What if the way people find your podcast has nothing to do with the algorithm gods — and everything to do with what they're actually typing into a search bar? Kandas Rodarte, host of Gratitude Geek and a longtime FPC member, has spent two years turning her show into an SEO case study, and she's sharing exactly what's working.

Kandas walks through how she splits her SEO strategy across Apple, Spotify, and YouTube (they're not the same game), why she moved her intro music to the 60-second mark instead of the first 15 seconds, and how running every episode through Auphonic changed her retention. She talks candidly about relaunching Gratitude Geek mid-metastatic breast cancer treatment, why she turned down a "superstar" guest because he didn't fit her niche, and the worst podcasting advice she keeps hearing ("just start" — she disagrees). Plus: the best advice she ever got, from her auto mechanic, about compassion.

Learn more about Kandas and her podcasts at https://kandasrodarte.com/

Join us in the Feminist Podcasters Collective at https://feministpodcasterscollective.com/

Nicole Havelka almost burned herself out before her podcast, Just Rest, even launched, so she did something most indie podcasters don't: she crowdfunded it. Feminist Podcasters Collective member Nicole breaks down how she raised nearly $5,000 to hire a launch partner, why Kickstarter's all-or-nothing model backfired on her (and how she recovered), and why asking for money turned into one of the best relationship-building things she's ever done. She also gets real about the "messy middle" of a crowdfunding campaign, the 8-10 hours she spent per episode in season one, and why she built her show around sustainable "good enough" instead of burnout-driving perfectionism.

• 00:00 – Welcome + introducing Nicole Havelka and her podcast, Just Rest
• 00:22 – One year "live," but two years in development
• 00:51 – What Just Rest is about: burnout tips for everyday radicals
• 01:20 – Nicole's reason for podcasting: sparking a "rest revolution"
• 01:55 – Why podcasting as a medium (auditory learning, the intimacy of being read to)
• 03:02 – The intimacy of podcasting and building relationships with listeners
• 05:06 – The rise of AI-generated podcasts — and why human voices matter more
• 05:44 – Human design and being "built" for podcasting
• 06:22 – Idea: hosting quarterly gatherings to connect podcast guests with each other
• 07:14 – Treating podcast guests as long-term relationships, not one-off bookings
• 07:49 – Why Nicole chose to crowdfund her podcast launch
• 08:27 – The real cost spectrum of podcasting (free to thousands per episode)
• 09:34 – Avoiding burnout by budgeting for help from day one
• 10:14 – What the money was actually for: hiring launch partner Alicia Galati of Galati Media
• 11:20 – The risk of Kickstarter's all-or-nothing funding model
• 12:14 – Pivoting to a direct Square donation link after falling short
• 13:02 – How Alicia produced Nicole's first three episodes soup to nuts
• 13:47 – Why crowdfunding was about preventing burnout, not just raising cash
• 14:04 – The final tally: about $5,000 raised
• 14:28 – Taking over after launch — plus a computer crash that derailed January
• 16:30 – Templates, systems, and the real time cost of show content (it's not just recording)
• 16:54 – Time per episode: 8-10 hours early on, versus Becky's ~2 hours now
• 17:38 – Learning to embrace "good enough"
• 17:54 – Building a sustainable every-other-week cadence
• 19:06 – What's next: two seasons a year, more solo episodes, and going nomadic
• 20:35 – Why Nicole isn't crowdfunding her next season
• 20:57 – Pro #1: getting comfortable asking for money
• 21:04 – Surprise benefit: asking for money deepened old relationships
• 22:43 – Pro #2: months of talking about the launch built awareness before day one
• 23:53 – The numbers: 17 episodes, almost 900 downloads
• 24:38 – Cons and cautions: why you need a "quiet phase" before you go public
• 26:00 – Getting laser-clear on your podcast's purpose and repeating it constantly
• 27:30 – The "messy middle" — and the workload of running a campaign solo
• 28:47 – What to do if you don't hit your goal
• 29:11 – Tip: use Kickstarter's free prep resources even if you don't launch there
• 30:11 – Right-sizing your funding goal to your actual audience size
• 31:00 – How the FPC community helped amplify the campaign
• 32:01 – Rethinking crowdfunding: visibility as the real goal, not just money
• 32:23 – Where to find Nicole and Just Rest

🎤 JOIN US IN THE FEMINIST PODCASTERS COLLECTIVE: https://feministpodcastcollective.com/

Podcasting doesn't come with rules other than the ones we make up. In this episode, Becky Mollenkamp talks with SuperKate (Kate Slepicka), host of Connecting with Super Kate, about ditching the "shoulds" of show format, working through fear and perfectionism, and using somatic check-ins to tell the difference between what's aligned and what's just scary.

SuperKate shares how a sound engineering background, a years-old idea, and a podcast accelerator course finally got her show off the ground, and why she now mixes solo episodes, guided meditations, and guest conversations instead of forcing a rigid weekly format. We dig into video vs. audio, YouTube-first podcasting, trauma responses vs. conditioning, and how listening to your body can tell you when fear is protecting you and when it's just holding you back.

🎧 Listen to Connecting with Super Kate: https://www.thesuperkate.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@connectingwithsuperkate

Join the Feminist Podcasters Collective, a community for independent podcasters centering equity and social justice: https://feministpodcasterscollective.com