Rich Leigh launches new podcast with Levis Roots as first guest

Award-winning serial entrepreneur, PR expert, best-selling author and investor Rich Leigh has launched a new podcast, The Starting Line.

He says it’s the realisation of a decade-long ambition to learn more about the lives and interests of successful individuals and learn why those people are who they are.

For more than a decade and inspired by the likes of James Lipton’s Inside the Actors Studio and Michael Parkinson, Rich has harboured hopes to find out what makes successful people, from all walks of life, and all manner of starting lines, tick.

Musician, television personality, celebrity chef, author and businessman Levi Roots is Rich’s first guest. He opens up about prison and the Brixton race riots in the episode.

The Starting Line is all about drive, ambition and curiosity. The name is inspired by a video Rich saw on YouTube, which highlights how various privileges can impact our lives before we’ve even made a single decision for ourselves.

Rich is founder of Radioactive PR, has worked with some of the biggest brands and entrepreneurs, including IKEA, GoCompare, Just-Eat and Conor McGregor’s Forged Irish Stout, and is the author of the #1 best-selling book Myths of PR.

He recalls the best – and only real – life advice he was ever given was ‘If you get a job, just try to keep it, and Rich – please don’t end up in prison as well’.

“At the time, I didn’t realise the impact those words would have on me, he says. “Domestic violence, drug and alcohol addiction, suicide, welfare, prison, debt collectors, eviction. The police knew all of us by name.

“The bar to achieve really was as low as the advice I was given above. For many, there is little hope and even less support. I was determined to break the cycle children from my background so often struggle to.”

Speaking about his new podcast series, Rich said: “We’ve recorded the majority of the first series now, with an incredible array of guests, including Levi Roots, The Apprentice winner Marnie Swindells and two-time Olympic gold medal winner James Cracknell.

“I won’t spoil all of the guests, but I’m so incredibly proud of what we’ve put together – and so grateful, too, for the time the guests have given to this daft kid from Gloucester.”

Episodes of The Starting Line are be released every Monday, available on podcast platforms including Apple and Spotify, plus the podcast’s website.