Most podcasts on retirement focus on money - I help people plan for the other side of retirement - how you'll invest your time.

I'm Joe Casey, host of The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, and the author of Win the Retirement Game launching on August 9th, 2022. I'm an executive coach who also helps people create meaningful lives after their primary careers. I work with people - who aren’t done yet – to figure out What’s Next? It’s not theoretical for me. I've done it myself, taking early retirement to become a coach 13 years ago after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where I was Senior Vice President & Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking.

My podcast is about designing a new life after you leave the days of full-time work. Most retirement podcasts are about financial planning, which is critical. But a 20 to 30 year retirement requires balanced planning. The financial side is a left-brain thing and the non-financial side is more right-brain oriented. It's wise to bring your brain to retirement. I help people explore how they'll invest their time, which is often overlooked or given short shrift.

I interview top authors and researchers in the field. I also interview interesting retirees on their stories, including a retired astronaut, a top NBA referee who became a Deacon, a former US Senator, a woman who came a documentary filmmaker, and a police chief who's now a writer and artist.

Our listeners are men and women 45+ who know it's not about what you're retiring from, it's what you're retiring to. And they're curious about their new multi-dimensional life can look like.
 

As a marathon runner, and now an injured runner who walks a lot and runs indoors, I've listened to podcasts for years, including Tim Ferris, Arthur Brooks, Michael Lewis and Krista Tippett - On Being. A lot of my podcast listening includes sports, national pods like Bill Simmons and niche ones focusing on NFL, NBA and Boston sports- my hometown teams.

I started the podcast in 2018 to help educate people on the importance of not just planning for the financial side of retirement. We get a lot more from work than a paycheck and when you retire, your identity, status, and how you structure your time are all impacted.

Because most retirement podcasts are financially focused, I saw the need to share some of the emerging research on how to live well in retirement (which is the point of saving and investing all that money in the first place).

Retiring is one of life's most stressful events, but it also opens up a new set of possibilities to explore and pursue. Yet more people orient their planning on how to survive more than on how to thrive.

It took about three months before launching the first episode.
 

I release new episodes every Monday.

Twice a month, on Thursdays, I release a bonus episode - sometimes it's a collection of Best Of snippets on a particular topic, like Fitness or Wellness, and sometimes it's a new conversation with a special guest.

You become efficient at the podcasting process with experience. In my case, I'm helped by outsourcing the editing and post-production.
I self-fund the podcast.
 

We generate about 43,000 downloads a month currently.

We haven't pursued sponsors. We were approached by One Day University and ran a few ads with them for specific episodes.

The podcast is a great source of clients ( I help people design new lives after they retire or retire early).

Because I interview many authors and researchers, it helps me stay current and be a true lifelong learner. Each week. I get to meet and talk with an interesting person and always come away with new insights and ideas.
 

I use a RODE USB mic and I interview guests virtually via Zencastr.

If I'm interviewing an author, I read their latest book and often several others and prepare questions in advance.

We use Your Podcast Editor in Miami for post-production. He is excellent and quite fast.
 

We promote our podcast on Twitter and LinkedIn. Most new listeners are word-of-mouth/ referrals.

We've been featured in a few publications (such as the Wall Street Journal ) and that's given our audience a boost.
 

The key things I've learned in the 5 years I've had a podcast are:

1. Stay focused on your audience - don't over hype things, focus on delivering useful content your audience will value
2. Be consistent - stick to a regular publishing schedule and deliver what you're promising your listeners
3. Pay attention to SEO - attend to the right keywords and SEO best practices in your Show Notes
4. Be selective when people pitch you to come on your podcast. I'm quite selective, but even still, I have a 2 to 1 ratio of regrets versus hits on the pitched guests I've said yes to. My listeners prefer the ones I hunt for and land.
 

On our website: retirementwisdom.com
On Twitter: @RetiremntWisdom
On LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/joecasey21