Content:

Prelude The Why Who are you? Goal Setting Growth Hardware Software Optics Community Gaming Tips 1 Gaming Tips 2 Health Advice from the PROs Mindset 1 and 2 Mindset 3 and 4 Paying Rent TLDR

Dedicated to you - the

creator. The brave souls who are putting themselves out there to deliver value to others.

Onwards!

Disclaimer Everything shared within this book is intended for informational

purposes only. All information within this book is based on personal

experiences and represents the opinions of the authors or other

people (i.e., interviewed creators, advisors).

Nothing in this book is supported or endorsed by Twitch, Facebook,

YouTube, Mixer, or any other streaming platform.

Authors, Streamlabs, or any related entity assume no responsibility

for any actions taken based on strategies offered in this book.

By reading these materials, you agree that the authors, as well as

Streamlabs, are not responsible for the success or failure of your

venture.

Prelude Live streaming has grown year over year. We can skip the stats. If you are

reading this - you know the stats and the context. You see the opportunity,

and you want to grow.

Let’s get a few things out of the way:

1. This book is not a silver bullet • There are no guarantees. There are no proven shortcuts that will

get you 10K concurrent viewers (CCV) overnight. The only truth is

that most worthwhile things are not easy.

• The path forward will be challenging, but from pain comes growth.

There are many talented creators. Many people had a head start

in the space and grew an active community via hard work. There

are thousands of stimuli competing for our attention each day, and

there is a finite amount of leisure time in a day (zero-sum game)

and so to build a community, to build a following, to grow as a

creator - you must offer enough value to the audience to stand out

among all of these stimuli.

• Will this path be easy? No. If it were easy, everyone would do it,

and the market would not exist. Is this book going to offer a proven

tactic, even if it’s hard? Will this book provide a guaranteed path

to success? No. Can you get to your goals faster by thoughtfully

processing concepts and strategies in this book and applying a

positive attitude, passion, and hard work to put these strategies

into practice? Yes.

2. Who are you (the writers): • We are passionate about the creator space. We are former and

current partnered Streamers. We are Streamlabs employees. We

are avid gamers, streamers, creators, and industry professionals.

• We want to see growth. Growth comes from overcoming

obstacles. Growth comes from more creators providing more

entertainment. Growth comes from diversity. Growth comes from

community building. Growth comes from you.

• We believe in you and the creator space, and we want to see it

grow.

3. What makes you qualified to write this: • The blunt answer is nothing. We do not have a Ph.D. in live

streaming, but we do care genuinely about the space.

• This book is a collaboration project. The writers of this book have

decades of experience live-streaming, creating content, building

communities, and growing a business.

4. It depends:

• All of us are different. We have a different genome, different

upbringing, different goals, different levels of income, a different

lens on the world. The list of differences is endless.

• It is essential to recognize these differences as we approach this

book. Why? Three reasons:

• First, everything in this book is through the lens of the authors. We

did our best to be unbiased. We did our best to condense

everything we know about the space into something we wished we

had when we were starting. But we are all human, and we can’t rid

our opinions of bias.

• Second, some things will work for person X and not work for

person Y. Please consider your goals and your capabilities when

thinking about implementing some of the strategies we discuss

here.

• Lastly, some concepts may seem like common sense to you but

might be helpful to others. If you see a concept that you find

obvious, feel free to skip it, and if you know a concept or if there is

an idea that you strongly disagree with, great, do not act on it.

Everything is up to you. We suggest that you think critically about

everything on your career path as a creator, including this book,

and chart your path.

5. Action: • Everything we share here is just words. Letters on a screen. They

are irrelevant without action.

• To extract maximum utility from each chapter, we encourage you

to think about each concept and then to put as much of it into

practice as you can. Yes, this takes more energy, but as we

established earlier, the path forward will not be easy.

• Specifically, after each chapter, pause and think. Reflect on the

concepts. See how they apply to you. Do the exercises on your

own. Get a perspective of a friend or someone from your streaming

community. But above all, try to implement it. Absolute worst case,

you run a test, and it doesn’t work. At the minimum, you learn

something. You learn something about yourself or your audience.

You can remove one tactic from your arsenal of tactics. Proving

that something does not work is still progress. Learning from

failure is immense progress. You are moving forward.

The Why Purpose

• To improve the chances of success at a task, we must first

understand the reason why we are doing this task. What is the

purpose?

• Why does this matter? Why not just skip this chapter and go straight

to the summary of all the strategies in Chapter 16? The purpose

matters for several reasons

1. Motivation - we need to know why we are fighting for

something. We must direct our efforts at something: a goal. It

can be anything, but a goal must exist, or else we are lost.

2. Focus - if we know what we are doing and why, then by proxy,

we know what we are not doing. To succeed at something

requires focus, which means saying no to things that are not

important. If we know “the why” and understand what is

essential - we can focus by deprioritizing everything else.

3. Authenticity - looking deep down within yourself to understand

why you are embarking on this journey will enable you to bring

your best self forward as a creator. Authenticity is critical. Only

you know your true self, and you will have a higher chance of

succeeding by being yourself rather than acting as someone

else.

• For now, please pause and take 15 minutes to reflect on “the why.”

Keep asking why until you get to what you think is the root cause.

Why do you want to be a creator? What is your “why”? Dig deep

Goals • Hopefully, we are starting to establish “the why.” This process may

take time, and that is okay. Once we have a semblance of “the why,”

let's think about our goals as a creator.

• What would success look like 30 days from now? What about 90

days? What about a year from now?

• Why is this important? First, it's

critical to break down the problem

into parts. The idea of becoming

partnered if you are unpartnered

seems mammoth. How can I possibly

get there? Or the idea of streaming if

you are starting from scratch, seems

equally as intimidating. That is

because both end-states are big goals that involve several

complicated decisions. Breaking them down will simplify the path

forward. It will add structure. Second, it will enable us to celebrate

some success early. Celebrating wins along the way is vital for our

mental health and energy levels.

Here is a simple matrix

Week 1 Month 1 60 Days

90 Days

Goals

Read this book and complete all exercises

Discuss three thoughts/strategies that stuck with you with >5 people in Discord Set up Streamlabs OBS Stream 25hrs

Do more

Do even more

Now let’s do your own. Take the time to do this!

Week 1 Month 1 60 Days 90 Days

Goals

Break down the problem or your end goal into

components

Who are you? After a lot of introspective digging on “the why” and challenging, but

necessary goal setting, we are getting to the fun part. What’s the plan? Who

are you? Who do you want to be? Yes, more questions, but this is important.

Authenticity is how you win. Nobody can be a better version of yourself than

you, and there are some people out there that love what you have to bring

forward. Yes, you!

Before we dig into the categories of streamers - please pause and think

about what makes you excited about creating content and entertaining

others? What makes you happy? What are you good at?

What are you passionate about? Write it down

Here are a few of the streamer categories that exist today. Please note that

there are many other categories, and above all, know that you can create

your own and see if people like it. When we spoke about action and

experiments - this is what we are talking about. Don’t be afraid to try and to

fail because, at the minimum, you will learn. If you don’t see a category that

appeals to you, that is okay. Pave your path. These are just options.

Variety streamer • You are game agnostic. You dabble in everything or at least in more

than a few games. When a new game comes out, you are there gaming

on day one, especially if the community is excited.

• To succeed as a variety streamer, it would help if you had a personality

or entertainment appeal that transcends the game. People come to

watch your take on the game rather than the game itself.

Specialist • You play a specific game. That is your thing. You don’t necessarily

need to be a top-ranked player at this game, but this game is your

expertise. That is what you do. You enjoy it. You are building a

community around it.

• It would help you succeed if you were top-ranked at this game, but that

is not a requirement. You could also provide a lot of entertainment

value, thoughtful analysis, or community interaction.

• It is worth noting that for some one-trick pony streamers, that specific

game is what got them started, but transitioning out of that game might

be hard. It is not uncommon for one-trick pony streamers to lose

viewers when she/he engages in other content.

Pro • You know what this is. You are Pro at this game. Top-ranked. You don’t

need to be signed, but you can be good. People like the endgame.

People want to see a display of skill. If you are good at a specific game,

you can get a reputation for that game and grow a community with your

sheer talent.

IRL • You don’t mind showing off your life or debating with your community

on topics. You are the show. IRL is a large and growing segment where

folks are hosting talk shows, dancing, commenting on funny videos,

and so much more.

• To succeed in IRL, you must not be shy in front of the camera!

Arts and Crafts • You have a skill or hobby outside of gaming, and you want to share

this with the world. This skill can be coding, painting, cooking,

investing, composing music, playing chess or poker, singing. You can

be on your computer or not. The primary variable is that this is not a

video game.

• To succeed, you should have a hobby/activity that you are passionate

about and want to share. Competition in this space is going to be

smaller than streaming games, and you might be surprised by the

growth. If you have a hobby, encourage you to take the plunge, run an

experiment where you stream that for four weeks, and see what

happens.

Talk show host • You run a show or a podcast. You are opinionated, articulate, and you

can get guests on the show to discuss different subjects. Talk shows

are another fast-growing segment.

• To succeed, you need to have a passion for debate, a point of view on

what it means to create an engaging talk show, and ideally a few

connections to get an initial set of guests on the show

• Note that, in the beginning, this might be tough, especially if you have

a small network. Beggars can’t be choosers, and you must start

somewhere. That is okay. Everyone starts somewhere. You will face

adverse selection in guests meaning the guests you want are not

available, and folks you don’t want as much will say yes. That is also

okay. Keep pushing, think of exciting subjects, really do your

homework before each show to be informed on the guest(s) and the

topic of the show.

These are just some of the many archetypes. There are many others. The

beauty of this is that there is someone out there who will love what you

create. What is it going to be?

What will be your path?

We don’t know, but let’s find out!

Goal Setting To break down the problem into components, we need goals for each part.

To celebrate your small wins - we need goals. Goal setting moves us forward

and keeps us accountable. It prevents us from aimlessly flailing. It keeps our

ego in check.

So, as we set out to grow from X to 10M followers or whatever your end-goal

is, let’s talk about goal setting.

Set clear goals. There should be as little ambiguity as possible when

you get to the goal. Did you succeed or fail? Both are okay. For example, the

goal of becoming the most famous creator is vague. How do we define the

most popular? Which platform? In what genre? The goal of becoming the

most popular IRL creator is also ambiguous. We still do not know what

popularity means, and we do not know the time horizon. Here are examples

of specific, clear goals:

o Get to 100 followers in next 30D

o Miss <5% of streaming sessions that I commit to in my schedule

over the next 30D

o Maintain >0 concurrency for ten consecutive days

o Do at least one collaboration with another creator this quarter

Realistic but ambitious. The goals must be somewhat

achievable but ambitious. Do not set unrealistic goals, but always try to push

yourself. Become the #1 creator on YouTube might be a bit too much of a

stretch for most of us. At the same time, don’t be afraid to fail and try to

achieve things that are outside your comfort zone. If you are already

averaging 10 concurrent viewers, your next goal shouldn’t be 12 - let's go for

50. Goals are deeply personal, and it is hard to give specific advice. The one

thing that we will say is that if in doubt, shoot higher. Be ambitious!

Break them down into components. Long-term and short-

term. That’s right. We talked about this a lot. We had the planner exercise. It

is crucial, so we will keep bringing it up. Why? Because the path you are on

is going to be hard. Growing as a creator is hard. Doing anything worthwhile

is hard. And so, you absolutely must break down your path into components

to avoid getting lost, to prevent losing morale, and to keep yourself

accountable. The same way that games have checkpoints. Let’s pick a larger

goal that you have and aim to break it down into at least three parts. What

does that look like?

Actionable. A famous stoic philosopher believed that the main task in

life is to recognize what we can and cannot control and then determine

actions. This wisdom is timeless, and it applies here because we must not

pick goals on which we cannot act. We must be able to act. Do something

that is within our control. Make progress towards that goal. If you do not see

a clear list of actions that you can take to get to that goal - you should rethink

your action plan or pick a different goal. Bottom line: avoid picking goals that

are not actionable.

Do not conflate goals with desires. Goals are things that

you genuinely want. Desires are nice to have. All of us have many desires.

Take a few minutes to reconcile your goals and desires. Desire does not

necessarily imply that it is materialistic. A goal can also be materialistic. You

can have an end goal of making $1,000,000 as a creator, and that is your

prerogative. The main task here is to prioritize. It is up to you to figure out

what you want and what is superfluous. You can’t have everything.

Write down your goals. This is a simple but essential concept.

Why write them down? First, writing adds clarity. It forces you to crystallize

your thoughts. When setting goals - clarity is vital. Second, it keeps you

honest.

Execute. Don’t be a dreamer. That’s right - do the work. Act.

Fail. And if you fail, that is okay, but at least you tried. Everyone wants to be

the next superstar creator, but few want to put in the work. What are you

doing today to get that 1% increase in followers? What are you doing this

week? What actions are you taking? Yes, it's hard. Yes, you will fail, but

without execution and action, your goals are just dreams. Writing down clear,

specific, and actionable goals is a must. Take the time to do that. That puts

you ahead of many. Now, make sure that they do not end up goals on a

pretty whiteboard that you bought or a list on an Instagram post. Turn your

goals into results or lessons (failures). Now - you must do the work to make

progress against these goals. Go!

Reflect and learn. Pain + Reflection = Progress. You will fail, and

each failure presents a lesson and an opportunity to grow. You may try a

new game, and it won’t work, and you will lose viewers. That is okay. What

did you learn? You may decide to go to a few meetups to grow your network.

It turns out that some of these were not useful for whatever reason. Good!

So that didn’t work, and we can now remove this path from our arsenal of

tools to grow, and we can adjust. Do we go to different meetups to improve

our “meet-up ROI”? Do we not go to meet-ups at all because they impact

your schedule too much? What is the learning from this? Try to extract

learning from everything you do, regardless of the results. It should be your

deliberate practice. And this practice, this hunt for insights, it will help you

grow.

Execute Do not be a dreamer

Take action to move

towards your goals

Growth Let’s cover a few more tactics for growth.

Analytics Numbers do not lie. And we’ve established that we must seek truth to move

forward, or else we get lost in our ego. So, it is essential to look at data to

accurately assess how you are doing. The problem is that to get data, you

need traction, and there will be some folks who are just starting, reading

this, and thinking to themselves, “I stream to 0 viewers every day for days.

What data?” That is true. Keep at it. Keep trying things. Some of the info

here may not apply to you, for now. Let’s consider a few things together:

• First, why do we want to look at data? Because data is an accurate

representation of your progress.

• Second, where do we look? There are a few places. Check out the

end of stream reports. Check out the analytics dashboard on

streamlabs.com. Toggle to advanced view to look at more advanced

stats. Next, look at public tracking sites such as twinge.tv or

twitchtracker.com. Why look there? You can see how others are

doing. You can benchmark yourself. You can learn.

• Next, as with any data - you want to have a question you want to answer. Here are the main questions we would be asking ourselves

if we were looking at our analytics dashboards:

o Am I progressing? The number that I care most about:

followers, concurrent viewers, etc. - how is it changing over

time?

o When I see changes in that number over time - can I attribute it

to anything that I did? If so - repeat it. If not - keep trying and

learning.

o What games or what activities are having the most significant

impact on my goals and my trends?

• In sum, keep running experiments, looking at data to validate your theories, and keep trying.

Expanding outside your current platform • Twitch is ahead of any other platform today by the #1 metric that

matters the most to any streamer - viewers. However, other platforms

are gaining momentum. They

are improving monetization,

creator support, tech. They

are getting exclusive content

to drive viewers. We are not

going to discuss the pros

and cons of each platform.

There are many different

opinions on this, and this is

beyond the scope of this

book. While we have your

attention, we want to make only one point that is consistent with the

rest of the material here.

• Experiment! Let’s say you started on Mixer. Why not try Twitch? Or

what if you and all of your friends are on Twitch? Why not try

Facebook or YouTube? There is a cost to every experiment (your

time and energy), but we think it’s worth adding to your growth plan

and seeing what happens. Some services enable you to stream to

more than one platform. It is worth trying them out and seeing where

you resonate most.

Collaborations We often rely on the help of other people when taking on non-trivial tasks.

Collaborations in the creator ecosystem are common practice.

Let’s briefly break it down.

• Why? Feed off each other and grow. Reach new audiences. Learn

something new. Meet new people. Connect with others. Just help.

Why not?

• How? Join communities. Try Reddit, Discord, or join groups like

TwitchKittens or the Facebook Creator group. If you google - you will

find them. Be selective in what you join, but do consider it. Another

way is to reach out directly and build a relationship. You can do this

via Twitter or Discord. You can also go to conferences and meet

people there. There is a higher cost here, but there are few

substitutes for meeting people face to face. Ultimately, the point is to

put yourself out there.

• What to expect? You can expect rejection. You can expect to give

without getting much back. Both are okay. It’s part of the process. Do

not wait for everyone to welcome you with arms wide open. Everyone

is different. There is limited accountability online, and so not

everything will be smooth, but if you approach everything with a

positive mindset and give to the people - good things will come.

• What precisely will we do once we connect? Many things! Ask

each other for advice. Ask for strategies. Act as support for each

other. Play together or stream together. Raid and host each other. Do

Instagram takeovers or social media collaborations. Ultimately, you

can support each other, and maybe even create something new.

• What is the most important thing to keep in mind? What is the #1

thing when you try to build a network? The #1 thing is to give. Give to

receive. Host others. Give genuine advice and assist others. The

space is big. Helping others grow is a part of life. The creator space

is not zero-sum, meaning your gain is not someone else’s loss.

Remember that, and if you have energy and will power, try helping

another creator.

• So, in short, put yourself out there and proactively give to others, and

good things will happen!

Discord • Make your discord server. It doesn’t matter how small you are.

Someone cares about you and your content, and they want a place

to interact with you and to interact with others who enjoy your

content.

• There are many guides on how to set up a discord server, so we will

not go through this here. Our crucial advice here is to think about

moderation and your brand. Your community is an extension of your

brand. It may seem ambitious to think about your brand if you have

few followers, but long-term thinking pays off! Start thinking about

your community and how you want to show up today so that you can

grow tomorrow.

Events and conferences

• Attending conferences is a lot of fun and can help you grow, learn,

and expand your network. A conference can bring new business

opportunities, contacts, collaborations, and everything else in

between. We talked about collaborations and networking, and the

theme there is to put yourself out there. Attending conferences is a

sure way to put yourself out there. There are several conferences that

creators attend. Some popular conferences include PAX, TwitchCon,

Blizzcon.

• When trying to figure out whether to attend a conference, you should

be very deliberate with your goals. Notice a theme? Try to take a few

minutes and write down precisely what you want to achieve. Why go?

Be honest with yourself. Is it to have fun? That’s fine. Life is short.

We should enjoy it. Connecting with other creators or chatting with

creators you admire or getting closer with games you love - that’s

great! Is it to communicate with others? Okay sure. With who? Are

they going? Will they be there to make sure the trip is not in vain?

How do you de-risk that? Getting sponsored? Good goal. Who do you

want as your sponsor? Can you do pre-work before the conference

to secure a meeting? Once you figure out the goals, you can decide

for yourself whether the trip is worth it

• Please keep in mind a few things on cost. First, there is an opportunity

cost, especially for conferences. When you are there - you are

probably not streaming or studying. Second, it will generally be more

expensive than you envision. If you are short on cash - this may not

be the best investment. Third, if the goal is to network, these things

generally take a lot of pre-work and post-work. We are not

discouraging you from going, but we do want to set the right

expectations that you are unlikely to attend TwitchCon and come out

with a Red Bull sponsorship.

Social media • Social media will be straight forward. Set it up. Get it done! If you

haven’t done this yet, make this an action item this week. Do this

before you do discord. Make this part of your growth plan.

• First - why the urgency? Because you want to start communicating

with the world about your stream. The #1 person that should be

selling yourself is you, and the easiest way to do that is via Twitter or

Instagram. Next, you want to claim your handles. People are making

accounts daily. The longer you wait - the less likely the account you

want will be available.

• Next - which networks? In order of priority: Twitter, Instagram,

Facebook. If you want to do TikTok or other platforms - go for it, but

as with everything, it takes time. If you do one thing - do Twitter

because that is most popular in the creator and gaming community

for announcements and because the content is written (Instagram

and TikTok will take more work).

• Lastly, what do you post? A safe choice is to give people heads up

when you go live. When you do that - you want to try and include

more information than <Hey, I am live>. Something like <Hey/I am

streaming XYZ from A to B time, hoping to hit X# followers during the

stream. Come hang out!>. Of course - post whatever authentically

represents you. Jokes, memes, things you find interesting, stream

highlights.

Hardware

Let’s cover the gear. Whether you game, do talk shows, or IRL - you will

need hardware. The reason why this is important is that certain things are

barebones. They are your lifeline. You can’t create without these tools.

Examples are a computer, a phone, or Streamlabs OBS. And certain things

will give you an edge, especially if you are a gamer. An example is a good

mouse and mousepad. An edge in your game will have a positive

relationship to your growth, and since this book is about growth - we will

cover hardware briefly.

One obligatory disclaimer before we dig in. Everyone’s needs, preferences,

and situations are different. We may disagree on what is the best GPU or

mouse or mic, and that is okay. Take everything we say with a grain of salt,

form your own beliefs, and act. The one thing that is not up for debate is

that in a vacuum, more money gets you better tools when it comes to

hardware. Everyone’s financial situation is different. That is life. If you are

unable to afford some of the things we discuss here - that is perfectly okay.

You can do great things with what you have.

Note: if you are a content creator who is not a gamer, a lot of this section

will not be relevant. You are welcome to skip. We are adding this section

simply because many people who are aiming to be live-streaming content

creators come from the gaming background.

Keyboard: • A mechanical keyboard is superior to the non-mechanical keyboard.

The reason is 2-fold. First, your input registers better. There is less

chance of a misclick. Second, it is a lot more durable. Your AWSD

will not wear out.

• We recommend a wired keyboard because it is one less thing to

consider. Batteries may die. There might be extra latency. A keyboard

is one of the areas where you want to be safe than sorry.

• There are volumes written about the mechanical keyboards and the

switches, so going in-depth here is beyond the scope of this book.

We suggest you try a few out and see what tactile feedback you

prefer.

Mouse: • Similar story as with a keyboard. We recommend you get a mouse

designed for gamers. Why? It will be more reliable. It will feel better.

It will be more durable. The teams that develop gaming mice interview

and study dozens of professional gamers to align on the design, look,

feedback, buttons for these mice. These mice are designed with a

gamer in mind.

• Our personal preference is to select a wired mouse. The number one

reason is the price.

• Adjusting your mouse settings, specifically DPI, is something you can

and should do after you purchase the mouse. This is a reason to

invest in a gaming mouse rather than the mouse that ships with your

PC. Typical gaming mice today come with software custom-designed

to tweak the settings.

Mousepad: • Mousepads are a critical part that many overlook, especially if you

are trying to excel at a specific game genre. Gaming mousepads are

not expensive but will go a long way to improve your gameplay and

overall comfort.

• Consider a different mousepad size for different genres. FPS players

are known to have the largest surface area for their mousepad for a

reason. They want a full range of motion when tracking a player. You

can pick a different mousepad size based on the game you select, or

you could also opt for a sizeable carpet-like mouse that will give you

enough room for any game. You never have to worry about sliding

off.

Gaming headset: • Another critical tool. Now we are getting into components of your set-

up that are useful for anyone - not just gamers. If you plan on doing

a lot of talk shows, you may want to invest in a mic such as Yeti, but

a headset with proper audio is a great start.

• You want to be audible, and you want to hear. You will be part of

discord groups and scrims with your community. You are talking to

your chat. There will be much more on that in upcoming sections

• The bottom line - a headset is essential. Here are three key things to

consider: comfort and wired vs. wireless. On comfort - we

recommend reading reviews and ideally trying out the device. If you

order something and it does not fit well on your ears. Return it. It is

okay. Few things are more frustrating than feeling as if your headset

is heating your head or sliding. Wired vs. wireless is a simple decision

based on all the research we’ve done. We recommend wireless.

Monitor: • The #1 most important thing for a gaming monitor is the refresh rate.

Do not assume that higher resolution or a larger screen size

necessarily means better. A large screen can refresh poorly and will

make the game appear jarring. There are three main refresh rate

gradients, and each one will cost more money. We can’t tell you what

to pick, but what we can say is that the most significant differentiating

factor among the monitors, especially from a gamer’s perspective, is

the refresh rate.

• Folks care about resolution, aesthetic, brand. These things do matter

for some, and it is entirely up to you what you pick. For example, if

you decide you want to play many tables of online poker on one

screen - resolution might be more relevant to you.

PC • Configuring a gaming or a streaming PC is beyond the scope of this

book. There are troves of advice on this. Budget and your goals will

be the most significant factors. We do want to call out three things:

GPU, CPU, and RAM

• GPU is important. GPUs receive meaningful upgrades less frequently

then CPU and RAM, so investing in a GPU today means that it will

be more relevant for a longer time. As a gamer, if there is one area

that you want to invest in - it is probably the GPU. As a non-gamer, a

GPU will be less relevant.

• RAM is also important. A simple way to think about RAM is multi-

tasking. How many concurrent things do you usually do? You have

your game, Streamlabs OBS, browser with many tabs, discord, what

else? You do not want to skimp on RAM.

• CPU. Similar story as the RAM except that CPU is the one area out

of the three that receives the most frequent upgrades (look up

Moore’s law). You want enough to support your activities, but you

likely do not need tons of core with the latest Intel or AMD chips.

General set-up • The beauty of this section is that, for the most part, this is all within

your control. That’s right! General set-up of your desk may seem like

a small thing, but it is crucial because little things compound to more

substantial items in the long run.

• There are three key things that we recommend.

1. Maintain a monitor at eye level. You do not need a fancy

monitor stand or arm

for this. You can use

books. Place a few

books under your

monitor to match your

eye level when you are

sitting down straight

(key!). Why? Avoid

slouching. Good

posture is not just

beneficial for your health but will put you more in the zone.

When you are sitting upright and present - you are ready to

engage at 100%, whether it is a game or a podcast or

something else.

2. Make sure there is some distance between you and the screen. You want to preserve your eyesight. Plus, it will make

it difficult to process your screen if you are too close.

3. Finally, if you are using a gaming chair or an office chair that

has reclining functionality - consider setting that to an upright angle. Your default position should not be slouching,

and when you are sitting upright and engaged - you will be more

alert. All the small things add up, let’s start the day strong!

• Bonus, if possible and yes, this one costs money - consider investing

in a standing desk! Studies show that these are good for you.

Software So, you’ve made your decisions on hardware. Now it’s time to discuss

software. Here we’ll talk about the essential software you will need to get

started. Like hardware, everyone will have different situations that require

different specific needs, so here we’ll discuss the software that will be the

most helpful to the most people.

Full Transparency - as you may know, at Streamlabs, we are a team of

live streamers building software to empower creators. We put blood,

sweat, and tears into each of our products, and that is why we are the

most popular solution. The bottom line is that we are going to be

inherently biased when we discuss software, but we also honestly believe

in our tools. As always, you should make your own decisions.

Platform:

• The platform you choose to start live streaming is a significant and

exciting decision. You probably already have a platform in mind as

you read this.

• Some of the questions you should be asking as you select a

platform:

o What are the streaming platforms that are available in my

geography?

o Do I already have a following on a platform that supports live

streaming?

o Is there a specific platform where the kind of content I hope to

create is thriving?

o Do I have friends or a network that can help me get started on

a specific platform?

• We suggest multistreaming to multiple platforms as you get started.

Starting this way allows you to reach as many potential viewers as

possible. It’s tough to predict the platform where you will find an

audience and grow your community, so increasing your odds by

multistreaming is an excellent way to start. While challenging in the

past, this is now extremely easy with tools like the native

multistream feature we offer at Streamlabs.

Broadcast Software:

• Your broadcast software is the glue that brings together your game,

webcam, external video feeds, etc. and broadcasts them to your

streaming platform(s).

• Be wary of paying for broadcast software – almost all streamers are

using free broadcasting software, and you should be able to do the

same.

• Some of the features you should consider when you choose your

broadcasting software:

o Themes and design support to help make your stream stand

out and look professional.

o Ease of use and customer support and documentation to help

you troubleshoot.

o Performant and reliable, especially crucial if you plan to use

the same computer for other tasks like playing a game.

o Integration with the other software you’ll need to live stream:

the platforms you stream to, tools to engage your viewers and

monetize, tools to help you moderate your stream.

o Will the software scale with you, allowing you to increase your

production quality with features like an app store.

• Our recommendation is our core product, Streamlabs OBS, we’ve

attempted to build the most robust all-in-one solution for live

streaming. With features like native multistream and being entirely

backed up on the cloud, we’ve made it easy to get started in the

best way possible. Many platforms recommend Streamlabs OBS as

the suggested broadcast software.

Alerts and Donations:

• Alerts and donations are critical in helping you grow your audience

and monetize your stream regardless of the streaming platform.

• Alerts give your viewers a chance to be recognized on stream for

their actions that support you. On stream appreciation with alerts

provides reciprocal value to you and your viewers.

• You should set alerts for all the actions that matter to you, platform-

specific actions like follows or subs, and monetization alerts for

donations and merch purchases.

• Donations are the direct line of monetization between you and your

viewers. Users will often ask questions, share media, etc. with their

donations. It’s essential to include a link to your donation page in a

prominent place in your channel, so it’s easy for your audience to

find.

• Donations and alerts are managed via Streamlabs. We don’t collect

any fees on your viewer’s donations and support multiple payment

methods across the globe. We also offer unique tools like a charity

platform to automatically adjust your donations and alerts to support

charity streams in seconds.

Chat Bot:

• For most platforms, a chat bot is a useful tool that serves two

essential purposes: moderation of your stream’s chat and

engagement for your viewers.

• Automated moderation of your stream’s chat is vital to keep your

channel’s content open to a broader audience and ensuring your

chat is complying with Terms of Service on certain platforms.

• Engaging your viewers in giveaways, games, and answering basic

questions all help keep your audience engaged and improves their

experience in your channel.

• As you grow your channel, your chat bot will become increasingly

important, so we suggest getting started with one from the

beginning allowing you to get more comfortable with the features

and tools as you grow.

• At Streamlabs, we offer an excellent chat bot, Streamlabs Cloudbot,

that is backed up in the cloud and provides an extremely reliable

and robust feature set.

Mobile Streaming:

• It’s an exciting time for mobile live streamers. As both the hardware

and software have seen significant improvement in recent years.

• It is critical to have software that is reliable and meets your specific

needs to live stream successfully.

• We strongly suggest the Streamlabs mobile app. It offers some very

sophisticated capabilities like simultaneously streaming both your

camera and capturing your screen at the same time. Many

streaming platforms recommend the Streamlabs mobile app as the

preferred way to stream. There are premium features available, like

disconnect protection, which preserves your stream if you lose

signal, this prevents losing your viewers.

Optics Why not just launch into creating phenomenal content? You have the

vision, you know what you are going for, you have the game plan broken

down into parts. Should we just go-live in Streamlabs OBS? Sure - go for

it. If there is one theme that you will see in this book, it is that action creates

results. The only way to start is to…. start.

However, if/when you decide you have time - we do recommend you invest

in optics. Invest in your appearance. Invest in how you come off alongside

hundreds of other streamers who are vying for viewer attention. Invest in

the first impression. First impressions are often last impressions.

Before we get into the different things you can do to improve optics, let’s

briefly talk about the approach. Our philosophy for growth and for every

action we take is thoughtful action and calculated risks. This is no different.

• “The why” here is 3-fold. First, we want to make an excellent first

impression. Second, we want to stand out among others. We want to

be easily discoverable and noticeable. Third, we want to look

professional. If you put in effort into something - it will pay off.

Everything matters, including appearance. Yes, your gameplay, your

charisma, your energy levels - these are the main ingredients, but

how your stream looks will add value.

• "The how" echoes points made earlier, but they are so important that

we want to continue cementing them in practice. "The how" here is

go! Do it. Try embracing a few of the optic principles we discuss

below. Just try. There is no need to try and do it all at once. Don't

worry about spending days on a perfect set-up with all custom panels,

emojis, overlays, witty titles, etc. You can start small but start. See

what happens. Perhaps you break up the optic task into many sub-

tasks and see what happens?

• Resources. We will come up against this topic a lot as we talk about

the path forward. We always want what we can’t have. Success

begets success. You have to admire the optics of some top live

streamers, but they have a crew helping him. There are folks with

custom art and chat emojis made by designers. That is okay. We can

do with what we have and what we have is plenty.

Below are the best tips for optics we gathered from interviews with 40

partnered streamers.

Get professional looking overlays Streamlabs OBS offers both free and paid overlays. You can start with free,

but we do advise you that you pick an overlay that is cohesive and, at the

minimum, informs the viewer of when you are about to start. This is

important because not only will your stream stand-out, but you will increase

the probability of getting a few viewers before you start. Put yourself in the

winning position from the beginning. Everything matters.

Customize your alerts. Yes, default alerts work, but you can

create something personal.

Again, it doesn’t need to be a

fancy graphic. It can be a meme

or a gif of you or something

specific to your community like

an inside joke. Don’t have a

community yet - that’s okay.

You are on your way. You have

to start somewhere! Pick

something that appeals to you

and make it your alert. Then go

further and create different alerts for different event types. Recognize your

viewers, and they will recognize you.

Invest in your “about” section. Yes, it’s a few lines of text,

but (1) first impressions are sometimes the last, (2) every detail matters.

Let’s put ourselves in the shoes of the viewer (good exercise when thinking

through most decisions). After you choose to watch a stream that caught

your attention, where do you go next? Most people will skim the about

section. Who are you? Why are you here? What do you want to tell the

world? Make this section you. Just be sure that you don’t write an essay.

Add relevant panels. This is most applicable if you are a

Twitch/Mixer streamer; on other platforms, we suggest you add additional

links. Often big-time streamers have sponsors here. Let’s assume that we

don’t have sponsors YET, and that is okay. Let’s add a few key pieces: (1)

streaming schedule (a must - more on this later), (2) donation link, (3) rules

(i.e., what is your community about, what is not okay).

Think through your stream title and tags. This is

important. It is what people see when they scroll, along with what you are

doing stream (your activity and overlays). This is also what will be tagged

by the site and will get triggered as users search. Let’s put in practice two

of the principles that we discussed above: (1) be thoughtful and deliberate

about this - everything matters, (2) experiment. It’s okay to try different

things and see what works. If the site to which you are streaming allows

this - make sure you add relevant tags. Tags help people find you. Let’s

look at a few stream titles that we think are informative or clever.

Add your social networks (more on this in the growth

chapter). Let’s assume that you don’t have these set up yet. Good! The

growth task for week one is to create social accounts (Instagram, Twitter,

TikTok, Facebook, anything else that you think will help). Then link them.

Why? First, it helps your community stay in touch with you when you are

not streaming. Every piece makes a difference, and this will add up.

Second, if you don’t have these social accounts booked yet - don’t wait too

long and get something locked today before it gets harder to have a social

account that matches your name. You want to maximize avenues to grow

your brand, and social networks are going to be one of these avenues.

Concerned that nobody will follow you? That’s normal. Why don’t we let the

community decide! One thing is for sure. If you don’t make these accounts,

nobody will follow you.

And if you don’t start streaming - you will never become a creator, so

stream!

Invest in

first impressions

First impressions are

often last

Community Your community is who you do all of this for. This is how you grow. This is

why you grow. In many ways, it is your community and not your playstyle

that will define you. They are here for you, and your success is primarily

due to their love and support. Let’s break down a few tools that are helpful

in managing and growing a community

Paying attention to chat. This is going to be the #1 priority at

all stages. Paying attention to chat is hypercritical. When you are on your

path to partner, every visitor is there to support you, and you should give

them energy. When you start to grow and have more followers, it is easy to

get caught up in the game or to disregard the community, but that is how

things fall apart. So, what does paying attention to chat mean in practice?

As we said previously - there are no silver bullets. There is no if X in chat,

then Y response. All we can offer you is guidance and mindset. General

principles. In this case, paying attention to chat means literary prioritizing

chat and bringing energy into your interactions with chat. Greet and

celebrate people. Engage in their questions and ask them questions back.

That’s right. Talk to them about their day or the ecosystem or this game.

You want to be in the positive-energy-giving-high-empathy mindset. Let’s

break this down further into component parts and general principles.

Acknowledge everyone. Give everyone that comes to your

stream some attention to the best of your ability. Some acknowledgment is

better than doing nothing. People love recognition and hearing the sound

of their name. People want attention. So, let’s give your community what

they want.

Engage your viewers. During our interviews, we spoke with

many streamers stuck at 5-10 concurrent viewers for months. When we

watched their streams, we noticed that many of them were playing the

game and not engaging with their chat. When we asked why - some said

that they didn’t pay attention or didn’t know what to say. Not everything is

about us. Yes, these folks came to watch you play, but they may stay or

come back if we talk about them. People love talking about themselves.

Let’s give them that opportunity. To take this one step further - this can be

part of your growth plan. What if you came up with a few thought-provoking

questions? If not - a simple, how is your day going, will go a long way.

Start a debate. You can be a moderator or the spark, but the bulk

of the engagement will be viewer to viewer. That is great because it lets

you focus on your task, and it acts as an avenue for viewers to build

relationships among themselves. The latter is a brilliant outcome. If

successful, now people have yet another reason to visit your channel.

Previously it was either your personality or your activity. Now it may be

because they want to interact with that viewer again. That is a real

community. Simple questions can be to ask your chat what they think about

a recent event in gaming, such as a conference or a game release. Not

sure what’s happening? A great source can be Reddit. Go to the subreddit

for whatever activity you engage in (gaming, art, a specific game, coding,

political debate) and check out the top conversations.

Everyone is different. If some folks want to lurk or not engage

when you greet them - that is okay. Let them be. Our take on this is that

your default starting stance - your opening strategy - should be high energy,

warmth, personal touch, genuine interest. If someone does not reciprocate,

that is okay. Let’s let them lurk. Maybe they are not as open, or perhaps

you need to build more rapport with them, so let them lurk in peace while

showing warmth and energy.

Chat bot. Managing chat is going to be hard, especially as you grow.

Even if you are starting out - it is helpful to get a chat bot. A chat bot can

engage your viewers when you went on break or fighting a boss. A chat bot

can tell your viewers vital information about you or this stream on

command. Some people prefer to engage via a chat bot. Some are just

lurkers. That is okay. Let’s give them that option. There is also the angle of

chat moderation. We must abide by platform Terms of Service (more on

that later), and so a chat bot can and should be leveraged to keep your chat

clean. Streamlabs offers a great chat bot that we highly recommend. It

contains tools for chat moderation, viewer engagement, polls, timers, mini-

games. As with all Streamlabs tools - everything is backed up to the cloud,

so it is available for you 24/7.

Give the regulars extra love. This is a simple point, but it is

so important that it deserves a specific section. The regulars are the

backbone of your community. Give them love and attention. Ask them

about their day. Greet them. If you missed them joining chat - please take

time to scan chat and recognize them. This does not only make them feel

loved and rewards them for being there for you. Doing this also shows the

rest of your community the kind of connection they could have if they

continuously support you.

Play some music. That is something we gleaned from our

research. Music does two things:

1. Music brightens the atmosphere - it adds energy - even if you

are not talking, and the chat is silent, music will add some value

2. Music creates another interaction point between you and your

community - people may want to know what music you are

listening to.

Be sure to make sure you are broadcasting music you have the rights to

broadcast on stream. An easy and safe way to do this is, is leveraging one

of the premium music apps in the Streamlabs OBS App Store.

Acknowledge donations, stars, follows, likes, subscribers, and all the other deliberate actions that your viewers may take to support you. This may

seem like common sense, but it is so critical that we want to spend time on

this. Why do this? The why is twofold: (1) positive reinforcement of these

actions lead to more of these actions from your community - which is a

good thing for you, (2) giving 1:1 attention and recognition to the person

who supported you at the moment is the minimum you can do to

reciprocate. This person took deliberate action to support you, and there is

only one thing - we thank that person. Make them feel special. Make it seem

like it is just you and them in chat. Be grateful! Some folks may lose track

of this practice of thanking and acknowledging direct support amidst a

heated game or an influx of support. Putting our empathy hat on - let’s

imagine how it feels to take that direct supportive action and get nothing

back. How does it feel for your attention or $ to go into a black ether? Yes,

there is an alert on the screen, but as a viewer, you want recognition from

your streamer. There will always be reasons why we can’t acknowledge

100% of our viewers' support - after all, we are human, but we can make a

thoughtful and deliberate effort to try. Let’s pledge to this right now. Yes, it

is that important.

Set-up events for your viewers. An example of an event is

a giveaway. Another example is a poll or a scrim with viewers or letting your

viewers have a say in what you play or how you play it (ex. pistols only) or

what you cook, code, discuss, etc. The list is endless, but the point is

twofold. First, setting up an event lets the viewers actively participate in the

stream. Make sure to follow through on the commitment you made to the

viewers. If you promised pistols only - deliver on that. Second, events

reward viewers. This can be an intrinsic reward where they feel recognized

or a material reward, such as a giveaway. Lastly, and this is an important

nuance, these events make some viewers feel special. Everyone wants to

be recognized and taken seriously, especially within their community.

Within your community, you have a chance to elevate some of the

community members. You put them in the spotlight, and this means the

world to them. Greeting viewers is one tactic. Another tactic is following

through or celebrating your community with a giveaway.

Give your regulars

extra love

Lean into reciprocity. When you finish streaming, raid another

streamer. Your viewers have continuity. The other streamer, who, like you,

is working hard to build a community, gets an influx of energy. And maybe,

in the future, they will reciprocate and raid you as well. There will be more

on this in the chapter on collaboration and networking with other steamers.

But, we do want to plant this seed now. Share. Give back. Give back to

your viewers and other streamers. We advocate a high empathy and high

warmth mentality. The mentality that this is zero-sum, meaning your loss is

another streamer’s gain is negative. Let’s think about this in terms of

building a greater live-streaming community and helping each other along

the way.

Study success. Spend at least 30 minutes a week watching

streamers you admire or respect. If you don’t have a strong point of view

on “who is doing it well” - check out whoever has the most viewers right

now. To be clear, we are not saying that there is a recipe. We’ve been

through this. There is only positive energy, hard work, thoughtful risk-

taking, and discipline. There is something to be learned from those who are

consistently at the top. If you thoughtfully watch their stream. What are they

doing? Are there patterns? We suggest you look at the folks that are few

hundred CCV above you in your category, the top folks in your category,

and the top streamers overall. Add this to your growth plan and do a

thoughtful, deliberate study of how they are running their stream. Take

notes. Write down what you think is a good idea. Then take action and

experiment. Perhaps it works for you? If not - that’s okay too. You tried, and

you learned something. Here are some things to observe. Frame these as

a question and try to form an answer.

• How does this streamer interact with chat? Are they doing something

you are not?

• What is their stream title and tags?

• What does their about me section say? What panels do they have?

• What software are they using? Are they using any tools that you are

not that might be helpful to you?

• How do they start the stream?

• How do they end the stream?

• What kinds of events/programs do they run, if any?

Let’s try an exercise. Take a 15-minute break, watch someone you admire,

and write down what you see them doing that you think is working well. Go!

Gaming Tips 1 One of the sections that will be tough to pack in advice without going for

500 pages, but we will do our best. After all, as we’ve established - some

amount of effort directed at a goal is plenty to get started. If you are a PRO

- please skip. If you are not into gaming - please skip. Below is general

advice from top-ranked gamers across multiple genres.

FPS: • Get a large mousepad. This will ensure that you can track well

• Spend time in practice mode. This is how you get better. Play with bots.

Yes, it can be boring. Yes, there is no ranking. But it will deliver results

because deliberate practice works. Enter the practice mode with a specific

goal in mind and focus on that goal. This goal can be to get better at a

weapon or to get more in tune with ultimate timing or another objective. The

more specific the goal - the better it is. Single-threaded deliberate practice

is the name of the game. Add this to your strategic calendar and watch

yourself inch towards your goal.

• Spend time researching optimal settings for your game. You do not

need to mirror the #1 player. Everyone is different, but it’s worth studying a

few and seeing a trend. Is anti-aliasing turned off? Do the PROs have a

specific crosshair color or shape? There are reasons behind these

decisions. They are deliberate and thoughtful. Someone spent time

studying this and arrived at what is likely the best decision. No shame in

copying!

• Pre-shooting is key! Have you ever played a CS-GO, Fortnite, PUBG, or

Overwatch match, and wondered how you died too quickly to an opponent

who did not have a gear advantage? It happens to us all the time, and one

of the main reasons for that is pre-shooting. What is it? Pre-shooting is

starting to fire fractions of a second before you expect to see your enemy

into a position where they will likely be. For example, going around the

corner, opening the door, entering a room - when the landscape around

you changes and based on your game sense you think there is a

reasonable chance that your opponent might be close - fire. The downside

is that it will give up your position. The upside is that you will get nearly

uncontested damage done. There is more nuance involved in

understanding when to pre-shoot. If you are new to the game, this might be

harder, but you will get better over time. Once you have a rough sense of

where your opponent might be - it is okay to start to shoot.

• Movement is critical. Movement is a cornerstone of every winning player.

We often see the highlight clips of headshots and team kills, but behind the

aim - there is generally incredible movement. Let’s look at a few

components of movement. First, you should move erratically when in a 1v1

fight. Whether you are using hit scan or tracking weapons, you do not want

to stand still because it makes you an easy target. Moving in a straight,

predictable line is just as easy because, for most players, this will be easy

to track and kill. Second, your movement must be deliberate. There should

be a purpose behind every action you take. No steps wasted. No time

wasted. If you are looting - loot with a purpose. Do not pick up things for

the sake of picking them up. Have a plan for what you need and tunnel

vision on that. If you are scouting - scout with a purpose. If you watch any

of the top FPS players, you will see how deliberate all their steps are

• Use terrain or objects to your advantage. Whether it is high ground or a

corner - use terrain to scout, to shield yourself, to peek. This can be as

simple as using high ground (always take the high ground in an FPS match

if you can because it puts you in control as your enemy is more exposed)

or peaking around the corner.

• Win the fight before it starts. That’s right. If you do not think you have an

edge - don’t fight. An advantage can be positioning, high ground, gear,

team count, other information such as knowing that they just got out of a

fight and looting. Your job is to gather information via game sense, audio,

eyesight, and then do the following a simple decision tree. Do I have an

edge? Yes or no. If yes - engage. If not, unless pressed for time or have

another plan or you’re confident that you’re superior mechanically (we tend

to overestimate our abilities relative to the competition) - do not engage.

• Develop and rely on game sense. This is part of winning the fight, and it

is also a complex topic, but let’s give this a shot here. First, game sense is

specific to a genre and a game. Second, it takes time to develop it, but it

gives you an exceptional edge. Third, let’s give an example of what this

means in practice. In a MOBA like League of Legends, if you are alone in

bot lane as ADC, the mid-tower has nobody, and you only see top and mid

on the map - you should think about not advancing because the opposing

team is likely camping you. That is why the lane is empty. There is a reason

for this, and you should be able to deduce that. Another example is in a BR

game with a closing circle. This game could be Apex or PUBG. You heard

shots from opponents outside the circle. You can triangulate where the

shots are coming from and roughly where they will enter the circle if there

are survivors. There is a high probability that there are survivors. Unless

you are incredibly weak on don’t have ammo, you should be picking this

fight more often than not. Why? They will be coming from outside the circle.

They will probably be weak. They will often think they are safe because

everyone is further ahead, and they are the last ones here. You want to put

pressure on them when they are in the open, making their run towards the

circle or just as they have entered the circle and started to heal.

• In BR games, it is tempting to focus on kills. We are incentivized to do

this with the scoring system. We’re programmed from past games that

getting kills is good. Kills are synonymous with success. You see highlight

reels of players going on kill streaks on YouTube. It is natural to feel the

urge to finish off your opponents. Not so fast. If you knocked someone

down, keep their location in your head and either get the other teammates

OR wait for them to resurrect the knocked teammate and finish them both.

A knocked team is generally no value on the field. It is tempting to want to

finish them for the reasons we mentioned above, but be deliberate in your

actions. The time and ammo spent on a target that is neutral value on the

field is a waste. Instead, camp them, or even better, go after their

teammates.

MOBA • It is okay to be a one-trick pony. Some folks have a divided opinion on

this, but we will take the stance that it is okay to start small, get good at

something and expand. Being very good at your character and

understanding your character's movements, abilities, feel, and interaction

with every other character in the game will give you an edge. You will

become a specialist. This should increase your win-rate. The risk is if your

character is selected by someone else, but that is okay. Many famous

streamers are one-trick ponies. They are masters. And the viewers come

to watch them.

• Be with your team. It is tempting to go it alone and to risk it all for the

highlight-reel play or to scoop all the kills. There is a time and a place for

that, but in general, you want to be grouped. The other team does not need

to be that good to win a 2v1, and that is the situation you will often end up

in if you are always alone.

• Chain your abilities. Everything you do should be deliberate. There should

be a desired outcome you are trying to achieve. It’s okay if it doesn’t result

in a kill, but there should be a plan. Spamming your abilities every time they

come off cooldown means your impact will be somewhat random because

cooldown, rather than in-game events, will dictate your damage output.

Chaining your abilities to have the max impact and to deal max damage is

the way to go. If you can coordinate your abilities with your teammates'

abilities into one combo - you are much more likely to secure the win.

RTS • Invest in the economy. Economy means growth. Growing your economy

allows you to expand and to attack. It will enable you to rebuild. Hurting

your enemy's economy prevents them from attacking. Your economy is the

root cause of everything. It is more important than any single unit, and so

you must expand and protect your economy while trying to damage the

other player’s economy. How? Drive-by attacks on workers, prioritizing

workers and core base over any other building or units

• Spend your money. There is no interest in any of the main RTS games

that we know off. Sitting on an excess of a single resource does not help

your game plan. In RTS, we earn money to spend it. You should be actively

building and spending. A good rule of thumb is to pick a number for a

resource in the game and continuously check to make sure that you are not

hovering above that number. If you look at PROs - they manage this very

carefully.

• Understand the importance of timing attacks. As the game progresses,

your economy grows, and you unlock more of your tech tree. So does your

opponent. Certain things in the tech tree are much more advanced than

others or can be hard counters to others. There are also certain quantities

of units at a specific time that can be just enough to make a dent in your

opponent’s defense. Your job is to study these evolutions. To understand

these timing attacks and to execute. You can start by picking one specific

timing attack and practicing. This can be marauder push at X minutes or

roach push at Y minutes. If executed well, these attacks can be

devastating, especially if you know your opponent is investing in 2nd expo

or a higher-tech tier unit, and you catch them off guard with a timing attack.

Gaming Tips 2 General thoughts on team-based games (ex. FPS

with squads, MOBAs)

• Start friendly. Positive tone. After all, that is how you want to be treated. If

you start in a snarky way or with a needle regarding someone’s name or

character, it may seem like a carefree joke to you, but it may offend

someone else. Sometimes humor does not carry well over the internet. You

want to build a strong team. Yes, that might be hard with random people,

but if you can get them talking – you are more likely to win. It is also more

fun to watch for your viewers, which is excellent! The best-case scenario

is you are communicating. A+. The second best case scenario is you are

using pings and are just playing amicably. The worst-case scenario is

someone is upset and is intentionally going to lose the game. You want to

avoid that as best as you can, and the best tactic for toxicity from our POV

is always leading with positivity, and if someone is indeed toxic – then

ignore them.

• If your teammates do something good. A kill, an assist, a good move.

Celebrate them. Yes, give a compliment to a stranger on the internet. It

will make them feel better playing with you.

• If you played with someone solid last match – invite them. Strong

communicator or mechanically skilled or both – invite them to squad up for

the next game. Sometimes that seems counterintuitive and odd. Why take

the initiative and ask a stranger? What if they reject? Because it is more

fun when you play and win with others. More fun for you and more fun for

your viewers. If they reject your invite – that is okay. You tried. You move

on!

• Figure out the shot caller. This will be the person who will call the shot or

the play. When are you engaging? When are you disengaging? What is the

plan? Often there will be little time to decide, and you need an individual to

align the team on a single

call. Five people doing

one thing in a coordinated

fashion is better than five

people going astray and

creating a lot of

uncoordinated situations,

which is better for your

opponent. We will argue

that even if the call is not

great, meaning there is

potentially a higher value

call in that situation, a call

that rallies everyone around a single purpose is still a better outcome for

the team then five people going in disarray. A shot caller should have a

clear presence and good game sense. They may not be the most

mechanically skilled player, but they should have macro thinking about the

game and should have the confidence to use that thinking to optimize for a

win. Once you select your shot caller - you commit. Even if you disagree

with the call - you commit. You can and always should debrief after, but for

this game, your team and your shot caller need you to commit. Try to

relinquish control and trust in your short caller. Trust is key. By trusting, you

maximize the % chance that you will move in unison and can focus all your

energy on execution. Then after the game - debrief, debate, discuss and

get better as a team.

• Try to act professionally and polite towards everyone! If someone

upset, you – stay out of it. In addition to the reasons mentioned above on

how positivity leads to better outcomes. It makes you the person everyone

wants to play with. Beyond that – there is one more angle. It is your career

as a content creator. Everything you do when your streaming is accessible

to others. Your viewers may be watching. The internet may seem vast, but

the gaming community and the streaming community is tight-knit. When

you end up moving up the ranks – do you want someone to fetch a clip

where you were rude to a new player? Where you berated someone? No!

So, let’s not do anything that your future you will regret. A good rule of

thumb!

• Talk about the match with your team. Yes, it can be that serious. Again,

deliberate practice. Some effort and some self-reflection will go a long way.

People jump from game to game without reflecting on what works and what

doesn’t. After-all it is so easy. Games are designed to lure you back in.

Resist the temptation to coast through your streaming session and gaming

session on autopilot. In between the games think. A failure is wasted if there

is no lesson. One man said – I never lose. I either win or learn. Be that man.

Yes, it seems novel and scary, but you can lead the conversation. “Guys,

no ego – what could we have done better that? What could I have done

better? One thing that comes to mind about where I made a mistake is X”.

Be vulnerable and start sharing; the team will share as well. As you do this

– know that to each player, their play may seem perfect, and we are prone

to blame others for mistakes. Try to see the perspective of each player.

Also, try to celebrate the wins. We recommend a simple system called plus

delta. After each match, each player can say one thing that they’d like to

change (delta) and one thing that went well (plus). Notice the neutral or

positive framing on the word delta. We are purposefully not saying

something that went wrong last match.

• Think about the strategy together. What is working for you? What have

you seen other teams do? What are your strengths? Is someone an

excellent one-trick pony or a specific class – let’s think about a protect-X

composition and build it around this player? What matters is the win and

your team climbing together in ranks. It is tempting to want to be the X in

that composition but try to let go off the ego. Know that your support takes

skill, and each player is contributing to the win. What about another

composition that meets your capabilities and playstyles? You will learn and

grow as teammates if you build strategies and tactics together!

• Have the mental fortitude to rise above conflict that is emotional and not task-oriented. A task-oriented conflict where you argue based on

principles and goals is healthy. This is what makes teams stronger.

Emotional conflict based on feelings can be detrimental, especially over the

internet, where it is easy to be callous. It is easy to hurt someone because

there is virtually no accountability. It is okay to encourage debate about a

strategy or a play. It is not okay

• Study replays. Record your game and study them. Watch recordings of

others and examine those. Ask someone to review your game (see below

on building rapport and connections with other gamers and asking them for

feedback). As you study replays – do it deliberately and thoughtfully.

Remember: when we apply ourselves, we do it at 100%. Disciplined and

focused mind. Deliberate practice. What we are NOT doing is watching a

replay while alt-tabbing between Twitch, Discord, and Amazon, where you

are searching for a new mouse. What we are doing is sitting down with a

notepad and writing down what went well and what did not go well in that

game. Focus all of your efforts here.

• Know how to move past disagreements. First, do not let issues fester. It

might be hard to resolve a conflict today. That is okay. Come back to it

tomorrow. Second, if there is a decision that you disagree with, but the team

decided - commit to that decision. We covered this briefly in the short-caller

section, but it is important enough that we want to emphasize this again.

Find people to help you improve.

• No ego. Assume that you have blind spots. We all do. Assume that

someone out there understands something that you don’t. Join a

community for your game or your craft. Figure out who knows what they

are talking about and ask them for advice. If you play games – ask them to

practice or scrim with you. Perhaps you can climb up the ranks together. If

you are doing arts or cooking or chess – maybe there is a forum or discord

where you can get feedback on your art or discuss recipes. We are, by

nature, social animals, and we have an immense capacity to learn.

Learning from others who are practicing the same trade with you will help

you grow. As you grow and get better at your craft – your streams will be

more appealing to your community.

• When you approach folks, do not get discouraged if they do not reciprocate. It takes time to build rapport. Some people want to be left

alone, and that is okay. Others may be more comfortable to converse with

you in writing. And yet others will go so far as to play with you or co-stream

with you or review replays of your game or your chess match with you. All

of this is brilliant. There are tons of learnings out there as long as you are

high empathy, open-minded, and take the time to get to know people and

to offer them something in return.

• Understand that opinions matter in weight. Most people will have an

opinion, but not every opinion is of equal importance. If your back hurts and

you ask both your roommate, who is an artist by training, and a doctor who

specializes in sports medicine and both give you advice - whose advice do

you weigh more when making a decision? This does not mean disregarding

advice. What this means is first to recognize that your own opinion might

be wrong. Second, it means that you should be seeking out the people who

have the most fact-based accurate representation of reality and listen to

their opinion. If in a match, you have a tank main advising on optimal sniper

positions to an elite sniper - perhaps you should take a step back, thank

everyone for contributing their opinion, and hear from the elite sniper.

No Ego

Our ego is the enemy of learning and growth

Health

Taking care of your health To be the best version of yourself for your community, you need to be kind

to you. Everything starts from within. You must be healthy, present, positive

to channel that energy back into the community, and they will, in turn, propel

you forward. Health is a sensitive and essential topic in any industry. A

profession where you are in front

of a computer for hours can take

a toll on your health. It is easy to

disregard your health as you

decide to put in that Nth hour of

streaming or to do another 24 hr

marathon. These decisions are

up to you, and the topic of taking

care of yourself is beyond the

scope of this book. But one thing

must be clear. If you neglect

your health, everything else will

suffer. The same discipline that you apply to your streaming schedule you

must apply to your health. We recommend that you treat it like a job. That’s

right. Let’s add health goals to your strategic plan. How will you improve

your mind and your body so that you can be that much better and deliver

that much more energy to the viewers?

Week 1 Month 1 60 Days

90 Days

Goals

Read this book and complete all exercises

Discuss three thoughts/strategies that stuck with >5 people in Discord Set up Streamlabs OBS Stream 25hrs

Do more

Do even more

Health Goals

Sing-up for the gym and got once

Break a sweat from a workout of any kind at least 15 days

”

Your turn. We suggest you give this a shot in a spreadsheet that you own

and stick to it. Hold yourself accountable. It will have a positive impact on

your streaming career!

Week 1 Month 1 60 Days 90 Days

Goals

Health Goals

Below are a few thoughts from us. These are good health practices that we

discovered when interviewing top streamers and doing research. It is your

body, your life, and your decision, but as with everything in this book - we

encourage you to try and see if it works for you.

Create a regular exercise routine and stick to it. Yes, it is hard. It does not need to be anything fancy to start. Walking a mile

outside three days a week is a start. Going to the gym and breaking a sweat

is a great start. There is a lot of research on how getting your body moving

and blood flowing helps productivity, boost energy levels, and improves

general health. Try it!

Drink water. Get a nice bottle of water on your desk and set a goal

of drinking a specific volume of water each day. If it helps you – invest in a

water bottle that you like. That makes drinking water appealing. Maybe

there is a water bottle where you can easily track how much you drank. And

then, add it to your goal setting spreadsheet and hold yourself accountable.

It is that important!

Take care of your diet. We are what we eat.

It is tempting to order food

when you are trying to clock

those hours in your

streaming schedule. It is

equally as tempting to get

fast food or snacks. Resist

the temptation. Will your

mind to be strong. Try

cooking. It will save money (which you can funnel back into your career

as a creator). It can also act as a form of relaxation. As you think about

your diet, please make sure that you are consuming vegetables,

proteins, and healthy fats. Avoid processed foods.

Sleep. Full stop. In a culture obsessed with getting a lot done in 24

hours. A culture where we celebrate brutally hard work, all-nighters, and

marathon sessions - in this culture, is essential to take a step back and

sleep. There have been volumes of research on the beneficial effects of

sleep and rest on your body and mind. You will have more energy, you will

be in a better mood, your mind will be more lucid, and your community will

see it.

Again, this topic is paramount to your success. It is easy to neglect this. It

is easy to take this material and say that I will be very disciplined and power

through any obstacles. I will stream 18 hours a day, seven days a week,

until I get my first 100 followers. Resist that mentality. It does not have to

be that extreme. If you want to succeed long-term - you must take care of

yourself. Your future self will thank you for the investment you make in

yourself. Your community will thank you. You will be able to recover from

setbacks if you are healthy and rested. Treat health as part of your job.

Dealing with negativity. The internet can be a cruel place.

There is almost zero accountability, meaning someone does something

cruel to another person and gets away with it. It is easy to be an online

bully. This is yet another reason why we embrace a default stance of

kindness, empathy, and warmth.

There will be instances where someone will say something mean to you or

other members of your community. Here are a few tips we gathered from

the PROs on how to handle negativity.

• Respond with kindness. In the words of a famous stoic philosopher,

“Whenever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for kindness.”

Do not come down to their level. Rise above and be kind.

• Control your emotions. You mustn't get caught up in negative vitriol or

drama of any kind. When in doubt whether this is negative or drama -

use the following question as a guide - “Would I ever have to explain my

actions here to a potential sponsor, manager, teammate, or a 3rd

party?”. If the answer is yes, step away and respond with kindness or

ignore.

• Focus on the positive. Immediately think about the good. Imagine all

the positive interactions from last week. This comment will come and go.

This negativity is fleeting. In an hour, it will be a memory, and tomorrow

you would have already moved on.

• If this is legitimate tough love, feedback, or criticism - think about it and accept it. Thank the individual for the input (notice - kindness).

They gave you an opportunity to improve. We all have blind spots. This

individual just helped you notice one from his or her perspective. You do

not need to act on every piece of feedback that you receive, but you

should be grateful for feedback.

“Whenever there is a human being, there is an

opportunity for kindness.”

- Seneca (stoic philosopher)

Advice from the PROs

We spoke with many industry experts, studied the space, and watched an

unhealthy number of live streams. We gathered the most pertinent

information. These are the most significant themes that came out. These

are the patterns of success. Enjoy!

Give the viewers want they want: Put yourself in the shoes of the average viewer first. What do they want?

Let’s think about this!

We think that the average viewer wants energy. They want entertainment.

Entertainment and energy can come from either your gameplay or your

actions on stream. It can come from your interaction with chat. Everyone

wants something that caters to their interests; some may want to see

mechanical skills from the gamer; others may want to hear your point of

view.

Become a presence:

Be on. Be alert. Sit upright. Smile. Project as you talk. This comes with

confidence. And that is okay. You will develop it over time. The other

blocker you will face is the awkward nature of being a presence when you

have zero viewers. It may seem odd to smile, to expend energy, and to be

alert for nobody. It may seem tempting to slump and be quiet. Resist that

temptation. You never know when someone will enter your stream. At the

minimum, give them energy when they join.

Stay positive:

Yes, we covered this topic at length, but it’s good to reiterate. Stay positive

in your game. Stay positive even when you have zero viewers. Stay positive

when someone makes a jab at you in chat or on social media.

Be yourself:

Authenticity. Bring your true self to the stream. Only you can be the best

version of you. Holding up facades is exhausting, and over a long-enough

time horizon, you are doing your community a disservice. Be you! Goofy -

that’s great! Go on, rambles? Maybe your community is into it. Listen to odd

music? Bring it!

Engage with your chat: Talk to them. Ask them questions. Participate in the conversation or ignite

the conversation. Don’t be shy!

Respect your opponents: Try not to trash talk in a way that you’d regret in the future. You are building

your brand.

Respect other streamers and other creators: Same as above. In the words of a famous philosopher - “when there is a

human being, there is an opportunity for kindness.”

Act in a way that your future self and your community will be proud of:

It’s easy to do things on impulse, but always be thoughtful about the

consequences of your actions. It can be hard to think long-term and

imagine that there may be people in the future who care about your actions

today. Always act in a way that you will be proud of.

Be on time: If you say you will stream from 1-5 pm. Please honor your commitment and

go live at 1 pm. If you need to prepare for your stream, start that before 1

pm. If you promise your teammates that you will be there to scrim or

promise a guest that you will be there to interview them - be there. Honor

your commitments. Everything matters, and it all adds up. By not showing

up on time - you are signaling to the people waiting for you that they are

not a priority.

Thank people for donations, follows, subscriptions. Gratitude! That is it. We can all do more to thank the people that support us. Yes, to

gratitude. No to entitlement. Say thank you!

Mindset 1: Discipline

Early we said that one of the main things to get started is taking action. Do

something today. Do something in the next hour to get towards your goal.

It doesn’t need to be a lot. It doesn’t need to be perfect. Yes, there are

challenges, and it is intimidating, and there is no time for this or no money

for the fancy optics set-up, but you have to start somewhere.

This is true. Doing something is the key to moving forward.

However, as critical as starting is - acting one time is not enough. That is

not how you win. That is not how you get partnered or get your first 100

CCV. A hyper-productive and thoughtful start is a prerequisite, but the

secret to success is discipline. Discipline is what will propel you forward —

continuous action — continuously chipping away at the sub-tasks in your

90-day plan.

What separates the top streamers from the rest is often discipline.

Odds are you enrolled in this program to look for a shortcut. The silver

bullet. The easy way. You picked up this book, hoping to see the top 100

tips. Perhaps one of them will be highlighted in bold font as the near sure

thing to get you partnered.

There is no shortcut. There is no easy way. There is only hard work,

discipline, thoughtful action, experiments, learning, failure, and then

growth.

Discipline comes from within. There is no motivational poster or song. Nobody is hovering over you,

forcing you to read this or judging you for not. There is no external influence

or root cause of discipline. If there is - it is a lie. That external source is

weak and fleeting.

The only person that can control your mind and your actions is you. You

need to make a conscious choice to be disciplined, to be happy, and to do

the right things to move towards your goal. Nobody else can do this but

you.

Right now, pause and decide. Commit to this and be disciplined.

As you can see, we are passionate about this topic because that is the one

consistent thing that we gleaned from all the interviews and personal

experience.

You start today. You’re making a disciplined decision actually to read and

apply this material is step one. What’s next? What happens if there are

obstacles or distractions? You don’t feel like downloading and setting up

Streamlabs OBS. Your favorite streamer is on, or you’d rather play a game

without streaming because that is a known and safe activity or browse

YouTube.

No. You have control over your mind.

Establish yourself as the one in control. There is no room for

procrastination. You start right here and right now

You may not be the most gifted gamer or the most out-going person, but if

you want to grow as a streamer and a creator, you have to act with

discipline, and you have to adopt a growth mindset. A growth mindset

means that you are not going to settle what you are because you believe

in your ability to grow, and you will act on that belief.

Never share your face on stream? No problem. Let’s start

Got all the other elements, but have no contacts in the streaming space to

begin a collaboration? Good! Use this course to meet people. Join a

discord.

Do not let fear block you from being disciplined or from moving towards

your goal. Fear is a signal that growth is coming. It sounds counter-intuitive,

but we suggest you face the fear head-on and do the scary thing.

And so, as you embark on this path, you will stay committed. You will

control your mind. You will not give in to weaknesses or fears.

You will stay consistent Do at least one thing every single day to move closer towards your goal You are in control

Only you can control

your mind and your

actions. You must decide

to do the right things to

move closer to your goals

Mindset 2 Celebrate small success We know that the path forward will be full of obstacles and failures. In the

words of Winston Churchill, “Success is going from failure to failure without

the loss of enthusiasm.” That is precisely why it is so important to give

yourself props. Celebrate the wins. The smallest success for you today is

progress towards your goal. It doesn’t matter how little it is. It doesn’t matter

how ridiculous it is to celebrate this win when others might be achieving this

daily. None of this matters because we are focused on you. And for you

this week, you managed to get your first follower, or you got your first squad

win with the new team, or you pushed yourself to analyze the game or to

analyze your stream so that you can get better. All of these are successes.

Pick up your structured planner where you broke everything down into

component parts. Figure out what are the things worthy of celebration and

do it! A celebration can be as simple as acknowledging that you made

progress. Pause and reflect on your achievement. It can also involve a

physical object or an indulgence of some kind. Your call.

Look at history There are no overnight successes in history. Even if something seems like

an overnight success - behind this success are hours of hard work and

failure. Go to twinge.com right now and look up the graphs of your favorite

streamers. Did they with 1M followers? Unlikely unless they were already

a star in some other domain, and in that case, the first point in this

paragraph applies. If they made it - so can you. And if they came from the

bottom - so can you.

Walk towards challenges.

If it's challenging, it’s good, because it means growth

This is a recurring theme in this book because, from a first-principles

perspective, evolution implies the breaking of something - putting

something under stress so that it can grow. We are the same. If it were

easy - everyone would do it. If it is challenging - that means that few are

doing it, and when you are on a path alone - there is less competition and

more learning. If it is challenging -that means that you will evolve as a

creator. So go towards obstacles - deliberately seek them out. Do not feel

comfortable showing your face on stream? Find this hard? Concerned that

you will be ridiculed? Good! Let’s run an experiment and do it. See what

happens. Not sure how to handle all the browser sources in Streamlabs

OBS? It seems like it is much easier to just <go-live>. The button is right

there. Why not just start streaming? Sure - you can! But on your Nth attempt

- why not embrace the challenging, learn, and understand your tool.

Thinking about studying streams of others and but would much rather play

games with friends or spend time on social media? Makes sense. After all,

that seems boring. Who is doing that? Is that even useful? This isn’t math

class. Why study? Why not just float from one stream to another. It is

because it is hard and therefore you should try it because you will learn and

grow.

Own all failures. Hold yourself accountable It is you and you alone who is making the decisions and moving forward.

You control your attitude and your actions, so you should own all your

failures. Why? Because absolving yourself of responsibility and shrugging

off failure is not a path forward. It is a method to stand in one place. If you

do not own your failures, you will be unable to learn from them. Let’s look

at a specific example. You said that you would be streaming every Monday,

Wednesday, and Friday from 7-10 pm. You got your first few followers by

being you, engaging with chat, and bringing energy to stream. You then

proceed to be late to the next two streams by ten minutes. Ten minutes is

an eternity for web entertainment because there are thousands of other

stimuli competing for your viewers’ attention.

You committed your viewers that you would show up. They are there. You

break that commitment by being late, and they leave to watch another

streamer. They may not come back again. It’s that serious. Now, why were

you late? On the first day, there was traffic on the way home from work or

school. The second day, there was an antivirus update on your computer,

and you had to reboot everything several times to get online. Its the traffic.

It’s this damn antivirus. No - it is you. If you genuinely wanted to be there -

you’d make time to leave early to account for the X% change in risk. If you

wanted to be there - you would get to stream 30min early to make sure that

everything was set up, you could launch, you be right back scenes are

ready and of course that you can boot your machine. Does stuff happen in

the way that will stand between you and your goal? Yes. To the extent that

we can control this stuff - are we responsible? Yes! These failures present

an excellent lesson for us, and the more significant the failure - the more

valuable the lesson. To extract the lesson, you must look inward and hold

yourself responsible.

Walk towards challenges

If it's challenging – it is

good for you because it

means growth

Issues are irrelevant if you find solutions Try not to get bogged down by problems if there are solutions. Answers will

not always be apparent. Sometimes they will be multi-layered. Sometimes

they will come to you in days, but if you apply ownership mindset and the

principles we discussed - you will create solutions, and issues will

disappear. Theoretically, this means staying confident and staying calm

when problems arise. What if you don’t have a capture card, but you read

and studied, and you believe it will help you become a better streamer?

Good! We have a problem that is standing between you and your goal. Do

not sulk. Embrace the problem. Think and figure out a path forward. It will

come to you, step by step.

Mindset 3 Embrace the truth. Truth is essential. Truth is freedom

and growth. Big words, but it is true. How can you know what to improve if

you don't know where you are weak? How can you analyze and

systematically improve your broadcast if you don’t see the issue? What is

the reason why people leave after they join? Why am I not growing? Why

am I getting tourist viewers who come and go? Why am I stuck at this

ranking as a player? How can I move forward? Truth sets us free and

moves us forward. Truth is essential to achieving good outcomes

Come to terms with your ego. I have an ego. Each of us

has one. That is human nature. Our egos tend to be extra-large when we

are starting in a specific craft. Coming to terms with your ego will help you

find the truth. In practice, this means a few things. First, acknowledging that

you can be wrong, and you are often wrong. Maybe you are not as

engaging as you thought you were. Perhaps you are not as good of a shot

at your FPS game as you thought you were. That might be painful to

acknowledge at first, and that is okay because once we recognize that - we

can seek the truth and get better. Second, it means that deliberately

seeking out opinions of others, reading, improving, studying - doing

whatever you can to get better.

Do not let the fear of what others think stop you from achieving your goals. Often, we want to be popular. We

think that others may ridicule us for trying. We believe that we are not

skilled. That fear of being ridiculed, of being unpopular, of coming off “bad”

in the eyes of others - it will stop us from trying. Shut down that fear. In the

words of another smart Greek philosopher - “we suffer in imagination more

than we do in reality.” Do not let future worries stop you from achieving your

goal. Do not let the things that are outside your control (what others think

of you is 100% outside your control) stop you from achieving. Your goal to

grow as a creator and to build a fantastic community around you

supersedes all these doubts. Here is a PRO tip: other people are not

thinking THAT much about you. Do you worry that your classmates will say

something if they see your stream online with zero viewers? They are not

thinking about it that much. Are you concerned that your team will call you

try-hard for spending time in the practice area of your game rather than

ranking up? Let them. They will thank you later when you come back after

a few weeks of practice with a much stronger KDA. Making progress

towards your goal is a higher priority than looking good.

Being wrong is part of the process. Improving and

ultimately becoming the best is the most critical thing. That means that you

must sacrifice being right. This is 100% related to seeking the truth. Think

about it on your own. Let this sink in. You must be willing to trade short-

term discomfort, including hurting your ego and including popularity among

your peers or others in the community.

Don’t believe everything you hear. Take in all the

information and decide. This will be harder to do at the start but will get

easier over time. You will make mistakes here, and that is okay. The truth

is that there are 101 opinions on every subject, including how to be a

creator. The material in this book is an opinion. You should decide for

yourself what advice is worth pursuing and what isn’t. Some of the things

mentioned in this book do not apply to you, and that is okay. In practice,

this means being discerning and thoughtful about acting on advice and

information you collect from other sources. If you are at this point - you are

already a few steps ahead and on your way to progress. Why? Because

you are seeking the truth. You’re looking for information to get better. But

not all information is created equal. Be thoughtful about the actions you

take. Assign credibility to each source.

Practice being open-minded. Someone challenging your

view is okay. Ask questions. Be curious about what could be better. Always

strive to see things through other people’s eyes. Having an open mind will

help you become a stronger creator. Have an open mind to every task.

From what PC to build, to what should be the theme of your stream, to what

your community is saying. Maybe you started with plan X (always have a

plan), and now the feedback from the community is that they prefer that

you do X+Y. Have an open mind and try X+Y. See what happens. Maybe

you set up your chat bot in a way that is too restrictive, and your viewers

can’t engage with each other. Perhaps listen. Maybe your teammates are

telling you to try a different class. Yes, this was the class you played the

most on, but that one game you did so well playing a different hero. What

happens if you play that hero more seriously going forward? Twitch is

where you see the most activity, but what happens if you try other

platforms? Having an open mind, especially when it comes to your blind

spots as a creator, is a path to growth.

You must be willing to fight to get to the truth.

Do not let fear of what others think stop you from achieving your

goals

Mindset 4 Action = progress. This may not always seem obvious. Often

your actions will seem like they are resulting in nothing as you

continuously sit on zero viewers. Sometimes your actions will bring pain

as people ridicule you of taking a risk and pursuing a career as a creator.

But it will result in progress. Fundamental laws of physics dictate that

energy transfer from a source is equal to the amount of work done. So,

let’s do the work! Eventually, this work will move you towards the goal.

There is one certain thing - doing nothing will not move you forward. So

start!

Treat all actions as experiments. Try and move forward.

Try, fail, learn, and move forward. Try an overlay for your stream. Try a

different title. Try a different hero. Try a different greeting for your viewer.

Try a different panel design. Try another streaming software. Try a new

alert sound! Try! You get a B for trying and moving forward. You get an A+

for documenting your learnings and running each attempt as a controlled

experiment. For this to be a true experiment, you should write down what

you want to achieve/what you think will happen (your hypothesis), set a

goal you can measure, and set a time constraint. After, you should review

and reflect. Did you get to the goal? Great! Continue. Did you not meet the

expected outcome? Also, good. What did you learn?

Simplify. Remove variables. You want to start streaming.

You got this book. It has 119 different things to do. Where do you start?

How about just making an account on a streaming platform today. Day 1

done. Success! You are trying to figure out what overlay to go with, and

you are debating how it will come off, among other overlays in the browse

section, how it will map to your game or content you are streaming, what

others will think. Let’s cut all of these variables except for the first one.

Decision made!

80/20. This is known as the Pareto principle, and it means that 80% of

the results come from 20% of the causes. In our case, this may mean that

the top things that will get you your first followers are what you choose to

stream about and your stream title. Yes, your streaming software, your

overlays, your private discord server, your panel design - these things all

matter - but it’s critical to recognize what the 20% is and nail that first. We

know that we contradict ourselves here as one thing we stress throughout

the book is genuinely caring and investing in every aspect of your career.

We even said that everything matters, and yes, it does, but some things

matter more than others. Figure out what the 20% is for you and don’t let

go of that.

Paying Rent There is a reason why this chapter is last. Hopefully you read about

mindset, community engagement, the why, and other underlying

components before skipping to this. Yes, money is important. Yes, money

is an incentive and a good one. And yes, money, if used right, can help us

grow by reinvesting it back into the stream. All of this is true, and nobody

denies the importance of money. This a profession, right?

The reason why this is last is that we hope that you are focused on the

fundamentals first. We hope that you pursue this with a long-term mindset,

rather than trying to optimize for short-term cash flow. We hope that you

build your career as a creator from the ground up, and the money will

come.

Below we will go through all of the main methods. Before we dig in, let’s keep in mind three things.

1. Not every method might be open to everyone reading this. Many streaming platforms make some of the monetization

features available only to creators that reached a specific

metric. For this chapter, we will cover all the methods without

alluding to the constraints

2. Different platforms have different processes. They are

named differently, and many are unique to each platform.

3. This list is evolving. The odds are that when you pick up this

book - things will change. This is a good thing. As we covered

- change is growth. The reason why things are changing is that

platforms understand that creators are the lifeline of their

platform and each platform is looking for ways to make it more

financially viable to stream and to create

Donations • Available on few streaming platforms. This is when your fan sends

funds directly to you via PayPal or credit card. A service like

Streamlabs would handle this via the payment provider. The only fee

taken is the processing fee by the payment provider, and the money

is in your account.

• This is a standard method to support creators, and regardless of your

size - you should set it up. It is simple. There is no complication or

dependency on the streaming platform. The viewer will feel great as

they get recognized. Make sure to call out and make each person feel

special when they donate.

• Since the donation is an interaction between you, the viewer and the

payment processor (ex. PayPal) and the payment processor is the

only one taking a cut, all of the funds go to you, which is great

• The main drawback is chargebacks. Some viewers may decide to ask

the payment process for a refund to protect against unintentional

behavior. This rarely happens, and when it does can be a legitimate

ask, or it can be abuse, and in some cases, you may not get the tip

amount back.

• Donations are an impulse event. Today you can have $10 and

tomorrow $0. Everything depends on the mood of your viewers and

what you are doing. Over a long enough time horizon, you could

forecast a rough amount of $ you could generate via donations, but

please be thoughtful here. Just because you received a $100

donation today - it does not mean that you will be getting anywhere

near that amount going forward.

Embers/Sparks/Bits • Platform native currency. Same as a donation, meaning it is a

onetime impulse event between you and your viewer, but this time in

the native currency of the platform.

• All of the same principles regarding giving your viewers love when

they do this apply. There are a few nuances here that are different

from donations.

o This may not be available to every creator

o There might be deals on these currencies ran by the platform -

making it cheaper for the viewer

o There are no chargebacks

o Viewers can earn this currency for different activities.

o The platforms will take a cut because the payment happened

on the platform, which helps support the platform. The % can

come out of your pocket relative to donations

o Payouts may take time relative to donations

Subscriptions • Reliable and recurring revenue source. This is a steady source of

income you can count on. And it compounds over time.

• Subscribers get additional benefits that are not available to one-time

donators. This is great for your most loyal and supportive community

members. You want them to feel special. You want them to feel

valued. You want them to be part of a separate club. Subscriber perks

do just that, and it is up to you how to make your subscribers feel

recognized.

• Similar to platform-native donation methods, not 100% of the

subscription revenue goes to you. There is a cut that goes to the

platform which is necessary for the platform to function

Sponsorships • Something that most of us associate with having made it. If you have

sponsors - you are at the top. This might be true. For you to be of

interest to brands - you must have enough of a reach to matter. That’s

great. At the same time - there are nuances and trade-offs.

• Sponsors can be a great source of income, but given custom deals,

nature of brands, and ephemeral nature of some creators in the eyes

of these brands - these deals all vary. These deals also may not last.

Unlike subscriptions, sponsorships are a less reliable revenue

source. And given the number of variables involved, everything will

vary from streamer to streamer. Sponsorships are not available to all

and for the most part, they are a weapon in your weapon arsenal

when you’ve had some success.

• Please note that there might be an adverse selection in brands. This

means that the brands that are reaching out to you might not be the

brands that you want to partner with. Think about that for a moment

and consider the implications for the long-lasting personal brand that

you want to build. What does this mean in practice? We are not

saying to turn down everything but the most blue-chip brands. We are

just advising you to make deliberate and thoughtful choices. Consider

all trade-offs. Celebrate the fact that you got big enough to be sought

after by any brand (i.e., celebrate small wins), but also be deliberate

about your actions and consider the longevity of your brand.

• Lastly, consider what the brand is asking for you to do. Read the

contracts. Read them. If you do not know how or find it intimidating -

that is okay. Let’s get help. But please consider and understand the

requirements and how it impacts your goals.

Patronage sites • Sites such as Patreon enable you to set up tiered subscription

services to unlock some value with your fans. It is a way to extend

your brand - if it fits with your goals. It is another avenue to connect

with your fans. It is another way to grow revenue. Patreon is a popular

platform, and there are many others.

• The counter-argument for doing this is a few things. First, you have

to set this up and manage it. There is an opportunity cost to running

this that you should consider, as this is time and energy spent away

from your other goals. Second, these platforms generally take a fee.

Affiliate marketing

• What does this mean? You set yourself up as an affiliate for a product

and then promote it, usually via a panel. Sometimes brands will reach

out to you and ask you to be their affiliate. These cases will vary -

same as with sponsorships.

• The good news is that you do not need to wait for anyone. There are

affiliate programs that you can engage in. We suggest you do this

only if you strongly believe in their product and brand. Please be

thoughtful about who you promote.

• The reality is that for this to be a significant revenue driver for you -

you would need a high number of purchases, so please consider the

reputation risk, if any, when you go after the money.

• You can find several examples of affiliate programs if you search

online.

Merchandise: • We will preface this section by saying that there is likely bias here

given that we built a merchandise solution that attempts to

democratize and simplify merchandise for all creators.

• Merchandise can be a great income source. It is also a quality brand

extension of you. Also, it is advertising for your channel. Your merch

is your brick and mortar billboard. If people are wearing your hoodie

in school or around town - they are promoting you. That’s great!

• Merch used to be a complicated endeavor where creators needed to

set up everything on their own or get big enough for an apparel

company to reach out and structure a deal. These options are still on

the table, but we also built a merchandise solution in our toolkit for

creators. Our goal was to democratize merch. You can now create a

logo, make any SKUs you want, sell them directly on your tip-page,

manage all analytics, and even have alerts fire when folks buy merch

on stream, rewarding and recognizing your community (a key lesson

from a past chapter.)

• There are many other viable options, and you should do your

research and form your own point of view before committing to a

store. DBH is popular among creators. Other popular options are

TeeSpring and Redbubble. Please look into these methods, figure

out what works for you, consider the opportunity cost, and if you

decide to do it - do well and see it all the way through!

Ads on platform: • Ad revenue is popular among creators, especially on YouTube.

Generally speaking, this is another revenue source that scales if you

have a large following. You get a flat rate that is $ per 1000 viewers.

• Some platforms will let you customize how to handle ads, giving you

control over the display or even ad types. As with everything, consider

the impact on your brand.

Expanding to other platforms (YouTube/Instagram/others)

• You can stream on Twitch, slice up your streams into highlight videos,

and post them on YouTube. You can then attempt to earn revenue

via ads. You can stream on Facebook or Mixer and post highlights or

stories on Instagram. You can later try to get sponsored posts.

• The point is that success on one platform likely means success on

another.

• It might be worth to experiment and see what works!

So, what does all of this mean? • Not everything will be available to you when you start.

• Take advantage of the available things. You have to start

somewhere, and that is okay.

• Be very mindful of who you choose to partner with or represent. Think

long-term. Do not make any decisions/brand affiliations that your

future self will be disappointed with. There is no free lunch!

• Love your viewers and supporters. Each of them, show them

gratitude!

TLDR Disclaimer: Nothing here is endorsed by any streaming platform,

company, or other entity. Everything is the opinion of the authors or other

people in the industry. By reading this, you agree that neither Streamlabs

nor any related entity is liable for the success and failure of your venture

1. Figure out your why. Dig deep. Why do you want to be a creator?

Write it down

2. Break down your goal into component parts. Make sure you can

act on each goal. Write it down

3. Act. Do not be a dreamer

4. Look at data to keep yourself honest and to figure out what is

working and what is not

5. Collaborations start with putting yourself out there, acting from

a place of kindness/empathy, and proactively giving to others. Good

things will come to you

6. Be mindful of ROI of events and conferences. These can be

powerful tools, but they are not cheap. Make a thoughtful plan

before going and consider the opportunity cost of going.

7. Hardware matters, especially if you are into games. Mechanical

keyboards, wired equipment, quality gaming headset will help.

When looking for a monitor - optimize for refresh rate. When looking

for computer - optimize for GPU and RAM

8. Keep your monitor at eye level, maintain distance between you

and the screen, set your chair to a stiff angle, so you do not slouch.

It will translate into your on-screen energy

9. Check out Streamlabs OBS (yes, we are biased), set up alerts,

and get your chatbot up to moderate chat. Consider streaming to

multiple platforms and streaming from mobile as well

10. How you come off on screen matters. First impressions are often last. Optics matter. Get professional-looking overlays, invest

time in your about section, and in your panels. Think about your

stream title and your tags. Run experiments and see what works

11. Community is everything. Pay attention to chat. Do your best to

acknowledge everyone and especially all acts of financial support.

Engage your viewers. Start a debate. Be aware of the fact that

everyone is different, and some want to lurk in peace. Give the

regulars extra love. Set-up events for your viewers. Study success.

Engage in deliberate practice and check out how other streamers

are engaging with their community. What can you learn?

12. Winning will on average correlate with more viewers because people want to see the end game

• In FPS: spend time researching optimal settings, pre-shoot,

spend time in practice mode, be deliberate with your

movement, use terrain to your advantage

• In MOBA: embrace the one-trick pony if that is you, stay with

your team, chain your abilities

• In RTS: invest in the economy, spend the money, understand

timing attacks

• Macro FPS thoughts: win the fight before it starts, develop and

rely on game sense, focus on your opponents and your team

(kills are not the end goal, winning is)

• Macro multiplayer thoughts: start friendly, compliment your

teammates, invite people who are good to squad up, decide

on the shot caller and commit to that decision, act

professionally and polite towards everyone, discuss the match

with your team - how can you improve - adopt growth mindset,

think about strategy together, have the mental fortitude to rise

above conflict that is emotional and not task-oriented, study

replays, know how to move past disagreements, find people to

help you improve, remove your ego, understand that opinions

matter in weight - do not take every opinion at face value,

including those presented in this book

13. Take care of your health! Make a progress plan for your health,

the same way you did for your creator goals. Create a regular

exercise routine and stick to it. Drink water. Take care of your diet.

Sleep. Accept that there will be negativity. Try to respond with

kindness, control your emotions, focus on the positive.

14. Advice from the PROs: give viewers energy, become a presence

on, stay positive, be yourself, engage with your chat, respect your

in-game opponents, respect other creators, act in a way that your

future self and your community will be proud of, be on time, practice

gratitude

15. Discipline comes from within. You have control over your mind and your attitude. There is no motivational poster and no hack.

You start today, and you stay consistent

16. Celebrate small success. Walk towards obstacles because they imply growth. Own all failures and hold yourself accountable.

Issues are irrelevant if you find solutions.

17. Embrace the truth. Truth is essential to moving forward. Come

to terms with your ego; do not let the fear of what others think stop

you from achieving your goals. Don't believe everything you hear.

Practice being open-minded and seek out the truth, even if it is

painful to hear

18. Action = progress. Do something today to move towards your

goal. Treat all actions as experiments. Simply and remove variables

so you can get to a decision. 80/20

19. Your income may come from a variety of methods. As you grow,

more methods will be available to you, so focus on what you have

and make the best of it. Be mindful of who you chose to partner with and represent. Think long-term. Love your viewers and your

supporters!