👋 I’m Justin. I run The SF Grind, The LA Grind, and scout for Headline. I live in LA but spend a lot of time in San Francisco meeting founders, hosting gatherings, and enjoying the wonderful city.
I've been obsessed with podcasts since late 2013, when I used to drive 3 hours roundtrip from Green Bay to Milwaukee once a week.
Since then I've done 400+ interviews across a few different shows and written roughly 70 deep dives on world-class founders.
But the format I kept thinking about was a deeply researched solo show, no interview, with a focus on storytelling and sharing insights from some of the most ambitious people of all-time.
That's what the Ambition podcast is.
It’s live now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Youtube, and everywhere else you listen to podcasts.
Episode 1 is about S.I. Newhouse Sr., the secretive billionaire almost no one talks about. He started working full time at 13, pulled his family out of poverty, and built one of the most powerful publishing empires in American history. It still exists today and is worth $10B+.
I've spent 80+ hours across the first two episodes figuring out whether I could actually make this show. This included reading two books, one for each of the first two episodes, and spending more hours than I care to mention synthesizing each book to create a podcast episode.
I have the Ambition Summit, an LA membership, events in LA and SF. I didn't need another project...but I also couldn’t stop thinking about this idea.
When I have an idea for something, and that idea doesn’t leave my head, I have to make it a reality if I want to actually be able to sleep at night. So here we are.
Episode 2 is on the Wright Brothers and drops next week. I'll be publishing every week or two from here while continuing to host events in LA and SF. It’s a lot, but I’ve been so energized by this new project so I’m excited to make this all happen.
If you listen and enjoy it, I'd love a five-star rating and a share. It genuinely makes a difference early on.
I’m going to work tirelessly to make the show amazing. I hope you like it.
Listen to Episode 1 on:
And subscribe to Ambition, where I’ll have show notes posted (eventually).
Thanks,
Justin