What did you actually learn?

If you’re starting out, where do you start? Who can you trust to help you without parting with large amounts of cash or wasting precious time?

The choice of people and organisations giving advice about how you should run your business is mind-boggling but if you’re a freelancer or small business, the best advice comes from the folk who are just like you.

Kim Ellis, who’s a learning designer, founded L&D Free Spirits in 2024 to give a leg up to those starting and navigating through life as a freelancer or small business in the learning and development industry.

It’s a community of like-minded and like-careered business folk who swap, share, collaborate and support.

Jill Sainsbury caught up with Kim and fellow spirits marketer Hayley Maisey and learning designer Craig Stevenson at the World of Learning Expo at the NEC in Birmingham

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“What did you actually learn?” is the podcast that gets out and about to find out how people learn new stuff and help others to do the same.

We’ve turned off Teams to visit fascinating people in person in the places where they hang out to find out how they absorb and pass on new info.

The podcast is produced by Switched-on Multimedia, film and content producers for training and education.

To find out how Switched-on Multimedia can boost your training and education video and digital content visit our website.

PRESENTER: Jill Sainsbury (Connect with Jill on LinkedIn)

VOICEOVER: Ian Miles

We’re all encouraged to be brief, to sum things up to capture attention but too much brevity can miss the point.

Impact specialist Rachel Dunford has been helping businesses large and small for years to measure and shout not only about what they do but the difference they’re making.

Now she’s set up the ‘Impactful Community’ to share her expertise amongst a group of values-driven women to help them share their good stuff even if it means offering a bit more detail.

If Rachel seems familiar, she is. She first appeared on “What did you actually learn” in 2024, before the idea about forming a community had been conceived.

She’s back to talk about how the community is making its own impact across 3 continents and how it’s spawned another great idea - ‘Impactful Networking’ .

“What did you actually learn?” is the podcast that gets out and about to find out how people learn new stuff and help others to do the same.

We’ve turned off Teams to visit fascinating people in person in the places where they hang out to find out how they absorb and pass on new info.

The podcast is produced by Switched-on Multimedia, film and content producers for training and education.

To find out how Switched-on Multimedia can boost your training and education video and digital content visit our website.

PRESENTER: Jill Sainsbury (Connect with Jill on LinkedIn)

VOICEOVER: Ian Miles

Yoga is often billed as ‘gentle’ or ‘relaxing’ or an activity during which you don’t get too sweaty. While it’s not an intensive cardio workout but it can be tailored to create the right amount of challenge for anyone at any age.

Barbara Helis-Bailey who is the founder of Brave Bodies Yoga and Pilates is putting that into practice by leading classes both in person and online where everyone, no matter their age or ability can enjoy an achievable but challenging workout.

Talking of challenge, Barbara talks about how to lead satisfying classes via a webcam from her living room to those in theirs.

“What did you actually learn?” is the podcast that gets out and about to find out how people learn new stuff and help others to do the same.

We’ve turned off Teams to visit fascinating people in person in the places where they hang out to find out how they absorb and pass on new info.

The podcast is produced by Switched-on Multimedia, film and content producers for training and education.

To find out how Switched-on Multimedia can boost your training and education video and digital content visit our website.

PRESENTER: Jill Sainsbury (Connect with Jill on LinkedIn)

VOICEOVER: Ian Miles

If networking is something to be endured rather than enjoyed, listen up because networking supremo Grace Fogarty could be the answer to your prayers.

With a background in acting and presenting, Grace understands that if you want to connect with the right people, you’ve got to put the work in so you’re prepared when you show up.

It’s this experience and practice which has led her to set up Present with Grace a consultancy that helps business owners, network without the ‘ick’.

Jill met up with Grace at London Bridge for a walk along the north bank of the Thames to talk about how networking can actually work, if you know what to do.

Connect with Grace on LinkedIn

Grace runs a free masterclass every month on how to get more clients from networking. Sign up to join the next one!

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“What did you actually learn?” is the podcast that gets out and about to find out how people learn new stuff and help others to do the same.

We’ve turned off Teams to visit fascinating people in person in the places where they hang out to find out how they absorb and pass on new info.

The podcast is produced by Switched-on Multimedia, film and content producers for training and education.

To find out how Switched-on Multimedia can boost your training and education video and digital content visit www.switched-on.tv

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CREDITS:

Presenter: Jill Sainsbury (Connect with Jill on LinkedIn)

Voiceover: Ian Miles

At what point should a business owner put their foot on the accelerator and head for the heights? Alternatively at what point should that person put their hand up and say ‘I’m stuck’! Business coach Sarah Yandell knows all too well that fast growth without structure leads to chaos whereas little or no growth will inevitably just fizzle out.

As a woman who’s grown more than one business to six figures, Sarah has lived the dramas and put right the mistakes so she is now in a great position to help others who want to grow their businesses especially if the cart has got stuck in the river.

On a beautiful spring day Sarah took Jill Sainsbury on a walk along the banks of the River Stour on the Essex-Suffolk border to talk about how she got to where she is, helped along with way by the odd dip in the river.

“What did you actually learn?” is the podcast that gets out and about to find out how people learn new stuff and help others to do the same.

We’ve turned off Teams to visit fascinating people in person in the places where they hang out to find out how they absorb and pass on new info.

The podcast is produced by Switched-on Multimedia, film and content producers for training and education.

To find out how Switched-on Multimedia can boost your training and education video and digital content visit our website.

PRESENTER: Jill Sainsbury (Connect with Jill on LinkedIn)

VOICEOVER: Ian Miles

If you watch a play or film do you feel sorry for the villain or do you think they deserve what’s coming to them? Good drama is rarely black and white so the actor playing the baddie, needs to portray what makes them tick to ensure the audience ‘gets it’.

Actor Francesa McChron firmly believes empathy is essential for all characters both good and bad in an every setting whether that’s on the stage, on film, at an immersive event or in a role play for professional training.

She caught up with Jill Sainsbury on a windy day beside Portsmouth Harbour close to her home.

“What did you actually learn?” is the podcast that gets out and about to find out how people learn new stuff and help others to do the same.

We’ve turned off Teams to visit fascinating people in person in the places where they hang out to find out how they absorb and pass on new info.

The podcast is produced by Switched-on Multimedia, film and content producers for training and education.

To find out how Switched-on Multimedia can boost your training and education video and digital content visit our website

When starting out in our careers we’re all encouraged to ‘think big’ so that one day we’ll ‘make it’ in whatever form that takes. Once there, what then? Learning consultant Andy Candler did indeed ‘make it’ reaching the top of his profession, running a highly successful agency, managing staff and huge budgets but then it all came to an end. Andy had to change tack. That change included a trip to Bogota, learning Spanish and using his years of learning tech experience to start again on a new but equally rewarding course.

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“What did you actually learn?” is the podcast that gets out and about to find out how people learn new stuff and help others to do the same.

We’ve turned off Teams to visit fascinating people in person in the places where they hang out to find out how they absorb and pass on new info.

The podcast is produced by Switched-on Multimedia, film and content producers for training and education.

To find out how Switched-on Multimedia can boost your training and education video and digital content visit our website.

PRESENTER: Jill Sainsbury (Connect with Jill on LinkedIn)

VOICEOVER: Ian Miles

Technology is impacting our lives whether we like it or not so we may as well learn to live with it, or even embrace it! That’s the view of Gina Blackie of Nurture Public Relations who works with tech firms to help them explain to the public what they do and why. Except what they do can be complex and hard to understand.

Journalist Jill Sainsbury met up with Gina in Whitchurch in Hampshire for a much needed, tech-free walk along the River Test.

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"What did you actually learn?" is the podcast that gets out and about to find out how people learn new stuff and help others to do the same.

We’ve turned off Teams to visit fascinating people in person in the places where they hang out to find out how they absorb and pass on new info.

The podcast is produced by Switched-on Multimedia, film and content producers for training and education.

To find out how Switched-on Multimedia can boost your training and education video and digital content visit www.switched-on.tv

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CREDITS:

Presenter: Jill Sainsbury

Voiceover: Ian Miles

Jasmine Sainsbury started a YouTube channel aged 16 to help her revise for her GCSE history exam. Seven years later, it’s amassed nearly 40,000 subscribers and is being used by history teachers far and wide to help their students get through their exams.

What started as a hobby led to a first class history degree at the University of Sheffield and now a masters in ‘public history’ at a university in Germany.

It turns out by creating the YouTube channel, A Long Long Time Ago with cute cartoon animations, she’s been doing ‘public history’ for years!

Jasmine took a stroll with Jill through Royal Victoria Country Park near Southampton which is chock-full of public history.

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"What did you actually learn?" is the podcast that gets out and about to find out how people learn new stuff and help others to do the same.

We’ve turned off Teams to visit fascinating people in person in the places where they hang out to find out how they absorb and pass on new info.

The podcast is produced by Switched-on Multimedia, film and content producers for training and education.

To find out how Switched-on Multimedia can boost your training and education video and digital content visit www.switched-on.tv

••••••

CREDITS:

Presenter: Jill Sainsbury

Voiceover: Ian Miles

Lisa Henshaw of Parker Robinson Communications loves a good story and she’s particularly good at drawing them out of people who don’t necessarily realise they have anything interesting to say.

Stories have the power to get a point across in a way that sticks which is why storytelling is so valuable in education, training and business, as long as it’s clear what’s fact and what’s fiction.

As Lisa loves a good read, Jill met Lisa at Goldfinch Books in Alton to exchange a few…stories.

••••••

"What did you actually learn?" is the podcast that gets out and about to find out how people learn new stuff and help others to do the same.

We’ve turned off Teams to visit fascinating people in person in the places where they hang out to find out how they absorb and pass on new info.

The podcast is produced by Switched-on Multimedia, film and content producers for training and education.

To find out how Switched-on Multimedia can boost your training and education video and digital content visit www.switched-on.tv

••••••

CREDITS:

Presenter: Jill Sainsbury

Voiceover: Ian Miles