Episode 156

Building an Academy & the Role of Video

Want to build an academy for your educational video content?  

This episode of The Visual Lounge features Jaclyn Anku, Director of Community and Education at Gusto, and Elliott Morin, Creative Director at 3Motion Creative and Creative Founder of Jettison Creative. 

Jaclyn and Elliott explore their work together on Gusto Academy, how the project came about and why building an academy was the right move for them. 

Plus, they share tips on asking your superiors to back academy projects, deciding what content to feature and why, even on a small budget, academies can be super effective. 

A true masterclass in academy creation! 

Learning points from the episode include: 

  • 0:00 – Introduction 
  • 1:28 – Introducing the guests 
  • 2:51 – Let’s introduce Gusto 
  • 3:34 – Customer education at Gusto 
  • 4:55 – What Jaclyn has done at Gusto 
  • 7:52 – Why they started an academy 
  • 10:13 – Deciding on what content to create for an academy 
  • 15:38 – How to get investment on an academy 
  • 19:36 – Structuring your content 
  • 22:09 – How Elliott meets Jaclyn’s requirements 
  • 24:37 – Presenting skills 
  • 31:37 – Impact of bringing a community together for video production 
  • 34:52 – Updating and adding to your academy content 
  • 37:20 – Gusto’s docuseries partnership 
  • 39:10 – Jaclyn and Elliott’s speed round 
  • 45:06 – Elliott’s final take 
  • 45:40 – Jaclyn’s final take 
  • 45:58 – Outro 

Important links and mentions: 

About the Podcast

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The Visual Lounge
Discussions about the power of visuals and videos and how to make them even better.

About your host

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Matthew Pierce

Matthew Pierce, Learning & Video Ambassador from TechSmith Corporation, has created videos for learning and marketing for over a decade. He is the lead behind TechSmith Academy, a free platform teaching video and image creation for business, which has been used by tens of thousands of users. He is the host of The Visual Lounge Podcast from TechSmith, which streams live on Youtube and LinkedIn weekly. Matthew is a regular speaker at multiple learning and development-focused conferences and is a regular contributor to various training publications. Connect with him on LinkedIn.