Howard Lindzon, the creator of the “Wall Strip” video podcast (“stock culture meets pop culture”), was interviewed by Expo organizer Tim Bourquin as the opening session for the 2007 Podcast and New Media Expo in Ontario, California.

Lindzon parlayed his background in the financial industry, and some financial backing ($600,000), and overlooked his own lack of experience in the media creation industry to jump into the stock podcasting business. He has reportedly sold the podcast to a traditional broadcasting company (CBS) eight months after starting the show, for $5 million.

He built the podcast, knowing he wanted to grow the business and ultimately sell it. He would love to see it get to regular television eventually, but for now it is on CBS Interactive.

“You’ve got all these media in the background, and there’s all this competition; it’s a challenge to stand out. …

We had to embarrass ourselves in order to stand out. …

I’d rather have a hundred people who can change your life watching our show rather than a million people over on YouTube who might not come back tomorrow….

We chose to do a shorter format show and that’s been good for us. CBS cringes when we go over three minutes, actually.”

Lindzon calls himself a “bird in the hand guy” and said it was the right decision for him to grow the show, and sell quickly. For him, he says, that relieved the pressure to perform and maintain the intensity of a well produced frequent show.

He added that he is passionate about the subject matter (stocks and finance), has years of experience in that subject matter, but would not want to be on-screen in the long term, or jump into some other topic area in which he’s not an expert, in which he doesn’t know the bloggers and the supporters who will support and spread the word about the podcast project.