"Most vtubers would do better to accept this is a hobby" It's good advice that is meant to stave off the feelings of failure and exhaustion that so many of us work ourselves too. It's advice many of us should probably take. So why is it so hard? Why is it so hard to just treat it as a hobby? I've been thinking about this a lot the last few days, and I think I have my answer. Content creation requires you to wear a LOT of hats in order to succeed. Marketing, funneling, social media training, PR, video and image editing, and of course for those of us who like streaming, the ability to talk for hours at a time and be entertaining live consistently. We have to clip ourselves, edit ourselves, show up over and over and over and over again and wear a dozen different hats. We have to because the mechanisms for success are rarely in the places we want to be spending time. And for streamers, most of us enjoy streaming TO people, it is an inherently social and performative act. But in order to stream TO people you have to do all the rest. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe there's a lot of people out there that are happy to stream to an empty chat. But I don't think so. I think our days are brightened when viewers stop by, when we form communities, when we share our moments of joy, heartbreak, pain, and all the rest. But we all know the discoverability on twitch. We all know how many people DO stream to only 1 or two viewers. We want what we've worked for. But to do so... many of us are killing ourselves. We're either cutting off sleep, proper health, money, friendship/relationships outside of streaming, or all of the above. So what does it mean for us to "just treat it like a hobby"? A hobby is something you do whenever you feel like it for a little or as much as you feel like. But if we did that, I would wager that the majority of us would essentially stop doing a lot of the things required for discoverability. In turn, this would mean a slow and steady fall off as your consistency waned, your off platform efforts dwindled, and you spent time frankly taking care of yourself. And then, unfortunately... a lot of us would not be happy with streaming with a greatly reduced reach and audience. For many of us, treating it truly like a hobby would result in losing the fun part of the hobby alongside the painful and hard parts. Treating it like a hobby when you've been trying so hard to "make it" feels tantamount to quitting altogether. And that's not even addressing the feeling of mentally giving up on a dream, admitting defeat, deeming your efforts a failure. It's a hard mental hurdle. Even writing this up, I know I probably shouldn't post it. Negativity or sensitivity are "bad for branding". But it is what it is. I like to talk, to put my thoughts and feelings into words. To share a sentiment that may be beneath the surface for many of us even if we haven't articulated it yet. If any of this resonated and you somehow made it to the bottom, let me know.

I joined L1 early and have had a lot of thoughts about it. Yes, I have resubscribed for a second month. Level 1 is what you make of it, and not everyone will need it. If you are expecting it to have some secret knowledge that isn't publicly available, it doesn't and honestly cannot have that. This isn't a criticism, even GEEGA has said that a ton of information is out there. I am a very knowledgable creator so there hasn't been a lot that I have learned *in a vacuum* that I didn't already know. What Level 1 provides is *tailored expertise and feedback*, both from fellow creators and from managers and successful industry veterans. The ability to directly talk with people about YOUR content, about what YOU struggle with, about your metrics when compared to other metrics other creators don't share publicly. I've had my management sessions with @DdeokPocky and he has helped eliminate questions for me that I had about similar content in the niches I'm working in. Questions that quite simply there weren't easy answers to, things like: * This retention curve for this type of content is perfectly adequate (compared to insider knowledge with other successful channels) * Don't worry about X kind of editing because this is (intentionally) second monitor content, instead focus on Y right now * This is a slower burn type of content but your metrics show promise * Various discussions directly about thumbnail styles and experiments, title formatting etc. * These are ways that a similar channel scaled and outsourced work to optimize this As an overthinker, it is extremely valuable to have a professional say "This is good enough to stop worrying about this thing right now" and that is NOT something I can get from generic youtube. I have really appreciated my time speaking to Pocky. Similarly, the speakers have all been experts in their fields and being able to directly ask them questions during and after their sessions is something you simply cannot get out in the wild. The managers all spend quite a bit of time in public open hours where you can either talk additionally or just listen in for what they are teaching other people. There are also frequently members coworking or hanging out as well as providing feedback when asked. One of the benefits of having a paywall is that you are filtering for people that are definitely serious about their craft regardless of size. I am not saying that people who aren't paying are not serious, but rather that any "free vtuber server" these days fills so fast that the noise becomes immense to the point of near uselessness in my experience. If this sounds useful to you for the price, I encourage joining. If you think this is too expensive or not useful, that's totally your prerogative, nobody can tell you the value of your money and time or your own needs other than yourself.

SPOOKY SOCIAL DEDUCTION! xitter.cf/i/broadcasts/1pJkOXBrO…

In 30 minutes we're playing the ultimate social deduction game, Blood on the Clocktower! If you are a fan of among us, werewolf, goose goose duck, town of salem or similar, this is those games on steroids!

I'm tired boss.

We're making dresses BITCH xitter.cf/i/broadcasts/1PJqrNOmA…

Remember how fox news tried to make a huge scandal out of the sex scene in Mass Effect 1, a game in which the most you see is part of a side boob and butt? Pepperidge farm remembers.

Honestly, this is really sad. There were some franchises that really had such fond memories and such potential. It's always tragic when a studio has to close.

How it feels when you're surrounded with people who have things figured out. Guess I gotta sneak into that training camp

Alright I just got back from Street Fighter, that movie was way better than I was expecting. Was it high cinema? HELL no. But it was extremely goofy in a way that it fully embraced and owned, and I had a huge grin on my face the whole time. The fact that it was set in the 90s probably also influenced it haha, but there were so many good references that even someone like me who is only tangentially aware of the history was able to catch. Super fun.

I'm gonna be so honest, I'm just not built for growth on twitter. I seriously struggle with scheduling filler posts to keep myself in the public's eye, when I want to say something it's usually either commentary, a complex topic, or responding to friends. I don't know how to encapsulate my brand in pithy repeatable bites (heh). Like, come to my streams if you want to talk to a witty funny knowledgeable guy that loves chatting. That's it. That's the pitch.

Live now, come chat! xitter.cf/i/broadcasts/1mxPaZMAp…

We're having a bit of a different week, I have to miss stream on wednesday but I will still be doing Legend of Vox Machina on discord night. Saturday we have a big game of blood on the clocktower! Murder mystery, with a dozen+ vtubers!

An auspicious number in spooky month~

I'm tempted to get a new mic and/or set up audio routing with the wave 3 software... but then I'd have to redo all my audio and I'm scared

Oh my god now I'm going to need to see that stupid peanut all over my timeline for the next few weeks 💀

LOL sometimes the timeline just works out (sent by a friend to me)