What Mike Michelini is up to Now – Aug 21 – 27, 2022
(In image – daughter Maggie and friend, Ada, enjoying a night at the spa)
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Last full week for me in China. Need to really make sure all paperwork, visas, exit docs, etc are lined up so one left behind in borders or airports (it has happened before, nightmare to say the least). But believe 90% of the documents are done and ready for the family of 4.
For work (yes, still all the work as usual on top of this immigration / emigration hassle)
* Marketing team “optimize” – we are really going to be scaling up on marketing as we have so many brands and projects. But having a lot means – we can hire and focus people on specialized parts of the marketing department. So we need to keep “chipping away” at all the tasks and skills needed and keep putting “the right people in the right seats”.
* HR, interviews – wil be doing some final round interviews.
* Hr/ payroll / IT – hope this ninja pay can get in place asap.
* Leaving 1 chapter, entering a new – getting into a new mindset and tryin to re-invent myself after I arrive in Thailand. Fresh start.
For those who want to hear the full week plan for Shadstone Limited, Mike’s company (removing sensitive info) – here it is:
Week Plan Aug 21 – Aug 27, 2022 Shadstone Limited
Summer is almost over (to me at least – end of Aug/early September is that transition). And we at Shadstone – as always -worked our butts off during this summer and have a lot to look forward to as we head into Q4 for Amazon FBA and ecommerce in general for our various subsidiaries.
From last week:
Marketing team for our brands – It is amazing to see Anne, Christian, and the whole team stepping up, seeing Sally get the hang of things. We are making systems, documents, checklists – and the beautiful thing – we will use this across our subsidiaries / investment projects. This is always the dream, the goal, of Shadstone – to be an engine / a hub / a headquarters to run our investments – and it is really making massive strides the last couple weeks in this marketing department formation and expansion.
* Crowdfunding systems – last week I’d say was one week where my stress decreased a bit, we have filled in various “holes” on what we needed to do and putting the right people into places. Facebook ads are being tweaked and are converting, reaching out to influencers, I had a call with Techcrunch (saturday morning my time), and many other exciting developments. Decided to also write the updates on the project to get that flow moving, you can read that on beckyai.com/blog (a new one coming this week)
* Hiring / interviewing – Nessa is busy interviewing to add to the marketing team – content writers, social media marketers, influencer managers. There is so much for us to do – and we are investing heavily (as always – we are re-investing and investing in long term).
* Logistics – both Excalibur Brothers and Esatto are awaiting sea shipments of significant meaning – 2 new products for EB, and a whole container and first batch of products for Esatto. Delays, as always, and it looks like early September for Excalibur Brothers 2 new products, and late September /(more likely early October) for Esatto. But we are getting the workflows going (setting up supply chain at the first few shipments is always the biggest upfront) – so focusing on improving the process instead of thinking of the result.
* HR / payroll / Ninja pay – the IT and Hr and Finance team is working amazing together to setup training calls, configuring the settings – to improve and streamline our portal and add in payroll more seamlessly. As we plan to grow and scale, having this technology and workflow will allow us to be much more effective and rewarding long term. Hope it can be implemented this week?
* NowShenzhen adding more full service design and services – we got a client who wants the design help, and Sops and systems being put in place. Also video for weekender hopefully to come soon, and more upgrades on Covid page (as that is sticking around for a while).
For this coming week:
Honestly – more of the same above ! Lol.
Marketing team – we have so many SOPs and to dos – and with the recent turnover – as well as launch preparations coming for the new products and brands – we need to keep “doubling down” on the workflows, communication, team, and SOPs to make this a well oiled machine.
Hiring/ HR – second round interviews coming for certain candidates. Also discussing with current team on re-positioning their work as well.
Flamingo Handshake – .e/ is in escrow, and Namescon gave their blessing for us to rent our own room near the Namescon for an online/offline auction Friday Sept 2 USA time (our Saturday morning Sept 3 Asia time). This will be an epic one and this coming week we need to start official marketing and announcements.
Mike preparation to leave China – maybe a going away party / event – in conjunction w/ NowShenzhen to maximize the branding and make the most of it. (Fly out of China Aug 30).
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