125: Instagram Growth Secrets Every Business Owner Needs with Michelle Gifford
I am so excited to bring on one of the leading Instagram strategists for business owners — Michelle Gifford. She helps six and seven-figure brands grow their audience, sell out their offers, and generate real revenue through Instagram. She's also a coach, agency owner, podcast host of The Social Strategist, and a mother of five proving every day that it's possible to build a thriving business without sacrificing what matters most.
When I invited Michelle onto the show, I knew we'd be talking Instagram strategy. What I didn't expect was how deep we'd go into the mindset behind building a successful business on Instagram. Grab your notebook.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
03:15 How Michelle went from teaching photography as a business to becoming one of the leading Instagram strategists for six and seven-figure brands
05:07 The moment Michelle realized she wasn't growing on Instagram — even though she was teaching it — and exactly what she changed
07:30 Why sitting on the fence wastes more time and energy than just deciding to go all in
08:23 How to use Instagram results as information instead of validation
09:22 The two types of Instagram users every business owner needs to recognize and the decision point each of them faces
10:19 Why Instagram now rewards the best content creators and why that's actually a gift
11:17 The identity mindset shift required when you move from Instagram consumer to Instagram business owner
16:20 What's working for organic Instagram growth right now: carousels, reels, and the share rate metric you need to watch
18:44 The content test Michelle uses before posting anything: save it, share it, or watch all the way through
20:59 How to keep people watching reels all the way through: layered hooks, visual movement, and ruthless editing
22:21 How long your reels should actually be and why Michelle uses a "mini skirt" rule
23:20 Why not all content has to go viral and how to separate attract, nurture, and sell content
30:17 How Michelle runs a business and creates content with five kids, a dog, and two cats
35:36 How Michelle uses AI including Claude Co-Work for competitor analysis and Instagram content research
39:05 How Claude Co-Work opens a Chrome browser and analyzes Instagram accounts in real time
41:00 How Michelle uses AI to automate daily social media news briefings and podcast guest thank-you emails
41:52 Michelle's Descript workflow for podcast editing
Links Mentioned:
A Truth You Need to Hear:
"We need your voice. We need your experience. We need your expertise. And I would hate to think that you being afraid of looking at the camera is the thing keeping you from blessing us with your gifts."
— Michelle Gifford
S3 Ep125 Transcript - Instagram Growth Secrets Every Business Owner Needs with Michelle Gifford
00:00
Today I'm so excited to bring on Michelle Gifford onto the show. She is one of the leading Instagram strategists for business owners helping six and seven figure brands grow their audience, sell out their offers and generate real revenue through Instagram. She's also a coach, agency owner, podcast host and mother of five, proving every day that it's possible to build a thriving business without sacrificing what matters most.
00:27
When I invited Michelle onto the show, I knew we'd be talking about Instagram strategy, of course, but what I didn't expect was how much we would dive into the mindset behind building a successful business on Instagram. In this conversation, we really dove into why commitment matters more than motivation and how to stop treating every post as a reflection of your worth. Why today's Instagram rewards better marketers, not just bigger creators.
00:56
and what it really takes to build a business that lasts on the platform. So whether you're trying to attract more ideal clients, create content that actually converts, or simply stop overthinking every reel you post, I think you're gonna walk away with some practical shifts you can put into action right away. So grab your notebook and let's dive in with Michelle Gifford. Welcome to Strut it.
01:22
A podcast about creating bold visibility on social media with zero apologies. I'm Elizabeth Marberry, your host and Instagram marketing coach. I help small business owners get seen on Instagram and monetize their offers so they can make more money doing their sole lead work. If you're tired of spinning your wheels on Instagram and you're seeking simple, proven Instagram marketing strategies that actually work, you're in the right place. Let's dive in.
01:59
Welcome back to the show. I am so thrilled and honored to be bringing on a super special guest today. Her name is Michelle Gifford and she has over 300,000 followers on Instagram. She's a mother of five. I've been following Michelle actually for years, just absorbing her content, admiring her from afar.
02:23
And then I saw that we were both speaking at Social Media Marketing World. And so I reached out to Michelle and I was like, this is my moment for me to connect with Michelle. And it was just such an honor. She got back to me right away and we got this set up. It's funny, Michelle and I, we were planning on meeting in real life at Social Media Marketing World and that never happened because that conference is crazy. But anyways, I want to roll out the red carpet and say, Michelle, welcome to the show.
02:50
Oh my gosh, what an honor to be here. I'm excited, you anytime I get to sit and talk about social media with someone who gets social media, it's just one of the best days. It's so fun. We get to geek out on it together. And I know that so much of what we teach and share is so aligned. Thank you in advance for sharing your brilliance with my listeners, because I know they are going to just eat up everything you have to teach us today. So I'm super pumped.
03:15
For people who don't already know you, can you tell us just sort of quickly, like, how did you get to be an Instagram marketing strategist and expert? And you've grown a huge audience. I know you have a very successful agency and all of that. So what led you here? Well, it's not something I majored in because Instagram wasn't a thing when I graduated college. But I have been in the online business space for the last 20 years.
03:42
and I started teaching photography as business and that was really when Instagram came about and because Instagram was originally created for photographers. So I started helping and teaching business to photographers and that really quickly led to me teaching business, which is actually my love. I started looking around and realizing that there was a lot of women who were using Instagram, had a lot of influence, had a lot of followers, but the business side didn't come naturally.
04:11
And so I started teaching the business part. That's when I started my agency about seven years ago because I was like, oh, I actually know how to do this. And so I was helping women launch their products and then also create organic content. So I really liked the organic side. Paid is great too, but organic is where I live and breathe every day. And I just love the power and platform that we have that no one's ever had. And I think that
04:40
our job, like we've been given these tools, and then our job is to really figure out how do we use these to really spread the voices of so many good people. And so it's such a fun place to be. It is changing all the time, and that can be annoying or it can be fun. Yes. And job security. Anyway, so that's kind of, I started my agency about seven years ago and started teaching. And there was a time almost four years ago, three and a half, four years ago, where I wasn't growing on Instagram, and I was pretty mad because I was teaching Instagram.
05:07
But I was also teaching blogging and email and Pinterest and all those things because that was my agency and I was like, hey, people dumber than me are doing this. Like I'm going to figure this out. So I really completely changed my Instagram strategy. From there, I just really grew. really committed to Instagram and said, this is going to be something that I'm going to be teaching Instagram on Instagram. And I'm going to be very intentional about my strategy. And when I did that, I started growing within a few months and just kept growing ever since. So.
05:36
I do have, like I do testify, just kidding. Testify. Hallelujah, hallelujah. But I do want to say like when you commit to Instagram and when you say like, I'm going to figure this out, like this is something that's knowable, that's a skill that I just need to have. When you decide to do that, like I'm not going back, I'm burning all the bridges, all the, all the boats, that's what it is, burning the boats. And you say, I'm going to figure this out. Like when you do that and you commit, it can completely change your life and your business. Oh my gosh.
06:05
Preach, girl, preach. I so resonate with that. And I think you're highlighting such a great thing, which is that you have to first make a decision. And I find that so many people think they've made a decision, like, oh yeah, I'm using Instagram. But they're in that place of like, I should be using Instagram and they're shoulding themselves. And they're kind of struggling with consistency or they're showing up for a few weeks or six weeks.
06:32
and then they're not getting the results they want. So they kind of give up and then they're like, oh, okay, I back on there. And it's exhausting. And that is always like my coaching to them too is like, it starts with a clear decision that this platform is going to work for you and that you are gonna show up even when there's no evidence it's working and you're gonna keep going and you're gonna figure it out because exactly what you just said, it's a skill that you can learn. It's not that you and I were both born like good at Instagram.
07:02
We've studied this and we've experimented and tested and refined. So I just love that you said that in such a clear way of like, it just starts with that clear decision. And when you make that decision, everything shifts, right? Because then you're like, you feel less maybe attached to the views or like, what do you feel like shifts for people when they decide like, okay, I'm gonna make this platform work for my business? Well, sitting in the decision feels safe, right?
07:30
because you can always be pushed off that fence on one side or the other, you know? And so I have a lot of people, because I coach people too. I have, you know, with the people that are my clients. And when you realize that you are wasting so much time and effort deciding, like thinking about it, deciding and going, uh, like hemming and heying, like, am I really going to do this? And even if verbally you're saying like, I'm doing this, but if you haven't committed to yourself and saying like, no matter what, I'm actually doing this.
08:00
and I'm going to figure this out and I'm going to be successful and I'm going to fail along the way too and that's okay. But then you have to remove yourself from the outcome and just say, it's going to come, I don't know when, you know, but it's going to come. And then you can start looking at your content just a lot more analytically and strategically because then it's like, well, this isn't anything about me.
08:23
This is giving me a lot more information about what my audience actually wants, and then I can be a better content creator, and that's gonna help me reach my goal. Instead of using the results to validate your decision, you've already made your decision, right? You've made your decision, and you're just going for it, and then it's information instead of validation. Yeah, yeah, I know that's so good. I know you work with a lot of female entrepreneurs, small business owners, all of that.
08:52
In terms of the struggles on Instagram right now, what do you think are some of either the biggest struggles that your clients face or people share with you in the DMs that they're struggling with, or the other side of that is what are some myths about Instagram that people are buying into that's causing the struggle? Yeah. Yeah. So one of the hard things is that when Instagram came and it grew and it grew and it grew, there was a group of people that grew with it.
09:22
and they grew really quickly and pretty easily comparatively. Like they could just show up and share the things that they wanted to share and they just had to be someone who took great pictures. And so they grew a big following and then enters the algorithm and then enters Reels and then this new algorithm that is more like TikTok, right? So there's a group of people who I call old Instagram, right? You know, they grew up with Instagram and they have a decision point where they have to decide
09:51
Am I going to change with it and stop whining that this strategy isn't the same as it used to be? Like, we have to give that up. And then if they don't, then they, I mean, they still have a following, they can still do their thing, but are they going to change with how Instagram has changed and get to work? And the ones that do that, like they see growth because they have a community, have connection. So there's that group. And then you have people who are just starting on Instagram or even in the last couple of years.
10:19
and they're pretty mad that it doesn't just happen for them. And I'm going to go back to this as a skill. And what Instagram has become is like the person who creates the best content wins. It doesn't matter how, it doesn't matter. Like, and that's actually such a gift because then you can become a good content creator and your style is going to be different than my style. So then it becomes a job of I've got to figure out what works for me and my audience and how to communicate best with them. And that's just marketing.
10:48
So I think that we get stuck and we are really precious about Instagram because we first used it as a user. You we were following all of our friends and, you know, we're checking in. But then when we become a business owner, we have to put on a different lens, a different hat, and we've got to show up differently. And that's a really hard place to be because you still have all those people you haven't found success yet, maybe. And you have all those people who are watching you that know you and are like, who does she think she is?
11:17
Does she think she's so great, like showing up and sharing stuff? Not only do you have to be an expert marketer, but you also have to get really good at silencing the voices. Some of them are real voices. Some of them are just in your head of telling you you shouldn't or you can't or you won't ever win. So there's a lot of mind games that go on with Instagram that doesn't really happen on as many of the, like, I really think Instagram is special.
11:44
to like with the internal mind games and identity stuff that we have to work through because we first use it as like just as a consumer. And so that's hard. Yeah. So I totally agree with you because I think I obviously leverage Instagram as a business growth tool for both of my brands and for my clients brands. And of course, I'm a consumer of Instagram. Like my husband and I are sending each other funny memes and
12:13
know, perimenopausal humor, you know, things like that, very relevant in my life right now. But I totally agree with you. I think there's this disconnect for those business owners that are struggling with, you know, they had this very personal relationship with social media. And now when they go to leverage it from a business standpoint, they're still hooked into that personal side.
12:41
And I remember, you know, part of my journey was when I decided to build a personal brand for myself, Elizabeth Marbury, my husband and I decided how that was going to go down and what I was going to share and what I wasn't. we just our own personal decision, which is like not right or wrong for anyone else. But we decided, okay, because I'm using my actual name.
13:03
and we'll be sharing a lot. I'm gonna take down all my photos of my kids and everything, and I'm not gonna share any of my kids' faces or actual names or whatever on social media. And that was just a safety decision that we made at that time. But it was like, I think that was a blessing for me because I was able to just shift my perspective and be like, okay, this is for business. And I still get to show up.
13:29
in full 100 % Elizabeth personality and I obviously decide what I share and what I don't share and it's not all business. But I think that helped me to let go of connecting with the platform as a personal expression and more like, okay, I'm in control of this as a marketing asset for my business. And that was kind of one way I did that. I'm curious for someone who is struggling with that piece of it.
13:56
What is kind of a good next step for them? Like, is it a mindset shift? Is there something they should actually go do? Like, block some of their judgy friends and family? Or like, what do you suggest if someone's struggling with that? Yeah, I love the intentionality that you just showed because I think it shows the energy shifts, right? When you show up and you're like, I am intentionally making all these boundaries so that I protect myself and my kids and I'm gonna go forward. And a lot of people don't even take that first step.
14:25
And so I think that that's huge. And then the next step is like figure out what's actually stopping you. Because some of us have an aunt Susan or you know, someone in the back of our mind that we're like, she's watching and he's judging. And if you have to block her or whatever, that's okay. Like I remember there was a time when I was showing a certain part of my life and I knew that like a second cousin was, I think it was triggering to her.
14:53
And I know she stopped watching. Like she blocked my account and then she came back later. And I was like, I am so grateful for that actually. Like if the content that I'm creating is making you feel whatever, then I actually do want you to excuse yourself from the room and come back when we can be friends again, you know? And I've just thought about that a lot, that we have to take ownership of how we are going to create and consume. to really...
15:20
be honest with ourselves of what is stopping me? Like, is there a voice in the back of your head that's a friend, a cousin, like whatever, that is stopping you from creating and showing up? Then you need to create that boundary. And that seems rude, but it's also, it's a protection, right? And so really figuring out what do you need in order to create and like step forward fully? That might be that you create a whole new Instagram account and you don't tell anyone, you know, and you just start going, that's great. That's totally great.
15:50
Yeah. But really being honest and saying, okay, I'm going to do the hard next thing, which is make a choice and make it happen. Yeah. I love that. I love that. So in terms of what you're seeing with organic Instagram growth right now, because I know you love organic, I love organic. From looking at your content, I see that you leverage a lot of carousels and also reels, of course. So let's talk about carousels first.
16:20
because your carousels seem to just like always pop off. I know carousels are having a moment, like, you know, they're kind of blowing up after Instagram said, OK, once you add audio to your carousel, now this is going to be shown on the Reels tab. So that's giving us more reach with those carousels, which we've talked about on the show. But what type of content, I guess, are you teaching your small business owners or brands to leverage? Is it carousels and Reels? like, what is the focus?
16:50
in terms of what's working well on Instagram right now. So they're both can work really, really well. So it's really going to depend on your content and what you like to create. So the carousels that are doing well are ones. Well, actually, this is for everyone. But when you're solving a hyper specific problem, I think it's easy to see like in a relationship coach, because I was helping someone recently and she's like, how to have a better marriage. And I was like, no, no, no, no, no. Like, I want to know what do you do when your husband
17:19
loses his mind at dinner in front of your kids or, you know, like just says something weird, right? I don't know. But I was just like, you've got to get so specific because how are people getting views? It's because it's a lot of shares. Shares is one of the highest things that the algorithm's looking for is share rate. We actually have that in our analytics right now is share rate and skip rate. And so we've got to pay attention to the analytics and say, okay, what is Instagram paying attention to? Okay, if shares and skips, okay.
17:47
So how do I get someone, it's a real, to watch all the way through? And if it's a carousel, both things are going to apply here, it's super, solving super specific problems for super specific people, because then I know exactly who to send it to, right? You have to think about your consumer and how they're consuming Instagram. Adam Masseri, head of Instagram, said that most people are not in it for like seeing and checking in on their people that they know, but they're consuming content and then they're sending it to the DMs of the people that they know.
18:16
And that's how people are connecting on Instagram more than anything else. And so we have to know that as content creators that if I'm creating a piece of content, whether it's a reel or a carousel, if someone won't save it, share it, or watch it all the way through, then I'm not going to post it. And so really paying attention to this isn't about you, this isn't about you, the business owner, but how do you show up and serve your audience in a really specific way? Yeah. Oh, I love that. Yes.
18:44
We've been exploring that on the show, this idea that the specific hooks and messaging and the words that you're choosing, they need to paint really clear pictures, right? So we know who the content is for. And an example I gave with a hook recently was like the outdated hook was like three fitness tips for busy moms, right? That's too general.
19:09
but steal my 20 minute morning routine, my morning workout before my three kids wake up, that's much more specific, right? Because it paints a really clear picture of how long the workout routine is and it's already done for you so you can steal it and it's short and it's in the morning and it's before your kids wake up. you're, you must be a busy, exhausted mom like me, right? So I love that you highlighted that, that that's so important. When it comes to reels and like watching the skip rate and like watching them,
19:39
all the way through, right? Like we know that the more people can watch your content all the way through, it's gonna be pushed out to more and more people. And so what are some tips or suggestions? Cause we talk a lot about the hook, of course, like that is so important to stop the scrolling those first couple of seconds. But do you have any other advice in terms of how do we get people to actually watch?
20:05
our reels all the way through from start to finish. And also, this is a second question. I'm so bad about this. I'll like layer in like five questions at once. It's my ADHD brain, okay? Like that's what happens. But I'm also like, so how do we get people to watch all the way through? And the second part of my question is how long are your reels? Like, are you doing a lot of seven second trends or are you doing?
20:31
you know, a 30 second direct-to-camera, 60 second direct-to-camera talking head video, because when I'm asking you about watch rate and like, skip rate, I'm thinking about, okay, it's easier for me to keep someone's attention for five seconds than it is for a 60 second talking head video. So talk me through those two different elements and kind of how you approach those. Yeah, perfect. We'll go with number one. First is like, how do we get people to watch all the way through? So we have the hook, we already are committed to a hook, but.
20:59
If you watch anyone who is doing talking head videos that are pretty long, then they probably have a mid-reel hook where they're like getting them, like, you the hooks are layered throughout. So it's not like, okay, I'm going to hook you and then you have to stick around for 60 seconds. It's like, I'm going to hook you, tell you something for 10 seconds and hook you again and tell you something for 10 more seconds. And so just know that that's going on is as you're consuming, you're going to start realizing that people are doing that.
21:25
all the time and that is again a skill, it's a script, it's like figuring out how to do that. And then having something visual going on, like that can literally be you walking somewhere, but like having some kind of change. There's some people can do it like, or they're just in a little box, but most people need some visual elements going on. And then tight editing, like you just have to be ruthless with your editing. Like you just have to, like if it doesn't,
21:52
add anything, it goes out. I don't care how long it took you to record it. Like it doesn't matter because it's not about you, remember? So just being really, really ruthless in how you edit so that like if there's a point that you shared and you're like, I don't need that, just take it out. So something I do for that is I will edit and then come back the next day and watch it. I'm a lot more removed from creating the content. And so I can just like quickly be like, oh yeah, I don't need that 10 seconds there because you're right.
22:21
It's a lot easier to keep people for 30 seconds than it is from 90 seconds. So how long should it be? Like a mini skirt, right? But I think that you also have long enough to cover it, short enough to keep it interesting. But I think that one of the things I always say, like create to be consumed. So does it cover everything that you need it to? Are you doing it in a way that helps people keep their attention? Because it's not their job to stick around.
22:50
Like it really isn't like it's our job to keep people around. And so we have to get good at creating content. So when I'm thinking about like my ideal time, I keep it as short as possible. One thing that I realized is this was like months ago, but is that like a lot of my reels were just like really short. And I was like, you know what? I want to add more authority to my content. And so I want to do more talking head videos. So I knew that.
23:20
by starting to do that, they were not going to perform as well as my short ones because it's harder to get through. That's fine because one of my strategies is that some content is to attract new people in, some is to nurture, and some is to sell people. And so if I know that my talking head videos are going to be maybe more nurture, that's fine. They might not perform as well as far as like going out to everyone, but do they nurture my audience and help me show up as more of an authority? Then it's doing its job.
23:50
So just kind of separating the goals of each piece of content and know that if you haven't done any talking head videos, the first one you do might flop, but you might need to train your audience to watch you all the way through too. Oh, that is so good. And that has totally been my experience as well is I have this awesome podcast that's long form and authority content. And then a lot of my Instagram content is the super short trends. And of course, I'm drop.
24:18
I'm educating and sharing a lot in the captions and my content's really fun, but I was missing that longer direct-to-camera talking head authority building content. And same for me too. It's like when I do those, they don't perform as well, but they actually, in my mind, they perform really well because I am very clear on my goal. And as you said, my goal isn't to have this video go viral or reach a total.
24:45
you know, cold audience, it's really to reach my hot, like my warm to hot prospects. The people who already know me are gonna potentially wanna watch me speak for 30 to 60 seconds, right? But it's an opportunity for me to deepen that relationship with them and even like drive a conversion to my email list. Let's say I'm, you know, inviting them in to grab my lead magnet or something like that. And so I wanna pull out a lesson that Michelle just shared, cause this is what I teach my clients too is,
25:13
A lot of people will say, oh, I'm so frustrated. I'm not getting the followers or I'm not getting the views. And I'm just like, OK, what was your goal, though? Why did you create this piece of content? And I always want to connect the content back to the business or to the marketing strategy, right? Because a lot of people say, well, I don't even know. I just thought I was trying to get followers. And I'm like, no, no, no. We need to be really clear on what is the goal.
25:40
is it to reach a total cold audience that doesn't know that Michelle exists, right? Like a mom who's working to build a personal brand and they wanna leverage Instagram and they don't even know who Michelle is. So that first video that they see of Michelle's, they're probably not gonna watch her sit and yap at the camera for 60 seconds, right? But we have to know that goal so we can measure the results, right? Because otherwise you can't measure it, you know? Yeah, and you set yourself up for failure because you're like, well,
26:08
I mean, so what that I got two people inquire about my service, it didn't go viral. I'm saying, okay, like, right? Right. Oh my gosh. It's so funny. Yes. Like I'm always like, okay, let's remember why we're doing this, you know? Right. Yeah. It's fun to go viral, but also like we got bills to pay, okay? We need people to pay the bills. Exactly. I love it. So I know that
26:35
In 2026 and moving forward, think this is just, you in the age of AI, this is going to become more and more important if that's even possible. But this idea of like having a POV and like personality driven content, like adding your own uh voice and essence and brilliance into the work. And we are definitely going to be talking about how we leverage AI because I know you're a huge fan of that as well. But talk to us about
27:02
What does that look like for a small business in 2026 on Instagram? Like, how do we share that POV, that point of view content, or, you know, bring in our own voice or like, why is that so imperative? And then give us a couple ideas as to how what that actually looks like in the wild on Instagram. So it is really important because first of all, there's so many people on Instagram, and there's so many people teaching Instagram on Instagram, like, why are you choosing us? Right? There's a reason.
27:32
And I think it's been interesting to watch some other Instagrammers accounts who like hardly ever show up like and teach or whatever, but just do trends. And the last year I've seen them really struggle because it's like, no one's following me anymore, you know? uh And I'm like, oh, it's because you didn't tell people why you were different than anyone else. They can get that from any one of us, right? But why are you different? And that applies to every industry is there's...
27:59
such a blessing right now. don't know, it's just a weird thing, but the market for almost all of us is pretty saturated, but it allows us to be more us to attract people who we need to serve better and more of, you know? And so the more we can start like really intentionally putting our point of view out there and showing our expertise and experience, the more we'll start attracting the right people and
28:27
I would say that now a follower, if someone follows us and they're invested because they're following us for us, are worth 10 of the people who were following us before, right? Because it's like, oh no, I'm choosing Michelle over all these other people. One of the things that is really important to do is always to be intentional about your brand voice and what parts of your story are you going to share. Be really intentional about your journey of how you got here.
28:56
And also, I always talk about like magic messages. So what are the five things that you say over and over again? Like, what are your like flags in the sand that you're like, this is what I believe. So for example, I teach Instagram, but one of my big things is like empowering women to take the next step, especially moms. And so you'll find on my feed, not just Instagram quotes or, you know, Instagram trends or anything like that, but you'll also find a lot of like women empowerment quotes or like,
29:25
things where I'm like, hey, no, we're doing this together. We're going, let's do this, you know? And so that makes me different than someone else. And some people will like it, some people won't, and that's fine. Like that's the goal. And so being really intentional about what are the messages that I want to put out into the world, be intentional, and then how am I going to put those messages out with the content I create? That's beautiful. That's beautiful.
29:49
Yes, I've seen some of your content like that where it's very relatable as a mom, know, who's creating content and running a business and wanting to be present with her kids and all of that. That kind of perfectly brings me into wanting to ask you about, you have five children. Is that correct? Last I counted, I have five kids, a dog and two cats. Oh my God.
30:17
Oh my God, that's so extra. That is so extra of you. Okay, so I'm so curious, and we talked about this a little bit in the pre-interview, but I'm sure people are listening and they're just like, how, Michelle? Like, how are you doing this? I'm curious from a content creation standpoint in terms of like, do you just have like the most dialed in systems and you just have, know, like give us a little bit of behind the scenes of workflow.
30:46
Or if there's a mom listening who's like, oh my gosh, I am so overwhelmed with all my kids and trying to build my side hustle, like Michelle, give us some cookies, give us some tips. How do we do this? So I will say systems is always a secret. So if there's something that you can make a decision once and then you never have to really think about that. And I do think that there's a lot of AI stuff that you can bring in. And I will say that I think sometimes it's like,
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Well, she must have like just really calm kids. And that's not true. It's not true. That's great. Yeah. People just make their assumptions about like, oh, it must be so nice. You must have like 20 nannies. Oh yeah. Right. And a personal chef. I need someone to do my laundry. Why hasn't someone come and done my laundry yet? It makes me really mad about it. But I don't actually, and I can't actually, I guess I could more now. My kids are all in school and things like that. But.
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I have done this all through having little kids at home. I did it during COVID when I live in California. So literally my kids were all with me for a year and a half. I didn't sign up for homeschool for a reason, but then I got homeschool. It was a lot, but I also, you know, there's a lot of advice about like, you just gotta schedule your day. And I'm like, okay, we'll tell your four-year-old that she's throwing off your schedule. You know? I had a plan for the day. You are messing it up.
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They seem to not care. So what I would do is I have a routine of things that I do. And I also have like a weekly schedule of like on Mondays are usually like my catch up and admin days on Tuesdays are like team days where I try to schedule all my team meetings and anything I need to make decisions about my team. And on Wednesdays I would have my coaching calls and on Thursdays, Fridays would be like content creation or whatever.
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For me, that worked because I can usually find an hour, two hour, you know, I could slip in some time. But I think the biggest or the hardest thing is like where you find a couple hours to yourself and you're like, what do I even do? Like now I'm sitting down, what do I create? And part of that is taking some time upfront to plan and then figure out like, okay, what are my actual goals? Where do I want to go?
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And then holding yourself accountable to when you have those two hours that you don't just scroll on Instagram, that you actually get to work, do the thing and keep showing up. People hate that they don't want my answer to be that I get up early and I exercise so that I have time to myself and can think. And they don't want that to be true. But I do get up early and exercise by myself. And then before my kids wake up and then I
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I always say that you wake up, get ready, well you exercise, get ready and check in with God and do all of those things. And then you're gonna be ready to take on the day. But if you wake up when your kid's like three inches from your face, that's a scary way to wake up. Oof, it's very scary. I've had that happen. It's not fun. It's not also just to know that it's gonna be imperfect and that's fine and just stay the course, right? And you can trust yourself to know when to pivot. Yeah, that is so good. I also have...
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themed days in my business and certain days where I do certain things. I play a game with myself because again, like ADHD brain, I just need urgency and deadlines to do things sometimes. And so I will play a game where I, let's say I had a meeting at coaching college at two o'clock and I know, you know, it's 1.15 and I'm done. I'll look at my clock and I'll be like, okay, I have.
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35 minutes to film as much content as I possibly can in the next 35 minutes and I can hammer out like three reels, know, like not not talking head videos those require more more strategy and planning but I find that when I can like batch film some content in one sitting and then edit it in a different setting that also helps me
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to be able to stay consistent when it comes to Instagram, but I totally love that you get up early and you take care of yourself. Like, are you a morning person or did you have to like train yourself to do this? I started it when I don't have babies. So if you just had a baby within a year, you do not have to listen to me, okay? Okay. You get the year off and if you have babies, it just, you get to do you and you figure it out and you make it through and bless your heart. It's a lot. A lot. It's a lot.
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I liked the mornings, but I was not a 5 a.m. morning person, you know? um And it took about a year for me to be like, okay, I get up at five now. But that first year I was like, what is happening? Who did this to me? So, okay, I'm getting into the nitty gritty here. Okay, so if you're getting up at five, what time do you have to be in bed so you can actually function the next day? I try to get in bed by 10 and I always let myself nap. A 21 minute nap will change your whole life. Naps are clutch.
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Like that is the secret thought. Get in a 21 minute nap. I do that too and it's like a game changer. Yeah. Yeah. Let's transition into AI because I know that you're using AI in your business. I'm using it specifically when it comes to Instagram and Instagram marketing. How are you using AI to support you? Well, I'm using different AI to do different things, but I think there's a lot of research that you can do.
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with Claude, like that Claude Cowork can do that really is pretty amazing that you can give it 15 minutes. Like I had to analyze my content and analyze my content against competitors or around not even competitors, but creators that I like. And it's been really great to just get, I mean, it's a totally outside perspective and be like, oh, there's some work to be done, Michelle, you know, and I actually, I like that. And so I also am using it for
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I mean, I do a lot of voice messaging into my phone and say, this is what I want to say that uses my words, but help me format this to create a better, more compelling real script. And so we should be using AI to make our lives easier, our content better, but not for replacing us. It should actually make us more human because it's taking away the tasks that used to take a lot of time that didn't require a lot of brain space or personality for that matter.
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Anyway, so I'm using it for a lot of research as I'm creating like content for YouTube or other things. I use it for like my first draft of a lot of things. Well, I guess my second draft, I voice message it and then I have it for second draft. And then of course, like with editing and the actual content creation process, there's a lot of AI tools that just like can help you edit things quicker and do those kinds of things. Yeah, totally. I'm so glad you brought up Claude Cowork because I am um
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recently discovering cloud cowork. And I know it's like all the rage right now. If you are listening and you are not attuned to what we're sharing, I just want to give a high level perspective. And Michelle, can kind of correct me if I misspeak at all. so typically in the past, leveraging ChaiGBT or cloud or perplexity or whatever you're using for your AI, it was a prompt model. So we would give it a prompt or we would speak into it and we kind of go back and forth with the AI.
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And you could organize your chats in projects. So I have different project workflows built out in ChatGBT right now in terms of, for example, repurposing a podcast transcript into an email or a thought leadership post on LinkedIn or something like that. And so my understanding of Cloud Cowork is it's agentic AI, meaning that you can connect different apps to
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the platform and then it can actually take actions for you. that correct, Michelle? Is that how you would describe it? When you said agentic, that comes from agent, right? And so it's like having someone who can go and do it for you. Just in case you don't know, you have to download it on your computer. It has to be on your desktop. It's not the co-work part of it, Claude, you can have on your phone. But then as you connect it, it can go.
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Let's talk about when it analyzes my Instagram or other people's Instagram content. Like I say, hey, this is who I want you to, I want you to analyze my content and I want you to tell me like, what are the things I'm doing well? Where are the things that I need to correct? And then here are some other accounts, you know, go through their content, tell me what you think about this, whatever. It opens a browser on my Chrome, like a Chrome browser. And it's on Instagram as me, like looking at the content.
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So it can actually like read content real time. Wow. It's awesome. This is a game changer. So with Chad GBT, like I remember I used to try to, you know, paste a URL into the chat and it couldn't read that, right? Like it couldn't access that. And so what I'm hearing you say is that you're using Cloud Cowork and you're connecting it into your Chrome. In my browser. To your browser. Okay. And then when you are saying like, okay, I want you to
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look at my Instagram, are you pasting in your URL and then you're pasting in other people's URLs? Yeah, how does that work? As part of the prompt, I'm like, my Instagram handle is this, these are the people I want you to look at with their Instagram, it's part of the prompt. And then I've already given it permission to open Chrome and do the work. But you can also do things like you can set up an agent who, like let's say a social media person, and you want all of the social media news for the day delivered to your inbox.
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You can have it every morning at seven, go through and look at all the headlines, decide which ones are the most important, and then send you an email with all of the headlines that it thinks you'll like and will be important to you. And then they have links to the whole things, but it'll summarize it. So you can have it do like actual tasks like that. Let's say after your podcast, it's like, okay, after the podcast, I want you to send an email to Michelle.
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and you know, to each guest and tell them, thank you, summarize the things that, cause you can give it access to like your transcript, right? So like summarize the good things and the good talking points and get it ready for me to send. then whatever you can have these agents. mean, it's cowork right, but you can have them do work actually for you. So it takes you out of it, but you have to set it up. And that's where like so much power.
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from AI happens because there's a lot of like back and forth. mean, even if we just take the podcast, right? I have had a podcast forever and I used to have to go in and edit out every space and every whatever, you know, that took me hours and hours and then I hired it out and that took them hours and hours. And now I can click a button and it takes out all my ums. It shortens every dead space. I can decide how much, you know, space is in between each word. It can track.
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all of the times that I had to restart. And so if I repeat myself and then I start over, it'll cut those out. And that can be done in seconds. Wow. And that's just with my podcast editing software. So there's just a lot of AI stuff that is happening that you might be using, you might not, that can just take the really annoying part of creating out, and then you can get back to creating. I love that. Yeah, I use Descript to...
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Yeah, that's what I use. Is that what you use to edit your podcasts? Oh, okay. That's so great. And so if you're listening to this, you can drop the Descript link in the show notes. I have been also using Descript to edit my directed camera videos because you can edit your, like essentially how Descript does it is you can edit your videos like a Google doc. So you can see the script and you can so easily just like delete things. And it's just, I love how intuitive it is. make it.
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so user friendly. And I know there's a ton of, they're always releasing new AI tools within Descript too, which I feel like I haven't even leveraged all those yet. So that's cool that you use that too. Do you use Descript to edit your direct camera videos or no? It depends. A lot of times I'll use edits, which is Instagram edits and you can have it like edit out pauses and things like that. It hasn't quite gotten as good as Descript yet, but yeah, anyway. So yeah, you can do both. Yeah. Cool. Amazing. Well, so
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to close out our time here. If someone is listening and they're thinking, okay, I'm so excited, I'm ready to get on Instagram, I wanna show my face more on camera, I'm really nervous, what is like the one thing you want them to hear from you? If that's desire and they're wanting to get on camera, but they're just feeling a little frozen about it. Well, you gotta do it, sister. I cannot take away the work from you. But if you're feeling like nervous and you, then you need to just,
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get more reps. mean, listen, I'm a softball coach to my girls, you know, and I'm like, well, if you want to catch it every time, you got to get a lot of things thrown at you, right? And that's true with content creation is you've got to get some reps. So if you're really nervous about it, start in your stories, start creating content. And if you don't usually create stories, then there probably aren't that many people in your stories. So that's a great place to test things out, right? Get better at it. If you absolutely hate that too, Marco Polo is an asynchronous like messaging app.
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I highly recommend finding a friend and get used to seeing yourself on camera. Because if you are wanting to be a personal brand, if you want to get your face out there, then you gotta put your face out there and it's going to feel awkward until it doesn't. There's no one can take that away from you. And I will also say that's a good thing because we need you to commit to doing the work because we need your voice. We need your experience. We need your expertise. And I would hate to think that you being afraid of looking in the camera
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is a thing that's keeping you from blessing us with your gifts. Yes, yes. I love that. I love that so much. Michelle, this has been so wonderful. If people are listening and they want to definitely give you a follow on Instagram and also go learn about your agency, your podcast, all the things, where can we send them? Come to Instagram.
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I am Michelle Gifford. I am michellegifford.com. I am Michelle Gifford on Instagram. I am Michelle Gifford on YouTube. All of the places. If you type in Michelle Gifford, I should come up. Yeah. So I love to help you grow on Instagram and also beyond. And also I'm opening up an AI creator lab where every month I'm going to say, this is your training. This is what you need to implement to make your business work faster and smarter. And I have a Michelle AI, which is a custom GPT that will help you also write your content. So.
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Come, if you're scared of AI, listen, I'm gonna make it less scary. That's my goal. Because it's not here to replace you, it's to help you be more human online. Oh, that sounds so lovely. Everybody go give Michelle a follow on Instagram. Tell her that you love the podcast. And yeah, Michelle, we'll be sure to drop all of your links in the show notes. Thank you so much for sharing your time and brilliance with us today. Thank you. This has been so fun. Yay.
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I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Michelle and that you're walking away with one clear next step. Remember, people want to hear from you. They want to see you. You are here on this planet with a specific mission and purpose. And Instagram is such an incredible tool to be seen and paid for your soul-led work. So thank you so much for trusting me with your time and energy today.
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And if you loved my conversation with Michelle, do me a solid and share it with a business bestie or a colleague who is also trying to understand how to grow their brand on Instagram. I appreciate you so much. I'm rooting for you and I cannot wait to strut it with you next week. Thank you for listening to Strut It. If you're ready to start leveraging Instagram to grow your business,
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then you're gonna wanna grab my free Monetize Your IG Guide, where you'll learn seven simple and proven ways to finally make money on Instagram. You can grab your guide at ElizabethMarberry.com slash freebies. That's ElizabethMarberry.com slash freebies to get my Monetize Your IG Guide.
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If you got some incredible value from today's episode, be sure to leave a review and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. And I cannot wait to start it with you again next week.
