My Instagram Mistakes (And What I Would Do Differently)

What happens when you start Instagram with no direction?

In this episode, I share my honest experience, the mistakes I made when I first started, and what I would do differently if I were beginning again.

You will learn:

• Why starting without direction slows your growth
• What happens when you abandon consistency
• The difference between posting and building
• How batch creating can help you stay consistent
• What actually leads to long-term growth

This podcast is for beginners who want to make money online but are not sure where to start.

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https://begin.thecurateddigitalmarket.com/beginerreadinessblueprint

https://pages.thecurateddigitalmarket.com/offer

I am always in your corner 💜

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Welcome to the Grow with Laura podcast, where we talk about building income online as a beginner without confusion, pressure, or pretending to have it all figured out. My name is Laura, and this podcast is for digital beginners who are curious about online business, digital marketing, and using social media as a tool to build something meaningful. If you are learning, exploring, or trying to find your footing in this space, you are in the right place. In the last episode, we talked about what Instagram is really for and how your page should clearly communicate who you help, how you help them, and why someone should trust you. Today I want to get real with you and share my personal experience, the mistakes I made when I first started, and what I would do differently if I were starting again. So let's get right into it. Okay, full disclosure. When I first opened my Instagram account, I had no idea what I was doing. In fact, oh god, that was too funny. Before I even opened it, I had a mentor at the time who said, just open the account and start posting. Okay. And I did exactly that, but I did not understand anything behind it. I did not know what a reel was, I did not understand stories. I had never heard of a funnel. I did not know what top of funnel was, what middle of the funnel, what bottom. I didn't even know what a funnel was to even talk, no top of funnel, middle funnel, whatever, bottom funnel. No idea. I did not understand systems, so I just posted. I remember one of my first posts was posts was just a random video of a lady walking with a suitcase. I still remember. Um, the person that was at that time mentoring me had sent me some videos, and um I just didn't know what I was doing, to be very honest. So um and I mean it it it is what it is. Well, or it was what it was at that time. There was no direction, there was no structure, there was no message, there was no purpose. I was just posting, right? Now, interestingly enough, in those first couple of weeks or whatever amount of little time it was, I actually did gain some followers. You know, I think I got to around, I don't know, maybe 200 or 300, I can't even remember what the number was. And that was likely because the almighty algorithm was pushing your accounts, right? So there's this whole thing about the algorithm, they give you two weeks, that's what we're told. Now, I don't work for Meta or Instagram or whoever. So I don't know how true or Missouri, I don't know how true this is or how untrue it is, but they say in your first two weeks, um, the algorithm boosts new accounts, especially if you're producing good stuff, right? So you have a clear um thing, you know what you're doing, right? Well, I didn't know none of that, okay. All I knew was I wanted to make money online, and that is where a lot of beginners are. They just want to post and make money online. You have the desire, but you do not have the direction yet. And that is I'm gonna say this very simple here, right? That is somewhat okay, because at least you realize that, right? But it becomes a problem if you do not slow down and figure it out, right? So when you start, you I mean, you have no idea what you're doing, da da da da. That that's okay. As long as you slow down and say, you know what, let me figure it out and figure out what it is that I have to do. Because what happens next, uh, I mean, what happened next for me was this. I stopped. I stopped instead of slowing down, I just stopped, came to a halt because I took off, I abandoned the account, and when you do that, you lose momentum, you lose connection, you lose consistency. And then when I went and figured out myself or whatever, got the right mentor, all that stuff, and then I came back, I tried to pick it up again. I haven't thought about continuing with the same accounts. I got new accounts, it wasn't quite working. I said, okay, I've gained some followers here, let me do. But then it was hard because I I I I it left me stuck at that level for a really long time. It's only now that I'm struggling to crawl my way out of it. And I'm being honest with you. Doesn't mean that I'm not, but I'm having to work extra hard. It doesn't mean that I'm not having to make connections in other ways, and this is something that I'm going to tell you people down the road about. You still can connect in other ways, but it's much harder, you know. So if I had to do this all over again, I will definitely have done it differently, right? Right? Because you remain stuck at the same level for a long time, and that showed me something very important. Starting is not enough, you need structure. So when I came back again, like I said, I did things differently. I started to actually think about what I wanted to do, who I wanted to help, what I wanted to talk about, what direction I was going in, and then I focused on consistency, not perfection, consistency. And I'll be honest with you, I'm still growing. Like I said, it's much harder right now, but that's okay. Remember in the previous episodes, I told I told you you learn from all those things, you learn from your mistakes. I always say this if I cannot be an example to you, let me be a warning. You don't want to make those mistakes. That's the whole point. Admit them so you don't have to make it. Like, think about that, right? So I do not have massive views, but I'm consistent. And those that need to reach out to me, they do. Right? It's harder, there's no doubt about it, but it's okay. It's building strength, it's building content right now. I can talk about that, believe it or not, right? Like I can talk about that, right? And but it's building steady growth, right? I'm connecting with people, I'm engaging with people, I'm building relationships, and that matters more than quick spikes, right? Because you, you know, you want to. I mean, don't get me wrong, of course you want uh your your accounts to spike up. Who are we kidding here? Of course you do. But let it happen with some direction. So, I mean, I've already shared this, but let me share with you more formally uh what I would do differently if I were starting today. First, I would not just post randomly before I even open my account. I would take a little time to prepare. Not overthink, but prepare. Understand who I am helping, understand what I am talking about, understand what I'm leading people towards. Remember, we talked about the offer first my mindset, then get my offer ready, understand all of that. Second, I would treat my account like something I am building, not something I am testing casually, right? So I'm building something, would work on it. Because when you treat it seriously, your actions change. Third, I would focus on consistency from the beginning, not posting for a week and disappearing, but choosing a pace that I can maintain, and this is where batching comes in. Batch creating changed everything for me, like now, right? Instead of trying to create content every day, I sit down with a plan. For example, in January, I focused on mindset, right? So you have the big picture, that one idea turned into multiple pieces of content, right? So if you remember in January, I had what 30 episodes from one idea, and I broke it down little by little because this is what I am giving. I am giving simple lessons, simple tips, straightforward, things that I have experienced myself. So that's lots of information that I can break down instead of overloading, right? And that's lots of content because it's around one theme. The next month you move on to something else, and you can do it whichever way you want, but that's the way I have chosen to do it. Because then I can break down in uh different themes, different things that I know my audience requires, they need, I can break down into simple items, right? So I got, I mean, in February talked about offer right now. I I told you we skipped March, but not right now in April, we're talking about systems. So this that I keep on saying at the end of every episode, this is part of the systems series. So this uh this month, we're talking about uh systems, right? So now what I do is I have that big thing. I know I want to give you lots of information on systems, but I'm gonna break it down little by little. I'll start with big. You start with the big picture, and then you go, you start slowly, slowly narrowing down to individual things. We started with systems. What really is a system? Why do we need a system? We start with that, then we start breaking down, okay. Platforms. Now we're talking about platforms. We started with Instagram, and then you'll see as you go on. So make sure you tune in every time, right? As I'm speaking right now, I'm batch recording. I already have like 10 episodes down for you. So uh, in case something happens to me and I cannot record again in April, right? At least I'll have uh quite a bit down for you. So I batch record, I recorded them, I planned them out. I did not worry about wearing you know the same out because it's a podcast, right? So uh and and that's that's what really matters, right? And then when it is done, you remove pressure from yourself. So the same thing I'm talking about in podcasts, that's the same thing you can do in Instagram because it's Instagram we're talking about, right? So when I do my batch recording, um, if you go to my Instagram page, um there's some days I'm wearing the same outfit, I don't care, like it doesn't matter, it's what's coming out of my mouth that matters, right? Like as long as I'm looking clean and decent, of course, you're in front of the camera, you need to look clean and decent, right? Um, but that you didn't change the outfit, that that it's entirely up to you. You can if you want to, but your content should be consistent. You can batch it so you can have you can record like um you know 10 episodes because now you have a broad idea and you can break it down, just like I'm talking about with the podcast in Instagram too, or whichever platform, you can do that as well, and then when it is done, you remove pressure from yourself because anything can happen, you can be on well, you might have to be with a loved one or something, anything can happen, but at least you'd have content for a long period of time, right? And it saves you so you're no longer scrambling, um, uh, you are showing up prepared, and that is what allows you to stay consistent without burning out. So if you are at the beginning right now, learn from this. Do not just start posting without direction, take a moment, get clear, then show up consistently because consistency over time will always outperform random bursts of effort. And in the next episode, we're going to move on to uh TikTok and I'll share how that platform works differently and why it can feel faster when it comes to growth. Thank you so much for spending this time with me. If this episode resonated with you, I would love to stay connected. Don't forget to hit subscribe and leave a review. Your feedback helps us reach more listeners. You can find me on Instagram at Grow With Laura and on TikTok at Grow With Laura, but with an extra A at the end, where I share lessons, reflections, and behind the scenes for beginner digital marketers. I will also leave some resources in the show notes as a thank you for listening. So make sure to check those out and grab a few goodies. This is part of the systems series designed to help beginners move forward without pressure or perfection, but with a strong and simple foundation. We are building this together.