I’m so excited to introduce a special guest on the KBD blog today: Pearl, the strategist and storyteller behind Priceless Digital Studio, where she helps entrepreneurs turn Instagram stories and content creation into one of their most powerful (and fun!) sales tools.

Pearl is a content strategist, past collaborator, and friend who is known for helping service providers and creatives build true communities on social media. Her approach is refreshingly real, rooted in strategy, but always with the heart of storytelling at the center.

In this guest blog, Pearl is sharing her insights on how you can use Instagram Stories to build a personal brand, nurture your community, and sell with confidence without feeling icky or glued to your phone 24/7. From story pillars to subtle selling, she’s breaking it down in a way that feels doable and even fun.

If you’ve ever wondered how to show up authentically on Instagram Stories, attract the right clients, and make sales without burnout, this is your blueprint. Let’s dive in and hear from Pearl herself:

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When you hear “show up on stories” do you picture…

• Posting a Monday morning to-do list to prove to your audience how in demand you are?
  
• Resharing every feed post with zero new context?
  
• Talking to the camera every day with a full face of makeup and a perfect outfit (even when you have nothing new to say)?
  
• Posting a pic of your lunch or your dog just to keep views up?
  
• Oversharing every brunch, family BBQ, or Target run to “prove” you’re relatable?

Well to be honest, I don’t do any of that. Why? Because I’m busy creating high-converting content for clients and taking dance classes at my local dance studio. And yet, how is it that I have a community of people who watch, binge, and buy directly from my IG Stories…without me showing up 24/7?

Because instead of treating Stories like an afterthought of my feed content strategy, I treat it as a core part of my content ecosystem & funnel. And the most successful clients that I work with do too, because they know that sales happen in the stories.

You probably already have content pillars whether you’ve established them yourself or worked with a social media strategist, but let me now introduce you to Story Pillars.

This is what turns Stories into one of my highest-converting platforms for myself and my clients, and luckily for you, I don’t feel like gatekeeping today. I’m going to be breaking down exactly what to post on Stories to build a community that converts, and I’m going to make it simple for you.

1. Make it easy for people to say, “I’m not even considering other people” by building your personal brand on IG Stories.

Imagine this: You wake up to 10 inquiries in your inbox, and when you get on the call, they say, “You’re the only one I booked a call with. And I already know I want to work with you. Can you send me the contract?” This is what’s possible when you have a personal brand, and it’s most often built in the stories. 

Action Step:

Jot down 3–5 things that are so you your friends would text you a photo of it if they saw it in a store. These are your personal brand pillars, and you’re going to post about them at least 2–3 times a week.

Example: Mine are stationery, cat lover, loves Jesus.

• Stationery: A quick peek at my latest haul.
• Faith: A clip from my slow morning routine reading my Bible.
• Latte (my cat): A candid of him “helping” me work.
  

If you can’t think of quirks like that, think about signature habits, passions, or rituals…maybe it’s your boxing classes, your love for local coffee shops, or your weekend hikes.

You don’t need to tie these back to business. The point is to humanize your brand so people connect with you, not just your offer. THAT is how you build a brand people choose over anyone else.

2. Recession-proof your business by building your community on IG Stories.

It really is true what they say: your hottest leads are in your stories. Imagine them as your real community. I know the economy is crap right now, but having a community is what is going to save your business. Followers don’t care if you disappear. A community is going to notice if you got hacked and blocked on IG, and will purposefully follow you from platform to platform.

Imagine you are selling Offer A, and Sally is selling basically an identical offer, Offer B, and it’s cheaper and just as effective. Followers don’t care; they’re going to go with Sally’s offer. But your community is still going to buy from YOU because they are bought into YOU and your values. 

Action Step:

Pick one journey you’re currently on and bring your audience along for it, in real time, not just once you’ve “made it.”

Examples:

• A fitness journey (even when you skip a workout)
• Redoing your home office
• Wedding planning
• Trying to find a new morning routine

When you invite people into the messy, imperfect middle, they root for you. And when people root for you, they keep showing up to support you. Perfect doesn’t build community. Vulnerability does. I mean, why else do we love putting ourselves in communities like Swifties, or Team Conrad vs. Team Jeremiah? (Btw there is only one right answer and it’s Team Conrad 👀)

3. Sell and convert on IG Stories without feeling icky. 

The reason why selling feels icky to you is that you’re probably not doing any indirect selling.

If the first time your audience hears about your offer is the day you launch it, you’ve already lost the sale. They should feel like they’ve been on the journey with you toward that offer for weeks (or even months) without you having to scream “I’m launching!” every other Story.

So here’s how you’re going to make selling feel less icky, and maybe even fun.

Action Step:

• How do you embody the process of your offer for yourself? (Ex: If you’re a business coach who teaches systems, show the Notion board you actually use to manage your launches.)
  • For your clients? (Share a quick Story of you helping a client set up their own system)
• How do you embody the results of your value for yourself? (If you teach designers how to raise their rates, share how you recently increased yours and what that’s made possible (like booking fewer, bigger projects).

For your clients? (Post a win from a client who implemented your method and landed their biggest project yet.)

I truly hope these three story pillars helped you to rethink what “showing up on stories” can look like as a business owner, and that having a strategy will help you to show up on stories more consistently.

If you’re like, “I loved this! Do you have prompts for each of these?” Pearl send send out IG Story Prompts that sell biweekly in my email newsletter, so sign up if you want her brain in your inbox telling you exactly what to post on stories to land that next client.