The Journey
I can’t believe I am looking at my blog and it has been almost a year since I have posted anything. It is almost a year since I moved back to New York from Hong Kong. It has been an interesting year. I decided to go back into headhunting in September, and even though it sort of makes me cringe (don’t worry – everyone knows I feel that way) it is a necessary means to an end.
Since moving back to New York, I have enjoyed meeting lots of new friends and trying to balance being back in a Wall Street mentality with everything I have found I love. What do I love? Connecting people. There is something really special about making an introduction that really adds value to two people, and doing it beyond recruitment. One of the fun manifestations of this has been connecting some start-ups that I know with Angel Investors I have connected with.
Going forward I will be writing more about my philosophies on recruitment and networking as well as my general observations on life as always. I am excited to be leading a workshop at The Realtime Conference on “Effective Networking Using Real-time Tools” and I am teaching some Twitter workshops to my start-up friends. I am also in discussions to create a new video show (I miss doing video), so stay tuned for that. I haven’t figured how it all fits together yet, but I suppose that is where the faith in the journey is needed.
It has been an interesting (and sometimes difficult) year of transition, but I can feel the butterfly emerging again! It feels good to be back 
I got up nice and early for #TWTRCON to hear Laura Fitton (@Pistachio), founder of oneforty.com and author of Twitter For Dummies speak at the un-friendly hour of 7:30 am. It was well worth it. Laura had the crowd wide-eyed and was, I think surprised herself at her level of animation for that hour. Then from the back of the room was a loud “Laura, you rock” and then a blonde bobbing pony-tail rushing to the middle of the room to meet Laura for a big embrace. Ah…. @AdventureGirl. Stefanie is as big a personality in real life as she is online. I couldn’t help but go introduce myself and grab her for a little on camera time. As it turns out, she wasn’t even meant to be at the conference, but was staying at the same hotel. Thanks to Foursquare, she saw our check-ins and came to say hi!
Check out our chat about some of Stef’s travels, how she has always been a geek, and some of the fabulous charity campaigns she is involved with including her own personal 140smiles.org and more recently the global campaign to END MALARIA.
One of the highlights of my trip to New York in May was a night with friends (@LoriMoreno, @JeffRago, @BethFrysztak, @JeanetteJoy & @MomsofAmerica) when we went to see Josh Charles sing live at the Ella Lounge in the East Village. We were lucky enough to grab Josh after the show for a private sing-along. So fun.
I can’t say enough about how lovely a person Josh is and it makes it even more special to listen to his groovy tunes after getting to know him. Get to know Josh a bit and hear some of his music in my interview with him. Want to know more about Josh? Check out @2morrowknight ‘s post on him on the Huffington Post.
Come see Josh sing LIVE with me in NYC Monday June 21 at Ella Lounge on 1st St & Ave A 8pm!
When I started to “get” Twitter, Lori Moreno (@lorimoreno) was one of the first people that I became close with in the Twitterverse. We had both given up our corporate jobs, she as an attorney and me as a headhunter in financial services, to take a break and find a more meaningful path in life. Lori was the first person from Twitter I spoke to on the phone. When I finally had the opportunity to meet Lori in person at #140conf in New York I was thrilled and we had an amazing time. Lori is known to be one of the most inspirational people on Twitter and is famous for tweeting about L O V E . Lori has traveled all over meeting people from Twitter and has some amazing things to share. Check it out.
One of the things I love about Twitter is when people you have close ties to introduce you to fantastic people. After a long phone call with my Twitter buddy Sean Gardener, @2morrowknight, he said that I must meet @RochelleVeturis while I was in California. Sean had written a beautiful piece on Rochelle in his blog series #TwitterPowerhouses on the Huffington Post and made the intro for me via Twitter (of course). As serendipity would have it, I was already planning on seeing my friend Neal Schaffer (@nealschaffer) and he and Rochelle were going to both be at the #OCTweetup fundraiser for Irving Schools.
Rochelle is a very special woman with a great heart and the kind of warmth you don’t experience everyday. It was such an honor to meet her and I look forward to getting to know her better. See what she has to saying about her engagement hitting YouTube, charity and social media, and advice for non-for-profits to find that special influencer to help further their cause.
Goodbyes
Other than my native New York, I have never lived anywhere as long as I have lived in Hong Kong. I have traveled extensively and have spent weeks places, even months, but never the nearly four years I have been there.
Hong Kong is really far from New York. I know all about airplane travel and Skype and of course Twitter and Facebook, but I also know that my relationships at home have suffered the distance of these years abroad. However, I am going home and I will pick most of them up where I left off. When you go home it always feels like you were there just yesterday. When I decided to go to Hong Kong for a professional opportunity it was a quick and easy decision, but it was never my intention to stay there permanently. I always knew I would go home.
Leaving Hong Kong was a much bigger decision. It is a much bigger move. And saying goodbye was also saying goodbye to this period time in my life, looking back and saying “Thanks for the memories.”.
In the same breath I am happy and excited for something new but I am also acutely aware of the things I will miss. I was planning a sarcastic blog about the things I can’t stand about Hong Kong ( oh let me get in a few) like the way people walk – no crash- into you on the street, the way people assault that door close button in the elevator just as you are about to get in, and of course let’s not forget the worsening air pollution situation.
What I realized during my final days however, was that I didn’t want to focus on that. I started to think about the things I really would miss. Perhaps not so surprisingly they were mostly the little things. So little I almost took them for granted daily, but when I was leaving my eyes have opened a little wider to the world around me to really ‘see’. I will miss the little Ginger cat that sits on a leash at the local restaurant by my flat.
My morning ritual was to pet this kitty on the corner...
I will miss the sweet baristas at Starbuck’s who all know what I order. I don’t even have to ask. I will miss the very fact of being an expat.
Unforgettable...
And I will miss the buzz and excitement that is Asia. Most of all I will miss some very special people that have shaped my life over the past four years. I said to my friend tonight that I hate saying goodbye, and she said “so say see ya later.” So “see ya later” Hong Kong and thanks for the memories.
The following is an interview with one of my favorite friends on Twitter, Neal Schaffer. I am thrilled that I finally got to meet him IRL (in real life) on a recent trip to California. Neal is the founder of Windmill Networking, the author of Understanding, Leveraging, & Maximizing Linked-In (NOT an affiliate link), has a strategic consulting business, and is just an all around fabulous guy. I could talk to Neal for hours and in fact I had to do a lot of editing to get this video down to under ten minutes. It includes Neal’s top 3 Commandments on Linked-In, a chat about a must have networking gadget the POKEN that I must have, and Neal reveals his favorite blogger.
Check it out
To Live & Die By Social Media
I like many people can be found on a myriad of social networks. We all use these networks for different things: to give, receive, share. I virtually live on Twitter. I remember when I started living on Facebook. It was the place to “find me” if you needed me – (Mom). Yes, when I moved to another country with a twelve hour time difference, I found it difficult to keep in touch with good friends and family via “email” – as if it were some ancient form of inconvenient communication or the phone. Facebook was great. One status to my 800 and something friends and BAM!, everyone knew everything. (I am still a Facebook purist by the way – I actually know them all.) I have friends who joined Facebook specifically to keep in touch with me. I put my parents on it. Convenient. All my contact details, my travel schedule, where to find me. Or so I thought.
Well, these days, I am on Twitter. Facebook too, but if you need me and you need me now, Twitter is the way to go. People that know me well know to DM (direct message) me if they want my attention. I felt that way until I was in California on a business trip recently. I had my Hong Kong phone off and only gave my US number to my parents and the people I needed to speak to in the US. I woke up to someone knocking on my door at the crack of dawn, as it turns out not looking for me. Frustrated I was woken I opened my laptop, loaded Tweetdeck and in the DM column among a bunch of Spam and Auto welcome DMs was:
“The Memorial Service for Steve is Sunday at 1″.
I’ll pause while you take that in.
What? Memorial Service? What do you mean “Memorial Service”???? This was the first I was hearing that my dear friend had even passed away. I had to deduce it from those brief words. No one knew how to get a hold of me, and the person who sent the tweet assumed I knew. Through a Tweet. I found out my friend died through a Tweet. The more insane thing is to confirm he had in fact passed away I had to go to his Facebook page. I had no one’s phone number to call to find out what had happened until a mutual friend messaged her phone number. There were already messages of condolence posted on his page. I sat there alone in my hotel room and cried at my computer screen. No social network could possibly replace the voice or hug of a friend that I wish I had at that moment.
This experience isn’t going to make me change the way I communicate, but perhaps reflect how I want to be communicated with. It is just one of those situations that makes you take a step back and ask, “I know I’m approachable, but am I accessible to the people in my life that matter?”
Carpe Diem
We all have regrets. Don’t lie. You know you have at least one. Hopefully they aren’t too heavy. Whether it was eating that second donut; not marrying that girl; not taking that job on the other side of the world; staying out too late when you have a big presentation the next day. Whatever. Don’t regret missing opportunities that your gut told you that you should go for.
Today I was on the plane to LA and walking past me on the plane was Jack Canfield. Yes, he flies Spirit airlines too. I didn’t even have to double take. I was excited and thought immediately of the Laws of Attraction that he and his co-contributors from the Secret talked about. Would he approve of me saying hello after the flight? Of course he would! We are all people. Here was an opportunity to meet an incredible man. This encounter could change my life. Who knows? The point is, I wasn’t going to take the risk in not finding out.
Jack was great! He greeted me warmly and we chatted while we got our bags. We talked of my travels and his, Chicken Soup for the Soul and social media. We exchanged cards. Who knows what will come of it.
He didn’t need to be Jack Canfield or someone famous. It could have been someone I just felt I needed to talk to. The point is, don’t look back and think, “I should have”. Go for it.
Funny enough that was almost the end of the blog until I sat next to Brandy on the flight from LA to NY. We talked about the difference between the mind’s decisions and a “gut” feeling. She commented that gut is a “knowing” and then she said, “Your gut is God”. I like that.
Social Media In Real Life Series ~1~ Vegas Baby. Vegas.
I am passionate about social media. I love people. I love meeting new people. I love stories. I love conversation. I have had the wonderful fortune recently to meet some incredible people, and I want to share that with you through a blog series and video interviews so you have the benefit of “meeting” these people too.
I recently landed in Las Vegas from Hong Kong and was eager to check into Foursquare to allow the adventure to begin. Upon arrival two exciting figures popped up on the grid: @CHRISVOSS and @matthewray. I knew both of them via Twitter, but had no idea that I would expect to see them in Vegas.
Mathew and I had a special connection because we both worked on Twestival together. He ran the Rochester event while I ran the Hong Kong event on the other side of the world. Bonded through Twitter, and social media for social good, we randomly happen to be in Vegas at the same time, Foursquare alerting us of the fact, Twitter putting us in touch. I cannot think of a better (or cooler) example of social media magic in action at its finest. When Matt and I met he told me he was going to the 140 Character Conference in New York on April 20-21. I had to go. I rerouted my ticket to Asia via New York and voila! See you all in NYC! My video with Matt will be aired on the NY leg of the trip – so stay tuned.
I am deeply honored that my good friend, (and yes, you can make good friends online) @ImadNaffa flew in from California to have dinner with me. If you don’t know this man, reach out and say hello. He is one of the most authentic, engaging, intellectually curious individuals I have met on Twitter. Besides being a man with a huge heart and a kind soul, he is also a pioneer in the social media space in the Engineering industry. You may remember his touching blog post about The Peanut Man in Jordan who passed away that was graciously retweeted by @QueenRania. If not, it is a blog to remember, check it out. I unfortunately did not video our tweetup. Next time!
Finally, and last but not least, I had the pleasure of meeting with Chris Voss. Chris and I have chatted on Twitter, however not as extensively as Imad and I have. I was really impressed with how approachable Chris was and how open he was to getting together. Chris blogs on a lot of different topics and has extensive opinions on social media so I was looking forward to the opportunity to asking him some questions.
Some highlights this video covers:
- Question regarding a blog post where he discusses Twitter turning down gaming partnerships & are gaming platforms the future of social media
- Thoughts on Twitter’s acquisition of Tweetie
- The end of the Video also includes an interview with @NickTako who I met via Chris when I did the interview.
Next Stop Orange County. I am going to California for the Coffee Show with one of my client @TambarooCoffee, but interviewed @NealShaffer & @RochelleVeturis at the #OCTweetup last night and am having breakfast with @MiaChambers so will have plenty video to share in the coming days! wOOt!
