RetireMentorship 4.0

I launched the RetireMentorship Podcast in January 2021. Since then, I’ve published episodes nearly every week and expanded the platform to other mediums. But after three and a half years, it’s time to make a change. Introducing RetireMentorship 4.0.

The Mission of RetireMentorship

I started RetireMentorship to communicate important principles and reminders to my clients and a greater audience. Its purpose is to drive its three-part mission:

1. To Increase your Knowledge of retirement, tax, and financial planning.
2. To Deepen your Belief in financial planning and wise investment behavior.
3. To Inspire you to Act on your financial plan and achieve your dreams.

That mission has stayed the same for three and a half years.

Knowledge is power. You can’t act rightly or achieve efficiently without knowing what to do and how to do it. But if knowledge were enough, we’d all be millionaires with six-pack abs.

We must act on that knowledge, incorporate those strategies into our lives, and execute the money-making and tax-saving opportunities we learn about. I want to inspire that action. I personally am inspired by passionate preaching on a topic. RetireMentorship may get too “preachy” for some, but it’s how I’m inspired, so it will continue to be how I try to inspire others.

The missing link between knowledge and action is belief. We do not act on what we know; we act on what we believe deep down. Repetition is the key to transforming knowledge into belief, so while we may get repetitive over time, it’s on purpose and has a purpose.

The History of RetireMentorship

RetireMentorship 1.0

RetireMentorship started as a podcast and blog in January of 2021.

Back then, I did everything myself. I built the website, wrote the content, recorded the podcast, did the (limited) editing), and published it to the platforms. As my firm, La Crosse Financial Planning grew, I was able to hire help to support the backend. Now, I create the content, but thankfully, other people do the pre- and publishing work.

I published 3D Retirement Income in the spring of 2022, which allowed us to supplement the podcast and create a free offering. You can still get that book for free by becoming a RetireMember.

RetireMentorship 2.0

In the fall of 2022, we launched RetireMembership, giving additional access and content to those who wanted to join the community for free. We launched a weekly email with a simple sketch and a short memo. This became very popular among some, and I get better feedback from the short emails than I do from the long podcasts.

We also began videorecording me recording the podcast audio and posting it on YouTube. To this point, we haven’t done much with it other than record and post.

We also created a series of four interactive workshops with a workbook to follow. They are deep-dive hour-long workshops on:

• Investing Before & After Retirement
• Maximizing Social Security
• Reducing Taxes in Retirement
• Estate Planning Essentials

We’ve received tremendous feedback from this content, which pushed us to want to produce even more.

RetireMentorship 3.0

Not everyone wants to get more emails, and many of us already have too much digital content. That inspired us to repackage our weekly emails as RetireMentorship Magazine in the spring of 2023. Each quarter, we send out a magazine containing the best of the sketches and memos we email weekly. It usually contains a bit of original content as well.

The vast majority of magazines contain 50-70% ads. We remain committed to keeping RetireMentorship Magazine ad-free (other than one “ad” for La Crosse Financial Planning). The magazine gives folks something tangible to read and a new medium for driving our mission home.

RetireMembership also pivoted in its offering. By joining RetireMembership, you receive:

• 3D Retirement Income in hardcover, paperback, eReader, or audio.
• The quarterly RetireMentorship Magazine.
• A weekly Sketch & Memo email.

This content supplements the main RetireMentorship episodes, which premiere each week in podcast, video, and blog formats. It is also absolutely 100% free.

RetireMentorship 4.0

Now comes our latest change, which I’m calling RetireMentorship 4.0.

The Problem

La Crosse Financial Planning has continued to grow at rapid rates. We’re hiring more folks to help with the ever-increasing family of clients we are helping. People are drawn to our comprehensive approach, philosophies, and strategies. As I get pulled in more directions, I find the quality of what we publish is suffering. If you follow the podcast, you’ll notice that lately, we’ve been reposting episodes or publishing appearances I had on other podcasts. To maintain a weekly publishing cadence, we’d dropped quality to maintain quantity.

We don’t want to do that.

I am committed to the weekly email. I get better feedback than on the podcast, and I’m committed to those who have joined to produce that content. Plus, short-form ~800-word emails are easier to produce consistently than long-form podcasts and videos.

However, again, not everyone wants more emails. Many would simply miss many of the emails as they get lost in the slew of junk mail we get. And I have many loyal podcast followers and clients who tune in regularly. I am a big audio consumer. I listen to podcasts and audiobooks daily and dislike email.

We have found the solution to maintain our multiple media approach to quality content that fits each person according to their preferences. That is RetireMentorship 4.0.

The New Cadence

Starting in July 2024, we are shifting to a new publishing cadence. RetireMentorship, our flagship public podcast, video, and blog, will pivot from the weekly publishing that we have done for three and a half years to monthly. A new long-form podcast, video, and blog will be published on the third Thursday of each month. This is the episode for July; the next one will be published in August.

This will allow us to focus on high-quality content instead of high-quantity content.

RetireMembership Podcast

We’re announcing today the launch of our RetireMembership Podcast. This weekly podcast will be for RetireMembers only and will be the weekly sketch and memo email in podcast form. Members will get a link to set up the podcast in Apple Podcasts or YouTube Music, and then weekly episodes will automatically appear in your podcast app, just like any other podcast—no need to find the email from me in your 6,385 unread emails.

This will allow podcast listeners to keep getting weekly content from us. Perhaps some of you have enjoyed the weekly email but don’t consistently read it because of issues with the email medium. This will ensure you always have a chance to listen in while driving or doing chores and, as always, to stay the course.

Flagship RetireMentorship Upgrades

We will be publishing our public RetireMentorship episodes monthly. While the weekly membership memo will be in and podcast and email form only, our public episodes will have a high-quality blog, podcast, and video.

Speaking of higher quality, the YouTube channel will now feature episodes in glorious 4K resolution. The videos will also feature chapter makers, more graphics and visuals, and be more engaging overall. I’ll be able to teach and explain concepts that are difficult to explain over email and audio.

We are also excited to announce:

The RetireMentorship Vodcast

All episodes going forward (and some going backward) will now also be available in video format right in your podcast player. This will allow you to seamlessly switch between audio and video on your mobile or desktop podcast app.

A lot of the content is suited for audio. It’s mostly me monologuing. Again, I love audiobooks, podcasts, and sermons, so folks monologuing is my jam. I don’t want to sit in front of a screen to hear it; I want to listen while I’m on the go, and that’s the beauty of podcasts.

But in the past, I’ve had graphics that I’ve discussed and awkwardly said, “If you’re listening, you can go to the blog or find this episode on YouTube to see what I’m talking about.” Now, you can seamlessly switch to vodcast to see the visual, and then put the phone back in your pocket for audio-only podcasting and go about your day.

We’re excited to bring this feature to you.

The RetireMentorship Line-Up

The entire line-up of content now looks like this:

• A weekly member email or podcast delivered to your email or podcast app.
• A monthly public blog and vodcast available anywhere podcasts are published.
• A quarterly physical magazine shipped right to your door.
• Books, Workshops, Flowcharts, and more produced at random intervals.

That’s a lot of content to increase your knowledge, build your belief, and inspire you to act and stay the course.

Let us know what you think. If you’re a client, email me your thoughts. If you’re not-yet a client, email us at Questions@RetireMentorship.com.

We’re excited to bring you better content in better ways. We’ll see all of you RetireMembers on Tuesday and the rest on the Third Thursday of each month. Cheers.

This article is educational only and is not intended to be investment, legal, or tax advice or recommendations, whether direct or incidental. Again, this is not investment advice. Consult your financial, tax, and legal professionals for specific advice related to your specific situation. Never take investment advice from someone who doesn’t know you and your specific situation. All opinions expressed in this article are those of the people expressing them. Any performance referenced is historical and is no guarantee of future results. All indices are unmanaged and may not be directly invested in.