Week 4 of my Instagram DETOX. 30 Days, NO IG. Biz Update!

Hey sweet friend.

Today is week 4 of my IG detox. 30 days Instagram detox and I can barely believe the FRUIT. The pros I share with you today are mind-blowing. The detachment from my phone is surreal. The revelation and gifts from God are truly miraculous.

And…. the numbers don’t lie. Listen in as I share what happened to my podcast downloads, my revenue, and my list size over this social-free month. I’m finally answering the question once and for all… ‘Do you need social media to have a profitable, online business?’.

The answer is going to surprise you.

I also share what I’m going to do now… am I getting back on IG? Am I hoping back in but with changes? Is it going to be a business-only platform for me? Find out.

I wanna hear from you! Email us your feedback at support@stefaniegass.com or pop over to the FB group, http://bit.ly/successsupportgroup

Listen in to the rest of Stefanie’s IG detox!

Deleting Instagram for 30 Days

Week 1

Week 2

And, week 3

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION:

(00:00):
Hey friend, happy Friday! Here we are again, this is officially week four of my Instagram detox. I have been off of the platform 100% for almost 30 days. Monday will be 30 days. And I’m here to tell you what happened this week, here to give you a breakdown of the pros of the cons, and to give you a sneak peek at the numbers of my business over this 30 day period. So let’s find out was it worth it? Did deleting Instagram hurt my business, hurt my bottom line, hurt my numbers and what am I going to do now?

(01:40):
Hi mama. I just wanted to pop on here and say how inssanely grateful I am for Stefanie Gass. My life has literally changed since finding her. Before her I would have never even thought about podcasting, but she convinced me. Now I had taken all of her courses and I’m currently in P2P and crazy things are happening. So some of the wins I’ve had my first paid speaking gig. What? That’s crazy. I started my podcast Morning Mama about two and a half ago, and I just pass 5,000 downloads. And in the first month of P2P alone, my downloads have doubled. This is crazy.

I’m out consistently ranking in the US as well as Taiwan, Thailand, and I’m ranked number seven in Finland. It’s so crazy. And then my favorite of all the wins, I went into Apple Podcast to see if my SEO working in search for mental health. And two of my episodes popped up right next to Dr. Karen Leaf. So crazy. I don’t know what’s happening. Just know God is good. And I am so grateful for Stefanie Gass.

(02:45):
Friends that was Brittany Wilson from Morning Mama Podcast. And if you want to experience crazy next level success like Brittany and have amazing transformation in your life and business, come on with it. Join me in Podcast Pro University, get your podcast launched. And then you’re going to pop into the next round of Podcast to Profit, where we do all the things that Brittany just mentioned.

(03:11):
I teach you how to get your show to rank how to get your show, to chart, how to monetize your podcast, how to get amazing podcast pitches into the world so that you can get featured for free on amazing shows plus the community. Plus the coaching with my team. It’s legit y’all so podcastprouniversity.com. Get that show going girl, because by the time January comes, you’ll be ready to join us in Podcast to Profit. That is at podcasttoprofitmastermind.com. All right, so let’s do this!

(03:41):
First thing. Let’s go through pros and cons. How did my week go? What went down this week and then we’ll go through the numbers and then we’ll talk about what am I going to do? What am I going to do now that this Instagram detox is coming to an end? Am I going to stay off the platform? Am I coming back? You’ll have to stay to find out.

(04:01):
First of all, the cons of being off of Instagram this week. There are literally no cons, nothing, none, zilch, zero. Now I thought I had a con. I was like, yes, I have a con because I really want to bring you the truth in these, in these rundown episodes. And I was like it’s the DMS, I love the DMS. The DMS are so great. It doesn’t get hidden in the other’s folder. And it’s a cool way for people to connect with me 60 minutes or less. If I can answer you, I will, I miss it.

(04:32):
But then something crazy happened in my mastermind yesterday. I have my personal mastermind that I’m in and the question was, but don’t you want, as you scale, isn’t it important for people to be able to connect with you on a one-on-one basis? Like, don’t you need to keep your DMS. And I realized something. When I asked myself a question, like, do I want to take this opportunity? Or should I continue showing up here? Or should I do this thing? I’m always asking myself in a position of, but when? So right now, if I say one person gets in my DMS, oh, that’s super fun. But when one person is a hundred, do I still want to be DMing with people one-on-one. Nope.

(05:15):
But when I have a thousand people, I’ve scaled to a thousand people in my DMS a day. Do I want to answer that? Do I want to connect with people at that level? Nope. So you’ve got to constantly ask yourself these questions in terms of scalability. Any time you’re doing something one-to-one that answer really has to be carefully considered. So it’s not a con that I’m not in the DMS because I don’t want to be in the DMS when I have a hundred DMs a day, when I have a thousand DMs a day.

(05:47):
So literally there are no cons. What I want to do is I want people to come in my Facebook group and ask us questions there. And I want them to post the questions when I go live and do live coaching every other week in the free group and then every other week in the student community, that’s where I want people to go. That’s where I want correspondence to happen. So me staying off Instagram actually solves that problem for me, because you can’t get ahold of me. It’s amazing.

(06:13):
The other con is that I really am not sure. We’ll talk about that at the end. Let’s talk about pros. Man, the pros this week were deep. God is doing a work. He is doing such a work and it’s yes, in my business, but it’s in all these other areas. It’s in my marriage, it’s in my motherhood, my heart. It’s in just my life in general. Like God is at work. He is showing up like I am seeing signs and wonders and this cool, like new, fresh vision. And I feel like it’s a fresh eyes to see, has been getting more and more clear every single week throughout this detox.

(06:59):
And week four was no exception. It started off with my husband’s seeing this, a beautiful, gorgeous, double rainbow in our backyard from, from bottom to bottom, like gorgeous calls. Can you guys come see this? It’s amazing. And then two days later I see a double rainbow while driving to go hunting with him, with the boys in the car. I’m like, oh my gosh, another one, like just beautiful. Like God winks and kiss like hugs. I feel like it was a hug from God. Like I’m with you. I see you. I’m here. You know, so good.

(07:30):
Other things like that that were super cool when we went hunting, I had this vision of an elk, the way the elk would be standing. My husband would get one. It all played out that exact way. You guys it’s so cool. And I feel like it was just really a gift for my husband and I, to be able to go through that experience together and for us to bond over that experience, for me to test my leg strength cause girls, I had to pack out two quarters of that elk and yes, we eat the meat.

(08:00):
So if you’re not pro hunting, I’m sorry, but we do eat the meat of the animal, of course. And, all glory to God for his incredible, animals that He’s created for us and the resources that He has for us. So anyways, it was just such a cool experience. I feel like God’s hand was all over that.

(08:22):
God also led me to some books. I read, listen to two audio books this week by John Ramirez. Wow. If y’all are ready to dig into the concept of spiritual warfare, highly recommended. I think that they were, they were a lot. Okay. So like make sure you have a spiritual maturity about you, because I think that spiritual warfare can be scary if you’re not armored up before you start digging into that. But it is absolutely real. I truly, and honestly believe.

(08:53):
And I know spiritual warfare is real because I experienced it at a very high level as a child. One day, I will talk about that here on the show when holy spirit convicts me to do so. But I know it’s real because I’ve battled it. I battled it for years. And so I listened to these books and they just brought so much like understanding to me about things that I’ve experienced in my life and things that people I love have experienced.

(09:20):
And it’s helping me so much to see that there’s always more, you know, there’s constantly more spiritual growth waiting for us, calling to us and we just have to seek after it. And the other cool thing is that I was living with you guys, remember in this place of like fear and insecurity and week one, I was like, so enamored by fear, like, oh, what all of these things are happening in the world and all these things are going on and what ifs and should I’s and could I, but it, like, I was just so caught up in it all and all the worldly fears. I feel none of that now, four weeks later.

(09:57):
I’m sure I’m going to constantly battle this in my life. But at the moment, like I feel so foundationally solid. I feel so strengthened by the spirit, by holy spirit and by these gifts that God’s been giving me and the words that he’s been bringing me each and every day by the blessings He’s been showing me, these mini miracles that are going on in my life. And I feel so strong. I feel like I’m standing in my faith at this higher capacity than I’ve ever stood before.

(10:28):
And I realized that like I have this power, I have this anointing through the holy spirit to armor up for the kingdom of God and to be an intercessory prayer warrior for those that need it and to fight and to win. And I’ve seen people be delivered through prayer and even through my prayer, which is crazy to think that like I have enough stake in the game to, you know, shake the floors of heaven and have God hear me. It’s so empowering to know that you matter and your prayers matter. And our obedience matters. So all of that said, I’m just being blessed.

(11:04):
I think through this obedience of laying down social media, which is constantly an idol, which is absolutely a distraction, which pools from me having time-space, energy, and it also brought so much fear and anxiety into my life that I didn’t realize it was bringing. And I don’t even know why, like it brought this distraction and this unrest into my heart and it feels so good. It feels so freeing not to have that there anymore.

(11:30):
Another pro is I’m so detached from my phone. Do you guys remember in week two when I was like, oh man, I just wish I could detach from my phone. Like I want to lose my phone every day. Like I just am super sick of being attached to this piece of metal and I want to have freedom from it. And then in week three, I reported to you that my phone usage was down 15% from the week before. Well, I’m here to report to you again that my phone usage is down 15% from last week.

(12:04):
That is, oh my gosh, not great at math, but like 27% down in the past two weeks, like my phone eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve. Okay, just kidding 32-33%. Like it’s crazy. I have this fresh realization that like my life has nothing to do with my phone and it’s so I don’t even know. I can’t even put into words for you how good it feels to not care about where it is, what’s happening on it, it has no power over me anymore.

(12:41):
And you know, those weekend detoxes were great, but this is a whole different level of freedom that I had not experienced in half a decade because I’ve been using my phone at a crazy level for the past decade of my life. You know? Like it’s just so crazy. So here’s the other cool part about this, that my phone usage this week here are my top three places I spent that time. Number one was Voxer, which no one is in my Voxer, unless you are a dear friend, family member or mastermind, I’m in the mastermind with you. Like that’s it. So these are dear friends of mine that I am pouring into.

(13:20):
Number two, audible. Audible was my second usage of my phone. I’m so excited about that. Y’all like, I listened to two audio books this last week. When’s the last time you listened to an audio book in a week? I listened to two of them. Talk about creating space. And then the third one was messages. Again, no one has my phone number unless they actually text me unless they are a dear friend or a family member. And I have like six friends, right guys, like I have a lot of acquaintances, but like true gangster friends, it’s like six or less.

(13:51):
So this is showing me that I’ve shifted where I’m spending my time and we’re I’m pouring my energy away from time wasters, time sucks and distraction and social media platforms that are not scaling my business, building my business, bringing me joy or helping me in any way, shape or form to people I love, family members, I care about, pouring into books that God is leading me to, it’s such a blessing. The whole thing is such an absolute blessing.

(14:21):
Let’s talk about the numbers and then I’ll talk to you about what am I going to do now? First of all, the podcast. So I’m going to do a whole episode on this soon, but my podcast is really been super stagnant for like a year. I mean, I had extremely quick growth. I hit like a 100K really quickly and then 300K really quickly. And then I just, this last year, it’s just been super stagnant. It’s like the lines just straight, you know? And I’m like, wow, I’m in such a rut. Like I’m in a podcasting rut, until this detox. There’s always fruit guys are so much fruit in letting go of worldly things, I am telling you. The podcast has consistently grown every single week. Over the past 30 days, I’m at 14% over this 30 day period.

(15:15):
Like won’t He do it? You know? And God’s also brought me so much revelation about the podcast, who I need to be speaking to, why I need to be speaking to them about that stuff. Like He’s given me so many gifts and answers that I was seeking over this show and it’s working all of it. And this is just the beginning. So the podcast is up without Instagram or any type of organic public marketing on social. My podcast is way up 14% to be exact.

(15:48):
Revenue. So revenue actually fell a couple thousand dollars this 30 day period over last 30 day period. But what’s interesting about that because I actually had a 20% increase in number of sales. So what’s cool is I actually did sell more. It was just more people bought on a payment plan, which means when you look at the big return on that revenue, it’s more, I made more money. I’m just going to see that money come in next month and the month after.

(16:20):
So really when you look at total sales, it’s way up, 20% up if you’re looking at the number of sales. So amazing. The list, my email list grew by 18%. That’s amazing. I mean, absolutely amazing. I have a big effort right now on building the list, but with zero Instagram organic, marketing whatsoever, and nothing that I wasn’t doing the prior 30 day period. So what does that tell you?

(16:51):
My friend, this is proof. I have put my money where my mouth literally put my money where my mouth is. I put all my revenue on the line here, and I put my podcast on the line when I already felt like it was stagnant. So, I put everything on the line to do this test and to prove to you that you do not have to have a social media presence to build a passive income business.

(17:18):
What do you need? Number one, you have to have absolute clarity. You have to know exactly what you do, who you serve and how you serve them. Plus, you have to have the five pillars of a brand map and five pillars of brand creation. That’s non-negotiable because if you’re all over the place, no, one’s going to follow you regardless of where you show up.

(17:36):
Number two, you have to have long form content that you own. And your only three options are podcasting, videos or blogging. Podcasting is the fastest. Trust me. I’ve done them all. Podcasting and then you get to step away from social. And then step three, you have to just have amazing content, understand SEO and marketing and utilize other one to many platforms like Pinterest. You can do market research in Facebook groups if you want, but like showing up 24/7, posting things is literally legit doing nothing.

(18:13):
I’ve seriously stand behind that. And I’ve proven it. You now have absolute freedom to decide that social media may not be for you and that’s okay. Permission slip to lay it down. And even if it is for you, what does that look like? If you’re only over there a couple of days a week, or if you’re only over there 10 minutes a day, and then you delete that. I challenge you to set some serious boundaries with intention in your social media life and watch the fruit that comes from it. See how God moves through your obedience. I’m blown away.

(18:50):
Cause I thought I was doing great before by deleting it every weekend. But now I know that there’s always better. There’s always next level. There’s always more for us when we’re seeking after Him and the ways in which He’s asking us to build and the ways in which He’s asking us to show up and that his ways are better than our ways.

(19:11):
So the final question here is what am I going to do now? And this is the con that I was going to mention earlier and decided to save it until the end of this episode. You’re welcome because I really don’t know. I’m not sure. I definitely don’t feel ready to come back the way that I was before, Monday through Friday. I also am not sure that I want to come back at all.

(19:38):
So I’m really discerning and praying through if I’m going to use it purely as a business tool going forward, have my team just post promotions and publications over there. If we’re still going to post to the feed, if I’m just going to stay off of it all together, I don’t know yet I’m working through that. I’m discerning through that. I will for sure keep you all updated.

(19:57):
One thing that I do know for sure is I will not be deleting Facebook. I miss using Facebook the way that I used to, I miss sharing my family photos and letting it be like a photo album for us every year. Also, I miss actually talking to people over there instead of feeling like I have to push content into Instagram stories and then it’s deleted. I can’t save it in any way. I can’t, you know, I don’t get flashback memories of what happened three years ago. Like I loved using Facebook for those purposes and I really have gotten away from that.

(20:30):
So I plan to get back to using Facebook as my personal platform. I’m going to go through my friends list. Cause I have like 5,000 friends back from my network marketing days and I’m going to clean it out to literally people I know, students, clients, friends, like it’s going to truly become what it’s intended to be. And that’s a personal platform to share my memories and my special moments with the people that I care about. So that’s a goal that I have for myself for this next week.

(21:00):
And then also my Facebook group. That’s going to be the place like period, end of story. Where I’m going to connect with you guys. I’m going to be stepping into the Facebook group at a higher level. I’m going to be in there more, sharing updates about whatever, myself, maybe just even going live sometimes just to chat with you guys, like I’m really going to start using that at a higher capacity. Of course my team is in there to support you as well. Facebook’s not going anywhere. So I’m still going to be hanging out over there.

(21:32):
If you want to hang out with me, my Facebook group will be the best place, especially for right now, as I figure out what I’m going to do with Instagram, I’ll probably take another week, to really discern through that. And then I’ll let you guys know what I decide. It’s probably going to look like some type of hybrid between using it for a business platform. And then maybe once a week I come on and share updates, but I really don’t even know because I feel like I’m trying to give you all permission to just let it go.

(22:06):
And I think me having boundaries and me having intention, I still struggle with it. So what about all of you that you are not in a place where you’re able to delete it every weekend yet. You’re truly still struggling with it the way I was three years ago. And when I continue to show up over there, that’s me telling my audience that I want you to hang out with me over there. And if I get rid of it, it’s permission to not hang out with me over there, right.

(22:35):
It’s permission to listen to the podcasts like this for updates, it’s permission to come hang out with us in our Facebook group. And Facebook is so much for me, at least more freeing and I have crazy boundaries there too. It’s just on my computer. It’s not even on my phone. So I don’t think about it. There’s no addictive nature. I’m not clicking it. So yeah, I don’t know. I’m going to keep you guys posted. I would love to hear your feedback on this. What do you think? You know, should I stay off forever? Should I come back at a small capacity? Should I come back twice a week? Or, should I just use it for business?

(23:08):
Like what do you guys think and what do you see for your own businesses? What do you see for your own life? So when it comes to social media, after hearing about how this went for me, come share that with me. You can email me support@stefaniegass.com, come post your feedback in the Facebook community, which is at bit.ly/successsupportgroup, post what you think, tag me, I would love to see your feedback.

(23:32):
And I’m just praying for you guys, always, you know, I’m just asking the Lord to give you, just turn it over what you need to do. And the Lord gives me discernment over what I need to do and that He allow us to live distraction-free, that He opens doors for us to do less better, that He allows us amazing pathways to creating kingdom impact, experiencing his favor and his provision while having time and space to experience his fruit, to rest, to do Sabbath, even extended Sabbaths, to give more, to experience more.

(24:09):
There are so many gifts and miracles that he wants us to have. We’re too busy to receive them. We’re too distracted to see them. Can you imagine God is knocking at the door of your heart with gifts for you, and you’re turning Him away because we’re too busy or too distracted. We are too consumed by worldly things like our phones, like the need for validation, like the need to be needed, that we’re missing it. I say no more to that.

(24:37):
And I pray that God gives you a feeling of conviction, that if now’s the time to lay some things down, that He helps you do that and that you trust in him and know that his plan is better than yours. It’s better than mine. And that His plan is good because He is always good. So we can trust in that. All right, friend, I’ll see you back here on Monday. Don’t forget to come give me your thoughts support@stefaniegass.com or our Facebook group, bit.ly/successsupportgroup and meet you over there. Bye friends!