“I’m a performer. I’m a comedian. I can make people laugh—in person. The live aspect is just best for me...So I always knew I, and I still feel this way, I always knew I’d be in entertainment in some way. I’m good at grabbing people’s attention.”

Some people are just amazing as hell. They have that je ne sais quoi that you just can’t put your finger on. Or maybe, you just don’t have enough fingers to count for the many things that make someone awesome. This is Twitch Affiliate streamer CtrlAltQuin. There just aren’t enough fingers to adequately express what makes this bizarre, Star Wars fanatic the woman she is.

When you watch Quin gaming and interacting with her viewers, it’s obvious she lives to make people smile. Her black girl magic just spills out of every orifice like glittery stardust and turns into vapor that seeps into her camera and mic, makes it way to your eyes and ears, and fills you with joy. From her Red Dead Redemption 2 RP streams with friends, her hilariously bad but sometimes on point freestyles, to getting real about mental illness and self love, there’s just something magnetic about her fun, honest personality.

I sat down with my friend, comedic and variety Twitch streamer, and video editing mad scientist, CtrlAltQuin to learn how she became a part-time streamer with a large and loyal community without losing herself.

GNL Magazine: You've been a streamer for almost two years now. Made affiliate within two weeks of deciding that it was something you wanted to do. What steps did you take to become an affiliate?

CtrlAltQuin: One of the first things I did was I knew that like, I dunno, how do I describe this? Like I knew I wanted to be a streamer or content creator and I thought to build my audience all I had to do was mimicry--is mimicry a word?

Yeah, mimicry is a word.

Like to be a streamer I [thought I] had to mimic how other streamers were. Not necessarily their content but also I— in the first week I learned I need to…I can't just show up and play a game. It's actually hard to stream—like to learn how to talk to yourself talk to about the game about or whatever you're doing is how you really grow an audience.

Like I remember that first week. I literally thought I could just show up. Like I'm like "I'm just gonna turn on my PS4, I'mma play my game. If people come in I'm gonna talk to them." That's how easy I thought it was. And I was very, very wrong.

I'm in a lot of twitch streaming groups and so many people really think that it's really THAT easy.

Then, the second week, that's when I changed my structure. I remember wrote down on my notepad alright I'mma play this game that day and that game this day, I'm going to talk about the game, etcetera. I'm going to talk about the game while I'm playing it even if there's noone there to talk to me and that's like one of the hardest things. Like when no one's talking to you, you have to like really learn how to get over that hump of--like I have to bring that same energy--I have to be as entertaining as if I had 20 people or if I had like negative 20 people. I just--that's a really hard thing for streamers to learn. Some people can never get to that point. So I would like practice talking to myself in the car and stuff a lot.

That’s so true.

But umm, that first week--I think I talked to you! I was like "I don't think I can do it. That first week I was like "this is hard". But then once you let go of trying to mimic behavior and make your own content and like just be yourself, and like I know people say that all the time— "just be yourself" that's how easy it is. Streamers be like, "it really is that easy."

If you are not a loud person then don't force yourself to be loud. If you're not a quiet person, don't bring it down. If you aren't a big chatter and just wanna play games like then do that as well. Like your people - your audience--they will find you.

But one thing that I feel like really sticks out, when you, like, look at people's streams, and I'm pretty sure we've had this conversation, you can tell when someone's not being genuine with themselves.

Yeah, I remember that convo!

Fucking audience—like when they're not being their real selves, it shows. All over their face, the way they talk and stuff. Like that's how my early streams were. I was too apprehensive to be myself because I was trying to be an idea of a streamer, not actually streaming what I wanted. I was trying to make streaming a personality trait. Not necessarily something that I want to do. Your personality--you bring THAT to streaming. You aren't a--streaming is not a personality. A streamer is not a personality trait. Does that make sense. That makes sense, right?

“And I’m good at improv and just coming up with stuff. Right on the fly.”

Yeah. You can definitely tell when someone's being authentic and when someone's trying to be someone they're not. So what steps did you take to become a Twitch affiliate?

As far as the steps I took to become affiliate, I showed up and I talked to people. I didn't do like self-promotion or anything and I know a lot of people say "You gotta tell people you're going live" and that's still something that I don't do well. 'Cause I just don't--I dunno. I just always feel like an inconvenience when I'm like "Hey everyone! I'm going live" or I'd just tweet it. Like the only place I would promote it was my Discord. But when I was becoming affiliate, I would just tell my friends. Like I looked at my goals and I was like, "Hey, I need 5 people to just be here this week." You know, "Come to my stream. Just show up. You don't gotta watch. I mean it would be nice, but like…I'm trying to do this." And I stayed consistent. You have to be consistent.

Yeah, consistency is key.

And then--the 50 followers were the hardest part for me. And I've--now knowing what I know about followers and stuff, a lot of people always say, "Oh well women grow faster on Twitch" or whatever, as far as followers go and stuff like that, and I'm just like, Hmmm, it took me a while to get to 100 followers. Like you could see that in my panels. Like I didn't like 100 followers until like the end of August 2018 or something. I think. I didn't just pull out followers like crazy. And I know there are some dudes who've been streaming for longer than me who haven't even hit 500 or something like that. The followers is definitely the hardest part of the affiliate grind. And then people will unfollow and it's like trying to grow those numbers and it's hard.

What would you say has been the same from your first day of streaming to now?

I feel like the only thing that I've had since day one that is common on Twitch is perverts and trolls. People in my DMs. Since day one. No matter how many followers I had, like the first week I streamed I had DMs just full of creepy people. It's really, really bad on Twitch.

Oh yeah. The creepers, honestly, is one of the reasons I know I won't be able to be a full time streamer. The way my anxiety is set up--sheeeyit! Hahaha. What made you decide you wanted to stream? Like why was this the path for you?

Live streaming--well, I've been making YouTube videos and cutting and editing videos since I was in high school. Like I was always into content creation. EDITED content creation—like YouTube videos and such. That's just the way my brain works. I'm such a frantic, hyper person. It takes a lot for me to--like I have these ideas I wanted to create, but to get to the point where I was like editing regularly and planning out my creative vision, that way is really hard for my ADHD.

So, what worked for you is setting goals and following through, being consistent, and being authentic. The magic ingredients. But it took you a while to start actually start.

I’m a performer. I’m a comedian. I can make people laugh—in person. The live aspect is just best for me. So when streaming became accessible, like I used to stream gameplay on Ustream back in the day but it wasn’t successful at all. It was just trying to find my niche—not only as a streamer but as a comedian and trying to be an entertainer. I always knew I, and I still feel this way, I knew I would be in entertainment in some way. I’m good at grabbing people’s attention. And I always had it in the back of my head, “I’m gonna start streaming on Twitch one day. I’mma start.”

I've just always been putting it off--like taking it seriously--getting my schedule, you know, for so long, because of everything that happens in life and I was just like at the perfect place in my life to just to start it and stick with it consistently. But I've always been a funny person. And I'm good at improv and just coming up with stuff. Right on the fly, as you know.

You can catch Quin’s shenanigans live on Monday and Wednesday at 7PM EST and Friday at 8PM EST. Stop by, say hi, and tell her Flowerz sent you.