In what marketing professors are calling “the most innovative interpretation of consumer behavior since tobacco companies claimed smoking was healthy,” Steven Bartlett, founder of podcast phenomenon The Diary of a CEO, has reportedly turned down an estimated $100 million partnership deal because his data analytics convinced him that listeners are secretly begging for more advertisements—just “fewer but better” ones. This groundbreaking discovery was announced just moments after YouTube served viewers their fourth unskippable ad while trying to watch Bartlett interview someone who actually runs a company.
Forbes reported this week that Bartlett, whose podcast franchise generated a reported $20 million in 2024, rejected partnership offers allegedly worth around $100 million because, after running the situation through 100 variations of A/B testing, his team concluded they could extract more value from listeners directly. This decision positions Bartlett as either the podcast industry’s greatest visionary or its most spectacular cautionary tale, with absolutely no middle ground possible.
The Not-Quite-CEO’s Journey to Almost-Joe-Rogan Status
For those unfamiliar with Bartlett’s meteoric rise, The Diary of a CEO began in 2017 as a hobby when he was still CEO of Social Chain, a social media marketing company he co-founded and later departed from in 2020. According to Spotify Wrapped, it’s now among the top 5 most popular podcasts globally, with over 10 million YouTube subscribers, 20 million social media followers, and reportedly 50 million monthly listeners.
The show’s title, however, raises the first of many fascinating contradictions in the Bartlett universe: it’s called “The Diary of a CEO,” but Bartlett hasn’t actually been a CEO since leaving Social Chain. This is either an amazing example of brand persistence or the podcast industry’s most successful instance of false advertising since Joe Rogan claimed to be an expert on literally anything.
“The podcast title made perfect sense when I was running Social Chain,” Bartlett might reasonably explain if directly questioned, “and it would be tremendously inconvenient to rebrand to something more accurate like ‘The Diary of a Former CEO Who Now Runs a Podcast and Investment Company While Appearing on Dragons’ Den.'”
Dr. Melanie Wilkerson, professor of Digital Media Studies at Cambridge, offers a more academic assessment: “What we’re seeing with Bartlett is the fascinating evolution of ‘CEO’ from a specific corporate title to a personal brand identity. He’s essentially the CEO of being Steven Bartlett, which in today’s attention economy, might actually be more valuable than running a traditional company.”
The Data-Optimization Machine That Definitely Knows What You Want Better Than You Do
The most intriguing aspect of Bartlett’s empire isn’t the content itself but the extreme data-driven approach his team uses to extract maximum engagement from every syllable uttered on the show. According to reports, his team tests approximately 100 variations of headlines, thumbnails, and social engagement strategies for each podcast episode.
Bartlett has developed a system called “Pre-Watch” that monitors the engagement of 1,000 volunteers who view an episode before its release. A simple click indicates strong interest, while diverted attention suggests a loss of focus. This attention data is then used to refine the final edit for maximum viewer engagement.
“We’ve optimized everything,” explains a marketing officer at Diary of a CEO in a LinkedIn post. “From the exact millisecond Bartlett should smile in a thumbnail (he doesn’t—looking serious works better) to the precise punctuation in captions that maximizes click-through rates.” This approach reportedly increased their ad click-through rates from 2% to a staggering 20%—numbers that would make even the most shameless clickbait farms blush with embarrassment.
“What we’re witnessing is the industrialization of authenticity,” notes media analyst Priya Sharma. “The irony is that a show supposedly dedicated to authentic conversations with CEOs is perhaps the most meticulously engineered, data-optimized content on the internet. It’s like watching a nature documentary where all the animals are animatronic.”
The Curious Case of the Fewer But Better Ads That Are Somehow Everywhere
The most delicious contradiction in Bartlett’s recent decision to reject partnership offers is his team’s claim that they want to maintain control over advertising because “their listeners want fewer but better ads.” This statement was presumably made with a straight face while YouTube was serving viewers their 17th consecutive advertisement for another podcast about entrepreneurship.
For those who have actually watched The Diary of a CEO on YouTube, the experience includes pre-roll ads, mid-roll ads, ad breaks within the content, sponsored segments, merchandise promotion, and occasionally ads for Bartlett’s other business ventures—a multimedia experience critics have described as “like watching Times Square through a kaleidoscope while someone tries to sell you a course on mindfulness.”
In 2023, the Advertising Standards Authority actually reprimanded Bartlett for failing to properly disclose an advertisement for Huel (where he happens to be a non-executive director) in his podcast. Huel told the ASA it “believed the podcast did not include an ad because they had no editorial control over its content,” a defense that makes perfect sense if you ignore the financial arrangement between the company and Bartlett.
“The fascinating thing about the modern podcast economy,” explains Dr. Jason Martinez, professor of Digital Economics at Stanford, “is that it’s essentially reinvented radio advertising but convinced a generation who grew up hating commercials that these ads are actually content. It’s like if your friend who always recommends restaurants started getting kickbacks but insisted their recommendations were more authentic now.”
The $100 Million Question: Why Turn Down Joe Rogan Money?
The truly puzzling aspect of Bartlett’s decision is turning down what Forbes estimates to be around $100 million in potential partnership deals. For context, Joe Rogan reportedly signed a $250 million deal with Spotify, while Alex Cooper of “Call Her Daddy” secured a $125 million partnership with Sirius XM.
“We looked at what they did in terms of testing, experimentation, innovation, and I felt like I was looking at the past,” Bartlett told Forbes, presumably while A/B testing which explanation would sound most visionary in the article. “When I see what happens here, I’m looking at the future.”
Translation: “THEY DIDN’T OFFER ENOUGH MONEY!”
Industry insiders suggest a simpler explanation. “When you’re offered $100 million but Joe Rogan got $250 million, it feels like you’re being disrespected,” suggests podcast industry analyst Michael Thornton. “The human ego is a powerful force, especially when you’ve convinced yourself your data analytics are infallible.”
Bartlett’s Flight Story now produces five podcasts and is developing commercial franchises around each host, including book deals, speaking engagements, investment opportunities, and merchandise. The strategy appears to be to build a media empire rather than partner with an existing one—a bold move that will either make Bartlett the next Rupert Murdoch or the podcast industry’s most expensive cautionary tale.
The CEO of Data: Converting Human Attention Into Spreadsheet Cells
Perhaps the most revealing aspect of Bartlett’s operation is how it has industrialized content creation through relentless experimentation and optimization. His team proudly declares their company mantras are “1%” (an obsession with tiny details) and “failure” (increasing the number of experiments).
This approach has created what amounts to the most sophisticated attention harvesting operation in podcast history. Every element of the show—from the millisecond Bartlett pauses before asking a question to the exact shade of his outfit—is tested, optimized, and refined to maximize engagement.
“We’ve reached a point where the content isn’t actually the product anymore,” explains media critic Jordan Reynolds. “The product is human attention, which is harvested, quantified, and sold. The podcast is just the bait in an elaborate attention trap.”
What makes this particularly ironic is that The Diary of a CEO often features guests discussing mindfulness, presence, and authentic connection—all while being captured by cameras that feed data to analytics systems designed to exploit the very attention their advice suggests we should be protecting.
Conclusion: The Meta-CEO of Being a Former CEO Who Interviews CEOs
As Bartlett continues building his podcast empire as an independent operator, the fundamental contradiction of his position remains unresolved: he’s the host of The Diary of a CEO without technically being the CEO of anything except his personal brand and podcast company.
“In today’s attention economy, maybe that’s the ultimate CEO position,” suggests Dr. Wilkerson. “He’s the Chief Engagement Officer of his own narrative, and that narrative is worth more than most traditional companies.”
Whether rejecting $100 million proves to be visionary or foolhardy, Bartlett has certainly mastered the art of converting human attention into capital. His extreme data-driven approach has created a content optimization machine that treats listeners less as humans and more as metrics to be maximized.
The ultimate irony may be that in a show supposedly dedicated to authentic insights from business leaders, the most carefully engineered element is the appearance of authenticity itself. Even this Forbes article announcing the rejected deal feels like another A/B tested piece of content designed to maximize Bartlett’s mystique as a visionary who sees beyond mere nine-figure deals.
As one anonymous podcast industry executive put it: “The genius of Bartlett isn’t that he created a great podcast—it’s that he created a system for convincing people his podcast is great, then convinced those same people they actually prefer more advertisements. If that doesn’t deserve $100 million, I don’t know what does.”
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