---
title: 'Instagram Expert Explains How to Grow from Zero Followers in 2026'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZVEfS6yAIcc'
video_id: 'ZVEfS6yAIcc'
date: 2026-08-06
duration_sec: 2115
---

# Instagram Expert Explains How to Grow from Zero Followers in 2026

> Source: [Instagram Expert Explains How to Grow from Zero Followers in 2026](https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZVEfS6yAIcc)

## Summary

In this interview, Instagram expert Brock Johnson shares a practical playbook for growing from zero followers in 2026. He covers the biggest mistakes beginners make, realistic growth expectations, the power of Reels and hooks, repeatable content formats, and how to convert followers into revenue using DM automation.

### Key Points

- **The #1 Mistake: Comparing Yourself to Others** [00:41] — Comparing your outcomes to established creators leads to a victim mentality and failure. Follow others only for inspiration and to spot gaps in the market, not to measure your own progress.
- **Realistic Growth Expectations** [02:02] — The average growth rate for a small brand or business on Instagram is about 8% per month. Expect it to take multiple months or even years; commit for at least 6 months, ideally a full year.
- **Don't Quit Too Early** [02:40] — Many people give up after two weeks to 90 days. Expecting results in under a month of work is the real problem, not the content.
- **Find Your Niche Before Growing** [03:18] — You can experiment early, but real growth comes from niching down and focusing on a specific topic before you start scaling.
- **Focus 80% on Reels** [03:44] — Reels reach more non-followers than any other format. Neglect stories early on because they are almost exclusively viewed by existing followers, offering poor return on time investment.
- **The More You Post, the More You Grow** [04:52] — There is a direct correlation between posting frequency and growth. Brock's 2025 experiment: 2.5 posts/day gained 20,000 followers in 6 months; 4 posts/day gained 60,000 in the next 6 months.
- **TikTokification of Instagram** [07:04] — The algorithm shows your best work to non-followers regardless of who they follow. Your worst content simply won't be shown, so volume works in your favor.
- **Hooks Are Everything** [09:24] — Spend 80% of your planning effort on the hook. Visual hooks (props, faces, visual cues) are underused; keep hooks short, simple, and understandable by a 'drunk grandma.'
- **Commit to the Bit** [14:46] — Going outside and adding variability to your videos boosts engagement. Example: a Hawaii street photographer who hit a million followers by photographing people's pets.
- **Repeatable Formats & Challenges Are the Future** [17:02] — Series and challenges will dominate 2026. Examples include Gage running a mile for every follower and the 'isolation year' creator. Even small daily challenges can work if they are specific and consistent.
- **The SHARE Acronym for Shareable Content** [23:17] — SHARE stands for Simple, Hook, Authentic, Relatable (via specificity), and Entertainment. These five elements make content more likely to be shared.
- **DM Automation Converts Followers to Revenue** [28:43] — Replace 'link in bio' with 'comment a keyword and I'll DM you.' This boosts engagement, tracks who clicked, and lets you manually follow up with hot leads. ManyChat is the official tool.
- **Just Press Post** [34:02] — Count uploads, not views or followers. Focus on what you can control — consistency and systems — rather than outcomes.

### Conclusion

Growing on Instagram in 2026 comes down to consistent posting, strong hooks, and repeatable formats — while ignoring vanity metrics and focusing on what you can control. The fastest path to revenue is DM automation that turns engagement into trackable conversations.

## Transcript

clicked on this or maybe you saw it pop up in your feed. Uh, if you want to know how to do Instagram, right? Well, I got the master here, Brock Johnson. We're going to talk about tips, tactics, mentality on how to grow on Instagram
this year cuz it's a new year and we want to set you up for success. Brock, >> in the new studio. >> Brand new. Yeah, I know. I'm fired up. >> I don't think anybody even really knows what this is about, so we'll have to
hook for you, Brock. I want to talk about Instagram. You are an Instagram expert. You have students. You get to go to amazing places to speak about really, really quick with a very >> kind of hard question, which is if
somebody were starting Instagram today with zero followers, zero brand deals, zero experience. What's one thing that they would do that would >> basically kill their chances of doing well right from the get-go? Yeah, I
would say it is comparing themselves to creators who have come before them. I saying following people who have come before them. >> I think you can follow other people to get sources for inspiration to see what
are other people doing that I can you know borrow for my own stuff or what are gap in the market and I can fill that need. So I think that that can be helpful to a certain extent. Um, but I think that comparing yourself to others,
specifically in their outcomes, right? Looking at how fast they grew, how many they're getting, >> that is going to lead to failure so fast outcomes very fast. You're not going to see outcomes like they have for probably
years. And it's just going to defeat you and leave you with this sense of like, why not me? This victim mentality. and it's going to absolutely crush your >> because we hear stories all the time of the creator who just got started
yesterday and then they're blowing up, right? But what is what is a usual average sort of cadence of expectation for results on Instagram? Like what can we expect if you're just starting out? >> Probably multiple months if not years. I
believe the average growth rate for a small brand or business on Instagram is like 8% per month. Okay, >> so that's that's really a small amount of followers, right? Um, and you know, we hear about these like viral success
brain, but it's it takes many months. I would say usually I used to say commit commit for 120 days. Now I say commit for at least 6 months, but the real year. >> And when I say commit like consistency
we're going to talk about today, but a back to the drawing board and be like, okay, maybe this just absolutely is not working. But, you know, to take your
first question even a step further, what so many people do is they give up after a month or 90 days. Um, or even, you know, I've heard examples of people Hey, it's been 2 weeks. What's going wrong? And I reply, what's going wrong
is you're expecting results after less than a month of work. Um, so it's going to it. >> Yeah, the commitment is important, but could approach Instagram. If you're just
doing? What are you posting? M >> are we doing photos, carousels, I hear a >> are we doing photos, carousels, I hear a thing? Uh reals, stories. What's the getting started? >> Yeah. First, we need to identify what is
our focus going to be or our niche or however you want to say it. Like what is that topic we're going to focus on? Luckily, if you don't know exactly what that is, you don't have to have that ironed out before you start posting, but
before you actually start growing. Okay? So you can start throwing things at the wall into experiment like what do I like to do? What kind of content do I prefer to create? What am I good at creating or to just practice but if you actually
going to come from starting with that niching down that getting focused. Um focus primarily on reals. >> I would say probably 80% of your focus should be on reels. Reels on average reach more new people like the non-f
followers. Um, and so obviously if if you don't have any followers cuz you're posting reels. But don't neglect the other formats. Continue to post carousels, post photos. The format that I would say you could neglect the most
early on, like early early on, is stories because stories are almost exclusively viewed by followers. And if you don't have very many followers yet, couple of views on your stories. And not that those people don't matter, but you
know, just thinking about the return on your time investment, it's probably best something to wait on. >> So, short form video, I think we all right now. >> Um, how often are you recommending we
>> So, this goes with the consistency thing. How often and and how much? >> This is such a great question. Probably the number one question I get and my answer is not a numerical value. My answer is I think it's an eightword
sentence. The more you post, the more you grow. Is that eight? Eight total. you grow. So there's a direct correlation between posting frequency, how much you are posting to your feed, and growth rate. And that's all the way
to the furthest extreme, which I'm not telling people to post this much, but posting hundreds of times a day. >> Hundreds a day. there's one viral example that it went viral because they showed their account
to Mr. beast and so now his name is you know attached to it but they're like an e you know e- newsws like entertainment news in the states but specifically for people >> but they are posting hundreds of times a
day about Bollywood news if you look at their account they have like over a 100,000 total posts uploaded which is insane again I'm not telling anyone to thousands of followers per month they have like 30 something million followers
on their account um in a relatively short amount of time so Again, not saying that anyone should do that, just giving that as an example. Even myself other studies to back this up, but I did a personal experiment this year where
a personal experiment this year where for the first half of 2025, I posted 2.5 >> And I grew 20,000 followers in those first 6 months. During those first 6 months, you could argue that that was one of the best opportunities for my
the head of Instagram during that six-month period. I got to do a bunch of collabs with like big accounts. The official@creators account on Instagram which has like 20 million followers.
That period should have been optimal growth stage. The second 6 months of the year I scaled from 2.5 posts per day to four posts per day. And I gained 60,000 followers. So three times the amount of followers in the second half
>> without the collab, without the super cool interview, without like all these obviously there's a million other variables and obviously this is a small sample size but it's again just the proof is in the pudding that the more
>> The more you post the more you grow which at least for us old school creators who grew up in the blogging days right it was like you don't post too much because it would overwhelm your audience and your subscribers but that
doesn't seem to be the case here. No, it's it's the Tik Tokification of social media, right? Where uh Tik Tok the reason that it blew up in 2020 and has stuck around unlike, you know, imagine all those other social networks that
blew up and >> Vine and um Foursquare and Be Real, up and they're pretty much non-existent today. said, "Hey, we don't care who you follow. We don't care who your social
worked, right? local
probably not going to see all four. You're I'm lucky if you see one, but that one that you see is based off which one would be most interesting to you. M really great thing about this Tik Tokification is you could post 100
really bad because they're not engaging, they're not captivating people or would is they won't be shown to people. Like your worst work won't be shown, only your best work will be shown. Um and so that's kind of the the the real strong
Tokification. >> So what's the point of trying to get >> There is a point. The point is that they are slightly more likely to see your >> people do they are more likely to use your word to use your shirt to become a
super fan if they are first a follower. It's just nowadays it's a lot tougher to place. >> The follow is less valuable than it was 10 to 15 years ago. But it is still the next step in that journey. Very rarely
are people going to go from just viewer like nonfollower to customer. There's funnel. >> Yep. And this is where we unlock the right? Because your followers will see those stories. Exactly. And that's where
clicks, call to actions, and things like that uh can come into play, which I onto Instagram versus something like YouTube Shorts, which is still great, and I'm growing hugely there, but >> getting clicks from viewers there is
much harder than followers on Instagram who've seen my videos, who now follow >> Right. >> Yeah. So, if video is in fact what we video. What makes a great video that will get seen by a lot of people
>> with short form? It's the hook. The hook is beyond a shadow of a doubt absolutely everything. 80% of the time, energy, and effort that you spend planning the post, scripting the post, coming up with what's going to be in it should be spent
I think within the world of small business owners and uh marketers and and brands, they've we've overfocused on the words of the hook, whether that be the text that they're writing on the screen or the words that they're saying. And
that I think you do a great job of, which is the visual. The visual is so really great job of those two things. And those are two forgotten elements. and we just focus on like say this number of words, use this kind of words,
use negative language, and like those sorts of things can help. A shorter, more concise hook is usually going to be more effective. A hook that is using simpler language, uh that would be understandable by a drunk grandma, that
sealed? >> Yeah. Like a I could tell my grandma that phrase and she would understand what's happening, especially if I'm what's happening, especially if I'm showing her like a pack. Um, but the
visual, like we're visual creatures. So, you know, Instagram, people have said and now it's a video platform. I been a visual platform >> and short form video and specifically
just the most visually captivating thing that you can create right now. Um, and so paying attention to what video elements are in there. Are there props that you can use? Are there visual cues that can clue someone in? Is there an
interesting moment that is going to draw people in? Can you just show a face? Cuz with eyes, it's the same idea as like the thumbnail on YouTube. Yeah. are more likely to click. And so it's those same elements apply to your hook
>> So if hooks are the most important thing, what are some channels or examples from others that you remember because of the hooks? >> Yeah. Uh, one that does a really great job is wants and needs brand underscore.
underscore brand or brand underscore. They do a good job. And then Citizen the artist, he's a musician. They both do something that's called hook swaps where they take these sort of like viral clips, viral moments, super
curiositydriven, oftentimes like an underlying story element that get you to about to happen?" and then you want to keep watching and has transitioned into selling their gray sweatuit or Citizen the Artist has
transitioned into one of his music videos. Um, so they both do a really great job, but they do it a little bit differently. Once Needs use uses pre-existing hooks and swaps into their own. Um, so they use like already proven
somebody else's viral clip, viral intro, and then it transitions into their stitch or duet. Instagram changes the name all the time on us. Um, and then Citizen the Artist does more higher production value. It takes a little bit
his own. Okay. >> Um, and so just kind of different takes a great job. Um, >> how is that not a bait and switch? Like Here's this thing that's not what my thing is about, but I I did it to capt
capture your attention. >> Part of it is playing on the just the overconumption of trends on social media. Um, there are there are differences though because I think like the bait and switch or or clickbait on
YouTube is like making a promise that you are going to get this thing from this video. OMG, my grandma died and then the video is like my grandma died laughing, right? Like that is that is clickbait. Um, that's what we see on
YouTube. on Instagram. It's more like taking something that is dramatic and it is going to happen in the video. Like Citizen, the artist did one where he uh tripped and he literally tripped and it fell and it looked like he was in like
he was going to trip and fall into a tide pool at the beach and he literally in the video does trip and fall, but then it just seamlessly transitions from his trip and fall into his music video. So, you're still getting to see the the
dramatic interesting moment of him tripping or in one case getting his shoelace caught in like the door of a car, something like that. Um, but also I Yeah. >> Whereas on YouTube, it's like you just
wasted 20 minutes of my time for your grandma to die laughing. Versus on seconds of my time, but you were also really captivating and funny and I got dopamine. So like my box is checked for this video and
>> you know now it's it like thank you for interrupting my thumb scrolling for this interrupting my thumb scrolling for this thing. Right. So, um, the one that I trend that I saw on a lot of people's Instagrams and Tik Toks was there was
like a person sitting in a chair tied up. You don't know why they're tied up. There's a rope connected to it and a car driving away. You can see the the rope being taught and then >> sometimes it actually does pull the
that trend. I feel like >> Oh, you did that? tied around my neck and I was standing there. Um, yeah, it was it definitely pounding because even though the the rope wasn't tied tied, I was like, what
get yanked right now [laughter] and my wife's driving the car? It was scary. But again, I also think that uh that isn't talked about enough. Um, I think that I think a lot of people are
um kind of mailing it in. They're doing the bare minimum. And I am all for lowhanging fruit, easy content, but if all you're doing is easy content, then
looks no different from everyone else. There's nothing unique or creative. And necessarily putting yourself in a dangerous situation like tying a rope around your neck and tying the other end to a car. Um, but committing to the bit
and and for some people that can be as small of a change as just going outside. Going outside and filming your reels at a park or just in your front yard has been shown to increase engagement and views because there's an underlying
instinctual. Oh, hey, uh there's a little bit more variability here. Hey, going on. That's why like street interviews are such a popular style of happen, right? We're we're filming on the streets. So, I think
uh who lives in Hawaii who goes around and he finds people's pets. Mhm. is your pet friendly?" >> Uh, and then he takes pictures of the always the like reveal, the climax is there's these beautiful photos that he
know what's going to happen. He's going to find a pet it. But how's that owner going to take it? What's the dog going to is the dog going to behave? Like we don't know. And it's he's gotten to like a million
followers just being a street photographer in doing that. He even said for himself as an introvert uh that this was a great exercise. He like the reason was afraid to talk to people and this was his way to kind of document not just
these amazing photos of people and their pets but his own journey of becoming now people as a stranger. So that like to me that was like oh now I'm getting to know this person behind this trend or this this this thing. Um, and funny enough,
when I was in Hawaii for uh a Pokémon event, I was wearing like this bright Pokemon shirt and I and and he was a fan of my channel. >> So, I got to meet him and he interviewed me and I was like, I don't have a pet,
>> you can interview me if you want. I guess Pokémon are kind of like pets really, really cool. And of course, you know, my show, Should I open it or try format. It makes it easy for me to create.
it's about. What are your thoughts on trying to find some repeatable format versus h what am I going to do today? >> One of my big predictions for 2026 is that repeatable formats specifically in the form of series or even challenges
the form of series or even challenges are going to go rampant. I I hope uh that it's going to last the entire year and that like someone who uh is starting their own series at the end of 2026 can still like have this virality and uh pop
off with it. But I definitely believe that at the beginning half of the year, creating these series or challenges and they're going to have wild success because of it. Um, I mean, we could think of a million examples. There's a
guy named Gage who is running a mile for every follower that he gains and he's also, I think, over 400 lb at the start. And so, he's now got over a million on Instagram, Tik Tok, and YouTube. Uh he's in the deep pocket monster class and he
>> he's going to run a million miles, >> three million now. But he's he's and I'm realistically probably never going to be able to run this many. Like elite miles in their life, >> but he is running multiple miles every
day. He's documenting his journey. He's lost almost 200 lb, I believe, already which is insane. Um and he's documenting it every step of the way. And he's kind like, "Well, maybe if I can't run 700 miles today, maybe I can, you know, run
mile." And he's like doing these other little challenges, raising funds for example. There's one guy >> he's doing, he's calling it the isolation year, and he's literally locking himself in what's essentially a
that they've built to look like a prison cell for an entire year. And they're again, I'm not telling people to do this level of extreme, but if like I I've challenges, and I'll hear people say like, "Well, I'm going to do a 30-day
challenge where I'm making a different salad every day." I'm like, I love that you have a series that you come up with, but when you are competing against a guy who's running a mile for every follower or locking himself in a room, it's not
going to hit the same, right? It's not going to drive that same impact. So I level, anything that's like again harmful or dangerous, but like what can you come up with? >> How would you a dayby-day challenge?
Yeah. So I would do uh for a salad. Yeah. I would say adding one new ingredient to my salad every day until I reach 10K followers. >> So maybe if you get to day 320, you have a salad with 320 ingredients. And it's
hilarious. And it's and it's funny, right? Yeah. Um I I was talking with one of our other clients who she created like a invented a at home workout device thing. Um and I was talking to her about it and she said, you know, it's great
from home, work out from anywhere. It's easy to transport. And she said, what if I did uh a workout on it every day? I said, well, you're already doing a workout on it every day. So what if instead we did day blank, day one of
exercising in a new location with my insert invention. And so now one day top of a mountain. There's this great guy who uh his Instagram is called Discovery Deadlift >> and he tredges into like high mountain
peaks or middle of the back country or desolate beaches with a couple hundred lbs of like a barbell and some weights and then he does deadlifts. And so it's like what if I didn't exercise in a crazy um location. But she then is
taken anywhere. It's easy to transport. She can show different exercises that essentially selling her product in every video, but it's a creative challenge in >> I like that. A lot of these examples are big, grand examples, right? And I think
there are many examples of other creators who are doing much smaller but are still just as interesting. I I've been following a couple people who >> challenging themselves to speak in public without filler words.
>> It's like day one of trying to speak for 60 seconds without using filler words, could tell they've completely transformed their communication. And although there's no crazy spectacle, there is a real relatable part of that
that I think is very, >> you know, uh, very nice for people to legitimate challenge. It's not something that you would do anyways. It's not something that they're not necessarily inviting the community to get involved
with. The community can get involved, but I think that's a a misinterpretation when we talk about this sometimes. people be like, "Well, what could would rather you challenge yourself first, and if people want to do it,
that's great, but that's not the focus. >> Um, I have one of these challenges for where I'm going to write down the name of every follower that I gain from now until I hit a million followers, which I'm like 150,000 away, which I did the
math. If it takes me 10 seconds to write down a name and I gain just 250 40 minutes to write down the name. So, it's going to be >> I haven't started it yet. So, I'm going to be starting it uh at like right
before the new year. Um so, like I really hope I hit I hope I hit it quickly, but also I know and I'm going to get like a giant sheet of paper and so when I get done it's going to be all of the names written down and you know
with obviously losing followers, it's probably going to be 200 to 250,000 Um but like if there's a day where I gain 10,000 followers, that might take me legitimately hours to write down every single name. Um, but I think the
underlying message with that one will also be like every person matters. It's not just a number. It's not just a data. It's not just something to pat yourself So >> that's cool. Uh, speaking of data, once
>> that's cool. Uh, speaking of data, once you start to get some bank of videos on looking at >> to inform how to do better in your next videos? Yeah, retention is is a huge one which Instagram has given us a lot of
new stats in terms of like how long are people watching the video, how what's the watch rate after the first 3 seconds. I think those are key. Um and might focus on different metrics. So if your goal was growth, I'm going to focus
primarily on shares as a form of engagement and creating content or doubling down on the content that is getting more shares. Um if I want more sales, I'm in a season of selling. I'm focusing more on comments. Okay. Or
things that drive story views rather than shares or virality. >> So, when it comes to shares, what makes a video sharable? >> Mhm. I have an acronym that's five. It's the word share. Okay. S is simple. We've
down. Make it simple. Use easy to understand words. H is hook. We've talked about hooks. A is authentic, >> which that's obviously a buzz word. How do you be more authentic? I think that you reduce the time between idea and
execution. The shorter amount of time you can get with short form video post, I want to talk about this topic, I doing it, the more authentic it'll be, >> the most authentic being like in the
>> in the moment like I just had this idea and like I'm in my car like how many guy is just sitting in his car talking to the camera, right? That's authentic. That's real. Not spending hours editing it, filtering it, refining it. That
is great for a really beautifully told story. But on Instagram, like just give me the real. So that's authentic. Um R is relatable. And my tip for relatability is that relatability comes from specificity. And what I mean by
that is when you are telling your stories or when you are, let's say, labeling a meme, get specific in your wording. Um I'll give you uh an example. Bad example would be if I were to post uh a trending audio of myself getting
mad and I labeled it me when my reel doesn't get a lot of views. It's relatable, right? anyone in my audience can relate to not getting a lot of I say me when I spend three hours editing a reel and it gets seven likes,
>> there's probably very few people in my audience who have it had exactly that experience. But because I have gotten specific, they can now relate with it specific there. >> Um instead of being vague, we have a
thinking, well, I'll appeal to anyone, but the more specific you get, the more your audience. Um, >> then E is entertainment. Uh, the that I did this year was the head of Instagram. The interview that should get
all the attention is my interview in a backroom closet with the head of Instagram for business because he shared a lot more juicy stuff, stuff that was share. Oh, really? >> Um, but yeah. Uh, we could go into a
whole side conversation about that. Um, >> did you have to keep take it down? to say I didn't have to take it down, but he did ask me to they asked me to no but he did ask me to they asked me to no longer promote it or post about it. So,
>> It may or may not be >> may or may not be on my podcast or >> Yeah. Yeah, it was >> Why wouldn't they want you to shared and tips and things that like were not meta approved and they're very
much like a go through legal type of type of company, you know. Um, >> I don't know if they I would say mind-blowing, but definitely definitely of Instagram. >> If you don't mind, could you share one
>> Yeah, I what what it is and what actually relates to this share acronym is the E, which was he said that way too many brands and business owners are focused on educational content, giving tips and value and education, uh, when
instead they should be focused on entertainment. He said a few years ago, few years ago, brands and businesses should consider how entertaining is my content." He said, "Now, it needs to be the focus. It needs to be the primary
content, when you're writing a script. How entertaining is this post? Is this sentence? How necessary is the framing and the visual?" And focusing on into how to achieve entertainment value because it's not dancing and being
definition of entertainment in that. >> Yeah. Uh, I think part of it is time, which is storytelling is a huge part of entertainment. Part of it is the visuals that we've talked about so far. Um, I think considering the stranger is
huge, which I think so many people when they're creating content, they're view, but most people who are seeing They've never seen a post before, or they are followers, but they don't see
posts that often. Most people are not like me watching Short Pocket Monster episode every single night and I'm refreshing at 9:00 p.m. like where's oh, hey, this is the first post I've seen in a month.
>> And so with it being in mind for a stranger, does the first few seconds find that balance between grabbing their attention, but still making them curious not so curious that they're confused and lost. Yeah.
>> And just uh formatting it for a stranger is helpful. And then to take it a step further and make it even more practical with each sentence that you say, each word that you include in the video, just asking, is this necessary or is it
redundant? >> I hope you get fit, be lean, lose the same thing four different ways. Like, can we say it one way? Because the bored and I'm going to scroll away. >> Yeah. Dang, that's really good. Thank
you. We'll link to that >> exclusive secret thing uh in in in the >> Yeah. Um, as we wrap up here, you know, just want to build a following and become quoteunquote Instagram famous,
but they want to do business. They want to, you know, generate revenue. And so, >> what is the best way for a person who now has a following, how might they then convert those followers into dollars? >> Yeah, I'm glad we're talking about this
thing. This is what I care about the most. I don't care if you go viral. I care if you are putting food on the table, uh, paying your bills. Um, and on Instagram, the biggest difference maker is direct message automation. Um, which
is essentially the tried and true way of promoting things on Instagram for the last 20 years has been click the link in my bio. And what happens when you say that is half your audience or however much they're not interested, which
going to scroll. Who cares? We, you know, do a better job of marketing to make them interested or whatever. But then the half that is interested, they are now being told directly by you, don't engage with this post, go
that something else is usually also like a multi-step process of like go to my Select the right thing from the menu. It's confusing. automation, which is that thing that I think a lot more people are familiar
comment the word blank and I will send you blank. "Hey, leave this post alone," you're telling them, "Engage with the post." Now, your post is getting hundreds of comments, those comments are getting
instantly sent the thing that they want, the guide, the course, whatever that So, it shows up with that little red one and now they have like a reminder to go >> Um, you're getting more engagement, which leads to more views, which then
more engagement, more views, so on and so forth. Um, and the fortune is in the link in your bio, you don't know who they are. You don't know who clicked, they become a customer. All you know is tomorrow you can look back and Instagram
will be like 137 people clicked on your link yesterday. Okay, I can't really do >> But if I use direct message automation, I can see 37% of people clicked on this link. Uh 98% of people opened this
could get more people who opened to actually click. They were obviously >> Yeah. Oh, hey. I can I can literally see the names of every person who clicked clicked, only three purchased. So, I can go manually follow up with the other
to follow up. Say, "Hey, I noticed that you were interested in that thing, but through. I want you to know that the sale ends tomorrow night. Are there any follow up with them. It's an absolute gamecher. It's proven to increase the
vanity metrics of views and engagement, but it's also proven to drastically all that. >> What tool are you using for that? tool. There are are some other tools that do it as well. Manyhat is the most
it's the only tool that is an officially they have access to Instagram's API. They're literally they meet every week in good standing. >> Um, plus one on using ManyHat. We use
Mini Chat now have started using it. It's It's been pretty amazing. features that are like that are coming out in 2026 or that came out at the end of 2025. One of my new favorites is the automatic DM when someone follows you.
Um and so business owners are tempted to like, hey, I got a new follower. Let's don't recommend doing that, but what I turned on is I just say, "Hey, thanks so much for the follow. I appreciate you." >> That's it. No sale. And so now hundreds
message from me. And I open my DMs and it's blowing up with people being like, "Hey, thanks. Hey, I appreciate that." Or like liking the message. Um, and it's feeling of like, "Hey, you're welcome here. I appreciate you being here." And
it's just creating that uh engagement. >> And then to finalize this conversation, how do you get people from engaging with you in that sort of >> to then purchasing something from you? Do you have a a plan or a campaign or
>> specifically using many chat in in that new feature? No, not necessarily. I just want to create this positive feeling and it is shown on Instagram that when someone DMs you or you DM them, you that you are more likely to see their next
post. Um, and so by them saying like, "Hey, thanks." They're now even more the future I want them to message me a certain keyword, there's already a DM conversation there. So, it's not going to be lost in the requests folder or
there. Um, they've already opened a message from me in the past. Um, and so it just makes it that much easier in the future when I say comment this word or DM me this special keyword that they know how to do that and they'll get the
>> And then do you run sales in an evergreen fashion or do you have like >> We definitely have sales uh you know like the typical Black Friday sales and like one or two annual launches. Besides that, I am constantly driving people to
free lead magnets. Um, I think that Instagram is a great top and middle of funnel and then to get people into like a low ticket product or a free product. Instagram. I think the more expensive you go, the tougher and tougher it is
on Instagram. >> Um, I find it much more beneficial to something like that if you're going to sell a high ticket mastermind. >> Yeah. They want that conversation like are you an actual person? Exactly.
>> Great. Uh, what would be your final tip to leave people who are now either going tips? >> Uh, what can the masters say to help these people who are listening today? >> Yeah, I appreciate that. I think it's
not the sexy answer, uh, but it's the honest answer and it's just press post. Like those are the three words that I live by. Um, I wish I had been born 50 that from Nike before they said just do it. Um, but just press post. Um, you
yesterday that you will love, which is you can't control how many fish you catch. You can only control how often you fish, right? Count, you say it all the time. You you uh quote Alex and saying count uploads, not views. Count
uploads, not followers. And um I think that going all the way back to what we don't focus on those outcomes, the the views, the the followers, the things you ultimately can't control. Just focus on what you you can control. How can I
more efficient? how can I implement systems so that this isn't taking hours, it's taking a couple minutes a day. Um, but ultimately just press post because like I could have shared a million tips in this interview and maybe zero of them
are going to work for one of these viewers but in experimenting with these >> Yeah. >> Right. So ultimately just press post >> and as you said before the more you post the more you grow.
>> Print it. >> Thanks man. I appreciate you.