Why Steven Bartlett's protégé says her 'Hot Smart Rich' podcast will be as big as 'Diary of a CEO'

Nairavoice | Jun 7, 2026 1,467 0 3 min read
Why Steven Bartlett's protégé says her 'Hot Smart Rich' podcast will be as big as 'Diary of a CEO'

<div class&equals;"wp-block-wptelegram-widget-join-channel aligncenter">&NewLine;&Tab;<a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;t&period;me&sol;nairavoice" class&equals;"components-button join-link is-large has-text has-icon" target&equals;"&lowbar;self" rel&equals;"noopener noreferrer">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<svg width&equals;"19px" height&equals;"16px" viewBox&equals;"0 0 19 16" role&equals;"img" aria-hidden&equals;"true" focusable&equals;"false">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<g>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<path d&equals;"M0&period;465&comma;6&period;638 L17&period;511&comma;0&period;073 C18&period;078&comma;-0&period;145 18&period;714&comma;0&period;137 18&period;932&comma;0&period;704 C19&period;009&comma;0&period;903 19&period;026&comma;1&period;121 18&period;981&comma;1&period;33 L16&period;042&comma;15&period;001 C15&period;896&comma;15&period;679 15&period;228&comma;16&period;111 14&period;549&comma;15&period;965 C14&period;375&comma;15&period;928 14&period;211&comma;15&period;854 14&period;068&comma;15&period;748 L8&period;223&comma;11&period;443 C7&period;874&comma;11&period;185 7&period;799&comma;10&period;694 8&period;057&comma;10&period;345 C8&period;082&comma;10&period;311 8&period;109&comma;10&period;279 8&period;139&comma;10&period;249 L14&period;191&comma;4&period;322 C14&period;315&comma;4&period;201 14&period;317&comma;4&period;002 14&period;195&comma;3&period;878 C14&period;091&comma;3&period;771 13&period;926&comma;3&period;753 13&period;8&comma;3&period;834 L5&period;602&comma;9&period;138 C5&period;112&comma;9&period;456 4&period;502&comma;9&period;528 3&period;952&comma;9&period;333 L0&period;486&comma;8&period;112 C0&period;077&comma;7&period;967 -0&period;138&comma;7&period;519 0&period;007&comma;7&period;11 C0&period;083&comma;6&period;893 0&period;25&comma;6&period;721 0&period;465&comma;6&period;638 Z" ><&sol;path>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;g>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;svg>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;Join Nairavoice On Telegram&Tab;<&sol;a>&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;<figure><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;i&period;insider&period;com&sol;6a230f7eb4fb977f35984ece&quest;format&equals;jpeg" &sol;><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<ul>&NewLine;<li>&&num;8220&semi;Diary of a CEO&&num;8221&semi; host Steven Bartlett is trying to turn his podcast company into a talent incubator&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>One protégé&comma; &&num;8220&semi;Hot Smart Rich&&num;8221&semi; host Maggie Sellers Reum&comma; described working in Bartlett&&num;8217&semi;s orbit&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>She adopted Bartlett&&num;8217&semi;s operational approach&comma; but kept touches geared toward her female audience&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ul>&NewLine;<p>Jocelyn Florence&comma; a consultant on creators for the management company Soft Shock&comma; said operational support is key to this model working because the creator-founder is busy making their own content&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s also important for the creator to have a well-defined brand that extends to the people they bring into their network&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;It&&num;8217&semi;s easier to sell a brand on a more unified vision&comma;&&num;8221&semi; she said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>FlightStory has five shows featuring creators&comma; in addition to &&num;8220&semi;DOAC&comma;&&num;8221&semi; including Davina McCall&comma; who speaks to the midlife experience&comma; and relationships podcaster Paul Brunson&period; Its &&num;8220&semi;Hot Smart Rich&&num;8221&semi; deal is the only one structured as an equity investment&comma; with Sellers Reum being the majority owner&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;i&period;insider&period;com&sol;6a23319a2e5a80cfe0504125&quest;format&equals;jpeg" &sol;><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<h2>Applying the Bartlett playbook<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>Bartlett&&num;8217&semi;s company has been applying its operational blueprint to grow Sellers Reum&&num;8217&semi;s show&comma; honing guest selection and amplifying the podcast through social media clips&period; FlightStory helped expand her guest list beyond her immediate network to include broader cultural figures such as entrepreneur Codie Sanchez and tech educator CatGPT&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>There are some key differences between how &&num;8220&semi;DOAC&&num;8221&semi; and &&num;8220&semi;Hot Smart Rich&&num;8221&semi; operate&comma; though&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>One is the trailers&period; Instead of emphasizing the &&num;8220&semi;hero&&num;8217&semi;s journey&&num;8221&semi; as Bartlett does with &&num;8220&semi;DOAC&comma;&&num;8221&semi; &&num;8220&semi;Hot Smart Rich&&num;8221&semi; trailers focus on why the audience should care about the guest and what they&&num;8217&semi;ll learn from the episode&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Sellers Reum also adapted Bartlett&&num;8217&semi;s intensive pre-show research process for her female audience&comma; but instead of calling the resulting 18-page document a &&num;8220&semi;research brief&comma;&&num;8221&semi; she calls it a &&num;8220&semi;gossip thread&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;We&&num;8217&semi;re trying to reclaim what it means to gossip for women&comma;&&num;8221&semi; she said&period; &&num;8220&semi;Like&comma; let&&num;8217&semi;s gossip about things that make us hotter&comma; smarter&comma; and richer&comma; not about other people&period; And so we call it a gossip thread&period; He calls it a research brief&period; For Maggie and &&num;8216&semi;Hot Smart Rich&comma;&&num;8217&semi; it&&num;8217&semi;s a gossip thread&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>She&&num;8217&semi;s also retained her interview style&period; Sellers Reum said while Bartlett&&num;8217&semi;s are &&num;8220&semi;expert-driven&comma;&&num;8221&semi; she positions herself as more conversational&period; She conducts her interviews from a comfy chair&comma; legs folded&comma; and always hits on the same five topics of money&comma; power&comma; relationships&comma; business&comma; and femininity&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;This is just more my gut&semi; I feel that female voices in media are preferred by the female listener to be conversational&comma;&&num;8221&semi; she said&period; &&num;8220&semi;If you look at &&num;8216&semi;Giggly Squad&comma;&&num;8217&semi; Amy Poehler&comma; &&num;8216&semi;Call Her Daddy&comma;&&num;8217&semi; it&&num;8217&semi;s actually like the viewer or the listener wants to hear the host&&num;8217&semi;s opinion a lot more than what I&&num;8217&semi;ve seen in male-dominated podcasts&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>When FlightStory proposed she do a Q&amp&semi;A-style show telling people how to solve their business problems&comma; Sellers Reum pushed back&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;I said&comma; &&num;8216&semi;I can&&num;8217&semi;t do that&comma;&&num;8217&semi; because I&&num;8217&semi;m not better than anyone that listens to me&period; I was investing &dollar;2&comma;500 checks&comma;&&num;8221&semi; she said&period; &&num;8220&semi;I wasn&&num;8217&semi;t a billion-dollar founder&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In the near term&comma; she envisions launching a behind-the-scenes YouTube show&period; Long term&comma; the plan is to expand &&num;8220&semi;Hot Smart Rich&&num;8221&semi; beyond the podcast and its WhatsApp community of fans whom Sellers Reum calls &&num;8220&semi;angels&comma;&&num;8221&semi; potentially to books&comma; TV shows&comma; or products&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>For now&comma; the priority is growing the long-form podcast&period; She&&num;8217&semi;d love to have guests like Alix Earle &lpar;who&&num;8217&semi;s done a &&num;8220&semi;phenomenal job&&num;8221&semi; taking equity ownership in companies&rpar; or Reese Witherspoon &lpar;whose book club was &&num;8220&semi;very underestimated&&num;8221&semi;&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;There&&num;8217&semi;s just such a big opportunity&comma; but we have to earn the right to grow&comma;&&num;8221&semi; she said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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