The Black Friday weekend was only 26% of our season ◆ We found the other 74% before it and after it
For online store owners who already have customers
How I banked $139,556 before Thanksgiving without a deeper discount or a bigger list.
Your best customers aren't waiting for Black Friday. You're making them wait, then paying them 25% off to buy in an inbox with 50 other brands.
Answer 10 questions, paste them into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini, and it builds a sale so obviously worth taking that the people who already buy from you buy before Black Friday even opens, at full margin. Ready to send this week.
Delivered instantlyPays for itself on order one, or refundedWorks in ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini
- $139,556vs $135,582, all of November 2024Before Thanksgiving, we'd already beaten our entire previous November.
- ~8% offvs 25 to 31% at big retailersOur Black Friday weekend ran about 8% off. Big retailers ran 25 to 31%.
Our brand's own Shopify records, one brand I ran as CEO. Retail discounts: Adobe, Cyber Monday 2025.
That is one early-access sale, run to a list we already had. No new traffic, no deeper discount. November finished at $221,204, up 63% on the year before.
Nathan Erznoznik. I took a consumer brand to nearly $30 million and I ran the holiday season you're about to plan. These are one brand's own checkout records, not a promise about yours.
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What changed
Black Friday broke, and nobody sent a memo.
Three things happened to the last two months of the year. You have felt all three. Nobody has named them.
The weekend became a month.
Brands open in October now. By the time your sale goes out you are not early, you are late, and you are shouting over everyone who started before you.
The discount became the price of entry.
Electronics ran 31% off. Toys 28%. Apparel 25%. What used to be a deal is now the floor you have to clear before anyone looks up.
November got expensive.
Ad costs climb all month, and your email lands in an inbox beside Amazon, Target and fifty other brands your customer also likes.
You built the list. You planned the sale. You got the inventory in and you shipped on time. You did everything right. And November came out about the same as last November.
Here is the part nobody says out loud.
Your customer will spend what she is going to spend this season. It is a finite number. And it gets spent in the order people ask.
Your best customer, the one on your list who opens everything you send, is the one most likely to wait for your Black Friday email. She is paying attention. She knows it is coming. So you ask her last, and then you pay 25% for the privilege.
I went back through our own checkout records at the brand I ran as CEO, expecting the weekend to be the story.
It was not. The Black Friday weekend was 26% of the season. The other 74% happened before it and after it.
The money was never in the weekend. It was in asking first.
The mechanism
What I now call a first‑pick sale.
A short sale, run before Black Friday week, open only to the people who already buy from you. It sells on access instead of price.
She gets first pick of the limited stock. Or the set nobody can buy later. Or the one that is guaranteed to arrive before Christmas. She does not get a bigger discount. She gets to go first.
And she buys, because the reason to act is real and it expires.
Building one is the hard part.
Not the idea. The dozen decisions underneath it. The offer that still holds your margin. Which customers qualify and which do not. The early access page. The invite. The emails. The texts. The posts. The dates that do not collide with Black Friday week. Every one of those decisions can quietly cost you margin.
So I turned the whole thing into 10 questions.
One receipt
Before Thanksgiving, we'd already beaten our entire previous November.
Last year I let the people who already bought from us shop first, starting November 1. Here's what that did.
Same store, one year apart
One whole November against a November that wasn't even finished.
November finished at $221,204, up 63%.
One brand I ran as CEO, its own checkout records. Not a promise about yours.
The margin
Big retailers ran 25 to 31% off. We ran about 8%.
On our $97,531 weekend, that gap is about $16,000 kept instead of given away. That's inventory, payroll or January.
Adobe, Cyber Monday 2025. Our weekend: our brand's own Shopify records.
One order from your list pays for it.
A look at what it writes
Sample output: a made-up store. Yours is written for your products, at your size.
You get first pick this year
Before our holiday collection opens to everyone, it opens to you. Tuesday, November 3, weeks before Black Friday. Every scent in stock, no waiting, no fighting for what's left. Plus a small thank-you gift with your order.
Save my spotGet first pick before Black Friday.
You shop our holiday collection first, Tuesday, November 3 to Sunday, November 8. Plus a small thank-you gift with your order.
Shop first pickShort, clear, one link. Written to fit your text tool.
First pick is open
You're in. The holiday collection is open to you now, before anyone else sees it. Every scent in stock, nothing picked over, and your thank-you gift goes in the box. It stays yours until Sunday, November 8, at 11:59 p.m.
- Nov 1Sunday. The invite goes out, email 1
- Nov 3Tuesday. Doors open, email 2 and text 1
- Nov 5Thursday. The middle email, email 3
- Nov 8Sunday morning. Last day, email 4
- Nov 8Sunday afternoon. Text 2. Closes 11:59 p.m.
- Nov 9Monday. Write down your numbers
Our holiday collection opens to one list first.
If you have bought from us before, you get first pick from Tuesday, November 3. Every scent in stock, before anyone else. Not on our list yet? Link in bio to hear first next time.
How it works
From your desk to their inbox, this week.
Answer 10 questions
About your store, your margin, and who gets first pick. On paper, or let the AI ask you.
30 minutesPaste 6 prompts
Paste Prompt 1, answer its questions, then paste the next 5 prompts, one at a time. ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini. No plugins, no setup.
About 2 hoursRead what comes back
Your offer, your page words, your invite, 4 emails, 2 texts, 2 posts and the dates, in your voice.
Same afternoonSend the invite
Set it live with the Setup Sheet and your first-pick sale is out the door.
This weekThe offer
What you get the moment you buy.
Everything you get for $27
One sale, written for your store, in your voice.
1. The Pre-Friday Close Builder.The 10 Questions and 6 guided prompts. Your first-pick offer with the margin math on every price, your early access page words, the invite, 4 emails, 2 texts, 2 posts, and a day by day schedule from the invite to the close.$97
2. The First-Pick Sale Setup Sheet.Where to click in Shopify, WooCommerce or Klaviyo to make the sale live for your own customers only, and nobody else.$27
3. The Margin and Offer Calculator.What you keep per order on any offer, before you send it. Your numbers win over the AI's.$47
4. The Offer Menu: 12 ways to go first without going cheaper.Twelve first-pick offers that are not a deeper discount, with the margin note on each one. Pick one and the Builder writes around it.$27
First 100 buyers5. FOUNDING BONUS: The Pre-Friday Close, Walked Through.A made-up store, the 10 Questions, all 6 prompts, one finished first-pick sale. You watch every offer decision get made and every margin call get checked, so you know exactly what to do when it is your turn. We email you the link.$97
Bring it to the free Thursday session, Your Bigger Black Friday Plan, 10:00 to 11:30 a.m. MT, every Thursday through November 5, and leave with your sale scheduled.
The Pays-For-Itself Guarantee. If it doesn't earn back the $27 on your first order, I'll refund you. 30 days, any reason, and you keep everything it wrote.
My guarantee
The Pays‑For‑Itself Guarantee.
If your first-pick sale doesn't earn back the $27 on its very first order, tell me and I'll refund you. You keep everything it wrote.
Two more ways out, so there is no version of this where you lose. If it hasn't written your sale, your emails and your schedule in one afternoon, that's a refund. And for any reason at all, or no reason, you have 30 days.
One reply to any email from me is all it takes.
Nathan ErznoznikFounder, ThriveWorks360
Your worries, handled.
Everything you're worried about, answered.
Won't an early sale steal from Black Friday, or train people to wait?
Our weekend still did $97,531, and 59% of our November sold at full price with no code.
We already planned Black Friday.
Perfect. Keep it. This is the sale before it.
My margin can't take another discount.
It sells on being first, not on being cheapest. First pick, early shipping, a set only they get.
No time. My team is buried.
Answer 10 questions. One afternoon. The invite goes out this week.
Can't I just use ChatGPT?
AI writes fast. The plan decides what it writes.
FAQ
Questions brands ask
Can I still start this month?
Yes. You pick the start date: any day this month, November 1, or later. Start late and it builds a shorter sale, or a first look for your own customers before the weekend.
What about my Black Friday weekend and December?
Keep your weekend exactly as you planned it. This is the sale before it. The weekend and the December close are a separate build you can add once this one is out the door.
Do I need a big list?
No. This sells to the people who already buy from you. Past buyers, and the subscribers who actually open your emails. It is not a list building play.
Can't I just use ChatGPT on my own?
You can. AI writes fast. What it does not know is who gets first pick, what to offer them that is not a discount, and how to keep your margin while you do it. That is what the 10 questions and the plan are for.
Is it a subscription?
No. One payment of $27, yours for good.
Bank your November sales before Black Friday week.
Black Friday week starts Monday, November 23. Every week you wait is a week less to run this sale.
If it doesn't earn back the $27 on your first order, I'll refund you. Keep everything it wrote.