Joe Macek explains how he won 10K subscribers, why he stays in his lane, and why advisors don’t want their first videos to go viral
Joe Macek’s YouTube channel mirrors his advisory practice. It was built with discipline, dedication, and hard work. It focuses on retirement planning and answering cross-border questions. Perhaps most importantly, it offers qualified information from a licensed individual. Macek is an investment advisor and portfolio manager with iA Private Wealth in Winnipeg, Manitoba and his YouTube channel is now sitting at over 10,700 subscribers, with some of his videos netting well over 100,000 views.
Macek explained that he embarked on building a YouTube channel with three goals: to reach potential clients, to provide a trusted source of financial information, and to add another income stream through monetization. He outlined how he built the channel to where it is, and how he manages issues like online misinformation, as well as the steps other advisors can take to start YouTube channels of their own. He says that despite his lofty ambitions and eventual success, his early videos aren’t something he looks back on fondly.
“My videos were terrible,” Macek says, laughing. “I say this not to discourage advisors from going down this road. I say it because it's very likely that that if you're an advisor and you're going to start a YouTube channel, as awesome as you think your videos are going to be you're going to look back on that content and say, ‘oh my gosh I can't believe I made that video.’ And that's pretty much the same feeling that I have.”
Some advisors may think they’ll go viral with their first video when they start a YouTube channel. Macek cautions against that expectation and even that goal. The first video, he says, is not the video you want to rack up millions of views because it’s likely not going to be your best work. If video #100 goes viral that may be a bit better for an advisor.
Macek says that the learning curve for his channel was a steep one at the start. While certain technical aspects like editing were easier than he expected, in part thanks to the AI now embedded in a lot of editing software, Macek says some of the softer skills were tough to learn. Writing engaging scripts was tough, as was learning to feel and appear comfortable on camera. His first videos involved a few mistakes, but with trial, error, learning, and persistence he found his feet.
While Macek began his channel in 2019, his subscriber count really started to ramp up this year. In the four years between 2019 and 2023 he brought in about 1,000 subscribers. The next 9,000+ came in 2024 when he dedicated himself to a strict schedule of two video posts per week. Once he started posting consistently he found himself getting more views and more engagement. That was when his channel really began to take off.
The content of his videos has been core to his success on YouTube. Macek says that the best performing videos tend to be informative and educational in nature, especially on questions of CPP and OAS. While as an advisor he thought these subjects might prove to be a bit of a yawn for viewers, he’s been surprised at how many views and subscribers his CPP and OAS videos bring him. Some of the more niche topics he likes to explore will offer less traction with viewers, though he loves getting to explore those topics in his videos.
The content he makes, Macek says, will inform the kind of viewers and potential clients he attracts via his channel. By staying strictly in his lane and focusing on topics that he is qualified to discuss, Macek has used his channel to bring in more of his ideal clients. Videos that might rack up millions of views, he says, may not be as effective at bringing in those clients simply because they’ll reach too broad of a base.
Macek knows, too, that he is swimming in murky waters. YouTube is replete with financial influencers promising 10x, 20x, or 100x returns on memecoins and stock fads. Often unqualified and lacking certifications, many of these ‘finfluencers’ peddle promises with plenty of omissions. In that environment, Macek leads with his qualifications and certifications.
He explains who he is, a registered portfolio manager and investment advisor licensed with iA Private Wealth Inc. in Canada and an SEC-registered Investment Advisor licensed through iA Private Wealth USA in the United States. His content is also vetted by a compliance team — whom he praises wholeheartedly for their speed and supportiveness — adding additional legitimacy to his messaging.
As other advisors consider using YouTube or another form of social media, Macek says that they need to get to work understanding these platforms now. As the client base gets younger and more social media savvy, he says that having a serious content marketing presence is no longer going to be a ‘nice to have’ it’ll be a ‘must have.’
“There’s a Blackrock article that showed how much social media drives growth for advisors. Investors expect advisors to be on social media. Nearly half of mass and the mass affluent and high net worth investors are more likely to engage with you as an advisor if you use social media. 20 per cent of investors say that an advisor's social media presence was the sole factor by which they evaluated them. And this trend is going up with younger investors. Among Gen Z, adults, 23 per cent won't even consider talking to you as a financial professional if you don't have a social media presence. Social media is no longer something that you can kind of have or have not. I think it's a critical tool for building your business.”
