Flow State Business

Instagram and LinkedIn Alone Won’t Grow Your Business… Here’s Why

• Ruby Lee

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I’ve been having so many conversations lately with clients feeling stuck in their content rhythm. They’re showing up, doing the work, creating daily… and still not seeing the kind of growth or flow that feels sustainable. And it’s usually for one big reason:

They’re relying only on short form content.

Instagram, TikTok, quick hits on LinkedIn. It’s all powerful. But it’s not the foundation. Not for a business that’s built to last.

In this episode, I’m opening up the conversation around short form vs long form, and sharing what’s made the biggest difference in building a business that actually feels good to run.

Inside the episode:

  • Why short form alone creates a content bottleneck
  • What I’ve learned about long form content after nearly 5 years of podcasting
  • The real reason your audience might not be converting
  • And how to start building the kind of brand that people binge, trust and buy from, without constantly being “on”

This might shift the way you think about content and give you a clearer path to build something with a little more flow and a lot less pressure.


  • Join The Coaching Group on May 6 here
  • Connect with me on LinkedIn here


 Hello guys. Welcome back to the Flow State Business Podcast. I'm so happy that you're here because we've got some big business discussions to be having today, especially if you found that flow around sales and customers are the lowest they've ever been, or you're just feeling so uninspired around having your business feel successful and abundant and overflowing, and you're wondering what you're doing.

And I'm gonna put this in major, major air quotes, what you're doing wrong. I am straight up gonna say that this episode is going to be a bit of an episode where I am picking on Instagram a little bit, only because I want this to be on blast because a lot of my clients are telling me that they're so frustrated with Instagram's performance and the algorithm.

But as a whole, I'm talking to short form content. If you only have short form content right now supporting the life of your business, then we need to have a chat. And I definitely want to ruffle your thinking and a few business thinking feathers here, but just know that I'm always saying this with a lot of love.

Okay, so let's jump in. It's Easter Monday. I don't know about you, but I've had a very restful break. There's something about the collective energy I. Of everyone slowing down and chilling down and being on holidays. There is also like an additional holiday here, like literally in four days called Anzac Day.

And so like right now, all of Australia's just kind of in slow down mode, and I don't know if it's the same where you live, but over Easter we still have a lot of shops either completely closed down or unlimited hours. So there is just this sense of whether you celebrate Easter or not. Everyone's just in a real slowdown sort of sense, but.

By the time I get to Easter Monday, you guys, I'm like, okay, I'm ready. Like I've had my little break. I wanna get going. So here I am recording the podcast and don't worry like I'm gonna hang by the pool with some friends later on. But I just wanted to get this one out for this week, and this episode has been brewing for some time.

It's one I wish someone told me earlier when I was building the business. So I'm gonna start straight up with the truth bomb. Instagram is not your business model. It is also not your customers. It's not the people that are necessarily gonna buy from you again and again, and do you know what? It was never designed to be your long-term growth plan.

Instagram is fast, it's flashy, it's powerful for connection. Yes, if you use it correctly, but if that's the only platform that you're building on, you are constantly going to feel this stuckness in creating stuff in order to be seen. And therefore it feels like a major hamster wheel, right? Like why it feels so difficult for you to constantly feel like you have to make stuff and create stuff.

And no one, by the way, on this platform, unless you've really got your content down pat, it's not really designed for people to come and binge your stuff. Like it's also, by the way, with Instagram, and I know I'm picking on this platform because it's where most of you are really building out your businesses.

I know that there's some of you who are building on others, which I'll get to in a second. But with IG itself, it's really hard to search on ig. Have you noticed that? So even if you're trying to search for a piece of content of mine and I create daily, it's not like you'll be able to easily find that reel.

You would literally still need to go through my entire feed to find a reel and then save it. And even when you put it into Saved, it's not like you can bookmark it for your particular bookmark, it just goes into this big saved folder on the Instagram platform. It's very frustrating. So you are literally building your brand right now inside an app that forgets you after 24 hours.

I think this is so important for us to really reiterate. And this is because it is a short form platform. So a short form platform is a content platform that prioritizes very quick bite-sized pieces of content. Usually it's very much designed for fast consumption or rapid scrolling. You know, Instagram, obviously we've got reels, we've got stories, we've got posts all very rapid.

TikTok, very rapid, but maybe a little less because they've got like longer, you know, an ability to post longer videos. But anyway, for the sake of this, we're gonna go with that. Facebook stories, Facebook reels, YouTube shorts, Twitter posts, ex posts like LinkedIn as well. I would put in the short form category.

So if your entire business right now. Is built off short form. This is where you are likely seeing a major bottleneck with your customer flow and also, you know, like an unproportionate reliance on the algorithm to give you flow in your business. Does that make sense? Is this sort of now hitting home and it's like, oh my God, this is probably why I am feeling the way I am feeling.

I'm, I'm actually speaking to a very specific group of you. Those of you who are actually doing the work and showing up daily. For those of you that aren't even getting it to a point where you're posting consistently, whatever that means to you, we need to just be back to basics and get yourself in a place where you are posting consistently.

And there is a really, really good reason why we have short form content and why we have spaces like Instagram, but. I just wanna say very clearly, if I didn't have this podcast, I don't think I'd have this business. I don't say that lightly either. I've had this podcast for almost the same amount of time as the time I've been full-time in my business.

I started at six months after I went all in, and I did it because I heard a Gary V motivational video, and it was talking about the differences between long form content. Short form content. So this is what really sunk in for me, and I think this is also something that a lot of us forget about because we're so consumed with all the virality tips and tricks to get seen by the masses when you forget to actually go long form evergreen.

Serve the people that are already in your audience and already in your community. Okay, so at this point you might not have maybe heard the term long form Evergreen, so I just wanna make sure I'm mindful of that. Long form Evergreen content is deep, long lasting content that your audience can actually binge on.

They can come back to it again and again and again, weeks and months, or even years after you've created it. By the way, YouTube is amazing for that. It's basically content that doesn't expire it lives on. So you could argue that the content does stay on Facebook and Instagram forever, but again, it's really hard to find that content.

Whereas if you think about podcasts, their search functionality is amazing. YouTube videos exactly the same if you get your SEO and your keywords right on that. Incredible. Blog posts absolutely unbelievable. Or if you have like digital guides or masterclasses that are sitting on your website, that's long form.

It's easy to get to your website if you lead people from your other communities, and they can go ahead and find some longer form content. So in simple terms, it's kind of content people binge on save, share, get into your energy, discover you through long after it's been published without you lifting a finger.

So this is where you might've heard people say, have the content work for you instead of you needing to work for the content. So I wanna stop and pause there right now. How much of your content economy that you are building up your long-term brand equity around is you relying on content to work for you versus content needing you to work for it?

Really think about this question. Because this is probably why, and if we are really getting to the core of why you feel so damn unmotivated, exhausted, so up and down with motivational levels, I'm almost willing to guess it's pinpointed to this reason. Because if you do not have long form evergreen content, you are also not building your brand equity.

You're not building your content ecosystem that works behind the scenes and is pulling in and magnetizing in and converting people without you needing to just constantly post and post and post. You are also not building your authority because people can't go deep with your work. They can't sit in your energy and your knowledge and your skillset, and.

I can almost guarantee that you are not seeing income flow in on autopilot and every single time you are needing to launch something or put something new out there, it has to be this really, I. Massive deal where you are needing to create a huge launch on social media and then you're just so exhausted by the fact that you have to do that, that you don't launch at all, or you're too scared to launch or you've just, you've run out of all of your energy because you put everything behind your offer and by the time you've done that, you can't be bothered actually promoting it.

That's probably where you are feeling the cash flow breakdown. So if this is like fully hitting home for you right now, please just. Take a minute and leave me a quick DM and let me know like, Hey, rubes, like by the way, I'm at underscore Ruby Lee underscore on Instagram and just be like, this is exactly what I needed to hear and hit send because I just always love hearing from you guys as a community of whether or not the topics that I'm dropping into is relevant for you.

But I just know it is because there's so many people in my coaching groups in my world. That whenever I coach them on this, they're like, whoa. It's like right in my face and I just did not even see it. So you know how I was saying earlier, if I didn't have this podcast, I don't think I'd have this business.

I feel the same way about YouTube. So back when I was creating on YouTube shy face. Even though I haven't been there for a little while, I was doing vlogs. I've experimented quite a lot on YouTube. I have like a thousand subs on there, but I, it is part of my intention at some point later this year to get great with YouTube again.

Anyway, guess what? I still get leads and clients from those videos. So I have been very inactive for over a year, and I haven't posted a single thing. It still continues to bring in customers and clients and they come from different types of videos on there. They might come from my travel vlogs when we were traveling a lot the year before last, and then three years ago.

They might come from my educational type videos. So if that's sort of giving you a little heart pull and you are excited by that, I would definitely explore that a lot more. And there is so much power. The evergreen stuff. I can't say that someone has ever, ever said to me, I bought something from you because of an Instagram post you posted four years ago, and it just showed up on my algorithm.

I wish that was the case, but I kid you not. I'll have people say, I don't know how I landed on your podcast, but it was an episode from 2019. And I have gone way, way back to the archives. I've listened to 15 episodes and I'm ready to join your mastermind or something. Just so high ticket. But I haven't had to lift a finger.

Do you know? Like they've just gone in and they've binged on their own. That's the power of evergreen. Okay. Your content keeps working after you've posted it compounds. It becomes a digital legacy. So for any one of you right now that's like, I don't wanna pose, I just am just so over it. I hate the algorithm.

Honestly, get over yourself. You're building a legacy and if you really connect to that, then that's what's gonna be a driver for you as opposed to whatever else, trending sounds and all that, that's pissing you off. That's so small. Like you are worried about the small things and you're not focused on the big things.

So I wanna coach. We've already kind of ventured into this, but if you are building everything on ig, then this is where you are definitely in what I call the coach track. So let's talk about what I'm seeing a lot right now. A lot of new coaches, I'm talking pre-revenue coaches, maybe some of you have just quit your corporate jobs and you've decided you wanna be a coach, mentor, service provider, consultant.

You are entering this space, or maybe you've just come out of maternity leave and you're ready to get back on it, and then you realize like so much has shifted with social media. A lot of you newbies are building the entire presence on Instagram and you're building it on sand. Like I get it. It's the easiest to start with, but it's also the easiest to crumble because you're constantly on a content hamster wheel.

And if you do not have the ability to think about content as a full-timer. Even though I coach, and that's my main job and I'm a business owner, I would say like 90% of my job is content creation. So if you cannot commit to that, the problem is your time, your energy, and your resources, correct. So if you don't have that, this is where your long form Evergreen can work for you.

Because again, when you don't have long form evergreen. There's nowhere for your brand to really anchor. There's nowhere for your audience to drink from like an oasis. There's nothing to binge. There's no place to land. And if you are already building on long form evergreen platforms, maybe you've started a podcast or you've got a YouTube channel, they're kind of the two main ones at the moment.

If you really look at the time component, you put more time into your short form platforms than you have thinking about your long form. Like every time I sit down on this microphone, I literally can feel people in 2051 messaging me saying, I've just listened to your podcast episode. I know that sounds absolutely wild, but I just know that that's what this platform is designed for.

That's also, you know, so long as these platforms stand and there's, you know, whatever it is, like we don't know what's coming up in the future. You've just got to get going with long form people don't usually buy. Just from a single reel. Now, I wanna say this like obviously you have people that you could compare to to be like so and so who has a 1.2 million followers can post a single reel and she makes $7,000 in one minute.

I mean, yes, because she's got brand equity. They've taken time to create a content ecosystem that has legacy. I'm willing to guess. If you go down the rabbit hole, they've either been in a really, really long time and they have a cachet of long form evergreen and for some coaches, it's not necessarily socials.

They just have like, you know those all in one memberships. You can like deep dive into all of their master classes, all of their courses. You get everything, everything, everything. So those people have long form evergreen. Or if it's somebody who's maybe just started out on Instagram and you are wondering how they're claiming that they're making all these sales, it's likely because they have YouTube or they have a podcast or they have substack, or they built their brand elsewhere.

Okay? So really I want people to feel your energy, and I, the way to do that is not from a trending sound on a reel. The way to do that is to show them what you're made of in some really good value. Add high touch ways like this podcast. Okay. It gives you depth into who I am, and you are choosing to spend the next 20 minutes, 30 minutes with me as I'm discussing this as an idea.

And hopefully you are walking away from this and you're going, okay. Wow. I really needed to hear that. And I can't believe like Ruby Lee just shone the light on why it feels like a bottleneck and I feel so seen. And this isn't necessarily gonna be like go and buy something of mine, although there's always an opportunity to.

But it will just leave some sort of lasting impression, and I hope it contributes to the legacy you build. I hope this podcast is literally gonna help you go, you know what? If I hadn't listened to that podcast back in April, 2025, I wouldn't be here today because no one told me that I had to have long form Evergreen.

Let that be that. I don't even care if you don't buy a single thing from me. My love cycle. This is the thing. We're all in business together, and I have this year to give back to you and the collective because I know my mission, my vision, my purpose. Is to help you unlock more flow and more higher consciousness around the way you're doing business and how you're meant to do it easily.

Okay? Now I can hear some of you say, but Ruby, I'm not a coach. I sell digital products or journals or mugs, or I'm product based. Do you know what? Real quick for my product based besties here, even more reason to build brand equity with long form. Because like first up, if you don't have long form, it's gonna be super expensive for you in the long run probably already is you are pumping so much money into ads and marketing agencies to help you finesse your brand and to help you get it just right.

There is like a way more vibey way to do that, which is personal branding and there is a way cheaper way of doing that, which is long form evergreen. Okay, so I can almost sense like your products are so amazing, like you may be selling t-shirts. Or whatnot, but people wanna buy from your story. I follow one YouTuber and she sells like jumpers and t-shirts and like sweaters and all kinds of things, but people love buying from her because her story is literally so amazing and like it makes so much sense to support her, right?

Like there is a brand out there for every single niche. But if you look at all the successful ones, I'm going to guess that it's because they have. This brand voice that resonates with the people. Not just an amazing product, okay? Imagine someone finding your $47 digital download via a podcast that you recorded six months ago.

These are the kinds of realities that I really want you to think about, or like they're watching a YouTube video where you're explaining how your system set up changed your life, and you have a bunch of affiliate links or whatnot, and immediately they're heading to your affiliate links to buy from you.

Or their, you know, which by the way, affiliate marketing on the tech side of things or software or SaaS system side of things is massive. Do you know, like every time one of my clients signs up through my affiliate links for the system, I use Kartra. There is just like a lifetime recurring payment, which comes to me.

Like I get thousands and thousands of dollars a month just from that. Like not even doing anything. That is what I'm talking about here. There's leverage to be had, like we're in 2025, we do not need to work harder. In order to receive more money. Okay. Now, I've had so many messages from people saying, I know that I'm meant to build something long term, and I know the concept of funnels and I wanna take things up a notch, but I just don't know where to start or what to focus on.

If this is you right now, and this episode has you literally nodding along like, oh my God, I really need to get my shit sorted. Then I would love to invite you to join my first live coaching group of 2025. It's happening on May the sixth. Now, I don't think I'll have many of these at all this year, so if you wanna be in the live energy and be in the hot seat and just be there with other entrepreneurs asking about how business can be easier, then come along.

Okay. This is a full day immersion. Where you are gonna sit down with me and we're gonna map things out. I'm gonna show you what your next offers could look like. And definitely low ticket ones. Low ticket to scale to high ticket, how to build very simple evergreen systems around them. So. I'm gonna help you, let's say convert your Instagram traffic into long form Evergreen.

I'll show you things like ManyChat as well, like you've probably already seen that out there. Like, you know when people go comment podcast and I'll send you my podcast. I'll show you exactly how I've set mine up and I promise you I can literally set it up. On my phone app in five minutes. Like I wanna show you what I'm doing to make it so easy, and also how to create a version of this flow-based income that people are basically paying you 24 7.

Okay? So it's gonna be a mix of strategy, of energetics, of coaching, of fun, play, all the things. If you love this podcast, you'll love being in that live group, and you're just gonna walk away with this plan that finally feels so good and so flowing, so easy. So. Come along. I'm gonna leave the link in the show notes below.

It is so affordable. Like I, I cannot believe that's the price that came through when I was journaling. It is so accessible. It is so affordable. I'd love to support you on the inside. It's gonna be so, so good. Okay, back to it. So, I just had to mention that, 'cause I know that it's relevant for some of you.

'cause you're like, oh my gosh, like I need to do something. So there is an outlet for you to go and get help and for me to coach you on it directly. There are moments that I wouldn't recommend jumping into long form evergreen just yet. Dun, dun, dun. So you are just like, wait, you just convinced me. Are you gonna like de influence me?

Now? Kind of let's, let's talk about when to pause on the long form Evergreen one. You have not nailed down your core message. Like, seriously, not even close. Two, you're still experimenting with your offer and audience, so you're so, so, so new that you are still in the ideation stage. And three, you are in survival mode, meaning that you're doing everything you can just to like keep the lights on and adding another platform is literally gonna tip you into burnout.

So in these three cases, come back to this, when you are ready to plant roots for the long term, because that's what long form evergreen content really is. It's anchoring your brand into something so much deeper. But I want you to be like, game face. I want you to be on for this. Okay? Like we can't be half-assed in and then, you know, you're still like.

You know, feeling all so scared about everything out there in the world. It's just, it's, it's gonna be difficult to really have game face. All right, so as we close the episode very shortly, I wanna talk about how you can choose your platform. I've literally just talked about two, maybe three. So the three main ways that you can get into a long form evergreen game is podcasting.

If you love to talk and riff like I do and build intimacy through chats, podcasting is your platform. YouTube is if you are a visual person. So if you love like being on the camera and you know that's where your energy also most loves to reside and you love the tech and you love the setup. You want really, really, really, really good SEO, and you're happy showing your face on camera.

Like I mentioned earlier, YouTube is your space baby, and it's that whole thing, everything that I'm saying now, it's, you gotta go before you're ready. But what I'm saying here is like intrinsically, you know, you're a talker or intrinsically, you know, you really like being on camera. You know there's something there.

And I know that sounds wild to some of you. It's like who? Likes being on camera. I do, I do. So I need to get my YouTube game back on. But like for instance, when I first started my graduate program, way, way, way back when I just, you know, started my corporate career, they asked for volunteers to be in their employee video and my hand could not have shot up quick enough.

Like, I'm telling you, your girl likes to be on camera. So I was like, yes, put me on. Like, I'm, I'm happy to talk about my experience. Um, the third area is blogging. So if writing is your zone. There's so many beautiful places now that you can write medium substack. You can write on your own damn platform, make make it your own thing.

But go have a look at what's available. You know, like you can become Reddit viral for all iCare, but it's just also like, I want you to think about how you're playing a long-term SEO game with all of this. Pick one if, I mean, I know some of you also are very much like, I wanna do all of them. Just Just pick one.

Okay. Start small, please. This is super important. Listen, listen, listen. Are you listening? No, seriously. Are you listening? Let it be so imperfect. Got it. Let it be so. Imperfect if we're still chatting. I don't know when the next time I'm gonna run a coaching group day, but let's say I run one in like six months time and you're still here because you are wanting to perfect something.

Please, like now is the time. Let's go for it. Let's go for it. And if you are like me and you've stepped away from a platform for a while, like, Hey, YouTube, maybe it's time to return. I feel inspired by my own chat right now. I'm just like, oh, dammit. I've got many things on the cards for the next few months, but I'm gonna put it back on for sure.

So time to wrap this up. If you're serious about building something that lasts and if you're done with the content treadmill, if you want people to buy from you whilst you sleep, and whilst you walk and whilst you're at your bathhouse, relaxing in the steam room. You're basically living your best life.

Start building your long form platform please, because your business deserves so much more than 15 seconds of fame on a reel. Okay? When you look back a year from now, I promise you you're gonna be so glad that you got started. I really, really promise. Okay? So don't forget. I have coaching group day on May the sixth, a full day immersion with me.

We're gonna map out your offers. We're gonna build that simple evergreen system, tech stack, and funnel flow so that you're making money on demand. I'm gonna show you exactly what I did to make that a hundred K month just a few weeks ago, how I took a $7 PDF into a high ticket offer, and also how I convert high ticket as well.

'cause I know so many of you are high tickets. You've got your private coaching, you've got masterminds you've got done for you. So this is just gonna flow slow. So beautifully and gorgeously into the rest of your year as well. Okay? Go and check it out in the show notes below. Flow state offers.co/the coaching group.

If you are just listening in, it's so affordable. I would love to see you there. I'd love to meet you there. And until then, remember to follow the flow of what feels good. I'll catch you in the next one. Bye. My loves.