Lessons from Shecky’s (sheckys.com) CEO Chris Hoffman: TAKE RISKS! Hoffman left his lucrative Wall Street job and started the national lifestyle company from his apt. 12 yrs later, a multimillion dollar business loved by millions of women=)

Check out Shecky’s FUN Beauty Night Out and Girls Night Out events around the country throughout the year. (in LA & SF 12/1-10) I LOVE THEIR GOODIE BAGS!! So practical and the bag itself is SO worth several tickets already!! Great idea to hang out with girlfriends and boyfriends =)  http://www.sheckys.com/events/

Read Chris Hoffman and Shecky’s inspiring story:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shecky%27s_Media,_Inc.

I am so thankful to have Shecky’s support for my Paradisehunter.com global host contest to help me become top 2 voted in the world ( www.paradisehunter.com/vote/Li-Jing.html)!! Voting ends 12/15. You can vote once everyday. You can win a $200 Shecky’s Paradise Hunter Voting For Li Goodie Bag!! Just vote and msg me li2000@gmail.com or FB msg!  =) Thanks!

Happy Early Thanksgiving my dearest friend!

I have officially been chosen to be world’s top 40 in Paradise Hunter global host contest as a semi finalist!!!!! As a Chinese immigrant & English not being my native language, I am thrilled to make it to top 40 out of nearly 700 applicants from 21 countries, I know this will not happen without YOUR HELP! THANK YOU SO SO MUCH!!

Voting has started NOW and will last for the next 3 weeks till about Dec 10. Top 5 voted will be the finalists to interview/screen test and the winner will be announced in Jan. Our goal is to be number 1 and the final winner, so these 3 weeks are the most critical time that YOU can make a difference! VOTE HERE!! www.paradisehunter.com/vote/Li-Jing.html

It’s not only to win this contest, but to inspire others to chase their dreams despite the odds! This is what you can do to help

1 VOTE EVERYDAY for the next 3 weeks! You don’t need to register your email, just put in verifications and it takes a few seconds! You can only vote once a day so pls share with friends to help our effort!

2 Email the link to all your friends, family to vote, you are inspiring them by sharing the message! Each vote does make a difference!

3 Post the link on your facebook page, twitter, community discussion boards, email lists and anywhere people can see!

4 Ask media to cover the story, post it on your blog to share with friends!

5 Suggest friends to add me on facebook, twitter via li2000 for updates on contest and our exciting voter’s lucky drawing sponsored by SHECKY’S! (sheckys.com)

Amazing achievement we have done for the 1st voting!

1 12261 votes, top 3 in US, top 5 in the world and the only Chinese in top 40!!

2 1230 facebook friends shared my voting link, which is like a 12 million visitor website’s post rate!!

3 4784 views on my voting youtube video!

4 A number of Chinese and American media covered my top voted story in USA including frontpage news by the largest Chinese website in North America sina.com (Alexa top 1 website) and the largest Chinese TV in NY sinovision!

5 Many celebrity voted and supported our effort from media, art and business across the world such as international celebrity pianist Lang Lang, celebrity fashion designer Zang Toi, NBC legendary anchor Chuck Scarborough, model/entrepreneur Melania Trump, TV “The Bachelor” star and entrepreneur Prince Lorenzo Borghese, the most famous woman in China by PEOPLE Yue-Sai Kan, NYC TV host Ornella Fado, WPIX host/reporter Kaity Tong and Howard Thompson, Actress Kerry Washington, Nightlife visionary CEO Chris Hoffman, Philip Chang head of Sinovision (the largest Chinese TV in NY) and NBC reporter Andrea Mitchell!

6 Generous voter’s sponsorship by America’s top lifestyle brand SHECKY’S (check out their BEAUTY NIGHT OUT AND GIRLS NIGHT OUT AROUND THE COUNTRY on sheckys.com))

If someone like me who barely spoke English 10 years ago can be voted top to host a TV show by the world, you can achieve your dream too! Another great news: our generous sponsor SHECKY’S will give out more voter prizes!!! =) due to the overwhelming amount of support we have! We will draw winners for the first round soon so stay tuned! 

Facebook: li2000 Twitter: lijingusa blog: lijing.tumblr.com I am so thankful to share this journey with you and be your friend!! VOTE & SHARE! THANK YOU!!!

What do you do if you were fired by a company that you did great at? Ask Mickey Drexler, former CEO of the GAP who took the national clothing giant from $400 million in annual revenues to $14 billion and from 450 stores to more than 2,000 in the span of 19 years. Drexler was abruptly fired by the GAP.  His answer is: success is the best revenge. Even the firing was considered unfair and wrong by many and it was so painful that Drexler has never shopped at the GAP since, he stood up and created another legend and a GAP competitor.  Drexler became the CEO of J. Crew after being fired, he gave it a stunning makeover.  Today, it has the first family and Oprah as its fans.  This link tells you an inspiring story about a man who faced one of the greatest challenges in life. 

http://magazine.wsj.com/features/the-big-interview/retail-therapist/

I just came back from an amazing trip so sorry for just posting this!  The good news is 1 I got some great photos—not from the trip, just yet, but from a great shoot in the West to share with you!  2 I learned something amazing from a recent wedding to share with you. It’s from a guest of the groom and has touched many guests there!  He said: How many people should you date before you marry? There is not a right answer. You date whatever it takes until you meet THE ONE. 

Isn’t it like life in general?  Whether it is your career, a life goal or your partner, you try and try and try, fail and fail and fail until you succeed.

Success is not an end, it’s a journey, a journey requiring courage. I love it!

Interviewed John Liu at Asia Society on Asians and Leadership. His advice?

1 Speak out more, you need to talk to be heard

2 Participate in community activities and organizations

3 Join public service, he is basically advocating for the next John Liu! He is the first Asian American citywide official in NYC’s history.  Good role model to follow =)

My impression on Mr. Liu: he is an outstanding public speaker who likes to talk and especially talking to media.  When you like something, it’s more likely it will like you.

TTP!

It means TALK TO PEOPLE.  This small step has a magic power, especially when you want to go toward your goals and find answers.  Because when you talk to people, you are connecting and learning things you didn’t know. I learned it this morning at WNBC during TODAY IN NEW YORK show when I talked to Susan Apollon, an extremely wise, warm woman and book author of “Touched by the extraordinary.”  (www.touched-by-the-extraordinary.com)

She was on our show to talk about how to reach your new year’s resolutions. I normally was too busy during the show to really talk to our guests. But I was intrigued by the topic and offered to take her to get coffee and started our talk. Susan told me she is a psychologist, it took her 10 years to write this book, and she started her own publishing company to publish this book. WOW, quite some steps right?  Here are some learning I want to share with you from our talk because it is helpful to me:

1 I asked Susan how do you decide what is right when you face several options, or a crossroad?  We always face decisions in life and the key to make someone successful is every decision that person makes.  Susan said you need to go with “WHAT FEELS RIGHT.”  Take a deep breath, close your eyes and feel your heart to see what it feels. Because our brain thinks, but our heart is where the passion is. Our passion is what we love and should do.

2 I also asked Susan why she started her own company just for one book? Wouldn’t it be easier to go with an existing publisher?  She said it would cost less to let other publish it, but she chose the more expensive and hard option because she can write the book the way she likes, not to follow other publisher’s ideas.  Hmm, isn’t that a choice? You need to decide what you want to do and do what it takes.

3 After our conversation, Susan gave me two books she authored as a gift, the one she showed during TODAY IN NEW YORK. I am very happy and what a great start of 2010—I feel being touched by the extraordinary already.  It all started from a little coffee break conversation.

After getting home from work, I also read a story on SUCCESS magazine (www.success.com) and my discovery resonates with a story on WILLIE JOLLEY, a motivational speaker and author. He says he got one of his first speaking engagements from handling out ugly fliers at DC subway, one of the least glamorous things he did, simply from TTP, talking to people, whatever way you chose—email, phone, in person, fliers.

TTP, talk to people because you will learn and connect, it opens heart and doors. Interviewing is talk, dating is talk, when you talk to others, you understand and connect. I am dedicated to talking and meeting more people this year.  Hope you do too!

P.S. Thank you Roberto Soto (www.imaginus.biz) my friend for talking with me today and giving me great ideas on my show-the new adventure I am taking in 2010. I will share with you more soon and invite you to take on this journey with me, so stay tuned!

ALSO, my tumblr popularity is up 10 times these past 2 days! YES! THANK YOU, MY READERS AND FRIENDS! Your visit motivates me to share better and more: I want to grow and help you grow and reach our goals in 2010, so keep visiting, commenting, liking and reblogging my posts—it helps me understand what helps you!

The talented, warm and beautiful NYCTV host Ornella Fado hosted “Live your life in a bubbling way” party at South Gate restaurant to celebrate the success of “Brindiamo” the only TV show about Italian restaurants (www.brindiamotv.com).  I not only had some AMAZING food, seriously good, mouthwatering and quite healthy, talked and once again heart warmed by Ornella (She is really one of the TV personalities who really help, care and would give you sincere advice)

It was also great to meet my friends that long due to meet, Stephen, Andrea, Michael and not to mention, my dedicated and hard working crew DP Avtandil Chachibaia from Georgia (check out his photography at http://www.photosight.ru/users/115907/).  A Toast to everyone and the inspiring Ornella!