Community Showcase: Dr Parker A Grant

Luis Malbas  
I'm with Dr. Parker A Frant, founder of ID Lance. And we have a member showcase, we're going to just ask you a bunch of questions about who you are your background. And but really, I wanted to start out with just asking you questions about ID Lance. Like, what is it? What is ID? Lance?

Parker Grant  
Yeah, so Id Lance is really an LNB agency. We take freelance talent, we have members who are freelancers. And, in particular, the freelancers are folks that are interested in leaving their former life, you know, whether they're a teacher or a professor, or somebody working in corporate, and just wanting to make that leap into a new world of freelancing, whether it's part time or full time. But so we're trying to match the talent from this pool are two opportunities. So there are companies that are, you know, other increasingly use using freelancers just because of, you know, the variation of the market. And, you know, so we find opportunities and try to match them. So it's kind of a win win, you know, yeah, you have lots of talent from all around the country. And, you know, we have clients who are willing to, you know, sign on with us on different projects, and we're just kind of thrilled to be able to be so called matchmakers. So that's great. That's what we do.

Luis Malbas  
So if somebody joins, Id lands, what can they expect?

Parker Grant  
If if somebody went joins, ideally, joins ID

Luis Malbas  
lands joins the community, what can they expect to see from from?

Parker Grant  
Yeah, so they'll expect to see other like minded posts in the same transition process? Now there are some people who are still working full time. And it's just sort of getting their feet wet, kind of find out what it's like to be a freelancer, before they make that decision, because it's a life decision and think about it is this major? No. So when you are leaving a organization where you're getting that consistent paycheck, and then you're going into another world where that pay is going to be variable comes at different times. So you know, there are, there are some emotions that come with that transition. And being in a community allows you to express those two forms of whether it's venting, or just ask a question, how do I do this? Because everybody's at a different stage, right? So those that are further along, could help those that are just kind of beginning the transition. I started my career in freelancing back about 14 years ago. Prior to that, I worked in a company that was a fortune 50 company for about 21 years. So this year, I've been in learning development for about 30 years. Wow. I've been in it for a while, I've seen a lot. But I also know what it feels like to go from something that is seems very stable, secure, to something like what's around the corner, you know, so it's, it's quite a transition. But I, I found that further in my freelancing career, the more safe that I felt that security actually increased to the point where you know, that you've got some client work coming in. And so if there's ever, let's say, recession, or a downturn in the market, whatever, you know, you have that comfort of knowing that you've got income coming in, you lose a client, or to have some income coming in. Whereas in full time position, that's not always the case. You know, depending on where you are, you know, sometimes companies have to make drastic cuts, just because, you know, they have to, right, and you know, people are, unfortunately victims of restructure, so anyway, um, but yeah, so, you know, when somebody comes into it last they you can expect to communicate with others that have been through that or, or if they have been in themselves, they can help others. So, yeah, yeah, that's great. We use Slack for that. Great.

Luis Malbas  
Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely. In fact, with the TLD chat.us is where our Slack group is, and right before you started, I saw a freelance show posting pop up on like, Oh, there you go look at that. So, yeah, it's super interesting. Now let's go back to 30 years ago when you first started into this space, which means that pretty much you weren't doing any training over the internet, you were probably I mean, were you even using CDs and stuff back then

Parker Grant  
we weren't even using PowerPoint. Right? Overhead slide. Right, right. Oh, big boxes that you put on there with shiny projector light. Big Screen.

Luis Malbas  
Yes, yes. Now that's a long time ago. I Yeah, it's hard not to want to go back and get nostalgic about those days because I was kind of at the tail end of tail.

Parker Grant  
Colorful markers with me. I had red, blue, green, black at different colors.

Luis Malbas  
So why why? Why did you get into training? What was? What was that journey? Like?

Parker Grant  
Well, if this is kind of a weird thing, but I actually started out as a mechanical engineer, believe it or not. So prior to my l&d, I have five years of mechanical engineering design experience working with jet engine company. And yeah, so I go through undergrad and grad school for mechanical engineering, and only five years into my career, I make a switch, go. Wow. So I joke around with people that I am a fully recovered engineer.

Luis Malbas  
So did you not like engineering? Or what was the

Parker Grant  
I liked it? I just didn't see that for another 3040 years. I liked it, though. A lot of great problem solving skills that you get to pick up. And, you know, so a lot of you know, for all of you who are watching, you know, the problem solving process, right for instructional design. So, think of it like, we're when I was an engineer, I was problem solving for parts or products, where ideas can problem solve for people. So it's a lot of a similar methodology, but just two different worlds. But to answer your question about how did I get interested in this, I had a buddy of mine at a company where I worked. He asked me, Hey, Parker, do you want to join me on, you know, teaching a class to high school students, juniors and seniors from the local area? And I'm here at the Hartford Connecticut area. And I said, No, tell me more about this. And they had he said, Well, these guys are looking for some preview of what engineering is like, so that they can decide whether to apply for engineering, college, you know, so I said, Yeah, why not? So my buddy, Sean and I, every Wednesday night, we had a group of maybe a dozen kids from the local school, they were bussed over to a company where we worked. And we bring them in our conference room, let's say five o'clock in the afternoon, spend a couple of hours with them. We did it for several weeks in a row. And I just fell in love with this idea of training. It was just like, you see these kids like, light bulb? Come on, they get so excited about the possibilities. And that's what got me thinking, Wait a minute, I love teaching, I love training. How can I do that in the company that I'm working at, because I've got all the benefits, you know, we got health care benefits, and all that, you know, whiteleys. So I just figured I'd try to do a lateral move into another department. So I started investigating. And it's a large company of like, 38,000 people. So found out they had to train the department and talk to one of the instructors and just some how I just worked into that department through application process from that day on 30 years ago. Okay, so it is this year, 30 years ago that I got into training. No regrets, it was the best decision ever. So it was really cool. That's alright, so

Luis Malbas  
that's great. No, that's really amazing to hear. I love thinking about that. Because recently I've been thinking about, you know, what are the reasons that people shouldn't get into instructional design? Or, you know, being learning experience designers, anything like that, but consistently the reason why it seems like it's just inherent in people's, you know, core that if they want to be educators, that just really, really speaks to them, you know, because it seems like being a mechanical engineer probably would have been a lot more lucrative than being a trainer. And so you had to make that decision to write

Parker Grant  
well, I believe I did have to take a pic. Oh, really? Yeah, yeah. So I was able to keep the pay, and then just continue to get raises from there. But I also went up the ranks to some after being a technical trainer, actually, I was a trainer for engineers too, which is kind of cool because the company I worked for was a jet engine company. So I got to teach powerplant engineers at major airlines from around the world, how to analyze data from the cockpit, in commercial aircraft. And so, so I was able to keep the engineering side of things for a while. But I also was able to learn instructional design on the job. I also did some development work, which started out with PowerPoint. And then we got into the CBT world, right computer based training, where we got to publish stuff on CDs. And then, you know, eventually that went to WB t, you remember that acronym? And then, you know, things evolve from there to elearning over time. But yeah, so I went up to the ranks, I became a training manager. Prior to that, though, I was able to travel the world to different countries to teach different airlines, which is really kind of a cool experience in itself, to be able to, you know, learn what it's like to teach different cultures, right? You know, certain things that you do, you don't do in your classroom. And so I became a training manager and eventually became a Learning Development Manager overseeing a division of 7000 people. So I was able to really get a broad spectrum of experiences in the corporate world. That said, that probably enabled me to work with corporate clients easier because corporate is corporate. I don't know any of you viewers out there know what I mean by that. But it's, it's, it's a culture thing you have to kind of how big eight

Hey, hey, torque. Here I am.

Luis Malbas  
Wow, and so can you um, can you go into like, when did you decide to do the freelancing things? It sounded like you had a really successful well sounded like it was really successful in your corporate life. And but when did the freelancing stuff begin?

Parker Grant  
Yeah, freelance, it didn't happen right away, I wanted to have a business, I was sort of having that entrepreneurial itch. Like, there was so much stuff going on, in corporate, it's just a lot of BS, basically what it is, and you get tired of people not being themselves. See, I had lunch buddies that I knew back in the late 80s. And I saw them progress through the company. And they became individual who tried to be other other than themselves kind of know, the true personalities. But they put on a different point, and just a lot of politics going on. And I'm trying to think, you know, is this something how I really want to spend my life? Can I just be in a role where I could just be me, you know, so I thought for several years, you know, how do I get on my own? How do I started a business? What can I do as an entrepreneur? Id wasn't one of the things I wanted to do. It was I want to do to get into like, coming up with software that was better for change management in an organization like that, oh, the stuff, organizational development, change management, I got into facilitation. So helping facilitate meetings, root cause analysis sessions, you know, all that stuff. And I thought, you know, that would command a good price. I can make a good living on that. But the truth was, it was hard, really, really hard to do that. And I'm thinking, okay, what can I do that will at least, you know, bring in a little bit more money. And I thought about instructional design because I saw a lot of people doing that. And I thought well, okay, maybe not thing that I want to do, but I'll try it. So I got into it. And I started with a small project with a small cap. The probably about a half hour for me. And it happened to be their client have to be the corporation that I left. So that that was a nice, I guess entry into Id work is, you know, something that I'm very familiar with, right? Yeah. So yeah, so and I started doing that. And when I was partway through the first project, I got offered another project. Oh, we have this other one. So they liked my work, right. So they offered another one ready to start as soon as I finish this one, and I'm thinking to myself, Okay, that's not too bad. I can think I can keep doing this. So, you know, I started poking around with other people that I knew in my network, say, hey, yeah, you know, I'm Parker to me, and I, you know, I can do instructional design work, you know, doing something for this company right here. Just let you know, if you need some help. So little by little, just forget it. And I found that, okay, this is this is the place. So,

Luis Malbas  
yeah, that's amazing. And so how long have you been just doing this freelance stuff?

Parker Grant  
Yeah, so 2007 2008, I think when I started that, so I still do freelance work, even though I'm a co founder of it, Lance, with Andrea, American Ed, I still do some freelance work, I probably try to spend maybe 20 to 40% of my time doing some of that. I just like to get my hands dirty, and stuff like that, you know, just kind of keep up to date with what's going on. And the remainder of my time, try to help grow idealliance. So definitely a full plate.

Luis Malbas  
No, yeah, absolutely. And so when did I dieline start.

Parker Grant  
So we started the business as an entity in February of 2020. So just a little over two years. Andrea and I met on a project a few months prior to that. And so we hit it off with the combination of talents between Andrea and mine. So we're like, complementary talents, which made it great. So pre in her network, my network, we were able to put together a curriculum to help people make that transition to freelancing. And so that was how we started with just kind of get a membership to be healthier to get people to learn how to make that bold leap to freelancing. Yeah, but it just grew. It morphed over time. So now we're really kind of like an agency. So big contracts. I mean, this year alone, we're poised to grow about 700% over last year's. So it's, it's amazing. doing really well. Yeah.

Luis Malbas  
So why? Why did you start it Lance?

Parker Grant  
Well, it was one of those where, I don't know, maybe he was just feeling that, like, just kind of want to pay back. Right. So long years, you know, it's like, you get to a phase in life where you think, Okay, it's time to pay back, just give others a chance, especially the younger ones who are making that decision early in their life. You know, they don't have to work 20 years, 30 years at a corporation before they have to go on as a consultant. Yeah, they could start ready from college if they want. So but you know, because I've seen a lot, many different aspects of l&d. I felt very comfortable with being able to put together a curriculum, and help others to make that move. Wow. Okay. So

Luis Malbas  
as far as your instructional design career and just being a trainer, sort of looking back, is there anything that you know, now that you wish you could have told yourself right when you started?

Parker Grant  
Oh, as a trader, anything in particular?

Luis Malbas  
And then I'd also ask that about you being a founder of ID Lance, if you can go back to 2020. And, and and tell yourself something, what would that be? So both questions?

Parker Grant  
Yeah, that's a really, really thought provoking question. If I were to travel back in time and meet my younger self, what would I say? Right. Start Id work faster. I was exploring in the beginning, I was kind of hemming and hawing and trying to figure out okay, should I do facilitation work? Should I do change management? Should I You'd go for the high intellect, Think Tank kind of stuff or just go for, like creative work. I just try, you know, doing some basic structural design. So, if I were to go back, I would say, Parker, no, just jump right in ID, you know, there's a lot of businesses out there that are looking for this help. You know, don't waste your time. There's a market for that. But also, I would also say this to find out who you are as a person, what you love to do and what you're good at. Because when you think about the spectrum of l&d, it is huge. Yeah, I mean, think about all the aspects of development, ranging from, you know, just to technology LMS alone, I mean, there are hundreds and hundreds of learning management systems out there, and you need people who administrate that kind of thing. Now, you have technical writers who specialize in technical writing, you know, you have those who are really great at explainer videos, using beyond whatever, you have those who are natural trainer in the classroom, that their personality, you know, the ability to engage students, and the whole range of opportunities and LED. So there's, there's, there's so much there that you would want to take some time upfront, to say, Okay, what is it in lnd? That I really, really want to do? Do I want to get into the writing aspects? Or do I want to get into some more of that creative stuff, like making videos, animations, or even custom graphics for elearning backgrounds or whatever, or just writing, you know, code? So, you know, if you can just say, you know, this is what I love to do. This is what I'm really good at how to narrow in that, and then just go for it. YOLO, right, you only just go for it.

Luis Malbas  
You know, Parker that is like such important. I mean, just great advice to be able to tell people that because I don't think I've been in this space, you know, only half as long as you've been, which is still a long time, 15 years. But then I don't know how many times I've had entry level instructional designers like say things that like they're really frustrated, because they can't figure out storyline, it's like, well, you don't have to know story. To be an instructional designer, there are just so many different pockets to this space, that you can jump in I know, folks that are just that specifically work in Word as instructional designers and are just, you know, writers, you know, and and so you don't have to know all of this stuff to be a successful, l&d professional, you, you can actually like, pick what you're good at? And yeah, yeah. And do you get to tell people this like in your community in ideal? And is that something that you can, that you've

Parker Grant  
tried to share once in a while? You know, those attempts, I've had a few members of it less private message me in slamming. Say, Hey, Parker, what do you think? Should I do this, you know, just getting some guidance and spend a little bit of time, you know, sometimes we'll hop on a zoom call, and just go through some tweaks. I love doing that stuff. You know, it's, it's so satisfying. To know that you can help make a difference in the trajectory of that person's life. Life decision, alright. So, you know, I know some, you know, freelancers, they do it for a while, but they really get nervous, and they revert back to full time. That sense of security, like, I need to get back to a full time job. I don't know if I can take it, which is fine. You know, I mean, you don't feel like this is the right time to go back to the full time job. But you know, sometimes, you know, it's just a little encouragement, a little tweak in the direction. He really helps set that person off to a really prosperous path. So

Luis Malbas  
yeah, okay, so now how about as a founder as as a co founder of ID Lance? It's been a couple years now. Anything you know, now that you would you would change?

Parker Grant  
Yeah, I think I'm learning new platforms that I wish I had started out with when, when Andrea and I began. So we started writing curriculum on Word documents. And actually we use, I think we use OneNote. So it's collecting all this content, we're putting stuff together, and we were formulating the curriculum. And we eventually put it into Word. But then we were trying to figure out, alright, how do we deliver this so that, you know, people would just pay a membership fee and then join and get the curriculum? And you've heard of LearnDash? Right? So we're press platform. So you know, being a startup, we were thinking, Okay, we have to keep our costs down. We don't want to put a whole bucket load of money into this, and keep our costs down. So we started out with WordPress and the LearnDash plugin. So we're all excited, this is gonna be really, really cool. I don't know how many out there watch it to thinking nuts because you are saying that you're right. WordPress is horrible. When it when it comes to using plugin. Because what happens, like we we put in, we put in LearnDash. And LearnDash has other elements like social, what is it called? The Buddy Press. You put that in, and then you put in some other plugins, pretty soon you you have like 10 or 12 different plug in. And that's just a recipe for nuclear war. I mean, is, it is like, we basically had our site shut down, because everything was not working. Because every time they had updates to plug in, it would just blow up the system. So Andrew and I, we, luckily, we made a transition to a different system. And that was Thinkific. And so that's what we're running off right now. Which is stable wishes, it was a good thing. But we're finding that that there are some limitations with that. And so we are looking at another platform, you know, for the next few months, that will help take it to another level, which includes all the marketing aspects of it. So it's really like it is this year?

Luis Malbas  
Yeah, it's, um, gosh, I can't even tell you this. This, this is almost feels like it could be a whole different broadcast, but I've been through WordPress terrible, like I you know, and I've built like, literally probably 100 WordPress sites. But when I started this with TL DC was like, No, thanks. You know, working, the smallest thing would just crash everything and, and all that not that WordPress for like, just a static site that if you have a restaurant or something works great, you know, but if you're going to add LearnDash, as a plug in, you better be ready for Well, you probably need to hire a couple people to just keep an eye on it.

Parker Grant  
Yeah, we had to hire a a WordPress specialists. Yeah. Yeah. It was just it was nuts. Yeah, just I mean, just one additional plugin would change the fonts or something on your homepage. Had nothing to do with each other. Now. It's like, How could that happen? Anyway?

Luis Malbas  
Yeah. Like Farhana saying, so glad to hear I'm not the only one who have been in WordPress, I moved over to Webflow, which is a no code system that I absolutely love. Webflow is so great. I never have to worry about anything. Yeah, I have to pay a little bit more. Yeah. I don't know. Parker, I could probably like chat with you and Andrea about this stuff. Some of the time of lessons. Yeah. About all this stuff. Because it's yeah, it's it's you just want something stable. That doesn't keep you up at night. And, and WordPress is not it's just, it's a real mess. Wow, time has just flown by let me let me pull up a couple more questions here that I so, um, what is something that is a real challenge for you that you do?

Parker Grant  
What's the real challenge for me in what I do? It's probably saying no, yeah. Andrea and I both have that same problem. We don't want to say no, but, you know, we are increasingly getting more stuff to do more activities. And it's hard to say no, but what we're trying to do though, is trying to find ways to get that support to help that client or whoever. And, you know, that's, that's the benefit of working with a great community like it Lance is isn't having that network? Yeah. But it's so hard to say no. I mean, there are a couple of instances where you have to say no. Right. Right. Like work with that person.

Luis Malbas  
Um, and and for you like for what you do now, how do you stay on top of your own professional development?

Parker Grant  
Yeah, that's a good question. Um, I think, through the pandemic, I think, you know, we had the opportunity to kind of participate in a lot of webinars or, or at least, even just going through LinkedIn feeds, you know, people put some really good things out there, click on the links, and then like, short little bits of wisdom or tips, which I think, you know, in LinkedIn alone in the last couple of years, it's just blossom. With opportunities for professional development. I think we've got some really great talent out there, people putting out some, you know, great infographics, videos, storyline samples, things like that. So that's, that's a good way to do it. Now. I personally would like to get back into going to conferences, probably starting this fall and into next year. Now that we're emerging from the pandemic, as people have, I guess, are feeling safer, and they're getting healthier, you know, to participate. So I look forward to that.

Luis Malbas  
Yeah, yeah. No, that's good. Excellent. Yeah. I'm not sure. I'm hoping I'm thinking still trying to consider whether or not I'm gonna throw a live event next year, because I've done three so far for TL DC, but oh, yeah, I am. I'm still it's still a little risky. And I'm not trying to produce any big ones. I just like to keep them on the smaller side. But it's still I don't want to make that choice of having to invite people out to a risky environment. So I'm kind of risk averse in that way. So last question, if you weren't doing instructional design, Id lens, any of that stuff anywhere in l&d? What would you be doing instead?

Parker Grant  
If I were doing instructional design? Oh,

Luis Malbas  
not doing it? If there was if if you weren't an l&d professional, what do you think? What would you be? Oh, if

Parker Grant  
I wasn't Oh, probably, I mean, you know, I started out as mechanical engineer, I probably would revert to that. Stay with that. Um, you do anything?

Luis Malbas  
Do you do anything now that's related to engineering on the side, like, hobbies or anything like that?

Parker Grant  
No, no, no time? No, but but in a different way. Yes. I will take that back. One of my clients and I'm working with now manufactures, circuits, you know, they could use silicon chips, think like that. And I work with a lot of electrical engineers. So even though I'm not an E, I'm an Emmy. Same kind of Shop Talk. Okay. So, yeah, it's, it's very familiar territory. Yeah. Okay, cool. Yeah. And I could still, you know, look at their diagram, and, you know, their technical material, and at least sound somewhat intelligent about it.

Luis Malbas  
Parker, I love talking to you. I think I'm so glad that you know, I want to thank you too. I forgot to thank you for helping sponsor that elearning tool summit that we did. Really kind of you to help support that. And yeah, I can tell you as far as like, l&d is concerned you're definitely Yun Andrey are like some of the good guys in this space. And it's so it's a pleasure to be able to talk to you and work with you. And if you ever have any questions, anything at all, like especially on the community side of things, just send me an email I have gone through all that stuff. And that's kind of my background is I have always been the person that played with toys you know, back when I was working at the guild and all that stuff. That was always the one that was like

Parker Grant  
yeah, I tell you when I will be talking a lot.

Luis Malbas  
Yeah, let me know. I'm happy. I'm always finding new stuff too. So you know, yeah, just keep in touch and thank you so much for supporting TLD see with your membership, and you guys have any anything coming up for ID lands that people should know about?

Parker Grant  
Well, we do have something big coming later this year. We won't announce it yet. But it's going to be a little bit of a game changer. So we're excited about that. I hate to leave it at the teaser but I have to leave it sorry.

Luis Malbas  
It's not calm right. I do not have to outcome. Yeah, yeah. And then everybody, June 23, and 24th. We're having the accessible and inclusive design conference that we're hosting. I don't have the landing page up yet, but keep an eye on that. It's, it's free. And we're going to have two days worth of sessions on talking about accessible and inclusive design, super important. And last year, we had over I think, 1200 registrants for that one. So this year, it will be big too. And it's just so valuable to know and great for our industry, if we all can build inclusivity into what we do. And with that, I'm going to wrap it up. Thanks again, Parker. You know, good luck with ya meeting at the time. Absolutely. All right. Bye, everybody. Thanks a lot.

‍