Volume 1
Welcome to the Keap Family | Meet Our Superheroes
Inspiring Determination
How Our 2020 IKON Winners Built a Legacy During a Pandemic
Contents
3
Welcome to the Keap Family!
6
Inspiring Determination: How Our 2020 IKON Winners Build a Legacy During a Pandemic
Sponsor Content
9
Meet Our Superheroes: 3 Stories of Big Grit
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From One Entrepreneur to Another
Dear Keapers,
I love this Keap community of customers, partners, and em- ployees who are all working to grow small businesses. There’s something unique and special about it. We experience it ev- ery year at IKON (our annual customer conference) and PCON (our annual partners conference). I was reminded just how special this community is in November when we held our annual IKON and PCON after a two-year hiatus. The grit and optimism of our custom- ers, partners, and employees are remarkable. Those traits come through in the stories of entrepreneurs staring down COVID-19 and adapting their businesses. It comes through in the tenacity of our customers who face challenges, remain positive, and find a way to succeed. And it comes through loud and clear as our customers use Keap to get organized, grow sales, and save time.
We are highlighting these sto- ries of grit, optimism, and success in many ways: online, at IKON, and now in The Keap Insider, our new monthly magazine that shines the light on gritty entrepreneurs using Keap to grow their business without the chaos. We love shining the light on our customers and partners who are killing it in small business. We absolutely love small-business growth! And we love helping you achieve your growth goals. We are looking forward to an excit- ing year. We have big things in store for you in 2021. Product upgrades, service offerings, The Keap Academy, and more will be coming your way. You can read about all of it in The Keap Insider and follow the updates in the Official Keap User Group. And, of course, we’re always here for you with programs, resources, and support to help you get the most out of our award-winning sales and marketing automation software. So, don’t hesitate to call our support team or connect with your custom- er success manager. We are here to serve you and help you reach your growth goals. Thank you for allowing us to be a small part of your success. We hope you enjoy this inaugural edition of The Keap Insider. As employees, partners, and cus- tomers of Keap, we are all part of an amazing community of entrepreneurs helping entrepreneurs. We call this community The Keap Family. Welcome to the family! You’re officially a Keaper. Keep going, keep serving, keep growing! - Clate
Sponsor Content
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and public relations, Chantel and Mwale had a dream of creating a business that would provide aspiring authors and those with powerful stories a support sys- tem and a step-by-step process toward sharing their stories — a motto the business has adapted as a rallying cry. Like many business owners, Mwale and Chantel poured them- selves into Legacy Project LLC. Chantel recalls waking up at 3 a.m. just to input sales notes and update tracking software that wasn’t synced, often with the couple’s two babies crawling over her lap. Mwale was attending con- ference after conference, and because of the cost, was re- signed to sleeping in his car and showering at local gyms. His feet swelled from the stress and toll he was putting on his body, but the Henry’s couldn’t afford to book him a hotel room — yet. Mwale heard about Keap at the many conferences he was attend- ing, and he desperately wanted to take the leap. It wasn’t until Chantel heard about it for her- self that she agreed. They were hopeful and nervous, but they had no way of knowing at the end of 2019, when they decided to scale their business with Keap’s lead nurturing software, what was waiting in 2020. Despite the pandemic, Mwale and Chantel have grown their business from $30,000 to net $100,000 in just one year of using Keap. To date, Legacy Project LLC has coached more than 6,800 people and has helped 1,375 authors become international bestsellers. Perhaps best of all, Chantel and Mwale aren’t sleeping in cars or waking up at 3 a.m. any- more. Instead, they are relying on
the nurture and automation tools of Keap to build their business. “I’ve been able to nurture and level that experience during the pandemic,” Mwale told viewers at our annual IKON conference this past year. “I’m scaling business at unbelievable levels. When we think about Keap, it is really that shift of how do you nurture and have that exponential increase in the experience for your client, because you want to keep that Project LLC’s Success — As Created By Chantel and Mwale Henry 1. Process: There wasn’t a streamlined process for Legacy Project LLC when it began six years ago. Previously, they would customize each invoice and wait for payments. Their most ex- pensive product was difficult to obtain, and they relied on paper notes and manual inputs to sort their customer base. Today, the Henry’s use payment automation and have created payment plans to ensure they are getting paid and attracting di- client in your ecosystem.” The 4 P’s of Legacy verse customers. With the use of customer tags, Chantel says they have been able to rake in more profit by targeting hotter leads. As she likes to tell Mwale, “Tags equal money bags!” 2. Partnerships: Prior to Keap, Chantel says Legacy Proj- ect LLC’s strategy was chaos. Mwale was constantly hunting for clients at conferences, but they still weren’t seeing the kinds of customers they wanted. That’s changed. In fact, Legacy Project LLC has partnered with renowned motivational speaker
Our 2020 IKON Awards Winners Chantel and Mwale Henry on How They Built Success With Legacy Project LLC BUILDING THEIR LEGACY A t Keap, we value great ideas. Find out more about Mwale and Chantel’s top plays for success in the IKON 2020 Playbook, available online at Keap.com. Mwale and Chantel were also recent guests on Keap’s Small Biz Buzz podcast where they share more of their story. Make sure to check it out where you listen to your podcasts.
it best when she said, “Success is not a matter of time. It is truly a matter of team.” Chantel Henry will never for- get the moment she realized the business she and her husband, Mwale Henry, had begun together was hitting a brick wall. “What really came to form was when my husband looked at me and said, ‘Chantel, the way that we are operating our business is not going to help us grow because we have five different products or services that we use on a regular basis, and they’re getting us by, but they’re not ac- tually helping us grow,’” Chantel remembers. Their route was chaotic up to that point. Chantel and Mwale pooled their experience togeth- er more than six years ago when they began Legacy Project LLC. With experience in publishing
better, we name a winner, award- ing them with $15,000 for their great success. Pretty cool, right? We’re proud of all of our finalists this year, and we are honored to introduce you to the 2020 Keap IKON Award Winners: Chantel and Mwale Henry of Legacy Project LLC. As you’ll learn from their story, Chantel and Mwale have done something pretty great in the past year. We believe Chantel put
Every year, we’re honored to recognize these great business leaders at our annual IKON conference, curated with some of the leading business experts
to help you utilize Keap better. We ask those businesses to share with us how they have grown and to open up those playbooks for their fellow entrepreneurs. Even
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meaningful ways. “You want to create an expe- rience, an unforgettable experi- ence, that leads people to begin to think that there’s something, and I want to be apart of it,” Mwale said. 4. Purpose: For Chantel and Mwale, their two children are their why. They push them for- ward and are why the duo placed everything they had on Keap’s ability to help them succeed. Today, they have more people relying on them. This year, as a result of the growth Project Legacy LLC saw, the company was able to pay
$25,000 off their mortgage, do- nate 3,000 masks, and purchase $26,000 worth of groceries for others. They also do global phil- anthropic work and hope to con- tinue to do more. “We believe that good people are supposed to do good,” Chantel said. We’re proud to have been part of Chantel and Mwale’s journey. Our tools may have been the foundation that helped them reach for success, but Chantel and Mwale are true icons. All we did was provide the software. Their grit fueled them forward.
Lisa Nichols to create a campaign to encourage others to tell their stories. According to TellMySto- ryNow.com, Legacy Project LLC netted $47,000 in sales in just 48 hours and generated 250 leads with a 70% conversion. Today, with the proper part- nerships, they attract the right customers for their business. 3. Profitability: As Chantel likes to say, “If it’s not measured, then it can’t be managed.” With Keap’s automation, tagging, and creation tools, Chantel and Mwale can see tangible results of their work. They know immediately what’s working and what doesn’t, so they can show up for clients in
O ur clients have inspired us this year. Nothing could have prepared us for 2020, but many of our customers stayed grounded in their purpose and proved to their communities that small-business leaders are the foundation of our country’s success and a strong economy. Entrepreneurs are helping us survive this moment in history. They’re providing jobs, finding new and safe options for their patrons to enjoy their services, and fulfilling needs in their com- munities. Just as a handyman needs his tools, these entrepre- neurs need software that auto- mates CRM, sales, and marketing tools to help them get the job done. (Because who else will?) At Keap, we have been honored to join you on this journey, acting as your virtual sidekick through a tough year. Through our Big Grit Campaign, we have introduced you to three entrepreneurs who have dug into Keap’s tools and used their own genius to make 2020 one of their most successful years. Here’s a teaser of those stories, but you can learn more about their paths to success online at Keap.com/ Big-Grit, or on Keap’s Small Biz Buzz podcase.
Finding His Rhythm: Nate Shaw
We had many notable entries to our IKON Awards this year, and the competition for No. 1 was fierce! It’s our honor to present the notable finalists whose contributions, grit, and determination are no less impressive. Magic Evan LLC:
to better market to the masses and improve its customer experience. They needed to do more than just rock! With an automated system through Keap, Ben and his team are better equipped to target their ideal audience through digital advertising and follow up on the leads that matter most.
Evan Paquette has been a member of the Keap community since 2015. Since then, Evan’s income has grown year over year, and in 2020, he’s on track to net more money than he ever has! His ability to
When he was 17 years old, Nate Shaw’s mother gave the bud- ding musician his first drum set. All Nate ever wanted to do was play music, and his family readily supported him, as many were art- ists or people who struck out on their own path. His mother was a painter and printmaker who owned a movie theater with her husband, while his cousins and brother were musicians. His fa- ther was an entrepreneur as well. Determination to create was something instilled in Nate from a young age, but he found his way to entrepreneurship later. Nate fulfilled his dream of play- ing music for 15 years, traveling the country and selling his tracks.
Skillastics: Sandy Slade created Skillas- tics as a way to get kids moving, but Sandy found she was on the move a lot, too — and it wasn’t as healthy. Sandy attended about 30–40 conferences
pivot quickly during a pandemic wasn’t a feat of magic — his genius was possible with the help of Keap. “When I pivoted from in-per- son to virtual events in March, I was able to quickly reimagine my automated follow-up and sales process,” Evan explained.
each year in an effort to build the quality leads she needed to continue growing at the pace she was, but with Keap’s help, Skillastics is on pace to record its best year yet! Sandy’s secret is using Keap’s automation tools to fur- ther engage her clients and “create fans.”
Artist Management Services Ltd. : Ben Marshall needed a way for Artist Management Ser- vices Ltd., which books bands and DJs for events,
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child. So, she solved that problem. That fueled her passion to start Advocates 4 Angels, an advocacy group for parents with children with special needs. To date, Val- erie has assisted with more than 4,000 individualized education programs (IEPs) and helped par- ents advocate for their children to help them lead full lives, which can include high school and col- lege educations. “Your child has potential, and we’re going to make sure they reach it. That’s our goal,” Valerie said. “We’re not going to put lim- its on them; we’re going to make sure they get all the help they need … We should never give up on them because when we fight for their potential, they reach it. Chanel and hundreds of other children are proof.” Valerie has relied on Keap to navigate her growing business and platform since May 2018. She explains that it has helped her to accurately track the connections she’s making and ensure she re- sponds to every parent in need of her help and support. The CRM software allows Val- erie to properly filter her business and segment the various portions that make up the work Advocates 4 Angels does. It’s also allowed her to create and store content in one easily accessible location, making the public work she does through speaking engagements and seminars seamless and nonetheless powerful. By the way, Chanel graduated high school with honors — no doubt in small part because of her mom’s advocacy.
learned along this journey is that humans and their passions are constantly evolving and growing. As Nate has grown, so has Brooklyn Music Factory, and with it, a need for better streamlined CRM services. Nate has been a Keap customer since July 2016 and in that time, we’ve been able to help him organize his lists of prospects, customers, and contacts, manage reports and email campaigns, and — perhaps the most important for a busy musician — automate resources, so Nate can spend more time on the piano keys and less on the computer keys. For the musician turned busi- ness owner, that balance strikes the perfect note. You can learn more at BrooklynMusicFactory.com. From Healing People to Healing Businesses: Natasha Davis
When he started his family, he looked to create something more stable, so he picked up work writing tracks for TV shows — but that grew stale. As he was trying to figure out what he wanted to do, Nate picked up odd jobs by teaching his friends’ children how to play music. He called it his “play- ground network,” but one year later, he saw it as an opportunity. That was the beginning of the Brooklyn Music Factory. “The Brooklyn Music Factory provides an alternative to the standard method of music les- sons, where musicians are in- spired and community is built,” Nate told Keap. “Every lesson is designed to bring maximum joy through game-based learning and gig-style recitals, where kids play with other kids and are backed by professional mu- sicians.” However, Nate’s journey wasn’t finished. Like any beginning business owner, Nate was trying to juggle his passion for music with his newfound love: busi- ness. Playing gigs with friends and creating new content wasn’t something Nate thought could be possible if he had an entire school to operate. It wasn’t until he spoke with author Seth Godin at a Keap con- ference that Nate saw symmetry in the spaces he was working. Godin said to him, “Nate, you’re limiting the scope of creativity. Most of the business owners I know are highly creative indi- viduals, but they’re creating and sculpting something different. You’re using all of those same tools that you’ve been working on for your entire career.” From that moment, Nate made music a priority again. Through it all, the biggest lesson he has
nurse by the time she was 21 years old, but it was her leadership that landed her as the head nurse of an emergency trauma unit by the time she was just 22 years old. But Natasha soon found that her passion for helping others also lent itself to curiosity. She wanted to know more about the hospital she worked at, so much so that she read business books and studied the operations side of the hospital. She became so well- versed in business that her fellow medical professionals would come to her for advice! “Over time, doctors would ask where the ‘business nurse’ was,” Natasha recalls. “They’d say, ‘Go find the business nurse in the ER; she can help you with that.’” Natasha couldn’t shake the feel- ing that nursing wasn’t how she was meant to help people. She liked the work she did, but she craved more. So, her father offered her a challenge: Try running a busi- ness for one year. Then you’ll know. Natasha started Soothing Aro- mas, a custom gift basket com- pany, and dug in. She used her expertise as the “business nurse” to push her company forward, and just a few months shy of that deadline, her father told her he thought she was ready. That was all the permission Na- tasha needed to start the business she really wanted to begin. It was the side work she was doing when her coworkers would call her the “business nurse.” Natasha wanted to help other entrepreneurs and business leaders find their way through a brand consulting agency. “I would tell people: Listen, back then I saved lives. Now, I save companies,” Natasha says. As she grew busier saving busi- nesses, her list grew, too. But when her business partner and husband left her in 2012, Natasha
was left wondering who she was and how she could build back. After two months of worry and confusion, Natasha remembered why she became the “business nurse” in the first place. “I got up and came into my office for the first time in two months, and I felt alive again. And I sat at my desk and I said, ‘From this day forward, I will never be broke again,” Natasha recalls. “‘I will never be broke and I will never be broken by anything.’ And that was the day — Jan. 28, 2016 — that I got my life together.” Natasha reinvented her busi- ness as Impact Branding Con- sulting, and she’s continued to grow, even giving business own- ers the help they need during the COVID-19 pandemic. Natasha has been with Keap since May 2018, and she’s grown into various services and prod- ucts with our company as her business has developed. She uti- lizes Keap for campaign organiza- tion, automation, segmentation, payroll management, and moving clients through her sales pipeline. Natasha says the streamlining that Keap offers pushes her busi- ness forward.
You can learn more at ImpactBrandingConsulting.org.
Not Backing Down: Valerie Aprahamian
Valerie Aprahamian has yet to meet a challenge she can’t face. As an author, teacher, coach, mentor, and public speaker, Valerie has conquered a lot, but it all began when she welcomed her daughter, Chanel, into this world in 1991. When she was 3 years old, Chanel was diagnosed with au- tism and a disorder that caused seizures. Experts told Valerie that her daughter would never be able to succeed in school, talk, read, or write, but Valerie refused to ac- cept that reality for her daughter. With the support of other moms of children with special needs, Valerie advocated for her daugh- ter’s rights in the classroom. Because of her mom, Chanel became the first student with au- tism to learn in a general educa- tion classroom by the late ‘90s. From that moment on, Valerie saw a broken education system and was determined to fix it for other students like Chanel. She found that she wasn’t the only parent who didn’t know how to navigate an educational system that didn’t offer any room for her
“Listen, back then I saved lives. Now, I save companies”
When Natasha can push for- ward and is given the tools she needs to succeed, the possibili- ties are endless for the countless business owners she helps, too. All in a day’s work for the woman born to help others.
You can learn more at Advocates4Angels.com.
To hear more about all of these customers check out their stories on Keap’s Small Biz Buzz podcast.
For as long as she can remem- ber, Natasha Davis has wanted to help people. She used that passion to become a registered
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Sponsor Content
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