the power of livestreams

Hello, everyone. I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and leadership coach. I am so excited to be here today with Chris Hennessy, who is the. The live stream king, as I call him, who is also the owner of Firebird Studios. We just had a fun little scheduling glitch. I. When I set up this whole stream, I put it on the wrong date, and so we were like, why? Why isn't it so hopefully you're able to find us wherever you are, if you're watching the other one. Anyway, Chris, thank you so much for coming here tonight.

Yeah, thank you for having me. I'm sorry. I was trying to get. I was trying to get you. Get us pulled up over here.

Oh, fun.

And then it wasn't muted, so I had you in my ear in two places, and I was like, oh, gosh.

Yeah, that's confusing. And then you're like, oh, gosh, she's talking to me. So we actually haven't spoken except for. For the 10 minutes that we've been kind of.

Yeah.

Catching up before this. This is like us making friends right here.

Right here, live in front of the studio audience, man.

Yeah, I know. The pressure's on.

Oh, boy. No pressure.

I know the topic is like, you know, the power of live streams and. Hi, Mehmed, welcome. But I want to hear a little bit about your background, because, you know, I find it fascinating that you do ministry work on top of doing production work.

Yep. So just for anybody that doesn't know or know me, I did a few years in prison. I got out in 2016. I came to work at the company I'm at now later on in that year, and you have to. For. In Texas, you have to be out 18 months before you can go back in. So as soon as I was out 18 months, I went through the training, and I actually go back into the same prison that I did most of my time on. So the guys that I did time with that are still there, get to see me coming back in, you know, in free world clothes and hey, Will. And just show them that, yeah, you can get out and be successful. You don't have to get out and still be stuck in the same old patterns and the same old things you were doing. You got to change your people, places and things, and you can do it. If I can do it, you can do it.

Yeah. That's amazing.

Yeah.

Like, I mean, there's so much impact in that. First of all, what's the impact on you being able to do that?

It's. It's it's really great. Like, you know, the volunteers used to say all the time, like, I know y' all are blessed by us being here, but we're blessed by being here, too. Like, y' all are blessing us. And it really is, like, just to see. Be able to answer questions, you know, like, what's it like? This, this, this, and this. You know, some of those guys have been locked up a long time. When I got locked up, the iPhone one had just come out. When I got out, the iPhone 7 was coming out. So, like, when I got locked up, nobody had a smartphone. Everybody had a Motorola Razor. So just think how much technology changed in those eight years. Yeah, I know, right?

I remember I had one.

Yeah, we had Motorola Razors and ipods to listen to music on.

I had a. I had a boyfriend who had a BlackBerry.

Yeah.

Blueberry. Yeah.

So just to be able to answer questions about, like, what the world's, like, what to expect, and just tell them, you know, that label doesn't matter. Like, yeah, you're going to get a little bit of flack for it. Yeah. You might have to check the box when you go in for a job interview. But don't get discouraged. There are places out there that are second chance friendly. You know, they're felon friendly.

Yeah. 100%.

So.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's great. Like, I love it. I love it.

Well, I love that because you're like, in both senses, you know, in your work with live streaming and your clients and in doing that kind of ministry work, you're giving people for full permission to be seen.

Correct.

You know, and it's like a deeper level meaning of, yeah, you're doing the thing, but, oh, my God, like, what a beautiful gift to be bring to the world.

Yeah. And that's the beauty of live streaming. Like, I got into live streaming because. And I. I talk about her all the time. Like, she's one of my original LinkedIn connections. She helped me so much when I got on the platform. That's Amy Wills. Yeah, I do, too. And I just got off a zoom party with her. Like, she. She's one of my most favorite people in the entire world. And I saw a live she had done with Josh Krueger, and I was like, hey, that looks like fun.

Yeah.

So I just started, like, I. I just applied for LinkedIn Live, got it, got on Streamyard and just started just like, you know, like you do with anything new. Just kind of started waiting through it and figuring out. Then I started following people that were in the live Stream community like Travis Lockner and Gabrielle and DJ Durante and all those people and just watching their streams and just looking at little things they would do to make it look good.

Yeah.

And, and I got really interested in it and I just, I fell in love with it because it's such a. I can't even talk enough about how much I like it. But it's such a community building tool.

Well, that's good because that's the topic.

Exactly. Yeah, it's a topic tonight. It's such a community building tool. Like we were just talking about backstage. You and I have never met before, so, like this is our first time and that's the case with like 80 of my guests. Probably is. I've never met them. So we just talk, we hang out, we talk about what they do. We may talk a little bit about me, but then you've got audience participation and the, and the chat's lit. And, you know, I've met some really cool people in the comments of other people's streams and we've become friends. So just the community building aspect, not even talking about yet the, the business side of it to, you know, just the, the, the options for like live Q&As and like, like you do you go live and talk a lot about business stuff and then there's people that are asking questions in the comments and I just fell in love with the whole side of it and just, you know, kind of started geeking out on different things I could do to, to make my background look better. Just little things. Like I just, I get geeked out on it.

Yeah, well, it's amazing. And I just want to underline everything that you're saying to say yes, yes, yes.

Let me slow down a little bit because once I start talking. Give you a chance to chime in here.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, we have Andrew.

What's going on?

Andrew, welcome. And hi, Will. And unfortunately you are showing up as LinkedIn user, but I'm guessing you're from the south because you're saying y', all.

That is Amanda Knight. Yep.

Is it okay?

Yeah, she is from the South. She's from Alabama.

Okay, fabulous. And then we have Will. Hello. And then Mehmed, I'm not sure if you're still here, but you need, you need a profile picture.

Yeah, I know. The little gray ghost ain't cool, bro.

I know, I know. Anyway, so while we were talking a little bit backstage about the differences in, in live streams, I know I go live a lot by myself. You do mainly interview style.

Yeah.

You know What. What do you see as the pros and cons of both?

I don't know. Like, I. Like, we were talking backstage. Whenever one of my guests has some technical difficulties or their kids start screaming or the dog's knocking stuff over and they have to run off or they have to go out and come back in or whatever, and I'm stuck there for a few minutes. I really kind of, like, free up because I'm not real good at just freestyling.

Right.

But in. In a case like yours where you're. You're showcasing what you do and, you know, you're giving tips and tricks and thoughts and, like, whenever you go live by yourself, like, do you have an agenda? Do you have notes of things you want to talk about? Are you straight up freestyling?

I'm mostly freestyling. I have, like, literally, I'll do a post it note like this of the notes that I want to say, but that's it. Those are the notes that I have, which is apparent sometimes when, like, I. I talk about one thing and I start telling a story, and then I forget my point, and then the audience sometimes, like, is like, oh, I do that. Are you talking about this, or were you talking about this? And then it becomes like a scavenger hunt for Katie's thoughts that, like, went away.

I'll think, like, my guests will be talking, and I'll think of a question, and I'm like, okay, when they get through with that thought, I'm gonna ask them, and I'll be like, all right, so. And then there's this awkward silence while I'm trying to collect my thoughts. And it's this whole thing. But that's the beauty of it, man. Like, people laugh at that stuff. All you can do is laugh it off, you know, like.

Right.

Just accept it and move on. But speaking from, like, a talk show style, like, what I do or interview style, it's a great way to highlight people in your network. And people notice when you're highlighting other people.

Yeah.

It kind of comes back around on you.

Yeah.

And, like, I was talking to somebody that's into, like, network marketing. I've got a lot of people, a lot of friends that are with scout and seller wine. And so, like, I was talking to her about that, and I was like, hey, if you ever talk to any of your people about, you know, I know y' all are on all different kinds of social media trying to sell wine, like, doing it live, like. Like having a guest on and do the proper way to do a Toast or how to open a champagne bottle with a sword or just do some really creative stuff and then you open it up to the guests that are going to have questions about it and it just becomes a really great way to showcase what you're doing. And a lot of people are, you know, they grab, they're like, man, I don't get any reach with lives. There's only like 10 people watching. But those 10 people are invested in that moment of what you're doing.

Yeah.

And they're going to remember that. And even if they don't use your services, they're going to be like, hey, and I've got a really cool story about that that I cannot even begin to tell you yet because she hadn't got an official offer letter. But there is a really awesome story. Like when it finally I'm able to talk about it, it's going to be just an amazing testament to the power of a live stream.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I find, you know, it's a little funny when I get on the sales call with someone and I don't know who they are because they haven't commented or liked any of my things. And they're like, I've watched all your lives and at this point I think it's like 40 something hours. So it's like, yeah, doing a Netflix binge on something that has several seasons.

Yeah.

And it's like, whoa, we need to get you a Netflix account. But this stuff, like you go live, it stays on the Internet unless you take it down, you know, so you're creating this access for people to kind of like get to know you in a way that's very passive.

Correct.

And it doesn't like, it doesn't require vulnerability on their part, you know, especially if you're doing some work that is a service where people have to trust you and like get on the phone to sign up. You know, it really creates that, that ability to have a relationship. And then of course, people who watch you and are like, hell no, I hate this person.

Right.

Before they waste your time.

Yeah. Or your. Yeah, exactly. And that's why, you know, a lot of people say you have to do video content on LinkedIn. It lets your personality show. And it's even more so on live streams because, you know, you can take a video and edit it and dress it up and polish it and do all cut out the. And the oz and the awkward silences and all that, but when you're on a live stream, like there's no editing anything. No, everything is there for everybody to see. So they're going to see the real Katie and the real Chris or whoever your guest is. Let me ask you this. Do you stream to YouTube too?

I do. I stream to Facebooks, to LinkedIn.

Okay.

Twitter is now a thing.

Yes, I saw that.

I think I only have like two Twitter followers.

And that's if I don't leave anybody with anything else today. Like Jennifer Brick told me this last year, you gotta stream to YouTube. Yeah. Because that is if, especially in your case where you're doing a lot of one on one coaching and stuff like that, if people have to look back through months and months of LinkedIn posts to see your live streams, they're not going to do it. No, stream it to YouTube. You don't have to promote your YouTube channel. You don't have to do anything, but you can give them that link to say, hey, go look at this.

Yeah, you want to get to know me? Here you are.

Here it is, right here. Like, I don't do anything on my YouTube channel. I don't promote it really. You know, I don't try and make the videos monetized or anything like that. But it's there if anybody wants to look at it in a very organized fashion.

Yeah. You know, also if anyone is doing any virtual speaking, which I've been doing through the pandemic, or even in person speaking, but that right there, if you're, if you're streaming consistently and you, you're kind of on the same talk track as your signature talk or whatever workshop you're running. I mean, if people need to see a reel and you really don't feel like doing a reel, you can just send them a link to something like that, you know?

Yeah.

Birds with one stone.

Exactly.

I just wanna say hi, Tavita. Hello, welcome. Hi, Citadeno. I think I'm pronouncing your. Your name correctly from Brazil. And Tavita.

Yeah.

Amanda Knight. It's possible you're LinkedIn privacy settings.

It is. And I have a screenshot of the setting you need to fix to do that. And so. Okay, I'll DM it to her. Yeah, Restream.

Because we want to fix this. We want to know who we're talking.

Yeah, exactly.

Amazing. Well, what. So you mentioned that you have a couple tips and tricks that you do to, like, make it look a little more high level, highbrow. What are those tips and tricks? I noticed the lights behind you.

It is. And those were just. I just got those. And actually Amanda Knight with Cities Purpose got those for me. I've opened up my show to sponsorships, which is something you might want to think about doing if you're interested in it. Like, you know, for every X amount spent, I plug their service or whatever on the show.

Amazing.

Yeah. And I've gotten some really cool stuff over the past month by doing that. I have an Amazon wish list. I can send them the link and they can get whatever they want to off of it, or they can cash at me the money, and I'll get it myself either way.

That's amazing.

Yeah. It's really like. I don't even know how I came up with that idea, but it has been a godsend because I've gotten some really cool over the past month. But, like, my lights are just two. They were 22 a piece. They're just two. Let's see if I can do this without messing things up. It's just a little LED light, and I used a command strip to put it up there. Yeah. You can change the colors. You can adjust the brightness. You can do them independently. If I was to play music through my phone through the app, they do crazy stuff with the music, but just little things that are cheap that you can do to make it look better. You can get one of those neon lights and throw it behind you and shine it on the wall. And it just adds a color background. Like, it's just little stuff like that.

Yeah.

To. To level it up.

Yeah. It's almost like. I know you didn't do this because you intentionally. Because you had this set up before we got on together, but it's almost like we did the pink and blue on purpose.

Yeah. And actually, my office, though, I'm in my office at work because at home, my Internet is terrible, and there's no way I can stream. My office is such a terrible color. Like, if I turn the lights on, you can kind of see it. It's like an orangey brown, and the walls are. And the top part is a cream color, so that's actually blue and orange.

Oh, no kidding.

Yeah. Like, there's nothing. No. No Other colors look good. Blue and pink or blue and orange.

Yeah.

Everything else just looks terrible back there.

Well, great colors for you.

Yeah, exactly. It works. And it's better than the little ugly orangey brown.

Yeah. I think we. I think we agree little touches can be fire 100. It's funny. I actually have. I ordered a custom neon sign that says, stop being a weenie in Brighton.

Nice.

And it's upstairs in my guest room. And my dog ruined the carpet up there. So the room is super echoey until I get a new. Yeah, it's like that is going to be my background.

That's going to be awesome because you.

Know who hates terrible. Who likes terrible sound on a video?

Yeah, nobody. And that's another tip like invest in a microphone. Yeah, yeah, invest in a microphone. Your webcam microphone or your default one on your computer is not gonna. Yeah, it's not gonna cut it.

Yeah.

If you're gonna live stream, it doesn't have to be an expensive microphone. You know, you can get a decent one for about 80 bucks or something. Like they're not terrible. And it's a game changer.

Right. Or you can have someone sponsor and buy.

You can have someone sponsor you. Yeah, I just got a new badass webcam that I can actually adjust the field of view on it so that my old one was a wide field of view so you can see the corner and the closet door that's right there. And it just looked terrible, you know, like it was just. But you can get, I mean you can get started for 100 bucks you can get a 35 webcam. You can go get a 40 mic and a ten dollar ring light and hit that live button and go I.

So two questions. Okay, so do you repurpose your live streams?

I need to. That's part of. And I haven't found a video editor yet but I haven't been looking real hard just because I'm not interested. I don't. I could do it if I took the time to mess around in it. I don't have any interest in messing around with video editing. I'd rather get hit in the mouth. But I need to do that because you can take. And that's another good tip is you have an hour show you can pull. That's going to be part of the one add on packages for my clients. Yeah, is you know, it'll be a monthly retainer and then for an extra X amount per month you. You'll pick out up to you know, four or five clips a month over the however many shows. We'll pull it out, edit it, polish it up, put captions on it and then give it to you to post is micro content. Travis Lochner is the king of doing that.

That just frees up so much bandwidth and I think oh, you froze for a second there. I was like I'm going to have to riff. I got this. Well, it just frees up so much bandwidth for trying to come up with content. Yeah, you, whatever your platform is yeah.

You'Ve already done it. You just talk to somebody for an hour.

Right.

Like, surely you can pull two or three two minute clips out of that.

And post it, hopefully.

Right. But I mean, there's, there's, there's stuff there to use, you know?

Yeah, absolutely.

You don't have to worry about filming because it's already done. And if you don't want to get fancy with it, you can take the video, throw it into captioned or something, you know, something a free app, put captions on it and post it.

Right.

Essentially raw, without all the fancy stuff on it. And it's still content, it's still micro content.

Right. You know, honestly, a little hack that I do is if I have a video that I want to, you know, use on some platform, I'll go into Instagram stories because they auto caption if you put that little ad in, really what I'll do is I'll save them and it's kind of complicated, but I'll save them and then I'll turn them into back to a normal video. But it has the auto captions. Right. Then takes like five minutes.

Yeah, yeah. There's all kinds of tips and tricks and hacks you can do like that that are cheap or free.

Yes.

You can do it for really cheap, y'.

All.

Like, you don't have. And I'm saying this as a producer, like, you don't have to hire a producer to do it, but if you want to get started streaming, like, I'm gonna advocate for that all day long before I start pushing my services.

You know, that was actually, that leads perfectly into the comment I wanted to make. Is that one of the biggest fears a lot of my clients have before they start streaming? And I had this too, when I started. It's like, well, what up? What if, what if I embarrass myself? What if I say the wrong thing? And I mean, I know my take on this, but I'd love to hear yours.

It's gonna happen. I mean, happens. So my first couple of lives, I got on there and I had absolutely, absolutely zero agenda. I got people I was close to, like funny people. Like, I had Trevor Hansen and Jacob Schwear and Aaron Westridge, Amy Wills. We all got on there and just hung out.

Yeah.

That way I could get over the initial of hitting that live button with friends of mine.

Right.

Like it was nothing but a hangout session.

Right.

So that I, I tell people that, like, if you've never done a live get on with somebody you're comfortable with what you can talk to. Don't have any topic you want to discuss, like, absolutely nothing. Just have fun with it. Play around with stream yard or restream or whatever it is that you're using and just. Just hang out and do it. And if you don't like it, you can delete it later. But you've. You're practicing.

Totally. Yeah.

Then when you get ready to start doing it for business or whatever your goal for streaming is, you're used to doing it. You're not trying to figure out Streamyard while you've got a guest on there.

Right, Right. Yeah. No, it's. Well, I'm a big advocate, you know, if you're not used to streaming, go on Facebook. It's all people who know and like you already. People from high school.

Yeah.

You know, you can screw up there. You can delete it. The only time when I was starting, I would get nervous, like, if someone that I went on a date with, like, ended up. I like, oh, my God. Like, yeah. But my, you know, my take on it is also, you know, we're human 100%.

People do business with people, not with perfection.

Yes. And when we screw up and we show other people it's okay to screw up, it makes okay for them to screw up. It just eliminates all that shame that can come up.

100. And it shows your personality and how you handle it. And if you freeze up, not that it's bad if you freeze up and get nervous at all because you're live, you know, there's two. You know, in your first live, you're gonna have, like, two people watching. So don't freak out about that either. Like, but it still is that, oh, my God, I'm live right now. Yeah, just do it. And if you mess up, like, I did a test stream last week for There's a new software. And speaking of technical difficulties, something happened last night on that, but there's a new software called EVMux that is really, really cool. They're in the beta phase, so it's like a bunch of. It's still glitchy.

Right.

So I just got on there with DJ and no agenda, no nothing, and just played around with the settings and we were live as hell on three different platforms. But there was nothing to mess up because that's what we were there for.

Right. Right.

So if you do that as your first couple of streams, then you don't have anything to worry about.

Yeah, totally.

You know.

Yep. I just want to say hi, Stephen Doyle. It's a handsome Picture of you and LinkedIn user Amy Darren and I did that with regular zoom call during the Sadie's Purpose fundraiser last summer and it was great. Lots of content ready to go from just the great conversation. Oh, this is the repurposing.

Yeah, repurposing. That was. They did that just with a zoom call. They recorded the zoom call and then clipped it and posted it.

That's amazing. Yeah, that's so great. And then Will. Will's right there with you with getting some awesome things to upgrade his, his look. So what, what has been like the most surprising thing I know you mentioned, like build a community. What is the most surprising thing in growing your business and doing more live streams?

Growing, Growing the business is a slow process. Like I just launched it officially. I launched it in November. Then I was like, you know what, I'm not even gonna push this through Christmas. Like I just. Because I took the month off from streaming, so I really started kind of pushing it in January. And I haven't picked up any clients yet, but I've still been trying to figure out like how I want to market it and who I need to be talking to about it. Right, because you can't do it to the average Joe like me that just started streaming. They don't have the money for that. You know what I mean?

Right now you need to work with people who already have one on one clients and who are looking to scale into something program and they need more eyes on who they are. And then you start building that. I'm sorry, I'm just going to start giving you advice.

No, I'm listening. Yeah, because like live webinars are great and you have people there, but if you're doing it live on social media and you're multi streaming to different platforms, you're getting more eyes on you.

Right.

For sure.

Right.

You may have 10 people in your webinar, but you may have, between the platforms you may have 20 or 30 or more, you know, just depending on. On what's going on.

Right.

I don't know what the most surprising thing has been. I haven't had any huge surprises. I think really the most surprising thing is like when I get on calls with people because I do a lot and I just started charging for this or started telling people I was charging for this. Getting on a lot of calls with people and just kind of walking them through how to do step by step. If. All right, you don't want to pay a producer, that's cool. Like, I get it, everybody's got a budget so. And it would. It would be with friends of mine, but you don't really know how much you know until you start having to teach it.

Yeah. Right.

And so that is what surprises me. Every time I have to teach somebody something, I'm like. Because, you know, imposter syndrome kicks in, and you're like, man, you don't know what the hell you're doing. You've been streaming for a year. Like, how the hell do you know what you're doing? And then you start teaching people and you're like, bro, yeah, I know a lot more than I think I did.

Yes.

Like, you can freaking do this, you know?

Yeah. Yeah. I think it's so easy when I. I think you're like me. Like, I pick up things super fast, especially, like, technology. If I'm working my way through it, I figure out what works best, and then I create the system in my brain. And then unless I'm teaching someone, I don't realize that I've kind of developed a new super superpower.

Exactly. I had somebody DM me three or four weeks ago, and they're like, hey, do you have a list of best practices for live streamers? And I was like, no. I mean, it's in my head, you know? Like, I don't have it on paper. Like, it's in my head. I know what I do, and I know what works. But you don't really realize, like you said, until you start telling someone.

Right. Which, by the way, I mean, that's a great lead magnet.

Yeah. Yeah. I don't have. I don't have a best practices. You can pay me, you know.

You.

Can pay me, and I'll tell you what's in my head.

Yeah, absolutely. So people want to work with you. What's the best way to do that?

Shoot me a DM on LinkedIn. Okay. I'm really not on any other social media. I probably should be. I'm on YouTube in Twitch. But like I said, I don't do anything with those. Shoot me a DM on LinkedIn. I did a post today. It's got my.

My.

My phone number, my email address on it, but a DM is probably the best.

Yeah, you're gonna get weird calls in the middle of the night.

Yeah, I know. And I post. I made this flyer for my friend that does the wine stuff for her to post in some of her groups.

Huh.

And then I posted it on LinkedIn, and I was like, oh, my phone number's on there. Oops, I should have taken that off.

I think I think it would be a different oops if you were a woman.

Yeah, that's true. Yeah, guys don't get nearly the creepazoids that y' all get. And it's sad to say, like, the only. The only weird women I get in my DMs are the scammers. Like, I don't ever get anybody just, like, giving me unsolicited, you know, boo picks or anything like that. I'm not that lucky.

I know. Well, it's like, it's, you know, men, I don't think would complain as much as women.

Yeah, I know that doesn't make. It's. It's such a double standard. But that doesn't make it right, you.

Know, I don't make it right at all. And I laugh a lot, you know, just to help them. Crying over the whole.

Exactly. You gotta laugh to keep from crying about it. Oh, my God, not another one.

Oh, my gosh. Oh, Will, have you checked out descript for repurposing video?

Nope, I haven't. I use a. Like, I make all my intro videos in it, and I've made some for other people in Wave Video, and they've got a video editing tool in there that I just need to play around with and do it because it comes with, you know, my subscription to it. Somebody else was telling me about descript, though.

Never heard of it. I'll have to check that either.

Yeah, I will, too.

I know. With all my free time, you know?

Yeah, I know. That's what. With all the free time I have.

I know. After this, I have to go film like 15 TikToks.

Oh, wow.

I know.

So like, whenever you're doing that mini. Whenever you're batch producing like that, do you, like, change your shirt or whatever so it's different?

I do, but honestly, like, I don't know, like, this year is like the year of not sexy. I have this. This sweatshirt or this shirt I bought from EL Bean. I have seven of them in four different colors.

You posted about that, didn't you?

I kid.

I remember that top.

And so, like, all of my tick tocks until it gets warm are going to be this. And then I have to figure out my warm weather outfit. Yeah, I'm like, I'm not making decisions on clothes. That is the hard pass for me this year. I can't do it. There are too many things I have to decide on. I can't waste the green space.

Right. Like, that's the way I am too. Just in general, like, at any given time, you're going to see me in a gray hoodie and it might be the one I wore yesterday, because I wore, I wear them like a jacket, you know, like, but.

Right.

That's me. I'm not gonna make the decision.

I know, but I think, I think people, like see hoodies differently than shirts.

Yeah, they do.

You know, they're like, the shirt has to at least be a different color.

Right.

I can't like do two purple days in a row. I have to do a purple, a red or blue and then I can back.

Right, Exactly.

We are coming up on our. Well, we've just passed our half hour. I know. That's what I promised I would love to hear. In closing, what are your final words of wisdom for someone who's hoping to do some live streaming?

Just do it. If you've been thinking about it, just do it.

Yeah.

And you know, I don't mind getting on like a 10 or 15 minute call with someone and just kind of like put him at ease or whatever. And I, I, like I said, I have a package where if you want me to walk you through it, help you doing everything from making thumbnail graphics to intro videos to best practices, I can do that too. But if you don't want to do it, I mean, if you don't want to do any of that, that's cool. Just do it. Just absolutely get on and do it. And like, I don't even mind getting on a 10 minute call and giving you a quick walkthrough on how to go live on Streamyard just to get you, get you going, get you doing it.

Yeah, I mean, that's. Luna agrees with me. That is so generous. And I, Yes, I, I love that. Because here's the thing. If everyone waits to be ready to do it, you're never gonna be ready until you're gonna be ready sometimes.

Yeah. And if you want me to go live for, with you on your initial live, just to hang out and troubleshoot with you. Like, I don't mind doing that either. Like, just hit that go live button and do it. Like, if you think you don't have a voice and you think you don't have anything to say, you really do. And there's so many different formats. Like, Katie goes a lot solo. She does monologues. Gabriel does a lot of solo stuff where he just gets on and talks. He'll talk for an hour and a half by himself. And I'm just like, I don't know how he does it. I know.

I, I feel bad for people if they have to listen to me more than like 25, 30 minutes. And partially because I jump around a lot, because I'm a little ADD and you guys keep up. I don't know.

Like, I've, I've tried to do a 30 minute show and what I've found is like you peak somewhere around 15 to 20 to 30 minutes is going to be your peak viewers and then they kind of start dropping off after that.

Yeah.

But once you get going and once you build a following, and I hate to say that like, like on anybody or you're any, you know, but once you build a following, people get used to you and they love your show. Your viewership will stay consistent through the end of whether it's 30 minutes or whether it's an hour.

Yeah.

You know, I used to start off with, when I first started streaming, I'd have, you know, four or five people on. Now I'm somewhere between 10 and 15, which is really good for a live stream. Like even some of the big names don't get. But don't get. But yeah, I'm from Texas. You know, like Travis Lockner, he's great and he has some awesome stuff, but he may only have 20 or 30 people on his stream.

Right.

So, you know, if you're hitting 10 and you're finishing with six or eight, you're doing really good. Like, don't get discouraged by that at all. Like, that is 100 normal.

Yeah. I have a question for you on this. Sorry, I know we're like, no, you're good. I'm diving back in. So on mine, like I'll have like 10 people commenting and eyeball will have a zero next to it, but I know there are people watching, so.

Yeah, mine does that too. And it does that. I noticed that it was different when I started streaming to multiple platforms.

Right. And I've always streamed to multiple platforms, so.

And I started off just streaming on LinkedIn so that I always have LinkedIn up on one monitor and that's where my main audience is. And then on my eyeball on the dashboard, it'll have how many people are watching. I think on the other platforms on YouTube and Twitch.

Got it. Okay.

I'm almost positive that's what it is. I'm not. And like on Restream, you can pair so your guests can connect their Restream account and you can stream to their social medias too. And when it does that, that little eyeball is all kinds of messed up.

Yeah.

Because it doesn't know how many it's like. Yeah.

Flunked out of elementary school and doesn't know how to do math.

Exactly.

Okay, fabulous.

So I always just. I go by what's on the LinkedIn side, as that's how I gauge my viewers.

Okay, great. That's such a great tip.

Yeah.

Okay. I'm learning stuff. All right. Well, Chris, thank you so much for coming.

Thank you for having me. I enjoyed it.

To hang out with you. Yeah. And for everyone watching, if you are thinking about doing live streams and getting into it and you're not really sure how you want to talk to Chris, Okay. So you're going to DM him and he's going to help you get on your way and. Yes. And for any business needs beyond that, come to me. Yeah. Let me see. Oh, that's you. Hi.

Yeah. Julie.

Julie, thank you.

Kenny will be live with me on May 16th. Isn't that what we said?

Yes.

Yeah. That's still like, two months away, but, yeah, he'll be live with me in May.

Yeah. It'll be right before my birthday. Right before my birthday, before I go to the UK to hang out with Leah Turner and that whole crew at her party.

Really? Oh, rubbing shoulders with the big wig.

Yeah.

Well, that'll be a blast.

I know, it's really fun. I'm so excited. Anyway, thank you so much for doing this with me. It's been a pleasure.

Thanks for having.

And thank you to everyone who's tuned in. Andrew, Chris, Will, Mehmed, Tavita, and if I'm missing anyone, I apologize, Stephen and Julie. Anyway, I hope you all have a great night and we will talk to you soon.

Bye. All right.