Exploring competition in the learning business, hosts highlight Porter's Five Forces, importance of differentiation, brand loyalty, and supporting subject matter experts. Strategies for staying ahead include creating unique value propositions, understanding buyer negotiation power, and assessing the competitive landscape.

Providing practical and valuable education and credentials is critical to the role learning businesses can play in creating and maintaining a skilled workforce. In this episode, we dig into the causes and solutions to the skills gap in a conversation with David Capranos, director of market strategy and research at Wiley University Services. Leading Learning co-host Jeff Cobb and David talk about the report David co-authored titled “Closing the Skills Gap: Employer Perspectives on Educating the Post-Pandemic Workforce,” and they get into related topics such as the growing relevance and appeal of alternative credentials to both learners and employers, the rising demand for softer skills, the role of learning in employee retention, empathy, partnerships to support career-connected education, and educational tourism. Detailed show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode352. We are grateful to our sponsor for this episode Thinkific. *** As a Leading Learning listener, you know the importance we place on reach, revenue, and impact for learning businesses. Thinkific Plus is a new-generation platform purpose-built to help growing businesses scale revenue. With Thinkific Plus, you can generate monthly recurring revenue through course subscriptions and membership programs, sell multiple seats for your learning products to a single buyer, suggest additional products in the learning flow to increase sales, and go global with 0 percent transaction fees and payments accepted in over 100 countries. As one quick example, entrepreneur and business coach Ellie Diop uses Thinkific Plus for her Ellie Talks Money academy. She’s generated over seven figures in revenue, and nearly 50,000 people purchased courses in her first year alone. Right now, Thinkific Plus is offering Leading Learning listeners one month free for a limited time. But that offer is only available if you go to our special URL. So go to thinkific.com/learning to learn more and to try out the platform.

Melissa Majors is a keynote speaker, author of The Seven Simple Habits of Inclusive Leaders, and founder of Melissa Majors Consulting, where she helps leaders lead better and cultivate high-performing and engaged teams. Prior to starting her consulting practice, Melissa spent 20 years leading education services teams and divisions across a variety of industries, both large and small. In this episode of the Leading Learning Podcast, co-host Celisa Steele talks with Melissa about what inclusive leadership is, its benefits, psychological safety, tactical empathy, and focusing on desired behaviors rather than leading with labels to get around DEI fatigue. They also talk about how to be inclusive in product design and development. Detailed show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode351. We are grateful to our sponsor for this episode Thinkific. *** We’re grateful to Thinkific for sponsoring the Leading Learning Podcast. As a Leading Learning listener, you know the importance we place on reach, revenue, and impact for learning businesses. Thinkific Plus is a new-generation platform purpose-built to help growing businesses scale revenue. With Thinkific Plus, you can generate monthly recurring revenue through course subscriptions and membership programs, sell multiple seats for your learning products to a single buyer, suggest additional products in the learning flow to increase sales, and go global with 0 percent transaction fees and payments accepted in over 100 countries. As one quick example, entrepreneur and business coach Ellie Diop uses Thinkific Plus for her Ellie Talks Money academy. She’s generated over seven figures in revenue, and nearly 50,000 people purchased courses in her first year alone. Right now, Thinkific Plus is offering Leading Learning listeners one month free for a limited time. But that offer is only available if you go to our special URL. So go to thinkific.com/learning to learn more and to try out the platform.

We're thrilled to reach another milestone: 350 episodes of the Leading Learning Podcast. We are grateful to our listeners for making this possible. Milestones are opportunities to reflect, both on what’s past and what’s to come. In this episode, we focus on three areas we expect to be of continuing and growing importance in the learning landscape and for learning businesses: AI, the X factor, and the work/learn connection. Detailed show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode350.

Learning businesses can play a critical role in creating learning pathways for adults that account for the realities of their work and life. Christine Carpenter, senior vice president of engagement at the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL), has spent years working with diverse stakeholders to establish such pathways and supporting on- and off-ramps to education for adult learners. CAEL is a nonprofit membership organization and leader in the field of adult learning on a mission to build a transformative, equitable culture of lifelong learning and economic empowerment for all adult learners. In this episode of the Leading Learning Podcast, co-host Celisa Steele talks with Christine about CAEL’s focus on supporting the learner/worker and the related role of credit for prior learning (CPL), competency-based education (CBE), and microcredentials. They also discuss CAEL’s “Adult Learner Leaders for Institutional Effectiveness” (ALLIES) framework and why our collective success is ultimately determined by the individual adult learner’s success. Full show notes and a transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode349.

Regardless of your position, if you work in a learning business, you need to care about finding opportunities to grow revenue—AKA business development. According to Sean Soth, chair of the Leadership Advisory Board for Professionals for Association Revenue (PAR), we are all in business development. PAR is a professional member organization that works to support and connect association teams to the ideas and applications needed to grow revenue. PAR’s mission is to inspire revenue growth for association professionals through knowledge, resources, and community. In this episode of the Leading Learning Podcast, co-host Jeff Cobb talks with Sean about PAR’s origins and mission, revenue generation, revenue diversification, and the growing importance and relevance of the business development role in associations and other learning businesses. Full show notes and a transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode348.

All too often learning businesses focus solely on traditional educational offerings. But, by narrowly focusing on courses and conferences, learning businesses miss an opportunity to better understand their learners' needs and to deliver more value. One of the best ways to understand those needs and to provide additional value is through a learning community. In this episode, we explore the concept of community, including what one is (and isn't), the value one can offer, how to create or reinvigorate one, and approaches to pricing. Full show notes and a transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode347.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming how we all live, work, and learn. It will undoubtedly impact every industry, redefining how leaders in the business of lifelong learning need to think and act. One company helping organizations, particularly marketers, do this is Marketing AI Institute. Marketing AI Institute’s mission is to make artificial intelligence approachable and actionable. And leading that mission is founder and CEO, Paul Roetzer. Paul is co-author of Marketing Artificial Intelligence: AI, Marketing, and the Future of Business as well as the creator of the Marketing Artificial Intelligence Conference (MAICON) and the AI Academy for Marketers. In this episode of the Leading Learning Podcast, co-host Celisa Steele talks with Paul about his definition of artificial intelligence, why he thinks we’re at a tipping point with AI, the 5Ps of marketing AI, and use cases where a learning business looking to leverage AI for marketing might focus first. Full show notes and a transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode346. We are grateful to our sponsor for this series, WBT Systems. *** TopClass LMS provides the tools for you to become the preferred provider in your market, delivering value to learners at every stage of their working life. WBT Systems’ award-winning learning system enables delivery of impactful continuing education, professional development, and certification programs. The TopClass LMS team supports learning businesses in using integrated learning technology to gain greater understanding of learners’ needs and behaviors, to enhance engagement, to aid recruitment and retention, and to create and grow non-dues revenue streams. WBT Systems will work with you to truly understand your preferences, needs, and challenges to ensure that your experience with TopClass LMS is as easy and problem-free as possible. Visit leadinglearning.com/topclass to learn how to generate value and growth for your learning business and to request a demo.

Content alone is usually not enough to stand out and make your learning business as useful and as successful as it can be. You usually need something else to supplement or enhance your content. That’s why we’ve identified five areas—what we’re calling the 5 Cs—to strategically build on the content that a learning business already has. In this episode of the Leading Learning Podcast, we share those 5 Cs to help you enhance or repackage your existing products and services: coaching, cohorts, community, chunking, and credentials. We also explain how to power up your portfolio in each of those areas to grow the reach, revenue, and impact of your content.  Full show notes and a transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode345. We are grateful to our sponsor for this series, WBT Systems. *** TopClass LMS provides the tools for you to become the preferred provider in your market, delivering value to learners at every stage of their working life. WBT Systems’ award-winning learning system enables delivery of impactful continuing education, professional development, and certification programs. The TopClass LMS team supports learning businesses in using integrated learning technology to gain greater understanding of learners’ needs and behaviors, to enhance engagement, to aid recruitment and retention, and to create and grow non-dues revenue streams. WBT Systems will work with you to truly understand your preferences, needs, and challenges to ensure that your experience with TopClass LMS is as easy and problem-free as possible. Visit leadinglearning.com/topclass to learn how to generate value and growth for your learning business and to request a demo.

It’s critical that learning business professionals pay careful attention to the research they create and the research they rely on for making decisions. This means asking questions, knowing the research methods used, and understanding the limitations of the data. But, because most of us aren’t trained in research, this can be a challenge.  That’s why Elizabeth Engel, chief strategist at Spark Consulting, and Polly Karpowicz, a seasoned association consultant, co-authored “Caveat Emptor: Becoming a Responsible Consumer of Research.” Their goal in writing the white paper was to help associations and others to be better informed about the research they use and to remain trusted, unbiased sources of information for the audiences they serve. In this episode of the Leading Learning Podcast, co-host Jeff Cobb talks with Elizabeth and Polly about primary versus secondary research, qualitative and quantitative research, mixed research methods, the ethics of using people in research, and bias. They also discuss data validity, reliability, and statistical significance, and they share valuable tips for the responsible consumption and production of research. Full show notes and a transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode344. We are grateful to our sponsor for this series, WBT Systems. *** TopClass LMS provides the tools for you to become the preferred provider in your market, delivering value to learners at every stage of their working life. WBT Systems’ award-winning learning system enables delivery of impactful continuing education, professional development, and certification programs. The TopClass LMS team supports learning businesses in using integrated learning technology to gain greater understanding of learners’ needs and behaviors, to enhance engagement, to aid recruitment and retention, and to create and grow non-dues revenue streams. WBT Systems will work with you to truly understand your preferences, needs, and challenges to ensure that your experience with TopClass LMS is as easy and problem-free as possible. Visit leadinglearning.com/topclass to learn how to generate value and growth for your learning business and to request a demo.