Your Greatest Work

You're committed; you're on your way to creating your learning offer and it's starting to come together. Before you can successfully launch your learning offer, you need to stop and evaluate something absolutely crucial. You need to think about your buyer and your learner. This clarification will affect your messaging strategy. In this episode, I break down the difference between buyer and learner. When they're the same, when they're different and why does it matter After I've clarified my learner and my buyer, I move on to preparing to research my learner's needs — the topic of the next podcast episode in our series on creating learning offers. Watch the Linkedin live stream Mondays at 1pm EST or catch the replay for a link to a downloadable worksheet with specific questions, structures, and prompts to help you create your learning offer. Feeling a little uncertain? I can help you create amazing learning experiences that get results. For more information, book a discovery call. I'll help you break through your plateau and boost your learning experiences, coaching programs, and digital learning offers. I'd love to hear from you, connect on LinkedIn, Instagram or email manjahorner@boostld.com About Your Greatest Work Through conversations with global leaders and the credibility of personal industry, Your Greatest Work digs deeper into learning design in useful and applicable ways. Subscribe and don't miss a single episode. Let's start the conversation about making your current work into your greatest work. Contact us for a discovery call to learn more about how we can work together Watch Video: https://youtu.be/vHJNO78hUU8 Download Worksheet: https://www.boostld.com/livestream_worksheet

So you're on your way and you're creating a new learning offer. Now's the perfect time to prepare for your course launch. Don't wait until you're ready to enroll people before planning your launch. I've made this mistake, and I've regretted it. Your course launch is your runway. Devote enough time and effort to give yourself a strong launchpad. For a successful course launch, you need a fairly significant time: anywhere from 60 days to 90 days. During this time, you need to nurture your audience, show up for them, find out what they want, and identify what they need. Here's the process I use to prepare for a course launch. This area isn't my favorite and it's not my strongest area, but it's essential. A quick note: this process is focused on course creators who are selling direct to consumers. After I have a launch plan, I move on to clarifying my learner from my buyer — the topic of the next podcast episode in our series on creating learning offers. Watch the Linkedin live stream on Mondays at 1pm EST or catch the replay for a link to a downloadable worksheet with specific questions, structures, and prompts to help you create your learning offer. Feeling a little uncertain? I can help you create amazing learning experiences that get results. For more information, book a discovery call. I'll help you break through your plateau and boost your learning experiences, coaching programs, and digital learning offers. I'd love to hear from you, connect on LinkedIn, Instagram, or email manjahorner@boostld.com About Your Greatest Work Through conversations with global leaders and the credibility of personal industry, Your Greatest Work digs deeper into learning design in useful and applicable ways. Subscribe and don't miss a single episode. Let's start the conversation about making your current work into your greatest work. Contact us for a discovery call to learn more about how we can work together Youtube Replay: https://youtu.be/JgBjTAxLtbA Download Worksheet: https://www.boostld.com/livestream_worksheet

When I first started my learning design business, I made a dumb mistake. I decided to create a course, but I didn't connect with an audience. I didn't really even have an audience. When I launched, I realized that my audience wanted something different. I hadn't validated my learning offer before I created it. After that mistake, I developed a process for prevalidating learning offers. Here's why and how this essential step works. I don't want your first learning offer to flop. You don't want your first learning offer to flop. If you don't prevalidate your course idea with your audience, you run a high risk of having your learning offer flop. So go out and start talking to your audience. Have real conversations with your ideal student. Learn about their needs, their concerns, and the insights they have. But to do this most effectively, you need a plan. In this episode, I lay out the plan that I take to prevalidate courses. After validating my course idea, I move on to preparing for my course launch — the topic of the next podcast episode in our series on creating learning offers. Watch the Linkedin live stream or catch the replay for a link to a downloadable worksheet with specific questions, structures, and prompts to help you create your learning offer. Feeling a little uncertain? I can help you create amazing learning experiences that get results. For more information, book a discovery call. I'll help you break through your plateau and boost your learning experiences, coaching programs, and digital learning offers. I'd love to hear from you, connect on LinkedIn, Instagram, or email manjahorner@boostld.com About Your Greatest Work Through conversations with global leaders and the credibility of personal industry, Your Greatest Work digs deeper into learning design in useful and applicable ways. Subscribe and don't miss a single episode. Let's start the conversation about making your current work into your greatest work. Contact us for a discovery call to learn more about how we can work together Watch Video Version of the LiveStream: https://youtu.be/-aHWrERLQ7E Download Workbook: https://www.boostld.com/livestream_worksheet

Inspiration strikes. You have a new idea — many ideas — for a learning offer. Maybe you've been thinking about creating this new learning offer for a day, maybe you've been thinking about creating a learning offer for a year. Either way, you're stuck on one question: Where do I start? And your blank page doesn't seem to have the answer — or to get any less blank. Making the shift from feeling overwhelmed by a new idea to feeling ready to start working on a new idea is not always easy, unless you have a guiding structure. This is my behind-the-scenes process for doing just that, for getting a handle on a new learning offer, and for figuring out where to start. After I have a starting point, I move on to prevalidating my course idea — the topic of the next podcast episode in our series on creating learning offers. Watch the Linkedin live stream on Mondays at 1pm EST or catch the replay for a link to a downloadable worksheet with specific questions, structures, and prompts to help you create your learning offer. Feeling a little uncertain? I can help you create amazing learning experiences that get results. For more information, book a discovery call. I'll help you break through your plateau and boost your learning experiences, coaching programs, and digital learning offers. I'd love to hear from you, connect on LinkedIn, Instagram or email manjahorner@boostld.com About Your Greatest Work Through conversations with global leaders and the credibility of personal industry, Your Greatest Work digs deeper into learning design in useful and applicable ways. Subscribe and don't miss a single episode. Let's start the conversation about making your current work into your greatest work. Contact us for a discovery call to learn more about how we can work together Download Worksheet: https://www.boostld.com/livestream_worksheet Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/3ys7EjvHowo

Imagine having a professional take a peek into an area of your business and tell you their professional advice. How would that make you feel? For Sarah Swain, a guest we have had on our show before, it feels relieving, it brings reassurance, and takes a weight off her shoulders. We talk about having an audit done to your learning offer. In this case, Sarah was pilot testing her Strategy to Success group coaching program. She needed her program to stand head and shoulders above the rest of the industry. A third party audit took her program up that extra notch. Surprisingly, a second benefit of the audit was identifying the places where her students were getting stuck. Because Sarah wasn't a professional in this particular area, she licensed content to teacher her students the process and method by which they could build out a learning service or product themselves which would be guaranteed to get student results. Sarah talks all about the process of having a course audit, how far she has come as a result, why she's downright proud of the second version of her program Simple F*cking Strategy and why licensing content is a win-win business model that may be the best route for you. Connect with Sarah here: Marketing Archetype Quiz: https://www.businesswithsarah.com/quiz Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamsarahswain Apply for Sarah's Mastermind: https://www.businesswithsarah.com/ Need advice from a learning strategist? Schedule a free discovery call today with Manja Horner, Founder of Boost Learning Design today to talk about your dream project. We will Audit your existing learning and can help build your dream learning product. The longer you wait, the longer it takes to get that new learning product to market. So connect now for a call. Test your own capabilities as a learning designer by taking the Course Creator Quiz And, get mega organized in your business with the Complete Business Productivity Notion Templates. We are accepting podcast applications for 2022. Apply Here

Hey Boost Learning Community! Our guest today, Louis Trahan founded Learngistics, a learning production company. He has a learning marketplace and pivoted (ew, we hate that word too!) in a massive way to supporting high quality production virtual events. Through experience, Louis knows exactly what elements are needed to create innovative, engaging, successful, and professional virtual and in-person events. Listen to this episode where we talk in detail about those elements, expose you to methods that industry experts are using to make those incredible virtual conferences that you've been attending since the pandemic, and understand some innovative ways that you could consider selling your courses. Do not miss this episode and please let us know what you think. Connect with Louis here: https://www.learngistics.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/louistrahan/ Need advice from a learning strategist? Schedule a free discovery call today with Manja Horner, Founder of Boost Learning Design today to talk about your dream project. The longer you wait, the longer it takes to get that new learning product to market. Test your own capabilities as a learning designer by taking the Course Creator Quiz And, get mega organized in your business with the Complete Business Productivity Notion Templates. We are accepting guest podcast applications for 2022. Apply Here

You've been trying everything — absolutely everything — to achieve passive income with your learning offer and it's not working. You want to try something new, something promising, something that's actually passive income. Then let me introduce you to licensing content. This business model is not new and it's definitely not new for me. But many people aren't familiar with licensing so let's unpack this. We are wrapping up this mini series on passive income through creative business models with a tell-all about licensing your content! In this episode, we talk about: the pros and cons of licensing your content how I'm currently generating revenue by licensing content calling you to action if you want to learn more about converting your content to a licensed model Need advice from a learning strategist? Schedule a free discovery call today with Manja Horner, Founder of Boost Learning Design today to talk about your dream project. We will Audit your existing learning and can help build your dream learning product. The longer you wait, the longer it takes to get that new learning product to market. So connect now for a call. Test your own capabilities as a learning designer by taking the Course Creator Quiz And, get mega organized in your business with the Complete Business Productivity Notion Templates. We are accepting podcast applications for the new year. Apply Here

Thank you for tuning in this year. If it weren't for you listening, for my awesome guests who have brought their gold nuggets of information and pearls of wisdom, this podcast would be no fun at all! But... here we are at the end of 2021, with 30 episodes. I'm grateful beyond belief! Before I jump into highlights from this season, I want to remind you that we are in the middle of a mini series all about passive income - this illustrious dream, the mindset you need, how to activate this business model in your product mix, my favourite way to earn in 2022 and coming soon in two weeks, a guest interview with a business coach who is right now benefiting from licensing intellectual property. Go back and listen if you've missed these. Catch episodes #26 - 31 I would love to know how you enjoy these episodes. Please send me a message on Instagram or LinkedIn. I love to get feedback from you on what you love, what you'd like to hear or see more of in 2022. And, leave a review in itunes. It will help so many more people who need the information to find this podcast. Email manjahorner@boostld.com and say "I'm interested" if you want me to get in touch for a discovery call. Test your own capabilities as a learning designer by taking the Course Creator Quiz And, get mega organized in your business with the Complete Business Productivity Notion Templates. We are accepting podcast applications for the new year. Apply Here Friends mentioned in this episode: Lara McCulloch - Brand Positioning Dominic Sicotte - Youtubers Inc Jennifer Van Barneveld Pe - Team Strong Girls Leah Neaderthal - Smart Gets Paid Renee Warren - We Wild Women Alex Street - Fearless Speakers Academy Rachel Mutuc - The Podcast Launchpad

Making a digital course does not necessarily mean you will end up generating passive income. In this episode, Manja explores what needs to be activated to generate passive income. The answer may surprise you. Hint... it's not the offer itself. She argues that any learning offer can be formatted to require less sales effort to earn revenue. Learn several business models that will support a more passive flow of revenue in this short but powerful tutorial. Need advice from a learning strategist? Schedule a free discovery call today with Manja Horner, Founder of Boost Learning Design today to talk about your dream project. The longer you wait, the longer it takes to get that new learning product to market. Test your own capabilities as a learning designer by taking the Course Creator Quiz And, get mega organized in your business with the Complete Business Productivity Notion Templates. Use promo code MERRY for 25% off until December 24, 2021. We are accepting podcast applications for the new year. Apply Here

In this episode I want to talk about you and why if you're thinking small & comparing yourself to other businesses, you're holding yourself back from achieving passive income and growth in your business. There are huge possibilities to scale your education business. But, if you're stuck in a box, comparing yourself to the business models that everyone else is doing, and if you're thinking small. These are the things that are holding you back. If I were to bottom line the whole issue, and you know I love to do that. The biggest mindset hurdles that exist are Time and Experience. These can keep our business really small, limit our growth, hinder our ability to scale, and keep us working super hard. I reveal in this episode the mindset hacks to bust through these biggest challenges. And, encourage you to progress your idea forward the right way so you get a learning offer to market sooner rather than later. Book a Complimentary Discovery Call Take the Course Creator Quiz - Do you have the capability to launch a learning product on your own? Get the Complete Business Productivity Notion System. Use promo code MERRY at checkout for 25% off until December 24, 2021. We are accepting new Podcast Guest Applications for 2022. Apply Here

What's your aspiration as a business owner? It's to generate multiple streams of revenue, some of which don't need you to trade time for dollars. It's a great dream, and I believe it should be a goal I share the story of how I'm generating thousands of recurring dollars each month with just one sale. My goal is to never have to sell courses. I don't want to do that, but I want to impact as many people as possible with my course Your Greatest Work: Learning Design Course. I share how I do this personally, and why this could be a great business model for you too. Because If your aspiration is passive income. You just need the right business model. In this episode, learn What type of business models are more passive Who is the best business owner to be entering into this passive income model Who wants to buy this type of content Passive income is totally possible in 2022. And I'd love to help you achieve it. But... you probably won't get a product ready and out to market quickly unless you have some help. I offer strategy calls to help you determine your business model, hear your idea and help you plan next steps. I also have a full day - done with you - strategy where you'll walk away with a learning plan, ready to take to your team for development. Book a Call Download the Complete Productivity System Notion in Notion. Use code MERRY at checkout for extra 25% savings until Christmas 2021.

Realistically, creating a learning offer by yourself is hard So do me a favour, and be less offended by your own inability. Stop being offended with yourself when you can't be a specialist! It's ok to not know how to do something really well in your business. Since when do we have to be able to do everything perfectly? That's a total lie. Creating a course or learning event has so many hurdles and minefields to navigate. Working with a learning expert can get rid of some hurdles and risks. In this episode, I'm going to share several failures I had in my career and what I learned so I don't repeat those mistakes. You can learn from them too… you're welcome! Take a deep breath, and let it go. Because if you've tried to create learning and it didn't work. Or if you launched something and it flopped, or if you started creating a course and it never saw the light of day. Please know that you're not alone! This episode is about you learning from me -- my challenges, my failures, and why you should stop being offended by your own inability to create a learning product that's amazing. Because friend, you probably haven't developed the skill set yet. And should you really? Contact the learning experts, work with us over December and January to get your learning product to market way sooner in 2022 than if you were to try and DIY it yourself Subscribe to the podcast. Subscribe to the newsletter — we will be sharing special content only by email over the holidays.

How do you keep people accountable in your program? Not just accountable in attendance and completion, but accountable in doing the work, accountable in implementing. And how do you deliver the right amount of content? Not too much that your learners are overwhelmed but too little that your learners aren't getting a valuable experience. How do you find that sweet spot for your learning offer? These are the questions that my guest Renée Warren has been pondering as she continues to refine her program, Sidelines to Headlines. Through her program, Renée teaches female entrepreneurs how they can effectively be a one-woman PR powerhouse that bolsters their visibility, credibility, and legitimacy in their industry. But Renée's not the only one asking these questions. Figuring out what works for your learning program can be so difficult. That's why we're unpacking two important principles — small changes and consistency — that make a good learning program into a great learning program. LIsten in while Renée and I discuss her program, I share some small adjustments and reframes to make her coaching calls even better (go ahead and steal these ideas for your own coaching calls) and we talk consistency in taking action. About our guest Renée Warren is an award-winning entrepreneur, inspirational speaker, author, and founder of We Wild Women, a platform that helps entrepreneurs start and scale their own businesses. She's also the host of the celebrated podcast, Into the Wild. Renée firmly believes that the best advice comes from someone who has successfully done it before. Her approach to coaching comes from over 22 years of experience as an entrepreneur and unapologetic risk-taker. When she's not coaching or podcasting, Renée can be found spending time with her family. She also enjoys working out, reading business books, and refining her drumming skills.

So you've got an idea for a course or training, should you get underway with a do-it-yourself learning product or should you hire a learning designer? DIY learning products have their promises & their pitfalls. It's a topic I discussed at length in podcast episode #23. In short, DIY learning products often involve waaay more time & effort than you planned &/or DIY learning products just aren't as effective as you hoped. So — for good reason — you may find yourself hesitant to undertake a DIY learning product. But you may also find yourself hesitant to hire a learning designer to make your course. How do you know if you're ready for this? In this episode, I outline four steps you need to take before hiring a learning designer. These points should help you know if you're ready to outsource the idea you have for a brand new learning product. Need advice from a learning strategist? Schedule a free discovery call today with Manja Horner, Founder of Boost Learning Design today to talk about your dream project. The longer you wait, the longer it takes to get that new learning product to market. Test your own capabilities as a learning designer by taking the Course Creator Quiz

Real talk: we've all seen Pinterest fails or recipe flops and nearly died of laughter. Why? Because DIY projects are often much harder than they look. The same goes for learning products. Just like it's easy to scroll through Pinterest and be overly confident in your abilities, it's easy to look at a learning product and think 'I can totally do that.' But the difference between a failed Pinterest tutorial and a flopped learning product is massive. If your DIY Pinterest project fails, you have an entertaining story and photo. But if your DIY learning product flops, you have a product that doesn't actually help your learners. I see this as the core problem with most learning products in the market (& on the internet) today. They're all DIY projects without expert advice — and it shows. Let's break this down: what's the issue, why does it matter, and what should you do to avoid it. Need advice from a learning strategist? Schedule a free discovery call today with Manja Horner, Founder of Boost Learning Design today to talk about your dream project. The longer you wait, the longer it takes to get that new learning product to market. Test your own capabilities as a learning designer by taking the Course Creator Quiz

Manja continues Season 2 of Your Greatest Work with a peer mastermind with Jennifer Van Barneveld Pe, owner of Team Strong Girls, and President of Strong Fitness Magazine. Though Team Strong Girls offers multiple programs including the classic one-on-one coaching, and membership platform, they've grown to include a newly launched Strong Formula program for fitness coach development. The heart of Team Strong Girls' success is their loyal & transformative community and coaches. In this episode, Jennifer and Manja discuss fostering transformative communities, piloting new programs, assessment strategies, scaling your business, & more. Along the way, they highlight three components of fostering community: Community through coaching, questioning, common struggles & shared stories. Tune in to the conversation between Jennifer & Manja for rich insights if you want to cultivate community and grow your coaching program well beyond your own capacity.

Manja continues Season 2 of Your Greatest Work with a peer mastermind with Alex Street, a coach for speakers, brand messaging, and stories. Alex and Manja discuss how to build a membership that's engaging beyond Facebook and Zoom, an area of opportunity Alex is looking to explore. Together, Manja and Alex unpack the two keys to creating an engaging membership that delivers relevant, high-quality content again and again and again. They discuss the importance of mapping membership journeys and how to implement these journeys into the membership. To complement the membership journey, Manja and Alex also discuss how to make video calls actually engaging — and why abandoning Zoom might not be such a bad idea! Listen with your pen and notebook on hand, because you're going to grab absolute GOLD in this episode. About Alex Street Alex believes when you tell your story you change the world. As an actor, youth pastor, and public speaker for more than 20 years, he knows firsthand how powerful storytelling is when it comes to personal development, business strategy, and cultivating empathy in our world. Now, with his Transformation Story Arc, Alex helps entrepreneurs create a clear message that connects with their audience and changes the world. Alex has coached TEDx Speakers, bestselling authors, and 7-figure coaches to find the WHY rooted in their signature story. He has a Masters in Theological Studies, is a husband of 16 years, and dad to three Gen Z kids in Toronto, Ontario. fearlessspeakersacademy.com

Manja continues Season 2 of Your Greatest Work with a peer mastermind with Leah Neaderthal, a sales coach for women business owners. Leah and Manja discuss actionable ways to scale your program, an area of opportunity Leah is currently drawn towards. You've got an amazing program that's interactive but you want to serve more people? What now? That's the challenge Leah Neaderthal is facing. Her program — SIGNED — teaches women business owners how to more effectively sell their products and services. The women in Leah's program experience immense growth in their confidence leading the sales process and land higher paying contracts from clients they actually want. But part of this growth comes from Leah's one-on-one coaching with every student in the cohort. As is, the program is phenomenal — it's effective, finishable, and gets results for students. Because of this success, Leah wants to reach more women. Typically in solopreneur circles, we assume that there's a trade-off between high interactivity and high leaner volume. You can have a small program with interactive one-on-ones or you can have a larger fully automated program. But what can you do if you want to keep a program highly interactive and serve more learners? That's exactly what we dig into during this episode of Your Greatest Work.

Three Tips to Boost Membership Engagement Over 50% Manja continues Season 2 of Your Greatest Work with a peer mastermind with Dominic Sicotte of YouTubersINC. Dominic and Manja discuss three actionable ways to boost membership engagement, an area of opportunity Dominic is currently facing. ... As entrepreneurs, even when there's a lot going well for you and your program, there's always an area bugging you. Something's not going quite as well as you want. For Dominic, that area is membership engagement. His engagement is way higher than the industry average, but he wants it to be even better! How can you improve your membership engagement? How can you help your members to be completely engaged in their own success? That's the question we're tackling today! Improving — and sustaining — membership engagement is a challenge for almost every course creator. For Dominic, his membership community, YouTubersINC, helps entrepreneurs build their business empires on and around YouTube. His program offers the tools, strategies, and insights people need to succeed in front of the camera (the "YouTube" piece) and behind the scenes (the "INC" piece). Dominic wants to double membership engagement — after a conversation with Manja, here's how he's going to get there: [1] Get his participants connected to their why [2] Reduce content overwhelm [3] Help participants set expectations ahead of the program Are you facing a similar challenge of member engagement? How can you implement the strategies described here? Are you already doing any of these? If so, how can that be improved? Feeling a little uncertain? I can help you create amazing learning experiences that get results. For more information, book a discovery call. I'll help you break through your plateau and boost your learning experiences, coaching programs, and course. Are you a business owner looking for a community? Your Greatest Work Mastermind is having an open house. Apply to be part of this exclusive group. I'd love to hear from you, connect on LinkedIn or Instagram. About Our Guest Dominic Sicotte of YouTubersINC has 20 years of video, PR, and business experience. He's a family man and community-driven entrepreneur with a huge heart for young people, entrepreneurs, and mentorship. About Your Greatest Work Through conversations with global leaders and the credibility of personal industry, Your Greatest Work digs deeper into learning design in useful and applicable ways. Stay tuned for coming episodes. Let's start the conversation about making your current work into your greatest work. Apply Here for the next Open House Mastermind Contact us for a discovery call to learn more about how we can work together Apply for a spotlight feature on Season 2 Podcast

Successful Courses Have These Three Things In Common Manja continues Season 2 of Your Greatest Work with a discussion of course successes and ways you can implement these features of success in your own course. ... What makes a course or program successful? Think about a course you've participated in that worked for you. You sat down and started the program and just loved it. You felt like you were making progress and the experience was valuable. What made this program so good? Can you recreate this? From Manja's experience, successful courses have three things in common: 1. People start experiencing and trying right away 2. Less teaching and telling and more doing 3. Progress is tracked and shown to students Structuring your course with these three keys is a much more successful way of encouraging people to make changes. How can you apply this to your course? Where can you get your learners trying and doing? Listen and find out! If you're not sure or struggling to implement these concepts, that's what I'm here for! I help all kinds of entrepreneurs with their courses through course audits, feedback, and learning design programs. If you're feeling stuck, check out some of our other content (on the blog, in the podcast, or on our social media channels) or contact me directly! Together, let's make your program into something absolutely amazing and outstanding! About Your Greatest Work Through conversations with global leaders and the credibility of personal industry, Your Greatest Work digs deeper into learning design in useful and applicable ways. Stay tuned for coming episodes. Let's start the conversation about making your current work into your greatest work. Apply Here for the next Open House Mastermind (October 14 and 26, 2021) Contact us for a discovery call to learn more about how we can work together Apply for a spotlight feature on Season 2 Podcast

What makes a course disengaging? Manja opens Season 2 of Your Greatest Work with a discussion of course fails or ways that courses become disengaging — and what you can do to fix this in y our own course. ... We've all been there: bored out of our minds by a course, program, or class. It's awful. No one enjoyed disengaging learning — especially your learners! So let's talk for a bit about what makes courses boring for learners. In all honesty, its easier to make learning disengaging than it is to make learning engaging. There are six common ways that courses can become boring for learners: [1] Too Much Content [2] Too Much Teaching [3] Mediocre Facilitation [4] Disorganization [5] Outdated Design [6] Discouragingly Difficult Finally, welcome feedback! You'll never find the issues with your course if you don't look for them! So seek feedback, collect surveys, get data from your learners. This takes humility, a growth mindset, and dedication to improving your program. The results though! They're worth it! People will happily recommend courses when the program actually worked for them. And for that to happen, your course must be engaging! So brainstorm the opportunity areas in your own course. Sit down with an objective eye and consider the opportunities you have for improving your program. And if you need help along the way, that's what I'm here for! About Your Greatest Work Through conversations with global leaders and the credibility of personal industry, Your Greatest Work digs deeper into learning design in useful and applicable ways. Stay tuned for coming episodes. Let's start the conversation about making your current work into your greatest work. Apply Here for the next FREE Open House Mastermind Contact us for a discovery call to learn more about how we can work together Apply for a spotlight feature on Season 2 Podcast

Only a few short months ago, Your Greatest Work podcast was launched. And I'm so thankful for every single listener who has tuned in to hear from the 16 interviews that we concluded. And I hope that you are looking forward to what's coming for season two, we're not going to have a big break here because there are amazing interviews lined up. It's a little different style this season though. We're doing Hot Seat coaching. So every interview is going to be an entrepreneur or a course creator jumping into the hot seat and receiving in the moment brainstorming advice and coaching from me. Season one was incredible. We brought on some of the most interesting people in course creation and in learning experience design, and they gave us some of their best insights into their area of expertise. We're shifting gears for season two. We're putting course creators and coaches in the hot seat and coaching them live on their business goal as it relates to their course offering or program this season is bringing on entrepreneurs and course creators with successful programs who still have some questions. They are wondering how they can continue to grow this business while still maintaining awesome results for their students for their learners and clients. They're wondering how can they expand their business by hiring facilitators and other coaches to support these programs while still maintaining quality and integrity. They're wondering how to create more variety in their programs, how to iterate and make changes, and evolve their programs. All of these questions will be explored in season two of your greatest work with entrepreneurs and course creators who are extremely successful tune in and don't miss a single episode while we live coach and discuss your biggest questions when it comes to course creation. We are still taking some applicants I am looking for coaches or course creators who want to get in the hot seat and receive coaching to achieve the goal in their program that they are most desperate to achieve. If you are interested in jumping in the hot seat and getting advice from a learning experience, design professional, please apply. I want you I want to have the conversations and I want to see how we can help you achieve your goals to make your learning the absolute best and create experiences that get great results for your audience. We hope that you have a great day and enjoy the upcoming season.

Learning Experiences with Empathy Manja interview Vince Grabowski on the ins and outs of digital learning, new methodologies, and learning experience with empathy. This episode is engaging and well-worth listening to! ... Learning digitally can feel disconnected, slow, or even annoying — and no we're not talking about the wifi. Done poorly, digital learning can leave people with the same knowledge and skill gaps that they've had when they started. Done well, digital learning can be engaging, responsive, adaptive, and even empathy-building for learners. So how can we create learning like this? Listen and find out. ... About Vince Grabowski "Vince Grabowski is a learning experience designer with over 25 years of adult learning experience and a passion for designing, developing and delivering industry leading learning solutions. He is also a father, coach and mentor and has dedicated over 30 years to helping young athletes and adults realize their potential and develop action plans for achieving their personal and professional goals. His greatest passion is his 2 adult sons with whom he has shared the most meaningful and gratifying moments in life. He is also a U.S. Navy veteran and a cancer survivor who has written about his experiences which can be read in his blog: www.vinceg-fys.com."

In Episode 15 of Your Greatest Work, Manja talks with Belinda and Calvin about supporting diversity and inclusion in course creation. You won't want to miss this incredibly useful episode. ... Diversity, equity, and inclusion are incredibly important topics that require incredibly hard conversations. For many people, those conversations are emotionally packed, sensitive, and uncomfortable. That's why trainings exist on the topics — and why corporations and institutions are hungry for courses and learnings that will help their people. Belinda and Calvin know this very well. They create and facilitate trainings on this exact topic. In our fifteenth episode of Your Greatest Work, Belinda and Calvin shared their thoughts and insights on the topic with Manja. Why is it important to talk about diversity, equity, and inclusion? The simplest question first: Diversity, equity, and inclusion are important in course creation because everyone has different lived experiences. It's that simple. People do not work or learn in isolation from the events of their life. As Belinda explains, if employees cannot show up to work as their most authentic selves, they cannot be their most productive or creative, but — more importantly — they will not feel valued at work. So this topic matters. Now that we've established that, let's address the real meat of this conversation: How can you effectively design learning that supports diversity, equity, and inclusion? Belinda and Calvin share some lessons they've learned. 1. This training must be ongoing As Belinda and Calvin repeatedly emphasized, learning in these areas is not a one-time event. Training must be ongoing and people must continually learn and practice and reflect. This creates a culture of learning and a culture that is welcoming and safe for hard conversations. While different people have different approaches to diversity training, everyone agrees that this is not a one-time event. A series of training sessions could take place weekly or biweekly. Through regular and spaced practice, learners can develop a deeper sense of how to have hard conversations in a productive way and how to be an ally for their colleagues and coworkers. 2. People must be ready to learn According to Calvin, learning is an intentional act. No course or training — not matter how phenomenal — will teach an unwilling learner. Instead, courses should begin by asking participants if they're ready to learn and if they're entering with an open mind or a growth mindset. And if people aren't ready to learn? Meet them where they're at. 3. Multimodal learning is best Whenever possible, Belinda tries to use blended learning — a combination of videos, readings, and in-person engagement sessions. Why? Because everyone learns differently. And because people need time to process, to feel, and to think about the topic of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Multimodal learning allows everyone to engage in a way that is productive for them. 4. Hypotheticals must engage emotions The best hypotheticals generate emotion, Belinda explained. You want participants to feel emotions as they engage. Then, as a facilitator, you need to acknowledge this emotion and let participants know that an emotional response is warranted. People need to feel validated in their emotions before they can move on to the rational brain. Because people have different lived experiences, this is particularly important for any courses that focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion. In this week's episode of Your Greatest Work, Belinda and Calvin talk extensively about how they approach their work and the importance of their work. Tune in to hear Belinda & Calvin

In Episode 14 of Your Greatest Work, Manja and Josh talk about the nuances of virtual negotiation and sales. ... So you have a course. It's refined, tweaked, tested, and it's your greatest work. Amazing. Wonderful. Exciting! But now you need learners. What's a course without learners? And how do you attract learners for your course? Yes, the s-word. Sales. You have to sell your course and convince potential learners that they have something to gain by paying for your materials and spending their efforts on your course. Negotiations and sales can make many of us feels uncomfortable, but it's an essential part of being successful. So how can you effectively negotiate and make sales? And how can you do that in a virtual environment? Josh Jenkins, the Director of Business Developments at Shapiro Negotiations Institue, has plenty of experience doing just that. Here are Josh's top four tips: 1. Don't think about a sale or negotiation as a single event We often think of negotiations and sales as single events. According to Josh, that's really not the case. We're constantly negotiating with —or influencing— the people around us. Your colleagues, coworkers, family, and friends. You're always negotiating something. Where should you eat? What movie should you watch? Who should work on that project or take on this task? You have experience negotiating (and endless opportunities to practice). Realizing that is important. 2. Don't abandon the small talk In virtual sales, you're not taking a potential client out for dinner or giving a full-day presentation with a nice lunch break. That has all changed, Josh explains. What hasn't changed is the need to build relationships with prospective clients. You may have abandoned taking them out for dinner, but you can't abandon small talk. So when you're planning a video call, plan time for small talk. Build in some go-to opportunities for natural conversation. Do you have a pet? Have them nearby. Everyone loves pet interruptions on a zoom call. Does the person on the call have an interesting background? Ask a question about it. If you're trying to make a sale asynchronously, think about your social media presence. Small talk can happen on any —and every— social media platform. Take advantage of that personal opportunity to engage with future learners. 3. Consider trying assignment selling What is assignment selling? As Josh explains, this sales strategy involves sending your prospective client some information ahead of time. Essentially, you give them an assignment before your call. This can help your potential client be more informed about your course or whatever you're offering, but it has another side benefit: they now have some buy-in. Assignment selling puts some of the responsibility on the client which can help them feel invested in the sale before it even happens. 4. Try to understand their interests A lot of salespeople try to respond to the client's explicit position. To be more effective, Josh says, you need to really understand the client's interests. What do they need? Why? By focusing on the interests of a possible client, you can work with them to find the best possible solution for their needs. When you do that, they're more inclined to seal the deal with you. After all, you know what they need and you know how to deliver. In this week's episode of Your Greatest Work, Josh talks extensively about strategies for making virtual learning effective and applicable as well as strategies for measuring behavior change. This is an episode you definitely don't want to miss. Tune in to hear Josh's insights! Episode 14 is out now!

In episode 13 of Your Greatest Work, Manja and Deborah talk in-depth about strategies for effectively teaching adults. ... Teaching is hard. Whether you're teaching English to a classroom of children, teaching violin to just one teenager, or teaching practical skills to adults in a virtual setting, teaching is difficult. Getting lessons to stick and keeping learners engaged takes creativity and strategy. Deborah knows this very, very well (after all, she once had Manja as her student). Through decades of teaching experience in schools and in one-on-one settings, Deborah has developed some go-to strategies to effectively work with learners of different ages. Here are just three key lessons from Deborah on working with adult learners. 1. Recognize the Fear Factor According to Deborah, the biggest difference between adults and children is the fear factor. Children may not be very focused on learning but they have no inhibitions. But adults... well, we are incredibly intimidated when it comes to learning something new. Adult learners bring a lot of motivation but, with that, a lot of fear. They're often insecure and may carry extra baggage. Why? At some point, adult learners have been told that they're not good enough — and those untrue words stick. So working with adult learners involves working on the learning mindset and working on the unlearning of past experiences. How do you do this? For Deborah, it's all about trust. You must build trust with your learners often by exposing your own vulnerabilities. 2. Build a Continuum of Progress What does that mean? Well, as Deborah explains, learners want to feel like they're always making progress. Like their efforts are worthwhile, like they're going somewhere. Like they're learning. One way to help learners feel that they're learning is to create a continuum of progress with your teaching. Once learners make a little bit of progress they think 'oh, I can do that.' Imagine a wheel or a set of steps, Learners are moving forward and getting ready for the next thing. This continuum of progress also supports —and fosters— intrinsic motivation. If you're learners can see that they're learning, they're encouraged to learn more. So how do you create this continuum? 3. Break Down Content From Deborah's experience, adult learners want to learn it all right from the start and they take on way too much. But trying to learn everything right away as fast as possible is overwhelming and will easily discourage new learners. How can you avoid that and help learners experience a continuum of progress? Break down content. Take a concept or a lesson or skill and break it into nuggets. One way to do this is to isolate skills. If a learner is struggling with one specific task, having them practice the skill in a comfortable environment can build confidence and further develop the skill. By incorporating these lessons from Deborah, you can more effectively teach adult learners. But this is only the surface of Deborah's wealth of knowledge. In this week's episode of Your Greatest Work, Deborah talks extensively about meeting learners where they're at, the unique challenges —and opportunities— of virtual tutoring, and how to support learners in reaching their goals. Tune in to hear Deborah's insights! Episode 13 is out now! ... About Our Guest Deborah Henderson is an accomplished and experienced teacher. She offers violin lessons for children, teens and adults using both the Suzuki Method and Royal Conservatory syllabus. She also leads violin group classes for children and chamber music ensembles for teens and adults. She was the string program director for SONG (Sounds of the Next Generation), a free after school music program for under-served

In Episode 12 of Your Greatest Work, Manja and Amanda talk about strategies for creating professional course videos! ... Many courses involve video components. Why not? Videos can engage your visual and audio senses, make the course seem more personable, and simply mix-up learning activities. There are several styles of learning videos and today we discuss Amanda's specialty "talking head" format. Now we've all seen poorly done learning videos — we've all skipped past poorly done learning videos. So how can you avoid this and create effective video content? Amanda Horvath has loads of experience creating videos and designing courses. Her DIY Video Roadmap is high quality and 5 Star for helping you share professional video thought leadership online. She shares in this episode some top tips on how to create high-quality learning videos. #1. Always structure your videos According to Amanda, people often think that they can just sit down in front of a camera and record themselves talking. Well, that sort of winding free-form conversation may work in a podcast, but it's not effective for a learning video. Instead, intentionally structure your videos. Break a topic into segments or a process into steps, then speak more freely on each of these steps. This gives your audience specific takeaways and makes your videos more consumable. Something as simple as starting a video by saying "Today we're going to talk about X, Y, and Z" can go a long way toward clearly structuring your content. #2. Invest in quality audio Your microphone matters more than your video. You may have the most beautiful-looking video, but if the audience can't hear you properly, they won't find it engaging. Rather than investing in camera, invest in a microphone first. #3. Think about your camera presence If you're recording a talking head video (the sorts of videos where someone just talks to the camera), it's important to think about your camera presence. You want your background to be nice, free-of-clutter, and professional-looking. But your camera presence also includes, well, you. Hand gestures, head movement, and shoulder movement all contribute to making you look alive and excited when you're talking. According to Amanda, something as simple as wearing a pair of earrings or lipstick can contribute to a more engaging video. #4. Consider batch recording Record multiple videos back to back to back. This will save you time in setting up your equipment and help you get in the flow of recording. Afterward, you can also edit in batches or you can outsource your editing. ... and these top tips are just scratching the surface! In this week's episode of Your Greatest Work, Amanda talks extensively about software she recommends, pairing videos with supplemental materials, and advice for outsourcing editing. Tune in to hear more of Amanda's insights ... About Our Guest Amanda Horvath WebLinks: https://amandahorvath.com/start YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/amandahorvath Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ahvisions/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/horvathamanda/ About Your Greatest Work Through conversations with global leaders and the credibility of personal industry, Your Greatest Work digs deeper into learning design in useful and applicable ways. Our mission is to end boring ineffective programs and courses by helping entrepreneurs change the right levers in their content and delivery while measuring learning results. Stay tuned for coming episodes. Let's start the

Manja and Cath talk about finding creative ways to make learning experiences engaging and even explosive. Some courses are dry. Like mouth-parchingly, kind of like eating flour, click-through-as-fast as possible sort of dry. But learning doesn't have to be dry. Learning can be engaging and exciting and —dare we say it?— explosive. How? Creative delivery. Learn about Cath's creative process, where she finds inspiration and why she is passionate about exciting learning.

Taking hard communication skills and helping people practice them in a safe and effective way can boost on the job performance by up to 50%. Want to know how to sustain sales, communication, and DEI training with experiential learning? At Practica Learning, where today's guest Doug Robertson is the AVP of business development, they do this. There, the learning doesn't stop after the knowledge has been transferred in an individual training session. They've created a reality providing opportunity for people to practice the skills either before they go back to their workplaces, or just after they get to the workplace. Wouldn't that make a difference to their ability to take the knowledge that they had learned and transfer it to the workplace; put learning into practice and change their behaviors? We talk about the unique way in which Practica Learning does this. It's their incredible ability to create a safe learning environment that makes all the difference for learning retention. Listen and take note of how to create this safe learning environment for your programs. Every coach, consultant, and learning professional should be embedding experiential learning whenever skill development is a desired outcome. In this episode, we also talk about the way COVID-19 has changed the world of virtual selling, how this requires a new skill set for your sales force. And, what can be done through training to foster inclusive and equitable behaviours in leaders through role play and direct feedback. These topics and much more make this a must-listen episode. Doug Robertson Bio Doug Robertson is a passionate and innovative learning leader, facilitator, and designer. He partners with clients to design, develop and deliver skills training. A former learning corporate partner, he is an expert at helping companies drive up learning application and retention through experiential learning – in particular using the methodology of deliberate practice. He earned his MBA (Financial Services) at Dalhousie University in 2004, and holds certificates in Leadership, Project Management and Adult Education. Connect on LinkedIn: [https://www.linkedin.com/in/douglaswrobertson](https://www.linkedin.com/in/douglaswrobertson)

Marketing is so wildly successful because sales and marketing people have been able to capture the primal brain, triggering emotion and primal urges to buy. This exact same neuroscience applies to learning design. In the process of change, it starts with awareness. A lot of course creators are trying to convince people with facts and data. Basically trying to convince the rational brain when in fact you should first impact the primal brain to impact decision. My guest in this week's episode is Bogdan Manta. Making neuroscience digestible and easy to apply to our own learning experiences is his special skill. Bogdan Manta has key expertise in the fields of persuasive communication, neuromarketing, neuroscientific persuasion, behavior profiling, live immersive experiences, show production and more. Despite this impressive experience, ego doesn't get in the way; he is a pleasure to learn from and you will absolutely take away ideas to appeal to the emotional brain, helping people learn and retain with aha! moments. Tune in for conversations that include strategies you should be incorporating into your course content. In this episode we cover: - Why we have to drop our ego - What should we simplify - How to impact behaviour change - What exercises and activities to include to overcome mindset hurdles - Course creator ethics - Evaluating programs and getting useful feedback - How he's using Artificial intelligence for impactful learning This is a must-listen episode if you want to level up your learning experiences About Our Guest Bogdan Manta, Founder The Essential Workshops & BvdM Consulting Over 20 years of unleashing Neuroscience for business, creative writing, negotiating, facilitating, presenting, executive consultancy, neuromarketing, pitching, as well as show production and project management, I provide key expertise in the fields of persuasive communication, neuromarketing, pricing psychology, neuroscientific persuasion, behavior profiling, live immersive experiences, show production and live communication. Through immersive learning and experiential cognition we deliver impactful and truly memorable experiences; as Maya Angelou once said, ‘'people will forget what you said, they will forget what you did; but people will never forget how you made them feel''. [https://www.linkedin.com/in/bogdanmanta/](https://www.linkedin.com/in/bogdanmanta/) Books Discussed in Episode: [Robert B Cialdini PhD](https://www.amazon.ca/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1?ie=UTF8&field-author=Robert+B+Cialdini+PhD&text=Robert+B+Cialdini+PhD&sort=relevancerank&search-alias=books-ca). Influence, New and Expanded: The Psychology of Persuasion [Daniel Kahneman](https://www.amazon.ca/Daniel-Kahneman/e/B001ILFNQG/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1). Thinking, Fast and Slow

"My clients have turned typically negative experiences, like weight loss and exercise into the catalyst for them to feel like their best self every single day." - Jordanna Nativ If you've ever wondered why it's so hard to get your learners or clients to create lasting behaviour change, that's because you may be missing an important element — Mindset. My guest in this week's episode is Jordanna Nativ, a Team Strong Girls coach, Certified Eating Psychology Coach and NASM Certified Personal Trainer. She coaches her clients towards incredible transformations by digging deep into mindset, helping clients and students overcome their own hurdles to success. Jordanna is passionate about helping her clients shine. She credits them for doing the hard work and showing up ready to transform. When working with Jordanna, you can expect results and an education that will last a lifetime. Tune in for conversations that include strategies you should be incorporating into your course content. In this episode, you'll discover: - how to use marketing strategies to create more personalized content - what it means to become very familiar with your ideal client - strategies to make courses more finishable - Jordanna's own ups and downs creating her first course

Thank you for listening. In this episode, we're talking about an iceberg. The tip of the iceberg is your course that people see. All of the things under the waterline – the things that surround your course or are inputs for your course or program. Read about this or see a visual on my blog with details outlining each component. https://www.boostld.com/blog/your-course-is-the-tip-of-the-iceberg In this episode we will cover may things surrounding your online course. Let's talk about your course, the tip of the iceberg--what people see. This is the solution. You can jump straight to solution. You can create something that you sell right away and make fast. And there are a lot of online marketers that are telling you that you can launch a course in a day. This is a marketing ploy. Be careful. There are lots of things that you should consider if you want to make a quality learning experience **Ideal customer** When selling direct to consumer, have a clear picture of your customer avatar. This is the person who is buying and taking yoru course. Consider demographics, psychographics, skill, knowledge and mindset gaps. This information is useful for your marketing and for your learning content. It will impact your marketing It will impact your research Create a survey using google forms or typeform. Survey your ideal customer and ask them what are your goals. What would you like to be able to do differently? What kind of skills do you have? Where are they at with their skills. This will inform the gaps that you include in your training or course. Create training to support real needs. You'll be way closer to your ideal customer's target needs than if you jumped straight into solution. I always do research on the customer or learner before developing so you don't waste time and money making something that's not suitable. **Evaluation** How will you evaluate the learner's capabilities and improvement, but also course in general. Plan this out as you're going: knowledge checks, coaching or mentorship as part of your program or service. How will you identify a behavior or mindset change in your program? Evaluate whether learners are learning or not. This is helpful for future marketing to quantify improvement in skill, knowledge or mindset. For example, people saw a 40% improvement in X skill. Or, it took people on average 1 hour less time to edit their videos after taking my program. This program saves my learners time editing videos. It can help prospective buyers figure out if the course you're offering will get them a good return on their investment. There are some stages to evaluate the learner. 1. Did they like it? 2. Do they know more? 3. Can they do something differently? Also you can evaluate your program to decide if it's doing what you want it to do. If it's performing properly. I can also audit your program to find improvements. Schedule a call with me. **Program Support** How are you creating an experience to support learners as they're going through your course? **Accountability** This should be baked into the course. Facebook groups aren't always the solution. How else you can practically bake accountability right in your course? For example, send a calendar invite to make it easy to set aside the time. **Tech Platform (LMS or EdTech)** Is it low tech like Notion or Email? Or are you using a platform like LearnDash, Kajabi or Thinkific? A lot of considerations and new platforms are popping up every day. If you need help wading through the sea of EdTech, I have experience to help you. I've done small and enterprise sized LMS set-ups. **Sales Funnels and Marketing Strategy** This funnel is important to drive traffic to your program. I can refer you to some great entrepreneurs who are amazing at teaching and supporting you in this space. You need a full marketing strategy to create content and bring awareness to your new program. I can help you

In my discovery calls, I hear this: tell me about your idea, tell me what you are excited about, how does this tie to your expertise, what do you need help with? The ideas are fabulous, but it's my job to help a client quickly check out if the market has an appetitite for what you're dishing up. It's really important to me that my clients don't waste their time or money. I'm interested in my client's success - your success equals my success. I'm your guide to increasing business revenue with a beautiful course or program that sells, not sits on a shelf. So, the question I ask before launching into developing your course or program is — have you checked with your potential clients if they want what you're offering? Do you have a plan to sell the concept or at least find out interest in it? When a serious business owner or entrepreneur, like you, decides to sell your course directly to an end user, you need to prevalidate or even pre-sell your course before you go ahead and make it. In this episode, I outline eight stages of a new learning product lifecycle. I am emphasizing what you should do as soon as you have an idea to convert your thought leadership or content into a course. Warning! This episode is only for serious entpreneurs who care a LOT about selling great learning products.

Don't miss this rare English interview with Dominic Sicotte, a family man and community driven entrepreneur with a huge heart for young people, entrepreneurs and mentorship. He is the Founding President and Executive Director of A.B. Foster, an academy for 16-25 year olds in Waterloo, Quebec Canada. His vision and expertise with mentorship gives us tactical ways to make mentorship a cornerstone of the learning that we create. We talk candidly about what mentorship truly should be, how he has created mentorship opportunities within the Academy, what makes an amazing mentor relationship and how to re-create this in our own courses and program.

What are your course completion rates? Only 15% of people complete the courses that they buy. So, why do we blame the learner when our courses are purchased but not finished? It's not our learner's fault. There's a lot that we can do to encourage people to not only buy, but also finish our programs. This episode will give you tips for creating courses that people are encouraged to finish. Tips for accountability and strategies for making your courses easier to finish.

One of the reasons why students often fail to complete a course is because they have really high expectations of what they think they will be able to achieve when they complete the course. Help learners create goals that are achievable so they can complete the program and feel rewarded by success. We can make our courses more finishable by helping learners practice with something fun and where the stakes are not too high.

Unless you've got skin in the game, boots on the ground, hands dirty, whatever you want to call it; it's impossible to understand how to do something unless you've actually gone through it. This is true for life and business. Learning designers and course creators can recreate these experiences for our learners. I'm talking about how we can do this with some key strategies.

Course creators, instructional designers and learning professionals. I'm talking to you! You need to be aware of how you are creating learning. Your audience isn't totally responsible for the results that you want them to get from your learning. You have a huge role to play, and this podcast is going to teach you how to take your good work and uplevel it to become your greatest work. Every week, Your Greatest Work podcast will bring you strategies and tactical best practices that you can use to create courses that will make you the hero. You'll have learners that can't wait to share their results. You'll have learners that want to finish your courses and tell their peers. You'll spend less time and money on marketing when you wow your learners. This podcast is one of my services that will help you become THE recognized expert course creator. To learn more, visit www.boostld.com