Adriana Rangel 6:46
That is such a great tip Rolando, because, of course, I mean, there’s people from Colombia in the US right there. There’s people as you mentioned, from Spain, from Dominican Republic, you know, like many, many countries, Chile, etc. Right. And we speak very, I mean, we speak differently right off, as you said, it’s very different. I mean, even though we can of course, read Spanish, you know, from Spain, there are actually some, you know, there’s like a Catalan, which is another different I don’t know if I should call it like a completely different language, but it’s
Rolando Rosas 7:16
like a, like a dialect of sorts. It’s a kind of a dialect of Spanish version of it. Yes.
Adriana Rangel 7:22
And that one is so different from the you know, the Spanish that we are used to even from the Spanish, Spain Spanish, right? I remember in college, I had some, some people in my class, they were, they were from from Spain, they were from Barcelona specifically. And I, from what I’ve heard people in Barcelona, a lot of them pick us speak Catalan, so completely different. And also because you want to because we don’t notice that right? Like, just like, you guys in the US notice when someone that is not a native Spanish speaker is reading the emails, or he’s reading, you know, the listing or whatever, or the marketing, the branding and all of that, right, like the text, you can, you can tell you can pick it up, and we don’t want them to get distracted by that right by them being like, oh, yeah, you know, this is another just like another seller from elsewhere, right? Like from overseas or whatever, they don’t notice that. And so we noticed that too, right? When we see instructions that you can clearly tell that they didn’t, you know, tell you how
Rolando Rosas 8:21
do you feel I’m gonna tap my guest that was on the Get on my on my show earlier. What’s the feeling that you get when you read those instructions in there in Spanish spoken in Spain versus Mexican, Spanish? Well,
Adriana Rangel 8:35
we feel like I feel like we, I mean, our first instinct, instinct is to support more of like, local businesses, right? Just like people in the US. And so when we feel like when we noticed that in, you know, in the translations from other products were like, oh, you know, like this, you know, it’s like the others, right, like, you know, people from outside
Rolando Rosas 8:58
a little bit. Bucket the outsiders. Exactly.
Adriana Rangel 9:02
I mean, even I mean, I don’t feel like we even notice it, you know, it’s like, just like a split second, I guess judgment or, or, you know, like how we, you know, perceive things I guess sometimes we don’t even notice that it’s happening in the
Rolando Rosas 9:18
Mexican market. I gotta tell you, I’ve traveled from Mexico to Chile. It’s the closest of obviously we share a border, but it’s the closest in the in the thought process to the Americans than if you go to Colombia. If you go to Chile, you go to Argentina. It’s not at all like completely not even a drop, right. And Mexico has because we’re so close and there’s a lot of going back and forth. There’s more of that American fabric I would say into the culture but it’s still distinctly Mohican. Yes,
Adriana Rangel 9:58
yes. Even I’m from Monterey, which is a city that is northeast, in the country. And so we’re only like maybe like a two hour drive from the border to the US to Texas, basically, and, and you can tell, like even coming to Monterey to visit, you know, you can tell how there’s a lot of influence from the US here, as opposed to, if you go to Mexico City or to chapters or someplace else, you know, like, the south of the country. And so, which is, I would, I would argue that it’s a great thing, actually, for people that are trying to sell in this market, because we’re so we have many of the same, I would say, habits, many of the same ways, we, you know, we purchase things, a lot of people here in Monterey, we have, you know, we have technology, of course, we have e-commerce we have, we’re used to that we have Netflix, we even, you know, like the shows that we watch, HBO, Netflix, and all of that, right? Like we watch the same shows, and sometimes we watch them in English, even a lot of people from here from the north of Mexico, many of us we studied abroad. So either we went to we studied in Canada, or in the US. And so, you know, it’s, we have a lot of similarities, then there are a lot,
Rolando Rosas 11:19
a lot of big companies have set up shop in Monterrey in parts of town not far from Monterrey, because of the proximity of the border, as well as the labor pool that you’re talking about as a high, highly educated workforce, as well in Monterey. And the vibe, really, I’ve been in Monterey, and the vibe is different. And I’ll also say the food is different than than they if if people don’t see Langos that are in Mexico City, they eat more or less the same thing. But you know, they don’t eat all of the same thing. So the food’s a little different, right? The vibe is just just, it’s a different feel. And in Monterey versus the Mexico City or even Yucatan. Yes.
Adriana Rangel 11:59
And as you mentioned, we work together a lot. So we are used to. So the partnerships are there. Right. And so it is fairly easy for someone in the US to contact, you know, let’s say a shipping company or import export company here in Monterrey or in Mexico. And that they are, you know, like that they have a team that speaks English, first of all, right. And that they are Yeah, yeah. And, and that they know, exactly, you know, they do this every day, right, they import stuff from the US, and they export stuff to the US. And as you say, as you just mentioned, we, I mean, there’s a, you know, one of the top universities is here in Monterey. And so, we are used to having, you know, like, we move it up the career ladder when it comes to management and all of that. So you would be dealing with teams of people that are very, very qualified for the job. And
Rolando Rosas 13:05
I love that the in Monterrey, it’s a it’s a smaller city, you know, compared to Mexico City, which is like you look, you could be on a mountain on a house, and it’s just homes as far as the next mountain over the next one. And over the next one, as far as the eye can see there’s homes and buildings, right? Monterey has got a smaller, more homey kind of feel. And I really love that about Monterey Bay. And in one of the things I wanted to really ask you about, as well, as we’re talking about Monterey, and Mexico, Amazon has set up shop in different parts of the of the country. This is is what’s going on, I don’t know if you saw this article that I saw recently that I wanted to share with you and jump into or if you could pull that up is that there’s a lot and we’re seeing this also in other markets in Europe, where sellers on Amazon, on the platform are starting to get I don’t want to say recognition, but their voices are getting noticed. Because Amazon exerts a lot of influence. Amazon makes changes and sometimes it impacts sellers in a negative way. And a lot of the attention for years has been on the customer, right in terms of media attention and whatnot. But I saw this article and it caught my attention because it said that the version of the US FTC or what you guys have locally, a certain ministry of the government is looking into Amazon and its impact on sellers when it makes decisions to like, let’s say suppress the buy box, or some other things and they want Amazon to reveal how sellers are impacted, which in turn, may end up having they may end up having to reveal parts of the algorithm. At least that’s what this article says. Because there’s things that they do that really change up how sellers are able to be successful. On the platform, have you been hearing any, from your end rumblings about sellers when it comes to being on Amazon? And, you know, it is a black box in some ways, right? We don’t know all the levers. And I would imagine in my vehicle, there’s more, more momentum now towards looking at this because the market is getting bigger. Amazon’s getting more of a presence. More sellers are on the platform. So the voices are starting to bubble up. Yes.
Adriana Rangel 15:27
And also, you know, a couple of things popped in mind. As you were mentioning this article, I think that first of all, there used to be and they’re still there. I mean, it’s still here. But I feel like of course, Amazon is taking a lot of its market market share this platform. That’s called Mercado Libre. I don’t know if you never
Rolando Rosas 15:49
heard of Mercado Libre. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And
Adriana Rangel 15:52
they were huge. I mean, they’re, they’re still pretty big, especially in the southern part of Latin America. But or of America, actually. And, and, I mean, they, I mean, Amazon, you know, how Amazon is that they are very aggressive when it comes to penetrating market. And so I feel like, of course, McCauley, rates company. I think it’s an Argentinian company.
Rolando Rosas 16:19
Some one of those southern southern hemisphere companies? For sure. Yes. Maybe waterwise floating around in my head. Somewhere in there. Maybe?
Adriana Rangel 16:27
Yeah, yeah, I know. It’s somewhere I know. It’s not Mexican. So. So one thing and another thing that I thought about us, as I’m thinking of the companies that are getting impacted by Amazon, mussels presence here in Mexico is for example, the big media, empires, really the big media companies writing here, we used to have like two main channels, like the channels that everyone used to watch on in local TV that were like Televisa, and TV or steak. And these guys were, you know, of course, the founders and the owners, and even the CEOs. These guys used to run the town, right, like the way it goes, maybe? That’s true. Actually, you know, what, just came to mind in this show? Succession that basically. Love the mirrors a little bit. Right mirrors. Yeah, that what happened in the fox? I guess, the fox empire, right? That’s very similar here, where these two media companies were the ones that, you know, like the presidents and the government, or whoever was running for office. They want it, you know, I mean, oh, yeah. I mean, they were they had a lot of power. And, you know, if you wanted to run for office, or if you want it to reach the, you know, the people, you had to go through them just like as many, you know, like, similar to what happens in in the American media companies as well as
Rolando Rosas 17:57
for a while to with with slim. Oh, well.
Adriana Rangel 18:00
I mean, pretty much. Yeah, I mean, it’s, he’s pretty much the he’s a kingmaker owner. Yes, yes, exactly. And so what happened, you know, when, when now that you mentioned slim and all that, I mean, they have a lot of a big presence in media. Right. And, and then comes, you know, along comes Amazon Prime, you know, and so many of the actors and people that were playing a party in this company that had to deal with, you know, like, very bad contracts, basically, they, you know, all of a sudden, they can, of course, you know, create their own show in Amazon Prime, or Netflix, etc. And these guys are like, what, like, they start to lose the grip right on on actors. And basically, the work
Rolando Rosas 18:48
was in the last Narcos filmed in in Mexico as well. The last there
Adriana Rangel 18:52
was one because I didn’t. So I didn’t watch that show. But there there were a couple and I remember there was this one that I Netflix, from this Mexican actress where she, yeah, she got in trouble with the government. Right? Because she was trying to Yeah, she was trying to grow in in Hollywood. And so she was trying to connect with El Chapo, which is, of course, oh,
Rolando Rosas 19:15
yes, I did. Yes, yes. Yes. So that’s how they that’s how they got him. Right. They used her to get to El Chapo.
Adriana Rangel 19:23
You can you imagine like, you run such a successful organization. I mean, it’s, you know, for some four decades, I would imagine and then that’s how they get you, you know, because that’s crazy. Like, oh, like, and I watch the show. And so yeah, basically, just like this actress, they’re like, You know what, like, I don’t I don’t need to be playing your guys, games and you’re under your rules. Right? And so I would that is, that is what came to mind when you you brought up this article. Call it’s like, of course, yes. A lot of, you know, the main players they see they, I would imagine they can start to get preoccupied about how people are having more options. Right. And
Rolando Rosas 20:14
it’s crazy to, it’s crazy to think that, you know, in 2024, you know, it’s to some extent, it’s like, you know, the US, but you know, there’s there’s a couple of more players, right. But there’s not like 50 media companies, there’s really a handful in the US that are really big and powerful. But in Mexico, it’s really concentrated with the two. And now you have this little upstart. And it’s interesting that the prime, the prime media aspect is what’s taking front and center and driving all of these conversations that at the government level, it’s like, wait a minute, and I can imagine I’ve been in Mexico, and I’ve been in some of those kinds of conversations. And you know, the, the guys don’t don’t don’t take very well, when some some new upstart is going to upset the applecart over there.
Adriana Rangel 21:07
Of course, yes. I mean, it’s it’s hard. I mean, I feel like the only Yeah, I guess the only company that could actually make a dent and make a difference in how, you know, how people hear, you know, the options that we have? Yeah, it would be technology companies, because at the end of the day, Netflix is a technology company, sure, they have their media, arm and all of that, but it’s that basically right. And so that is why I’m so excited to have, of course, the podcast in the podcast in Spanish and all the content we do in Spanish, because many, even when I graduated from college, which was somewhere around like, 10 years ago, or so, it was, you know, I mean, even your parents tell you that, right, like, it’s, you know, go and look and apply for a job at this, you know, for companies, which are like the main companies, or at least here in Monterrey, and, and good luck, right. Like, I mean, just like work your way up the ladder. And if you have to do if you have to work 10 or 12 hour, days, sometimes, sometimes basically, just have to put up with it. Right. And, I mean, I’m sure you heard, I guess, productivity is a different factor. But I, there are some, I guess, publications that mentioned that the average, you know, like, the time of, I guess the the amount of hours that are the average Mexican works is like, the height, or one of the of the highest in the world, like the time we spend at the office, right? Of course, you could argue, okay, when it comes to productivity, like, you know, like, that’s another
Rolando Rosas 22:45
story. But I agree with you. Let me let me I can tell you of the very many times that I’ve been in Mexico, I have been in meetings that have gone all the way to like 11pm. It’s not like, Hey, I’m a government worker, and I’m checking out at 5pm. To done right. No way.
Adriana Rangel 23:08
No, that’s actually yeah, like disrespectful in a way, right. And then many people, they are still I don’t know, I hope they’re, they don’t think this way anymore. But many people are like, I cannot leave before the boss leaves, like I he needs to see me here at eight or 8:30pm. After he leaves out. I’ll make sure to leave, right? Yeah. Oh,
Rolando Rosas 23:31
yeah. I’ve seen that when I’ve gone there. And I tell him, Hey, are you like me that don’t forget, hey, I want to go eat. I know, you’re trying to make sure the boss sees that we’re being good workers here. And we had to do all this stuff. But you know, my mouth is getting hungry. Ya
Adriana Rangel 23:49
know, it’s, it’s ridiculous. That is why I guess, early in my career, I was like, no, there has to be another way in to be it’s not that I had this vision or whatever. Like, I feel like I got lucky by learning about e-commerce or it’s not that I knew I didn’t want to do that, you know, to follow that career path for the rest of my life. Because I was like, No, you know, especially as a female, I don’t want to make it a gender thing. But as but if it does, I mean, it does kind of determines how your career is going to go. In many countries such as well,
Rolando Rosas 24:25
let’s, let’s just be real, real real about it. You know, there is there are differences in how the gender roles play out in the US versus Mexico versus Colombia versus Argentina and Espanol. There’s just it’s, there’s no, there’s no way to sugarcoat it that it is Sakhalin. There are some differences and how that works in the professional environment. It’s not always great, but it’s good to acknowledge and hopefully, there’s progress being made in that front because Hundreds of opportunities like this that allow you to make your own money, set your own rules, set your own time. And, and, and, you know, determine your own path. And that’s terrific that you realize that because not a lot of folks are bold enough to do that. And that’s the other reason why I wanted to talk to you. Because, you know, I want you to give me tell us tell us, what, what is it like they’re selling products in Mexico being on e-commerce. But But then, you know, I’ve heard that businesses like Ferrari, for example, and will make even smaller for FBA purposes, if you’re so if you’re Amazon, you want to send stuff if the FBA, my understanding is that today, you have to open up an entity in Mexico, and that entity must have an employee that’s in Mexico, so that you’re FBA. And that’s usually what’s keeping a lot of the US sellers at bay. So you’re not really sending VA products, you just doing, you know, fulfilled by merchant into Mexico?
Adriana Rangel 25:58
Yes. So I hadn’t heard about that about about having an employee that kind of makes, I mean, it wouldn’t surprise me if that were the case, especially with this with the President that is, you know, the Mexican person right now. Um, but I would say Okay, so the opportunities that I see and as you mentioned, we you can always sell on Amazon, basically create a global listing, right and sell into into Mexico. But of course, you know, yeah, there. If you want to optimize for growing a brand in Mexico, then of course, it would be better to have inventory in the in the Mexican warehouses and fulfillment centers. But I would argue, of course, the size of the market is much smaller compared to the US. But that is also because the US is the biggest market in the world, the Amazon US is the biggest market in in the world, right. So it’s, it’s hard to even like, come close to the biggest market in the world. But in here, there’s, well, first of all, a competition, right, of course, as I mentioned, many people, of course, there are some intrapreneurs here, but many people do have to have a full time job, I had a full time job when I started this and I eventually was able to leave it because I eventually my business grew in a way that it just didn’t make sense to keep the job. But there’s many people like I even think about my, you know, my circle of friends, right? That they are people that went to college and even studied abroad and all of that, and many of them, they haven’t made the leap, they keep their nine to five, which is not a nine to five, as we mentioned, but they keep their full time job. And they don’t take basically they don’t happen to this opportunity. And so I would argue that there’s a big, big, big market share that you can that you can get for your business. If you if you launch your your, your brand hearing in Amazon, Mexico. Also, as you know, as an Amazon seller, you know this very well, that the PPC costs rate basically like Amazon advertising, or like pay per click, and even if you think about Google, Google, that’s right, or Facebook ads, etc. The cost of the click here in Mexico is I mean, of course, I don’t want to say an exact percentage of how less expensive it is here in Mexico. But it’s basically I would I mean, it wouldn’t surprise me if it’s somewhere around 70%. You know, lower or less?
Rolando Rosas 28:35
If you said 777? Zero? I would
Adriana Rangel 28:39
maybe maybe 65 or seven zero? Yeah. 70% less expensive.
Rolando Rosas 28:44
Cool. So so so you can get your word, the word on the street, and get your message out a lot cheaper. Yeah, versus in the US?
Adriana Rangel 28:56
Yes. And not all, not only, I mean, that is not limited to Amazon ads, right. As I said, Google ads, Facebook ads. And because there’s there are not many, you know, there are a lot of mom and pop shops here in Mexico, right. And they are not doing Google ads. They’re not doing Facebook ads. It’s just like word of mouth. Right. And there are some men, there are some agencies here in Mexico that they can help you with that. Of course, if you want to work with people in Mexico, even I mean, that would be a great excuse to have your your first employee writing in Mexico, when it comes to to when it comes to setting setting shop here in Mexico and getting your like tax ID and all that. Of course. I mean, that’s, I mean, that’s a process that you have to take care of. I myself, had to set up an LLC in the US and I had to because I’m not I’m not a US citizen citizen or anything like that. And so I had to post like a So how do we do this? And then which state do I choose? Like, what state and federal tax? Like? What is that? Yeah, like in here, we only have, you know, this is the tax percentage that you pay. And that’s it, regardless of where you live. And so but you know, it’s it’s a process, and if you work with someone that is an expert in that, but there are many agencies and people here that you can connect through even through LinkedIn, or you know, like, sometimes you can reach out to these people, you can find them in a bay, and they can help you out with that. And it doesn’t have to be, I wouldn’t, I mean, for me, of course, it was a free as a Mexican. Right. But I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t think that it’s a very expensive process, or people are foreigners, right. And, of course, it takes maybe a couple of months. But after that, once you get over that hurdle, basically, I would argue that it’s I mean, you can apply what you know, of selling on Amazon, US and can very easily make it here in Amazon, Mexico, because it’s much, much less competitive, much, much less competitive, less expensive. I mean, you have to basically as a, as an entrepreneur, you know, this, Rolando, you just have to choose who you who you’re going to work with, right? Who are going to be your partners. And of course, you know, maybe you’re not getting going to get it right the first time. But once
Rolando Rosas 31:26
it takes a while, I’ll tell you what, that you know, today’s world in the Amazon world wasn’t there. When one when I was traveling more heavily there, this is going back a while now. But the you know, any, you you really know from the if you’re a manufacturer or brand, the DTC play wasn’t there, like it was it is today, or even Amazon is today. And you really picked on Reese, you selected resellers or local agents. And that’s one way to get in the, in the door without having to make an investment, let’s say an employee and registering the company. And it would be another tool for businesses to look at to see, is there a way to get into that market without making that investment? In it? Let’s say somebody that’s a direct employee and having to worry about taxes. Yes.
Adriana Rangel 32:19
And I mean, also, one thing that we also, you know, people in Mexico we have in the back of our minds is that, of course, there is a treaty, right, a treaty with the US and NAFTA Treaty. And so I myself, I, I, of course, more, most of my income, or actually all my income from comes from the US. And so there’s that treaty that of course, you know, if you pay taxes in the US, then of course, in here, they take it easier on you, right, because you’re already paying taxes in the US. And I would imagine that is the same case with people in the US when they’re trying to make business here in Mexico. There are also a lot of in here, as I mentioned earlier, there’s, you know, one of the biggest and the most, I guess, prestigious universities is here in Monterrey. And they have, you know, their business school and their graduate school and all of that, and they have offices filled with people that can that, you know, their job is basically to help entrepreneurs launch their business in at lunch their business in general, right. And so they would be a great, just like a tip maybe that they would be a great team of people or even just one person to reach out to and be like, hey, you know, like I hear, you know, we need to get it, you know, set shop in Mexico, etc. Like, how would I go around that? Right? And, and I mean, that’s their job. And they, I feel like it’s a nice way to Yeah, to get your foot in the door? And also, I mean, many of them, they’re like, Yeah, sure, like, I’ll help you. But do you mind? I mean, if you’re an expert in marketing, or in e-commerce and ranking in Amazon, and all of that, would you mind coming to Monterey someday and giving a talk to our graduate students, it’s like, sure, you know, like, and that’s how you get, you know, how you get started. And they are the ones that I mean, they are connected, um, as I would imagine, I feel like that’s the first the first step that I would take, connecting with, with these guys over here, because they are connected to, you know, the CEOs of the main companies here in Mexico, so they always have someone that they can refer you to.
Rolando Rosas 34:36
And I find that and I find that also very refreshing when you work in and around countries in Latin America is that the organizations tend to be more flat, as opposed to here, there’s a lot of layers and to get to the sometimes the decision maker takes a lot more you know, to get to the top and because organizations are flatter, you can get to the decision maker much more quickly. And because the way that you know us Latinos are we’re a little more social. So yes, I know slim, right. And you want to have a meeting with slim Okay, he’s my uncle. You want to you want to meet with Obrador? You know, he’s my uncle, you know, let’s, let’s go out, let’s go, let’s go to lunch, and then we’ll talk about it and I’ll bring it to him, right. That’s kind of what the, that was been my experience and on my, on my trips with with with different people and it’s it’s really terrific. It’s not like here and that part is very refreshing. But you know, you mentioned something about, about setting up shop. And you remind me of something that I was thinking about when it comes to what’s happening in China, and businesses moving now into Mexico, as well as other companies in the US trying to bring their offshore stuff into Mexico, because of all the problems that happened throughout the pandemic, the shipping, the logistics, everything, the politics of what’s happening over there. What’s that been like, you know, we’ve got an article or he’s got to hear why Chinese companies are flocking to Mexico, and I believe that’s from the is that from the economist, Laurie that we’ve got up on the screen? That, so from the economist, and so nearshoring that’s the term that’s being used nearshoring and why Chinese companies are flocking to Mexico, I wanted to ask you about that. You know, I’m sure you’re hearing about these big cups, some are big, some are small, and they want to be in Mexico, because, you know, two hours from Monterrey, you’re hitting Texas and the US market. What’s going on right now with Mexico? And this? nearshoring? Yes,
Adriana Rangel 36:41
as you mentioned, yeah. Well, the term nearshoring Yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s gotten very popular now. Right? Because, as you said, you know, the convenience of you know, if you have a problem for some reason, right, like, you wake up to, to some sort of text or message that, you know, whatever happens in in Mexico, right? You can get to Mexico, even if you don’t live in, in Texas, I mean, we have connecting flights. And you could very easily get to Mexico by noon, right? And even go back home at night, right? As opposed to I mean, making a trip to China. We just recently here in Monterey, there’s been a lot of noise, which is not a Chinese company, but Tesla, you know, such a big company. They just set up shop here in Monterrey. It’s just like a town. Very close to Monterrey, I think, yeah, I think it’s just like a 30 minute drive from where I am in this moment. And it’s a huge, you know, how how, right? Yeah, I mean, this,
Rolando Rosas 37:41
what are they building there? They can do the trucks or they can do the cars are these batteries would have done down there?
Adriana Rangel 37:47
I’m pretty sure it’s cars, I think I’m pretty sure they’re assembling cars. I mean, I haven’t been there, but I know that they are hiring a lot, not not only for you know, like for people that do the the assembly, but also for managers. And that is why or at least rumor has said that that is why they opened direct flight. Austin, Monterey.
Rolando Rosas 38:12
Makes sense. It makes sense. I took a flight from Houston, this is a couple years ago, it was like literally the first flight 6am. And I’m thinking I’ve taken morning flights is gonna be helpful, or a few people. It was completely packed going into Monterey at 6am. The whole like, there was no room, no room and they were looking for staff for people that wanted to volunteer their seat. I could not. But if everybody had their own little backpack there, we don’t like it’s all business. It’s all business people. And I can you know, yeah, with Tesla opening up their 100%. It’s, you know, the influence of people that are going to be going back and forth. Yes.
Adriana Rangel 38:51
And I mean, let’s remember, maybe this happened. I would, I would I’m gonna say maybe two or three years ago? No, no, actually a little bit more when the previous organization was basically was in the US the previous government organization, and that they impose the Chinese or the China tariff. Remember? This was like, right before? Yes. I remember that. Yes, yes. Yes. And that was like a big one. Right? Because it was
Rolando Rosas 39:23
so many products. It was products. A lot of you were the very few that were exempt from that. More recently, they’ve rescinded that and they’ve pulled those those those tariffs. There’s some that are still in place, but a lot of them are gone. Yes.
Adriana Rangel 39:39
And that’s like a double digit tariff Right? Like it’s not like 5% Yeah, oh, yeah. Of course impacts your your cost of goods sold right. And in here, as I mentioned a few moments ago. We have NAFTA. We have that treaty that yes, if you set up shop or if manufacturing companies set up shop here even and I know of a couple of people that They, they took out there, it’s more of a, like an assembly, you know, they mostly buy a lot of, you know, material and yeah, and products from China, and then they assembly them here. And then they, they export it to the US. And of course, if you if, you know, there’s a rule of there that you cannot, I mean, I would say the, what is the name of the game, I’m not expert in manufacturing, but basically, if it’s, you know, if less than, like 50% of the product, I
Rolando Rosas 40:38
believe, is the 1% made in Canada, US or Mexico? The, the the value of the product is, there’s 51% of what you’re putting in is from, you know, from around there, then you can call it, you know, essentially for you can use it for NAFTA purposes. Yes.
Adriana Rangel 40:57
And so, I mean, that, that is, I mean, we, I feel like, sometimes when we’re starting a business, we don’t think about all those details, but it does impact the bottom line quite a bit quite a bit. If you have this release, that will, you know, enable you to have a lower cost of cost of goods, that’s, that’s very impactful. I feel like the barrier to entry, at least the perceived actually, that’s the better way to explain it, the perceived barrier to entry. But by many people that, you know, that they think that people setting shop in Mexico have, I feel like that actually makes it so much easier for people that are like, Okay, I mean, if I just need to connect with the right people, and I’m, of course, I know that this, this is going to be a process and it’s going to, you know, take some take some money to fix it, you know, in the initial part of the process. But you know, that many people I mean, we know that many people are like, no, why even bother? Like, no, no, you know, I’ve heard about there’s a lot of corruption. And I heard it’s like, an insurer, you know, that, you know, that happens. Yeah, that happens. But you also
Rolando Rosas 42:11
have all of the Latino countries, by the way, and then other countries outside of Latin America, too. Yes.
Adriana Rangel 42:18
But I feel Yes, yes. But I feel like that’s the that’s that that thing, the one thing that gets the headlines all the time, right,
Rolando Rosas 42:26
sensational, right, it’s it grabs your attention, you know, a big bin of money was found inside somebody’s freezer or, or a big, huge, big, huge baggage full of cash was in somebody’s trunk, right? That is gonna make the headlines every time no matter what country you’re in.
Adriana Rangel 42:49
Yes, yes. And so I feel like many people get this encouraged by by by reading that, but then the few that don’t, they do. It’s just like, you know, it happens to us Amazon sellers all the time when we hear about, oh, you know, the new, you know, the new FBA fee, or the new low inventory fee that Amazon? Yes, in 2024, and all that, and it’s like, sure, I mean, that’s not great news. Right. But then,
Rolando Rosas 43:16
what are you hearing about that on your, on your side of the, on your side of the border? What are you hearing, what’s the rumblings from, from people, you know, over there, I mean, I’ve just was talking to somebody today about this, and he was telling me his perspective, what are you hearing from over there?
Adriana Rangel 43:31
I feel like they are I feel like they are trying to get rid of many sellers that are treating this as a as a hustle, right? Or like an extra income kind of thing. I feel like they they want to focus on on brand. And in order to do so they I feel like they have to up the ante a little bit. And I mean, for the ones that we are that we are willing to just like figure it out in some way or in a way or another, I feel like it’s going to be I mean, it’s it’s great in a way right because we always whine about you know, you know this you know, the Chinese sellers and all of that and people that are just trying to hijack your listing and all of that.
Rolando Rosas 44:19
It really want me to have a drink. Talk say just the word hijacker. And I’m running out the door to get a drink that yeah, alone. Yes,
Adriana Rangel 44:29
yeah, exactly. So I feel like even if that I feel like you know, people will very quickly find other like get rich fast schemes or crypto or whatever the case and they’ll just go there hopefully. Right. And so I feel like Amazon is trying to to keep the sellers that are going to grow with with them. And also I feel I’ve heard or because you asked me about the rumblings right i I’ve heard that Amazon is trying to adapt to the, to everything that’s happening. And that will continue to happen when it comes to AI. So, and you might wonder, like, Okay, what does this have to do with AI? So what I’m hearing is that main, they want to basically change the algorithm. I know it sounds very like. I don’t know. Well, I
Rolando Rosas 45:25
think that because that article we’re talking about gets to a little bit of the exposing the algorithm, and which is kind of the conversation we were having earlier, we’re at an I think we’re in an inflection point now where yes, AI is changing the game, it will change even more, there’s stuff happening in evolving so rapidly, that it has nothing to do with text to video, which is the newest thing as of today. But have everything to do with how Amazon shows you what product you are, you may be interested, versus today where you know, I just put in, you know, I want read toothpaste. And it serves me some searches based on what other people searched in the past is going to try to deliver something more tailored to me, theoretically, because it knows me it has information, it has history. And so the AI will serve up those results, which could be a good thing. And depending on where you are could be a bad thing.
Adriana Rangel 46:27
Yes. And apparently I’m in to your point about it will serve you the products that they think that you are most likely to choose and all that apparently location of your inventory will play a very big factor.
Rolando Rosas 46:43
Ooh, talk about the total? Because that that is because look, the biggest fears that we have as a business, I’m sure you and a lot of Amazon sellers, the biggest expensive, you’re looking at your monthly oh my god, this inventory is expensive. It’s eating up a lot of my cash flow, right? How does having your product in New York and then Miami and in LA, have anything to do with how people find the product on Amazon? I
Adriana Rangel 47:13
think that Amazon has a big motivation to have your inventory in as many locations as close as possible to your clients. Because of course, you know, that’s a very better customer experience and all of that, and it also cost them less, right. So I feel like if they can optimize their logistics, around around logistics around location, and I’m sorry, I feel like and of course, if you help them by having more inventory on hand, right, as opposed to having the you know, just what you need basically right to have in, in their warehouses or in their fulfillment centers, then basically you help them to optimize our logistics to get to the to the customer faster, because I’m sure it has happened to you where you get multiple packages a week, sometimes when you’re shopping a lot, right? The
Rolando Rosas 48:10
toothpaste, Tuesday, the toilet paper, and my plant potting soil mix that came in on Wednesday, and then it all should have just arrived in one box. Exactly.
Adriana Rangel 48:21
And so if you help them even in a small way, you know, to make less trips to make less flights, you know, how they got there? Is their own airline, right, like cargo airline, but their own airline, if you help them at that. I mean, that would I mean that that that would make sense in their, in their in their have
Rolando Rosas 48:42
more more choice. So and what what what I don’t, we don’t know yet, because this is going to start here in April, we’re taping this before that is, it’d be nice if there was some incentives, you know, so you know, they have like, sometimes, if you do this, you know, we lower the referral fee, if you do that, we’ll let you put new products into FBA with zero over. So what I would love to see at some point where those sellers that are inside of the metrics they want, they’re rewarded somehow because they are lowering their bottom line. We don’t know if that’s gonna happen. Amazon, if you’re listening, and I know, you got some folks listening to our podcast is I’ve seen the metrics and yes, do something, do something for those sellers, that are also helping you save money and increasing your bottom line by helping those sellers in return with some type of incentive to make sure that the inventory mix is optimal. So that’s just my two cents on that
Adriana Rangel 49:41
and and that conspiracy theory because of course
Rolando Rosas 49:46
Oh, the conspiracy. Let me put on my aluminum hat first. So
Adriana Rangel 49:49
I love conspiracy theories, by the way. What’s the what’s the
Rolando Rosas 49:52
one that you’ve heard? I would love to hear let’s get into that. What’s the conspiracy theory? So this is a disclaimer conspiracy theory. We don’t know Oh, we’re not sure. But this is what’s on the street.
Adriana Rangel 50:02
I mean, maybe we should save this for for after we, because it gets political. So
Rolando Rosas 50:10
oh my goodness, yeah, we’ll save it. We’ll save it, we’ll save it for the, for the Instagram Live or something like that it’s a small audience.
Adriana Rangel 50:19
Let’s do it. Yeah, no, but I feel like, ah, yeah, yeah, I guess that’s where that conspiracy theory comes in, right? That they, you know, that the algorithm were will also take into account the fact that you have available inventory in many different locations, and a, because they don’t, of course, they never want to give the customer the, I guess, the bad experience of you know, going into the listing, and they, you know, it’s out of out of stock or running out of stock, or only has three units set up or whatever the case. And so that is why I feel that they are pushing for more sellers to have more inventory at hand. And I do feel like I don’t know if this has happened to you, Rolando. But I feel like as when I’m close to because I have run out of stock a couple of times I hate it when that happens. But but you know, it happens sometimes. And I do feel like it impacts my ranking, the ranking of that 100
Rolando Rosas 51:19
You’re not, it’s not a conspiracy theory, because folks in the Facebook group that I belong to have sellers, and I’ve heard this also from other sellers that are pretty big, that have really kind of, you know, dive into this a little bit more. There, you get some juice, I’ll call it juice, if your inventory, let’s say New York City, and you have inventory in New York City, and you type in red toothpaste, just using that and your inventory is there, you’re gonna your results are gonna get surfaced first, before somebody that hasn’t in California, all the way on the other side. And so although the seller may be bigger or better, or whatever, they want that I don’t know the exact nature, you know, whether it moves it up to number one position versus at the bottom of page, but I’ve heard other sellers had been, you know, looking into this the exact same conspiracy theory. Yes.
Adriana Rangel 52:12
Yes. So I mean, there. I mean, there are several, I guess, hypotheses hypothesis, right. That point back to having inventory in, I guess, in as many warehouses are full fulfillment centers as possible. So it comes up No, no surprise, when they are like, oh, yeah, I mean, if you if you have very little inventory, you know, you will have to pay the fee. Because, I mean, it makes sense. Now, we have to buy your stuff from California to New York. Yes. It can be, you know, it can be very, very costly. So, I think, I think I mean, if we just get very smart about how we manage our cash flow, and, and yeah, and just like, keep dry powder, right, like, keep our cash there, just in case we need more inventory. That’s what I’m, that’s, that’s what I’m, I’ve been doing in the past few months, couple of months. I’m like, even though that cash, I might want to launch another product, I’m like, Hmm, maybe I’ll just keep this cash at hand, in case any
Rolando Rosas 53:17
rumblings I’m hearing from other sellers as well, like, you know, this, this is going to require prioritization. And another seller I was talking to today, he told me, he says he’s dropping certain products, because the profit margin is lower. And he’s gonna go stick with the ones that are producing more margin. So I don’t know how this all gonna shake out. But if if this is really enforced and stuff, seller start seeing this, you know, hit them hard, I just think some products are just going to shrink, like the availability is going to shrink. There may be some more out of stocks. And then like, there may be some brands are just not available at all. I mean, that’s the potential is there for heaven’s Not, not everybody has a big pocket book with stacks of cash and just oh, we need another trailer load guy. Don’t worry, take take it out of the treasure chests and go ahead and buy another round of the freezer. Out of the free pick it out of the freezer, take it out of the freezer, buy another trailer and sell it to Amazon. No cash is king for sure. I could talk to you know, for like another two hours because there’s there’s so much to talk about the nearshoring and the conspiracy theories. And maybe that’s what we leave off for the next time. We’ll start off the next the next round you and I get together. We’ll start off with the conspiracy theories because there’s a lot you know, if you’re an Amazon seller, you know, you hear the conspiracy theories.
Adriana Rangel 54:38
Yes, I mean, I would love to, to mention I feel like I mean, we’re in such a as I said, like, I feel like I got lucky learning about this is business opportunity. And, you know, to the listeners that are learning perhaps if this is the first the first time they hear about this opportunity, I feel like I mean it’s just a mess. are putting your head down for, you know, the next few months and studying, you know, studying hard and all of that. And I feel like you can make it happen even if one market doesn’t work for you. They’re like, I think like over 25 markets. And us, as long as you know how to identify who, you know, what, which person you want to work with, or team of people. I feel like you can make it happen. And I mean, and it’s like the most. I feel like it’s the business business model that you can start with the less cash. I mean, I at least compared to other businesses right
Amazon, I mean, market share. market share. That’s That’s all right. See? All right. favorite social
Rolando Rosas 56:29
media platform? YouTube. Hmm. Interesting. Favorite piece of tech?
Adriana Rangel 56:41
Oh my god. Ah, I’m gonna say anything that is. Oh, my God. That’s that’s a good one. I’m gonna say anything that is video calls or anything that can connect you with someone that’s not in your you know, in your country or in your Yeah. All right, nearby. Oh, gotcha. Verse thing to reach for in the morning. I shouldn’t do this. But my phone, of course, you know, you wouldn’t be alone player in China.
Rolando Rosas 57:18
You wouldn’t be alone in that task. All right. Now, you and I both do podcasts. You don’t have to say my podcast for this one. But wherever one that you like, I want you to say, What’s your favorite podcast right now? My first million. That’s the Hooton who’s the who’s? Who’s losing that? If
Adriana Rangel 57:41
you heard Yeah, I mean, it’s these two guys. That first million one of them is Yes, Sam and Shawn and they are very good too. When it comes to just like business brainstorming and all of that and it’s fun and they share actually like actionable, you know, tips.
Rolando Rosas 57:59
All right. So the last one, I’m going to do this one in this bind your I’m going to channel Okay, I’m going to channel a little bit of unrest contort. Luger, mass paborito. and Mexico.
Adriana Rangel 58:13
Mexico, CSU and Mexico
Rolando Rosas 58:15
degusta. Okay. Hola, Camilla.
Adriana Rangel 58:19
I mean, yeah, okay. I call me America. Pero en como su, I’ll make you call us tamales was Posterous. If you’re not on a diet,
Rolando Rosas 58:31
you can be on a break from the diet, right? Yes. Yeah, I guess Indeed. Indeed. Well, Adrianna, we also have, we want to let people know that you have a podcast yourself. You’ve got a YouTube channel, or it can we put that up here on the video side. So folks that are following along on the video can check that out as well go ahead and plug it tell us about it. How can people Yes, what do you do there?
Adriana Rangel 58:56
Yes, so I started a YouTube channel about a year and a half ago or so or at least past posting consistently. And it’s basically just tutorials on how to sell on Amazon but I do this in Spanish for all my Spanish speakers. I know there’s a lot of people in the US that speak Spanish and and that they I mean they prefer to study and to learn about this business in their native language tutorials. Yeah, it’s the tutorials and it’s everything from finding a product listing, you know your product listing, shipping, all of that good stuff. Awesome.
Rolando Rosas 59:31
And this is not just for folks that want to do business in Mexico. This is this could apply for Okay, so Spanish speakers that want to do business here in the US. Yes, actually
Adriana Rangel 59:43
most of the I actually focus on people that want to live outside the US and that they want to sell in the US because I feel like that’s that the great business opportunity that the great art arbitrage in a way right to make us dollars and spending Mexican pestle Oh
Rolando Rosas 1:00:00
my goodness. Yes, yes, if I could, let’s see. I tell you what I love. Like I’ve been to many that have many. They’re nice. It’s Caribbean. It’s not what people think of makeup. It’s not making the effort. It’s not Mexico City is not Monterey. It’s more correct. It’s like being on a Caribbean island of sorts down there, you get the nice ocean breeze and love it. The food, the food in medida, I would say rivals, the Mexico City.
Adriana Rangel 1:00:31
Yes. And a lot of people feel that way. A lot of people from the from elsewhere, I guess foreigners, because a lot of people move to, to have been moving to Marietta and Tulum and all of that, of course. And they do, basically, to that location arbitrage a little bit where they know,
Rolando Rosas 1:00:49
they’re making dollars and living there. You know, it’s like a 10th of the cost living here in the in I live in Washington, DC. So it’s a 10th of what it is here. And you can make that wage over there, take the dollars back into Mexico and live like a king. Yes, or
Adriana Rangel 1:01:09
save your money. And you know, every save
Rolando Rosas 1:01:11
your money and build it, save your money and build a palace in mihika, which is the other I know a lot of folks have come here to work. And then you know, they go back and they’re like, King now I’ve got my nice, beautiful home back there. So at the end, I want to thank you for coming because you are awesome. I love this conversation. We could have just like, kept recording all day long. Because there’s so many Amazon things to talk about. We’ll dive into the conspiracy theories. And next time we get together, there’s so much happening on Amazon and here in the US and in Mako. And I’m so glad that you came on today and gave so much value to our audience.
Adriana Rangel 1:01:50
Thank you so much Rolando. I enjoy I mean, this didn’t feel like, you know, like actually recording a podcast. It’s like if I were on zoom with you, I really enjoy chatting with you. And we have so much in common. And sometimes when we are running a business, sometimes it feels lonely. You want to chat with other founders? Oh, yes. Oh, yes. And if they are in your space, and they have similar backgrounds to you, then you know, even better. So thank you so much for lambda for inviting me. And I hope some someday you can come to my channel to
Rolando Rosas 1:02:24
now. Just tell me when send me the calendar link and I’m there. Perfect.
Adriana Rangel 1:02:29
Thank you so much Rolando. I love it.
Rolando Rosas 1:02:33
Awesome. Thank you for joining us today. And if you have enjoyed this episode with Adriana, you want to check out some additional episodes that we have both on our YouTube channel or on circuitloops.com where you can learn more about Amazon. We’ve got some episodes with some great guests, including a former Amazon employee, who was in the advertising department had all kinds of interesting nuggets. His name is Nick Gezzar. Go check that episode out. Dave and me are Dave and I will join you even though he’s not here today. We’ll join you in that episode. We’ll see you next time.
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