Since you’re here, you’ve probably noticed that this site looks completely different than it did just a few days ago.

Yes, it’s a total redesign – but not just to freshen things up and look nice. I made calculated changes to both the look & feel and the working of the site to create a different experience for you here at Live Your Truth.

Because the experience matters.

Learn more by watching this video –>

What do you need from a website? What do you love to see when you go to a website?

What challenges are you facing in your website design?

I’d love to hear from you below!

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Program launches have this mystery to them – why do people craft their pages the way they do, who does calls versus classes versus scholarships versus give aways, pricing and levels and deadlines … all a mysterious combination that may or may not work because we don’t know what actually happens underneath the hype and promotion language.

Because I learn so much from posts where people share the behind the scenes & lessons learned from their launches – I’m sharing here why I’m doing what I’m doing for the 18 Days to Live Your Truth launch.

1. Why the Long Form Sales Letter?

I’ve tried other ways to communicate what you need to know to buy something – cool websites with sliders and tabs that all the marketers (who, ahem, are not clients or customers of mine) thought were awesome.

But those new-format sites don’t convert as well as the old school long form sales letter.

Maybe people don’t click on the tabs, or there are too many places to stop, or they get confused, or because it seems like less information so the offer looks less compelling or you just don’t get enough information to buy.

I don’t know for sure.

What I do know is that for the exact same program, the long form sales letter (even horrible ugly poorly written ones!) get a greater % of my visitors to make a decision and buy.

When I was writing this sales letter, I came across a wonderful email article about this from Naomi Dunford (of IttyBiz and now making something else). Among other things, she said — “fonts don’t have a morality.”

The thing is, I can write a sales letter that is the truth.

That’s not slimy. That helps you make a powerful decision that is right for you.

And if a red header fonts and red pointy arrows, break-out boxes and tables, a P.S. call to action and check mark bullets … if those things help you make the right decision … then frak, that’s what I’m going to do.

BTW – the sales page video is 20 minutes (my longest ever sales page video!) because it’s a parallel track.

In other words, the video has enough info to make a decision, and the sales page has enough info to make a decision.

I assume that people are either reading people or video people – so each one stands alone.

I also tried to make it possible to buy just from the headers & bolds & tables … which is how I buy. (Ironically, I don’t watch sales videos unless they are demos. Lol!)

2. Why the pricing?

Well … I could give you a bunch of calculations and charts of why I picked these prices.

I did do some calculations, comparing them to how much email/phone consulting costs, what I needed to sell to pay the bills, etc.

Yes, I have historical reasons for my pricing. I’ve found that $97 is a price point that converts well for my people on a new program (and then typically I can raise it to $127 or $147 the next time around, when there is more buzz and testimonials). I also have found that people are willing to pay a lot more money for one-on-one coaching with me.

But the real reason for these prices is that it’s what felt right in my gut.

I didn’t do payment plans on the $97 because I want to help people. If someone can’t afford that price then they would have more success in the program if they first take care of their money emergencies before they join. I do offer payment plans for the coaching upgrades, since those are higher price points.

I didn’t do an early-bird sale because lowering the price felt off, and raising it in a few days felt off. Not a scientific reason, but that’s the truth.

3. Why 18 Days?

I’ve done a bunch of four week and six week programs – and it seems that a bunch of people fall off after week three.

So my theory is … let’s see what happens if the program is just three weeks long!

To make the 18 Days format work and make it more easily digestible, I split the program into six small units instead of a big weekly class.

This also works better since I imagine that June is a hard month for people to plan (with schools getting out and vacations) & I’m moving in June, making it hard for me to schedule streaming video classes.

And … 18 Days sounded good.

4. Why the eCourse?

I picked the eCourse format because it was the best of two worlds.

Classes are great because the inherent deadline makes people more accountable, there’s a community of people doing the class together, and it makes the promotion have a natural deadline.

Information products are great because people can do on their own time and consume it easily from any time zone.

So I combined the best of both worlds by creating an eCourse that’s based on time (with content released on a schedule) and is all pre-recorded, so it’s convenient for everyone in everywhere.

I have no plans to make this into an information product, because it would lose the time aspect and the community aspect.

5. Why this promotion?

Well, this is not going exactly as I had envisioned.

Things are crazy for me right now – I’m finding an apartment and buying a car, G is graduating pre-school and getting set up for Kindergarden, I’m dealing with an underwater/unoccupied rental property, I only have a few hours of childcare each week, I keep getting sick, a few other personal things I’m not discussing here … and I completely underestimated how much all of the above would take from me.

I didn’t plan that the sales page would go up less than two weeks before the class starts. But really, that’s probably better.

Historically, shorter sales periods have worked better for me than longer ones.

In the upcoming week I plan to release more information and resources to help people make a decision, including a video tour of the membership site, some examples of what we’ll be doing in the program, an explanation of the hand analysis extra (included in the upgrades), and whatever else strikes my fancy.

G and I will be in Portland (at WDS) the last weekend of the launch.

So I’ll be closing out the sale in a hotel room with a 6 year old running around.

That will be interesting.

Hope you got something out of my brain dump of what’s behind the scenes at 18 Days to Live Your Truth.

I’ll update you afterwards to let you know how it went!

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But … I’m afraid to tell you my plan.

You see, my nature in plan-making-and-executing mode is to keep it secret. Keep it safe.

That’s what the caveperson inside of me desperately wants to do. Protect the plan. Prevent sabotage of the plan. Focus on the plan. Implement the plan.

And while all of that is awesome, it creates a problem.

If I keep the plan a secret, then you can’t help.

You can’t get excited about it. You can’t ask questions. You can’t see if you’d like to be part of the plan.

It can’t turn from my plan, into our plan.

It can’t turn from something small, into something kinda bigger. Kinda better.

Even into something lots bigger. Lots better. Bigger & better than I could ever create alone.

So against all of the frantic grunting of my caveperson (and also the nagging from the bitch in the corner who doesn’t want any of the plan disclosed until it is perfect), I’d like to share the plan with you, my fellow Live Your Truthers.

On May 23rd I will open the 18 Days to Live Your Truth ecourse for enrollment.

(that’s 18 days from today. hum, funny how that worked.)

The 18 Days to Live Your Truth ecourse is for those of you who:

• want to live your truth but don’t know what that is.
• know your truth & want to live it, but can’t because of time, energy, money, him, her or them.
• want to do that thing that is your truth but something is holding you back …. and you don’t know what that thing is.
• have been living your truth in certain areas of your life, but are totally not living your truth in other areas of your life (the “living two lives” problem).

What we’re going to do is find out what’s blocking you, so you can uncover your truth and how to go about living it.

We’re also going to figure out what is the most important area for you to focus on right now, so you can make the most upward progress on your spiral of living your truth.

And the best part, is that we’re going to do all this super-cool-yet-very-scary-stuff together. You’re not alone. Yay!

Dates: June 6-25, 2011 (sundays off)

Time: Pre-recorded videos/audio and downloadable pdf’s – so whatever time works for your life and schedule is cool.

Where: Everything will be on a password-protected site, so you can watch/download/listen whenever & connect w/ everyone else going through the program.

How: We’ll cover six units of material – for each unit I’ll share a video w/ the content (15-20 minutes), give you some exercises to think & write about, and give you some experiments to go & play with in the world.

Details: I’ll share all of that next week on the sales page!

(right now I’d like to make a bunch of disclosures like, this is not perfect yet! all the benefits aren’t here! this isn’t the story yet! it sounds much cooler than this looks! don’t hate it yet! etc. Okay. Now that I’ve done that, the bitch in the corner who likes to point out all the flaws feels much better.)

If you have any ideas, questions, suggestions, or ways you’d like to help, or if you’d just like to send some positive energy my way, please leave a comment below or contact me directly!

P.S. Did you download the How to Live Your Truth manifesto yet? (it’s free, no-opt in) You haven’t yet? Omg, get on that!

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You know the “internet sale” drill.

First I tell you the Amazing (somewhat-lame-excuse) Story.

How today I’m so crazy and embarrassed and sentimental that seven years ago I launched my first website at pottsweinstein.com, for Potts Weinstein Financial Consulting (personal financial & estate planning).

How ha! ha! ha! I launched a business on April Fools Day! How foolish of me!

And omg, the website was so ugly / badly marketed / terribly copywritten / had no CTA / acted as if I was a big corporation so clients would drive down my residential street and be like WTH where is the big office building.

And we all think to ourselves, ah yes, that first job / business / website / blog, we were also all so foolish / young / desperate / trying to pretend that we actually knew what we were doing.

And then I say, so, in celebration / anniversary / irony of that first website going up, I’m having a sale!

(As if that has anything to do with a sale? Why did we need an excuse anyway? Oh yes, because we have to have a story to sell things and the story is the excuse but really it’s just bullshit. Of course, this anti-story is just another story. So there you go.)

The real reason I’m having a sale is about necessity and deadlines.

I didn’t have time to launch a new virtual program in February or March (as you read this I’m hosting the Live Your Truth Adventure live event here in San Francisco) and some of you guys need a deadline to get you to make a decision on the stuff I already have available.

So, here’s your deadline, my dears.

Use the FOOL coupon code TODAY ONLY and get 30% OFF everything.

That’s one day only, April 1, 2011, from midnight to midnight EASTERN time.

And that’s everything I sell – including virtual programs AND consulting AND the other 2011 Live Your Truth Adventure events.

(how it works is you just go put the thing you want in the shopping cart, and then when you get to the page to enter your name etc. then you can enter the coupon code and hit “apply” and the 30% off will appear on your entire order, like magically and stuff. yay internet!)

Here’s your options of cool Live Your Truth stuff you can partake yourself of:

Want to catch up on the first year of Live Your Truth?

Get all of the blog posts and video transcripts in the Year One of Living Your Truth 400+ page ebook! Regular price $17, sale price $11.90

Want my Advice/Ideas/Feedback, One-on-One?

Consulting via email, Skype, and telephone is available, starting with email consulting at regular price $27, now $18.90 per session (yes, you can buy now and use anytime!)

Want to learn how to Live Your Truth on Video?

Learn how to create videos that speak your truth and engage with your tribe – Quickstart regular price $37, sale price $25.90 & 4 Weeks to Video regular price $147, sale price $102.90

Wish you were playing with us at today’s Live Your Truth Adventure?

Join the Adventure (with just 2 other people!) in September or November – regular price $497, sale price $347.90 (payment plans available!) [note: there are 5 seats available as of 4/1/11 at 9:35 AM Eastern]

If you have any questions, ask them asap to me via email at elizabeth[at]elizabethpw.com and I’ll get back to you as soon as we take a break at LYTA – and, don’t forget that the sale is over at Midnight Eastern (9 PM Pacific)!

~ Elizabeth

P.S. If you really want to get the best value, I suggest you look at the Live Your Truth Adventure Event or Consulting with me (especially if you’re thinking about phone consulting) – this is the lowest price LYTA will ever be, and I may not put consulting on sale again.

P.P.S. This isn’t a joke. You can count on this b/c I’m a dork and don’t know how to pull off April Fools Jokes. That is all.

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So if you’ve been around here for the last few months, you may have heard me talk about the 2011 Annual Subscriptions (only available until Dec 31, 2010) – where people can get 1/2 off of everything I offer in 2011 – but I didn’t yet share the backstory.

In this video I’m sharing the reasons for why I’m offering the annual subscriptions (what’s in it for me & why you may want to do them in your business) – including how this applies to the True Fans concept – and what’s in it for the subscribers.

Btw, +2 points for anyone who can guess whether or not I took a shower before I made this video.

If you have questions, feedback, or are considering how to add an annual subscription offering to your business, please leave a comment below!!

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I’m supposed to be on promotional sabbatical.

But the wonderfully dangerous side effect of a sabbatical is that crazy/amazing ideas keep coming in to fill up all this creative space.

Case in point –> a text I got a few weeks ago:

“Why don’t you offer an annual subscription to all of Live Your Truth?

People would pay one price and get every program you have for a whole year.”

Now, there’s tons of reasonable reasons why this is crazy.

I don’t have a business plan for 2011 yet & I don’t know what I’m selling for sure yet & how would I price it & would anyone understand it & no one else is doing this & it has not been tested & who absorbs the risk if I sell more/less stuff & who in the world would want to buy everything from me & I’m on sabbatical now, don’t you remember?

Which of course means that I’m totally offering this to you now.

So here’s the deal.

The LYT Annual Subscription means you get every information product, virtual program, and live program I currently sell or will sell, from now until the end of 2011.

That’s at least 11 programs, including a live event (The Live Your Truth Adventure).

And you get all of this at 1/2 price.

I know it’s not for everyone. I know it’s not for most of you.

This program is for you if:

• You resonate with Living Your Truth & with me & with the other people in this tribe.
• You want 2011 to be your year to finally incorporate & implement Living Your Truth into every area of your life and business.
• You know you’ll want to join in on everything in the Live Your Truth universe in 2010 & 2011.
• You’d love to save a ton of money by signing up for everything all at once.
• You have had your Moment. You know you can’t go back. This is it.

If you’re interested in learning more about a Live Your Truth Annual Subscription, here’s what you do:

Leave a comment below or email me at elizabeth [at] elizabethpw.com.

Then, I’ll send you the info so you can make a powerful decision that’s right for you.

(yes, there are a limited number of subscriptions, since you get a ticket to my live event.)

Thanks so much, all!

~ EPW

P.S. And, I can’t wait to share more about the Live Your Truth Adventure live event in Feb & July, and the Live Your Truth in Partnership program starting in November. But not yet, b/c I’m on sabbatical. lol.

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If you want to do your marketing/sales/customer service in a way that feels awesome & gets you *better* results than the old way, buy & read UnMarketing: Stop Marketing. Start Engaging. by the awesometastic Scott Stratten.

There’s just one thing that Scott and I don’t agree about …..

disclosures: Scott and I are friends and I think he’s an awesome person. I actually paid for this book with my own money and he didn’t pay me for this review. The amazon link is an affiliate link – but I’m thinking you know how to google it too. So, there you go.

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It’s been 15 years since I wrote a poem.

I write blog posts. I write emails. I write tweets. I write outlines for videos. I write marketing copy for the latest new things I’m launching.

It just hasn’t occurred to me to write for no reason.

No reason except that … that I need to. I need to see if I can still do it. I need to express that part of my truth. I need to share a piece of my soul.

And know that it doesn’t matter if anyone thinks it is good.

I mean, I’d like them to …

But I’m not desperate to sell poetry for food. I don’t have to sell that out. All I need to do is write something that is an expression of the real me.

But to create poetry, to create anything, I need time and space for that creation.

Time. Space. Things I have not felt for a very long time.

So, for the next 60 days I’m not launching anything.

No sales pages, no promotional emails, no “buy this now” tweets – nothing new.

I’m using some of the proceeds of the sale of my car to fund a 60 day sabbatical from sales & promotions.

Not that there is anything wrong with sales & promotions. (Of course not. This is not a non-profit.)

But because I need time to think. To walk. To adventure. To create. To write poetry. To twirl around a pole.

I need time to develop deeper relationships with you. Time to listen. Time to share.

I need time to create & deliver all of the content that I’ve already promised. To get everything out of my head onto paper/video, to have all the consulting sessions and answer all of the questions and do the video critiques and schedule the interviews.

I need time for new people to find Live Your Truth. Get that message out there, beyond the core group on twitter, Facebook, blog & email readers … to new people who have never heard of this world. And give them time to learn about us, develop relationships, start their own journey.

I need time to decide where in the heck Live Your Truth is going. I can’t physically deliver every program that’s in my head and that you’ve asked for (at least I can’t in the next six months) – so what programs do I launch in what order? Info products or classes or ebooks? Price points? Membership programs or one-time-only’s? I need to analyze what worked in the past with programs, ask you what you want, and think about what you really want but you’re not saying. I need some plans.

So here’s how it’s going to work.

I know there’s some of you who’ve been waiting for me to reopen stuff this month (like I’ve promised), and I don’t want to disappoint you – especially since I may not reopen anything again until January.

So here’s what I’m going to do – I’m reopening Build Your Tribe and my hourly Consulting for a few days – until Tuesday September 7th. To get in just comment below (or email me elizabeth [at] elizabethpw [dot] com) and I’ll send you the information you need to get you signed up.

Besides that – for the next 60 days, I’m concentrating on four things:

(1) thinking. not thinking. writing. space. walking. dancing. etc.

(2) delivering content for programs that already exist (Build Your Tribe, the Video Advanced Modules).

(3) developing relationships with you, my tribe.

(4) evangelizing Live Your Truth to new people.

In November I will be sharing the new Live Your Truth in Relationships course (a 10 month program, both personal & business relationships).

Besides that, I don’t know what’s next.

I’m so excited (and relaxed, unstressed, all in the flow) to go on this mini adventure, this promotional sabbatical with you.

So what’s up with you?

What phase are you in with your business or life? Do you need a break from launching or doing new stuff? What are you focusing on for the next 30, 60, 90 days?

Leave a comment below – I’d love to hear from you!

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I’m not really here.

In June my 5 year old daughter Gracie’s symptoms hit their worst point, we finally got her diagnosed and hospitalized on July 1st, surgery on July 3rd. My life (and business) was temporarily halted so I could concentrate on what’s most important. Of course.

And, to be honest, it’s two months later, and I’m still not back 100%.

Gracie’s doing great! She’s (finally) healthy, recovering most of her motor skills already, and I found her a wonderfully creative part-time pre-K program that will start in a few weeks.

I’m getting my personal act together. Sold my car, not only simplifying my life (I only drove it 2x a month & was paying $200 to park, much less other auto expenses), but generating a ton of cash from the sale. Am back on track with working out with a trainer 3x a week and pole dancing every Saturday. Spending time with amazing people. Moving the last few things into my apartment. Forcing myself to take time to incorporate the stress of Gracie’s illness into myself, taking time to recover and rest (my body gave me a sinus infection to force that one).

And I’m starting back into business. Yesterday I finally got through 2 months of email. I’ve been contacting coaching clients to set up their calls. Delivering more content to Build Your Tribe. Writing new blog posts and making videos. Finishing up an ebook & putting it on sale.

And finally, next week (Aug 31 – Sept 2) I’m launching something – Live Your Truth on Video. (Because dude, this isn’t a non-profit.)

But since I don’t have the time or capacity to do the big huge launch, I’m having to be a bit more strategic about this one.

Here’s what I’m doing differently about the launch of Live Your Truth on Video:

1. Launch something I’ve already created.

Live Your Truth on Video consists of three different programs – the Quickstart, the 4 Weeks to Video program, and the advanced modules. The Quickstart and 4 Weeks to Video already exist – so not only do I not need to create those programs, but they already have buzz and testimonials. Much easier than starting from scratch.

2. Leverage a few people to help promote.

I’ve asked a few people to host guest posts on their sites. Only a *few* people, because I don’t have the capacity to write tons of blog posts, and because most affiliate sales come from a handful of the most well-matched affiliates – so it’s better to concentrate my energy on what is most likely to work.

3. Compressing the timeline.

Yes, I have started hinting about this launch, with a few blog posts, emails, and tweets/facebook posts. But the big push will be in the 3 days of the launch itself. This is partially because people are more forgiving & pay more attention if you push really hard for just a short time – but also because I got started late.

4. Scarcity based on bonuses instead of numbers, price, or closing the program.

People need a reason to buy today or they will procrastinate – it’s kind and helpful to give them an excuse to make a decision today. So I usually motivate them by having the price go up at a certain day/time, or closing the program after the deadline. But here I want to keep these programs open both so I can continue to sell them, and because some of my affiliates can’t promote next week (so I want to do some specials for them later on).

So instead I will be giving the first 10 people to buy a free screen capture critique of their first video, and everyone who buys by Thursday at 9 PM Pac gets to be on a Q/A livestream to answer their video questions (and I’ll probably teach some bonus content there too). It makes sense for these bonuses to be limited because they both require my time (as opposed to the giant set of bonus random ebooks and audios that you see all the time – that’s just lame).

5. Rolling out the copy.

I don’t have the marketing copy / videos finished yet. But I don’t want to wait to put up the copy until the day it goes on sale, because I want to give people a chance to think about the program so they are ready to buy on launch day. So I’m dribbling out the copy as it’s created. Gives me more reasons to tweet & email the first dibs list as I add more information to the site, and I get feedback as I’m creating.

6. Livestream class instead of long content-based videos.

In a perfect world I’d have a bunch of content rich videos to drive traffic & interest about this program & deal with objections. But I have not had time to make such videos. So, I’m hosting a free livestream class – “Get Over Yourself on Video” – on the middle day of launch (Wednesday at 5 PM Pac) – not only does this give another reason to promote & provide great content, but I’m dealing with one of the big objections (“video is too hard & scary & is not for me”).

7. Use content from the program to market it.

I will be stealing a bit of the content from the programs to use as examples in the marketing campaign. Not only does this stuff exist already (makes it easy for me!) but it gives people a real inside into the program to make it easier for them to buy. This is especially important since I don’t offer guarantees.

** Make sure you’re on the list so you don’t miss out on the bonuses, the livestream class, or just following along with the launch for your own research purposes – get on the First Dibs list at http://LiveYourTruthOnVideo.com **

So how would you change marketing of your programs, products, or services if you didn’t have time? If you were busy with personal situations?

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I made reasonable plans … and life got completely ridiculous.

The new Live Your Truth store was going to launch a couple weeks ago.

But on July 3rd my 5 year old daughter had surgery to remove a brain tumor.

Obviously my business launch plans were abandoned as I focused on what was most important – concentrating on the recovery of my daughter and maintaining enough of my self care to keep from falling apart.

Now it’s early AM of Tuesday, July 13th – hopefully we just spent our last night in the hospital. And while her continued recovery (and my continued sanity) is still the number one priority, I need to keep my business moving forward (even if not yet up to 100% capacity).

This week I will be launching the new Live Your Truth store, a place to find not only the programs I currently offer (4 Weeks to Video), future re-releases (Build Your Tribe), and other people’s recommended programs (Question the Rules), but also the pre-sale of new programs that you’ve specifically asked for … all to address the issues we face as we are on our Live Your Truth adventures.

Here’s the sneak peek on the new stuff:

1. Find Your Truth

Find Your Truth is a home study program that’s the companion on your continuing journey to find your truth — to discover what is the natural expression of who you really are — so you can go out to bring that truth to the world, and live your greatest success, whatever that means to you.

But here’s the thing – this program is not a magic test. There’s no quiz you answer & you’re done, here’s your perfect career/life/relationship and you move on with your life. No, that’s not how it works.

Finding your truth is a lifelong adventure. And this program is simply your guide.

Find Your Truth is a series of tools, ideas, things to think about. Exercises, challenges, games to play with. We’ll be thinking, doing research … into your past (what has made you brilliant, where have you found passion, what is your personality type) and the future (what’s your vision of your ideal life, what are your goals, what do you want). We’ll be doing … taking action & risks, speaking, finding your voice, finding your tribe, seeing your truth reflected in them.

2. Live Your Truth eBook – Year One

If you’ve been reading/watching my live your truth adventure in bits & pieces over June 2009 to June 2010 … you are missing the real story. The most important take aways. The best Live Your Truth secrets you can apply to your own business, your own life.

But it’s hard to find the complete story by searching through the blog archives, a few hundred words at a time.

This eBook contains the entire blog posts and transcripts of the blog videos, organized by topic (with live links back to the posts and other resources). I’m also including action steps where appropriate, so you can implement what you’ve learned to your own business/life (bonus you can’t get just by reading the blog!).

3. Creating Space to Live Your Truth

People have been asking me to teach them about productivity, time management, and self care – all the things you need to do to create the space & support for you to find & live your truth.

I’ve been fighting it for a while (in typical EPW fashion, saying “I’m not a productivity expert!”), but as I sit here in a hospital room, able to stay grounded & handle what’s happening, still writing blog posts and marketing copy, keeping life going even with this current challenge … I realize that I do have a few things to offer about these topics.

—

The LYT Store will contain these new programs as they roll out in pre-sale, and will be the one place to go whenever you want to find any other resources for Living Your Truth.

I’ll be including some special one-time offers with whoever buys these programs on the pre-sale – so signup for the EPW First Dibs list to make sure you don’t miss out!

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