{"podcast":{"title":"The Reluctant Entrepreneur Podcast","slug":"the-reluctant-entrepreneur-podcast-7049244","podcast_index_feed_id":7049244,"rss_url":"https://www.spreaker.com/show/6346062/episodes/feed","website_url":"https://www.mikekonrad.com","image_url":"https://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/t_rss_itunes_square_1400/images.spreaker.com/original/0c0e18f8fee88bf987c05cd6e1532a66.jpg","author":"Mike Konrad","episode_count":127,"summary":"I’m your host, Mike Konrad, the author of The Reluctant Entrepreneur - Anatomy of a Business Start-Up - From Uncertainty to Unstoppable, available on Amazon as a paperback, e-book, and an audible book, and I’m excited to share real stories that reveal the many paths people take to build their own businesses. Whether you stumbled into entrepreneurship or you’ve always known it was your calling, this podcast is for you. Let’s start with what it means to be a reluctant entrepreneur. Many entrepreneurs don’t set out with a grand plan to build a business. Maybe you worked for a company that didn’t value your vision, and one day you thought, “I could do this myself”, that was my story. Or maybe life pushed you in an unexpected direction—losing a job, facing a personal crisis, or discovering a passion that grew into a business. Reluctant entrepreneurs often find themselves starting a business not because they always dreamed of it, but because it was the best—or only—option available. And then there are intentional entrepreneurs. These are the people who’ve known from the start that they were meant to create something of their own. They may have planned meticulously, crafted their vision,…","last_synced_at":"2026-07-31T16:18:29.568615+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-reluctant-entrepreneur-podcast-7049244"},"episode":{"title":"Growing the Founder: Andrew Poles on the Leadership Gap in Entrepreneurship - Episode 79","slug":"growing-the-founder-andrew-poles-on-the-leadership-gap-in-entrepreneurship-episode-79-2","published_at":"2026-05-04T07:09:12+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-reluctant-entrepreneur-podcast-7049244/growing-the-founder-andrew-poles-on-the-leadership-gap-in-entrepreneurship-episode-79-2","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-reluctant-entrepreneur-podcast-7049244","url":"https://www.spreaker.com/episode/growing-the-founder-andrew-poles-on-the-leadership-gap-in-entrepreneurship-episode-79--70617991","audio_url":"https://api.spreaker.com/download/episode/70617991/re_79_ap_01.mp3","summary":"Many people believe that the hardest part of starting and growing a business is coming up with the right idea, finding customers, or raising capital. But according to today’s guest, the most difficult challenge entrepreneurs face may be something far more personal: becoming the leader their company needs them to be. Decisions become more complex. Teams get larger. The stakes get higher. And the skills that helped someone start the business are often not the same skills required to lead it at scale. My guest today, Andrew Poles, has spent more than two decades working with entrepreneurs and executives who are navigating exactly that challenge. As an executive coach and multi-time founder, Andrew focuses on helping leaders grow into the role their companies demand of them. He has worked with thousands of founders and executives to help them manage the pressure of leadership, build stronger teams, and scale their businesses without sacrificing their health, their relationships, or their sanity. Today we’re going to talk about the leadership gap many founders encounter, the pressure that comes with scaling a business, and why growing yourself may be the most important part of growing your company. Andrew's Website: 'https://andrewpoles.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewpoles/","meta_description":"Many people believe that the hardest part of starting and growing a business is coming up with the right idea, finding customers, or raising capital. But…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3753,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-reluctant-entrepreneur-podcast-7049244/episodes/growing-the-founder-andrew-poles-on-the-leadership-gap-in-entrepreneurship-episode-79-2/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-reluctant-entrepreneur-podcast-7049244/growing-the-founder-andrew-poles-on-the-leadership-gap-in-entrepreneurship-episode-79-2.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}