Miguel Gomez didn’t have grand aspirations for his Spanish-language podcast, "Dinero en Español,” when it launched in 2014. But sometimes things don't go according to expectations.
Gomez, 38, is a certified financial planner with Lauterbach Financial Advisors in El Paso, Texas, and his bilingual practice serves a number of immigrant clients who came from Mexico decades ago and now run successful businesses in the U.S.
Gomez himself came to the U.S. from Mexico, and his own business journey is unfolding with his growing wealth management practice comprising roughly 40 households with assets under management of about $49 million. He joined Lauterbach in 2009 as a marketing consultant, and he eventually transitioned into his financial advisor role.
Regarding his podcast, it’s a moonlighting venture separate from his day job. But it has taken on a life of its own while giving him to a wider audience than he ever expected to reach.
Gomez said the podcast aims to provide basic financial education to people who aren’t particularly knowledgeable about finances and investing. By and large, these aren’t folks typically served by a financial planning outfit such as Lauterbach, a fee-only firm with about $430 million in assets under management, according to its most recent Form ADV. As such, Gomez said, he has never viewed the podcast as a prospecting tool to grow his customer base.
“I’m not trying to get new clients from the podcast,” Gomez explained. “I do it for the fun of it and to help people. And people seem to like it, and that makes me happy.”
Evidently, a lot of people seem to like "Dinero en Español." According to Chartable, a podcast analytics service, Gomez’s podcast has been downloaded in 38 countries. The U.S. is the largest audience, and given that it’s broadcast in Spanish it’s no surprise the next 10 biggest markets are Spanish-speaking lands. Mexico is the second-largest market, and the others span Central and South America, along with Puerto Rico and Spain.
Most of the top 20 are Spanish-speaking countries, but after that the roster get a little bizarre. Like, for example, Poland. Japan, China and Israel also make the list. Granted, the download numbers from those latter nations are small. But still, their inclusion seems rather incongruous.
“It’s weird, I can’t explain it,” Gomez said almost sheepishly. “Quite frankly, I find that to be amazing.”
At last check today, the podcast platform Spreaker said Gomez’s podcast has 400,636 total downloads. That’s 591 more than the prior day. The podcast has the feel of a momentum stock that’s growing by the sheer force of forward movement.
“I’ve been doing it for six years, and it took me four years to get to 100,000 listeners, another year to get to 200,000 and then another year to get to 400,000,” Gomez said. “It grew the most in 2020.”
Now early in its seventh year, the podcast’s global reach seems to bemuse Gomez.
“I have people from all over Latin America,” he remarked. “I had one person from Colombia thanking me profusely about what she’s learning in the podcast. I had one guy from Dallas who called me out of the blue asking what he should do with his money, which literally was sitting under his fish tank.
“The podcast talks about things that people care about and are thinking about,” Gomez continued. “It seems the more people who listen to you the more people discover you, as listeners recommend you to friends.”