About ProDio
Pioneers of Imagination-Based Learning & Decision Rehearsal™
As AI changes the learning landscape, we're evolving to develop creativity, critical thinking, judgement and decision-making as a skill.
Meet ProDio's co-founders. Since 2017 we've delivered learning to over 120,000+ professionals worldwide. Over the past decade, we've evolved from in-person learning, to StoryStyle™ professional development and now we're introducing Decision Rehearsal™ - a neuroscience-backed approach using immersive scenario experiences that leverage the power of mental simulation and designed specifically to hone executive judgement, creativity, critical thinking and decision-making skills.
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Russell Cullingworth
Co-Founder, CEO
Russell is an experienced business and finance professional, speaker and facilitator with an MBA in Strategy from Simon Fraser University. He is the creative writer and his primary focus is on designing experiences that ignite imagination and challenge participants to think deeply, test their assumptions and transform their thinking.
“I'm driven to continually push the boundaries on how adults learn. AI is changing the learning landscape FAST - information and knowledge are losing value because they're so easily accessible.
While thinking deeply on this, I realized that almost all our education and professional development is focused on conscious skills - but that's only 5-10 percent of our brain function.
My passion is to develop the subconscious skills in executives and future leaders - and imagination-based scenario experiences is the way to do it."
To maintain my creativity, I listen to Audible dramatized audiobooks, paint, sculpt, craft, create and play music almost every day - I also work out regularly to keep my body healthy.
Christine Cullingworth
Co-Founder, President
“As a professional voice artist I have a passion for the power of voice and sound to connect people and engage their imagination.
I love working with exceptionally talented voice actors, sound engineers and sound studios to create the scenes and environments for your brain, and I bring my own sound design experience. I tend to get lost in the enjoyment of sound designing a scenario or story - it’s something I simply love doing."
As mentioned, Christine is a professional voice artist and the smooth "voice" of ProDio. Christine is the primary “sound magician” and works with our talented instructors, sound studios, engineers and sound designers to sound design our exceptionally engaging and immersive learning experiences.
Find out more about Christine as a professional voice artist at christinecullingworth.com
Canada’s Top 5 EdTech Companies Redefining Education in 2025
We're excited to have our work recognized by Education Excellence Magazine.
"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."
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The Story Behind ProDio's Transformative Audio
"First, please take a listen to our initial story above, which goes back to an experience I had when I was 12 years old. In 2010 I started a company teaching emotional intelligence through in-person workshops. In 2016, I decided to take an online marketing course to sharpen my skills. But it didn't take long before I became frustrated. It was a beautiful sunny day, and there I was, stuck in front of my computer. I couldn’t even take my laptop outside because I couldn’t see the screen in the sunlight. I thought, ‘There’s got to be a better way.’ One evening, while Christine and I were making dinner, I blurted out, ‘You know, most of this course I could just listen to. I don’t need to sit here staring at this guy talking at me, showing boring slides. What if we could make audio courses, so people could listen while they’re in the car, on the train, or even while working out?’ That was the moment it all clicked. Why should learning be confined to a screen? Why can’t it fit into people’s lives more naturally? That’s when the idea for ProDio was born." Russ Cullingworth
Founded in February 2017, ProDio is the first company in the world to create formal professional development using audio media and storytelling, which we call StoryStyle™.
As artificial intelligence evolved, so did we. We recognized that information and knowledge will soon become cheap and widely available commodities and asked the question "where does this leave traditional learning, which is primarily focused on information and knowledge transfer?"
We believe the answer to this question is that learning will evolve to focus on higher level cognitive skills development - creativity, judgement, critical thinking and decision-making - which is why we're evolving from one-directional "courses" to "immersive experiences". From "learners" to "full participants."
We've created an exciting new immersive experience - Decision Rehearsal™ - leveraging imagination and mental simulation in immersive decision-making scenarios.
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Since 2017 we've partnered with numerous professional associations to create engaging content, even with compliance and regulatory learning, which is always challenging when it comes to engagement. Through over 3,000 reviews we know that professionals love our learning content. To date we have reached over 50,000 learners through our partnership with LinkedIn Learning. Our learning has meets the strictest accreditation standards, such as the NASBA Registry of CPE Providers (USA), CPA Canada, HRCI and SHRM.
While Covid changed the online learning landscape dramatically, we are well-poised to meet the future demand for engaging, flexible and convenient professional learning, micro-learning and onboarding induction courses.