Combined totals across Instagram for July 1 through July 31, 2026. June's numbers were inflated by the FIFA World Cup, which drove outsized results across the board.
Posts Published
288
Across all channels and formats
IG Reels Reach
165K
↓ 63% vs. June
48 Reels published. June was carried by the World Cup.
New Email Subscribers
66
↓ 62% vs. prior
Free-chapter opt-ins via ManyChat. 234 DMs sent, 95 clicked, 66 submitted.
Net New Followers
+862
Instagram: 78,910 total. Growth slowed week over week through the month.
July had two objectives: one about improving video performance, and one about connecting content to business outcomes.
Primary Goal
Increase average retention on videos
Retention was identified mid-July as the current bottleneck. Hooks were already performing well (55% in June), so the focus shifted to keeping viewers past the first few seconds.
Secondary Goal
Sell Fearless Persistence copies through the content funnel
The broader business objective: turn social content into a path that leads people to the book. This requires content that attracts a defined audience, not just general reach.
Instagram Reels performance for July. The overall numbers mask a sharp split between two very different types of content.
IG Reels Reach
165K
↓ 63% vs. June
June was carried by the World Cup. July reflects our baseline without a massive cultural event driving traffic.
Avg. Hook Rate
54%
← 55% in June
Essentially flat. Hooks are not the problem.
Avg. Retention
18%
↓ from 20% in June
Moved in the wrong direction. This is the metric we set out to improve.
Median Reach / Post
2.4K
Median views per post: 2.9K. 94 median interactions. 5.8% median engagement.
Every reel from July categorized as either trend/event-based or educational. The performance gap between the two is not small.
The data from July reveals a structural issue in the content strategy, not just a performance dip.
Insight 1
Educational content isn't working
The current educational style is too vague to be useful to anyone. It doesn't solve a specific problem for a specific person, and the creative direction doesn't stand out. The data confirms it: 39.6% avg hook rate vs 62.4% for trend content, 10.0% avg retention vs 21.2%, and a median reach of 719 vs 3,200. The gap is across every metric.
Insight 2
Trend content works, but it's not sustainable alone
Content tied to massive events (Super Bowl, FIFA World Cup, Nolan's Odyssey) performs well and puts us in front of a large audience. But this strategy depends on events we can't control. It creates a boom-and-bust cycle: June had the World Cup, July didn't. The 63% reach drop is the result.
The Core Problem
We reach people, but we don't give them a reason to stay or say "this is for me"
Top-of-funnel content brings eyeballs. But there's no bridge from "interesting video about the Super Bowl" to "this person helps me with something I care about." We're missing the middle of the funnel entirely. Without a clear ideal customer and a clear value proposition, we can't build that bridge, and we can't create a content path that leads to Fearless Persistence.
The funnel gap
TOF (Top of Funnel)
Big-picture, trending topics. Currently working well for general reach. Super Bowl, FIFA, Nolan, major cultural events.
MOF (Middle of Funnel)
Content for a specific audience that builds trust and relevance. Currently not working because we haven't defined who this person is.
TOF content attracts attention. MOF content converts attention into audience. Right now, we have the first part but not the second. That's why reach spikes and then disappears: there's nothing holding people once the event passes.
The proposal: pick one specific person, help them achieve one specific thing, and build the content strategy around that.
1
Define the Ideal Customer Avatar (ICA)
We need to pick one person and commit. We can't create content that serves a specific audience and sells Fearless Persistence if we haven't deliberately identified who we help and how. This is the decision that gates everything else.
2
Build MOF content for that person
Once the ICA is locked, we build content that speaks to their specific world: their events, their trends, their hot topics. This is what makes a viewer say "this is for me" instead of "interesting video" and then scrolling away.
3
Keep TOF running with trend-based content
The big-picture trending content still works for reach. Keep posting 3-5 videos per week for top-of-funnel. But now the TOF content feeds into a MOF strategy that actually holds people.
ICA starting points to discuss
Option A
Ambitious professionals who want to build a creative career while holding down a day job. The side-hustle-to-creative-career path.
Option B
Ambitious people actively building their side hustle. Already in motion, looking for guidance and frameworks.
Reference account: @therealbrianmark on Instagram is an example of a creator who has successfully niched into a specific audience with this type of positioning.
Three things that need to happen before August's strategy can move forward.
Need 1
More video content
3-5 videos per week for top-of-funnel. We need a consistent supply to keep testing the updated scriptwriting approach and maintain posting frequency.
Need 2
ICA approval
We need to align on who the ideal customer is before building the content strategy around them. This is the single decision that unlocks everything in Section 4.
Need 3
Amazon backend access
Access to book sales data so we can correlate content performance with actual Fearless Persistence sales. Without it, we can't measure whether the funnel is working.