Hate Spending Time on Instagram? Try These Proven Steps [Episode 147]

Hello my friends. I did an episode very similar to this way back in the days of your, of my podcast. I wanna say it was like episode two or three, or I don't know, definitely in the first five, but I've got some new tips and some new things to add and it's all about transforming your relationship with social media, Instagram specifically.

You know, it's funny, I always kind of have this, like, you've probably heard me talk about this before, but like I almost have this reckoning moment sometimes when it's like, okay, we know social media is not great for our brains. Like we know that it is doing a lot of harm in a lot of ways, in the ways that information can spread super quickly.

Whether it's like, you know, maybe it's not accurate information. We know that. Historically, we were not meant to know what was going on as like our human brains. I'm not saying we, we shouldn't, but we tech technically from a biological, whatever the word is, standpoint, aren't meant to know what's going on, you know, on the other side of the world all the time.

Uh, we just weren't meant to handle this influx of information that we have. Um, you know, you're scroll scrolling along and it's like, oh, here's a recipe for muffins. But then also like, oh, somebody. Like something tragic and terrible happened and like it's just like all one thumb scroll and then you just go about your day.

I saw a stat that said our grandparents or that, that we see more information before breakfast than our grandparents did in an entire month. And I believe that, I'm sure it's, you know, I didn't fact check the accuracy of that, but it doesn't matter. I would say it's not that farfetched of something to believe.

So. I struggle just from, you know, like the humanity standpoint with social media sometimes to be like, God, am I contributing to the cause? But then I have to remember that A, I'm not encouraging people to spend more time on social media. I'm not encouraging you to scroll or do, you know, consume more. All of the things that you all do have literally changed my life and I feel 100% certain about it in my bones.

That if more people either A, knew about all of the services that y'all have, or B, like maybe just had better information on them and hadn't just seen those ridiculous ai, have you seen those chiropractic popping videos that people are doing now with like AI where they're like table breaks or throws them into the ceiling, like, good God.

Every time I see one of those I'm like, oh, great, you've just made, you've just set the profession back. You know, acupuncturist, you'll have to tell me some of your, um, your similar horror stories. You're like, with functional medicine, like I saw, you know, functional medicine. Um, the guy who invented like Bulletproof coffee or whatever, he was bragging how he had taken 85 capsules before breakfast.

And I'm like, that's not, that's not health. You know, he's talking about all the supplements he takes. He literally, I think it was like 85 was the number 87 or something ridiculous. So, and so. I know that there are like so many others of you who aren't like that, you know, who are actually like practicing the modalities responsibly and in a way that really help people and more people just need to know about it, right?

Like it's simple. And like I said, I, I told you, I feel it in my bones. I know that that is my purpose and my why. Anytime I get a message from one of my holistic marketing hub students, or my content sprint students or our Instagram management clients that are like. Hey, we just got a new patient who found us on Instagram.

Like, I feel like I'm getting to have this direct impact on like, getting more of your services out into the world, right? So I always kind of come back to that. Also, y'all know that I am, I'm not gonna talk about it too much on this episode, but you know that I am like, so anti fear based marketing that's, you know, like a soapbox that I get on often.

Like I said, I'm not gonna go into it on this one. Because I think that's actually part of the problem. I think a lot of wellness and like biohacking type content comes at things from a, oh, you have this symptom that's not normal. You need this five things and like your body, like it's where you're like always seeking for this optimal health.

That's like, it almost causes you to be hypervigilant. And listen, don't get me wrong, like the quote, wellness industry has. I mean, I was on four prescription medications 10 years ago and now I'm on zero. Um, I'm not anti prescription med. Nobody read it that way, you know? So yes, I have learned a lot. You've helped me a ton.

I think you understand what I'm saying without me having to explain all of the nuance. It's like when you lead with these really grand sweeping, like clickbait, fear-based type headlines, I think it actually makes us sicker and does not contribute to healing, because then we're constantly hypervigilant and seeking an outside fix.

We don't actually inherently know how strong and wise our bodies are. So that's just one little gut check thing to do is do your potential patients or clients leave your content or your practice feeling empowered that their bodies are strong and wise, or do they leave it feeling scared and fearful and that you know what you have is the only thing that's gonna help them or fix them and you, you know, that's not where you wanna be.

So all this to say, in this episode, I'm going to break down my favorite tips. For making Instagram a more enjoyable experience, if that is one of your, you know, blocks around it of, I was on a discovery call about a month ago and she's like, Ugh, I know I need to be on Instagram more for my clinic. She's like, but I'm 52 years old and I just hate being on social media.

I'm like, cool. Like that's no problem. Like I'm not asking you to be on it more. So, yeah, like I said, this is like also for you, if you're somebody who tends to have. Okay, I'm gonna get consistent with Instagram. I'm gonna get consistent. All right. This is my year. This is my week. And then it's like you, it's like on your to-do list.

But you can't ever quite stick with it and mark it off your to-do list. Uh, this episode is also for you, so I did not mean for this intro to be so long, but let's get into it.

Hey, welcome to Holistic Marketing Simplified. This podcast boils down to the fact that we wholeheartedly believe that more humans need to know about holistic health solutions, and you didn't go to school to learn how to be a full-time content creator and show up on Instagram and do all of this marketing stuff all day, every day.

So let's come hanging out while we chat. All things ease in your marketing, and my goal is that you shift your mindset around your marketing from a quote should to a I get to more dream patients and clients. Yes, please. Hi, I am Dr. MG McCullough, an acupuncturist and energy healer in South Carolina, and I listen to the Holistic Marketing Simplified Podcast.

Alright, so my first tip, if you are someone who, like I said, continuously. Says you wanna be more consistent, but you never actually follow through. You will never hear me be the person that's like, well, you don't want it bad enough. I just don't believe that. I don't believe that. I don't think that's helpful.

I think you do want it, obviously you want more patients or clients. You want either that or you want more retention and you want people to know about your services 'cause you wanna help more people, right? So I don't think it's that you don't want it bad enough. I think it is totally a mindset thing, which makes people wanna roll their eyes at me, but hear me out.

When you shift to creating content and posting content from a place of why, from your why, the entire energy changes. Let me give you an example. My sister-in-law learned how to breastfeed my niece, who's now three, by watching reels on Instagram, and my sister-in-law is one of those people. She's just like.

Super independent. She's like super, like, don't tell me what to do. Doesn't necessarily like, she's not a touchy-feely hugger type person. And so, so many of you're probably like, well, they have lactation consultants. I'm like, no, this is not her jam. Okay. Like she's not the type of person who would've been like, can I have somebody come help me?

Like, no, she does not ask for help easily. So she literally learned how to breastfeed and did it successfully by watching reels on Instagram. Okay. So does that not just completely change how you look at things? I asked her what account she followed the most and it was this account called Latching with Grace.

So if Latching with Grace, she's got two different ways she can look at posting her content. She can look at it from a, oh, I should, it's on my to-do list. Everybody says this is something I need to do to get more clients, so I guess I should post this reel today. Versus, oh my gosh, there's a mom out there who's really needing this information and I know this is gonna help her to more successfully breastfeed her baby like.

Do you feel the difference in that? Like so, so different. When I first was dealing with terrible sciatica in my early twenties and was giving, given a muscle relaxer and a fricking heel lift from a shoe, I wish I'd had Instagram at the time and had come across a post about chiropractic that wasn't scary.

Popping, breaking the table, throwing me through the roof. That was like, you know, all of, most of the people I work with, I could have been like, oh, that's not as scary as I thought I could try that. Or, you know, I wish I had come across, you know, like I said, acupuncture content that was like, oh, like maybe this could help me with my chronic gut issues before I, you know, became the stomach hurt girl and was the person who always had to go home early from parties.

'cause my stomach hurt. You know what I mean? Like, I wish I had seen your content back then and known that this was an option. When you are, I'm gonna, I'm gonna tie this into a fear. I think it's, I think it's both One, I think it's, like I said, a should a to-do list. People say I should do this. Molly says I should do this.

I think that's one. But I think another thing is a fear of being quote, salesy. And so you're like, oh, I just went into this to help people. I don't wanna be salesy. It's like, well babe, like how do you think, how do you think you're gonna help people if nobody knows you exist? You know? So you quite literally are doing someone a disservice.

If you don't talk about what it is that you do and talk about it often so that more people can find out about you, so you're not being salesy to me, it's actually you're doing the opposite of helping people if you don't post about it or talk about it. And on that same topic. A lot of the people who are like, Ooh, I don't wanna be salesy.

What you tend to do, then you're like, okay, well I'm posting, but I'm only posting educational content. I'm just gonna educate the crap outta people, and then eventually they'll know to book. That's not the case either. So that's why I teach what's called a content ecosystem of rotating different types of content.

And you need to be actually directly pitching. We have new patient availability this week, next week we are now accepting new patients. Like I have three, one-on-one coaching spots, you know, for January. Like however you need to be directly pitching your services. You don't have to hide it in cloak and dagger so that people know how to work with you and get help.

So, like I said, that's my first big point. My second point is something I mentioned in the intro is when I was on the discovery call with that chiropractor and she's like, Ugh, I just don't wanna spend, I'm afraid that if I commit to doing your program, it's gonna mean that I have to spend more time on social media.

And I absolutely love that she brought that up as a concern because I'd really never heard it before, but it's, it's valid, right? I don't like spending a bunch of time on social media either. I'm gonna get into how I spend less time on it in just a minute, but. I will tell you, I very often ask my husband, he's like walking back into the house right now, I should have him guest cameo.

I very often do not even know where my freaking phone is. Like seriously, like my family knows that if they need to urgently get in touch with me or tell me something. Even my friends, even my um, best friends here that are local to me, if they need something, if they're like, Hey, can you pick up my kid after school or whatever?

They don't text me, they text Matt because I never know where my phone is. Um, it's always also almost always dead. So I'm telling you this to say like, I do this for a living and I am not on my phone that often. Um, I take, well, I'll get into that in just a minute. So. You don't have to constantly, you know, committing to posting on Instagram for your clinic does not mean you have to all of a sudden start spending a lot more time on Instagram because my, as my wise friend Chelsea Haynes says, create more than you consume.

When you work with me, I give ideas every, uh, like so people in my holistic marketing hub or my content sprint. Um, I give four ideas for posts every single Sunday, including like trends. So you don't have to spend time scrolling, looking for ideas. I'm quite literally giving you the ideas. And if you're not in any of my programs, I usually share at least one idea a week, um, for free on my Instagram.

So yeah, that's the, that's my second thing is create more than you consume. Just because you start doing this doesn't mean you're all of a sudden gonna be spending more time on your phone. So how can we put in more guardrails so that we are like physically spending less time on your phone is, you know, I just told you, I quite literally, like often don't know where mine is, but we have what's called a brick, uh, B-R-I-C-K.

My friend Keely Schneider told me about it and my husband and I love it. I don't have any stats to share with you of how much it's cut down our screen time, but we absolutely love it. Now, I know there are all kinds of apps. Before I was using an app called Freedom, um, and I liked it. But what I like about the Brick better is that we have it on our refrigerator.

It's an actual device, and you have to like physically tap your phone to the brick to override it and get back on Instagram. Well, you choose whatever apps you want. So for me, I just have Instagram, 'cause that's really the main one for me, that I will tend to just like open up mindlessly. But you can do Gmail, Instagram, slack, Facebook, you know, whatever you can.

You just tap your phone to it and it's so easy to set up. There's an app, I love mine. I think we got it on Amazon and it has really, really cut down on. So like Friday night I found myself scrolling. I never scroll on the weekends. That's actually my next tip is I take almost every single weekend off Instagram.

I don't post on my stories, I don't post on my feed, I don't scroll. But for whatever reason, Friday night, like everybody else was doing something and I was like, I dunno. Sat down, sat down in the recliner and started squirreling as my daughter says. And you know, it's just one of those things you don't, you just so often don't realize you're doing it.

So I was like, oh crap, I gotta brick it, gotta brick it. So I went and brick my phone. It was bricked until literally the, uh, Monday morning from Friday night. I didn't even miss it. So I was my, um, cute little 11-year-old niece was here over the weekend and she was asking me about it. Her parents are trying to help her, um, not bite her nails anymore.

And so I was like, yeah, she was asking me, she was like, well, what do you mean? Like, can't you just go up and tap your phone to it anytime and unlock it? Like, how does it help? And I was like, well, you know how sometimes, you know, when you bite your nails, you're already biting them and you don't even realize, like you just mindlessly start biting your nails.

It's just a pattern interrupt, right? So sometimes you'll just like go to open the app just outta muscle memory, and then you're like, oh shoot, I really didn't wanna do that. So, yeah, the brick we love, um, like I said, I already mentioned that I take weekends off. The bonus of taking weekends off is whenever you let your, if you're somebody who consistently posts Instagram stories like I do, whenever your stories completely expire, that first story that you post back, um, generally gets way higher views.

So it's like, I know my Monday morning story, I want to be unpack, impactful. Please don't hear that and overthink it. Literally, what I would do for your first Monday morning story is post your availability that week or the next week if you don't have any. Um, and it's gonna be guaranteed that more people are gonna see it that way.

Um, okay. So like I said, I already talked about nights, weekends I take off. Oh, okay. Mornings I have trained, I could not even imagine opening Instagram when I first wake up. Like I, you can, you can set your brick to automatically have, like, certain times I don't do that just because. That is one like discipline thing that I'm really good at is I don't open any type of social media, email, anything until after I've gotten MJ to school.

I am not one of those people who wakes up at 5:00 AM and like has me time before I get my kiddo to school. That just doesn't sound like anything I would be interested in. I'm not a, I'm not a morning person, so like I said, I, I get it. If you're someone who like. You know, maybe you're someone who gets up early, but still the best use of your time is not gonna be opening Instagram, I can tell you that.

So I definitely have, like, I, I've been doing that for years and like I said, it's just become such a habit now that I wouldn't even, it'd be like if someone had handed me a cigarette in the morning, I'd be like, Ew. No. Like I just, like I said, I've kind of trained myself over the years to, to not do it. The next thing, this is, sounds super obvious, but I find that most people don't do this.

Turn off your notifications. You could just do that right in your settings. Just make sure your Instagram notifications are turned off. And then this, uh, there's two more and next one. Sometimes I get a little pushback on this one. Ruffles little feathers makes it sound like I'm not being a team player.

But let me explain. You're gonna wanna unfollow or mute your colleagues. I follow very, very few social media strategists. The reason is not because I think I already know anything, everything, and can't stand to learn from them. The reason I do that is because it stifles my creativity. Because if I see them post about something that I had an idea already, like I have a, I keep like a thread in my slack of like content ideas.

I'm like, shoot, I had that idea to post next week. And like, I guess now I'm not gonna post it because I'm gonna think I stole their idea. And it's like, that's not even what happened. It's just like we all teach something similar. Right? So like I, I find it just makes me. It stifles my creativity and it also makes me compare myself.

'cause I'm like, oh, well they've got more followers, or, oh, they're posting more frequently than me. They're, oh, I should. And it also gives me shiny freaking object syndrome guys. That is the one thing that I, I downloaded some social media templates the other day and that told the algorithm that I wanted, like all of this online business advice.

So all of a sudden I was getting served up all of these online business ads. So you can actually tap it and say, not interested because. Every single ad I was getting, I was like, they were, ads were good. And I was like, Ooh, maybe I need this $47 template. Ooh, maybe I need this thing. And I was just like, Molly, you don't need any of this shit.

Like, there is a time, you know what I mean, when you're seeking things. But right now I'm working with a coach, like I have a clear direction and I don't want shiny object syndrome. Like I just need to stay clear on my plan and my path. And I'm not saying there's not a time and place for new ideas and, and you know.

There are times where I actively seek out that information, but that's just it. I want to be able to seek it out. So there are times when I do, um, you know, follow with other social media strategists, but like, I want to be in control of me going to their profile to look something up versus like it being fed to me.

Because again, it just makes me feel like, um, if you've ever asked, well, there's already so many other functional medicine doctors. Why, why would anybody wanna hear from me? It's 'cause you're following too many damn functional medicine doctors. So I like to follow. This is the, my last point is to train your algorithm, or not the last one, but it, my next to last one.

You train your algorithm. It does not matter who you follow or you interact with. It has that has no bearing on who your content is showed to. So if you go to my explore page right now, it's like home decor, wicked Taylor Swift, funny cat videos, A lot of like energy, nervous system manifestation stuff. I follow, like I have found, uh, furniture flippers are like fun to watch.

Like I said, I, I follow all kinds of, like, you know, right now I've been searching some, like Christmas home decor stuff. Like I said, unfollow or mute your colleagues. It doesn't mean that you're not supporting them, but I promise you, you're gonna be like, huh, you're gonna feel so much lighter by doing that.

And if you wanna go support their content, by all means go do it. But you just don't want it like. Your feed. If you're a chiropractor, you don't want your feed full of other chiropractors. 'cause it's, it's, I promise you promise, promise, promise you it is doing more harm than good. Um, so when I get inspo, when I'm sharing, um, inspiration every Sunday with my students, it's very rarely from another, like health related.

Not, not always. Sometimes it is, but usually it's like, oh, I saw an ad for, you know, this face scrub and it caught my attention. So now how do I use this ad? And flip it for my client's niches or libraries. Oh my gosh, y'all, if you don't follow libraries, they have had some hilarious content. Like, um, I follow a couple car dealerships that have had really funny content, a dentist's office that has really great content.

Like I said, I get my inspo from everywhere. Like it's just gonna make you feel more creative. So, and all you have to do, going back to the training your algorithm. If you search something a few times and interact with that content, it's automatically you'll start seeing a difference in your algorithm. So when we were going to Disney and I was searching a lot of Disney stuff, I was getting served up a bunch of Disney content, but now I'm not anymore because I haven't been searching it recently.

So you can very, if you just wanna see a whole bunch of cat videos when you do open your feed, search some cat videos, man. But going back to create more than you consume, like I said, the whole point is we're trying to not have to be scrolling a whole lot too. So the very last point to bring this all home is delegate.

At the end of the day, I think there is something to be said for upskilling and learning something yourself. Okay. Like I totally get that. But also you didn't go to school to be, you know, this is like my intro, like you. Are a full-time practitioner, right? So if you're like, I never wanna do this, I don't wanna do any of your tips, I just wanna delegate it to somebody else, then do that.

So I, if, if you're new around here, then I'll tell you, and if you're not new, you'll know this about me. I'm like the master delegator. I delegate everything. I drive an 11 or almost 12-year-old Ford Edge now with like rusting hubcaps because. It's more important for me to pay for somebody to do my laundry.

Like I would rather eat out less and have, you know, someone come paint my bathroom than me. Like, you know what I mean? Like I'm just like a big delegator. And I think it's how I've been able to scale my business in the way that I have is because I don't try to take on everything that I like. So Instagram and Facebook ads are one of those things that I just have a block all around.

I don't wanna learn it. I hate it. The interface makes me quite literally cry. I cried three times last time. I just hate it. And so that's something that I have outsourced, so if you want to outsource it, then I can help you through my multiple different programs. I would love, like I said, the content sprint is if you want to try, like say you've got like somebody at the front desk and you're like, okay, I just want them trained and ready and I want them to know how to do social media properly for my clinic.

I would love to help you and teach. Well, it can be you, but you know, staff member preferable. Talking about delegating or an associate or whatever. Like I said, if you want it, a little more self-paced, holistic marketing hub is the way to go. At the time I'm recording this, our Instagram management agency is full.

We have a wait list. You can always add your name to the wait list. That's also on my website. So yeah, like I said, I'm happy to help you, but if at the end of the day you're like, there's no way your tips are cute, then just delegate it. Get it off your plate. I hope this episode was helpful. Do me a huge favor.

Please. Please, please. With, with cherry, what are they saying? With the cherry on top, sugar on top. What's the saying? See me on Instagram and let me know which one of these you found the most helpful, or if it was just the episode in general. And if you haven't yet left me a rating or review, we're getting close to 150 episodes.

My goal is to have 200 reviews by my 200th episode. So I would love to, um, hear from you. If in the Apple podcast it's the easiest just to hit, go to show and then scroll down and you'll see the little stars. Um, I would love a rating and review from you, so. Thanks for your earbud time and I hope you have a happier Instagram experience.

Thank you for listening to Holistic Marketing Simplified, and hey, you know how every podcaster at the very end of their episode asks you to rate and review their podcast? Well, that's because it's super important. These podcasts take a lot of time and heart and effort to produce, to bring you free information.

So in order for me to be able to continue doing that, we need more people to find out about the show. So if you could please just take like two minutes out of your very busy day to leave me a rating and share this on your Instagram Stories and tag at Molly a Cahill, that's C-A-H-I-L-L. I would greatly, greatly appreciate your support.

I know your time is valuable and I can't wait to see you in the next episode.