Podcasts about Helium

Amazon's 2026 Big Spring Sale dates are set. Sponsored Brands ads no longer need custom titles/creatives. TikTok Shop sellers react to the new shipping change.   We're back with another episode of the Weekly Buzz with Helium 10's VP of Education and Strategy, Bradley Sutton. Every week, we cover the latest breaking news in the Amazon, TikTok Shop, Walmart, and E-commerce space, talk about Helium 10's newest features, and provide a training tip for the week for serious sellers of any level.   Amazon quietly revealed the 2026 Big Spring Sale is back on March 25-31, shown inside Seller Central's Deals/Lightning Deals section, where some products are already being flagged as eligible. Sellers should start planning promos now—locking in Lightning Deals early or lining up Prime Exclusive Discounts ahead of the event. Exclusive: Some TikTok Shop sellers are pulling back as the platform moves to end independent shipping in the U.S. https://www.modernretail.co/operations/exclusive-some-tiktok-shop-sellers-are-pulling-back-as-the-platform-moves-to-end-independent-shipping-in-the-u-s/ This week's strategy shows how to uncover competitors' proven sales-driving keywords using Amazon-confirmed data in Helium 10's Brand Analytics (ABA Top Search Terms), not just estimates from Cerebro. Add competitor ASINs, choose high-spike weeks, and filter for more than 1% conversion share to reveal keywords Amazon verifies are converting. New Feature Alerts: Helium 10's TikTok Ads now adds automation rules for GMV Max so you can auto-add high-performing affiliate videos and remove underperformers (like a “negative match” for low ROAS). There's also a new Creative Insights page to track ad, affiliate, and authorized posts in one place and quickly move winning videos into campaigns. Helium 10's Keyword Tracker got a small facelift, and the Boost button is finally back to red instead of blue. Boost is the feature that checks rankings up to 24 times a day across rotating browsing scenarios to track organic and sponsored position. New section-level shopper engagement insights on Brand Stores (Beta) https://advertising.amazon.com/en-us/resources/whats-new/brand-store-insights-at-section-level-beta/ Join our free live AI workshop on Monday, 8 am PT, to learn how to prep your product/brand images and prompts so AI generates the exact look you want. We'll demo it live using real Project X images and show the before-and-after results. Register free at http://h10.me/aimfeb Bradley will be in Dubai next week at the Worldef Conference, filming case studies and potential podcast interviews with sellers in attendance. If you're there, come say hi and message me on Instagram @SeriousSellersPodcast to get on camera. Event info at http://h10.me/dubai In episode 492 of the AM/PM Podcast and Weekly Buzz, Bradley discusses: 00:00 - Introduction 00:43 - 2026 Amazon Big Spring Sale 02:04 - Amazon Sponsored Brand Update 03:22 - Competitor Keyword Sales 05:17 - TikTok Shop Exodus? 08:01 - TikTok Ads 09:44 - KW Tracker Boost 10:55 - Amazon Brand Store Insights 11:45 - Upcoming Events

In this episode, turn one seed keyword into a full Amazon PPC keyword map, uncover competitor keywords that actually drive sales (straight from Amazon data), and use AI to spot quick wins fast.   In Part 2 of the 2026 Amazon Keyword Research Masterclass, Bradley Sutton goes beyond reverse-ASIN research and shows how to uncover keyword opportunities you'll miss if you only look at competitor rankings. He starts inside Helium 10's Cerebro (where Magnet now lives) to expand a single seed keyword into hundreds of related terms. Especially long-tail variations that can quietly drive profitable sales and shape a smarter Amazon PPC structure.   Next, the episode dives into Amazon Brand Analytics inside Helium 10's Black Box tool and explains why it's one of the most valuable datasets sellers ignore, mainly because it's massive and hard to work with manually. Bradley breaks down how to interpret click share vs conversion share, and then reveals a key strategy: using filters across multiple weeks to surface keywords that Amazon itself is signaling drove sales, so you're not just guessing what's working for competitors.   Finally, he walks through Search Query Performance and Helium 10's Search Query Analyzer tool to understand the full funnel (impressions → clicks → add-to-carts → purchases), benchmark performance against the market, and identify where you're leaving money on the table. With AI analysis layered on top, sellers can turn overwhelming keyword lists into clear action items, then preview what Seller Strategy Masterclass is coming next: faster, more automated keyword discovery inside Listing Builder. Stay tuned! In episode 491 of the AM/PM Podcast, Bradley talks about: 00:00 – Introduction 02:12 – How To See An Expanded List Of Keywords Related To One Keyword 08:28 – Introduction To Black Box Brand Analytics 16:39 – How To See Keywords That Drove Sales For Amazon Products 20:11 – Introduction To Search Query Performance Analyzer 31:23 – How To Use SQP AI Analysis 35:11 – What Is Coming To Listing Builder 38:45 – How To Automatically Track Yours And Competitors' Keyword Ranks

Challenge Mania Live returns to Helium in ATLANTA on Sunday March 8th with a loaded lineup joining Derrick and Scott of Devin, Tony, Katie, Ibis, Kefla, Leka and MORE!!Pre-Sale at www.ChallengeManiacs.com beginning at 11AM EST TODAY January 27th!Password lifted TOMORROW January 28th and everyone can grab tickets at www.ChallengeMania.Live

Amazon UK niche leader for nearly 16 years shares how a single mom built a multi-7-figure brand, survived copycats, ditched unprofitable markets, and grew with influencers + smart keyword research. ► Watch The Podcasts On Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Helium10SeriousSellersPodcast?sub_confirmation=1 ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup  (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft What does it take to dominate a niche for over a decade without building a giant team or becoming a “warehouse CEO”? Bradley Sutton heads to the UK to visit Cara Sayer at her home in Surrey and unpack the real story behind SnoozeShade: a product used by members of the Royal family and a brand that has stayed on top of its Amazon category for nearly 16 years. Cara's journey is a classic “scratch your own itch” case study. She needed a better way to protect her baby in a pram from sun, wind, and cold, so she created a stroller “blackout blind” solution that simply didn't exist at the time. Cara shares her path from working in PR and marketing (including being on the team that helped launch Amazon in the UK back in the early days) to building a physical product business the hard way—trade shows, prototypes, and getting orders before modern Amazon tools even existed. As competition grew, she explains how the brand evolved through distributors, Amazon Vendor Central, and a messy reseller situation (including 37 resellers on her best-selling product) before she took control and moved into Seller Central. Then comes the lesson every seller needs to hear: revenue isn't the goal—profit is. When the US market turned into “shark-infested waters” full of unsafe knockoffs and price attacks, Cara made the tough call to exit, protect margins, and refocus on what actually made the business stronger. This episode is packed with long-game strategy: why being obsessively good at product quality and customer service beats shortcuts, why market focus matters more than “go global fast,” and how Cara uses influencer relationships to build real brand awareness. She also shares how Helium 10 helps her organize keyword research, spot competitor moves, and avoid international keyword mistakes (because US/UK/AU English is not the same). If you want a blueprint for building a durable brand that survives copycats, this one's gold. In episode 732 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Bradley and Cara discuss: 00:00 - Introduction 00:41 - We're In The UK: Welcome To Cara's Place 04:31 - The Real Reason She Started: A Product Didn't Exist 05:55 - What SnoozeShade Is & Why It Took Off 07:13 - #1 In Category For Nearly 16 Years 10:22 - Copycats Killed Profit: “Turnover Is Vanity, Profit Is Sanity” 12:14 - Her Best Year: Nearly £3M (Now Around £2M) 15:48 - Lean Team Setup: Freelancers + VA In The Philippines 18:00 - Competitor Tracking + Why Competition Calmed Down 21:09 - Royal Family Customers 23:42 - TikTok & AI: Awareness Over Amazon-Only Thinking 25:16 - International Keyword Differences (UK vs US vs AU) 29:25 - Influencers: Relationship-First 34:04 - Helium 10: Time Savings and Smarter Keyword Testing

TikTok changed fulfillment rules—what does it mean for Amazon MCF? Amazon prices are shifting under tariffs, plus two live workshops to help serious sellers unlock more profit.   We're back with another episode of the Weekly Buzz with Helium 10's Senior Brand Evangelist, Shivali Patel. Every week, we cover the latest breaking news in the Amazon, TikTok Shop, Walmart, and E-commerce space, talk about Helium 10's newest features, and provide a training tip for the week for serious sellers of any level. There has been a scare lately with TikTok's announcement of needing to use TikTok Shipping for FBM, that MCF would no longer be able to be used. https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7420180485252861952/ Tariffs starting to bump up product prices, Amazon CEO tells CNBC https://www.reuters.com/business/davos/tariffs-starting-bump-up-product-prices-amazon-ceo-tells-cnbc-2026-01-20/ TikTok Shop eyes Europe with new logistics strategy https://daoinsights.com/news/tiktok-shop-europe/ TikTok Shop Expands With the Launch of Shoppable Posts https://www.lindseygamble.com/blog/tiktok-shop-expands-to-shoppable-photos TikTok Thursday is back with a workshop on the non-negotiable foundations for building a million-dollar TikTok Shop, covering product selection, listing setup, fulfillment margin killers, how TikTok rewards promotion, and a repeatable content plus ads engine. Register here: https://h10.me/tt261 There's also the Keyword Research Masterclass Part 2 showing how to find competitors' converting search terms fast and turn that into better listings and PPC. Register here: https://h10.me/kwmc2 In episode 490 of the AM/PM Podcast and Weekly Buzz, Shivali covers: 00:00 - Introduction 00:45 - MCF Still Allowed? 04:32 - Tariffs Pricing Pressure 07:03 - Refunds and Heat Maps 12:04 - TikTok Europe Upgrade 14:28 - Diamond and Elite Exclusive 15:12 - Shoppable Photos Launch 16:58 - Workshops Next Week  

GUEST: Bob Zimmerman. SUMMARY: Zimmerman discusses a private initiative by Black Moon Energy to mine helium-3 on the moon for fusion fuel. He notes they have signed a deal with JPL to send a mapping rover, a venture made possible only because launch costs have dropped significantly enough to make space mining conceivable.1932

Bradley Sutton shares Cerebro tactics to find sales-driving Amazon keywords, track ranking history, and uncover Amazon relevancy signals in this Part 1 Amazon Keyword Research Masterclass.   If you've ever wondered which keywords are actually driving sales on Amazon, this Amazon Keyword Research Masterclass Episode is for you. In Part 1 of this two-part series, Bradley Sutton walks through the fundamentals of Amazon keyword research in 2026 and why keywords still matter for discoverability, both for Amazon search and the AI tools shoppers now use along the way.   This episode is centered on Helium 10's Cerebro, a reverse-ASIN tool that lets you see exactly what keywords a product is showing up for; organically, through ads, and through Amazon's own relevance signals. Bradley explains how to quickly filter down to the terms most likely producing revenue, then demonstrates how to identify where competitors are winning and where you're missing opportunities.   You'll also learn how to “time travel” with Cerebro's historical features to see how a product's keyword footprint changes month to month, perfect for diagnosing sales dips or understanding seasonal spikes. Finally, Bradley reveals how to view which keywords Amazon considers most relevant for any listing, plus how to pull top keywords across multiple competitor ASINs. Part 2 will build on these foundations with even more advanced Amazon keyword research tactics and hidden gems. Stay tuned! In episode 489 of the AM/PM Podcast, Bradley covers: 00:09:45 – Introduction To Cerebro 00:14:06 – How To Find The Keywords That Are Driving Sales For Any Product. 00:20:30 – How To See The History Of All The Keywords A Product Has Ranked For. 00:26:50 – How To View Which Keywords Amazon Thinks Is Most Relevant For Any Product. 00:30:20 – How To See The Most Relevant Keywords For A Group Of Products 00:36:16 – How To Compare Your Product To Your Competitors. 00:40:04 – “10 Money Making Cerebro Strategies”

He quit Amazon, then launched One TikTok Shop SKU to 7-figures. Our guest breaks down content systems, creator outreach, FBT, cash flow, and scaling his product into the US.

Is there a new universal order for AI e-commerce that excludes Amazon? Set PPC bids based on keyword rank. Will your product soon appear in an Amazon brick-and-mortar superstore? We're back with another episode of the Weekly Buzz with Helium 10's VP of Education and Strategy, Bradley Sutton. Every week, we cover the latest breaking news in the Amazon, TikTok Shop, Walmart, and E-commerce space, talk about Helium 10's newest features, and provide a training tip for the week for serious sellers of any level.   Google announces a new protocol to facilitate commerce using AI agents https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/11/google-announces-a-new-protocol-to-facilitate-commerce-using-ai-agents/ Walmart's head of AI reveals the key difference between its shopping deals with Google Gemini and ChatGPT https://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-ai-head-reveals-difference-in-gemini-and-chatgpt-shopping-2026-1 New Feature Alert: Helium 10 Ads is testing rank-based bid automation. Elite/Diamond users can auto-adjust bids using Share of Voice metrics when organic or sponsored rank changes, reducing manual checks and optimizing ad spend. TikTok Adds More AI-Powered Tools To Assist TikTok Shop Merchants https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/tiktok-adds-more-ai-powered-tools-to-assist-tiktok-shop-merchants/809789/ Strategy of the Week: Helium 10 Inventory Heatmaps show where FBA inventory and sales are located. They help sellers avoid poor conversion from slow shipping, decide when to reopen listings, and optimize restocks by tracking inventory and sales distribution. Amazon takes on Walmart with new store concept https://www.grocerydive.com/news/amazon-big-box-store-plans-walmart-grocery/809423/ In episode 488 of the AM/PM Podcast and Weekly Buzz, Bradley talks about: 00:00 - Introduction 01:05 - Universal Commerce Protocol 04:21 - Walmart x Gemini 08:54 - Keyword Rank PPC Rules 12:49 - AI TikTok Seller Tools 14:33 - Inventory Heat Maps 17:58 - Amazon Superstore?

We're joined by Tom Elliott, the founder of Hotspur Helium, who holds the largest multinational primary helium portfolio globally.  We discuss what Hotspur Helium is building and the ambition behind the company, before stepping back to look at why helium has become such a compelling focus for investors and operators alike. Tom shares insight into the critical uses of helium — from healthcare and advanced manufacturing to space and technology, and the demand trends reshaping the global supply landscape. We also discuss how Hotspur Helium thinks about where to operate globally, what differentiates the company in an increasingly competitive space, and where it currently sits in its growth journey. Finally, we dive into the commercial realities of helium projects, including off-take interest, project economics, payback potential, and what the outlook looks like over the coming years. This is a practical, forward-looking conversation about a niche commodity that plays an outsized role in modern industry, and how Hotspur Helium is positioning itself within that opportunity KEY TAKEAWAYS Hotspur Helium differentiates itself by targeting "elephant" prospects—large-scale deposits (at least 5 BCF of recoverable helium) in the Middle East and Southern Africa, rather than the smaller pockets often found in North America. While 95% of global helium is currently a byproduct of the oil and gas industry, Hotspur is focused on "primary helium" exploration. This ensures a stable supply that isn't subject to the volatility of LNG market prices. Helium is irreplaceable in high-growth sectors, specifically semiconductor manufacturing, MRI scanners, and space exploration. Each SpaceX launch, for instance, consumes roughly 6% of daily global helium production. Since its founding in 2024, the company has acquired 20,000 square kilometres of acreage. They aim to finalise surface exploration in 2026, begin drilling in 2028, and bring the first helium online by 2030. BEST MOMENTS "Hotspur Helium... holds the largest multinational primary helium portfolio globally." "Someone said to me the other day, 'Oh, so you're elephant hunting.' And that's essentially what we're doing... we're the first people through the door and we're able to acquire the best acreage."  "Right now, is helium the tail on the dog or is it the flea on the end of the tail of the dog? Right now, given the size of the LNG industry, it's pretty small... " "It's an extremely lucrative commodity... worth something like 200 to 300 times that of natural gas” GUEST RESOURCES Web: www.hotspurhelium.com Email: info@hotspurhelium.com  LinkedIn (Hotspur): https://www.linkedin.com/company/hotspurhelium/ LinkedIn (TE): https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-elliott-230731316 VALUABLE RESOURCES Mail:        ⁠rob@mining-international.org⁠ LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-tyson-3a26a68/⁠ X:              ⁠https://twitter.com/MiningRobTyson⁠  YouTube: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/c/DigDeepTheMiningPodcast⁠  Web:        ⁠http://www.mining-international.org⁠ CONTACT METHOD ⁠rob@mining-international.org⁠ ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-tyson-3a26a68/⁠ Podcast Description Rob Tyson is an established recruiter in the mining and quarrying sector and decided to produce the “Dig Deep” The Mining Podcast to provide valuable and informative content around the mining industry. He has a passion and desire to promote the industry and the podcast aims to offer the mining community an insight into people's experiences and careers covering any mining discipline, giving the listeners helpful advice and guidance on industry topics.  This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

Shotgun Spratling and Chris Trevino return behind the microphones for another episode of the Helium Boys Podcast, a serious non-serious USC football podcast. The Helium Boys are back to wrap up the 2025 season taking a final look at the Trojans' overtime Alamo Bowl loss to TCU and what the 9-4 campaign means for the USC program moving forward. The podcasting duo also looks at a wide array of roster-related topics, including transfer portal additions/subtractions, re-signings and the couple of players that still have not officially finalized their 2026 plans. The episode opens with the Helium Boys staple 'Two-Minute Drill' that features Chris discussing his New Year's resolutions, which feature several USC-related ones, and Shotgun discussing the latest transfer portal additions, including former five-star quarterback Husan Longstreet jumping in and heading to join former USC head coach Lane Kiffin at LSU. The podcasting duo then discuss the topic that continues without a resolution: USC's search for a new defensive coordinator. The first half of the show continues with Chris and Shotgun discussing how the Alamo Bowl and the two weeks since the conclusion of the 2025 season have affected the outlook on the Trojans for 2026 in the "Stock Up, Stock Down" segment. Some freshmen get some love for stepping up in the bowl game that featured 12 USC starters not playing while the offensive line seems primed to step forward next season with all five opening day starters and two other reserves that started this year all returning. On the negative side stands USC's tackling efforts after 16 missed tackles as well as the Trojans' recruiting endeavors in the state of Georgia for the 2025 recruiting class  In the second half of the show, the Helium Boys look at the continuously evolving 2026 roster, discussing the latest transfer portal losses, transfer portal additions, the re-signings announced by USC and the last group of players that have not had their future endeavors revealed. The podcast duo also answer your mailbag questions discussing the transfer portal. After some 'Take It or Leave It' questions for Shotgun, the episode concludes with Chris sending the episode into overtime with some things to take or leave in the year 2025. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Can one phone photo become a full Amazon image stack & A+ Content? Learn an AI prompt framework, review-based market intel, live demos, and split-testing tips.   Shivali Patel kicks off this AI-themed AM/PM podcast episode with a simple question: What if a few camera-phone shots of your product could turn into a full, high-converting Amazon image stack, plus A+ Content, in minutes, without a photoshoot? She frames the problem sellers constantly face: creative assets are expensive, and even after you invest, you still need fast updates when dimensions change, bundles get added, or customers misunderstand what's included (like the Project X coffin products, where many shoppers didn't realize a gift box was part of the offer).   Kamaljit Singh from AMZ One Step and ListingOptimization AI explains that AI isn't the magic; systems are. AI can speed up and scale production, but conversion comes from knowing what an image needs to communicate and how to direct the model. He breaks down his “Image Framework” approach for structuring prompts (intent, main subject, aesthetics, guidelines, and emphasis) and emphasizes the difference between AI “lazy users” and “power users,” especially for more complex products where details, angles, and visual references require tighter control.   From there, the episode shifts into live demos that show the workflow in action: generating market intelligence by analyzing your reviews and competitor reviews, turning that into a brief, and then producing multiple main images, secondary infographics, and even A+ Content modules quickly using templates and different image models. They also show how edits can be made with direct commands, and they close with the practical next step: don't guess, use Helium 10 Audience and Manage Your Experiments to split test, ideally changing one element at a time so you can clearly measure what actually improves conversions. In episode 487 of the AM/PM Podcast, Shivali and Kamaljit discuss: 00:00 – Introduction 01:06 – AI For Listing Images & A+ Content 01:52 – Project X: Coffin Products & Image Audit 03:51 – Kamal's Framework & Live Demo Overview 05:33 – Systems Beat AI Alone 06:17 – Lazy Vs Power AI Users Explained 08:17 – Image Framework Prompt Structure 13:46 – Market Intelligence From Reviews Demo 19:28 – Crocs Product Demo: Generate Images Fast 28:39 – Split Testing Your Generated Images

Chinese firms have submitted more than a dozen proposals to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) for 200,000 internet satellites. China launched a new batch of internet satellites from the Hainan commercial spacecraft launch site on the southern island province of Hainan on Tuesday. ispace has been selected by JAXA to conduct a study and provide a study on space debris mitigation in lunar orbit and disposal management on the lunar surface, and more. Remember to leave us a 5-star rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Be sure to follow T-Minus on LinkedIn and Instagram. Selected Reading China seeks approval for one of largest satellite constellations China launches new internet satellite group - CGTN SkyFi Secures $12.7 Million Series A Funding to Advance Access to Satellite Imagery and Analytics Intuitive Machines Completes Acquisition of Lanteris Space Systems What time is SpaceX Crew-11's medical evacuation from the ISS on Jan. 14?- Space Intuitive Machines Completes Acquisition of Lanteris Space Systems Boeing Announces Fourth Quarter Deliveries Black Moon Energy Engages JPL for Robotic Lunar Mission Focused on Recovery of Helium-3 for Fusion Energy Share your feedback.  What do you think about T-Minus Space Daily? Please take a few minutes to share your thoughts with us by completing our brief listener survey. Thank you for helping us continue to improve our show.   Want to hear your company in the show? You too can reach the most influential leaders and operators in the industry. Here's our media kit. Contact us at space@n2k.com to request more info. Want to join us for an interview? Please send your pitch to space-editor@n2k.com and include your name, affiliation, and topic proposal. T-Minus is a production of N2K Networks, your source for strategic workforce intelligence. © N2K Networks, Inc. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Once on the lunar surface, MSOLO will search for the presence of Helium-3, which may be trapped in the lunar dust.

Amazon just changed how reviews work, dropped new discounted MCF pricing, and AI shopping tools are creating serious tension for brands. These and more buzzing news on this week's episode! We're back with another episode of the Weekly Buzz with Helium 10's Senior Brand Evangelist, Shivali Patel. Every week, we cover the latest breaking news in the Amazon, TikTok Shop, Walmart, and E-commerce space, talk about Helium 10's newest features, and provide a training tip for the week for serious sellers of any level. Amazon changes to review sharing across product variations starting Feb 12 https://sellercentral.amazon.com/seller-news/articles/QVRWUERLSUtYMERFUiNHNzQzV0JEN0RBN1pQNFFR Multi-Channel Fulfillment 2026 Preferred Pricing https://sellercentral.amazon.com/help/hub/reference/G53QRBEHXR2G5CCT Helium 10's exclusive automatic keyword harvesting lets sellers set-and-forget rules to surface competitor and own-product keywords, saving hours of manual research. Amazon's AI shopping tool sparks backlash from online retailers that didn't want websites scraped https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/06/amazons-ai-shopping-tool-sparks-backlash-from-some-online-retailers.html Walmart Opens Up Ads in Gen AI Shopping Agent Sparky https://www.adweek.com/commerce/walmart-opens-up-ads-in-gen-ai-shopping-agent-sparky/ For our New Feature Alert, Helium 10 combines Cerebro and Magnet into a single, upgraded Cerebro, allowing sellers to run ASIN- and keyword-based research with flexible seed ASIN controls in one place. Track Amazon Business customer patterns with new metrics https://sellercentral.amazon.com/seller-news/articles/QVRWUERLSUtYMERFUiNHVEg1NVVVOUpNNjY2RllD In episode 486 of the AM/PM Podcast and Weekly Buzz, Shivali discusses: 00:00 - Introduction 00:37 - Reviews Get Decoupled 05:05 - MCF Gets Cheaper 07:39 - Automate Keyword Harvesting 12:56 - AI Shopping Backlash 15:48 - Walmart Opens AI Ads 17:21 - Cerebro Update  20:46 - Track New B2B Metrics

In this episode, we audit the Project X Amazon ads account's bidding rules, keyword harvesting, placements, dayparting, AMC audiences, and retargeting to lift profit.   Bradley goes live from London for an “Amazon Ads Account Extreme Makeover Workshop,” bringing in PPC expert Vincenzo Toscano of Ecomcy to audit Helium 10's real Project X Amazon Ads account. The twist: Project X has been run more like a testing playground than a growth-focused brand, so while it's still producing sales, there's a long list of modern PPC levers that haven't been fully pulled. Together, they break down what's working, what's outdated, and what changes could quickly improve both sales efficiency and profitability.   We begin with Bradley's rule-based PPC management within Helium 10 Ads, utilizing ACoS “bands” to incrementally adjust bids, pausing targets with repeated non-performance, and establishing keyword harvesting rules to transfer proven search terms into high-performing campaigns. Vincenzo confirms the logic and adds key guardrails: add minimum click/spend thresholds before rules fire, keep campaigns tight, and avoid overreacting to small data. They also dig into keyword harvesting best practices, why immediate search term isolation can backfire, and why conversion rate benchmarks matter (because you can't “pay your way” into a keyword if your listing can't convert).   From there, the makeover focuses on high-impact upgrades, including dayparting and budget scheduling based on historical performance, placement optimization (top of search vs. product pages), and why placements become far more powerful once you transition to single-keyword campaigns. Vincenzo then highlights the biggest “new-school” opportunity, Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) audiences, so you can bid more aggressively only when shoppers match high-intent behaviors (like past purchasers or add-to-cart users). The episode concludes with actionable advice on Sponsored Display retargeting, refreshing video creatives to prevent burnout, utilizing storefront landing pages to minimize competitor distraction, and a plan to implement changes on Project X and report back with tangible results. In episode 485 of the AM/PM Podcast, Bradley and Vincenzo discuss: 00:00 - Introduction 02:03 - Project X Account Backstory And Purpose 06:39 - ACoS Bid Rules And Logic 09:47 - Minimum Click Thresholds Recommended 13:36 - Keyword Harvesting Rules And Flow 15:24 - Keep Five Keywords Per Campaign 17:12 - Avoid Search Term Isolation 19:52 - Dayparting And Budget Scheduling Tips 22:33 - Placement Optimization Quick Wins 31:42 - Amazon Marketing Cloud Audience Targeting 40:04 - Sponsored Display Defense And Retargeting 52:22 - When To Use Product Video Ads

Meet this Amazon seller still selling his first product. He shares how Freedom Ticket and Helium 10 tools sparked instant success, which then scaled in two years through B2B sales, AMC, and lean operations.  

THE 1921 DISASTER OF THE R38 AND THE HELIUM PROBLEM Colleague S.C. Gwynne. S.C. Gwynnedetails the 1921 disaster of the R38, a British rigid airship that broke apart due to inadequate testing and structural weakness. He explains that Britain was forced to use explosive hydrogen because the United States controlled the world's limited supply of non-flammable helium at that time. NUMBER 1

Amazon may soon let ChatGPT shop on its site. Here's what sellers need to change quickly. Plus USPS shipping updates for TikTok Shop and more in this week's Weekly Buzz.   We're back with another episode of the Weekly Buzz with Helium 10's VP of Education and Strategy, Bradley Sutton. Every week, we cover the latest breaking news in the Amazon, TikTok Shop, Walmart, and E-commerce space, talk about Helium 10's newest features, and provide a training tip for the week for serious sellers of any level.   Amazon faces 'leader's dilemma' — fight AI shopping bots or join them https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/24/amazon-faces-a-dilemma-fight-ai-shopping-agents-or-join-them.html TikTok Shop tightens Postal Service shipping options for sellers https://www.supplychaindive.com/news/tiktok-shop-usps-label-requirements-change/806303/ TikTok Shop offers incentives to new sellers, as U.S. uncertainty is finally over https://digiday.com/marketing/tiktok-shop-offers-incentives-to-new-sellers-as-u-s-uncertainty-is-finally-over/ TikTok Shop is offering substantial US incentives again. Start your account now and sign up through Helium 10's special link at http://h10.me/ttstart Amazon Hid FBA Listings Regionally for Two Months https://www.ecommercebytes.com/2025/12/14/amazon-hid-fba-listings-regionally-for-two-months/ The Weekly Buzz has moved to the AM/PM Podcast, while the Serious Sellers Podcast now focuses on real seller and brand stories from Amazon, TikTok Shop, Walmart, and Shopify entrepreneurs. We're holding an open casting call! If you've hit meaningful success and want to be featured in the Serious Sellers Podcast, email your story to mhel.d@helium10.com In episode 484 of the AM/PM Podcast and Weekly Buzz, Bradley talks about: 00:00 - Introduction 00:59 - Amazon Vs. AI 03:46 - TikTok Shop USPS Issues 06:28 - TikTok Shop Listing Conversion 08:51 - TikTok Shop Incentives 10:06 - Amazon Hid Listings? 15:06 - Podcast Invite

In this episode, we delve into the latest astronomical marvels and groundbreaking developments that are shaping our understanding of the cosmos. We kick off with an astonishing achievement by SpaceX, which has shattered its own launch record with 165 orbital flights in 2025, averaging a launch every 2.2 days. The Falcon 9 rocket has been the backbone of this success, while the next-generation Starship is also making strides towards becoming a fully reusable heavy-lift vehicle.Next, we explore an innovative solution for cleaning up space junk, inspired by science fiction. Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder are developing a tractor beam that uses a focused electrostatic beam to attract and maneuver debris without physical contact, promising a safer method of orbital debris removal.Shifting our gaze beyond Earth, we discuss a recent search for alien signals from the interstellar object 3i Atlas. Despite initial excitement over potential technosignatures, the search yielded no definitive evidence of extraterrestrial technology, but it set a new standard for future investigations.We then dive into the burgeoning lunar resource race, where countries and companies are vying to mine the Moon for valuable resources like water ice and helium-3. However, outdated international laws complicate this endeavor, prompting calls for a clearer framework to ensure responsible mining practices.As we look to the night sky, we highlight celestial events to watch for, including the brightest star, Sirius, and an upcoming total lunar eclipse on March 3rd. Jupiter will also be at opposition, shining brightly throughout the night, while Venus returns as the evening star.Finally, we unravel a cosmic mystery nearly a thousand years in the making regarding the supernova remnant PA30. Recent findings reveal it to be a failed type 1ax supernova, with a surviving white dwarf at its center emitting powerful winds that shape the nebula's unique structure.Join us for these captivating stories and more in this episode of Astronomy Daily!00:00 – **This podcast features the latest in astronomy news from around the world00:32 – **In 2025, SpaceX successfully completed 165 orbital flights01:39 – **Researchers at Colorado Boulder are developing a tractor beam to clean up space junk02:54 – **Astronomers conducted a highly sensitive radio search on an interstellar visitor04:09 – **There's a growing and increasingly urgent international race to mine the moon05:36 – **There's plenty to see in the night sky as we head into 201906:43 – **Astronomers finally solve puzzle of supernova remnant known as PA3008:42 – **Until tomorrow, this has been Avery and Anna telling stories### Sources & Further Reading1. SpaceX2. University of Colorado Boulder3. NASA4. Space.com### Follow & ContactX/Twitter: @AstroDailyPodInstagram: @astrodailypodEmail: hello@astronomydaily.ioWebsite: astronomydaily.ioClear skies and see you next time!

Shotgun Spratling and Chris Trevino return behind the microphones for another episode of the Helium Boys Podcast, a serious non-serious USC football podcast. The Helium Boys are back to preview the Trojans' bowl game matchup against TCU in San Antonio and look at a wide array of college football, and USC-specific, topics after USC and Notre Dame mutually announced the discontinuation of their rivalry and high-profile Big Ten programs hired big-time coaches. The episode opens with the Helium Boys staple 'Two-Minute Drill' that features Shotgun railing on both Notre Dame and USC for not being able to come to a resolution that would have resulted in the continuation of their 100-year old rivalry that has previously taken a global war or global pandemic to keep it from being played. The podcasters then dive into the bevy of comments left on Spotify, answering questions and then ultimately having the randomizer select a winner for a Trader Joes gift card. They then jump into a number of news items since the last Helium Boys episode, including the possibility of USC having to look for a new defensive coordinator soon. They also look at the continuously evolving 2026 roster, discussing the latest transfer portal losses, NFL departures, re-signings announced by USC and the last group of players that have not had their future endeavors revealed After a break, the podcasters dive into a preview of the Alamo Bowl matchup against the Christian Horned Frogs of Texas, including the key storylines, players and matchups before predicting why the Trojans will win and why they will lose. The podcast duo also answer your mailbag questions discussing trench play, Biletnikoff statistics and the most memorable moments of the 2025 season. After some 'Take It or Leave It' questions for Shotgun, the episode concludes with Chris and Shotgun ranking the Pop Tarts that were participants in the People's National Championship that is also known at the Pop Tarts Bowl. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hidden listing keywords. An Amazon & TikTok Shop reality show. And a tool that exposes the Amazon influencers hyping your competitors' products. Special edition Weekly Buzz today. Let's go!   We're back with another episode of the Weekly Buzz with Helium 10's VP of Education and Strategy, Bradley Sutton, and Helium 10's Principal Brand Evangelist, Carrie Miller. Every week, we cover the latest breaking news in the Amazon, TikTok Shop, Walmart, and E-commerce space, talk about Helium 10's newest features, and provide a training tip for the week for serious sellers of any level. 1️⃣ Listing Builder combines 8 tools into one, integrating keyword research and listing creation so you can find, analyze, and optimize Amazon listings in one place. 2️⃣ Helium 10's Scale Stories YouTube series follows real sellers at different stages, with expert mentors guiding beginners and stuck sellers step by step to grow. 3️⃣ TikTok Product Finder helps sellers discover winning TikTok Shop products using filters like category, price, sales, GMV, affiliates, and influencers. 4️⃣ Helium 10's Chrome extension now supports Amazon Saudi Arabia, letting sellers analyze sales and opportunities in this fast-growing market. 5️⃣ TikTok Hot Videos shows top-performing TikTok Shop videos by keyword, category, and timeframe, helping sellers and influencers replicate high-converting content. 6️⃣ Amazon Influencer Finder helps sellers discover, analyze, and contact Amazon influencers making product videos, making it easy to recruit proven creators for listings. 7️⃣ TikTok Shop Ads tool lets sellers analyze GMV Max ads by platform, product, and video to spot top-performing creatives and improve ROI. 8️⃣ Helium 10 Share of Voice shows how much page-one visibility your brand owns across organic, sponsored, and video placements, revealing true share of shelf beyond rankings. 9️⃣ Keyword Tracker now includes built-in translation, letting sellers instantly understand and analyze foreign-language keywords across global Amazon marketplaces.

Lunar Helium-3 Mining (LH3M) is at the forefront of the green energy revolution and the quantum computing era, tapping into the Moon's rarest and most strategic resource, Helium-3. Beyond enabling nuclear fusion, the cleanest and most efficient energy source, helium-3 is critical for cooling quantum computers, which will revolutionize information processing and may provide unmatched strategic informational supremacy. We found out more from LH3M CEO and Chief Engineer Chris Salvino. Remember to leave us a 5-star rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Be sure to follow T-Minus on LinkedIn and Instagram. Want to hear your company in the show? You too can reach the most influential leaders and operators in the industry. Here's our media kit. Contact us at space@n2k.com to request more info. Want to join us for an interview? Please send your pitch to space-editor@n2k.com and include your name, affiliation, and topic proposal. T-Minus is a production of N2K Networks, your source for strategic workforce intelligence. © N2K Networks, Inc. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stay profitable on Amazon in 2026 with pricing, PPC, and inventory tips. Plus, how Helium 10's Managed Refund Service helped a seller recover $100K in reimbursements.   Amazon profitability in 2026 is going to reward sellers who run their business like a finance department and a marketing department at the same time. In this episode, Carrie Miller and Leo Sgovio bring on experienced sellers to talk through what's actually moving the needle right now: pricing discipline, smarter PPC decisions, inventory/storage awareness, and operational tweaks that protect margin when costs keep rising.   Ryan Cramer shares how Gen-Y Hitch stays profitable by controlling what they can control: manufacturing in the US, negotiating in bulk, keeping prices consistent across Amazon/Walmart/other channels, and forecasting 6–12 months out so unprofitable SKUs get sunset instead of quietly bleeding margin. Leo adds a practical angle from the games category: when competitors aren't racing to the bottom on price, the real leverage becomes perceived value. Sharona Ozeri brings the apparel perspective, where price pressure is brutal, and explains how she's leaning harder into brand positioning, using a mix of lower-margin “traffic drivers” and higher-margin specialty products to stay afloat. She also breaks down her CM1/CM2/CM3 contribution margin method to pinpoint whether the real issue is price, Amazon fees/returns, or PPC spend, so decisions stay math-based, not emotional.   Then the conversation turns into “found money”: reimbursements. If Amazon loses inventory (and it happens), leaving reimbursements unclaimed is like accepting a lower profit margin on purpose. Ryan explains why Helium 10's MRS Managed Refund Service stands out (hands-on support + smart automation), how documentation like BOLs matters, and how their team recovered six figures in reimbursements, money that went straight back to the bottom line. Carrie also highlights a limited-time incentive: if you activate Helium 10's MRS inside your dashboard, the fee is 10% through February 28, 2026, making it an easy win compared to services charging 15–20%+.   In episode 481 of the AM/PM Podcast, Carrie, Leo, Ryan, and Sharona discuss: 00:00 – Introduction 01:19 – Ryan Cramer: Forecasting and Cost Control 05:03 – Leo Sgovio: Pricing and Perceived Value 07:11 – Sharona: Competing in Apparel by Branding up 10:39 – CM1/CM2/CM3 and FBA vs FBM Strategies 12:40 – Amazon PPC for Profitability Basics 21:19 – Amazon Reimbursement Policy Change 23:33 – Helium 10 Managed Refund Service 25:46 – MRS promo: 10% fee until Feb 28, 2026 40:20 – Deals, Rufus Price History, and Price Wars

From Project X newbie to a $3M Amazon seller, our guest shares product research, Helium 10 tactics, TikTok Shop commissions, and how she defends her profits from copycats.

Brett and Christina host an OG episode. Christina talks about her upcoming spinal surgery and navigating insurance hassles. Brett talks about his sleep issues, project progress, and coding routines. They dive into the complexities of USB-C cables, from volts to data rates. And TV’s just ‘okay’ now, except for some softcore gay porn. Kagi search saves the day. Happy holidays — and get some sleep. Sponsor Copilot Money can help you take control of your finances. Get a fresh start with your money for 2026 with 26% off when you visit try.copilot.money/overtired and use code OVERTIRED. Shopify is the commerce platform behind 10% of all eCommerce in the US, from household names like Mattel and Gymshark, to brands just getting started. Get started today at shopify.com/overtired. Show Links CaberQu BLE cable tester Umami Analytics Plausible Analytics Kagi The Comfortable Problem of Mid TV – The New York Times Fallout Heated Rivalry (TV Series 2025– ) – IMDb Chapters 00:00 Introduction and Greetings 00:40 Christina’s Health Update 05:05 Brett’s Sleep and Work Routine 12:19 USB-C Cable Confusion 22:03 Sponsor Break: Shopify 24:26 Sponsor Break: Copilot Money 26:57 Exploring Rocket Money and Web Interfaces 27:21 Discovering Umami Analytics 28:06 Nostalgia for Mint and Fever 28:44 The Decline of RSS and Google Reader 31:45 Switching to Kagi Search Engine 32:33 The Rise of AI-Generated Content 40:46 TV Shows: Is TV Just Okay Now? 47:24 The Cultural Phenomenon of Heated Rivalry 52:50 Wrapping Up and Holiday Wishes Join the Conversation Merch Come chat on Discord! Twitter/ovrtrd Instagram/ovrtrd Youtube Get the Newsletter Thanks! You’re downloading today’s show from CacheFly’s network BackBeat Media Podcast Network Check out more episodes at overtiredpod.com and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. Find Brett as @ttscoff, Christina as @film_girl, Jeff as @jsguntzel, and follow Overtired at @ovrtrd on Twitter. Transcript Universal Serial Bitching Introduction and Greetings [00:00:00] Brett: Hey, you’re listening to Overtired. I am Brett Terpstra, and it’s just me and Christina Warren this morning. How you doing, Christina? Christina: Doing pretty good. Doing pretty good. Yeah. This is the, this is the OG Overtired configuration. Brett: right back to basics. Um, Christina: We do miss you Jeff, though. Ho, ho, ho. Hope that Jeff is having a great holiday with his family. Brett: we’ll have to have some, uh, gratuitous Wiki K hole that you go down just to, to commemorate the olden days. Um, so yeah, let’s, uh, let’s, let’s do a quick check-in. Christina’s Health Update Brett: Um, I’m curious about your health and all of the wildness that’s going on with your spine and whatnot. Christina: Yeah. Yeah. Um, same. I wanna hear about you too. Um, so, uh, Christina’s cervical spine update, as it were. Um, I am [00:01:00] still waiting to, as we’re recording this, which is like. Uh, three days before Christmas, uh, I’m still waiting to hear from the, uh, hospital to see if I can, when I can get scheduled. Um, insurance has sort of been a pain in the ass, so when I talked to them last week, they were like, we sent them some paperwork. We’re still waiting for some things back then. I called the insurance company and the, the, uh, like my insurance is like, has like an intermediary service that is supposed to contact the insurance company on your behalf and that person, but like, I can’t contact them directly. And then that person was like, oh, you don’t need pre-authorization. Go ahead and schedule the surgery. And I’m like, this doesn’t feel right. Um, so, but, but we, we went ahead and we called back the, you know, the, the surgeon, um, his office and they were very nice and we were like. They say that we can get on the books. So I don’t know when that will be. I’m hoping that it will be, you know, like the first week of January, um, or, or, or thereabouts. Um, but I don’t know. Um, [00:02:00] so I am still kind of in this like limbo stage where I don’t know exactly when I’m gonna have the surgery, except hopefully soon. And, um, and, and for anyone who hasn’t caught up, I, uh, I have a bulging disc on C seven on my cervical spine, and I’m going to get a, um, artificial disc replacement. Um, so they’re gonna take out the, you know, bulging bone and all that and put in, uh, some synthetic piece and then hopefully that will immediately relieve the, the pain that has been primarily through the left side of, uh, my arm and my shoulder, um, uh, down through my fingers. But it’s been on my right side a little bit too. So hopefully when that is done, it’ll be a relatively short recovery. Um, I’ll have an early scar and um, I will be, you know, not. Uh, the pain right now, like the levels aren’t terrible, but I’m pretty numb, uh, on my, my, my left arm, my, my right arm, um, uh, or right fingers I guess too, but, but really it’s, it’s, uh, the, the, the left side [00:03:00] that’s the worst. And traveling. Um, I’m, I’m in Atlanta with my family right now and, you know, kind of doing other things is just not, it’s not great. So, um, hopefully I’ll be getting surgery sooner rather than later. But obviously all that stuff does impact your mental health too, when you’re in pain and, and you, you know, are freaked out too about, you know, like, even though like they do, you know, it, it’s not an uncommon surgery and, and it, and it should be fine, but you know, there’s always these things in the back of your mind. You’re like, okay, well what if something goes wrong or whatever. So I’m just, I’m looking forward to, um, you know, light at the end of the tunnel, but um, still kind of in a holding pattern with that. So Brett: Wow. So that scar’s, that scar’s gonna be on your throat. Christina: Yeah, Brett: Wow. Christina: yeah. Like probably like. No, not really. I’m, I mean, I’m hoping that it’ll be, uh, like no, it really won’t be at all. Brett: I, I, I would like to have it. I can understand why you wouldn’t. Christina: yeah, I mean, you know, I will obviously, you know, uh, hopefully it’ll be like low enough to be [00:04:00] primarily covered by shirts or other things, although, who knows? ’cause I do like to wear like, lower cut things sometimes. I don’t know. It, it’ll hopefully, you Brett: I heard chokers are coming back. Christina: Yeah, I don’t, unfortunately. I think it’s gonna be too, uh, low for that. Brett: Okay. Christina: uh, like, it, it’s gonna be, I think like it might hit against my laryn is, is what they say. That’s the other thing too. I might have, you know, some hoarseness after, won’t we permanent? Um, you know, knock on wood. Um, Brett: go on Etsy, you can get, um, they’re for BDSM, they’re like neck, uh, they hold your chin up. They’re like posture enhancers. Uh, but they sell them within leather with like corset straps. ’cause they’re like A-B-D-S-M accessory. That would work. Christina: No, no. Not even once. Uh, not even once. I mean, look, a good group of people who wanna do that, uh, I I will not be wearing a collar of any sort of that sort of thing. Uh, I, I, I don’t, I don’t really wanna, wanna be part [00:05:00] of, uh, one of that, those types of, you know, uh, Harlequin romance novels. , Brett’s Sleep and Work Routine Brett: All right, well, I will go ahead and check in. Um, I, I’m sleeping really well for like two days at a time, and then I’ll have. A string of like five or six hours of sleep, which isn’t nothing. Um, but it’s not quite enough for me to not feel tired all the time. And two nights of sleep is not enough for me to catch up on sleep. And, um, so I’m kind of, this has been going on for like a year though, so it’s, I’m just kind of, I’m used to it and I’ve learned to operate pretty well on six or seven hours of sleep, even though historically like I need eight and a half. Um, but I’m doing okay and I get up about four every morning and I start coding and I usually code from like four to noon, so an eight [00:06:00] hour workday, uh, with a breakfast somewhere in there. And, um, I’ve made really good progress. Marked is, as far as I can tell, ready to go wide with the beta. Um. I think I’ve solved every bug that’s been reported so far. I only have about a hundred testers right now, um, but I’m gonna open it up, uh, try to get maybe a thousand testers for a couple weeks and then go for a live release. The biggest thing that I’m running into is problems with getting the, like free trial and the purchase mechanisms working, which is the exact same thing that’s holding up NV Ultra right now. Um, so if I can figure it out for Mark, I can port it to NV Ultra. I can have two apps out there making money, hopefully never have to get a job again. Um, I’m teamed up right now with Dan Peterson, formerly of One Password. Um, and we’re [00:07:00] working on some iOS apps and. And, uh, apex. My, my, all my Universal markdown processor is, it’s coming along really well. I’ve, I’ve put it out there. Um, I’ve talked to John Gruber a little bit about it. He’s gonna give it more of a workout and get back to me. Um, but I think, I think it’s getting to a point where I would be comfortable integrating it into Mark and even talking to some other, uh, apps about using it as their default processor, um, and kind of alleviating some of the issues people run into with, uh, differences in syntax. Um, I. I, I, I talked to Devon, think, uh, Eric from Devon think about using it. ’cause they use multi markdown right now, uh, which has a lot of cool features, but is not [00:08:00] really in sync with what most of the web is using these days. Um, so I talked to them about it and they’re like, oh, we had the exact same idea and we’re almost done with our own universal processor. Um, and theirs is gonna output like RTF and things that I don’t need apex to do. ’cause you can just pipe apex into panoc and do everything you need. So anyway, I’m, I’m tired. I’m, I’m in good spirits. I. I’m dealing fine with winter. My, I’m alone on Christmas, which is gonna be weird. Um, my family’s outta town. Elle is house sitting I’ll, I’ll go visit Elle, but most of the day I’m gonna be like by myself on Christmas and I don’t drink anymore. And I, I don’t, I don’t know how that’s gonna go yet. Um, initially I thought, oh, that’s fine. I like being alone. But then, [00:09:00] then the idea of like, not having anyone to talk to you on Christmas day started to feel a little depressing. Christina: Yeah. Yeah. Um, but, um, hopefully, um, when, when will, uh, when will I’ll be back from, from house sitting. How long is, uh, are, are they going to be Brett: I think. I think the people, the, the house owners come back Thursday or Friday. Christina: Okay. Brett: Then we’re gonna take off and go up to Minneapolis to hang out with her family for a weekend. So, I don’t know. It’ll, it’s gonna be fine. It’s gonna be fine. We’re gonna like cook on Christmas Eve and, and have leftovers on Christmas day. It’ll be fine. Christina: Yeah, yeah. Well, but, but it, but, but that is weird. Like, I’m sure like to be, you know, not, not, not, not with like your usual crew, but, um, [00:10:00] especially without the alcohol there. But that’s probably a good thing too. Brett: Yeah, I guess. Um, I will have all the cats. I’ll be fine. I have to take care of the dog too. Christina: Have, have you heard any updates, like, um, I guess, um, about when you were, you know, you were in the hospital a few times over the last year with, with various things. Did you ever get any definitive update on what that was? Brett: On which one? I have so many symptoms. Which one are we talking about? Christina: Well, I guess I, I guess when you, you know, you’ve had to be like hospitalized or Brett: The pancreatitis. Christina: had the pancreatitis. Brett: the, the fact that it hasn’t happened again since I stopped drinking, um, really does indicate that it was entirely alcohol that was causing the problem. Um, so yeah, I’m just, I’m never gonna drink again. That’s fine. It’s, it’s all fine. Um, I did, I did get approved to get back on Medicaid. Um, so [00:11:00] yeah, I haven’t gotten the paperwork in the mail yet. Uh, but my old card should just start working and I’ll be able to, my, my new doctor wants a whole bunch more tests, including an MRI of my pituitary gland. Um. Like testosterone tests and stuff that I guess is more specific to what she thinks might be going on with me. Um, but now I can, I can actually get those tests That would’ve been just a huge out-of-pocket expense over the last couple months. So I’m excited. I’m excited to be back on Medicaid. I wish everyone could have Medicaid. Christina: Yeah, that would be really nice. That would be really nice if, if, if we had systems like that available, um, for everyone. Um, but. Instead, you know, if they’re, like, if you have really great health, I mean, you, you pointed those out. Like you have really great health insurance if you [00:12:00] can prove that you, you know, make absolutely no money. Um, but, but that opens up so many other, you know, issues that most people aren’t lucky enough to be able Brett: right. Yeah, totally. Christina: right. Brett: All right, well do you, okay, first topic. USB-C Cable Confusion Brett: How much do you know about USBC cables and the various specs? Christina: Uh, Brett: you know a shit ton. Christina: I do, unfortunately, I know a lot. Brett: So I, I had been operating under the assumption that there were basically, you had like data USBC cables, you had, uh, thunderbolt USBC cables and you had like, power only USPC cables. It turns out there’s like 18 different varieties of different, uh, like vol, uh, voltage, uh, amperage, uh, levels, like total wattage basically. And, um, and transfer speeds. And, [00:13:00] um, and there’s like maximum links for different types of cable. And it, it, I started to understand why like. One device would charge with one cable and another device would not charge with the same cable, even though they all have the same connector. Christina: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think this is, this is why, um, some of us have been really like eye rolly at the EU for their pronouncements about certain things, because simply mandating a connector type doesn’t actually solve the problem. Brett: No, it actually confuses it a little bit Christina: I think Yeah, I was going to say exactly. I think in some cases it makes it worse. Right? And, and then you have different, like, and, and then getting SB four into it, uh, uh, versus like, like, like, like various Thunderbolt versions. Like that adds complications too, because technically SB four and Thunderbolt four should basically be the same, but they’re not really, there are a couple of things that Thunderbolt might have that [00:14:00] USB four doesn’t necessarily have to have, although for all intents and purposes they might be the same. And then of course, thunderbolts five is its own thing too. So like I bought off of Kickstarter, I got like this, you know, like a cable charger, basically like, like a connector thing. It was like $120. For this, this, this thing that basically you can plug a cable into and you can see its voltage and um, or not voltage, I guess it’s uh, you know, amperage or whatever. And you can see like, it, it, it’s transfer speed and you can basically like check that on like a little display, which is useful, but the fact that like, you have to buy that sometimes. So like figure out, well, okay, well which cable is this? Right? And then, uh, to your point about lengths, right? So like, okay, so you want something that’s going to be fast charging but also high speed data transfer. Alright, well that means that you, the cable’s gonna have to be stiff. It’s not gonna be able to be something that’s really bendable. Um, which of course is what most people are going to want. So like you can get a fast charge, like a 240 wat or a hundred and, you know, 20 wat or, or [00:15:00] whatever, um, like a USB 2.0 transfer speed cable. But if you want one that’s, uh, going to be, you know, fast charging and. Fast data transfer, then like that’s a different type. And they have like limited lengths, which again, can also be associated with like Thunderbolt or Thunderbolt. You know, cables are much more expensive. Um, and, uh, uh, you know, the, the, the, but their, their lengths are limited. Um, yeah. Uh, it’s very confusing. Brett: Did you know that in rare circumstances there are even devices that will only charge with an A to C cable. Christina: Yes, Brett: That’s so insane. Christina: yeah, no, I’ve run into that myself and then that’s a weird thing and I don’t even know how that should work. ’cause it’s, it’s, it’s a bizarre thing. You’re like, okay, well I thought this was just like a, you know, maybe like a dumb end, but it’s like, no, there’s like, you know, basically a microchip Brett: Like a two pin to two pin. Christina: at this point. Brett: Like two pen to two pen, no pd like you would think that would work with C to C, [00:16:00] but somehow it has to be A to c. I am getting one of those cable testers. I asked for one for Christmas so I could figure out this pile of cables I have and like my Sonos Ace headphones are very particular about which cables and what, um, charging hub I hooked them up to Christina: Right. Oh, yeah, hubs. I was gonna say, hubs introduce a whole other complication into this too, because depending on what hub you’re using, if you’re using a USB hub, it may or may not have certain things versus a Thunderbolt hub versus something else, versus just like, um, you know, a power brick. Like, yeah. Brett: Yeah. It’s fun stuff you. Christina: Yeah. No, it’s annoying. And, um, like, and what, what’s frustrating about this is like some of the cables that they’re better, like you can look at the, you know, the bottoms of them and you can see like they will have like the USB like four, or they might have 3.2, or they might have, you know, like the thunderbolt, you know, um, uh, icon [00:17:00] with, with, with its version. So you can figure out is this 20 gigabits, is this 40, is this 80? Um, but um. That’s not a guaranteed thing, and that also doesn’t guarantee authenticity of stuff, right? So a lot of the cables, you know, you buy off the internet can be, you know, and they might be, or even at stores, right? Like you’re, you’re not buying something from, even if you get things from Belkin or whoever, like, those things can have issues too. Um, although they at least tend to have better warranties. I bought a Balkan, um. Uh, like a, a, a PD cable, like a two 40 cable that I think it was like, you know, uh, 10 feet longer something. It was supposed to have some sort of long warranty and, and because the, the, you know, um, faster transfer ones, um, are, even though it was braided, you know, it stiff and it, it broke, like there was, uh, the, like the, you know, the connect with the part of the, the, the cable near the, the end, um, did that thing that typically apple cables do, where like, it, it sort of [00:18:00] fraying and you started like seeing the exposed wires and then like, you start to like, feel like, you know, like an electric charge, like Brett: A little tingle. Christina: you’re Yeah. And you’re like, okay, this isn’t good. Um, and so I at least had my Amazon receipt, so I was able to like. Get them to mail me a new one relatively easily. And like Anchor has an okay warranty too. But it’s one of those things you’re like, okay, when did I buy this? I was like, I didn’t even buy this a year ago, and this thing already crapped out. Um, versus, you know, you can get some really nice braided cables that are flexible, but they’re just gonna be 2.0 speeds. Um, and, and then if you buy, you know, you just buy like some random cable, you know, like at the airport or whatever. You’re like, all right, well, I don’t even know Brett: Great. Christina: anything about this. Uh, yeah, Brett: I have heard good things. I’ve heard good things about the company. Cable Matters. Christina: Yeah. Yeah. They make good stuff. They make good stuff. But again, at least the cables matters, cables that I have have been primarily stiffer cables because they tend to be like the, the higher transfer [00:19:00] speeds. So, um, like I have a cable, cable matters Thunderbolt cable, and I have like a USB four cable, I think. Um, but like, these are cables that like. I don’t, I mean, I, I have one that I, I kind of travel with, but I don’t, um, either keeping it as little cable matters, uh, uh, plastic, um. Like, so they come in like these, these case, uh, not these cases. Uh, they come in like these, uh, almost like Ziploc bag type of things. Um, which is a great way to ship cables honestly, you know, rather than using a box and, and like I, and I might toss one of those in a suitcase or a backpack, um, rather than having like the cable just out there loose. But I do that primarily because again, like they’re stiff and they’re not the sorts of things that I necessarily want, like in the bottom of my bag, you know, potentially getting broken and, and, and, and twisted and all of that. Um, they are overpriced for what they are and they are definitely not like, they’re not a high transfer cable, but if you can find ’em on sale, the beats, cables, the, the, the, the, the, the branded Beats cables, I actually like them better [00:20:00] than the apple cables that are the same thing, because they are, they’re longer, uh, by, you know, um, a, a few inches than, um, the, the Apple ones. But they’re still braided and they’re nice. And I was able to get, I dunno, this was a, this was not even Black Friday, but this was. Um, you know, sometime in like early November, I think, um, or maybe it was like late October. It might’ve been a Prime Day thing, I don’t know, but they were like eight or $9 a piece, and so I bought like five or six of them. Um, and they are, you know, uh, uh, PD and like, like, like fast charging peoples, they might not be 240, but I think they’re, they’re, they were like a hundred and you know, like 20 watts or whatever. But, um, you know, not high transfer speeds, but if you’re wanting to just quickly charge something and have it, you know, be a, a decent length and be like flexible. Those I don’t, those I don’t hate. Um, anchor makes pretty good cables. You green seems to be the company that’s sponsoring everyone now for various things. [00:21:00] But, um, I don’t know. I’ve started using MagSafe more and more, uh, like wireless charging when I can for some things, at least for phones, Brett: yeah. I actually have some U green wireless charging solutions that are really good. Christina: Yeah. Yeah. I just got one of their, uh, their 10,000 million pair battery fast charging battery things because now the MagSafe, uh, can be like up to, you know, 30 watts or whatever, or 25 watts or, or, or, or whatever it is. Like it’s, um, a lot more, um, usable than, you know, when it was like 10 or, or, or even 15. You’re like, okay, this, this is actually not going to be like the, the slowest, you know, charging thing known to man. But of course, obviously it’s like you can use it with your phone and with your AirPods, but the rest of the things out there don’t, don’t all support shi too, so, Brett: Right. Christina: yeah. Brett: All right. So, um, I want to talk about TV a little bit. Christina: Yeah. I think before we do that though, we should probably Brett: oh, we should, we [00:22:00] have two sponsors to fit in Jesus. I should get on that. Sponsor Break: Shopify Brett: Um, let’s start with, uh, let’s start with Shopify. This episode is brought to you by Shopify. Have you been dreaming of owning your own business? In addition to having something to sell, you’ll need a website, a payment system, a logo, a way to advertise to new customers, et cetera, et cetera. It can all be overwhelming and confusing, but that’s where today’s sponsor, Shopify comes in. Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world, and 10% of all e-commerce in the us From household names like Mattel and Gym Shark to brands. Just getting started, get started with your own design studio with hundreds of ready to use templates. Shopify helps you build beautiful online store to match your brand style, accelerate your content creation. Shopify is packed with helpful AI tools that write product descriptions, page headlines, and even enhance your product photography.[00:23:00] Get the word out like you have a marketing team behind you. Easily create email and social media campaigns wherever your customers are scrolling or strolling. And best yet, Shopify is your commerce expert with world-class expertise and everything from managing inventory to international shipping, to processing returns and beyond. If you’re ready to sell, you’re ready for Shopify. Turn your big business idea into with Shopify on your side. Sign up for your $1 per month trial and start selling today@shopify.com slash Overtired. Go to shopify.com/ Overtired. That is shopify.com/ Overtired. Thanks Shopify. Christina: Thank you Shopify. Brett: It’ll be, it’ll be just tight as hell by the time people hear it. But that was rough. I, that, that, that, that read, you just heard I [00:24:00] edited like six places. ’cause I kept, I, I don’t know. I’m tired. I’ve been up since, I’ve been up since two today. Christina: Yeah. Shit, man. That’s, yeah, you again, like you’ve been having like sleep issues. It’s, it’s, Brett: Maybe, maybe I shouldn’t be doing sponsor reads. Christina: No, no, no, no, no. Uh, no. We definitely wanna talk about tv. Do you wanna do, do we wanna do our second, um, uh, uh, ad break Brett: let’s do a block. Let’s make it a Christina: Let’s do it. Block. Alright, fantastic. Sponsor Break: Copilot Money Christina: Alright, well, since we are about to go into 2026, this is a great time to, uh, think about your finances. So are you ready to take control of your finances? Well meet copilot money. This is the personal finance app that makes your money feel clear and calm with a beautiful design. Smart automation copilot money brings all of your spending, saving and investment accounts into one place. It’s available on iOS, Mac, iPad, and now on the web, which is really great, uh, because I know, uh, for me anyway, that’s one of my one kind of things [00:25:00] about some of these like tools like this is that there’s not a web app. I’m really bothered by it. This is, you know, it’s a frustration that like the Apple card, for a long time, you know, you couldn’t really access things on, on the web. Even now it’s still kind of messy, like being able to handle things on the web. But as we enter 2026, it is time for a fresh start. And so with the, uh, mint shutdown and rising financial uncertainty, consumers are seeking clarity and control. And this is where copilot money comes in. So copilot money can help you track your budgets, your savings goals, and your net worth seamlessly. Plus, with the the new, um, web launch, you can enjoy a sudden experience on any device, which is really good. And guess what? For a limited time, you can get 26% off your first year when you sign up through the web app. New Year’s only don’t miss out on the chance to start the new year with confidence. There are features like automatic subscription tracking, so you’ll never miss upcoming charges again. Copilot money’s privacy first approach ensures that your data is secure and their team is dedicated to helping you stress less [00:26:00] about money. So whether you’re a finance pro or just starting out, copilot money is there to help you make better decisions. Visit, try dot copilot money slash Overtired and use the code Overtired to sign up for your one month free trial and embrace financial clarity. That’s try.copilot.money/ Overtired. Use the coupon Overtired. And again, that is 26% off for your first year. So thank you copilot money for, uh, sponsoring this week’s, uh, uh, episode. Oh, one other note about copilot money. They were, um, an apple, uh, design award finalist. So it’s a really well designed app and, um, we love to see, um, apps like this available on, on the web as well as iOS and, and MAC os. Brett: I have started using it very much because of the web version, and it is, it is really good. Christina: yeah, yeah. No, yeah. For, yeah, for me, that is like a, an actual like. Concrete requirement. Exploring Rocket Money and Web Interfaces Christina: Any money Brett: Like I’ve, I’ve [00:27:00] paid, I have about eight months left. I paid for a year of, of Rocket Money or whatever it’s called now. Um, and I’ve always loved that app, but yeah, it does not have a web interface. And once I started trying copilot out, I realized how much I really did want a web interface for that stuff, you know? What else have you seen? Discovering Umami Analytics Brett: Umami the analytics platform. Christina: Yes. Brett: It is so good. And it’s, it’s open source and you can self-host. And it is like, I, I’ve been using Fathom Analytics for a long time and I like Fathom, but Umami is, it has like all of the, uh, advanced stuff you would get with Google Analytics, but with like way more privacy focus and you’re not giving information to Google for one. Um, and the interface is beautiful. I love that. It’s so good. Christina: Yeah. Um, umami is really good. I think, uh, there’s another one, I’m [00:28:00] trying to think of what it was called. There are a number of these various, um, analytics, uh, hosted things, but no, umami is definitely a really good one. Nostalgia for Mint and Fever Christina: And I like, um, it reminds me, um, it was, what was it? It was Mint. It was Mint, Sean Edmond’s Mint. Which Brett: I was just gonna ask you if you remembered that. Christina: yeah, which was, which was one of the, uh, plausible analytics. It’s another one too. Um, which is also like, um, they, they have a hosted version, but you can also self-host. Um, and then that’s also a, a, a, another, uh, good one. But yeah. Um, was like my, my all time favorites, uh, you know, app. I, I, I loved that. Brett: Um, what was his RSS one? Uh, fever? Fever. Christina: was, was the best fever, was the best. The Decline of RSS and Google Reader Christina: And it was funny, like I, I think I’ve talked about this before, I was more insulated and like less upset than some people by the, the Google reader death because I had a, a, I’d been using Fever for so long, and then obviously, you know, stuff being updated and doesn’t really work [00:29:00] super well with like, the latest versions of PHP and things like that. But, you know, a lot of people were really, understandably and, and still more than a decade on, you know, very upset by the death of, um, Google reader. But I think because I, I had paid for and used, you know, my own, um, self-hosted fever installation, and then there were apps that people used for, you know, APIs and whatnot to build, you know, Macs or iOS apps or, or whatever. Like, I, I was obviously upset about Google Reader being shut down, but I was like, okay, you know, I, I can just, you know, move on to something else. And, um, and I’ve used, uh, feeder, um, not, not, not feeder, um, Brett: Reader Christina: is. No, no. Maybe, uh, it’s, uh, not Feed Demon. Um, that was like the OG one. Um, it’ll come to me, um, because I, I, yes. Thank you. Feed Ben. Thank you, thank you. One of the ones that’s still around, uh, from like the, of the, you know, various Google reader alternatives, like many of them. You know, closed up shop.[00:30:00] Brett: Yeah. Christina: if they kind of realized, you know, by Google reader, like this is the, unfortunately a niche market. Um, now that didn’t help the fact that like, you know, when people, when web browsers Safari, I think started at first and then Firefox did, and then, you know, uh, Chrome was, was fairly early too. Like when all the web browsers took away like RSS buttons to make it easy to subscribe to feeds or to auto discover feeds, and you had to like install like a, an extension or whatever to do that. Like, that all helped with the, the demise of RSS in a lot of ways. And of course, people moving everything into closed platforms and, and social networks and stuff that, you Brett: In, in the tech world though. So I have, my blog gets about 20,000 visits a week, but it gets 30,000 RSS downloads, like, uh, like daily, 30,000 readers are, are, are pulling my site. Um, so RSS is far from dead in the tech world. Christina: Right. Well, [00:31:00] well, I think, I think in a certain demographic, right? I think if you were to ask like a new, like college grads, I don’t think that any of them are using RSS at least not actively, right? Like, I mean, you might have a few, but like it’s, it’s just not gonna be like a thing where they’re gonna be, act like they might be using some apps that do similar types of things and might even pull in feed sources maybe. But it, it’s, it’s just not like a, like when, when I was graduating from college or in college, like everybody had, you know, RSS clients and that was just kind of a, a known thing. Brett: Yeah. So speaking of traffic, um, I don’t, did I mention that I got delisted on Bing and Christina: You did, Brett: I am, I’m back Christina: figure that out? You’re back now. Okay. Brett: I’m back now. Switching to Kagi Search Engine Brett: And, um, I have switched to using Kaji, um, as my primary search engine and they replicate all of duck duck go’s bang searches. Christina: Yes. Brett: So I Christina: one of the things I love about them. [00:32:00] Yes. Brett: I was pleased to see there’s a Bang Turp search on Kaji. Um, I actually use Christina: or is it kgi? Because I think I’ve always called it kgi. Yeah, it’s KA, it’s K, it’s KAGI. For anybody who’s who’s, uh, I don’t know how to, how, how, if it’s kgi, kgi, um, uh, you know, Kaji, whatever, Brett: It’ll be in the show notes. What the fuck ever, we’ll just call it KGI. Um, and yeah, so like I was super happy ’cause I used the Bang Turp to search my own site. I just got used to doing that. The Rise of AI-Generated Content Brett: Um, and, but it is like you can, the reason I switched to said web, uh, search engine is um, because you can report sites that are just AI slop and they will verify those reports and remove or flag slop sites in your search results. ’cause I was getting sick, even with DuckDuckGo, like five out [00:33:00] of 10 results were always, I’d get in, I’d get there, I’d get one, maybe two paragraphs into, uh, an article and realize, oh, someone just typed in my search term into chat GPT and then Christina: Oh yeah. Brett: automated it. Christina: Oh, I was gonna say there, there it is. Automated at this point. And, and like, to be clear, like a lot of search results, even before like the rise of like genre of AI were a variant of this, where you would see like people like buying older domain names that expired. Well, yeah, but even before that happened mean that, that obviously when, when, when the Christina Warren and Brett Terpstra and then they, they changed your name. Um, I Brett: know, like Jason Turra or Christina: Or something like that. Yeah, it was, it was, it was, it was weird. Um, I mean, you know, um, does that site, did, did have they given up the ghost on that? I’m curious. Um, yeah. Wow. Okay. They are still, well, no, they haven’t published anything since November 30th. So something has happened where they, uh, are [00:34:00] they, they’re definitely cutting down on, on various things. Um, oh no. Paul Terpstra. Oh my God. Paul Terpstra. You are still, Brett: Yeah. Christina: you were like the one author there that I see on this website. Um, now what was, what was messed up about, about this? Um, although no. Okay. Their homepage, the last one they say is like, OCT is like, uh, November, um, uh, 30th. But if you click on the, the Paul trips to handle, then like you see, um, December 22nd, uh, which is, which is today as we’re recording this, Brett: Wow, I didn’t even realize. Christina: Yeah. So, alright. So that is still, somehow that grift is still going on. But yeah, I mean, even before the rise of those things, you would see, you know, sites that would either buy up dead domains and then like, have like very similar looking content, but slightly different maybe, you know, like, uh, you know, injected with a bunch of, you know. Links or whatever, or you would see people who would, you know, do very clearly SEO written and, and probably, you know, [00:35:00] like, again, pre generative ai, but, you know, assisted slop content. But yeah, now it’s, it’s just, it’s crazy. Like, and it doesn’t help that, like the AI summaries, which can be useful, but, um, and they’re getting better, which is good only because they’re so prominent. Like, I’m not a fan of them. But if you’re not using an alternative search engine, like, you know, you see these AI summaries and like if they’re bad and sometimes they are then. Brett: Often Christina: You know, well, they’re, they’ve gotten better, uh, is the only thing I would say. I, I still wouldn’t rely on them, but I’ve, I’ve noticed a, like, I’ve noticed a, a genuine, like uptick in like, improvements and in like, how awful they are probably in like the last six weeks, which is damning with faint praise. I’m not at all saying it’s good. I am simply saying, it’s like, I’m primarily thinking for like, people who are like, like less tech savvy relatives who are going to just go to, you know, bing.com or, or google.com and then see those sorts of things. Right. Um, and, uh, you know, we’re not gonna be able to convince them to go to a, a, a third [00:36:00] party search engine. Um, although, you know, some people, like, I think my mom was using Duck to Go for a while as like her default on her iPhone, um, which I was, I was like proud of her about, but I was also kind of like, uh, that’s got its own issues. But no, I, I like ka a lot. Um, I, I’ve Brett: Well, and it’s so keyboard driven, like DuckDuckGo has good keyboard shortcuts. KAGY slash Kaji has even better keyboard shortcuts. Like you can navigate and control everything with, uh, like Gmail style, single key keyboard shortcuts, which I really like. Christina: Yeah. Yeah, I like that too. And then they, they, of course, they make like a, a web kit, um, like a browser, um, that, that has, they’ve back ported, um, you know, a lot of chrome extensions too. I personally don’t see the point in that. Um, I, I think that if you’re going to be like that committed to, like, using like the, you know, the web extension format and like using like more popular extensions, you might as well [00:37:00] just use a Chrome fork if you don’t wanna use Chrome, which is fine, but like, you could use a browser like Helium, which, which we talked about last show, which has, um, the, the, the hash bangs kind of integrated in, or you could use, you know, if you wanted to use, um, um, you know, the, the, the, the Brett: o is Orion, is Orion the one you’re talking about that? Yeah. Christina: that, that, yeah, that, that, that, that, that, that’s Katy’s thing. And that was actually originally how I heard about them was because it was like, oh, this is interesting. Um, you know, this is a kind of an interesting, you know, kind of alternative browser. And then it turned out that that was just kind of a, in some ways, kind of a front to promote the, the search engine, which is the real, you know, thing. Um, which is fine, right? I mean, that, that was Google’s model. Um, Brett: Well, and we should mention for anyone who hasn’t tried it, it is a paid service. Um, and you are getting search results with no ads and, and spam, uh, ai, slot protection and all of the benefits you would expect from a paid service. So [00:38:00] I think, like for me, five bucks a month gets me, I think 300 searches, which is. Plenty for me, like, I guess I, I’m still waiting to see, I’ve never counted how many searches I do a month, Christina: Yeah, Brett: you know, like three searches a day, uh, would come out to like 90 searches a month and I have 300 available, so I think I’ll be fine. Christina: yeah, yeah. I mean, yeah, basically being able to get to do 10 a day, which in most cases is fine. What I’ve done is I’m on, like, they have a, a, a family plan, um, and they don’t care. They even, I think in their documentation, or at least they did, they do not care if you are like actually in a family with the people that you are on or not. So if you, you know, find some folks that you wanna kind of sync up with, you can like, you know, be on a family plan together and you can save money, um, on, uh, whatever their, uh, um, their pricing [00:39:00] stuff is. So, um, so me, me and Justin Williams are, uh, in a, uh, Brett: Justin Williams, I haven’t heard that name in forever. Christina: Yeah. Yeah. We went to C Oasis together. We went both nights in Los Angeles, um, in August. Yeah. Um, or September rather. Um, yeah, so, okay, so this is how this works. They have, their starter plan is, is $5 a month, which includes, and they do have an AI assistant too. So it was funny, they had the AI slot protection, but they also have like an AI assistant that you can use and like an AI summarizer and whatnot. Um, that’s $5 a month. And then there’s the professional plan, which is, so that’s for 300 searches a month for the standard AI for starter $5 a month. The professional plan is unlimited searches and standard ai, that’s $10 a month. And then the ultimate is, um. Uh, everything in professional plus you get like premium model access, which, okay, but the family plan, um, is, is the, so you can do one of two things. You have a duo [00:40:00] plan, which is two professional accounts for a couple, which is $14 a month plus sales tax. So it’s, uh, you know, average of $7 per person, which I think is what Justin and I are on. And then there’s a family plan with up to six family members. And again, they don’t care if you are actually in a family or not, and that’s $20 a month. So the real thing to do if you’re wanting to like, you know, save on this is like find five friends, Brett: Yeah. Christina: get on the $20 a month, you know, family plan thing. Spread the, spread the cost, and that way you can get the, you know, professional plan for, for, for less. But to your Brett: All right. Christina: most people, it’s probably $300, 300 searches a month is probably plenty. And if you search a lot like we do, I, I think it is worth paying for. Brett: yeah, yeah. All right. TV Shows: Is TV Just Okay Now? Christina: anyway, but we wanted to talk about tv, so let’s Brett: Well do, we’re, we’re at 50 minutes already, so I think we need to choose whether we do TV or gratitude. What Christina: do you have a [00:41:00] gude, like a good one? Brett: I, I, no, I have a, I have a throwaway one. Christina: Okay. Brett: I, it was one of those, like, I looked at my doc and I was like, oh, I don’t think I’ve talked about that even though I probably have, um, yeah, let’s just talk about tv. So I, I have been noting, and my question in the show notes was, is TV just okay now? Because I’ve been watching, I watched Stranger Things, pluribus Down, cemetery Road, platonic, and all of it was, it was entertaining, but it wasn’t like, must watch tv. None of it was like, none of it was as good as like Modern Family. Modern Family was fucking good. Tv, like family friendly and just like I’ve, I’ve been through that series so many times and it’s always fun and it’s always better than like pluribus. I like the, I like the concept kind of, it’s not. not all that, um, engaging, I guess.[00:42:00] Christina: I like it. But, Brett: Yeah. I don’t hate it like I do, I do like it, but it’s not like, I don’t, I don’t count the days until the next episode comes out and I miss, I miss things being really good. So you had a couple responses to that though. Christina: Well, I mean, I tend to agree with you. So first of all, there, I put in the, in the show notes, um, there’s a link to a thing that, uh, that James and Pozak wrote for the, the New York Times, uh, God a year and a half ago now called, um, the Comfortable Problem of Mid tv. And he said it, it, it’s got a great cast, it looks cinematic, it’s, um, fine and is everywhere. And kind of talking about like, you know, we went from like the era of like peak TV to now being, um. You know what, what he’s dubbed like mid tv and I think that there’s, there’s some truth to that. Um, and, and, and he even says at the beginning, let me say up front, this is not an essay about how bad TV is today, just the opposite. There’s, um, little truly bad high profile television made anymore, um, is it’s more talking about, um, like [00:43:00] what we have instead Today is something less awful, but in a way more sad, the willingness to retreat, to settle to trade, the ambitious for the defendable. And I think that there’s some truth to that. Um, I think that we see this movies now too, and with movies it’s actually much more of a problem. Like there’s some really high highs. Um, but because the movie industry is in such a bad place, um, it, it’s that much more notable when like, you don’t have like a big strong slate of, of things. And so, you know, it, it, it’s more of a problem. TV for, for better or worse, has become the dominant entertainment form. And yeah, I think that it, it, it’s fine. Uh, but there are very few things that I’m like, oh, wow, yeah, that, that’s like, you know, the wire. Um, not that anything is, but you know what I mean? But is, but even like, you know, pluribus, which I really like. I actually think that’s, um, my, my favorite show of, of, um, 2025, um, at least new show. Um, well, maybe the studio. The studio. I might have, I, I, I might put, Brett: That was pretty Christina: above that. But, but, but, but [00:44:00] like, it’s one of those things where I’m like, okay, you know, um, it’s not breaking bad, right? Like, if we’re gonna be comparing Vince Gilligan shows, and maybe that’s unfair, but, you know, it just, but, but still, like, you know, you’re gonna be compared to your last hit. And, and, and, and that is what it is. Um, I will say though, like, I haven’t watched Stranger Things in years, and I don’t, I don’t, I don’t think I can force myself to like, care about that again, but I’ve heard kind of mixed Brett: That’s where L is too, L doesn’t care. And, and then there’s the whole like two cast members being Zionists kind of turned a whole bunch of people off and Christina: Well, and well, David Harbor, David Harbor’s whole Lily Allen thing. Are you, are you, are you familiar with this floor at all? Brett: No. Christina: Okay. You know who Lily Allen is? Brett: Yes. Christina: Okay. So she and David Harbor were married and, um, she wrote an album called, uh, uh, west End Girl that, that came out, uh, like in November, which is actually a really good album, [00:45:00] which is like White Girl Lemonade, where she just basically reads him to filth for being an absolute piece of shit. Like, apparently like, you know, they were together, they were married or whatever. She goes off to London to perform in a play and he’s like. Oh, we’re gonna be away for months. I, I wanna sleep with other people. And so they kind of like, she kind of accepts getting into an open relationship with him, even though she didn’t really want to be, which look that her, that’s her bad, whatever. But then he proceeds to like, do things that was not what they’d agreed upon on, upon the parameters of their, of their relationship. And then she’s just like brutally honest about the entire thing. And so as you’re listening to this album, you’re just learning more and more about like, David Harbor’s like sex life and, um, and stuff. And, and like, it’s just on blast. It’s incredible. Um, but, uh, yeah, so there’s, there’s some of that stuff. There’s, I, I don’t know, like I don’t, I don’t really follow the rest of the cast stuff except that, uh, the girl who plays, um, 11 like. Frequently want to smack because just the most annoying [00:46:00] celebrity in on the planet. But like, putting that aside, um, I just, I stopped caring. It took them too long between seasons and the, and, and, and the budget for that show was also so insane. I’m like, you, you cost more than strain than thinking of Thrones. Game of Thrones is, was even at its worst, was a better show than Stranger Things. So like it, yeah. But but that goes to your point. Like, it’s like, it’s okay. Brett: Yeah. Yeah, Christina: Um, I will say the new season of Fallout just, um, premiered and so far I I’m still really enjoying that. Um, Brett: yet to see it. Christina: you should, you should definitely watch the Brett: What is it on? Christina: uh, Amazon Brett: Okay. Christina: and, uh, and it’s, and it’s really, really good. Um. And this year they are doing the episodic, um, not episodic, the weekly drop, right. Rather than the binge thing. So the first season, uh, they dropped it all at once and um, and I was a little bit worried. I was like, fuck, does that mean they don’t [00:47:00] believe in this? What are they going to do? Wound up being like Amazon’s biggest hit after their Lord of the Rings, um, you know, thing. And so it was immediately kind of picked up for a second season and it was picked up for a third season before the second season even, uh, premiered. Um, and uh, and that might be the final one. Um, they’re saying, but, but, but, but who knows? But, but so far anyway, like they’ve only, there’s only been one episode, but it’s, it’s been good so far. The Cultural Phenomenon of Heated Rivalry Christina: Um, but, but what I was gonna talk to you about is the gay hockey show. Brett: Which is. Christina: It’s called Heated rivalry. It’s on HBO Max. It was originally just supposed to be on, uh, a Canadian streamer called Crave. And um, then at the, like, the, the like 11th hour, HBO Max picked it up and was like, okay, we’ll play this in, um, some of our territories and other things. And I wanna be very clear, this is not high art at all. This is like, no way. Like this actually in some ways it, it personifies [00:48:00] the TV is just okay now thing, but in other ways it’s actually a little bit more interesting just because the cultural phenomenon that has happened around it in like the last, like, like it hasn’t even been out a month and it’s only six episodes, although they are also going to be getting a second season. Um, it’s sort of wild how, like I went from, I’d seen a trailer for it and I was like, okay, whatever. And like it came out, I think like right after Thanksgiving. Then like within like two or three weeks, like literally I wasn’t following anything around it, but my Instagram, my TikTok, Twitter, everything that I was seeing was just all about the discourse around the show. And it’s like a bunch of us all seem to have to have discovered it. Like one weekend where we were like, okay, we’re gonna actually sit down and watch the gay hockey show. Um, and this is exactly what it is. It is a gay hockey show. So it is based on, there was a series of books that this, uh, female, uh, writer Rachel Reed wrote, um, uh, about like, uh, I think like they were like eBooks, types of thing. Um, uh, I think although there, there is now I [00:49:00] think like a, a hard cover release because they’ve been so popular and they’re just, it’s just ero, it’s just smut, right? It’s basically fanfic dressed up in something else. And the idea was like, okay, you have like these, you know, male like hockey players who are closeted and kind of have like this, this romance that, that starts from like 2008, um, through like, I dunno, like, like 2017 or 2018. And there are a number of different. Books or stories in the universe. But the one that people liked the most was the, the second book, which is called Heed Rivalry. You don’t really need to know any about that. The big thing about the show is that it is essentially like soft core gay porn. Um, but yet it’s like weirdly compelling in a way. Like, it, it is very, like, there’s, there’s some sweet aspects to it. Like you were before the, the show, you were saying, oh, it’s kinda like Heart Stopper could not be further from Heart Stopper. ’cause Heart Stopper is very sweet and twee and kind of like loving and like whatnot. This is like. You know, like guys in their twenties with amazing asses, [00:50:00] you know, like doing things to one another kind of an in secret. And, and the, the thing is, there’s not a whole lot of plot. Like the plot is the porn. Because, because the whole thing is, is that like they don’t spend, they don’t have a time to spend a lot of time together because they’re, they’re closeted and their rivals. Oh, that’s the whole conceit. It’s like they’re these two great hockey players and they, they, they, um, you know, um, play for opposing teams and they’re like, each other’s biggest rivals, but like, they’re, they’re fucking, um, and uh, it, it’s, uh, again, it’s not high art at all, but Brett: the target audience for this? Christina: And here’s the interesting thing. So the books are almost entirely read by women, um, and which, which makes sense. There’s, there’s a lot of like, you know, like, male, male, like, um, like the history of slash fiction goes back to like, like Fanfic in general, like goes back to like women writing, like Spock and, and, uh, um, what’s the space together? Kirk Together. Yeah. Um, and so the books are almost entirely, uh, consumed by, by women and probably straight women, although probably some queer women too. Um, but the [00:51:00] show seems to be a mix of gay men, straight women, all, although I’ve seen a lot of lesbians. As well. Um, yeah, yeah, because again, like the discourse is just kind of ridiculous and, and the memes are fun. Um, the guy who created it, he’s gay or created the, the, the television adaptation. He’s gay and, uh, I think he’s done a, a, a pretty good job with it. The, the leads are the thing that’s like incredible, like the, especially the guy who plays the, the Russian character, Ilya, uh, that actor is really, really good and he’s Texan, and yet he does like a great Russian accent and, um. And, and he’s very attractive. And like I, I, I can see like why a lot of people are into it, but it’s funny ’cause like New York Magazine, like they weren’t even covering the show, which, why would you, it was like some Canadian kind of, you know, you know, thing that barely gets picked by HBO. Then it takes off and now like they’re covering it. The, the last time I remember New York Magazine covering a show like this, like Vociferously was Gossip Girl, like 18 years ago. Um, [00:52:00] and it kind of reminds me of that, where like everybody woke up one day when they’re like, oh, this is like a cultural moment now. So again, not good television, probably not gonna necessarily be for everyone, but, but it’s a moment. And like, I kept seeing edits, I kept seeing Mo, I kept seeing edits on TikTok and stuff and I was like, okay, do I have to watch the gay hockey show? All right, I have to watch the gay hockey show so that it’s, we might be at the point where like TV is just okay, but at least there are some good like moments about, whereas the culture, we can all like agree. Okay, we’re all gonna be talking about this one thing. Brett: That sounds like what I’ll be doing on Christmas Day. Christina: Oh my God. Actually that would be a great thing to watch on Christmas. And I think that the final episode is gonna come out like the day after Christmas, so there you go. Brett: Done Deal. Cool. Wrapping Up and Holiday Wishes Brett: All right, well thanks for, we’re recording this the same morning. The show’s supposed to come out, so I gotta do some editing, but uh, but [00:53:00] thanks for showing up while you’re in Atlanta and yeah, this has been a classic, a fun classic Overtired. Christina: absolutely. Well, um, get some sleep, uh, take care of yourself. Um, happy holidays. Um, uh, hope that a, a Christmas isn’t too weird for you. And, um, and happy New Year. Brett: you too. Get some sleep.

Amazon launches a new Alexa+ web browser, Europe introduces new fees for small imports, and Helium 10 adds more tools for the Saudi Arabia market. ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup  (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft We're back with another episode of the Weekly Buzz with Helium 10's Principal Brand Evangelist, Carrie Miller. Every week, we cover the latest breaking news in the Amazon, TikTok Shop, Walmart, and E-commerce space, talk about Helium 10's newest features, and provide a training tip for the week for serious sellers of any level.   Introducing Alexa+, the next generation of Alexa https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/devices/new-alexa-generative-artificial-intelligence https://alexa.amazon.com/about EU to impose 3 euro duty on e-commerce parcels from July 2026 https://www.reuters.com/world/china/eu-impose-3-euro-duty-small-e-commerce-parcels-july-2026-2025-12-12/ New Helium 10 Tools for the Saudi Arabia Amazon Marketplace Brand Store quality rating now reflect sales performance https://advertising.amazon.com/en-us/resources/whats-new/brand-store-quality-rating-now-reflect-sales-performance/?ref_=a20m_us_wn_gw TikTok Shop is driving social commerce growth https://www.retaildive.com/news/tiktok-shop-drives-social-commerce-growth/807665/ Amazon Seller News: View updated Customer Service Insights in Feedback Manager https://sellercentral.amazon.com/seller-news/articles/QVRWUERLSUtYMERFUiNHSDIyVjY1QzRVNllYVUNO In episode 480 of the AM/PM Podcast and Weekly Buzz, Carrie covers: 00:45 - New Alexa+ Web Browser 02:36 - New 3 Euro Duty 06:06 - Saudi Arabia Tools 07:57 - Brand Story Quality Rating 09:32 - Advanced Keyword Research 14:54 - TikTok Shop Driving Growth 16:26 - Customer Service Insights Enjoy this episode? Want to be able to ask questions to Leo Sgovio live in a small group with other 7 and 8-figure Amazon sellers?  Join the Helium 10 Elite Mastermind and get quarterly workshops, monthly training, and networking calls with Leo at h10.me/elite Make sure to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you listen to our podcast!

We sing Christmas song requests while on helium! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Amazon software has changed a lot recently. AI tools, reimbursement services, and product launch software have all been affected in the past year with Amazon suddenly introducing their own tools and undercutting these services.  Grab a chance to win an annual membership to Ecomcrew Premium by voting for your favorite Amazon software tools here!   The Big Takeaway Amazon software has gone through some massive changes this year. Helium 10's affiliate program has eliminated lifetime commissions. Jungle Scout has shifted focus to enterprise customers. Amazon's new reimbursement policies have greatly affected third-party reimbursement services. Chinese software tools are becoming more competitive in the market. AI integration in Amazon tools is still limited. With growing competition, the software space is becoming commoditized with lower prices. There is also a growing trend of rebate services returning to the market. Timestamps 00:00 - The State of Amazon Software in 2025 05:00 - Helium 10's Affiliate Program Changes 10:04 - Jungle Scout's Shift to Enterprise 15:06 - Amazon's New Reimbursement Policies 16:41 - The Rise of Chinese Software Tools As always, if you have any questions or anything that you need help with, leave a comment down below if you're interested. Don't forget to leave us a review on iTunes if you enjoy our content. Thanks for listening! Until next time, happy selling!

Learn how to take back control of your Amazon PPC, fix costly agency mistakes, and use rules-based ads plus new Sponsored Products video formats to scale profitably on Amazon.   In this episode of the AM/PM Podcast, Bradley dives into one of the biggest pitfalls he sees Amazon sellers fall into: handing their PPC over to an agency before they truly understand how advertising works. That loss of control doesn't just cost money; it keeps you in the dark on whether your campaigns are actually growing your brand or quietly draining profits in the background.   To prove it, he spotlights a real case study from the new Helium 10 Outsourced to Optimized series. Helium 10's own Carrie Miller and Destaney Wishon from BetterAMS walk through what happened when they opened Carrie's account: profitable campaigns randomly shut off, creatives that didn't match search intent, and VCPM display campaigns that looked like rock stars in the dashboard but weren't driving incremental sales. From there, they rebuild the entire strategy on the fundamentals: a clean campaign structure, SKUs grouped intelligently, 10-30 targets per campaign, and rules-based bid management tied to real business objectives, such as organic rank, BSR, and strict ACoS targets.   Throughout the conversation, you'll see how a self-described “non-PPC person” can learn to manage sophisticated Amazon ads with the help of Helium 10 Ads and their Ads Academy training. Destaney shows Carrie how to utilize bid rules, keyword harvesting, negative targeting, and Amazon's newer tools, such as Creative Studio and Sponsored Products video ads, without turning PPC into a full-time job. They also break down off-season strategies, what to fix when you're getting impressions but no conversions, and how much of your revenue should realistically flow back into ads. The big takeaway: whether you keep an agency, lean on software, or run everything yourself, you need to understand the basics of Amazon PPC so you can keep partners accountable and finally take back control of your Amazon advertising.   In episode 479 of the AM/PM Podcast, Bradley, Carrie, and Destaney discuss: 00:00 – Introduction 05:48 – Carrie's Amazon PPC Agency Issues 07:19 – Carrie Learns PPC From Scratch 10:23 – Rules-Based Bidding With Helium 10 Ads 14:24 – When To Automate Your Amazon Ads 18:11 – Scalable Campaign Structure For Sellers 23:16 – Single-Keyword Campaigns & Dayparting 28:36 – Keyword-Specific Creatives & Creative Studio 30:54 – Off-Season Strategy & Fixing Conversions 33:08 – Sponsored Product Video Ads Launch 36:00 – Scaling Benchmarks & Ad Spend Targets 40:09 – Final PPC Lessons & Next Step

We're a BIG fan of Cori Stewart! Getting her start in St Louis, the now Denver comic talks with Dan about loving comedy from an early age, her mother nurturing that love, and how important that is. From getting started in high school to hosting at Helium, Cori is always a ray of sunshine in whatever room she's in. Cori and Dan talk about the worst night hosting Cori's had, how the room is a factor, when the other comics are late, and how much she loves setting up other comics for success (and hates when a host sets people up for failure) From punching up old jokes to Cori's neo-vaudevillian sensibilities to the importance of being intentional, and how reinvention can save you, this is a great episode to step into our winter break!Cori StewartCori Stewart is a nationally touring comic whose silly, smart jokes are inspired by her belief that everything is beautiful, hilarious, and dumb in equal measure.https://www.instagram.com/cori_does_stuff/Our SponsorsVisit any of the following sponsors and use promo code "AOBPOD" at checkout to receive:20% off an item at Liqure Gummies: https://liqure.com/15% off an item at Old Glory: https://oldglory.com/20% off an item at Aspire Drinks: https://aspiredrinks.com/Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-art-of-bombing-a-comedy-podcast--5788059/support.Art of Bombing:"Nobody Had a Podcast Called The Art of Bombing" Theme by John Hult https://johnhult.bandcamp.com/album/half-a-life-to-recoverWebsite: http://artofbombingpod.comLinks: https://linktr.ee/artofbombingpodBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-art-of-bombing-a-guide-to-stand-up-comedy--5788059/support.Hosts:Dan Bublitz Jr: http://www.danbublitz.com/ Larry Smith: https://larrysmithcomedy.com/

Shotgun Spratling and Chris Trevino return to the microphones for a news-heavy episode to discuss all the latest updates from USC football from transfers, NFL declarations to players returning.  Chris opens up the 'Two-Minute Drill' that's actually a statement for the feedback he received from his Two-Minute Drill from last week. Shotgun uses his tine to discuss junior wide receiver Makai Lemon taking home the Biletnikoff Award over the weekend. Lemon caught 79 passes for 1,156 yards and 11 touchdowns in 12 games. Lemon also rushed for two touchdowns, and he threw a touchdown pass. Lemon's 90.4 overall offensive grade from Pro Football Focus led all FBS wide receivers this season, and his 1,156 receiving yards were the most among Power Four wideouts. Lemon's 20 forced missed tackles tied for sixth among all wide receivers nationally, and he caught 10 of his 15 contested targets.  The Helium Boys then dive into the second half of the show to discuss USC's new front office venture of announcing re-signed players for the program and Lincoln Riley's announcement for players that will not play in the Alamo Bowl at the end of the month.  To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bradley Sutton shares his wild journey from sumo wrestler and Zumba instructor to Amazon launch expert, revealing the Amazon seller grind mindset, resilience, hustle, heart, and hard-won lessons.

Thank you to 0x and Polygon for supporting this stream. 

Amazon finally gets rid of the dreaded commingling. Will the post office stop delivering Amazon products? An important new rule for TikTok shop shipping. More stories on today's Weekly Buzz! ► Watch The Podcasts On Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@AMPMPodcast?sub_confirmation=1 ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup  (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft We're back with another episode of the AM/PM Podcast and Weekly Buzz with Helium 10's VP of Education and Strategy, Bradley Sutton. Every week, we cover the latest breaking news in the Amazon, Walmart, and E-commerce space, talk about Helium 10's newest features, and provide a training tip for the week for serious sellers of any level. Amazon: Commingling practices will end effective March 31, 2026 https://sellercentral.amazon.com/seller-news/articles/QVRWUERLSUtYMERFUiNHSktDTEM5N0s5MkRBWFAy Amazon in discussions with USPS about future relationship https://www.reuters.com/technology/amazon-explores-cutting-ties-with-usps-washington-post-reports-2025-12-04/ TikTok Shop tightens Postal Service shipping options for sellers https://www.retaildive.com/news/tiktok-shop-usps-label-requirements-change/807086/ Assess new brand names with Brand Name Evaluator https://sellercentral.amazon.com/seller-news/articles/QVRWUERLSUtYMERFUiNHVzNBWVRVTEZWN0VQWU1C Helium 10 is hosting an Elite workshop in Irvine, CA with sessions on AI SEO, TikTok Shop growth, and keyword research. Use code Elite100 at https://h10.me/q4workshop for a free $299 ticket. Lastly, an announcement for Helium 10's podcasts. The AM/PM Podcast will now focus on news and expert-led strategy trainings for e-commerce sellers. For brand stories and seller journeys, subscribe to the Serious Sellers Podcast. In episode #478 of the AM/PM Podcast and Weekly Buzz by Helium 10, Bradley covers: 00:00 - Introduction 01:28 - RIP Commingling 08:58 - RIP USPS? 10:15 - Amazon Listing Sync 12:38 - RIP TikTok Shop USPS Labels 14:18 - TikTok Shop Ads 17:27 - Amazon Brand Evaluator 19:18 - Elite Workshop 20:29 - Serious Sellers Podcast Enjoy this episode? Want to be able to ask questions to Leo Sgovio live in a small group with other 7 and 8-figure Amazon sellers?  Join the Helium 10 Elite Mastermind and get monthly workshops, training, and networking calls with Kevin at h10.me/elite Make sure to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you listen to our podcast!

Sitting at the far top right of the periodic table is the element helium.  Helium is the second-lightest and second-most abundant element in the universe. It is also an inert gas that doesn't form molecules with anything.  It has extremely few uses and, despite its cosmic abundance, is very hard to find on Earth. Yet in the future, it might become one of the most valuable substances in the world. Learn more about Helium, its discovery, its uses, and its potential future on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Sponsors Quince Go to quince.com/daily for 365-day returns, plus free shipping on your order! Mint Mobile Get your 3-month Unlimited wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month at mintmobile.com/eed Chubbies Get 20% off your purchase at Chubbies with the promo code DAILY at checkout! Aura Frames Exclusive $35 off Carver Mat at https://on.auraframes.com/DAILY. Promo Code DAILY DripDrop Go to dripdrop.com and use promo code EVERYTHING for 20% off your first order. Uncommon Goods Go to uncommongoods.com/DAILY for 15% off! Subscribe to the podcast!  https://everything-everywhere.com/everything-everywhere-daily-podcast/ -------------------------------- Executive Producer: Charles Daniel Associate Producers: Austin Oetken & Cameron Kieffer   Become a supporter on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/everythingeverywhere Discord Server: https://discord.gg/UkRUJFh Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/everythingeverywhere/ Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/everythingeverywheredaily Twitter: https://twitter.com/everywheretrip Website: https://everything-everywhere.com/  Disce aliquid novi cotidie Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Amazon truckload hijacked, TikTok Shop creator tactics, new AI tools & strategies, Amazon PPC recovery, and a full revamp of the AM/PM & Serious Sellers Podcasts.

Amazon truckload hijacked, TikTok Shop creator tactics, new AI tools & strategies, Amazon PPC recovery, and a full revamp of the AM/PM & Serious Sellers Podcasts.   In this episode, Bradley Sutton kicks off a brand-new era for both the AM/PM Podcast and the Serious Sellers Podcast with co-hosts Carrie Miller and Shivali Patel. This simulcast episode sets the tone for what's coming next: more Amazon, TikTok Shop, Walmart, and AI-driven strategies designed to help you make money in the AM and the PM. Bradley also shares the new format for both shows, including Weekly Buzz moving to AM/PM Podcast, expert-led trainings, and a renewed focus on real seller stories on Serious Sellers Podcast every Monday.   From there, things get wild. Carrie tells the story of a truckload of her Amazon inventory being hijacked on the freeway like a scene straight out of Fast & Furious, complete with a fake carrier, turned-off tracking, ransom demands, and a loss that ballooned to around $70K after tariffs. She breaks down what she learned about freight, tariffs, switching manufacturing from China to Turkey, and why sellers need to be more hands-on with carriers and agencies alike. Shivali then shares her own hard lesson: a high-margin product that kept failing customers, forcing her to pull the listing and rebuild the brand off-Amazon using a digital-first strategy that pairs a makeup mastery course with a physical product bonus and a new funnel powered by Google Ads.   To round out the episode, Shivali walks through exactly how she became a TikTok creator in just 12 days, qualified for the Creator Pilot Program, and started monetizing with TikTok Shop using existing camera-roll content, smart reposting, and product tagging. She also reveals some under-the-radar AI tools like Higgsfield and Arcads that can help sellers generate before-and-after content, influencer-style videos, and scalable creatives without always needing the physical product on hand. Carrie closes with one more key reminder for Amazon sellers: start paying attention to Rufus and optimize your listings around the real questions shoppers are asking, because AI-driven search is already changing how people discover products on Amazon.   In episode 477 of the AM/PM Podcast, Bradley, Carrie, and Shivali discuss: 00:00 – Bradley kicks off the new era of the AM/PM & Serious Sellers Podcasts 02:03 – Fast & Furious moment: an Amazon shipment gets hijacked 03:20 – How the thieves impersonated the carrier and held the load for ransom 05:14 – $70K in losses and what sellers MUST know about subcontracted carriers 07:48 – Turning a product failure into a digital-product-first business model 15:50 – Carrie moves manufacturing from China to Turkey - costs vs. tariffs 16:55 – Major announcement: Weekly Buzz moves to the AM/PM Podcast 22:10 – How Shivali became a TikTok Creator in 12 days &  27:45 – Carrie's Amazon PPC agency disaster & how she rebuilt with Helium 10 34:05 – AI tools sellers haven't heard of 36:45 – Optimizing Amazon listings for Rufus AI 37:55 – The future format of both podcasts moving forward  

Shotgun Spratling and Chris Trevino return behind the microphones for another episode of the Helium Boys Podcast, a serious non-serious USC football podcast. The Helium Boys are back to look at a wide array of college football, and USC-specific, topics after the announcement of the College Football Playoff participants and bowl game destinations as well as significant roster changes incoming for the Trojans following National Signing Day and the first wave of players announcing their intentions to enter the NCAA transfer portal The episode opens with the Helium Boys staple 'Two-Minute Drill' that features Shotgun and Chris both railing on Notre Dame and its insolent decision to not participate in the Pop Tarts Bowl after being left out of the College Football Playoff. After the wild rants on the intolerable disrespect shown to one of our college football national treasures, the podcasters dive into 'Stock Up, Stock Down,' which they use as a jumping off point to discuss a variety of college football topics, including USC finishing with the No. 1 recruiting class in the 2026 recruiting cycle, the evolution of the college football bowl system and some familiar faces the Trojans have/will see. They also take an early look at the matchup between USC and TCU, who will meet in the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio on Dec. 30. After a break, the podcasters dive into some superlatives for the Trojans' No. 1-ranked 2026 recruiting class, including their picks for a Day 1 starter and favorite recruit as well as who will transform their body the most and who will be a star when it's all said and done. Chris and Shotgun follow with a dive into the players exiting the program, breaking down the future impact of the 11 players that have made it known they plan to enter the NCAA transfer portal when it opens on Jan. 2. The podcast duo also answer your mailbag questions discussing basketball collapses, opt outs and Notre Dame scheduling. After some 'Take It or Leave It' questions for Shotgun, the episode concludes with Chris making Shotgun choose which bowl games to revive and which to keep dead. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Overtired trio reunites for the first time in ages, diving into a whirlwind of health updates, hilarious anecdotes, and the latest tech obsessions. Christina shares a dramatic spinal saga while Brett and Jeff discuss everything from winning reddit contests to creating a universal markdown processor. Tune in for updates on Mark 3, the magical world of Scrivener, and why Brett’s back on Bing. Don’t miss the banter or the tech tips, and as always, get ready to laugh, learn, and maybe feel a little overtired yourself. Sponsor Shopify is the commerce platform behind 10% of all eCommerce in the US, from household names like Mattel and Gymshark, to brands just getting started. Get started today at shopify.com/overtired. Chapters 00:00 Welcome to the Overtired Podcast 01:09 Christina’s Health Journey 10:53 Brett’s Insurance Woes 15:38 Jeff’s Mental Health Update 24:07 Sponsor Spot: Shopify 24:18 Sponsor: Shopify 26:23 Jeff Tweedy 27:43 Jeff’s Concert Marathon 32:16 Christina Wins Big 36:58 Monitor Setup Challenges 37:13 Ergotron Mounts and Tall Poles 38:33 Review Plans and Honest Assessments 38:59 Current Display Setup 41:30 Thunderbolt KVM and Display Preferences 42:51 MacBook Pro and Studio Comparisons 50:58 Markdown Processor: Apex 01:07:58 Scrivener and Writing Tools 01:11:55 Helium Browser and Privacy Features 01:13:56 Bing Delisting Incident Show Links Danny Brown's 10 in the New York Times (gift link) Indigo Stack Scrivener Helium Bangs Apex Apex Syntax Join the Marked 3 Beta LG 32 Inch UltraFine™evo 6K Nano IPS Black Monitor with Thunderbolt™ 5 Join the Conversation Merch Come chat on Discord! Twitter/ovrtrd Instagram/ovrtrd Youtube Get the Newsletter Thanks! You’re downloading today’s show from CacheFly’s network BackBeat Media Podcast Network Check out more episodes at overtiredpod.com and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. Find Brett as @ttscoff, Christina as @film_girl, Jeff as @jsguntzel, and follow Overtired at @ovrtrd on Twitter. Transcript Brett + 2 Welcome to the Overtired Podcast Jeff: [00:00:00] Hello everybody. This is the Overtired podcast. The three of us are all together for the first time since the Carter administration. Um, it is great to see you both here. I am Jeff Severance Gunzel if I didn’t say that already. Um, and I’m here with Christina Warren and I’m here with Brett Terpstra and hello to both of you. Brett: Hi. Jeff: Great to see you both. Brett: Yeah, it’s good to see you too. I feel like I was really deadpan in the pre-show. I’ll try to liven it up for you. I was a horrible audience. You were cracking jokes and I was just Jeff: that’s true. Christina, before you came on, man, I was hot. I was on fire and Brett was, all Brett was doing was chewing and dropping Popsicle parts. Brett: Yep. I ate, I ate part of a coconut outshine Popsicle off of a concrete floor, but Jeff: It is true, and I didn’t even see him check it [00:01:00] for cat hair, Brett: I did though. Jeff: but I believe he did because he’s a, he’s a very Brett: I just vacuumed in Jeff: He’s a very good American Brett: All right. Christina’s Health Journey Brett: Well, um, I, Christina has a lot of health stuff to share and I wanna save time for that. So let’s kick off the mental health corner. Um, let’s let Christina go first, because if it takes the whole show, it takes the whole show. Go for it. Christina: Uh, I, I will not take this hold show, but thank you. Yeah. So, um, my mental health is okay-ish. Um, I would say the okay-ish part is, is because of things that are happening with my physical health and then some of the medications that I’ve had to be on, um, uh, to deal with it. Uh, prednisone. Fucking sucks, man. Never nev n never take it if you can avoid it. Um, but why Christina, why are you on prednisone or why were you on prednisone for five days? Um, uh, and I’m not anymore to be clear, but that certainly did not help my mental health. Um, at the beginning of November, I woke up and I thought that I’d [00:02:00] slept on my shoulder wrong. And, um, uh, and, and just some, some background. I, I don’t know if this is pertinent to how my injury took place or not, but, but it, I’m sure that it didn’t help. Um, I have scoliosis and in the top and the bottom of my spine, so I have it at the top of my, like, neck area and my lower back. And so my back is like a crooked s um, this will be relevant in a, in a second, but, but I, I thought that I had slept on my back bunny, and I was like, okay, well, all right, it hurts a lot, but fine. Um, and then it, a, a couple of days passed and it didn’t get any better, and then like a week passed and I was at the point where I was like, I almost feel like I need to go to the. Emergency room, I’m in pain. That is that significant. Um, and, you know, didn’t get any better. So I took some of grant’s, Gabapentin, and I took, um, some, some, uh, a few other things and I was able to get in with like a, a, a sports and spine guy. Um, and um, [00:03:00] he looked at me and he was like, yeah, I think that you have like a, a, a bolting disc, also known as a herniated disc. Go to physical therapy. See me later. We’ll, we’ll deal with it. Um. Basically like my whole left side was, was, was really sore and, and I had a lot of pain and then I had numbness in my, my fingers and um, and, and that was a problem the next day, which was actually my birthday. The numbness had at this point spread to my right side and also my lower extremities. And so at this point I called the doctor and he was like, yeah, you should go to the er. And so I went to the ER and, and they weren’t able to do anything for me other than give me, you know, like, um, you know, I was hoping they might give me like, some sort of steroid injection or something. They wouldn’t do anything other than, um, basically, um, they gave me like another type of maybe, maybe pain pill or whatever. Um, but that allowed the doctor to go ahead and. Write, uh, write up an MRI took forever for me to get an MRI, I actually had to get it in Atlanta. [00:04:00] Fun fact, uh, sometimes it is cheaper to just pay and not go through insurance and get an MR MRI and, um, a, um, uh, an x-ray, um, I was able to do it for $450 Jeff: Whoa. Really? Christina: Yeah, $400 for the MR mri. $50 for the x-ray. Jeff: Wow. Christina: Yeah. Yeah. Brett: how I, they, I had an MRI, they charged me like $1,200 and then they failed to bill insurance ’cause I was between insurance. Christina: Yes. Yeah. So what happened was, and and honestly that was gonna be the situation that I was in, not between insurance stuff, but they weren’t even gonna bill insurance. And insurance only approved certain facilities and to get into those facilities is almost impossible. Um, and so, no, there are a lot of like get an MR, I now get a, you know, mammogram, get ghetto, whatever places. And because America’s healthcare system is a HealthScape, you can bypass insurance and they will charge you way less than whatever they bill insurance for. So I, I don’t know if it’s part of the country, you know, like Seattle I think might [00:05:00] probably would’ve been more expensive. But yeah, I was able to find this place like a mile from like, not even a mile from where my parents lived, um, that did the x-rays and the MRI for $450 total. Brett: I, I hate, I hate that. That’s true, but Christina: Me too. Me too. No, no. It pisses me off. Honestly, it makes me angry because like, I’m glad that I was able to do that and get it, you know, uh, uh, expedited. Then I go into the spine, um, guy earlier this week and he looks at it and he’s like, yep, you’ve got a massive bulging disc on, on C seven, which is the, the part of your lower cervical or cervical spine, which is your neck. Um, and it’s where it connects to your ver bray. It’s like, you know, there are a few things you can do. You can do, you know, injections, you can do surgery. He is like, I’m gonna recommend you to a neurosurgeon. And I go to the neurosurgeon yesterday and he was showing me or not, uh, yeah, yesterday he was showing me the, the, the, the scans and, and showing like you up close and it’s, yeah, it’s pretty massive. Like where, where, where the disc is like it is. You could see it just from one view, like, just from like [00:06:00] looking at it like, kind of like outside, like you could actually like see like it was visible, but then when you zoomed in it’s like, oh shit, this, this thing is like massive and it’s pressing on these nerves that then go into my, my hands and other areas. But it’s pressing on both sides. It’s primarily on my left side, but it’s pressing on on my right side too, which is not good. So, um, he basically was like, okay. He was like, you know, this could go away. He was like, the pain isn’t really what I’m wanting to, to treat here. It’s, it’s the, the weakness because my, my left arm is incredibly weak. Like when they do like the, the test where like they, they push back on you to see like, okay, like how, how much can you, what, like, I am, I’m almost immediately like, I can’t hold anything back. Right? Like I’m, I’m, I’m like a toddler in terms of my strength. So, and, and then I’m freaked out because I don’t have a lot of feeling in my hands and, and that’s terrifying. Um, I’m also. Jeff: so terrifying, Christina: I’m, I’m also like in extreme pain because of, of, of where this sits. Like I can’t sleep well. Like [00:07:00] the whole thing sucks. Like the MRI, which was was like the most painful, like 25 minutes, like of my existence. ’cause I was laying flat on my back. I’m not allowed to move and I’m just like, I’m in just incredible pain with that part of, of, of, of my, my side. Like, it, it was. It was terrible. Um, but, uh, but he was like, yeah. Um, these are the sorts of surgical options we have. Um, he’s gonna, um, do basically what what he wants to do is basically do a thing where he would put in a, um, an artificial or, or synthetic disc. So they’re gonna remove the disc, put in a synthetic one. They’ll go in through the, the front of my throat to access the, my, my, my, my spine. Um, put that there and, um, you know, I’ll, I’ll be overnight in the hospital. Um, and then it’ll be a few weeks of recovery and the, the, the pain should go away immediately. Um, but it, it could be up to two years before I get full, you know, feeling back in my arm. So anyway, Jeff: years, Jesus. And Christina: I mean, and hopefully less than that, but, but it could be [00:08:00] up to that. Jeff: there’s no part of this at this point. That’s a mystery to you, right? Christina: The mystery is, I don’t know how this happened. Jeff: You don’t know how it happened, right? Of course. Yeah, of course. Yeah. Yeah. Brett: So tell, tell us about the ghastly surgery. The, the throat thing really threw me like, I can’t imagine that Christina: yeah, yeah. So, well, ’cause the thing is, is that usually if what they just do, like spinal fusion, they’ll go in at the back of your neck, um, and then they’ll remove the, the, um, the, the, the, the disc. And then they’ll fuse your, your, your two bones together. Basically. They’ll, they’ll, they’ll, they’ll fuse this part of the vertebrae, but because they’re going to be replacing the, the disc, they need more room. So that’s why they have to go in through the, through, through basically your throat so that they can have more room to work. Jeff: Good lord. No thank you. Brett: Ugh. Wow. Jeff: Okay. Brett: I am really sorry that is happening. That is, that is, that dwarfs my health concerns. That is just constant pain [00:09:00] and, and it would be really scary. Christina: Yeah. Yeah. It’s not great. It’s not great, but I’m, I’m, I’m doing what I can and, uh, like I have, you know, a small amount of, of Oxycodine and I have like a, a, a, you know, some other pain medication and I’m taking the gabapentin and like, that’s helpful. The bad part is like your body, like every 12, 15 hours, like whatever, like the, the, the cycle is like, you feel it leave your system and like if you’re asleep, you wake up, right? Like, it’s one of those things, like, you immediately feel it, like when it leaves your system. And I’ve never had to do anything for pain management before. And they have me on a very, they have me like on the smallest amount of like, oxycodone you can be on. Um, and I’m using it sparingly because I don’t wanna, you know, be reliant on, on it or whatever. But it, it, but it is one of those things where I’m like, yeah, like sometimes you need fucking opiates because, you know, the pain is like so constant. And the thing is like, what sucks is that it’s not always the same type of pain. Like sometimes it’s throbbing, sometimes it’s sharp, sometimes it’s like whatever. It sucks. But the hardest thing [00:10:00] is like, and. This does impact my mental health. Like it’s hard to sleep. Like, and I’m a side sleeper. I’m a side sleeper, and I’m gonna have to become a back sleeper. So, you know. Yeah. It’s just, it’s, it’s not great. It’s not great, but, you know, that, that, that, that, that’s me. The, the good news is, and I’m very, very gratified, like I have a good surgeon. Um, I’m gonna be able to get in to get this done relatively quickly. He had an appointment for next week. I don’t think that insurance would’ve even been able to approve things fast enough for, for, for that regard. And I have, um, commitments that I can’t make then. And I, and that would also mean that I wouldn’t be able to go visit my family for Christmas. So hopefully I’ll do it right after Christmas. I’m just gonna wait, you know, for, for insurance to, to do its thing, knock on wood, and then schedule, um, from there. But yeah, Jeff: Woof. Christina: so that’s me. Um, uh, who wants to go next? Jeff or, uh, Jeff or Brett? Jeff: It’s like, that’s me. Hot potato throwing it. Brett: I’ll, I’ll go. Brett’s Insurance Woes Brett: I can continue on the insurance topic. Um, I was, for a few months [00:11:00] after getting laid off, I was on Minsu, which is Minnesota’s Medicaid, um, v version of Medicaid. And so basically I paid nothing and I had better insurance than I usually have with, uh, you know, a full deductible and premiums and everything. And it was fantastic. I was getting all the care I needed for all of the health stuff I’m going through. Um, I, they, a, a new doctor I found, ordered the 15 tests and I passed out ’cause it was so much blood and. And it, I was getting, but I was getting all these tests run. I was getting results, we were discovering things. And then my unemployment checks, the income from unemployment went like $300 over the cap for Medicaid. So [00:12:00] all of a sudden, overnight I was cut from Medicaid and I had to do an early sign up, and now I’m on courts and it sucks bad. Like they’re not covering my meds. Last month cost me $600. I was also paying. In addition to that, a $300 premium plus every doctor’s visit is 50 bucks out of pocket. So this will hopefully only last until January, and then it’ll flip over and I will be able to demonstrate basically no income, um, until like Mark makes enough money that it gets reported. Um, and even, uh, until then, like I literally am making under the, the poverty limit. So, um, I hope to be back on Medicaid shortly. I have one more month. I’ll have to pay my $600 to refill. I [00:13:00] cashed out my 401k. Um, like things were, everything was up high enough that I had made, I. I had made tens of thousands of dollars just on the investments and the 401k, but I also have a lot of concerns about the market volatility around Nvidia and the AI bubble in general. Um, so taking my money out of the market just felt okay to me. I paid the 10%, uh, penalty Jeff: Mm-hmm. Brett: and ultimately I, I came out with enough cash that I can invest on my own and be able to cover the next six months. Uh, if I don’t have any other income, which I hope to, I hope to not spend my nest egg. Um, but I did, I did a lot of thinking and calculating and I think I made the right choices. But anyway, [00:14:00] that will help if I have to pay for medical stuff that will help. Um. And then I’ve had insomnia, bad on and off. Right now I’m coming off of two days of good sleep. You’re catching me on a good day. Um, but Jeff: Still wouldn’t laugh at my jokes. Brett: before that it was, well, that’s the thing is like before that, it was four nights where I slept two to four hours per night, and by the end of it, I could barely walk. And so two nights of sleep after a stint like that, like, I’m just super, I’m deadpan, I’m dazed. Um, I could lay down and fall asleep at any time. Um, I, so, so keep me awake. Um, but yeah, that’s, that’s, that’s me. Mental health is good. Like I’m in pretty high spirits considering all this, like financial stuff and everything. Like my mood has been pretty stable. I’ve been getting a lot of coding done. I’ll tell you about projects in [00:15:00] a minute, but, um, but that’s, that’s me. I’m done. Jeff: Awesome. I’m enjoying watching your cat roll around, but clearly cannot decide to lay down at this point. Brett: No, nobody is very persnickety. Jeff: I literally have to put my. Well, you say put a cat down like you used to. When you put a kid down for a nap, you say you wanna put ’em down. Right? That’s where it’s coming from. I now have a chair next to my desk, ’cause I have one cat that walks around Yowling at about 11:00 AM while I’m working. And I have to like, put ’em down for a nap. It’s pathetic. It’s pathetic that I do that. Let’s just be clear. Brett: Yeah. Jeff: soulmate though. Jeff’s Mental Health Update Jeff: Um, I’m doing good. I’m, I’m, I’ve been feeling kind of light lately in a nice way. I’ve had ups and downs, but even with the ups and downs, there’s like a, except for one day last week was, there’s just been feeling kind of good in general, which is remarkable in a way. ’cause it’s just like stressful time. There’s some stressful business stuff, like, [00:16:00] a lot of stuff like that. But I’m feeling good and, and just like, uh, yeah, just light. I don’t know, it’s weird. Like, I’ve just been noticing that I feel kind of light and, uh. And not, not manic, not high light. Brett: Yeah. No, that’s Jeff: uh, and that’s, that’s lovely. So yeah. And so I’m doing good. I’m doing good. I fucking, it’s cold. Which sucks ’cause it just means for everybody that’s heard about my workshop over the years, that I can’t really go out there and have it be pleasant Brett: It’s, it’s been Minnesota thus far. Has had, we’ve had like one, one Sub-Zero day. Jeff: whatever. It’s fucking cold. Christina: Yeah. What one? Brett? Brett. It’s December 6th as we’re recording this one Sub-Zero day. That’s insane. Brett: Is it Jeff: Granted, granted I’ve been dressing warm, so I’m ready to go out the door for ice related things. Meaning, meaning government, ice, Brett: Uh, yeah. Yeah. Jeff: So I like wear my long underwear during [00:17:00] the day. ’cause actually like recently. So at my son’s school, which is like six blocks from here, um, has a lot of Somali immigrants in it. And, and uh, and there was a, at one point there was ice activity in the other direction, um, uh, uh, near me. And so neighbors put out a call here around so that at dismissal time people would pair up at all the intersections surrounding the school. And, um, and like a quick signal group popped up, whatever. It was so amazing because like we all just popped out there. And by the time I got out, uh, everyone was already like, posted up and I was like, I’m a, in these situations, I am a wanderer. You want me roaming? I don’t want to pair up with somebody I don’t like, I just, I grabbed a camera with a Zoom on it and like, I was like, I’m in roam. Um, it’s what I was as an activist, what I was as a reporter, like it’s just my nature. Um, but like. Everybody was out and like, and they were just like, they were ready man. And then we got like the all clear and you could just see people in the [00:18:00] neighborhood just like standing down and going home. But because of the true threat and the ongoing arrests here, now that the Minneapolis stuff has started, like I do, I was like wearing long underwear just, and I have a little bag by the door ready to like pop out if something comes up and I can be helpful. Um, and uh, and I guess what I’m saying is I should use that to go into the garage as well if I’m already prepared. Brett: Right. Jeff: But here’s, okay, so here’s a mental health thing actually. So I, one of the, I’ve gone through a few years of just sort of a little bit of paralysis around being able to just, I don’t know what, like do anything that is kind of project related that takes some thinking, whatever it is, like I’m talking about around the house or things that have kind of broken over the years, whatever. So I’ve had this snowblower and it’s a really good snowblower. It’s got headlights. And, uh, and I used to love snow blowing the entire block. Like it just made me feel good, made me feel useful. Um, and sorry I cough. I left it outside for a [00:19:00] year for a, like a winter and a spring and water got into the gas tank. It rusted out in there. I knew I couldn’t start it or I’d ruin the whole damn engine. So I left it for two years and I felt bad about myself. But this year, just like probably a month before the first big snowfall, I fucking replaced a gas tank and a carburetor on a machine. And I have never done anything like that in my life. And so then we got the snowfall and I, and I snow blowed this whole block Brett: Nice. Jeff: great. ’cause now they all owe me. Brett: I, uh, I have a, uh, so I have a little electric powered, uh, snowblower that can handle like two inches of snow. Um, and, and on big snowfalls, if you get out there every hour and keep up with it, it, it works. But, but I, my back right now, I can’t stand for, I can’t stand still for 10 minutes and I can’t move for more than like five minutes. And so I’m, I’m very disabled and El has good days and bad days, uh, thus [00:20:00] far. L’s been out there with a shovel, um, really being the hero. But we have a next door neighbor with a big gas powered snowblower. And so we went over, brought them gifts, and, um, asked if they would take care of our driveway on days we couldn’t, uh, for like, you know, we’d pay ’em 25 bucks to do the driveway. And, uh, and they were, he was still reluctant to accept money. Um. But, but we both agreed it was better to like make it a, a transaction. Jeff: Oh my God. You don’t want to get into weird Minnesota neighbor relational. Brett: right. You don’t want the you owe me thing. Um, so, so we have that set up. But in the process we made really good friends with our neighbor. Like we sat down in their living room for I think 45 minutes and just like talked about health and politics and it was, it was really fun. They’re, they’re retired. They’re in their [00:21:00] seventies and like act, he always looks super grumpy. I always thought he was a mean old man. He’s actually, he laughs more easily than most people I’ve ever met. Um, he’s actually, when people say, oh, he is actually a teddy bear, this guy really is, he’s just jovial. Uh, he just has resting angry old man face. Jeff: Or like my, I have public mis throat face, like when I’m out and about, especially when I’m shopping, I know that my face is, I’m gonna fucking kill you if you look me in the eye Brett: I used Jeff: is not my general disposition. Brett: people used to tell me that about myself, but I feel like I, I carry myself differently these days than I did when I was younger. Jeff: You know what I learned? Do you, have you both watched Veep, Christina: Yes, Jeff: you know, Richard sp split, right? Um, and, and he always kind of has this sweet like half smile and he is kind of looking up and I, I figured out at one point I was in an airport, which is where my kill everybody face especially comes up. Just to be clear. TSA, it’s just a feeling inside. I [00:22:00] have no desire to act to this out. I realized that if I make the Richard Plet face, which I can try to make for you now, which is something like if I just make the Richard Plet face, my whole disposition Brett: yeah. Yeah. Jeff: uh, and I even feel a little better. And so I just wanna recommend that to people. Look up Richard Spt, look at his face. Christina: Hey, future President Bridges split. Jeff: future President Richard Splat, also excellent in the Detroiters. Um, that’s all, uh, that’s all I wanted to say about that. Brett: I have found that like when I’m texting with someone, if I start to get frustrated, you know, you know that point where you’re still adding smiley emoticons even though you’re actually not, you’re actually getting pissed off, but you don’t wanna sound super bitchy about it, so you’re adding smile. I have found that when I add a smiley emoji in those circumstances, if I actually smile before I send it, it like my [00:23:00] mood will adjust to match, to match the tone I’m trying to convey, and it lessens my frustration with the other person. Jeff: a little joy wrist rocket. Christina: Yeah. Hey, I mean, no, but hey, but, but that, that, that, that, that’s interesting. I mean, they’re, they, they’ve done studies that like show that, right? That like show like, you know, I mean, like, some of this is all like bullshit to a certain extent, but there is something to be said for like, you know, like the power of like positive thinking and like, you know, if you go into things with like, different types of attitudes or even like, even if you like, go into job interviews or other situations, like you act confident or you smile, or you act happy or whatever. Even if you’re not like it, the, the, the, the euphoria, you know, that those sorts of uh, um, endorphin reactions or whatever can be real. So that’s interesting. Brett: Yeah, I found, I found going into job interviews with my usual sarcastic and bitter, um, kind of mindset, Jeff: I already hate this job. Brett: it doesn’t play well. It doesn’t play well. So what are your weaknesses? Fuck off. Um,[00:24:00] Christina: right. Well, well, well, I hate people. Jeff: Yeah. Dealing with motherfuckers like you, that’s one weakness. Sponsor Spot: Shopify Brett: let’s, uh, let’s do a sponsor spot and then I want to hear about Christina winning a contest. Christina: yes. Jeff: very Brett: wanna, you wanna take it away? Sponsor: Shopify Jeff: I will, um, our sponsor this week is Shopify. Um, have you ever, have you just been dreaming of owning your own business? Is that why you can’t sleep? In addition to having something to sell, you need a website. And I’ll tell you what, that’s been true for a long time. You need a payment system, you need a logo, you need a way to advertise new customers. It can all be overwhelming and confusing, but that is where today’s sponsor, Shopify comes in. shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world and 10% of all e-commerce in the US from household names like Mattel and Gym Shark to brands just getting started. Get started with your own design studio with hundreds of ready to use [00:25:00] templates. Shopify helps you build a beautiful online store to match your brand’s style, accelerate your content creation. Shopify is packed with helpful AI tools that write product descriptions, page headlines, and even enhance your product photography. Get the word out like you have a marketing team behind you. Easily create email and social media campaigns wherever your customers are scrolling or strolling. And best yet, Shopify is your commerce expert with world class expertise in everything from managing inventory to international shipping, to processing returns and beyond. If you’re ready to sell, you are ready to Shopify. Turn your Big Business Idea into with Shopify on your side. Sign up for your $1 per month trial and start selling today@shopify.com slash Overtired. Go to shopify.com/ Overtired. What was that? Say it with me. shopify.com/ Overtired [00:26:00] cha. Uh, Brett: the, uh, the group, the group input on the last URL, I feel like we can charge extra for that. That was Jeff: Yeah. Cha-ching Brett: they got the chorus, they got the Overtired Christina: You did. You got the Overtired Jeff: They didn’t think to ask for it, but that’s our brand. Christina: shopify.com/ Overtired. Jeff Tweedy Jeff: What was, uh, I was watching a Stephen Colbert interview with Jeff Tweedy, who just put out a triple album and, uh, it was a very thoughtful, sweet interview. And then Stephen Colbert said, you know, you’re not supposed to do this. And Jeff Tweety said, it’s all part of my career long effort to leave the public wanting less. Christina: Ha, Jeff: That was a great bit. Christina: that’s a fantastic bit. A side note, there are a couple of really good NPR, um, uh, tiny desks that have come out in the last couple of month, uh, couple of weeks. Um, uh, one is shockingly, I, I’ll, I’ll just be a a, a fucking boomer about it. The Googo dolls. Theirs was [00:27:00] great. It’s fantastic. They did a great job. It already has like millions of views, like it wrecked up like over a million views, I think like in like, like less than 24 hours. They did a great job, but, uh, but Brandy Carlisle, uh, did one, um, the other day and hers is really, really good too. So, um, so yeah. Yeah, exactly. So yeah. Anyway, you said, you saying Jeff pd maybe, I don’t know how I got from Wilco to like, you know, there, Jeff: Yeah. Well, they’ve done some good, he’s done his own good Christina: he has, he has done his own. Good, good. That’s honestly, that’s probably what I was thinking of, but Jeff: It’s my favorite Jeff besides me because Bezos, he’s not in the, he’s not in the game. Christina: No. No, he’s not. No. Um, he, he’s, he’s not on the Christmas card list at all. Jeff: Oh man. Jeff’s Concert Marathon Jeff: Can I just tell you guys that I did something, um, I did something crazy a couple weeks ago and I went to three shows in one week, like I was 20 fucking two, Brett: Good grief. Jeff: and. It was a blast. So, okay, so the background of this is my oldest son [00:28:00] loves hip hop, and when we drive him to college and back, or when I do, it’s often just me. Um, he, he goes deep and he, it’s a lot of like, kind of indie hip hop and a lot. It’s just an interesting, he listens to interesting shit, but he will go deep and he’ll just like, give me a tour through someone’s discography or through all their features somewhere, whatever it is. And like, it’s the kind of input that I love, which is just like, I don’t, even if it’s not my genre, like if you’re passionate and you can just weave me through the interrelationship and the history and whatever it is I’m in. So as a result of that, made me a huge fan of Danny Brown and made me a huge fan of the sky, Billy Woods. And so what happened was I went to a hip hop show at the seventh Street entry, uh, which is attached to First Avenue. It’s a little club, very small, lovely little place, the only place my band could sell out. Um, and I watched a hip hop show there on a Monday night, Tuesday night. I went to the Uptown Theater, which Brett is now a actually an operating [00:29:00] theater for shows. Uh, and I, and I saw Danny Brown, but I also saw two hyper pop bands, a genre I was not previously aware of, including one, which was amazing, called Fem Tenal. And I was in line to get into that show behind furries, behind trans Kids. Like it was this, I was the weirdest, like I did not belong. Underscores played, and, and this will mean something to somebody out there, but not, didn’t mean anything to me until that night. And, uh. I felt like such, there were times, not during Danny Brown, Danny Brown’s my age all good. But like there were times where I was in the crowd ’cause I’m tall. Anybody that doesn’t know I’m very tall and I’m wearing like a not very comfortable or safe guy seeming outfit, a black hoodie, a black stocking cap. Like I basically looked like I’m possibly a shooter and, and I’m like standing among all these young people loving it, but feeling a little like, should I go to the back? Even like I was leaving that show [00:30:00] and the only people my age were people’s parents that were waiting to pick them up on the way out. So anyway, that was night two. Danny Brown was awesome. And then two nights later I went to see, this is way more my speed, a band called the Dazzling Kilman who were a band that. Came out in the nineties, St. Louis and a noisy Matthew Rock. Wikipedia claims they invented math rock. It’s a really stupid claim, uh, but it’s a lovely, interesting band and it’s a friend of mine named Nick Sakes, who’s who fronted that band and was in all these great bands back when I was in bands called Colos Mite and Sick Bay, and all this is great shit. So they played a reunion show. In this tiny punk rock club here called Cloudland, just a lovely little punk rock club. And, um, and, and that was like rounded out my week. So like, I was definitely, uh, a tourist the early part of the week, mostly at the Danny Brown Show. But then I like got to come home to my noisy punk rock [00:31:00] on, uh, on Thursday night. And I, I fucking did three shows and it hurt so bad. Like even by the first of three bands on the second night. I was like, I don’t think I can make it. And I do. I already pregame shows with ibuprofen. Just to be really clear, I microdose glucose tabs at shows like, like I am, I am a full on old man doing these things. But, um, I did get some cred with my kids for being at a hyper pop show all by myself. And, Christina: Hell yeah. A a Jeff: friends seemed impressed. Christina: no, as a as, as as they should be. I’m impressed. And like, and I, I, I typically like, I definitely go to like more of like, I go, I go to shows more frequently and, and I’m, I’m even like, I’m, I’m gonna be real with you. I’m like, yeah, three in one week. Jeff: That’s a lot. Christina: That’s a lot. That’s a lot. Jeff: man. Did I feel good when I walked home from that last show though? I was like, I fucking did it. I did not believe I wasn’t gonna bail on at least two of those shows, if not all three. Anyway, just wanted to say Brett: I [00:32:00] do like one show a year, but Jeff: that’s how I’ve been for years this year. I think I’ve seen eight shows. Brett: damn. Jeff: Yeah, it’s Brett: Alright, so you’ve been teasing us about this, this contest you won. Jeff: Yeah, please, Christina. Sorry to push that off. Christina: No, no, no, no. That’s, that’s completely okay. That, that, that, that’s great. Uh, no. Christina Wins Big Christina: So, um, I won two six K monitors. Brett: Damn. Jeff: is that what those boxes are behind you? Christina: Yeah, yeah. This is what the boxes are behind me, so I haven’t been able to get them up because this happened. I got them literally right in the midst of all this stuff with my back. Um, but I do have an Ergotron poll now that is here, and, and Grant has said that he will, will get them up. But yeah, so I won 2 32 inch six K monitors from a Reddit contest. Brett: How, how, how, Jeff: How does this happen? How do I find a Reddit contest? Christina: Yeah. So I got lucky. So I have, I, I have a clearly, well, well, um, there was a little, there was a little bit of like, other step to it than that, but like, uh, so how it worked was basically, um, LG is basically just put out [00:33:00] two, they put out a new 32 inch six K monitor. I’ll have it linked in, in, in the show notes. Um, so we’ve talked about this on this podcast before, but like one of my big, like. Pet peeve, like things that I can’t get past. It’s like I need like a retina screen. Like I need like the, the perfect pixel doubling thing for that the Mac Os deals with, because I’ve used a 5K screen, either through an iMac or um, an lg, um, ultra fine or, um, a, uh, studio display. For like 11 years. And, and I, and I’ve been using retina displays on laptops even longer than that. And so if I use like a regular 4K display, like it just, it, it doesn’t work for me. Um, you can use apps like, um, like better control and other things to kind of emulate, like what would be like if you doubled the resolution, then it, it down, you know, um, of samples that, so that. It looks better than, than if it’s just like the, the, the 4K stuff where in the, the user interface things are too big and whatnot. And to be clear, this is a Macco West problem. If [00:34:00] you are using Windows or Linux or any other operating system that does fractional scaling, um, correctly, then this is not a problem. But Macco West does not do fractional scaling direct, uh, correctly. Um, weirdly iOS can, like, they can do three X resolution and other things. Um, but, but, but Macs does not. And that’s weird because some of the native resolutions on some of the MacBook errors are not even perfectly pixeled doubled, meaning Apple is already having to do a certain amount of like resolution changes to, to fit into their own, created by their, their own hubris, like way of insisting on, on only having like, like two x pixel doubling 18 years ago, we could have had independent, uh, resolutions, uh, um, for, for UI elements and, and, and window bars. But anyway, I, I’m, I’m digressing anyway. I was looking at trying to get either a second, uh, studio display, which I don’t wanna do because Apple’s reportedly going to be putting out a new one. Um, and they’re expensive or getting, um, there are now a number of different six K [00:35:00] displays that are not $6,000 that are on the market. So, um, uh, uh, Asus has one, um, there is one from like a, a Chinese company called like, or Q Con that, um, looks like a, a complete copy of this, of the pro display XDR. It has a different panel, but it’s, it’s six K and they, they’ve copied the whole design and it’s aluminum and it’s glossy and it looks great, but I’d have to like get it from like. A weird distributor, and if I have any issues with it, I don’t really wanna have to send it back to China and whatnot. And then LG has one that they just put out. And so I’ve been researching these on, on Mac rumors and on some other forums. And, um, I, uh, I, somebody in one of the Mac Roomers forums like posted that there was like a contest that LG was running in a few different subreddits where they were like, tell us why you should get one of, like, we’re gonna be giving away like either one or two monitors, and I guess they did this in a few subreddits. Tell us why this would be good for your workflow. And, um, I guess I, I guess I’m one of the people who kind of read the [00:36:00] assignment because it, okay, I’ll just be honest with this, with, with you guys on this podcast, uh, because I, I don’t think anyone from LG will hear this and my answers were accurate anyway. But anyway, this was not the sort of contest where it was like we will randomly select a winner. This was the moderators and lg, were going to read the responses and choose the winner. Jeff: Got it. Christina: So if you spend a little bit of time and thoughtfully write out a response, maybe you stand a better chance of winning the contest. Jeff: yeah, yeah. Put the work in like it was 2002. Christina: Right. Anyway, I still was shocked when I like woke up like on like Halloween and they were like, congratulations, you’ve won two monitors. I’m like, I’m sorry. What? Jeff: That’s amazing. Christina: Yeah, yeah, yeah, Jeff: Nice work. I know I’ve, you know, I’ve been staring at those boxes behind you this whole time, just being like, those look like some sweet monitors. Christina: yeah, yeah. Monitor Setup Challenges Christina: I mean, and, uh, [00:37:00] uh, it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s, and I, I’m very much, so my, my, my only issue is, okay, how am I gonna get these on my desk? So I’m gonna have to do something with my iMac and I’m probably gonna have to get rid of my, my my, my 5K, um, uh, uh, studio display, at least in the short term. Ergotron Mounts and Tall Poles Christina: Um, but what I did do is I, um, I ordered from, um, Ergotron, ’cause I already have. Um, two of their, um, LX mounts, um, or, or, or, or arms. Um, and only one of them is being used right now. And then I have a different arm that I use for the, um, um, iMac. Um, they sell like a, if you call ’em directly, you can get them to send you a tall pole so that you can put the two arms on top of them. And that way I think I can like, have them so that I can have like one pole and then like have one on one side, one Jeff: I have a tall pole. Christina: and, and yeah, that’s what she said. Um, Jeff: as soon as I said it, I was like, for fuck’s sake. But Christina: um, but, uh, but, but yeah, but so that way I think I, I can, I, in theory, I can stack the market and have ’em side by side. I don’t know. Um, I got that. I, I had to call Tron and, and order that from them. [00:38:00] Um, it was only a hundred dollars for, for the poll and then $50 for a handling fee. Jeff: It’s not easy to ship a tall pole. Brett: That’s what she said. Christina: that is what she said. Uh, that is exactly what she said. But yeah, so I, I, the, the, the unfortunate thing is that, um, I, um, I, I had to, uh, get a, like all these, they, they came in literally right before Thanksgiving, and then I’ve had, like, all my back stuff has Jeff: Yeah, no Christina: debilitating, but I’m looking forward to, um, getting them set up and used. And, uh, yeah. Review Plans and Honest Assessments Christina: And then full review will be coming to, uh, to, I have to post a review on Reddit, but then I will also be doing a more in depth review, uh, on this podcast if anybody’s interested in, in other places too, to like, let let you know, like if it’s worth your money or not. Um, ’cause there, like I said, there are, there are a few other options out there. So it’s not one of those things where like, you know, um, like, thank you very much for the free monitor, um, monitors. But, but I, I will, I will give like the, the, you know, an honest assessment or Current Display Setup Brett: So [00:39:00] do you currently have a two display setup? Christina: No. Um, well, yes, and kind of, so I have my, my, I have my 5K studio display, and then I have like my iMac that I use as a two to display setup. But then otherwise, what I’ve had to do, and this is actually part of why I’m looking forward to this, is I have a 4K 27 inch monitor, but it’s garbage. And it, it’s one of those things where I don’t wanna use it with my Mac. And so I wind up only using it with my, with my Windows machine, with my framework desktop, um, with my Windows or Linux machine. And, and because that, even though I, it supports Thunderbolt, the Apple display is pain in the ass to use with those things. It doesn’t have the KVM built in. Like, it doesn’t like it, it just, it’s not good for that situation. So yeah, this will be of this size. I mean, again, like I, I, I’m 2 32 inch monitors. I don’t know how I’m gonna deal with that on my Jeff: I Brett: yeah. So right now I’m looking at 2 32 inch like UHD monitors, Christina: Yeah,[00:40:00] Brett: I will say that on days when my neck hurts, it sucks. It’s a, it’s too wide a range to, to like pan back and forth quickly. Like I’ll throw my back out, like trying to keep track of stuff. Um, but I have found that like if I keep the second display, just like maybe social media apps is the way I usually set it up. And then I only work on one. I tried buying an extra wide curve display, hated it. Jeff: Uh, I’ve always wanted to try one, but Christina: I don’t like them. Jeff: Yeah. Christina: Well, for me, well for me it’s two things. One, it’s the, I don’t love the whole like, you know, thing or whatever, but the big thing honestly there, if you could give me, ’cause people are like, oh, you can get a really big 5K, 2K display. I’m like, that’s not a 5K display. That is 2 27 inch, 1440 P displays. One, you know, ultra wide, which is great. Good for you. That’s not retina. And I’m a sicko Who [00:41:00] needs the, the pixel doubling? Like I wish that my eyes could not use that, but, but, but, Jeff: that needs the pixel. Like was that the headline of your Reddit, uh, Christina: no, no. It wasn’t, it wasn’t. But, but maybe it should be. Hi, I’m a sicko who only, um, fucks with, with, with, with, with, with, with retina displays. Ask me anything. Um, but no, but that’s a good point. Brett: I think 5K Psycho is the Christina: 5K Sicko is the po is the po title. I like that. I like that. No, what I’m thinking about doing and that’s great to know, Brett. Um, this kind of reaffirms my thing. Thunderbolt KVM and Display Preferences Christina: So what’s nice about these monitors is that they come with like, built in like, um, Thunderbolt 5K VM. So, which is nice. So you could conceivably have multiple, you know, computers, uh, connected, you know, to to, to one monitor, which I really like. Um, I mean like, ’cause like look, I, I’ve bitched and moaned about the studio display, um, primarily for the price, but at the same time, if mine broke tomorrow and if I didn’t have any way to replace it, I’ve, I’ve also gone on record saying I would buy a new one immediately. As mad as I am about a [00:42:00] lot of different things with that, that the built-in webcam is garbage. The, you know, the, the fact that there’s not a power button is garbage. The fact that you can’t use it with multiple inputs, it’s garbage. But it’s a really good display and it’s what I’m used to. Um, it’s really not any better than my LG Ultra fine from 2016. But you know what? Whatever it is, what it is. Um. I, I am a 5K sicko, but being able to, um, connect my, my personal machine and my work machine at the same time to one, and then have my Windows slash Linux computer connected to another, I think that’s gonna be the scenario where I’m in. So I’m not gonna necessarily be in a place where I’m like, okay, I need to try to look at both of them across 2 32 inch displays. ’cause I think that that, like, that would be awesome. But I feel like that’s too much. Brett: I would love a decent like Thunderbolt KVM setup that could actually swap like my hubs back and Christina: Yes. MacBook Pro and Studio Comparisons Brett: Um, so, ’cause I, I have a studio and I have my, uh, Infor MacBook Pro [00:43:00] and I actually work mostly on the MacBook Pro. Um, but if I could easily dock it and switch everything on my desk over to it, I would, I would work in my office more often. ’cause honestly, the M four MacBook Pro is, it’s a better machine than the original studio was. Um, and I haven’t upgraded my studio to the latest, but, um, I imagine the new one is top notch. Christina: Oh yeah. Yeah. Brett: my, my other one, a couple years old now is already long in the tooth. Christina: No, I mean, they’re still good. I mean, it’s funny, I saw that some YouTube video the other day where they were like, the best value MacBook you can get is basically a 4-year-old M1 max. And I was like, I don’t know about that guys. Like, I, I kind of disagree a little bit. Um, but the M1 max, which is I think is what is in the studio, is still a really, really good ship. But to your point, like they’ve made those, um. You know, the, the, the new ones are still so good. Like, I have an M three max as my personal laptop, and [00:44:00] that’s kind of like the dog chip in the, in the m um, series lineup. So I kind of am regretful for spending six grand on that one, but it is what it is, and I’m like, I’m not, I’m not upgrading. Um, I mean, maybe, maybe in, in next year if, if the M five Pro, uh, or M five max or whatever is, is really exceptional, maybe I’ll look at, okay, how much will you give me to, to trade it in? But even then, I, I, but I feel like I’m at that point where I’m like, it gets to a point where like it’s diminishing returns. Um, but, uh, just in terms of my own budget. But, um, yeah, the, the new just info like pro or or max, whatever, Brett: I have, I have an M four MacBook Pro sitting around that I keep forgetting to sell. Uh, it’s the one that I, it only had a 256 gigabyte hard drive, Jeff: what happened to me when I bought my M1, Brett: and I, and I regretted that enough that I just ordered another one. But, uh, for various reasons, I couldn’t just return the one I didn’t Jeff: ’cause it was.[00:45:00] Brett: so now I, now I have to sell it and I should sell it while it’s still a top of the line machine Christina: Sell it before, sell, sell, sell, sell it before next month, um, or, or February or whenever they sell it before then the, the pros come out. ’cause right now the M five base is out, but the pros are not. So I think feel like you could still get most of your value for it, especially since it has very few battery cycles. Be sure to put the battery cycles on your Facebook marketplace or eBay thing or whatever. Um, I bought my, uh, she won’t listen to this so she won’t know, but, um, they, there was a, a killer Cyber Monday deal, uh, for Best Buy where they had like a, the, the, the, so it’s several years old, but it was the, the M two MacBook Air, but the one that they upgraded to 16 gigs of Ram when Apple was like, oh, we have to have Apple Intelligence and everything, because they actually thought that they were actually gonna ship Apple Intelligence. So they like went back and they, like, they, they, you know, retconned like made the base model MacBook Air, like 16 [00:46:00] gigs. Um, and, uh, anyway, it was, it was $600, um, Jeff: still crazy. Christina: which, which like even for like a, a, a 2-year-old machine or whatever, I was like, yeah, she, my sister, I think she’s on like, like a 2014 or older than that. Like, like MacBook Air. She doesn’t even know where the MagSafe is. I don’t think she even knows where the laptop is. So she’s basically doing everything like on her phone and I’m like, okay, you need a laptop of some type, but at this point. I do feel strongly that like the, the, the $600 or, or, or actually I think it was $650, it was actually less, it is actually more expensive than what the, the, the Cyber Monday sale was, um, the M1, Walmart, MacBook Air. I’m like, absolutely not like that is at this point, do not buy that. Right? Like, I, especially with eight gigs of ram, I’m, I’m like, it’s been, it’s five years old. It’s a, it was a great machine and it was great value for a long time. $200. Cool, right? Like, if you could get something like use and, and, and, and if you could replace the battery or, you know, [00:47:00] for, for, you know, not, not too much money or whatever. Like, I, I, I could see like an argument to be made like value, right? But there’d be no way in hell that I would ever spend or tell anybody else to spend $650 on that new, but $600 for an M two with Jeff: Now we’re talking. Christina: which has the redesign brand new. I’m like, okay. Spend $150 more and you could have got the M four, um, uh, MacBook Air, obviously all around Better Machine. But for my sister, she doesn’t need that, Jeff: What do we have to do to put your sister in this M two MacBook Christina: that, that, that, that, that, that’s exactly it. So I, I, I was, well, also, it was one of those things I was like, I think that she would rather me spend the money on toys for my nephew for Santa Claus than, than, uh, giving her like a, a processor upgrade. Um, Jeff: Claus isn’t real. Brett: Oh shit. Jeff: Gotcha. Every year I spoil it for somebody. This year it was Christina and Brett. Sorry guys. Brett: right. Well, can I tell you guys Jeff: Yeah. [00:48:00] Brett Software. Brett: two quick projects before we do Jeff: Hold on. You don’t have to be quick ’cause you could call it Brett: We’re already at 45 minutes and I want Jeff: What I’m saying, skip GrAPPtitude. This is it? Brett: okay. Christina: us about Mark. Tell us about your projects. Brett: So, so Mark three is, there’s a public, um, test flight beta link. Uh, if you go to marked app.com, not marked two app.com, uh, marked app.com. Uh, you, there’s a link in the, in the, at the top for Christina: Join beta. Mm-hmm. Brett: Um, and that is public and you can join it and you can send me feedback directly through email because, um, uh, uh, the feedback reporter sucks for test flight and you can’t attach files. And half the time they come through as anonymous feedback and I can’t even follow up on ’em. So email me. But, um, I’ll be announcing that on my blog soon-ish. Um, right now there’s like [00:49:00] maybe a couple dozen, um, testers and I, it’s nice and small and I’m solving the biggest bugs right away. Um, so that’s been, that’s been big. Like Mark, even since we last talked has added. Do you remember Jeff when Merlin was on and he wanted to. He wanted to be able to manage his styles, um, and disable built-in styles. There’s now a whole table based style manager where you Jeff: saw that. Brett: you can, you can reorder, including built-in styles. You can reorder, enable, disable, edit, duplicate. Um, it’s like a full, full fledged, um, style manager. And I just built a whole web app that is a style generator that gives you, um, automatic like rhythm calculations for your CSS and you can, you can control everything through like, uh, like UI fields instead of having to [00:50:00] write CSS. Uh, but you can also o open up a very, I’ve spent a lot of time on the code mirror CSS editor in the web app. Uh, so, and it’s got live preview as you edit in the code mirror field. Um, so that’s pretty cool. And that’s built into marts. So if you go to style, um, generate style, it’ll load up a, a style generator for you. Anyway, there’s, there’s a ton. I’m not gonna go into all the details, but, uh, anyone listening who uses markdown for anything, especially if you want ability to export to like Word and epub and advanced PDF export, um, join the beta. Let me know what you think. Uh, help me squash bugs. But the other thing, every time I push a beta for review before the new bug reports come in, I’ve been putting time into a tool. Markdown Processor: Apex Brett: I’m calling [00:51:00] Apex and um, I haven’t publicly announced this one yet, but I probably will by the time this podcast comes out. Jeff: I mean, doesn’t this count? Brett: It, it does. I’m saying like this, this might be a, you hear you heard it here first kind of thing, um, but if you go to github.com/tt sc slash apex, um, I built a, uh, pure C markdown processor that combines syntax from cram down GitHub flavored markdown, multi markdown maku, um, common mark. And basically you can write syntax from any of those processors, including all of their special features, um, and in one document, and then use Apex in its unified mode, and it’ll just figure out what. All of your syntax is supposed to do. Um, so you can take, you can port documents from one platform to another [00:52:00] without worrying about how they’re gonna render. Um, if I can get any kind of adoption with Apex, it could solve a lot of problems. Um, I built it because I want to make it the default processor in marked ’cause right now, you, you have to choose, you know, cram Christina: Which one? Brett: mark and, and choosing one means you lose something in order to gain something. Um, so I wanted to build a universal one that brought together everything. And I added cool features from some extensions of other languages, such as if you have two lists in a row, normally in markdown, it’s gonna concatenate those into one list. Now you can put a carrot on a line between the two lists and it’ll break it into two lists. I also added support for a. An extension to cram down that lets you put double uh, carrots inside a table cell and [00:53:00] create a row band. So like a cell that, that expands it, you rows but doesn’t expand the rest of the row. Um, so you can do cell spans and row spans and it has a relaxed table version where you don’t have to have an alignment row, which is, uh, sometimes we just wanna make quickly table. You make two lines. You put some pipes in. This will, if there’s no alignment row, it will generate a table with just a table body and table data cells in no header. It also allows footers, you can add a footer to a table by using equals in the separator line. Um, it, it’s, Jeff: This is very civilized, Brett: it is. Christina: is amazing, Brett: So where Common Mark is extremely strict about things, um, apex is extremely permissive. Jeff: also itty bitty things like talk about the call out boxes from like Brett: oh yeah, it, it can handle call out syntax from Obsidian and Bear and Xcode Playgrounds. [00:54:00] Um, and it incorporates all of Mark’s syntax for like file includes and even renders like auto scroll pauses that work in marked and some other teleprompter situations. Um, it uses file ude syntax from multi markdown, like, which is just like a curly brace and, uh, marked, which is, uh, left like a double left, uh, angle bracket and then different. Brackets to surround a file name and it handles IA writer file inclusion where you just type a forward slash and then the name of a file and it automatically detects if that file is an image or source code or markdown text, and it will import it accordingly. And if it’s a CSV file, it’ll generate a table from it automatically. It’s, it’s kind of nuts. I, it’s kind of nuts. I could not have done this [00:55:00] without copilot. I, I am very thankful for copilot because my C skills are not, would not on their own, have been up to this task. I know enough to bug debug, but yeah, a lot of these features I got a big hand from copilot on. Jeff: This is also Brett. This is some serious Brett Terpstra. TURPs Hard Christina: Yeah, it is. I was gonna say, this is like Jeff: and also that’s right. Also, if your grandma ever wrote you a note and it, and though you couldn’t really read it, it really well, that renders perfectly Christina: Amazing. No, I was gonna say this is like, okay, so Apex is like the perfect name ’cause this is the apex of Brett. Jeff: Yes. Apex of Brett. Christina: That’s also that, that’s, that’s not an alternate episode title Apex of Brett. Because genuinely No, Brett, like I am, I am so stunned and impressed. I mean, you all, you always impressed me like you are the most impressive like developer that I, that I’ve ever known. But you, this is incredible. And, and this, I, I love this [00:56:00] because as you said, like common Mark is incredibly strict. This is incredibly permissive. But this is great. ’cause there are those scenarios where you might have like, I wanna use one feature from one thing or one from another, or I wanna combine things in various ways, or I don’t wanna have to think about it, you know? Brett: I aals, I forgot to mention I aals inline attribute list, which is a crammed down feature that lets you put curly brackets after like a paragraph and then a colon and then say, dot call out inside the curly brackets. And then when it renders the markdown, it creates that paragraph and adds class equals call out to the paragraph. Um, and in, in Cramon you can apply these to everything from list items to list to block quotes. Like you can do ’em for spans. You could like have one after, uh, link syntax and just apply, say dot external to a link. So the IAL syntax can add IDs classes and uh, arbitrary [00:57:00] attributes to any element in your markdown when it renders to HTML. And, uh, and Apex has first class support for I aals. Was really, that was, that Christina: that was really hard, Brett: I wrote it because I wanted, I wanted multi markdown, uh, for my prose writing, but I really missed the als. Christina: Yes. Okay. Because see, I run into this sort of thing too, right? Because like, this is a problem like that. I mean, it’s a very niche problem, um, that, that, you know, people who listen to this podcast probably are more familiar with than other types of people. But like, when you have to choose your markdown processor, which as you said, like Brett, like that can be a problem. Like, like with, with using Mark or anything else, you’re like, what am I giving up? What do I have? And, and like for me, because I started using mul, you know, markdown, um, uh, largely because of you, um, I think I was using it, I knew about it before you, but largely because of, of, of you, like multi markdown has always been like kind of my, or was historically my flavor of choice. It has since shifted to being [00:58:00] GitHub, labor bird markdown. But that’s just because the industry has taken that on, right? But there were, you know, certain things like in like, you know, multi markdown that work a certain way. And then yeah, there are things in crammed down. There are things in these other things in like, this is just, this is awesome. This Brett: It is, the whole thing is built on top of C mark, GFM, which is GitHub’s port of common mark with the GitHub flavored markdown Christina: Right. Brett: Um, and I built, like, I kept that as a sub-module, totally clean, and built all of this as extensions on top of Cmar, GFM, which, you know, so it has full compatibility with GitHub and with Common Merck by out, like outta the box. And then everything else is built on top of that. So it, uh, it covers, it covers all the bases. You’ll love it Christina: I’m so excited. No, this is awesome. And I Brett: blazing fast. It can render, I have a complex document that, that uses all of its features and it can render it in [00:59:00] 0.006 seconds. Christina: that’s awesome. Jeff: Awesome. Christina: That’s so cool. No, this is great. And yeah, I, and I think that honestly, like this is the sort of thing like if, yeah, if you can eventually get this to like be like the engine that powers like mark three, like, that’ll be really slick, right? Because then like, yeah, okay, I can take one document and then just, you know, kind of, you know, wi with, with the, you know, ha have, have the compatibility mode where you’re like, okay, the unified mode or whatever yo

In this episode, discover Amazon's newest AI creative tools for PPC, including Creative Agent and Sponsored Products Video, and learn how sellers can generate high-quality ads faster than ever. ► Watch The Podcasts On Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Helium10SeriousSellersPodcast?sub_confirmation=1 ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup  (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft In this episode, recorded live at Amazon Unboxed in Nashville, Bradley sits down with Jenny Liu, one of the Amazon Ads' product managers behind the latest wave of AI-powered creative tools. Jenny's team builds the systems that are transforming how Amazon sellers create videos, images, and ad assets across Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and Sponsored Display. If you've heard about Amazon Advertising's new Creative Agent and wondered how it actually works, this episode gives you the insider perspective. Jenny walks us through the evolution of Amazon's creative ecosystem: from early one-click image generators to today's full conversational, agentic workflows that let sellers input nothing more than an ASIN, a simple goal, and a rough idea. The agent then learns your intent, pulls from your product detail page, and automatically generates polished videos, lifestyle imagery, and ad-ready creative concepts. Whether you're not “graphically inclined” or you're a creative pro trying to scale variations and testing, these tools are designed to unlock high-quality output for all skill levels. Bradley and Jenny also dive into real-world applications, how custom creatives now influence performance, what makes shoppers stop scrolling, and why strong visuals matter even in Sponsored Products. Jenny explains why Amazon's creative philosophy is shifting toward storytelling, brand authenticity, and giving sellers more flexibility to express what makes their product unique. As she puts it, AI is not here to replace the marketer; it's here to take away the manual work so sellers can focus on what message they want their brand to communicate. To wrap up the episode, Bradley is joined briefly by longtime SSP guest Destaney Wishon, who shares her two biggest takeaways from Unboxed: the scale-changing impact of Creative Agent and the rollout of Sponsored Products Video placements. In episode 724 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Bradley and Jenny discuss: 01:40 – Meet Jenny Liu 03:20 – The Evolution of Amazon Ad Creatives 06:00 – Why Creative Matters More Than Ever in PPC 08:10 – Introducing Creative Agent: Amazon's New AI Creative Partner 11:10 – What Inputs Creative Agent Uses (and Why You Don't Need Prompting Skills) 15:00 – Real Use Case: Creative Ideas for Bradley's Brand 24:00 – Jenny's Core Message: These Tools Are Free, Simple, and Ready to Use 27:30 – Destaney's Take: Her Top 2 Favorite Announcements From Unboxed Enjoy this episode? Be sure to check out our previous episodes for even more content to propel you to Amazon FBA Seller success! And don't forget to “Like” our Facebook page and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you listen to our podcast. Get snippets from all episodes by following us on Instagram at @SeriousSellersPodcast Want to absolutely start crushing it on Amazon? Here are few carefully curated resources to get you started: Freedom Ticket: Taught by Amazon thought leader Kevin King, get A-Z Amazon strategies and techniques for establishing and solidifying your business. Helium 10: 30+ software tools to boost your entire sales pipeline from product research to customer communication and Amazon refund automation. Make running a successful Amazon or Walmart business easier with better data and insights. See what our customers have to say. Helium 10 Chrome Extension: Verify your Amazon product idea and validate how lucrative it can be with over a dozen data metrics and profitability estimation. SellerTrademarks.com: Trademarks are vital for protecting your Amazon brand from hijackers, and sellertrademarks.com provides a streamlined process for helping you get one.  

4th Timer Comedian Drew Lynch stopped by to talk about his upcoming shows at Helium.Would you get a plushy clone of your pet? - https://cuddleclones.com/Warning Defcon Baltimore County firefighter accused of inappropriate behavior - Baltimore County firefighter accused of inappropriate behaviorPorn report reveals the top three most searched categories in 2025 - Porn report reveals the top three most searched categories in 2025You read that white: Pantone's 2026 Color of the Year is 'Cloud Dancer' - Pantone chooses white 'Cloud Dancer' as its 2026 Color of the Year : NPRWhat did you Google in 2025? These were the year's top trending internet searches - What did you Google in 2025? These were the year's top trending internet searches | king5.com'Rage bait' is Oxford's word of the year for 2025. What it means. - https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/12/01/rage-bait-oxford-word-of-the-year/87547277007‘Backdoor browsing' is the commuter guilty pleasure none of us can resist - 'Backdoor browsing' is the commuter guilty pleasure none of us can resist | Metro NewsMan Couldn't Pay for Airport Parking. Then He Allegedly Called in a Bomb Threat to Get Out of the Lot - Man Allegedly Calls in Bomb Threat to Escape Airport Parking Lot After He Couldn't Pay FeeNY cops bust sketchy driver — for drawing registration with crayons and magic markers - NY cops bust sketchy driver -- for drawing registration with crayons and magic markers | New York PostMan accused of flashing genitals to drivers on interstate said he needed excitement in his life - Man accused of flashing genitals to drivers on interstate said he needed excitement in his life, deputies sayAmorous Scottsdale restaurant burglary suspects arrested - Amorous Scottsdale restaurant burglary suspects arrested: PD | FOX 10 PhoenixMan set house on fire with family still inside after argument on Thanksgiving - Man set house on fire with family still inside after argument on ThanksgivingMan accused of vandalizing Veterans Day display left his driver's license at the scene - Man accused of vandalizing Veterans Day display left his driver's license at the scene, investigators sayFlorida Keys trio arrested for alleged sexual acts in Winn-Dixie parking lot - Florida Keys trio arrested for alleged sexual acts in Winn-Dixie parking lotFlorida man steals Tesla Cybertruck during a test drive, returns to the dealer days later - Florida man steals Tesla Cybertruck during a test drive, returns to the dealer days laterSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Black Friday & Cyber Monday results for Amazon, Walmart, and TikTok, plus the rise of livestream selling, and Amazon's biggest seller fee cuts ever!

Kevin King signs off with Helium 10 Co-founder Guillermo Puyol as they revisit the origins, wild early days, big lessons, and legacy behind one of e-commerce's biggest success stories. For the final time as host of the AM/PM Podcast, Kevin King sits down with someone who helped change the course of his career and the Amazon seller world at large. In this emotional closing episode, Kevin welcomes Guillermo Puyol, the brilliant, behind-the-scenes architect who helped transform a small side project into one of the most influential software companies in e-commerce, co-founder of Helium 10.   Kevin and Gui go deep into the real origin story of Helium 10, from Manny discovering Amazon selling through Gui's retail arbitrage side hustle, to the creation of early Helium 10 tools like Scribbles and Frankenstein, to the unexpected momentum that led to hockey-stick growth… and ultimately, a life-changing exit.   Along the way, they share never-before-told stories: Recording podcasts from closets and garages Manny Coats nearly being “kidnapped” (not really) Why the AM/PM Podcast existed before Helium 10 The infamous April Fools episode that caused chaos The first Illuminati mastermind and the rise of Helium 10 Elite The emotional whiplash after selling a company And why both of them are now back in the startup trenches with AI   This episode is part history, part entrepreneurship masterclass, and part heartfelt goodbye as Kevin concludes his 3.5-year run as host, marking 180+ episodes.   Whether you're an OG listener who remembers the early AM/PM days or someone new to the brand, this conversation gives you a rare, unfiltered look inside the building of a billion-dollar ecosystem and the people who made it happen.

The Helium Boys Podcast returns in history-making fashion as Shotgun Spratling and Chris Trevino record the first live edition of the podcast simulcast on YouTube. Shotgun and Chris are back behind the microphones to break down the Trojans' come-from-behind 29-10 victory over UCLA in the latest iteration of the Crosstown Showdown rivalry matchup. Chris gets things started with his 'Two-Minute Drill' discussing USC getting off to a flat start as it had an emotional letdown after being eliminated from any serious College Football Playoff contention with a loss at Oregon the week prior. Shotgun's 'Two-Minute Drill' focuses on the uptick of defensive pressure in the second half, the impact it had on USC's second-half shutout and why getting pressure with the defensive front is such a high priority going forward. The podcasting duo move into the 'Stock Up, Stock Down' segment, which features a glimpse into the future from the UCLA game both on the field and in the stands. Freshman defensive back Alex Graham and freshman tight end Taniela Tupou, running back King Miller, a senior sendoff with Lake McRee scoring a touchdown and much more are also featured in the segment.  The Helium Boys then dive into the second half of the show which features your questions about a myriad of topics including the worst road trip food stops this season, Ja'Kobi Lane's potential draft stock, thoughts on UCLA's new head coach hire and discussion of the transfer portal with some current players already announcing intentions to enter while some potential targets have already started to emerge. Chris then puts Shotgun through a regular-season final edition of Take It or Leave It with takes solely on whether players will be staying or leaving for a variety of reasons. During the final segment -- the Overtime period -- Shotgun is given reign over the Trevino Tech football program as a coaching carousel hot commodity program leader and must decide on a series of decisions that could determine the future successes of the program he decides to lead. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Stuck or slowing down on Amazon? Three expert mentors share the 2026 ad, creative, and analytics tactics that helped a brand experience explosive sales growth, causing it to run out of stock.

Learn Mansour's latest Amazon strategies, from Search Query Performance to new sponsored product video features, AMC tips, pricing tactics, and launch strategies to scale your brand.

The guys talk about growing up on shows like The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, what those kinds of sitcoms meant to different audiences, and how that ties into their friendship and the tone of the podcast. They also get into the whole heat-versus-cold debate, comparing Texas summers to frigid winters and admitting they are basically “inside people” who care more about a cozy house than a big yard.They also discuss Austin versus Los Angeles as comedy cities, breaking down why LA can be brutal for new comics, what the Austin scene looks like now with spots like the Mothership, Creek and the Cave, and Helium, and how hard it can be to break into those rooms. On top of that, they talk about what it would really mean to move their families, where they could realistically see themselves living, and how different that choice feels once you are already established in comedy. Get this episode AD FREE + 2 PATREON ONLY episodes/month only at https://patreon.com/thegoldenhourpodcastQuince - Give and get timeless holiday staples that last this season with Quince. Go to http://quince.com/golden for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns.DraftKings - Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use code GOLDEN. That's code GOLDEN, bet five bucks and get $200 in bonus bets if your bet wins.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Amazon may have closed your Black Friday offer. Copy full media sets to sibling variations, and find out which fulfillment center is shut down. More buzzing news on this episode of the Helium 10 Weekly Buzz.

Shotgun Spratling and Chris Trevino return to podcast form to break down USC's disappointing 42-27 loss to Oregon on the road that leaves the Trojans still searching for their first win in Autzen Stadium since 2011.  Shotgun takes on the 'Two-Minute Drill' first, discussing USC's growth as a program, but how it still measures up short to that national-title-contending tier. Chris spends his time talking about some Oregon experiences, including a disastrous La Quinta Inn stay.   The HBs move into the 'Stock Up, Stock Down' segment, which features the Trojan special teams, freshman wide receiver Tanook Hines, safety Kennedy Urlacher, tackling on the road and much more.  The Helium Boys then dive into the second half of the show to see if the Trojans can close out the year with nine wins in the regular season against crosstown rival UCLA, one of the worst teams in the Big Ten.  Chris puts Shotgun through another edition of Take It or Leave It with takes on Lincoln Riley's hot seat for 2026, Makai Lemon's Biletnikoff race and tackles for a loss. The Overtime period features Thanksgiving themes from Turkey Bowls to cousins.  To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices