“How to Create a Bingeable Podcast Through Consistency” with Ryan Inman of the Financial Residency Podcast
As part of my series of interviews about “5 things you need to know to create a bingeable podcast”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Ryan Inman.
Awarded as one of Investopedia’s Top 100 Financial Advisors in the US, Ryan is a financial advisor who works exclusively with physicians all across the country. He’s grown his practice from the ground up and has a thriving podcast to thank for it. His podcast, Financial Residency, has hit over 500k downloads in just over 2 years and is ranked in the top 100 of investing podcasts in Apple Podcasts. His spin-off podcast, Money Meets Medicine, just launched with co-host The Physician Philosopher and has been wildly successful ranking in the top 40 in investing and top 100 in all of the business podcasts in Apple Podcasts.
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Can you tell us the “backstory” about why or how you got started as a podcaster?
I started out podcasting because I am an avid listener of podcasts. My wife is a physician and most of my friends are physicians, so I got asked a lot of the same financial questions. The podcast basically allowed me to help them without having to answer the same questions over and over. If it grew bigger, great. I never dreamed it would grow as much as it has.
Can you share a story about the most interesting thing that has happened to you since you started podcasting?
The things that blow my mind include when people recognize me without having met them. When I start talking to someone and they remember things from the podcast that I don’t even remember is pretty cool. I actually have fans. I never thought I would have that. I’ve been invited to speak at conferences, residency programs, and awarded as a top 100 financial advisor by Investopedia because they found I was helping so many people through the podcast.
Can you share a story about the biggest or funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
My biggest mistake was taking a month and a half off a year into the podcast for personal reasons. We had just moved, we have small kids, my business had an influx of clients, so I had a tough time pinning down a moment to record. During this time, I called the transition back in a new season. It was a mistake. I should have continued to show consistency. But since then, we’ve been consistent, week in and week out.
How long have you been podcasting and how many shows have you aired?
We’re going on 170 shows in 2.5 years.
What are the main takeaways or lessons you want your listeners to walk away with?
The biggest lesson I want my listeners to walk away with is that they don’t have to know it all right away. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve come across clients who want to have a no blemish financial history. The thing is, there’s no such thing. We’ve all started somewhere, got smart, and turned things around at some point in our lives. It’s OK to know you need to change something… but then, you’ve got to actually change something.
Check out the full interview in Tracy Hazzard’s Authority Magazine article about Ryan Inman!
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Podcaster Influencer, Ryan Inman of the Financial Residency Podcast shares the best ways to:
1) Book Great Guests. Find the place where the guest is most active. If they’re on social media, send a direct message on Twitter. If they’re not active on social at all, find their email. Go where they’re likely to check. One of my guests with the largest audiences, who I was excited to book, I connected with on Instagram direct message — on a platform we don’t have a huge following on. It worked out really well.
2) Increase Listeners.Keep producing high-quality content, be consistent, never miss a scheduled time. Think about your release days as having coffee with a friend. If you release shows every Monday, and you don’t go for coffee, you stood them up. That’s how your listeners feel. They’ll find someone else who won’t treat them that way.
3) Produce in a Professional Way. If you don’t enjoy editing your own show, hire an editor. Bad sound quality is bad, it’s distracting, and it won’t help your podcast grow. Hire that aspect out if don’t enjoy it, so you can continue making great content. I quickly found after editing my first episode that it took way too much time. I don’t truly like it. I hired an editor and now I get to focus on making the content as best as I can.
4) Encourage Engagement. Start a FB group for listeners of the show. Have that be a call to action on your podcast to join your community. And when you have a community, actually engage with members inside of it. Get creative by bringing questions from the community to your shows to demonstrate that you are paying attention to their questions. They’ll feel as if the group is bringing value to them. The way I encouraged engagement was by going on other podcasts with audiences and target demographics similar to mine. When you go on podcasts, go prepared with your best stuff.
5) Monetize Your Show. Highlight your own business in a non-sleazy way (if you have a service-based business). A podcast is the best way for people to get to know, like, and trust you. In a similar way, you can have the same customers/listeners sponsor the show. A good friend of mine, who happens to be married to a doctor, is a mortgage officer for a large bank. He specializes in physician mortgage loans, so it was a no brainer to sponsor my show where physicians listen to my content.
What makes your podcast binge-listenable? What do you think makes your podcast unique from the others in your category? What do you think is special about you as a host, your guests, or the content itself?
Check out the full interview in Tracy Hazzard’s Authority Magazine article about Ryan Inman!
