Ep. 22: When to trust your instincts for platform growth

Today I have Jamie Bailey with me of Expedition Marriage to talk about boosting platform growth. Jamie's a good friend and a former client as well as a member of my insider mentorship and also creator of some of the most fun Reels you'll ever see on Instagram.  Click below for show notes! https://www.ruthiegray.mom/platform-growth/ * Click to follow Jamie & Chris on IG! https://www.instagram.com/expedition_marriage/?hl=en * Click join the group to participate in our FREE 5 day growth challenge! https://creative-creator-6398.ck.page/d703bbe991 * Check out Jamie's guest podcast on securing a book deal below! https://www.ruthiegray.mom/secured-a-book-deal/   When to trust your instincts for platform growth J: Surprisingly, it's been exciting to grow like we have lately.  R: That's what we're going to talk about today. Jamie is a professional Christian counselor and marriage coach together with her husband, Chris. They run a private practice and expedition marriage: a marriage ministry. Countless couples learn to enjoy the journey of marriage through their guidance. They are also weekly hosts and founders of the expedition marriage podcast and co-authors of the newlywed couples devotional. Jamie has a real passion for helping healthy couples continue to thrive, and helping hurting couples find the fullness in Christ they were meant to have.  Jamie we've referenced your growth on Instagram and we started at rock bottom together.      Growth starts small J: I remember some of those early conversations. What am I supposed to share in stories? My life is boring. There's nothing to share yet. I remember the early conversations of how do I make a colored background in my stories, all the basic things from basic tech to strategy.  R:You have come leaps and miles, haven't you? Share with us why you decided to add Instagram into the mix of your practice and your ministry.  Instagram, for us, was an opportunity to reach more people. We run a private practice and that's the day to day, hour by hour situation. When you're trying to help save marriages and help marriages grow and hurting couples one at a time, that is not cutting it in today's society. It can be exhausting as well. I love what I do, but there's a lot of heart and emotion, and it's a lot of heavy lifting that I will do in a day's work. So, being able to have a platform like Instagram, where I can cast that net wider instead of just doing one-on-one. Most of the people we would see in our office are already in trouble and needing hope. A lot of them are last ditch efforts. At some point, we knew we had to get ahead of this problem.        IG as a helpful tool Instagram has provided an excellent way for us to do some of that PR preventative work and start reaching people and guiding them and giving them resources and tools and even just solid biblical marriage advice. Long story short Instagram allows us to reach thousands of people instead of just one couple an hour.    R: I know as you started growing and picking up traction, it was blowing your mind how many times your quotes are being shared. For example,