The Ascendence Group

Here is TAG’s initial presentation to University partners.

Six weeks ago, we faced a huge challenge: an increasing number of students were writing and calling in with the same questions: “What exactly do you guys do at TAG? How will your service help me?”

We quickly realized that we needed something stronger than words to communicate our message. We needed a killer video, and we needed it fast.

So we approached a number of different film companies with an incredibly difficult challenge: explain TAG’s service in a way that will make people say, “Ah ha! I get it.”

Note: I write “incredibly difficult” because nothing like TAG’s service exists today. We’re creating an entirely new industry within ‘Educational Services’. Explaining an entirely new concept in a clear, concise way is, as I have discovered, incredibly difficult.

After a fair number of interviews and much deliberation, 1/29 Films was chosen to execute our vision. And execute they did! They delivered our project on time, on budget, and with fantastic client support. And most importantly, they delivered a bodacious video! Take a look for yourself and let us know what you think…

A special thanks to the guys at 1/29 Films. Well done.

P.S. What do you think? Z5P3FUGYP6FX

At TAG, we’ve come a long way in a very short amount of time. So as we begin the next stage of our growth, I thought it would be interesting to take a trip down memory lane and show you the evolution of TAG’s website.

Date: November 2008

Design Company: Explosive Image

TAG Remarks: Really bad experience with these guys!

Date: January 2009

Design Company: Webraven

TAG Remarks: Yet another disappointing experience!

Date: April 2009

Design Company: Logic by Design

TAG Remarks: Third time was not a charm! …

When you make the jump from college to career, one thing becomes blatantly obvious: the skills that are vital to your success in the real world are not the skills you learned in school.

In fact, these “success skills” are so different that it actually makes you angry to think about what else you could have done with that $100,000 you spent on college – like taking that 12 month world tour you’ve always dreamed about.

Think about it…was Advanced English useful? No, not if you’re a copywriter. In fact, many writers have to be re-trained to write at an 8^th grade level. That’s right…write dumber so people can understand your message! How about Finance…was that useful? Maybe a bit, but it’s nothing you couldn’t have picked up after reading a few decent books. Computer classes? Hell no. You can learn much more from surfing the net and educating yourself than going to class. The truth is, knowledge you acquired in school is not very useful in the real world, at least not on a day-to-day basis.

I became acutely aware of this during my first job at Goldman Sachs. Nothing I studied for the prior 4 years was even remotely useful in that job. It made me wonder what the point of college was. But I digress…

You see, it wasn’t until after I started working that my real education began. As I looked around me, I started to see a knowledge gap – there was a big difference between what it took to be successful in school and what it took to be successful in the real world.

And as my career progressed from Goldman Sachs to a hedge fund, I became more and more convinced about the presence of this knowledge gap. It was inescapable – those who deleted their mental hard drives and forgot all about “getting an A” and instead focused on acquiring “real world” skills were promoted faster, got higher pay, and were happier at work.

As I transitioned from hedge fund analyst to entrepreneur I thought to myself, “How can students benefit from this insight? How can we fill this knowledge gap so that recent graduates can become more successful, earlier in their career?”

And so began the construction of TAG’s Mentorship Program …

TAG’s Mentorship Program is a course in Real World Insight (notice the similarity with the name of this blog?). Not only do students get matched with a professional in their dream company (yes, whatever company they are interested in working for), but they are meeting and discussing topics that are essential to career success. It’s basically an entire relationship designed to help students conquer the “Knowledge Gap” and become more successful professionals.

…

BHAG stands for Big Hairy Audacious Goal. As opposed to the traditional “I’m going to exercise more next year” goal, a BHAG is meant to be a visionary goal…a clear and compelling statement about what you want to accomplish in your personal life or in business. For example, Twitter’s BHAG is to become the “pulse of the planet.”

With that as a backdrop, it’s high time TAG put its stake in the ground and defined its 2010 goal and “the BHAG.”

TAG’s 2010 goal: to manage 1,000 student relationships.

TAG’s BHAG: to become the content provider for every mentorship program in the United States.

What do you think? What’s your BHAG for 2010 and beyond? Let me know!

P.S. Have a happy and healthy New Year!