PODCAST - your tech stack is not your strategy (how to stop hiding behind tools)
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[00:00:00] Learning Transformed is brought to you by E-Learning Partners, your guide to designing transformational learning experiences in the age of ai. For millennia human intelligence was the highest form of intelligence on earth. Until now. Hi, I'm ai. I can process more information in seconds than any human in a lifetime.
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on this podcast hosted by me. Johnny Ha. We navigate these questions with clarity, creativity, and confidence. As the most adaptable species on the planet, we cannot only survive the rise of [00:01:00] artificial intelligence, but create better human centered, AI powered learning experiences that elevate humanity to a new era of abundance, transformation and meaning
AI is rising. And so are we
Now, let's dive in.
Too many people and organizations believe that purchasing a new technology or the newest, hottest AI tool is going to solve all of their problems and skyrocket revenue. I see this all the time, and in the e-learning space alone, I have found that most people are overspending by five to 200 x. On technology.
This is [00:02:00] crazy. Individuals and companies are leaving hundreds of thousands of dollars on the table by integrating the wrong technologies and by falling into the trap thing that technology equals strategy. Well, I have news for you. Your tech stack is not your strategy, so stop hiding behind your tools and create your strategy with me today.
In e-learning, we have so many different acronyms for tools. Just in e-learning alone, we have LMS. We have authoring tools. We have Alex Ps, we have BMS, we have CMS, we have CRMs. The list goes on and on and on. And while all of these tools maybe necessary for your business, this. Is not your strategy. Your strategy is [00:03:00] your strategy, and that's why today I want to build your strategy together so that you can get ROI from your e-learning program in your business and ultimately harness the power of technology to to fulfill.
Your strategy, but strategy comes first, technology second. Now, before we build your strategy together, I wanna share with you my e-learning platform finder to save you and your organization 5 2 200 x on your technology. I have seen companies pay 50 all the way up to a million dollars a year on e-learning technology when they should be spending less than $10,000 a year.
Most of my clients are spending $2,000 or less. Per year. And they're doing this because I have over the [00:04:00] years, come up with the best e-learning platforms out there in the world, and I've curated them into my e-learning platform finder to empower you to match you with the perfect platform to empower your business.
And yes, even s and p 500 companies, enterprise level companies should not. Be spending 50 k, a hundred KA million dollars per year on your software. You should only be spending maybe five to 10 K per year. That's why I'm gonna match you in a matter of seconds with your perfect platform length in the description below.
If you're watching this on YouTube or on the show notes. If you're listening to this as a podcast, in addition to being matched with the perfect platform for you, I'm gonna give you acts. Access to a free trial of the platform so you and your team can start building everything out, integrating it into your business before you even have to pay.
And in order to shortcut the process for you, I'm also gonna give [00:05:00] you a free course teaching you step by step how to get this software up and running in your business. And then once you start paying for the platform, I'm also gonna give you my platform. Form to profit strategy session where I sit down with you and your team to optimize and maximize the ROI that you are going to get from your investment in this platform for you and your business so that you can hit your e-learning goals as quickly as possible.
And speaking of ROI. Step one is to define ROI for your business. This is the most important part of any strategy is defining ROI for you and your business. What does this mean? This means looking at where in your business can you get the biggest return on your investment in the shortest amount of time in e-learning.
Maybe you're [00:06:00] building a program to sell. If you're selling a program, then we need to look at what do customers want to buy from you. For my s and p 500, enterprise Learning Accelerator, partnership, client CoStar, we focus on selling two programs, and when we launched their e-learning program right out of the gate, we focused on one and we did this.
By conducting an 80 20 analysis. I talk about this all over my YouTube channel and podcast, how important these two things are. An 80 20 analysis is research shows that 80% of results come from 20. Percent of actions and 20% of results come from 80% of actions. So same thing with your programs. 80% of the return on investment, the revenue you make if you are selling your programs comes from [00:07:00] 20% of your programs.
So why not launch with the program that creates 80% of results? Well, Johnny, what is the 64 4 rule? What's 20% of 20%? Four. And what's 80% of 80%? 64. So what this means is that 4% of what you do in your business creates 64% of results and vice versa, 64% creates 4% of results. So if you really want to double, triple, quadruple down on selling one program in your business, make sure that it is the 4%.
When we focus on the 4%, when we focus on the 20%. We optimize our ability to get ROI in our business. For CoStar, that meant focusing on their CHIA certification. CoStar Group is a real estate technology and data company and they sell certification teaching people how to [00:08:00] maximize the use. Of data in specific verticals in commercial real estate.
The program I'm specifically talking about is the chia, which is focused on hospitality industry analytics certification and hospitality industry analytics. Chia this. Is the 4%. When we launched the program together, we focused on the chia and it resulted in a half million dollars per year profit center in their business.
And then we went from the chia and we're like, okay, we launched the 4%. Now it's time to launch The rest of that. 20% creating 80% of results. So we launched the Kata, and the Kata is adding another six figures plus per year of revenue. And at the same time, we have increased their e-learning profit margin by six figures per year.
This is what you need to do with your business, especially [00:09:00] if you are selling, you want to come up with the one or two programs that is driving the most ROI in your business. Now, what if. You're training your employees. So if you are just training your employees, we can do the same thing. You wanna do an 80 20 analysis and a 64 4 analysis to find the one or two programs that you can create to exponentially increase the value of your employees to exponentially increase the effectiveness and the efficiency of the work they do.
And I promise you, even though. When you initially invest in e-learning and when you look at, oh, well I wanna invest in the tech and I, I checked out the e-learning platform finder, I got my technology, now I wanna put it all online. I promise you that you will get more ROI in your business by focusing on one or two areas to start.
We're three years into. Our partnership with CoStar, and [00:10:00] we are still spending 99% of our energy on these two programs. We've actually started putting in place a chia recertification program, and next we're gonna put into place a COTA recertification program. So we're doubling down. On what is creating the majority of our revenue in the business unit.
It's the same thing that you need to do if you are selling or if you're training your employees. Focus on one or two programs that bring the most ROI to your business. Now, let's pretend that you don't know who your learners are, or maybe you kind of have an idea, but maybe you've never created a training program at all before.
Well, if that's the case. Then step two is to define your. Learners, or I like to call them PLPs or perfect learner profiles. Now, when we're looking at [00:11:00] categorization, we're talking about what are the biggest challenges that your learners have. You could also look at this as what is the return that your learners are getting on their investment in your program?
What is. They're ROI. In step one, we define what is the ROI for your business to offer either an internal or an external learning program. Now we're looking at what is the ROI for your learners? Because if your learners, let's say their customers are going to purchase your program, there needs to be a return on their investment in the program.
Same thing if you are training your employees. Then your employees need to be getting a return on their investment in order to invest their time into taking the program. If you're selling the program, your customers are investing two things. They're investing money and time. Your employees are really [00:12:00] only investing time.
Well, time is more valuable than money, so either way, you need to let them know. You need to communicate to your learners customers or employees. Why they need your program, what is in it for them? And that's why we define biggest challenges. Now, when you define your learners by biggest challenges, you are creating your perfect learner profiles.
So let's say that the biggest challenge in your organization is your conversion rate for sales. That's the biggest challenge. Oh, you know, we're really good at finding leads. We're just not very good at turning those leads into paid customers. Okay. There is your challenge. Let's build an e-learning program to provide a solution to that challenge and let's.
Give our employees a benefit. What ROI do your employees get by completing the [00:13:00] program? Well, if they are being paid via commission, they're gonna make more money. There's the ROI for your employees. Now, let's say that you. Or like my enterprise learning accelerator client CoStar, s and p 500, selling certifications to professionals coming out of the best hospitality schools in the world and working for the best hospitality companies in the world like Cornell and working for the best hospitality companies in the world like Marriott.
What is in it for them to purchasing their certifications? There are multiple. Benefits. Well, the first one is the CHIA certification has become a standard in the industry. The second thing is when you're earning your certification, you are learning the CoStar group software, which is the standard in the entire commercial real estate industry.
The ROI for the [00:14:00] students, the professors. And the industry professionals for taking these programs is very simple. Jobs. Students are set up to get a job in data analytics in the hospitality industry from taking this certification. Industry professionals are set up to get jobs. Professors are able to support their students in getting jobs.
Professors can also leverage the certification and get jobs. The more jobs that schools are able to get for their students, the more students are gonna go to their school. The more that professors get to get paid jobs is the ROI for the learners that CoStar sells its programs to step three, create. The three pillars of e-learning.
Now we've already defined ROI for your business, and we have defined ROI for your learners. Now it's time to [00:15:00] put the pillars in place to build the foundation for your e-learning program. And the three pillars of e-learning are as follows, content technology. And distribution. When you started watching this video and listening to this podcast episode today, you were here because of technology escaping the confines of technology, thinking that technology equals strategy.
Now we know that. ROI equals strategy and specifically ROI helps us define our strategy and once we know what ROI we are looking to get in our business, it dictates what kind of content we need to create. So when we know. That a specific topic is going to create the most income for us to sell a learning experience about [00:16:00] that we know exactly what kind of content to create.
We know exactly who in our organization. Maybe it's you needs to be delivering that content content. Is the learning experience itself. This could be videos, workshops, with CoStar. We have videos. We have instructor led workshops. We have certification exams, exams. All of that is content. The first pillar of e-learning.
Then we get to technology. Technology is what allows us and empowers us to take our learning experience and seamlessly deliver it. To our learners, may that be our customers or our employees. So you need technology, but technology once again, is empowering the ROI. If we just focused on the technology and we never came up with, okay, this is the ROI, we need to get.
Well, first of all, we wouldn't know what the right technology is, [00:17:00] and we could get sucked into spending way too much on it. That's why my e-learning platform finer so you don't make the same mistake, you're gonna save five to 200 x on the technology. Well, the last piece here is distribution, or different distribution channels.
Different distribution strategies. Distribution may actually be the most important pillar. You need all three for an e-learning program. But distribution is what gets your program in front of your learners. It gets your learners to invest their money if it's customers and time, if it's customers or employees.
Well, once you know how to distribute or actually sell or get your employees interested in your program, which is gonna be defined by. What ROI you're trying to get. So you're selling a program like CoStar, where you're serving the top universities, the top companies in the industry across the [00:18:00] world. Then the distribution strategy is, let's focus on building partnerships with.
Organizations, let's focus on creating value for those organizations by creating the best training for their students, for their professors, for the industry professionals, their employees at the organization. That's very different than if you were looking to create a program like my VIP coaching client, Mario, where his big goal is to half the world suicide rate in the next three years.
By sharing his support over suicide program, SOS program with people worldwide. When we first started working together, he was focused on selling one-to-one. That was the distribution plan, one-to-one. And I do highly recommend that every company. No matter if this is your primary focus or not, you should have the ability for individuals to buy your [00:19:00] program.
So we do a CoStar. If you're a student, you can buy one. If you're a professor, you can buy one. If you are an industry professional, you can buy one, but you can also buy many one to many. Well, we're talking about one to many. We're talking about exponentially increasing the impact of your program. We're talking about higher ROI for your business and higher ROI.
For your customers. In CoStar's case, Cornell will buy 170 licenses for their students. We're gonna give them a discount because of that, and we're gonna help them integrate that into their school. So they get an amazing program, the highest quality curriculum certifications for their students, which means they get more jobs, which means more people go to that program, which means the school makes more money at CoStar, that means that we make more money.
Same thing with Mario. He. Still has it's set up where individuals can buy the SOS program, but [00:20:00] now we are focusing on serving organizations with a hundred thousand employees at a time, integrating the SOS program into these organizations, which in addition to working towards haling, the global suicide rate, we are increasing the productivity of the workforce by decreasing depression among other.
Things that rob people and companies. Thousands of hours of work every single year. So this is why a distribution strategy is so important. I have many other episodes on my channel and on my podcast about that, but once we get that in place, we figure out our content, then we send all this. Through our technology to deliver to our learners to ultimately get ROI.
Now, if you are interested in getting help with any of this, I invite you to check out my Enterprise Learning Accelerator partnership program where I partner with multiple organizations. Per year, me and my company, E-Learning partners become the e-learning [00:21:00] partner of these organizations like CoStar Group.
And even after paying us, we save our partners six figures or more per year on their e-learning programs. Millions of dollars over time. If your company is making $50 million a year, if you have a e-learning or education or training unit. Inside of your company that's making half a million to a million dollars per year.
Maybe you have 200 to 500 employees, or maybe you're just struggling with getting the ROI that you want from your program. Maybe you're looking to increase your profit margin, maybe. You have an e-learning program that isn't even finished yet that you need help bringing over the finish line, or maybe you just have some outdated technology, or you're about to spend way too much money on technology and you need a partner to not only guide you, but help you implement a powerful e-learning program to drive ROI at your company.
If this sounds like you, I invite you to learn more than the description below on [00:22:00] YouTube or on the show notes if you're listening to this as a podcast, and I'll see you in the next episode.
Thanks for tuning in to Learning Transformed Now, if you're designing a transformational learning experience and wanna skip the overwhelm of trial and error. Check out our e-learning platform finder. Just answer a few simple questions and we'll match you with the right platform plus an extended free trial.
And as a bonus, you'll get free access to a course that walks you through building your learning experience on your matched platform. Click on the link in the show notes or go to www.elearningpartners.com/elearning-platform-finder. I'd also love to hear from you. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or drop a comment on our YouTube [00:23:00] channel.
Thanks for listening and I'll catch you in the next episode.
AI is rising and so are.
