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[LWN] I'm Sorry... My Life is a Lie 😔

[LWN] I'm Sorry... My Life is a Lie 😔

Lunch With Norm's Weekly Newsletter - Compliance Fines, Misfits, and More!

May 13, 2024 • Estimated Read Time: 15 minutes

🤼‍♀️ My Double Life as a Pro Wrestler

How did I end up in this web of lies…

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

🤼‍♀️ Living My Double Life [True Story]
🗞️ This Week’s Amazon News & Updates
✅ Amazon Seller Checklist
🎙️ What You Missed Last Week
💰 Do Not Get Blindsided by Compliance Fines [IMPORTANT]
🌎 Upcoming Amazon Seller Events

Hey Beardos! The latest episode of Kevin King and I’s new podcast “The Marketing Misfits” is now out! You can watch it here.

🤼‍♀️ Living My Double Life as a Pro Wrestler [True Story]

Picture this… It’s 2003, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers had just won the Super Bowl, and guess who was organizing the massive Super Bowl party weekend?

That’s right.

We had it all - rappers, athletes, parties, and even a celebrity golf tournament.

The plan was to auction off the athlete’s and rapper’s time during the golf tournament.

We had Trick Daddy, Nappy Roots, all the main Tampa Bay Buccaneers at the time, and some other big sports celebrities.

I was rolling up to the golf tournament in a limo with Derek Brooks, Booger McFarlane, Dave Winfield, and a bunch of other top professional athletes.

As we arrived, a guy was there taking everyone's name and handing out swag bags.

He looks at me and my buddy, all cocky, and goes, "Well, who are you?"

I thought about a skit I loved from Second City and said, "Are you kidding? You haven't heard of us?! Yosh and Stanley Schmengi from Utopia?! We are the WWE tag team champions."

I gave him a look of disgust and walked off, playing the part.

The guys all laughed.

We then had lunch, and the auction started.

The athletes and rappers were going for a few thousand dollars each. I thought that was it.

Then suddenly, I hear, "Next up, Yosh and Stanley Schmengi!”

And believe it or not, two ladies actually bid on us!

So off we went, golfing.

Here's the thing… I hate golfing. I can't golf to save my life.

During our conversation on the course, I'm thinking these ladies must know it's all a joke.

But at the end of the round, one of the ladies says, "Hey, if you want to come up to our country club, we represent over 250 of them. Come on up for lunch!"

So I did.

While there, the lady asked if I'd like to join.

They waived the $40,000 fee, and I ended up paying just $250 a month for this country club, which was great for business.

Plus, the food was amazing.

The lady even asked me to be on their board of directors, which included George Steinbrenner, the owner of the New York Yankees.

We never really talked about wrestling after that first day, but about a year or two into our relationship, everything changed.

One day, she comes in all excited, saying, "Oh my God, you're not going to believe it. I got something for you! There's a person downstairs recording a documentary about old wrestlers."

She continues, "The lady is coming up the elevator now. I told her about Yosh and Stanley, and she's going to do a segment on you!"

I started laughing and said, "What! Are you kidding? That was a joke! I thought you knew that!"

She replies, "Wait, are you serious? They're on the way up!"

I made a quick exit out the back, narrowly avoiding the interviewer.

At the time, she was pretty pissed at me but we had become very close friends. Plus, I brought a lot of business to the club.

I stayed on as a member for years, and whenever we saw each other in the coming years, we always laughed about it.

Life is crazy, and sometimes, a joke can take you on one hell of a ride!

I really did think she thought I was joking.

Enjoy the rest of the newsletter.

— Norm

When should I have fessed up? 😱

Find last week’s poll results at the bottom of this newsletter

🗞️ AMAZON NEWS & UPDATES 🗞️

What’s happening in the world of Amazon today…

🦵 Amazon’s new fees on sellers likened to 'Kick in the Gut' - Read More
🤖 TikTok announces new tools to flag AI-generated content automatically - Read More
🥶 Canada Post cracks down on Arctic loophole to get free Amazon Prime shipping - Read More
🇿🇦 Amazon launches in South Africa - Read More
📺 Amazon touts ‘Full-Funnel’ ad capabilities with new shoppable TV formats - Read More
⚡️ 100,000 USB chargers sold on Amazon recalled over shock risk - 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!

💰 AMAZON SELLER CHECKLIST

Category	Question	Yes/No
Inventory Management Issues	Have you encountered problems with sending inventory, especially during critical sales periods like Prime Day?	✅/❌
Inventory Management Issues	Do inventory issues significantly impact your ability to stock and sell products?	✅/❌
Customer Support Frustrations	Have you tried to escalate customer support issues multiple times?	✅/❌
Customer Support Frustrations	Do you find yourself repeatedly explaining the same problem to different agents without any resolution?	✅/❌
Strategic Growth Challenges	Do you feel that your business growth is being hindered by operational issues or a lack of direct support from Amazon?	✅/❌
Strategic Growth Challenges	Could having a dedicated account manager help you strategize and implement more effective growth techniques?	✅/❌

✅ If your count is below 3 → You’re a STAR! You got Amazon covered!

❌ If your count is above 3 → An Amazon Account Manager will make your life easier!

Intellirank’s offering a year of strategic support for just $2499, a fraction of its $60,000 value, typically reserved for invitation-only access.

There’s only limited number of spots in this exclusive Amazon Account Manager program.

Don't miss out!— IntelliRANK Account Manager service starts from the moment you apply and lasts until the end of the calendar year on December 31st.

>>Secure My Amazon Account Manager<<

WHAT YOU MISSED LAST WEEK

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

Avoid This $10 000 Mistake - Navigating BOI Reporting

Watch the full episode here

Main Takeaways:

💰 Don’t Get Charged With Expensive Fines: The Corporate Transparency Act passed in 2021 to prevent anonymous shell companies from hiding assets and engaging in money laundering.
🧐 Did You Know: Millions of businesses now require Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) reports to disclose the beneficial owners of businesses.
🚨 Be Aware of Additional Penalties: Understand that non-compliance fines can lead to civil and criminal penalties beyond the initial $10,000.
- Fill out the 10-minute filing solution that streamlines the BOI report process

Use code: FILELWN20 for 20% off filing BOI reports on FileForm

More in depth information down below👇 (After the Memory Lane section)

Practical Ways to Get Your Listings Ready for Amazon AI

Watch the full episode here

Main Takeaways:

✏️Use Create Style Ideas: Check if your category supports this feature and leverage it to generate interactive scenarios for your product
- Offers prompts to generate scenarios like "Grass seed with a raccoon in Tokyo"
- Watermarked with "Made with Amazon AI"
📚 Split Test Regularly: Test images, infographics, and descriptions to see what resonates best with your target audience with Manage Your Experiments
🔍 Use View in My Room: If applicable to your category, enable View in My Room for improved conversions. Results in an average of 9% sales improvement
🛒 Leverage Virtual Try-On: If you sell fashion products, include Virtual Try-On to boost purchase confidence. Leads to an average of 2x improvement in purchase conversion

Are Google Ads Worth it for Your Small Business

Watch the full episode here

Main Takeaways:

📈 Minimum Viable Price Point: Generally, products priced below $50 may struggle to achieve profitability with Google Ads due to high CPCs (cost per clicks). For lower-priced products, consider using a loss leader strategy to attract customers to higher-value purchases
✅ Best Performing Google Ads Campaigns:
- Shopping Ads: High-ROI, featuring product image, price, and title
- Performance Max: Combines shopping, text, and display ads but requires at least 100 orders/month to optimize well
- Search Ads: Text-based ads targeting specific keywords
- YouTube Ads: High-funnel ads that aid brand awareness and customer engagement
👉 Utilize Performance Max Campaigns: Run Performance Max campaigns if you have a high order volume to benefit from automated bidding
🚀 Incorporate Google Business Profile: Link your Google Business Profile to Google Ads for improved local ad visibility.

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 - Break Through The $20k/Month Revenue Plateau

Simon Trafford - Co-owns Digital Marketer’s 2022 agency of the year, Social Lite
Co-founded Merchant Mastery
Taught eCommerce strategies on industry-leading stages, podcasts, and webinars, including DigitalMarketer.com and Affiliate Summit in NYC

Watch LIVE 👉 Sign up here

AI Wednesday With Norm

Norm Farrar - AKA The Beard Guy
Worked with Fortune 500 companies such as Coca-Cola, Mercedes-Benz, and 20th Century Fox
Host of Lunch With Norm, Marketing Misfits, and Ecom Power

Watch LIVE 👉 Sign up here

Friday - Marketing Misfits - What’s New with Amazon

Kevin King - Founder of Billion Dollar Seller Summits
Host of the Marketing Misfits Podcast
He was named one of the Top 40 Direct Marketers by Target Marketing magazine
Coach and mentor of the Freedom Ticket and Helium 10 Elite Masterminds
Billion Dollar SellersCutting Through the Clutter for the World's Top Amazon & E-Commerce Sellers
Watch LIVE 👉 Sign up here

MEMORY LANE

Kona, Hawaii📍

Aloha from Kona! Our First AMZ and Beyond Live Event from back in the day.

Dave Kettner and I, decided to take AMZ and Beyond on the road, hosting our very first live event in the stunning Kona, Hawaii. Kevin King was also there. This is officially where Kevin and I had our first cigar event on the beach. Mahalo, Kona, for the memories!

💰DO NOT GET BLINDSIDED BY COMPLIANCE FINES!

Running an online business typically starts with the formation of an entity with the secretary of state.

Many business owners within the e-commerce and Amazon FBA community have multiple entities to run brand strategies.

🚨 There has been a new law passed that is in effect that changes the landscape of business reporting within the U.S.

The Corporate Transparency Act now requires private companies to file a Beneficial Ownership Information report with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN)

Who? 32.6 million private US businesses are expected to file a BOI report by the end of the year.

Business owners are responsible for filing on behalf of the reporting company.
The filing takes 2-3 hours per entity per FinCEN, the governing body of the law (a department of the U.S. Treasury).

What? Owners must disclose information on the company and the beneficial owners.

Such information is disclosed on the report and includes Full name, DOB, address, ID # and photocopy for owners, along with legal name, trade name (DBA), address and tax ID (EIN) for the reporting company.
Owners can be those who exercise substantial control, or those who own 25% or more of the company.

Where? Information is disclosed with FinCEN who provides a government portal to file via PDF or manual data input.

FileForms offers a streamlined user experience with modern technology features and a team of experts using data encryption and monitoring services to help manage companies end to end filing journey.

When to File? In the next 90 days if you formed your business in 2024, or by January 1, 2025 if you formed your business before January 1, 2024.

Use code: FILELWN20 for 20% off promo code

Get started today: Click Here