Coming to Asia and Finding Freedom & Opportunity with Dano Falk

In this episode, we sit down with Dano Falk, an inspiring entrepreneur who left Germany in pursuit of freedom and opportunity in Asia. Now based in Malaysia, Dano shares his incredible journey—from building a thriving Amazon FBA business to selling his ecommerce brand and founding a successful agency. Along the way, he provides invaluable insights on working with Chinese suppliers, effective marketing hacks for sellers, and how to cultivate an entrepreneurial mindset.

√ Dano’s VIP Page
√ Dano’s Agency – defdevice.com
√ Dano’s Personal Brand – danofalk.com
√ Dano’s Interview of Mike’s Life Story

√ Visit our GFA partner – Mercury – for US banking solutons for your ecommerce businesss
√ Visit our GFA partner – Loadpipe – to leverage the power of web3 and the Loadpipe protocol and community to bring ecommerce on-chain.

Thank you Dano for being on the show, and thank you everybody for listening in.

• Direct Download: Right-click here and click “Save As” for a direct download
• iTunes: Listen and subscribe on iTunes for free!
• Android: Check out Android Options or Listen via Stitcher Internet Radio streaming
• If you enjoyed this episode, leave a positive review on iTunes, & more (directions here)!

[00:00:00] Episode 450 of Global from Asia, another Journey podcast, talking about entrepreneur coming to Asia, building e-commerce and more. Great one for the end of the year. Let’s tune in. Welcome to the Global from Asia Podcast, where the daunting process of running an international business is broken down into straight up actionable advice.

And now your host, Michael Micheli. Today we [00:00:30] have Donald Falk, a entrepreneur since this early days will share about that in the in, in the interview. It’s inspirational. It basically how he came into Malaysia and to from Germany and his experiences compared to Europe and Asia lifestyles and business, and is starting and exiting his Amazon e-commerce and what he’s doing now.

1. A really fun one. Getting close to the end of the year. I think this is the second to last. We have one more show [00:01:00] after this, which I just recorded. We’re having more of these little bit of like lifestyle and business and storytelling shows. I hope you enjoy and after the interview. I will do my blah blah, blah session.

If you’re curious about my own little experiences of my first year in Asia or China, and some of the feelings and reflections also from what Donald shared. So if you’re interested in that, stick that route after the show. Let’s tune in. Are you looking for USA Banking solutions for your e-commerce business?

I am [00:01:30] proud to say mercury.com is supporting the podcast here, third year in a row at Global from Asia. And we’re proud to say, ’cause we use ’em ourselves for many of our own Amazon brands and e-commerce brands and joint ventures. With our US structures and they’re super easy to do online application, no fees, and they have great customer support.

Have helped us with trouble with Amazon Seller Central over the years about some receipts and statements and everything like that. So we’re so happy to say thank you, mercury, for supporting our show, being a great service and [00:02:00] supporting other e-commerce sellers. We’re really proud to say they’re a sponsor here.

And we also have a video tutorial as well as an overview and a special link with a little bonus for you as well for us. Under certain conditions. Check it out@globalfromasia.com slash mercury for that information. Thank you for listening and thank you Mercury. Thank you everybody for checking out another Global from Asia podcast.

We’re getting towards the end of 2024 and it’s one of our, one of our last few episodes for [00:02:30] the year, and it’s a great one. Donald Falk, he’s been, we’ve actually just had a really fascinating just chat right now, but he’s an experienced entrepreneur, e-commerce marketer. A German entrepreneur that’s been doing it since forever.

Right? Since he was like 14 years old. He’s built all types of businesses. He came to Malaysia and KL where he is currently based with his agency deaf device, which is helping. E-commerce sellers and online businesses [00:03:00] improve their marketing and business. He also started his own Amazon business in 2014 that he sold in 2019, and is very passionate to help other sellers to grow beyond Amazon, which we’ll talk about in the episode and grow real brands.

So thanks so much, Donald, for coming on the show today. How you doing? Yeah, man. Thank you for having me, Mike. It’s a pleasure to be here on your show. Yeah, I’m, I’m good. We are on the same side of the planet. I’m in kl. You are [00:03:30] in Thailand, so we are basically in the same time zone, which is very helpful.

Yeah. And you live in the destination of all my biker friends. Everybody right now is going to Chiang Mai to do the thousand Corner ride. Which I haven’t done yet, but sooner or later I will. Thousand. I have to look it up. I’m, I’m not in the biker, biker space, but it does sound like a lot of corners. Yep.

Cool. And yeah, it is the high season in Chiang Mai Chang. Mai is. [00:04:00] It’s a seasonal place. I don’t know if you’re familiar, but we’re in a high season, the peak season from end of summer until about January. But then the dry season starts, I think, I dunno about in Malaysia too, but it’s where the rain stops.

And of course, somehow farmers like to burn crops and make smoke for fertilizing their dirt for their X year’s crops. So becomes a bit unbearable here for the burning season. [00:04:30] Which is like starting to February. It gets pretty bad in March and April, and then the rain starts. The rain starts in April. Song, they call it the shooting, the water guns everywhere.

The Rains. And then it’s rainy season from like April until maybe August. So it’s like half the year is good. Half the year is like dry and rain. This is my, my quick one. Sounds familiar. Yeah. We also have this like. Crop and agriculture burning stuff [00:05:00] going on. It hasn’t been that bad. But I remember 2017, like for, for three, four weeks, we couldn’t go outside.

Yep. Because these people in Indonesia were just, is just like a few hundred kilometers from here. But the wind tends to be blowing from west to east all the time. Yeah. So they burn their farmland for whatever reason. And all the smoke arrives here in Malaysia and it sometimes, I mean, you, you cannot see more than 10 meters.

It’s, it can be [00:05:30] really, really bad. But, so I can relate to this burning season. Yeah. Which is not fun. We, um. We rather avoid this, but recently it has been much better. But yeah, we, we have rainy season right now happening. Oh, it’s not, so it’s, it’s been a rainy, raining a lot, like every day. And I think around February it’s, it’s gonna go back to normal.

Yeah. Okay. So there’s so much we can talk about. I, I, I, I really feel like, yeah, your background’s great. I think, let’s start with Asia. The Asia side of [00:06:00] our show is Gulf from Asia. So you picked KL in 2011. It seems like you’ve been steady there since. I’m wondering Yeah. Why, and if you have some tips or insights about Kale, Malaysia.

Yeah. Well, I’m, I’m a lazy guy. I mean, I only move if I, if there’s a really good reason for me to move, and I’ve been living in Munich for 30 years or so, but when I first experienced Malaysia and Asia and Kuala Lumpur in 2009, that was my first time I [00:06:30] came here. I was blown away by, by all this opportunity, by the freedom, by the cost of living, but like how you can rent an apartment every time of the day and like, so the, the whole rental market is like night and day compared to Munich.

Mm. The freedom of what you can do here, especially when you are a biker like me, it’s, it’s incredible. I’ve been riding my bike, my motor bike, I must say. It’s not a bicycle karti for one year without a number plate. That [00:07:00] was one of these moments where I really fell in love with Malaysia and it was confirmed when the second time when I went to actually get my number plate, I got to choose the design of it, which again, is completely unimaginable for someone in Germany that you can design your own number plate and you pay like $5 for it.

So there has been a lot of these moments where I thought like, wow, I mean this is so much better. And yeah, I, I don’t want to be in Munich anymore. And yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s turned [00:07:30] out to be a good decision for me. And yeah, I mean, the tricky part is just to add on to this, to, to get the full picture. It, it’s not easy to have like a residency or to have like a permanent visa in Malaysia.

1. They are not very friendly, not very helpful to get that. So, so it’s to stay here for long. Uh, if you’re not an expert, if you’re not a typical like Siemens employee or something, it can be tricky. But otherwise the, I mean, the amount of freedom I experience here and how I can just, just choose where I live, it’s, [00:08:00] it’s amazing.

That’s, that’s cool. Yeah. I, I, I feel this, I don’t know what you think, how do I say this? As expats or, or as foreigners in Asia? I mean, not, I’m not familiar in Malaysia, but we have, is it like, is it special privileges because we’re foreigners? I’m not sure if it’s like that Malaysia, so especially in China or in Thailand.

We have this freedom because we’re not local like, but if we were local in this country, might [00:08:30] be the same or worse as like Germany or where, or my background in the US like, but I think like for both of us, like we come here, here and it’s freedom for us because we’re not in the local system. We don’t have, I feel like the locals don’t probably enjoy the same, or maybe I’m wrong about Malaysia, but I feel like in Thailand maybe it’s not as free as an expat here.

For a local, well, I mean, I do feel quite free and yeah, I guess it’s, it is different, as you say, when you are a local resident. But in [00:09:00] Malaysia it’s, it’s, they have very particular national, national segments of the country. So if you are Malay Muslim, you enjoy a lot of. Privileges in terms of support, in terms of like even like rent.

If you buy real estate, you get 20% discount. You get all kind of privileges if you are in this Malay and Muslim category. If you’re not, I think, yeah, you, it’s, you [00:09:30] have to kind of find your way as a Caucasian. I say we, we, we have, we are welcome here. So this is something I never experienced in my life when I, when I moved from Ukraine to Ki Gustan from Stan to, to Germany, and from even from North Germany to South Germany.

Every time I was treated like the underdog, the, the bad stranger. But when I came to Malaysia, I was, I was kind of, I felt welcome and treated friendly. [00:10:00] So. They are very welcoming and friendly towards people like us, I would say, which is a good thing. But of course there are like a lot of nitty gritty stuff that you have to figure out if you really want to live here.

Makes sense. Yeah. ’cause I, it made me think of a story. There was an American, a friend of mine that. He never moved to, to a China or Asia, but he really wanted to. But he was, or he felt like he couldn’t because he is married, he has kids, he has a house. He’s, he’s in the system in the us but he [00:10:30] would come, I haven’t spoken to him in many years, but he, he loved it because he felt like a, he says, I felt like a rock star.

He’d walk into a place and, ’cause I guess he’s, he’d be in a more local. Rural area of China where it’s not as common to be maybe an expat and it would take photos with him, and he loves that. I, I don’t know, I don’t know if I really like that, but he felt he liked that. And, and yeah, sometimes it was, that was in [00:11:00] 2012 or so, I remember.

But yeah, it’s not as much like that in, in Charlie that recalling, but. But there’s definitely more freedom for us in Asia. I mean, I’m not familiar, I’ve been to Kale a couple of times, but I think Mo, a lot of places in Asia are like, like this where we, we can, especially Europe. Europe just seems the most to the bureaucratic.

I can’t speak for Germany specifically. I can’t speak for Germany, dude, I can’t speak for Germany. [00:11:30] Yeah, just, just this experience really kicked me out of Germany when I started my first business in Germany in 2000, and I started making decent money with my agency in Munich. The tax they asked me to pay in the first year was 92%.

Yeah, and that’s what I knew. Like you are not welcome here. If you want to do business in Germany, you are not welcome because they will charge you 46% of your first year [00:12:00] where you have been making decent money, and then they will ask you for another 46% to pay in advance, assuming that you will be making again the same amount of money next year.

To me, this is just, this is just insanity that’s in, this is just telling people to f off. Yeah. I mean, 96% really, and I, I couldn’t believe it, but, but that experience was something that also kind of was ingrained in my head where I realized, okay, if I want to [00:12:30] be an entrepreneur, or Germany is not the place.

Yeah. Yeah, we talk a, it used to be almost the focus of the Gold Me show back in the day. We were talking about Hong Kong company setup and Asia business specifically. And even the logo, I don’t know if I talked about the logo to you, but it’s the, it’s a variation of Atlas Shrugged. It’s the throwing off, throwing the, the back of this is a city, the lo the city off your back.

’cause we feel like, like you’re saying about freedom in, in the West, they’re like. [00:13:00] We feel, they make it feel like we’re, we have a burden that we have to pay for them. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. We, entrepreneurs are a burden. I mean in it’s, my impression was in Germany and I guess in Europe we are supposed to be the monkeys who follow the rules and go and do their job and come back and then retire by 65.

Yeah. Everything outside this box is not really welcome. It is not a supported, so you have to be a nice. And like a [00:13:30] employee. Yeah. That that’s all you can do. And yeah. And I mean there is support for people who had, don’t have a job. So there’s this kind of social support system, which is kind of nice. So if you don’t have a job, you don’t have to staff to death.

I mean, in Malaysia, I don’t think so. If you don’t have income, I don’t think the government will come. And you’ll like pay your rent? I don’t think so. Yeah. Unless you’re Malay. I think they, they have a lot of support, but, but yeah, so it, the system is set up to train and the whole [00:14:00] schooling system and all the, every, all the education system, in my impression, it’s set up to, to train employees, to be, to follow the rules and to do as they have been told.

That is not something I can do. I have developed authority allergy very early, so I yield. This is not something I can deal with. Yeah. I was also a, a guest on your show. We’ll link it on the show notes. I really enjoyed, I really enjoyed being a guest with you, the life story, [00:14:30] but I, yeah, you even helped me almost on the show.

I was realizing how much they boxed me into the system and I broke. We broke. It’s the matrix. It really is. They just try to convince you that, that the rules is the way it’s supposed to be, and that’s just be, oh yeah, man. One of my favorite topics is to talk about rules and how people. Don’t question stupid rules and how stupid rules come into this [00:15:00] universe and people do not question them.

And that’s the last thing I can, I cannot do that. If you tell me to do something and it doesn’t make sense to me, I won’t. I agree. Yeah. But, but I think in Europe I still have to do it even though it doesn’t make any sense to me. But, but yeah, that’s, that’s a very big topic. It’s a big topic to me, the religion.

To me the rules are a religion in Germany. That’s how I see it. It’s, it’s the holy rule. It cannot be questioned. You know, it’s, it’s like [00:15:30] God, if there is a rule, like the traffic light is red and even though like there is no traffic nowhere within five miles, I. If you still cross it, you break the rule and, and then you have committed a sin and then you will be punished.

So it’s not about what makes sense, it’s about the rule is the rule. It cannot be questioned, cannot be broken. If you break, break the rule, you are a bad boy and you, you will get whacked. Yeah. Well it goes to the core of entrepreneurship or, yeah. Or, [00:16:00] or, exactly. Exactly. Which is the core of what you and I.

Do and talk about is, is questioning, questioning and, and improving. Right? Hmm. Like we believe there is a better way that I think at the very core of an entrepreneur is they see a problem to fix, right? And they fix the problem and yeah, definitely. That’s, that’s one essential part of it. And the other one to me is following my heart.

[00:16:30] Yeah. And doing what is, what is meaningful to me and what makes sense to me. So that, that is, and and the third aspect of it is choosing freedom over safety. I. Because being an entrepreneur is not safe. True. Just like riding a big bike is not safe. Yeah. So doing the scary stuff, which, but which is inspires us and which is, is close to what our passion, what we actually want to do.

These things are not really safe. So they’ve represent freedom. [00:17:00] Entrepreneurship is freedom to me following the rules, being the nice guy is safe. But yeah, I’m, I’m not up for that, but this is a decision I think we all have to make at some point in time. And of course we can revise it. But, but yeah, I, I’ve seen myself on the freedom side, which is not safe, but it’s where I can do what makes sense to me.

Yeah, I agree. But then again, I think this other side of safety is less safe with the society today. Right. I mean, I think before people could count on a job long-term, more, [00:17:30] more long, more easily than now. Long-term jobs I don’t think are as stable, are as wonderful as maybe they had used to be. But yeah, just cannot really comment on that about it.

So. I’m not an, I’m not an expert at, in getting long-term jobs, man. So let’s, let’s just a couple segments on your, your Amazon, it started in 2014, so that was pretty early. How did that come about? I went to a [00:18:00] conference here in KLI think it was in 2013. It was, and there were like all kind of people were ha were speaking at this conference about business ideas, about doing this, doing that.

This selling on Amazon thing, like there was one guy, he was talking about selling on Amazon and I had no clue that a private person like me and you can sell on Amazon. To me it was some kind of bookstore in the us. I. And, and this guy said, wow, you can open your own account. [00:18:30] You can start selling, you can, you can source your products and all that.

And, and for me, coming from a marketing and, and web design background, it, it made a lot of sense because I said, I thought like, look, I have all this digital stuff together already. I, I know about marketing, about graphic design, about build building websites and all that, so why not? I explored this Amazon stuff, so it, it was, it was a long stretch.

I mean, to go from living in Malaysia and selling on Amazon, US, and finding a product and [00:19:00] doing all this Shazam that is necessary, but I took on the challenge. I went for it and I started sourcing. Like that was the year when the Apple Watch came out. And, and I’m an Apple fan, so I started looking for like accessories for Apple watches.

So, and that’s how it all started. And of course, being in Malaysia and sourcing from China is, is actually a, a good thing. So you’re kind of close to your suppliers. So I kept on flying to Hong Kong a lot and, and meeting people there at exhibitions and, [00:19:30] and finally also like creating a very good relationship to a manufacturer who became like my, my go-to supplier.

And we did a lot of custom stuff together. So they were very open to customize the products and create like, new designs and new stuff. So it’s, it, it was a very exciting relationship with this supplier. And, and yeah. And that’s, that’s how it started. So yeah, I, I just went on with it and in 2019 I decided to, to look if, if I can sell it, and I found a buyer, so, which [00:20:00] was another.

Very interesting experience. How, what it’s like to actually sell your business. It was very intense and very challenging also. But, but yeah, so I had both these experiences of selling on Amazon of letting go and selling my business and yeah, I, I think I learned a lot in the process for sure. For sure. I mean, the big point I think I got, and we talk about this on a show often is you, your supplier is almost like.

I dunno if you used the word part. I don’t wanna put words in your mouth, but [00:20:30] partner in a way. But they are a very important part, right? You have to find a good supplier, right? Like your core, core supplier. That, that, because basically as Amazon or e-commerce or product business, you need a good. Product.

Right. That’s, well, a lot of, I don’t know. It sounds upbeat. It sounds, it sounds obvious, but just to say, but it’s not as easy as it sounds. Yeah. To get a good product, especially something that stands out from the crowd and has maybe something, has some [00:21:00] perks that not everybody else has is, is a big challenge.

Yeah. And you need, and, and, and working with suppliers in China, of course also has this downside of if they see something that works, they might as well just steal it and sell it themselves. So it is that you have to balance a lot of like Yeah, like tricky path too, to actually build your brand and to have a partner on your side who will not treat you, not, not, not go behind your back, but yeah.

But as, as you said, the supplier is an [00:21:30] essential part of this. Yeah. So while they might not be a shareholder and they’re most likely more a shareholder in your business, or May, most of my brands, although some I do actually partner with the supplier, like at the beginning, a, a partner. It’s very intimate relationship, of course, but most of the time, of course, they’re not a partner in a business.

But in a way they somewhat are, even if they’re not a shareholder. ’cause if the quality, or like you said, if they. Go behind your back and undercut you. They’ll, [00:22:00] they’ll really could undermine your business, so, oh, yeah. Yeah. And it happens a lot. I mean, I, I heard a lot of stories of, yeah, so it’s, it’s d it’s definitely not easy to find someone who had, would have some amount of loyalty.

Towards you because I mean, loyalty is not really this like a Chinese thing. The number one thing seems to be money like all the way and yeah, someone who would maybe not take another dollar [00:22:30] and instead of that be loyal, that is, that is not easy to find. But I think I was lucky that way. I found, I mean the, this lady I would be working with is still my friend.

We’ll still have a chat once in a while. Great. Even though I’m not selling anymore. So yeah, I mean, making friends, I would say. And building relationships. And that’s a whole different other rabbit hole. Yeah. That’s the topic, that’s session. That, that is just super important. And I think you can only move as far as, you know, relationships are stable and, [00:23:00] and based on mutual trust.

Agreed. And yeah, like you said, like I’m in, I’m, I feel like we’re neighbors now in Thailand and Malaysia, but of course I lived in China. So it might have been easier, but in a way it’s almost, I actually like being outside of China, but near because I can enjoy the, like, perks of living in the Southeast Asia.

I, I, I think you and I prefer that, but I can e it’s not far right. It’s like you said, you can fly. Yeah. Also go to Hong Kong. [00:23:30] Yeah. There’s tons of flights. Two hours. I’m in Hong Kong. Yeah. Yeah. So it’s, it’s great. And then you feel more, you’re more special to them. Maybe, excuse me, more special because you’re out, you’re a foreign visitor instead of living there.

But of course I lived there. I did. I did it too. Even more. Yeah. But yeah, you build a relationship. But I mean, I think a lot of probably people watching today don’t, don’t come out. I, I know it’s bigger trip from like, like Germany or America. Yeah. But. I even think [00:24:00] then it’s, it is very much worth it. It opened my eyes when I first did it, and it, it, it builds, it builds a stronger like relationship where they think twice to make those decisions.

Like undercutting you or out selling somebody else or, yeah, yeah, of course. If, if you have, if you had dinner with them, it’s, it does change things rather than just like writing emails, but. If you, and they are very warmhearted also, when, when I arrived there, they gave me all kind of presents and gifts and [00:24:30] invited me for this and that.

So it, yeah, I mean they, they are great people in China. Definitely. And to have this personal relationship, I think can make a big difference. Yeah. So the selling, actually I sold, I sold one, one of my brands also in 2019. I think that I was. Maybe we’re a little bit kind of early, we maybe could have got more if we waited another year or two, but probably if we waited till now would’ve been a different story.

But was there any any highlights from that [00:25:00] experience or is, I mean, I know there’s like, that’s also a whole show, but, oh yeah, dude, yeah, yeah, you’re right. We could do a whole show about this experience, but it is, it is very emotional, I have to say. So, so you have to kind of open your book. You sign this thing called LOI, the letter of intent, and then the guy who is interested to buy your business can dig into all your data and all your products and all your sales.

Whatever. [00:25:30] And this guy could be competitor. Yeah. And it, it’s freaking scary because now, now there’s somebody who can just like study the ins and outs of your business and he could as well just walk away and say, nah, I’m not interested. And, and, and then he could, he could be whoever he could take advantage of, of what he has seen.

So that is a very scary part. Yeah, it is. Yeah. But, but then of course, if, if, if it’s, if it’s a actually a legit buyer, [00:26:00] then the journey goes on and they ask all these questions and, and it, yeah. It can be quite exhausting too, because they want to know everything. Mm-hmm. Of course. When, when the day comes, when the money’s in the bank.

That is a very unique moment. Yeah. I, I remember taking a screenshot how the deposit was actually released from the escrow account and how it showed up in my world first account and, and I started receiving emails from World First, like, what is [00:26:30] going on? What, what does this money come from? Yeah. So, yeah, that is, of course, that is something where you feel rewarded for all your work in a way.

Maybe like as the, the multiple says for three years in advance, kind of, and yeah, of course. This is, it is also, it represents freedom to me because my experience, as long as you grow, you’re broke. Mm-hmm. When you, when you grow an Amazon business and you, you make more money, but you have [00:27:00] to buy more inventory.

So whatever comes in goes out. Yeah. So the, it’s, it’s very hard to actually like, make profits and, and put money in aside, into your savings account when you are growing an Amazon business because every time you grow you have to order more inventory. So it, it just, yeah. So that was my experience. So it, and, and this selling part is the first time where you actually bank in and where you actually Yeah.

You not only have the money, [00:27:30] but also the time freedom. So suddenly now it’s sitting down and, Hey, I don’t have to check my inventory anymore tomorrow. And so, and I don’t have to answer. Also support requests. So it, it’s, it is a real game changer in, in one’s life. That’s true. Make the, a very big difference.

And, and yeah. And so that, that’s one. I also, I was, of course, I was thinking a lot, what’s next? Of course. I mean, I’m not, the type to retire will never retire in my life. [00:28:00] So I thought, so what now? So now this business is gone. So, and it’s of course one idea, one option would be to start another one. But my experience with Amazon was not great, to be honest.

And I felt like. They don’t care about me when, whenever I’m in a ditch, they care. They stop talking to me. When I suspend my account is when they would need their help the most. When, when you spend four years building a business and suddenly they suspend you for whatever nonsense, [00:28:30] which it was literally nonsense.

And then they just stop talking to you. This, this is when you need the help. And they, but they don’t. So they just tell you, oh, you can submit a appeal. Within 30 days, we will respond. And they literally take 30 days to respond to this appeal. They don’t respond before that. I mean, it, it was a nightmare.

Well, that was one of the reasons I decided no guys, I’m, I’m not gonna like have my livelihood be based on this Amazon. I decided to go to the [00:29:00] backend, into the agency world where I help others with what I’ve learned, and I find this more rewarding and more purposeful. For me, uh, to, to simply help others to grow and, and to share what I’ve learned.

Yeah, I love it. I love it. And yeah, so that’s def device.com. And what’s the name? I’m curious. Is it or you? I check. I couldn’t find it on the About page or about You is great. Yeah, it’s, it’s a weird, I know it’s a weird name of course. And for [00:29:30] English people it sounds like, feel like some kind of hearing Yeah.

Problem. But yeah, DEF comes from Dano, Edward Falk. Oh, got it. And there’s a backstory. So my, my company in Germany was called Def Design. Oh, down to Edward F Design. Okay. So it, it has this kind of backstory, which was kind of, and in Germany, deaf doesn’t mean deaf. It’s, it is just DEF. It doesn’t have this like hearing meaning.[00:30:00]

But yeah. So I, I was a bit silly to kind of go into the next deaf version. To deaf device with this agency. But, but yeah, that, that’s where it comes from. It’s basically, it’s just my initials, my middle name, my, yeah, my, my first name that my parents gave me is Edward. Oh, nice. Yeah. Yeah. And Dono is something that I kind of added onto.

It was, was my personal redesign. So when, when I, when I was 18, I decided I’m gonna rebrand myself. I was gonna call myself Donald. [00:30:30] So that’s where the Donald part comes from? Yeah. Oh, nice. I have some fun fact, I don’t know, I, I’ve kind of changed my name. I don’t even know if I, when I was in, got my first passport, I, ’cause I’m Michael on my passport, but I liked Mike.

I mean it is Mike and Michael. Everybody’s always confused. But in the US I’m Michael. But in my passport I’m Mike and some, actually there was a couple once or two ICE in an airport in the US I got some issues ’cause some my most blood. [00:31:00] But I mean, I don’t know what’s the real process to do that, but.

Yeah. I also, yeah, I, I think I was considering one time to put down into my legal documents and they said, well, if you want to add like this artist name, you have to show us that you have published some kind of record or a song or a painting or some, so, so it. I mean, you can add this kind of artistic name, uh, but yeah, it’s, but I, I just, I just say, yeah, [00:31:30] yeah, whatever.

Can I just just have one? No, no name. Just one name. Like, who’s that? Prince, right? Just, no, the artist known as Prince. Well, yeah, he is in a different league. I’m not sure if you can just call yourself Prince without a last name, but Yeah. It depends how your authorities work. Germans? I don’t think so.

Probably not in Germany. No. Really? No. Alright, so then let’s, let’s go into, yeah. The agency, I actually noticed it’s [00:32:00] registered in Malaysia and I noticed even on the, on your site, you, you, you put your prices in both US dollar and in man. Some ring. Ring it, ring it, ring it, yeah. Malaysia and ring it. Yeah.

Yeah, I see that actually. I thought you worked a lot. Yeah, it depends. I mean, we have some services which are more like directed towards local businesses. So some things like CRM, like lead generation, like Yeah, it’s social media. We do some. We do some and, and WhatsApp, I mean, yeah, especially the WhatsApp [00:32:30] service.

Yeah, I saw that. Really relevant for the local people here. I mean, in Germany, WhatsApp is also in the us like not many people use it. And here in Malaysia everybody uses WhatsApp. So when, when, when we promote a service which is really directed towards local businesses here, then we put it and ring it.

But we. With most of the things we do, we target globally. Yeah. We target English and German speaking people, so it’s mostly the us, Canada, Australia, [00:33:00] Germany. So, and that’s where our target audiences are. And this is specifically for like Amazon, Japan. I. Yes. So that service is like managing Amazon, Japan and, and bringing people into Amazon, Japan from the west.

This is something that, of course, that that is targeted towards Western brands who want to expand internationally, and most of them are simply not aware of the size of Japan being the fourth biggest Amazon marketplace on the planet. And yeah. So we have gone through [00:33:30] all the things that were unique to learn because we have been managing a client for the past four years.

And so, so that’s why we decided to kind of offer this as a service to other brands who maybe are not aware of the potential of the size of this marketplace, and might also then need some help to get started and to overcome all the, the, the roadblocks like the, the language, the certification, the importing part, and all that.

So, okay. We can, we can help with all that. Yeah. Perfect, perfect. And [00:34:00] getting towards the end, but I wanna talk about some hacks. We, we, we, we we’re going into a new year. Everybody’s always inspired with their New Year’s resolutions or for personal and their business. They can give us a couple maybe things to add to that list or consider for us as Amazon e-commerce business owners.

I’m, I’m not such a, I’m not a techy guy. I don’t do so many techy hacks like you do. You use this tool, you use that tool and everything. [00:34:30] Great. I’m, I’m, I’m not really on that side. I, I’m more like a strategy guy. And, and if you, if you had to ask me like, what would be a hack to grow your online business, I would always say it is about building your brand and building your customer list.

That is, that is the one true hack that I know that can really grow your business if you have a solid brand, if you build a community of people who trust you, who know you, and who are willing to buy from you [00:35:00] again. And if you’re being smart to engage with these people, because so many businesses are simply like have this dead database of dormant leads and they don’t really engage with them.

So to have this active community of people who, who you are like regular in touch with and which is growing organically or maybe by paid ads or whatever, but that you managed to grow and that. Gives you a substance which is not linked to a Google or an Amazon or a [00:35:30] Facebook or whatever, but something that you are in control of that would be the most important message I would like to send out to every online seller and brand owner.

To be, to become independent and to build this community of people who trust them and, and, and, and like them, and who would buy from them. Even though there’s the next China man selling is like 10% off. Great. I guess a follow on question I’m just thinking is even myself, but [00:36:00] I think the, one of the bigger barriers is people don’t know what to say, right?

Like, if I sell Apple Watch accessories. On Amazon and I build up emails. I actually, I think I’m, I’m building up emails, but I’m not emailing them. I think that’s the kind of like what a lot of sellers I talk to do. They, they, they know they, one, they might not be doing it, but maybe they’re doing it. But then when there’s even doing it, like I get notification, I feel guilty every single [00:36:30] day.

’cause I see notifications on my registered for my, in, my opt-in, right. On my. E-commerce business, and I’m like, what am I, of course there’s a new product launch, right? So I’m launching, but I don’t launch that. Some of my brands, I have a few, but I don’t launch products all the time. I mean like one or two a year on smaller brands.

So I don’t know what to say to them, right? Like, and, and I don’t want Bo, I don’t want them to get bothered if I email ’em on, oh, new blog. Do they really wanna read a new blog post that I wrote? Right? Like, I mean, I don’t know. I [00:37:00] mean, my, uh, my answer to that would be just tell your story. Just, just be a human.

Mm-hmm. You don’t have to write the next blog post and, and, but people buy from people, I mean, all the ones who have a bit more in mind than just buying the cheapest stuff, which is not our target audience anyways. As soon as people care about what is behind this brand, what is behind [00:37:30] this product, they want to know about the the person.

And honestly, if, if I follow a brand and the brand owner sends me a message saying like, this is what happened in my life last week, or this is, this is how. This is why I created this brand and this is why it’s, this is what the purpose, I feel behind it. And this is the problem we’re solving and this is why we enjoy doing this.

Just being personal, just being [00:38:00] human to me is good enough. And don’t make it like a thesis, just, just write a few sent, I mean that’s, that’s what I like to do. I just like, I have this friends and family list, which is my. Favorite audience in my favorite email list. And I just like to share with them what I’m doing.

And it can be business related, of course. I mean, I do tell them like, this is a new project we’re doing. Am I also asking them like, what are you doing? Or How can I help you? Is there something I can do for you? So, so [00:38:30] just being human and just sharing what is happening in our lives. I think it can make sense to, to the, and it will resonate with the right people, I guess with those who actually looking for some kind of human connection rather than just the cheapest product.

Makes sense. Great. Donna, this is. This has been great. So what are some link, of course, def device.com We’ll link on the show notes. I’ll also link Yeah, that’s, that’s gonna work. I’ll link my, I’ll link your interview of me, which I really, I really [00:39:00] enjoyed. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We should definitely cross, uh, cross.

Yeah. I would definitely also in include the, the, the podcast that I did with you, which was, which was a great pleasure. Yeah, so let’s include that one of, of course, dev device. I’ve also joined a com, an American agency called Consulting as a director of Asia expansion. So we socially cooperates right now.

So we, we work together and well, my LinkedIn profile is that me something, and then I have this little personal web chat called donna five.com. That’s just [00:39:30] where you can see my personal stuff and in my life, basically. Like my life story and all that. Yeah, okay. So, but, but yeah, I will. I’m happy to connect with whoever’s watching this and who is interested to know more.

It’s would be a pleasure to get in touch and connect on LinkedIn and, and yeah, real pleasure to have you on the show. And, uh, it’s been great to get to know you over, you know, the, uh, recent months. So thanks for being here. Thank you so much. Mike. In Malaysia, we see Teddy [00:40:00] MCee, that’s the Malaysia way of saying thank you.

And I say thank you very much man. Have a good, yeah. Have a great one. Thanks so much too. The future of e-commerce is waiting. Load pipe is back. It’s a protocol. We are making the new way to do e-commerce with blockchain technology. This is very early stage and we have Hamza as our first marketplace in this new ecosystem.

It’s very epic if you wanna [00:40:30] participate, we are on alpha stage in Q1 2024, where you can be a. Buyer or a a vendor application only. Check it out@hamza.biz for the marketplace or the overview of this protocol and subscribe for updates@loadpipe.com. See you there. Thank you so much, Dono. That was a fun one.

Also, you should check out, he interviewed me of my life story and it was. I was caught by surprise on some of the answers I [00:41:00] even gave on his show, so we’ll link that up on the show notes if you wanted to go to his podcast and YouTube and check out his interview of me, which was fascinating. I wasn’t even expecting, I didn’t even prepare in advance.

I was going on on the fly and it makes me realize we’re outside of the Matrix. I even said that to him after my interview. He interviewed me. I realized how clueless I was when I, I felt like I was on this life, [00:41:30] had one track, right? Like my track was do good in school, get good grades, get to a good college, get an internship, get a good job.

And I had thought you had to get an MBA to be able to have like a license. I thought it was like a like approval or a license to start your own business. I dunno where I got that idea or how I got that idea, but that’s what I actually thought. I thought I’ll start my business after I get my MBA. So I’m gonna [00:42:00] go to college, I’m gonna get a good job.

I got a Wall Street at Deutsche Bank, pick it over Goldman Sachs. Right? And then I. I’ll get my GMATs, I’ll get good grades, I’ll get a good MBA school, and then I’ll start my own business. And as a story, I share a few times, maybe on this podcast you might’ve heard me say, but I remember when I was on Wall Street 60 Wall at the JP Morgan building at, on the Deutsche Bank.

I bought from, I would took my walk to Water Street and I went to my prep tests [00:42:30] after work like 7:00 PM on a weekday. And we were going around the room. On the first day of these prep tests, so you get good GMATs scores. So it’s Kaplan Companies training program to be good on your GMATs to your geometry and whatever kind of stuff you have to master to get good GMATs scores to get to MBA school.

I might even be wrong, this was like 20 years ago now, but basically what happened [00:43:00] was. I think there’s like 20 people in the classroom. It was on Water Street, off Wall Street and mostly people from banking. Right? So it was like, hi, I’m Sarah, I work at Lehman Brothers and I want to get MBA so I can get a promotion after I graduate from MBA school.

Or I wanna be like a vice president or a managing director or, and it was like that. It was like, hi, I’m Joe from Goldman and I want to get MBA so that I can get a management position. Hi, I am Jill. I’m from. [00:43:30] Whatever bank, and they all basically wanted promotions or bigger jobs and it came to me and they said, what do you, well, hi, I am Mike.

I work at Deutsche Bank and I wanna get MBA so I can start my own business. Everybody like just stared at me like it was like a pause. This teacher, everybody’s like, you’re going to MBA school to start your own business. I don’t know if I even went back after the first night. I, I think I decided this is not right [00:44:00] for me.

And I decided instead of spending my money on MBA school, which I was saving money for, is I was gonna go to China. And even if I went bankrupt and burned all my money instead of MBA school, well I was the school of hard knocks. So that’s kind of the little story of how I decided to go to China. Instead of MBA, I invested in myself.

Which is what I think we should all be doing, especially if you’re younger. But I think any age, I’m still investing in myself or in education or my team or people [00:44:30] educating my team. We just have amazing retreats. You’re educating people, you’re investing in people, you’re investing in yourself or other people to, to help the long term.

It’s, it’s a long-term investment, but I think it’s the best investment it can make. Especially here we’re getting towards the end of the year in 2024, going to 2025. I hope you can make some investments in yourself, in your business for the long term. So thank you for watching and episode four 50 over now, [00:45:00] peace.

To get more info about running an international business, please visit our website@ww.global from asia.com. That’s ww.global from asia.com. Also, be sure to subscribe to our iTunes feed. Thanks for tuning in.