Ten insider lessons from launching the Transformative Trainers Academy (and how they benefit you)

This started out as my regular recap of my annual project, which was to have been taking a deep dive into pre-colonial education.

But before I tell you how and why I detoured, let me tell you about my annual projects.

Being the learning junkie that I am, I practice all types of learning.  

I love learning from:

• books
• podcasts
• conferences
• annnnd my annual projects

For the last few years, I’ve created an annual experiment, if you wish.

Something that I challenge myself to do for an entire year.

In 2021, it was getting rid of clutter by ditching three things every day.

In 2022, I decided to make and send a gratitude card to a different person every week for a year. See how I came up with that idea, and the five-step process for how I made it happen here in part one.  And read about the first five things I learned from my first year of sending weekly gratitude cards.

I loved that challenge so much, I kept it up for 2023.  Yep, 104 weeks of gratitude.

2024 was the year to dive into anti-racism and DEI work. You can read about my year-long anti-racism project and how I failed miserably despite said year.

Which brings us to last year, 2025.

Pre-colonial education

For 2025, I’d decided to focus on what education was like before colonialism took over in many parts of the world.  I’ve dug into popular education, one such form, but decided I wanted to know a whole lot more.

What I hadn’t counted on was how much time, effort, and energy it would take to design and launch my Transformative Trainers Academy – my online membership for change makers and game changers who want to learn how to design and deliver workshops that wow.

Pretty soon, I realized every spare minute was being sucked (gladly) into the Transformative Trainers Academy launch.

And I realized I wouldn’t be able to give fair attention to my pre-colonial education project.

So I pivoted and considered my Transformative Trainers Academy launch my annual project.

I’m shifting the pre-colonial education annual project to this year, 2026.

In the meantime, it’s this time of year when I report back on my annual project.  So here goes. 

Here are ten things I learned from launching the Transformative Trainers Academy that can benefit you

Important Note: if you’re about to do a launch, great!  Keep reading.   If you have no intention of ever doing a launch, great!  Keep reading.  These lessons are transferable to most anything you’re trying to accomplish

1. Get time

• I realized I had me some kind of magical thinking going on.  The time I thought things were going to take was wildly out of whack with reality, given that I was doing something entirely new for me.
• Lesson learned: especially when learning something new, double the amount of time you think it’s going to take.

2. Get Organized

• There were so many moving parts to the launch.  I had lists upon lists upon lists.  I even had a list of my lists.
• I had a separate category in Trello (my project management tool) for my Virtual Assistants to help manage everything.
• Getting organized reduced the stress and overwhelm.
• Lesson learned: get organized and use tech tools to help you.

3. Get Insight

• It took me some time to figure out why I was finding the process so hard at times.
• Launching something is an entirely different skill set than my predominant skill set of Learning and Development
• Lesson learned: give yourself grace when learning something new.  It’s a brave thing to do.

4. Get Help

• When you’re trying something new, there are loads of folks who’ve almost certainly gone before you.
• Driving from Paris to our little village in France, I just happened to stumble on Mike Morrison’s Membership Academy.  I listened to 7 hours of his podcasts on that drive.  It was enlightening and illuminating.
• Lesson learned: go find folks who’ve done what you’re setting out to do.

5. Get Learning

• Just as there will be people who’ve done what you want to do, there will also be other resources to learn from.
• I found Jeff Walker’s Launch: How to Sell Almost Anything Online, Build a Business You Love, and Live the Life of Your Dreams, to be an incredible encyclopedia of learning.
• Lesson learned: do some research and find the best books, articles, podcasts, etc. to help you learn.

6. Get some fun

• It’s hard work doing something entirely new.  It can feel risky, vulnerable, and just plain hard.
• It doesn’t have to be that way all the time if you add some fun to the mix.  
• In my case, I added a fun audio clip to some of my materials explaining the Transformative Trainers Academy.
• Lesson learned: be deliberate, add some fun – a fun audio clip, reel, joke, image, GIF, video, etc.  The sky is the limit.

7. Get to celebrating

• We move through life so fast these days that a thing checked off the to-do list immediately leads to focusing on the next and the next and the next.
• We rarely stop to look back at how far we’ve come and to celebrate.
• In my case, once I launched, I promised myself that I’d buy these little statues from Benin that I’d been coveting (pictured above).
• Lesson learned: treat yourself for all your hard work and accomplishments.

8. Get your eyes and ears open

• While much of the work was planned, some of the biggest wins crept in because I kept my eyes and ears open.
• Keep an eye out for opportunities, and you never know what will drop in your lap!
• I had two wonderful opportunities come up because I happened to be in the right place at the right time.
• Lesson learned: work hard, be prepared, and watch for serendipity to land in your lap.  It doesn’t and shouldn’t have to be a hard slog all the time. 

9. Get to learning … some more

• I was getting my feet under me with the launch and then realized I had a bunch more tasks that I needed to learn how to do. 
• When you’re digging into a new adventure, as the path unfolds, learning something will 100% lead to the need for more learning.
• Lesson learned: launching (or ______ enter your project here)  is just the start.  Be prepared for more learning.

10. When it does feel hard, remember why

• Learning something big is hard.  Doing something entirely new, especially publicly, is even harder.
• I’m all about working with game changers and change makers to change the way the world learns.  Voilá – my why, my motivation, my inspiration.
• Lesson learned: When times get tough, remember why you’re doing what you’re doing.

Crunching through an entirely new learning journey takes grit and grace.  There’s so much reward, though, as you take those first steps, as you leap, and as you land.

Whatever new thing you’re endeavouring to hunker down and accomplish, borrow the lessons I learned from launching the Transformative Trainers Academy, and the journey may just be a little sweeter.

Now go on and learn, laugh, and lead

Learn

• Pick the lessons that speak to you and use them!

Laugh

• Do you pick the lessons, or do they pick you?  Check out this adorable video of dogs picking their own owners.

Lead

• Interested in learning how to design and deliver game-changing workshops?  Join our global Transformative Trainers Academy community.  We’re waiting for you.