What does it look like to build a network around removing every obstacle that kills podcasts before they ever find an audience?

Rich Butler started RAGE Works Podcast Network in 2014 after his own long-running podcast wound down and the people around him caught the bug. Rather than pointing them elsewhere, he handed them a blueprint and stayed in the room. What followed wasn't a revenue-first strategy. It was a production-and-distribution model built around making it easier for motivated people to create. His reasoning is simple and consistent: content is what grows a network, and the best way to get more content is to get out of the way.

What makes Rich's approach distinct is what he refuses to optimize for. He won't take a cut of ad deals he didn't facilitate. He won't chase podcasters for their episodes. He won't g ...