exclusively in the world of continuing medical education and continuing professional development, and I run a membership a professional development, professional development membership site and coaching programs and courses for medical writers who are looking to specialize in continuing medical education. And I also produce and host a podcast right medicine that supports CME and CPD. They call them professionals. Wow.
So continuing medical education. Can you just say a little bit more about what that is? Because I have an idea, but I suppose I could be wrong. And I want to make sure our listeners also understand when you say continuing medical education, what that isn't entailing.
Yeah, so it's pretty subterranean. Unless you're a health professional. It's unlikely that you're going to be very aware of this field is if you are a health professional, a physician, the nurse, the pharmacist, that's to actually and then you have to participate in various types of education and get education credits every year to maintain your licensure and you're making your certification to practice as a health professional. And so each each specialty Each discipline has its own requirements, but they are requirements and they are mandatory here in the US. Most states have mandatory requirements for continuing education for health professionals. And it's called lots of different things. It's called continued education for health professionals, continuing medical education, continuing professional development. There are nuances and differences, but I'm just going to see any when I refer to anything in this world, your listeners are going to know what I mean when I'm talking about that. Beautiful
and I appreciate you sharing more details about the continuing medical education or the CME it is so much easier to say CME so I appreciate the acronyms in our world. The learning and development and education there are sectors that many of us don't even know exist. And I so for anyone who's doing who may be interested in like making a transition from one role into another or one industry into another have a keen listen to the work that Alex is doing because maybe doing some CME work might just be the next place for you. So I appreciate this extra lens of learning about a new as you say sub terrarium area of where education and learning and development is taking place. So now that we know a bit more about you and the sector that you're in, tell us you know you can share projects that you've worked on and the lessons that have come through that or you can just jump right in with a high level of your lessons from 2023. But tell us as we're wrapping up one year and moving into the next what are those lessons that you've learned from this year?
Well, Elena, you know your your invitation to share on this exclusive podcast and suppose it is a podcast. A LinkedIn event was was actually timely. I had just started my own process of annual review, which I call reflect, review and redirect. And I do this with my professional development members as well. That membership site was called right CNE pro so I just started thinking about lessons learned. And I would say at the moment, the three biggest lessons for me have been the need to embrace quality over quantity, the power of learning by doing which of course is a key concept in the learning and professional development world and really taking small focused steps and I can share a little bit about each of those lessons if you want me just to kind of jump in here.
Yeah, I'm really curious about the quality over quantity. I know that you are a business owner and some of our listeners perhaps whether they own businesses, or they're very active in content creation. Perhaps quality over quantity isn't about your content that you produce, but as I hear it through my own lens of being a content creator and a business owner, I would love to know how you have learned about the quality over quantity. I think it's a debate in some cases over do we do a lot of content, do we do a lot of programs or do do do we do less and do them better and what you've taken away from that journey yourself?
Yeah, I'm definitely gearing towards the second side of that equation after after this year and you're right. Yes. I am a small business owner. I'm a solopreneur and have been a solopreneur for almost 20 years but really as a medical writer in the continuing medical education space but a year ago you know, I kind of redirected my business I really expanded my own learning and professional development so that I could support medical writers who are looking to specialize in this field, and I set a goal I also set a goal of growing my podcast right medicine, so in that expansion and redirection and growth goal, you know, I created a lot of content, as you say, as an educator, creator, and those that content included courses materials and assets for my membership coaching programs, blogs, I committed to a monthly blog, weekly podcast episodes and of course all the collateral assets that come to the podcast, show notes and transcripts and resources. And I also established YouTube channel you know, in retrospect, that was a lot and I think I probably went down that road because I didn't really know what was gonna stick. I was gonna fly. I had done some social listening and I had done some market research so I had an idea of what people were looking for. But I think I probably thought, at least in the very beginning that nobody knows who I am or where I am. I need to get a lot of content out there quickly. And that's what I did. I'd say, you know, there were pros and cons to that the advantage of doing all the things and creating, you know, such a range and volume of content was that I was able to generate and collect valuable engagement and interaction data listeners and readers. Viewers so you know, I have some pretty good data now. But the main thing I can circle back to that the main thing that I learned was, I tried to do too much too quickly. It was really challenging to maintain content, volume and frequency and there were a lot of times when I dropped the ball, or the content felt wasn't of the quality I really wanted it to be and there were lots of times I just felt overwhelmed too much too quickly. So I think in 2024 You know, I am going to err on the site of quality over quantity and, you know, sort of pulling the Pareto principle to really focus on you know, the 20% of content that really resonates and provides valuable volume value to podcast listeners. Readers and other people that are engaging with and interacting on social media and and to that effect, you know, I'll be taking I started pulling my monthly LinkedIn stats I'll be so I'll be taking a deeper dive into that data and know that I have that for a full year. As well as really kind of looking at my podcasts, stats, blog views, and YouTube views. And really using that data to develop a much more focused content plan and calendar that is really directed toward the top 20% of the highest quality and most impactful content that speaks to my ideal customer journey. I have to say that you know when I began this process of expanding and redirecting my business, I didn't really have a clear picture of what that customer journey was. I think I have a clearer picture of that.
I appreciate about what you've shared is that sometimes creating learning that we want to be impactful and then measurement. Sometimes it feels overwhelming around how do I get the data that I need to know if what we're doing is moving in the direction that we're looking for? Or what direction should we be moving in? And I appreciate that what you're essentially saying is that we put a bunch of stuff out into the world. And then we learn from that. And you know in the world of corporate learning and development, oftentimes our direction comes from the problems inside of organizations that we seek to solve through learning or mentoring or coaching. Sometimes, if we're creators or we're business owners, we may work inside and support learning and development, but we don't necessarily know what's going to work. So I hear you saying Take yourself permission to experiment and try things out and collect good data and do it such that you have the insights in the end to know what really worked and what didn't. And if we don't do the work to understand what worked and what didn't then we're still back at the beginning. Feeling overwhelmed because we don't know what we're doing or why. So I really appreciate the journey, right? You've you did a bunch of things and maybe you did experience overwhelmed but because you did that. Now you can be so much more focused and targeted with all of the great data that you're equipped with.
Yeah, 100% and thank you for shedding clarity on you know, that particular version of my my story. I think you're absolutely right. You know, we have to have a big believer. I'm a pragmatist like like John Dewey, a great storytelling guru. I do believe in taking baby steps and actually putting work out there into the world so that you can get the feedback that you need in order to move forward as she clearly described and I I know that you know one of the most powerful lessons in my life nevermind My business is exactly that you have to be moving. You have to take those steps otherwise, you're never really going to be able to create any shift or change in energy or changing direction.
We had a guest earlier on who talked about there's two ways to make an informed decision about what direction should we go in. One is trial and error. Maybe we don't have data or we don't have good data, or maybe we're new to a role and we just don't have enough context or historical information to know what direction to move in to solve problems. And so we choose trial and error that has pros and cons. It takes time and energy and we do error and we have to deal with the errors that come up. But then alternatively, if we don't have the time or the space or the permission to do the trial and error approach to then learn from that, we make hypotheses. And so I'm turning you now into your plan for 2024. But, you know, now you have data, you can make a hypothesis and test it because you've got enough of a context background to say, Okay, this is what I've learned from my trial and error. Or you can just go get data from your organization or your community and you can make a hypothesis around this is what I think is going to lead to the impact that I desire. So what is your hypothesis when it comes to you because you talked about learning by doing and quality over quantity? What's the hypothesis that you'll be testing out in 2024?
I'm a qualitative researcher, Elena, I don't do hypothesis. But to your point, yeah, I think the hypothesis is going to be the thing that I am going to be testing is if I focus on that top kind of 20% of content that looks as though it resonates and has value for followers and listeners and readers based on the data that I currently have. That that is going to get to my make a difference to my business overall in terms of attracting more clients and growing the podcast and you know, I guess maybe that's a weak hypothesis, but I think that's what I'm really wanting to kind of test out in in 2024. If I really narrow my focus there, will it shift the needle in terms of growing growing the podcast and growing the business? Yeah.
I appreciate the transparency around this. And it's a question for all of us listening, whether you're a business owner, or you work inside of an organization and a learning and development function. I believe what you're saying is there's this assumption that engagement is going to convert to change and then your case the change is clients and business and revenue. And then in internal spaces, engagement and learning content or courses. The assumption is that if people engage we're going to see a conversion or a change and I would love to follow up with you later in the year to see does it truly convert does engagement EDI to clients and I think what I love about what you're sharing is that you're admitting I have this assumption that the the highest amount of engagement is going to lead to the change that I really seek. But is that true or is it not true? And so for learning professionals, we track engagement it is of course one of our kitchen checks. We want to see people engaging in any of our product programs, products, coaching, etc. But does it really lead to the changes that we see inside of our organizations and communities? And so I would hope that we would all decide to test that in 2024 and see it is that assumption hold true, and why or why not?
super interesting. Yeah, and that's interesting framing as well because you know, in the world was CNE engagement is a metric but CME CPD professionals are also using commitment to change as a measure, you know, potential conversion and behavior change. And so, I'm not gonna ask that you're talking about that here. But I think you've got me thinking about maybe some other ways that I can think about what I'm doing here because you're right, it is an assumption that higher engagement has a two higher conversion and I'm gonna have to test that
yeah, and but this is this is why I love the world of measurement and evaluation and I am I would call myself a mixed methods researcher, I love the qualitative and the quantitative data together tells an incredibly powerful story and it reveals assumptions that we might have about our work and going into research. being thoughtful about those assumptions and testing. Are they right or not helps us to even be more impactful and to refine along the way more purposefully. So speaking of that, refining more purposefully, so you've already shared that you're going to focus more on quality, you're going to double down on that 20% of your content and test to see if that leads to more conversion. What are some other things you'll be focusing on in the new year?
I think the the second thing that I feel pretty strongly about is the power of learning by doing you know, one of the things that business gurus tell you, especially if you're a solopreneur, or a small business or you're calling yourself an entrepreneur, there are some a taxonomy issue, I think that we can unpack in another occasion, but one of the things that business gurus tell you is that the single biggest thing to accelerate your growth as a small business or as a solopreneur is to hire outside help for tasks that you can outsource and so I I jumped right into this and hired virtual assistants. Probably way back in last last October, mainly to or at least, primarily to help me build out my email newsletter engine. I use ConvertKit and connect the technical dots between the various software platforms that I was using or electing to use to support my business. I use circle for my membership sites Thinkific for courses, megaphone for my podcast, and kind of a whole bunch more, and we struggled to be honest, do I hired virtual assistants we struggled with we struggled with a number of things. You know, I think initially I imagined that the people I hired and I worked with three virtual assistants in about six months would know what they were doing, and would know how to help me that's what I was looking for. But after several months of miscommunication, and missteps, I took a step back from outsourcing to reevaluate and try and get some clarity on what it was I really needed, what my business needed and what processes or systems were going to be helpful. For, for what I was doing. So I realized that I'd started source before really understanding my ideal systems and processes needed to be ended up spending way too much money without really needing to by hiring too early. And I think, you know, my key takeaway here is that if I had taken some time at the outset, to figure out some of those systems and processes myself before delegating to someone else, I wouldn't have necessarily had as much miscommunication and as many missteps as I had. Now, of course, there's a cost to that figuring out process you need to spend time and energy and that can be really frustrating, especially when you're working with software but it that strategy paid off. After gaining some of that insight, I was able to readjust, hired a virtual assistant in the early summer who has just been fantastic because I have a clearer idea of what I need to do and the kind of support that I need. And when we're in a situation where there's lack of clarity, she's very good at saying, Here's what she needs. So, you know, in 2024, I'll definitely be continuing to apply a learning by doing approach for new sort of business components, essentially piloting. And with myself before I'm delegating, documenting the experiments and the baby steps that I'm going to be taking, then hiring help to execute things that I've already tested and clarified. That's been a very powerful lesson. For me, I think it especially in the learning and development world, that learning by doing piece can be really challenging because it because it can be frustrating. You need to do the work. And we don't always want to hear that.
Yeah. In a previous conversation earlier today. One of the recommendations was be in the shoes of the people that you're hiring, or your training to really understand the nuances of what is it like to do the work before we then develop, or its policies, procedures, or systems of support, and so, we also hear in the world of entrepreneurship, that when you're starting a business, you often start by doing everything yourself and such it just equips you then with the information and the systems and processes to pass off to somebody else. And for me when I reflect on that from the Learning and Development lens, it makes me call to question we bring in subject matter experts, and we ask our subject matter experts to be our primary source of information to then learn experience or something to support somebody in their performance. You know, in some ways I don't know that that's the right way. I think there's so much that gets missed and that truly if we're going to design a learning experience as the designer or the one accountable for that being effective, we almost need to sit next to and shadow the people who we will be training to make sure and validate that what we're doing is actually in highest level service of the problems and the environment and that somebody is in and and I think for you Alex, having done you know done the work yourself, you're setting somebody else up for success to be more effective because you sat you sat in that space before then hiring and
supporting them. Yeah, I think that's true. Like I definitely feel more better equipped to hire additional people and I've subsequently hired you know, a couple of other people who live in various aspects of my business. And so yeah, I definitely feel more prepared to to put it you know, perspective. Take perspective taking stepping into their shoes, honestly, you know, I think I wanted to miss to skip that step. I didn't want to, I didn't want to do the tech work. I really didn't. I didn't want to do the joining the dots. But I learned that if I want this to be a successful business, I have to have to be absolutely immersed in knowing every aspect of what the business needs. So that I can hire the right people. And so that as you say they are set up for success, otherwise there's just kind of frustration, frustration all around and also documenting those experiments. So one of the things that we've been working on is building out standard procedures so that we have we have at least some documentation on what we've been doing over the last six
months. Yeah. And I know that you say you're a solopreneur it sounds like you're sort of on your way to being more of a small business printer. But what you're sharing just reinforces what we hear a lot for learning and development professionals is that we have to understand the language of the business that we're supporting, and the different roles that are necessary to support that business being successful and the operations and all of the different nuances, many of us, you know, we only see what we can see. And sometimes we have to go out of our way even if it's frustrating or uncomfortable to be able to see from the perspective of the ownership, the stakeholders, those who are receiving our services or our products to make sure that our strategy is for learning education and courses that they're aligned with where we hope to take them. And that can be painful, because it can take us out of our comfort zones, but that context
is so important. So we have yeah I agree.
We have just a few minutes left and before I asked you our final question I wanted to ask Would anyone like to come up on stage and ask Alex a question to get more of her wisdom that could help you with something that you're working on or thinking through? Feel free to raise your hand and then I can bring you up on our audio stage and you can share your question. So I'll just pause for a moment and see if anybody would like to ask out the question and apply your wisdom to whatever you're working on. Okay, if you don't, because I always have questions, and I'm learning so much from just hearing you share your experience. So thank you, Alex. My question of course, I can't do anything without thinking through the lens of measurement and evaluation. How will you know that you're being effective? How will you know that you've improved your approach? What kinds of things are you going to look at or look to just to help ensure that in 2024 You're moving the needle in the direction that you hoped to go?
Yeah, that sort of that's obviously a great question and a question that I probably I'm starting to fidget and get a little bit, you know, uncomfortable in my seat, because this is the this is the crux. This is really what we want to be doing. When we're when we're measuring and tracking learning outcomes and other types of outcomes. I think, for me, the main thing is going to be fine. You can So I mentioned earlier, you know, focusing on that top 20% of high quality, impactful content, but then what we need to do with that is make sure that we can track the readers and listeners and viewers of that content, their journey into my sort of overall business flywheel. What happens when they watch the YouTube short, or they listen to a podcast episode or part of a podcast episode, or read a blog or some other content? So making sure the calls to action are very clear on all of those assets. And making sure that they're also attached to links and so on that we can track to make sure that we do look where they're going after they've they've watched or listened or read. So you know, we're using things like bit ly links and smart links to track movement. And we'll see on the other side of that to track the purchases, essentially that people are making and hopefully get more of a direct line from that from that content to purchase. But you know, and this goes back to the qualities of peace, Elena, and I know that we're at the bottom of the hour, I know that the client journey is not that straightforward. The learner journey is not that straightforward. There isn't a clear, necessarily a clear line. There's a lot of meandering, there's a lot of stuff and start. And so I'll be continuing to listen to people and talk to people and get their perspective on on their experience. It's not just the kind of quantitative metrics for the work that I'm doing.
Yeah. And what I appreciate, though, about all the systems that you're putting in place, is that in our world today, change is constant. We can't compete with change. We can only just accept it. And so what you're doing is you're setting yourself up to see how things unfold and finding new patterns and doing that with with the right data. And so, oh, of course I have to sleep quick. And I couldn't control it. I was like okay, I can get through the end of this about sneezing But alas, I couldn't. At any event, doing the work to have insights to just watch and you talked about social listening and I think we can do a lot more listening than we currently are. And that means setting us up. Okay. We can listen by tracking movement by collecting data on how people are engaging with your content or your learning experiences or your content or your knowledge base. And then looking at taking the time to zoom out and go what can we learn from how people are engaging with our content to help us make informed choices of how to improve whether your goal is revenue or your goal is performance improvement. But none of that is possible without the data to help you see what's going on. So yeah, that I applaud you for all the work that you've done and we'll continue to do because it will set you up for continued success.