The Best Podcasts to Grow Your Business

Staying abreast of the trends and constant innovations in your industry requires time. A lot of it. With so many articles, seminars, courses, networking events and more demanding our attention, it’s little wonder most people are overwhelmed.

The problem with the Internet is that there’s too much to choose from. You know you need to level up your business skills, but you don’t have enough hours in the day to sift through everything Google claims you should read, watch and learn.

Clicking through the search results is only going to waste valuable time. So, how do you balance running your business and staying current? It’s actually easier than you think. You listen to podcasts.

What Makes Podcasts So Great for Business Growth?

The great thing about listening to podcasts, as opposed to reading or attending a webinar, is that you can do it in conjunction with something else. You can dip into your favorite show on your commute, while washing the dishes or on the treadmill.

Podcasts can serve as a vital source of information. Offering everything from news, trends and interesting ideas to much needed tips, guidance and motivation for just about every niche imaginable.

If you want to learn more about something, chances are there’s a podcast on the subject. This is especially true when it comes to work. According to Edison Research, business is currently the seventh most popular podcast genre.

That’s good news for business owners and entrepreneurs looking to grow their business. But with more than 2 million podcasts worldwide, how on earth do you choose? The trick is to focus on only a handful of them and pretend the rest don’t exist. (More on that further down.)

How to Remember What You Learn

We’ll get to the list of podcasts in a moment. First, let’s look at some tactics to help you remember what you heard. Listening to podcasts while engaging in other activities is a good time hack, but you do run the risk of missing some of what's said. One way around this is to listen to an episode more than once.

Say, for example, you want to know more about creating a branded podcast. If you happen to listen to a podcast pertaining to that, queue it up again. Only this time, make sure you’re in a position to take notes (so, not when you’re on the treadmill).

Another tactic worth employing is to listen for actions. Because a podcast is essentially a conversation between two people, a lot of what they say will be inconsequential to your learning endeavors. It might be interesting, sure, but it’s not going to help you get better at whatever it is you’re looking to get better at. Train yourself to listen mine the narrative for actionable takeaways.

While listening to a podcast might be passive, retaining the information isn’t. Not if you want it to stick, anyway. Make a habit of actively recalling what you heard at the end of an episode. Finally, share your learning in conversations with friends and colleagues as well as by writing them down in a journal or online.

7 Podcasts for Growing Your Business

To make it easier for you to decide what to listen to, we’ve compiled a list of the best podcasts for building a business. Our advice would be to look through the list and identify the ones that jump out at you.

Listen to a couple of episodes from each and then narrow down your selection to just one or two podcasts. It can be tempting to dip in and out of a bunch of them, but you won’t get maximum benefit that way. Stick with just a couple until you feel like you’ve got enough out of them and then move on.

Okay, enough with the preamble, let’s get to that list of podcasts.

1. Accelerate Your Business Growth

Success doesn't always come easily, especially if you're a small business owner or aspiring entrepreneur. There are numerous challenges to deal with on a daily basis. Accelerate Your Business Growth cuts to the heart of topics like marketing, branding, communication and leadership, offering valuable tools and resources to make the business of doing business easier.

With Diane Helbig in the driving seat, you're in good hands. A legendary international business and leadership change agent, author and award-winning speaker, Diane's goal is to help you remove the challenges preventing you from realizing success with your business.

Voted one of Inc.com's top 100 Podcasts "That Will Make You Smarter, Better, and Wiser," this show is designed with small business owners, salespeople and aspiring entrepreneurs in mind.

Diane's straightforward and probing approach makes the caliber of conversations she has with guests invaluable. She leaves very little room for confusion or that "huh?" feeling one often has when faced with business specifics.

New episodes are released on the 2nd and 4th Monday of the month and there's always a great lineup of guests and topics. Diane dives into it all. You can expect to hear about anything from sales and employee issues to technology, social media and work-life balance. She’s certainly not averse to exploring uncharted territory.

Recommended for: Business owners who feel like they’re floundering and need guidance or are simply looking for a little inspiration and motivation to keep them on track. AYBG is a tremendous business resource, peppered with actionable expertise that will get any business moving in the right direction.

2. Entrepreneurs on Fire

Energetic, powerful, positive, inspiring — all the things you want from a business podcast host. John Lee Dumas (or JLD to his listeners) is probably one of the most well-known figures in the entrepreneurial podcasting realm.

John's mission with Entrepreneurs on Fire is to help inspire and educate young entrepreneurs. To date, his show has garnered over 100+ million listens across the 3,500+ episodes, turning EonF into a media empire.

JLD has interviewed thousands of remarkable entrepreneurs. Guests include the likes of Seth Godin, Tim Ferriss, Tony Robbins, Barbara Corcoran and Gary Vaynerchuck, to name a few.

What sets JLD apart from other podcast hosts is his insatiable appetite for information and he's turned that hunger into an interviewing artform. His goal is to “provide as much value as possible” and gain followers that truly benefit from the content.

Episodes drop seven days a week, every week. With so much content to choose from and episodes ranging anywhere from 18 minutes to just under an hour long, there's plenty of scope for filling your spare time with actionable business-related nuggets.

Recommended for: Anyone who loves personal and business growth stories, tactics and strategies.

3. How to Win with Peep Laja

Need some no-nonsense business talk from a host that doesn't pull any punches? How To Win may be the podcast you're looking for.

Host Peep Laja, founder of Wynter and Speero, gets down to the nitty-gritty with some of the planet's most successful industry leaders. No fluff. No filler. Just strategies, tactics and actionable insights from founders, executives and marketers.

Peep and his guests cover all kinds of topics, from building moats and scaling businesses to the challenge of educating customers, the power of growing an audience and the subtle art of throwing shade at your competitors.

Peep's typical, machine gun approach to asking questions and putting things into context means that this podcast isn't only insightful, it’s also hugely entertaining.

Recommended For: B2B SaaS, agency leaders and entrepreneurs who are looking for incredible strategic insights into how their company can win and outsmart the competition.

4. Being Boss

Being a boss in business can be lonely. People on the "outside" just don't understand the work that goes into creating and maintaining a successful business. Sometimes, you need to hear a friendly voice from people who really get it.

Being Boss is a business podcast that focuses on helping creative entrepreneurs take control of their work and life. Business besties Kathleen Shannon and Emily Thompson are the hosts of this female-fronted, globally renowned, top-ranked, award-winning business podcast.

One fan says Being Boss is

"the perfect blend of cheerleading, useful tips, and encouragement. With time being such a commodity for most of us, I make time to listen to Being Boss!"

Kathleen and Emily's conversations regularly circle around what it takes to launch, grow and run a business. Test and change, opening a retail store and simplifying your business model are just some of the topics covered in their almost 300 hundred episodes.

Previous guests include Brené Brown, Marie Forleo and Ramit Sethi. Whatever episode you tune into, you're guaranteed to come away feeling energized and motivated!

Recommended for: CEOs, founders and entrepreneurs who want to understand how to manage their businesses in an actionable way. If you need advice on how to overcome those entrepreneurial struggles and shift your mindset towards becoming a successful boss, this podcast is for you.

5. The $100 MBA Show

If you have 15 minutes on your hands, then The $100 MBA Show might be right up your alley. The episodes are concise and to the point — making it easy to get maximum value for your time. Host Omar Zenhom touches on pretty much everything you need to know about building a successful business. Including low-cost ways to increase revenue, improve ROI on paid ads and how to keep track of inventory. No backstories or promotions, just rock-solid business advice from leaders in their fields.

Recommended for: Anyone who needs a business information hit on their daily commute. Omar covers much more than just the business fundamentals. He also touches on current topics like content marketing and social media advertising.

6. How I Built This

A business podcast list isn't complete unless it includes NPR's incredibly popular show How I Built This. Few podcasts offer such an in-depth behind-the-scenes look at the inner workings of companies.

This isn't your usual back and forth interview-style podcast. Rather, it’s a delicate blend of narrative storytelling and captivating sound design. By all accounts it is a podcast for anyone who has ever marveled at how a product or brand came into existence.

Leading the conversation from initial idea through to the final product, host Guy Raz speaks with the founders of some of the most renowned companies on the planet. Featured brands include Wikipedia, Spanx, Beyond Meat, 5 Guys and WeWork, to name just a few.

Recommended for: Anyone who is curious about how brands come into being. It offers great insight into the highs and lows of entrepreneurship and the lessons we can all learn from them. If you have an hour or so to spare each week and love impeccable storytelling, have a listen.

7. The Marketing Secrets Show

We all want to live the dream, but few are prepared to work for it. Not so with Russell Brunson. The Marketing Secrets Show's host walks his talk in no uncertain terms, proving everything he teaches.

A world-famous internet marketer and co-founder of the largest funnel creation software ClickFunnels, Russell grew a business from $0 to $100,000,000 in just three years, with zero outside capital!

Energetic and candid, the MSS caters to the entrepreneur who wants to increase cash flow through better marketing strategies, while tuning into a podcast that has genuine heart and soul and a moral compass to boot!

Recommended for: Anyone that wants to learn effective marketing tactics, like getting brand messages, products and services to the right audiences — all while turning a profit.

Here’s to Your Business Success

If you don’t have the time (or desire) to read lengthy articles or dense business tombs, you can still up your business smarts with these podcasts.

Being a business owner has its share of challenges, but with the right tools and mentorship at your disposal, you’re sure to grow your business into something truly successful.

Should your ears ever need a rest you can always turn to the best podcast blogs for inspiration.