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The Kelly Roach Show

1108. The Real Instagram Growth Playbook for 2026 with Natasha Willis: Manychat, DM Funnels, and Content That Converts

The Kelly Roach Show

Kelly Roach

Business, Entrepreneurship

4.9 • 965 Ratings

🗓️ 22 January 2026

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

 In This episode of The Kelly Roach Show, Kelly sits down with Natasha Willis, Co-Founder of School of Bots, to unpack what's actually working on Instagram in 2026: from DM funnels and ManyChat optimizations to ad strategies, content formats, and backend systems that convert attention into revenue.

Natasha and her team have worked with industry leaders, helping generate over $97M in online growth. In this conversation, she breaks down how high-performing brands are replacing traditional funnels with conversation-driven conversions, why one-word CTAs still work, and how to optimize every step from content, to DM conversation, to the sale.

You'll learn:

  • The simple ManyChat tweaks that can triple conversions

  • How to structure content and CTAs for non-followers

  • How to blend organic content with paid ads for scalable growth

  • The content formats that are winning in 2026

If you're posting consistently but not seeing the ROI you want from social media, this episode will fundamentally change how you think about Instagram as a growth engine.

Timestamps:

04:40 – What a DM Funnel really is (and why it converts better than websites)
11:30 – The biggest ManyChat mistake most businesses are making
17:20 – Email-first vs. name-first: the data-backed shift
20:05 – New follower DM automations that are working now
23:40 – How to pre-qualify DM conversations at scale
26:00 – Organic content vs. paid ads: how they work together in 2026
29:30 – Trial reels, testing headlines, and scaling what works
32:20 – Do followers still matter? 
35:10 – CTA strategies: why every post needs a next step


Resources Mentioned:

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Welcome to The Kelly Roach Show, the place for no fluff, easy to implement 20 minute or less

0:10.2

business and leadership lessons to help you build a sustainable business that scales,

0:15.9

lead with integrity, and create a lasting legacy. I'm Kelly Roach, former NFL cheerleader and Fortune 500

0:23.6

executive turned eighth of year entrepreneur. Let's get started. All right, welcome back. This is

0:31.6

the Kelly Roach show and I am super pumped to have my new friend and fellow CEO of Del Rey, Miss Natasha Willis, the co-founder of

0:40.5

School of Bots here on the show today. Hey, Natasha. Hey, thank you so much for having me.

0:45.7

I'm so happy to have you here. So if there is anyone, just in case there's anyone that is still

0:50.8

just getting to know Natasha for the first time. As I mentioned already,

0:54.4

she is the co-founder of the School of Box, which is a world-class marketing agency that has

1:00.1

helped clients to generate over $97 million in online growth. She has helped people like

1:07.9

Russell Brunson and Cody Sanchez and Prince and Amy Porterfield and all the names to grow, grow and grow some more.

1:15.4

And we're going to talk about some amazing things today about what's working in the online world and how to create leverage and how to generate more leads and get bigger and better results.

1:25.5

They've been featured in over 300 publications

1:28.4

around the world and even meta hires at a consult. So Natasha, super bum to have you here today.

1:34.7

Oh, thank you so much for the most amazing introduction. I was just going to say it's so fun now,

1:40.5

like that we've got a chance to hang out in person and then we're going in to film this

1:44.7

whereas usually for me it's the other way around. So I like that, you know, some personal stuff

1:50.0

on me and excited to be here. Yes, Natasha rolled me into Lagree class here in Delray. And that

1:56.1

was my first experience with that and I felt like I had never worked out before. So that was really

1:59.7

fun. But I'm the kind of person that like when I fail at something, I'm like, oh, I'm going back for

2:06.2

more. So of course I'm like, all right, when are we going back? I'm getting this.

2:10.6

Right. But it's fun. It's fun to have things besides work that you have fun and are passionate

...

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