Why Was I Nominated for a Shorty Award Anyway?

4 min readJan 25, 2017

“We rise by lifting others, and we fall when we push others down or we hold them back and keep them from reaching their full potential. When you help others and give them a lift up this makes you a better person, and it enriches the lives of those that you touch” Robert Ingersoll

I was on the treadmill, sprinting. I was in between sprint sessions and I thought it wise to multi task and have a look at my email. “Congrats on being selected…” is all I can see. All I can think as my heart is pounding from my run is, “Congrats you have been selected for an award and if you pay us $10,000 today we will give you said award.” Fingers poised to hit the trashcan icon, I thought I better take a look. When I clicked the full title it said “Congrats on being selected as a nominee in the Shorty Awards!” What the what? It was a moment in time I will never forget because I almost fell right off the back of the treadmill. My heart was beating rapidly for an entirely different reason!

Being the founder of a business that relies heavily on most social media platforms I know what a Shorty Awards is. In case you don’t, here it is in their words!

“What happens on social media can change the world, create new stars and ignite global movements. The Shorty Awards were the first awards to honor social media, and by constantly evolving along with the medium it honors The Shortys remains the most prominent award show of its kind, engaging an online audience of millions and culminating in a blockbuster ceremony in New York City.”

So it’s the biggest thing to come along for go2kitchens.com…EVER! The nomination is in Tech and Innovation for “Periscoper of the Year”. I’ll say it again, WHAT THE WHAT?

Periscope has been the life’s blood of social credibility for G2K (go2kitchens.com). I have gathered 1000’s of people around me in a community that is genuine, caring and motivated. Without Periscope I would be no where close to the progress I have made in my business. It is not without a truckload of work. I work hard to grow the G2K audience and keep them coming back day after day. G2K had one of the very first full time cooking shows on Periscope. Lunch with Leslie was recently called “an institution” by Ross Brand from Livestream Universe.

I livestream the G2K show Lunch with Leslie every weekday at 12pm MT via Periscope. It is powerful. We literally have 1000’s of people visit us in the hour long show. I commonly use #anticancer to signify that your cancer journey is ok to share with us. As a cancer survivor I try hard to help people live an anti-cancer lifestyle through their kitchen. It is my primary goal. I want to teach people how to make their bodies inhospitable to cancer. It is my passion.

But still I ask myself, how the heck did my little show get the major honor of nomination from the Shorty Awards? It has kept me awake at night. I didn’t even want to share the news for a few days after I found out because I was afraid it was a misprint! I mean it happened to Tom Hanks so it could happen to me! I stopped pinching myself and realized it was real and G2K and my show Lunch with Leslie had actually been n0minated.

I’ll refer to the quote I started this whole post with. “We rise by lifting others, and we fall when we push others down or we hold them back and keep them from reaching their full potential.” Someone out there in the big Social Media world thought enough of G2K to lift it up and nominate it to the Shorty Awards, to push it forward. I wish that person all the RISE they deserve for lifting it up. I have no idea if you will ever read this, but whoever you are I am making a promise to pay it forward many times over!

What this person (or people) may not realize is that I have a goal to reach millions of people with my motivational message of making your body inhospitable to cancer. This nomination puts me closer to that goal, so really the person (or people) that nominated me could save one person or many people from never getting cancer in the first place! That ripple effect of the nomination may be limitless in it’s potential. I vow to be a good steward of my time in the sun and make the very most of lifting others all the way along my journey!

Thank you to Periscope for an amazing app! You are a huge part of this equation that I never take for granted!

Thank you to the G2K VIP’s for all your VOTES and love! You guys rock my world every single day!

Thank you to my family and friends who sacrifice their time with me so I can do the work I was destined to do!

Why Was I Nominated for a Shorty Award Anyway?

Written by Leslie Nance