One Hour with Mondo Beyondo's Superhero Andrea Scher
When I first heard about Superhero necklaces I thought to myself: takes some guts to call your company "Superhero" anything. Then I received my first Superhero necklace from the Kirtsy girls. It was a magical moment. And I never again questioned the use of the term superhero. Each time I wear it I get this joyful, superhero-y feeling. If someone is a superhero because she has the daring and audacity to show up and live life to its fullest, Andrea is a superhero.
This is the scene. She visits my place in Boulder. We spend one hour sitting on zafu with our notebooks in our laps, taking notes and drinking coffees. We talk about Mondo Beyondo - her new course with Jen Lemen about living your dreams out loud (the next open registration date is in January. Of course the thing is going gangbusters. Of course you're going to go click over and see why you're going to want to sign up). We talk about scaling heart - how do you take something handmade and heart-centered and scale it to large batches? Can/should you?
How do you best run a one-woman show?
I told Andrea about the book, "Craft, Inc." - it's a business planner for creative types. She told me about Meat Paper - it's an online 'zine about meat. I wrote down the name KT Tunstall - because when I first heard her on NPR in 2006 I learned that when she plays a show she does most of the loops herself live, on stage. Sounds cool right. How much cooler is it that the Dalai Lama asked to meet her? Yeah, I know.
As Andrea and I talked the first leaves of the season began to fall. I didn't leave the conversation with the answer on how to "scale heart." I have a hunch the answer might be a koan, an unanswerable question that we keep asking anyway.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Reader Comments (7)
Oh I adore that girl. I'd follow her anywhere.
seeeeeriously gwen, your blog is so inspiring. thanks for the pillow love, your the best!
Man, two of my biggest inspirations in one place---I'd have paid good money to have been a fly on the wall for that conversation.
Loving the thought of the two of you together.
As for scaling heart, I'm always a little wary of figuring it out. I have this suspicion that when you think you know how to do it, you're probably wrong. Being willing to put your heart (and heart's creations) out there in the brave unknowing seems to be the admission price to play the game.
I can only imagine the powerful conversation you two shared. Connectedness is something else, isn't it?
Every time I wear my Superhero necklace -- I feel just a little stronger, a little better, a little more like something super or hero.
Thank you for the lovely post.
I love Jen Lee's answer here—and love LOVE the idea of you and Andrea in the same room. She is wonderful (had my own hour or two with her last month). Love that girl.
I think in scaling heart you'd have to walk through each step with heart, and have the guts to step back if it didn't feel right (no matter what was at stake). I think you'd need full creative control. We've seen so many stories of entrepreneurs who sell their little heartfelt companies, assured that they will still be able to call the shots, and end up regretting it sorely. Sometimes—oftentimes, I think—bigger is not always better. We Americans have so lost sight of that.
So I guess the first question would be: why scale up? If there's a good, heartfelt, honest answer to that, then advance to the next question (sort of sounds like a board game, eh?:-).