I always liked to learn in the real world context where the skill could be found. I learned languages by going to live in the countries where they spoke them. I learned to be a programmer by seeking ways to solve real requirements of my clients and by consulting with the masters of the skill on the spot. I learned to be a project manager by working alongside project managers in real situations. Instead of teaching software classes I worked with small cohorts applying software to solve their actual work problems. Real-life just-in-time learning has always been my ethos. With my recent masters of adult education, and now my doctorate in online education, I naturally gravitated towards learning-by-doing theories and practices. Recently, I developed an innovation to make learning hands-on equipment skills more real for a virtual learner. That is what brought me to EPM..how could I develop a way to bring this solution to the world? I hadn’t listened to Marisa and her Live Your Message presentation for more than a few minutes before I knew I had found the perfect answer for developing online education that genuinely serves the needs of a learner. She spoke my learning-by-doing language! The sophistication in the EPM still astounds and delights me. So many of the practice-based learning principles can be found here – "experience product" is a good name! My time for EPM was constantly hijacked by the intensity of completing my dissertation over the past 3 months. My mission statement made no sense to anyone until the aha! moment when I realized I needed to speak to a different audience than educators – I needed to speak to leaders at the helm of their education organizations. That required me to pivot from a $2K product to a $25K product (at half price!); and from individual educators to academic presidents and CLOs as my audience. That jammed me up for a long time. How can I do an MVP when I am immediately working at a professional level and need professional assets? For weeks, I was just paralyzed and had trouble putting my Chatterbox together. So funny…because I write thousands and thousands of words for scholarly papers describing the very innovation I am trying to sell. Finally, just now in January, I pushed through my fear and blocks. What was the biggest fear? Preparing to speak to executive level decision makers about money. I am still a little shaky, but I have spoken to two high-end decision makers and tomorrow I will have a conversation with a college VP. Each time I go through it, I feel a little more confident. I listen to the recordings and see where I can improve. Asking for that much money for my innovation takes practice to sound confident and to do those pivot points…even though inside I know this is a good thing for them. Kudos to Marisa for kicking us out of the “I can’t do this” mindset!! AND I COMPLETED MY MVP IN THE NICK OF TIME.