Jim Pagiamtzis at Microsoft Store-Yorkdale sharing Power of Email Marketing Dec 2012
It has been great journey and meeting professional and entrepreneurs in various industries. Would like to share great story how I got hired by Constant Contact late 2012.
The Challenge
It all began with an experience I had at Darren Weeks at Fast Track to Cash flow event that was held in Toronto in 2008 where he challenge the entire group to do a newsletter campaign for an entire year. I took the challenge and started sharing my own newsletter through my outlook express email. On a monthly basis I shared events, articles. I had success from contacts responding to my emails with encouragement and even attending some of my speaking events.
In one memorable campaign, I had shared that I was speaking at Enterprise Toronto on How to attract a Mentor in business.life and success. Elizabeth Verwey from HomeOffice Mentors she had written a book Mentorship Circle regarding her experience and insights doing group mentorship project she had run.
She had offered to come and speak at the end of my talk.I really like the idea and made it happen! She was a huge success and she even sold some of her books.
Continued to do my newsletter in the weeks and months. I began to do a lot of networking and my list began to grow. Had figured out a way to keep doing so the my ISP ( Internet Service Provider) wouldn't shut be down. It took time to do this and I began impatient and frustrated some days. Then it finally happened my ISP service shut me down 3 times in 8 months!
I had to start looking for an alternative solution. Began attending the local event that Constant Contact did in Toronto and realized this is what I needed. Lisa Kember is the Regional Director for Constant Contact Ontario and I had met with her a few times and expressed my interests in the social platform.
The Trigger event
In October 2012 I was part of mastermind group in Toronto with an amazing group of professionals where I had a discussion on doing an event on early December to promote our group. My two mastermind friends were skeptical on doing an event on Saturday Dec 3,2011, they figured it was took close to holidays and people wouldn't be interested.
I still remember it to this day, I stood up and said " I will do an event on Saturday December 3rd 2011" It caught my mastermind friends little of guard with the statement, they offered the support and encouragement.
Few days later I registered and payed for the Constant Contact Email Marketing program, with the assistance of their award winning coaches I put together my first email campaign. What happened in the coming weeks was exciting and very memorable.
I had a successful event on December 3rd, 2011 with 30 attendees! My two friends both did video testimonials regarding their amazement and support of the event success.
I went on to share this success with Lisa Kember in late December and she as suggested I apply for Solutions Provider programs which was the opportunity to sells the Constant Contact services for revenue. Completed that paperwork few weeks later and began to have success in doing, even got a my friend Carla Langhorst from Small Business Solver to become a Solution Provider.
In late December Lisa Kember had emailed me requesting few YouTube videos of some of my presentations. That was easy! I had done numerous videos since 2008, my mentors had mentioned to do this in order to learn more about my speaking style and become a better presenter.
In mid January I had attended a presentation that Lisa Kember was doing at the Marriot Hotel in Downtown Toronto, Prior to her talk she had offered to take me out for lunch after the talk. Initially I was concerned she has assured me there was nothing to be worried about.
We sat down for lunch and she began to ask me question about my speaking journey and articles that I had written.
She then explained that there were putting a team together called Authorized Local Experts in the Toronto area to better share the Constant Contact platform.
I had one question "Does it pay?" she responded "Yes it does"
"I am in" I responded!
I signed the contract on Wednesday January 25th,2012 and spoke the next morning for Entrepreneur Speed Networking Group in Newmarket ( I was a co-organizer). Didn't sleep much that night as I downloaded the presentation and studied.
I ended up sharing the presentation and got great feedback! Literally read the presentation notes.
Have had the great experience on doing numerous corporate talks throughout 2012 traveling to Kingston, Ingersoll, Schomberg.
Ended up speaking to 670 people and generating 5 corporate clients clients for the year. It was an amazing achievement!
Look forward continued success in 2013 and beyond
Moral of the story: Continue to network, attend event and you too