About the Episode
We’re throwing it back to all of our favorite lessons learned and funny moments from season one of Making it Count in this finale episode! Hosts Cristina and Will invite returning guest Valerie Moses and the show’s very own producer Lauren Buys for a behind-the-scenes look at your favorite financial education podcast.
3:25
What Did We Learn this Season?
Episode 1: Retirement Strategies for People Under 40 (12:17 to 13:08)
This was our third recording session together – we recorded the intro, outro and ad breaks first, then had a two-episode recording session that we ended up not using – and it was right before the pandemic really impacted the stock market. So we recorded both the under 40 and over 40 episodes, but weren’t able to release the sequel until recently since the advice wasn’t as relevant in light of the bear market at the time.
Which is why we did what every producer loves – threw out our planned topic schedule to make them more relevant to what was happening in the world. So for the next episode we brought Rob and John back to talk about what was happening in the stock market and how it was impacting people.
Listen to the full episode one here
6:25
Episode 2: Handling Your Investments During a Bear Market (17:22 to 18:55)
This episode was really a turning point in the production of season one. We stopped recording two episodes in one session so that we could be more reactive to “trending” topics. It definitely takes a bit more flexibility as the producer to pull that off, but the results are well worth it.
Listen to the full episode two here
9:35
Episode 4: A Look on the + Side of Life (21:35 to 23:18)
Lauren still has anxiety thinking about the logistics of this episode because Hilary was unable to come into our recording studio. So we tried all different options and software and combination of technology to solve for having a remote guest. And after all that testing and testing and testing, we ended up just putting her on speaker on my phone and putting the phone up to the fourth mic. Problem solved.
Listen to the full episode four here
15:45
Episode 5: Utilizing Your Paycheck Protection Program Loan (17:48 to 19:20)
The paycheck protection program loan episode was the first and only episode that our producer, Lauren, was not in the studio with everyone. She was in the middle of nowhere Florida having a pandemic getaway at a family lake house with her husband.
And it was our first and only episode with three guests! Not only two experts, but an actual member of Addition Financial, which we’ve never had live on an episode before.
Listen to the full episode five here
20:30
Episode 3: Preventing ID Theft & Fraud During a Pandemic (20:00 to 21:23)
This was such a fun episode. We felt like we finally got into a groove of balancing educational information with authentic personality. Will actually cursed in the middle of one of our segments and Cristina didn’t realize it and kept going, but everyone else was looking at Will and Lauren questioning if we should stop. Unfortunately, we had to redo that segment, but we got a kick out of the shock on everyone’s faces and Cristina being totally unaware.
Listen to the full episode three here
25:00
Episode 6: Buying a Home for the First Time (42:47 to 43:34)
Both Kathy and Eric were great guests to have on the show, so personable and knowledgeable. This was the first time we’ve had a guest on the show that actually has their own podcast. Eric produces and stars in “Welcome Home,” which is a deep dive on all things real estate and our listeners should definitely check it out.
And this was the first time Lauren used a tool to help her transcribe the episode to write the blog summaries we share on the Addition Financial blog. The tool slowed down the audio so she could type while it was playing without starting and stopping frequently. Unfortunately, she was laughing so hard at how everyone sounded, that she probably didn’t really save much time.
It was also our longest episode at 48 minutes!
Listen to the full episode six here
30:45
Episode 7: Securing Your Next Set of Car Keys (11:37 to 13:10)
Lauren’s team helps her put together what we call show notes for each episode and really they are just an outline of the segments and questions to help the hosts and guests stay on track. But we do put in short answers to the questions to help prompt the guests in case they blank during the show.
She remembers Kevin coming in with the show notes printed out and he had it all marked up because he had some revisions to the answers her team put together for some of the questions. Obviously Lauren’s team isn’t the expert, so she wasn’t offended, but it just made her appreciate, as Cristina likes to say, what smart friends we have, to bring onto the show.
Listen to the full episode seven here
34:30
Episode 9: A Crash Course on College Finances (18:17 to 19:03)
Our audience doesn’t know this, but we actually recorded an episode on high school financial topics with Valerie and Rich, which we ended up not publishing. Valerie and Rich did a great job, but we realized it was a lot harder to relate to such a young audience. We plan to re-record the episode, but focus on giving the parents tips on teaching financial basics to their children. So keep an eye out for that episode in season two!
Listen to the full episode nine here
37:05
Episode 8: Retirement Strategies for People Over 40 (7:06 to 8:58)
Rob and John were such fun guys to have as guests and we pulled a lot of funny quotes from this episode that we’ll share in our next segment called “Who Said That?!”
Listen to the full episode eight here
42:45
Who Said That?!
Okay, the rules are simple: Lauren will read aloud a quote from one of our past episodes and our hosts will have to guess who said it. Valerie, you’ll be the friend they can phone if they get stuck. How does that sound? So let’s get started!
Quote 1: “I’m more of a Fixer Upper girl. I have to move to Waco so they can redo some fixer upper for me.” –Kathy Michaels
Quote 2: “First off, don’t inject yourself with disinfectant or cleaner.” –Brian Stevens
Quote 3: “If my parents are listening to this, I had a very appropriate amount of fun in college.” –Valerie Moses
Quote 4: “I’ve been working since I was seven years old – my paper route. From there I went to work at the dairy farm from 10 to 13, from there to the apple orchards, I mean we could go on and on, right?” –John Stanton
Quote 5: “I’m a race horse, yes, I’m a majestic race horse, not a flightless bird.” –Cristina
Quote 6: “New car smell is amazing.” –John Langlois
Quote 7: “If I’m going to be dealing with the federal government in any way, I would rather be getting them to forgive my loan than them telling me that I used the money for an illegal purpose… I would rather have to repay money at a low interest rate than get in trouble with the feds.” –Eddie Fernandez
Quote 8: “I can’t hang a picture, honestly.” –Eric Mieles
Quote 9: “It’s funny you talked about polio before, you know the polio vaccine was discovered at my alma mater – Pitt. And they’ve actually come out tentatively with a COVID-19 vaccine as well.” –Rob Mazur
Quote 10: “Google never believes who I am.” –Will
Quote 11: “I’d say that’s pretty accurate – A+!” –Kevin Algeo
Quote 12: “I peaked in college.” –Rich Barbari
56:40
How to Make it Count
If you would like to receive notifications when season two goes live, you can subscribe to Making it Count here. Plus, we will be sending out a short survey to our subscribers to gather their feedback on season one. So be sure to subscribe and have your voice heard!
We’d also like to thank the many people, teams and companies that made season one possible:
- All of our guests from season one, including John Stanton, Rob Mazur, Kevin Schmick, Brian Steven, Hilary Bornstein, Valerie Moses, John de Armas, Eddie Fernandez, Paul Roldán, Kathy Michaels, Eric Mieles, John Langlois, Kevin Algeo, and Rich Barbari.
- The team at the GreenHouse Agency, including our show producer Lauren Buys, show notes copywriter Aimee Parrot, promotions manager Ali Robinson and CEO Caleb Edwards
- The team at Studio 17 for all their hard work editing our episodes
- The team at Addition Financial for their continual support and sponsorship of this podcast
- And, of course, our AMAZING hosts Cristina and Will for their dedication to bringing Making it Count alive!
Posted on Sep 3, 2020
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