, and feel recharged and ready to dive back in, it's a really relevant topic for me. After taking the last 12 months and really focusing on being consistent in my creation, I needed some time to recharge and refocus. I think it's an important consideration for every creator to make, and to consider taking time off when you start to see diminishing quality in your content.

My encouragement for you, is to take some time to reflect on where your content is at, and ask yourself if you're at the point of diminishing returns. Is it time to take some time off? Consider it an investment in your health and your community. If you've built a quality community around yourself, they will be there when you get back. Take time to recharge! God bless!

Today I want to chat about quality over quantity in content creation. 2 or 3 years ago, the streaming mantra was "Always Be Streaming" if you wanted to succeed in the space. Interesting enough, and based on my personal experience, I feel like that isn't necessarily the case any more. I've made a lot of progress as a broadcaster only putting in around 9 - 12 hours a week, because I've focused on the quality of my broadcasts.

My encouragement to you, especially if you aren't seeing the results you want to see, is to consider reducing the number of hours you broadcast. Focus on increasing the quality of your content, which could be focusing on better ways to develop commands for your bot, networking, working on graphics, or any number of other backend assets that can build engagement for your community. Give that a shot, and see how it can pay dividends in your stream. God bless!

Today I want to talk about ups and downs. As people, and especially as content creators, we ride these ups and downs like a rollercoaster. It can be really tough to go from hundreds of people in our chat to five, and we all have those days where we wonder, "Am I good enough?". Why aren't people coming back? Questioning our abilities as content creators. When in reality, we have very little control over many of these things. You never know when someone is sick, or has something going on in their life. School starts up, holidays happen, people are busy.

My encouragement for you, is to pay close attention to the people who are there, WHEN they're there. The reality is, if you have ONE person in chat, then you are entertaining enough. They chose to hang out with you, over anyone else. So give them a show, they deserve it. God bless!

Today I want to talk about compromising your integrity. As a broadcaster, and as a person, integrity is crucial when building relationships. It sets the expectation that you are a good person to work with, that you'll fulfill your side of the deal, and that you're willing to stand for something. Recently, there was a massive uptick in viewership on Mixer, which I wrongly jumped to the conclusion was the result of viewbotting. However, the premise still stands, compromising your integrity for the pure reason of gaining numbers (follows or views) will come back to bite you in the end.

My encouragment for you, is to consider what it would mean to your brand, and your community, for you to compromise your integrity. Very little in this life comes easy, and that includes your moral compass. Don't risk everything you've built for a "quick win", it usually ends up meaning you lose in the long term. God bless!

Today I want to talk about having meaningful engagement on social media. A lot of times we go out on Twitter or Instagram, and we just like and follow and that's as far as the relationship goes. That's like shaking someone's hand, saying "Nice to meet you" and then walking away. Generally speaking, it's not usually socially acceptable to do that. So why then do we do that on social media?

My encouragement for you today, is to take the next step with those that you've followed or liked their content. Take a moment to tell them why you liked their content, or take a second to ask them a question. Strike up a conversation with them. You never know who's day you might make. God bless!

Today I wanted to provide a life update for y'all. I've been a little slow to upload the podcast and Instagram posts, because it's been a very busy week for me. As "side hustle" content creators, it can be tough for us to maintain a stream schedule, let alone all the extra curricular content that we might post on a regular basis.

My encouragement (and hope) for you as consumers of my content or anyone else's content, is to have a little grace when it comes to our creation schedule. Many of us work really hard for a long time to bring you the best, and as much, content as we possibly can. I'm not down, or unmotivated, or quitting. I've just been busy, and will do my best to get back to regular content as soon as I can. Love you guys, God bless!

Today I want to talk about showing your weakness, which seems super backwards from what most people want to project. A lot of times, we as human beings, feel like we have to constantly show strength, be invincible or invulnerable. But something my pastor said that stuck out to me in one of these last few sermons, is that showing your weakness is a sign of humility. A little humble pie never hurt anyone and it gives those in your community an opportunity to get closer to you.

My encouragement to you, is to be vulnerable and show your weakness. Give others an opportunity to build you up and to help you grow in ways you never would have thought possible. It's ok to be weak in certain areas, we all are. Take that weakness, and use it as an opportunity to grow as a person and to grow in your relationships with others. God bless!

Today I want to chat about not taking unfollowers personally. It's really easy, as the industry puts heavy emphasis on follower counts, to get down about even one person unfollowing you on your channel, twitter, or whatever else. Whether it's intentional, unintentional, a bug, or whatever, it can feel personal. But at the end of the day, we have to do our best to put things in perspective. That person may have wiped their whole follow list. It could be a bug in the platform like on Mixer. It might just be that you're not bringing value to them any more.

My encouragement for you, is to do your best to not take unfollows personally. It's going to happen ALL THE TIME and focusing on it isn't going to help you make your best content. Focus on continuing to entertain, bring value to your community, and the rest will fall into place. Don't let an unfollow or two or five derail from putting your best foot forward every day. God bless!

Today I want to talk about setting expectations for yourself. As a Mixer Partner, I'm afforded and presented with many opportunities I've not had previously, and it's easy to set unrealistic expectations for myself and for my community. With the Destiny Forsaken launch, I think I had some "delusions of grandeur" if you will, and had set an expectation in my own mind that it would be a springboard for the channel and community. When it fell flat, I found myself in a little bit of a rough headspace.

My encouragement for you, is to "plan for the worst, hope for the best" when it comes to opportunities that present themselves. Look at every opportunity as a way to possibly accelerate your channel and community in the right direction, but don't get your hopes too high, because that is what will lead to disappointment and negative thoughts. Set yourself up for success, and don't set unrealistic expectations for yourself. God bless!

Today I want to talk about taking shortcuts. As human beings, we're always looking for the shortest path between point A and point B. Whether it's traffic and driving, or trying to make our way to CEO of the company, we want the shortest, easiest, most convenient route. In content creation, there are definitely opportunities to accelerate growth. However, there really aren't any shortcuts. Only hard work, patience, and perseverance. I'm learning that right now as a partner.

My encouragement for you, is to stay the course. Be consistent, stay positive, and always be moving forward. There are going to be times when you thought an opportunity would pay off and it doesn't. There are going to be times when you will unexpectedly experience growth when you thought you wouldn't. Simply use these experiences as an opportunity to learn and grow, and you'll be in good shape. God bless!

Today I want to chat about harnessing your excitement for new releases. As a content creator, and as I've talked about before, we spend a lot of time on auxillary things outside of playing games. Editing video, creating social media posts, networking, creating stream assets, it all takes away from playing video games. When new releases come out, whether it's a new IP or a DLC, it generates excitement for us as gamers. It also presents us with an opportunity to relate to the greater game community.

My encouragement for you, is to harness that excitement when new games come out. Take the opportunity to chat on various social media and forum sites with the greater game community. This will help you get even more excited and create even better content, in addition to helping you drive awareness for your channel and possibly engage with new viewers. It's a win win for you as a content creator, so get excited! God bless!

Today I want to talk about the grind. When people watch other people playing video games for a living, it's really easy to imagine that the only thing that person does is play video games and get paid. In reality, you see 90 percent of the video games, and 10 percent of the back end work. Last night I wanted to play video games, but instead I prioritized editing clips for Instagram. Because at the end of the day, that is what was going to pay more dividends for the channel and for executing on a multi-platform content strategy.

My encouragement for you, if you are brand new to broadcasting or thinking about getting started in content creation, is to consider that most of your work has nothing to do with video games. If you want to see success, you are going to spend way more time executing on other things like editing content, writing scripts, sending emails, spending time in other communities, etc. So be prepared for the grind folks! God bless!

Today I want to talk about something that I think takes practice and time, and that's finding your flow. As new content creators, it can be a struggle to weave in your every day life into the conversations we have with the people in our community. Everyone has passions outside of content creation, whether that's working out, cycling, reading, whatever. The challenge as creators, is how to fit that into our conversations that we're having when the stream is on.

My encouragement for you today, is to seek out conversation. Have a conversation with someone new, figure out how to find common ground and to be a "conversationalist". You can practice this in many ways, and it doesn't just have to be in your stream. It can be with a random person on the bus, or the person checking you out at the grocery counter. Take the opportunity to engage whenever possible, as it will help you be a better content creator. God bless!

Today I want to talk about bad decisions...I mean, making assumptions. Yesterday, amongst the massive increase in viewership on Mixer, I made some assumptions initially that I came to find out were all kinds of wrong. It's easy when you see others doing certain things, or in this case, other things happening to others, to make assumptions about how or why it's happening. So when I saw the massive boost in viewership on Mixer, I immediately assumed it had something to do with people using viewbots. However, as I did research and talked with others, it's become apparent that this was not the case.

My encouragement, is to consider a few things when you make assumptions about others. Number one, assumptions reveal something about your character, so be careful about how you react / act on your assumptions. And number two, it's an opportunity to reflect inward and figure out why you're making those assumptions. Use it as an opportunity to learn, grow, and be a better person. God bless!

Today I talk about a fear I have with playing one game too much on the channel. From what I've seen in the short time in this content creation space, it's really risky to be a channel on a single game. As we saw at the release of Destiny 2, many channels that built their following on Destiny only, had a hard time recovering from Destiny 2's sub-par launch. And with Destiny finally being in a place that I love, I find myself wanting to play only Destiny for the most part.

My encouragement for you, is to consider, especially if you want to do this full time, what it means to put all your eggs in one basket. And that doesn't just mean from a game standpoint, I'm also talking about where you put your content. Consider your content distribution strategy, and make sure that you are diversifying your content. You never know when a platform may make a change that severely impacts your ability to grow. God bless!

Today I want to chat about finding what works. As content creators, a lot of times we can get wrapped up in "always being on" that we can forget to take time and have consideration for what works for us. For instance, I finally decided to NOT record podcasts on Saturday. It was taking away already precious family time, and just wasn't working for me and my family. So I decided to only record 5 podcast episodes per week, and to focus on only the stream Saturday night.

My encouragement for you is to consider, and reflect on what's working for you and what isn't. Make changes that will help you streamline things in your life, remove friction, and help you be an overall happier person. If you aren't happy, you aren't going to make your best content. I've always preached quality over quantity, so find what works for you so you can make your best content! God bless!

Today I admit I was wrong. I let my jaded perspective get in the way of realizing that much of my following came from the Fortnite directory, and that I've been ignoring that part of my community for the last couple of months. As someone who is focused on building community and reaching people, I want the quality of my community to be the best it can be. And for awhile now, I've felt like the Fortnite directory has lead to "empty follows". But looking at people who have spent time in my channel, and in my Discord, there are a lot of folks that are from the Fortnite community and ARE quality followers.

My encouragement for you today, is to consider your perspectives. Get other perspectives. Reflect on where you've been so you can focus on where you're going. I was surprised to come to the conclusion I have, and I look forward to getting back to playing a little Fortnite among the current rotation of games we're playing. Thanks for sticking with me fam! God bless!

Today I want to chat about optimizing your day. I've been reflecting and projecting on what I imagine a normal day as a content creator would look like. What would my "routine" be, and then last night I had an epiphany. I realized that I should be, every day, executing all parts of that routine with work being my normal "stream" time. So in the morning, I should be posting to Twitter, uploading an Instagram post, going through the previous night's clips, and getting ready to stream. After work, I should be wrapping up "stream", spending some time in other's channels, and so on.

My encouragement for you, is if you are looking to go full time, think about the ways in which you can optimize your day and what your routine would look like if you were a full time creator. Start to fit those things in around your work schedule if you can so you can start to realize whether full time creation is a reality for you or not. God bless!

Today I wanted to breakdown the Gamescom 2018 Nvidia reveal of the new 20 series graphics chipset that they revealed. We'll start off with the absolute stellar: the Turing chipset has no rival to date based on the date that they released as part of the reveal. The sheer number of teraflops of data compute is dumbfounding, and the advanced render, shader and light capabilities are incredible. Watching the live renders of some of the video they revealed showed true cinema quality in gaming engines.

My encouragement for you as creators though, is to consider the cost to value for a card like this. It's a prohibitively expensive card, and realistically you as the GAMER will be the only one able to perceive it's quality, as the internet and streaming really isn't there to provide that cinema quality to an audience yet. So consider the cost versus the value you deliver to your audience before jumping in on this card. God bless!

Today I want to talk about understanding, and the encouragement of said understanding. For most of us, this is a hobby or a part time side hustle. We don't do this for a living, and so we are setting expectations and motivating ourselves out of pure love for creating content. But some days, it's hard to do that. It's hard to get motivated, or to get the creative juices flowing to step up and deliver the best content we can.

My encouragement for you today, is to consider the position your favorite creators are in. And know that they, just like you, wake up and some days just don't have it. We aren't on top of our game, and rather than creating sub-par content, we choose not to create at all. So do your best to have that empathy when it comes to expectations for your favorite creators, so when they do put out content, it's with the knowledge that it's their best content that day. God bless!

Today I want to talk about something I've missed since I've started creating content. It's called playing video games with my friends. As someone who has limited free time throughout the week, my ability to just sit down and play games is few and far between. When you start getting into content creation, you also give up focusing on playing games for focus on making better content. Updating graphics, interacting with your community, programming bots, fixing technical issues, learning new things. All these take priority over just sitting down and firing up your favorite game and kicking back.

My encouragement for you, if you are considering starting to create content, is to ask yourself what you love more; playing video games or doing all the stuff I mentioned above. Because in order to have a successful stream, all of those things will end up taking priority over just playing games with friends. God bless!

We've reached the end of our discussion on the "4 Cs" of relationship building, what a series! Today we talk about consideration, and what it means to be considerate of others in your relationships. As you work with other people, it's worth taking a moment to put yourself in their shoes. Consider what they're going through, get some perspective from them so you can better communicate your intent, and compromise where you need to. As you can see, the other "3 Cs" are tied in closely with consideration, and form an important part of the overall relationship.

My encouragement for you, is to be more open to others and their perspective, and consider what it's like to be in there shoes. Put your consideration together with the other Cs so you can continue to build and maintain healthy relationships. It's been said by many, it's more about who you know that what you know, and leveraging the 4 Cs to maintain relationships will be key. God bless!

Today we're on the third of four talking about the "4 Cs" of relationships. In this episode I want to talk about compromise, from two perspectives. The first in about compromising your core values and how that reflects negatively on your character. Never compromise for the sake of follows or money, people will see through it. The second way is in compromising in relationships, or meeting in the middle. It's important to find a balance in any relationship, as swinging too far one way or the other will put the relationship in jeopardy.

My encouragement to you, is to be solid and uncompromising in your core values, and to find the balance of compromise in your relationships with others. It will help you and your friends or family thrive, and will bring a healthy balance to your relationships, which are important for your support structure as a content creator. God bless!

Here is the second part of our series on building relationships and networking. As my mom talks about, one of the "4 C's" is commitment, which can consist of two different types of commitment. The first is when you make a short term, or event based commitment. If you tell someone you're going to be at this place, at this time, you should commit to being there. This seems like an obvious concept, but the term "flaky" didn't just come to be without purpose. The second, is long term commitment. When you're getting into something, being committed through the ups and downs, while hard, is important.

My encouragement for you, is to consider your commitment and how you regard your commitment to not only content creation and the relationships you build as you network, but also the relationships you hold outside of content creation. Understand what your priorities are, and how you can commit to those priorities to be the best person you can be. God bless!

Today starts my 4 day series on networking, specifically on building relationships. My mom taught me from a young age, the key to making relationships work is the 4 C's, communication, commitment, consideration and compromise. I've carried this throughout my life, and it directs the way I build and maintain relationships. Today I dive into communication, especially as it pertains to being a creator. When it comes to interacting with other casters in their channel, it's important to be concise. It's hard to read long messages, since chat generally moves fast.

My encouragement to you, is to consider how you interact with other creators and with potential sponsors or partnerships. Put yourself in their shoes, you understand the pain of reading chat. It moves fast, long messages get lost in the mix. Getting to the point is important. Same with emails to potential sponsors / partnerships. They get 100s or 1000s of emails a day, so have your what, why and how bulleted and easy. God Bless!

It's really easy as people and as content creators to focus on numbers as measures of success. They are the easiest to measure, they indicate trends, and they are useful tools to find the general direction a channel or content is headed. However, numbers aren't the ONLY way you can measure success. In fact, it can be one of the most detrimental ways that people measure success, especially when they are first getting started in content creation.

My encouragement to you, is to consider what success looks like for YOU and for your community. Because at the end of the day, it's the impact you have on others, whether 1 or 1000, that really matters. Numbers are great, but people are better. Consider what your QUALITATIVE metrics are, and start to measure your success by those metrics, as opposed to just the quanititative metrics that most people measure success by. God bless!

We all have those days. The days where we aren't feeling ourselves, or are in a negative headspace because we're tired, or sick, or just woke up on the wrong side of the bed. It's really important on those days to make sure that you're aware of those feelings, and to disengage with conversations that may end up hurting you in the long run. There was a situation on Twitter recently regarding another streamer, and I saw a lot of hate getting flung by people who generally are positive folks.

My encouragement for you, is to take a moment each day or each week, to sit down in a quiet place, disconnect for a bit, and reflect on how you felt this week. Ask yourself what you did well, what didn't go so well, address how you felt and try to plan to replicate the feelings you had when you were at your best. The more often you can do that, the better chance you have at succeeding in whatever you're focused on. God bless!

Today I wanted to cover a state of the game for Warframe. We've been streaming and playing it a ton, and I've really been enjoying the switch to PC. So here are the thoughts on the game in it's current state. Given that this is a FREE to play game, it really is stellar. Digital Extremes continues to invest not only in the game and it's content, but into the community and the creators that surround the game. They have a 3 pronged content delivery strategy (core function updates like melee 3.0, prime access releases every 3 months, and major releases like Plains of Eidolon and Fortuna). This strategy is paying off.

My encouragement to you, is that if you like games like Destiny, No Man's Sky, The Division or any other loot based game, is to give Warframe a solid try. Make sure that you find a community to be part of when you're just starting, it will be important to have a group to ask questions to. But give it a shot, you have nothing to lose, it's free! God bless!

I bet you thought based on the title that this was going to be a lecture about how you have to have it all together all the time. It's not. I wanted to take a moment and be a little vulnerable with you. Contrary to what some people have literally told me, I don't always have it together. I have struggles that I deal with, and I don't always agree with people all the time. It takes work, communication, compromise, commitment. And even then, it can still be tough.

My encouragement for you today, is to be ok with not having it all together. Commit to the relationships in your life that mean something to you, and be willing to work through tough times. And don't feel like you have to have it all together, because realistically, even the most successful people, who appear to the outside world to have it all together, don't. And that's ok. God bless!