- When you first start out live streaming,
it can feel a little
intimidating, especially
if no one is showing up
to your live streams.
That's definitely Barbara's experience
and she's going to show
you guys how to push
through that so those
people start coming in
and hanging out with you.
That's coming up.
Hey guys, my name is
Tim Schmoyer and welcome
to video creators.
We are all about helping you
grow your YouTube audience
so you can reach people
and change their lives
and live streaming is
an amazing opportunity
to reach people and change their lives.
Tell us real quick about your channel
and what you do, Barbara.
- Yes, my name is Barbara.
I live stream video
games, variety game play,
every single Tuesday at 8pm PST.
We play all sorts of
different games and I just
try to keep a high energy, have some fun
cause if you're spending
time with me I want
to keep you entertained.
- I have a feeling anyone
who hangs out on her
live steams is always smiling.
- That's what we go for, yes!
- I bet that's totally what's happening.
So tell us the story
about how you got started
live streaming, what
was that like for you?
- Yes, so I started streaming
about three years ago
are streaming on a bunch
of different platforms
but YouTube is really the
one that has taken off
and is the one that I love and
so when I was starting out,
I was doing sort of
video game streaming and
this was really my first
chance or my first try
at being a YouTube creator.
So first you just have to
get over the awkwardness
of being in front of a
camera and knowing what
to say and trying to
make compelling content.
But when I was first starting
out, my YouTube channel
had only about 80 subscribers on it
and this was back in 2015
and I had, I kid you not,
it was three or four months
of my sitting in my studio,
live streaming a bunch of
different games, trying lots
of things out and no body showed up.
And so you're kind of sitting...
- So you're trying to keep
the energy up all by yourself?
- Well your kind of
sitting there and it's like
should I talk.
Nobody's here.
Should I just wait for
somebody to show up and then
do I turn it on?
- Or do I even keep going?
Is this even working?
- Do I try to optimize
for the VOD that gets
uploaded afterwards and
hope that people find
me through that and subscribe.
And so all of my original
videos, they're still up
on my channel, they're super
awkward and my subscribers
go back and watch them
now and they're like,
Barbara, you were so bad.
But yeah, you're just really
struggling and it's also
tough because I wanted to
have a live only channel
and so that's what I
wanted, to be engaging with
an audience and it's four
months worth of, you know
you have one and then they leave
and then it's another
20 minutes and you have
one and then they leave.
And so it is really hard
to get started if you're
starting from this brand new
channel, a live only focus,
but I would say just push through it.
- What kept you going when
like four months is, that
is dedication.
- I just, I love it.
A, I love playing video
games so I was going to be
playing those video games anyways
and I had formally had more
of an uploady type of app
review thing way back in the
day, in the college days.
So I do like doing this
type of thing and I saw
the vision of like where
it could go and so it was
just push through it.
- And the vision was growing
this so that eventually
people will come, I have
to just keep persisting
and eventually it will happen.
- So I'm fortunate enough,
actually the thing that kind
of was the inflection
point for my channel was
I got raided.
You familiar with the raiding?
- I know what raiding is
but I'm not sure I know what
it means when you're streaming.
- Okay, so live streaming,
so when you finish your
streaming, you have an
audience there, a captive
audience there, group of
people who still want to keep
hanging out and so what you
do is you go find another
channel who is live
streaming and you raid them.
Sounds negative but it's actually positive
so you pass on your
audience to somebody else
so I was lucky enough to
have a gaming channel,
his name is GAMEDOJO, he
was my first ever raid.
No way, not Dojo already.
Are you kidding?
This is my first ever raid!
Thanks for coming over everybody.
I appreciate it and
extra special thanks...
And he took my viewers
from nothing to about 10
and ever since that first
raid then I started getting
ten regularly coming
back every week and then
you start trickling up from there.
- Was that just pure chance?
- Pure luck, pure luck
that he found my channel
and decided to click that
button and send his audience
my way.
- Interesting.
Is there anything that
someone could do proactively
to like start engaging in
other people's communities
and things?
Does it work like that or not really?
- So you could, so I
do spend a lot of time
sort of talking to other
creators on Twitter.
Whenever I see them streaming,
I'll pop into their streams.
Just kind of touch base with people.
See how things are going
cause live is so much
about the community.
It's not just on your
community with your audience
but it's also, we're all in this together.
We're all trying to grow
together, we're all trying
to figure out YouTube,
work with our audiences,
learn new things, and so I
love the community building
on the creator side, too.
When I started live
streaming three years ago,
live was just in a
totally different space.
The world has changed so much.
YouTube has invested so
much in live streaming.
You know getting better
at chat, getting better
notifications, search and
discovery, infrastructure
improvements, you can
live stream 4k 360 degrees
in low latency so you get
even more of a real time,
audience interaction.
Just so much has changed
that these days when people
stream and they're starting
out, growing their channels,
it is not going to be the
long slog that I experienced
at the beginning.
Yeah.
- So it's about engaging
like the one or the two
that you get.
Engage them, talk to them,
don't worry about all
the people you don't have.
Make that one person
feel like, this person's
talking to me.
Like this is an amazing experience and...
- So my top tip is would
you watch your own content?
Like try to, welcome
people in, talk to them,
read chat, engage with
them, and make the type
of thing you would
enjoy cause other people
enjoy that, too.
- If you laugh at your
own jokes then you know
you're having a good time.
If you guys want to check out her channel,
the link to it down below, Barbara E Mac.
You can go hang out with
her and her live streams.
- Be sure to like and
subscribe to this guy also.
He has an awesome channel
full of tips and tricks
and I've definitely
been watching his videos
to help me grow on YouTube so thank you.
- Yeah, you're welcome and
we'll see you guys soon
in the next video.
See you then, bye!
