#JohnWick_77_Challenge #13: Finally a paid gig
When/Where started: FEB 2019 — Manila
Since I started blogging specifically about learning/teaching philosophy on a fairly regular basis in the Spring of 2016, I began to see my LinkedIn connections really begin to grow. I went from 2,500 connections in early 2016 to pushing 25,000 in May 2020. A big part of this was personally responding to every new connection with a message of what I had either just completed (link included) or what I was currently working on.
This exponential increase also meant I had a number of people reaching out to me about collaborations, product pitches or enquiring about consulting. Which generated a few interesting projects as well as generated some income. Needless to say if you have read Challenge #1 and/or Challenge #8 you can guess I was hoping for something like this to come along.
Then in Feb 2019 — as I was running out of options I received a message from an early 30s US teacher, who at that time was at an international school in China. He had an idea for some IB test prep courses based on his experience in China. But instead of asking me to create it, he wanted to learn how to do it so he could then do others himself. The proverbial ‘teach a man to fish..’ approach which was not only financially timely, but also perfecting timing as I had recently been working with a number of different portals so we could talk marketing strategy along with the tech side of creating his lessons.
Step 1 — Know What You Want
I sent him to a number of YT videos I had just posted on my “2 Minute Migration” playlist. This was a series of really short information intense videos to help teachers frame their approach.
Step 2 — Lesson Prep (for video)
I then sent him a series of Word templates for him to storyboard his lesson ideas. We then went back and forth a few times till he was ready to prototype a lesson.
Step 3 — Shoot, Reshoot, Reshoot and repeat
It is amazing how after a few attempts by someone to video what they envisioned, just how quickly they can adjust to what is feasible…BUT also start to get creative. After a dozen different set ups he eventually chose a few that would work for him and then adjusted his storyboards accordingly.
Step 4 — Video editing (throw him in the deep end)
Over the last 10 years I have used virtually every kind of editing software. He chose a lower end one that met his budget, and in he jumped. This really is the best way to learn any kind of new software — working on a real world project. Yes he got a bit frustrated with the HUGE learning curve (like we all do LOL), but I was able to provide weekly skype sessions where I could provide guidance for both the software and suggested changes in his process.
Step 5 — Posting to a Portal
At this time of writing in May 2020 (in the midst of Covid-19) I am still amazed how weak most of the ‘online learning portals’ are for freelance teachers. I laid out a number of options and he went with Udemy. I was able to send him a ‘How to post on Udemy’ video tutorial. He was able to get two different sets of IB English test prep up just in time for the global exams.
The synergy of this connection (in conjunction with my frustration with freelance portals) spurred me to focus most of my 2020 energies on YouTube.
ACTION POINT: Think about a time when ‘stick-to-it-ivness’ paid off for you.
