You no doubt hear a lot about the importance of “consistency” when it comes content creation. And broadly speaking I think this is true.
But there’s a good chance you’re much more intimately familiar with your own content than anyone in your audience. Building habits can be useful but too much repetition can lead to boredom.
Hi, I’m John Lacey, and this is Build A Presentation Muscle.
You may not know this about me but I do a weekly livestream show called The Video and Livestreaming Show with my co-host Sam Proof.
We’ve been doing a weekly show for a really long time. This week’s show on OBS Studio will mark the 40th episode.
We have shown up week after week to share information about video, livestreaming and content creation.
And the unfortunate truth was that I was feeling burnt out, bored and dissatisfied.
I knew I didn’t want to stop, but I knew needed to start having some more fun.
So how can you mix it up and break up the routine? Here are some things we did.
A change is as good as a holiday
Although there is an element of OBS Studio magic in almost everything I do when it comes to video, we had been using Restream Studio for the show. Restream Studio is a great program and it had served as well. But we decided to switch to StreamYard.
In some ways these are very similar products. But StreamYard has given us a bit more flexibility with our layout options. We can rearrange the order of videos, overlays and backgrounds which has been really helpful.
But even more than that, it’s just a change, and sometimes a change is as good as a holiday. The StreamYard interface is light and bright, whereas the Restream Studio interface is quite dark. It’s a small interrupt, but it has helped.
I’ve also been designing new graphical elements for the show to spice up the visuals. I stayed up the night before the show to do this work. And you know what? For the first time in a while I felt genuinely excited by it.
Ask for what you want
I guess the other thing was that the show itself took a lot of work and not many people were watching.
Honestly, I was beginning to wonder if it was even worth it.
But the truth is I was being too self conscious about promoting it. I wasn’t asking people to show up, so they didn’t. So I’m learning to feel the fear and ask anyway. And so far the turn out has been really encouraging.
So if you’re finding your creative process isn’t sparking joy, take some time to think about what you could do to interrupt the pattern and start having more fun.
For more information about today’s show —including a Behind The Scenes video about how this podcast is produced— head over to JohnLacey.com
