📞 The Lost Art of the Cold Call…

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

• 📞 The Lost Art of the Cold Call… [True Story]

• 🌎 The Newest AI Browser is Here!

• ✅ 108 Ideas For Your Next Press Release…

• ⚒️ The Amazon Goldmine Hiding in your Data

• 🚀 How to Measure What Matters for Amazon Ads

🚨 Reply to this email with by writing #wheelofkelsey for a chance of a Profit Analysis Audit courtesy of Jasim Eisa from Voadera. Find out the results on Wednesday on the podcast!

P.S. I’ve just launched my brand new press release service where you can build authority, get indexed, and be featured in AI summaries, LLMs, and Google News.

🔥 Book a call with me if you’d like to learn more.

 📞 Lost Art of the Cold Call [TRUE STORY] 

Back in the 1980s, before GPS or smartphones, sales was a different kind of adventure.

No Google Maps, no CRM systems, not even a decent car stereo half the time.

Just a stack of phone books at the office, a box of maps stuffed in the glove compartment, a pocket full of dimes for the pay phone.

I remember my old car, parked at a gas station somewhere outside of London, Ontario.

The dashboard littered with coffee cups, papers, and a map spread across the passenger seat.

This was my office away from home trying to book a few appointments before hitting the road again.

I’d get maybe one “yes” out of ten calls, and that was enough to keep you going.

Every new town meant a new set of challenges; missed turns, wrong highways, roads that seemed to go nowhere.

When I got lost, I’d pull over, unfold another map, and hope I could find someone nearby who knew the area.

No GPS voice to guide you; just instinct and persistence.

But here’s the thing: all that extra effort came with something special.

You talked to people.

You figured out how to connect quickly because if you didn’t, you weren’t making a sale.

And when you finally walked through that door after three wrong turns and a twenty-minute detour, it meant something.

There was a sense of connection that’s harder to find today.

Sure, we can send hundreds of emails with a click, but it’s not the same as looking someone in the eye and shaking their hand.

Those old road trips taught me more about business than any seminar ever could.

They taught me how to build trust, how to stay patient, and how to keep pushing forward even when you’re completely lost somewhere between London and Toronto.

And the biggest lesson of all?

Technology changes, but people don’t.

Relationships still drive business.

The human touch will always be your best GPS.

Enjoy the rest of the newsletter.

— Norm

🦾 Browser Wars - ChatGPT Atlas

OpenAI just announced a new AI web browser, ChatGPT Atlas!

Here’s how it works:

The new tab page is your starting point in Atlas.

Ask a question or enter a URL to see faster, more useful results in one place.

You can also select from tabs for search links, images, videos, and news.

ChatGPT can remember what you’ve explored and suggest what to do next, whether that’s returning to past pages, digging deeper into a topic, surfacing related ideas, or automating routine tasks.

If you turn on browser memories, ChatGPT will remember key details from content you browse to improve chat responses and offer smarter suggestions.

You can view them all in settings, archive ones that are no longer relevant, and clear your browsing history to delete them.

Even when browser memories are on, you can decide which sites ChatGPT can or can’t see using the toggle in the address bar.

In Atlas, you can now ask ChatGPT to take action and do things for you right in your own browser.

Earlier this year, OpenAI introduced ChatGPT agent⁠, and now we've made it work faster and natively in Atlas.

You can ask ChatGPT to open and read through past team documents, perform new competitive research, and compile insights into a team brief.

But what about safety features?

• It cannot run code in the browser, download files, or install extensions

• It cannot access other apps on your computer or file system

• It will pause to ensure you're watching it take actions on specific sensitive sites such as financial institutions

• You can use agent in logged out mode to limit its access to sensitive data and the risk of it taking actions as you on websites

Learn more about ChatGPT Atlas

✅ 108 Ideas For Your Next Press Release!

Press releases are one of the simplest ways to boost visibility fast.

They help your brand get indexed on Google, picked up by AI models like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini, and featured across trusted outlets.

A single press release can put you in front of buyers through podcast placements and 500+ media outlets.

And it’s a direct way to capture buyer intent and build authority where people search.

Most people say “I have nothing to write about”.

Wrong.

If you don’t believe me, here are 108 topics you can write about.

If you’re interested in learning more, book a call with me and see if press releases are right for you.

🚀 How to Measure What Matters: Amazon Ads That Actually Work | Ritu Java

1. Q4 Success Hinges on Knowing Which Metrics Actually Matter

   • Amazon bombards sellers with data: impressions, CTR, CVR, spend, ACOS, TACOS, ROAS, share of voice, OA ratio, and more.

   • Most brands chase vanity metrics like sessions or spend spikes but these don’t predict profitable growth.

   • The three most critical metrics:

     1. Conversion Rate (CVR)

     2. Organic-to-Ad Ratio (OA Ratio)

     3. TACOS (Total ACOS)

2. Conversion Rate Is the Prime Lever for PPC Efficiency

   • CVR determines whether traffic turns into sales or burns cash.

   • Example:

     • 5% CVR at $1 CPC = $20 to make a sale.

     • 20% CVR at $1 CPC = $5 to make a sale.

3. Cannibalization & Halo Effects Can Distort Performance

   • When your ad rank and organic rank are both high, your ad spend may be cannibalizing organic sales.

4. PPC Is Moving From Manual Management to AI-Augmented Efficiency

   • AI tools like Claude or M19 can:

     • Automate search term harvesting.

     • Adjust bids dynamically during learning phases.

   • Ritu’s team has built 100+ micro-AI tools to compress repetitive tasks and let strategists focus on signal over noise.

   5. The Real Mistakes Sellers Are Making

   • Pushing weak-converting listings with ads → guaranteed bleed.

   • Confusing account-level budget capping with performance strategy.

   • Not tracking OA ratio or halo effects → distorted signals.

   • Measuring vanity metrics (impressions, sessions) in isolation.

   • Ignoring defensive ad placements.

🛒 How Amazon FBM Ship+ Works

FBM Ship+ is Amazon’s new fulfillment upgrade for self-fulfilling sellers.

The program pairs predictive delivery modeling with vetted carrier partners to speed up delivery, reduce costs, and improve buyer trust.

Here’s how it works:

Faster delivery

• FBM Ship+ uses Amazon’s predictive logistics to calculate realistic, fast delivery dates and enforce one-day or same-day handling times based on your shipping history.

Partner carriers cut transit time by an average of 2.5 days, while Amazon’s model tightens delivery estimates by another 6.5 days.

Increased conversion

• In pilot testing, sellers saw an average 34% boost in sales once customers could see reliable, fast shipping timelines.

Automated handling

• Once enrolled, your shipping templates are auto-configured with accurate delivery promises and handling times.

• Amazon automatically routes orders through discounted Buy Shipping labels using partnered carriers. You can manage and adjust templates any time in Shipping Settings.

Integrated workflows

You can buy shipping labels directly through:

• Seller Central (Manage Orders)

• Partner ERPs or Multi-channel Integrators

• Amazon APIs (Buy Shipping, Orders, Notifications)

Orders enrolled in FBM Ship+ display a program badge in order details, making them easy to identify.

Cash back incentives

• Eligible shipments earn cash back when they’re handed off and scanned by the carrier within 48 hours. For example, China-to-Europe shipments currently earn a ¥2 per order rebate through December 2025.

Global rollout

• FBM Ship+ is currently live for sellers shipping from China to the US, UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, France, and Japan.

Enrolment is quick.

Go to Shipping Settings, find FBM Ship+ in Fulfillment Programs, and activate it.

🌎 Where in the World is The Beard Guy?

🔥 Storytelling Is the Last Skill AI Can’t Replace...

Here are my favorite tips from this episode!

1. Storytelling Is More Critical in the Age of AI Not Less

• As more brands rely on AI, messaging will begin to sound uniform and soulless.

• What stands out now is voice, emotion, and human perspective, the very things AI can’t generate.

• Audiences can detect formulaic AI stories, long em dashes, templated phrasing, and lifeless tone.

2. Your Voice Is the Moat

• If three different people tell a story about the same object, the outcome should be three different narratives.

• Over-leveraging AI erases that personal lens.

• The goal is to train AI to sound like you, not like everyone else.

3. Good Storytelling = Emotional Hooks + Transformation

• Every powerful story contains:

  • A hook (grabs attention fast).

  • A problem or tension.

  • A transformation.

• If nothing changes, it’s not a story.

4. Six Second Stories: Hook Emotion Fast

• A “six second story” captures Act 1 and Act 3 instantly:

  • “I always struggled with X… until I found Y.”

• it conveys a mini-transformation that draws people in to learn more.

• Works especially well for social media, ads, and short-form storytelling.

5. Framework Simplicity Wins Over Complexity

• The Hero’s Journey (12+ steps) is too complex for most business use.

• At its core, every story is:

  1. A character with a goal.

  2. A problem in the way.

  3. A change.

  4. A resolution.

Find this episode of Marketing Misfits on YouTube and anywhere you listen to podcasts

And that’s it, Beardos.

See you next Monday!

- Norm

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