This page is to help compliance departments and officers better understand:

• What a podcast is and isn’t (if you’re unfamiliar with).
• What our systems entails, along with compliance protocols we have with Clients and Compliance Officers.
• What we can and cannot control with the tools we use to produce, host and distribute podcast content.
• How we set expectations with our Clients (your advisors).

What is a Podcast?

A podcast is simply an audio file. It can be recorded live (streamed), or for future distribution and sharing. We record for future distribution. We do NOT record live. Last year, 70 million Americans listened to a podcast. There are ~1,500,000 active podcasts. We manage over 50 financial podcasts – and this number is about to explode as advisors learn to marketing in a new reality – “Content marketing is the only marketing left.” – Seth Godin, 2008

Our System & Protocols

All of our podcast offerings can fit neatly into your compliance review systems, and we never publish anything without compliance approval. We produce 150+ podcasts every month. On average, less than 1% of our podcasts require compliance editing.

• Create a verified transcript for compliance filing and submission
• Add customized audio/text disclosures for each podcast episode, as needed
• Facilitate podcast topic outlines for compliance approval, as needed
• Co-host 80+% of our podcasts and identify non-compliant statements during recording then correct on the spot
• Create a summary of the podcast episode
• If needed, edit audio and remove any clips not approved by compliance
• For each episode, we also create an MP4 video with a static image and publish it to YouTube, the second largest search engine in the world (unless otherwise directed).

Podcast Distribution

We publish and distribute podcast episode on a podcast channel.

We use Blubrry.net and/or Backtracks. Blubrry is an open channel that primarily hosts podcasts. They have a community of podcasts and podcast listeners. They provide us with hosting, analytics and other tools to organize and make our podcast easy to distribute. They allow comments but we can turn those comments off in the settings panel. Backtracks is a blind host. They only host, provide analytics, they do not have a community nor to the host episodes on a public server. They simply allow our clients to grab an embed code then publish their podcast episodes on their business website. This becomes the only place this episode resides which offers the client full SEO value.

We also distribute podcast episodes through podcast communities. This is called syndication.

We set up podcast syndication to the following podcast communities. Comments can be turned on/off, and we can opt out of specific community syndication

• Apple Podcasts
• Spotify
• iHeart Radio
• Tunein
• Google/Android Podcasts
• Stitcher

Here is a list of broker-dealers and companies we currently work with:

• BMO
• Commonwealth Financial Network
• Guardian
• HighTower
• Investment Planning Counsel
• Lincoln Financial
• Mass Mutual
• Northern Trust
• Quadrus Investment Services
• RBC
• Raymond James
• Royal Alliance
• Thrivent Advisor Network
• United Planners
• Voya Financial Advisors
• and hopefully your organization real soon!

Our Podcasting & Influence Accelerator System Expectations

This is not a lead generation tool. It’s a relationship building system using a communication and digital marketing strategy.

We are about helping advisors create and distribute their real expertise, not expertise they borrow from content libraries. We do not hard sell or have overbearing calls-to-action. We offer opportunities to build engaged listeners and then work to earn their respect. We help scale credibility. We ignite relationships and build them the right way. Our system takes 12-24 months to take full traction and consistently attract ideal prospects and centers-of-influence. In the short term, it inspires referrals from clients and COIs, and it speeds up the sales cycle due to the undeniable credibility boost a podcast brings.