What Mike Michelini is up to Now – June 26 – July 2, 2022
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* In photo: client dWebASAP’s NFT Mousepad sample.
Lockdown again in Futian, Shenzhen (schools closed, daily mandatory tests) so it is pushing me even more to decide where to move for Fall (Thailand, Philippines, Japan, Cyprus, USA). But looking more and more like Thailand. A parter (Akitai) has a registered company there that can hire foreigners (he is not hired under it) and we are partners in the business anyway – so seems like a clear choice to go.
Anyway, for the short list of the week plan:
* Thailand immigration deep dive – in talks with corporate lawyer about being a partner / employee in Akitai to long term move there.
* Flamingo handshake auction this Thursday morning Asia time (Wednesday USA/EU)
* Excalibur Brothers 2 products in final production / QC now, other product in USA customs. A ton of work now on the important stage.
* Amazon FBA workflows / third party marketing workflow – lead generation, influencers, social media, launch process – team building, tons of things. But this is our future as we are now involved with 3 brands all growing and launching.
* HR and resources and sales – this is my main job – to bring resources to the various investment and to the team. Have some unique ideas for month end.
For those who want to hear the full week plan for Shadstone Limited, Mike’s company (removing sensitive info) – here it is:
Week Plan June 26 – July 2, 2022 Shadstone Limited
Getting deep into summer. Shenzhen is back on lockdown – schools were closed Friday for the kids, and most likely will be closed Monday / Tuesday due to a few cases of covid.
Reminding me why I am happy we are mostly invested in online businesses here at Shadstone. And a ton of things to do, as always.
Main theme – we are really doubling down on our own investment projects vs client projects. Just the way that the world and the flow of business is going – but that is a good kick in the butt to make our own investments grow and generate more revenue for our team.
Excalibur Brothers – the first product, the polishing cloth, is processing at US customs and seems on track for an early July launch. Other 2 products are close behind with QC and final assembly this week and next. A website rebuild it underway and seems we need to re-build all the content again which is frustrating.
Akitai – lawsuit has passed us and the Amazon funds finally were released this past weekend. A big sigh of relief and also just a reminder – we need to grow Akita’s own brand, not this “hack” of using famous people as a product. Glad we have Luciano getting involved, and a new batch of products are shipping.
Esatto Products – (some may have not heard about this one for a while!) this is the JV with the bar products factory in Thailand that has been in the works since summer 2020! The stall has been the container shipping – but seems we may ship to Las Vegas and rates are more reasonable. Working it out with a 3pl friend (Chris) and it would be amazing we can launch these products before Christmas. Fingers crossed (really hard!)
~~~ Insight ~~~> Amazon FBA in general – notice the 3 above are 3 Amazon brands. That is quite a lot -and all kicking off and growing at about the same time. We are converting our business from a service provider (SEO / content agency) into an in-house Amazon FBA brand builder. Much stronger and longer term business position and it is because we have an amazing team, and amazing partners (all the pieces are coming together). And also it is worth noting how many YEARS it has taken to get here. And that is the dream – building long term cash flows to sustain our team and make a hard to copy empire.
NowShenzhen – of course these new lockdowns don’t help NowShenzhen. No one expected border closed and lockdowns 2.5 years long! But there is a discussion about discussing with more Chinese language media sites for collaboration and also being invested in physical product companies (kombucha) to diversify the revenue from only expat advertising.
Blimp – had a call with Meir, once the first Excalibur Brother is launched and getting sales, we want to do a podcast to recap the last 6 months, and open the webinar for the next batch. Hopefully for mid July.
GFA kids – This has been a shining star in the company. Another reason why I am happy we “diversify” (some say “lack of focus”) but the GFA kids is growing with the China / Shenzhen lockdowns. Once schools were announced to be closed last Friday – Wendy received a surge of moms asking for GFA Kids sessions. But of course, more pressure on us to streamline the operations and IT flow, and also to get more teachers in.
GFA – a large logistics company that wants to sponsor needs to have us meet their CEO and been coordinating calendars for a couple weeks. Do want to make a CBM event, but again with my personal instability (where my family and I will live) makes it hard to plan. Also with the next Blimp Program batch, wondering how to line it all up (or maybe not line it up – the CBM and Blimp). Regardless, happy Aubrey is being amazing and getting involved in the podcasts, talking to members, blimp franchisees, and more.
SEO / affiliate sites – we are investing in our SEO team and Joe has been making nice reports and study of some investment sites.
Lead generation / mail merge – Chelcy heading up the implementation of a smooth and scalable system for us to do regular email outreach. Believe this will help us with top and middle funnel in the sales process to have dealflow coming to us. Can alternate this workflow across various projects and investments we have – focus on quality outreach – and have Katrina on the business development team as the initial outreach, who then sends the interested replies in email to the appropriate person. This can be used for so many of our projects and will be a great system. The tools and systems are coming together ! (Mail merge, sent by Katrina, to our replies coming to Clear Cafe, and assign to the right person – seems perfect for long term workflow to grow on)
(Insight) – Connecting our SEO and our Amazon brands – the bigger picture here is we take our affiliate sites and content sites and leverage them for our Amazon brands. Example – we should study New York Bar Store again, as it has been online since 2004 and fits well with Esatto Products and Excalibur Brothers and can be used as a content hub for them, a way to attract ambassadors and influencers, and a unique way to stand out from the standard and boring “Amazon only” brands that are only found on Amazon dot com (we are all over the internet, which is a true brand).
BeckyAI Crowdfunding – sample should be received by Don in Thailand. Video script, shoot, campaign – we also need to get the lead generation flow going.
Web3 / dWeb –
Skyinclude registrar – during Twitter spaces gave away some domains and people are giving feedback. Have some unique ideas to promote it more and may collaborate with some great people in the community.
Flamingo Handshake – is this coming week (Wednesday USA/EU time, our Thursday morning Asia time). Will be a good habit to keep these monthly, the community enjoys them. Also the handshake.mastermind afterwards is making it more complete and want to add some content/announcements to the auction as well. Our client dWebASAP and ally MigsMachine we can also sell some physical products during the live event and keep adding more.
Indigitus restructuring still happening – the team, Chelcy, Katrina, and more on the team have been really supportive to do the SkyInclude swap service for those wanting to sell and those wanting to buy.
As always, so much happening – but it is still themed around the things we love (hope you love too) – ecommerce / SEO / internet marketing.
Let’s keep BUIDLING !!
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