Permission To... show up LIVE!

They say fortune favors the bold. So what are you waiting for? The right time? The right sign? The right guide? The thing is, Movement Maker, you were never meant to follow anyone else. You were destined for something bolder and braver and truer, and you know it. It's time for you to write your own damn permission slip. You have permission to dream big. Not that you need it from us. Fortune favors the bold. So what are you waiting for?

Yay!

Oh my gosh. Hello, hilarious, hilarious.

How are you?

I mean, can we, can we just talk about how I'm so close to getting everything working? We're like, oh, so close.

Wait, that was— that's what's so beautiful about this, honestly. And you'll do it a million times and then you'll mess up one time and you'll do it a million times. And that was great.

Well, thank you. It has been true for me all along the way that I'm not afraid to show up and try publicly. And it doesn't bother me when it doesn't quite work out there because you know this about me, but perfection is not the goal. What a relief.

What a relief.

Well, welcome Shelby, we're so excited that you're here. Uh, thank you for joining us on the Permission Slip Podcast. Let's start, let's just dive in together. Oh, here's what I want to know, okay? First, first, tell me about— I know this already, but tell everyone who's listening and watching. Who are you? What do you do? And why are we here today?

Yes, yes, I know that question. I'm always like, how do I answer this? I mean, like, you know, so many different things to us, right? Especially as women, I feel like they're— it's very layered. But I am first and foremost a livestream producer. That's how my career has taken off, and it's so fun. It is so fun. I'm not used to being on camera. I'm usually behind the scenes listening to brilliant people talk and making notes and making sure all the things do all the things right. And I'm not used to being the one talking. So yeah, it's a little bit, a little bit different for me. But for the past 4 years, I've been behind the scenes of livestreams. Specifically, um, Coffee with Kim was my first client and my first, like she got the Kim Kalp is my initial client who got the option to go live on LinkedIn. And we were like, okay, let's figure it out. Let's figure it out. And we joined StreamYard. We got StreamYard and we joined one of their very first calls. Like we were like, it was like from the ground up, like they were still building all of the things back in the beginning of 2020. And it's been so fun because I've been able to grow with StreamYard and then also been able to, um, like see the progression of the shows. And then I've slowly like had more clients and had more connections and like, I don't know, it's that funny thing where it just kind of snowballed in the best way. And it's, I love it. I love it. Love it.

Yeah. Your story is like many people's, I think, a story of a need, a needed pivot. You know, like 2020 hit and you're like, okay, how do we, how do we continue to pivot? And, and the LinkedIn Live opened up this new avenue for you, and now that's turned into your thing.

It's my thing, Sally. I didn't know it was going to be my thing, and it's my thing.

I love that. I love that because at some point Just to underline, when we talk about the permission to show up live, you as the event producer, I mean, here you are, you're, you're live, you're, you're on camera doing the live, but you had to give yourself permission to step into this space and say, you know, this is a slice of what you were doing before, and how do I hone in and focus on this one particular thing? So I am, as somebody who I've gone live every week for the last 4 years myself in some capacity or another, and I know that it's super important for all of us as entrepreneurs, changemakers, people who want to connect more deeply with our audiences. And I just want to say thanks for all of the little bits of help that you've been sending Erica and I as we are getting this particular live stream underway. I'm new to StreamYard. I've been an Ecamm person.

I know.

The last many years and StreamYard.

That's a big shift.

It's a big shift and there's pros and cons, you know, and, and I would love, let's hear from your perspective as somebody who's been deep diving with people into how to take this art form, this particular way that we can show up in speak and serve our audience. What do you, what do you find so valuable about live streaming just in general? Let's start there, and then I want to talk about StreamYard in particular because that's your expertise. Okay. Okay.

So first of all, I have to say hello to my friend James. I know him because we've been in live stream, like we're either in the comments or I've joined his and he's just, yes. Hi James. Good to see you.

Hi James.

He helps me with my garden, so this is why he's cool.

I'm like, interesting, lemon balm, onions, catnip. I'm like imagining him snacking on these. He's brilliant.

I'm like, what? Brilliant at his garden. And so anyways, anybody who needs— like, that's not what he does, but we do love it.

I love it. Well, welcome, James. We're glad you're here.

I'm glad you're here, James. But genuinely, some of my best friends and my favorite people have come because of live shows. Not even live shows that I'm Shelby on, right? Like, it's that I'm producing or I'm in the comments of. And it's a different way to show up online where you're connecting with people in real time. And we're not doing that enough. And yes, we all do the Zoom thing and we will meet with people sometimes, and that's great, but It's a way to connect with your audience without having to be tied to your phone that I love because I noticed when I was posting content, I would post it and then it felt like a chore to go back and respond to the comments. And then sometimes I was like with the kids, so I didn't give the thoughtful response that I wanted to give. And like, I love that live streaming is you block off 30 minutes, an hour, and you're connecting with people in real time. You are having conversations. And you're creating a depth to your relationship versus a reach, right? Because a lot of social media is like, let me get in front of all of the eyes of all of the people. Like, that's what we're trying to do on social media. But on live streaming specifically, I love it because it's, let's get deeper. Like, let's deeper— deepen our relationships, right? It's not all about, let's you know, see how many eyeballs we can get in front of.

Yeah, beautiful.

I genuinely think there is enough of social media.

Yeah, there's something special that happens when you gather together. It's sort of like back in the olden days of TV shows, right? When it was like Thursday night must-watch, must-see TV. That's how old I am. I was like, oh, there's Friends, and then ER at one point, which is like, oh my gosh, Sally, that was the former century. That's fine. But we, uh, there was something about what happened when we gathered together and we all experienced it in, like you said, in real time together rather than everything happening asynchronously. Now, I— what I think is so cool about a live stream and the role that it can play in your business is yes, there's that initial moment where we're all here together, but then it also lives on. It— so you have the benefit of it being a consistent piece of content in your business that lives, you know, that, that central pillar piece of content each week that people can consume in all kinds of different ways. But we also have this first kickoff live experience where people can show up and respond and ask questions and really be with us in the moment.

So, and I don't know about you, but when I'm like, when I'm doing a video, like I'm recording the video to post the video, I overthink it so much. I re-record. I like, I'm like, oh, that was a weird thing I said. I'm gonna do this again. But when you're live, like, you, you're live. You just got it, you— and then later on you watch it back because you're like, oh my gosh, I said something so cringy. And you watch it back and you're like, oh, that wasn't that bad.

Like, it's fine.

Yeah, it's good.

Beautiful.

I call it overthinking out of, out of producing content, I think.

So, well, no matter what, I mean, I was like, we're going live at 11:30 Central Time, so I'm like rushing in and just got my hair done. It's beautiful. Thank you, thank you. The curls are really strong right now. There's no retakes, as James just said.

Absolutely.

I was like, we're showing up, we're pressing go, and we're doing it. And, uh, I call it the power of hashtag show up anyway.

It's like, yeah, I love that. Yeah.

And I think you're right, the pressure sometimes of the, uh, you know, even having the opportunity to do it again, to re-record tends to play with our heads a little bit. And this way, it's— we, we show up real, we show up as we are. Not that we don't show up with a plan or we aren't intentional or polished about it, but our goal is truly to show up and be in the moment and allow for whatever's going to happen is going to happen. And I think there's magic to that.

Mm-hmm.

Don't you agree?

And, and I love that you can't, because I've been behind livestreams where people have said things that they were like, oh no, I shouldn't have said that, or whatever. And I love seeing people in real time in those situations. And sometimes it feels embarrassing for them, maybe, but for me it's always like, oh, there's the human. Like, that's the human. Like, we have so much content online. That's perfect and polished and edited and the emojis and the fun things and all of the things. But when you get somebody like, oh whoops, shouldn't have said that, or like, oh my internet froze, and oh man, like all of those imperfections, they— I don't know, I just think it's, it's a fun way to see people online.

So yeah, yeah, real, real authentic. I think we are craving that as a people, a especially the more that AI plays a role in our businesses and all kinds of great things with that.

And in content creation. Yeah.

But how do we maintain that level of real humanness? I was like, livestream, livestream plays a particular role in that. I think that's very cool.

Okay. And I, oh, yep.

No, you go, you go.

Yes, please. Because I've been thinking about this idea. Because I think people who are really good at what they do, they're not good at social media. Most people who are really, really good at, maybe it's like consulting or it's, I don't know what it is you're, that you're really good at, you're really passionate about, you're probably not spending time learning the trends and doing the things, right? So then they go, okay, I'm going to hire a social media team because I'm not promoting myself well. So they hire a social media team, but the social media team doesn't have your expertise. So they can only make content guessing at what you know. But when you get both, when you marry both and you have a livestream where you're the one speaking the goodness, but then you have the team learning from you, then that team can take that content that you've shared in the livestream, produce other content that's actually your voice, actually the things that you've taught, and make it look nice and pretty and all of the things. They still have a place, but they can use that, your voice, your style, to make it make more sense.

You know what I mean?

Yeah.

Beautiful. Beautiful. Okay, so here's what I would love to hear from you now as somebody who is a recent I wouldn't, I wouldn't say quite, I'm, I'm not quite a convert yet to live stream or StreamYard. I'm using it. I'm using it. I'm figuring it out. I've come from the world of Ecamm and I've loved Ecamm for lots of ways, but it was keeping us from, as a team, as a Permission Slip team, producing this in an efficient and effective way. And so just that alone was like, okay, we're shifting over to StreamYard. So I'm curious from your perspective, what, what are the benefits in particular to StreamYard that you're noticing and seeing? Um, and you feel free to use this as a, as an opportunity to kind of even show me, okay, what I could be doing. Like, I can play with stuff. We can, we can make it happen.

I can touch the buttons. Is that what you're saying? I can touch the buttons.

Yes, you touch the buttons. See what happens. I can't wait.

Okay. So first and foremost, like, love this overlay that y'all have created, this whole situation. So I love— so I always tell my clients that we need 3 overlays. We need one for when we schedule the broadcast and when we start the broadcast, because if you'll notice, when you go back on your stream on your LinkedIn, instead of seeing the really cute thumbnail that your team has made that you scheduled the broadcast with, it usually will show the countdown video. So you're not getting that cute thumbnail. But if you put that thumbnail in your overlays, you start your broadcast, make sure all of your places are connected properly, and you start your intro over, or your intro video, and what shows up on your LinkedIn and other places is gonna be your cute thumbnail. Which we all want the cute thumbnail to live on, right?

Cute thumbnail for the start. Yes.

Yes.

Okay. So you have— I do have a cute thumbnail. I do have a cute thumbnail.

I saw your cute thumbnail. And then two, you've got this cool, like, situation here where you're either promoting your guest, promoting yourself, promoting a conference, whatever it is. You got this situation while y'all are talking, where you have a QR code, you have information, whatever. And then at the end, you should have some sort of ending overlay. So again, think cute thumbnail, but saying like, oh, if you want to talk to Sally Koering Zimney Zimney, scan the QR code. Or like, if you're interested in going to the Permission Slip Conference, here's, here's the landing page. That's our, okay, the ending overlay, right? Okay. And then, okay, you're playing, you're doing—

so how about this? Like, so this beautiful right here.

Yes. That would— oh, before you hit— you're good. Yeah, I'm gonna play. Okay, you got it. Okay, but as you could see, we're not muted. So you put that on, you start your stream, then you do one of these, one of these while you're talking or whatever, or one of these, and then, um, at the end it's something similar to this. But not this.

Okay.

Something that says like, you know, and then you enter blah, blah, blah. Right. So it's a lot more like, A, you can control it because it, you're not having to worry about starting the videos at the right time because when you don't, it's just this, right? It's not, it's fine if that's what they see. Right. And then at the end say, I hope this never happens to you, Sally, but say something goes wrong. And your internet fails or the guest internet fails, you have an ending one that you can put on when you're like, oh crap, like this isn't, this isn't going anywhere, we're done. You put the ending one on, you end the stream, and everybody goes, oh, I must have missed it, whatever, instead of seeing like a frozen face or like, yeah, some weirdness.

Oh my gosh, okay, so that's what I love most about StreamYard.

Okay, let me see. I started doing an intro video. James said, I started doing an intro video because of Coffee with Kim. Loved that.

Oh, very cool.

Okay. And I love your intro video, is so good. I love that permission slip conference thing. So anyways, that's my favorite thing about StreamYard because there's a way to make it look professional and you can kind of save yourself if anything goes wrong.

Beautiful. And things go wrong, right? James just said, that's happened to me. I lost the internet. Things go wrong. It's— I— to me, part of it being a live stream is we are opening ourselves up to the potential of real life happening. I love that. I, I find that way more interesting and fun and exciting than your, uh, perfected, overly edited podcast where you're like, we know they went through and took out— right now with AI, with a click of a button, you can take out All the, um, all the—

yeah, yep.

Which is—

I really think that it is great in the right setting, right? Because say that's like, I don't know, say you're Google and you're going to post something, like you don't want to have something that's awkward and weird, right? But as a personal brand, as an entrepreneur, I think that this is the easiest way to produce content consistently because you're going to show up anyway. You're going to show up every time that you have this thing scheduled. And then you're also not going to edit it. You're not going to overthink it. It's going to automatically post whether you want it to or not. You got content out there today, Sally. I got content out there today because it, it, it did the thing, you know?

Yes, yes, yes, yes. Okay. So you just explained a beautiful benefit to StreamYard in particular. I pointed out that StreamYard allows team members on the backend. To duplicate and produce this. And you as a guest, like, you have access to the back end of what's happening here in the studio as well, which I think is really cool. So it's not just me doing this. So when Erica is here with me, sometimes we do this together and we have— there's 3 of us in the studio or 4 of us. It's not just me who's producing the event. I happen to have a StreamYard expert here who can do her thing too, which is really, really cool. Okay, so I know this is all sounding like a StreamYard ad. I, I have no, uh, you know, links for you on StreamYard, people. Yes, yes, yeah, we're just, we're just talking StreamYard. Uh, so, uh, from your perspective as a producer, a StreamYard pro. Can I call you a StreamYard pro?

Nobody's ever called—

is that a thing? Is that a thing? I don't know. Do you have a link for StreamYard?

Yes, I do, I do, and I can share it if you would like it. Anybody, please reach out. I do have a link for StreamYard, but I think I will tell you the reason I love StreamYard is because I've been on— literally 2 weeks ago I was on a podcast We had 250 people RSVP. We went live and it didn't connect and I was panicking. But my host, amazing on screen, cool, calm as a cucumber, right? We realized, okay, it didn't connect properly. I'm like, StreamYard team, help me! And immediate response. They're helping me. We're figuring it out. I got 180 of those moved to the correct other stream.

Wow.

And I was like, you know what? I'm counting that as a win. Like, not everybody made it over, but that's a huge chunk of people that made it over. And I was like, okay, happy, great, wonderful. Again, why I recommend having somebody producing the show behind the scenes that's not you, so that I could be the one that's like, oh crap, like, with the StreamYard team, with the LinkedIn comments, like all of the things.

Yeah.

And our host just cool, calm, and collected, totally fine.

And Yeah, yeah. Uh, I am playing multiple roles. Yes, but that, that's what I'm used to. That's what I've done for my whole live streaming life. Uh, but wow, what a dream to just show up and focus on being host and guest and not worry about all the pressing all the buttons. Okay, James just brought up a really important point. James, you're basically— the three of us are, are hosting this thing. It's so fun that you're here. It's so awesome. He says download the audio file from StreamYard and start a Spotify account too. In other words, very, very simply, you can turn this into a podcast, which is— we call this a podcast, really it's a live stream show, but we've got now— we're building a library of audio files that, yeah, that we can turn and use in lots of other ways. Okay, uh, Would you please, Shelby, talk to us about one of the things that you shared with us that I think is very cool about StreamYard, the ways in which you can take the recording of what you've done and really easily turn it into other kinds of content too?

Yes, so easy. So you end the stream and just like how James is saying, you can download an audio or you can download an MP4. So you have 20 minutes of MP4, meaning video content, and 20 minutes of audio content. They— and then what I love most about StreamYard is they have an option for Shorts and Reels, meaning when you go into past broadcasts, you say, I want to edit this as a Short or Reel, and it gives you like this cute little 1-minute snippet thing where you're not having a guest, what a minute looks like and how to do it.

Yeah.

And you just slide it along. And this is kind of a newer thing about StreamYard. They have a transcript so you can see exact words. So you're not guessing. Before I used to have to like zoom in and like make sure the audio file, like the— yeah, like the wave things wasn't cut off, right?

Yes.

But now they have a transcript where it's like, okay, I want that word to end after that. I want that video to end after that. Or whatever.

Amazing. Amazing.

So easy to repurpose.

Okay. I am assuming, Shelby, that as part of your LinkedIn Live course, oh my gosh, that we hear a little bit more about this. So tell us about your LinkedIn Live, what's happening there, because I'm so excited for you. Really cool.

Thank you. I was so excited. I got the opportunity. I flew out to California to record with the LinkedIn team.. And I got to sit there and explain how I use StreamYard. I explain the overlay thing. I explain mistakes that I've made, like what I've done when the power's gone out and like what, how you can navigate through those big like yikes moments of live streaming.

Mm-hmm.

And I explain like how to set up the account, how I schedule shows, how I share shows. And my favorite thing that I include is email templates for your guests. Because as you know, Sally, when you have guests on a show, it creates a whole other element of stress and organization. So I talk a little bit about that too in the course. So it's all of the goodness and all of the lessons learned. And honestly, I'm so impressed with the LinkedIn Learning team. They did such a good job editing it. And yeah, it's about an hour long and I promise you it's worth it. It's worth it to just know how to do the things. On the—

yeah. Um, I have to admit that I grabbed the course and then just like what happens to so many of us, I was like, I will get to that later.

Yes.

40 tabs later open on my thing. My husband this morning said to me—

I block off an hour on Fridays for the learning, for the things.

Beautiful. Oh, I love that.

In the same way. Anyway, your husband, sorry.

No, that's okay. He was like, Sally, if there was an epitaph or something for you, it would be, I start things. And that's pretty much it. And that doesn't finish the sentence because we just start things. I just start things. I'm really good at starting things.

Yeah. I started your course. But you have to be somebody who's really good at starting things. And then there's usually somebody who's like, hey, remember how you started that thing? Can you finish that thing? And I think we usually marry each other in this way.

Yes, that is very true for the two of us. And it's also true in my business. I'm like, oh, hello, Ashley, project manager.

Exactly. Because she's going to be the person who's like, remember how you're supposed to finish that thing? And you're like, yeah, I do, Ashley. I call myself a professional squeaky wheel because I'm like, remember? You were supposed to do the thing and you didn't do the thing. Now I can't do my thing because you didn't do your thing. And you're like, yeah.

Okay, well, this QR code right here has Shelby's course so that you can grab it, you can start it and finish it. Yeah.

Or you know what, Sally? I really did, because I'm you, I made it so it's like you can go like, okay, this is my problem. And LinkedIn probably doesn't want me to tell you this, but it'll be like, oh, okay, this is my problem. And this is like, Overlay, how to start my stream smoothly. I have a little chapter. It's a 2-minute video. You watch the 2-minute video. I won't tell LinkedIn that you didn't watch the rest of it. You know what I mean?

Yeah. Yeah. In other words, you don't have to take an hour to get what you need from it.

I love that on purpose for people like us because I am okay.

Hilariously, I just took a picture of my own QR code that I made for you so that I can start it again.

I love it.

I'm gonna start it again. And here's what's so great is, is, um, how it's, it's out there, it's available. So if you're watching this on replay, if you have— it's not— is there a time limit on this? Let me just say that.

No, no, there isn't. And I— whoever's watching No, you can send me a DM. I'm in the process of getting some free codes for LinkedIn Learning, all of LinkedIn Learning. So not only my, my course, but I'm getting a couple codes that I can share with you to access LinkedIn Learning for free. So if you're somebody who's like, I want to do this, but I don't have however much, I think it's like $30. So, but I get it. I've been there.

Yeah.

So message me because I will give you the goods.

So, okay, that's so wonderful. Well, Shelby, it has been really fun to have you on the show. I want to say thank you again for your generosity, and as you've been watching us do this, you've been really kindly just giving us a little nudge— try this, don't forget that, give this a go— uh, out of the generosity of your heart, and I really appreciate it. I know you, you work with a handful of our very good friends here at Permission Slip.

And who I've met because livestreaming is the cool thing, Sally.

Yeah, I know, right? You've met through and with each other. You were there with us at Permission Slip last December, which was wonderful to have you there. And we're just, we're fans. We're Shelby fans. Thanks for all the support that you offer, not just us, but everybody.

Of course. And I just have to say, the community that you've created and are continuing to create is so valuable, so huge. I'm a part of LaShonda's YouTube membership, and she doesn't know it, but I'm her best friend, YouTube friend, because she's saving my life. I love her. I love her content. I would not know her without you, without the conference. And the community just is been so helpful for me professionally. Okay, it's amazing, and I appreciate you because I know there's a lot.

Shout out! Shout— well, we love it. We are here for the community. That piece is so, so important to us. So, uh, I really love hearing about the stories of how, uh, relationships and connections and business ideas and new ventures get kicked off because of community when we show up for each other in community. So I love hearing that. Congrats on everything that's going on, Shelby. We are cheering you on here at Permission Slip. And one more baby thing before I let you go— I'm, I'm over by a few minutes, but we end the show by hearing about what your next big permission slip is that you're going to give yourself. What's the next thing that you're going to give yourself permission to do, big or little?

I was thinking about this because I was like, she's gonna ask me because I've watched live streams, your live streams. Yeah, I think permission, and this started at the conference, permission to take myself more seriously because I've always been the secondary income in our home. I've always been, oh yeah, you know, like at family things they'll be like, Shelby, what do you do? I'm like, um, pretty much a podcast producer, like, whatever. Permission to talk about my work differently, permission to take myself more seriously, and to show up, to show up and have these conversations because I love what I'm doing and I am doing a good job of it. Thank you.

And I have to stand up and dance every time somebody talks about their next big permission slip. Yeah, you deserve that. You are an expert at what you do, and I want you to hold that authority piece for yourself and know that it's incredibly valuable. And LinkedIn recognized it and said, okay, Shelby, come be one of our core teachers here to teach this. Oh, very cool.

It was very cool.

So sometimes, like, hopefully it doesn't take for somebody else to recognize our authority before we start to believe it, but sometimes we gotta take those cues.

Yeah.

And be like, okay.

It was kind of a slap in the face because I was like, no, you're right. I know StreamYard. I love StreamYard. I'm good at StreamYard and I can help people. And it's, it's been a good, good thing. A good switch in my brain that's happened, started at LinkedIn, continued at the Permission Slip Conference. And this year, 2024, I'm talking about my business and myself differently. And it's because of you. Thank you.

Major high fives. I'm so excited for you. It's huge. That's huge. We are cheering you on, Shelby. You're doing amazing work, and thank you again for joining us here. Yay! All right, everybody, we will see you next week for our Permission Slip podcast live. Everybody have an awesome rest of your day. We'll see you soon. This is where we go to win over— Hi everybody!

Yay!