Guest: Theresa Francomacaro 

In this episode, I am chatting with Theresa Francomacaro, the owner of Why Story Works. She helps others who want to get unstuck, sell their ideas, clarify their message and attract more clients. Tune in to hear her three golden rules for storytelling and so much more. You will feel Theresa's energy in this episode! 

Listen to this episode below: 

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Connect with Theresa: LinkedIn

Enjoy the Episode Transcript below:   

Robin Sargent  I have here with me today, Theresa Francomacaro, and she is the founder of Why Story Works and she focuses specifically on instructional design story telling, but Theresa do you do a better job of introducing yourself and telling us who you are and what it is that you do?

Theresa Francomacaro  Absolutely. Thank you so much, Dr. Robin. And thank you for inviting...

Guest: Tamara Schroer, Vice President of Education & Development | Working Solutions

In this episode, I will be chatting with Tamara Schroer, the Vice President of Education and Development at Working Solutions and she is not you typical corporate executive. She is a born educator and putting her formal training and innate talents to work, helping Working Solutions to develop one of the world's most powerful and effective approaches to virtual corporate education. You will love the energy in this episode! 

Listen to this episode below: 

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Here's a little bit about Tamara: 

Tamara Schroer,  Vice President of Education and Development at Working Solutions, isn't your typical corporate executive. She's something better: a born educator. Armed with a degree in education and a passion for making a difference, she began her career helping the nonprofit Boys...

Guest: Samuel Apata, Senior eLearning Developer | Starbucks

In this episode, I will be chatting with Samuel Apata, currently a Senior eLearning Developer for Starbucks. He has over 8 years of experience developing and retaining talent for organizations like T-Mobile, American Airlines and GM Financial. Listen in to here us chat about accessibility! You'll want to know the accessibility minimums to  incorporate into course building, the guidelines you'll want to pay attention to on federal and state levels and finding the balance to not stifle your creativity! 

Listen to this episode below: 

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Here's a little bit about Samuel: 

Samuel Apata is a dedicated instructional designer with over 8 years of experience developing and retaining talent for organizations like T-Mobile, American Airlines, GM Financial, and currently Starbucks. He holds a graduate degree in...

Guest: David James, Chief Learning Officer 

In this episode of Become an IDOL, I’ll be chatting with David James, Chief Learning Officer at 360 Learning. David has a wealth of information about our industry and he shares tips for creating digital learning that makes an impact. 

Listen to this episode below:

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Let me tell you a little bit about David:

David is Chief Learning Officer at 360Learning (formerly at Looop) and has been a People Development professional for more than 20 years, most notably as Director of Talent, Learning & OD for The Walt Disney Company across Europe, the Middle East & Africa.

David is host of The Learning & Development Podcast, a prominent writer and a conference speaker on topics around modern and digital L&D.

Connect with David: LinkedIn  | Website | Twitter | Podcast

Enjoy the Episode...

Guest: Brian Harris, Chief of Design and Development

In this episode of Become an IDOL, I’ll be chatting with Brian Harris, Chief of Design and Development at Brilliant Educational Services, about his journey since enrolling in the eLearning Freelancer Bootcamp. Brian talks about how he leads conversations with his clients, manages pushback, and always keeps the needs of the learners first.

Listen to this episode below:

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Let me tell you a little bit about Brian:

Brian Harris is the Chief of Design and Development at Brilliant Educational Services. He develops E-learning and designs learning experiences that engage minds, motivate hearts, and get real, measurable results. He's someone that's been in the IDOL courses Academy. He's an alumni, but he's more than that...He's a business owner. He's an e-learning designer and developer extraordinaire, and he just has so much...

Guest: Ian Melchinger, Program Manager

In this episode of Become an IDOL, I’ll be chatting with Ian Melchinger, a former Lead Instructional Designer at IDOL Talent. Ian discusses his experience as an IDOL courses Academy member and his journey to become an IDOL.

Read on to find out what it's like to work with IDOL Talent, the importance of giving and receiving quality feedback, and creating goals for continuous improvement.

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Let me tell you a little bit about Ian.

Ian Melchinger has worked in instruction, media, and movies for over 20 years. He lives in Connecticut, keeps chickens and bees, and makes musical projects with friends. He joined IDOL courses in Cohort 10 and loves remote ID work. He quickly become a Lead Instructional Designer at IDOL Talent and has recently accepted a position as a Program Manager at Learn Quest! 

Connect with Ian: LinkedIn

Ian, will...

Guest: Ron Nakamoto, Training Service Chief

In this episode, I’m chatting with Ron Nakamoto, the Training Service Chief at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Academy. He is one of the most experienced people I've found in this field to talk to us about working as an Instructional Systems Specialist (ISS). He shares how to find these jobs, how to make yourself a competitive candidate, and why he thinks now is the best time to become an ISS.

If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to have a learning and development career in the US government, this is the episode for you!

Listen to this episode below:

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Let me tell you a little bit about Ron:

Ron Nakamoto is the Training Service Chief at the TSA Academy. He manages major training projects at TSA Academy, including development of new course material, courses, instructor development, and emerging technology. Prior to joining TSA,...

Guest: Laura Wilczek, eLearning Developer

In this episode, I'm chatting with Laura Wilczek, a former teacher who transitioned to a new career as an eLearning Developer for Hanover Research. While teaching during the pandemic she realized she had a unique set of skills and a passion for developing courses and training. 

 Laura shares great pointers for how she navigated the course, purposely applied what she was learning, and landed a new role in 2 months!  

Listen to this episode below:

Subscribe to Become an IDOL Podcast: Apple Podcast | Spotify | Google Podcast

Let me tell you a little bit about Laura:

Laura is a former teacher who successfully transitioned into the learning and development space after enrolling in IDOL courses Academy. She began her teaching career in 2009 and started developing a passion for creating virtual learning materials during the pandemic. Laura was a part of the 10th cohort of the Academy and is currently...

Guest: Talia Taylor, Instructional Designer

In this episode, I'll be chatting with Talia Taylor about her experience making the transition to corporate instructional design. 

• Talia works with clients to identify gaps in efficiency to effectively design solutions that enhance relationships between humans and the systems they use to perform work.
• She started her career with a tutor.
• She was working in sales in the past, and then she quit her job and hired a resume writer to make her portfolio.
• Her relationship to social networks has honed a unique style of communication marketable to companies and individuals interested in expanding their reach of services, products, or funds.
• Today, she manages the end-to-end lifecycle of training and presentations, including scheduling working sessions, designing PowerPoints, authoring Facilitators and Participant guides in content management systems, updating web-based training to align with standard operating procedures and train the...

Guest: Samuel Apata, Senior Instructional Designer

In this episode, I'll be chatting with Samuel Apata about learning management systems (LMS) and how you can add this tool to your skillset as a new instructional designer.

• Build and maintain trusting partnerships with the global project team and individual market partners for development.
• Manage and deploy online courses through the organization's LMS.
• Easily tracks learner progress and performance: LMSs allow the company to quickly generate training reports on an overall or user/student level basis.
• LMS can also handle things such as onboarding, compliance, and skills gap analysis.  
• In LMS, you can store your courses and can help you track your courses.
• Cloud-based LMS are scientific and are used by a large organization that has over 2000 employees.
• The learning management system concept emerged directly from e-Learning.
• There are two management systems 1) LMS and 2) LRS.
• Using an LMS to deliver eLearning, you can...