A little light self-sponsorship before we begin:
Free webinar for the Airbnb Host Community Leaders Programme: Your Profile is a Portal. Tuesday 9 September, 19:30 BST.
All are welcome… We’ll cover the 3‑line bio, a searchable Name Field, a distraction‑free profile, decision‑driving Highlights, and a one‑link strategy.
If your Instagram profile doesn’t convert, the rest of your Instagram work is either a waste of time or an expensive hobby. Register HERE
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Join 4,000+ Hosts & Property Managers - one email a week that turns Instagram views into enquiries and bookings. Join free
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Now on to the letter:
17 posts stuck in drafts. Not because they’re rubbish… but because they’re “not perfect”.
That's what's still left unpublished in my guest house's Instagram Account (I closed up in October last year and discovered them whilst rooting round for something)
“Perfectionism is prevarication masquerading as quality control.”
When I was running my guest house in Oxford, obsessive attention to detail helped with guest satisfaction, contracts and compliance.
For Instagram? It stalled me. Hours of work that helped no one (least of all me) because so much of it went unpublished.
“Done is better than perfect.”
What perfectionism really costs you
It delays consistency. Your ideal guests are scrolling tonight, planning trips. Next week’s “perfected” post might miss them entirely.
It hides what matters. Perfect posts can look like estate agent photos - polished, but no sense of what it’s actually like to be there.
It blocks connection. One of my clients shared a Stories sequence of her chaotic prep morning. She worried it looked “too unpolished”… that is until it led to her highest week of enquiries because guests saw the human behind the business.
“You’ll achieve much more by
being consistently reliable than by
being occasionally extraordinary.”
~ SAHIL BLOOM
A simple system to hit publish ↴
Here’s the 3‑Layer Filter I use with all my coaching clients to help them overcome the fear of publishing content they don't think is up to their previous high standards.
(Yep - it was those high standards that were costing them soooo much extra time and filling their Drafts folder rather than helping potential guests).
If a post passes all three, we publish/schedule immediately.
If it fails one, we fix that single layer (five minutes max), then publish.
Help: solve a problem, answer a question, or share a useful local insight.
Hook: stop the scroll with a strong first line, an intriguing angle, or a striking visual.
Next Step: tell people exactly what to do: tap to like, follow for more, DM for dates, or click the link in your bio.
Quick applications for STR marketing content ↴
Carousels: Hook slide + 3–4 helpful slides + clear CTA.
Stories: One authentic moment + brief context + a link sticker CTA (e.g., “View availability”).
Single image posts: Great photo + helpful caption + soft booking invite.
Reels: Visual Hook in the first 3 seconds + get straight to the value + clear CTA
Permission to post before you feel ready
What so many Hosts lack is permission to be human on the internet.
When a cottage owner in the InstaBooked Programme gave herself that permission, would you believe… started to post consistently.
“I can't believe how easy it is now! It's totally liberating and I'm publishing content without worrying and stressing! 🤗”
How did she achieve this? She gave herself permission to post content that hadn't been "perfected".
She recognised that the final hour(s) of polishing her material brought only marginal improvements to the "quality" of her content.
She understood the 80/20 rule and that the effort to close that final 20% to achieve “perfection" was what was taking up so much of her time, bringing stress into her marketing, and ultimately made her loathe the thought of creating marketing content for Instagram.
She went from about 2 posts per month to 3 each week… not by being obsessed with every little part of a post, but by showing up reliably and JUST HITTING POST.
She iterated on her content one step at a time.
This week: focus on Killer Hooks. Next week: learn to mix up CTAs. The week after: begin to sprinkle keywords into her content.
Then came enhancing the scanability (is that actually a real word? Who knows.. I'm sure you get it!) and readability of her captions
These iterative steps are what led to to the massive improvements in the "quality of her content" and…
She doubled her website visits from Instagram within three months.
Today’s action: pick a draft you've been working on, run it through the 3‑Layer Filter, and post it by 5 p.m.
Go on…. you can do it!
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P.S. If this resonated with you… here are a few ways I can help you:
Get free help and advice by following my Instagram
Free webinar (Airbnb Host Community Leaders Programme) on Tuesday 9 September at 19:30 BST. Register HERE
The Calm Host Content System… create and publish targeted marketing content in an efficient, effective framework knowing that each and every post speaks directly to your Perfect Potential Guest
The Breakthrough Bio Blueprint… 10 steps to optimising your Instagram Profile and turn it from a bottleneck to a portal
Book a free 1-on-1 consultation and I'll give you both low-hanging fruit to improve your Instagram efforts and some direction moving forward. Just reply to this email.
Full disclosure… if (and only if) I think you'd truly benefit from one of my courses I'll signpost you to it. Drop me a line & let's talk