The two podcasts I cannot get enough of
"How I Built This" and "Side Hustle School"
These two podcasts are completely opposite and complementary at the same time. One podcast uses a short, host-narrated format with each episode under ten minutes. The other podcast uses a traditional interview format. Each is incredibly informative and inspiring for those with an entrepreneurial spirit.
Side Hustle School is about teaching you how to leverage the power of observation to turn some skill or talent that you already have into a revenue-generating side hustle that creates supplemental income without interfering with your day job. What problem can you solve for others in your spare time and get paid for it? In each episode, the host tells the story of an entrepreneur who has created a side hustle that generates between several hundred and several thousand dollars per month. Some of these side hustles turned into six-figure business. A few of them turned in to seven-figure businesses.
I encourage you to listen to this podcast in chronological order. It's an every day podcast that started in January 2017. The episodes are less than ten minutes each. The show was designed to evolve over time, and it has, which is why it's best to listen from the beginning. Don't worry about having so far to go to catch up. If entrepreneurship is your thing, you'll binge your way to catching up without even trying. This podcast really gets the wheels turning in your head about what's possible. There's an episode with a guy making $100K selling T-shirts. There are episodes with six-figure bloggers. There's an episode on a college student making $20K per month cleaning houses. There's an episode about an Etsy shop owner who made $1 million dollars in a year. There's an episode about someone making money selling chicken saddles!
This podcast is something that you have to hear to believe. It's about regular people who identified a problem that the world needed solved and they found a way to monetize a solution, sometimes to an incredible extent. I can't get enough of this podcast.
I can't get enough of this podcast, either. There are a number of episodes that I've listened to more than once. How I Built This has the entrepreneurs who started what went on to become huge businesses tell the story of how they built those companies. Two of the sharks from Shark Tank are on there. Cathy Hughes from Radio One is on there. Sara Blakely who invented Spanx is on there. Sara Blakely is a billionaire and she owns 100% of her company. She started with five grand and now she's a billionaire. Let that sink in.
Not everyone on How I Built This is a billionaire, but all of their stories are equally engaging. Hearing them share all the struggles they went through and all the obstacles they had to overcome to achieve what they ultimately achieved is incredibly inspiring. Hearing the origination stories of companies whose products I know, and in some cases use, is enrapturing.
Instagram almost collapsed and failed because of its popularity. Whole Foods just sold to Amazon for $13 billion. On the podcast, you hear how a flood in the early days of the company almost ended the business.
I can't say enough good things about these two podcasts. If you're in business for yourself or thinking about going into business for yourself or you just enjoy hearing great stories, these are great podcasts to check out. This is all I listen to in the car.
What great, business-oriented podcasts are you listening to?
