Happy Valentines Day and Happy New Year!

Have you ever felt like you weren’t enough? Not tall enough, not skinny enough, not curvy enough, not blond enough… I have. Sometimes as a woman in the business world I also feel invisible. It is one thing to have imposters syndrome and to not feel like I am qualified for the job, but it is quite another for everyone else to look right past me, as they look for the man who must, surely, be in charge. This new series of Unplugged….and Apparently Undercover, will include some funny (but true) stories. These are a collection of LOL moments when I was mistaken for the coffee girl, someone’s EA, a sales girl at an awards banquet instead of nominee for the award, a prostitute (twice), the CEO’s Nanny, and many many more, but today I start in the present.

This time last year I was rushing to get home from a business trip. I used to travel almost every week for work and most of our vacations were traveling vacations. My children had active school and after-school schedules that lasted into the evening. Hubby Paul is a CTO at a tech/telecom firm and also lead guitarist in a band that performed every weekend. Busy. We were all busy, living our individual lives, catching up at dinner but then separating the next day after breakfast to do our own things once again. The American Dream… right? COVID has shifted our lives around in a big way. Paul hasn’t had the adrenaline rush of screaming fans and women swooning at his feet every weekend. I am not traveling for business. The children are not going in person to school. We are here at home. All of us. All day. Together. Paul is the only man in the house with both boys grown and gone. It is 5 short years ago when the title photo was taken when Paul and I played a show together at HITEC 2016 at the House of Blues in New Orleans. The photographer told me later she “had a good feeling about this one”. She was right. Now we are married, sharing children, and in each others’ pocket 24/7. How has he handled this? How are we all doing cooped up together?

Amazingly enough it has been pure gold.

Earlier this week I had to poke my head out of my home office to “shush” the commotion. Paul was running around the kitchen island being chased by the 11 year old in a nerf gun battle. Earlier in the week he was working with the 14 year old to teach her a song on the guitar.

Paul on stage playing lead guitar is undeniably hot, but who knew that the same rockstar accompanying the elementary school choir was hotter… and apparently a man in flannel PJ’s laughing out loud with your children, making them smile, encouraging them and growing their self-confidence… that is officially the sexiest thing I have ever seen. He sees me, he sees our children and he is our biggest fan just like we are his biggest fan at each concert we attend. That is better than roses any day.

I also have the best work partner in the whole world. #HappyNewYear xin nian hao to Bill Fang who takes my back-of-the-napkin crazy ideas and turns them into innovative products that are now used by almost 100 Million people every year. I don’t know how we missed Inventors Day, but together Bill and I have been granted more than 70 US Patents. Bill has had a front row seat to all that I am for the last 25 years. No matter who did not see me or underestimated me, Bill always believed in me and trusted in me, even when I didn’t trust myself. He saw me almost every day through both of my pregnancies and survived me while I was surviving my life B.P. (Before Paul). Thank you Bill and my heartfelt thanks to your real-life-valentine Michelle Fang for all those nights and weekends when you were working long hours for our company to be a success. “xie xie Bill-san“!

At home and at work I am seen and accepted (both the good and the bad). Isn’t that all any of us can ask for? To me Valentines Day is about a warmed heart. Whose heart can you warm by seeing them and accepting them? Happy Valentines Day and Happy New Year!

If you are a new friend just meeting me through Unplugged, please subscribe above and you will get the upcoming episodes and funny stories of me being “apparently undercover”.