Building the Premier Accounting Firm: An Intentional Podcasting Journey, with Roger Knecht
A podcast can be much more than a marketing channel—it's a platform for strengthening your network, innovating on new ideas, and driving strategic business outcomes. This is well exemplified by Roger Knecht, President of Universal Accounting, and host of the "Building the Premier Accounting Firm" podcast.
A Voice for Radio (And a Face for TV)
It was common for people to remark about how Roger Knecht has a voice for radio. In fact, this led to voiceover work where he was encouraged to explore more opportunities in that world. “I'd like to think I also have a good face for television,” remarked Roger.
“For years, I have had the opportunity to do voiceovers and various work in that regard. And it was always encouraged that I get on the radio,” recalled Knecht. “And as podcasts became more popular, everyone was saying I needed a show, but I was reluctant because I just didn't understand what was going to be the story, what was going to be the purpose of the actual show.”
Finally, Roger found a groove and clarity in his role as a host and what his show would look and sound like. In 2020, Knecht launched his podcast, "Building the Premier Accounting Firm" with 10 episodes to start. His goal was simple yet profound: to help accounting professionals confidently and competently offer quality accounting services to get paid what they are worth.
Finding Clarity In The First Year Podcasting
Roger committed to a year of podcasting because he knew he needed to give it time before he saw a return on the investment. “If I could not commit to the consistency of it, I knew I'd lose my audience,” said Knecht.
“I needed to find the cadence. Is this going to be a daily show, a weekly show, or a monthly show?” Roger continued, “Once I resolved that it's going to be weekly, then all of a sudden I understood I needed 52 of these episodes and I only had 15 in the hopper.”
This operational clarity helped Roger map out the guests and topics for the remaining weekly episodes. Since then, Knecht and his team has maintained a 3-4 month buffer so he can comfortably meet his target publishing cadence.
This also meant he needed to make a decision to renew for another year sooner than he initially expected. “I had this buffer so that if I'm going to go into the next year, I've got to make this decision now because the episode I'm recording in October was going to be the one releasing in January,” said Roger. “When I started, I thought it was going to be 12 months later I'd make the decision. Honestly, it was about nine, 10 months later I was making the decision.”
The result? Over the past four years, Roger’s podcast has not only grown in terms of the quality of guests but has also cultivated a loyal audience. He has become more deliberate in his role as a host, making sure each episode is rich in value, relevance, and engagement.
Knecht’s Words of Wisdom: Take Yourself Out of the Limelight and Highlight Your Guest
One of the core tenets of Roger’s podcasting philosophy is celebrating other people’s stories and expertise. By providing a platform for guests to share their insights, Roger has become their champion, helping to elevate their professional standing.
“If you can take yourself out of the limelight and actually highlight your guest—put them on the spotlight and tell their story, get their expertise—one of the things that you do is you become their champion and they then in turn become a champion back to you,” said Knecht.
“So I have just found that because I've bothered to take the time to let somebody tell their story and share their insights and their expertise, all of a sudden they're grateful for me providing the platform.”
Marketing and Distribution of Building the Premier Accounting Firm
The joy of learning continuously and meeting interesting people permeates Roger’s podcasting experience. He also brings this growth mindset in his approach to marketing and distributing podcast content.
His show offers listeners an enriching blend of monthly in-studio video episodes as well as remotely recorded audio-only episodes, each providing variety in the depth of conversations as well as the formats in which his audience can consume content.
Leveraging Video “Shorts”
Over time, Roger learned that video plays a key role in growing his podcast audience. In particular, his team now uses 30-60 second video clips (or “shorts”) to promote the podcast on YouTube and Instagram. But that wasn’t always the case…
“I was doing audiograms originally [to promote episodes on social], and I just didn't find that they were beneficial. So we've moved away from the audiograms, moved to video shorts, and those have been very, very good for us,” said Knecht. “Out of that one studio recording once a month, I get plenty that I'm able to repurpose and it does great to promote the show and everything else.”
Because Roger has prioritized marketing and distribution, he has a team dedicated to supporting show promotion. “I have a team of individuals that snip out about three to five shorts that we can repurpose for social media. And they usually do a pretty good job. In fact, I have some that are very good at finding as many as 10 per episode.”
Rediscovering and Republishing Evergreen Content
New subscribers today didn’t hear what you said 6 months ago. Hence the importance of redistributing old content. While new episodes air every Wednesday, Roger has added a “rewind” on Fridays that resurfaces an older episode for listeners to enjoy.
“I just learned that there was some way in which Libsyn actually enables us to repurpose—not republish—but repurpose it,” said Roger. “It keeps the same download counts for the original publication. And so on Friday, I do a ‘rewind’ episode where I actually re-release a previously published episode.
What to Expect From Building The Premier Accounting Firm Podcast
Moving forward, Roger plans to monetize the podcast to offset production costs. He plans to do this by introducing commercials for his products and secure sponsors. But with an audience so niche, it’s hard to gauge the value of his audience when compared to traditional CPM benchmarks.
“The challenge we've been faced with is we're not large enough to really get paid for downloads and so forth. So I'm not at that level, but I do have enough of a unique audience that I think I can get sponsors.”
Despite these challenges, the podcast has driven indirect ROI through enhanced community engagement and lead generation. Listeners often share how Roger’s show has influenced their career decisions, underscoring the podcast's significant impact, even if it’s difficult to quantify financially.
As Roger continues to refine his podcast strategy, the journey serves as an inspiration for professionals looking to create meaningful connections and make a lasting impact through podcasting.
