Community Showcase: Melissa Shoemate

Luis Malbas  
and development community. Thank you for joining us. We have a few folks in the live audience already. Thanks for being here. Another member showcase. So glad that we do these. And I'm especially glad that today we have Melissa Shumate joining us. I have some great and interesting questions for her. This next 30 minutes or so we'll be talking. And, and again, I want to thank the folks that are in the live audience. Let's see, who do we have here. Chris is here. Nancy? Vina, thank you so much. glad that you're here. So, Melissa, thank you, first of all, for being a supporter of TL DC and being part of the community, it's great to have you. And I'm really interested in your story. You are an RN, case manager, turned instructional designer, right?

Melissa Shoemate  
Kind of Yes, I went to management was the last thing I did before I went into learning and development. Okay, and I'm still aspiring to be an instructional designer. I don't know if I'll ever be confident enough to say that I actually am one.

Luis Malbas  
I actually hear that from veteran instructional designers like some of them, like incredibly adept at instructional design, they'll have no clue whether or not they're doing what it's supposed to be, you know, doing the work of an ID. And I'm sure that you are going to do wonderfully well, as an instructional designer, and you're probably doing the work already. So tell us a little bit about your journey. How did you you know, your your career began as a case manager. And then

Melissa Shoemate  
yeah, so I worked on the floor as a nurse. And then I had little kids at the time, I've been nursing since 2003. I wanted to be more available. So I came out to home health, I could be there more when the case management did that for a long, long time. Then in 2017, I went into actually managing the branch, a couple of branches, actually within Texas, Austin and San Antonio. But I found I really didn't enjoy the management part of it so much. I liked the teaching. And I just remembered I forgot that I very much have a bad country accent. I don't know I'm doing it.

Luis Malbas  
I don't think it's bad at all. I actually love it.

Melissa Shoemate  
And I'm like, Oh, I forgot about that. No, no, yes, I learned that I really didn't lock the part of having to do write ups and performance improvement plans and things like that. If it would have been an actual improvement plan top thing, yes. But you know, most employees just take that as a write up. So I didn't enjoy that part of it. I enjoyed the being able to teach on how to do it. At the time, I work for very large home health organization that went from Texas all the way up to I think Connecticut. And one of the staff educators told me about an opening because she was going to be retiring recommended me I applied. They were kind enough to offer me the job. And that's whenever I got into it, but I still had never heard of instructional designer. I actually used to get annoyed when they would call us lnd because I am a nurse. So I'm like that's the labor and delivery. So aggravated at that. But then the more I got into it, I learned no, that's an actual field. This has been around for a long, long time. They didn't just invent it. Yeah. And so that's how I got into it. And then a short little snippet to where I am now is I was actually laid off last August. That's when I learned how much I don't know. But it was so hard to get another job because I was very niched. Like I said I've been doing home health most of my nursing career so I know that like the back of my hand. And I didn't know as much of the learning and development stuff like I should have. So this past year has been you know, I see these people I'm a heavy on LinkedIn. I see these people rock these posts, you know, thank you for the experience. That is not at all how I felt that I was laid off. I bawled my eyes out, I flipped out. But it actually in the long run ended up being really good because it showed me what I don't know and I was freaking out. So I found this organization. It was actually the very first thing I found. And y'all were having a big like a week long thing where you were having just webinar after webinar all day long for the whole week. And so that's actually the very first thing I got into I learned who Karen North was and then that just set the set the ball rolling

Luis Malbas  
well that's all you need right there is just to know who Karen North is. So what didn't you know, what did you figure out? What did you find out that you needed to learn?

Melissa Shoemate  
So at first, I would see all these job descriptions talking about Articulate Storyline. And I had never used that my company at the time didn't use that. So I thought, Well, gosh, I have to have this to be able to be in l&d. And I would talk to a few people. So through Cara, I met Jonathan rock. He's amazing. And he was like, Melissa, you've got this, you've got the background. You don't have to know storyline. It's just a tool. And then, when I was trying to figure out what else can I learn, then I learned who Tim Slade was. And so he talked to me, pretty much taught me off of the ledge a few different times. And so that is where I learned more about the theory behind learning. And the science and I cannot think of her name for the life of me, I just recently ran across her. But she calls herself the pirate of learning.

Luis Malbas  
Yeah, that would be Lauren Waldman, I

Melissa Shoemate  
think, yes, yes, her and I just find it so interesting to learn all these things. Because, you know, for the longest time, I just would talk at these people and be frustrated. Well, why aren't they getting it? Well, because I'm just talking at them. And so as I learned more about learning theory and how brains work, I realized there's an actual science behind all this. Just because I know things doesn't mean that I'm qualified to go teach it to other people.

Luis Malbas  
Yeah, yeah. No, I love it. This that is so insightful. Melissa, it really is. And I think that it's something that a lot of folks need to hear, you know, that are probably in a similar situation, to where you're at. But you know, knowing like being able to talk to Tim Slade is a big deal, because Tim knows a whole heck of a lot. And, and, and, you know, to me, Jonathan rock is one of the best in the business when it comes to storyline. He's so creative, and such an interesting guy all around. So kudos to you for having connections to them. Um, so how about some highlights of your journey? So I mean, you've talked about meeting these folks, is there anything else in particular that has really helped you? As you've transitioned now I'm, you know, you're at the Centene Corporation. Looks like you've been there for since since April of this year. You are a clinical trainer now like, getting to that point? Is there anything that that stands out for you?

Melissa Shoemate  
Well, one other person that's wanted to mention is I wrote her name down, so I wouldn't forget. Dana, and I'm going to butcher the last name co calles. Again, found her on LinkedIn, I think LinkedIn is so great. But her last name is Koc, a li s, we were talking one day, and she gave me the greatest tip. Because as I was trying to really beef up my skills. And I would make all these personal projects, I was focusing too much on how they looked, which was also driving me crazy. I was highly aware that I was doing that. And she gave me the best advice, she said that she took a graphic design course. And she learned to actually build everything in black and white, and then lay in all the extras. So that way, you know, your content is there. That's, for me, LinkedIn, and getting to learn all these people has been the best. I wish I would have known about this, when I first started in learning and development,

Luis Malbas  
right. And that's actually one of my questions, too, is if there's anything you can go back to, to ask yourself, like, what would it be? And that's usually, I mean, that's one of the primary reasons I like doing what I do for TL DC is because as a culture, just l&d is just core to its core, it's about sharing, right, and educating each other. And so and there's so many people willing to do that. And so it's really actually easy for me to operate within the space, because so many people are just generous with what they've learned. So, so I'm glad that you're, you're taking advantage of that. But you were, uh, you were, you're you are actually a registered nurse, right? Yes. And so now as a clinical trainer, you take that knowledge, basically, you're an SME, and you bring that to your ability to train. I mean, how much has that helped you in being able to educate others because, you know, not all instructional designers are experts or have knowledge about the things that they're training in. But it

Melissa Shoemate  
was actually a hindrance at first, because I didn't know so much. I don't mean that the way that sounds not like, you know, all knowing and not the AWS but I've been doing it for so long, that I had gotten good at it. And I had been in management. So I remember as the manager being frustrated when my staff wouldn't know this or that. So when I would teach I would want to give them every single thing I could. So that way they could go out and conquer the world which is exactly that. The exact opposite of what I have learned that you should do, I actually keep a post it somewhere, here it is, that reminds me to don't get long winded. Not everything is important and to wrap it up, because you can't teach everything in one sitting. So that actually, I found being a Smee actually was not good for me. So in my new role, it's different from what I have done in the past. So I actually am not as me right now, I'm still learning, I've been doing a ton of learning. And I can see now what it's like to be a learner. And I think that's actually really, really cool. For the fact that I'm a learner, also, within learning and development. Does that make sense?

Luis Malbas  
It does. And I think that is, I think that is absolutely an important part of the whole thing. You know, all the instructional designers, the ones that I feel that are most passionate about this are people that just love to learn, period, you know, and I think just that, that need to continue learning about things, also helps them create good training materials. Because, you know, they're using their own experiences, you know, bringing things in to to be able to create things to help others. So, so absolutely, that's great. So wait, so you're not in essence, what are you learning about now that is different.

Melissa Shoemate  
So before I worked in home health, which was a totally different beast, as a registered nurse, there were certain assessments and things like that, that we would have to fill out that the, essentially the government wants you to fill out, and you had lots of compliance. So I knew that like the back of my hand, and where I'm at now is managed care, I don't really want to go too much into where I work at now, because they're very particular on me representing myself as them. But their managed care, which I've only been on the outskirts of, and now I actually am that managed care organization. So I'm having to learn the ins and outs of what managed care is required to do to satisfy the state rules and regs and things of that nature.

Luis Malbas  
So is there anything in particular in what you do as a medical trainer that you think is not? That would be different from what like, say other instructional designers might do? Like, I know, I can see like, Cindy is in the audience right now. Cindy, works for Belkin, who creates like, you know, a lot of incredible like, computer accessories, technology, accessories, just kind of different all around, like, you know, they create keyboards and mice and things like that I have tons of Belkin products all around me. How would that be? How would it be different for you as a clinical trainer?

Melissa Shoemate  
Well, if I was doing more hands on nursing, that would be more of what you're thinking of. So for example, my husband was actually I don't think he's still on, he's the see. He's a paramedic, he's also what's called an FTO, a field training officer. Okay, so that is more where you're doing the hands on care, okay. And so that's where you're taking someone that has learned all this stuff from the book, and actually applying it to a person. So that part is a lot more different. And that's not something that I really do anymore, when I was still working what I called the field because I would draft patients houses, and I was a preceptor. That would be me teaching hands on direct care, okay, but now what I do is more the paperwork side of it, so to speak. I mean, we still bring in, you know, that you need to make sure that you're advocating for your patients. That's a huge thing in any healthcare organization. I don't care where you're at, as a nurse in general, advocating for your patient is your number one priority. So that's, that's the most patient centric stuff that I do, but more in my job, it's more, this is how you do the different forms and here's how we meet this regulation. And it's more of the back end of things. Interest.

Luis Malbas  
That makes sense. It does it does. Is your husband, a trainer as well,

Melissa Shoemate  
yes, but he it like I said he works in the field. He's a paramedic, right. So he does the field training type stuff and select for example, not to make bring him into all this but like he will get notes sent to him that he needs to QA and then he'll discuss that with the different paramedics and EMTs. So that way, he can show them okay, you put this we really want to do this instead. Or if it's like hands on, like skills type thing for exam or in medicine, you can intubate somebody, that's where you stick the thing in someone's throat. To breathe for them? Well, I had a whole new appreciation for him. Because back in the day, I took what's called ACLs. And I learned I would break everybody's front teeth. If that was my job. This is something he does all the time. He's great at it, you would have no teeth. If I did it. I never could get that skill, but so he will actually do the hands on okay, this is what you look for. You want to look between the chords, here. That's what his top a job is.

Luis Malbas  
Wow. Wow. Do you guys ever collaborate on things?

Melissa Shoemate  
Yes, and no, it's funny nurses and paramedics. We're both hot heads. And so you know, he drives me crazy. I drive him crazy. But we all always tend to marry each other. So I don't know why that

Luis Malbas  
is. That is so interesting. Oh, wow. That is great. That's great. Um, how about this? How about maybe a challenging project that you've had to deal with? And I think just specifically, as you've been transitioning into, into a different level of instruction designer, as you've as you know, maybe over the just the past year, something that has been particularly challenging to you that you can share?

Melissa Shoemate  
Well, I know even at my last job, one of the most challenging things that we had there is we were revamping an already established training program that we had been doing. But we realized it wasn't as engaging as it could be. So trying to take something that was tried and true that I had taught what felt like, God, I felt like I'd done it a million times, I could say at my sleep, trying to take that and just break it back down. So that way, we can make sure that we were engaging our learners, and they're not off scrubbing a toilet somewhere rather than listening to you. Yeah, that was probably one of the harder things. My very first project I got, I remember that one being pretty intimidating because it was outside of my specialty, I was learning about a new rule that Medicare had come up with. And so I was having to build the whole PowerPoint for that. And it was the very first project they gave me. That scared me to death. But I have found in any learning and development job I've had, or even when I've done personal projects, just trying to learn. That's what I like so much about l&d. Very rarely do I meet someone who doesn't want to just help? I love that so much everyone is so like, all the people I've met on LinkedIn, the people I've met through this organization, they always are like, Hey, let me hop in and help. When I am still learning storyline. I haven't I've had to put it on hold for because I'm trying to finish my bachelor's degree. But Jonathan, I talked about him earlier, he literally offered to hop on a call with me. One guy, I was I had joined uh, how do I put this because I don't want to be disparaging. I had joined a type of thing that was supposed to teach you how to do that. But the once I joined, no one talked to me. And this guy happened to see my question in the group. And he offered to just hop on a call with me never had met me in his life of me. Absolutely nothing. Yeah. So I just think that's so great. How l&d folks are?

Luis Malbas  
Yeah, yeah, no, I think that's part of the reason. I mean, it feels like consistently people are trying to lift each other up in this space. And, and that's one of the reasons also why whenever we see somebody that is kind of pretending to do that, but instead might have, you know, sort of financial interest in trying to unfortunately,

Melissa Shoemate  
I learned the hard way, I spent a lot of money on it. But it was a good thing. Dual just because I can be kind of naive and trusting. I don't know if I should put that on the inner way. webs. I can't be it. It's just my nature. But I learned, you know, not everybody, you really need to vet anything that you're going to be paying money towards. And there's so many options out there that are completely free. It may take longer. But there's so many things out there that you can do in the meantime.

Luis Malbas  
Yes, no, thanks. I'm glad you're mentioning that and, and I'm sure that you'll come back around and you will pay it forward to you know, like, if you're gonna turn around and like say, hey, this person is struggling and looking for help. You know, I'll just offer to meet with them, you know, and, you know, I do put these events on for free. You know, and I do I'm going I heard that I have a membership thing that helps me fund all of it. But for the most part, it's like, this is not like a money making opportunity. It's mostly tried to help everybody.

Melissa Shoemate  
I mean, I don't mean this to sound awful, but this is the cheapest org membership I have. And I'm telling you, I've met so many people through this, yeah, through this channel, and it's just no i, I can. That's why I'm just so grateful. Like, whenever I got your email a, I was like, This can't be real. But talk to again, Tim. And he's like, No, do it. Cuz it's just so great. Things that are out there.

Luis Malbas  
Now. That's great. Thank you. I love hearing that it's good to hear. My thing is just more about impact is I want to make sure that there are people that that are, you know, getting help when they need it. It's just, you know, I like the community. And you know, so much that I want to see people continue to succeed in it. And so, you know, I do this I

Melissa Shoemate  
chat, somebody put a link to free articulate tutorials. So that's awesome.

Luis Malbas  
Yeah. Oh, really? Let's see. Let's take a look. I

Melissa Shoemate  
love it. I've heard of her too. I think Connie, I don't know how to say Connie's last name, Malamud Malamud. I think she has partnered with her before. Am I wrong?

Luis Malbas  
Let's see who is that? Ashley? Oh, yeah. Ashley. Yeah, she's great. She has spoken at, at TLC events in the past actually is legit. She's really, really good. Yeah, she's a good one to, to follow and keep an eye on. Excellent. So speaking of all that, like for you, you go to LinkedIn is to you know, to stay up to date on things to network. Any other ways to that you keep a track on tools? And, and and what's the latest and greatest in l&d? Is there anything that you do for that?

Melissa Shoemate  
So I reached out to after I found your or I reached out to my former VP of learning and development she and I were, our whole department essentially was eliminated. So she knew where I was coming from. And she directed me to a TD. Then again, through Cara I met Tim so I'm part of the E learner e learners. I can't remember the full title of it, but

Luis Malbas  
I don't either. Yeah, no. They have a community to Tim.

Melissa Shoemate  
believe I can't think of the name of it. I have his book and everything. Yeah. Elearning designers,

Luis Malbas  
community elearning designers coming? Yes. Yeah.

Melissa Shoemate  
My big goal for 2024 is I want to be able to go to some of the actual learning conferences. It's just between trying to get a new job paying for school. I haven't been able to but that that's one of my goals. But again, not shameless plug. I know for a fact that y'all can get lots of webinars through this org. That's literally how I got my start learning all the things, because I only knew the basics. This org is really what got me going. So I'm forever grateful.

Luis Malbas  
Oh, thank you, Melissa. And you know, I'm planning more. There is a big event happening this week that is through grow inductive, Kin consulting, and black and lnd. I mean,

Melissa Shoemate  
Mallory saw that steal? Yeah, yes. And she has

Luis Malbas  
I mean, she's using the TL DC platform, I, I offered it to her, I didn't realize that she was going to get 1000 people registered, which, that's how many people registered. And then it's ended up having to sort of like change the schedule for some future events, because it's, it was so popular, but those are all free. And she has I think it was 54 sessions and 70 speakers, which is absolutely insane. Yeah, I told her that. That was probably a little too much. But she just said, I have to do it anyway. So there is that you know, and is, you know, if you can register for it, you can get access to the recordings, I believe afterwards. So, you know, those are all free as well. So, so keep that in mind. Um, no. But thanks, Melissa, I really appreciate you continuing to give us this.

Melissa Shoemate  
I don't mean to go on and on. I just wish you knew how grateful I was because I want this so bad. Yeah. Even though I'm quote unquote, back in l&d, I still just want it I don't want to lose it again. I was devastated when I lost it.

Luis Malbas  
Hmm. Okay. Well, you know, if you do I know that j Roc is probably going to be a DevLearn in Las Vegas. In the fall, you and your husband can go. You'll see Tim there because Tim always speaks at that event. So keep that in mind for for in October, I think is when it's going to be. But let me ask you a couple questions and we'll wrap things up. I mean, you weren't an l&d professional, and could have whatever career of choice that you wanted. What would it be?

Melissa Shoemate  
Now I've been thinking on that how honestly don't know because I've always been in a job where I serve others. And I know that's so freakin cheesy, but I just really do a lot to help. Yeah, my again back to my husband. What happened? Did I go dead? No, I

Luis Malbas  
can still hear you. You're good.

Melissa Shoemate  
Weird my whole screen went black so I can't see y'all. Oh good he's in a band. And so I do their social media and I have learned that a really kind of like doing the marketing and stuff for their social media. So I'm not what go into something like that.

Luis Malbas  
What is your husband's band's name?

Melissa Shoemate  
It's called bulletproof.

Luis Malbas  
bulletproof. And from Texas.

Melissa Shoemate  
Yes. So like, if you're on Facebook, it would be bulletproof. Paris I think is how it actually is on there. And then you can see all the things that I do on the side. Excellent when I'm not in school or at work,

Luis Malbas  
I'm gonna look it up because I'm in a band too. And I could use social media help so I'll probably

Melissa Shoemate  
their their country, which is not something he normally thought he would ever be in. But they have so much fun. He normally was a Van Halen metal top guys. So just love any music.

Luis Malbas  
Yeah, I'm doing an 80s cover band that is getting really really busy. So how fun it is. It's a lot of fun. It's crazy. Okay, here is my last question for you. Yeah. And it is if there's one thing that people should know about you, Melissa, what is it?

Melissa Shoemate  
Oh, I don't know. I know that you you actually told me you were going to ask me that. And I've been racking my brain. I like to ask that question. Because there I think I'm boring. Honestly. I'm the most boring person in the world. The here's some people are always shocked to hear that I'm an introvert because I've been talking to you this whole time. But I'm a behind a screen. Fun fact, I already kind of knew some of the stuff he would ask me so I could be prepared. Yeah. But like small talk, not my wheelhouse. Absolutely not, can't do it. So I actually am an introvert. But being behind a screen and being able to work remotely. That's one of the things I love about this job, too. So I just read books, I go to school, go to work, my kids are in their 20s. So I'm not even like full on parenting anymore. There's not much to me anymore. That's the hardest question because I'm just kind of boring.

Luis Malbas  
That's really interesting. It is interesting to me. I do wish that I would know, like if there was one thing about you that maybe your husband should be answering that question in chat. Oh, but he's actually not even logged in anymore. Oh, he must have gotten a call. Oh, thanks, Chris. Okay, well, let's have them watch the end of the recording.

Melissa Shoemate  
Oh, gosh, I wish we could come up with something. So that's the one question that actually stressed me out because I couldn't think of an answer of what's something to know about me.

Luis Malbas  
I hear you. I can tell you, Melissa, I'm the same way. I am an introvert. I cannot I mean, doing this on a regular basis is I'm only doing this because it's sort of out of desperation, because I could not find anyone else to do it without paying anyone else to do it. And so that's why I do this. But I really do feel like I am an introvert. My wife is different. She is more of an extrovert and is kind of, you know, the she is like the party. Whenever we're in a crowd. Everyone is like, trying to you know, talk to her and be around her. And I'm the person that is like, hiding behind the curtain waiting until everyone is gone.

Melissa Shoemate  
And say I'd love to say that I was that. But I also I don't know if it's the nurse in me. I don't know, but I will. I'll be the life of the party at the time. And then I'm completely exhausted. I tell my husband, I feel like a circus monkey that I'm like, did.

Luis Malbas  
Yeah, definitely. Yeah, that's a sign of an introvert as well. Definitely. Well, gossamer Melissa, it was so great talking to you. I'm so glad that we were able to do this. I really appreciate you. Sorry, everybody. I have to tell you I was just a little bit late. We had some technical problems in the beginning. But Melissa persevered and stuck with it. And we were able to start this one and and have a great broadcast. Working everyone find your Melissa, can I post your um, your LinkedIn URL in the chat? People can connect with you?

Melissa Shoemate  
Yeah, that's fine. I'm heavy on LinkedIn. I normally would be on there even more, but I'm just so busy right now. I'm trying to finish statistics. I literally put that off till the very end. That's the fun fact. I can't I hate math unless it's dosage calculations. So I'm very busy right now. But yeah, that's the that's the best place.

Luis Malbas  
Excellent. All right. Well, thank you, Melissa. Thank you, everybody for joining us. Don't forget you You know that event that is happening in air meet is going now I don't know if you're not already registered, you probably can't get in because it's sold out. But it was a free it was a free event, but it is happening. Hopefully they'll be able to release the recordings after everything is done. And you can check that out and stay tuned with TL DC because we do have aI Dc on the schedule, which is our accessibility inclusion and diversity conference. That is going to happen that happen next month. After that we have another one that is being that is being put together now teach from teaching to l&d, and I'm also trying to put together one on put another one together. There's on chat GBT and AI and what's happening in instructional design with that, so that'll be all coming up. And then I'm gonna I'm gonna go ahead and just close out the broadcast. Melissa, it was great talking to you. You too. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thanks for being here. And that's it. All right. See you later.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

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