#300: Amazon FBA Guide to Sourcing in Mexico

Title: Norman Farrar Introduces Francesco Racanelli

Subtitle: “Amazon FBA Guide to Sourcing in Mexico”

Final Show Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDtQBb3_Wtc&list=PLVIz0IewRSqDUVXG_IAXsVx9ZWE8_Vanz&index=6

Back on Lunch with Norm… In this episode,  we are joined by Francesco Racanelli from Carbon6! Today we are back from The Mexico Trip and EVOLATAM Tradeshow. Find out what we learned about sourcing in Mexico and if it’s worth it for Amazon sellers. Francesco works at Carbon6 helping entrepreneurs from all over the world, while still working on his business.

If you are a new listener to Lunch With Norm… we would love to hear from you. Please visit our Facebook Page and join in on episode discussion or simply let us know what you think of the episode!

In this episode, we discuss:

• 0:00 Intro & Housekeeping
• 07:24 Welcome Francesco Racanelli!
• 08:43 Sourcing
• 12:21 Building that relationship
• 18:35 Potential in Mexico
• 22:05 Logistics
• 32:33 One aspect of the trip is communication
• 37:03 Mexico was such a friendly country
• 39:06 Finding sourcing agent in Mexico
• 46:45 Huge opportunities in Mexico

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Norman Farrar  0:01  

Hey everyone, it’s Norman Farrar, aka the beard guy here, and welcome to another lunch with Norm the Amazon FBA and eCommerce podcast. In this episode we’re going to be talking about, well, we just got back from Mexico, a very successful Mexico event. So we’re gonna talk about sourcing in Mexico, and the overall evil atom trade show. So we’re gonna find out what we learned in Mexico because we know a bit about it, but we got to learn a lot more doing business in Mexico. And basically a little bit about the trade show. I think it’s important for everybody. So stay tuned. And Kelsey hit the music. 

Norman Farrar  0:57  

Alright, first day back. Wow. So today we’re again we’re gonna be talking about sourcing in Mexico n the evil attempt trade show. Our guest today is an E has eCommerce experience. Since I think it was around 2020. He was working over at Charles Schwab Charles Schwab but decided to start an eCommerce company with his sister growing into six figures. Now he works with carbon six, helping entrepreneurs from all over the world while whilst still working at the business. He’s excited for what’s to come in eCommerce and how the world is going to change with carbon six. My guest today is a first time guest, Francesco Racanelli. Okay, Kelsey, before we get to Francisco, can you hit a word from our sponsor? If you’re selling on Amazon in 2022, you know how important it is to stand out from your competition, let alone a worldwide lead to helping hand with your product innovation to out-compete your competition online. That’s right, sit back, relax and enjoy the success of your newly innovative product. While Hono handles all the work. Visit honoworldwide.com For more information, that’s honu H O N Uworldwide.com or email savings at honoworldwide.com. Okay, where is the Boy Wonder? 

Kelsey

Hello, hello. 

Norman  Farrar

Well, how are you sir?

Kelsey  2:34  

It feels strange to be back. I mean, it was nice, though.

Norman Farrar  2:37  

I guess it feels strange for you not to be out at all hours of the night. I might

Kelsey   2:42  

be a little sleep-deprived. That is correct. Yep. But it was fun. It was a good time. It was my first ever eCommerce con conference. And hopefully, I’ll be out a couple more times this year. Getting to meet everyone. So yeah, looking forward to meeting the community. And it was a lot of fun.

Norman Farrar  3:01  

It was but while you were out doing your thing, I was back in bed tucked in at around nine o’clock while you were out till like four in the morning. And I saw the pictures and the newspaper articles.

Kelsey  3:16  

Yeah, yeah. So just hold your breath. Everyone. There might be some pictures coming out. Just no judgment, you know,

Norman Farrar  3:24  

zero judgment. Okay. What are you supposed to do? What’s your job? Well,

Kelsey  3:28  

first off, I want to say hello to our audience. Abraham VFB. Entrepreneur, Brad. It’s great to see everyone if you’re watching from anywhere in the world. Let us know where you’re watching from. It’s good to see cool hand 99 And Chuck polling. Great to see everyone. Let us know if you have any questions about sourcing in Mexico, this is kind of a recap of what we’ve learned today. So yeah, let us know we got Abraham from Pakistan. Good to see you. And of course, we start our show by smashing those like buttons. Give us a thumbs up if you are enjoying it. If you have again, any questions or comments, put them over in the comment sections. This is a live episode. We were doing some pre-recorded episodes beforehand. While we are away, but we are back at it. Also, don’t forget to join the community. Join our Facebook group lunch with Norm Amazon FBA and eCommerce collective that’s where all the fun happens. That’s where we can make fun of norm and just connect. And yes, of course, Episode 300. We’ve got our 300 episodes today, which just kind of came up

Norman Farrar  4:33  

out of the blue. Right? Well, we did the pre-record it was like this is this is 299 Oh my gosh. 300 is on Monday. So what we’re going to do, by the way, and I don’t think I talked to you about this is usually on these milestones. 300 is a milestone for us. We want to do something special for our community. We don’t know what that’s going to be it might come out on episode 301 302303 But just let us get settled back in here, and we’re going to come up with something. I’ll let Kelsey, think about that for a while. And also, this episode is all about sourcing in Mexico. And, and you know the importance of it. And just as we bring in Francisco, I do want to give a few shout outs to a few people. So let’s not forget about that, Kelsey.

Kelsey  5:22  

Of course. Do you want to do an hour? Yes, we can. Okay, all right, the floor is yours.

Norman Farrar   5:27  

Well, why don’t I throw it back to you? Because you are partying with everybody.

Kelsey  5:32  

All right. So there are a lot of people. And we might

Norman Farrar   5:35  

miss that. Well, you probably miss a ton of people. But let’s start with all the Aziz. So the Aussies have have have got to have a huge shout out for coming out and seeing that trade show.

Kelsey  5:47  

I can’t believe they came to Mexico, like some of them just went, just came to go to Mexico and then are heading back on like a 26 hour flight. So congratulations to you. I don’t know how you guys are doing it. Also, we had some beard members or your nation members, Christine, and Richard. Karen Ryan, there’s so many people I don’t want to I feel bad saying names because I don’t want to leave anyone out. Right. All right. So it was just amazing to see everyone and yeah, but we

Norman Farrar  6:15  

do have to give a shout out. We got to give a huge shout out to Tim Jordan. Amy Wiese, Susan Talal, yeah, you’re your favorite guy right now. Nicole, the everybody who was part of the team that put this together? Well, we’ll get into this show today is about Mexico. And we’re gonna get into it in just two seconds. But none of this could have happened with without everybody coming together and making this happen. It it blew my mind when we got there.

Kelsey  6:51  

Yeah. And I just want to mention also that we do have a we’ll have Kelsey, and she also mentioned carbon six was a huge sponsor, they were the primary sponsor their primary sponsor, so that it could have couldn’t have been done without the help of carbon six. So I should say that as well. But yeah, we can get started.

Norman Farrar  7:08  

Okay. All right. So if you do have any questions, throw them in the comment section. If you if you have any comments, throw them in the comment section. Other than that, sit back, relax. Enjoy the episode, grab your cup of coffee. And welcome our guest today, Francisco. Hey,

Francesco Racanelli  7:27  

Norman, thank you so much for having me. I’m so hey, here with you.

Norman Farrar  7:31  

Yeah, this is great, because I got yet the last minute you were Yeah, it was the last day last hour. And it was like, Hey, how would you like to be on the podcast? Monday? Let’s talk about this.

Francesco Racanelli 7:39  

I know, I know. I mean, the the event? Oh, it was incredible. We had such a good time. And and we learned so much.

Norman Farrar  7:46  

You know, that’s crazy, isn’t it? Because one of the things most of what I thought was gonna happen and what I would learn, just it surpassed it. But I had no idea. The quality of everything that was in Mexico. It blew my mind. So I I thought about Latin America, and all these other countries. But Mexico has so much to offer. I couldn’t believe it. Yeah, it’s true. It’s true. But anyways, why don’t we talk about this? So when you were looking at coming down to the trade show? What were you looking about? Why were you so interested in being, you know, coming down and and being part of the whole thing?

Francesco Racanelli   8:37  

Yeah. So basically, I’ve been selling online for almost two years now. And I always thought about sourcing from China. Even though I was born in Venezuela. I never had the idea to source from Latin America. But now that I went to the show, my mind changed completely. How they sourcing work from Mexico?

Norman Farrar  9:00  

Yeah. One of the areas that I looked at, and I don’t know if I should go here now, because I was gonna bring this up a bit later. But why don’t we? Why don’t we go back to the trade show itself. So for those of you who didn’t, didn’t attend, or didn’t quite know about it, what we’re trying to do is open up people’s minds, open up people’s minds to North America. Sourcing there’s certain products in in the US that you can you can get at like the digital products and the beauty products and the supplements and there’s a lot of stuff that you can get, but people didn’t think south of the border. And if they did, if I were to take a survey, I’m assuming that you’re probably thinking kind of cheap crap. You know, the old China days. And that was not what we saw. When we had the idea. We wanted to break this up. into an area of bringing education to us and the world, just education about Mexico. We wanted to educate the manufacturers on how to deal so we actually had sessions on to the manufacturers on how to deal with, with Amazon sellers. Then we broke it into sourcing. And then there was a trade show. So like, I didn’t the first time I saw the trade show anybody saw the trade show is when I walked in, I saw the sign I walked in. It was an impressive trade show. And then we finish it off with a mass mastermind with with a lot more information, not only about Mexico, but just more advanced techniques or selling on Amazon. So let’s go back to the just the sourcing in Mexico, was there anything that stood out in your mind about the sourcing side of things?

Francesco Racanelli  10:59  

It did. I mean, like many times, we only think about China, as I mentioned earlier, and the things are in Mexico, they get the same resources. And price wise, it could be the same as in China.

Norman Farrar  11:12  

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And I don’t know who it was. Somebody was up on stage. Yeah, it was a really good slice. Yeah, there was fantastic slides. But if anybody is listening, we probably can’t wait. But I, it’d be interesting to see what you think, what’s cheaper China or Mexico. And what blew my mind was the average labor cost in China was $7 per hour, the average labor cost in China was $3 per hour. That was, I had no idea. Now, the other part to this too, is when I was looking at sourcing, and we went out to that sourcing factory. Now I have to clarify this, I was sicker than a dog that day, I had altitude sickness, which I didn’t even know existed until Tim Jordan almost caught me in his hands. But, you know, you guys went out. And you got to see the sourcing factory, or the ceramics factory, and you spent the day out there. And one of the things that I think we all learned is building that relationship, just like we do in China is very important. What are your thoughts on that?

Francesco Racanelli  12:26  

It is I mean, especially in Latin America, when you’re trying to source from suppliers, they gotta trust you. First, it takes a little bit more time in China is a lot more direct. In in Latin America, they want to like learn about you. And then there’ll be the best suppliers in the world. But it takes some time to build that relationship.

Norman Farrar  12:49  

What do you suggest? Like how do you how do you reach out? How do you build that relationship?

Francesco Racanelli  12:54  

I mean, it’s a little bit harder because in in Latin America, we don’t have an Alibaba. In China, it’s so easy to find suppliers, right. But in Mexico, we don’t have an Alibaba yet. So that’s one of the benefits of going to the will attend trade shows that there were so many good suppliers that you could do business with. And you could just talk to them directly.

Norman Farrar  13:15  

Yeah, and the other the other part of this, so the trade shows started with different Latin American speakers, which was fantastic, because I don’t know about you, but going into Mexico. So if a lobby, of course, works with me, so I’ve got I can lean on Apple lobby, but the average person doesn’t even know where to start. So sourcing agents were there and the sourcing agents that we had, were fantastic. So they were able to if you’re looking for something, and you can’t find it will either tell you it doesn’t exist in Mexico, or just us, us and you can leverage us and some of the products so what do you think some of the best products are for people to source from south of the border?

Francesco Racanelli  14:04  

I mean, that people think that is only oil, because that’s one of the main exports of Mexico, but in reality, they got all the materials to source from like, it could be from a plastic chair, all the way to ceramics. There, they got so much potential in Mexico a it’s just not one product normally so many. Yeah. So many.

Norman Farrar  14:25  

Yeah. So like to give you an example, CNC would you have ever, ever thought that CNC would have been something from Mexico that you would go to I would have thought China or plastic injection like just injection molding the same thing. It’s not my first choice. I really wouldn’t have done that. I think. I’m not sure if Amy said that she was going there, or if she was moving her molds there. But anyways, I know that she had got her molds made in China then brought them over here. that’s very similar. But you can you can get molds made there for me. Holy crap I went to when I walked through the aisle, so there was an area for everybody to eat lunch, I walked out, I saw this little soap maker, it was the most incredible soap, I bought one of everything. And not only was it that it was soap, like just regular soap, all natural cold process soap, it was so like just for shampoo, because I didn’t know this. But for shampoo, it’s completely different than for like regular body. So there was body lotion in soap. So it was in a soap bar, but you didn’t melt it. But out of I think at the show, there’s probably three or four different places where I got different soap products that I’ve never seen at all. And so I was buying up the whole bloody tradeshow.

Francesco Racanelli  16:01  

And the thing normally say when you talk to manufacturers, you gotta go with an open mind. Like, even if you don’t see your products on the booth, let’s say you want a plastic product, you have open your mind, because they might be able to make it for you, even if you don’t see it on the booth. So that’s something that I learned as well. Well, when you will learn,

Norman Farrar  16:19  

we were talking with Samuel over at the ceramics factory. So I he had a booth at the trade show as well. And my soap dish. So natural soap is not like any normal soap, you have to have it where it separates. So if your soap if you’re using a cold process soap, it just turns into really expensive lotion. If you just let it sit in a soap dish it melts. So anyways, I talked to him about it. He says, Yeah, we can get you out a sample. In fact, Paul Baron within a few days of going to that factory. We were doing a presentation the very last day, he had already received samples of the the product that he wanted from that ceramics. We were already wasn’t four days or five days later, he had received images and is this rate and they had made him samples?

Francesco Racanelli 17:16  

Yeah, I know. Like the thing that I will recommend sellers they do is like once you find a product, and you look at all these manufacturers try to find like keywords, like on seller tools, you know, and see how it was a keyword research, how much is the volume, and then you take your right decisions? Because you might like the product, but the data needs to be there on Amazon.

Norman Farrar  17:37  

Right? Yeah, so and one of the things I want to talk to the listeners about too, is, if you if you have any questions, if you have any questions about sourcing in Mexico, or if you have logistics issues, or anything at all, if you have friends that are looking for products right now, outside of China, ping them, get them to listen to this podcast, because I think Mexico is definitely a viable source 100% viable source. If, if you’re looking for something, something outside of of you know, China now, you might have to look at different materials, you might have to look at different quantities you might have to look at. There’s a lot of things differently, but if it can fit in to your mold, no pun intended, but if you can fit into the mold, then Mexico would be perfect for you. Because it’s

Francesco Racanelli  18:34  

there’s so much potential guys, you don’t understand how much potential there is in Mexico like after going there. It just blew my mind. Oh, the potential there is in Mexico like it’s just so much like it could definitely take your business to the next level if you actually start so sourcing from Mexico or any country in Latin America.

Norman Farrar  18:52  

Now, I just saw a quick question here a comment from rad asking about solar products, believe it or not rad solar products that come up. Now, I can’t tell you where I can’t tell you, you know, the manufacturer. But I can definitely lead you to a sourcing agent that could probably get you to the right manufacturer, but sourcing solar solar products in Mexico, which I would never have thought of. But the they I heard while I was there that they are available. So let me dig into that. Just contact me afterwards and I’ll see what I can do to help you out. All right. Now, did you Was there any type of products that surprised you while you were there?

Francesco Racanelli  19:40  

Any products in particular? Yeah, I mean, both. I mean, the things that I learned also, before going to Mexico, I thought that the stereotype was just ceramics. That’s what I was expecting to see, to be honest, only ceramic products. But after going to the booth, as we mentioned earlier, we had plastic cups Funny shampoos, cream. Like, I don’t know, there was even a grill,

Francesco Racanelli   20:06  

the use of the barbecue company name.

Francesco Racanelli  20:09  

I think that was next to the carbon six booth like the barbecue company. Yeah, so, so many cool products, guys. So, so many.

Norman Farrar  20:19  

Yeah. So one of the things that you got to do is just kind of break the mold of what you think Mexico is all about. Now, one of the other things that we were talking about is the communication process. So you know what I’m doing today? I don’t know if it’s because like, I got to bed at three in the morning. But I am saying so, so many times.

Francesco Racanelli  20:44  

At Norview it was we were there. Like for eight days. I’m also so tired. I got here last night, and I went back to the grind.

Norman Farrar  20:53  

Yeah, when you know, Chelsea said, oh, yeah, don’t forget about the show tomorrow. This is like, oh my god, I gotta get up. It literally did. Yeah, like, half hour before we got we started podcasting. I got out of bed. So if I’m not on it today, just that’s the reason I am I am whipped. So I can’t even imagine what Kelsey is like, because he was out every night I was in bed with, you know, with, with the sheets, you know, at nine o’clock,

Francesco Racanelli   21:20  

because I’m old. But I went out with Kelsey, I gotta say a few times to I saw that picture.

Norman Farrar  21:27  

And also, I saw that Fanny’s just tuned in to so Hey, Fannie and Richard, were there. So you know, I’m glad you had a great time. And it was really great to meet you as well. It’d be pretty interesting to hear what Fannie thought about that? Because she had come down to Mexico, you know, with her husband? And finally, can you put any information in about, you know, maybe didn’t meet your expectations? Was the quality different? What did you find any products that that you didn’t think you’d find? One of the other things that I think is important to talk about too, is logistics. So if we go into Supply Chain Management, one of the horrible things that has happened over the last two years is this whole. Okay, you wait your your four to six weeks, then it comes over here, then you’ve got the ships all lined up on Long Beach, then they you know, travel over to, to the Amazon warehouse. In Mexico, it’s a whole different story. And also the the samples. So the samples, like I said with this right, it was a ceramics. So it was ceramics, but it was done in days. And the product could have been done in two weeks over the border quite quickly. And you’re off selling so. And one of the bigger things is you don’t have the 25% Trump tariff. Now, even if it was a bit more expensive to look at or to work with. You don’t have to worry about those tariffs, which you know, could kill anybody. But once again, going into Mexico, I would be working with a good broker, somebody that that can help you out. I think the there’s a ton of sourcing agents that are down there. And that could definitely be a source for you. And one of the I know through honing, you might pay a little bit extra. But it’s so well worth it. Like you’ll probably get a better price anyways. So whatever you pay will be made up for just in that.

Francesco Racanelli  23:36  

I know. Yeah, I’m going back to the samples. I actually ordered a few samples from China a few months ago, and I got the Express. They came by air and we got delayed for and it took me almost two weeks to get samples from China. Here in Mexico. You can get the samples in like, I don’t know, way faster, like way faster.

Norman Farrar   23:55  

Yeah. Yeah. So I see. Fanny commented. Kelsey, could you read that out? I can’t read it. Because I’m seeing

Kelsey   24:06  

Yeah. Oh, there you go. See it. So Christine is saying we thought it was eye opening. The trade show had so many different products. We were mostly surprised that most of the most of the suppliers were not yet selling in the US or Canada. Interesting products, the biodegradable plastic products, lots of skincare lotions and creams. And I know that barbecue supplier, they were selling all the way south to Argentina, but they haven’t crossed the border yet. So huge potential there.

Francesco Racanelli  24:36  

Like we are so early. Guys, like no one knows that many people are sourcing from Mexico. So you don’t want to be you want to be early on this game because I have a feeling that in a few years. Everyone’s gonna be sourcing from Latin America because he makes so much sense.

Norman Farrar  24:52  

Well, I’ve mentioned this on the podcast a few times. So our family bought a lot of UVA in I’m EBA foam in bad not Mexico, China. And we did for years and years and years. And the best foam, the best cost was definitely coming from Taiwan or China. Well, at prosper show, I bumped into a father and son team out of Columbia. And their EBA foam is as equal to or better at a very, very, very competitive price. bringing it in, and you don’t have to wait, you know, six weeks to eight weeks to get your product. And it’s right there. It’s in Colombia, and you can get it in half the time without the tariffs. So things are changing, there is a paradigm shift going with, you know, instead of going to China, China, China COVID is really opened up everybody’s eyes, and people are looking at different countries along the Pacific Rim, or you know, in in India, or coming over to Latin America, my focus right now is I want things I want things that I can control more, most of my products are made in all of my soap products are made in North America. All I am, I’m placing an order today, for I’ve already contacted her, the lady and we’re going to be doing some some work with her. And I’m gonna be placing an order very shortly she’s making my samples I’ll get them. And they’re not tons. Like I’m not talking about huge quantities either, which is nice. So I can test them out. See how people react to them. And guess I love it. Not people are going to try to chase this down and figure out where I’m getting this really unique soap from now everybody that was at the bloody trade show knows where I got the soap from because they probably all saw this lady. But the other thing too, that was it. I would have thought like textiles and ceramics. Those were the

Francesco Racanelli   27:06  

things that I was saying made me to

Norman Farrar  27:09  

pusher. Like you said, Who would have thought about biodegradable plastics?

Kelsey  27:18  

Yeah, and Christine actually just said, as well, they’re actually only a few textile manufacturers. She’s expecting more. But as Mexico is a huge source for that. But it was great to see the high quality of the apparel from regular casual clothes, traditional Mexican clothes and even medical scrubs. So, yeah. And then.

Francesco Racanelli  27:37  

I mean, we had a few manufacturers at the actual Expo. But there’s so many out there that didn’t go to it. Because this was only your first one. Like next year, we got the trations gonna be for two days. There’s gonna be more suppliers. So

Norman Farrar  27:53  

yeah. So you blew my cover? Oh. All right. All right. So thank you so much, sir. The big announcement, everything was so successful. And we are going to be having another one in February. So while we were there, we made the announcement that it is going to be in Monterey in February and it’s going to be a two day trade show rather than a one day. But we’ll be keeping everybody posted for that. I just, I’m just Yeah, I saw would Abraham said Yeah, norm is obsessed with soap I am I’m I’m I am a SOPA Holic I like I am this is where you can kind of reach out even with ceramics like if somebody gets tied into ceramics, you want to try this, you want to try this type of ceramic or that type of or? I mean, it’s for almost any industry. But for me, it’s all the different soaps. You know, there’s all sorts of different processes of soaps. There’s all sorts of soaps for you know, all things. So, getting to meet artisans. And I only met one artisan at that show. But I met or sorry, I met two or three artisans at that show. And then there was some liquids. So producers, you don’t one of the coolest things I saw is this is what the guy gave to me at the show was this little add on thing like giveaway. And they said, Oh, would you like this pencil? And I thought, No. I don’t want to carry anything. They said, here’s a pencil. And when you’re done with it, here’s the seed that you can plant in the top. So it was you just cracked the seed and now it grow. And I thought wow, that’s kind of unique. It’s just a different thing that now that you’ve used your like the pencil, you plant the seed. I just thought that was a little bit different. Yeah,

Francesco Racanelli   29:57  

and not regarding the trace. Next year, oh, carbon six is also going to be unexpensive. So we’re super excited to be the sponsor again. Oh, wow.

Norman Farrar  30:09  

I heard about that. Yeah, a little birdie told me. But that’s, that’s super you guys were fantastic, you know, as the sponsor this year, I mean, we really couldn’t have done it without you, and then for next year, so we all thank you, everybody involved. Thanks, you.

Francesco Racanelli  30:24  

My pleasure. And honestly, guys, if you want to take your business to the next level, we got so many resources that are actually going to help your Amazon business, I know that many seven figure sellers at us are using our tools, and you should be using them as well.

Norman Farrar  30:40  

And we can kind of run through that towards the end just before the will of Kelsey. But I do want to, first of all, ask your questions. Anybody who’s got questions about the Mexico trip or dealing with Mexico, we’ll try to answer them for you or will point you in the right direction. You’ve got a great giveaway today.

Francesco Racanelli   30:59  

Yes, so we’re going to be giving a month for free on any of our tools, you just can reach out to norm, Kelsey and I will give you the month for free.

Norman Farrar  31:08  

You’ll find out today or during the week, Kelsey, so if you’re interested in getting any of the tools that you like, for one month, just hashtag Wheeler, Kelsey, tag two people, and we will, we will enter you a second time. So it’s just hashtag, we’ll have Kelsey, geez, I haven’t said this for 10 days, it kind of feels strange. Or enter or tag two people and you get a second entry. So why don’t we just go to a word from our sponsor, the Legion is your go to community where you can learn, grow and build your Amazon and E commerce business. As you know, being an entrepreneur can be lonely. Now you can share struggles, build a network and celebrate your successes. And guess what our community is free. All you have to do is head over to our Facebook group to join. You can also watch us on our YouTube channel at private label Legion so you can stay up to date with tips, strategies and advice from other experts in the industry. Okay, remember one thing to get all this great information, follow us subscribe and ring that bell so you can get automatic notifications. Okay, so coming back to the overall trip. One of the interesting aspects of the trip. It’s the communication. You talked about family when I went to China the first time, which was about 2025 years ago. Oh, thank you very much. I’m getting coffee. But we went over our family started doing business in Taiwan in China. But the first meeting that we always had, it was so strange, nobody’s going to believe me. But you didn’t talk business at all zero. They would ask you questions, we would use a translator. And then we talk about family. The next day that we’d go out. If we had a good connection, we’d go out for dinner. We do some business with them. But it was so strange. And I kind of get that feeling that that it’s along the same lines in Mexico, like when I went when I couldn’t go to the factory. But when I met that family, we hit it off in the ceramics family. And they were so nice. And in fact, what the Okay, so for you guys, when you went to the ceramics factory, now, imagine this, you go out there for a little tour. There’s a 90 year old grandmother that came down to say hi. And they made they made a lunch, they made moly and they had a really nice lunch for for you guys that we didn’t even expect. I mean, they just wanted to welcome everybody and be part of this community. And they they went way out of their way. And I really believe that if you can, and it’s so much easier to do it in Mexico than that bloody trip to China, go meet a supplier go and see if you can communicate one on one break bread, you know, hire a translator. But I think it’s so important. And what I’ve also found, and I haven’t, I’ve got to look more into this is the translating part of it, because a lot of the people that we were dealing with at the show, we had translators at the show. And so I’m trying to figure out how we can communicate better. I don’t know if you have a way of figuring that out. But a lot of them have an English speaking every person to take care of it, but a lot don’t. And so I’ve got to figure that site out. And you know, I’ll bring it back to the group.

Francesco Racanelli  34:56  

Yep, I take on that and also guys do that. I go to Mexico, people don’t go there because they think that it’s unsafe. But in reality, though, the country itself is safe. I mean, do you agree with that norm? So anything happened to you when you are there?

Norman Farrar  35:14  

You know what we were, we were on webinars, and we had people talk to you can’t go to Mexico City, it’s so unsafe. Well, if you go to Chicago, and you go in the wrong area, it might be a little unsafe, maybe a lot. Well, it’s the same thing with Mexico City. What I can tell you is I absolutely fell in love with Mexico City, if you’ve never been, it is a beautiful spot other than the altitude. But the restaurants and the people were so friendly, everything was was great.

Francesco Racanelli  35:49  

I so inexpensive, like you like 20 Tacos, like 30 tacos for not much money here, you get four tackles in the US for 21.

Norman Farrar   35:58  

Right. But again, you can go out and have that experience. And if you are like a lot of the times when you’re coming into or going to China, you’re spending an arm and a leg to go to that factory. To get the information here, you hop on a flight a few hours away, wherever it is in Mexico, and you can meet on on a whim. But you build up that through email, you know, you could get on the phone. It’s in North America. And I think that’s what’s important.

Francesco Racanelli  36:34  

I mean, the flight from Orlando to Cancun, it was just a two hour flight. And I went to a different country. Think about that.

Kelsey  36:50  

Oh, looks like norm froze a little border like letting us through. Oh, are we back? Sorry, normally cut out just a little bit, you might have to repeat the last Oh,

Norman Farrar  37:00  

I said even getting through the border, like Mexico was such a friendly country when you know, to get through the border, to get to the hotel and then to leave the country. I can tell you there’s a lot more nightmares here in Canada than getting into Mexico. Okay, so Kelsey, are there a bunch of questions?

Kelsey  37:24  

Yet? We do have questions coming in. You see, from Abraham, the biggest problem I face while sourcing from Mexico is that we can’t get many suppliers and manufacturers online. Do you guys know about any online directory?

Norman Farrar  37:40  

I don’t know about an online directory. There might be I might have missed it. But I do know that there are really good sourcing agents. And you can do your own discovery there like just type in Mexico sourcing agents. And you’ll have to go and screen them yourselves. I don’t know, Francesco, if you know of any anything specific, but that’s what I would do.

Francesco Racanelli   38:06  

I mean, you just got to besides getting a sourcing agent, maybe you could go on Google and go deep into the web and see what you can find and give him a call. Email them. It takes time. But that’s another way you could do it. Yeah.

Kelsey  38:20  

Okay. Did you remember seeing any stainless steel products? That’s from Chuck B.

Norman Farrar  38:29  

I think there were but I’m trying to. I know. I think it was Tim that was talking about stainless steel. Stainless steel.

Francesco Racanelli  38:38  

I think there was one. But yeah.

Norman Farrar  38:41  

I think that I can’t tell you that for sure. So, Chuck, I don’t want to say that there is but I know. I think it was Tim that was talking about stainless steel manufacturers.

Kelsey  38:55  

Okay. Again, we’re getting a lot of questions about Do either of you can point cool here 99 in the right direction of finding a sourcing agent in Mexico?

Norman Farrar   39:07  

Well, one of the things that we could do I’ll have to talk to the team about this is that there were some sourcing agents at the event. And if we can post them in our resource page that can help you guys out. But one of the things that you could do is just go into Google and start typing away. Google sourcing agent, Mexico, private label Mexico, wholesale Mexico, and see what happens that should get you started. You can even I think Alibaba does have an area for Mexico. There is a box that you can check if you only want to see Mexican suppliers.

Kelsey  39:47  

And from our Facebook user, they said check out import Yeti and you can filter for Mexican suppliers to some of that may be a little cheap that you can do. Okay, And then like your input on this comment. So from Claudia, we are working with a Mexican sourcing agent, partly because of our cash flow, we won’t have to order as much inventory because shipping is so much faster. And we’ll be able to launch more products quicker, because our cash will be tied up as inventory sitting on a boat, or at a port somewhere. So any thoughts on that?

Norman Farrar   40:21  

Well, I know a little bit about Claudia’s product, and it’s perfect for Mexico if I’m thinking about the product that you’re wanting to bring to market. So yeah, you’re gonna, you’re gonna be ahead of the game.

Kelsey  40:37  

Okay, and see, there’s a couple more Oh, from Christine. Do we know if there’s a mastermind part of the 2023 trip?

Norman Farrar   40:47  

I can’t tell you for sure. I have to talk to Tim and Amy about that. I’m hoping there’ll be all the details haven’t been released yet. But we do know that the trade show and I think there’s a mastermind I’m not 100%. Sure. So I don’t want to commit. Okay, but it this way, we didn’t know if anybody would show up at the first event. So we wait. I think carbon six was happy to see that there was people there.

Francesco Racanelli   41:17  

Is that is that you mentioned on stage? No. Like we were not expecting? We didn’t know what to expect, you know, like, so. Yeah. But it was really good.

Norman Farrar  41:26  

Like, there was 90 people ish for the, for the education, part, and mastermind. And then I think there was over 400 people that registered for the trade show. And there was over 80 booths that were there. So it was fantastic.

Kelsey  41:49  

Tells Okay, and we also had a question from Waseem. So what kind of instructions? Should we keep in mind while sourcing from Mexico? Were there any any thing in particular that maybe stood out to you that you should or shouldn’t do while you’re looking?

Norman Farrar  42:07  

Well, on my side of things, we have to remember that this isn’t China. This isn’t the this isn’t the machine that just knows how to deal with E commerce suppliers. Mexico is very similar to Canada. And the US, by the way, is manufacturing or the manufacturers don’t really know unless you’re in a specific niche. How do we how to deal with EECOM, they’re not used to us. So take it in bite sized pieces in Mex or in China, you could just say, hey, I want 500 units of this blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But you’re gonna have to take it slow, you’re gonna have to explain what you’re looking for. I think that the details. And this is probably a good thing. Because I know in China, a lot of the times the details aren’t there, which causes a problem. But if you have specific details, or if you’re looking for specific innovation, like we did with the ceramics place, just said, Hey, if I could improve this, what would you do? And they gave us some information, like some thoughts on this. And I would never have known that because I’m not the manufacturer. But I would ask their opinion, I would ask about getting it across the border, I would ask if they have an export license, if they don’t have an export license or compliance is a big thing to you know, are, do they have those certificates that you can use? Sometimes you have to work with them, because they don’t have that. And that’s where the sourcing agent comes into. The anything else to add to that?

Francesco Racanelli  43:46  

Well, I want to mention that also people in Latin America are a lot more relaxed. So maybe if you email them, they take a little bit longer reply in China. I mean, there’s, they’re so good at it. They’re on top of everything, right? They reply like the next second. But in Mexico, it takes a little bit more, maybe a day or two,

Norman Farrar  44:08  

a cultural difference. And that’s a big point. So we have to remember that we’re moving fairly fast pace. China moves fairly fast pace, and they’re very precise. And they you know, they’ll get back to you and they want specifics. In Mexico, like you said, they’re learning about how to deal with EECOM users and this whole communication process. Don’t be offended. If you know if it takes a bit longer or if they’re doing things a bit differently. They’re still getting used to us. So just kind of keep that in mind.

Francesco Racanelli  44:46  

Yeah, and that’s what mentioned many manufacturers they don’t even sell into the US. But do you see the bright side? That’s good. You’re crazy. That’s really good for an E intrapreneurs that’s good.

Norman Farrar  45:02  

I just all the beauty products that I saw there. And I mean, we saw a lot of different types of beauty products, which which surprised me, but really high high quality beauty products and wellness products. Selling down like you said the tip of Argentina, nothing across the border, the barbecue coming nothing across the border. There was this everybody that you were asking about. I know that not going into the states don’t you know, don’t know the market. Little opportunity there

Kelsey  45:37  

are right. And I just want to quickly say we still do have our hashtag. We’ll have Kelsey giveaway today. We see some entries coming in. So great. And Claudia also mentioned we hit 2000 subscribers on YouTube. So thank you to everyone who subscribed. And if you haven’t yet, check it out. It’s just a search Norman Farrar or lunch with Norm and it’ll pop up. Guaranteed. But yeah, thank you, everyone. And we do have another question from whiskey. And I think this is the last question we have, then maybe we could talk about carbon six. All right, so let’s see him really appreciate it sharing value as always norm and you in your help with Mexico? Do you help with Mexico sourcing? Or would you recommend someone else?

Norman Farrar  46:24  

If a lobby is getting more and more into it, I would probably I’m not an expert, I fell off. He’s not an expert. We put this together to learn. And that’s what we wanted to be very clear with. We saw opportunities in Mexico. Huge opportunities in Mexico. And that’s why we wanted to put together and start bringing together suppliers and like manufacturers. But we’re learning as you are learning and we’re going to grow and grow and grow out a database. But for me, I would probably go to somebody talked about import yet. Uh, yes, you can do that. Or you can start just Googling or working with different sourcing agents. I’ll try to put up some sourcing agents and grow the list as we vet them. This is all going to happen very quickly over the next year. So just bear with us while we do it. I don’t want to point you in any the wrong direction at all. But you can always ask Alpha lobby over at honu to see if he can help you out. If not all he’s going to do is point you in the right direction. Okay.

Francesco Racanelli   47:39  

And Apple lobbies he’s so knowledgeable like I’ve met him in Mexico. We were talking for hours. Such a nice guy like He’s great.

Norman Farrar  47:51  

He, by the way, who starts off the, their their presentation. Like I’m going to remember this for the rest of my life. Oh, you’re not going to remember me for my content. You’re going to remember me because I’m so handsome. Yeah, we could come

Francesco Racanelli  48:07  

1. He got all these ladies.

Norman Farrar  48:13  

Yeah, that was so funny. Anyway, why don’t we just talk just take a couple minutes here to talk about carbon six. And what you guys are up to I mean, you’re, you’re you’re growing every day. You’ve got new things. First of all, what is carbon six?

Francesco Racanelli  48:30  

Yeah, so I mean, carbon six is basically an ecosystem of tools. So entrepreneurs can take their businesses to the next level. Now you’re gonna need help with keyword research. We got a software for that. If we get a if you need if you do, sir, no traffic, we got pixel me if you want to, if you need help with PPC, we got some tools. AMC alerts, so many amazing tools. They are so powerful, so powerful that you should be using.

Norman Farrar  48:56  

Yeah, yeah, well, we’ll have to talk after the call. So I wanted people to just get a quick overview. I don’t have an affiliate or anything like that. But carbon six has come up over the last few months. Now, over the last year, that’s when I think I first heard about it. And I didn’t understand anything about the, the the company at all. And it’s starting to roll out I’m starting to see more and more sponsorship, and I’m hearing a lot of good things about it. sponsor or no sponsor. You know, I just started to hear really good things about the the overall company the different like you’re typically going after software companies right in the space and trying to grow out the company that way. Is that correct?

Francesco Racanelli  49:51  

Correct. Yeah, we, we bought that we bought the best software out there to help the printers.

Norman Farrar  49:58  

Right and we We’re gonna have Leo on Leo Scoville. He’s been on the podcast a few times, but he got tied up in a business today. And he’s he’s involved with with carbon six he is that kompromat that you bought? From Leo?

Francesco Racanelli  50:17  

I think that we’re working on it. Yeah.

Norman Farrar  50:20  

Oh, okay. Yeah. Okay. I just thought that, because they always over the so I’ll stop talking. Anyways, check.

Francesco Racanelli  50:29  

But carbon six. So I mean, yeah, we got we got so many tools, we’re gonna keep growing and growing. And in a few years, really soon, everyone’s gonna be using our products. And it’s not because I worked there. Like everyone that works. There were intrapreneurs I have my business Neoga his business, we all we all got our businesses, right. So it’s gonna be huge.

Norman Farrar   50:51  

All right, and you’ll be able to check them out throughout the year, but also at the mastermind in in February. Okay, so why don’t we just go over to the wheel of Kelsey.

Kelsey  51:04  

Okay, before we do that, we’re just going to throw it over to another sponsor. And then we’ll get into the will of Kelsey, a big

Norman Farrar  51:11  

thank you to our sponsors startup club, the largest club on clubhouse with over 790,000 members and growing. They’re one of the world’s largest communities, supporting the startup ecosystem, from founders, to those wishing to work for a startup and everything in between. You can find them at www dot startup dot club, for blogs, recordings, and a calendar of upcoming shows. And on the clubhouse app, just search startup club for daily shows 24/7 You can also now listen to their show, the serial entrepreneur club podcast on Apple and Spotify to stop by to connect, learn and grow together. You know, one of the most important aspects that we completely forgot, were the connections. So at any event, doesn’t matter if it’s our event, or any event. One of the most important things like I see people that are commenting that you get to meet for the first time, whether it was even last time or if it was another site or another event. And it’s just so great to meet people. But not only to meet people, but to break bread. There’s a difference between doing a virtual summit and entering a networking room and going out and having a drink or, you know, having dinner or dancing, which I don’t do. I watch. I’m an observer. But you know, it’s a complete different, different aspect. Like I know right now. Kelsey is first. It was his first event. did he behave? Absolutely not. But he made a ton of connections. You know, and I think it’d be interesting to hear from Kelsey, but he gets to meet all these people on the lunch with Norm podcast, but meeting people for the first time, and being able to go out and now having dinner with them. Or it’s just a whole, it’s a closest of closeness that you just don’t have, and a trust factor that you don’t have just by talking like you and I are talking right now. So what do you think about that Kelsey Francesco?

Kelsey   53:36  

Yeah, so I can say from I meet three people a week, every week for this podcast, and I’ve met Leo Scorpio on the podcast. And we’ve talked and he’s always been very kind. But meeting him in person was just a completely different story. I know me and my brothers, we were playing pool with Leo. And just having that little extra, you know, social ability to, you know, have fun and hang out with each other. I can tell that, like our relationship has moved up a couple pegs. And again, there’s so many people Francesco, just seeing Francesco and talking to him, I’ve met him. business wise, I know, I’ve gotten a couple of inquiries about like social media and everything. So either business wise, or just general connections and meeting people in the community. I know the last couple of years, we started this podcast during the pandemic. So I haven’t been able to meet anyone in person. And I’ve kind of just been on a zoom call with people but being able to actually go out and network and talk to people. It’s been game changing. I always heard norm talk about why networking is important and going to these events. And I was like, Okay, it’s I’m meeting these people online, so I don’t really see you know, how different it could be. But now actually going to my first event, I can see why and like the knowledge that you learn at these conferences. Four secrets they have, like, it’s definitely worth it.

Francesco Racanelli  55:03  

And most people, they’re really successful and they’re willing to help you. Like, if you ask them questions, they actually care about you. And they’ll be like, no matter how secret it is, they might help you out. You never know. Like, yes, people care.

Norman Farrar  55:20  

Yes. And it doesn’t have to be an expensive event. That’s not what I’m saying. You can go to Carlos Alvarez, who has 16 meetups a month. From what I understand, I might be wrong, Carlos, but I think they’re all free. You know, he might have a paid event that you go to, but his events are free. And you’ve got all these people in the Miami area that can go to these events, and learn and break bread. And the other thing I’m talking about, and I always go off on this, you know, go down this rabbit hole, because it’s so bloody important. From the time I went in 2017, I can mind map, you know, just map it all out. All the connections, all the business, where it led, all of it comes back to basically two events. And that was Amazings Mallorca event, and the very first Illuminati event for helium 10. in Cancun, they’re one week apart. And this is where I met most of the friends that led me to all sorts of other friends. And the other part, when I’m talking about networking, I am not talking about talking business. You can talk business, you can talk about your product. But with networking, we’re talking about socializing, which is so different than, you know, just asking advice. And that comes up, like you’re sitting down, you know, around a fire, going out to a bar, going out to dinner absolutely comes up. But talking about your family talking about your interest talking about, I found a ton of I’m a huge, huge Formula One fan. And, you know, I got to know other people who like Formula One, we started talking and all of a sudden we’re going down that path, and there’s just a lot of things that are that you can do and things that evolve normally and naturally, that are different than just talking to people on a virtual Summit, you know, so anyways, I encourage it, I don’t think especially if you’re a beginner, if you you know, go out. There’s a lot of meetups throughout many of the major cities throughout the US and Canada, check them out, go out, you know, break bread with people. If you have time. And if you think that there’s a great event and it’s, you know, there’s events that are $49 event 297 There’s event events for 500 bucks. Hey, check it out. Paid events are definitely worth it as well. But anyway, I just wanted to That’s it. I’m coming back up. I’m not going down any more rabbit holes about networking. But I just love networking. And I think it’s so important to everybody.

Francesco Racanelli  58:12  

I second everything you said. I mean, networking is one of the most powerful things. And we’re all human beings we need to network.

Norman Farrar  58:20  

Exactly, exactly. All right. Can we get to the wheel? Kelsey? Yes,

Kelsey  58:27  

we can. Alright, so Francesco, I think this is the first time you’re seeing it. So it might be a little loud, but I hope you enjoy

Norman Farrar   58:47  

Okay, all right. All right, one

Kelsey  58:50  

or two days.

Norman Farrar  58:53  

We’ll go ahead. Alright. Right. So, you just being so Kelsey.

Kelsey  58:58  

I know. I know. Alright, so thank you everyone who entered today’s giveaway. Again, this is to win one of your your choice of one of carbon six tools for a free month. I’m going to shuffle everything up and give it a spin. And let’s see who Today’s winner is. Please email me Kay at lunch with norm.com If you are the winner, and it looks like Claudia. All right. All right, congratulations. Okay, so I’ll reach out to Claudia. I’ve got her information already. And Francesco, I’ll send that over to you and we can work that out.

Francesco Racanelli   59:38  

And everyone that participated. If you didn’t win this time, just contact me and see how I can help you. Okay.

Norman Farrar  59:44  

All right, there we go. And what we will be providing your contact information, which is

Francesco Racanelli  59:50  

Francesco carbon six.io.

Norman Farrar  59:55  

Very good. All right, sir. Well, thank you for being on the podcast today. I I really appreciate you coming on. I just thought, oh man, and this was short notice, but Mexico was so important. It was so important and fulfilling to me. I just wanted to share it the first day back. So anyways, thank you, sir. Thank you. Okay, so I think that’s about it for today’s podcast. I, Kelsey, if you want to come back on.

Kelsey  1:00:24  

Yeah, I should just mention for carbon six is not carbon six.com. It’s carbon six.io. I made I’ve made that mistake before when I was trying to search. So just want to be clear to everyone if you’re interested in. And yes, It’s good seeing some familiar names in the comments and putting a face to the name like Christine, and rich. They’re both in the comment section helping us out. Also, thank you to Claudia red beard, Chuck Abraham, everyone who’s been commenting, and regarding their questions, it’s great to have this engagement, and I always appreciate it, especially now. We’ve hit episode 300. We hit 2000 subscribers on YouTube. And it’s all thanks to you. Our Facebook group is growing every day. So it’s been awesome. Yeah, and don’t forget, if you want to contact Francesco, it is Francesco at carbon six dot I O. And I’m going to post that in the Facebook group as well. But um, yeah, hope you guys enjoyed. Don’t forget to subscribe to the YouTube channel. It’s a big button down below. It’s nice and easy. Also, we are on Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok. Check it out. I did do some little vlogs on tick tock. So go over to lunch with Norm and you can check those out what Mexico was like, and, yeah, it’s been great. I think that’s about it. I will be back on Wednesday as well. And yeah, it’s good to be back doing these Live episodes. We do have some pre recorded episodes probably in July. Going to be a little busy. That month for sure. But um, you know, nothing can be these regular lives that we do, I think.

Norman Farrar  1:02:03  

Right? So that’s it. I can’t believe we’re back. It was a long time. I don’t think we’ve been off this this long before. But please join us every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at noon Eastern Standard Time. And as Kelsey said, we couldn’t do this without our community. I 300 episodes in oh my gosh, I can’t believe I talked this much. And 2000 subscribers now on on YouTube. Really just thank you. Thank you again, and we will talk to you on Wednesday.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai