#166 Isabella Sanchez Castaneda's Insights on Entrepreneurial Podcasting

0:00 From the heart of Dubai, where tomorrow is being built today, to the world. Welcome to the CTO Show with Mimet. Here we redefine technology and reimagine possibilities. With MIMET delve into the riveting realms of a I cybersecurity and digital technology. Experience the thrilling highs and lows of startups, immerse yourself in the spirit of entrepreneurship, and witness the future of Business Innovation being written in real time. Now, without further ado, let's TuneIn and explore the future.

0:45 Hello. We'll come back to a new episode of The City or show with Mehman. And today and for the first time, I'm talking to someone who's expert in something. I decided to start a couple of months back where someone especially in marketing, but from a different perspective, which is podcasting. And I have with me Isabella, today, I would pass it to you, Isabella, so you can introduce yourself what you are up to and tell us a little bit about your company and what you are doing. Thank you so much for having me today. My name is Isabella Sanchez Casania. I am the Founder and CEO of ESA Media, Inc. We are a digital marketing company focused specifically on podcasting and even more specifically on podcasting that is meant to turn listeners into buyers and clients. So I specialize in working with entrepreneurs to create shows that will allow them to really.

1:43 Showcase their expertise, increase their thought leadership, and then eventually have people trust them enough and feel confident enough in their frameworks and philosophies that they want to work with them. That's great. And this would be actually my first question to you today. So you have businesses get more visibility through podcast, right? Now from your experience, how can technology driven startups? Because we focus a lot on technology driven startups in the show here, leverage podcast as a tool to create brand awareness and engagement. Yes. So whether it's a technology company or another company, it's all about showcasing your philosophies.

2:26 So a lot of times people come into a show, especially if they're doing like an internal show where it's only the founder speaking or someone in the marketing department. And they're answering very general questions about technology right now. There's so many people talking about what is a I and what is ChatGPT and how is that going to impact us instead of rooting it in. How does this company view this and what is our philosophy? So if a technology company goes in and says this is our company stance on a I, this is our approach to integrating. This new technology, this new API, whatever it is into our software or how we work with our clients, it helps people not only receive information, but receive information in a way that they then associate with you, associate with the company, with the founder, and it builds more of that loyalty rather than just like, oh, I could have gotten this information from anywhere. Yeah, that's great.

3:29 Now the question that someone might ask. With all you know these available I would say platforms to go and publish on like usually like if they are in the B2C business maybe they would choose something like Facebook, Instagram. If they are into B2B maybe they would go to something like more professional like link it Then now why does they need to have an additional place to go and. Go out to the world and say hey, like you need to listen to our story, which is the the podcast. Yeah, so I'll answer this in two ways. The first one is we love marketing and we know that every business has to do it, but it takes so much time. And so if you instead focus your marketing energy on making a really great podcast, and then from there you pull from the podcast to make tweets, to make LinkedIn post, to fuel your newsletter.

4:27 To pull clips from and then show them on Instagram reels if that's your preferred platform or TikTok even. You are then able to maximize the effort that you have. Because as much as I would love to encourage every entrepreneur to spend more time marketing, I know that the back end of the business and the daytoday operations take up so much time. The 2nd way I would answer that question is that long form allows you to build trust faster. Anyone can go on to a platform and kind of make up some information. Not make it up. It might be completely true, but they may be able to organize information in a way that is compelling for A2 paragraph post or is compelling for a 32nd short form video.

5:15 But for someone to decide, I'm going to put my expertise, my company's values, and positioning out on something that is longer than 5 minutes. Takes a certain level of authority and it positions you in a way where people look at them and say they really stand behind what they're doing. So from a practical standpoint and from a trust building standpoint, podcasting gets you there so much faster. Yeah, and I agree with you because since the I decided to do it and I'm doing just like of course. I would utilize this for my own business, but you know when I decide to start it's like just to to make an authorities fault leadership for myself. It's helped a lot because it can open a lot of doors. You never know who is going to listen to your podcast now. Two things I want to ask you and let me let me separate the question so we have better answers. Is there a sweet spot Especially I'm asking for entrepreneurs that there a sweet spot on.

6:14 How often they have to come up with a new episode like Cap? Like is it daily, weekly, monthly And how long? I mean the duration should be the sweet spot again. Yes. So I love weekly episodes. Just once a week is fantastic. It's something that is more sustainable for people. It's something that if we also look at consumer behavior, people love to listen to about. An average of eight podcasts. The typical consumer has a podcast that they like and so if you do once a week, you're kind of in their flow in their routine. The and also from the sustainability standpoint, the length of time, I don't have a preference.

6:54 I believe that a 5 minute episode can be as impactful if not more impactful than a 50 minute episode. Obviously if you have guests on your show, you may want something a little bit longer, but. It's not so much dependent on the length of time, it's more how valuable is the information that you're providing? Did you include enough examples? Did you include enough information where the person feels like they really got a good grasp of the concept? Did you make them feel smart people? Sometimes when you go in and you are an expert in what you do, you start to use this like big language and complicated. Examples.

7:35 And the other person on the other end kind of feels like I didn't really understand. And then they can turn it off and they're they're just a little lost. But if instead you go in and you give all the definitions and you allow the person to understand, you make them feel smart and you make them feel like they actually got something out of it. And again, you can do that in 5 minutes or 50, it's going to be really how much can you handle as the host? Yeah, that's informative. And I think, yeah, it depends on the type of business also as well. So the other question that I want to ask you, like recently we started to see all podcasts, majority of them, they also do video podcasts like, I mean they they push them on YouTube and then they take shorts, you know to put them on YouTube as well as YouTube shorts.

8:24 We see them as reels. Do you think that? This is the way podcasting is going to be in the future. So we are a little bit moving from just audio only or like Of course we will still put it on Spotify or Apple podcast, but you see like this is the trend now. Absolutely, Especially as we see Spotify allowing video on more platforms. So I do video episodes for myself and for all of my clients. I think it just adds that level of engagement. Also what we talked about before it if you have the video up already, it gives you so much more opportunity to repurpose to put on different platforms. Some folks will take the full episode and put it on LinkedIn as well.

9:10 You can get more out of the episode also if you are someone who's in a service industry where you are having conversations more one-on-one or more directly with a team of a company. Having the video also increases that trust factor, because they've seen your face before, they've seen your expressions. How do you interact with your body language? All of those pieces can really contribute to a show. So I definitely think we're going to see even more video and the shows that decide not to do video at first. I understand that it might be a logistical thing, they may not have the equipment or they may not have the time to edit video, but.

9:51 Longer term for success, the shows that don't have video need to have a good reason for not having video. OK. And do you see like entrepreneurs should, you know, just because one of the thing people used to tell me like we think, you know, like it's something cumbersome, it's something very complex, you know, like we would not have time so. Can't. I'm not sure if you agree with this or not, but if if you don't, if yes, tell me why. If you don't, what are the, you know, like kind of myth that people think about podcast and they should say no like it's not the case. I love this question.

10:35 So I think the very first myth that entrepreneurs especially get wrong is that you need thousands of listeners for your podcast to be impactful. And when we compare ourselves to what I call passion project, podcast or entertainment based podcast and we see that they're claiming that they get 100,000 downloads in the 1st 24 hours and making this huge impact, we start to get really down on ourselves and we start to say, well this podcast isn't making a difference. It's not helping my business when you fixate on those listeners. But what we don't realize is that if we're doing this for marketing for our company.

11:16 We don't need hundreds of thousands of listeners. We just need the right listeners to come to us. And that could be 10 people. That could be 100 people. And if they're coming in consistently and they're appreciating what we have to give them, then again, it won't matter as much the quantity because we have the quality. And I'm going to get this statistic a little bit wrong because I forget exactly what it is, but Buzz sprout put out. Some data that if you get something around like 27 or 30 listens within the first week of your podcast being out, you're in the top 50% of podcasts already and the bar to be successful is not as high as we think it is.

12:03 It just takes that consistency to just show up, keep going, and that's myth #1 for sure. Myth #2 is that podcasting is too saturated. When we go on Spotify or we go on Apple podcast, we see hundreds of shows and we think, why would mine stand out? Why would mine really be successful? And again, the numbers are on our side. Very, very few podcasts ever make it past their 10th episode, and the Apple always says that they have something like 3,000,000 podcasts on their platform. But really only about 400,000 of them are active. So many of them have stopped posting so many of them again, never made it past that 10th episode. Even more of them never made it past their trailer. They put out like a 3 minute clip and then gave up. So it's on.

12:56 The numbers are on your side, consistency is on your side, and that's what it really takes to clear the bar of success with podcasting. Yeah, I think I've seen this article, it's even it's in in their blog on bus route where they mentioned, yeah, if you if you make this in the first week or so, even 2 weeks you you are in the top 50%. So yeah, I agree with you and just from my perspective because people ask me like it must be hard, it must be taking from you too much time. Especially I'm doing daily by the way, so maybe we need to change this, but a discussion for another time. I tell them, yeah, see like if you overthink it at the beginning, like, yeah, of course we'll take time because you are overthinking the topic.

13:49 How should I speak, how should I prepare? And you know, like at the end I discovered also this myself because I was supposed to have this podcast. Back in 2019 and I kept postponing, postponing and then beginning of this year I said enough is enough. So let me get started and let's see how it goes and the 2012 and this is like an advice for entrepreneurs to yeah, like just don't be shy guys like it takes you like of course the first few episodes will be the toughest ones, but yeah, like with time you get used to it. And if you are doing weekly, as Isabella said. You you would you would need just half day maybe between shooting you know and maybe you can hire someone to do the editing for you and and and you know take care of the logistics. So yeah, I agree with you on this Now from marketing perspective, you know we're talking podcasting but of course it's all comes to the marketing strategy for a. Entrepreneurial or a startup?

14:51 What unique approaches other than podcasting? Like you, you usually also advise them to have broader audience in parallel with the podcast. Yes, I love to combine a podcast with a short form platform. So that may look like Instagram. For some people that may look like LinkedIn, I always recommend an e-mail newsletter. And being able to notify people of your episodes. Being able to, we, for example, we just talked about some statistics. So what I would do would be shared in the newsletter. Hey, this is what the episode's going to be about. These are some of the links that we talked about in the episode. If you want to dive in further for this information with a strong call to action.

15:39 Same with the short from platforms. Like I mentioned, you can repurpose really easily from your show. And connect deeper with people there and it creates more of an ecosystem with your marketing. Unfortunately, when we look at all these platforms, sometimes we start to see them either as completely different and we have a wildly different strategy for TikTok compared to LinkedIn. Or folks on the other side of the spectrum will think that they're all exactly the same and start posting the exact same content with the exact same graphics on everything. And so it's finding the sweet spot. And creating an ecosystem where no matter where people find you, they get the same brand vibe. I want to say they get the same brand awareness and like they understand who you are, but it's platform appropriate and often times the podcast can fuel that.

16:36 I always do go back to that. Yeah, that's that's great to hear. It's a very like I think you know I've seen I've you know like face this myself you know this fueling thing. Now some people you know they also hesitate you know to start this because you know they they think that you know I'm again talking about maybe people who are in the tech industry and you know they are entrepreneurs in that in that field. And they say the tech savvy people are so picky how we're gonna do this. So what can you tell them? What consideration you can tell them? Guys, keep this in mind and everything will be okay and the content that you will release, it will resonate with your audience.

17:27 Sometimes the pushback I get from folks in the tech industry or industries that are a little bit more. Not as sexy. Maybe they fear that it's going to be boring. They think, well, why would I put out a podcast if it's just going to put people to sleep? But you know, if everyone is at your company, is passionate about what you do, then you know that at least the 20 people who are there. Or if you're a smaller startup, even if it's five, you know the conversations that get you going. You know the conversations that will have people. You know, hitting up the slack and and just typing out a bunch of messages there or we'll get you in the break room, really going pull from that, pull from that passion and allow yourself to really showcase why it is that your company loves what they do.

18:19 And allowing people to see that your frameworks, your philosophies are backed by a lot of intention, yes, a lot of expertise, but also people who really care. And you'd be surprised how many people really want to dive in and learn about it. And so if you're for whatever reason, thinking what I do is too boring or what I do is not going to capture enough people's attention, focus on just capturing the attention of that one business partner that you have, or that one person you met at a networking event who couldn't get enough of what you had to share and. Really let them be the person that you're speaking to.

18:59 And that will actually translate into a much larger audience. And it's just about transmitting like how passionate you are. I sometimes, I think on my show this is kind of secondary, is when you're talking about similar topics all the time, you start to say, well, haven't I talked about it enough? Haven't I said everything I need to say? And I have a podcast about podcasts. It's not. That fun? Like sometimes to me, I'm like, I don't want to talk about the buzz sprout statistic again, but anytime that I bring it up, people are like, Oh my goodness, that completely changed my mindset around it. That completely opened myself up. So if you start to think of it as, yes, it might get a little boring for you, but it doesn't have to be boring for everyone else.

19:45 It allows you to be more creative and really keep keep pushing. 100% And again, if if the audience will allow me to share from my perspective because I thought because it's a technology podcast at the beginning, you know, this is was my aim and let's say I discussed cybersecurity, right. And then another episode and I need to mention cybersecurity again. So what I started to do, I said, OK, I have because it's a tech show. I mean it's not a tech show. Let me be clear It's it's like mixed between tech business and entrepreneurship. So, but I need to bring these topics from time to time for just educational purposes and for people to know what's happening around because again, we discussed the trends, what's going on. So the way I started to do it is sometimes I bring someone who's not necessarily a professional in cybersecurity, I'm just giving an example.

20:40 But he has the knowledge and he can talk about it from a different perspective, maybe from a marketing perspective, maybe from a sales perspective, maybe from. You know maybe he he's a motivational speaker, I don't know. But he can convey the message to the audience in this way. So I I did this myself on couple of times and maybe people started to see because when I started my content was so rigid. It was so I confess like it was only you know like if if it I'm just reading the news, right. So like I'm an anchor on the TV and that's OK like I saw this article and then and then I figured out like. Yeah, you can make it fun because I believe, like podcasting is, it's a fun thing as well.

21:22 Guys like you are on a radio show and you are the host and you don't have to be. I mean, of course they're serious. We need to be serious. But I mean, you can joke, you can, you know, bring the topic, you can add this. And This is why I want to ask you, Isabella, like about how important is also to put our personality and you know, like give these storytelling things and, you know. You know, make it like dynamic from from. It's not only about the content, it's also about us putting, you know, our feelings inside, you know, the podcast. Yes. Before I answer that, I want to just touch on what you mentioned about cyber security and feeling like you've talked about it too much. And again, to us it feels like too much. But I promise there's someone who has found your show in the last two weeks.

22:11 Who has listened to only a couple episodes and has only heard you talk about cybersecurity once and is probably waiting for you to talk about it again and again from a different angle. Maybe I follow some people on Instagram who every month put out a a reminder for you to set up two factor notification or two factor authentication on all of your accounts, and they do that every single month. No fail. And every time I'm like that's such a great reminder like it's and I'm sure to them they think that I've put this out every single month. People are sick of it, but someone has just found you. So I wanted to touch on on that piece. And then to your question on, I lost your question.

22:55 Hold on, tell me again. I was like going on about that. Yeah, you know about how important is to, you know, put the personal touch. You know, tell stories, yeah. Yes. So with putting in your personality. So I think there's a balance to strike. So sometimes we can go for that what you mentioned of like being too much of A news anchor and just going in and and especially in those quote UN quote boring industries on in those industries that you have to be really precise about your language. You might fear bringing in your personality because you think. People won't take me seriously or people won't appreciate the information as much if I'm telling a joke at the end of it.

23:42 And then there's the complete opposite end of folks who put in too much of their personality where they're talking about things that are completely unrelated to what they are talking about. So I follow someone who in more of a like less of a technical industry, but. Is a mindset coach and a business coach combined and always starts the episode talking about like what just happened in pop culture. And when they're able to connect that back to the mindset reframe that they're giving in the episode, it's really, really valuable. But when sometimes it just feels like it's out of thin air, it creates A disjointed episode and then you're kind of left confused as to why they included it so.

24:27 Always include your personality. Have the the jokes. Have the little moments where you can maybe use a word that is really unique to you, but make sure that it is related to what you're speaking on. And having that balance is something that will only come from practice. It'll only come from doing an episode where you're like, maybe I didn't, I didn't want to make that joke, but I did, and that's okay. I have another episode coming out next week or another episode coming out tomorrow. And or on the other end, you're like, I was way too serious, I was just not myself there. And it's just giving yourself that feedback and finding the sweet spot.

25:08 Yeah, I want to add something here. Remember that your audience are people like you, so there are people who can be serious sometimes. They can be funny sometimes. And because I work as a consultant for a long time and you know, especially in the technology consultancy, the idea is these guys are serious guys. You know, like they come with their suits, you know, like they act like if they are, you know, owning the world and ruling the world. My approach was completely different. So I was going, you know, easygoing, you know, trying to be very friendly, you know, to, you know, to build a relationship.

25:50 And actually I was always, you know, knowing that this is the way that it should be done and people were criticizing me, hey, like you don't look a serious guy. I mean, you know, like you you are very friendly. And then it turned out that actually my method was work the best. So the best project I've worked on where when I was spontaneous, I didn't act, You know, I didn't try to to to be in another someone's else shoes showing that, you know, like I'm, you know, I'm the serious guy. Like I'm working with this. Big company and coming here so this I do now. I did the same approach with the podcast so and This is why and maybe I think I mentioned in one of the episodes but if you are listening to us or watching us the first time. So guys, I don't prepare a script for my podcast. I used to do when I used to do the solos one but I don't prepare and you can ask them privately if you want like we didn't prepare for this because I believe in the spontaneous discussion and even when I.

26:50 Push the podcast out. I mean the episode out. I don't edit much. I don't edit unless like the other day we had some technical issues so they guess they lost their camera for a while. And then of course I need to remove this, right? So I cannot push it, but otherwise I don't remove. Although like I have all the tools that can make my podcast looks like I'm speaking without any single, you know, like I don't remove them. I keep them as as it is because I believe this is how it should be now. And the other thing also, I want to mention this one of my guests, he did something very fun. So he talks about technology. So what he decide to do is Sam Kamani in New Zealand.

27:31 He decided to talk about technology, but he brings in a comedian to make the things more fun. So yeah, like there are a lot of creative ways in, you know, getting a very boring topic, engaging and you can reach it to the customers now. We're almost done and we're coming to them. And there's one question I want to ask you like. It's more about personal learning and growth. So as an entrepreneur yourself, you have successfully navigated challenges and starting a business during uncertain times. What advice do you have for others looking to start their journey, you know?

28:12 And it could be in any sector like you're in in the media, they could be in technology, but I'm sure that there's something that you can share with everyone. I would say expecting pivots is the biggest lesson I wish I had. Because when I started my business, especially being a much younger entrepreneur, it was. I thought that it had to look like having it all put together and then sticking to that one offer. Or that one strategy forever and that if that first strategy didn't work, then it meant that I didn't have what it takes. But when you see the best businesses and the biggest businesses that we look up to in every industry, we see that they started with something and it kind of flopped and it looked one way and now it looks completely different.

28:58 And they're always iterating and they're always pivoting. And so I have been a podcast producer for a few years. But I was also testing things like Instagram strategy or LinkedIn strategy and how could I help people with their marketing and all of these different platforms until I really found the frameworks and the formulas that I knew would really work for me. And then when I decided to apply those frameworks to my podcasts and my clients with podcasts, then something really clicked and I was able to go in deeper there. And the first iteration of my offers look very different than what they look now.

29:40 And if I hadn't stopped or if I hadn't, like, sat there and been like, I can't believe that you've pivoted so many times or I can't believe that you're changing it again. If I had just accepted it as part of the process, I think I would have had a much smoother time and would have actually probably pivoted faster and gotten to certain milestones with less drama. I like this. There is nothing wrong with pivoting even fast. Now I have you know, I left corporate and I am on my own. Although like of course I have the experience. I've seen others, but of course still I'm learning in in this process and regarding pivoting, this is something I did even with the podcast and I did it in public and you know I have no issues and there's nothing wrong in pivoting because my idea first I thought like I would do only solos.

30:34 And I would do, you know, less episodes, but then there's something that triggered me to do more. Maybe maybe I will change later by the way, like I don't know, but you need to listen to what your audience is saying or saying and then based on that you do and we discussed these guys on on different episodes when we brought someone who is. You know we we get professors in in in entrepreneurship teaching in the universities this to students and we get the people who learned them by themselves and everyone talks about the same thing. You need to listen to your customers. You need to listen to, you need to follow the market and if you something like let's say you know A I comes into the picture and you see that a I might affect your business. So you need to find a way how you can leverage a I actually to get your business pivoted like this is the way we do it. And at the end I have a famous question, and the question is very simple, what the question you wished I asked you and how would you answer it?

31:41 Oh. No, I'm like, what's? What should I say? I think the question that often is most valuable is what would. What do I see a lot of podcasters doing wrong when it comes to marketing their business via a podcast? And I would answer that in two ways. One, I think is I would answer it with being not focused enough. And sometimes, and this is specifically for my personal brands, for the folks who really want to grow their own thought leadership as well as their companies where.

32:24 They start to bring in way too many topics too early. So they want to talk about if they are a technology company, they want to have their episodes about technology. And then they're going to do episodes about being a working father and being someone who's balancing family and entrepreneurship. And then the next episode is going to be about, you know, finances and managing your finances. And then they go back to technology and it just becomes too much. So I would say the biggest mistake is not having that focus and really diving in. And I say this because I did this, my podcast started in a way. Again, I pivoted in public as you did, and it was about like anything and everything under the sun and people started questioning like what do you do? What's your expertise in?

33:12 I'm, I don't know what I should trust you in. And once I really started to focus and said no, no, I'm going to spend. 2023 only talking about podcasting and only talking about marketing via a podcast. People were focused in with me and could understand exactly how I help them, why I have certain beliefs and so I would say that is going to really transform people's approaches. And on the other side like we we mentioned already is just not starting. Is thinking that it's not for me. Thinking that you're not interested enough. Thinking that people don't want to listen to you. I promise there are people who need your message. Whoever's listening to us right now. You have something to say.

33:56 You have a unique philosophy, a concept that makes your business different, that people need to understand, and they're going to best understand it via a podcast. That's great inside. Yeah. And I did the same mistake again. You know, I I, I confess. And so now you know the the main goal for me is how it's like kind of educational more than it's I would say focusing on on on something specifically. It's for me. So how I can bring people to talk and you know encourage fellow entrepreneurs to start. You know to encourage them to even start a business maybe start a podcast they can might start you know partnership with someone I don't know. So this is the.

34:42 The goal of the podcast now for me and of course establishing my thought leadership. And this is nothing wrong in in mentioning your goals in public out say well I really enjoyed the discussion today Isabel. I hope also whoever is watching or listening to us today that you enjoy. And as usual, if you have any questions, any feedback about this episode, all the show engineer, please don't hesitate to reach out to me. I would be more than happy to get your feedback and discuss it with you. Also, if you are interested to be on the show, same as Isabella was today, don't hesitate to reach out to me. You can find me on LinkedIn, on Twitter and you can send me an e-mail as well and. We are trying our best to get the best of the best and make the show really making impact.

35:28 So if you want to come, please let me know and we will discuss it. Thank you very much. And we'll meet a new episode very soon. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. Hit that subscribe button, share the show with your tech savvy friends and fellow entrepreneurs and leave us a review on your favorite podcast app. Your support means the world to us.