Inspire Entrepreneur Academy Reports & Reviews

Inspire Entrepreneur Academy Reports & Reviews (8)

Worst experience I”ve ever had (not exaggerating)

I’m going to be very blunt, Jessie is a very untrusted CEO. She takes advantage of minorities, lies about pay, never takes accountability, and gaslights the he’ll outta you.
Starting off, if you read any good reviews on this, I promise you she or her partner wrote it there self. I wish i was kidding. Everyone else wrote about how it was a scam which is very true but Jessie herself is one of the worst people Ive ever met.

She is a very nice person but is so passive aggressive. If you do her wrong, that niceness goes away very quickly. Whoever hired her as the CEO must have been on something.
She did not pay people, I literally had to beg to get my paycheck. People who quit never even got paid. She also DID NOT collect identification from people and many were immigrants. She also got mad if we talked about our paycheck to each other which contradicts our rights as employees. She was very secretive when it came to money because she didn’t pay everyone who worked there.

She was very very inconsiderate of peoples culture. She straight up made everyone come into Juneteenth and said that she doesn’t care if that offended anyone. When we were recording a video, she made someone wear a wig rather than her natural hair because “it looks more beautiful”.

She lies A LOT. She is very untrustworthy.

She made us keep secrets about what we did to other similar organizations because if they found out, Jessie would get in trouble.
I am very embarrassed for working there and I can’t believe I lasted as long as I did.

PS

her whole personality trait is that she’s a refugee from a boat when she was 7. She uses that as an excuse for absolutely everything but now she takes advantage of people. Very very disappointing.

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I have worked at Inspire as a paid intern and I just have to share my experience. Based on these reviews, I almost did not proceed to accept my offer. However, I said whats the worst that could happen? I go- I hate it- I quit... I did just that... and boy am i GLAD I didnt listen to all of these reviews. 1st of all, Mariam and Jessi are absolutely AMAZING! i have never ever ever met individuals more inspiring than them. One is a lawyer with 3 law degrees that worked for the department of labor, the other a trail blazer that is setting the world on fire! I am a political science major from Miami University. Meaning I moved from Miami to work with the team. I was very very nervous about coming to DC but figured if it didnt work out, It wouldnt be the end of the world to spend my summer here.

Since I arrive, the team has been nothing but kind to me. They are funny, raw, and genuine. Soo far, everything has been as they described to me on my second round interview and during my orientation. In the mornings we go and meet at the office, then we go to the field, then we come back to the office. Soo far my duties have included basic fundraising ( which they explain at nauseam, during my interview), event management- I helped with two benefit concerts soo far. Currently working on a silent auction, and a gala. I am doing a hybrid of inhouse and remote position. i live more than 1hr away and Jessi changed the program for me.

The team is Amazing! I have worked with Ant, lauryn, zad, mariam, josh, and soo many other amazing people, i cant even begin to describe how fun the environment is. I have never been in a job that I actually look forward to going to. This job is that for me. The culture is business professional, soo do expect to buy business attire. I think thats the only downfall if I had to say something, I hate wearing suits, but understand thats the office dress code. It also gets super hot during the summer when you have to do events outside, but it comes with the territory.

My experience soo far with pay is exactly as described in second round and during my orientation. Jessi also went above and beyond and explained it again to everyone whom started with me on our first day. She told us that she wanted to make sure that everyone understood exactly what is expected. I saw some kid after his day on the filed accuse her of being in a multi level marketing and I almost spit out my water when Jessi patiently looked at him and said.. soo in your perspective, the new guys dont make money right? he said yes, only you guys as managers make money. She looked at him, if no one makes money for the clients.. and you do not bring any money to the team, how on earth do you think our office gets paid? I wanted to laugh soo hard! guys if you guys dont make money - then the client doesnt make money- if the client doesnt make money- then the business doesnt get paid by the client... point, period, blank. Its such common sense that I was shocked by how there could be a misunderstanding on this topic. Now if you are not good, it makes sense. Yet this guys was the first day on the field. It was my first day on the field too, but I made 80 bucks, nothing to brag about but I didnt go home empty handed, the difference was that i just kept trying and I had fun with the people whom I interacted with. I have received my checks as promised. My first paycheck was trash, because I was not great on my first two weeks. However my last paycheck was $1925.57 the most I have ever made in a week, I was also asked to speak 3 times on a national call for the company which was very cool. I have been able to save 6k since starting, not tons, but for me its alot. We also go out to restaurants about 3-4 times a week with the guys, soo im sure lots of my money was spent there.

I dont know if this will help anyone. I just wanted to give you guys my experience because i almost didnt come to this internship based on these reviews. Soo far its been a really good experience and im glad I followed my gut and trusted what I heard during my interview process.

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Initial means of contact Not applicable

I am going to try to put into words my experience with Inspire. I worked there a total of 6 months before having to relocate back home to New York City after my mom passed away from a heart attack. I was in Jessi's team when she first opened her office. I saw her go from the field as a regular rep to actually running a campaign like she said she would. This company take leadership to another whole degree. They push you to be the best version of you, and I saw some people succeed and others not soo much. I got to the second stage of the training program. Where they teach you how to train and also like many of the reviews say conduct interviews. I think from an outside perspective, I can see how some people may think that “its reading from a pitch” when really is inexperience, nervous, and young professionals like me when I first started learning how to conduct an interview for the first time or even the 20th time(without exaggeration-- I was pretty bad at interviewing others, soo bad that one time I got stuck and Jessie noticing that I had completely blanked came in and finished the interview for me-- after the interview was over she just started laughing, and I started laughing, and we laughed non-stop for like 3 minutes like two [censored]. She made a situation that made me feel completely embarrassed and almost in tears into something that just happened and that we can laugh about…the next day, she announced she was running a workshop on the mentality of interviewing. The office didn't know, I always knew it was her trying to indirectly help me). Inspire hires people from all walks of life. Sometimes good sometimes bad depending on on how you look at things. They are diverse and extremely inclusive. Im from Cameroon myself and English, like the owner is not my first language. While I was there I saw Jessie hire a person from China, with very little English speaking skills when I and other members of the office questioned why she did that, she told us that "someone need to give her an opportunity". Nothing is ever promised in the Job. She told me that if I worked hard, I would succeed. If I didn't either I would quit or she would help me find another job. The expectation are set pretty clear. You must get good or move on. I personally say Jessie work with 3 clients. Heifer international, Children International, and Nature conservancy. All real and pretty big clients. We even went to visit the headquarters of nature conservancy in Arlington. If I had to make a complaint I would say the hours was a hard adjustment for me, because coming from school it was hard to adjust to a full schedule. they do go over the hours but when you are in it.. you go spend time with colleagues, attend team nights, go to events together and next thing you know its late. Nothing is mandatory but if you are close to the manager and co-workers, its normal for the company to hang out outside the office. I had a good time while working there. Jessie is always super energetic and very honest with her opinions. that can turn some people on or off. I never really minded because I appreciate the feedback. I was never asked to pay anything on this company. I was not asked to recruit my friends and family. I did not see any changes with company name nor anything like that. the ceo owns another company which she talks about, but she keeps that very separately. I once asked her to show me her other office and she took me to a building in Arlington by the airport. she surprised her staff and it was cool to see how different that was. Inspire requires all of us to wear business professional attire, when I visited her other space people where wearing jeans.. when I asked her why we don't hang out with her other office, she said she liked to keep things separate. I read one of the reviews that she promised to introduce people to celebrities or something like this.. I Never heard her say that to me nor anyone in the office... The office does tons of development stuff. like they encourage people to go out of their way to network, talk to different managers and go visit other offices. to me that was the most annoying thing because I didn't know how to do it... what do you ask a person whom is doing a call for you from the Uk. I just wanted to ask them questions about London... not the business. Jessi once had me talk to the person whom trained her I think his name is Josh. he was nice and took the time to get on a call with me although in Europe it was very very late. he talked to me about how to coach negative people. The first thing he said to me was, you don't. He was funny and that conversation actually helped be. Pay was exactly how they expained it to me on my second round interview. you get base that's guaranteed+commission. the biggest paycheck I had while working there was 1350 in one week. the lowest I had working there was 465 in one week. I saw people make way more than that. I also saw people suck [censored]. I also saw people get topped off which to this day I don't understand. once jessie topped me off 15 dollars just because she said she knew I was working hard. which is not much. but I also saw people get topped off 100-200 who I know sucked [censored] but im not sure why. I think if jessi saw people work hard and not have a good week she would help them out. which was a bit annoying because I felt that if I was doing good and also working hard, she should have topped me off instead of the person who wasn't doing a great job. Jessie likes hyper music. every morning when we walk in the door. music was on and that's how it was every time she was in the office. if are like me and you don't like that kind of atmospher , at first its going to be weird. After a while tho.. you start singing along to it and you don't hate it as much. also the morning.. god the mornings... they are always soo happy and hyper. I have never been part of a team that people where walking in already hype and pump for the day at 930 in the AM. I am not a morning person...but everyone here apparently was. after my 2nd month in... I started to get use to all the excitement elbow and fist bumps.im still not a morning person. the mornings are a mixture of pitch practicing, theories, announcements, morning meetings, sometimes some games. after they go the events. before the pandemic hit and I left. I did some random events. conference for special olympics where all we did all day was open door for people going in and out of a room where special olympic speakers where at... other time I went to a big festival. when we worked for Nature Conservancy they help events inside the pentagon mall. in fact I was in the mall when we got the call that everything was being shut down because of Corona. we spent the next to weeks participating on conferences via zoom lead by different managers around the globe. I'm not going to like, at first I didn't know if to believe when they said we where a global firm. but when you hear people like Boyd Parker who is in Ireland, or some random guy speaking from Australia. it really opened my eyes. after two weeks Jessie explained that all the face to face marketing had been shut down but that we where starting on two government campaigns. 1/2 the team did a campaign working with 311 operators the other 1/2 went to a campaign where they partner up with sprint and gave out free phones to people whom needed it. we went to shelters, food backs, and low income communities and gave out free phones. it wasn't glamorous but it paid the bills and she made us feel like we where making a difference. the other campaigns we did involved talking to people. getting them excited about making donations. I never did any of the telecoms stuff but I did see Johnny another manager who was also in our building and graduated with jessie do xfinity and Verizon. jessi always explained that telecoms was base on 100% sales but non profits not so much because a product is not actually sold. I as a person whom was interviewed and also as a person who at some point was doing the interviews feel that they taught is to be very very transparent about the whole ordeal. but sometimes people want to hear what they want to hear. I personally would get frustrated when I would explain things to people I interviewed and at the end they wouldn't get it or understand what I was doing. I worked Rebecca, Chris, Amanda, Anthony, and Darrant. they where the core people teaching me how to interview and one of the things they would drill me on was to make sure that while I was explaining numbers/opportunity/job to just be factual and never embellish. The things that people say about having 100 people in a zoom call is absolutely true. which is why all calls are muted and jessi talks about what she is looking for. the managers do one one one with as many people as the can. there's no way jessie or me or any of us could have spoken to 100+ people ourselves. so they do a huge group one and then one on one. if this gets people upset it is what it is. before corona I got to travel to Miami, NYC, Atlanta, Tampa,New Orleans and Puerto Rico. I never paid for room, board, or flights. I did pay for gas on trips that we took another leaders car- like our trip to NYC where we all payed for gas and split it between 4 people. overall I made friends, learned some pretty tough lessons about myself and also learn what it takes to run an office. I saw the good the bad and the ugly... its a place where I was expected to work hard and try my best every day. My mom passed away from a heart attack and I was left to help my dad and my 11 year old sister. I think I would have still been there if that had not happened.. The team collected money, sent my family flowers and jessie went to the funeral which I thought was above and beyond. she also still till this day checks in on my, or sends me memes via WhatsApp. I hope this helps. take everything with a grain of salt. I wanted to share my experience, you do with that what you guys want.

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Scammer's phone +12402849257
Scammer's website www.goinspirechange.com
Scammer's address Hyattsville, MD
Scammer's email [email protected]
Country United States
Type of a scam Employment
Initial means of contact Email

I received an email message and a text message about this company receiving my application and that this was their second attempt to contact me. Enough red flags to power the road construction that's always happening in Pennsylvania from the DC area on the way to New York. First off, I never applied to their company and second, I never got an email or text from them before. Plus, I would never apply to a job ad whose office is in Hyattsville, MD. I'm organised enough about my application process so I was pretty confident this wasn't kosher. There was a typo in their text message so I checked online to see their website, which was not impressive, and their links to Instagram and LinkedIn were also accounts with sparse, outdated and misspelt info. Also searched to find out if there were scam reports. So someone is trolling Indeed and considering that my resume is not publicly searchable, and I'm only looking for jobs in DC or NoVa, they've probably got an active fake job posting that has nothing to do with their company. Lesson learnt: verify all companies are legit and no shell companies before sending in my resume with my details. It's a good thing it's only got my phone and email, no physical address or else they'd probably sell that to mass marketing companies. I'll expect a slew of scam emails and text messages now. SMH.

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Scammer's phone (202) 701 1545, (240) 284 9257, (347)280 7761
Scammer's website goinspirechange.com
Scammer's address 8201 Corporate Drive, Suite 250, Hyattsville, MD, 20785
Scammer's email [email protected], [email protected]
Country United States
Type of a scam Employment
Initial means of contact Email

All of the above accounts are accurate. My experience was exactly the same. I was the sucker who made it all the way to the office in Hyattsville, MD. When I showed up for my "one on one" interview I was invited to by "Emma" from Inspire HR, there were about 10 other people waiting outside. As we all stood outside, each of us received a text reminder about a zoom interview, which was confusing and unprofessional as the email clearly stated it was an in person individual interview. Finally, 5 minutes after we were supposed to begin our interviews, we were finally let into the locked building and led upstairs. In the office, there is signage for many of the companies and non profits Jessi name dropped in the initial Zoom call, such as Heifer International. Rebecca, who was sitting at reception had us all fill out info sheets and rushed us through them. She made loud fake conversation with the entire group, and kept commenting if any of us were too quiet. Jessi came out with a clipboard and read off our names to see who were were and was consistently followed around by extremely young looking college kids wearing suits a touch too large. After this, Rebecca had each of us sit down with an interviewer, either alone or with one more candidate. The interviewer then took us through a sales pitch as if we were a potential client. They asked us to keep track of how much money the company could make for us, and even had some people take out their phone to keep track of all the math. The pitch is biased and bogged down in numbers in a way that makes you feel overwhelmed by information. During this time, they also continue to encourage you to keep notes, as you will be asked about these facts later. The job is 100% a scam, and not as described in the first interview or initial emails. The job is direct marketing, aka standing outside the grocery store harassing people about their cell phone or internet provider. The hours you are expected to work are 930am-7pm, Monday through Saturday for $30 a day! This is all based on the promise you will eventually be promoted to the next level, and the next and then the level of "senior executive." It is a classic pyramid scheme, build on lies and false promises of promotion. The ultimate promise is becoming a senior executive who makes $140,000-200,000 yearly, and can chose whatever international location they want to work in, as well as their preferred charity. Furthermore, employees are encouraged to come in early and stay late to study. A girl sitting in the lobby told me she was encouraged to come in early (as it was about an hour before the office officially opened) if she ever wanted to move up. Everyone there seems like they are either a poor impressionable soul being taken for a ride, or an evil plotting participant in this garbage marketing scam. Even though I went running from the building in the middle of the interview because my alarm bells were ringing, they consistently tried to contact me for days afterwards from multiple different numbers and emails to give me "interview feedback." One would think my interview feedback to them is that I left in the middle of the interview, but go off Inspire. Jessi you should be deeply ashamed of yourself. You are preying on young vulnerable people seeking employment by offering them a predatory and inaccurate job. Clearly you have no real skills besides scamming other people. Also, run a quick spell check on your LinkedIn Jessi. Next time I'll do more research, because the more you look, the more red flags you find!

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Scammer's phone (202) 701-1545
Scammer's website goinspirechange.com
Scammer's address 8201 Corporate Drive, Suite 250, Hyattsville, MD, 20785
Scammer's email [email protected]
Country United States
Type of a scam Employment
Initial means of contact Email

I was contacted by this company by the CEO, Jessi (whose information outside of exactly one article is hard to track down) and was told that this would be a position in marketing. I was then hired by 'Emma,' who I have never seen.

One of the early tip offs that this was essentially slave labor was that I arrived early for my first day and there were a dozen people in the lobby waiting to be interviewed. Funny, considering that I was told that I was a lucky person to have been selected.

Jessi makes this seem like a marketing job or training. It is not. It is a sales position. My time there consisted of memorizing a pitch for a charity (that I later learned was not a good charity), and being a charity mugger, i.e. that person outside a walmart with a clipboard trying to get you to sign up for something using annoying tactics. I was guaged on how effective I was at getting people to give me their time and for sign ups.

I had a panic attack on my third day before I quit. This is not a friendly place for the neurodivergent or mentally ill.

Furthermore, the website for Inspire does not contain any testimonials, nor does it link to Jessi's other business, Cuba Inspires. Jessi's LinkedIn is threadbare, despite being a CEO of at least 2 companies. The page for Inspire is equally threadbare.

I wasn't even paid for my short time there.

This 'company' is scummy as all get out. Don't even waste your time here.

I'd give document screenshots if I wasn't so afraid of legal action being taken against me.

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+11

This "company" is a total scam, and their "CEO" Jessi Calzado-Esponda is a total scammer. DO NOT BE FOOLED!

My experience was identical to the person who posted above - right down to "Emma" scheduling my Zoom interview (Emma does not exist - all initial emails from Inspire Entrepreneur Academy and Go Inspire Change are automated).

Like the last poster, I attended a "screening" session on Zoom with Jessi. When I logged on, I was in a Zoom meeting with dozens of other people. You are muted so you cannot ask any questions. Jessi went on and on and on speaking so fast it's almost impossible to keep up.

Jessi rattled off about a dozen nonprofit businesses in rapid fire - names people will recognize like the Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, Special Olympics, etc. Okay, fine - a lot of nonprofit businesses hire outside firms to help with fundraising. But then Jessi said that Inspire was responsible for handling 75% OF ALL DONATIONS FOR NONPROFIT BUSINESSES IN NORTH AMERICA. (lmao!) Let's just say that if that was true you wouldn't be doing a Google search that led you to this page and reading this post in the first place.

Jessi also said that Inspire works with "telecom" companies including AT&T, Verizon, Xfinity, Sprint, Spectrum, etc. (Again, sounds impressive, but pretty sure Inspire sells cable packages and phones. You won't be working on any national ad campaigns here.)

10 minutes into the Zoom "interview," Jessi said that they had selected 10 candidates from this batch who would be proceeding to do one-on-one interviews, and sadly everyone else would be booted off of the Zoom, but to keep on the lookout for a call that might come later from a member of her team. Keep in mind up until this point Jessi had done ALL the talking - no one was able to share their experience, background, etc. I can only assume that this is like the old days when carneys used to find a "mark" (sucker) to dupe. Everyone on the Zoom who looked respectable/like they might have suspicions was given the boot.

Gotta say I felt sad scrolling through all of the people on the Zoom, many of which came dressed to impress in suits and were eager to jump at an opportunity that is billed as a marketing job, but is in reality sales.

Nothing wrong with sales, but Inspire doesn't make that clear upfront. All their jobs are listed as "Marketing Coordinator," "Event Manager," etc. Jessi can use whatever titles they want, but people they are recruiting should know upfront that they are looking for retail salespeople.

Finally, Jessi attempted to dazzle everyone by saying she was "looking for managers" and the people on the Zoom were there because we showed promise. Pretty sure that after a lengthy interview process, NO ONE is offered a job that "manages" anyone - you'll likely be one of those people working in a big box store (Walmart, Costco, etc.) who waves down shoppers and asks them if they want to change their cell phone carrier, or those "charity chuggers" on the sidewalk stopping people and asking if they would like to donate to a charity.

Again, nothing wrong with an honest day's work, but Inspire Entrepreneur Academy, Go Inspire Change, and Jessi Calzado-Esponda are anything but honest.

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+11

- Rockville, MD, USA

Scammer's phone (202) 701-1545
Scammer's website www.goinspirechange.com
Scammer's address 8201 Corporate Drive Suite 250 Hyattsville , N Englewood, MD 20785, USA
Scammer's email [email protected]
Country United States
Victim Location MD 20850, USA
Type of a scam Employment

This company first contacted me via phone and told me that they saw my application (I never applied to a company with that name) and would like me to interview. At first, I thought they were another company I had applied to (and they might have been, under another name), as they mentioned their location being in Northern Virginia, where I had largely been applying to data entry jobs. On the phone call, they mentioned data entry and I thought that was what it was about. I received an email inviting me to a zoom interview, which was followed up by a second pre-interview email reminder. The first email included info about how the interview would supposedly go, saying "During the interview, we will discuss your past work experiences, your career goals and career opportunities with one of our hiring managers." This never happened, as I will explain momentarily. The second email said "Please log on using the Link listed below. Once you've logged into the call, please put your microphone on mute until our Hiring Manager has began the meeting!" We couldn't unmute it ourselves--she muted it on her end and it was stuck like that. During the "interview" call, there were over 100 of us on the Zoom call, and they person we saw basically pitched the company to us in a sales pitch and told us to write notes because we would need it if we had a follow-up interview (which is one on one at a location nearest to us, a half hour before the business actually opens, which I find extremely odd). During the meeting, they told us that the job was marketing and then mentioned the parent company (Cuba Inspires), and used name-dropping to make it sound better than I suspect it is. The person told us that the owner works with clients like The Kardashians to help them obtain travel to Cuba and said that we would potentially meet with celebs and other VIPs like that (this was a big red flag to me). The interviewer stated that the company got started in the UK about 10 yrs ago, but that the US office started in 2020 (LinkedIn claims 2019). She also said that there are offices in Australia, Colombia, Canada, UK, ect, but I found no evidence of this whatsoever. At the end of the call, she told us to expect a follow-up email regarding a second interview, saying that we needed to respond between 3pm and 6pm to secure a spot for the interview. No questions were allowed during the first interview and they never respond to emails regarding questions asked.

I strongly suspect this company runs under multiple names and uses the same sketchy hiring practices elsewhere, under other identities. I had also noted this of interest:

I searched for this company through OSINT databases and Google and found very little information. The website (http://www.goinspirechange.com) looks extremely fake, like a stock website. The address (8201 Corporate Drive, Suite 250, Hyattsville, MD, 20785) is questionable, as there are reportedly a number of other companies in the same building.

According to scam advisers, the company website is hiding their domain info. It describes the owner as being a Silicon valley startup called "Loop, Inc." (aka Loop Now Technologies, Inc), and their website also doesn't exist. They have what appears to be a few fake reviews on Google (the only ones with commentary are negative), and the website Google links to is also fake. The 4 employees listed on LinkedIn for IEA have no background in media relations. All of the emails were signed with "Emma" (which I found on another website talking about a similar scam, same HR name), but none of the LinkedIn employees are named Emma. Clicking 'apply' on any of the posts listed at http://www.goinspirechange.com/opportunities/# goes nowhere. The section called "You Will Be In Charge Of" on LinkedIn doesn't seem to change much, and all of the qualifications are the same no matter what the job is--I find this very suspicious. The parent company for those two companies is "Cuba Inspires."

Cuba Inspires' website also does not exist

Its pinterest has 5 posts, none of which actually belong to the company

Its twitter hasn't been active since 2017 and has almost no postings

Its Facebook is a page that Facebook created, not the company's.

I am hoping I am wrong about this company but unfortunately, I don't think I am. I think they've avoided detection until now through a combo of non-disparage agreements (which are unethical but not illegal) and changing their name frequently. They may also be a company called the Young Entrepreneurs Academy. I didn't give them any personal information or money, but I'm concerned that others may have.

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+17

Inspire Entrepreneur Academy Contacts

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Address:

8201 Corporate Dr # 250 Landover, MD 20785, USA

Phone:

+1 (120) 234-5678

+1 (202) 701-1545

+1 (240) 226-6674

Website:

www.goinspirechange.com

E-mails:

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