Train Like You Listen

What does it really take to build a lasting business? Brian Washburn and Tim Waxenfelter, co-founders of Endurance Learning, pull back the curtain on 10 years of grit, unexpected pivots, and hard-won lessons. No sugarcoating; just real stories from the trenches of entrepreneurship. The episode serves as both a celebration of their milestone and practical advice for aspiring entrepreneurs in Learning & Development or consulting.⛵Endurance Learning is a full service training development company, delivering the best in elearning, instructor-led training, and train-the-trainer sessions. 

Host Brian Washburn chats with learning consultant and author Mike Taylor about his new book, Think Like a Marketer, Train Like an L&D Pro, which he co-authored with Bianca Baumann. Taylor dives into the overlap between marketing and learning & development (L&D), arguing that marketers are far better at capturing attention and sparking behavior change, two areas where L&D often falls short. He shares ways that, with just a shift in mindset, applying marketing principles to training design can create a strikingly more engaging and effective learning experience.

Donald Taylor's 2025 Learning & Development Global Sentiment Survey reveals AI's explosive impact on workplace learning, but the real story is how professionals are moving from buzz to action—using it for everything from quick content fixes to reshaping skills strategies. Yet, the timeless challenge remains: proving L&D's value. Are we chasing trends or driving results?

Whether you are working in an NGO or not, this discussion with Gretchen Regehr from Conservation International will have you thinking more deeply about the role of both talent management and talent development in your organization.I've added some links below to relevant resources including the newest, our Free Learning Objectives Generator!

We love cooking up new resources for the L&D field. We get excited when people download them. But we don't often know how they're being used. I had the opportunity to talk to two early childhood leaders, Glenna Gamble and Sharon Norris, and learn about how the integrated Endurance Learning's Activity Cookbook into their early childhood training session. 

This is the followup conversation with  Tim Barnosky, Manager of Training and Development for Innovative Solutions about his work building an L&D function from scratch. Check out episode 147 to hear the first part of this conversation.

How strategic is your training program? How outcome-oriented, governed or sustainable is it? In today's podcast, Danielle Duran speaks with Brian Washburn about how to objectively measure your training program in those four key areas.www.endurancelearning.comL&D Pro AcademySoapbox - create better training in minutes!

When participating in a DEI-focused session led by Jolene Jang at a recent conference, Brian Washburn found himself continuously shaking his head. Every time she pointed out another way learning design can be more inclusive, and quite frankly inviting, to all learners, he thought: there's something else I'm not currently doing. Join Endurance Learning's Brian Washburn as he sits down with Jolene Jang to find out more about ways to design more inclusive training programs.www.endurancelearning.comL&D Pro AcademySoapbox - create better training in minutes!

Natalie Mazzie, an experienced sales enablement professional, discussed the crossover between training and sales enablement. Hear the Top 3 Sales Enablement Lessons for Learning & Development Professionals and more in this conversation with Endurance Learning's Brian Washburn.www.endurancelearning.com

Is your ILT designed with accessibility and inclusion in mind? Gwen Navarrete Klapperich wants to make sure you consider accessibility and inclusion in your ILT design, and offers some suggestions on how to do just that.

If you've ever been to an escape room, you can observe what a group of highly engaged people look like for 60 straight minutes. Is there a way to harness escape room design elements and bring them into the world of corporate training?

When you're applying for an L&D job, how do you best position yourself to get a call from a recruiter or hiring manager? Experienced HR professional, Maria Leggett, offers her insights in today's podcast.

If you're looking to pivot into a role in the corporate training or learning and development space, today's podcast will give you some insights and questions to think about.

How do you build an L&D team from scratch? Tim Barnosky of Innovative Solutions is currently in the process of answering that question. Today's podcast revolves around his vision and the challenges he anticipates.

The constructal law of design and evolution in nature can actually be applied in very concrete ways to the world of learning and professional development to help individuals, teams and organizations flow more efficiently.

As people who have designed and delivered effective training, Kassy Laborie and Zovig Garboushian know a thing or two about good learning experiences. So what nuggets have they gleaned from a 9-month course that they're both attending, and that all of us should consider when designing our own programs? Today's podcast answers that question.

Karl Kapp has written 8 books, created 11 LinkedIn Learning courses and has an entire YouTube channel devoted to game and game design. Today on the podcast, he spends some time talking about how to bring game elements into learning.

When it comes to your training participants, two of the dirtiest, or perhaps scariest, words you can say during a session may be: role play. In today's podcast, John Crook, Head of Learning at Intersol Global, offers some thoughts on how to make role plays more authentic and robust.

What can anyone who designs training learn from the way a keynote speaker designs and refines their presentation? Reknowned keynote speaker, Jessica Kriegel, answers that question and more in today's podcast.

If you're involved in developing strategies to help people learn and grow in their roles, today's podcast is for you. Danielle Lopez, a fraud investigator for a major financial services company, shares her insights on what mix of stretch assignments, supportive relationships and formal training helped her to excel.

Building a culture of learning inside your organization doesn't always mean you need to build training sessions or elearning courses. Sherry Metz Johnson offers some thoughts on what a true culture of learning can look like.

"If you don't have time to do it the right way, now, then where are you going to find the time to fix is later?" Danielle Duran has been finding ways to make compliance training at her pharma company more effective.

AI is all the rage these days. 7Taps has figured out a way to embed AI into their microlearning platform to make your experience even quicker. It looks like this is the future of AI in learning tools. 7Taps co-founder Kate Udalova shares her insights.

Marci Morford has helped large organizations, such as The Gates Foundation and Salesforce, navigate some large-scale changes. What's her secret?

If you've been in L&D for any amount of time, you probably have heard of the 70:20:10 framework. But what does it actually look like in action? And what can instructional designers learn from one woman's self-guided learning journey? Today's podcast offers some answers.

HR and L&D have a lot of overlapping goals, but they're often run by people with very different backgrounds, and there are even two very different professional associations that support these distinct groups. This podcast briefly explores how HR and L&D can come together to make great things happen.

With two distinct professional associations (SHRM and ATD), the worlds of HR and Learning and Development seem to be separate entities. Deadra Welcome feels there are ways that those two worlds can come together to achieve great things.

What is "accessibility" in learning? Why is it important to design learning for everyone? What are one or two things you might want to be doing differently with your design, today? David Berman has worked in the field a long time, and has some answers.

xAPI can be used to collect data in any digital learning experience - from elearning to videos. Today's podcast offers the perspective of both a learning design team AND an end-user of xAPI, all of whom share their thoughts on when to (and perhaps when not to) use xAPI to collect better data in learning experiences.

It really doesn't matter if you're working for a small nonprofit or the world's largest, most profitable corporation. Our role in learning and development is a social mission because we can truly change lives if we're doing our jobs correctly.

Sometimes we're asked to review and improve a training program that seems perfectly fine as it is. Taking a look at the fundamentals on which the program is built may offer some clues about possible ways to improve something that, on the surface, didn't look like it needed to be touched.

If someone just needs to be aware of something, should you make them attend a training? If someone needs to build skills, is there any other way than a training to do that? In today's podcast, I talk about how to match the learning need with the learning design.

Bloom's Taxonomy has been used for decades to help instructional designers think through and develop learning objectives. In today's podcast I offer some thoughts on how instructional designers might want to think through the intent behind their training first.

It can be hard to always need to come up with creative ways to present information and engage learners. Sometimes the best thing to do is to do nothing.

Whether you've been to many conferences or if you're getting ready to head to your first conference, this week's podcast offers some thoughts on how you can get the most out of your conference experience.

Going from classroom teacher to corporate trainer brings a lot of transferable skills from one role to the next. Going from classroom teacher to elearning designer is a bit more of a transition.

Going out on your own or trying to convert that side hustle into a full time training consultancy can be an exciting idea, but there are definitely some challenges you'll want to think about.

Yes, I shamelessly jumped on board the "quiet quitting" bandwagon this week with a podcast around how training professionals can adopt some sort of boundaries when it comes to the work we're asked to do.

Training teams are often compared to the cobbler's children who have no shoes (because they're often helping others learn, but rarely take time out for their own learning). In today's podcast we spotlight a team from Unifi that has adopted a book club approach to develop themselves as individuals and as a team.

Every year Jane Hart conducts a survey of the top tools used for learning, across industries and around the world. Here is my top 10 list as well as a link for you to vote on your top 10 learning tools!

Having a series of engaging activities in your training program can be a good thing. The big question, however, is what lies beneath those engaging activities?

Of all the Marvel characters, who was the best leader? How did Thanos actually get people to follow him? And what transferable lessons from Marvel might you be able to take into your organization? Two authors of the book "Leaders Assemble! Leadership in the MCU" spend some time spelling this all out in this week's podcast.

Is mentoring different than coaching? Is it appropriate for someone to mentor another person who is older or more experienced? Author Wendy Axelrod offers her thoughts on these questions and more!

Joining a local ATD chapter can lead to new contacts and relationships, opportunities to grow skills that your current company doesn't offer you and even business opportunities. This week's podcast features the current presidents of two local ATD chapters and their insights on why you might want to get involved with your own local chapter.

Did you know there are at least 6 different types of microlearning? In today's podcast, Karl Kapp and Robyn Defelice (authors of Microlearning Short and Sweet) go in depth about what microlearning is and what you should know before you get started.

This summer, if you're looking for a good book to read, I have one recommendation. And it will probably take you the rest of the summer to read. And then four other fantastic L&D-centered books will hit bookshelves beginning in September. Here are my thoughts on all 5.

Virtual training expert Kassy Laborie and Augmented Reality expert Betty Dannewitz drop by this week's podcast to discuss what "training" is for, and they got into a heated game of training trivia to wrap up the episode.

What is "instructional design" and how does one put together effective learning programs? In today's podcast, Guy Wallace boils over 40 years of experience down into a 15 minute conversation about how effective learning can be designed.

It's pretty easy to find thought leaders in our field by scrolling through Twitter or LinkedIn. Lately, it seems like people are increasingly wanting to be heard, and doing a lot less hearing. This week's podcast guest, Lauren Hug, has some thoughts about this.

In this week's podcast, I talk a little about why we should constantly be looking to improve our L&D skillset, and I offer some specific suggestions for how we can do that, especially if we don't have the time or budget to make it to a big industry event.