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[LWN] ☠️ The day I almost died... [True Story]

[LWN] ☠️ The day I almost died... [True Story]

Lunch With Norm's Weekly Newsletter - $500 Giveaway, AI eCommerce Summit, and More!

April 29, 2024 • Estimated Read Time: 13 minutes

☠️ The Day I Almost Died…

When bad luck and breaking my own rules, left me stranded in the ocean…

What you’ll find in this week’s newsletter:

☠️ The Day I Almost Died… [True Story]
🗞️ This Week’s Amazon News & Updates
🎥 Add Captions and Voiceovers In Seconds [Tutorial]
🎙️ What You Missed Last Week
🤖 13 Ways AI Can Accelerate Your Ecommerce Business
💰 Enter Your Best AI Tip to Win $500 [Contest!]

I asked you last week “How much money it took to start your first business” and here are the results!👇

💰 The Day I Almost Died [True Story]

I was at a beautiful beach in Hawaii, called Hapuna Beach.

Every year, you hear of tourists who get swept out to sea here, and drown because of the beaches strong currents.

I was a very strong swimmer, so I wasn’t worried.

It could never happen to me…

I remember looking out towards the waves that were slamming against the jagged lava rocks, saying to my buddy, “I feel sorry for anybody who gets slammed up against those rocks today.”

Anyway, we put on our snorkeling equipment and off we went.

I always go diving in pairs, but this day, I started to get restless.

After an hour, I said to my buddy “I’ve been out here for a while. I'm going to head back.”

But I ran into a problem.

My knee popped. It felt like it was dislocated.

It was so bloody painful, I couldn’t use my leg to kick anymore.

I stayed calm.

The worst thing you can do is panic…

I rolled over on my back and took a second to catch my breath, but the current started to push me further and further out.

I drifted a hundred feet.

I could still see the shore, but it was getting further away.

I went to to re-adjust my flipper on my good leg but as I did that, my flipper fell off!

Now it was bad news.

Waves started crashing over me, I started to bring on water.

I couldn't breathe anymore.

Right when I thought I was taking my last breath of life, I somehow hit this rock that was randomly in the middle of the ocean.

This wasn't a nice, smooth rock either.

This was jagged lava rock that was cutting me open. In Hawaiian it’s known as A'ā.

I grabbed onto it and I tried to pull myself up.

During this time, there were two tourists that instead of helping me, were taking an iPhone video!

They were watching me get slammed against the rock.

I was at least able to catch my breath. I saw another rock I could swim to, not too far away.

I then made it to the second rock.

I was slammed up against this second rock another 25 times but I was close enough to make it back to land.

After making it to land I walked across a hundred yards of lava rock which felt like broken glass.

I was completely exhausted and covered in blood, from head to toe.

I walked by the tourists who did nothing, I gave them an intense stare while I headed to the showers.

A woman tried covering her kids eyes but the kid saw my bloody body and started screaming and ran off!

All this to say, never dive alone.

I literally thought I was going to die this day.

The last thing I thought of before I hit that first rock was, “Yep, this is it. I'm gone and nobody's going to know what happened to me.”

Second, never expect people to help you out.

You're on your own to solve problems.

When times are tough you can only rely on yourself.

Enjoy the rest of the newsletter.

— Norm

Have you been in a life or death situation?

Comment below and tell us your story

🗞️ AMAZON NEWS & UPDATES 🗞️

What’s happening in the world of Amazon today…

🛒 LAST REMINDER - Send in your Prime Day Deals by May 3 2024 and inventory by June 20th! - Read More
🔍 Jeff Bezos and Amazon Execs Used An Encrypted Messaging App to Talk About 'Sensitive Business Matters,' FTC Alleges - Read More
🚀 Amazon Prime deliveries are getting faster than ever - Read More
☠️ Jeff Bezos predicts Amazon's 'inevitable death' - Read More
🧐 'This why I can't find my celtic salt in store????': Viewers are outraged after woman brags about making $20K in profit by reselling salt - Read More

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS THE BEARDED GUY?

Can you find Norm in the picture below? Scroll to the bottom of this newsletter to see the answer!

ADD CAPTIONS AND VOICEOVERS WITH PICTORY AI VIDEO EDITING SOFTWARE

This Tip is Courtesy of Pictory

Captions and voiceovers play a critical role in enhancing the overall quality and engagement of your videos.

With 85% of Facebook videos being viewed with the sound off, captions are essential on social media for ensuring that your video content remains accessible and engaging to a wide audience.

You can enhance the overall quality of your videos, ensuring that they are not only visually appealing but also provide clear and concise information to your viewers.

Captions and voiceovers can help to emphasize key points and ensure that your audience fully understands the message you are trying to convey.

Adding captions and voiceovers to your videos has never been easier or more efficient.

WHAT YOU MISSED LAST WEEK

👇 Highlights from last week’s Lunch With Norm podcast episodes👇

Amazon Strategies for Boosting Traffic and Sales

Watch the full episode here

Main Takeaways:

Embrace Amazon Posts: Focus on incorporating user-generated content such as user photos and videos into Amazon listings. This content builds trust and authenticity, take advantage of Amazon’s own social features, like Amazon Posts and the Inspire feature.
Develop a Robust Social Media Strategy: Create a content calendar to maintain a consistent posting schedule, engage directly with users to build a community, and strategically funnel followers to your Amazon listings.
Leverage Amazon’s Vine Program for Reviews: Utilize the Amazon Vine program to legally and effectively obtain reviews. This program allows you to offer new products to trusted reviewers.

13 Ways AI Can Accelerate Your Ecommerce Business

Watch the full episode here

The 13 Ways Colin Campbell is Currently Using AI:

Customer Service
Virtual CMO
Writing Contracts
Writing Blogs
Editing Your Work
Writing a Business Plan
Lead Generation
Use AI as a Coach
Computations
Knowledge/Research
Write a Press Release
Social Media and Advertisements
Use Apps That Embrace AI

Watch the full episode or read his blog on Forbes → Part I and Part II

The Power of SMS Marketing - Lost Opportunities into Recovered Sales

Watch the full episode here

Main Takeaways:

Immediate Engagement: SMS messages have an extremely high open rate of up to 99% within the first three minutes, making them an excellent tool for immediate engagement with customers.
High Conversion for E-commerce: The conversation rate through SMS for e-commerce, especially for abandoned cart recovery, can be significantly high, with some cases reporting a return on investment of up to 2700%.
Regulatory Compliance: It's crucial to comply with legal requirements such as GDPR in Europe and CCPA in the U.S. when sending SMS messages. This includes obtaining explicit consent through checkboxes during the checkout process or sign-up forms.

THREE UPCOMING PODCASTS

You can watch all episodes on YouTube or on my Facebook page at 12 pm ET on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday!

**Guests and topics are subject to change**

Monday - ALL ABOUT INDIA - Buying or Selling Of Products

Lokesh Parashar - An acclaimed professional in the import export industry
An export import consultant to help Indian entities explore cross border opportunities.
Currently the Spokesperson at the Federation Of Business Ambassadors aka Federation Of Buying Agents.

Watch LIVE 👉 Sign up here

AI Wednesday - Why You Should Use Videos to Sell Your Product

Kadel Yerushalmi - Co-Founder Sparka AI
background in online marketing, focusing on growth and helping small companies and startups.
a company that creates AI-driven videos for e-commerce

Watch LIVE 👉 Sign up here

Friday - Everything You Need to Know About A+ Content

Fatos Fatin - Founder of Maxamaze
a creative agency that’s redefining the term listing optimization.
he transform listings into powerful selling tools that allow sellers to build sustainable, bankable brands.
Watch LIVE 👉 Sign up here