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Stephanie Liu
Hey! What's up, you guys? It's Stephanie Liu and welcome to a new episode of Lights Camera Live. Yes. All right, you guys! I've got an amazing show for you today. Today, we're going to talk about why, how, and what you should do to go ahead and start your digital branding audit. There's no other person that I'd love to have on the show - the amazing and wonderful - Juntae Delane. You, guys! He's absolutely amazing. You're gonna want to be here. So, come hang out. Let me know where you're tuning in from because, you guys, I'm here in the beautiful sunny San Diego. Juntae you are in? Where are you?

Juntae Delane I’m in LA.

Stephanie Liu
You are? Yeah, okay, so we're in sunny LA.

Juntae Delane Yeah, yeah.

Stephanie Liu
Love it. Love it. Love it. All right, you guys. So, today, we're talking about digital branding audit and why it's important for you and your business - even your personal brand. Let's face it. It's 2020. It's time for you to go ahead and step up your game. The best way to do that is to know what people are saying about you online and where you actually even show up online. If I type in your name what pops up? You might be terrified. So having said that, Juntae Delane - he is one of the most memorable speakers that I have ever met. I was telling you about this because you and I did our own interview. I had seen you speak at Social Fresh, like years, years years ago - back when they used to be on the West Coast. You guys had this amazing presentation. It was like the dating funnel, right? It was like how you met your life. You know, how you remarketed with her with dating, then how it led to the conversion of marriage, and then you started your own brand ambassador program - you having your own kids and like, this guy's amazing!

Juntae Delane You know, it's funny, because I delivered so many presentations. Kind of hard to keep up with them all. Ultimately, you know, Social Fresh was an awesome event. I love speaking. I love seeing you speak as well. And, I see that you've been doing your thing. So shout out to you, too.

Stephanie Liu
Yeah, we crossed paths at Social Video And Live Streaming Summit. You guys! It was so crazy! I was doing a demo for Ecamm and for StreamYard at the event and I saw him walking by and I was like, you and I need to talk because we haven't seen each other like forever! But, it's been amazing. So, if you guys are tuning in, let me tell you a little bit about Juntae. He is the founder of the Digital Branding Institute. He's also the Senior Digital Brand Manager for the University of Southern California. Whaaaat? No wonder you're in LA. He's also the Principal Consultant at Digital Delane. That's definitely something that you're going to want to remember, because he does a lot of amazing talks - everything about digital branding. So, you definitely want to go ahead and stay here for that. So again, if you're just tuning in, let us know where you're watching from. Let's get this started. All right, Juntae, let's talk about well… What is a Digital Branding Audit?

Juntae Delane Well, essentially a digital branding audit is where you audit each and every one of the digital touchpoints that represent your brand. So when focusing on an audit, there's a couple of things that you want to consider. You obviously want to consider where your content is housed, who's actually engaging with your content, and of course, what type of campaigns you have running - whether that's digital ads, SEO, so on and so forth. What I normally like to tell people when they ask me, what digital branding is, I say essentially, digital branding focuses on three tenets. That is, your IDENTITY, your VISIBILITY and your CREDIBILITY. So when you focus on what you would consider as my IDENTITY, obviously, you have the content that you're creating - whether it be live streams, blog posts, or infographics - whatever the case may be. You also have your overall brand voice, right? And, how you are expressing the value that you're giving to your target audience. Then, for your VISIBILITY, of course, your digital ads, SEO, so on and so forth. For your CREDIBILITY, your ratings, reviews, and what people are saying about you - whether it be on ratings or review sites, or the dark web or so on and so forth. So, those essentially are the three tenets, and I think it's very important that if you represent a brand, if you are a brand, and so on... audit your digital brand, because you'll be able to see where you can increase your conversions. Stephanie Liu
I like that. See, I told you guys this was gonna be good. Shout out to Eddie Garrison, who is tuning in Mike Allton and Mandy Jo Rich, who's tuning in from Michigan. Ah, so wonderful to have you guys here! So today, we're talking about digital branding audits. We've just talked about the three tenets if you're keeping notes. Now let's talk about how often do you actually do a digital branding audit for your clients or even just yourself?

Juntae Delane So, I essentially think now is the perfect time, right? We're starting the New Year. You know, you can make that a part of your resolution - for you to do some spring cleaning on your brand, right? And so, that audit would consist of you really taking a look at, if there's any old content that's out there that needs to be updated if you have -

Stephanie Liu
That's so good. I was like, why didn’t you write that down? Go ahead. Go ahead.

Juntae Delane Any old content that's out there - if things need to have a refresh, right? If you're doing some specific tactics, or your brand is, you know - Let's say I give an example of fashion, right? So you know that during different seasons, there's certain fashion trends, right? So if your brand is like that old Hawaiian shirt… Unless you're at a loo, don’t get me wrong... But you know, it's that old Hawaiian shirt where you know you're using some of the old trends and tactics. First, the content, the graphics and the visuals that you're using, you may want to update those. If you're working with a partner influencer, who's communicating older, outdated content - you’ll be able to pick up all those types of things with your digital brand audit.

Stephanie Liu
Okay, so the reason why I was like, Oh, that's so good is because as a live stream, where I talk about all the different tools and the technology behind it. But, it's always changing, right? There's certain content that I get organic traffic from just from Google - just because people are always searching for in house, they go, Yeah, I know. I’ve gotta update that. Over the holidays, I got an email from a couple of my brand affiliates, and they're like, hey, we've moved over our affiliate ambassador program to another one. So, that means I need to go and update the links and all of that stuff. And, you just gave me a whole list of things to do!

Juntae Delane That’s awesome. And I think, too, when it comes to your content, a lot of my clients would focus on amplifying content that's accessible to them, right? But what really is success? Is it the number of eyeballs that have consumed that content? Or is it the actual conversions, right? And so, just because you have a piece of content that may have a great deal of views or streams, it may not be converting as well as - let's say other lower consumed pieces of content. So we're focusing on the content that's actually converting versus the content that's actually being most viewed. I think, it is the key when auditing your digital brand as well.

Stephanie Liu
Okay, I love this. Juntae! This is like the second day of the New Year, and I'm like, so pumped! Okay, so you talk a lot about when you're looking at content, giving it, like a brand refresh, but also focusing on the conversions piece of it. Let's talk a little bit about how you actually measure the conversions. I feel like some people are just pushing out content because that was like the first hurdle that they had to do. Now, we're saying: be much more strategic about it by knowing what's actually converting.

Juntae Delane Yes. So, you know, a lot of times to your point, people - you know, brand managers solopreneurs - remember that whoever we're speaking of, they create content for content’s sake, right? So, they get stuck on that hamster wheel - so to speak - where they're just continue to crank out content and trying to keep up with the Joneses. Right? So, really, for me, what that means is you're creating more content and not effective content. Possibly, if you go back into the archives, you can repurpose some older content, and then amplify that. In the New Year, it's all about amplification of content, and not necessarily creating more content, right? And so, I may get some kickback from some people but here's why I say that: It's because I think consumers are suffering from content overload, right? So as long as we're providing valuable content, that's the first box to check. Obviously going back into your archives, and refreshing that content, right, that has converted successfully is the key. So as we start to map out our content calendar, we should start to look more into the archives, and instead of even creating original content off the bat.

Stephanie Liu
Yeah, yeah. Okay. I like, I love this. I don't know if you could feel this, but I'm like, so motivated right now. If you guys, are loving all of the tips right now, go ahead and let us know in the comments, because this is exactly the motivation that I need. I am sitting on a bunch of content, especially live streaming content! Like I said, the tools in the tech have definitely changed over this time period, and it's time to update it as well. So speaking of tools and tech, if you're going to do a digital branding audit for you, your brand, and your company, what tools and resources would you recommend?

Juntae Delane Yeah, so you know, this is this is really where it gets pretty interesting, right? Because at the end of the day, it really involves you sort of rolling up your sleeves and getting in, digging in, and doing the work, right? So what that means for me is you have to identify the tools that you're currently using, and figure out if they're able to assist you in that digital brand audit. So for example, if you're using - A quick free tool would be Google Alerts. Obviously, right? I mean, it’s something that we all know about, but I don't know if we are really fully ready to leverage Google Alerts. I know if you are working with other social media management platforms, things like that. I think even Agorapulse has a great social listening - you could actually use as well. And so, these are the important things: Focusing on the current tools that you have, and then rolling up your sleeves. Then really, there's no one tool though that would be able to do a complete digital brand. So you have to piece some things together, based on your current resources. If, for example, you want to start from scratch, what I would recommend is getting a screenshot of where your digital brand lives, the most important places, digital touch points, and so on. So that could be a screenshot of your website’s specific landing pages or squeeze pages, so on and so forth. And, as you continue to do your audit year over year, you can go back and look at the transition that your current brand has from where it's been...

Stephanie Liu
Yeah, kind of like a time lapse of your branding or even your website.

Juntae Delane Sometimes, it actually takes you seeing all of these digital touchpoints spread out over your screen or two screens - if you have them. So, you can see the consistency there, right? Oftentimes, we sort of post things and we don't really look at the end result because again, we're so used to creating content. So, I think, sometimes, doing a digital brand audit would help you step back, and get a bird's eye view of exactly how your digital brand looks with regard to all of the touchpoints that contain your brand.And so, that's what I would recommend, ultimately, when you consider doing a digital brand audit.

Stephanie Liu
I love that because I feel like most people… I work with a lot of clients and agencies, and we all know that every now and then, there's always going to be a new agency that comes in. Because of that, a client might not know about the different squeeze pages or the different lead magnets that are floating around there. So to have that, like you said, in a bird's eye view, that's so helpful. As far as tools go, it’s more like you're taking a screenshot of every single one of those digital assets? Or can I create like a Pinterest board? I'm such a girly girl.

Juntae Delane That's actually an awesome idea! I know it may seem very labor intensive for some people but I think, if you have the bandwidth to assign it to a VA, or any manager or assistant, it certainly is going to be helpful for you. Because, if you want to make sure that you're creating a consistent brand across the board, these are one of the ways that you're able to do it, right? So that would be my recommendation, yeah.

Stephanie Liu
Okay, cool. I love that because even me right now… I was just imagining, where was my old website before? What has changed what hasn't changed? You know, because you don't want to have a website that looks like it's from the 1990s. But, you never know. That's a funny thing. So, in doing a digital branding audit, it makes sense right now because it's a whole new year! People are going to want to do that. But after you do an audit, do you just put it back on the shelf, or how often do you revisit it?

Juntae Delane So I would say, depending upon how large your brand is, you can do it every quarter. That would that would suffice. If not, at least once a year. And, it depends upon the level of depth you want to get into the digital brand audit. It really depends on you and your current bandwidth. But ultimately, it would be something that you should check at least once a year.

Stephanie Liu
Got it. So, you know, I'm so curious. For you guys who are watching: have you actually ever done a digital branding audit for you yourself? You know, like for your own company. If you have, let us know. I'm so curious to hear what tools that you're using, because so far we've only talked about using Agorapulse to monitor the conversations - all of that stuff. We've talked about using screenshots or even just like a Pinterest board just to have like that bird's eye view. I think, for me, whenever I would do an audit for a client as well, I guess I'm pretty manual. You know, I would just go behind the scenes. I would say, let's take a look at your Facebook settings. Do you have old admins, old interns that need to be removed from that? Is there popular content that was performing so well that you did as a famous Facebook post that maybe you could even repurpose into a blog post, or take that blog post and turn it into a viral PDF on LinkedIn? We know that - like LinkedIn is becoming like this other huge social media asset that people love.

Juntae Delane Yeah. And I think so too. To add on to that, you also get the chance to really see how your target audience is actually converting - the process that they actually take from clicking on a social media ad to going to your landing page or squeeze page, then going to check out and seeing what email they're actually getting. Oftentimes, we're creating the piece of our funnel at separate times. We're in different mindsets, as we create. So sometimes, there could be a slight glitch or disconnect between when that person reaches your brand online all the way until they actually convert. So by you seeing each and every one of those digital touchpoints you could optimize your conversions.

Stephanie Liu
Ah, Got it. Got it got it. Cool. I absolutely love this. And Mike even said: he does audits regularly, and he actually keeps a Google Sheet to try articles that he knows will need to be updated regularly. Again, that's another reason why I have to do that. I need to get a VA because there are so many articles that I have out there - affiliate links, and things that need to be updated. I actually really liked the blog posts that say, here's your 2019 Guide To Live Streaming. And now, let's make a new lead for 2020. So, that's cool. So Mandy just jumped in and she said, I went in and made sure that all of my social media had the same graphics. She did it manually as well, but she does have two screens, to help speed up that process. So you guys! You guys are amazing. You're like on top of your stuff and I’m super excited about that. What would you say to a client, Juntae, who doesn't have time to do a digital branding audit right now? What would you say?

Juntae Delane Well, I would say that you should certainly make time - whether it's right now or putting something on your calendar. Because, most of us, if it's not on the calendar, it probably won't get done. So just taking that step and putting it on the calendar is first and foremost needed. And then, really understanding how important it is to audit your brand. Because for one, you're able to increase conversions based on the things that you notice - from the different touchpoints that are displayed. And then, you would also be able to see what's really working, right? What I mean by that is if you look at the data that comes from that audit you know who's actually consuming the content, what questions they're asking, so on and so forth, right? Even the last question that Mike had mentioned about him using a spreadsheet for all of his blog posts, and so on - that's a piece of content that can be created just off of that comment, right? And there's so many different things that we can derive from this audit that will help you create content that resonates with your audience, because it's specifically questions that they're asking, right? So that's, that's naturally going to help. So for anyone that has reservations around performing an audit, take a look at how you could be increasing conversions or resonating more with your target audience. And if you have that question in your head, then that should hopefully push you to do a digital branding on it.

Stephanie Liu
Yeah, there's nothing like… I was reading one of your blog posts about this particular topic. And one of the things that you wrote was, everything can be found on the internet. But it's not like you actually know everything that's on the internet, and usually you wouldn't care. But, when it's about you and your brand, then you definitely want to know, because you definitely want to find if there's reviews that are out there. So, if you guys are just tuning in, we're talking about the importance of doing a digital branding audit, what tools you could actually use, what questions and what type of content you could repurpose from that. Mandy has jumped in and she says that if it's not on the calendar, it's going to get missed. And I have to tell you - you and I, we've been doing social media for so long. It's kind of like, it's like a rhythm for us. We know New Year's coming up, you got to do your strategy before you do your strategy. Let's go ahead and take an audit of what actually worked in the past and what didn’t. That way, we could go ahead and reallocate our resources to things that actually matter, things that are actually going to convert. Totally, I absolutely love this conversation.

Juntae Delane Yeah, yeah, for sure.

Stephanie Liu
Now, What happens if a brand doesn't do a digital branding audit? What are some of the consequences that they could possibly face?

Juntae Delane Well, it's a multi-pronged approach there. If you don't, you can’t see how it's connecting with your target audience. By not performing a digital brand audit, you're going to miss out on extended reach. As an example, organic reach even with social media content, and so on. So for example, if you have a piece of content on social media, and you find yourself having a brand voice that is maybe too promotional or salesy. Based on the algorithm updates and so on for Facebook and Instagram, you're not going to get as much organic reach even though the organic results are my new, right? Even when you're wanting to do Paid Campaigns as well, the type of language that needs to accompany those paid campaigns would have to be very personal. So, when you look at different engagements that you're having with your audience, when you look at the tone of the content that you're sharing the topics that you're discussing on social media, you want to make sure that that brand voice is very personal, because ultimately, you're going to get an extended organic reach by doing so. So when you win, if you don't do that audit, then you could be missing out on that. There could be some balls dropped based on it. So you want to make sure that you go ahead and do it.

Stephanie Liu
Yeah, I love it. Alright, so we're about nine minutes left cuz I know that you have a hard stop at 2:30 but I wanted to jump in real quick and just say, you know, if you guys are loving this, Juntae does a whole entire presentation on this and we don't have enough time to cover all of that. However, if you do go over to his website, Juntae does actually have a blog post called A Beginner's Guide To Digital Brand Auditing. So everything that he's covered so far, he's kind of like it's been like a 30,000-foot view. But it's all written out here: Top Four Reasons To Conduct A Digital Brand Audit. If you're a social media strategist, this is something that you should bring up to your clients include this as a part of your process, you know, questions to ask before your digital brand audit. And I love this about... See also... And then, Executing The Brand Audit and then the four steps to doing all of that. This was the one that I really: Step One Future-proofing Your Identity… And then, the first one was domain name sounds like… wait a second?!

Juntae Delane Absolutely get those domain names - as much as you can. Even if you have children, I would recommend even registering their domain, registering their names as well, and even securing their social media profiles.

Stephanie Liu
Really, that's interesting. I was like, the first thing that I thought I didn't even think about websites. But, I was, for sure, thinking about email, because I remember when email first came out - God, I’m old. How many other Stephanies are there? Yeah.

Juntae Delane Yeah, so I definitely want to do that, and getting more and more content around digital branding, how to audit your digital brand is on digital branding Institute. And in fact, if you really are interested in digital branding, we actually have a digital branding summit. And essentially, it's where I'm there. All the people that I have had a chance to share the stage with people that I admire, want to collaborate on content with. You're going to be there at the digital branding summit. It's going to be online and absolutely free, right? It's going to be five days of awesomeness and we be called - This is summit of all summits. And the reason why I say that is because oftentimes, you know, you're able to get straight to the point you're able to watch the sessions that you want. We have enhanced content, as well, for those who purchase the all-access pass, but it's completely free, starting January 27. That's a Monday all the way through January 31. And so, it'll be 50 plus speakers.Stephanie is actually playing had to grace us with her presence as well. And you see the link there, and it's going to be awesome. So we have, again, 50 speakers, they are thought-leaders, practitioners, brand leaders, as well as influencers. We're going to talk about ways that you can build a digital brand and increase your influence and visibility and ultimately get more customers, clients and leads. So really, really, really excited. Really, really excited.

Stephanie Liu
Yeah, I'm super pumped. When I was looking at the lineup, I was like, hold up. Wait a second, you got Heidi Cohen up in here. You got Bryan Fanzo, though. You know, these are some really hard-hitters. These are people that people pay big money to go to conferences to see them on stage, and you're getting firsthand what they're thinking in terms of digital branding this month. You don't have to wait a couple months later for another conference. You all know what I'm talking about. Right? You could hear what Mark Schaefer is thinking - Neal Schaffer. They they are not related. But that was funny. You see some very familiar faces here. Rob Balasabas from Thinkific, Jamie Cohen. It's just it's amazing to see this lineup that you have going on. Like he said, it's going to be happening towards the end of the month - and it's all free.

Juntae Delane Yeah, so I highly recommend guys to go on the website and register right after this livestream. It's definitely going to be awesome. And I look forward to seeing you guys there. We have a lot of engagements with the speakers in our Facebook group as well. We do live Q and A's. So, you essentially would be able to have all of your questions answered in front of a panel of experts that can provide so much insight for you. So that's really where our added value comes in, at the digital branding summit. So yeah, I highly recommend you guys do it.

Stephanie Liu
Yes. So you guys! Definitely go ahead and jump on that. Mike already put the link in the comments. So, go ahead and jump onto that. Juntae, I gave you an extra four minutes. I know you had a hard stop, but you know, you gotta drink some water before your next meeting. So, if you want to go ahead and hop off, by all means, yeah.

Juntae Delane Awesome. Thank you so much. Hey, guys. I'll see you guys at the summit.

Stephanie Liu
Cool. Alright. Then, for the rest of the crew, for you guys that are still here. Even though Juntae had to leave early, I wanted to geek out with you because I actually haven't live streamed a lot last month. But I wanted to show you something that I've been geeking out over. I figuredif you're already here, then I might as well show you. So first of all, this is a shout out to Amy Iram, who was all about like, have you been playing around with TikTok, and yada, yada, yada? And I was like, No, I don't have time, blah, blah, blah, holidays, and so on and so forth. But you guys! It's actually really a lot of fun. And so, I want to go ahead. I want to show you this cool new app that I've been doing, or actually been using. I've been playing around with my TikToks because my husband doesn't mind TikToking with me as well. So if you're here, let me go and share my screen with you real quick. Let's see here. Let's go ahead and move to screen number six. There you go. Alright, so you guys are seeing my new phone, and the one app that I've been playing around with kind of related to TikTok, but not really. But, just follow along with me. This new one is called MeiPai. It's probably been around like forever. I don't speak Chinese. I'm Filipino, by the way. It's not something that I had heard about through my circle of friends. It’s actually something that I haven't heard about from other conferences. But let me show you why I actually like this. So, it's kind of like its own short video content platform as well. One of the reasons why I actually really like it is because when I go into the app, you have, like, your camera. Oh, look! You could actually see my office. Yay! There's this thing that they have here. It's like a toolbox, and in this toolbox on the right hand side… Can I point to it? Over there. It's this purple one, and it shows two people dancing. If you click on that, it has all these videos of dances that you could do. For me, I kind of feel like it's like karaoke but the dance version of it. So, if you guys are loving this as much as I am, please say so. So, you go ahead and you click on the video. And they will show you these dances that you can do. What’s really fun about it is that, if you click on “use”, they'll go ahead and download the actual video tutorial. Then, you can just kind of do it at the same time as they're doing it. What's nice about it is that when you actually hit ‘record’... I'm going to turn down the volume on this. mute. Okay, So, what's fun about this is that when you actually hit ‘record’, it's good to go ahead and do the dance movements that are really kind of slow. So, you could do it at the same time that they're doing it. That's kind of fun. My husband and I have been playing around with this. Absolutely love it. But again, you could go ahead and change the settings for when you're watching the video to do the tutorials. Amy, this is totally for you. There's standard, which is going to play the video back. And then, you can follow the steps and they're slow. I personally like very slow, just because I could play it off that I'm like, still looking at the camera and still doing the dances. So Jim - Jim is saying, Oh my goodness. Yes, this is the app that I have been playing around with. Then, I download the video and then I put it over on to TikTok. That's probably where you're going to find some of my ridiculous content. I know we've been talking about digital branding audit and how things need to be aligned. But Juntae and I, we sometimes just want to make fun content. That is just silly, right? Someone is asking what the app is called, and it's called MeiPai. So let me go ahead and exit out real quick. Let's see here. So it's M E I P A I. It's this one on the bottom right hand corner. Okay, so you have these little dancing videos, all these different things that you can do. The first ones that I did for those of you that were even following me on Instagram was this hand one. And it just kind of shows you... Let me play the music. It’s basically just using your hand and it shows you how to do these different dances. So let's say it's downloading again right now. Then, if I wanted to do the video very slow, it's just going to do the countdown. Then from there, it's going to be like that - boom, boom, and then, it speeds it up and then it goes along with the rest of the song. So anyways, I I like it. I'm having fun with it. This is one of the things that I've been playing around with. If you guys have any apps - If you know of any apps that actually do the same things, I would absolutely love to know that, because I'm totally having fun with this. The other things that I love about this is that they have really cool photo templates. So, they have countdown stuff. Just different things that you could put in here. So you guys know that I love to create video or just like using video templates. Huge fan of Wave - huge fan of shakr.com. This is just like another free app that I can use to go ahead and do fun things. Alright, so let me know what you guys think. This is something that I've been playing around with. And yes, of course, if you want to go ahead and find me on TikTok, you absolutely can. I'm actually working on a new video. I'm trying to do this - trying to do a meme, where they talk about what you use for live streaming. So maybe the next livestream, I'll show you the content that I've been creating on TikTok, and then we'll go from there. All right, you guys. It's been at 30 minutes. It's a short show today, but we've got some really cool things going on, because next week, oh my gosh - Next week we are going to have Kelly Noble Mirabella. We're going to be talking about... oops. That song stuck in my head now. Kelly Noble Mirabella is going to be on the show next week at two o'clock Pacific Time to talk about Chat Marketing and everything that's new along with it. I honestly used to use a chatbot, Robosteph, to alert you guys whenever the show was happening, and then all these different announcements came out. And then, I was like, I can't even mess with this because I was doing all this other stuff in different conferences. So it's nice to have like a homegirl come back onto the show to go ahead and talk about Chat Marketing. So, put that in your calendars now because as Mandy said before, if it's not in your calendar, it doesn't get done. So next week, two o'clock pm, we are going to have Kelly Noble Mirabella on the show to talk about Chat Marketing. Cool? And then, I have another person that's coming onto the show, but she needs to confirm. I won't tell you who it is just yet. But, if you are interested in learning how to create headlines that get people to stop, look and listen to what exactly you have to say - Like, let's say you want like sexier blog titles. Let's say you want to have better email open rates, then that's going to be the episode for you. I'm hoping to have her on the show - maybe towards the end of the month. So if anything, go ahead and make sure that you're still following the page - Stephanie, Liu - keep an eye out for the events, and then, we'll go from there. Alright, so you guys, I'll talk to you later. Take care and Happy New Year. Bye, guys!