Why Your Content Isn’t Growing Your Email List (The Real Reason)

Sam Vander Wielen: You’re showing up on social posting here, there, and everywhere, but nothing really feels like it’s sticking. The goal is to create content that actually connects, hooking the right people, building an engaged audience full of those right people, and guiding them towards becoming your loyal customer. When your content feels more like a scatterplot of thoughts without a clear through line, it’s easy to get lost in the online noise, especially nowadays. And it’s even easier for your audience to miss the message or really know what you do or offer. Which means no engagement on your content, no audience growth, and even fewer customers than you really need.

In today’s episode, I sat down with video marketing coach and founder of Shine with Natasha and Shine Studio, Natasha Pierre, to talk about one of the smartest ways to shift that, creating your [00:01:00] very own signature content series if your content needs a little structure, a little dash of strategy, and well more sales to come out of it.

This is the conversation to listen to today. Let’s jump in.

Sam Vander Wielen: Hey Natasha, welcome back to On Your Terms®.

Natasha Pierre: I know. I was thinking like we haven’t podcast together in like a few years, even though we like see each other all the time.

Sam Vander Wielen: Yeah, it is a, it is a long time overdue and I’m gonna link down below to our first interview like three years ago, maybe two, three years.​​

Yeah. It’s been a long time. Um, but I’m so glad you’re here. How are you doing?

Natasha Pierre: Doing well. Excited to dive into, like, my favorite topic ever.

Sam Vander Wielen: I know, and you’ve become, I mean, you’re known for a lot of things. You, uh, I will stand on the mountain saying, Natasha invented the, like, capturing B-roll for your business and like, I, I really think you were at the beginning of that trend, so like, I will, that is absolutely going to you. Uh, but the next thing, uh, that you’ve, I, I think in my mind, become known for is [00:02:00] talking about series and how series are helping people to build their content platforms, to drive leads, you, you just had one recently that drove a ton of traffic to your email list and drive, obviously authority and awareness and all these kinds of things.

I’d love for you to start out by first telling everybody listening, if they spend the next 45 ish minutes with us, what are they going to learn? What can they expect to learn from you today?

Natasha Pierre: Absolutely. They’ll leave feeling really inspired to create your own series. Like you’ll have like the bits and pieces, the ideas, so you can hopefully execute it right after listening.

Sam Vander Wielen: Yeah, I hope so too. You guys are all gonna have to come back and tell us if you did. I’m like, what series you created. I wanna know. Um, people are so creative with it, so I think it’d be helpful just even starting out telling people really what, what are we talking about? What is a series when we talk about it in the content world?

Natasha Pierre: Absolutely. So I always like to draw the through line that a content series, a video series is [00:03:00] essentially creating your own Netflix show, but on social media. So instead of doing one piece of content where you’re talking about a topic in depth, maybe have a few main points, you’re maybe just posting it once and then you’re not ever really touching it again.

We’re taking that one topic, that idea, that theme, and we’re actually stretching it out into individual episodes. So there’s really something that really ties them together. Maybe there’s a similar format, a similar topic, or maybe they build on each other, but each episode essentially covers a different idea or a different main point, or a different story, or a continuation of that, really that common theme that the series is really anchored by, and this is such a great way to create content because instead of having your one really great idea and feeling like you have to stuff everything into it, you only post it once and then you’re like, okay, well guess I’m moving on to the next idea.

You can really go deep with your audience. You can increase retention and engagement. People are coming back ready. But also we think of that like a binge worthy effect that we want new people to have when they’re experiencing our [00:04:00] profiles. You don’t want someone to find a video, love it, and then can’t find anything else similar to it. And series are a really great way to easily create that bingeable experience.

Sam Vander Wielen: Yeah, absolutely. I mean of course all the ones that come to mind for me are related to food as you know. . I love food and I know you do too, and I know you love a lot of the people. I love it. So like, I always think about, um, Jen Eats good on Instagram and like Jen Lueke who does this so well with her, she has like a $50 shopping thing where she goes to Trader Joe’s or sometimes she’ll do it at Whole Foods.

And then she shows you how many weekly meals she makes out of that shopping trip and shows the groceries, shows the meals. Shows how she stretches them. It’s so, and every time I’m like, oh, I wanna see the next one. Could you give everybody maybe some other examples that either you’ve done or you’ve had clients do, or you’ve seen done well online?

Natasha Pierre: Yeah, definitely. I feel like that’s one that I always use as a great example. Because I love how even the first episode isn’t getting right into the recipes is actually starting by just introducing you to the concept, [00:05:00] kind of like her POV when it comes to batching, uh, meals and kind of getting the groceries together.

And then you’re like, of course I need to know what they’re making with the groceries. You’re like seeing the previews of the recipes. So I feel like it’s such a great model there. Um, another creator I know we both love who’s on YouTube, is Jules Acree. And every year during January, December time, she does some type of New Year series. So maybe it’s slowing down for the new year. Maybe it’s like planning, getting organized, tidying. These are all like common themes in her content. And I love how it’s like a timely piece of content, so she’s really thinking like, what do people care about and want to know during this time?

But even as someone who’s been in her audience for years, I know to expect that that’s gonna be something that’s coming. And we’ll talk more about how you can make your series strategic, but that’s actually kind of what inspired me to think, wow, could I make a freebie specific to this video series and see what the results would be?

So I feel like that’s a really great example. Um, and probably another example that I can think of is actually, um [00:06:00] styling with Kenzie. She has a really big following on TikTok and also on Instagram, and now she’s branched to YouTube and essentially, her dream is to have her own fashion styling TV show.

So she’s like, until I get that, I’m literally gonna make my own. So just like, kind of like a what, not to wear kind of vibe, but like less mean and cringe and everything like that. Um, she essentially does that with her clients where she likes to introduce where they are. She likes to share their wardrobe, they go shopping together, hair, makeup before and afters and it literally feels like a production. And it’s grown from something that was really small. Her and her husband just did like in their car, in their home to know something that she literally is like producing for YouTube and up to 10 minutes long, but also something she shares on short form. So, um, I feel like it, it kind of shows, it really can go across any industry and it’s definitely not just for creators, but I feel like it kind of gets the wheels turning when you think of it in that way.

Sam Vander Wielen: Yeah, for sure. It’s funny because it goes back to another thing I attribute to you, which is that if you’re not getting invited onto stages yet to build your own, [00:07:00] and so this is like a good example where you could create this through a series of sorts. What do you feel like if you had to narrow it down to like the three ingredients that make a very successful series, what, what would you say those are?

Natasha Pierre: Ooh, I love this. I think the first thing is making sure you’re getting hyper specific on a series that is relevant to your goal. Because I think oftentimes people think, okay, I’m gonna make a series, so let me just put together a how to do this, or weekly vlogs, or whatever the idea is without really thinking of like what is the objective and the goal of the series that we’re creating.

Because I feel like we’ve already mentioned a lot of goals. Sometimes it could be to grow your email list, sometimes it could be to nurture your current audience, which can be different than nurturing an audience that literally doesn’t know who you are, like attracting totally new people. Um, maybe you’re wanting to re-engage your audience, like you feel like your engagement is like total flops and you’re like, I just wanna get people commenting and interacting, like seeing my content again, which is also very different than I just want them to convert and take an action.

So I feel like the [00:08:00] more specific you get with your goal, the more specific you can actually get with your series, which really helps you get better results. Um, even with the, um, simple video system series, which was the series I’m sure we’ll talk about throughout this, uh, my goal was that I was actually trying to reach new people because my audience had just grown a lot from a viral video.

I knew it was a great visibility time for my channel on YouTube, it’s like very much when people were like how to do something new in 2025 era. Um, but I also knew that it was something that was gonna reach new people, but be for those new people that join. Just joined my audience. So it was a very different approach to, if I would’ve done it like this is for my people that are already in my community, that already know I love systems that already know I talk like this or mention these types of things, I would’ve approached it a little bit differently.

So I feel like that’s definitely a really big one. Um, I think another one is. Taking that topic and making it signature. Because I think we’re starting to see more and more series and even with the examples that we’ve shared, it’s kind of content in general saturated, right? So what makes your series [00:09:00] different and interesting and engaging.

And sometimes it can be that hook, you say, maybe it’s the name of it, which I feel like was what a lot of people get caught up on, but it’s not the only way. Maybe it’s how you edit it or how you deliver it. I think when I’m thinking about style creating or even like food, uh, series, there’s so many different formats that it can be done, it can be voiceover, it can be shopping, it can be like made very curated. It can be for a specific event like hosting, right? So what’s that signature thing that people will look at and not only be drawn to, but I literally identify it as like you. And I think that kind of leads to the next point of making sure you don’t over stuff your series.

I feel like, because we’re kind of stretching out your idea, we’re having more episodes, more content dedicated to that theme. I often find that people feel like then they kind of add more and more and more, and they never really stop. Right? So it’s important that each episode should really live on its own, should really add value on its own, and it should get people wanting more versus you [00:10:00] delivering too much in that one episode.

And often what I tell people is like, your idea for a series and the few bullet points you have, you probably can stretch those out even more. Um, I know when I just did my, um, workshop on series, I was doing some audits for some of the members and I remember someone had an amazing idea for a series.

I like helping brand photographers. They had a lot of great bullet points on what they wanted to share, but literally just one of their bullet points for the series was how brand photographers can use AI and their workflow. And I was like, I think that’s actually the series. That’s the series, right?

So I think we often have gotten stuck in this cycle of like, more is better with content, but now more than ever, it’s the complete opposite of the more micro, the more specific, the less overwhelmed people are with your content, the better it’s gonna serve them and really the better it’s gonna do.

Sam Vander Wielen: Yeah. Okay. That is also helpful. I’ve, I’ve been watching, um, my stylist, Connie, who I think you might know, uh, Connie Jesperson, and she’s doing such a good job on Instagram right now. [00:11:00] She has this series that she just like made up on the fly called I think it’s called Summer Style School.

Natasha Pierre: Love the name.

Sam Vander Wielen: And every week she’s doing, uh, she’s taking one piece from her closet. ‘Cause Connie’s kinda like overarching, like the overarching theme is that Connie tries to encourage people to shop their own closets and not buy more clothes. ’cause she’s also like. Sustainably minded and also budget, you know, friendly. And so she takes one summer piece from your closet, takes it from the closet, and like, like everyone has, and then shows you five different ways to style it with all these different basics you already have.

And every week it just focuses on a different one, but she’s letting people vote as they go along for like, what should next week’s Style School item be? So like, last week, it was like a line, a linen button up shirt or something like this. And so that’s what her episode was this week. . So that has been, yeah. So successful.

So you mentioned in the first tip that you start out by thinking about the goal. And so from my perspective, it’s kind of like you reverse engineer from there. But let’s say somebody has a goal to, [00:12:00] they’re probably, you know, the people listening are probably like, well, my goal is probably to grow their audience. , And or to get that audience onto their email list, which would ultimately grow their business. So when that’s the goal, how do we reverse engineer from there to the topic idea?

Natasha Pierre: Definitely. So I think you can do it either way. So you can reverse engineer of like, using that to then get the, the topic which I’ll talk about. But you also can take like the ideas you already have, maybe it’s existing content, maybe it’s like the ideas that are in your brainstorming bank that I think we all have. And chances are you can take that idea. Like, for example, for me, video content systems, and I can think, okay, if people literally don’t know who I am, they don’t even care who I am.

They’ve never heard my approach on systems. What are the four essential things that I want them to know that’s going to make the biggest impact and how can I make sure that in each episode of that, that I’m not just going into, okay, here’s how to have a content day, but I’m actually being like, here’s what a content day is.

Here’s why it’s a system you need, and I’m going a little bit [00:13:00] deeper because I’m assuming they don’t have that prior knowledge. I think a lot of people skip when it comes to getting new eyeballs. Um, and so that’s one way you can do it if you already have an idea. The other way you can do it is really like knowing the audience you’re trying to reach and go through like all of the questions they might have.

What are they currently experiencing, what problems do they have? Even think of your current audience, if they’re aligned with what you’re wanting to attract more of and think about like what are those questions you’re getting all of the time. I, I find those are kind of the best ways to get a series, because I feel like that’s really those topics you can really go deep with.

I think the other thing is thinking about, I mean, to your stylist example, I think that’s such a great one of like a core framework or philosophy or approach or like the thing that you’re like this is the hill I’m going to stand on firmly and yell from the rooftops, right? And that was like sustainable fashion, which is a very unique approach, right?

So thinking of what are those signature things maybe you teach in your programs or you [00:14:00] work with clients on, or that you’re actively doing in your own business, that you can then use to automatically get that signature effect in your series. And I find that you can get a lot of really easy ideas from there.

And really the next one is like, look at your insights and analytics. Like what emails, what content, what things that you’re already creating that aren’t a series are doing well and can you go deeper? Can you spread that out into multiple episodes? ’cause you already kinda have the social proof that it’s going to essentially probably do well in a series application.

Sam Vander Wielen: Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, the marketer in me, like what I really love about what Connie’s doing, the way she’s doing it is like the person who that series speaks to also would wanna work with Connie. So that like, because Connie is not gonna be the stylist that goes out and does a a Shein hall with you. You know, that’s not happening. So she’s gonna encourage you to take everything out, all those pieces you’re not wearing, and be like, why aren’t you wearing this? Let’s figure it out. And so I love that. So I think it just. So smart.

So, you know, as we’re talking about this, we were talking about like balancing not over stuffing and so I wanna make sure you’re [00:15:00] clear with everybody too, like when you tell people to go gather, like frequently asked questions and stuff like this, you’re not from my understanding telling them, go make a series of all the frequently asked questions that you get. You’re saying like, pick a good one. That you can break into more steps, right?

Natasha Pierre: Absolutely. And sometimes you’ll notice, maybe there’s a through line where a few of the questions kind of come back to a common response or a common theme or a common problem, but often just the one question you can probably break up, if there’s three things you’d recommend, that’s your three episodes right there.

Sam Vander Wielen: Okay. So how do, how do you go about doing this like, when you know you, maybe you feel overwhelmed by the topic, like somebody like me, for example, you can use, you can use my business as an example of like where we get more general questions of like, how do I start a business? I’m like, well, that’s a huge topic, right?

So how does somebody like me with that topic go about breaking that down and creating a series about it?

Natasha Pierre: Yeah, I love that. How to start a business. I would start with what maybe they’re the most stuck with or what you can help them the [00:16:00] most with, and then really dig into that as being the angle for the series.

So let’s just say they’re wanting how to start a business is really what they’re wanting to focus on. But really what they’re struggling with is like, I don’t even wanna start doing things until I know that I actually can. Like am I actually able to execute those things? And of course you probably know these even better than me, but that would be kind of like if you’re starting anywhere, this is why this is the first step, you’re checking off on your list. That is actually the series, the first step you’re checking off on your list as you’re starting a business.

And that will probably be, you know, getting your business registered, getting your contracts in place, like all of those types of things. And so it’s kind of taking that big question and thinking of what is it actually that they’re asking.

They’re actually asking like, I wanna start, but I feel like I can’t, I feel like I’m not actually able to, or I’m worried about the repercussions of what will happen versus like, I wanna start a business. You could go a million different routes for that. I think that also does lean into the idea of like, series can be [00:17:00] continuous, so if you really feel like what you’re talking about or what you’re sharing, that there really is so much to share.

It doesn’t need to be locked down to just four episodes. It can be something that’s continuous, it could be something that’s even a few episodes long. I know for one of our clients, she is in like the therapy world and so we had this series, I think it went almost 30 episodes long, like frequently asked questions people had about therapy.

And so we started from the beginning of like, how do I find a therapist? Do I do virtual therapy? Like, um, what do I do during my first session? So like literally those, like one-on-one things people are thinking about to then like, I actually want my family member to go to therapy. What do I do? How do I encourage them? Right?

And so we kind of started with those core things and then took all those interactions, like same to the example of your stylist, like having that interaction, having that engagement to actually guide the rest of the series.

So as much as you wanna make it specific, I think sometimes those bigger topics like therapy can go deep and long and it can kind of be something you’re, you’re known for too.[00:18:00]

Sam Vander Wielen: So in the therapist example where that’s like a rolling series, like the 30 part, you know, plus series you’re posting or you, you’re saying that like a person like that is posting content in between, that’s not series oriented, right?

Natasha Pierre: Yes. Yeah. So I always like to go back to the Netflix example. When it comes to the cadence of your episodes, how many episodes do you have?

Like when are you actually posting them. And so when you think about it like a Netflix show, there’s kind of a variety of strategies that they implement and can work. Sometimes there’s like a literal drop of an entire season, right? All the episodes drop and you just like to binge the entire thing, right? And that means, yeah, you might wanna post all of your series episodes back to back, to back, to just get people engaged, excited, and just like keep rolling. That there’s also the thing that people say they’re annoyed by, but it keeps them coming back of like when Netflix only drops like part one and then there’s like a part two, you have to wait for a week for, and then there’s like a part three finale, you have to wait another week for, and that’s really a great example of like really spreading your series out and there can be content in between that, that can actually [00:19:00] serve your audience but also keep them thinking about the series that’s in the background that they’re waiting for too.

So you can kind of find a good balance of like, maybe it’s only a few episodes, maybe it’s a lot of episodes, but it can either be continuous or it can be kind of throughout the rest of your content.

Sam Vander Wielen: Yeah, I feel like this is so age oriented, because I literally remember the Thursday night rushing home to watch Friends. Like the new episodes of friends coming out. Right. And it was so exciting.

But I do think there’s something in between too with the series where I’ll see. Like, yeah, I guess, I guess they’re, they’re technically rolling and they’re, they’re still putting them out, but like, it’s kind of cool when you stumble on somebody’s series.

Like I think this is maybe what happened to me with Jen Eats good. . Like I found one of her like $50 Trader Joe’s, series videos. And then I was like, oh my gosh, she made so many meals out of this. And then I, and it said like, you know, parts 16 or whatever. So I went back and watched all the other ones. But then moving forward, I was looking forward to 17, 18, 19. Like it got me oriented to it, you know?

Natasha Pierre: That’s why the series are just so valuable [00:20:00] because it’s great for the new people. You’re giving them a place to start. You’re automatically introducing you to them. They’re like getting right into it.

They’re getting nurtured really fast. But then of course, your current audience gives them something to anticipate, to get excited for and to keep coming back for, because I know I always get a message of like, well, I haven’t seen your content in a while, right? I think with algorithms we all kind of do.

I feel like when you have a series in the back of people’s minds, sometimes they come back before even seeing it because they automatically know, oh, if I need my recipes this week, I haven’t seen her, her content on my feed, but I’m gonna go there ’cause I know she has content on it.

Sam Vander Wielen: Yeah, absolutely. And just got Jen a book deal. She has a whole book book coming out about it, so it works, guys. I know we’ve given a lot of examples talking about series being done through social media, but where are some other places that people could park their series and then maybe even use the, that content, you know, repurpose it onto social media?

Natasha Pierre: Absolutely. When it comes to any type of social media content, video [00:21:00] content, so carousels, reels, tiktoks, shorts, all the short form content really works. LinkedIn, I think it’s a great place for that. I think there’s different formats. Of course, video is always gonna be my preference, but, um, articles, newsletters on LinkedIn can work really well for a series.

I think also for podcasts. I know podcasts and YouTube kinda longer form content kind of mesh and meld together nowadays, but, I think it’s a really great way to get people like coming back to listen, um, and increasing that listenership. Of course, like I think email series are really, really fun.

It’s kind of a fun way to change things up if you’re constantly doing the same thing all the time and it can be kind of like a newsletter, like a signature newsletter or format that can technically be its own series or it can be all month long. In June, we’re gonna talk about B-roll. Like that could be a theme for you.

And I feel like once you kind of start thinking of content in a way of a series, it kind of makes you wanna make everything a series. ’cause it can really help you stay consistent. It kind of gives you accountability, it gives your audience something to look forward to. Like it kind of is a win-win across the board. Really [00:22:00] any content format can do really well as a series.

Sam Vander Wielen: Yeah, it’s a nice way to keep things really digestible and like I do think people weigh over stuff, a lot of content and, and we also way overestimate how much information people really need /want. So I think it, it could be almost like a pacing mechanism.

I’m also realizing too, as you’re talking that like. I, I turned, for example, uh, a series essentially into a freebie. , Because I have the eight day legal challenge that does really well, as you know, and that essentially is a series because it’s an eight day window of walking you through every day you do a five minute task to get something done in your business to get it set up properly. So I’m thinking like you could take a lot of what you’re talking about and turn this into some sort of lead magnet.

Natasha Pierre: Totally agree. I think it can be like a challenge. It can be even like a private podcast series.

I’ve, I’ve opted in for so many of those. I, I love that format. It can even be like a video series, but you’re having it as an opt-in, like so many people actually actively opt in for, so really it can apply to any, any type of marketing format.

Sam Vander Wielen: [00:23:00] How often do you recommend somebody does a series in their business?

Natasha Pierre: Yeah. Love this question. I find that quarterly is like the perfect in-between, unless you fall into the category of you feel like continuous series just work really well for you. I feel like a lot of the like recipe niches. Or, um, those types of things, like you can constantly have a series going ’cause it’s just like never ending.

I don’t think that applies to every industry and niche, so it can kind of make series feel like a fun, special thing. But when I think about like how I kind of approach it for myself or for my clients, um, on YouTube, I like to have like one series a quarter that typically goes for like four episodes or a month.

Kind of the same thing for shorter form content is maybe I’ll have like one series within a quarter. So it’s kind of like a good way to balance things and, and I find that could be like a good sweet spot.

Sam Vander Wielen: Yeah and do you like kind of flop back and forth too between them being like a nurture series versus an attraction, like a lead generator series?

Natasha Pierre: Totally. I think it really just depends on your marketing goals at that time. I feel like sometimes I’ve been [00:24:00] more in like I was really trying to actively get sales or like tie back to a product or an offer that I have, and now I’m definitely more in like I’m reaching new people, I have a new audience. How can I actually make sure they’re sticking around for the ride and even more importantly, joining like a news list, an email list or something like that.

Sam Vander Wielen: Yeah, exactly. So, okay. So let’s talk a little bit about the one that you did recently on, well, you’ve done two recently on YouTube, but one was about, uh, video content and the other was a series on series is very meta. I was like, next week she’ll have a series on series on series. It’ll just keep going.

Yeah, so you had both of these and these both did really well. Could you maybe explain them like high level to people and then a little bit of what your goals were and just give them an example and how they helped your business?v Natasha Pierre: Yeah, definitely. So for the Simple Video System series, it was mainly on YouTube, which also goes onto my podcast. It was specifically starting in January and I feel like the timeliness aspect is important. Not always in content, but I know for me in [00:25:00] my industry, people in Q1 really care about content and social media and marketing.

So I knew this series was very timely and it’s something I actually try to do every time that year. So that was one thing that was really important to know, and I just had this viral video go off. And I basically was like, some things I talked about in that video, some things I already knew I wanted to talk about in the series that kind of guided that next piece of content so I was able to leverage, like people talk all the time about going viral, but they don’t talk about like, what do you actually do to keep people engaged, keep people retained, keep people actually subscribed and coming back to your content when you, they still don’t know you just ’cause you went viral and they subscribed from your video.

So that was really what guided that and so it was all about systems. Each episode covered one very specific system. I feel like in a topic like that, it just shows the importance of keeping things simple. I didn’t try to cover, oh, here’s all the organization systems. Here’s all these systems, here’s all this. Like I made it very specific to the four things I thought were the most essential. And then they went out weekly, four of them, [00:26:00] and I essentially decided because it was for my newer, new people to my audience, but also to continue reaching a new audience. Since YouTube tends to push out stuff when a piece of content does well, I was like i’m gonna make a freebie specific to the series.

So I essentially took my outlines from the series. I took the content that I shared, the action steps, and I just made like a notion workbook with it that kind of walked people through the steps, the action steps, and how they could actually implement each part of the episodes. Like no idea what it was gonna result in ’cause of course, just ’cause you’re getting eyeballs on content doesn’t always mean it’s gonna convert.

But I think I checked last week and we have over 1500 subscribers specifically from those, that content and noting I don’t share that free workbook anywhere else. Like it’s purely from those YouTube videos in that series.

I think it was just so easy to tie it into the topic of like, here’s the system now you execute it. And it just felt like it totally was like in sync. So I think that’s really why it. It did really well. So yeah, that was [00:27:00] the first series. Do you wanna break anything down before we go to the next one?

Sam Vander Wielen: No, I think that’s, that’s really helpful. ’cause then so then for your second one, you went in a little differently and your call to action from that series was actually to sign up for a workshop. Yes. So I would love for a, a paid, like a low ticket paid, uh, offer. So I’d love for you to talk about that.

Natasha Pierre: Yeah. So, um, really the goal with that series was to, first of all, I actually wanted to show people what a series looked like outside of my YouTube channel. So that’s typically where I like to do it. So that was like a side goal. Um, but really it was to reach my current audience, my current community that was loving the series. I was sharing all the social proof. I was sharing all these behind the scenes, so I wanted to talk more about it and get people being like, well, I have to be in that room for that workshop. So I just see very different goals. It was like, I want them to convert. I don’t care if these get high views. They didn’t necessarily get high views.

I didn’t want them to get lots of engagement. I was like, I want them to be like, I need to be in that workshop and I need to save my seat.

So I essentially took the core elements. I knew I was gonna be talking about that either I knew they cared about [00:28:00] or I knew they weren’t even thinking about and I made a episode for each. And for shorter form, I made it super specific on how many episodes should I have in my series. Like that’s how specific each of these episodes were, that I was essentially covering. And what I essentially did is I talked about series. I introduced ’em to them. I got them like feeling like they needed everything they needed to know, to know they wanted to make their own. That was like really the goal with the content.

And I made sure there were call to actions everywhere. I had call to actions in the middle of my reels. I also had them at the end, I had them the first line in the caption, bottom line in the caption. So it was very conversion based of people wanting to just like take that next step.

And I posted it right before the workshop, so a week before so it was kind of like a little bit of a timeliness element. So,, that got people not only really excited about series and kind of like recirculating it in their brain, but they were like ready to go and sign up from there. So it led to a lot of people turning that DM automation on, and signing up.

Sam Vander Wielen: Yeah. Okay. It’s cool how you, those are two like really different and good examples of one like building your email [00:29:00] list, but then also that the idea that like series can also go to sales and that’s cool too. Yeah. So, and then people join that workshop can obviously sign up to work with you in other ways, so that’s really cool.

I’m wondering for people who are maybe considering creating a series on a long form piece or a long form platform, like YouTube, a podcast, or maybe even email, whatever. What are some of the ways that are successful to parlay that to social media? So how do we take that long form and make it successful on places like Instagram, for example?

Natasha Pierre: It’s like one of my other favorite reasons why I love series is that because you go so deep, you can get like months of content from a really great series. And kind of like, let’s use like a podcast for example. Say you’re recording audio and video, just from one episode you can easily pull a video clip that features a really great moment from that series.

It’s something I like to do when I’m actually outlining my YouTube series. I like to already kind of think of those mic drop moments. Oh, when I’m mentioning this really big mistake people make when it comes to [00:30:00] systems, I’m already kind of formatting it for short form. So it kind of makes sense and really hits on that platform too.

So that’s definitely one easy one you can pull. But of course if it’s a 10 minute episode, I mean, we can really go even more from there. The other one is audio, which is actually a format that works really well for your content. Essentially we take the audio from your podcast or something like that and we’ll essentially put B-roll video clips on top of that so it almost looks like a vlog, kind of like a storytelling vibe. Sometimes the visuals are related, sometimes they may be sub related or kind of not related at all, but related to your brand.

And it kind of gives a different visual element that I feel really feels organic to reels without you having to record anything new. Everything’s already existing. So I think that’s definitely one of our favorite formats to use for you. And I feel like it can apply to a lot of different industries, especially if you have lots of B roll. And then from there it’s really like taking all of the copy. So whether it’s the transcript, whether it’s your outline, whether it’s any like assets you’ve [00:31:00] created to go with the series, like maybe promotional emails or things like that, you can use that to pull copy for carousel slides or copy for story slides, which is some, one of my favorite places to actually promote my series on YouTube. It can be for captions, it can be for text overlay videos.

So you can easily get like three different surfaces just by pulling the copy. And kind of from there, I mean, we kind of have generated five pieces of content from one YouTube series episode, but of course you could multiply and multiply that even more so and I think kind of a follow up question people might be thinking is like, am I rep repurposing to promote the series?

Am I using it to nurture content? It goes back to what your goal is. If your goal is that you wanna run that series up and you want as many people to listen to it, maybe like opt in from it. Then of course you wanna make sure you’re driving people to go to that episode or to that entire series. But for some instances it might not be the goal.

Your goal might be like, I wanna make the most of my time and my content that I’m already creating and I want it to nurture, engage, like, connect with my [00:32:00] current audience without them even having to go over to the series, that might just be a bonus. And it could be a mixture of both. Maybe you want maybe a few episodes to promote or a few pieces of content to promote the episode, and maybe you want some that are just going to just nurture and take care of your audience. So, you can kind of choose and pick your journey from there.

Sam Vander Wielen: Yeah. And I mean, you could have different marketing goals in your business at that time too. Like I’ve been pretty focused lately, uh, on growing the podcast. And so like for me, if you’re taking those videos, I want them to drive back to the episode, which not as, it’s not always the most successful. It’s been different.

We actually just have one that went crazy Good for on our end. Yeah. So like that did, we did we could be successful. Yeah. But that’s I guess a little bit of the experimentation of it, but it’s again, like that could have been a piece of content that you were talking about where you took my audio my voice or essentially as a voiceover over B roll. Yeah. We could have just made that like just a valuable piece of content for social and let it live there, but we drove it back to the episode and it went crazy.

Natasha Pierre: Yeah, I know. Which was, which was surprising. But I think once you land on a format, like luckily you’re [00:33:00] able to take something that’s so long form it goes so deep and you’re able to test It in a few different formats and kind of land on what works best for you, and we’ve consistently known that’s a format for you. So, good topic, and then you take it with some good visuals and good content, and you’re kind of ready to go for whether it’s conversions or just great engagement.

Sam Vander Wielen: Yeah, so you, you brought it up so you walked into this mess. So I’m gonna, I’m gonna walk you right through it, but you brought up stories, so let’s talk about it because everybody’s like, just, uh, yeah, I’m sure you hear about it more way more than I do.

But people are confused about Instagram stories these days. I know people who have been doing this as long as you and I have feel like stories aren’t what they used to be, it’s not working anymore. And then new people, I just feel like. They’re like, is this thing on, like this isn’t working? So there’s, there’s a bit of everything. I’m curious, you mentioned how you have a series and then you’re promoting it in your stories in a certain way, and you’re like, that’s what’s working well. So what, what are you seeing? I mean, if you want to bless us and give us a little overview on what’s working well on stories right now, I think that’d be helpful. . But also [00:34:00] then what’s working well with promoting your series on stories?

Natasha Pierre: Definitely. I feel like stories have changed, and so I think if you’re holding on to the old ways that you’ve liked creating or consuming stories, or you’re looking to the people with millions of followers that just dump anything on their stories and it probably will do well, it just won’t do as well in 2025. That’s just the reality of it. Which is honestly across the board. And I think when we can embrace that more as like people that are creating content for our businesses, it just makes things so much more chill, at least for me ’cause I mean, if I was like. Oh, if Instagram ever changes again, I’m outta here. This is just, I’m done. Yeah. Then I would’ve been outta here a long time ago.

But, um, oh, stories really, what I think is that how people are consuming stories is kind of leaning to a lot of things we talked about with series of like, less is more, less visually, less copy, less talking, less everything, because people are so just over overwhelmed with everything they’re consuming.

And so instead of posting like 10 [00:35:00] talking head videos that people are maybe watching the captions for, they don’t wanna listen the whole way or whatever that is. We’re wanting to take a very specific idea, very specific story. Very specific thing you actually wanna share that you’re actually thinking through when posting your stories.

I think because stories are known for being like a little bit more off the cusp, they expire. They’re supposed to be like a little bit more chill. I think people have gotten to the habit of anything I’m thinking of just blah, I’m just like literally gonna put it on stories. And while I think you can candidly share things, I think there needs to be a little bit more intention behind how you share it.

And honestly, I know it seems like once you’re, you’re embracing it, it, it feels harder. But actually, I think of it as kind of easier because instead of having to post everything during your day, during a day in the life, and literally post stories. All throughout your day, it’s actually better to just post them all at once. People can binge them all in one go. Instead of filling the app, like you have to literally actively share visuals that are happening in your day. I like to [00:36:00] go to photos and, and B-roll clips I already have in my camera roll that are kind of like standard brand images for me in a way. And then I use those.

I’m very, actually never posting in real time stuff. And so that’s really just a few things that I’m seeing, like really thinking of like, what is a story? What is the idea that you wanna share? Picking, maybe it’s one really great slide, which is really when you’re gonna get the most views or if it’s a few slides that’s really gonna connect deeper with your, your most engaged audience, maybe not reach as many people, get as many views. That’s what I found to be the most effective. So sometimes I’m bringing people behind the scenes, sharing them like what I’m doing through my day, kind of what’s working for me, what I’m thinking about, like those different types of things.

Maybe it’s actually like kind of more strategic promotion. So like for example, whenever I’m doing a content day, I always like to bring people through the content day so they can literally see our process instead of being like. Hey, here’s what I was doing today. I’m like, here’s what we achieved on the content day.

We did this and this is why we did this, and this is where we’re at here, and this is the end result. I’m like bringing them on a story, [00:37:00] which makes it very easy to drive it to a call to action that they’re already waiting for because they’re just like so engaged watching this entire day. And I kind of did the same thing with promoting my series.

So I like to think like, what are people thinking about? What are the people caring about with the series? What do I wanna draw outta the series? Maybe I’ll start with a poll of like, Hey, have you ever done this system with your content? Right? Maybe I’m saying like, Hey, do you feel like you struggle with a camera roll that is so disorganized?

Then I created the episode for it, right? So I’m kind of hooking them in, drawing them in, giving them more context and what the episode’s about. And then I share usually a few times, maybe it’s a screen share or a screenshot of like the visual of the episode. Maybe I’m actually sharing the clip from it. Or maybe I’m literally just linking directly and keeping it very simple. But, um, that’s kind of what I’ve seen to do really well there.

I did just do a video, an episode on stories and what I think’s changed how I think about them. So if you kind of like wanna see more of what I’m sharing, that can definitely be like an extra little resource.

Sam Vander Wielen: Mm. Yeah, that’ll be helpful. We’ll link to that down below. I have you [00:38:00] in the back of my head, every day when I’m posting stories, just like I, I, if this, in case this is helpful to anyone, like I will write on the, the photo or whatever, whatever I would want to say and normally say, and then I go through and cut the crap out of it.

I cut every single thing that I can and I. Literally read it over and over and tell ’em like, what’s a shorter way to say that? What’s a shorter way to say that? And I, I mean, given how much time I have, I’ll do that once or twice, you know? And, and I’ll also read it out loud because I’m like, often you write things that are way longer and clunkier than what you would actually just say.

If I just like picture myself, like saying this to Natasha, for example, a friend will be like. Oh, I would never say it like that. And that usually makes it a lot shorter. , So, but I always have you in my mind of like just simplifying and like stretching them out a little more instead of plopping like the days of having so many, like gigantic paragraphs are long gone, I think.

Natasha Pierre: Yeah. But I feel like that’s such a great like content tip across the board I do with my own content. Whenever I’m like uploading whatever it is. Maybe it’s like copy or if it’s like a talking head video. I always like edit everything, like [00:39:00] the breaks, the lines that aren’t absolutely necessary, the things that aren’t really adding, the things that are distracting.

I feel like that’s such an underrated skill to have as a marketer and creator for making better content, because by being concise and simplifying what you’re sharing. You’re really helping people focus on the best valuable parts of the content instead of distracting them with the fluff that maybe came into your mind when you were thinking of the content, or maybe you just said, ’cause you were like in the flow with your talking video, but is it really adding to it. And I think knowing you can always remove those things and that it doesn’t hurt your content. It’s not that you waste time on anything, it’s actually making it better, I think is, is so valuable and just having that fresh set of eyes of like, okay, I created this and oh, I think I can simplify it here. So , I’m so glad you mentioned that.

Sam Vander Wielen: Yeah, for sure. I think, I think writing the book helps me with this a lot, just learning how to edit, edit, edit. But it is really, I mean, you’re right, like you guys should apply this to so many different areas of your business and just self editing a lot. But like, get it all out.

Like write the story on the [00:40:00] slide, like do what you wanna do, but then be like, oh wait, that’s like before you hit post. Like, that’s way too much. Or I, I like literally highlight it and copy it so that I can put it on the next slide, you know, and cut it from that slide. So like even stuff like that, um, can be helpful.

You mentioned earlier too, about, well, you mentioned doing carousels as series, but I just also thought because of the, the timeliness of like that carousels are having a moment. And I know you just did a video on this, um, uh, recently on YouTube, which I’ll, I’ll make sure I link to, but what’s the deal with carousels? What’s happening? Why are, why are we experiencing this? Is it the same like slowness craving, do you think?

Natasha Pierre: Definitely, I think you can kind of control your consumption. You can choose what slides you’re looking at, when you’re looking at it, how you’re kind of reading and engaging with it. So I think, and it’s a little bit more active, I feel like with watching a video, it can feel a little more passive, and I think that’s where the overwhelm can come, is it feels like things are being thrown at you versus a carousel you kind of choose what’s what’s in front of you. So I think that’s partially why.

I think the other reason is on Instagram, there are so many different [00:41:00] parts of the algorithm. There isn’t just one algorithm, right? There’s the reels algorithm tab, which now carousels are being shown on the reels tab, especially when they have audio added on top.

We then have the main feed, we also then have the explore page, which is usually 50%, um, carousels. And then we also think about your profile when people are actually at your profile, they landed there for whatever reason. People might be gravitating towards a carousel because it kinda looks a little bit different than a reels cover, things like that.

So there’s so many opportunities for reach, which I think is why they’re getting even more reach. And there’s just some small, little tweaks to carousels that are just a little bit different. For one thing is people probably notice this maybe you see a carousel, you see one slide, you maybe don’t engage with it. You keep scrolling. You’ll often find it will recirculate itself. On the second slide of your carousel. And so you’re kind of getting two shots in the feed, which I think really can lead to people being like, oh, I’m seeing this again and I’m engaging longer with it. So those are kind of the main [00:42:00] reasons why a little bit of short form fatigue, a little bit of, there’s a lot of places, just discover it.

And also those little things like the recirculation can really help you just get more reach and people spending more time on your content.

Sam Vander Wielen: Yeah. Even like a lot of people’s carousels who I enjoy, like even Mallory Rowan’s are really good. I’m always, I’m always seeing hers, uh, that they like, it’s almost like a little mini series within the carousel itself. ‘Cause it’s walking you through like, uh, five things I’m doing lately or whatever it’s like some very specific.

Is there some like, so if people wanna create carousels and even maybe that’s like a baby step into creating a series, is like even just, the one carousel you’re posting is a series within itself.

Is there some sort of like approach or like topic hook of the way that you think about carousels? Like how, what makes a good carousel.

Natasha Pierre: Mm. Love that. I feel like going back to where people find them is that, I mean, the first slide is obviously really important and it’s visually shown on the explore page, visually shown on your, your grid.

It’s like popping out on the feed, so you wanna make sure that it’s, it’s simple. There’s good [00:43:00] contrast. It really draws people in and really tells people why they should keep swiping through, like what is to come. Why should I keep engaging with this piece of content? And really the second slide of that carousel is almost just as important.

It’s almost reiterating that, because keep in mind, people are maybe seeing that on their feed alone. So it really should be able to stand on, its on its own when it comes to a piece of content. But, I honestly think it’s very similar to what I mentioned with stories. I, I think of them as very similar pieces of content like essentially bringing them through a story.

Maybe you’re telling them, kind of what’s working or maybe you’re telling them about. Something that you experience or maybe you’re sharing thoughts or you’re really using each slide to just add one little puzzle piece more to the story that you’re wanting to tell. And it can be more valuable, more tactical, more education style.

It also can be more of a way to personally connect. I feel like photo dumps on carousels blew up and kind of never went away. But I think just sharing photos as like a photo dump is great. It can still have that visual [00:44:00] story, but how can you like tell a story with those visuals? So I think those are a few elements that make for a really strong carousel.

Sam Vander Wielen: So if somebody was going to, for example, do a photo dump recap of like the last month or something like, so we’re hitting the first of the month for that month. Like what would be a way for someone to approach that to be like, Hey, here’s how my May, How my June went or something like that?

Natasha Pierre: Yeah. I feel like if there was a common theme or like an aha moment or like one big thing you wanna share about what you’re recapping, lead with that. Start with that. Focus it on that, and you kind of wanna share a little bit of everything and there’s like a lot to share. Kind of like. Tee it up in that first slide of like, here is like what was actually happening in my May and then kind of from there you can kind of share a visual and then share some context with it. Sometimes visuals can stand on their own, but knowing like, this is my first time having this type of food, or I, I had such a great time at this event, like I spoke in front of 200 people, like what in the world?

So I think you can kind of give your, musings your thoughts and like giving those extra little moments that [00:45:00] by just seeing a visual or even by seeing the visual and then going to the caption, you’re actually able to connect the two a lot faster.

Sam Vander Wielen: Hmm. So I guess someone like me could do a photo dump where it’s , like uh, like my 10 favorite ways I got to promote my book. Or 10 of the my favorite things I got to do while promoting my book. . And then like that would be a cool way to show, like simultaneously showcase the book while also recapping and doing photo dumps.

Natasha Pierre: Totally. Exactly. And when it comes to how you end off your carousels, it can end with a call to action or easily like tying into whatever it is you may be mentioning, if it’s strategic, but also sometimes it can be really effective to just like wrap it up on a really great slide. That’s often what people will save, share, or will kind of get them reading the caption and spending more time on it. So there’s kind of a few different ways you can approach that.

Sam Vander Wielen: Yeah. It’s probably another thing that you start out with thinking what the goal is first.

First, right. Totally. And then design in reverse. Yeah. Okay. That’s super helpful. Is there anything else I haven’t asked you about series today? Anything you think I missed [00:46:00] that people really need to know about?

Natasha Pierre: We covered a lot of it, but I think the one thing that maybe we didn’t mention was that a series doesn’t just need to be talking because I think that’s often what people default to.

I know we’ve talked about some different formats like email or carousels, um, but I think even when we’re thinking of video, like a series can be totally voiceover. A series can even be very simple to overlay B-roll style, right? Where maybe it’s like a weekly thing that you’re sharing, or even like when we talk about recipes and outfits, like outfits that you shared for that week or a roundup.

So I think often we think we need to be talking, or it has to be really produced, or it has to be long, or it has to be even just on YouTube, I, I get that all the time. Like, oh, so you do this for YouTube. But really it can be any format. It’s really just that theme that ties multiple, you know, main points of the, the episodes together.

Sam Vander Wielen: Yeah. Okay. That makes a lot of sense. I am thinking of Natalie Borton on Substack every month does a series where she shows you with a calendar what outfits she wore that [00:47:00] month with little visual, like there’s a little sticker of her outfit every single day on the calendar. And then she, at the very bottom of it, will tell you which pieces she wore the most that month, like, because she’s also known for repeating and keeping wardrobe pretty simple and tight. So yeah, it’s. That’s just what came to mind. Okay. That’s super helpful to know.

Well, thank you so much. You’ve taught everyone so much today. Where would you like people to go find you and connect with you and work with you and all the things?

Natasha Pierre: Yeah, definitely. I think YouTube’s a great place to start because I have not only like a mini series on series, like I have the case study if you wanna dive deeper into it, more on series. But I also have the series that we mentioned, the Simple Video System Series, so you can kind of see it in action. And then I also have a workshop that I hosted all about how to DIY, your own signature video series. So if you’re interested in that, you’ll essentially create it, start to finish and be ready to post it after.

Sam Vander Wielen: That’s awesome. I’ll make sure I link to everything down below. Thank you so much Natasha. I really appreciate you being here.

Natasha Pierre: Yeah, thanks. This was fun.

Thanks so much for listening to the On Your Terms® podcast. Make sure to follow on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen to podcasts. You can also check out all of our podcast episodes, show notes, links, and more at samvanderwielen.com/podcast. You can learn more about legally protecting your business and take my free legal workshop, Five Steps To Legally Protect and Grow Your Online Business at Samvanderwielen.com and to stay connected and follow along, follow me on Instagram at samvanderwielen and send me a DM to say hi.