The Ultimate Guide to Podcast Promotion: Tasks, Timelines, and Success Strategies

 

Image courtesy Canada’s Podcast/unsplash royalty free

By Philip Bliss

Special to Financial Independence Hub

Launching a podcast is an exciting endeavor, but the real challenge lies in promoting it effectively to build a loyal audience. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll break down the essential tasks, timelines, and strategies to help you successfully promote your podcast.

  1. Pre-Launch Phase (4-6 weeks before launch):

Tasks:

  • Define your target audience: Clearly identify who your podcast is for to tailor your promotional efforts effectively.
  • Craft a compelling trailer: Create a teaser episode or trailer that highlights the value of your podcast and sparks interest.
  • Design eye-catching cover art: Invest time in creating visually appealing podcast cover art that reflects your brand and attracts potential listeners.
  • Develop a content calendar: Plan your initial episodes and create a schedule for consistency.

Timeline:

  • Week 1: Define target audience and create a content calendar.
  • Week 2: Craft a compelling trailer and design cover art.
  • Week 3-4: Set up social media profiles and teaser campaigns.
  1. Launch Phase (Week of launch):

Tasks:

  • Submit to podcast directories: Ensure your podcast is available on major platforms such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts.
  • Utilize a launch strategy: Leverage social media, email newsletters, and your website to create anticipation and drive initial downloads.
  • Encourage listener reviews: Ask friends, family, and early listeners to leave positive reviews to boost credibility.

Timeline:

  • Day 1: Submit to podcast directories and launch teaser campaigns.
  • Week 1: Implement launch strategy on social media and encourage reviews.
  1. Post-Launch Phase (Ongoing):

Tasks:

  • Consistent content creation: Stick to your content calendar to maintain a regular release schedule.
  • Engage with your audience: Respond to listener feedback, comments, and questions on social media and through email.
  • Collaborate with other podcasters: Guest appearances and cross-promotions can expand your reach.
  • Utilize social media: Regularly share engaging content, clips, and updates to keep your audience connected.

Timeline:

  • Ongoing: Stick to your content calendar, engage with the audience, and actively collaborate. Continue Reading…

The retirement landscape in Canada

By Bob Lai, Tawcan

Special to Financial Independence Hub

Recently I wrote about what we’re doing in this bear market condition. Since we’re still in our accumulation phase, we’re following our investment strategy by continuing buying dividend stocks and index ETFs regularly and building up our dividend portfolio.

But what if you’re closer toward retirement or already retired? How do you protect yourself from the bear market so make sure you can sustain your expenses in retirement? What is the ideal retirement portfolio for Canadian? Should someone simply try to aim to build a dividend portfolio and live off the dividends? To answer this complicated question, I thought it’d be best to ask an expert. So I decided to reach out to Dale Roberts to talk about the retirement portfolio for Canadians.

For those who don’t know Dale, he is a former investment advisor and trainer with Tangerine. He now runs Cut The Crap Investing and is a regular contributor to MoneySense.

Please take it away Dale!

Thanks Bob.

The typical retirement is likely a thing of the past. Yours will not be your Mom and Dad’s retirement and it certainly won’t look much like Grandpa’s either. The traditional model of a workplace pension plus Canada CPP (Canada Pension Plan) and Old Age Security payments plus home equity won’t likely get the job done.

In previous generations many would work until age 65 and with life expectancy in the mid to upper 70s, the retirement was short lived, meaning that long-term inflation was not the threat it is today. And those workplace pensions were commonplace. A retiree could sit back knowing those cheques were coming in on a regular basis, and those pension amounts were often adjusted for inflation.

According to Statistics Canada the Life expectancy in Canada has improved considerably. Women’s life expectancy at birth has increased from 60.6 years in 1920–1922 to 83.0 years in 2005–2007, and men’s life expectancy from 58.8 to 78.3 years in the same period—increases of 22.4 years for women and 19.5 for men.

A Canadian male who makes it to age 65 will on average live another 20 years. It’s even longer for women. Many will live to age 90 and beyond. We all assess our own longevity prospects, but it may be prudent to plan for a retirement of 25 to 35 years. If you opt for an early retirement, your portfolio (and any pensions) might have to support you for 40 or 50 years.

A sensible retirement plan will work to make sure that you don’t outlive your money. You will also likely want to pass along wealth to children, grandchildren and charities. Estate planning and leaving a meaningful legacy will be a priority for many Canadians.

The pandemic has made Canadians rethink many areas of their lives. Our own mortality became a concern. For good reasons, during the pandemic more Canadians have sought out meaningful financial advice. They recognize the need for proper insurance, investments that can stand the test of time and a well-thought-out financial plan that ties it all together.

You don’t get a second chance 

It all adds up to greater peace of mind. There is that popular expression from Benjamin Franklin:

If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail

 

When it comes to retirement, that plan is essential. You don’t get a second chance.

Retirement building blocks 

The traditional building blocks of a secure retirement will be insurance, plus cash flow from savings and a well-diversified investment portfolio, plus government and company pensions. Income from investment properties are often in the mix.

Annuities offer the ability to pensionize more of your nest egg. Thanks to product innovation Canadians can add a pension-like component with a revolutionary new offering such as the Longevity Pension Fund from Purpose Investments.

Canadians who might have missed out on a workplace pension can fill that void. It operates like a pension fund with mortality credits. That is, it protects the risk of longevity as plan members who die sooner will top up the retirement of those who live to a very ripe old age.

  • Insurance
  • Cash
  • Pensions, public and workplace
  • Old Age Security (GIS for lower income)
  • Retirement portfolio
  • Annuities and investment pensions
  • Real estate and other
  • Part-time work
  • Inheritance

The retirement portfolio 

Historically, simplicity can work when it comes to building the retirement portfolio. That is to say, a simple balanced portfolio that owns stock market funds and bond market funds will do the trick.

The famous, or infamous 4% rule shows that a 60% stock and 40% bond portfolio can provide a 4% (or slightly more) spend rate that will support a retirement of 30 years or more.

Note: a 4% spend rate suggests that 4% of the total portfolio value can be spent each year, with an increase at the rate of inflation. The 4% rule is more of a rule of thumb to help you figure out how much you need to save and invest to hit your magic retirement number. This video demonstrates why no one really uses the 4% rule.

You’ll find examples of these core balanced portfolios on my ETF portfolio page. You might look to the Balanced Portfolio with More Bonds and the Balanced Growth Portfolio as potential candidates for a core retirement portfolio. There are also the all-in-one asset allocation ETFs.

I would suggest that the traditional balanced portfolio can be improved with a cash allocation and dedication inflation protection. You might consider the Purpose Diversified Real Asset ETF, ticker PRA on the TSX. The cash will help during periods of extended bear markets. In 2022 saw how stocks and bonds can fall together in a rising rate environment.

Given that you might consider for a simple balanced model:

  • 50% stocks
  • 30% bonds
  • 10% cash
  • 10% PRA

But Canadians love their dividends

While a core ETF portfolio might do the trick, most self-directed investors love their dividend stocks and ETFs. That’s more than fine by me.

In fact, building around a core Canadian stock portfolio is likely a superior approach for retirement funding. Thanks to wide moats (lack of competition) and oligopolies, Canada is home to the most generous and retirement-friendly dividends on the planet.

That said, don’t sell yourself short by only living off the Canadian dividends. Total return matters and dividend investors should always consider selling some shares to supplement their dividend income and for tax efficiency purposes.

Tawcan: Can’t agree with you more Dale! Selling some shares later on during your retirement will help with estate planning as well. I’d say living off dividends and not touch your principal early on during your retirement may provide some margin of safety.

Dale: My Canadian core stock portfolio provides a generous and growing (though not guaranteed) income stream and a defensive stance. I call it the Canadian Wide Moat 7. Bob always has listed some top Canadian dividend stocks to consider as well.

To boost the yield you might also consider some Canadian Utilities as bond proxies (i.e. replacements). And certainly, thanks to the defensive telcos, utilities and other defensives, you might go much lighter on any bond allocation.

I recently posted on building the defensive big dividend portfolio for retirement.

I prefer dividend growth stocks for the U.S. allocation. In the post below you’ll find our (for my wife and me) personal stock portfolio, and how the Canadian stocks work with the Canucks. The portfolio offers generous market-beating returns with a more total portfolio defensive stance.

To generate modestly better retirement funding (compared to core balanced index portfolios) we can boost the dividend stream, and hold a greater concentration in defensive stocks.

We’ll find that defensive nature in telcos, pipelines, utilities, healthcare and consumer staples. U.S stocks help fill in those Canadian portfolio holes as we find wonderful healthcare and staples stocks south of the border. The U.S. offers ‘the best companies on the planet’ – my sentiment. And many of those companies are in the technology and tech sectors. It’s a great idea to add growth in retirement, but we do want to make sure that we are defense first.

Tawcan: Yup, since the Canadian market is very financial and energy heavy, investing in U.S. stocks will help with sector diversification.

Dale: On the defensive front, I’d throw in Canadian financials as well – they will offer up those generous, and mostly reliable dividends. And yes, you might also consider international, non North American ETFs. I prefer to mostly get my international diversification by way of the U.S. multinationals.

While not advice, my personal portfolio shows how easy it is to build a simple retirement stock portfolio. As you can see from that above post, we also hold other assets in moderation – including cash, bonds, gold and other commodities plus oil and gas stocks. Continue Reading…

Then and Now on a low-cost ex-Canada ETF: iShares’ XAW

Geographic breakdown of iShares’ XAW ETF

By Mark Seed

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

Welcome to another Then and Now post, a continuation of my series where I revisit some older blogposts and either rip them to shreds (because my thinking has totally changed on such subjects) or I’ll confirm my position on some subjects including some specific stock or ETF investments.

Today’s post is yet another departure from any top-stocks that I/we own.

Here are my thoughts and current postion on low-cost, ex-Canada ETF: XAW. This includes how I might add more of this ETF in 2024! I’ll come back to that. 🙂

You can read about my previous Then and Now posts on certain stocks (good and bad!) at the end of this post.

Then – XAW

Long-time readers of this site will recall I really ramped up my DIY investing journey, around the time of the Great Financial Crisis. I’ve managed this blog and chronicled my/our journey to financial independence ever since ….

Even before that market meltdown, I was transitioning to becoming a DIY investor and My Own Advisor following the tech/dot-com crash that occurred about a decade prior. It was during that crash that I learned a few valuable personal finance lessons:

  1. Nobody cares more about your money than you do/you will. 
  2. The same assets that could make you wealthy could also make you poor. 

What I mean by #2 is you can have too much of a seemingly “good investing thing.” I can’t tell you specifically what stocks will rise or fall in value over time. I don’t know what inflation may or may not be next year. I have no idea what new taxation rules or legislation could be years down the line – although my hunch is taxation will get higher and more complex to navigate!

via GIPHY

Jokes aside, unlike Warren Buffett of late, I believe diversification matters. 

There are simply too many unknowns for me as a DIY investor to go all-in on Apple, let alone all U.S. tech stocks, let alone just the U.S. market.

For fun, I’ve compared the returns of U.S. tech (via QQQ ETF), vs. our top-TSX stocks (via XIU), vs. a popular U.S. international index fund that many experts tout. See below.

The financial future will always be cloudy but hindsight can be a wonderful woulda, coulda, shoulda game…!

Then and Now - XAW pic 2

Sources for charts: Portfolio Visualizer.

I started off my DIY investing journey, and chronicling our path to financial independence, with a focus on buying and holding Canadian and U.S. stocks that pay dividends, although I’ve always had some international assets in our portfolio too. I simply don’t disclose everything I own. Continue Reading…

When is it wise to spend more in Retirement?

Photo courtesy Unsplash and RetireEarlyLifestyle.com

By Billy and Akaisha Kaderli

Special to Financial Independence Hub

Recently, an interesting question was presented to us: How much is Enough?

We posed this same question to ourselves years ago when we were contemplating early retirement. But what about now, three decades later?

4% rule be damned

Years of capital appreciation due to decades of compounding and proper money management has paid handsomely in the growth of our net worth and financial wellbeing. Now, 33 years later, do we still need to be diligent in monitoring our spending and outflows, or is now the time to seize the day and go first class? Eat in trendy restaurants, be seen and show off our wealth?

This is definitely not our style …

Flying under the radar living a bohemian lifestyle is more like us, and we’re still here livin’ the dream.

In fact, some family members and friends consider us “poor” as compared to their consumer-based standards. That’s fine with us. We have not owned a car for years and we tend to live in foreign countries where we can geographically arbitrage value for money spent. We prefer experiencing cultures and cuisine as compared to a shiny new car, club membership and debt payments.

We are just trying to make it to Friday

There are many ways to live a life, and our choice is unique to us. It’s a lifestyle not a vacation and our approach is one that we created based on our personal values and interests.

But back to the question of when we might loosen the purse strings … Should we start living on more – or less – than the US$35,000 that we have done for years?

We now use more private drivers than chicken buses, stay in pricier hotels (not always a better choice), and we’ve set up a stable, semi-permanent home base in Chapala, Mexico.

We donate freely, giving our time and money, helping others less fortunate, as well as teaching people better money management and life skills.

There are needs everywhere and we do our best to contribute. As always, we want results rather than throwing money at a problem to feel good and brag about it.

Checking back in with the 4% rule, we took a look at what that number would be for us today and both of us asked “How would increasing our spending to that amount change our lives?” Granted, it’s not Bill Gates’ level, but how much more can we eat, drink, travel, be merry and give away?

But that’s us.

What about you?

Is it time for you to flip the switch from saving and being frugal for your future – to enjoying a higher standard of living and giving back to the community?

Below are a couple of suggestions which might clarify this question for you.

Know where you are

Life circumstances change.

None of us know our exit date from this planet. As each day passes, we are one day closer to the end of our adventure. But you could check some actuarial tables to see where you stand in general. We are not saying throw caution to the wind and start “X-ing” out days on your calendar. Rather, utilize this bit of information to get a clearer picture of where you might be.

Imagine if you knew your Date of Death. Would that change your spending habits or the way you live?

Other thoughts

Have you or your spouse had an awakening in regards to health? Do you want to open a foundation that produces results and wealth? Begin a new business or leave a particularly handsome legacy for your grandchildren? Continue Reading…

How to deal with uncertainty in Investments and in Life

By Alain Guillot

Special to Financial Independence Hub

“I will invest in the stock market when things calm down,” said my friend Mercedes after the market crashed following the COVID pandemic.

Another friend said something similar after the terrorist attack of 9/11.

The thing is that in the markets and in life, everything is always uncertain.

Even when everything seems calm, there might be a surprise the next hour. And when everything is chaotic, long periods of peace and calm may follow. Between WWI and WWII, there were 20 years and 9 months of peace and prosperity.

After WWII there have been almost 80 years of economic, scientific, and technological improvement.
* Countries like China, India, and Brazil took millions of people out of poverty.
* The information technology changed how business, governments, and people communicate.
* There have been medical breakthroughs for various diseases which have improved global health.

Dealing with uncertainty in the stock market isn’t too difficult. At my age (56), I have seen a few economic cycles. I know that markets go up and markets go down. The best action I can take is to sit on my hands and do nothing.

In our regular life, it’s more challenging. Life also works in cycles, but these cycles can be more difficult to discern, and we don’t always know what to do.

Market cycles

How to deal with uncertainty in Life

These are some tips from our community on how to deal with uncertainty:

Kelly Bron Johnson, IDEA Advisor Supporting Businesses to Create Completely Inclusive Workplace Cultures: I won’t lie – it makes me feel very destabilized. It affects all my planning. For example, right now the teachers are on strike and my kids are home from school. We don’t know how long it will go for. It’s hard to make plans and to work without knowing how long the strike will last. I just try to take one day at a time and one task at a time and keep going. Continue Reading…