Our New Friends and Autumn

This year we are taking part in Blogtober. This is where we publish a post on the blog each day for the month of October. We are mostly following a list of prompts to give us an idea of topics we can choose to discuss each day. The prompts we are following do not include today’s topic but I really want to cover it.

Leisa and I are so lucky to have each other that any other friends we have just seem like ‘added bonus’. We don’t have very many close friends but we are happy with the ones we do keep close.

The friends I want to talk about now are the friends that join us every day (Sunday to Thursday at 6 pm UK time) for what we call Happy Hour on YouTube. It’s the hour that we most look forward to every day and we just know before we even go live that it will be a lot of fun and laughter. Each day we usually have a selected topic that spurs the conversations and interactions. But even when we don’t choose a topic, the blend of characters just makes for a great one hour.

The early birds

The live show starts at 6 pm UK time but we decide to set up the video earlier in the day so that we do not have to rush when it comes near to the start time. This means that the comment section is open as soon as it is set up and these days we are amused at the conversations there. We do have to check earlier so we know what’s up. We made a joke one day that we only have seven seats in the front row so everyone who comes after that is in the back. Well, that joke has stuck and people now vie for the front-row seats. It’s almost always the same people but now and then a ‘newbie’ gets in and we have a good laugh about that too.

By the way, this is all done in fun and jest and I don’t think anyone is offended when they find themselves in the ‘back row’.

The feisty ones!

Of course, everyone is different and has a unique personality. Leisa and I think that we do have some feisty ones among us. There are males as well as females and we generally have a laugh about those interactions too. One actually wrote on one of our live cooking videos, that ‘one of you should hold the camera and show us inside the pot, rather than both of you facing the camera!’ How rude! Lol.

There are times too when we ask targeted questions and we just know that they won’t be answered. Hope we are not being too nosy! If we are, I hope they forgive us.

Those we hardly see!

I didn’t even know that this could affect us in this way. But when certain ‘usual long-timers’ are not on the live shows, the vibe is just different and we do miss them. We care very much about each other and the daily conversations make us feel sometimes like we know each other. Although there are only 3 or 4 subscribers that we have met face to face, it feels way more than that.

I really wish we could get to meet more of them. But we do use Streamyard sometimes to make the live videos and this allows people to actually be live onscreen with their audio and video on so we can actually put a face to the names we know. We are aware that this can be daunting for some people so we try not to push it.

Those with their own channels

A few of our subscribers are YouTubers themselves and we like learning from and supporting each other. That, we think, can only be a positive thing for all of us. When we all meet on someone else’s live show it is such a pleasant experience filled with cheering, jeering, and encouraging comments. We also use the opportunity to encourage the viewers to support the channel/s by giving the videos a thumbs up and also sharing with their circle of contacts too.

The assistant hosts

On youtube these days, you can assign some of your subscribers to be moderators on the channel. They can monitor the chats, welcome visitors, delete comments (especially if inappropriate) and basically run the live shows. We have assigned 10 moderators so far and it’s been interesting to see people take up their roles and ‘run with it’. One of our subscribers for example is very good at gently reminding people to ‘like up the video’. This means selecting the thumbs-up button so that the video has more likes and is therefore shared more across the platform. One of the moderators gives the sweetest welcome every day and tries not to miss anyone who enters the chat. We do notice all these little details and are grateful.

We are so happy to have the moderators as they each bring something different to the table. When we get an email or text or DM on Instagram and it is from one of these precious people… ah! It makes our day! Thank God for friends like these.

Every part of the world is covered!

We feel like such an international family and learning about our similarities and difference is so interesting. We love observing the interactions between the different participants so much! On our live shows each day we have people from Jamaica, The UK, the USA, Canada, Hawaii, India, St Kitts, Nevis, Bermuda, Kuwait, Holland, Philippines, Korea, France, Japan, and a few others. If you are reading this post and your country has not been represented here, well we are really sorry about that. You can correct that by joining our fun YouTube family by just searching JOLEISA. Click the subscribe button and also the post notification bell so that you are aware of when we post a video. Also, feel free to join us every Sunday to Thursday at 6:00 pm for our live chat which we call Happy Hour. It would be great to have you here.

So as Autumn is the ‘cozy weather’ season, we are privileged to have this growing list of friends that we can call our own. We sometimes imagine all meeting up in different countries at different times of the year but in person! Wouldn’t that be great? We would love that. And as we love to travel, especially if we find cheaper ways to do it, we are planning to work on something like that soon, so watch this space!

This is us on holiday with two of our lovely subscribers and our new friends. Oh, what a great week that was!