Looking Forward with a Growth Mindset During 2021 AP Summit

As a fully remote organization, one of Acceleration Partners’ strengths is knowing how to connect and embrace relationships in a virtual environment. Our annual AP Summit virtually brought together our 250+ global employees from 40 locations in 10 countries for a celebration of the team’s 2021 achievements and a look ahead at the great things to come.

We recognized and cheered on team members, learned and grew together through thought leadership presentations, and laughed along with our senior leadership team’s performance antics.

Read on for more details and a glimpse into our 2021 AP Summit!

The Super Partners Return

During our virtual AP Summit of 2020, Acceleration Partners’ senior leadership team introduced the Super Partners, who are dedicated to saving clients’ partnership marketing programs from low-value publishers, cookie cutter strategies and incredibly high costs.

This year, Captain Acceleration and his Super Partners fought a dastardly partnership marketing villain – The Funneler – with AP’s core values: Own It, Embrace Relationships, and Excel and Improve.

By the end of the skit, the senior leadership team had us all dying from laughter and in hopeful anticipation of a third Super Partners installment… stay tuned!

Looking Behind and Looking Forward

Robert Glazer, Founder of Acceleration Partners, reminded us that despite the challenges we’ve faced in the last two years, we’ve always found a way to overcome each one. In some ways, it’s felt like we’ve fallen seven times but stood up eight.

In 2021, we’ve taken great strides toward our goals, including:

• 168 new employees since last AP Summit
• 83 promotions
• 62 Client NPS
• 18 multi-region programs
• 50% revenue growth
• 82 clients above $100k
• Charitable partnership launched with JA Worldwide
• Monthly DEI forum to foster empathy, respect and equal opportunities for all
• And much more!

We’ve also started taking significant steps toward our Vivid Vision 2024 goals:

• Rolling out next version of APVision (technology enabled services)
• Expanding service offerings, launching B2B and influencer marketing services
• Growing globally, with a new business entity in Germany

At Acceleration Partners, our singular focus is creating and nurturing partnerships that drive exceptional outcomes for our clients. Partnerships that cross channels, industries, and oceans to supercharge growth. As we start making plans for the future, this will be at the forefront of all that we do.

“Today’s accomplishments were yesterday’s impossibilities.” – Robert Schiller

“Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.” – Bill Gates

Children, Pets and Cameo Highlights

There were several highlight reels during AP Summit, including a sweet video capturing some of our employees’ children describing what they think their parents do at work and what it’s like having a parent working from home—from their hilarious point-of-view.

We also got an adorable slideshow of the furry companions that join us at work every day – or at least try to!

And to everyone’s surprise and delight, some words of wisdom were passed on via Cameo appearances by Mr. T (best known for his role of BA, aka “Bad Attitude”, Baracus on The A Team), Thiago Silva (Brazilian professional footballer), and Kate Flannery (Meredith from The Office).

Building Resilience and a Growth Mindset with Eric Kapitulik

Our keynote speaker for 2021 AP Summit was the incredibly motivating Eric Kapitulik, who had previously spoken at Acceleration Partners’ 2018 AP Summit.

Eric detailed his harrowing experience of narrowly escaping a helicopter crash as a marine. The helicopter hit the side of an aircraft carrier and crashed into the Pacific Ocean. While Eric managed to escape to safety, he lost 6 men that day and was forever impacted by the experience.

He went on to compete in eight iron man triathlons and many other endurance races, along with becoming a high-altitude mountaineer, even summiting Mount Everest. He also started a leadership and development program to inspire others to cultivate a growth mindset.

One of the most significant pieces of advice Eric gave was committing to being a great teammate and great team leader by setting an example in everything we do and holding each other accountable to those high standards.

As a team, it’s vital to build up mental, emotional and physical resilience to meet high standards. Despite what some have said, we don’t typically rise to the occasion when the going gets tough—instead, we fall back on the habits we’ve been developing up until then. As a team, we should begin the day-to-day tasks of developing positive, growth-focused habits we want to see.

At the end of his presentation, the floor opened up for employees to ask Eric questions. One question that resonated in particular with employees was: “How do we ensure cohesiveness in our teams in a remote world?”

His answer: “This comes back to the importance of having effective communication. A great golden rule to follow is asking yourself three questions: What do I know? Who else needs to know? Have I told them?”

Handing off the Torch to Matt Wool

During 2021 AP Summit, Robert Glazer formally made the announcement that Matt Wool has officially been promoted to CEO of Acceleration Partners.

This exciting promotion also marks Robert Glazer’s transition to the role of Founder and Chairman of the Board at Acceleration Partners. Matt and Robert have maintained a strong partnership founded on trust, respect and an appreciation for how they complement each other’s strengths and weaknesses. During Acceleration Partners’ next phase of growth, Matt is the perfect person to lead AP onto greater things.

Matt’s leadership has played a crucial role in AP’s considerable growth over the past few years. He has shepherded the businesses strategic plan and has ensured the organization continues to execute against it while maintaining the unique company culture. Over the past three years, Matt and Bob have rounded out the excellent executive team at AP, brought on a new investment partner and completed two acquisitions, while growing our revenue over 50% through both new and retained clients.

Awards Ceremony

The 2021 AP Summit concluded with a grand awards ceremony, where Acceleration Partners employees were recognized for their outstanding work and all the times they’ve gone above and beyond.

At Acceleration Partners, we believe in powering our own journeys, which means every employee has the opportunity to cultivate the career they want and become the leaders they were destined to be. Join us in congratulating this year’s award winners:

• 5 Year Awards: Amy Crider, Carmen Moloney, Tess Waresmith, Vikki Danielson, Heather Creamer, Kelly Ground
• Rookie of the Year (Jr.) Award: Annie Ferlmann
• Rookie of the Year (Sr.) Award: Jacob Flickinger
• Stepping It Up (Jr.) Award: Kelsey Anderson
• Stepping It Up (Sr.) Award: Tim Bruderek
• Firmbuilding Award: Stephanie Lester
• AP 360 Award: Dan Shapiro
• Own It Award: Molly Hughson
• Embrace Relationships Award: Gencina Vitoulis
• Excel & Improve Award: Madison Malasavage
• Core Values All Around Award: Sophie Parry-Billings
• Leadership Recognition Award: Stephanie Swan

After celebrating our exceptional employees, we moved onto the Dream Awards. Each year, team members are given the opportunity to be selected to see their dreams realized. They were created to help make meaningful and life-changing goals and ambitions of Acceleration Partners employees a reality.

Some Dream Awards given out this year included:

• Donations to employees’ charities of choice with a $1,000 check from Acceleration Partners
• Resources to help one employee realize their book publication goals
• Personal 1:1 training sessions to help employees reach their health and fitness goals
• Travel gift cards and paid-for stays to take much needed vacation time with loved ones
• Financial consultant services to help manage debt and investment opportunities

Thank you to everyone at Acceleration Partners—we hope you all achieve your personal and professional goals in 2022.

Interested in joining a company that values and prioritizes its employees, provides un-matched opportunities and resources, and inspires all-around success? Let’s connect!