Customer Love

lavonneELLIS
LaVonne Ellis is a former radio newscaster and current

voice coach for webpreneurs who create audio and
video for their businesses. She is also a complete
flake who is learning how to get things done in spite
of herself, and helps other flakes do the same.
LaVonne lives in San Diego, California and has two

grown sons.
davidCRANDALL
David Crandall is the Business Intelligence expert and author of
Heroic Destiny. In his 6 figure corporate career, his consulting
has saved his clients millions of dollars. He is now using that
same expertise to enable business starters to live their dreams to
their fullest potential while he lives his.
David lives in Dallas, Texas and is pictured here with his best friend
and wife Kaylane. They have two daughters under the age of four
and are expecting their first son in 2011.
customerLOVE | lavonneELLIS & davidCRANDALL | copyright2010
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tableofCONTENTS
4 FOREWORD NAOMI DUNFORD
5 PROLOGUE THE CHALLENGE
7 Day 1 LET THE LOVING BEGIN
8 DAY 2 MAKE YOUR PEOPLE HEROES
9 DAY 3 THE “OH SH*T” MOMENT
12 DAY 4 HOW UNICORNS CAN IMPROVE YOUR BUSINESS
15 DAY 5 HOW TO GENERATE WARM AND FUZZY ON LINKEDIN
17 DAY 8 FRESH START MONDAY
19 DAY 9 WHAT ROSES, RELATIONSHIPS, AND RICH WIDOWS HAVE TO DO WITH BUSINESS
23 DAY 10 LEAP OF FAITH
25 DAY 11 LIGHTS...CAMERAS...ACTION!
26 DAY 12 5 WAYS TO FEEL MORE EXPERT-Y RIGH NOW
28 DAY 13 INTERVIEW WITH THE QUEEN OF AWESOMESAUCE
29 DAY 14 INTERVIEW WITH THAT MATH GUY
30 DAY 15 INTERVIEW WITH NAOMI DUNFORD
31 DAY 16 WHY ‘HAPPILY EVER AFTER’ ISN’T ENOUGH
33 DAY 17 5+ WAYS TO STOP FREAKING OUT AND GET BACK ON TRACK
35 DAY 18 UPGRADE YOUR BOX FOR BETTER CUSTOMER RELATIONS
37 DAY 19 LOVE YOUR STRENGTHS AND YOUR CUSTOMERS WILL LOVE YOU
38 DAY 20 THE GREAT WEBINAR DEBACLE The missing
39 DAY 21 WHAT’S YOUR THING customer love
40
42
DAY 22
DAY 23
LEND A HELPING HAND...OR GRAB ONE
OMIGOSH! I FORGOT TO MAKE A PRODUCT
papers
44 DAY 24 INTERVIEW WITH SRINI RAO
45 DAY 25 WHAT SANTA TEACHES US ABOUT BUSINESS 54 PLAYGROUND RULES AND CUSTOMER LOVE
48 DAY 26 THE BENEFITS OF JOINT VENTURES 56 4 THINGS WE DON’T SAY ABOUT LOVING YOUR CUSTOMERS
50 DAY 27 FEEL LIKE FLAKING OUT? HERE’S A LOVING NUDGE 58 ARE YOU THANKFUL?
51 DAY 28 WISHING FOR A DO-OVER 60 10 (PLUS ONE) THINGS I’VE LEARNED FROM CUSTOMER LOVE
52 EPILOGUE THE WHOLE POINT OF CUSTOMER LOVE 62 THE VALUE OF POSITIVE SPEAKING
66 THANK YOU PHOTO CREDITS 64 THE IMPORTANCE OF SMALL GESTURES
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FOREWORD When the Customer Love challengers took the do all this work building a list and then try to sell
helm, I was shocked, surprised, delighted and them something and nobody buys?”
more than a little impressed. It’s so easy to read
a blog post and tweet about how great you think Frank, in his inimitable beach bum way, replied,
it is. But to really take action – genuine, concrete “Dude, you don’t burn the list.”
action – is harder and much rarer. I am so proud
of the challengers for what they have achieved. The list stays with you. You still have access to
I’ve done this sort of thing before and it ain’t for the fruits of your labor forever. It’s not about one
the weak. promotion – it’s about the long haul. The same is
not only true with Customer Love, it’s amplified.
Here’s what I love most about all these Customer The work the challengers have done to engage,
Love shenanigans. Unlike running a special teach, help, share – and yes, love – has sown
promotion or entering into a one-time partnership beautiful, unique, mysterious seeds.
to boost sales, the mind-set of Customer Love
doesn’t go away. I remember listening to a Their inspiring investment will reap miracles
great story from Frank Kern, one of my sleazier come harvest.
naomiDUNFORD mentors. He was suggesting an exhausting,
author of IttyBiz.com intensive list-building strategy and somebody I am awed and inspired by their effort, dedication
and inspiration for the
Customer Love challenge asked him, “What if it doesn’t work? What if I and achievement.
4
theCHALLENGE
Sometimes you read something that kicks your ass, it’s so true. It lays bare
all your sneaky little ways to avoid doing what you say you want to do. There
is no hiding from it now.
That’s how I felt when I came across Naomi Dunford’s post, “Make Them
Love You. THEN Ask For Money.” I had been figuratively running around the
blogosphere asking advice and making plans — while actually accomplishing
very little — with the hope of quickly raising enough cash to cover my car
repairs. But Naomi pointed out the logical outcome of such efforts: failure.
That’s not how it works, not when you haven’t laid the groundwork.
Then she patiently explained how to do exactly that.
Spend the first 28 days being totally, ridiculously awesome. Plan to
make 100% of your money on the 29th day.
Spend 28 days being insanely active on Twitter or Facebook or your
local small biz networking scene. Spend 28 days making killer contacts
on LinkedIn or at the local flower shops or a few select forums. Spend
28 days loudly creating tactical, useful content on your blog or YouTube
or, hell, Facebook notes.
Make friends as if your life depended on it. Be helpful. Give lots of
shoutouts. Send link love. Generally be the nicest, coolest, smartest
kid in school.
Then, on the last day, ask for the money. Launch your consulting sale
lavonneELLIS
or your custom deck design sale or your half price classes or whatever
at the last possible moment.
5
So that’s what I’m going to do, and I is suggest a task for each day, similar to
invite you to join me in this 28-day the #31DBBB challenge based on Darren
challenge. Rowse’s legendary ebook, 31 Days to
Build a Better Blog. We’ll see how well
Think about it: Naomi isn’t talking that works.
about doing anything we don’t
already know we should do. But it is In the back of my mind, I’ve been
overwhelming and a little intimidating worrying that I don’t have the leadership
to think of all that effort without a plan qualities required to get — and keep —
or others to keep us company and urge this challenge moving, but then I realized
us on. That’s why I decided to tweet a it doesn’t matter how many people get
challenge asking for buddies to join me behind it as long as I stick with it myself.
at the hashtag Customer Love. Lo and If others follow, great. If not, I’ll still reap
behold, I got some responses! the benefits.
So we’re on. Because whether or not there’s a pot

of actual gold at the end of this 28-day
It’s a little awkward starting this on a rainbow, there will be another kind of
Friday, so I’m going to suggest that we gold that will be totally worth the effort: a
make our mental preparations over the real, honest-to-god business.
weekend and then officially start on
Monday. If you’re reading this later, just And isn’t that the point?
go with what feels right for you.
I’ll be writing a short blog post here

every day with my progress and any
ideas/inspiration I can squeeze out of
this old brain. One thing I want to do
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day1 Okay, then!
Time to start the Make Customers Love You Challenge. In

case you missed all the hoopla on Twitter or the previous
This week, it’s all about loving the customers you already
have.
But before we do that, think about where you want to be
28 days from now. Do you want to have a product ready
blog posts, this challenge is inspired by Naomi Dunford’s to launch on the 29th day? Do you want a certain number
great blog post, “Make Them Love You. THEN Ask For of subscribers? Be specific. Start thinking about creating
Money.” I hope you’ll join me. a day by day plan — work backwards from the end of the
month and what you want to have by then. There will be
LET
For 28 days, we are going to be, as Naomi urges, daily action prompts, but only you know your goal.
“ridiculously awesome.” We are going to make customers
love us — by loving them. Then, come here to the comments for ideas and support,
to share your own ideas and progress, to get and share
THE
Spend 28 days being insanely active on Twitter or encouragement, and to blow off steam. Or use the
Facebook or your local small biz networking scene. hashtag Customer Love to find us on Twitter. If you leave a
Spend 28 days making killer contacts on LinkedIn comment below with your Twitter handle, I’ll add it to the
or at the local flower shops or a few select forums. customerlove Twitter list.
LOVING
Spend 28 days loudly creating tactical, useful
content on your blog or YouTube or, hell, Facebook Oh yes, before you go off on today’s quest, I have an
notes. announcement:
BEGIN Make friends as if your life depended on it. Be

helpful. Give lots of shoutouts. Send link love.
Generally be the nicest, coolest, smartest kid in
school.
The brilliant and handsome @DavidCrandall of Heroic
Destiny [who IMHO was separated at birth from Leonardo
DiCaprio] has kindly offered to help me with the challenge!
We will be alternating blog posts, so you’ll hear from him
tomorrow. I’ve been really impressed with David’s writing
And on the 29th day, we will — what? Launch our products? and ideas, and I think you will be too.
If that’s what you have in mind, absolutely. But you may
have another goal, like increasing your subscribers or We also have a guest post lined up and hope to have more
followers. Up to you. For me, the goal is to cover my latest soon. And we’re cooking up at least one cool surprise —
car repair and medical bills, so that means launching it’s so much fun to have a co-conspirator! :)
something.
lavonneELLIS Are you ready? Let’s do this!
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day2
MAKE YOUR
PEOPLE
HEROES
Do they know that you care?
If you’ve ever been in a situation where it was necessary to win people
over, you’ve probably heard the phrase:
They don’t care what you know until they know that you care.
It’s a smart phrase. It drives home the point that you won’t be winning
people over unless you really care about them. But what about when
you’re trying to sell something? What place does caring have then?
If you’re trying to sell something, I offer you this updated (if not a bit
more crass) phrase:
They won’t buy your shit until they know you give a shit.
It’s true. And you believe it somewhere deep inside you too…or you
wouldn’t be part of this 28-day challenge.
davidCRANDALL
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Make your people heroes In fact, they knew I was head over heels in love with them!
I believe in heroes. I believe that most of us want to BE Don’t believe me? Then send a tweet to Josh, Ross, Eric,
heroes. (Makes sense that I run a site called Heroic Mark, Drew, Joel, Wilson, Timothy, Abby or Velda and ask
Destiny.) them what THEY thought of me highlighting them first in
my post!
Which means that if I want to lead my people, I need to
be concerned with what they care about. I need to make Make your people, your customers, heroes and they will
it a point to make them heroes too. For me, that wasn’t love you for it!
difficult as there are numerous members of my tribe that
I absolutely DO consider heroes. [Insert your name here]
My wife’s Memaw (that’s Southern for grandmother) once
Recently, I wrote a post about the people that are so told me something that I thought was the best marketing
amazing that I want to meet them all face to face (you advice ever. She said that everyone’s favorite word is their
know, in the REAL world…so those relationships would own name.
count, right?). That post took HOURS AND HOURS to put
together, but when I was finished, I had a list of 27 people Your task is to continue producing your content. Whether
I wanted to meet face to face. The first people listed were that’s a blog, print ads, Twitter, Facebook, or even a
people I considered to be in my tribe. The second list were plane writing it on the sky in smoke. Keep producing your
people whose tribes I considered myself to be part of. content.
Notice who I put first. It wasn’t the ones with tens of Only, remember Memaw’s advice. Don’t just refer to your
thousands of followers. Ya, those people are amazing, but people ambiguously, use their favorite word. Highlight
they aren’t the ones I count on day to day. Sure, a single specific people on your blog or in your ads as heroes.
link from them can mean a huge spike in traffic, but the Mention customers by name on Twitter and Facebook.
people I put first are the ones who have stood by me day Have that plane write out someone’s actual name! (And
after day. send me pics if you do that last one!)
• THEY are the people I viewed as heroes.
• THEY are the people that I wanted the “A Listers” Fall in love with your people. Then use their favorite word
to see first. (their name) to highlight them as heroes.
• THEY were the people I promoted AS heroes.
I promise you, people WILL fall madly in love with you.
The result? That was my most popular post to date. And it
was because of the first group, my tribe, who made sure
people saw that post. They knew I gave a shit about them.
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day3
When you jump in with both feet, the feeling is Tell me about it. I’m on that roller coaster every day. happened, or maybe you’re still at the top of the
exhilarating and terrifying, like the shock of ice cold I get all excited about another great idea, tweet and roller coaster. If you haven’t hit it yet, just know
water. blog about it, tell all my friends — and then I have to that you can come back here and read this again
follow through. I go blank EVERY TIME. when it does.
But as Laura at Cottage Copy writes, when the first
thrilling high of deciding to take on a new challenge That’s what The Complete Flake is all about, I hit my panic point on Sunday, the day before
wears off, you’re often left with… nothing. No idea really. It started as a great idea, and thus began the challenge was to begin.
what to say or do next. A cold, lonely feeling in the the sickening ride of exhilarated highs and panic- Suddenly, there was that old familiar, sinking
pit of your stomach. stricken lows. feeling that I had no idea what to say or do next.
Usually when that happens, I do anything I can
It’s an “Oh, shit” moment So I’m going to wager that you will hit a wall at some think of to avoid dealing with it — web surf, tweet,
WHAT HAVE I GOTTEN MYSELF INTO NOW? point during this challenge. Maybe it’s already compulsively play sudoko, even wash the dishes.
But this time, I did something different.
THE “OH SH*T” MOMENT I reached out and told someone what I was
feeling.
And David Crandall said exactly what I needed to
lavonneELLIS hear:
Just take a deep breath and write with love. Since

we want people to love THEIR people we just pour
out love on them. I totally believe you can do this
or I would never have approached you. I’ve seen
your writing and know you rock. You were online
before people knew there was an online. You own
this shit! ;)
The compliments felt great, but it was these

words that made the difference: “Just take a
deep breath and write with love.”
David and I had talked about how we wanted to

conduct the challenge, and we decided that the
whole point was LOVE.
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When you act out of love, you just, kindasorta know what
to say. It’s funny that way.
Well, okay — the compliments helped too, I can’t lie. And
that’s the other point I want to make: when you hit your
wall during this challenge, however many times you hit it,
reach out for support. Accept the love that’s coming back
to you.
Ask, and allow, others to help you, encourage you, love

you.
Ask here in the comments, or at the Customer Love hashtag,
or from your IRL [In Real Life] family or friends — but ask.
Tell someone what you’re feeling.
We all feel that way. And we all need a support network,

especially when we’re doing something ridiculously,
insanely awesome.
Your action step for today is to support each other — or ask
for support, if you need it.
• Offer to help.
• Ask for help if you need it.
• Accept help.
• Cheer each other on.
• Pour love on each other.
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day4
Monster trucks, hair care, Hello Kitty… and UNICORNS!
Follow me for long on Twitter or my blog and you’ll eventually
see some insane reference to either unicorns, monster
trucks, or any number of bizarre topics (Hello Kitty, hair
care products, bacon, road rage) that have little to do with
HOW UNICORNS CAN lifestyle business. Sure, I could say that the unicorns and
Hello Kitty fascination are because of my daughters, but I’m
pretty sure my right people wouldn’t believe me for a split
IMPROVE YOUR
second.
No, I love all those things myself.
BUSINESS
• I love monster trucks. I want a cherry red, dual cab pickup
truck with flames on the side, a 15-inch lift kit, and KC
lights with the little happy-face covers. It’s irresponsible
(guzzles gas and not conducive to families) and would
look like I’m compensating for… well, you know. I don’t
care.
• I love Hello Kitty. I never had an outlet for that love until
my daughters came along. Now I’m living vicariously
through them; if their Hello Kitty pajamas are clean (i.e.
not caked with food), then they wear them to bed! (One
pair even has flashing lights on it.)
• I love my hair! Not only do I use salon only products to
style it, not only do I know why CHEMICALLY the products
work, not only do I spend HUNDREDS of dollars on them
annually, but believe it or not, this father of two and a
half (due in February) flat irons his hair EVERY SINGLE
DAY! (I am certainly no minimalist!)
davidCRANDALL • And unicorns. Ahh, my beloved babies. Unicorns are so

awesome that if anyone ever figures out how to make a
unicorn petting zoo, I’ll be your first customer!
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What on earth does any of this have to do with the Customer Love challenge?
(Good question.)
Humans are bizarre

It’s true. Try as we might to put our best foot forward, we all know that there is
some really bizarre stuff about us. You might not like any of the things I listed, but
I’m willing to guess that you have some crazy-ass interests of your own.
As we get become adults, we are conditioned to not talk about crazy stuff like
unicorns. Emails are best received if well written and to the point — you know you
can’t include a smiley face to just anyone! Meetings, even if off-topic, rarely ever
consist of us spilling our guts over our fascination with cryptozoological creatures.
(You think that’s a long word? I’ll post the longest one I know at the end of this
post to drive the skimmers a little crazy.)
But most of us don’t migrate towards work manuals in our off time. We don’t long
for those meeting agendas for our Sunday morning reading.
We have weird tastes, and any time we encounter someone else

with our bizarre sense of style, we are attracted to them.
So what am I suggesting you do for today?
1. Write as the real you

In my interview with Sinclair from SelfActivator.
com for Heroic Destiny, she said she wished
bloggers would speak with their own voice.
I thought this was such a good point that I
postponed my original post for today. I felt you
needed to hear this earlier on in the challenge.
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Want to show your customers love? Be honest 3. Call forth the human-ness of your • What is one odd thing about them they wish
about who YOU are first. customers people knew?
A lot of my people like unicorns. Now I get tons • What celebrity do people say they look like?
Talk about the things that are unique to you. of emails and messages that are nothing more People are social. Social media is for people.
Yes, it is optimal if you can tie them to your than confessions of love for these majestic Be social when using it!
mission, but my right people don’t think less of creatures — AND a link to the latest unicorn
me for talking about horses with horns on their madness (shirts, pictures, stories, videos… For those of you who skipped to the end
heads. Yes, it might be trivial and nonsensical, you name it and it’s been sent to me). I get I know a lot of you just skimmed to this point,
but if you get rid of those things, you aren’t left way fewer monster truck links. :( so here’s the breakdown:
with a human anyway. 1. Remember that people want to connect
Your customers identify with your bizarreness with a human.
2. Stop apologizing because they are bizarre too.
The other thing Sinclair wished was that people 2. Write like a real human and include your
would stop apologizing each time they wroite Your job as their leader (and you ARE their bizarre human-ness.
as themselves. I couldn’t agree more! leader) is to help them be comfortable with 3. Stand by your human-ness and don’t negate
their human-ness. Encourage them to step out it with an apology.
Whether it is on your blog, Twitter, Facebook, and confess those bizarre things that make 4. Love your people by calling forth THEIR
or that chartered plane you’re using to write them unique. human-ness.
messages in the sky, stop apologizing for • Send links to things that have nothing to do
letting your personality come through. Every with business. We all feel loved the most when we are loved
time you apologize for being human, you push • Write a post about off-topic things you love for who we really are.
away anyone who identified with that human- and why you love them.
ness. However, you validate your customers • Better yet, write a post about off-topic
who identify with you when you let your true things you love and how they relate to your
voice stand without apology. business.
Don’t discredit yourself and your customers by • Ask your people what they like about [fill
showing that you feel guilty for being human. in the blank] (remember that everyone’s
favorite topic is themselves). For those of you who DID skim, that’s a crying
(This doesn’t mean be an ass to people. That’s shame. Because you’ll never know what
something entirely different — that’s being an • Involve your people by running a contest or
methylchloroisothiazolinone has to do with
ass… which is not good for making customers poll.
today’s challenge.
love you.) • What’s the weirdest food they like?
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day5 How to generate a
warm and
fuzzy
lauraESPINOSA
I’m doing something crazy for
Customer Love month: I’m loving
everyone I meet by showing them
how to use and love LinkedIn. :) on LinkedIn (No, seriously)
I know.
How can I love something as prickly and foreign as LinkedIn?

And isn’t it a place to just slap up my resume and forget about it?”
It’s true that the social networking giant has this tendency to come off as being very
confusing and intimidating. There’s no obvious place to socialize (which bothers those
who love the “social” side of social media).
And even those who are used to in-person networking sometimes have trouble translating
their offline habits onto an online playing field.
But LinkedIn, at its most basic, is all about making connections and helping others.
Not that different from what we do on Twitter now, is it? :)
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How can you show Customer Love to your LinkedIn LinkedIn invite to connect to a few people you know
connections? — maybe some of the awesome new friends you’ve
Write a recommendation. gotten to know while being part of the Customer Love
challenge — and write a recommendation for them.
We do this all the time elsewhere. We send shout-outs
on Twitter attesting to someone’s awesomeness, and LinkedIn has a feature that allows you to write
we post testimonials on our websites from people who recommendations for someone’s past or present
love what we do and are not afraid to say so. occupation. You may have done business with this
person at some point, or it could simply be a colleague
We love that feeling. Being whose business you’re familiar with.
patted on the back makes
us feel renewed, that we’re And don’t limit this to just business owners and
on the right track with our entrepreneurs. If you had a past profession before
work. starting your own business, send recommendations to
people you know and trust who were in the same job
Your task today is to share as you. Or recommend your uncle in Nebraska, even
that feeling with someone though he’s never done a job for you, but you know he
else. has a strong work ethic and a kind heart.
If you have a LinkedIn profile (and I’m going to assume Write the best damn recommendations EVER, today.
you do but probably don’t use it often), I want you to go
into your profile, browse through your connections, and
find at least three people to write a recommendation for.
And if you only have one person on your network (don’t

worry, I’m not judging here), reach out and send a
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day8
I know, that title looks wrong. What happened to Days 6 and 7? Well, kittens, I flaked out.
Short version: Saturday morning, I went on my first grocery shopping trip since getting off the
crutches for a broken foot, and spent every last energy cent. I crashed and burned. Gave up on
anything productive and went to bed.
Then I got overwhelmed with the idea of creating a roundup of all the wonderful efforts you folks
are doing for the Make Customers Love You Challenge. Thank heavens for the lovely and talented @
HeavenandEl, who volunteered to gather the information for me, but I still couldn’t face it yesterday.
lavonneELLIS
Sometimes, we just need to give ourselves a fresh start, and Monday is a good day for fresh starts.
Round-up coming up!
Fresh Start Monday

First, some announcements: so we’ve decided to put together an e-book of those guest
1. In my usual, jump-first-think-later style, I have posts for you to give away to your customers at the end of
impulsively decided to offer a free voice coaching teleclass the challenge. That will be our gift to you. @DavidCrandall’s
[or webinar, not really sure what the difference is yet] in specialty is designing beautiful e-books, so I know it’s going
honor of Customer Love. If you use your voice as part of to be a class act.
your business [hello, podcasters, webinar/teleclass leaders,
teachers, and pretty much everybody else], you can sign up 3. Don’t forget to sign up to get some link love and so
here: Free Voice Coaching Class. Time, date and other details everybody knows you’re taking part in the challenge. Then go
will be forthcoming shortly. grab a beautiful badge to put up on your site.
2. We have received more offers of guest posts than 4. And if I’ve missed mentioning you below, please let
we can accommodate [although it’s tempting, considering me know in the comments so I can fix it!
my fear of writing, to let you guys write all my posts for me],
17
Tweets with links either to posts about Customer Love or to
things people had done for the challenge during the frist week.
@AmysNotDeadYet – http://antemortemarts.com/2010/09/the-beating-of-mighty-wings/ “As part of the @creativeonion 1st Customer Love blog post! Lead Generation: Give Away your Best Ideas for Free http://bit.
Customer Love challenge, I decided to go ahead and be a little more me and show off my inner fangirl some ly/aSkp2Z
more.” @intuitivebridge I like you and I love you, and here’s a love meditation for 99 cents to prove it. Customer Love
@itybites http://www.getcaughtthriving.com/reflections/ “My challenge isn’t about making customers love http://www.bridgetpilloud.com
me. It isn’t about getting comfortable in front of the camara. It is about showing up as myself and about telling @thecopycorner is here to help! Check out her 28 days of Customer Love: http://ow.ly/2yFZj
on myself showing up.”
@pegkd I’m continuing intuitive insights 4 insecure bloggers (i.e., I giv ‘em tips & hints 2 beef it up 4 their
@RustyTim http://intentionalinfluence.wordpress.com/2010/09/04/how-you-can-win-big-with-intentional- peeps) Customer Love
influence/ “I want to help people. I want to encourage people. I want to spread their passion for the things
that they are doing.” @karenparitee WORK WITH ME | Effindiets http://bit.ly/bvp3Gr
@LindaEaves: 3 Linked In recommendations accomplished today – who else can I help? Customer Love @LisaMilesBrady: Took on day 2 Customer Love challenge. New on the blog: In the Beginning http://bit.ly/
http://is.gd/eTzmk d7nhbs #2500wds
@HeavenAndEl Caught up on @DavidCrandall Customer Love post, can reveal I have plane booked 4 tomorrow @thecopycorner Does this count for Customer Love: Teaching noozletter subscribers what makes good copy
morn. No sky writing, trailing banner instead ;) http://ow.ly/1qP86Z by deconstructing real sample text. :P
@icecolbeveridge What’s your best piece of advice? Turn it into a 5 min video or audio, or a 1-page worksheet/ @susantblake: A big Thank You blog post http://susantblake.com/?p=351
poster. Make it freely available. Customer Love @AlexiaPetrakos Ok. I have my goal for Customer Love. :) Day 2? I’ll be writing up a post about a few of my fav.
@josh_crocker Great early start to the day! Gonna be a rockin’ one! Don’t worry fans and friends, my #TK people shortly :)
tweets will begin shortly… Customer Love @pegkd :They Rock My World and we Haven’t even Met…Yet http://pgsdt.th8.us WOW!!
@fitforpaper That should have said “free help finding/retouching/resizing pictures”, of course. Customer Love @icecolbeveridge Customer Love I finally got around to asking my clients from last year how their exam results
day3 catch-up! Need something? Just @ reply were. Been putting it off.
@intuitivebridge: Here’s some Customer Love. I created a bitch box for you on my blog. http://bit.ly/d3j5jz and @icecolbeveridge Customer Love Did I mention here that I’m giving away free half-hour math[s] classes to
a button. – (This is awesome!!!) anyone who asks this week?
@pegkd: you are a picky eater. and i love you. Customer Love http://bit.ly/a33RGu @fitforpaper: Did a couple favors for a couple clients that really needed them, no strings. Does that count for
Holly is a dragon-loving gamer! Who knew? RT @copygeniusgirl: Behind the Curtain (http://bit.ly/9UQAqQ) Customer Love?
Customer Love @LaVonneEllis Ok, my challenge task for today, since it’s not over yet, is to love on my poor neglected email
@lizziemcg Here’s what I’ve started: Non Violent Communication podcast day 1 http://goo.gl/fb/vjlTb subscribers. Sorry! Customer Love
Customer Love @josh_crocker My Customer Love will start tomorrow…sort of…by @ mentioning EVERYONE that I follow. I
@AlisonGresik Just sent 1st HTML newsletter to my email list. With my real-live signature at the bottom. Innit apologize to those that follow me with SMS! lol..
cute? http://budurl.com/vvfj Customer Love @abbykerr: Starting to write long-overdue replies to some *awesome* emails from my e-course subscribers.
@abbykerr Who’s got a Q about niche-y biz/mktg, copywriting, or indie retail? I’m offering free quickie Customer Love
consulting! http://bit.ly/9Fzp9f Customer Love @AlisonGresik: You can add me to the list! I just put up today’s post about Finishing Stuff: http://budurl.
com/58wq Customer Love
(Thanks to @HeavenandEl for compiling this list!)

18
day9 What roses, relationships,
and rich widows have
to do with business
Three dozen roses
Last week was my wedding anniversary. You may have seen my Twitter update that I bought my wife
three dozen roses. Of course she was super excited and I got to be a little bit more of her hero.
In light of the Customer Love challenge, I laughed later on imagining if the conversation had gone like
this:
Me: Happy anniversary! I brought you something.
[I pull out the three dozen roses.]
Her: OH! They’re beautiful! I love them!! Thank you so much, Baby!!
Me: I love being married to you and thought these would make your day.
[She reaches inside of her purse and pulls out her checkbook.]
Her: How much do I owe you for them?
What a horrible response that would have been! Thankfully, this was NOT what occurred, nor (I’m sure)
did the thought of monetarily reimbursing me ever cross my wife’s mind.
My gift was a way of giving her something she values and showing her how much I love her. To be sure,
had she offered to repay me, it would have clearly indicated that she had missed the point.
davidCRANDALL I want to make sure we don’t miss the point of the Customer Love challenge.
19
I want to make sure we
don’t miss the point of the
Customer Love challenge.
20
DTR (Defining The Relationship) product. You could skip the love part if that was
Before all this talk of love starts to muddy the your goal.
relationship waters, let’s do a little DTR. You
know, that conversation where you make sure And you’re not seeking false love because you’re
both sides agree where the relationship currently not a scam artist. When you set your site on
is and where it’s going. making your customers love you, it’s genuine.
You’re not trying to woo the lonely rich widow in
Make no mistake, this is a business minded hopes of making off with her fortune before she
challenge. knows what’s happened.
However, the goal is not to make your customers You’re a real person who is building a love based
just like you. It’s not to get them to agree to do business relationship with other real people.
business with you. It’s not even to get them to
want to buy your product. Why we’re choosing real love
Let me tell you why we’re choosing this love based
All of those things can be achieved (to varying business model.
degrees of success) through standard advertising • Real people in love can’t help but want to be
practices. There are thousands of blog posts around their loved one.
about how to do all of that. • Real people in love are constantly thinking of
their loved one.
You’re not here for that though. • Real people in love tell everyone about their
loved one.
This is a business relationship built on love. • Real people in love make being in love
awesome.
You’re not here to scam the rich widow
You’re here to get your customers to fall in LOVE Your goal is not that single transaction on day 29.
with you. That’s more than just doing business It’s not a one-time spike in your bank account.
with you and way more than just buying your
21
Your goal is to develop a long term relationship with your customer.
When you are successful with that, they can’t help but want to be around you. They think of you often and
naturally tell others about you.
And best of all, they make being in business awesome!
Your challenge
Your challenge for the day is to give your customers your version of three dozen roses. Create something so
wonderful and extravagant for them that it will knock their socks off. Give away something that you COULD
charge for.
I understand that you are still in business, so I’m not advocating giving away your entire business or trade
secrets. We are working towards a business goal of getting your customers to make a financial transaction.
But before we get there, I am challenging you to give away something that your customers will value.
Give them a reason to fall in love with you.
Give away something valuable.
Remember, giving gifts is part of a loving relationship…which is our goal for this entire challenge!
PS - Some of you have done this in the past. Some of you have already started doing this as a result of the
challenge. Awesome! Keep doing that and be encouraged to look for other ways to continue that practice.
This love relationship is an ongoing thing. :)
22
day10
Leap of Faith
lavonneELLIS
Did I mention I’m a complete flake? People who meet me on the web and apologized sincerely — but frankly, I’m not upset with myself. As she
never believe that, but if you ask anyone who knows me IRL [In Real loudly pointed out, I should have written it down [whatever it was] but I
Life], they would all nod knowingly: “Are you kidding?” didn’t. I’ll try to do better next time.
Yesterday, a close friend lost patience with my forgetfulness and hung My friend doesn’t understand that life has changed drastically for me in
up on me. She’s 83, but her memory is better than mine. I still can’t the past week-and-a-half since the challenge began, and there’s no way
remember what the favor was that I’d promised to do for her. I can explain it to her. I have gone from being paralyzed with fear that
Last night, as I was getting sleepy and ready for bed, I suddenly I’ll make a mistake or forget a commitment to having a strange-for-me
remembered I hadn’t yet written today’s post. Or even thought about confidence that somehow everything will work out.
what to write. I DM’d David, who replied, And if I screw up, well, it’s not the end of the world.
Seriously just laughed out loud at that! Now THAT would have indeed That, for me, is a life-altering mindshift.
been consistent with your blog title. ;) In the short span of time since the challenge began, I have happily
At least I’m consistent. agreed to interviews and guest posts, offered a free voice coaching
I tried to write but was too tired to think, so I set the alarm and went to webinar, realized that means I have to learn how to create a Powerpoint
bed. It’s 2:50 am now. I’m not trying to get sympathy, but to find SOME presentation in a week, and entered into an agreement to create an
connection with the challenge so I can go back to bed, dammit. :p iPhone app [yes, an APP!] for voice coaching.
I guess the connection is that we all fail sometimes, in life and in business, It feels like an amusement park ride: thrilling and out of control, but I’m
and we have to forgive ourselves and start again. I called my friend back pretty sure I’ll live through it.
23
All of us, when we jumped into this challenge
without much serious contemplation, took a
leap of faith. We didn’t know what “loving our
customers” meant, exactly, or how we would find
a way from that to making our customers love us
— or to the final goal: making money.
And we certainly didn’t imagine how it would
change us. At least I didn’t. Did you?
Your task today is to stop and take a look inward.
• Are you changing, growing as a result of
Customer Love?
• Have you made mistakes?
• Did you forgive yourself and move on?
• What’s the next daring leap of faith you will
take?
And I think that’s a wrap! I’m going back to bed,

darlings, feeling much better now. :) G’night!
24
Today’s post has less text than the other days I’ve
posted. That’s because I want to drive home the point
that I am making which is to experiment with video.
[Click image to view video]
Why video?
Here are a few reasons why video is a great addition to
your business:
• Helps your customers develop an emotional
connection with you
• Sets you apart by putting your content on the
second biggest search engine
• Saves time while still allowing for great content
I understand that you may have some insecurities

about being on video (doesn’t everyone…at least in the
beginning). Trust me though, YOU are the only one who
is going to notice that thing that you think we are all
looking at.
day11 Sit back and enjoy (hopefully)
Go ahead and watch the video; it’s under 5 minutes
Lights…
so it shouldn’t be a killer on your time. I give you my
word that I went with the first take and did no editing
because I want you to be confident that you can do this
too. If I can talk about unicorns, then I should be fine
cameras…
letting you see me stumble through a video.
And yes, I move around a lot. That’s me.
ACTION! davidCRANDALL
Also, I believe this video may end the debate about my
similarities to Leo DiCaprio. You’ll have enough of a
good look at me to know if I really DO look like him or
not. ;)
25
5 Ways To Feel More
Expert-y
Right Now day12
abbyKERR
I jumped into this Customer Love Challenge {that’s Customer Love, for those of you who are Twitter
fluent} pretty darn quickly. In fact, I think I may have been the very first person to respond to LaVonne
Ellis’s Tweet back in August calling for co-challengers.
I knew immediately how I’d step up the customer love in my own enterprise: I’d rock out my expert-y
mojo even more intentionally than usual.
You’re an expert, you say?
Why, yes, I am. And so are you.
Do you see yourself as an expert? Because you are one, you know.
You’ve got an entrepreneurial niche — the niche of You, culled from the best {and sometimes worst} of
your life-defining experiences, your shiniest skill sets, and your truest inborn talents.
Because no one else can replicate the exact path you’ve taken to get where you are today, the exact
maneuvers you’ve made and the exact responses you had, this means that no one can teach about
what you do in the exact way you do it. And believe it or not, there are a lot of people out there who’d
love to do what you do the way you do it.
{No kidding.}
26
You are a natural-born, life-made resource. a fire underneath your customers. {So don’t hide yours
You’re chock full of expert-y knowing. You’re marinating in under a bushel, so to speak.} Start blogging, teaching,
firsthand understanding of something. You’re a witness and connecting from this place. At the same time, be
to valuable experiences that you could be sharing with hungry to learn more about everything on your list.
others who want to do something like what you’re doing. True experts are lifelong learners who continually soak
up new understanding wherever they can find it.
You’re not obliged to share any of it, but doing so is one
way to exercise authority in your macro niche, create fame, 4. Pretend you’re not you. Look at yourself as if you were
spread goodwill, and make your customers love you. your biggest fan, your most satisfied client, or your
best friend who loves you. What would those people
There’s almost no better way to gain the love, respect, say you’re an expert at? Write from that place. Let
and appreciation of your right people than to share with their confidence in you infuse the way you talk about
them something they want that right now feels quite far your Thing. {This technique works particularly well if
away to them. you tend to get hobbled by self-doubt and insecurity.
5 ways to enter into the space of your expert-y self, right Not that we Customer Love Challengers would know
now anything about that.}
1. List 10 elements of your business that are key to 5. Bravely dare to share what you know is true even if
its survival, well-being, and richness {and I’m not you think your knowledge and experiences are not
necessarily talking monetary richness here}, i.e., as game changing, earth shattering, or business/
your blogosphere relationships, your networking on life enhancing as what somebody else has to share.
LinkedIn, the way you plan your weekly workflow. Write I can guarantee you that it *will* be game changing,
out a simple, 5- or 10-step breakdown of how you do earth shattering, and business/life enhancing for
what you do. Or a 3000-word blog post manifesto. someone else. It doesn’t matter if your topic has been
Approach this in a nuts-and-bolts-y way or in a written about 15 times in the blogosphere already
philosophical, meta way. Both approaches can help this month. If you can put an unique spin on it — one
your people. fashioned from the niche of you — then it’ll speak to
2. List the 5 questions people most often ask you about your ideal customers in a way that only your words and
your business – big questions and little. Answer them experiences can.
in the form of blog posts or information products that I hope you can use one of the above doorways to enter
teach your right people how to do what you do. Or how a space in which you find yourself standing tall, beaming
to do what they want to do. happily, and feeling, sharing, and teaching like the expert
3. Make a list of 100 things you now understand about you really are.
your entrepreneurial niche that you didn’t used
to. These are all the lessons, understandings, and
knowings you take for granted that will absolutely light
27
day13
Yay! The beautiful and talented Catherine Caine of Be Awesome Online is back to talk
about her newest launch, the Awesome Website Extravaganza! [What does this have
to do with the Customer Love Challenge, you ask? Clearly, you don’t know Catherine,
because she’s all about the LOVE!]
The interview was done before she got the BRILLIANT idea to make a mad dash for the
BlogWorld Expo in Las Vegas, Oct. 14th, but she gave me permission to give YOU a $100
discount on AWE. :) If you want to learn everything you need to know about websites AND
help Catherine go to BlogWorld [and me too], just use this link and TEAM FLAKE as your
coupon code. Or you can buy one of her other products or donate to the Get Catherine
to BlogWorld fund and have a chance to win some great prizes [including two voice
coaching sessions from yours truly.]
Okay, enough of that — here’s the Queen of Awesomesauce herself [Click for download]
Interview with the Queen of Awesomesauce
28
day14
Interview If you’ve been following the Customer Love hashtag on Twitter you may have seen @icecolbeveridge
[great handle, btw] offering free math lessons. Math lessons?! How did a math tutor wind up in
the Customer Love Challenge?
with that
Well, I was curious, so I took Colin Beveridge up on his offer, and now I know calculus! Not really,
but I do know what calculus IS, and that’s a big improvement. Our lesson was so much fun that I
couldn’t resist asking Colin to let me interview him for the site, and just shoot the breeze about,
well — math! [Click for download]
Math Guy Colin forgot to mention that he’s got a book coming out in October, called – what else — The Little
Algebra Book, and it’s available for pre-order right now. If you want to support a fellow Customer
Love challenger, head over and check it out.
As I said at the end of the interview, I’d like to talk with more challengers to find out what you do
and how you’re loving your customers. So drop me a line in the comments if you’re interested in
being interviewed for a few minutes. I’m really looking forward to talking with you!
Today’s task? Promote your customers.
• Interview them.
• Feature them on your website or in your newsletter.
• Make a big fuss over them in public.
• Let everybody know how much you love them.
29
day15
Interview with
Naomi Dunford
We’ve just passed the halfway point of the Customer Love Challenge, and I thought it would be a
good time to take another look at the blog post that started it all. And who better to re-energize
us than the woman who inspired Customer Love to begin with?
I spoke to Naomi Dunford of Ittybiz.com about an hour ago, and couldn’t wait to post the
interview. And she offered to start things off by doing the introduction: [Click to download]
Naomi talked about:
• Making sure you’re focusing on the people who BUY.
• How to toot your own horn: Just DO it — use what you have.
• how to use segmented lists to target specific subsets of people.
• The subtle mental shift between just trying something like Customer Love out — and getting
serious.
30
Stories
People love stories.
It’s the reason that Hollywood makes so much money, that television networks can sell
box sets of something they previously gave away, and that fiction books continue to sell.
We want more than just a ‘happily ever after’ — we want to know what was NOT happy
BEFORE the ever after. And we want to know WHO is part of that story.
day16
Nobody wants a resolution unless they know WHY it matters.
If your customers (those who give you money) are people (and I’d like to know if they are
not), then giving them a story is giving them something they love. davidCRANDALL
People love stories!
Why ‘happily ever after’ isn’t enough

See what I mean
Imagine the following two scenarios:
For the ladies:
Once upon a time there was a man and a woman. The man nervously climbed a fire
escape towards the woman. She smiled at him. He gave her a rose upon reaching her.
She kissed him after saying that SHE rescued HIM. They lived happily ever after.
For the guys:
Once upon a time there was a dying and hallucinating warrior. He gave a set of quick,
political instructions before collapsing in the middle of a bunch of guards. A crying woman
stood over him as he faded into a blue world. There, another woman and a child waited
for him; the child ran to him. He walked in a field of wheat. Later, another man buried a
small statue in the sand. They “lived” happily ever after.
31
I’m fairly certain that Pretty Woman and Gladiator would have • The supporting characters: our customers
made much less at the box office if that had been the whole • The middle: the main characters woo the supporting
story. characters
Ladies, would you care about the woman on the fire escape if • The happily ever after: the supporting characters fall in
you didn’t know the Pretty Woman as a modern day Cinderella? love with the main characters… and buy their stuff
Guys, would you even watch the blue woman and child if you The Customer Love Challenge hasn’t existed to just produce
hadn’t seen the warrior’s story and known they were the a product, it is designed to create a story with a beginning,
Gladiator’s dead wife and child? middle, and happily ever after.
Basically, we don’t care about the resolution — the SOLUTION Are you telling a story with YOUR business?
— until we have a story to frame it. Your story
Are YOU giving your customers a story they can identify with? If you want your customers to love you, you need to give them
Are you helping them to frame the solution you want to offer something to love. You might center your story around yourself
them? and then develop a relationship with your people that way. You
The Customer Love Challenge might instead choose to develop why your product (without
much focus on you) is the resolution to the story of their
Had LaVonne decided to put together an e-book with 28 tips problem.
on how to love your customers, there would be no community
around this challenge. Had I decided to quietly do a 28-day You are doing amazing stuff in showing your customers love.
plan to woo my customers, would you even care? You may be developing your story by revealing yourself to your
people, or fleshing out the story of what their problem is.
Offering you a solution with no story would have produced a
much different result. Make sure you are doing so intentionally. Make sure you are
giving your people a story to identify with, an event to look
Instead, we all embarked on a four-week journey together and forward to, a resolution to something that you’ve identified!
defined the following parts of our story:
Tell the whole story.
• The main characters: hopeful business people (all of us)
THEN your people will care about the ‘happily ever after’.
32
5+ Ways To Stop I just wrote a rant
about marketing
Freaking Out And and how I really,

seriously, DON’T
Get Back On Track

want to market. Don’t
even want to think about
it.
But I stopped, because:

1. I knew it wouldn’t be at all helpful
to Customer Love challengers, and
2. something was oddly familiar.
Why was I suddenly freaking out about marketing,
day17lavonneELLIS
and right after that fabulous interview with Naomi
Dunford? I didn’t have any problem with basking in her
marketing genius, or getting all the awesome comments,
tweets and retweets that followed.
33
Why now? say yes. I don’t want to be the only 3. While we’re contemplating, go
Oh, yeah. That Thing that’s coming coward around here. I’m pretty ahead and take a few deep, slow
up tomorrow. That I’m nowhere near sure it’s an occupational hazard for breaths. That will help you calm down
ready for. That I’m terrified I’m going entrepreneurs. and relieve the physical discomfort so
to f*ck up royally. That I haven’t even Well, now what? you can focus on the next step.
written a page for. And what was I It’s not like I started this post with a 4. Now, what’s the next action you
thinking, announcing it all over the solution all figured out that I can give need to take to move forward? Just do
place and drumming up almost 50 you in 5 nicely-formatted bullet points. that one small thing.
people to sign up? Am I crazy?! I honestly don’t know — right this 5. If you need help with this, or
It’s the I’m-scared-shitless-and-I-want- second — how to overcome self-doubt. just support while you face your fear,
to-run-away-and-hide syndrome. We’re But I can try to remember what has ask for it. For me, the place to go is
old friends. We go WAY back. worked for me before. Has anything? Twitter. I tweeted my anxiety last night,
Self-doubt. Yes. and @Fabeku and @AbbyKerr were
1. First, as in a 12-step program: right there with the encouragement
Is there anything more destructive and support I needed. Ask and you will
to the spirit, especially the Recognize the problem. When you
catch yourself procrastinating or find peeps you can count on too.
entrepreneurial spirit? I was seriously
thinking about packing it all in for a wishing you could walk away, that’s a 6. Then, take more deep breaths,
few minutes there. Thought I’m just good sign you are doubting your ability and take another small action. Rinse,
not cut out for this stuff. Dreamed of to deal with whatever is facing you. repeat.
running away in an RV and writing a 2. Second, and I learned this one There, 6 bullet points! I feel better
book, of all things. from the Buddhists: Let yourself feel already, don’t you?
But that’s just a fantasy that always the self-doubt. What does it feel like, Your action step for Customer Love
seems to pop up when I want to run physically? Does your stomach churn? today is to tackle that Thing you’ve been
away. It’s not something I really want Do your arms ache? Noticing the avoiding, so you’ll have Something
or I’d be doing something to make it uncomfortable feelings removes you Wonderful ready at the end of the
happen. from them, makes you an observer, challenge. That’s part of loving your
and helps you gain perspective so you customers too, after all: sharing what
Do you feel like that just before you can think more clearly about solutions.
have to put up or shut up? Please you know. If I can do it, I know you can.
34
Upgrade your box
for better customer relations
Upgrade that old box
davidCRANDALL
Having a strategy regarding your business is smart. Deciding to market in a
particular way and to interact with your people on specific platforms is wise.
But the box you create your business in needs to be upgraded every now and
then. In order to do that, you need to step outside of it.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to discourage anyone from being intentional
about their business. It’s very important that you continue to do so. However,
there are times when opportunities will manifest that don’t fall within your
predicted strategy that you need to consider taking.
Why? Because while your business is the result of planning and strategy,
day18 sometimes your customers aren’t as predictable.

Loving customers is a relationship
As with any relationship, there are times when you are required to step outside of
your typical strategy in order for it to grow. Our challenge is to gain your customers’
love, which means you need to do things that stretch you. Things that focus on
your customers.
Sometimes you need to leave room in your well-thought plan to allow you to go
outside of it.
A wise person once told me that relationships are messy because people are
messy. If you are pursuing a relationship of love with your customers, expect
things to be messy…or at least a little out of your box now and then.
35
Examples please you, the more the relationship develops, start seeking out people to talk to. While
Ok, so enough theory. Let’s talk about some and the more they are likely to think of there is nothing that can replace meeting
examples of stepping outside of your box you… and your product. face-to-face with someone in the “real
and letting things get (manageably) messy. Email them individually world,” Skype is a great option for when
you physically cannot do so. A majority of
Leave your computer I’m continually surprised at how many my most loyal people are ones that I have
As much as we love the glowing square that people I speak with who haven’t emailed Skyped with. It is a great way to have people
is our monitor, people don’t live in front of people who visit their site. These people fall in love with you. Be forewarned though,
them 24/7. I know, I know… some of us feel are giving you the greatest online currency: you may fall in love with them too.
like we do, but not everyone. Not even most. their attention! Every time a comment is
left, you have an email. Try emailing the Your turn
Try meeting your people in real life. Meetups,
tweetups, networking events. Or even one- people that comment on your site for even Your challenge is to look at your typical day/
on-one meetings and coaching sessions. one week and note the results. Does your week and see where you can step outside
As amazing as online relationships can be, traffic increase? Does your customer loyalty of YOUR box. Try one of the four examples
there is still no substitute for meeting with strengthen? listed above or come up with something
people face-to-face. Eric Pratum of EricPratum.com is great that is specific to your people. Stretch your
at this. Well over a year from my initial comfort zone and chances are you may just
Explore other online outlets find that you’ve stretched the boundaries
comment on his site, we are still in contact
I focus the majority of my attention on on a regular basis — I even interviewed him of your business too.
Twitter. In fact, I treat it like a giant, ongoing on my site. All because of how willing he I’m sure that you might occasionally find
chat room. It works for me and I enjoy it. was to step outside the box and connect things that don’t work. However, I have
However, a lot of my right people don’t use with people outside of the norm. personally discovered that more often than
Twitter at all. (My wife hasn’t ever even not, stepping outside of my box has led to a
gotten on it… can you imagine?!?!) Ask Skype, Skype, Skype
richer experience than staying within it.
your people where they hang out when If you are not using Skype, it is my personal
they aren’t with you. Then set time aside opinion that you are missing out on a gigantic And really, isn’t the reason we are doing
to periodically visit those other places and opportunity to connect with people. Buy a business ourselves is because we desire a
meet them there. The more places they see webcam if you don’t already have one and richer experience?
36
Love Your Strengths
And Your Customers
Will Love You andyFOGARTY
When the glorious LaVonne crossed off (I guess that’s what happens surround us, and there’s nothing wrong
asked if I would mind doing when you come into a month long Customer with that — if that mold fits your style. Most
a guest post for the Love challenge on the 19th day). I’m a pretty folks check out the rock’n’est people in their
Customer Love challenge confident dude, though, so I moved on. niche doing what they do and then try to
I said, “Hell yeah, I’m Being personal? Nope. Day 9. copy them in hopes of finding success.
on it!” So I did what any And so…
good guest poster does. How to keep from freaking out? Done. Day
I made a list of topics to 17. [Click to view video]
write on and then started Being an expert? Umm… well… Day 12 Learning how to grow your business in the
going through all the 18 days of knocked that one out. areas you’re not so strong in is important,
challenge posts to make sure I didn’t I even considered doing something about but it also easy to lose what makes you
write about something that’s already video, but guess what? Day 11. so great. We see all those folks around us
been covered. rocking different methods and think those
Talents And Love are what we should be doing too.
I thought about writing something on
Heroes. Nope, looks like they covered I started getting discouraged and I was When it comes time for you to start learning
that on day 2. wondering what the hell I had got myself from the masters, make sure your learning
into. Then I started to realize that I was from someone that fits your style. Don’t try to
day19
Hmm… I know. I’ll write a post about looking for a complicated solution that I
“taking the leap“. Dang! Day 10 was become something you’re not just because
wasn’t really good at instead of a solution of the success someone else is having.
leap day. that would come natural to me.
More and more of my topics were getting What are your strengths and how are you
The thing is, we try to fit into the molds that rock’n them in your business?
37
The Great Webinar Debacle
5 Lessons Learned
day20
lavonneELLIS
You’ve probably heard about the Thing that I was is phone quality sound, and I wanted better. Then I learned…
working on for the Customer Love challenge — Also wanted a visual component. Audio Lesson #3:Click the damn Record button.
a free webinar that would hopefully drum up Acrobat was another possibility, but I thought
business for my voice coaching services by the their website looked clunky and outdated, *sigh*
end of the challenge. Because I still need to get which didn’t inspire confidence. Well, now I’m pissed. At myself, not
my car fixed. And now I’m committed to going So I finally chose GotoWebinar’s 30-day free GotoWebinar. I think their site and service
to BlogWorld — or at least Las Vegas during trial and planned to spend all Wednesday are awesome and well worth the $99/mo
BlogWorld so I can stalk certain participants. learning how to use it. But between that that I would gladly pay after the free trial, if I
And you may have heard that things didn’t and ironing out the final script/Impress could afford it. [And no, the link above is not
exactly go well during the Thing. No, they presentation [thanks to Liz McGowen and an affiliate link.] But I’m still in the free trial,
didn’t. But then again, they did. Mike Korner for their help], I guess I missed so I’m going to do it again — AFTER I reread
something. the instructions, attend a training session by
Read on to find out why, and what I learned: GotoWebinar, and do a THOROUGH dry run
Lesson #1: Don’t wait until two days before The time came, I waited, and nobody was ahead of time.
the event to finally decide which venue to there. I tweeted and discovered that people
were waiting for ME. I couldn’t see them. Lesson #4: If at first…
use.
Didn’t know what to do. So I tweeted a url and I’m gonna get this right if it kills me.
I originally wanted to use Ustream, but my about 10 of the 48 people who signed up [19
webcam is shite. I had bought a Zi8, knowing p.s. Oh yes, and…
registered] got in.
I’d be making videos for the site, but didn’t Lesson #5: Remember to ASK.
realize you need a webcam for Ustream. Lesson #2: Mistakes happen. Laugh. Make
it fun. I also forgot my call to action at the end, to ask
Didn’t want to use GotoWebinar because I’d
people to sign up for private voice coaching.
have to learn how to create a Powerpoint-style We had some good laughs about stupid
presentation. Thought about Skype, but the technology and my flakiness, and I did the And people think I’m kidding when I call myself
limit for a conference call is 25 people, and I webinar. It was great, everybody was lovely, a flake.
was aiming big. [50! 100!!] Teleconferencepro and I was very pleased. Biggest lesson learned: Just do it.
38
What’s Your Thing?
day21
I’ll make it short and sweet today: lavonneELLIS
We’re going into the home stretch on the Customer Love Challenge. Eight days
to go before we’re supposed to launch our Thing.
Do you have a Thing ready to launch?
It doesn’t have to be something big. Use Dave Navarro’s free library of workbooks to
create a mini-product in three days, the way David Crandall and Srini Rao did for
their audio product, How to Grow Your Blog with Interviews.
Me? I’m going to do another free webinar [and do it right this time] to promote my
private voice coaching service.
It’s not the full-on, fancy, joint-venture promotion I’d envisioned but I’m just starting
out, still learning. That will come later. Some people can handle complicated. I
can’t. Not yet, anyway.
And David and I will be giving away a beautifully formatted ebook of all the
Customer Love posts [plus some bonus guest posts] for you to give to your
customers. It’s our way of thanking you for taking part in this crazy challenge. :)
What are you going to put out there on Day 29?
Just do it. Make something. Put it out there. Get over your fear.
39
Lend a Helping Hand day22
...or Grab One
Seven days to go to the end of the challenge, and you’re
feeling the pressure. What Thing will you have to launch?
OMG.
OMG! No thing. No thing. No thing yet.
I know what it is. But something in me is holding it
back.
Must just pick a day this week — no client work, just
me and Dave Navarro’s Product In Three Days. I can
do this I can do this I can do this. -Abby
Is it like that for you? Well, just remember that last line:
You can do this you can do this you can do this.
I loved it yesterday when Abby tweeted about her anxiety,
and Colin responded immediately with this:
“What support can I give you? What can you put off/
hand off?”
I tweeted a “Way to go!” and he replied, “Well, of course,
that’s what it’s all about… isn’t it? :o)”
Exactly. That’s what it’s all about. :o) lavonneELLIS
40
And then Laura got into it, and the three of them arranged
a “study date” to work together on their products. Is that
cool, or what? [Btw, Abby and Laura live on opposite
coasts of the U.S. and Colin lives in the U.K. But we’re
all used to that kind of thing, right? Because I put it here
as an afterthought. I love thinking of these amazing
transglobal friendships as perfectly ordinary. :) ]
So, if you need help — ask for it, here in the comments or
using the Customer Love hashtag on Twitter. Maybe you
just need someone to virtually hold your hand while you
face a fear. That’s okay. It’s often all someone needs to
get through a rough patch.
If you don’t need help, if you’ve got it together and are
sailing through the challenge — or even if you’re not —
take a moment to offer a hand to someone who needs
it. Proofread someone’s e-book or sales page. Help
someone set up an e-junkie account. Tell someone they
can do this.
WE can do this.
41
OMIGOSH!
I forgot to make a product
day23
“Everyone” or “Everyone ELSE”
We’re coming to the end of our 28-day challenge. You know that
everyone is putting the final touches on their products and services.
Everyone is stepping back and looking at their babies with pride.
Everyone can’t wait for their launch day.
Or is it “Everyone ELSE”?
You may not have a product that you are ready to put out just yet.
You’re sweating it. You’re getting anxious. You’re already mentally
checking out of the challenge and telling yourself, “Next time.”
Ack! Don’t do that! Now is not the time to give up. Even if you have
no product at all right now, don’t sweat it.
Instead, let’s focus and finish this strong!
No sweat, baby!
Even if you’ve realized that you have nothing completed, there is
no stress. No worries. None of that. It’s counter-productive…and
extremely unnecessary. Your customers need never know that you
didn’t have a product less than one week before launch.
davidCRANDALL
42
Here are the basic steps you’re going to use offer: few tools for people to use so that they could
to pull together your product: a. SHOW your customers how to do something act on that information.
1. Focus on the fact that you know stuff (product) Then we put it up for sale.
other people want to know b. DO that something for your customers Then it sold!
This is very important. Keep this constantly (service) (Trust me, this is an awesome feeling!!!)
in your mind; it’s important to the remaining Decide on whether you want to show your
steps (and your ongoing business). Honestly, the best resource for how to do
people how to do something or whether you this quickly is available from Dave Navarro.
2. Identify what your customers want want to do it for them. Basically you decide Here’s how to get it:
For a lot of people, this might be the hard part between providing information or a service.
1. Click here.
for them. Choosing! What if you get it wrong? Which one do you prefer? (Again, don’t forget
What if nobody likes it? What if? Step 1!) 2. Sign up for Dave’s newsletter.
“What if” will kill your business and creativity! 4. Do it 3. Read his FREE ebook, How To Start Making
Give yourself the license to take your best Real Money With Your Own Product In 3 Days.
If you are providing a service, craft your
educated guess at what YOUR people want. offer. More than likely those of you providing 4. Do what it says.
Remember Step 1! a service aren’t stressed about this so I’m (Don’t start stressing now. Remember Step
If you get it wrong, you will not implode. The going to set that aside for a moment. ;) (If you 1!)
police will not come and cane you to death. are stressed, shout out in the comments — Focus. Identify. Decide. Do.
The unicorns will not die! there are a number of people here who are
skilled in copywriting who would love to offer That’s your formula!
You could agonize over this or you can decide
to just choose something and stick with THEIR services to you!) Keep showing love
it come hell or high water. The worst case For those providing a product, let me tell you If you’re done with your product or service
scenario is that you sell nothing. (If you think that it is not as hard as you think to create offer, then keep showing your customers
about it, you are CURRENTLY in the worst case a simple (yet useful!) product. To test the love. If you have not completed your product,
scenario if you are already selling nothing. process out, I worked with another blogger then take today and do it.
That means that choosing ANYTHING is an (Srini Rao) during this challenge to create an
It’s NOT too late.
improvement!) information product in less than 24 hours.
We focused on providing information we It’s NOT that hard.
3. Decide which route you want to take
knew that others did not. Then we provided a You DO know stuff people want to know.
There are two basic options for what you can
You ARE awesome!
43
Interview With Srini Rao
day24
Let me tell you a story about someone who loves his customers.
Last week, my Customer Love co-conspirator, David Crandall, and Srini Rao of BlogCastFM released an
audio mini-product called, “How To Grow Your Blog Through Interviews.” It didn’t cost much and I’ve been
wanting to do more interviews, so I bought it. It was a real eye-opener for me, explaining all the ways
interviews can help a blog, well — grow.
But that’s not the story.
The story is what happened the next day. I got an email from Srini, apologizing for a glitch that I had barely
noticed in the audio, and offering not only a replacement but a free hour of consulting to make up for it.
That’s going above and beyond, if you ask me. True Customer Love.
In our session, Srini had so many fabulous, money-making ideas for me that I asked if I could share them
with you, and he generously agreed! This is longer than my usual interviews, but I think you’ll agree that
the information is worth the extra time. Some of what he advises relates to my voice coaching services, but
could be easily adapted to pretty much anything.
[Click to download]
p.s. Srini LOVES surfing.
44
day25 davidCRANDALL
What Santa
teaches us
about business
Twas the week before launch day
We’ve spent nearly a month getting our customers to fall in love
with us. We’ve decorated our online world with sparkling lights of
love and adoration. We’ve visited with our online family and friends.
We’ve sung songs, recorded videos, and given tons of great gifts.
Just like Santa preparing for his delivery, we are preparing for ours
on Launch Day.
And now Launch Day is quickly approaching and like Santa in the
last half of December, we’ve got all of our little elves putting the final
touches on our products for that special day.
Like Santa we’re checking our lists (email lists) and making sure our
sleigh (shopping carts) are all in order. We are focused on that day
with maddening commitment.
But in the midst of the holiday launch festivities, I want to give you
two things to think about as that special day approaches. There’s
one thing Santa does that I think would really help you…and one
thing you need to do different.
45
Be like Santa
If you’ve ever watched a documentary on Santa (ok, maybe
they’re not documentaries…maybe they’re Christmas shows),
then you know he works hard all year for that one special day.
Once that day arrives, the big red guy works his tail off to make
sure that everything goes according to plan. When his work
is done, he returns home where he, Mrs. Claus and the elves
celebrate another successful year.
But as soon as that celebration is over, everyone gets to work
immediately on the next year’s goal.
When you launch your product in the next few days, you’ll be
working YOUR tail off to make sure everything goes smoothly.
Once things start being delivered and you get your milk and
cookies (or cold hard cash), you’ll start celebrating, as you
should! I hope you, your loved ones, and your friends celebrate
in true Santa fashion.
HOWEVER, I want you to already be thinking about the day AFTER.
Just like our overweight holiday icon and his height challenged
minions, we need to be focused on our next goal right after that
celebration.
Why?
• Because this is a business
• Because we want to cash in on our own momentum
• Because we want to see the next Christmas be successful
too (and by Christmas, I mean Launch Day)
Use the momentum, the confidence boost, and the adrenaline
of your launch to immediately begin planning your next big thing.
46
Be better than Santa Focus on getting your customers to love you year
There’s no denying that Santa is one successful round.
entrepreneur. While his business model might The problem with Santa is that he only gets his
be a bit unclear to most of us, he must be people to love him for a small portion of the
doing well to have a giant house, a workshop year. Because of this, if ole Red were to ever
full of employees, and enough land to have have the chance of delivering something that
no neighbors in site (not to mention the exotic he hadn’t planned for, the reception would be
animal collection of flying AND glowing reindeer!) much lower. No one leaves out milk and cookies
But Santa is a lot more famous than you and me; in July because no one thinks about Santa at
he even puts our hallowed “A Listers” to shame! that time.
This guy has centuries of personal branding and You don’t want to be in that position. You want
marketing to his advantage. your customers to constantly be loving you so
Which means that after his special day, he that whenever you make a business move, they
doesn’t worry about marketing or making are ready to respond to it.
personal appearances for almost 11 months; So be good for goodness sake
no one is concerned with whether or not they Launch day is coming. Keep busting your tail
are on the good list in January. getting ready for it. Make sure everything is in
No one thinks about Santa between his Launch order and ready to go. Celebrate when it goes
Days because Santa doesn’t keep us loving him well.
for most of the year. But remember two things to start doing
Don’t do that! immediately after your celebration:
Once you are done with your product and you’ve • Start working on your next product
begun working on the next one, make sure that • Continue working to make your customers
you continue to cause your customers to fall in love you
love with you. While the Customer Love challenge Do those things and you can have more than
will have officially only been 28 days, the truth is one special day a year.
we all need to be working on this every day. PS – If you know where to get flying and/or glowing
reindeer, let me know. I have my reasons.
47
day26
We have seen an awesome example this past month
with LaVonne Ellis of The Complete Flake and David
Crandall of Heroic Destiny setting up this challenge
timMORRIS
for Customer Love. We all see it from the finished
end and love it, we benefit from not one, but two
great people.
I think we would all agree that there is value in doing
a Joint Venture but for some reason we do not see
them on every site. Below I would like to provide
some reasons that they are highly beneficial and
then give you a few simple steps that will help you
start and launch a Joint Venture in the next month.
Why do Joint Ventures?
• To love on your customers. When you jump into a • To double your impact. One of the benefits that • To build relationships. There is great value in
Joint Venture (JV) you create more value for your you immediately gain from a JV is a larger pool the time and energy it takes to run a JV. During
customers. They now have the opportunity to of customers. When you launch your product that time you will get to know your partners quite
gain from multiple people. While you are directing you can do so on every site represented in the well. If these are people you already know well
some traffic to your partner, your customers will JV. This allows for multiple audiences. Just as then you will be able to learn more and take your
stay with you because you are offering them you will offer clicks to your JV partners they will relationship deeper. If you do not know them
more. At least the customers that matter. do the same. Your exposure multiples by the well, and maybe have only interacted with them
number of sites it can launch on. This equates online, then a JV gives you the opportunity to
to more traffic on your site. No matter how you build that relationship quickly. I have found that
break it down that is a good thing! one month on a JV is equivalent to 6 months the
normal way when building relationships online.
The Benefits of Joint Ventures

48
I’m in – What do I need to do first? sure you do it. You need to be dependable, this paper (Word Doc or something).
If you have interacted with people through a JV in the will really make your team love you. Josh Crocker • Set a date. You need to see all the steps so you
past you hopefully have experienced some of these of Taking Fun Seriously is the man with this. I have can accurately set a launch date. This is the date
benefits. If you want to really get the most out of it worked with him often and he is always on time. that must be kept. For guidelines for how to make
then you need to interact with it in a way that makes It makes me want to send you to his site, as well the date read Linchpin by Seth Godin.
your partners love you. As you begin the process, as find new projects to do with him. I know he will
be there. • Dish out responsibilities. Once you have a date
regardless of who you work with and what you do, you can decide who is doing what and when each
remember these few tips. Getting started and making it happen. piece needs to be done by. Make sure you give
1. Be yourself. No one wants to work with a fake. Make no mistake about it, there are a few hurdles to yourselves enough time to make refinements.
Though it might in tempting to speak highly of get over and it is a bit stressful, but the rewards are As you move forward use all the tools available to
yourself, just speak accurately so that you know worth it. There are two ways, I have found, to go after you on the internet. Use Skype, doc sharing sites,
what you can put together as a team. Be honest a JV. outsourcing opportunities and instant message tools.
about your weaknesses as well. Time management • Person Driven. When you have a person in mind
and time you have available can really discourage As you move ahead from here know that the hardest
that you want to work with, you can seek out your part of all of this is nailing down your product and
the team if they are not discussed up front. Odds strengths and what you have to offer together and
are if people want to pursue a project with you your team. Once you have those two things figured
then go from there. This is highly effective with out you can move forward with confidence.
they will not mind your weaknesses, they probably building relationships with people.
already know about them. Take Away Thought.
• Project Driven. This happens when you know what
2. Be respectful. The tempting thing is to do a JV you want to create and have decided you want to Your efforts are always worth it anytime you do
where it launches only on your site and you do do it as a JV. Now you need to find the people to something to show your customers that you appreciate
not share links with your partners. Do not do this. help you make it happen. them. That being said one way you can offer them
If it is a product for sale, split the income evenly, something great is, like Lavonne and Crandall, do a
depending on the work done that may not be • Once you decide what you want to do and who you JV that they will be able to gain from you as well as
50/50 but do not cheat your partner. This also want to do it with. You need to take the next few others.
means that you can’t host the finished product all steps to make it become a reality.
Let me know of any JV’s that are happening and I will
alone, unless otherwise discussed. As a team you • Outline the process. Make a short outline of mention them on my site. All you have to do is let us
need to allow all parties to reap the benefits of everything that needs to happen to launch. know of your projects in the comments. We want to
the collective work. Whether you need to start from the finished know what you are going to do in the coming months
3. Be on time. If you say that you are going to provide product and work backwards into the details or for your customers. We can not wait to hear what you
something for the team by a certain time make the other way around make sure you put it on are going to do to continue loving your customers.
49
Feel Like Flaking Out? lavonneELLIS
Here’s A Loving Nudge day27
Things have been pretty quiet on the Customer Love front lately. I Mom, who had given me her last savings to pay my tuition, got a
don’t know if that means a lot of you have fallen by the wayside, worried look on her face.
or if you’re all too busy working on your big 29th Day Launches to “You’re not going to quit, are you?”
tweet. I hope it’s the latter.
I knew she MEANT, “You’re not going to quit THIS TOO, are you?”
But I want you to know that if you ran out of steam or into a Because I had pretty much given up on everything up to that point.
roadblock, if you feel like you flaked out, it’s okay. I’m the last And I wasn’t just out of high school — I was 31 years old by then.
person to criticize. I don’t call this place The Complete Flake for [What? I’m a late bloomer!]
nothing.
I heard myself say what I’d never even thought before:
The important thing is to learn from the experience, regroup,
and try again — right? Right? “No, of course not. It’s just hard, that’s all.”
Yeah, I never listen to that advice either. I get tired of all the rah-rah, What a concept.
you-can-do-it posts too. But this is just burnout talking, because I finished the assignment, and it was very good. Can’t remember
we both know we CAN do it. what grade I got but I’m still proud of it. And I learned that I could
Years ago, when I was a waitress going to night school to learn finish something hard. I felt a confidence in myself I’d never
radio, I complained to my mother about an assignment that was experienced before.
particularly difficult for me. It involved writing a three-minute news This is like that. Things that seem hard when you first try them
feature using clips from an interview I had done with an illegal get easier the next time. And after a while, you wonder what the
immigrant about his life in the U.S. I was excited about how good problem was — or forget you ever had one.
the material was, but scared I couldn’t write well enough to do it Or you start to think, It’s just hard, that’s all.
justice.
50
Yeah. So here we are at the end of the challenge. At the beginning, it was all rah-rah, excitement,
and fun. But right now?
I’m looking back at all the mistakes I made and wishing I had a do-over.
• I wish I’d gone back to Naomi Dunford’s post that started all this and read it again, once a day
— or just printed it out and hung it next to my monitor. Because I forgot some crucial parts and
Wishing
didn’t even notice others until now. *sigh*
• I wish I’d remembered to get everyone in the challenge onto a mailing list so I could contact
you with news and encouragement. And now, with questions about how Customer Love has
for
gone for you. And later, when we do this all over. Seems like you’ve all scattered in the wind,
and I’ll never find everybody again.
• I wish I’d pushed myself out of my comfort zone and gone looking for people who could actually
use my services as a voice coach, instead of depending on a lot of nice people who like me and
a
want to support me, to come to my webinar.
• I wish I’d actually done the challenge instead of deciding that the challenge itself was my
challenge. Cheering others on is nice but it’s not getting into the game, taking the knocks, and
winning or losing. Cheering is still on the sidelines.
do-over
That said, I did push myself to learn how to set up a webinar, and to write and deliver a presentation
that people seemed to like. I’m improving on it now and will deliver a hopefully better one this
Thursday. [If you’re coming, please remind me to click Record!] There’s even time to find some
people who might need help with their voices.
lavonneELLIS So I do get a do-over.

And what I’m learning about business is that do-overs are what it’s all about:
• Try something.
• Make adjustments.
day28
• Try again.
Simple.
51
day29 The Whole Point of
lavonneELLIS Customer Love
I wrote Sunday that I wished I’d done a few things differently and wanted And Alison Gresik wrote:
a do-over. What I meant was that I want to do this AGAIN, which has an Customer Love completely changed the momentum of my business. I
entirely different tone. [And we will, don’t worry. :)] Then I realized from held a live event, started a blog series, and connected with lots of new
the comments on that post that Customer Love was even more successful people. I started to use Facebook and Twitter in a meaningful way and my
than I’d hoped. followers and email sign-ups grew. (I even recorded a video, but couldn’t
Marlene Hielema of Image Maven commented: post it because I hadn’t checked the sound levels. Live and learn!)
I got my Digital Camera Buying Guide written and published 2 weeks ago I’m planning a launch soon and I know all of this will pay off.
and that was part of my goal to build my list before launching. I had 500+ Customer Love changed my business too — and my life:
downloads of the guide and added 40 people to my list, and about 60
new Twitter followers, which put me over 200 on each. So that’s good, • It has grown my traffic by a third and Twitter followers by about 100.
as growth had stalled on both.So I launched my second free thing and • It introduced me to some wonderful new friends like David Crandall,
the paying things are just around the corner… I wouldn’t have got this far Abby Kerr and Colin Beveridge.
without you and David. • It gave me a chance to meet and interview the amazing Naomi Dunford.
Birdy Diamond from An Encouraging Bird said: • It pushed me to finally create and present my voice coaching class.
While I wasn’t a formal participant this go-round, I did end up participating • And best of all, it taught me that even though I’ll always be a complete
some by osmosis – making some changes to our blogs, getting some flake, I can trust myself to do what it takes to have a thriving business.
awesome free stuff in the pipeline, and just generally thinking on things
And that is the whole point, after all.
in a new way.
52
The
*missing
customer
love
papers
lizMCGOWEN
ashleySINCLAIR
joshCROCKER
colinBEVERIDGE
birdyDIAMOND
brandonWATKINS
* Ok, so they’re really
just the guest posts
contributed specifically
for the book.
53
The Customer Love challenge began on Twitter the same week
that my kids went back to school, so in my mind the two will always
seem linked.
And, you know, in many ways we entrepreneurs are a little like the
kids I see sprinting about my neighborhood school’s playground.
Our hearts are pounding at the sheer thought of the freedom that
has been allowed us.
lizMCGOWEN Will this be the day?
We run from one thing to the next. From friend to friend.
Playground If someone doesn’t include us, we might sit on the sidelines for a
bit and pout, but we leap back in.
rules and Sometimes we have no idea what comes next. We simply know
that we need to move. To keep up.
Customer We may be older and think we’re wiser, but those lessons from
the playground are still just as pertinent to us now. Here are a few
Love words of wisdom that might help, as learned from the playground:
You have to be willing to use your whole ass, or you might fall off.
Half-assed on the playground means you fall off. The swings. The
teeter-totter.
Ouch.
Timid gets you nothing, except a seat on the bench next to the
teacher -- and that’s not much fun.
54
Nobody talks later in wrong, they have no qualms about class?
glowing terms about safe calling a do-over. Little kids in No one ever stopped doing the
or about who fell off. particular are dedicated to making monkey bars because of injuries --
Nope. But there is talk sure things are fair. They need things unless you were actually in a cast.
about those who swung done right.
high. Those who didn’t fall Nope, it made all of us try even
How about you, in your business? harder. We wanted to be able to
at all (or at least who got back Have you screwed up? Gotten a bit
up and went on to swing high proudly say that, yeah, we did it.
off track? Forgotten a turn here or Blisters and all.
anyway). there?
The same is true in business. You have The glory goes to the person who
Dude, it’s your business. Call a do- does something really, really
to be willing to put your whole self out over. Do whatever you need to do,
there. Those who soar to high heights hard. Something cool. Something
and do it the right way. breathtakingly fun.
are meticulously, fanatically committed
to forward movement. If you are willing There’s nothing saying you can’t Sure, you’re gonna get beaten up.
to use every single muscle in your brain start your do-over today, right this There’s no doubt about it. You’re
and your body to make it happen, it will second. going to fall. Perhaps get injured.
happen. There’s a lot of glory to the one who There will be lots and lots of blisters.
But you have to be willing to use your masters the monkey bars. But it will all be worth it.
entire ass. Remember when that first kid did You’ll be able to look back from the
Never be afraid to call a do-over. the monkey bars without falling off, end of those monkey bars and give
way back in about 1st or 2nd grade? a toothless grin to that next person,
Kids out on the playground are never
shy about asking for do-overs. They do Remember the callouses, the timidly waiting to wrap their hands
what it takes to win. blisters, and the trips to the school around that first bar and kick off
nurse, probably for everybody in your toward glory.
If they, or somebody else, get something
55
ashleySINCLAIR
4 Things we don’t say about

loving your customers
Ok, a lot of fabulous, uplifting things have been helping others feel good, and to have people to
said about customer love, and all of that yummy sell to in the end. Let people know that – that
goodness is great. Time to get down to what you really do get something out of helping them
we’re not saying about customer love so that and even what those things are, so they’re not
you can make the moneys, honey. surprised in the end. Nothing’s worse than a
1. Customer love requires restraint – if you are relationship set up on unclear terms, where the
everywhere, doing everything, and talking to person being sold to feels betrayed in the end.
everyone all of the time, no one will feel the need Be up front, and they’ll be even more amazed
to buy your service or your product. Because at how “selfless” you are, when they know that
they already have you. Love ‘em up, but allow your end goal is actually to make serious moola.
yourself to be a rarefied presence too, so that 3. It’s simply easier to focus on providing them
you don’t go cuh-razy and your buyers actually value instead of worrying if you have permission
want more of you. to make some noise. So yes, it is a lot of effort
2. Customer love is not selfless, and neither are to reach out and consistently provide customer
you. I can tell you it’s neurologically impossible love, but the alternative is mind-fucking yourself
to be selfless, we are designed to be extremely and hiding in a corner. Maybe you have more
selfish. Don’t worry baby, that’s a good thing, options, I hope you do, but it still stands true:
especially when it comes to Customer Love. focusing on the value you provide will help you
You’re doing it to connect, to feel good that you’re get out of your own way. And make some noise.
;)
56
4. The way you help people positions you just as much as any noise you make about your brand.
The way you help often becomes your brand more clearly than anything you shout in your logo. If
you say “oh honey, I’m sorry to hear that!” enough times on Twitter, you become the Caretaker. And
I won’t believe anything you say about your ability to bust people’s chops, because I think that the
way you help when you’re at your best is to caretake.
Examples: Naomi helps by telling it like it is, even if it breaks rules. Who are we kidding? Especially
if it breaks rules. This obviously makes her the Outlaw, which positions her as a highly, highly
trustworthy figure in a world of shiny marketers.
Dave Navarro helps people by solving their problems in a quiet, straightforward way – no muss,
no fuss, no fluff. He’s the Regular Guy to a tee - “Hey, I’m just providing for my family and I know
you are too. Let’s help each other out.” He cashes in on this his straightforward no-hype nature,
because when he goes to sell a product, people know that it will actually do everything he says it
will.
Want to reposition yourself? Don’t just help people, don’t just love up your customers, do it in a way
that is consistent with your desired position in your community.
I never, EVER say “there, there” about a customer or peer’s difficulty. Even though I’m very
compassionate, and even though that’s the most helpful thing you can say at times. I know it’s my
job and my brand to be the Magician - the agent of transformation, the match striker. It’s my job
to help people stand tall, take risks, and bust a major move by using their strengths. So I only help
them on those topics, in a way that’s congruent with my brand. I cheerfully expect more of everyone
in my business communities, because I know it’s my job to help them rise to the occasion. This is
the way I help - I let the Caretakers caretake, the Rebels rebel, the Explorers explore. I transform.
So what’s your way? What’s the verb most congruent with your brand?
Use that to provide the right kind of help to your customers, and you’ll be good to go.
57
Are you thankful?
joshCROCKER
Sometime around day 2 of my “Twitzkrieg” blast, I wanted Results
to give up. With roughly 250 individual #TK tweets in just a week
and a half, I felt overwhelmed at times. Although it’s only
What is a “Twitzkrieg”? 140ish characters at a time, I wanted each one to be
unique to the person who I was sending it to, not some
The idea for a “Twitzkrieg” came from an idea that Sean “hey thanks for being such a great person”. To write a
Ogle had on his blog, Location 180. The idea was that personal note like that takes time. Here’s what I did:
he was going to thank each and every single person he
followed on Twitter. He was going to thank them for the 1. If the person was someone I follow and comment on
things that he’d learned from them, and also for their regularly, it was quite easy, because they knew this
relationship and influence in his life. I thought this was a was coming already.
great idea, so I decided to capitalize on it. Thus came the 2. If it was somebody who is influential, but really doesn’t
Twitzkrieg. know who I am, it was still kind of easy, because I still
I chose that word by combining the two words Twitter + pay a great deal of attention to what they are saying
Blitzkrieg. Blitzkrieg of course being the German word online.
meaning “lightning war”. In WWII the German army would 3. If it was somebody who had influenced me at one
move upon their enemies via a blitzkrieg. There was a point, but we hadn’t talked in a while, that’s where
large amount of action in a short amount of time. I knew the real work came in.
that if I was going to do this mass-thank-you, I didn’t want 4. And if it was somebody who I ended up following a
to take a month to do it. So I decided to “Twitzkrieg” it. while ago, but neither of us really interacted at all,
I used the hashtag #TK to identify every tweet that was they got the boot (not because I’m not thankful, but
unique to this blast of thank yous, to distinguish from my because they were a large entity who didn’t usually
normal Twitter communication. respond to anyone. I wanted this to be personal, which
means there had to be potential for the conversation
to go both ways).
58
How being a stalker and a detective helped me rekindle that I follow on Twitter given by Sean Ogle, was a great
old relationships idea! No...it wasn’t just a great idea, it was a great
Let me pause for a moment to enjoy how epic that paragraph FRIGGIN’ idea!
title is. <pause> Wow...ok back to the topic at hand... • People like seeing and hearing their own name. I
So back to the third bullet point above for a minute. The should’ve caught on to this one sooner, but calling
real work I’m referring to is the process of getting into their somebody by their name that there mama and papa
world, a.k.a. opening up the door to their digital home and gave ‘em means a LOT!
welcoming myself in for a bit. However...maybe the most important thing I learned
If they had a blog, I went through and read some of the through all of this, was hustle.
popular and recent posts. There were quite a few times that I wanted to give up and
I went back a week or so and saw who they were tweeting just stop typing all this madness. (I know the people who get
and what they were tweeting about. mobile updates of my tweets would’ve greatly appreciated
this!) Every time this feeling came along, there’s one thing
If there was a Facebook Fan page, I went there too. that kept me going.
Bottom line - I did my homework on these “old” friends Being thankful.
of mine. That way, when it came time to #TK them, I had
something valuable to say. The interesting thing is that I Remembering all that I’ve learned from these great people
actually learned more from these people when I went back over the last year and a half kept me going. Would I get
and did my “stalker” homework on them, and for that I am noticed by them and have them @ mention me? Maybe.
even more grateful. Would I get increased traffic to my blog? Yeah, probably.
Would I make any money off of this? Not likely.
What I learned from overloading Twitter’s servers for a
week BUT...
There are quite a few things I learned, and these are in no It’s still worth it! A gift is something that’s given without
particular order: expecting anything in return, otherwise it’s really not a gift
(which is why the way we celebrate Christmas in America
• Tweetdeck, and the ability to schedule tweets, is drives me nuts. They’re not really “gifts”, they’re just
incredible. This program saved me oodles of time, packaged stuff that we exchange). The #TK tweets were
allowing me to batch the majority of my “thank yous” my gift to the people I’ve learned from, and I will continue
and send them out throughout the day. to give these gifts, not just during the Customer Love
• The Customer Love challenge issued by LaVonne Ellis challenge, but throughout the rest of the year.
and David Crandall, and the idea to thank every person You never really know who needs some encouragement.
59
colinBEVERIDGE 2. People really respond when you believe in
them.
I like to think I’m a supportive tutor. But this
month, I’ve learned the difference between saying
“now come on, you can do this, you’ve done it
10 (Plus One)
before” and looking someone in the eyes and saying
“yes - you can do this. I believe in you.”
In the first case, people nod and try to get on with it. In
Things I’ve
the second, their entire body language changes. I’m not
going to get all Muppety - but you know perfectly well that
I want to.
Learned From
3. If you remember an old client with a smile, they’d
probably love to hear from you.
I had a few days of total desperation near the start of Customer
Customer
Love. I’d recently moved, bills were coming due and the influx of
students I’d been hoping for hadn’t materialised. As an almost
last resort, I emailed EVERY client I’d ever worked with. It came
Love
to about 90 emails. Each with a hand-crafted introduction and a
cookie-cutter call to action (I do internet! Tell your friends!)
It worked. A handful of leads, just like that. But that wasn’t the
amazing thing: the amazing thing was the number of people who
wrote back to say ‘lovely to hear from you - you made a huge
difference.’
1. Sometimes your outlook is more important than your
techniques. 4. Nobody knows that nobody knows what they know. No,
nobody.
I’ve been reading IttyBiz since 2007. I’ve listened to all kinds of
copywriting seminars and ‘how to close’ guides. I’ve always picked I should rephrase that. Everyone has a body of knowledge they’ve
and chosen what to use (no-one wants to be Mr Sleazypants, built up - expertise that we take for granted. I’m always a bit taken
right?). I’m passable at that. aback when someone doesn’t know what twitter is. Not in a bad
way - and I’ll happily explain it as best I can - but to that person, I
But I’ve not had to use any of it this month. Even in a slow month
am suddenly amazingly smart because I know all this new-fangled
where I could really use new clients, I’ve been focussed on how I
tech stuff.
help people rather than getting paid. And I’ve been knocking it out
of the park. Whatever your expertise, you can astonish people with it, too.
60
5. If you put your mind to it, you can do something amazing in a 8. We’re more alike than we are different.
few hours - even if it sucks in your head. Maya Angelou said that, I think. Only she probably
I wrote something for Customer Love - it started as an e-book said it in more beautiful language. Where I come
about how to get unstuck from your maths problems. It evolved from, there’s a saying: We’re a’ Jock Tamson’s bairns.
to index cards with provocative questions on. In my head, I was It means roughly the same thing as ‘We’re all God’s
simply rehashing all the creativity and problem-solving and children.’ Customer Love gave me the chance to hang
Oblique Strategy ideas I’ve internalised over the years, most likely out with people across the world I’d never normally talk
plagiarising a huge chunk of How To Solve It, and just putting to. What do I have in common with a leadership experts in
something out for the sake of it. Pennsylvania or a design guru in Italy? What could I possibly
I wrote it in an afternoon. And reading it back... it freaking rocks. have to talk about with voice coaches and LinkedIn guides
This stuff isn’t common knowledge. These cards can genuinely and niche marketers? What on earth must they be thinking
help and entertain people. And these cards reflect me as much as about talking to a math geek?
they reflect the sources that inspired them. What we had in common? Way, way more than I could have
6. A challenge with a deadline is a great way to concentrate the expected. What we had to talk about? Too much for a month-long
mind. challenge. What we had to offer each other? ... this is where the
advert would say something like ‘priceless.’ Obviously that doesn’t
Without the “Uh-oh... I haven’t done a product” meme that started work here. But that’s what I’m getting at.
circulating in Customer Love about two thirds of the way through,
the cards would probably never have been written. It reminded me 9. Just because it’s the internet, doesn’t mean it’s not real.
(like NaNoWriMo does every November) that I’d signed up to this, Within a few days of the start of Customer Love, I was offering my
and if I didn’t do it, bad things would happen to kittens. So I gritted couch to someone - Joel Runyon - I’d never met. My first contact
my teeth and wrote the bloody thing. Did I mention that it freaking with Tim, who recommended him, was less than a week before.
rocks? Read that back and ask yourself, how has Colin lived on the planet
7. Accept help, even when you’re not sure you need it for nearly 33 years without getting himself killed?
If someone’s offering to help, try taking them up on it. Either they’re Sadly but sensibly, Joel found a bunkbed or something closer to
just being polite (in which case, you should teach them to stop his destination. But I’d have happily looked after him and shown
making offers they don’t plan to stand behind), or they genuinely him the bright light (singular) of Poole because I’d interacted with
want to help you. Inspiration comes from the oddest of places and Tim well enough to trust him and his right people. I’d do the same
you never know when a voice-coaching class is going to convince for pretty much anyone in Customer Love. Come to the English
you to go back on the seminar trail, or a chance comment in an south coast! It’s nice down here.
interview will turn into an e-book. 10. People are astonishing.
I kind of knew that already.
61
The Value of Positive Speaking:
3 Powerful Ways to Love Your Customers
birdyDIAMOND
“Your customers aren’t just the people who buy from you... but your Compliments
employees/co-workers/family/friends. Everybody you interact with… I Like praise, compliments point out to us the things we’ve done well in
took that to mean you should love on everybody!” --LaVonne Ellis some way.
Love on everybody. Such a wonderful phrase, and a glorious idea. But The distinction between the two, for me, is that praise is more for
how on earth do you accomplish such a thing? a specific action or behavior that has pleased in some way, while
Here are three ways. compliments are more for the general goodnesses that surround a
Praise person.
People love praise. They love to hear when & what they are doing right Mark Twain once said “I can live for two months on a good compliment.”
or well. and I quite agree. :-)
Praise is the grease that lubricates relationships and connects us A perfect example of how compliments can bring joy to people’s lives
together. is the recent compliment-fest hosted by @CatherineCaine. She started
semi-randomly complimenting people she knew on Twitter, then threw
When used well, it can be a great way to become remembered. And
it open to general requests. Having been the recipient of one of her
especially now, in a day & age when nearly anything that separates you
beauties, I can personally attest to the warm glow that lingers on
from the pack is a good thing, praise is a simple, yet effective technique
through your day from receiving a well-crafted compliment.
for raising your voice above the clamor of the crowd.
3 Things About the Fine Art of Crafting Compliments
3 Ways to Use Praise Well
1. Find a way.
1. Keep it sincere. People can smell a phony a mile off, and phony
praise is no different. There is always something to compliment a
person on if you are willing to look for
2. Keep it timely. The closer in time you can put your praise to the event
it. Be willing.
that merited it, the better. Better late than never, but timely is far better
than either. 2. Keep it honest.
3. Search out reasons to praise people. Sometimes it seems as if we- Honest compliments bring
as-humanity want to search out only the negative things. Try searching not only joy but trust. Both of
for the positive instead and see the results! these are good things.
62
3. Notice the good things from the people around you. 4 Things to Remember about Honesty
There are a lot of good things happening. Validate some of them by 1. Keep it clean & clear.
positive mentioning, such as compliments. Don’t use honesty as an excuse to be nasty.
Honesty 2. Be confident & reassured that what goes around does indeed come
Honesty has gotten a bit of a bad rap over the years from being used by back around.
people as an excuse to commit verbal abuse of one kind or another. Remember the story of “Miracle on 34th Street”. When Mr. Kringle
It doesn’t have to be that way. sent those customers to the other stores, putting their needs above the
True honesty can be an extremely powerful way to bring trust to the table store’s needs, they came back in droves, spending far more money than
with your customers and show them some great Customer Love. they would have originally.
A couple of examples: So think long term. Losing some money now, but gaining a life-long
customer who will praise you to the sky & send you people? Do the math
Back in the day, when my husband & I sold jewelry & pretty stones at
- it’s an easy equation.
medieval faires and the like, I was always careful to be honest when
people would ask me if something suited. 3. Think long-term.
And that honesty worked. Once people got over their initial cynicism, Again, remember that short-term losses for long-term gains works out in
they relaxed and enjoyed their shopping more, reassured that they would your favor in the long run. Think big; think long-term. Don’t let the needs
take home only pieces that would serve them well. of the moment blind you to the larger world.
A more recent example is when my husband & I went shopping for 4. Put your customer first.
another headset, and a splitter or two in order to be able to do the things They should come first. Their needs trump yours, at least to a point.
we need to do computer-wise. And since our equipment is a) borrowed & The more you are willing, within the realms of fair exchange, to put your
b) old, we made a brief stop at the laptops as well. customers first, the more they will tend to think of you first when it comes
When inquiring later, we were referred to another store for our splitter to choosing where to spend their hard-earned coin.
needs, and told that the laptop we were looking at went on sale frequently, Three Sides of the Customer Love Triangle
and was most likely going to be on deeper sale next week. • Praise.
That level of honesty I have found to be rare in the box retail world, and • Compliments.
I’ll tell you what. They may have lost a few dollars by what they said, • Honesty.
but I am even more convinced that they are the right place to be doing
business, so in the long run, the monies they will get will far outweigh the Put them together, and you have a
temporary losses now. powerful system to help you show
some amazing Customer Love.
63
The Importance of The best way to get your customers to love you, and
love you enough to recommend you to all their friends
Small Gestures and colleagues, is to show them the love first.

No you don’t have to spend all the company’s petty
and Showing Your cash on flowers and gifts- your clients might think
that a little strange anyway-but instead find small
Clients Some Love ways every day to make their lives a little easier, even
without being asked. Gestures like that, however
small they might seem at the time, can leave a good
impression in someone’s mind forever.
brandonWATKINS Once you take the time to get to know your clients
and their needs you will almost certainly start noticing
a pattern. Some of your customers might be able to
help one another. If you can effect and introduction
Any good business person understands – or should and the two work together well, your simple act will
understand – that building a great relationship with result in two happy clients who won’t soon forget what
their clients is essential if they want to have a shot you did for them.
at succeeding in an increasingly competitive business Here’s a real life example:
market. Simon is an SEO consultant. As his business begins
There are a thousand and one different theories about to grow he accumulates clients from a number of
the best ways to build customer loyalty but whatever different walks of life and business niches. He often
tactics you pursue they should all lead to the same checks in with his customers and makes an effort to
goal – having your customers love you enough that build a rapport with them to better understand what
they would never dream of going elsewhere. they, and their businesses, are all about.
64
Marisa is a client of Simon’s. She is a fashion designer dental society function. Simon, it seems gets nothing,
who has come to Simon to help get the word out so why did he bother?
about her clothing line on the Internet. One day, in a The simple fact is though, that Simon gets a lot out
passing remark during a conversation that is really this simple act of connecting two clients together.
not business related at all, she mentions that she still Every time someone compliments her new smile not
needs some dental work doing but has very little time only does Marisa mention the great doctor that did the
and in any case has had very bad experiences in the work but also the great SEO guy who put her in touch
past with dentists and has no idea how to find one she with him in the first place. And when Mrs. Jones gets
likes and trusts. a flood of compliments about her dress not only does
As it happens, Simon also has a client who is a dentist, Dr Jones explain that the designer is a patient but also
and in the same area as Marisa lives and works. Having it was his great SEO consultant who put her in touch
worked with Dr. Jones, he knows that he specializes with his practice in the first place. In the end Simon
in gentle dentistry and has a good reputation. So he gets six new clients as a result of his little “hook up”
gives Marisa Dr. Jones’ number but also mentions her and the promise of many more.
to the good doctor the next time he speaks to him, and What Simon did can be repeated by anyone, whatever
asks him to take special care of his fashion designer business they are in. Showing your clients a little extra
friend. love, paying attention to what they say and then going
So Marisa finds a dentist she trusts and finally gets that extra mile, even just by finding them a dentist, is
that bridge she needed, which makes her far more an act of kindness that will stick in their minds for a
confident when she is talking in public about her long time to come. And if you are in their minds, you
work. Dr. Jones gets a new patient and the promise will be the first person they think of when someone
of a sample dress for his wife to wear to an upcoming else needs the kind of help that your business offers.
65
THANK YOU A huge thank you goes out to all of these Flickr users whose generous
use of Creative Commons allowed for the images in this book!
Ben Fredericson (xjrlokix) sophiea Gianmaria™

Newsbie Pix Bogdan Suditu Neal
Sun Pictures / Lakshman Nina Matthews Photography ~Brenda-Starr~
Eneas Pink Sherbet Photography Josep Ma. Rosell
Randy Son Of Robert Wonderlane nattu
join the dots laverrue Alex Schweigert
Vince Alongi MGShelton R’eyes
mikebaird emdot Justin Link
kekremsi neiljs jesse.millan
jurvetson ‘Playingwithbrushes’ Let Ideas Compete
Horia Varlan kevindooley mikebaird
orvalrochefort Vince Alongi thelastminute
lovejanine CharlotteSpeaks♥{Charlotte.Morrall} woodleywonderworks
eyeliam Crystl
66

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lavonneELLIS

LaVonne Ellis is a former radio newscaster and current

LaVonne lives in San Diego, California and has two

customerLOVE | lavonneELLIS & davidCRANDALL | copyright2010

customerLOVE | lavonneELLIS & davidCRANDALL | copyright2010

customerLOVE | lavonneELLIS & davidCRANDALL | copyright2010

customerLOVE | lavonneELLIS & davidCRANDALL | copyright2010

So we’re on. Because whether or not there’s a pot

I’ll be writing a short blog post here

customerLOVE | lavonneELLIS & davidCRANDALL | copyright2010

Time to start the Make Customers Love You Challenge. In

BEGIN Make friends as if your life depended on it. Be

customerLOVE | lavonneELLIS & davidCRANDALL | copyright2010

customerLOVE | lavonneELLIS & davidCRANDALL | copyright2010

Just take a deep breath and write with love. Since

The compliments felt great, but it was these

David and I had talked about how we wanted to

customerLOVE | lavonneELLIS & davidCRANDALL | copyright2010

Ask, and allow, others to help you, encourage you, love

We all feel that way. And we all need a support network,

No, I love all those things myself.

davidCRANDALL • And unicorns. Ahh, my beloved babies. Unicorns are so

Humans are bizarre

We have weird tastes, and any time we encounter someone else

So what am I suggesting you do for today?

1. Write as the real you

customerLOVE | lavonneELLIS & davidCRANDALL | copyright2010

How can I love something as prickly and foreign as LinkedIn?

Not that different from what we do on Twitter now, is it? :)

customerLOVE | lavonneELLIS & davidCRANDALL | copyright2010

And if you only have one person on your network (don’t

customerLOVE | lavonneELLIS & davidCRANDALL | copyright2010

Fresh Start Monday

customerLOVE | lavonneELLIS & davidCRANDALL | copyright2010

(Thanks to @HeavenandEl for compiling this list!)

customerLOVE | lavonneELLIS & davidCRANDALL | copyright2010

customerLOVE | lavonneELLIS & davidCRANDALL | copyright2010

And best of all, they make being in business awesome!

Give them a reason to fall in love with you.

Give away something valuable.

customerLOVE | lavonneELLIS & davidCRANDALL | copyright2010

customerLOVE | lavonneELLIS & davidCRANDALL | copyright2010

And I think that’s a wrap! I’m going back to bed,

customerLOVE | lavonneELLIS & davidCRANDALL | copyright2010

[Click image to view video]

I understand that you may have some insecurities

day11 Sit back and enjoy (hopefully)

Go ahead and watch the video; it’s under 5 minutes

And yes, I move around a lot. That’s me.

customerLOVE | lavonneELLIS & davidCRANDALL | copyright2010

customerLOVE | lavonneELLIS & davidCRANDALL | copyright2010

Interview with the Queen of Awesomesauce

customerLOVE | lavonneELLIS & davidCRANDALL | copyright2010

customerLOVE | lavonneELLIS & davidCRANDALL | copyright2010

customerLOVE | lavonneELLIS & davidCRANDALL | copyright2010

Why ‘happily ever after’ isn’t enough

customerLOVE | lavonneELLIS & davidCRANDALL | copyright2010

customerLOVE | lavonneELLIS & davidCRANDALL | copyright2010

Freaking Out And and how I really,

Get Back On Track

But I stopped, because:

customerLOVE | lavonneELLIS & davidCRANDALL | copyright2010

customerLOVE | lavonneELLIS & davidCRANDALL | copyright2010

day18 sometimes your customers aren’t as predictable.