when i was still at university studying film and media one of my professors gave me the best
advice anyone has ever given me he looked me dead in the eye and he said lj your ideas don't matter
so today i'm going to be honest with you guys and i'm going to pass on this advice
and i'll let you know your ideas don't matter let's talk about that
hey i'm Eljay with streamscheme.com i'm also a variety streamer over at
twitch.tv/eljayem_ there's a link to that as well as streamscreen.com in the description
you guys know about streamscheme.com we have over 700 guides for all things streaming and content
creation related if i don't have a video on the channel it'll be over on the website check it out
with the link in the description today i'm going to be covering one of the biggest mistakes that
i've ever made as a creator and i believe you guys are probably already making it as well but don't
worry it doesn't mean that i'm a bad creator it doesn't mean that you're a bad creator in
any form of it it just means that sometimes you need a little kick up the ass to let you know hey
you're doing something wrong and that's what this video is today hopefully just a small kick up the
ass so we can all get onto it but first i want to throw it out there this video is in fact sponsored
by you guessed it our friends over at owned not only do own sponsor these videos meaning i
can create more for you guys but also they really supported us in our charity live stream last week
we raised over 13 856 usd we absolutely couldn't have done it without their support and the prizes
they supplied us with so a massive thank you to them for that and also a massive thank you to them
being the one stop shop for all things streamer related if you want emotes overlays alerts if
you want sound effects you name it they've got it all of their resources are fully modular
which means you can switch them out and change things up so you don't look exactly the same as
someone else with the same pack also it means that you can get rid of things that are going
to overuse your cpu and get a much faster stream without having to worry about intensive animated
overlays i have a link over to owned in the description so if you want to support me guys go
and support them because honestly they've helped out with this channel so much they're fantastic
a massive thank you to owned again for everything they do and i really do love their products so
i'm so happy they're sponsoring us i tell you guys constantly that in order to grow as
a creator online these days you need to make discoverable and incredibly engaging content
and if you don't do that you're never going to grow so you guys have gone away to try and create
the most perfect search based discoverable content ever because what's the point of making content if
nobody is going to watch it afterwards that's why you guys struggle with motivation to stream isn't
it because you don't have the viewers yet i see you guys coming up with ideas in the discord and
you're tagging me there or on twitter asking me hey i've got this idea for a fantastic stream i've
got this idea for a fantastic video and you just want to know if it's worth making or heck maybe
you're not even pitching it to me maybe you're just pitching it to a few of your friends to see
what they think about the idea the problem is your ideas don't matter and by hesitating like this and
seeking approval from myself or others it's going to put you in a very bad situation as a creator
and i'm not just saying that so you stop tagging me on twitter and discord
heck maybe you're not even trying to find the perfect idea maybe you're just scared to start
creating because you don't embarrass yourself or you want to create content to zero people and then
end up feeling dumb when i was back at university i used to pitch my professor my ideas all the time
constantly i only had like five or six projects in my portfolio but i was coming up with new
ideas and telling him every single day and one day he just stopped me and said lj your ideas don't
matter telling me them won't make them matter telling your friends them won't make them matter
the only way lj you will make your ideas matter or know if they're good is if you actually go out
and make them real if you do them it blew my mind and it was so simple but he was absolutely right
i'd gotten so wrapped up in finding the perfect idea that i'd stopped creating any idea that
didn't get the perfect positive feedback i would abandon even if i was incredibly excited about it
and then any idea that did get positive feedback even worse i would get gratification because
people said that's a great idea you should do that except i didn't need to do it anymore because
everyone told me the idea was great that was easy someone congratulated me who needs to put the work
in when i can just pitch people and then bam i feel good when my mentor told me that my ideas
didn't matter it completely changed how i made projects i stopped sharing ideas to other people i
stopped getting feedback on the initial scripts i stopped pushing my ideas onto others to get their
thoughts instead of all of that hesitation and feedback i just started working on these ideas
i would script film edit and make them all myself and i'll tell you why that was so important but
first hey i want to throw it out there if this video helps you out at all consider checking out
the other content on the channel we've got videos all about how to set your webcam up how to make
your mic sound good how to get motivated we've also got stuff about how to grow what the best
game to stream is you name it we've got it here on the channel including free animated overlays and
how to install them they're all in our discord and there's gonna be more coming out soon so feel free
to click the link join our discord and get those downloaded asap did i say downloaded or downloaded
either way so why did this advice help me so much well because i wasn't sharing my ideas
with anyone and i was simply just creating it meant that i was actually making projects again
i was actually filling out my portfolio and i'll tell you what guys i made some absolute
garbage like i'm talking terrible these were stinkers of ideas these were terrible terrible
videos nobody ever saw any of my early projects either because they were just so bad that i never
released them or because they had no search intent no discovery and they weren't even shareable
because they were that bad but every single time that i did create something i got a little bit
less garbage because the secret guys that i'm sure you've all heard before is if you want to become a
youtuber a streamer or anything else in life is you actually have to attempt it and fail first
but the part that people always leave out of this advice about attempting and failing is that
you have to actively improve yourself you have to critically look at why you failed to become better
because improving yourself it isn't actually automatic you could make 20 videos but if you're
not actively trying to improve yourself each time and seeing what you critically did wrong you're
not going to improve yourself you're not going to get better by doing the same thing over and
over and over ben marriott is a massive youtuber and a fantastic animator and a few years ago i was
lucky enough to have a great conversation with him where he told me that every time he starts
a project he uses what's called the durry method which is the australian word for cigarette and
you'll understand why he calls it the diary method in a second when he starts any project whatsoever
he will always use the diary method and the diary method is the idea that 80 of the project
is skills that you are comfortable with natural at and are good at and then 20 new skills you
want to learn and you want to achieve this way he improves his craft every single time he creates
without feeling overwhelmed by a massive project or something that he just can't wrap his head
around and if you look at that as a bar graph you'll see it looks a bit like a cigarette which
is why it's called the diary method so when i make these videos usually they're the exact
same template but you guys can't tell i'm trying different ways to edit i'm trying different
ways to film this time the script is a little bit different to try and make me flow better
i'm trying different things to improve myself the hard truth we all have to deal with is that right
now we probably aren't good enough at creating content a few years ago there was no way that the
content i created would be good enough for this youtube channel and for you guys your production
quality might need to be better you might need to be a better editor or you might even just need to
be a better presenter whatever it is you need to improve at it's probably something that you should
be working on now rather than worrying about making the perfect discoverable content because
even if someone discovered it if your quality is subpar they're not going to watch it and they're
not going to subscribe to it the bar to being a content creator these days is so incredibly high
and to match it we have to work a thousand times harder than everyone else in terms of streaming
you might have the absolute best game show idea you may have the most amazing unique stream
ever to grace the face of twitch but if you don't have the viewers the following or the
experience required to pull it off then it doesn't matter but here's the kicker you need to create
i want you guys to start creating stop looking for the perfect idea stop trying to find other
people's permission to start creating and just start doing because even if you fail miserably
even if nobody watches your videos or your streams as long as you improve yourself every single time
and it isn't wasted effort bernie burns is a massive inspiration for me as a content creator
and he used to always quote 10 000 hours is the amount of time it requires to become a master at
something you can either wait for the perfect idea or you can start working on your 10 000 hours now
one of those is going to help you grow as a content creator the other is just going to make
you feel worse about yourself i know which one i'd choose get out there and create guys you got this