2017 Year in Review

Christopher Plowman in conversation with meditation guide, Tom Evans, updating us on what's been happening on the app in 2017 and what's being planned and is around the corner for 2018.

Transcript

So,

Hi,

Welcome back to the Zone Show podcast.

It's a great pleasure that I have Christopher Plowman coming back on the show,

The third time on the show.

Welcome Christopher.

Welcome Tom.

Thanks for having me.

This is number three,

I think.

Yeah.

And in fact,

We've had,

We've met since our last podcast.

We've now seen each other in person and lunch in London.

That was such a joy.

What a year it's been.

And it's been about a year,

Isn't it?

So we,

I think we spoke first when you were just launching or you just launched the 365 meditation challenge.

A year on,

How did that go?

Well,

It's been crazy,

Really.

I mean,

We,

We,

Yes,

We did speak,

I think.

We might have just spoken just before Christmas last year.

So we had just announced the 365 day challenge.

I think at that point we had about 20,

000 people that signed up.

We ended up having 35,

000 people who signed up sort of before the 31st of December.

And of course we've had lots and lots of people who've joined the challenge throughout the year.

So I think all up there's been about 95,

000 people who've had an attempt.

And I've actually just spent the last couple of days going back and looking at obviously in an anonymized way,

How we did.

Now,

Of course we haven't got to the end of the year,

But I still think we've got some interesting insights that we're going to share today because we're moving into Christmas,

Obviously,

And people go away and,

And so on and so forth.

So here's the most interesting stats of all of them of the 35,

000 people who committed to meditating every day in 2017.

I'm going to throw it back to you.

How many people do you think are still going with 15 days to go?

Well,

You know,

I think it's going to be lower than people think.

And I might even have some insight into why that is because I signed up for it.

And I don't listen,

I don't listen to the 365 meditation challenge every day,

But I meditate every day.

So I might not be a stat that you recorded,

But I'm certainly as someone that's meditated every day,

Not necessarily because of that,

Because I've been doing that for years,

But I reckon that it's,

It might be low.

If you've used the,

And I'm only talking about people that have used insight timer,

Right?

Obviously we don't,

We don't know people who have meditated without using the timer.

So you don't have to have listened to any of the guided meditation in 365 day playlist in order for you to be part of the,

Of the annual analysis,

If you like.

But I'll tell you how many people of the 35,

000 have actually got all the way to the day and it's 206.

So this,

And I'm not one of the people actually who managed to meditate every single day.

And I have to say,

Actually,

When I initially saw that number,

I was quite surprised because I had thought it might be up at around 20,

25% without any sort of reason for me to think that that was just a gut feel.

And guess what?

This is sort of revealed to me,

Um,

A daily,

And I mean a truly daily meditation practice is really,

Really hard.

If you are someone that is still meditating,

Um,

Today and you have been meditating every single day since the 1st of January,

Then you're a very rare human being.

Right?

And what I like about that is doesn't it represent such a wonderful challenge for us all to continue to meditate and develop our practices.

Um,

But it's a very small number.

Um,

There's about 5,

000 of that 35,

000,

Um,

Who have actually meditated five to six times a day.

So there is a,

There is about 15,

20% of the group who've been pretty good.

I mean,

Everyone's been good.

That's the wrong adjective.

Um,

There've been sort of 15,

20% of people who have been very committed to meditation practice,

Um,

Uh,

And meditated five to six times a day.

Um,

But very,

Very few people actually,

Um,

Around,

Around,

What is it?

35,

000,

3000.

Yeah.

It's about 0.

7% of the total pool has managed to meditate every day.

So there you go.

Isn't that interesting?

It is.

But my view on that is that,

You know what,

If you just meditate once a year,

That's pretty good.

And also,

Uh,

Meditation doesn't have to be sitting down formally with your earphones plugged into an app,

You know,

Some days when I don't have time for a formal meditation,

Walking with the dogs is just as fine.

And actually getting involved in a mindful practice of doing something mindfully during the day that doesn't have to be a rotation also sort of counts to changing your awareness and your consciousness.

I think that's a very good point.

And I have especially found this with my practice,

I was sort of 20 minutes twice a day.

I remember the first day in January.

Um,

I was in Switzerland,

It was freezing cold.

Um,

And I was actually very anxious because there were 35,

000 people had signed up and I thought I'd bitten off a bit more than I could chew.

Um,

And for the first couple of months,

You know,

It was,

It was,

It was interesting.

It was,

It was sort of,

There was a very engaged with the community.

Um,

And over time,

My meditation practice actually has changed quite a bit throughout the year because I've started exploring,

Uh,

Other types of practices.

And I think I've mentioned to you previously,

I've started really exploring a lot of meditation music.

I've really tried to keep it as diverse as I can.

But yeah,

I would,

I would say that my meditation practice has evolved quite a lot throughout the year and become very different to what it was at the start of the year.

And with the,

With the 365 day challenge,

That's just one,

One initiative on the whole platform.

What else has happened to the numbers?

I know you're passionate about the numbers and I love the way that the app can't be gamifying,

You know,

The meditation teachers are there for everyone to see how many people have listened so they can see all the reviews,

You know,

Lots of the stuff.

So it's not like you can get all your mates just to come on and,

Uh,

Or you can't listen to your own yourself like thousands of times just to gamify the system.

Well,

Look,

There's a lot of,

I mean,

And you're right.

I remember last time we spoke about this,

A few people put up some comments,

You know,

Reviews to say meditation isn't about measurements and it's not about competition.

Um,

And they're absolutely right.

Uh,

You know,

As I've said previously on your podcast,

I am a Virgo.

So I'm interested in the mathematics or the science of it all.

Um,

And I am interested in the numbers.

It's just the way I am.

Um,

And so I have actually spent a bit of time,

Uh,

Looking at the database and seeing if we can find some interesting stats.

For example,

I was interested,

Um,

And I'm not just referring to the three,

Six,

Five day playlist.

Now I was actually interested in of our,

Of our entire user base and we,

We passed 3 million users a couple of months ago.

Um,

You know,

Which countries,

For example,

Um,

Tend to meditate more often and longer.

So I actually went through and I asked the guys to give me a,

A top 10 list,

Um,

Of which,

Of which countries meditate most often every week,

Um,

And which countries,

Um,

So that's in terms of frequency.

So how many times do they meditate every week and also how long do they meditate for every week?

And interestingly,

One country topped both of those.

Um,

And they were also just voted,

I read somewhere as the happiest country in 2017,

Which I thought was very interesting.

And that country is Norway.

Um,

They meditate,

Um,

On average four and a half times every week.

And that's obviously an average.

So obviously there are,

There are many that meditate more and they also meditate for over three and a half hours every week,

Which is about 30 minutes.

Um,

Every day,

The average time that people meditate on our app is about 19 minutes.

Um,

So the Norwegians meditate most often and longest per week.

Um,

The other countries,

I'll just run through the top 10 if you're interested as in terms of sessions per week.

So it was Norway,

Norway,

Then Sweden,

Then the United States,

Canada,

Finland,

Russia,

The UK,

The Netherlands,

South Korea.

So all of those nine countries were more than four times a week.

And then number 10 was my home country of Australia at 3.

98 times every week.

Um,

And I was surprised to see Australia on that top 10 list actually.

Um,

So people who,

Who meditate longest,

Um,

Top 10 obviously,

As I said,

Norway,

India is second and South Korea,

Germany,

Austria,

Sweden,

Vietnam,

Italy,

Belgium,

And Romania was number 10 on that list with two and a half hours meditation per week.

Um,

And so I,

You know,

Call them stats,

Pull them,

Whatever you want.

I just find it super interesting because also actually it was a reminder to me that we're not just sort of an English speaking,

Uh,

You know,

Anglo style app.

We're actually a hugely diverse community of people from all around the planet.

Um,

And who would have known that the people of Romania are top 10 list in terms of meditators on the planet.

I thought that was very interesting.

I think that's brilliant.

Well,

I'll also,

Yeah,

In your passion for statistics,

I can match that well,

My passion for coincidences,

Because only this week,

My most popular meditation on the app is just for today.

And I do these just for today,

Daily emails that come out of my website.

And I was approached by a Norwegian illustrator this year.

And since May this year they've been illustrated and we just produced our first book.

And guess what she said to me this week?

He said,

Why isn't your meditation in Norwegian?

Can I do the Norwegian version for you?

So there you go.

I love those stories because I hear so many teachers.

We now have about 1600 teachers on the app.

I hear so many stories of teachers who've actually collaborated with other teachers that they met on insight.

I know you interviewed them.

Um,

I met a guy called,

Uh,

Tony Brady in Dublin last week.

He's a big fan of yours,

But he's also been collaborating with other people and musicians on the app.

Um,

I really think there's actually this sort of unexpected benefits insight timer,

Which is all of these wonderful relationships that have been built now between teachers.

Um,

And the stuff that they're producing as a result of that collaboration,

Um,

You know,

Is even better than what they're producing as individuals.

Um,

And I love that about insight time actually.

Yeah.

I use,

Uh,

Eternal's music for my meditation is now he's fantastic.

And,

Uh,

He's from Sweden.

There you go.

Another Norway,

Another Scandinavian.

Well,

I met Ludwig.

I actually went up to,

Um,

Uh,

I went to Sweden.

I'm just checking.

It wasn't,

Oh,

Yes,

It was Sweden.

So we went to Copenhagen for three days,

Maddie and I to go and meet with meditation teachers.

And we caught the train across the,

The,

The sea,

Um,

And went and walked through a forest with,

Uh,

Ludwig,

Who's known as eternal on the app.

He took us for a hike up into a,

Uh,

And,

Uh,

A Swedish forest and all the leaves had fallen off their branches,

Which is an Australian is something that's quite foreign to me because most of our trees in Australia aren't,

Um,

Uh,

Seduous and we walked sort of over these lakes and these wooden bridges and these running streams and ended up on a hill.

Um,

And then we just went and had a cup of tea with him and came home.

So it's been a really,

We've had such a great year meeting so many great people.

Um,

But yes,

I'm aware that you,

You collaborate with him on some great stuff.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

It's good.

Some new stuff coming out on the,

On the time of next year.

So I'm talking about then the,

We go away from like the,

The stats,

You like the hard stats.

I'd love to get your sense of what happens.

How do you think this scales up when millions of people meditate?

What sort of changes do you feel is happening as a result of that?

Oh goodness.

I don't know the answer to that question actually.

Look,

I don't know what's interesting actually,

And I'm not going to throw stats back at you again,

But,

Um,

What we've kind of started to notice is about 40% of the people on our app,

Um,

Listen to purely spiritual religious content,

Right?

We introduced those filters six months ago that allow people now to determine,

Um,

About 30% listen to just the secular and scientific stuff,

Right?

And then you've got about 30% who listen to both.

But what's interesting is it feels like,

Um,

That crowd in the middle is actually sort of growing a little bit.

It's slow.

Um,

But it does feel like,

And this is not necessarily the reflection of meditation actually,

This might just be a reflection of,

Um,

Knowledge or being more open-minded.

Um,

And I think Insight Timers community supports that,

But what's happening is that group's getting gradually a little bit larger,

Which means that people who are perhaps initially,

Um,

Extremely secular or extremely skeptical,

Perhaps might be a better word of religious and spiritual content,

Um,

Are actually starting to sort of meander in every now and then.

Um,

And you know,

It's a,

It's a very long bow that I'm drawing here,

But I do like to think that even just those small steps where people are starting to actually explore the interests and the belief systems and the constructs of others,

Um,

You know,

Can only be a good thing,

Right?

And conversely,

People who are actually sort of dedicated to,

To perhaps religious and spiritual practices are starting to actually consider the scientific as well.

Um,

And again,

I said,

I don't know if that's a consequence of meditation.

That might just be a consequence of the way Insight Timers put together.

Um,

Of course,

You know,

That the,

The other answer to that is sort of the Maharishi effect,

You know,

Which is if you,

If you get everyone meditating together,

That the collective conscious,

Um,

Actually has a very,

A very real impact on everything around us.

You know,

There was that,

Um,

There was that study that they did.

I think it was in Chicago.

I could be wrong.

Um,

20,

30 years ago,

Maybe it was a bit longer than that,

Where they got a whole bunch of people to meditate in an airport hanger.

Um,

And they told the chief of police that they were going to reduce crime in that city,

Uh,

By 25% as a result of meditating together over a period of three days.

And the chief of police said the only thing that's going to reduce crime by even 10% is,

Is 20 feet of snow.

Um,

And of course they all meditated together randomly when the bell went on and off.

And what they found scientifically is that,

Uh,

All of the key sort of metrics improved while they were meditating,

Right?

So seismic activity dropped,

Financial markets would improve crime rates actually ended up dropping by about,

So I think it was 18 or 19%.

Um,

And they could map very accurately,

Um,

The improvements in,

In these data points against the,

The times when people were meditating.

Um,

I don't truly understand it.

I find the research very interesting.

I find the commentary very interesting,

But I like to believe that there's something real there and that if we all meditate together,

Um,

That that will have a very real impact on the lives of all of us.

I just don't know how to be more articulate than that in terms of,

I don't know how that happens,

But it,

It feels real to me.

Well,

Let me throw a little gauntlet down for,

Um,

For Donald Trump and Kim Jong-il then,

Because you said that South Korea is one of the top meditating countries.

So rather than all this stuff that's going on at the moment,

We've got anyone from the CIA listening or anyone from Kim Jong-il's secret service,

Perhaps we could try a collective meditation experiment next year and it might just diffuse some of the things that are going on over there at the moment.

What do you think?

Well,

I think that would be interesting.

Obviously South Korea is not North Korea,

But,

Um,

Yeah,

I mean,

Look,

I think you draw a long bow there as well,

But,

Uh,

United States is,

Is high up on the list as a third or fourth,

Um,

In terms of frequency of meditation,

The United States has well and truly,

Um,

Uh,

Is leading along with a few other Nordic countries in terms of their acceptance of meditation.

Um,

And as has South Korea,

But I wouldn't like to comment on their neighbors because we don't have data on that.

Yeah,

But I happen to know that there's a new,

Uh,

Mode coming out soon because lots of people in North Korea might not have the smartphones and access to the internet,

But with the new feature that you're introducing shortly,

The offline mode,

That could solve a lot of issues because you wouldn't need a permanent internet connection,

Would you?

Yes.

I mean,

We're very excited about that.

Now,

Was that not a good segue?

Thank you.

Uh,

It's very kind of you.

Um,

Obviously I'm not sure what day this podcast will be,

Uh,

Released on our app,

But it will be released,

Um,

Very close to the launch date of offline mode.

Um,

And we're hoping to get that out before Christmas.

We are very excited about it because it will mean,

Um,

That,

Uh,

Insight timer users will now be able to download and store on their device.

Um,

Essentially 8,

000 guided meditations.

You don't have to download all 8,

000 of course,

Which means that if you're someone that wants to meditate while falling asleep and you don't want your three G or your wifi turned on,

You can turn it completely off.

If you're someone that likes to meditate out on the hill to the voice of Sarah Blondin or to Mary Maddux or the Tom Evans,

You can take your teachers with you now,

Um,

Without any internet access at all.

You can have all of your favorite guided meditation stored on your device.

Um,

And you can play them,

You can meditate to them.

And of course,

When you return to internet connectivity,

Um,

It'll simply upload your stats,

Um,

In real time.

So this,

The reason why we're launching this feature first is because it's the one that gets asked for most often.

Um,

It also includes a few other things.

So you,

You know,

If you're someone that subscribes to this feature,

Um,

You can fast forward and rewind.

Um,

You can,

If you're listening to a long guided meditation,

You can now finish that guided meditation.

And when you come back to that guided meditation,

It will remember where you,

Where you stopped last time.

Um,

So,

You know,

I'm very excited about it because I think it adds a,

You know,

A huge amount of important functionality to the experience.

Um,

And it means for the first time,

Insight Timer will actually,

Um,

Start to generate a small amount of income.

It's $3 a month.

It's the,

You know,

In terms of other apps out there,

It's in our view by far the least expensive,

Um,

Uh,

Offering out there for meditation apps.

And in terms of value for money,

It's fantastic because it means you can put 8,

000 guided meditations in your pocket.

Um,

And of course teachers will share in that revenue as well.

So this means that as of January or February,

Um,

Our teachers are going to start getting paid for their guided meditations,

Even though all of the guided meditations,

If you're someone that doesn't want offline mode,

Will always continue to be free.

Um,

So I'm,

I'm excited about it.

So I think it's a big step for Insight Timer.

I'm nervous about it because obviously I hope it goes off without any bugs.

Um,

Launching over Christmas is never pleasant because if something goes wrong,

You know,

It's harder to fix things,

But,

Um,

It'll be happening sometime over Christmas.

And this is just one of a number of features that are going to roll out in 2018.

It's probably best if we just highlight a few of them now,

But we'll talk about them in more detail when we're nearer to the time.

Yeah.

So there's basically over the next sort of three or four months,

There's three,

Um,

There's three other things that will be happening.

The first one is you'll be able to donate to teachers.

I've explained that,

Um,

On the app in,

In a number of places.

I'm very excited about that as well,

Because that'll put obviously some more income into the teacher's pockets.

Um,

According to the generosity of the users,

It's obviously not compulsory donation.

The second thing is we're launching our second feature pack.

Um,

And this is something I'm really excited about because it's going to allow our users to organise all of their bookmarks,

Um,

Into different folders.

We've got some,

Uh,

A new playlist feature where you can create your own playlists and you can share them with friends.

Um,

And teachers will be curating lots of playlists as well.

Um,

And you'll be able to sort of click and follow those playlists.

And as they get updated,

You'll get new content added to those.

Um,

So that's happening.

And of course,

Our biggest initiative,

Um,

Early next year will be insight time courses.

Um,

And we can talk more about that later.

I've already explained that again in a few places on the app,

But we have 30 teachers at the moment.

You're one of them,

Um,

Who are preparing some fantastic 10 day courses and we'll be launching the trial for that,

You know,

Sometime in February,

I guess.

Um,

So that's what we've got coming up.

There's going to be a lot of,

A lot of sort of stuff happening in the next six months for insight timer.

Fantastic.

Well,

It sounds like we will be talking again very shortly.

So,

Uh,

One,

Well,

Thanks for a fantastic year.

I've had a great year on the app as a teacher.

I recommend other teachers get in touch and,

Uh,

And start putting,

Putting content up there.

It's open.

I've got to say it's opened so many doors for me.

The collaborations I'm doing,

The way I'm working right across the world with people I've never met before is just amazing.

Glad that I met you in person this year and,

Uh,

Look forward to talking again on the podcast very soon.

Thank you,

Tom.

And I hope,

Uh,

I wish you and your family a wonderful Christmas and,

Um,

I look forward to chatting again in the new year.

Likewise to you.

Take care.

Thanks Tom.

Thanks for listening to the podcast.

And I've got some great news for you.

The Norwegian version of my meditation just for today is now available on the app.

Enjoy it even if you don't understand Norwegian.

And thank you to my wonderful illustrator,

Sirius Ticklesat Opley for providing the translation so quickly.

Reviews

Make you for the update app listens to the last 2 of these and I've enjoyed them very much. I am a Virgo, and find the technical side sort of interesting but the numbers very interesting.

Thanks for this.

Enlightening, thank you 🙏🏻❤️✨

So excited about play list and maybe even classes! Thank you for all you are doing...and also thank for the great FREE app. Because I am not working and soon hope to retire and FREE will be even more important to me because I am not wealthy in money...just spirit.

So exciting! Thank you for all of these new opportunities!

Great interview and look back at the 365 journey together. Personally, I was inspired by this new community to keep up my practice. Thank you all for believing in yourself and the practice. Peace is attainable.

What a blessing this app has been and all the different types of meditation I have been able to follow. I’m surprised and feel special that I’m one of the “rare” bunch that will reach 365 by the end of the year. What’s great though is that I was able to explore so many different modalities. Thank You so much for all you and the teachers have done to make the world a better place. 🙏🏻

Love the stats! Would love to know how many have done 365 days of consecutive meditation by 31/12 that were not using the group. I know I will, and like others, it spurred me in to be consistent, but chose what I wanted to listen to rather than teachers choice.
I bet the number is far higher than 206....
Looking forward to 2018. My 10 day course is all ready to go when you are!! Thanks for all you do Christopher and team. 🙏💜

Very interesting.
It is wonderful to hear that on a personal level we are making great efforts to improve ourselves and the world around us.
It is thanks to apps like Insight Timer that this is made a lot easier.
I am grateful! Bless you!

2017 365 has been novel. looking for to new adventures in 2018. one who meanders.

Thank you for a great year of meditations IT and looking forward to what you have planned for 2018. Thanks Tim for a very good interview. Namaste 🙏🏻✨🙏🏻

Great to listen to the statistics of 365 days of meditation for 2017. Thankyou for the creation of Insight Timer as it has created a positive explosion of love, friendship and peace. What the world needs Now. With my forever gratefulness for the Insight World. Seasons Greetings to all. Love & Light Gayle

Thanks! These interviews have all been really interesting. I'm looking forward to the new offerings.

Thank you so much Christopher for talking about the year of Insight Timer and 365. I appreciate all that you and your company is doing to make this the best community of mediators and teachers. I look forward to options for those who can afford to support you and the beautiful amazing teachers!!!

Thank you 🙏🏾
A walk of meditation is what I do time to time. And during Yoga 🧘‍♀️

I like the stats to see where we're at. HK is not within the Top 10 expectedly! It's gonna change sooner or later.

Thank you Tom! Always a pleasure chatting with you. And I’m relieved to confirm that Offline Mode has now rolled out to all users. Just on time for Christmas! 🎄

Thank you Christopher and Tom! The stats are impressive and interesting. The updates were installed on my phone and I like the new look and features. I'm about to sign up for the 2.99 a month as I really want the rewind function as well as the offline feature. Thank you so much for this incredible experience. I.T. has changed my life and enabled me to maintain a meditation practice which is something I never thought I could do.