How a LinkedIn Learning Course Is Made

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After almost two decades as a TV producer, I’m now in front of the camera as an expert on productivity and media. I’ve been creating LinkedIn Learning courses for the past few years, and this summer I got to go to the beautiful town of Carpinteria, California to shoot two new courses!

They are called Redefining Your Productivity in the Future of Work and Overcome the Productivity Perception Gap as a Manager.

Everything about the way we work is changing. And if you want to stay relevant, you need to stay productive. But what does productivity mean in today’s work environment? How can you communicate your value to leaders on your team? I get into all of this and more in these courses.

I wanted to give you a little sneak peek behind the scenes of what it’s like to shoot these courses in a studio and put them together.

Concept and script writing

First, we come up with the concept of what the course will be about. Then I work with a producer who helps me to shape my scripts to make sure that they’re exactly what the learners on LinkedIn Learning need to apply the information to their lives and their careers.

After we go back and forth on the scripts and finalize them, then it’s time to get in the studio and to record the video. This summer I traveled from New York City all the way to Carpinteria, California to the LinkedIn Learning studios.

The last time I went was about a year ago to film my other courses, and it was a pretty sleepy town at the time because we were still in the pandemic. And this time it was really vibrant. There were a lot of people around, and all the restaurants were open. I’m really glad that I got an opportunity to see it at its best in August!

Getting camera-ready

I was put in hair and makeup, which is a very nice luxury! For my first few courses, I shot at home during the pandemic with my husband, Jay. Everything that we did was just the two of us — setting up all the equipment, doing my hair and makeup, and making sure that all the shots looked really great. Check out how we did it and some video including me in hair rollers!

The remote LinkedIn Learning team was really supportive in making this all happen. But this was so much easier. I got to walk into a studio, get my hair and makeup done, and go right onto the set.

Prepping with a “mumble read”

Days before I got to the studio, I read through all of my scripts out loud. I made sure that it was very easy to say all the words and I didn’t get stuck on anything. That’s very important when you’re recording videos! Make sure they’re words that you actually use and that you feel comfortable with the content ahead of time.

Then, when I was in the studio, we did what’s called a “mumble read” before the cameras started rolling. This meant that I would just go through the motions of reading the whole script, which usually was about three minutes, to make sure that I knew what was coming.

I wanted to make sure that I’d seen the video and the script recently to make it stick in my brain. Once we did that, then I was ready to record.

If I messed up, we would stop and figure out where we could pick up the script. And then we continued on until we finished! I worked with some fantastic women in this process. We had an all-female crew, and we really rocked it.

Collaborating with the all-female crew

These are the wonderful women of LinkedIn Learning that I worked with:

Content Managers:

Senior Content Manager Alison Hankey and I collaborated on Overcome the Productivity Perception Gap as a Manager. We have been working together since 2019 and she’s the one who had the great idea to do my first course about how to be more productive when working remotely. We didn’t realize the pandemic would hit and everyone would be working from home! That course continues to do well. Check out Organizing your Remote Office for Maximum Productivity here. She and I collaborate to come up with new courses.

Same goes for Content Manager Amanda Ruud! She and I worked on Redefining Your Productivity in the Future of Work together. We did a lot of outlines and spreadsheets to get the content just perfect.

Producer:

Kelly Ruda: Kelly is based in Florida and we went over all the scripts together and produced the course. I wrote the scripts and we went over them together. Kelly would rework or rewrite scripts and we’d make sure they were just right. This process is very collaborative and I enjoyed it so much. I’m used to this kind of work in television and it’s one of my favorite parts.

On-site Producer:

Nicole Mangona: She made sure everything ran smoothly and got recorded. She loves lists too and was very organized and on her game. We became fast friends of course!

Remote Live Action Cameras and Media Support:

Joni DeLuccio: Lively and super efficient! Joni made the studio a fun place for sure. She operated the teleprompter and so much more! She’s also a photographer and took my new headshots for me.

Hair and Makeup:

Tomiko Taft: She helped me look and feel my best with amazing hair and makeup. We shared lots of fun stories of travel and food in the makeup chair.

Director:

Ash Blodgett: Ash is a super star director and always got me to bring my A game. I loved working with her and watching how she pulled the whole shoot together.

It was a fun and productive team!

I shared some more photos and stories about this amazing team on LinkedIn!

Birthday celebrations

I wasn’t going to mention that one of the shoot days was actually my birthday, because it just felt weird. But it ended up coming up naturally!

In one of the scripts, I talk about having some perks for employees, like giving them off on their birthday. After we finished the take, we started to talk about this concept, and people were really excited to chat about what they do on their birthdays. When they asked me, I said, well, actually, tomorrow is my birthday, so I’ll be here with you.

Typically, I take the day off, but it was the only scheduling time that worked, so we had to make it happen.

And these women were so amazing! They not only threw me a party in the studio, but we also went out for drinks. We had a special lunch together, and they really made me feel like part of the group.

It was truly one of my most memorable birthdays, and that is just a testament to the wonderful people at LinkedIn. I’m not just saying that because I produce videos with them! It was really an amazing environment and a great experience.

A supportive working environment

Breakfast and lunch are served to the staff every day on campus, and I have to say, the choices were pretty delicious. They had tofu scramble for breakfast, and then on my birthday, we had amazing gluten-free pancakes and bacon. Lunch was healthy and delicious too.

And everything just feels really civilized, which is not necessarily what I used to encounter in the TV news business. We were always in a rush! We were always trying to get things done in half the time. People hardly ate lunch and nobody took a break.

This is a different lifestyle, and it is so much nicer to work in this kind of environment. Everyone seems happy and like they enjoy coming to work. That was not always the case when I worked in TV news. This is a special team and it shows in the work we created. It was such a fun group, and I hope that I get to do it again.

I’m really excited about the courses we made together. And I can’t wait for you to check them out!

Check out the course here for free, and if you have any questions, leave them in the Q&A box on LinkedIn Learning.

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