Brock Johnson: Is Instagram Dead? Unlock the Secret to Explosive Social Media Growth | Marketing | E377

22:20Don't wait and protect your privacy. Build your brand and get your complete business identity in just 10 clicks and 10 minutes. Visit northwestregisteredagent.com slash yapfree and start building something amazing. Get more with Northwest Registered Agent at northwestregisteredagent.com slash yapfree. So something when I first started in this world, I focused on LinkedIn and I'm actually one of the biggest LinkedIn influencers. I didn't post on Instagram for like years, like three years. And all I did is every day posted on LinkedIn, really focused on LinkedIn, learned how to hack that algorithm and became a top voice on that platform.

22:59Do you recommend that people really just focus on one platform before they go and try to experiment on other platforms? Or what's your opinion on that? You know, I do. I think that the way you did it is what most business owners, most content creators should do is go all in on one platform. And sure, if you're making short form videos, you might as well also post them on TikTok and YouTube shorts. Maybe you'll pick up traction there, but put your energy and your focus into one platform primarily so that you can really master that platform. Otherwise, you're just going to be spinning plates and trying to keep up with each individual algorithm.

23:34And it's probably not going to be effective. So go maybe not all in, but almost all in on one platform, and then just have your content repurposed onto the other platforms. And then once you get that one platform successful and rolling, then you can start to reinvest or you can start to dabble in those other platforms and bring those up as well. So something that I feel is that video, especially right now, is really the heart of the creator economy. So like vertical videos, reels that go on TikTok, that go on shorts, that's really the heart of everything right now in terms of what's going viral, what's working.

24:11And you already mentioned the TikTokification of social media, how things are able to go viral and things like that. And I know that you actually interviewed, was it the CEO of Meta? The head of Instagram, yeah, Adam Moseri. Talk to us about what you learned about the Instagram algorithm and maybe what you knew about some of the shifts that Instagram is taking as a whole. I would say the biggest takeaway that I learned, And if I had to summarize everything into one sentence, it would be everyone just chill out. One of the biggest things that came out of that interview was I would ask him, what about this hack?

24:44What about this strategy? What about this thing? What about this myth? And almost every time he would say, no, that doesn't really matter. Or he would start laughing at me and be like, how did someone come up with this? And so there's so many things that I think we can get bogged down by. And I think the average creator and business owner feels like, oh my gosh, how can I keep up with Instagram? It's changing every day. There's a million things I have to do. When in reality, a lot of those things you have to do are just random ideas that were come up by some random person who is now telling you that you have to do this.

25:16And those go viral because it sounds like a new hack, a new strategy, but it's not really going to be that effective. There was so much that we talked about in the interview that was really eye-opening for a lot of people that they no longer have to worry about. They no longer have to think or care about. And so I think that those were some big takeaways. The biggest things that were changing that were coming were things that we actually talked about off air. There was not too many things that he could disclose on air, but he did show me quite a few updates that are coming soon to the edits app, which is Instagram's version of CapCut.

25:46It's Instagram's editing app and some new layout changes. They at Instagram have figured out that the three biggest drivers of their growth have been recommendations, you seeing a post from someone who you don't already follow, direct messages, and then reels. Those are the top three things that are driving their growth, which they're now over 3 billion users across the world every month, which is insane. And so they're planning very soon to reorganize the layout of the app to make it easier for us to get into direct messages, get into recommendations, or get into the Reels tab. Because they basically say, if that's what's driving our growth, let's reorganize the layout of our app to make those things more front and center.

26:25Okay, I feel like this is a perfect time to play a little game. It's called Growth or Ghost. I'm going to give you a list of things that people often think is going to work on Instagram. And you're going to rate them one through 10. One being not very good, 10 being a very good strategy. All right, first, using trending audio. Six and a half. So it does kind of work then. It does kind of work, but it's not really like a make or break. I think most people think it's like a nine or 10. And I think it's more like a six and a half. It could kind of work. Maybe we can even call it like a four and a half if the five is the dividing middle line.

27:02We'll call it a four and a half. Yeah, I agree. Because I feel like a lot of the trending audio stuff, people use it as a trick. They'll use it even if they're not following the trend the audio has to do with. It's kind of like putting like a really clickbaity thumbnail that has nothing to do with the video. That's how I think of it. A thousand percent. And they spend so much time looking for a trending audio and searching for a trending audio. And it was like, I always say, just use that time to make the content better, not to find the perfect Taylor Swift song to go with it. Posting trial reels to reach non-followers.

27:33I'll say eight and a half. I would have said 10 a few months ago, but Instagram, I've been the biggest proponent of trial reels since day one, telling people spam and abuse those things because Instagram gave us a goldmine and they're going to take it away eventually once they figure out how we're actually using it. And they have. They've limited or put a cap on a lot of accounts in terms of how many trial reels you can post. But I still think that even if the cap is as low as five a day, posting five trial reels a day is an excellent way to reach new people. Boosting your content with paid ads.

28:06That one is actually an eight. If you have great content, turning it into an ad, excellent. If you have average or below average content, boosting it so that more people see it, absolute waste of money. that might as well be a zero because if it's already bad content, why are you paying for more people to see your bad content? I would say there's definitely a distinction between advertising and boosting. I'm a big fan of ads. I'm not the biggest fan of boosting. Leaning into carousels. Nine, nine carousels, massive, super underrated. Like I said earlier, there have been 34 % more reels posted this year, but there are less carousels being posted.

28:42And yet the average carousel engagement rate has gone up. The average carousel view rate has gone up. It's like, hey, hey, suddenly everyone forgot about carousels. And so posting carousels and pro tip, adding music to them, game changer. Music to your carousels. I never heard of that. Hashtags. One, very overrated, not a reliable way to grow on Instagram. That was one of the biggest aha moments. I've been saying that for years. And actually, Adam Lazeri, the head of Instagram, has also been saying that for years. But when he said it in our interview, it again, made people like go crazy, like, oh my God, what hashtags, what?

29:15I think that if you have a local business like a local nail salon or a farm pumpkin patch that you want people to visit, then sure, using local hashtags can help with searchability and discoverability. But for most creators who are not just trying to build a following within their local city or county, they're not really going to be very effective. This is one that I always see Reels about. And I'm always sending it to my team, but I don't know if they do it. Changing settings like location or categories in your post or reels to get more visibility? One, that's the new way of growth hacks is like, turn on these seven settings on your profile.

29:51And like the settings are usually like HD videos. Like we already have those things turned on automatically. And it's just, no, it's overrated. Okay. Posting at certain optimal times of the day. Three, I think that there are definitely better times and worse times. But if you're trying to build a global audience, then why are you not posting for 23 hours out of the day? I think that a lot of people can get really bogged down with trying to find like the perfect time or the perfect day. Who gives a shit? It's like if you're exercising and I'm a 28 year old male, what I'm about to say is made up.

30:26Maybe my testosterone peaks at 4 p.m. And so theoretically, I'm supposed to do my lifting workouts at four in the afternoon. I shouldn't skip my workout for the day just because I'm busy at 4 p.m. I shouldn't be like, oh, well, today's workout isn't going to be optimal. So I'm not working out. But I think that's how a lot of people approach posting. Oh, I missed my perfect window. So I'm going to wait till tomorrow. No, post it. And then you never know if you're going to reach people. You never know if you're going to go viral. You never know if you're going to reach an audience that's on at a different time.

30:56So I think it's mostly overrated. Such great advice. Thank you for playing growth or ghost. So what is actually working? What are your top strategies in terms of what people should really lean into to go viral on Instagram. Yeah, absolutely. I think if I were to really distill it and make it super simple, the way that you grow on Instagram is you post a lot of good content. You post a high quantity of high quality content, and it's got to be both. Ideally, if you want maximum growth, it's a hyper consistency of really good posts. With that being said, the best way to get more views, the best way to create good posts is to create shareworthy posts.

31:37And shareworthy posts are simply the posts that are worthy of being sent from one person to another or from one person to a group chat or one person to their stories. Those sorts of shareworthy posts are the ones that go viral and they're the ones that go viral the right way, so to speak. They're the ones that go viral with targeted viewers. Hey, I got 50 ,000 viewers, but I also got 2 ,000 followers from this and I got 100 new customers because it was all being sent from one ideal viewer to another. So share-worthy content is really the best. Shares are disproportionately the best form of engagement on Instagram.

32:11That also goes for LinkedIn too. Things that get a lot of shares go viral. A lot of people think likes and comments are what matters and they hyper-focus on the amount of likes, the amount of comments. They get bots for comments and things like that. Shares is something that I think you can't fake. You can't really fake shares. I mean, I'm sure there's some service out there that is going to hear you saying that and jump on that opportunity and try to do bot shares, but you can't, right? It's a human to human interaction. And if I think about while we're talking, I bet you my wife is sharing and sending reels and TikToks my way.

32:47I bet I'll have a bunch to watch when we're done with this conversation. I'm the ideal viewer, right? It's not an algorithm guessing, oh, hey, maybe Brock would be interested in this content. My wife knows exactly what kinds of posts I want to or need to see. And so I'm the perfect viewer for any post that is shared with me. And that's another reason why shares are so powerful. Walk us through your most viral posts and why you think they were shared so much. Interesting. I think my most viral posts are often the super relatable, simple, funny, easy to understand content. It's never the content that I worked the hardest on.

33:23It's never the content that I was most excited about. It's never the content that I had a great idea for, that I spent a bunch of hours editing, or that I had to spend the most money on, which I rarely spend money on my content creation. But it's never those. It's always the stuff that I just whip up and post. I post without thinking. I post without over-editing. And I think the reason why that is, is the more time you spend editing and refining and planning and thinking about your content, the less authentic it becomes. Authenticity is this buzzword that everyone throws around nowadays. And then when you ask, how do you be authentic?

33:56Usually the response is be yourself. Okay, great. That's the worst advice of all time. How do you be authentic on social media? I think that you strategically eliminate the time between idea and post. The less time that you can spend between when this idea first pops into your head or this inspiration first strikes and the actual post being posted, the better. The more time you spend editing, refining, thinking, critiquing, overanalyzing, you're just getting layers and layers away from that original idea and who you really are and what you really thought, what was really inspiring for you. And I think that there's something in the subconscious of the audience that can perceive that.

34:35Something that was really eye-opening for me is that I recently launched this volunteer project called Four Piece Media. So I'm Palestinian 100 % and I've got this business brand and I was really passionate about that topic, but I was like, it just doesn't feel like it's right for my brand. So I want to start a new social media page just for that. And I'll keep posting my business content and things on my own page. I've never been huge on Instagram, but I've been really trying, trying to go viral, trying to grow my page. And then I started this four piece media page and with 200 followers, the first post went viral and got like 100k views.

35:11And then all my posts are going super viral on that page. And I'm thinking, man, it's really all about the topic. You really have to be realistic in terms of your niche and your cap for going viral or the shareability of something like an entrepreneurship podcast versus the shareability of a topic that people are so passionate about and obsessed with, right? So what are your thoughts on that? I think that's absolutely the case. That's how social media has become interest media. I'll give you an example. I'm a Lakers fan. I'm a lifelong Lakers fan and I follow the Lakers on Instagram. But during the offseason, I don't think I see a single Lakers post unless there's a super hilarious moment with LeBron or something that's going viral.

35:58I'm not going to see a single Lakers post. They're posting probably every day, multiple times a day. I don't know because I don't see it, but I don't see it because I've been signaling to the algorithm all offseason that I'm not interested in basketball right now. I'm interested in other sports. I'm interested in other things. and so I ain't seeing the Lakers post. But then when the season starts and suddenly I start being interested in basketball again, I start watching basketball content more, I start searching out basketball terms more, well then all of a sudden the Lakers, who I've followed this whole time, their posts start showing up in my feed again.

36:29And so that's really why, like we've been both saying, followers matter so much less and creating content that people are actually going to be interested in matters more. And that's also why consistency matters because there are people who are still interested in basketball and the Lakers during the off season. And so those people are still going to be seeing those posts. It's just the fringe people like myself who aren't invested in basketball in the middle of the off season, we won't be seeing those posts. Something else that I think is important for creators to understand is that it's a long game and it takes a long time to kind of build your followers.

37:02And those overnight successes are really rare. And often on social media, you'll compare yourself to somebody who has 2 million followers, 3 million followers, whatever it is, and you might still have 3 ,000 followers, even though you've been posting for a year or two years or something like that. So it reminds me of something that Benjamin Hardy taught me about the gap and the gain. The gap is where you're always comparing yourself to where you want to be or comparing yourself to somebody else. And practicing gain thinking is actually being thankful and realizing how far you've come. You went from zero to 3 ,000 followers.

37:35That's still a lot of growth and you can't compare yourself to other people. You should just compare yourself to where you actually started. Now with you, you're huge on Instagram. You got 800 ,000 followers, but there's only fans, girls that have 10 million followers, right? And you could, if you wanted to feel bad that you haven't hit a million followers or something like that. So do you ever deal with being in a gap mindset and how do you snap yourself out of it? Yeah, I think this is such a great question and I totally agree. And I think that no person listening to this will ever reach a level of followers that feels like enough if they don't feel like their current level of followers is enough.

38:17Yes, sure. Strive for more, create good content, reach more people, grow your business. Yeah, absolutely. I love all those things. But I also believe that if you can't be content with what you've achieved so far, if you can't be proud of how far you've come, then you're never going to reach that level where you are proud of where you're at. because there's always going to be someone with more followers out there. There's always going to be that next level. Think about the biggest creators in the world. Think about Mr. Beast. I guarantee you, there are still people who he's like, I don't have that sort of distribution.

38:48I don't have that many views. Or I bet he's looking at like, oh, I got this many views on this video, but this one a few months ago got more. That comparison game is so problematic. And so I think that I really try my hardest to stay away from it, but we're all human. And so from time to time, I'll catch myself getting jealous of someone else's growth or someone else's views. What I do strategically when that's happening is I bring myself back to reality because this little black box that our phone is, is so problematic. And so if you can just bring yourself back to literal present day, set your phone down, it's helpful.

39:21I think also unfollowing anyone who consistently makes you feel that way, whether it's you just can't stop yourself from comparing yourself to them or something in their content is fueling that comparison. Maybe there's some way they're speaking or something that they're always talking about. They're always stroking their own ego and it's just fuels that comparison in you mute them or unfollow them or tech block them. If they're just showing up in your recommended posts all the time so that you don't fall victim to that game and then make sure that you are surrounding yourself by people. And this is my personal opinion, surrounding yourself by people and by content creators and podcasts that don't preach hustle culture.

40:00Because I think, you know, we're all familiar with you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. Well, nowadays, think about how many of us are spending the most time with a three hour podcast on the way to work or with a long YouTube video. When we're at the gym, those content creators and those influencers who were binging their content and spending hours with it every week, a lot of them were spending more time with their posts than our friends and family. And we need to recognize that they are influencing us just as much, if not more. And if what they're spewing out is hustle culture, toxic work environments, become a slave to your work, burn the midnight oil, neglect all your priorities in life and just focus on grinding and hustling and more money and more, et cetera, whatever.

40:43I think that's really unhealthy. And so I think that that's something that not everyone would agree with. I know that there's lots of people who have great success with hustle culture and make a lot of money, but that's just not me. That's so eye-opening to think about that phrase that you're the accumulation of the five people that you spend the most time with. It's so true. If you listen to a lot of podcasts or if you're obsessed with certain influencers, those people are influencing you in terms of how you think and approach the world. So you've got all these students, like thousands of students that have taken your courses and not everybody is this mega influencer.

41:17Some people might have 20 ,000 followers, 50 ,000 followers. Talk to us about the ability to actually monetize your account without having hundreds of thousands of followers. What have you seen from your students? It all comes back to trust. And that's the really cool thing about the smaller accounts is the less followers you have, that can be your superpower. Because now if you only have, let's say, 150 followers, it is realistic that you could maybe not memorize all of their names, but you could get to know almost all of them on a personal level and have conversations with them. and that's going to build trust.

41:52I had a woman on my podcast who was one of our students a few months ago who had, I think it was a$30 ,000 launch and then a few months later, another 30 or$40 ,000 launch with less than a thousand followers. And that's because - Wow. Even though she had like 900 something followers, she had really built trust with all of them. And she had built this connection and this intimacy where they felt like they know her, they knew her values. They went along the journey with her to create her product. And so when it was time to launch to make sales, they didn't have to be sold. They didn't have to jump on a sales call.

42:23They knew her, they knew the product and they were like begging to get on a wait list and pull out their credit card. And so I think that there can be a real blessing in disguise when you don't have a ton of followers and you can use that to your opportunity. I genuinely wish I could spend more time each day DMing my followers and having those one-on-one conversations because I miss the good old days when I only had a couple thousand followers and I knew them all by name and I knew intimately what each of them was struggling with. You know, there's pros and cons to growing your following, but there's definitely strengths that are hidden when you have a smaller following.

42:56I can definitely relate to that. It's so nice to be able to actually talk to people one-on-one, and especially when you're growing, it's so important to be the person that's actually damning with people and trying to understand. It makes you such a better creator as you grow, because you're familiar with what people want and how your team should actually engage with people when they're doing it on your behalf as you grow. So you have a lot of revenue streams. That's the beauty of being a creator entrepreneur. You've got courses, you're monetizing, I'm assuming with brand partnerships and things like that.

43:28So talk to us about all the different ways you get to monetize as a creator entrepreneur. And then I wanna talk to you about your funnels. I haven't gone through this list recently, but between my wife and I, and we work together, she's my CFO, she is such a blessing for me. She's super organized, type A, and keeps our life running because I'm the type of guy who forgets his laptop on the plane. I've done that multiple times this year. Horribly disorganized. I digress. I think we have like seven or eight different revenue streams. Brand partnerships is definitely one of them. So I partner with a lot of different brands and collaborate on advertisements and sponsored posts, that sort of thing.

44:05Public speaking is another one. I love public speaking. there's ad revenue that comes from our youtube channel and instagram reels and things like that there is the actual membership business which i think represents the second biggest percentage of our annual revenue which is a monthly reoccurring business model investments is absolutely huge for us my wife and i try to invest every single penny that we can so our investments both in the stock market and in just brands that we love if we find a business that i've been partnering with for a few years and maybe they're not a publicly traded company, but there's a way for us to invest in them.

44:42We always try to find a way to do that if we can. Courses, individual coaching, random digital products here and there. I'm sure I'm forgetting some revenue streams, but those are the big ones.

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47:58Happy New Year, Yap Gang. I just love the unique energy of the new year. It's all about fresh starts. And fresh starts not only feel possible, but also feel encouraged. And if you've been thinking about starting a business, this is your sign. There's no better time than right now. 2026 can be the year that you build something that is truly yours, the year where you take control over your career. And it starts with Shopify. I've built plenty of my own businesses on Shopify, including my LinkedIn Secrets Masterclass. So it's a two-day workshop. People buy their tickets on Shopify. And then my mastermind subscription is also on Shopify.

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49:50I have courses. And I'm like, you know what? I just feel like having more cash for growth I'm just going to launch a podcast course because I know I'm just going to make a whole bunch of cash just doing that and not have a lot of expenses. So being a creator entrepreneur is so cool in that way because there's no ceiling and you can just decide what you want to do based on your needs and what's hot right now. So I want to go over your funnel, but first, I think it makes more sense to talk about your content framework as a whole. And you teach the attract, nurture, convert framework. Can you go over that framework and then let's dig deep on conversion?

50:23Yeah, absolutely. I think that oftentimes business owners fall into this trap of wanting their content to do everything at once, attract people to their page, get eyeballs, nurture their followers, bring them along, teach them what you do, build that trust, and then also convert and make the sale all in one post. That's super challenging. I can't name more than a couple of posts that I've ever made. And I'm making hundreds of posts a month that have done all three. Like it's damn near impossible to do all three. It's more of a luck than a strategy thing. So really just first and foremost, identifying that there are different posts for different goals and you should align your percentages or how much you're posting different kinds of content based off your season.

51:05Like you said, if you're in a season where you really want to dial up followers and you need more eyeballs because you're about to launch something, well, then maybe in the season leading up to the launch, you're going to focus more heavily on the attraction contents that you can get more followers and their energy onto your page. or maybe you're like, hey, I've got 30 ,000 followers. I know I have a launch that I wanna do in three months. And so I just need to get these followers engaged. I need to get them paying attention. I need to get them interacting with my posts, engaging and just come along for this journey so that by the time I'm ready to convert them and make that sale, they're primed and ready to go.

51:40They're like itching. They're asking for the wait list link. And then of course there's the actual conversion content, which is what gets people onto your email list or into your business or whatever it may be. And so my exact percentages vary depending on the season I'm in. Two weeks ago, we were in the middle of a launch. So 90 % of my content was conversion content. Now, there was still entertainment baked in. There was still all of the principles of shareworthy content and just creating good, captivating content baked in. But I didn't care. I wasn't trying to reach new people. I wasn't trying to grow.

52:10I even wasn't trying to nurture. I was just during that week making, I think it was like 22 posts in five days that were all sales posts, basically. They were all conversion-oriented. I say every post has a purpose. That's what I teach in my classes. Every post has a purpose. People think every post needs to go viral. And it's like, no, sometimes you actually want a lot of comments so you can retarget them in the DMs and start a conversation and things like that. So when you have some sort of offer or launch, from my understanding, you love ManyChat, right? So talk to us about what does your ManyChat funnel look like?

52:46Are you taking people to a webinar? Are you taking them to a call? Do you change things based on low ticket or high ticket? Talk to us about your funnel approach. Yeah, absolutely. So biggest, biggest, biggest fan of ManyChat ever. I will sing their praises until the day I'm dead. I am obsessed with ManyChat and have been talking about it for about five years. And I am not going to stop talking about it because there's estimated 200 million content creators and small businesses who use Instagram. And there's only about a million who use ManyChat. So about half a percentage are using the tool that literally every single one of them should be using.

53:19So yeah, every single time I'm selling, I am never using a link. I am never saying, go click the link in my bio or put a link on my stories. It's always DM automation. It's always comment to keyword to get a thing, reply with a keyword to get a thing. And usually it's a free thing. We have like over 30 freebies and digital downloads or even$7 low ticket things in our funnel, because I'm a huge proponent of the email list. My family has had personal experiences with hacks and losing social media and losing tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of followers in a day. And so an email list is, I think still to this day, the bread and butter of any successful business online.

53:58I don't care how many followers you have. I care how many email list subscribers you have. That will be a much better predictor of your bottom line, your revenue and your numbers than going viral or having a lot of followers. So everything we do is driving people to our email list. I will say when I've done high ticket offers in the past, we have used more consultation calls and more high touch sort of things to get people converted into actual customers. But the vast majority of what I sell is low ticket. I think the most expensive offer that we've ever made of our Instaclub hub was less than$600.

54:32And that was for a lifetime purchase. Our usual offer is a monthly, which is$47 a month, or a$7 two-week trial. So the majority of our leads are getting funneled from a freebie to the$7 trial into the$47 membership, or sometimes straight into the $7 trial. But we rarely even promote directly into the$47 membership. So interesting. I love webinars, right? And I think my price points are different from my LinkedIn masterclass. I charged like$1 ,500 to$2 ,000. So because it's a higher price point, I feel like I need like an hour to really show my expertise and convince people. But for you, since it's low ticket, you can do a lot of content on your social media.

55:15You've provided$47 of value. So they're like, okay, what else could I get if I actually paid? A thousand percent. I love webinars as well. We, during that big launch that we had a few weeks ago, it was webinars because we were selling a$600 lifetime membership. And so that was something that we did an hour-long webinar and then sold into the membership at the end. So 1 ,000 % agree with you. Okay, another one of your frameworks, you've got this STD stories formula. Yeah. So talk to us about stories in general. A lot of people use stories just to like share their posts to the story. And how should we actually use stories?

55:50Some people like document their entire day and have like a million stories. So what should we actually be doing with stories? I would say that for most people, most of the time, it's totally fine to just document your day and take people along for the ride, when you do that, your views are probably not going to be as high as they could be because people are just not interested in everything you're doing throughout the day. But the trade-off is the people who are watching, they're getting to know you a little bit better, they're building that trust. When it comes time to use your stories strategically because you have a launch, you have a new podcast episode, you have something that you want people to pay attention to, to click on, to purchase, whatever, that's when you do the STD story.

56:26And the STD story is not posting your genitals on the stories. The STD story was named STD story so that you remember the name. People are always like, oh my gosh, I can't believe you named it that. Yeah, well, you're not going to forget it now. STD is how you get your maximum story views. And it stands for S, single, meaning that you're only posting one story for those 24 hours. You're letting all of your existing stories either expire or you're deleting them. And you're letting all of your future stories not be posted. So just one singular story for those 24 hours. The T stands for text heavy.

57:02A very common mistake people make with their stories is, no offense to the name of this podcast, they start yapping. They yap away on their Instagram stories and they take up the full 60 seconds. And it's like, I'm not sure if you remember back in the day when Instagram stories were 15 seconds and then Instagram made it 60 and suddenly everyone's like, oh, yay, I get to be long-winded. but we are all so annoyed when someone posts a 60 second talking head yapping instagram story unless it's just our all-time favorite person we ain't watching the full thing there's no way to rewind there's no way to fast forward people forget subtitles and so instead of doing a video story instead of doing a talking head story your t the t in the std is text heavy so i usually just do a selfie with my face in the bottom right corner where i'm making the expression that the story is trying to convey.

57:52Or sometimes I'll just do like a solid color. Literally, if you look at my most viewed stories of all time, I'm pretty sure seven of the top 10 have just a plain black background with white text on top, as simple as it gets. And when I say text heavy, I do mean multiple sentences of text. And the reason that that strategically works is that stories, story photos are usually only displayed for about three to five seconds. But when you put that text on the screen, people hold their finger down to pause the story, and then it extends the watch time. So Instagram, the algorithm is essentially thinking, hey, this story was supposed to be up for four seconds, but it was up for eight seconds.

58:33So it had a 200 % watch rate compared to most other stories that are just tap, tap, tap through. That's a huge difference, the T. And then the D is the most important part. I have a framed photo back here that one of my subscribers sent me that says this, which is that you can't have an STD without the D. The D is the most important part of the STD story. And the D stands for what we were talking about earlier, which is DM automation. Yes, you can do a text heavy story. Yes, it can just be a single, but you will not get maximum views unless you get people sending you messages. And so that's why all of my most viewed stories, I did the math one time.

59:12It was like 35 of my top 36 stories all had some form of DM automation, telling people, reply with the word blank and you will get blank. So that's the STD story. Use it strategically. Use it when you have something that you specifically want to promote. Don't use it every day or your followers will get annoyed. But that's how you get max views. I don't know what it is, but for me, I'm still like obsessed with who's watching my stories. I'll never check who's liking my stuff. I'll never go through LinkedIn and who's liking, but for some reason, because there's like less views, I feel like there's so much more important and that it's really people connecting with me.

59:52Is that the right way to think about it? Yeah, that's definitely a great way to think about it. Besides your literal inner circle, or if you have paid subscribers or anything like that, your story viewers, those are the people who are choosing to watch your stories. Adam Ozeri is on record of saying one of the biggest indicators that they look at in terms of who sees what stories is what stories have you clicked on in the past? Because there's so many little circles up there. If you specifically click on someone's out of that lineup, they're going to be way more likely to be shown your stories in the future.

1:00:24And so, yeah, no, it's like an intimate, it feels like a close circle. And absolutely, for sure. Okay, let's talk about batching and content creation. I'm going to ask you a question selfishly. So I've been really focused on my business. And one of the things that I really want to do is just create more authentic content and create reels. Like a lot of the stuff is like my team's making it or it's, I do a lot of podcast content that gets chopped and put into reels, but that's not going to like really work. I need to actually get on camera, talk and things like that and create original content for social media.

1:01:00So I bought all this equipment and I'm ready to go, what is your advice to me and somebody else who really wants to get into creating reels and things like that? How should we go about creating that content? My advice to you is going to be a tiny bit different just because you have a team already and you have so much content already. For most people, what I would recommend is take two weeks off of posting because most people I work with, what we see is they're on this never ending hamster wheel of I wake up with no ideas. So I come up with an idea. I make it. I spend a few hours editing it, I post it, and then my backlog is empty and I got to do the whole thing over again tomorrow.

1:01:37That's going to lead to burnout. That's very tiring. That's very exhausting. So instead, what I say is take two weeks off of posting and use those two weeks to create as much as you possibly can so that when you can start posting again, you're able to hit the ground running and you have things scheduled. For you, since you already have a team, go ahead and keep putting the chopped up podcast clips up for those two weeks. And for you, spend two weeks just batch creating as much as you possibly can. And that should allow you to, when you actually start posting, you have this backlog and you don't have to feel the pressure of creating content every single day.

1:02:12But I think there's also a few other strategies we can get into with consistency and showing up more, but I will throw in one little pro tip for you with podcast clips. Two things that we've seen super effective with podcast clips recently is number one, first of all, posting it as a carousel instead of a reel, but then making the first slide, the cover slide, almost like a headline, almost like Instagram expert shares key to going viral. And it's like a photo of my face and then they swipe and then it's a clip from the podcast. So I think those are really effective. And the other one that I'm sure you've seen is where people do like a split screen and you're swiping through this carousel and it's just like freeze frame on top of freeze frame with the subtitles are put on top of the image.

1:02:55It's literally the exact same content that would be in the reel, but because it's in this unique format where it's two screens, or even I've seen people now do it with like three stacked on top of each other. It's almost like comic book style. I don't know why it's just unique. It's engaging. And it seems to be a much more interactive and high performing way to promote a podcast. So yeah, definitely do those if you aren't already. I love that. We're not doing that cover side thing. We've experimented with that comic book style where it's me asking a question and then the person responding with really good advice.

1:03:25And sometimes I think it's just sensory adaptation, right? People just get sick of these talking head videos and they just scroll. I don't want to watch this talking head video, but for some reason, just reading it might be something new, something fresh that they want to engage with. So that's great. What about equipment? What do you think for somebody just getting started? A lot of people overthink the equipment and they don't get started because they don't know what equipment to start, where to even start. So what do you recommend equipment wise? Your freaking iPhone, your phone in your hand is literally all you need.

1:03:55I remember I had reached over half a million followers and I had had no equipment besides a ring light that I stole from my mom. Shout out to mom. And that was it. I had no microphone. I had no fancy camera, no lighting, nothing. I had no setup, no office. It wasn't until I was having an interview with a a good friend of mine who's a big YouTuber. And he's like, dude, your audio quality on your reels is so shitty. And I was like, oh, it is? He was like, here, like toss me like this little like $15 plug in microphone that I still haven't used to this day. I think that as you grow and level up, you can start to invest in those things.

1:04:30When you're getting started, I'm sure people have seen the new zoom capabilities on the newest iPhone. Your phone is a million times more than good enough to get started. I always tell the story with my podcasting that I started with a USB mic, a webcam, and a ring light. And two years ago, I was interviewing Matthew McConaughey virtually in my basement with$100 worth of equipment. Like, you know, you really don't need a lot. So Brock, I feel like this has been such an awesome interview. I feel like we went through so much. I end my shows with two questions that I ask all of my guests. The first one is, what is one actionable thing that our young and profiters can do today to become more profitable tomorrow?

1:05:14Practice empathizing with your target audience. The better that you can understand their pain points, their struggles, what they're going through, the better you can create content, the better you can create products that serve their needs that you don't need to sell to them because they know that it's going to cure all of their problems. It's going to help them. It's going to be the solution they're looking for. That of course starts with knowing who your ideal audiences in the first place and getting super hyper specific with who they are. But the more that you can really deeply understand what they're going through and what their challenges are, the better everything else is going to be because of it.

1:05:51What are the ways that you understand your audience, who they are, their pain points? What are the things that you do? Listening, active listening is huge. And guys, we are oftentimes, like when I go and hang out with my buddies and my wife's like, how's such and such? How's their new baby? How's their new house? I'm like, oh, we didn't talk about that. Stereotypically guys aren't the best at asking questions or active listening. So it's a skill, but the more that you can listen and listen means in the DMS, having conversations, reading comments sections. Oh, but Brock, no one comments on my posts.

1:06:26Are you the only person who does what you do? Or is there some influencer or someone else in your space who does have a big following and does have an active audience. Learning the words that they're using, learning the questions that they're asking, the stories that they're telling themselves, all of those things. It's all out there, right? Everyone's posting on the internet nowadays. And so if you want to find what people are saying, you can hunt for it. And whether it's on Reddit, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, wherever you can find it. Is there anything that we didn't talk about today that you think creator entrepreneurs should know?

1:06:57Not necessarily. I think the biggest quick win that people can have from listening today is that you need to start posting your posts more than once. Way too often people are like posting it once and then they forget about it. I like to say that every post you make should be posted at least three times. Even if it performs poorly the first two times, you never know if the third time it's going to perform well. Wait at least 60 to 90 days in between each post, but every post you make should be posted at least three times. And I'm notorious for, I think about 75 % of my content is not new. 75 % of it is just something that I've previously posted and I'm literally re-uploading it or I'm slightly modifying it and then posting it again.

1:07:37That is such good advice. I'm so glad you talked about repurposing content because I had it on things to talk about, but we just didn't cover it. All right. Last question to you. What is your secret to profiting in life? And this can go beyond business, of course. I would say, so this is so opposite what you normally hear from the bro marketers, which I am a bro and I am a marketer, but the whole idea of hustle culture, I've seen what it's like to be a workaholic. My mom has openly shared she was a workaholic and she struggled with workaholism. And so I've seen what that can do to a person. I've seen what that can do to a family.

1:08:15And so I'm so thankful that I have someone like my wife in my life who helps me disconnect and unplug. And it's really important for me to have a slow morning and not get up and meditate for an hour and then ice bath for 30 minutes and then like sauna, all this crazy stuff. I'm going to have a cup of coffee. I'm going to hang out with my dogs and my wife. I'm going to stop working every day at 5 p.m. I moved to Utah from California so that I could snowboard as much as I possibly can. I think I'm going to try to hit a hundred days of snowboarding this year. And like those things that fill up my cup, that's what life's all about.

1:08:48What's the point of making more money or getting more followers if you don't get to actually reap the fruits of your labor? What's the point of labor for labor's sake? I don't get it. So that's my answer. Brock, I feel like I learned so much from this interview. I'm going to have my team listen to it multiple times, make sure they're taking notes. Thank you so much for sharing all your wisdom, for not being afraid to share all the different secrets to help other creators grow. Thank you so much for joining us on Young and Profiting Podcast. Yeah, this was amazing. Thank you so much. You're the best.

1:09:21I loved this conversation with Brock Johnson because he completely shattered the myth that Instagram is dead. He proved that with the right strategy, anybody can build a thriving presence and turn their content into real revenue, even in 2025 and beyond. I personally took away so many lessons today, but the one that's top of mind is his approach to authenticity. Brock said that the key to authentic content is strategically eliminating the time between idea and post. The more that we overthink and refine, the further that we drift from our original inspiration. His most viral posts weren't the ones that he spent hours and hours on.

1:09:57They were simple, relatable content that he created without overthinking. Here's what I want you to focus on. First, create share-worthy content instead of chasing viral hacks. Forget hashtags. Brock rated them 1 out of 10. Stop obsessing over perfect post times or trending audio. Instead, ask yourself, would I send this post to a friend? Shares bring you targeted viewers who actually convert into followers and customers. Next, use the STD story formula when launching something important. Post a single story for 24 hours, make it text-heavy instead of a talking head video, and include direct message automation.

1:10:35Text-heavy stories achieve 200 % more watch rates because people pause to read, signaling powerful engagement to Instagram. In fact, watch time is one of the most important metrics across all social media, from Instagram to TikTok to YouTube. Finally, ditch the links and embrace ManyChat. Use DM automation to capture leads and build your email list. Even with under 1 ,000 followers, you can generate tens of thousands in launches by building deep trust. Your email list matters more than your follower count for predicting actual revenue. Yap gang, there's so much process for new creator entrepreneurs.

1:11:10The playing field on Instagram has never been more level. Stop waiting for the perfect strategy and start putting in the reps. Thank you so much for tuning in to this episode of Young and Profiting. If you got value from this episode, send it to a friend who needs to hear it. I know Brock would approve because shares are the new likes. And if you enjoyed the show, I'd be so grateful if you dropped us a five-star written review on your favorite podcast app. Honestly, your words mean the world to me. In fact, I've got to give a huge shout out to Mustafa who recently wrote us an Apple review. He said, I love the energy, the topics that Hala picks, the very fun way she runs her shows.

1:11:44It's great to see how the show has progressed over the years to be where it is right now. Continue the great work. Well, thank you so much, Mustafa, for taking a couple minutes out of your day to write a review. This is the kind of feedback that keeps our whole team fired up and motivated. If you prefer to watch your videos, head over to YouTube, Subscribe to our channel, Young and Profiting. You'll find all of our episodes uploaded there. You can also connect with me on Instagram at yapwithhala. Today is the perfect day to find me on Instagram. Again, that's at yapwithhala or LinkedIn. Just search for my name.

1:12:14It's Halataha. Until next time, this is your host, Halataha, aka the Podcast Princess, signing off.

1:12:30Thank you.