Who are you and what kind of content do you create?

Hi! My name is Sarah aka Sizzsarz, and I am a Full Time Partnered Twitch streamer from London. I have been a streamer for 5 years, with 4 of those being full-time. I always get asked how I came up with the name Sizzsarz, it basically is short for ‘Sizzling Sarah’,  a nickname I gave myself when I was 10 years old at a sleepover, I drew a poster with flames around it and everything, really wish I still had it!

I am a variety streamer, which means I play all different types and genres of games. One day I can be shiny hunting in Pokemon, the next I can be screaming my way through a horror game. I love to play games that I really enjoy as I believe that when the streamer is happy, so is the audience.

Let's go down memory lane, tell us your backstory! 

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When I was younger I went to University to study Film and Television, and after graduating I got my first job at a TV Shopping Channel. I used to be a Studio Floor Manager, so I was responsible for setting up all of the live shows and had to stand next to the camera whilst the show was live to ensure everything ran smoothly! 

On paper it sounds like a very exciting job, but in reality it was 12 hour shifts on your feet and a lot of pressure, I knew I didn’t want to be there forever.

I have always been a gamer and was playing a lot of World of Warcraft at the time but never really had anyone to play it with, thats when my partner suggested that I try Twitch, if I started streaming I could meet like minded people and potentially make friends to play with.

I remember my first stream, I was so nervous, even if there was only a couple of people there, I barely spoke and I was so rigid!

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Soon I began to overcome my nerves and realised I truly loved streaming, when I had to go back to work I longed to be in front of the screen again. After 6 months of streaming, I quit my job and decided to go full-time whilst I looked for more work. 5 Years later I am still grateful to still call this my Full time job, my community is incredible with their support. I get to wake up everyday and live my dream, I am so lucky.

How do you brainstorm ideas for your content and your advice in getting the creative juice flowing.

I love to plan special event streams, mostly when we achieve certain milestones ( x amount of followers or subs for example) or whether its special incentives for Charity streams, I love to see the community enjoying everything I had planned.

I try not to take myself too seriously, so anything silly involved I’m all for it, you will very often see me wearing a crab suit or putting temporary tattoos all over my face.

What are the tools and platform you use to help with your brand?

Social Media is a huge part of streaming, a lot of people think that you just play games and that’s it, so much work goes on behind the scenes.

Having a large presence on instagram and Twitter can seriously impact your growth on stream, it is super important! So whether you are clipping and posting funny clips from your streams, or networking with other streamers, it’s great to put yourself out there!

What were your fears starting out? How did you handle it? 

I was super nervous when I first started, and even now, all these years later I still get anxious if I am doing a big Charity stream or special event stream. I think it’s completely normal to be nervous, it shows that you care about what you do!

Unfortunately being on the internet means that you can be subjected to online abuse from trolls, and at the beginning I did find it hard, but getting older and focusing on creating a positive community full of wonderful people really helps, I have a zero tolerance policy in my stream, you will be banned if you break those rules. ‍

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How did you build your brand to where it is now, take us through your process.

So I started with one monitor, really bad internet and a headset microphone. Slowly when I started to build my community and realised that people actually enjoyed my stream, I began to upgrade my set up. 

Back when I first started on Twitch there were a lot less streamers than there are today, so I grew quite quickly, hitting 2000 followers only after a couple of months. Everyday I grew in confidence in front of the camera and soon started to build a community of people, some of which are still in my stream today.

For someone who wants to get into content creation, what is your advice?

I get asked a lot about what my top tips are for starting out streaming! 

My main advice is to always pick a game that isn’t over saturated with streamers (Fortnite for example) as most people will not scroll all the way down to the bottom of the list to watch someone with 0 viewers.

My second piece of advice is to provide content that someone would want to watch, this one sounds obvious but it’s surprising how many streamers will sit there looking bored, not talking, and just sit in silence playing the game. Now don’t get me wrong this works if you are providing top quality gameplay, but you are there to be someone’s entertainment, so be entertaining! Even if there are no viewers in your stream, practise talking to yourself, or if you can, get a friend in discord to talk to during those quiet moments!

My last piece of advice is to

Enjoy yourself! Streaming is not a ‘grind’ it’s meant to be fun!

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So get out there and provide great content and make friends!

How did you finally commit to X platform rather than your regular day job?

I decided to go full-time after 6 months of being on Twitch, I wasn’t happy in my job and thought I would go full-time for a couple of months while I looked for a new job, I had savings so I knew I would be ok if I didn’t make a lot of money for that period.

Tell us your best milestones in being a content creator.

I have had so many amazing highlights during my streaming career! 

Becoming a Twitch Partner was honestly one of the best days of my life, it is such a wonderful feeling knowing that Twitch believes in your content and all that hard work has paid off.

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