Content Creators and the stress of faking everything is okay
By Alber Emegé and Naya
We have all known, at some point in our lives, the stress of posting a picture online and checking every five minutes to see who’s double-tapped on it. Human beings are often prone to letting external validation and approval impact our self-esteem a great deal. Creators suffer this need for social acceptance twice as much. The likes they get on social media is not only an indicator that affects their self-esteem on a personal level but also professionally.
I am no stranger to this not-so-healthy habit myself; when we launched the first Streamloots MVP, I would refresh the Google Analytics page every five minutes, waiting for new buyers and numbers to remind me that “Hey, you’re successful”. Two years in and the same stress for having gratifying results is still there. Like all startup founders, I am deeply fixed to the company’s metrics because we link our personal success to the success of our company.
All this line of thought is bringing me to the following conclusion: content creators are not so different than entrepreneurs after all. A content creator’s social media likes translate into an entrepreneur’s main KPIs. Both creators and entrepreneurs consider that our personal success is linked to our audience. We both worry that our product might not be liked, loved, or even considered by their audience and this is the exact reason why these two are both two figures with shared fears, worries, and feelings.
Today, I want to focus on one that’s really changing the perception of how we see content creators and entrepreneurs: We both share the same anxiety caused by pretending everything is ok.
In my job, I am mostly surrounded by streamers of every kind and therefore the majority of the examples and conclusions in this post refer to real-time creators.
I can’t pretend everything is OK any longer
A few weeks ago, I contacted a streamer that was making good money on Streamloots but, all of a sudden, she stopped making sales. When she got back to me, I was incredibly surprised by her answer:
“I can’t pretend everything is OK any longer.”
She claimed she wasn’t capable of doing any more live streams for a while because she needed a break. That response came as a shock to me. If you watched her show, you would think that she is the happiest and funniest person in the world. Sadly, though, behind all the laughs and the jokes, I found a girl that would take her “happy” mask off and get depressed as soon as she pushed the “Stop Broadcasting” button. It is extremely hard to fake happiness and pretend everything is under control for such a long time.
If you are a startup founder, this feeling might sound pretty familiar.
A few months ago, I experienced a harsh rejection from a huge fund over Zoom. Right after that knock-back call, I had another one with Bessemer. In this call, I had to explain why we have all the necessary requirements to become their next Home Run. Bessemer did end up investing in us, but this was me during that call:
Show must go on! That is the exact same feeling streamers get when they have to go live even though they are not feeling like it.
But why do we have this urge to pretend everything is ok? If you are a streamer or a founder, your business depends on you being able to keep going. You cannot afford to just go home, run under the sheets of your bed, and hide there. You have to show up and keep up.
Being a streamer usually starts as a hobby, even if you make some money through donations or subscriptions. But for thousands of people content creation and live streaming become a full-time job. They create a product they sell -that is, themselves- and an audience that can provide them with revenue. At this point, donations or subscriptions become their business model and they are responsible for the quality of their product and the success of their company. To ensure such success, streamers are supposed to keep their audience entertained and in order to do that, they need to constantly find a way to stay happy and fun for them.
But, how easy is it to accomplish that? As mental health e-sports coach, Dr. Julie Gurner states:
“The mental health risks people take in being an online personality become more prominent as their popularity grows. There is a lot of pressure to be “on,” be “perfect,” and be everything your audience wants you to be. You feel pressure to give them what you know they want - more content - and the hunger for that content never ends.”
Having to be perfect every time you are in front of the camera just to not disappoint your followers is a big stress that, as entrepreneurs, get to experience too on a regular basis.
As a founder, here’s a question I face almost every day: “How is the company doing?”. Honestly, building a company is pretty much like that Simpsons episode where Homer “balances” the Stimu-crank drug with sleeping pills. Being an entrepreneur feels like you are on an endless roller coaster undergoing ups and downs every single day.
The company, as normal as it can be, is not always doing amazing and I’m not always feeling great but, just like the streamers, I feel I cannot afford to be depressed either. I am supposed to be an inspiration for the team and give them the security and confidence they need, while at the same time transmit courage and determination for the investors to believe in me and the company.
Ultimately, the resemblance between these two so different but, all the while so similar worlds is indisputable. This is not strange, since streamers are actually entrepreneurs and, in both cases, they are required to keep going even when the path is rough.
Streaming and anxiety
Anxiety is very common. According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (2020), anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the U.S., affecting 40 million adults in the United States aged 18 and older. Being a public character makes it even harder to live with it. Sometimes it feels like you are on Big Brother 24/7 where you are expected to entertain everyone around you.
Lots of streamers start streaming as a way to release anxiety. But streaming has a few peculiarities that can do the opposite:
Believing the hate comments and ignoring the positive ones. Psychologists refer to this habit as the negativity bias and it can have a powerful effect on our behavior and decisions. Negativity biases are slightly more dangerous for streamers than for people who don’t. They are public figures who have big audiences and are exposed to a large number of negativity. Trolls and people that find value in insulting others are quite common among streamer fanbases. I have a few theories on why people enjoy doing that… but I will leave this topic for another post. 🤬
Having haters is part of the job. As the wise Taylor Swift says: “Haters are gonna hate.” Some people hate DrDisrespect and some others hate Ninja or Shroud but both are extremely successful in what they do, even having a large crowd of haters. But hey! Haters can actually be a positive metric: if they are spending time writing negative comments in your chat box, you are actually important enough for them to spend their time on judging you! :P
Becoming a streamer sometimes feels like “it is not what you are supposed to do”. If you are a streamer you’ve probably heard a few times “Streaming is not a job, it is just playing video games!”. The majority of streamers are worried about telling friends or family that they stream and this alone is a big source of anxiety. This is the same exact feeling that a large percentage of entrepreneurs experience when they need to explain to their families they will be leaving their safe jobs to try a new and quite uncertain trip. In both cases, the individuals take a leap of faith.
For streamers, their salary and audience directly depend on the hours they spend online. If they wish to take one day off, they will most likely lose subscribers, donations and viewership. Numerous streamers feel they are prisoners of their own stream, since they feel they cannot afford taking days off because they risk losing everything they’ve built. And, sadly to some extent, this is real. If streamers stop streaming for a few days, they may lose part of their viewers and risk having their subscriptions not renew. We are still a long way until streamers have the necessary facilities to fully become an individual company, with paid holidays, health insurance, and a long etcetera, but that is also a topic for another post.
It is hard not to compare yourself with other streamers. I personally don’t believe being competitive is a negative quality, but it needs to be channeled in the right direction. Streamers tend to get so obsessed with their numbers, to the point where numbers become a way to classify themselves. In the industry, I usually hear things like: “She is huge, she has 1000+ subs!” or “He is not big enough, he hasn’t reached 50 AVG viewers yet”.
You are not alone!
Even though there are some great organizations trying to eliminate the stigma, it is tough to find people you can feel comfortable with and share these feelings. Nevertheless, the good news is that there are so many other creators and entrepreneurs that are going through the same anxiety and share the same thoughts. Throughout my journey, I have met CEOs of other companies that are going through the same. I find it incredibly helpful to have monthly conversations with them to open ourselves and talk about the good things and the super shitty moments of building a company.
In the creator space, a number of streamers have started telling their viewers what they have personally gone through mentally, like Mxiety, aiming to break the stigma and make it easier to talk about these topics. Non-profit TakeThis.org has created a program called “AFK Room” where streamers can join a moderated Discord server that has been specifically designed to offer peer-based, non-therapeutic emotional support to attendees.
The first step is to be open to receiving help. There are still lots of taboo on getting mental health support and it is also a luxury that not everyone can pay for. There are still several perks creators need in order to fully become “their own company”, starting with ownership of their audiences, monetization, health insurance, etc. But access to mental health is as important as the ones above.
Getting over Anxiety should be approached like any other demanding discipline. It requires time and practice. On Streamloots we are deeply concerned about this and we are starting three big initiatives to help streamers break the stigma and make mental health support more accessible.
Mental Health Content to support Content Creators
We joined forces with Mxiety. I couldn’t be any happier when she accepted to join us at Streamloots in this exciting adventure. We are starting a new section in the Streamloots Youtube channel that is focused on offering mental health support to content creators, through conversation and awareness. We want to bridge the gap between mental health professionals and those needing mental health-related information. We want to normalize conversations and analyze common mental health issues. Content will include everything from interviews with experts, stories with other content creators have been battling with anxiety and how they learned to live a better life with it, etc.
Mental Health First Aid
We are working with Geek Therapy Training to give streamers access to mental health training tailored for gamers, streamers, and geeks.
More information about this coming soon! 😊 If you know any streamer or creator that could benefit from it, please share this article with them!
Mental Health Support Grants
Streamloots will grant streamers free access to the training above. If you are a Streamloots streamer you will get more information in your inbox soon ;)
While we hope these three initiatives help streamers improve their well beings and their lives, there is still a long way to go. This is just the first step for us and we are already working to reach agreements with therapists and mental health experts to make support more accessible.
I’d like to hear your ideas here, to help us find initiatives to support you all. Feel free to contact me with your insights or