Two years ago, I walked away from Instagram completely.
Not a break. Not a “detox.” I quit. Because the math just wasn’t mathing.
When I looked at where my traffic was coming from, the people who found me through my YouTube videos were converting three times higher than the people who found me on Instagram. Three times. So I made the call, stopped posting, and focused on YouTube.
And the year I was off Instagram? I had the best business year I’ve ever had.
So I’m probably the last person you’d expect to say this, but in 2027, I’m going back to Instagram.
It’s not because I miss it. It’s not because the algorithm suddenly got nicer. It’s because people have changed the way they decide who they’re going to buy from. And if you run a coaching business, a course, or a membership, that shift affects you whether you’re on Instagram or not.
Let me walk you through what changed, what everyone else is getting half right, and exactly how I’m structuring my YouTube and Instagram strategy for 2027.
Why I Walked Away From Instagram in the First Place
My reason for leaving was simple. I was spending real time and energy on a platform that wasn’t pulling its weight.
Instagram content lasts about 24 to 48 hours. Then it’s gone. You’re back at zero, feeding the machine again tomorrow. Meanwhile, my YouTube videos were getting found for months and years after I published them, and the people watching them were the ones actually buying.
So I picked the platform that was working and stopped pretending the other one was.
That decision gave me my time back. It gave me better leads. And it proved something I’d been teaching for years: you don’t need to be everywhere to grow a business. You need to be in the right place with the right strategy.
None of that has changed. What changed is how people buy.
Everyone Says Social Media Is Dying. They’re Half Right.
If you’ve felt like nobody is listening on Instagram lately, you’re not imagining it.
I posted a story the other day. I have over 10,000 followers. I got about 26 views. Twenty-six.
The Numbers Behind the Exodus
It’s not just me. Social Insider reported that Instagram organic reach is down 14% year over year. And in September, Meta launched a paid subscription called Meta One, where some of the paid tiers include higher placement in Instagram and Facebook search.
Now, I did the research on this, and I want to be clear. Meta isn’t promising you’ll actually be seen. That’s how a lot of people are describing it, but it’s really about better placement. Still, the message landed hard in the online coaching and course creator world. Instagram is now selling a better spot in line.
So naturally, people are leaving. One video in my niche about the “inevitable end of social media” pulled in over 200,000 views. Sunny, one of the biggest names in this space, quit social media completely and her business still grew. And honestly? A lot of what she said is exactly what I did two years ago.
I even said it myself in a video back in June. Social isn’t dying. It’s amazing for entertainment. It’s great for nurturing a warm audience you already have. It just stopped working as a discovery channel.
Hold on to that word. Nurturing. It’s about to become the most important part of this whole conversation.
The Part of the “Quit Social” Argument Nobody Is Saying Out Loud
Sunny’s core argument is that social media is interruption-based. You show up in someone’s feed completely uninvited. Instagram posts disappear in a day or two. YouTube videos get searched for years. She has YouTube videos that are a decade old still bringing her leads every single day.
All true. I can say the same about my own channel.
But here’s the part most people skipped. She also said social media isn’t evil. It’s just not a foundation. It’s an amplifier.
Not dead. Not useless. An amplifier.
That’s a very different conclusion than “quit everything and never look back.” And I think that’s where a lot of people are drawing the wrong conclusion right now. They hear “social media isn’t a foundation” and translate it into “social media is pointless.” Those are not the same thing.
YouTube Is More Like a Feed Than You Think
Here’s where I’d push back a little on the “YouTube isn’t social media” argument.
YouTube doesn’t mostly grow you through search. Search is powerful, and it’s a huge part of why YouTube content lasts so long. But about 75% of YouTube views come from recommendations. That means YouTube is putting your video in front of people who never searched for you or your topic.
That’s a feed. It’s the same basic idea Instagram runs on.
Gary Vaynerchuk said back in June that we’re no longer in social media. Alex Hormozi put it even simpler: the content is the targeting. (I did an entire video on what Hormozi is doing on YouTube right now, and it’s the smartest YouTube strategy I’ve seen in a while.)
So the real question was never “social media or no social media.”
The real question is: what is the job of each platform you’re on?
And the answer to that came from the last person I expected.
What the Head of Instagram Just Admitted
A few weeks ago, the head of Instagram sat down with Colin and Samir on their podcast.
Two years ago, on that same podcast, he said he wasn’t interested in pursuing long-form video in a meaningful way because he didn’t want to erode Instagram’s core reason to exist.
Fast forward to now. Instagram is testing horizontal videos up to an hour long that you can watch on your phone and on your TV.
So Colin and Samir asked him what changed. He said he still stands by what he said before, but the world has changed, and TV is becoming an important extension of all these platforms. He even opened the conversation by admitting they’re taking a big risk with long-form and that they could be wrong.
Instagram Is Building the Thing YouTube Already Does
Think about that for a second.
The head of Instagram is building toward long, in-depth video. The thing YouTube has been doing for a decade. The thing I’ve been telling you to do for a decade.
And the way he described it working? You see a short reel, tap it, and land on the long-form video. Almost like a movie trailer leading to the full movie.
That’s not a new idea. It’s exactly how YouTube Shorts can send traffic to your long-form YouTube videos.
The platforms aren’t dying. They’re all turning into the same thing.
You Don’t Need Every Tool (He Said So Himself)
This is the part I want every overwhelmed coach, course creator, and membership owner to hear.
They asked him how focused an account should be. His answer, paraphrased: there are a lot of tools, evaluate them, be really clear about who you want to be and what your goal is, then pick the tools that help you stay true to those two things.
The head of Instagram just told you that you don’t need to use every feature Instagram has. Pick what fits your goal. Skip the rest.
Now apply that to every platform out there. You don’t need to be on all of them. I personally believe you need two, with a solid plan behind each one.
The Buying Shift I Couldn’t Ignore
So if YouTube works this well for me, why add Instagram back?
Because of something I watched happen over the last couple of months. And I think every business owner needs to be tracking this, because if you don’t understand how people are buying right now, you can’t build a marketing plan that keeps up.
48 Spots in One Day
My friend Lynette teaches health coaches how to sell on Instagram. In August, she launched a brand new program called Obsessed.
She went into launch week hoping to sell maybe 30 spots over five days. She sold 48 in one day.
People told her they set alarms for 10 a.m. so they could buy the second doors opened. Someone in a different time zone woke up early, bought, and went back to sleep.
People don’t set alarms for a funnel. People set alarms for a person.
And here’s how Lynette explained it. She didn’t create demand on launch day. Those people already knew her. The pitch didn’t have to build demand from scratch. It just gave existing demand somewhere to go.
I’m not a fitness coach. I bought Obsessed anyway. And that’s really where my thinking started to change. Watching her, talking to her in DMs, and realizing she and her clients are still selling on Instagram every single day.
I Became the Buyer
Then I noticed it happening to me, too.
This summer I bought the Yap Challenge from Jessi Jean. A year ago, I had no idea who she was. Her account has only been around for about a year. I didn’t search for her. I didn’t watch a webinar. I wasn’t on her email list.
I just kept seeing her. I connected with how she showed up and what she shared. She made Instagram feel approachable and doable for someone like me. So I bought, after knowing about her for maybe two weeks.
That’s something my mentor Mariah Coz is so good at. She spots the exact moment buyer behavior starts to change. And when you notice your own buying behavior shifting, that’s your signal to pay attention and build it into your business.
A Brand New Account and a Seven-Figure Launch
Jessi Jean said her launch was all organic. She never paid for anything on social. She launched the Yap Challenge about six months after starting her Instagram account from scratch and made over $7 million.
Is that an outlier? Absolutely. Most of us will never do $7 million in 10 weeks, and that’s fine. But you need to look at how she did it, because none of it was luck.
Yes, she had a great topic, a great hook, and she’s great at marketing. But the way people bought is repeatable. She started a new account. She posted consistently. She talked straight to camera, which is the whole point of the Yap Challenge. And she built the product from what her audience was already asking for. In her words, the secret was paying attention to the signals her audience was giving her and building a product in response.
When people raised their hands in her DMs, she grabbed their email right then and moved them to her list. No fancy funnel. Her take was that information is everywhere, but people still want to buy into community, and they still trust other humans more readily than they trust information.
The Pattern Nobody Can Unsee
At the same time Jessi Jean was doing this, Alex was seeing similar results. Alex creates series on Instagram, and she launched a course teaching people how to build content around one good series.
She opened doors on a Sunday, closed them on a Friday, and had 1,009 people sign up for a total of $258,000.
Then she publicly thanked Jessi Jean for showing her what was possible, saying everything she’s ever tried has been because she saw other women do it first.
She watched Jessi Jean do it on Instagram. Believed it was possible. Then did it.
That’s what happens when people are attached to a person, not just a piece of content. Alex has talked about earning more than a million dollars in about two and a half years, basically by turning her life into a series.
Two very different businesses. The exact same pattern. A person on camera, showing up consistently as themselves. People watch. They get attached. Then there’s something to buy, and they’re ready. Hand up. No sales page marathon. Just “I’m in.”
And here’s the twist. Both Alex and Jessi Jean are now moving into long-form video on YouTube. Alex has a 26-minute video on her channel with 33,000 views and 7,000 subscribers. The short videos get people to like her. The long ones are where people go deeper, trust her, and see her authority.
Short form builds the connection. Long form builds the trust. You need both.
Why Information Isn’t What Gets You Chosen Anymore
Here’s why these stories matter so much.
Buyers are smarter than they’ve ever been. On a recent episode of Stu McLaren’s podcast, his guest said it perfectly: pretty much everyone knows what a funnel is now. They can taste when they’re inside one, and it gives them the ick.
Everybody has a course. Everybody’s coaching something. AI has all the answers.
So in 2027, your information isn’t what makes someone choose you. The value you provide is the price of entry. What gets you chosen is that people like you and feel like they know you.
Which brings me right back to what I said in June. Social media is great for nurturing. I just didn’t realize how fast that would become the whole ballgame. It’s been about two months, and the shift is already obvious.
My 2027 YouTube and Instagram Strategy: Two Platforms, Two Jobs
Here’s where I’ve landed. Two platforms. Two totally different jobs.
YouTube’s Job Is Discovery and Trust
YouTube is where people find you when they have a problem. It’s where they go deep.
It’s how you attract new audiences who get 20 minutes with you. They hear your thinking, your unique perspective, and your proof that you know what you’re talking about. That’s where someone goes from “I’ve never heard of you” to “okay, she actually really knows her stuff.”
Instagram’s Job Is Connection
Instagram is where they get to know you. Your hot takes. Your lifestyle. And I don’t mean you have to post your whole family or narrate your entire day. I mean getting to know you as a human being, the stuff you’d never put in a teaching video.
That’s where someone goes from “yeah, I get what she’s saying” to “oh my gosh, I need to work with her. How do I sign up?”
What This Looks Like in a Real Campaign
I’m not guessing here. I’ve done my research.
Look at Taki Moore. He coaches coaches, and his YouTube channel has more than doubled its subscribers in the past year from long-form, in-depth videos. Some of them run over two hours. Every single one points to the next step for working with him.
On Instagram, his team runs their campaigns, and on Stu’s podcast they explained exactly what changed.
The old way looked like this. They clipped content from their best teaching videos, turned it into ads that sent people to a webinar, and booked calls off that webinar. They were getting about three likes on Instagram, and webinar show-up rates hovered around 20%.
Then they flipped it. Now they run a paid workshop. Seven days before the workshop, they publish seven organic posts on Instagram, each asking people to comment a word to get the link. They also post a YouTube video that week. Once those organic posts are live, they boost the ones that already have momentum.
Organic content builds the audience. Ads amplify what’s already working, so you’re never guessing which ad to run. YouTube does the deep trust building.
That’s the whole system. Simple, intentional, and every platform has one clear job.
Stop Holding Back Your Best Stuff on YouTube
This is where coaches get stuck, so I want to say it plainly.
Give your best stuff away on YouTube.
The same guest on Stu’s podcast compared it to a movie trailer. When a trailer shows you the best bits, you don’t walk out thinking, “Well, I’ve seen enough.” You think, “Holy smokes, I need to see that.”
Your best content does the same thing. It makes people want more of you.
If your YouTube videos hold back your best information, nobody will trust you enough to buy. Your best stuff on YouTube earns the trust. Instagram is where they fall for the person behind it.
How I’m Making Instagram Work Without Building a New Hamster Wheel
Here’s my actual workflow going into 2027.
I make one video and publish it on YouTube, where new people find it. As Instagram opens up long-form video, I’ll put that same full video on Instagram too. Then I’ll create short reel-style content, the way Jessi Jean and Lynette do so well, to build the personal brand.
Those short reels become the bridge. If I share a hot take in a reel, I can point people to the long-form video where I break down exactly how I’m applying it in 2027. And they can tap straight into it without ever leaving the app.
I’m still figuring out how Reels and YouTube Shorts fit together. I’ve avoided Shorts because I haven’t found a way to make them actually support my long-form videos, and my weekly long-form YouTube video is always priority number one.
And yes, I know what you’re thinking. I thought it too. Instagram feels like a lot. It feels like posting into a void. Nobody’s growing, and a new feature drops every other week.
But remember what the head of Instagram said. Pick the tools that fit your goal. He also said what works today might not work in six months. And then, in the same breath, he mentioned the one thing that’s never changed for him. He’s done a Q&A on his account every Friday for seven or eight years, almost exactly the same way. And people love it.
One thing. Done consistently. For years.
That’s not a content hamster wheel. That’s building relationships.
You don’t need to do every type of content on Instagram. You need to pick a few things your people actually love and show up as yourself.
For me, that means doing the Yap Challenge when it restarts on November 1. It means getting creative with carousels, because they’re a great way to share real value and get people into my reels and stories so they can actually get to know me. And YouTube still happens every single week, because that’s where my best thinking lives and it’s content that stays useful for years.
The Plan Matters More Than the Platform
Here’s the reality check I had to give myself.
I can’t just add Instagram on top of everything I’m already doing. That’s how you end up right back in burnout. So I have to look hard at my calendar, decide what comes off my plate, and purposely carve out time for both YouTube and Instagram, because those two platforms are what will feed sales into my programs next year.
That’s exactly what we’re doing at CEO Day. If you want to map out what 2027 looks like for your business, and hear more about how I’m planning my own content for next year, you can grab your ticket at TrenaLittle.com/CEO.
Because you can say you want to do all of this. But if you don’t make the plan to actually implement it, it’s never going to happen.
And honestly? The first thing I had to cut to make room for Instagram surprised me more than anything else in this whole process. I’m sharing the top three things I’m quitting in my business to make Instagram work consistently in my next video, so go watch that one next.
