Are Instagram courses worth it?

Not all programs are created equal... And there's a reason why that $27 instagram course you bought didn't get you the views it promised it did.

In this episode, we talk messaging, realistic social media ROI, what to stop wasting your money on, and how I designed Magic Marketing Machine to be the last Instagram course you ever need (because, spoiler, it's actually a social media marketing strategy disguised as an Instagram course).

If you've ever wondered whether investing in an Instagram course is actually worth it for your service-based business — this episode is for you.

HERE'S THE FREE VIDEO TRAINING I MENTION:  

https://www.videoask.com/f7xjzo38p 

JOIN MAGIC MARKETING MACHINE:

www.magicmarketingmachine.com

This episode also gets into:

• The real reason potential clients say you're too expensive (it's probably not what you think)
• What instagram marketing ROI looks like for a small service-based business — and the four ROI categories every offer falls into
• Why a shortcut to making content faster is not the same thing as a shortcut to getting clients
• What Jenna learned from a $10,000 program that completely shaped how Magic Marketing Machine was built
• The byproducts of showing up on Instagram that most people aren't even factoring into the equation

If you're a service business owner sitting on the fence about whether investing in an Instagram course is worth it — this episode will help you make that call with a lot more clarity.

🎉 Get clients from Instagram inside Magic Marketing Machine! www.magicmarketingmachine.com

✨Watch a FREE masterclass called “How To Get Clients From Instagram (without wasting hours glued to your phone)"

https://parkdale-republic.lpages.co/evergreen-webinar-registration

Music by Jordan Wood

Hosted by Jenna Harding (Warriner), Creator of Magic Marketing Machine

🎉 Get clients from Instagram! Tap here to work with Jenna Harding  inside Magic Marketing Machine!

https://www.magicmarketingmachine.com

✨Tap here to watch a FREE masterclass on “How To Get Clients From Instagram (without wasting hours glued to your phone)"

https://parkdale-republic.lpages.co/evergreen-webinar-registration/

Tap here to get your free Posts That Sell Template (This caption got us 10 sales calls in 3 hours)

https://parkdale-republic.lpages.co/10-sales-calls-new

Music by Jordan Wood

Hosted by Jenna Harding (Warriner), Creator of Magic Marketing Machine

Transcript

jenna harding (00:02)
On my second day of high school, I was walking down the hall and someone called me a skank. I mean, I was in a skirt. And if you knew me at that time, if you really truly knew me, you would know that I was the furthest possible theater nerd from being a skank. And so I told one of my friends from my old school, from my elementary school, and she told some of the boys that we grew up with. She said, Jenna, Jenna just went to school. Jenna just went to high school.

Jenna's new Jenna was walking in her new high school and someone called her a skank. And you know what their response was? What? Two sweaters Jenna? Yes, I had a nickname I was unaware of. The boys called me two sweaters Jenna. I really truly didn't notice that anybody else noticed I always wore two sweaters, but I was always freaking freezing and nothing was warm enough. So yeah, I always did have two sweaters on. I was completely covered.

at all times and like I said, such a wholesome little soul, no one that actually truly knew me would ever call me such a name. Listen, I'm not scarred from it. I don't care. I d I don't care at all that that happened. But what I don't worse don't stress about me. But what I want to illustrate is how when you are

When you know your business so well, when you know yourself so well, when you know your clientele so well, sometimes you can become blind to how other people see you. The boys I grew up with knew me. They'd gone to school with me for ten years. They'd gone to school with me for eight years.

The people at this new school didn't know me at all. All they could do was make a quick judgment from what they saw while I was walking down the hallway in my little skirt in front of them.

The exact same thing hap this is what happens with your messaging. You know, people ask me all the time, you know, I see people wondering all the time, is it worth it to take an Instagram course? Is it worth it to

Is is investing in social media, is investing in a social media program or a coach really truly worth it? And I have a really unique perspective on that because I have audited so many accounts, because I have worked with over a thousand business owners. And when I say that, it's like we've had what, 1500 people go through the programs, something like that. And this isn't just strangers. Like I see a lot of the content from a lot of these people and

From a lot of our students, and I communicate with them in our online community and I look at their posts and I look at their bios. And so I know that sounds like a big crazy number, but these aren't just like blank faces to me. Like a lot of them, I I know these people. If someone shows up for themselves in my program, I show up right back, you know? And so I see how they're very clear on what they do, and it is not coming across in their content and it's not coming across in their messaging, and it's such a simple fix.

Ultimately it is a simple fix. If you meet someone and if you talk to people and they go, So what is it exactly you if you have family and friends say, So what is it exactly that you do? Or someone says, you know, I don't really understand the value I get from this offer. Or if people tell you that you're too expensive, like honestly, a huge percentage of the time when someone is telling you your prices are too high, it's because they don't understand the value, right? And all of that

Can be fixed by working with someone who understands messaging and who is an outside eye.

Right now we're doing a huge promo for Magic Marketing Machine. So I opened up twenty-five one on one marketing strategy session private slots with me. And so twenty five people who sign up get these slots. I don't know how many are left at this point, but I know many of them have been claimed. And if you are listening to this when this episode comes out, like, you know, June twenty twenty six, you can still claim

Right now we are doing a huge magic marketing machine promotion where on top of all the personal support you already get in the program, 25 people get a one-on-one marketing strategy session with me for free when you enroll. So if you are listening to this episode when it comes out in late June 2026, this is probably the best offer we will you will ever hear for magic marketing machine. This is the one.

It's a big experiment. We're not doing a launch. We're not doing a challenge. I'm just offering these one-on-one spots to help twenty-five people decide that now is the time. It's a I have a l I have extra time this summer. This is the this is this is it. This is the one. This is the best promo of the year because you get this one-on-one time with me. And I have paid

S usually about $500 to speak to a messaging expert for an hour or like a business coach per person for an hour, that's usually about a $500 price point. I just did it a few months ago so I could have that outside eye on my account, and it was tremendously helpful. It's insane how much we can get done in an hour. And you get that when you enroll in Magic Marketing Machine. Even if you want to email me and make sure spots are still available for that before you en no, just don't even bother saying that.

We can make content. We can hash out your messaging. We can deal with the whatever is taking you the longest on Instagram. We can fix that. We can map out your marketing for the freaking year. Like we can get a lot done in that time and all you have to do is enroll to claim one of those spots.

Anyway, because of that, I've been thinking a lot about how Magic Marketing Machine is different. Like I've been thinking about my own messaging and trying like I've been thinking a lot about how Magic Marketing Machine is different than other Instagram courses for businesses. And firstly, I signed up for a $10,000 program years ago and I felt completely disregarded. Like I felt like I could not get through to customer service when something went wrong. I was always like

checking the community to see if anybody had responded to me. I never interacted once with the person who sold me the program. I do think she's brilliant, but I didn't interact with her once. Not one reply, not one live call, not one group group session, like zero. And so I said to my husband at the time, at least I know what I don't want my program to be. Like if if a if something good has to come, if I want to like

If I want to, if I want to look at this positively and get something out of this, at least I know I never want to do this to people. And so we don't. There is so much support in Magic Marketing Machine. And honestly, it's modeled after that $10,000 program, but for a tenth of the investment. Sometimes coaches come to my sessions and they go, We we you, Jenna. Like we see how okay, just don't say that. I think that sometimes

courses scale too close to the sun, right? They get so obsessed with like growing and scaling that customer service and like customer experience even is the first thing to go out the window. And I knew I didn't want to be that.

So Monday to Friday, you can go into our Facebook community. You can show us a post and ask for feedback on it. You can say, I have this idea, but I don't know how to bring it to fruition in a reel You can say, here's my bio. Is it clear what I do? You can say, here's my elevator pitch. Is anyone, is it clear what I do? You can put a sales post up and say, and let us edit the caption for you and we will help you make it strong so that people see your content.

and want to work with you and click the link in your bio to do so.

Plus we have bonus workshops all the time. Like I I over plus we have bonus workshops all the time. I'll lead them, I'll bring in an expert. We've got co-working on Tuesdays, which is coach led. So you get a prompt every week and coaches are there while you quietly work and get a post made fast and well.

It's dumb how much we give you. It's too it's too much. But but everybody's brain works in a different way and everybody takes like a different thing that they need from the program.

And the goal is never that you finish it. It's the goal is that you get clients. And that ultimately is what I've been thinking about that makes Magic Marketing Machine different from the rest. Our goal is that you get clients. This isn't a prompt library. This isn't, I even felt bad selling my hooks library because I know that's not actually what you need. Hooks are like.

One small piece of the puzzle.

They're like one giving you fifty of them in the Hooks library is like a shortcut. A shortcut to making a reel, but not a shortcut to getting clients.

That's also included in magic marketing machine, by the way.

But it is included in Magic Marketing Machine because once I tell you the proven process on how to get clients from Instagram and how to put your messaging into your and how to fix your messaging and how people see you and make sure that what you are who you are and what you offer is coming across. So people read it and they go, my goodness, that's me. This is the person that is gonna help me and they sign up to work with you. So that's like the main that's that's

That's the outcome we're looking for. And then there's all these other things along the way, like making your content fast, spending less time on your phone, getting more views, getting engagement. Yes, like all of that comes into it. But at the heart of the program, it's you getting clients.

I accidentally used ROI in a sentence when I was talking to my mother in law last week and she was like, What's ROI? What does that mean? So, oops, I I used jargon, but it's return on investment, right? So anytime we if you don't know, like every time we make an investment in our business, we want to know that we're gonna get a return from it. And usually that return and your clients are looking for a return on their investment too, it just might not be monetary, right? So the return on the investment might be good health.

Usually it falls into different camps. We have health, wealth,

Finance or self. wait, health, wealth.

Family or self. I didn't invent this, but I did add self. So health, wealth, family or self. Figure out where your people figure out where your offer figure out which camp your offer falls into. So maybe you are a home organizer. I would say that is mental health and also family, because if your family is running smoothly, everything runs smoothly.

Because if your home is running smoothly, everything runs smooth smoothly. So the ROI your people are getting is like time back with their family and like peace of mind. For instance. Maybe you are a

Doula. I love when people in like the prenatal postpartum world come and work with us. You're always such beautiful, kind people. So that is

Definitely in the health section, in your physical health section, and in I might even put you in under a little bit of personal development and like mental health world. So at the end of the day, the ROI is coming from those things. And then for me, the ROI is you make money, right? For me, the intended RO for me, the goal of the ROI is you make money. So that one's clear.

My husband and I wanna add a sunroom to our home. So pop quiz, what's that under? Because we're not gonna make money, we're gonna spend money and we're never gonna make it back. Just not gonna it's not gonna play that way. I asked my husband, what's the return on this? He said, quality of life, right?

Self, enjoy our winters more because there's sun flooding our home, filling our home. So there's always an ROI.

And then we have d figure out what yours is. And then we have byproducts. So there are other benefits of working with you, just not like the main one. So let's talk about Instagram. You might be recognized in public. That recognition leads to other things like invitations to speak and invitations to be on podcasts and speak at summits.

Gary Vee recommends running local Facebook ads just to become a local celebrity because people see you in a Facebook ad and they like think you're somebody.

Another byproduct is your network actually understanding what you do. So yes, we want strangers buying from you on Instagram and like sliding into your DMs, but also you have cousins, you have old neighbors, you have people you used to work with and friends of friends that do not know what you do. And Instagram and social media is the best way to get in front of them and let them see what you do. So then you start making more sales from people who already know you as well as strangers. It becomes this ecosystem. More ROA.

Email list growth. Your email subscribers need to come from somewhere. Instagram is the easiest way to grow your email list so then you own so that you can sell to those people as well and have an impact and reach those people and access those people.

Authority being looked at as an authority and an expert in your field because people see you talk about your subject area and have a presence online and

You become the expert, you become the taste maker.

Do you see now how a hooks library, I'm like really crapping on my own product, but you see it's just a mini product, but you see how a hooks library isn't gonna get you there? Like a hooks library is a shortcut to making faster reels, but Magic Marketing Machine is the last program, is the last Instagram program you will ever need to buy because we have a bigger vision than just a list of prompts.