You're listening to cubicle to CEO, Episode 206. What strategies are actually working for Instagram audience growth in 2023. Today's case study features Instagram expert and business coach Mya Nichol, who gained an impressive 70,000 new followers in six months between January 8 And July 8 of this year. Mya reveals why she cut her posting volume in half this year, her winning ways to keep viewers on your video for longer watch times, and three other key strategies she's experimenting with in real time, so you can borrow her best performing ones. From a humble star of 2000 or so followers just a few short years ago, to now cresting almost 280,000 followers. Mya is honest about what it takes to both succeed and fail enthusiastically in an ever changing Instagram landscape and why you can still see significant growth in 2023 with the right approach.
Welcome to cubicle to CEO the podcast. I'm your host Ellen Yin, I quit my job without a backup plan and bootstraps my first $300 freelance project into $2 million in revenue by age 28. On the show, you'll hear weekly case study interviews with leading entrepreneurs and CEOs who share one specific strategy that successfully grew their business revenue. Skip the expensive and time consuming learning curve of testing everything yourself by borrowing what actually works from the best and brightest mentors. You'll also get a front row seat to my founders journey through transparent income reports and behind the business solo episodes. Subscribe now so we can grow together every Monday.
What if you can make your revenue targets a given not just a goal, let my friend Frenchie Ferenczi, host of the Strategy Snacks podcast, tell you how an F manifesting a mini series to maximize your revenue fringy distills the genius she's gathered from 10 plus years of scaling startups and almost three years of running her own multi six figure consulting business into this subscribers only audio series where she's dishing the secret to doing the right work at the right time. So that making more money is a given not just a goal, how to harness your decision making power. So you stop second guessing yourself and can consistently move forward with clarity why the truth you're not telling is costing you big time, and tons of quick, easy ways to feel clear and confident about your best next steps in business. The juice in this private podcast mini series is definitely worth the squeeze. Or in this case, a listen. Go to fckmanifesting.com. We're trying to keep it clean here, folks. So think F word without the U. Again, that's fckmanifesting.com. To sign up for instant access now, we'll also drop a clickable link below in the show notes.
Hello, friends welcome back to the podcast, I am really excited to introduce you to a new friend that I made actually, in May. So it's not been that long. But Mya Nichol, who many of you probably recognize her face from Instagram, she's pretty big deal on reels. It was actually funny because I walked into the room for Kajabi VIP day, which was the day before the General Conference started for Kajabi Hero Live. And instantly, you know, there's so many faces in the sea of faces. But Mya's face popped out at me and I was like, Oh my gosh, I know that person. Well, didn't know in person, but I knew who she was. And I saw you standing alone. So I was like, I should go and say hi. And it was the best thing ever, because you ended up being with our group of friends for like the whole weekend. So Mya, welcome to the podcast.
Thank you and I am so grateful. So so grateful that you came up and said hi. And that group of friends. I mean, I actually just got off a training with Christie just the other day I was doing a training and her community. So like, you've connected me with so many people, and I'm just so grateful for you and your kindness. You're definitely one of the coolest, most powerful and beautiful human beings that I've ever met. Like truthfully, like honestly, I don't mean to like say that like to toot your horn or anything. But like, truthfully, when I walked away from Kajabi I was like, I'm just so grateful that I went just so that I can meet Ellen, seriously.
That is seriously so kind. Thank you so much. I'm like glowing on YouTube. If you're watching this video, thank you, Mya. And Mya, you are glowing too, because you're soon to be mama and we were just talking about your pregnancy. So congratulations again. And I I'm really excited to dive into your case study actually, because I think it's awesome what you're doing preparing for taking time away from the business and seeing how you've been able to still hypergrowth even in 2023 on Instagram but before we get into that case study, what's your cubicle, the CEO story. What was that final catalyst that helped you make the leap from employee to entrepreneur.
Oh, Good question. So my, I don't know I've kind of had like a bunch of different random things that I did. So I was in nursing school. And I also was a nanny at that time. And then I also was doing network marketing at that time. So that was kind of like the very first start of my journey. And then throughout that journey, I realized I Oh, I love network marketing. I love running businesses online. I love being able to have that flexible schedule. And so I stepped away from nannying to take that full time. So I'd never really had like a corporate job. I had lots of little things here and there that I did. But that was kind of like that very first catalyst was network marketing, getting me into the online space. And then since then I've been in the online space, and I absolutely love it.
So when did you make that transition fully to owning your own online business and building what you have today? Was that a number of years ago or fairly recent?
Yeah. So I got into nursing school in November of 2019. I started network marketing in December 2019. But at the same time, I was still doing the nannying and I was nannying. They said part time but like they had me come on so much that I was basically full time at that point. So I was juggling a lot of different things between full time nursing school full time nannying, and also running this network marketing business on the side. And it wasn't until the beginning of 2020, that my husband, he put a bug in my ear, he's like, so this network marketing thing, like I can tell that, you know, it lights you up, you're super passionate about it. So when are you going to drop out of nursing school and I was like, not gonna happen, like I just worked so hard to get into nursing school, but COVID had at that time, as everyone knows, and life kind of just got turned upside down. And so I loved being able to have a job throughout that summer when I didn't have nursing school, to be able to make money and still be able to connect with people, you know, online, because a lot of businesses were still shut down during that summer, actually, most businesses were still shut down during that summer.
So at the end of that summer, so in August of 2020, is when I officially decided to drop out of nursing school and take my network marketing business full time. And I will say though, like little disclaimer at the time, to me in terms of like the amount of money that I was making, I was like this is full time. But like, looking back, I really was only making like 1000 to $2,000 a month at that time. So to me, it was a lot of money because I had never really known that much money truly. But it wasn't necessarily like enough that like we could live off of my husband was also still working at that time. So we were more than okay. But to me, I was like, This is amazing. And then it wasn't until I had like my first 5k month, which was like almost a year later after that, where I was like, oh, like, now this is amazing, you know, but like, just really celebrating the income along the way.
But when I say full time, in that moment, I was like, this is full time to me. But like looking back, I'm like, I don't really know if that would be considered full time. But I was just so in it. And I just love the online space. And I was like this could be something so much bigger. And I didn't really know what that would be at the time. But I just had this idea in my head where I was like, it could be something so much bigger.
Absolutely. And you know, that perspective really does change as you get exposed to new levels that you weren't really even aware where possible, right? I totally get that because I remember, you know, when I did come from the corporate world, I'll be it was like a very short stint still in the corporate world, you kind of make it when you've made it to six figures, right? Like, that's the end goal. And so I remember when I hit my first 10k month back in, what year was that in 2018, or something? I was blown away. I was like, they're like, what could be like, there's there's no other, you know, next move. And now you know, it's funny, like our business cost more than that just to break even in a month. Right. And so it is funny how your perspective shifts over time. To my understanding, though, and just to clarify, for our listeners, your current online business is no longer in the network marketing world, right. It's your own products and coaching and everything just to clarify.
Yes, yeah. So it's my own products. And it was really like the transition happened very naturally. Again, it wasn't something where like, in my vision again, I knew that something big was going to happen, but I didn't know exactly what that was going to be. And so really my journey to getting to where I am today, which is like an Instagram coach, business coach, whatever title you want to put on me, I don't really intend people are like, so what are you exactly? I'm like, I don't know, I'm a lot of things that I can't really put it in one title on myself. But really, my journey began when I started a 30 day reels challenge in May of 2021. And I started that because I saw these people were growing on Instagram, and they were growing rapidly. Like I'm talking like 10s of 1000s of followers at this time. And if you were on Instagram at that time, you can probably relate you probably saw people who were just blowing up. I knew the potential of Instagram growth for the growth of my business, which at the time was network marketing. And so I was like, Well, I'm of course gonna try it out because like, what's the worst that could happen?
And the worst thing basically did happen, which is that no growth happened during that 30 day time period, so I carried on for another 30 days, so 60 days, then we carried on for another 30 days, because the 60 days didn't do anything. So at the end of that 90 day period, I think it had grown around 1000 followers, which for me at that time was like a lot like I had 2000 followers when I very first started that challenge. By the end, I was around like 3000 to 4000 followers. And then two weeks after, like, what would be like my 90 day period, I actually grew from 4k to 10k, in like two weeks, and then my growth just hasn't stopped growing since then.
But the way that I got to where I am today is throughout that journey with my reel challenge. I was just sharing my journey, I was like, Hey, someone else out there probably at the time I was doing it for other network marketers, I was like, they probably are curious to know, all the things that I'm learning from all these failures that I'm having, basically. And again, I never was like, Oh, I'm going to share this because I hopefully want to end up as an Instagram Expert. It was just like, I'm enjoying learning different things. And I was sharing my insights and my analytics. And so when I did start actually growing, these people who had kind of been with me on this journey, were like, hey, help me now grow on Instagram.
And so then I was like, Okay, well join my network marketing team, and I'll help you grow. And they're like, well, I already have my own business. Like, I don't want to join your marketing. I was like, oh, okay, that makes sense. So then I realized this opportunity to start my own business, selling courses and doing one on one coaching. And so that's how I got into where I am today. And so I took a step back in August of 2021, from network marketing to really take this. And see again, at the time, I had no idea where it was gonna go, I never expected to be on a podcast with Elon, you know, like chatting, and like I never expected to be, you know, speaking on a Kajabi event, or even, you know, having 200,000 plus followers on Instagram, like, it was just one of those things where I was like, let's just see what happens there was like a door, and I went through that door, and I was like, Let's ride this wave.
You and I are so similar Mya, in that regard, I feel like, and I don't know if this is true for everyone. But just hearing your story, at least, it's that same kind of drive of if something catches our interest, or curiosity, we're just willing to walk through the door, like you said, and see what's on the other side. And then we kind of adjust once we get our bearings on the other side of the door. Whereas I feel like a lot of people may be a lot more apprehensive to even go through the door unless they've already planned for, you know, the next five steps that happen after they take that action. So I really, really relate to you. And I love that you chose to build in public as you were going through your first 30, 60, 90 days and sharing those failures. Because I really believe that is what builds powerful community.
I mean, yeah, honestly, the concept of building and public has been one of my favorite things that I've adopted as an entrepreneur over the years, and my journey looks a little bit different. I don't talk so much about social growth, but more on the financial transparency side and sharing my quarterly income reports. For years, it's been so cool to look back on, you know, baby Ellen, and be like, oh, like I forgot, I was thinking that in that moment, or that he shared that thing. And so I'm sure you had that same kind of feeling when you look back at your archive of of content?
No, yeah, for sure. And I think it's just it's so real and so raw. And I think a lot of people are afraid to share their journey, because oftentimes on it, well, I wouldn't say oftentimes, in every journey, there's failures, you know, like, you're always going to have failures. And so I think sometimes you're like, Oh, well, my failures will disqualify me, you know, as being seen as an expert as growing a business. And it's like, no, actually, your failures are the reason why you're going to be able to grow a successful business. And so I don't know, just looking back on it, same as you were, I'm like, Oh, my gosh, little baby Mya like, she had no idea what she was doing. And she also had no idea what was even coming for her. And here she is now, but I'm just so grateful that like, I almost have like a journal of my journey, because I was willing to be open and vulnerable.
Absolutely. That's exactly how I look at it, too. It's like home recordings from childhood, but like from your your early Instagram era, right. And I want to, of course, applaud you for the immense growth, like you said, that you've seen over the last few years. You mentioned, you're over 200,000 followers. Now, today's case study is focused on a specific window of time, really, the last six months, so from January 8 2023, to June 13 2023. And during this time, you actually grew an additional 50,000 followers. And the reason I'm excited about this case study for our listeners is because you know, sometimes Instagram experts will come on and share how I've grown to 200,000 followers, but a lot of what happened was during a time window, such as COVID, such as getting of reels that you can't really replicate if you weren't there to do it during the time that it happens, right. Yeah. So I love that your strategies that you're sharing today are really pertinent to what's really working on the platform right now. And just to set the scene for our list sinners when you started this year, so January 2023, you have what were you at in terms of Instagram audience at that moment in time.
So at that moment in time, I was at 210,000 followers.
Awesome. So you're now at...
I'm at 278,000. So actually, for an update between January 8 And July 8, I've grown 70,000. So just between June 8 ish to July 8, I've grown 20,000 followers.
That's incredible. Okay, I'm so glad you brought that up, because we'll kind of tease that into what happened over the last I guess, seven month period. Yeah. You said that prior to this year, you use to post almost daily, like six to seven times a week for two years. And then at the beginning of the year, you made a drastic decision to cut down almost in half to three times a week, what led you to make that decision? What data supported that for you?
Yeah, so the reason why I was continuing to post at a large volume was when I was doing that 30 Day reel challenge. 60 days, 90 days, I was posting every single day. And after that 90 Day reel challenge, I basically continued at that pace, I took off Sundays. So I went scaled down to like about six times. And for a while for about a year, I was actually posting like three times per week, I was posting two times per day. And so that was like, what would that be like nine times per week for about a year, and then I scaled back to posting six times per week, so just still one time per day. And then when January came around, my biggest thing is always experimenting.
Like if you're on my Instagram account, I'm always trying something new. So I was like, throughout my entire growth journey, all I've done is post at really high volume. So I want to see what's going to happen if I scale back a little bit, because I get a lot of questions from people who are like, Hey, I see your growth journey, I know that I could also grow at that pace, if I posted at that quantity. But it's just not feasible for me right now. Because as business owners, we have 5 million hats that we're wearing. And I'm like, I totally get that. And so I want it to be an example that you can grow from posting less.
And so that's really what was kind of the catalyst of that it wasn't necessarily data driven. And it was more so like, I'm just going to experiment and see what happens. And I was like, let's do it for three months. And let's see what happens. And I was like, after three months, I'll reevaluate. If nothing's happening, if I'm not growing, then maybe I'll start, you know, posting a little bit more, but I was seeing the growth. And so I've just continued at that pace and posting three times per week, which is a really, really big shift. I mean, if you're thinking about the quantity that I was posting prior, and I've still like, obviously grown 70,000 flowers just this year from doing that. And so it's just all about trying new things. And again, I saw a door and I was like, let's go see what happens, you know, not being afraid of failure and just recognizing it as part of the journey.
Absolutely. And I think honestly, even hearing you talk today, failure can really just be reframed as an unexpected outcome, right, it doesn't have to mean anything negative or shameful. It's just, that wasn't the outcome I predicted. And that's okay. Like it was just an unexpected one. And I'll figure out what that means and how I apply that, you know, experience or information going forward. So I also wanted to ask you now that you're posting three times a week, is your posting schedule the same every week, like, Are you posting on the same days at the same times? Is it kind of sporadic? And what type of content makes up those three posts?
Good question. So there's something I also wanted to add into your prior question, too, which is like, what was the factor that also played into posting last and I would say another factor is that I recognized that I wanted to put more emphasis in different areas of my business. And I wanted to give myself a little bit more time to do that. And so I also launched a podcast this year. And so being able to have a podcast, you know, that takes up a lot of time, there's a lot of time and energy that goes into recording that. So I wanted to give myself a little bit more time. And so scaling back still allowed me to have that visibility for my business, which is so vital. I mean, most of my business comes through Instagram, and so I didn't want to lose that. But it also has allowed me to have different opportunities of trying new things. I'm also hopefully getting into YouTube this year. So like, I don't know, it's just given me the opportunity to try different things as well.
And so I think that that's a big thing that isn't talked about a lot is like, oh, go post, you know, one time per day to stay relevant on Instagram, but it's like, what about all the other things that we have to do as business owners, you know, and it's like, sometimes those get put on the backburner, when in reality, they shouldn't because they're just equally as important as the visibility aspects. I just wanted to add that in terms of posting so I being pregnant things have gotten a little bit more sporadic. But I will say that like my goal is Monday, Wednesday, Friday for posting all the time. I will post in the morning, whether I'm posting on a random Tuesday or random Thursday, sometimes what ends up happening like this week For example, where I was just like, I just don't have the capacity to post on Monday right now. So then I posted on Tuesday, but all of them I do post in the morning. So I do have a consistent posting time.
But I do try to keep Monday, Wednesday, Friday. And the reason why I actually do that is because I have podcast episodes that launch on Tuesdays, and then I my emails that go out on Thursdays. So it's my way of kind of like staying top of mind every single day in some sort of way. Not all on Instagram. But since I have other, I guess medias that I'm putting out on different days, that would be like my ideal schedule is like Monday, Wednesday, Friday. And then in terms of the content formats, it's usually two reels and one carousel post. But some weeks I'll have more reel content. I'm someone who likes creating reels a little bit more than carousel posts, I'm not really good at like the writing aspect of things. And so sometimes I have a hard time like getting my thoughts across in writing versus like inside of a reel.
So I don't force myself, I'm not like, oh, my gosh, I have to post a carousel post this week. It's like, oh, I have a really great idea that would be really great as a carousel post or like, hey, let's take this reel and repurpose it as a carousel post. And so I don't have that pressure on myself of like, I have to post one carousel and two reels. It's like, let's just see kind of what happens and what makes the most sense in terms of like, the best way to get this information across.
I love that starting with the end in mind and thinking like, what is the thing that I want my audience to take away from this and then finding the right container for it rather than being really rigid about oh, it has to look this way? Right? Yeah, I am curious about the the morning posting time. I mean, this has been since Instagrams inception, this long debated, like, doesn't matter what time I post what time of day. And you know, answers have changed over the years. But do you post in the mornings? Because it's a habit for you? And that helps you stick with the habit? Or is it based on the data from your own audience that morning tends to be a more engaging time for them?
Both for sure. So it's definitely a habit for me. I mean, I've been doing mornings since I started my 90 Day real challenge. So it is that habit of just yeah, just me hopping on Instagram and posting that habit for sure. But then also, I think about like my audience, and I have a lot of people who are worldwide. And so because of that I try to post it at time, that makes the most sense for them to also be engaging with that post. And so usually, like, I think about like Australia times, like it's totally wack compared to like United States times. And so like, if I post it like, you know, in the afternoon, sometimes that's like midnight for them. And so like, I want my content to be able to be seen by as many people as possible when I'm posting it, because that's really important for the algorithm is like that initial engagement.
And then on top of that as well, I think that the bigger thing for me is just like when my audience can come to expect when my content is being posted. So very similar to like, oh, I have a podcast that drops on Tuesdays, they can expect a podcast on Tuesdays, they can expect an email on Thursdays, they can expect my Instagram posts in the morning on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, you know, so it's just like, it's that repetition. It's like, Oh, I'm gonna hop on Instagram, because I know that my as posting and you know, it's morning time, so I'm gonna see her post, you know what I'm saying?
Yeah, that's so smart. Because it's like, you're not only building a habit for yourself of this is when I show up to create or post content. But also, like you said, you're creating a habit for your actual audience and in a way that and this is interesting, because I don't think everyone thinks this way on Instagram. But if you are training your audience to expect and anticipate and look forward to your content Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, then really, you're almost making your profile on Instagram a destination activity for them rather than I just happen to be served my as content on my feed today. So yeah, attention, but otherwise, it's kind of out of sight out of mind.
Yes.
Which is really interesting, because that mirrors more the behavior of audiences on a platform like YouTube and I remember that for myself, like I've been creating and or watching on YouTube since the early days. And I know that with my favorite accounts that I was subscribed to, I didn't wait for the video just show up in my like, subscription speed, right? It was like yeah, no, this YouTuber posts on this day, so I'm gonna go check their channel and make sure that I catch their latest video. So yes, that is so smart. I love that you are incorporating that same type of behavior into Instagram. And I want to move into some of the specific other things that you've seen work particularly well this year in 2023.
But before I do, just as set up a pre frame, I want to get your hot take on something I alluded to earlier, which is this barrier that a lot of people feel in that Oh, I missed the boat for Instagram, right? It's like I missed when reels came out, and it was new and Instagram was doing a great job pushing all that content out or I missed when everybody was on their phones during the pandemic or whatever many other things people might say. And you even mentioned like you had two years of history of putting in the daily work of creating that volume of content before you switch to three times a week now so for someone listening who's like well if I just skip straight to the point my as at now when I create content, let's say three times a week, but I don't have that two year history. Before that of having built that daily momentum, do you think that will change the outcome for them? Do you think that that two year window was like a necessary foundation for you to see the type of growth you are now?
Yes, and no, I think that for me personally, because obviously, I can only speak from my personal journey, the posting daily, like, I do think that the quantity did obviously help with the growth and staying top of mind, especially because I wasn't on a lot of other platforms at that time. So I didn't have, you know, the podcast to keep me top of mind, email, I, you know, I wasn't on all these other platforms. But I think the biggest thing for me looking back is that I just got really good at being a content creator, because I was creating such big volumes of content. And I think that that's like, my biggest takeaway from that period of time where I was posting so much is not necessarily like, you have to post that much in order to grow.
Because I also have students to like, this is like a mini case study. But one of my one on one coaching students that I've worked with this year, I want to say she started coaching with me in March, and we did a three month coaching container. She started out with 1500 followers, and now she's up to 25,000 followers. And I think that in terms of like, exact timeline, it's been four months. And so she's a perfect example of growing from a smaller number to a bigger number. And so like, I think a lot of people look at my Instagram account, they're like, Well, of course, you grew, you know, 70,000 followers, you already had 200,000, you know, before you even started, but I know that like, it's also nice to look at, like other Instagram accounts are going from something smaller to something bigger as well. So I just wanted to throw that in there.
But again, going back to the quantity, I think that it's more so like, again, I got better as a content creator. But I think that also another reason why I got better as a content creator is because I had a lot of freakin data to look at, I had a lot of data to see and say like, oh, people do not like this topic, or like, I don't like teaching on this topic, or, you know, this type of real in this type of format, where this type of audio with this type of text does really well. And again, it all kind of comes back to experimenting. And so I think that that's like, my biggest takeaway from that time period is, I just had a lot of data to go off of, and being able to, you know, shift and transition, and I wasn't afraid to try new things. And because I was putting out such a big volume of content, I didn't have a lot of pressure on each individual post, if that makes sense. And I think a lot of times when people are posting less, they'll post and then they'll sit there and you know, refreshing refreshing, refreshing, refreshing, refreshing, because they only have three posts that week to rely on, right?
And so for me, it was kind of freeing because I was never like sitting there refreshing. I was always like, hey, what's the next thing that I'm doing? Like? And then of course, I would reflect back and look at my insights. But I think that's the biggest takeaway for me. So to answer your question, I do believe that it is possible for you to start from scratch posting three times four times per week and grow to very large numbers. That being said, though, you have to be really intentional with looking at your insights and really pushing yourself as a creator to try new things and experiment so that you can get better as a content creator. Does that make sense?
It does. And oh, okay, I have so many great takeaways that I just want to make sure our listeners really caught on to and hold on to, first that content creation, like anything is a skill, and you can only become better at something when you practice it. The repetition is really important. And I love the point you brought up where you said, because you posted so often, it biased you toward future action, like you didn't have the time to sit and marinate on whether or not this was a really successful real and then like shame yourself if it wasn't a matter, right, because you had to keep going like the forward momentum was so strong, that it precluded you from essentially, you know, disqualifying yourself. And so I think that's a really huge thing to keep in mind.
And I love that you brought those two pieces up. I think it's also important as an additional layer of context. anybody listening to this case study, speaking of intentionality, right, when you're doing anything on any platform, but in this case, Instagram, you have to kind of understand like, what is the end outcome that you're optimizing for? So obviously, Maya gets a ton of business in terms of sales from Instagram, but for this particular case study, I want you to look at this through the lens of the metric that's been optimized for in this specific case study is growth. Audience growth, yeah, that's a different objective, right than like, maximum number of sales or revenue on Instagram, or list growth or something else.
So when you're taking in what Mya's sharing, I would just encourage all of you if you're like, Oh, well, I don't really know if like I want to be even creating at the volume of three to four times a week. That's okay. Just take a pause, take a beat and really think about like, Okay, this is what is working if you're wanting to optimize for audience growth, but if audience growth isn't your primary objective on Instagram, maybe it doesn't apply to you. So I just wanted to add in that extra layer of context, in case anybody might be feeling that way.
Well, I think that's important. You because, you know, if you are posting and you're looking at your views, you're like, oh, this reel didn't perform as well, it's like, but what was the purpose behind that reel was the purpose for views, which is visibility for potential growth? Or, you know, is it to nurture your current community, it's like, you need to think about the goal behind everything that it is that you're doing. And for me, like each, and I think that this is applicable to any business owner, like there's going to be different goals and different stages of your business. And so for me, like at the beginning of my journey, visibility was a big goal, because I recognize the power of you know, of course, if you're attracting the right people, right, why don't we're not talking like attracting anyone out there in the, in the social media space, but like, if I'm attracting the right people, you know, those people are going to potentially turn into customers, which is going to potentially grow my business, right?
So visibility was a really big piece of why I was showing up. And now why I'm showing up on social media is to experiment to give people insights into what is working on social media and what's not working on social media. And so different stages is brought different goals for me, and it's okay to have different goals at different stages. And it's okay to show up on social media and say, Instagram followers is not my goal.
Listen, it's not a secret that being an entrepreneur involves wearing a lot of hats, I can't be the only one who has ever gotten a little overwhelmed trying to manage all the different aspects of running a business solo, whether you're just leaving your cubicle to start your dream biz, or you're working to reach that next milestone, you need support from trusted partners like Shopify to help you get there. What I love about Shopify is no matter how big you want to grow, Shopify gives you everything you need to take control and take your business to the next level. In fact, Shopify has been a part of my entrepreneurship journey since the very beginning. I'm talking since 2015, when I was on the marketing team for a fitness apparel startup, I've used Shopify as a platform for all the ins and outs of E commerce sales, as well as in person transactions. So whether you're selling a tangible product or marketing, an online service, I know from personal experience that Shopify has features for truly every sales channel in your business. And the best part is, you're never left on your own to figure things out, they have an award winning support team that is there to help you every step of the way. There's a reason millions of entrepreneurs across over 170 countries, partner with Shopify, sign up for a $1 per month trial period at shopify.com/cubicle. That's spelled cubicle. all lowercase, go to shopify.com/cubicle. To take your business to the next level today. Again, that's shopify.com/cubicle will also drop a clickable link below in the show notes.
The way that you just distill that to a post by post perspective, that reframe is so powerful, like, I don't know why, but I never even thought about it that way until you just said it. Like, it's not even just about the overall strategy, what is the outcome? But yeah, to your point, like, don't be disappointed if it didn't get a ton of use of maybe that host wasn't meant to be a visibility driver. And now that you say that it totally is true, like some of our best sales, performing posts as in like, the posts that actually drove new revenue into our business are oftentimes our lowest engaged posts, like lowest amount of views, lowest amount of comments, lowest amount of likes, right person saw it and took some action off of Instagram.
That's not clear to a passive observer that, you know, anything happened on this reel, but it worked. It served its actual purpose. And so I love that you share that. Let's talk about some of the things that you have found have really helped you with the 70k Gross. So yeah, first is you have been looking at trending topics and news in your industry and replicating that rather than trending audios. Talk to us a little bit about that distinction.
Yeah. So trending topics, just to give some ideas of what this is like, like as examples. Chat. GBT AI huge topic right now, it doesn't matter what industry you're in. It's a big topic, because AI is applicable to really any industry. And so I had a I've actually had three posts now go viral talking about chat GPT. And I just related it back to my industry. So I said, you know, chat GPT for content creators and I gave a bunch of prompts for people to use on chat GVT for content creation, like finding hooks and like writing your captions and, and not like fully writing like outlining, of course, and I'm a big believer that we use AI as a starting point as an outline, and then it's your job to go in and input your voice and change things. So I just want to put that in there as a little disclaimer, but anyways, that that was a really huge thing. And it is still is a huge thing. And so I've had I'd think off the top of my head, I gained 15,000 followers just from those three posts on GPT. So there's a lot of power in the trending topics.
But just to give some examples of other trending topics, the Taylor Swift tour, I've seen so many people talk about her marketing, her branding, all the different things that she does so well. And so creating posts around that that's a huge topic right now, the Barbie movie, and everyone is creating memes and gifts and all sorts of different things that people are even talking about how well the Barbie movie has been marketed and different things that you can learn from that. And I'm obviously like in the marketing and business space. And so those are the examples that I'm pulling. But that really is applicable in any industry, right? Like if you're in, and I'm just gonna pull different examples off the top of my head.
But like, if you're in, let's just say, a motherhood industry, so like pregnancy, or you know, postpartum fitness or something along those lines, and you're watching a movie that's, you know, a recent movie that came out that, you know, talks about pregnancy or someone's giving, you know, birth inside of that, like, what are some things that like, you can say, like, what can you learn from, you know, XYZ, whatever the title of the movie is about birth, right? And so you're using these things that are going to be things that people know, you know, it's common things that come out.
Like I even saw, you know, when Bridgerton, season two came out, there was a bunch of different posts that came out for that. And that's not just applicable to service based businesses, but also product based businesses, like I saw a bunch of people who were like, doing like Bridgerton inspired collections of like earrings, or Emily in Paris is another one, when that that one, I think season two of that came out just a few months ago, that was really, really popular. And there were people who had product based businesses who were doing collections around, like how to dress like Emily in Paris, or like, you know, Emily, and Paris jewelry and stuff like that. So it's using these trending topics. And again, things that, like people are already thinking about, they're already watching, you know, the shows, it's top of mind, they're loving it already. And then they see this piece of content, they're drawn in by it just based off of the topic.
That's so wise. And I mean, it's true, because it's like, especially if you're depending on your content being seen by people outside of your existing audience, you have to have some form of initial connection or commonality right for them to want to stick around to hear what you have to say, you totally appealed to my my Swifty, heart of Taylor era tours example. I'm going on Sunday. By the way, I am so excited. I'm like three days away from a dance party with 1000s of other Swifties. So I can't wait for the week. So fun. But yeah, I totally, I totally see what you mean.
And actually hearing you talk about that. It kind of reminds me of how you would approach pitching in the publicity world. So like when you're pitching media outlets, it's kind of very similar idea. You're looking for trending news or topics that are relevant to the readership or the listenership of a certain platform, and then thinking about how you distill that or relate that is a better word to your No, you do. And so I love those examples that you gave. And just curious on the trending audio side the other half bit since you're prioritizing trending topics over trending audios now, do you still tend to use trending audios? Or have you kind of shifted away from those more to original audios? Because I have seen a big shift overall in the content on Instagram to the other side? But I'm curious if that's been your experience as well.
You know, I will say, to me, it's not necessarily like, oh, I have to use trending audio, or it's kind of just whatever fits, honestly, in terms of the topic that I'm sharing. And so I will say that I do still use mainly trending audios. But it's not necessarily like early trends like I would have used if you talk to me like eight, nine months ago in my business. And early trends being for anyone who's listening really like audiences that have around like 5000 or less reels posted underneath them would be considered, or what I would consider as more of like early trends. So I used a lot of those when I was you know, posting daily. Now, to me, like my focus isn't again, it's not necessarily growth, my focus right now is more experimenting, trying new things. And so I'm not like hyper focused of like, oh, I have to use a reel, or an audio that has this many reels under it, or it has to be a new trending audio. So I do use trending audio, sometimes they end up being early trends. But I would say most of the time, they're not really trends. And I'm just kind of more so focused on like the actual message, the actual impact the actual education of the post.
Interesting. Yeah, so kind of like what you were saying about should this be a static post or real it's almost an afterthought, like the container. And in this case, the audio is more of like an afterthought or the cherry on top rather than like you're building the reel around the audio.
Yes, exactly.
Okay, that makes complete sense. Another thing that you shared ahead of this interview that has worked really well for you in the growth you've seen this year is repurposing a lot of old content, particularly your highest performing content. And so I would love to know what your process is for a identifying your highest performing content because like, yeah, you could open up each individual posts and look at the stats, but that seems kind of disorganized and difficult to keep track of, do you have any sort of back end system that you use to identify your best performers? And then when you do, how long do you wait from when you originally posted it or last reposted it to recycle the content again?
Yeah, good questions. So usually, what I will do is go to your Instagram account your profile, you go to the right hand corner, that little hamburger menu, you're gonna go over to insights. And then from there, it just depends on what I'm looking to repurpose. Let's just say I'm looking to repurpose a carousel post into a reel. So I'm obviously going to be looking at my carousel. So I'm gonna go to posts and carousel in terms of the terminology that I use just means that it's a post that has multiple slides. That's what a carousel is in terms of, and people ask me all the time, they're like, What the heck is a carousel post. So that's a carousel post has multiple slides. So I'm gonna go into posts. And then from there, there's a few different things that I'll look at.
Sometimes I'll look at reach just general reach of, you know, which posts had the biggest reach. And from there, it's obviously going to categorize it based off of just overall reach. So follower reach as well as non follower reach. But usually what I'll do is I'll click into the top posts that come up, and I'll want to look to see if they have non follower reach. Because to me, that's more important than just reaching followers, obviously, I want to reach my followers, because I want to continue to nurture and serve my community. But I also want to be reaching new eyes. But again, this also kind of comes back to what is the ultimate goal with the repurposing of this. And so that's why I say sometimes I'll filter for other things. So sometimes I'll filter for like link clicks. So I will see you know how much traffic that post drove to the link in my bio. Sometimes I'll filter for the amount of followers, right, because reach is great. But if that's not converting into actual followers, then there might be something that is lacking in that message, or it just might be something that was like maybe a popular topic, but you know, people didn't really care to follow along.
So there's a lot of different things that I'm looking at. But I would say that reach but specifically non follower reach which you can't filter specifically just for non follow reach, you have to filter for reach. And then you have to look at the posts individually for non follow reach, link clicks, and then follows those are like the big ones that I'll filter for. And then from there, usually, I'm looking like six months or more in the past. I will say that if I'm going to repurpose something, it's not going to be anything closer than three to four months ago. Just because I don't want it to be like super top of mind, especially because the way that I repurpose is like almost taking the exact post and just repurposing it as a real, like the text and everything, sometimes even copy and paste the captions. So I don't want it to be so top of mind that people are like, wait, I just saw this yesterday, you know?
So for example, I had a post that was talking about, I think it was the five questions that your Instagram bio should answer. And it was a carousel post that I believe I posted in April of 2022. And I repurposed it as a real in I want to say in May of this year. And just from that repurposing alone, I gained 1800 followers. So that real brought in 1800 followers. And I had seen when I was looking at my posts, that the post as a carousel post had performed pretty well, I think it was like number eight and my top 10 have like my posts from like, within the last year, I think is what I was filtering for. So it wasn't like the number one you know most in terms of reach. But I was like, Hey, let's just see how this goes. Like, because it performed decently. Well, it didn't bring in a ton of followers as a carousel post. And I think this is important to note too, where it's like, you don't always have to look at like your top performing posts. Like it could be a post that totally failed, you know, in terms of like, whatever your goals are, right? Like if your goal was to get followers from it, and it got zero, like, you can take that and you can say, Okay, why do I think that this post didn't hit its goal?
And what can I shift in terms of repurposing to have a piece of content that maybe does hit a goal, you know, maybe that's changing the hook, maybe that's making a little bit more storytelling, but maybe the post was too text heavy, and I needed to spread it out over a few more slides. So there's a lot of different things that you can do. So it's not always looking at like, Oh, what is the best performing post? And how can I repurpose that? I mean, those are good to do. And I mean, usually not all the time, but usually if it's a good performing post, as opposed it'll perform pretty well as a real as well or vice versa. So that's just a good one where it's just like, Oh, I just want to you know, bring in some visibility, like that's a really good one to go to because it's like you kind of already proven the idea. But it's also great to to go back to posts that didn't perform as well and tweak them to see if you know maybe it's just the topic that's just simply does not resonate with my community or maybe was the hook. So there's a lot of different things to look in there.
That's really helpful. Thank you so much for walking us through in detail like exactly where you're looking inside the app insights to determine you know what to repurpose, or what is worth repurposing. Real quick as a clarification for our listeners, when you filter by which posts brought the most link clicks? Is that Instagram tracking? Okay, let's say someone you know, watched your reel or they looked in swipe through your carousel posts. Is that indicating that they then went to your link in bio and clicked a link there?
Yes. Yeah. And usually what I'm looking at there is the call to action statement on that post, like, what was the call to action statement did it say, you know, go check out the link in my bio for XYZ freebie, or maybe to check out this offer, or, I mean, this is another good thing to look into is like, maybe there wasn't any call to action to go tap the link in my bio, but the post itself was powerful enough that it drove people to take action without me even asking them to take action. And that's powerful, too.
Speaking of powerful call to actions, as a sidebar, I just want to know, you know, sometimes, okay, obviously, I feel like we all can feel victimized by the Instagram algorithm sometimes. But it does seem whether or not there's any truth in this, it does seem that sometimes Instagram doesn't love it. When you're, you know, saying go to the link in my bio, click the link in my bio. So I, I see some people do funny things like even like, swapping letters and be like, go to the bank in my life, oh, or whatever. Like, yeah, silly things like that. Do you tend to even care or like, pay attention to things like that? Or you're like, Screw it. Like, if I want to tell people to go click the link in my bio, I'm gonna say that every time in my posts, and I don't really care what impact it has? Or do you try to default to other creative ways to get people to, you know, take the next step. I know, for example, like a lot of people also will be like, comment, X word or x phrase, and then they'll either manually DM a link or set up a mini chat automation to do it, which we've done as well, the manual part more so. But besides those two things, like go to the link in my bio or comment a certain word, have you discovered any other powerful call to actions where you're like, This is so underrated people should be doing this?
Yeah, good question. The first thing I'll say is, I don't really pay attention to like, should I use link in bio language? Or should I not on tik tok? Yeah. And I know, it's a lot bigger of a thing on Tik Tok. I, personally, and this is, I don't know if this is like Instagram factor. So I'll say that this is like my Instagram expert opinion is that Instagram doesn't penalize you or punish you for saying that. And I think that Instagram is, in my opinion, a lot more of a business friendly platform, then tik tok in terms of being able to drive traffic to, you know, your offers and things like that. Now, what I will say is I do default, most of the time to using that call to action, the second one that you were talking about where you comment a certain word, and I'll direct message you a link for a few different reasons, I think that it's more effective in conversions, because you are doing the hard work for people, whether that's, you know, an automation or whether you're manually doing that, they don't have to go out of your, you know, post to go tap on the link in your bio to then go find the link that you're talking about. So I think that it creates higher conversions in that sense, and also higher conversions.
Because in terms of in your direct messages, anytime that you can get conversation with people, it's going to be a higher conversion. And so oftentimes, I'll end my messages with saying, like, if you have any specific questions about XYZ, let me know. Or if you have any, like, I'll leave it open ended. So that way, they feel like they can ask me questions. And so sometimes it's a good time to, I would say, actually, most of the time, people are going to ask questions in there that they wouldn't have otherwise asked if I had just said, Oh, go tap the link in my bio, and then they go find that and they had questions. They're not going to direct message me most of the time. And so I think that it kind of overcomes like that barrier as well. I don't know if that makes any sense. But...
It does because it's like you feel like because you're the one who initiates conversation, right? And you're saying, that link you asked for? They feel more comfortable to then respond with a question versus like jumping into someone's DM? You've never DM them before it kind of does feel scary sometimes to open with a question. Yeah,
For sure. Definitely less scary. And then in terms of like, creativity, I don't have any super creative ideas. I will say that my best conversions in terms of like sending someone to a link and getting them to sign up for like my email list or for my offers, is definitely the comment a certain word and I'll direct message you a link just because of all the things that I just prior said. But I mean, I also think it's important to to think about in terms of call to actions, like I think of call to actions and kind of two parts you have call to actions that drive traffic to your email list or to your podcast or to your offers. But then there's also engagement boosting call to actions, which I also think can be titled like relationship building connection building too. And that's just like the fun ones where it's like, what's your favorite ice cream? flavor, or what's your favorite summer activity or you know, just like those fun ones where people don't really have to think, you know, they can drop something in there. And it's a really fun opportunity for you to be able to get to know your audience more.
I will say that the most fun one that I've ever done in terms of call to actions, just I guess this would be like the most creative one, I'm sure that you've actually heard this, but playing two truths and a lie with your audience in the comment section. So you ask them drop two truths and a lie. And then I will go through and I'll guess, and then it's just so fun to be like, they're like, oh, my gosh, yeah, you got it right. Or like, Nope, you got it wrong. And like it was actually this one. And I'm like, wait, no way. Like you've actually swam with sharks, or like, I don't know, just like fun things like that. And so I would say that that one was definitely like the most fun that I've done in terms of call to actions.
Ooh, okay. I totally have seen those before. But usually, it's like the Creator, posting their own two truths and a lie, right? And having people guess, which I've always found to be difficult, because it's like, once one person guess is the right answer. Do you not tell them like everybody else like will obviously see their guests and it kind of ruins the fun. So I love the way that you kind of flipped it on its head. It's like, no, let me hear your two truths and a lie. And then individually. So that's actually really fun. I should totally do that with my community. Because it's it's been a long time since I've done one of those posts. And I do love learning about other people. Because there are some super interesting people that you just never, you would never guess you know. So that's awesome.
One final question on this tip, before we move to our final two tips to wrap up the case study? Yeah, when you're repurposing the content, you kind of mentioned that, you know, you might take something that was a carousel post and turn it into a reel. But have you also just flat up like literally taken the same exact post and then just reposted it again, like you said, six to 12 months down the line? And if you do repurpose content for a post, how many times do you repurpose it before? You're like it's finished? Its lifecycle of repurposing. Right. Yeah,
good question. So I think that the first thing that I want to start off with is there's a difference between repurposing and reposting. So when I say repurposing, I'm taking an idea. And I'm changing it a little bit, whether that's changing the content format, whether that's changing the hook, or maybe it's, you know, changing the delivery of it, where like, maybe I delivered it one tip at a time inside of this reel, but maybe I'm instead gonna deliver it as all the tips show up on the screen at once. Or maybe all the tips are in the caption. So it's getting creative with like taking an idea and how can I shift this to be almost something that is new.
Now when it comes to reposting that's basically taking in my definition, it's taking the exact same post and reposting it again, so like copy and paste is basically what you would want to think there. So same caption, you know, same slides of the carousel post. Now, I wasn't against re posting, and I'm not necessarily against it now. But what I will say is that Instagram did come out with I don't know if this is like always been a part of the algorithm. But they did come out and actually talk about this, which is like the original content ranking. And I believe this was like in October of 2022, where they officially talked about this. And basically what the original content ranking is, is like if you're reposting stuff, it's not original, the first post was original, right. But if we're reposting things, whether that's you're reposting your own content or someone else's reposting your content, it's no longer original. So it's now going to be ranked lesser in terms of the algorithm.
Now I've still seen people reposting things. And they've done pretty well in terms of like, again, viewers and followers and things like that. But what I will say is like the algorithms always constantly changing. And so we never know when like, it's suddenly going to be like a huge penalty for doing something like that. So I just always say stray on the side of caution just because again, we don't know a lot about the algorithm. And if Instagram was willing to come out and tell us that like, here's the original content ranking, it probably means that it's something important and it's going to continue to grow in importance over time. And so what I will say to that is if you're wanting to actually repost something like I would take it, copy and paste it but I would maybe change out like the title like the hook is maybe something different. Or maybe the color like in the background of like, the color behind the text is maybe a different color.
Like, again, we don't know a whole lot of like, what can the algorithm actually detect is like original versus not original, like can't tell if like, the text is the same but the color in the background isn't the same. Like we don't know all of those different nuances. So it can't like speak to like that much specificity in terms of like what you should change and what you shouldn't change, but that is just something to keep in mind as well. So I would say just knowing that is I would encourage you to repurpose and not repost and in terms of repurposing, I think that there you do that infinitely until it stops working, because I mean, eventually there is going to be a time where like, you've probably repurposed it so many different times that there's kind of no other way to repurpose it.
But what's really cool about repurposing too, is like what I talked about one year ago versus how I can talk about it now. And like the knowledge that I've learned since then, or like the way that I teach, it might be different. And so that's something to think about too, is like, yeah, you might be repurposing this idea of like, you might have a new perspective, or you might have a new tip, or you might have, you know, something new to share, hopefully, because you've been growing, as you know, as an entrepreneur, educating yourself. And so that's something to keep in mind too. And that's why I think that it's kind of an infinite amount of times that you can repurpose, because you are always learning and growing.
1,000% That is such a such a great way to to look at that is the new experience, like you said, the new perspective that you bring, even if you're sharing the same content, it's shared through a different lens. And so I really love that reminder. Alright, so our final two tips to wrap up this case study. One other thing that you have really focused your time on this year to see the exponential growth is getting people to stay on your content for longer. So in the last six months, what have you observed works really well to get people to either stay watching the full reel, or even rewatching reels or same thing with carousel or static posts to actually stay on them and read them.
Oh, this is like my most favorite topic right now, because this is what I've been experimenting heavily with over the last month. And this is my third experiment, or I guess I just posted my third experiment, I think last week in terms of like, this idea that getting people to spend longer on your reel is going to rank higher in the algorithm. And I have this theory. And it's been proven through my experimenting, obviously, I can't speak for everyone. But I've also had a lot of my followers also tested out. And they've also been like, yeah, this actually works.
My theory is that a real that is longer that you can get people to stay on for longer will rank higher in the algorithm, then a reel that is shorter, that gets people to stay on for the whole amount of that reel. So to kind of recap on that just to make sure it makes sense. A longer reel with a higher watch time will rank higher in the algorithm than a shorter reel with a higher watch time. And so either way, like getting someone to watch a five second reel start to finish, but getting them to watch a 15 or a 20 second reel start to finish. To me, like there's a lot more skill that goes into that, because it's a longer reel, right? We already know people's attention spans are so short. And so if you can get someone to stay on your post for longer than like seven seconds, which is I think is what we're up to right now, in terms of average attention span as human beings, which is like, yeah, which is just wild. So if you can get anyone to say longer than that, like you are good, in my opinion, you're a really good content creator.
And it's not to say that, like you're not a good content creator, if you, you know, have reels that are three or four seconds long. But it's just such a bigger skill, in my opinion, especially with the way that social media is and people's short attention spans. So because I've done a lot of experimenting with that actually had a real where I use this technique and the main technique, I mean, there's a bunch of different ones that I can run through really quickly. But the main technique that I use is what I call like a spread text technique. And so that just means that you know, you have a hook, the hook is on there for a few seconds. And instead of all the tips showing up on the screen at once, like you let's just say I have five tips, instead of them all showing up on the screen at once after the hook, I'm going to spread it out over time. So it's going to be one tip at a time that shows up for maybe two or three seconds at a time. And so people want to keep watching because they know like the hook hopefully is gonna say like keep watching for five tips or you know, something along the lines of five. So they know that you keep watching, right. And so then they continue watching. And so that's how you're going to keep them on there for longer.
And so I had a reel that brought in 10,000 followers in June, just from one reel by doing this spread text technique. And I've had a bunch of my followers also try this out as well. And they keep screenshotting and like messaging me in there, like oh my gosh, this actually works. And so it doesn't just work for me, my followers are also trying it and it's working for them as well.
But in terms of other techniques to get people to stay longer, I would say like what I call storytelling techniques. So like telling it like a story, right? And so this could be like as a talking reel. This could be as a voiceover where you're actually like telling a story and then the text is like popping up again, one like textbox at a time versus all at once right curiosity techniques. So making your followers look for something in a real that might be like hidden like maybe you have like a hidden tip in there. Or maybe it's like can you find the hidden emoji or something along those lines where people are having to watch multiple times. Looping techniques so like where the end of the reel, it flows into the first part of the reel so people continue watching it over and over again because they don't even recognize that the reel has actually ended.
And then you have your classic eye catching techniques, which is like transitions. But I would also say something recently too, that I've been loving is adding pictures to the reel. So like adding like screenshots of different things to give a visual of what it is that I'm talking about. So instead of me being like, hey, like, someone so asked me XYZ question, it's like, here's a screenshot of all these different questions or like, here's a screenshot of my analytics, or here's a screenshot of this, like I'm showing a picture on there. So that visual is gonna keep them on there for longer GIFs are also really another are gifs or GIFs, or whatever you call them
It's heavily debated but I call them GIFs, because the creator of them calls them GIFs
Okay, well, I say GIFs, but GIFs, I guess is the right way. So gifs is another one. So those are all a few different ways to get people to spend more time but that is something that I would definitely look into, especially now that instead of the reels insights, we have the opportunity now to see watch time, if you don't have it yet. It's coming. It's a very, very new feature on reels, but you can see how long people are watching. And so something that you can really do in terms of like looking and digging deep into your analytics and insights is asking yourself, How can I get people to stay on my reel for longer?
Oh my god, you just like knowledge bombs. No, seriously, I'm like, dang, that was like a mini masterclass, packed into a couple minutes. I really hope if you're listening, go back in and re listen write those different techniques down because like mindset, it's all one big experimentation. So try different ones. Which ones really help your audience increase your watch time. Thank you so much that was so so generous and valuable of you.
The final tip I wanted to cover in wrapping up this case study is how you've approached utilizing off platform channels like podcasts guesting, like trainings, guest trainings and other people's groups to drive new region and followers to your account. So talk to us about what you found works best, both in terms of like places to do this, but also, what you found works best in getting people to actually go follow you after they've been, I guess, introduced to you somewhere else?
Yeah, good question. So when I was thinking about scaling back in terms of the amount of times I was posting on social media, another big reason why I did that is because I wanted to have a bigger focus on what I would consider to be more evergreen type of content, not just for myself, but also being a guest, like on this podcast, for example. And so to me, that was creating my podcast. That means to me also, it will be having like my show notes for my podcast on like my website, and like transcripts eventually on my website to like as like many blog posts, showing up on YouTube as another goal of mine this year. And so really having a bigger focus on more of that content, that's going to last a long time.
Because on social media, I mean, realistically, even with a real you're about six weeks of a lifespan, which isn't that long, right? You have to continue showing up and showing up and showing up and showing up in order for you to stay relevant and continue to grow that visibility. Whereas you know, podcasts, I mean, these are things that people are finding years and years, you know, down the road. And same thing with YouTube videos, I watch YouTube videos all the time, where it's like, oh, this was in 2018. And I'm like, sitting here watching it, you know, obviously, it depends on like the topic like you want it to still be relevant, of course, but that was kind of a bigger focus for me was moving into more of that evergreen type of content. So I could create more, my hope with that would be to create more passive income and being able to drive in more passive traffic without me having to show up constantly on social media.
And that's another another part with that, which I didn't know at the beginning of 2023. But now I'm having a baby. And so that's a huge thing for me is that I don't want to have to show up 24/7 In order to make sales. So I wanted to have these different avenues that are kind of working for me in the background, if that makes sense. And so to me, because I didn't have a podcast at the time that to me started out with guest podcasting. And so it's really finding, well, sometimes podcasts find me, sometimes I find them ultimately, just kind of depends. But I have pitched other people in terms of being a guest on their podcast. And it's just finding a podcast that has an audience that's also going to resonate with the message that I'm sharing. And then making sure that like, and this is this is just something that I value so much is just giving so much for free, that I do that with my own content. That is the whole purpose of my feed on Instagram is not to sell. It's just to give value. And so that's the biggest thing for me when it comes to any guest opportunities that I've been able to be a part of any of these evergreen content formats. It's just really, it's just coming from a place of giving ultimately at the end of the day.
Oh, that's such a beautiful I feel like a reflection of your heart and who you are as a person. And I for one I know I'm very grateful that you choose to give so willingly of your tips and your insights. Thank you Mya for this incredibly helpful case study if you learned a new tip today to grow your Instagram audience, please do me a favor and DM Mya and tell her which tip you're planning to try first. And speaking of which, where can people go follow you on Instagram and tell us about your podcast or anything else? You're excited about that you want people to go connect with you?
Yes, for sure. So you can find me pretty much anywhere at Mya Nichol. That's where I'm on Instagram. That's my website. I'm on Tik Tok at @Mya.Nichol, I'm at Mya Nichol everywhere. If you type in my at Mya Nichol, and I'm not there, then it probably means I'm not in that platform. But in terms of my podcast, my podcast is titled Radical Disruption. And it's very similar in terms of the conversation that we're having here, just very raw, transparent, in terms of numbers, not just in terms of like Instagram growth, but also in terms of failures, like money that I've lost. How many disputes that I've had just always real and raw and honest conversations that I feel like aren't happening enough in the entrepreneurship space, which obviously, this podcast is another huge, I guess, example to me in terms of bringing these raw and real conversations to light. And so this is actually your podcast was a huge inspiration for my podcasts and what I share on my podcast, so I'm so grateful for Cubicle to CEO. But that is the conversations that you can expect to have over there's just the real and raw I guess is the best way that I can explain it.
The best way to explain it. Thank you so much. And if you're listening make sure you scroll below to the show notes will include all of Mya's links below go subscribe to the podcast. And thank you all for joining us. Thank you, Mya.
Thank you for having me.
Hey, Ellen here thank you again for tuning in to cubicle to CEO. If you enjoyed today's episode, follow our show on Instagram at cubicle to CEO for more bonus content and hop on the last Tuesday of each month to watch our live after show with recent guests. If you want to support our podcast, text episode link to a friend leave a positive review on Apple podcasts or rate our show wherever you're listening right now. Please make sure you also hit the Follow button on Apple it looks like a plus sign. Or click Subscribe on your favorite podcast player so you don't miss out on our new episodes every Monday and friends until next time, keep dreaming big