Building a B2B Business Between China and Latin America with Mar Rodriguez

Today’s show we have Mar Rodriguez whom I met many years ago. She’s a YouTuber, Vlogger, Content Creator, B2B Trader – doing China and Latin America trade. In the show we have some interesting conversation – a little bit about the trade war as well as about trading between China and some of her experiences doing content marketing and having Chinese factories trying to get customers directly which is pretty crazy and some other interesting facts.

√ Mar’s From China With Love Youtube Channel
√ Mar’s VIP Experts page
√ Podcast w/ Esteban on GFA
√ Shenzhen University
√ Mike’s blog on BootUP weekend where he met Mar
√ Fruit shop PAGODA video – China is a TROPICAL fruits PARADISE !
√ (Spanish channel) MEXICANOS exportando AGUACATES a CHINA!!! ????????????????

Thank you Mar. I really am proud of you to see your hard work and your consistency.

When this show is going online, I will be in Hong Kong and China and I’m gonna go check out some venues for the 4th annual Cross Border Summit – October 22nd and 23rd. We are working hard to make it as valuable and action-packed and about making deals meeting amazing people from our show.

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gfa254

Episode 254 of Global from Asia – Asia or China to Mexico and Latin America.  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 Michelini. Hope everybody’s doing great this Tuesday when the show is online.

[00:00:25] I will be actually going into a bank meeting in Hong Kong. It’ll be quite some time since I have been in Hong Kong. I think maybe October 2018 about more than six months ago or so and meeting up with Ray Unipro doing some bank meeting and then getting a few people together for a little round table small little thing and

[00:00:50] Checking out this cross-border Summit venue options in Guangzhou on Wednesday the next day after the show goes live and then Thursday a little workshop in Shenzhen. I got another training session for a corporate company on Saturday and then back to heading back to Chiang Mai Thailand on Saturday for my son’s birthday.

[00:01:11] I don’t know if I should admit but I kind of took a corporate training project at the same day as my son’s birthday, but I will be back for dinner. Luckily China and Thailand aren’t too far away from each other.  Speaking of which, had conversations with some reporters obviously this hot topic of the US China trade War.

[00:01:35] It’s been everywhere and we’re all kind of wondering what to do. I’ve been, been looking at different options as well. I mean we buy quite a bit in China here as well as many of you probably selling online. I mean who can’t buy from China so it will definitely change the way things happen probably forever.

[00:01:55] You know, I think I would say into some of the reporters for an article I’m working on I think no matter what even to text go back down down. I think I’ve read this is some other groups no matter what the people aren’t going to trust the tariffs like conditions. I think people will be looking for other options looking for other sources.

[00:02:17] So I think Southeast Asia and other parts of Asia or maybe even in manufacturing in the US. Maybe it’ll actually happen. It’s pretty amazing to be honest and we are just pushing ahead here.  Today’s Show. Let’s get into the conversation –  today’s show, Mar Rodriguez. I met her so many years ago. I will talk about it in the interview, but she’s a YouTuber, vlogger, content creator, B2B trader, doing China and Latin America trade and we have some interesting conversation about a little bit about the trade war but also more about trading between China and some of her experiences doing content marketing and having Chinese factories

[00:03:02] Jumping on her her post to try to get customers directly which is pretty crazy and some other interesting facts. So without further Ado, let’s get into the interview and then afterwards I’ll do some blah blah blah a little bit but some of the experiences Latin America. Thank you to our sponsor GoRemit.HK.

[00:03:25] I am making payments with a lot of different countries they use. I’ve been a user.  I like to promote and I’m so happy they’ve sponsored the show as well because I use them. I am also talking about other countries. They are expanding and listening to their users, but your perfect solution for Hong Kong payments into mainland China, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam and other countries.

[00:03:50] Around the world. I’m actually talking to him right now about some other countries. They are very friendly and open to talk to their users which is why they’re awesome. And that’s what a start-up in tech company should do. Thank you for sponsoring. Check them out. www.go G-O R-E M-I- T.HK. All right.

[00:04:13] Thank you everybody for tuning into at Global from Asia podcast. This has been a show on my list for a long time. Mar Rodriguez – she’s, she’s been a friend of mine in Shenzhen for many, many years. Also a YouTuber, content creator, you know, trading businesswoman between Latin America and China and Asia.

[00:04:34] Thanks for coming onto the show today Mar. Yeah, thanks for inviting me. This is me a long time with. Finally, I’m here. Finally, yeah, it’s great. I remember we met I think it was 2010 or 11 at  like a startup, startup conference in Shenzhen and we kept in touch and you also came and supported and attended. Actually this one of your YouTube videos comes up in the search results for the cross-border summit. You did a review about it, and has always been supportive.

[00:05:06] So. Do you want.. yeah,  that was us up there. That’s what.  I remember actually in the startup, my team won. So I was very proud of it. Yes true. You guys did great. I remember. It was.  It was the early days when nobody in China even seem to know what a start-up or a co-working space or an entrepreneur was. I remember we were like explaining it to everybody at the event.

[00:05:27] So it’s crazy how things have changed. Cool. So do you want to maybe introduce? I’m actually a little bit curious and I don’t know the full story. How did you first get to China? And your, what’s your China story?  Okay. Sure. So first of all, I was previously living on Singapore because my father was working there as an expert for Motorola.

[00:05:54] And since that time I started liking you know the Eastern kind of culture, especially Chinese because in Singapore, there are so many Chinese people basically, sorry, in Singapore most of the majority of the population there are Chinese. So I started getting interested about like the Chinese culture and the Chinese language.

[00:06:17] And after my studies there which were high school studies. I just wanted to move to China and I just pursue my degree here. So I went to Shenzhen University and that time that we met back in the day I think it was 2010 or 11. It was in a start-up and it was just very nearby like Shenzhen University, was actually Nanshan.

[00:06:40] If you remember that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We were near the High Tech Park. Yeah. High Tech Park. Exactly, so I thought okay. Why I will not attend this event since I like, you know, this entrepreneurship thing. I always was interesting on it. So I went to this event and at that moment I was still a student over at Shenzhen University.

[00:07:03] So I just finished my degree and after I start little by little working here. Because I start uploading some videos like when I was in university about like, you know life in China or products. And people start asking me to sell them products. So I have a platform now, so I sell basically to… Most of my markets, like most of my clients,

[00:07:26] The main Market is Latin America. So yeah, that’s how I stay here. Exciting. Yeah, I remember asking you, you were, I remember when we first talked to her, you were… Like you said you were in University and you were also doing the trading B2B I,I don’t, I don’t want to be ignorant but I’m gonna ask just because maybe listeners also aren’t aware Latin America is, is like which, what counts as Latin America actually?

[00:07:55] Okay. So basically I’m talking about. Well, not just yeah, since I’m from Mexico. Just, I don’t know if you’ve mentioned this previously whether I’m from Mexico. I sorry I shouldn’t have asked you that. Yeah, so I’m from supposedly is North America, right? But Latin America, Latin also is like, as a race. So, I think Latin America must comprehend like Mexico and Central America as well as South America.

[00:08:24] So I just will call Latin America. Most of my clients are from Span – Spanish speaking countries in the American continent. I will say.  So, yeah. Nice. Yeah, I mean Latin America has been a popular topic, you know, in our, in our various content here at Global From Asia and the events. I mean, seems like it’s still a growing Market.

[00:08:48] I mean, it’s always been like a growth market and how would you say the market conditions are between, maybe China and Latin America? Now, now versus since you started or just, just some insights be interesting for sure. Yeah, sure. Okay. So, first when I started, there was a lot of interest from people. I mean, from basically a lot of people. Let’s say from countries like Peru or Chile, Bolivia.

[00:09:17] A lot of clients there do not speak English because you know, they don’t have like, the…. like I was in Mexico we have borders with the USA. So it’s quite common to speak English because we travel there or some American companies have come to Mexico or the slang, it’s even Mexican mixed with some… I mean, sorry, the Mexican slang can be like some Spanish with some English words together. But like in other countries, it’s not very common to speak English.

[00:09:47] And so they found me as a, how to say like, as a intermediaries to help them with their business. And, back in the day was there were, like there were so few companies doing it, but this has been developing so fast as you might know as well. And so many of you are listening to this podcast, for example, the platform like illegal by already translated in Spanish as well as in so many other languages and it’s super easy for clients directly to reach these big platforms and this week events like Canton fair in Spanish language and to contact even those platforms and they will have someone

[00:10:26] Running their uhm mother tongue answering whatever it is that they want to you know to know so it’s I will say in that regard of like competition-wise before it was kind of a cracking up market. And now it’s of course increasing in like companies doing the same thing like the trading thing and a lot of clients are just wanting to come directly.

[00:10:52] Like they just want to come directly and search for factories because now we have like the social media. I’ve seen a lot of companies, factories directly just posting their stuff on Instagram. Or, so many also Chinese suppliers will go directly to Facebook. I used to have a very popular Facebook page and whoever will write me a comment this Chinese supplier would just really

[00:11:16] Catch those people out. I’ll be like hey, I’m gonna spy her …. So yeah, it’s quite hard. You know, I guess…  That’s quite tricky. That’s not nice. I don’t think… Exactly, so it’s very uhm, tricky as you said, that’s the correct word like which platform to use best because you have all these comments and you want to increase your interactions right like on social media and that’s good for you, but also it can be incorrect.

[00:11:43] If you are making business because so many other Chinese players are following me. And since I have like let’s say thousands of people following me. I’m not very sure who is who and they will not post a comment. They just directly will be contacting with my other fans and I was… Yeah. I see..

[00:11:59] So it’s a big topic. Another thing is like, you know, so many Chinese business people are willing to search, outsource on goods from abroad especially Latin America. It’s a very good source of like natural, but it looks like nowadays. I have this friend from China. He’s opening a company of like natural goodies, and she’s importing from Bolivia, quinoa.

[00:12:23] Hmm. Yeah. I’ve heard of this. Yeah. It’s like a seed. Yeah, it’s a very like nutritious kind of green color, green, like, like rice meal pop up when you cook it. So she just directly went uhm, she’s from Beijing. She opened her company in Beijing and she went directly to Bolivia to get her, like, supplier, and now went also to Colombia to get coffee and also wants to go to Peru to get the other stuff so I think this is the business that is going to be.

[00:12:57] Seeing on the future to come as well as now in the present you can see that Chinese are willing to pay the price for really good stuff abroad and those could be some products. Sure, I mean just some ideas. I think we talked about in a show mean building building a brand to think is also important and maybe some ideas is for listeners or for, for, for people doing social media, is maybe trying you know… B2B is good, is good because you get bigger, bigger orders up front.

[00:13:29] But sometimes like you said, they might want just price. Just care about the price or they might not want the, the service or care about the services much maybe. But, maybe, maybe promoting branded products could be an idea to… is… I’m not sure how… Yeah. So basically if I can tell more about my background is like I start doing this YouTube channel.

[00:13:56] So welcome you all if you want to follow me I have a channel in English, which is called From China With Love. Yeah, I’ve always talked in my Channel more of my troubles as well as my recommendations because I am eating plant-based here as he knows and perhaps many of you. Yeah, I have this other channel, which is like the Spanish channel of mine, there is MarCariB, are also welcome to both.

[00:14:18] So in the channel, I’ll mostly promote the products and also business models, which I think is very interesting here. Because, I found out that they have a lot of creativity to, you know, create different kind of models compared to Mexico or perhaps elsewhere, right, as well as just some trends in China.

[00:14:38] So that’s how we simply I just have a fan base and then I just lead them to my big platform where I am selling like wholesale to business like business and also individuals like just entrepreneurs who are starting, right, and they don’t have such a company but also have the quantity, start. So yeah, that’s how we do it.

[00:15:00] And, if you’re talking brand wise I’ll say like I have. I’m branding myself because I’m just kind of offering my services, as well as my know-how and my experience. So if you type like in the Google marketing, you will find all my information about, like, my videos and so many other related things, like my website.

[00:15:20] I have a Blog, etc. Sure, so I’ll link it on the show notes for sure. That’s in Spanish. But in Mexico, I’m quite, I’m quite well known for this. So I think I will say brand wise I’m running my own self. Great. Myself. Yeah, personal brand is definitely valuable. I mean, I guess maybe here, I guess, I, I have, I have, I guess Global From Asia is just, I mean it’s a name of show, but of course it’s very connected to me as individual.

[00:15:48] So I think I think we’re similar.  We have similar positions. But, yeah, personal brand is, is very valuable long-term. And, people know and trust you and they want to do business with you. And they, even if somebody were to, like you said, the Chinese supplier to contact them directly, they probably would… many of your good fans would prefer to do business with you or buy your products, your brand.

[00:16:12] So, so it’s, it’s definitely I think, the best, best model for sure and… Yeah, I also think on the long run, right, like because you can keep changing the business model of like, let’s say now this is not working. But, I’m still Michael Michelini still Michelini.  So, tomorrow, I’m gonna just do, be model and I have, I still have my fan base.

[00:16:31] So, yeah. Got it. Yeah, I mean it’s, yeah audience. I guess they called building an audience is, it’s most work, but it’s probably the most valuable thing as long as, you know, you take good care of that audience. And of course you got a balance, you know, selling and making, making income and also educating and providing for, for your audience.

[00:16:53] But I think it also connects to a, to a brand, right. I mean a brand is, there’s always a group of people and audience is a trust, trusted place. People go for a certain type of product or service. So yeah, I agree. It’s, it’s the best, long-term and… and.  But, I think you know, yeah. I’ve seen your English videos which we’ll also link, you know, your travels in China and here. You’re great.

[00:17:20] You have your camera. Sometimes you have like the, how do I say, the hidden camera? You’re like, I’ve seen some where you’re like, these couple behind me is doing some, probably are fighting behind me or you know, you have your… you’re really giving us the insights, a lot of different things and life and culture in China.

[00:17:38] So yeah, another thing which I would like to sum up here is, like because of my channel, like they saw that I was just uh showing China. I got to receive some opportunities, as well, to travel to other places are, like the, you know, like bring bars, like the whole trip because they just wanted me to take the videos.

[00:17:59] For showing people because they want to promote more tourism in China. So I thought that it was a very good, interesting opportunity, which I wasn’t really aware of before and, yeah. Yeah. I also think it’s a great chance to open like the markets of Tourism. Not just like, you know, people know about Beijing, Shanghai or Guangzhou.  But, recently…

[00:18:20] I went to Guizhou or other places which are very unknown to foreigners. And, I think… and new chances are coming as well in China. Yeah. I mean, I think that’s an interesting point to talk about. I think, I guess they call it first tier and second tier, third tier cities. So I kind of agree I think going deeper into China is probably the bigger, the better opportunity now, right?

[00:18:45] I mean, I think the first tier is kind of almost too many foreigners or too much like, you know, maybe. Maybe now is the opportunity. Like you said you get these opportunities to expose people to these small. I don’t want to say, smaller. I can’t, sure, how… there’s still millions of people, population multi-millions.

[00:19:04] But yeah, they’re small compared to the first tier cities. But it’s… there’s definitely a lot of cool stuff happening there. And, and is that… I mean, how do you… yeah, I mean, how do you feel, I guess as of recording, oh right now there’s this huge Donald Trump stuff. I don’t know. I don’t know if, I don’t need to get political but it’s obviously connected to business.

[00:19:29] I don’t. Does this hurt or help Latin America and China? I’ve heard, I think it’s going. Yeah, we will see it coming..everybody will see. I’m not very sure how it will be affecting right now. Especially, I mean myself in particular. But I’ve seen like, all my suppliers posting the news about that, just a few days ago on the Wechat allowing the raise on Tariff.

[00:19:53] So definitely perhaps on some products will be somehow, not just meant but I’m not sure overall like what it’s exactly going to be like, the result. Mmm, because I have a lot of clients that, I would like to add as well, like a lot of my clients would start from Latin America in general like Spanish speaking people from Central South or perhaps North America Mexico.

[00:20:15] They are living actually in the USA and that are important inputs to there. So yeah. Yeah, I think. I’ve heard other all I’ve heard of some actually many positives. It might be for Latin America. I mean, I think China is from what I understand been investing a lot over the years in South America or Latin America with, I guess globally they’re buying everywhere.

[00:20:38] But you know, I think that there’s a lot of natural resources like you had mentioned in the interview today. There’s, there, China’s obviously consuming a lot so they’ve been buying a lot and yeah. You can see for example Avocado has been popping. Like wow, maybe like milkshake of avocado. Yeah, it’s just very recent. Like back in the day when we met I didn’t see that much of avocado around but now you go to a … and avocado is a thing.

[00:21:06] Yeah. Yeah. Those are great. I love, I love it and I just think, I think it might be a positive. Actually some people think you could even maybe get around the US trade problem by sending to, what is that word? Macador? It’s where you send to Mexico or another country from China and assemble it in Mexico and then send it into America. And there’s like tax, tax advantages of doing something like that.

[00:21:35] I’ve… Yeah. Macadoria. I forget the name is the Spanish word, but it’s like a term. Maybe they’ll also be… I’ve heard, that might be an opportunity actually for tariffs to go up. You might send to, your goods, to Latin America and then kind of assemble it there. Or, or do other kind of things before it goes into the United States. Things like that might start popping up, but it seems like nobody really knows.

[00:22:02] Yeah.  As well as, you know, like the cost of like, production. This is like, it’s all over the Internet, like it’s not as before. So perhaps people is thinking like, oh China is super cheap.  But it’s not, it’s not to be what it is like. So even us, many of our friends have been leaving China because of this very reason. I’m in the production. Cost here are increasing and they are just in focusing more on, like the National Market who has the power, the capital to purchase, right?

[00:22:34] Exactly. Yes, very interesting times. And, and I guess it is good content for your, your channel and this, in here and… It’s, I’m watching, I’ve been watching it closely. But yeah, as we just were talking now. It’s just the middle of May and the news, we don’t actually know what’s gonna happen with the US China. But, I think that I kind of agree with what I’ve read, is it’s definitely good. No matter what happens people are not going to feel as comfortable.

[00:23:05] It’s always in the, now. This is, this is going to because people thought that this stuff was over and it just kind of popped up again. Like, I’ve… people thought it was. It’s not as big of a problem, but I think it’s going to always affect now. Like people thought of buying from Chinese factories, now, is like there’s risk with the taxes.

[00:23:26] So yeah exactly before it was like going you don’t give it a cut. But now, since this is happening, what about tomorrow? They launched this other long tariffs than you are on a bit like on a trouble if you already have your, you know, your supplier, line assembly and everything. So somehow it will affect shortly.

[00:23:47] Yeah, and I’m just thinking here. I get. I hope, well, I hope it is. I hope it helps your business or everybody’s. Hopefully, hopefully I guess you gotta try to think of the… I guess that’s what business is about. It’s trying to, trying to do your best to predict the future. And no matter what, building a brand or building your, you know. You’re doing great with your, your content.

[00:24:07] I know how much work it is as you know, I. I just like to actually, mostly focus on audio like this show. But especially, yeah, video is especially hard. I mean the editing, you know, to make, you know. I see here you also have, I feel like it’s a Spanish style where you have the kind of the more cartoony style editing.

[00:24:31] It’s kind of cool.  And yeah, we will and so, well. What would you recommend listeners, you know. Today with, with these opportunities, or these challenges in Latin America, US, you know, China, you know. To, like you said, factories maybe trying to go direct and yeah, what are your thoughts?  So, since you know that I am,

[00:25:01] Well, I consider myself a plant-based or you’ll say vegan person and I am always on the look of like natural stuff, yeah. I’ve seen this industry is growing, very fastly in the recent years. So if you are someone that has somehow a contact or if you are a producer abroad, of these kind of products which might be of interest to China.

[00:25:24] I just mentioned few examples, but of course, there are so many more. I think there’s, there’s a good chance of doing trade with them instead of just the old model of like, you know buying cheap stuff from China and reselling them on your countries. Because nowadays, it’s quite hard.  Like four years ago when I first opened my business, or five years ago, we had like.

[00:25:46] Well say 8 times the quantities of now. But now Chinese arrived there and they position themselves. And they kill the market with their prices, and with them so many business around. And, I think it’s happening like global-wide, like everywhere. I’ve seen so many of my friends, like, they were Turkish or Arabic.  No, Arabic not so much. But like Turkish, what they also have embraced, the competition of the Chinese themselves going abroad and establishing themselves in other countries.

[00:26:15] And just killing the price. So this business is no longer as it was before. I’m not going to say like in all the industries. But I’m saying, like for example, I was doing gadgets. We will say for good prices, but now the, the income is not as high as before because of the competition. So I think where you can really earn some profit, is like, selling to China or, selling some natural now. They like the, the word, organic.

[00:26:43] It’s getting very popular. And, with the certificate and everything, there’s a good chance. Actually I’ve seen that I think, in this week, is going to be, like the first exposition ever of vegans is happening in China, you know, in Hangzhou. Yeah. So many, many foreign companies are coming here to expose their fellows for Chinese market to, you know, start buying their franchises or their brand names, etc.

[00:27:10] So… It’s nice. I think this Market is good for the long-term run. It’s really, it’s really great. And is that something you… Can people? I think, I mean everyone wants to sell to China, but it’s not as, it’s not as easy as buying from a Chinese Factory and selling in your home country. Yeah, that’s right.

[00:27:33] You know, I think they need somebody. I mean, is that something you could help with? I mean if there’s a listener that has like an organic product that, that they think would be good for China. Is it, is there, or if you don’t, what would you tell them to do – especially if there are not. A lot of listeners aren’t, aren’t in China, you know, or don’t speak Chinese.  You, you actually, another thing I want to say is you, you spoke, you were…

[00:27:56] You studied Chinese. You speak really well. And, and, other things, I mean that stuff. That’s really hard for somebody listening in the US or, you know, Europe or wherever they are today to get into. Is that something either you can help, or what was, what would you tell them? To go to this Expo? I guess expos are good.

[00:28:43] So I guess in these two cases first get to know more about what is that you need to sell to China and second, yeah, I think one, one, option will be to come to an expo. I also saw this one happened last year I went to Hong Kong. Last year, I was in Hong Kong not in Mainland. But the one I told you, just in Hangzhou, is going to be on the way.

[00:29:06] This one in Hong Kong, last year was also about somehow, natural. A lot of Peruvians came here selling, you know, and they said they say wow. This Market is really popping and it was so worthwhile for them to come here because there are so many, you know, Chinese mainlanders that are willing to go to Hong Kong to these expos to get like, you know, the good deals because they know that they can get direct. They can get direct prices from the suppliers,

[00:29:32] the producers right back in Peru. So these venues are great option for you to, to expose yourself to come and give some samples. I went there and like, it was really impressing. Like how big this Market is growing. I’m talking

[00:29:58] about this market, I’m sorry, because I’m into this. This is the only chance.  But I’m very into this thing.  You know, that’s why I’m speaking from my experience.  Well, of course, there are so many other folks. I might guess right. Well, it’s good to share your end and your experience, your knowledge, your insights. And I would, I would, I would agree. I mean I think Chinese are investing in health and nutrition and it’s something that is important.

[00:30:21] And I think the other advantage of… They trust foreigners right like they do trust the expertise of foreigners. Yeah, that’s very weird. It’s just like, what to say, you know, this, this model go my? How to call it, Michael? What is it? My Go-? What is it? The one person that travels abroad? Yeah. Yeah.  It’s true.

[00:30:49] Di-go? Di-go. Yeah. Okay. So this concept, it was created, because of their trust on what you were talking about. Like, they trust foreign Brands more than they trust their, their own, right, you know. So, they are willing to pay the price as well. So that’s why this concept was created like there’s this one person who is

[00:31:10] normal, no, just a normal individual, with a company. Just take, like two cases and go to Australia or Korea, takes like really good quality product. Some organic, some skincare, whatever for the baby. And, people here is going to pay the price. Even though you don’t know that person but he’s selling, I’m just like, okay give me this.

[00:31:30] So that is just a low scale example of how this Market is willing to pay the price for those goods, you know. Agreed. I mean, I think we’ve mentioned on the show and I’m sure you’ve talked or shared on your channels. Like I think anywhere, business for specially in China, you have to always add value or you’ll get cut out, you know, so I think by you being.

[00:31:52] Like, you said, certifications, experience, knowledge in this product from your home country and, and willing to educate the market in China. How to use the product, why it’s good, why they should buy your brand or your product versus somebody else’s, and, and – it’s good. Might as, come out, come out to China go to one of these trade shows like these natural product.

[00:32:20] I think that’s always a good way to get into the market and learn.  Head to an industry event. Whether it’s in China or anywhere in the world really, is you’ll see people in the industry, see what kind of products are out there. I think that’s definitely an effective way. Yeah, for example, there is this I don’t know if you have ever seen this job, which is called like pagoda?

[00:32:42] Don’t think so.  But I’m not in the industry so much. Yeah.  Go ahead and I think, okay. So, there’s this shop in China called Pagoda by Go Yen and it’s like super big. It’s like I think, house, like a lot of thousands of shops all over China. Just in Shenzhen, like 5,000 or so and it just had open like a few years ago, maybe five or six years ago.

[00:33:10] I think it was some 2010 when it was created and then little by little with one shop on the second or two shops. Just by hundreds and now, thousands. There’s even an IPO right now on the stock market in the USA. Yeah, it’s great. So once I was doing this video for my Spanish Channel, just anyone out there who’s speaking Spanish.

[00:33:29] I like to go and watch as well as I have. I have the link perhaps these videos come with link. You send it to me. I have the, oh you do. Okay perfect. Yeah. I have also the English one. So the thing is, like how this shop because it sells that much fruit like all over China every day 7 days a week and it’s open from like very early morning to very late.

[00:33:53] It got. It. They just go directly to the supplier. Like they have, you know producers. They have like three or four, I think, producers in Mexico, I even have the pictures of their ranch where they get their avocados from. So they are not like really, you know intermediating with someone. They go directly and then I was like asking because I was filming this video about where do they get their other stuff from and they were like, okay we got them directly from this place.

[00:34:23] So they will just go directly and that’s really great. Perhaps many people are not very well educated on how it is working on China, you know. But just to see this example, is like you can have a vision of how big you can grow if you will just use your. Get to have one of these contracts. You know, Mmm Yeah.

[00:34:44] I mean that’s a show in itself how to get something like that. But it’s definitely amazing if there’s somebody listeners could get into that. But I’ll probably start with the trade show, of course that we didn’t bring up the word Guan Xi or relationships. But I’m sure that also has you know, you have to know people or have people in your company that know, know people to get in.

[00:35:05] I think that’s true anywhere in the world really. To get into these large distribution contracts, takes, takes relationships and time to build those relationships. But it’s, it’s, it’s exciting. I mean, this has been a really fascinating conversation Mar, and maybe we, you know, I know you maybe, let’s kind of like get to the… Let’s start to wrap up a little bit about, of course we mentioned… you’ll definitely send me, make sure you send me some of those links to those videos.

[00:35:33] I’ll link to your, your Channel at least in English.  And, I kind of asked already, but I think, what would you recommend? You know, this may be the last kind of advice somebody trying to get into the China market, now? What would be the? I know it depends. That obviously depends on where they are.

[00:35:54] Maybe if they’re early stage development. They have a product idea like, in maybe, in this natural category, but they don’t speak Chinese. They’ve maybe never been to China before. They’re in their home country, say in the west. What would be.  I guess, learn, right? Learn, is what you say. Well, that’s very tricky, because if you say, now a product. So when they have so many clients or have a product and are really kind of scared you to be like, scam with their know-how and people making it here.

[00:36:26] So that’s another story compared to selling like natural products which cannot be like, they’re replicated. You know what I mean, right? True. Yeah, of course. So yeah, of course, a lot of people are always afraid to share their idea or their product. So first I will recommend if you have, it also depends on which kind of product of course, but I would recommend you to come to trade show.

[00:36:49] If you are really willing to pay for the investment of it and you are you know, kind of sure that it has somehow a potential. And, a lot of those players, which I’ve mentioned previously from Peru selling to Noa or from Mexico selling other things, came first to Hong Kong. Because that’s kind of a have a copy you know, from where you can launch your products. And, perhaps after, you can consider Mainland because so many like importers, so many mainland importers are taking stuff from Hong Kong.

[00:37:23] So, perhaps you can get to have a good deal there because you’re not coming to Mainland, is another thing, is like yeah, like you said, perhaps it could be too troublesome for some. But you can start from there. I’ll say that. Yeah, I think that’s great. Hong Kong is a great one too and it’s also got a decent Market.

[00:37:39] I have friends that have like retail stores there that are doing distribution. And then, it’s like a Gateway into China, like. And, also Southeast Asia is a huge opportunity and, and finding a, like, partners, but… Thanks so much for your sharing openly and I know you’re content creator like me and I’m happy.

[00:37:58] I hope this show helps get you some new subscribers. Definitely, if you guys are enjoying this, check out her YouTube channels English and I, if you want to see her Spanish channel too, I’ll link it up. And, support her and I also I don’t know. I don’t want to be annoying. I kind of think it’s annoying but you know, it’s also you’re a female business owner.

[00:38:20] It’s really. I feel actually guilty. A lot of times. I don’t have much many females on the, in our content and that are… but you’re out there, you know. I really am proud of you to see your hard work and your consistency. So, so especially as I hate to say because it’s a woman. I don’t know there’s all these groups of women entrepreneurs and I don’t want to say because you’re a woman. You’re a great business person regardless. But, it’s great to finally have you on the show and, and I hope to continue to.

[00:38:51] See your development.  Thank you. Thanks a lot and welcome to yeah, follow me on this channel as well as, you know the suggestion, perhaps suggest that some future topics perhaps for the channel, for the podcast. Maybe he can develop with me, or with someone else etcetera. Yeah. So yeah. Thanks for having me.

[00:39:09] My pleasure. Okay, when this show is going online, I will be in Hong Kong and China and I’m gonna go check out some venues for the fourth annual Cross-border Summit.com, October 22nd and 23rd. We are working hard to make it as valuable and action-packed and about making deals, meeting amazing people, people from our show, listeners from our show.

[00:39:34] If you enjoy what you are listening to and want to support definitely a way is attending our Cross-border Summit. You, of course, hopefully can meet me. I will try my best to meet all of our attendees and will try to get speakers and sponsors from the show to come and it’s just always been a powerful time every year.

[00:39:53] I believe it gets better and always bigger but better and we’re focusing on quality here not quantity. Check it out www.crossbordersummit.com. Thank you so much blah blah blah. Miss blah blah blah time?  Blah blah blah.

[00:40:16] Okay, let’s do it.  So thank you. Thank you. Thank you for listening all the way through to the end of the show. Mar is amazing. I used to do videos. I used to be vlogging. I try. I’ll try to record when I’m in Hong Kong, Shenzhen because I’ll be a running around and I’ll carry a camera in my face. But you know, I have a lot of respect for people. We’ve had Serpent Za Winston also on the show and Mar and.

[00:40:45] You know, I kind of hop, I kind of hide, behind the microphone but I try to focus on long-form audio content. I mean if you’re listening all the way through, you know, I know a lot of you, like Frederick from China Import all and others are listening. I think you’re just in on the go. You got your headphones on or.

[00:41:04] Ear pods on or whatever they’re called and you’re listening. You know, I think if the camera’s in my face, I, I can’t, at least for me. I can’t get this deep in a conversation. So I still think I had least, I hope, audio will stick around for a while. You know to be on camera and be on a video at least for me personally, I can’t think is clearly about the content.

[00:41:25] You know, I like the audio you can get deeper into the content plus it’s you know, I’m not gonna lie. It’s a lot easier to make this, you know set up a phone call and have a conversation and Alvin, our editor is amazing and gets this all together and Sheryl, gets this posted and, and our other team make sure it happens and gets online, like Mindy so.

[00:41:46] Thank you everybody for helping make this happen and listening to it and a little bit of Latin America as some of you might have known I went down to meet Esteban in Colombia well over a year – a year and a half ago. And, it was my first time to South America. Had been in Mexico before. Maybe I’ll talk about some Mexico experiences.

[00:42:07] It’s well. But yeah, we are still working on the summit in Colombia or Latin America. I really am fascinated about this trade. I think that some spoke at the Crossborder Summit in 2018 about the opportunities that this trade war that seems to be picking up will bring to Latin America the idea that China will make more trade deals.

[00:42:35] With other allies or other trading partners such as those countries in Latin America as the war between China and US or trade War. Sorry has to pick up. So I do think there’s, there’s going to be some opportunities between Asia and Latin America as well. I’m glad we got more in the show. I honestly don’t have much on the ground experiences doing it myself.

[00:42:59] I do have interest to try to sell there or try to have some Logistics Center there. I know I’ve seen people talk about it in different groups online. Can I ship to Hong Kong from China? And then say It’s Made in Hong Kong and send it to America to not pay the tariffs. I know you guys are trying to be creative out there.

[00:43:18] But that is that is fraud that is lying. You can’t really lie and say where something is made. But defining made, I know some people could define made if you do a certain amount of percentage assembly or certain amount of packaging or something. I don’t want to get so technical maybe that could be a future topic. But, I know some people sent from China to Mexico or Latin America and have it somewhat assembled and put together there and then sent to America and then.

[00:43:49] It’s a little bit gray. Are you going to be a little careful, but maybe it can be made in Mexico or made in certain parts of Latin America that has less, especially if there’s this huge tax tariffs with China. So, that could be an opportunity for you. Um, which maybe I should look into or you should look into, or maybe, somebody could send me an email at mike@globalfromasia.com with a tip on that. There’s terms that’s existed since before I even came to China, people were doing that.

[00:44:19] Forgotten the Spanish word, but I know few people when I lived in San Diego for quite some time. And there was people sending product from China to Mexico to do assembly. And, they did say a certain percentage of work was done in Mexico could be considered made in Mexico, and then there were certain trade agreements.

[00:44:40] I’m not even sure what’s up with NAFTA. I haven’t followed the trade agreements with US and Mexico and Canada. I’ve heard Trump is working on making some changes. So I don’t know but they would say they could get into America from Mexico at a much better rate than from China to the US directly. So I know that might be something interesting for you to think about also.

[00:45:04] For more blah blah blah switch it up to Mexico. Yeah, I lived in San Diego in 2007. Was kind of like buffer my de-stressing from Wall Street before China. Didn’t think I would live in China. Honestly. It was my buddy Poetr. I had a spare room two blocks from the beach and ocean beach and I was working online doing eBay and websites a little bit.

[00:45:26] I don’t even think I was doing Amazon yet. And that’s 2007. I know I did do Amazon. I had Channel Advisor and I was I… But it definitely was nothing like it is now. And, I think it was like 10% of our sales, was Amazon, mostly, was website actually and some B2B back in the day. I got bored to be honest.

[00:45:47] I was getting bored in San Diego.  It’s so beautiful, like. But I did take some trips down to South of the Border to Mexico. Unfortunately, wasn’t too much business. It was mostly for fun with. Our Poetr’s polish. P-O-E-T-R, born in Poland. I think his parents are. Don’t want to be wrong. Maybe he was born in the US or I think he was born in Poland.

[00:46:10] But anyway, I was with all these polish friends of his, these hardcore drinkers and…  I don’t think you know, obviously there was a sober driver. But I was not sober and we went into Tijuana few Friday or Saturday nights in my days in San Diego. And you know, I don’t get too much in trouble on the podcast but.

[00:46:33] It was definitely, I remember I think it was the first time I went into Mexico when I was in San Diego. I did go to Cancun spring break in college, but definitely my first time just Tijuana, which is a border City on Mexico-California border. Yet not too far from San Diego and we were kind of laughing because it was like Fort Knox.

[00:46:54] It was like. There was, like, a border from Mexico into America was, like cement wall, like zig-zagged, cement walls would, like lights barbed wire, like dudes with guns. I think it was like scary, but then the other side was entering Mexico. I don’t want to disrespect, you know, you know, but there was like no security.

[00:47:17] I just feel like we just kind of kicked a chain-link fence door with our foot and it just opened. It said like welcome to Mexico and I think it was an early YouTube video of mine, but I. You know, we just had some tacos right on the other side of the chain link fence in Mexico and but coming back to America was scary.

[00:47:38] They were serious. I mean it was, it was late at night we had. Seems like some college students that were under 21 do that quite a bit in the California. I was over 21, so it wasn’t the reason I had to go. But, they were, they were pretty rough the Customs, you know, cuss the US Customs coming back. So it was much, much, much more difficult to get back into America.

[00:47:58] We all did. Luckily, I’ve had other border stories in my days with my friends in Canada to the US, to September 11th 2001 days, but I can save that for another episode. I hope you guys enjoyed today, but I’ve always been fascinated with this crossborder. We’re still called Global from Asia. Our Summit is called cross-border Summit.

[00:48:20] I don’t know what’s going to call it the GFA Summit, but just thought crossborder was cooler, and I’m kind of lazy to change the Global From Asia podcasts are like the cross-border podcast or something like that, but it is more, more than just Asia, I mean. I hope you guys enjoyed this interview with Mar –  Marguerite Rodriguez, very talented, beautiful woman. Check her out on YouTube.

[00:48:45] She’s really great. She’s vegan as she mentioned. She’s extremely health conscious and she’s very helpful. So hopefully some people will view her YouTube videos, hit that subscribe button, hit that like button on hers. Definitely hit the subscribe on our iTunes or whatever you’re listening to today as well. And, we will try to be as unique as possible talking about crazy trades between all around the world in this crossborder business e-commerce

[00:49:16] World and I hope I can get into China when the shows on. I have a 10-year Visa. Just got it. Scared with this trade war thing. But, I got it and I will be in China. Hopefully it doesn’t affect the crossborder summit, either this trade or we will see how things go. Thanks again for listening. To get more info about running an international business, please visit our website at www.globalfromasia.com that’s www.globalfromasia.com.

[00:49:46] Also be sure to subscribe to our iTunes feed. Thanks for tuning in.