There are hundreds (maybe thousands) of business podcasts out there.
Podcasts are great because they allow you to listen on your terms. Some of us learn visually like watching videos, while others like reading, whether it’s books, eBooks, blog posts, etc. For me, I love throwing a podcast on in my headphones and listening while I’m playing around the yard, going for a walk, or winding down in the evening.
In this list, I’ve rounded up nine of my favorite business podcasts for 2021 you can’t afford to miss (and a few notable mentions below).
If you don’t have a podcast app, open your phone, head over to the app store and download a podcast manager.
I use an app called Podcast App on my iPhone. It’s easy to search up the following shows and subscribe.
What I like to do whenever I come across similar lists is subscribe to a bunch and listen to the latest episodes for each show.
If I find something that doesn’t resonate, I get rid of it. You’ll always be able to find something else that does.
If you’re looking to learn more about sales, marketing strategy, customer service, entrepreneurship, joint ventures, email marketing tactics, online business, or want to hear different viewpoints from industry experts, you’ll find something in the list below.
There are an estimated 500,000+ podcasts now available on iTunes for business owners, entrepreneurs, and leaders! Life is short. Rather than digging through hundreds of popular business podcasts, here are some of my favorites and a simple description as to why I think they’re worthy of your time and attention.
The Best Business Podcasts
If you don’t know where to start, here’s my list of top business podcasts not to be missed in 2021.
1. The Evergreen Show
Shamelessly, I am going to start with my own show. Let me explain why. For one, we have a single 15-minute weekly episode where we provide immediately actionable insights, practical advice, strategies, and techniques that can be implemented in just about any business.
Shawn Veltman, who I wrote Dealing with Difficult Customers with is the co-host of the show. We’re able to share insights learned from dealing with our respective clients with our audience. And as mentioned, it’s only 15-minutes long. This is a GREAT way to get into podcasts. Some podcasts are 2-3 hours long. Quite frankly, I don’t know who has that sort of time for a weekly show! This is a great business-focused show. We cover a wide range of topics that will apply to a wide variety of listeners in 15-minutes or less.
Here are two recent sample episodes:
Who Do Your Customers Think You Are?
Thriving in a Post-Pandemic World
2. Mixergy
Mixery is hosted by Andrew Warner. In the early days of running my business, I was a guest twice on Mixergy. Mixergy has been running for years. Andrew has excellent energy and a fantastic interview vibe. Mixergy, for the most part, guests include CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders of startups – but that doesn’t mean there’s still a not to be learned by bigger companies. I love listening to bustling and hustling startup founders and hearing about all the cool & unique steps they’re taking to rapidly grow their respective companies.
3. The Tim Ferriss Show
A lot of people know Tim Ferriss, the wildly successful entrepreneur who wrote The 4-Hour Work Week. Other books include Tools of Titans and The 4-Hour Body. According to many sources, Tim has passed over 300 MILLION downloads, which is just bonkers. Tim has discussions and bold conversations with the best of the best, including business experts, leading CEOs, authors, athletes, celebrities, and more. Some of my favourite interviews include the biggest names in business, guests like Jerry Seinfeld, Malcolm Gladwell, Matthew McConaughey, Jamie Fox and more!
Tim’s book Tools of Titans takes the best of his interviews and finds the routines and habits of some of the most successful CEOs and Business minds. What’s really cool is how Tim finds the overlapping habits, routines, and even products used by top performers. An awesome show for personal development and growth.
Check out The Tim Ferriss Show
4. Masters of Scale
Master of Scale is a podcast founded and hosted by Ried Hoffman one of the co-founders of LinkedIn. Masters of Scale brings a heavy-hitter list of business executives, thought leaders, experts and more. Some of my favorite episodes & interviews include business powerhouses like Bill Gates, Howard Schultz, Danny Meyer, Eric Schmidt of Google and more.
This is a show just packed full of actionable advice, inspiring stories, top-notch thinking for business leaders from companies of all sizes, different industries, covering various topics. If you’re a CEO, Owner, Leader, you can’t miss Masters of Scale.
5. Think Like a CEO
Gary Keller, author of The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results and founder of Keller Williams, has a show called Think Like a CEO. Keller Williams is the largest real estate company on the planet in terms of the number of agents, sales volume and units sold. Gary seems to be putting out more episodes later, they’re not overly long and have some meaningful takeaways business owners can apply.
6. NPR’s How I Built This
How I Built This was launched in 2016 by Guy Raz. The New York Times called Guy “one of the most popular podcasters in history.” How I Built This is one of the most popular, award-winning podcasts in the entire podcast world. The premise is simple. Each week, Guy talks to a notable founder, ambitious entrepreneurs, business experts, innovators, etc. and spends time learning from their experiences and how they built their businesses, what they learned along the way including, their success stories and failures. While mostly covering business-related topics, Guy also interviews industry titans from a wide variety of domains. For example, a recent episode includes a discussion writer, producer, and filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan. This show is really a great source of inspiration to hear from some of the business world’s top minds.
7. Business Wars
Business Wars is a fascinating show that takes a critical look at business rivalries / think Microsoft vs. Apple. eBay vs. PayPal, Coca-Cola vs. Pepsi. Boeing vs. Airbus, Nike vs. Adidas, Netflix vs. Blockbuster etc. The show takes an in-depth deep look at the rivalries and what steps along the way lead to the eventual success, failure, or demise of one of the brands. Some shows, for example, will be presented over 3-4 episodes in a series. Consider, for example, the recent rivalry between Estee Lauder vs. L’Oreal.
As they frame it on their website, “Business Wars gives you the unauthorized, real story of what drives these companies and their leaders, inventors, investors and executives to new heights — or to ruin.“
8. HBR IdeaCast
I like Harvard Business Review, but I don’t always have the time to read it. IdeaCast takes all their recent articles and synthesizes them into nice “easy-to-digest” chunks. Most episodes run an average of 10-15 minutes in length. In my opinion, IdeaCast is really for those in Senior Management Roles looking for key advice on practical topics.
For example, recent episodes include topics like:
Stop Micromanaging and Give People What They Really Need
When To Team Up With Your Competition
How Jeff Bezos Built One of The World’s Most Successful Companies.
9. The $100 MBA Show
There’s something special about this show, much like The Evergreen Show episodes are short and sweet. I never got an MBA, and yet I consult and advise some of the biggest brands and companies in the world. Host Omar Zenhof shares lessons, concepts, strategies, examples and insights in about 15-minutes a couple of times a week.
Recent Episodes Include:
How to Start Every Day with A Win
How to Identify Your Best Customers and Get More of Them
Grow Your Business with These 4 Part-Time Hires
Notable Shows
There are other shows I enjoy that may or may not fit the bill of what you’re looking for, but they’re worth mentioning. Check out those below!
- Entrepreneurs on Fire: John Lee Dumas runs one of the top shows for entrepreneurs. John’s goal is to teach entrepreneurs how to achieve financial freedom in an online world. I was lucky to be a guest on John’s show back in the early days of building my consulting practice. John’s podcast will be more tactical covering things like content marketing, online marketing, and more.
- The Rational Reminder: Hosted by Ben Felix and Cameron Passmore, The Rational Reminder is a weekly podcast on sensible investing. While they say the show is for “Canadians” I can see the show being applicable to just about anyone on the planet.
- Lex Friedman: Lex is an MIT researcher studying AI. Lex says the show is Conversations about the nature of intelligence, consciousness, love, and power. I think Lex is an incredibly down-to-earth interviewer and has unique guests doing incredible things. This show is highly recommended.
- Akimbo by Bestselling Author Seth Godin: I’ve always been a Seth Godin fan and was lucky enough to meet Seth on a number of occasions and get a nice endorsement from him for my first book, Evergreen. Seth has an uncanny ability to teach concepts and tell stories in unique, counter-intuitive ways. Akimbo is fun to listen and Seth makes you think.
- Masters in Business: Bloomberg Opinion columnist Barry Ritholtz provides interesting thinking of everything from the markets, investing, new technologies and more. If you want to stimulate your brain, gain new insights, and be a more-rounded business thinker, this is a great show.
- The GaryVee Audio Experience: Like wine, Gary can be an acquired taste. Gary is a leader in the business world known for starting with his YouTube wine show. He grew that into VaynerMedia one of the leading brand marketing agencies on the planet.
- The Daily By The New York Times: The daily is just like the name suggests, a daily 20-30 minute show hosted by Michael Barbaro of the New York Times. Each day, the show covers one important news topic. As the Daily suggests in their write-up: “This is what the news should sound like. The biggest stories of our time, told by the best journalists in the world.”
Let me know what you think of the podcasts or if there’s anything you would recommend to me. Hit the contact form and shoot me a message.
I would love it if you checked out my show, The Evergreen Show, and let me know if you find a gem in here you hadn’t heard of before.
What are you listening to in 2021? Do you agree these are some of the best business podcasts? Send me a message and let me know.
