Karen Humphries Sallick (Contacts411) - A Little Lovefest Going On

Speaker 1: Maybe big data has gotten too big. Whether you're a B2B marketer or a consumer brand, your data needs to be viable, relevant, and accessible so that Stirista can help you retain customers, acquire customers, and make it personal.

Vin: Welcome to the Marketing Stir podcast by Stirista, probably the most entertaining marketing podcast you're going to put in your ear. I'm Vin, the producer here at Stirista. The goal of this podcast is to chat with industry leaders and get their take on the current challenges of the market, and we'll have a little fun along the way. In today's episode, Karen Humphries Sallick, co- founder of Contacts411, chats with Vincent about the early days of CRM and target marketing and how determined her company was to help build databases for clients. Give it a listen.

Vincent Pietrafesa: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for joining us. This is another episode of The Marketing Stir. I, of course, am your crazy host, Vincent Pietrafesa, the Vice President of B2B products and partnerships. Roland Solo, today. AJ could not be with us today. He is on a trip, because I was not missing this podcast, I was not rescheduling because of who the guest is, because of the guests. We'll get to her in a moment. Ladies and gentlemen, it is so good to be back here. Just some recaps. Thank you again to all the emails that I received. I really appreciate it telling us how much you love listening to the podcast. And now in person, people are back. Ladies and gentlemen, I've been at different marketing networking events recently and people are saying, " Thank you for the podcast. We love it. I listen to it," and they proceed to tell me how they listen to it. When I'm like, " Okay, we don't need to know the specifics, when you're working out or bed," who knows? That's weird. Going into bed makes sense. Maybe I put you to sleep. I'm kidding. Never. Not with this energy, but let's talk about a few things, ladies and gentlemen. So we have a great guest coming up. But before that, let's talk about Stirista for one moment. That's all. All we just talk about. There's no advertising that we accept on this podcast from outside advertisers. Only Stirista, that's all we talk about. So we are a marketing technology company. We own our own business to business data, business to consumer data. And we help companies access that data to help them get new customers. Those are nice. We do it through our email sending platform, our DSP ADStir. Email me vincent @ stirista. com. That is how confident I am. I just gave you my email address. The other thing I am confident in is our guest. I love this company. It is very unique. I love this company and this is one of my favorite people in the industry. And we just met in person recently, but we've known each other. We've known each other for years now. She is amazing. You're going to love, it's Contacts411 is the company. Ladies and gentlemen, she's one of the co- founders. Karen Humphries Sallick, Karen, what's going on?

Karen Humphries Sallick: Hey Vince. Oh my gosh, it's awesome to see you. It's so much fun to meet you in person a couple of weeks ago. That was awesome.

Vincent Pietrafesa: Yeah, it was so great. I was like, can we believe? I was like, you're one of those people that I felt like I've known you for a long time. I yeah, I feel like it's-

Karen Humphries Sallick: It's a small industry.

Vincent Pietrafesa: Yeah, small industry. And I'm like, I'm also like, how did I not meet you before? That's another thing. It's like what maybe we did. And I run into people all the time in my building now. It's a big building and sometimes I'll... or parents where they are like, " I see you all around and then you meet them and then you run into them all the time now and you probably ran into them all the time, but now it's great to have finally met you. You came to our marketing club of New York event and there'll be more of those. Hopefully you come down for those. But Karen, let's get right into it because I love this solution. I love the types of businesses you're serving, but Contacts411, in your own words, tell people about the organization and also your day- to- day there.

Karen Humphries Sallick: Sure, sure. First I have to say we love partnering with you guys. So you guys are great partners and so I'm thrilled to be on the show today.

Vincent Pietrafesa: Thank you.

Karen Humphries Sallick: So the Contacts411 mission is very focused. We are focused on helping small businesses; create, enhance, and maintain their customer connections. Our whole point of view is like a business can't sell to a customer that can't reach. And what's the foundation for that? Well, the foundation for that is accurate contact data. Any good marketing effort, no matter how smart it is, needs accurate contact data because you can't sell to a customer you can't reach, and large companies know this, right? They know it's seven times cheaper to market to an existing customer than to go out and find a new one. So they make sure that they have a CRM database, they spend money to keep that updated. They create a retention and activation program so that when they use acquisition programs like the ones Stirista develops, they already have a way to keep those valuable customers once they get that.

Vincent Pietrafesa: I love it, I love it.

Karen Humphries Sallick: But, but a small business can't do that. It's expensive and there's no access. Nobody allows them to update that data because it's too expensive. You need an IT team, and we just didn't think it was fair and it shouldn't be that way, right? Small businesses are so important to our economy. And so we designed the very first product, specifically for small businesses to turn an unreachable customer into a reachable customer. And we're accessing that same high quality data. So Stirista being one of them, right? It's CCPA compliant. It's all the data that enterprise companies rely on, but we do it really quickly, affordably and you don't need an IT person. So that's what we're done. It's super exciting. Certainly for me, as the CEO and co- founder of a startup SaaS business, I wear a million hats, right? I'm sure you've heard the story before. I wear a ton of hats, so I do a little bit of everything. But the most important things I work on are product design and implementation, product market fit, sales and marketing. We just launched recently. So getting those early traction customers is really important. Fundraising is a big part of what I do. And then really importantly is engaging with our customers and getting our solution aligned with exactly what they need so we can iterate all the time and make it better for them.

Vincent Pietrafesa: Now those are a lot of hats, and especially, so you're on the front line as well, Karen. So when people are interested in Contacts411, and I want to talk about that, get into the nitty- gritty because I love that you're serving the small business community. We'll get into that in a moment. But talk to me about, it's like, you're also on, are you the head of sales too? You're doing a variety of different things, almost. When people say a lot of hats normally it's like, all right, those are your three hats on the hat rack.

Karen Humphries Sallick: Yeah, I pay the bills too.

Vincent Pietrafesa: You're wearing about seven, you're wearing about seven hats here. That's crazy.

Karen Humphries Sallick: inaudible And I think it's really important to stay really tied to the customer. I mean, when we designed the product, we actually did it with 10 customers at the beginning and designed to their need first. And I learned how to do that decades ago in some of the early software products I did.

Vincent Pietrafesa: And I want to talk about, Contacts411 for people listening, I know the 411 reference. A lot of people, we have a lot of an array of ages of people talk to us about the story behind the name and starting Contacts411.

Karen Humphries Sallick: Sure, sure. So yeah, people of a certain age, remember from our rotary phones dialing 411, which was called information. So now kids, that's what's the 411 stands for, what's the information? And so that's where the name actually comes from because we would literally call and if you wanted to know where someone lived or you knew where, what town someone lived in, but you wanted their phone number, you'd call and you'd actually get a person on the line. So I've just aged you and me. If you're not of a certain age, you've never done that, but for a while, you could do it on your cell phone and they charge you a dollar 75 for every call when we first had cell phones. So actually it was around that time when my co- founder, Barry Gold, who's been in the data space for four decades, I'm like, and knows everything about data and data that's how Barry, Vince, right?

Vincent Pietrafesa: Yeah.

Karen Humphries Sallick: And he came to me with this idea. He said, these apps on cell phones are just getting going and I've got access to all this unbelievable data and my contacts are a mess. And we're in the data business. I think we should build an iPhone app so that anybody can have their contacts updated and enhanced, just like big company. And he said, would you be willing to invest? And I thought, oh my god, this is a brilliant idea. Because at the time I had been running my consulting company called the Priority Group for a really long time, and we had this issue. I had small companies that had the issue of getting data and it just was brilliant. So I said, " Okay, Barry, yes, but two things. One, I want to be your only investor, and two, I want to be your co- founder because I think we've got something really amazing here." So that's how it happened, maybe, seven years ago. So we spent a lot of time on the app first so as it was a proof of concepts. And then when we went out to really launch it, I was talking to customers to get their stories about what they were using the app for, because you need those stories in your pitch deck when you're fundraising. And so to everyone I spoke to was like, oh, we love the app. It helped me connect to this person or that person. And I made this sale. Or my favorite person that I talked to was this woman Joan, who runs actually an online skincare business out of New Jersey. And her company's called inaudible. She's amazing. And she said, " It was great. I found this woman who had moved to Whole Foods. I got a whole new account selling lots more, but what I really need is I've got 30,000 customers on a MailChimp account. My bounce rates are going through the roof, and I've got all this new product, my data goes back 10 years, it's old. I need you to do for me on my customer database, what you do for me on my iPhone." And that was it. That was, we just kept hearing it over and over and over again. And it was already on our roadmap, but we just moved it up. And so now here we are. And we think that's really way more important. Well, I mean they're equally important, but we're super excited about the platform.

Vincent Pietrafesa: Yeah. No, I'm, we are as well. I loved hearing this story. And shout out to Barry Gold, our pal Barry Gold, hopefully he'll be listening and it's hearing the story. I'm like, this is necessary. And I loved, I want to get to the mail. We were talking about people who use MailChimp, that's companies who have data, stale data, B2B data, it changes. It's not like... people are not at the company for 30 years anymore. And you get that cheap gold watch at the end of it, you're like, thanks Jeff, this has been great. You don't get that anymore. People change jobs. You need that information. I actually used the app personally because it was around holiday time and sending out holiday gifts, just finding out where people were and information the people on my phone. And it really helped out tremendously. So we'll get to that in a moment. But Karen, I love your, yes, the origin story of Contacts411, but your background, I love your story and I want you to share it with our audience. How you got started in marketing to begin with?

Karen Humphries Sallick: Yeah, well just every good marketer, I started as a biology major pre- med who went to investment banking. And that's how I ended up in marketing.

Vincent Pietrafesa: As everyone does.

Karen Humphries Sallick: Because everybody, I actually went from investment banking in the late'80s during the market crash of the late'80s. But I ended up at Barneys, New York as the director of strategic planning because we had done actually a private placement of equity for them. And I got offered my position at the closing dinner. It was right out of a crazy movie. And I had been there for maybe four or five months doing some really cool projects, strategic projects for them around just merchandising and other things. And my boss, who was the CFO, called me into his office and he said his name was Irv Rosenthal, such a great boss, loved the man, said to me, " You know, Karen," and this is how old I am, by the way, because this was like 1989, " I'm hearing about this thing. It's called target marketing. I don't really know what it is. I think it's really important. We just hired this woman from Saks Fifth Avenue to manage our customer list. She's working for the head of advertising. I don't think that's right. Can you just go find out what target marketing is and make sure we're doing it better than anybody else out there? Because Barney's always wanted to be the best." So I looked at him, I was like, " Sure, okay, I don't know what it is. Let me go find out." And within months, we were implementing one of the first desktop CRM systems, and it wasn't called CRM back then. CRM wasn't even an industry back then, but it was a desktop tool for actually managing your customers. It was called, a company called Harte Hanks. It was called PCIS.

Vincent Pietrafesa: Sure.

Karen Humphries Sallick: And they were really big in the banking industry and they actually demoed to us a product that had all banking labels and they were trying to sell it into retail. So that was one of the first CRM solutions that was implemented. And we then did a clientele tool that was at... we worked with our POS vendor at Canada. So that, I hate to say this, I feel like I'm a little bit like the grandmother of CRM and a little bit to blame for why when you go into a retailer now and they ask you, " Oh, can I have your name and what's your knowledge?"

Vincent Pietrafesa: That's you, that's all you.

Karen Humphries Sallick: Sorry. Yeah. Anyway, that's probably not a good thing. But yeah, so that's kind of how I fell into it. And Barneys didn't even have a marketing department. We had a PR department, and I was actually the one who ended up pitching that we needed a marketing department. And Irv was actually very funny. He was like, " Yes, but you don't have a marketing background." I said, " I know, but," " Okay." So then he had me hire my boss who had a background, which as a 20 something pro- tip, never do that. That was not at all-

Vincent Pietrafesa: Well talk to me about why. I remember I've heard people do that. I've sort of done that in my past as well. But yeah-

Karen Humphries Sallick: That's a little weird, right?

Vincent Pietrafesa: Yeah, it's a little weird. It's like, " Hey man, I brought you in here." " Hey woman, I brought you in here."

Karen Humphries Sallick: We didn't know I can't talk to the CFO anymore. Wait a minute.

Vincent Pietrafesa: Yeah.

Karen Humphries Sallick: Yeah, yeah. No, it was great though. It was really fun. Such a great time. But then I ended up going and working for Harte Hanks and helping them start their retail practice and working with retailers. Because once you get all that data, then you got to figure out what to do with it and create all the marketing programs that drive your revenue, right?

Vincent Pietrafesa: Absolutely. I love that. And you've worked, look at the brands like that, you were saying Barneys and then you, was it through Harte Hanks that you worked with companies like Burberry and Tory Burch?

Karen Humphries Sallick: No, actually. Well, no, actually. So at Harte Hanks, we started up the division. So at that time it was really big department stores. So again, aging us, Dillard's and Burdines, all the federated department stores. And of course, we had Barneys as a marquee, as a marquee retailer, but then we got Toys" R" Us. And so we were building all of those brands. But what was interesting was that banks had huge teams of analysts who could analyze customer behavior and develop marketing programs. And retailers had the IT, right? But they didn't have those analyst teams, so we had to teach them how to use it. So that was part of what I helped do at Harte Hanks. And then I started a marketing planning and analytics division for them and was the first general manager of that, which is like, okay, create models, create whole marketing strategies, implement them because you don't have the staff. And then a little bit of a life change and a couple of interesting things happened. And I started a consulting company. That's when I started my consulting company. And that's when I got to work with Gucci and Prada and Armani and Burberry, but Mutual of Omaha and Air Canada too.

Vincent Pietrafesa: That's amazing. Yeah. So you were starting to create some, were you going in and creating some of their CRM tools or helping them with their databases? That's the cutting room floor. That's awesome.

Karen Humphries Sallick: Yeah, I mean, really when we started working with Burberry first, it took me almost two and a half years to close the deal with Burberry when I was at the Priority Group, and which is still a part of my life. I have an advisory role, it's still out there 26 years later. And it took a while to sell to Burberry. But when we started working with them, they had this, remember you used to get a sales receipt and at the bottom it was in triplicate with, and the sales associate would either have you or the sales associate would write first name, last name, and the address. Because by the way, there were no emails still. There were, but not really. People didn't really use them. So you'd get address and email and then they would collect all those from all the stores all over the country, and they'd ship them to New Jersey and key them in. And that's how they were building their marketing base to send out their direct mail programs. And so we helped them build their first CRM tool and it was amazing. And I loved working with them. Just we worked with them for over a decade. They were just fantastic.

Vincent Pietrafesa: Did you get, yeah. What was your wardrobe like back then? You get-

Karen Humphries Sallick: Oh my God-

Vincent Pietrafesa: Discounts, do you.

Karen Humphries Sallick: Discounts, oh.

Vincent Pietrafesa: That's what I'm thinking. I'm like, oh this great. You look at all these great discounts, you must have been fresh gear every time. That's awesome.

Karen Humphries Sallick: Yeah, it was only bad when you went into New York and you had a meeting with Prada and Gucci on the same day, right? Because you had to wear something totally neutral or you had to change in a hotel in between meetings.

Vincent Pietrafesa: I know it's always like, yeah, you can't go pitch Apple when you have a Dell. Let me do this presentation. You're like, wait, what are you doing? You can't do that. Oh, that's funny. That's funny. Thank you for sharing that story, Karen. Let's get into, so Contacts411, you said something, the small business industry, I feel even prior to the pandemic. Underserved. Now I think more importantly, these small businesses are realizing, all right, I need a database, first of all. And I then need to maintain it. I need to communicate with people because there is a time and still a time where people are just not walking by my store anymore. At my restaurant or my small business. I need to do something. Why small business? Why were you so passionate about serving the small business industry?

Karen Humphries Sallick: Yeah, I love this question actually for so many reasons. One is, as a small business person myself. So the party group was a small consulting firm. We were a small business. When we were our biggest, we had 14 consultants. That was it. So we were never really big. And we were in the CRM business building global CRM databases where our companies had updated contact data and we'd send out our holiday cards and we'd get a ton back, wait, wait. One of my assistants would be putting them back into my outlook. So we saw that, but we always also worked with smaller businesses. So as an example, we started working with Tory Burch when they had three stores.

Vincent Pietrafesa: Wow.

Karen Humphries Sallick: We got connected through mutual friends and they knew what we were doing for some of the big luxury brands. And they were bootstrap in that early on. And you just knew they had something amazing even with those three stores. But they didn't have a big budget and it was way too expensive for them to get contact information. But they knew that they had to gather the original data in first. So they were really focused on how they would connect over time with their customers and build that relationship. So they were really clear on how to get that they needed that information well at first. So we help them with that and help them build their database. But then once we got to a point where it needed to be updated, the only way to do it was if that customer came into the store and the associate could ask. And it wasn't until they were so much bigger when we were working with them, they could actually get a big CRM system because back then the MailChimps and the HubSpots and the Clavio's of the world didn't exist. But then they could get the license and they could afford to pay for license to get that data updated. And so we just keep seeing that all the time. And as we did our research, there was a lot of companies out there that do like, we'll give list building. And that's really important. You have to get new customers all the time. And that's why what you guys do... and that, by the way, a little love fest for everyone here. In full disclosure, we use Stirista ourselves in our acquisition marketing, trying to get some you to buy our product. But it's also, their data is one of our B2B data sources when we're updating because we really believe in it and we think it's great. So Vincent, I have a little mutual love fest going on our companies, but-

Vincent Pietrafesa: Absolutely, thank you. Thank you for sharing that. Yeah, it's rare that we get it's great partners on the podcast, but yeah, even it's better, even better there's that love fest. Yes. Yeah.

Karen Humphries Sallick: And so small companies fail at two higher rate. You feel like Vincent, the numbers are crazy. So a small businesses, 90% after five years will fail. And why will because they don't capitalized well enough. Well what does that mean? They don't have enough money. So how do you get money, right? It's either revenue coming in or it's funding, right? Well, revenue means we got to reach our customers that we have and build those relationships. So contact data, getting old, you got to market to them, but if the contact data gets old and you can't reach them. So that's why we built our first integration to MailChimp because they're very focused on small business. But more importantly, just being able to connect through CSV files to any of these and we'll build more integrations over time. But it's got to be easy so you want to be able to take a phone number and turn it into an email and an address, or take an address and get an email. But also to make sure that it's CCPA compliant, that those people are people that are okay with having that, right? And that the information is good and it's validated emails and validated phones. And that's really important to optimize your marketing and get the most revenue. And we never thought it was fair that small businesses weren't on an even playing field.

Vincent Pietrafesa: I agree. And oftentimes if there is a solution for a small business, it's like, oh, the minimums are in, the minimums are enormous. It's like they're like, wait, what? I just want to communicate with my customers. I want to just get some new customers. So it's definitely underserved. And I want to get back to something you're talking about. Let's get into the nitty- gritty of right now. Who are some of the, what industries could benefit from utilizing you? And then also share with us what's coming on the horizon for Contacts411.

Karen Humphries Sallick: Sure. So the industries are really interesting. You go into creating a software product or any product and you're like, " Okay, here's our target customer, here's who we think." And what's been fascinating is we knew that recruitment companies like recruiters on the B2B side, financial services on the B2B side, people selling insurance, things like that, real estate agents and commercial real estate people would really need and want the product. And we've seen that. But where we've seen unbelievable traction that makes me so happy is in the not- for- profit space. Because they don't have big IT teams, they don't have big budgets, donations, especially with the way the economy has been up and down and all over the place. And so to try and reach out to historical donors and get them with that updated contact data to maybe get more donations so that not- for- profit can keep alive, that's really wonderful. So we're seeing a lot of traction there. The other place is in digital marketing service firms. So firms that actually manage marketing programs for small businesses who run their HubSpot, keep their database on a HubSpot or on a MailChimp and do marketing programs for a small business, they're really excited because they see the pain point, they see the bounce rates that are happening and their customers get frustrated with them. Why are these emails that we're paying you to do these marketing programs? The bounce rates are high, we're not getting the sales we want. So when I meet with those teams, they get really excited.

Vincent Pietrafesa: And Karen, another thing I love about you is you've always been a big advocate, female leadership, always pushing for it, always advocating for it. Talk to us about that, the work you always do and still do. Talk to us about how you're consistently advocating for women in this industry.

Karen Humphries Sallick: Well, I think actually what's interesting and a little context here, I'm one of those people who spent a lot of my high school and college years around guys. I was a coxswain for boys crew for rowing teams. I was like a men's varsity coxswain in my college. And when I got out into the working world, what I realized was that helped me make sales and connect and dealing there. But as a woman, we needed something a little bit different because this is, again, late'80s, early'90s. I'm running a division for Harte Hanks and I've got a little tiny infant and I need to be balancing a huge presentation and my kid is sick and I got to go to a doctor's appointment, all these crazy things. And the rubber met the road one day and I found myself on a train leaving my office heading to a doctor's appointment in a really bummer of a situation. And I was like, that's it. I need flexibility. And before I got from Manhattan to my stop in Connecticut, I had come up with the name, the Priority Group.

Vincent Pietrafesa: I love it.

Karen Humphries Sallick: And we had a URL, which back then I wish I had done TPG as a URL, but who knew what URLs even were 1995, in 96. And anyway, so I founded that company in 1996 and tapped into all these amazing women that I had been working with who were having babies and corporate America wasn't really working for everybody work from home. So we were virtual from 1996 and worked virtually. So you couldn't even attach a PowerPoint presentation to an email back then because it was too big. So we would fax curly paper back and forth to prepare for meetings. But what I found was if I could give someone a woman flexibility to not miss a doctor's appointment, not miss a school play, not miss getting her hair cut and colored. But as long as the work got done, I got the most amazing work. The team, we were just so supportive of each other and the work quality was unbelievable. So our customers would come back and come back, they would leave from one company to another and we'd keep the business at one and we'd get the new business at another. All because these women that were working with me were so happy. And so then we'd start working with these young women in marketing and they'd be like, you guys are amazing. What's your secret? And so it really focusing in on making sure that you understand that there's not balance every day, but over time just being flexible and letting somebody be their whole selves. And that's really it's interesting because I think now men after the pandemic are really understanding that and how nice it is to work from home in a way that was wonderful like the inaudible. Everybody was talking about this whole like, oh my gosh, working from home. And I thought, wow, I've been doing this since the mid'90s. But the other piece is actually these young women in marketing and talking about how important that is for your sanity and your ability to work, but also focusing in on the importance of customer centricity as a leader in an organization. And so what makes me just smile is looking at all these women that we worked with when they were in the early 20s who are now CEOs and Presidents of companies. It makes me so happy to see because they just believed that they could do it a different way.

Vincent Pietrafesa: No, that's amazing. I love that. And that's why I wanted you to share that story because I love the work you're doing there and keep it up. We really mean it. It's been great to see. Karen, let's talk about, well now we have just a few minutes left. That's what happens when you and I get together. We just start talking and time flies. So we want to you to know you personally as well, but I have to always, if I don't get this question in our listeners, get furious. It's our LinkedIn question. So our LinkedIn question, and I would love to hear your answer because I know how nice you are. So I can't imagine a message that gets you upset. But LinkedIn, your CEO Co- founder of a company, I'm sure you get reached out to all the time. What's a message on LinkedIn that resonates with you and says, " You know what? I'll get back to that person. Maybe I'll have a meeting." But what's one that you just hate? It's a pet peeve of yours.

Karen Humphries Sallick: Okay, well what order do you want? Do you want the bad news or the good news first?

Vincent Pietrafesa: I want the good news first. I want the good news because I'm anxious to hear the bad news.

Karen Humphries Sallick: So this was an interesting one. So because I am noticing how much more LinkedIn communication I'm getting, but when I get a LinkedIn message where it's clear that you know my company, you know what I do and you've actually thought for a minute to see if the product or service that you're offering is relevant to me and you make that connection to me in a clear way and you do it in a friendly not, passive aggressive way. So it's like, I know you're really busy as a CEO. It's like, yeah, okay.

Vincent Pietrafesa: Yeah.

Karen Humphries Sallick: Just tell me what it is and why you believe that what you do is really going to help me connect to my business, but make sure that you actually know because the LinkedIn messages that I hate are the ones where it's like, offering me something that if you had spent two seconds, two seconds, you would know makes absolutely no sense to me.

Vincent Pietrafesa: Yeah.

Karen Humphries Sallick: The other LinkedIn message that I hate is the every two days of the pounding of" Did you miss that email just in case you didn't see it."

Vincent Pietrafesa: Yeah.

Karen Humphries Sallick: It's like, no. Yes, I'm busy. And if you hit me too many times with that same sort of, I'm just like, this is the last time I'm going to communicate to you. And then I get three more messages.

Vincent Pietrafesa: They're three more and a six days later. Yeah.

Karen Humphries Sallick: So those are my love hate. If you really have taken a minute and you understand what I do and maybe I'll have half a clue about my pain points, I might respond to you and say, thank you so much. We're actually really good with this, right now. But I remember and I connect to that person and when I might need them, I'll come back.

Vincent Pietrafesa: Yeah, no, that's good. I love the don't use a passive aggressive. I love that. That's a first. And for me, it's like if I say no to the person, I'm like, " Look, I understand in sales a no is better than being ignored. And then they still hit me back, what do you, I'm like, I give you the no, come on man. I know that that is what you need. So anyway, so Karen, talk to us before that. I want to get to how people could find you Contacts411 and everything, but personally what do you like doing your spare time? You're up in Connecticut there besides wearing 47 hats from Barney's, the Barney's collection. No, I'm kidding. For doing all your stuff and running around and doing a great job at it. What do you like doing in your spare time?

Karen Humphries Sallick: Spare time?

Vincent Pietrafesa: What is that? I know.

Karen Humphries Sallick: I'm in a Brady Bunch situation where my significant another and I, between the two of us, we have six kids, right? Ranging in age from 18 to 28. So there's a lot of that. But when we do get time, I love to sail. I have an old wooden sailboat.

Vincent Pietrafesa: Oh, wow.

Karen Humphries Sallick: That's built in 1936 and she's really beautiful, and I love being on the water. I actually, you'll appreciate this Vincent, I love cars. I used to have a 65 Mustang convertible for speed that I would drive around, but I don't, I finally let go over because I just couldn't drive. I just couldn't use her as much anymore. But I love cars and driving. I cook. Live music. I love to go to live music. It's a way to relax. So that, those are the big things. And if I don't say skiing, Tim will get really upset with me. So I'm skiing too.

Vincent Pietrafesa: You ski, I love it. And then I heard live comedy is in your future you might be attending.

Karen Humphries Sallick: So oh my God, I watched so much standup and I love going live comedy and I cannot believe, I did not know you were standup comedian.

Vincent Pietrafesa: I was in the net. Yeah, I was just like the couple towns over. But that's who is cooler than you. You used to do crew and men's and women's team. You have an old sailboat, old cars, come on, this is amazing. And you listen-

Karen Humphries Sallick: These are my kids, my kids do not think I'm cool. That just keeps you right even.

Vincent Pietrafesa: Oh, I know. Yeah. My son is like, he's going to be six. And he is like, could not be, I was like, " Dad tells jokes in front." He is like, " No, you're not funny. Mom's funnier than you." I'm like, " What? Are you crazy? Your mom? No way." Anyway, but yes, and you're doing some great things. So with a couple of minutes up, talk to us about, and I love that you've come bearing gifts for our amazing listeners here, but people could find out, just go right to Contacts411 and tell our listeners and we'll also put it in when we release it, what you're offering.

Karen Humphries Sallick: Sure. So if you go to contacts411. com, there are two places you can go. There's the iOS app, but there's something that says desktop and that's our small business platform. And if you go there, you can find out all about what we're doing and if you want to sign up for being a marketing Stir listener, we are offering 25% off your first subscription. And you should know though that our subscriptions are already pretty cheap. Our lowest price annual subscription starts at$ 180 a year for updating. And the most expensive one is$ 3, 000 for an annual subscription to update every month because it's so important to keep that data up to date. But it's 25% off your first subscription and when you're checking out, you just have to remember to use the coupon code Stir S- T- I- R 25, Stir 25 and that'll get you 25% off because really it's just so important. We just want you to have the most up- to- date data, not think about it and have the best marketing effort, best marketing programs you can have.

Vincent Pietrafesa: I love it. That's contacts411.com and check that out and good. No one ever comes bearing gifts for us. That's amazing. Stir25-

Karen Humphries Sallick: We should all be bearing gifts for each other. It takes a village.

Vincent Pietrafesa: Exactly.

Karen Humphries Sallick: We need to help each other. We need to help each other and small businesses need help. Stir 25, we'll put it in. This is going to be... This is coming out April 11th, which is my son's birthday. And this promotion we're going to run. Funny enough, we're running it through it. June 15th, which is your birthday or no... right? Is June 15th?

Karen Humphries Sallick: Birthday to birthday now.

Vincent Pietrafesa: Birthday to Birthday. That's good. That's good stuff there. We're going to put it all out there. Ladies and gentlemen, that has been Karen Humphries Sallick from Contacts411. She is the CEO and co- founder. I'm Vincent Pietrafesa, AJ Gupta. I don't know what he's doing. He'll be back. I know you'll miss him. This has been another episode of The Marketing Stir. Thank you so much for listening, and we'll talk soon.

Vin: Thanks for listening to the Marketing Stir podcast by Stirista. Please like rate and subscribe. If you're interested in being a guest on the podcast, please email us at the marketingstir@ stirista. com and thanks for listening.