In my last episode, you guys saw me clean and declutter my apartment. That's just the beginning! Now, I'm gathering ideas for decorations, especially for the living room, dining area and bedroom. Plants, floating shelves are our key themes. Here are some thoughts! New York apartments are small, which present its opportunities and challenges. I would love to hear your ideas as we finalize our plan!

The original episode appears on YouTube https://youtu.be/dzZKjp_IL78

Check out our blog www.upandcomingnyc.com and follow us on instagram https://www.instagram.com/upandcoming.nyc/. 

Lessons learned from 10 years in NYC, covering work, dating and life in general. 1) Eyes on the prize. Think about what you want to get the most of the job and how it can help with your long term goals.  2) Get some hobbies!  Develop some passions beyond your job, so you continue to discover yourself by trying out new things. You will also divert your attention to more than your 9-5 job and won’t let what happens at work defines your identity or value. 3) Go on dates! I can never understand when a 20-something tells me that they are not in a phase to date at the moment. 20s is the time to date as many people as you’d like and find out what truly suits you! 4) Travel & Read.

Let’s Connect: 

My blog: https://www.upandcomingnyc.com/ 

Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/6a862kCCko94nQvvCOZzBp 

Instagram: @upandcoming.nyc

Last weekend, one of my BFFs decided to host her wedding on Zoom! Her wedding has been postponed twice due to COVID-19, but the couple didn't want to postpone their marriage. They decided to get legally married first and then have a big party. I truly applaud their decisiveness and courage. I'm a big believer in the "right now" and people should not wait too long to get married. Tying the knots should be exciting and not a thing to cross off the list after 10 years.    Some thoughts on why we shouldn't wait to get married and let anything stop us:   

1) Be clear and take pride in what you want, if that means saying “I believe in love and want to get married some day!"

2) How to know if he’s the one?   It’s not about the schools he went to, the job he has or where he’s from. It’s whether you envision a similar life. The best way to know is to go on a trip together - how do you guys handle unexpected twists and turns? who’s doing the planning? how did you decide on where to go? how much to spend?   

3) Get married when you have the impulse! Don’t “wait” until you are “ready.”  People tend to think that getting married is such a huge event and you need to test whether it would work by years of dating and living together. There’s no ultimate test. We would never know.  Simply by moving in together, you can’t test combining finances, having a kid or managing a household as a couple. You can only find out by doing. There’s no perfect time to get married and there’s no standard on when you are ready. You just have to take the steps to find out.

Let’s Connect:

My blog: https://www.upandcomingnyc.com/

Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/6a862kCCko94nQvvCOZzBp

Instagram: @upandcoming.nyc

When you think of New York, you probably think of Times Square, 5th Ave, Wall Street, Broadway…do you think of it as a "college town?" Probably never. But it is! Come to Morningside Heights, home to Columbia University, Barnard College and several other smaller universities like Manhattan School of Music.  

This is where we bought our first apartment. We loved the area - it's quiet and residential, creating some distance from the hustling and bustling concrete jungle, but we are still very close to the culture, performance art and business centers. I grew up in a college town - that's where I learned about the outside. I remember living really close to the English Department and computer labs in Yunnan University, and that opened up my world completely. It was when that I decided to go study abroad, leading to my almost 15 years in NYC. 

As a real estate agent, I found many newcomers not sure which neighborhood to move in. So I created a series of videos to introduce different areas in New York; we'll get to know the city neighborhood by neighborhood.

I cleaned my entire apartment this past week - it took the majority of my time, which was why I didn't get a chance to update the podcast until now. I also recorded myself as I go around the apartment to clean. Days of cleaning are consolidated into a two minute time lapse.  I gathered the footage for my youtube video. By comparison, this is not your typical cleaning video. There's no going from "messy" to "clean" immediately. In my video, I will show you how I went from "messy" to "less messy."  Some cleaning videos are very motivational and the YouTuber shares life lessons in cleaning. Well, if I were to put a takeaway here, I’d say it’s “don’t feel bad about your mess. Look at mine! Also, not all homes on YouTube look like they are straight from an architecture magazine.” Check out my youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCV2W1FJoR6FW5ZY4_mxS7bA

So this is my rambling part 2. I really enjoyed talking with you guys on Saturday and I'd like to do it again. This is something I love about podcast - I feel like I can be natural in front of a microphone, just imagining talking to friends on the other end of the phone. But sitting in front of the camera, I freeze. I look at the youtube videos I produce and most of the time I was just trying to stare at the camera and remember what I wanted to say next.  One limitation of podcast is that I can't take you guys to different parts of New York visually and just do some people watching :)  Sharing some of my thoughts on the different mediums/platforms and the goals I wanted to hit to connect with you more! 

Just wanted to chat this weekend. As you know, I'm also trying to launch my youtube channel. This episode is recorded after I've spent the entire day editing videos at my desk. Feeling a little tired and wanted to share some candid thoughts of mine - my fears, my exhaustion and my self doubts. If any of my episode is resonating with you, please drop me a note by visiting my blog upandcomingnyc.com.  That would be a HUGE encouragement to me!

Negotiation, it’s such a combination of art and science. We negotiate every day, but it’s never easy to do it well. It’s particularly hard in real estate, because home purchases are big purchases. If it’s your primary residence, it carries a lot of emotional weight.  Today we are going to talk about the logic and feelings in the deal process. We are going to look the science first and then art.

In my first episode, I said that sellers should sell right now, because there’s a lot of demand from buyers with great financial standing. I’m one of those buyers! I’m so eager to buy – you guys have no idea. The best way to build wealth is to borrow money to acquire assets. Right now, the cost of capital is really low and this is the time to reconstruct your investment portfolio. I’m taking you on my second home buying journey in NYC and yes, during a global pandemic. I put money where my mouth is.

Interviewing is like any other skills – you need techniques and practice. It’s similar to a muscle; it will grow stronger when you exercise it more often. I have been on both sides of the table – neither is easy. For candidates, you have to demonstrate your capabilities, connect with the interviewers, bring a lot of positive energies even though sometimes you are really tired. For hiring managers, you will have to assess the candidate’s value and potential in a few hours and make a judgement call. Hope the following tips will make interviews a little easier for everyone!