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Boardroom Talks

Episode 37: Arianna Huffington on the founding of The Huffington Post, why entrepreneurs need to get better sleep, and what led her to launch Thrive Global, her startup focusing on the health and wellness space.

Boardroom Talks

Boardroom Podcast Network

Business, Entrepreneurship, Sports

4.4 • 620 Ratings

🗓️ 14 April 2021

⏱️ 64 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When Arianna Huffington co-founded The Huffington Post in 2005, it created a blueprint for a new kind of digital media company at a time news and social conversation were rapidly migrating from traditional to online media outlets. That success led to a $315 million acquisition by AOL, with Huffington remaining as President and Editor in Chief of The Huffington Post Media Group. Five years later, she would start Thrive Global, which helped major companies and their employees build healthy habits through inspirational storytelling and actionable steps to help navigate a stressful world with greater resilience.    Huffington's fascinating backstory is as compelling as her gifts for storytelling. She was born in Greece, but moved to the UK at 16, speaking virtually no english. She earned acceptance to Cambridge, one of the UK's most prestigious universities, where she became a star debater. A prolific author, she penned numerous bestsellers; hired a young Van Jones as her campaign manager in a 2003 bid for California governor against Arnold Schwarzenegger; and then launched her successful media career. Huffington talks to Rich and Gianni about meeting Rich and KD for the first time, and how her unsuccessful campaign for governor led her to the insights that fueled the success of The Huffington Post. She also shares how her relentless entrepreneurial work ethic led to burnout and a 2007 incident that made her realize her work habits were hazardous to her health. The incident inspired the formation of Thrive Global.

Transcript

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0:00.0

What's up everybody and welcome to another boardroom out of office.

0:09.2

This is podcast number 37 here as always with my man Gianni.

0:13.7

How are you today?

0:14.7

I'm good, bro.

0:15.6

How are you?

0:16.0

What's up?

0:16.4

What's up?

0:17.1

Everything is good.

0:18.0

I'm excited for today.

0:19.0

I'm going to promise you that you're going to feel exactly how I felt when I met our first guest.

0:24.6

So without further ado, I will hold you no longer Gianni, but please welcome my dear friend, Miss Ariana Huffington. How are you today?

0:34.6

I'm so happy to be here with you and to be meeting Gianni for the

0:40.2

first time and looking forward to our conversation. I've missed you, Rich. I have missed you. And it's,

0:47.6

you know, it's funny. I was talking to Libby, who you work with beforehand, about people who you

0:53.5

kept in touch with throughout the pandemic,

0:56.2

however many times you spoke to them, and that coming out of it, if we're ever coming out of it,

1:01.2

or I guess right now let's consider coming out of it, that when you reconnect with someone,

1:07.2

it says a lot. It says a lot about, I guess, where you're at in your life, how close

1:11.5

you still feel to that person. You know, everyone's experiences are different, so people feel

1:15.8

different ways. But when I spoke to you last week, it brought about the same exact emotion when I

1:21.6

first met you, which is what I hope Gianni will feel today as well, which is this incredible sense

1:26.8

of calm. And I cannot explain why or how,

...

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