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Speaker 1: And we won her three hundred and eleven thousand dollars

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and we've won more money than that, but her story

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specifically was just so inspiring for our whole team. They

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still bring it up to this day of just the

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changes that it made for her life. Now she has

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five different facilities in the area that are twenty four

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hour service and she's just making an impact where she's at.

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So that was a pretty cool win for us.

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Speaker 2: You're listening to Carrie Lutz's Financial Survival Network, where you

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get valuable information you just can't find anywhere else to

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thrive in today's trying times. You need the Financial Survival

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Network now more than ever. Go to Financial Survivalnetwork dot

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com and get your free newsletter and gift. Financial Survival

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Network now more than ever.

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Speaker 1: Ed.

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Speaker 3: Welcome you are listening to and watching the Financial Survival Network.

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I'm your host, Carrie Lutz. Hey, you know that I'm

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a huge, huge proponent of going into business, of becoming

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an entrepreneur, of entrepreneurship in America, and I think I've

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found somebody who's even a bigger proponent than myself. Not

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only is your proponent, but she's actually helping you get

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grants get funding to start your business or name is

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Stormy Banks. Stormy, it's really an honor to have you

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on the show. Hey, obviously, I would venture to say,

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and we didn't talk about this pre call. You probably

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got yourself a grant and then it dawned on you

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that hey, I figured out how to do it, but

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there's so many of you out there that have no clue.

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I can make a business helping you get grants. Do

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I have that story right? Yeah?

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Speaker 1: For the most part, it was kind of like during

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COVID when everyone was needing money and businesses were failing

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left and right. We were in the same boat, right,

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and we were like, how can we get some money

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fast without having all the qualifications of traditional lending.

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Speaker 4: But it honestly just started as a free education.

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Speaker 1: We were on zooms and on Instagram lives and just

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telling people where to go and how to get it,

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and then ended up people were like, well, can you

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do the work for us? And we're like, hey, maybe

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we should make this a business because we're getting so

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many people that are in need. And that's kind of

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how the whole grant writing agency you know, became alive.

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Speaker 3: That's really cool, and hey, how many people have you

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worked with in the past, and how long have you

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been doing it? I guess I should ask.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, so right now, we launched in March of twenty

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twenty one, so we're coming up on four years in

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twenty twenty five, and so far we have had ten

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thousand clients that we have served in help throughout this process.

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We actually just got a notification from our CRM system

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that said, congratulations, you've hit a ten thousand mile mark.

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Speaker 4: So that's cool.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, that's remarkable. What kind of fees do people pay you?

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Speaker 4: So it depends on what they're coming for.

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Speaker 1: We do still have our educational services, so we teach

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you know the full process and then also we have

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our full service to end grant writing options that start

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at seven hundred and go to thirty five hundred.

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Speaker 3: All right, tell us your biggest success story to date.

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You don't have the name names, just tell us the industry.

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Speaker 4: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: So it's actually she's she has a child care facility

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out in Houston and she had never won a grant

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before or gotten the loan. She was She had one small,

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like in home child care facility, and she had these

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big dreams of being twenty four hours and having transportation

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and making a change in her area. We found this

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grant that was available in her a local area that

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was given monies to remove your in home based child

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care facility to an actual commercial space, and we won

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her three hundred and eleven thousand dollars and we won

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more money than that, but her story specifically was just

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so inspiring for our whole team. They still bring it

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up to this day of just the changes that it

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made for her life. Now she has five different facilities

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in the area that are twenty four hour service and

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she's just making an impact where she's at. So that

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was a pretty cool win for us.

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Speaker 3: He that's amazing. That's really amazing that you could do that.

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And the Hey, I'm sure your rip your files are

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full of success stories.

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Speaker 1: Huh, absolutely, which is such a blessing, right. We don't

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take those for granted.

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Speaker 3: Hey, And it seems like for the amount of money

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you're charging, this is like the deal of the century.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, because a lot of people grant writers, they're charging

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a lot more than what we charge.

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Speaker 4: But we really wanted to hone in.

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Speaker 1: On the fact that we know that people are small

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businesses and so they're needing the grant money because they

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need money, right, So we didn't want to charge exponential

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prices to make the entry, the barrier to entry super

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duper hard. So we focused on what could be something

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that would not only serve our expertise because we're all

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certified grant writers, but also give access to the people

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who have been under served for historical you know, time periods,

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all right.

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Speaker 3: So if somebody comes to you and they're a budding

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entrepreneur but not a lot of experience, not a lot

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of work experience, what the top three pieces of advice

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that you would give that person?

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Speaker 1: If they're a budding entrepreneur without a lot of experience,

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top three pieces of advice that I would give them

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is you need to start reading, like asap. You know,

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a lot of the things that you need to know

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in business are written down in books. People have cataloged

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their processes, they've cataloged their experiences. I'm a huge advocate

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for audible. I listen to you know, at least two

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books a week at minimum, and I've just gotten so

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much insight from those books to help me grow and

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develop new systems and become a better leader. Second piece

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of advice is get someone on your team. Will those

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good with money? You need someone who can raise capital

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and who can manage capital really really well. Your finances

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are going to be so important to the vital success

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of your business, and if you're not good with it,

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you need to hire someone who is. And then third

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piece of advice is become a good leader. You know,

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any business that scales, you have to be focused on

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building people who want to also serve the mission and

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the vision that you have. And the better you can

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articulate that to people and serve what they want to

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do in their lives and help them develop and sustain

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what they want as well, the more people you'll have

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on your team to kind of grow what you're doing.

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So leadership is a big important piece for me.

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Speaker 3: All right. So obviously you get a lot of people

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coming through because people are thinking free money. It's so easy.

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You just send out a letter and they send you

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a check, right, But it's not that easy. What are

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the biggest obstacles to you to your clients from getting grants.

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Speaker 1: I think the biggest obstacle is honestly that it is

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a competition.

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Speaker 3: Right.

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Speaker 1: A lot of people do have that notation that Okay,

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I can just fill out a grand and I'll get

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the money. But you're going up against other people, and

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some people have not been taught in the skill of war.

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This is like a war for us, you know, writing wars.

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You are trying to articulate yourself in the best way

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possible in order to be seen or deemed as the

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obvious choice for the grand tour. And so figuring out

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what makes you different in your industry or doing something

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that others haven't done before will set you apart. And

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right now, technology is so big that you can add

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a tech component to what you're doing and really revolutionize

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your industry. To get grants for that, I think that's

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one of the biggest things in just having a really

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good plan.

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Speaker 4: Right.

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Speaker 1: People want the money, but when you don't know what

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you're gonna do with the money, and it's hard for

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you to express that to someone else thoroughly, then you

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find yourself constantly getting denied and then end up being

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defeated by the process of grants. So I think those

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are the biggest two difficulties in what we do.

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Speaker 3: All right, Well, life is full of obstacles, but with

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every obstacle comes an opportunity, right, Yes, So what was

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The biggest obstacle when you started your grant writing service,

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your education service.

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Speaker 4: The logistics.

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Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, it was the logistics of just managing

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client expectations and managing the process. We've redeveloped and reimagined

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our process so many times to enhance the customer experience

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that now we have it really down to a formula

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and a science. But getting started with it is just

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how do we maintain our expertise and the way that

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we like to work, but also making sure that we're

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just having good communication educating our clients through the process,

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because a lot of people who come to us, they're

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new to this, they don't understand what's going on, and

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they're really depending on us to not only offer the

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service but educate them. And so those two things were

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joining those two things together were probably the most difficult

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part of when we got started.

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Speaker 3: All Right, well, I love what you're doing. I wish

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it was around when I was doing this, but hey,

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you know it's here now. That's the important thing. And AI,

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really you're saying before it makes a big impact on

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what you're doing, Stormy. How do we connect with you,

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How do we find out more about what you do?

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And perhaps employ you.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, for sure.

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Speaker 1: So I'm on all social platforms at Stormy Banks with

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one underscore with that Stormy Banks with an I. Or

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you can also look up our company. It's called pink

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Print Firm and that's Overall Socials and that's also our

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website as well.

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Speaker 3: All right, and the links in the show. That's to

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this interview on Financial Survival Network dot com. Please got

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a question for Stormy or myself, shoot me an email

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kl at Carrie LUTs dot com. While you're on the site,

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please sign up for your free newsletter if you information

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like this, a lot of info you just can't find,

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very difficult to find. Information really is the key to

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success in business. Stormy, it looks like you've really mastered it.

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Appreciate you coming on. We'll talk to you again.

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Speaker 4: Thanks so much. This was awesome.

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Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to Carrie Letz's Financial Survival Network, your

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solution to today's trying times. For the latest, go to

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Financial Survivalnetwork dot com. Financial Survival Network now more than

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ever