Why a podcast?
Show notes:
This is the Help Me Retire Podcast… with your host… Mike Brown… Senior Wealth Advisor with Raymond James Financial Services… and head of Brown Family Wealth Advisors…
Mike is the best-selling author of Your Way to True Wealth: How to Make It Happen, Make It Last, and Make It Matter…
Mike and his team have been helping clients pursue their dreams of financial independence for the past 30 years… and in the Help Me Retire Podcast… he’ll share his best ideas with you…
And now… here’s Mike…
Wherever you are in pursuit of True Wealth…
Building wealth…
Seriously considering retirement… planning transition…
No longer working… trying to make money last… and make it matter…
We’re going to have something for you here on the Help Me Retire podcast…
Weekly ideas in our free e-letter: Wealth and Wisdom
Web site: brownfamilywealthadvisors.com or brownfwa.com…
Look under Blog tab for back issues of Wealth and Wisdom…
We record the educational webinars we put on for our clients… you’ll find those recordings there also…
Brown Family Wealth Advisors is also on Facebook and LinkedIn…
We’ve got lots of ways to help you retire…
In the brief time we’ll spend together today… I’m going to try to answer a question you might have…
It’s the question a lot of our clients asked when we told them we were launching a podcast…
And that question is… why are you doing a podcast?
Fair question… and an important one… especially if you’re sitting there right now wondering if you want to listen to it… or… if you find it worthwhile… to come back for more episodes in the future…
So let’s get into it…
First off… whether this is the first podcast you’ve ever listened to… or the tenth one you’ve listened to this week… we should all acknowledge how pervasive podcasting has become… in a really short span of time…
People apparently really like this medium of communication… and money… seems to be one of the most popular topics…
According to podcastindex.org… as of October 2023… there were 4-and-a-quarter million podcasts registered around the world…
There are more than two-and-a-half million podcasts on Apple alone…
Now, that doesn’t mean they’re all active anymore…
In fact… the percentage of active podcasts… the ones being produced… and distributed… and listened to by somebody… actually dropped from 59-percent at the end of 2020… to just 17-percent in October of 2023… about 5 out of every 6 podcasts ever created… no longer active…
But that’s still hundreds of thousands of active podcasts swirling around the internet right now… just waiting for you to find them…
And people ARE listening to them…
According to Edison Research…
64-million Americans have listened to a podcast at least once… that’s about 183-million people…
Get this… 18-percent of Americans… listen to a podcast… EVERY DAY…
And here’s what I really find interesting…
In mid-2023… it was revealed that… for the first time ever… on-demand audio… which includes podcasts… had leap-frogged linear audio… such as radio…
That means there are more people now listening to streaming audio… just as you are right now… than are listening to the radio these days…
And that brings up a very good point… and one of the reasons we decided to launch a podcast…
If you’re listening to this podcast… there’s a really good chance that you’ve heard me on KMOX Radio…
I started hosting the KMOX Money Show 30-years ago… and I’m still on KMOX as a guest from time to time…
Most of the clients we work with today… originally heard me on the radio…
They might have come to one of our seminars…
Or they knew someone else who was already a client…
Over those 30 years… I met thousands of those Money Show listeners… and hundreds of them started working with us as their financial advisor over the years…
But the reality is… whether we like it or not… and we just talked about this… people are finding and moving toward new ways of getting information… podcasts among them… also blogs… Facebook and LinkedIn posts…
And by the way… I also have a weekly blog… and we post information on Facebook and LinkedIn on a regular basis…
So, it would appear that podcasts are here to stay… at least as long as anything else is likely to…
And here’s where I think they might end up being a better way to communicate financial information with listeners than AM radio…
First… podcasts are on-demand… meaning you can listen anytime you want… for as long as you want… as many times as you want…
If you’re thinking about retiring this year… or anytime soon… and you’ve heard I give good advice on this subject… you no longer have to tune into the radio on Sunday afternoons for the Money Show… only to find that it’s been pre-empted for a baseball or a football game…
And that happened more often than not…
Instead… if you like this podcast… we can send you an email… every time we release a new episode…
That email will tell you what I’ll be talking about in that episode… and you’ll be able to decide… before taking the time to listen… whether it’s something that applies to you…
That way… I’ll always be there when you need me from now on… giving you specific information and advice on topics that relate to you and your situation…
And that’s the second thing that’s better about podcasts… they’re searchable… meaning if there’s a particular financial question you’re trying to find an answer to… you can google my name and the topic you’re interested in… and you might find I’ve discussed it in a podcast episode…
We’re looking forward to the day when we have enough of our own episodes available online… that you can use the Help Me Retire podcast as a comprehensive… searchable… resource for ideas and advice…
Finally… and you’ve probably noticed this by now… unlike AM radio… (and incidentally, a lot of other financial podcasts)… there are no commercials… on this podcast… and there never will be…
A little more on that… in just a moment…
So, in sum… that’s why I think podcasts will give us a better way to serve our listeners… and our clients… than the radio show…
I hope there will always be a place for AM radio… I still love it…
Did you know I had my own radio show when I was 15-years old? I was a small-town… radio dee-jay… and it was one of the best jobs I ever had…
So the nostalgic part of me hopes AM radio never goes away… and KMOX in particular…
But the logical part of me realizes that I can communicate more directly… easily… and more frequently through a different medium…
And that’s another reason we’re doing this…
When we started to think about launching a podcast about helping people retire… I started doing some research…
I’ve been listening to a lot of financial podcasts… and I discovered some shortcomings I want to share with you…
First off… anybody can host a podcast… just as anyone can write a blog… or post something on Instagram…
The podcast world… just like most of the internet… is still the Wild, Wild West… and the sheriff is nowhere to be found… in most cases there is no sheriff…
Second… a lot of times… I get the feeling that WHO is listening… isn’t nearly as important as HOW MANY people are listening…
I mean… are they real people… with real concerns… and real questions… or just clicks that somebody adds up at the end of the week?
I don’t care about clicks… or eyeballs… or ears… or whatever… I want to know that if you’re listening… and you need information and advice about making what will probably be the biggest financial decision you’ll ever face… retirement… that you get the answers you need…
Next… I also noticed that a lot of financial podcasts have paid sponsors… and if I’m listening… and looking for unbiased information… I want to know…
How much are these sponsors paying to be part of the program?
How much do they influence what’s said on the podcast?
In fact… who is this podcast for exactly? The person who’s listening… or the company that’s paying to get in front of those listeners?
And what about the hosts… the people handing out all this financial advice?
Don’t get me wrong… I think a lot of podcasts hosts have good intentions… and when it comes to personal finance and investing… some of them even give the impression what they’re talking about…
But there are some things I’d want to know if I were you… for example…
How many years has this host been dispensing financial advice?
What are their qualifications?
Do they work with actual clients?
Do they act as fiduciaries… which requires them to place the needs of those clients before anything else?
And what advice did they give these clients… say… during the financial crisis of 2007-08… when stock prices got cut in half?
I’m not sure of the average age of a financial podcast host these days… but I’m guessing that in 2008… many of them were in grade school or junior high…
The next time you listen to a financial advice podcast… I think you have a right to ask…
Just who is this person giving me advice?
How do they get paid?
And who… do they ultimately answer to?
So here’s what you need to know if you’re going to spend any time listening to this podcast…
I’ve been licensed as an investment professional since 1990…
A C-F-P… Certified Financial Planner professional… since 1992…
You can see all my qualifications and experience… along with the rest of my team… on our website… brownfwa.com…
Or you can look us up directly on the regulatory website… brokercheck.com…
Our compensation comes from the clients we work with…
I work with a five-person team of professionals… four of us are directly related…
It’s a family business… and as corny as it may sound… we try to make our clients feel like they’re a part of our extended family…
The Help Me Retire podcast does not accept sponsors… it’s a public service to our clients… and anyone else looking for information… insight… and qualified advice… all designed simply to help them make smarter decisions about retirement…
This podcast will have something for you… regardless of where you are in that process…
Whether you’re just starting out… knowing you’ve got to save and invest… and create wealth… if you ever want to reach the point where you no longer have to work for money…
Or maybe you’re at the other end of the spectrum… you’re retired…
And you’re looking for ways to increase your income without increasing your risk…
Searching for advice on when to file for Social Security benefits… how to pay the rising cost of healthcare… or creating an estate to leave your loved ones…
Or it’s possible that you’re somewhere in between…
You’re getting ready to make that scary transition into retirement…
Going from working for money… to letting money work for you…
From making your wealth grow… to making it last…
And going from worrying about money… to enjoying money…
… or as we like to say… making the rest of your life… the best of your life…
I know who you are… I’ve been advising people like you for most of my life…
My family and I know where to find the answers you’re looking for… and the wisdom you’ve been seeking…
And now… we’ve got a great new way to share all of it with you…
Thanks for listening… and I look forward to talking with you again real soon…
Securities offered through Raymond James Financial Services, Inc., member FINRA/SIPC.
Investment advisory services are offered through Raymond James Financial Services Advisors, Inc. Brown Family Wealth Advisors is not a registered broker/dealer and is independent of Raymond James Financial Services.
Any opinions are those of Mike Brown and Brown Family Wealth Advisors and not necessarily those of Raymond James. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and is not a recommendation. There is no guarantee that these statements or opinions will prove to be correct. Investing involves risk, and you may incur a profit or a loss regardless of the strategy selected. Prior to making an investment decision, please consult with your financial advisor about your individual situation.
CFP Board owns the CFP®, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™, CFP® (with plaque design) in the U.S.
