Let’s Make Content Creation the Easiest Thing on Your To Do List

It’s the end of 2024 and I know many of us are tired and have pretty much checked out for the year. This episode is full of tips you can start implementing today to make social media an enjoyable part of your business strategy. From hiring help to simple tips on integrating content into your daily routines, I’m here to remind you that creating good content doesn’t have to be a chore. We’ll also look at successful reels and how documenting your everyday moments can truly resonate with your audience. We’re going to make content creation in 2025 easier and more effective than ever. 

In this episode we’ll be covering:

• Hiring local business owners to help create your social media content.
• Prioritizing your content with simple systems and habits.
• How I leverage AI to turn my existing content into even more content. 
• Creating impactful content that actually resonates with your audience.
• Capturing everyday moments for B Roll without consuming every moment of your day.
• Simplified editing techniques for your videos, to make it quick and easy.
• Remember we aren’t creating “perfect” content!

Links to reels  in this episode:

• Reel #1 Cindy
• Reel #2 Airbnb 
• Reel #3 Putting on Mascara
• Reel #4 In Case Your Mom Didn’t Teach You

Other episodes you might have missed:

• Episode 007: ​​Relatability in Everyday Content with Instagram Stories and Reels
• Episode 017: Turn a Simple Idea into a Reel People Will Love
• Episode 024: Is Storytelling the Missing Piece in Your Content?
• Episode 030: Attract New Followers with Talk to Camera Reels
• Episode 032: We All Start at Zero: Embrace Storytelling to Connect with Your Community
• Episode 040: Build More Connections with Everyday Moments

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Transcript

Shannon McKinstrie [00:00:00]:
I am your host, Shannon McKinstrie. Welcome to Good Content, the podcast where I remove the never ending content creation, guesswork and overwhelm so that you can actually enjoy being on social media again and growing your business with what has always worked. Good Content. So let's be real. It's the end of 2024 or about to be, and we've all pretty much checked out. I mean, even I unpacked from the Dominican and I can't find what do you call the thing that goes over the microphone. It's gone.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:00:34]:
My little XO Shannon Light is not working. I mean, it's the end of the year. It's circle back season. Welcome. But I do want to talk about a few things because this podcast is now, what, like eight months old or so. We've talked a lot of things. We've talked a lot about obviously, what content is considered good, what resonates things like that. So I just want to kind of end the year.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:00:56]:
Or this isn't the last episode of the year, right? No, we have one more. But again, I know you are not burnt out, but I know you are done. Or maybe you are burnt out, but like the best thing you can do for yourself in 2025, there's a few things. One, if you're just like, Shannon, I am tired, or maybe you love showing up on stories, but you don't want to do the content. Maybe you love editing and things, but you don't have the B roll to support it. Hire someone. There's people local to you who will, you know, say you're a speaker and you want someone to shoot vertical video. Have them come and shoot the video.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:01:26]:
There's social media managers who will come take everything off your plate. Let's say you're a nutritionist and you want to do the videos that I tell you about, like going through the grocery store and talking about what you bring. Have someone go with you and shoot it for you. I want you to start taking social media seriously. But being serious about social media does not mean having to carve out so much time in your life that you're missing your life in general and that you're missing your business in general. It should fit into your life okay? All the B roll, all the content I do. It's not like I'm, you know, I'll set aside maybe five minutes while we're out at dinner to record some. Or in the morning while I'm pouring my coffee, I'm like, you know what, let me just shoot this video as I pour my coffee.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:02:05]:
You've got to get used to shooting because as long as you've got the video to back it up, you've got content. Right? So many business owners don't think like creators because duh, we're not. A lot of you aren't natural born content creators and that's why you struggle with it. A lot of people are just naturally born content creators. They love documenting every move they make. They have the artist storytelling, locked it down. They know their voice, they're just sharing their life. Right.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:02:28]:
That's why it's so easy for them. For business owners, it's not as easy because we're working nine to fives and running a business or we work from home and by the time it's time to create content, it's 8 o'clock at night and I just want to watch Jeopardy and have a glass of wine and tell my kids to go away. Right. So if that is you, I want you to think of it this way. What can you record maybe once a day in your life for five minutes that you could bank in a B roll folder? Maybe you're a coach who does a lot of coaching calls. Next coaching call, prep your phone up and hit record. And the minute you have that aha moment with a client or you say something dope that you know this would make a great reel, you can end the recording. I've done at least three of those.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:03:06]:
Not that they go viral. No, but they all brought in new followers, they all started conversations and I had call to actions that led to my guide, the reels app, things like that. And it's literally just moments in my life that were already happening. The content you create should not be so removed from your life that it feels impossible. It should be part of your life. Let's say you're an author, you're signing books, record it. You're a coach sitting there doing a call, record it. Let's say you're a chef preparing a meal.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:03:32]:
While you're meal prepping, hit record. And if you want to go the next level, record every step of the process. I've talked about it all year round, Right. We love to see each other's processes. So the more you record, the more you'll have when it comes to video. Now for carousels. For me personally, carousels take more time because I obsess over them because I'm not a graphic designer and I want them to be beautiful. That's just how my brain works.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:03:55]:
I will always tell you your content does not have to Be perfect. I will always tell your content does not have to look gorgeous. Most of the content that does it, and it's raw and authentic is what's doing well anyway, we know that. But for me personally, I know I want my carousel to be pretty and also. So that's where I get hung up. So I only do carousels maybe once, maybe twice a month. I need to set them up. But what I'm doing is those carousels are from reels that did well.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:04:17]:
And then I flip them into a carousel. I will literally take the caption I already wrote from a previous reel or the script that I wrote out in Google Docs from a previous reel, and I will throw it in a ChatGPT and say, turn this into a carousel. That way it's my language, my words, my thoughts, my perspective, and they just go, slide one, slide two, slide three. That way my brain stops overthinking it again. If you lean on the written word, lean on that. Flip it into reels. If you love video like I do more, so flip that later into a carousel. Content creation 2025 should be the easiest thing on your list to do.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:04:50]:
And I know you're thinking, Shannon, you're insane. If a finance coach told me money da da da should be the easiest thing for you to do, I'd be like, you're insane. But what if you have a system for me that actually makes it so stupid easy that I'm like, oh, my gosh, you're right. It doesn't take more than five minutes a day. Content should not take you more than five minutes a day. Now, with that said, when I write a caption, yes, it takes me a little bit longer, but the video itself, my reel, takes me about five minutes. Even my talk to cameras, I use the AI Cut feature in Inshot to take out all the excess words, the filler words, the silences, and then I just trim it up a little bit more. I throw it into Instagram.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:05:25]:
I use the caption sticker on Instagram to load my captions, and I'm done with all that. Said, I know everyone tells me, Shannon, you make it look so easy. I make it look easy because, one, it does come natural to me. But I think because of that, I'm able to teach you simpler ways to do it. You do not have to have all the fun edits. We've seen it all year. The reels going viral, most of them are raw and look like Instagram stories, period. So when I say the biggest thing you can do in 2020, five is to start taking it seriously and just start documenting as much as you can.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:05:58]:
This is the other thing I always get. I don't have enough storage on my phone. Well, there's a quick answer to that. Buy More look, literally the best thing you can do is buy the iPhone with the most amount of storage possible. That's what I did. I never run out of memory. I never run out of storage. Nothing.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:06:14]:
But that's what I mean. I want you to start taking content seriously. And when you start taking it seriously, guess what happens? You get really good at it because you prioritize it. If you can prioritize the gym, if you can prioritize keeping your house tidy, whatever it is, hitting record while you're doing things you're already doing takes no time at all. I see reels go viral where the person's just folding laundry and they're putting a tip on top of the B roll. And no, it's not even a tip about laundry. Maybe it's a tip as from a stay at home working mom that's just giving a tip advice from her own perspective. I talked a lot about that this year.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:06:45]:
Make sure you listen to other episodes and binge them. But again, the point of this episode is I want to assure you that this does not have to feel draining. This does not have to be a stressor. And if it does find someone to help you at least press the record button so that you at least have half of the work completed. So here's your challenge, right? Here's your homework. As you're doing something today, I want you to press record. It could be video of you flip the camera on a walk with your dog and maybe over chop. You're saying if there's One thing in 2024 I learned, it's blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:07:17]:
It's not that deep, y'all. It's not that deep. So that's your homework. It's just a start recording because then you have video. And then that video, when a reel does well and the caption does well and the words on the screen do well, flip it into a carousel and you've got a two for one special. Like I said all the time. If you look at the top TikTok creators, and if you look at a lot of the top, like influencers on Instagram. Now, again, I know you're like, Shannon, I'm not a content creator.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:07:37]:
Not an influencer. Your content needs to look like you are. You can do that without being a full blown content creator influencer. I'm not, right? But you guys know what my house looks like. You know where I go to eat. You know everything about me because I document it. And that's why people. People feel connected to me.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:07:54]:
And that's why I'm on here, because I want people to feel connected to me. I am your best friend. I am. If we met in real life, we would ham it up, laugh it up. We create together. We'd probably grab a margarita or if you want a mocktail. Like, I love this app for that reason. And here's the thing, friend.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:08:10]:
I'm so passionate about what I do. It's borderline obnoxious. Or maybe it's not even borderline. It is obnoxious. I love what I do. And guess what? I know you freaking love what you do, so you should love sharing it. Press record and take all the other episodes I've shared where I give you hooks and plop that text on top. Okay, let's look at some reels that are performing well so I can tell you exactly What.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:08:29]:
Oh, hello. 25,000 likes. No big deal. This creator, Cindy. Cindy Hunsaker. There we go. She is a booty wellness mama. Okay, it says, some days I wonder if my kids will remember the mom who cooked, cuddled, made Xmas magic and love them.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:08:44]:
Or this is hilarious. Or if they'll remember the overstimulated psycho. We know why this did well his it's relatable. You guys know that I have podcasts all about this relatability. You know, she is. She knows what words her people will attach to this came from market research. I've also seen other real similar to this. So she could have just taken it and just made it a little bit her way.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:09:07]:
So comments, things like, I wonder the same as a mom. Now I've apologized to my mom. I just remember the mom that gave us the best childhood she could. So there's empathetic ones. They're funny ones. What is the B roll? Her taking a sip of coffee while she's working at her desk. And guess what that signals to me. Hmm.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:09:22]:
I bet she helps moms in some way. And then I go to her profile, I look at her bio. I see if I need her in my life. I hit follow. Okay, that's one. B roll is not dead. And anyone telling you otherwise is silly. Okay, here we go.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:09:35]:
B roll, left to right. It's a travel. It's just showing this gorgeous view outside of a hotel. It says when the river outside is so close to your Airbnb you can enjoy it from the inside. That's all it says. And it has 12,000 likes. 246,000 views. Do you see what I'm saying? B roll.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:09:54]:
Shoot. Shoot the content. Every time this person goes to take a picture, I guarantee they take five seconds of B roll, which is panning left to right. Remember angles. We can talk about that too. But really, just observe the B roll. That does really well. It's very slowly moving left to right.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:10:07]:
Slow your camera down. I'll do one more. Okay, I'm in love with this. Now, I don't think this went viral, but it might have for her. We'll see. It literally is just her showing her screen, her computer screen. So again, I hear from a lot of people, well, I'm just a service provider. I'm a business coach.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:10:21]:
Yeah, look at. She's showing her computer screen. And all it says, again, this is B roll. It's a simple. She documented. Literally, this is like an 8 second reel POV. You take your 2025 goal planning very seriously. And she's showing her vision board and that's it.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:10:35]:
Her. What is. She's a fitness coach, actually. But this could have worked for virtual assistants showing a Dubsado setup. This could work for business coaches, therapists who are virtual. Maybe it's a guide you created. And it had 68,000 views again, very good. Okay, and I want to show you one more.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:10:52]:
I can't stop. I'm over 10 minutes. I'm sorry, y'all. And the other side again is talking to the camera. I'm begging you to talk to the camera. This girl's already probably doing her makeup, so she's recording herself. Sharing how to put mascara on the best way. 65,000 likes.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:11:06]:
2.6 million views. Sending it to Steph. She's doing things she's probably already doing in her life. Your realtor going on a listing appointment or touring a home. Take us with you. All right, now, here's the one I wanted to show you. 60,000 likes. Are you ready? Simple.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:11:21]:
Documenting something. She's in the moment of doing about four clips. It says, ready? This is so crazy. In case your mom didn't teach you. And then the next text says, get a new toothbrush after you've been sick. That's it. Four second real. Her account is all about the in case your mom didn't teach you.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:11:37]:
So she just tells you, like little hacks in life that you may not have Learned growing up. 2.6 million views. Press record throughout the day. And that is your assignment for the rest of the year. If you're like Shannon, I just need a break until 2025. Cool. Listen to their podcast, grab the hooks I gave and all the other podcasts over the next week and a half, whatever it is, till the end of the year. Crazy hit record.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:11:58]:
And actually that's what I'll talk about next week is some fun editing and angle techniques to help you create even better video content. Because again, even if you're like Shannon, I don't want to go full video. You can use these videos in carousels, you can use these videos in photo dumps and more. Okay, that's all I got for you today. I love you friends. Stop making it so hard. Good content is not perfect content. It's content that resonates and makes people feel something as they're scrolling.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:12:25]:
Love you friend and have a Merry Christmas and Happy holidays. Talk to you next week.