376 Why Your Instagram Posts Just Got WAY More Powerful
The IG shift no one’s talking about
Here’s what you need to know
In this solo episode, Kelsey is diving deep into a few big things that have been on her heart including a major Instagram update that no one seems to be talking about.
Instagram just quietly changed the game by making your posts searchable on Google. Your captions now have SEO power which is huge for visibility, especially if you’ve been pouring into social and wondering why it’s not turning into long-term growth.
Kelsey also shares the full story behind the $750 she spent on a one-hour strategy session with Jenna Kutcher’s former CMO (what she learned, and why it was worth every penny).
You’ll also hear about:
The highs and lows of receiving feedback (and how to not let it define you)
The concept of expanders and why surrounding yourself with the right people matters
A simple content creation reframe that completely changed how she shows up online
Whether you’re working on your personal brand or just need a little reminder that what you share actually matters, this episode is full of mindset shifts and some seriously good marketing gems.
Timestamps
[01:01] The Duality of Feedback “That was amazing” vs “That was a waste”
[04:00] A massive Instagram massive! Your Instagram posts are now searchable on Google.
[10:16] The $750 investment story behind booking the 1-hour 1:1 with Jenna Kutcher’s Former CMO
[16:56] Are you surrounding yourself with ‘expanders”
[20:06] From “Look at Me” to “Learn from Me” can flip the energy behind content creation and helps you lead with value
[24:30] Pushing past fear and centering your content around service, no perfection.
To connect with Kelsey:
Access the transcript for this episode:
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Hey, visionaries. Welcome back to the show. This is a solo episode. My favorite type of recording to do, where we just get to sit down. I get to riff and share what's on my mind and on my heart. And my hope is that there's a little nugget of wisdom or something that you can take away from this session. And, hey, maybe not. Maybe you just tune in and you're like, well, that was interesting.
She went all sorts of places in this episode. And yes, that is absolutely the goal. But I find that when I am tuning into a training or listening to a podcast, it's not so much about what the host says, but it's what I hear out of that. I don't know if you guys ever think about that. I often ruminate on this topic because I deliver a lot of trainings. Like, each week I'll show up in different communities. I have different speaking gigs, and I actually recorded a past episode on getting feedback. So if you can scroll back, you can listen to the episode where I found myself bawling my eyes out in my car after delivering a training.
But to this day, I still get negative feedback, or not negative, but constructive. And so I may sit down to record a podcast or sit down and prepare this training that I think is gonna go really well. And then I'll get feedback from one attendee in the audience that says, wow, that was amazing. That was life changing. It, you know, I went and implemented your marketing strategies. I made $10,000. Boom. And from that very same training, I will also have somebody who says, that was a waste of my time.
I got nothing out of that session. I'm not really sure, like, what the point was. And that always perplexes me because I'm like, wait, you guys are in the same session? And it just goes to show that it's not necessarily what the person teaches or what I said, but it's that the person on the other side who's receiving the information maybe wasn't interested, it wasn't for them, or they didn't hear anything that could be helpful. So I don't know for any of you listening who are also out and putting yourself out there and more in the public delivering your subject matter expertise, keep in mind, it's not always what you say, it's what people hear. And when somebody gives you that feedback or perhaps decides to give you a piece of their mind, it's not necessarily a reflection of your work. It's where they're at in their journey. They're their reflection of you. Because every single person on this earth is having their own experience and creating their own reality and perceiving things different.Right. So anyways, I thought I'd open up with that, particularly because I got some really weird feedback today that I was just kind of like, okay, like, is this objective or subjective feedback? And how much do I pay attention to unsolicited opinions? But it's always good to just keep an open mind and take it with a grain of salt and all the things. So, anyways, let's dig into just some random things that I've been thinking about. So I thought I would first start off with the fact that Instagram made some really cool updates as of lately, as of the past few weeks. So I'm recording this at the beginning of July, and Instagram announced that now all of your content is searchable. That means that when you're writing an Instagram post, you can actually start to think about, how can I make this post structured in a way that Google or ChatGPT will showcase it? And why this is important is because prior to this announcement, search engines were not necessarily favoring your Instagram content. Search engines were favoring websites and blogs and places where you're formally adding content and, and less of like the social media platforms where we are showing up every single day. So if you weren't blogging, if you weren't cross promoting and getting PR on major publications, you might not have been seeing that much website traffic or traffic to your brand off of search engines, which is a huge miss.
That's one of the reasons why we feel social media is potentially not effective. But now what's really cool, I was just working with a client, let's call her Tara, and I was just searching her name because I had to grab some photos of her for a website update that we're doing. And now when I search her name, I don't just get met with a bunch of Google results and Google images. I actually got her Instagram front and center. So I'm more likely to click from Google over to Instagram. And Instagram is now being scraped. So think about like a search bot scraping all the content from your Instagram and going, okay, we're now going to showcase this content when somebody makes a Google search. So if somebody is searching for how to marinate a pork tenderloin, if you just posted on Instagram because you are a food blogger, a post that starts with, here's how to marinate a pork tenderloin that is now going to show up in Google potentially ahead of a a blog that has like a 40,000 word article.
So you guys, this is so exciting. Think about posting on Instagram the same way you'd think about writing a blog. Use keywords. Use key phrases. This is a really, really cool opportunity and I just wanted to make sure I shared that. And if you're unsure, make sure you go to my website and take my everyday SEO course. This is going to teach you the way to think so that your content turns into leads. So just really wanted to share that because I think it's super duper.
The next thing that I want to share, speaking of Instagram, is that I have been obsessed with watching this one creator. Her name I think is Morgan Bullard. And the reason I found her was because I think I was looking for an outfit to wear to a baby shower. And I typed something into the Instagram search because as you do, we search for things on Instagram now. So again, going on this tangent of making sure your content is positioned to show up when people are looking for you. But I think I typed in like S8 denim outfit or something. Like I had the vision for what I wanted to wear, but I hadn't found the outfit yet. So anyways, went to Instagram because it's a visual social media platform.
I ended up finding this girl, this creator named Morgan Bullard. I think she has like 800000 followers or something crazy. And her whole tagline is that she's a size 8, 150 pound, 5 foot 5 influencer and she orders and shares her outfits from Amazon, Abercrombie and various different department stores. Cup she all the places. And what I just love so much is that the people who follow her are her exact target audience. Like it's so clear. When I saw that, I was like, oh my God, she's exactly my body type. Everything she puts on, I can kind of relate to how it will look on me.
And it just goes back to this very basic concept in business of knowing your ideal client avatar, who is your dream client. This is business 101. I know a lot of you. When you started your business, you mapped out your avatar. It's like, okay, she's a woman, she's in her 30s to 50s. She has an interest in this. She spends her time doing this. This is her annual salary.This might be a reminder to go revisit that. Like, what are those key things that you can call out that will make someone land on your Instagram profile, land on your blog or website, interact with your content and make them Go. Oh my gosh, this person is creating just for me. Because I will tell you, when I found this Morgan girl, and I'm not a fashion icon person, like, I am the farthest thing from fashionable. But of course I try to be, especially when I'm going out in public. And I always laugh because one of my goals for 2025 was like to be act more professional. But I also had a baby a year and a half ago, so I'm in this, like, mom grunge era. I don't even know what you call it.
So I'm like, I want to be the professional, but then also me, I'm in sweatpants and I have like blueberry oatmeal all over me every morning. So it's just funny because I feel like I'm really still toggling this line, but kind of struggling to figure out, like, what to buy and what fits my body and stuff. And then the moment I saw this girl's Instagram, I was like, she gets it. Like, the content is so dialed. It's so clear. Talk about somebody who's using social media successfully because she's creating these awesome videos. She does these try on hauls, she shares the Amazon links, and you can get a link to her entire cart that she shares by commenting. And she sends out a many chat.
So it just reminded me how amazing Instagram is and how this type of content, the type that she creates, which is like clothing hauls and try on videos, it's so effective. And I love how dialed in she is on. Hey, if you're my size and you have a similar body type to me, follow me because I'm going to give you outfits that actually work. And she also has kids. She's like, out in her backyard, she wants things that are functional. So it's like every box was checked and now I'm obsessed with her content. So if you want to be that unignorable Instagram account, just dial in a little closer on who this is for. Don't be afraid to repel people like this Morgan woman.
She's obviously not attracting people who are size 0, size 4, size 12, size 18. That's not her thing. It's not at all. Because she's so clear that it's like the size 8 mama who is 5 foot 5, who is 150 pounds and has this body type. Anyways, I wanted to share that because I just think it's a great reminder to dial back in on your ideal client avatar. Okay, so what else did I want to Talk about today. Oh, you guys love this email that I sent out. So I sent out an email last week and it was called Did I Make a seven hundred fifty dollar Mistake? So I'll just rewind a little bit.Kelsey [00:10:16]:
I hired a session, so. Or I booked a one hour session with the cmo, the chief marketing officer of Jenna Kutcher's business. So if you don't know who Jenna Kutcher is, excuse me. She is a online business owner. She kind of spearheaded like Instagram and she blew up sharing body positivity stuff. But she also is kind of an evergreen funnels expert, so she sells courses that are automated. She kind of leads the way with her podcast Gold Digger and has just kind of been a pillar in the personal brand online space when it comes to digital marketing and online business content. Anyways, let's rewind a little bit because that's not necessarily where I want to start the story.
Kelsey [00:11:03]:
So about two months ago, I got a contract to step in as the chief marketing officer of a existing business and personal brand in New York City. I got this by way of referral from a previous mastermind that I was part of. The moment I got the contract, I started to think, okay, who do I know that can help me to navigate these waters of making sure I do the best job for this team that I'm about to step into? So I actually went to two of my communities. I went to my Exit 5 community. So shout out to Exit 5. It's a community of B2B marketers. I also went to Chris and Lori's mastermind, Chris and Lori Harder. I'm part of their mentor collective Mastermind.
Kelsey [00:11:49]:
And I just asked like, who do you know that's a secret CMO who could help me? And I got recommended to check out someone named Marketing by Jess, Jess Shira on Instagram. And so I checked her out and realized she had worked with Jenna Kutcher for 10 months. And I thought, okay, well, there's probably nobody better because the person that I'm about to work with is at a very similar spot. And I just kind of want to make sure I have all my ducks in a row. So I reached out to her on Instagram. I was like, hey Jess, this is kind of what I'm looking for. I know it's not something you advertise publicly, but can you guide me and like, let me know if you would be willing to offer a one off session? So she quoted me, it was about US$550, which now is about 750Canadian for an hour. And it's funny because, like, if you would have said that to me five years ago, I'd be like, what do you mean? I'm paying $750 for an hour of someone's time.
Kelsey [00:12:46]:
I saw that price and I was like, hells yeah. If I can come prepared, ask all the questions that I want, really understand how Jess has been connecting with some of these top level leaders, then I absolutely will pay you that money. In fact, that is a bargain for being able to download somebody's knowledge in a matter of an hour. So I hired her, I booked her, we had to reschedule a couple times, which actually meant that I was going to meet with her after my initial session with this big client. But Jess was so gracious, I ended up saying like, hey, I know you had to cancel on me twice, but I'm going to New York this weekend. Is there any way you could run through my questions? She recorded, recorded me a 40 minute loom video, giving me all the resources that I needed, running me through exactly what I needed to do. And it was just incredible. So I feel so, so, so grateful to Jess.
Kelsey [00:13:44]:
So shout out to you, Jess, you went above and beyond. And then I got to spend 90 minutes with her. She actually increased my session because again, we had a mix up, a couple cancellations. And it was just so wonderful to be able to sit down with someone who understands the industry, who has grown to a larger level than I have, and to almost by osmosis, just feel into the business that Jess has created to see if that is the direction that I want. So there's this concept. I don't know who coined it. I think it's Lacey Phillips of To be Magnetic. Um, but I know a lot of people use this word now, but it's a word called expanders.
Do you have expanders around you? Are you interacting with expanders? Are you situating yourself in places, in spaces where you, by osmosis, by talking to these people, by affiliating with these people, you are going to get better. And that's exactly how I felt sitting down with Jenna Kutcher's former cmo. Sitting, sitting down with Jess, it was like just being in her presence, knowing that she's further along the path. It was worth it to just get that energy inside of my body. So again, I know some of you listening, you're not yet at the point where you're comfortable investing back in the business. You're not yet comfortable investing in knowledge, in mentorship, in masterminds. But this is like the single biggest catalyst to how I've been able to continually grow my business over the last eight and a half years. There is no way I could have broken through these significant markers with revenues, with capacity, with client workload, with hiring and building out my team, with keeping up with all the marketing, with managing the bookkeeping, the back end, all of that stuff has required me to surrender and ask for help, to be like, I can't do things the way I did them last year if I want to achieve a new result.
And that's pushed me off the ledge to actually need to hire, help, invest in masterminds, join groups, meet people who are expanders to me. And so I just wanted to give a massive shout out to Jess for offering this service, for showing me the path, for answering all my crazy questions and for validating that I knew my and that I was going to be okay for the duration of this contract. So I thought I would just like give you guys that story just in case you've been thinking of investing in a program or booking a one way ticket to a conference or maybe book a two way ticket. I don't know. There's always a golden nugget. And again, it's sometimes what you hear, it's not necessarily what the person's going to say, but it's the moment that you're in and the way you're able to absorb something and say yes, that is the missing link that is now fusing new synapses in my brain and now I know the way forward. So anyways, I thought that was just something worth sharing because yeah, it was a scary investment. It's never easy to fork out tons of money, especially after tax season.
I had to clean up some 2017 taxes. I had to clean up 2024 taxes. I had just lump sums due for my quarterly HST pay and for paying a lawyer and a tax accountant and a bookkeeper and oh my gosh guys, the last few months have been expensive but I am always trying to shift my mindset to like keeping money circulating, making sure that I, I pay where payment is due and not resist it and confront the numbers that the cra, the Canadian Revenue Agency is giving me and just, you know, trust that it all works out when you invest in yourself, when you are not scared of looking at money and really asking yourself the deeper questions of like why do I feel such constriction or resistance towards this? Okay, I want to shift into one last story before I wrap up today's podcast episode so I've got a fun little group chat of a few entrepreneurs that we talk, you know, probably daily slash weekly, and we send each other notes and we share what's going on. And one of my friends, she has been a little bit more, we'll say, quiet on social media the past couple of years, just navigating transitions, needing to focus on other aspects of the business, and generally just feeling a little bit weird about turning the camera on her face and showcasing like, hey, here I am, look at me, I'm eating breakfast, I'm going on a walk, I'm sitting down to work. And I've had this discussion with a few clients as well of, like, that weird energy that you feel when you're about to share content. And it's like, does anyone even care? Do you guys ever feel that, like you're about to share something, you're about to record a podcast? I feel that way when I sit down and record record solos, I'm like, who the F cares? But then I get messages and people are like, I listened to that thing you said. I tried that strategy. I really loved when you talked about grief and entrepreneurship and you shared the journey of your mom passing away.
I love the stage you're at. Motherhood. Thank you for telling us where you're at. Like, there's some sort of deep connection that happens when you just create, when you're inspired, like from that really authentic space rather than forcing it or batch creating. And I know it's not always possible to just be in flow and record in the moment and share what's going on, but there's something about I call it channeling. Like, not in like a super woo woo perspective, but when I sit down for these episodes, I kind of just let things come through and it's often exactly what I feel my community needs in that moment. So anyways, I know we can all relate to that feeling of not being super clear on the intention behind our content. So I was on a mastermind call recently, a mastermind that I'm part of and the sales coach.
Her name is Jillian Murphy. She's amazing. Shout out to Jillian. She gave us a reframe and she said instead of posting, look at me content. So, like, look at me, I'm going on vacation. Look at me, I'm making money. Look at me, I'm looking really cool in this brand new outfit. Look at me, I'm out for dinner.
Kelsey [00:20:31]:
That kind of content, it just feels icky. Like, I don't like it. You don't like it? I Think we can all agree that it's not necessarily contributing value to the Internet. So the mindset shift that Jill gave us was instead of posting look at me content post, learn from me. Learn from me versus look at me. So maybe the post that previously was like, look at me, I'm going out for dinner, it instead becomes learn from me. So my husband and I, we finally, after one and a half years of becoming parents, we finally reached out, found a babysitter we trusted, and we are talking about our goals and ambitions for the next year and a half. So nice to have a date night.
Let this be your reminder to get out of the house every year. So that would be more like, learn from me. Look at me would be like, look at me. I'm in this cute new outfit. Learn from me would be kind of like I was talking about earlier with this Morgan Bullard person on Instagram. Learn from me is like, here's how I style a basic black dress three different ways. Like, that's learn from me content. That's content that I'm like, whoa.
Oh, she put like a cute little side bag on. She put a straw hat on. She's got these great sunglasses and bangles. So look at me versus learn from me. It has a totally different energy behind it. Again, look at me is like, you know, just posting yourself on an airplane, going on vacation. Learn from me is like, here's how I plan to stay fit as a Pilates instructor while I'm traveling in Austin, Texas. That's value, right? We get to learn the behind the scenes from you.
So I love that shift. And that's something that we chatted about in our group chat. And the other thing that I shared with my friend who's now just like, returning to social media saying, eff it, I don't care. I am not here to hide, to play small. I don't want to feel, like, bad when I show up on camera or like, I don't have something of value to offer, because I do. And I'm so proud of her for this. And what I said to her was, it sounds like your vision for serving your community is finally so much bigger than that little voice in your head that told you, you know, you shouldn't show up today. You don't look good enough.
Like, who cares? So when our vision is greater than our ego, than that inner voice that keeps us small, that's when we can show up without fear, without fear of judgment, without worrying what our long lost aunt is going to say or that ex boyfriend from high school, we don't worry about, oh, I have this tiny pimple on my face. I've got a wrinkle, I've got crow's feet. I'm not wearing a cute shirt. I'm not showing cleavage. Like, whatever the case is, make sure if you are an entrepreneur, a personal brand, and you want to get more visible and it feels safe to get more visible because that's a whole other conversation. Make sure your vision is greater than your ego. Reroute with. Why are you doing this? Where are you going with this business? And who will.
Who will lack if you don't post content? Whose life cannot change if you don't share your wisdom? Who suffers when you don't deliver value on a daily basis for free? So I hope that's a good reframe for you guys. I know it's helped me and I know it helped my one client. The look at me versus learn from me. It's such a game changing concept and it's so, so simple because it ensures that you're adding value at every single touch point. All right, you guys, I'm gonna wrap this episode here. I hope you enjoyed it. I love connecting with you guys always. If you have feedback, then please reach out on Instagram.
I'm Kelsey Reidl and I can't wait to see you in the next episode.
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