Learning Revolution: Start an Online Business with Educational Products | Content Marketing: Recent Episodes
Jeff Cobb
After a long pause, I am back with a new episode of the Learning Revolution podcast. In this one, the tables are turned, and instead of me interviewing someone, I get interviewed by Bryan Kelly of Association Mavens. We talk about how the Learning Revolution …
Association Mavens & the Learning Revolution Read More »
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What if you could build a thriving community of people passionate about your area of expertise? Many Learning Revolutionaries are interested in doing just that, but don’t know where to start or how to go about it. In this episode, community expert Richard Millington offers …
Building Buzzing Communities with Richard Millington Read More »
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Do you work in a field in a field or industry that seems completely set in its ways? Where change seems impossible? Would you like to shake things up with with new perspectives and new business models – and, of course, generate significant income while …
Breaking the Mold – and Thriving – with Jason Blumer Read More »
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What if you could deliver not just the occasional video, Webinar, or online course to your audience, but a bona fide virtual event? Turns out you can even if you are a small organization or a solopreneur. And – here’s a bonus – it can …
Getting an Edge with Virtual Events – A Conversation with Michael Doyle Read More »
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Interested in launching a dynamic social learning experience for your audience? Want to make the leap from social media not just as a tool for communication, but as a platform for leadership? Then you will definitely want to tune into this episode of Learning Revolution …
Social Leading, Social Learning with SocialFish’s Maddie Grant Read More »
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Want to know what the future holds? A driving force of the Learning Revolution is the fact that change is happening with greater speed, scale, and scope than ever before. As a result, those with clear insights into where the world is headed next are …
Entering the Shift Age with David Houle Read More »
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Got a great workshop, speech, book or other intellectual property you would like to turn into an online course that you can sell? Listen in to this episode of the Learning Revolution podcast to find out how. One of the key catalyst in transforming the …
Easily Publish and Sell Online Courses – An Interview with Pathwright’s Paul Johnson Read More »
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Love ’em or hate ’em, Webinars are a fact of life these days, and they are an essential part of the Learning Revolutionary’s toolbox. So, wouldn’t you like to ensure the Webinars you deliver are as good as possible? In this episode, Webinar expert Wayne …
How to Deliver Great Webinars with Wayne Turmel Read More »
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Assess market – it’s one of the top checklist items for business success, but many subject matter entrepreneurs think it is too complicated and/or expensive to do. In this episode of the Learning Revolution podcast, I take a look at an assessment tool you most …
How to Assess Your Market with Search Read More »
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Do you want to build a Web presence that will really convey the value you have to offer? That will build your brand and keep customers coming back over time? Are you struggling with how to tame the “content beast” while still creating Web content …
Build Your Digital Empire with Chad Barr Read More »
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Do you want to create educational experiences that result in actual learning? That bring customers back for more because you have truly had an impact?
Then listen in to this episode of the Learning Revolution podcast. Harold Stolovitch, co-author of the best-selling, award winning book Telling Ain’t Training is here to help you create great training and education.
In this interview, we talk about why it’s often so hard for experts to translate their deep experiences and knowledge into effective training. Better yet, we walk through a five-step model for creating terrific training sessions. If you are serious about delivering value to your customers and prospects, it would be hard to come up with a better way for you to spend the next 30 minutes.
So, click play below, subscribe on iTunes, or use an app like Instacast, but don’t miss this chance to tune into Harold Stolovitch.
Listen to the Podcast Podcast: Play in new window | Download | iTunes
Get the Show Notes 01:17 Introduction of Harold Stolovitch, co-author of the best selling, award-winning book Telling Ain’t Training and one of the most widely recognized authorities on developing effective training and performance improvement experiences.
02:45 – A workshop I participated in with Harold way back in 2001 actually had an impact on me. I learned, I remembered. But that’s not always – or perhaps even often – the case when we attend training or continuing education events. Why is it difficult for experts to share their expertise effectively?
03:35 – The formation of expertise takes place over so many years, and usually in a pretty messy ways. Experts tend to leave out a great deal of what is now not important to them doing what they do – the basic stuff that novices need. Think about trying to tell someone the directions to your home – there is a lot you just know, but don’t really remember to tell someone else.
05:05 – And experts and novices simply don’t process things in the same way. Think of what driving is like for you now versus when you started.
05:55 – Finally, our brain has many different memory systems. Declarative memory – what we can talk about – is different from procedural memory – the stuff we can actually do. There is only one way to really learn to make a chocolate cake, _______ (you fill in that blank!)
07:15 – If you ask experts how they best learned, they will usually tell you about experiences that are almost the opposite of what they end up doing when you stand them up in front of a room.
08:25 – Introduction of the five-step model: Rationale, objectives, activities, evaluation, and feedback.
09:13 – Discussion of “rationale.” Adults need to know why.
11:45 – Discussion of “objectives.” They have to be verifiable.
14:38 – Discussion of “activities.” The means by which the objectives are achieved.
17:25 – Reference to the “cornucopia” of training activities included in Telling Ain’t Training.
17:50 – Discussion of “evaluation” and “feedback. When the expert steps aside, can the learner actually demonstrate competence? The whole purpose is to lead learners toward success – and help them adjust as necessary to get there.
21:55 – What about in a Webinar or other large, less personal situations? Harold discusses the evaluation and feedback options in these settings.
24:50 – “Teach, prompt, release” vs. “Tell them what you are going to tell them. Tell them. Tell them what you told them.”
25:58 – Focus on mental engagement. The more we are mentally engaged, the more we are going to be able to learn, retain, and actually execute.
26:50 – What has Harold most excited right now? Discussion of neuroscience.
28:27 – Our job is to be a mirror to what goes on inside the mind of the learner. We have to put ourselves in the learner’s shoes. We’re still primitive in doing this.
29:25 – Find Harold at http://www.hsa-lps.com/. You will also find lots of free resources there to help you create better training and education experiences.
You can find Telling Ain’t Training and Harold’s other books by visiting his Amazon.com page. Note also that American Society for Human Resource Developemnt (ASTD) offers a series of Telling Ain’t Training conferences featuring Harold.
30:17 – Sign off from interview
As always, if you like the Learning Revolution podcast, I’d be forever grateful if you would do a brief review on iTunes and tell others about the podcast. Thanks!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | iTunes
The theme music for Learning Revolution is The Information Age by Anthony Fiumano, available on the Podsafe Music Network.
P.S. – Sign up for updates and get my eBook The Learning Revolutionary’s Toolbox and Chapter 1 from Leading the Learning Revolution!
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Have you noticed how much and how fast the market for education and lifelong learning has changed over the past several years?
Would you welcome practical insights to help you not only keep up, but innovate and provide new value to your audience?
In this episode of the podcast, change and innovation expert Seth Kahan offers valuable advice on how to get change and innovation right. This is knowledge the successful Learning Revolutionary most definitely needs.
This episode also marks a turning point in the podcast. The interview with Seth is the last of those I conducted while writing the Leading the Learning Revolution. The podcast will go on, though. For starters, I’ve got Harold Stolovitch, author of the perennial best-seller Telling Ain’t Training lined up for the next episode.
I’ve got plenty more interviews in mind, but I’d also really like to get you input. If you have questions, issues, or people you would like to have featured on the Learning Revolution podcast, please e-mail me.
In the meantime, enjoy the session with Seth Kahan.
Play the Podcast Podcast: Play in new window | Download | iTunes
Get the Show Notes 03:20 – Introduction of Seth Kahan. Seth is a well-known thought leader, consultant, and author of the best-selling book Getting Change Right. He also has new book on the way soon Getting Innovation Right: How Leaders Create Inflection Points that Drive Success in the Marketplace.
3:55 – A lot of the most interesting change is coming from solo entrepreneurs or educators who are leaving their institutions behind. What is it about institutions that just doesn’t like change?
04:25 – Seth discusses two kinds of culture: operations culture and innovation culture. In some organizations it is clear which is which, even within a single organization
05:55 – How can a solo expert or small organization manage to cultivate both types of culture, given that both are necessary?
06:15 – Has to be a conscious decision. The leader in smaller organization tends to have a proclivity for one or the other. You have to find people who can step into the vacant role.
06:40 – Whether innovation is coming from a leader or someone else, where do concepts like testing and experimentation fit in? Is constant experimentation a necessity or a distraction?
06:55 – Seth argues that it all comes down to value generation and you do have to experiment to figure out what increases value. “Value is really the holy grail when it comes to organizational success.”
07:20 – When it comes to proving value, where does “free” fit in? Many organizations in the educational space seem fearful of giving too much – if anything – away for free.
08:00 – Seth stresses that there is a lot of fear in general out there. Not just in the education business. Set discusses three ways to generate value – and how “free” fits in.
09:18 – Discussion of filling the “gaps” over time – between actual financial transactions. You have to provide value even in the times when customers are between transactions or you risk becoming a commodity.
10:25 – Is there any room for price innovation on the low end at this point? Or does the focus need to be on higher value and potentially higher prices? Seth says if you are only focusing on the lower end, you are headed toward commoditization. You have to focus on value.
11:10 – What are some of the biggest opportunities for creating value? Seth talks through four opportunities for creating value.
15:20 – People sometimes miss out on value opportunities that are right in front of them. Seth discusses some of his tips for identifying and exploiting value opportunities. Pros and cons of bringing in a consultants versus hiring. Either way, you need to bring in an expert.
16:25 Also, conduct competitive business intelligence. But some organizations remain stuck even with an expert’s help – what is Seth’s number one tip for getting unstuck?
17:20 – The leaders have to become adept at re-framing strategy – shift their orientation inside the organization. Seth discusses four ways to re-frame.
19:30 – Final words of wisdom from Seth – focused on the opportunities in the education space. Getting innovation right in the education space is extremely important.
20:30 – End of interview with Seth. You can find Seth on the Web at http://www.visionaryleadership.com. Be sure to check out the wealth of free resources Seth makes available there. Also, I highly recommend his series of interviews with seasoned, successful consultants posted on his Freelance Fortune site.
Finally, as promised, here is some information about getting preview goodies for Seth’s soon-to-be-released book Getting Innovation Right: How Leaders Create Inflection Points that Drive Success in the Marketplace. These will include invitations to participate in 2 teleseminars on innovation and links to the recordings, as well as a special PDF workbook based upon the material in the book. The content will be new, original, and not available in the book.
To get your preview materials, first pre-order the book. Then, send proof of your purchase to GIRadvance @ gmail.com. Seth will then make sure you get your preview goodies.
That’s it for the interview with Seth Kahan. If you like the Learning Revolution podcast, I would be eternally grateful if you would consider giving it a brief review on iTunes and sharing it with others. Thanks!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | iTunes
The theme music for Learning Revolution is The Information Age by Anthony Fiumano, available on the Podsafe Music Network.
P.S. – Sign up for updates and get my eBook The Learning Revolutionary’s Toolbox and Chapter 1 from Leading the Learning Revolution!
The post Getting Change and Innovation Right with Seth Kahan appeared first on Learning Revolution.
What if you could leverage a tool you probably already have on your computer and already know how to use as the basis for creating first-rate online education?
As many readers may already know, you can.
That tool is PowerPoint, and using it to create online education is one of the most popular forms of what usually gets referred to as “rapid e-learning.”
My guest for this episode has probably done more than any other single individual to make rapid e-learning a household term in the training industry. Tom Kuhlmann is the Vice President of Community for Articulate, makers of the popular Rapid E-learning Studio and Storyline products, and author of the wildly popular Rapid E-learning Blog.
When I say “wildly popular,” I don’t just mean wildly popular for a training blog: I mean wildly popular for any blog. Tom has built a base of more than 100,000 highly engaged subscribers over the past several years and has played a key role in driving the company’s growth.
In this interview you’ll find out more from Tom about the blog – like how on earth he got 100,000 subscribers for an e-learning blog! – and about his perspectives on e-learning and learning in general.
One of the things I ask Tom about – and this is something I quote him on in the book Leading the Learning Revolution – is his tips for how your average subject matter expert can create a decent piece of online education. Most experts, after all, don’t tend to be professional instructional designers or an e-learning developer.
Listen in for Tom’s advice.
Play the Podcast Podcast: Play in new window | Download | iTunes
Get the Show Notes 03:18 – Intro of Tom Kuhlmann, Vice President of Community for Articulate.
03:40 – What on earth made the Rapid E-learning Blog take off like it did?! Tom himself was surprised – he thought maybe 15,000 would be a home run.
05:15 – Tom feels one of the things that worked for him was that he had actual background in building e-learning courses and could really speak to a broad range of needs. (Hmm…an expert sharing his knowledge.) He keeps it practical and simple.
06:35 – In the world of rapid e-learning, you have a lot of people who don’t come from a programming or e-learning background who suddenly have to build e-learning courses. No graphic background, no background in Web technology – the blog helps them make the leap.
07:25 – Does Tom think of himself as a teacher, as someone providing continuing education? Tom notes that Articulate is rarely mentioned on the blog, but he wants to make sure that people get as much value as possible out of the software they have purchased, and also to contribute in a meaningful way to the e-learning community. He does see the blog and the extended community as informal continuing education.
09:05 – How has rapid e-learning transformed the training and education landscape?You used to have whole teams building courses – it took a lot longer. The rapid tools take away the need to program. If you know PowerPoint you can get it into Flash. Most of the critics of rapid tend to be vendors who were selling e-learning course production (Note: I was one of these people once upon a time, dear readers.) These people have been displaced to a large degree.
11:55 – Rapid has democratized the market (I smell a revolution!). It used to be that if you didn’t have money, you didn’t build e-learning. No longer.
13:00 – You go to conferences now, and the conversation isn’t so much about programming – like it used to be – it’s about how to build better learning experiences.
13:20 – What about people who are not instructional designer now having the ability to use PowerPoint to make a course. You can end up with some pretty bad stuff. What are Tom’s tips for creating a decent online education experience if you are not a designer?
Excerpt from Leading the Learning Revolution:
Let’s say that you’re a subject matter expert and you’re thinking, “I’ve got all this great knowledge. I can take it online. I can build a business around this. I’m going to make some e-learning courses.” What are the key skills or knowledge you need to make a good course? I asked this question of Tom Kuhlmann, author of the wildly successful Rapid E-learning Blog.
The first step, Tom suggested, is to understand whether or not it really needs to be a “course.”“If you’re just having them read screens of information,” he noted, “then maybe a PDF is a better solution than authoring a course.” While arguably there is not really much difference between reading text on a PDF and reading text in a course, people bring different expectations to a course.
Once you have determined that a course is really the right approach, Tom sees visual design as perhaps the most necessary skill for developing courses that stand out. He emphasized that, while instruction is an important part of visual design—the visuals need to support the other content in an appropriate way—emotion is equally important. “E-learning is mostly a visual medium,” he said, “and people are drawn to those things that look good and make them feel good. There’s an emotional connection to what they’re doing. They like to click things. They like to roll their mouse over buttons and move things around. That’s an important part.”
Finally, Tom noted that simply making the effort to be consistent visually, to “make your buttons look like buttons” and make every- thing “look like it all belongs to the same course” can go a long way toward creating a polished, effective learning experience.
15:30 – Tom mentions the value of being able to review the entries for the Articulate Guru Awards.
17:05 – Tom says one of the main questions he asks when developing e-learning is how to get the learner to “touch the screen” – i.e., do things on the screen with the content, to practice doing the things you teach them. Storyline, Tom says, makes building this kind of interactivity about as easy as working in PowerPoint.
Tom talks about Storyline and the future of e-learning
17:50 – Articulate Presenter and similar products provide for fairly structured learning experiences. How does Tom see these types of experiences intersecting with less formal learning? Tom talks about the ability for anyone to create a YouTube video or screencast. “Money shot” for the interview:
Essentially anybody at this point is an expert. Everybody knows something. They have something they can teach other people.
Years ago there was no way to capture this easily. Now there is a vehicle to let anybody share their learning and share what they know.
20:00 – Have to have aggregators, curators to help you make sense of the flood of information. Otherwise you feel overwhelmed with the volume of content that comes at you. You have to have authorities and experts who serve essentially as teachers in being good curators.
[Notable that Justin Bieber gets mentioned in this segment – the second time in the series of interviews I conducted for the book! See my interview with marketing and branding expert Dorie Clark.]
21:10 – Tom sees himself as a curator in writing the Rapid E-learning Blog (Who are your curators?)
21:40 – Can be challenging for organizations that rely on outside experts. Makes the process of curation challenging.
22:20 – Many organizations fall back on Webinars as the main thing they are able to do online. What’s Tom’s perspective? What he likes about Webinars is that no one sees him – he can look at his notes when delivering one. And that they can be recorded – made available, potentially tied to communities. Some of the negatives are that it may be hard to make up for “presenting deficiencies” when you are not in the same room with people. You aren’t able to see their faces and body language. It’s hard to create real conversation in a Webinar (See my “How We Learn” interview with Prof. Monisha Pasupathi for additional perspectives on Webinars.)
25:10 – Tom also thinks most Webinars may be too long. Shorter form learning content may actually be more effective and more valuable. 15-20 minute “quick hit” sessions.
26:50 – A significant issue with Webinars is the need to associate continuing education credit with them – which tends to require 1-hour units.
27:25 – What does Tom see coming down the pipe that has him excited? Tom discusses his experience home schooling his kids. References a book by John Holt on educational reform – 10M people going through basically the exact same educational “gulag.” No company would actually sell a product like this – there is competition, people can choose what they want to choose. This has not been the case so much in education – but the home school market is an example of that changing.
29:30 – When you look at the convergence of easy authoring and distribution, the ability for anybody to share their expertise – look at the success of approaches like the Khan Academy, for example – this opens the door to education, to letting people think about different ways to teach and learn.
30:35 – Draws comparison to the impact that blogging has had on newspapers and the complaints from traditional newspaper people that blogging fragments the market. But the market is already fragmented – it’s just that a handful of large organizations controlled the market before. A similar situation exists in education – but that is changing rapidly. The shift creates incredible opportunities – think, for example of less developed countries where people can now get access to education they would not have had access to before.
32:50 – Wrap-up of interview. Find Tom at The Rapid E-learning Blog.
While you are there, check out great resources like Rapid E-learning 101 and be sure to subscribe to get the 46-page eBook The Insider’s Guide to Becoming a Rapid E-learning Pro.
If you like the podcast, please consider giving it a brief review on iTunes and share it with others. Thanks!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | iTunes
The theme music for Learning Revolution is The Information Age by Anthony Fiumano, available on the Podsafe Music Network.
P.S. – Sign up for updates and get my eBook The Learning Revolutionary’s Toolbox and Chapter 1 from Leading the Learning Revolution!
The post Talking Rapid E-learning with the Articulate Tom Kuhlmann appeared first on Learning Revolution.
Do want to use (or better use) Google Adwords to drive traffic to your products and services?
Did you know that Adwords is also one of the most powerful tools there is for testing your market and figuring out whether you are even offering the right products ans services – and who is likely to buy them?
Those are the kinds of topics covered in this episode of the Learning Revolution podcast. I’m joined this time around by Howie Jacobson and Kristie McDonald, two people who literally wrote the book on Adwords: Google Adwords for Dummies, 3rd Edition.
AdWords, of course, are those text based ads that appear to the right and top of Google search results. They can be very powerful not just for driving traffic to your offerings, but as Howie and Kristie will make clear, for really assessing and understanding your market.
Listen in for some insights and tips that will really help your grow your business. Also, pay attention for an offer I make to get a free copy of Leading the Learning Revolution: The Expert’s Guide to Capitalizing on the Exploding Lifelong Education Market.
Play the Podcast Podcast: Play in new window | Download | iTunes
Get the Show Notes 01:22 – Listen in for a special announcement and offer on the book Leading the Learning Revolution.
03:55 – Introduction of Howie Jacobson and Kristie McDonald, co-authors of Google Adwords for Dummies, 3rd Edition and principals of the digital marketing agency Vitruvian Way.
04:33 – How the Internet has changed everything. Here’s a quote we discuss from white paper Howie wrote:
The Internet does more than just make it easy to go online and read and leave reviews. It fundamentally changes the mathematical and statistical models of human crowd behavior. Because choice increases exponentially while attention remains constant, aggregate human behavior shifts to follow what are known as “power laws.” (Get the white paper: The Hidden Power of Paid Search)
05:25 – The Internet allows us to analyze what people want by looking at what they do. Adwords is not just a way to get sales: it is a way to test and tune human behavior.
06:45 – Traditional marketing is based on a fairly static “village” model in which everyone gets their piece of the pie. Because there is such an aggregation of the crowd through the Internet, there is almost an infinite number of choices and an infinite number of people looking to satisfy their needs. Loyalty is not a given; the fundamentals of market share shift, and someone who is just slightly better can claim the vast majority of the market. The idea of the “slight advantage.”
09:05 – Doing something (even something small) that no one else is doing can tilt the weight of the entire market into your corner.
09:20 – A lot of traditional membership organizations act as villages – and are suddenly finding themselves disrupted.
11:10 – Starting out with good reviews (e.g., for a product) can make all the difference. Someone who starts out with a few good reviews can create a big advantage because of the impact it has on Google searchers – which leads to more good reviews). A slight advantage can snowball.
12:00 – People don’t tend to recognize how Adwords can be used as a market assessment tool. Discussion of using Adwords from the standpoint of an entrenched player vs. a newcomer. Should they assess their markets in the same way?
13:00 – Whether entrenched or new, the key is how you are going to stand out. The entrenched really have to keep an eye on who is coming onto the playing field, what they are saying that is new, and how it is changing the dynamic. New players tend to pay more attention to this, entrenched players forget.
15:30 – Howie’s “though experiment” – is it better to be the entrenched player or the scrappy newcomer? The minute you are successful, start worrying about market blindness or complacency.
16:50 – But at least in theory the entrenched player has a better connection to the market – you can talk to your customers, whereas as new comer will just be viewed as trolling for sales. The entrenched player needs at least some people on staff who are “brainwashed” to think like an upstart – and then use what they see to inform conversations with existing customers.
18:18 – Adwords-driven assessment is crucial, but also superficial when compared to actual customer conversations. Use Adwords to point you in the right direction so you can go have dinner with people.
18:50 – What if you are solo, or work for a small organization and don’t have a lot of budget or time to put into Adwords? What are the two or three things you should absolutely do?
18:37 – You have to analyze the market for your bullseye, your “Dorothy Boyd.”
Howie and Kristie talk about how to approach Adwords if your resources are tight (quote used in Leading the Learning Revolution):
Kristie:
When somebody doesn’t have a lot of budget to work with, and they’re looking to run a PPC campaign that is small and tight, what we tell them to do is analyze their market for their bull’s-eye. What are the bull’s-eye terms in your market—the terms that, if somebody types them in, their intent absolutely is to buy what you have? They are looking for you. They are looking for what you have.
For example, if somebody is looking to be certified by the Proj- ect Management Institute, and they type in “PMI Online Courses,” they’re clearly looking for you if you sell PMI courses. And you need to be there when they’re looking, because otherwise your competi- tors will get them instead. If you have a small budget, you just need to look at your core terms. Don’t try to experiment with other ones. Just use the core ones. What would somebody ask for if they were looking exactly for me? Then run that campaign.
Howie:
One of the functions of AdWords, or any sort of pay-per-click, is to test the rest of your sales funnel. It may be that AdWords is not the place where you’re going to “kill it.” There may not be a lot of traffic, or people may not be searching for it. It may be an impulse buy or your competition has a business model that just makes it too expensive for you to advertise successfully for long.
But if you have an online business these days, the website is the nexus for whether people end up interested in you or not. And that’s how I would initially use PPC—to do what Kristie says. To fig- ure out, “Who’s my bull’s-eye?” Who are the people that I call the “Dorothy Boyd prospects”? Remember? That was Renée Zellweger’s character in Jerry Maguire—the one he “had at hello.” With your Dorothy Boyd prospects, you say “This is what I do,” and they say, “That’s exactly what I want.” If you can’t sell to those people, why bother with anybody else?
21:20 – Social media and SEO are only “guessing” at who your market is and where you are going to find them. Pay per click – if it is done right – may involve an initial guess, but then it is testing – it gives you clear data to back up your efforts.
23:20 – Selling is selling, but the training industry has some specific challenges online. One of these is that the Internet has evolved into a medium of selling through education. But if what you are selling is education, it can be a slippery slope. You have to “tease with integrity.”
24:40 – Discussion of the Vitruvian Way Cafe – which will become a paid membership learning community. Discussion of what/how much it makes sense to give so much away for free, and when it makes sense to charge.
Creating Keyword Buckets: A Freebie from Virtuvian Way
27:30 – Even with all of the information they have given away in Adwords for Dummies, people still reach out to them for more. It often happens that the more information people get about a topic they more they appreciate the difference between themselves and the true experts – and they are willing to pay for access to deep expertise. They key is to provide value each step of the way as you interact with your prospects and customers.
29:12 – The content is often less important than the way it is delivered and your emotional connection to the person who is delivering it and their ability to customize it to you.
29:45 – What made the membership site model for Vitruvian Way Cafe attractive? Why not just set up a catalog of courses? Was it a way to build emotional connection as apposed to a more transactional model.
30:45 – Yes, there is more of a connection when people are in a community – and there is the social aspect of connecting with others who are wrestling with the same questions you are. It not only connects you with customers, it makes them never want to leave.
33:30 -Parting words of wisdom. Really have to move from a transactional to a relationship model if you are in a market that is at all competitive – but you have to be open with people about how you make money. Money changes the dynamics of relationships. Your business model is synonymous with building mutually beneficial relationships. The hard numbers of Adwords can point you to how you do this.
36:15 – Interview wrap up. Be sure to visit:
- Visit Vitruvian Way
- Visit Howie’s Site
- Get Adwords for Dummies
37:44 – Sign off
Thanks so much for tuning into the Learning Revolution. If you find the podcast valuable, please consider sharing it with others by clicking https://www.learningrevolution.net/share to send out a tweet. I’d also be really grateful if you would consider doing a brief review or giving the podcast a rating on iTunes.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | iTunes
The theme music for Learning Revolution is The Information Age by Anthony Fiumano, available on the Podsafe Music Network.
P.S. – I’ll be releasing The Learning Revolutionary’s Toolbox next week. To receive a free copy, be sure to sign up to get update e-mails! – Jeff
The post Knowing and Growing Your Market with Adwords – Howie Jacobson and Kristie McDonald appeared first on Learning Revolution.
Interested in building a global base of loyal fans who tell you the educational offerings they want and help you design them? Then you definitely want to listen in to this interview with Alan Weiss, the Million Dollar Consultant®.
I’ve counted myself among Alan’s fan base for many years now and was thrilled to have the opportunity to talk with him as I was writing Leading the Learning Revolution. In this podcast, Alan discusses his approach to building successful professional communities, the keys to developing high-value, high-price point offerings, and how on earth he manages to produce as much as he does.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking this is just for consultants: the advice and perspectives Alan offers in this episode apply to any entrepreneurial individual or organization that wants to take their education business to a whole new level this year. Enjoy it, and please also spread the word with a Tweet or by using the social links at the end of this post.
Play the Podcast Podcast: Play in new window | Download | iTunes
Get the Show Notes 02:05 – Introduction of Alan Weiss, the Million Dollar Consultant®.
02:30 – Discussion of the moniker “Architect of Professional Communities®” and what it means to Alan. Alan believes communities are the future of professional groups and that traditional trade and professional associations are going to disappear.
Interview quote used in Leading the Learning Revolution:
I think a true community, such as I have with Alan’s Forums, is one where people interact. They’re drawn together by the quality of the people there. They act as peers. They help each other, and in helping each other they help the overall profession. It’s not dissimilar, by analogy, to the iPhone and apps. The more apps that are created, the more the people buy them, the more people are attracted, the more apps are created. Apple then creates an even better iPhone and the cycle repeats itself. So, that’s what I mean by community. Not anyone can create a community. You have to have a strong brand, thought leadership, and intellectual property. And so, in boutique consulting, I’ve been able to do that. – Alan Weiss
03:30 Alan says you have to have strong brand, thought leadership, and intellectual property to create a successful community. You have to constantly provide excitement and value. New ideas, new intellectual property – and be fearless in spreading these. When people find value and excitement in being with you, they tend to congregate – and good people bring other good people with them.
04:40 – Discussion of “free” – Alan notes that he gives away everything that he has in his books. Organizations and individuals are afraid of giving so much away, but Alan argues that the more you share, the more you benefit. The more you give, the more you get.
05:50 – How does Alan manage to do so much as a solo entrepreneur? One key is never self-censoring, never re-writing. When Alan comes across something of interest, he notes it. If it remains of interest, he schedules time to address it. Listen in for an example of how he leveraged an idea that came up during a discussion on Alan’s Forums.
07:50 – How do you know when you have a successful offering, when the time is right to take a chance? Alan notes that he does fail and says that if you are not failing you are not trying, not taking sufficient prudent risk. You can’t live in fear of failure. But he does have a very strong batting average because he listens to his communities. His communities ask for and help him design his products.
10:00 – Alan notes that he also tends to do things only once in the U.S. So, there is a scarcity aspect to his offerings that helps to support a higher price point.
10:20 – Are scarcity and community the keys to maintaining price points? Anything else? Alan says for physical workshops, its a combination of three elements: perceived value, brand, and venue. Need to hit on at least two of the three – and preferably all three – to command a strong price.
11:50 – Discussion of “ROI” in the continuing education/professional development market. ROI is often not measured at all. Will there be more pressure to provide ROI for training? Alan feels ROI in training, development, learning has been “fought forever” and he doesn’t see much evidence of this situation changing – at least within the corporate context. Training is a $60 billion dollar industry, and he estimates less than 5% is done on the basis of a clear ROI.
14:40 – Is Alan in the business of helping people be better learners? He’s in the business of helping people to think better and differently. He can’t make people learn – motivation for learning is intrinsic. Once you are within his communities, though, he can be a change agent.
15:50 – What’s Alan’s advice for creating a high impact, high revenue education business? You have to work backwards. Find out what the improved client condition will be and then work backwards to create it. Discussion of the difference between true expertise and over-reliance on methodology.
17:40 – Sign off. Be sure to visit:
- Alan Weiss’s main Web site. While there, check out:
- The Million Dollar Consulting College
- The rest of Alan’s Workshops and Seminars
- Alan’s Books
- Contrarian Consulting (Alan’s Blog)
- How to Build a Learning Community
Thanks so much for tuning into the Learning Revolution. If you find the podcast valuable, please consider sharing it with others by clicking https://www.learningrevolution.net/share to send out a tweet. I’d also be really grateful if you would consider doing a brief review or giving the podcast a rating on iTunes.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | iTunes
The theme music for Learning Revolution is The Information Age by Anthony Fiumano, available on the Podsafe Music Network.
The post How to Architect a Million-Dollar Community with Alan Weiss appeared first on Learning Revolution.
In this episode of the Learning Revolution podcast I talk with George Siemens, one of the leading thinkers on how technology is impacting learning and education.
One of the areas the areas that George has become known for, along with his collaborator Stephen Downes, is massive open online courses, or MOOCs. You may have noticed that MOOCs have become quite trendy lately. MIT and Harvard are among the very well-known institutions that have gotten into the MOOC game. Start-ups like Udacity and Coursera are also grabbing a lot of attention. And The New York Times has even called this the year of the MOOC.
I actually conducted this interview (like all of the other initial interviews on the podcast) several months ago as I was writing Leading the Learning Revolution. I knew MOOCs were an emerging phenomenon that I wanted to be sure to cover in the book, but I had no idea how popular they were about to become.
In any case, in this interview I talk with George about the massive online course phenomenon – including what kind of business models might emerge for them. We also discuss the challenges of learning, in general, in our high speed, hyper connected world and highlight some of the trends that George finds most exciting.
Click play, and enjoy. (And if you like what you hear, I’d be really grateful for a tweet!)
Listen to the Podcast Podcast: Play in new window | Download | iTunes
Show Notes 00:44 – MOOCs are all the rage these days. MIT and Harvard are doing it, as are start-ups like Udacity and Coursera.
01:49 – Get the show notes at https://www.learningrevolution.net/episode6.
02:07 – Intro of George Siemens, a well-known thought leader in higher education circles on how technology is impacting learning and education. Siemens is an Assistant Professor in the Center for Distance Education and a researcher and strategist with the Technology Enhanced Knowledge Research Institute (TEKRI) at Athabasca University in Alberta, Canada
03:10 – Discussion of comment George made in a 2010 TEDx talk: “When we learn transparently, we become teachers.” Here’s the TEDx talk:
06:41 – Uncertainty and ambiguity now defines a growing number of fields. Knowledge that used to be stable is now much more fluid. The best way to make sense of the changes is to stay connected to others.
07:18 – In 2008 George, along with Stephen Downes, launched the Connectivism and Connected Knowledge (CCK) MOOC (see the 2011 version here). What made it seem like the stars were aligned for success at that time?
09:36 – The CCK MOOC was modeled on online conferences George had done in the past. There were discussion sessions in Moodle, Elluminate (now part of Blackboard) was used for live sessions, a daily e-mail was sent out. They had to find ways to tie it together – it was fragmented, distributed rather than organized like a traditional university class.
10:55 – There was a sense that something novel was happening, but really it was the way that things that had been going on for a decade could now be pulled together.
12:35 – What were some of the key strategies for bringing things together cohesively – addressing the “fragmentation?” It’s a question that is much broader than education, George says. Usually, a teacher or expert will be “frugal” in trying to structure the knowledge that is conveyed in a course, but the problem with this is that students may come from widely varying backgrounds and levels of experience.
15:20 – We have to develop both technical and social systems to make sense of such an “explosion” of knowledge. Socially, we have known how to do this for a long time. Technology – and our use of it – is still trying to catch up.
16:25 – The CCK MOOC emphasized that students needed to “own their own filtering” – basically, figure it out and learn in the process, form smaller groups “sub networks” within the larger MOOC.
17:30 – Today the systems for tying together distributed conversations are getting better and better – for example LMS systems with import functions for blogs, application programming interfaces (APIs) that allow for data flowing from one system to another.
18:29 – A lot of the burden is on the learner. Are learners ready? (See also Preparing Adults for Lifelong Learning.) How well prepared is the average adult to filter the massive flow of information?
19:30 – Human beings are naturally “meaning makers.” George cites Pirolli on information foraging. We categorize, we connect. That’s not new. But now the flow of information is at a pace that we can’t cognitively handle anymore – and probably haven’t been able to for a century or more. Past methods simply don’t work.
21:00 – Students are often completely overwhelmed in an open online course because they treat it like a regular course and try to read everything. You can’t track, read, and comment on everything. You have to find what is relevant to you. These are skills that not everyone has. The learners develop competence by going through the process.
23:00 – The technical tools are still not at a very developed level yet. There are various “recommenders” out there- i.e., Google, Amazon – but still not enough possibilities for control by individual learners.
24:05 – Are there good revenue models for MOOCs? George has no doubt they will develop and talks about a few possibilities. (See also How Will MOOCs Make Money?)
26:45 – What’s George really excited about right now? Data and analytics are one big area. These will alter how teaching and learning occurs, how organizations function. Mobile, gamification, and badges/alternative credentialing are also topics George touches on.
29:08 – The start-up ecosystem around education is also one of the more promising innovation points.
29:58 – Wrap up and sign-off. Be sure to visit George at http://www.elearnspace.org as well as at http://www.learninganalytics.net/ and http://www.connectivism.ca/. Also check out his book Knowing Knowledge (also available as a free pdf download).
Thanks so much for tuning into the Learning Revolution podcast. Please consider sharing with others by clicking https://www.learningrevolution.net/share to send out a tweet.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | iTunes
The theme music for Learning Revolution is The Information Age by Anthony Fiumano, available on the Podsafe Music Network.
The post Are you ready to MOOC? A conversation with George Siemens appeared first on Learning Revolution.
Wondering how to really stand out and create long-term customer loyalty in the competitive market for lifelong learning, continuing education, and training? Building brand and developing a rock-solid, trustworthy reputation have never been more important, and few people know more about how to do these things than my guest on this episode of the Learning Revolution Podcast: Dorie Clark.
Dorie is a branding and marketing expert who shares her insights regularly in well-traveled channels like the Harvard Business Review blog network and Forbes. Her new book, Reinventing You: Define Your Brand, Imagine Your Future – the focus of this podcast – was published by Harvard Business Press Books. Her most recent book – definitely relevant for anyone visiting this is site – is Stand Out: How to Find Your Breakthrough Idea and Build a Following Around It.
I knew Dorie was just the person to talk to when it came to exploring how education businesses – from training firms, to associations, to individual subject matter experts – can better manage their presence and impact in the market place. Listen in for some great insights and practical tips on how you can boost your brand and rocket your reputation.
Listen to the Podcast Podcast: Play in new window | Download | iTunes
Show Notes 00:42 – Get the podcast on the free Instacast or Stitcher Radio apps to download or stream it to you mobile phone or tablet without having to connect to your computer to sync.
02:05 – Introduction of Dorie Clark, author of ~~the forthcoming~~ Reinventing You: Define Your Brand, Imagine Your Future and a regular in mainstay business destinations like the Harvard Business Review blog network and Forbes.
02:40 – How does reputation tie into classic concepts like branding and positioning and why is it so important now?
03:05 – Reputation has become even more important as the number of competitors has grown, along with the playing field – which is now global.
3:28 – You need to have a reputation that draws people into you, makes then say “You are the person I want to work with” – and a strong reputation helps make price less of an issue.
04:22 – Have to stay on top of what is being said about you online, and perhaps more importantly, what’s not being said. Don’t let other people control the dialogue.
05:00 – What’s the role of listening to the market?
05:29 – In the past, you would have had to pay thousands of dollars for focus groups and other approaches. Now, it is possible to find out a tremendous amount by listening in on social channels.
06:40 – Have to recognize that people’s expectations have risen . They do expect higher levels of responsiveness and customer service. But social media also gives you the ability to reach out to people proactively, surprise them, go above and beyond.
07:48 – How important is content marketing as part of establishing and maintaining a reputation and building and brand?
09:00 – In the past, no matter how good your ideas were, if you didn’t have capital, you were often stuck. That’s changed.
10:00 – In many cases, mass media isn’t the answer anyway. You want to get to your specific audience, and social media and other tools now make that possible.
10:47 – Have to keep in mind that, when you put content out there, you are reaching and influencing people even if you never hear from them directly. You have the potential to become a thought leader.
11:53 – The idea of building a platform and context over time. How do reputation and branding fit into longer term branding and strategy. Dorie references her HBR blog post It’s Not a Job Search, It’s a Permanent Campaign.
Dorie discusses why personal branding is the ultimate career weapon
DD13:18 – You can’t just say I want a job (or a customer) and one magically appears because your resume (or advertising) is so great. You have to build up a reputation and trust over time in the marketplace.
14:38 – There is a built in advantage, if you are targeting a niche audience, for really going deep with the type of content you provide and this leads to loyalty over time.
15:18 – Examples of companies and individuals that are really getting it right.
15:55 – Discussion of Klout and the move toward measuring reputation and influence. Justin Beeber is a poster child for reputation management – his efforts point to how powerful behind the scenes, intimate type communication can be – a move away from the standard corporate press release approach. Customers and members want a human connection. People are loyal to people, not institutions.
17:50 – Example of venture capitalist Fred Wilson from Dorie’ s HBR blog post Transparency is the New Leadership Imperative. Fred has used blogging as a key tool to connecting with his audience and building his reputation in the venture capital community. He has been rewarded for being transparent in an industry known for not being transparent.
19:18 – What are the one or two first steps a small firm, individual subject matter expert, or association should take to start building their brand?
20:04 – Start with a basic Google search on yourself or your organization to see what is already out there. What’s being said, how easy is it to find and contact you. Something like a LinkedIn profile is very basic, but even just doing that means people will have a better chance of finding you.
20:10 – Blogging is also a powerful tool for building brand. A lot of people who have dabbled with blogging are abandoning it. This opens up a big opportunity for people willing to make the commitment and put in the time to establish themselves as a thought leader.
23:34 – Wrapping up. Be sure to visit Dorie’s Web site.
24:10 – I’d be truly grateful if you would give the podcast a brief review and/or rating on iTunes – https://www.learningrevolution.net/itunes.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | iTunes
The theme music for Learning Revolution is The Information Age by Anthony Fiumano, available on the Podsafe Music Network.
P.S. – See what readers are saying about Leading the Learning Revolution: The Expert’s Guide to Capitalizing on the Exploding Lifelong Education Market. – Jeff
The post Boost Your Brand and Rocket Your Reputation with Dorie Clark appeared first on Learning Revolution.
Note: This is one of a series of interviews I conducted as part of writing the book Leading the Learning Revolution. – JTC
Leo Babauta has been an inspiration to so many people – myself among them – so I was thrilled to have the chance to interview him while writing Leading the Learning Revolution.
While he is best known for Zen Habits, a blog that now has more than a quarter million readers (!), Leo has also put his stamp on numerous other projects. He is the author of The Power of Less as well as numerous eBooks, founder of the popular Write to Done blog, and creator of The Habit Course.
And that’s just scratching the surface.
Part of what prompted me to contact Leo about Leading the Learning Revolution was his work with Mary Jaksch of Good Life Zen in launching and building A-List Blogging Bootcamps. I was an early participant in the program as well as in the A-List Blogger Club that grew out of it. It was, and still is, a great example of what I describe as PassionxPurpose, or P2, learning community in the book.
We talk about A-List Blogging in the podcast, but also about Leo’s perspective on blogging, membership learning sites, and education in general. You are going to really enjoy this one. Click below to listen or subscribe on iTunes. And don’t forget to check out the show notes.
Play the Podcast Podcast: Play in new window | Download | iTunes
Show Notes 00:40 >> Find out about Leading the Learning Revolution and get show notes at https://www.learningrevolution.net/leo-babauta-zen-habits/
01:50 >> Introduction Leo Babauta, founder of Zen Habits (250K+ readers!) and author of The Power of Less
02:20 >> After building Zen Habits, Leo started Write to Done and then was convinced by Mary Jaksch of GoodLifeZen to collaborate on A-List Blogging Bootcamps. (Leo is no longer involved, but A-List is still going strong and Mary will soon introduce a new A-List Blogging Masterclass. Go to the site to sign up to be notified.)
[04:51 Yikes – a bit of static on my mic – though not Leo’s – for this question and the next]
0510 >> Leo notes that as a blogger you do often think of yourself as a teacher – but people may not necessarily do what you talk about. Moving into training and learning experiences gives you the chance to be more hands on and really help people implement what they learn from you and make change happen – a focus in The Habit Course (referred to by its former name, Sea Change, in the interview)
06:44 >> Is there a particular type of learner of audience that does well in Web-based learning communities? Leo thinks community-based learning is almost always better than, say, a book, no matter who is involved. The people involved inspire each other and help each other out.
08:17 >> What if you don’t have a Zen Habits size audience to start with? How can you build enough of an audience. Leo argues that it can work even on a small scale – even 10 people working together and making a change together can be a big deal – and you can charge more for more hands-on experiences.
09:55 >> A blog is an amazing way to demonstrate your value, to show that you really know what you are tallying about about an build up trust. It’s not about amazing landing pages. The marketing strategy is “Get them to trust you.”
11:08 >> Is the approach to The Habit Course (formerly Sea Change) any different that it was in A-List? Leo says he is focused on helping people go through habit changes – going through a single change all at once. A lot of mutual accountability.
12:40 >> Are we really preparing people well to do the kind of learning they need to do throughout their lives? Leo believes we are being taught to be passive learners. It’s not some kind of conspiracy – just a legacy of the industrial age we have yet to move past. It doesn’t jibe with today’s environment.
People today need to be self-motivated and able to seize the initiative. No one is going to tell you exactly what to learn – but school is all about being told what to learn and how to learn it. All the information we need
[Leo’s kids are upstairs being “unschooled” as we speak.]
16:22 >> Unschooling isn’t the only way to go. Even kids who go through traditional school can be guided – especially by parents – towards being self-directed learners. Don’t discourage passion!
18:05 >> It’s inspiring to see the passion that comes through in Leo’s learning communities and other entrepreneurial learning communities. Don’t see this so much in the average “boxed” training event.
19:01 >> What’s Leo’s main tip building a passionate audience? Be passionate yourself, do things that excite you, and then show people how you did it! Show the passion, show the accomplishments.
21:25 Be sure to visit out Zen Habits. While you are there, be sure to check out:
- The Effortless Life: A Concise Manual for Contentment, Mindfulness, & Flow
- focus : a simplicity manifesto in the age of distraction
- The Habit Course
Also be sure to check out A-List Blogging Bootcamps and find out about the new masterclass that will launch soon.
If you like the podcast, I’d be really grateful for a brief review on iTunes.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | iTunes
The theme music for Learning Revolution is The Information Age by Anthony Fiumano, available on the Podsafe Music Network.
P.S. – The book is coming soon, be sure to sign up to get update e-mails and other free goodies! – Jeff
The post How to Build a Passionate Community of Learners – A Conversation with Leo Babauta appeared first on Learning Revolution.
For this episode of the Learning Revolution podcast I am very excited to talk with Dr. Monisha Pasupathi, a psychology professor at the University of Utah and star of the Teaching Company course How We Learn. In our conversation we cover some common myths about learning, talk about how well prepared we are (or aren’t) to deal with a hyper-connected, information-flooded world, and consider the role of the lecture as a form of learning delivery.
For anyone who has listened to the previous episodes with Mike Stelzner and Dave Will, this one will definitely feel more toward the learning than the business side of the learning business equation, but it covers topics that are essential for differentiating your offerings from the competition.
Play the Podcast Listen in below or subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher Radio.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | iTunes
Get the Show Notes 00:30: Hope you caught the last two episodes, focused on the marketing side of the equation.
1:37: Introduction of Dr. Monisha Pasupathi of the University of Utah.
2:08 – Props to Monisha’s Teaching Company course How We Learn. Was this a natural path for her, or did the Teaching Company scout her out and convince her?
3:46 – Myths about learning and how adults learn. What are some of the fundamental misunderstandings?
5:27 – How does living in such a highly-connected world impact learning? How well prepared are most people to learn effectively?
6:50 – Two things make assessing the flood of information difficult.
7:53 – We’re not as good at verifying and remembering the sources of information as we are at learning content
10:00 – Lectures, in spite of all the criticism they get these days, are actually efficient ways of helping people learn.
13:00 – We may have lost the capacity to experience lectures as interactive.
Book Excerpt Here’s a quote from Monisha that I used in Leading the Learning Revolution:
Good lectures can take people through an expert’s thought process in a way that doesn’t happen when you’re very interactive. They are really organized, really structured, and really digestible ways to get quite a bit of information in a relatively short time. To acquire the same level of learning from interactive models often will require considerably more time. It often takes considerably more expertise on the part of the teacher or the instructor, because you have to know how to get a group of non-expert people from Point A to Point B. You have to know where they typically hit a wall in their understanding; what kinds of misconceptions they bring to the table.
The other thought I always have when people talk about being more interactive is that we may have lost the capacity to experience lectures as interactive. I remember a really interesting experience I had in Germany where I went to a talk, and it was given in German. And my German wasn’t terrific at the time, so I had a hard time pro- cessing this lecture, but what I noticed about it was that it was a very old-fashioned lecture. It was given by a professor who had been there before the wall had come down in the former Eastern Bloc, and he spoke in fully articulated sentences for something like forty minutes in beautiful, erudite German. What I think we don’t experience anymore is that kind of lengthy oration.
I suspect there was a time when we used to have better skills for this type of experience and for feeling engaged with lectures. We may be going too far into interactivity in such a way that it is actually undermining people’s skill at listening to lectures. Because it is, to some extent, something that we learn how to do, and I’d hate to see us unlearn that in favor of new instructional methods that have their own value, but also have their own flaws.
15:10 – BUT, there are certainly many boring lectures out there! What can subject matter experts do to deliver more engaging, effective lectures?
18:40 – And what about webinars? Any way to make those better? What about bringing a “storytelling” approach to it?
22:30 – What are some emerging developments Dr. Pasupathi finds really exciting in the world of learning right now?
25:56 – The attraction of being able to learn so much post-career
26:50 – Sign off
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | iTunes
The theme music for Learning Revolution is The Information Age by Anthony Fiumano, available on the Podsafe Music Network.
The post Exploring How We Learn with Monisha Pasupathi appeared first on Learning Revolution.
One of the business models I focus on in Leading the Learning Revolution is what I call the P2 Community – membership learning communities driven by a combination of passion and purpose.
In the book, I highlight some of the successful learning communities I have participated in – like the A-List Blogger Club (which has since closed its doors to new members) and Alan’s Forums. But given that I do so much work in the association world, I was also eager to find some signs of life for community learning models in the context of membership organizations. My search led me to Dave Will, Chief Executive Peach of Peach New Media.
I’ve known Dave for several years and already had an appreciation for his views on trends in the lifelong learning business. In this podcast interview, we talk trends in the market for lifelong learning and what it takes to create successful learning experiences. Enjoy – and be sure to subscribe on iTunes to get all past and future episodes.
Play the Podcast Podcast: Play in new window | Download | iTunes
Show notes 00:21 – Be sure to catch the previous episode with Michael Stelzner of Social Media Examiner
01:38 – Introduction to Dave Will of Peach New Media
02:53 – Dave’s perspective on the biggest shifts in the past few years in online learning. Dave feels it may be less about what has changed and more about what has been recognized about online learning – and this has less to do with technology and more to do with our understanding of learning. As Dave puts it, “Learning is about associating your personal experiences with the information you are taking in.”
06:12 What are you selling? Are you selling credit, or are you selling a learning program? The buyers for these things are different.
06:54 Deeper discussion of credit vs. learning and the “commoditized” CE (CME, CPE, CLE, etc) market and the bigger business model potential of “learning.” Lifetime CLEs for $799!
09:25 Most association are not out there just to make a buck – they are out there to change the world
10:12 Have new, interesting business models emerged around “learning?” What does it take to create meaningful learning experiences? In most cases, it’s going to cost more – for both consumer and producer, Dave says. You have to deliver a higher quality product.
11:47 – Incorporating social learning as opposed to just social media
12:30 Dave starts talking about “virtual study groups” – Peach’s approach to community-based learning. The aim is to increase value by providing community/social components: on-demand content + asynchronous community + live discussion. If you take these and don’t think about them as a single event, but as an ongoing group interaction….
14:47 – Some clients are getting good attendance at a high ticket price on virtual study groups.
15:10 – There has to be an element of structure to a learning community, though – not just a free-for-all. Dave says this is critical. It has to be pretty buttoned up – and Dave explains “where the buttons go.” Dave give as shout out to the online community consultancy FeverBee.
16:55 – Importance of “facilitation” as opposed to lecturing, preaching.
18:11 – Dave explains how Peach “buttons it up” – i.e., provides some structure and process to help ensure the success of the community.
20:00 – Discussion of purpose and passion in social/collaborative learning. Not everyone is going to show up “all fired up.” So, how do you maintain a certain level of passion? Tends to be a a core group of highly involved, passionate learners – 80/20 rule (or, maybe more like 80/15/5).
22:50 – How to build the “pull” into a community – especially in the world of free. How do you leverage free? How important is “free” as a marketing and relationship tool?
24:20 – Dave notes that profit oriented businesses have been using content marketing forever – it’s second nature. Look at the pharmaceutical market, for example. You have to be doing it to build the brand and get the word out. Associations should be looking at the same model. Dave wonders if this isn’t just a “mentality” – tied up in the whole “associations need to be more like businesses” discussion
25:48 – Seeing more CEO than Executive Director titles lately
26:15 – Dave’s advice to the budding edupreneur. Basically, start with “why?”
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | iTunes
The theme music for Learning Revolution is The Information Age by Anthony Fiumano, available on the Podsafe Music Network.
The post Lifetime CLEs for $799! Commodity vs. Community with Dave Will appeared first on Learning Revolution.