The 11 Best Motivational Podcasts for Entrepreneurs (2023)

The HBR IdeaCast is a weekly podcast that touches on timely workplace topics like mental health, attracting and retaining talent, the complexities of artificial intelligence (AI), and how to lead effectively. 

Hosts Alison Beard and Curt Nickisch, seasoned business journalists and senior editors at Harvard Business Review, interview a variety of academics, entrepreneurs, and authors, with a focus on technology—but not to the exclusion of other industries. Past guests include former IBM CEO Ginni Rometty, who discussed the need for workers to adapt and learn new skills, and actor/director Ron Howard, who offered insight into career longevity and collaborative leadership.

While discussions typically center on corporate-level instead of small business issues, entrepreneurs of all types can benefit from listening to experts talk about their areas of focus and how they relate to current business and social trends.

5. Good Life Project 

Host: Jonathan Fields

Theme: Motivation 

Good Life Project, a popular motivational podcast, poses and discusses the big questions surrounding what makes life meaningful and fulfilling. Host Jonathan Fields talks with guests about topics like the science behind motivation, what happiness means, and the value of empathy—sometimes giving actionable advice along the way. 

Most entrepreneurs want to lead meaningful and fulfilling lives, but it can be challenging while juggling the many responsibilities, daily decisions, and sometimes stressful problems of entrepreneurship. Listening to Good Life Project can help break down daunting business and personal challenges into smaller manageable tasks. 

Guests include academics, celebrities, and spiritual leaders, as well as speakers like researcher, podcaster, and author Brené Brown, who focuses on characteristics like vulnerability and empathy. Between Fields and his guests, expect practical strategies that can help with creativity, decision-making, and finding bits of joy amid the challenges of daily life.

6. DTC POD: How The Best Brands Are Built

Hosts: Ramon Berrios and Blaine Bolus

Theme: Direct to consumer

Perhaps the only people jazzed by listening to conversations about product sourcing, profit margins, supply chain trends, affiliate programs, and data-driven marketing strategies are direct-to-consumer, or DTC, entrepreneurs. If that’s you, DTC POD: How The Best Brands Are Built is an informative listen. 

Hosts Ramon Berrios and Blaine Bolus delve into the detailed decisions that DTC business owners make. Guests include startup founders in industries ranging from food media to technology. Expect DTC experts to share their professional experiences in consumer markets, addressing topics such ranging from wellness trends to Instagram influencer marketing.

Any entrepreneur who needs information about shipping, venture capital investment, product design, public relations, manufacturing, and accounting, among other essential facets of running a DTC business, can gain insight from this podcast.

7. Happier with Gretchen Rubin 

Hosts: Gretchen Rubin and Elizabeth Craft

Theme: Happiness

Author Gretchen Rubin co-hosts this podcast with her younger sister, television writer and producer Elizabeth Craft. Discussions between the siblings center on, yes, happiness. 

Entrepreneurs listening to Happier with Gretchen Rubin can pick up strategies for managing anxiety, using the sense of touch for tough conversations, and finding joy in life’s little luxuries, to name a few. These practical insights are designed to take listeners toward personal growth and professional success. The hosts’ “Happiness Hacks” can help you boost focus and spark ideas, or teach you how to best network with industry professionals or declutter work spaces. 

8. Side Hustle School with Chris Guillebeau

Host: Chris Guillebeau

Theme: Side hustle entrepreneurship
 

If you’re currently employed full time but have an ecommerce side hustle—such as making and selling small-batch hot sauces or making candles—you can gain numerous useful tips from Side Hustle School with Chris Guillebeau. The daily podcast is formatted into easy-to-digest, bite-sized six- to eight- minute segments, perfect for entrepreneurs-on-the-go. 

Host Chris Guillebeau covers side hustle case studies from listeners, giving solid advice about transitioning from a side hustle to a full-time business, raising funding, and finding new customers, among other challenges of maintaining a side business while employed. And don’t miss the Failure Friday segments, where select listeners relay their own entrepreneurial disasters—from an Airbnb flop to a fashion blogger’s failed attempt to go viral by wearing lettuce hats. Listeners of Side Hustle School can learn from others’ mistakes.

9. Planet Money

Hosts: Amanda Aronczyk, Mary Childs, Karen Duffin, Jacob Goldstein, Sarah Gonzalez, and Kenny Malone

Theme: Global economy

Entrepreneurs benefit from a deeper understanding of the global economic landscape; learning about new tariffs, shortages, or tax regulations helps business owners stay a few steps ahead of possible disruption. Planet Money delivers economic and business news in concise half-hour segments with analysis and personal stories through interviews in the field. Listeners might learn how race plays a part in who gets audited by the IRS, the lifespan of high interest rates, and other financial-forward news. 

10. Rework

Host: Kimberly Rhodes, with Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson 

Theme: Management and worklife

When an entrepreneur’s scrappy startup starts to blossom, they often find themselves managing one or more teams and being responsible for running aspects of a business they barely even knew existed (think: creating a company culture policy). Questions you may have been afraid to ask—How do you build a diverse team? How do you balance a professional life and personal life while working no more than 40 hours a week?—are answered on the Rework podcast. 

Host Kimberly Rhodes is joined by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, co-founders of 37signals, a software company known for building project management platform Basecamp. Rhodes encourages listeners of the podcast to call, email, or tweet any workplace-related questions they wish to ask.

11. The Happiness Lab 

Host: Dr. Laurie Santos

Theme: Happiness

Yale professor Dr. Laurie Santos hosts The Happiness Lab podcast and delves into all aspects of happiness, which is beneficial for business owners who often slip into having a tunnel vision mindset about work. Santos’s happiness research is based in science and sociology and expressed in accessible podcast form. Guests include academics and wellness experts who talk with Dr. Santos about everything from self-improvement to the perils of diet culture to the benefits of yoga and spiritual practice. While The Happiness Lab doesn’t exactly give out “happiness tips,” it does offer practical life advice about how to operate with a more fulfilled mindset.