I had the pleasure of seeing Jackie and Ben speak in Fargo, ND at a time when I wasn't sure what was next for me. I thought they were great, but was in direct sales and too focused on that to apply what I learned. I took the copy of Creating Customer Evangelists and put it on my shelf.

6 months later, the direct sales business had crashed and burned and I was trying my hands at Ad Sales for a local magazine. These small business owners would ask me, "Am I really going to see a return on this ad?"--the Ad often costing half their small marketing budgets and in my head I'm thinking "NO! you're not!". I couldn't sleep at night so I picked up Creating Customer Evangelists hoping for ideas I could pass along to my customers (helping them with their business and helping me to sleep better at night!).

What I learned in that book, combined with my research degree and background in major gift fundraising, I started consulting businesses on grassroots customer engagement WHILE I sold the Ads. That obviously didn't work for long--As soon as a business asked if I would help them, I went on my own as a consulting business. I went back to Creating Customer Evangelists almost every day that first 6 months of business to remind myself of basic principles and translate them for the small business owners I was working with.

Four years later, The Buzz Company is growing strong and we just earned some great business accolades for innovation. I had the pleasure of meeting Jackie Huba and Ben McConnell at the Society for Word of Mouth conference in Austin, TX a few months ago and I feel blessed that I have the opportunity to continue to learn from and dialogue with the authors that helped change my life and launch my business!
- Tara Tollefson