The Visual Lounge
by TechSmith Corporation
Latest episode
Pressure Makes Diamonds
Pressure Makes Diamonds
About this podcast
Visuals and videos are powerful, but creating them can feel overwhelming. Yet they are essential to creating content that impacts understanding, helps improve communication, and can save you and the viewers time and money.
The Visual Lounge is a place where we talk about creating and using visuals and videos for all sorts of communication. Whether you’re creating a course to help your organization roll out new software, an educator learning to better communicate with
your students, or a marketer helping your customers see the impact of your product, our conversations will help see how visuals can impact your work.
Listen in as Matt Pierce, Learning & Video Ambassador, leads you through a variety of conversations with industry guests and experts. You’ll get practical advice and insights to help you to create better and more impactful images and videos.
Episodes
The newest 50 of 300 episodes
- Pressure Makes Diamonds · 13 min · Episode 301Drop us a message! We'd love to hear from you. What feels boring to you could be someone’s favorite moment. In this week’s episode, host Matt Pierce is joined by David…
- 10 Lessons About Video I Learned From 299 Episodes of The Visual Lounge · 32 min · Episode 300Drop us a message! We'd love to hear from you. 299 episodes. 10 lessons learned. Episode 300 shares them all! In this special milestone episode, our host Matt Pierce is going…
- Mastering Visual Storytelling for Enterprise L&D with Rance Greene · 33 min · Episode 299Drop us a message! We'd love to hear from you. Rance says most training happens in fairyland, where nothing ever goes wrong. This week is a revisit of one of our favorite…
- Learning Experience Design: Visuals, Immersion, and Practical Application with Mel Milloway · 26 min · Episode 29Drop us a message! We'd love to hear from you. Bad design gets noticed instantly. Good design fades into the background. In this episode, host Matt Pierce is joined by Melissa…
- Why Effective Learning Needs Conflict and Consequences with Moe Ash · 29 min · Episode 297Drop us a message! We'd love to hear from you. When it’s too utopian, people get bored. The best training doesn't hand you the right answer. It makes you sit with the…
- Why Customer Education Is Becoming the Customer Experience with Adam Avramescu · 47 min · Episode 296Drop us a message! We'd love to hear from you. Don't sacrifice your own taste. Content moves fast these days. Tools can write it, cut it, and localize it in seconds. But the…
- Stop Overexplaining: Storytelling Lessons from Robot Chicken with Mike Fasolo · 28 min · Episode 295Drop us a message! We'd love to hear from you. "The idea is the spark, but the story is what happens after the fire starts." It's easy to have an idea. It's much harder to turn…
- A Quick Video is Rarely Quick · 31 min · Episode 294Drop us a message! We'd love to hear from you. “Could you just make a quick video?” It's not always possible. Even the shortest videos can be time-consuming without the right…
- Why Most Workplace Learning Doesn't Work (And What To Do Instead) · 36 min · Episode 293Drop us a message! We'd love to hear from you. What is the difference between covering a topic and actually teaching it? The best L&D designers know the answer. In this revisited…
- What AI Can (and Can't) Do for Learning with Destery Hildenbrand · 25 min · Episode 292Drop us a message! We'd love to hear from you. Riding the wave when it comes to the advancements in AI comes down to understanding one key distinction - AI generates, humans…
- What Educators Can Learn from Filmmakers · 32 min · Episode 291Drop us a message! We'd love to hear from you. Is it time to move beyond the old pedagogical framework? Anybody over a certain age will conjure the same image with the phrase…
- Why Your Videos Aren’t Hooking People · 31 min · Episode 290Drop us a message! We'd love to hear from you. You don't need better gear, a better location, or a better idea. You need to get out of your own way. In this revisited episode…
- Building Educational Videos for YouTube That Work · 29 min · Episode 289Drop us a message! We'd love to hear from you. When you solve your own learning problems, you can accidentally build the resource everyone else was missing. In this episode, Matt…
- The Real Role of Instructional Designers After AI · 30 min · Episode 288Drop us a message! We'd love to hear from you. When content generation becomes fast and frictionless, do learning specialists need to be involved at all? In this episode, Matt…
- Why Video Still Feels Hard (and How Small Teams Make It Work) · 10 min · Episode 287Drop us a message! We'd love to hear from you. Most small teams want to do more video. The hard part is doing it every week, without the crew, the hours, or the budget to make it…
- Turn Zoom Recordings Into Training Videos That Work · 23 min · Episode 286Drop us a message! We'd love to hear from you. Most teams are sitting on a stack of Zoom recordings (webinars, customer trainings, all-hands sessions) that nobody ever turns into…
- From Order Taker to Strategic Partner with Tracie Cantu · 33 min · Episode 285Drop us a message! We'd love to hear from you. The business is your customer. The learner is your consumer. If you’ve been thinking about it the other way round, this episode…
- How to Tell Better Visual Stories (That Actually Connect) with Stuart Cohen · 30 min · Episode 284Drop us a message! We'd love to hear from you. What if the most powerful thing in your video has nothing to do with your camera, your software, or your budget? In this episode…
- From Med School to 350K+ Subscribers: Teaching That Actually Works · 39 min · Episode 283Drop us a message! We'd love to hear from you. Teaching isn’t the reward you get after you’ve learned something. For Taim Dawod, it’s been the learning method itself. In this…
- What the Global L&D Survey Reveals About the Future of Learning (with Donald Taylor) · 33 min · Episode 282Drop us a message! We'd love to hear from you. We’re in a pivotal moment for learning and development. But is the industry ready for what comes next? In this episode of The…
- How Project Managers Can Use Video to Save Time and Improve Communication · 25 min · Episode 281Drop us a message! We'd love to hear from you. What if video could shave 20 minutes off your leadership meetings and help your team come prepared with the right questions? In…
- Cognitive Science & Choosing the Right Media for Learning with Clark Quinn · 37 min · Episode 280Drop us a message! We'd love to hear from you. How can you use the cognitive properties of media for the best training and learning outcomes? Whether you’re in training, in…
- Why Facts Don’t Stick (And Stories Do): How to Make Training, Presentations, & Videos More Memorable · 33 min · Episode 279Drop us a message! We'd love to hear from you. What makes a story actually stick? And why do so many professionals get it wrong? In this episode, host Matt Pierce sits down with…
- How to Script Learning Videos That People Actually Watch · 26 min · Episode 278Drop us a message! We'd love to hear from you. Are you struggling to script engaging training videos? Or maybe viewers are getting confused, and you’re not quite sure how to hold…
- What People Really See When You’re on Camera · 30 min · Episode 277Drop us a message! We'd love to hear from you. When you’re on camera, people decide how much they trust you a lot faster than you realize. In this episode, we revisit a…
- What Research Says About AI Avatars in Learning · 23 min · Episode 276Drop us a message! We'd love to hear from you. Should AI avatars replace human presenters? In part two of this research series on The Visual Lounge, host Matt Pierce is joined…
- AI Voices: Impact on Learning · 28 min · Episode 275Drop us a message! We'd love to hear from you. How much does audio really affect learning? And does it matter whether that voice is human or AI? In this episode, Matt sits down…
- What SMEs Actually Need from Instructional Designers · 21 min · Episode 274Drop us a message! We'd love to hear from you. Have you ever struggled to get the information you need from a subject matter expert? Or maybe you're the expert (SME), and you're…
- Why Stories and Visuals Matter More Than Ever in Times of Change · 42 min · Episode 273Drop us a message! We'd love to hear from you. Change is emotional. Even when the strategy is solid, people still feel uncertain, skeptical, or overwhelmed, especially when the…
- End-of-Year Tips and Holiday Cheer from the TechSmith Team · 11 min · Episode 272Drop us a message! We'd love to hear from you. As the new year starts, it’s the perfect time to reflect (and look forward) on how we create and communicate learning content. In…
- Adapting to Change: Surviving the Rapid AI Transformation in the Workplace · 38 min · Episode 271Drop us a message! We'd love to hear from you. AI is reshaping learning and development faster than any of us expected. So how do we adapt? And what skills will matter most as…
- Pause. Rewind. Learn. More Effective Learning with Patti Shank · 5 min · Episode 270Drop us a message! We'd love to hear from you. Ever clicked play on a learning video that looks polished and professional, only to finish it and think, “Wait, what did I just…
- How to Choose the Right AI Video Tools Without Breaking the Bank · 30 min · Episode 269Drop us a message! We'd love to hear from you. Imagine logging in next month to find your bill for the AI tool you use has doubled, or that you've run out of credits halfway…
- From "Watch Bait" to Workflow: Leveraging AI Video for Success · 31 min · Episode 268Drop us a message! We'd love to hear from you. What happens when everyone can create AI videos with just a text prompt? We’re entering the “watch bait era” where AI-generated…
- Supercharging Your Presentation Speed: Tips and Tricks · 38 min · Episode 267Drop us a message! We'd love to hear from you. We've all sat through presentations that feel like a performance, polished, professional, but somehow disconnected. The speaker…
- Transform Courses Into Campaigns: Repurposing Learning Content for Lasting Impact · 33 min · Episode 266Drop us a message! We'd love to hear from you. What if your carefully crafted training course could become a content campaign that actually drives behavior change? Most L&D…
- One Approach to Designing Learning Videos That Avoid Cognitive Overload · 14 min · Episode 265Drop us a message! We'd love to hear from you. Have you ever watched a learning video and felt completely overwhelmed, even though the topic itself wasn't that complicated? That…
- Steal Ideas from Short-Form Video Creators for Learning · 21 min · Episode 264Drop us a message! We'd love to hear from you. Lo-fi and authentic works. Just look at the best short-form creators, they’ve figured out engagement. They know how to be…
- Getting to the Point: Video Best Practices from Techsmith’s Customer Education Manager · 50 min · Episode 263Drop us a message! We'd love to hear from you. We've all been there, clicking on an instructional video only to sit through minutes of backstory when all we wanted was the…
- Avoiding AI Slop: Best Practices from the Human Framework · 18 min · Episode 262Drop us a message! We'd love to hear from you. AI is transforming how we create content, but there’s also a growing problem: AI slop. It’s the flood of auto-generated videos…
- The Art and Frustration of AI Video · 37 min · Episode 261Drop us a message! We'd love to hear from you. What if pro-level video creation didn't require a film crew, expensive equipment, or weeks of production time? Imagine literally…
- GIFS & Videos for Effective Customer Learning · 29 min · Episode 260Drop us a message! We'd love to hear from you. Customer education is a must-have for a lot of businesses these days, especially software companies. But reading thick manuals and…
- Beyond Instructional Design: Building Agile, Business-Aligned L&D Functions · 32 min · Episode 259Drop us a message! We'd love to hear from you. What if we had to rebuild L&D from scratch? What could we do differently? There have been rumblings in the L&D world that roles are…
- Why Your Visuals Aren’t Working Anymore (And What to Do Instead) with Andy Crestodina on Video, AI, and Content That Connects · 32 min · Episode 258Drop us a message! We'd love to hear from you. The internet’s relationship with visuals and video has been a rocky ship over the past few years, constantly pivoting and evolving…
- How Visual Aids Make or Break Learning: Design, Simplicity, and Accessibility (Revisited) · 52 min · Episode 257Drop us a message! We'd love to hear from you. Need to create an e-learning presentation but don’t have an eye for good visuals? This episode is for you! We revisit a great past…
- Mastering Action First Learning: How to Boost Engagement and Outcomes · 32 min · Episode 256Drop us a message! We'd love to hear from you. It’s time to ditch the lectures. The secret to creating powerful learning content that people actually pay attention to and use in…
- Level Up Your Personal Brand: Consistency, Visuals, and Human Connection · 24 min · Episode 255Drop us a message! We'd love to hear from you. How do some people just seem to command attention the moment they walk into a room? They’ve nailed their personal brand. Dr. Dustin…
- Skip the Classroom: Rethinking Education and How Videos & Skills May Turn into College Credit · 14 min · Episode 254Drop us a message! We'd love to hear from you. What if all that time you spent learning Python on YouTube or mastering Photoshop through online tutorials could actually count…
- How to Ruin a Good Video and Other Mistakes We've All Made · 47 min · Episode 253Drop us a message! We'd love to hear from you. What makes you click away immediately from a video vs. stay glued to the screen? Maybe it’s overwhelming background music or cursor…
- The Evolving Role of L&D: Embracing Visuals, AI, and Workforce Participation · 32 min · Episode 252Drop us a message! We'd love to hear from you. Learning and development isn’t just up to the folks in the L&D department anymore. In this episode, we hear how modern workplace…
