Good meeting with Shannon this morning. She was helping me through a small/big (not sure) paradigm shift. We were talking about adilas lite and fracture - proposed project to rewrite the adilas.biz code. It is super deep...

We were talking about instead of the old ship A and new ship B type model, what about ship A becoming or morphing into ship B. Most of our previous talks and content building sessions have been focused on ship A being the older or current model and ship B being the future model (something that was in the future or completely new). We have known about this... but most likely in denial of it... about the fact that already, whether we want it or not, we are starting to morph and change ship A into ship B (what we want). I still think that the ideal is ship A as the working prototype and ship B as the new buildout, but that is not the only way that it could happen. This was the paradigm shift that I was going through this morning...

- Ship A to ship B transformation...

- Going over ideas and what is happening... (all of the events and things that are happening inside of adilas right now)

- The writing is on the wall... It is changing, right in front of us. If this were the case (and it is), what can I do to help that along?

- Building within the context of what we have vs something that is completely in the future.

- Shannon was being a great sister (and counselor today). She was saying, ask God and see what He says. Figure out your direction based on what you know and where you hope to go.

- This little paradigm shift is a big load or big deal if we are looking for a rescue... (somebody to come in and fund this and/or take over and help to manage the progression). So, now what do I do?

- The book "The Horse and His Boy" (by C.S. Lewis) - The lion pushing the horses that last mile - helping to put some fear into them to make them go faster. Sometimes we feel like we are being pushed by a lion... Just having fun with it.

- Be open to a couple of different potential directions

- Story of the wrong roads... They went down the wrong road, then they figured that out. At that point, they knew that one of the roads was incorrect. They could then take the other road with more confidence. Shannon and I were talking about knowing that it is not the right way - Potentially, over and over again...

- We added some good humor in this little discussion and brainstorming session.

- We have been doing this (changing and putting layer upon layer upon layer), over and over again, for 20+ years... Even layouts like classic to snow owl and coding changes from ColdFusion tags to ColdFusion script. We have been dynamically changing for years and years. That is awesome!

- End goals are the same... It is just how we get there...

- Rereading some things in the developer's notebook... (rejecting and pirate ship)

- Recognition... This is one of the steps to moving forward.

This meeting was setup by Danny and Marisa. It was scheduled earlier in the week, but we had some crazy Flash conversion stuff hitting us at that time. Here are my meeting notes. Also, see attached for a number of screen shots from Marisa's presentation.

SEO meeting

- Danny, Marisa, Steve, Chuck, John, Brandon, and Cory were on the meeting

- They were talking about different phases, tools, progress

- We are looking to make our site more organic, actionable, and able to help with solving pain points

- Some pain points for others are: Missing the all in one (system thinking and system options), missing functionality, legal compliance stuff (oversight)

- We want to generate more good web traffic

- Taking courses and trying to stay up to date - Danny, Marisa, Chuck, and John are all taking some new courses to keep learning what they need to know and do. That is awesome!

- Gearing the design to help share and show what we have

- More internal linking

- Resources and support - Marisa really feels like this is a big need and wants to focus here - helping out our clients with what they need.

- Mobile friendly - 1st criteria - everything needs to be mobile ready

- One SEO, the score changes and gets degraded based on errors and missing pieces

- Changing targets - we know that we are chasing a moving and changing target

- We know who we are... be our own style - this is our plan

- Pirate ships, pirates, and boot strapping

- Pros and cons of technology choices

- From steve - keep things as small as possible, service our customers, and optimized our revenue

Steve was talking about getting a designer to help us with the Bear 100. He would like to take it out to Google maps, GPS, mobile friendly, and even allow for people to use our site to do sign-ups and other pieces. We could have the site tied out to ecommerce and allow for tons of other options. That could be fun.

Eric came into the meeting and had a couple of questions about customizing the invoice and quote process. We talked about parent inventory, sub inventory, parent attributes, flex grid tie-ins, and even black box custom tables. We also talked about adding in some blank or generic flex fields in the quote line items and the invoice line items. They want some custom fields per line item. Steve was saying, don't tell me what you want... show me. That way we know what tool to use and where to put it into play. Steve was also talking about maybe going up steam and setting those moving variables up higher on the customer level. In a way, the over arching question was I want to extend the existing options and functions per invoice and quote line item. We then have to help, how do we figure that out and what solution could we use to solve that problem? Good stuff.

This doesn't play in quite yet, but at some point we would love to get into real in-line database extensions. That is somewhat of the bigger brother to the flex grid tie-ins. Being able to add and subtract data points and data fields per section. As a side note, we have tons of companies that virtually commandeer (take over - like a pirate ship) any field that they can to get the job and/or task at hand done or finished. Kinda interesting.

Steve wants to get more information, from the source. He would like to get a real world scenario and then make a plan from there. Not just a quick band-aid, he wants to help develop the solution. What are the processes, what are the needs, what already exists, and what else is still needed? It keeps getting deeper and deeper (4 and 5 levels deep).

There was an analogy of a "part changer" - think of mechanic that just swaps out part after part in order to fix something. We really need the mechanic that gets in there and looks at the problem and then makes a decision. From Steve - It's not how fast you go, it's how well you go fast - older Porche commercial.

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Switching gears, we started talking with Wayne about servers.

We were talking about virtual machines, physical servers, load balancing, and the difference between hardware problems and software problems. We were talking about clusters and getting redundancy and depth of options. If we stay with Newtek, we need to build in some of our own pieces. If we go more with AWS, we get to just use some the existing pieces. There is a trade off - AWS has more options but it also a deeper pool. Newtek is not as deep, but in some ways easier. We were also talking about rollover, fail safe modes, mirrors, etc.

We spent quite a bit of time talking about the Adobe ColdFusion engine and how we could potentially configure cluster type environment. When you get out of a single machine environment, what do you do with the database. On a single machine (server or dedicated box), it is simple. On a cluster, you have to keep things moved and/or separated. We would love to break some of the system down into their own databases. The idea here is making each database corporation specific vs server (whole box) specific. We have talked about this for years (since 2012 ish) and have called it world building and other project names. We really want to do this, but we also know that we have tons of code changes that are needed. We could separate out the shared tables in the existing database schema but we would have to do it table by table. As a side note, we have already done this very process for invoices, invoice payments, po/invoice line items, customer queues, sub inventory, etc.

One solution would be to create a corporation specific datasource (pointer to a specific database) and then help that get migrated and pushed around. We also talked about loading in objects per user that has all of their corporation specific settings and values. Eventually, we will still need to break out the payee/users so that we have a master list and then allow them to be merged and virtually bridged to any corporation and even any system. We still have all kinds of exceptions, such as be in corp x but pretend like you are in corp y (look and feel and settings). It gets kinda crazy.

The subject started to switch to more and more object oriented programming, storing values in session objects, and other objects that are server based. We also talked about database server clustering and moving all databases (per corporation) to a dedicated database cluster that only served up data and content. Lots of possible configurations and options. Both Alan and Wayne were talking about cross-schema queries and all kinds of advanced things. As another side to this equation, we are seeing more and more of a need for aggregated totals, auto processing, daily task management, etc. All of these things play into the mix. We are seeing certain tables that are great as shared tables and other tables that really need to be independent and corporation specific.

As we move forward, even towards a fracture type model, we will need to separate databases, logic, move more towards object oriented programming, API socket calls, etc. Just for fun, Wayne and Alan were talking about different levels and using bigger teams - backend guys, database guys, middleware guys, frontend and UI (user interface) guys, etc. We aren't that big.

Steve's idea... Alan, Steve, Dustin, and Brandon are all going to be at a convention. Let's use that time to do some planning and take it to the next level. That's a great idea.

We were going to have a meeting with Kelly and do some online whiteboarding and business planning, but that didn't happen. Instead, Steve and Brandon had a couple hour brainstorming session about their own ideas on a business model and business plan. Super fun brainstorming meeting.

- Steve and Brandon were talking about the role of the adilas market, adilas university, and the adilas café.

- Steve was talking about ideas... are you buying or selling? What section of the market and/or café do you play in?

- Just jump in... see a need, fill a need - we love it

- Another piece that we may be missing is marketing and sales type literature and media pieces

- We would love to recruit some others to help with the heavy lifting - There are tons of great adilas users out there who have some great skills

- It takes time and energy to get things going - the goal is, once it gets going, hopefully it will keep feeding itself.

- Steve is having fun tackling the business model - analogy - like a friendly pirate ship. It could be a boat, a ship, a car, a plane, or anything that moves over time. The fun come in as you start asking questions. Are we friendly? Are we mean? How many sails do we put out? What direction are we going (what is our heading)? What kind of crew do you want? How big and how small do you want to be? Etc. Fun stuff.

- Sometimes as we write and record these log notes, it may expose some of our underbellies, but we really gain from it in multiple ways.

- Steve and I would like to be open to discussions from any parties. We also acknowledge that there is a cost to being open and listening to those ideas.

- There seems to be many cycles that interconnect and play as the ball gets kicked down the road.

- Zipper analogy of bringing operations and accounting together. We started this a long time ago, we want to keep going but some of the steps are bigger and harder than others to conquer. Problems exists and that helps keep things going. Problems force decisions and hopefully a solution.

- Working in teams and pulling through things together - it helps get the ball across the finish line and you build relationships along the way.

- A constant mode of refinement - dive and resurface, dive and resurface - build and break, build and break - the concept of maintenance.

- Building blocks of teams - forming, storming, norming, performing - where are we at in our team development process?

- As we keep coming together as a team, there will be some normalizing and efficiency as we keep going. Good stuff.

- Steve is always on the hunt for the better and better ideas. He loves the hunt, in theory and in practice.

- Different angles, different views - false summits, operations, accounting, task oriented, dreamers, managers, etc. Like a pie analogy, we need the whole (in the end), and certain people are doing certain pieces (delegating tasks and processes), but hopefully as you bring it all together and it becomes the whole.

- The proof is in the pudding - if you have a great idea... let's put it to the test... we don't have a monopoly on all of the good ideas. We want to be open to those around us. Ideas by themselves don't really stand too long... those ideas have to be put into action and start applying those concepts.

- You can fund a company through investment, equity, sales, or leveraging debt. We are leaning towards sales and equity.

- Talking about models, we are even seeing some morphing models (mixing and blending), client/services, budgets, and strategic customer care projects. Customer tune ups, targeted tech support, and other customer care and retention efforts.

- Hoist anchor! Starting to get the ship out of the harbor.

- Models - rep model, hub/shop model, 3rd party solutions and white label model - We are seeing a small mix between the basic rep model and the basic hub/shop model. - Russell's word "Dependable" model. A loosely bonded hub/shop type model where the bond is the dependable type and/or dependable people who service other parts of the service model. Basically, they stick around to help pick-up and service the by-products that are created (training, consulting, setup, design work, custom code, tech support, project management, training, and other by-product services).

- Being able to clone some of the main core players - Steve, Brandon, Shari O., etc. Small teams forming under some of these key players and creating loose bonds (dependable type bonds). Very interesting.

- Talking about sales and white label options, we have no boundaries and no zones - people could consume our product wherever they are - we don't plan on adding any boundaries and/or zones.

- Anybody could identify a problem and/or issue - what we really want and need is those who help come up with and are willing to work on solutions.

- Steve was saying that the employer/employee relationship is a kin to slavery - it can work, but over time, it has other costs and drains. Steve really wants to keep moving towards the dependable type model - It is very loose but it can and does work - We want to keep helping those around us - if you look at it... we have so many by-products, the by-products completely outweigh our normal products. Very interesting. One of the key pieces is, you have to want to play the game. If you are just coasting, it doesn't work very well.

- Finding that balance point - We were talking about the difference between a normal company that has an employer/employee model vs this loose community of dependable - We also talked about how some companies are replacing the traditional model with robots, AI (artificial intelligence), or automated services. Where are those balance points and what makes things tip to one side or the other? One of the core concepts that we have is, our main product creates tons of subs or by-products. We can allow others to pick-up any of those by-products by offering their services (basically an open market type option).

- Some of this is just happening and we are figuring it out as we go... We have plans, we try things, we fail sometimes, we go backwards and forwards, we try to listen, we harvest other's ideas, we experiment, we tweak, we refine, we circle back around. That seems to work for us. It is more of the try storming type mentality vs just a plan it and build it type model.

- Randomly enough, we keep getting people circling back around after years of talking with them initially (old sales leads). We also have other people who are looking for and needing some of the functionality that we are working on and/or already have. The general public needs keep advancing right along with us. Step by step building process. Keep building towards the full system (fully interconnected pieces) and even full world building levels.

- Talking about commissions and outbound monies and such - Steve used the word semi-dependable (not a full dependable, but still part of the whole team).

- Finding the glide plane - like an airplane coming in for a landing.

- Tag teaming based on abilities - Coach, put me in... I want to play or give me a shot.

- People putting in time to help move the ball forward - Steve would like to move the company into a trust at some point.

- We are excited that we are moving some things over to deeper and more expanded technologies - tech stuff and server models.

- Keep working to get out of the way

- There is some magic in having a business plan but it can have limits - we do need some direction but it also helps to have your head up and be looking around. Our current business plan is "we are heading North" or something like "we are heading to the top of the mountain" - we have a direction and a way to go about it, that's about it. Fill in the gaps and cross the bridges as they come up (we know they are out there, but we don't have a full plan in place for every little thing).

- What about enjoying the journey? There is some fun in planning out the journey and then responding to cause and effect relationships that happen based on those decisions. That sounds like world building, in a way. The five core concepts of world building are: Characters, relationships, trouble/problems, decisions, and consequences - see this element of time for more information... https://data0.adilas.biz/top_secret/time_web_gallery.cfm?corp=371&id=3634

- Some people will like what we do and sadly, we may make some enemies - we want to keep it as an open model - there are tons of options out there. We welcome those who want to play and we'll keep refining and building as we go. We want people who are looking for a solution and are willing to help and invest in their solution. We want to make adilas consumable... what do you want and how can you make it work for you?

- Model of being able to charge for different components - it all needs to exist - what if we showed all of the 12 main players and what part of their bill gets charged out and/or applied to what part of the 12 main players? That could be pretty cool.

- We may want to open up the adilas ecommerce piece to all of our clients. Currently, they have to pay for the extended ecommerce functionality.

- Data - the new currency... people are offering features and functions for free, just so that they can collect data. Very interesting.

- Steve would like to help push forward the ideas of the adilas café - a virtual community of users and/or other companies that offer their services - that will be really cool - helping to push the ball along the path using the skills and talents of others (a community of adilas power users and/or outside services). Once again, the by-products are a huge part of the model.

- We do need some standardization pieces, but some of our model is the flexible ways you can do it... We need both side of the fence.

- We ended by doing a brief look at where we have been and where we are going (historical summary of invoices and client based financials). Good stuff.

Analogies for defining deeper processes

Steve - Business is like a pirate ship - (who is the crew, are they good/bad, who is doing what)

Kelly - Business is like a body - (what is your tool to get to your goals)

- Goals and sub goals to get to the bigger goal. Adilas is just a tool. The people who use it are the ones making the goals.

- Talk is great, but we need to work on some implementations (getting out there and doing it).

- How do we implement the tool... this drives customer satisfaction.

- Adilas is so flexible that sometimes that is a problem

- Kelly was not saying don't be flexible... but we need a standard starting place

- There are new things that get launched all the time... without any training - this keeps deepening the need for good reps and consultants

- Unintended consequences

- Pressure and pain drives the current development cycle

- Everyone looks to a system to be "The" solution - systems can do a lot of things, but they can't save you from yourself

- Good physical control of the system is a huge key - stick to the plan and then go from there

- Many of the business owners don't even know what they are doing and then that translates to their business processes

- Helping to setup mini goals for the client... miniature options for success

- Addressing the physical before jumping into a digital realm

- Sometimes, a companies leadership will drive things right into a ditch

- Kelly has been doing some research on what other developers and companies do to help standardize things

- A good setup will make or break the whole deal... from there forward (what milestones are set and achieved and was there a good handoff between the software company and the rep/consultant)

- Accountability practices

- When a client has a question, have tech support use the user guide as their answer. As a side note, Shannon and Brandon are working on the adilas user guide.

- On numbering... instead of using a straight 1, 2, 3, 4... system (single numbers). Maybe think more along hundreds 100, 200, 300, 400... (lots of room to add and subtract as needed)

- Sub attributes - Kelly doesn't think that piece is fully "strong", yet we are building upon it. Steve thinks the concepts are pretty good. We just need to fix some of the coding pieces to help get reports, searches, and exports more up to speed.

- Steve was talking about the complexity of even servers - we had a meeting this morning that just dealt with servers (hours and hours). So many moving pieces and working with somewhat limited funding and talent options.

- Due to our current size, we almost have to say - in order to setup clients, you will need to setup an adilas specialist (in your company) and we will help train them. They will then help push that ball forward.

- Some of our squeeze points deal with persons who have the skills, talents, and time. We have masters like Steve, Brandon, Kelly, Daniel, etc.

- Start by defining the language that we are speaking - adilas is its own language - A good starting point - how do we communicate things, as a company

- People want organization and structure - being too thinly spread can be a big problem

- Allowing dreaming and custom options - we love it but that could be a problem - we may get in trouble by giving them too much or too many options.

- Maybe have them run with the standard options for 6 months and then talk about going into the custom realm - we have seen problems with people going into full on custom too quickly.

- Like an airplane - put the oxygen on yourself first and then help others around you - you end up selling what you do

- Setting clear expectations

- Maybe have some tools and education (training materials) about how to run a business and how to use the tools - Steve has had the ideas of putting on basic business seminars across the country. We could use the adilas tool as the backbone of the basic business training sections.

- We are seeing a bigger and bigger need for training, guided training, and even self training. This could be checked and/or quality assurance based on skills, tests, scenarios, sign-off's, etc. In traditional learning environments, there is standardization, testing, feedback, etc.

- What about using elements of time to help monitor the virtual checklist of what has been done and to what level?

- We do need a team, but at what level do we need to get to? That gets tough. People resources are always tough to manage.

- More training sessions - pros and cons to our current model - people want to learn in privacy - some of the training sessions get out of control (high jacked).

- Vocabulary and what things do and what we call things is a big part of the puzzle

- Some people don't want to know the why (that takes time)... they often just want to know how (show me quickly so I can do it)

- Education from gaming - 2 minutes or less - quick YouTube type mentality

- What kind of users are you? Do you like to self train? Do you want the easy button? Do you shoot from the hip (all the time) or are you a detailed oriented person who likes to organize and manage things? Great questions... help pre-qualify them in a way. The adilas system works best if the users want to put the things into the system (feed it) and play the whole game.

- Sadly, we can't fix everything... sometimes, we have to just go to the next person

- AI (artificial intelligence) and where things are going - automating setups and then automating tech support - keep going where things are going (skate to where the puck is going)

- Working on your company vs working in your company - focus on working on it and making it better

- What is the low hanging fruit and where can we start?

- How many touch points are needed to get someone setup? Who setups up the quote? Who turns things on? Who setups up things? Who does logos and watermarks? Who does labels? etc. - you get the idea - try to automate as much as possible.

- Somewhat of an internal bulletin board - who is doing what and what changes are going on in those shifts

- Just adding bodies doesn't always help things - events happen, how do you deal with that - there has to be an internal training process to take care of those things. It comes down to core things that are needed. Who is going to do those things (virtual checklist of what is needed)? Light talks about templates.

- Function vs fashion - where do you spend your time? We may not be able to solve everything but we can try to take the edge off of things. We want to show them what is possible. We want to present a nice package. We also want to make sure that things work (functionality) for them.

- Steve and I are trying to get out of the way. We are trying to fully get the process all setup and dialed in. Sometimes, if we are a pivotal part of the puzzle, it just doesn't happen, we are maxed out.

- Going back to consistency... We know we need it, we are trying to work through it and then actually using it. What can you expect every time? We also need a timing of those events... when should we do things, not just what should be done. There is a difference.

- Sustainability - We need to keep doing this (our business) for years to come... let's set ourselves up for success.

- Building our own processes to help with project management, task management, and to do list checkboxes before doing x (fill in the blank). Templates and automation processes. Help share the load.

- Things are changing super fast... nobody knows everything - we are currently letting different parties run with what they think needs to be done vs having one person giving orders and then getting a good return and report type process. Currently, it is somewhat of a community type effort.

- Why are we doing it and should we do it? Check this out before you jump in. Think of the consequences first.

- Kelly is going to help get a group together to help bring up the structure level and get the oars (some driving and direction) into Kelly's hands. We need a good driver who won't run us aground. We are going to let Kelly run with some things on the core management side of things.

- We are going to be starting at the very beginning and then going from there. A great place to start.