Lay the Course Podcast · Vela Creative Co.

Intentional Strategy with Lizzie Mattson

·41 min·2 clips

Lizzie says Instagram shut down her account for a week and she was upset to lose her DMs.

1. Lay the Course Podcast centers this conversation with Lizzie Mattson on intentional Instagram strategy, content systems, and business ownership. 2. Kelsey Stein hosts as the owner of Vela Creative Co., and Lizzie Mattson joins as an Instagram marketing agency owner who works with online business clients. 3. The episode asks what it takes to build a consistent Instagram presence without relying on perfection or a single platform. 4. Lizzie says she grew up in Wyoming and now lives in the Black Hills of South Dakota, and she links her business drive to making what she could not afford. 5. She describes a background in the handmade industry as a fiber artist who weaves and does fiber art. 6. Lizzie says she studied psychology, finished too far into her bachelor's degree to change majors, and then worked in the human services industry after graduation. 7. She says the online business world felt young in 2017, when blogs, influencers, and social media management still felt new or suspicious to many people. 8. Lizzie bought an online course for virtual assisting because she wanted to work from home on her own terms. 9. She says a five-day business challenge and a Facebook Live giveaway led to a free ticket to a 12-week coaching program. 10. Lizzie describes winning that ticket as one of the few "jaw-dropping moments" in her life, and she says it pushed her toward online work. 11. She explains that her business began as a generalized social media management offer and later became an Instagram marketing agency. 12. Lizzie says maternity leave forced her to hire help, which turned into an agency model because she needed support. 13. She says she works with WordPress web designers, coaches, brand designers, brick-and-mortar designers, and even a celebrity dog trainer. 14. Lizzie says the most common client pain points are lack of time, difficulty keeping up with Instagram trends, and trouble staying consistent. 15. She says consistency requires a system, and she built one that can live in an all-in-one space and feel manageable. 16. Lizzie breaks that system into strategy, frequency, format, captions, and hashtag planning. 17. She says her favorite framework is the "content clarity organizer" in Asana, which she compares to a virtual Lisa Frank trapper keeper. 18. Lizzie says a recent Instagram shutdown taught her that she does not own her followers, that DMs mattered more than she expected, and that an email list is a backup she now values. 19. The tone is conversational, practical, and coach-like, with a lot of back-and-forth examples and direct advice. 20. Business owners who need Instagram structure and content ideas will get the most from this episode, while listeners wanting theory-heavy marketing may skip it.

As heard by us

Practical Instagram organization advice built around a repeatable content system.

This episode presents Lizzie Mattson as a practical guide to Instagram work, with the focus squarely on organization and a repeatable workflow.

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Why you'd press play

You want Instagram to feel organized instead of constant.

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