How I Built My Small Business
2025 Communicator Award of Excellence in the Educational Series category
2024 + 2025 People's Choice Podcast Awards Finalist Nominee x 2
Named "One of the Best Business Podcasts" by Ramsey
In 'How I Built My Small Business,' we explore real-life entrepreneurship and building a meaningful, balanced life.
The show’s guests (diverse in industry, experience, and background) open up about the real stories behind building a business: the wins, the mistakes, and the values that shape their choices.
This is not a business show focused on the numbers of the game. It’s about the founder’s journey and their way of thinking. If you are looking for a show that talks about top line, bottom line, profit margin, and mainly financial info… this is not the show for you.
While you’ll find some episodes in Season One (and sporadically thereafter) that include financials, the host’s interest is more in the human(s) behind the business.
Sometimes an episode is a masterclass, other times it’s an honest, heart-opening connection between two people. There’s always curiosity, growth, and learning through storytelling… with a sprinkle of life wisdom.
Every guest has started a business at some point in their journey, and the line-up includes a 50/50 split of women and men.
Whether you're a founder, dreamer, curious individual or lifelong learner, I hope each episode makes you think or leaves you with at least one spark that inspires your own path or broadens your perspective.
Thank you for listening. Let’s learn together.
My Website: https://www.annemcginty.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annemcginty/
Behind-The-Scenes: https://www.instagram.com/annemcgintyhost
How I Built My Small Business
How I Built My Small Business Podcast Trailer
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Trailer for the How I Built My Small Business Podcast: fascinating stories with practical advice and insight from entrepreneurs willing to give you the keys to how it's done.
In each episode, I interview small business owners who have made anywhere from a livable salary working part-time to others making upwards of twenty million a year (and everything in between). My goal is to extract the real nuggets of gold so that you learn something from each episode.
You can help support us by sharing this podcast with aspiring entrepreneurs, anyone who is curious about the secrets of business owners and what happens behind the curtain, and anyone interested in the incredible stories of how people go from the spark of an idea to full blown success.
How I Built My Small Business is produced, hosted, and edited by Anne McGinty.
Subscribe on Apple Podcast , Spotify or YouTube.
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Website: https://www.annemcginty.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annemcginty
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/annemcgintyhost
Anne McGinty (00:07.502)
Welcome to How I Built My Small Business, the show that is dedicated to sharing the insight that entrepreneurs have about how to start and grow small businesses. I'm Anne McGinty, your host, and I can't wait for you to hear the episodes that I have lined up. To give you an idea of what to expect, in the first episode, I chat with a former employee coming from the nonprofit sector about the surprising way that her work building libraries in Southeast Asia and East Africa
overlapped with co-founding a distillery that she sold for millions eight years later.
Jenny Griffo
I didn't know it at the time, but all the skills I was learning around how to build community, how to leverage community for good and for creating things together, all was going to come in handy when I opened the distillery.
Anne McGinty
Then I interview a guy who bought a camera and taught himself how to take photos, taking a few images at his relatives' bat mitzvah and then offering photography services on Craigslist.
to supplement his income. He now makes a couple million a year, and he never took a single photography course.
Chad Kraus
I never had the expectation that the photography would turn into anything more than a really nice side gig.
Anne McGinty
In another one, I speak with a woman who was a personal lifestyleist, helping clients with design and wardrobe curation. When she was asked by a personal assistant to help choose gifts for a client's 1500 friends and family,
she started offering gift curation as a side business. Then when a celebrity got their hands on one and blogged about it, she ended up selling $45,000 worth in one day. And it's grown into a highly lucrative, luxury gift box business.
Simone Le Blanc
What I saw as their needs started to grow and they started to ask more from me was that everyone wanted gifts. And I started to see a pattern in that.
and I started to see that there was no one out there that was doing this. This is just a snippet. I already have a list of over a year's worth of incredible guests, all with fascinating stories, with real practical advice and insight.
Anne McGinty
I'm an entrepreneur myself and have started and sold businesses exiting for millions. I'll be interviewing small business owners who have made anywhere from.
enough to pay for their dream lifestyles that includes enough to also acquire passive income investments to others making up to $20 million a year and everything in between. I'll also bring in a few tangential guests like a business broker who can give us insights on sales, values, and trends. Business is a topic that I love, and I and other entrepreneurs I know have reached a point where we are willing to share the collective knowledge we have learned along the way.
I'm recording for listeners who are not just aspiring entrepreneurs, but anyone who is curious about the secrets of how entrepreneurs built their small businesses, what happens behind the curtain, and the incredible stories of how people go from the spark of an idea to full-blown success. The first three episodes will be released the week of January 25th with weekly episodes to follow.
So make sure you subscribe now and join us as we unravel the stories behind these entrepreneurial journeys.
