I’m always on the lookout for new ways to share my love of stationery with the world, and Twitch is the next place for me. You can follow me at Twitch.tv/penaddict.
So, why Twitch? I’m so glad you asked! Here are the reasons, in no particular order:
It’s fun. I try not to do anything in my personal or professional life that isn’t fun. That can be a challenge sometimes, and it’s not always rainbows and unicorns, but life is too short to not have fun. Talking stationery and playing games is fun!
When I’m not at a pen show or event, I miss talking and hanging out with people, and while doing this online is not exactly the same experience, it’s nice to have a live conversation with live feedback. Twitch is perfect for this.
Sharing is caring. I like to help others as much as possible, whether it is basic stationery questions, or blogging and business questions. I’m an open book, and want to give others the opportunity to get live feedback and discussion around their questions.
I mentioned my idea for open office hours a few times recently, and this is a way to do that in a more open and accessible fashion. I will be scheduling the majority of my stationery streams on Twitch, and will try to vary the times so you can get live feedback if you are interested.
Opportunities. Working for myself, I have to keep moving the goalposts forward. Twitch is a great way to grow The Pen Addict brand, work with new makers and creators, and expose myself to new things. I’m chomping at the bit to see what I can do and who I can meet because of the platform Twitch provides.
Charity. Thanks to the support of Pen Addict Members, I’ve been able to donate around $1000 per year to various causes. I can do a lot better than that. One of the things that has fascinated me the most about Twitch in the last year I have been watching the platform is the amount of charity streams there are. I want to be a part of this in a big way.
It’s fun. I mentioned that already, right? But it’s true, and I can’t wait to start having fun!
Here is what you can expect from my Twitch channel.
Dedicated stationery streams. I think there is a real opportunity here. Once I get all of the technical details behind me and my workflow set, I hope to schedule a minimum of two, 2-hour blocks per week to discuss stationery.
These streams could be as simple as talking about the huge worlds of gel ink pens and pocket notebooks, or as detailed as nib grind questions and fountain pen cleaning. Today’s stream will feature an unboxing of new goods, which will be a recurring theme. Everyone loves a good unboxing!
Additionally, these streams will be available to watch in the future if you can’t make it to the live shows. Twitch makes it easy to export to YouTube, which I will do for all of the stationery streams. You can follow my YouTube channel here to watch the archives.
Gaming streams. Many people wondered when I turned my hobby into a business what my next hobby would be. It’s gaming.
My gaming history goes back to the Magnavox Odyessy console and playing Wizardry on the Apple IIc. I was mostly a Sega guy in the heyday of Nintendo, with both the Genesis and Dreamcast getting a ton of play. I took a gaming break in the late-90’s and early-2000’s, but the rise of PC gaming brought me back with Half-Life, and eventually World of Warcraft through the first three expansions. The original XBOX got me back into console gaming, and over the past few years I’ve been all-in on the PlayStation side of the ledger.
90% of my gaming time these days revolves around two games: MLB the Show and Destiny 2. You will find me streaming those games a lot for the next few months. I’ll be looking for new games in the fall, both on PC and PS4. I’m open to playing with anyone online as well, so feel free to reach out.
Game streams will be a secondary aspect of the channel, but will likely comprise most of the hours. These will be generally unscheduled events and primarily on nights and weekends - aka my downtime. These sessions are wide open for AMA questions on stationery or any topic you want to hit, or just drop in to hang out.
Work streams. Is this a thing? Not really, and may not be a thing for me either, but many times I’m just sitting at my desk working away on my task list. I may flip the stream on from time to time to hang out, but it may be too distracting for both of us. We’ll see how this goes.
These are my initial thoughts and ideas, and I would love to hear what you think. As always, I’m open to any questions, tips, tricks, ideas, etc. that you would like to share.
On that note, my first dedicated stationery stream is tonight at 5 p.m. Eastern at Twitch.tv/penaddict. Be there!
