[Transcript starts at 1:07]
Hello, hello, hello my podcast people, and thank you for joining me for yet another episode of my favorite podcast. Let's jump right on into this because this is a topic that I absolutely love: Instagram. I had a discussion the other day in the DMs and the nice young lady asked, “Am I too late? Have I missed a boat? Has the ship sailed? Am I too late to start using Instagram for online business?”
And yes, this conversation we did have in the DMs on Instagram. Full disclosure, I am going to, at the end of this episode, plug my Instagram Intensive. Uh, as always, you will be able to walk away with something from this episode, but the reason that this episode came about was because this person asked me this question and I was like, let me do I, she asked me this question in response to my Instagram intensive and I was like, let me do a full episode, cuz I'm sure that you're not the only person that's wondering this.
So, short answer to the question of is it too late to start using Instagram for business? No, it's absolutely not. I have said in the past that Facebook is dead. And I'll admit I was wrong in saying that as a blanket statement. I do still believe that Facebook pages, like fan pages, I'm even sure, I'm not even sure if they're called it anymore.
Um, but growth on those things I do believe is, is pretty much dead. Um, but the platform itself isn't. I know plenty of people that are actually using that right now for their businesses, especially depending on the age group that they're going after. Um, Reels are doing, I think they're called Facebook Reels over there, are doing really well for people.
Facebook groups are still very much a thing, and it's far from dead. There's just, honestly, there's just far too much money to be made on that platform. The same thing goes for Instagram. Far too much money for the people that own it to be, to be made for them to be like, oh no, it's dead. We're gonna forget about this thing.
Yes. I do think that the old ways of doing things and the old ways of growing are, are dead. We gotta kind of do some different things, but there's definitely still opportunity to be had on Instagram, yes, on Facebook. But my expertise is on Instagram. Um, and I have had clients go viral on Instagram. I, I almost hesitate when I was doing the outline for this episode, I almost, you know, hesitated to put them in because I don't wanna lead with those things because virality is typically the exception to the rule.
It's not the rule. Most people do not go viral, and we don't want most people to go viral because, I dunno if you remember the, uh, the scene from the movie, um, the Incredibles, but Syndrome says when everybody's special, no one is. And that's the reality, right? If everyone is, uh, viral has everyone gone, if everyone has gone viral, then what does it actually matter?
What does this, these seem kind of like inflated numbers. Um, also, you don't need to go viral in order to run a business. And that's my whole shtick is that I, this episode and what I teach is using Instagram for online business, not just using Instagram to go viral. That's a completely different thing.
That's not what I do. It's not what I, my expertise is in. But you do not need to go viral to, in order to have a successful business. Yes, if you have more eyes on your stuff, it can be helpful, but you don't need that in order in order to have a successful business. And I know plenty of people that have less than 5,000 followers and are and have six figure businesses.
Absolutely. And I know the numbers are the numbers and it's not everyone's goal and things like that, but the numbers are also numbers and people do care about those things, um, as it relates to the business, things like that. And so, yeah, you can absolutely have a financially profitable, and successful business without having eleventy billion followers.
So just two examples I figured I'd give them, uh, of people that have gone viral, um, from my audience from that have gone through the Intensive, uh, my guy, Jamie, he's @regenerationtaichi, dude blew up and I watched it happen. It was pretty cool. Like he hit the, he hit, it's literally hitting the jackpot, right?
Hitting the lottery. Um, he's currently at 222,000 IinstaHomies, which is just like, that number is what, and he started, when he started the Intensive, he had less than, I wanna say, like less than 400. Uh, he did not go viral during the Intensive. It happened subsequently afterwards. And that's my whole shtick is that I want to, I created this program, I created the Intensive so that people have this, um, framework that they can use and they have the confidence and the clarity and the consistency as they move forward so that they can keep going and actually perhaps succeed and, and set themselves up to be in a position to maybe experience that luck of just hitting the algorithm.
Um, my other, my other one that I wanna share is Traci. Man, Traci. Uh, she does fitness for women over age 50 and helping them get strong. She has recently just exploded. She had one Reel that went viral. It has over a million views now, and I checked today when I was recording this episode, or as I was outlining it, and she currently has 60,500 Insta homies.
That's amazing to me. You know, it's kind of, I, I've spoken about this quote before, that Hormozi quote of, you know, something along the lines, I'm gonna loosely say it, which is, normalize your students or normalize doing better than your mentors. They didn't have themselves. Right. Or normalize your students doing better than you. They didn't have you. Like ideally, if you're doing good at your job, you're good at what you do, yeah, they will do better than you and I, I freaking love it. Alright. But I share these examples of what is possible, again, it's not the, it's not the rule it's more of the exception to the rule, and not everyone gets to go viral, but you can have success on this platform, and no, you are absolutely not too late.
The thing that I'm most proud of in helping people use social media, helping people use Instagram, is actually the personal growth that's gained in using it. And I don't market. Because it's not sexy and people kind of go in, they don't, they go into it not knowing that that's what they actually need or what they actually want.
They wanna know like how to use Reels or how to make Reels or what should I post, how to get more engagement. And I absolutely go over that and I absolutely teach that. But the real value is the personal growth that's gained.
And Jill talks about this as well, is when you start a business, a tremendous amount of personal growth occurs.
But we typically don't market that as the main thing because people don't really go in knowing that they want. To me, content creation of any form, but as it relates to Instagram, is a vehicle for finding your voice. Again, I don't market this as much, but it truly is the magic. When you have that confidence, you find that confidence, you develop that confidence, you find your voice, you establish your voice, you learn what you wanna; say that is something that transcends into every aspect of your life, but especially your business.
So, the question here in this episode surrounding, uh, is surrounding Instagram, but I want you to understand that every single platform has a different language.
And so to me it's simply about picking the language that you like best, right? Picking the platform that you like best. I like Instagram the best, and I double down on it, and I'm, you know, extremely proficient on it. And I'm extremely proficient at helping people, uh, use it to run their businesses and use it to market for their businesses, their online business.
If you are just like, Hey, I just wanna go viral, then I would probably steer you away from Instagram cuz it is not a fast platform. You don't just go viral in in two seconds, right? It takes time. So your best bet there is probably to go on TikTok. I have nothing against TikTok. I tried it like ya now, end of last year.
I was like, I'm gonna double down on it. And then I was like, I hate this and I'm, let me actually insert this little cat, this little uh, note here. I've had people go through the Intensive and learn that they hate Instagram. To me, that's incredibly valuable, right? Learning what you don't like and what you don't wanna do is just as if not more valuable and learning what you do actually like.
So if you're like, Hey, I just wanna go viral really fast and I want the most, the greatest opportunity to, greatest likelihood of going viral. Cool. Then you're probably good to go on TikTok. I think that, uh, YouTube is really pushing their Shorts as well, but I'm not sure of of how that's translating into, you know, getting, um, more subscribers on that platform.
But TikTok absolutely the, the chance of the likelihood of vi of, of virality seems to be greater over there, which I think, honestly from a business perspective was very wise, what TikTok did, right? If you open up the algorithm and you let people quote unquote win, they'll stick around, right? All of these companies are, uh, I don't wanna say almost like gambling, but they're playing, working in attention.
That's what they want. They want users to stay on the platform. That is the, that is capital for them. If you let people win a k a, you open the algorithm and they can actually get more followers and have this like dopamine hits and this kind of perceived fame, people are gonna stick around. So it's smart that they do that.
Instagram is really, you know, they're tight with things, just kind of be stingy with things. And I get it. I'm not selling Instagram right now. And this is, to me, it's actually, this is the best form of marketing is to just simply tell the truth. Um, but it's, if I'm as traditional marketing goes, no, this is not helpful.
Cause I'm like, Hey, Instagram's a long play. It is all about deciding the platform that you want to use and that you like. We are all drawn to certain things for certain reasons, and every single platform has a different language. So you pick one that you like best and you double down on that. For those that like Instagram, I am here once again to tell you, no, it's not dead. Yes, there is still opportunity to be had. No, you are not too late.
Uh, I have nothing to say about whether or not TikTok works for business. I don't know it well enough. I do think that people push people from TikTok over to Instagram, but I don't know enough about it. I'm not here to say one way or the other.
I'm not here to, you know, I'm a big fan of contrast marketing. I'm here to just tell you that Instagram can absolutely work for your business and there's absolutely still room and there's still time.
I, I wanna make note, and I said this a million times and I'll say it a million more. It's not possible to be on all the platforms at once.
That's like trying to learn three different languages at once. Like, I'm gonna be on YouTube, I'm gonna be on TikTok, I'm gonna be on Instagram, I'm gonna do all of them. And then like, I'm also gonna do Twitter, and I'm gonna do Facebook, and I'm gonna do LinkedIn. And I'm like, that's two many. Unless you, unless you have some massive team.
And when you see these bigger teams, they have people for each platform that speak that language. And it makes sense. If it's just you, pick one, double down on it, crush it, get proficiency, find your voice, find your confidence, gets the reps, get the results, and then you can move on to the next.
So I said a little bit earlier that, uh, using Instagram for online business, it's not dead by any means, but it has changed and the platform itself has changed.
And you know, the things that I teach about how to use it have changed. I've done two episodes, two podcast episodes that I talk about this. Um, and so Courtney, thank you. We got episode 424, which is titled The Shift That Could Change Social Media Forever, and then episode 428, which is Online Business Predictions for 2023.
Give both of those a listen. I go into, you know, more of the nuances of what's changed in the online space, what's changed in Instagram space. But just to summarize some of those points for this particular podcast episode, obviously there's a big push with Instagram. We saw, the Instagram started as a platform for sharing photos and putting a filter on top of them.
It is now a vertical video platform, but there's still written text on there. This, the, the captions are still long. There's still carousel posts. There's still room for static posts. It's one of the reasons I love Instagram. There's still DMs, there's still Stories. There's so many different parts of the platform that you can use to find your voice, to connect with your audience, to share your ideas.
I would say in general, the biggest shift that we've seen in social media, we've seen on Instagram is it has changed from, uh, social networking to social media. Right. And media brings with it, social media brings with it, brings with it this kind of broadcasting feel where it's, how, you know, can I get this message out to a million people?
Reposting things, re-sharing things from other people and just looking to get, capture audience attention. Whereas originally social networking was to connect with people. You think about Instagram right now, there are accounts that are solely dedicated to helping people go viral. They're like, use this sound, use this song.
I hate those accounts. They keep popping up and I'm like, why does this keep popping up? I, I'm not en engaging with it, but these things exist and we see that instagram has become a social media platform, right, where it's leaning very heavily on broadcasting. The way that I coach and what I, what I teach in the Instagram Intensive and what I actually believe in. And what I think is, um, the, the best way, in my opinion, to actually use this platform for business and what's worked best for me is that relational approach.
So bringing it back towards social network, social networking. Using social media for connection. And there's, if you take this approach, there's actually tremendous value when you're first starting out in the fact that your audience is going to be small because you have the time to actually go and connect with people and DM them back and actually answer them questions, answer their questions. Yes, there's a little bit of a hump you have to get over in the beginning cuz you're, you're just talking out to nobody, it feels like. And just hoping that someone, that something sticks. That something catches. And you may have to show up like that for quite some time. But the value is when these numbers are small, if and when someone does reach out, you can actually get back to them and you're not just bombarded by a million things.
Yes, we know sensationalism, inflammatory things, uh, fear tactics, arguing, being really polarizing, intentionally polarizing, will likely get a result faster. That's what we see being pushed by mainstream media.
That's what get pushed, gets pushed by, so pu wow, there's, I just had a moment. I got excited. That's what get gets pushed by social media because it's, it gets people's attention, right? It gets that dopamine hit. But it does not in my get the result that I want. It's not the journey that I want, and so it's not what I teach.
Remember folks, as always, everything works. Every approach works. I am always here with this podcast, with everything I share, just to share what has worked for me and to invite people who are interested in joining me.
So, no, it is not too late to start. Let's give you something tactical though, uh, and teach you kinda that 30,000 foot view of how to start.
If you're like, okay, I hear you Maestro. I've been thinking about it. I wanna use it for online business, you're saying it's not too late. But what should I do? Number one, identify the problem that you wanna solve and then teach everything you know. One post at a time. That's the niche down. I said it in multiple episodes.
We shouldn't think of nicheing downs, like, oh, the age range, and you know what their hair color, is and how many kids they have, and their income. No. To me, nicheing down is actually the problem that you solve and subsequently who you solve it for. Oftentimes, if you just go and really hone in on the problem that you solve, it's gonna exclude and include people inherently. Um, and if then you need to get more specific, then it's who you solve that problem for.
From there look to use Instagram as social networking. Have conversations with people, invite conversations, get social. It's not post, and then run away and never talk to anybody. It's post answer questions if there are any.
And the main thing that we're gonna look at doing from a tactical perspective for fostering and facilitating engagement is actually getting in your Stories, which to me is the most amazing part of, of Instagram.
Uh, it feels almost like on on TikTok people are more apt to comment cuz of DMs like aren't very good.
Whereas on Instagram, people aren't so apt to comment. Think about your own behavior, right? People, you just typically don't just like go around commenting on posts, but you may laugh at a Story, you may find a Story very relatable. And so that's what we wanna offer that, that's what we want to do, to offer that same moment and, uh, potential for connection with our audience. More stories, more opportunities for engagement, for relatability, and then respond to those things.
Next part here. Understand that it will take as long as it takes and give it a minimum of 18 months. The people who in my experience do the best are the ones who don't need it to work.
And that's, that's literally it. That's the start. Literally it. Identify the problem you wanna solve. Teach everything you know, one post at a time. Keep going. Give it as long as it takes. Gauge your progress in terms of 18 months spans, and you will never be disappointed.
If, and here comes the plug, my friends. If you want more structured help with starting, this is literally what I do.
I fucking love this. This is why I created the Instagram Intensive. For those of you that don't know, the Instagram Intensive is a six week online group coaching program for business for Instagram. That's it. Very, very simple. I've taken about 450 plus people through this and my whole shtick is that, uh, my little spiel there is that this is not Instagram coaching, this is business coaching for Instagram.
Yes, I don't wanna say it's more so catered towards health and fitness pro professionals, but that tends to be who I attract because I'm a health and pro, health and fitness pro. Um, so that's the majority of the audience that I'm serving with that. Though, I have had, I've had lawyers go through it. I've had CPAs go through it. Um, I've had artists go through it. Um, but the majority of the audience that gets attracted to me because of my background are health and fitness pros.
What I'm teaching in there, no, again, it's not about going viral. It's not about, you know, hacking things.
If that's what you want, please go somewhere else. Uh, this is my how I market. I'm just gonna give it to you and give you truth. The Instagram Intensive is about building a brand, a personal brand, and establishing a presence that will support longevity, right? Because we know, longevity reigns supreme, you gotta be in the game long enough to actually win it.
The structure for this, it is six weeks long, like I said, and every Tuesday at 4:00 PM Pacific, I run a live call that lasts about two hours. Sometimes it's two to two and a half hours. And I use these calls to break down every single part of Instagram. Yes, everything is recorded, so if you're in a bad time zone, uh, you can watch the recording.
I will not change the time of the call. It just works the best across the board. Um, but I record everything. I have a private Facebook group for it. Um, I have a moderator for that. We got everyone in that group as well. So other people are answering the questions. And what happens is if you cannot attend live, cool.
You watch the video, you can drop your questions in the Facebook group, and then I will answer those questions in the Facebook group. But I, I will also specifically make sure that I answer them, uh, the beginning of the next call so everything gets answered.
Calls, like I said, two to two and a half hours, but I will stay on until the last question is answered.
You don't have to stay on. If it's not your question, and you don't care, but I will stay on until the last question is answered. I am all about, uh, teaching this and it's my promise to you that I will be the last Instagram coach that you ever need. I love this stuff that much, and I am that confident in this program.
Uh, a loose breakdown of this. Again, six weeks, one call each week. We can start off with going over the bio and building the building the foundation for this. We're gonna identify your audience and establish your why. This stuff does matter. I will take that 30,000 foot view approach to it and look to establish something that is sustainable here.
Why do you wanna be doing this thing? What is the problem you're solving? Who are you solving it for? From there, we go into Stories and socializing. Engagement is pretty much imperative on this platform. I truly believe that if I look at someone's DMs, I can tell you how their business is doing. So we are gonna be talking about that.
We then go into what you should be posting. We go into captions, we go into Reels, Lives, and growth strategies. And then the final week we talk about marketing strategies for other platforms because what happens, my friends if Instagram dies?
Uh, I just had my live event with Jill last week, and she's all about, uh, pulling out a proprietary system for, um, your product and my, I don't market this that often, but my proprietary system is what I would call the three C approach. I mentioned it earlier, I slipped it in there. I don't know if you caught that. Uh, but that's confidence, clarity, and consistency. If you walk away with these three things, I promise you'll be set up to keep on going.
So with confidence, it's do you have the confidence to actually share your message. Right. People wanna be, want to have their problem solved by people that they know and that they believe got them. And a large part of that is how are you showing up? And it's not false confidence or anything like that, but do you have the confidence to show up as you? That is a huge part of what you will walk away with from the Intensive.
Clarity. Businesses are built on solutions to problems. Can you clearly articulate that you can solve problems for your people? We will get you started on that road. And then lastly, consistency. Familiarity, breeds trust and the easiest way to do that, start that, is by simply being consistent.
Yes, consistency looks different to everybody. It's individualized, but at the bare, you know, minimum of the foundation, you have to have your sort of consistency and understand that that's what's gonna set you up for success in the eyes, uh, in, in terms of creating relationships with your people, building that trust.
Again, and I don't think I can say can say this enough, but if you're looking for hacks, you're looking for shortcut, I don't have that. It's not what I teach because it's a lie. Instagram is a long play game. If you're looking to use it for business, yes, maybe you can do a single post and pray that it goes viral.
But if there's nothing behind it, if you're not offering anything, if you're not bringing value, if you're not able to be consistent, that will not turn into a business. And honestly, people will probably not follow your account if you have one post that happens to hit but the rest of the stuff on there is not helpful, uh, is not good.
I am here with the Intensive, I'm here for everything I do, this podcast, my, my social media posts, I'm here to help people keep it real. I'm here to help you prioritize your enjoyment of the process. I'm here to set you up for longevity and sustainability because they, like I said, a million times are what drive success.
The price point, $597. Little lesson. $597. The little lesson about price anchoring here. A one hour session with me, one hour Maestro Meeting coaching call is $397. You get me for one hour. With the Intensive, you get me for 12 plus hours, cause it's six weeks, two hours plus each week. The math there is very simple.
I created this as a way to create a more affordable solution and honestly, a better solution for people who want help using Instagram for business. I can't cover all of this in one hour. It's just not possible. I need it to be this long. Get people started, help them gain that confidence, that clarity, that consistency, so they can set themselves up for success.
Doors for this round, this is the 13th round. I can't even believe it. Dude, this is the 13th round of this thing. Doors open on Monday, January 13th, excuse me. February 13th, January 13th. That is wrong. Doors open on Monday, February 13th, and they will close on Friday the 17th. Um, and then the next cohort will be in the fall.
If you're like, I can't make this one. It's not good. All right, cool. Next time. Um, January 13th, excuse me. February 13th to February 17th. There's something else I was gonna say there, and it escaped my head and oh, well, it, it's gone now. If you got any questions about that, shoot me a DM, shoot me a text, 3 1 0 7 3 7 2 3 4 5.
I believe that is all that I got about that. I love this program. It is my baby. I really can't believe that it's, this many cohorts, but I am so grateful for every single person that's gone through it. And if any part of you is like, I think maybe I want to do it, but I'm not sure, please hit me up. DM me, text me
and we can chat about it. If it's not a good fit, I will tell you it's not a good fit. I, you all know I'm never here to blow smoke and or just take people's money, right? I want you to get results. Your results are my reputation and also I, I care. I, I'm life's too short to be doing shit that you hate and shit that isn't a good fit. So I will let you know if it's not a good fit. But if there's any part of you that's thinking, maybe I wanna do this, hit me up and we can chat.
All right, let's recap this episode and then call it quits. Answering the big question here, is it too late to start using Instagram for business? No, it's not.
How to start? Identify the problem you wanna solve. Who do you wanna solve it for? And then teach everything you know one post at a time. Use Instagram as social networking, not as a broadcasting platform. Have conversations with people. The easiest way to invite this conversation and this connection, it's gonna be with more Stories. Go in understanding that it takes as long as it takes.
Give it a minimum of 18 months. And in general, gauge your progress in terms of 18 months spans, and you will never be disappointed.
Virality is not the goal here, but growth like that and growth in general requires three parts: luck, good content and consistency. If you want help with namely those last two parts there, check out the Instagram Intensive.
If the Instagram Intensive isn't for you, that's fine too. More power to you. And if you've already taken it, you're the real MVP. I appreciate every single one of you.
All right, I'm looking at the time, I'm looking at my little outline, and I do believe that is it. We had some more testimonial, not testimonials.
What am I saying? We had some more, um, what are they called? Reviews that came in. Uh, so I'm so grateful for you folks, like you take the time to listen and your review and share, and just, thank you. Uh, all the things as always will be linked in the show notes, so you can check that out there. And yeah, that's all I got for you.
As always, endlessly appreciative for every single one of you. Until next time, friends, Maestro out out.
NEW! Watch this episode on YouTube!
Doors for my Instagram Intensive open on Feb. 13th!
MOTM #424: The Shift that Could Change Social Media Forever
MOTM #428: Online Business Predictions for 2023
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