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Hey there, it's Steph Crowder. Are you sick of the sales roller coaster I got you? Join me March 16th through the 20th at 2pm Eastern Time every day that week for the Sold Out Sales System Summit. This is a totally free five day live training that will get you fully booked and launch your groups repeatedly, consistently and with ease. You're going to learn how to build a predictable plan, create content that actually converts, growing, grow an audience that buys with you, and launch repeatedly without the panic. You can register right now@stephcrowder.com summit. Welcome to the Courage and Clarity podcast. I'm your host, Steph Crowder. I'm a former sales training director who's helped thousands of entrepreneurs earn a living doing something they love over the past 10 years. On your journey, you'll need the courage to be bold, to take risks, and to do what looks crazy on paper. You'll also need the clarity, the brass tacks, simple strategies that actually work. And on this podcast we deliver both in equal measure. Oh, and by the way, we've got absolutely no time for bs, gross marketing tactics or get rich quick schemes. Just sustainable business strategies for good humans with big dreams. If that sounds like you, you're in the right place. Let's hello my friends. Hello, hello. It is so wonderful to be on the microphone with you today. As I click record here. I have been down for the count like fully leveled by a combination of the flu and strep throat. Do not recommend 0 out of 10 stars for the experience of having both of those. I am recording this episode in February so tis the season, but I am incredibly grateful to even be able to sit upright and talk to you all today. I've been waiting to record this episode all week. This one is inspired by day two of our sold out Sales System Summit which is coming up. If you're listening to this in real time, it's coming up on March 16th and I can't wait to see you all there. So I want to talk about content. Day two of the summit is going to be all about predictable content and how you can learn how to craft engaging ideas that really magnetize people and make them want what you're selling very naturally. I think most importantly is it is going to really we're going to talk about how to eliminate the feeling of like wondering what you should say and having to like think of new ideas all the time and not knowing if you're talking about the right stuff. And then of course there's the the fear of hearing those dreaded crickets when you do go to put your ideas out there in the world. For today, I want to talk about one of my favorite concepts that I've been thinking of and talking to my clients about, which is that the Instagram Dashboard is a liar. It's a liar. She lying to you, and other things that are keeping you from showing up in front of the people who are your dream clients. So let's just set the scene, shall we? You post something. Let's say Instagram. Obviously, I put Instagram in the title, but you can use any platform. If you're not on Instagram, if you're a LinkedIn person or Facebook or whatever, TikTok you. You get the drill. Okay, we're just gonna talk about Instagram because a lot of us are on Instagram and Instagram has received. I think there's been a lot of conversation over the past year about just. I don't know, Instagram's not too popular for a lot of people. A lot of creators are having a hard time fighting for our lives out there on Instagram, feeling like things have changed, feeling like the algorithm's different, feeling like it's harder to grow on there. These are all things that people are saying. And maybe these are thoughts that you've had yourself. It's very normal if you have had those thoughts. But let's, let's set the scene. Let's say that you post something, okay? You. Maybe you even work hard on it. This is something I talk to a lot of people about. Let's say that you spent an hour, maybe two hours putting something together. It's a reel, a carousel, a post, whatever. You post it. You're like, I think that's pretty good. I worked really hard on it. Come on, little post, like, go, baby, go. Right? You hit post and it's out there. And you check back, you check back 15 minutes later, 30 minutes later, an hour later. And maybe there's a few likes, maybe there's one comment from your mom or your husband or your favorite client, right? And something in you deflates, right? You might feel immediate embarrassment. You might feel silly for even thinking that this was going to work. You may start wondering if it's worth it, wondering if anyone's even out there. And maybe if content just isn't gonna work for you, maybe it's too much of a time suck. Maybe it. The juice is not worth the squeeze, right? I wanna talk about that feeling today because it is very, very common. And also, I think it is the single biggest thing that's keeping super smart entrepreneurs, coaches, service providers, creators, and teachers from building the audience that would actually change their business. Okay. I think there are a lot of excuses available right now because it has become, like I said, sort of widely accepted that Instagram isn't worth it. And again, I'm using Instagram. We could use any platform. Okay? And so it's. I say I use the word excuse, and I use that word, you know, a little bit imperfectly because I get it if you're feeling like that. I get it. It happens on my posts, too. Like, you can check, right? Some of my posts get decent engagement. Some of them, you know, it's 10 likes. I get that feeling. And I've been on instagram since, like, 2011. It. I. I understand where you're coming from if you feel like it wasn't always this way. I do remember a time when there was maybe more obvious engagement or maybe more like flagrant signs that things were performing on Instagram. But we need to talk about why the dashboard is lying to you and why you need to just be a little bit delusional about this one. We've talked about delusion a bit on this podcast, but delusion needs to enter the chat when it comes to your use of platforms like Instagram. Because if you have, you know, allowed yourself to believe that Instagram is dead, that it's not worth it, that it's too late, that it's saturated, we're gonna talk about saturation as well. I need to hold your hand when I tell you you are losing out on sales. You are missing out on clients because your people are on there. They are. Your people are on there. Maybe there are very, very few exceptions, but Instagram is one of the most widely used. I should look up some stats. I. I'm sure I could find. You know, Instagram is still one of the top, top, top applications used across iPhones and devices. Same is true of Facebook. Same is true of all of these, like, mainstream apps that we could talk about. Your people are there. They're there, and they are consuming. Okay? They are consuming, they are watching, they are following people, they are being entertained, they are being educated. And when you decide that you're going to opt out of the conversation, you are missing out on shoppers, buyers, people with your problem, people who would love to learn from you. And you might decide you're okay with that, but you would be accepting that you're making it a lot harder on yourself. You really are making it a lot harder on yourself. Whereas you could totally shift your mindset about these apps. A lot of people are making themselves really miserable on social media. And I want you to know, miserable on social media is a choice. You don't have to be miserable doing this. You don't have to be on there all the time. You don't have to spend your life tip tappy, you know, hitting the keyboards on there and scrolling. That's not what I'm talking about at all. You can create really compelling sales content. We're gonna talk about the purpose of being on there for you. If you listen to this podcast, you have a very express purpose. You have a very specific reason that you should be using these platforms. And it's not to be popular, okay? It's not to be an influencer. This isn't a popularity contest for you. That's not the game that you're playing, okay? You are going to be on there to make sales. You are going to be on there to magnetize your clients. And if you think about it, let's say, for example, you're somebody who wants to sell one on one coaching and you're looking for five clients. Why on earth do we care? Other than our ego, which is very understandable. We are all ego driven to a certain extent. But notice the way that we're calling ourselves failures if we're not getting hundreds and hundreds of likes and having our content passed around. And it's like, you need to find five people. What if you were looking at it that way, that you're just trying to really lock in on your five people? And so this is why the dashboard is lying to you. Because the metrics that you can see, and let's be real, not all metrics are measurable. Okay? So Instagram and all the platforms can only measure so many things. They can measure things like likes, views, comments, saves, and shares. Okay? But these are primarily influencer metrics. These are popularity metrics. They were never designed to measure whether your content is successfully building your business. Let me say that again. The metrics you can see are influencer metrics. They were never designed to measure whether your content is successful in building your business. They measure surface level engagement and they leave out the most important people in your audience, your lurkers. Okay? You can't measure a lurker and they like it that way. Do you guys lurk on social media? I do. I lurk. And I'll tell you, I buy, I buy, I watch, I consume. I, I say, oh, she's got a podcast. Let me go listen to that. I'm not engaging with the content in a way that you can measure. And I bet if you think about it, your behavior is similar. Okay, here's what the dashboard will never be able to show you. There are people who look forward to every single thing you post. Seriously, right? They get a little bit excited when they see your name light up in the Instagram stories. Think about somebody who, when you see they have new stories, you're like, ooh, I always click their stories. How would they know that? How would anybody know that you have that emotion when you see that they have a new story available, right? These are the people that actually read your captions. They screenshot things that you've written. How about that? Can you picture that? Who's going to, like, Instagram can't tell you if they've screenshotted something and saved it to their phone. They've never said a word. Some of them, they've never said a word to you. And one day they're just gonna buy. One day they're just gonna book a call and you're gonna be like, what? Who are you? Great to meet you, but where did you come from? It happens to me in every single launch and it happens to my clients, too. And we have a name for it. We call it Launch Magic. And it feels literally magical because you're like, these people are coming out of the woodwork. Like, I thought nobody was there. And it's like they were there the whole time. And when you let the vanity metrics talk you into quitting or phoning it in or showing up half heartedly or not at all, you are quite literally counting those people out. And if I may take it a step further, you are letting them down. Right? Because they were there the whole time. And they don't owe us anything. They don't owe us. This is where the entitlement can come in. And again, it's not a judgment, it's just very normal. But, like, they don't owe us. Hitting the heart button or writing a comment or throwing roses at us and being like, oh, my God, this is amazing. Right? That's not the point. The other thing we have to keep in mind, we're gonna talk more about this as well, is even though we don't need to go viral, like, you absolutely do not need to go viral. I've shared in my recent episodes that I think, or maybe I shared this. I have, by the way, quick aside, I have an entire private podcast for you guys. Have you heard about this? Have I told you? It's called the Sold Out Standard and you get immediate access to it when you sign up for my summit. Okay? So I think I was talking about it. There lot of juicy details about selling out group programs, because that's what I do in my Mastermind. And I shared in that podcast how my last six launches have all been six figure launches. Guys, I don't have. I have less than 5,000 followers on Instagram. Okay? You don't have to go viral. You don't have to have these incredible, you know, hundred thousand liked posts, but at the same time, you absolutely. I've never had a post do that, by the way. Okay? And also, you are always one post away from having something go viral, right? Like, we're not going to be mad if we go viral. It's not the goal. But like, if we go viral, that's cool. And the thing is, you are always one post away. How do you know that's not going to happen next time? How do you know? Even after years of doing this, you genuinely cannot predict which piece of content is going to land with people. I cannot predict it. I'll be like, this is the one. This is so good. And then. And then y' all aren't really into it or that I can measure, right? And it's like, okay. And then I'll post a, you know, reel of me driving from the gym looking super sweaty, and it kind of takes off and I'm like, oh, my God, this is like the best thing I've posted in a year. You just don't know. You just don't know. There are surprises constantly. Like I said, the post that you labor over might barely move the needle. And then the thing that you just, like, typed out really quickly on a Tuesday resonates deeply. And the cool thing I think, to think about is you don't get to find out. You don't get to find out. If you stop, right? People will come to me and they'll be like, social media doesn't work for me. It's not worth it. It doesn't perform. And it's like, whoa, you've stopped participating, so you've now made that a hundred percent true, right? Like, the only way social media is not gonna work for you is if you opt out. Then it's a hundred percent. You're right, right? If you're not on there and you're not engaging and you're not trying, it's not gonna work. 100%. Okay, let's talk a little bit about saturation, because this has been really something that I've been Thinking a lot about. And one of the reasons I've been thinking a lot about it is because I have so many clients in sold out group programs who have started podcasts in the past couple years. Okay. I have multiple clients. I have lost track. I really want to come up with like some kind of club for my clients who have started new podcasts with me. Because I don't know, I think we've launched over two dozen brand new podcasts into the world in the past couple of years. And when we have a joke in the mastermind that when people come to me, I'm like, do you have a podcast? And when they say no, I'm like, let's start you a podcast. It's like my. I wasn't always like this. You know, I've been podcasting for, oh gosh, over 10 years, right between this show and the Fizzle Show. I have a lot of podcasting experience. I didn't always recommend podcasts to everyone. In 2026, everyone should have a podcast. Okay? And you might. People are always surprised to hear me say that. They're like, oh, really? Like, isn't it saturated? Aren't there too many podcasts out there? Like, can a new show really be successful? And my answer is absolutely yes. When I first started podcasting in 2014, people didn't know what podcasting was. I was the only person of my friends who listened to podcasts. People are like, what? What? What is that right? And sure, you could look at it as like, there was very little competition, but there was also very little listenership compared to today, who hasn't listened to a podcast? Your mom listens to podcasts, right? Your grandma probably listens to podcasts. Everybody listens to podcasts. And it's also never been easier to create and produce. We used to have to have like production teams. I don't do that anymore. There are so many amazing tools that I teach my clients inside of sold out group programs to produce your podcast by yourself in less than an hour a week. Okay. And the amazing thing is, again, very similar idea to social media. You don't need to have a top, you know, 1% podcast. Although I, you know, lots of people do. My podcast is top 1%. I just recently learned, okay, like, a lot of people quit their podcasts. So, yes, there's a lot of podcasts out there, but most podcasts don't make it past the first few episodes. Add on top of that that we have lots and lots of listeners, lots of people in the market looking for more podcasts to listen to that solve their problems. Again, if you opt out of this conversation, you are literally just choosing to not engage with your buyers. And I understand if you have questions about how to start a podcast and how to make it effective again. I coach my clients on this. I've helped lots and lots of people launch them. So we do that work inside of the Mastermind. But my clients, I literally take people from being like, oh, no, not me. Please don't make me do it to now. It's like an integral part of their, of their business model. My clients get clients from their podcasts because they do them properly. My clients are launching podcasts and getting a hundred listeners, 150 listeners in the first seven days of having a podcast. Right. And yet there are so many people out there who are saying, oh, podcasts are over. Podcasts are dead. Podcasts are saturated and it's just not the case. Right. The same thing is true on social media. People will say this about Instagram. They'll say, it's. It's saturated. There's too many, there's too much competition. It's over. It's not gonna work anymore. It's too crowded. I wanna tell you a story about my client, Mara. You guys can go check Mara out. This has been such a fun story for us to follow inside of sold out group programs. She's Mara Eller on Instagram. Is that her exact handle? I'm gonna have to look it up. But if you. Mara Mara Eller E L L E R, you will find her. Mara is a book coach and a writing coach and she started playing with Breaking Down Taylor Swift lyrics. Okay, I think we talked about this a little bit in a previous episode, but it's like my favorite example of someone and I know Mara would not mind me sharing. Mara and I tangled. We had to go toe to toe on her thoughts on social media. She had a lot of thoughts about, like, is this really worth it? It takes me hours. I haven't grown in years. Like, all of the things that you're probably thinking. And she just started playing around. She started playing. She just was like, all right, Steph, I'm gonna do it anyway. And she ended up going viral multiple times. Like I said, you don't need to go viral. It's not necessary. But it is fun. It is fun. She started playing with Breaking Down Taylor Swift lyrics when the new album came out. Life of a showgirl. And she ended up gaining thousands of followers organically. Yes. In the year 2025, when everybody says you can't grow anymore. Don't listen. Don't listen. You can. She grew thousands of followers on Instagram, thousands of followers on TikTok. But here's the part that I think really matters because she understood the fundamentals of how you show up on social media as a business owner. She knows how to do that because we coached on it and she's in the mastermind and she knows that she's not an influencer chasing popularity. Her profile was actually built for sales. It was optimized and it was ready to go. So her visibility converted. She's had multiple new clients. I've lost track of how many, how many book coaching clients. And this is a multi. Like this is a high ticket offer, friends. Okay? High ticket offer booking sales calls and converting clients with her platforms. And it was so much more than just a dopamine hit from a viral moment. Now she's actually been able to replicate this recently, talking about breaking down Bad Bunny in the wake of the Super Bowl. Super bowl and talking about Bad Bunny lyrics and things like that. And so that's really the difference between content that makes you feel seen, which is like, eh, do we need that right now I understand why a lot of you are opting out of that. You're like, I don't need you to be part of this. Right. But that's not what we're in it for. We're not making content to make you feel cool and to make you feel seen. We want content that builds your business. And that's what we can do when we harness the power of people being on those platforms. Right. Just because the market's saturated, it doesn't stop the people who know what they're actually building. It doesn't stop if you know what you're doing and you know how to have a plan for this and you know how to get in front of people and you know how to keep your eyes on the prize. The saturation is not going to stop you. Right. So let's talk a little bit about what predictable content actually is, because that's what we're going to talk about in more deeply during the summit on day two. Okay. So I really wanted to spend some time sort of clearing the mental debris that you have. By the way, I have. I posted a reel just yesterday and I wish it had gotten more engagement. I'm human and I complain. I complained to a friend about it and I'm just gonna keep moving. That's the difference, right? Because most coaches and service providers and entrepreneurs really treat their content like A performance like something we have to conjure from scratch every time, hoping it lands, bracing for the silence. Predictable content is totally different, okay? It's not about posting more, it's not about trying harder. It's not about spending tons and tons of time. It's really about understanding what great content actually does and, and building a repeatable way to create it. Okay? That's all. That's all it is when I'm talking about predictable content. It's understanding great content. And when I say great content, I mean sales magnetizing content. Content that actually converts people. So let's talk a little bit about the anatomy of content that's actually going to get you sales and fill your group programs. Okay? First of all, it needs to be relatable. Relatability is a huge piece of what draws people in. It needs to be relatable enough that people feel seen, okay? It also needs to be timely and relevant. It needs to tap into what people already have on their minds. It needs to make people feel like, oh my gosh, yes, like I've been thinking about that I'm interested in. In that it needs to be genuinely insightful rather than just like surface level tips. See, here's the thing. I see a lot of people, and you probably see this too, because they're trying to go viral on Instagram because they're obsessed with growth. They're doing things like having a 5 second B roll clip and just trying to put a hook on top of that and thinking like, well, maybe I'll like get a lot of views or maybe like I'll hit some trending audio, right? Like I'll pick and like these are the tips that Instagram coaches will give you. But that's not the game that you're playing. You're not trying to grow for growth's sake. You are trying to be insightful. You are trying to create that feeling when somebody opens the app. Oh my gosh, she has new content. Every time I watch her content, I learn something. Think about a content or a platform, an account that's really helped you with a problem that you have. I'm thinking about like parenting related stuff for me, right? Like I think about feeding Littles or Dr. Becky where it's like these little, like what to do, these micro moments. I look forward to those. I look forward to those, right? There's so much more than surface level tips. It's not like something obvious that I've already tried. It's so specific and it's so small and it's so doable and helpful. Okay, so it's genuinely insightful, but at the exact same time, it's doesn't fire hose. I want you thinking Goldilocks on this. Okay? People need to be able to just grab onto one idea. You don't want to be trying to teach them everything there is to know about spring cleaning on your one Instagram reel. Okay? You want to teach them one little idea that people can hold on to that's really important. And then the next thing is it needs. And a lot of people miss this one. It needs to create hope and a sense that a different path is possible. Okay? It can't leave it at like, here's the solution. It needs to. It needs to show them that there is another way of operating, There is another way of being in the world that is different than the reality they're currently living. And then finally, and most importantly, it needs to have a clear next step so the right people know where to go next. Whether that's listening to your podcast episode or booking a call with you coming to your upcoming free class, there needs to be a next step for people to take. Okay, Most of the accounts that I look at for coaches, service providers, entrepreneurs, you're only hitting one or two of these. Okay? You're not doing all six. And the goal is not perfection on all six, it's understanding the which. Which of these you're consistently missing. So let me read through them again and I want you to think to yourself, what am I missing? And again, at our summit on March, I guess It'll be the 17th, it'll be Tuesday. I'm going to be doing some live audits. I've never done this before, but we can pull up some accounts and I want to take a look at what y' all are doing in between now and then you can do some self auditing to start to learn. But then bring your stuff to the summit and I will ask some of you to raise your hands and we will do like a live deep dive to help you do this. Even better, I'm also going to teach you some more stuff about how to never run out of content ideas. I have a client to content flywheel that I'm going to be teaching you as well. So for today, we're just really keeping it top level to get you thinking and to get you noticing where you might be going wrong and to get you inspired. So remember, relatable, timely, insightful, not just surface level, but Goldilocks. Okay? So it doesn't fire hose. It needs to just be one Idea hope, in a sense that a different path is possible and a clear next step. I know it sounds like a lot, but when you practice this, it will actually become second nature. Right. And I want to also talk about the idea of running out of ideas and the importance of never running out of ideas. Because one of the biggest reasons that content becomes inconsistent is that you're like, I don't know what I should talk about. I hear that a lot. So then you don't. Because you don't, you know, know what to say. You kind of just end up saying nothing. And then it's been three weeks and now it feels awkward to come back. Are you resonating with that? I'm guessing some of you are like, yeah, that's me. So one of the things that I, like I just mentioned, I teach is this idea of having a content fly, flywheel. I want you to think about mining what you're already doing with your clients. We can talk more about this during the summit. And I talk more about this, definitely with my clients, is how to start extracting key conversations, breakthroughs, and questions that your ideal clients are already having so that you never start from scratch. You should never start from scratch again. I have a whole hub of ideas that are just pulled from my coaching calls with my clients, and I can show you exactly how to do that. It's what we do inside the mastermind. So your content really does get richer the more clients you have. You will never run out of ideas when you allow yourself to be inspired by those real conversations. One of the last things I want to share that is a little bit like, that was a little bit of a hot take, but I've been practicing this and it is really empowering. I want you to know the mute button on Instagram, the mute button is self care. Okay? Let me tell you about this. If social media is giving you. You're experiencing negative emotions. This is when I was saying being miserable on social media is a choice. If you are opening social media and you're feeling negative emotion every time you're on there, that is something that you can control. If it's making you feel behind or small or demoralized, you have options. You can. If you're hardcore. I'm not that hardcore. I'm kind of a weenie. But you can. If you're hardcore, you can unfollow people. You can block people. Do you know that you can block people? Just block them. I like to mute people. Okay? I. And this is a. This is the hot take part of it. And it's. If any of my friends in my real life listen to my podcast, I promise you this is not personal. But I have all of my friends muted on social media. It's not that I don't love them, it's just that I find that I might experience. I. This is my personal belief. I don't believe we were all made to deal with the level of comparison that is thrust in our faces constantly due to social media. A lot of people that I'm friends with will post their vacations together, their birthday parties together, their, you know, what they're doing on the weekend. And I've had my feelings hurt. I've had my feelings hurt, and I bet my friends have had their feelings hurt. I think we've all had our feelings hurt. It's just normal, right? And it's like, oh, why wasn't I invited to that? Oh, that looks fun. How come my house doesn't look like that? Whatever, right? So I'm not on social media to see what my friends are doing this weekend. I'm just not like, love my friends so much, but I don't. I'm just. It's not, it's not for me. It's not what I'm interested in. I like to catch up with my friends and hear about their weekends. I don't need to see the photos. I just don't need to see the photos. Doesn't bring me joy. Maybe it brings you joy. Doesn't bring me joy. I mute it. I mute it. You know whose stories I look at? You know what pops up for me? Other business owners who are showing up, who are challenging themselves to be super visible, who are selling their offer, who are being loud, who aren't afraid to be cringe. That's what I want to look at. Good storytellers, people who are interesting, people who just pull me in. I'm studying them, I'm learning from them. You get to curate what you see. You get to curate that. Being miserable on social media is a choice and it will cost you. So protect your relationship with your own platform. Life changing. That one right there is totally life changing. Now, I never see stuff that triggers me and it's really important, it's really important for maintaining my peace so I can keep creating content and I can keep magnetizing clients and I can keep running my business. So like I said on day two of the summit, I am doing something that I really haven't done publicly before, which is live content audits. I'm gonna look at real examples and I'm gonna show you where the gap is between the content that gets likes and the content that actually gets clients. Okay? If you've been posting and not seeing it converting, I want you to be there. If you haven't been posting and you're open to giving it another try, I want you to be there. Come with your content if you want to. You certainly don't. You can be a fly on the wall. I'm going to teach lots of stuff that I haven't talked about here on the podcast. I'm still preparing for the summit. It is going to be amazing. The whole five days are going to be so worth your time and I cannot wait. So come ready register@stephcrowder.com summit again. That will give you instant access to my secret podcast, the Sold Out Standard. So if you want even more, it's waiting for you. You can go ahead and subscribe. I cannot wait to talk to you all very soon. My next episode will be about day three of the summit, so until then I am wishing you the courage and the clarity to go after what you love. Thanks for listening to today's episode. Are you ready to get fully booked and fill up your group program? Join the Sold out sales system summit March 16th through the 20th at 2pm Eastern. It's a free five day live training and I cannot wait to see you there. StephCrowder.com summit get all signed up and I'll talk to you soon.