3 Ways to Make Learning Memorable for Your Audience
Recently our little biz duo was talking about a podcast episode that rocked Hannah’s world. She was listening to Adam Grant’s “Rethinking” podcast with guest Charan Rangath on the Science of Memory.
And she didn’t want to be dramatic, but it altered her brain chemistry in the best way.
She shared one of her favorite quotes from the podcast guest, Charan Ranganath, said: “If you don’t have an imposter complex, you’re probably not working hard enough… If you don’t feel like you’re outside of your comfort zone, you’re probably not learning enough."
Once I read that I was immediately getting red flags thrown around like this TikTok guy. I had to have Hannah jump on a call to explain it to me. Because my brain said WOAH WOAH WOAH, let’s take a pause and unpack this because it is giving work-aholic, grind culture vibes.
(And we aren’t here for that)
And Hannah welcomed the questions and explained that it isn’t about working harder or grinding or hustling or over consumption of your learning.
It’s about realizing that your growth zone is OUTSIDE of your comfort zone. She said, “My most profound learning experiences are when I have felt extremely uncomfortable. In the moment it doesn't feel good at the time. But later I realized it was profound learning.”
OKAY Hannah, I understand now. I just needed a little debrief and I mean if you start talking about anyyything growth and I am nodding my head.
This reminds me about a story I heard about coral reefs a while ago.
The story goes that coral reefs in stagnant areas tend to die off quicker than those exposed to the moving water (think waves, wakes, shorelines etc.)
But, what this story FORGOT to fact check was that coral reefs exposed to high intensity moving water waves created high stress which made them just as susceptible to die off as the stagnant areas.
HELLO, life lesson. Thanks coral reefs.
When you are learning yourself (or teaching others–I’m looking at you service providers, coaches, membership leaders etc.) you need to make sure you aren’t teaching at a level too easy OR too high. You need to find what educators call the “Zone of Proximal Development.”
If you can allow me to geek out on what I learned in undergrad for approximately 1 more minute I will give you some tips to make sure you are hitting this zone for yourself and your clients/students!
The Zone of Proximal Development was coined by psychologist Lev Vygotsky. Basically he found that there is an optimal place where learning happens with a little bit of help from a teacher/instructor/coach. Think Goldilocks vibes, not too hard, not too easy, just right.
These are those skills that your client might now know yet, but you know they can.
Some examples I have learned with a coach in my adult life from a coach or teacher…
My best colors (from House of Colour Canton)
How to make my blogs more readable (from Natalie Davis)
How to count macros (from FasterWay)
How to start running again (and not injury myself) (From Expecting & Empowered)
How to use my brand guidelines to make new images (from Nicole Burdick)
You see. You are learning new things everyday. And in these examples I had a specific person helping me along the way. Sometimes that manifested in a self-paced course, 1-on-1 coaching, or through an app.
But, let’s be honest there have been plenty of times that learning something new has made me hit the QUIT button quickly. Here are some examples I gave up on because it was too hard for me…
Learning InDesign (I need a course/class/mentor to help me, it’s too overwhelming)
Facebook Ads (Again I need someone to hold my hand and teach my step by step and check my work)
Loading the dishwasher “right” (It’s too ambiguous and everytime it is a different configuration. I give up. I’ll just cook)
I hope that you are starting to realize that there truly is a sweet spot for learning and development.
And if you are someone who teaches your clients or students this is something that you have to have on your radar when developing, implementing and editing your content.
So, let’s get into it. From your educational nerds to your entrepreneurial hearts, here are a few tips to make sure you are hitting that sweet spot for your clients every time!
3 Ways to Make Learning Memorable for Your Audience
1️⃣ Development
Before you even start creating that signature program, course or membership you need to actually ask your potential students what they need. Research is needed!
⚪Market Research
Before you spend one minute developing your next offer you need to dive into market research. You might realize that the offer you were going to create was WAY over your audience’s head or even that it was too basic and they wouldn’t purchase it because they already know those things. You can do this by having a zoom focus group (ask a few of your favorite followers/clients to hop on a call and ask what they want) or maybe even a survey. Bonus tip, offer a freebie or even a gift card for participation.
⚪Pilot
In some instances it might be beneficial to offer a pilot of your offer to test it out. This could be a small group of people who would be willing to pay a smaller fee (or free) in exchange for their feedback on the content. You would take that feedback from your pilot and then make improvements before launching to a wider audience. This helps you make sure your content is hitting that sweet spot.
2️⃣ Implementation
Say it with me “My clients aren’t a crock pot, I cannot set it and forget it”. Your clients are more like a sourdough starter that you need to keep your eye on constantly.
Why?
If you aren’t watching their progress, their questions, their stumbling blocks how will you be able to help them succeed?
🟣Support
Do you remember school? Do you remember what you did if you were confused in class or needed to make sure you were doing things right? You raised that hand and asked your teacher right? Well, this might be a news flash…adults need that too!
It is important to provide opportunities for students to get assistance. Now, if you are in a program like 1-on-1 coaching or a membership with weekly calls, you probably have this on lock. Just make sure your students are using the support! If they aren't, maybe what you are offering isn’t ideal for them and try something else.
If you are working on something evergreen and you are thinking “wait, I don’t want that. That is why I did evergreen!” Unfortunately, that is a mentality of many course creators and probably attributes to the 5-15% online course completion rate. You might be able to utilize things like private Facebook Groups for Q&A, automated email sequences with progress check ins or course moderators to provide that in-time support for your students.
🟣Scaffolding
This is probably the newest thing you will hear from us today. As former teachers with over 20 years of experience in high school and adult education it is a word we hear basically everyday. It means you provide support and guidance as well as a sense of uniqueness to your learners. This helps you facilitate learning that builds confidence and promotes learner independence.
How do you do this in online learning environments?
This might manifest for a coach with an initial assessment of skill levels of a client that allows you to choose what part of your coaching pillars you will focus on with them.
(Remember: you are in charge. If they are proficient in pillars 1 & 2 of your 3 pillar system let me bypass those pillars with a review insead of a deep dive!)
3️⃣ Editing
One thing I bet a lot of us have on our back-burner biz list is to revamp or edit our content. Maybe it is our nurture sequences, courses or even masterclasses. But, life tends to get in the way. You think it’s not an “essential” task, just a “would be nice” if I had the time one.
I would be hard pressed to find an educator who believed that. Educators change their approaches yearly, monthly, daily and truly even in the moment often.
As someone who is educating someone it is your responsibility to edit, audit and change to fit the needs of your students.
🟢Monitor Progress
Throughout your content you should have mini assessments that gauge your student’s engagement levels, success levels and overall progress in their journey.
This can be as simple as a check of their percentage of content complete or a little more advanced with a curated quiz or project that will help you understand how they are grasping the material you provide.
🟢Feedback
Asking for help is a superpower and so is opening the door for feedback. Giving your students a chance to provide feedback continuously will help you iterate on your content often. This helps it be the best it can be in the moment. This might be like a regular google form evaluation you do after each live group coaching call or after each module of your course. It could also be more informal like a virtual comment box where they can optionally provide input when they see or experience something that needs improvement.
🟢Regular Reviews
This is where you find a date, put it on your calendar and commit to reviewing the feedback you have gotten and implementing changes. This is not a task, this is a project that requires thoughtful strategy to plan how to tackle this.
Remember how fast technology changes (I'm looking at your Instagram Algorithm 👀)? I bet the content for your coaching and courses changes about that fast too! To stay on the up and up you need to be regularly reviewing your content to make sure it is up to date with the current research and best practices!
This my friend has been a FULL blog with actionable things you can do to make sure that your educational content is meeting the needs of your learners. Because I know you care deeply about their success and what to serve them in the best possible ways.
If you ever feel like you need assistance in this area I have good news for you. One of our service pillars at Green and Growing is content audits. This means we can put on our teacher hats and help you find those areas of your content that are outside that sweet spot and help give you the tools to reel everything into that Zone of Proximal Development.
Check out how you can snag a FLASH Course Audit from the team to jump start your course editing.
