The structure
How this makes money, and where the value settles
The ladder below lists what can be sold. This is the layer underneath it — what kind of business those products add up to, and which of them build something that outlasts a calendar.
What it is shaped like today
A practice
David is the product. Income is his calendar. The ceiling is his hours, the value is his reputation, and it ends when he stops.
Every revenue line currently on the site routes back to his time — keynote, workshop, cohort, coaching. Even the book’s job is to fill the calendar.
Most author-speakers are this and never notice, because it feels like success right up until it stops scaling.
What the assets already allow
A methodology company
The JJFF™ is the product. David is its most credible teacher, not its only one.
The pieces already exist: a named framework, an assessment instrument, a five-block taxonomy with a repair for each, and a three-book ladder. That is IP. It is the same whether he is in the room or not.
Nothing new has to be invented to move here. It has to be documented.
Value is created for the employee and captured from the employer. That asymmetry is normal and it is the model — but it only works if something bridges the two. Right now the employee gets everything free and the employer has no route in except a contact form, which is precisely why real value is being created and nothing at all is being captured.
TierWhat it isWhy it mattersSold today
Time
David in a room. Keynotes, coaching.
Highest rate per hour, zero scale. Stops dead when he stops.
Yes
Product
The book, the field guide.
Infinite copies, near-zero marginal cost. Earns while he sleeps, never earns much.
Nov / not yet
Program
Cohorts, public or inside one company.
Leveraged time — one David, twenty people. First rung with real margin.
Described only
License
The JJFF taught inside a company by their own people, or by certified facilitators. Materials, training, an annual fee.
Income without David in the room. The tier that turns a career into an asset the entity owns.
No
The order it has to run in
Free content→the assessment→the field guide and the book→engagements→licensing
Attention becomes names, names become buyers, buyers become proof, and proof is what makes licensing sellable at all. Everything above the last rung is the proof engine. That reframes the whole ladder: the field guide is not a $24 product, it is evidence that people will pay for the method. The first engagement is not one fee, it is the case study that makes the tenth one sellable without David pitching it.
Does it earn without David in the room?
If no, it is income. If yes, it is an asset. A business can carry some of the first, but it is only worth something if it has some of the second.
Does the value settle in the entity?
Simrock owns the marks, so licensing accrues to something that can be built, valued and handed on. A speaking fee accrues to a calendar and disappears with it.
Does it make the next sale easier?
Anything that produces a case study, a testimonial or a named organization compounds. Anything that produces only a payment is a one-off, however large.
Where it actually stands today
Nothing in the business earns without David. Until one thing does, this is a practice with good branding.
There is no capture mechanism at all — no processor, no store, no list that can send. That one is small and immediate; the first is the real work.
The niche makes the last tier more plausible, not less: hospitality, healthcare, retail, senior living and logistics run enormous frontline populations and already buy retention curriculum. A company that size does not want one workshop — it wants the method in its own managers’ hands. That is licensing, and it is the same buyer the whole positioning already points at.
