Mike Michelini of Global From Asia

Our featured member this week is none other than, our CEO, Mike Michelini. Mike has been an amazing boss to his employees, always making sure that his staffs are satisfied and happy in his company.

“American Internet Dude in Asia” is how he fill out his social media profiles that can only fit a few words. But that basically summarizes it up. From Northeastern America, he went to Stevens Institute of Technology for an Engineering Management degree and then went to Wall Street right after. Always wanting to do his own business, he thought he had to go the MBA track – yet selling on eBay and his own website since 2004 let him discover you can skip all that and build a business at and stage. Growing the e-commerce business lead him to China for product sourcing in 2007 where he have found a passion for blogging and connecting people from around the world.

Shadstone Limited is the corporate name, which stands for the “Shadow of your business and the Stone you can rely on” as a B2B Asia operations company. It is the holding company of Global From Asia media group here – which is the blog you are reading this on. Global From Asia started in 2013 as a podcast on HK and China business and has grown to a yearly conference Cross Border Summit and a member network.

“I had always been encouraged by readers of my personal blog to start a business podcast about HK and China business, and after getting “pushed over the edge” in a Dynamite Circle conference in October 2013, I finally kicked off Global From Asia.”

“I have a passion for creating online content. It sounds crazy, but it was an effort to stop repeating myself from the many email questions I would get. When I started answering frequently asked questions as a blog post, it felt great. I enjoyed receiving thank you messages from people that got help from a blog post I wrote years earlier. Putting that into audio and video form has become a whole new level and I am always studying new ways to create content to help people around the world – specifically about China and Asia business.”

“Creating content is a huge amount of work. Many people who consume content should appreciate those writers, aka creators, a lot more! While content is often free on the internet – to put together consistent quality content is a big investment of time, and often times, money. Yet it was this practice of creating consistent content that has helped me become more of a process oriented business owner.”

“We are always trying to break down barriers and borders. It really upsets me to see qualified and able people with a willingness to learn and improve themselves not be able to get the same opportunity as someone else just because of the location they are in or the passport they hold. We are growing our content and community in cross-border e-commerce to enable people with knowledge and a network to grow their business regardless of their location.”

“So many! But the big one is in fintech and finance. As cross border by definition means sending money from one country to another – banking and all the payment solutions need to adapt and change. I have had the pleasure to meet many of the founders in this space and am excited to see it progress. I still see a lot of improvement that startups can make to disrupt this growing industry.”

“It is all about taking action, today. So many people get frozen with fear of the unknown and overwhelm. Yes, to start a business takes a ton of different expertise – and you won’t know all the answers – but the key is to make forward motion each and every day. Find people, find answers – enjoy learning and improving yourself and those around you.”