The messaging mistake new business owners make on social media (i'm guilty too)

jenna harding I made a mistake on Instagram and I kept making that mistake for months. And even though I have a hundred thousand followers, my views dipped, my sales dipped, my morale dipped. And the thing is, this mistake had nothing to do with hashtags or captions or optimizing my posts or anything. It was a mistake that was happening inside my head.

And I wanted to share it today. I wanted to get a little bit vulnerable about it. Because I bet it's happening to a lot of people. Actually, in fact, I know it is.

And I wasn't gonna make an episode on this, but I was just filling out a form ⁓ to be a speaker at an event. And one of the questions, really cool question, it was what's one question you wish you got asked more that like your audience needs to hear? and I know my answer can help a lot of people, can help you grow your business. So I wanted to tie those things together and here we are.

So let me rewind. I joined a mastermind and it was one of the first times that I was in a mastermind with people that had like relatively larger businesses, not necessarily as large as mine for the most part, but people were like a little bit more advanced. And I was looking around at all these advanced b sorry, that sounded condescending, but whatever. It is what it is.

So I'm looking around at all these advanced business owners and I'm looking at their Instagrams and I'm thinking, man, I could fix that Instagram. I could help them make so much money from Instagram. And in fact I've done it before. ago I worked for someone who already was like really successful, but she had never used Instagram to grow.

And we had like a wildly successful launch when we targeted her Instagram followers. So anyway, I was meeting all these people and I was like, man, I wish that I could help them. but a lot of these people, they had this thing in their head where they didn't want to do their own social media. And I Get that.

I get that they didn't want to do it themselves. Like they would rather pay someone $2,000 a month to do it for them. But I've also been that person who gets paid to do it for people. And I, you know, for the most part, I really think individuals can do it better themselves.

Because when I work with an entrepreneur, I would need to tell them what to post about, give them the hook, and then they still need to record it and send it over to me. And now we're adding all these extra steps. The videos take way longer to make because of all the back and forth. And I'm just like, man, if they had the confidence to just record this, if they knew how to record it fast, if they knew what I teach my clients, like how to record it in a way that requires few edits, they could just get that up by this afternoon and have leads coming in off of it.

So I remove myself from the equation and teach people how to do that this themselves. So you don't need to hire a social media manager. But here I am in this community and everyone like wants to just pay for it to be done and they aren't joining my program because my program feels too like young for them. And I think in their heads the idea is they're advanced, so they want to hire this out, not do it themselves.

Do you know what I'm saying? I mean sorry if this is your first episode here, I feel like normally I have a much more linear way of teaching concepts, but I am kind of just here to rant and ramble about this because it's my own shit. Like it's my own thing that I messed up. So anyway, I'm with all these people.

I wish I could help them. I wish they would let me run their stuff, but they they want to hire it out. They don't want to join my program because I'm known as like someone who teaches people in their first few years of business and I'm sitting here thinking, yeah, but you need this. If you're not getting from clients from Instagram right now.

Or Instagram's taking you forever, you still need this even though you're advanced. So then I got into this like headspace where I really wanted to appear smart. I'm like, well, if they think they're too advanced for me, If my messaging has been telling these people that like my my offer's too basic for them, I want to prove to them that I am smart. And when has that ever gone well for someone?

Right. So then I start dripping into my content. Like you probably would look back at my posts and you wouldn't even, tell that this is what I was doing. But in my head, I just wanted these people to know that I was smart, to know that I'm more than just the b-roll girl.

I'm more than just here use this hook. Like I understand marketing psychology. I have a seven figure program. Like I know what I'm doing.

I've built so many businesses from social media, like worked for so many people, worked in so many industries. Like I just I know what I'm doing. I want so badly for people to know what I'm doing. And that pick me energy.

Does not a strong marketing strategy make? And I know a lot of us are guilty. All right. Are you guilty?

Please be guilty. I don't want to be alone. But I see people doing this all the time. Using fancy jargon in your posts because you want people to know you're smart.

But meanwhile, the smartest people know how to use simple language to explain their concepts. Overwriting in your caption and writing like really long emails and really long posts because and really long talking head reels because you just want to explain yourself clearly. The best communicators know how to explain a difficult concept in as few words as possible and the best copywriters. We don't need to prove to people that we are smart.

We need to show up confidently and make them feel understood. And how do we do that? Actually, I just got this asked this question yesterday. I was teaching in Magic Marketing Machine, and one of my clients said her clients are also.

highly educated experts, right? She's an expert and they're an expert too. So she said, how do I strike this balance if I'm not supposed to be using expert jargon, but still speaking to those people? And my answer was, every purchase we make is emotional.

No matter what. Even if you're like, where's the emotion in like buying earrings? Let me tell you about the pants I bought from Saison, the French chain that cost me $250. All right.

I bought these pants because I wanted to be the type of entrepreneurial woman who buys French pants. All right. I didn't need them. They're not freaking special.

They're not even lined. I could have got these same exact pants from HM. For forty bucks. But instead, I bought these expensive ones and had them shipped across the ocean to me.

That is not a logical choice. That is an emotional choice because I wanted to have the identity of an entrepreneur who buys French pants. You see what I'm saying? So for this woman, even though her idle clients are also experts, they're making an emotional buying decision when they sign up to work with her.

So we don't need to use this expert jargon in order to resonate with them. We need to make sure they know that we know how they feel. We need to use the words that are in their head when they're tossing and turning in bed at night. That's the language that's actually gonna have an impact on them.

Even when we say post authority content, right? You hear that a lot. And sure, part of your part of your social strategy should be posting content that like proves that you're an expert. not from like a pick me energy, right?

Do you know that term, pick me, like pick me girl? It's kind of like Gen Z slang, but you know how in Gray's Anatomy, when Meredith gives that speech and she goes, pick me, choose me, love me. me make dreamy. That's like pick me energy, right?

That's like where the expression comes from. So it's like you're begging someone to love you. You're begging someone to believe in you. You're begging someone to think you're smart.

And that's not the energy we want to sell from. And that is not the energy that is going to make people think that we're smart. One of my clients at Magic Marketing Machine, she had a thousand percent increase in reach. And whenever my clients have like a huge win like that, I'm I always go, What actions did you take to achieve this?

Because I wanna know so that they anchor it so that they can keep repeating it, right? I wanna know what was going through your head when you made that post that did well so that we can put that through your head again. And so she said, Jenna, I just did what you said, like I made the content my clients needed to hear, not what I wanted to make, right? You still can want to make your stuff.

Like part of this is enjoying the process. But ⁓ anyway, that's what made her have a thousand percent increase in reach. we're not trying to prove to our audience, we're not trying to force them to buy, we're not trying to make them think anything about us. Your content is for and about your clients.

What can you say that makes them feel seen? What can you say that impacts them? And then eventually, what can you say that activates them into making a purchase? Simple language is clearer.

It doesn't mean you're not an expert. Saying less is clearer than writing more. Worrying about looking smart wrecks your communication and does the exact opposite. So you know what I did?

I went back to being fun. I'm like, people followed me because I'm fun and they learn. People follow me because I make this stuff easy and doable. Like those are the compliments that I get from people.

And like I just had someone who just joined my program and I got a message from her and she's like, my gosh, it's so easy. You make it so easy. I'm like, yeah, that's always what I've been good at. I don't need to use fancy terminology to prove to you that I'm smart.

I just need to keep. making things easy, making them fun, and getting people good quality results. Speaking of which, if you are listening to this in the second half of June 2026 and you want clients from Instagram, you want to spend less time on your phone and make more money off of your posts. Please come join me in Magic Marketing Machine because right now I've got like the best promo ever.

when you enroll before the end of June, you get a one-on-one private marketing strategy session with me. We can use this time for basically whatever you need if it comes to Instagram or we want to leave Instagram And talk about your email marketing, your funnel, your messaging. We could sit there and create content together and I can write the captions for you, like whatever would be most helpful for you. That is to the twenty five the first twenty-five people who enroll before the end of June 2026.

So I would love to work with you. There's going to be a link below this episode of this really cool choose your own adventure video training that I made. And so it asks you questions throughout and you answer the questions and then it like sends you on your own little private adventure to tell you what you need to be doing on Instagram right now for your business in order to get where you want to go. And then also it gives you the opportunity to join Magic Marketing Machine and tells you all about the program and the strategy that we use.

you will finish that training knowing how to get more engagement and knowing the high level of our Instagram strategy And when you sign up off of it, lots of goodies coming your way, including that free one on one marketing consultation with me. Don't sleep on it because I have a feeling that those twenty five spots are gonna go quick and I want you to have one. By the way, did you know I'm smart? Did you know I'm like really, really smart?

I hope you think I'm smart. It's just not it's not good energy. I hope I catch myself next time I do that. Onward and upward.