After I got back from the Wealth/Stack conference in Scottsdale, AZ last week, I wanted to write a post that focused in on my #1 takeaway from the few days in the desert.
I’ve been doing the weekly Living With Money podcast since January of 2018. We just put out our 87th episode yesterday (listen here). Honestly, my reasons for starting the podcast at first were slightly selfish:
- Being a young advisor, I started the podcast at age 25 to get my own foot in the door of the advisor community.
- I started the podcast to help myself learn as much as I could from some of the best minds in the business.
- I started the podcast to grow my network of peers and establish relationships with folks I admired.
I also had a few goals when I started the podcast:
- Educate the every day person listening as much as possible about useful personal finance/financial planning topics.
- Be consistent and publish one episode every week.
- See consistent growth in the amount of downloads per month.
With how many ridiculously successful financial podcasts there are out there, I knew it’d be difficult to become a MASSIVE podcast, but I figured if I could help even a few people understand their financial lives better – it would be a success.
I’ll admit, there have been times over the last 87 episodes where I wondered if the content I was putting out was being received at all, and if I was having any sort of impact with my work.
When I went to Arizona for Wealth/Stack, I was really looking forward to meeting some of my previous podcast guests in person for the very first time – and it was everything I hoped for! But something else happened down there that sparked the inspiration for this post.
Multiple people who I had never met, or knew of, approached me during the conference and told me how much they loved the work I was doing. They told me how much they loved the podcast, and how they’d even shared episodes with other advisors and clients as well.
Not that I was searching for any sort of validation, but boy did it feel nice to hear things like that from people I had never met before!
If you’re someone creating content, and you’re not sure if anybody is consuming it – KEEP GOING. Keep creating. Keep putting in the work because I guarantee you somebody out there is watching. Somebody out there is listening to your podcast. Somebody out there is reading your blog post. More people than you think appreciate the hard work you’re putting in.
If you’re someone who feels like they can’t get started because their content isn’t “good enough” – POST IT. Don’t let perfect get in the way of good enough. I had no idea what I was doing when I started making videos, podcasts, blogs and I’m STILL learning more about it all every day.
If you’re someone who is nervous to ask others for help or to collaborate on a project – TAKE A LEAP OF FAITH. In the case of FinTwit and the finance community, I can almost guarantee the people you are nervous about talking to are extremely nice, generous, and would love to help you out.
On the note of collaboration, the content KING himself – Justin Castelli – assembled a group of advisors to discuss some topics in the industry. Collaborating with advisors was one of those topics. I was lucky enough to be a part of the conversation, and you can check out what everyone had to say below. The conversation about collaboration starts at 31:40, but the entire conversation is worth watching!
Have you ever seen Ocean’s Eleven?
No, not the original one from 1960. The GOOD one from 2001 with George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, and many more.
Throughout the movie, Andy Garcia’s character Terry Benedict says the same line a few times.
“In my hotel, there’s always somebody watching”
The same thing goes for content creation. On the internet, there’s always someone consuming your work – whether you know it or not. Keep going.