Learnedly with John Waldron (CEO) | E99
Professional financial education made easy, mobile, and modern.
Summary:
In this 99th episode of Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host welcomes John Waldron, founder of Learnedly, to talk about how financial services firms handle ongoing education.
Episode Highlights:
● 00:30: – John explains Learnedly as Lynda.com/LinkedIn Learning but for Canadian financial services professionals.
● 01:37: – John founded Learnedly because he found that it’s empowering to learn new ways to help your clients, and he wanted to make that learning accessible.
● 02:55: – There was a demand in the industry for video-based content that was accessible on mobile.
● 05:00: – A lot of Learnedly is inspired by and based in part on Lynda.com, which has now even sent Learnedly business.
● 06:51: – With things changing in the industry and with technology so quickly, a platform that can be updated and referenced in real-time became more and more necessary.
● 08:42: – With short-form courses like this, you can make a commitment to lifelong learning with only 30 minutes a week.
● 09:25: – People are most motivated to learn and retain the information the best when they are in a position of needing to know something, and then put that knowledge to use shortly thereafter.
● 11:00: – We take for granted how incredible a resource YouTube is, providing all this education for free, but you have to wade through a lot of low-quality content and Learnedly is a curated, high-quality platform.
● 11:30: – Learnedly costs only $20 per month, in alignment with John’s belief that education is a right, not a privilege, and should be priced accordingly.
● 12:15: – John shares how he was introduced to the financial services world by taking a Securities course in order to learn how to be responsible with his own money.
● 17:00: – Some of Learnedly’s courses are approved for Continuing Education credits, and users can expect a true mobile experience with video that can stream on desktop, tablet, or phone, and can be downloaded for offline viewing.
● 19:03: – Everything on Learnedly is researched and written beforehand, and video content takes ten times the effort of merely writing when you have to prepare, film, and edit the videos.
● 20:55: – Learnedly has received positive feedback thus far and they plan to grow exponentially over the next six months.
● 23:09: – In addition to supporting your current work needs, Learnedly can be used to grow your skills and help you advance in your career.
● 28:10: – An advantage to Learnedly is that because their content is so modular, in 1-2 minute videos, if something changes in the industry, they only have to edit and replace small clips rather than entire courses.
● 29:13: – If John could change one thing in the industry, it would be the level of complacency.
● 31:50: – AI and automation are real things that will impact the industry in the future.
● 33:35: – The advisors who believe that automation will eliminate their jobs are usually the advisors who don’t often deal with people face-to-face and those who treat their jobs in a highly transactional way that could easily be replaced by a computer.
● 36:53: – The biggest challenge has been that Learnedly is a subscription service, so getting the content ready for launch and continuing to build the library was a big lift.
● 39:18: – John is most excited about filling the need for education among the financial services industry.
3 Key Points
1. Learnedly supports an attitude of lifelong learning.
2. Learnedly disrupts the traditional model of very expensive, outdated certification courses.
3. The future is not a choice between human labor and automation, but will inevitably be a hybrid.
Tweetable Quotes:
● “People learn more and they retain more when they need to know something. When they’re in that moment where they need to know, that’s when they are motivated to learn and when their retention is the greatest.” –John Waldron
● “One of the other big challenges is that regulations do change, taxes change, new tax incentives, credits, and other things change, but the industry textbooks don’t change nearly as often.” –John Waldron
Resources Mentioned:
● Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook
● LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn
● FintechImpact.co – Website for Fintech Impact
● https://www.learnedly.com/
● https://www.miraclemorning.com/