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Guy Kawasaki kicks ass. No really, he does...and not for the reasons you may think he already kicks ass for because apparently Wikipedia says he's famous for a lot of things before starting Alltop.com and I just had no clue until meeting him on Twitter.

Yes. I am the Chinese chick version of Forrest Gump ok? Give me a break. I moved to Shanghai right after college years ago. There's no Guy Kawasaki fan club there...yet.

My first real tweet to Guy was months ago talking food porn regarding Chocolate Haupia Pie from Ted's Bakery that I missed from my days living in Honolulu. By then, I figured with 10K+ followers on Twitter he was some big guy from the tech industry. I'm not stupid you know, I eventually get these things.

So after landing on Alltop's Twitterati page a few months later thanks to my friend Julio. I reached out to Guy and asked if I could help out with an Alltop page for China...and from there, china.alltop.com and another Guy Kawasaki fangirl was born. :D

By the way, here's a tip for those looking to get on Alltop and subsequently avoid getting kicked off Alltop in the same week:

Be a cool person of the nice variety. Guy likes cool people on Alltop.
Don't brag about your MBA. Guy doesn't give a shit.
Pray there's no Sharks game that night. If there is, pray they win. (heh)

So I had lunch with Guy on Thursday before my meeting with Elliott Ng in Palo Alto. It was cool being able to thank him in person for connecting the China blogger community to those outside of China, connecting me with the VisualCV folks (press release coming soon) and landing me an interview with the Editor-in-Chief of National Geographic magazine. No seriously, it's inspiring to come across someone with such a laid back positive attitutude towards life who's managed to accomplish as much as he's done without giving a crap about what other people think. What an awesome person to hang out with in RL. I'm a total fangirl now.

*Guy, if you're reading this. There's a China Alltop party in Shanghai with your name on it in November. Here, let me know if bribing you with your own Alltop badge helps to sweeten the deal. Thanks again for lunch. :o)

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You Know You're A Social Media Geek

Thanks to @michelleoshen for sharing this video first on her blog. The fact that I've watched it ten times cracking up confirmed what I have been denying for a while now. I'm a total geek because I find this hilarious. I'm going to find some RL people at the mall today to POOOOKE. Heh.

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Cute Girls Rock - Building An International Bridge For Women In China

So there I was this weekend brainstorming a VIP cocktail event for tech week in Beijing later this month...

It's a week where senior level execs from all over the world will be attending the CHINICT 08 conference or the Asia VC Journal conference and holding a cocktail would be a great opportunity to give folks a chance to mix it up between the two conferences as well as with Beijing based who's who in tech and VC sectors. Yadda yadda yadda...

So in drafting up the initial invite list, I realized that a majority of those invited...would be men! A cocktail party with 99% male attendance after they've spent 2 days in conferences with each other. Boring. Definitely not fun when planning a cocktail party that's supposed to reflect a more social networking environment where real guanxi can develop.

At the same time, I also remembered that I also have a growing number of great caliber girlfriends (CEOs, VPs, Directors, Founders and other senior levels) in non-tech sectors such as advertising, PR and marketing, fashion and event planning and thought to myself that it'd be nice to invite them to the cocktail as well since I was going to be in town.

So why the name "Cute Girls Rock" you may be wondering. Why not something like "The Bitter Glass Ceiling Bitches" or "The Professional Corporate Man Haters Club" right? Because I never quite fit into either of those two during those formative years in my early 20's prior to jumping off the corporate ladder (gosh, I feel old now just for saying that). Also, in the year since I've been back in the China business space, I've come to realize that I'm not alone. My life and future success as a female entrepreneur shouldn't take fashion or corporate culture cues from some old 80's movie of what women in the work force should look or act like...and even IF shoulder padded suits and bad boardroom haircuts *did* come back into style, you won't catch me dead in one. I'll be busy holding a funeral for my wardrobe and mourning the loss of my Blahniks instead....with a glass of Clicquot in one hand no doubt.

So created the group the other night. Invited some girlfriends on Facebook and in the 24 hours since the closed invite only group was created, I've already seen some great networking amongst women from all sectors in different cities and countries. There's also a very supportive tone setting in of wanting to help one another. Example:

An Australian lawyer who's client include large SOE's in China
One of Shanghai TV's top lifestyle TV hosts.
Director of Beijing Olympic program for a global sports brand
The head of a Chinese Radio & TV company in Europe.
The CFO of a top video sharing site also joined along with an award winning filmmaker
CEO of a venture capital and consulting company in SF

Etc. etc. etc...

My friends know why I've got a passion for this. My life as I knew it changed in October 2004 and again in September 2005 and again in April 2007 and one more time in January 2008. Call it the universe's way of say "hey, it's time to do something with all the stuff that's been given to you the past 3 years". Heh. Understatement! So creating positive change as a result of my life and experience of the past 3 years is the journey that I'm now on. As a result, i've been talking to some friends in China for a half year now about helping them plan some kind of international women's conference and expo in 2009 so why not start building the community now.

Want to know how you can help? Is there a smart and sexy female in your network that should be in ours? Let me know.

The most important criteria is confidence. Everything else falls into place from there.

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A Reminder That The World Doesn't Revolve Around China

It's official. My undiagnosed Adult ADD has found a great channel for firing off my CSR charged brain cells. It's a social goodworking blog called What Gives!?

A few weeks ago, eBay's Roman Garcia reached out to me on Facebook and said he was putting this blog on the WhatGives.com blogroll and also extended an invitation for me to come on board as a contributing blogger to share good stuff I'm inspired about that may or may not necessarily have to do with China or business. Which is not a bad thing for keeping my world in perspective.

I've spent the past year inhaling and exhaling China info in a continued effort to help remind those in the US that the world doesn't revolve around America anymore. After a while of doing so, it's also nice to come full circle and be reminded that the world also doesn't revolve around China. We all strive in one way or another for balance in our lives. So basically if my life consisted of a bunch of stuff piled up on a ~~very messy~~ table... motherhood, china business, csr and women's wellness are the legs that keep my life balanced at the moment. I'm cool with that.

I am very honored to be invited into a community of folks from a variety of interesting backgrounds who gather on the What Gives site to share and spread good news. I'm also excited about the opportunity of having coffee with Roman in RL (yea, "real life" has an acronym these days. heh) later this week while in SF for a few days. When people with good intentions get together, I notice wheels get put in motion for good things to happen that go beyond just inadvertently annoying the crap out of grouchy people in the world who try to pull people under their personal little rain clouds. ( Heh. Thanks again to Frank for backing me up on that one. )

My first post was inspired by reading Stacey Monk's guest post on Sam Lawrence's Go Big Always blog a few days ago. Look forward to covering more good stories that inspire me as I come across them in China and around the world. My next one will be on award winning filmmaker Siok Siok Tan and her Beijing Olympic documentary she's screening this summer in support of The Library Project.

In the meantime, please have a read and help spread the word about Epic Change.

Update: It's hearing follow up comments like the below from Stacey that reminds me how cool social media is for spreading good IWOM to make a difference. And she's right. Gideon (the boy in the video) is awesome.

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I Heart Beijing Olympic Architecture

While in China later this month, I am definitely taking some time out to check out the crazy cool new architecture in Beijing. From flying into the new airport (world's largest) to the CCTV building to the Water Cube and the Bird's Nest Stadium...I am *SO EXCITED* to see it all and so is my Sanyo Xacti.

Yoo hoo, Sam. Are you reading this? So glad you're planning on joining us in November for the China 2.0 tour. It'll take your Go Big Always motto to another level. I promise!