Category: Galen’s musings

Streaming and YouTube are well positioned to thrive right now during COVID-19 lockdown where other entertainment suffers. At least as of writing this article many countries are closing bar, restaurants, sports venues, and concert halls, as well as asking that people stay indoors (shelter in place). Group gatherings over 10 people are prohibited. This leaves indoor, solo activities, especially Netflix, YouTube, and livestreaming well positioned. Let’s talk about why. Most of the things I mention here as “streaming” will also apply to YouTube/VOD content. Streaming has some traits of an inferior good Streaming has qualities that make it similar to the economic concept of an inferior good. I’m not saying that streaming is inferior to something. In fact, it’s a trait that could help all of us in the streaming…

Do I follow my own advice? It’s a reasonable question to ask of anyone who gives advice. After all, you might question an overweight dietician, a broke financial planner, or a CPA who owes back taxes. They’re supposed to know better! Of course, as you may understand, knowing and doing are different things. So, here’s how I follow my own advice. Separate business and personal I separate my business and personal finances and I have since the start. This one is a biggie, and I’ve written about it here. Keeping my business and personal finances serves a couple of purposes. First, it makes it much easier for me to know how my business is doing! Using separate bank accounts, credit cards, and PayPal means that even if I weren’t working…

SWOT analysis While getting my MBA I learned many things that really don’t matter to me today. For instance, I rarely my CFA level investment management class. However, one of the things that I do use is the SWOT analysis. While it’s safe to say that it can get a bit buzz-wordy, at its core it’s a useful tool. What is a SWOT analysis? SWOT is an acronym. Is stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The idea is to analyze those factors as they apply to you, your business, or even a specific opportunity. With strengths and weaknesses you focus on the internal and with opportunities and threats you focus on the internal. Strengths What are you good at? What advantages do you have? What’s unique and beneficial about…

I’m often a bit cynical. Because of that, I’ve often looked down upon New Year’s resolutions. “Why”, I scoffed, “would the passing of an arbitrary date make you change your life?” Well, I’m a changed man. I’ve come to realize that anything that can help motivate someone to improve can be a positive force. Also, what am I doing bothering with how someone else runs their life? Point being, this year I decided to make some resolutions for myself and to suggest some for streamers. Hopefully some of my ideas help you with coming up with your own goals or resolutions. My resolutions There are SO MANY things that I could and should improve. However, I firmly believe that you’re most likely to achieve your goals if you’re realistic. There…

This one’s a little different than most of my posts but it’s been on my mind since TwitchCon. My awesome panel went a little longer than we intended (totally my fault) so I felt as though we didn’t have enough time for questions. Part of the problem was that we didn't get effective panel questions. Let’s jump right in to how to ask better questions! Have a Clear Goal What is it you hope to learn from your question? Hopefully you know that before getting up to the mic. If you’re not certain what it is you want to learn in the moment or have a very involved question it may not be appropriate to ask it at a panel. After all, the panelists are having to interpret what you're…