What Mike Michelini is up to Now – Oct 24 – 30, 2021
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Greetings from the new studio office of Global From Asia! We’re still unboxing products and dealing with a mess. But, I just cannot miss the weekly “now” update, so here we go:
- Settling in to new GFA studio office – Carpet coming, glass board bolting on the wall, looking into a permanent Zoom style hardware device, and more. Opening party (online / offline) is on Thursday Nov 4, https://studio.globalfromasia.com
- Indigitus NFT deep research and preparing for the launch of the physical products.
- NowShenzhen is starting to “heat up” (or de-thaw) with sales and the business development part of the business is getting busy!
- Looking to do more GFA broker consulting sessions at the new studio as well as GFA kids.
- HR and training the team (as always). We do want to do more formal training programs.
For those who want to hear the full week plan for Shadstone Limited, Mike’s company (removing sensitive info) – here it is:
Week Plan Oct 24 – 30, 2021 Shadstone Limited
Halloween is coming! Always kicks off the holiday season to me and gets that feeling the year is coming to a close. Again, 2020 and 2021 have been a huge shocker to the world and our business. But I’d say we are re-inventing and re-adjusting for long term success in this “new normal” and we hope you, as a team member, at Shadstone also feel the company is on the right track (and your feedback is also appreciated at any time).
We have a few new hires recently and it takes time always to onboard and get them up to speed. So far, in my opinion, they are all doing great
Again the recent new people, in alphabetical order:
- GFA community manager – mid last week, got the Wechat phone in the mail (finally!) and also access to the various social accounts. I feel she has gotten the hang of the systems.
- IT developer – doing amazing IT work for a wide range of the company’s projects and client work. He’s working well in the portal system and communication with the others on the team.
- HR associate – supporting HR manager on the HR department as it is being setup (again, never really had a HR department and seems it was much needed!) . She is also doing amazing work w/ Miles (my son) each day with live Zoom sessions. I’m discussing with her now to bring back the kids.globalfromasia.com program in a new and improved format (just had a brainstorming session last Friday)
- dWeb developer – not exactly new but doing more with us and also helping with handshake payments and other dweb projects which we are investing more in.
Others are also semi-new. So sorry if I didn’t consider you new enough on this list!
In general, we really have one of our best teams yet here at Shadstone and amazing things are happening and destined to continue to happen.
Some other updates, just to make sure we are all on the same page on projects:
- GFA Studio – I believe we discussed that I am moving in Shenzhen. The temporary friend’s place (Dave) the family and I were staying at, is over. He is coming back (in quarantine) and we found a new place not too far. Anyone who knows me, knows I love work. And so , we are making a content studio / meetup place in the place. We already made a quick landing page at it at https://studio.globalfromasia.comTo kick this off, and get the word out as well as celebrate GFA’s turning 8 years old, we are looking to have an online/offline launch party for it on Thursday Nov 4 at 7pm HKT.
- This will also be the same day we do the Flamingo Handshake auction (Thurs Nov 4 morning Asia time). So that will be a jam-packed day.
- Now Shenzhen “business” side is turning on with the return of David (our partner) to Shenzhen. The business side is picking up. We at Shadstone will focus on what we are good at – the web, content, tech side. David is talking to and putting together a team for the business side and outreach side. I see this as 4 main businesses in 1 (job site, apartment site, events, and news/directory) that can be split up by different operators.Also looking to re-launch the website (our amazing team is working on a redesign of the main WWW section) and have a small in-person party/event in Shenzhen for that in November.
- Turning more of our content sites into ecommerce brands. This is a new evolution and still in an early stage but we are making some of our sites and investments and BlogJV into product brands. Still a lot of moving parts and business deals and discussions. But the first is ExcaliburBrothers.com which we have started to prepare the US trademark and Amazon seller account.
- Indigitus is yes, we are all so excited and anxious and golden samples are being reviewed and we hope to get to the next stage. Ambassadors and people on the launch list are so excited. Also studying various NFT platforms and options as that is a real fun way to engage with the community.
There are so many other projects. Hope I am not missing anything super important. For sure we are super overloaded with business projects and ideas. This is the dream for Shadstone since it was setup in 2007 – to be the “backbone” of various internet and ecommerce businesses. And the most important part of that is the PEOPLE and we have some of the best people we have ever had here with us.
If your name wasn’t mentioned today, do not fret. You’re here with us and that means you’re doing amazing. No HR issues lately and while we did deal with some turnover and hassles late in 2020 and early 2021, it is part of the process.
Right people in the right seats.
I’m hoping all of you feel that you are the right people for the work you are doing (enjoy it and do well at it) as well as in the right spot in the company. Our HR did a happiness report and some results should be shared soon. Your voices are heard and generally everyone is very happy which is great.
Let’s rock the rest of 2021 and kick butt in 2022 like never before.
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