Here's your Forbes Daily Briefing bonus story of the week.

Today on Forbes, why the Diary of a CEO founder turned down a $100 million deal to build a podcast empire.

It's a Monday morning in March and Stephen Bartlett sits in his studio in London's hip,

Shoreditch, to record the

latest episode of his hit podcast, The Diary of a CEO. With more than 10 million YouTube subscribers

and 25 million social media followers, the interview show is one of the most popular in the world.

Only Joe Rogan has more listeners when it comes to hosted podcasts.

On this particular day in March, Bartlett is recording a debate between economics

influencer Gary Stevenson and entrepreneur Daniel Priestley, where they'll argue

whether entrepreneurship can save the middle class. The episode will later attract 3.6 million views and more than 46,000 comments on

YouTube alone. The debate is fiery, but the buzzy content is only partly why millions tune in.

Data plays a vital role, too. Bartlett, who launched two social media companies before hitting

podcast fame, has already

tested and optimized every aspect of the show.

He's calibrated each detail for maximum attention, the capital letters and exclamation

points in the episode's title, the lighting, the camera angles, even his raised eyebrows

in the preview thumbnail photo.

Each factor is part of Bartlett's blueprint to attract viewers.

The 32-year-old Bartlett says, quote,

I've not met a single podcast network, company, media conglomerate in the world that can help you grow your podcasts using the modern platforms in the way we can.

And grow, he has.

Launched in 2017 as a hobby to let Bartlett get inside the minds of other CEOs,

...