Why Short-Form Content Is Burning You Out (And What to Do Instead) | Isabella Sanchez Castañeda

If you're a business owner who's been posting on social media for years and wondering why it's getting harder and harder to convert followers into clients, you're not alone. The truth is the game has changed in 2026. Short-form content is no longer king in these streets, y'all. Getting views isn't all that there is, but long-form content that builds the kind of trust that actually grows your business Is what's in, and yet most business owners are still pouring all of their energy into platforms that leave them exhausted with little to show for it. There is a better way. And if you've been feeling exhausted by social media, posting daily, showing up in stories, creating reels that disappear into the void to some degree, you're not imagining it. It takes so much more content for us to be found on these platforms. What we're all experiencing right now is what I call short-form fatigue. Our brains love that dopamine hit, but our bodies and our nervous system, they're screaming for something deeper. And it's not just us, it's our customers too. They're deleting or cutting their time with other social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram, and they're choosing to lean in to listen to Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. They're even going to this extent to read long-form articles and blogs and newsletters. What if the solution to a sustainable marketing strategy in 2026 wasn't about doing more, but about going deeper? I sat down with Isabella Soto, podcast strategist and host of the Top 5% Podcast on East Media Inc., to talk about why long-form content isn't just a nice to have anymore. It's the strategy that will save your sanity and help you grow your business. It's also the way that the platforms such as AI, AI's ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and all of these platforms are one being trained on and recommending your business on. Now, this conversation originally happened last year during the Super Bowl, and I'm bringing it back to you this Super Bowl weekend because what we talked about then is not just relevant, it's urgent. And here's what most people don't realize. The window to establish your business in long form is closing. The earlier you start, the easier it is to be seen and heard. I personally have seen this in my business since AI's kind of hit mainstream. I've gotten leads and I'm like, I'm sure it's not because I'm using AI. It's because I've been doing the long form game for over 8 years. And it's pulling from that content because I have created an a business, IP, and asset that refers people who are my people to me. The sooner you start, the easier it will be to be seen and heard through these platforms on AI and in Google search that is turning very much to the AI algorithm. Wait another year and you're going to be competing with everyone who finally figured out what you're about to learn in this episode. If you've been hesitant about starting a podcast or creating long-form content in 2026, This episode will lay out exactly why now is the time before it gets even more difficult to cut through the noise. In this conversation, you'll hear us dive into why people are deleting social media and keeping their podcast apps, the 3 I's that make long-form content convert better than short-form— intention, intimacy, interruption— and how to structure podcast content that creates clients. Not just listeners, why going deep instead of going wide is the strategy for 2026 and beyond. The conversation will show you exactly why now is the time to make long-form content your primary strategy. All right, let's dive into this conversation about why podcasting now isn't just smart, it's necessary. I'm your host, Nikita Williams, and this is Business with Chronic Illness.

Are you tired of hearing business advice that completely ignores what what real life looks like when you're navigating chronic illness, autoimmune disorders, flare-ups, medical appointments, and just life— lifing. Business with Chronic Illness is for entrepreneurs who know they're capable of building something meaningful but need a way to do it that actually works with their body, not against it. This podcast brings you honest conversations with founders, CEOs, and other bosses sharing their strategies, adaptations, and lessons they've learned about building businesses alongside chronic illness, including what worked, what didn't, and what they wish they had done differently before burnout forced the lesson. I'm your host, Nikita Williams, a globally ranked podcast host and entrepreneur who's built my business while navigating chronic illness and helping others do the same without sacrificing themselves. I created this show to open up the conversations most business spaces avoid. The promise of Business with Chronic Illness is simple: to show you that you can build a thriving business with chronic illness and autoimmune disorders without sacrificing your health, your peace, or your profit. You're not behind, you're building differently, and you're in the right place.

Welcome, welcome to Why Podcasting Now. We're going to be talking about why we want to incorporate podcasting, and I'm going to have this conversation with a good friend of mine. She's gonna hop on here, and we're actually going to talk about podcasting and the way that it can help your business to grow, different ways and strategies that you need in your business in order for it to actually produce clients for, and their networking, their business to able to grow.

So we're—

Isa is going to be joining me here. She's amazing. She's a rock star when it comes to podcasting and wanted to have her on.

Hey, girl. Hello, how are you? Good, how are you? Good. I'm so excited for this because I think it just gets more and more relevant as the time passes.

Yeah.

It's like breaking it down for folks and yeah, I think it'll be a great conversation. Yeah.

I feel like I would be remiss not to talk about the Super Bowl connection with this right now, especially the halftime game about storytelling and how powerful that can be and why podcasting is such a beautiful medium for that because man, it can build a community. It could build a lot of conversation. It can create conversations. And to me, that's what's really important about a great podcast is like not just community and storytelling, but creating conversations that lead to other things that we want to see in our communities and in our lives. I'd love to get your take on that from a podcasting brain of storytelling, if you have one, just because I think it's top of mind for most of the people right now. That was either you got it or you didn't.

Absolutely. The thing that I loved, and I'm gonna include like video podcasts in this on YouTube, for example, but the thing that I loved was that yes, people were having to the Super Bowl and I'm in Philly, so go Birds. Oh, but yeah, but especially to like Kendrick's performance, it was a lot of people were obviously sharing their takes and sharing their analysis on threads on Instagram and all this stuff. But so many people were responding and saying, I can't wait for the deep dives on YouTube. I can't wait for the deep dives on podcasts. And people really wanting that deeper analysis on, of course, the performance, but really on everything right now. And really having something, a medium that is a little bit slower and a little bit deeper, or a lot bit deeper.

Yes.

And I think that more and more people are realizing like how little we can actually get through and actually explore in short form, that now the craving for long form, whether that is YouTube, whether that is podcasting, whether that is Substack.

Yeah.

People want to explore in that way now.

Yeah.

And I think that we just saw it, of course, because of the Super Bowl, like applied to a very direct thing, but I think it's also like people wanna have time to explore their own thoughts and share their thoughts without worrying about, I have to dissect this in 30 seconds. I have to dissect this in a way that people can fully answer in so short. Like we all want the time, both as a consumer and as a creator.

Exactly. I love that you bring that out. It's something I've been talking with my community and my clients with is like long-form content in general, whether it's podcasting, podcasting, YouTube, blogging, even Substack is basically a version of blogging. If we are not diving deeper, we're missing what people are actually really craving for. As much as social media— we're on social media, like we're having this conversation on social media, so it's great. However, I know for me, I'm probably going to repurpose this content for my podcast so it makes it easier for my clients and my potential audience, like my community, to listen to this, pause, take notes, think about it, come back to it. And we can't We don't really do that as frequently as we want to, or as— if I'm watching a live, it's hard for me to stay completely engaged than if I'm listening to it on my podcast or YouTube for those who are YouTubers and really diving in. And I think as business owners, if we aren't having that as a huge part of our strategy right now, we're missing out. We're missing out on that deeper connection. We're missing out on the deeper way of helping people start shifting their thoughts. Having those deeper conversations that they need to have with their community and with themselves if we're not allowing the space for that by using platforms like podcasting and YouTube and any other long-form content strategy. I totally agree with you. That was so on point. What are you seeing? What are you seeing in the world of long-form content for 2025? Like, I've— I have thoughts, but I'm gonna let you tell me your thoughts.

Yes, I feel like we'll end up having very similar thoughts. But so what I have seen, especially since January 20th, is that people are in an effort to take care of themselves, rightfully. Yeah, recognizing that these— the short-form platforms like Threads, like Instagram, like TikTok are meant to keep you in this state of like constantly what is new, what is next. What is new? What is next? And this state of I can't think anything all the way through because the next news is hitting me the next second.

Yeah.

And because of that, I've seen more people announcing that they're taking breaks from social media, more people announcing that they're deleting social media. And as consumers, yeah. And then because as consumers, like most people are deleting the short-form platforms. But they still have their Spotifys, their Apple Podcasts. They still have their YouTube, or they still have their email list. They still have, or they have their inbox where they're getting emails. And so from the consumer standpoint, we're seeing a lot of people who need and want to take care of themselves, slowing down their consumption. And slowing down most of the time does not mean ending their consumption. It means going to longer form. And then as we've been talking about, that longer form is podcasting, is YouTube, is email, is books. And we'll see that now as creators who meet that demand shifting to long form. And even with the TikTok ban still being very much up in the air, when people did think like it was going completely away, big TikTokers, yes, they said, hey, follow me on Instagram. Most of them said, hey, go listen to my podcast. Hey, go listen to my YouTube. And people were like, oh, absolutely. Because of that just slowing down. And now I feel like it's just going to ramp up where people will be like, hey, I actually only can give myself an hour to consume. I want to consume something deep rather than consuming all these little chunks that keep me stressed out.

Yeah.

Yeah. And I think, I think we started seeing this actually last year. Like before, I think we all started to experience like that short form, I'm calling it short form fatigue. Like it's a great, our brain, it's like sugar. It's like, I have been explaining it as sugar. Like our brain loves that dopamine hit. Like we love that dopamine hit, but at some point our body hates it. Like we feel so crappy eating all of this sugar, right? We just feel so crappy. So bad. And as powerful as social media can be and still will be, I— it's not like I'm like— I've been trying to tell people like, no, I'm not anti-social media. I'm just saying that the way we consume social media in general, I think it's shifting to identify the true need that humans are going to have even more in the scape of not just news cycles and drama and just things we don't ever like our brains don't want to keep seeing, right? There's that. And then on top of that, I think the need for deeper connection as we go through whatever is going on in our personal life or whatever is going on in the world, we need that feeling of deeper one-to-one connection. And I think what happens with video or what happens with audio is that we get that dopamine hit in a much more nervous system-friendly way. A very much more nervous system friendly way than sitting here on social media scrolling reels, right? And so I think it's really important for us as business owners in general, if you haven't been using long form content to really drive that deeper connection, you need a strategy for that. You can't just start showing up on there like you did on social media. It's very different because it's about deeper connection. So for you, what has been your like approach to that? Yeah.

So very much related to the connection piece. I see that there's 3 I's that I want you to keep in mind. There's the intention, the intimacy, and the interruption. So the intention that goes into long form on the side of the consumer is they are intentionally seeking something. They're either seeking you because they're like, oh, I love hearing this person talk. That is usually like with influencers where they're like, oh my gosh, I love the way that right now, again, related to the Super Bowl, like Kylie Kelce and her podcast, people went and sought it out because they were like, I want to hear Kylie Kelce. I like her. She's funny. All this stuff. Or they are going for to learn. So they're like, I need to search how to do this one thing. I need to search right now. It's tax season. So I need to search how to lower my tax. Bill, and they're searching with that intention. The intimacy is that of you are, you feel like the person is on the phone with you. You feel like they're in your ear. They're like getting into it with you. You can spend time together. The intimacy of also like someone's voice and their inflections and how they deliver information. And then the I, the third I of interruption is the difference between getting interrupted with the content. So in social media, it's interruption-based marketing. It's in your face. You didn't look for it. You didn't— basically, this third eye is the contrast to the first two where it's like you didn't look for it. You didn't want to hear that ad or you didn't want to hit that piece of information, but it interrupted your day. And here it is. Versus on podcasting, like the flow of thought is not being interrupted.

Right.

Unless the person is rambling, but that's, we'll get into that, into how to actually deliver your message. Yeah. But most of the time, like, you're not being interrupted by whoever wanted to interrupt your thought pattern. Like you're being delivered into a full way of thinking because you have 10 minutes or an hour to really sit with someone. Yeah. That combination, having intention, intimacy, and fewer interruptions. Allows long form to really envelop you in someone else's thoughts.

Yeah.

And I think that is something where I heard many years ago that was like being careful about the books that you read and the audios that you listen to because simply spending time with a, an idea is like spending time with a person where you slowly start to morph into it.

Yes.

And so a lot of people were And have been persuaded into being people they don't recognize for the better or for the worse because of those long-form intimate things that are then supplemented by short form. But it definitely all plays together.

Yeah, I love that. I love that point when it comes— it's totally true. And I feel like it, to your point, like intention and intimacy and the lack of being interrupted, if you will, is a lot. Easier to experience in long-form content without your nervous system drive. And I keep talking about nervous system because I really truly believe that we all— yes, the pandemic was 5 years ago, but man, have we experienced a lot of things since the pandemic. And we're going to continue experiencing a lot of crazy things up into the future. And so we want to find spaces that we can be intentional with where we're thinking or listening to or consuming, right? We want to— feel intimate. We want to feel like we're going along with the journey or story that has been thought out and is not going to be interrupted by some random next 15-second thing or some ad or whatever, or the noise that I feel like we have here on these platforms. There's not— if you're here on this platform right now and you're watching a live, you are probably just interrupted and told to come listen to this because you follow one of us, right? You were not intentionally trying to listen to this. You were may be planning on doing this versus when you listen to long form, you, the person listening to it, the consumer consuming it, have decided I'm going to listen to this content. And it's, I've had clients tell me, I've had people tell me like, Nikita, I'll listen to you while I'm doing laundry and I'll pause if I need to come back and listen to something again. I don't think we're doing that on social media. We're just not. And so the importance of really diving into that. So When we come to the content itself within podcasting, right? How is it different? How are we structuring it differently when it comes to long-form content? I have a way that I, I'd love to hear your thoughts on.

Yes, I'm excited to hear your way. And again, I feel like a lot of it will be in alignment. So I think that first and foremost, I see a lot of mistakes with podcast content where people are almost when they get started with their podcast, they almost treat it like an extension of their Instagram stories where it feels very like in the moment update. It feels like they're taking their IG strategy and trying to extend it and being like, oh, I'm just going to talk about my day and the thing that just happened and the conversation I just had and try to just, if I add more detail to it, it'll be 15 minutes. And that usually works for about 8 episodes is what I found, where it's people getting really excited because they're like, oh, fuck, I wanna come on here and I wanna talk about what I did and I wanna talk about the 5 things that come top of mind about my business or my industry, whatever it is. And then they get to episode 8 and they're like, one, no one is buying. A lot of people are listening because people love just like that human experience where they're like, oh, I wanna know. I wanna know what she was doing today because we're lonely in our houses. Not, we don't have coworkers. Yeah. So we wanna feel like we have coworkers.

Yeah.

But then after that episode 8, you're like, wow, that isn't producing the results I want. And now I ran out of, of content cuz people are like, my days kind of look the same. Like I'm, oh, I'm, I just had the same conversation. Do I talk about that again? So they run out. So that's usually where people end up finding me is they're like, Help, I got stuck. And I went through that and definitely fell into the like bestie zone where people were just like, oh my God, you feel like a coworker. You feel like someone who is going through it with me. But if I'm going through it with you, you don't wanna hire me. And a lot of people find themselves in that kind of situation. So instead I look at it, I have a framework called the Four Levers, but we won't get into the whole thing, but you have to look at really who you're talking to, what goal they have, what limitation they have to get to that goal, and what solution you can present for that goal limitation to that specific person. And so your topic can be, I, again, because it's tax season, I think about a bookkeeper where normally a bookkeeper would just go onto their podcast and talk about, I'm going to download everything in my brain that I know about profit into one episode. And maybe it'll be like over here and then over here. And then they're like, wait, I'm giving them too much information. What if they don't hire me now? And then they just keep talking. Instead, if you look at it and you go, okay, there's a six-figure business, that's my avatar, who has the goal of increasing profit. And, but their limitation is that they don't know how to decrease expenses. They don't have the awareness of their expenses. Then your solution can be, let's talk about all the different types of expenses. Let's talk about software expenses. Let's talk about team expenses. Let's talk about unnecessary expenses. And you can do 3 episodes that are each 20 minutes, but distilled in this way that people really get something out of it and they feel, wow, I just did my laundry and I now have a completely new perspective on how I'm gonna talk to my bookkeeper, or Hey, I just realized I have a new perspective. I don't have a bookkeeper. Let me hire this person who's right here, who's explaining it in a way that I like, that I can understand. And then they actually walk away with something rather than feeling, oh, I listened to this episode about profit and I'm now just so stressed. I'm gonna go hide. I'm gonna go look away.

Yeah.

So to me it really comes down to, do you know who you're talking to, what their goal, what their limitation, and what your specific solution is? And that also multiplies your episodes, as you saw, taking it from 1 episode of profit to 3 episodes about expenses.

Yeah.

And that can multiply over and over. But I'm curious what your method is.

Yeah, no, I love that. I think it's similar in the fact that I personally, especially now, like I've been refocusing on like, how are clients actually searching for what they're searching for, right? Like, where are they now? Now that we're especially in this stream of AI, right? Like, I think there's this— we can pretty much learn pretty much whatever we want. We can ask ChatGPT, hey, I have this, and it's customized to me. I can say I have this going on, for example, with taxes. I've got this going on with my taxes. I need to figure out this in this state. It's so customizable. So my approach is— it's funny, it's always been this way, but it's doubled down on it in a way of My job as a podcast host is to help the person listening change or identify how they're thinking versus giving them all of this information that they may not— they could easily find or they already have and aren't doing anything with it. And so a lot of my content approaches, of course, we need to know what their problems are, what they're looking for. But my approach first goes to why aren't they doing it? Why aren't they what's getting in the way of them doing this thing. It could be emotional, it could be trauma, it could be an experience that has happened. And I take a lot from the work that I do with my clients of identifying this. And if you don't have clients right now, like if you haven't had clients, you look at your own self. Like I always tell my clients to think about, okay, let's say for example, let's use taxes. I hate using this because it's, thank goodness for my accountant. So you go ahead and do that. I have no desire to do it, but If I were this person who was DIYing my stuff when it comes to accounting or bookkeeping, and I'm like trying to figure out why can't I just every week go through my account stuff and do this thing, I might know the things to do, but I may not know why am I so hesitant about this. And so I like to have my podcast, yes, talk about that problem, but go way more deeper on why you're not doing it. And what I have found, and this has been my approach since I started my podcast back in 2017, is that people feel like Oh my gosh, she helped me figure out myself right now in this episode. If she could do this in a 50 or 30-minute episode, then how, what would this look like if I'm working with her? And that's how, like how I've experienced and how I kind of approach podcasting. And that's how I help my clients too when they're looking at long form. We are now in a stage, I think we have to go beyond just information giving. We have to go deeper. We have to go into the psychology of why people are experiencing, feeling, and dealing with these things because the human part is the part that we don't focus enough on. We focus a lot on the doing. And so that's my approach is, yeah, we can talk about those things we have to get done, but why aren't you doing it?

Yeah. And what's really interesting with you bringing up the, the ChatGPT part of it and bringing in that human element I love is I had this conversation with a client where She was saying like she wants to do an episode about how to have hard conversations and why you're not having them. And we started building it and she asked me, she was like, can't somebody just ask ChatGPT like how to have a hard conversation? And I was like, absolutely. And similar to you. And I was like, but they're not having it because there's something in the way. And she has a, this client has a background in, she's been in the military, she's run a bunch of different types of businesses in education, in logistics. All these things. And I was like, you can talk to the emotion by telling stories from your different life experiences that can get at that fear that they have. And so with what ChatGPT can't do is distill those stories and tell them in a way that people feel and go, oh, if she can do it in the middle of like combat, I think I can do it. On a Tuesday at home. Yeah. And being able to tackle it in that way, I think that is, is a conversation as we look at trending for 2025 with podcasting is like the role of AI and do we use it for scripting? Do we not? And I'm like, they can't tell the story, what you've lived in the way that you can tell. And so I think that's really powerful, like with what you're sharing, it's look at what belief is getting in the way and then add on what story can break that belief for them out. Because I think the key there is also without hitting them over the head and saying, you have this limiting belief, you just managed to have this limiting belief. Because a lot of the times, at least I work with a lot of people who are intellectualizers, who are like, I already know the root cause. And I'm like, yeah, but have you felt the root cause? So being able to fuse all of those things I think is really important.

Yeah. And I think too, I, to your point, it's like the It's the storytelling of— one of my good friends says it's like the creepy storytelling where it's almost like, "Nah, she read my journal while I was writing in it last night." And as much as we— we used to talk about that a lot in like talking about marketing in general, like we need to get into the things about what they're talking about. And it, to me, I found it really frustrating. I still find it frustrating to try to implement that in 15 seconds or, you know what I mean? That's not my jam. But if you give me a 30-minute podcast episode, I can go all in on you, baby. Like, you will feel like I'm in your journal. Like, you will feel like I got what you're talking about and then help you see what you can do to solve this problem. And I think that's why podcasting now is important. Like, this is why podcasting now is important, why 2025 is time to jump into that because If you don't have it, people are looking for it. That's the thing. I think that's what we forget. People are looking for that deeper why. They're looking for that deeper reason beyond just the how-to. Don't get me wrong. We are always gonna be trying to figure stuff out how-to, but we also are trying to figure out the deeper how-to. The deeper.

Yeah. And I also think that it's, yes, we're trying to figure out the how-to, but because of everything we've talked about with being overstimulated, most people now, even if you give them the step-by-step, if you do not, one, like you said, address the beliefs that are getting in the way, but two, customize it to their exact situation, it's like that how-to doesn't exist.

Exactly.

Because like we're scrolling and maybe we're saying one how-to and somebody else is saying a completely different how-to and they're trying to like combat it, fight it in their mind. And they finally got this resolution of, I'm gonna do it this way because I saw this 1-minute video. And then the next 1-minute video comes up and they're like, wait, I'm gonna do it this other way. And that honestly, it's self-trust is completely broken. Yeah. Because now I don't know how to do any of it. So I have all these steps, I have these recipes, but do I even have the ingredients? Do I even like those ingredients? Do I even wanna buy that thing? Do I even wanna do it this way? And then they get stuck.

Yeah.

And so I think what's really beautiful about a podcast is you can be like, all right, sit with me now. And then saying, I know this just came up for you. Like, I know that your brain just offered this thought to you. Now let's take that thought and let's bring it back. And you have the time versus getting lost in that one minute. So fully agree, like being able to tap into their mindset, but longer term, cuz I think also, I know we talk a lot about like ethical marketing and what all of that is. And so to get someone's attention and to get into someone's journal in a minute, you're usually going for those— that strong pain, the shame, the fear, all of that, which is important to address. But the way that it's addressed in a 1-minute video is usually no nuance, make poking it general.

I think it's not even— it's still general. Like it's still generalized as much as we want it to be like specific. I still find it's still generalized so that if someone's following it, yes, they might get a quick win, but it's not sustainable. Yeah.

And that's really such a key word, like just being sustainable with the consumption and also being sustainable with the creation. Because it's also, if you only tackle the fear of missing out, but you don't tackle all of the fears that are related to the fear of missing out, then how many times can you actually just talk about the fear of missing out? Versus on podcast episodes, you can be like, all right, you think that you're coming in here because of the fear of missing out, but actually I wanna talk to you about how this is a fear of not acting quick enough, which means that it's a fear of not being good enough, which is a fear of all of this. You're basically taking them through a therapy session cuz you've had the room and the space. And I think that's really what people want.

Yeah. And I think as the business owner, your job in podcasting now is to figure out a way. And I think if you want to figure out a way, because me, both of us do this with our clients, it's figuring out a way to make the strategy not just take them on this journey to understand who they are, but take them on their journey to know that they can trust you. To help them off of this platform, off of this long-form piece of content that they just had. And the powerful thing I want anyone to know who's listening, who's been on the fence with podcasting, is that it's a lot easier than you think than on social media to do that. And it happened way quicker and the conversions happened way quicker once you figure out that framework around how to get clients to listen. Get them into the podcast and then taking action from a podcast. And it's a lot faster than I feel. I mean, also because we've been doing this for a long time, so we've learned some of those things that just makes anchor happen quicker. But I still think if you're new, like when I started my podcast, I had better conversions on my podcast than I did on social media because I had the breath to figure it out. I had the time. The more talking, I feel like the more you talk, the more you share, the more clear your messaging becomes, the more easy it is for you to articulate what it is that you're actually trying to do or solve for your clients, it becomes easier to do and easier for you to figure out than in a 15-second reel or story. I'm so like social media funny right now because I've taken a break from it and so like, yeah.

No, and I also think that it's because the people who, back to the whole intention interruption thing, it's like the people who actually want to spend 15 minutes either with you, because again, they've built the trust and they're like, I like you, or they wanna spend 15 minutes on the topic that you have. Either situation, they're warmer, they're further down the funnel. However you wanna say it. They're so much closer to making a decision versus someone who is just like trying to dissociate from their day and then comes across your 30-second video, which may have been really good. Like your video may have been amazing, but they're in this state of, I don't wanna think about this. I don't have my wallet anywhere. I don't, maybe I'll come back to this and then they don't. So it's also pairing it with, you get, there's a lot of people on here who talk about, oh, freebie seekers and people who just want free advice and all that stuff. And I don't actually think that's a real thing. I think we all wanna try it before we buy it.

Yeah.

But it's people who just want those Hits versus, oh, I wanna go deeper. And so also tailoring it to who do you want, what would the type of person who would be successful in your programs actually do? Oh, they'd probably consume what I deliver. Mm-hmm. And they would probably consume it in a 15-minute audio versus these little things like these little graphics and matching how you deliver to who you want to deliver to. And it's this chicken or the egg situation.

You tripped up something.

Yeah.

No, I totally agree. And I think you're right. Like, it's like the type of person you want to be working with. It kind of gives you this. I also feel like this is a whole nother conversation, but it really, to me, goes down to our values as the business owner. I'm a deep person. Like, me and my friend, even my friends, we meet, we laugh a lot, and then we're like deep. It's like, we're like, it's really deep, right? And even with my clients, it's like that. Like, they come into the container and they're ready. We go deep quick. And so if that's how I am and that's a value that I really appreciate and that I excel at, and that's part of my superpower, going deep with people, why put all my eggs in a basket where that's not possible, AKA social media? That's not possible for me to go deep like that. It is in a long-form content and then nurture, creating that kind of community and vibe there. So I love that you're brought that out because that's so true. So true.

I think about it a lot with— I know it's common nowadays to be like, oh, like, I hate small talk. And it's what— same. But it's the difference between if you're going to the coffee shop and you have— you're just there for the vibes, you want your coffee and all this stuff, and the barista's like saying hi, or somebody else like in line is like trying to make conversation with you and they have interrupted you, and you're like, oh my God, Shay, like, I love it. Oh wow, your jacket's so cute. All this stuff. And you're happy to have that lighthearted conversation. And then they go, what is your biggest fear? Like, why are you afraid to do blah, blah, blah? You'd be like, mate, yes, what are we doing? Versus maybe if you're in the right space, I'm not even saying like a completely different thing, but I think about for me, like a yoga studio where like afterwards you've just had an hour long, like you've shared a space with someone and then somebody after is Hey, like, how are you feeling? And you, this conversation starts like that and there's like more intimacy, there's more intimacy there. Then you're like a little bit more open to be like, oh yeah, you know, that one shape like really did feel this type of way, or I really did, this emotion did come up for me. Do you wanna talk about it? That's not weird cuz you're not in this though space of, yeah, pussy shop. You're in a space where everyone's intentionally trying to slow down. So it's the same with the mediums of, did you just say hi and I love your really pretty picture? And then you're like, but what's your biggest fear? Like, you're, it's just too much versus having that time and that space to be like, oh, I, I chose to be here. I chose to be in this space with you.

Yeah.

Let's dive in.

Yeah.

But I think a lot of folks get really tripped up in the work. They think that it's gonna be a lot more work and I'm curious how you work that out with people of having them know that it's—

I feel like it's more work to try to create content in segments like that, right? It's, to me, it's so much easier to start with the long. That's how our brain naturally works anyway. That's the thing I tell my clients. I'm like, your brain naturally thinks in a story. That's how we naturally think. That's how we learn. That's how we learned, right? Was through story. And so for us to ti— trying to create a story with interruptions, that is exhausting for our brain. So if you could just start with the story with a beginning and an end and a middle, like a middle, beginning, middle, and end, you can now take that content and repurpose it in whatever way without feeling all of this pressure to make this one piece of small content to connect with someone. And even if you're coming from the social media You might brain, strategy brain, like, yes, it's a collective over time that you're creating the story, but you can still do that so much easier from one piece of long-form content than trying to like do it separately. And so I just tell my clients to try it. You'll see. And that's what they have to do. Give them a framework. Hey, this is how you create the story and just have fun with it for a minute and just like breathe. And I think I have a whole thought about this. I think social media has conditioned us to believe that we can only sell in short things. Like marketing in general has taught us like, oh, we can only consume stuff and make decisions after seeing a commercial for 50 seconds. But my thing is we had to see that commercial like 77 times. So you add that out over a period of time, you might as well have had a long form, yeah, good to purchase. And that would've done the same kind of storytelling and you would've bought sooner. So in my, like, in my approach, it's very much just getting my clients to unlearn that thought process of, yeah, short-term sells faster. And that's not actually true if you look at the data. That's my, my thought.

Yeah.

What that made me think of is I've had this conversation hundreds of times where people are like, yeah, but people's attention spans are too short nowadays. And again, it just keeps coming back to, yes, my attention span is short. If you've interrupted me, I don't wanna talk to you for that long. No. But if I want to go talk to you, all of us have been on FaceTime for 3 hours with people who you love them dearly. They're not that interesting. Like, it's you, but like, they're, they're not giving you revelations, but you're there because you're interested and you're Having— you're forming intimacy with this person, and like, you pro— one of you intentionally called the other. And so it just being able to break that belief, because I think a lot of people have been sold the belief of our attention spans are too short. But on Saturday, I just watched a 4-hour movie.

4 hours? Okay.

It was— it's called The Brutalist. It was wild movie. Anyway, or like, we go and we watch Netflix, and yes, some of us will have our phones out and stuff, but like You're still watching it. You're still there. We can talk about needing other tools to stim while you're watching. That's fine. But I, I really wanna challenge that belief of, oh, everyone's attention span is too short. No one's gonna watch my video. And it's, if you're boring, just say that.

And I think too, like, you're such a good point. When I think about podcasting or any long-form content, like maybe if they're not a warm audience, let's say they're cold. Let's just say they're random people who are finding you, right? Because you are solving or talking about a topic that is important to them, that solves a problem or identifies a problem, however you want to name it, and they go listen to you and you get them within a certain amount of time, they're, you know, like unhooked from something that's going to help you. That's true. It's natural, whether it's 15 minutes or an hour. I mean, there are podcasts, you guys, that are out there that are like, 2 hours long, I personally cannot do that, like, as a host. But if that's how people connect and they're doing well, YouTube is a perfect example of why it still exists and why people go on there and can engage with that content. And they're not necessarily always watching it, they're listening to it. Their attention span is not that short. It's based on what they want to hear. So trying to figure out a way to wrap this because I think it's just important for us to know that long-form content is not an option anymore. That's what I want to say. Long— if you don't have a strategy for long-form content in your business, you need to.

Yeah. And just like also wrapping up the point where you were saying of keeping people's attention in all those spaces is that also the whole like attention span conversation. Conversation in short form or long form. People expect that just talking is enough, that they can just go on and talk and that that is interesting enough. And it, if you are speaking to an audience of people who are cold and warm, you have to keep in mind that it's cold and warm. But doing that on long form is gonna be a lot easier than on short form because you have more opportunities to do. And I fully agree. I think this is the time to go towards long form for sustainability purposes of literally your own attention span, for sustainability purposes of we are in a 4-year era where we will be exhausted more than usual. And so sustainable on the consumer and the creator side, like long form gives you space where if you batch a couple and you wanna disappear for a month, like people will still be fed and fed their content, but also you will still make sales. And you'll be able to feed yourself. And just really seeing the— we didn't get into this, could be a whole conversation for another day, but like the algorithms and what they are or are not, you have a little bit more control. You don't have full control, but you have a bit more control on long-form algorithms than you do on short-form. Yeah. And so being able to— the interplay of all of that makes 2025 the year that you have to double down.

Yeah.

On long-form. Yeah.

And I like that going back to sustainable, like, I think also if you've been a long-time entrepreneur and you have not tapped into long-form content as a strategy, for your own sanity and lack of burning out, don't burn out. You need long-form content. Just quick, a favor to all of my folks that have been like on the street with social media for 8 years. 8+ years, in order for your own business to continue to be sustainable from a marketing standpoint, you need a long-form strategy like yesterday.

Yeah.

And the great thing is that with longer time in entrepreneurship, your content is gonna be better. Like your— the depth that you're able to provide people, that's where you can outcompete the new and the young, where not young, like literally age, but like people can come in and maturity, that hot energy, they're like, just, they capture a lot of attention cuz they're new. But what they don't have is the depth. So really that's what's gonna win out in the long term is go flex how much you do now.

Yeah.

And how much you've earned by being in the game for so long.

Yeah, exactly. Totally.

Yes.

Okay. How can we connect with you?

Beautiful. So you can follow me here at Issa Media Inc. And you can also follow me on LinkedIn. That's a whole other algorithm. And that'll be under Isabella Sanchez Castañeda.

That's a wrap for this episode of Business with Chronic Illness. If you enjoyed this conversation, be sure to follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a review. It helps more entrepreneurs living with chronic illness and autoimmune disorders, find these conversations. You can check the show notes for links, resources, and ways to stay connected. And if you have a question or story you'd like to share, visit craftedtothrive.com to leave a voice message for the podcast. I'd love to hear from you. Until next time, remember you can build a thriving business without sacrificing your health, your peace, or your profit.