I’ve listened to many entrepreneurship podcasts that are great tools for building a profitable business.
But, I also spent time on many others that didn’t give many helpful tips.
These are my favorite podcasts that I think you can learn a lot from.
What Makes a Great Entrepreneurship Podcast?
From my experience, these are the key points that make a great podcast worth listening to.
Content
- Actionable advice and not just inspiration – concrete steps listeners can take to improve their businesses.
- Many perspectives from entrepreneurs with different backgrounds who have built successful businesses in all kinds of industries. This is so you get a well-rounded view.
- A balance of stories that talk about struggles, too, not just successes. This is so you get to see the realities of the entrepreneurship journey.
- Deep conversations that go beyond the surface-level discussions that you get in most interviews. You want deep dives into the guest’s journey and thought process along the way.
- A focus on specific topics so you really get to drill down into the areas of entrepreneurship and not just general information. You want real tips on marketing, funding, building a team, etc.
Production
- High-quality audio so you get a clear, crisp sound that’s free from background noise and technical issues. Also well-edited audio that removes unnecessary pauses or rambling. This tells you they’re professional and helps everyone concentrate better because they have a smooth listening experience.
- Engaging hosts who are real people with the talent for keeping the conversation flowing and asking insightful questions. This gives you a ton of value.
- Show notes and transcripts that you can copy key points from for your own notes, and any links or other resources they dropped for listeners.
Overall Experience
- Look for entrepreneurship podcasts that have a consistent release schedule across all the major platforms. If they have their own website, that’s even better. This makes it easy for you to get them into your tight schedule. It also shows that the hosts are serious about getting their content out to you.
- Check if the podcast or hosts have an active community. This is a great place to connect with the creators and other listeners for possible collaborations.
Top Entrepreneurship Podcasts for Learning and Inspiration
I suggest looking into these award-winning and consistently recognized entrepreneurship podcasts.
Business Wars
Business Wars focuses on the drama behind the scenes of major corporations. They talk about rivalries between iconic companies and the strategies that drive success. The host, David Brown, is a veteran journalist with a background in business reporting. He guides listeners through the history, key players, and turning points that defined the competition.
Masters of Scale
Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn, hosts Masters of Scale. This business podcast invites leaders from different industries to talk about their stories of scaling businesses. It dives deep into the world of entrepreneurship with a core focus on exploring unconventional theories. It aims to demystify how companies grow from startups to global brands.
Former Fast Company editor-in-chief Bob Safian also comes on to do the Rapid Response format content. This one tackles current events and crisis situations in the business world.
The Diary of a CEO
This show features unfiltered struggles, lessons, and entrepreneurial insights from leaders, thinkers, and influencers. Host Steven Bartlett is a young entrepreneur who brings a unique perspective to the conversations. His guests are a wide range of high achievers sharing untold stories that include insights on personal growth. This brings added value to the business focus with topics like motivation, resilience, and navigating success.
Side Hustle School
The Side Hustle School podcast is all about ideas and strategies for starting a side business. It’s mainly for people with full-time jobs who want to learn how to bring in extra money. I suggest this podcast if you don’t necessarily want to quit your day job right away. It helps people get a chance to explore a passion project or opportunities for more financial freedom.
Host Chris Guillebeau interviews people for their real-life challenges and success stories launching side hustles. He covers a lot of different side hustle ideas like freelancing, creative pursuits, and online business.
Decoder
Decoder is a podcast by The Verge, hosted by Editor-in-Chief Nilay Patel. It does in-depth interviews with innovators, policymakers, tech developers, and other business leaders. The focus is on the big ideas shaping the future, and the challenges that come along with them. This is one of my favorite entrepreneurship podcasts in the niche that explores how technological advancements influence our lives.
Hack the Entrepreneur
Hack the Entrepreneur focuses on insights into developing online businesses. The host, Jon Nastor, interviews aspiring and current entrepreneurs about the mindset, strategies, and tactics needed to succeed. They look into the less glamorous aspects of entrepreneurship alongside the successes. My favorite aspect of this show is the deep dive into specifics of online business building. They tackle topics like building a sales funnel for digital products and content creation strategies for affiliate marketing.
Specialized Podcasts for Niche Interests
These are my favorite niche podcasts that I recommend for people in these spaces.
The SaaS Podcast
This one is specifically for SaaS entrepreneurs, hosted by entrepreneur and SaaS enthusiast Omer Khan. It’s all about helping you get through the ever-changing world of Software as a Service (SaaS) businesses. Even if you’re just considering SaaS, this podcast can give you insights into the industry and trends. The core of the show features in-depth interviews with successful SaaS founders. They talk about the details from initial concept to scaling and beyond.
Smart Passive Income
The Smart Passive Income Podcast, created by Pat Flynn, focuses on helping listeners build online businesses for passive income. His goal is to teach people how to create multiple income streams for more financial freedom and flexibility in their lives. I like this podcast for people especially who want to monetize their passions. Of course, a wide range of entrepreneurs can benefit from all the great tips.
The Growth Show by HubSport
This podcast focuses on inspiring stories and lessons around driving growth for a business, an idea, or a movement. Successful entrepreneurs and thought leaders come on to share their journeys, challenges, and triumphs. This show is for anyone interested in learning about growth strategies in a motivational atmosphere. Different episodes feature different HubSpot personalities, so there’s that added factor of different voices.
Leveraging Podcasts for Entrepreneurial Growth
How to Apply the Lessons
You can learn a lot of lessons from these podcasts, but the key is knowing how to apply them to your business. You have to decide to use them and not just listen passively.
When you’re ready, choose a strategy for how you’re going to measure your results. This is the only way you can know if the lessons are working to achieve goals and improve your business.
Taking Notes
While you listen to a podcast, take clear notes on important ideas and concepts that resonate with you. You want to focus on the actionable tips that specifically speak to your goals. After listening to the whole episode, go back to your notes to understand the lessons better. Think about what’s the most relevant to your business.
Identifying Strategies
Not all podcast advice will be a perfect fit for your business, and that’s ok. Look at the actionable steps you wrote down. Pick out the specific strategies that you can implement in your business right away. Think about the resources you have and your target audience. These will help you choose what steps to take first.
If you took away a big idea, you need to break it down into smaller action steps. Take it slow so you don’t get overwhelmed trying to make huge changes. Think about what you can work into your routine or existing business processes right now. This makes successful implementation more likely.
Setting Timelines
You need to set realistic timelines. Like with the goals, you need to take small steps with when you expect things to change. Don’t try to overhaul your entire business in a month based on one episode. Not even the best entrepreneurship podcasts can teach you how to do that without crashing and burning. You can have achievable goals, but they can fail if you don’t give yourself and your business enough time.
Think about what you need to make each adjustment. Look into timelines for measuring progress, too. This helps you track your results, which helps with motivation. It also gives you the opportunity to make changes in the process if you need to. If a step isn’t effective, don’t be afraid to drop it. Tracking relevant metrics also helps you see what strategies you should let go of before you invest too much into them.
Final Thoughts
When you know what to look for in entrepreneurship podcasts, you can find the really good ones. Then you can get the valuable insights and inspiration you need for your own journey. I suggest you build your business with the actionable, tried and tested tips they give because they actually work.
Grow Your Business with my Systems
Hey 👋 I’m Nathan Hirsch. I’ve been an entrepreneur for 15+ years and have scaled multiple companies to 6, 7, and 8 figures in yearly revenue. In 2019, I exited my business, FreeUp, after scaling it to $12 million in ARR. Today, I help entrepreneurs scale their businesses with my systems: My outsourcing system, Monthly bookkeeping, and Growth with SEO. Schedule a call with me and let’s chat!