# EP 197: Why It's Never Too Late To Take A Professional Leap: A Conversation With Entrepreneur David Thurston

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/mo-news-the-interview-6841423/ep-197-why-it-s-never-too-late-to-take-a-professional-leap-a-conversation-with-entrepreneur-david-thurston
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/mo-news-the-interview-6841423/ep-197-why-it-s-never-too-late-to-take-a-professional-leap-a-conversation-with-entrepreneur-david-thurston.md
Podcast: [Mo News - The Interview](https://stenobird.com/podcast/mo-news-the-interview-6841423)
Published: 2026-08-07T15:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/TENTWT7112135133.mp3
Audio file: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/TENTWT7112135133.mp3
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/mo-news-the-interview-6841423/episodes/ep-197-why-it-s-never-too-late-to-take-a-professional-leap-a-conversation-with-entrepreneur-david-thurston
Duration seconds: 2807

## Resource

Many of us have felt stuck professionally, like we’ve lost our spark, or are too old to follow our dreams. Entrepreneur David Thurston's new memoir, The Spiral Staircase: Why I Stepped Off a Rocket Ship to Build a Cathedral, is filled with insight and advice to help you get back on track. Jill sat down with Thurston, where he provided lessons from his own career journey. Thurston built a hair color brand called Pulp Riot from scratch, scaled it globally, and sold it to L’Oréal for nearly $100 million, all in under two years. But then, at the peak of success, he walked away, took a year off, and asked himself: What kind of company, and what kind of life, do I really want to build? Four years later, David and Alexis bootstrapped a new hair color brand, Danger Jones, which is taking on the industry’s largest color houses by focusing on the professional artist community rather than traditional corporate marketing. The conservation is an honest look at what it takes to create something new, take on the biggest players in the industry, and create “work-life fusion” – not necessarily “work-life balance.” And why all the money in the world doesn't buy happiness.  Jill Wagner (⁠⁠⁠@jillrwagner⁠⁠⁠) is an Emmy and Murrow award-winning journalist. She's the Managing Editor of Mo News. Jill previously worked as a correspondent for CBS News, Cheddar News, and News 12. She also co-founded the Need2Know newsletter, and has made it a goal to drop a Seinfeld reference into every Mo News podcast.

## Actions

- request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/mo-news-the-interview-6841423/episodes/ep-197-why-it-s-never-too-late-to-take-a-professional-leap-a-conversation-with-entrepreneur-david-thurston/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
- read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/mo-news-the-interview-6841423/ep-197-why-it-s-never-too-late-to-take-a-professional-leap-a-conversation-with-entrepreneur-david-thurston.md` — 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.