LeaderJam reviews

Before reading the points below, let me first say that I think the platform is quite developed, but it could be modernized. Just a few changes to modernize it would bring it up to speed with the rest of the marketplace, and perhaps even outpace your competitors.

I hope that the product creator won't be too upset to read my review...
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1. Trainer's Profile Page

I subscribed to this product to support it, and to explore its features. For me, getting people to see the profile and the courses is most important to me. That's because when a non-client searches for me at Google, I'll send them to my profile page.

Leaderjam's profile pages are in this format of a URL: https://app.leaderjam.com/xyz (where "xyz" is your profile). Of course, you can put in a CNAME and get it on your own URL e.g. a subdomain, and that's OK.

The problem is when someone tries to visit the URL and is asked to sign up for Leaderjam. I found that the profile URL does not show my profile unless I'm logged in. For that reason, Google will also not be seeing my profile unless Google is logged in ... and there is no chance that Google will be logged in. So my profile will not be indexed by Google. All the visitors of my profile page at https://app.leaderjam.com/xyz will not be able to see my courses unless they sign up for Leaderjam.

For example, here is some URL I found from some SEO checking:
1. https://app.leaderjam.com/lee-grigsby/
2. https://app.leaderjam.com/rolande-s-sumner/
3. https://app.leaderjam.com/global-risk-alliance/

Let's say the user signs up... it's a 4 step process. (1) Enter name, password, email, and profile photo. (2) Enter company name, set a custom URL, and enter a company photo; (3) Choose the plan that suits you (including a 14 day trial); and (4) Enter your card details.

So, the chances of someone signing up for my courses would be quite poor. Because they won't be able to view my profile and my courses unless they sign up with Leaderjam. And if they want to sign up for an account ... well, they have to subscribe to Leaderjam.

Maybe I have it wrong, maybe I'm mistaken. I hope that I'm mistaken, and I'll be glad to correct this if it's possible. Or, better yet, the team could make some changes so that the profile pages could be viewed without logging in. :-)

Here is my profile page: https://app.leaderjam.com/advocate/

2. Course Page

I found I couldn't view my test course (published) if I wasn't logged in. Same comments as the section above will apply ... Here is my test course: https://app.leaderjam.com/advocate/courses/178/details

3. The AI hub is great!

From the AI hub, you can get it to create an outline for a course. Then, moving forward, you can get it to create the course page, which you will then edit and fill it up with your own content.

4. Many content types supported!

I like the fact that you can have many content types to be added into your library, and then drop them into the lesson as needed. The recognised content types are video, audio, PDF, image, PPT, document, Excel sheet, and article.

5. Live Events Pages

Fortunately, live event pages can be browsed. Here is one example : https://app.leaderjam.com/advocate/events/80/details

Unfortunately, visitors need to sign up for a Leaderjam account to sign up for the live events. Which means that after seeing the event's details, the visitors will have to sign up for a Leaderjam account.

6. There is no free account (that I could find).

I couldn't register a free account for students and attendees. Perhaps I am mistaken, so please tell me how students and attendees can enrol in my courses without creating a paid account with Leaderjam.

7. Creating a course isn't difficult.

Once you're over the basic hurdle, creating a course isn't difficult. It's just that I couldn't wrap my head around the viewing of courses, signing up for an account, etc.

8. Classification system could be enhanced

For this to be a course creation platform that caters to all sorts of course creators, the "classification system" needs to be more flexible. I noticed that the LeaderJam system has 5 main expertise listed (Customer experience; IT & software; Leadership development; Organizational health; Sales performance). Under each expertise there is about 20 sub-expertise topics, e.g. Leadership development would have Leadership; Presence; Innovation; Decision Making; Networking; etc.

I'm sure that this has worked for many years, but I do wonder what would happen if someone wanted to teach a course like, "How to bake cookies" or "The art of collecting rare antiques". They would need to find a sub-expertise within that list...

That's all from me, I hope that I can continue to use the product, and I will change my review if I find the solutions.

Lastly: Thank you for all the effort made by the Leaderjam and Appsumo teams to bring us this deal. Thanks again!

I want to like this so badly. I've been looking for a GOOD tool to help build courses. So far, Leader Jam is missing the mark.

AI does not help write the courses based on my input - a very structured outline. Anything content that I want to include has to first be uploaded - it can't be done while developing the course.

You can't preview the course as it's being developed. Yes, you can see the structure. But, you can't see the content in Preview. And, when I looked at the pre-loaded course demos they aren't functioning - even after registering.

If you have your entire course written, including all the assets and descriptions, this is a great product. If you're building it as you go, it is painful.

I'm a leadership coach, and LeaderJam makes connecting with my clients seamless and efficient. From Zoom to transacting business, it's a snap. Give it a try. You'll be happy you did!

I've spent the morning going through LeaderJam in detail. The interface is confusing in places, has overlapping functionality, and it can be tricky to find what you want. It's well worth the time to explore, however. It seems to be a real diamond in the rough. I'm glad to get in on the ground floor, because once it's polished, I can't imagine they'll do another lifetime deal.

This is a very comprehensive tool for running a coaching/training firm I've seen, with unique features that I haven't found anywhere else.

You can manage an entire practice here: taking 1-on-1 coaching clients, running group workshops, producing multi-presenter events, or having broadcast webinar-type events. Zoom is built-in so the quality is excellent.

The system can handle payments from clients by connecting it to a Stripe account. You can schedule events that have a set time (webinars, events, workshops) in advance. They show up on your landing page as upcoming programs. There's also a built-in calendar scheduler for things like coaching sessions that are scheduled at the behest of your clients.

You can use this as a single-user system, but you also have the capability to add instructors, so you can smoothly scale from a solo business to having "under trainers" who deliver your material. While I don't yet need this, bringing in trainers is on my own business growth path, and this is a tool will make that possible without effort.

Some of the less immediately apparent features:

- You can create "chat circles"--group chats--that are associated with a single client, a particular course, or just a general global chat. When running multiple courses, at the same time, this eliminates the need to set up facebook groups or give over my client/class list to some third party chat provider. It's all integrated directly into LeaderJam.

- There's a content library that can serve as a repository for your course materials. You can then pull those materials into any given course as you create it. It also lets you bookmark websites as student resources and integrate those into your courses as well.

- "Generate AI" (poorly named, but wait...) Being 2024, there's an obligatory AI hub that helps you design courses, create sales copy,. Yada yada yada. BUT ... buried in the "AI Hub" is a little feature called "Generate AI." It doesn't generate, however, it finds. You enter a topic and it finds articles and videos about the topic. In playing with it, it seemed to find high-quality sources, as well (e.g. Harvard Business Review).

I can use this for course creation, for gathering student materials for a course, and for quickly finding and vetting content relevant to my email list subscribers. Of all the AI tools, in the "AI Hub," it's the one that I haven't seen anywhere else.

- The financial management screens appear to break down revenue in many different ways, allowing you to understand where your revenue and profit are coming from. Since I haven't yet run any programs, I can't see the screens in action, but for practice management, they save me the hassle of paying a bookkeeper to sort out my income by type (workshop, keynote speech, coaching client) when understanding my business's profitability.

I'm giving five stars based on functionality, while assuming they'll gradually work out the UI tweaks. It really has the ability to handle many aspects of my business, and is far more comprehensive than past AppSumo practice management deals I've tried (e.g. Kyvio).

I'm looking forward to using it now, and as I expand my business from 1-on-1 coaching to full-fledged training with multiple trainers.

I do not write reviews often; however, I feel that this product is worth reviewing. I have used several LMS platforms and other course creation tools for decade. This platform has so many unique features that are needed. One drawback was the free option that is shown as an option with paid plans. There was a comment made about this option being available soon. This is great for me due to the numerous free programs, sessions, and events with my employees, church, and community. The 2% fee is not a deal breaker; however, I did notice that this is not a fee for people on the paid plan. The minimum price is also a concern.

COURSES: As a course developer, I notice several functions missing but hope this will change soon. Some of the things that I would recommend adding are:
- HTML embeds
- Allow course deletions, especially the sample courses and events. I do not want my audience seeing these.
- Allow assignment submission
- Allow drip and/or scheduling
- Set Due Dates option
- Provide an option to make assignments private or limit access to specific students
- Allow updating a course after launch. I do not see the option.
- I am not sure how the certificates work but still reviewing.

FOOTER: I do not care for the "About LeaderJam" portion on the end of courses. This should be our information not a market to the platform. This could sway the attention off the purchase to research the platform instead.

COPYRIGHT: Copyright shows LeaderJam as if they own the content. This could be confusing to potential students, clients, etc.

SPAMMING: I also created an account for testing students and instructor access. I do not care for the advertisement of the platform to my clients and customers. I feel that the emails should be able to come from my brand or at least allow the ability to customize the information, especially the contact information. I believe the emails getting sent to admins only is great but not for everyone.

ISSUES: I am having issues logging in with an account that I created, even after several attempts. I am also having an issue connecting my Google calendar but still waiting on a response from customer support.

CNAME: I was not aware that a sub-domain could not be used. When I tried to update it, there is not an option to remove it. I am waiting on a response from the team.

This is my assessment after a 2-day review. I believe this is going to be a powerful platform and what I have been seeking for years. It deserves a chance to mature into its full potential.

First off, the setup process is a nightmare. You’re forced to upload both a profile picture and a business logo right from the start. There’s no option to skip these steps. I kept getting an error message saying, "Unable to process your request. Please try again later." After a lot of frustration, I figured out the problem was that my "custom domain"/slug was already taken. Why not just say that upfront?

When I finally logged in, I had to go through a three-step questionnaire:
1. "Tell us about yourself" (4-5 minutes - their estimate)
2. "Set up your Coaching Business" (2-3 minutes - their estimate)
3. "Getting Started with LeaderJam" (3-4 minutes - their estimate)

So, I ended up spending about 10 minutes on what felt like their marketing research instead of getting actual value. They asked about the companies I’ve worked with and my personal achievements, which felt pointless for me as a user.

The dashboard is another disappointment - it looks like it hasn’t been updated for years. It’s outdated and not user-friendly at all. Even the top menu items have line-breaks in them, for example.

The worst part? There’s a hidden 2% processing fee that wasn’t mentioned anywhere in the sales copy or deal details. I found out about this in the comments section, but this should definitely be in the deal box. To make sure they do not miss out on that sweet 2% fee, it is not possible to have free events. (This was also something I found buried in the comments and not mentioned in the deal copy/box)

This felt like a bait and switch, and it was the last straw for me. I’ve lost all trust in this product and am definitely going for a refund.

I’m really surprised this product made it through AppSumo’s Select vetting process with these hidden charges and such a poor onboarding experience.

I expected much better. Save your time and money - look elsewhere.

I have not been able to go further on the demo because of the UI. This product have a great potential and i encourage you to polish the UI and UX so this potential can be evident. Will try to not cancel reight away and see if I can go above this deal breaker for me and my clients. Give it 3 tacos cause I strongly believe that you have found a real niche and if you dare work on the visual aspect and the usability of your product, you will be on top of the game

I had high hopes for LeaderJam and as a coach could see how what they were offering could help me on my mission. However, I am a very visual person and the UI and UX of this platform has to be one of the worst I have seen and I buy A LOT of software and tools. It was just painful to use and even worse to look at. The warning sign should have been when I tried to browse their website on my mobile and the whole thing was a giant mess.

Nothing makes sense and the constant need to assign things to some random categories, forced to list companies you have worked with and your qualifications (although you will be restricted to an arbitrary 7 words!) should all be optional. The fact you can't customise this random list of industries or topics is just weird.

Moving on to the inability to change currencies to anything other than USD and the lack of GDPR compliance which wasn't listed on the product page but buried in the questions with no solid commitment on when this would be achieved.

This also leads me onto the 2% service fee when taking payments (on top of Stripe fees) which again, is not listed on the product page nor in the pricing tables, where products usually state these charges. The lack of transparency here is concerning. I am also a little surprised given this is also a select deal where closer scrutiny of the product is given.

Overall, the product is disappointing. The UI is outdated and needs a huge overhall with modern design best practices, the UI is terrible and will require a user experience expert to make it make sense and a joy to use, not to mention the need to be more transparent with potential customers regarding this service fee. It should be listed on the product page. It a no and a refund from me.