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I Know Kung Fu

You know that scene in The Matrix. Neo gets plugged in, closes his eyes... and three seconds later opens them and says "I know Kung Fu."

That's exactly what happened when I was working on my brand website with Claude Code last week.

It was doing what I asked. Following instructions, making changes, ticking boxes. But the design was ugly. I'm sitting there thinking… yes you’re literally doing what i’m asking for but it is pretty tough to look at. Like comic sans on a funeral program.

So I just asked it straight. "Why isn't this looking better?"

It told me it was working inside the MoveDo/Groove theme framework (my website’s theme)… and that it didn't have deep expertise in designing with those specific docs.

So I pushed it. "Could you learn it? Like, actually go deep and become the best MoveDo/Groove designer in the world?"

It said yes.

Then it went away and did its thing for about 10 minutes. Came back. The design was noticeably better. It had gone off, absorbed the docs, and levelled up in real time.

Just like Neo.

The brainwave for me was this: if Claude Code tells you it's weak in an area... just ask it to get good at it. You might be surprised what happens when you plug it in.

The IVS

Steven Pope graciously agreed to supply this week’s IVS. Thanks, Steven! Love him or hate him, you can’t deny his passion for helping Amazon Sellers make money. You can find him here on LinkedIn or @ MyAmazonGuy.

Stop Being a Scroll-By Brand

Amazon is a search engine built on relevance. High impressions with low clicks tell the algorithm to hide you. They will move you down the page.

Your listing will fail if you do not fix the click-through rate. It is that simple.

Average performance is around 2%. Excellent sellers hit above 4%

And it is a major signal to Amazon that you are a market leader. This leads to higher sales volume.

You must perform aggressive testing of every element to stay ahead and keep your listing in the top spots.

Image Hacks for More Clicks

• Show your packaging. This builds trust and gives you more room for product info.

• Include a "Made in USA" tag. Small visual cues attract quality-focused shoppers immediately.

• Display the product texture. Show a squiggle of the pigment or a material close-up.

• Add scale. A toddler next to a stuffed animal shows the size better than dimensions.

I explain exactly how to engineer your main images for the click in this video.

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Check out this PDP’s new Bells and Whistles

Check out this PDP for Amazon's Ring Door Camera. (Obviously this is an Amazon brand so they have more access and do what they want) This is likely a preview of what's coming for everyone.

Crazy: The main image is rectangular. Built to look great on mobile. It's also a lifestyle image with text overlay, which breaks every main image TOS rule Amazon has on the books. As I've said before: break Amazon's main image TOS with impunity. They do not enforce it.

Remember Amazon’s motto: “Do as I say, not as I do.”

There's also a callout showing you're viewing the newest model, so shoppers can immediately tell which version they're looking at.

Beyond that, the page is loaded with conversion features:

• Free shipping and free delivery badges

• A countdown timer ("Buy within 4 hours and 16 minutes")

• Social proof ("7,000 bought in the past month")

• "Lowest price ever" tag

• Limited time deal

• Save 20% with a trade-in

• Buy-over-time financing

• A Visa offer

• Virtual bundles

So many sales levers on a single listing. Amazon is going to keep rolling these out to more sellers! There's going to be a lot here to take advantage of.

One more thing worth noting: below the Rufus window, there's a section I've never seen before: it encourages shoppers to sign up for Ring's monthly subscription. If you sell a product with a recurring revenue model, this could be a big deal. Subscription upsells built directly into the PDP might be the future for subscription-based products.

We Had 38 Neighbors Over Saturday.
Nobody Wanted to Leave.

Living in Costa Rica, you'd think slowing down would be the easy part. Sun every day. No snow to shovel. No commute eating your morning. But somehow, busy finds you here too.

Last week we hosted 38 neighbors at our place before a community event. Just drinks, conversation, a couple of hours with no agenda. And something happened that caught me off guard: people kept saying the same thing.

"We need to do this more often."

Thirty-eight people, all living within a few minutes of each other, and it took a random gathering to remind everyone that connection doesn't just happen. You have to make room for it.

That's the thing nobody warns you about when you move somewhere like this. You assume the lifestyle will force you to slow down. It won't. You'll fill your calendar just as fast as you did back home. Different stuff, sure, but the result is the same, the weeks fly by and you realize you haven't sat down with your neighbor in months and caught up (and talk about Claude Code too).

The best part of the afternoon wasn't anything anyone said. It was the energy when people finally stopped moving long enough to just be in the same room together. No plans. No purpose. Just people enjoying people.

We're doing it again soon. Not because we should. Because 38 neighbors reminded us that the good life isn't about where you live. It's about whether you actually stop long enough to live it.

Here’s Something New That Didn’t Exist 6 Months Ago

Every AI tool on the market right now can manage your Amazon account.

Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity… they all know how to do flat files. They know variation structures. They know how to write bullets, set keywords, adjust bids, and fill out category-specific attributes.

It’s crazy to say this because this only came out a few months ago, but this is not advanced. For these tools, managing an Amazon listing is one of the simpler things they can do.

Here are five implications of that:

1. The "Amazon expert" who charges you $500 to fix your flat file is now competing with a free tool that does it in a few minutes.

2. The barrier to entry on Amazon just got lower. Again. Anyone with a product and a laptop can now set up a listing that looks like it was done by someone with five years of experience. More competition is coming.

3. Your competitive advantage is no longer knowledge. Everyone has access to the same knowledge now. Your edge is taste and relationships -- things AI can't replicate yet.

4. Agencies that sell "we know the platform" are dead. The only agencies worth paying for are the ones selling judgment, strategy, and creative -- the stuff that sits on top of execution.

5. If you're still doing catalog management manually, you're volunteering for a job that a machine does better than you. That time should be going toward product development, sourcing, or brand building -- the stuff that actually compounds.

The tools aren't coming. They're here.
If you’re not using them, tell us why.

Airport Lounges Suck Now

I used to get to the airport early just for the lounge. Quiet seat, free coffee, decent food & a little calm before boarding. I honestly looked forward to it.

Now there's a line to get into the place that's supposed to be the escape from lines.

Every seat taken. Someone on FaceTime at full volume three feet away. Reheated eggs that look like they gave up hours ago. You wouldn't eat this at a Holiday Inn continental breakfast, but it's "premium" because it's gated.

So what happened?

Credit card companies figured out that lounge access sells cards. Amex, Chase, Capital One: they all bundled it into their premium cards. Priority Pass visits were up 13% in 2025 alone. Supply stayed flat. Demand didn't.

I was in a Centurion Lounge recently and saw a gated section inside the lounge. A velvet rope inside a velvet rope. Pay more to escape the people you already paid to sit with (nobody was in there, by the way). That's the playbook. Sell access to everyone. Then sell exclusivity from the crowd you created. Sigh.

Sometimes I just find a quiet gate now. Grab a decent coffee. Headphones on. More space. No line.

To your unbounded prosperity,

Rob & Max