If you want growth on Instagram, you need to focus on engagement. Shareability, and engagement, which means your content needs to be engaging.

Today’s two tips, or how to make all content more engaging for your audience, from stories, to reels, to static posts and more.

These are simple, and they are going to require consistency and time in order for them to work. But you will be able to implement them immediately. And that’s the goal. There’s action that you can take even while you are listening to this episode. Which is, how you’re going to get more engagement.

#1 way to make content more engaging...

MAKE IT EASY 

You are the leader of your audience and I need you to view yourself as such. Recently, I posted a question box that got no engagement. I got one question from someone asking me where I buy my jewelry. Which is a fine question if it’s amongst other valuable questions in relation to fitness, business, or education. That can be rather discouraging or annoying. When it’s the only question you get, and you’re offering your time for free in order to help people.

That’s probably one of the top frustrations that I hear from people trying to build a personal brand on Instagram. Question boxes can make your life so easy because content begets content. 

People are literally providing pieces of content for you to create. And it feels good when your audience responds and interacts with you. That’s the connective piece of social media. 

So instead of moping around about the fact that I got no engagement after thousands of people saw my question box, I just got in my stories, and called out my audience and said something along the lines of you guys really have no questions this Sunday morning? I will gladly get in my fourth lift of the week and stay off this app, but I really do enjoy answering your questions. So if you have any, go back and put them in the box. I basically made fun of the situation and brought light to it. Within five minutes I had like at least 15 to 20 questions.

I’ll say it again, you are the leader of your audience. That doesn’t mean you’re a dictator. It means that people have chosen to follow you and you do have leverage and helping them help you.

So first things first, you need to view yourself as and take on the role of being a leader for your audience. There is agency in that and truth in that.

Then you’re going to make it easy for them. Always always always filter everything through how easy it is for your audience to engage with you. It’s not putting up a question box in your stories, or simply having a call to action in your caption. Can you put the call to action in the actual reel? Can it be the first thing that you say in the caption? Can you give them options to choose from? Can you have them vote on some thing? If you did a number to post, 10 things you’ve learned from 10 years of fitness, ask what number resonates with them the most.

Make it easy.

Have them DM you a word if they want more information on some thing, put up a poll with only two options.

You get the idea. How can you make an engaging with your content easier for people who already follow you?

If you bought your contact or created on the fly, think about that this week or this month.

MAKE IT HUMAN

One of the weakest points I see in people trying to build personal brands in the health and fitness industry online is that they minimize the personal piece. They don’t embrace storytelling, or even identifying with their stories are.

Proficiency is truly the name of the game when it comes to movement patterns, strength and muscle building.

When people talk about muscle memory or mind muscle connection, what are they really referring to?

WHAT

In short, I’d say, the proficiency, strength, and consistency of your neural pathways from brain to muscle when contracting.

WHY

This is where touching, visualizing or thinking about a given muscle contracting can actually cause a stronger contraction, and more fibers to be recruited (find study).

That is the mind muscle connection. And it will likely behoove you to work on it it gaining muscle, strength or better movement patterns are goes of yours.

HOW

First off SLOW DOWN - focus on tempo

Isolated movements VS compound movements

* isolated - touch, or think about. Close your eyes OR look at the muscle (where mirrors aren’t actually a terrible idea)

* Compound - rather than just going through the movement, focus ONE section or muscle. Either that is prime mover, or that you want to work on.

Squat - focus on quads let’s say

Picture them lengthening across the knee as you lower down.

Think of them controlling the descent for you.

Then…

Think of them pressing the floor away as you stand up from the bottom of the squat. Picture them shortening as they straighten your leg, bringing the knee from flexion to extension.

In a pull up - focus on the lats

Picture the lat contracting, pulling your upper arm toward the low back and hips. 

You get the idea.

You may or may not find that you experience a burning sensation QUICKER than you normally would when going through the motions in a bit more disconnected manner.

That’s normal. And should be celebrated!

You’re also not doing it wrong if that DOES NOT happen.

Can be applied to warm ups and movement prep or mobility as well

Overall really important even as trainees to be curious about the muscles you’re using and the direction of the fibers you’re attempting to work.

Fiber direction and attachments

This might be a stretch, no pun intended, but, like I mentioned with the squat and your quads, it can be helpful to think about when the muscle is stretching, and in what direction. This is where, focusing on range of motion, and shortened, or length and positions can be helpful. Obviously, if you are a trainer, you can educate your clients on this. If you are a trainee, don’t sweat it. But feel free to be curious, and slowly learn about the muscles, roughly where they attach in the body and the directions in which they contract.

Let’s look at the glutes because who doesn’t love working their glutes in 2024.

Next time you work, your glutes, focus on the lengthening phase as well as the shortest position.

In the hip thrust, that length and position is going to be at the bottom. And then want you to contract your glutes from that bottom position in order to bring your hips into extension. Literally think about your glutes being the muscle that controls that movement.

We can then look at some thing like a curtsy, reverse lunge, where the glutes are, both lengthened, sagittally, and you could argue transversely or along the...

2023 was not my norm...It was my first year as a mom-preneur. And though I don't love that title. It's a thing. It's very real. And it took some trial and error. So, let's dive in.

* No revenue goal but a need to maintain

* Biz + baby trial year (unexpectedly grow another one )

2023 was a year of essentialism and gaining clarity of biz and life NOW

Lots of tension and fog into gaining said clarity. Lots of 12 minute back and forth voice memos with colleagues and team members. Lots of INTROSPECTION.

Which led to:

#1 = 2-5 year goal of hitting 7 figures without using ads

* me, Maddy, Paige, web team, open to other contractors

FOCUS

#2 = “One stop shop for health and fitness professionals”

Be the most helpful brand in my industry

* EVERYTHING is filtered through these lenses.

2023 choices aligned with future goals and wins:

* Trademark Built by Annie!

* Trademark FitsPRO!

* YouTube launched! (2,000 subs by end of year)

* Channel reached monetization by end of year (tiny but a big deal)

* Web platform creation (WE OWN IT ALL)

* Secured CEUs for FitsPRO! (Higher incentive to buy)

* able to step away from IG for TWO MONTHS (re: lower revenue but THE FREEDOM still)

* Seamless launches - seriously so low effort and predictable. Almost felt disconnected to where I want to revamp some things in 2024

* High rev to work ratio - terminated all 1:1 offers to make ROOM for working ON the business, and ways to generate more rev (see lower income this year but calculated choice).

* >> Clarity in where efforts and energy should go

Overall 2024 goals, tasks and focuses:

No more sitting around and seeing how biz goes - that life just isn’t for me. Fine for a season, needed as I literally had NO IDEA what to expect.

So we make specific AF plans for 2024

* List them in priority order (priority determined by ease, and also time - launches of certain things, seasons it makes sense to work on given projects etc).

* We hold them LOOSELY

* stable audience growth across IG and YouTube

* NO REV LEFT ON THE TABLE

* No more live 1:1 (power hours, biz, fitness) - OPTIMIZE PASSIVE

NEW OFFERS 

* Pp funnel - Masterclass & bonuses

* Update FitsPRO Funnel

* Free week of BBA through 3 Day Mob Guide

* FitsPRO 2.0 - the scaling portal

* Determine OUTCOME & MODEL (it’s a portal, but what’s the takeaway and timing/how often it’s launched). 

* Self assessment leads to a track / action plan

Offer Specifics

Overall - we have a CAPTIVE CUSTOMER (buy multiple offers and become lifers)

FitsPRO wins:

3-5 FitsPROs per month with little to no marketing

People pay in full

Flexibility is the capacity for mobility. And mobility CAN certainly make for superior strength and hypertrophy. 

I mentioned in another podcast recently that more and more I view mobility as youth.

Range of motion can be looked at in passive and active lenses.

Passive = flexibility. Think sitting in the splits or doing a pec stretch in the doorway. These are passive and/or assisted.

Active range of motion = mobility.

How well can your muscles move your joint through its range? Think about sliding into a straddle and using your legs to pull yourself back up. Or for the pec example, doing shoulder CARs. What is your shoulder mobility if you simply and SLOWLY take your shoulder through internal and external rotation as you flex and extend your shoulder in as large of a circle as you can?

If you don’t have the passive range, you won’t have the active range. But you can absolutely HAVE the passive range and still not have the active range.

So what is the role of mobility and flexibility in performance (let’s say strength and movement patterns in this case) and building muscle?

That’s what todays episode is all about.

And it matters. It’s why mobility is integrated into Built by Annie programming.

Mobility and Flexibility benefits for Hypertrophy

* More muscle fiber recruitment (more range often = more STRETCH leading into a contraction)

* More functionality

* Potentially less pain

* More range = more time under tension *potentially*

Mobility and Flexibility benefits for Strength

* More range = more potential to build strength at different angles (improving OVERALL strength of a movement pattern or muscle group) 

* More mobility potential to be GAINED

*     Loading an end range and pushing that end range can be HIGHLY effective for gaining even more mobility (light loads likely)

* More range, like hypertrophy = more fiber recruitment if loaded properly which IS potential for strength gains 

* More comfortability within a movement pattern

* Less energy leaks within said movement pattern 

Hyper mobility is a thing. And it’s VERY important that we gain STABILITY in addition to flexibility and mobility. But generally, for most people, there are few downsides to gaining mobility and strength.

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Coaching philosophy is so much more than the methods you adopt and whether or not you think cardio should go before or after a lift, whether you think macros are necessary or not.

A massive part of your coaching philosophy is shaped by core values.

Rather than saying “crafting,” it’s more like identifying or carving out. It likely already exists but you have yet to claim it, identify it.

Why brand values matter

* they’re the foundation and backbone of your brand - from content to hiring to how you work with clients, and even the structure you choose for your offer.

* They’ll align with or misalign with your audience and potential customers

* They *can* and ideally do keep you grounded as a coach and entrepreneur

What are core values

* Personal core values vs brand core values

Business:

Personal: I’d say are beliefs that drive BEHAVIOR.

* THEY’RE DIFFERENT but absolutely have carryover if a personal brand

THEN we have, and those values will permeate and sometimes dictate the actual methods you use.

YOUR METHOD

* Schools of thought you pull from / align with

* Personal experience within the field (performance and professional)

* Who do you look to? Researchers? Brad Sheonfeld is my go to, Charles Poliquin was massive in influencing my program design approach. Joel Jamieson in conditioning. Why? They’re simple, easy to apply and WORK. That aligns with my no bullshit, long haul mentality and value. They also EDUCATE. Aligning with my value of efficacy and knowledge.

* So, how have your values shown up in your philosophy? In your methods? Look for it. Write it down.

A beautiful thing happens when your brand and coaching philosophy are rooted in values. It only leads to clearer communication in your content, emails, across all platforms. Which brings aligned clients and more ease and joy in your business.

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I’ve done my fair share of yearly, half yearly and quarterly reflections. Big fan. Today I am sharing some of my all time favorite reflection questions. 

These are questions that I believe best set you up for a more successful and aligned year ahead of you.

That’s the goal. I am NOT a fan of planning next year in the absence of reflecting on the current one - whether you had goals and plans this year or not.

Reflection questions:

We start off positive, and then get into some more challenging questions - where I want you to question and push yourself.

Answer these for career or business and personal.

What went well this year?

Where did I grow the most?

Where did I surprise myself?

Where do I feel stagnant or apathetic? 

How did I get uncomfortable? Did I get uncomfortable? Or did I stay in comfort?

What did I let go of, if anything? AND what should I have let go of - Totally or sooner?

Monthly bullet point + emotional reflection

Got this from Hillary Rushford's year in review. I don’t know what she currently offers, but I love this exercise and it’s the most important thing for me to do annually.

Go month by month - look at your planner (this is what I do), and jot down key events. I do this for life and work.

For instance if I was on maternity leave, or we had guests every weekend, or we were moving, or had 7 contractors at the house that month, I’d note that. 

These add context to the emotion or theme you’re going to choose for that month.

You can note revenue as well. See trends, highs and lows. When you got influxes of clients. Did you join a course or go to an event? Jot these things down.

Once all your bullet points are in for the month recap, then choose ONE WORD - an emotion or theme that encompasses that month.

This is a challenge, and where things get…real.

You will likely see a trend or overall vibe of your year - maybe seasons. And that, in my opinion, leads to clarity on what might need to change for the year ahead.

AND THAT, leads to our last question to ask.

How do you want to feel next year? 

Then plan some decisions that 

* You have control over

* Will bring you that/those feelings regardless of circumstance.

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It’s no secret I am team lift for life. That is largely where my phrase “long haul mentality” came from. Because I am a sucker for the grind - the day to day that no one wants to do, but everyone needs. The process by which they get the REAL results that they want.

It applies to weight lifting, career, building a business, any pursuit of something more than the mundane.

Today we dive into physical, mental and spiritual reasons for women to lift weights. Most of these apply to men as well, but 85% of you are ladies, and that’s who my clientele have always been, so, that’s who we speak to today.

Weight lifting is in the simplest sense, applying science to a set of skills that you build over time. This CAN and more often than not, does, manipulate the body in the form of adaptions.

Those adaptations are WHY women need to lift weights. Being stronger, more mobile, having higher self efficacy and esteem are rarely bad things.

First up and possibly the most focused on FEMALES:

1 Increase bone density

Osteoporosis is far more prominent in women than in men. We naturally hold less muscle mass, and provide less tension to all of our connective tissues.

Bone is not highly vascular which means it takes LONGER for the bone to adapt to stimulus. Muscle adapts quickest, tendons and ligaments next, due to their lack of vascularity. And lastly, bones.

Locomotion happens via our muscles pulling on bones via tendons. That’s literally how our bodies move.

Providing tension to these tissues is how we cause NEW tissue to grow, and become stronger. That’s what we want. In this case for bones.

It can take six months to a year for significant bone growth to take place from weight lifting. Again, applying LOAD and tension to the skeleton is what causes this demand for new growth. 

Load and tension can come in many forms - ie jogging. But weight lifting is the most superior way for this to happen.

Improve and USE mobility 

There is some kind of saying about your mobility and age or lifespan. Like you’re only as old as your spine is mobile or something like that.

This is true in my opinion for all mobility. I trained people in person for five years before going fully online. And for me, the sixties was where I saw the largest gap in ability.

I trained three to four 62-67 year old women. One was a national swimmer and had amazing fitness, though she did lack strength, which is what we were working on. One could not get off the floor from a split squat and had a terrible base of fitness.

I’ve had family members in their sixties hiking mountains and playing with grandkids and those who need assistance for daily movements. There is obviously context there, and many variables at play. But witnessing these differences is what brought the importance of mobility and strength to my mind as a trainer.

Mobility, and many other pieces of fitness fall under “you don’t use it, you lose it”

2 Increase muscle mass

This might be an obvious one. But important nonetheless.

I like to think of this in relationship to other tissues which the human body can be comprised of - mainly fat.

If you’re not building muscle, or largely comprised of muscle…and muscle is how we cause our bodies to MOVE, what are you made of? Truth is, a fair amount of that will be fatty tissues.

Overall health benefits from hosting and...

There can certainly be a lot of carryover between how to grow your brand audience on IG and how to increase your income. Often just being front of mind for people is the lowest barrier to increasing applications or enrollments.

We’ll separate the two for clarity but know that there is mainly positive carryover from audience growth tactics *possibly* to income.

Brand GROWTH (audience)

None of these are new - I simply want to do a refresh for you in order to bring your focus back to 1-2 of these if you’ve slipped up in your IG approach lately - it happens. And we then we bring it back.

You know I love stories, but they aren’t for GROWING. They’re for selling and connecting with your warm IG audience so we’ll talk about those during income growth.

Client centric + personal story telling

* OWN YOUR STORY (past or present process)

* Bring it back to the consumer and THEIR experience

* Content that helps them NOW, where they are (they’ll share that!)

Frequency - high volume posting

* More posts = more reps for you, better messaging, better creatives, more engagement, more potential for exposure and viral status posts, and less overall pressure

* 7-21 times per week. 7 minimum if GROWTH is the goal.

***posted 2 times per day when I came back from my 8 week break this year and had 2 posts/reels go viral from that. Those posts alone Brough in 3,000 new people. The double posting was worth it due to those two posts landing.

Mother categories

* Covered in FitsPRO and IG 101. 

* Still live by this

* Provides bumpers - which build trust and area of focus (expertise)

* Go deeper with less. 

[repeatability + sharabelity])

* Growth = SHAREABILITY and relatability

* Something people get fired up about (positive or justice vibes), a common experience or struggle - can be funny (taking off a sweaty sports bra) or serious (over sexualization of women in fitness)

* Both are RELATED to my area of focus but not DIRECT. So it would bring in IDEAL CLIENTS. That’s KEY. Trends don’t always bring quality followers.

* But low key saying fuck the checkboxes and trending reels…YES even for growth. 

I find half the time that whatever the trend is, it dies or doesn’t work. I can count on one hand the amount of times that a trend worked in my favor - meaning I gained IDEAL CLIENTS into my audience.

By all means, if a trend feels right and you can capitalize on it within brand alignment, GET IT. But please don’t let the pressure of hopping on trends keep you from creating actual content that your audience and ICA would find helpful, relatable, or sharable. A twitter graphic with a bold statement goes a long way.

Income / application GROWTH (clients)

I was talking to a past 1:1 biz client turned colleague a while back. We were discussing lofty financial goals and what refinement it takes from a business standpoint - very “slow down to speed up” vibes.

She made the comment “I doubled my income in ___ (year) by just yelling about my offers more on instagram and email” and I died. Because #TRUTH.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had a biz client, follower or fitspro embrace talking about their offer more...

Today’s episode can be applied to any platform where you provide content to an audience. That means podcasting, email, YouTube, instagram or elsewhere.

I’ve been talking a lot lately about building trust with your audience because trust is the #1 thing we need as businesses in order for people to PAY YOU. And most online health and fitness coaches I talk to want to get paid.

If you happen to be building a personal brand, then I believe you have an extra opportunity to expedite that trust. People relate to, and connect with PEOPLE. You’re the face of your brand and likely who the audience is interacting with.

Do not limit yourself with how you could go about sharing any of this. I can see these sent in a newsletter, on an IG story, in a graphic breakdown with context, etc.

1 Walking the walk 

* Show them your process 

* Relatability

* Imperfection

* You are human and struggle to + this is how you make decisions easily.

* Ie: how you select foods, how you use a certain piece of programming within your training, mental struggles and processes

You don’t need to be more fit or strong than your clients. However, it might make sense if you are also active and share your own journey.

I always say you don’t HAVE to train the way you train your clients (or eat the way) but there is certainly power, and I believe, respect in seeing a coach apply to themselves what they as of us as clients.

2 Client case studies OR self study, OR use other other people as examples if you don’t have clients yet

* Allows people too see the HOW

* Take them behind the scenes 

* Ie: helping a client PR, decrease body fat, increase muscle mass, experience food freedom, ear more, get out of pain etc. Where were they? What did or do you plan to implement?

3 Providing SOLUTION based content

I think people get lost or held up when we say “solve a problem.”

Sometimes, thinking in the frame of solutions, or tips can be easier to apply.

* Bite size, digestible content 

* APPLICABLE IMMEDIATELY

* Keeps them coming back for more (aka THEY TRUST YOU)

* Shows you know what they are currently experiencing, thinking, feeling etc Sometimes before they were even aware of it.

You have to know your ideal client and your niche for this. Which are not the same thing.

You’ll find clarity ON your ICA and your NICHE through creating content and interacting or receiving feedback from said audience.

IMO This is the foundation of the other two pieces we talked about.

Do this at a high frequency to build trust.

I know these can seem simple. And that’s because they are. Building trust is not a complex task. It’s simple, and takes intention, consistency and time.

I asked my IG audience and my email list to send me topics they'd like me to either rate as over, or underrated, mainly in the field of fitness. And let me tell you, this was a FUN ONE.

This episode was unplanned. I literally answered these spitfire, off the cuff. First thoughts that came to mind is what you get here. So, tune in for details on the following topics. Here are my ratings:

Squats: Overrated by those who want to grow their glutes, underrated in terms of functionality and bang for your buck hypertrophy.

Lululemon: Underrated. I know. I know. Trust me.

Pre workout: Overrated

Converse: Undecided. Back in the day, overrated. Much better training shoe options now

Lateral raises: Underrated - sooooo many uses and variations if boulder shoulders are a goal of yours.

Spotify premium for workout playlists: LOL I don't listen to music.

What is underrated for shoulder mobility? This one was fun...Not giving it to you here. Tune in.

Personal training certification: Needed, overrated but they shouldn't be. They just wildly underdeliver. It's complicated.

Social media content creation: UNDERRATED. I said what I said.

Deload weeks: Underrated

Morning routines: Over romanticized but actually underrated in the simplest use of them.

Exercise Bands: Overrated by people who think they are going to built a booty by only using bands. And underrated by people who think they are dumb.

Scheduled non-working hours: Mmmm neither. Tune in for my personal experience with this.

Intermittent Fasting: Overrated. Big time.

Creatine: Underrated. Even with it's popularity. More people could benefit from it than do.

The (athletics) background of your coach or trainer: VERY interesting...

The equipment you are using: Overrated in the sense people put too much weight on this (no pun intended).

These answers require context. But I wanted to give you my short answers here. Again, listen in to hear more about where I draw these conclusions from.

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