Not going to beat myself up
When I started considering my next business adventure, which to be clear, was many many years in development, live streams weren’t even on the radar. I considered a Youtube Channel, which exists but has no content, but it was very very different than what developed. The content I was considering may still happen, but I am not ready for that yet. Actually, none of my ideas are out of the question, I just need to deploy on the right timeline.
What I didn’t consider, when I promised myself that I would go live and craft every week was that some weeks were just not going to happen and I may not be able to plan for that. Will I try to plan for that? Sure will. But there are going to be times when my schedule just doesn’t line up.
That happened this past Friday, when I found myself travelling east towards home instead of setting up my camera and streaming dash at 4:30. I got to choose how I was going to react to that. I could stress out. Grit my teeth and grip my steering wheel too tightly, driving too fast and endangering myself and others. I could ask Cloyd Ferrago to take the driving duty and try to go online on my phone, downloading the twitch app, praying for a signal over the Ortega Highway.
OR
I can accept that I’m not going to make it home in time and there is absolutely a blank spot on the highway that lasts way too long to be trying to stream from the passeger seat. Not to mention the very real reality that the more stressed I am the less my phone seems to work. This also happens when someone is watching me try to navigate on my phone making me feel very old and inept at the technology things. I’m not. Mostly. (hello scary tik tok)
At about 4:30 when I realized I was at least an hour from home, without traffic, which is unlikely because it’s rush hour in Southern California, I asked Cloyd Ferrago to open HIS twitch app and post in chat that I wasn’t going to make it this week. He was kind enough to do so, I sent a text to my mom and sister, and I let it go.
Why is this a blog post? Because in this age of content creators, the people who serve constant content are the ones that get noticed. They are the ones that get paid. Paid is important for a business, and full disclosure, it’s what I need to reach my next big step. I’ll get there, but I don’t want to take out loans to do it. I’ve also seen, when content creators get popular, people get really grumpy when content is not delivered on time. Even though my online creator journey is very new, I set some pretty big expectations on myself based on future expectations from other people. So here we are. In the spot where I remind myself of my first founding prinicple…
Authentic. I’m a people and not a machine. I’m not AI, I can only create so quickly, and while I can preschedule my instagram posts, I can’t pre-record a live. I really can’t record a live if I have stressed myself over a cliff, whether figuratively or literally.
So, I’ll be back again net Friday, and we will make paper flowers as planned, and will knit up some hearts early next month. It will be fine. It will be great! And for those of you who prefer to watch other people make things rather than make your own, I see you! And will be setting up the store… Maybe today? Next steps are scary sometimes. Even the small ones.
