Mojo Mom Podcast with "Switch" co-author Dan Heath

Don't you love the feeling of having just the right book come into your life at just the right time? That's how I feel about the new book Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard. Reading Switch helped me understand with more clarity what my anthology contributors and I are trying to accomplish with our new collaboration Courageous Parents, Confident Kids. There has been a lot written to motivate people to give their kids more freedom and responsibility. Now with Courageous Parents, Confident Kids. we are adding to that conversation by providing toolbox of skills to help parents and families reach that goal.

I highly recommend Switch for anyone who is involved in leadership or change--and that would include all parents! The new book, which is the Heath Brothers' follow up to their bestseller Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, has just come out this week, and Switch has already rocketed up the bestseller list on Amazon.com. So it is a real pleasure to welcome Switch author Dan Heath to The Mojo Mom Podcast this week.

Listen to the podcast now:



The Mojo Mom Podcast is all about providing parents with valuable information that applies to all aspects of life. Parents are leaders and change agents. So this week Amy Tiemann welcomes Dan Heath back to the podcast to talk about his brand-new bestseller co-authored with Chip Heath, "Swtich: How to Change Things When Change is Hard."

Whether you are a PTA volunteer, community organizer, or CEO, "Switch" will change the way you look at change. In this interview, Dan explains the guiding metaphor of "Switch" and inspiring examples of people creating big change in difficult situations.

Listen in, check out the Heath Brothers' website for more information, and read Amy Tiemann's full review of "Switch."

Made to Stick: Funniest eBay Auction Ever

My brain feels like it's going to explode today, in a good way, if that is possible.

I have been hanging out with a whole bunch of different groups lately, from MomsRising.org, to the Women's Media Center, to book clubs and women at work groups, to the two-day Breastfeeding and Feminism symposium this week at UNC. I've had a great time pulling these threads together and making connections in different ways.

We talked about how to get breastfeeding accepted in society, and how to attract positive media coverage, and I recommended that we all read the book Made to Stick to help us create pithy, simple, memorable stories.

Then today I was reading Sarah Zeldman's Solutions for Busy Moms blog and she pointed me to her pick for the "Funniest eBay Auction Description Ever!"

On this eBay auction, a busy Mom of 6 kids writes a long, involved, funny story as she sells off a LOT OF POKEMON CARDS THAT MY KIDS TRIED TO SNEAK BY ME. (Go ahead and read it and then please come back.) She not only got $142.51 for her troubles, she got 179,000 people to read about her auction!

The author, Dawn, is also a blogger who writes Because I Said So. Now it seems inevitable that she'll get a book deal as a result of her eBay posting.

Most writers would kill for this kind of attention, I suppose each of us has to wonder how much you can plan for this type of response, and how much is just lightning in a bottle. Dawn seemed genuinely surprised by the attention to her auction. She was amazed by 14,000 hits and a bid of $40.00 last time she posted a comment on eBay. The auction ended over a month ago so the fact that people are still blogging about it and reading the auction description tell you that this story has gone viral and taken on a life of its own. She's received over 10,000 emails in response. (Read Dawn's late August Because I Said So blog entries to find out how it all exploded.)

It turns out that Dawn's eBay piece does fit all of the Made to Stick criteria for memorable ideas. It is a simple, concrete, unexpected (her blog didn't explode, her eBay listing did!), concrete, credible, emotional story. For me her genuineness was part of the fun...not to mention the allure of an ordinary Mom getting revenge on the kids who pulled a fast one on her.

We haven't heard the last from Dawn. The media has gotten wind of all this, of course, and she may show up on ABC World News in the near future.

"Fast Company" magazine and enterprising Moms

I've been hanging out in the tech media world lately, reading Wired and the like to do research for my new blog on CNET. I've always liked Wired but not felt a part of it. This month's cover story about the Transformers kind of sums it all up for me: it's a magazine for grown up 80's fanboys. In a way it's not a bad thing, in that the magazine represents a version of masculinity that I can live with (it's basically my husband, minus 10 years!). The bad news thought is that I don't particularly enjoy feeling shut out of the leading technology & culture magazine.

So it was a nice surprise to pick up Fast Company on a plane trip a couple of weeks ago. Entrepreneurship, technology--for a change I actually felt included! I generally don't read a lot of business magazines either, but Fast Company had just the right mix of culture, news and enterprise to keep me reading.

Three things to recommend to you from the July/August issue:

Charles Fishman's brilliant feature, "Message in a Bottle," which will change the way you look at bottled water forever. Others have written about this but not as eloquently as he has. (You can hear an interview with Fishman on a recent podcast episode of WUNC radio's The State of Things.)

Made to Stick authors Dan and Chip Heath have a recurring column in Fast Company. Their book is still one of my favorites of 2007, and definitely one I refer back to on a regular basis.

And lo and behold, there was an article close to my heart: an "Open Debate" between Vivan Steir Rabin and Leslie Bennetts on the topic "Is staying at home with kids career suicide?" You might be getting tired of this subject, and to be honest, so am I, but Vivian Steir Rabin gave such good answers that I had to cheer.

I have been encouraging women to develop the confidence to take their careers in their own hands. Steir Rabin gives encouragement to "career relaunchers:"

Steir Rabin: "Telling a woman not to take time off because she might not find work again is like discouraging someone from starting a business because he or she might fail. Better to suggest ways to minimize risk, like ensuring your family has adequate savings and staying professionally connected. Give women the tools to return rather than intimidate them from trying."

Vivian Steir Rabin and Carol Fishman Cohen have written a whole book on career reinvention, Back On the Career Track. I take issue with the title, since for many women the career "track" is replaced by a career version of "off-road adventure," but I recommend their work as a resource for Mojo Moms everywhere.

On a related note, today I met with several community leaders to talk about several projects that are near and dear to my heart. I realized that there is no career ladder or prescribed path that leads to where I am now. I love my life, including my family, community involvement, activism and accomplishments as Mojo Mom.

Why don't we teach women to strike out on our own? It's easy to be a "good girl" by staying on the path. Be a good high school student, get into a good college, get a good job. But then that conveyor belt lets us down when we become Moms and try to integrate work and family. I would love to see more women develop business skills that they can use to create their own job opportunities. Even if you don't start out as an entrepreneur, you might end up as one, and that can be a very good thing.

(parent . thesis) The 4-Hour Workweek, for parents

One of my favorite things is to tell parents about non-parenting books that will be interesting or helpful to them. These crossover hits can cover any topic. For example, Made to Stick is still one of my favorite books of 2007, as it can help us all be better communicators.

Now I hope you'll surf on over to my latest posting on (parent . thesis), my new CNET parenting & technology blog, to learn how the hot new book The 4-Hour Workweek can help you create the life you've always wanted. You'll love seeing flexible work bring presented as a brilliant business tool, rather than a favor to busy Moms!

The difference between Apple and Microsoft

I have been a Macintosh fanatic since the first time I saw one, my senior year of high school. My first day of college in August 1986, my parents were kind enough to buy me a Macintosh 512K enhanced from the Brown bookstore. That computer didn't even have a hard drive but it did get me through four years of college just fine. In addition to wordprocessing, thankfully it did have the computing power to play Tetris--ye olde original Russian version. We were convinced it was a Communist plot to stunt the intellectual growth of American college students, but we happily became addicts anyway.

This week two high-tech announcements continued to demonstrate why I have such admiration and consumer loyalty for Apple that has endured for 20 years.

On Monday Bill Gates came out with an announcement that was uninsipiring and (IMHO) vaguely Orwellian, telling us what he's planning to do to our homes. All I remember is that he wants us to have a 24-hour a day connected experience, which terrifies me, to be honest. I am distracted enough. I don't want my refrigerator talking to me or providing stock updates and the CNN crawl. Gates' message came across to me as "Here is what I want you to do, whether it is what you want or not."

Then on Tuesday Steve Jobs announced the new iPhone. I didn't hear Jobs' keynote speech, but I went to the Apple website to check out the new product, and I immediately dissolved into a puddle of consumer-geek desire. From a design standpont, this product speaks for itself. The website demonstrates the phone, photo, browsing, iPod music & video features. Bonus points for using a Jim-centric clip from The Office to illustrate the video iPod feature!

Now I am skeptical about the touch-screen keyboard on the iPhone, and I'd like to try it out in person, but there is no question that Apple has created an instantly revolutionary device. Apple bounded out of the gate showing me something I really want. They presented the iPhone in a way that feels like the connected experience is in my control, rather than something being imposed on me.

I have become a student of ideas. For fans of my new favorite book, Made to Stick, the contrast of the Apple announcement versus the Microsoft announcement provides an excellent example of a sticky annoucement versus an unsticky idea.