How To Be A YouTube Streamer | Being Confident

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It's easy to tell someone that they should be more confident and fearless when they are considering live streaming but not everyone is able to flip like a switch and go from shy and bashful to in-your-face energetic extrovert vibes! Others require a little more time and experience before they can go full-on Jacksepticeye, Markiplier, or Valkrae.

The way that I approach my streams is by simply remembering that I'm here to have fun and share my gaming experience, reactions, and overall in-the-moment existence with people from around the planet who will hopefully enjoy what I have to offer them.

When you first start out live streaming expect a range of technical issues to happen, but as frustrating and irritating as these things can be (trust me it's super fucking frustrating) it's important not to get discouraged and let this bring your confidence level down. The important thing to keep in mind is to use these opportunities to work on your reaction when these things arise to make it entertaining to your viewers who may also be frustrated as well and to keep a cool head for when these events inevitably happen.

With that said let's look at 3 things to boost your confidence on your streams.

Respect Your Viewers

What I find boosts my confidence when I'm in front of the camera is to always talk to my audience regardless of what I'm doing. Keep in mind that when you first start streaming you will be streaming to basically zero people or just one person (most likely a friend or family member). Rather than looking at this fact and getting upset, sad, or discouraged because of it, use that negative energy on a more positive thing such as improving on talking in front of a camera and reminding yourself to periodically look into the camera lens when your talking.

It's important to remember that when someone is watching you that they are a regular person just like you. Keep this in mind the next time you stream. Many of the audience members who visit your channel are people who enjoy watching small content creators when they don't have a huge following. The reason being is that they know they are more likely to have an actual interaction with a smaller YouTuber. Because of this, it's important to also work on acknowledging these viewers when they stop in and say hello.

Small things such as saying, "Welcome to the stream," or "I appreciate the comment such-and-such, thanks for checking out the stream!"

Little things like that go a long way for viewers. They feel welcomed and appreciated that you would take the time to say hello back. Trust me they will let you know how appreciative they are and you will definitely smile because of it and so will your viewer.

Talking To Zero Viewers

Pay very close attention to what I'm about to tell you. When your first start streaming you will essentially be streaming to absolutely nobody! For some this may be a huge letdown and not at all a confidence boost, BUT, and stick with me here, this is a great thing for you!

In the beginning, it's important to temper your expectations going into this new career field because no one will start streaming to thousands of viewers from day one. Why? Because you haven't even discovered who you are yet as a streamer. You haven't determined how to behave in front of the camera and you haven't figured out who your audience is. These two things are crucial for your success and mental health.

So how do you speak to no one?

Easy! The same way you talk to yourself when you're reflecting in front of the mirror.

When I first started streaming I immediately started talking to the camera as if someone was looking back. The camera is essentially a giant digital eyeball staring at you so talk to it! lol.

I know it may sound silly, and you may feel weird and awkward about it as your doing it but trust me this is is incredibly important for your on-camera development and growth as a streamer. You should love the fact that at the beginning of your journey there is no one there because you can take that opportunity to work on talking to the camera as your multitasking doing whatever it is your doing while your streaming.

What I like to do when I initially stream is shout out, "WARRIORENAS! WARRIORENES! Welcome to the stream."

This is a queue to my brain and audience that the stream is live and epic shit is about to go down. You need to find your own little thing that will get you amped up and ready to conquer this shit. This is why it's important that you look at streaming to zero viewers as a good thing because it allows you to play around and experiment with who you are and how you want to interact and perform on camera.

So don't beat yourself up if the first 16 streams your streaming to nobody. Remember you can always let friends and family know your streaming so on days your feeling down because no one is watching you, at least you can count on friends and family to watch. Which brings me to the final point.

Don't Rely On Friends & Family

Okay, so I know you are probably thinking, "Dude, WTF bro you just said to ask friends and family to watch my stream!"

Let me clarify, what I don't want you to do is have your friends and family feel like they're obligated to watch you stream. It's okay to let them know that you will be streaming on a specific day and time and that you would very much appreciate them stopping in on your stream to interact with you a bit and potentially provide feedback on certain things like microphone audio, lighting, etc. However, what I don't want you doing is constantly letting them know, "Hey! I'm bout to stream jump in and watch me and tell me how I'm doing!"

Trust me, this is not the approach you want to take, on the contrary, it'll only make them resent you a bit because they feel obligated to watch even tho it's not something they're particularly interested in. So don't do this because you may get upset with them for not supporting you and really just because they know and love you doesn't mean they have to follow you everywhere you go and on everything you do.

Remember that this is your journey and the path you are taking may not be the path your friends and family want to join you on. We all have different tastes and preferences so keep that in mind.

Conclusion

So there you have it Warriorenas & Warriorenes! My 411 on how to be confident on camera. Let me know in the comments if this has helped you. I would really love to hear from you about your thoughts.

Here's my current camera that I use to stream with Canon M6 Mark ii Mirrorless Camera.