The Shooting My Shot Challenge: What Worked and What Didn’t
Oct 14
Hamilton Schmid
On September 14th I posted “Day 1” of shooting my shot with a dream client for every new follower on Instagram. I then posted 16 times with that same challenge series, and it was both a success and a flop … but let me back up before we get into the details.
The idea for a challenge came from sitting in the back of Brock Johnson’s Insta Club Hub Live. I was show calling the conference, but also got to be in the room learning from speakers on stage like Maria Wendt, Jessi Jean, and ICH co-founders Brock & Chalene.
The “Challenge per Follower” Concept
Being an Instagram conference, a lot of post ideas were shared and one really stuck out to me: run a challenge for yourself that’s “triggered” by new followers. It was presented as a way to gain followers quickly – people click follow to support your challenge.
The example shared on stage was of a man who pledged to run a mile for every new follower. He ended up running so much he couldn’t keep going with every follower, but he kept running, and people followed along his weight loss journey and felt responsible for his accountability in the process.
I loved this concept, and wanted to do my own twice based on our current stage of business. Followers are just vanity metrics, I’m not too concerned about how many followers we have (other than the natural ego of it which I’m constantly battling).
Our goal is a small roster of super aligned, dream clients. So my challenge was born.
Shooting My Shot for Every New Follower
My own challenge was to shoot my shot with a dream client for every new follower on Instagram. That served two purposes:
- Keep Me Posting Consistently
Like it or not, consistency matters. And especially if you haven’t been consistent or posting frequently, 30 days of posting daily helps to train the algorithm on who you are and the audience you want pushed toward you.
Of course, I would have loved for this to take off and get a community engaged and followers like crazy (there’s those vanity metrics again). But my challenge wasn’t in a style that would get a wide audience engaged. And that’s okay! As much as a lot of followers is fun, I don’t want an audience full of people that follow just to see me do something unrelated to my business.
The purpose of staying consistent was served:
- Show My Audience Our “Client Type”
Honestly, I didn’t expect any of the potential clients I was shouting out as a dream client would respond or turn into a client. The goal was really to show the types of women we want to work with. That way, if someone who was an ideal client was watching, they’d be able to relate and self identify with our ideal clients.
This series also exposed my own personality and style, another way to connect with potential clients and my overall community online. I received engagement from my family (my mom, grandma, and aunt are my most loyal IG fans), past clients, and contacts in my growing network sharing their enjoyment of the series and encouragement to keep showing up.
The Unexpected Wins
The follower increase isn’t completely attributed to the challenge, but I am proud of the growth through this last month!
My account has grown slowly through the years. My goal in 2025 was to reach 500 followers and it didn’t happen. Now, I’m aiming for 1,000 before the end of 2026. We’ll see??
I have two calls scheduled with women I called out as dream clients and two others I received direct emails for and have reached out to. While nothing has turned into a direct client, those are great connections! Definitely a win.
The Downfalls
I hadn’t thought much about the structure of the challenge, and shooting my shot for “every new follower” on some days would’ve meant 5 videos, which was entirely unreasonable for my full-time mom and full-time business owner life.
While no one called it out, what I really did was shoot my shot every day there were any new followers, rather than “for every follower” as I said. On a much smaller scale than running a mile for every new follower, it just wasn’t sustainable.
I also had a negative reply to one of my videos. A business owner felt it was “weird” that I had shared about her business (though I said lovely things … the whole point was businesses I like). This was about half-way through the challenge and it made me question if I should keep going. I certainly didn’t want to make a whole bunch of my dream clients not like me.
Lastly, while not totally a downfall, I did receive feedback with the idea to specifically call out what we would do differently for that client. This was something Ashley, our Marketing Director, and I had discussed, but we questioned the directness of it. I did typically follow a compliment sandwich (shoutout my Business Therapist for teaching me this communication technique) sharing something I loved about the business, room for growth (the why hire us), and ending with another positive.
I loved that someone felt comfortable enough to DM me with the idea to be more specific on gaps, and I’ve already been toying with another series doing just that. DM me if you want to see us pick on businesses and bring our strategic expertise to their marketing!
The Carousel That Won
In 16 reels, my highest viewership came on a carousel sharing about the challenge and the results I was seeing. This was particularly exciting: I’ve been pushing myself to improve my reel editing with these videos, and then got into my carousel edits.
Sure, I could pay my brilliant team to do my content like they do for our clients, but I spend the least on my own business (anyone else?!) and I love to be learning and pushing my creative boundaries. The carousel sharing about this series performed very well, and I’m honestly very proud of the design. It’s proving the current algorithm push toward carousels, and has opened my creative brain to make more engaging, active carousel designs and material.
For You To Try
One of my favorite things about creating my own content is that I get to test, fail, and try again with my own account before we take ideas to clients. And this one is definitely one I’m ready to encourage for you:
Run a challenge. Whatever aligns with your business. Stay consistent, and show up for yourself. Don’t set an end date (no “30 days of” needed), just go for it until it feels like it’s not landing.
And most of all, allow yourself room to play and get creative. See what can come out of it, what other content you can create from it (like a whole blog post!), and just maybe you’ll have 4 warm leads!
Frequently Asked Questions
It’s a challenge you commit to doing every time you get a new follower. The version I heard at Insta Club Hub Live was a guy who pledged to run a mile for every new follower. The idea is that people hit follow to support you — and then stick around to watch whether you can keep up.
I was show calling Brock Johnson’s Insta Club Hub Live and sitting in on the sessions. A speaker shared the challenge-per-follower concept as a follower-growth play, and I walked out wanting to run my own version — just aimed at the right people instead of the most people.
Because followers are vanity metrics for us. We’re after a small roster of super aligned, dream clients. Publicly calling out businesses I’d love to work with did two things at once: it kept me posting daily, and it showed my audience exactly what our client type looks like so the right women could self-identify.
No direct clients. But I have two calls scheduled with women I called out, plus two others who emailed me directly that I’ve followed up with. Four warm leads from a series I didn’t expect any response from is a win.
You probably won’t, and that’s the part I’d plan better next time. Some days would have meant five videos, which isn’t happening alongside full-time mom and full-time business owner life. What I actually did was post every day there were new followers. No one called it out, but if I ran it again I’d define the trigger honestly from day one.
One business owner thought so. I said genuinely lovely things — that was the entire point of the series — and she still found it strange. It happened about halfway through and made me question whether to keep going. Worth deciding in advance how you’ll respond if someone isn’t into it.
Someone DM’d me that exact suggestion, and it’s something Ashley, our Marketing Director, and I had already debated. I stuck with a compliment sandwich: something I loved, room for growth, another positive. I’m toying with a follow-up series that gets more specific on the gaps.
The carousel. Across the whole series, my highest viewership came on a carousel recapping the challenge and the results (on day 10 out of 16). That tracks with the current algorithm push toward carousels, and it’s pushed me to get more intentional with carousel design.
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