I hate what Instagram has convinced us we need to become

I hate Instagram. Not in the casual, “the algorithm is annoying today” kind of way. I hate what Instagram has convinced us we need to become in order to build successful businesses. It is no longer enough to be exceptional at what you do. Now you need a personal brand and you need to show your face every day and “yap” to the camera. You need a hook strong enough to stop the scroll, a controversial opinion people will argue about in the comments and a perfectly timed reel using an audio trend that will be irrelevant by next Tuesday.

You need to tell stories, share your morning routine, film yourself walking into a coffee shop and you need to turn every thought and movement into content, every experience into a lesson and every private moment into a marketing opportunity. If your business is not growing, the answer is apparently to post more and make sure to include storytelling, hooks, strong CTA and the list goes on.

We have started treating engagement as evidence of expertise. Someone with 100,000 followers is assumed to know more than someone with 1,000. A viral reel is treated like proof that a person has built a successful business. Visibility has become interchangeable with credibility, even though they are not remotely the same thing.

Some people are genuinely brilliant at both their work and social media. This is not about dismissing them. I have many friends that fall into this bucket. But some people are simply exceptionally talented at attracting attention. That is their skill. It does not automatically mean they can deliver results, teach effectively, lead thoughtfully or build something sustainable. In fact, a lot of people I know spending the majority trying to be Insta famous while barely able to pay their mortgage. Meanwhile, some of the smartest and most experienced people I know are barely posting and quietly building rock solid financial success. They are too busy working, serving their clients, developing their ideas, refining their process or simply living a life they do not feel obligated to package for public consumption. Their lack of Instagram activity does not make them less relevant. It might just mean they have built a business that does not require them to audition for attention every day and that is what my goal is.

Instagram used to feel like a place where you could share your work. Now it feels like a never-ending talent show. Dance for attention. Perform relatability. Manufacture a hot take. Tell a vulnerable story, but make sure it has a clean lesson and a strong call to action at the end. We are all supposed to become educators, comedians, storytellers, videographers, copywriters, editors, trend forecasters and on-camera personalities just to remind people that our actual businesses exist.

Honestly, some of us do not want to do that. Some of us want to be photographers, designers, consultants, strategists, coaches or artists. Some of us want to be really damn good at the work without turning ourselves into the product. There is nothing wrong with wanting privacy. There is nothing wrong with refusing to film a silly reel just because someone said it would “humanize your brand.” You are already a human. You should not have to prove it by lip-syncing in your office.

The most exhausting part of Instagram is that nothing ever feels finished. You post something and immediately need to think about the next thing. You finally understand one format and the platform begins prioritizing another. You create thoughtful content and watch it reach 300 people while a video you threw together in six minutes gets 40,000 views. Then you start questioning everything. Should I be posting more? Should I be more personal? Should I share stronger opinions? Should I make my hooks more aggressive? Should I use trending audio? Should I turn my children, marriage, home, struggles and morning coffee into content pillars?

There is always another strategy, another expert explaining why your content is failing, another list of hooks and another trend you are already late to. Eventually, we stop asking whether something is true, helpful or meaningful and start asking whether it will perform. That is where I think we lost the plot. We have become so focused on building visible personal brands that we have forgotten we are supposed to be building profitable businesses.

There are thousands of people spending hours every week creating content without having any real plan for what that attention is supposed to do. They are growing audiences without building an email list. They are attracting followers without developing products. They are posting constantly without creating an offer, a customer journey or a system that moves someone from interested observer to paying customer. They are building a crowd, but they have nowhere to send it.

Attention is not a business model. Followers are not revenue. Engagement does not automatically pay your mortgage, fund your retirement, hire a team or create the kind of freedom most people say they started a business to have. If there is no clear way for your audience to enter your world, experience your expertise and eventually pay you for something valuable, you are not building a business. You are creating free content for a platform that makes money every time someone watches it… you are simply feeding the beast we are all falling for.

What if you built an actual offer ladder with a free resource that solves a specific problem, a low-ticket product that creates a quick win and a signature offer that delivers a meaningful transformation? What if you created an email funnel that nurtures people after they find you? What if every piece of content had somewhere intentional to lead rather than ending with another vague request to follow for more?

That is the part that concerns me most. A personal brand can absolutely support a strong business, but the personal brand should serve the business and in my humble, not come before it. The business should not exist only to give you something to post about. Your content needs a purpose beyond feeding the algorithm. It should help the right people discover you, understand what you do, trust your perspective and take a next step into something you own.

I won’t even go into the fact that you do not own the platform, your followers or your reach. An algorithm change can take away the attention you spent years building, but it cannot take away your email list, your intellectual property, your customer relationships or the reputation you have built through consistently excellent work.

I believe in personal brands. I have one… I understand that people buy from people and that trust, connection and perspective matter. But a personal brand should be built around what you stand for, what you know, how you work and the way people experience you. It should not require you to make your entire life available for consumption. You do not need to share everything to be authentic. You do not need to post every day to be relevant. You do not need to constantly entertain people to be valuable, and you definitely do not need to become an influencer to build a successful business.

A strong brand can be built through the quality of your work, the clarity of your message, the experience you create, the results you deliver and the reputation that follows you into rooms you are not in. That might not grow your follower count as quickly, but it can still build a very successful business.

You can also be great at marketing without being great at Instagram. Instagram is one marketing channel. That is it. It is not your business, your reputation or the ultimate measure of your authority, talent, relevance or success. Marketing can look like writing a newsletter people genuinely look forward to reading. It can look like showing up on podcasts, speaking at events, nurturing relationships, building strategic partnerships, creating a strong referral experience, writing thoughtful articles, teaching inside communities, optimizing your website or sending a personal email to someone you would love to work with.

Some of the best marketing does not generate thousands of likes. It reaches the right fifty people. It creates trust over time. It gives people a reason to remember you, refer you and eventually buy from you. A silly reel might reach 100,000 people and generate nothing. A thoughtful email might reach 800 people and sell out your offer. Reach is not the same thing as resonance. Engagement is not the same thing as trust. Followers are not the same thing as customers, and revenue without profit is not the same thing as a sustainable business.

You are allowed to build a marketing strategy around your actual strengths. If you love video, make videos. If you love writing, write. If you are incredible in a room, find more rooms. If relationships are your strength, invest in relationships. If your clients constantly send people your way, build a referral strategy that makes that even easier. You do not need to force yourself into a content format you hate because the internet has declared it the only path to visibility.

I do not think Instagram is going anywhere, and I will probably continue using it as one of my marketing channels. I will share my opinions, promote my offers and occasionally make a reel when I have something worth saying. But I am no longer interested in letting a platform decide what kind of business owner I need to become. I do not want to create content simply to feed the machine. I do not want to manufacture opinions because hot takes perform better. I do not want to spend more time documenting my work than doing it.

Most of all, I do not want talented people believing they are failing because they do not know how to entertain strangers on the internet. I believe success does not require a perfectly packaged personal brand. Authority can still be earned through experience, substance, results and the way you treat people. Maybe marketing can be thoughtful instead of performative. Maybe you can be visible without making yourself constantly available.

Maybe you can be really fucking good at what you do, build a strong reputation, market your business intelligently and never once beg your loved ones to comment on a post just for engagement or the appearance of relevancy.

I would like to believe that still counts.

Actually, I know it does.