Can Gamification Really Improve Your Cyber Security Training? with Craig Taylor (E37, S2026)

Cyber security training works best when people actually want to do it.

Craig Taylor, CISSP and co-founder of Cyber Hoot, has spent 30 years proving that rewarding good behaviour, recognising effort and making training feel like play gets better results than any amount of pressure. In this conversation, Charly sits down with Craig to explore how positive reinforcement and gamification are reshaping cyber security training for small businesses.

Craig's background in psychology gives him a clear lens on why rewarded behaviours are repeated, and why leaderboards, small wins and open-book learning lift engagement across entire organisations.

In this episode, Charly and Craig cover:

✅ Why rewarded behaviours are the ones that stick
➡️ How gamification lifts engagement from leadership to front-line staff
⚡ The PAR method - Pause, Assess, Report - for handling suspicious messages
⭐ Why leaderboards unexpectedly engaged the C-suite
✨ How AI is making phishing attacks harder to spot
☑️ When small businesses actually need formal cyber training

Whether you run a solo business or manage a small team, this conversation will change how you think about cyber security education.

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Book a Free 30 minute Breakthrough Session: https://askcharlyleetham.com/book-me
(1 per person only)

About the Author Charly Leetham

Charly Leetham has been in technology for over 40 years - from earning her amateur radio license at 13 to founding and running Ask Charly Leetham, a digital services business serving small businesses worldwide. After losing $1 million in a franchise failure, she rebuilt from scratch and has kept her business running for nearly two decades through skill, systems, and relentless practicality.

She hosts the podcast Rise and Shine - Your Business Tech Boost with Charly Leetham and speaks about what it actually takes to build businesses that work and last - not just look good on paper.

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