Michele Riechman, host of Healthy Beyond 40, receives roughly 15k monthly listeners. She launched the show in March 2023 and has already managed to monetize it, an impressive achievement given the short time that it has been running. To put this into perspective, a recent report highlights success in podcasting often starts shortly after hitting the 100-episode milestone. And at the time of our recording, Michele had only 71 episodes.
Healthy Beyond 40 empowers women to take control of their health through simple life changes so they can feel good and live their best lives. Michele loves helping people get away from diet culture and focus on health. Beyond her role as a podcast host, she’s an online personal trainer and health coach, a mom of four, and a military spouse. She holds a doctorate in physical therapy.
Given her busy life, she strategically allocates her time to methods that actually work and bring more traction to her podcast. This way, she can balance family, self-care, and other important elements of her life while being a prominent figure in the health and wellness industry.
In this episode of Mics to Millions, host Sam Brake Guia sits down with Michele to dive deeper into the strategies that have enabled her to grow her podcast fast.
Leverage podcast SEO to boost visibility
Michele’s story is a powerful reminder that the success of your podcast doesn’t depend on the size of your social media following. Despite having a modest social media audience, Healthy Beyond 40 reached more people because she learned how to use SEO to enhance discoverability.
In a nutshell, SEO is about showing search engines your content is highly relevant to the user’s search query. This, in turn, improves online visibility and helps your podcast rank higher on Google.
Therefore, starting a podcast or publishing a new episode without a strategic approach to SEO may result in limited downloads and reach.
Choose clickable podcast titles
Michele says, “I usually try not to waste too much time. But when it comes to writing the titles of my episodes, I will definitely slow down.” While doing so, she can find a better way to incorporate essential keywords and make titles more SEO-friendly.
For instance, she considered naming her show “Beyond Perimenopause” or “Perimenopause and Beyond.” However, her business coach advised against these options, explaining that most people might not know what it means. As a result, she opted for Healthy Beyond 40. If someone is 40 or older—or even close to 40— finds her show, they are more likely to engage with it since it resonates with their specific interests and desires.
Keep in mind that choosing clickable titles doesn’t mean spammy or false titles. The key is to be true to the episode while using phrases that can intrigue someone to play your podcast.
🔔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.
Create content around successful episodes
To create better content that can keep her audience engaged and listening, Michele consistently checks her analytics to spot which episodes are doing well. Following that, she identifies the keywords that she can pull out and talk more about in different ways. By understanding the performance data, she tailors future episodes that are in line with her audience’s interest.
🔔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.