The Four Horsemen of The Apocalypse (myself, Andy Hart, Carl Widger, and Alan Smith) launched The Real Adviser Podcast (TRAP) in October of last year.
At the time, we had no real idea of what the reaction could be or how we would measure the show's success (or not). Now, 27 episodes in and counting, we can reflect and take stock of the journey.
And so far, it’s has been fantastic. We recently broke the 50,000 download mark (and are near 60,000 at the time of writing), which is staggering, given that we’re a niche offering that goes out every other week. It’s not giving Joe Rogan sleepless nights, but that’s a success for us.
Filling a gap in the financial services media landscape
Why is the show popular? Self-analysis was never my strong suit. My instinct tells me the four of us recognised a genuine, unique gap in the financial services media landscape: content produced by advisers for advisers.
There was, and remains, nothing like TRAP. The fact that we all own our businesses affords us a degree of latitude perhaps only available to some advisers: TRAP is very loosey-goosey. We’re all opinionated and unafraid to challenge one another in a recording.
But we’re also close friends. Many of the reviews for TRAP mention how it’s like listening to four buddies in a pub, chewing the financial services fat and spitting out the tough stuff.
Too many podcasts are anodyne. We’re many things, but bland we’re not. We all see the world from different viewpoints: Andy and I run small lifestyle businesses, using tech to the maximum. Alan and Carl have bigger firms. This means that we can bring perspectives to an audience that’s likewise varied; there would be little value in four people from vast corporations doing a financial services adviser podcast when the target market is almost entirely micro businesses and one-man bands.
Stubborn buggers with decent egos
What else has helped? We turn up and do the work. 95% of life is about just turning up. We haven’t missed a recording yet. Every two weeks, another pile of TRAP slides into the world, come hell or high water.
On a family skiing holiday in France, Alan? Tough – we’re recording. Trapped in Sicily, Nick, by Mount Etna erupting? Tough – we’re recording.
We ensure the audio quality is decent: again, why do a show and make it hard on the listener with substandard audio? Too many financial services podcasts might have decent content, but sound naff. Likewise, we ensure we look presentable (the show also goes out on YouTube, and that medium in its own right has over 12,500 views).
This drive to deliver and show our work is why we also have (relatively) successful businesses. We’re stubborn buggers with decent egos. We don’t want to give up, and we won’t. Again, too many podcasts give up after a few episodes or are that irregular to lose a connection with the audience. If you’re going to do something, do it properly. It doesn’t have to be perfect (for example, we rarely edit the shows at all, and there are moments of overtalking and the occasional F-bomb) but we work hard to make sure it’s good enough.
The final secret is our audience, our beloved TRAPists. These loons help shape the show as we answer their questions and read out their reviews (good and bad). We floated the idea of a live show (god help us) at or around Episode 50 in the summer of 2024. The response to this idea has been fantastic!
Too many podcasts scream into the void and never acknowledge their audience. We embrace them because we are them.
So take a listen if you haven’t already and get involved – we’re nothing without you.