Announcing Yet Another Value Podcast

Late last night someone on Twitter semi-jokingly said there were a bunch of good fintwit podcasts out there recently, and I should throw some more fuel on the fire.

Well, be careful what you wish for, because I couldn’t get the idea out of my head. So I’m happy to announce I’m launching the Yet Another Value Podcast (YAVP).

What will the Yet Another Value Podcast look (well, sound) like? Basically, if I see someone post an investment thesis that I’m interested in or knowledgeable on, I’m going to do a bunch of work on that space / sector and see if I can get that person on the podcast to talk about the investment idea. I’ve already got a few people in mind for the first few podcasts, which I’m hoping to record and release in the next week or so.

You might be wondering: why is Andrew making this post so early? I mean, not only has he not recorded a podcast, he hasn’t even got on iTunes / Spotify yet!

Simple. Two reasons:

  1. I was challenged on Twitter, and everyone knows the rules of the internet state that a challenge must immediately be respond to with overwhelming force.
  2. The reason for the new podcast is to talk to people with interesting investment ideas. If you have one, or there’s someone with an interesting investment idea you’d think would maek for a good podcast, let me know (probably by sliding into my DMs)

One more thing before I sign off: why go with this type of podcast (an investment idea focused interview podcast) versus something else?

In general, finance podcasting is tough. You can go one of three routes:

  1. You can dive deep into specific investment ideas. While this is the most relevant to most investors’ day jobs, it’s also the worst type of podcast for building on audience because specific investment ideas have a naturally limited audience (only people who are interested in a specific company or possibly finding out something new about a company) and these podcasts tend to be a little drier.
  2. You can interview other people about broad financial topics. These tend to be the highest rated podcasts. These can appeal to everyone because they discuss broad topics, they gain the widest distribution the quickest because the people you interview tend to share with their network, etc. While it does require a bit of prep work on the podcastor’s end (spending time booking guests, researching them ahead of the interview, etc.), all in it’s probably the best “bang for your buck” in terms of maximizing your time versus building an audience.
  3. You can just talk about whatever is topical that day. For example, you could have done bank earnings season last week, tech antitrust hearings this week, etc. These are probably the best for letting the hosts personality shine (similar to day time talk shows) and building a relationship with the audience; it’s the approach we went with for the Rangeley Capital podcast (currently on hiatus as there is no chance of commuting currently!). The tough thing about this type of podcast (for me personally) is that it requires a lot of work. Don’t get me wrong; I don’t mind work! But I certainly don’t need more work for no reason. The podcasts were basically a side gig, and I found myself spending 5-10 hours/podcast doing prep work. That’s a lot of time spent prepping when often the subject matter was more “I’m only researching this for something to talk about on the podcast” versus “I’m genuinely interested in this topic or think there’s an investment opportunity here.”

Anyway, I’ve talked to a lot of people who were planning on launching a podcast, and I’ve generally advised them to launch a podcast following the #2 or #3 routes.

Why do I mention this? Because of course I’m launching the Yet Another Value Podcast as a focus into specific investment ideas.

I get this won’t appeal to everyone, and it’s probably not in the best interest of the podcast if the goal was maximizing reach/audience. But it’s what I’m most interested in and what goes along with my general day job. So it’s the only way I see currently to launch a podcast that is actually value add for me personally.

So that’s the announcement. A podcast. I hope you’ll be listening, and I’m excited to launch the first episode soon!