[Transcript starts at 1:15]
Hello friends, Maestro here and thank you for joining me for yet another episode of my favorite podcast. Today we are talking about how to create a killer Instagram bio.
I realize I haven't done like an update in a little bit. Uh, the knee is doing well. There's still some asymmetries. Uh, it's finally stopped raining here. Maybe. We had like a identity crisis in SoCal, kind of acting like the Pacific Northwest. It was kind of terrible, but I survived. Um, it's a little colder than I'd like, but you know what? The sun is shining today. The sun is shining, and I can't complain. So let's hop on into the episode and talk about Instagram.
As a reminder, doors close this week. This week. They open today, Monday. If you listen to this, the day that it drops, uh, this episode will drop on Monday, February 13th. That is the first day of cart open for the public for my Instagram Intensive and it will close this Friday. My Instagram Intensive is a six week online group coaching program that teaches health and fitness pros exactly how to use Instagram for business.
Literally exactly how to use it. Um, episode f447's got all the deets. You can check out the link in the show notes. It'll take you to the registration page, the info page, if you want to actually see more things. Um, cause I don't wanna spend more time in this episode talking about that, but I would love to have you in the Intensive if you're thinking, Hey, I want to level up my game of how I'm using Instagram from, like for online business. I got you. Check out the, uh, the link of the show notes. Head over to the show notes, uh, the actual page if you want. It's gonna be themovementmaestro.com/449. Uh, and then if you got any other questions, you can shoot me a DM, shoot me a text, 310-737-2345 and I will be happy to answer those.
So, one of the first things that we go over in the Intensive is the bio. I do believe that as it relates to your Instagram page, it is one of, if not the most important parts, and it is important not just for your audience, but for you, right? This thing is going to serve as an anchor, and that's why I want to make sure that we get clear on it and that you're setting yourself up for success as it relates to actually what you're putting in that bio.
So we know the online space is noisy, it's crowded. And anyone tell you this, anyone that tells you that it's not saturated, they are lying to you. I do believe it's saturated, but I do think there's still room for growth. Um, I don't think that a zillion people are gonna come on and everyone's gonna, you know, have the same kind of success, but I do think there is still room for, for growth. Um, and actually that was last Monday's episode I, I spoke about, are you too late? I do not think you are too late, but definitely check out that episode if you want to go dive deeper into that.
Um, but the reality is the way that you're gonna stand out in the online space in such a crowded, noisy online space is not by yelling louder, but by specific, and by being repetitive. This is where the bio comes into play, right? It allows you to be specific. It is going to ask you to niche down, niche down, however you want to say it, which I know is one of the hardest things that you may ever be asked to do. Especially if you, you know, watching this, listening to this are multi-passionate and you're just like, I like a lot of things. I'm good at a lot of things.
I get that. But if you're looking to use Instagram for online business, when someone comes to your page, if you say, Hey, I am am for everyone, I do everything for everyone. Individuals have a very tough time saying, oh, that person then could help me. Which is why it's the first call of the Insta of the Instagram Intensive and it's, which is why I put such emphasis on creating this bio and having the courage to niche or niche down.
In reality, this, that's what today's episode is all about, right? It's having the courage to be specific, having the courage to focus on a singular thing. From a tactical perspective, your Instagram bio should simply state the problem that you solve and who you solve it. Alright, the problem that you solve, and I should say secondarily if it makes sense, if you need to specify who you solve it for, that is nicheing down it.
We've done multiple episodes on this. Uh, but the concept here is that when we're nicheing down, we're not nicheing down based on, you know, identifying specific demographic traits and things like that. We're looking at what is the problem that you solve. That is inherently going to include and exclude some people.
And then secondarily, if you need to go more specific with a certain group of people, cool. Then we can state that.
When people come to your page, right? They ask themselves, what can this person do for me. When someone hits my page, if they were, look at my bio, it says, helping health and fitness Pros build profitable online personal brands.
Very simple. When someone hits your page, if they're actually gonna go and look like once they, maybe they found something, uh, by the grace of God, uh, they found it, uh, Reel a Reel got shared to someone else's page. Or maybe you hit the discover page, they go and they actually go to your page and they're gonna look at this thing and say, what can this person do for me?
Your bio needs to clearly state what's the problem that you solve, and who do you solve it for? That's it. Person's asking, what can they do for me? Your bio needs to answer that question. If you're gonna audit your own bio, I would encourage you, ask yourself the question, would my ideal client text these words that are in my bio to their best friend?
Right? Would they say these things? Oftentimes we're like, oh, this is relatable, right? I don't want relatable. I want things that are very easy and very simple to digest, and words that your people would actually say and have actually said. Of note, I advise against looking at bigger accounts and seeing like what their Instagram bio says and then doing what they're doing because the reality is, These accounts can do whatever they want.
Their numbers speak for themselves, right? They've broken through that trust barrier. And so, you know, you go to a page and there's a million followers, it has 500,000 followers, the average person seeing that is like, okay, this is a trustworthy source, or this is like a good source. I'm gonna invest more time in it.
If you're just starting out, you don't have those numbers behind you, that's okay. Let's be very clear, very concise, very simple with what you're saying that you do, right? The problem it is that you solve, you don't need to go into specifics as to how you solve that problem, right? You wanna get 150 characters with this thing.
So you can't be telling these long ass stories. All of your posts, they show how you do it. And when I say how, I don't just mean like the step-wise approach of how you do it. I mean the things around that, the soft skills. Are you funny? Uh, are you laid back? Are you really analytical? People can see that in your posts, but what is the problem, specific problem that you are solving.
So as an example, Apple, their bio, I pulled it here. It says, everyone has a story to tell tag hashtag shot on iPhone to take part. That is very different than what I would suggest someone posts on their bio when they're first starting out, right? These P… Apple has broken through the trust barrier, right?
When we're first starting out, what we're looking at doing is establishing a reputation based on what we do. Can we get results for people? We're using this for business. And then as we evolve, we can look to pivot based on who we are. The cool part about Instagram is that you can look to discuss and share both things, right?
We share what we do in our posts and we can share how we do it and who we are in our Stories and the kind of the, the story around the story with our posts.
If you're looking at what specifically though, to put in the bio, understand where you are. If you are in the beginning of this journey, saying the problem that you solve is the route that you wanna go.
And this is how I teach, right? I am looking to educate people on and help people with what I would do if I was just starting out right now, because it's different than what I'm doing right now. So if I was just starting out, different than if, you know, I already have eight plus years behind – sorry for that whistle there. I already have eight plus years behind me. Okay.
So the take home from that part is when you're just starting out we are sharing what we do. And then, so that we can help our brand evolve, it's super important to share in your content, who you are and what you're about. Then once you've broken through that trust barrier, for sure, you can put in your bio, you know, what you're about and who you are.
Because people, you already have a reputation, right? People already know what they're gonna get, um, when they go to you, when they utilize your services, when they utilize your products, right? We already know what we're going to get when we go to Apple's. They don't need to say like, we make phones and computers, and they can say what they're about.
Subaru could do the same thing, right? If you watch those commercials, they're really like tugging on your heartstrings. They're not necessarily going after a USP, unique selling proposition, that is based in how safe they are. They could, but they're leaning on like, what do we actually stand for? Who are we?
Okay, so let's back to some more tips, some tips here, getting didactic with things. If you are just starting out, I encourage you, highly encourage you, avoid being cute, clever, or creative. Keep it simple and be specific. Again, I want you to ask yourself, would my ideal client say or text these words, this phrase, this sentence to their friends?
Would my ideal client know what I'm talking about with these words before working with me? I see people, they put some stuff in their bio that it is, it is clever and I wanna like commend them on that. But understand that your ideal client, they don't understand, they probably don't know what that thing means.
They're like, I, I'm not there yet. I don't know that I have that problem. And so they're gonna scroll on by. Because again, we are looking to use this for business, right? Businesses are built on solutions or problems. I need you to say, Hey, this is the problem that I solve.
When people go to your bio, and you've all done this, I'm certain of this, when you go to someone's bio and you have to use all this brain power to just to decode what the hell it is that they're saying.
They got a bunch of like fucking hieroglyphics in there, right? With emojis, and you're like, what is this? Or they're using all these cute phrases or words that they've made up and you're like, , what is going on? You are literally using brain power for that, which means you have less mental energy, cognitive energy to go and spend on actually scrolling through their page.
You're less, you're less likely to want to actually do that, and you're more likely to make a decision based purely on emotion and that initial emotion, which is may be this is annoying, right? You don't have the bandwidth and be like, oh, actually, lemme go dig a little deeper and see what else is in here.
Kathy Sierra was actually, I love her and I need to bring her back on the podcast, and I think that the episode that she did is maybe too far out, cuz Apple only shows 300 episodes at a time and we're at episode 449, so I think hers was too early. Um, but we could link that in the show notes and you can listen to it on the website.
So Courtney, thank you.
Um, but Kathy Sierra, love her. She was the first person who told me about this study. I think it was actually, I don't even know if she specifically told me. I think I was watching, I was binging her content. I was watching one of her, uh, videos on YouTube, and she spoke about a study. This is years ago, this study took place, and it speaks to this idea of cognitive load and cognitive reservoirs and how much mental energy we have for tasks.
So with this, uh, study they had two groups. The first group they, or they had two groups. They broke them up, you know, randomly. The first group, they was asked to remember a two digit number. The second group was asked to remember a seven digit number. They were then told to walk down hall. They had like a subsequent interview, and then they were said, you know, very,
very, uh, simply stated afterwards, they were like, Hey, snack options, when you're done, uh, you go pick whatever you want. What that was actually, what the study was about, not the people's ability to recall the digits. It was what snack did they choose? So the snacks that were available at the end was either cake, oh, chocolate cake, or fruit.
What they found that the, in the two digit group, the people that had to remember two digits, they were equal, equally likely to pick cake and fruit, whereas the seven digit group was twice as likely to choose cake. Now, I'm not here to demonize cake. I'm not here to demonize fruit or anything like that or bolster up fruit, but we can see, when we have a significant or substantial cognitive task, it takes our mental energy. We don't have reserves left to go and make subsequent thoughtful, super thoughtful, have to like reason this out, decisions based on that, we will typically base more, we'll typically act more from emotion. I'm just like, whatever I want right now, okay, I'm gonna do that.
This is why we know, at the end of the day, if you had a long ass day, you're not very likely to be like, oh, I'm gonna like think of some really super healthy meal and, and put all this together. You're like, what is available? And what's simple. I don't have to think about anything. This is what I want you to consider with your bio.
If people have to think a ton on the front end, just to decode what the hell you're saying in your bio, that is the less energy, that energy that they have to go and actually look through your content and be like, This person is for me. Look, they have some cool stuff. I'm gonna scroll down a little bit.
They will base it off of emotion and they will scroll right on by. Cause they're like, this person's annoying. They're asking too much of me. Next. Okay.
So what do we want actually logistically in the bio? Very simply first in the name field, put your name. Drives me crazy when people have their business name as the account, and then in the field, the name field, it's their business account again. And I'm like, who are you?
Covid really expedited, expedited this. People want to talk to other people. So say your name. I don't care if you are one person, you're like, I wanna be a bigger business. No, you are one person. You don't need to say we. It's kind of weird. You're the only person that's ever in these Stories.
Say your name. Give people a face and a person to put with this business. Humanize it. After the name, cause the name field is long now, you can put your title if you want, not not the letters that you have. Are you a physical therapist for postpartum moms? Are you a business coach for chefs? I don't fucking know, whatever it is, cuz that that is, that name field is searchable.
And after that, we go with the statement that clearly says what it is you do, aka the problem that you solve. And secondarily, if it makes sense, who you solve it for. This is not to be confused with how you solve the problem. Your posts will show and teach, and tell, and explain and convey how you solve the problem.
After that, you can put any supporting information that you want that demonstrates your expertise, your proficiency, your experience with this, your achievements. Achievements. How long have you been doing this? Uh, the number of people that you've helped, the number of podcast downloads. That's what's in mind, right?
I hit a million. I was like, that is definitely going in the bio. Uh, there's something to be said about those numbers, right? Other people did this thing. Other people seem to like this thing. Then maybe you'll like it too. Um, you could put something that you've created. After that, we're gonna have a call to action that points towards the link.
And remember, you are only allowed one link and it goes in the link field. Let this link be on your website, not on Link Tree. We don't own link tree. That shit breaks. Get the traffic going over to your website. My girl, Lex would love that I'm saying this right, because SEO.
I suggest putting the things in your bio in that order because Instagram truncates the bio.
So if you have, think it truncates it after three lines of content. So if you put like your important stuff at the bottom, people won't see without having to hit those three little dots in order to expand the bio. So I put it in that order. The least important, the less important stuff's going at the bottom.
Very simply, that is how you create a killer bio.
I know people want like more things and like hacks and tricks and it's gotta be more complex. It literally isn't. The bio is super important, but the bio isn't what actually makes people follow you. The whole goal with the bio is to, to not trip people up so that they can go and actually look at the rest of your content and make a decision not based just from emotion, right?
So if there is an emotion to that, it's, Hey, this is cool. I'm not mentally fatigued from having to decode this fucking bio and also this person can help me. Cuz I was able to sift through content and be like, yeah, this is helpful. I was able to click on things. I'm like, yeah, this, this does help me.
So let's bring this full circle and then wrap this bad boy up.
This episode, we're talking about how to create a killer bio, but the reality, it is about having the courage to be specific. All right? We're talking about specificity and focus. Can you niche down? Yes, you will exclude some people inherently. That's the point, because that allows you to include the people who you, you are absolutely the best at serving, the best at helping. Okay.
For many people, figuring this out will take time, and I am many people. I am in that group as well. My whole goal for you is that you start off in a direction, right? You say, okay, this is the problem I think that I wanna solve. I have expertise here. I have some proficiency here. I'm gonna go in this direction.
I'm gonna see if it fits. You try it out and if you're like, it doesn't fit, okay, then you can change. It's, it's totally fine. My initial direction was treating pain and mobility dysfunction for CrossFitters. That's not who I attracted. I subsequent, and I'm not surprised, right? My language and how is, what I was posting, I attracted other professionals, and then that was what became my niche.
But I started out in a specific direction. It wasn't like I was just going in all different directions. This is why I really encourage people to post every day and create content, because that content, it, it holds up a mirror, it holds up a, allows you to see a pattern and you're like, man, I'm posting a lot about this thing. I clearly like this more. I'm, I'm, this is easier for me to talk about. I have expertise here.
If you don't know like necessarily the specific direction, let's just pick a direction. Something that you do have some general expertise, you have some experience with that, you enjoy that, you're like, you like that. And then teach everything you know, one post at a time.
See what emerges. Once you're seeing, okay, there's a pattern here like this, this thing keeps coming up, I'm gonna encourage you, if the content doesn't match the bio, don't change the content, change your bio. Caveat here being, of course, stick with things long enough for them to work out.
So people will just like change their content like every five seconds. They're like, oh, it's not landing. Oh, it's not landing. You have to stick with something. We said, give it a minimum of 18 months of concerted effort, consistent effort before you just say, you know, decide it's worth it or not.
So you give it time. You're saying, okay, this doesn't fit, or I'm not getting traction. I wanna go a different direction, then absolutely you can change that direct. I do want you to understand that changing that niche, going in a different direction, is essentially starting all over. So if you're like, this isn't happening fast enough, I'm gonna switch.
That is, switch is not going to make it happen faster, it's going to make things happen slower because now you're starting all the way again at the beginning. Okay? Of course, as always my schtick, I'm not here to impart scarcity or anything like that, uh, or urgency. I just wanna lay it out straight for you.
Lay it out honestly for you, that starting all over again, going backwards, it is essentially going backwards. Things take as long as they take. There are certain things that we can do to not slow things down. There are certain things we can do to kind of pretend speed things up, but yes, wanna throw that out there for you?
So in summary, the space is noisy. It's crowded, it's saturated, but the way that you're going to stand out is not by yelling, it's by being specific.
Last thing, don't forget doors for the Instagram Intensive closes this Friday, February 17th at 11:59 PM PST. All the things are on the show notes, themovementmaestro.com/449
You can check 'em out out there. If you got any other questions, comments, concerns, DM me, text me, and I'll hit you back.
As always, endlessly appreciative for every single one of you. Until next time, friends, Maestro out.
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Get in on the Instagram Intensive! Doors open until Feb 17th!
MOTM #447: Is It Too Late to Start Using Instagram for Online Business?
MOTM #090: How To Create a Badass Anything & Everything – with Kathy Sierra
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