For seven years, I’ve been inspired by and passionate about the adult learning landscape. When I first joined Nationwide Insurance, I remember thinking I wanted to make a difference, but I didn’t know how—I only knew I cared. I was fortunate to have a wonderful manager as I began my career here, and one day she witnessed me helping a peer with a complex system issue. She was impressed, and soon afterward moved me into the role of subject matter expert.

As a SME, I was delivering one-on-one coaching and training for our newly hired associates in addition to answering complex questions from the business unit. My role as a SME had positioned me to be able to transition naturally into the role of facilitation. I will never forget the day my manager asked me to facilitate my first class. I was great one-on-one; however, I had a deep-seated fear of public speaking. I’m talking sweating, fight-or-flight, hyperventilation fear of speaking in front of groups. My manager asked me a question that to this day I will not forget: “Is your fear of speaking in front of the group stronger than your passion to help others learn?” I smiled and said I would try.

The first 40 minutes I stood up in front of that first class were the hardest of my life. I remember thinking, as I pushed through the content, I could leave—I could just walk right out of this room and never look back. It wasn’t worth it. Then I looked up at the faces of my learners, and they were leaning in, listening to what I said, and I saw it: the lightbulb moment.

Anyone who has facilitated a session knows the moment I mean. Many of us live for that moment; it’s the moment the learner is learning, and you are the reason for the new knowledge.

The first time I experienced the lightbulb moment as an instructor was significant for me in a different way—it was also the moment I stopped focusing on my flight response and began to focus on my learners. Facilitation has given me many things—the foremost is overcoming my fear of public speaking. I spent the next five years of my career at Nationwide as a facilitator with different types of learners, content, and media.

Though I spent most of my time in training delivery, I had the opportunity during three years to expand my learning and performance knowledge into program management, analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation (the ADDIE approach). I moved into a smaller department, which supported 600 learners—and our small team of five was a one-stop shop. For me, this brought the world of learning and performance into a new perspective, a new appreciation for the impact of what our roles do on a day-to-day basis. I was able to see the full cycle. More importantly, this is when my attitude changed from “This is something I’m pretty good at” to “This is my differentiating factor.” I realized I had a unique skill set: I had the ability to look at the learning environment in a holistic way, pivot between roles, and ensure key decisions showed an awareness of both upstream and downstream impact.

This was also the point in my career when I realized that learning technology is where my passion resides. With utilization of technology exponentially increasing, I realized the ability to partner technical expertise with the knowledge I had on the value chain would be a hot commodity in the near future. I discussed the possibilities with my mentor, and she encouraged me to seek and obtain the CPLP.

I would love to say I jumped right into it, but that would be a big fib! I looked into it, put it back on the shelf, looked at it again—and about two years later, after I moved onto a new role at my company, I finally got serious.

What reignited this desire was my new role. I transitioned from a smaller training design and development team to the enterprise team, with core responsibilities in learning technology (finally, complete focus on my passion!). In meetings with this new group of individuals, I realized they didn’t recognize my background and holistic understanding of the learning landscape.

Obtaining this certification would position me as an expert my current role and help prepare me for future opportunities. I began preparing in November of 2016 and completed the second exam on June 30, 2017. I was dedicated to completing this within a short time, and planned my entire study schedule from the beginning. All said and done, the total time spent studying for the two exams was about 130 hours.

Some tips I found along the way: Take the practice exam first, halfway through, and again after you have read all the material. This was my guide to what I needed to study more, and what I needed to study less. Pace yourself, and plan breaks—make sure to take at least two weeks off after you pass the first exam. And lastly, for the second exam, practice the technique of completing a multiple response exam. My focus for the second exam was training delivery, but I completed all three practice exams to understand the nuances of this type of exam.

Adding the credential “CPLP” to the end of my signature was a big moment for me; it was a moment I could pause to see how far I’ve come, reflect on all those who I have helped learn and grow since, and get excited about how many learners I can inspire with a lightbulb moment in the future.