Building on Foundations

This morning, when I walked into the office, I saw notes from our 2022 team retreat on my wall. Marie found them while going through her desk. In May 2022, we spent a full day in Hot Springs mapping out who we wanted to become as a team. Three years later, looking at “authentic,” “helpful,” and “trusted coaches” in faded marker, something struck me: we’ve become who we set out to be.

Others in the company now see us as the experts on reaching and speaking to K-12 leaders, designing experiences and collateral that stand out, describing the why behind Apptegy’s newest features and workflows. We’re not the department “on the side” anymore; we’re central to how this business thinks about its future.

The question that’s been sitting with me as Marie starts her next chapter is this: Now that we know who we are, how far can we reach?

James Clear writes: “Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.” For three years, we’ve been casting votes for who we wanted to be. Those votes have been counted, and the results are in. We are helpful. We are authentic. We create experiences that matter. We coach others to excellence.

Identity, once established, creates possibility.

Who We’ve Become

When we wrote those words three years ago, they felt aspirational. Today, they’re simply true. We’ve proven we can be a resource that others trust, internally and externally. We’ve demonstrated that we can think critically about complex challenges while staying grounded in our why. We’ve shown that authentic, direct, vulnerable communication creates stronger partnerships across Sales, Client Experience, and Product.

The foundation we built wasn’t just about internal culture. It was about establishing credibility that would let us influence beyond our immediate sphere. Every time Marie coached the BDR team through a presentation, every time we pushed back on messaging that didn’t serve our audience, every time we insisted on creating something that felt different, we were building permission to have a bigger conversation.

That permission is what we have now.

The Opportunity Ahead

Here’s what excites me about this moment: We’re no longer proving who we are. We’re choosing how far our influence extends.

Think about the conference we created, the magazine that sets the standard for our industry, the way Sales, CE, and product ask for our perspective on strategy—not just tactics. We’ve built something that reaches beyond individual campaigns or quarterly goals. We’ve created a platform for lasting impact.

But platforms are only as powerful as what you build on them. The question isn’t whether we can influence K-12 education—we already do. The question is how intentionally we shape that influence and how far we’re willing to extend it.

Legacy as a North Star

Three years ago, we focused on becoming. Now we get to focus on building up and out.

When I think about legacy, I think about the superintendent who changes how their district communicates because of something they read in SchoolCEO. I think about the marketing leader at another edtech company who is reconsidering their approach to brand and marketing because of how we’ve scaled creativity (thank you Collateral team!). I think about the admin or teacher who gets more out of Apptegy’s products because of how we described what they can do and why it matters to their work. I think about the presentation techniques we taught the BDR team being used years from now in conversations we’ll never know about.

We’ve built the foundation. And that foundation we’ve built shows up in the systems and standards that outlast the people who created them. Now we get to decide what structure we construct on top of it.

The retreat notes on my wall aren’t a reminder of where we’ve been. They’re a launching pad for where we’re going. We know who we are. The only question left is how far we reach.

Moving Forward

As we head into the second half of the year, we have the platform and the expertise to influence K-12 education in ways that extend far beyond our client base.

The foundation is solid. The identity is established. The reach is up to us.

P.S. One of the best moments of the retreat was Ryan’s explanation of the “Magic Square of Saturn”