Billions With Zero Knowledge - Austin Hill, Entrepreneur & Angel Investor

When I began to explore Canada’s social media scene in earnest last year, one of the first people I met was In Over Your Head podcaster Julien Smith. As many of my conversations are about using social media and online communities to improve the world we quickly connected and became friends. We have recently gotten involved in some a local volunteer project together (Thanks to our friend Hugh). His post regarding the local technology community needing to network together kick started a flurry of activity earning him the role of community instigator. (Patrick has a good take on the discussions here)

Julien is a podcaster, blogger, and entrepreneur. His podcast was among the first in Canada, and his blog was recently named among the 10 best art/entertainment blogs in the country.

Julien recently had his first manifesto, Keeping it Real published at Change This last week. (One of my favorite sites)

Always a busy guy, Julien has recently kick started a great social media project the Listen to your Kids podcast. Kids of all ages are invited to call toll free to 1 (866) 808-1212 where they can leave messages and speak freely to the adults of the world who wish to understand children better. Parents and other children are able to listen to the comments as part of the podcast.

You are one of Canada’s oldest podcaster’s and have created quite a brand for yourself. Tell me a bit about how you came from blogger to podcaster to Digital Radio Star.

I consider myself lucky to have had the opportunity to start very early with podcasting, being one of the earliest people in the world to experiment with it. During that time, I had just begun to listen to hip hop music very seriously, couldn’t shut up about it, and decided I wanted to take advantage by shooting my mouth off about whatever subject came to mind. I hated blogging then- I just had one because my friend Dave offered it to me.

I was very influenced by the podcasts of the time, which were mostly soliloquy type podcasts of people’s thoughts. Adam Curry, Dawn and Drew, and the Evil Genius Chronicles come to mind. It took me a while to develop my own style though- for a few months I was just talking back on my podcast to stuff they had said, which was a popular thing to do at the time.

I loved doing it, but for me, the real success came when I started to develop relationships with people. It became pretty evident that people could easily relate to what I did, and I developed a lot of connections on the web with podcasters, one of which was CC Chapman, host of the Reality Bitchslap podcast at the time– he now hosts one of the most popular music podcasts of all time, Accident Hash. He got me my gig at Podshow, who have helped kept me fed this whole time.

Frankly, I suspect my ‘brand’ was built on the idea of making mistakes. I never held back from being myself, no matter the consequences or the repercussions to the way people saw me. I suspect that being that much of an iconoclast has really helped people remember me as a ’someone’ or whatever.

You kicked up bit of a local Montreal discussion with your post about the lack of Montreal’s brains – how has the response been.

I think I really struck a chord with that post. People couldn’t stop writing about it and commenting. I think people are very ready to start talking about this- afterwards, about 30 people showed up at an entrepreneur’s breakfast that Ben Yoskovitz set up.

I remember last year when Hugh McGuire was doing this thing with some local social media type people- Michael Lenczner, Brett Gaylor and others were meeting and trading video and audio about what they called an Open Movement. We ended up going our own ways, but I remember thinking: “Something could happen here.” With the post you’re refering to, I was trying to bring back the same idea- smart people trading thoughts on a subject. I hope it comes back! I want to hear from more people about the state of the city; I find it fascinating.

Tell me about your new project, Listen to your Kids. What was the inspiration?

Listen To Your Kids came from the feeling of freedom I developed by letting go of basically everything on my podcast, just setting it free. I wanted to give that to kids who have a problem with communicating with their parents or whoever’s in their life.

When I started talking about it at the Podcast Expo last September, everyone I talked to was like, “that’s genius,” and swore to subscribe. It blew my mind that no one had done it yet because it was just connecting technologies together.

How has the response been?

Frankly, I think people only get a few really great ideas. For me, I think this is one of them- there’s a real need here, and I’ve got a great, unique solution to it. That’s proven by the fact that I can basically tell anyone about the idea, and a large portion of people love it and subscribe. The idea is highly sticky- everyone’s wondering what’s on the minds of young people.

That said, I’m currently experimenting with different ways to get kids involved and calling. I want to get a variety of people, different ages, etc. and that has proven challenging. I work on it a little every day, because I know that once I hit the right combination it’s all going to fall into place.

What kind of change are you hoping to create with your project?

a permanent improvement in the lives of those that decide to get involved. i think it’s self evident how that will happen, but in case i need to explain it- communication helps people- especially when you aren’t given the opportunity to talk back and/or interrupt.

What are your hopes for the local Montreal tech scene?

I want people who think of my city to not only think ’sex’, but also to wish they were a part of it because there’s so much shit going down. I really feel that we’re getting closer to that, and I’m really happy about it.

We also happen to be on the same advisory board for the Atwater Digital Library project. Can you talk about your goals in being involved with this project?

My personal aim with the project is simple: Getting involved with kids, to me, is a way of giving back. I used to teach chess to kids, and really enjoyed communicating with younger people. I hang out with people older than me normally (I’m 27 now, and a good portion of my friends are people in their 30s). I don’t ever want to be one of those people that is stuck in an older, dead generation. With the world changing faster than ever, there’s no value to being an antique.

In terms of what is given to the kids involved, I see people being able to free themselves from geographical boundaries and working on the web being the best advantage. I really hope we can give kids that.

The Atwater Digital Library Project is looking for support in raising funds and obtaining equipment and software for this summers program. If you are part of the local technology community or just interested in helping kids and community groups learn how to use social media tools then please consider donating (it’s tax deductible).

In my opinion, Julien is succeeding in the social media space because he understands the economics of abundance. He practices his own gift economy by sharing links, content, and building a personal brand of his experiences.

I told Julien that my response to his original post about Montreal’s technology community would be to show him just how many great projects are occuring in this city (and in Canada since I’m not limiting myself to Montreal projects).  I think it’s poetic that I start this series of Canada Tech Scene postings with his interview

On Fri 16 Feb 2007.