Online learning rocks! Inside TCI’s epic weeks of home based coaching
How The Coaching Institute's online learning pivot is drawing a bigger, more engaged community than ever
In mid-March, The Coaching Institute held a face to face coaching weekend in Newcastle. Less than four weeks later that seems like ancient history. TCI's pivot to a 100 per cent online learning schedule of classes and events is so successful the business has "exploded", says founder Remi Pearson.
Reading the technology tea leaves before coronavirus hit meant TCI was able to jump immediately into online learning while other schools and universities struggled to mesh their vision with electronic reality.
Our Foundations of Coaching Success training are filling fast for the whole year. Pro Coach reached capacity on March 31—and that's just because we want to cater to more students with other needs. Our community (you—thanks!) is super engaged and busy.
"We made decisions along the way which empowered us and broadened our reach, in a staggeringly short period of time," Remi said on April 6 after a weekend when TCI smashed benchmarks.
Our two day virtual Unleash Your Coaching Potential summit hosted by head trainer Matt Lavars saw students "glued to their screens for eight hours a day—they stuck around for the whole weekend," says Elysium 'Glam' Nguyen, TCI's chief extraordinary officer.
And Remi's four hour online Emotional Intimacy class—done live from her beach house during self isolation—saw hundreds of students make around 2000 comments on Facebook, an amazing level of engagement.
A warning to those who loved what Remi taught about relationships: the groundbreaking Your Emotional Intimacy Breakthrough training in September already has just 60 spots available.
"What we're seeing is people are engaging with us because they're at home and they want to fill their time in amazing ways. The memes going around are all about how bored people are on Day 20 of quarantine but in our community, everyone wants to learn," says Glam.
"And it's phenomenal. We're creating more opportunities for people to learn, more live classes, livestreaming. We're adding in more courses, adding more videos.
"The community is more engaged with their learning than ever. People are really reconnecting."
Glam recalls one of the "wonderful" lines Remi shared talking about why #StrongerTogether—TCI's new purpose—is a mission for the times rather than just a hashtag.
"We love how people are showing up. At the end of this, we'll look back and be proud of who we are, proud of how we've contributed to the good in the world.
"We're fully living our values, from the internal team to the community and the coaches. Everyone is showing up."
Glam explains that the goal of TCI with online learning is to make the experience even better than it was for the last 14 years, with live classes and events.
"We're asking what are some of the unique tools and ways we can engage people. We had a head start because Remi as founder of the school had the foresight as to how online and virtual learning would be powerful for people to connect," she says.
That meant technology was front and centre in TCI's development: cameras, equipment, media studios. The team came together with creative ideas around how to make the experience epic and engaging, even when people are at home engaging in online learning.
"As a result of that, we're seeing now more and more people are stepping in and loving it. Our classes are growing bigger and bigger and we're connected to such a wonderful community," says Glam.
"People are really inspired to to invest this time into learning, growing and developing their mindset learning how to help people even more."
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