@jonnycage

About JC

Updated November 3, 2026

About me: I'm JC, and I make short reels on Instagram as @jonnycage. My bio says it best: wandering but never lost. My bio lists LA, Vietnam and Bali, and I post about love, healing and the stuff we don't say out loud.

53KInstagram followers

12.2Mviews in 90 days

8.4Mviews on one reel

32reels past 100K views

Sources: my public Instagram profile (November 2026); my own Instagram Insights for April 28 to July 27, 2026; my reels, collected November 2, 2026.

JC stands at a wide window in a teak villa loft in Bali, looking out at the jungle, with a white bed in front. On-screen text: The art of not being ready but doing it anyways will take you far. — Teak loft, jungle view8,383,319 views

JC lies on deep sunken seating in a dark lounge lit by an oval ceiling light. On-screen text: People need to understand that once you go through your worst times alone you really don't care who stays in your life anymore. — A dark lounge, low light1,029,127 views

JC stands beside a white bed in a dark grey concrete bedroom. On-screen text: Born to be a lover, forced to learn detachment & boundaries. — Grey concrete, white linen799,756 views

How I got here

I didn't grow by posting more to my followers. I grew by showing my reels to strangers first.

Instagram has a feature called Trial Reels. A Trial Reel goes to people who don't follow you first, not to your followers. In 90 days of using it, my reels got 12.2 million views and I gained 26,888 followers. About 95% of those views were from people who weren't following me yet.

My biggest reel is one line on screen: "The art of not being ready but doing it anyways will take you far." It has 8.4 million views.

What I post

Almost everything I post is a feeling put into one line. Love, healing, letting go, pushing yourself. I counted. Reels like that carry about 93% of all the views on my account. My few reels with growth tips got far less.

Where my views come from

93%

Love, healing and motivation: 93%

Everything else, like travel, movement and tips: 7%

Share of lifetime views across my reels, counted November 2, 2026.

People come for the feeling. The hook is what makes them stop.

How I make a reel

ShortMost of my reels are 7 to 12 seconds. Mostly B-roll, simple footage, nothing fancy.

One lineA hook on screen that makes a stranger stop. That first line does most of the work.

TestA handful of Trial Reels on my posting days, 99 in my best 90 days. I keep the ones strangers share and save, then post them again with a new first 3 seconds.

I edit everything in Instagram's own Edits app and use trending audio. That's it. Stupid simple.

Want to see how I do it? My free 10-minute video walks through my whole Trial Reels system.

Watch the video

My three rules

I never post the exact same video twice. I change at least two things, like the hook, the font, the speed or the music.
My cap is 5 Trial Reels in a day. In my experience, going way past that is how you get yourself blocked. Most of my posting days, I put up 1 to 3.
I judge a reel by shares and saves, not views. Those tell me it's about to travel.

Why I made this site

People ask me the same things every day. When should I post? Why do my reels stop at 200 views? How do Trial Reels work? So I put the answers here, with my real numbers, in plain words.

I'm not a guru, and I can't promise you my results. What I can do is show you exactly what I do, and what my data says. If something here stops working, I'll update it and tell you.

Want to try Trial Reels my way? Watch my free 10-minute video to see my whole system and how the program works.

Watch the free video

Or start with the best time to post on Instagram, where I compare 5 big studies with my own reels, or comment GROW on my latest reel on Instagram for my free checklist.

Sources: topic shares counted from my own reels (November 2, 2026); my three rules come from my own playbook.