It was less than a year ago that I first met with the Torchlight team to take a look at what the company does and where it sits in the US caregiving ecosystem. As a member of the board of advisors, my role then was to help the company reimagine its approach to how it speaks with its many stakeholders. But my role was to also help the company reimagine its approach to how it helps educate its stakeholders beyond what it does via the product.
As of March 1 this year, as Torchlight’s CMO, I’ve been accelerating my work in each of these areas. But it’s in the second area—stakeholder education—where I see the bigger opportunity.
As a caregiver myself, I have often looked for trusted resources that could make me smarter and more secure carrying out “my second job.” But, as I have learned in my work for other organizations, the best way to educate is to help organize the people who are most expert, rather than do all the teaching yourself.
In marketing, this is what in fact defines a learning community, as opposed to, let’s say, an online course. With community, the members are the experts. The companies who help launch communities are stewards – and experts, too –but they are not the keepers of the knowledge trust.
So today we announced the upcoming launch of TLC, the Torchlight Learning Community, and we are starting our work on May 24 with the first of series of online/offline events where we will convene people from different corners of our world. That includes employers and employees who are caregivers, the two groups for which Torchlight has built its platform to reduce the costs and complexities of modern caregiving. But it also includes a wide spectrum of thought leaders, policymakers, and our peers in technology who are helping to reshape how services are defined and delivered. We’re going to do our best to bring us all together and in a way that not only aligns with but fortifies our mission: to help people navigate the ever-growing and complex world of caregiving.
That’s what the Torchlight platform is for, and TLC will do the same but in the form of civil conversation and debate—with a little tender loving care—online and at a location near you.
See you soon!