75:My Reels Went Viral After This One Content Shift
Today I’m calling out the single biggest mistake that’s keeping your Instagram stuck: treating your account like a glossy portfolio instead of starting real conversations. I know this mistake well because I made it, too.
Once I shifted my content to speak in the language of my dream client, everything changed, my reels popped off, my audience grew fast, and my content finally converted into leads and sales.
In this short, actionable episode, you’ll learn how to make that same shift so your Instagram starts working for your business.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
[05:11] The #1 mistake that keeps your feed looking pretty but keeps engagement low
[07:08] How to flip your mindset: speak in their language, not yours
[08:03] Real example of a viral reel built around your ideal client’s emotional reality
[09:59] Why good content is always rooted in empathy (and how to do it)
[10:28] The messaging bridge: connecting their struggles to your solution
[11:56] The simple equation: relatable content → more shares → more visibility → more sales
[12:24] Why content that meets people where they are beats promotional graphics every time
[13:22] How real Hot Reels students used this shift to explode their following & revenue
[14:12] How to join the Hot Reels waitlist (and why you want to get in early)
Key Takeaways:
Instagram isn’t a portfolio, it’s a conversation. If your content only shows past work or Canva promos, you’re missing the chance to connect.
Speak in your ideal client’s voice. When your content mirrors their struggles, they feel seen and they’ll stick around.
Relatable, empathetic content gets shared. Shares boost visibility, which leads to followers and sales.
Good messaging is the bridge between what your audience wants and what you offer. Build that bridge clearly.
You don’t need perfection, you need connection.
Links Mentioned in This Episode
Join the Hot Reels waitlist for early access & bonuses: DM HOT or visit ElizabethMarberry.com/hot
A Truth You Need to Hear:
“Good content is empathetic. It meets people where they are, not where you are.”
S3 Ep75 Transcript: My Reels Went Viral After This One Content Shift
00:00
Today I'm calling out the number one mistake I see businesses and brands making on Instagram that's keeping them stuck with low engagement, zero growth, and a DM inbox that's crickets. And spoiler alert, I know this mistake very well because I made it myself when I first started. But once I made one simple content shift, my reels started popping off, some went viral, my audience grew fast, and my content actually started converting.
00:29
So in today's short but sweet episode, I'm gonna break it down so you can use this simple shift to grow right now. Let's go. Welcome to Strut It, a podcast about creating bold visibility on social media with zero apologies.
00:47
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.
01:19
Welcome back to the show. I'm so thrilled as always that you have joined me for another episode of Strut It where every week I break down exactly how to use Instagram to grow your business. And I'm dedicated to making it as simple, clear and actionable as possible. I'm super excited this week because my family and I are getting ready to go on a little mountain adventure. If you don't know, we live in Denver, Colorado and that means we have access to the most
01:48
incredibly gorgeous mountains. And I have family coming in. We got this big house that we rented outside of Beaver Creek. And I'm just really excited to have some time away from social media, away from content creation, and just allowing myself to unplug and unwind and be with my kids and my family. I'm just very grateful, because this is like our first trip all summer. So I am like desperate. I'm like, I gotta get out of town.
02:18
Does anyone relate? Before I get into the one content shift that I really want you to focus on for this week, I want to give a shout out to one of our listeners, Courtney, who left this five star review. She said, this is the first time I've listened to a social media podcast and it had me hooked immediately. Elizabeth does a great job of explaining things in the most user friendly way and the episodes are reasonable in length. So you're able to take away key points that are
02:46
applicable in a short period of time. Oh my gosh, I have to pause. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate this feedback because when your ideal listeners are reflecting back to you exactly what your goals are for the thing you're creating, you're like, yes, it's working. Okay, back to the review. She said, the podcast was so helpful that I've been multiple episodes all week and I've already started applying some of the tips I learned instantly. Good job Courtney, because if you're not applying it,
03:16
It ain't gonna work, right? You gotta do the work. I know this will become a regular in my weekly podcast listening because the most important thing is she keeps up on all the Instagram changes, which happens way too fast, which makes it impossible to keep up with. She's also incredibly personable. I've already been in touch with her online. This is true. Courtney reached out to me and I actually sent her a voice memo. I told you, if you guys DM me on Instagram with your takeaways,
03:43
what you loved about the podcast, any questions, I will send you a voice note back. I absolutely love connecting with my listeners. So be brave. Give me a follow over on Instagram at Elizabeth Marberry, M A R B E R R Y. Send me a direct message. You can type it out. Send me a voice memo. I absolutely love hearing from you and you know that you will be hearing back from me. And to close this out, she said, if you're overwhelmed with social media, this is a great place to start. And even if you already have
04:13
fairly good bit of knowledge, it's still incredibly helpful. Wow, thank you Courtney so much for taking the time to rate and review the show. You guys, this whole podcasting journey is such an energetic exchange. I pour my time, my energy, my resources into self-producing the show for you every single week. So when you take a pause and you rate and review the show, it's...
04:42
really, really makes my day. It makes my team's day. It keeps us going. And it helps us in the podcast algorithm to reach more incredible business owners, marketers, creators like yourself. So if you haven't already, if you're loving the show, please take a moment, rate and review. means the world to me. Okay, so let's start with the number one mistake that I see businesses make. And this is the exact same mistake that I made in the beginning too. So no judgment.
05:11
If your Instagram feed looks like a magazine or a glossy ad, rather than a conversation with your ideal client, this might be the reason you're not growing, okay? So your content shouldn't just showcase your work. A lot of us fall into that trap of we're thinking, okay, this is a business Instagram account. We get all like buttoned up. We take it way too seriously.
05:41
Which of course we do, we care. We care about what we're doing. We care about how our brand looks and sounds and all that. And you should, okay? Don't get me wrong. But here's the trap. If your account looks like a portfolio, you know, I see this a lot in the wedding industry where it's like a portfolio of all my past clients or, you know, the jewelry store that recently hired me, they've had like massive growth since bringing me on before they brought me on as a private mentor.
06:09
If you looked at their content, it looked like a digital brochure, okay? It was polished, it was curated, or maybe all of your content is just sharing like past wins or past client testimonials, or maybe your content is a bunch of Canva graphics that are very promotional, like here's our upcoming retreat, here's our upcoming workshop, like all of that. And don't get me wrong, okay, there is a time and a place
06:38
in your strategy for promotional content. There is a time and a place for that. I'm not saying don't ever do that. But Instagram is a conversation. It should be a dialogue and a service to your current customers and those future clients or customers that you're wanting to attract, right? So if all you do is talk about your past, you're not really giving people a reason to work with you in the present, okay? So that is
07:08
The number one mistake I see is it's all promotional and not attraction style content. So how do we fix this? Here's the deal. You have to speak in their language. And when I say their language, I mean your ideal follower that you're wanting to find your account and follow you and binge all your stuff and buy your products and service, right? Your ideal client, not your language.
07:33
So that shift changed everything for me when I stopped centering my content around me and started writing it for my ideal client. And really, like when I say writing it for my ideal client, I mean writing as if I'm my ideal client. So they read it and they're like, oh my God, that's me. Like how does Elizabeth get me? She totally gets me. Oh my gosh, I wanna go find her podcast. I wanna hop on the Hot Rails wait list. I wanna hire her for private mentorship, right?
08:03
So an example of how I do this with my content, and then you can kind of get creative and reverse engineer this for your brand, is I will post the content with a hook like this on the screen. And it's usually like a really silly video, like I'm dancing or I'm out of breath, or maybe it's a funny meme that I found that would be applicable to this idea. But the hook on the screen would say, me hyping myself up to record a reel that's gonna get 47 views.
08:32
two likes and three unfollows. Okay, I love this concept and it always does really well and here's why. That reel, that perspective, I don't feel that way anymore. I did when I first started posting, I was trying to understand how reels worked, but I posted and wrote that messaging from the standpoint of my audience, of my Dreamboat client, about their emotional reality, of their current struggles and it was funny.
09:02
right, but also deeply relatable for someone who is struggling to get traction on Instagram, which is my ideal client. So then they see that real, they're like, oh, that's so funny. That's so me. I'm going to click on Elizabeth profile. They come on over and my bio is optimized. They know exactly what I do, who I help, you know, within five seconds, they're doing a quick glance at my feed to ensure that my feed content would benefit them.
09:29
and they see, oh wow, she teaches people how to grow on Instagram and monetize their accounts for their business, I'm gonna follow her, right, if they're my ideal client. So that is the magic. And the third point I just wanna leave you with is I want you to create content that meets people where they are. So good content is empathetic. I'm gonna say that again, good content is empathetic. None of us wanna feel talked down to.
09:59
I've said this before, but I don't go on Instagram to get my MBA. Like, I don't need you lecturing toward me, right? But this is where it's all about messaging. It is all about messaging and knowing the pain points, the struggles. What is your ideal client or customer? Like, what are they struggling with? And how is your product or service going to help them? One of my previous business coaches had this vision of like, imagine a river.
10:28
You're on one side of the ravine and then your ideal client or customer is on the other side. And your messaging is the bridge that brings them over this ravine. And the ravine is their struggles. It is what keeps them up at night or it is that desire, that like secret desire. Maybe they've never even said out loud that they have for their life or, you know, for their relationship or for their health or for their wealth or whatever it is. And so your messaging, the words that you're choosing,
10:58
are going to make or break your content. Again, I wanna clarify, I'm not saying never post testimonials or specifics about upcoming workshops or any of that, but there's definitely a way to do that where it's more effective and strategic than just putting a Canva graphic up there. So just remember this simple equation every time you are about to create a piece of content, relatable or empathetic, like that kind of content where your ideal person is like,
11:27
I totally relate or I do feel this way or I do want that thing equals shareable content. The more shares your content gets, the more visibility your brand gets. Shareable equals visibility. Visibility, the more eyeballs on your content, the more ideal followers and prospects seeing your brand or business, the more sales, right? Because people can't buy from you if they don't know you exist.
11:56
It's a chain reaction and it starts with how you connect. So stop making it a portfolio and start making it about how you're serving that person who is just perfect for your product or services, your ideal client avatar. Now this work of finding your voice, refining your messaging and really incorporating that into reels and how does all of this tie into
12:24
your actual Instagram sales funnel for your business. This is the work that we do in Hot Reels, my 12 month Instagram content lab. And I want you to mark your calendar. August 18th is when we open the doors early just for the wait-listers, okay? So if you're not already on the wait-list for Hot Reels, you need to get on it right now. I've been running this program for over a year now. And let me tell you this next round, it's gonna be the best one yet. I can't spill the tea just yet, okay? I gotta keep it to myself.
12:53
but I've added the most epic early bird bonus we've ever offered just for wait-listers who join on August 18th, okay? This program, Hot Reels, is for the business owner, creative, marketer, entrepreneur who's ready to stop guessing and finally learn how to create magnetic reels that attract aligned followers, dreamboat clients, and consistent leads. You don't have to take my word for it. Here are just a few of the wins that our clients have experienced recently.
13:22
Asla, who is an Etsy shop owner, went from 2,500 followers to over 60,000 followers in 12 months using our Hot Reels content system. Martine, a Plotty Studio owner, grew her following by 250 % in just 12 months. Just FYI, if you are a business or brand with under 10K followers, an average per month growth rate on Instagram is one to five percent. She grew 250%.
13:52
Dani, who is a wedding vendor, started at around 2,000 followers. She's at over 15,000 followers. That visibility actually enabled her to launch a second revenue stream of a coaching business where she now teaches other wedding pros to do what she does. I mean, the wins are endless and
14:12
I would absolutely love to support you inside the program. So here's how you join the wait list. Head on over to Elizabeth Marberry, M-A-R-B-E-R-R-Y.com slash hot. You're gonna see all program information there, the investment and the place to join the wait list. Or you can hop on over to Instagram, make sure you're following me at Elizabeth Marberry and DM me the keyword hot, H-O-T. And my robot assistant will send you the link to join the wait list.
14:41
I would love to serve you in there. And if you have questions about this, I'm a real human here. I am totally here to answer your questions. If you're on my email list, just hit reply, email me back. If you wanna DM me over on Instagram, I got you. Please don't be shy. I'm here to support you. You don't have to do this alone. That's it for today. Short, sweet, powerful. And remember that your people don't want perfection, they want connection.
15:10
So speak to them, not at them. 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, 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
15:39
freebies. That's elizabethmarberry.com slash freebies to get my monetize your IG guide. 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.
