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Foreign.

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You're listening to an episode of the Abigail Pugh podcast with, you guessed it, Abigail Pugh. I'm an introverted mama who took my online business from zero to seven figures in 15 months, selling my own digital products on social media. And guess what? I did it all with my 3 year old daughter no less than 3ft.

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Away from me at all times.

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Now I'm bringing you everything I've learned about building a wildly profitable online business that supports your life while allowing you.

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To truly live it.

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Get ready for raw, honest conversations with entrepreneurs making thousands per month selling their own digital products and people just like you who ditch self doubt to create the life they've always wanted. If you're ready to make more money, have more impact, and still have time for the things that matter most, you're in the right place. Grab your sneakers, head out on your hot girl walk, and let's dive in.

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It feels insane to be saying this, but after two years my Instagram hit a hundred thousand followers and here's the deal. I just want to be so clear that follower count is not everything, but this community truly is everything to me and it's why I am where I am today, right? So I thought it would be really fun to share some things that I've done along the way to grow to a hundred thousand followers, then answer some questions that y'all submitted about growing on Instagram and apologies in advance if I sound congested. I am recording this while I am sick. And I know it doesn't sound super great, but you know what, we just, we gotta get it done. So first and foremost is I shared my journey from day one and not just the good parts of my journey. I feel like something that I've seen a lot is that people will only share the wins, they will only share the highs. And I don't know about you, but when I'm following somebody's journey and I'm. When I'm like deciding whether I wanna follow them or not, I wanna see it all. Like I wanna see the hard moments, I wanna see the really good moments. I wanna see the moments where you are struggling and you are working through something. Right? Like I wanna see all of it. And I feel done from day one is I have never showed up and pretended that everything is perfect all the time. Right? Like, I share the good, yes. But I also share the hard moments and the hard lessons that I learned along the way to get there. Next up is that I share personal stuff, right? Connection happens first and the sale happens second. And I'M not saying to show up online, show up on Instagram, and literally share every single part part of your life. No, I don't share my daughter's face. I don't share a lot of what our family does because I want my daughter to have privacy and I want her to enjoy her childhood and not feel like I'm filming her all the time. But I do still share personal stuff. Like, if you've followed me for a while, you know that I'm obsessed with pickles. I'm obsessed with the color pink. I love to read autobiographies, right? And these are all personal things that I have shared on my Instagram, right? Like, I don't just share business stuff because I think the business content obviously is important. Like, you have to sell your stuff. But people want to connect with a human being first before they buy from them. And I think sometimes people get so stuck in this, like, well, I can only share business stuff. And I'm like, no. Like, I want to know what you like, what you don't like. What's your favorite color? Like, you know that pink is my favorite color because I wear it every single day, almost. Probably not every single day, but I almost wear it every single day. And I talk about liking the color pink, right? And there's connections happening first before the sale is happening. Next is, I wasn't afraid to test content and have lots of reels flop. And I feel like this is something I see all the time where people, they don't try anything new because they're so afraid that it's going to flop. And I have had so, so many pieces of content flop and do bad. And I, you know, do bad according to the algorithm. Right? And I just, I had to let that go very early on, and I had to kind of realize that it's okay to just test content and to just try things and to see what works. And if something doesn't work, awesome, I'm going to tweak it and try it again a little bit differently. Like, at the end of the day, having a piece of content that flops, which I'm saying in air quotes, just means that it might need some tweaking or people didn't resonate with it. Right. It's literally just data for you to take and say, hey, okay, this didn't resonate. How can I switch that a little bit? Next is that I had something to sell. I swear by the fact that it is so much easier to grow on Instagram when you have a digital product to sell. Because you're way more clear on who you are talking to and the problem that you help them with. So if you're listening to this and you're like, I'm trying to grow on Instagram, but you don't have a digital product to sell yet, let me tell you, when you have something to sell, it just feels like there's so much more clarity in who you're talking to and who you're trying to attract to your account. And, you know, little shameless plug, if you don't have a digital product and you want to launch one Rich girl launch is perfect for that. It, like, walks you through everything you need to do to launch one, gives you prompts, templates, everything to launch it on social media. So I'll link that in the show notes below for you guys as well. But having something to sell, oh, my gosh, it makes growth so much easier on Instagram. Next is I took advantage of new features. Trial reels are a newish feature, and they have literally helped me grow so much in the past month. I mean, I'm filming this episode today, and my account is already at 102,000 followers because of my trial reels. I'm obsessed with trial reels. If you listen to episode 46 of my podcast, I actually did an entire episode on trial reels. But all that to say, not just trial reels. Like, try the new features on Instagram. When Instagram drops something that's new, I feel like they reward people for trying new features. And I love it. It's a lot of fun. I know it can sometimes feel a little overwhelming to try new things, but again, this goes back to just testing things and trying it out and seeing if it's going to work for you. When I first started posting trial reels, my first few got very, very low views. And I was like, I don't know if this is going to work. And I didn't really like them at first, and I had a bad attitude. And then I saw a friend who was like, no, you have to do it. Like, I'm growing by hundreds of followers a day. And I saw it. I was like, okay, what is she doing? So then I gave it another chance. And when I tell you, like, it has exploded my growth. And it's just been so fun to post stuff on trial reels and then, like, take a step back and focus on some other things in my business instead of posting as much content to my feed. I don't know. I love it. So moral of that story, try the new features on Instagram, when they release something new, take advantage of it early on if you can, because, like I said, I feel like Instagram kind of rewards you for taking advantage of new features. Next is I started doing more collaborations with other people in my field, and one of my favorite ways to do this has been with carousel collab posts, because there's so much more. There's so much less pressure than creating a reel with somebody. And if you're doing collaborations with somebody who, you know, lives in another state, it's kind of hard to film a reel together. So I started doing some carousel collab posts, and it's been so much fun to just get myself in front of other people's audiences. And I had a question on this from someone in my audience, so I'll answer that in a minute. But collaborating, getting yourself in front of other people's audiences, that those people already trust the person you're collaborating with. So when you get in front of their audience, they now trust you as well. And I feel like that's been really amazing for my growth and more so just like, my brand kind of recognition and getting my name out there with people who, like, I look up to and I think are amazing, and they already have stellar brands. Last but not least, I did not use content pillars. And if you don't know what a content pillar is, a lot of people refer to this in social media marketing, where you have, like, five pillars and you stay within those five pillars. And, you know, it's very typical for them to be, like, educational and then, you know, storytelling and then authority. Right. I don't know if those are actual pillars, but it's just kind of like categorizing your content. And I have never done that because I don't like being put into a box. And I feel like content pillars just put me into a box. And I always hated it. And all of this to say is that when you're growing on Instagram, you don't have to do it how anybody else does it. Like, you can find your own unique way. Like, I have never, you know, I never use hashtags. Maybe I've used them like, five times. Like, I don't use hashtags. I rarely go live. I don't post in my stories with me talking all the time. Like, I don't do a lot of things that people have said, oh, you have to do this if you want to grow. And I truly believe that, like, you don't have to do anything on Instagram. Okay? You have to do something but you never have to do things the way somebody else has done it. Like, you can show up in a way that works for you. And I feel like that's what I've done from day one, is that I show up on Instagram in a way that I have capacity for. And, yes, I try to push myself, right? Like, I'm trying to work up the courage to go live more. I am trying to work up the courage to, you know, just do different things on my Instagram. But I have always kind of had a strategy that whatever I have the capacity for is what I'm going to do. And if I can't do everything, then, okay, I can't do everything. Like, nobody was meant to be able to do everything on Instagram, especially if you're a solopreneur, right? If you're somebody listening to this and you have a whole team and they can do things for you, that's a different scenario, right? But a lot of us are solopreneurs. Or maybe you only have a va. Or maybe it is just you, right? Like, you can't do everything. So kind of picking what you're strongest at, which for me was reels. I love reels. And using that to your advantage, right? And then story. Stories come really naturally to me, too. So I feel like those are the two things that I have utilized the most. Now, before we get into the questions, I just want to remind you guys that I do have an offer called IG Growth for Sales. It was one of my most popular offers when it first came out. Like, it's so good, and it really just sets you up for how to grow on Instagram in a way that's going to help you turn those followers into buyers, right? Because at the end of the day, you want your Instagram to be growing of people that are actually going to buy from you, right? You don't want all these people just randomly following you because of some random reel, right? You want content going out into the world that is saying, hey, this is who I am. This is the problem I solve. And if you need help with this problem, I can help you with that. Come into my world, right? Like, it has to be content that is growing, but also turning people into buyers, right? Because what's the point of growing on Instagram if nobody's ever going to, you know, buy a product from you, right? It's. It's a business. We're running a business here, right? So IG Growth for Sales. I will link that in the show notes for you guys as well, it's one of my favorite offers in classes to teach, so it's so good. If you're struggling with growth, you don't know how to, like, set your account up and get things just ready to grow. Your Instagram full of people that want to buy from you. That is definitely the place to be. Okay, I am going to answer five questions that you guys submitted. There were some duplicates, so I just kind of pulled the most popular five questions that you guys submitted on a reel and in a question box over on Instagram. So let's dive in. What were your first posts like when you had a smaller following? I have a tough time feeling like I can be myself and connect to a crowd when my business page has under a hundred followers. Something that I heard somebody say when I first started, started on social media for this business at least, was that you have to show up as if you already have like 50,000 followers, a hundred thousand followers, right? You have to show up and share as if people already care about you. And that really helped me kind of just like, let go of this idea that I. I don't know, I couldn't share who I truly was. Right. Like, it doesn't matter how many followers you have. You kind of have to show up and just be yourself, regardless of how many followers you have. And I honestly think in the beginning, like, that's like, the most crucial time to make those connections and to, like, find those people who are going to be your ride or die followers because they connected with you first. Because, remember, you guys, connection happens first and the sale happens second. And I feel like we're missing that mark so many times where like, we. We skip over the connection and the connection happens and you sharing about yourself and who you are and what you like. So when I first started posting on Instagram, at least I was just very specific with the problem that I was helping people with, right? Which at the time, it was UGC helping people get started with ugc. And then I was just showing them my life through the lens of my UGC business every single day in my story. So I would show them when I was doing photo shoots, I would show them like, hey, this is what the brand paid. And here's what I'm creating for them. Like, I really just took them behind the scenes. And then again, I was just my quirky self, right? Like, I'm a little bit quirkier. I like to be funny. I like to make people laugh, those types of things. So I share things, like in sarcastic tone, right? So when you're first starting off and you don't have, you know, let's say you have a hundred followers, I would recommend you post and show up as if you have 10,000 followers. Whatever your first goal is 5,000 followers. A thousand followers, right? Show up and just talk to them as if it's someone that you're facetiming and you're telling them about your day and what you're doing throughout your day that is related to what it is that you're going to sell in your digital product. Okay, next question. How did you build consistency and what is a routine for managing storage space? Every time I get going with creating, I get a storage notification. Oh, my gosh. Okay, so two separate questions. I'll answer the storage one first. Honestly, I had to just upgrade my iPhone to one that has a terabyte of storage, which, if you know how much storage that is, that is so much space. But I ran into the same issue because I just have so much content, and I've seen people say, like, oh, put your content onto a Google Drive, but then every time you want to create something, if you need videos, you, like, have to go get it. So for me, I just ended up getting a bigger phone, which was so annoying for me. I don't know. I love using an iPhone until it, like, dies, right? That's what I've always done. But I just recently upgraded to one that has a terabyte of storage, and it has helped so much. And then I just categorize everything in my phone with folders like B roll folder, talking head reels, story images, and things like that. Now the second question. How did you build consistency? Okay, the way that I built consistency is by coming up with challenges for every single month. So this is something that I do in my personal life too, where, like, when a new month starts, I will try one thing and I will do it for 30 days. Now, I think statistically or not, like, scientifically proven, I don't know. I think it takes 21 days to actually build a habit. And when you're building habits, in my opinion, like, that's how you build the consistency. So pick one thing to do in your business for 30 days every single day, and do it. Then when you have that and it's like part of your life, add something else. I think an issue I see when people are like, I'm trying to build consistency is that they try to add 37 things at once, and then they get burnt out and overwhelmed and then they quit all of them. But if you add, like, every 21 days, add one new consistent thing that you want to do every day. That is the only thing that has ever worked for my brain. Okay, next question. How do I get more followers? If only it were a simple answer, you guys, and I really kind of want to switch your mindset on this. Instead of, like, how do I get more followers? I want you to think about, how can I build a community? How can I build a community where people feel comfortable, where they feel like they can come here and laugh, where they feel like they can come here and just feel seen and heard in my content? So I want you to switch it to that. Because I feel like we put so much weight or we have in the past put so much weight in how many followers somebody has. But at the end of the day, I think, like, your messaging and who you're speaking to and how clear you are in your content is more important than how many followers you have. Right. So, again, shift your mindset. How can I build a community? And there's so much behind this. I feel like Instagram growth for sales is the perfect kind of solution to understanding, like, how you build a community full of people that are eventually going to buy from you. So, again, I will post that in the show notes for you guys as well. Okay, next question. I have been trying so hard over the last two months to utilize trial reels to grow with no success. Can I ask what exactly you did on your trial reels to get followers? I've had a few successful reels come out of my trials, but only one that brought in around 70 followers and none from the rest. Okay, so I will say my trial reels that have brought in the most followers are the ones where I'm getting vulnerable and I'm sharing parts of my journey that are, like, a little bit more uncomfortable to share and connecting with people first. You guys, this goes back to what I said earlier. Like, the connection happens first. And with a trial reel, you have to remember that people watching your trial reel have no idea who you are. They literally like, you don't exist to them until they see your reel. So if you share content, that's like, hey, buy my product, or, hey, follow my page. That. That's not as like, okay, like, who are you? Why. Why am I gonna buy from you? Why am I going to follow you? Right? So I have found that trial reels that get the most, you know, followers for me have been the ones where I'm a little bit more vulnerable. I'm sharing more about my journey what I've gone through to get where I'm at today. So I want you to think of what's a way that you can share something that you've gone through to get where you are today in your business and create trial reels around that. Okay, last question of the day. And someone said, carousel collabs. Tell me more about that, please. They had a lot of exclamation marks. That's why I'm yelling examples. This sounds right up my alley. I always thought Instagram, you had to do live collabs, which is not always ideal. Absolutely 100% agree. I love carousel collabs. Like I said earlier, I did one with Brock Johnson, and we had so much fun creating it. So what I will say with this is that you need to do collabs with somebody who has an audience that is similar to yours, but you guys teach slightly different things. So Brock and I, we teach very similar things, like how to grow on Instagram and how to sell products. I would say Brock's marketing is more geared towards, like, growing on Instagram, and mine is more geared towards, you know, still growing on Instagram, but mainly making sales using Instagram. Right. So our audiences are, like, a very, very aligned audiences. Right. So that was the first thing that you want to look at is find someone that a. You know, if you can. Brock and I are friends. We met at the Stan Mastermind last year. Um, we just hit it off really well. I love his wife, Tay. She is the sweetest person ever. She came to the Mastermind. Um, so they're just, like, great people. And we hit it off right away. And so, you know, a few months ago, we were like, hey, we should do some collab posts. That'd be really fun. And we don't live in the same state, so we did a carousel. Now the next thing you want to think about is what topic kind of aligns with. With both people's audiences. So that was pretty easy for us, since we have very similar audiences, I would say. And then your last thing you need to think about is, what do you want from this? So for us, we were both thinking, okay, hey, we'd love to get ourselves into the other person's audiences to build trust and hopefully grow our communities. Right. But maybe you guys want to do a joint product. I've seen some people, like, create a joint digital product together, and that's their end goal with that. So really thinking about what your end goal is with it. And I would highly recommend you doing it, even if it's somebody that you've only connected with a few times. Just reach out. Be like, hey, I would love to do a carousel collaboration. Here's an idea that I had for us. That's something else. If you don't know the person super well, even if you do know them, make it so easy. Like, when I presented this to Brock, I basically did everything and then I just said, hey, I just need your input in these few spots. Like, here's what I'd love to do. And then the second collaboration that we're doing, like, he took over and he just said, this is all I need from you. And he's doing all of it. Right? So kind of just going into the first one being like, hey, like, I would love to do this. Here are my ideas. This is all I would need for you. Like, I made it so easy for Brock. And then with the second collaboration that we're doing this, I think it's coming out the week that this airs. Um, he made it so easy for me, right? So just really trying to make it like a no brainer for the person that you're doing it with because, you know, people's lives are busy. Like, we got a lot going on. You want to make it so simple for other people. But yes, carousel collaborations, I highly recommend them because essentially you are getting yourself in front of somebody else's audience that already trusts them and it's just such a fun way to do it as well. So thank you guys so much for listening to this episode. If you want to learn more on how to grow your Instagram full of people that want to buy your digital product from you, again, I do growth through sales. It's in my. Well, it's in my stance store, but I'll also link it down below for you guys. Love you, mean it. Thank you so much for being here. I am just. I'm so truly honored that you show up and you listen to my podcast every single week, even when I'm sick and I sound congested. So love you, mean it. And I'll see you next week.