Lisa's diverse career path – from taxidermy to digital design

STUFFING lions and tigers isn’t considered the conventional career path into website design.
Then again, Lisa Johnstone isn’t your everyday parish councillor.
The Gainford mum-of-two has been through a number of ups and downs in the past couple of decades.
She hopes her new digital media firm, LJ Digital Media, will find its place firmly in the “ups” column.
Her village-based firm is only a few months old but she is confident she can strike up a good relationship with Teesdale’s older digital generations.
“I’ve started small by working at home – I spent my redundancy money on laptops because one of my big passions is to get old people online,” she says.
“In Gainford, there is a degree of social isolation and I think there is a wealth of technology out there that old people are scared of.
“They might have an iPad or a laptop but they are petrified to push the wrong button.
“I want to make it less scary – maybe they just want to email or share photos with family.”
Ms Johnstone spent 11 years at Staindrop Academy looking after “E-Learning” at the school, teaching lessons and overseeing its academy rebrand.
But her career was thrown a curve ball when she was made redundant late last year.
She says: “It was a massive shock to the system and my confidence was at an all time low.
“My mum is my number one fan and she said I could design websites so I pursued LJ Digital Media. One of the things I have learned is to be resilient and to keep going.
“I run in my spare time and when I’m on a tough run I tell myself what doesn’t kill me will make me stronger. It’s applicable to all areas of life so I just keep running.”
But where does taxidermy fit into all this?
Ms Johnstone says her relationship with the craft stretches back to the 1980s when she worked with her former partner, Adrian.
She adds: “We sold in the UK and abroad – we provided for collectors, museums and I built up contacts with a lot of schools.
“Teachers would ring up for foxes and pheasants in urban communities like Manchester, Sheffield and Pontefract.
“You can take it for granted here because some of the kids did not know what the animals were.”
Their specialist business was tightly regulated by the forerunner of DEFRA (Department for the Environment and Rural Affairs) and weathered what was then a strident animal rights lobby.
All manner of animals, insects and exotic creatures passed their gaze with Ms Johnstone often left with some bizarre tasks.
She says: “When tawny owls were being stuffed it was my job to paint their eyelids red.
“I did tarantulas and butterflies. I spent a lot of time cold calling schools – it was interesting introducing yourself as a taxidermist.
“I used to have to send big boxes with pheasants inside – it was my job to stitch the pheasant into the bottom of the boxes so it would arrive in one piece.
“We did a couple of tigers from zoos in this country – they were quite impressive.”
The pair split in 2002 but continued to live in the same house to bring up their children.
Ms Johnstone took on a job working late shifts at an Orange call centre, in Darlington, while Mr Johnstone kept the taxidermy business running. It meant Ms Johnstone got little to no sleep but the job was not without its perks.
“I worked at Orange until 2005 and I absolutely loved it – people are a bit snobby about call centres but it had a great atmosphere and I made some good friends,” she says.
“My first call I had was from a man who wasn’t very happy.
“As I moved up, I loved those calls that were ‘escalated’ – there’s a sick bunny in me that loves the idea of talking them down and getting them to see reason. It was one of my favourite parts of the job.”
With her career reaching another fork in the road, she is sure her new web business can provide help to the less tech-savvy.
She says: “I have got quite a lot of courses starting. I am passionate about getting older people online and every small business does need an online presence.
“Years ago we used to use to the Yellow Pages as the first port of call but the internet is cost effective and gives you a presence.
“The key thing is to keep it up to date.”
To find out more about Ms Johnstone’s new business, visit ljdigitalmedia.com