Podcast Mission: A Guide To Achieving Your Podcasting Goals with Melissa Monte of the Mind Love Podcast

Wish you were one of those influencers with raving fans who binge on your every word, consume all your content, buy everything you have to sell, and demand even more. Then stay tuned while Authority magazine columnist and buzzfeed contributor Tracy Hazzard shares strategies, tips and tactics from top videocasters, podcasters, authors and social influencers on creating that bingeable factor. Now let's join Tracy as she explores how to rise above all noise with the binge factor.

Hey everyone, this is Tracy Hazzard from Feed you'd brand center of Influence podcast and I am interviewing another really great podcaster who you've got to learn from. So today I'm bringing you Melissa Monti, the host of the popular podcast Mind Love. Don't you just love that title? It's already got a great title, so you'll hear a lot of why that title is so essential in creating a great podcast. But her podcast is all about raw stories, personal experiences, inspiring interviews, and highlighting the incredible role that Mind plays in happiness, health, success, love. She's a former corporate VP who's turned entrepreneur and yogai. And she's a self proclaimed seeker. Melissa spent the last 16 years exploring methods of improving the human condition and learning what makes us tick. I love that. Melissa, I'm so excited to have you here. Thank you for being with me.

Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited.

So let's start about the podcaster's journey. I mean, it didn't just come out of a whim saying, hey, I'm going to start a podcast. Because I think I might have read in Forbes that you started out as a blogger.

Yeah, well, I got interested in just entrepreneurship a while ago and part of that was listening to podcasts. I started listening to Pat Flynn, which I loved, and he really called to me because of just his authenticity. And so I remember thinking, I'm going to do something. And you know those.

He's the reason I started.

Really? Yeah. Sparks of ideas are coming and I'm like, I could create an Amazon store, I could do a blog, and I could do. And so the easiest entry point for me seemed to be blogging. So I started a travel blog and I used these little methods to get noticed pretty early on. So I started to get free travel. But it wasn't long before I realized that travel was my happy place. And the last thing I wanted to do at the top of Machu Picchu was to be vlogging. So taking photos and making sure my audience was happy, that's where I wanted to escape. And so that was kind of the first lesson in learning how to create something that's going to be sustainable for you.

I love that. Now, I noticed you might not still be blogging. I didn't see a blog on Mindlove.

I don't still blog. No, I don't.

Well, you know, why is it. It's just too much work, right?

Yeah. Well, that was part of my journey to realizing that I wanted to do podcasting in general was because I don't love writing anymore. It used to be my thing. I majored in journalism, but something about sitting down to that blank page blanks my mind. And I started to think, well, when do I feel the most fluid? When do I feel like I'm giving the most value? It's when I'm talking. So podcast sounds like the perfect solution for me.

Well, I could not agree more. So, as you know, you're here because I'm writing an article on you for Authority magazine, and yet I'd much rather do these interviews than have you guys submit information. And then I figure out and research and write an article on it. That, to me, is so dry. It's missing this passion and this connection, and so I'm so excited. You're the first one who took advantage of the interview part, so I'm really excited about that part of it. So others would just rather submit their information and a press release, and it's just not the same thing. It's missing the human touch, which I know that you're all about.

Yes, well, I'm glad to be here. I mean, that kind of fits both of our needs and me loving to talk more than write. So this was perfect for me.

So tell me a story about the most interesting thing that's happened to you because of your podcast.

Everything was kind of a whirlwind after I started my podcast. It took off in a very pleasant way. And so I have been invited to speak at conferences on how I grew my podcast so quickly. I've been on some top shows, but I think the most valuable thing for me has just been the way my network's been able to grow. And you hear so much. Your network is everything. It's where you get your opportunities. That next big opportunity, there's a few ways to get there, but one of the easiest ways there is just through the people you know. And so with podcasting, it's very awesome because it's a mutually beneficial platform. So even though I'm reaching out for somebody to be on my show, and it's an ask. I'm also saying to them, how can I help you promote what you're working on? How can I share my audience with you? And so when you're coming together with people in that way, some really amazing things can happen. And so one of my favorite things has been just this entrepreneur network I found in LA through inviting people on my show. And so about once a month I get to go to this amazing house in the Hollywood Hills. And they've had names there like Randy Jackson and David Maisel of Marvel Studios and even Kevin Harrington of as Seen on TV and Shark Tank. And so I get to go learn from them every month, which is really, really amazing. But I think that's got to be the most interesting.

I love that I found the same thing, it's very similar is that we hear a lot of these stories. So I'm looking forward to bringing more of those stories out to people. As to what it's given you, kind of on the personal side, but a lot of us are building businesses using podcasting. So how has it helped your business grow?

It's where I started my business from scratch. And so as you mentioned that I was a former corporate vice president, I was working with startups actually. And so that experience kind of lent to helping me grow my show in just learning to write pitch decks and manage a number of different things. You know, in a startup you're wearing so many different hats and same when you're starting your own business. So that was very helpful. But when I first began podcasting, it was because I was so unfulfilled in what I was doing. The CEO I was working with wasn't the energy that I seek in a relationship I have to come to every single day. And so I started to find what would make me fulfilled on the side without having to take that first big risk and give up everything. So podcasting started as a little bit of a side hustle for me and within a few months I knew it was going to take off and it was still a lot of sacrifice in the beginning. It's not like I was suddenly replaced my income, but I suddenly had the faith that I could replace my income. So I decided to go all in. I put full time work into my podcast, I got it to grow to a certain level and sponsorship started coming in. And then I started to really take survey responses for my audience to see how I could best serve them. And I created my first course off of that. And so now between my courses and sponsorships, I have now replaced my income and now it's just growing that from there and seeing how many streams of income can come in. And what I love about something like this is that really the sky's the limit in what you think you would excel at and the ways that you can best serve. So I am considering events, I am looking into a possible membership site, but again, it's kind of finding that middle ground between what I think is sustainable for me, what would really bring me joy, and what would best serve my audience. So it's still unfolding.

Yeah, I love it. I love it. That's so great. Your mindset in general is kind of a big category, but you're pretty unique in that. Have you cultivated that purposefully? I mean, have you really thought about how you stack up against the other podcasters and thought about, hey, I'm separating myself, or have you just done it organically?

It's been a little bit of both. I think my personality in general is the type that likes to stand out or when I see everybody in the room agreeing on one thing, even if I agree with that, my natural tendency is to poke a little hole over here and challenge it and see if we can get a more well rounded. Oh, you and I are going to.

Be great friends, Melissa.

Yeah, I feel like when you feel so secure in your truth, that's when you should start questioning because it's always a bigger picture than we see initially. And when we do feel so convicted in our beliefs, that's a sign to me that everyone around us might be involved in groupthink or all of those things. I think I came from a fairly close minded background and so when I started to have unique thoughts in teen years, that was just a big thing for me was being as open minded as possible because I didn't feel like I was surrounded by that when I was younger. So I like to come at my show with a very open minded approach and do some topics that maybe haven't been touched on in a mindfulness show before.

Share with us some of the topics and some of the guests you've had because you got a really great highlights and I think. How many episodes are you in it?

I'm in the 70s right now.

In the 70s, right. So yeah. So what have been some of the highlights?

My absolute favorite is my favorite author in the world, Paul Selig. His books changed my life. He has channeled multiple books in front of a live audience with no editing, which just challenged my beliefs on what I thought was possible in channeling in general. That wasn't Something I was raised as truth with. But then I've even touched on some more. Like Angela Duckworth's Grit came on. She was really great. But I've also done episodes on the surprising psychology of bdsm because I read an article that people engaged in the BDSM lifestyle have a lower anxiety, depression, rates of a ton of different mental imbalances, slightly higher narcissism, but that's to be expected.

Oh, I love it. So you get to explore your curiosity on your show. I love that.

Yeah, it's interesting because I used to view these things as distractions. I remember finding books that had nothing to do with what I was doing with my life at the time and being so interested in it and wondering if I was just going to be that person with scattered interest my entire life until I started to drill down. It was that point of quarter life crisis when I was like, what am I going to do with my life? And I started to just lay out what my ideal day looked like and what really interests me. And I started to find the through line that everything had to do with mind expansion and realizing that if in a shift of mindset, you have a little more power than you think you do. And so that's really what the premise of my life is about, not just my show. I love it.

I love it. So I got a lot of people who are going to be watching this and reading the articles, and they're going to be just starting and thinking about starting out a podcast. What are some of the mistakes you made? What are some of the things you wish you're like, I wouldn't do that again. Or some of the things, you know, you did really well and you want to give them some advice to definitely do that.

Well, I think as far as mistakes, the mistakes have all been learning points. And so I feel like the more we try to avoid the mistakes, the more our fear holds us back from taking action. So to preface this, none of the mistakes were anything that were like a knife to the gut, nothing fatal. But one of the biggest ones was early on, I secured a big interview at the time with Alex Maier. He's actually the founder of Mentor Box, if people have heard of that. He was the founder of zoosk, worth, like, half a billion dollars at this point. And he agreed to come on my show partially because of how I positioned myself with networking, which we can get into later. But he came on, and it was one of those things where I felt kind of like a newbie. I was a newbie at this time, and he was on the other end just like, can this be actually 30 minutes instead of 45? Like, those things I already know. I'm infringing on his time. And then the interview starts. He's doing it on his phone, by the way. And every minute or so, there's a buzz like he's getting a notification. And I can see him swiping the notification away. And he never put it on do not disturb. But I felt too timid to actually ask him to put it on do not disturb. So I went through the whole interview, and it wasn't up to my content standards. Even though it was him, I couldn't air that on my show, so I had to just pass it off. And it was a lesson. And realizing, you know, I felt worthy enough to get to this place, why did it suddenly, what held me back from speaking? Something that I knew was going to not just serve me, but to serve my entire audience. And now that interview kind of went to waste. So that was probably my biggest lesson, is just learning to speak up for myself and if I know something's going to be good for my audience, say that this is my realm of authority here.

That's right.

You're the power. Yeah. And I'm able to stand in that. So that was a mistake. And as far as the things I did right, I did a lot of Googling on how to grow a podcast. Part of it is working backwards and realizing, how do I find podcasts? And I have spent a lot of time in the app world, so I love downloading other apps. And one of the things that I did was I downloaded a bunch of other podcast apps and looked for the ones that had their own featured sections because Apple wasn't updating their new and noteworthy section for quite a while. So I thought, how can I get featured in other areas? That really, really worked for me, and it was a huge springboard to my growth. And so it wasn't just that one tip, but the fact that if you work backwards and realize, how do I get my podcasts? When was the last time somebody recommended one? And I actually began listening. So those things come from guesting on other shows. I found some of my favorite podcasts because they were guests on podcasts I was already listening to and being recommended through people that also listen to podcasts. So the hardest way to get somebody to start listening to you is if you just put an ad on Facebook or you start sharing all over social. Number one, those people are your friends not seeking you for business advice. Most of the time. And number two, many of them might not even know how to download a podcast. So you've got to find the spots of the least amount of friction.

I'm laughing because this is the story I tell. Our very first podcast was called WTFF, which is about 3D printing. And my mom didn't listen to it for, like, months because she thought we were swearing because she didn't understand that it stood for what the fused filament fabrication, which is a geeky term for 3D printing. But that's what she said. And then I realized actually it was because she didn't know how to download it at all and she was too embarrassed to tell me that she didn't know what a podcast was. But I laugh because that story resonates again and again across the community. We hear that so often. It's like most of them don't even understand how it is. And I, including podcasters, like, I talk to podcasters every single day who they didn't listen to podcasts before.

Right. That you would assume might know how to get a podcast, are then too afraid to ask somebody else. Have a page on your website about exactly how to give a review and how to download your podcast. Have it playable from there. Reduce the friction in as many ways as possible. And then when you are sharing just with your friends on social, instead of sharing my episode every week, that's a good way to get all of your friends to just hide you from ever showing up in their timeline again. I would share my wins like I was just featured in Forbes. I was just featured here. Other people like this. It's that social validation that you have to add. So it's about coming at things from the sides instead of straight on sometimes.

Well, we're going to be doing a.

Feature for BuzzFeed, actually, and so I'm going to ask you five quick questions and you're sort of thinking about it from the podcast of the best way to for your purposes. So the best way to book guests.

Make it easy for them, first of all, have a calendly link or a booking link. There's nothing worse than that back and forth going on and on and on. It makes your life a lot easier, too. But my biggest piece of advice there is write your pitch email as you would if you were pitching for investors or writing a pitch deck or pitching to be featured somewhere. Add validation in whatever ways you can find it. So if you're a newbie, what I did is I had taken Pat Flynn's course and I Then also weaseled my way into his network and told him he was my mentor. So when I was reaching out to guests, I was actually saying I am mentoring under Pat Flynn, who's named in Forbes as blah blah blah, using his validation as my own. So whatever way you can get validation that can also include past business successes, they're buying into you. They're going to spend an hour of time with you. And so the less you have to show with your own podcast, the more you need to reach in with validation from other areas of your life so that they know that this is a worthwhile time commitment instead of just another podcast that might be off. Might have given up after 15 episodes. Definitely.

So the best way to increase listeners.

Ask people to share. That's one of my biggest ones. The more I ask people to actually share and tell them how to share specifically I'll say screenshot this and tag this. I notice an influx in those episodes that are actually getting people to come in through them. So that's been really, really helpful. Also, it can also be helpful to target clump of episodes based on topic. So that was another time that I noticed a really big increase was when I did three episodes on relationships in a row and I started to specifically notice on social that people were saying this is a really great episode on relationships and her next two episodes are going to be on relationships also. That's when people really know, instead of just saying, I know my friend would be interested in this type of mindfulness, they start to think, I know this friend needs relationship advice right now and I can share with her three weeks worth of value right now. So that was helpful. And then finally guesting on other shows because it's that reduced amount of friction. And so one of the best ways I've found to do that is to go to your own show and look for the related shows at the bottom. That has already proven that those related shows are found because those people are listening to your show and those shows. And so then reach out to them and see if you can do a guest swap or something along those lines. And that's been really helpful as well.

Oh, that's such a great tip. Everyone really listen to that one super power tip. Your best way to produce it in.

A professional manner, equipment and adding your own style. So I use the ATR 2100 microphone. It's actually, we both do. It's such a great microphone that is so affordable. I get compliments on my sound all the time. I also use. It's like a $10 pop filter and a shock mount. Those things help as well. Those are very inexpensive. You can get your whole setup for under $100. I edit the whole thing in GarageBand, but I also like to make the content easily digestible. So there's a lot of times that a guest will come on and their response is nine minutes long sometimes, and it goes all over the place. That's hard to follow as a listener. So even though this takes me quite a while, I will actually rearrange it or cut out redundancies or break it up into multiple questions. I started doing that from the beginning, and because it's the easiest for me to actually take in the content. And I found that it's really, really appreciated by my guests. But anything that you can do to add your own little unique flair, too. I also do a little overlay when people. When I want to add something that I didn't think of during the interview, I do an overlay with a specific background track that people like. But those things make your podcast memorable.

Oh, that's interesting. I like that. That's a really cool tip. Your best ways to encourage engagement?

Well, I have a lot of listeners on the platform Castbox, which is one of the top platforms for Android, and they actually have comments in there. So I'll tell people to leave comments. I always respond to mine. I also direct people to my Show Notes page and we'll respond to any comments there. But the absolute best way that I've found to engage people is by getting them actually on your email list, because that's when it goes from just broadcasting to the world to developing a relationship. And so again, it comes with reducing friction. So what I do is they can sign up straight from my website very easily, but at the same time, most people are out and about, some people are driving. So I use a program called Textiful that allows people to text a keyword to 444999 to sign up for my email list. And so then they can do it just through text message, really simply. Then I get to nurture that relationship in whatever way I see fit from there.

I love that. Really, really great. And engagement is the biggest measurement. That's what we found across all of the podcasters. They say that it's the engagement that really adds the value back, because you're getting direct feedback, you're feeling it, you're engaging with people, you're talking with them, you're finding out what makes them tick. And some of it's starting to be conversions. So it's not just Straight conversion. But that engagement is a gauge level that you need to hit. So, so important. Thank you for that. So now the best way to monetize it. This is the tough one because so many people have trouble monetizing their shows.

Well, this can depend on a number of factors. I do love sponsorships. Sponsorships are a lot of fun. You get a lot of free things. My mattress, my luggage, half my out. So much fun and rewarding too. But that can be kind of hard to get in the very beginning when you're smaller. If your podcast is very niche, then if you do actual outreach to things that you think would be good sponsors that can actually be a really good fit where you would get paid much more than if they were just finding you through some ad monetizing platform. Also, look through your network of friends and see what people have, products or services that would be a good fit to have a mutually beneficial relationship with their show. I did this with one of my friends, owns four Sigmatic, which is Mushroom coffee. And I have been obsessed with it even before I knew him. So I went up to him and I said, hey, I would love for you to sponsor my show. And it was a very easy fit for both of us. So that can be helpful. And it's a way for you to give back to your friends doing cool things too. But the number one way is to create your own products because you're gonna get so much more money from those things, basically. So I was barely getting by with sponsors in the beginning, and once I started to launch my own courses, that's when the relationship really paid off. People were waiting for me to deliver value in a new way. People fall in love with you. When you have a podcast and they're listening to you for that long, they really feel like they know you. The amount of times I've gotten an email from people that says, I feel like you're one of my closest friends is a lot. So people want to find new ways to interact with you and to learn from you. And so I loved coming out with that course and one of the most rewarding parts of it was, is when you are broadcasting in podcasting, it can feel very easy to want to people please. You get one negative comment out of the hundred thousand listeners that you're getting and that can throw you for a loop to the point that I've wanted to change my style based off of one comment. But the moment that I started to interact with people in the way through the digital course and had a deeper relationship, that was when you start to really see who your true fans are, and those are the people that you need to serve, not the people that are going to be coming in looking how to be critical.

Yeah. Oh, such good advice. So this might be seen and or read by some big names. Who's your dream guest? Who haven't you gotten living? We got a caveat that living.

We need living guests.

But who would you love to have on your show?

Aubrey Marcus is my number one.

You are like, right on with that.

I love Aubrey Marcus. It's one of the only shows that I've consistently listened to in the last few years. Not every episode, but mostly. But I just love the way he thinks and I'm one degree of separation away from him in a bunch of different ways. And so I'm planning my attack right now.

Okay, so listeners out there, if you've got a connection for Melissa, it's your job to make that degree disappear. Right. If you've loved what she shared with you today, pay her back by making that intro for her. I love that. That's so great. So you're on social, though. You mentioned that. But you also mentioned not really pushing out a lot to your audience because they're friends and family and things like that. But where is the best way. Where do you engage with most of your listeners?

I engage with most of my listeners through my email list. I send out a morning email called the Morning Mind Love, which is just daily inspirational value to remind you of your own beauty, worth, and power. It doesn't sell things on that. It's just value for you. That's my favorite way. And I also am on Instagram, so you can follow me personally. Indlovemelissa or the podcast mindlove Podcast.

Love it, love it, love it. We're seeing a lot more engagement on Instagram with podcasters, and I love the way it's growing. I just had a talk with the guy who's running Instagram tv and they're making longer tail there just for us. And so we can utilize that in the future, which is kind of exciting. So lots of new things coming on for everyone. Well, is there any other stories that you'd like to share with us about things that you've received from your podcast or the funny things that have happened or done that you just like to share with us?

In closing, recently I went to a big entrepreneur event and just scheduled this guest that I really wanted to get on named Emily Fletcher. And I was so excited that she actually agreed to be on my show. Then I go to this event with a lot of big name people. And she happened to be there. And so it was really cool to go up to her and say, we have an interview scheduled just in a week or so. And so it was actually really bonding. And we ended up having like a 30 minute conversation. And she's like, you know, they say that if a podcast interview goes well, that's how, you know you found a new friend or something like that. And so it really is a way. I have found a lot of really good friends just through this medium. And when you're really trying to level up your life, a lot of changes need to be made. And part of that for me has been changing my social circle and surrounding myself with other uplifting people who are also challenging themselves in new ways and setting the bar higher for what they thought were possible. And so I just highly encourage anyone that's considering podcasting to get into it because it's so life changing in so many beautiful ways.

So I'm going to close Melissa with a story about you that you may not realize, but we actually met over a year ago. As we've been having this conversation, I realized that I met you at a meetup in conjunction with Traffic and Conversion. And I knew your show sounded familiar. And when you started saying the story about Pat Flynn, that was the story you told me that night. And that story has stuck with me, and I remembered it. I mean, I have to tell you listeners out there that this woman has gone from like launching to what you're seeing right now and the success that she's having within a year. So that is absolutely phenomenal. So I am so glad we're actually reconnecting here. And I think we found friendship here too. And so thank you for that. And I'm so glad because I couldn't find your card and I couldn't find your information. I think it was because at that time, it was so early. But I did have your podcast already in my playlist, which was odd. And that's what it was when I.

Listened to your voice.

And then when I'm hearing you now, I realized I did meet her.

That is so cool that traffic and conversion has been life changing for me. That was one of the things that changed my life. I won some contest and it set up my freelance career for two years, and that was the beginning of the journey to here. Oh, my gosh.

That's absolutely amazing. Well, I completely love it. Well, Melissa, thank you so much for coming on today. I'm really excited that you are have become a center of influence in the podcasting world. In Mind love and in mindset. I think that's a tremendous growth area.

So good for you.

I'm so amazed by your success and your progress.

Thank you so much. This has been so much fun.

So feed your brand listeners. This is the center of Influence Podcast and we're going to be bringing you a lot more of these shows that are focused on the stories of podcasters, how they got started, how successful they are, and how they're growing and keeping that pace of engagement and success and business.

So if you would like to hear.

More, you can just subscribe to the Feed you'd Brand Feed and we will make sure that you get both episodes, both the feed you'd brand typical podcast and the center of Influence Podcast at the same time. So thank you all for listening. This has been Tracy Hazard.

You've been listening to the Binge Factor Podcast. For more information for more information on podcasting and videocasting success tips and tactics, please go to thebingefactor.com and be sure to listen to our other show for podcasters called Feed you'd Brand. If you'd like to be interviewed on this show as well as featured in Tracy's column, please go to thebingefactor.com guest and apply.