In this episode of The Finance Bible, Zeke shares his full journey — from starting with almost nothing, to building $130,000 in investments, to launching a podcast, and founding Asset Road.
You’ll learn:
- Why property has outperformed the ASX 200 (yes, dollar for dollar)
- How Zeke used debt strategically to grow wealth early
- The story behind launching The Finance Bible podcast
- How to know if you're ready to invest — or what to fix first
- Real insights for couples in their 30s juggling kids, mortgages, and big financial goals
- Why most people start too late and miss the window for compound growth
- And the challenges of putting your voice out there in a noisy world
Whether you’re just starting or scaling, this episode blends tactical finance, personal experience, and business insights in one direct conversation.
🔗 Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or at assetroad.com.au/the-finance-bible
🎧 Enjoyed this episode?
Follow us on Instagram @zekeguenthrothofficial @oscardonproperty and @assetroad for daily insights, property breakdowns, and behind-the-scenes updates.
Explore more at www.assetroad.com.au
Disclaimer:
The information provided in this podcast is general in nature and does not constitute personal financial advice. It has been prepared without taking into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. Before acting on any information, you should consider the appropriateness of the advice, having regard to your own objectives, financial situation and needs. Asset Road Pty Ltd recommends you seek independent financial, legal, taxation or other advice as required. All investments carry risk. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Guillaume Jouvencel (00:00):
What were things that you found?
Zeke Guenthroth (00:01):
challenging in the podcast.
You can sit down and watchNetflix.
You can sit down and play gameson PlayStation.
Why would they sit there andlisten to some random
23-year-old from Australia, Likeit's just a weird thing to put
yourself out there and do andthen Zeke Gwynn-Throth, the
Managing Director of Asset Roadand co-founder of the Finance
(00:23):
Bible podcast.
Based in New South Wales, Zekebrings years of hands-on
experience in financial planningand project management, having
worked with firms like AWSFinancial Planning and Yellen
Consulting.
With a passion for empoweringpeople through financial
literacy, Zeke is here to shareinsights that simplify the
complex world of money andinvestment.
(00:44):
Insights that simplify thecomplex world of money and
investment.
Guillaume Jouvencel (00:46):
Young couple in their 30s, two kids.
What's your?
Zeke Guenthroth (00:50):
advice, Zeke.
You probably have a savingsfund.
You probably have an offsetaccount.
They might be able to refinance, cross-collateralize or pull
money out of their home and putit into another investment
property.
You generate an extra half amillion dollars.
Guillaume Jouvencel (01:03):
How do you make sure that the finance Bible
story is also somehow linked toasset growth?
Zeke Guenthroth (01:10):
People wanting to learn about finances.
We can send them through to theFinance Bible podcast, where
they then learn more and moreabout investing in their
finances.
I've turned that into about 130grand give or take.
Guillaume Jouvencel (01:25):
What would be your advice to podcasters or
wannabe podcasters, especiallythe ones who have a business
behind it and would like to makethe link between the two?
Don't think about it.
Zeke, can you tell me about thefinance Bible story please?
Zeke Guenthroth (01:42):
Absolutely so I guess we'll start from the very
beginning where, where we liketo start for everything.
I would have been a good, Iwant to say like maybe four
years ago, give or take, and Iwas actually.
I was working in a company thatwas doing like financial
planning and mortgage brokingand, uh, property investing and
(02:04):
all of that kind of thing.
And I had a new colleague there, his name was Oscar.
He's actually the co-founder ofthe Finance Bible and we were
doing a meeting with this clientand we were trying to help him
figure out financially what hedoes for himself, his wife and
their young daughter comingacross from India into Australia
(02:24):
, how they set everything up andthat kind of thing.
They'd landed professional jobsand in that meeting we were
able to make a substantialimpact on their long-term future
.
They're still a client of ourstoday actually.
So, yeah, wonderful meetingthat was.
But on the way back from that,oscar and I were in the car and
we were having a chat and wewere just thinking how we're
(02:45):
having a chat and we're justthinking how do we find a way to
do that for the masses?
We obviously can't sit downwith every single individual in
the world.
You'd have billions andbillions of hours to do that,
obviously.
And we thought, you know what,let's start a podcast and let's
just put a little bit offinancial information out there
(03:05):
and see if we can actually helppeople and see if they tune in,
see if they want to be educatedon the fact.
So that's kind of how theactual podcast idea came about,
and we've been doing it eversince then, for many years now.
So that's probably the best wayto say how it started.
Guillaume Jouvencel (03:23):
Helping people at scale with their
personal finance.
Is that a proper way tosummarize it?
Cool, Absolutely so.
In our first chat, you told mea very interesting story about
how you started this journey notof the podcast, but of the
business behind it and how youwere helping individuals.
So can you share with us howyou came about having your own
(03:44):
shop of helping people withtheir personal?
Zeke Guenthroth (03:46):
finances I rewind to even before then, so
we'll go go real deep intohistory here.
When I first got out of school,I started working for a bank,
and we all know, uh, how banksare.
Obviously it wasn't that uhamazing, wasn't that helpful for
people in the world?
Why, would you say?
that I was sort of, hmm, greatquestion.
(04:08):
I ended up at a point therewhere I got promoted enough,
where I actually had access tosee how much money we're making
off each client and what theirlifetime value was and that kind
of thing, their fees per yearand so on.
I pretty quickly left that jobwhen I realized hang on a minute
, I'm sick of people calling upand asking for an advance on
(04:29):
their pension.
They can't afford to live.
There's got to be somethingbetter I can be doing.
And so I went intosuperannuation in Australia is
like your retirement funding.
So I went into that.
Exactly the same issues.
So then I moved into insurance,because if you people are
getting insurance and you knowyou're helping them, if they
pass away or if they've gotincome protection can't go to
(04:50):
work exactly the same problem.
So I found myself in thisnever-ending circle of problems
of how do I actually make adifference in the world without
being a bit of a scoundrel?
And yeah, I ended up, um, goinginto a financial planning firm
that also did property investingand mortgage broking, and then
(05:10):
I sort of had the knowledgewhere I could pull it all
together the insurance, thesuperannuation, the banking
broking, housing, all of it, andso I was working there for a
while and that's where I met thecolleague Oscar.
I was working there for a while, and that's where I met the
colleague Oscar, and we sort ofnoticed that things weren't
going, after a few years, theway that they should have been
within the company that is, andthere were some recommendations
(05:32):
that we didn't entirely agreewith, and so we decided, well,
why don't we just do this on ourown?
Because we'd had the financebubble then for probably two
years.
We had a good fan pool, anaudience base behind us where we
could carry on and get thingsdone, and so we created the
company.
We left that company and beendoing that now for a few years
(05:54):
as well.
And, yeah, we're just out heretrying to make a difference, and
we've been able to do that forclose to half a thousand clients
now, and we're still goingstrong.
Guillaume Jouvencel (06:06):
That's how Asset Road started.
Right, that's the name of thecompany that is behind the
podcast, or vice versa,depending on how you position it
, but that's how you start thecompany.
So obviously there are lots ofresources around personal
finances right Everywhere.
And yet, obviously, obviouslyyou're doing awesome because
Asset Road is growing and, likeFinance Bible Story, has quite
(06:28):
some reviews and is gettingtraction.
How can you explain that, likewhat made the success, in your
opinion, of the Finance BibleStory, when you know that there
is the Dave Ramsey's of thisworld it's more US, but like,
obviously the finance advicethat he gives is like can be
applied anywhere in the world?
How do you differentiate insuch a crowded space when it
(06:49):
comes to personal finance?
Zeke Guenthroth (06:51):
Sorry, I missed about half of that question.
Guillaume Jouvencel (06:56):
Fair enough .
Please, alex, make sure to editthat out.
Was it an audio bug orsomething Zeke?
Zeke Guenthroth (07:04):
I think it was.
Yeah, it just I had no audiowhatsoever come through.
You were talking and then yourmouth was moving.
And then we're back.
Guillaume Jouvencel (07:13):
There are lots of resources out there
around personal finance, right.
It may have not been the casefour years ago, though, but
today, like there are the DaveRamseys of this world, it's more
US right, obviously, but Iguess his advice can be applied
everywhere.
So there are the Dave Ramsey'sof this world.
It's more US, right, obviously,but I guess his advice can be
applied everywhere.
So there are lots of resourcesaround personal finance, but
obviously you've made yourssuccessful, right?
The podcast is getting traction.
Asset Road is working.
How do you differentiate insuch a crowded market?
(07:37):
How can you explain the successof it?
Zeke Guenthroth (07:41):
That's a great question.
Well, initially, when we werekind of coming up with the idea
of launching the finance bible,to be it sort of have that
education out there, we werelooking at different resources
and I have a very young sisterwho I have obviously helped
learn about the finance worldand that, and I was thinking
back to when I was gettingstarted, what was out there to
(08:02):
help me, what did I use and whatcouldn't I use, and that kind
of thing.
And in Australia we had thisbloke called Scott Pape and he's
basically they call him thebarefoot investor and he's got a
book which goes into very minordetail of setting yourself up
financially.
So his method is basicallyyou've got three buckets and you
(08:22):
run the tap and that bucketfills up, which is like your
main thing, and then theoverflow goes into the other two
sectors of your life.
But it's very general and likeminimalistic.
It's just a simple get set upkind of thing.
So I was kind of thinking, allright, how do we be different in
the fact that um ramsey's verylike um, debt focused.
(08:47):
I feel like he focuses a lot on, like um, paying down debts and
how you get out of badsituations.
Scott is very.
You know setting things upinitially, but I did.
I couldn't find much for inbetween that, like you know, if
you're just a standard, you knowyoung, you've just had two kids
, you're 30 years old, you'vegot a house with a mortgage what
(09:08):
do you do then?
Or if you're a step beyond thatand you're in your 40s and your
kids might be about to move out,you've paid down your house,
you've got equity in there, whatdo you do from there?
So we kind of wanted to be ableto educate people in that part
of their life, because that'swhere most of the clients were,
that we were meeting and theywere leaving it slightly too
(09:28):
late to actually take advantageof things they could have.
Like, if they started 10 yearsearlier, they would have been
millions of dollars better offand interesting.
We thought let's start off inthat segment of the market and
then we'll release otherepisodes about, like, younger
people, like, for example,buying your first home or paying
off a credit card or whatever,and we'll see what people want
to hear.
Based on our listening and fromthat we were able to then
(09:51):
dictate okay, well, there'sclearly a gap here, people are
looking for this, and we sort ofjust expanded on that.
But we do do a lot of differentthings now because we want
everyone to get the besteducation they can let's get to
it now.
Guillaume Jouvencel (10:08):
I'm curious what would you recommend for a
young couple in their 30s whojust had two kids?
Like, what?
What's the what's theone-on-one advice of personal
finance there?
Because indeed, when you listento dave which is the only
personal finance podcast orcontent that I follow sometimes
it's indeed like pay down yourdebts, you need to pay your debt
off, and then, once you'rethere, you're going to take baby
(10:29):
steps and I don't even rememberall the baby steps but like
have an emergency fund and thenstart investing in your
retirement plan.
Well, that's in the US,obviously.
So what's your advice?
Zeke, young couple in their 30s, two kids what should we do?
Zeke Guenthroth (10:47):
A great question and it will vary per
person and per circumstance, andby no means am I going to
provide financial advice.
So everyone out there, do yourown research.
True, um, yeah, that's okay.
Um, but yeah, generallyspeaking, um, you're in your 30s
, you got two, got two children.
You probably own your house.
You've probably got a mortgageon there.
If you've got two children, youprobably bought the house
(11:10):
before you first.
So you might have it for threeor four years, maybe five if
you're lucky so you will havehad a bit of equity growth in
there.
You probably have a savingsfund, you probably have an
offset account and you probablyhave a little amount of credit
card debt, but nothing toooutrageous, like you're not
spiraling.
Then the position kind of comesokay, what's next?
Are you either A in thecategory where you're just sort
(11:33):
of struggling day by day, or youB in the category where you're
able to save a little bit?
You might be thinking aboutholidays, but young children,
that's very hard to take them onthe holiday, I mean.
So generally what we find hereis, if they've got maybe
$150,000 in equity in theirproperty, they've got their
(11:54):
offset account, they've got arainy day fund or emergency fund
, whatever you want to call itstage.
They've actually got thepotential normally to then
invest and start building thatfuture.
So they might be able to,without even putting their
actual own money into it.
They might be able to refinance, cross-collateralize or pull
money out of their home and putit into another investment
(12:15):
property that will then go up invalue and pay them a rent as
well.
In that circumstance, if youcan start that in your 30s, then
if people are normally starting45, you've got a whole cycle
there of doubling the value ofthat property.
Property averages about a 6%return per year.
That's dating back about 100years from 2000 has averaged
(12:37):
about 9% per year.
So if you go and that's anAustralia-owned thing yeah, it's
actually dollar for dollaroutperformed the stock market in
Australia, which is wild.
But if you get that investmentearly and let's just say it's a
$500,000 property it's nothingextravagant, it's just they're
paying the rent then it's wortha million in 10 years minimum.
(12:59):
Yeah, generate an extra half amillion dollars in overall
assets without the debt attachedto it, because your debt's only
on the initial property or theinitial property value.
So if you focused on justpaying down your current debt,
which might be a 6% home loan ora 5.5% home loan, then yeah
(13:24):
sure, you might get that paidoff, or mostly paid off, in that
10-year period.
But let's say you pay off 300grand of your loan, you've made
500 grand on the property, soone of them gives you an extra
$200,000.
And that's what we're trying toeducate people on.
You don't need to just sitthere and smash away your debt.
(13:46):
You can use it and do betterthings and make more money.
And then, if you're notcomfortable with debt, guess
what?
You're 30 years old.
When you're 50, sell it all.
You've got more money.
You can do whatever you need todo.
Guillaume Jouvencel (13:57):
It's leveraging debt right To get
others to pay for it and youbuild wealth on this.
What you just described is whatyou're going to help, obviously
on a much deeper level,individuals with right, with
asset roots, and your company.
And on the podcast, you'regoing to try to break down
concepts and, you know, steerpeople towards the right
(14:17):
direction with personal finance,maybe the ones who are not
ready yet to have a personaladvisor or finance advisor to
really help them with theirwealth.
How do you link the two?
How do you make sure that thefinance Bible story is also
somehow linked to Asset Road andvice versa, potentially?
Zeke Guenthroth (14:36):
Yeah, absolutely so.
I guess if we start off withthe finance Bible, we'll come
back to Asset Road.
Ultimately, people that findthe finance Bible are out there
looking for some kind ofinformation.
They're at a point in theirlife where they're like, hey,
I'm not extremely up to scratchin my finances, I want to learn
(14:57):
more.
And that's how they stumbleacross that.
You know, it might be on ourInstagram, it might be it's just
popped up on Spotify orwhatever.
Their friend might listen to itand refer them to it.
They're ultimately finding thatand wanting to learn about
finances.
And so when we teach them aboutthe finances, eventually they
get to a point where they'relike, okay, these guys know what
they're talking about.
(15:17):
And then, when the time comes,they'll reach out to Asset Road
for more help, and that's whenwe can provide a professional
service.
The other way to go about it is, let's say, we're an asset road
and we get a client comethrough and they're not exactly
in a position where they're ableto invest in what we're sort of
(15:37):
going for.
Then we're in a position wherewe can help build that trust and
we can nurture them, we cankeep them educated, we can send
them through to the financebubble podcast, where they then
learn more and more aboutinvesting and their finances and
eventually they get in aposition where they're like okay
, we've taken these steps, we'vegot set up because we had
episodes on that, and then theycome back when the time is right
(15:59):
so it's a two-way street really.
Guillaume Jouvencel (16:04):
You have the people finding out about
your podcast or potentiallyother resources downstream of
the podcast and like gettingeducated and be like wait a
second, those guys actually knowwhat they are talking about.
And they end up reaching out toyou via asset road but also
people that you get first intouch with thanks to asset road
and who are quite not ready totake the next step with you.
(16:24):
You send them back to thepodcast to get educated, to get
the first things going, and thenthey're like oh, actually those
guys know what they're talkingabout and they come back to you
um, can we get to be tacticalabout how you do the first one,
meaning, so I see how.
So you have classical leaguegen and like potential word of
mouth.
People come to you, you getinto a call and you're like
you're quite not ready yet.
(16:45):
Um, but what about the otherway around?
Is it people just listening tothe podcast and ending up
booking a call and like tellingyou in the call hey, I've
listened to the podcast and Ithought that come.
Or do you have a system thatallows you to take the people
from the finance Bible storydownstream to asset fraud
management.
How do you do that?
Zeke Guenthroth (17:04):
Yeah, so we don't actually run a proper
system for it at this point intime.
What we normally do is if we'retalking about a specific
subject where the listener wantsmore information, because we
can only be so general with whatwe say in the podcast, like we
can get as specific as we wantabout a scenario, but if you're
(17:25):
just slightly that five percentdifferent, it's a whole
different scenario.
Like that five percent doesreally make a difference.
So at the end of the podcast weobviously have a call to action
where, if they need moreinformation, they want more
information, they want to checkthings out they can get in
contact with us and we'll oftendrop a link there.
They can do that or send us adm on instagram.
Um, we get a lot of DMs onInstagram from listeners Nice,
(17:49):
and then from there we canfilter through into CRMs and
stuff that we need.
A lot of the time.
When they're coming through thepodcast, they're very young.
It's an initial question wherethey're like hey, I'm thinking
about doing this or can you helpme with this?
They might be going for theirfirst home and we'll help them
with the finance around thatsituation.
Help them get that loan, gettheir home, and then they're in
(18:13):
our system where we can helpthem forever.
Guillaume Jouvencel (18:14):
So what do you mean with?
We help them with their firsthome?
Is it like putting the financeplan together?
Is it just choosing a home?
Is it choosing the rightdistrict, Because you know some
districts might appreciatebetter than others?
The reason I'm asking, Zeke, ispersonal finance for me is very
much stock-related, butobviously I got this wrong
because it's like all thefinance endeavors that we might
(18:35):
have.
But I'm a bit curious tounderstand what is it that
you're going to help with thehome typically?
Zeke Guenthroth (18:43):
First of all, it's also a matter of figuring
out how to get into that firsthome.
Okay, first of all, it's also amatter of figuring out how to
get into that first time.
So, without getting intospecific details, I can talk
about myself, obviously when Iwas 20, or actually I'll go to
18.
When I was 18 years old, I wasworking, as we know, at the bank
and I was in a position where Iknew I wanted to do things well
(19:03):
financially long term.
So I sat there and I researchedstocks all day, every day, like
I just went hard, learned whatI could and I started investing
pretty rapidly.
Every spare dollar I had wentinto shares, or I didn't even
have a spare 200 dollars.
I was like, no, I'm gonna spend90 of my paycheck on stocks and
(19:24):
the last 10 I'm gonna make tomake do I will live.
So I did that and I've turnedthat into about $130,000, give
or take pretty quickly withinlike a year and a half and I was
able to then turn that.
Yeah, I did very well.
(19:44):
I wouldn't say anyone out thereexpect the same result, because
there was a little bit of luck,but there was obviously a lot
of research, yeah, and then Ipulled all of that out to get
into my first property, whichwas an investment property.
I did that at 20, and I built abrand new house and got that
rented out.
That appreciated quite rapidlyas well, like maybe 250 grand in
(20:08):
about three years.
But again, the reason Iperformed so well, not only due
to the area it was in, but wehad covid, which caused a bit of
a boom as well.
So, um, again, don't use myresults as something to be like
oh cool, I can go magically, dothat.
It's not that easy, um,although you will do well.
But so we kind of figure out aplan for helping them get to a
(20:28):
stage they can buy their firsthome, if that's what they're
looking for, but then we'll alsohelp them with the financing of
it as well.
So, setting up the structure,um, getting that home loan,
whatever grants the governmenthas available, and then, if
they're in a certain area, okay,where in that area you're going
to buy, because you know, um,in every neighborhood there's
(20:49):
good streets and bad streets,good people, bad people, and
you've got to get it right man.
Guillaume Jouvencel (20:55):
That is an inspiring experience.
Just congratulations.
That's.
That's crazy to make such alarge amount of money in such a
short amount of time, but it'slike everything right.
If you put in the hardcoreefforts in this case, there I
say um, you can yieldsignificant results and, of
course, there will always bepart of luck in it, uh, in it,
but like you also provoked thatluck, so love it.
(21:16):
What were things that you foundchallenging in the podcast,
like?
What were some challenges,fails and, of course, how did
you walk around them to turnthem into success?
And kept on going for fouryears now.
Yeah, there is something coming?
Zeke Guenthroth (21:35):
Yeah, the initial sort of issue with the
podcast was like getting yourhead around the fact that you
were launching a podcast right.
Like you're doing somethingwhere you're trying to get
people to tune in and listen towhat you have to say.
Like you know, people activelyhave to then sit down and take
time out of their day to listento you.
(21:55):
Like it's just a very weirdconcept thinking that people are
going to do that.
Like you know, you can sit downand watch netflix.
You can sit down and um playgames on playstation like
there's so many different thingsand avenues of attention
Instagram, tiktok where you'vejust got hours and hours
disappearing.
Why would they sit there andlisten to some random
(22:17):
23-year-old from Australia, likeyou know, it's just a weird
thing to put yourself out thereand do.
And then there was actually therecording and listening to your
voice and getting familiar withthat whole thing.
And then there was actually therecording it, listening to your
voice and getting familiar withthat whole thing.
And you sort of choked up onperfection a little bit
initially and were like, okay,well, do I put this out there,
(22:40):
do I not?
And getting your head aroundthat was probably the big first
issue that we had.
And then, once we did that, itwas fine.
We realized, okay, well, itdoesn't have to be perfect,
we're better off putting thecontent out there and doing what
we can.
And then I remember the veryfirst episode.
I was sitting down in a garagewith Oscar and we were holding
(23:00):
our microphone and we're sittingon milk crates in the garage.
I believe we actually took aphoto of it to be like all right
, let's look back on this in afew years' time, that's perfect.
And that's what we did afterthat, to see where we are now.
It's obviously come a long way.
But yeah, that was probably thebiggest challenge we had
(23:23):
initially just getting our headaround that whole thing and
putting ourselves out there.
Challenge we had initially justgetting our head around that
whole thing and puttingourselves out there.
But then when we started seeingthe listeners come in and how
many there was, how long ourepisodes were, we're like, hang
on.
People are spending thousandsof hours consuming our content.
Guillaume Jouvencel (23:38):
Um, it's obviously valuable to someone,
so let's keep doing it so wealways say, right, perfect is
the enemy of good, and when youjust try to get something
perfect, especially at yourfirst shot, it never comes out.
So it's super important in this, I agree, to just get going.
(23:58):
It will get better, you willimprove and obviously now you're
in a much nicer setup than inyour garage or milk crates, and
it's just because things taketime and that takes time to
build up.
So what would you say would beyour advice to podcasters or
wannabe podcasters, especiallythe ones who have a business
behind it and who'd like to makethe link between the two?
(24:21):
Like, how would you recommendgoing about that?
Zeke Guenthroth (24:24):
I'd absolutely just, first of all, go for it as
in just start the podcast, getit done, put it out there and
again, don't get caught up intrying to be perfect.
Just take that leap, do it andyou'll soon see if it's working.
Be consistent with it.
That's probably the number onething that I've learned over
time.
There was a period where weweren't very consistent and it
(24:46):
went downhill for a bit and wehad to pick it back up, which
took a long time.
But put it out there and then,when you're trying to figure out
how to link it back to yourbusiness, just figure out what.
Don't think about it as abusiness.
First of all, I think, what isvaluable?
What do people want?
What do they need?
What are they going to look for?
If you can get that part rightand then position your business
(25:10):
as something that can help withthat, it will naturally flow on
through to the business.
So just try to keep the podcastas valuable as possible and
then, when you plug the business, at the end of the day, if
people are satisfied with yourcontent and they believe you,
you've built trust in that theywill come on board.
Guillaume Jouvencel (25:33):
So a few things I want to follow up on
here.
When you say consistency, whatdo you typically recommend?
Because so I'm looking at theFinance Bible podcast right now
and, like you're on a new seriespart one of 12, I see on the
Australia's Reality Check, Ineed to check out this one I see
that right now you'republishing about once a month.
At some point you werepublishing every week.
(25:55):
So what's the strategy here andhow would you recommend
actually scheduling episodes?
What is it that made it workfor you?
Zeke Guenthroth (26:05):
yeah, absolutely so.
Um, our, our aim now is to getit back to once a week, um,
which we're going to start doing.
There's been recent travels forwork and stuff like that.
That has obviously had animpact.
So we've learned our lesson ofbanking some episodes up to
cover that shortfall.
Ultimately, if you're notconsistent, it's not going to.
(26:29):
People are going to forgetabout it, they're going to miss
it, they're going to get annoyed.
So if you say, hey, we're goingto publish an episode every
Tuesday, publish an episodeevery Tuesday, publish an
episode every Tuesday.
Whether it's 10 minutes, 30minutes, it doesn't matter.
Keep it quality and justpublish it.
But yeah, we're going for amore consistent approach now of
weekly.
We have done it monthly in thepast, obviously, but with this
(26:55):
new series, which new episodesshould be dropping on Thursday
actually today's Wednesday thenwe should be all good to get it
out there.
Keep everything going andobviously, being part one of 12,
we're going to create peoplewho are tuning in to multiple
different episodes.
(27:15):
They're going to want to hearwhat's going on throughout it.
And that series actually isjust about sort of Australia as
a whole, where we are as acountry.
So there's a discussion oneverything.
You've got housing, you've gotpolitics, you've got interest
rates.
You've got literally everysingle thing our education
(27:36):
system.
We're going to dive into all ofthat, break it down bit by bit
and just sort of talk about allthe different issues that are
happening in Australia and whatsort of things can fix them, or
how we can take advantage ofthem financially.
Guillaume Jouvencel (27:47):
I love this .
I want to double down on a fewthings.
So, first of all, for peoplelistening to us right now, in my
opinion, consistency is key, soI love that you're pointing
this out, zeke, and it's notthat much of like a hey, I need
to publish a podcast every day,right, which is what Joe Rogan
does, but he's an ovni,literally.
He would like that description,but it's more like you want to
(28:09):
make it a habit for people tolisten to you.
If I know that for the next twomonths, I'm going to have a new
episode of zeke and oscartuning like dropping every
thursday at 8 am, I'm much morelikely to make the habit of like
tuning back in every thursdayat 8 am and actually this um
part 1 out of 12.
So creating a series is notsomething we've done a lot, but
I'm just thinking this is greatto create some hype, zeke, so
(28:31):
kudos to you.
Like, oh, okay, now I know, Iknow I'm in for a saga almost of
okay, I need to understandwhat's happening in the
Australian economy and how tomake the best out of my personal
finance from it.
So I think it's also great tocreate a mini series, make sure
that people will be hyped and belike, oh, I can't wait to tune
into part two and part three.
(28:52):
So that's definitely the way togo.
One last thing that I'd like todiscuss, especially around the
lead nurturing.
So how do you and that's downto content, right, which is
exactly what we're talking abouthere how do you choose what to
talk about?
Because I'm suspecting that thecontent that you would put out
(29:15):
to attract people, right, so tohave that kind of top of funnel
strategy, meaning peoplediscover you thanks to the
podcast, or the YouTube videofrom the podcast, or the reels
from the podcast or the articlefrom the podcast doesn't really
matter, but people finding outabout you thanks to the podcast
will typically be looking forcertain type of content, right,
and the people that you want tonurture, so, coming to you first
(29:36):
, not quite ready yet sendingthem back to the podcast, do you
point people towards differentepisodes, like, what's the
content strategy when it comesto?
This is for lead nurturing andthis is for top of funnel, brand
awareness kind of content?
How do you manage?
Zeke Guenthroth (29:52):
the mix.
Yeah, so we will typically,pending the kind of client that
comes to us, we'll recommenddifferent episodes.
So, for example, if they are intheir 20s, they're looking for
their first home, then we haveepisodes specifically for that.
If they're 25, they're lookingfor a share portfolio we had
episodes on how to manage that.
If they're paying down debt,we've got episodes to manage
(30:12):
that.
If they're 40 and want to startinvesting, we've got that.
So we've got a bunch ofdifferent episodes that they can
kind of tune into.
That we will initiallyrecommend when we send them back
through to the podcast.
When then it becomes all right,they've listened to all of them
.
They're probably going to tunein weekly to suss out what's
going on and see if there isanything that relates to them or
(30:33):
not moving forward.
But we will keep a record of whoit was when we talked to them,
what they were looking for andour rough time frame or what we
think they can achieve.
Then it's our role to get backin contact with them which we
obviously have a system toremind us to do that and
basically just get back to them,see how they're tracking, you
know, see what they've taken onboard, maybe even ask them about
(30:56):
the episode, like, oh, did youfind anything in this specific
one valuable, and sort of builda personal connection while we
go?
And then when they're ready togo, they're ready to go, they've
done everything, they've takenthe steps, and it's a lot easier
because they've got that trustbetween us.
Guillaume Jouvencel (31:10):
A hundred percent makes sense.
Is that proper English?
That makes a hundred percent?
Let's put it like this.
So, um Zeke, I'd like to finishon this.
What's your most popularepisodes that people can go to
and find out about you, Like?
What is the episode that hasworked the most that I will
spoiler alerts also listen to?
Zeke Guenthroth (31:27):
That's actually a really funny and interesting
question because I think ournumber one episode was one of
our very first ones, um, aboutsuperannuation, but it was a
deep dive into superannuationand superannuation will be in
the title.
So if you just search onSpotify or whatever finance
bubble, superannuation, it willpop up.
I can probably actually quicklyfind it as well.
Guillaume Jouvencel (31:49):
The funny thing is that I don't even know
what superannuation means.
Zeke Guenthroth (31:55):
So I'm going to have to Google this right now,
superannuation is Australia.
In America you've got like Roth, ira or your 401k.
Okay, sort of like that, but inAustralia.
Guillaume Jouvencel (32:04):
A saving system for workplace pension in
retirement involves moneyearning.
Okay, so you have a retirementplan by capitalization in
Australia as well, then not byreportition.
I think that's the Frenchsystem, which is a Ponzi scheme,
by the way.
So not giving any financialadvice, um, but like absolutely
crazy.
Okay, but so in australia youhave capitalization, which makes
(32:24):
much more sense.
Zeke Guenthroth (32:25):
Okay, cool, yeah, so it's basically just um
look at it your companies thatpay you a government mandated to
pay a portion of that intowhat's called your
superannuation.
Okay, your superannuation willthen be held with a company.
That company invests that moneyinto shares and stuff.
They take a fee out of it.
It's sort of just like a forcedsaving account that gets
(32:46):
invested by another company andthey take a fee.
So ultimately it's just economyboosting, and some of the fees
are outrageous and silly andshouldn't be done pending your
circumstances.
Again, not financial advice.
Yeah, shouldn't be done pendingyour circumstances.
Again, not financial advice.
Yeah, but you can actually makea self-managed super fund in
australia so ultimately you cancreate your own, take full
(33:08):
control of it, minimize fees andstuff like that and invest it
in property and things, becauseyou can't do that with a company
one.
But it was episode number fourand it was called why
Superannuation is your BestFriend.
Yeah, and to this day that isstill getting new listeners
every week, which is crazybecause that is in terms of
audio quality, in terms ofeverything.
Guillaume Jouvencel (33:31):
In a garage on milk crates remember guys.
Zeke Guenthroth (33:40):
Yeah, it's probably one of our worst that
we ever recorded in terms ofactual quality okay, as in
recording quality in terms ofcontent, really good, but we've
done many more, um, sort ofrefreshing that and making it
more relevant today, like it'sbeen more superannuation
episodes.
But yeah, that will give you areally good breakdown on what
superannuation is in australiaand how to utilize it.
Guillaume Jouvencel (33:59):
This is awesome.
Obviously, I'm not reallyconcerned by it, but I'll give
it a go.
That's interesting and that'sthe funny thing.
Like except for very rare cases, most of the most listened to
podcast episodes of mostpodcasts, some among the first
ones.
Because when somebody discoversyou, you know they start with
the beginning and they startwith the first ones.
Because when somebody discoversyou, you know they start with
(34:19):
the beginning and they startwith the first few episodes.
Corporate treasury 101, whichis our very first podcast.
To this day, each and everymonth, the most listened to
episode is still the first one.
What is corporate treasury like?
There is, there is nowherearound it.
This is the most listened toeach and every month, so it
shows that a you don't need tobe perfect to get started,
because people will still listen, especially years down from now
(34:40):
, but it also means that youalso come up with valuable
content.
So give it a go.
Go for it and talk aboutsuperannuation and why it's your
best friend, zeke that wasabsolutely awesome.
Zeke Guenthroth (34:51):
Go ahead go ahead Such a niche episode like.
Obviously it's only relevant toAustralians and I think our
most recent stat was only about60% of listeners are in
Australia, so for that to stillbe the number one is quite
abnormal.
Guillaume Jouvencel (35:06):
Yeah, here we go.
I mean, it's always interestingto hear about how it works in
other countries and what we canpotentially learn from them,
although most of the peoplewon't be.
It won't be relevant for somepeople.
Zeke, this was absolutely gold.
Thanks a lot for coming on.
Podcast Gurus If people want tofind out more about you, asset
Road or the Finance Bible, whereshould they go?
Probably?
Zeke Guenthroth (35:26):
go to Instagram first.
To be honest, go to Instagram,type in Asset Road or type in
Zeke Guntroff,g-u-e-n-t-h-r-o-t-h, or simply
google asset road, and that'sgot a link to everything.
Asset road is literally what itsounds like asset a double s?
E t road, r o a d?
Um.
Nice and easy.
That's for for emails, whenpeople like oh, what is your
(35:46):
email?
Simple um should figure it out.
Yeah, that's exactly right, butthat's probably the easiest way
to do it.
If you go to asset road, allour socials are there finance
bibles there, it's all sort ofintegrated Instagram.
We post quite regularly andprovide information and
different tips and stuff.
So jump on board.
Guillaume Jouvencel (36:06):
Absolutely awesome.
We'll put all the links in thedescription.
Go and check out what Zeke andOscar are doing.
Zeke, thank you so much forcoming on.
Podcast Gurus, thanks forhaving me Pleasure.
What were things that you found?
Zeke Guenthroth (00:01):
challenging in the podcast.
You can sit down and watchNetflix.
You can sit down and play gameson PlayStation.
Why would they sit there andlisten to some random
23-year-old from Australia, Likeit's just a weird thing to put
yourself out there and do andthen Zeke Gwynn-Throth, the
Managing Director of Asset Roadand co-founder of the Finance
(00:23):
Bible podcast.
Based in New South Wales, Zekebrings years of hands-on
experience in financial planningand project management, having
worked with firms like AWSFinancial Planning and Yellen
Consulting.
With a passion for empoweringpeople through financial
literacy, Zeke is here to shareinsights that simplify the
complex world of money andinvestment.
(00:44):
Insights that simplify thecomplex world of money and
investment.
Guillaume Jouvencel (00:46):
Young couple in their 30s, two kids.
What's your?
Zeke Guenthroth (00:50):
advice, Zeke.
You probably have a savingsfund.
You probably have an offsetaccount.
They might be able to refinance, cross-collateralize or pull
money out of their home and putit into another investment
property.
You generate an extra half amillion dollars.
Guillaume Jouvencel (01:03):
How do you make sure that the finance Bible
story is also somehow linked toasset growth?
Zeke Guenthroth (01:10):
People wanting to learn about finances.
We can send them through to theFinance Bible podcast, where
they then learn more and moreabout investing in their
finances.
I've turned that into about 130grand give or take.
Guillaume Jouvencel (01:25):
What would be your advice to podcasters or
wannabe podcasters, especiallythe ones who have a business
behind it and would like to makethe link between the two?
Don't think about it.
Zeke, can you tell me about thefinance Bible story please?
Zeke Guenthroth (01:42):
Absolutely so I guess we'll start from the very
beginning where, where we liketo start for everything.
I would have been a good, Iwant to say like maybe four
years ago, give or take, and Iwas actually.
I was working in a company thatwas doing like financial
planning and mortgage brokingand, uh, property investing and
(02:04):
all of that kind of thing.
And I had a new colleague there, his name was Oscar.
He's actually the co-founder ofthe Finance Bible and we were
doing a meeting with this clientand we were trying to help him
figure out financially what hedoes for himself, his wife and
their young daughter comingacross from India into Australia
(02:24):
, how they set everything up andthat kind of thing.
They'd landed professional jobsand in that meeting we were
able to make a substantialimpact on their long-term future
.
They're still a client of ourstoday actually.
So, yeah, wonderful meetingthat was.
But on the way back from that,oscar and I were in the car and
we were having a chat and wewere just thinking how we're
(02:45):
having a chat and we're justthinking how do we find a way to
do that for the masses?
We obviously can't sit downwith every single individual in
the world.
You'd have billions andbillions of hours to do that,
obviously.
And we thought, you know what,let's start a podcast and let's
just put a little bit offinancial information out there
(03:05):
and see if we can actually helppeople and see if they tune in,
see if they want to be educatedon the fact.
So that's kind of how theactual podcast idea came about,
and we've been doing it eversince then, for many years now.
So that's probably the best wayto say how it started.
Guillaume Jouvencel (03:23):
Helping people at scale with their
personal finance.
Is that a proper way tosummarize it?
Cool, Absolutely so.
In our first chat, you told mea very interesting story about
how you started this journey notof the podcast, but of the
business behind it and how youwere helping individuals.
So can you share with us howyou came about having your own
(03:44):
shop of helping people withtheir personal?
Zeke Guenthroth (03:46):
finances I rewind to even before then, so
we'll go go real deep intohistory here.
When I first got out of school,I started working for a bank,
and we all know, uh, how banksare.
Obviously it wasn't that uhamazing, wasn't that helpful for
people in the world?
Why, would you say?
that I was sort of, hmm, greatquestion.
(04:08):
I ended up at a point therewhere I got promoted enough,
where I actually had access tosee how much money we're making
off each client and what theirlifetime value was and that kind
of thing, their fees per yearand so on.
I pretty quickly left that jobwhen I realized hang on a minute
, I'm sick of people calling upand asking for an advance on
(04:29):
their pension.
They can't afford to live.
There's got to be somethingbetter I can be doing.
And so I went intosuperannuation in Australia is
like your retirement funding.
So I went into that.
Exactly the same issues.
So then I moved into insurance,because if you people are
getting insurance and you knowyou're helping them, if they
pass away or if they've gotincome protection can't go to
(04:50):
work exactly the same problem.
So I found myself in thisnever-ending circle of problems
of how do I actually make adifference in the world without
being a bit of a scoundrel?
And yeah, I ended up, um, goinginto a financial planning firm
that also did property investingand mortgage broking, and then
(05:10):
I sort of had the knowledgewhere I could pull it all
together the insurance, thesuperannuation, the banking
broking, housing, all of it, andso I was working there for a
while and that's where I met thecolleague Oscar.
I was working there for a while, and that's where I met the
colleague Oscar, and we sort ofnoticed that things weren't
going, after a few years, theway that they should have been
within the company that is, andthere were some recommendations
(05:32):
that we didn't entirely agreewith, and so we decided, well,
why don't we just do this on ourown?
Because we'd had the financebubble then for probably two
years.
We had a good fan pool, anaudience base behind us where we
could carry on and get thingsdone, and so we created the
company.
We left that company and beendoing that now for a few years
(05:54):
as well.
And, yeah, we're just out heretrying to make a difference, and
we've been able to do that forclose to half a thousand clients
now, and we're still goingstrong.
Guillaume Jouvencel (06:06):
That's how Asset Road started.
Right, that's the name of thecompany that is behind the
podcast, or vice versa,depending on how you position it
, but that's how you start thecompany.
So obviously there are lots ofresources around personal
finances right Everywhere.
And yet, obviously, obviouslyyou're doing awesome because
Asset Road is growing and, likeFinance Bible Story, has quite
(06:28):
some reviews and is gettingtraction.
How can you explain that, likewhat made the success, in your
opinion, of the Finance BibleStory, when you know that there
is the Dave Ramsey's of thisworld it's more US, but like,
obviously the finance advicethat he gives is like can be
applied anywhere in the world?
How do you differentiate insuch a crowded space when it
(06:49):
comes to personal finance?
Zeke Guenthroth (06:51):
Sorry, I missed about half of that question.
Guillaume Jouvencel (06:56):
Fair enough .
Please, alex, make sure to editthat out.
Was it an audio bug orsomething Zeke?
Zeke Guenthroth (07:04):
I think it was.
Yeah, it just I had no audiowhatsoever come through.
You were talking and then yourmouth was moving.
And then we're back.
Guillaume Jouvencel (07:13):
There are lots of resources out there
around personal finance, right.
It may have not been the casefour years ago, though, but
today, like there are the DaveRamseys of this world, it's more
US right, obviously, but Iguess his advice can be applied
everywhere.
So there are the Dave Ramsey'sof this world.
It's more US, right, obviously,but I guess his advice can be
applied everywhere.
So there are lots of resourcesaround personal finance, but
obviously you've made yourssuccessful, right?
The podcast is getting traction.
Asset Road is working.
How do you differentiate insuch a crowded market?
(07:37):
How can you explain the successof it?
Zeke Guenthroth (07:41):
That's a great question.
Well, initially, when we werekind of coming up with the idea
of launching the finance bible,to be it sort of have that
education out there, we werelooking at different resources
and I have a very young sisterwho I have obviously helped
learn about the finance worldand that, and I was thinking
back to when I was gettingstarted, what was out there to
(08:02):
help me, what did I use and whatcouldn't I use, and that kind
of thing.
And in Australia we had thisbloke called Scott Pape and he's
basically they call him thebarefoot investor and he's got a
book which goes into very minordetail of setting yourself up
financially.
So his method is basicallyyou've got three buckets and you
(08:22):
run the tap and that bucketfills up, which is like your
main thing, and then theoverflow goes into the other two
sectors of your life.
But it's very general and likeminimalistic.
It's just a simple get set upkind of thing.
So I was kind of thinking, allright, how do we be different in
the fact that um ramsey's verylike um, debt focused.
(08:47):
I feel like he focuses a lot on, like um, paying down debts and
how you get out of badsituations.
Scott is very.
You know setting things upinitially, but I did.
I couldn't find much for inbetween that, like you know, if
you're just a standard, you knowyoung, you've just had two kids
, you're 30 years old, you'vegot a house with a mortgage what
(09:08):
do you do then?
Or if you're a step beyond thatand you're in your 40s and your
kids might be about to move out,you've paid down your house,
you've got equity in there, whatdo you do from there?
So we kind of wanted to be ableto educate people in that part
of their life, because that'swhere most of the clients were,
that we were meeting and theywere leaving it slightly too
(09:28):
late to actually take advantageof things they could have.
Like, if they started 10 yearsearlier, they would have been
millions of dollars better offand interesting.
We thought let's start off inthat segment of the market and
then we'll release otherepisodes about, like, younger
people, like, for example,buying your first home or paying
off a credit card or whatever,and we'll see what people want
to hear.
Based on our listening and fromthat we were able to then
(09:51):
dictate okay, well, there'sclearly a gap here, people are
looking for this, and we sort ofjust expanded on that.
But we do do a lot of differentthings now because we want
everyone to get the besteducation they can let's get to
it now.
Guillaume Jouvencel (10:08):
I'm curious what would you recommend for a
young couple in their 30s whojust had two kids?
Like, what?
What's the what's theone-on-one advice of personal
finance there?
Because indeed, when you listento dave which is the only
personal finance podcast orcontent that I follow sometimes
it's indeed like pay down yourdebts, you need to pay your debt
off, and then, once you'rethere, you're going to take baby
(10:29):
steps and I don't even rememberall the baby steps but like
have an emergency fund and thenstart investing in your
retirement plan.
Well, that's in the US,obviously.
So what's your advice?
Zeke, young couple in their 30s, two kids what should we do?
Zeke Guenthroth (10:47):
A great question and it will vary per
person and per circumstance, andby no means am I going to
provide financial advice.
So everyone out there, do yourown research.
True, um, yeah, that's okay.
Um, but yeah, generallyspeaking, um, you're in your 30s
, you got two, got two children.
You probably own your house.
You've probably got a mortgageon there.
If you've got two children, youprobably bought the house
(11:10):
before you first.
So you might have it for threeor four years, maybe five if
you're lucky so you will havehad a bit of equity growth in
there.
You probably have a savingsfund, you probably have an
offset account and you probablyhave a little amount of credit
card debt, but nothing toooutrageous, like you're not
spiraling.
Then the position kind of comesokay, what's next?
Are you either A in thecategory where you're just sort
(11:33):
of struggling day by day, or youB in the category where you're
able to save a little bit?
You might be thinking aboutholidays, but young children,
that's very hard to take them onthe holiday, I mean.
So generally what we find hereis, if they've got maybe
$150,000 in equity in theirproperty, they've got their
(11:54):
offset account, they've got arainy day fund or emergency fund
, whatever you want to call itstage.
They've actually got thepotential normally to then
invest and start building thatfuture.
So they might be able to,without even putting their
actual own money into it.
They might be able to refinance, cross-collateralize or pull
money out of their home and putit into another investment
(12:15):
property that will then go up invalue and pay them a rent as
well.
In that circumstance, if youcan start that in your 30s, then
if people are normally starting45, you've got a whole cycle
there of doubling the value ofthat property.
Property averages about a 6%return per year.
That's dating back about 100years from 2000 has averaged
(12:37):
about 9% per year.
So if you go and that's anAustralia-owned thing yeah, it's
actually dollar for dollaroutperformed the stock market in
Australia, which is wild.
But if you get that investmentearly and let's just say it's a
$500,000 property it's nothingextravagant, it's just they're
paying the rent then it's wortha million in 10 years minimum.
(12:59):
Yeah, generate an extra half amillion dollars in overall
assets without the debt attachedto it, because your debt's only
on the initial property or theinitial property value.
So if you focused on justpaying down your current debt,
which might be a 6% home loan ora 5.5% home loan, then yeah
(13:24):
sure, you might get that paidoff, or mostly paid off, in that
10-year period.
But let's say you pay off 300grand of your loan, you've made
500 grand on the property, soone of them gives you an extra
$200,000.
And that's what we're trying toeducate people on.
You don't need to just sitthere and smash away your debt.
(13:46):
You can use it and do betterthings and make more money.
And then, if you're notcomfortable with debt, guess
what?
You're 30 years old.
When you're 50, sell it all.
You've got more money.
You can do whatever you need todo.
Guillaume Jouvencel (13:57):
It's leveraging debt right To get
others to pay for it and youbuild wealth on this.
What you just described is whatyou're going to help, obviously
on a much deeper level,individuals with right, with
asset roots, and your company.
And on the podcast, you'regoing to try to break down
concepts and, you know, steerpeople towards the right
(14:17):
direction with personal finance,maybe the ones who are not
ready yet to have a personaladvisor or finance advisor to
really help them with theirwealth.
How do you link the two?
How do you make sure that thefinance Bible story is also
somehow linked to Asset Road andvice versa, potentially?
Zeke Guenthroth (14:36):
Yeah, absolutely so.
I guess if we start off withthe finance Bible, we'll come
back to Asset Road.
Ultimately, people that findthe finance Bible are out there
looking for some kind ofinformation.
They're at a point in theirlife where they're like, hey,
I'm not extremely up to scratchin my finances, I want to learn
(14:57):
more.
And that's how they stumbleacross that.
You know, it might be on ourInstagram, it might be it's just
popped up on Spotify orwhatever.
Their friend might listen to itand refer them to it.
They're ultimately finding thatand wanting to learn about
finances.
And so when we teach them aboutthe finances, eventually they
get to a point where they'relike, okay, these guys know what
they're talking about.
(15:17):
And then, when the time comes,they'll reach out to Asset Road
for more help, and that's whenwe can provide a professional
service.
The other way to go about it is, let's say, we're an asset road
and we get a client comethrough and they're not exactly
in a position where they're ableto invest in what we're sort of
(15:37):
going for.
Then we're in a position wherewe can help build that trust and
we can nurture them, we cankeep them educated, we can send
them through to the financebubble podcast, where they then
learn more and more aboutinvesting and their finances and
eventually they get in aposition where they're like okay
, we've taken these steps, we'vegot set up because we had
episodes on that, and then theycome back when the time is right
(15:59):
so it's a two-way street really.
Guillaume Jouvencel (16:04):
You have the people finding out about
your podcast or potentiallyother resources downstream of
the podcast and like gettingeducated and be like wait a
second, those guys actually knowwhat they are talking about.
And they end up reaching out toyou via asset road but also
people that you get first intouch with thanks to asset road
and who are quite not ready totake the next step with you.
(16:24):
You send them back to thepodcast to get educated, to get
the first things going, and thenthey're like oh, actually those
guys know what they're talkingabout and they come back to you
um, can we get to be tacticalabout how you do the first one,
meaning, so I see how.
So you have classical leaguegen and like potential word of
mouth.
People come to you, you getinto a call and you're like
you're quite not ready yet.
(16:45):
Um, but what about the otherway around?
Is it people just listening tothe podcast and ending up
booking a call and like tellingyou in the call hey, I've
listened to the podcast and Ithought that come.
Or do you have a system thatallows you to take the people
from the finance Bible storydownstream to asset fraud
management.
How do you do that?
Zeke Guenthroth (17:04):
Yeah, so we don't actually run a proper
system for it at this point intime.
What we normally do is if we'retalking about a specific
subject where the listener wantsmore information, because we
can only be so general with whatwe say in the podcast, like we
can get as specific as we wantabout a scenario, but if you're
(17:25):
just slightly that five percentdifferent, it's a whole
different scenario.
Like that five percent doesreally make a difference.
So at the end of the podcast weobviously have a call to action
where, if they need moreinformation, they want more
information, they want to checkthings out they can get in
contact with us and we'll oftendrop a link there.
They can do that or send us adm on instagram.
Um, we get a lot of DMs onInstagram from listeners Nice,
(17:49):
and then from there we canfilter through into CRMs and
stuff that we need.
A lot of the time.
When they're coming through thepodcast, they're very young.
It's an initial question wherethey're like hey, I'm thinking
about doing this or can you helpme with this?
They might be going for theirfirst home and we'll help them
with the finance around thatsituation.
Help them get that loan, gettheir home, and then they're in
(18:13):
our system where we can helpthem forever.
Guillaume Jouvencel (18:14):
So what do you mean with?
We help them with their firsthome?
Is it like putting the financeplan together?
Is it just choosing a home?
Is it choosing the rightdistrict, Because you know some
districts might appreciatebetter than others?
The reason I'm asking, Zeke, ispersonal finance for me is very
much stock-related, butobviously I got this wrong
because it's like all thefinance endeavors that we might
(18:35):
have.
But I'm a bit curious tounderstand what is it that
you're going to help with thehome typically?
Zeke Guenthroth (18:43):
First of all, it's also a matter of figuring
out how to get into that firsthome.
Okay, first of all, it's also amatter of figuring out how to
get into that first time.
So, without getting intospecific details, I can talk
about myself, obviously when Iwas 20, or actually I'll go to
18.
When I was 18 years old, I wasworking, as we know, at the bank
and I was in a position where Iknew I wanted to do things well
(19:03):
financially long term.
So I sat there and I researchedstocks all day, every day, like
I just went hard, learned whatI could and I started investing
pretty rapidly.
Every spare dollar I had wentinto shares, or I didn't even
have a spare 200 dollars.
I was like, no, I'm gonna spend90 of my paycheck on stocks and
(19:24):
the last 10 I'm gonna make tomake do I will live.
So I did that and I've turnedthat into about $130,000, give
or take pretty quickly withinlike a year and a half and I was
able to then turn that.
Yeah, I did very well.
(19:44):
I wouldn't say anyone out thereexpect the same result, because
there was a little bit of luck,but there was obviously a lot
of research, yeah, and then Ipulled all of that out to get
into my first property, whichwas an investment property.
I did that at 20, and I built abrand new house and got that
rented out.
That appreciated quite rapidlyas well, like maybe 250 grand in
(20:08):
about three years.
But again, the reason Iperformed so well, not only due
to the area it was in, but wehad covid, which caused a bit of
a boom as well.
So, um, again, don't use myresults as something to be like
oh cool, I can go magically, dothat.
It's not that easy, um,although you will do well.
But so we kind of figure out aplan for helping them get to a
(20:28):
stage they can buy their firsthome, if that's what they're
looking for, but then we'll alsohelp them with the financing of
it as well.
So, setting up the structure,um, getting that home loan,
whatever grants the governmenthas available, and then, if
they're in a certain area, okay,where in that area you're going
to buy, because you know, um,in every neighborhood there's
(20:49):
good streets and bad streets,good people, bad people, and
you've got to get it right man.
Guillaume Jouvencel (20:55):
That is an inspiring experience.
Just congratulations.
That's.
That's crazy to make such alarge amount of money in such a
short amount of time, but it'slike everything right.
If you put in the hardcoreefforts in this case, there I
say um, you can yieldsignificant results and, of
course, there will always bepart of luck in it, uh, in it,
but like you also provoked thatluck, so love it.
(21:16):
What were things that you foundchallenging in the podcast,
like?
What were some challenges,fails and, of course, how did
you walk around them to turnthem into success?
And kept on going for fouryears now.
Yeah, there is something coming?
Zeke Guenthroth (21:35):
Yeah, the initial sort of issue with the
podcast was like getting yourhead around the fact that you
were launching a podcast right.
Like you're doing somethingwhere you're trying to get
people to tune in and listen towhat you have to say.
Like you know, people activelyhave to then sit down and take
time out of their day to listento you.
(21:55):
Like it's just a very weirdconcept thinking that people are
going to do that.
Like you know, you can sit downand watch netflix.
You can sit down and um playgames on playstation like
there's so many different thingsand avenues of attention
Instagram, tiktok where you'vejust got hours and hours
disappearing.
Why would they sit there andlisten to some random
(22:17):
23-year-old from Australia, likeyou know, it's just a weird
thing to put yourself out thereand do.
And then there was actually therecording and listening to your
voice and getting familiar withthat whole thing.
And then there was actually therecording it, listening to your
voice and getting familiar withthat whole thing.
And you sort of choked up onperfection a little bit
initially and were like, okay,well, do I put this out there,
(22:40):
do I not?
And getting your head aroundthat was probably the big first
issue that we had.
And then, once we did that, itwas fine.
We realized, okay, well, itdoesn't have to be perfect,
we're better off putting thecontent out there and doing what
we can.
And then I remember the veryfirst episode.
I was sitting down in a garagewith Oscar and we were holding
(23:00):
our microphone and we're sittingon milk crates in the garage.
I believe we actually took aphoto of it to be like all right
, let's look back on this in afew years' time, that's perfect.
And that's what we did afterthat, to see where we are now.
It's obviously come a long way.
But yeah, that was probably thebiggest challenge we had
(23:23):
initially just getting our headaround that whole thing and
putting ourselves out there.
Challenge we had initially justgetting our head around that
whole thing and puttingourselves out there.
But then when we started seeingthe listeners come in and how
many there was, how long ourepisodes were, we're like, hang
on.
People are spending thousandsof hours consuming our content.
Guillaume Jouvencel (23:38):
Um, it's obviously valuable to someone,
so let's keep doing it so wealways say, right, perfect is
the enemy of good, and when youjust try to get something
perfect, especially at yourfirst shot, it never comes out.
So it's super important in this, I agree, to just get going.
(23:58):
It will get better, you willimprove and obviously now you're
in a much nicer setup than inyour garage or milk crates, and
it's just because things taketime and that takes time to
build up.
So what would you say would beyour advice to podcasters or
wannabe podcasters, especiallythe ones who have a business
behind it and who'd like to makethe link between the two?
(24:21):
Like, how would you recommendgoing about that?
Zeke Guenthroth (24:24):
I'd absolutely just, first of all, go for it as
in just start the podcast, getit done, put it out there and
again, don't get caught up intrying to be perfect.
Just take that leap, do it andyou'll soon see if it's working.
Be consistent with it.
That's probably the number onething that I've learned over
time.
There was a period where weweren't very consistent and it
(24:46):
went downhill for a bit and wehad to pick it back up, which
took a long time.
But put it out there and then,when you're trying to figure out
how to link it back to yourbusiness, just figure out what.
Don't think about it as abusiness.
First of all, I think, what isvaluable?
What do people want?
What do they need?
What are they going to look for?
If you can get that part rightand then position your business
(25:10):
as something that can help withthat, it will naturally flow on
through to the business.
So just try to keep the podcastas valuable as possible and
then, when you plug the business, at the end of the day, if
people are satisfied with yourcontent and they believe you,
you've built trust in that theywill come on board.
Guillaume Jouvencel (25:33):
So a few things I want to follow up on
here.
When you say consistency, whatdo you typically recommend?
Because so I'm looking at theFinance Bible podcast right now
and, like you're on a new seriespart one of 12, I see on the
Australia's Reality Check, Ineed to check out this one I see
that right now you'republishing about once a month.
At some point you werepublishing every week.
(25:55):
So what's the strategy here andhow would you recommend
actually scheduling episodes?
What is it that made it workfor you?
Zeke Guenthroth (26:05):
yeah, absolutely so.
Um, our, our aim now is to getit back to once a week, um,
which we're going to start doing.
There's been recent travels forwork and stuff like that.
That has obviously had animpact.
So we've learned our lesson ofbanking some episodes up to
cover that shortfall.
Ultimately, if you're notconsistent, it's not going to.
(26:29):
People are going to forgetabout it, they're going to miss
it, they're going to get annoyed.
So if you say, hey, we're goingto publish an episode every
Tuesday, publish an episodeevery Tuesday, publish an
episode every Tuesday.
Whether it's 10 minutes, 30minutes, it doesn't matter.
Keep it quality and justpublish it.
But yeah, we're going for amore consistent approach now of
weekly.
We have done it monthly in thepast, obviously, but with this
(26:55):
new series, which new episodesshould be dropping on Thursday
actually today's Wednesday thenwe should be all good to get it
out there.
Keep everything going andobviously, being part one of 12,
we're going to create peoplewho are tuning in to multiple
different episodes.
(27:15):
They're going to want to hearwhat's going on throughout it.
And that series actually isjust about sort of Australia as
a whole, where we are as acountry.
So there's a discussion oneverything.
You've got housing, you've gotpolitics, you've got interest
rates.
You've got literally everysingle thing our education
(27:36):
system.
We're going to dive into all ofthat, break it down bit by bit
and just sort of talk about allthe different issues that are
happening in Australia and whatsort of things can fix them, or
how we can take advantage ofthem financially.
Guillaume Jouvencel (27:47):
I love this .
I want to double down on a fewthings.
So, first of all, for peoplelistening to us right now, in my
opinion, consistency is key, soI love that you're pointing
this out, zeke, and it's notthat much of like a hey, I need
to publish a podcast every day,right, which is what Joe Rogan
does, but he's an ovni,literally.
He would like that description,but it's more like you want to
(28:09):
make it a habit for people tolisten to you.
If I know that for the next twomonths, I'm going to have a new
episode of zeke and oscartuning like dropping every
thursday at 8 am, I'm much morelikely to make the habit of like
tuning back in every thursdayat 8 am and actually this um
part 1 out of 12.
So creating a series is notsomething we've done a lot, but
I'm just thinking this is greatto create some hype, zeke, so
(28:31):
kudos to you.
Like, oh, okay, now I know, Iknow I'm in for a saga almost of
okay, I need to understandwhat's happening in the
Australian economy and how tomake the best out of my personal
finance from it.
So I think it's also great tocreate a mini series, make sure
that people will be hyped and belike, oh, I can't wait to tune
into part two and part three.
(28:52):
So that's definitely the way togo.
One last thing that I'd like todiscuss, especially around the
lead nurturing.
So how do you and that's downto content, right, which is
exactly what we're talking abouthere how do you choose what to
talk about?
Because I'm suspecting that thecontent that you would put out
(29:15):
to attract people, right, so tohave that kind of top of funnel
strategy, meaning peoplediscover you thanks to the
podcast, or the YouTube videofrom the podcast, or the reels
from the podcast or the articlefrom the podcast doesn't really
matter, but people finding outabout you thanks to the podcast
will typically be looking forcertain type of content, right,
and the people that you want tonurture, so, coming to you first
(29:36):
, not quite ready yet sendingthem back to the podcast, do you
point people towards differentepisodes, like, what's the
content strategy when it comesto?
This is for lead nurturing andthis is for top of funnel, brand
awareness kind of content?
How do you manage?
Zeke Guenthroth (29:52):
the mix.
Yeah, so we will typically,pending the kind of client that
comes to us, we'll recommenddifferent episodes.
So, for example, if they are intheir 20s, they're looking for
their first home, then we haveepisodes specifically for that.
If they're 25, they're lookingfor a share portfolio we had
episodes on how to manage that.
If they're paying down debt,we've got episodes to manage
(30:12):
that.
If they're 40 and want to startinvesting, we've got that.
So we've got a bunch ofdifferent episodes that they can
kind of tune into.
That we will initiallyrecommend when we send them back
through to the podcast.
When then it becomes all right,they've listened to all of them
.
They're probably going to tunein weekly to suss out what's
going on and see if there isanything that relates to them or
(30:33):
not moving forward.
But we will keep a record of whoit was when we talked to them,
what they were looking for andour rough time frame or what we
think they can achieve.
Then it's our role to get backin contact with them which we
obviously have a system toremind us to do that and
basically just get back to them,see how they're tracking, you
know, see what they've taken onboard, maybe even ask them about
(30:56):
the episode, like, oh, did youfind anything in this specific
one valuable, and sort of builda personal connection while we
go?
And then when they're ready togo, they're ready to go, they've
done everything, they've takenthe steps, and it's a lot easier
because they've got that trustbetween us.
Guillaume Jouvencel (31:10):
A hundred percent makes sense.
Is that proper English?
That makes a hundred percent?
Let's put it like this.
So, um Zeke, I'd like to finishon this.
What's your most popularepisodes that people can go to
and find out about you, Like?
What is the episode that hasworked the most that I will
spoiler alerts also listen to?
Zeke Guenthroth (31:27):
That's actually a really funny and interesting
question because I think ournumber one episode was one of
our very first ones, um, aboutsuperannuation, but it was a
deep dive into superannuationand superannuation will be in
the title.
So if you just search onSpotify or whatever finance
bubble, superannuation, it willpop up.
I can probably actually quicklyfind it as well.
Guillaume Jouvencel (31:49):
The funny thing is that I don't even know
what superannuation means.
Zeke Guenthroth (31:55):
So I'm going to have to Google this right now,
superannuation is Australia.
In America you've got like Roth, ira or your 401k.
Okay, sort of like that, but inAustralia.
Guillaume Jouvencel (32:04):
A saving system for workplace pension in
retirement involves moneyearning.
Okay, so you have a retirementplan by capitalization in
Australia as well, then not byreportition.
I think that's the Frenchsystem, which is a Ponzi scheme,
by the way.
So not giving any financialadvice, um, but like absolutely
crazy.
Okay, but so in australia youhave capitalization, which makes
(32:24):
much more sense.
Zeke Guenthroth (32:25):
Okay, cool, yeah, so it's basically just um
look at it your companies thatpay you a government mandated to
pay a portion of that intowhat's called your
superannuation.
Okay, your superannuation willthen be held with a company.
That company invests that moneyinto shares and stuff.
They take a fee out of it.
It's sort of just like a forcedsaving account that gets
(32:46):
invested by another company andthey take a fee.
So ultimately it's just economyboosting, and some of the fees
are outrageous and silly andshouldn't be done pending your
circumstances.
Again, not financial advice.
Yeah, shouldn't be done pendingyour circumstances.
Again, not financial advice.
Yeah, but you can actually makea self-managed super fund in
australia so ultimately you cancreate your own, take full
(33:08):
control of it, minimize fees andstuff like that and invest it
in property and things, becauseyou can't do that with a company
one.
But it was episode number fourand it was called why
Superannuation is your BestFriend.
Yeah, and to this day that isstill getting new listeners
every week, which is crazybecause that is in terms of
audio quality, in terms ofeverything.
Guillaume Jouvencel (33:31):
In a garage on milk crates remember guys.
Zeke Guenthroth (33:40):
Yeah, it's probably one of our worst that
we ever recorded in terms ofactual quality okay, as in
recording quality in terms ofcontent, really good, but we've
done many more, um, sort ofrefreshing that and making it
more relevant today, like it'sbeen more superannuation
episodes.
But yeah, that will give you areally good breakdown on what
superannuation is in australiaand how to utilize it.
Guillaume Jouvencel (33:59):
This is awesome.
Obviously, I'm not reallyconcerned by it, but I'll give
it a go.
That's interesting and that'sthe funny thing.
Like except for very rare cases, most of the most listened to
podcast episodes of mostpodcasts, some among the first
ones.
Because when somebody discoversyou, you know they start with
the beginning and they startwith the first ones.
Because when somebody discoversyou, you know they start with
(34:19):
the beginning and they startwith the first few episodes.
Corporate treasury 101, whichis our very first podcast.
To this day, each and everymonth, the most listened to
episode is still the first one.
What is corporate treasury like?
There is, there is nowherearound it.
This is the most listened toeach and every month, so it
shows that a you don't need tobe perfect to get started,
because people will still listen, especially years down from now
(34:40):
, but it also means that youalso come up with valuable
content.
So give it a go.
Go for it and talk aboutsuperannuation and why it's your
best friend, zeke that wasabsolutely awesome.
Zeke Guenthroth (34:51):
Go ahead go ahead Such a niche episode like.
Obviously it's only relevant toAustralians and I think our
most recent stat was only about60% of listeners are in
Australia, so for that to stillbe the number one is quite
abnormal.
Guillaume Jouvencel (35:06):
Yeah, here we go.
I mean, it's always interestingto hear about how it works in
other countries and what we canpotentially learn from them,
although most of the peoplewon't be.
It won't be relevant for somepeople.
Zeke, this was absolutely gold.
Thanks a lot for coming on.
Podcast Gurus If people want tofind out more about you, asset
Road or the Finance Bible, whereshould they go?
Probably?
Zeke Guenthroth (35:26):
go to Instagram first.
To be honest, go to Instagram,type in Asset Road or type in
Zeke Guntroff,g-u-e-n-t-h-r-o-t-h, or simply
google asset road, and that'sgot a link to everything.
Asset road is literally what itsounds like asset a double s?
E t road, r o a d?
Um.
Nice and easy.
That's for for emails, whenpeople like oh, what is your
(35:46):
email?
Simple um should figure it out.
Yeah, that's exactly right, butthat's probably the easiest way
to do it.
If you go to asset road, allour socials are there finance
bibles there, it's all sort ofintegrated Instagram.
We post quite regularly andprovide information and
different tips and stuff.
So jump on board.
Guillaume Jouvencel (36:06):
Absolutely awesome.
We'll put all the links in thedescription.
Go and check out what Zeke andOscar are doing.
Zeke, thank you so much forcoming on.
Podcast Gurus, thanks forhaving me Pleasure.
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