We didn’t start this company to become speakers. The vision of the company is much bigger: “A world in which individuals find their own potential while helping others explore theirs.” (We’ll smooth that sentence one day, but the idea still gets across : )
We see education as facilitation of potential. We aim to make education better. Speaking is a small part of that – just a place to start.
While we were getting into the college speaking market, we’ve been working hard on the technology back end to survey, segment, and deliver content all year long. We have been building a “platform” to deliver relevant content. It’s technology to deliver x+1 education (for those that have seen DFT).
It’s taken all year, but the system almost works. It is not automatic yet, or without quirks, but it nearly works.
At the last APCA conference, we had a sit down with Eric Lambert (owner of APCA) to discuss a partnership where we would provide our technology to his conferences to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the education component. It was great fun. Eric is unapologetically not technical, which left the challenge of communicating up to us. We had to figure out a way to explain techie things (that we are just starting to understand) in completely non-technical language. Just like “Dance Floor Theory”, we turned to metaphors: the knowledge is like minerals in the ground. We provide the tools to mine, refine and deliver that mineral to just the people that need it. Eric got it and took his understanding further by switching metaphors to chickens: “Oh I see, we don’t own the chickens – anyone can kill chickens – but we have the special recipe and the deep fryer.”
Eric is hilarious, sincere, and, to use his word, “righteous”. During the meeting he kept coming back to the basics. “I want to make sure all the information is protected.” “I want to make sure that you guys aren’t going to partner up with alcohol, or tobacco or any company that is shady.” “I want to make sure you take some of your profits and give back to a charity.” Tom and I were really excited by the whole conversation – it’s really nice to do business with people that worry about the “basics”. We are looking forward to building the relationship with Eric and APCA.
Which brings me back around to the point of this post: the evolving business model. Our only source of revenue is speaking, and our cost structure on that side of things is fine. If we were only doing that we would have made some money this year and been on our way in year two. It’s the extra vision of the company – this whole technological enabled x+1 thing – that throws our cost structure out of whack. We need new sources of revenue so that system can pay for itself. APCA is part of that solution – finding partners that need the solution that we have and working out deals. If all goes well, APCA will provide some monetary support, and just as importantly, the relationships with activities departments everywhere. Our system will give APCA a huge leap forward in their education and further strengthen their relationships with all their stakeholders.
There needs to be a tremendous amount of trust in these early deals. Our ideas our new and unproven. So is the technology. We are confident the ideas are sound. We are confident we can make the technology work – duct tape and late nights if need be. We just need partners who share some of that confidence. APCA seems like a great start.
