Freelancing Through Every Tech Shift Since the 90s - Lisa Emmington
from Being Freelance Hosted by Steve Folland
Lisa Emmington is a freelance instructional designer (or as her newly SEO'd website puts it, a training course designer) based near Milton Keynes. She's been freelance almost her entire career, starting out as an IT trainer back when Apple Macs were a mystery box on people's desks, and has reinvented her business every time the market has shifted underneath her - from face to face training, to early e-learning software, to mentoring individual course creators today in the face of AI. In this episode we talk about: How the desire to be freelance came before Lisa knew what she wanted to be freelancing in Spotting the shift from face to face training to e-learning, and moving with it What happened when she and her husband became a limited company for three years, and why it made her invisible in the market Rebuilding visibility from scratch with a social media VA and an SEO overhaul Why "instructional designer" doesn't bring in enquiries, but "training course designer" does Filtering and pacing leads using nothing more high tech than a paper diary The balance between promoting decades of expertise and the very real ageism facing freelancers in their 50s and 60s Her three income streams: templates, done with you mentoring, and done for you course creation Pensions, retirement planning, and why she's planning to keep freelancing well past 67 What 60 actually looks like now, versus what she expected it to look like So much great advice and things to think about in here around change in our careers - brought about by the inevitability of developing tech and age. --- EPISODE SPONSORED BY ECAMM For years people have asked how Being Freelance live shows look so good. Well, this is the secret. Ecamm is a video studio for your Mac. Give anything you do with video, a pro look in real time. Presentations, screen shares, webinars, video calls, demos. Plus livestream/record in landscape & vertical at the same time, perfectly designed for both formats. Try Ecamm for free. JOIN THE COMMUNITY You're not alone being freelance. Come and hang out with your BFFs (Being Freelance Friends). beingfreelance.com/community NEW TO FREELANCING? THERE'S A COURSE FOR YOU! The Being Freelance course is made for you! Take the course and you'll also get 6 months FREE community membership. FREELANCER MERCH Get Being Freelance merchandise at beingfreelance.com/shop Like VIDEO? - Check out the Being Freelance on: Instagram - Instagram.com/beingfreelance YouTube - YouTube.com/SteveFolland Being Freelance is hosted and created by freelance podcast editor Steve Folland.
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What this episode covers
Lisa Emmington is a freelance instructional designer (or as her newly SEO'd website puts it, a training course designer) based near Milton Keynes. She's been freelance almost her entire career, starting out as an IT trainer back when Apple Macs were a mystery box on people's desks, and has reinvented her business every time the market has shifted underneath her - from face to face training, to early e-learning software, to mentoring individual course creators today in the face of AI. In...
Chapters
- 0:00 Cold open
- 0:42 Introducing Lisa and this week's theme
- 1:58 Hello Lisa
- 2:06 How the freelance itch came before the idea
- 2:56 Typewriters to Apple Macs
- 3:31 Becoming an IT trainer via a YTS scheme
- 4:14 Training the Microsoft Office generation
- 5:05 Making the leap to freelance
- 7:04 Into market research and early e-learning
- 9:14 Keeping an eye on the market and moving with it
- 9:26 E-learning's boom, consolidation and the freelance work drying up
- 10:16 The new shift: mentoring individual course creators
- 10:47 Does she panic with every change?
- 11:37 Word of mouth in the pre-website days
- 12:58 How COVID changed everything overnight
- 13:47 Becoming Ian and Lisa Emmington Ltd
- 16:39 Rebuilding visibility with help from a social media VA
- 19:37 Fixing the SEO that wasn't working
- 21:27 The enquiries start flowing back in
- 22:20 Filtering leads with a paper diary
- 23:46 What's next: automating the admin
- 24:03 Expertise versus ageism at 55 plus
- 25:10 Three income streams
- 26:28 The hardest part of being freelance
- 28:23 Pensions and planning for retirement
- 30:40 Working past 67 and scaling back gradually
- 32:29 What does 60 actually look like now
- 37:17 Two Truths and a Lie Game
- 40:21 Advice to her younger self
- 41:09 Advice on facing change
- 43:49 The unexpected modelling agency story
- 44:58 Wrap up
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