Experience Launching a Product on Amazon FBA in 2022 [Blimp Case Study] with Luciano Drehmer, Francis Austin and Peter Luxenburg

Today’s show we have one of our franchisees from the first cohort of the Blimp Method program which we kicked off right in the new year Jan 2022! As this year is coming to a close (can you believe we are already in Q4), we thought it is a perfect time to invite Francis and Peter to the podcast today to share the experience – as well as insights – of launching a product on Amazon in 2022, and working with us at GFA’s Blimp Method course and program.

√ Polishing Cloth
√ Excalibur Brothers website
√ Blimp Method program case study (sign up on waiting list)
√ Luciano’s GFAVIP Profile
√ Francis’ GFAVIP Profile
√ Peter’s GFAVIP Profile
√ Frostlimited.com
√ Cross Better Logistics
√ Visit our GFA partner – Mercury – for US banking solutons for your ecommerce businesss

Thank you so, so much for coming on and sharing with us today. Let’s rock the fourth quarter and grow to new heights in 2023!

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[00:00:00] All right. Welcome to Global from Asia 385, talking about experiences launching on Amazon in FBA in 2022. Also, a little case study for our Blimp Method Program. Let’s do this. Welcome to the Global from Asia podcast, where the daunting process of running an international business is broken down into straight up actionable advice.

[00:00:22]And now your host, Michael Michelini. We’re always super great, excited for this one. This is a wonderful episode because we have a lot of persons here putting a lot of inputs and I, I think this is something very exciting, but there, there’s a lot of thoughts, experiences, You know, we were talking more about the

[00:00:46] Branding. There’s a lot coming in for this episode. What can you say about this episode? I feel like we’ve been, a lot of the latest shows have been like, like round tables and lots of people, right? You’re like, Wow, how many people are in this? So yeah, it’s, it’s a, it’s a lot of, lot of cool people. We have Francis, who is the main participant and, uh, franchisee.

[00:01:07] Call it the Blimp program under Excalibur Brothers brand and Peter, our Amazon expert that worked with, with Francis, and then we brought Luciano. I think people have gotten to know Luciano, our partner at Excalibur Brothers, and a very talented branding expert. And yeah, and then you and me, it’s like five people

[00:01:28] Uh, yeah. But, uh, it’s a really good one. We talk about the, you know, we’re getting, it’s, it’s getting towards the end of the year, can you believe it? So yeah, the, the experiences of launching in 2022, you know, during, towards the end of the covid and certain lockdowns in China. And we talk about launching the product and give some really good insights.

[00:01:44] So, Absolutely. So I totally agree. And again, we’re super happy that, you know, with the Francis, with Peter, everything’s going well since that they’ve been here and having the Blimp program and that’s pretty much it, I think. So this is pretty exciting because you will say how it will unfold and what really unfold in their business.

[00:02:08] Being in their Blimp program. There’s the one coming in with them. Yeah. Let’s, well, let’s tune in. It’s action packed. All right, let’s go onto the the episode and enjoy and listen, and we’ll be right back. And thank you to our sponsor, our returning sponsor, mercury.com online bank. Well, it’s a real bank, but you can totally online for a us Our Blimp program.

[00:02:31] Participants are going through this as well. Thank you, Mercury. Travis is great there. He’s been on our show, he’s been in our events. We’re gonna have another event where we will have them attending as well. And if you want to get a little bonus for you and us, if you sign up and do some special circumstances, you can go to globalfromasia.com/mercury.

[00:02:49] I also have a video tutorial that we use, even for the Blimp. People use the same exact video to learn how to use it. I hope you can check it out totally free. Why not? See you there. All right, so welcome. Welcome everyone here in our podcast and we are very happy that I’m here again with Mike Michelini, and we are here to welcome you back with another episode.

[00:03:13]And we are so excited for this one. Again, we don’t have one, two, but we have a lot of guests today, and I’m, I think, I’m sure that you’ll enjoy this episode moving forward. All right, let’s kick it off. All right, today’s show. We have one of our franchisees from the first cohort of the Blimp Method program, which we kicked off right in the near of January, 2022 as the series coming to a close.

[00:03:46]Can you believe it’s already in quarter four? And we thought it is a perfect time to invite Francis and Peter to the podcast today to share the experience as well as to insights of launching a product on Amazon in 2022 and working with us at GFA’s Blimp Method Course Program. We are here to introduce Peter and Francis.

[00:04:11]Welcome to the show. Thank you. My pleasure. How’s everything going with the both of you and Luciano, Welcome back here again. Thank you, . Great. How’s everything going, there for the whole week. All good here. Fantastic. Fantastic. Over here. Good, good. Good to know. Good to know. Very. We are very happy, of course, with Mike here.

[00:04:34] Very happy and so excited for this episode, to be coming here and talking more with everyone of you. And of course, we are very fortunate that we are here to have you in our podcast, a past podcast episodes as well, which was fascinating. For those who are meeting you for the first time, could you introduce yourself, Peter?

[00:04:58] Hi everyone. Thanks, Faith for kicking this off. It’s a pleasure to be here, Mike. Well, my name is Peter Luxemburg. I’m Swedish and been living in Asia for the past 15 years. Been working on with Amazon for about eight years, and as a consultant for the past five years, we relocated myself and my family from Asia back to Europe to Canary Islands in Spain earlier this year, from where I can conduct my consulting business as usual.

[00:05:31] That’s me in a nutshell. All right, and we are super happy again, too. Happy here. This will be the first, but again, we are happy and excited for this episode coming in with you. And of course, I wanna tap in with Luciano again. For everyone that doesn’t know, Luciano is our branding expert and our partner in Excalibur Brothers.

[00:05:53]Welcome back, Luciano, how are you? Thanks for the very warm introduction. Faith, I’m, I’m doing good. Thank you so much. It’s a beautiful day in Shenzhen. I’m, I’m on the, actually it’s a beautiful day because I came down to the beach to, to work this week and I’m escaping the lockdowns of the city. So nice. Lucky.

[00:06:15] Lucky. Happy to be here. Great. Oh, we agree. We agree. While Covid is still around the corner, but again, always, just so let you know, it’s already 2023. We’re moving forward, doing progress and development since the next year is just coming just shortly. And of course we are here to introduce Francis again. He is the main investor and participant as well.

[00:06:40] How are you doing today? How’s everything? I’m doing very well. Thank you Faith. Yeah. Very happy to have you here again. Thank you very much. And this of course of  course and I think Mike is super. Yeah. Mike is very happy to have you any, any welcoming with Mike as well? Yeah, from, from, well Francis is dialing in from Toronto, but you’re originally from Hong Kong, right?

[00:07:06] Francis and. Yes, I am from Hong Kong. Yes. Originally it’s, it’s been really great to, to work with you. So we’ll get into the story, a little bit introduction now. What was that Francis? Do you want me to give an introduction of myself? Yeah, yeah, please introduce yourself. Please do. Yeah, sure. Yeah. So my name is Francis.

[00:07:27]And I live in Canada now. I start selling on Amazon about four years ago, but I have had no success doing it. I mean, when I say I, I, I have no success. I mean, I haven’t really sold even one unit of any product during those four years. And then Peter called me last year and he said he’s got a friend who’s running a program that provides or supplies products and brand.

[00:07:56] And when I said, he said, when I, when I heard he say he,he, this friend is supplies a brand. I’ve always heard people say it’s very important to have a brand when selling on Amazon, but I’ve never, you know, I never knew how to create a brand myself. So when Peter saidtThis friend provides a, a brand to sell on Amazon, I was interested and I wanted to give it a try.

[00:08:23] So I joined the program and so that was how I started on on this Blimp program and so far it’s been going very well. Yeah, I mean things are really selling every day. . I’m so happy.  Yeah. That’s all the introduction. Yeah. Great. Well we’re super happy to hear that Francis, and of course I wanna tap in with Peter as well.

[00:08:48] I mean, how did you hear about the Blimp Method program and why were you interested? Well, I am a friend of Mike since many years back from time in Shenzhen and in Hong Kong and I’m a member of the Global From Asia VIP group. And so of course I can hear what’s going on with Mike and around Mike and in the community.

[00:09:13] And when this program was just launched earlier this year, I was interested to hear more about it because I think that was a concept. For kind of, um, package solutions that I haven’t heard other entrepreneurs or Amazon sellers come up with. I think that was the missing piece or the bridge between those who wanna sell or don’t know what to sell and those who know how to sell and what to sell, right?

[00:09:42]So making it easy, I think Mike and his team develop a great concept, a great brand with Luciano heading this, this branding profiling super professional. So I usually, I don’t have much time to, to join in on podcast presentations. Mike, I know you’re doing a great job, but honestly I have so much else to take care of.

[00:10:04] I know everybody’s busy. This, this, this specific presentation. I said I wanna join and listen. So, so I did, and a few when I heard this, this the Blimp program and more exactly about Excalibur Brothers. It wasn’t listening in for my own sake that I needed something like that. It was more like, who do I know in my circle of friends or clients that would be suitable for this kinda project?

[00:10:35] And a few names came up and Francis, you were one of them. Of course, we’ve been knowing each other for a few years and so I introduced this to to Francis and we took it off from there. Francis joined the next call and that’s, that’s pretty much where, where we started and where we took off with. Super happy to hear that as well since, And it seems that every single 

[00:11:00] thing that is happening right now when it comes to the Blimp program and Luciano having to do the branding and helping out, well, it’s a hundred percent a go-go for everyone right now.

[00:11:11]What are your thoughts right now, Mike and Luciano? Let’s start with Luciano. What are your thoughts? Well, I’m, I’m really, it makes me very, very happy to, to listen to Peter words and about that. And, and, and Francis saying that he’s happy that products is selling every day because Mike and me, oh my God, we, we worked so hard on that for so long.

[00:11:40] It’s been a year, over a year, and it’s been a year, Man. We go to factories. It’s a long story and I think, we’ll, we’ll go through some of that in the, in the session. But, But even before the factories. Yeah. Before the factories though, was the, the brand process. You, you help guide that with the, the branding, Right.

[00:12:03]Before we even got to the products or the factory. Yeah, we, we, we went through like a very deep, uh, brand strategy process. And again, I

[00:12:18] I, Good, I really happy for the teamwork. Been such a pleasure and yeah. Getting, getting here today,listening to this feedback is make me completely like, happy and great. I believe Mike is feeling the same. Yeah. What are you feeling, Mike? ? Yeah, I mean, I, we are executors, you know, like, honestly, you know, there’s also Meir.

[00:12:45]Meir was supposed to maybe, hopefully can join, but Meir’s been on a show a few times about this, you know, it’s actually his, his, it’s his business idea. Honestly, I’ve been always supportive of his idea of the licensing model and. But yeah, we, we, we executed, right? We, we, we, we went from the beginning to, to now.

[00:13:02] I mean, still, there’s still so much more to go. We’re still at the beginning, you know, I, but we’re, we’re, we’re all ex, you know, we’re all prac, you know, we’re not, I was joking on a marketing call today, I said, Actually, Faith, should I rent a Lambo and, and put a Lambo on a YouTube ad and say like, you know, like, make million dollars on Amazon, you know, et cetera, et cetera.

[00:13:23] You know, I, I don’t like that style, you know, we’re, we are people that practice and do, you know, And that’s why I think Peter was comfortable to, to introduce Francis to us. You know, I remember we had that first kickoff call. I think I was in a restaurant to, on the road. I remember. But, you know, I think actually, you know, I don’t know if you’re willing to share, Francis. I think you kind of hinted towards in the intro, but you have worked with, you mentioned you’ve tried with other programs or other ways, and I don’t really wanna highlight the bad, but you know, you’ve, Had some other bad experiences and that’s why I was really trying my best to make sure that we gave you a, a positive one.

[00:13:58] But I don’t know if you’d like to give a little bit of those. Yeah. I mean, yeah, when I say I’ve no success, I mean, like I said earlier, I’ve, I haven’t sold you in four years time. I haven’t even sold one unit of any product. Just imagine how bad it is, . I mean, I was so, I was really thinking, you know, of giving it up.

[00:14:22] Honestly, I even went to, I even went to the Canton Fair one year in Canton, This huge fear. Yeah. And I. Everything on display. You know, I was thinking, you know, what should I sell? What should I sell, ? And then I decided in the end I decided to, to, you know, place an order with a factory to produce, I don’t remember, maybe a thousand or 2000 of those baby cups, baby suction cup, that, that won’t fall off the table.

[00:15:01] And then, you know, I, I got those cup, you know, manufactured, shipped to the US all that. And, but in the end, all those products got gated. They, they would let me sell. And I had, you know, I, I spent one year, you know, trying to get it ungated with no success. In the end, I sold all the cups to a, to a wholesaler in the US for I think 500 bucks.

[00:15:30] Oh no. Was a terrible experience. Sorry about that. Yeah, I don’t wanna draw, you know, I don’t want to drag that memory up too much, but, you know, just honestly, I just wanted to make sure, like I did feel responsible to make sure. We had some issues. We did have a little bit of Rocky Road, you know, this year in 2022, but we we’re launched.

[00:15:52] We’re gonna get through the whole story, but, you know, I felt like we had to make, you know, especially because Peter, you know, is in the community and, and your previous story, I was like, It’s, we gotta make this, we gotta make this work. So I’m really, really happy. Yeah. I think we can move to the next, next point.

[00:16:06] Faith? Absolutely. Absolutely. Again, it’s all about execution when it comes to business and just making sure that we are moving forward every single day when it comes to our plans and goals. And I wanna tap in with Luciano, of course, about the product selection process. What was the experience of product selection in the program?

[00:16:28] Wow, that’s a very good question. First, like, we went through a very interesting process because we, we, we, we, we actually, Mike already have owned this brand called Excalibur Brothers. This is a very, it’s a, is a 2003 website, right, Mike? Yeah, yeah. Yep. It was actually, we’re not, I knew the original owner and we, we took over the, the brand, a few during Covid.

[00:16:55] Yeah. And Mike is extremely experienced in, in internet marketing and SEO. And we combined, we combined experience in his and, and use this strategy to, to use a brand that’s in, in a website that’s already established. It helps, it helps get better ranking on Google, right, Mike? Yeah. Yeah. And one of the original is that, Yeah, so we started, we started from that, right?

[00:17:23]This is our first framework to, to, to start, let’s, let’s use this, this resource and build the brand around it. And then we started building the brand around the, the story of the, the, the website and the, the target audience that we had at the moment that they’re buying a medieval products, right on the website, it’s Excalibur Brothers brand.

[00:17:46] They buy swords and they, they, they look, people are looking for that. We tried to leverage this particular, we try to identify who is this customer that likes that particular, that have particular interest in this topic and, and match with and match. We build like avatars and try to understand what are their age and, and who are they, what kind of things they like, what kind of TV shows they like, what kind of music they like.

[00:18:17]And, uh, around that we, we, and after that we decided that the, the product line. The most interesting product line that we can match this medieval concept in this target audience would be this masculine, this, these products for, for men. But they’re like around, in their thirties, forties, and they, they like medieval products, but it, it could also allow people that, that like this kind of products be interested in medieval products as well.

[00:18:50] So, so then we decided, first, I think Mike already had, Do you wanna talk about the, the polishing cloth? Mike? Yeah. I mean, uh, so we were, we were working on products for gifts and, and we had some. We had some different ideas in, in, in advance, and we, we presented these to the first batch of franchisees. So like Peter mentioned about the webinar, so there was the webinar, which we invited of course our podcast listeners, our members, our, our email subscribers to join.

[00:19:25] in late December. And then Peter really enjoyed, he saw a few of the products that we had pre-selected. Of course, we can’t show all of our products publicly or even in a webinar, but we did show a couple. And then it was all about, like you had said, like, to match this men’s gift using the medieval tone rather than just selling the swords or the knives.

[00:19:45] And, and then Peter, Peter was really excited about this and, and then, Basically what we wanted, we can’t, The whole program means nobody else can sell the same product, only one franchisee for one product. That’s the core difference of this product from, like this program, from drop shipping, is we don’t let everybody, It was only one ex is exclusive sellers on each, each listing.

[00:20:08] So then that’s where we, we, we had talked with Peter and, and he, he mentioned this to, to Francis and then wanted to lock in the, the products is is kind of how the program works. So it’s a first come, first serve to, to lock in people to this exclusive agreement on that listing is the, is the way this works.

[00:20:28] Absolutely. There’s a lot coming in, especially when it comes to this program that is happening and we are so happy that Lciano was really ha helping a lot when it comes to branding and there’s a lot of success happening lately. And again, it’s developing and doing a lot of progress as seen and has heard.

[00:20:45] Well, we heard from Peter and Francis as well, and of course I wanna go in with Peter. How did the manufacturing process go? And of course we can talk about the delays due to lockdowns and many, many more. Any any stories that you wanna share about this matter as well? Well, first of all, coming back to what Mike said about choosing the polishing cloth as a product for Francis, was that having sold on Amazon, myself, private label brand for a few years, I had some kind of experience of similar products.

[00:21:20] So for me it was pretty easy to kind of validate this, this product on the marketplace in terms of demand and the competition competitive landscape. So I felt very confident in discussing this with France and to, to get with Francis, decide to lock this product in as soon as possible. So I think that that played a, a, a big role in.

[00:21:45]And Francis’ decision making played a, a big role in, in Mike and his team to feel confident in, Okay, let’s go ahead with this polishing cloth as the, the first product to start with the Excalibur Brothers program. Well, also having had some experience with similar products that we knew the, the potential problems that could occur in, in the manufacturing process.

[00:22:11]So I think with the communication with the factories, we already knew what kind of level of discussion in terms of quality and production capabilities we needed to discuss from the beginning. So I think we, we had a head start. We were not starting with a, a completely blank white paper. The pro production process, I think, has been considering these circumstances in the world.

[00:22:39] Has been moving forward all the time. Of course there have been delays because of people restrictions pretty much, right? Yeah. Mike, you know that more with being on the ground, maybe you should take over. Yeah, I mean it was really, really, actually Luciano and I got to be roommates for like a whole month.

[00:23:01] I went to go visit Luciano, staying with another good friend and, and a business partner, and another project David and I went. I would sometimes even stay over for a night or night or two and get away from the wife and kids a bit , and so I got locked in there, you know? Well, actually I think the story is my son wanted us to spend time with them maybe, and then he got locked in so I couldn’t get him out.

[00:23:26] So I went in and I got locked in with him. But we’re both locked in and then we can’t even order, you know, we’re in Shenzhen China and the factories in China, but we couldn’t even receive samples. Right. Even though we’re locked in, they didn’t even let us get deliveries from SF Express if people know what that is or, or couriers.

[00:23:43]There was just no way to get products in. So there was samples. This is like March, you know, So we started in January. We picked product, got the agreement, got the program started, got got something started. And you know, like, like Peter said, we had a, some head start, so we were trying to go as fast as possible.  We really wanna try to get 

[00:24:00] this going. I, we were trying to do like six, eight months to launch. Actually, I think we kind of made that actually. But, it was a little bit delayed with the samples cuz we didn’t wanna just do a standard. Of course it’s, there’s, you know, there is some similarities of on the market, but we, we wanna differentiate it some, but I think the hardest is, Luciano could talk about the packaging.

[00:24:20] You know, Luciano has spent so much time on this packaging, but I actually have one with me and you wanna share about the packaging? That was really Yeah. . So yeah, we, it’s, we went very deep on, on choosing the papers and stuff and sending samples. Initially we’re gonna work with the factory in, in Dongguan price a bit high. We’re very good, but price would be high. Yeah. They have this very, like, they have a, they have a, like a, a, they, they, we simulate leather. The paper 

[00:25:00] feels like leather. It’s very special. It’s a crocodile. It’s a crocodile finish. I have, I have very good experience on paper and stuff, so you really choose very like special paper for that. Then they send it to the factory in Yiwu, but nobody in, You can speak English

[00:25:23] a lot of back and forth, but at least, at least now I’m sure you know, we, we got everything sorted out with them and then we have the process, they have the paper and then it’s very easy to scale now, but just to set up the first ones and there’s so much, like I say something to them and they don’t understand the translation misspelling and they got something else.

[00:25:46] Anyways, it’s a challenge, but nothing, nothing, nothing new for someone who deals with China and so it’s cool. I have a lot of fun. Yeah, actually, Luciano says he likes to visit factories. I don’t know if I’ve ever met anybody else. Yeah, that says that. Love that. Some people. I do. I don’t like, like some people like hiking, some people like going with surf.

[00:26:10] Some people like, uh, do some activities on the weekend, go to park. I love going to the factories. I love, I love it. My favorite thing in the world. That’s crazy. You know, go to, I really like the playground because I love, I love seeing how things are built and I love building stuff and I, I forgot. I love it.

[00:26:30] There’s one more story really quick. We tried to go visit a factory together and I couldn’t, I mean, Luciano could go, but I couldn’t go because of my, I didn’t have a 24-hour negative COVID test results, so I couldn’t enter that, that city or that district. So we’re literally in the factory’s car, van, you know, like factories have vans.

[00:26:55] and they’re like, Oh, just show us your QR codes. And while they’re driving and I’m like showing ’em my qr. And then, you know, there’s like talking back and forth and then there’s phone calls and we don’t know what’s going on . And then they’re like, he can’t go. I’m like, Can’t. Yeah, I can’t go. And then they’re like, You can wait in, you can wait out here and then we’ll drive.

[00:27:20] We’ll drive him in. And I’m like, What? You know, it’s this factory area. I’m like, Am I gonna go sit in some kinda like fast food Chinese restaurant on the side of a highway? You know, we’re like half a day. So I was like, I guess I could do that. But Luciano was like, No, no. Like I’m not gonna leave you here.

[00:27:37] Like I know. No. Yeah man, it didn’t work. We went back together and then we went Another opportunity. Yeah. Then we went to the now, now we work with a few factories. And then we have a built, established relationship with them. And then we have this ladder factory that we work with, like this products that they’re selling now.

[00:27:57] Most of them we did with these two, three factories. Yeah. And the, the future product line’s gonna be like, we, we, we already started out with them and building new samples and now it’s quite smooth. But yeah, build the first, first step is a bit difficult, but now it’s, it’s okay. That sounds really great.

[00:28:21] There’s a lot happening and again, we are so happy that it’s, it has been doing a lot of progress and you love, uh, working with factories and even just sight seeing on a factories and seeing how things work. Well, I think I can relate . All right, well of course I wanna tap in with Francis, just the shipping process.

[00:28:41] And how are you feeling at this point when it comes to the shipping process? The shipping process. I’m not too sure how it’s done. Yeah. Peter asked me where I want to ship the things to the US, by ship or by air, and I compared the prices and the timing. I mean, there wasn’t a great difference in the timing and its 30 days, but, but shipping by air would be a lot more expensive.

[00:29:09] So I decided to ship by by sea so that was the only consideration I, I had to make. Yeah, that was all. But I don’t, I’m not, I’m not quite sure about, you know, how they, Sorry, sorry, Francis. Continue. I just wanna say that. Yeah, Peter, you know more about the process, I think than me. So, yeah, but the team laid out the different options, right?

[00:29:35] Yeah. By, by, by air, by by sea or combined or parts like this and parts like that. But I think given that the production process have been taking a little bit longer time than we, we expected due to the, the back and forth with the covid restrictions, et cetera, I think there was no, we didn’t feel any rush, Francis, right?

[00:29:55] Yeah. Why should we spend money that’s right on top of everything now. I thought I could wait 30 days. Exactly. So we went with the most solid and more formal way of shipping everything by sea. And that’s right. Once it arrived to the US the check in process to Amazon was smooth. Of course, um, being a new account, there was restrictions on how much we could ship in at the first delivery.

[00:30:22] True. Good point. So we, we did some adjustments to that. So we are right now has stocked in Amazon and also in the 3PL so that we can drop ship products when, when we see it. Yep. Yeah, there was a discussion too of, it’s always tempting some people think, you know, send some by air, some by sea to, to try to launch faster.

[00:30:46] But we were, I think when we were all discussing it, we were concerned how much to send by air and it will still cost a lot. And then there’s, I think it would be very annoying if, if we sold out of the air shipment before the sea got in and then you’re kind of outta stock and then you gotta get back on stock.

[00:31:02] So I think, yeah, we all kind of agreed to just wait a little bit extra time for the sea to save the money and then just, you know, launch altogether rather than kind of splitting air and sea. Yeah, if there’s a lot of deliberation. Yeah. Mm-hmm. . Yeah. You were saying Francis, I thought I thought the same way as Mike.

[00:31:22] Yeah. I mean, I could wait 30 days. I mean, I mean, no. Great. Very, Yeah, let’s, let’s get the products in all in one go. Yeah, I agree. I agree. And of course, having to say that, well, there’s a lot of deliberation happening if we wanna ship it by air or sea, Well, there’s a lot happening and we wanna make sure that we are just giving the outputs and making sure that we’re shipping the products at its best site.

[00:31:46] And of course, we wanna tap in more with the launch process. Of course, Peter is the expert here who really worked with Francis on this process. And of course, since Peter is here, we’re so lucky to have his contribution. How did the process go? Well, launching products today is slightly different than it used to be.

[00:32:10] We, we decided to go, especially heavy on targeted PPC campaigns. We, we set aside a special budget that we could use up for the honeymoon period and a little bit afterwards so that we can enjoy the, the algorithm testing of the product. Once it arrived into stock, the listing itself was soft, fully optimized.

[00:32:33] It’s, I mean, it is, it was, it is, and it was only optimized so that we had to get it decided which five top keyword. We should be very, uh, keen on telling Amazon’s algorithm that this is the keywords that we wanna be, be recognized for. So we, we. Like I said, we set aside the budget. We went heavy on ppc.

[00:33:01] We did a little giveaways, if any, I would say. But the product itself, once it arrived to the initial buyers, it has convinced a lot of first time receivers that, I mean up on perception of the product that they really wanna tell the world about how they have received this product. So, as you could, I don’t, I don’t know if anybody has seen the full product yet, but if you haven’t, then you will see a little bit later.

[00:33:33] If you, as a buyer spend, pay this premium price and you receive this product, first of all, the chances that you would leave a negative review are slim. If not, if, if not, zero. Secondly you feel proud that you have received this product, that you have spent this money, you feel proud, you selected this product so you feel extra keen on leaving a review.

[00:33:55] So immediately we got some initial reviews, which has helped the rest of the launch. So like Francis told, told us beginning sales is coming every day and it’s good sales. And you know, once we get into the wheel and it starts spinning, it’s hard to stop. So we are seeing an increased sales now on a, on a daily basis.

[00:34:18] We are so happy to hear that the sales is going good now as of the moment with you, and again, we are so happy that this has been happening, there’s a lot of progress and development at this point. And of course I wanna tap in now with Luciano. I know that you’re so happy to hear this. And how are you feeling on the business model process now?

[00:34:39] Well, I think there is a lot. The business, like there’s, we, we, we aim to launch more products, right? Uh, much more products and, and improve the, the marketing and, and write more articles, social media. We’ve been doing this a lot lately and grow the brand and we are, we are like about to, to receive some samples now that we’ll be working.

[00:35:09] and yeah. That’s, That’s very exciting, . I know, I know. I know it is. And I think when I get super excited as well. Yeah. And of course when it comes to the process as well, of course, when it comes to the sales that has been happening now, what can you say, What are your thoughts now, Francis? Anything that you wanna say about the the sales now?

[00:35:32] I think this has been going good. Yes, It has been going good indeed. Yes. They coming in every day. Yeah. I don’t know what else to say. I mean, except I think. I think, you know, Meir’s not here unfortunately. And, but I mean, he, he wants to point out that I think it was a thousand dollars in the first month in, in revenue, which is a pretty big milestone.

[00:35:53] And, you know, I, I think we’re, we’re writing up that, that case, you know, so within the first month and, and it’s only like, basically, I think it’s maybe two and a half months now, maybe three that’s been even live. And you know, I think sales were like almost 2K Last month or 1700, and then there’s steadily peak and we’re just entering Q4 now.

[00:36:15] So I think it’s a great Christmas gift. Right. It’s a great, like Peter mentioned, it’s a premium product with premium branding and packaging that’s perfect for gifting when you’re comparing this from maybe others in the market. And it’s also premium price, It’s, it’s, it’s much higher than the, the, the market price.

[00:36:31] You know, Meir, Meir’s also strategically told us that to go really high, you know, it’s scary to go high on price. It is, you know, you’re tempted to just go low. Especially launching, especially, especially, you know, you just want to get going. Right. But what we, we, we, we all stuck to it. I think there’s maybe a small coupon, but I think mostly it’s been at that, at price point and, and it’s scary, especially with established players in the market with reviews and, and, and, and velocity.

[00:36:59] It’s still, it’s still, you know, at least one or two sales a day at a higher price point. Yeah. It’s more than that. I mean, I think we are looking at the doubling on the monthly basis now. Like I said, there was a thousand there, there was then 2000. Now we are reaching 4,000 this month as it looks. And then we have November, which you know, there’s Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and other holiday activities and then Christmas.

[00:37:26] So it looks, it, it feels like. In hindsight, having been waiting for the product to come in and now shut the time we did was a perfect timing. And I would also like to add into the launching process. This wasn’t just to do with having the product in and go heavy on PPC, PPC and those five keywords talking this also a lot around this from a branding perspective, right?

[00:37:52] The website was there, there was social media activities. There’s been an outreach in the community. So I think all that combined helped a lot to get the attention. And you know, every signal you send to Amazon internal signal or anything that it snaps outside of their, their, their own little circle that helps and I think all together has helped the launch very well.

[00:38:17] So super excited to continue and see more products in this, in this range within Excalibur Brothers. And I think we’ll discuss that, uh, a little bit later on. We are keen on on having more products. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Absolutely. And we are so happy to hear that from you. Not only when it comes to the launching process there, there’s a lot of factors that really adds up for its success for its launching and for the sales going good as well.

[00:38:47] And of course at this point, again, the future of adding more products potentially. And again, we are already discussing with Peter and Francis, everyone on the second product under the brand and program. So it is great to see it grow together and that is what the program is all about, aligning the interest of the brand and the sellers and of course program like GFA has here, which we call the Blimp method. Again, what, what is the future?

[00:39:20] Just wanna tap in with Peter, What is the future potentially adding more products on this part. Well, we are discussing with Mike and his team and Francis, which products we, we think us, that we feel comfortable with. I mean, there are, Luciano mentioned a range of different products within the umbrella, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that we feel that this fits as a sidekick of the, our main product is really already launch.

[00:39:49] So we’re discussing different options and I think we kind of narrowed it down to, to one specific product. Cool. And if, if think work out well then I think in q1 this is something. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:40:09] not too much. Yeah, I agree. I completely agree with you. Well there are, we, we discussed about three different products from the whole range available. Mm-hmm. and I think Mike is giving us a little bit of a head start because we have been working together already and, and drove into cooperation. so Wow. We can decide then.

[00:40:33] We can do, Yeah. Great. Exciting, exciting. It’s super exciting. I think a lot of your buyers already will love to see and receive more products moving forward. Your new plans and everything. Well, they’re so excited. I believe so. With the potential new products that you’ll be launching as well, and of course any points you wanna make as well Luciano.

[00:40:55] Well, as, as Peter said, we, we have, we are building like an umbrella of products, right? We have like a, a big range of, of different products and it’s one of the things that we think is really important when we, we are building this product selection is making every single product that we put under the brand

[00:41:16] very cohesive and very consistent with one another because when you see them as a family, you gonna to have a glance on the product, the packaging, and all the family. You see, this is Excalibur brothers brand product and the more products we launch and the more sales we have, the stronger the brand become and all, and all the sellers together on under the program will benefit from this success of the other sellers.

[00:41:45] So it’s really good to have a big team of people working together in, because we actually, if we, everybody wins together and everybody helps each other, it’s really exciting to. Hmm. Agree. Agree. Of course. It’s always the collaborative work that works best when it comes to of course, selling and of course just working together.

[00:42:12] Just give out the best output. And of course for Mike. And I think the community element, you like this the best, I think this is the best part for you. Can you share more about that? Yeah. Again, you know, I really appreciate Meir a lot. He’s been on a show court a few times in in our podcast, so you can check out some of his previous episodes since he’s not here with us now.

[00:42:32] But he always said to me, he’s like, Mike, this is cuz he knows I love the community stuff, right? Like the Global From Asia podcast, the Cross Border Summit, the masterminds. But he says you don’t have like a business model. Right. Like yeah, you have like Peter supports being a member and being in a community and others, but there’s no business model that that keeps everybody together through business make making business.

[00:42:56] So he says, Cuz he’s the one I thought of this model. Right. I, I always appreciate credit him for that. But he, he came to me to, to, to do this, to do this, and he says, You know, I don’t have to bring people together. I love to do events like we do Mastermind for the Blimp method, you know, up here. And Francis, we have also seen Bob and Jorge and just a small group for now, and our, our first cohort.

[00:43:19] But like, like Luciano says, we’re all helping each other. Bob says he’d love to help do more cross promotions with his product and other products in, in the, in the, in in the cohort. I’m still working out how to best do that. Maybe Peter can gimme some ideas, but, you know, cross promotions and things like that.

[00:43:37] But, you know, the, the idea is we all went together and of course some people might be thinking why, why couldn’t have Francis launched his own brand? Of course you could launch your own brand, you know, we encourage you or others to do that. But I think, you know, we didn’t get into details with Luciano on building this brand, but it was quite a significant amount of time and also skill.

[00:43:57] To do that. And, a lot of people don’t want to, don’t want to or don’t know how to, or don’t, you know, so they could join this type of a system to take that product and, and skip all that time of the branding and, and, and launch a product. And, and, and then also the idea of the, actually the word blimp. It means Brand Licensing Improved – BL IMP.

[00:44:22] Right. And I thought of that and I was thinking of blimp, so like, as Luciano says, as more join, it gets bigger. Right? And it almost is like Amazon, a jungle, right? Amazon’s about the jungle. So it is more in this jungle, but this is as more in this blimp it, we all grow together, right? All, all of the people in this, in this system will grow.

[00:44:43] So, you know, I, I even, you know, even Meir understand we could do a program event just for Excalibur Brothers, right? And all the franchisees can come together. And actually we have to develop that a little bit more maybe with Luciano. But they, our knights, like Peter and Francis are knights of the round table by being a franchisee, right?

[00:45:05] And there’s so much to do, but the idea is, Just like McDonald’s invites the franchisees of all the different chains to come to their university, to come to their like events. I’m not a franchisee of McDonald’s, but the idea is the same here. We could have like an Excalibur Brothers gathering of franchisees and have like a nice dinner.

[00:45:27] I can imagine. Imagine like Luciano, right? Like having like a, a castle theme, right. You know, like, of course this is further down a road, but this is stuff I look forward to and hopefully everybody’s making really good, not just of course making money, but also making friends, right. And learning and growing together.

[00:45:488]That’s a good point, that’s a good point. I think also to the, to the, to answer the question, why couldn’t Francis do all of this by himself? Right? I mean, we are all good at different things, right? I think together, combined, we can all benefit with what, what we are best at. Yep. So I think this would, the project, if Francis would pull this himself, yes, it could be realized, but would take much longer.

[00:46:14] I’m sure because here we have so many heads working together and then doing their part. So it’s a joint effort and it’s actually, how fun is it to do everything by yourself? Exactly. Seriously. I’m not here only to make money, I’m here to have fun. Exactly. It’s part of it. Yep. And then, you know, just to add, just to add to that, and we say this in our, in our webinars, but you know, Francis, of course, actually, even others, Jorge in the program, maybe he’s considering opening his own brand and he can, he, hopefully he still sells these listings, right?

[00:46:48] And enjoys this cash flow. I don’t think the, but the people in his program have gone through this process, have, have, have built up their experience and there’s nothing stopping them. Of course, we hope you definitely don’t try to compete with us, but in a, in a noncompeting category, it’s, no, it is. No, you know, No, no problem.

[00:47:07] Or you can add more products, right? You’re talking about adding more products on our brand. Of course, we’ll give you a preferential treatment and, and, and because you’re already in the program and, and, and already have the license, the general license with the brand. So, there’s lots that we can do together.

[00:47:21] And, uh, that, that’s my favorite part cuz honestly, a lot of people know I work hard, on all this community stuff like this podcast is free. Yeah. We have some sponsors. Yeah, we have some members, but, you know, I think this is a more sustainable way to, to support the, the content and community. Absolutely. Of course.

[00:47:41] We are so excited with the coming, launching of new products. There’s a lot coming in and we want everyone to also just support the brand of Peter and of course potentially if we will be having our brand for of Francis. And we are super excited for you, for your business ventures as well. And also for Peter, how can people connect with you?

[00:48:05] You can visit my website, frostlimited.com. Contact me there by phone, WhatsApp, email, anyway you want, or if you pass by the Canary Island, same south of Europe. Nice . All right. Of course everyone, just keep supporting the brand of Peter and we are so happy to have you here again in our podcast, also for Francis and Luciano, giving you more inputs in this podcast.

[00:48:34] We are super happy that we are moving forward and getting better and developing a lot for 2023, of course. And again, thank you so much everyone for coming on the show and sharing this with us today. And let’s rock the fourth quarter and grow to new Heights in 2023. Again, this is Faith your co-host for the Blimp method in here with Mike, and we are so excited to see you moving forward 2023.

[00:49:01] Again, we are super excited to see you again in our next episode. Thank you so much everyone. Right, And we look forward to seeing you again, Byebye for now. Thanks everybody. Thank you. Thanks. Bye. Are you looking for a cross-border logistics company from Asia to the east and the west, then look no further Cross Better Logistics is a solution for you.

[00:49:23] From ocean shipping to air freight, from factory to 3PL warehouse, Amazon, FBA, and Walmart. Cross Better Logistics is an experienced service provider for ecommerce sellers and B2B traders on TPS trade as a GFA partner level sponsor. Let them know we sent you and they’ll take care of you. Check them out at www.crossbetter.com today.

[00:49:52] Right. All right. It was a wonderful yet informative episode having to hear that from Francis, from Peter with Luciano’s help. I think the branding and the product launch is going up, up and away, but then we were so excited. Yeah. Having to see the progress on this brand. What can you say about the podcast you, that we have done with them.

[00:50:15] You got me thinking up, up and away when you said that it’s, it’s like the blimp, The idea of the blimp. Yeah. . Yeah. Like that was the idea of the name of the program is we’re, we’re in, we’re inflating this big balloon to, to launch and it takes a lot, it takes a lot of people. Like you could see five of us on the, on the show in different, different specialties, different backgrounds, different resources, and I don’t wanna say

[00:50:40] It’s not, it’s difficult, but it’s definitely not as easy as it used to be. I think anybody would say Amazon and e-commerce has gotten a little bit more advanced. You have to have more branding, more, more preparations with your launch process and, and patience and it’s logistics, navigating. So it’s, it’s quite a lot of things.

[00:50:58] But yeah, it’s, it’s, you know, it’s just a pleasure. You know, I think actually Luciano, after the recording was so happy. Well, he likes, he was really impressed with you, Faith, your energy. But he, he was also saying how it felt great to just see Francis and Peter’s, you know, success and, you know, we didn’t, we didn’t tell them what to say.

[00:51:18] We didn’t force them to say something like, So, you know, I always just felt good that he’s happy and that that’s what we’re really trying to do is make a a, a step by step process for people to get started on the Amazon right away with a product. So I agree. Yeah, I totally agree. And Luciano was really helping when it comes to the production selection, product production selection, when it comes to the process and many, many more.

[00:51:44] And I think, you know, that’s pretty true. Think we were just so happy Francis and Peter were just saying the things that happened to them being in the Blimp program. Yeah. And you know, oh, we have a good news for everyone as well, for the listeners, for our viewers. We have another person signing up. Yeah.

[00:52:04] David, for the Blimp program. What were you saying again? Sorry, David. David, Yeah. We, we work together in other projects and he’s, you know, actually I think I said in an interview, I can’t remember, but I’ll be honest Faith. I, I’m not good at promoting. I don’t, I’m not like a good pusher, you know, I’m, I gotta get, I gotta get more pushy.

[00:52:24] But , what I’m saying is our current participants are adding more products like Francis is planning to do more. people are happy in a program. So David’s been seeing this and he, he’s seeing it, right? So he’s like, he wants to get in, He, we showed some of the products we’re developing, we’re developing a small group of products with Luciano right now to expand the, the product line.

[00:52:45] And he’s like, I want, I want, I can’t say it, I hate to say it, but I can’t say it publicly on a show cuz it’s, you know, it’s, as anybody knows, product research is difficult. So he’s like, I, I want that. So we’re like, You gotta lock this in now you gotta get in. So he’s going through the process of onboarding right now.

[00:53:02] So super exciting. Literally, like I just said, he messaged before the show asking about the next steps. Absolutely. I think with, when it comes to Peter and Francis. Since they were doing a lot of process, they were doing a lot of researches, a lot of strategizing, planning. Yeah. You know, and with the help of the blimp program, it makes it, but you know, there’s like a little bit of help.

[00:53:26] Yeah. Uh, that you are really making, honestly, not only little help, it’s a big help. Since that you were there really helping to analyze every single thing. And from that of course they were so happy, they were so glad to what’s happening with the progress, with the branding, Luciano is really helping a lot.

[00:53:45] Yeah. On that sense, you know, Luciano was taking care, a lot of the branding and everything. What can you say about Luciano’s help? Yeah. When it comes to their brand? He’s a, yeah, he’s, he’s a gifted, more than branding. I think. He’s a, he’s a real artist. I went to his art gallery, Maybe we could put it on the show notes before I left China.

[00:54:04] Sure. Yeah. He did a gal, a, a art gallery, live gallery party where his art was there with some other amazing artists. And you know, it was cocktails, like one of those, uh, you know, I’ve never really been to maybe one or two of those before, but, you know, it’s like, it’s like one of those fancy things where, you know, you have the champagne and the, the little champagne snacks and stuff and you’re looking at art and feeling fancy.

[00:54:26] So he’s an artist as well as a designer. And, and yeah, like you, you can tell when he works on something, it’s, it’s a whole complete, and with the newest products, he’s even more excited, honestly. He says, cuz now it’s all complementing each other and, and it’s creating a, a whole kind of group. And he, you know, there’s groups with the factory that we’re in and he’s just saying, This is, this is great and the samples are coming, so it’ll be q1, it’s not obviously too late for.

[00:54:56] Q4, but it’s Q1 and maybe some listeners can get in, you know, basically what I’ve noticed as I’m not selling like Lamborghinis, you know, and, and, and Million Dollar, you know, bullshit ads, but we’re selling Yeah, yeah. Good products. People, when they see the products and we, and they exclusive seller of that product, that’s when people get excited.

[00:55:17]So we’re trying to figure out the right way Faith. Maybe, maybe, maybe as first the Gfa v i p members can see, cuz we can’t just show it to everybody. So we, we do a lot of work. But also the, another thing, I don’t think we talk about a program. In the podcast cuz we didn’t get a chance to do it with with Francis.

[00:55:36] But for the other two, Jorge and Bob, we consolidated our shipment to send it together. So it was a little bit of savings of the money because if they did it separately, they would’ve paid more. So that’s another idea is we’re trying to even ship as a group so that you can save on your shipping costs if you bundle it together, right?

[00:55:55] And we’re doing a show after this one, it will be about cross better, one of our partners and sponsors, and we can help consolidate everyone and to ship together. So it’s really exciting. I agree, and I think that we were talking about it earlier. There’s a new product coming in. You surely wanna watch out for that.

[00:56:16] Guys, there’s a lot coming in here. Again, it’s already October here coming into November. Halloween. Yeah. And actually power puff now. Power Puff Girl costume. Did we talk about that? Yeah, I think I need to buy that. I need to buy one now. That fits now with me. Oh, nice, nice. We could put the photo, but yeah.

[00:56:40] Yeah. Put the photo on the show. Exactly. Cool. Exactly. And there’s a lot coming in for everyone. Only for Halloween like. And there’s a lot coming in. Please, do watch out for Peters brand, Francis’ brand again, it’s a big one. It’s a big, it’s a big revelation for everyone you can see with the new products as well that we are launching.

[00:57:01] Yeah. With David. Congratulations with David. There’s a lot coming in. Yeah. I mean with, I would love to have David with us as well. Yeah, I’m sure. In our future podcast. I think so. We got the other participants are happy. Jorge is doing more products, talking about more products. Bob’s talking about more products.

[00:57:19] We’ve only had a small group in a first batch and I, I hate to say, I don’t know if it’s good or bad to say, but we’ve, we’ve actually not accepted everybody that wanted to join, even though they, they had, you know, money to join. We, we didn’t accept everyone.But because, well, as much as anybody likes to get sales or, or money, we, we wanna make sure it’s the right fit for both parties.

[00:57:39] So we, we really need to get to know people. And why they’re joining and what’s their expectation and what’s their reason. So I think his, you know, I love exclusive, you know, we we’re at quality over quantity. So I think if people can just email, even even our Global from Asia blog, like blog@goalfromasia.com, like blimp, and let us know if you’re interested.

[00:57:57] And maybe, I think we both know Sally’s doing great things. She’s helping out. Yeah. I, she’s helping us in here. She’s helpful so our team could talk to you. Understand. I think it’s better than just trying to hype up like, you know, like countdown timers and, and buy now. I think it’s more of a, Consultative session where we get to know if you’re the right fit to, to join the blimp program.

[00:58:20] So maybe just, I think that’s maybe the best and then we can maybe hook you up with a, a little bit of a discount or see some similar products before you could have to commit basically to better offer. Absolutely. Well this is something that you want to consider very, very soon.ASAP, I think so because again, Blimp program just wants the best for you and we are here to help you.

[00:58:44] Again, this a crib there’s a lot. It’s a big team that we have here and we are so excited to cater you again. It’s always good to be a good fit as well, so we wanna make sure everything’s coming in. We are on the same page. And yeah, this is so exciting for everyone. If you want to inquire and would love to learn more of how to be in it, what’s the process, you know, how, how to do it or whatever.

[00:59:09] And there’s a lot of questions with everyone. Yeah, sure. Please do, you know we have my care That could really help with the blimp program. There’s a lot of questions as well. I think so, yeah. So blimpmethod.com people have been signing up on a waiting list and most likely to, uh, end of year like kind of webinar for blimp method.

[00:59:27] Like we did, we did in the past. And that might be a good way, Or course, or, or if you’re interested to sign up earlier, we, we could, we could, we could consult with you. So I think that’s a good way to, to wrap it up. Faith, what do you, what do you think? Everything’s good. I think. I think so too. And again, we look forward to seeing you more in our future podcast.

[00:59:46] Been really happy having more guests. Not only one, but two, three. And of course this is something for everyone to look forward to and make sure to be in our next podcast and everything’s going well and it’s coming in for everyone. A wonderful, wonderful, wonderful podcast. More coming in for 2023 as well.

[01:00:10]Yeah, we got great ones already recorded, right? Faith and I have been busy, been talking some great people. They’re, they’re in the, in the lineup so we got great shows coming up. So thanks everybody. Make sure to like, subscribe and uh, see you in the next show. Thanks so much everybody. Well see ya. Thank you so much.

[01:00:26] See ya then. To get more info about running an international business, please visit our website at www.globalfromasia.com. That’s www.globalfromasia.com. Also, be sure to subscribe to our iTunes feed. Thanks for tuning in.