The term “embedded finance” is hugely popular in fintech and gaining traction more broadly. The potential is huge—$7 trillion by 2030. Yet a significant knowledge gap exists among non-financial brands and tech companies. To bridge this divide, Lars Markull, an embedded finance adviser who supports brands, infrastructure providers, and banks as they explore and build embedded finance products, has embarked on a content creation journey that includes blog posts, newsletters, podcasts, and events. He’s rapidly built a significant niche following and attracted sponsors, with indirect benefits to his main consulting business.

He shared his insights about his content strategy and the challenges of balancing consulting with media activities.

👇🏼Below you will find an edited transcript of the conversation

👂Listen via the player above and the usual podcast platforms

👀 Watch on YouTube for added charts & visuals.

**NB: Embedded Finance Review is an Orama client and I’ve also interviewed Lars for my Fintech podcast.**

Personal Highlights:

* It’s a journey (you won’t get everything right on day one)

* It’s a bit like a workout: You need a cadence, but build up gradually

* As a consultant, you may not get a lot of direct enquiries, but producing content helps with visibility, authority, and relatability

Transcript:

George Aliferis: When I look at the Embedded Finance Review online, I see a newsletter and a podcast. How do you characterise it as a content platform for your consulting business?

Lars Markull: It's been quite a journey. Initially, I started with insightful blog posts on LinkedIn, sharing insights about embedded finance. I identified a knowledge gap between FinTech companies and non-financial tech brands. My goal was to produce content for the latter group. The early blog posts were an educational series, which I'm reworking for an updated release soon. I soon realised the challenge of maintaining this output frequency, so I explored other formats like news curation. Now, I focus on a European perspective in my weekly newsletter, gaining great feedback from various sectors. The podcast naturally followed, amplifying the stories of those who've succeeded in this field. Recently, I've started organising physical events in European cities to foster connections between different sectors. It's a journey of education, especially for non-financial brands, as they navigate these trends.

GA: You haven’t mentioned the word marketing. But building online communities via episodic content and then hosting physical events sounds like a good marketing strategy for many B2B brands. Did you first launch as a consultant and then move into content creation, or was it concurrent?

LM: I always had a love-hate relationship with producing content. When I was employed in open banking, it must have been in 2016-2017; I started under my own domain with my own name. Basically, I started publishing blog posts. My big role model was Fred Wilson, a VC in New York who became famous with his blog, called avc.com. Back in the day, he published a blog post every single day. On some days it was a photo on the beach with a dog. But it was quite often really insightful stuff. I realised I wasn't always enjoying the writing part, but putting content out there is really helpful. Even as an employee, it was helpful to be visible in the space for the things you're doing.

I pushed myself to post back in the day. I focused on embedded finance. By learning, and speaking to companies, I understood there’s a massive gap. The content is not there. That's when I realised I needed to come back to that. And, to be honest, now the content production around embedded finance is a lot more love and a lot less hate. Of course, there are still days when you are writing the newsletter or doing something where you feel like you have a bit of writer's block. It's good to have a rhythm to keep getting stuff out there.

GA: And how do you think about monetisation?

LM: I never did it for monetisation. I've now started taking sponsors for my newsletters, as this could give me more time to focus on content because right now it's a side thing. A newsletter is a great way for lead generation. It's not like I've received a lot of project enquiries, but I think it definitely helps with building your brand, not so much with the cold network but with your existing network. Sharing on LinkedIn is definitely helpful.So sharing on a weekly basis, my newsletter, and my podcast definitely helps me to be visible. And again, it's a journey. I don't think embedded finance review will become a media business, but the media element will become more relevant.

GA: 11FS are doing it well, right? They have sponsorship and make money from the media element, but their core business is consulting. Do you have any tips in terms of the workflow and the process that you can share with us?

LM: When I started blogging in 2016, I tried to keep a weekly cadence. I stuck with that for a month or two, then I stopped for a week, and typically one week of stopping meant stopping for another six months. So it's good to keep a rhythm. I think you have to be realistic about what you can achieve. I didn't start with a weekly newsletter. I started monthly, then biweekly, then weekly. You can learn a lot while you do these things. And similar to what I said about the embedded finance process, it's not possible to build a perfect thing from day one. You need to iterate to learn. I learnt that news curation and interviews are great because they don't require too much creativity on my end. I need to find people. I need to be active, find the stories, go out there and amplify them. But I don't need to come up with crazy new concepts around embedded finance.

Find something that works for you; find a cadence content you feel comfortable doing long term.

GA: What are the challenges or things you’d like to improve on?

LM: I spend a lot of time thinking about the mix of consulting and content activities. How they can contribute to each other. There's a lot of thinking around that, but I'm not going to find the perfect answer. I keep trying things; with the sponsors now, I potentially have more time to invest and then see where it goes.

Every day as an entrepreneur, there is a new challenge, something they didn't expect, sometimes small, sometimes big. I think that's just part of life.

GA: You are a leading light in embedded finance, fulfilling an important mission to connect brands to finance opportunities. But I think you're also nailing it with your approach as an entrepreneur and content creator.

More about Lars Markull:

* Follow Lars on Linkedin

* Subscribe to Embedded Finance Review

Useful Resources for Brand Podcasters:

* The Brand Podcast Checklist

* Grow Through Conversations: a Framework for B2B Brands

* Distribution and Audience Growth Playbooks for B2B ‘Shows’

* How to stand out in a crowded niche (when everyone has a podcast)

And to finish, a bit of fun😂

And some interesting reflections on The Podcast Election

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit oramatv.substack.com

The art of blending content and consulting services (Embedded Finance Review)