The Free Toaster
Insights and interviews at the intersection of marketing, lending, and fintech. The Bank Marketer’s Podcast.
Episodes
We've all heard the rumors around SEO traffic drying up for publishers. Today I riff on what's going on, why it's happening, and what lenders should be doing about it. This is a supplement to something I recently published on The Free Toaster Newsletter. https://www.thefreetoaster.com/p/the-seo-apocalypse-has-arrived-9812 *****
A word from our sponsor, Spinwheel:
Reduce friction in your lending application wit...
We explore how fintech lenders could revolutionize customer acquisition by partnering with AI-powered finfluencers, alleviating current concentration in affiliate marketplaces.
Key TopicsThe Current Problem: 30-70% of fintech lender volume comes from affiliate marketplaces, creating concentration risk. Lenders spend $4B-$6B annually on affiliate ma...
We sit down with Alana Levine, Chief Revenue Officer at Fintel Connect, to uncover what financial institutions get wrong when launching affiliate marketing programs—and more importantly, how to get it right from day one.
As someone who lives in the trenches and is often the first call when lenders want to activate the affiliate channel, Alana shares h...
We sit down with Kirill Klokov, CEO of Truv, to break down everything lenders need to know about income verification providers.
Vetting Income Verification Vendors
- Why most providers use the same underlyi...
Rich Walker is back! After our first direct mail episode became the most popular episode on the show, we're back for round 2.
The 10 DM Pitfalls We Discuss1. Attribution Nightmares
People get your mail, then go to Credit Karma to respond. Your CFO freaks out about "paying twice" but that's just how the channel...
I sat down with John Henson, a fintech-savvy lawyer who formerly worked at LendingTree (both as an attorney and a general manager). He unpacks the regulatory chaos swirling around lead generation in 2025 — what’s changed, what’s still risky, and how fintech marketers can navigate it without getting burned.
In today's discussion:- The CFPB Rolled Back Rules: Credit card and personal loan lead gen just got a little more breathing...
I explain positive and adverse selection in lending using recruiting as an analogy. If you've ever hired someone, you'll instantly understand why your channels, pricing, and process determine your loan portfolio quality.
Key TakeawaysThe Big Idea: Attracting great borrowers works exactly like hiring great people.
I talk about a surprising case study where a lending product thrived in one affiliate marketplace but completely flopped in another. We explore the key differences between marketplaces that can dramatically impact performance and provide actionable insights for fintech marketers.
Key InsightsMarketers sometimes like to enter new channels gradually, conservatively even. This works in many channels like paid search, social, and direct mail.
But for fintechs, entering new affiliate channels like this can have catastrophic consequences.
In today's Podcast, I share why entering into new affiliate marketplaces "cautiously" can be dangerous for new entrants. As an alternative, I'll walk you through how to play the game in r...
We chat with Colin about how AI is changing marketplaces.
His thesis: “The rise of agentic AI will transform marketplaces from passive aggregators to active facilitators of transactions.”
To learn more, check out Colin’s take on how AI will revolutionize marketplaces: https://www.gardinercolin.com/p/ai-and-marketplaces-agent-led
About Colin Gardiner
Former econo...
We sit with credit card expert Jason Steele about what's happening behind the scenes in the industry. Jason shares how he went from tech work to becoming a respected credit card authority who writes for major publications and runs CardCon, the credit card industry conference.
We discuss:
- The "Coupon Book Problem" - Premium cards are becoming more complex w...
LendAPI lets you create application flows, credit decision engines, and complete lending products through simple drag-and-drop tools—all without hiring engineers or spending millions.
You can build and launch lending products quickly and efficiently, then use a working product to raise venture capital. Even non-financial businesses like boat dealerships are using it to replace clunky Excel-based applicat...
In this episode, I catch up with my old Columbia PhD classmate Guru Sethupathy, founder of FairNow, an AI governance platform for financial services.
About AI Governance:
- Involves three key components:
- Monitoring AI performance, explainability, and bias
- Ensuring compliance with financial regulations
- Establish...
In this episode, we speak with Greg Cox, CEO of Monevo, to discuss their recent acquisition by TransUnion and how they're transforming credit offer distribution.
Greg explains how Monevo serves as a technology layer connecting lenders and publishers, allowing lenders to distribute highly qualified credit offers to third-party websites and aggregators. The platform helps lenders target the right customers across multiple digital ch...
Rich Walker is a 35-year industry vet who’s been responsible for over 10 billion pieces of Direct Mail.
Rich has led direct marketing teams at Capital One, the Winterberry Group, Deluxe Corporation, 2nd Order Solutions, and more recently, Aven.
He also ran his own consulting shop - Pilot Performance Marketing - focused on helping lenders solve Direct Mail.
So we jumped at the opportunity to get his take on how lenders can leverage ...
What is Congruence? Aligning messaging from your ad, to your landing page, to your final conversion steps creates lift in your marketing funnel, reducing your CACs and increasing your customer acquisition volumes. It sounds elementary. Yet many organizations forget to do it.
Today we dig into examples of marketing from Wells Fargo and Discover to illustrate what it means to be Congruent across your marketing funnel.
We chat with Kevin Bennett, a successful entrepreneur who helped grow Caribou to a billion-dollar company. Now, he's back with Further, a platform focused on helping people afford their first homes. Kevin shares important lessons for early-stage founders and gives practical advice for growing a business.
We Discuss:
Product vs. Distribution: Kevin explains why both product development and...
We sit with Tomas Campos, CEO at Spinwheel. Spinwheel’s product caught my attention because affiliate marketers could use their product to reduce the friction in their application processes.
Timestamps:
(00:00) Meet Tomas Campos, CEO of Spinwheel (02:30) Ideal customers and use cases (06:30) Success metrics (12:35) Challenges building the business (15:37) Partnering with lenders (22:41) Uplift from pre-filling application forms...We sit with David Nohe, CEO of FinGoal, to discuss the CFPB’s Rule 1033 on Open Banking and the implications it has for bank marketers.
Timestamps:
(00:00) David Nohe, CEO of Fingoal
(01:59) The 101 on CFPB Rule 1033
(09:32) Consumer consent
(18:04) Future of subscription models
(22:52) Funnel dynamics / friction
(24:09) Credit bureau vs. open banking data
(26:43) Why be concerned or optimistic
(32:10) Banks' strategic opportunit...
Personal finance platforms (like Credit Karma) are now at scale, with the ability to recommend products at the 1:1 user level. Further, they’re incentivized to recommend niche products that are highly customized to each user. Lending products, however, are designed for mass audiences. This disconnect presents a huge opportunity for lenders.
Timestamps:
(00:00) Why personalization matters (04:06) Hyper-niche lending products (05:3...
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