In this episode of Craft on Tap, Stephen Beach and Faustin Weber discuss the full lifecycle of a podcast or video show for financial advisors, from the tech setup to distribution tactics that build an audience. They cover what most firms skip over: the work that happens before and after you hit record.
👇 Watch the full discussion below:
Co-Founder Stephen Beach & Strategist Faustin Weber discuss podcasts & videos for financial advisors.
Craft on Tap Ep 26 Podcast Takeaways & Summary
Key Takeaways:
- Start with a clear goal. Before buying a mic or choosing a platform, choose your audience. A client-service show and a prospect-facing show require completely different distribution strategies.
- Get on video. A solid setup, a webcam like the Insta 360 Link 2, a quality mic like the Fifine or Samson Q9U, basic lighting, and Descript for recording, runs about $400 all in. That gear gives you everything you need to make your show ready for creation and then distribution.
- The recording is only 10-20% of the effort. Most of the value comes from what happens after: pulling 3-4 short clips per episode and pushing them across LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube Shorts over a two to three-week window. One recording session becomes weeks of content.
- Build a dedicated podcast page on your website. As the library grows, clients and prospects need a place to browse it. A clean page with thumbnails, episode summaries, and a subscription form builds credibility and gives your email list somewhere to land.
- Name episodes for SEO, not cleverness. Titles should include the actual terms your audience would type into YouTube, Spotify, or Google. "Retirement" beats a clever play on words every time.
- Find your "Walmart". Collaborating with creators who already reach your target audience, whether as a guest on their podcast or hosting them on yours, can drive more subscriber growth in a single episode than months of organic posting.
- Get on a curated list. Find out who publishes "best of" podcast lists in your niche, build a relationship with those writers over time, and get on their radar. One placement can spike downloads overnight. It's one of the most effective moves available once a show has some momentum.
Podcast Summary: How to Market Your Podcast (And Turn It Into a Content Engine)
Recording a podcast episode is only half the job. What's missing? The full tactical picture of what it takes to maximize your podcast's impact. From setting goals and choosing the right tools to video production, YouTube optimization, social distribution, website setup, email strategy, and growing your audience through collaborations, Craft Impact has these podcast and video marketing tips to share based on our experience.
Start With a North Star Goal
Before worrying about clips, titles, or platforms, you need to be clear on why you're doing the podcast. Is it directed at prospects within a specific niche? Is it meant to serve your existing clients with ongoing education and market updates?
The tactics you prioritize will differ significantly depending on the answer. A firm focused on client service might invest more in a polished podcast webpage so they can easily link to it from email newsletters. A firm trying to generate awareness from new prospects will spend far more energy on short-form video clips distributed across social channels.
One client Craft Impact worked with launched a podcast with a clear goal: provide high-level, ongoing education to supplement what their advisory team was already doing in meetings. They answered the questions clients were bringing to the table. That clarity made execution much easier. Whatever your goal is, having it defined as a North Star keeps the effort from sprawling in too many directions.
Video Is Non-Negotiable, and the Right Tools Help
For advisors who are doing audio-only podcasts, Stephen and Faustin are direct: get on video. The benefits go far beyond the episode itself. Video gives you clips you can distribute, embeds you can place on your website, and a face-to-face presence that builds trust in a way audio or text can't replicate.
For tools, they recommend Descript as the best recording and editing platform they've tested for video, audio quality, transcription, and clipping. For cameras, advisors don't need to go high-end. A quality webcam like the Insta 360 Link 2 (around $200) can get close to DSLR results.
Pair it with a couple of inexpensive rings or studio lights from Amazon, and the production value improves dramatically. For those who want to go further, AI tools like Claude or Gemini can generate charts and visuals from a transcript, which adds a professional layer to both the video and any social or blog content that follows.
Podcast Tech and Tools Links:
Recording & Editing
Descript
Audio/Microphone
Samson Q9U ($150)
Samson Mic Stand ($22)
Video/Webcam - DSLR
Insta360 Link 2 ($200)
Content Topic Strategy: Think Like Your Client, Not Like a Marketer
The best episode topics come from the questions advisors are already hearing. Marcus Sheridan's framework from the book They Ask, You Answer applies directly: if a client asks it repeatedly, it belongs in your content calendar. For prospect-facing podcasts, Faustin recommends looking at what high-performing advisors are doing on YouTube — channels like Root Financial or Streamline Financial — to see how they position topics and structure thumbnails. Reddit is another underrated research tool, particularly the r/richpeoplepf subreddit, which attracts more affluent individuals asking sophisticated financial questions around net worth, real estate, and investment strategy.
Seasonality is also worth considering. Aligning podcast topics with what your advisory team is discussing in annual meetings or around major financial planning moments (like tax season) creates a coherent content experience for clients across every touchpoint.
YouTube: Don't Skip It
YouTube is still a top two or three search engine, and it's increasingly being pulled into AI-generated responses from tools like ChatGPT. Publishing full podcast episodes on YouTube builds long-term discoverability that compounds over time. Craft Impact regularly sees episodes from 6, 12, or even 18 months ago continuing to generate views.
Two YouTube-specific tactics matter. First, front-load the hook. Viewers who discover your show for the first time will drop off quickly if there's no immediate reason to stay. The first 10 to 30 seconds need to pull them in.
One technique is to pull a compelling 10–15-second clip from the middle of the episode and place it at the very beginning, before the intro plays. Second, titles need to be search-friendly. Don't get clever with wordplay. If the topic is Social Security claiming strategies, put "Social Security" in the title. Keyword research tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush can help, but the simplest filter is asking: what would my client call this topic?
Thumbnails also help with discovery, both when someone stumbles across your channel for the first time and when your episode library is laid out in a feed or playlist. Alternating between thumbnails featuring the host's face and title-based graphics keeps the visual experience varied and engaging.
Descriptions should include a short summary and timestamped chapters. AI handles this well from a transcript, though some cleanup may be needed if you've added a teaser clip to the front of the video.
Your Website Needs a Podcast Home
As the episode library grows, it needs a dedicated home on the firm's website. A well-built podcast page creates a browsable archive that prospects can explore and that clients can be pointed to from email. Each episode should have its own sub-page with the embedded YouTube video, a clear episode title, and a summary of the key takeaways. Transcripts are harder to format well, so Craft Impact now favors structured summaries with headers instead. These are easier to produce and better optimized for SEO. Internal links to related episodes help build authority across the site over time.
That page should also include an email sign-up so visitors can subscribe for new episode updates. It's a low-friction way to convert a casual listener into someone on your list.
Social Distribution: One Episode, Weeks of Content
A single 30–60 minute recording session can fuel two to four weeks of social content across multiple platforms. The approach: pull short clips from the episode, write captions that convey the educational value of the clip itself (rather than just pushing people to watch the full episode, since external links suppress reach), and publish them across YouTube Shorts, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn company pages, and the advisor's personal LinkedIn profile.
The piggybacking strategy between company and personal LinkedIn accounts is particularly effective. Company accounts build institutional presence; personal accounts generate higher organic engagement. Using both in tandem amplifies reach in a way neither can achieve alone. Over a three to six month editorial calendar, overlapping episode releases and clip windows create what Faustin describes as a vibrant content engine. Your expertise shows up across channels consistently, without recording every day.
The Waffle House Strategy: Grow Faster Through Collaborations
One of the fastest ways to build subscribers is to appear on someone else's podcast and invite them onto yours. Faustin calls this the "Waffle House strategy." Waffle House plants locations next to Walmarts because they share the same audience. The same logic applies to podcast cross-promotion: find another creator who reaches a similar type of prospect, build the relationship, and create an episode that's genuinely valuable enough that they want to promote it to their audience. The subscriber growth from one strong collaboration can match what organic growth takes six to twelve months to produce.
This maps closely to how many advisors already work with COIs like accountants, estate attorneys, and others. Applying that same relationship-building mindset to content creators in adjacent spaces is the natural extension.
Final Thoughts: Start, Then Build
The parting message is simple: don't wait until everything is perfect. The hardest part is getting started. The tactics in this episode can all be layered on over time. Whether you handle this yourself, work with an agency, or use a podcast production company, the goal is to give you enough context to ask the right questions and set the right expectations. With over 55% of Americans listening to podcasts regularly and averaging seven hours a week, the opportunity is real. The question is whether your show is built to take advantage of it.
Shameless Plug for Craft on Tap
Whether you're trying to launch a podcast, get more out of one you've already started, or figure out how to turn recordings into a real content engine, this episode is a practical starting point. Don't wait until everything is perfect. Start, iterate, and build from there.
For more insights on growing your RIA through digital marketing, listen to Craft on Tap. Available now, wherever you find your podcasts.
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