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LIVE: How Diary of a CEO became YouTube's #1 Show

Shownote

At Press Publish NYC, Colin & Samir sat down with Diary of a CEO host Steven Bartlett to unpack how he built one of the world’s top podcasts by embracing failure as a strategy. Steven shared how his “failure team” runs rapid experiments to learn fast and ...

Highlights

In a candid conversation at Press Publish NYC, Steven Bartlett opened up about the unconventional strategies behind his meteoric rise in the podcasting world. Rather than relying on traditional wisdom or chasing perfection, he revealed how intentional failure and rapid iteration became the engine of his success. By treating mistakes as data points and building systems to learn from them quickly, Bartlett transformed setbacks into scalable breakthroughs—offering a fresh blueprint for creators navigating an unpredictable digital landscape.
05:58
AI and human podcasts have similar retention after 9–12 months of experimentation
08:42
Being right is different from winning in business.
16:11
Writing daily tweets at 21–22 built a following and sharpened learning
26:21
Embracing failure and sweating the small stuff are key principles for creators in 2025.
28:49
A 10-second change to the podcast intro led to a 300% increase in subscribers.
41:04
Everything in business comes from human brains — recruitment is everything.

Chapters

How One Podcast Host Turned Failure Into a Growth Engine
00:00
Why Failing Faster Leads to Breakthrough Innovation
03:08
What Happens When You Let Go of Being Right
08:42
The Childhood Struggles That Built a Fearless Mindset
16:11
Why Keeping Control In-House Changes Everything
21:23
Can Tiny Tweaks Really Transform Creative Work?
28:49
How to Build a Culture Where People Thrive on Progress
36:20

Transcript

Colin: He's the host of the second biggest podcast in the world, the number one podcast in Europe, and the fastest growing video podcast channel globally. Everybody, please, please give a warm Press Publish NYC welcome to the host of Diary of a CEO, Steven...