Finding Opportunity and Success in Unlikely Places

You never know where opportunity might present itself. And sometimes the most unlikely path can lead to success. For Mei Xu, a former Chinese diplomat, the light bulb went on while she was browsing the aisles of Bloomingdale's. She went on to found the multi-million dollar global enterprise, Chesapeake Bay Candle. Hear her surprising, and very practical advice.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to this episode of Here's Something Good, a production
of the Seneca Women Podcast Network and I Heart Radio.
Each day we aspire to bring you the good news,
the silver lining, the glass half full, because there is
good happening in the world everywhere, every day, we just
need to look for and share it. Here's something Good

(00:27):
for Today. Some of the best entrepreneurship stories are about
those who took an unlikely path to reach success. Some
founders never imagine they'd ever even start a company, but
then a door opened, an opportunity arose, or they had
an idea that they had to act on. May She
who founded and then built Chesapeake Bay Candle into a

(00:48):
multimillion dollar global enterprise, is one of those entrepreneurs. In
the early nineties, May immigrated from China to the US.
She had been trained as a diplomat with aspirations of
a career in foreign serve US, but once in the US,
she found herself working for a medical device company in
New York City. She was bored and uninspired, to say
the least, but May looked forward to taking breaks at Bloomingdale's.

(01:11):
She would window shop or sometimes browse the housewares floor,
and that's when she started to think that she could
freshen up the home industry. May has no training in
retail and certainly not in candlemaking, but her instincts told
her that there was a business opportunity in products for
the home. I interviewed May for an episode of Are
Made By Women's series, which airs tomorrow. Here's a preview

(01:32):
of what she had to say. The word entrepreneurship is
really a big word now, but it's really about a
sense of starting something afresh. Many people have heard about
my experience in New York as one of the most
only inspiring job pushing papers for medical equipment company, which
made me so bored during the day. But the one

(01:54):
thing the company did right was to put me in
a small hotel next to Bloomingdale's. Not us any Bloomingdale's,
but the flagship Bloomingdale's. Have always loved fashion and um
being able to, you know, put yourself in that location
means you can go window shopping every single night after work.

(02:15):
And that was when I realized, with my journalistic training
and my ability to pick up those trends that I know.
There's a difference between the second floor of bloomingdale which
usually has the most edgy and new designers on display,
and you keep walking up and each floor gets more
and more boring, until the top floor is the home floor.

(02:39):
And I just what do not understand? Because it looked
like you entered into your grandmother's home. And I started
talking a lot with my then husband David, and he said,
you're so bored and you seem to have some idea.
What do you think you want to do after you
complain about the home being missing something and the fashion

(03:01):
is zone inspiring. And that's when we decided, after almost
a year of my commuting between DC and New York,
that I would quit and he would quit, and we
would do something in the home industry to bring a
freshness and some kind of contemporary design elements into home.

(03:23):
And that was the pivot. Basically, I think once you
started to see that gap, you know, you started to
see there's a definite void and you want to fill
that void. You you went into action. So this is
a this is a sign that sometimes, um, you know,
when you see something and it looks difficult, try to

(03:47):
make it work. Just wants to see if the financials
adds up, if the cost adds up, if the trouble
adds up a lot of those assumptions. They're just assumptions, right, Um,
nobody ever actually did it to say it's not gonna work.
So sometimes I just bear people to try it and say,
if you actually tried it and then you say it's
not working, I I would give up. But don't assume

(04:10):
everything just because no one else did it. Amazing. There
is so much more to learn from May and her story.
Make sure to listen to the full conversation with Me
on tomorrow's episode of Made by Women. You'll learn more
about her personal story, how she found a Chesapeake Bay
candle and when she knew it was time to sell
her company. You'll also hear how she's now using her

(04:31):
platform to elevate other women owned businesses through her new company. Yes,
she May, So here's something good for today. May is
an inspiring example of an entrepreneur who saw a gap
in the market and sees the opportunity to fill it.
As she says, it's important to try something even if
it sounds too difficult or someone hasn't done it before.

(04:52):
May shows us that it's important to keep an open mind.
Inspiration may come when you least expect it, and you
never know what's behind that next door. Join me tomorrow
to hear the full story of May and her incredible
path to success, as well as some really valuable lessons
that can be used in any aspect of your life.
And listen to Made by Women every Thursday on iHeart

(05:13):
Radio or wherever you get your podcasts. Have a great Day.
Thank you for listening, and please share Today's Something Good
with others in your life. This is Kim Azzarelli, co
author of Fast Forward and co founder of Seneca Women.

(05:35):
To learn more about Seneca Women, go to Seneca Women
dot com or download the Seneca Women app free in
the app Store. Here's Something Good is a production of
the Seneca Women podcast network and I Heart Radio. Have
a Great Day. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio,

(05:56):
check out the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.