My Streaming Career is Off to a Disastrous Start

Over the last couple of weeks, I've been putting together the pieces necessary to start a stream There's one problem. None of this is easy.

I want to make this perfectly clear, I have no real aspirations as a streamer. I fell in love with the art of streaming by watching Dr. Disrespect. I've written countless articles about him over the years, as I truly believe he's the best at what he does. To some, he streams himself playing video games, but to most, he puts on a show like no other in the industry. It's a performance several days a week, and all streamers could learn a thing or two (or a million things) by watching him and taking notes.

I've wanted to start streaming myself for quite some time, but two things have gotten in my way. The first being that I'm very bad at video games. In fact, my most recent gamertag was "JayIsBad". The second thing stopping me is the investment needed to get the ball rolling.

Most people don't understand what it takes to actually start streaming, and I'm the type of guy who wants everything nice and neat, and as perfect as possible. For that to happen, we're talking a ton of money.

I won't detail exactly how much money I've spent to get to this point, but I will say it's a substantial number.

Finally, today, I was ready to start my first stream. I've got all the tools, after weeks of purchases. I built out the images and overlays for my stream over the last couple of weeks and purchased all the necessary equipment. However, even with all of the equipment, there are hang-ups that I can't figure out.

After 13 years of radio, I consider myself a relative expert on audio and audio equipment. Or at least I did. This streaming experience has humbled me greatly, as even with the right equipment and mixers and microphones and computers, I still can't get everything right.

My advice for anyone who wants to stream is to pace yourself on your spending and your expectations. I thought finally, with all of the equipment in place, I was ready to start today. However, now it's looking like I'm still a few weeks away.

I will keep you all updated on if I figure it all out, or just give up and sell all of my equipment. Probably count on the latter.