[Transcript starts at 2:11]
What up my podcast people. Thank you for joining me for yet another episode of my favorite podcast. Quick announcement right off the bat. My Instagram intensive round number 12 is going to start this month. We're in September already. Like where did August have to go?
Right? She came in and she left with the quickness. Rude. But my Instagram intensive round number 12 is going to start this month. Month, September 20th, and I am opening doors to the waitlist next Monday, September 5th. So if you want to get on that waitlist, you want early access, you want to make sure that you get a spot, you want a little discount.
Doing a discount, why? Because I can in a time where everything is going up. I was like, let me give them a little bit of a discount. So if you wanted on that, hop on the waitlist. Courtney, thank you. Uh, and then you'll get access to that next week, September 5th, when the doors open, I'll open doors to the public after that for any remaining spots, starting on September 12th.
And then we will get started on September 20th. My Instagram intensive is a six week online group coaching program. It is not Instagram coaching. It's business coaching for Instagram. I love that little tagline. I can throw it out there. I love it. Okay. So let's actually talk some more. about Instagram. So I've actually been thinking about this largely because, you know, my foray into TikTok, which is just, it's not going bad or good.
It's just, it is what it is, but doing my, my recon and a lot of people over there have a lot of followers and they have a lot of views on their videos and they have a lot of likes on their videos. And part of me is just like, is this real? Like, are these numbers? Real. Or are they just hella, I said it, hella, are they just hella inflated?
So I don't know if any of you followed the Elon Musk Twitter acquisition thing. And I actually didn't follow it, but I listened to a podcast called the Daily Hustle Podcast and they talk about the news. They do like the business and tech news. Every episode is like less than 15 minutes and it's actually, I really enjoy it.
So that was where I was hearing the coverage for that. And Elon, I'm just using his first name like I know him, old Elon, that guy, uh, looked to back out of the deal because he said that Twitter was not releasing the number of bots and they weren't giving him accurate information about it. Now, whether or not this was like a publicity stunt and, you know.
A distraction technique. I don't know, but it raises a really good point because like, what if that is the case? What if like the majority of accounts or not even majority, like, let's say even, I think the number he was on was like 40%. That's like a ton. But like, what if almost half of the accounts on these platforms are fake?
All right. And one of the things that I have been hearing about as well, also in the Daily Hustle podcast, and also I saw it on, you're talking about a little bit on TikTok is the use of AI to create. uh, artists, like creating rappers and stuff. And I think one got signed and then got released. And I saw a video, this guy was like, I list, I left this AI bot that I made listen to a thousand hours of hip hop.
And then it made its own music from it. And it was good. Now, I don't know that guy could have just been lying about the whole thing, but also maybe he isn't, I stay skeptical about things. And so my brain immediately goes to like. What if all of these or so many of these accounts are fake? Like we, we know you could have a following of any size and your likes, your interactions, your views, your comments, and stuff that will not reflect.
The number of followers you have which is incredibly annoying because you're like if these people are following me like why I wouldn't just Show my shit to them, but Your stuff gets shown to a fraction of your audience Supposed audience and that number tends to go down the bigger that your audience is We're looking at like, you know 1 percent of your audience sees your stuff and it's just like well Maybe that's cuz like only 1 percent is real.
I don't know like it's this is something I think that at least for me There's value in thinking about it. Can I do anything about it? No. But, it does continue to support how I coach and what I encourage people to focus on. I have never been one for numbers and quite frankly I get kind of annoyed when the people that I work with, I love the people I work with, the people I coach, but when they, like, message me about numbers, I'm just like, it doesn't fucking matter.
Stop. None of it matters. Because, like this, I think some of it's made up. It's out of your control. Number one, it's out of your control. And two, I don't even know if it's real. So when I went to Vegas, a little story time, gonna digress for a second, but I promise it ties in. When I went to Vegas, this last trip, I think it was for Jill's birthday, I fell in love with Bubble Craps.
It is a super fun game. Me with my obsessive personality when I left I was like I want to learn about craps I want to learn kind of how you play how you win What are the odds like it feels like of all the games that are like machine there that you have like the most say there's no Strategy besides like, you know the horse game that I play.
That's the computer game the slots. That's definitely that's that's really the same as Instagram And so I was just like, let me, I want to go learn more and play more. And so I downloaded this game and the numbers they give you in terms of like the money you're playing with, you start with like 20 million or something like that, 20 million.
And the minimum bet is, I don't know, 5, 000 or something like that, which if you go play Bubble Craps at. in Vegas, I think the minimum bet is 5, which is nice because many of the tables, the actual tables, the minimum bet is 25. And that's like a little bit rich for my blood. So we see this, this inflation going on of numbers where it's 5 in the real world and it's 5, 000 or it might even be 20, it's something super high.
And I was like, it doesn't matter because it's not real money. Like the game is free. And that you just start off with this arbitrary number of like 20 million, you know, dollars. And so I got to me think got me thinking like is this what social media is like like these numbers are just made up especially because The number look the way that people's followings will grow and this has been as of late Where you can actually see someone go viral.
I saw it happen with one of my guys from the intensive I saw it happen with Meredith and Alex and you literally can watch the account just Just grow. And part of me is like, I get it. It's on a much bigger scale for things, but like I know that I personally, from my own personal usage, I am not just every day following new people.
That's like largely not why I'm on Instagram. And that was one of the biggest complaints that people had as, you know, as a person. Uh, Adam Mosseri and Meta were really pushing the suggested posts into people's feeds. We've all experienced that, we're like, what the fuck is this, I don't even follow this person.
And I think very few of us went and like, followed people from those suggested posts. And I also think very few people are really in the Explore tab. I think that when people are finding new accounts It's not only finding new accounts Is that someone that they already know has put them has shared this account in their stories and you're watching that person's stories And you're like, oh this person is good.
Like, you know, I happen with Sharon says so I Followed her because of Lex Lex had her and her stories and I was like, oh, let me go check and then this person was Providing something of extreme significance, especially at the time I were in the election season and I was like, oh, this is very helpful You But I'm not like just like out there scrolling and following people in general.
My follower, most of us, our follower counts in terms of the number of people that we are following. I don't think it changes that much at all. So when you watch these things blow up and you're like, is this actually happening? Are people actually following or is it that some people are following and then it's inflating that number?
And it's like, okay, maybe you get a thousand followers, awesome, but it turns it into a hundred thousand followers. Because when we start looking at like the number of people that actually comment and that actually like, it's always a fraction of the total number of followers. It's always been like that.
And I'm like, but what the fuck is that? Like, I'm sure that somebody listening to this podcast episode knows way more than me, understands algorithms and all this other stuff. And I mean, obviously, there's a psychological, sociological, I don't know, there's a human component of this where people will watch stuff and not like it.
Like that's, we know that that exists. Because people just, that's what they do. But a large part of me is just like, What the fuck is up with these numbers? Are they real? Like my girl Doc Jen Fit, what does she have? 500, 000, I don't know. Anything more, anything with all those commas, I'm like, what? There's so many people, excuse me, like, is this real?
Like, what? So, the, I don't want to say the lesson here, but the like tangible, actionable advice from this is is going to be, you know, especially for my business owners, for people that are using social media to try and run a business. And I kind of want to go on a tangent now, and I think I'm going to do it.
You can fast forward if you like, don't care. But one of the things that's, I'm always thinking about things like this in terms of business and the lessons that we can learn from this. So in a second, I'll tell you what I think we should be doing as business owners. But if we just watch what these platforms are doing, I think that we need to consider.
learn from it and we should be considering our user base. And to that, to that end, what I'm, what I'm going after is I think the majority of people are on social media to consume social media, right? They're on it to get entertained. This is why I think Instagram is also struggling with video because It is forcing people who otherwise would have created content, but just for their friends or family, in a very low barrier to entry, just upload a picture.
Like they would just do that. Now it's like, okay, well, we're not going to show your stuff to your friends unless it's a video. And these people are like, but I'm not a content creator. Like I just want to use this as like my digital scrapbook and I'll follow people and I'll watch stuff, but I'm not trying to create stuff.
And so I think that there's a lesson to be learned there in terms of what do our, how do our people, what is their behavior? What are they trying to do? What do they want to do? What do they enjoy doing with our products and services? And let's lean into that and try to, instead of trying to force them.
That's another behavior, but it's something that I've been thinking about as well as I watch TikTok, which is like, it seems like everybody likes to create over there. I think that, you know, I have many thoughts. I'll probably go deeper into this another episode, but it seems like TikTok people use it for entertainment, but even more so than that, they use it for connection.
Whereas a connection with like new people, they're trying to find their people outside of the place that they live. Whereas Instagram was largely like, I already have my people and the algorithm keeps me insulated and protected and I just want to see my people. I'm not like looking for new people. Um, very different approaches, very different user bases, very different reasons for using the platform.
But the thing that I think we can take away and that I continue to teach as a, you know, when I'm, when I'm coaching about online business for Instagram is to really lean into the actual human connections that we get and the ones that we know are there. So yeah, I'm always talking about posts for the lurkers, but make sure that you are acknowledging them.
The people who comment. Make sure that you are giving people the ability to actually correspond and connect with you and You know write to you and this is largely best done by stories because it's a bit more private and people can Respond and react and it's a bit more relatable for them. But this way we know those people are actually those people are actually real Other people when it comes to likes like we don't know that could literally all just be bots and Instagram Just giving you these likes And why would it want to do that, friends?
Because their whole fucking thing is they want you to use the platform more. It's what TikTok did really well and it let people get wins. If you go to a casino and you pull that lever, right, you're playing the slots and you pull that lever and you win, You're gonna keep playing. You're gonna stay at that machine.
Especially if you win big. Very few people walk away and they're like, I've done it forever. Especially if you're playing with like not real money, right? People aren't playing, like if they lose, they lose time, which I think people don't know how valuable that is, but it doesn't necessarily feel that valuable.
Whereas if you lose like actual money, it's tangible. You're like, fuck. But you just imagine like you're playing with fake money that can only benefit you. Like if you lose it, it doesn't really hurt, but if you win, it feels really good. So they did that. They gave people all these wins and people stay.
Instagram, on the other hand, is very hard to do. It's very hard to like blow up and go viral and get those dopamine hits and get those wins. So, Um, you know, this is why I think it's, you know, handing out these inflated numbers is to keep you on the platform, which is, it is what it is. It is what it is. But if you're looking to use this for business, then as per always, I really want to encourage you to look at the metrics and focus on if you must focus on the fucking numbers, the ones that actually matter, which is going to be in this case, really the comments and the DMs that you get.
And I've always said that if you If someone shows me their DMs, I can tell how their business is doing. When the DMs are super cold, it's not that it's a bad sign, but it's that you don't have the interaction yet. And we know, as James Olivia says, all work gets done through relating. You need humans. So lean into the things that invite that direct human interaction.
Things that invite conversation, things that invite comments. You know, that's going to be responding to all the comments that are there. Any comments that may be there, delete the bot, it's fine. Doing more stories and then responding to people, replying to people when they comment on your stories, that's going to be going live.
That gives people, that's going to be real people. If people that are on there and they're responding to you, that's real people. And then I would say, make sure that you are doing the most that you can for your like human growth and development. in person. I didn't say in real life because social media is real life.
It's just not in person. But the things that you can do in person to improve your relationship skills, improve your relating skills to, as Holly says, diversify your joy portfolio and really enrich your life. Do all of those things because we have more control over that. We know we're not talking to a bot.
When we go and hang out with friends, or when we go do social things, the more we can lean into that. One, that can absolutely lend itself to, you know, business things, but it just enriches your life in general, improves your interpersonal skills, and you can bring that over to social media. Uh, it also gets you outside of your bubble, right?
We know that the, the algorithm, insulates us, which I think is actually a good thing. But then we tend to think that everyone knows that we know what, everyone knows what we know. As soon as we get out of that and we kind of get into the real world, we start talking to people, especially, I'm thinking about all my movement professionals right now.
When I listen to people, what people say when I'm playing volleyball, I'm like, what? That's not right. Or when people get injured and they're like, I'm gonna do this and I'm like, okay. If I don't really know them, I don't say anything. I'm like, that's not really, The most efficient way to handle that, but okay.
So if you look at just the general populations movement and health literacy, we see it's actually very low, but we may forget that if we're just stuck in social media world and, you know, surrounded by our peers. But when we go into the in person space, Suddenly we're like, Oh, shit, people don't know this.
And you can get ideas for content and you get, you know, practice with actually speaking the language that people understand. So Those are my two million pennies. That's it. I'm going to inflate the number. Those are my two million pennies on these numbers that are on Instagram. Again, like we can't change it and we can't do anything about it, but perhaps maybe just maybe this will get you to not be so obsessed with them and to simply focus on the things that matter, which is going to be the actual interactions that you are having on these platforms.
Alright, I do believe that is it. I threw my announcement out first, door's opening. September 5th, get on the wait list for round 12 of the Instagram intensive. And as always, I'm just super, super grateful for every single one of you. If you want to slide in the DMs, give me some, uh, requests. You want to text me.
It will be me. It's going to be green cause it's a sideline, but it will be me. 3 1 0 7 3 7 2 3 4 5. You got requests. You got comments, concerns, whatever. I will respond because I am all about the actual. in person or real human interactions. As always, endlessly appreciative for every single one of you.
Until next time, friends, Maestro out.
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