Episode 7 - Creator Chat with Markus Schaub

there. So. We are absolutely delighted to be able to bring, um, a long term supporter of this particular show and a fellow, a fellow cabin mate, um, of, um, Creator Camp, um, from our Creative Amplifiers cabin. So I think it's about time we brought on Marcus. Are you ready, Marcus, to join us?

Creative amplifier, all the people.

Hi guys. Thank you so much for having me. You're more than welcome, Marcus. It's wonderful to have you on the show. And, uh, as Mark said, a fellow creative amplifiers OG now, right? One of the original team. And, uh, we really appreciate all your support on this journey that we've had over the last few months.

Um, so yeah, I started my first question to you is like, we met at Create A Camp back in October last year, which seems to be a long time ago now, part of the original team. Uh, but what made you want to sign up in the first place and be part of it? Yeah, just the main reason was to, uh, get to meet people because I met so many people online and, uh, had.

Absolutely fantastic connections and suddenly there is a place where a few of them will be in person and that was absolutely a good reason to go. And by the way, it was my very first time. Being in the U. S. at the same time and it was such, such fun. And how did you, um, how did you find sort of meeting people in person?

For me, and I think the rest of the guys here, it was a bit of a surreal experience because you'd seen people for a while. Live and, you know, you only see this part. Yeah, they have legs. Turns out they have legs. Yeah. And another fun thing is, uh, online everybody has the same height and then suddenly you have.

Small people, big people, all the, all the, no, but it was, it was really fantastic. It was also very inspiring, uh, uh, moments because, yeah, it just, you just feel the energy from, from others because creating can be a really lonely thing and it was fantastic. Yeah, wonderful. And it's great to have that community spirit in getting people together.

And that's what we find it to be. Everybody just so wonderful to just talk to and learning so much and getting lots of inspiration from people. Um, you've been around now on YouTube for a couple of years and done different types of content. Can you sort of tell us about where it all started for you, your content creation journey, and how did you learn and start to use Ecamm?

Yeah, so yeah, in August, it will be three year live streaming anniversary for me. And yeah, it started, I mean, way back, I used to do hospital radio. When I was a teenager and I always had some, some creative thing in me where I wanted to, to do something, but back then we didn't have internet and, and podcasts and everything, and then it kind of slipped away from me, uh, went in the background, but then the pandemic hits and I was, uh, Uh, originally just searching on YouTube, how to make, make your video and audio better.

And then I found, uh, Uh, live streaming pros community. And, uh, I was, I was in there fully immediately and, uh, they, they ran an online challenge where you go live in a private Facebook group every day in April, and that was a life changing experience. And after I did that two times, uh, people told me, yeah, you, now you have to go live in public.

And I said, okay, really? Okay. Yeah. Let's, let's try it. And my very first live stream was called not ready. Go. And, uh, that's, that's how it all started. And then, yeah, I, I just kept doing it. And, uh, were you a Mac user then originally when you were working at eCAM or? Yeah, yeah. I had a Mac and, um, yeah. How did I find eCAM also during research?

And then I, I didn't even plan to really stream just to play with it. So I took the trial. And, uh, after the trial period, because I, I didn't, uh, stream yet, I initially, uh, didn't use it anymore, but then I thought, yeah, okay, let's know, let's, let's have fun. And then I just subscribed to it and yeah, it's, it's, uh, a really awesome, uh, piece of software.

And it's probably. Uh, the only, uh, piece of software where it was such a strong community around it. I've never seen something like that. That makes it much bigger than just the code about it. Yeah. And tell me a little bit about, cause I'm, I'm really interested in the audio side of things. And you mentioned that you started off in, in hospital radio.

How did you get involved? in hospital radio, because that's something I don't hear a lot when people get involved in from their audio journey. Yeah, I was about 15 years old and I was fascinated with radio. And, uh, the, the national radio station had a, a project where, where some people, uh, teenagers can come in and produce, uh, uh, an hour long show just for fun.

And there we met somebody else, uh, that already did hospital radio in Switzerland. And, uh, another guy, also here from Lucerne, uh, he was really crazy and he said, yeah, we make that here too. And, uh, then I. But yeah, I, I come along and we, we built that up from, from nothing. Suddenly we were, uh, the, the first time we went live was, was, uh, uh, over the, over Christmas days.

And it was planned to do it for, for 24 hours, maybe, but, uh, the equipment, we, we, we tried to get, they, we, we didn't have to return it because it was the holidays. And so we say, okay, let's do it for 10 days. And we went to the hospital, hospital and said, yeah, we're coming to make radio here. It all happened.

It was, it was a big part of my life for many It's amazing that I think that sort of audio side and like I say, that's almost like they're just going live going live, isn't it? You sort of get that opportunity to sort of get that, get that experience. And you sort of mentioned there about the sort of live streaming pros and the private Facebook group.

How did it work? Because I'm assuming that the majority of people in the group are sort of native English speaking, or they're from the US. How did you sort of find it from being from a different country and sort of the sort of the language side of it for you? Yeah, it was, it was an additional challenge.

So, uh, my English was getting pretty good over the years, but not really talking. So I, I listened to audio books in English. I watched TV in English, especially after, uh, uh, figuring out that, uh, that, uh, sync synchronized, uh, programs are just not as, as fun. And, uh, yeah, so I, I, I learned, uh, Plenty of English, but then speaking was, yeah, it was hard at the start, but, uh, uh, at the start, everything was hard.

So it's just another part of it. Yeah. And that makes a lot of sense. You, um, you also started a podcast some time ago called, uh, create a talk and is that, is that, we have been doing our research and I know you had a guest on there and so on. And is that something you're. Sort of planning to return to, because obviously I think audio is in your heart.

If you're, if you are, if you did hospital radio and you're doing sort of live streams, is that something you want to get back into doing? Yeah, we'll have to see. So, so what I did is because I did all those interviews and I thought, yeah, uh, we can, Take them and take the fluff out of it and, uh, and, uh, make that into a podcast.

And I did the one with really entwists enthusiastic and put that all together. And I started to others and didn't finish them. Because I, I don't want to just take the YouTube stream. I mean, we could, uh, use it at po at podcast as it is, but I think it only makes sense if, if, uh, if it's a bit more polished.

And so then I, I didn't do anything about it, , but maybe I'll get back to it. Cool. And um. And is it something that you, um, maybe want to repurpose with, with what you're doing now in the live streams? Would you consider doing something where you're repurposing your content and putting that as a, as a podcast?

Like we were trying to do with ours, with Creative Amplifiers, you know, taking a live show and putting it into a podcast. An audio type format. Is that something you'd consider with your streams and things as well? Just thinking about it now because it's it's probably a few extra steps and they have to be done and I mean generally I I have no idea what what i'm really doing because because As I said, I I started and then just never stopped and Sometimes it gets hard and I think yeah Where is the point and do I have the energy and everything and there is the fantastic community that I had pretty much from the start and it's a big blessing and every time I I come into a live stream with low energy and then the The people from the community are there and then I'm here and it's, it's the last.

And yeah, and, and so that keeps me going and everything on top is things I need to figure out. I'm also really bad at, at, at, uh, Making goals and, and, uh, for the, for the channel and, and, uh, pursuing goals because I know in, in order to grow the channel, I need to, I need to be more strategic. And, uh, yeah, it's, it's just, we make it up as we go along.

I was on your channel this morning and you had just posted like it's at five minutes ago. And so you were talking about the getting confident and filming myself and giving yourself challenges. First of all, I want to say I love watching you because you just look like you're having a good old time. Like, it's so refreshing to watch.

So, you know, thank you. And obviously your community, you have such a bond with your community and your heart is about your community, which is great. But, um, I was wondering if you, you remember it, you, uh, Spotted off an acronym for I can look it up. I unfortunately don't remember it. It was very long and I was, I was like, I want him to say it, because it just chuckled this morning.

It's, it's, it's Getting confident filming yourself by just starting and not overthinking publishing a video each day in April, but not on weekends. Pretty catchy.

You want to see it on a t shirt? You really should put that on t shirt. It just made me laugh. Three easy steps. Yeah, exactly. I was wondering if you could share a few things about how people can become more confident. You know, obviously just repetition and just doing it and getting over yourself. Yeah.

Yeah. If there's anything else you want to add. Yeah. So that, that is a struggle I had now for a long time. I, I started to put on a YouTube video with a, with a nice idea about TikTok life and I researched it and, and I got footage and I have everything, uh, just need to make it. And that is now lying around for half a year.

So that's pretty not fun. And I had to reflect a bit. And I just recognize that I'm really uncomfortable filming myself. And that's a bit, uh, counterintuitive because I'm comfortable streaming, but of course, uh, my very first live stream was also totally uncomfortable, and I just conquered that by, yeah, by doing it and improving from there.

And so I, I then figured it out. I, I. just have to go and, and do it. And then I said, and I practically came up with the idea of my last live stream that was last Thursday. And then I just said, yeah, I'll, I'll go and make a video each weekday in April. And committed to that and I knew, so I have a little bit of lead time for that because Easter was coming up and yeah, so now I'm, I'm fully into it and it's, it's so much fun.

Uh, yeah, I really had fun with the acronym and, uh, and today I filmed the one for tomorrow and I, I shaved myself and filmed. But I also made cuts. So yeah, easily, easily done. It's one of the things I certainly have come across that having spent so much time just having an audio podcast and just turning up in whatever state to suddenly think, Oh, I actually have to spend a bit of time at least trying to do the best I can to get ready.

So maybe we'll go a bit further into the recording side, but, um, you mentioned before about the community aspect of it. How did you sort of hit the ground running, like you say, with a group of people who were like your fans straight from the, straight from the gate? Yeah, this was the great, uh, fortune I had to doing this, uh, challenge for live streaming pros, uh, two times.

And, uh, I got to know people and, and we already. bonded there. And, uh, so I, some of them immediately joined me on the journey. I mean, my very first guest was mommy Lala and she's supported me, uh, since then every, every time. And yeah, so I had the great fortune to, to not go to the experience, just talking to no one.

I mean, it's, it's almost feels like cheating because it's the proper way to start live streaming. But yeah, it makes a lot of sense. And it's an interesting thing. Sort of, like we said, we would talk medic creator camp, but there are lots of different people in different parts of their journey. You know, some people who've not done anything at all, people who've been doing it for a long time.

And I guess. That sense of actually going to sort of understand the world that you're going to be part of and actually building your community, even if they're not in your niche, but just people that can support you practically. But like I say, people that can actually support you as part of a community might be something that people don't think of when they're starting their channel.

They're like, I'm going to do my own thing and hopefully people will come to me. But it's really interesting that you sort of went to the community first. Was that sort of a conscious decision or was it just, it all just happened. But, but I'm, I'm really passionate about actually encouraging people to, to, Produce something to create something because I think there is a trap where people may watch countless hours of how to succeed on YouTube and how to make that one thing better and, and all the things, and they never actually do anything with it.

And it's just such a waste of, of everything. And, and, uh, Whatever you have to say somewhere is out there that, uh, needs to exactly hear that in that moment, and it's, it's so important then to, to go and do that. And, uh, I'm passionate about that. And, and so my community, if someone, uh, just needs a little push or encouragement, uh, then I'm passionate about that.

And I'm always so, so happy if someone says, yeah, that, that helped me now. Yeah. I think that's one of the things that helps us all. When we're just starting off is, it is a little bit hard when you're first live streaming and you're streaming to nobody and there's just nobody there and you have to keep talking, keep that dialogue going and there is a little bit of a comfort.

associated with having the community with you and supporting you and just engaging and asking questions or just being there and being silent. It means a lot. I think when, when there's just people there to support you. And as you said, if you, if you have a voice and you have something that you want to say, it'll resonate with somebody.

And there's always somebody there who's going to listen to you. Who, who you can speak to and, and help. And you've been streaming for a couple of, obviously your three year anniversary is coming up. You mentioned that you had Lala on as a guest. How do you actually choose your guests? Cause you've interviewed quite a few people over the years now.

You've had a number of different people on. Is there a, is there a way that you sort of think about, Who you'd like on as a guest, other people approach you, what's sort of your sort of strategy? I usually have to ask them, but, but, uh, most of them say yes. So a long time, I, a long time, I just, uh, uh, invited people from the community.

Um, maybe from people who was all, were already watching me or were in the live stream pros or EECAM universe. And sometimes I, I thought, yeah, it would be nice to broaden that a bit. So one time I. I went to Twitch and just watched, uh, music streamers, and, uh, I found, I found one that, that I really connected instantly, and then, uh, I asked her to, to come on the show and yeah, I, I tried to figure out who to ask, and then, yeah, as I said, I, I make it up as I go and then I forget to ask more people.

And what I. But I always, uh, do then is I say, okay, then I have to go and talk by myself because in the start, uh, having a guest was really just, uh, a safety net because I was very afraid that I would not have enough things to say and, uh, I had an intro and I was afraid if the intro is longer than what I do after that, it would be kind of wasting people's time.

So they have to wait 10 minutes until I come on and then I talk for five minutes. I was my biggest fear. And so it really was a safety net. And I think I still like having guests, but I think it's very important that you're also comfortable doing it all alone. And, uh, So another thing, I just repeatedly did it and now I'm comfortable with it.

And also the chat keeps, keeps it going. Uh, I, I, I know Neil, I, I was, uh, in a few of your streams where you. We're starting to wrap things up because you had, you said everything that you wanted and then Chad kept asking and saying things and then you, you can just run with that and uh, came. Yes. Marcus, I was wondering if you, for the people who are newer content creators and they're just starting to build their community, do you have any tips or hints of, you know, how to, to keep everybody together and.

You know, keep it light and fun because I think it helps if you, if you love people. So if, if you're someone who thinks I am the best and I deserve all the attention and you probably will not get there. Uh, yeah, just, just really, um, I always appreciate people coming and watching me. I mean, they could do a thousand different things and, uh, Yeah, just, and, and I'm interested and that, that's a main reason why I ask people to, to be a guest is because I want to know more about them.

And then I figured, uh, others probably also want to know more about them and yeah, just, just be curious, be kind and yeah. And keep creating, that's the main thing, because, you know, a big fear of me was always, yeah, do I waste people's time by, by, by going live and don't tell anything interesting. But what I figured out, it's, it's not like you're in a theater and people are trapped in there.

It's, it's online. So everybody who thinks it's not for me can, can leave at any time. So. Yeah. Um, just do your thing and try to attract people who resonate with that. I think it is a hard slog, isn't it? YouTube and just generally content creation, uh, having to come up with ideas or, or having something to say, uh, at least putting it out there and being consistent.

And I think that's important to, to keep doing that, even if it's not, Returning any results initially, it will over time and organic growth is, is a big deal on YouTube and it just takes time for people to actually find you and for YouTube to start serving your messages out to people. I wanted to talk a little bit about, because I know that you're a moderator on a number of Ecamm Fam channels, Merit Liu, I think you help out with Lala and a few others.

Um, what sort of advice would you give people who want to start moderating? I mean, is that, is that something you wanted to do? Did you offer advice or offer your help to the channels because you were seeing maybe you're getting some undesirable comments coming into streams that you were joining and you wanted to sort of, sort of take charge on that and how important is it to have a moderator?

So the golden rule about moderators are, um, if, if someone asks to be a moderator, it's usually not the right choice. I mean,

because, uh, yeah. Um, it was, it was a bit different with Mary Lou because, um, she, uh, due to vertical streaming, she got some, some more of the undesirable people in. And, and she was talking about, yeah, maybe I need moderators. And, uh, because I was watching anyway, I was, I wrote her. So yeah, I'd be happy to.

And then my, my first moderating and I still doing this, that is live streaming pros. And I was just reactive in the community. And then they asked me and Lala is, is a moderator for me since day one. And, uh, one time she was in a In a, in a hurry in her stream because her daughter was not there and she was, Oh, I need one.

And she made me instantly moderator. Yeah. So, Uh, I think to be a good moderator, you, you really, uh, should care about that community. And then, uh, my, my biggest rule is, uh, I'm, I'm not here to moderate according to what I think is, is good or not good, but I'm, uh, here to To, uh, do what the creator would want me to do.

So that's, that's really good advice. Yeah. Thank you. I love it. And I'm I love the fact that you're such a people person. And like you say, you're doing it for everyone else, but with everyone else. And I think that's what people draw, draw from you and to you. But the flip side of that is the fact that while you've got that kind of warmth and that understanding, Your streams also look fantastically well produced and put together.

You obviously spend time with the tech and the way you put your show together with the cam. So could you just talk us through that sort of both sides of that coin, the kind of, you know, I'm just here, people want to be part of what I'm doing, then that's fantastic. But then, you know, you're also putting in a lot of effort to make it look as good as it possibly can.

So how do you balance those two though? Yeah. Yeah. You know, um, I mean, the tech, I find it's, it's, it's really a fun part. So, so sometimes it's just, uh, uh, almost the other way around that I, uh, I wanted to stream because I wanted to play with the toys. Then I needed to figure out, and now what do we do with it?

And, uh, yeah, it's, it's, it's, uh, it's, it's a fun thing, but it's also, I mean, in, in order to really focus on the stream, you need to make the tech a bit of second nature, second nature. I, I remember by, uh, back when I was learning to drive a car. Uh, at, uh, the first times, uh, just, just shifting gears is so hard and complicated.

And nowadays you don't think a second about that. And it's important because you have more important things to do. So it needs to be second nature and tech needs to go in the background, especially in our shows where we are producing while we're going live. So. Yeah, I love that. I think it's such a, it's such an important thing that can be overlooked because you can be like I say, a tech person and want to spend all your time doing that and forget about your audience or, or vice versa.

So I think you've got such a great kind of mix of that and a great balance of that which I which I really love. So we've also got a couple of questions that have come through in the chat as well. So let's just have a have a little look at that. First of all, So here's our first one, which I think is from keys as markets.

Do you do any research on your guests channels?

A little, yeah, probably not as, as, uh, as much as I could. Um, I mean, sometimes it's all last minute, but, but I think you need to be, uh, A bit prepared because it's, uh, it's, uh, just common decency, uh, the time of the guest and also of the audience, because you're asking the guest questions, uh, in for, for the audience to hear it.

So, yeah, I, I go on the website, uh, see if any, everything is, anything is there. And, uh, usually I also already know the guests, uh, watched them and, uh. I always try to have a few questions prepared because, uh, if you get distracted and your next question is, is gone and it's a live situation and then you can fall back to something.

Uh, but I also try to keep it really loose, you know, and, and, and go with the flow and where the, the, uh, conversation takes us. So yeah. But I could be more prepared, but it's, it worked so much. Yeah. Make, make, make, makes a lot of sense. And we've got Mary Lou here. Who's, uh, who's come on and said she's appreciative of all the mod help.

So I think, um, a big kind of, thank you very much for all of those people that you support so well. Yeah. There are all kinds of people out in the internet and, and most people that we find here in our chats are, are so nice. And perfect. And then sometimes you get the weird people and then you need to deal with that.

Yeah. So she's also had a follow up question from a little bit. We were sort of chatting before. Can you tell us the story about the theme song and yeah, how did that all come about? Yeah, that, uh, is actually when I, what I talked, uh, a little bit earlier where I was, uh, watching music streamer on Twitch just to find someone to interview.

And, uh, I. I found that the one streamer, Rhyme Music, and I, I, I watch sometimes even today. And, uh, yeah, she also, uh, had, uh, has a Fiverr, uh, gig where you can order custom songs. And I just thought, yeah, that, that could be nice, uh, for an intro instead of, of something, uh, from the can, you can order something specifically.

And so, so I. Told her about what I'm doing, about the stream and the goal and everything. And then she came up with the music and the lyrics and everything. And that was such great fun. And, uh, of course I then had, uh, no music video to go with that because it's just the song. And so I just took the guests I had and, uh, Made the music video is that, and I think it's now the fifth iteration.

I'm always a few guests behind and then, uh, I, I go and, and put the new guests I had in there and so it's, and it's a really catchy tune, the, the community likes it and, uh, it's great. Yes, it is. Uh, it is a wonderful, it's a great story that you can just reach out to again, the community and they can produce something for you and that's the great thing about it.

Being live and connected in this community. And as you said, you know, the internet is a it's an interesting place and you can get the odd the odd ball out there But that's what moderators are for so I was going to ask so we know we know marcus the live streamer We know marcus the moderator, but what does marcus do when he's not live streaming?

Yeah, pretty regular office things. So I'm not a superhero in disguise. Yeah, I. I work in a health insurance company and there I work in a finance department but closely with the IT department and so we just figure out what what people need in order to To deal with all the, all the things and how to make things smoother.

And, uh, um, yeah, I mean, there was a lot of development because we, we adopted, uh, agile, uh, methods, uh, work with crumb and, uh, It's, it's, uh, totally different from what I'm doing here online . It's the IT world versus Marcus world. Exactly. Yeah. But, but I also love to have those two sides because it's, uh, yeah.

It, it's, uh, it's much relaxeder to be creative and create content if, uh, if you do it for fun and, uh, that's also. What I always, uh, have to remind myself when I start to taking it too seriously, because once, uh, if it's a hobby and once you take the fun out of it, then what's the point of even doing it. It has to be about the fun.

And as we start to wrap up our conversation with you today, what's next for Marcus? You talked about that you were going to do your pre recorded videos every weekday. For this month is every weekday this month in April. So that's that's a lot of videos And do you have a plan for what you're going to do?

Or are you simply gonna go with the flow of the day and think i'm gonna have some loose ideas So I I tried to get ahead a bit During easter and so I I filmed myself in a public bus, uh, so, uh, in order to have a little challenge in the challenge. Uh, but it's, it's not really long and, uh, yeah, today I felt myself shaving and you can, you can, you can see tomorrow if that's at all interesting or not.

Yeah. I, I'm, I'm just, uh, think I, it's really important for me to, to. Go through with that because, um, yeah, I, the video I talked to you about where I didn't release it for, for six months and I, I made online commitments in the stream. Yeah. I will do it by end of the week and, uh, a few such things and I never did.

And now this is a challenge, uh, I know I can do and I will do and, uh, it's just really great. Thank you. Going through with that, uh, yeah, it's, it's about building up the confidence to film myself and, uh, and also have fun with it. And I, I already do have fun with it. And then we, we see what comes from that because yeah, by now you probably can tell I just, just making everything up as it comes along.

And, uh, but I, I think I, I really need, uh, some, something to, to change it up a bit and, and this, uh, will probably be the start because it, yeah, it, it may get stale. I mean, streaming, it was all about, uh, not being ready and, and doing anyway. And now I'm, I'm so comfortable with it and, uh, I need to shake things up in order to, to take the next steps.

Well, what you're doing is, is incredibly motivating for people who. Aren't doing anything right now and getting the feet wet with either live or recorded. It is a daunting thing to start. That's the plan. And just, just do one thing and then do the next thing. It's, I mean, yeah, overthinking and procrastinating and everything.

It's such a big part of my life and, uh, yeah, you just have to. Take the leap and, and, uh, go and do things because it's the world needs to, to, to hear your voice. So go out. I agree. And testament to your, um, work that you're doing and the support that you have in the community. And we really appreciate you.

And as it says on your merch right there, not ready, go. And that is a message that everybody needs to know. And we'll put a link in the description too. Marcus's merch, and you can find him online and buy all those goodies. And that t shirt will give you inspiration when you look at it every day as you're wearing it.

So Marcus, thank you so much for your time today. It's been a pleasure to have you on the show. Thank you for all your support. As you do and, uh, creative amplifiers for the people, so much for your time today, Marcus, where can we, uh, where can we find Marcus? There you go. So you can find Marcus online at Marcus Schaub and.

Hopefully I pronounced that right, Marcus, you did send me a video. So hopefully that's good. And, uh, yeah, stick around, Marcus. I know you're going to just chill out now on the sofa and continue watching the show. So once again, thank you so much for being with us today. Thank you. Bye. Wonderful.

Thank you to Marcus for being such a great guest. It's been. Really fascinating hearing your backstory and the way you put your show together and how you got there as well. There's certainly things there that I didn't know, which is why we're here to sort of help and support that.

And, uh, yeah, really, really do appreciate anything. Neil, Lisa, you'd like to add before we wrap it all up? Thank you for joining us again. Yeah, it was a fun show. It was a fun show. We'll see you in a couple of weeks. Can't wait. Looking forward to it. See you.