What are you doing with that 30 minute drive, that 15 minute wait, or that 45 minute workout? What’s going on in your head during that time? More to the point, what’s going INTO your head? Are you turning downtime into productive time or are you just being entertained?
I’m a music junky. My Spotify playlist, Pandora station, and Amazon Prime playlist are eclectic and thousands of songs deep. You probably don’t want to mess with me on a music trivia night, and there’s nothing better during a training run than some Bob Seger blasting in my earbuds. But I had to ask if that was the highest and best use of that time – and the time I spend in the car, waiting at the dentist, or working on household projects.
If you run a small business – or if you are a budding entrepreneur – listening to podcasts may be a better use of your listening bandwidth than blasting tunes. While there’s nothing wrong with listening to music (see above), those classic tunes won’t necessarily get you where you want to go. Whether it’s a spark of motivation, a topic that challenges you to think, or a deep dive into a topic that educates you and gets your creative juices flowing, there’s a podcast for just about everyone these days.
Podcasting has been around for over a decade, but it’s just now starting to gain widespread acceptance by listeners as a viable alternative to radio and online music, news, and talk stations. Podcasting gives you the ability to take control of what you listen to and when you listen. Personally, I alternate between small business topics and history shows.
Most podcasts are recorded in digestible 15-30 minute episodes that are perfect for those “downtime” segments of your day – commuting, working out, waiting, etc. This means that you can turn nonproductive time into productive time simply by putting on your headphones and clicking the play button.
iPhone users have a built-in Apple Podcast app where you can search a near-endless array of topics, formats, and shows. Android users can access that same sea of listening goodness through Stitcher, and both platforms can now listen to a growing number of podcasts on Spotify.
If you want to be entertained, by all means crank up those tunes. If you want to be educated, inspired, challenged, motivated…and entertained…give podcasts a listen. Here are some of my favorites in the small business category to get you started:
- Side Hustle School
- How I Built This
- All Business with Jeffrey Hayzlett
- Freakonomics Radio
- Masters of Scale
One cool little show I recommend is one that you can still find although new shows are not being produced is The Time Hackers – Entrepreneurship on Steroids. Time Hackers podcast is an excellent example of a low-production-value show that hits you with lots of useful content in a few short minutes.
If you’re not currently a podcast listener, give it a try. If you are already a fan, please comment on this post and tell us your favorite shows. We’d love to give them a try!