25 must-listen podcasts for small business owners

12 MINS
Web.com Team

Podcasts have been around for more than a decade now, and their popularity shows no signs of slowing down. In 2018, 48 million people listened to a podcast on a weekly basis. That’s twice as many people as the number who watch NFL Sunday Night Football (consistently the highest-rated show on TV)!

Podcasts are so appealing because the audio format fits easily into our lives — we can listen while we’re in the car, at the gym, cooking a meal or doing a whole host of other tasks. 

While there are podcasts available for nearly every area of interest, there has been a surge in podcasts offering free, high-value content for small businesses designed to be consumed on their schedule. 

On that note, here are 25 must-listen podcasts for small business owners: 

#1. Marketing School

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Neil Patel and Eric Siu cover all things marketing: from SEO and content creation to conversion optimization and general marketing tactics. Geared towards people in any stage of business growth, this podcast provides actionable tips based on years of first-hand experience working in the world of marketing. 

Episodes to check out: 

● 7 Unconventional Ways to Generate More Leads
● Does Influencer Marketing Really Work?
● The Best Marketers Do This

#2. The Brainy Business

The Brainy Business logo and founder

Melina Palmer is a sales conversion expert who specializes in behavioral economics. By breaking down the complex concepts that drive buying behavior, she provides simple tips that can be implemented immediately — no matter how big or small your business may be. 

Episodes to check out: 

● The Overwhelmed Brain and Its Impact on Decision Making
● The Power of Habit
● The Truth About Pricing

#3. Online Marketing Made Easy

Known as a powerhouse in the world of digital marketing, Amy Porterfield provides everything from masterclasses to step-by-step how-to guides to help you scale your online business. If you’re newer to the online space or are ready to take your online business to the next level, Amy offers practical solutions to help you get there. 

Episodes to check out: 

● What to Focus on When You Are Just Starting Out
● How to Identify Your Ideal Customer Avatar
● Are You Embracing the “Visionary Role” in Your Business?

#4. Product Boss Podcast

Jacqueline Snyder and Minna Khounlou-Sithep use their workshop-style episodes to help product entrepreneurs strategize. From the nuts and bolts of manufacturing, packaging and wholesale to marketing, social media, content creation and branding, they share how to build your product empire from the ground up.  

Episodes to check out: 

● Let’s Find Your Competitive Advantage
● Ask Us Anything: Questions Answered for Product Entrepreneurs
● Where to Focus to Move Your Business Forward

#5. So Money

Farnoosh Torabi helps entrepreneurs learn how to master their money with practical strategies. This podcast features inspiring and high profile guests sharing their stories, offering a chance to learn about the financial philosophies, habits, successes and failures that shape an entrepreneur’s financial journey. 

Episodes to check out: 

● Ask Farnoosh: Managing Money in Your Business,
● Jenny Shih: Business and Productivity Coach
● Ask Farnoosh: Investing 101, Side Hustles and More

#6. Brown Ambition

Mandi Woodruff and Tiffany Aliche share insight into how to find success in career and wealth building, all while juggling everything else life serves up. Every week, they tackle listeners’ questions about money and business and how to live your best financial life on your own terms.  

Episodes to check out: 

● Coping with Financial FOMO
● Confessions of an Entrepreneur
● Debt Free for the First Time in 20 Years

#7. Small Business Boss

Maggie Patterson provides real talk on the life of an entrepreneur while taking you behind-the-scenes of what it’s like to run a business as a freelancer or creative. Focusing on lessons to help you find clients, get paid and grow your business, Maggie gives listeners actionable advice to make their small business flourish.

Episodes to check out: 

● How to Win New Clients with Your Proposals
● Creating Consistent Income in Your Service Business
● Sales Strategy for Your Freelance or Creative Business

#8. The Gary Vee Audio Experience

With his signature no holds barred style, Gary Vaynerchuk offers listeners a mix of speeches, interviews and fireside chats focused on marketing and business. 

Episodes to check out: 

● Why You Need to Start Storytelling Today
● What Giving Without Expectation Really Means
● 5 Reminders that Accountability Leads to Happiness

#9. Business Boutique

Christy Wright has built a community focused on women doing what they love and making money in the process. Offering up a mix of interviews with experts in the areas of social media, marketing and selling, this podcast is geared towards motivating and inspiring women on their entrepreneurial journey. 

Episodes to check out: 

● How to Know If Your Business Ideas Will Work
● Know Your Worth
● Understanding Your Core Values

#10. How I Built This

Ever wondered how some of the best-known companies got started? Guy Raz shares stories of entrepreneurs, idealists and innovators and how they built a movement from the ground up. For anyone looking to take a small idea and create something big, these stories will inspire and ignite your creative vision.  

Episodes to check out: 

● Rent the Runway: Jen Highman
● WeWork: Miguel McKelvey
● Dyson: James Dyson

#11. Don’t Keep Your Day Job 

Cathy Heller wants to inspire those listeners looking to figure out how to take their passion and turn it into profits. Through honest conversations with successful entrepreneurs, Cathy shares practical steps on how to build the life you want and wake up every day feeling empowered and ready to work. 

Episodes to check out: 

● How to Find the Road to Success – Susie Moore
● How to Map What You Desire Most – Danielle LaPorte
● You Have the Life You Believe You Deserve

#12. My Wife Quit Her Job

Steve Chou interviews entrepreneurs who went from working a normal “day job” to making the decision to quit and pursue starting up a successful online business. Featuring entrepreneurs who started from the ground up, this podcast is designed to demonstrate how you can create the business you’re dreaming of — without losing your life savings or sacrificing your relationships. 

Episodes to check out: 

● How to Become an Influencer in Your Niche with Selena Soo
● A Better Way to Launch Products on Amazon with Scott Voelker
● The Fastest Way to Make 5K a Month with Greg Mercer, Mike Jackness and Scott Voelker

#13. What Works

Running and growing a business in the digital age can feel overwhelming, but Tara McMullin is here to help. Tara goes into the trenches with business owners in every industry to discover what systems, strategies and techniques actually work for small business owners. 

Episodes to check out: 

● Spring Cleaning Your Small Business
● Your Business Is a Mess — and That’s Okay
● The Most Productive Habits of Thriving Small Business Owners

#14. Elephant Conversations

Executive coach and keynote speaker Diane A. Ross knows all about how to have a difficult conversation — whether it’s at home or at work. Using her no-nonsense approach, she focuses on helping listeners build the practical skills they need to speak up, embrace feedback, develop leadership skills and improve relationships to get the results they want from every interaction. 

Episodes to check out: 

● The Power of Choice
● Saying No and Having it Stick
● Say Goodbye to New Year’s Resolutions

#15. EntreLeadership

Host Ken Coleman interviews some of the top minds in the business world to glean tips on being a leader and running a successful company. If you’re looking to grow profits or expand your team, the podcast guests provide insight into what it takes to make it happen. 

Episodes to check out: 

● Lead for the Right Reasons
● Find a Way, Not an Excuse
● Everyday Millionaires

#16. The Tim Ferriss Show

Tim Ferriss, best known for The 4-Hour Workweek, is a self-experimenter willing to try anything once. Each week, Tim digs deep and talks to world-class leaders from a broad cross-section of industries to find tricks, tips and tactics that listeners can apply to their own business and lives.  

Episodes to check out: 

● Patrick Collison, CEO of Stripe
● James Cameron and Suzy Amis Cameron: How to Think Big, Start Small and Change the World
● Scott Belsky: How to Conquer the Messy Middle

#17. The Small Business Radio Show 

Barry Moltz is here to get your small business unstuck. Having founded and run multiple small businesses with varying degrees of success, Barry understands exactly what it takes to make it work in the unpredictable world of small business.

Episodes to check out: 

● Is Your Online Sales Funnel Working as It Should?
● How to Become Legendary By Being Different
● How to Design Your Business to Run Itself

#18. Eventual Millionaire

Everyone wants to know the secrets behind the making of a millionaire and that’s exactly what Jaime Masters shares in this podcast. Each episode features an interview with a millionaire entrepreneur who shares their successes and failures along with helpful tips on what got them where they are. 

Episodes to check out: 

● 5 Minutes a Day to Success with Karen Briscoe
● Expand Your Influence and Impact with Bob Burg
● Scale or Fail with Allison Maslan

#19. Smart Passive Income

Pat Flynn helps you get ahead of the curve with your online business or blog by sharing strategies, income sources and marketing tips. Pat built his business around creating passive income streams — only working a few hours a week — and this podcast covers everything about what works (and doesn’t) so you can do the same.

Episodes to check out: 

● How to Build Atomic Habits with James Clear, The Riches Are in the Niches
● The Advantage of SMALL, From Clients to Passive Income
● Productize Your Business with Brian Casel

#20. Business Unusual with Barbara Corcoran

Best known for her appearances on Shark Tank, Barbara Corcoran started her own business empire after working at over 20 different jobs and then starting a real estate company with a $1000 loan. With her signature straight talk, Barbara shares practical tips to give entrepreneurs the confidence to take a chance on themselves. 

Episodes to check out: 

● Book Smarts Don’t Cut It
● Firing for Success 
● Go Big or Else

#21. Masters of Scale

LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman examines what it really takes to scale a business. Testing out his theories with famous founders, Reid gets to the heart of what goes on behind the scenes to take an idea from inception to full-scale success. 

Episodes to check out: 

● Escape the Competition with PayPal’s Peter Thiel
● Arianna Huffington — What Great Founders Do at Night
● Let Your Customers Be Your Scouts with Eventbrite’s Julia Hartz

#22. Startup

An immensely popular docuseries podcast, Startup goes behind the scenes of what it’s really like to start a business. Hosts Alex Blumberg and Lisa Chow follow businesses over a series of episodes so listeners can see the good, the bad and the ugly of the business world. 

Episodes to check out: 

● Running a Family and a Business
● Up in Flames
● The Runway

#23. HBR Ideacast

Known for providing ideas and advice for people from all industries and walks of life, this podcast hosted by Alison Beard and Curt Nickisch features the leading thinkers in both business and management. This show covers topics such as strategy and innovation, with a mix of new ideas and classic advice from a dynamic group of guests.

Episodes to check out: 

● Why It’s So Hard to Sell New Products
● Avoiding Miscommunication in a Digital World
● Turning Purpose Into Performance

#24. Side Hustle School

If you work a regular job but dream of starting a side hustle, Chris Guillebeau is here to inspire you to stop waiting and get going. Each week, guests share the journey of their side hustle — the good, the bad and how it all turned out. 

Episodes to check out: 

● Mom Starts Uber Easy Side Hustle Taxiing Kids
● Dynamic Sister Duo Bids Up Profits for Charities
● Data Geek Charts Course from Analyst to Author

#25. Product Hunt Radio

Ryan Hoover and Abadesi Osunsade discuss the latest in tech with the people building and shaping the future in the world of technology. Investors, founders, journalists and makers share their insight on what’s happening in the tech industry. 

Episodes to check out: 

● The Power of Online Communities and Healthful Habits
● The Present and Future of Social Media with Matt Navarra
● The Future of Media, Commerce and What the West can Learn from China

With such a comprehensive list to choose from, there’s no shortage of options when looking for podcasts for small business owners. Do you know of a great podcast for small business owners that we missed? Share your suggestions in the comments below. 

Image Credits 

Feature Image: Unsplash / Jaz King 
Image 1: via Marketing School
Image 2: via The Brainy Business on Twitter
Image 3: via Online Marketing Made Easy 
Image 4: via Product Boss Podcast on Twitter
Image 5: via So Money 
Image 6: via Brown Ambition 
Image 7: via Small Business Boss on Facebook
Image 8: via The Gary Vee Audio Experience 
Image 9: via Business Boutique 
Image 10: via How I Built This on Twitter
Image 11: via Don’t Keep Your Day Job on Twitter
Image 12: via My Wife Quit Her Job on Facebook
Image 13: via What Works 
Image 14: via Elephant Conversations
Image 15: via EntreLeadership
Image 16: via Tim Ferriss on Youtube
Image 17: via The Small Business Radio Show 
Image 18: via Eventual Millionaire on Twitter
Image 19: via Smart Passive Income 
Image 20: via iHeartRadio blog
Image 21: via Masters of Scale
Image 22: via Startup 
Image 23: via HBR Ideacast 
Image 24: via Side Hustle School
Image 25: via Product Hunt Radio

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