A partner program is an "interconnectedness of ecosystems," says Andrew Christison, vice president of strategic partnerships at Sendlane, an email and SMS marketing automation platform for e-merchants. Andrew has been in the e-commerce and marketing ecosystem for 8 1/2 years, getting started at an email marketing agency. He moved to Sendlane six months ago "to work with kind of the heart and soul of the industry in every phase of the world in which we're kind of seeing the rise of the merchant class." "I believe that the pie can always be bigger. We can all be successful," Andrew says. "I think everybody is going through their own hero's journey in life and especially merchants, founders, marketers, and startups and small organizations…So when I'm thinking about how I'm building an ecosystem or how to grow an ecosystem, or how to be strategic across the board, it always makes sense to lead with generosity in every way, shape, and form." Andrew says the more you know, the more you can advise and help people. In Part 1, Andrew talks about: * Gratitude toward his mother for encouraging him to be a better public speaker. * How communication has become the foundation of his career. * What makes for a good partner. * The context and perspective he has gained from working with businesses that had sound fundamentals but also have pushed their business and industry forward. * Why the pie getting bigger is better for everyone. * How being generous to others builds reciprocity and karma.   Join Ramon Vela and Andrew Christison as they break down the inside story on The Story of a Brand.   For more on Sendlane, visit: https://www.sendlane.com/    Subscribe and Listen to the podcast on all major apps. Simply search for “The Story of a Brand,” or click here to listen on your favorite podcast player: Listen now.   *   This episode is also brought to you by Sendlane.   If all DTC companies were forced to turn off Facebook ads, they'd be dead on arrival. Why is that?   They over-invest in paid acquisition and under-invest in retention.   Luckily, Sendlane makes it easy to solve this problem. Sendlane is an E-Commerce Customer Experience Platform helping hundreds of DTC brands to tighten their existing customer relationships.   Sendlane automates personalized customer experiences through Welcome and Abandoned Cart workflows, SMS, Deep Data Integrations with Shopify and WooCommerce, multi-store functionality, and much more.   Plus, they don't stand for lazy customer support. Their San-Diego-based team has an average 1-minute response time from a live human, making sure you never get stuck in a chat queue ever again.   Curious about how Sendlane can help your DTC brand grow? Schedule a demo with a Specialist. Visit https://www.sendlane.com/story