Kelly Smith, the visionary Founder of Yoga For You and an E-RYT 500 yoga and meditation teacher, embarked on her podcasting journey in 2017. After selling her yoga studio in Missouri and moving to a different part of the US, she wanted to find a way to still share some of these practices with her students.
As a podcast listener, she saw the potential in this medium to connect with audiences across distances. But the podcasting scene was different seven years ago. Getting people to learn what a podcast was and how to listen to it was tricky. Plus, the logistics used to be more complex because podcasting was still pretty small and very niche. However, these obstacles weren’t enough to stop her from creating Mindful In Minutes, though.
Today, her podcast boasts an impressive 600k monthly downloads. And she’s reached a milestone she always dreamed of–-being able to support her family financially while doing something she loves.
In this episode of Mics to Millions, host Sam Brake Guia sits down with Kelly to dive into the remarkable path of starting Mindful In Minutes and achieving a staggering 20 million podcast downloads.
Podcasting calls for a spreadsheet
One of the biggest takeaways from Kelly’s journey to 20 million downloads is the necessity of creating a spreadsheet to regularly monitor and track metrics related to your specific growth goals each week. She started hers in 2018 when her podcast was at 3k downloads a week.
Kelly recommends every podcaster adopt their own spreadsheet for two reasons. First, this data can unravel the mysteries behind huge jumps or occasional downturns. You can write down everything you think might have affected the growth of your podcast—be it adopting a new tool, riding on the wave of industry trends, or gaining traction on social media.
🔔Subscribe to Mics to Millions on Apple Podcasts or Spotify so you can be the first to listen! The episode will be live on Jan. 17.
Educating your audience can help you organically grow
When Sam asks Kelly about her most effective method for promoting Mindful In Minutes, she responds, “The most helpful thing ever is educating your audience on the power that they have to help you organically grow.” She continues:
“If you think about how you stumble across a new podcast, it’s usually because someone recommended it to you or you saw it somewhere. People don’t often just go to the charts or even necessarily the search bar and just start searching podcasts. It’s usually word of mouth.”
That’s why she’s always tried to educate her audience and express gratitude every time they leave a review.
Stepping up your professionalism is essential for podcast success
“When the podcast popped off, I had to get a little bit more professional with it because way more people started listening.” That’s why she began to explore different platforms that could allow her to get more detailed reporting, upgrade her ad strategy, and put out some of her own promos.
Thanks to this shift, Kelly used dynamically inserted ads to seamlessly announce upcoming initiatives throughout her episode library. In other words, her listeners can learn about the latest news and stay engaged with fresh content rather than hear about a retreat that took place three years ago.
🔔Subscribe to Mics to Millions on Apple Podcasts or Spotify so you can be the first to listen! The episode will be live on Jan. 17.