Live Streaming: A beginner’s experience; lessons learned; and is it worth it?

I’ve discovered Live Streaming and its a really powerful way to genuinely help people and also reach out to a wider audience. Furthermore it provides an opportunity for real self-growth as it takes us out of our comfort zone. I’ve also made some mistakes on the way and figured out a few ways of doing it well. So if you’d like to save yourself time and mistakes, and find out if Live Streaming is for you then please read on.

As you can see in this picture above, live streaming generally involves having a camera and a microphone hooked up to your computer (or just a mobile phone) and then broadcasting a video and audio feed in real time to an online platform. In my case this is Rumble.com, which is an alternative to YouTube. But it could be to any of a large number of services such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Twitch, Discord and so on. You’re not limited to just one service either. Multi-casting or Multi-streaming is when the same video feed is sent out to multiple services at the same time People who are following you, for example people who’ve subscribed to The Way Back’s channel on Rumble, get alerted when you’re going live and they can start watching the show. For the viewer it’s as easy as watching any video online, with the added bonus that if they’ve registered, they can participate in a live chat with the host of the show as well as with fellow viewers, interacting in real time.

So from a technical perspective all you need is a mic and a camara and so most people could live stream from their mobile phones. But there’s much more potential, especially on a laptop or desktop, as live streaming allows you to share not just video but you can screen share too. This is why live streaming first gained popularity in the gaming communities, with people watching other gamers live stream their gameplay.

Right now, as I sit here writing this, I’m just coming up to half a years worth of Live Streaming every week and so I’ve got 25 shows under my belt as shown above, and I’m about to host Episode 26 tonight. But perhaps its worth going back to the start of this journey.

It all started with an idea, wanting to engage with my readers and students in a more intimate way. So I posted a poll on LinkedIn to see what other authors were doing. Naturally there wasn’t much uptake because unless you’re a big name most people’s posts dissapear in the noise. However seven people did respond and it showed that no-one was doing Live Streaming. Maybe it’s not a good idea?

With such underwelming recommendations from the writers community I thought there’s only one way to find out and that is to dive in. What I’d like to share is my experiences from complete noob to having done 25 Live Show episodes, one each week. So here’s a few of my honest lessons learnt and mistakes made in no particular order. I hope it gives you the confidence to explore this for yourself.

Something I’ve known for years having produced a number of YouTube videos is that people will tolerate low image quality far more than they’ll put up with poor audio quality. So from day one I made sure that I had a reasonable microphone, which I’ve highlighted in this screenshot from Ep.001.

Obviously it’s clear from the above screenshot that the visual setup left a bit to be desired, but I’m not trying to be Hollywood, rather I’m about being authentic and I figured I’d get a couple of episodes under my belt to see how it goes before reviewing my setup. So the first few episodes were filmed in the corner of my studio using a makeshift setup which was put up and then taken down after each episode.

Episode 1 was also where I made one of the biggest mistakes, one I shouldn’t have made but I was too focused on the technicalities of setting up the livestream that I forgot marketing basics!

The first episode was scheduled for the evening of 14th March 2024 and so that day I posted on LinkedIn but I made a big mistake and forgot the basics. I didn’t give people a reason for tuning in. I said I was doing a live show but in my excitement I forgot to explain what it is about and what the benefits to the viewer are. Fortunately I know some smart(er) people and Victor gave a timely and sage reminder! I’d been too focused on getting the technical stuff setup! Thanks Victor.

You see like many people when they’re doing something new to them they fall into the trap of thinking that the novelty of it is of value. It isn’t. The content is of value. So whether it’s your first book, your first podcast, or your first live stream, the reason people should engage is the value of the content. My lesson was to remember to include that in the title and strap line.

So we went from:

The Way Back Live Show with Mark Zaretti

To:

The Way Back Live Show: Discussing Spirituality with Mark Zaretti
Making sense of life, one episode at a time

So my question to you is “What benefit are your audience going to get from giving you their time?“

A live streamed show provides a more interactive experience than say a podcast, video, or article can. Think of it as a visual call in radio show (showing my age a little?). Here’s a few layers of interaction you get on a live stream:

• People can submit question before and during the show
• People can comment in the live chat in real time (about 20 second lag)
• People can be interviewed within the show
• People can submit a video or audio recording which can be played in the live show
• People can leave feedback and questions in the comments section during and after the live show

By taking questions from the public and engaging with them in the live chat then they are invested in your show, in fact as I often say to them “This is your show, I’m just here to answer your questions“. When I’m hosting a live show it really does feel more like a conversation than a discourse.

Now granted some of the features listed above are not unique to live streaming. Leaving comments is pretty ubiquitous for most online media. But it contributes to the overall landscape of interaction. The live chat feature is perhaps the mountain peak in that landscape and to really help the live chat gel with the show I’ve made sure that the live chat is prominant on screen. To do this one of my camera angles has the live chat superimposed over the video as shown below:

By having the live chat superimposed over the video it means that people don’t have to jump between watching the video and reading the live chat, which is usually off to one side or below the actual video. It takes a little bit of technical know-how to achieve this, but it’s worth it.

Being honest, I’m not in this for profit or gain, I’m doing this to help people so although much of what I’m saying may translate into ‘better marketing’ and ‘better client engagement’, to me they (you) are not “clients” in a classic sense, rather they (you) are beautiful spiritual people who are open-minded and looking for answers. Personally I’m humbled and inspired to be able to interact with them (and you). Sincerety and authenticity are front and centre of my Live Show.

My point is that when you’re doing a live show, be yourself and put your core message, your value proposition first. For me it’s about helping people to discover nuggets of spiritual truth that they can apply to their lives. I do this as plain speaking and jargon free as possible so that at the end of each show they actually have a better understanding of life, both everyday and spiritual. So what is your core message?

If you’re not speaking passionately about your core message then why bother? Intelligent people will see through someone who is just in it for the views so it is better to put goals like “trying to please everyone”, “trying to go viral”, “trying to be a hit” to one side and instead focus on being congruent with your own vibe. Your vibe attracts your tribe.

Importantly, keep it in perspective and remember the big success stories like Joe Rogan have the backing of platforms like Spotify who sponsor and promote them. If you’re authentic then you’ll have the backing of your audience who will promote you if they perceive that what you’re saying has value. For example if I’m talking about spiritual healing work and you know someone who would really benefit from learning about that then of course you would share my show with them. That’s sincere, organic, valuable growth.

Obviously it’s a good idea to switch off your phone, shutdown your email client, and close whatsapp desktop etc. because it removes potential interruptions and distractions. It also means that if you are screen sharing then none of the alerts, like a new email, will be seen by your live stream viewers. However despite deliberately removing these obvious distractions a few weeks ago I did something I’ve not done before which turned out to be really distracting. Normally once the live show starts I close the browser window that shows the live show, but this time I left it open during the live broadcast. At the bottom of this browser window it showed the number of people currently watching.

The problem is that it caught my eye as the number of viewers rose from the 20s to 30s and reached about 37. Then it dropped down to 35 and the following thoughts went through my head:

“Was it something I said?”
“Is it this particular topic?”
“Is there a problem?”

The truth is that it could have been some of these, all of these, none of these. In fact one of them was a follower who mentioned to me a few days later that he’d been listening to the live show while driving home but he’d gone through a tunnel and been cutoff!

The problem was that having the number of viewers visible while live streaming drew my attention to the number of viewers watching. But that’s not healthy. Because if you’re talking about your core message, which in my case is spiritual truth, then your core message should be consistent irrespective of whether there is one person or one million watching.

So my recommendation is never watch the counter that shows the number of people viewing. Not only is it distracting but it breaks the closeness of the relationship between you and those who are actually viewing. Whether there’s just you or 100000 people watching I want to be talking one to one with you. That’s how I write my books and podcasts too. The counter depersonalises the interaction and when you see the counter drop you can’t help but wonder, “Why did they go, did they disagree or dislike what I said?” Then you risk self-editing and you lose authenticity. Better not to know if someone has left and instead keep focus on who is watching.

I can definitely say that, for me at least, Live Streaming is very worthwhile, but it might not be for everyone. It takes a lot of work but the rewards are there too. I’m no expert and this article isn’t complete, there’s so much more I could share on the topic. But for now I just wanted to share my experiences as a relative noob and say that if you’re a fellow author, podcaster, film-maker or any similar creative, that you might want to consider live streaming as a way of getting closer to your audience. Will it replace podcasting or traditional videos? I don’t think so but it certainly enriches ones online presence, in a good way.

I’ve just skimmed the surface of the topic here and I know there’s a lot more to share. Let me know what you’d like to know next in the comments. Would you like more on the technology, or to learn how I’ve taken the live show and made it into a podcast too? Also do let me know what you’ve found most helpful in this discussion and of course please feel free to check out my live show on Rumble. I broadcast every Thursday 9pm UK time. But you can watch any of the previous shows too. If you’re new to Rumble, it’s completely free to sign up and here’s a link.