Building an Eco Friendly Ecommerce Brand in Thailand – Entrepreneur Story with Antoinette Jackson

In today’s episode, we actually have a fun one going on site and meeting more sellers. We are featuring a pretty cool brand using natural beeswax products, environmental friendly products which are manufactured here in Chiang Mai, Thailand. We have Antoinette Jackson who is the founder of Superbee.me and making lots of amazing things. Let’s tune into the show.

√ Antoinette’s VIP Page
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√ Visit our GFA partner – Mercury – for US banking solutons for your ecommerce businesss

Thanks for having us here Anny . It’s really an amazing place and wishing you all the best in the growth of the company.

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gfa390

[00:00:00] All right, episode 390 of Global from Asia. I’m in a here in a studio. I’m in a different spot, actually, I think most of you are watching, but for those watching listening. But for those watching, we have a fun one where we’re going onsite again here in Thailand, meeting more sellers. Let’s tune in today. 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 [00:00:30] host, Michael Michelini. How’s everybody doing? You know, I’ve been in Thailand now, back in Thailand for a few months, try to have more content about Southeast Asia, you know, sellers here. Today’s a really great episode. And, uh, we went out onsite. Antoinette Jackson, she’s the founder of Superbee.Me using natural beeswax products, environmental friendly products, manufactured here in Chiang Mai Thailand.[00:01:00]

She’s been going at it for many, many years. She’s a parent like me and she’s making a lot of amazing things. So I met her at a meetup. When I first got here, actually, she helped me find my kids’ school. Thanks for that, Annie or Antoinette. And you know, we’ve kept in touch and we went to go visit, visit some of her setup and right around holiday time and recorded this.

So episode 390 of. The Global from Asia show. I think the URL is easy. Global [00:01:30] fromasia.com/superbee superbee is a pretty cool brand, I have to say. Let’s tune into the show and then after I have some prints in my books, some other plans about Chiang Mai and Thailand and other things for the community. After this amazing interview, let’s tune in.

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Let them know we sent you and they’ll take care of you. Check them out@www.crossbetter.com today. All right, thank you everybody for tuning into on a global from Asia podcast. We’re trying to do more in Thailand since we’re [00:02:30] here. I’m really excited to have a guest as, uh, e-commerce entrepreneur.

Antoinette, thanks for being here. Superbee.me. Yes. That’s our website. Yeah. So we’re at your amazing location. We’ll have some extra footage for those to check out. Afterwards. And, uh, I, I’m really, uh, we, we randomly got to meet at a networking lunch and you even helped us find a school for our children. And, uh, and you’re a, you’re a mom parent [00:03:00] too, so it’s mm-hmm.

it’s really great. Um, To get to know you and, uh, and uh, to be able to have your story today. So thank you. Yeah. Yeah. I’m grateful for the connection too. It’s been nice to meet you and, um, thanks for inviting me to talk with you today. Sure. So, so maybe we’ll just start the basics, you know, how did you know your, um, what do you wanna know, , the basics?

Maybe, you know, how did you come to Thailand? How did you decide, oh, why we’re here, why we’re in Thailand? [00:03:30] Uh, so. I’m from Australia and, and my husband’s German and we were living in Germany and he, he works in IT. He’s a programmer and maybe he’s one of the first digital nomads. I don’t know. He was chatting to me about Hong Kong company and set up and doing development.

Yeah, we just had this moment, our oldest son who’s 18 now, he, he had to go to school in Germany and we were like, you know, maybe we don’t wanna go down [00:04:00] that route of sending our kids to school and staying here cuz we both traveled before and we love to travel, so we wanted to like, continue our traveling journey and share that with our kids.

And, and so, ,we look  ask his clients, Hey, do you mind if like, I live in Thailand and work for you? And they’re like, well, we don’t really see you anyway. And we only talked to you on Skype, so actually we don’t care. And we were like, okay, great. And Ivie had just been born, she was under one. Nice. And we just got rid of like all our staff.

It [00:04:30] was such a liberating experience. That’s amazing. Yeah. Yeah. So we all had, there were four of us and we had 20 kilograms each, and then we just left. Great. Yeah. Great. That’s, uh, so. I’m trying to like gauge how old she is, but that’s, uh, what, she’s 13, so, so 12, about 12 years then. Great. And then the, the Super Bee story, how did that Yeah, so I think the first five years I was like a [00:05:00] full-time mom and supporting Luz while he was tapping away to anything.

But I was always kind of, trying start businesses and having ideas cuz I like to, I don’t know, do stuff. And um, yeah. And then I think it’ll was already six at that time and I had. Learn about this, like alternative to plastic, and I’m a, I’m a naturalist, obviously. This is, yeah, this is really cool. So being [00:05:30] connected to nature for me and my family is really important.

So yeah, I started to develop this product with replace single use plastic, and at that time, . Yeah, I don’t know. It was just for fun. And I was playing around with the bees wax and all these like fabrics and natural products and developed this product and then I started to sell it at the markets, at the school, Christmas markets.

And everyone just loved them. And I was like selling out and, um, . [00:06:00] And then, yeah, we made a website. I asked like, look, like do you think you can make a website for me? And he’s like, magic. Ding, ding. And then I made a video with my friend, um, Dominic, and we made it and. . I put it up on Facebook with the launch of the website and then we went to bed and the next morning it had over a million views.

Wow. And like 5 million by the end of the week. And that was kind of like how it’s [00:06:30] a great start launch. Yeah. And I think, yeah. Cause we had like many international connections they shared for us. And supported us and yeah, and that’s kind of how it started. So Cool. So this will be audio and video. Just so you know, we mm-hmm.

started as an audio podcast, but, uh, I think for those watching, maybe we could see some of the products you, you brought. I also have like, um, product videos. You can also that in if you want.ok . But [00:07:00] uh, like the first product and what we sell, like really internationally now in like 25 countries, um, it’s like normally in America you call likes saran wrap.

Mm-hmm. or GLAD wrap or clean film or whatev, wherever you’re from. So what you do is you use it like you would the plastic wrap and then you can wash and reuse it for up to two years. Yeah. So they come in all kinds of slices. This Christmas market, we’d finally have tourists back in Chiang. So we made some [00:07:30] elephant prints and we print on organic cotton.

And, um, since the launch of the Beeswax Wrap, we just continued to try and find, um, and develop products that can replace single use plastic. So plastic you would use in your house or your bathroom, or your laundry, where you just like. Use it once and throw it away. Mm-hmm. and yeah, so it’s been a really, yeah. Great.

Yes. Nice, great journey for, for me it’s a good mission too, right? Yeah, really. It feels great. [00:08:00] Yeah. So then you say, so you, you kind of like developed this, I’m kind of curious just to process how you. You’ll have to come to the production. Yeah. I feel like I was, yeah, it was maybe another video we can do.

So I made the first, uh, I cut out like a old table and I created the first equipment. I think like looking back, that whole like first developing the product, that was definitely like such a happy place for me. Like when I think about that, like developing the [00:08:30] product and the equipment and how to do it and.

Yeah. Finding people to help and Yeah. That hot. Yeah, really fun. Nice. Yeah, so you just like wrap it and it sticks and you can put it directly on food and we, we had to get like food safety certification. Mm-hmm. and stuff, which is really hard when you have an innovative. Product that no one’s ever tested before.

I could imagine being first is always hard , but it’s, uh, it’s, it’s, uh, it’s also innovation, which is ex [00:09:00] exciting. Yeah. And it fits our name of our show, global From Asia. We started a podcast in 2013, uh, to help people like what you’re doing, starting and growing a company within Asia. And you know, a lot of times it’s China and Hong Kong, but we’ve done some in other parts of Asia and this is definitely so.

So you’re selling, you, you have a Thai company and you sell all around the world from Yes. From the Thai company. Yeah. And it’s not easy. Mm-hmm. , , I can imagine. [00:09:30] Not like bureaucracy in general and administration and working within government, you know, tax and so on. Like when, you know, I’m not fluent in Thai, I don’t read and write it so well.

So I have to trust my, my team and, and you know, I think it just works actually. , but it’s not. It’s not easy. Yeah, it’s definitely, definitely international business. Is, is, uh, is, uh, ? Not easy, but it’s kind of fascinating. [00:10:00] It’s, it’s fun. It’s fun, right? Yeah. Like a challenges challenging. Like, I had friends like who live in Australia and she.

You know, if I was to live in Australia, there’s all these government departments that can give me advice and you know, tell me how to do things and grants and funding and everything. You know, it’s all kind of there. But here you just have like limited resources. And then there’s like, if you are not Thai, then yeah, you’re limited.

Like you don’t get it cuz you’re a Thai director and these things are really like hard [00:10:30] sometimes. Yeah. I dunno if you wanna share some tips about the process for those registering here. You know, I know there’s, you know, might be a sound boring, but I know people like to, to understand. I think people wanna know.

They do wanna know. I think people ask me a lot. I know. Um, so yeah, there’s many ways to skin a cat. Mm-hmm. , right? So there’s different ways. There’s obviously like a BOI. Yeah. That’s the popular, that’s the one where I keep hearing where. You [00:11:00] can fully a hundred percent own your business as a foreigner. You can employ as many foreigners as you like.

Um, you don’t pay tax for the first few years, but it kind of depends on the category that you’re in, these different categories. Um, actually the office at the BOI are really friendly and helpful. So like before you took the route of like getting a lawyer and all that stuff, I would advise like to go down to the office and just like inform yourself first to kind of like, [00:11:30] know if you’re even eligible.

Mm. For it. Um, it’s a lot of tech companies or e-commerce, like people who are like developing apps, they tend to get much. Epa. I understand. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like Thailand a big challenge is like company and immigration. Like they’re sure they’re more challenge, I guess. There’s more people don’t want to live here, so they don’t need to attract people.

But, [00:12:00] uh, visas is always something in Thailand I hear. Um, it’s not that bad. Like if you have a legitimate business that you can hire for Thai people. and you are making money and you can pay for your visa and pay tax and mm-hmm. , do all of that, then I think it’s really not that hard. Okay. Like people are like, oh, it must be hard.

But in a way, for me, the process was not hard. It just, you just, you know, go through the list, do this, do that. Yeah. [00:12:30] And so on. Well, I think a lot of the other probably ones I think is hard are the digital nomads that I really don’t want any, any kind of commitment. Yeah. Or any kind of investments. Yeah.

Don’t we always throw that ? But yeah. I mean it’s kind of relevant to next part. You have like staff and operations and, and uh, location and everything. I think that’s why it’s quite trouble free for me because I’m employing local people Yeah. And helping the community. And I’m involved in the community and I’m not.

Just like enjoying [00:13:00] life in Thailand. Yeah. And giving back. Like our business is also a social enterprise, so it’s part of our like kind of mission, our objective mm-hmm. is to like pay it forward and you know, try and make it prosperous for, you know, more than just me. . Got it. I guess that makes sense. So, yeah.

I also wanna be prosperous, but Yeah. Well I think, you know, I try to tell people about government, Or you know, I set up a company, they want you to add value to their country. Right? They’re not just like trying to give you no, no tax, no [00:13:30] cost, no. Right. You, you, well that’s part of the BOI. The concept is like you have to show that you are giving something to Thailand that they can’t necessarily, or don’t have the resources to do right now.

That you would maybe like train people or. , give something with your expertise if you come from overseas. Mm-hmm. . And that’s valuable too. Yeah. Okay. So what were some of the, the hardships that you overcame? I mean, you’re, you’re a, you’re a mom, you’re living overseas, you [00:14:00] know, you’re starting your business or was pretty straightforward, I guess.

You had a good launch with the video. Yeah, the launch was really good and I think we were flowing quite nicely up until maybe Covid hit. Yeah, yeah. That was kind of tough for us, but I think it was a good opportunity. I think it had been too easy. Mm-hmm. for me the first few years so I had to like put my big girl pants on and really like look [00:14:30] hard at the business and you know, look at profitability and what we really needed to do and, and yeah.

I think it was a great experience. In the end, great learning experience. Yeah, I mean, I, I know covid was hard, but I feel, I guess what you’re mentioning about retail, so you’re selling also locally. Yes. I mean for locals, but you’re, yeah, you’re doing, I know you’re doing multiple channels and everything.

That’s a lot. So yeah, like our [00:15:00] biggest customer pre covid was like European, uh, retail stores like Homewares and Giftware and airport shops and all these things kind of closed down at that time, although we were on Amazon and everything. So that just kind of kept us running. But it was just interesting to have to pivot and.

call some products and um, we also had to let go of people, which was really, really hard. Yeah, that hard. Yeah. Yeah. That’s hard. That was quite tough. But in terms of like having a business in Thailand, it’s always [00:15:30] difficult communication cause it’s like another culture. So you have to, to manage things in maybe a different way.

Yeah, I, I feel. I feel it’s most in Asia too. You gotta be more sensitive. I feel that’s my Sure. Where Western, especially Americans are like just di pretty straight direct and it usually, I, I, especially in China, but also Thai, I think Thailand, you can, I’d love your, your input, but [00:16:00] I have, you have to be kind of delicate to delivering this to them.

Yeah, it’s. I like it because it is about kind of slowing down and that whole like Buddhist lifestyle of like slowing down, being present, thinking about like where you are and what you wanna say to someone and yeah, I think that’s, yeah, definitely increases my mindfulness perhaps. Yeah. But in Australia or America’s probably more like gang ho.

Yeah, they’re kind of, I kind of like, I’ve been here so long, my [00:16:30] friends in the west say have become more Asian or. , like less direct, you know? Mm-hmm. , like, I kind of have, I kind of like let more polite , maybe. It’s polite. I, I like it more. I kind of, I feel like some western friends of mine are so aggressive and direct, you know?

Yeah. Like, but it’s a nice lifestyle. We do have some problems here. Like for example, during Covid, it wasn’t as covid. It was because, , um, extended our range of products. [00:17:00] So during Covid I also launched about like 10 new products, which was probably not so smart, but somehow I pulled it off and we survived.

But we wanted to get like a loan from the bank, for example. Mm-hmm. And our numbers were still good. And, um, what would happen was the banks here in Chiang Mai be like, yeah, Shauna problem. They come and visit us, we show them the books and you know, they know that we’re a legitimate business for more than five years and whatever.

But then it would get to Bangkok and they’d be like, Nope, foreign director. No, [00:17:30] not happening. And that happened like a few times. And yeah, it’s really disheartening because like Lords and I like my husband, we run the business together, he’s the IT guy still. Great, great. And yeah, it’s frustrating cuz we try to do everything we can to do things right here.

And we’ve lived here for 12 years, so, you know. Yeah. But it’s just how it is. And in the end we found a bank, um, it’s called XM Bank if anyone wants to know. Ah, thanks. It’s only for like export and import and you need [00:18:00] a PO Yeah. Purchase orders. Yeah. Um, to get it. But still, they gave us credit now and it just Great.

Yeah. It’s really amazing. Nice. I went, I brought them lots of gifts. . Yeah. Like that’s great to know. They, because even like changed my life. Yeah. . Yeah, I think that’s one of the hardships in Asia, especially as west, I guess probably any foreigner outside of our home country. . But in the US there’s so easy credit.

I think even non-Americans in the US can get credit fairly easily. Sounds like you have them two babies there. . [00:18:30] Yeah. You’re born like, here you go. Here’s a credit card. Here’s a loan. . Sorry. It is kind of, that is some troubles. It’s almost too easy. But I know Amazon sellers too, like they can get financing pretty easily if they’re a US company.

Yeah. But here you can’t even get like a credit card. ,So uh, we have like kind of credit cards, but they’re debit cards. You have to put money on them to use them. Yeah. And you know, if you said to your friends back at home, I can’t, I can’t, I can’t have a credit card for my [00:19:00] business to run my business if it’s just insane, wouldn’t it?

Yeah, that’s true. Everybody gets. , but it kind of makes you, you can’t grow as fast, but it makes you a little bit more conservative. We’re debt free. Debt free. Yeah. Debt free is away. Yeah. And that’s amazing. So I’m, I’m grateful in a way. Sure. But it’s still nice to have it and you need that kind of backup sometimes, depending on orders.

So, um, here it works like if you. Borrow, if you would just go and buy like a TV and a car, all, like, don’t pay cash, like [00:19:30] always go on credit. You have to like show that you can pay off credit a lot and then you can get like a credit card for 2 million bucks. Oh, but I don’t need, yeah. Anything . Yeah. I, I use, uh, I mostly still operate through Hong Kong, but uh, I have one credit card there, but I’m starting to use a debit card just because it forced and I have funds.

Mm. Yeah. It’s better to keep it under control, especially with like internet fraud and stuff. Mm-hmm. , it’s really on the rise in Australia right now. Everywhere. It’s [00:20:00] scary. Last pass, I used that and they heard they just got hacked again. It is a serious one and I’m just so, so paranoid. . Sure. It’s scary. It’s scary.

Yeah. So back, back to business and. . So you’re sourcing, we were chatting when you’re walking. So these are from all kinds of different farms all throughout? Yeah, so the beeswax comes from a, a pharma co-op. So it’s, the hives are actually placed between Chiang Rai and Lampang, which is, I don’t know, [00:20:30] I’ve heard there, I think I’ve maybe 600 kilometers, maybe seven, maybe longer, I don’t know.

And there’s just like beehives and then it all gets collected in one place. Mm-hmm. , and then it comes. and um, the cotton, we imported from India in the beginning and then we found a Thai supplier, which was great for a while. Nice, nice. But Covid killed them. So now we’re importing from India again, which has its own challenges.

[00:21:00] Um, , but it’s great cotton and in the end I think most of the cotton, the best quality comes from there. And it’s still within Asia. So we have a really tight supply chain. Cause everything’s coming pretty much locally. Yeah, I like it. Yeah. And we make everything here and, and then we’re shipping overseas, so we try to keep our carbon from print also really low from having like local supply chain and yeah, we don’t have supply issue.

That’s nice to hear. Right. And nothing from [00:21:30] China seems, I was waiting to hear China. We do, we have like this bamboo cup. Okay. So we, I actually got them made. Someone wrote me from China. Hey, we can put your logo. So I just bought some from my team and some friends and then they got really popular for them.

We put it, yeah. It’s hard to avoid, you know, I still do a lot from China. Yeah. I mean even in Thailand, I think I’m studying the studying the low, you know, And a lot are still buying or raw materials from China and things. So Yeah. [00:22:00] And it’s not far. Yeah, it’s not far. There’s also stuff coming road by road.

Oh, there is interesting. That’s good to know. Yeah, there’s some sneaky Covid, road transported learning it. Maybe cut that bit out. I don’t know. , I believe, let’s keep it interesting. Yeah, it is interesting. Yeah. We have a guy if you need one. Awesome, awesome. Okay, that’s great. And let me think, so the hardships, I guess the, we talked about the [00:22:30] company set up and you’re hiring the company Limited is a different.

So we have a Thai company, limited. We’re not a Boi. Oh, you’re not? Okay. Yeah. So we have Thai shareholders. Mm-hmm. . Yeah. Interest. I don’t know if you wanna give some pros, cons or tips or, okay. So it’s like this, you can. . The law says that a foreigner can only own 49% of a company limited. But of [00:23:00] course this weigh around that.

So you, a lot of lawyer or law firms will, um, I don’t know even know what that’s called legally. Are they like silent shareholders? Yeah. I’ve heard I’ve something. We’ve talked to this people here. Some people can. They, the law firms will provide you with these violent shareholders who sign like a non disclaimer or something that says actually like the shares belong to you and, and so on.

It’s a little bit strange. You just have to be like, [00:23:30] you know. Yeah. This is Asia. Yeah. Um, I chose to ask two very close friends to help me now. Oh, that’s good. That’s great. And in return, I share, um, dividend with them. Great. At the end of the financial year. And just being to let it be known that I’m glad I didn’t have some random people who I don’t know.

Because if you changed law firm, let’s say you, you don’t like them anymore, they will have that connection. Mm. And not you [00:24:00] and I very, very regular, especially with Amazon. I need my shareholders. Yeah. I think I was telling you what happened. Issue one of my shareholders let her passport expire. So you, so you.

You need to have actually Thai shareholders, I think people that are close to you that won’t mind running to the bank to sign something on a Tuesday afternoon or send you like, um, that, you know, passport copies or, um, they have to do like a credit [00:24:30] check, for example, for the loan and things. So you definitely, for me personally, I think it’s just nicer to know my shareholders.

Mm-hmm. and. Um, but I know maybe other people they don’t, but most of my friends here, they usually have a Thai partner. So for Lutz and I like, like you and Wendy are also already Yeah, yeah. You are not Thai. So, yeah. It, it’s just a bit complicated and it’s just like the way probably [00:25:00] thousands of foreigners just do it here and you just like do it and just keep going.

Obviously, if you wanna sell your business, I. It gets a bit tricky. I’m not done. I know it gets done and it’s, I don’t know. I mean, there’s two ways of, I mean, there’s two ways of selling a business. One is, uh, selling the full company and the other is selling the assets like they don’t need to. , the complications of the shareholders and the company they buy the, the accounts, the ip, the brands [00:25:30] understand.

So that’s how a lot of investors do it. You know, even with the Amazon businesses that buy and sell, they’re just doing asset, asset sales, not, not company sales. Right. Interesting. I’ve sold before and then I’m stuck with the company . I basically one big one’s not complete . Yeah. Right. They don’t want you to course just redo it with a different name.

Mm-hmm. . So that’s important to the buyer. But usually they like kind of leave you with that liability cuz they also don’t know what you’ve signed or done or you’re like [00:26:00] financing and stuff like that. Mm-hmm. . So usually the, of course it might be, but yours might be different cuz you have employees and they want to maybe keep those people but if it’s just the assets and the and sales channels.

Yeah. It’s interesting cuz like we’re not just e-commerce like  Because a lot of people who live in Ang Mai, for example, most people are really digital nomads. So it’s always, it’s kind of, I feel a bit lonely sometimes. , . Cause I have like operation we’re men a manufacturer. You know, it’s more [00:26:30] valuable though designing product device.

So we do it all here. So it’s sometimes really hard for me to find like people that are doing similar things that are not just digital. Yeah. Interesting. But I love, I love that we’re doing that part. Yeah. That’s real You know, it’s harder, but it’s also value and uh, and can, like you said, impact more people locally.

Sure. And add more value to the economy. Yeah. All, I think, I think we’re wrap getting to the, the wrap up. Uh, of course [00:27:00] superbee.me. I love the, the name and, uh, people can buy it right off the site or it’s on Amazon or stores. Yes, I know you have some big stores you sell to and Yes, we just got into the, my supermarket in the US Yes.

Great. And. . Yeah. They make also great corporate gifts who have like gift boxes and that’s a good one. I think it’s nice. Is that Luna? Is she in the shop? Hello? It’s there. There’s a dog there. Yeah. Hi, Luna. Luna. Oh, Luna. Okay. [00:27:30] Um, yeah, I think it’s nice just like in general to think about like where products come from and, you know, waste and you know.

What we’re doing for the planet. Great. Yeah. Thanks Annie. Thanks. Really pleasure. Thanks for having us here. It’s really an amazing, amazing place and wish you all the best in the growth of the company. Thank you. Okay, thank you. Thank you. And thank you to our sponsor, our returning sponsor, mercury.com online bank, well Real bank, but to a totally online free for US.

Our Blimp [00:28:00] program. Participants are going through this as well. Thank you, mercury. Travis is great there. It’s been on our show, it’s been in our events. We’re gonna have another event. Where we will have them attending as well. And if you wanna get a little bonus for you and us, if you sign up and do some special circumstances, you can go to globalfromasia information.com/mercury.

I also have a video tutorial that we use even for the blimp. People use the same exact video to learn how to use it. Uh, I hope you can check it out totally free. Why not see you there? Thank you, Annie. That [00:28:30] was fun. I took the kids, Wendy went with me. We did a recording. We had some catch up. Saw some of her set up there.

Really cool. Really, really nice. I learned a few things. I hope you learned some few things. Thanks. Thanks Annie for sharing, and we hope to get her more involved in what’s happening here in Thailand. Also, the borders of China are opening. I think one is, Show goes live. They have just reopened. I’m seeing articles like they’re limiting like 50 or 60,000 people per day, but I feel like things are getting [00:29:00] back to normal.

I think 2023 is kind of getting, it only took three years of Covid, but I think maybe China, Asia, the world will be reopening. We got a meetup planned here in Chiang Mai at HU 53, like old times. If you’re in this area, you want to meet up on Saturday afternoon, January 28th at Hub 53, 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM I’ll be there with the one of the founders of Hub 53.

She’s [00:29:30] really great. We met up. We’re talking about Amazon and e-commerce and other things. It’ll be a free one. Just get people together that are here and a couple weeks from now, save the date. Or check out out@events.global from asia.com. Also, I got my book here. I haven’t talked about her too much, but Snook on the team is working with us.

Don introduced us. She’s great. She’s working here with us in Thailand. She’s a local Thai. and she helped me get these books printed. They’re pretty huge. These are my, my favorite book Of the four I’ve written E-Commerce Gladiator, but we [00:30:00] also of course have China Startup Hong Kong Supercharged, as well as Destination China.

So, you know, print those out too for the events and for the meetups. Also going hard into Cross Border Summit for November. Still gotta pick a date. I think we got the venue. We’ve been talking to some people about speaking already. Gotta get that going. We’re printing out X banners, printing out signs. You can see my backdrop, trying to get things back to normal, trying to reignite things.

If you’re interested to getting more involved with the community, [00:30:30] would love to do that. We also have our GFA, VIP online mastermind. Every month things are rolling. Things are pushing. I mean, if anything, it’s been, I’ve been working my butt off harder than ever, so I just really am excited to get into the 2023.

This is the first show of the year. I’m gonna try to get to China. Friends have already trying to re-invite me back. Of course, I, I have a lot of great business and friends there. I’m just excited to get the world back to normal. Hope you are [00:31:00] too. Let’s just keep on working hard. Doing our best, trying to have some fun and make some connections.

What do you think of my new setup here? I kind of had to move some things around for this recording. Got the GFA backdrop, but I know a lot of you just listen. You know, actually, some new potential guests on the show are listeners for a long time, and you know, I think they’re on pod beans, they’re on Spotify, they’re on iTunes, they’re on WeChats or on Avalanche or something like that.

There’s everywhere. So wherever you’re listening or watching, I [00:31:30] hope you enjoy this show, trying to keep the show engaging and fun, and educational and unique. Thank you so much. But keep November in your mind for Cross-Border Summit here in Thailand, I’m most likely Chiang Mai. I think I’m just, I don’t want to, I don’t know.

I, I wanna stick it around here. Thanks for watching or listening. See you all later. Bye. To get more info about running an international business, please visit our website at www.globalfromasia.com. That’s  [00:32:00] www.globalfromasia.com. Also, be sure to subscribe to our iTunes feed. Thanks for tuning in.