It’s easy to get the impression these days that having a podcast is the “in” thing to do for executives.
British businessman Steven Bartlett’s entrepreneur-focused The Diary of a CEO launched in 2017 and has amassed 1 billion streams, making it one of the biggest podcasts in the world. Nicolai Tangen, head of Norway’s $1.6 trillion sovereign wealth fund, has had guests such as the CEOs of Goldman Sachs, Citi, and Microsoft on his podcast, launched in January 2022, for conversations more relaxed than they’d have with reporters. And activist investment firm Elliott Management even started one last autumn as a key part of its campaign to get the CEO of Southwest Airlines to resign.
The podcast boom has translated into 546.7 million podcast listeners worldwide, a number expected to rise 20% in the next two years. Yet for all the interest out there, a podcast has to be clearly differentiated to find an audience. For Pete Nordstrom, a scion of the Seattle-based department store family, that has meant giving listeners a glimpse into the world of retail and fashion. His Nordy Pod launched three years ago this month and has so far presented 78 episodes, with one released every other week. It remains a niche podcast with about 500,000 downloads.
“There are all these different parts of our business. It’s a big company with a lot going on, and there are perhaps specific parts that people don’t know anything about but might be interested in,” says Nordstrom, who as president and chief brand officer, is the company’s top executive with his brother Erik, as CEO.
Many of the Nordy Pod episodes have touched on the nerdier aspects of Nordstrom’s business. One in March 2023, about supply chain, was recorded at two Nordstrom distribution facilities in Iowa. Another one, in July 2024, intended to give listeners an insider’s view of how its “Rack” off-price business operates.
Others bring listeners in to the world of fashion. Guests have included Vogue editor and tastemaker Anna Wintour and iconic retail leaders such as Mickey Drexler of J.Crew and Gap Inc. fame (and Nordstrom’s first podcast guest). That is not surprising given that Pete Nordstrom, 62, has long been focused on brands and merchandising, compared with other family members. As a young buyer for Nordstrom in the 1990s, he brought Doc Martens and Birkenstock into the department store’s assortment. “It helps as a point of discovery for our customers, and they can learn about brands they didn’t know about, or the genesis behind the brand,” the 6-foot-5 executive says of his podcast. Indeed, an early Nordy Pod episode featured Joe Kudla, the founder of Vuori, the booming activewear brand that Nordstrom was early to showcase in its stores. Nordstrom also solicits feedback from customers and their shopping experiences as he looks for new themes to tackle on the podcast.
The tale of the Nordstrom tire return
The most listened to Nordy Pod so far has been Episode 14, aired in 2022 with 30,000 downloads so far, looking into a story that has reached mythical status in Nordstrom lore. About 43 years ago, at a Nordstrom store in Fairbanks, an employee agreed to process a request from a customer wanting to return a set of tires even though Nordstrom was a retailer of only clothing and footwear. Many employees have wondered whether that really happened or if it was just a fable to remind store workers to always go the extra mile for a customer. So Pete Nordstrom tracked down the employee in question, now an Alaska Airlines employee, and asked him to appear on the podcast alongside the author of a popular business book titled The Nordstrom Way, about the 124-year-old retailer’s renowned focus on customer service.
“If I am visiting stores or talking to new hires, the tire story will come up, and I’ll say, ‘You know, you might want to listen to the podcast about it,’” Nordstrom says. “To me it was something to be retold, almost like a fable or a legend.” (The story is true, Nordstrom says.)
While the podcast is clearly a passion project for Nordstrom, Nordy Pod also serves a business function. Much like other executives’ podcasts offer them an avenue in which to discuss a topic in a more relaxed and expansive way than a media interview does, Nordy Pod offers Nordstrom and the namesake retailer another way to communicate with employees, customers, and even investors beyond the broader public.
“It was really about another way to create a point of engagement with customers,” says Nordstrom, noting that the retailer has about 30 million customers and acknowledging that it doesn’t do all that much media. “It feels more organic and more authentic to us.” (In an effort to maintain authenticity, Nordstrom doesn’t give editing rights to his interviewees nor does he allow the podcast to become an overt marketing vehicle. For instance, one episode discussed the origins of Nordstrom’s famed annual anniversary sale but did not go into the specifics of that year’s event such as items on sale.) This seems to be working: Nordy Pod is rated a 4.9 out of five on Spotify.
Of course, with Nordstrom being a public company for now, being authentic doesn’t mean oversharing. Don’t expect Nordy Pod to go into great detail to explain why Pete Nordstrom and his family think Nordstrom will be better off as a private company and what changes they are planning. (Last month, Nordstrom announced that the family and a Mexican partner, El Puerto de Liverpool, were taking the retailer private in a $6.25 billion deal, pending shareholder approval.)
But Nordstrom says he has never had to run any episode’s content by the board or by his brother Erik or felt he had to censor himself. He also says that if and when the deal goes through and Nordstrom is once again a private company (Nordstrom went public in 1971, when Pete was a 9-year-old), it won’t change anything about what is covered in a Nordy Pod episode and how.
At the same time, the podcast scratches an itch for Pete Nordstrom. Often depicted as the most outgoing, perhaps even rebellious member of the family, he has a passion for music and pop culture (his dream Nordy Pod guest is U2 lead singer Bono) and was even a security guard at rock concerts in his college days. In rock bands he plays the bass, an unglamorous but essential instrument that usually serves in a supporting role, keeping it all together.
The podcast allows him that new form of expression, but it has also helped him sharpen a skill essential in any executive. “I’ve enjoyed it,” Nordstrom says. “I’ve learned how to be a better listener.”
