Never spend money on marketing again! [Podcast ep.033]

Never spend money on marketing again! | Ep.033

Click above to listen, and scroll below to read a full transcript.

In this episode, we share some fascinating secrets, including:

• How big brands source from the Far East?
• How Apple made concessions for WeChat?
• The key to success when trying to build a product in China.

 

Simple. Free. Advice. No Obligations. 

Listen to all our podcast episodes here.

He Was Forced To Go To China To Save His Business But Now He's Launching His Own Brand | Ep. 020

How E-Commerce And Digitization Are Changing Sourcing | Ep. 016

See David featured in...

• CNBC Made it, alongside titans like Shark Tank's Barbara Corcoran and Serial Entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk

• Business Insiders David Hoffmann with Gary Vaynerchuk and other successful leaders on how to respond when employees royally mess up.

Podcast Transcript 

Estie 0:37
We've been having a blast already guys you are in for a super treat. David is a serial entrepreneur building multi-million dollar companies you know for fun, he's led the international trade powerhouse Global Regency shipping products over 200 million people pa I don't even know what that is. It's over

David 1:00
dollars in dollars. Ah,

Estie 1:02
it's like listed funny, okay. And he's been CEO for over 15 years considered an expert in China sourcing supply chain, private label, and brand licencing. And I'm excited to dive into all the China stuff, especially with everything that's going on now. So he left the corporate world working for public companies opening retail stores around the country while overseeing buying and marketing as director to pursue entrepreneurship and left for Hong Kong in 2002, which is where he's based out of So did we have a lot to talk about? Like, a lot? We do. I feel like I want to dive in just by asking, what does it feel like when the company hits the multi millions, like when you see those numbers the first time and you're like, Okay, we cross seven figures, what like what goes through your head?

David 1:53
That's why we work so hard. You just ain't go well. That's why We stress out every day and have chaos around us every day. Because that's the goal.

Estie 2:05
And then do you just go like, okay, I made it, I'm done or does it then go to the 10 million?

David 2:11
No, you start panicking worrying how you're gonna keep it there. Yep. And what you have to do to maintain it and sustain it and grow. It doesn't end.

Estie 2:19
I love that you said that. I love so much that you said that. Because anyone who hasn't been there doesn't believe it. And everyone who is there and has been there knows exactly we're talking about exactly. Because when you start you're like, Can this thing work? And then you're like, Can I get a big enough and then you get a big enough you're like, Can I keep it this big?

David 2:39
And you literally wake up every day stressing because you've got so much business going on and so many responsibilities and obligations around it, that you start going up. But why did I want that first place? Oh boy. Are you worried? Keep it

Estie 2:53
Yeah. And then you're like, is this what I was trying to do? like is this what I was going for?

David 3:00
Exactly, exactly. Everybody always thinks, like, Lucky giving up the nine to five or the corporate world or whatever it is to start your own business journey. And it's going to be great. And they're going to have this freedom. And I always say, definitely not, it's the complete opposite, you're going to work 10 times harder 10 times longer hours with 10 times more stress, but in a weird way, you're gonna like it

Estie 3:22
totally. For me, it's always worth it. And I say the same thing. If you're not doing less work, it's it's the freedom and the flexibility and the, the autonomy, if you will, you're in charge. It's an in charge thing. You know, and have a line with slide right these like, if you're starting your own business, you have more time. You could also just have triplets so you get more sleep.

David 3:43
True. 100 a day like Yeah. But you're right, you work harder. And I think one of the things is, is that in a job, you screw up and you go on to the whole bunch of people in your business, you screw up and you do screw up loads. I mean He doesn't, but you just take it on the chin and you go Okay, well, let's move on, get it right and carry on. And that's what the freedom is.

Estie 4:12
Your audio disappeared. What just happened? Hold on. Well, I know. Okay, now we're back. Hold on. I'm gonna make a note that will cut it at. I don't know, cuz I wasn't tracking time. Yeah, it keeps messing up on my screen. Five minutes. It was totally fine until that moment. And okay, I just I made a note for the editors to find that like, Oh, I will tell them I was waving my arms. They can search it on the video. Right there.

Unknown Speaker 4:39
bloopers. And we were saying we were saying

David 4:45
automatic, owning just being able to take it on the chin and ya know, and not have to answer to anyone.

Estie 4:51
Totally, and in a way you answer to more people, but it's not the same. You know what if I need to take off from Something so I can cancel three client meetings. So I'm cancelling three people instead of asking one boss, but I'm telling them not asking. And I feel like that's kind of the difference. It's like, I can't make this meeting when you have the boss like, please, Mr. Boss, I would really like to not have this meeting. if that's okay with you. He pleases you, Mr. Boss. And you have to figure out how to fit those clients. And you have to figure out how to make them happy.

David 5:23
But it's on you. Okay? But exactly, it's on you. And you know that you feel comfortable within yourself, if you can manage that change, and if it's going to be compromised, or not compromising and you make those choices for yourself, and nine times out of 10 they're okay. And you get to live the life you want to do the things you need to do. And that that to me what it's all about.

Estie 5:46
I love it. So what kind of companies have you been building? What are your companies? Do you have multiples? Do you pick one then you finish and you sell it and move on to another one? Do you have multiple ones running? Like what's your style,

David 5:58
so Because I think it's a style some people, they build it, they sell it out, they do a new one. Some people, they build it they automated and they move on to the next one and they oversee it. Like everyone's got a certain style. Yeah. So I think I'm just my style is just opportunistic. So, you know, I've been I've been lucky very much in my earlier years to have great mentors that I worked with, who later became my business partners. So like, I was lucky that my bosses became my partners, and good friends as well at the same time. So I was very lucky to be opportunistic. And as opportunities presented themselves, I was able to take advantage of them. And I never ever to be totally honest, had a game plan on any of them. It was just the sounds like a great idea. We can do it, we should do it. And we do it and I mean, loads of things have not done well and we just quietly shut that down.

Estie 6:55
Really just sweep it off to the side. No one has to know

David 7:00
Sometimes I'll meet with a guy what happened with this thing that you're doing. And I go, What?

Estie 7:06
Do you have any good epic failure stories?

David 7:10
Sure. Well, we launched a clothing brand. About two years ago, actually, that's an epic, epic failure. Well, to be fair to us, so our background actually, and my background is we've run retail stores, we've run online businesses, we actually had Australia's second largest online retailer, I, our businesses have always been around products, actually and sourcing products from China. And that's kind of been our backbone. That's why I originally moved out to China because with businesses that we were buying products from manufacturers building our own private label brands and things like that. So everything we did was off the back of having that infrastructure and that resource, always product based.

Estie 7:55
Okay, and you weren't creating, you weren't patenting, you were sourcing things that already existed. And sometimes private labelling them, but you were just adding your label to something someone else already made.

David 8:04
Yes. So that's how we started. And then we started licencing brands where we could licence famous brand names and pay a royalty and then take those same products and put like a world famous brand on them and get a much higher margin because I will

Estie 8:19
explain this, what is this?

David 8:21
Okay. So you can go to China, yeah, find a product from the manufacturer. And you can put any brand and you lock on what we call a private label. Right? Right. And you make up the name and you stick it on this one. When you go on Amazon, you see the same dress with seven different brands on it. Exactly, exactly. So, so if you rate so so you can make your own brand. And that's great on your own brand. And that's probably another whole long conversation. But what you can do is you can also licence brands, so there's a lot of brands that exist in the world that have kind of toned down their operations, or maybe they were known some time ago, and they've kind of lost momentum last year. Whatever. I mean, there's always a story behind it. And you can actually go to those original brand owners and licence their brand from them, which means I'll give you permission to use their trademark. And then you can go and put that on the products. So they don't

Estie 9:14
care, like you're ruining their name, or they're just not using it anymore. But what is different scenarios,

David 9:19
it really depends on the brand. Some of them care a lot, and that you need to work with their quality teams and they approval teams to make sure it meets the brand's image standards, but they do it because they know they can't into certain markets or certain countries or things like that.

Estie 9:37
Oh my gosh. So that's why you can have a known brand in one country and if you buy it in another country, it completely different stuff, quality, everything. Like you make that happen. Yes, that is so cool. I love learning back ends of business. I didn't know that

David 9:56
thing. I'm amazed that you could connect to those dots.

Estie 10:02
Wait your audio cut again? No.

David 10:04
Yeah, it keeps a zoom on to take your speaker please check your speaker setup but I'm here my laptop I'm not doing anything differently is what i'm i'm going to shut down a whole bunch of other apps just in case I causing a conflict.

Estie 10:20
All right. Fine. We'll make it work.

David 10:22
Yeah, yeah. It's weird.

Estie 10:26
I mean, um, you were saying you were amazed about something that it did.

David 10:29
I was amazed that you picked up and connected all those dots so quickly about some brands being different in different markets. I'm impressed.

Estie 10:35
I always wondered about that. Okay, I get it. So you licenced the brand name, then you white. You take that name from some other country that exists. They have the brand equity and have the reputation and you sell it on some whatever thing you pick up in China. Exactly. And much quicker

David 10:51
for you to kind of spend that money building a brand and a reputation right,

Estie 10:56
for sure. Genius.

David 10:58
I love that. Yeah. So challenge for the brands that do that or allow that is how do they maintain their quality

Estie 11:05
control? Totally. And,

David 11:07
and that's what we do in China. But how do you help maintain the quality control for them based on what they need? So so we do both, we actually design products, we maintain the quality for them. And we actually take on the brand in certain markets. So Aaron cobbler that deeply integrated those opportunities. Okay. And by the way, a lot of brands really stuff up their brands like that. And so, yeah, and some do a really good job, you know, so it's not a perfect science, but I mean, it happens a lot.

Estie 11:44
Now, it makes so much sense. And I've seen it so many times, and I've always wondered about it, and now I understand it, that's really fun for me,

David 11:50
and it's bigger than you think a lot of people do it.

Estie 11:53
I really believe it. And I really believe that and I've seen it, and now I'm going to kind of look out for it even more But I it makes so much sense. So what was your epic fail that you tried to launch your own brand?

David 12:05
Well, we tried to launch our own clothing brand, which was a mess of mistake. I mean, we thought we kind of made people that were kind of really into the clothing and the fashion space and everything was to be fair, they were and they had a good social media following. But there were a few problems that we didn't understand about the industry. And we probably lost over a million dollars already on that in two years. Which I'm still licking my wounds.

Estie 12:33
Yeah, that hurt. That's a bunch of money.

David 12:35
Yeah, it does hurt. It could have been a lot more but at least I can say we did it a bit more responsibly than most would. Very high solder would have actually done it even more differently, but it is what it is. But I think we kind of learned the problem with clothing. As we understood

Estie 12:56
it, you cut out the problem with clothing is

David 12:58
Yeah, I can see it keeps coming up. You're dealing with judgement Firstly, but I keep getting the same error.

Estie 13:04
You want to try to log out and log back in. Yeah, let's do that. Okay, I'll be here.

David 13:09
Okay, okay.

Estie 13:30
Hello. I are back. Are we back? Yes. And I realised I missed a whole important chunk of your bio. My bad. I really should we just started

David 13:42
Oh my god.

Estie 13:45
We have good stuff here already. We're gonna keep going. Exactly. We're gonna keep rolling. How's your how's your audio now? Is it happy?

David 13:52
I don't know. It seems happy hasn't complained yet.

Estie 13:54
Excellent. Well, we'll give it a whirl, Becky. Okay, so You're saying what you realise now I forgot,

David 14:05
I don't know, what I realised is that we don't know a whole bunch about clothing and you know, you need difference, need different sizes for every single colour. So the amount of skews you need is insane the main entry level holdings or particularly high because of the sellout of the good stuff. And you because you've got so much inventory, you don't want to buy the good stuff back. And, you know, that was our one massive mess of oversight. And then the other oversight we had, which was be honest, is it was the first time we got involved in a business that we're kind of relying on social media to draw off sales. And we don't know much I know a bit more about it now. But I didn't know much about it then. And we certainly weren't any good at it either. And I realised that you know, just having, you know, a couple hundred thousand instances followers doesn't translate into a business or sales.

Estie 15:04
No, it does not.

David 15:07
Yeah. And I naively thought it did.

Estie 15:10
I believe that a lot of people do so definitely kind of stuff that I do.

David 15:15
I love

Estie 15:17
marketing and not wasting money on it. I actually got an email from Lorcan 50 company on the back of my entrepreneur article on the six marketing money wasters. And this guy wrote, basically he said he's like, fortune 50 company, you think we know better? But we don't

David 15:38
promise you I've made so many people sense that I realise most people don't actually know what they're doing what they're talking about. And when you find the magic ones that do, it's actually easier than you think. And you're very simple and clear answers.

Estie 15:52
Correct. And I would say if you if you can't say it quickly, it means you just don't understand it well enough. That's easy. That takes you a long time to explain it. You don't know it.

David 16:00
That's what I say if you want to spend under 30 seconds you don't understand my mocks acting up again zoom

Estie 16:06
yeah it did I cut out again

David 16:10
what's it saying on the audio intake? Maybe just have a quick look here at settings preferences tests because MacBook Pro attach it to same as system I mean, should matter. Make a difference, you know advanced, huh? Can you hear me now?

Estie 16:29
I hear you fine. I've heard you find a whole time except when I don't hear you at all.

David 16:33
I know it just keeps bashing my screen over imagery and then saying microphone. But as like everything's both in I'm just using the MacBook. You know what I mean? Yeah,

Estie 16:42
it's super weird. So there is a backup plan. If it's being crabby, you can always dial in and record the audio from a dial in. Okay,

David 16:51
so should trolleys carry on trying because I changed it from gaming the same as system default or MacBooks. I just changed them both to default maybe it's just happier We'll try

Estie 17:01
and find out and if not, we can always do a dial in show my editor is gonna have a blast with this one Sorry guys. I know good luck

Unknown Speaker 17:08
this These skills are great. And okay we were saying no marketing and stuff and I just people explain it simply and quickly though just don't get it. I like that all right okay,

Unknown Speaker 17:25
we got like

Estie 17:28
okay marketing catching up to it yes okay. No and this is it in it in a way it's so validating I feel like for small business owners who make the exact same mistake cost them maybe a little less money because you kind of true what they say the bigger they are, the harder they fall.

David 17:47
Absolutely. Exactly hundred percent. And honestly, I tell people because I I bought like a lot of entrepreneurs who bought products from China and like that's one of the things we do and like I just said in like, honestly The biggest shortcut to success is the right mentor in everything. You know, I just speak to guys that have been there done that though. They'll give you an answer straightaway.

Estie 18:09
Yeah. And it makes such a difference. I agree. We recently had something that went exactly according to plan, just not my plan. And I spoke to some of my top guys who do this and I'm like, What did I miss? Like, oh, this this this this? I'm like, thanks. Did you want to tell me that beforehand? Like what we just figured you knew? like, yo, no,

David 18:32
no, I didn't. I had no idea.

Estie 18:34
I didn't know that. I didn't realise that that was a thing. But next time I'll make sure to just come to you and say I don't know. Start free. I don't know. dizzy, pretend I know nothing. I will keep my mouth shut the entire time.

David 18:47
Exactly. Yeah, no. 100% that's what I say experience is the best teacher right

Estie 18:54
100%. I know so many more things now. So the current things that you do So you do the licencing, you do the selling. And you also advise or source like you're now helping other people do the same thing, right? Yeah,

David 19:10
so so what I did was when my stay in China been really servicing our own businesses, and we've had a few business partners that are like really huge companies buying massive volumes out of China. So it was always that kind of very vertically integrated all the services we did. So I recently started which is kind of my new I call it a hobby, but it's my new business. It's the business that makes us the least amount of money but the one that I like the most and seem to spend the most time on I don't know why that is. Service versus product. Exactly. Yeah. So so called Global t QM. And, and we basically offer people services in China and how it really started was Because, like I tell our friends family, you know, all over. And like they all trying to buy products from China or source stuff and start their own little business or things like that. And they're all I'd always get an email or phone call from somebody. Oh, hi, David, do you know, your uncle gave me your name said maybe you can help me. And I'm a great yeah. And, and like I mean this goes on and on and on and everybody in that, you know, of course you can't say no and they say oh, I'm happy to pay you and I go well, whatever I charge you you're gonna be unhappy because you don't you won't appreciate the amount of time that went into doing that because you don't really understand what goes on behind the scenes. And the truth is like a lot of the things that have trouble like I said, Okay, well just email me the details are caught me in the next email. Let me try and understand what's going on with your lock supplier. And then I like I got to give you one example. I get an email. That's They'd be around for like two and a half months on a song call. They'll try to assault from a factory and they were promised and we're getting it and so frustrated, called Jenny one of the girls that worked for me. She'd been genuine have been fighting 1213 years now. And she's in China speak Chinese. She lives in Chinese. And I said, Jenny, do me a favour. Can you just call this factory or listen to the message? Just call this God affection. Find out what the hell's going on. She comes back 10 minutes later, they're sending us on both offices. Often he didn't understand what the client was asking about. He was as confused as she was for two months. Oh my gosh. I was like You kidding me in and out repeated stories like that. So I wanted to figure out how can we break down like what we do all day every day into kind of bought sauce services. Think my audios gone again. It went

Estie 21:53
again. Yeah. We're back now.

David 21:57
We back. We're back. So So I wanted to just kind of figure out like, how can I? How can I monetize it and help more small entrepreneurs, you know, to, you know, find a way around China and navigate around China, we got a huge office and resource there, they don't. So how can we put that all together? So it took me probably about two years of kind of fiddling around messing around trying to figure out that model, but I kind of feel like we quite close to I think we kind of figured it out now. And and then, you know, so like, we will take entrepreneurs, I'll call ourself tell us what the products are interested in or what they want to launch on Amazon or, or in their business, you know, not all of them are online sellers. And then we help them sourcing from China and you know, we, during the process, we teach them and mentor them how to do it themselves. Because that's what most people don't get, actually is that like, that could never pay for our services because it's no Less communication hidden, it's running a bit, it never stops you talk to your supplies all day, every day, it's always promised always kind of go to someone and say, Oh, you mean I'm going to pay at night You can't. It's your business, you got to deal with your own vendors and suppliers. So I kind of modelled it in a way that you can kind of learn as you go. And then over time, you don't need us as much anymore. And you know, successful ones will continue on their own and, you know, nurture their own supplier relationships and just use us for transactional things when they need us that you know, fit maybe physically checking a product or physically going to a factory or things like that. So, you know, that's kind of that's kind of my passion project at the moment. And

Estie 23:43
it's so needed. I have so many clients, so I work mostly with service based businesses. And I also a couple clothing lines, actually so I could have told you

Unknown Speaker 23:53
that Josh couldn't make up for

Estie 23:56
like a year ago. I've, I've I've helped a couple like I like to work with them. Nice clothing lines because I always wanted to be a fashion designer so I just lived carelessly for my clients and

David 24:06
I'm going to show you what I did want to know where we went wrong.

Estie 24:09
Look at it look at it with you. And so I saw all the time right and I had some amazon seller clients as well and they really get stuck and they don't they don't know they don't even know what they don't know. So what would you I guess you already do tell people this but like how does someone source a factory they have to call a company like you do they have to fly out to China like some of my all of my people that are the most successful all go in person out to China they go out to shows and meet people in person. Is it even possible for someone to do this if they're not able to go in person? And no one I know speaks Chinese. So how does that part work? Yeah, so I mean, and

David 24:49
I think my audios gone again, we're back now. We're back. Yeah. If you really hit the nail on the head with with that question, because people Come to us. And that was one of my reluctance is originally when I started this kind of thing was, you know, how do you offer a service when the result almost expected almost a guaranteed failure in most cases. And it's in education because there's no simple answer to it. The reality is, if you're in the product business and you want to build a product or sell a product, it's got to reflect you. And that means you getting on a plane, finding suppliers, finding products you like you talking to the suppliers, and try and explain to them what changes you want to make. It's very hard to translate that through a middleman, you know, it just it just doesn't work. Because all that's going to happen is you end up taking a middleman and saying everything is your fault. Why didn't you get this or why did you get that wrong? It just doesn't work like that you're dealing with a manufacturer. So you know, and the other thing is, I mean, how many times I can tell you I've gone to supplier or to a trade show with something in mind and I come back with a complete different An idea, because you see things and you learn things and they show you other things. You go, oh, wow, maybe that's better, or I never thought of that. So for me, I think it's a combination of those things. You know, I think, I know people that have successfully, you know, from what moving from a chair, bought an online business, and they've never gone to China, and they've been lucky. But they, they search online, they ordered this on boards, asking people to check it out, and to help them and it can work. For me, I moved to China because closer I was to the factory is, the more successful we were, and feeling and changing. So but I do think like you got to at least have regular visits to your suppliers and to trade shows. And even if it's once or twice a year, you know, and then you need some resource on the ground to take care of the daily you know, transactional stuff nitty gritty communicating, or you know, checking up on things. So, that to me, I think the right way, you know, how resource on the ground and do your buying trips and your visits.

Estie 27:04
That makes sense. But how would people even figure it out? Like I know some of my clients have had so much trouble finding factories that they're happy with. And then the delays are insane. I mean, then with Coronavirus, it's completely out of hand. But like all the newbies they're like, what what is Chinese New Year? And why did it just ruin my life?

Unknown Speaker 27:23
You say that? Yeah, what he's telling you,

Estie 27:26
it's a month when nobody works, and it's always different. And it just like ruins their entire supply chain management, and then they're just like, we didn't know that that was a thing. And last year was a different thing. And all of this and, and what I still don't get is if you don't speak Chinese, how does it work? Do they speak English? And a lot of factories Do they have like a translator or an English speaker that will interface with people? I have never like when I go to manicure places and everyone's chattering another language. I never know what they're saying.

David 27:51
I know it's funny. It's so so so so

Estie 27:54
I don't speak Chinese. related with me.

David 27:57
How do you live on habit? China invoice me Chinese a little bit not speak Chinese. ago well The best part is that I'll be caught up in any office politics. I don't know what's going on all I know is is a diner is it not done? Can I get Oh can I not see it so you learn but I think most of the manufacturers now in China can speak English

Estie 28:19
it's worth it for now.

David 28:21
Yes and especially because I export as if they exporting and selling to the rest of the world. They've normally got English speaking staff or beer it sometimes it's more broken in English or words are different. It's like any language with this translation. You've got to be a bit more patient and comma and wrote that front half their written English is much clearer and better than the spoken. So like always say reconfirmed by writing bullet point things just break it down a little bit. There's always written Yeah, and honestly like if a supplier can't speak any English at all. My advice is run a mile Just too many details in any business to have to worry about somebody who doesn't even speak at all the language, right? And most of the factories, you know, the bosses can't speak English, but they employ an English sales team and then they can interact with their boss. So, you know, so that's okay. I mean, obviously all masked off speak Chinese. So we have lots of meetings that help me translate because it's quicker and faster and things like that. But on the whole, I've just moved more and more towards English speaking suppliers where I feel I can communicate well with them. Because there's too many problems happen from misunderstandings.

Estie 29:36
So how did someone find a supplier? Like I would like try to ask the questions. I know my listeners are thinking and I know there are always people sitting like, okay, so I want to start selling on Amazon or I've got an idea for a product I want someone to manufacture it, or I've got an idea for a prototype like and they don't even know where to start. And I don't think and time rekt me if I'm wrong, but I'm thinking on aeroplane is step one. Where do they start?

David 29:59
Notice way to start is building like an RF q right, which is kind of like a request for quote, which is that literally to dumb it down, think of it as a PowerPoint presentation, where you've got blank slides, and you drag and drop images of things you've seen or like, and that you want to kind of change and vary and you make notes on it, like a sketchpad almost literally cool, then, then, because it's very hard to like, get people to understand what you're thinking about. Or it I think we lost, we lost

Estie 30:33
it for a second, you were saying it's hard to get people to understand what you're thinking about.

David 30:37
Yeah. So the best way is normally to draw it out or, you know, grab images from different sources and mock them up and just, I mean, rough, rough, rough is fine, you know, then you can go online, you can go to Alibaba global sources and just start finding suppliers that work then make similar products or work with those materials. Literally just reaching out to them and talk to them is hey, I've got an idea for a product. Can you quote me on it? Send him the pictures in the drawing. I mean, that's how a lot of people start and then you know through that you'll find some guys clueless some guys on off to talk to and they online now with Scott with WeChat with WhatsApp, although WhatsApp is harder for them in China. Why? Because it's blocked by the Chinese government. So that no way

Estie 31:28
China blocked WhatsApp completely.

David 31:30
Not completely. But most of the domestic mobile phones are blocked. Because Yeah, because that was what was encrypted. So that

Estie 31:40
no way is no telegram either. Super encrypted WhatsApp is like child's play. Yeah. So unless you got VPN, and a lot

David 31:49
of the guards do download a VPN and it's very, what's the

Estie 31:53
virtual private network guys, for all of you listening? Yeah. So I like to translate acronyms for everybody otherwise, I've ever had that issue. You're sitting, you're like, What are you talking about? So Virtual Private Network, which allows you to browse the internet without being traced because if you don't have one, by the way, you're constantly being traced. Yeah. So they tell it a VPN.

David 32:10
Yeah, the data, the VPN in that can use it, but like WeChat Do you use WeChat?

Estie 32:14
Now, I don't know what that is.

David 32:16
Okay, so this, this is gonna blow your mind, okay? Because the fact that you don't know what WeChat is, it's like me saying, email it to me, David and go to Facebook. And I said no.

Estie 32:29
So WeChat is like the Asian chat. It

David 32:33
is humongous. It is bigger than big. It is massive. So in China, everybody, you talk through WeChat you chat through WeChat you pay with WeChat. It's almost a halo effect. Oh my gosh. I don't know anybody in China who carries cash anymore. Anybody. And I include the street vendors or net equation everywhere you enter with it. Yes, Crazy Taxi Driver, there isn't a human being alive in China that you can pay with WeChat nobody carries cash anymore. That's scary.

Estie 33:09
It's scary. The WeChat the government, like

David 33:14
why did they let that one interesting story WeChat own it's actually listed his own back 10 cent 10 cents listed on the NASDAQ. So you can I don't even know who that is okay. And you know, to hold me accountable, but I would buy the shares. Because I just don't see how that's just not global domination eventually. But anyway. Yeah.

Estie 33:36
Sounds like,

David 33:37
no, it's amazing what we checked, have mastered what a lot of these like our social apps are trying to master, but to China, and it is just an

Estie 33:48
ecosystem that people live in that does everything

David 33:51
for them. Yeah, in fact, Apple even had to make a concession for WeChat because within the WeChat ecosystem, you can download other apps Because we chat is so big, there's an apple, couldn't you that's a violation of F box, you know, they don't allow that. There's no chance you can exist in China without WeChat it's like oxygen.

Estie 34:14
That is cool. Okay, I am definitely going to check this thing out. But we chat to all our suppliers

David 34:19
on WeChat and our whole office on WeChat. And they send you pictures images. I mean, it's so easy now,

Estie 34:26
I'm gonna take a look at it sounds like it's like five in one. It's like black. What's up, Google Apple Pay

David 34:34
zoom Skype like it is it's exactly what it is. And, and to be honest to you is not mind blowing on any level. But like, it's just it's like, just Domine it's,

Estie 34:45
well, the simpler it is, the better it is to use. You know, one of the reasons I like WhatsApp, a little bit more than telegram even though telegram is a lot more secure. bH base is just a teeny bit more intuitive and that little bit makes the difference. Well that's why I can't get off

David 35:01
WhatsApp onto on this page because I just love being able to go back to the thing and quota and wait that long

Estie 35:10
that's my favourite part of the whole thing

David 35:13
exactly such a game changer tiny efficiencies that make

Estie 35:17
you know life better. That's

David 35:19
exactly exactly so yeah

Estie 35:21
okay so search online the finally about a How do they know if the person is good? How do they know if they're going to get their stuff in time husband's gonna look like I've had people try to get a colour and it comes back like a completely different colour.

David 35:34
Yeah, and that's exactly why started global EQ to fill that void because you don't know and there is there is no way to tell. I mean they'll say oh, we're verified supplier you know we've had site visits, audits, things like that, you know, but I just you know, I know for a fact that's all rubbish. I mean, I deal with suppliers at time, you know, Walmart supplies and Walmart audited. I call my friends up at Walmart and they got no they're not in our database. How do you know rods? Anybody can put a logo up on their signboard? And so you don't. And that's why it's really becomes a part of that is building a relationship. You know, the more you communicate, the more you get to know them. The more samples you order, you'll start seeing, I think,

Estie 36:20
yeah, so the more samples you order something,

David 36:23
yeah, you'll start seeing the deficiencies coming out and the inefficiencies. You know, and that's, by the way, like, one of the things that I do for a lot of our customers is like us.

Estie 36:36
Right now, we broke up may not one of the things you do for your customers.

David 36:42
Yeah, is we do like a sample concierge service. Because I say to them like that they order samples that they get Korea, from China to America or Australia or wherever, and I get them and they're complete garbage and then they're so depressed the two weeks Get up paid for them it cost me a fortune. What do I do now? And I go Yeah, you started getting an audible and I go That's why I live in China to reduce all those aggravation, all those aggravation that's the reality so, so so what I do for them NASA, okay, get all your samples sent to our office in China because it takes one or two days, we do a Skype call we go through them all with you, we can pick up any luck discrepancies or issues, hold them up to the camera. And like then, you know, straight away okay, send that one over, send the rest back to the factory awesome to change them because they weren't any good. And like, I mean, that just saves weeks and weeks of time because there's there's just no way around it. We ordered tonnes of samples, iteration after iteration so we get it right. We visit our suppliers, we check their production we we meet the buses, you know, it's like any relationship How do you know you? You start dying Seeing and realising how it

Estie 38:02
goes. Are they stepping on your toes? Are they a good partner ever though?

David 38:07
Exactly. So,

Estie 38:09
yeah, and it's a place for people to source like, I know, a guy reached out to me. I remember where he was from, I want to say Bulgaria, but that's wrong. But I've had people reach out to me that they're trying to launch factories, and they know that I know people who are looking manufacturer, and so you know, all kinds of people, all different parts of the world and a number of my clients purposely manufacturer in America, because they just cannot crack the China code. like they've only had disappointing experiences. And so they'll pay more and do it locally. Like, would you tell somebody like no, it's worth it to try and crack the code? Are there other places and obviously, China is your favourite live there, but are there other places people should have their eye on other up and coming? places like what what are your thoughts on that?

David 38:52
I think I mean, there are other places but they exist mostly because of like trade tariffs, issues and things like that. We

Estie 39:01
had it back over when they issued all the new trade tariffs. Like if this past year what what happened when?

David 39:07
To be honest for us? It was good. It's we're gone again.

Estie 39:13
Yeah. You said it. Well, you know, for you it was good.

David 39:16
Yeah. And I'll tell you why. Because we don't ship a lot to the US.

Unknown Speaker 39:23
So you're fine.

David 39:25
Yeah. But what happened was a lot of the factories that were shipping to the US, their customers weren't buying a lot. We're starting to let them down and not sure. So they became a lot more desperate for more business. So they suddenly became a lot more like accommodating. Yes, so like our service levels went up, like some fetch economists have you never contact us? Unless we like desperately begging for something we call you. You know. So we had a good side effect there. Although it did hurt a lot of factories in I mean, I know a lot of cars actually went out of business and just really, really struggled. So it wasn't a good situation. But there were some I mean, other markets I think benefited from that and and I think some factories actually found a broader customer base and and kind of diversify their reliance on us business. Which is not a terrible thing, right?