After over a decade in the 'corporate world', I found myself curious about entrepreneurship and not entirely sure about where to find the answers to my questions (other than doing a Google). Books were an obvious resource, but I gravitated towards podcasts that I could listen to while driving or walking to and from my downtown office. While many of the stories and interviews I listened to may not have been directly applicable to the business(es) I would eventually start, I found takeaways from almost every founder's experience and observations. The following are just a handful of pods that have had a particular influence on me, both before and after taking on the title of entrepreneur.
StartUp was probably one of the first podcasts I ever listened to (yes I know, totally late to the party on podcasts AND entrepreneurship) and I was immediately drawn to the storytelling in the first season which chronicles the launch of...a podast. And a podcast media company. Subsequent seasons have followed a specific startup for the whole season, while others feature a different business for each episode.
Coming from a career rooted in formal education, when I started to think about entrepreneurship my first thought was 'do I need to go back to school'? The idea of learning how to start a business in a classroom was like a familiar old security blanket amidst an ever-present feeling of imposter syndrome. Enter Seth Godin's Startup School, a solo season of incredibly inspiring lessons that made me realize I didn't need to get another degree. I also think it's time to go back and listen again, now with a totally different perspective than I would have had a few years ago.
A Few Things with Claire and Erica
My love for Claire Mazur and Erica Cerulo started in the early back catalog of their podcast, A Few Things, which is an extension of their venture Of A Kind and related newsletter "10 Things". As 'professional enthusiasts', they would share their fave everythings - clothes, cosmetics, snacks - like talking to your bff about your current obsessions (a lot of this happens over at Flax Sleep HQ) and also interview some very cool people along the way. In more recent episodes though, they have focused their interviews on female co-founders from all manner of industries, some of whom were also featured in Claire and Erica's new book, Work Wife. The book is about leveraging the power of female friendship to build successful businesses, so to know us is to know why we would love this.
The Skimm is a media company producing a daily email newsletter covering current events that was co-founded by Carly Zakin and Danielle Weisberg from their couch. After raising multiple rounds of capital to scale their venture and taking The Skimm to over 7 million subscribers in less than 7 years, Carly and Danielle launched their podcast to interview female leaders in business on their greatest successes and failures from, you guessed it - their couch. Likely a nicer one now, though.
Hosted by Hillary Kerr, co-founder of Who What Wear, this podcast features interviews with women who made successful career changes at various ages. Timely for me to listen to, for obvious reasons. Hillary's guests are super high profile, yet come from diverse backgrounds and their successful pivots give a good dose of inspo especially on the occasional days when I just want to burrow deeper into my linen bedding.