😱 How I Lost Thousands in Seconds…

This newsletter is proudly sponsored by:

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

•  😱 I Lost Thousands in 15 Seconds [True Story]

• 🚨 5 Things That Did NOT Work While Scaling My Business

• 🗞️ Latest Amazon News and Updates

• 🔍 Are You a New Business? Make Sure You File This ASAP!

• 🚀 7 Ways to Say Safe With Cybersecurity

Don’t forget to catch up on this week’s Marketing Misfits here

😱 I Lost Thousands of Dollars in 15 Seconds [True Story] 

Back in the day, my promotions company was dealing with several Fortune 500 companies.

Because of that, we got to meet a lot of really cool people.

One of the people we met was big in the world of motorsport.

My partner and I got to go to a bunch of VIP events for Formula One and Indy racing during this time.

At one event, he introduced us to Porsche motorsport.

We decided to sponsor one of the Porsches ourselves.

The business was doing fairly well, so we thought we'd spend the money and cover this car with our company name.

We didn't think we'd get that much exposure out of it and thought it was pretty cool to have.

This Porsche took a year and a half to put together because it was custom-made.

The driver’s name was Rudy, and he was great.

The night before, Rudy drove my partner and me around the track which got us even more excited for the big day.

You really don’t realize how fast these cars are going until you’re in there.

On the day of the big race, we were all sitting at the racetrack.

The flag goes down, and the cars take off.

They all head towards the first corner.

Something went wrong and Rudy lost control.

He completely demolished the car going into that first corner.

Our big sponsorship dollars were gone in an instant 😱

We waited a year and a half for this car to be built, and it was gone in a blink of an eye.

Poof.

We had the car for not even 30 seconds on the track.

It could have been something really cool but it just wasn’t meant to be.

Enjoy the rest of the newsletter.

— Norm

Five Things That Did NOT Work While Scaling My Business

The following is a condensed excerpt from Ryan Deiss’ Scalable Case Study.

Before settling on an operating system upgrade as the solution to Ryan Deiss’ burnout-inducing scale problems, Ryan tried five other things that flat out it did NOT work. 

1. Becoming “More Productive” Did NOT Work 

Back in my “prime,” 80-hour work weeks were the norm and 100-hour weeks weren’t out of the question. I worked nights and weekends, sun up to sun down and then some. 

My output was legendary. 

Seriously, I could outwork and outproduce anyone in the company 2X - 3X.

But here’s the problem with productivity: You still only have 24 hours in a day, and eventually you do need to eat and sleep.

The harder I worked, the faster the “To Dos” filled my list.

That’s when I realized I had it backwards all along.

As a business owner, my job isn’t to do MORE, it’s actually to do less.

As a good friend and mentor once told me…

“The more valuable you are to your business, the less valuable your business is.”

2. Creating SOPs for Everything Did NOT Work

Fairly early in my career, a well-intentioned fellow entrepreneur told me I needed to start reading books like The E-Myth Revisited if I wanted to learn how to build a real business.

Well guess what? I tried it…

I literally shut down my entire company for a full month…no new projects…no new hires…NOTHING…until absolutely everyone had documented absolutely everything they did.

No one was happy about it and I just barely escaped an all-out mutiny, but I pressed on, and at the end of the month we finally had it…

Binders of SOPs is NOT an operating system.

NO ONE ever looked at these SOPs. Not once. Not ever. 

3. Hiring “Rockstars” and “A Players” Did NOT Work

This one flies in the face of what all the experts and “gurus” preach when they say things like, “All problems are people problems…” and “There’s no such thing as ‘How’ problems, there are only ‘Who’ problems.”

But in the real world where we are living, the “just hire A-players and everything else will take care of itself…” advice wasn’t cutting it.

First, I couldn’t afford to make any major hires. Cashflow was just too tight.

Second, I didn’t have time to train and onboard any new people. (I was trying work LESS, remember?)

Good people don’t fix broken systems. Broken systems break good people.

Yes, you want to hire great people. 

Who doesn’t?!

But as a business owner who values both success AND freedom, your objective is NOT to build a team of "rockstars" and “A-players.” Your objective is to build a company that doesn't require them.

4. Hiring an “Integrator” Did NOT Work

The idea that you can make one, magical “unicorn” hire who will do all the “dirty work” while you just “visionate” all over the place is a laughable lie.

Heck, I wanted to believe it, and more than once I have attempted to make such a hire who’s job title was something along the lines of:

Role: Integrator
 Job Description: Do all the stuff I don’t want to do.

But ask yourself, have you ever actually seen it work?

To be clear, I’m all for you hiring an Operations Manager, VP of Operations, COO, President, or heck, even a CEO one day. I want you to have that “#2” who can do all the stuff you suck at or just don’t want to do!

5. More Growth Did NOT Work

Look, I’m a marketing guy. Not only am I the founder of DigitalMarketer.com and Traffic & Conversion Summit, but I also authored the book, Digital Marketing For Dummies, so I know a think or two when it comes to growth.

I operated under the delusion that growth fixes everything.

“I’ll slow down when we hit $1M in revenue…$10M…$30M…”

…the goal-post was always moving, because I believed that things would get easier once we hit that “next milestone.”

But the opposite turned out to be true.

As my business grew, not only did I have less and less free time, but as expenses went up and margins went down, I was also making less money, which meant I needed to work even harder just to take home what I was making when my business was smaller.

Clearly more growth was not the answer.

Next week I’ll share what did work for Ryan Deiss and his Scalable Case Study.

Holiday Shoppers Are Crossing Off Their Gift Lists Earlier Than Ever!

— According to Vericast, 44% plan to start their 2024 holiday shopping in October or sooner.*  

With Walmart.com being the go-to destination for millions of holiday shoppers, it’s a crucial time to join Marketplace and get your products within their reach.   

As a Marketplace seller, you can access: 

• A network of millions of customers 

• Innovative tools to fuel your growth 

• Walmart’s omnichannel advantage 

Plus, no monthly or setup fees, ever. It only takes a few minutes to create an account for what could be a game-changing move in scaling your business.

Sign up for Walmart Marketplace today. 

🗞️ AMAZON NEWS & UPDATES 🗞️

ARE YOU A NEW BUSINESS IN THE US?

You may need to file a BOI report…

What is a BOI report?

The BOI report is a new federal filing requirement enforced by the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Financial Crime Enforcement Network (FinCEN) as part of the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) that is going to impact 30+ million private business entities, effective January 1, 2024.

Do you need to file a BOI report?

There are many exemptions:

• Public Companies

• Banks

• Insurance companies

• 40 Act Investment funds

• 20 full time employees, more than $5,000,000 in gross receipts or sales from the prior year, and an operating presence at a physical office in the USA (you must meet all 3)

If you do not fall in one of these categories, then you will likely need to file a BOI report.

Penalties for non-compliance include fines of $500 per day per entity, with a maximum of up to $10,000, for a failure to timely report!

If you’d like to file it yourself check out → Here

🚨 There are services that specialize in BOI filing, it can help take the stress away → Here

Send free products to Micro-Influencers using the platform Stack Influence which automates Micro-Influencer collaborations at scale (get thousands of collabs per month) and increase your Amazon growth, generate UGC, and boost up your brand awareness like never before.

Top Amazon brands like Magic Spoon, Unilever, and MaryRuth Organics have been able to get to #1 page positioning on Amazon and increase their monthly revenue as high as 13X in as little as 2 months. 

• 🤑 Pay influencers only with products (stop negotiating fees)

•  🚀 Increase external traffic Amazon sales (get to top page rankings)

•  📸 Get full rights image/video UGC (build your brand with authentic content)

•  🤖 100% automated management (don’t lift a finger to get influencer collabs at scale)  

Don't believe it? 

Check out the results from the Blueland Micro Influencer campaign which generated a 13X ROI scaling up influencers on Amazon. After successfully raising investment on Shark Tank Blueland turned to Stack Influence to boost their Amazon sales and become a top selling listing using Micro Influencer marketing.

Increase your Amazon listings ranking for targeted keywords before the holiday season is upon us! Get 10% OFF signing up in October.

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS THE BEARD GUY?

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

WHAT YOU MISSED LAST WEEK

Cyber Security 2024 - Is Your Amazon Ecom Business at Risk | Chase Norlin

Here’s 5 Takeaways From This Episode:

1. Phishing and Social Engineering Attacks:

   • One of the most prevalent forms of attack is phishing. Hackers often use social engineering tactics to trick Amazon sellers into sharing sensitive information such as login credentials.

2. Implement Two-Factor Authentication (2FA):

   • Ensure 2FA is enabled for your Amazon account and any associated services. This simple security measure adds an extra layer of protection against unauthorized access​

3. Train Employees on Cybersecurity Awareness:

   • Provide ongoing training to your employees on how to recognize phishing attempts, use strong passwords, and practice safe internet behavior

4. Use VPNs for Secure Access:

   • When accessing sensitive business data or logging into your Amazon account, use a VPN, especially when connecting from public Wi-Fi or unsecured networks​

5. YOU Can Be Held Liable For Breaches:

   • Protecting customer data is not only important for maintaining trust but is also a legal obligation under laws like GDPR and CCPA. A data breach could result in legal action, fines, and damage to your brand’s reputation​

Watch the full episode here

🚨Stay safe online. Check out Chase’s cybersecurity insurance → Esure.AI 

 THIS WEEK’S EPISODE!

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

Wednesday - Amazon Product Titles & Descriptions Personalization, and AI Agents | Max Sinclair

Our guest is the Founder and CEO of Ecomtent, which helps enable sellers to create product listings with Generative AI. Max spent over six years working at Amazon, his roles included the launch of Amazon Business (B2B) in the UK, and owning customer browse and catalogue quality for the launch of Amazon in Singapore

Watch LIVE at 12 pm ET on Wednesday!👉 Sign up here

DON’T MISS THIS WEEK’S MARKETING MISFITS!

🚨 Watch the full episode here

  🌎 UPCOMING EVENTS

MARK DOWN THESE EVENTS! 

Elite Seller Society Mastermind

Oct 21 - 25 - Shenzen, China - Must Apply

Innovate

Oct 29 - New York - Starting from $495

Cross Border Summit

Nov 3 - Chiang Mai - $595

Prosper Show

Mar 25 - 27 - Las Vegas - Starting $399

→ FULL CALENDAR ←

And that’s it, Beardos!

Let me know what you’d like me to feature in the newsletter by replying back to this email.

P.S. Make sure you don’t miss any updates by joining our community here.

See you next Monday!

- Norm

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