Alarms go off early, and there is an excited buzz in the air. The latest Agency Mavericks recruits, endearingly referred to as the ‘Newbies’, will soon become ‘WPE Alumni’.
The right of passage? Completing the Blueprint, printing the certificate and posting a certificate-selfie in the Facebook group.
What follows is a ‘Life in the day of the Agency Mavericks’ on Blueprint Exam Release Day from my perspective (I'm Gin, the Community Happiness/Digital Producer kind Jack of all trades gal at WPE). Come along for the ride… you’re going to love it!
The Back-Story
The Blueprint course is a 6-week course that covers crucial components of successfully running a WordPress business. The members are drip-fed the course, with a new module being released each Friday morning. We love gamification and have included a Leaderboard as part of the experience to encourage participation and keep motivation high.
On exam day, the first ten students to finish the exam and post a photo to the private Facebook page receive a bonus 10,000 points (to be in the running for a private Coaching Cal). It’s 6 weeks of hard work and on the final day, members have been reported to experience conflicting emotions of fear, joy and relief.*
*We’ve had no reports of tears at this point in time, but I’ve no doubt that tears have been shed!
Day Before Exam Release
The team is prepped for the big day. We’re briefed on the 9:30 am exam release and to expect an influx of selfies in the Facebook group.
As Ray busily prepares a spreadsheet of congratulatory gifs and memes, Troy checks that the bell we ring each time someone completes the exam is shined and in working order.
8am – Exam Day
The big day has arrived and Coach Cath has been given the almost impossible task of running the final Coaching Call just an hour before exam release! She attempts to reign in student's excitement and exam-day-jitters whilst trying to remain focused on the topic at hand – “Questions about securing quality referrals.” Her task becomes increasingly difficult as the call progresses, and she finally gives up to join in the banter between Richard and Nathan, who are both staying up until about 1:00 AM in their respective time zones for the sole purpose of being the first to complete the exam. The race is on. Resistance is futile.
9:30am- Exam is Released
At precisely 9:30am the Blueprint exam is pushed live to the member’s site. With the horses off and racing, it’s exactly 9:39 when the first member makes it over the line. Unfortunately for Nathan, Robert pips him at the post, finishing first and posting his certificate-selfie, mere seconds before him.
As the next few hours progress, the stream of selfies fill the Facebook feed Ray finally gets his opportunity to go crazy with his stash of gifs and memes…
10am – 6pm Exam Day
Throughout the day I keep a close eye on the completion stats using our shiny Graphly tool that allows us to set a goal for completion rates for each module and track progress.* We use Graphly with every new course intake and absolutely love it. Great for comparing stats from intake to intake as well.
*The bit about me checking the Graphly stats may be a white lie propagated to make me look really amazing . Truth be told, Ray is the one who set up the metrics and regularly checks the progress. I just felt that with all the gif and meme cred he is getting in this post, I needed to boost my appeal.
6pm – 4am Exam Day (and onto the next)
As the Australian day draws to a close, our UK and US coaches Mike and Kristina take charge and continue the encouragement and congratulations as the other side of the world begins their day.
The one thing that I love most about the Agency Mavericks community is the incredible amount of support the members offer each other. I was so touched to see all the congratulatory messages (and yes, more gifs) from our community mentors and long-term members like Phillis, Torkild and Nathalie to name but a few. It truly was one of those warm-fuzzy, unicorn lovin’ kind of days.
Day After Exam Release
Once an Elevator completes the exam, we send them a questionnaire via SurveyMonkey about the course. It’s short and sweet, and we use the results to calculate our Net Promoter Score (NPS). These are the four questions we ask:
- How likely are you to refer Agency Mavericks to a friend?
- How do you rate the training at Agency Mavericks?
- How would you describe the Agency Mavericks community?
- What training would you like to see in the future?
We collate the results and use the information to guide us in future content and community development.
You can see our Net Promoter Score Here.
I am so damn proud of our Net Promoter Score; in an industry where the average score is 38, we are hitting 80!
The entire team put so much work into making the course, membership and community so valuable, and these results are a little something tangible to reward our effort. I have to tell you though, it’s the members of the community that truly make it what it is. But don’t take my word for it, check out some of the feedback we’ve received in the last couple of days…
TIP: Want to Know More?
If you want to learn more about the strategies and tools we use to nurture the awesome Agency Mavericks community, check out: 5 Ways to Grow a Loyal and Active Tribe.
2 Days After Exam Release
With the selfies still rolling in and the bell on the desk still regularly ringing, we take some time to assess the incoming feedback and start to prepare for a team debrief in the next week or so. It’s been a busy 6 weeks and we can now start to take a bit of down time to concentrate on keeping the newly appointed alumni engaged and motivated to implement their new learnings.
What does Troy do two days after exam release? Well, he goes and gets a celebratory tattoo of course!
I want to hear your thoughts. If you're a Agency Mavericks member, let me know what part of WPE you have got the most value from. If you're not a member, yet I want to hear about the best course experience you've had. What made it so exceptional?
