{"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":"When the Founder Is Still the Sales Department. Sean Shannon on Building a Business That Can Sell Without You","slug":"when-the-founder-is-still-the-sales-department-sean-shannon-on-building-a-business-that-can-sell-without-you","published_at":"2026-07-06T19:28:13+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-reluctant-entrepreneur-podcast-7049244/when-the-founder-is-still-the-sales-department-sean-shannon-on-building-a-business-that-can-sell-without-you","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-reluctant-entrepreneur-podcast-7049244","url":"https://www.spreaker.com/episode/when-the-founder-is-still-the-sales-department-sean-shannon-on-building-a-business-that-can-sell-without-you--72843672","audio_url":"https://api.spreaker.com/download/episode/72843672/re_s_s_final_01.mp3","summary":"Many entrepreneurs start their companies by doing what needs to be done. They sell, they manage, they solve problems, they chase opportunities, and they keep the business moving forward. But at some point, that same effort can become the obstacle. If the founder is still the company’s best salesperson, if every important customer relationship depends on one person, or if revenue depends more on hustle than process, the business may be growing, but it may not yet be scalable. Today’s guest is Sean Shannon, founder of Strategic Growth Design. Sean brings more than three decades of sales leadership experience to his work with small and medium-sized businesses, helping them build sales systems, improve messaging, develop stronger pipelines, and create more predictable revenue growth. His background includes leadership roles in local broadcasting, where he helped businesses think beyond advertising and focus on sales and marketing strategies that actually produced results. Sean’s work centers on a question every entrepreneur eventually has to face: can this business grow without depending on the founder to personally drive every sale? Sean's Company: https://strategicgrowthdesign.com","meta_description":"Many entrepreneurs start their companies by doing what needs to be done. They sell, they manage, they solve problems, they chase opportunities, and they k…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3357,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-reluctant-entrepreneur-podcast-7049244/episodes/when-the-founder-is-still-the-sales-department-sean-shannon-on-building-a-business-that-can-sell-without-you/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/when-the-founder-is-still-the-sales-department-sean-shannon-on-building-a-business-that-can-sell-without-you.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}