Kim Tuohy Shares Secrets to Successful ID Freelancing Part II

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SUMMARY

• In continuation of last week's podcast episode with Kim Tuohy, the visionary founder of Belvista Studios, an innovative instructional design and eLearning studio, we delve deeper into the insights shared during the conversation. Kim and her dedicated team adopt a human-centered approach to help organizations develop their people for the future.

• During the podcast, Kim reflected on her childhood aspirations of owning a business, emphasizing the importance of recognizing early clues that point towards one's true calling. She encourages individuals considering a career change or embarking on their own journey in life to explore their childhood passions and interests. For Kim, the realization that instructional design and eLearning aligned perfectly with her interests and skills paved the way for her business venture.

• Maintaining a successful business in instructional design requires consistent effort and a proactive mindset. Kim stresses the importance of dedicating time each day to business-building activities. These activities can range from reaching out to existing contacts and promoting one's services to potential clients on platforms like LinkedIn, to nurturing relationships with previous clients and engaging in content creation such as writing blog posts or making YouTube videos. By consistently exposing oneself to the world and demonstrating how their skills can solve problems, freelancers and business owners can mitigate the risks of fluctuating workloads and maintain a steady stream of projects.

• Kim also highlights the significance of building strong relationships within the industry. Instructional design often relies on word-of-mouth referrals, trust, and personal connections. Over the years, Kim has experienced the positive impact of long-standing relationships as people from her past reach out, recognizing the value she has provided. Working with individuals and organizations that share similar values and resonate with one another on a personal level leads to more rewarding partnerships and collaborations.

• One of the recurring themes discussed by Kim and her team at Belvista Studios is the importance of storyboarding in instructional design. Kim believes storyboarding offers an opportunity to pause, plan, and ensure that the right problems are being solved. In an industry that holds immense responsibility for creating better humans through the solutions they design, it is crucial to move away from reactive and superficial approaches. Storyboarding allows instructional designers to deeply understand the problem, empathize with the learners, and align the solution with their needs and goals. It serves as a validation tool to ensure that the solution will add value to learners' lives.

• The benefits of storyboarding extend beyond organizing content. It provides a structured framework to simplify complex information and prioritize learning objectives. By visualizing the flow of the course or program, instructional designers can ensure that every element contributes to the desired outcomes. Storyboarding facilitates accountability and helps instructional designers stay focused on the essential elements that will drive effective learning experiences.

• When asked about the most gratifying aspect of a career in instructional design and eLearning, Kim emphasizes the alignment between her personal passion and the work she does every day. Being able to solve problems, foster creativity, and make a positive impact on individuals and organizations brings deep satisfaction. Instructional design offers versatility and continuous learning opportunities, allowing professionals to work across various industries and explore diverse topics. The field presents the chance to contribute to the success of businesses, help employees achieve work-life balance, and improve overall employee experiences.

• For those interested in transitioning to instructional design, Kim advises a strategic approach. Begin by designing your ultimate life, envisioning how you want to live and work, and setting goals accordingly. By breaking down these goals into achievable steps, individuals can develop a clear plan that aligns with their vision. Every decision, including job applications, project choices, and resume writing, can then be made with the ultimate life in mind.

INSPIRATIONAL POST

TRANSCRIPT

Hello, and welcome to this week's elearning and instructional design for beginners interview series. Today's interview, I'm talking with Kim tui.

Thank you, I'm very flattered to be on your channel. So thank you for having me, it gets started, I really think when I was a little girl, because I wanted to have my own business. I encourage other people that are like looking at this career, looking to change careers, just their own journey in life, those clues in your childhood, and to really like to explore them and what they mean for you in your adult life. I was like this is really cool. Like I'm, my interests and my passion as a human being are aligned to this. And I was like, I know what my business is going to be in. It's going to be instructional design and elearning because I love it.

I love that it looks so amazing. That's really cool. It sounds really similar to my story. Wow, that's

what we're about.

How do you maintain a business and instructional design,

you cannot be complacent on trying to sustain and grow your business. Number one thing is everyone needs to have in their calendar every single day, a commitment to a business building activity. So that reminder comes up and you are doing whatever that business building activity looks like. What could that be, it might be reaching out to existing contacts to let them know I have this business, this is what I'm about, or two people that know nothing about you on LinkedIn and letting them know that you exist. It could be reaching out to old clients and saying, Hey, like, how's that project we worked on going, it could be writing a blog post, it could be making a YouTube video, any activity that is going to expose you to the world, and let them know that you exist and what you're about, and how you might help their life become easier is basically a business building activity. And I believe that as a business owner, you must do it every single day quite happens because I coach freelancers a lot, when times are really good, and they sign big contracts. And then what happens, they like Oh, I'm really busy, I can't take any more work. And then the contract ends. And they're like, oh my god, I have no income. And I have to go find contracts and contracts in our industry can take like months to sign. So you cannot just be on day zero being like where's my next client coming from? So it has to be a daily activity. And it is basically you trying to help someone solve a problem that you have the skill set to solve? And that that can be like job applications

as well. Yeah, that makes sense. And like it's about making connections with people a lot. Like you were saying before,

yeah, there's a lot of like relationships right now. And if you know those relationships, like people from five years ago, will reach out. And I'm like, what, like, Yeah, I do remember who you are. But where have you been in my life? You know, five years have passed. And they're like, but that impact you had back then was really important. And you've been in the back of my mind. And now we're ready. So our industry tends to be like a lot of word of mouth, because it's trust, right? And we want everyone to work with people that they like and can trust and know that's reliable. And it's a lot easier to get work with people for being a nice human being, first of all, and working with people that resonate and are aligned on a values level, as opposed to someone making a phone call to your business and saying hey, can you send me a quote, or like responding to a request for quote, or a tender procurement process? Because then they don't know you. And you really have to demonstrate why you're like the best option to support them on their journey, because you're basically competing. And for me, my philosophy is I don't want to convince people to work with Bellavista studios or choose to learn with us if we haven't convinced you through whatever we're doing already, we're probably not aligned. So I want to make it a guarantee and a less risky option for people to work with us. So whatever that looks like for the people that are listening and watching this, have a think about what that is for you.

I love that I love your mindset on how I mean it just seems way less stressful just thinking of it in those terms.

Just you got to value yourself and when you value yourself the right people that value you or be attracted, and then it's a really lovely commitment, partnership, whatever.

Yeah, I mean, you're directly working with them too. So yeah, you're it's a lot more pleasant having a relationship. So I noticed that Bella Vista studios consistently guides the significance of Understanding storyboards for instructional design. Why is this important to you?

I think a storyboard is an opportunity to pause and plan to solve the right problem. And I think we don't always solve the right problem in our industry, it needs to happen because we have a very big responsibility, big impact through the solutions that we create. We're ultimately creating better humans, better humans are created through the solutions we create. Now, if we go in and do a reactive solution, a tick the box exercise, a band aid learning solution, it gives our industry a bad name, no one wants to do learning because they don't enjoy it. It doesn't add value to their lives. But we have a really important responsibility to create a better human race through the code of conduct through their health and safety, through the leadership through the communication skills, whatever it is we're training on. And I believe that when the storyboard is done, we pause, we have to think about what is the problem I'm trying to solve? Who am I solving this problem for? What do they care about? What's important to them? What does this look like in their world? Not what the business is telling me what is not what my subject matter expert is telling me. But what is it like in their world, and that is a storyboard is just an opportunity to plot that out and put the flow into place to send it out for feedback to check and validate that you're on the right track that your solution is going to add value to their life. And then when it's ready to go, then you can develop it into whatever it is, and it will just be more effective, I believe.

Definitely. Yeah, storyboards are they're so

detailed. What do you think is a benefit of a storyboard,

being able to organize all of the content and have every little criteria that is necessary? I mean, it just helps anyone who's trying to make the design much easier. Oh, it's so true,

like an instructional designer role is to simplify the complex, right? And a storyboard is a great place for us to do that. Right? We have a storyboard template, there's so many, but if I think about it, as it's free, if anyone wants to download it, I'm on every so we do it in PowerPoint, on every screen is the spot for us to put a learning objective. And when it's at the top of the screen, it really holds you accountable. Like, what do I need on this screen? Does this need to be known? Or is this nice to know? And it helps you think about what I actually need to put in my storyboard? So I think it is like you say it's a really nice kind of accountability, a very important piece of our role. What do

you think is the most gratifying aspect of a career in instructional design and elearning?

My personal experience is I got into it for the right reasons. That was like start with why what is my why? What am I passionate about? Problem solving, helping people be better people be creative? And like in instructional design, and elearning, you have to do that every day. Because you're like being creative to solve the problem to brainstorm the idea of like, work, what activity can we run? How should this training be? Should it be a job age? Should it be an infographic, should it be elearning, so we get to be creative, we get to design it, make it look cool, like we have graphic design skills, user interface, all of that stuff to make it look eye-catching and attractive, and those first impressions. So if that's cool, our industry is just so important for the success of so many aspects, especially in corporate land. You know, we help them make money, we help them achieve strategic objectives, we help their employees have better work life balance, better morale, better employee experiences, and to me it's very gratifying, because it's all aligned to my personal passion and interest. So that's why I figured out what it is for you and got into the industry for the right reasons. But I really love that it's all different. And it changes all the time. But yet, it's still the same, because essentially, we're just problem solvers. And we get to decide how we solve the problem in the most effective way, which is a process but it's like, Well, are we today helping a mine dig for some mineral in the ground to help save some tree in another country? Or are we helping a supervisor have a more effective conversation with that staff member? You know, so that's pretty cool.

I know I will. That's super cool. That's one thing really awesome about instructional design is just the versatility and then how much you learn. I mean, I was a teacher. So I went from teaching and I love to learning and getting to learn all these new things. Like it's constantly learning, you have to learn it to create the course so I mean, no,

definitely. Yeah. How cool that we get to learn for a job like we can listen to podcasts all day. We can learn different topics. We can work in so many different industries, like every industry needs us so you can work in airline duty. I don't have any thing like not for profit for profit doesn't matter. So it's kind of like what's my personal interests? I love the NBA like I love basketball, well, they can be your client, or you can go work for them. You know, in the sports world, everyone needs us. So it's just like,

Yeah, you're right. If someone were interested in any topic at all, like you could find your way in there. You know, that's pretty cool.

Everyone's got problems, and we know how to solve them. Very cool. Be a therapist as well.

Are there problems? Yeah. If I am a beginner, and we'd like to transition to instructional design, what would you suggest the first thing that I do,

I'm going to assume that you've done your soul searching. And this is the right career move for you. The first thing that you that you need to do is you need to design your ultimate life, figure out how you want to send every day, how many holidays you want per year, where you want to travel to what kind of family lifestyle you want, as your spirituality, how your relationships, what kind of projects you want to work on, what does your day look like, if it was the ultimate one, and you'd be so satisfied with it? And then you go, Okay, I haven't made that happen in 10 years. And now how do I make it happen in five, I don't make it happen in two. And what you do by working it back from Ultimate Life all the way back is that you get basically your own development plan. And it is very strategic, because when you go from 12 months to Okay, well, how do I make that life cycle? What does that look like in 12 months? What do I need to do every single month between now and the next 12 months to make it happen? And then you look at it in terms of every week, you kind of see, okay, well, I've got this much free time, and I can take on these kinds of projects. And then I've got this time to go out and hang out with friends and have dinner dates and maybe go for a road trip and do a hike at the weekend and you know what it looks like and then that's why you craft a lifestyle so you will have a very clear vision for your life so that all of the decisions you make then such as what jobs you apply for how you write your resume when you apply for something and when you choose not to apply what client projects you want to work on which ones you don't want to work on that all reveals itself, you just kind of naturally living your life day to day achieving what it is that you want. Wow, there's Google for everything else.

That is true. That makes sense. I think that's the best advice ever honestly like stead of saying oh start with your resume or whatever focus on your life and it's almost how we learn and instructional design it's like start with the goal and then work your way backwards kind of the same way we I guess our minds work

Honestly, instructional design is a life skill. I apply instructional design to like how I decide what I'm eating for dinner. It's like exceptional

Okay, my last question is: What is your favorite quote?

My quote is just I have no regret just live that way this thing is presenting itself to me what would no regrets look like but the other flip side of that that I always say is what does love look like in this moment for you for the other person whatever What does love look like in this moment I'll go do that but looking at it sometimes love looks like crawling into bed and crying into a pillow. You know, like something like that. That's okay or sitting on the couch all day. Eating Nutella from the jar sometimes looks like giving the person that is screaming at you a hug and sometimes it's well done. You're really good there. You should be proud. Okay,

Well, that's all my questions that I have for you. So please tell everyone the free gift that we were talking about earlier

free gift he can have multiple gifts. So over on the Creator hub so creator hub dot Bellavista, studios.com. There is a place called freebies. And there are basically all the templates that we're giving out for free that we use with our clients on our projects. So there's a storyboard template there's a quality assurance template is a user acceptance template project brief questions. What questions should you ask a stakeholder a client when a project is kicking off? This case studies says heaps how to write an effective scenario guide. Just go check out that resource, get all of your resources and make your life easier. We've figured them out for you.

Awesome, and I will provide a link to everyone watching this video as well. Those resources I looked at myself and they look super cool. Thank you so much, Kim, for being open and expressing yourself and your business. And I really love your mindset on how you look at your business, how you are bringing in clients and how you found your employees. Thank you, Kim, so much for joining us today. It was super awesome interviewing you. I think that everyone listening or watching is going to learn a lot and I hope that they take advantage of your free resources and the creator hub and I will share a link to that below.

Thanks for having me. Appreciate it very grateful to have the opportunity to share love.