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

Becky Mollenkamp sits down with Feminist Podcasters Collective member De'Nicea Hilton Harper to talk about her podcasting comeback. A decade ago, De'Nicea co-created Sisters of Flow, one of the first podcasts to openly discuss menstrual cycles, earning a Podfest award along the way.

Now she's launching Perfect Care Play-Versations, a show exploring the connections between body, environment, and systems in holistic women's health, where evidence-based practice meets practice-based evidence.

They dig into what changed the second time around: letting go of algorithm-chasing and "best practices" noise, building a podcast around joy instead of metrics, and starting a listener community ("Besties") from day one instead of waiting. De'Nicea also opens up about the real vulnerability of talking publicly about health and sovereignty in an age of AI confusion and parasocial risk.

If you're an independent podcaster thinking about relaunching, building community around your show, or podcasting with a social purpose, this one's for you.

Learn more about De'Nicea and her podcast: https://playground.mvt.so/

🎤 Learn more about the Feminist Podcasters Collective: https://feministpodcastcollective.com/

Rachel Duncan runs the Money Healing Club, helping people heal their relationship with money — and she's been podcasting about it for almost two years. In this conversation, Rachel gets real about the parts of podcasting nobody warns you about: burning out on a weekly schedule, learning to say "good enough," and finally hiring a producer (and what that actually costs, financially and emotionally, for a solo business owner).

We also dig into how her podcast fits into her marketing ecosystem (hint: it's nurturing, not top-of-funnel), the surprising ways it's deepened client retention, why her solo episodes consistently outperform her interviews, and how one Speakpipe voicemail turned into her most sustainable content habit. Plus: the unexpected PR and networking wins that came from putting her voice out into the world.

If you've ever wondered whether hiring help is "worth it," whether you're posting too much or too little, or how to repurpose two years of episodes instead of letting them disappear into the archive — this one's for you.

Find Rachel and the Money Healing Club podcast: https://www.moneyhealingclub.com/

Learn more about the Feminist Podcasters Collective: https://feministpodcasterscollective.com/

Nadine Stille always had the questions — as a kid, as a journalist-in-training, as a coach. Now she's turning that curiosity into Fangirl Your Life, a podcast built on a simple, radical idea: what if you gave yourself the same devotion you give your favorite artist, book, or sports team?

In this conversation, Nadine and Becky talk about why podcasting feels more intimate than any other platform, the real (steep) learning curve of year one, and how community — both in the Feminist Podcasters Collective and beyond — kept her from flaming out. Nadine also gets honest about workload, systems, and what it actually looks like to let a podcast build your business slowly instead of overnight.

Topics covered:
00:00 – Intro
00:23 – "The reason I podcast is..." — curiosity, advocacy, and connection
02:38 – How Fangirl Your Life started
04:51 – The goal of the show: inspiring people to dream again
07:38 – Why podcasting (over blogging or social) for this message
09:26 – The real talk on podcast workload
13:02 – Systems, planning, and the Podcasting While the World's on Fire workbook
16:16 – Using the podcast as a business tool, one season at a time
19:54 – The unexpected payoff: joy
22:07 – Why community is what keeps her going
23:38 – The worst podcasting advice she's heard
24:22 – The best podcasting advice she's received: plan ahead
26:41 – Where to find Nadine

Guest: Nadine Stille (she/her), host of Fangirl Your Life 🔗 fangirlyourlife.com

About this series: Conversations with members of the Feminist Podcasters Collective about their shows, their why, and what they're learning along the way. Join the community at feministpods.com.

Lindsay Johnson (they/them) won't call themselves a podcaster without an asterisk — and that's exactly why this conversation hits.
In this episode of our Why I Podcast series with members of the Feminist Podcasters Collective, Lindsay — host of The Radical Connector (formerly the Playing Big Podcast) — talks about letting the podcast become an afterthought once video took over, the real difference between "hard work" and being uncomfortable on camera, and why most of the excuses we make about video are imposter syndrome in a trench coat.

We get into:
• Why the podcast took a backseat once video took over
• The mental game of showing up on camera (and why the editing was never the hard part)
• Repurposing old blogs, lives, and YouTube videos into fresh content
• Separating your worth from internet hate comments
• What it means to claim "podcaster" when you're still in the messy middle

Find Lindsay: radicalconnector.com
YouTube: The Radical Connector
Instagram: @radicallens

Want in on a community of equity-centered indie podcasters? Join the Feminist Podcasters Collective at https://feministpodcasterscollective.com

Amy Stone has been a storyteller her whole life, from ferrying tapes between recording studios as a kid to launching The Art of Imperfect Adulting, a top 3% global podcast about women, transformation, and change.

In this conversation, Amy and Becky dig into what it actually takes to build an indie podcast that makes money (hint: it's not CPM), why women creators need to step into the advertising side of media, and how collaboration (not competition) might be the real path forward for independent creators.

They cover:
• Why Amy describes herself as someone who'd "interview the palm trees" on a deserted island, and what that tells you about building a sustainable creative practice
• The journalism-to-podcasting pipeline, and why those skills still matter even when the industry has completely changed
• How the CPM advertising model fails indie podcasters, and what to do instead
• The real gap in podcast sponsorships, and why the dog groomer in Indiana might be your best sponsor prospect
• Why having women in control of their own media isn't just representation, it's a business imperative
• What it means to "know what you're bringing to the table" before you pitch a sponsor

Amy Stone is host of The Art of Imperfect Adulting. Subscribe and watch her show at ‪@imperfectadulting‬ and visit https://imperfectadulting.com/.

🎙️ Learn more about the Feminist Podcasters Collective at https://feministpodcasterscollective.com/