Two Hours to Change Your Business (Or Job. Or Life.)

A New Way.  Tearing Down Old Paradigms.

Folks, today I want to share a source of personal pride – literally share it, and make sure YOU experience it.  I saw something, back in 2010, that changed my career (and life) forever:  I saw the Power Pivot v1 product in action, as I re-implemented a project that I’d paid $50k for originally in 2005, using a traditional BI methodology.  In 2010 I re-built it, from scratch, using Power Pivot – in a tiny fraction of the time and at an even tinier fraction of the cost of the original – and the results were BETTER than the first time around.  MUCH better.  It was an electric realization I will never forget.

In particular, it was clear to me that the days of million-dollar, low-satisfaction data projects were numbered.  We were going to see DRAMATICALLY better results with FAR shorter project durations and FAR cheaper price tags.  At the same time, we were going to see many times MORE projects getting implemented, and many more needs being met.

The Proof:  Dramatic Data Results Now Fit on a Credit Card.

A couple years ago I interviewed a traditional BI consultant who was offering a radical idea:  their firm only needed four weeks and a $25,000 fee in order to deliver real results.  That was, indeed, quite radical – probably 10x faster and cheaper than the usual BI engagement.  And it was only possible because of these new tools.

I was impressed by that, and it was worth talking about, but I knew that was basically the limit of what a traditional firm could do.  Loaded with sales and project management overhead, traditional BI firms are still built for the old methodology, in which you charge so much (by necessity) that you can afford sizeable fixed operational costs.

Compared to Traditional BI, 4 Weeks and $25k was “Cheap” and “Fast.”  But we can do MUCH better.  And we do, every day with many clients – a couple of hours and a few hundred dollars, and we’re often DONE.  And when it does take longer, it’s NOT much longer:  even a 20-hour project ranks in the 95th percentile.

I wanted to build a completely New kind of company – one that completely committed to the New Way, rather than trying to retrofit the new tools into yesterday’s business models.  I wanted to do that because it sounded like a promising career direction – first mover advantage and all that – but also for the thrilling satisfaction of it.  To bring something completely new into the world, to thoroughly prove that it works, and realize a cliché:  to truly make a difference.

Well, we’re there.  We’ve BEEN there for quite some time now actually, but we’re kinda quiet about it.

We ARE that company.  But we have kept that quiet because of…  me.

We’ve Only Recently Started Using this Slide – Because I am Cautious.
(But given the reactions we get to this slide, I feel pretty silly to have waited)

I am not what you’d call “sales-y.”  And really, none of us here at P3 Adaptive are sales-y in the traditional sense.  Our message and mission have attracted a very different sort of individual to the team:  passionate true believers who THRILL at doing the absolute Right Thing for the client – no milking the clock, no encouraging extra spending, just focused on delighting the client and helping them succeed in a big way.  We couldn’t EXIST without precisely that sort of people.

And when we “rebooted” the website last year, we consciously chose to keep the blog on the front page.  Our DNA is empowerment and education, and it was important that we not hide the blog “in the back” in order to make room for all the sales-y stuff that other companies put front and center on their websites.  We received advice that we were “making a mistake,” sacrificing all that real estate that could be used to generate biz – but our philosophy isn’t just a “pitch,” it’s crucial to the way we think, and it’s crucial to the relationship we have with our clients.  We stick to our guns, no regrets.

(If you doubt my sincerity – just LOOK at this post!  In some sense, its entire purpose is to make sure you know of our truly unique offerings, and I still haven’t gotten around to the punchline!)

But we’ve slowly come to realize that we need to be just a little bit more visible in terms of what we can do for you.  Conversations with the team and with clients have been bringing me around, slowly, to that conclusion.

So, what CAN we do for you?

Hey, I’m thrilled that you ask!  We can do a number of awesome things for you, things we’ve been doing for years now, such as:

1. We do Onsite Jumpstarts – in which we teach you and your team(s) how to master the “Power Tools,” help you build out a specific project, or a hybrid of both.  And we don’t view these as “loss leaders” to get you hooked on thousands of hours of followup projects – the end result is YOU empowered to execute on your own needs.
2. We teach Public Classes – only have one person you need to “light up?”  Or a few?  Our public classes are an affordable and increasingly popular option if you don’t quite need the Onsite Jumpstart.
3. We offer an online Video University – the content of which closely parallels our Public Classes, but also greatly exceeds it in depth (it would be the equivalent of a 5-day class if taught in person, but you have a full year to take it).

But the offering I specifically want to highlight today is the Helpdesk, aka Remote Consulting, aka Data Ninjas On Demand, aka You Won’t Believe How Effective This Is.

2 Hours. $380. No overhead, commitment, or delay. Just RESULTS.

We come to you – virtually.  And get right down to business.

Of all of the ways we can help, we think THIS is the offering that has been most “hidden,” the least known.  And while the services listed above are SUPER valuable (otherwise we wouldn’t still be doing them as much as we are – half our team is on the road this week), THIS one is the most surprising to our clients.

It kinda feels like it shouldn’t be possible.  But big project, small project, doesn’t matter – these new tools we wield just work, and they work in a way that makes rapid collaboration and coaching possible, whereas they truly were NOT possible before.

If you’re all like, “shut up Rob and just tell us how we can get started,” hey, here’s how:  you just drop us a note:

I’d Like to Schedule a Two-Hour Helpdesk Session

But hey, there are a couple more important things I still want to say…

Ways in Which Helpdesk Can…  Help

Here are the ways in which our clients have most frequently used the Helpdesk over the past two years (yes we’ve been running it that long):

• To get over a roadblock you were unable to solve on your own.  Sometimes you can spend days googling a problem but not finding anything because your needs are a little bit unique, or you aren’t sure how to describe the problem to google’s search box.  Turns out, a human being who’s “been there” is a much better option.
• To quickly deliver on a short timeline.  You have an urgent need.  We can help you with that, and make you a hero – we don’t even want to hog the credit.  Promise.
• To prove the value of the platform to others – if you just know, in your bones, that Power Pivot and Power BI are the best option for your organization, but you’re struggling to win buy-in from others, the best way to prove it, in our experience, is to stop talking and just deliver the impossible.  Then sit back and say “hey, as soon as you can deliver results like that in that OTHER toolset, I’m fine switching, but until then, I’m keeping the Microsoft tools.”
• To augment your existing staff.  Maybe your org is already “in” on these tools, and your team is already sufficiently educated in the tools, but you find yourself staring at a backlog of work (like converting all of your reports and dashboards from that multi-million dollar failure that is your older BI system, or tackling some executive priority for the entire company – both of which are things we’ve done repeatedly).  We can get you through that, without having to add FTE headcount.
• To test the waters, at low risk, before a potential Onsite Jumpstart.  Sometimes, projects are complex enough that the communication itself is going to chew up many hours, and if so, an Onsite consultation may well be the most efficient spend of time and money.  But you don’t have to guess – a 2-hour helpdesk session will quickly help everyone – us AND you – decide whether such an investment make sense.

Hey you know what?  Here’s that link again.  Yeah, it’s partly self-serving, but in all honesty – it’s gonna help you more than it helps us, which is 100% By Design.

I’d Like to Schedule a Two-Hour Helpdesk Session

OK, one more super-important thing…

The Other Crucial Ingredient:  Amazing People who Shouldn’t Exist.

If we flash back to that lightning-bolt moment in 2010, when I realized that the world of data was about to be turned upside down, I was focusing on the software as the game changer.  And that was correct, but only half-correct.

But people are the other key, and P3 Adaptive ’s unique position in the industry gives us access to the best of the best.  I’m not talking about hardcore techno-geeks either, I’m talking about people with strong communication skills, high EQ and empathy, lots of biz experience, AND years spent working in DAX and M.

I personally screen every candidate, both on the “hard” and “soft” skills fronts, via a diabolical and entertaining process, that after multiple days ultimately comes down to this question I ask myself:  “Should this person even exist?  Should they be available?”  If the answers are “no” and “no,” they make the team.  And it’s a heck of a team, folks (we’ve been growing lately and there are already a few new bios that aren’t up there yet – hard to keep up these days now that Microsoft seems to be getting their marketing strategy together).

These people are hard to find, folks, and it’s only because of our website that WE find them.  And you get to add them to your team, virtually, for as little or as long as you’d like, with no overhead FTE costs, commitment, or risk.

We want to find more of these people, rescue them from undervalued situations, and make them available to the world as a valuable, game-changing shared resource.  So do us all a favor, yourself more than anyone, and click this link:

I’d Like to Schedule a Two-Hour Helpdesk Session

BTW, are YOU one of those people?

If so, why not fill out our quick little mini-application form?