Grow Your Business By Listening To Podcasts
In the jampacked schedules of entrepreneurs, the one medium that never fails to entertain, inform and satisfy the quest to pick up new learnings is podcasts. Three entrepreneurs share how to profit from them.
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Amit Gupta, Co-founder, Yulu
A pervasive notion is that there is no fixed playbook for start-ups. Entrepreneurship is all about taking risks and making the right decisions. Gupta was initially apprehensive when exploring the bike hiring segment in India. "We learn from others and connect the dots in own context. I have been able to take better decisions and create better outcomes because of the learning from podcasts," he asserts.
He listens to the voices of advice from top business leaders across the globe and seeks latest technologies in the world. "I enjoy listening to the ones from top business leaders or companies on topics like self-help, strategy, innovation and building positive work culture," he emphasizes.
Preferred Choice: HBR IdeaCast (https://hbr.org/2018/01/podcast-ideacast), A16Z Podcast (https://a16z.com/ podcasts/)
Varun Aggarwal, Co-founder & Executive Director, Designhill
Aggarwal has a knack for picking podcasts that talk about launch strategies, overcoming hurdles, expansion plans and solutions offered to consumers. "Podcasts are a convenient source of information coupled with inspiration. They strike the chord when compared to reading an interview in a magazine or a newspaper," he says.
A majority of Designhill customers are US-based. "On several occasions we listen to podcasts that speak the language of that particular demography from varied genres like marketing, finance, technology," explains Aggarwal. "If there's a new idea that we are brainstorming, then I listen to a podcast from similar space to get a global perspective," he says.
Preferred Choice: Foundr with Nathan Chan, Entrepreneur on Fire
Sivareena Sarika, Co-founder, Pregbuddy
A wise person is not one who just learns from own mistakes, but one who grasps from others' errors too. Sarika hunts down podcasts that help her make smarter choices. "Learning from others' mistakes jogs my memory. I try to understand best case practices and implement them in the best possible way in dynamic situations," she says. Sarika also gets her requisite dose of motivation from them.
"The start-up journey can be pretty harrowing. So, I listen to success stories of people who have trudged through it, beaten the odds or have learnt a lesson from experience," she adds. Sarika surfs digital content during work-breaks but weekends are solely dedicated to podcasts, which are usually from peer-recommendations.
Preferred Choice: s podcast and Insights podcast by Anand Daniel
(This article was first published in the July 2019 issue of Entrepreneur Magazine. To subscribe, click here)
