Lunch With Norm
Posts
[LWN] 😱 This One Job Still Haunts Me...

[LWN] 😱 This One Job Still Haunts Me...

Lunch With Norm's Weekly Newsletter - Amazon News & Updates

July 14, 2025 • Estimated Read Time: 17 minutes

😱 This One Job Still Haunts Me…

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

😱 This One Job Still Haunts Me… [True Story]
🚨 1 Prompt. 2 Minutes. And a Fully Finished Video.
🔥 5 Lessons to Scale Your Business
💰 How to Make $70K in a Day Sending Emails
🤖 Turn a Marketing Strategy Into a Podcast [AI Walkthrough]

🚨 Missed last week’s AI webinar? Check out the replay!

If you want a spot in Kevin and I’s AI workshop, reply to this email with #wheelofkelsey - and I will reach out to 1 lucky Beardo on Wednesday.

💰 The Job That Still Haunts Me… [TRUE STORY]

Back in the '80s, I was working alongside my dad at his woodworking facility when we landed what felt like a dream job… furnishing a huge religious organization's new facility.

We poured our hearts into that project, crafting rows of stunning oak pews with care, precision, and a whole lot of long nights.

When it came time to collect the payment, though, that’s when things took a turn.

It turns out the contractor we were working through had passed the buck, telling us the religious organization was footing the bill.

Meanwhile, the organization insisted it was the contractor’s responsibility.

Classic finger-pointing…

To make matters worse, the contractor tried to intimidate my dad into letting it go.

But if there’s one thing I’ve learned about my dad, it’s this: he doesn't back down easily.

After weighing the legal costs, time, and emotional toll of chasing what we were owed, he made the hard call to walk away.

That decision stuck with me.

The real takeaway?

No matter who you’re working with, big names, good causes, or handshake deals...

Protect your business.

Contracts, payment terms, clear expectations.

Goodwill doesn’t pay the bills.

Protect what’s yours.

Enjoy the rest of the newsletter.

— Norm

P.S. I’ve been having some issues with emails being delivered.

If you see this in your spam, if you could please put it in your main inbox, that would be amazing.

👇THE TOP MUST READ STORIES THIS WEEK 👇

😱 Amazon Prime Day sales started down 41% on first day - Read More

🛒 Amazon asked some advertisers to increase spend on Prime Day by at least 100% - Read More

🚀 Walmart launches mobile seller app for marketplace business management - Read More

🔍 B2B and DTC marketers find themselves on the zero-click search frontline - Read More

💰 Jeff Bezos sells nearly $666 Million in Amazon stock - Read More

🤖 OpenAi now has a podcast! - Read More

🔥 1 Prompt. 2 Minutes. And a Polished Video!

HeyGen’s new operating system is about to change the game.

Yes, I know you hear someone saying this about 20 times a week.

But trust me, take a look at this…

He turned a few raw clips into three fully polished Poppy soda ads…within minutes.

Storyboarding
Scripting
Creating custom avatars
Editing
Publishing fully polished videos

🚨 It’s not available just yet but you can join the waitlist.

No crew. No software learning curve. Just your idea, brought to life.

It looks very easy to use, just upload your content, videos, and briefs..

The AI Agent will then automatically cut up, and edit the content.

At the same time, an avatar is then selected.

After it’s finished, your scripts, avatars and video are ready for edits.

🚀 5 Lessons to Help Scale Your Businesses

I asked one of the most successful entrepreneurs I know, Colin Campbell (who also happens to be a great friend) about the greatest lessons he has when it comes to growing his business.

And this is what he told me:

1. Start vs. Scale Require Different Playbooks

In 2006, our public company was flatlining. A board member even suggested replacing me as CEO. I reached out to a fellow EO member who introduced me to Patrick Thean of Rhythm Systems. We implemented two days of strategic planning, 90 days of execution, daily huddles, core values, goal setting and more — we really went all-in.

The result?

He tripled in size within a few years and sold the company to a Fortune 500 firm at a 125% premium to our stock price.

2. Hire Based on Personality

He discovered the DISC personality profiling system, a self-assessment tool that helps identify individual behavioral styles.

He had each member of my team take the test and suddenly understood why some thrived and others struggled. It became his game-changing hiring philosophy. He built incredible teams by aligning roles with personalities.

3. Get Comfortable Presenting in Public

Like most entrepreneurs, he dreaded public speaking.

But through EO—where I presented at events and within my Forum—he gained the confidence to handle Initial Public Offering (IPO) roadshows and investor pitches.

4. Learn to Lead Leaders

Leading high-level leaders can be as challenging as herding cats.

Entrepreneurs and most great executives tend to be strong-willed with a dominant personality. In other words, they are not “Yes” people.

They tend to challenge you, which can be frustrating, but if you can manage that while simultaneously inspiring and aligning them, you can scale a company beyond what you imagined.

5. Delegate Responsibilities, Not Tasks

In Start mode, you do it all yourself.

In Scale mode, you empower leaders to do what needs to be done. The key factor here is to assign outcomes, not checklists.

He even discovered a hidden benefit: You get to sleep at night. Your team might be up worrying about the details at 3 am—but you won’t.

Bonus Lesson: Learn From Others

Back when he was a hotshot twenty-something entrepreneur, he thought I knew it all. He didn’t. he learned to scale by learning from others.

Find a mentor and learn.

He has 2 more tips and went much more in detail

🌎 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!

Want to scale up your new product launches into listings that make $100K+ yearly revenue in less than 2 months?

^{Sponsored Post}

Sending free products to Micro-Influencers using the platform Stack Influence which automates influencer collaborations at scale (get thousands of collabs per month) will help increase your new product Amazon ranking, generate UGC, and boost up your recurring revenue like never before.

Top Amazon brands like Thrasio, Unilever, and Magic Spoon have turned their new Amazon product launches into listings with monthly revenue on pace to break $100K over the year.

Here are top reasons why brands love to work with Stack Influence:

📈Increase Amazon listing search positioning (drive high volume external traffic sales)
🤑Pay influencers only in products (stop negotiating fees with every influencer)
📸Generate branded image/video UGC with full legal rights (no timeframe or usage restrictions)
🤝Develop affiliate relationships (easily identify top influencer candidates to work with in the long run)
🤖Automate influencer collaborations from A-Z (save over 175 management hours per month)

Don't believe it? Check out the results from this Micro Influencer campaign which went from 0 to 447 avg monthly recurring sales and is on pace to break $150K in yearly revenue on Amazon.

Take your new product launches to the next level by increasing your Amazon listings organic search positioning sending free products to Micro-Influencers in 2025.

Get 10% OFF by singing up this month

😮 AI Agents Are Replacing Marketers – Here’s What’s Coming…

My favorite takeaways from Kashif Zafar (you can find the full ep on YouTube):

AI Agents Can Replace Your Ad Ops Assistant Right Now
You can now assign an AI agent to run your Sponsored Ads reporting, analyze ROAS/ACOS, and even execute bid changes without you touching a thing. Test assigning recurring PPC tasks (like weekly performance reviews or bid adjustments) to an AI tool like Xnurta or similar.
Amazon Is Quietly Rebuilding the Entire Platform Around Agents
With over 1,000+ GenAI initiatives underway internally, Amazon is optimizing not just ads—but shopping experiences, supply chains, and customer support—using AI.
“Workflows” Are the Blueprint for AI Integration
AI agents are only as smart as your SOPs. Exnera’s internal dev team maps every task in a workflow and automates step-by-step, including campaign setups and reporting. Audit and diagram your current advertising and listing processes. Then identify steps that can be delegated to automation tools.
Specialized AI Agents Outperform ChatGPT for Execution
General LLMs like ChatGPT are too broad. High-leverage agents are task-specific. Use general AI (like ChatGPT) for ideation but switch to purpose-built agents (e.g., Xnurta, Perpetua, Quartile) for performance tasks.
AI Is Flattening the Playing Field for Small Sellers
Solo sellers can now compete with 10-person agency teams. Set up a test with AI ad automation across 3–5 ASINs for 30 days to benchmark against your manual approach.

🤖 How to Turn a Marketing Strategy Into a Podcast With NotebookLMI

^{This tip is an excerpt from Futurepedia!}

Let’s say you’re running a company and your team needs to absorb the key points from your latest marketing strategy, and fast.

Instead of scheduling another call, we uploaded the report to NotebookLM, generated a podcast with two AI hosts, and shared the audio link. Within 15 minutes, everyone was up to speed—and actually listened all the way through.

The Steps:

1. Create a New Notebook

We jumped onto Google NotebookLM and set up a notebook called “Q3 Marketing Strategy.” This kept the project tidy and easy to revisit.

2. Upload the Source Material

We added the marketing strategy directly from our PDF. NotebookLM also takes Google Docs, web pages, or YouTube links. Sticking to one main theme (marketing insights) kept the output focused.

3. Generate the Audio Overview

In the Notebook Guide, we hit “Generate” under the Audio Overview section. NotebookLM processed the doc and spun up a podcast: two AI hosts summarizing and debating the report’s big ideas.

Upload, organize, and summarize docs, websites, audio—even YouTube videos
Create podcasts from reports, turn insights into action, and collaborate like a pro
Ask smarter questions and get tailored answers (no more sifting through pages)
Combine NotebookLM with other top AI tools for next-level workflows
Keep your data private, your process efficient, and your team in sync

4. Customize the Podcast

We used “Customize” to tell the AI hosts to dig into actionable marketing tips for startups. You can prompt them to cover specific themes (“growth strategies for small businesses”) or tweak the tone for your team.

5. Listen & Share

We played back the podcast right in NotebookLM. The banter sounded surprisingly natural, with hosts riffing off each other. Sharing was one click—public link for the team, or as a downloaded file for the company hub

If you’re curious how our experiment played out, check out the finished NimbusAI marketing podcast here, or on the image, to hear the AI hosts in action.

6. Refine & Iterate

We tried different prompts and uploaded extra sources to fine-tune the focus. For deeper dives, NotebookLM’s interactive mode let us ask follow-up questions to the AI hosts.

Looking for more AI trainings, bootcamps, and softwares? Check out Futurepedia

🔥 How to Make $70K in a Day Sending Emails

Here are my favorite tips from this episode!

Structure Email Promotions Around a Strategic Angle
Nate builds high-revenue campaigns by crafting each email drop with a strong hook, whether it's scarcity, bonus stacking, or emotional appeal. Every campaign tells a story with a clear CTA.

Use Multiple Sending Domains to Warm Lists Without Killing Deliverability
To avoid burning lists, Nate rotates multiple domains and mail servers while warming up new audiences. This approach allows him to scale volume without landing in spam folders or hurting domain reputation.

Build Warm Lists with Intent Before Hard Selling
He doesn’t immediately pitch to new leads. Instead, he nurtures them with value-driven content for 3–5 days to boost engagement. Once open and click rates are strong, he introduces the offer for maximum impact.

Segment Lists by Engagement Tier and Buyer Behavior
Nate creates micro-segments within lists based on open rates, click history, and previous purchases. This allows hyper-targeted messages that speak directly to behavior, increasing conversions and lowering unsubscribes.

Split-Test Subject Lines and Email Body Separately to Maximize Send Efficiency
Instead of split-testing whole emails, he isolates subject lines and then tests body copy only after a clear winner emerges. This method shortens testing time and optimizes for both open and click-through rates systematically.

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