Ask anyone at the top of their field how they got there or how they found success in business, and chances are you’ll find overlapping patterns of hard work, long hours, and—perhaps most important—continual self-education.
Experience, books, blog posts and videos usually make up the curriculum of the self-taught entrepreneur, but offer their own distinct value: they let you listen, learn, and grow while you’re getting ready in the morning, going for a jog, driving around, or even working on your business.
Some business podcasts are in-depth conversations with experts recorded and released. Others take the form of audio documentaries that pull you in with captivating stories. There are a lot of options out there.
That’s why we rounded up 13 of the best business podcasts for aspiring and established entrepreneurs, whether you’re looking for practical marketing advice or a motivational push.
The best business podcasts for busy entrepreneurs
1. Duct Tape Marketing
Hosted by: John Jantsch
Made for: Small business owners of all kinds looking to learn more about marketing on a budget.
John Jantsch has been running this weekly podcast for more than a decade, interviewing experts, authors, and thought leaders.
There’s so much valuable content on subjects in all areas of marketing. They dive deep into the technical, like getting more results from Google Ads, as well as the more abstract, like building a memorable brand or and the role of authenticity in marketing.
You’ll not only be able to learn how to differentiate yourself from the competition and make your business truly unique, but check out content covering everything from new trends in marketing (like voice search) to increasing productivity.
Noteworthy episode: How GDPR Highlights How We Should Be Marketing
2. HBR IdeaCast
Hosted by: Sarah Green Carmichael
Made for: Entrepreneurs who are scaling their business and running into growing pains, especially when it comes to building a team.
The Harvard Business Review’s Ideacast is a podcast featuring weekly discussions about business management, often through interviews with industry experts.
It’s not much of a surprise that it has exceptional advice on everything from networking to business management. This podcast shines most, perhaps, when talking about managing a team of employees and contractors. If you’re planning on growing your team to scale your business (or if you’ve already done so), these episodes are a must-listen.
In order to make the information they’re sharing more valuable and easier to grasp, they often frame the advice firmly around real-life case studies that we could all learn from.
Noteworthy episode: How Some Companies Beat the Competition…for Centuries
3. The $100 MBA Show
Hosted by: Omar Zenhom
Made for: Entrepreneurs who want to learn more about the actual process of running an efficient business, not just growing one.
The $100 MBA attracts 50,000 listeners daily while discussing actionable advice about how to build a business using predictable patterns to your advantage.
Host Omar Zenhom is always upbeat and energetic in the podcast, and his clear passion for creating efficient processes translates into interesting and valuable information that entrepreneurs can use to build a better marketing flywheel or improve business operations.
In addition to growth, this podcast also frequently looks at how to avoid or resolve common problems that will likely pop up along the way.
If business owners are feeling stumped, they can also submit questions that could be answered in an upcoming podcast.
This podcast has a long list of engaging experts, and even if they don’t alway have big names, they’re excellent guests who offer valuable insight. This is reflected in the podcast’s wide acclaim, with awards or mentions from sites like Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and iTunes.
Noteworthy episode: How to Price Your Services
4. The Copywriter Club
Hosted by: Kira Hug and Rob Marsh
Made for: Business owners doing their own copywriting, or who want to learn more about the craft of high-converting writing.
Every week, catch an in-depth interview with experts about how to write compelling copy that converts for individualized brands.
Great copywriting bolsters nearly every marketing activity: from your product descriptions, site copy, email marketing, PPC campaigns, and more. Marketing still lives and dies on the words you use to communicate. Having a strong understanding of what makes great copy stand out will allow you to better write your own, or identify it when someone else does.
This podcast can help you understand how to write copy that converts, including product descriptions and marketing campaigns. In addition to this huge perk, they also talk a lot about how to run and market small businesses, which will be directly relevant to a number of audiences.
Noteworthy episode: Snap Shot Copywriting
5. Mixergy
Hosted by: Andrew Warner
Made for: “Big picture” entrepreneurs who love learning about and borrowing ideas from different industries.
Airing several times a week, Mixergy features interviews with people at the top of their very diverse fields to talk about their area of expertise.
There are episodes in this podcast on how to reinvent classic experiences like wedding dress shopping or whether parking tech will have a future in autonomous vehicles.
Andrew Warner’s approach is often celebrated for his exhaustive research of his guests and his bulldog approach to interviews. He usually doesn’t let people off with easy answers and always drills down with follow-up questions.
There are also a lot of case studies in this podcast with different owners about the businesses they have grown, and tons of valuable information to show entrepreneurs that there is no one right way to run a business.
Noteworthy episode: Is Heart-Led Entrepreneurship Good for Business?
6. The Jason and Scot Show
Hosted by: Jason Goldberg and Scot Wingo
Made for: Entrepreneurs interested in and selling in the every-changing world of commerce and retail.
Jason (also known as The Retail Geek) and Scott started this weekly show to share some of the high-level debates and conversations they were having about the future of retail and commerce.
Their podcast is unique for its focus on news and what’s making headlines in the worlds of ecommerce and physical retail.
Their interview-style episodes share interesting insights from industry veterans, but it’s their Deep Dives that are especially worth listening to for what’s going on right now in retail. Whether it’s Amazon’s latest experiment or the trend toward VR/AR, it’s always a good time listening to these two friends talk about the present and future of commerce.
Noteworthy episode: Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality Deep Dive
7. The Creative Empire
Hosted by: Reina Palmer and Christina Scalera
Made for: Entrepreneurs in creative fields, or entrepreneurs who want to get more creative with their marketing.
Every week this show examines how to not only create a creative business, but turn it into an empire.
Are you selling your own paintings, home-cooked baked goods, floral arrangements, or handmade clothing? You have a creative business, and while a lot of business podcasts may not vibe with you, the Creative Empire will.
Each week, The Creative Empire features guests who chat with the hosts about how you can combine creative goods with the business side of things to make a cohesive business that will thrive. And even better? They tell you that you can do this without hindering your vision or your business, and staying true to what you want.
They talk a lot about unique marketing strategies, like how to create engaging quizzes, or how to apply to be a podcast guest and get accepted.
Noteworthy episode:Mentoring Session: Baby-Proofing Your Business with Rachel Brumely
8. Nerd Marketing
Hosted by: Drew Sanocki
Made for: All business owners who see themselves as entrepreneurs, too.
Marketing is in the name of this podcast, but Drew regularly discusses his current experiences with new businesses and other insights into how to be a successful entrepreneur.This podcast goes over everything you’d expect from a marketing podcast. There is a lot of advice about how to start, grow, and market your small business, with plenty of ecommerce-specific content like how to increase your average order value with different targeted strategies.
Sanocki takes things a step further with this podcast, however. He also offers “insider” knowledge that many don’t have, like how to sell a business and his favorite resources and private equity contacts.
Noteworthy episode: How You Sell Your Business—“The Deal Process”
9. eCommerce Master Plan
Hosted by: Chloe Thomas
Made for: All ecommerce business owners, especially if you want to develop plans for customer retention or relationship building.
For thirty minutes a week, the Ecommerce Masterplan podcast gives you actionable insights on how to get more customers and make more meaningful relationships with them.
While there are a variety of different topics discussed on this podcast, its strength is easily the frequent deep-dives into everything customer-centric: customer acquisition, retention, and loyalty building. Not many podcasts will focus on this the same way and with the same frequency, and the episodes are a tight 30 minutes so you never feel overwhelmed.
The podcast also features great information on the latest tech in ecommerce, and tips like how to maximize profit and save money.
Noteworthy episode: 40% Year on Year Growth by Focusing on Customer Service with Gary Amstutz of Sticker and Label
10. Social Media Examiner Podcast
Hosted by: Eric Fisher
Made for: Small businesses doing their own social media marketing.
This weekly show is produced by the Social Media Examiner team to discuss all the changes happening in social media on a weekly basis.
Ever feel like you get whiplash from all the new features and changes coming to different social media channels at breakneck speeds? The Social Media Marketing Talk Show will help you stay up to date and explain what all of the changes mean for you.
This podcast is hosted by Eric Fisher, a member of the Social Media Examiner staff, but regularly features other members along with experts like Andrea Vahl and Madalyn Sklar. They’ll not only tell you about the updates, but make them feel more accessible, so you’ll know exactly how to get started.
Noteworthy episode: Live Video Updates and Facebook Ad Creation
11. eCommerce Fuel
Hosted by: Andrew Youderian
Made for: Six and seven figure ecommerce store owners looking to scale.
The host of this podcast, Andrew Youderian, has built several million dollar ecommerce businesses, so he’s an excellent go-to guy to talk about everything happening in that world.
This podcast unsurprisingly has a lot of discussion about managing online businesses, but there’s also a lot of emphasis on how to get to six or seven figures with your business, and then grow some more.
It reminds you that the sky’s the limit, and it shows you how to get there. If you want to think big and take home a pretty chunk of change too, this should be at the top of your list.
Noteworthy episode: Selling Products with a 100% Remote Team
12. The Goal Digger Podcast
Hosted by: Jenna Kutcher
Made for: Women entrepreneurs who are ready to rock their business lives and their personal lives.
Instead of a traditional talk-and-interview format, this several-times-a-week podcast takes on the feel of a live workshop.
There’s no doubt that Jenna Kutcher knows her stuff, but this podcast feels different than the others because Kutcher herself isn’t the typical business person you’d expect. She’s an engaging host, and the podcast provides specific strategies that entrepreneurs can use to market their businesses.
In addition to dishing out marketing advice in areas of expertise like SEO and Instagram marketing, Kutcher also goes deep into subjects that other podcasts stay away from, like work/life balance as a CEO and a mom or how to make your brand more inclusive.
Want more of The Gold Diggers podcast? Kutcher has a private Facebook group, which you can join here.
13. How I Built This
Hosted by: Guy Raz
Made for: Anyone who loves a good entrepreneurial origin story.
Entrepreneurship can be a lonely endeavor, especially in the early days.
How I Built This produced by NPR helps you feel like you’re not so alone by sharing the struggles and defining “aha!” moments of the founders behind the companies you know and love.
Guy Raz is a compelling and curious host who is adept at drawing out the untold stories you won’t find on a company’s About page.
Unlike other podcasts on this list, and despite its name, How I Built This is less about the tactics and more about the journey. However, a lot of thought and care goes into each episode and Guy Raz’s narrative approach to podcasting is definitely unique among interview-style shows.
Their spin-off series How You Built That is especially noteworthy for its focus on the innovative small businesses you may not have heard of.
Noteworthy episode: Honest Tea: Seth Goldman
What podcasts do you listen to?
When it comes to business podcasts, you’ll likely find that you prefer certain hosts over others, or certain formats and lengths. But whatever your preference, podcasts can be helpful companions on your entrepreneurial journey.
There are a lot of podcasts on this list, and with new ones going live every day, it would be difficult to keep up with all of them. So we’d like to turn it over to you—what podcasts do you subscribe to that have been a huge help in running and growing your business?
