Six months to opening. Let's build the room before the doors open.
A pre-launch plan to grow an audience while you have no product to sell yet. Three posts a week: the Reel of the build and the people, an educational carousel, and a community or invitation post, with the waitlist asked for at most once a week. This is a plan we shape together, not a finished script.
Updated September 23, 2026 · A living plan · You give feedback, I update it, we go again
One piece of work a week, three places it shows up. Nothing here needs the studio to be open.
1 Reel: the build and the founders, casual phone video→1 educational carousel (can stem from the weekly blog)→1 community, collab, or invitation post
The blog stays weekly for search, and the education post can stem from it, but it is no longer the center. The Reel of the build and the people is. Direct waitlist asks are capped at one feed post a week; everything else asks people to save, send, comment, follow the build, or share an opinion. The six month calendar is a content bank: we finalize two weeks at a time and adjust what comes next based on what people watch, save, share, and respond to.
The strategy
Where we post, how often, and how a brand-new account actually grows.
Platforms
Instagram, and only Instagram for now. One channel done well beats three done thin, and it is where people already look for wellness.
Appropriate Reels auto-crosspost to the Ritual Facebook page, so the second platform costs nothing.
The website blog stays the home base for search; the education post can stem from it.
Formats
Branded teaching graphics: carousels that explain one idea in a few clean slides
Single quote and stat graphics pulled from the week's post
Stories with the takeaway and a link to the founding member waitlist
Casual, authentic phone video from the start: construction walkthroughs, decision clips, quick team explanations. Nothing produced or polished.
How we grow it
Teach something useful every week so posts get saved and shared, which is how a new account grows without ads
Use local tags (University Place, Tacoma, Pierce County) so nearby people find you
Put a waitlist keyword in the bio and stories so interest becomes a real list
An organic engagement routine: meaningful interaction with local University Place and Tacoma accounts about twice a month, with real collab posts placed later once we find the right partners
Direct waitlist asks capped at one feed post a week; every other post earns saves, sends, comments, and follows
Three pinned posts at the top of the profile: What is Ritual, Who we are, the Founding Member Waitlist
Five Story Highlights as the permanent front door: Start here, The build, Experience, Waitlist, FAQs
Cadence & first month
Cadence: Three feed posts a week across Rory's three pillars: Educate (one science post), Connect (one people or build post), and Invite (one experience, community, or founding member waitlist post). Stories 4 to 6 times a week, a casual phone Reel every week (the Connect slot), frequency rises as opening approaches.
Start here: Introduce the real partnership first: Rory and Daniel as the founders who run Ritual day to day, then individual introductions, with Dave and Lizzy Canales highlighted as partners. Start the Building Ritual construction series from day one.
The live calendar
The full week-by-week calendar (three posts a week on the Educate, Connect, and Invite pillars, plus stories and a casual weekly video) lives in the Content Studio, where every piece has a feedback box and a sign-off button. It is always the current version.
Rory's questions from the redesign, answered plainly.
Pinned posts (3)
What is Ritual: the contrast therapy explained carousel
Who we are: the partnership introduction post
The Founding Member Waitlist post
Story Highlights (5)
Start here
The build
Experience
Waitlist
FAQs
How we capture views, clicks, and conversions
Instagram Insights covers reach, watch time, saves, sends, and follows per post. The link in bio carries UTM tags, so every profile click that lands on the site is attributed to Instagram in Google Analytics, and the waitlist buttons already fire tracked events. Completed signups are not counted as conversions in Google Analytics yet; that gets switched on before the first post, and until then we count signups from the waitlist itself. At each two-week call you get one snapshot: followers gained, reach, top posts, link clicks, and waitlist signups, and the next two-week block is adjusted from exactly those numbers.
The local engagement routine
About twice a month: real interaction with University Place and Tacoma accounts first, collab posts later once we find the right partners. No waitlist asks in any of it. These are planned slots, not posts in the Content Studio yet; each is added once the partner agrees, so the week is approximate.
Around week 6
Engagement action, not a post: build a follow list of 25-30 University Place and Tacoma accounts (CrossFit boxes, run clubs, PT and chiro clinics, coffee shops, Tacoma and West Pierce fire community pages) and spend 10 minutes a day leaving genuine, specific comments from the Ritual account, no pitching.
CTA: No public CTA; the goal is becoming a recognized friendly local account before we ever ask anything.
Around week 7
Firefighter community collab timed to Veterans Day week: a phone-shot Reel with Daniel and, with department approval, a crewmate talking honestly about what 24-hour shifts take out of a body, filmed at the station or the unfinished studio.
CTA: Send this to someone who works shifts.
Around week 10
Engagement action, not a post: story-share three local businesses we genuinely use (a coffee shop, a gym, a PT clinic) with a one-line why-we-love-them and a tag, and reply to every comment on our own feed posts within 24 hours this week.
CTA: No public CTA; tags and replies only, letting the shared accounts reshare if they want.
Around week 11
Collab feed post: 'Where we actually train in Tacoma and UP', a casual photo post from Rory tagging the local CrossFit boxes and gyms the founders really use, tied to her work with CrossFit.
CTA: Comment your gym below, we want to know where University Place actually trains.
Around week 14
Coffee shop community post: 'The UP and Tacoma coffee spots we hit after training', a warm photo roundup tagging three or four local shops, framed as the recovery-day ritual before the studio exists.
CTA: Comment your favorite local coffee spot so we can try it.
Around week 16
Collab carousel with a University Place or Tacoma physical therapist (Instagram collab post so it hits both audiences): 'Sore or injured? How to tell the difference', with the PT's practical rules of thumb and qualified, cited claims only.
CTA: Save this for the next time you are not sure.
Around week 18
Run club collab Reel with a Tacoma run club (Point Defiance or a UP group): a casual winter-running clip about staying consistent through the dark Northwest months, co-published as a collab post.
CTA: Tag the person who gets you out the door in January.
Around week 20
CrossFit box collab: Rory visits a local box and films a phone Reel with a coach on how everyday athletes should think about recovery days, honest and protocol-free, published as a collab post with the box.
CTA: Share your take in the comments: do you actually take rest days seriously?
Around week 22
First responder spotlight: a short interview-style post with a real local firefighter or nurse (with consent, no fabrication) on what recovery looks like around shift work, connecting naturally to Daniel's world.
CTA: Comment a thank you or send this to a first responder you know.
Around week 24
Second clinician collab carousel with a local PT or chiro: 'Cold plunge myths a clinician wants you to stop believing', each myth answered with qualified, evidence-based language in the Ritual voice.
CTA: Save this and send it to the friend who ices everything.
Around week 26
Community gratitude roundup as the build nears the finish: 'The UP and Tacoma accounts that got us through this build', tagging the gyms, clinics, shops, and fire community pages that supported the project, real supporters only.
CTA: Comment one local business more people should know about.
How we work on this together
This is the part you asked for. A back and forth, not a one-time plan.
This page is a living draft. You and Rory read it, mark up what feels right and what does not, and send me the notes. I update the calendar, the angles, and the voice, and we run it again. Over time this becomes the real content schedule, and the decisions we make get logged below so nothing gets lost.
Open questions for this round
1. Sign off weeks 1 and 2
The first two-week block is live in the Content Studio with a Looks good button and a feedback box on every piece. Daniel's caption edits through September 21 are in. No Looks good yet: we press them together on the September 23 call, and that starts the posting engine.
2. First post: Monday, September 28 (proposed)
Proposed on September 18, for Rory to confirm on the September 23 call: posting starts Monday, September 28. The calendar runs 27 weeks to April 4, with Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, the holiday week, and New Year locked to their real dates.
3. Photos and footage
Bios, the Drive folder and the first footage arrived on September 17, so the week 1 Reel is covered. Still wanted: a plunge or sauna photo for the website About page, and fresh phone clips each week for the Reel.
4. After weeks 1 and 2
Weeks 1 and 2 open with the partnership introduction and the first teaching carousel. Anything Rory wants moved up into weeks 3 and 4, we move before that block is finalized.
Decisions so far (updated from Rory's Aug 27 redesign). The Connect slot is now the weekly Reel (build and founders, casual phone video). Waitlist asks max one feed post a week. Calendar is a content bank, finalized two weeks at a time, adapted to performance. Engagement routine with local accounts about twice a month, collab posts later in the calendar. Three pinned posts and five Highlights (Start here, The build, Experience, Waitlist, FAQs). Instagram primary, Reels crossposted to Facebook. Earlier decisions still stand: Instagram only. Three feed posts a week on Rory's pillars, Educate, Connect, Invite, in a one-third balance. Stories 4 to 6 times a week and casual phone video from the start. Founders are Rory and Daniel; Dave and Lizzy Canales are partners. It is the Founding Member Waitlist, first 75 members. We say opening in early 2027, never a specific month. Everything is billed every 4 weeks, never per month. Plain, direct voice; research sources first.