Welcome back friend!
600+ Corrections
There is a file on my computer with 600 corrections in it. Every one is something I told my AI after it handed me work I didn't like.
The system could not be simpler: before the AI does anything, it has to read that file. That's it. Every no I have ever said, in plain English, sitting in front of it every time it starts. I took a look at it, and I sound like a very tired manager.
A correction that lives in the chat dies with the chat. Tomorrow's session starts from zero and makes yesterday's mistake with full confidence. I spent months in that loop, fixing the same things over and over and calling the tool dumb. The tool wasn't dumb. It just couldn't remember, and I was letting every lesson disappear.
Writing it down changes what a correction is worth. It ends that avenue of errors in theory. In practice, it sometimes makes the same mistakes, but much more rarely.
And it solves a problem I didn't know I had: I could never have written my standards out up front. Nobody can. I don't know what I want until I see what's wrong. But a miss? A miss I can spot instantly. So the file wrote itself, one no at a time, and 600 “No’s” later it describes what I want better than anything I could have produced from a blank page.
Reject enough, in writing, and you eventually land exactly where you wanted to be: first drafts that have already cleared 600 objections before you ever see them.
The IVS
Thanks to John Aspinall for supplying this week’s IVS. If you’re in the Amazon space you’ve probably heard of John. He’s always talking about CTR, AI, & the latest ecom developments. You can find him at ASPI, ProductPinion, & Velocity Sellers. Check out his A 4-week live AI bootcamp for operators. Starts Monday. Use AUGUST250 for $250 off.
Jack Dorsey just built a Slack killer with AI inside
Hey SFTB! Check out this video where I walk through Buzz, Jack Dorsey's new Slack-style workspace with AI agents built right into it. I set up a whole Marvel-themed team of agents, each with its own job and its own model, and you can watch them delegate tasks, message each other, and work in parallel like real teammates. You should pay special attention to the subscription part: Buzz runs on the AI plans you already pay for (Claude Code, Codex, Grok) instead of burning through API credits.
If you've ever duct-taped an AI bot into Slack and walked away underwhelmed, this one is worth ten minutes of your day. Enjoy!
Amazon News from Week 32/52
Amazon enforced its 75-character title limit on July 27, published a seller FAQ on July 30, and now gives AI-rewritten titles a 14-day review before going live. (EcomCrew) |
Amazon has set a September 16 inventory cutoff for an October event it has not yet dated, so stock needs to arrive before that deadline. (Google News) |
US and UK sellers shipping into the EU must still appoint an authorized representative by August 12, the recent packaging rule delay only applies to EU-based companies. (r/FulfillmentByAmazon) |
Amazon Buy Shipping now supports five more carriers, including USPS, UPS Roadie, and DHL eCommerce, so sellers can use their own negotiated rates with delivery protection. (SP-API changelog) |
TikTok Shop is testing a paid membership program similar to Amazon Prime, a sign it wants to compete harder for shopper loyalty. (Helium 10 Weekly Buzz) |
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The Deep Dive (Premium Content)
What happens to your Amazon business if you're in a hospital bed next week?
Who pauses the ads? Who answers the email from Amazon with a deadline in it? Who knows which bank the payouts land in?
Count the people who can log into your Seller Central, answer the two-factor text on your phone, and pay the card behind your ad account. If the answer is one, this deep dive is for you.
The machine does not wind down gently. FBA keeps shipping, which buys your family time, but ads keep spending with nobody watching, there’s buyer messages, seller support cases, etc…
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Camp and Culture Shock
We are still on the road this week and picking the kids up after a week at sleepover camp. This was their second year going, and you can really see both boys growing and maturing.
I think camp is so good for kids. It helps them break out of their shell a bit, become more independent, and in our case, spend some much-needed time away from each other.
While they were at camp, Marsha and I spent the week in a little ski hill community. After seven days back in Canada, we are definitely experiencing some culture shock. Why is eating out so expensive now? Restaurants are adding 2% credit card fees, 1% “village improvement fees,” and suggested tips starting at 18%, sometimes just because someone passed you an iPad to pay. Not to mention “surge pricing” for the attractions. I will say our Amex Platinum finally came through for us. We got a room upgrade and two free Starbucks drinks every day.
The Westin we stayed at was interesting because the rooms are privately owned. Owners get six days a month for personal use, plus 45 flex days during the year. I saw a two-bedroom unit listed for $429,000 that apparently nets around $9,800 a year. Not exactly a great return, but it could help pay for a family ski season if you were going to use it anyway.
The servers we talked to all said it was much slower this season. It feels like the middle class is getting squeezed. People are still travelling, but they are definitely spending less once they get there.
We are in Toronto for a few days now. The traffic sucks, everyone is in a rush, and it is busy everywhere. I do not miss that. It was nice being able to go to the mall and pick up a last-minute sport jacket for a wedding, even though I will probably never wear it again.
More than anything, it made me appreciate how much stuff we no longer need living in Costa Rica (sport jackets, winter clothes, and $10 Starbucks).
Amazon told me "no room"
This week Amazon refused a routine shipment into Amazon.ca. The account was at 94% of its storage limit, no room for the rest of the order. But I was able to buy my way out of the issue:
(This has been out a while, but you may have forgotten. Q4 is soon!)
What it is: Capacity Manager. Amazon's auction for extra FBA warehouse space. Every account has a monthly storage limit. When the limit is smaller than your plans, you don't file a ticket and beg. You bid.
How it works: You request extra space for a future month and name the maximum
reservation fee you'd pay per cubic foot. Amazon runs allocation roughly twice a week and grants the highest bids first until the spare space runs out.
The capacity monitor
Say you request 200 cubic feet (about three pallets) at a $3 fee per cubic foot. Worst
case you owe $600. But every $1 of sales you make with that extra space earns a $0.15
credit against the fee. Sell $4,000 of the inventory and the $600 is wiped out. Three
pallets is almost always worth more than $4,000 at retail, so if it sells at all, the
space costs you nothing.
How to de-risk it:
• Run that same math before you bid: your total fee divided by 0.15 is roughly the sales
the extra space has to produce. Bid a number your slowest month still covers.
• Only request space you will actually fill. The fee applies to granted capacity whether
you use it or not.
• Set a short expiration date on the request. If Amazon hasn't granted it within a few
days, it dies clean instead of surprising you later.
How long it takes: Grants typically land within 48 to 72 hours: you get an email, the
request flips to "Granted", and the space is live for the month you requested.
Here’s Where You Should Sit
SeatGuru was a website we recommended back on SFTB Newsletter #1 (Oct 30, 2023).
But… TripAdvisor shut SeatGuru down in November 2025 and 25 years of seat data went dark (seatguru.com now just says "SeatGuru has closed down").
So, let’s introduce you to aerolopa.com! Here’s where the seat nerds hang out: seat maps hand-drawn to scale by an architect, one drawing per airline per aircraft variant, with per-seat ratings, covering 200+ airlines. British Airways alone has 28 distinct cabin configurations mapped, including four different 777-200ER layouts, which matters because the great seat on one variant is a windowless wall seat on another.
SeatGuru's original creator joined the aeroLOPA team after the shutdown, which makes it the de facto successor. Free after creating a quick account. Check it before you pay for seat selection, not after.
People don't want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole.
Theodore Levitt
BEER! Now that I have your attention… you probably would like the Facebook community.
This week in the Facebook group: Upcoming AMA w/ Nicole Witt - put your questions in the thread here!
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Rob & Max