nachoburrit0: Streaming as a Hobby Actually Works Better? Her Strategy | Episode 6

Nacho is a co-work streamer, artist, and marketing copywriter who turned her Twitch channel into a full creative universe, complete with a cosy apparel brand, hand-drawn emotes and overlays, and a 7-day online convention she planned in a month. 

In this episode we talk about how Taco Bowl was born from the most chaotic stream event imaginable, what it looks like to build something genuinely creative on Twitch, and why streaming without the pressure of making it your job might actually be the move.

Find Nacho: 

Twitch https://www.twitch.tv/nachoburrit0

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/notyourburrito/

Website https://tacobowl.co/

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Transcript

Teaser

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Twitch is like a mystery to me. I have no idea. I have no idea how to do well on Twitch. Um, I've been going through this like roller coaster of like feeling really good and like happy about stream and then having those days where I'm like, why am I even here?

SPEAKER_04 0:17

I'm just streaming and hoping people find me. I'm on a prayer.

Intro

Patty 0:32

Welcome to the Growth Rate Podcast, where we dive into real streamer stories and find out what is behind the streamer. I'm your host Patty, and today I'm joined by Nacho, a co-work streamer, artist, writer, and the creator behind the taco bowl. Hi Nacho, how are you doing today? Thank you for joining.

SPEAKER_04 0:55

Oh my god, I wasn't expecting you to say like, oh, like I'm an artist.

unknown 1:01

Oh, thanks.

SPEAKER_03 1:03

I'm doing I'm doing good. I'm not I'm not quite sure what to expect. And I was I was telling you before we started recording that I'm I'm pretty groggy today. Um, so I'm kind of hoping we'll like I'll warm up a bit later. But yeah, I'm good. Happy, happy to be here.

Patty 1:20

Yeah, nice. It is um it's really lovely always to watch how people react to the intros that I make because I always I always like go like I go into like your bios and stuff and see what I can turn into a fun intro.

Origin Story

Patty 1:37

I like to start by asking uh guests like their origin story, like how you got into Twitch, why did you start streaming? When did that happen? Like, do you have a specific reason or did you just do it for fun?

SPEAKER_03 1:52

Cool, okay, okay, that's a good question. I actually started as a viewer, and I feel like I don't know, I feel like out of a bunch of streamers that I've met um in the past few years, I think I have one of like the oldest accounts out there. My account goes back to 2014. I've been on Twitch for a really long time as a viewer, and I found it through it was when I started playing Hearthstone and I was watching YouTube videos, and then there's a streamer who was like, Oh, I also stream live, and I'm like, Oh, what's Twitch? Um, and then I started I started watching, and I watched for a few years, and it was actually 2016 was when I wanted to just try streaming, and I I was like, Okay, I'm gonna try it for a month. Oh, this is gonna this is gonna age me. I was still in university, and one of my friends agreed to like stream with me because I thought the idea of just being there by myself was so scary. So um he would sit next to me and we played, we played Pokemon Nuzlocke, we played Portal, I forgot what else. Um, but it the goal was like, okay, I want to try one month of consecutive streaming, like streaming every single day, and I'll see how it feels and like where it goes. It went nowhere. I think I think I got maybe like 30 followers and and like maybe two viewers. Um, and then I just stopped. I just stopped streaming for four years until the pandemic, and because I was gonna be at home all the time anyway. I was like, okay, I'll I'll give it a try again. Um and and yeah, I've kind of been around since then. I took a I took a few months of uh hiatus at the end of 2020, but I would say I've been streaming consistently since 2021. Like it's been a very regular part of my schedule.

Patty 3:59

Yeah, when when I went to you know, spy on in your your stats, I was like, wait, there's 2016 over here, but so oh yeah, that was it was so it was so experimental.

SPEAKER_03 4:14

Um, but yeah, I wanted I was curious about streaming because I loved the idea of building like an overlay and and a brand, even though I feel like back then I probably didn't even know the term I was looking for was brand. And like, okay, I'm not gonna lie, saying it now, it feels kind of icky. It feels very like it feels it feels very, I don't know, it feels not like corporate, but it's like, oh my god, oh brand. But I mostly mean a theme, like like a play on like my username and like getting to draw the emotes and running events. Um, and just I think the art part really, really called out to me being able to just control all of that and like have a space to to experiment with um branding, I guess. Yeah.

The Name

Patty 5:05

I like that you said that uh a play on your username because I was always very curious. Your username is like uh because it's a natural burrito on Twitch, but on Instagram and even Discord, it's not your burrito, but if you read it well, it's the same.

SPEAKER_03 5:22

Yeah, I wish I like I wish it was I first of all, I wish I didn't have the zero at the end of my username because people always get it wrong. Um but like I thought about having the same one on on my socials and and discord, but I just I really don't like the zero, so I was just like, whatever, I'll I'll just I'll make it I'll make it different. I'll make it different.

Patty 5:51

Do you have the zero because someone else already has it? Yeah, you can't change it. Yeah, they have the O.

SPEAKER_03 5:58

Like I was just like, what the heck? Like, and I had my account in 2014 too, which is so crazy. Like, I feel like the user, the user base, like I don't know how like how much it's grown, but it like obviously it has to be bigger. Um, and I think it's it's so wild that I wasn't able to get Nacho Burrito with with an O. Like oh like 12 years ago. It's crazy.

Patty 6:23

Right

From Games to Co-Work

Patty 6:24

now you do mostly co-working, right? But when I was spying on your stats again, I saw that at the beginning, you you actually start with games. How how did that happen?

SPEAKER_03 6:36

Yeah, I think um I had always at least my impression of Twitch back then, it was always like Twitch equals games. Like there's there's there's nothing else. Like what are you doing on Twitch if you're if you're not playing games? And I had I I think I was way more into um like playing around with indie games back then as well, and like other single player games and things like that. So yeah, I tried I tried, oh, I tried a lot of games, Pokemon Again, Spirit Fair, Stardew, Skyrim, Broken Age. Like I tried, I tried so many, like a variety of games, but I don't know. It it got to the point where like I just I wasn't really interested in playing games, like it was kind of uh, oh I'm gonna like I'll sure I'll take someone's suggestion and I'll start it on stream, but like I don't really like it, so like what am I gonna do with this? Yeah, and I just I just kind of got tired. And then at one point I noticed that people stuck around more if I was just talking, so I had a I had I had a just chatting phase as well. I I had I had that phase, and then I had an art phase where I got to like chat while while doing art, and then eventually I landed on co-working, which co-working. I okay, probably biased because I'm living it right now, but co-working is probably my favorite category out of all the categories that I've streamed in before.

The Early Co-Work Community

Patty 8:13

Yeah, I think some of those overlap well with each other because, like I said, you can uh do art and still yap. So you can just chill with chat while doing your art and co-work, you also you do muted pomos, you do unmuted pomos. Did you did you discover it because someone told you like in chats or did you get like did you get did you find co-work before or after there was a co-working category?

SPEAKER_03 8:43

I found it. I found it before there was an official category, and I think I knew about it like I feel like I knew about it in 2021 or 2022. But yeah, I I don't know. The like the idea just never interested me. I like I can't really I don't really remember why, but I know that it actually started, I started co-working streams because my mom and my sister were visiting from Taiwan and they'd be hanging out like in my apartment. So I don't know if you can tell, but this is like the very, very edge of my living room. Like this is like pressed right up against the window. My couch is literally like just like it's right there, you can see it, and the kitchen's over there. So it's like it's a very open space. And like when my when my family was visiting, I wanted to still be able to stream and hang out with them, which which meant that I started thinking, like, okay, how can I kind of do both at the same time or try to make like like overlap stream as much as possible? And like it might it might have been EM, like Stay Madge, who suggested, like, oh, you should try a co-working stream. Just like because you're work from home anyway. Um, you need to be like at home anyway, like you technically like shouldn't be spending time with your family like during the clock, like during nine to five. So just just try co-working. And then now you have your evenings free to like spend with your family. And I was like, You're so right. I should try that. Yeah, I should try that. And I was like, wait, this is kind of nice. Like, I I can stream for quite a long time and not like have not have my voice completely give out by the end of stream because it's it's muted. Um, and I got to talk about work because I I am a corporate cog. I enjoy my job and I like talking about my about my job. And so it was a nice, a nice way to be able to do that.

Patty 10:47

And I think uh stay mad is also uh I feel like I know him from other co-working. I think uh by the time where co-working was at the beginning, he would be everywhere. Every other co-work streamer I would open, he was there. So that makes so that makes total sense. His database of co-working streamers is crazy. I feel like at the beginnings, it was like 20 between 2020-2022 is when the coworking uh started and we were all in just chatting. I feel like we were so few that we all knew each other. Yeah, you know, it was you would see uh the same names in like almost every chat.

SPEAKER_03 11:33

Wait, have you been doing coworking since like early 2020s?

Patty 11:37

I took a break around 2022, I think. So um I started co-work around that time when um Rumpel was still streaming. So 2020, 2021 I did cowork and then I took like a full year break uh from Twitch. And when I came back, I came back for games, and only after I I lost my job I went back to co-working. But that's why I know a lot of people like the OG co-workers, yeah. That was in the chat. But you you had like this variety games and then are just chatting, and now you do most consistently co-working and you sprinkle some other stuff here and there. Did you notice that you your numbers went up when once you logged into the cowork, or was your growth very very steadily since the beginning?

SPEAKER_03 12:37

It definitely went up more than any other category when I switched to co-working, and it's kind of stayed at that level since then. So I like technically I I guess I plateaued in co-working. What can you do? But it did feel most like it felt the most comfortable in terms of like the stream content and also the community that came around because of it. Like I remember like the feeling during game streams were like, like, yeah, I would have new people like come in, but then they would like constantly be asking me like when I'm gonna play their favorite game again. Like it was just like it felt like on like a personality level, like it wasn't like a very, a very good match. So I would say in switching to co-working, yeah, I I definitely saw like at least in the first like couple months that I that I joined the unofficial category, there's for sure a lot of growth, which I think is the case when you join a category for the first time, um, with like people discovering you and everything. So yeah, like bump in numbers, but also like an increase in like community that I resonate with so much more than like a lot of categories um previously. Yeah. I think I think the core gang community is just like they're just like everybody's just really nice and really understanding.

Patty 14:08

They're very smart people, like whenever you you need help, the there's always there someone to help, they're really nice. Yeah, yeah, honestly. Underrated category. People should should should check out core.

Twitch as a Hobby vs a Jobk

Patty 14:22

When you started, and even because you had so many shifts, did you ever have like a goal for Twitch and social media? I think you only really do consistently twitch. Like you you have Instagram and you have other socials, but you're consistent like on Twitch. Um did you do you ever have like a goal or was it just always a hobby? Is it still a hobby? Did your goals change over time?

SPEAKER_03 14:50

So it I think it stayed a hobby throughout. Every once in a while, I'll have someone ask me, like, oh, would you ever do full-time streaming? And my answer is always like, like, I guess if I don't know, I guess if I was like wildly successful enough, then sure. Like if it just happened to happen, sure. But I don't think personally I'm willing to put in the kind of effort to get there to to get there. I think partners, it's like the natural next like milestone for like most affiliate streamers. I don't know, like if I don't know, if you happen to be like growth oriented in that way, and I think that would be really sick, but I twitch is like a mystery to me. I have no idea like how to do I have no idea how to do well on Twitch and other socials even more so. I do not have I do not know how to how to do how to do well. Um, I've tried editing videos, but I realized I hate I hate editing videos. Like I like, oh my god, it's so like it feels like I'm pulling out teeth or something. I tried one Minecraft video and I think it was only like 10 minutes, like 15 minutes. Holy crap, that thing took me like four weeks to a month to edit. And I was like, I'm never doing this again. I hate this, I hate this so much. And then, and then with social media, like I really don't take very many photos of myself. I'm not like I'm not really, really a selfie person where like I try to like take nice pictures outside and like get people to take photos of me. Like, I'm very, I'm actually very camera awkward. So it was like, okay, well, I guess I'm not growing on Instagram then.

SPEAKER_04 16:50

And I guess YouTube is also not a thing because I hate editing and like TikTok, no, that's that's also editing.

SPEAKER_03 16:58

So I yeah, I would it's when people say like terms like content creator, I never feel like a content creator, I always just feel like a streamer because I don't like my content ends when I when I hit stop streaming. But yeah, sorry, in a very roundabout way to answer to answer that question, um, growth would be it would be like, oh, partner would be cool. If I ever hit partner, that would be cool. But I also like I'm I'm also fine if it doesn't happen. It'd be really cool if it did, but I don't know if I'm cut out for the grind. Yeah.

Patty 17:36

Yeah, and there's a couple of things that you just said, and some other things that I know about you is that you're in Vancouver, right? So hitting partner only probably is not enough to cover all of your bills. And then you also said that you know you're a corporate corporate girl, you do like your job, and when you become like social media streamer, whatever, you have all this freedom, and maybe maybe that part is not for you, and that's totally fine. Like you don't have to make Twitch your job to stream on Twitch, and yeah, you can still be able to grow a community like you did, and you know, not want this to be your full-time job.

SPEAKER_03 18:23

Yeah, I think it's it's one of my most consistent hobbies, it's one of my favorite hobbies. And yeah, what you said about Vancouver, I I don't know what size streamer I would need to become to be a full-time to be a full-time streamer. Like, I'm like, I'm thinking about like salaries and like how nice it is to have my consistent twice a month paycheck. I'm like, I don't know what I would have to do to get that on on Twitch, yeah.

Patty 18:52

And that's that's where I hear when people are like, oh, I'm from New York. I would have to have so many subscribers to be able to live up to it.

SPEAKER_03 19:01

Or like just like a handful of like extremely generous people who have decided to like keep you help keep you um full-time streaming,

The Taco Bowl Brand

SPEAKER_03 19:11

yeah.

Patty 19:12

We're moving now to your creative side, which is the tackle bowl. Yeah, how how did that happen? Did that happen because of Twitch with together with Twitch, or was it something you had like planned before?

SPEAKER_03 19:29

It was definitely because of Twitch for sure. Because again, like I I think I just hate marketing, which is so ironic because I'm a marketing copywriter. Like, I don't think I would have the motivation to like start a small business, a small, like a small clothing business, if I had to start from scratch, like to build an audience. So, like making a line for like a merch line for an like an existing community. It was just it was it was a really nice way to kind of play around with like designing clothing and like sourcing materials and like working with a manufacturer and like product photos, getting the site up, like mailing it out, doing packaging, like those are things I've always been curious about. And I think Twitch was like a perfect way to experiment with it because I already had like I already had people like like I I I would like I had a pre-order form so I knew that it wouldn't just like completely flop before I started getting everything made. Um the bull origin story is that I ran an event called boyfriend girlfriend friend interview. But essentially I had people apply to work at a fake company. It was like Taco Bull HQ. And I don't, oh my god, the lore is so strange. And it was like, yes, we are a service who provides boyfriends and girlfriends and friends, and like the community was so into it. I had like I had like 20-something applications. People made resumes for like whatever role they wanted to apply for. I do I did round one interviews where it was just me and them. I did group stage interviews where it was the mods, like me and the mods in them. And then for the third one, it was like a like a date, like either romantic or platonic, like a it was like a a DD, like a mini D campaign, like an improv one. Like it was it was such a strange event. And one of the prizes at the end, if you got hired, was a sweatshirt that had like taco bowl on it. And then if you um, yeah, if you if you won, it would say like certified boyfriend or like certified girlfriend, certified homie, homie was the name. And then people saw the design and they're like, wait, can I can I buy it even if I didn't win? And I was like, Oh, sure. Like I can I can try that. And that was how the first line came out. And then I did two more after that.

Patty 22:06

Long story. Amazing story though.

SPEAKER_04 22:10

It's so random.

SPEAKER_03 22:12

It's so random. But I think that's that's how a lot of things start on Twitch. It's just it's random. It comes from a a strange idea and it goes from there.

Patty 22:21

Did you already do art as a hobby before this? Because now when I look like at your overlays, your emotes, those are all made by you, right? So you have a lot of art stuff. Did you already do art before streaming? Never. Learn how you go on.

SPEAKER_03 22:43

Yeah, I still have like I still have files of my first ever um like my first ever overlays and and banners and like even my profile photo used to be like a little chip. Yeah, yeah. I have all of my old stream assets and it's it's really fun going back like like kind of theme by theme or like year by year to see how my art style has changed and hopefully improved. But yeah, it was just it was because of Twitch because I was so excited. I was like, oh my god, if I get affiliated, I get to draw, I get to draw an email. Oh my god, I'm so excited. And I already knew like I already knew what I wanted because I knew like you know, Bible thump. Um wait, is it still a thing? No, it's not a thing anymore. Maybe if you have seven TV, I don't know. Yeah, I think they replaced it with something called Big Sad. It's called Big Sad.

Patty 23:37

Twitch emotes are all over the place now.

SPEAKER_03 23:40

Yeah, yeah. I wanted I knew that my first emote, I wanted it to be a taco that was like crying with the same face as Bible Thump, and I was so excited. I I was so excited to get that made. Yeah, yeah. Thanks, Twitch, for taking me on my art journey.

Patty 23:59

Yeah, I mean, uh at least now you make cool arts though. Maybe I never have done that.

SPEAKER_03 24:06

Yeah, it's so it's yeah, it's so it's so crazy. Literally, never like I got my first drawing tablet because of stream. I ended up eventually getting an iPad also because of stream because I wanted to draw more. Yeah, so fun. So so so fun. I I was saying the other day how I'm terrible at drawing everything except for Mexican food themed things. My my art um expertise is incredibly limited to whatever I produce for for stream. Yeah.

Into the Tacoverse

Patty 24:44

I'll I think this is also still in the art space, but you talked about this event that originated the taco bowl. There is another event that you did that I was like mind-blown the into the tackoverse because you made like a full event, you made like uh did draw all the things. I was like absolutely mind-blown, but the the listeners out there know nothing about this.

SPEAKER_03 25:17

So into the talkoverse, usually, like I I usually want to run like one fun event every year, and I thought, I don't know why, but that year I was like, oh, I'm gonna try my own convention. Um, also because I knew I wanted to go to New York, which is where a lot of the community had been based at the time. I knew I wanted to go to New York for my birthday and have like a meetup there, but I still wanted it to include um anybody who couldn't like reasonably make it to New York. So I wanted to have an online version, and that's when Into the Taco Verse was born. I think it was it like 10, I think it was 10 days of stream. Was it 10? Oh my god. I know it was at least a week. Yeah, it was definitely at least a week, and it was like a different type of stream every single day. There was I I put on my Bob Ross wig, and like I think I started with an art stream, there was a dance stream where it was like IRL at a studio. There was even like a tattoo stream, there was a uh there was a cooking stream, and then think there was like a big community game night where we played Family Feud. And I also I dressed up again. I dressed up again for that. I forgot what other like what other types. Oh, there I also did like a little like a guest speaker one because I wanted to try modeling it after something like TwitchCon where like there would be like a like a panel. So I invited two other streamers to come on with me, and it was like a conversation kind of similar to this where I asked them about their streaming journey. And yeah, just like different events for people to go to, meaning like different streams, like with different themes to tune into, and what you're saying about the whole like the collection, like the products that was essentially the artist alley of into the talk over. So it was a yeah, it was like a community convention. It was so last minute. I cannot like I cannot stress how last minute it was. I don't think I had the idea for it until about a month before I scheduled it. And I remember telling the mods, and yeah, emad again is is one of them, and he was like, What the fuck? He was like, he was like, Okay, and then he's yeah, and he was like, products too, you're gonna do products, like you're gonna you're gonna call you're gonna do like another another little collection. And then the first thing that he did for me was build a budget sheet, like an expense tracker, um, to make sure, because like the artist alley was technically like incentives for people who wanted to like support the event. Um, you couldn't really like buy them separately. There were incentives. So Imad's job was to make sure that I was like pricing things fairly because I tend to price things according to like I don't know what like a huge manufacturer would sell it at, which means I'm pricing at a loss for the amount of work that I'm putting in and the really tiny quantities. So emad's always and a lot of people in the community too, they're like reminding me like you put work into these events and like I think you can price them accordingly. But yeah, crazy. I don't know if I would ever do an event like that again.

Patty 28:48

But it was so it was really fun, it was it was a lot of fun because events like this take a lot of time to plan, and you know, not it's not only the time that you're live, you need to plan it and come up with the ideas. And the the thing you said, your mods like helping in that way. Not everyone has that, but I feel like it's another big thing of the Twitch community, like because I feel like if YouTubers or other social media would want to do something like this, they would have to hire people, and yeah, only the Twitch community has like this type of little or little developers. That is really cool because usually when people do these like one year uh once a year events or you know, celebrate birthdays or whatever, I feel like the full-time streamers that depend on the community, you know, to make a living, they always go to a salathon because they're gonna be alive for long hours and do these special things, and they they need the community to support, and because you do this as a hobby, give you a different type of freedom, freedom, like to different type of events. But I absolutely love the idea that you had your little schedule, you had like Yeah, my calendar. Did you have like linears for the people that uh would attend as well?

SPEAKER_03 30:11

I have I have one right here. I have so much stream stuff. It was this, and it says this says into the talkovers, and it had like a different theme. It was like a pixel like kind of isometric theme, is that and then I had like a badge too.

Patty 30:26

Oh yeah, yeah. The badge for the listeners in Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Uh, you have to go on YouTube to get the visuals, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 30:34

And then the people who like supported, I got oh my god, my camera doesn't have autofocus, but it was like a badge, and I had their your their username printed out on it too. Just like I wanted it to be just like as close to TwitchCon as possible.

Patty 30:48

Yeah, you also draw that logo of the event and everything, yeah. Yeah, yeah. With the you don't even know if your art is improving, but look at the thank you.

SPEAKER_03 31:02

I yeah, oh and then I like I ended up bringing it to TwitchCon um in San Diego and I got people to sign the back. Um it's getting all like nice and nice and filled up and everything. Fine. That was a it was a very a very fun one. And like it felt good to because I know what's the thing with subathons is like you rely on the community to keep the stream going. So it could be that like, oh, maybe you don't get to everything that you had planned. It's kind of like you you need to be essentially paid a certain amount to get to a certain content. Um, but yeah, what you were saying about how like Twitch is a hobby for me. I got to just like no matter what, no matter how much support came through, you could count on me like doing all of those events, yeah, that were that were scheduled. So it was it was nice being able to do that.

Patty 31:53

That's really cool. Like, I I did one Cylathon and you know it had a very clear goal. It was last year because I wanted to go to TwitchCon. And you know we succeeded. I went to TwitchCon, it was amazing. My first ever TwitchCon. But Yeah, you know, if and unless I have like a very clear goal of why I'm doing something like that, I would rather do you know, like you, just have a calendar and be like this week we're celebrating this, and even if I don't get the support, I want to do these types of streams and do these events. But that's that event like for me was crazy and probably very energy draining, but at the same time very gratifying, right?

SPEAKER_03 32:35

Yeah, I feel like like like you probably felt that way, like coming out of the sabbath on being like, Oh my god, I like it's over. I I did this, like like me and the community did this. Like it's it's it's so sick.

Patty 32:48

And

Flops & Surprises

Patty 32:49

one of the questions I like asking for people that you know, because you said you don't really put in too much effort into actually growing to reach this, you're just going, you're just streaming.

SPEAKER_04 33:02

I'm just streaming and hoping people find me. I'm on a prayer.

Patty 33:07

But for example, you did this event, and did you have that fear that it was gonna be a big flop and the community is not gonna be there or something like that? Or in the other end, was there every like something that you did casually and you didn't think the community was gonna make it a big deal, and it ended up being, and it helped you like either community building or growing in the platform?

SPEAKER_03 33:34

Okay, two-parter. Did I worry it was gonna be a flop? Yes, I have this fear every single event, like even though I've been streaming consistently for so long, every single event. I always I always think about it. And it gives me such a headache whenever I'm I'm like thinking about what kind of incentives to offer because I think when people like they they see a product, they can't help but value just that product, and they kind of it almost kind of becomes like they think that they're buying the product with the money that they're spending, but that's kind of not true. You're contributing to the stream, and I'm giving you this product as a thank you. Like it's not like a one-to-one transaction that way. So, in terms of like financially flopping, I I think about that. It's so lucky that it's not as like a huge worry because again, it's it's a hobby. I have my full-time job. In terms of numbers, yes, every single time as well. I'm always like, I I mean, I thought this idea was cool. I thought it'd be cool. It'd be funny to put on a wig and and do a painting. I thought it'd be funny, but what if no one else thinks it's funny? Um, so yeah, I always I always have that fear. And I I in general, I keep my expectations pretty low on the low end because I I do not like I don't like disappointing myself. Um yeah, so I think I think doing that helps me kind of regulate the nerves that come from like putting so much effort into an event and like hoping it'll turn well and like yeah, just making sure that that the outcome is is still something I'm gonna be like happy with no matter what, because yeah, uh kind of out of my control whether whether people resonate with it or not. Like I I try my best every time. That's what I remind myself of. Okay, your second question was like, has there ever been a time where like it was something small that I did, and then the community response was like, oh man. Yeah, okay, yes. The okay, the first one I can think of was actually this past um, this past December, like our end of year event where I ran um it was a community event called Who Said That? And as is the case with every single stream idea, it was just a random thought that I put into the mod chat. And I was like, wouldn't it be kind of funny if we just like we had people volunteer to get their quotes, like their chat history like like rifled through and for yeah, and for and for us, either me or the mod team, to like pick a f like a quote out of context and then for us to guess who had said that quote. And I had offered, like, I had offered to go through and do it if my mods wanted to play, um, to be the ones guessing, like matching the username to the anonymous quote. Kind of like, kind of like one of those, how well do you know your chat, you know? Because I think there are some people who like speak very distinctively, or like maybe you remember them talking about this at some point. I thought that would be like funny slash interesting to like play through, but also reminisce. So I had offered to do it if my mods wanted to play, but then my mods specifically Cape, he had said, like, oh, I can I can look through it. I think it would be more fun for the community if like you were the one guessing. And I think that one was probably like the most successful event that I've had, like in years. Like a lot of people, a lot of people like came through because they were like, they're like, oh, like, like I signed up, like cannot show guess, like cannot you guess who um who I am. I think we had like four like 40 something or like fifth 50, like people who volunteered for their for their quotes to be um their their chat history to be to be exposed. But yeah, I think that was that was really fun. Um the community really liked that. I failed utterly. I think I got 20 I got like 20% correct, which was what I expected to do. But yeah, it was it was it was really fun. I didn't think because it was like it was such a small idea and it was just one stream. I didn't like I yeah, I reminded people about it to like sign up if they wanted to participate, but I didn't think the turnout like on the day of was gonna be like as much as it ended up being. Um so that one felt really good. And it also took way less preparation than any of the other events that I run.

SPEAKER_04 38:28

Yeah, it wasn't me! It wasn't me.

SPEAKER_03 38:31

I didn't I could just I could just roll into stream and and be like, all right, let's see if I can if I can match match the user to the quote.

Patty 38:41

Yeah, I feel like you know, I've I've been also on Twitch for over a decade and I've seen so many community events and from so many different people. I feel like yours are like the ones that involve the community more.

SPEAKER_03 38:56

Aw.

SPEAKER_04 38:58

Yay, that makes me happy.

SPEAKER_03 39:01

Yeah, yeah. It's always fun when when people can like be like, mom, that's me. Yeah.

Have You Ever Thought About Quitting?

Patty 39:09

And the other question I usually ask everyone, I don't know if it will like make so much of a difference because you don't treat this as much as a job as most people, but did you ever thought about quitting like completely like this feeling of Twitch is not for you, it's not worth it. That that type of you know, feeling not like I wanna stop for a while. It's not just quitting, just disappearing from Twitch forever.

SPEAKER_03 39:40

I've been having that thought a lot. Actually, yeah, I might, I think I'm like, I may have downplayed like the partner thing. I would like it would be so cool if I got a partner. Like, I would love to get partner, like that would be so sick. But again, but it's it's always that like last bit that's like oh like ooh, but yeah, it would be like so cool. And I actually I had like a very, very, very, very, very low-key like push, like a very like low-key, super, super low-key, very, very short-lived push. Because at one point, I think I had it was like three streams out of six for the month that were already 75 and over. And I was like, I've never been this close in my entire streaming career. I will finally say it out loud because again, I have this thing where I don't like I don't like failing. I don't like the pressure.

Patty 40:35

If you say you're gonna partner push, then there's the pressure on you.

SPEAKER_03 40:39

Yeah, like and it feels like it feels so like it feels so bad to like fall to fall short. And like what I was saying earlier about Twitch being a mystery to me, like at work, it's very clear like what I need to do to get promoted. Usually there's like a set of responsibilities, there's someone working with me to get it done. On Twitch, where is that? Like, like you don't know, like like if it doesn't happen, sometimes like it just it just like doesn't happen. So um, I've been going through this like roller coaster of like feeling really good and like happy about stream, and then having those days where I'm like, why am I even here? Why, why, why do I why do I do this? Like I sit at my desk for like six hours at a time where like like and and I talk to people and like what is this all for? Like it's very existential. So 100% like the thought, and I I would say like in recent years it's been popping up more and more. The thought that, like, oh, I mean, like the people who want to stay in touch, like I would keep the server up and it would, I guess it'd be more of a place to hang out, like normally, like to like play games and like still keep in touch and chat and everything. But yeah, there were there have been times where I'm like, I mean, I could quit streaming and we could still talk in Discord. And I think I think that would be I think that would be the same, you know? Because I I'm very aware that this hobby keeps keeps me indoors.

Patty 42:15

I'm a homebody, but also like it doesn't have to just take a phone and go and stream outside.

SPEAKER_03 42:23

I don't know enter my IRLs too, era. No, but yeah, I'm like, oh, like the amount of time like because off stream, right? Like, there's still a lot of time that that streamers spend like on their like on their community, on like prepping their streams and things like that. So I'm like, man, I really could be putting all these hours into into something else. But almost like almost always before I like like decide decide, I'll have a good day. And I'm like, it's free, like it's free for me to do this, you know? Like I pay my internet anyway, like I have all my equipment, it's free to do this. I still I still love my community. Like I might I might as well stick around. It's also scary, like after streaming for so long, to decide like I'm gonna leave forever. Cause it's it's like oh, oh, it feels like one of those things that's hard to like take back. Like if you if you leave for like years and then you come back, it's just you kind of I don't know. It feels like you lose the momentum that you had before. At least for me, it feels like I don't know. It feels like it feels like unrecoverable. And I'm like, I don't know if I'm ready to lose my biggest hobby. I don't know if I'm ready to lose my biggest hobby, the one that I spend the most time on. Scary, but yeah, it's been discouraging, like looking at growth and being like I'm not like getting to where. To where I want to. Sorry, that was really rambly. But essentially, yeah, even though it's a hobby, I still am a very like growth, progress, improvement, and oriented person. So seeing like how rocky it is is very discouraging to me. And I yeah.

Patty 44:16

Yeah, when when you're like very consistent and the the results are not consistent or not as good aspect. Yes. Yeah. But I also share like the your view of because I don't usually stream if I feel really bad, but sometimes I'm just feeling a bit down and I stream and it's like I feel so much better after because I don't leave my house. Okay. I walk my dog. That's how far I live. I do groceries. That's when I leave the house. Okay. So uh the only interactions that I have sometimes are gonna be with chat. So just doing that for me, it's like very uplifting. And even though like I'm nowhere near your numbers, like I stream for like 10-15 people, and you know, just those people that show up like almost every day. I feel like I know that I'm not a big streamer, I'm not growing very fast, but I show up every day, and these people are expecting me to show up every day, and we have to work together. So that's the thought that makes me like not quit. Because I also thought about you know, if I quit no one, no one would notice, but people would, yeah, and people would. I mean, uh whenever like now that I'm taking a course and I can stream as much as I I I I want to, and it's like I can only stream on weekends now. So on Sunday I say see you next Saturday, and everyone is sad, like only a week, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 45:55

That's that's a good point. That like it's weird to think, and like I it almost feels very like not snobby. It's I don't think snobby is the word, but it feels like aggrandizing? Is that the word that I'm looking for? To be like, yes, I've made an impact on people's lives. Like like I hate thinking that because I'm just like ew, gross, like, oh god, like like who do I think I am? But then you think about like the like the times that you've like had those conversations with people and like the space that that you create for them as as a streamer, like regardless of the size, like people click on your channel and they've like consciously wanted to spend time with you and to talk to you. And like, even though that impact doesn't seem very large, like on a day-to-day basis, like like it it's there, it exists, and it's like, oh my god, this is what this is what community means, like this is what connection means.

Patty 46:58

Yeah, and it like for us, streaming is like it's it's just another day because like even those days that we stream every day or stream every other day. For us, the stream is pretty much always the same, but sometimes we get that one comment saying I wasn't feeling good, and just being here talking with you made me feel so much better, and you we you know that you made some type of difference, yeah. Oh, those are always so those are always so sweet, or like people who are like, Oh, I needed this stream, and you're like, Oh my god, yeah,

What Actually Moves the Needle

Patty 47:37

even though you have it at as a hobby and you are consciously uh still want to grow on Twitch, is there something is there something that you've did that you noticed that it like made the needle move and you you know you got like noticeable growth by like something that you changed or that you started doing?

SPEAKER_03 48:02

I kinda wanna say my my first hands my first reaction is no, like it's been very like I I don't know. I feel like switching to co-working helped, like because I remember before coworking, I was sitting at a solid like maybe like 30. 30 was usually my average throughout the months, and then just switching to coworking, it it jumped to 40 and it stayed at least 40, like like since then. So I think like content, yeah, a content switch for sure. Um, but I think I do so little outside of outside of streaming, like live streaming, that I I don't even know. I I don't think I even have a list to to look off of and be like, oh yes, this worked because the list is non-existent. I don't I don't do anything. Oh, it's so bad. I think like maybe like maybe dropping into people's streams on the days that I'm not streaming that like kind of helps. Cause I think I have so much guilt about this that like I'm I'm not even though I started as a viewer, I have become not a very good viewer. Um, because on the days that I'm not streaming, I usually I I don't actually sit here. I'm I'm on my couch, you know. Like I'm I I want to go to a cafe and do my work at a cafe, which means it's hard to like watch a stream at the same time. So lately, like I've been trying to pop into streams a little bit more and actually like have like a quick conversation with someone and like listen for a little bit and like remember, like, oh, or like ask about what the streamer is up to, or like watch the stream long enough to like remember in my head, like, oh yeah, this person just recently took this exam. Um, maybe like the next time I see them, I'll ask them, how was your exam? It's like that kind of extra like thought that goes into interactions. I don't know if that helps with growth, but it makes me feel like I'm like more connected with with other streamers because it's it's so hard to grow like on your own. Yeah, I don't know, but yeah, that's like the best answer I can give. I don't know how well it works.

Patty 50:16

I feel also because you have a full-time job and then you stream, and then you know you need some time to yourself, so and because because you don't have like for example, people that want to grow to partner and want to make this their full-time job, they have a different type of motivation, and sometimes they like overwork themselves to be able to reach that, and you're you're just putting yourself first, and that's totally fine.

SPEAKER_00 50:42

Yeah, the grind, the grind is so difficult. Oh my god. I don't know how I don't know how people do it.

SPEAKER_03 50:49

I I don't know. I don't know. Props props to to the partner, the partner journey.

Final Thoughts

Patty 50:56

Before just before we wrap up, is there anything you want to add? Anything any thoughts out there for streamers on the grind or anything else you want to say?

SPEAKER_03 51:09

For streamers on the grind. Oh man. Okay, okay. I have I have I have one kind of one. When I started in 2020, um, I did not try to look at any other streams. I didn't bother to meet any other streamers, I just kind of went live um and kind of hoped for the best. Um I lucked out and like someone had rated me, and from there, that's how I got to like affiliate and my community very, very, very, very slowly started growing from there. But I will say my enjoyment of being on the platform, it increased so so so much more when I took the time to get to know other streamers and to be a part of other communities. Like I had a lot of trouble like navigating my feelings as a streamer and and a growing community, and maybe like people in the community who like I had trouble like communicating with, like just like difficult conversations. And when I first started streaming like in 2020, I just I didn't have anybody to talk to about it. Um, because I didn't know any any other streamers. Um, but then when I came back in 2021, I got to know so, so, so many more. Um and I just it helped so much with me staying on the platform, just knowing other streamers. So spend time in other streams and get to know get to know other streamers. I think like, yes, we have our own communities to take care of, but I think streamers are their own community as well, like getting to know other ones. Um yeah, I guess that's that's my my piece of probably very obvious advice, but something I definitely didn't consider when I first started.

Patty 53:11

Yeah, making making streamer friends is always nice. It's it's always good to go to other streams and see what other people are doing, and but but yeah, the taking the the this type of advice from other streamers is you know what who else is going to qu help you with your questions about streaming, if not other streamers. But I feel like that's how we learn with each other, and there's no other people that you know you cannot go have a coffee with a friend and talk about your problems. Uh, you know, chat was so many community, like no one is gonna understand this.

SPEAKER_03 53:49

Yeah, like other like other streamers, they really they really do get it. And I'm I'm not saying it like a chat would never understand. I'm not saying it in that way. It's just yeah, it's like like other streamers understand, like they've they've probably been where you are before, and it's it's good to lean on each other in that way.

Patty 54:11

I totally agree. And then you can go to TwitchCon and meet everybody, and it's amazing.

SPEAKER_03 54:15

Yeah! Oh, so fun! So fun. It it blew my mind the amount of people that like I ended up recognizing that I didn't think I wouldn't think I would.

Patty 54:25

Yeah, yeah, it's super fun.

Where to Find Nacho

Patty 54:28

This is your moment now. If people out there want to find you, where should they go?

SPEAKER_04 54:35

Well, after this whole after this whole conversation, it's very clear that you can only really find me on Twitch.

SPEAKER_03 54:42

That's the only place I am consistently. I have I've clipped stuff. I want to start posting reels on Instagram and things like that, but we'll see. I'm a big like Instagram story type of person where you can see like day to day what I'm up to, but I never actually make like like real posts. So on Twitch it's Nacho Burrito, but the last O is a zero, unfortunately. And on Instagram, it's not your burrito. No numbers, thank god. That's it. Oh, untalkable.co if you want to look at any of my any of my designs.

Patty 55:26

Yes, I totally recommend. They're very cute.

Who's Next?

Patty 55:29

Last question before I let you go. If I could have any streamer here on the podcast, who would you like to see as a guest?

SPEAKER_03 55:37

Oh wait, wait, that's such an oh, that's such a good question. Oh, that's a good question. Oh, just one streamer? One stream. Oh no. Oh no! I have to I have to think about you know what? You know what? I'm gonna nominate Flower Sunflower because I'm gonna nominate Sunflower because Sunflower does not talk during their streams. I think it would be so like I think it would blow everybody's mind if if Flower got onto a podcast and did a whole ass podcast.

Patty 56:23

Yes, funny answers they would have to talk.

SPEAKER_03 56:27

Yeah, yes, I'm locking this answer in. Flower, flower, get your ass in here.

Patty 56:34

Yes.

Outro

Patty 56:36

Thank you again, Nacho. And thank you to all the listeners at home. If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to give us a follow. You can find the growth rate wherever pods are cast, new episodes every Thursday. And if you have someone that you think would enjoy this show, why not tell them about it? We'll see you next time on the growth raid.

SPEAKER_00 56:58

Bye! Hit the subscribe I don't know where it is, hit the subscribe button somewhere, somewhere, one of these. The growth raid was created, hosted, edited, and produced by me.

Patty 57:10

If you like the show, feel free to rate it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. That really helps a lot. And don't forget to subscribe to the YouTube channel. If you would like to listen ad free and see all of this episode's bloopers, join us on Patreon at patreon.com slash thegrowth rate. We also have a Twitter, Blue Sky, and Instagram at thegrowth rate. If you'd know a streamer that would have an amazing story to share, leave your recommendation in the comments.