Why Your Marketing Collapses When Your Capacity Changes And How To Fix It

welcome to Business with Chronic Illness, the globally ranked podcast for women living with chronic illness who want to start and grow a business online.I'm your host, Nikita Williams and I went from living a normal life to all of a sudden being in constant pain with no answers to being diagnosed with multiple chronic illnesses and trying to make a livable income, I faced the challenge of adapting traditional business advice to fit my unique circumstances with chronic illness.Feeling frustrated and more burned out than I already was while managing my chronic illness to becoming an award winning coach with a flexible, sustainable online coaching business, I found the surprisingly simple steps to starting and growing a profitable business without compromising my health or my peace. Since then, I've helped dozens of women just like you learn how to do the same.If you're ready to create a thriving business that aligns with your lifestyle and well being, you're in the right place. Together, we're shifting the narrative of what's possible for women with chronic illness and how we make a living.This is Business with Chronic Illness. Hello my friend. Welcome back to the Business with Chronic Illness podcast.I want to open up today and share a really bold, powerful thing that I have noticed with my clients that I have not actually had a podcast about. And it's a capacity problem. Okay. What I mean by this is that so many come to me with thinking their business is failing and everything, right?They think the problem that they're experiencing is about marketing and really it's a capacity problem disguised as a marketing problem. And that is the tricky part.And why is this so important when we're talking about this in the context of growing a business while managing chronic illness? Transitions in life, things that are going on in your life, it doesn't matter.Just like life lifing that I feel like there's not enough conversation about and what you don't really need to hear is just the statements of just be consistent, batch your content, post more often, repurpose everything everywhere, show up daily or your audience will forget you, right?There are conversations that a lot of people have when it comes to telling you about your marketing problem and you're sitting there thinking, okay, but what happens when I can't do all of those things?What happens when I'm on the couch with my heating pad, my kid is sick, or I'm having brain fog, or I just literally don't have it today, this week or this month because I have so many clients, or I don't have any clients at all and I'm just completely overwhelmed. I need to take A mental health day, a mental health week, what happens, right?And that's the part of the conversation that I feel like is never really covered. There's never really given frameworks about how to do that. Right?And honestly, it's the reason why so many brilliantly amazing, deep skilled entrepreneurs, creatives, feel like they're failing at marketing. And today I want to walk with you into a different way of seeing your business. One that finally accounts for the fact that you're a human, right?You have a real life, you're. You have a real body and you have a real way that works for you because your life just naturally ebbs and flows, right?Your life, just as it's just gonna do the human thing, your body will ebb and flow, your capacity will ebb and flow.I think so many times do we hear a lot of content or coaching around or even business strategies like you can always increase your capacity, but nobody talks about what you need to do in the, like in the middle, right?So today I want to walk you through into a different way of seeing your business and one that finally accounts for your real life and your real body and the real way that you need to work. Because your life will ebb and flow, your body will ebb and flow, and your capacity will ebb and flow. It's not a one done step thing.And your business, it doesn't have to collapse every time those things happen.And the real secret, the one where we hear constant things about being consistent and to post daily world still hasn't caught up onto or hasn't told you or hasn't come out and said this, is that a podcast can hold you and your marketing steady when your capacity isn't where you want it to be or where it's just not going to be. So today we're going to get into the real reason why your marketing feels fragile.Your marketing feels fragile because it was built on platforms that expect you to perform all the time. And I say that in the sense of like short form platforms rewards immediacy.And immediacy requires energy on demand, ideas on demand, emotional capacity on demand, visibility on demand. And if you're anything like me or even a fraction of the women I support, your energy is not on demand.It's honestly day by day, it's week by week, it's flare by flare, it's random life message day by day. And here's the truth that might sting a little bit when I say this. Right now, most business owners don't have a strategy.They have performance schedules or they think they need a performance schedule. And when they stop performing, the business stops too.Not because they're inconsistent, but because nothing underneath that performance was built to keep your business breathing when you need it to rest. And that's not a marketing flaw, that is a systems flaw. So here's another thing nobody's telling you about long form content stability.It is actually the business capacity system. A podcast is not just about content. It's not just about weekly episodes. It's not about, you know, doing all of things. It's an anchor.Here's something that I've noticed in the space, often working with my clients. A lot of us think we have a strategy problem. But you've been doing a performance schedule. And when you stop performing, your business stops too.Not because you are just plainly lazy or inconsistent, but because there was nothing underneath that was built to keep your business breathing when you needed to rest. Rest didn't come into your equation.Oftentimes when we are looking for help and supporting things, we're like in the mindset of like, I gotta do this thing, I gotta hustle, I gotta grind it. Even if we're trying not to. Right? So this is not a marketing flaw. This is an overall life system and business system flaw.And I want to help you see how just creating one system in itself can give you sustainability, stability even when you personally in your life doesn't feel stable. And for me, that has been long form content.Here is what nobody's telling you when they say, just start that podcast, don't let the tech get in your way is that a podcast is not just about content. It's not just about weekly episodes. It's not even just about storytelling. A podcast is a business asset.It's an anchor, is a sales system and a true machine, a visibility library that compounds every single month. And long form content works even when you don't. Right? Because it keeps selling while you rest. It helps you build authority.Without daily output like we've experienced on social platforms and things like that, or even in in person events, we feel like we have to do all of those things. This deepens your trust faster than any 15 second reel or 3 minute reel or post. It really does.It attracts cold leads that are warmer, cold leads and it turns them into more warm than any other marketing medium there is, especially over social media. It helps create consistency without requiring consistency from you all of the time. Right? And you don't have to be quote unquote on.You just get to be findable. Right? You just get to Be findable.So your voice does the heavy lifting even when your body cannot and when your life ebbs and flows because we are humans. And it always does that. Your podcast system, your long form content marketing and sales system does not collapse.That means if you have a lot of clients at one point and you, you just kind of jump the ball and you don't, you know, have a new podcast episode coming out, guess what? You still have podcast episodes that are there. Right? It keeps distributing and keeps compounding and nurturing enrollment or, or leads.So it's really the only marketing vehicle that moves with you instead of demanding you to keep up with it. Right.As much as social media is great, as much as like being on video is great, there are times in your life when those things do not work well within the capacity lane that you're in. So here's the hidden cost of marketing that depends on you having good days all of the time. Because I think that's what people think.I think also that's a lot of the coaching that we hear is like, just increase your capacity and you'll be able to do this thing. Let's talk about that. If your marketing only works when you're good and your capacity has expanded, it's not marketing, it's mood management.And that's like exhausting because you have to work through those things. And it's why you can have one great week of visibility and then disappear for three. Right?It's why you feel guilty every time life interrupts your plan or you feel like you have to stop. It's also why you avoid launching something because you don't know how you'll feel the next Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.It's also why you're afraid of the growth and expansion that you want is because you don't have this system. But a grounded business doesn't need you to feel good every day and needs you to build a system that does not collapse when your capacity shifts.And here's what I tell every single client. Your sales should not stop because your life does. Like sales is like blood. We need blood oxygen. We need blood and oxygen for us to keep going.And sales or marketing has to be happening in your business regardless of what's happening. Right? Your visibility shouldn't disappear every time you need a break.People should still know you exist even though you're on the beach or you have a conference. Right? And podcasting is the tool that finally gives you that space. Okay, so what happens when you anchor your business in a podcast system?More specifically, what what happens when your voice becomes the anchor? You become searchable instead of scrollable, right?Like, people will start to binge your content because they found your content because they searched for a solution to their problem. People go looking for answers all of the time.They type in chronic illness this or creative to creativity this or how do I do this and how to do that. You know, they, they, they are searching for these things. And your episodes will be there, and they won't be buried and they won't be expired.And even though there's a lot of people talking about it, your unique lane, it's not going to be competing with other trending audios, right? It'll be like, oh, this is what I need.Your leads come to you in a sales call or in an email, or however function you have for people to buy from you. A lot warmer and already ready to say yes. Here's the thing. Podcast listeners binge your content.They trust you so much more quickly because they've decided to spend time with you. They hear your tone. They hear kind of like your essence as a person and the nuance of what you're sharing with them.And by the time they reach out, they already know that you're their person. So your sales get easier, your conversions get higher, your marketing gets lighter. Your business stays visible even when you are not.This is a big one. Your podcast keeps being found, recommended, searched, and shared on weeks when your energy is high. Great.Maybe you record more episodes that week on weeks where you're lying down with a heating pad. Guess what? Your content is still working for you. It's still doing it. It didn't go away.In fact, it's being indexed by all the searchable things, including AI things, right? I've had clients reach out to me recently because of AI sending them my way. Okay? Your content is still working.Your nurturing is still happening, and your voice, which is a huge part in this world that we have, technology is still connecting to people's hearts and solving their problems. So it is still selling for you. This is what sustainable visibility actually means.So if you want to grow without burning out, stop building on sand, stop building on a slippery foundation. This is where I want to speak to the woman, to you that's listening right now that feels like you're rebuilding marketing every three months.Like, you feel like you're trying to catch up to building your marketing every single time you, you know, take a day off, every single time you have a vacation, every single time you're sick and dealing with whatever things. Okay? This is for you. You're not rebuilding, you're restarting. Because nothing you built had roots, right?It didn't have roots, it didn't have somewhere to go. If we think about plants and how they grow, right, they look for what they need in the environment that they are.So, for example, I'm a new plant mama.I keep talking about this and it's actually, I can't really say I'm new, but I guess I am still new in the scheme of all the other plant mamas who've been doing it forever. But think about when you're propagating a pathos, okay? Think about when you're propagating a pathos and you put it in water.What I have noticed is that first you have these nodes, right? And they start off really like chunky, like chunky, short, stubby, stubby looking things. And then they start creating what is called water roots.So it's finding what it needs from the nutrients from the water and from the air, like the leaves and all that stuff.And so what I have found is that when you plant that plant that created roots in the water, it has to create different kind of roots and a different pot, right? And needs to expand to not having water roots, but like air roots, that's looking for air. So it creates its own needs in that way.But let's take again that point of that pothos. And what if you cut the propagation, the one that you're putting into the water? What if you cut the node off and you put it in water?Do you get roots? Right? And what I have personally seen with my clients is that they do that with their marketing, right?They feel like I have one and done everything on social media. But what they don't realize is that on social media, it is reliant on the relevancy of today.Yes, I think it's getting more searchable in some ways, but it's still a lot of people that is creating newer and updated content every single day on those platforms.So the likelihood that your content comes up in social media world is like having a plant that you put in water that didn't have a node for it to create roots. So it's not that your body of work on social media is completely unhelpful.What I have experienced is that because of my podcast, my system that has roots, right? People will go onto my social media and binge that content, but only after they found me through the root system, right?So in that way it feels like you're restarting because you are catching up again in social media platform area of. Okay, I need to start putting stuff out there. The algorithm has to be like, well, what are you doing? Where are you at? What's happening?And all that kind of stuff. And it takes time. So in a way, you're telling yourself, like, I feel like I'm restarting.But systematically, like, technically, on social media, you are in a way restarting, right? Not like your business is restarting. Because you will learn, you'll keep the lessons that you've learned on social media your whole life.It'll be able to apply for all these different kind of things in your life.But on the algorithm side of things, it's kind of like you're restarting because the algorithm will be like, oh, this person hasn't been active really long. So let's see, they keep putting some more new content out, right? They only care about what's new. So it does feel like you're restarting.So because you haven't created a long form content system place that is the feeling you're having. Because they don't really truly have roots. They rely on you being always in the going, right? All right.Short form content, in my opinion, like, just evaporates or gets eaten up by everybody else's short form content. But podcast content accumulates. Short form content demands more. Podcasts or long form content requires time. It needs time to deepen over time.And short form content exhausts your capacity. And a long form content strategy, marketing and sales strategy, like podcast, honors that for you.So if you're tired of throwing your effort into a system that basically has no memory, right, and you're ready to build something that lasts, I want to give you some keys on how that can be used by having a podcast that sells for you. Okay? This is, you know, moving from pie in the sky, giving you some awareness and some thoughts to kind of shift where you are to some practicality.There are three ways to podcast to create a sustainable sales system rather than just, hey, start a podcast. Okay?So in this section, I'm gonna share with you how I have helped clients do this with a podcast system, how I've helped them solve this issue of not having a marketing and sales system when life is happening and you need to, like, rest, right?Or even if you're on vacation, like, life is happening because you're having the best time of your life and you know that your marketing sales are still working, right? So even in that season.So there are three ways a podcast can become a sustainable sales system rather than Just another podcast out there in the world. Okay, first thing first. Strategic content that builds a pathway, not a pile.This is where I help my clients, like reverse engineer episodes to answer the exact questions and objections their best fit buyers are having right now or will have. Right? So no fluff, no fillers, episodes that convert because when they go searching, they are looking for those answers, right?An infrastructure that keeps working even when you rest. This is your distribution. This is what I like to tell my clients. This is how you amplify or you leverage the system to your advantage, right?Your repurposing, your evergreen pathways, your show structure, that's actually the system that reduces your workload while raising your visibility.This is also where, like my team, our podcast editing agency, becomes your nervous system saver, where we help you take all of the content that you've done and create a plan of how to reuse that content appropriately for different places. Right? Number three, this is where you get to stay in a grounded place and not in this forced idea of consistency that looks exactly the same.We build a cadence, and you should build a cadence. If you're doing this on your own, build a cadence that matches your life, your energy and your real capacity right now, not the when you get better.When you build this around the capacity and the life you have right now, you leave space to expand that when you, when you grow, right? So you could be able to do more. Let's say you decided that you want to do a podcast once a month, right?While you're working on the capacity to be able to do. To do maybe every other month, like so every other week. So two episodes a month. Guess what?Your podcast can still be helping you have growth in your business and it can still expand in the future for more capacity. No more burnout, no more pressure, just a system that moves with you. Okay? So if you want support, here is how I can help you.Specifically, if this conversation is hitting with you somewhere deep for you and you're realizing, okay, I'm going to be growing next year and I need a business system that doesn't collapse every time I need a break, I need rest, or my business is super busy, this is your personal invitation to connect with me. I'm calling myself a little bit of different names, I'm testing some things out, but I feel like I'm your fractional podcast strategy director.I love working with seasoned entrepreneurs and CEOs and health well being practice practitioners who want to build and over want someone to help build their, their system for their entire long form Content strategy. And this is a white glove, deeply collaborative experience built based on where you are in your business right now.The other way that I like to support people with, you know, making this part of their system so they don't have to think about it, right, Is podcast editing.There are so many tools that can make podcasting simple and easy to do, but many of you, like at times get like caught up in your head about doing it. That way you get like really specific on how you want things to sound. You're editing like breaths and hums and all these different kind of things.And if your content is good, like your strategy of your content is helping someone, is solving problems and connecting them to who you are and why you're the best person for them, then the editing isn't really a big deal. But it does take time, right? It does take time.So if you want someone to take that off of your plate, if you want someone to take the technical and operational pressure off, we can help you with that as well and let you just record and us do the rest of the work. So if either of these options fit you, go ahead and send me a DM or click the link in the show notes.Because your business deserves to breathe with you and like, it should like serve your life of where you are and support you in that as you continue to put in, you know, systems in place and not feel like it's working against you.Remember this, your voice is powerful, your story is an amazingly compelling, and your business can grow in a way that supports your overall well being, not require you to sacrifice all the things that you need until you get to right. And I want you to keep this in mind that your business always needs people. It always will need marketing.It always will need an engine, if you will, gas to fuel your business and your times of rest and recalibration and growing your capacity.So start with building a system that allows for that, that doesn't feel like, oh, I took a break for, you know, a month and I came back and I felt like. And you had no leads. You had no, no one to reach out to. You had to like, go back in your bank pocket and be like, who, who do I know that?Oh, how, you know, like, like just don't leave yourself in the place where you have created a hole in your business because you need a break. Because that's life. Because you just didn't have the system support you in that hole.Because what I have found for myself, you guys, is that there, especially this year, I mean, this is One of the years that I've noticed that the most, and it's been throughout my whole years as a business owner is that I have taken step back from my business and come back and there are leads waiting for me, there are people waiting to work for me.They have booked sales calls for when I blocked out my calendar to be like, I can't take any calls right now, I can't take any calls this month, but I can take it next month. And people have booked those calls. And it wasn't because I was live on social media talking about anything.It's because they found me in my podcast content and they're like, I wanna work with you. And then when I had those calls, they still wanted to work with me.You know, I used to have a fear back in the day that, you know, if I take a break, people aren't gonna wait to wanna work with me. Right? And I have found that that is actually not true.The only reason why people wouldn't wanna wait for me or wanna work with me is if I to want to work with me for. Right? And so I have found long form marketing strategies.Specifically podcasting has built that in this year I probably have been the most MIA on social media and I have signed some of my highest figure clients because of two things, podcasting and the connections and community that I built because of podcasting. So I just want to share that with you in case you're like, Nikita, I don't know how this is gonna work. I don't know about all this.I promise you just DM me and we can work through a system. And over the next couple episodes, I want, I'm going to be sharing with you some of my frameworks that have helped me and my clients to do that.But I wanted just to make aware, help you be aware of the reason why you're thinking the problem you have is a marketing problem and just solely a capacity problem. And it's like, no, you have a systems problem and you have a foundational problem. And it has nothing to do with not having more energy.It has nothing to do about you quote unquote, not being consistent in this way. It has everything to do about the foundation you built it on. And this is where I come in.This is one of my secret sauces that I have that I can help people find. Okay. And part of your foundations that are, you know, a part of this is not just your marketing sales system, it's your offers.Are they built in a way that allows this life of ebb and flowing. Are your boundaries in your life and in your business aligned with this? Right. So stay tuned.Okay, so in the next episode, I'm actually, over the next several episodes, I'm going to bring some awareness because I feel like I need to share with you guys some thoughts that are getting in the way of you creating this foundation.So the next episodes, few episodes, we're gonna talk about what is capacity, what is consistency, why, like, why these things are actually holding you back, your thoughts about them and how to fix them. And podcasting as a long form strategy for your foundation and what that looks like.I'm so excited that you, you know, stop by and listen to this episode. I want you to keep in mind, I want you to keep in mind what I shared with you in this episode.Remember, I shared with you the real reason why marketing feels fragile in general. Like, for you, it's because you're. You don't have a strategy. You have a performance schedule. Right? So you're thinking how I should be performing.And when you stop performing, because performing can only work for so long, your business stops creating opportunities for people to find you. Number two is how long form content creates stability even when you don't feel stable. Right?So we talked about how podcasting or long form content is a business asset. It's an anchor, it's a sales system. It's a trust machine and a visibility library that compounds over time. Right.And number three, the hidden cost of marketing that depends on you having a good day every day, because we know that's not real. Your sales should not stop because your life is doing weird things or you need time or you're just having a good time. Right.Your visibility shouldn't disappear every time you take a rest or need a break. Okay. And number four is what happens when you anchor your business into a system.A sustainable business model that helps you to create leads and a good time. So what helps you to be visible sustainably even when you're arresting?And number five, I want you to think about why you keep burning out or why you still need so many breaks. Is it because of your business or is it because of your foundations not actually being there? All right, so I will see you in the next episode.That's a wrap for this episode of Business with Chronic Illness.If you would like to start and grow an online coaching business with me, head to the show Notes to click a link to book a sales call and learn how to make money with chronic illness, you can also check out our website@ww.CraftedToThrive.com for this episode's show notes and join our email list to get exclusive content where I coach you on how to chronically grow a profitable business while living with chronic illness. Until next time, remember, yes, you are chronic. Craft it to thrive.