Here's a message to all my fellow content creators out there, whatever platform you're on, whether it's YouTube, X like me, Twitch as I am, or one of the other platforms. When you're getting a lot of criticism, that's a sign of success. And ironically, you should mostly ignore it.
I just got a message in my open chat from Mike. He said, "How are things going? You doing all right? You're getting a lot of heat right now." And I'm honestly not even aware of it. I think it's really important as a content creator to be comfortable getting criticism and, at the same time, to close your ears and close your eyes to it as much as possible. The balance I've found is this: yes, I do want to receive constructive criticism as a YouTuber, a Twitch streamer, a coach, a crypto investor, a gamer, and a musician who does all of that on one channel across YouTube, Twitch, and X. I want to know if my mic's muted, or if what I'm saying is making sense.
For example, people have criticized my "going to zero" videos, saying they're disrespectful, that they're too harsh. So I thought, well, let me see if I can make these a little bit nicer while still communicating the same message. I'm really happy with how that's going so far. So you do need to get constructive criticism. But at the same time, criticism in general is a big sign of success as a creator.
Why criticism follows success
Often when you're getting started as a creator, you mostly just have people who already agree with you watching and supporting you, like friends or family. Or if you're creating ICP content, like I am for Internet Computer Protocol, you'll have other ICP people watching, and they're mostly going to agree and be happy. But when you truly start to make a difference and really get out there as a creator, you're often going to catch a lot of criticism.
What you'll notice is that success as a content creator often comes with huge amounts of criticism. The more people that are watching, the more people simply won't like you. No matter who you are, you're going to run into more and more people who have something negative to say. Sometimes it's just negative attention-seeking behavior, because negative energy is often easier to get attention with, and the loudest, nastiest critic is the one who gets noticed.
Other times, if you're being very vanilla as a content creator and you're just saying what everybody else says, you're not going to attract many views in the first place, so you won't attract many critics either. But when you start coming out with things that genuinely help people, open people's minds, add value, and present a new point of view, you're going to draw criticism. In my experience, our first reaction when we see something unknown is to criticize it. When we get new ideas, our first reaction is often to say no. When we get exactly what we want, our first reaction is often to push it away. And lots of times critics can actually turn into lovers, into dedicated followers.
I did a video recently offering some constructive feedback for a project named Gold Tao on Internet Computer Protocol. The team did a response, and it looks like there are a lot of people talking about it now.
Listen to the people who are actually in the room
Here's how I handle it. I have a community on OpenChat, and I live stream on YouTube and Twitch. That's where I'm listening. If you're not chatting in those places where I'm listening, I'm not hearing you. If you see my videos on X or YouTube and you make your own video talking about my video, I don't need to see that. That's your creation. I don't need to hear your opinion there. I need to hear the opinions of the viewers who really care about my channel and my content: the viewers who support me by watching my live streams, the ones who have paid to join VIP channels in my open chat, and the ones who care enough to join open chat and respond to my videos in the free-for-all channel. I don't need to hear from the people who aren't here supporting me.
I learned this the hard way, and the funny thing is it once worked in my favor. I actually went viral on Facebook Gaming because I allowed the critics to run their mouths endlessly on my Facebook live streams. I went viral because I became one of the few live streams where you could say almost anything and not get banned. Now, we did have moderators, and we did have supporter-only chat at times, but when I went viral, I was mostly just letting people talk. People would come in and make 10 or 20 nasty comments in a row. Then all their friends would find the stream, because Facebook would see, "Oh, this person commented 20 times, let's show this to all their friends." Their friends would come in asking what was going on, and then they'd start talking junk to each other too. Critics are free marketing. As a content creator, you really need to get used to the fact that any publicity is good publicity.
Be confident, and create only where you get a fair deal
Obviously you need to be confident in what you're doing. I've been banned, I've been canceled, I've been demonetized, but I've actually deleted my own content more than anybody else has banned or canceled me. I've deleted thousands of YouTube videos. I deleted a YouTube channel with 46,000 subscribers, plus other channels that collectively had around 15,000 to 20,000. I deleted a Facebook page with 1.9 million followers. I deleted an X profile with 70,000 followers because it was old and full of bots that I'd done follow-for-follow with back in the day. I deleted a TikTok account with millions of views and 29,000 followers, and tens of thousands of followers on Instagram. I deleted all of those because I only want to create in places where I'm getting a fair deal, whether that's a fair deal with the ad revenue and the algorithm on YouTube, a fair deal with the algorithm on X, a fair deal on Twitch, or a fair deal on OpenChat. I'm not creating on platforms that take, take, take and don't give their fair share back.
I also don't want to hear what the critics have to say unless they're supporting me. If you're part of the community, you watch my videos all the time, and you have constructive criticism, I'll listen to it. There's a guy in my open chat who's been very critical of my Gold Tao video, but then there have been a bunch of other people who've been critical of his criticism of that video. So as a content creator, you will have to learn to get comfortable with criticism, because even if you try to close your eyes and cover your ears, you're still going to hear it. You're still going to see it. And it's going to hurt.
Almost every nasty thing you can imagine that people generically say to each other has been said in the context of me live streaming or in my videos. The craziest stuff. Even very focused, very thoughtful, very hurtful things, intentionally said. This will test you. If you can keep creating like me, after people have torn down your creativity from every single angle, then to me that's what integrity in content creation is: continuing to show up.
How I respond to the critics
One way I respond to the critics is simple: I don't care what you say. I'm going to put out six videos a day on YouTube. I'm going to go live every day or two. I'm going to put those videos out on X. I'm going to keep answering comments. No matter what's going on with everybody else, I'm going to keep filming videos and keep saying what I need to say. And if you don't like it, too bad. I made it within the terms and conditions of the platforms I'm on. You can complain. You can say all you want. I'm going to try to avoid hearing anything the critics have to say, and I'm going to listen to the insiders, the people who love my videos.
When you do need constructive criticism, that's where the core supporters come in. When I did the JBBJ meme coin and got too hyped up about promoting it, the people who are very core, who have given thousands of dollars and supported my work heavily, who are working on apps I'm invested in and have helped me have the money to be supported by those, when people like that message me and say, "Hey, you need to research this and change that," I'm going to listen to them. But when I have people out here just making videos and posting that I'm immature, unprofessional, and misleading, that's your opinion. You're welcome to have it. I'm going to avoid listening to it whenever I can, because what I am doing is marketing very well, very consistently, and giving my gift to the world. You being offended is actually an opportunity for you to do some character building. So if you're offended, go ahead and do some character building with that.
Never apologize publicly
I've also learned to never apologize, at least not publicly. I'll apologize to people in my life privately, people I have two-way relationships with. But never apologize publicly. I've done it before, and you know what you get? Twice as much hate from the haters, because now you've validated them. I don't validate my haters. Most of what they're saying has nothing to do with my reality. You've got to stand behind the people who are supporting you.
For example, I created an account service on Steam eight years ago, and people were so toxic about it. I stopped it and made a post saying I was sorry. The haters doubled down, went nuts, and never let it go. Meanwhile, all the people who had supported me before that apology felt betrayed after it. So with critics and haters, you absolutely never give in. At the same time, you can make changes. You can acknowledge the feedback you got and adjust how you do things. The feedback I took to heart is that I'm now willing to film videos with people. If you schedule a call on my website, you can film a video with me. Gold Tao wanted to do a one-off video, and at the time I said I wouldn't do that, but I'm down for it now. For $345, we'll film a video together. I'll take constructive feedback and make changes to what I do, but I'm not going to stop doing what I'm doing.
I'm not going to say I was wrong for anything I've ever said online before. I'm not going to apologize for anything I've said online before. These are videos on a platform for education and entertainment. I'm doing my best every day, and I've deleted all my old videos so I can step up the videos I create going forward. I'm standing behind my videos going forward so I can leave them up forever. The haters had an absolute field day when I deleted all my videos. They felt great about that. But I deleted those videos because I want to make better ones, videos I'm proud to leave up forever, that I'm confident are good forever. It's nice having a fresh start sometimes, but you know what? I've had enough fresh starts. If you want to go deeper on how I approach all of this, you can dig into my YouTube Coaching playlist. I'm putting out everything I can think of to help you, to inspire you, to entertain you, and to share something new with you.