My grandparents owned a corner store when I was a kid.

I went to law school, took classes at Kellogg and worked at New Line and Apple in strategic new business positions, not to mention with plenty 'o start ups, but I learned more about business from the corner store than anywhere else.

Retail businesses scaled into Macy's and Walmart. Along the way most of them lost the humaity and sense of service that makes a small business truly successful.

Now that the Net is capable of video and some basic infrastructure pieces are in place –video hosters like blip, blog software like Wordpress (just to name a couple that I use)–it is possible to build a little corner store of a show and grow it.

And that's exactly what I plan to do. The second season of my interactive talk show begins September 21st (Theme: Does art change anything?). Unlike most videoblogs and online shows before it, it is based on a live experience with an audience (who are truly participants). The experience of the show comes, in large part, of the mix of guests and audience members and inclusive vibe. We have few public commons where people can meet each other and even fewer where we can openly discuss the most important issues of our lives without political posturing creating an experience as whitewashed and removed from real life experience as mainstream television. There is a cost to capturing this and bringing quality conversation and interesting people to a bigger audience than the ones who can fit inside the garage where we tape. It's much, much less expesive than making a television show, but quite a bit more than vlogging alone at home, talking into your webcam.

So this season I've taken a page from different conference models I've seen and suggestions from Shannon Clark, Gimme Some Candy, and conversation on Jerry Michalski's list to create a pricing model with multiple tiers.

I've always kept the show open to anyone who bakes for it and anyone who needs it to be. I don't want a lack of money to keep people out who want to be part of the community and conversation.

Regular tickets are $15 (lube tech) and now a sponsor level ticket $30 (greasemonkey) is available if you want to help back those people who can't afford tickets. If you'd like to support the show as a patron and back the podcast with a producing credit of your choice of 5 words, and access to green room fun there are a few $100 tickets available. And if you really love the show and want to be a regular, I've begun a season pass (warranty) $125 as well. The intention of this pricing is to keep the show open to those who need it to be free, while making a dent in the podcasting/vlogging costs for the show.

I've been speaking with different online networks as possible distributors. Will I be able to bootstrap all the way or will I need to take some investment partners ?

I'll keep you posted as the adventure continues. I look forward to hearing your ideas and your feedback.

Play Quicktime version

We discuss: the government, technology,the Mafia and spam,and poptarts at the recent Supernova Conference.

Other than Scoble and Goodnight Burbank, I was the only person I know i=of in the room actualy making stuff, and the only one making it long-form net-first. This point of view changes my interests and what I see:

I'm bl/vlogging a geek / biz conference with a strong media twist this week. I'll let you know when I'm doing some live streaming commentary. I'm not sure how quickly Ill post video. For now, I'm blogging and twittering (twitter name - heathr)

Fantastic post by Jonathan Coulton on his success as an indie artist on the Net. He is living the dream of the middle class musician many of us had working on music in the early Web days (I thinking specifically of my time in Apple's early music and webcasting group in 96).

I feel that the talk show will continue to grow in a similar (but not exactly similar) way. Although I envy the simplicity of pure performing sometimes. Just you and the audience. The talk show takes a lot more organizing, multiple cameras etc. But I love it so much. I love bringing people together. I love a mind/heart jam session.

How do you see creative growth online happening for things other than music?

Tip of the hairs to Derek Powazek for the link.

If you have a hard time getting it to load, it's probably because half the Internet is reading it.

How can entrepreneurship can make the world a better place?

I believe it can:

• serve, don't sell (selling is expensive, inauthentic and analogized to battle)
• no one can own community, only serve it
• this creates accountability for those serving it
• community is the only cost-effective way to deal with marketing and advertising in the digital era
• universal access to publishing promotes transparency
• social + digital networks (built with the intention of sincerity, since openness is necessary for them to be sustainable) make scalable collective problem solving possible
• fun+play attract attention and collaboration
• business must be humanly sustainable to stay competitive
• solving problems that make a meaningful difference in the world are engaging problems which attract talent and collaboration
• imposing a tether of social responsibility on business is an unattractive battle and a sad binary
• social consciousness is necessary to create a working web 2.0 business. The social awareness is integrated and organic.
• we are entering an era of integration

At this point, I'd rather focus on what I can do, and on working with others who are focussed on making real things happen than on either political party. You can read why in yesterday's post.

For co-sponsors Stuart Skorman Associates and Social Venture Network, I'll be hosting an intergenerational conversation about this tomorrow night (the 22nd) in San Francisco at The Hotel Rex. Details are here.

5/11/07Heather conversates with the uncategorizeable: the funny Marc Horowitz, Lakota Harden, a brilliant UC Berkeley rhetoric prof who chooses to remain ungoogleable and the people formerly known as the audience.

What if you can't describe what you do? What if the way you make your income and see yourself are different? In an economy that is forcing constant job changes, does it become more important to figure out what special value you offer to the world (marketplace)?

Listen to the mp3 of the entire show (90 min)

Add yourself to the conversation on Flickr.

What do you do?

"I don't spend any time thinking about what I am or what what I do means. I spend my time doing it."
–Jon Stewart on Bill Moyers
in response to Moyers commenting that Stewart has evolved from a stand-up comic to a serious cultural and social critic.

Step 1: write your vocation / occupation[s] on a card
Step 2: stick that shit on your forehead
Step 3: take a snap of yourself

Then upload it here.

This is the theme of The Heather Gold Show in May. See you there.

I heard John Hodgeman say this about his path to success on The Sound of Young America podcast. I just filled in what goes around it. (Included in Be Yourself would be "do your work and put it out there.")Do I create a structure / container / brand / plan first or do I play? This is a question many artists, entrepreneurs and anyone else endeavoring to live a creative, fulfilling life asks.This is the answer. But it implies you have a container within you. You act as your own authority, even if you're not quite sure about it. Asume that you will be asked to do what makes sense. But people can only ask of you what they know of you.