😱 Nightmare on the Farm...

This newsletter is proudly sponsored by Walmart Marketplace

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

• 🔥 Last Chance For Brands Under $1M!

• 😱 Nightmare on the Farm… [True Story]

• 🚨How to Scale - Identifying “Power Stages” For Your Business [How To]

• 💰 The 9 Most Expensive Products on Amazon

• 🗞️ Latest Amazon News and Updates

🚨 I have a surprise gift hidden in this newsletter for 1 lucky beardo.

The prize?

A book bundle of my favorite ecom/entrepreneur books.

For this week, the link is hidden inside a word.

HINT: My parents would be very proud of me if I got this…

Whoever clicks the word and enters their name first will claim it.

PS — This is the FINAL CALL for brands 🚨 

Apply to Kevin King and I’s Exclusive Concierge Brand Management Beta Program!

Limited spots available.

Sign up here 

😱 Nightmare on the Farm… [True Story] 

I met up with some of my Entrepreneur Organization (EO) buddies to celebrate the 10th anniversary of one of the chapters last week.

We've been part of EO for almost 30 years, and we wanted to support our fellow chapter.

Colin Campbell, Brian Hansel, and I were all there.

Colin was talking about his book, Start, Scale, Exit, Repeat.

Afterward, Brian suggested we check out his farm, which he’d bought a year or two back. It was incredible—a sprawling property with rolling hills.

Honestly, if it didn’t require so much work, I’d love to have a place like it.

We took a long walk around the farm with four dogs in tow.

We petted the horses and other animals, checked out the barn with ducks, peacocks, and even some kittens.

Brian even gave me a dozen fresh eggs to take home.

A TV production team was on his property shooting a film—it’s that beautiful.

The police were stationed all around the property, which was about the size of a city block.

We pulled up to the house, took the dogs out, and started exploring.

Brian wanted us to see the bees, so he showed us the beehive, which a beekeeper maintains.

At one point, we noticed one of the dogs, Spencer, had wandered off.

Brian called out for him, and Spencer came trotting back about five minutes later.

Later, I was inside sitting with Brian's wife, Lisa, and petting Spencer.

He was a mellow, beautiful mix between a standard poodle and an English sheepdog.

His eyes were rolling back as I scratched behind his ears, and I thought I must have the magic touch with dogs.

When we were ready to head out for a meal, Lisa called the dog, but he leaned against me, not wanting to leave.

I nudged him up, kept rubbing his back, and noticed he was starting to wobble.

At first, I thought he was just tired from the walk, but something seemed off.

As he leaned heavily against my knee, I told Lisa something didn’t seem right.

She came over, called Spencer, and he almost collapsed.

I held him up so he wouldn’t fall.

Lisa quickly scooped him up, put him in the pickup, and rushed him to the vet, which was a good 20-30 minutes away.

Meanwhile, Brian, Colin, and I went to a restaurant, and Brian kept checking in on Spencer.

At first, the vet wasn’t sure what was wrong.

Then the lab results came back.

It turned out that Spencer had likely wandered over to the TV production crew’s setup, found a bag of weed, and, well… when they did a test, he failed.

It was THC.

The dog is completely fine now… but he might have the munchies.

Enjoy the rest of the newsletter.

— Norm

🗞️ AMAZON NEWS & UPDATES 🗞️

Launch your business on Walmart Marketplace, and let it grow, let it grow, let it grow  

The holidays are approaching fast and peak shopping season faster than that. According to Vericast, 44% of consumers planning to start their 2024 holiday shopping in October or earlier.* With Walmart.com being the go-to destination for millions of holiday shoppers, it’s a crucial time to join Marketplace and set yourself up for growth. 

*Source: Vericast 2024 Holiday Retail TrendWatch 

As a Marketplace seller, you can unlock: 

• A network of millions of customers 

• Innovative tools to fuel your growth 

• Walmart’s omnichannel advantage 

Plus, zero monthly or setup fees. It only takes minutes to create an account, so get your jingle on and sign up now. 

Get started!

HOW TO SCALE - Identify “Power Stages” and Assign Playbooks

The following is an excerpt from Ryan Deiss’ Scalable Case Study. Thanks Ryan!

In last week’s newsletter we covered mapping your value engines and now it’s time to identify the “Power Stages”.

I said earlier that “documenting everything” doesn’t work, but here’s what does work…

…documenting ONLY the most critical tasks and activities that drive real value in your company.

But how do you know which tasks and activities are truly critical?

And how do you know which ones actually drive value?

Simple. Audit your Value Engines by asking…

What you’re looking for are the steps in your Value Engines that are:

1. High stakes, and…

2. High potential for human error

The stages on your Value Engines that meet this criteria are known as “Power Stages,” and each Power Stage deserves its own playbook.

Again, you don’t need to document everything. In fact, you shouldn’t document everything! Also, you don’t need to document your playbooks right away.

Our rule is: “Document while you do.”

There’s no need for you or your team to set aside dedicated time to build all your playbooks. Just wait until you or someone on your team is performing the Power Stage activity, and record it using a screen capture tool like Loom or an iPhone. 

Most of our clients and portfolio companies have between 10 - 20 playbooks. Not 100s…just 10 - 20.

And here’s the best part…

Since you’re only documenting the most critical activities, these playbooks will actually get used.

Now that we have our core value creation systems documented, it’s time to shift our focus to the team…Not only will it give your team almost instant clarity on what your business does and how it does it, these simple “maps” will also form the foundation of your operating system.

Once your Value Engines are documented, you can then move on to the next step…

Next week I’ll share with you how to engineer your high-output team

This is just the first step of Ryan Deiss’ Scalable Case Study.

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

HOT or NOT - What’s Working for Amazon Sellers in 2024 | Jon Derkits

Here’s 7 Takeaways From This Episode:

1. Activate Returnless Resolutions for Low-Cost Items:

   • For products with low manufacturing costs or high return rates, consider enabling returnless resolutions. This minimizes handling costs, as Amazon will automatically refund customers without requiring the product’s return, saving you from incurring multiple fees.

2. Set Up FBA Damaged Opt-Out for High-Value Products:

   • If returnless resolutions aren’t suitable, use Amazon’s FBA Damaged Opt-Out for high-value or complex items.

3. Diversify Warehousing to Include Both AWD and a 3PL:

   • Due to AWD’s limited capacity, combine Amazon storage with a 3PL to reduce risks associated with seasonal fluctuations and AWD limitations.

4. Enroll in Product Lifecycle Support (PLS):

   • For products requiring setup (e.g., electronics or sporting goods), enroll in PLS to provide customers with troubleshooting assistance.

5. Use Comparison Tables in A+ Content:

   • If not already included, add comparison tables to A+ Content. Amazon data suggests these can increase sales by 8.4%. Compare key product attributes across different models or variations to help customers make informed decisions and improve conversions.

6. Implement Quantity Limits to Prevent Blackhat Activity:

   • Set purchase limits per customer to deter malicious actors from buying out all available inventory. Determine your product’s typical order size and set limits slightly above this threshold, which discourages fraudulent large-volume purchases while allowing legitimate bulk orders.

7. Use Amazon Liquidations to Clear Excess Inventory:

   • If you’re approaching FBA storage limits, send excess inventory to Amazon’s FBA Liquidations program. This can help you manage costs by eliminating storage fees on excess stock, while still recouping a portion of your product’s value. It’s a smart way to manage stock for items that may otherwise incur high storage fees.

Watch the full episode here

THIS WEEK’S EPISODE!

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

DON’T MISS THIS WEEK’S MARKETING MISFITS!

🚨 Watch the full episode here

THE 9 MOST EXPENSIVE ITEMS ON AMAZON

Ever wondered what the most expensive item on Amazon?

Here’s the most expensive item in the top 9 categories...

#7 - Women’s Parka Coat - $10009.99 - Clothing

#6 - Stainless Steel Grill - $27065.83 - Grilling

#5 - Vision Graphics Card - $ 30999 - Electronics

#4 - Commercial Ice Maker - $43768.93 - Appliances

#3 - Vijoice medication - $105299.88 - Pharmacy

#2 - Sterling Silver Charm - $179 219.08 - Arts and Crafts

#1 - Michael Jordan 1989 Basketball Card - $989900.00 Collectibles

Now would anyone actually buy these… That’s a different story.

  🌎 UPCOMING EVENTS

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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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