A Step-By-Step Guide

If you’ve followed me for a while, you already know a few things about me.

I’m a mom of two boys, so most of my business happens in the margins, during nap time, after school pickup, or in the car before I go inside.

I wrote a book, Don’t Burn Your Own House Down, and I host The Living Easy Podcast.

And for the last 11 years I’ve been making content on the internet, long before it was called a “creator economy.”

But for me, Instagram has brought in over $360,000+ in sales from courses alone, and I have never paid for an ad or hired a social media manager to get there.

This doesn’t include the $7,500 a month made from Social Media Management, the affiliate income, brand collaborations at $2,000 a reel, or $18,000 annual Pinterest payments…(you can learn more about this income in my Money Making Bundle!)

It’s solely from online courses, teaching the things that I’ve spent my time learning and researching over time.

We all have something we’re good at…what is yours?!

I didn’t have a viral moment that changed everything. It was me, my phone, my stories, and a lot of real conversations.

I’m telling you this because I keep getting the same DM:

“Lindsey, how do you actually sell on Instagram without feeling gross about it?”

Or the other version:

“I have followers, but I don’t know how creators make this kind of money. What am I doing wrong?”

My guess is that you aren’t doing anything wrong. You’ve probably been told the answer is more content, more reels and more trends, when what actually sells is trust built on purpose, followed by a clear invitation at the right time.

🌸 Why most creators aren’t making money on Instagram

The algorithm isn’t the thing holding most creators back. What holds them back is that they only sell when they launch.

They go quiet for months, then show up one week and say “buy my thing!” and wonder why it falls flat. Their audience doesn’t know what they’re good at yet. Nobody got a taste of the result first, and there’s no reason to buy now.

When I look back at everything that worked for me, it comes down to three things.

1. Real connection. I answered DMs myself and replied to comments like they were coming from a friend, because they were. People buy from people they feel like they know, and they can tell when you actually care whether it helps them.

2. Organic content that teaches. For about two months before I ever opened the doors, I taught really valuable things for free, all related to what my courses would cover. I gave away free PDFs, walked people through real steps, and let them get a small win before I asked for anything. By the time I launched, my audience already knew exactly what I could help them with.

3. Selling in my stories, consistently. Stories are where the selling actually happened. Reels bring new people in, but stories are where the people who already like you decide to trust you. I talked about my offers there often, casually and honestly, the same way I’d tell a friend about something I loved.

🌸 What I actually did

Here’s the rough shape of it:

  • Two months of teaching first. Content tied directly to my courses, plus free PDFs people could download and use right away.

  • A two-week waitlist. Before anything went on sale, people could join the list and get first access.

  • A real early-bird window. Anyone who signed up in the first two weeks got a sale price. After that, it went up.

  • Real deadlines. When I said the doors were closing, they closed. That’s the whole reason deadlines work.

  • Email Lists. Everything I posted on Instagram I also sent to my email list, because Instagram can change overnight and your list stays yours.

I didn’t use a complicated funnel or a paid ads budget, and none of it depended on a trend.

That strategy is how I built The Money Making Academy, and it’s the same system I’d use if I started over tomorrow with zero followers.

Dashboard showing $363,017 in total sales

🌸 The good stuff is on Substack

Everything above is the what. Paid subscribers get the how, which is the stuff I don’t post anywhere else:

  • My exact 2-month pre-launch content plan. What I taught, in what order, and how every post pointed back to the offer without feeling salesy

  • The free PDFs I gave away and how I used them to grow my email list

  • My story-selling framework. What I say in stories on a normal day, during a waitlist, and during launch week, with real examples

  • The waitlist playbook. How I set up the two-week waitlist and what I sent people while they waited

  • How I structured the early-bird sale so people had a real reason to buy in the first two weeks

  • My launch emails. The actual emails I sent to my list, ready for you to adapt

  • How I handle DMs so conversations turn into sales naturally, without scripts that sound like scripts

  • The deadline strategy and why the last 48 hours brought in 70% of my sales

  • The SPARC Method, my framework for writing content that stops the scroll and makes people want what you’re teaching

  • What I’d do differently if I launched again today

If you’ve been posting for months and feel like nobody’s buying, this is the post I wish someone had handed me years ago.

And if you want everything I teach about making money online in one place, The Money Making Academy has everything you need to create your very own online course from scratch (step-by-step) AND my exact marketing plan and roadmap that I’ve used to promote it.

Get the full post on Substack. Read the rest of this post here, and subscribe to my Substack as a paid subscriber to get the full 10-part strategy.