Shelf Stocker Becomes Podcaster
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A story about how Steven West, a high school dropout, created a successful philosophy podcast while working at a grocery store.
"Let me tell you about this guy Steven West. He was taken away from his parents at age 9, was homeless off and on, and left high school at 16. In 2013, he started stocking shelves at a grocery store. While working there, he would listen to audiobooks on philosophy for 7 hours a day, and in the last hour, he'd listen to a silly podcast.
He was doing manual physical labor, but he loved it because he could listen to these books all the time. After a few years, he had devoured western philosophy and felt he really knew it. He read Tim Ferriss's 4-Hour Work Week about life design, and got inspired.
He launched a podcast called 'Philosophize This.' The podcast took off and now has 2-3 million monthly downloads, with 150,000 YouTube subscribers. What's interesting is that Steven doesn't preen or preach or teach - he just talks to you like a smart, curious adult. He was able to make a full-time living doing this, turning what started as just a hobby into a successful career."
Sam Parr
Host of MFM and fitness influencer
Sam Parr is a serial entrepreneur and business media pioneer.
In 2016, he founded The Hustle, a business news media company that started in his kitchen with just $12 and grew to eight figures in revenue.
Sam led the charge in making newsletters popular when few believed in their potential.
After four successful years, he sold The Hustle to HubSpot, a publicly traded company. Now operating as HubSpot Media, The Hustle reaches 3 million readers daily, employs a team of nearly 100, and has been the launchpad for dozens of its staff to found their own media companies and newsletters.
Sam remains the host of the popular business podcast, My First Million, and continues to start and sell companies. He also co-founded Hampton, a highly vetted community for entrepreneurs, founders, and CEOs, and teaches people to write better through his platform, Copy That.