Memorial Pod: Rest in Peace Fellow Podcaster and Friend, Rico

Today is not your normal podcast, it is a memorial. Rest in peace Rico Ngoma, fellow podcaster and friend and business associate.

We bring on Rico’s business partner “ChinaMike”, MICHAEL SCHIERHORN, and I come on the show to remember the good times of Rico. Let’s remember the positive.

√ Mike’s memorial blog post
√ Rico’s Gofundme page
√ Cross Border Summit 2024

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

$5,390 USD raised , 33 donations

Janadale Coralde $30
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Kyle Binder $500
Kathryn Nelder $50
Kristina Koroleva $20
Fota Samakai $200
JOSEMARI GONZALES $200
Aaron Gahn $250
Anonymous $25
Lydia Tembo $200
Krish Dandiker $100
Nicholas Lenczewski $25
John-Justus Gidi-Paku $20
E A $200
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Anonymous$100
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Elizabeth Ndagire Ksyiws $100
Anonymous $10
Harrison Bevins $250
Giuseppe Bruscianelli $200
Nicholas Zieber $250
Carl Nickel $1,000
Alan Scanlan $250
Ziyase Mvunga $100
Gary Hones $200
Mike Michelini $200
Anonymous $250

Thank you Rico.

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[00:00:00] Episode 438 of Global from Asia podcast, Memorial Podcast for a podcaster. And maybe one day when I’m gone, someone will do a podcast like this. For me, Rico is very special and we’re gonna do a dedicated podcast, remembering Rico, Noma Made In China Podcast, episode 438 here at Global from Asia. Let’s tune in.

Welcome to the [00:00:30] Global from Asia Podcast, where the daunting process of running an international business is broken down into straight up actionable advice. And now your host, Michael Micheli. This show is, maybe some of you might not want to listen to this, or it might not be your normal business podcast, but it’s a memorial podcast for the passing of a dear friend and.

Fellow podcaster and creator Rico Noma from the Maiden China [00:01:00] Podcast. He’s been on this show quite a few times, so most of you, if you listen to these over the years, you’ve probably heard an episode or two with Rico. So he passed away late July, 2024. We’ll get into the story. But we wanna remember the good, the good memories.

So I bring his business partner, China Mike or Michael Shehorn on This will also be published on the Made in China show, but this is also [00:01:30] for global from Asia. And we also have Lorenzo, which was a friend and creator as well, starting the discussion at the first 10 minutes or so. And then we, we kind of go through our memories of, of Ricoh and working with him and engaging with him over the years.

So let’s get into the discussion and then afterwards I’ll do a little bit of reflection on Rico, even more for those that want to hear even more. So let’s tune into the show. And this is gonna [00:02:00] be@globalfromasia.com slash ricoh. Are you looking for USA banking solutions for your e-commerce business? I am proud to say mercury.com is supporting the podcast here, third year in a row at Global from Asia.

And we’re proud to say, ’cause we use ’em ourselves for many of our own. Amazon brands and e-commerce brands and joint ventures with our US structures. And they’re super easy to do online application, no fees, and they have great customer support. Have helped us with trouble with Amazon Seller Central over the years about some receipts and [00:02:30] statements and everything like that.

So we’re so happy to say thank you, mercury, for supporting our show, being a great service and supporting other e-commerce sellers. We’re really proud to say they’re a sponsor here and we also have a video tutorial as well as an overview and a special. A link with a little bonus for you as well for us under certain conditions.

Check it out@globalfromasia.com slash mercury for that information. Thank you for listening and thank you Mercury. I know both of you guys had great relationships with [00:03:00] Rico. You guys both spent considerable amount of time with him in, in different parts of, of Asia. Mike, I know you had. A really interesting experience when you guys were both working on Nina.

So just wanted to get us all together here and, and, and exchange some stories and spread some positivity toward, towards Rico and, and everything that he brought to us. So, yeah. Lorenzo, I’m really interested to hear any, any stories you have about, about Rico and anything that you’d want to share. So [00:03:30] first of all, thank you for inviting me.

This is really powerful and I still can’t believe what happened to him. I was so young. I met him last time in last September in Manila. But anyways, the way we connected back in 2012, I first went to Hong Kong in China. That’s when I first met Nick, Tim, Brian, all the crew in Hong Kong. We were just starting and I, there was travel.

Excitement about China over the next three to five years, between [00:04:00] 12. That thread where I was documenting my 2 million views and that thread was from what Rico always told me, what really inspired them to, to get his act together and come to Asia. And just like for me, other podcasts like Tropical BA and, and later on, Mike’s Global from Asia, was what inspired me to, to.

So the first time I met him was at Global Source. Sorry. At one of your events, Mike, in thousand 16 in Shezhen [00:04:30] and right during lunch we’re sitting on, on the table, yeah, border. Sorry. We’re sitting at a table and just sat next to me. I said, you look familiar. He said, you look familiar too. He said, are you Rico?

I said, are you this guy used my, my name on the forum? I said, yes. The one.

Became very close. Friends meet frequently whenever we could. Whenever I was going to, at the time I was living in Hong, [00:05:00] I was doing my Visa runs every two months, going to Hong Kong, stopping by and yeah, it was good. We had great conversations and last year I went to to, to Manila for a visa run. We met at his ball place in BGC we did.

We had dinner with a couple of his friends and then he invited me to his. Pool. I sent Mike some pictures. He invited me on his, I did, uh, invite him on mine. He showed me he had, oh wow. Whenever walking in Manila. [00:05:30] So you guys know Rico is always very fashionable, always the best guy, even if it’s like plus 50 degrees outside.

So imagine this guy had that and blonde, this black dude, Eric, blonde blood, and he had this massive white husky, almost looked like a wolf. Go. People would stop and say, well, where’s this guy is this guy or something? When I came back to Left Manila, we stayed in touch. We had some really deep conversation.

He opened up to me and we were even thinking of [00:06:00] starting a podcast to inspire men because he said, listen, you’ve been an inspiration to me and I want to do something with you. You’re good with podcasting. Collaborate together and create something good and meaningful. I said, let’s do it. Last time I talked to him was last April, he was on vacation in Bora Kai with his girlfriend and her family.

That’s the last Eric from him. As I said to Mike about a month ago, I had a deep gut feeling to reach out to him, but I was, for some reason, I was too busy. I didn’t make it until last Thursday. I was having my, [00:06:30] my rehearsal from my talk. Another friend from the ec, John Mullen from the uk. He said, he messaged me, Hey, did you, this happened?

I said, what happened? And he told me. I couldn’t freaking believe it. I still came in because when, when I met him, he was, he was a very positive guy, very full of life. He was an inspiration. He was very charismatic. He knew every time he walked into a place, he could feel his, his, his, his charisma bigger than life.

He is one of the most charismatic person I met even before he opened his mouth, his. [00:07:00] By stature, by style, by the way he walked, by his premier. It was different, in a good way, in a positive and inspiring way. So from the outside, there was no sign of him having any, any issues, health issues. And that’s even makes it even more incredibly surprising and very sad.

Sad. But the image I remember of them is always, always smiling, always happy, always joking around, always. [00:07:30] He loved bantering, especially if, if you were close to him. Mm-Hmm. I’m sure you can relate to that, Mike, because you were close to him too. I mean, both of you. So for me, it was one of the most inspiring, most charismatic, happy, that’s the word.

Happy. Always happy, always having a good word to uplift people around them. That’s what I, I’ll always remember as them and I, it’s hard for me to use the, the, the past tense. So I’m still gonna use, he is a very charismatic person because for [00:08:00] me, he’s still here. His, his memory will never go away, even though we may not see him physically.

And spirit is always with us. It’s not cheesy. I’ve seen it in my life when my father passed away. A lot of people that I know passed away. You can still feel the presence. So I can still feel Rico, laugh, smile, very peculiar, laugh.

That you know, for me it’s still around, man. I’m glad I’m wearing my glasses because I’m getting a [00:08:30] bit emotional here. So yeah, it’s still hard to talk about. Good. Thank you for sharing everything this time. Absolute. Well, enjoy your Sunday there and thanks brothers, appreciate you jumping on Lorenzos. Nice to see you.

Glad you’re doing well and. Yeah. Let’s catch up soon, guys. Especially you, Mike. We’ve been meant to, to have a call for a long time. We haven’t, but let’s, let’s do that. All right, Lorenzo. Thank you so much, man. It’s great to see you. [00:09:00] Take care. Take care, byebye. Bye now. Thank you. He’s a podcaster too, so he likes, uh.

Yeah, you can, you can tell he is, he’s, he is quite good. He gets to the point, and I’ve actually haven’t met Lorenzo too many times. Sim and Rico were, were really close. I, I don’t I take that back. I’ve never met him in person. At least I don’t think so. Maybe. Oh really? Yeah. Maybe, maybe in passing one time in, in, in Guang jo.

But I remember that [00:09:30] event, the cross border summit, because I think I was with Rico. As he was getting on the train to go down to Shenzhen. Oh, nice. Yeah, I, that’s when he said that, I was like, oh man, I remember that day we were in Lida having a drink talking about it. He was telling me everybody that he was gonna meet up with and I just, it was, I’m excited to talk to people and get their recollection and like these moments that.

Meant the most to them because it’s gonna recall a lot of, I was gonna bring back a lot of [00:10:00] memories and, and, and different situations I’ve had with him that I’m not even thinking about yet. It might, might, might have slipped, but what about you, Mike? When did you meet Rico and how did you guys kind of start becoming friends?

I know you’ve done quite a few podcasts. With Ricoh, you had the Enter China experience together, so you guys have done quite a bit, but I’m interested to hear from you kind of the, the, the traject trajectory of, of your guys’ friendship. Sure. I think it started around [00:10:30] 2015 or 16 with the, with the Enter China business.

I think Nick had connected us to, to kind of. Take the reins for Enter China and help, help manage and grow that business, that community. I was already a mentor there since the early days when, when Nick had started it and Rico was, was involved and then I think we had met first in person in Hong Kong with Nick [00:11:00] and Ramil and some other people in the EC community about, about that management takeover and.

That was a couple years we had did that with Luke. Luke Francis. So I think it was around 2015 or 16, maybe 14. I, I can’t recall the exact year, but uh, I think 20, I think 2016 as well. Yeah, I think it was 16. And, and then it was, of course we started working on, [00:11:30] on a business together. So we were often talking, I think daily, like you had said earlier, he was.

Based in Guang most of the time I knew him in China. Mm-Hmm. I was mostly based in Shenzhen. It’s not that far, but like you said, it’s like a train ride. So it’s, it’s an event to meet in person there. Right. It’s like a couple hours at least or more Right. Of transportation one way. So there, but there was, there was times you would, I, I think we did a lot of webinars together, like live webinars for the, for the recruiting for ec.

So it would be [00:12:00] like him and Luke and I. Usually at my place, my like home studio in Sheen. In Fuen. So I remember, I think Luke was in Sheen, so he didn’t have to travel as far, but Rico came further and I think Rico often would stay at my house. Those times we had either spare bedrooms or sofas and I just remember him coming often.

And hanging out, staying over. And then we would do like live webinars. Usually we would do it at the night [00:12:30] for the US in the morning for like the Asia, Europe, something like this. It would be like two webinars, like a, we usually, it’s like Wednesday or Thursday, right? Like Wednesday night, Asia time, Thursday morning, Asia time, something like this for like a couple hours.

And it was intense. We would have education, so he would sometimes. We would have different people sharing different knowledge, but he would share like about sourcing right to the, to the webinar attendees and live like a live webinar. We worked really hard to make this amazing webinar, like an hour of [00:13:00] valuable content and of course the sales pitch, which was we was, we would pass around at the mic and to do just live Webinar was pretty intense.

Couple hour endeavor, twice evening and morning. Overnight. So, and of course working with community and we, I remember connecting with you from that and we, of course community building, which Rico’s great at and, and I love to do, and you’re involved with, you start to open up like I. All these [00:13:30] relationships, right?

You start meeting these people and learning. And Enrico, I remember, I think the first time I met him, he says like, oh, I’m so, I’m so amazed to meet you. I listened to your podcast. I came here from Toronto. I, I was, was studying, uh, preparing to come here and, and now I’m like working with you in, in this business and I’m on the podcast.

And he was always so humble, right? Or, or re respective, right? Like. Like, I can’t believe if I, I know you and I’m working with you, [00:14:00] like I’m on the podcast with you. He was very always like, always like studying and learning and growing. I just remember, and, and like Lorenzo, I said earlier, he was always well, well dressed, even if I.

Even if we’re gonna do like online work, even if, I don’t, even if, if the situation didn’t or not Right. Even if the situation might have called for it, he was still looking good then. Yeah, he is always looking good, right? Like even he is traveling on a train, like I think us, like you or me or most would just come in shorts and like a [00:14:30] t-shirt.

Right. He’s coming in like a like, kind of like a nice like vest and pants and everything. Yeah. Fresh shirt, like, like Ironed and Freddy prepped and I, I, I was not, that, that was not me. I was always, I think most of us were not, so he always stood out. But that was some of my first memories was those webinars for Enter China with him a lot, and then podcasts and working with different community members and, and things like that, and podcasts together.

[00:15:00] And we started doing meetups. So, and of course like the cross-border summit was epic ’cause people from all over the various communities enter China and, and podcast listeners and in the industry came together. That first one was in 2016 too. So I think that 2016 was like, kind of like a, a year of connecting and community discovery.

Like even Lorenzo, I don’t think I had met him in person. Then there was a lot of people just meeting in person for the first time that year. [00:15:30] A lot. Like discovery of people. Yeah, and I mean that, uh, shoot, I can’t remember exactly when him and I met, but it was right around that time as well. A little, a little before that.

I think it was before. Yeah. Yeah. You guys were working together in source fund Asia? Yeah. I think it’s late 2014. 2015 would be the, would be the time. But same, same method through, he said he came to China. I mean, he, he told me at one point that. [00:16:00] He was extremely close to getting his Canadian citizenship.

So he had lived in Canada for forever years and years, and he was under a year, I believe, away from becoming a Canadian citizen. But he said that from watching Nick and Tim and following these guys in Asia and just wanting to go and be an entrepreneur, he said, I can’t wait any longer. There’s just no way.

Wow. I, I, I have to go and I [00:16:30] have to do this. Wow. And have to start. So he, he. Nick and Tim and, and, and the other guys who he was inspired by, had, had, had a huge pull in him. And I know he had a lot of admiration and and respect for you. You guys talked more than you and I talked, but he would always brief me on what was going on with, with you and Luke and the whole process of Ner China.

And I think. Watching how you ran your community and all the events you did and, [00:17:00] and how you brought people together really inspired him and made him want to take it to the next level with everything that we are doing with, with, with SFA. For sure. So awesome. I appreciate you, man. I really do appreciate it too, dude.

Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, some of my other highlights, that was kind of the beginning and then, uh. Yeah. Like he, yeah, he started really becoming like a leader, like I think you were work with SFA, I mean the, the inter China stuff transitioned out I think, I don’t know how long that [00:17:30] was, where we were actively managing it or partnering in it, but it was, it was like, it was a, it was a phase, right?

It wasn’t forever, so it was like a phase. But I saw him grow at SFA and yeah, like he really loved the podcast, right? He, he wanted to do video podcasts and webinars and community and, and co course and, uh, services and sales processes and SOPs and, and then I. I remember a lot of regular calls and of course we had so [00:18:00] many podcasts on, on, on the Cool Inform show and, and on a In China pod.

And I just remember, I guess another big milestone was yeah, he wanted, he moved down to Philippines right from China and I was moved out to Thailand. Actually, I think we met me first time in Thailand, in Chiang Mai here, a coffee shop. Almost remembered a day and I don’t know when that was. 17, 18. Mm-hmm.

Actually, there’s the other crazy story with us where, I don’t know, you did, there was some meetups here. Yeah, yeah. [00:18:30] And then we had that meetup and then you spun off the bike. Yeah. That’s awful. But yeah, the sourcing round table or something like that. Yeah. There was that series. I think it was Rico and you were talking about getting those series going and he, I think he had asked me, or you had asked me to come out and I did.

And then. Yeah, there was a horrible situation where bike incident, but I dunno if you wanna get it out here, but, but yeah, so I think a lot of us are moving out of China, right? In later 20 teens, [00:19:00] like 17, 18, 19. So ma mass, exodus of all those people that were in China, that started to spread out, go back home.

Most, most of us, I feel moved to other countries in Southeast Asia. But yeah, it, it was wild at one point, just looking up and hardly anybody was, was everybody around anymore? Yeah, so he, he had the Philippines. I don’t even know why, why? I, I mean, well, I honestly can’t remember why now, like the, the ultimate thing that brought him there.

I [00:19:30] know that he really liked it when he settled in and, and, and initially made a really good, um. Connections to, to the community there. But he was exploring a lot of other places. I know he spent a bunch of time in Jakarta and had traveled some other places as well to kind of consider where to live. But yeah, I think just kind of settled in in the Philippines and there was some men’s groups and some entrepreneur groups that he was getting involved in there.

And I think it’s just like Thailand, it’s, it’s very comfortable. It’s easy to [00:20:00] get adjusted quickly there. Yeah. And then covid. Uh, yeah. So another, I guess, yeah, before we get to Covid, so my memory, one of my really strong memories was I was in Manila at the same time as him for the early 2020. I came down just before Covid and he had just, I think he had just recently moved there 2019 or so.

’cause I was working with the, an aggregator and all these Amazon [00:20:30] investor businesses, alpha Rock, and he was there I think, I think they. He worked with them, I think. Yeah, I was gonna say that was a client, alpha Rock. Yeah. So I was partnered there through a, one of my brands joining, and then, so we were hanging out and I remember this one Epic Saturday, like even with Lorenzo just on, he was sending pictures.

I mean, Rico, like, he was set like a day for podcasts, right? Like, I don’t know, like I, I think this is gonna be a great show, but if he does these shows, it’ll be [00:21:00] like, let’s do it like hours, like. Tapped in. So yeah, he’s like, oh, let’s just set a Saturday. Well, I think he treated, treated me or whatever, and he had the cameras, we had all the, the light bulb mic clip on mics.

We had food, but it was like January, February, 2020. I, I think I, I could send a link. It was a, it was like a two part video series, like talking about he also liked to talk not just about business, but like life, the lifestyle. Right. Of course. Like he liked the lifestyle. We spent [00:21:30] like, I don’t know, like a whole afternoon in early 2020 manila recording in person recording with the, the, the DSLR camera on a tripod and the clips and the different camera phone angles and Yeah.

Yeah. So that I even use that as a image that, that time as a, in my pod, my blog, I have my personal blog at mike’s blog.com/rico. I, I used that picture from that day, but yeah, it was just before Covid. We had no idea what was coming. Right. We thought that was maybe the worst of it or [00:22:00] just ’cause it was like around March, I think it was March, that we did that early March right before all huge crack flights stops and everything in mid-March.

But yeah, I just remember that in, in, in those days, in early 2020. But the lockdown was hard on everybody. But I think it was also hard on Rico, to be honest. I remember. I mean, we all had trouble, but yeah, he was there. I mean, it was a crazy time. Yeah, I, I think it was especially hard for him because we were [00:22:30] talking about his, his presence and, and the effect he had on people at these meetups, and I think that was a really big part of Ricoh’s life and, and his energy was getting to meet up with everybody and, and have those, and have those check-ins and have those sit downs and being out there and isolated ’em a little bit and maybe didn’t have access to.

The same type of, of friends and colleagues as as before. So I know that that was extremely tough. But yeah, he loved, he [00:23:00] loved making content. He loved it, man. Really gonna miss doing the pod with him. He, he was always the, the, the steady voice on the pod. It was, it was Rico’s pod. I was just along for the ride.

And it was his, it was his baby, it was his, his brainchild. We taught, that’s how we connected. I was looking for people to potentially join and, and, and take over SFA at the time. Um, I started to get pretty heavy interest to the basketball business and yeah, I didn’t want to, to give [00:23:30] up SFA and all these great.

Uh, contacts I had, so I was looking for somebody to, to join up with and I met a bunch of people. I think I, I, at least a dozen people I met up with to, to consider for it. And once I met Ricoh, it was just a no brainer. I. Because we had one of those, those talks we met up, but I don’t know if you remember Guango that well, but Shinga Lu in in Ada was, was the spot for a long time.

Now, if you go there, [00:24:00] if anybody who had been there before, if you go, it’s, it’s, it’s almost unrecognizable. No, none of those places are, are, are there anymore? But at the time it was awesome. I mean, you could go out anytime. Of the night, any day of the week until 4:00 AM and it was lined with people. Every single restaurant had an outdoor setup, huge canopies and, and seats outside.

And there’s some bars and some nightclubs. Really good restaurants. And of course Rico, he loved his [00:24:30] shisha man. Like every, yeah, I’m thinking of that. I, I, I didn’t even have to ask. I thought that was weird. Every chance he got like. That would be a thing even, even when I was doing the basketball, I would always pass through Gu Guang Jo.

And even when I was living in Thailand, I would always come into Guang Jo and I’d always stay at Rico’s in that little tiny second room that he had and just we would catch up, we would be cool and he would always play it cool. Initially when I came back, but then as soon as we had like a dead moment, you wanna go get Isha?

And so that, that was kind of our thing. And [00:25:00] yeah, I just remember. You know, his, his energy like you guys were saying and how, how many ideas he had and, and we really connected on. Podcasting. We talked about podcasts for hours. That first night. I, I, I met him really? And, and, and, and talked to him. And that was like, what had me sold was all of his, not only his energy, but all the ideas he had for expanding the business that I had hadn’t even considered.

And over the years he, he really wanted to do these specialized [00:25:30] episodes, these like really highly produced episodes of Yeah. Going to, to the factory or, or a day in the life. And, and he got into it a a bit. We have some good stuff. We actually, I. The girl who we’re close with, who worked for us for a while in, in the Philippines.

Jamie, we’re trying to recover a hard drive right now. So one of the guys who did all of our editing back in the day, he hasn’t worked with us for a while. He got a, a job and stopped working, but apparently he has this hard drive with all [00:26:00] kinds of photos and videos and recordings that that hasn’t been released.

So we’re we’re, oh, wow. Lord. If you’re watching, we’re on the hunt for you man. Then. I hope we get that. Yeah, so we’re trying to get that. We got a couple that we’ve done that I don’t think he released, so, so I definitely wanna. Get access to those, to those and, and, and, and try to release ’em. But yeah, man, I, I don’t know.

That’s hard run. Yeah. I, I just know he, he really appreciated your, your [00:26:30] channel and your network and really enjoyed talking to you all the time, man. So, yeah, I mean, I, I looked at his Facebook. It seems like he wasn’t so active. A lot of us have not been as active on Facebook, even myself as. Earlier days, but he has still a background picture of him and a panel at the Cross Border Summit as his pro, not profile, but background banner image.

And I think he, he was always just so amazed that he had kind of made it, had been able to climb the step, the, the, the staircase of being a [00:27:00] listener or being a student to becoming like an expert or becoming like a thought leader. And he really wanted to keep growing that so. Yeah, I think Covid was hard.

I mean, for all of us. But yeah, I remember him especially. ’cause like I said, he is a very social person. He likes to, like, even one of my last calls with him, I mean, I chatted to him and chat, I. But I think a longer call I had with him wasn’t that long ago, but it was. But he would always be the [00:27:30] one to initiate to me a call.

I felt bad. Of course, like even Lorenzo, especially with somebody who’s gone, gone, you are, you regret not even having more time. But he would always make a point to do a catch up call. Mm-Hmm. And I think he did that to a lot in the community. He wanted to keep in touch, like. Even tell, ’cause I didn’t even ask him about somebody and he’s like, oh yeah, I had a call with him.

He was always like trying to keep in touch with every, as many people as he could. And it wasn’t just like a, I think for me, I’m more, I don’t wanna say it, but I, I, I don’t [00:28:00] have, I don’t know how to say it, but I don’t have as such like long calls with people. Like I usually kind of keep it a little bit more short, but he liked to have the longer in depth calls.

Like I remember, I think the last call I had with him. Maybe in June or June or June maybe was I, ’cause I remember even walking between, I was a, I was a phone call, voice call on WhatsApp, but I was from one coffee shop. I walked to another one to meet my wife and kids and we’re still talking in the mall.

Like it was like a long one. Right. He goes through [00:28:30] like a lot of updates, like personal and business and brainstorming and ideas and yeah, his birthday is a day after mine. Well, we’re like one day apart birthday, so we’d always keep in touch on our birthdays for each other and, yeah. Yeah. Pretty cool, man.

I mean, anyway, yeah. So it’s, yeah, but I think after Covid, right? Like it was just, [00:29:00] it’s just been hard for all of us. I, I see this often on my, on my show. It’s, it’s still not really back to normal in my opinion, right? I mean, yeah, there’s no more like lockdowns and vaccine shots everywhere, but. At least travel’s kind of somewhat back to normal, but it’s still not like it was before Covid.

Right. And then especially not in China, right? Mm-Hmm. I went in in February and March and it was. Moving. It was China, but it, it was ex extremely different [00:29:30] than I remembered and, and so few foreigners. I was, I was almost shocked at, at in, yeah. Go. Going through Gu Jo and Shanghai, just, you still have foreigners there, but nothing.

I mean, I could, I couldn’t go one day in Juju Newtown without seeing a foreigner every, every time I walked down the street, every time I went to the Metro, every time I went to get food, and this time I could go. Hours without, without seeing another foreigner. It was really, it was really intense. But yeah, man, [00:30:00] I, I, I, I know what you’re saying about that, that regret and that feeling.

Like, what if I could have done more for whatever, what if I would’ve picked up the phone? I mean, that’s something that I’m dealing with really heavily. I think this is helpful to, to talk to other people, but I, I, I don’t even know that I’m. I fully even accepted what’s, what’s, what’s happened. I mean, I, I have but fully dealt with it, I think I should should say.

’cause it’s just been so many different [00:30:30] things that I’ve had to do since it happened. The communication, yeah. His, his family and his, his best friend and Jamie, and handling everything that’s going on in the Philippines handling. What, what’s going on with the staff and, and clients as well. It’s just my, my day-to-day stuff, but I definitely have these moments where, because I mean, even for me recently, not as much in the past month or two, but I’d say in like the last six months, I personally have been dealing with a lot and, and sometimes when you’d call, [00:31:00] well.

It would be tough, but sometimes I’d like get back to you. I’d send him a message like, I gotta call you back. And, and I’m sitting with that a lot because it was like you said, he, he’d really get in his bag when he got on the phone. Like he wanted to talk. Yeah, exactly. He wanted to talk. There were updates, business updates, life updates.

I talked to mic. He’s gotta gimme all the mic. Updates. Yeah. Updates. Updates. And don’t get him started on on football. Man. If we started talking about about Manchester [00:31:30] United, like I’d never get off the phone. And he’s calling me at his night when he is chilling, watching, watching something on tv and I’m trying to get my day going, but it’s like, I know that’s a tough thing to not have those opportunities back, man.

So it’s good to talk to you and Lorenzo and just share some of the positive stories about Rico for sure. Yeah, he’s, he’ll, he had a positive effect, right? I mean, I, I mean, it’s not like I’m looking hard, but I’m, I think most everybody had a really good [00:32:00] experience working with him and relationships with him.

There was, I mean, the comments I got when I posted about it on my socials was of, of course, shock, but also just like nice person, kind, all positive, right? Like, yeah. So I, I try, I have kids. My kids, I talk about there’s been actually like a few deaths lately in our network. Yeah. I try to say like he lives on in our heart, right?

The people that he touched in a way has somewhat been. I don’t, I don’t know the right word, [00:32:30] but like, give me a little bit of push to work harder or to do a little bit more, right? Thinking about him not here, and I have to, I, I, I live on with it, right? And a little bit, think about what, what RICO would do in that, in that choice that I’m dealing with at that moment, right?

Like, I, I think I think about that sometimes. Now. I hear your man. I, I feel the same way. This hasn’t been very long, obviously, but it’s been, the whole experience has been extra [00:33:00] motivation for me and extra encouragement that if I am having these moments where, okay, am I gonna do this or, or not, whatever it is, going to the gym or, or having a call or.

Finishing some mundane tasks that I’ve been procrastinating on. I’m trying to use him and, and his situation as, as motivation to, to get through it for sure. And yeah, I, I, I what you’re saying about just being a nice person, I, I. [00:33:30] A lot of the people that, that we know through the international business community and digital nomads and all these people that, that we’ve met, it’s a diverse community, right?

It’s extremely diverse. You have people from, from all over the world. But I don’t know, he, he was extremely diverse person, for lack of a better word to explain it. He just had so many different friends from so many different walks of life. He was also one of the people that, wow. It is, I mean. [00:34:00] You have a, a Chinese wife.

So, but, but what am I trying to say? It’s, it wasn’t always easy for foreigners sometimes to deal with Chinese, right? Whether that’s Chinese employees or, or the factories. There’s, there’s big cultural differences and, and, and the western philosophy dealing with which Chinese, these people is not always easy.

Rico was. Amazing dealing with Chinese people and even they were my employees too, or [00:34:30] thinking about situations I had with previous employees. I really learned so much from him about patience, man. Like this dude was. Master patience, like these situations that would happen with our employees. That’s the worst.

I would’ve like, I, there’s no way I could’ve made it through that. There’s no way I would’ve dealt with it or I would’ve dealt with it swiftly and, and it would’ve been a disaster. But he really, I. He was such a patient dude, and he really harvested some incredible relationships [00:35:00] with, with some of the Chinese people who, I’m not trying to be disrespectful, but I don’t know if I would’ve given them much of a, a, a second thought.

But because Rico spent so much time working through things with them, like I actually became, came to appreciate them more and we had better, better relationships because of it. And I know with me, man, like. Especially since I moved back to the states, like I can be all over the place and, and, and I can not be as consistent [00:35:30] as I need to be.

And he was so patient with me, man, it just didn’t matter what I did. I, I never did anything like disrespectful to my guy, but I would fuck up at times or I, I wouldn’t follow through with what I said I was gonna do and. He just was the most patient person I knew. He really was, and he just like, yeah. I think that is the word patient.

Right. Always accepted me and always thought he never thought. Yeah. Yeah. It was always constant. Right, right. It was never like high or low. Right. Yeah. And, [00:36:00] and, and, and with me, but then also with other people. He would talk me off the ledge about like, man, we can’t get too far ahead of ourselves. Like, think about this.

And like, he’d always put play devil’s advocate and, and, and give a different. Rational and, and col calm and collective point of view that made me see things differently. So, yeah. Yeah, that’s, yeah. No, I would agree. Yeah, I think, I think we’d all agree with that. Like, especially like you said, especially with China business, right?

Especially, I mean, any [00:36:30] business or especially any internationally or so, especially in China, right? You could never see him get up like raised, like it was always like constant. Yeah. Mm-Hmm. Even when he was pissed, it was always like a, in a gentlemanly way. Yeah, you’re right. Yep. Great man. And, and, and I, I just wanna say one more thing, so I.

You, we, you reached out when everything happened and, and you told [00:37:00] me that, I don’t know if I suggested or you suggested that we get on a, a pod, but I’ve, I’ve said that to quite a few people, so I’m hoping to have more conversations, um, about, about Ricoh. So I’ll get into a lot of different things. But yeah, I was also just thinking, you know, my, my experience in, in Lusaka, so he invited me to go that I went to Africa with him.

I think I remember, yeah. Okay. Right. I think right before Covid, it was late 2019, [00:37:30] he took me to his family’s house in, in Lusaka and we went and saw his family’s farm and like he went out one day and like I was there helping. His family to, to prepare dinner. And I ate with his dad one night and Wow.

Became really close with, with his best friend TNS out there. It was, it was amazing, man. And, and I don’t know, I just really, that is, that’s such, yeah. I remember dynamic friendship with, with, with him and [00:38:00] Awesome. Yeah. I mean, I’m saying we, we gotta try to remember, I, I remember when my, my. My grandmother passed when I was a young, younger, and I was sad about it, but my parents and my family, we had like a kind of like a, it wasn’t like mourning, it was more like cel, I hate to say celebrate, but it was like a dinner.

We had this big buffet after the funeral and everybody was not happy, but we’re trying to think of the good, right? My dad told me like, think of the good. [00:38:30] Think of the good. And I think especially Rico wants us to think of the good, enjoy our, enjoy our life, enjoy, enjoy our time with our, our loved ones and, and, um, yeah.

So I’m sure he’s happy for us and I’m still sure he’s so amazed that we’re doing this memorial for him. And I’m sure others that you talk to be great memories for him. It’ll be amazing. Yeah, man, I can’t wait. I’m looking forward to catching up with people and hearing more stories and, and sharing good memories.

[00:39:00] So. Mike, I appreciate you, man. Thanks for everything. Appreciate you. Yeah, no, we’re, I hope we can get on again and, and have another spot. Yeah. And if I get a hold of the, of the archives, I’m definitely gonna, the archives, well, we got Lorenzo’s got one now. Yeah, too. I, I put all mine online. I, I don’t, I should even try to track down every, I mean, they’ve all been published, but it’s gotta be like 10 or more.

I’ve. Between Rico and, and our, me and the shows we’ve done. [00:39:30] I, I, I put a few in the, in my, my personal blog update, but there was just too many. There’s so many, and I think about it for myself too, like, I mean, I think that’s, that’s the amazing thing about making content online, right? I mean, he’ll be remembered in all that content that he’s made, right?

And help people. I’m sure there’s gonna be people that I listen to some of his shows that he is made and get some educ inspiration without even knowing he’s, he’s gone. Right. I mean, it’s, to me that’s, it’s, it’s stoic, right? It’s like, it’s like kind of beautiful, [00:40:00] right? Like he’s gonna still be able to touch people and help people even though he is not physically here.

And that’s why I also try to inspire people to make content and share your knowledge, share your experience, because you’ll be able to do it. He’ll be able to help people even, even after, and this is an example, right? I mean, he’s touching people even now, so it’s amazing. It’s beautiful, and you’re definitely, you’re a huge part of that.

Just like he told you when he met you in 2012, you were a big inspiration for him making that move and making this content so awesome. Again, man, [00:40:30] just appreciate you so much. Appreciate you, Mike. All right, well, yeah, like, like you said, Ned, uh, the GoFundMe update, which thanks everybody that chipped in for that.

For sure. Yeah, but you had to guide up. The updates were nice that you shared, and then the, the hugging, the loved ones, right? Like, use this as an excuse, another reason to go and hug your loved ones and appreciate them. Make those calls. Make those calls or meetings or talks that you need to have. So,

all right, [00:41:00] buddy. Well, yeah, let’s, yeah. Again, think of the positive, the good memories, the good times, the good inspirations, and use that to continue to grow. Definitely. Mike. Alright, Mike. Thank you too. Save the date Cross-Border Summit. 2024 is coming back. 2020 threes was epic. Never got such great feedback in all of our events.

Cross-Border Summit 2024. We’re planning already a year in advance. Save the date. November 14th and 15th will be the [00:41:30] core event. But of course it is a full week, uh, of amazing things. There’s pre-event, post events, workshops, trainings, elephants, sanctuaries. We have a lot of amazing things here in Ang Mai.

Island again, so I would love to see you there. We’ve already pre-sold some tickets to previous people. We will be opening up tickets soon. Subscribe to get updates at 2024 dot cross-border summit.com. Also, check out videos and testimonials from last year as well as [00:42:00] all of our years we did ’em in China and this will be our sixth one.

It’ll be great to meet you there and network and make some great relationships. I can’t wait. November, 2024. Well, Rico. We love you, man. I hope. I hope you’re looking down from us, giving us some positive vibes. We’re giving you positive vibes. Death. We don’t know. We all have our speculations of what happens after we [00:42:30] die.

There’s various religious ideas and concepts and beliefs, so I’ll let you have your own, but he’s not gonna be forgotten. Rico is a special guy. He’s gonna live on, honestly, it’s been about a month now and he’s living on in inside of me. I’ve thought about him more than normal. I wish I had talked to him more.

Wish I had done more with him. Can remember some times I could have spent [00:43:00] more time with them and was busy or, or not available. So we just gotta appreciate every day. We have every day above ground is a good one. I know we a lot of times have bad days, hard days. We have to appreciate the days that we have, but Rico will not be forgotten.

Rico has been inspiring me. I remember he was coming on the show for the first time I, I think it was 2016, and he was so honored and he’s so [00:43:30] hardworking and he took risks and he made things happen. So I hope this inspires you to do positive things, to be positive, to take action, to live the best that you have each day you’re here.

And even though we might have a bad day, appreciate the days that we have appreciated the people around us. Be grateful. I learned that a lot during Covid. We had some shows talking [00:44:00] about gratitude. We have to be grateful. Of course, we all want more of this as human nature to want and desire. I think that’s just built into our DNA, but we have to appreciate what we have.

We all are very blessed to be here, to be able to listen to this or watch this podcast, but Riga will be remembered. Thank you if you donated to find me and let’s wrap it up for now. Global from asia.com/ricoh, one for the [00:44:30] books. Thanks for listening or thanks for watching. Bye-Bye. To get more info about running an international business, please visit our website@ww.global from asia.com.

That’s ww.global from asia.com. Also, be sure to subscribe to our iTunes feed. Thanks for tuning in.