Taking Your Learning to the Next Level: Announcing Premium Subscriptions

In recent episodes I've mentioned that we will be launching Premium Subscriptions of The People and Projects Podcast. Well, we have lift-off! In this cast I want to give you a brief overview of our vision for the Premium Subscription as well as tell you about a special offer that is available for a limited time.

So let's talk vision.... The best leaders I've had the opportunity to work with had at least this in common:

• They actively invest in their own personal development
• And they intentionally develop the people around them.

Yet there is this little problem of time and money.... Developing yourself and those around you takes time, and time is one of the few things even more scarce than money in many organizations today. Taking people out of their day-to-day for a 5-day workshop just isn't an option for many organizations.

And training isn't cheap. Yet not investing in yourself and your team isn't a sustainable option. What if you didn't have to send your people to training. Rather, the training came to you?

It doesn't cost you anything to recommend our podcast to those you work with. By listening to each episode during their commute time, while exercising, or any other time when they have an MP3 player available, you and your teams can be learning from some of the best minds in leadership and project management.

So, how does the Premium Subscription fit in? It takes the learning to the next level. Premium subscribers get access to the same audio that our free subscribers get each episode. But there's more.

First, it provides you with the materials to help you be the trainer. I've had the opportunity to work with tens of thousands of people from hundreds of companies. I love to pour into people, whether it's a keynote, workshop, or one-on-one coaching. Yet here's what I've found: there's enormous value in YOU training your people instead of me.

Now that might sound crazy coming from a guy who makes his living speaking, training, and coaching. But it's true. When you walk your team through principles and ideas to help them lead and deliver, there's something special that happens. Certainly there's the benefit of just putting on the teacher hat. You never know a topic like when you have to teach it to others. From a personal development perspective, you can great benefits from just preparing to facilitate a learning discussion with your team.

But there's more to it than that. When you lead a discussion on a topic with your teams, they get to see that you're working to develop them, which is a major employee satisfaction driver. They also get the benefit of seeing you investing in yourself--that you're not just living off of what you learned years ago.

Finally--and this is big--there's the implied accountability that comes from you leading the discussion. If you publicly discuss the topic with them, you're also saying "I'm going to work to put this into action as well." And as they see you put the learning into action, they're more likely to do so as well.

Along with the free audio, as a Premium Subscriber you will get access to materials to help you facilitate a discussion with your teams with minimal preparation. We provide you with background information, questions, links to related articles, and other materials to help you apply the learning yourself, and to make it easy for you to facilitate the learning with your team.

Beyond that, Premium Subscribers will occasionally get exclusive content that is not available for free subscribers. These episodes will include audio and sometimes video, all focused on helping you more succesfully lead your teams and deliver your projects. Throughout the year we often have drawings for free books and other resources, courtesy of the experts I interview. As a Premium Subscriber, you are automatically entered into the drawings, saving you time and effort.

And periodically I hold web discussions with Premium Subscribers on a topic that is related to leading teams and delivering projects. This exclusive access is included in your investment as a Premium Subscriber.

Finally I let Premium Subscribers know about upcoming interviews, inviting people to let me know if they want to join me on the phone when I interview experts. I think that would be pretty cool to have you on the phone with me live when the interview is going on!

So, the big picture vision is to go to the next level in developing you, and helping you go to the next level in developing those around you. You might be wondering how much this costs! So let me ask you, how much does training cost? If you were to attend one of my training sessions it could easily cost over a thousand dollars, depending on the topic and length of the session. Go to a conference out of town and you are easily talking many thousands of dollars, especially when you factor in training. If we were to have one coaching conversation on the phone, it would cost you $300.

But my goal is to make this a no-brainer from a cost perspective. We have two subscription options: a monthly and an annual subscription. As the name implies, the monthly subscription allows you pay month-by-month, getting full access to everything I've talked about. We set up an automatic recurring transaction so it's not a hassle for you. Your investment would be $9.97/month. For less than the cost of two lunches a month, you get access to all the learning.

Many leaders find it easier to just pay for an annual subscription. It's the same only it' one payment of $97 for the entire year. A benefit of this option is you get two months free compared to the monthly option.

And here's the special offer I mentioned before: through midnight 9/30/2010, you can get an additional two months free on an Annual Subscription by using a coupon code of FOUR-MONTHS-FREE. And by the way, this isn't just for this year. For as long as you are a Premium Subscriber your cost is locked in. It's my special thanks for having you as a Charter Premium Subscriber. Either way, a Premium Subscription is a great value for one of the best causes in leadership: to develop you and those you lead. Use this link (http://www.peopleandprojectspodcast.com/index.php/about/premium-subscriptions.html) to learn more and sign-up. Please don't hesitate to contact me at andy@i-leadonline.com with any questions. Thanks! Have a great week!

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