Tag Archives: Marketing

Email Marketing to Increase Your Sales and Conversions

Benefits of Email Marketing

There are so many reasons to focus on email marketing for your business, whether it’s a brick and mortar business or a digital one. Let’s discuss some of these reasons so that you can make the most informed choice.

It used to be that only huge corporations were able to take advantage of email marketing as a targeted and very affordable form of digital advertising. Now this strategy is available to everyone, from Fortune 100 companies to solopreneurs. With the click of a mouse you are able to get your name, brand, and offerings in front of your prospects and clients.

It takes much less time to connect with others via email. Marketing in this way is a shortcut that just makes sense. Using a template for your copy and graphics makes it possible to accomplish in hours what previously took days or weeks. Also, email marketing is all done in real time, so there will never be lag time when it comes to time sensitive offers, sales, and other happenings within your business or industry.

You most likely love personalized messages as much as I do, and marketing in this way makes that a simple task. Using the mail merge features of your autoresponder service allows you to include special information within your email messages, such as birthday, login information, and purchase history. This is an amazing feature!

You can also segment your database to send them more targeted email marketing campaigns over time. These will convert well and increase your sales because they are so specific. The idea here is to provide them with the most relevant message they are likely to respond to at that point in time. And because these messages are short and to the point, you can communicate with prospects and clients more frequently without additional costs.

When I use email marketing with a new niche, part of it includes testing new marketing strategies to see what people are responding to. Because there is no printing or postage costs involved this part of my business is much faster and easier to implement on a regular basis.

And forwarding an email that has an enticing or a useful offer or information is only going to take a few seconds. A lot of people will do it if you remind them to share with others who might be interested and benefit from the information. This means that your marketing efforts will not only have a wider reach but people will also begin to act as your brand ambassadors by sharing your information.

Email marketing can also be done at a low overhead cost. You don’t need to have a lot of employees, marketing analysts or even designers, and many online entrepreneurs do this with only the help of one or two virtual assistants. There are services such as Aweber which will provide you with professionally designed templates that can be changed to suit your needs. An effective marketing campaign will only need a good email marketing platform or service. You can become a skilled marketer who knows how to put the right offers and graphics in front of their community. The return on your investment from email marketing cannot be surpassed.

A well thought out and developed email marketing platform will provide you with tracking information on the number of people on your list that opened and email and read it, the number of people who clicked the link in an email, the specific link in the email that was clicked, how many people complained the email was spam, if the email was unsubscribed and if your email reached the recipients inbox. These simple metrics can mean everything to your business success over the years.

Finally, using email for your marketing is good for the environment. Cutting down fewer trees is a noble goal and you are making a decision that’s helping the planet while improving your business. It’s a win-win!

I’m Connie Ragen Green, online marketing strategist, bestselling author, and international speaker on the topics of entrepreneurship and inner game mind shifts. Let’s connect to see how I may best serve you in the near future.

Email Marketing: Writing to One Person

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Email marketing was not an activity I had any knowledge around when I first came online. I began joining people’s list and receiving their regular emails, but when I needed to start doing this for myself I was at a loss as to how to structure each message.

Early on I had started sharing a little bit about my life and business, but I would word it in this way…”I know all of you are interested in how I got started online.” Or “Many people wrote to ask me when my next teleseminar was going to be.”

The problem with writing in this way is that you are attempting to write to everyone instead of writing to the one person who will read your email. I also did this on my teleseminars, addressing “all of you” instead of simply “you”. Even though this may be perceived on a subconscious level by the people you are connecting with, it is perceived nonetheless and will definitely affect your relationship with them over time.

When a mentor pointed this out to me and I made the change to my email marketing, my business changed overnight! I began to have greater engagement with the people on my list, as well as more sales. Each person on my list felt like I was writing just to them instead of to hundreds or thousands of people.

I would encourage you (in the beginning I would have said something like “everyone who is reading this”) to go through your own autoresponder sequence and broadcast messages to see how your wording is structured. And host another teleseminar as soon as possible to start speaking to just one person instead of to everyone. Do this with your blog posts, short reports, and videos as well.

Over the years I have studied with some of the greatest online marketers of our time and they each emphasize what I am sharing with you here today. By making the Internet a place where I person is able to connect with one other person, instead of one person connecting with the masses, you are able to leverage the power of reaching so many while still speaking to just one person at a time.

I ask my students to do an exercise where they write an email message to their list and see how many times they can use the words “you” and “your” and how few times they can use “I”, “we”, “my”,or “us”. It takes some getting used to, but the result is most definitely worth it and your email marketing campaigns will become epic instead of random and commonplace.

You have come online to build a business that will serve the needs and desires of yourself and your family. When you take that leap of faith and follow what you know in your heart will change your life forever, you open up the possibilities forever. You also set an excellent example for the people closest to you. It is my goal to serve you in a way that will allow you to take the necessary steps to success as an online entrepreneur.

Do you see what I mean?

Relationship Marketing for Entrepreneurs

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Relationship Marketing

I’ve incorporated something called “relationship marketing” into my business since the very beginning, and now many people are doing the same thing. The idea behind this is that it focuses on client and prospect loyalty and long-term engagement rather than shorter-term goals like customer acquisition and individual sales.

A couple of years ago I was having a phone conversation with legendary marketer Marlon Sanders when I mentioned that I had just got off the phone with one of my new customers.

“Stop the presses!” he exclaimed, just loudly enough to make me jump out of my chair while halfway across the country.

Marlon could not believe that I took people offline to connect with them at various points during our relationship. He insisted on knowing more, so I spent the next two hours sharing what was working for me and answering each of his questions in great detail.

I knew that Marlon did this as well. Years ago I had purchased something from him and had difficulty with downloading the file. When I put in a support ticket I was pleasantly surprised to hear from him personally on the phone. He still does that to this day from time to time.

I shared my thoughts on why reaching out to a prospect, new customer, or to an ongoing client by picking up the phone or scheduling a call with them is such as excellent idea.

First, just about no one else is doing this. Second, when you are speaking directly with someone in this way you quickly establish a relationship with them that is unlike anything you can do through emails or even small group calls or webinars. It’s even better than meeting them in person at a live workshop or conference in that you do not have the distraction of the crowd and the event.

Finally, speaking with them on the phone allows you to control the situation and truly listen to what the other person is telling you. Many times I will make them an offer that I wouldn’t have otherwise because now I know more about their situation and what they need.

Marlon asked me how long these calls typically lasted, and if I followed up with people in the future. I told him that the calls were best when limited to thirty minutes. That way we both stayed on topic and took the conversation seriously. And yes, I do follow up with people by email several days or a week later.

Then Marlon asked me if I had a specific funnel or path I would encourage someone to follow. My answer was no, because one size will never fit all. Each person’s goals and needs are different, depending upon a variety of variables. For example, someone could be brand new to online marketing and need more basic and general online marketing training. Or someone could be working on a book and need my Write – Publish – Prosper training program to help them finish writing the book so they could begin marketing and selling it to their target audience.

That day Marlon and I had one of our most productive conversations ever. We discussed the sales process, what’s new in online marketing, and how we could best support each other in the coming year. Then we got back on the topic of relationship marketing and why it is more important than just about anything else.

After that call my head hurt from so much thinking and analyzing, but it was a satisfying pain.

I’m Connie Ragen Green, an Online Marketing Strategist, bestselling author, and international speaker. Let’s connect to find out how we may work together in the future.

Content Marketing vs. Social Media Marketing

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Content Marketing vs. Social Media Marketing

Are you interested in knowing the difference between content marketing vs. social media marketing in order to provide these services for small businesses and entrepreneurs? In order to start and run a profitable content and social media management business, it’s important to understand how content marketing and social media marketing work together as well as how they are different. The best way to understand this is to look at the content marketing cycle.

Content Marketing Cycle

If you do a search on the net for “content marketing cycle” you’ll likely get several definitions about what it is. But essentially, it’s the entire cycle from start to finish involving content from its reason for existing to the results you get. Each part of this cycle gives you as the content and social media manager different options for earning a profit in your business while creating a profitable business for your clients, too.

Research

A lot of research needs to happen for each business that you work with. You’ll need to understand their audience, who their customers are, what customers they want to attract, and how to create useful and relevant content for that audience. This will take knowledge of how keywords work, and how search engines work to help drive traffic.

Many content and social media managers start with creating audience personas for their customers based on the research. They use that information along with product knowledge to create a publication and marketing plan for their clients. This plan will include titles of articles, and plans for videos and more for the client, depending on what type of content the client wants to go with. A mixture is best.

Create

Once they have the information garnered through research and a plan of action, the content and social media manager may create the content themselves or they may outsource it. Once you have a good plan and a content calendar created, it’s easy to outsource. You’ll provide the writer or other creative person, such as audio, video and graphic designers with the information and a deadline, and then you’ll get back the end product that you’ll then use for your client.

As a manager, consider outsourcing a lot of this, because you’ll be able to take on more clients if you outsource the creative parts of the work. Otherwise, you will need to ensure that you have enough time to create the amount of content each business owner needs you to create. Price yourself accordingly.

Optimize

It used to be that content optimization was all about keywords. Today, it’s much more focused on ensuring that the content is created for a specific audience because you want to ensure that trust is built between the audience and the business. That means that you’ll want to ensure that titles have keywords but aren’t clickbait. In other words, every headline you create should not trick the audience into clicking. Understating the intent of the audience helps.

In addition, you want all the content created to be well-made, using proper grammar, spelling, formatting and so forth. You want it to be easily digestible so that the consumer can stay focused and understand the information you’re trying to relay while establishing authority for your client, the business owner you’re working for, all the while ensuring that you create a call to action for every piece of content whether that’s read more, sign up now, buy now or something else entirely. Finally, today a highly optimized piece of content also includes important visual elements such as images that help explain your story.

Publish

Once the content is created, you’ll need to have a plan for publishing it. Most of the content that you create for your client should be published on your client’s online real-estate. The owned assets are most important, such as their blog and website. But, some content will also be published in other places such as Amazon Kindle, or YouTube, Slideshare.net, LinkedIn and as guest blog posts on other people’s sites.

You will also want to establish a good mixture with the most important pieces always being published first on the client’s blog or website that they own. Outside of the blog you’ll need informational pages on the website, newsworthy pieces, sharable social media content, video content, infographics, eBooks, and more that all start with being promoted on your client’s website or blog.

Promote

In some ways, this part of the content marketing cycle should be all in bold because it is one, if not the most, important aspect of being a content and social media manager for another business. This is what is going to get you the most bangs for your buck. Every single piece of content that is ever created and published on behalf of your client must be promoted. The days of just publishing and sitting back to wait for traffic are over.

The way in which you promote content starts with creating content that is specifically made for your client’s audience, is optimized with appropriate keywords, images, and titles, but then is also made available for them to read by promoting across all online channels using social media marketing. If a blog post goes up on the blog, it should then be shared on every social network with a blurb and an image to go along with it to make the audience want to click through it to consume the content.

Measure

One job of a content and social media manager is to keep tabs on the metrics. You’ll use various products to do this, but it usually starts with Google Analytics and native analytics in your social networks. Each time you publish anything, check at least quarterly for the results. You’ll start seeing a pattern after time with content that is getting better results than the others. Promote the content that gets higher results more.

For example, if you discover that your audience engages more with video, start doing more videos. This is the perfect time to understand the 80/20 rule, which states that 20 percent of the work you do gets 80 percent of the results. When you identify that 20 percent that’s getting the results, you will want to do more of that and less of the other things to improve your statistics even more.

Reuse/ Repurpose / Repeat

All this content creation can become overwhelming at times. But the more you learn about content marketing and social media marketing, the more you will realize that you can reuse and repurpose content across all channels. For example, if you have a blog post that is getting a lot of attention why not repurpose it into a YouTube video and vice versa?

When you remember to reuse content in a new format, and repeat what is working, you’ll find that you will become invaluable to your clients because of the results you’re going to get with the work you do.

If you work this hard to create the right type of content, and market it for your clients, you’ll soon become very sought after because you’re going to be getting huge results for your clients. Not only will you feel good about what you’re doing, but your clients are going to come to depend on you for your skills. Understand the similarities and differences with content marketing vs. social media marketing can be a key to building a rewarding and lucrative home business. Learn more about my Really Simple Content Marketing training course.

Connie Ragen Green is an online marketing strategist. Connect with her at ConnieRagenGreen.com

The Internet Marketing Lifestyle: Online Marketing Tips

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Online Marketing Tips

Recently I was asked to share what it means to me to have an online business. Tips I shared with the person I was discussing this topic with included details about the time and financial freedom one is able to enjoy as an online entrepreneur, as well as the lifestyle you are able to live when you can work from home, or from wherever you are in the world with an internet connection.

Long ago I worked as a classroom teacher, and to make ends meet I worked simultaneously as a real estate broker and residential appraiser. Over the years I grew weary of working six or seven days each week and still not being able to take time off or save much money. When I made the decision to leave that world behind in 2006 it was to live the internet lifestyle and to create a life for myself where I would have both the time and the income to call the shots every day. My life changed completely when I took action on my dream, and you can do the same thing if you understand what it takes to make it happen.

If this is a lifestyle you are interested in creating for yourself, here are some online marketing tips I will share with you:

Be prepared to work longer and harder than you ever have before for at least the first year so that you can “do for a year what others won’t; live the way others can’t, forever.”
Be the toughest boss you have ever had in the physical world. Focus and discipline will mean the difference between success and failure.
Take action every single day, if only for fifteen minutes. Keep what I refer to as a “dynamic to-do list” and get into creative mode by writing down your thoughts and ideas and then taking action to implement them.
Remember that online entrepreneurship is a business. Treat it like a business and it will pay you like a business. Treat it like a hobby and it will cost you like a hobby.
Know that the three parts of your business that are most important are posting to your blog at least twice a week, emailing your list as least twice a week, and creating simple information products to sell to others. Good enough is good enough, so do not complicate it.

I hope these online marketing tips have been helpful. You can achieve success and have time freedom and financial freedom if you follow my steps. Having an online business means you are in control of your own life and your destiny, and there can be no greater reward when it comes to your business.

Take a Look at My Internet Marketing Six Pack to Get Started as an Online Entrepreneur.

Live Streaming: Marketing Strategy

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Integrating a Live Streaming Marketing Strategy

Marketing tactics, channels, and efforts tend to be more powerful and effective when they are integrated. For example, you might share a blog post on your Facebook account. This is integrated marketing. You’re using Facebook to help promote your blog.

Chances are you might also have social media buttons on your blog, thus you’re using your blog to help build your social media audience. Everything is connected and works toward a common goal. That’s the power of integration.

As you begin to leverage live streaming, you’ll have better and faster results if you leverage your existing marketing tactics and channels. So let’s take a look at how to do that.

If You Don’t Have a Live Streaming Marketing Strategy and Plan, Create One

It’s quite difficult to create any type of consistency if you don’t have an existing strategy to work with. Your marketing strategy answers the following questions:

Who are you marketing to?
What are your marketing goals? (Hint, they should support your business plan and business goals)
How is your competition marketing?
What marketing channels will you use?
What are your goals for each specific channel?

Your marketing plan takes it a step further. Each marketing channel that you’re going to use will have specific goals and a plan of implementation. For example, your goal for your Facebook page might be to drive traffic to your opt-in offer. You might decide to post an original post every other day on Facebook and to interact with your followers and share on a daily basis.

Identify Opportunities

Taking a look at your existing marketing channels, identify opportunities to promote your live streaming and vice versa. For example, if you’re on twitter then that’s an easy one. Twitter is linked with both Meerkat and Periscope.

Automatic notifications are sent to followers. You can thus promote twitter in your live feeds and promote your live streaming show on Twitter. Both before, during, and after the show you can share tweets about the broadcast.

Measure and Track

Part of any good marketing strategy and integration is the ability to both track and measure results. That means setting goals that support your marketing goals and then implementing systems to evaluate your success. For example, if you want to use live streaming to drive traffic to your opt-in page, then consider creating a unique URL/landing page for that audience. Track how many visits you get to that site and how many sign-ups.

This information gives you the ability to evaluate your tactics and make changes to adapt to your audience. Live streaming can be incredibly powerful to build your business. However, it will generate better results if you make it part of your overall marketing strategy and integrate it with your other marketing tactics.

What is your live streaming marketing strategy?

Content Marketing Tips for Your Business

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Effective Content Marketing Tips

In the spring of 2006 I launched what was to become my online business. I was completely new to entrepreneurship and finding my way on a daily basis. Determined to forge ahead, I spent time each day creating content around the topics I wanted to become known for. Even without any formal content marketing tips, this strategy was effective. Within months, Google and the other search engines of the day (remember Alta Vista and Lycos?) were picking up my articles and blog posts and sending me targeted traffic, all at no cost to me.

Fast forward to 2016 and content marketing continues to be one of the most effective strategies when it comes to getting all the clients and customers you want to your online or offline business. In fact, over the past several months I have attended two events on this topic, the Content Delivery Summit in New York City in May and the Content and Commerce Summit in Orlando during September. Finally I understand more fully how employing this strategy can make a huge difference in the bottom line of businesses large and small.

No longer are short articles (less than three hundred words in length) and blog posts enough to drive your business online. These days you want to create content that is relevant, substantial, and irresistible. And think multi-media (written, audio, and video) for even better results. I’ll share some examples of how I do this on a regular basis for my own business.

It all begins with your original idea. Once I have something in my head I think of this as the starting place for my next series of content pieces that will be shared far and wide with my target audience. I then write a blog post to flesh out my idea more fully and then publish it online. This means that my very best writing will first appear on my site, one that I own and control. This is an important part of the process.

Next, I’m ready to begin the process of marketing this content I have created. I stop by a site called “Just Retweet” and offer up a short blurb that will be tweeted out by others to their followers. Then I go over to LinkedIn to share an update with my connections there. While at LinkedIn, I go to their “Pulse” page to share my entire blog post, along with links and images.

Facebook is next on my list, and I will post this to my personal page and my group pages before going to “Notes” to once again share the entire blog post. Keep in mind that I haven’t even reached out to my own permission based database of prospects and clients at this stage of the content marketing process.

And content is not just in written form. I have a YouTube Channel for my business, and post videos with some regularity there. Keep them well under five minutes for best results. And audio works well when you want to share something people can listen to from almost anywhere. Here is an audio link I shared recently, where I was asked to give the Invocation at my Rotary Club: http://iTeleseminar.com/90223149. It comes in at two minutes and thirty-one seconds and as of this writing more than five thousand people have listened to what I said.

Are these content marketing tips starting to make sense for your business?

Content marketing allows you to share more about who you are, what you stand for, and how you can help others through your knowledge, experience, and expertise. I can almost guarantee that your competition is not doing any of this, or at least not in a way that will make a difference. What other questions do you have on this topic of creating content to market yourself and your business?

Check Out My Content Training Program at Really Simple Content Marketing

Marketing For Introverts in an Extrovert Friendly World

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Marketing for Introverts

When you think about marketing for introverts, what comes to mind? I have always considered myself to be an introvert, although I am perhaps actually an ambivert, which falls somewhere in between the extrovert and introvert personality. But here I’d like to open up the discussion of marketing for introverts, simply because so many of the people I work with also seem to be a part of this group.

Below I have shared a Ted (TED began in 1984 as a conference where Technology, Entertainment and Design converged, and today covers almost all topics — from science to business to global issues) Talk from author Susan Cain on the topic of being an introvert in an extrovert friendly world:

Recently I read a book by Susan Cain entitled Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking. In it she shares her story of feeling undervalued and passed over in favor of people with more extroverted personalities since she was a small child. It turns out that one third to one half of the population is actually introverted, yet we tend to assign greater value to the people who make the most noise. You may be following someone who does not necessarily have the best, smartest, or most useful ideas, but who is the loudest and therefore got your attention.

So, how does this affect marketing for introverts? Actually it seems like an almost perfect fit, at least in my mind. I prefer working alone, abhor being forced to work with a group of people, and enjoy the solitude of spending much of my time behind my computer screen. That’s another thing that Susan Cain embraces; the concept that solitude matters. Anyway, having the ability to earn an excellent living without having to have people in your face all day long is a definite plus, at least in my way of thinking.

Something else I have learned about myself and others who identify as introverts is that we are not shy. This means that we can mix with and interact with people, especially at large marketing events, without an issue. I just know that, for me at least, I need time alone in my hotel room or away from the group at a nearby park to re-energize after being with lots of people for even a few hours.

So whether you are an introvert attempting to find your place in the world as an online entrepreneur, or someone struggling with marketing for introverts when you seek more interaction, think about how and why we think and act as we do and see what conclusions you come up with for your business. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic so we can have more of a discussion. Now not everything needs to be an open discussion, so comment or share only if you wish.

Internet Marketing First Steps

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Internet Marketing First Steps

The first steps to internet marketing success may seem like a challenge, but it will all go smoothly if you take it one step at a time. Remember that every step and every breath you take will either move you closer to or further away from your dreams and goals.

Here are the internet marketing first steps I recommend for you to take over the next seven to ten days.

Think about the lifestyle you would like to create for yourself and your family. Now think about the business that would enable you to live that lifestyle. Make some notes in a journal or online document to express exactly what your life will look like when you set up a business on the Internet.
Choose a niche topic to focus on, at least for the next six months. Start out with a broad topic and then niche it down over time. It might be something as general as business, health, personal development, or lifestyle. The idea here is to get you used to the process of building a business online, and then giving you the time to find your sweet spot of the more specific area and audience you wish to serve.
Purchase a domain name to use for your website. This can be your name, or anything else that is suitable for your topic. If won’t ever seem like the perfect choice, so simply choose a domain and know that this can always be changed later on.
Set up a hosting account so your domain will have a place to live on the Internet. My recommendation is Blue Host Solutions because of their commitment to working closely alongside new online entrepreneurs.
Use the one-click installation of WordPress to create your site. The hosting company is happy to do this with you, or you may contact me to have it set up.
Begin adding content to your site, using original, PLR (private label rights), or curated content. The ideal scenario is if you add content twice a week, but if your schedule does not allow time for that right now, post once a week for at least the next six months.
Start thinking about your ideal prospect and what he or she needs most when it comes to your topic. Remember that first and foremost the purpose for any business you can think of is to serve the needs of a specific group of individuals. Online business is no different, and once you understand this concept your business will flourish. For example, the people I serve wish to have a business they can run from home, or from anywhere in the world they happen to be, with just a laptop computer and an internet connection. Many of them have health issues, are caring for an aged family member, or raising children or grandchildren. This requires them to be home or on the road, yet they still want and need a substantial income to meet their financial obligations. Other have lost their jobs or simply no longer wish to be at a job that no longer serves them but still need a six figure or greater income. I help them to get started and to build a business that enable them to live the lifestyle they have chosen while still being there for the people in their lives who need them.
Add an optin form to your site so that you can start building a subscriber list from the very beginning. People who do not do this cite it as the reason they did not build their business as quickly as they could have if they had done so. I recommend Aweber for this part of your online business. Send a relevant and interesting email message to the people on your list at least twice a week, sharing more about yourself and what you have to offer them. Be of service to these people, as they are the backbone of what you are working to achieve as an online entrepreneur.
Create a short report to use as your free giveaway to encourage visitors to your site to opt in to your list. Put your best foot forward by providing valuable information here.
Choose one or two of the business models I have outlined in this post on multiple streams of income and learn as much as possible about them. Resist the temptation to get involved with more than two of these during the first six months you are working online. I have written more than a dozen books that can help you with the specific details of most of these income streams.
Get involved with social media, but remember my motto to “Get in, get out, and get back to work!” I recommend Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Google Plus, and YouTube to get started with.
Start your own Channel on YouTube to share videos related to your business. My YouTube Channel has proved to be extremely valuable to my business.
Attend at least two live marketing events each year. This was the single most important factor in helping me to move forward quickly in my business.
Know that starting an online business requires the least capital of any type of business you can start. Your time and dedication will pay off handsomely if you jump in and get started.
Take action daily!

I certainly hope these internet marketing first steps have been helpful to you. Please connect with me personally to let me know where you are now, what you are working on, and how I may be a part of your success story.