I love ICON for so many different reasons. One of the big reasons is that our ecosystem is on full display. From the expo area to the breakout sessions to the evening parties, our partners, customers, and vendors come together to help small businesses succeed. This year, the ecosystem was more vibrant than ever at ICON, thanks to an expo hall that outdid anything we’ve done in the past.
As many of you know, at Keap we have a football field in the middle of our office. This is a place for coming together, solving tough problems, collaborating with each other to find solutions. We decided to bring the football field to ICON this year to help the ecosystem come together and solve problems. The expo area was wide open; the center of the expo was the football field. People were meeting on the field all throughout the week and we kicked off the event with a cocktail reception the night before day one. It was awesome!
In addition to the Field, we had a special lounge area in the expo hall for our partners. In the partner expo, many relationships were forged, deals were inked and business plans were refined. As I’ve watched the ecosystem evolve over the years, the increasing specialization of our partners is impressive. Where once our partners were simply bucketed into categories of “service,” “sales,” and “development,” today there are thousands of partners specializing in dozens or even hundreds of sub-categories. From copywriting, to list hygiene, to reporting, and everything in between, our partners are creating specialized services that help customers achieve their goals.
I love ICON because I love our partners. They are amazing. I am so grateful for the way we work together to help small businesses succeed. And I know they are grateful that Keap has planted the Small Business Success flag in the ground, because so many of them came up to me to thank us for what we’re doing at Keap. I appreciate their gratitude, but the straight truth is that we could not do what we do without our partners.
SBS Idea of the Day: If you feel like you’re “going it alone” in your business, find a partner who can share the load. Whatever form that takes—equity partner, spouse, friend, business relationship—you’ll be more likely to succeed when you are working together with another to achieve common goals.
