Uploaded and Unfiltered: Real Talk on Healing, Creativity, and Mindset for Black Creators

Balancing Streaming and a Demanding Day Job [Guest: Shwamm]

Jermaine Pulliam Season 1 Episode 45

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Have you ever stumbled into a world where you suddenly realized you belonged? That's exactly what Shwamm, my guest this week, experienced as he transitioned from a student dabbling in video production to a content creator synonymous with resilience and multitalented flair. Listen in as we journey through Shwamm's unexpected path to streaming and content creation, touching on that heart-stopping moment during his first live stream and how a technical disaster became a testament to the power of community support.

Join us for a conversation filled with passion, advice, and the occasional geek-out moment – because your story might just be the beacon for someone else on their creative voyage. 

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Content Creation Journey and Resilience

Speaker 1

Welcome . Welcome back to another episode of uploaded and unfiltered , the podcast in which I , your host Jermaine , interviews another content creator . In regards to the journey thus far , as always , tonight I have a special guest . Before we get him introduced , I'm gonna go ahead and read his bio so we can get this conversation started . Introduce I'm gonna go ahead and read his bio so we can get this conversation started . Schwam is a multi-faceted content creator . He raps , sings , designs , collaborates , edits and many more other things . He has a passion for RPGs and nerdy stuff . With his background in television , he plans to take content creation by storm , hopefully to create a space where people are free to talk and debate about things from anime to pop culture to adulting . Schwam town is an open space for everyone . Don't be afraid to stay for a while . Oh , my god , I read that in one shot . I'm the best anyways . Uh , I like to introduce my best . Introduce my guest for the evening . Uh , schwam , welcome to the podcast . How are you doing , man ?

Speaker 2

I'm doing great man . Thanks for having me on . I really really appreciate you reaching out and , yeah , I'm I'm excited , I'm excited to have this conversation today yeah , me too .

Speaker 1

Thank you for uh carving out some time to do it . And again , I'm going to shout this out because I like doing podcasts during the day , so if you want to do this and you could do it during the day , hit me up . This is great . It's like a whole nother time frame . Um , but with that schwam , I need to know , I gotta know , what's your origin story in regards to your content creation . Start funny thing about that is um .

Speaker 2

I never meant to get into content creation I I went to school for video production .

Speaker 1

Okay .

Speaker 2

So there was times where I was like , ooh , the sound would go well , goes well with this little snippet of video here , right , so I would just throw stuff together and then people would like it and then be like , oh , okay , I'll do another one , yeah , we'll like it , and I'm just like , maybe , maybe I'm good at this , so so , maybe I'm good at this so so you know , I would start posting videos on Twitter . Uh , I think I did like maybe two or three with an anime video and then with a , a rap song .

Speaker 1

Okay , yeah .

Speaker 2

And it got some traction and then I was like you know , this is good , and then I just stopped . I just stopped , I'm done , I just stopped .

Speaker 2

That's all you guys are getting from me . And then a few years later , I move out of my parents' house , I'm in my own house and my friend slash coworker is streaming . So I was like , hmm , that sounds seems like fun . You know I watch , you know Tim the tap man and sometimes ninja , sometimes people who do wrestling content , and I was like it doesn't seem that hard , sadly mistaken , right . So so you know , I was like you know I got , I know how to edit and I do all this stuff .

Speaker 2

So I throw up a YouTube video , I try YouTube and my first video gets taken down , striking immediately . I try to do a reaction video to some anime . I didn't know all the guidelines in time , even though I should because I work in TV . True , I didn't know all the guidelines at the time for YouTube . I didn't know you the guidelines at the time for YouTube , so I didn't know you had to make it look completely different from what the whistle name was . So I was like , let me just throw it up there within an hour , maybe like 20 views , and then tick it down . So I re-upload it and it doesn't do as well . And then I try to do another one and it doesn't do as well done done yeah that's done .

Speaker 2

So I think a year later I I bought a pc because I was like you know , I want to play games and the part the my partner at the time , who I was living with , wanted to play games too . So we bought , we both bought pcs and we started playing borderlands three . And then , you know , I was like I think I should stream , since I have a PC now . And she was like just go ahead , go ahead . And I was like I will , I will , I will , I will . Three months later still hasn't streamed , not a lick , right . And then I get one time I just like let me just boot up . Like obviously it's nerves , so I boot up , I'm playing Call of Duty . Random guy from New Zealand comes in and plays Call of Duty with me .

Speaker 2

Yeah Tells me , I suck .

Speaker 1

Yeah , okay , it's about par for the course , yeah , you're learning .

Speaker 2

So I was like you know , it's cool , I streamed for an hour , got off off , and then it was just cool , okay , and and then , and then I think maybe two years after that is when I met real mama eagle and she was , like you know , giving me the tips on how to start a stream and how to do things .

Speaker 2

And I'm just like , okay , let me just set up my stream this way and do this that way , and just keep going and keep going . And then things just started taking off and I'm just like , okay , yeah I'm liking this . I'm liking this , I'm liking this and then then the hate raid , stuff happened . And then you know I don't know if you heard the story about the hate raid in my channel- I did not um you know people were using that app from twitch .

Speaker 2

That helps you delete all the bots yes , channel yes , I was using that and me using it for the first time . I deleted everybody , so I went from four . I went , I went from 400 followers yeah , hard working 400 followers to zero . Oh , no damn . And and this is why community is important , yes , so people in there ? Tg's in there , boss is in there , who else is in there ? Real Mama Eagle's in there , and I'm just sitting there like well , chuck it up , just going to do it again , yeah .

Speaker 2

And just continue with stream Like nothing happened . And then people just started flunting in follow , follow , follow , follow follow , follow follow , follow , follow , follow , follow .

Speaker 2

I'm just sitting there like what's going on . People started tweeting out like , hey , he lost all his followers trying to stop a hate raid , and it's just like , wow , yeah , so they started chanting 300 today because , you know , they're trying to get me back to 300 . And I ended the day with 1,000 . Hell yeah , 1,000 followers . That's what I'm talking about and I'm just sitting there like what is going on here ? Yeah , and you know , candidly , kayla Kiwi on the sticks , I think Cleo Cleopatra Jones was in there as well . I think Cleo Cleopatra Jones was in there as well , who is now named . I forgot her name now . The fact is , this community is important . Yes , and that helped push me through you know that tough time that I was going through and ever since then it's been , you know , pretty smooth journey . I took last year off due to . You know , life happens .

Speaker 2

Yeah for sure . You know people break up , you know happens yeah for sure , you know people , people , people break up mm-hmm , you know things happen .

Speaker 2

So me and my my ex-fiancee broke up and things happen , moving on with life , trying to be trying to be better . Yeah , and now I'm back on Twitch enjoying myself , trying to , you know , find my space again . Things are taking off slowly , but you know I'm not too worried about it . Mm-hmm , you know , find my space again . Things are taking off slowly , but you know I'm not too worried about it . You know I obviously , after you take a year off , you're not going to come back and have 100 people in your channel then be like , I mean , I ain't got that type of gravitation pool yeah , not yet , but you know yeah but it's , it's going well .

Speaker 2

You know people are there for the rpgs but obviously streaming in the morning you don't have as much um , how would you say interaction , because people are at work , right people are doing things , you know . So I do my best for what I have , and we play rpgs on mondays and then on fridays we do whatever they want to do . Mostly it's fortnight okay , or maybe party animals or something like that yeah so yeah nice that's pretty much the journey from them to now that's awesome .

Speaker 1

You carved out a little space for yourself , like the fact . I can't believe I've never heard this story about the hate raid that you got rid of all your followers and ended up with . I guess 700 extra a thousand more folk came through . That is dope Like damn . I wish I would've heard about that . I'm hearing about it now and it makes a great story for the podcast , so I appreciate that , Thank you .

Speaker 2

No problem .

Speaker 1

Well , while we're here at the beginning of your well , not the beginning kind of where you are now as far as content goes , I have to ask how did you come up with your screen name ? Schwam it Up ? I love it , but my phone doesn't . Every time I type it it's like Simon . I'm like who the fuck is Simon , sean , no , schwam . Anyways , go ahead .

Speaker 2

Oh man , so in high school . I don't know if you ever heard . You've seen the show Punk'd correct yes yep , Okay , so they were mimicking the show , Punk'd , Okay , and they just kept saying Swam , swam , swam , swam , swam , swam , swam , swam , swam , swam , swam .

Speaker 1

So me watching the movie , I go to school the next day and I just started saying Swam swam , swam , swam , swam , swam swam like it was , like there's that swam kid and I'm just like , and then people just started saying hey , swam , and I'm just like and , and it just stuck it just stuck yo , oh damn , that wasn't . Yep , you were right . That shit is hilarious . I wasn't expecting that . What ?

Speaker 2

so it just stuck . And I was like you know , I would love to come into the space with the swam name , yeah , but I was like I , you know , I would love to come into the space with the SRAM name , yeah , but I was like I feel like I need to add something to it , right . So , and then one of my friends you know like I have friends from high school and they still call me SRAM to this day , yeah and there was one day like we were playing 2K or Madden or something like that , and he was like what , you want to slam it up ? And I was just like , yeah , that fits , that fits .

Speaker 1

So I was just like slam it up , man . I love hearing people's origin stories for their names because that is crazy , thank you .

Speaker 2

Epic movie yeah , that's awesome . I kind of want to see that movie now . I might have to pull up in discord and just catch a few clips of it I don't know exactly where the movie is because I haven't seen it since right high school . Yeah , it wasn't a great movie .

Speaker 1

I you know what ? I kind of felt that , like I remember seeing commercial , I was like that might be a nice late night on a couch watch , but I'm not going on my way to say , yeah , you don't have to trust me . Gotcha , gotcha , that's

Content Creation and Future Goals

Speaker 1

dope . All right , let's go ahead and slide into our next section . This is , uh , we kind of spoke on this a little bit , but this is the current mindset in regards to your content now and kind of a little glimpse into the future . How do , what do you feel that you will be doing with your contents , like six months to a year from now ? Six ?

Speaker 2

months to a year from now . So right now , um , I'm starting to do sub goals , so my first sub goal , which I will be starting tomorrow , will be for if I get 50 subs , I'll be doing a Sailor Uranus cosplay .

Speaker 1

Oh , you're getting those 50 subs .

Speaker 2

That's happening , I know .

Speaker 1

I know it's going to happen For Twitch ?

Speaker 2

only the clips , only . I just want to be , I just want to have fun with it . Yeah , I want to be unapologetically me and for me . I really don't care what the public thinks . Like people are going to judge you like oh , you know , that's that and that's that . Like , bro , I'm just having fun , exactly like , if this is what the audience wants , that's what the audience wants , you know , it's not gonna hurt yeah , that's gonna be dope I just hope I don't get it the first day .

Speaker 1

Yeah right , they're going to be like all right game's over . It's two hours in . Where's the suit ? I'm like oh , I got to finish .

Speaker 2

I got to order it .

Speaker 1

Yeah , that's crazy , that's good , I think , sub goals I think some people jump in them too early . When they have like three or four people watching , they're like , all right , sub go . I'm like bitch , there's two people here like yeah , what's up , but there's no , you can't get your goal . But I like that . I like when I hear people saying , all right , I'm starting to move into that monetized mindset while having fun with it .

Speaker 2

That's how you do this right , but for more of the content I want to move into more skits , because I don't I'm not going to say streaming is , you know , going to last forever . Right ? Because I don't know how long I'm going to have the time to stream . I'm getting older . I mean , I'm sure 99 percent of people that I do talk to are older than me .

Speaker 1

Yes , but .

Speaker 2

I'm getting . I'm getting older and time is of essence , and my job is getting a little bit more demanding , right , especially working in TV . Yeah , so it's . You know it's live TV at that , so yeah . Oh , you know what it's a mixture .

Speaker 1

I would say is there any correlation that you see between your day job and streaming that kind of bleed over , or is it totally separate ?

Speaker 2

Well , right now at my job , I'm a motion graphic designer .

Speaker 1

Damn so all my alerts are designed by me . Dope . Okay , that makes sense .

Speaker 2

And yeah , there's a lot of correlation there , because I have templates for the way I design things .

Speaker 1

Yeah .

Speaker 2

So if I'm knocking these things out , boom , boom , boom , boom , boom , boom , boom , it's quick but it's tedious .

Speaker 1

I can only imagine , like I don't know how to motion graphics . So when I get in there I'm just fucking around and I get some at the end and I'm like all right , cool . But like I can't imagine , like you know what you're doing and you have a template and you can just like here's my idea , let me just iron through that and your shit looks clean .

Speaker 2

Thank you , I mean , I wish , I wish cause for me . I love anime , so I'm on the other side of of animation , which is just moving blocks and squares , where .

Speaker 2

I would love to be on the other side of animation , okay , which is just moving blocks and squares , where I would love to be , on the other side of animation , where I'm moving people , yeah , so I mean , you only can get one or the other . So , like I'm , I'm not . I'm gonna try to get over there , because right now I bought an ipad . I'm starting to learn how to draw , yes , but moving to animation , I don't know , it may take like 10 years to get there . We'll see , we'll see , we'll see , we'll see animation I want .

Speaker 1

I've been wanting to dabble in that too , like from a novice , like just more purely as a fan . I just want to see how it works , the back end . But , um , I've had some ideas of things that I want to do on stream . Like , even if it's a simple , this thing comes from this side of the screen , it goes to the other side . Like I want to be able to knock that thing out real quick and I think I hopefully this procreate . I forgot what it's called . I have to look it up .

Speaker 2

Well , actually , let me , send me a message one day we can work it out I mean say less , man , I'm gonna hit you up .

Speaker 1

I want to say have you I I hate ? Okay , I'm not gonna say I hate . When people have a large amount of talent , people always assume that they're selling those talents .

Speaker 2

So I give information away for free .

Speaker 1

I was about to say . I was like are you said ? Well , now , let's say , somebody came to you , was like I have an idea and I want to just pay you to do it would . Would you be up to that ?

Speaker 2

For sure .

Speaker 1

Okay , Just making you know yeah .

Speaker 2

But there's limits because I only got so much time , so I always preface this as like if you want something done in a week , go find somebody who's doing this .

Speaker 1

Yes , exactly that makes sense .

Speaker 2

But , if you're going to give me three months , I got you .

Speaker 1

Yeah , hell yeah but if you're gonna give me three months , I got you . Yeah , hell , yeah , all right , like that's fine , that makes sense and the fact that you share information .

Speaker 2

That's dope . Yeah , I'll point you in the right direction . I'll tell you what youtube videos to look at . I'll if I can do it myself well , I'll share my screen , do it for you , send it to you , and then now you know how to do it right , that's .

Speaker 1

Dope sharing is uh , you know again , like I've I don't have , like I used to have it skills , I dropped out of that shit . But when it came to like building your computer and all that stuff , I'm like I'm just gonna let you know how to do it like , because I don't want to build anybody's computer , but it's straightforward enough that I think most people can do it . They just need to get over the nerves . Like I don't want to break it . It's like you you can't . I mean you can , but it's hard to just fuck up your computer while putting it together .

Speaker 2

So I learned that . I learned that day . Well , I learned that I can't break it the hard way , because I'm sitting here shoving my my graphics card .

Speaker 1

Yeah .

Speaker 2

Yeah , yeah , I was like , oh , he needs to go inside this thing first , then you push it in .

Speaker 1

Yeah , so yeah , that's the thing . Like it still works . Yeah , it's like does that work ? Yeah , all right , bet it sounds like it's about the break when you put it in there . It's like like I don't know that's supposed to happen .

Speaker 1

Exactly , that's awesome all right let's go ahead and roll into lessons learned . What type of lessons again ? I asked all my uh content creator friends this , because it's wild the stuff that you learn from doing something that you love , whether it be personal relationships or like how to set a schedule , any of that shit . What have you learned , um , through streaming that you have taken to the real world ?

Speaker 2

take your time . Anything worth having is going to take time . You're not going to jump on the scene and get 30,000 followers just like that . It's going to take time . You're going to have to build relationships . You're going to have to work hard . You're going to have some sleepless nights , but if you want to get into content creation , take your time and no one's gonna find you in a day there .

Navigating the Streaming Journey

Speaker 2

Those are like anomalies . Most times when you see people go viral , they've been doing this for maybe a year , six months , three months . Usually no one ever blows up the first time . They start exactly now . They're like I said , there's anomalies that you know . Some people like oh this is my first video , I got 30 000 likes , right , yeah , it happens , it , it happens , it happens . But just don't expect that to be you . Yeah , you might have the greatest idea ever , but it may take a few videos before you know I get there . Or it may take a few uh , a few years before you get there .

Speaker 1

Just bide your time , enjoy yourself I think the important thing to remember is that is normal , like that's the normal path , like it might take a little bit , but if you know that going in , I think it makes it way easier to like get through those rough patches . You're like all right that didn't hit like it was supposed to , but whatever , I learned this x , y and z , I'm gonna put it into the next video . Man , yeah , I wish I think when you first start , especially in streaming , when you are only streaming to like two people for seven months on end and you're not really doing anything to fix that , like you're not reaching out to other creators , you're not like trying to build a community , it is easy to be like well , I guess I'm not supposed to do this and just fucking quit . But , like you said , take your time take your time .

Speaker 2

It's not . Rome wasn't built in a day . Neither will your community be built in a day I'll let you buy that mom like I mean you could buy it , you know they'll pop into your chat when you , when you're , when you first start , they'll pop into your chat . When you first start , they'll pop into your chat . Hey , buyfollowerscom , exactly you can do that . It's not going to work for you . It ain't going to help . You can do it .

Speaker 1

It'll look cool for that hour .

Speaker 2

Yeah , when you reach out to companies and they see you got a bunch of bot accounts , they might fight for it .

Speaker 1

They might not We'll see . Yeah , I think that's the thing that people don't realize , Like hey , yeah , your numbers are inflated , but companies know how to see who's watching you . And we're like oh , these are all bots , we're good .

Speaker 2

They'll watch you for days at a time .

Speaker 1

Yes , also , you never know who's watching you . That's the exciting part about streaming . That was my next . Oh , go ahead , I'm going to let you rock . Go ahead , you do it .

Speaker 2

You never know who's watching . Because there was one time I was playing a Plague's Tale and I was playing and I was like , oh man , I can't wait for the next one . I can't wait for the next one . I apply to get on the creative program for the next one yeah with the day , the day the game comes out . I was like man . I knew they wasn't gonna send me a code . Open my email code sitting right there waiting . I'm just like yeah I can't believe they actually gave me the game right like crazy because I I was so ready for the second one .

Speaker 2

I've been hyped since I finished the first one .

Speaker 1

Yeah .

Speaker 2

I was just like man , this is crazy . And I think there was an indie game that I was playing and the creator comes into my chat and was like oh yeah , I'm glad you're enjoying the game and blah , blah , blah , blah and I'm just like this is great .

Speaker 1

That's awesome , like you're playing a game and the person who made it is in here chatting with you . I would have lost my shit .

Speaker 2

You see what I'm saying . So it's just like you never know who's watching . Just have fun with it . It's going to be a difficult journey . It's not the easiest journey , but just have fun with it . And , last but not least , be careful of the friends you make . Everybody on this platform is not here to be your friend unfortunately , and that will not have to learn the hard way .

Speaker 1

I don't know how you learn that like you , gotta go in .

Speaker 2

I learned well , that's the reason why I took my year break okay , that makes sense every , yeah , everyone's not your friend . You find your close ones , stick to them and , you know , still watch everyone closely . I mean , you never know , people's hearts change all the time .

Speaker 1

So just be careful . Hell , yeah , I like that . And something that you just got to remember no matter how long you've been doing this , it's always good to just check in . Honestly , it's good to check in to see who's around you . The people that I call my closest friends . They still rock with me . They still see the vision that I see and I still see the vision they see . Cool , we can still rock with each other . Outside of that , it gets dicey .

Speaker 2

One thing I did see on Twitter , though I'm not going to say the creator's name , but it's okay to have business-to-business relationships with other streamers . It's okay . You guys are on a business-to-business level . You guys don't have to chop it up . You guys don't have to meet . You guys don't have to do anything . You could be in your chat and you guys could be in each other's chat Cool , or you could just be in their chat . Not everything has to turn into a friendship .

Speaker 1

Exactly . I'm glad you said that , because that's where my mindset is always . For some reason . If you came to me and was like , hey , I just want to do this podcast and never want to talk to you again , I'd be like I get it , you busy , blah , blah , blah . But I think people's feelings get intertwined with this too easily . When those situations hurt , I'd be like , oh man , I thought we were super cool and super dope . I was like , nah , bro , I think he was just we had one conversation .

Speaker 2

Exactly , we had one conversation and that was it . We can't be super cool off of one conversation .

Speaker 1

I barely know you Exactly . That conversation was dope , but we have to have more . We need to build that rapport , god damn it right .

Speaker 2

We had a conversation two years ago . How are we super cool yeah , we talked about .

Speaker 1

We talked for 20 minutes , bro what . I don't remember that conversation .

Speaker 2

I'm not , I'm being , I'm being honest , I don't remember that shit I have , I have , I have shits longer than 20 minutes , like I wouldn't say that to them .

Speaker 1

Yeah , that's right , but you know , yeah , like , come on man . Oh my God , Yo , that's funny . Wait , did we ? Was that lessons learned , or did we just bust through words of advice ?

Speaker 2

That was lessons .

Speaker 1

No . No , it was a mixture . We started with some lessons and then we bled into some words of advice , but it all is , honestly , it's all the same . It's shit . Did you learn why you were doing this ?

Speaker 2

Yeah , because I mean , obviously you know your lessons learned turns into advice , exactly .

Speaker 1

If you know if you're sharing enough , like some people be hoarding information sharing .

Speaker 2

Enough like some people be hoarding information like , yeah , I don't . I don't like the hoard information , because information is key to everybody's growth . Agreed yeah , hoarding information it'll stunt your growth because someone might know something you don't know now you're . You guys are holding the information against each other yeah , like for what ?

Speaker 1

making each other's lives harder for no reason ?

Speaker 2

exactly like someone , someone on twitter . Funny story I was on twitter and someone had a you know calypso . Right , the drink clips . Yeah , yeah , yeah . Someone had a calypso bottle . I was like and then blurred it out . It was like , oh , this drink is so fire I'm like why would you do that ?

Speaker 1

why are we gatekeeping calypso ? Oh my god , it's for everybody , yeah .

Speaker 2

So what's going to steal your ?

Speaker 1

calypso . Yeah hey , I don't want y'all to know what this is . I'm gonna blur it out , so y'all don't buy it all it's calypso , relax , we know oh damn all right . Well , that's that . Shit's hilarious . I don't know where can the people find your content , where are you streaming at and what's your schedule look like nowadays ?

Speaker 2

I'm streaming on twitch . Uh schedule is mondays and fridays at 9 am . Uh subject to change . Just letting you guys know now . Subject to change . Things are coming up up . You know , I don't know . Yeah , also , you can find me schwemming up on most platforms Twitter , instagram , twitch .

Speaker 1

Yeah , yeah , I mean are you in TikTok as well or not ?

Speaker 2

Yeah , you can find me a schwemming up on TikTok . It might have an underscore or something like that , but you , you'll see . You'll see the same picture on every single one .

Speaker 1

Yeah , nice , keep it consistent .

Speaker 2

Show it up on YouTube . That one is a little bit different , but it's going to change soon Probably . Probably like right after this , it's going to change Hell yeah , hell yeah .

Speaker 2

Show it up on YouTube . Show it up on YouTube . I have a whole series of God of War , the first one and half a series of . If you guys are interested , you can go ahead and watch that . Don't feel pressured . No one's pressured . I'll find my way back into the YouTube scenery some way somehow . But yeah , that's pretty much all my information there alright , get to it on all the platforms .

Speaker 1

Just do a search and more than likely it's going to be him as always if you haven't already subscribed to the podcast , do so , upload and unfilter .

Speaker 1

It's on Apple Music , spotify , youtube , alexa , a bunch of other podcast directories that you can just throw your podcast into . It's there , so share it with your friends , share it with your co-workers . Most importantly , share it with other creators

Importance of Shared Experiences

Speaker 1

. I think these conversations that we have are important for us to just hear other people's experiences so we can , a tell that we're not going through this shit by ourselves and , b that all people go through this stuff and we all get through it . So keep that in mind . Um , but , as always , yo schwam , thank you for doing this . It was fun , as fun as hell . I knew it was going to be , but thank you , I appreciate it .

Speaker 2

No problem , no problem , I'll see you on that TechN .

Speaker 1

Oh , hey , say less , don't get me started . No , me and this podcast before I start talking about TechN . I appreciate y'all for listening . As always , protect your mental , keep creating content and I will talk to y'all in the next one peace .