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For many years now media publicity was pie-in-the-sky for advisors aspiring to “influencer” status. The goal was to attract attention and ultimately fill their prospect pipeline.

Often times, being a media angle required a certain amount of charisma and the ability to spout market commentary. It’s different now in that there are more opportunities. These days, while publicity is still sought after, it’s running a distant second to being an online influencer.

“These days, publicity is running a distant second to being an online influencer.”

Any financial expert willing to invest time and effort into developing and sharing their wisdom can work towards their vision of becoming an online financial influencer – and you can choose whatever niche suits you.

Since advisor podcasting happens online, it has many advantages versus having to show up at a local broadcast studio or meet at the stock-exchange for an interview. Here are 10 benefits that will either introduce the idea of starting your own advisor podcast – or will confirm that if you’ve been thinking about it, now may be the time to start.

TEN BENEFITS OF PODCASTING

1. Instant, Deep Credibility That Resonates With Your Ideal Audience

How do you achieve instant credibility? Financial Advisor credentials no longer work, there are too many. A good website helps. A podcast really drives it home. And you end up talking about the challenges and mindsets your best clients exhibit so your podcast is likely to resonate with and attract more ideal clients.

2. Top-Of-Mind Awareness Without Constantly Interrupting Your Audience

Podcasts are inviting and uncommon in the financial advisor community. They are also easy and fun to produce, so you are more likely to be a consistent sharer. This bodes well for top-of-mind-awareness.

3. More Referrals Than Ever Before; From Clients, Prospects, & COIs

Have you ever considered why you don’t get more referrals? Is it because you sound like every other advisor? Clients and COIs want to be proud to refer you – it makes them look good to their network. Make them proud, start your advisor podcast.

4. Significantly Increases Your Search Engine Results With Original Content

I wouldn’t bank on search engine results filling your pipeline, but it’s well worth noting that the best search engine rankings come from organic content delivered in varied media. After 12-18 months of producing original content, you’ll start becoming a search engine force locally. Don’t forget to define your meta-info when posting to your podcast blog.

5. Daily Expansion Of Your Digital Network – Even While You Sleep

When someone “likes” or “shares” your content online it’s huge – it immediately shows’ up on your 1st-degree network’s feed/page. Remember the old Faberge Shampoo commercial? And they told two friends, and so on, and so on. Do your self a favor, search for “best times to share social updates” to see when most of your connections are paying attention and on what channels. That will boost your chances of network expansion.

6. Enhances Focus On What You Do Best & How You Create Value

When you start producing content, it becomes a broad focus. You can’t help but be challenged to find new topics; challenges clients need to know more about. It not only drives your podcasts but you become acutely aware when you are surfing the Internet of having conversations with investors and peers. Some of the most inspiring podcasts may come to you from entirely different industries. One of my advisor clients listens to personal productivity podcasts and gets lots of great ideas for his podcasts. It’s also a very good idea to focus on lists. People love lists. You should know too. It’s an easier way to develop content for you then writing concepts and paragraphs.

7. Attracts Clients Who You Enjoy Working With Most

Podcasts make it easier for your target audience to “get” you. They can experience your personality, your style, and your professionalism all in a matter of minutes. It’s a fantastic way to get to know you. Ideally, your advisor podcast will attract people who you enjoy working with because they get you and better understand your value having listened to you.

8. Positions You As The Trusted Expert (Advisor)

Most advisors don’t have their own advisor podcast. It helps you stand out, and when you speak, it positions you as an expert – a trusted advisor. The more in tune you podcast is with your audience, the better. The more you share and speak to your own ideas the better.  Your value will resonate with your audience.

9. Significantly Reduces Your Marketing Costs & Increases ROI

Podcasting can be inexpensive. Promoting it takes some time, but that can easily be handled in house. There are free podcast blog tools. Your only potential larger cost is getting your graphics right – don’t cheap out on this – it will really separate you from a lot of peer financial podcasters.

10. It’s Fun.

The sad truth is that most podcasts fail, or “podfade” before they reach double figures. In fact, episode 7 is often the dreaded number many a series reaches before it’s abandoned and forgotten.

Starting your own podcast can be daunting and challenging, but it doesn’t need to be so complicated and frustrating that you don’t enjoy it and you give up. Any big job is easy when you break it down into lots of little jobs, and if you get off on the right footing with your podcast, then it’ll be a lot easier to keep going in the long run.


These 10 steps to launching your first 10 episodes are geared towards helping you through the uncharted waters of those first few months.
Let’s start with the single most important part of your show:

1. Your Topic

First and foremost, your topic needs to be the right one for you. You could follow all the other steps in this article to the letter, but if you’re podcasting on the wrong topic, then you’ll struggle to make it to episode 10.

How do you know which topic is “right” before you’ve even recorded an episode? Well, is it on a subject that you often find yourself talking about on a daily basis? Is it a topic that never bores you? One that you never feel you need a break from?

Imagine you’d actually launched your podcast a year ago. Visualise yourself browsing your show in a podcast app, scrolling through the episodes. What would those episodes be? How many can you come up with off the top of your head?  If you struggle to think of more than a handful, then that might be a little warning that you’ve not quite found the right topic. However, if you’re reeling off more potential episodes than you could possibly record, then you’ve struck oil.

2. Set Targets

Do you assure yourself that you’re going to get round to launching your podcast once you have more time, or once you just learn a little more about this or that?

That’s classic procrastination symptoms. If you don’t set yourself some targets or deadlines, then days turn into weeks, weeks turn into months, and a year later you realize you’ve still not launched. 

Write a basic plan in a Word Doc or Evernote, and try to get something done each week that brings you closer to launching. It might look a little like...

1. Week 1 - Write down 10 potential episode titles
2. Week 2 - Research and order my microphone
3. Week 3 - Record first episode (even if you end up re-recording it!)

The key here is to feel a sense of progression and accomplishment as you move forward, step by step. You can aim small with each target – in fact, the more achievable, the better.

You’ll begin to pick up momentum and soon, working on your podcast will be part of your routine.

3. Sustainability

Be honest with yourself. Decide how much time you can dedicate to working on your podcast. It’ll save you a lot of trouble later on. 
There's no point setting out to produce an hour-long, highly polished, documentary-style show every week if you don't have the time to actually make it.

Remember, there's a bit more to creating a podcast episode than simply hitting record. The process behind your average episode looks something like...

• Planning & Research
• Scripting
• Setting Up
• Recording
• Editing & Production
• Show notes & Written Data
• Uploading & Publishing
• Promotion

The consensus in podcasting is that you can multiply your finished episode’s length by four, and that'll be roughly how long the entire process takes. 

For example, a 15min weekly show would need an hour per week to manage. A 30min show would need 2 hours, a 1-hour show would need 4 hours, and so on.

Make sure you can find the time to deliver the type of episodes you have planned for your podcast. If not, adjust things accordingly.

4. Defend Your Time

Once you've identified the amount of time you think you'll need to run a sustainable podcast, you need to block out that time each week and defend it with your life.

Let's say you're going with the weekly episode of approximately 15mins, so you want an hour a week to work on your show. 

It's better to have that hour marked in your diary or calendar on the same day and time each week, rather than just trying to find the time whenever you can. 

Obviously, that might be easier said than done depending on home life, work patterns, etc. But consistency in putting your show together will lead to consistency in getting it out there, and that's how you'll grow an audience. 

If you can get everything done in one focused hour, you'll feel better about the rest of the week. You won't be running around chasing your tail trying to find a moment to write up your show notes and do some editing on the fly. 

Having this time available every single week might mean saying no to others at times.

That can be difficult at first, but if you let people know your schedule in advance, they'll gradually come to understand that you're not around at this time and begin work on it. 

5. Creating Good Recording Conditions

You don't need a recording studio to record a podcast. But creating good recording conditions can save you a lot of time in the long run. So what do I mean by "good" recording conditions? 

• Somewhere that you're unlikely to be disturbed
• Somewhere with no/minimal background noise
• Somewhere with no/minimal reverb

Preventing disturbances and distractions means you can record your podcast without being interrupted or sidetracked. That also cuts down on editing time too.

Save on production time spent cleaning up background noise and reducing the echo on your voice - record your audio in a quiet environment. Avoid hard surfaces that'll have your voice bouncing all over the room.

6. The Easy Set-up

Few people have the luxury of having a permanent recording space for their podcast, where they can leave their equipment set up and ready to start recording at any given notice.

If you're lucky enough to have such a space, then this step might not be so relevant for you.

If you're in the vast majority, however, it's important to place as few obstacles to recording an episode in your way as possible.

Having a mic in a boom arm, plugged into a mixer, running into a recorder, is a great setup. But you don't need all that to record a podcast.

Consider the time you'd take to set everything up, then take it all down again and put it away. Imagine you used that time on your actual content instead?  You can plug a USB mic into your computer and have it ready to record in a matter of seconds, and in my opinion, this is absolutely the way to go if you're just starting out.

You get some great sounding USB mics too, so you don't have to sacrifice sound quality here. My personal favorite is the Samson Q2U.

Alternatively, you can even use your smartphone to record. There are some great mic choices out there for phones too nowadays, like the Rode SmartLav +, for example.

7. Minimum Effective Editing

When you first learn how to edit audio, and realize you can run through your entire episode cutting little bits out, it's natural to start over-editing.  If you take out every little fluff, every `um` and `ah`, then you can make yourself sound like a really polished, professional presenter.

However, in most cases, it's just going to sound a bit unnatural and over-edited. This can actually be far more jarring for some listeners than hearing a few ums and ahs.

You'll also never really feel the need to improve your presentation skills because you can just rely on editing to fix everything later on. This makes editing a crutch, rather than a tool to further enhance your show.  On top of that, it's going to take you ages to write every episode in this manner, and this comes back to what we said about making your podcast sustainable.

8. Become a Magpie

Not literally, don't worry. This is more to do with the way you gather your content and episode topics. 

Your listeners will always be more engaged and tuned in to what you're saying when you're telling a story.

This doesn't mean you need to start your episodes with "once upon a time," but instead of reeling off hard facts and information, try to relate things back to your own experiences. How something might have worked (or not worked) for you in the past, how you learned something, or why you think something is a good idea.

Of course, it doesn't necessarily need to be you at the center of each story. You can use the examples of historical figures or famous people - athletes, musicians, artists - doing something that demonstrates a certain point.

Keep a note of any interactions, experiences, or anecdotes from your everyday life too. You can use these to make certain points or to show something in a kind of metaphorical way.

Being a magpie just means you're constantly on the lookout for little bits and pieces that you might be able to use in your episodes. Taking this approach can really help you from getting to the stage where you've no idea what you're going to talk about in the next episode.

9. No Feedback? Don't Be Discouraged

Once you've launched your podcast, it becomes a bit of a habit to constantly check your download stats.

As you see your numbers gradually increase, you begin to eagerly anticipate just one of those listeners getting in touch with you.

And yet, despite your calls to get in touch at the end of each episode, your inbox remains empty.

There are two things to keep in mind here; the first is that this is entirely reasonable, and it takes most new podcasters months and months before they'll hear a thing from anyone who's listening.

You've got to remember that you're starting from scratch, and to build an audience is a slow burner. You need to be prepared to play the long game.

A few listeners will mean to get in touch, but people are usually out and about while listening, and not typically in a position to write to you.

Just keep mentioning it at the end of the show, persevere, and you'll gradually start to get feedback, comments, and questions from your audience.

And when you do get those first few emails, actually take the time to get to know those listeners. In a few years time, you might be getting a lot more emails, and you won't have the time to have more in-depth chats with people who get in touch, so enjoy it while you can.

10. Don't Be Afraid to Change Things

If you're a presenter on the TV or radio, you've got very little creative freedom. Strict time limits and several layers of management are just two of the things that are going to dictate everything you ever do there.

With your own podcast though, you're the boss. It's entirely up to you how you do things, and you don't need to get it wrapped up in five minutes as you're about to head to the news and weather.

Consistency is important in the long run, and your listeners will come to expect certain things from the show, regarding the format, and length.
But in the early days, you shouldn't feel obliged to stick to anything if you feel it isn't working, or if you think of a better way of doing something.

You might change your intro music, or get rid of it altogether. You might switch from a 20min monologue to an hour long interview format. Don't be afraid to change and try things.

Gradually you'll begin to find your stride and settle on a format and approximate length that you're entirely comfortable with.
You're not banned from making changes further down the line either. Some podcasters have totally reworked their shows after 100 or even 500 episodes.

Just be sure to check in with your audience when you're making any changes, even if you're still in the "no feedback" zone we talked about earlier. Giving the audience a platform to have their say will be appreciated though - even if they don't actually take you up on your offer.

It's a good idea every now and then to survey your audience and ask for their feedback, comments, and suggestions. You don't necessarily have to act on anything that comes up in these studies, but it's good to get a measure for what your listeners are thinking. If you're both happy with the podcast, then it's only going to go from strength to strength.

Reaching 10 Episodes 

We’ve talked about setting targets, and 10 episodes is a great benchmark to aim for when you’re starting out.

The key is that you don’t fall over the finishing line thinking “well, that was a slog,” but instead, you feel ready to go on and make your next 100 episodes. And if you don’t, run back through this list and find out where you feel things didn’t work out. 

You can always start again. Some podcasters start 4-5 shows before they finally find the right one for them.

Thanks for taking the time to read through this article, and before you head off to do something else, just remember to set that one target that you want to have done in the next 7 days.

Once you do that, you’ve edged that little bit closer to putting out your first 10 episodes.

While it’s true that you can create a basic podcast episode using something as simple as an app on your smartphone, your audience will appreciate a more sophisticated approach.

Luckily, there are lots of great tools to help take your podcast to the next level. There are tools to help you edit your audio, share episodes on social media, and troubleshoot your RSS feed.

Here are 13 of the best podcasting tools to help you improve your podcast:

1. Notion: Note taking and collaboration

Notion gives you an online, collaborative workspace that unites your tasks and notes in one place. Now you know that your entire team has one central location to brainstorm episode topics, draft your scripts, and jot down notes during interviews.

2. Calendly: Scheduling with co-hosts and guests

Use Calendly to schedule podcast interviews, with no need to engage in back-and-forth emails with your co-hosts and guests. Just setup a calendar with your availability and share it with your guests to find a perfect time to record. It also uses time zone detection so that you can easily coordinate with guests in other time zones.

3. Ringr: Record the best audio quality for online interviews

Sometimes scheduling will prevent you and your guests from being in the same location when it comes time to record the podcast. With Ringr you can record an interview with anyone on Earth, and the audio will sound like you're in the same room.
When it's time to record your podcast, each participant connects to Ringr using their phone or computer. Once you've finished recording, Ringr will automatically synchronize the tracks of each person to give you the highest quality recording possible.

4. Acoustic Panels: Improved recording quality

Maintaining excellent sound quality is of the utmost importance when you are podcasting. However, recording podcasts out of your home office or recording studio can be difficult if there are problems with the room’s acoustics.

You can avoid annoying echoes and unwanted reverb by installing these wedges in your recording space. Your listeners will thank you!

5. Facebook Live & Periscope: Broadcast your recording sessions live

Lots of podcasters connect with their audience with live broadcasting sessions. It allows your most enthusiastic fans to listen to your podcast as you're recording it—even parts you might edit out later. Some podcasts will make this a special perk for Patreon supporters, but it's also a good way to reach new listeners.

The two best tools are Facebook Live and Periscope. If you have larger following on Facebook, then use Facebook Live, if your listeners are on Twitter then consider using Periscope. Once listeners are tuning in you can ask them questions during your recording process to get feedback as you're recording.

6. Audacity: The best podcast editing tool 

Audacity is a popular, open-source audio application that runs on Windows, Macs and Linux systems. It can record audio feeds from your microphone or mixing board, but you can also import audio files like the ones produced by Ringr.

It the preferred audio editing software for most podcasters because it offers pro level tools and is completely free. If you're just starting out, you can check out our Audacity Tutorial that includes the most common techniques for podcasters.

7. SpeakPipe: Record listener comments to use during your podcast

Engaging your audience, and getting feedback from your listeners, should be one of your highest priorities. One tool you can use to record your audience is SpeakPipe.
Your listeners record a voice message on your website using SpeakPipe. They can also leave you their contact information so you can contact them if you want to follow up on their comments. You can also solicit your listeners for questions that you can answer during your podcast.

8. Google Voice Typing: Transcribe your podcast for show notes and blog posts

After you've recorded and edited your podcast, you'll want to transcribe the audio for show notes and blog posts. Since Google doesn't transcribe your audio (yet), you'll want to have a blog post to accompany each episode. This way new listeners can find you through Google and start listening to the show.

One cheap way to do this is to use Google Voice Typing. Just open a Google Docs document, click Tools > Voice Typing. Now click the microphone, and start playing back your episode in Audacity. Google Voice Typing will start transcribing your episode in real time. Once the transcription has finished, you can make any corrections before putting together show notes and a blog post.

If you'd like a more hands-off approach, check out Transcribe. They are a U.S. based team that will transcribe your entire podcast for really reasonable prices.

9. Buffer & Edgar: Spead the word on social media

Frequent social media posts can let your listeners know about upcoming events and help them spread the word about episodes they loved.

Buffer makes it much easier to post frequent social media updates; just fill up your queue each week to keep posting new content. They even have a free plan for you to get started.

Edgar is a bit more expensive, but it comes with some extra features. You can load in thousands of pieces of content and Edgar will keep sharing content automatically. Load in all of your episodes to get your older content in front of your new fans!

10. Podbase & Feed Validator: Troubleshoot your RSS feed

Whether you're building your RSS feed yourself, or if your podcast hosting service generates it for you automatically, these are great tools to have in your podcasting toolkit. With Podba.se and Feed Validator you can quickly spot RSS feed issues that could get your podcast kicked out of iTunes or worse.

Feed Validator is our favorite tool, but Podba.se is a simpler tool for podcasters that might be building their feed themselves.

11. Campaign Monitor: Keep in touch with your podcast listeners

Convert ordinary listeners into die-hard fans with customized email campaigns for marketing and outreach. Just add an email signup form to your website to collect your listeners' information. Over 200,000 businesses use Campaign Monitor, and we've used it for the past 11 years to build Buzzsprout.

One feature that is useful for podcasters is the ability to A/B test email subject lines. Write a few different titles for a recent episode and see which title your listeners click on more. Then you can edit your podcast episode name to the catchier title.

12. Coffee: A podcaster's best friend 

If you're not worn out after brainstorming ideas, writing a script, recording an episode, and editing your podcast to perfection, then you're ahead for 99% of podcasters.

For the rest of us, there's coffee to help us through the process. Having a fresh pot of coffee on hand can help keep you focused when you're working on a schedule to publish each episode.

When it comes to communicating about something you’re passionate about, there’s nothing like the ease and convenience of podcasting. Each of these podcasting tools will help you take your podcast to the next level. That way you can start booking even better podcast guests and better connecting with your podcast audience.

13.  Pexels & Canva: Create some awesome podcast artwork

They say you should never judge a book by its cover, but that doesn't stop people from judging podcasts by their cover art. That's why you'll want to create some awesome podcast artwork for your show.
You can start with Pexels to search for beautiful royalty free images. Then you can use Canva to edit that picture, add your podcast title, and create some unique podcast artwork.

Do you know a tool that we missed with this list? Let us know in the comments below!