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legendsofthegffa · 5 years ago

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Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

A Satisfying Conclusion to the Sequel Trilogy, But an Underwhelming Finale to the Skywalker Saga

**SPOILERS!**

Well folks, here we are; four years ago, Episode VII came out and, despite leaning very heavily on nostalgia, still proved to be an exciting new beginning for Star Wars on the big screen. Three years ago, we saw Rogue One, which has proven to be a film that I enjoy more with each viewing. Two years ago, Episode VIII divided the fan base in a way not seen since Episode I, and proved to be an emotionally trying film for me personally. A year ago, we were without a Star Wars film, as Solo had already come out, and unfortunately had been caught up in the backlash against The Last Jedi, despite being a solid film in its own right. And now here we are with Episode IX; an exciting and enjoyable film, but one that stumbles to deliver on forty years worth of films and storytelling.

Rather than go into the plot, I want to touch on various aspects kind of like I did with my review of The Last Jedi; in this way, I can address some of my thoughts, critiques and predictions from that film as well as about the Sequel trilogy as a whole. First and foremost, let’s look at the biggest and probably most controversial aspect of the film: Palpatine. Making Darth Sidious the final villain was an excellent choice as a means of tying all nine films together; where it stumbles in his sudden and inexplicable return. As a hardcore Star Wars fan who liked the original story of the Emperor’s return in Legends, I was fine with them doing the same thing in the movies; while I do wish Snoke had returned instead (would have really been that hard to hand-wave Snoke’s return? It would have established him as having powers that Sidious didn’t, would have turned him from the joke that he became back into a serious villain, and would have given this trilogy its own unique feel, rather than the post-script that it ultimately was). Unfortunately, one of the core tenets of this film seems to be doing damage control for Episode VIII, rather than allowing it to tell its own story. While I appreciate that in other aspects, Snoke and Sidious is one place where I wish they had stayed the course rather than appeasing the really-sour fans that take their dislike of the film to new levels.

So with that spiel out of the way, let’s get into Palpatine proper. We don’t get any definitive answer to how he returned, but the body he’s inhabiting his decrepit and corpse-like, suspended from a mechanical arm (which, in all of the reviews I have seen of the movie, have yet to mention that it looks like Megatron’s setup from Beast Machines), and missing fingers. My guess, and we’ll get into this more when we look at the quote-unquote “build-up” for his return in the EU, is that he managed to transfer his spirit into a clone body, but the body can’t handle Sidious’ dark side power and is wasting away. When Kylo comes to confront him, we learn that Sidious has been manipulating Ben for years, including creating and using Snoke as a puppet to train Kylo Ren and speaking to him as his grandfather, Darth Vader. His plan (such as it is), is to either get Kylo to kill Rey, before I can only presume draining his life-force after proving he was the stronger Force-user, or getting Rey to kill him so that his power will pass into her and she will take his place as Sith Empress of the galaxy. Ultimately, neither of those things happens, and he ends up draining the life of both Ben and Rey to regenerate himself, but even for Palpatine this seems like a messy and convoluted “plan”.

Speaking of the “plan”, lets look at the hints that were laid since 2015, now that we know what it’s all been “leading towards”. We know that Palpatine was looking to expand into the Unknown Regions due to sensing a strong dark side-presence there; while at first we all believed this to be Snoke, but now it seems to be the planet of Exogal. What comes next is a muddled and uncertain, but at some point Sidious seems to have found this planet and set up his ultimate fail safes: a duplicate body for him to inhabit should he die, and a cult of ultra-loyal and dedicated Sith adherents to serve as his attendants, instruments and Final Order. The events of the Original Trilogy occur, and after Palpatine is killed by Vader, he puts some of his other contingency orders into effect: Operation: Cinder, and laying the groundwork for the First Order (which we now know has just been a front for the Final Order). The Emperor believed that if he was killed, then the Empire and the rest of the galaxy deserved to burn; had this gone on without a hitch, its likely Palpatine would have returned with his combined forces of ultra-loyal followers once he had regained his power and swept up the remnants of the galaxy beneath him. However, the New Republic and some of the Imperials interfered in his plans and prevented Operation: Cinder from being carried out, as well as forcing the Empire’s surrender at the Battle of Jakku.

Now, its likely that as with in Legends, Palpatine’s clone body couldn’t handle so much dark side power, and this is why he looked like a corpse in the film: if this is his one-and-only perfect clone body, then its probably been wasting away since day one, and even if he’s been able to keep transferring his body, its clear that this is not a long-term solution, unlike in Legends, where Palpatine was fine with transferring his essence to fresh clones until that plan was sabotaged by his supposedly-loyal underlings. Either way, with his body wasting away, Sidious needs to either transfer his power to his chosen vessel i.e. his granddaughter, Rey, or he needs both Rey and Kylo Ren so he can draw on their Force-bond (which is a whole other thing that I’m not even sure how to address in this review) to regenerate himself. Ultimately, he winds up nearly killing Rey and Ben Solo before Rey is able to redirect his Force Lightning back at him and cause him to destroy himself; his final defeat is one of the weaker aspects of the film, but I’ll get into that more in a bit. While Palpatine’s return was great, and can be made to fit with everything that has been leading up to Episode IX, there is no denying that at the end of the day Sidious’ inclusion will always feel like a messy addition at best, and empty fan service at worst.

Now, with that long-winded look at Palpatine out of the way, let’s move on to… a…different…Palpatine….who’s also a Skywalker…Rey, I mean Rey. Rey Palpatine is one of those base-breaking decisions that seem to be ever-present in Star Wars these days: some people feel that the evidence supports it, others feel that it’s a random pull for the sake of “subverting expectations”. Where do I stand? I think there is juuuust enough wiggle room within Episodes VII and VIII to leave it ambiguous enough for me to accept the answer. The biggest question I’ve seen is where the heck Palpatine’s son was this entire time, and I definitely think that that is an interesting story to be told, especially in regards as to whether or not he (and his wife, for that matter) were Force-sensitive. Me personally, I would have preferred it if Rey was the reincarnation of Anakin – being sent back to complete their task and bring balance to the Force. Some people also have issues with her rejecting her name and choosing to call herself a Skywalker but 1) at first, I honestly thought she was going to call herself Solo, just because Han was the first of the three she met and he seemed to have had the most influence on her (along with Luke) 2) I think the Hitler parallel is perfectly app here, most especially because Hitler was one of Lucas’ inspirations for Palpatine, and no one in their right mind would go around the galaxy with the last name that was equivalent to Hitler, regardless of how much good she did (for crying out loud, Leia was forced out of politics because the galaxy found out who her father was), so I don’t really have a problem with her changing it, and 3) with the Skywalker bloodline now (most likely) extinct, I think it’s good to have someone to carry that torch forward, along with the Jedi. As for her ultimate ending, well, that still remains to be seen. Rey Skywalker now has her own, orange lightsaber, and a brand-new galaxy to explore and rebuild. I’ve heard that Daisy Ridely is done with Star Wars, and while that makes me incredibly sad to hear since I really like the character, I can understand her decision to walk away from so much toxicity. Besides, I never thought that I would ever see an Episode VII, let alone be writing a review for Episode IX so who knows? All ways in motion is the future.

Now, lets move from one Skywalker to another, or rather, a Solo. I believed that Kylo Ren was irredeemable, after murdering his father and clearly trying to kill his uncle. I believed that the Skywalker legacy would be one of failure, and it was another problem that I had with the Sequel Trilogy as a whole, which flew in the face of both in the belief in redemption as well as Skywalker legacy of Legends. Thankfully, I can say that I was completely mistaken; while Kylo does have to pay with his life, he ultimately redeems both himself and his family in a very beautiful way. It starts after he and Rey engage in yet another battle, only for her to impale him with her lightsaber; Rey quickly uses the Force to heal and save Kylo, who is left stunned at both his brush with death and his salvation coming from someone he has been trying to kill for months. Kylo then has an internal discussion with a mental projection of Han where they repeat the dialogue leading up to Han’s death only this time, Ben does reject the darkness and discards his Sith saber. After rushing to aid Rey in her confrontation with the Emperor (which involves Ben completely destroying the Knights of Ren), Ben is unable to prevent Rey from dying while defeating Sidious, but after tapping into the Force, he is able to bring Rey back long enough for them to share a kiss before becoming one with the Force himself.

Ben’s sacrifice is one of the best moments of the film and one of the extremely few ways it ties into the wider saga. Anakin fell to the dark side because he was afraid of losing Padme, which ultimately he did because of his anger and lust for power. His grandson, despite making many of the same mistakes as him, is able to do what Anakin wanted most in the entire galaxy: to save the one’s he loves. It does come at a price, namely that to bring someone back, someone else has to give up their own life-force, but it still brings us full circle in a very nice way that parallels Anakin’s journey. It also helps that in doing so, he helps redeem the Skywalker name by passing the torch so to speak and helping undo some of the damage he caused by aiding the Sith and the First Order. Ben’s redemption is one of the strongest moments of Episode IX, and it makes me a little sad that we wont get to see more of him in the future.

So, now that we’ve gotten most of the important stuff covered, lets move on to some nitpicks before we look at the film as a whole as well as the Sequel Trilogy. The biggest wasted potential in this film to me was the Knights of Ren and, by extension, Luke’s Jedi Order. Ever since Episode VII, we’ve had only the most tantalizing hints about this dark side order, and when they finally appear on the big screen, it’s to stand around looking intimidating before getting slaughtered by Ben on his way to join Rey in confronting Palpatine. We no exactly zero about them, what their philosophy is, how they differ from Sith or why they decided to join Ben when he fell and turned against his uncle; maybe those that joined him were so appalled by Luke’s attempted murder that they cast off the identity of Jedi completely. The point is we don’t know anything about them, nor do we ever learn anything about Luke’s Order and how it differed from the old Jedi Order; from what I can gather it seems that Luke recreated the old Order nearly exactly rather than improving on it like he did in Legends, and I can’t exactly blame some people from going nuts after joining a religious extremist group.

Just like with Phasma and Snoke, the Knights of Ren and Luke’s Jedi are treated as an afterthought, an interesting idea that other media can talk about, but the movies cant be bothered with, and that is not only frustrating, but poor writing as well; and I know that all of these have a parallels with stuff from the Original Trilogy and the Prequels as well, but that just leads me to the jagged bedrock of my complaint: not learning from past mistakes, and just shrugging shoulders and saying “good enough, let someone else fill in the details.” The same also holds true for the final battle of the film; compared to the space battles of Episode III and VI, the one here is again, treated as almost an afterthought – something that needs to be there, but only serves as a backdrop to what’s going on with Palpatine. This battle includes fleets, ships and troops in almost never before seen numbers, and yet we only get a few snippets of action and shots here and there; when the reinforcements arrive, they fill out the screen, but none of them do anything special, or memorable or impressive. They go through all that trouble of having such an immense fleet, only for 95-99% of the action take place off screen. As with Palpatine’s defeat, the massive fleet had great build-up and potential, but fizzled out rather than concluding with a bang.

Speaking of the final battle, lets talk about the other half of that coin and its own lackluster finish. We’ve already gone over how Palpatine is defeated, but what I and so many other fans lamented was that no Force ghosts appeared, only spoke to Rey, and that the one appearance that would have really worked and helped give the film that sense of finality that it’s been claiming to represent, would have been an appearance by Anakin Skywalker. Seeing Anakin again after a decade-and-a-half since Episode III would have been incredible, given hardcore fans something special, and made sense within the story. We do hear him speak directly to Rey, but I have to wonder if either J.J. didn’t want to do it so as to keep the focus on Rey and her purpose/identity as All-the-Jedi-In-One, or maybe Hayden decided he didn’t want do it (and I cant say I blame him, after how toxic members of this Fandom treated him), but having three actors and characters from each of the three eras would have been a treat for everyone, and it’s yet another misstep that the film made.

So, overall, how do I feel about Star Wars: Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker? While I can appreciate everything that we got and how much it seems like they really wanted to repair the damage The Last Jedi did to the fanbase, I cant help but wonder at what could have been: what if the trilogy had been planned out from the start, or at least handled by one unifying creative director? Either way, it seems like what really hurt this trilogy was lack of direction and having to play catch-up when you only have half the pieces of the puzzle. In turns of the grand culmination of the Skywalker Saga…it’s not; it’s a satisfying conclusion to its own trilogy of stories, but in terms of being the grand culmination of forty years worth of stories, it just isn’t. If it was, it would have been treated that way and actually tied more of the three trilogies together instead of relying on nostalgia to round out the story the same way it began with Episode VII. I know this sounds like I didn’t like the movie, but I did: when I left the theater I was pleased with what I had just seen, and excited to see where the future was going to take these characters (well, mostly Rey, but that’s because Poe is barely involved in the story and poor Finn gets almost nothing to do – I heard how his entire character has been distilled into “the guy who shouts ‘whoo!’”, which is entirely apt and correct and yet another major misstep with this series since we finally have a character that was a former stormtooper, and they do nothing with him). While there are currently no plans for future films with these characters, there was a time when we all thought we would never, ever ever, ever see an Episode VII either, so I hold out hope that someday, these characters will return to pass the torch off to the next generation someday.

Final Score: 7.5/10

*Bonus*

My Star Wars 11 Films Rankings

Star Wars: Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope

Star Wars: Episode VII: The Force Awakens

Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

Star Wars: Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker

Star Wars: Rogue One

Star Wars: Solo

Star Wars: Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

Star Wars: Episode VIII: The Last Jedi

Star Wars: Episode II: Attack of the Clones

Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace

#star wars #star wars canon #star wars 9 #rise of skywalker #rise of skywaker spoilers

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lovehaswonangelnumbers · 5 years ago

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New Post has been published on https://lovehaswonangelnumbers.org/lovehaswon-special-updatenew-meditation-chakra-healing-kits/

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365footballorg-blog · 6 years ago

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FC Cincinnati complete transition toward to MLS with logo, brand unveiling

USA Today Sports Images

November 13, 201810:36AM EST

CINCINNATI—FC Cincinnati officially began the shift from United Soccer League club to Major League Soccer expansion franchise Monday with the unveiling of its new logo and brand identity.

The new branding was created in tandem with Interbrand after an intensive three-month process that culminated in early August when it was presented to MLS officials at the 2018 MLS All-Star Game presented by Target.

Cincinnati, which recently completed its third USL campaign, is set to begin play in MLS next season as the league’s 24th team.

“Tonight represents goodbye to our past,” said FC Cincinnati president and general manager Jeff Berding, after the unveiling event. “We’re not in the USL anymore. We’ve been balancing both, and I just saw the movie ‘Man on the Moon,’ the Neil Armstrong story. What tonight represents is that stage where the rocket ship is going and it loses its booster rocket. We’re still shooting to the moon. We’ve dropped the booster rocket, which was USL.

“I say that with full respect because the rocket doesn’t get to the moon without that booster rocket that got it off the launch pad. Tonight represents we don’t need that booster rocket anymore.”

With the new branding, Cincinnati will officially change the name from “Futbol” to “Football”, rather than the speculated switch to the German word “Fussball”, and the crest is an evolution of the former logo, still implementing “The Orange and Blue” and a winged lion, but with some different twists meant to create more ties to the city roots.

Interbrand representatives spent time in the West End neighborhood, where FCC will break ground on a new stadium next month, to come up with some inspiration for the logo. The pentagram outline of the crest hails from various five-sided shapes seen in architecture around the area, and Cincinnati is prominently displayed in the center, going at an angle to represent that it is a “city on the rise,” as club officials often say.

The typography itself is a nod to classic German lettering, tying to the deep German heritage of the city. As for the winged lion to represent the strength of the city, it contains many key details: there’s a crown for the “Queen City,” and the seven points of the mane for the seven hills of Cincinnati. The three feathers of the wings are a call to the three years it took to get to MLS, and the curled tail is a “C” to tie back to the city’s name as well.

“We wanted to build that meaning into the mark,” said Interbrand representative Jamey Wagner. “It was really important to the fans, our ownership, to our leaders, but it’s still a great mark if you don’t know all that.”

Owner & CEO Carl Lindner III said he can’t wait to wear a shirt with the new logo. Fans were already lined up to purchase new merchandise at the unveiling event.

“I absolutely love the logo,” he said. “I loved our old logo, but this is a great evolution, and it’s even a better representation of who we are. If you study every little detail of this logo, we had so many great ideas from Interbrand and our supporters, when you bring them all together, we have a logo with so many meaningful features to Cincinnati and who we are, it makes it different than any other logo out there.”

Topics:

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FC Cincinnati complete transition toward to MLS with logo, brand unveiling was originally published on 365 Football

#brand #Cincinnati #complete #logo #toward #transition #unveiling

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dorothydelgadillo · 6 years ago

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"Product Qualified Leads Ft. Elle Morgan of Woopra" (Inbound Success Ep. 55)

How did SaaS startup Woopra increase lead to customer conversion rates while also shortening their sales cycle and improving the efficiency of the sales team?

Elle Morgan

This week on The Inbound Success Podcast, Woopra Head of Partnerships Elle Morgan shares the company's product qualified lead model and breaks down specifically what a PQL is, how it differs from an MQL, and the specific behavioral indicators that Woopra evaluates to determine whether its leads qualify as PQLs.

Listen to the podcast to learn more about building a product qualified lead model, nurturing PQLs, and how this approach can improve sales and marketing alignment.

Transcript

Kathleen Booth (Host): Welcome back to The Inbound Success podcast. I'm your host, Kathleen Booth. And today I am happy to say, my guest is Elle Morgan, who is the Head of Partnerships at Woopra. Welcome, Elle.

Elle: Thank you for having me, Kathleen.

Elle and I recording this episode

Kathleen: Tell our audience a little bit about yourself. What do you do? What's your background? And what does Woopra do?

Elle: Yeah, absolutely. I lead our Partnerships Team here at Woopra.

I have, you know, been in some fashion of marketing for almost 10 years now, and have had my hands in really every aspect of marketing. So I've done a little of mid-management, corporate communications, to growth, some digital, and everything in between, primarily with start-ups, at least for the last seven years.

I realized I really thrive in that build versus manage stage of an organization. You know, in a small startup company, every single thing that you do makes an immediate and measurable impact. Even though there are no certainties or things to fall back on, there's the ability to really constantly iterate and try new new things without the red tape that you might have to fight through in a bigger organization.

About 10 months ago, I took on a Partnerships role here at Woopra, partially because of this PQL model that we're gonna speak about today.

But in my position now, Partnerships has really, for me, been a combination of marketing, while creating content designed around customer use cases, integration, best practices, and how to successfully combine different technologies to yield greater results, along with a taste of sales and the relationship-building aspects that kind of keep me challenged, and let's me learn from our customers in a way that really inspires my writing by their questions and the stories that I hear from them.

Kathleen: It's interesting that you say you really love the start-up environment because, you know, I was looking through your background on LinkedIn, and I noticed you've spent a lot of time in the San Francisco Bay area, and I feel like wow, that's ... What a great place for somebody who likes the start-up world to be. It's kind of like being a kid in a candy store.

Elle: It is. I, you know, started in the start-up scene in LA, in the little Silicon Beach area. I'd always been at bigger companies and that passed, but when I got my first taste, I realized that, okay, if I really wanna do start-ups the way that I'd like to, I have to be up here in the Bay Area to really feel like I've given it my all.

Kathleen: That's great. And what a great city to live in, even just aside from the start-up world.

Elle: No, I can't complain.

Kathleen: Yeah. It's such a neat place.

So Woopra to me is really interesting. And, you know, so many of our listeners are marketers, and I looked at the website and the platform, and was so intrigued because it's all about understanding the customer journey.

And I want you to talk a little bit more about that, but you know, that's the thing I think that more than potentially anything else, we as marketers talk a good game about customer journey mapping, but I don't think we really do it. Some people don't do it at all. And if most of us are doing it, we're not doing it really well and there's a variety of reasons for that. You know, it could be the amount of effort that has to go into it. It could be trying to get your head around all of the data.

In any case, tell us a little bit about Woopra and what it does, and then we can kind of get into some of the other goodies that we're gonna talk about.

About Woopra

Elle: Yeah. So Woopra is a customer journey analytics platform. Essentially what that means is we have our own tracking technology to understand who is on your website, where they came from, the pages they're browsing, the usual things like that.

We also track product engagement data. So from the minute they come to your site, sign up for your product, what different types of features are they engaging with? Where do they go from there? How many people become customers? And then, after that point, are they engaged or not? What does a healthy customer look like?

But another big piece to that puzzle is bringing in data from other touchpoints in the customer journey. So if we think about the journey outside of like the silos of MQL, are they opening your emails? Are they engaging with you in LiveChat? How many support tickets does a person answer?

Woopra has this, you know, integrations layer. The idea is that you can bring in data from essentially any touchpoint in the customer journey to build up these reports that show whether or not people who take these certain combinations of actions are more or less likely to both convert, become a healthy customer, that right customer fit. Also being able to leverage that data to drive more personalized interactions and communications, and campaigns throughout all of those different touchpoints.

Kathleen: Neat. And from what I saw on the site, it looks like you also provide a very visual interface. You know, you're able to deliver information on that customer journey in a way that that is super visual, and therefore very easy to digest and understand, which I think is just-

Elle: Yeah.

Kathleen: ... amazing.

Elle: Funny for me. Before joining Woopra, I'd never gone outside Google analytics for my insights, and the data that was at my disposal and like my marketing tool. So I knew clicks, conversions, like maybe who was opening my emails. But I wasn't able to say, "Okay, are people engaging with this product?" And then opening my emails, "And do those two have an impact on one another?"

So, for the first time, I'm certainly not a data analyst, but I feel like the platform makes it easier for me to go in and essentially ask any question, or have access to that little data to drive what I do.

Kathleen: Now, there's a clear use case for SaaS companies to use Woopra because you are able to provide in-app usage analytics, in the sense of like the customer's adopting the product to this extent, and here's how that influences the degree to which they, you know, maybe go from freemium to paid customer, et cetera.

What about outside of the SaaS world? I mean, are there applications there as well?

Elle: Yeah, absolutely. I would say like 50% of our client base is SaaS. Another, probably, 40% is E-commerce, and the rest is scattered. So it's really anybody who has a strong digital presence, who's looking to understand on the, you know, E-commerce side, what products are they purchasing? Where did they come from? Did they come back and make another purchase? You've got, you know, the on-demand companies like Uber who wanna understand are people making repeat rides? Are they canceling? What is the distance traveled?

Any time you're running your business with a strong digital presence, I think there's 100% an application to leverage data across the board to design a better, or more connected, customer experience.

Kathleen: Yeah, and the cool thing is there is so much data available to us as marketers. It's just making sense of it all, you know? Like I have all of that data in my various systems.

I mean, we use HubSpot, Google Analytics, SEMrush, Lucky Orange. We have so many different platforms, and it's all out there. But it's just tying all those various pieces together, and kind of extracting insights that I think is the real challenge. So that's really neat.

Elle: Absolutely. Great.

Nurturing Product Qualified Leads

Kathleen: Well, we were gonna talk a little bit about nurturing product-qualified leads, because you know, when you and I first talked, I was asking you with Woopra's marketing, what's really contributing to your success as a team? So I'd love to just hear a little bit more about that from you.

Elle: Yeah, absolutely. So before I took over Partnerships, when I first joined the company, I was leading our Marketing Team, and because Woopra runs on a freemium model, where essentially people can sign up for the platform and play around with it as long as they like up until they have the need for some more advanced analytics features, we realized that we were having tons of signups, organically, which is great.

We had about, you know, 1500 signups a month to the product, primarily coming organically through word of mouth, SEO, and a very small amount through some Adwords brand-name campaigns that we are running.

But we also only had two salespeople. And for two salespeople, 1500 leads, they didn't know where to start, they didn't know who was an actual qualified sales opportunity of those people who were signing up, and then testing out the product.

But we were tracking essential customer engagement metrics. So we knew where people came from, the content they engaged with, if they chatted with us on LiveChat, and I was trying to look at those top-level MQL metrics. Were they reading blog posts? Were they browsing our appraising page? But we felt like even with that, combined with the 1500 leads, was not enough to qualify these sales opportunities.

And even worse, when we ran the numbers, we found that just because somebody read six blog posts did not necessarily make them more or less likely to be qualified as a paying customer. We had a lot of students using the platform, a lot of small-time bloggers, who just were never gonna reach that point where they actually wanted for a full-blown paid analytic solution.

Kathleen: I'm so glad you just said that, because I used to own a marketing agency, and now I head up marketing for IMPACT. And in both cases, when I've dug into the data, actually the people that wind up converting and becoming customers tend to look at less content prior to their conversion than the people who don't convert. And it's so counter-intuitive but it is the story that only good data can tell.

Elle: Absolutely.

Kathleen: If you didn't dig deeper and really glean that insight, you could waste a whole lot of time on leads that were not likely to convert in the first place.

Elle: Yeah. And it's like an honest mistake. I mean, I was trained in marketing to look at those things and then to say, "Okay, they've read this much, they came in from this ad. Pass it along to Sales." But when you finally start to look at the data, you realize that content consumption is not indicative, necessarily, of what makes the right customer type for you.

Kathleen: Yeah. 100%. They could be job applicants. As you said, they could be students. They could be what I like to call DIYers, you know, people who are gonna consume everything voraciously and then figure out a way to do it by themselves.

There's a lot of reasons for that. Sometimes, if you're practicing ABM, they can be from a company that's a good fit, but they might not be the right decision maker, so there's a lot that plays into that. But that's neat.

Did you use Woopra itself to figure out-

Elle: Yeah.

Kathleen: ... behavior that led to conversions?

Elle: Yeah. So I was really lucky, coming into Woopra and having all this data already tracked. So I was able to look inside the product and build up these customer journey reports to see the series of steps that people took, and what made them a qualified, or potentially qualified, customer.

So we saw that, in our case at least, when they sign up with a product, added a new organization, added a tracking snippet and built their first report, they were 30% more likely to convert into a paying customer. So the question that I had from this was, how can I accelerate this process? How can we combine marketing and sales efforts to help new users navigate through these steps to really see the full value of the product faster?

And this is where, essentially what's called PQL, or the Product Qualified Lead model, was born for us.

Kathleen: So how does a PQL differ from an MQL?

PQL v. MQL

Elle: Yeah, so the PQL model essentially flips the traditional lead funnel upside down, starting instead with product adoption. It doesn't ignore content consumption or other tradition MQL metrics but incorporates them into a larger narrative that indicates not only for us prospective interest, but whether or not this user would truly be a good fit for your product.

Using that data we were able to test new methods in PQL and learn really what combination of behaviors and company attributes were indicative of a true new potential customer opportunity for our sales team.

Kathleen: So you're using that data to bubble up the most important indicators of likelihood for customer conversion. Do you then feed that into a lead scoring model and have some kind of a trigger? Is there a numerical value when that Product Qualified Lead exceeds it that's then passed on to sales? How does that work?

Elle: Yeah, so we did a couple of different things. We used a tool called Clearbit, integrated with our own platform for data enrichment. So even people who are potentially anonymous on our site, we could identify what company they were with, the vertical, the company size and pass that information along to our sales team so that when that person identified themselves, we'd have a little bit more information in terms of who they are before we even got to product engagement.

But my initial campaign was super simple, and I just wanted to test and see what would work. So we would send an email introducing a feature when we recognized that the user hadn't used it yet during their initial first week in the product.

Very simple, right? And the email open rates on that campaign were around 50%-

Kathleen: Oh that's really high.

Elle: 50% opened. Impressive, right? I was so excited.

Of those who opened, 25% of those went on to try that new product feature and after using that feature, we would then use a trigger within our own analytics systems to simply notify our sales team via Slack that we had this new, qualified, engaged user.

So for the first campaign that really helped narrow down that pool of leads, but we still found that wasn't enough to truly qualify these 1500 leads.

So the next phase of this was combining that with additional data points that were at our disposal. So we knew through Clearbit's company sized vertical, that combining that with companies that scored well on the company set level and product engagement level would be the first to push to our sales team.

So combining all of the information we had from Clearbit with "Are they using these product features? How often are they logging into the platform? Have they added their tracking snippet?" and all of these other key indicators was our way of bubbling those up to the sales team and either sending them through Slack, or just creating really nice reports for them in Woopra so they could go in every day and see, "Okay, here are my hot leads for the day."

Kathleen: Now, it sounds like you have a combination of behavioral data as well as demographic data, because you've got Clearbit there to enrich. Are you using any of that, particularly on the behavioral side, to do negative lead scoring? Are there certain behaviors that are red flags that you know, this person might meet the threshold but it's a tell that they're not a good fit or is it really mostly just positive?

Elle: Yeah, it's a little hard with a company like Woopra, and especially in San Francisco, you could have a 10 person company that's a start up, just got around to finding funding and they are very intuitive with their data. They know they need a full fledged analytic solution.

So were we to simply look at something like employee headcount, we would have no idea which customers might actually be a true fit for Enterprise. So we have probably at least 15 to 20 Enterprise accounts where the company sizes are 10 to 20 people. Very small, very agile, but they know that they need access to this level of data.

So we do look at that. But again, combining that with what are they doing when they sign up, which different features are they using -- for us there's no really negative lead score, it's just an indicator of whether or not the sales team should be reaching out immediately, or if we should wait longer and hope that this person pre-qualifies themselves through further usage.

And in those cases we are still adding those people to different Drift campaigns to help nurture those leads. But it is a great way for our sales team to instantly log in every day and know, "Here are the hot leads I should reach out to immediately."

Kathleen: Now, going back to the email that you said, your first pass at trying to use that data to improve conversions, you did that email which has the goal of trying to get the user to adopt a certain product feature that they have not adopted yet. To what do you attribute the really high open rates that you got on that?

Elle: I think, you know, consumers today expect a much higher level of personalization and any time you can take something that they've done or who they are and better personalize that campaign, then you're going to hopefully get higher open rates.

I think it was relevant for them. It was recent because it was something they'd just signed up for and hadn't quite used yet. So all of those aspects certainly helped. We've tried to do a lot more since then.

But for us, I think it's easy, maybe not easy, but, people can find something small like that to test out. A small campaign, just to see if it makes an impact or not and then expand from there.

Adopting PQL does not have to be this six to nine month program, it's something that for the most part marketers can start testing today with different elements of product engagement data that they're collecting to see what might stick and what might not.

Kathleen: Now, if I understood you correctly, you have this premium model and there's no time limit on how long somebody can use the premium version. There might be a volumetric limit as far as the number of records that it will process. Given that there's no expiration date on premium usage, how far into somebody's adoption of your premium product do you hit them and nurture them?

Elle: It really depends on what we're learning about the customer initially. We on Friday released a much more full fledged PQL system. We're calling it a "pressure point."

Not only are we collecting the company size, company fit vertical information like that when they sign up, but we have strategically placed pressure points throughout the platform where if people are trying to use a feature that's maybe an advanced analytics feature, it's something that only is included in a paid subscription, that pressure point will pop open it'll say, "Okay it's time to upgrade to use this feature."

Now we're counting every time somebody hits those blockers and on what feature they hit those blockers and how often over the course of the week. And what's funny is, like on Friday we launched it, I came in on Monday, I ran a report and I said, "Okay, show me everyone who's hit at least five of those blockers." And I was blown away to see that there were people over the weekend who had hit it at least 200 times.

So for me, that's a really great indicator of these are the people who are 100% fit for a paid subscription or more advanced version of our product.

And now that we're collecting this level of data, not only can I see what features or integrations they were most interested in to feed that to the sales team so they have a good basis for that conversation, but we can also use that to personalize email campaigns going forward and tell them off the bat, you know, this person was really, really interested, it's time to tackle them and get on it.

Kathleen: Have you found that there's a certain degree of frequency with what you can reach out to your users and is there any limit to that? In other words, do you need to limit it to once every three days, once a week? I mean, I imagine you could potentially wind up in a situation of email overload.

Elle: Absolutely. We are definitely still learning a lot in terms of how often to email and the types of content we should send.

Right now, we're basically sending two emails in the first week, two emails in the second week for nurturing. And then based on that, it'll either be sent to the sales team, or we'll follow back up with something like a product update.

For me personally, I would like to see if we can find a way to either expand the number of emails that we're sending or leverage this new pressure point data that we're collecting to better personalize those emails and see what happens, but I would 100% say if you're trying to send at least the marketing emails more than two to three times a week, it could be overwhelming.

Kathleen: Yeah, I would agree with that. Now, a key part of this whole process for you is to hand off to sales. Can you talk a little bit about how you're working with your sales team? Not just through that hand off, but are you communicating with them well in advance of that around customer fit and the data you're finding and how that feeds into the leads they're getting. And then what kind of data do you pass them when they eventually do get that lead?

I would love to know more about your sales and marketing alignment.

Woopra's Sales and Marketing Alignment Model

Elle: Yeah, so we're lucky in that we're all kind of leveraging the same platform to learn about our customers, to run reports to ask questions.

During the onboarding process, we introduce our sales team to the companies that we believe are a good fit for Woopra based on those that have been with us for years. So they have a good understanding that people who are in SaaS who have these types of integrations will probably fair well in this company size.

From there, we do build a certain number of reports for them. So things like if they're running in a different territory, here are the top leads in your territory, here are some other important engagement metrics that we're gonna incorporate from you.

There's definitely a lot more that we could do, but we do have weekly alignment calls where we're walking through those reports with them and making sure that the data that we're sending them is actually driving results, that they're not drowning in unqualified leads, that we didn't get something wrong.

It's all iterative and testing like, yes we might think that somebody installing an integration makes her more likely to convert him and maybe the numbers show that today, but that doesn't mean that's going to continue in the long run.

So it is a constant iteration and evolution and the way that we work with this team to ensure that everything that we're doing in the marketing side is bringing, not the right opportunities today, but the right customer types in the long term. Because it doesn't do anybody any good if they're signing on people today who are going to churn three months later.

Kathleen: Now who's on that weekly call? Is that the whole sales team and you? Or do you have additional people from your team?

Elle: Yeah, so we bring myself, the sales team, we have a sales engineer there, and that's the gist of it.

We pass along some of the information to our CFO, we're a smaller team, a little more agile. It is nice to have both the marketer's perspective in those meetings to help drive the content for them and help them look at the data, but also having that engineer in the room.

So if perhaps they're doing a demo and something's not quite right, or they're customer requests that come up during the POC phase that aren't quite in the product, we can help to build those into the product roadmap and keep everyone aligned.

Woopra's Marketing Results

Kathleen: That's great. So tell me a little bit about the results you've seen from implementing this product qualified nurturing.

Elle: Yeah, so through the initial email phase and then a couple other PQL campaigns that we ran, one of which was using Drift's live chat feature to incorporate the data that we had about that customer and then automatically, for example, pop up when a Drift live chat message when somebody had installed integration and we wanted to share a piece of content.

So we've tried a bunch of different things over really the last year. Since then we have found that 50% of the leads now coming through the PQL model -- so these high qualified ones that the sales team are reaching out to -- make it through the demo request phase. And of those, 25% of them are at least getting to the POC phase before closing.

So that in and of itself, for me, out of the 1500 leads, being able to allow them to hone in and really target on those that are going to make it through that phase has been great.

Kathleen: That's especially important if you have a smaller team, just not to be wasting the limited bandwidth you have on poorly qualified leads.

Elle: Exactly. And you would think it would matter even more for a bigger team, but I think it's probably harder to test and integrate different types of campaigns like this when you do have hundreds of sales team members to work with.

Kathleen: Yeah. Now has your freemium to paid customer conversion rate increased?

Elle: It has. So it was 30% before, freemium to paid, and we're at 35% now. My hope is that with this pressure point system we'll be able to jump that up to closer to 40% or 45%. But even then, I'm pretty happy with the results overall.

Kathleen: Yeah, that's great. And do you find that the length of time from adoption of the freemium product to conversion and to a paid customer is speeding up?

Elle: It definitely is because our sales team isn't wading through as much in the pool to identify who to reach out to. I think when I first started at the company it was about six months to close from a new sign up, from the day they signed up to an actual enterprise deal.

As of our last all-hands, we're down to three or four months now.

Kathleen: Wow, that's great.

Elle: So it's ... yeah, doesn't seem huge, but it really is a significant difference when you're a startup, in the long run to be able to accelerate that process. And for me, that was kind of "proof is in the pudding." It showed me that something that we're doing is working and that we just need to, maybe not double down on it, but try to find better ways to improve this existing model that we have.

Kathleen: Absolutely. Those are impressive numbers. Well all good stuff.

Kathleen's Two Questions

Kathleen: As somebody who's been in marketing for a while and who's, especially in the startup world, which I think is so interesting and so fast moving, I'm curious to get your answers to the two questions I love to ask all of my guests.

The first is, company or individual, who do you think is doing inbound marketing really well right now?

Elle: Let's see. HubSpot obviously leads the forefront in terms of really setting the stage for what inbound can be and validating it's use through numerous different types of campaigns from different free offering features as teasers to powerful content to having a very lightweight version of their product that different teams can use for free.

But I was researching this question and going through my emails and every time I get a really good email or a very personalized campaign when I sign up for a new product, I add them to a folder called "Good Emails." And one that stuck out in my mind was Appcues. I'm not sure if you're familiar with that company.

Kathleen: Yep.

Elle: Yeah, they do in-app onboarding software and I guess you would expect them to be really good at this since they're collecting all of that PQL data that we just talked about.

But what I noticed was that all of the campaigns that I received from them for my first two weeks of signing up were based on both the company that I was in, so my vertical, they targeted SaaS.

They knew the integration tools that I was using that integrated with theirs and they spoke to those. And they also based those emails around the different features that I was using.

So it felt personal, it was relevant, and the emails were light enough that they caught my attention without drowning me in sales calls or overwhelming me with too much content.

Kathleen: Well, that tracks very well with what you said earlier about recency, relevance, and personalization.

Elle: Yeah.

Kathleen: That makes a lot of sense.

The other question is, digital marketing changes so quickly and I'm always fascinated to learn how people like yourself stay up to date and educate themselves on all of those changes that are happening.

Elle: Isn't your podcast the only thing people listen to?

Kathleen: Well I know we're definitely one of them, that's for sure.

Elle: I like Neil Patel's blog.

I'm not sure if you've read "Open View Partners." They have a blog called "Open View Labs," which is really great content for all things startups from fundraising to success stories.

There's also a venture capitalist from Red Point called Tomasz Tunguz, who writes content from product strategy to compensation to startup culture development.

But yeah, I've noticed that personally I prefer bloggers who provide insight into every aspect of running a startup because I've found the more that you can learn about how different departments run and should collaborate and integrate with one another, the more you're able to design marketing campaigns that are really harnessing that collective knowledge of the organization to deliver more personalized or long-term results.

Kathleen: Yeah, those are great suggestions.

One of the reasons I like to ask this question is I feel, myself, that there is this bubble that we as marketers live in and it's very easy to stay within the bubble and we're all listening to the same podcasts and reading the same blogs and it's dangerous because if you do what everyone else is doing, you're going to get results that everyone else is going to get. And really what you want are better results than everybody else. So I like those suggestions a lot and I'm going to have to check those out.

So if people have questions about product qualified lead nurturing or about Woopra or anything else that we've talked about today, what is the best way for them to find you online?

How to Contact Elle

Elle: Yeah, so you can either find me on LinkedIn at Elle Morgan, that's E-L-L-E. Free feel to email me at [email protected] or hop over to Woopra.com, it's W-O-O-P-R-A.com.

Kathleen: Fantastic. I will put all of those links in the show notes.

Before we close out for today, I have an ask for anybody who's listening. If you listened to today's episode and you like what you heard or you've been listening and you've gotten value out of the podcast, it would mean a lot to me if you would just take a few minutes and go into iTunes or Stitcher or whatever platform you listen on and leave a review.

It makes a huge difference in terms of getting us in terms of more interested marketers. So take five minutes out of your week and leave a review for the Inbound Success podcast.

And if you know somebody else doing kick-ass inbound marketing work, tweet me @workmommywork because I would love to interview them.

That's it for this week, thank you so much, Elle, it was a lot of fun.

Elle: Thank you, Kathleen. Have a good one.

Kathleen: You too.

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from Web Developers World https://www.impactbnd.com/blog/product-qualified-leads-elle-morgan-woopra

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kaseyspeaks · 7 years ago

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NYFW Designer Recap + Potential Skincare Line Launch!

Editor’s Note:

I MAY be launching a SKINCARE LINE with potential investors! In order to be considered, I need 2,000 respondents to this quick 30-second survey by THIS FRIDAY! Anyone who answers is automatically signed up for a giveaway of my fav skincare products pictured HERE. Help me get there by taking this quick survey and sharing it with your friends and family!: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/8T9ZBL8

NYFW Designer Recap

And alas! The time has come where I review my favorite designers and looks from the NYFW runway for this February 2018. There was lots of shimmer, sequins, mixed textures, and plenty of autumnal colors. Read ahead to find out about the trends for Autumn/Winter 2018.

http://thestylewright.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Tadashimodels.mp4

http://thestylewright.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Tadashi.mp4

Tadashi Shoji

I look forward to Tadashi Shoji’s Show every single season. As a long-time admirer, I was stoked to see that this particular collection was his most wearable RTW I’ve seen so far. There was shimmer on structured pieces like bronzed work suits and on beautiful wine-colored dresses. His line played on both form-fitted silhouettes and the flow of his dresses when the models walked. My favorite dress was the silver dress with the asymmetrical hemline held up by one leather shoulder piece. Beautiful!

GIFs from Giphy.com for NYFW

Photos-Getty Images

Dennis Basso

Dennis Basso was probably one of my favorite designers who showed this Season. I was so amazed – the Show was full of classy and edgy vibes on top of beautiful fur pieces everywhere! Everything was so chic and so my style – I wish I could have walked out of the venue with every single piece. On top of all that, the venue was extremely beautiful. The Show took place at Saint Bartholomew’s Church on Park Avenue – I even did a photoshoot right in front to finish capturing the essence of it all. I did not have a favorite piece as I loved every one, but I chose my top favorites here (which was extremely difficult by the way!).

Photos – Getty Images and Zimbio

Fashion Hong Kong

I was waiting for this moment to come where I could celebrate my roots at NYFW. My parents are from Hong Kong and because of my recent visit there over the holidays, I was so excited for this show. In fact, a week prior, the Hong Kong crew who put together the Show invited me to a delicious and intimate luncheon, so I felt especially happy when I took my seat Front Row.

[email protected]

First up, was the unisex line of Harrison Wong (I actually also met him at the After Party too!). He was one of my favorites as there was a lot of monochrome looks with structured lines and edges along with pops of color. Everything looked very high fashion, elevated, and overall powerful.

Anveglosa

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Second was Anveglosa. This was also one of my favorites! This line definitely had more of a feminine and fierce female vibe. With the three main colors as black, burgundy, and white, designer Annette Chan had a sure way of tying all the pieces together to make a statement. There was Parisian inspiration throughout every piece with the berets and feminine structuring of the silhouettes.

Last was Heaven Please+. With such a cute name like that, I knew I was in for some cuteness and colors. And boy, was I right! Bright, pastel colors were mixed with the contrast of black shoes, tights, and accessories as each model walked down the aisle. Designer Liu Yichang drew a lot of inspiration from Hong Kong style and mixed it together with vintage America. There were lots of logos that symbolized Pop-art style which is very popular in Asia along with American 1950’s midi-length skirts.

Photos – IMAXTREE and Riviere Agency

Marcel Ostertag The fall colors and patterns of the jungle filled the runway with Marcel Ostertag’s Show this year. The collection had the beautiful colors of pink, red orange, champagne pink, and of course his signature orange. It’s almost as if Marcel took the colors from the Spring season and turned them into autumnal hues with his wine boots, cheetah print sequins, and orange-belted hardware. Creativity ensued as each piece was a blend of textures, finishes, and colors that left the audience in awe.

Photos – Getty Images and The Bromley Group

Taoray Wang

Taoray Wang’s Show was absolutely striking this Season. There was inspiration drawn from both the East and the West along with classic and modern feels. There was a womanly strength in each piece with bold reds, army greens, and military uniform, in union with lace, feathers, velvets, and bows. I could definitely see myself wearing every single piece on any given day. My style is bold, classy, and feminine, and Taoray Wang encompassed all of those attributes.

Photos: Zimbio

Zang Toi

Zang Toi is another Show I look forward to every Season. For the F/W 2018 Collection, there were royal reds, vibrant pinks and oranges with a strong foundation of black and grey. The floral pattern, fur, and silk upon the sturdiness of the dark colors were a striking combination of strength in dark times. Actually, I was pleased to find out that Zang Toi “designed a backpack for the Jed Foundation’s Suicide Prevention Campaign, targeting 14-30 year olds.” His collection echoed this message loud and clearly not only through the backpack but also through his pieces. The rose headpieces were absolutely beautiful too.

Photos: WWD

Son Jung Wan

Son Jung Wan’s collection in 3 words: fur, florals, and pastels! I definitely felt a lot of Gucci vibes from this collection and I was loving it. The pieces were fun and unique, and I really enjoyed the bedazzled and detailed stockings used throughout the collection. There were so many fur coats and jackets that I wanted, scratch that, needed, from her line!

Concept Korea

Concept Korea’s F/W18 collection consisted of a lot of statement coats and jackets. There were tons of intricate fabrics and vibrant colors. A trend that I had seen through this Show and many other collections was the use of multiple fabrics on one piece of clothing. I was really impressed with one particular look that consisted of a white blouse with a high, flower-laced collar and a long printed grey coat with black fur lining. Overall, Concept Korea showcased very beautiful collections.

Mac Duggal

Mac Duggal was such a dreamy collection! I loved the ball gowns and the essence each one gave off. The detailing and embroideries on some of the dresses were so exquisite and detailed. Even the venue, along with the dresses, made the whole collection look royal – something I could see a queen or princess wear. My favorite look was the jumpsuit that consisted of black bottoms and a white, strapless top that had a huge bow draped to the side. A bedazzled belt cinched the model’s waist. Gorgeous!

Photos: Robbie Bulilan

Dan Liu

Dan Lui’s collection showed a lot of cuts, colors, and fabrics that gave me such a Chanel vibe. The short dresses in this collection were especially very classic and chic. I was so happy to have sat Front Row again and to have worn one of his dresses to the Show! Dan Liu’s collection was modern with twists on classic pieces – the perfect combo of elegance. One of my two favorite looks was this triple-toned blazer that was beige and lined with shiny black and grey borders with a feathered bottom. My second favorite was the pink wrap, knee-length jacket that was lined with black leather borders. Super chic, Dan Liu!

Photos: Fashion Week Online

Leanne Marshall

Another consistently beautiful collection wass Leanne Marshall’s. This Season, she showed dresses that flaunted her famous, flowy movement. The colors of browns, golds, navy blues, and yellows were very loud and vibrant which stood out a lot in her collection. The use of the autumnal colors helped outline and bring a lot of attention to the movements of each piece.

Photos – IMAXTREE and Riviere Agency

Chiara Boni La Petite

Wow. The Chiara Boni La Petite was such a beautiful and sophisticated collection that reflected a lot of vintage, tailored, and feminine vibes. It was a show of contrasts: The pastel pinks and whites were atop light fabrics and the dark blacks and blues were sewn into the structured blazers and work suits. Feminine cuts were added to classic looks that brought upon an edgy vibe that was irresistible. To top it all off, there were crazy and gorgeous headpieces that provided a fun twist to the sophistication of the collection.

Photos: Now Fashion

Bibhu Mohapatra

Bibhu is absolutely gorgeous every year. This Season, my favorite dress from the collection was the strapless, pleated dress. I loved how the vibrant red color looked right next to the dark black. The little layering of the pleated fabrics was such a cute and delicate detail. I was obsessed with how you can barely notice the bustier at the top through the thin layer of pleated fabric that gave it its subtle structure.

Photos: Vogue Runway App

Lanyu

Lanyu is always such a strong Show. My favorite piece from this collection was the white deconstructed blazer with a tight mesh dress underneath. The blazer went past the knee in the back and on the model’s left side. However, on her right side, the blazer had a peplum cut that fell down to her hips. It’s such a unique and clever piece that gave visibility to the embroidered, mesh dress that lied underneath the blazer. The embroideries used are two different colors of blue that gave the look a pretty contrast against the white blazer.

Photos: TheImpression.com

All Comes From Nothing

I am a sucker for different shades of brown and after one look from the collection, I had chills down my spine! This look was a caramel-colored midi dress with metallic gold designs all over. I wa in love! To complete the look, a coffee-colored coat lied upon the model’s shoulders which was detailed with the same metallic gold from the dress. The coat looked like it had been tied up at the end of the sleeves which is a super cute detail.

Photos: Getty Images

Yuna Yang

Yuna Yang was a very laid-back, feminine, and soft collection that is extremely wearable. The amount of lace in the collection is amazing! I loved the use of the soft colors and the mixed matching of different pieces with different colors. There is a soft blue, long coat detailed with embroidered florals on each side, and lace lining on the inside that I am obsessed with.

Photos: Fashion Week Online

And there you have it! A very long but quick synopsis of each of my favorite designers this Season. Hope you all enjoy.

Don’t forget to take my skincare survey and share with others for a chance to win a basket of my fav skincare products! https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/8T9ZBL8

Xoxo,

Kasey

NYFW Feb’18 Designer Recap + Potential Skincare Line Launch with Giveaway! NYFW Designer Recap + Potential Skincare Line Launch! Editor’s Note: I MAY be launching a SKINCARE LINE with potential investors!

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