# Why Real Leadership Feels Like Crap β€” Farmgirl Flowers Founder Christina Stembel Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/is-this-working-7581836/why-real-leadership-feels-like-crap-farmgirl-flowers-founder-christina-stembel Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/is-this-working-7581836/why-real-leadership-feels-like-crap-farmgirl-flowers-founder-christina-stembel.md Podcast: [Is This Working?!](https://stenobird.com/podcast/is-this-working-7581836) Published: 2026-05-27T17:51:00+00:00 Episode link: https://episode.flightcast.com/01KSMA5CBP4S5TYMJP5AAGX1NE.mp3 Audio file: https://episode.flightcast.com/01KSMA5CBP4S5TYMJP5AAGX1NE.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/is-this-working-7581836/episodes/why-real-leadership-feels-like-crap-farmgirl-flowers-founder-christina-stembel Duration seconds: 2988 ## Resource Christina Stembel started Farmgirl Flowers in 2010 with $49,000 in her bank account, no college degree, and no VC funding. Sixteen years later, it’s a $35-million-a-year company. "We joke at Farmgirl that we're like cockroaches. You can't get rid of us. You just get stomped on, you just keep going." In this conversation, Christina and Connor talk about: the costs of building a company without the credentials the 28-hour test that saved the company during the pandemic why leaders can't always stick to their values why real leadership means feeling like crap most of the time If you're sick of leadership platitudes and hungry for the story of someone doing the hard work, against the odds, this conversation is for you. ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/is-this-working-7581836/episodes/why-real-leadership-feels-like-crap-farmgirl-flowers-founder-christina-stembel/transcription-requests` β€” Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/is-this-working-7581836/why-real-leadership-feels-like-crap-farmgirl-flowers-founder-christina-stembel.md` β€” Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.