David Siteman Garland: Building a Community

When David Siteman Garland launched his online community and TV show, he had very few fans.

“Back then only my Mom, Dad and dogs watched,” Garland said. “Now, over 250,000 peeps tune in to the show for fluff-free, uncut, uncensored interviews with a wide variety of successful entrepreneurs.”

David’s television show and Website The Rise to the Top are more than just a small business venture. They are a mission.

“The inspiration behind the blog, show and resource is honestly, as an entrepreneur, I found business shows to be really boring,” Garland said.

He figured he could fix that.

“I wanted to create something different that really caters to unconventional entrepreneurs like me,” he added. “On the show and blog, you will find all kinds of interesting interviews with a variety of really cool entrepreneurs spilling the beans about how they built their businesses and much more.”

David wanted to provide an added dimension he felt was often missing from other similar media outlets.

“A big component of the site, which I think is often left out on many business sites, is lifestyle,” he explained. “Besides business, I often have guests on to talk fitness, nutrition, travel and all kinds of other things because entrepreneurship is much more than business, it is a lifestyle.”

When he was contacted about being one of our featured Contributors of the Week, you could definitely tell David was pumped.

“Wow, so excited to be featured here at Biz Sugar!” he said in an e-mail response, adding, “BizSugar is a great community interested in interesting business content. I first found out about it from Anita Campbell from Small Biz Trends [Also BizSugar’s CEO] and it has always been a great place to syndicate content from The Rise To The Top.”

Do you want to be featured as a BizSugar Contributor of the Week? It’s easy! Just sign up for a free BizSugar account and start contributing small business news and information tips on our small business community. Be sure you’ve also “liked” us on Facebook to be eligible. A new contributor is selected weekly. Could you be the next?