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Welcome back to Vision Pros. Today we're going

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up to Maryland to talk with Allie Machete. Allie,

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I'm so glad you're here on the show. Would you

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please introduce yourself a little bit? Oh yeah,

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well thanks so much for having me, Sue. I am

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Allie Machete and I am the CEO and founder of

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a team called the Writers' Ally. We are an author

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services business, so we help serious authors

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to write, publish and sell more high quality

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books. And in particular, we have a real focus

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on books that actually achieve results. We don't

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really do a lot of projects where it's purely

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a vanity project. We tend to work with authors

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who really want to see that book, help them grow

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their business, or if it's a novel or a memoir,

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they're trying to grow an audience for more books.

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i came to this business after a really long career

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in book publishing i've been in book publishing

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for about 25 years now so it is a lifelong passion

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and love and it's just my pleasure to be able

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to share that with people that's wonderful that

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is so cool i love that um that that's that's

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really really neat talk to me a little bit more

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about the vision for the people that you're serving

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Yeah, absolutely. You know, like I said, people

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publish books for all kinds of reasons and technology

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has evolved. Digital printing technology, e -book

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technology, Internet marketing has really made

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it accessible to almost anybody who wants to

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publish a book. And so many people do go out

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there with that dream or that goal of publishing

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a book and they just don't have enough information.

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They don't know what all the moving pieces are.

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Publishing a book appears to be very simple on

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the service, certainly. Anyone can take a file

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and upload it to Amazon and have it available

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for sale as a book within 24 hours. But that

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doesn't mean it's a marketable book. That doesn't

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mean it's a good book that's going to actually

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get reviewed well and achieve results. So we

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really try to help authors starting with the

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developmental stage of their manuscripts. If

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they're seeking traditional publication, we want

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to help them get that book deal. We help them

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with query letters and book proposals. And for

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those who want to go the independent route, we

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help take them all the way through to publication.

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into marketing as well, really focused on what

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their goals are, what their bigger picture vision

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to use your word is for their book. And we want

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to help them make sure that the book that they

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write and publish is competitive with all the

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other books out there, including traditionally

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published books so that they can actually achieve

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those goals and dreams. That's really such a

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great distinction. I can see, you know, as a

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writer myself, I know there's this amazing opportunity

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that has never been there that literally anyone

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can go publish a book. I love that you also mentioned

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that doesn't mean it's always going to be a good

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book or a marketable book and certainly not one

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that actually accomplishes anything. What are

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some goals that your clients typically have in

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publishing a book? Well, for our novelists and

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memoirists, it's usually just about reach and

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readership, more so for novelists than memoirists.

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There are not a lot of serial memoirists out

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there. Those are more often one shot deals. But

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with a novelist, they typically want to grow

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an audience. They want to make sure that there's

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someone interested in reading their next few

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books so they can continue to write. And of course,

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a nonfiction book is usually tied to business

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goals. We've got clients who come in wanting

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to pivot into a slightly different niche or who

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want to improve their visibility. in their current

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niche so that they can attract more and better

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quality clients. Getting speaking engagements,

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getting corporate gig workshops, getting any

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kind of opportunity for your business is just

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100 times easier when you have a professional

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quality book. That's for sure. That's really

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awesome. So you cover all the whole span, it

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sounds like, from development all the way through

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publishing and promotion as well, right? Yep,

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that's right. That's so neat. I love that. Tell

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me a little bit then about your vision for your

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business. Well, I've been growing this business

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for a very long time. And to some extent, I've

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achieved the vision. You know, I wanted to grow

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a team that had real industry knowledge and experience

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that had the same passion that I have for bringing

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really great books into the world. And I think

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we've been doing that really successfully. We've

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had hundreds of clients. And through my my teaching

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and my speaking, I've reached thousands more.

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But for me, I think the next step looks like

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getting more opportunities to work more directly

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and to share my experience and my knowledge more

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directly with more people. So right now, my team

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is providing a lot of the services, the editing,

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the design, the publishing work. And I haven't

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really worked with clients directly in a long

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time. So I've been putting together details for

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a new mastermind project called the Author Advantage

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Mastermind. That is for authors who are writing

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a book or have written a book related to their

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business and really want to understand how powerful

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that book can be as a tool. I want to show them

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how to leverage that to achieve their goals so

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it doesn't just sit in the Zoom background or

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in their email signature. And that book that

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was a huge investment of time and energy and

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resources gets some ROI for them. And I'm writing

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a book myself. It's a real shoemaker's children

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situation over here. I've ghostwritten books.

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I've been a part of national bestsellers. I've

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been helping hundreds of authors to publish their

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books. But I haven't written my own and I am

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doing that now. Well, tell me more about that.

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So the book is also called The Author Advantage,

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and it is very much in line with the mastermind.

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It is a sort of a choose your own adventure guide.

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I want to help authors to really shift their

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mindset and understand that the true value of

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their book is not the cover price, that once

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the book is published for nonfiction authors

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in particular. Yes, we all want to sell books.

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Yes, we want to get books out there. But the

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real goal for a nonfiction author is not to sell

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more books. It's to leverage that book to get

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all of the opportunities that that book can bring

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to them. And so I have identified nine of the

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most common and effective strategies that business

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owners can use to leverage their book to achieve

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any number of goals. And I want to basically

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create a roadmap to help them do that. Fantastic.

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Can you spill the tea a little bit on one tip

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that you've got for authors? Oh, Josh. Yeah,

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well, just as an example, we had a client, one

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of many clients, but one particularly successful

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client who a few years ago had a very quiet list.

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She had sort of stepped away from her business

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for various personal reasons and wanted to come

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back. And she had decided to start leveraging

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her time and experience by creating online courses.

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But she knew if she just launched the course

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to it. a dead list she wasn't going to get very

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far so instead she wrote a book that was very

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much tied to what the course topic was ultimately

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going to be and She put together she worked with

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us on the book and then she put together a large

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campaign using partners to help give away free

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copies of the book in a way where they had to

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sign up for her mailing list to get the free

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copy. And she grew her list by about twelve thousand

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people in a month and then was able now to have

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a nice fresh list full of people who had read

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her book or reading her book that she could start

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to nurture and begin fresh with. And about a

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year later. launched her first online course

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and was hugely successful with the launch brilliant

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i love the strategy that is so cool very very

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cool all right and i know that you said you had

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a special gift to give to our listeners Yes,

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I do. So all of these things that we're talking

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about, almost any author can make them happen.

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But the key is to have the right book. And many

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people think that means just writing a good book.

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But the truth is, a good book is not enough.

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Plenty of good books when they're not planned

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strategically to achieve certain goals. They

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come out and they're perfectly good books and

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they do absolutely nothing. So I have a webinar

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training called Don't Write the Wrong Book. It's

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free and it's available at offers .theritersally

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.com backslash visionprose. Thank you so much.

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That's very kind of you. I just hope that all

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you listeners, if you have any idea in your head

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about writing a book, this would be a fantastic

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first move. Thank you so much for joining us.

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I really appreciate you being here. Thanks again

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for having me. It was great. Thank you for being

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here today. I'm really happy that you tuned in

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to Vision Pros Live. I'm looking forward to seeing

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your reactions as these episodes continue to

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move forward. This is going to get more and more

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fun. We'll have more and more engagement as well.

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We'll invite people to participate in the show.

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And thank you for giving us your time and attention.

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Have an excellent time building out your vision

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and becoming a vision pro yourself.