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Welcome to Sunstein Sessions on iHeartRadio, Conversations about issues that matter.
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Here's your host, three time Gracie Award winner, Shelley Sunstein.
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I want to introduce you to Dave Sharest. He is
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the director of Small Business Success for Constant Contact. Welcome Dave.
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First of all, what is Constant Contact.
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Yeah, Constant Contact is an online marketing solution designed specifically
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for small businesses, and so it's a platform that allows
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people to do things like email marketing is kind of
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the core what we do, send text messages to their customers,
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manage their social media accounts, run events, a whole bunch more.
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But really it's all about helping small business owners keep
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those most important relationships, those relationships with their customers going
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and keeping their businesses top of mind.
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And is there a certain rate that they pay or
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how does that work?
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Yeah, it's generally based on the We have a few
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different plans. We have three plans, you know, based on
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kind of where you are in your business journey, so
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to speak, and the different features that you need. But
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it's generally based on the number of contacts that you
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actually have to send to and so there are different
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tiers there based on the plan and the number of
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contacts that you have.
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It's a weird time for a business, but I imagine
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it's especially challenging for small businesses. So tell me you
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have a recent survey. Now, I don't know if that really,
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you know, takes into account what's going on now with
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you know, the tariff wars and all that. But where
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are we at with small business? What are the challenges
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that are being faced right now?
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Yeah, Well, so a couple of things that we found.
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And you know, at Constant Contact, we like to do
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these reports every so often just to kind of keep
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a pulse on what's happening within the small business ecosystem,
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and you know, we found some interesting things. I mean,
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at the time we did this the study, we found
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that business owners were feeling optimistic about twenty twenty five,
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but they're also feeling realistic about it as well, like
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they know that challenges exist. And I mean, I think
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the interesting thing here is that the businesses that we
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did speak to during this period were businesses that were
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built in the last five years, right, So these are
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businesses that were already founded in less than ideal economic conditions,
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and there's a bit of a one of the things
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that we're noticing is that really adaptability. We know, resiliency
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is obviously a key trade of small businesses, but these
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in particular, in these this five year mark, really adaptability
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is something that we found with them, and so they're
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trying to do things that allow them to stay nimble,
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you know, switching things up when they need to, and
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then also you know, finding new ways to grow you know,
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constant contact.
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Of course, we're excited to see that.
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Well I shouldn't say excited, but some of their top
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priority is right, are really marketing efficiency and really looking
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at customer acquisition, and so you know, when you're you're
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thinking about those those things, really it's about you know,
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they're open to adapting technology, which is really great, I think,
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including AI because I think that's something that comes in
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and can help them streamline operations and of course improve
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their marketing efforts. And so yeah, interesting time for sure,
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and you know, none of us really knows how this
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is going to pan out, but I think at the
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end of the day, it's good to see that these
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businesses are one you know, still, you know, you start
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a business, you have to be optimistic to do that
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in the first place. And so they're carrying that in,
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but then they're also just paying attention to Okay, how
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do I need to adapt? How do I need to
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change what I'm doing in order to make it through
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this thing that's happening now. And you know, frankly, it's
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always something right, so there's going to be something else
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thrown after this as well, and so it's good to
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see that they're coming in with that mentality.
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Okay, let's just talk now about how you see how
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the tariff war is going to impact small businesses? How
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will it?
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Yeah, so, I mean I'm not an economist or anything
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like that, but I will look at it from the
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sense of, you know, really communication at the end of
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the day, I think is what it boils down to
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in thinking about So this may have an impact on
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your business and the products and services that you offer,
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which will likely need to be transferred to you know,
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your customer at the end of the day. And some
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businesses are in better states than others and may not
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have to do as much of that. But I think
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a key factor here is a few things and we've
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found through the study too that they're looking to be
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more efficient, right, So they're looking at places that they
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can cut costs so that hopefully they don't have to
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transfer as much of that to the customer, also being
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able to get more done, but ultimately communicating with their customers,
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because at the end of the day, it really is
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about focusing on those customer relationships and the more you
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can be transparent about what happened, what's happening. I mean,
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the reality is we're all kind of going through this
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as well, so it's not like it's a secret. And
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I think the more you can do to again continue
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those relationships and stay in contact with those people that
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and those those those people that are important to your business,
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you're going to stand a better chance of kind of
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weathering whatever happens through this period.
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Let's talk a little bit about AI. How can AI
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be used to help small businesses? What what are some
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of the key things that you no longer have to
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deal with that you can rely on AI that would help.
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Yeah, A is really exciting and I'll talk of it,
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you know, through the lens of course, some of the
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things that we're doing within constant contact and so one
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of the things that we know so many small business
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owners start and I would say they're business owners first,
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and marketers by necessity, most people don't get into it
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because they're.
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Like, wait to do marketing, right.
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They have a bashion about something and they want to
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bring something to their customers and serve them in a
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particular way, and marketing is often one of those necessary
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evils that they have to have to do. And so
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when you take that into account, that causes a lot
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of problems. I mean, we found in past studies that
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you know, there's a lot of uncertainty in terms of
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like what are the things that I'm supposed to do
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as a marketer and what am I supposed to say?
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And how do I say it right?
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And so AI can really come in and allow you
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to you know, let's say you're having a promotion on
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something or you're having a sale on the weekend. You
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can say, I'm having a sale on this item. It's
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going to be twenty percent off. You can put in
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those keywords in the constant contact, hit a button that
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then generates a crafted statement for you that they then
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can be used in an email or a social post
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for example, even a text message if you wanted to
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use it there. And so it really helps solve that
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blinking cursor problem right in many instances where you're like, okay,
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I don't even know how to get started saying this thing.
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I think it's also helpful too where you have of
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you know, we have customers oftentimes do like a farmer's
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market for example, where they're kind of doing the same
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thing weekend to weekend, and so AI helps them refresh
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it a bit and have like a new way to
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say it, right. So it makes things like that a
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little bit easier, so you can actually turn things around
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a bit quicker, you know. I think one of the
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things we recognize to in particular with these these customers
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that we talk to, or I should say small business
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owners we talked to recently, you know, a lot of
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them are starting on social media, uh and a good
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like sixty three percent I think, or somewhere in there,
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like that's their primary marketing channel.
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And so that's good.
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It's not that you should not be doing that, but
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I think it's about thinking through how you have to
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use all of these channels together and in particularly eventually
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move those social audiences to your something that you own,
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so like an email list for example, or an SMS list,
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because then you then you have a way to contact
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that customer directly and you're not relying on these other
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platforms to help you do that, which I think we
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most of us know at this run by algorithms and
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can change any given day. And you know, we also
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have these other scenarios where you know, the TikTok ban
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is still kind of looming, and so when you're relying
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on just these social channels and not having and owning
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that direct connection, you kind of run the risks, and
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so you have to use them all together. And so
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another way AI comes in here is constant contact. For example,
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similar you can let it know what it is that
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you're trying to do and what timeframe that you're trying
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to do it, hit a button and then this generates
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a whole campaign for you that's across multi channel. So
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think about email, what that looks like on social, how
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many social posts that you should do. Should you have
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an event, it will help you create and manage that
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event as well. And so it's a great way to
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take something where Okay, how am I going to promote
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this thing that I have going on? Where you would
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sit have to plan this all out. Now you've got
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a whole plan that then you can react to and
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you can pick and choose, you can make changes where
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you need to. But it gives you a leg up
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in the sense that you're not spending you know, at
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hour of time trying to figure out what to do.
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You've got now something to act on in a matter
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of minutes that then allows you to get things scheduled,
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get things going.
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Then you can get back to.
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Doing those other things that you want to do. I
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think the other area that's I think most exciting to
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me is where AI really helps you start to uncover
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things with the data that you have. And so when
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you start thinking about what are the things that people
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are doing, you know, with your emails, what are they
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engaging with, what are they clicking on?
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Are they what are they reading? What are they spending
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time with?
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Also, if you start to integrate other things, so maybe
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you're like you have an e commerce platform, like you
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integrate that information as well, you start to understand and
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uncover things that you may not have uncovered before because
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the AI is able to process that data pretty quickly
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and recognize patterns and make recommendations for you that allow
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you to then maybe automate some of those interactions as well, well,
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which again at the end of the day, allows you
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to keep your business top of mind, speak to people
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at the right times in order to hopefully get them
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to take a certain action, but then also allow you
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to get back to those other things that you want
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to do.
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I'm speaking with Dave Sharreest. He's the director of Small
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Business Success for Constant Contact. Are you finding that people
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in small businesses are receptive to AI or are they
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being resistant? What is the reaction you're hearing?
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Yeah, you know so.
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Interestingly enough, we did a similar we asked about AI
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a few years back, and at that point it was
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a little bit of an unknown and people were a
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little bit resistant to it.
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What we found out this time around, though, is.
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That actually seventy three percent of the people that we
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talked to are actually planning on using AI for marketing
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and what they're doing, and we had like another thirty
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two percent really focused on customer data analysis some of
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the things that we've mentioned. And then of course that
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thirty one percent in that personalized marketing space and so
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particularly these businesses started in the last five years are
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really more receptive to ingraining the technology in what it
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is that they're doing, which I think is good because
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we're at this place where you know, it's not really
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going anywhere. It's going to get better and better, and
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it's going to what's the saying, right like, this is
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the stupidest will ever be is right at this moment,
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right now, right like, it's going to continue to get
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better and better. And I think it's great to see
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that people are embracing it and recognizing it as something
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that will allow them to be more efficient, allow them
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to figure out areas of improvement that they can make
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with their business. And it's just a tool that you know,
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really hasn't been available at this scale or at this
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level before, and so it'll be interesting to see how
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that ends up helping people.
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At the end of the day, Do you have any
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way of imparting to the audience, Who should somebody be
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to make it to be successful in small business? What
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kind of person do you need to be? Is there
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like a type of person who does best in small business?
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Yeah?
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You know, I'll say this what we found that I've
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been fortunate enough to have a ton of conversations with
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small business owners over the year, and I think resiliency
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is the number one thing that we see from these folks,
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there are always going to be challenges that come your way.
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I mean, even if you just think of the act
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of starting a business, there are so many people that
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won't do that or don't do that, and it takes
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a special type of person to even take that step, right,
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to put the shingle out there and say, you know what,
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I want a little bit more independence over what my
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financial capabilities are, right like how far can I get?
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And they don't want to be told.
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What to do. They want to figure it out themselves,
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to make their own choices.
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And then there's also the it's interesting to say this piece,
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but it eventually gets there. That work life balance piece
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also is something that's attractive to these people where it
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may not seem like that at the beginning, but if
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you think about you're putting in all of that work
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so you can get to a point where maybe now
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I'm taking Fridays off, right, maybe I'm not working in
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the crazy hours where you might be doing that when
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you're working for someone else, but you never have that
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benefit at the end of the day, right, And so
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you know they're really looking for those things. The resiliency
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that I mentioned, I think the other piece is a
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lot of these folks put themselves in positions where this
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is not the thing that's going to fail. There isn't
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a plan B. When they do the thing right, they
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understand what it is, and so it's always like how
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do I make this work right? Which causes them again.
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That resiliency word comes in that adaptability that we're seeing
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here with these newer businesses and that idea of just
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what can I use, what do I have available to
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me to help me reach whatever that next goal is?
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And that goal is always going to change, that finish
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line is always moving, but all of these tools and
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all of these things happening, embracing those to help you.
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Prioritize and move towards that next thing.
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How would people be able to reach you or reach
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Constant Contact if they want to explore working with you?
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Yeah, of course constant Contact.
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Of course you can find we have tons of free
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resources on marketing webinars, blogs, guides, those types of things,
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and you can find out more about our tools at
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constant contact dot com. I think the best place to
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find me is on LinkedIn. I'm sharing tips there all
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the while, and all the while as well in terms
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of marketing tips and things like that. So I'm Dave
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shrest On LinkedIn. Feel free to hit me up there.
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And that's spelled c h A. Yes, thank you, so yeah,
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thank you so much. Dave chareste you've been listening to
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Sunsteen sessions on iHeartRadio, a production of New York's classic
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rock Q one O four point three
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Welcome to Sunstein Sessions on iHeartRadio, Conversations about issues that matter.
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Here's your host, three time Gracie Award winner, Shelley Sunstein.
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I want to introduce you to Dave Sharest. He is
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the director of Small Business Success for Constant Contact. Welcome Dave.
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First of all, what is Constant Contact.
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Yeah, Constant Contact is an online marketing solution designed specifically
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for small businesses, and so it's a platform that allows
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people to do things like email marketing is kind of
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the core what we do, send text messages to their customers,
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manage their social media accounts, run events, a whole bunch more.
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But really it's all about helping small business owners keep
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those most important relationships, those relationships with their customers going
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and keeping their businesses top of mind.
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And is there a certain rate that they pay or
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how does that work?
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Yeah, it's generally based on the We have a few
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different plans. We have three plans, you know, based on
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kind of where you are in your business journey, so
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to speak, and the different features that you need. But
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it's generally based on the number of contacts that you
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actually have to send to and so there are different
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tiers there based on the plan and the number of
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contacts that you have.
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It's a weird time for a business, but I imagine
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it's especially challenging for small businesses. So tell me you
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have a recent survey. Now, I don't know if that really,
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you know, takes into account what's going on now with
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you know, the tariff wars and all that. But where
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are we at with small business? What are the challenges
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that are being faced right now?
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Yeah, Well, so a couple of things that we found.
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And you know, at Constant Contact, we like to do
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these reports every so often just to kind of keep
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a pulse on what's happening within the small business ecosystem,
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and you know, we found some interesting things. I mean,
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at the time we did this the study, we found
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that business owners were feeling optimistic about twenty twenty five,
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but they're also feeling realistic about it as well, like
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they know that challenges exist. And I mean, I think
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the interesting thing here is that the businesses that we
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did speak to during this period were businesses that were
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built in the last five years, right, So these are
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businesses that were already founded in less than ideal economic conditions,
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and there's a bit of a one of the things
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that we're noticing is that really adaptability. We know, resiliency
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is obviously a key trade of small businesses, but these
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in particular, in these this five year mark, really adaptability
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is something that we found with them, and so they're
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trying to do things that allow them to stay nimble,
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you know, switching things up when they need to, and
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then also you know, finding new ways to grow you know,
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constant contact.
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Of course, we're excited to see that.
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Well I shouldn't say excited, but some of their top
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priority is right, are really marketing efficiency and really looking
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at customer acquisition, and so you know, when you're you're
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thinking about those those things, really it's about you know,
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they're open to adapting technology, which is really great, I think,
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including AI because I think that's something that comes in
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and can help them streamline operations and of course improve
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their marketing efforts. And so yeah, interesting time for sure,
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and you know, none of us really knows how this
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is going to pan out, but I think at the
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end of the day, it's good to see that these
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businesses are one you know, still, you know, you start
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a business, you have to be optimistic to do that
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in the first place. And so they're carrying that in,
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but then they're also just paying attention to Okay, how
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do I need to adapt? How do I need to
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change what I'm doing in order to make it through
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this thing that's happening now. And you know, frankly, it's
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always something right, so there's going to be something else
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thrown after this as well, and so it's good to
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see that they're coming in with that mentality.
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Okay, let's just talk now about how you see how
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the tariff war is going to impact small businesses? How
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will it?
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Yeah, so, I mean I'm not an economist or anything
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like that, but I will look at it from the
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sense of, you know, really communication at the end of
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the day, I think is what it boils down to
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in thinking about So this may have an impact on
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your business and the products and services that you offer,
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which will likely need to be transferred to you know,
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your customer at the end of the day. And some
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businesses are in better states than others and may not
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have to do as much of that. But I think
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a key factor here is a few things and we've
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found through the study too that they're looking to be
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more efficient, right, So they're looking at places that they
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can cut costs so that hopefully they don't have to
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transfer as much of that to the customer, also being
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able to get more done, but ultimately communicating with their customers,
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because at the end of the day, it really is
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about focusing on those customer relationships and the more you
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can be transparent about what happened, what's happening. I mean,
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the reality is we're all kind of going through this
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as well, so it's not like it's a secret. And
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I think the more you can do to again continue
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those relationships and stay in contact with those people that
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and those those those people that are important to your business,
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you're going to stand a better chance of kind of
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weathering whatever happens through this period.
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Let's talk a little bit about AI. How can AI
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be used to help small businesses? What what are some
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of the key things that you no longer have to
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deal with that you can rely on AI that would help.
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Yeah, A is really exciting and I'll talk of it,
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you know, through the lens of course, some of the
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things that we're doing within constant contact and so one
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of the things that we know so many small business
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owners start and I would say they're business owners first,
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and marketers by necessity, most people don't get into it
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because they're.
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Like, wait to do marketing, right.
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They have a bashion about something and they want to
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bring something to their customers and serve them in a
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particular way, and marketing is often one of those necessary
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evils that they have to have to do. And so
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when you take that into account, that causes a lot
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of problems. I mean, we found in past studies that
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you know, there's a lot of uncertainty in terms of
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like what are the things that I'm supposed to do
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as a marketer and what am I supposed to say?
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And how do I say it right?
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And so AI can really come in and allow you
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to you know, let's say you're having a promotion on
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something or you're having a sale on the weekend. You
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can say, I'm having a sale on this item. It's
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going to be twenty percent off. You can put in
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those keywords in the constant contact, hit a button that
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then generates a crafted statement for you that they then
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can be used in an email or a social post
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for example, even a text message if you wanted to
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use it there. And so it really helps solve that
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blinking cursor problem right in many instances where you're like, okay,
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I don't even know how to get started saying this thing.
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I think it's also helpful too where you have of
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you know, we have customers oftentimes do like a farmer's
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market for example, where they're kind of doing the same
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thing weekend to weekend, and so AI helps them refresh
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it a bit and have like a new way to
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say it, right. So it makes things like that a
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little bit easier, so you can actually turn things around
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a bit quicker, you know. I think one of the
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things we recognize to in particular with these these customers
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that we talk to, or I should say small business
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owners we talked to recently, you know, a lot of
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them are starting on social media, uh and a good
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like sixty three percent I think, or somewhere in there,
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like that's their primary marketing channel.
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And so that's good.
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It's not that you should not be doing that, but
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I think it's about thinking through how you have to
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use all of these channels together and in particularly eventually
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move those social audiences to your something that you own,
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so like an email list for example, or an SMS list,
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because then you then you have a way to contact
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that customer directly and you're not relying on these other
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platforms to help you do that, which I think we
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most of us know at this run by algorithms and
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can change any given day. And you know, we also
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have these other scenarios where you know, the TikTok ban
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is still kind of looming, and so when you're relying
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on just these social channels and not having and owning
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that direct connection, you kind of run the risks, and
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so you have to use them all together. And so
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another way AI comes in here is constant contact. For example,
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similar you can let it know what it is that
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you're trying to do and what timeframe that you're trying
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to do it, hit a button and then this generates
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a whole campaign for you that's across multi channel. So
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think about email, what that looks like on social, how
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many social posts that you should do. Should you have
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an event, it will help you create and manage that
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event as well. And so it's a great way to
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take something where Okay, how am I going to promote
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this thing that I have going on? Where you would
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sit have to plan this all out. Now you've got
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a whole plan that then you can react to and
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you can pick and choose, you can make changes where
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you need to. But it gives you a leg up
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in the sense that you're not spending you know, at
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hour of time trying to figure out what to do.
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You've got now something to act on in a matter
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of minutes that then allows you to get things scheduled,
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get things going.
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Then you can get back to.
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Doing those other things that you want to do. I
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think the other area that's I think most exciting to
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me is where AI really helps you start to uncover
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things with the data that you have. And so when
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you start thinking about what are the things that people
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are doing, you know, with your emails, what are they
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engaging with, what are they clicking on?
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Are they what are they reading? What are they spending
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time with?
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Also, if you start to integrate other things, so maybe
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you're like you have an e commerce platform, like you
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integrate that information as well, you start to understand and
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uncover things that you may not have uncovered before because
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the AI is able to process that data pretty quickly
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and recognize patterns and make recommendations for you that allow
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you to then maybe automate some of those interactions as well, well,
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which again at the end of the day, allows you
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to keep your business top of mind, speak to people
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at the right times in order to hopefully get them
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to take a certain action, but then also allow you
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to get back to those other things that you want
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to do.
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I'm speaking with Dave Sharreest. He's the director of Small
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Business Success for Constant Contact. Are you finding that people
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in small businesses are receptive to AI or are they
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being resistant? What is the reaction you're hearing?
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Yeah, you know so.
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Interestingly enough, we did a similar we asked about AI
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a few years back, and at that point it was
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a little bit of an unknown and people were a
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little bit resistant to it.
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What we found out this time around, though, is.
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That actually seventy three percent of the people that we
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talked to are actually planning on using AI for marketing
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and what they're doing, and we had like another thirty
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two percent really focused on customer data analysis some of
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the things that we've mentioned. And then of course that
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thirty one percent in that personalized marketing space and so
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particularly these businesses started in the last five years are
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really more receptive to ingraining the technology in what it
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is that they're doing, which I think is good because
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we're at this place where you know, it's not really
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going anywhere. It's going to get better and better, and
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it's going to what's the saying, right like, this is
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the stupidest will ever be is right at this moment,
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right now, right like, it's going to continue to get
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better and better. And I think it's great to see
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that people are embracing it and recognizing it as something
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that will allow them to be more efficient, allow them
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to figure out areas of improvement that they can make
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with their business. And it's just a tool that you know,
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really hasn't been available at this scale or at this
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level before, and so it'll be interesting to see how
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that ends up helping people.
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At the end of the day, Do you have any
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way of imparting to the audience, Who should somebody be
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to make it to be successful in small business? What
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kind of person do you need to be? Is there
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like a type of person who does best in small business?
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Yeah?
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You know, I'll say this what we found that I've
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been fortunate enough to have a ton of conversations with
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small business owners over the year, and I think resiliency
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is the number one thing that we see from these folks,
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there are always going to be challenges that come your way.
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I mean, even if you just think of the act
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of starting a business, there are so many people that
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won't do that or don't do that, and it takes
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a special type of person to even take that step, right,
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to put the shingle out there and say, you know what,
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I want a little bit more independence over what my
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financial capabilities are, right like how far can I get?
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And they don't want to be told.
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What to do. They want to figure it out themselves,
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to make their own choices.
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And then there's also the it's interesting to say this piece,
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but it eventually gets there. That work life balance piece
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also is something that's attractive to these people where it
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may not seem like that at the beginning, but if
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you think about you're putting in all of that work
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so you can get to a point where maybe now
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I'm taking Fridays off, right, maybe I'm not working in
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the crazy hours where you might be doing that when
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you're working for someone else, but you never have that
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benefit at the end of the day, right, And so
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you know they're really looking for those things. The resiliency
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that I mentioned, I think the other piece is a
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lot of these folks put themselves in positions where this
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is not the thing that's going to fail. There isn't
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a plan B. When they do the thing right, they
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understand what it is, and so it's always like how
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do I make this work right? Which causes them again.
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That resiliency word comes in that adaptability that we're seeing
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here with these newer businesses and that idea of just
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what can I use, what do I have available to
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me to help me reach whatever that next goal is?
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And that goal is always going to change, that finish
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line is always moving, but all of these tools and
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all of these things happening, embracing those to help you.
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Prioritize and move towards that next thing.
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How would people be able to reach you or reach
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Constant Contact if they want to explore working with you?
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Yeah, of course constant Contact.
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Of course you can find we have tons of free
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resources on marketing webinars, blogs, guides, those types of things,
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and you can find out more about our tools at
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constant contact dot com. I think the best place to
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find me is on LinkedIn. I'm sharing tips there all
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the while, and all the while as well in terms
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of marketing tips and things like that. So I'm Dave
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shrest On LinkedIn. Feel free to hit me up there.
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And that's spelled c h A. Yes, thank you, so yeah,
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thank you so much. Dave chareste you've been listening to
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Sunsteen sessions on iHeartRadio, a production of New York's classic
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rock Q one O four point three