Practitioner Profile: Marc Lee of ML Multimedia
Phil Havlik
Introduction and Background
Marc Lee is the founder and chief operator of ML Multimedia. In it’s tenth year, his company specializes in developing custom e-learning and giving the client a full- featured learning tool. I met Marc through connections from the Society for Technical Communication (Rocky Mountain chapter), where we are both members.
His company’s site can be found at http://www.mlmultimedia.com
We spoke via Adobe Connect on Wednesday, October 8th.
Dialogue
What is it that ML Multimedia does?
We are full service eLearning development. My background is that of a technical writer, hence my involvement with STC. About 15 years ago I began to realize that there was more to communication on technical subjects than just a written document, so I got involved with video and sound, and programming. We do what we think is technical type training and the more technical the better and use all of these advanced tools for the purpose of creating great learning experiences. We do development. Sometimes we actually hire Instructional Designers to produce whatever it is that the client would like created. Occasionally I return to my roots as a writer and do the writing too, but our focus is on development rather than content.
What Background and Qualifications led you to form your own company?
Nothing really qualifies you to do open your own business and become an independent contractor and developer. There are certainly things that you can learn in school,but I am actually completely self-taught. I took some programming classes in college, but I was actually an English major. So I know the development side only as it comes from writing and I had to teach myself all of the other aspects of development from there like editing audio and video, programming, or database editing. I was involved with technical communication and went to work for an eLearning company and was a full time employee. At that point I got some of the background and then I decided to go off on my own. Probably what helped to “qualify” me if you want to use that term was that I had a mentor who was in the business who helped me along and we still work together today.
The company I worked for was called Product Knowledge, who actually no longer exist. They did technical communication and eLearning, but it was at the beginnings of what we would call eLearning today. We really had no Internet, (or very little) It was done actually mostly on floppy discs. We didn’t really have CD-ROMs back then either. They developed tools for learning for the disc drive industry.
What are some of the biggest changes you would say you’ve seen over the past 15 years?
The internet has been the biggest change. Initially it wasn’t really that big because of the bandwith, but it obviously has developed since. It has really helped not so much even from the perspective of the user, but from the perspective of the client (company/organization wanting to train its people. Putting all of the resources on the company’s site instead of distribution through hard copy like CDs or the like is probably the biggest innovation. The costs are just unbelievably lower. You can put it out and can update it instantly, compared with having to build it, burn it, find mistakes, reship it, reburn it, etc. It’s just a huge win for the client. Today, we still do some other media type distribution for other reasons. For instance, some clients like to sell a product, and they want a physical product: I’m sending you the product and you send me money.
I’m a huge believer in the idea that everything should be done over the web because of today’s technology. It used to not be the case.
Do you have any involvement in Web 2.0 technologies?
I have a huge belief in Web 2.0. I believe that is the direction we are going. I have talked to clients about it, but they are resistant because most clients want to retain control. For example, I use Captivate to create movies. Let’s say you have 10 clients who are the biggest clients, and for $6,000 you can have everyone use Captivate everybody can contribute to the discussion. Or you can swap the movies around like “Here’s what I saw when I clicked the red button” and users can then identify versioning errors and such. That sort of thing becomes a full circle of training instead of a waterfall model, where it all comes from a certain font of knowledge and everyone is the passive recipient. I don’t think that sort of model is viable today, but clients are often resistant to switch to more of what I would call a democratic or 2.0 model because they lose that control.
Everything should be structured around the idea that anything you do in the way of communication has to be structured around the content’s needs and the audience. This democratic model has its limits. In a situation where you are teaching neurosurgery, the guy who has been there for 3 days doesn’t really have as much to contribute to the discussion. That’s an example of where you do want that waterfall model with the font of knowledge. Later on in the semester there is more room for discussion, but in some cases from Day 1: Minute 1 it does work, but it has its limits.
What Role Does Communication Play in Being Successful?
One of my pals in the DMELD group noted that patience and communication in the beginning is necessary. Once the development phase begins though, you’re on your own. The only communication really is how soon will it be done, and what will it look like. One thing to learn though is to be sure to define everything you are being asked to do as clearly as you can, and then hold to that to make sure that you are not constantly trying to chase updates and changes that are being made as you’re going along.
Do you have other people within your company working for you? How big does your operation go?
I’m as small as you can go: it’s just me. One of the things you do in this business though is develop as many partnerships as you can. I have a video guy, a voice over guy a graphics designer guy and so on. We have groups of people, which is kind of the idea behind DMELD who are independent ID or writers, or marketers, video, audio, programming, etc. who have different specialties. I find that we keep the same people year after year, so it is kind of like a virtual company. I heard this business referred to as the “Hollywood” model. You don’t put together a company of lighting experts, grips, cameramen, and so on. You come together and make a movie, and then you disband afterwards. We tend to use the same people over and over. It’s not a company in the traditional sense, but it’s like a virtual company in that we all help and support each other on various projects.
What would you advice or methodologies would you recommend to others starting off doing independent contracting work?
I would say you have to have some picture of what your market is. You have to know where the business is coming from. When I started out with my mentor, he was so successful, he was able to throw jobs my way.
I would also say to exceed expectations. You can’t buy better marketing than repeat business. The people I know who are the most consistently successful are doing a huge amount of repeat business: get the client and keep them happy.
Also, read a book on starting a small business and follow what it says in terms of keeping your books, understanding contracts and so on.
Reflection/Conclusion
I found the interview with Marc to be a very successful one. We shared good conversation about the field, and I appreciated being able to gain some insights from someone who has 15+ years of experience in the field of eLearning in a variety of ways. He also is someone who didn’t enter the field with a lot of background but self-taught himself a lot of what he needed to know in order to become successful. It took a mentor as someone who took him under his wing and showed him how to be a success.
I also found the information regarding building relations and contacts with other independent contractors interesting. I had the perspective of contracting as more of a small business model with a few employees. I was unaware that it really is as independent based as it was described from Marc. For someone just starting off, that can be scary!
At the end of the interview, Marc and I discussed the possibility of furthering our discussions toward a presentation at STC or some other venue. I appreciate the opportunity to expand my horizons, (although hesitate not to overwhelm myself too much at this point either) and look forward to working with an experienced independent contractor. It will be helpful to look to outside opportunities to expand my resume in the future and make as many inside connections as I can.
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