Losing 50% of My Insight Timer Income: What I’m Doing Next
In this episode, I’m sharing honestly about how my income on Insight Timer dropped by 50%—why it happened, what it revealed about my business model, and how I’m choosing to respond.
Whether you're a meditation teacher, coach, or creator who depends on platforms like Insight Timer, this is a transparent look at the real shifts happening, the lessons I’ve learned, and the mindset and strategy I’m bringing to what's next.
If you’ve been feeling uncertain about your own income or direction, I hope this episode reminds you that it’s possible to regroup, realign, and keep building something meaningful.
More Information for Meraki Mastermind
GIFT FOR YOU
If you’re a meditation teacher or coach who wants to create unique meditations people listen to over and over again, enroll in my free course Meditation Script Mastery
Music Credit: Nova by River Roots - https://www.youtube.com/riverroots
Podcast Transcript
Insight Timer was losing money. And in the world of startups nowadays, if you're losing money, you are not going to make it. And so Insight Timer had to do what they can do to get their company profitable. As of my last statement, my revenue has been cut in half. I know that I'm not the only teacher experiencing this. So today what I want to do is break down what changed, how I'm approaching Insight Timer now, and what I'm doing to grow and rebuild that lost revenue.
Hello, friends. Welcome to another solo episode of the Art and Business of Meditation Podcast. This episode is actually clipped from a YouTube video I did around losing my Insight Timer income. So you're welcome to click the link below and watch the video, but at the same time, you're probably like, Lou, I've seen enough balding white guys. I think I'll just stay here and listen to the audio. So welcome to do that. Just note I might say video at times, but just imagine that I say podcast because it's really the same thing, same content, same work, same people that I'm speaking to. And so I hope you get a lot of value out of it. Before we get into the video, it is one of the special times of year, kind of like Christmas, Easter, Passover, whatever you're celebrating. You know that holiday energy. Well, it's kind of like that. It's not the holiday energy, but it is a special time. It happens about three times a year, maybe four. And what happens is doors for Meraki Mastermind are open. Yes. I want to share a little bit before we get into it about Meraki Mastermind because it is the heart of my work. It is a group that I run for meditation teachers, wellness coaches, spiritual guides, healers. And it's not a program, it's not a lose recipe for success. It's a community. And it has so much energy and just being in it and feeling inspired and getting momentum in your work, in your business. I'm not going to speak too long about it. I just want to share one person's feedback. It was her first time in Meraki Mastermind. In the last cohort, she is continuing in the next cohort. What she said about her experience, the time I have spent with Meraki is completely invaluable and I can feel the momentum building. I have found my people and I'm not going anywhere anytime soon. And so if you're feeling like you're alone in this journey, if you're looking for your people, if you're looking for a group that's going to support your momentum, your growth. You're stepping out into the world and sharing your gifts, growing your business, making real money in your work. Please consider joining us for this next cohort of Meraki Mastermind. You get personal coaching from me at a fraction of the cost. It's only 12 people, so it is high touch. It's not a large group. It's very intimate. So if it's calling to you, find the link below, shoot me an email, let me know you're interested and we'll see if it's a good fit. And if you're listening to this podcast, it's probably a decent fit anyway. All right, let's get into today.
A year ago I was making $3200 a month on inside timer. Then in June 2024, they made some big changes and as of my last statement, my revenue has been cut in half. I know that I'm not the only teacher experiencing this. So today what I want to do is break down what changed, how I'm approaching Inside Timer now and what I'm doing to grow and rebuild that lost revenue. Before I get into it, if you're newer to me or this channel, hello, my name is Lou Redman. I've been a teacher on insight timer since 2016. I have almost 2 million plays on my meditations with over 70,000 students in my courses, and I have netted over $200,000 in total revenue. Insight Timer has always been a core pillar of my revenue. So I am feeling the loss. Before we get to what happened, let's answer why this happened. Insight Timer was losing money. And in the world of startups nowadays, if you're losing money, you are not going to make it. And so Insight Timer had to do what they can do to get their company profitable. And what they did was instead of paying out teachers 50%, inside timer keeping 50%, they shifted to keeping 60% and, and paying insight timer teachers 40%. And so less money going out to teachers. Another thing that they took away was paying teachers for comments. I got a lot of comments in my classrooms and so whenever I would respond to a course comment, that would be around 15 to $20, which was insane. So those days are over. There were people that were abusing this feature. It was amazing while it lasted, but it was always like, wow, this is a lot to be receiving for a comment. So those, those days are over. What they added was return rate bonus, which is still a little cloudy of how to create content for return rate bonus. But what it does is essentially if Your track or your course brings people back to the app that is going to get weighted better. How this impacts some teachers like me is that courses that used to get a lot of traction because they were popular, if they don't actually have a good return rate, they are starting to lose that traction. So I have some courses that have been there for a while, so it makes sense why maybe they don't have a good return rate over six or seven years that are starting to go down because Insight Timer is favoring courses that bring people back and those courses are also going to get paid more money because the bonus goes to them and it's not going to tracks that are getting played that are not getting good return rate bonus. Um, so I know this is a little cloudy, but I'm noticing that that's also been impacting me and impacting teachers that have some popular tracks but without a good return rate. Now, all of this has succeeded in that it has made Insight Timer profitable. So that's number one. If there is no Insight Timer, we don't have anywhere to put these courses and put these teachings on. And so they have succeeded. So Insight Timer has succeeded. More people are coming and using the app every day. Now. This is good thing. But what it's also doing is diluting the play counts. So what I've noticed since June is that even when I get more plays than the month before, sometimes I make less money because the play count is diluted. So Instead of getting 15% per play, I'm getting 12 cent per play because there's more people going on the app and using it. And this is part of a much larger trend that I've been tracking with Inside Timer in the past five or three years, I should say, is that they added premium tracks, which adds more tracks to the premium content. So it opens the door for it not just being courses. And they added the self upload course feature. So a lot more premium and courses are getting put into the system when in the past you had to go through a process and only courses were getting those pays. So I've been tracking this steady decline for a few years and now because Inside Timer has less money that they're paying out, I'm really feeling it with these changes. So let's talk about what I am doing now. I just interviewed the CEO of Inside Timer, Christopher Plowman, on my podcast. You can find that link in the description below if you'd like to listen. And something that was clear to me is that the algorithm is shifting to benefit courses and Tracks that have good return rate. Now, how do we make a track have good return rate? Well, I can only model what I'm seeing working and what I'm noticing working. Like my friend Charles Freilai who has the most popular course on the app. Recently he made the most money in a month, top earner in the app. And what his course is is six minutes a day, really well done, super bite size. And that is really working. Charles also made that course 83 days and encourages a lot of engagement. So you can imagine if you have a good course that's 83 days long, having a lot of people going through it. Charles shared the number on this podcast which you can link listen to as well. So I'll share it here with you where he's getting 1500 plays a day. Now, if you're on Inside Timer and you're a teacher and you see your dashboard, I'm sure it's not looking like that. That is mind blowing. So congrats to Charles. I'm trying to think of, okay, not that I want to be like Charles, but that's an example of return rate working. I don't know a lot of examples where there's a method and so it's asking, oh, how can I do something like that? And so I'm just kind of opening to inspiration. I am continuing to publish on Inside Timer as I feel inspired, as I have talks, as I have different sorts of content that I'm putting on there. I don't have a serious commitment right now or a weekly schedule, but I'm just allowing inspiration to come to me. And I'm thinking, okay, how can I have inspiration come to me in a way that models something like Charles? And also, if I were to get an inspiration to do something that was a hour long day course, I would do that too because I'm always a believer in following the inspiration. I recently did a course on the prayer of St. Francis that I knew wasn't going to get a lot of people into it. It was a unique course, but it was, this is my art. I hope you see this too as your art, your expression. And what Charles would say too is he did that course out of that artistry, out of that pure expression. So I do believe that if we're following that calling, we're following that inspiration, that good things often happen. I'm less trying to manipulate what other people are doing, but I am aware and I'm saying, okay, well, if this is what working, can I be downloaded or inspired with something that would fit into it. It hasn't come yet, but I'm opening myself to it. So that's kind of how I'm thinking about Inside Timer right now. I'm not currently going live. I'm not doing a ton on there, which I know, as Christopher Plowman said on his podcast, might not be the best recipe for success. But I'm trusting this process because I have other things that I need to focus on. Which brings me to what I'm doing to recoup this revenue. There's another meditation app, Aura, that I publish, a lot of practices that I put on Inside Timer, and I've noticed that that revenue has slowly been growing. It's not a lot, about two to $300, but it is moving in a positive trajectory. So I'm being curious about that. I'm still allegiant in some ways to Insight Timer, so I don't go all in on Aura and I don't give them all my course content. But I'm asking the question, should I, Should I? Am I missing something? Because Insight Timer is not giving me that revenue that gets should. I haven't really fully committed in doing lives or doing more with that platform. But it is a place that is somewhat growing that I'm still putting some attention to. The next thing I'm focusing on is my podcast. So I have a podcast called the Art and Business of Meditation. It's been growing for about two years. It's a small but mighty following and I'm hoping to continue to have interviews like I had with Christopher Plowman and Henry Schuchman, who's a Zen master, and just continuing to grow these connections that I'm able to have on the podcast. With that, along with the podcast, I'm using YouTube and wanting to use YouTube as a channel to grow the podcast. Now, YouTube is a social media in the sense that there's more chance for organic search, there's more chance for, quote, unquote, virality. Now, I'm not trying to go viral. I don't think a thing on Inside Timer has any chance of going viral, but I'm using the space as an opportunity to grow the platform and give eyeballs into, oh, I had this podcast over here because it's a lot harder. Podcasts are great because, you know, if someone subscribed, they're going to see a new episode every week if they're in the podcasting platform, YouTube not so much the case. But it's hard to get organic reach and organic new people in with having a podcast. So I'm seeing YouTube as a place to grow an audience so that they can come and check out my podcast obviously newsletter. If you're in this work, you know, growing a newsletter is always going to be a core piece of this. And so those are really the main social channels. I am not focusing on Instagram, so that is a conscious choice to not focus on Instagram, focus on YouTube, focus on my podcast and then if Inside Timer aura sporadically and then also just continue to nurture through my emails. Now as far as products goes, I am thinking of okay, how do I grow the lost revenue and I wanted to create some more accessible, lower price products. As of right now that my business model is I have Inside Timer coming in, I have my group Meraki Mastermind, which I'll talk about here in a second and I have a higher price one on one coaching. And with that there's not a lot of in between. You kind of have to make an investment of time and money and so there's not a lot of investment that's at a smaller price. I do have a course that I am currently shifting. I have a course that helps teachers and coaches how to create meditation courses. That was about $300 and I did a live coaching call a month. I am sunsetting that coaching call and changing and turning the price to half that. So $150 for that course. And so I'm thinking of putting more energy to getting a course out there and just having more products. So that's not the only thing, that's the only thing I have. But I'm also asking myself how can I have another product or what other product could I create that's at a bit more accessible cost that doesn't take a ton of time and energy on either people's ends. It might take some energy obviously to go through the course source, but doesn't take the energy on my end which one on one coaching takes a ton of energy and my group Meraki Mastermind takes a good amount of energy that requires me to be there with that. I'm also thinking of how can I grow my mastermind? And my thoughts are of creating what I calling Meraki Business Collective. And I haven't done this yet, so you'd be the first to know. And so my Mastermind is a place for meditation teachers and coaches to receive support, to be in it together. And it's a sweet intimate group of about 10 or 12 people depending on the cohort. And I'm wanting to see how I can expand that where Maybe there's multiple groups happening where I'm not having to be at every meeting, every one of them. And there's a community that there really is a community around Meraki already. And so I'm asking how can this community grow? And that's part of an intention for recouping the income. It's not even just to recoup the income. It's this is, this is what wants to grow in my work. And I'm really excited for the potential in continuing to grow my Mastermind into what I'm going to call Meraki Business Collective, where Mastermind is a part of it, but there's also parts where you can just drop into co working or maybe you just have an online community. I don't know what it looks like. If you have a lot of experience creating online communities, I'd love to hear from you. But that's part of what I'm planning to do to continue to grow outside of Insight Timer. Insight Timer has been the biggest blessing for me and has allowed me to get to this point. And not that I'm letting Insight Timer go, but I am saying, okay, how can I grow outside of it? And these are the ways that I'm thinking about. So I'd encourage you wherever you're at on your journey with Insight Timer to continue nurturing it in some form. I had someone just reach out to me and ask, hey Lou, is it too late to get on Inside Timer? And I would say if the company and the platform was stagnant, maybe. But the platform is growing. And if Christopher Plowman can succeed in his vision to go from 20 million users to 100 million users, then now is a great time to get on that train. It's like any platform. Of course it was going to be better if you joined in 2016 like I did. Just as if it would be better if you started a YouTube channel in 28, 2008. But guess what, it's now. And it's still a great time to start a YouTube channel. It's still a great time to get on Inside Timer and put energy towards it. As I mentioned in one of my videos of succeeding in 2025, take the long game approach. See this as something that you're here to continue to do in the next five, 10 years and that's going to help you not feel like you need to get something from it right away. If you are a teacher on Inside Timer, I'd love to hear how has these changes affected you? Is your revenue down like I am or Are you crushing it like my friend Charles? Please leave a comment, let me know what your experience is. Like this video so it gets out to more people and subscribe to the channel if you want more content around succeeding, working on Insight Timer and your meditation and coaching business. I'm so excited to share more with you. Before you go. If you want some ideas to craft new inspiring, enlivening, emotionally evoking meditations, I want to invite you to my free course, Meditation Script Mastery. This was a course that I thought I was going to sell when I made it and I was like, you know what, let me just give it away for free because I just want a really good free free thing. I want people to get value out of it. So it's a free hour long course to help you develop a craft and a voice in your meditations that maybe you have, maybe you don't have. Or maybe it'll just give you one idea. If you just take one thing from it, I promise you it's going to be worth it. Go check that out in the description below. It's free and I look forward to seeing you in that course. Take care.