Are you still wasting money on strategies from 2023 hoping ChatGPT or Claude will magically recommend your e-commerce brand to shoppers? 🔥 Join the Marketing Misfits Newsletter https://misfits.news Stop scrolling and start pitching. In this episode of Marketing Misfits, Norm Farrar and Kevin King sit down with PR expert Gloria Chou to reveal how small brands are using earned media to dominate AI search results. Gloria breaks down exactly why traditional pay-to-play tactics are dead and how appearing in gift guides or listicles provides the ultimate "trust signal" for AI storefronts. Whether you are a solo Etsy seller or a scaling Shopify brand, you will learn how to use free AI tools to craft the perfect pitch and land massive media coverage without needing a PR agency. 🛠️ Mentions & Resources Links 🔥 Gloria Chou's Free PR Masterclass: https://gloriachoupr.com/masterclass 🔥 Gloria's PR Accelerator: https://www.getfeaturedaccelerator.com/ This episode is brought to you by: - Levanta: One platform to run your entire affiliate and creator program across Amazon, Shopify, and Walmart — Marketing Misfits listeners get 10% off. Grab your discount -https://go.levanta.io/4o3hdZ1 - QuietLight Brokerage: Get a free, confidential valuation https://quietlight.com/ - Sellerboard: https://sellerboard.com/misfits - House of AMZ: Elevate your brand today at https://www.amazonseo.com/ - 8fig: Get 25% off 8fig off at https://8fig.co - Stack Influence: Use code MISFITS for 10% off at https://stackinfluence.com/ 📌 Main Topics Covered In This Episode The Difference Between Marketing and PR: Why earned media (others talking about you) is the ultimate conversion driver for modern AI algorithms. AI as the New Storefront: How ChatGPT and Perplexity use editorial trust signals from magazines to pick winners and losers in product recommendations. Using Perplexity AI for PR: Discover how to prompt Perplexity to find real-time consumer trends and write the perfect editorial angles for your brand in minutes. The CPR Pitching Method: Gloria explains her proven framework (Credibility, Point of View, Relevance) for writing cold emails that journalists actually open and read. Getting into Holiday Gift Guides: Why you do not need existing relationships to get your product featured in top publications and how far in advance you should pitch. Following Up Without Being Annoying: The exact strategies and email tracking tools you need to successfully follow up with editors without ending up in the spam folder. Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Stop burning your time on manual tasks when AI can run your marketing and backend. 🔥 Join the Marketing Misfits Newsletter https://misfits.news In this episode of Marketing Misfits, hosts Norm Farrar and Kevin King sit down with Andrew Erickson, a former Qualcomm engineer who built and sold two physical product brands (including a wooden map company) for seven figures. From hand-writing postcards for early Etsy reviews to launching highly advanced AI-driven e-commerce software, Andrew breaks down exactly how he uses Model Context Protocol (MCP), autonomous coding agents, and "Logic Lead Magnets" to scale businesses. Whether you are trying to capture more emails with simple custom apps or want to learn how to securely host virtual AI workers, this episode is a masterclass in modern e-commerce automation. Timestamps 00:00 Intro 02:30 Working at Qualcomm 08:45 Andrew's Start 13:45 Strategies for Customer Reviews 17:31 Product Marketing Examples 22:30 Analyzing Marketing Effectiveness 27:30 Connecting Databases and APIs for AI 31:15 Using AI Tools for Data Input 35:00 AI for Branding and New Ideas 40:00 E-commerce Personalization 45:00 Cloud Infrastructure and Data Security 47:31 System Memory for AI Performance 53:45 Refining AI-Generated Marketing Copy 57:30 Personalizing Marketing Emails with Teams 1:02:30 Exploring AI's Marketing Potential 1:06:15 Thanks for Watching This episode is brought to you by: - Levanta: One platform to run your entire affiliate and creator program across Amazon, Shopify, and Walmart — Marketing Misfits listeners get 10% off. Grab your discount -https://go.levanta.io/4o3hdZ1 - QuietLight Brokerage: Get a free, confidential valuation https://quietlight.com/ - Sellerboard: https://sellerboard.com/misfits - House of AMZ: Elevate your brand today at https://www.amazonseo.com/ - 8fig: Get 25% off 8fig off at https://8fig.co - Stack Influence: Use code MISFITS for 10% off at https://stackinfluence.com/ All conversations and information exchanged on the Marketing Misfits podcast or interaction on the Marketing MisfitsWebsite is intended for educational and entertainment purposes only. Do not confuse this with advice or direction with your business per se. Always do your own research before following advice from any podcast/website. Amazon's Terms of Service is always changing. All conversations and information exchanged on the Marketing Misfits podcast or interaction on the Marketing MisfitsWebsite is intended for educational and entertainment purposes only. Do not confuse this with advice or direction with your business per se. Always do your own research before following advice from any podcast/website. Amazon's Terms of Service is always changing. Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

What happens when you try to grow your e-commerce startup too fast, take the wrong venture capital, and lose everything in a hostile takeover? In this episode of Marketing Misfits, hosts Norm Farrar and Kevin King sit down with Chris Rawlings, the brilliant mind behind Sophie Society. Chris shares his wild, unconventional journey from growing up in an experimental, off-grid solar house in the forest, to playing in a touring ska band called The Waffle Stompers. After a stage injury led him to invent and sell spinal health products on Amazon, Chris found massive early success helping other sellers rank in the German market. But it wasn't all smooth sailing. Chris opens up about the dark side of Silicon Valley, detailing how he social-engineered his way into the elite 500 Startups accelerator, only to lose his first company, Judo Launch, to a predatory family office investor. Left with $280,000 in personal debt and suffering from nightly panic attacks, Chris had to learn the ultimate lessons in resilience and leadership to bounce back. Today, he runs Sophie Society with a revolutionary, performance-based culture where every team member acts as their own CEO. If you are an entrepreneur looking to scale, hire A-players, or just need to hear an incredible comeback story, this episode is a must-watch! Check out Sophie Society - https://sophiesociety.com/ This episode is brought to you by: - Levanta: One platform to run your entire affiliate and creator program across Amazon, Shopify, and Walmart — Marketing Misfits listeners get 10% off. Grab your discount -https://go.levanta.io/4o3hdZ1 - QuietLight Brokerage: Get a free, confidential valuation https://quietlight.com/ - Sellerboard: https://sellerboard.com/misfits - House of AMZ: Elevate your brand today at https://www.amazonseo.com/ - 8fig: Get 25% off 8fig off at https://8fig.co - Stack Influence: Use code MISFITS for 10% off at https://stackinfluence.com/ All conversations and information exchanged on the Marketing Misfits podcast or interaction on the Marketing MisfitsWebsite is intended for educational and entertainment purposes only. Do not confuse this with advice or direction with your business per se. Always do your own research before following advice from any podcast/website. Amazon's Terms of Service is always changing. All conversations and information exchanged on the Marketing Misfits podcast or interaction on the Marketing MisfitsWebsite is intended for educational and entertainment purposes only. Do not confuse this with advice or direction with your business per se. Always do your own research before following advice from any podcast/website. Amazon's Terms of Service is always changing. Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Stop burning your margins on expensive product photography packages, costly 3D renders, and endless back-and-forth with freelancers for a few listing images. 🔥 Join the Marketing Misfits Newsletter https://misfits.news Think again. In this episode of Marketing Misfits, hosts Norm Farrar and Kevin King sit down with Zehra Soysal, the Harvard MBA founder of Savanah AI, to discuss how AI is completely disrupting e-commerce photography, fashion marketing, and batch image generation. Whether you are an Amazon seller, a Shopify brand owner, or a marketer trying to scale ad creative globally, this episode reveals the exact future of AI-driven product detail pages (PDP) and hyper-personalized storefronts. 🔥 Start using https://savanah.ai for free today! 📌 Main Topics Covered In This Episode The Rapid Pace of AI Imagery & Video: How the industry shifted from basic memes and deformed "six-finger" hands to photorealistic models that are indistinguishable from real humans. Traditional Photoshoots vs. AI Automation: How Savanah AI eliminates complex prompting, allowing brands to turn a simple iPhone photo of a garment into hundreds of high-quality model assets in minutes. The Power of Localization & Personalization: How fast-fashion giants use AI to test different poses, expressions, and ethnic models tailored to specific global marketplaces (Germany vs. Spain vs. Middle East) to maximize conversion rates. The $1 Product Image Revolution: A look into how affordable SaaS platforms are leveling the playing field for small to medium-sized e-commerce businesses. This episode is brought to you by: - Levanta: One platform to run your entire affiliate and creator program across Amazon, Shopify, and Walmart — Marketing Misfits listeners get 10% off. Grab your discount -https://go.levanta.io/4o3hdZ1 - QuietLight Brokerage: Get a free, confidential valuation https://quietlight.com/ - Sellerboard: https://sellerboard.com/misfits - House of AMZ: Elevate your brand today at https://www.amazonseo.com/ - 8fig: Get 25% off 8fig off at https://8fig.co - Stack Influence: Use code MISFITS for 10% off at https://stackinfluence.com/ All conversations and information exchanged on the Marketing Misfits podcast or interaction on the Marketing MisfitsWebsite is intended for educational and entertainment purposes only. Do not confuse this with advice or direction with your business per se. Always do your own research before following advice from any podcast/website. Amazon's Terms of Service is always changing. All conversations and information exchanged on the Marketing Misfits podcast or interaction on the Marketing MisfitsWebsite is intended for educational and entertainment purposes only. Do not confuse this with advice or direction with your business per se. Always do your own research before following advice from any podcast/website. Amazon's Terms of Service is always changing. Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Is your AI integration actually saving you money, or are you just automating chaos? 🔥 Join the Marketing Misfits Newsletter https://misfits.news Most businesses that "add AI" end up spending more, quietly walking it back, and blaming the tech. The real reason is almost always the same: they automated a broken system. Garbage in, garbage out. In this episode of Marketing Misfits, Norm Farrar and Kevin King sit down with William DeVito, who taught AI mindset to MBA students in 30+ countries, to show you exactly what to fix first before you automate anything, and how to build AI agents and systems that actually work. William shares the exact five core requirement documents every business needs to train AI to sound indistinguishable from a human, reveals a hidden framework to test 40 different LLMs simultaneously, and shares his secret method for building automated agent networks that function entirely on autopilot. What you'll learn in this episode: - Why "good human systems" have to come before any AI automation - How to prime ChatGPT, Claude, and other LLMs to give dramatically better answers using your own context - What a RAG database and vector library actually are, and how to set one up with Pinecone + Google Drive - The 5 core documents every business needs: Business Knowledge Base, Brand Voice, Style Guide, Customer Personas, and Marketing Pillars - The real difference between an AI agent, an automation, and a workflow - The ideal human-to-agent ratio for a modern team - The 3 things every AI agent needs to perform: background knowledge, a task, and an output example - When to use Claude Sonnet vs Opus (and how to save tokens) - AI video generation with start-frame / end-frame stitching using Seedream 2.0 Chapters 00:00 Intro 04:43 Global teaching experience 05:22 Misconceptions about AI 06:04 Prompting and system setup basics 11:12 Memory and training on user style 15:24 Core business docs for AI 20:49 Five-step business AI setup 24:54 Learning AI without technical skills 33:03 Automation, workflows, and agents 34:29 Exit planning and business valuation 40:14 Favorite AI tools overview 45:14 Perplexity Pro 48:02 MindPal for building workflows 51:42 AI media generation 54:10 AI music creation 56:18 Stitching video clips 64:33 Thanks William! This episode is brought to you by: - Levanta: One platform to run your entire affiliate and creator program across Amazon, Shopify, and Walmart — Marketing Misfits listeners get 10% off. Grab your discount - https://go.levanta.io/4o3hdZ1 - QuietLight Brokerage: Get a free, confidential valuation https://quietlight.com/ - Sellerboard: https://sellerboard.com/misfits - House of AMZ: Elevate your brand today at https://www.amazonseo.com/ - 8fig: Get 25% off 8fig off at https://8fig.co - Stack Influence: Use code MISFITS for 10% off at https://stackinfluence.com/ Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Are you tired of drowning in generic "AI marketing slop"? You aren't alone. As AI rapidly evolves, the days of typing a basic prompt into ChatGPT and getting a winning marketing campaign are over. 🔥 Join the Marketing Misfits Newsletter https://misfits.news In this episode of Marketing Misfits, Kevin King and Norm Farrar sit down with AI marketing expert Mike Kaput to discuss the massive shift happening right now: the move from chatting with AI to managing AI agents. Mike breaks down why traditional SaaS companies are in trouble, how to use First Principles thinking to train your AI, and the terrifying security risks of giving autonomous agents access to your data. If you want to survive the next wave of digital marketing, you need to stop acting like a prompt engineer and start acting like an AI orchestrator. Timestamps 00:00 Intro 05:53 Why Most Marketers Are Just Creating "AI Slop" 08:03 The Danger of Falling in Love with Just One AI Model 17:00 Using Claude Code to Automate the Boring Stuff 25:37 Why "Agentic AI" is the Skill That Will Save Your Career 31:03 The "First Principles" Secret to 10x Your AI Outputs 41:08 The Only Two Competitive Moats Left in the AI Era 45:25 The Hidden Security Nightmare of Connecting Your Data 49:40 The AI Agent That Deleted a Codebase in 9 Seconds 51:00 Are "AI-Native Pods" Coming for Your Marketing Job? 62:17 A Cure for AI Overwhelm Mike Kaput is an expert in AI marketing, an educator, and the co-host of The Artificial Intelligence Show. He specializes in helping brands and individual contributors navigate the rapidly changing landscape of artificial intelligence. Subscribe to Marketing Misfits so you never miss an episode filled with actionable e-commerce and marketing strategies! Join the Newsletter: Stay updated at misfits.news (http://misfits.news) This episode is brought to you by: - QuietLight Brokerage: Get a free, confidential valuation https://quietlight.com/ - Sellerboard: https://sellerboard.com/misfits - House of AMZ: Elevate your brand today at https://www.amazonseo.com/ - 8fig: Get 25% off 8fig off at https://8fig.co - Stack Influence: Use code MISFITS for 10% off at https://stackinfluence.com/ - Levanta: Get 20% off Levanta's gold plan and book your call today - https://get.levanta.io/misfits Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Are you still relying on traditional keywords while Amazon’s Rufus (now Alexa), takes over product discovery? 🔥 Join the Marketing Misfits Newsletter https://misfits.news In this episode of Marketing Misfits, Norm Farrar and Kevin King sit down with Jaimin Patel, founder of Aakaar AI, to uncover the hidden layer of AI that most Amazon sellers are completely missing. It's not just about slapping "AI" onto a basic chatbot, it’s about leveraging Context Intelligence. Jaimin reveals how mimicking the reasoning of a human PPC manager can drastically lower your TACOS, eliminate wasted ad spend before a single click happens, and prepare your brand for the inevitable shift toward AI-driven shopping. If you want to stop paying the "Amazon tax" on your mistakes and start scaling smarter, you can't afford to skip this conversation. This video was recorded 1 week before Amazon announced moving Rufus to Alexa** For more information visit https://aakaarai.com Main Topics Covered in This Episode: The Evolution of AI on Amazon: How tools like Rufus are fundamentally changing the discovery of what consumers buy. Decoding Context Intelligence: Why traditional machine learning fails and how providing brand goals and guardrails allows AI to act like a Junior PPC Manager. The Power of MCP (Model Context Protocol): How sellers are building live, custom applications using Claude to analyze data without relying on rigid software dashboards. The Danger of Open AI Implementation: Why using basic LLMs (like ChatGPT or open Claude) to take action on your account is a massive security risk. Real-World Success Stories: Hear how a towel brand dropped their TACOS from 15% to 8%, and how a beauty brand saved thousands by negativing irrelevant search terms before getting a single click. Prepping for the Future: Strategies for optimizing your entire listing end-to-end to ensure you rank in Amazon's new knowledge graph. Don't forget to hit Subscribe and turn on notifications so you never miss an episode of Marketing Misfits! Join the Newsletter: Stay updated at misfits.news (http://misfits.news) This episode is brought to you by: - QuietLight Brokerage: Get a free, confidential valuation https://quietlight.com/ - Sellerboard: https://sellerboard.com/misfits - House of AMZ: Elevate your brand today at https://www.amazonseo.com/ - 8fig: Get 25% off 8fig off at https://8fig.co - Stack Influence: Use code MISFITS for 10% off at https://stackinfluence.com/ - Levanta: Get 20% off Levanta's gold plan and book your call today - https://get.levanta.io/misfits Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

What if your Amazon store is quietly setting you up to lose everything? 🔥 Join the Marketing Misfits Newsletter https://misfits.news Most Amazon sellers think dabbling in Shopify means just uploading their listings to a new platform. Kurt Elster, host of the Unofficial Shopify Podcast and one of the most respected Shopify strategists in e-commerce joins Norm Farrar and Kevin King to expose exactly why that thinking is killing brands before they even get started. In this episode, Kurt breaks down the real difference between demand capture (Amazon) and demand creation (Shopify), why free shipping is way less powerful than you think, and what the most successful 7- and 8-figure Shopify brands are doing that everyone else is ignoring. Plus, we get into AI-powered product discovery, identity resolution tools, TikTok Shop, and the brand-new Universal Commerce Protocol that's changing how ChatGPT finds and recommends products. Whether you're an Amazon seller looking to go omnichannel, a Shopify store owner fighting rising customer acquisition costs, or just someone trying to figure out where e-commerce is headed in 2026. 🔑 WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN THIS EPISODE: - Why most Amazon sellers build "thin" Shopify stores and how to fix it - The #1 driver of Shopify traffic in 2025 (hint: it's still Meta) - How to use identity resolution tools to capture 40–70% of anonymous site visitors - Why free shipping isn't moving the needle and what actually does - The "free gift with purchase" promo strategy that boosts AOV and conversion rate - How Shopify's Universal Commerce Protocol gets YOUR products recommended by ChatGPT Chapters 00:00 Intro 01:17 Networking trips and cigars 04:40 Omni-channel selling 06:10 What is Shopify 08:24 Amazon vs Shopify 13:47 Meta Customer acquisition costs 18:10 Order bumps and conversion optimization strategies 22:15 Building email lists 34:37 AI optimization 47:11 What separates million-dollar businesses Join the Newsletter: Stay updated at misfits.news (http://misfits.news) This episode is brought to you by: - QuietLight Brokerage: Get a free, confidential valuation https://quietlight.com/ - Sellerboard: https://sellerboard.com/misfits - House of AMZ: Elevate your brand today at https://www.amazonseo.com/ - 8fig: Get 25% off 8fig off at https://8fig.co - Stack Influence: Use code MISFITS for 10% off at https://stackinfluence.com/ - Levanta: Get 20% off Levanta's gold plan and book your call today - https://get.levanta.io/misfits Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Back in the early days of Amazon FBA, sellers enjoyed incredibly cheap storage, massive search visibility, and pay-per-click ads for as low as 12 cents. 🔥 Join the Marketing Misfits Newsletter https://misfits.news Today? The competition is fierce, margins are squeezed, and building a business solely on Amazon is no longer a viable strategy. In this episode of Marketing Misfits, Kevin King and Norm Farrar sit down with Mike McClary, the CEO of Amazing.com (http://Amazing.com) and a veteran of the e-commerce space. From the hidden power of networking over cigars to using AI to write your landing pages, this episode is packed with high-level strategies to future-proof your brand. 🔥 Main Topics Covered in This Episode: The Shift in Amazon FBA: Why the "Gold Rush" days of passive income on Amazon are over, and how fee increases and rising PPC costs are forcing sellers to adapt. The Omnichannel Survival Strategy: Why you must control your customer lifetime value by driving traffic (via Meta) to your own Shopify store, while using Amazon purely as an overflow channel. Leveraging AI for E-commerce: How to properly prompt AI tools to structure your daily priorities, generate killer landing pages, and optimize your Amazon listings step-by-step. Chapters 0:00 - The Changing Amazon Landscape 1:10 - Coke Zero Addictions 1:50 - Why Cigars Build the Best Networks 3:30 - Conquering Stage Fright 9:28 - Meet Mike McClary (Amazing.com (http://Amazing.com) CEO) 11:14 - From Corporate Misery to E-com Success 13:36 - Why Authenticity Always Wins 14:36 - The Wild West Era of Amazon FBA 18:48 - 12-Cent PPC Clicks 21:19 - Surviving Industry Changes with AI 22:15 - Why Amazing.com (http://Amazing.com) is Betting on New Sellers 28:09 - Marketing Hacks: The Power of Gamification 31:06 - The Biggest Hurdles for New Entrepreneurs 34:25 - Ditch Amazon 38:09 - Walmart's Massive AI Advantage 39:47 - The ROI of Getting Uncomfortable 43:47 - Crushing Imposter Syndrome 48:08 - The "Fight Club" Era of Amazon Secrets 51:43 - Why Solo Entrepreneurs Fail 53:48 - The Dude Wipes Marketing Masterclass Join the Newsletter: Stay updated at misfits.news (http://misfits.news) This episode is brought to you by: - QuietLight Brokerage: Get a free, confidential valuation https://quietlight.com/ - Sellerboard: https://sellerboard.com/misfits - House of AMZ: Elevate your brand today at https://www.amazonseo.com/ - 8fig: Get 25% off 8fig off at https://8fig.co - Stack Influence: Use code MISFITS for 10% off at https://stackinfluence.com/ - Levanta: Get 20% off Levanta's gold plan and book your call today - https://get.levanta.io/misfits Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

if your business isn't optimizing for AI agents, you are about to be completely left behind. 🔥 Join the Marketing Misfits Newsletter https://misfits.news In this episode of the Marketing Misfits, Kevin King and Norm Farrar sit down with local marketing savant Chris Gray. Chris drops some of the most ruthless, outside-the-box marketing tactics you will ever hear for brick-and-mortar and home service businesses. But it’s not all laughs, Chris issues a massive warning about the future of Google Search. Google is shifting to an "Agentic" AI model, meaning the search engine will soon book appointments and do the shopping for the customer. If you are still relying on a basic website and organic search, you are about to be left behind. Learn why your Google Business Profile is your new homepage, how to lock customers into recurring clubs, and the exact tools to hijack your customer's smartphone lock screen. What You’ll Learn in This Masterclass: The Caller ID Hack: How changing a caller ID name completely broke through a gatekeeper and secured a massive local client. The Death of Traditional Search: Discover Google's "Universal Commerce Protocol" and how AI agents will soon handle the actual purchasing for consumers. The New Homepage: Why your Google Business Profile is now more important than your website, and why you must treat it like an SEO goldmine. The "Always Have an Event" Strategy: How posting an "Event" or "Offer" on your Google Business Profile forces the algorithm to weight your listing higher than your competitors. The Subscription Club: Why local service businesses must take past customers off the market by locking them into a membership club for slow seasons. ⏳ Episode Highlights: 00:00 - The Caller ID Sales Hack 05:20 - Kevin's "IRS Surveillance" Prank 09:15 - The Agentic AI Future 15:30 - Why Shopify Expects 50% of E-com to be Agentic by 2030 21:45 - Google Business Profile Optimization: 28:10 - The Importance of Review Velocity 33:50 - Press Release Ranking Hack 38:20 - Digital Wallet Marketing Strategy 45:10 - AI Voice Agents 52:30 - Building a Loyal Community Check out our clips channel. Join the Newsletter: Stay updated at misfits.news (http://misfits.news) This episode is brought to you by: - QuietLight Brokerage: Get a free, confidential valuation https://quietlight.com/ - Sellerboard: https://sellerboard.com/misfits - House of AMZ: Elevate your brand today at https://www.amazonseo.com/ - 8fig: Get 25% off 8fig off at https://8fig.co - Stack Influence: Use code MISFITS for 10% off at https://stackinfluence.com/ - Levanta: Get 20% off Levanta's gold plan and book your call today - https://get.levanta.io/misfits Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.