Learn It Live Blog

If you are trying to outshine your peers at work, then you need some essential skills that coaching expert, Jodi Glickman, can give you. Join us for this extremely informative business training class that will teach what you need to get ahead. It’s called Great on the Job and there are two dates you can attend: May 21 and May 23. Use these blog-exclusive promo codes to get 30% off: M4JAR6EX (May 21st session) and VQX6PYJG (May 23rd session)!

Don’t kill your career. Instead, learn some of these important aspects of being a go-getter and trend-setter at your work place.

Don’t Be a Yes Man

The mark of a great man is one who knows when to set aside the important things in order to accomplish the vital ones.

– Brandon Sanderson

You have to say no to 1,000 things to make sure you don’t get off track.

– Steve Jobs

We all want to promise our boss and co-workers the moon, but Jodi will explain how giving your all to everyone is actually the first way to mess up your business relationships. Although it seems counter-intuitive, there is a better strategy for showing that you are a mover and shaker at work, and it isn’t taking on so much that you start to do a shabby job on every project or presentation you put your hands on. Learn what to do instead of this knee-jerk reaction and make a truly good impression at work.

Do Be Transparent

When you are negotiating expectations at work, many people try to manage their work load without communicating to others what they have on their plate. They want to appear like a caped wonder-woman or super-man that can do it all. Although you can do a lot, you can’t do everything, and communicating your workload effectively and phrased using positive psychology will not only keep you sane, but prove to your peers and bosses that you are more than capable of handling success.

Propose a Solution

If your actions create a legacy that inspires others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, then, you are an excellent leader.

– Dolly Parton

Never say no, but do. When someone asks you to take on a project or help with a problem at work, the first thing you should say is “Great, let’s see how we can get this solved,” or “I know exactly what we need to do.” Then you can proceed to offer a solution – and it doesn’t necessarily have to mean that you will be the one working on the proposed project. If you are overwhelmed, you will need to find another solution – perhaps it’s outsourcing, maybe it’s changing course, or even finding another, creative way to approach the challenge. Even if you can’t do the work yourself, you can offer a positive, go-getter attitude that will make your work friends fall in love with you.

How Do I Make You Love Me?

Jodi has worked with hundreds of clients that want to make a great impression at the workplace. She will teach you how to make people love and trust you, and naturally want to promote you or give you other opportunities to grow in your chosen field. With some simple tools in your belt, offered in this great Learn It Live course, your boss will be swooning. Be passionate about what you do, and others will be passionate about you!

Sign up for Jodi’s class now to get the low down on how to shine bright. Remember, there are two dates you can attend: May 21 and May 23. And you can use these blog-exclusive promo codes to get 30% off: M4JAR6EX (May 21st session) and VQX6PYJG (May 23rd session)!

I’m Dr. Heidi Hanna, an expert instructor on LiL, and I’d like to challenge you to join us over the next 30 days to to create a consistent 10-minute brain-training routine to help balance your brain for optimal brainpower, including creativity, focus, and resilience.

The Brain Recharge not only quiets your busy stressed-out mind, it also directly allows you to feel good in your physical body in the present moment, which in turn raises your overall mood, and boosts positive endorphins – so that when you return your focus to the work at hand your overall stress is down and your health profile is raised up.

Remember … the underlying idea here is not to train harder, but to train smarter. Similar to a muscle, the brain needs to be used and exercised in order to keep up its conditioning. But also similar to a muscle, if you’re not strategic about how you train, you can find yourself constantly breaking down instead of building up. Below you will find descriptions of three levels of the brain recharge depending on your previous experience with relaxation training.

Beginner: Focus on your breath and trying to quiet your mind for 1 – 3 minutes. You may want to keep a pen and paper handy for thoughts that you feel you need to hold on to, so you can jot them down and then release them instead of trying to keep them in mind throughout the process. As you get more comfortable letting thoughts go, you can move away from note taking, but in this first phase it can be helpful as you learn to trust that the ideas will still be there when you need them.

Intermediate: Continue to pay attention to breathing and add a focus phrase that gives your mind something to concentrate on and instills a sense of relaxation. You may want to try saying to yourself “relax” when you exhale and “renew” as you inhale, as you work to train your brain to rebalance your entire system. Try not to rely on note taking, but keep pen and paper handy if it helps you relax. Dedicate three to five minutes to this training practice.

Advanced: Begin by focusing on your breath, move to a few rounds of using your focus phrase (relax, renew) and then add visualization as you recharge your brain and body. With each inhalation, visualize a calm energy coming into your body through your breath and the oxygen you breathe in to your lungs, and imagine that energy filling your head and calming your brain. As you begin to exhale, imagine that calm energy moving from the top of your head down to your feet, washing over each part of your body and flowing out the tip of your toes. With each breath in, focus on renewing your brain and body with this calm energy, and with each breath out, washing over your entire system with the energy, leaving you in a state of complete relaxation. You can do this for a short recharge break, or you may extend your practice to 10 to 20 minutes.

Training Plan: 1-20 minutes repeated 3 times a day, ideally before meals. Remember, learning to relax is hard work and ironically may be perceived as stressful to the brain as it’s a shift from the norm. Do not try to train too much too quickly, rather begin with short segments of time maintaining consistency, and as you create a routine you can extend your training segments and boost your return on investment.

Training Tools: Join us each month by participating in our SHARP Challenge, utilize the Brain Gym, the Brain Recharge Process eBook (available in the Brain Gym), as well as other applications to assist you. Also, join us on Learn It Live for our Monday Meditation Mixer (every Monday in May!). In most cases, all you truly need in order to build up a consistent practice is scheduled time and a willing mind.

More about Dr. Heidi Hanna: As a performance coach and keynote speaker, Heidi has trained thousands of individuals on practical ways to incorporate nutrition, exercise, and positive psychology strategies to improve their health, productivity, and performance. Her vast coaching experience and passionate coaching style help motivate individuals and teams to develop sustainable success at both a personal and professional level. Heidi is CEO and founder of SYNERGY, a coaching and consulting company that specializes in customized health and wellness solutions for individuals and organizations. In the Spring of 2011, Heidi authored her first book, SHARP: Simple strategies to boost your brainpower, and the follow up title, The SHARP Diet: Food for thought.

Learn It Live’s mission has always been to make expert instruction available to everyone, everywhere. The core of the Learn It Live team started our careers working on development projects in countries like Nepal, Honduras and Bolivia, and one of our primary goals for Learn It Live from the very beginning was to reach communities at the bottom of the pyramid where access to education is often appallingly scarce.

And that is why we have created Learn It Live Connects, our revolutionary new online program that will allow non-profit organizations and their at-need communities to access free online English classes - live, interactive, and in real time. Through a partnership with the amazing team at Teach the World Online, Learn It Live Connects will provide the English language expertise and curriculum for students of all backgrounds and learning levels.

Goal - Narrow the Global English Literacy Gap

The new online learning program is dedicated to narrowing the global English literacy gap through virtual classes. The program will connect top English teachers in the U.S. and Canada to at-need students in India and other countries via an interactive virtual classroom. Students can see and talk to the teacher, participate in activities, take quizzes, and chat in the room. We are providing up to 50,000 grants for the initial classes, and plan to extend access to another 500,000 groups after the initial launch. The English curriculum has already been extensively taught in the diverse communities of Haiti, Nepal, Cambodia, and Colombia, and can be adapted to fit the needs of any group. The classes can be accessed online from anywhere in the world with at least a dial-up Internet connection, and are taught by experienced, passionate volunteers who have a background in Education and language instruction.

How Does It Work?

Learn It Live Connects allows NGOs, social enterprises, and individuals engaged in global development projects to connect their communities with volunteer English instructors at no cost.

If you’re interested, you can get started in three easy steps:

1. Connect with an English Instructor:

Browse http://connects.learnitlive.com to find the right class. We currently have 6-week classes starting on May 14 (Mondays and Fridays) and May 15 (Tuesdays and Thursdays), and a children’s course starting on May 15 (Tuesdays and Thursdays).

2. Meet Live in a Virtual Classroom:

You’ll sign on to our easy-to-use online classroom, and meet your instructor LIVE and online for your session.

3. Watch the Recording After:

All sessions are recorded so you and your group can go back and re-watch after the fact. If someone misses a class, the recording remains available.

We hope that Learn It Live Connects can be a simple yet innovative solution to making English literacy available throughout the world on minimal resources. By connecting volunteers in the US and Canada to at-need groups in the developing world, we truly believe we’ve found a model that can scale to “teach the world.” This is the global classroom that we believe will be the future of education.

Interested in getting involved? 

Email us at connects@learnitlive.com for more information.

After months of busy planning and preparation, we’re thrilled to kick off our Eudaimonia (Health & Wellness) Symposium today! Here at Learn It Live, we’re all big fans of ancient Greek philosophy. One of our favorite concepts is the Aristotelian concept of eudaimona, the notion of true human flourishing and happiness (which Aristotle believed was every human’s greatest end or telos). That is why we have assembled a line-up of top experts, speakers, authors, doctors, and athletes that will be leading sessions designed to guide attendees toward a path of health and happiness.

The Eudaimonia Symposium will be held from February 20 - 26 and  will give interested students face-to-face access to interact with top experts in health, wellness, nutrition, and fitness, including Dr. Alejandro Junger (author of “CLEAN” and founder of The CLEAN Program), Brendan Brazier (Ironman Triathlete and founder of VEGA Foods), Andrea Beaman (author and TV healthy cooking host), John Perkins (author of “Confessions of an Economic Hitman”), Dr. Caldwell Essylstyn (featured doctor in the documentary “Forks Over Knives”), and over 40 more. Check out all the sessions and register in the ones that look interesting here. 

We should also mention that these sessions are all 100%, completely free, done with the aim of fostering a movement of greater health and happiness among people all over the world.

Some notable sessions include:

• February 20th at 6pm ET: Dr. Caldwell Essylstein, from the documentary “Forks Over Knives,” presents Make Yourself Heart Attack Proof
• February 20th at 9pm ET: Brendan Brazier, Ironman Triathlete and founder of Vega Foods, presents Plant-Based Performance Nutrition: How to unlock your mental and physical potential through food
• February 21st at 8pm ET: John Perkins, author of “Confessions of an Economic Hitman,” presents Shapeshifting into Health For You and the Planet
• February 23rd at 8pm ET: Andrea Beaman, Natural Foods TV Host, presents Enhance Your Energy Naturally
• February 23rd at 9pm ET: Dr. Alejandro Junger, author of “CLEAN” and founder of The CLEAN Program, presents The Importance of Detox in the World Today

We’ve built the Learn It Live platform to give people convenient access to learn from the best instructors, regardless of where those instructors are physically located. You can always view the upcoming classes at http://www.learnitlive.com/classes-events.html. We’re all really excited about the amazing range of classes being held this week in our Eudaimonia Symposium, so please, come join us! And tell your family and friends — some of these sessions have the true potential of providing life-changing information.

This is a guest post written by Leanne Hall, yoga and nutrition expert at Learn It Live. Check out her great online classes here.

Learn It Live with Me… In 2012 and Beyond 

Just before the New Year, I was contacted by an awesome company called Learn It Live. Learn It Live has created an incredible technology platform that allows, anyone with a computer, anywhere in the world, to learn from top experts and professionals in a variety of topics… LIVE. 

The more I have learned about this company, its initiatives and its vision for positive global transformation and evolution, the more I have fallen in love with it. 

I have had a dream for a long time of being able to offer online yoga and wellness videos. This dream has come true in an even better way because the classes are LIVE. We are able to interact, talk, discuss topics, answer questions, share, connect and feel the positive energy of one another in this awesome community as we all grow and evolve in positive ways. 

To sign up for any of the classes I am offering, or, to view recordings of classes I’ve already offered, is simple and free… simply click here to register. 

Also, Learn It Live is offering a wonderful and beneficial FREE online health and wellness symposium with leading experts the week of February 20th - 76th. To learn more about this awesome event, you can view the wellness symposium page here.

Namaste,

Leanne Hall

We launched Learn It Live in 2009 out of a fundamental mission to give more people access to better learning opportunities. In fact, the idea of Learn It Live came from our experiences living abroad in countries like Honduras, Nepal, India and Bolivia; not only did we see just how under-served these areas were in accessing quality education, but while we were living in these places, we also craved better access to a range of classes for ourselves (for example, not many yoga classes can be found in rural Honduras!). At the same time, with the proliferation of Internet and digital devices, we also saw first-hand that online access could be a viable education solution for the decades ahead. Not only were more and more people online and engaging with the newly connected world, but increasingly the entire global population was coming to understand and embrace just how valuable this connected world could be. 

Fast forward a couple of years and we’re proud to say that our mission is alive and strong. We’re currently running many online classes every day, in fields ranging from nutrition to business, and even to the online English and yoga classes that were our initial raison d’etre. Recently, we’ve also introduced online classes in some pretty interesting areas like cross-training and cooking! As someone who’s been along for the entire Learn It Live ride, it’s personally been a lot of fun and the entire team is thrilled to see so many positive experiences at the site.

As with any new website or technology, after our 2009 launch, we immediately started collecting feedback and tracking user experiences and metrics. We took many of your suggestions into account, and today we have some very useful features because of your feedback, including class reports, a referral/affiliate program, as well as live video streams available across all mobile devices (I personally enjoy attending the IMPACT Speakers Series from my iPhone).

Over this past weekend, we made our biggest release yet, launching the 2nd major version of the website. While there’s quite a bit cooking under the hood, I’d like to let our users know about a few of the most important changes:

• Color Scheme: We’ve opted to go for a more neutral color scheme that will allow our expert and class pictures to really shine and stand out. We wanted the core of the user experience to be directed at content (experts and their classes) and important actions (buttons). So, you’ll notice more color for instructor-created content and less for LIL.

• Class pages: You’ll also notice that class pages now have a slightly different layout. We tracked user clicks and are now placing even more of an emphasis on the most pertinent details: class name, start time, registration prompts, and the communication of whether or not the class is in the format of a LIVE class in the future or a recording that has past.

• Sign-up: Users can still sign up to the site by creating an account or by using their Facebook or Twitter log-ins (which we highly recommend!). However, now they’ll do this via a pop-up box that makes sure they stay on the page for which they’ve come to Learn It Live to access. The process has been streamlined.

• Managing classes: Instructors can now manage their classes via a Control Panel underneath each and every class widget.  You’ll find options to edit, delete, send a message to all enrolled in the class, and to view the class report (if at least 1 class session has ended).

• Invite system for instructor referrals: Our referral program allows instructors to invite existing clients and students to sign up. When these students sign up via the instructor’s invite link, the student becomes associated as their referral, and we take a significantly reduced platform commission for payments received from these students. The invite system has received a re-design which now more clearly indicates the invite process. To check it out for yourself (as an instructor), log in to your Learn It Live account, click “Account > My Referrals” and copy your invite link. Then, log out and enter the invite URL. You will see exactly how this process appears to your learners.

We all worked hard on this version, but we couldn’t have done it without the feedback and creativity of our incredible user base. So, above all, we ask you to keep it coming! What else do you want to see? What types of classes do you think would be valuable at the site? Do you have a unique strategy you think we should be exploring? Let us know! We want you all to drive the LIL platform as well.

Finally, I’d like to thank everyone on the product and tech team who has worked so hard on making the Learn It Live platform such a success. You know who you are. It’s a pleasure working with such a dedicated and hard-working team. 

As always, you can reach me anytime at sam (AT) learnitlive dot com.

Best,

Sam, Product Team

On Behalf of Learn It Live

This article was written by Bhumi Purohit, who is directing Learn It Live’s non-profit programs in India.

My first comprehensive glimpse into educational inequities in India was three years ago while working at an ashram school, Sardar Kendra Vidyalya, in Gujarat. The boarding school brings girls, many of them from families below the poverty line, from surrounding villages who wouldn’t otherwise get a chance to finish school beyond the elementary level. A visit to a few of their villages hinted at the causes of the inaccessibility to education: under-resourced villages without educational infrastructure, lack of qualified teachers in the area, undeveloped roads which were impassable during monsoon time, parents without the resources to educate their children – the list goes on. And these problems aren’t confined to rural parts of the country; many also apply to impoverished slums in urban areas where education is undervalued, impractical, or simply inaccessible. The inequities often persist through the different levels of education, with a decreasing access to high-quality teachers in underprivileged communities.

With multifaceted factors contributing to India’s literacy rate of only 74% in 2011, it is difficult to imagine a comprehensive, effective solution. At the policy level, various alternatives have been implemented and some of them have been relatively successful in parts of the country, but when the public sector can’t fulfill the short- or medium-term needs, in what ways can the service and private sectors come in?  And in the case of Learn It Live, in what ways can we contribute towards making education more accessible?

It turns out that non-profits and social enterprises are often the best situated to provide immediate solutions. In fact, UNESCO suggests that traditional NGOs and non-profit models can serve the gap-filling role in development, where they directly provide the service or provision that the government is unable or unwilling to. These organizations are successful because they’re able to provide adaptable, innovative, quick-to-market programs and services that work for the specific community, and that can set standards for the government to reach down the road. In this way, these groups can even be seen as acting as an entrepreneur and innovator in solving development challenges.

In India, these innovative teaching methods have included setting up technology where it wouldn’t exist otherwise. Organizations such as TARA have set up technology centers in rural India with computers and Internet access, in areas where electricity would usually be a problem. Recognizing that qualified teachers are often inaccessible in these villages, they are using a pre-designed software to teach basic literacy, among other subjects, to women and children. Other NGOs like Asha are recognizing the importance of computer literacy in India’s emerging markets and have set up computer literacy centers for kids living in Delhi’s slums. These organizations are using innovative, technological solutions to address the basic educational gap that exists in under-served areas of the country and are reaching people at the grassroots level.

And this is where a social enterprise like Learn It Live can come in.

Online learning has already started making waves in certain schooling systems in the United States as it “carries with it an unprecedented opportunity to transform the schooling system into a student-centric one… thereby allowing each student to realize her fullest potential.” Though online learning may be utilized at private institutions in countries like India, it can also add transformative value for parts of the country where technology has only recently started to be introduced. Indeed, with the influx of this technology, we believe online learning will play a key role in solving educational challenges in the development context.

As the Learn It Live team in Delhi has been seeing, many NGOs have set up technology in impoverished parts of India but still lack the resources to utilize it to its full potential to reach their educational goals. For instance, though a qualified Hindi teacher is easily available in a village, English teachers are sometimes impossible to find. Or, it may be plausible for an NGO to expand its gender rights training to a few states, but getting the message out to the entire country becomes taxing on its resources.

In situations like these where the technology is available but educational or training resources are limited, Learn It Live provides a huge value-add by facilitating online programs in subject areas that may be inaccessible locally. For example, using Learn It Live and a computer, the English teacher from an urban area or even another country can now teach an otherwise inaccessible village, all virtually. In this way, Learn it Live helps scale the work and reach of the NGOs by introducing new educational programs in communities that otherwise wouldn’t have access.  

We recognize that this is only part of the solution towards addressing the various causes of educational inaccessibility in countries like India, where the government, service, and private sectors must work together to address the myriad of problems preventing educational equity. As recent innovations have shown, the traditional, in-person schooling model isn’t the only option, nor always the most effective one (think the Khan Academy or Learn It Live itself).  And the online alternative — globally-connected, virtual learning – need not be limited to only North America or Europe.

Learn It Live, along with our partners, is committed to creating effective online learning programs in some of the most underserved parts of India and other countries, targeted at those at the bottom of the pyramid, to create access to education that wouldn’t be possible otherwise. This is an exciting project for us, and a mission we feel is urgently important. Please get in touch if you’d like to get involved.