Our guest today, Chris Hutchins, is a bit of a podcast whisperer and has some of the most unique ideas in podcasting and in media. Before Chris went full-time with his All the Hacks podcast, he co-founded two businesses. One he sold to Google, the other he sold to Wealthfront. He also spent time as a partner at Google Ventures before going full-time with his podcast business. For this conversation, we talked to Chris about what it's like running a podcast business versus running those previous businesses and how much differs in the podcast industry versus the tech industry. We also talked to Chris about his vision for a bigger media business, and we walk through some of the different business models that we see out there. This is an excellent conversation with somebody who's doing really creative things in media.

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here.

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Show Notes

(00:03:38) - (First question) - The unique nature of growing a business based off podcasting 

(00:07:29) - Overall podcast business mission, growth, and execution 

(00:11:24) - Hacks for finding unclaimed money

(00:12:18) - Content optimization versus better business practices to grow your podcast 

(00:14:03) -​​ The Points Guy

(00:14:57) - Adapting to an audio-based career

(00:15:51) - 1000 True Fans

(00:16:50) - Content to commerce inspiration

(00:20:00) - What he’s learned through quality content and audio creation

(00:22:49) - Content quality and audio quality

(00:24:55) - Inflections that have resulted in a sustainable jump in growth 

(00:28:40) - Tim Ferriss Podcast Episode

(00:29:42) - Insight into content creation following massive growth trends

(00:31:20) - Various ways he promotes his podcast

(00:31:34) - Chartable 

(00:34:32) - Which analytics represent success and sustainability   

(00:36:39) - Weekly distribution of tasks for a full-time podcaster 

(00:38:58) - His decision to switch from primarily interview-based content to more solo content

(00:40:38) - Building relationships and trust with existing sponsorships

(00:42:37) - Finding sponsorships that work for him

(00:44:06) - What it’s like building a business alone

(00:45:42) - Debrief