The Burnouts with Phoebe & Sophia
The Burnouts with Phoebe & Sophia
Podcast Description
As former Stanford roommates and now business partners, Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni share their experience as startup founders and the complexities of being young professionals—from financial literacy, social impact, and navigating networking (ever been hit on through LinkedIn?). With exclusive access to top experts, they offer an inside look at their chaotic lives alongside career insights from their network of thought leaders. Watch The Burnouts pursue their dreams while trying to keep their lives from going up in flames. Will they burn out? We’ll find out.
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The podcast focuses on themes of entrepreneurship, financial literacy, social impact, and personal development, with episodes covering topics like the complexities of networking, the realities of startup life, and psychological aspects of burnout, including discussions on Stanford cheating rings and innovative yet humorous concepts like Bluetooth tampons.

As former Stanford roommates and now business partners, Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni share their experience as startup founders and the complexities of being young professionals—from financial literacy, social impact, and navigating networking (ever been hit on through LinkedIn?). With exclusive access to top experts, they offer an inside look at their chaotic lives alongside career insights from their network of thought leaders. Watch The Burnouts pursue their dreams while trying to keep their lives from going up in flames. Will they burn out? We’ll find out.
How did Shelby Sapp go from selling rat poison door-to-door to becoming a 24-year-old founder making 8-figures per year? It’s the same trick she uses to win arguments with her fiancé and pick the wedding venue she actually wants… In this episode, Shelby breaks down the tactics she’s used that can win over anybody.
Shelby Sapp is a high-ticket sales coach who teaches sales psychology to other women. She started knocking on doors at 18 selling pest control, became the top first-year rep in the entire company, and was making $300K a summer by 21 — before going all-in on remote high-ticket sales and building a training program that turns servers, nurses, and bartenders into five-figure-a-month closers.
Chapters
00:00 – The Bartender Who Made $62K in Sales Her First Month
01:16 – Why You Don’t Need to Be Extroverted to Sell
02:16 – From Zero Sales to Breaking the Company Record
08:07 – Top Confidence Tips
09:04 – Female-Specific Sales Tips
10:38 – The Sales Trick That Closes Deals
13:49 – Why She’ll Never Take a Brand Deal
14:34 – When to Quit Your 9 to 5
16:28 – From Door Sales to High-Ticket Closing
19:22 – Why You Have to Be a Psychopath in Sales
20:14 – Using Sales Tactics in Your Relationships
29:48 – Making More Than Him
33:22 – If She Started Over at 20, What She’d Do
🔗 FOLLOW US
https://www.instagram.com/phoebegates
https://www.instagram.com/sophiakianni
https://www.instagram.com/shelby.sapp
🔥 FOLLOW THE BURNOUTS
https://www.instagram.com/theburnouts
https://www.tiktok.com/@theburnouts
https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-burnouts
📲 Support What We’re Building
Phoebe and Sophia aren’t just your hosts—they’re the founders of Phia, a fashion-tech app helping shoppers find the best prices across retail and resale. Download the app and help us grow → https://www.phia.com
About The Burnouts
The Burnouts brings you raw, unfiltered conversations with today’s top founders, creators, athletes, and culture-shaping entrepreneurs. Hosted by Stanford roommates turned startup co-founders Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni, the show goes beyond the headlines to reveal the real stories behind ambitious careers.
Past guests include Paris Hilton, Chelsea Handler, Kris Jenner, Karlie Kloss, and more.
Subscribe for the insider playbook to build your dream career.

Disclaimer
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