The Best Podcasts for Contractors

When you're driving in between jobs, liven up your commute with these top 10 podcasts for contractors.

As a contractor, you spend most of your days driving to and from jobs. The commute can be gruesome, but this list of the 10 best podcasts for contractors can help make it go by a little faster—and help you learn something new to grow your contractor business on the way!

We will rate each podcast on a scale of 1-10 for three different metrics: entertainment, educational value, and availability. Each podcast’s total score is the average of these three values. When rating entertainment, we looked at how funny the podcast was and how easy it was to listen to. The educational value rating was determined by the usefulness of the information given. Availability was determined by the number of the episodes, the frequency of them, and whether they are continuing production.

10. The 7 Deadly Sins of Building a Contractor Business: 5/10

Entertainment: 2/10
Educational: 10/10
Availability: 3/10

Karan Dhillon, the self-proclaimed “Contractors’ Coach,” provides 11 episodes. The podcasts cover 7 deadly sins of building a contractor business. These “don’ts” lead into the “dos” in a very informative style that hits the nail on the head.

Because these podcasts are made to be informative, they can run a bit dry. Based off of a book written by Dhillon, the podcasts are built around each of the deadly sins a contractor should avoid.

These episode are highly informative. The densely packed insight comes with an easy-to-digest runtime of one to 20 minutes. This podcast serves as a guidebook for contractors building a business. Real situations serve to show examples to these lessons and the possible ramifications of not taking care when building your contractor business.

Unfortunately, this is not an ongoing contractor podcast. There are only 11 episodes, and it looks like it will remain that way. Though they can run a bit dry, you can easily fit them into short drives to your next job and get a lot of good, organized, and consolidated information on the way.

9. Contractor SEO: 5.3/10

Entertainment: 1/10
Educational: 10/10
Availability: 5/10

Many of the other podcasts lightly touch on SEO and online marketing, but Contractor SEO really goes in depth on the topic. The host, Josh Nelson, is a specialist in digital marketing for contractors.

Josh Nelson is definitely a digital marketing genius. His entertainment skills? Not as good. This podcast is very useful if you’re looking to learn how to use SEO to make your business more profitable. Contractor SEO serves its purpose.

Josh has 10 podcasts ranging in time from four to 30 minutes. There are no more podcasts being produced.

8. Contractor Success M.A.P.: 6.3/10

Entertainment: 2/10
Educational: 10/10
Availability: 7/10

Randal DeHart, a construction accountant, primarily focuses on finances and accounting in construction. He also covers other topics like SEO and construction tools. Randal’s podcasts go extremely in-depth on different facets of accounting in a construction business.

Though Contractor Success M.A.P. is very informative, Randal is very conversational. The information load is tolerable and most episodes don’t run too long. Unfortunately, you’re going to need to turn the speakers up to hear him. The recording and producing system he has doesn’t seem to be the best. The most recent episodes are better quality though, so maybe there is hope that this improved quality will continue!

The availability of this podcast is amazing. Randal DeHart started the show in 2014 and is still continuing them now with over 250 (I know, right??) podcasts! The shows air every Friday. It’s just a shame some are so difficult to understand.

7. Contractor’s Corner: 6.7/10

Entertainment: 9/10
Educational: 7/10
Availability: 4/10

Reese Nazzaro and Ira Malkin talk casually about everything ranging from Reese’s annoying neighbor to gutter cleaning. The comical duo are entertaining to listen to and will sure help pass the time on your commute.

Reese is hyperbolic, handy, and hilarious. He lets the listener in on his life through contractor and not-so-contractor stories.

There are a lot of good lessons in Contractor’s Corner. Some of them can be a bit particular to Reese’s situation and, therefore, not as applicable to every contractor. Because Reese is primarily a commercial contractor, his focus of topics is about 70% commercial and 30% residential.

Unfortunately, there are only five episodes from 2016. However, each episode clocks in at around an hour and a half, so you’ll have some good material to entertain yourself for a bit. According to Two Faces Radio, the station that produces Contractor’s Corner, the podcast is under production for 2018—so hopefully we can expect some more material as the year progresses.

6. The Service Contractor: 7.7/10

Entertainment: 8/10
Educational: 9/10
Availability: 6/10

Todd Liles voices The Service Contractor, using his experience as the owner and business coach at Service Excellence Training to provide residential service contractors the skills they need to increase their business profits and revenue.

Todd Liles is engaging in his 20-60 minute podcasts, using personal stories to effectively teach about running a contractor business.

Todd’s podcasts are loaded with great information, ranging from tips to whole lessons. There are over 20 episodes starting in 2013. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem like there are any recent podcasts, so 24 might be all we get.

5. The Roofer Show: 8.3/10

Entertainment: 6/10
Educational: 10/10
Availability: 9/10

Dave Sullivan, a former roofer, shares his advice on how to run a successful roofing business on The Roofer Show. Each week he interviews people in roofing to allow listeners insight into the industry.

Dave Sullivan spends the majority of the podcast interviewing, so the entertainment value really depends on who he interviews rather than himself. Overall, the podcasts are informative and easy to listen to.

Dave Sullivan and the people he interviews provide excellent advice, tips, tricks, and resources. Dave’s own one page business plan can be very useful for those looking to go into the field.

There are over 40 podcasts readily available. Dave produces roughly one episode per week.

4. The Paint Drops and Hops Show: 8.5/10

Entertainment: 10/10
Educational: 7/10
Availability: 8.5/10

Joel, John, Bockelmann, and Andy discuss beer, painting, contracting, and everything in between. Occasionally Alexa, the Amazon smart-home companion, pipes in too. Lead by Joel, this podcast is based in Indiana.

The Paint Drops and Hops Show is very listenable. Even if you aren’t a painting contractor, you will enjoy listening to the playful banter between this easy-going group of guys. They discuss things going on in their lives, painting tips, and business tricks, all while drinking beer.

While they talk about a lot of random things, they manage to get in some pretty useful information. They review painting products and provide insight on topics like customer referrals and the painting industry.

This podcast is made roughly every week. Currently, there are 10 episodes with each episode lasting around an hour.

3. The Contractor Fight: 8.8/10

Entertainment: 8/10
Educational: 8.5/10
Availability: 10/10

The Contractor Fight is aggressive—in all the right ways. It challenges the status quo and delivers the message that contractors should fight for their business and their success.

Through Tom Reber’s interviews with contractors, he urges contractors to know their worth and put their business in their own hands. The interviews provide focused lessons through contractors’ experiences in the contractor business.

There are over 130 episodes starting in 2015 and continuing today.

2. Protractor Podcast: 9/10

Entertainment: 9/10
Educational: 8/10
Availability: 10/10

Protractor Podcast is led by Martin Holsinger, an internet marketer who specializes in contractor businesses. Martin interviews various professionals in the field, gaining valuable insight and lessons from each of them.

Martin picks some amazing guest speakers with inspirational stories. This is a podcast you’re going to want to listen to if you’re looking for a boost in motivation.

Each of the guest speakers provides a slightly different background and a slightly different lesson. Perspective is a great way to learn something new, and this podcast sure offers varied perspectives.

Martin Holsinger started providing us with his brilliant podcasts in January of 2017. Now there are 71 installments. That’s more than one a week! Martin hasn’t started his podcasts again this year yet, but 2018 is still young. Each episode ranges from 10 minutes to longer than an hour.

1. The Wealthy Contractor: 9.3/10

Entertainment: 9/10
Educational: 9/10
Availability: 10/10

Brian Kaskavalciyan, the marketing strategist behind The Wealthy Contractor, has been featured on Entrepreneur Magazine, HGTV, and OPRAH Magazine, among other major publications. He interviews home improvement professionals to provide guidance in building a contractor business.

The episodes are entertaining and varied while maintaining focus on growing a contractor business and increasing profits.

The Wealthy Contractor has over 30 episodes, starting in November of 2016. There are a few episodes every month. They are continuing to record, so you can expect more in 2018!