Big Red Car here. Brrr, cold today. Chilly.
So The Boss is talking to one of his Voomers and he is thinking about his progress thus far.
Go to this earlier post to read some other stuff about Voomly and Voomly.com and The Boss’s page on Voomly.
What is Voomly?
Voomly is a marketplace for folks to find experts in some specific areas of expertise that they can access for advice and counsel for a small fixed fee on a myriad of subjects which may be of vital interest to the inquirers.
The Boss calls the inquirers Voomers and the folks doling out the advice Vexperts.
The Boss is a Vexpert.
Voomly already has a gaggle of Vexperts and is adding more daily. It is an incredibly cost effective — inexpensive — way to access advice and counsel.
How does Voomly work?
The elegant simplicity is what makes Voomly work.
A Voomer signs up with a Vexpert to become part of the Vexpert’s portfolio of clients.
The Voomer pays a small monthly fee to access unlimited email Q & A as well as, in The Boss’s specific case, the opportunity to make connection via Skype.
Some Vexperts also publish a period and informative newsletter or email on subjects of interest to the Voomers.
Each Vexpert and his Voomers configure their relationship a bit differently.
The Boss likes to visit on Skype and that has been very effective.
Voomly founders
Voomly was started by a friend of The Boss’s, Andy Swan. Andy has a cadre of other founders including his brother, Landon.
Andy is a serial entrepreneur who has started up a couple of other companies and has made a trip to the pay window to cash his chips in.
This all Andy’s idea and it looks like a winner.
It is already getting some meaningful traction and social proof.
Why is The Boss doing this?
The Boss’s motivations are not really fully developed just yet. He originally did it because he knew and liked the founders, Andy Swan et al; and, he thought the idea sounded interesting.
It has been fun.
He calls his program The Wisdom of the Campfire and has reserved that domain name and will stand up a website of that name shortly.
His Voomly page can be round here.
The Boss says that it is not just fun but that he has had a great pleasure meeting new folks and helping them with their challenges while learning some stuff along the way.
What has been done thus far?
Thus far The Boss has a nice little stable of Voomers. He very much likes each and every one of them. He says they are a very interesting and diverse group.
Typically when you sign up with The Boss, he sends you an automatically generated email and then follows up with a Skype call thereafter.
He gives them a checklist that he uses to evaluate a new or startup or small business. You can get one where it says “free stuff” on the navigation bar or right here.
A few of the Voomers needed that checklist to get a handle on exactly where they are on the path to the pay window. A couple in particular have used it to order their own understanding of where THEY want to go. It has been extremely helpful for The Boss to evaluate their progress.
The Boss has among his stable of Voomers:
1. A CEO of a very nice startup which has traction with its product and is making nice progress in soliciting a new round of financing. The Boss has been able to help him focus his thinking about his pitch deck and to provide a bit of coaching as it relates to his ability to get the job done.
2. Another Voomer has a perfect lovely business in the UK that is in the real estate industry. The Boss has a lot of experience in the high level institutional quality commercial real estate business so this has been a great match. This entrepreneur made great use of the checkllist and has now begun to work through his own answers. It has been a very worthwhile exercise thus far.
This CEO has really used the checklist to confront issues he has known are out there. The orderliness of the thinking that results from working through the checklist has helped this CEO to, in effect, talk himself through the issues with a sympathetic ear at hand.
3. Another Voomer is a salty and seasoned CEO of a nice company trying to expand from a single profitable web based enterprise to another logical extension. This contact was a great peer to peer conversation.
4. Another Voomer is a very young foreign national operating a new startup — successful already — while grappling with basic leadership and management issues for the first time. The CEO does not really realize yet that he is doing everything perfectly thus far but he needs just the tiniest bit of validation and a sounding board with which to talk through the situation. He is more than equal to the task. He needs some Wisdom of the Campfire time to verify that.
What does the future hold?
One of the things that has happened is that The Boss’s efforts have begun to fall into four broad categories:
1. Counsel, conversation and advice on routine CEO matters in which The Boss’s 30+ years of experience can provide a valuable input — CEO “coaching” really;
2. Company running tips for which The Boss can provide useful exemplars — documents and systems which have years of thought and experience embedded in them;
3. Raising capital — the process, the logic and realistic expectations — The Boss has raised a lot of money in his business career; and,
4. Leadership issues for young CEOs grappling with their first personal leadership positions.
The Boss does not see this as a huge moneymaking machine but he does not turn his nose up at a car payment headed to a boat payment headed to a house payment.
There may be an opportunity or two which may provide an opportunity for a bit of equity investment under ideal situations, we shall see on that score.
It is still fun and has not yet begun to approach that feeling of the 6th hour of skiing at the end of the day. That feeling that hey “this is work”.
So for $25 per month on a subscription basis, you too can get The Boss to answer your questions via email, Skype with you once a week and provide you with some exemplars that you may find very useful.
Go to The Boss’s Voomly page and sign up. Give it a whirl. One conversation may provide a year’s worth of value.
But, hey, what the Hell do I really now anyway? I’m just a Big Red Car.
Be kind to yourself. You deserve it.
