Smart Listening: Business Podcasts for Normals

Listening to a podcast

You don’t have to be a business owner or an entrepreneur to delve into the world of profits, marketing, and streamlined work processes. Knowing more about how the world functions outside your regular nine-to-five job can give valuable insight that you can use in redefining your work and life. Learning, after all, doesn’t stop in the classroom and can benefit your brain’s growth. It can also help you stay connected to the current trends and issues that may prove crucial for that coveted promotion or career shift.

Thanks to the existence of podcasts, learning doesn’t need to consume a lot of time either. You can listen to them while doing household chores like washing the dishes or organizing your collection of aromatherapy glass bottles. The idle time during the morning commute or waiting in the grocery line can be turned into something productive. Podcasts engage the brain, stimulating the imagination and exposing it to a variety of information.

The best thing about podcasts is they are also free and easy to find. You can just turn on any podcast app, whether you’re an Apple or Android mobile user. Make use of this free resource and improve your business skills with the following podcasts:

Make Me Smart

With its tagline, “None of us is as smart as all of us,” this podcast aims to break down complicated concepts and topics for the average person to understand. It is hosted by broadcaster Kai Ryssdal and senior editor Molly Wood, two of the trusted public media voices. They are not afraid to ask any kind of question, whether what it means to be an investor or understanding the quirky mind of tech mogul Elon Musk.

EntrepreneurWorkLife with Adam Grant

Organizational psychologist and bestselling author Adam Grant shares secrets of making work more appealing and less like a necessary evil. He has interviewed a variety of professionals in different fields like The Handmaiden Tale author Margaret Atwood, who is a serial procrastinator but hasn’t turned in a manuscript late. The podcast was one of the most downloaded new shows in 2018, spending two weeks on the top of the charts. Listeners can take a look at the transcripts here.

The $100 MBA

It has long been debated whether a master’s degree in Business Administration (MBA) is worth the investment of time and money. The $100 MBA host Omar Zenhom doesn’t seem to think so when he dropped out of Wharton School of Business and started a learning community that focuses on relevant and practical topics. His podcast has gained a massive following with over 50,000 daily listeners loving the condensed and down to earth content. Each episode has a clear call to action that can be easily implemented as compared to other podcasts recycling similar interviews.

How I Built This

Success is not built overnight but achieved through an everyday hustle of sweat and tears. That is the overall message of the podcast as it explores what happens behind the scenes of profitable companies like Bobbi Brown, Buzzfeed, and Ben & Jerry’s. Host and Journalist Guy Raz also deep dives on the story of the brand and how it found its niche.

With the abundant resources and content available in the modern world, anyone can learn about business, no matter their occupation. Podcasts are handy tools that don’t take much effort to boot up.

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