truth or dare

Dare

I dare you to delete your account so you stop making useless forums

I dare you to make better posts.

But I think the funny thing about all that is, by the time I start streaming in 2016, I had to unlearn everything. People told me, "Anna, for streaming, all you need to do is just be yourself." But I didn't know what that meant! I'd just trained myself for years to be a professional presenter, to speak in a certain way, to come across very professional, and I was very proud of what I'd learned. Now people wanted me to unlearn that? I struggled at the start. I would come to my first streams with notes on what I'm going to teach. I considered it an online chess lesson, and I didn't know how to interact with a live audience that's just there to hang out. It took me several months to be comfortable streaming because I came from a very different angle of chess content. It was also hard initially to be suddenly exposed to online comments. I didn't have much self confidence at the time, and people picking you apart in YouTube comments or live chat definitely didn't help. But as painful as it was, it made me even more driven to train myself to be a better presenter and better communicator. One of the things people originally hated on the most was my voice, but now one of the most frequent compliments I get nowadays is how soothing and pleasant, "ASMR-like", my voice is to listen to. I still have the same voice, I just trained through reviewing TED talks, breathwork and mindset—I guess I can partially thank that to the initial haters!