65: Instagram Stories Strategy That Build Trust and Drive Sales (For Solopreneurs)

Overthinking your Instagram Stories? Or only showing up when you have something to sell? Let's fix that. In this episode of The Creative Bodega, I'm breaking down why Stories are hands-down the fastest way to build trust online—and why they don't need to be strategic, polished, or perfect to work. I'm sharing my exact approach to showing up Monday through Friday without a complicated plan, plus the story types that naturally build relationships, boost engagement, and lead to sales. If Stories feel like a chore or you're not sure what to post, this episode will make them feel so much lighter and easier.

Check out the full show notes for this episode HERE.

Things I cover inside this episode:

• Why Instagram Stories are the number one place people connect with me before buying—and how they build trust faster than almost anything else
• The story buckets I return to over and over (behind-the-scenes, opinion stories, teaching moments, proof) without overthinking every post
• My philosophy on engagement: keep it simple, easy, and natural (no weird obstacle courses or forced strategies)
• Why I don't obsess over story views or analytics—and what I track instead to prove Stories don't need to be complicated
• How showing up as a real human (not a polished brand) makes your audience feel like they actually know you

Resources & Links mentioned in the episode:

• My Instagram Story Strategy episode (Episode 5) - where I talked about being nervous and uncomfortable with Stories when I first started
• My monthly analytics tracker ($19) - the tool I use to track my top six most-viewed stories each month (free for Coven members)
• Insta Stories That Sell Masterclass ($27) - my bestselling 90-minute masterclass with a full workbook on creating Stories that build trust and drive sales

Connect with me:
🫶🏼 Follow me on Instagram for daily insights
🫶🏼 Join my 321 Create Newsletter for weekly content tips 
🫶🏼 Check out The Content Coven Membership

Be sure to hit "Subscribe" or "Follow" so you never miss an episode! 

Transcript

Speaker 0:00

You know that I take my feed super seriously and that is a place that I put a lot of thought and strategy into, but the stories. That's where your girl just like has a good time and let's loose. I don't think they should be a production. I think they need to feel like alive. And that's the word that I keep coming back to alive. Like there's a real person behind this business and like something's happening right now that you wanna share with them and it's. Making you happy and it's probably gonna make them happy. Today I wanna talk about Instagram stories. So when kind of doing research for my podcast episode ideas, I like to look at Buzz Sprout, which is where I host and look at my top performing podcasts, previous episodes, and my number one performing podcast was my second episode. That's a lie. My fifth. I don't know why I said second. It does say eat. Anyways, it was steal my Instagram story strategy, build relationships, boost engagement, and increase sales. Okay. So I got almost 1400 downloads, which is great for me. So I was like, why, Emily? Have you not spoken about stories again? And you're on episode six. 65, I think been doing this for over a year. But I think, you know, I think that's kind of normal. I, I feel like I really needed to get my feet wet with podcasts, talk about a lot of different things, and then kind of reflect back and look at the data. And, you know, I'm all about data to help me work smarter, not harder, I love Instagram stories so much. Like I literally, I feel like it's like the number one thing I love about Instagram because I like talking to people and I love sending voice dms and I love when people reach out and I'm just like social like that, I guess. And I also feel like anyone who's ever bought from me or joined the coven. They talked to me in my stories first. Like at some point we had a back and forth in my stories so I feel like it is to me. Along with your email list, the fastest way to build trust online, and it's not because they like, they're groundbreaking and they certainly don't need to be perfect. It's actually kinda the opposite for me. I think stories work so well because they feel really casual and if I come across somebody's stories and they don't feel casual, they feel forced or salesy. I'm like, I'm out. Like I, that's not why I watch stories. they feel like you're letting someone into your world a little bit. They're very unpolished, they're raw, they're real. I am not strategic about my Instagram stories other than the fact that I just. Promise myself to do them every day. Monday through Saturday. Saturday, uh, Monday through Friday. Really Saturday is me just like sharing whatever I posted that day, which is always something to build my email list. but Monday through Friday, like I'm showing up. It's part of my whole work flow and. I'm not strategic. I'm not like, on Monday I'm talking about this, and on Tuesday I'm doing this. No. I'm like, what can I, what can I share today to kind of bring people into my world? What am I working on? What's going on in my life? You know, and to me it's so much like talking to your coworkers when you just get into work. Like when I used to have coworkers, I loved sitting down in the morning with my coffee and they had theirs, and we would just shoot the shit before the boss came in and What's going on in your life? What did you buy? Where did you go? What did you like? Whatever, new restaurants, favorite pair of new jeans, like your kid problems. We would talk and we were all women and you know, that's how we, that's how we roll. We talk, we communicate, and we share and that's how I approach mice. Stories, to be really honest, I'm not super strategic. And maybe you could sit here and say, well, you're leaving a lot of money on the table. Well, so be it. My, my stories are not a place for me to like sell, sell, sell, sell. They're just not, um, they're to nurture. And I think that matters so much for US service providers in this oversaturated Instagram landscape. people are not only paying attention to what you know, right? They're paying attention to who you are and they're taking in your energy and tone perspective. your little quirks, your personality and the way that you explain things and your feed can absolutely help with that. Right. but I really think stories are where people start to feel like. I know her and I like her and, and I mean, how many times have people said to me, I feel like you're my friend. I don't wanna be creepy. I don't wanna be weird, but like, I feel like if we like hung out in real life, we would be fast friends. And I'm always like totally agree. Like, I get it. And I love that. and it's because I show up in stories. So honestly and in such a real raw way, it's not a performance for me. It's a mental health check-in, honestly. Like, Hey everyone, my kids both have the flu and I leave for LA for Canva. Create in four days. Like, help me. What do I need to do? What do I need to take so that I am not on a plane with the flu?'cause I will die. Uh, and, and so I mean, 50 of you reply. And tell me exactly what you think I should do, and I'm like, God bless you guys are the best. It's just a very different kind of connection. So if stories feel random for you or if you overthink the hell out of them, or you only pop in when you have something to promote. I really, my goal with this episode is to make stories feel a bit easier and lighter for you and like less of a chore on your list. Like, I really want you to like them. We're gonna, we're gonna know if you're showing up out of obligation and we're gonna know if you're uncomfortable. and we're gonna wanna leave. We're not gonna wanna watch those stories. And I show up in stories. Again, pretty much every day, Monday through Friday, I do not have some giant complicated plan for them. I wish I could show up on here and be like, this is exactly what you're gonna post Monday through Friday. And, but that's not me. That's literally not me. I'm not scripting them. I'm not sitting down every Sunday with a story calendar, and I'm also not obsessing over who watched. or how many people watch, like I have people come to me like my views are drastically down for stories and I'm like, oh, V views. Like is there somewhere to see that I, I kid, I know where to look at views. I. I just don't look at them. I, again, I, the only time I look at them is now at the very end of the month, I've, I added a column for my top six most viewed stories of the month. and I put the, the total, the highest number of views.'cause I'm just curious'cause I actually do it to prove to you that this doesn't have to be complicated. And typically my most viewed are something really silly and personal or something I've reshared that people have loved like a lot. I just, I don't focus on story analytics, like, my God, there's so many things we need to worry about, like, I'm not adding that to my list. I just only recently added it as a column on my analytics tracker, which by the way, if you don't have it, I'll put a link in the show notes. It is my most favorite tool. That I use every single month. If you're in the coven, you get it for free. But, again, I just, I start, I added that calm to prove a point. I had this feeling that my best performing stories were not the ones that. Took the most effort, which I can't even say any of them take a ton of effort. I just wanted to see what was actually true. And that was that the stories that got the most views were personable or relatable or just super in the moment. Or me resharing someone else's content that hit a nerve or made me laugh or felt super relatable and human. And I think that's important.'cause I think a lot of people assume stories need to be more strategic. Than they actually do. This is the one thing that I think you can just take a deep breath and not overproduce. You know that I take my feed super seriously and that is a place that I put a lot of thought and strategy into, but the stories. That's where your girl just like has a good time and let's loose. I don't think they should be a production. I think they need to feel like alive. And that's the word that I keep coming back to alive. Like there's a real person behind this business and like something's happening right now that you wanna share with them and it's. Making you happy and it's probably gonna make them happy. Or like your audience is hearing from you in a way that feels just really natural instead of polished to death. And that's what this episode's all about. I want to walk you through the kind of stories I naturally come back to because they help people feel seen or more connected to me. They also help with engagement and sales and trust. Right, which is the piece I care about the most. I know how long it takes people to start trusting me, and the number of women who have purchased something from me and said, I've followed you for a year or more, and I just bought this, or I just joined the coven. I'm like, mm-hmm. Like, that's how long it takes. but once that trust is there, everything else gets easier for me. Before I get into the story buckets that I wanna share with you, I wanna tell you about something that happened recently because it really sums up how I feel about stories. Um, a friend of mine who's also a student who's taken live stuff with me, who's a coven member, posted a story promoting a workshop she was selling, and it was a photo of her, in the background with a decent sized headline at the top, and then a very good amount of body. Text copy underneath enough that when I opened it, my brain immediately went into skim mode.'cause that's the kind of consumer I am. I am not gonna read a lot of stuff. I just, my brain kind of shuts down just what's the point? What are we doing here? You know? And if I have to read a lot, I'm, I'm kind of out. So I'm a skimmer and I know this about myself, so if I open a story and there's a huge chunk of body text sitting there. I am not gonna read it. And, and I'm certainly not reading every word unless I'm deeply invested for some reason. So I looked at it, I skimmed it and I thought she forgot to include a link. So,'cause I didn't see a link anywhere and I could tell she was kind of promoting something. So I DMed her like an idiot and said, Hey, you forgot the link. And she wrote back and told me that that was intentional. And the goal was for people to read all that text and reply with the keyword. And I was like, oh, got it. I'm sorry. I didn't even see a key word anywhere because I skimmed,'cause I am like a spazz like that and I don't spend a lot of time reading stuff. And, but what stuck with me was that I had completely missed the key word and I didn't even know what that was or what I was supposed to do.'cause it to me, it was kind of buried at the bottom. It wasn't in a different color. Like it didn't stand out to me as I skimmed. So I moved on. Right. And she's my friend and she's in the coven. So I was, I thought I was doing her a solid by telling her that she forgot the link But that was such a good reminder for me because, not because I think she did anything wrong, not because I think there's like one perfect way to use your stories not even close. It's, it's one of the reasons I love Instagram so much'cause there's 75,000 different ways to do things and you gotta do what feels right for you. But it reinforced something I already believed in very strongly, which is that I don't want my audience working hard in my stories. I want the point to be clear. I want the next step to be obvious and easy, and I want someone to open the story, get it quickly, and know what to do if they want more or if I want them taking action. That's like a lot more my style. With stories. My audience is busy. I am busy. people are tapping through stories while doing six other things. They're in the carpool line, they're cleaning up lunch, they're walking, whatever. They're taking a walk in the neighborhood. So I'm always thinking about that when I post. I don't want my stories to feel. Like homework are difficult, and that really shapes everything for me. So when I say I have a stories formula, what I actually mean is that I have a few kind of stories I return to over and over because they build trust without making me overthink every little thing. And what ended up happening is when I told her she. Missing her link or forgot her link.'cause I thought she forgot her link. She was like, no, this is a strategy that I learned from this creator. This is the whole point. Like you, you put all this text, first of all, you don't post for 24 hours in your stories. Then when you do, you put all this body text and you tell them to reply a keyword. So it's like completely strategic. And I was like, oh. That's, yeah, no, I can't, I can't do that. Like, I just, that's just not my style. And I think I said something like, ugh, like those kind of games have never like, sat well with me, and I think I kind of offended her. She was like, ouch, you know, ouch, like games. And I was like, well, that's kind of what it feels like to me. Like, why not just give the link? You know what I mean? So, I don't know. I, but again, to each their own. Maybe that's working for her, and then you go, girl, like, like literally it doesn't, it just doesn't sit well with me. So I think that one of the biggest categories for me is just really showing up as a human and making things as simple as possible inside my stories for both me and for my consumer. And that sounds obvious, but I think it gets skipped way more than it should. So. People need to see your face. They need to hear your voice. They need to feel your energy, and they need those repeated little moments that make you feel familiar over time. Right? A quick check-in, a short video, a little like thought that popped into your head, sharing something you're working on in your business, giving a quick tip about it, like that stuff's gonna go such a long way. I really think people wait until they have something so important to say before they show up in stories and that's where you get stuck or, or you're just not showing up'cause it's uncomfortable. And please go back and listen to that sixth episode that I recorded about my story strategy because that was me. I was so nervous, I was so uncomfortable. And now after doing. I really wonder how many stories I've done over time. I was gonna say a million. I don't know. It's a lot though, over six years. And, uh, it's second nature. It literally is second nature. It's just part of my day. It's part of my routine. I'm talking to my people. I love every minute of it. And sometimes the point is not that what I'm saying is mind blowing, it's just that the point is that people see me again, again and they get more comfortable with me. And that matters more than I think most people think. Um, another category I use all the time is just behind the scenes content. Right. This one's such low hanging fruit and I think people overlook it'cause it feels too ordinary. But ordinary is often what builds the relationship. Sometimes it's like the most simple behind the scenes things that you can share with someone that makes them be like. Oh my God, I never thought to do that. Or I've never seen that before. This is so helpful. So letting people see what you're working on, right? Or something you just bought for your desk or you know, what your day looks like, or, I mean, personally, I'm not a fan at all of stationary, meaning not a video. Story where it's just like your agenda for the day. I could give two, you know, what's about what your agenda is. I'm sorry. There's nothing relatable about that. I, and I just don't care. I literally don't care what you're doing. I don't know, I don't, I just, that's just not important to me. But if you picked one thing from that list that you thought you could share a bit more about, how you prepped for it, why you do it, whatever, that makes it relatable and interesting. Share something with me that helps me in my life. Right, your agenda for the day and what, how many calls you have? Like I what? I don't care. I'm so sorry. But it makes what you do feel really real and it makes you feel like a real person instead of just a brand like floating around on the internet. And honestly, some of the best stories are that simple, just sharing what you're up to that day. and that's just what I do. Sometimes it's a little peek behind the curtain. Sometimes it's just me talking about, again, what I'm working on. Oh, a Canva tip. I just realized that maybe some people didn't know. Or, again, something going on with my kid. That I need some thoughts on or some help with. I also think opinion stories are really big for relationship building and this is the kind of content that makes someone think. Oh my God. Same like just recently I shared, Canva cre in LA By the time you listen to this, I'm gonna be long home, but it's next week and at the time that I'm recording this, and they shared this big document with us, with all bulleted updates on what the Canva updates are, and I'm telling you, my brain can't handle it. Seriously, 20 pages long with all the updates and just reading updates. Does I, I just can't, I, it doesn't mean anything to me. I, I can't make sense of it. I need to see it. I literally need to just see it in Canva. I need you to show me a video. And so I just talked about that. Like, that has nothing to do with my business or selling. It's just like, dude, does anyone else see this document? And their mind goes blank. Like, I'm so visual. Got to see it happen in real life, and then it'll make sense to me. And so many people were like, same, or I actually need both, right? I need the document bulleted and I need to see it visual. And some people were like, the bulleted documents fine for me. So just funny, little relatable moments like that can be really powerful when it comes to allowing your audience to get to know, like, and trust you. Okay. Not like fake hot takes for attention, right? That that kind of content is sort of revolting for me. But I do think sharing any type of perspective, or thought leadership, I'm seeing this. I disagree. I believe in this. I'm seeing this and I hate it. I, you know what I mean? And this is what I'm doing about it. Like. That's gonna let people get to know you and listen, you may lose people because of that, and that's okay. I'm telling you, I never would've wanted to work with that person anyways. You know what I mean? If you had a problem with me talking about what happened or what was happening or what's still happening in Minnesota, you can leave like, because we are not on the same wavelength and you're not someone that I need to have in my world. Okay? When people hear you think out loud or what you stand for, they start figuring out whether they align with you and that. Uh, that's the attraction part, right? It's, it's not only about being helpful, it's about being recognizable, and especially in this crowded market, right? This is gonna matter so much. people do not need another expert saying the exact same thing in the exact same polished tone, right? They need to hear your voice and stories can be such a beautiful place for that because they're naturally so much more casual and you can say what you really think without. You know, having to over prepare, which I love about it. They're just so organic and in the moment for me. Yeah. And then there's teaching, right? There's teaching in your stories, but in a very bite-sized way. This is not where I'm trying to like cram everything into six frames. It's, oh my gosh, did you guys know you could do this quick little thing? Or, here's a reminder that. You know, you could try this or do this, or here's a mistake I keep seeing a bunch of people make. that's the kind of story that's gonna build the authority without making your audience feel like they need to sit down and take notes. Right. And that's really part of the magic stories can be helpful without feeling really heavy. and then the engagement side of stories matters too. Right. But I do have a very specific philosophy here. I like. Easy engagement, and that's probably the simplest way to put it. I love a poll. I love a question box when it makes sense. I love inviting people to reply, right? It feels really natural. And when I want someone to be able to respond quickly if they want to, I'm saying just hit reply and tell me this, right? I'm really not interested in turning engagement into some weird obstacle. Course where people have to prove that they read from top to bottom right? It's just not me. So another bucket I use is proof, right? And this one especially matters if you're selling anything. People wanna see what you do actually really helps. People. Right. And stories can be a really nice natural way to share that proof or share a screenshot of a testimonial from a client or a member, or you know, the screenshot of a DM and that somebody had a win, right? Or resharing for me what somebody said in the coven membership. I actually got a message last night and right before we were about to have dinner and I said, oh my God. And my husband's like, what? I'm like, somebody just sent me a message that said they had just joined the coven and they're about to tear up at how much value is inside this membership. And I was like, oh my god, you know, that's crazy. And I was like, I gotta screenshot that. And that's something I need to share in my stories, you know, because someone else saying something kind about me is gonna go so much longer than me saying kind stuff about myself, right? Or about my product. so. What I like about all these story types is that they blend together really naturally. This is why I don't plan stories in some overly detailed way. I just know the kinds of things that work well for me, and then I stay open to what's already happening, right? A thought that pops in my head. It becomes a story, a funny or annoying thing that happened to me. I'm gonna hop in my stories and talk about it. Um, something I'm working on behind the scenes. I wanna share a little bit of it. a member in the cove said something great, I'm gonna share it. Or A new podcast episode goes live and I'm gonna mention it, right? And this is a rhythm that feels so sustainable because it's rooted in my real everyday life. It's not a manufactured planned out bunch of story content from scratch every day. I'm just. Paying attention, and sharing what feels natural to me. And that's a lot easier. Okay. And I think that's why I've been able to stay consistent with stories for so long. you know, again, every Monday through Saturday, pretty much every week you're gonna see me and it's often also sharing what I posted that day in my feed.'cause I know a lot of people are story watchers and not feed consumers. That's actually more me, that's my style of consuming. I love a story. I don't love scrolling my feed. so I gotta hit those people up too, right? And the reason why a lot of my posts do better is'cause I'm sharing it in my story. So no, I'm not reinventing the wheel, I'm just staying visible. Right? And that consistency really matters, not because every story needs to perform super well because familiarities bill over time and people start to feel like they know me based on seeing little pieces of me and my life on a regular basis, and that is the job of stories. If you ask me, so no, I don't obsess over the numbers. No, I don't even notice when views are down because it's just not part of my routine or life. I, I just, I will not put that pressure on myself. I already put enough pressure on myself with my newsletter open rate and my, how my posts perform. I don't need to add stories to that list. Okay, so if you tend to overthink stories, the biggest thing I want you to take away from this episode is that they do not need to be a giant production. They also do not need to be random chaos, right? There's a really happy middle ground where you know the kinds of stories that build trust, and then you give yourself permission to show up a lot more casually, and I think that's where the sweet spot is, right? Stories should feel like. You, I do have a stories masterclass. It was called Insta Stories That Sell, that is included in the coven if you're in there, but it is also a digital paid for product. I will put that link in the show notes. It's one of my bestselling masterclasses by far. I think it was an hour and a half long with a full on workbook and all that good stuff. So if you want help with that kind of thing, either join the coven and you'll get it in there, or you can go snag that masterclass, which is really, really good. Okay. I hope this is helpful and I will see you on the next episode. I.