ProDio Audio Learning Inc.: Transforming Professional Development Through Innovative StoryStyle™ Audio Learning

Before Covid, the professional development industry was heavily focused on traditional learning methods, including in-person workshops and video-based courses. Despite the explosion of online learning tools and options, many still fall short in providing engagement, affordability, quality, convenience and flexibility required by busy professionals. 

This has created a growing demand for more effective and accessible learning solutions, highlighting the need to rethink how educational content is designed, delivered, and experienced in today’s fast-paced world.

ProDio Audio Learning is an industry innovator that is actively addressing this demand. ProDio is reshaping the professional development experience by integrating storytelling, acted scenarios, and audio media into a unique format. Their innovative approach, known as StoryStyle™, combines multiple forms of media to stimulate the imagination and enhance the learning process. This method not only offers a more engaging and flexible mobile learning alternative to traditional learning but also helps learners better retain and apply new information. With a focus on delivering high-quality, effective courses, ProDio has carved out a distinct place in the professional development sector.

Russell Cullingworth, the Co-Founder and CEO of ProDio, is one of the industry leaders driving this transformation. His vision for more accessible and engaging professional learning solutions stems from his own frustrations with the limitations of traditional video-based online courses. His commitment to delivering high-quality audio learning solutions has led to the development of ProDio’s unique approach, which continues to shape the future of professional education. His innovative mindset and dedication to improving the learning experience for busy professionals have been instrumental in the company's growth and success.

Immersive Learning Through Engaging Audio Experiences

ProDio’s StoryStyle™ audio learning incorporates nine forms of media, including narration, acted scenarios, stories, analogies, interviews, and other media experiences. These elements are designed to stimulate the imagination and help learners clearly visualize the successful application of their learning. This approach aids in making abstract or intricate concepts more relatable and memorable.

As listeners engage with the content, their brains create mental images, much like watching a movie in their minds. By eliminating distracting visual data, learners create their own imagery, and become co-creators of the content, actively using their imagination to bring characters, environment and details to life. That's how ProDio guarantees a unique experience for each learner, and that's why learners love and remember their learning.

This deep engagement activates critical areas of the brain that enhance long-term memory retention and comprehension. Research shows that exercising the brain's imaginative capacity also nurtures creativity and critical thinking. Moreover, learning involves more than just facts and figures; it also requires emotional engagement. StoryStyle™ learning not only teaches concepts but immerses learners in characters and real-life situations, sparking empathy and emotional intelligence. The emotional connection to the story improves memory retention and increases the likelihood of applying learned concepts in real-life situations.

In addition, StoryStyle™ audio learning is faster and less expensive to produce and update, and it is also the only truly mobile way to learn.

Revolutionizing Professional Development with Audio Learning

Russell is the CEO of ProDio Audio Learning Inc. Along with his wife and co-founder Christine Cullingworth, who serves as Head of Production, they established ProDio with the goal of making professional development more engaging, flexible, and accessible. The company utilizes storytelling, acted scenarios, interviews, and audio media to enhance the learning experience. The name ProDio is a blend of "professional development" and "audio," and it also derives from the Latin word meaning "advance" or "move forward," aligning perfectly with the concept of progressive learning.

The idea for ProDio originated in 2016 when Russell owned a company focused on teaching Emotional Intelligence through in-person workshops. Seeking to increase leads, he enrolled in an online marketing course. However, he soon became frustrated with the experience, finding it monotonous and uninspiring. He was stuck at his computer during the summer, unable to work outside due to poor screen visibility. At the time, Russell was considering creating online courses on Emotional Intelligence for his own business but was dissatisfied with the typical online video-based learning approach.

One evening, while Russell and Christine were preparing dinner, Russell shared his thoughts: "You know, most of this course I could just listen to. I don’t need to sit here staring at this guy talking to me, showing boring slides. What if we could just make audio courses so people could listen while they’re in the car, on the train, or even while working out? I pictured the millions of professionals sitting in traffic, tired of listening to the radio and not gaining much from podcasts." This sparked the realization that learning need not be confined to a screen—it could be integrated into people's lives more seamlessly. That moment marked the inception of ProDio.

The company saw strong early growth, forging partnerships with numerous professional associations that offered ProDio’s courses to their members for Continuing Professional Development (CPD) or Continuing Professional Education (CPE). These partnerships helped fuel ProDio’s expansion. However, in 2021, the company began feeling the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the learning industry. Between 2021 and 2023, many associations transitioned their in-person programs to online formats, directly competing with ProDio’s offerings, and some cancelled their agreements. Acquiring new clients became increasingly difficult, and the company faced financial strain. Despite these challenges, ProDio persevered by cutting expenses and avoiding financial risks.

In 2024, ProDio began exploring the science behind listening and imagination, uncovering the significant benefits these practices offer for learning and brain health.

Building Credibility in Professional Learning

After seven years, ProDio continues to address a significant challenge: convincing the adult learning community of the value and effectiveness of the importance and validity of listening and imagination in professional development. The traditional education model, which focuses on "sitting still and watching the teacher," has persisted into adult and professional learning, both in-person and online. 

During COVID-19, the learning population began to recognize that learning can occur even while engaging in other tasks, such as attending sessions with cameras off, driving, or doing household chores.  Russell calls this “the age of distracted learning.”

ProDio’s success in building trust and credibility includes an agreement with LinkedIn Learning to host five of its courses, which now have over 60,000 learners. Additionally, ProDio has strengthened its partnerships with professional associations through revenue-sharing relationships. The creation of a free ethics course in collaboration with the International Federation of Accountants, the global governing body for accountants, further bolstered the company’s credibility.

ProDio has successfully met the strictest accreditation standards in Canada, the USA, the UK, and South Africa. In the USA, ProDio was previously accredited by the NASBA Registry of CPE Providers for CPAs, one of the toughest standards to achieve. However, the company decided not to maintain this accreditation due to associated costs.

ProDio follows a clearly defined process to ensure that learning outcomes are consistently represented in the content, stories, scenarios, and interviews, and are repeated multiple times. Additionally, there is a structured approach to link learning outcomes to quiz questions and handout packages. Each course also includes an optional user evaluation that meets the requirements set by accreditation bodies.

The Benefits of Truly Mobile Learning through Audio Courses

Professionals appreciate the convenience of what is referred to as #trulymobile learning. Listening to audio is the only truly mobile way to learn, as it allows individuals to engage with content while remaining hands-free and without needing to look at a screen. Unlike visual-based learning, where safety can be compromised when walking across a room, StoryStyle™ audio provides the flexibility to listen even with a locked phone, whether it’s in a purse or pocket.

User feedback highlights the value of this approach. One participant stated, "This was honestly the best PD course I've taken with CPA. The format was excellent – it was so nice to be able to listen to the course while cooking dinner or driving in the car, and the app made it all seamless. Also, the presenters were fantastic – kept it really interesting, and I really enjoyed the content."

Another user shared, "This may well have been the best course of any kind that I have taken because: 1) Everything flowed: click on Chap 1, module 1, and when I completed it, the module was checked and moved onto the next. 2) The time the information on the paper material was displayed on the material. 3) There were takeaways, quotes, wisdom points, and other people involved. Thank you very much."

A further comment read, "I was shocked by how much new information I got out of the time. It was very educative and well thought out with properly laid out references. Such a wonderful course!"

Another participant noted, "Course material was interesting and informative. I would like to hear even more real-life scenarios because they help to reinforce concepts. This course will help me and my organization."

Lastly, a user remarked, "This is a great course. It covers a broad variety of topics, all relevant to current business environments. It also has many real-world examples and scenarios and provides terrific guidance on how to approach these situations. To top it off, there are interviews with individuals in business – I found these particularly insightful. Thank you for putting this course/material together so well."

Gaining a Competitive Edge with Engaging Learning Solutions

Maintaining a competitive edge in the learning market is difficult, especially as large companies continue to capture large portions of the market. ProDio’s competitive advantage lies in two key areas:

1) Focusing on a niche of clients who require effective, high-quality learning for their busy professionals, and 2) leveraging seven years of experience in transforming typically dull content, such as compliance, ethics, and safety, into engaging and memorable learning. This learning is not only flexible, truly mobile, and aligned with desired learning outcomes, but it also offers developmental benefits for the learner’s brain. ProDio is the only company that can make this claim with its StoryStyle™ audio learning.

Partnering with Experts for Accurate Content

The team at ProDio does not claim expertise in every topic required by clients. Instead, they collaborate with subject matter experts to assist with storytelling and to ensure that the stories, scenarios, and analogies used are accurate and reflective of the target audience’s experiences or potential future needs and situations. ProDio often involves multiple experts in each course to provide a wide range of opinions and perspectives.

Prioritizing Effective and Simple Learning Solutions

ProDio’s approach is driven by the specific needs and requests of its clients, with a primary focus on creating custom learning and onboarding content for companies and professional associations. The company prioritizes delivering an effective learning experience for the learner. ProDio has observed that much money is often spent on technology features and gamification, which professionals typically find distracting. Instead of relying on badges or stars to motivate course completion, the focus remains on providing engaging, relevant, and high-quality content.

While there are plans to integrate new technologies, these will be introduced gradually and with careful consideration, as such features often lead to additional problems and frustrations for learners. The goal is to maintain simplicity in the learning experience.

Overcoming Industry Challenges and Defining a Unique Approach

Russell's first piece of advice is light-hearted but carries weight: "Don’t even think about competing with ProDio." While joking, he acknowledges that the company has been in the industry for nearly eight years, making it difficult for others to catch up.

He also points out that the learning industry is generally resistant to change. The current trend in the industry is the use of AI avatar teachers, which simply deliver the traditional "sit and watch the teacher" model through an avatar. Russell finds this approach regressive and believes that the industry is investing heavily in it, with many entrepreneurs profiting from the trend.

Lastly, Russell advises innovators to understand the true meaning of an "out-of-the-box" idea. He learned this lesson when attempting to connect with clients, as they often did not have a category for StoryStyle™ audio learning. ProDio has been categorized under "online learning," "podcasts," and even "audio webinars" (recorded live webinars). Russell compares this to taking a Michelin-star meal and classifying it as "restaurant food." This misclassification made it difficult to clearly define ProDio’s branding and value proposition, and he notes that establishing a new category in the industry requires significant effort.

ProDio provides detailed information about StoryStyle™ learning on their webpage, which includes sound samples.

Additionally, research articles related to imaginative learning.