We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Gina Anderson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Gina below.

Gina, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Crazy stuff happening is almost as certain as death and taxes – it’s technically “unexpected” but something unexpected happening is to be expected and so can you share a crazy story with our readers

To bootstrap and build a company from 0 to a 3X fastest growing INC 5000 company you have to focus on adding value to your clients. One of our core values is our commitment to our customers. In 2020 my co-founder and I were talking to a client that said that their company would really find value if our learning system could take pictures of learners as they moved through the system. We work in a litigious industry (trucking), and if an accident goes to court then a plaintiff might ask how do you know that the learner is who they say they are. You have an IP address, but really how do you know it wasn’t the person’s daughter. Good point! So, I knew based on my work in higher education of the technology of online proctoring, we could possibly create a similar application. So my co-founder used that same concept to create LumaLens®. It is a camera that will take pictures as learners go through the system. We built it based on anticipated value. We launched it for an extra fee. We anticipated many clients needing it and signing up and seeing the same value. We launched it with an additional fee to our system. To our surprise, not only did no one turn it on, but the client who requested it told us his leadership did not want to turn it on because they were afraid it would dissuade drivers from wanting to join their trucking organization. So we wrapped it into our current subscription for free. We only have a few clients currently using it. Fast forward 5 years. On 8/8/2025 we got the following email from a client,

“I need your help. We’re currently arbitrating a claim our attorney has asked me for additional information to prove out a statement. We have provided a statement that outlines how we onboard a driver and our attorney has follow up questions. Please tell me if this is something you can help me with. They’re alleging that “The agreement purports to contain a time stamp, IP address and electronic signature of the Plaintiff, but there is no way from the evidence provided to determine how those are actually tied to the Plaintiff, since there is no discussion of any security procedure applied to determine that it was Plaintiff who actually signed the agreement”. Basically, alleging that any email may be used.”

We looked in the system and we had the image of the driver with the IP, time stamped showing HIM completing the form that was in question. Hooray to Luma Lens!®

We got the following responses, “Omg you guys are rock stars!! This is gold!” and the attorney said, ““I have never seen this before”. Well, done you guys!”

My co-founder and I will never forget that moment, because this just started with an idea based on value. When you focus on a problem and value, you should not get discouraged because this just shows, even though we waited 5 years to realize the value, we got to witness how it helped our client save money and maybe even helped prevent them from going out of business.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Dr. Gina Anderson is on a mission to help organizations grow their safety cultures through meaningful learning that inspires and engages employees. She has focused her attention on studying how adults best learn for more than twenty-five years, consistently growing her methodology by engaging with trucking industry and learning professionals.

Gina is a learning scientist and the CEO of Luma Brighter Learning, an award-winning company offering the latest in psychology-based approaches infused in learning tools that fleets can implement to reduce safety risks and increase compliance. With a focus on maximizing safety, ensuring compliance, and boosting employee retention, Luma supports the entire organization with individualized coaching programs, customizable content, digital forms, compliance reporting tools, and unlimited secure file storage. She routinely publishes new, measurable, science-based techniques specifically focused on adult learning to help companies improve their safety scores and uphold compliance. She is an award-winning author of Perspectives of Invisible Illnesses, Thrive: How Learning Can Ignite a New Way Forward, and Teaching Without a Teaching Degree: Luma Learning Lessons.

Gina is an Inc. Magazine learning thought leader and hosts the I Love Learning podcast and On the Front Line podcast. She holds a Doctor of Education in instructional systems technology from Indiana University and earned a learning, media, and technology certificate and minor from the learning science department. She holds a Master of Science in Education in instructional technology and a Bachelor of Science in Education with high distinction from the University of Dayton. Gina was an Academic All-American Division I tennis athlete and coach, and she brings this passion and drive to her leadership.

Among her career highlights are the creation of the Luma eNugget® and STEM CITY® platforms. These technologies use analytics and a real-time feedback system that gives her company unique insights into how people learn. Her knowledge and vision have resulted in measurable results for carriers in the transportation industry who have reported Luma eNuggets® contribute to a reduction in liability claims and turnover within the 0–90-day period.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Being a women-owned company in a male dominated industry it proved difficult to go out and speak at industry events. For two years, I would apply for events to speak and be denied. Time and time again I was told, No. Maybe next year. I was frustrated and sought advice from other business owners to learn how they were able to start build their thought leadership. I had someone tell me the following and I have it taped on my desk. “What are you waiting for? Stop waiting to be asked, and make your own voice.” It was an Ah ha moment for me that I often have had as a business owner. Instead of looking outwards for answers, the most powerful voice to bring about change is the voice within each of us. A week later, I started my podcast. Fast forward 2 years later and I am booking events into 2026.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

When we started Luma, I was initially consulting for higher education on their online program designs on nights and weekends, while I was working a full-time position. My consulting was getting so busy that I had to resign my position for a conflict of interest. At that point, my co-founder, who is my husband, won a government grant for 1 year so those two efforts helped us build out the concept of our company. For two years, we tried to win a National Science Foundation grant to help support the build of the technology. Meanwhile, my husband, who is my co-founder was building it on the nights and weekends. We used the funds we made to pay for an illustrator contractor who has been working for me now for 15 years. After the heart break of lose after lose of the grant, we decided that it was almost built so we would go out into the community and try to sell it. We were at an innovation center so they were our BETA. Then we took the system and pitched it to one of the investors in the community and he agreed to pay for the subscription for his bank. We also had another local business owner agree to pay a subscription for the connected platform at his payroll company. These few opportunities we learned so much about what the end users valued. Our office at the innovation center was next to a company serving the trucking industry. They said, you all really should see how they train truck drivers because you would be horrified. I was. We helped this company build their safety content and that gave us a foot into the door. One of their clients, wanted to work with us to build out an orientation product. That was 2018 and they were our 1st official trucking client and they are still our client today. In fact, I will be traveling there this week to expand their account since we serve entire organizations and not just drivers.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.learningwithgina.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gina.dysardanderson/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gina-anderson-luma/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@learningwithgina
• Other: This is my company page: https://lumabrighterlearning.com/