Episode 196: The Business of Being Mom

Episode 196 originally broadcast on March 07, 2009

This week its all about the recent Mom 2.0 Summit. Katie Laird recaps the event with Laura Mayes and Carrie Pacini. Russ sits down with Guy Kawasaki and talks about his new book, Reality Check and perhaps another start-up that Guy might be involved with. Erica also has an interview with Lisa Stone, the co-founder of BlogHer. Then things get wrapped up with Russ's interview with Karan Walrond, founder of Chookooloonks.com.

School of Business 03/07/09

Russ and John present the infotainment show that is NOT asking for a bailout. Includes: BusinessMakers Quote of the Week—wise words from Winston Churchill; This Week in Business History includes such diverse topics as the New York Stock Exchange, Abraham Lincoln, Monopoly, FDR and South Carolina; Navigating Business Jargon—acronyms, technospeak, businesspeak and discussion; and Dumbest Moments in Business History—a German politician has a solution to dog poop.

Karen Walrond of Chookooloonks.com

Before she became a photographer and blogger and created Chookooloonks, Karen Walrond was a structural engineer and a corporate attorney. Russ interviews this remarkable woman who started writing on Chookooloonks to keep family, located throughout the world, updated on the activities of her new family. She was an online hit, hired by AOL to manage several lifestyle blogs and building their number of page hits to dizzying heights. She recently quit her “day job” to focus solely on Chookoolonks, a site that conveys her feelings and experiences as a new mother, and utilizes her visual communication talents and some pretty amazing story-telling abilities.

Lisa Stone of BlogHer.com

Erica O’Grady visits with Lisa Stone, co-founder of BlogHer. Stone, a journalist and media strategist by trade, had a successful career launching blog networks and national brands. In 2005, Stone, Jory Des Jardins and Elisa Camahort Page boldly asked: Where are the women bloggers? They created a bloggers’ conference to meet annually, and established an organization that would pay women for their blogs. Today, BlogHer reaches more than 14 million women monthly through its conferences, Internet site and publishing networks. The next step in BlogHer’s growth is to launch a niche Twitter community, called Chatter, on BlogHer.com.

Guy Kawasaki of Alltop.com

Russ visits with start-up guru, sales expert and entrepreneur extraordinaire Guy Kawasaki, one of many high-powered speakers participating in the Mom 2.0 Summit. Kawasaki is managing director of venture capital firm Garage Technology Ventures and a columnist for Entrepreneur Magazine. The author of several books, including The Art of the Start, Reality Check, Selling the Dream and Rules for Revolutionaries, and others, is now blogging and aggregating other bloggers. Kawasaki calls his latest effort, Alltop.com, “an online magazine rack of popular topics.” People today want real results in their advertising, he says, and in their online search activity. Kawasaki depends on the social media communities, such as Twitter, to promote and publicize his sites, which in turn ensures the effectiveness of his niche and targeted advertising.

Flashback - Laura Mayes, Kirtsy, and Carrie Pacini, OpMom

Katie Laird debriefs the organizers of the recent Mom 2.0 Summit. The conference was created to connect mompreneurs and marketers, either through social media or for professional and networking aspects. Mayes and Pacini are high-energy and giddy from the success of the gathering—enrollment exceeded their wildest expectations, the mix of professionals to mompreneurs worked well and feedback indicates that the content was productive and helpful. In this fast-paced online networking industry, although it is highly social, two-way human interaction can be rare… which Mayes and Pacini believe only served to increase the impact of the event. Plans are already in the works for a repeat conference next year, same time same place.

PKF Texas – The Entrepreneur’s Playbook® - Womens Enterprise

The face of corporate business is changing. Greg Price discusses the resources and programs that would be very beneficial to Women Owned Businesses.

Advantage Point - What is a Mompreneur?

There has been recent talk about a term that you might have heard before but just can not seem to wrap your head around the idea of a "Mompreneur." In this Advantage Point Katie Laird gives tips to embolden budding “mompreneurs.”