Executive Summary
The ongoing growth of the Nerd’s Eye View blog has made it possible for us to reinvest more and more into the overall Kitces platform, from the expansion into offering CE credits for CFP, IMCA/IWI, and CPAs, to the launch of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, and more. And as the platform continues to grow, we continue to reinvest more, into both the content and solutions we offer via Kitces.com itself, and the team that supports it. Which this month includes a number of exciting new announcements!
First and foremost, based on your feedback and requests, our popular Kitces & Carl video segments are now being made available as a standalone podcast: Kitces & Carl – Real Talk For Real Financial Advisors. Launching today, the podcast is now available directly on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, and Stitcher, starting with all the prior episodes we’ve already recorded in video format since the beginning of the year (which will be released at 1 per day for the next two weeks), and continuing with new episodes to be released every other week going forward (starting a week from Thursday). We hope you enjoy the content in a convenient audio format!
In addition, we’re excited to announce several new Kitces team members. Jim Koford joined us last fall as an Associate Editor, and is responsible for ensuring that all of our articles post properly and go out via the various email, social media, and RSS channels. And Brian Boyer is joining us as a new Director of Platform, responsible for both re-building the back-end of our Kitces platform as we prepare for the next stage of growth, and making site improvements for all of you – the readers – to make the Nerd’s Eye View and our Members Section easier to read, navigate, and use.
Through the second half of the year and into 2020, we’ll be working on a number of additional new features and enhancements as well, from adjustments to our search functionality and site/category navigation (to make it easier to find articles we’ve already written), more options about how you receive your Nerd’s Eye View blog emails, more audio content options, and overall improvements to the usability and navigation of the Members Section webinars and CE content. For those who are interested in having an even-more-involved role as a “beta tester” for new features rolling out in the future, you can submit your interest to [email protected], and we’ll be in touch as we begin work on some exciting new site features for 2020!
Notwithstanding the incredible growth we’ve already had with the Nerd’s Eye View over the past 11 years, I’m more excited and energized than ever to build the platform further and provide even more to the advisor community. So stay tuned for more announcements, more opportunities for feedback… and if you want to be a part of the Kitces team, more Career Opportunities as we continue to hire in the year(s) to come! ?
Announcing The Kitces & Carl Podcast – Real Talk For Real Financial Advisors
It was last October that Carl Richards first reached out to me with the idea that we build something together. After having done a joint panel session at a BAM Alliance conference several years ago, Carl commented:
“Our underlying core set of values, what we’re trying to accomplish, and what we believe, has 99%+ overlap. But the way we go about it is so different. It’s not right or wrong. It’s just totally different…”
Accordingly, Carl proposed, what if we did a project where we answered advisor questions, like we were simply sitting in a coffee shop, tossing a question back and forth for 15-30 minutes. We can just record the conversation, and release it to the advisor community, sharing our very different perspectives… and see what happens.
And so, in January, “Kitces & Carl” (which was Carl’s proposed name for it!) was born, taking advisor questions and video-recording our discussion of the topic. And as we’ve continued to release episodes every 2-3 weeks, we’ve built a steady audience of advisors, covering topics from talking about the value of financial planning itself, to pricing your financial planning services, whether advisors really need to get involved in social media (or not), and the importance of building resiliency for yourself to handle the stress of being a financial advisor.
In fact, the episodes have proven so popular, that we’ve decided to begin releasing our Kitces & Carl episodes as a podcast as well. Starting with all the prior episodes that we’ve recorded already – which will be released daily over the next two weeks until we’re caught up – and then continuing with one new episode every other week starting next Thursday (July 4th).
The new Kitces & Carl podcast will be available on all the usual podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts (iTunes), Google Play, and Stitcher, and will be available directly via the Nerd’s Eye View blog on Thursdays as well. (Or you can start catching up on the prior episodes now from the podcast player below!)
We hope you enjoy this new addition to the content line-up in podcast format (or if you prefer, you can continue to read it via the blog here, or watch via YouTube, where we’ll continue to release it as well), and let us know if you have any constructive criticism or suggestions (or a question that you’d like us to answer!).
Growing The Kitces Team And Introducing New Team Members
Last year, we celebrated the 10-year anniversary of the launch of the Kitces.com website and the Nerd’s Eye View blog (albeit originally launched and failed in 2008, and then relaunched with success in 2010!). Which has grown dramatically from just that little corner of the internet where I pen my thoughts as a financial planning nerd, into a widely read site by the entire financial advisor industry that has been ranked as the most influential, objective, credible, and useful to advisors of any online site.
Yet with the ongoing growth of this Nerd’s Eye View blog, my vision of what it can become only grows further. Which has necessitated a growing team to support as well. Thus, last year we announced that Dr. Derek Tharp was going deeper with our Kitces Research efforts, and retirement and tax expert Jeff Levine was joining the team as both a writer and speaker.
And since then, our team has only grown further. Last fall, Jim Koford joined us as an Associate Editor, responsible for ensuring all of our Nerd’s Eye View content is posted to the site, and gets out to all of you, the readers, through the various email, social media, and RSS channels.
More recently, Brian Boyer has joined us from Cureo as a new Director of Platform, and will help us both rebuild the back-end of our content platform to handle the next stage of growth, and make ongoing improvements to the user experience for both readers of the blog itself, and subscribers to our premium Members Section as well.
And as Brian helps us build more tools and solutions for the advisor community, we’ll be looking for more feedback from you as well! For any readers who are interested in being part of our Beta users who help to test out new features on the site and give feedback in the future, you can submit your interest directly at [email protected].
In addition, we’ll soon be announcing a new Senior Technical Editor hire joining the team as well. For those who are interested in more future opportunities with the Kitces platform, stay tuned to our Career Opportunities page!
A Glimpse Of What’s Next – New Kitces.com Initiatives Coming Soon
Every year, the Nerd’s Eye View does a Reader Survey for feedback on what you like about the blog, what you don’t like, and new features and capabilities you’d like to see. Prior feedback over the years has shaped everything from the visual design and fonts we use, to the expansion of our Members section to offer CFP, IMCA/IWI, and now CPA continuing education credits, the launch of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, and more.
Based on your feedback to the most recent Reader Survey at the end of last year, we’re targeting a number of new initiatives through the end of 2019 and into 2020, including:
- Adjustments to the Search Functionality and site navigation (including easier navigation of blog categories) to make it easier to find existing articles that you’re looking for (or just to figure out if it’s a topic we’ve ever covered, or not, in the first place!)
- More options about how you receive our Nerd’s Eye View blog emails (e.g., daily content versus just our Friday Weekend Reading) based on your reader type/preferences
- Less video and more audio content options (thus the launch of Kitces & Carl in podcast format!)
- More content on advisor technology, and more tools to help you find and select the right technology for your firm (beyond our already-popular Advisor FinTech map!)
- Improvements to the usability and navigation of the Members Section, for both our webinar content, findability of prior white papers, and accessing and completing CE quizzes
In addition, we’ll be conducting another Reader Survey later this fall, to guide our projects and initiatives for 2020. I hope you’ll take a few minutes to share your ideas and feedback when the time comes!
Notwithstanding the tremendous growth we’ve already had with the Nerd’s Eye View, the success of the platform has only left me even more inspired to reinvest and see what more we can do to benefit the advisor community. Which in turn means we’ll only be doing even more hiring to deepen the capabilities of the team to deliver on those opportunities.
So stay tuned for more announcements through the second half of the year and into 2020 – and to our Career Opportunities page if you’re hoping for a chance to join the team yourself – as we continue to grow the Kitces team, and the content and solutions we provide through the Kitces platform, in an effort to provide even more value to all of you, our readers!
So what do you think? What other changes or features would you like to see on the Nerd’s Eye View to make the site more helpful and useful to you? Please share your thoughts in the comments below!
FYI there’s an 8 minute conversation after the first episode ends on the stitcher feed.
Eek, thanks for the heads-up Jacob! Will investigate ASAP!
– Michael