The podcast for Financial Planning and Analysis.

Having been in FP&A (financial planning and analysis throughout my career) I know FP&A as a profession can sometimes feel misunderstood. Those that do it often do not have many places to learn more about best practices and those facing the same challenges in the field. Together with our corporate sponsor and producer, Datarails, we wanted a podcast that brought a diverse range of FP&A professionals onto the show each week to reveal the honest truth about the challenges and opportunities in our industry. We have interviewed FP&A professionals at big companies such as Heinz and Walmart, alongside startups, tech companies, real estate companies and tackled raw issues such as burnout and depression in FP&A, to Gen Z challenges in FP&A, and the fight between accountants vs FP&A (no they are not exactly the same thing!).
 

I try to listen to a few different podcasts, typically a few times a month. Hosting FP&A Today has given me a chance to connect with some of the most diverse and interesting minds in finance and every episode I have some incredible takeaways. I hope our audience also gets that same sensation. For me it is also fun, and on a business note, I wanted to help build my business brand and establish the authority for my business. The first episode was launched on May 10th, 2023 and we are still growing strong.

In terms of lessons, it took about two months from when we agreed to do a podcast. We had a few issues with recording one of the guests and the beginning took a little longer than we thought to get started but thankfully it has now got into more of a pleasant and straightforward routine. One good piece of advice for others: we recorded four guests before we released the first episode to make sure we had enough in case something went wrong so we would not miss a week.
 

I am lucky to have a great sponsor in Datarails, an FP&A software for Excel users. They believe in bringing value to every episode first and foremost and help me find the best guests and the most diverse topics for our audience in a bid to create a powerful platform for the FP&A community. They pay for the production and audio video company which edits the show and recording and hosting platform, and also do the show notes. That still leaves a lot on me to find guests, research their careers properly, and make time for interviews with guests across the world (thankfully I am up early so I can normally interact with most people in different time zones). I also write a newsletter about the show every week which I post on LinkedIn. I would guess between all of us we spend about 10 hours a week on each weekly episode.

We release an episode every week. We have an audio/video company that does the production (Youtube video and audio) , the sponsor does the show notes and I find all the guests and interview the guests and produce a weekly newsletter which has ~32,000 subscribers.

It is part of my business and has opened up a lot of doors for me for my wider business. I am constantly getting positive feedback from business owners and leaders who have organically found the podcast and have got in touch with me.
 

I gain so much from podcasting. It is such an honor to have a chance to have so many fascinating people on the show. Without doubt I will learn something new from every guest and these learnings help make me better at serving my clients,at least two-three new things with every guest that I can apply to my other services and training, as well as making great connections and friends and having a constant relationship with our audience.

Datarails started the podcast and I agreed to host it. This month (May 2023) we will have over 132,000 downloads in total and we are still growing double digits.
 

We use Podbean, Zencastr, Streamyard and a firm for audio and video editing (Saw and Sine) who are fantastic and a great sounding board for ideas and problem-solving. We prepare research questions in advance and do a video call with guests.
 

We do not have a good breakdown of listener acquisition sources but a lot comes from LinkedIn where FP&A professionals are hungry for quality content for improving their careers. There is also a strong audience on YouTube.
 

Expect it to take more time to get good at interviewing and being efficient at preparing for shows than you plan. Spend a little extra for good equipment.
 

www.datarails.com, TheFPandAGuy.com, linkedin: Paul Barnhurst | LinkedIn!