9 Test Episodes Became 293. The System That Made It Happen (with Sandi Bragar and Cammie Doder)

Table of Contents

1. Quick Answer

2. What You Will Get

3. Why Most Executive Podcasts Get This Wrong

4. Common Mistakes

5. A Simple 5-Step Plan

6. FAQ

7. The Guest Question That Fills a Calendar

8. Why Simple Beats Studio

9. Key Takeaways

10. Follow, Like & Subscribe

Quick Answer

If you want a brand podcast to survive an executive workload, keep the show small and the process simple. Sandi Bragar and Cammie Doder, co-hosts of Money Tales at Aspiriant, planned a series of nine episodes, recorded from a home office, sent guests priming questions instead of holding a pre-interview, and asked each guest at the end of a recording who should come on next. They split the hosting work by strength and published 293 weekly episodes over about six years around demanding day jobs. Start small, protect the conversation, and let a repeatable process carry the show.

What You Will Get

● A five-step process for keeping a weekly podcast going on nights and weekends, taken from two executives who did it for about six years.

● The one question that filled a guest list for a show that once worried about finding its next guest.

● A compliance approach for regulated industries that keeps a show personal instead of sterile.

Why Most Executive Podcasts Get This Wrong

Plenty of executive podcasts start the expensive way. A studio gets booked, a producer gets hired, the questions get scripted, and each guest gets a pre-interview. Then the schedule catches up. The podcast now competes with a job that already fills the week, and the show fades out before it finds its footing.

Sandi Bragar and Cammie Doder went the other direction. Sandi is Chief Client Officer and Partner at Aspiriant, an independent wealth management firm. Cammie is Director of Brand Strategy and Partner there, and she previously served as Chief Marketing Officer. In 2019, Sandi was passing through the office kitchen and told Cammie they should start a podcast. Cammie had just come from a conference on trying new mediums. That conversation became Money Tales, a weekly show built on the idea that money is a taboo topic worth talking about, and it has published 293 episodes.

They Planned Nine Episodes, Not a Franchise

The first decision that kept the show going was a small one. Sandi and Cammie did not commit to a weekly podcast. They planned a series of nine, with the idea of putting it on the shelf afterward and learning from it. Cammie remembers the reaction from Aspiriant's executive committee as "great, go for it." By episode three, the reactions and comments from guests had both hosts blown away. Once the show went live and listener feedback arrived, the nine-episode test became a weekly show. Cammie's husband called it a public service announcement, a show that demonstrated how to have a productive money conversation.

The lesson for busy creators is that a short series is easier to say yes to, easier to finish, and easier to evaluate. If the response is strong, keep going. If it is not, you have nine episodes and a clear answer instead of a half-built show.

They Built a Process Instead of Buying Production

Both hosts describe the early episodes as slower. Cammie sometimes edited recordings at 10 o'clock at night, and Sandi added a financial lesson to the first several episodes that took a lot of time to prepare. Over time they cut what did not earn its keep and templated what did: a booking email with priming questions, time with each guest right before recording, a thank-you email afterward, and a split where Sandi usually drafts each intro and Cammie revises it with her marketing and branding eye.

That process let two executives keep a weekly show going around full-time roles. It also let them produce several episodes at once during quieter stretches and release them slowly through busy ones. If consistency worries you most, read about the podcast mistake that can erase years of work in one day.

Common Mistakes

The first mistake is treating a studio as a requirement. Sandi and Cammie launched during the pandemic and built a home office setup out of necessity. Cammie says she is thankful for that, because a studio would have added expense and time and, in her words, would not have been sustainable. Host Nathan Gwilliam makes the same case to the CEOs he advises: scheduling, traveling to, and returning from a studio more than doubles the time an episode takes.

The second mistake is pre-interviewing guests. Sandi and Cammie tried it a couple of times and found that learning a guest's money story ahead of time made the recording less warm and less authentic. They replaced it with priming questions sent by email, clearly labeled as not a script, so guests start reflecting on their own money journey before the mic is on.

The third mistake is skipping the simplest guest source, which is the guests you already have. Early on, the hosts hired a firm to help find guests. What kept the list full afterward was a single question at the end of each recording: do you know anybody in your network who would make a good guest? For more on how guest connections grow a show, read how podcasting connections and collaborations grow your network globally.

The fourth mistake is overcomplicating the format. In the first several episodes, Sandi added a financial learning segment based on something the guest discussed. It was meant to help the audience, and it took a lot of time. She does not think it added much in the end, because the best practices found their way into the conversation itself.

The fifth mistake is skipping the guest review. Sandi and Cammie give each guest a chance to listen a couple of days before an episode goes live. A few times they picked a story they found beautiful and the guest felt uncomfortable, and the review window let them change course before release.

A Simple 5-Step Plan

1. Commit to a short test series. Plan nine episodes, set a date to review, and decide on a weekly schedule after you see the response.

2. Record from a home office. Confirm you can record from a laptop wherever you are, so a busy week does not break the schedule.

3. Write one booking email. Include priming questions, say plainly that they are not a script, and promise to cut anything a guest regrets sharing.

4. End each recording with a referral question. Ask who else should be on the show, and keep a running list.

5. Share the work with a co-host. Assign duties by strength, agree on a quiet signal for taking the next question, and give each guest a listen-through a couple of days before release.

If you want one place to record, publish, and grow that system without stitching tools together, PodUp gives you a free 30-day trial at PodUp.com.

FAQ

How much time does a weekly brand podcast take once the process is set? Sandi says the early episodes took a lot of time to put together, and over time she and Cammie got more efficient by developing processes. They produced several episodes at once in quiet stretches and released them slowly through busy ones, and some weeks they were barely keeping up. Plan for an uneven rhythm.

Do I need to pre-interview guests? Not by Sandi and Cammie's account. They tried it a couple of times and found the recorded episode came out less warm and less authentic, so they sent priming questions by email instead and spent time with each guest right before recording.

How do you find guests after your own network runs thin? Ask the guests you already have. At the end of a recording, Sandi and Cammie asked who in the guest's network would make a good guest. Referrals came on the spot, and some arrived in an email a year later. Cammie says they ended up with too many potential guests as a result.

Can a podcast work in a regulated industry like wealth management? By their account, yes. Sandi says the goal was to stay light on investment conversation, where the regulatory hurdles are greater, and the hosts kept client guests anonymous. Cammie adds that the team worked with its compliance and tech teams, and that recordings had to be kept on file.

Is it okay to pause a podcast? Money Tales is on hiatus after nearly six years, with a hoped-for return in 2027. Cammie describes the decision as a collective one made with colleagues, and says the break gives the hosts a chance to think about the show's purpose. Sandi says the pause announcement brought a lot of nice messages, and people said they were looking forward to its return.

The Guest Question That Fills a Calendar

Cammie describes guest sourcing as one of the larger problems the show had to solve. The hosts started with Sandi's network, then tipped into Cammie's, and then hired a firm to help find guests.

The step that kept the list full was free. At the end of each recording, once the guest had experienced what Money Tales was about, the hosts asked one question: do you know anybody in your network who would make a good guest? Cammie says they softened it by telling the guest they were trying not to put them on the spot. Many guests answered right away with a name or two. Others emailed a year later after meeting someone who fit.

The result was a steady stream of referrals for a team working nights and weekends, so the hosts vetted each one for fit and tried to respect each person who reached out. For a show that once got nervous about finding its next guest, that is a good problem to have.

Why Simple Beats Studio

Cammie's advice to her past self is to take the pressure off. Someone with podcast experience told her before launch that the first 75 episodes would be rough, she thought he was wrong, and she now says he was right. Sandi's advice to her past self is to keep it simple, and she adds a second piece: stay in the conversation and be curious, because a microphone can make even a confident interviewer panic.

Nathan makes a related point in the episode. He tells corporate CEOs that a studio adds complexity, and that added complexity raises the chance a host quits. The home office, the email template, the skipped pre-interview, the referral question, and the shared duties are the working parts of a system that carried two busy hosts through six years of weekly episodes. For a realistic picture of how a show finds its footing, read 7 lessons on breaking podcasting rules and reaching 40 million downloads.

Sandi also says the show made her braver at asking people about money and more confident in press interviews for the firm. That is the quiet payoff of a simple brand podcast: the show grows the hosts while the hosts grow the show.

Key Takeaways

1. Commit to a short test series before you commit to a weekly schedule.

2. Record from a home office, and make sure you can record from a laptop when you travel.

3. Replace the pre-interview with a priming email so the conversation stays fresh.

4. Ask each guest at the end of the recording who should be on the show next.

5. Give guests a listen-through a couple of days before release so they can flag anything uncomfortable.

6. Cut format segments that add hours without adding much value.

7. In a regulated industry, lead with personal stories instead of advice and partner with your compliance team.

If you want an all-in-one place to create, grow, and monetize your podcast, start your free 30-day trial of PodUp at PodUp.com.

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Nathan Gwilliam: LinkedIn: @NathanGwilliam