Creating Instagram Content with a Busy Schedule of Patients [Episode 141]

Hi, friends. Welcome back. Today's episode is going to be about what I would do like first if you are wanting to really get serious about being more consistent on Instagram, and even if you already have been consistent on Instagram, but you haven't been posting, like maybe you've just been posting like Canva graphics in stock images, then this is definitely the episode that you need to listen to.

And, uh, I think this is gonna make things so much easier. So if you've ever thought like, man, I would really like to post reels more often, but I'm so present when my patients are here, and I just don't ever think to stop and film. That's totally understandable. You didn't go to school to be a content creator or a videographer.

You went to school to help your patients or clients. So I'm going to go over some tips for, um, like I said, making sure that you still get that footage. And, um, also, like I said, how I would ditch any stock imagery, ditch any, just like, you know, national Day Bunch of Canva graphics on your feed. Because if I'm not a broken record already, that will not work.

It's not going to work. That is not a social media strategy. It will not bring you new patients or clients. So let's dive in to this super actionable episode.

Hey, welcome to Holistic Marketing. Simplified. This podcast boils down to the fact that we wholeheartedly believe that more humans need to know about holistic health solutions. And you didn't go to school to learn how to be a full-time content creator and show up on Instagram and do all of this marketing stuff all day, every day.

So let's come hang out while we chat. All thanks. Easy in your marketing and my goal is that you shift your mindset around your marketing from a quote, should to a, I get to more dream patients and clients. Yes, please. Hi, I'm Melissa Birdsell and I'm a chiropractor in Moline, Illinois, and I listen to the Holistic Marketing Simplified podcast.

So you've heard me say, unless this is the first time you've ever listened to an episode of Mine Stock Photos, national Day Graphics. Happy fall. Welcome fall. None of this is a social media strategy. Maybe it used to work actually. I know it used to, used to be so much easier, right? It used to work, but now this is not what works now.

And you can go back a couple episodes back when I talked about episode 1 28. What's working on Instagram in 2025? And this is going to, I know, um, trickle into 2026. Uh, what is working is any content, especially educational content. Really needs to be filtered through the lens of your lived experience as a human and as a practitioner.

So instead of, and I covered this in full on that episode, I also have an Instagram post about it that I will link in the show notes where I talk about it more in depth and give a lot more examples. But this looks like instead of, you know, a Canva graphic that says Three tips for Better Sleep. Because that's not gonna work anymore.

It would look like, um, a photo of you with text over it. It could be on Canva, it could be made in Canva, or it could be made right in Instagram. Like you could use the text feature right in Instagram. It's like what I wish I knew when I struggled with insomnia and what I now tell my patients. See the difference there, how that's like filtered through your lens and it's so personal.

So as I said, this episode is not about that. I have other resources on that, that we'll link in the show notes, but. Like I said that just like, I just wanted to kind of tie that in a little bit of, if I'm telling you not to use stock images and have a whole bunch of Canva graphics, what to do instead. So let's go back though a few more steps.

So one of the biggest things that I hear all the time, and this is completely understandable, it's like, well, I'm just so present with my patients in my clinic every day that I don't think to stop and film something. If that is you, then that's completely okay. Like I said, it's completely understandable.

Now, I do have people who have said that before, and then once they get in the habit, it's kind of like, you know, me with my daily walks. Like now that I'm, it took a while to get into the habit of my daily walks, but now that I'm in the habit, like I can't stand to not go for my walks. So it definitely is something that you could, like if you just have a tripod set up in your treatment room, that could be the visual cue for you to know like, okay, I need to film this.

I can link in the show notes a really inexpensive tripod that I like from Amazon. I'm not an affiliate or anything like that. And you don't even need like a ring light or anything fancy like that, just a little tripod to grab some B-roll. Um, if you don't know what B-roll is, it's just five to eight seconds of, of video of you working with a patient or panning your office or whatever.

So like I said, that is one thing. You definitely can get into the habit, but if you're still like, no, I just, this is like square peg, ground hole, I know that's never gonna work for me. And here is what we suggest you do, and this is something that we suggest to all of our Instagram management clients as well.

In fact, we will not take on an Instagram management client that does not have this, and that is professional photography. So I would say at a bare minimum, once every 18 months, maybe I would say once a year, but I, I think you would get away with once every 18 months, I would plan a photo shoot for your office.

I do have a episode way back that we'll link in the show notes of how to find a photographer. I would just, the first thing you could do is you could even just like email or ask your patient database if you don't have a go-to photographer. Um, local Facebook groups are also a great place to look. And then, you know, obviously just like Google or Instagram, truly Instagram's, it's gonna be a great place.

You could just type in, um, like if you're in, you know, Raleigh, you could be like Raleigh photographer. You can just type that right into the Instagram search bar. The thing to be aware, and we talk about this on the episode where I, like I said, I interview a photographer and it's a whole episode on it, but.

The CliffsNotes version is you really wanna make sure that they've worked in the type of lighting that you have in your office. So if you don't have any windows in your treatment room and you only have fluorescent lighting, you wanna make sure you pick a photographer who, like if you, all you see on their website is maybe like outdoor or natural lighting photography.

They might not be skilled at capturing insider fluorescent light. Ask me how I know that this is a problem because we've had this happen, um, with three different clients at this point. Where they're so excited about their professional photography and then we get them back and we're like, oh no, these are not great.

So like I said, that's just something to make sure that you vet with them. The other thing on this, and now I'm not an attorney, so I cannot advise here, but I do know a lot of clinics who have like a checkbox on their patient paperwork for consent, for photos. But if you're getting a professional photographer, what you can do is you can post it on your Instagram stories.

You can send out an email to all your patients. You can just ask your patients as they come in, you know, which patients would be like most willing and just say, Hey, would you be willing to get free care on, you know, pick whatever day it is in exchange for being a model on our Instagram. And most people will say yes if they can.

Another, like just little tip or hack, whatever is, there are many days where I look like absolute garbage when I go to, you know, get acupuncture or go to get adjusted or get a massage or whatever. Like, I'm obviously not like putting on all my makeup and looking fancy. I have said before like, Hey, you can totally film me just like face down, like I don't care, or just from behind.

Same with kids. So when I went to film for my local chiropractor client, it was a whole family. It was a mom and dad and two little ones, and the mom and dad were like, we don't mind if you get our faces, but for the kids, we only want from the back. So the kids, it's still made for great video. Like you just don't see the kids' faces.

So offer that as an alternative if someone is hesitant. But what you can do when you have scheduled this photography day. Is you have now the ability to batch create like all of this content that you can use for months and months and months. When I went to film, like I said, for my local client, I was only there for an hour and we're still using that video and I haven't been there in like six months, like I need to go.

I was literally just messaging, messaging her like, I need to come film again. You know, it's like there's snow on the ground and then it's summer in the video, so that is something to be mindful of. The other little tip for this is I would wear something that is kind of more neutral that doesn't super stand out, so I wouldn't have like a bright neon, you know, print shirt on unless you plan on changing clothes a couple times.

I wouldn't get super stuck on this. It's not like it really matters. It's not like everybody's really paying that close of attention. But if you want longevity on this content that you're gonna batch create, I would go for something more neutral or like maybe you have on a shirt and then you throw a sweater over it, or a jacket over it or something like that, that can make it look different.

I've also have clients who are like, oh, we wear scrubs. I'm like, cool. If you wear a scrubs, perfect, you don't have to worry about changing clothes. So the added bonus here of uh, having a photographer come in is that is the perfect time to also batch video. So I would have extra hands there, whether it's family or friends or extra patients or whatever.

And I would quite literally have like one phone set up with a tripod just kind of filming the whole thing. And then have a second person or a second, like second phone filming, like different shots or more like closeup video. And you're going to have so much content that you can use just by doing that.

Now, if you want to take it a level further and be even more advanced, again, you do not have to do this, but it can be super helpful. You can buy, I have a Bluetooth microphone. I'll also link, uh, in the show notes. That I really like. It's actually the third one I've had. 'cause the first two I just found I couldn't figure out how to work or they wouldn't connect.

Right. And this one's fairly inexpensive and it connects for me every time. Literally there's just one piece that plugs into your phone and then uh, the mic that you clip to your shirt. And what's cool about that is when I went to film again from my local client. Some, you know how sometimes it can be really hard to just like sit down and film a face to camera reel if you're not super comfortable with it.

This is, you know, this is like a feed like feedback I get from my students all the time. Like, oh, I'm so awkward on camera. What you can do instead is have the person who's filming you ask you questions as you are adjusting, like, okay, what are you doing here? Like, oh, well, I'm just feeling for blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Or like, why did you choose this point? Oh, well, I'm doing dah, dah, dah. Like, why did you put the cup here? If it's more just like casual interview, just like you asking questions, it's so much less awkward for the practitioner typically. Or like I said, if you are the practitioner listening this to kind of just answer the question versus grabbing the microphone and looking into the camera and talking.

So, and it also just makes for a really casual feel. You don't necessarily have to have a microphone to do this. I would say once you get a few feet away, the sound is not super great. I also did this with my local client with, um, some of the supplements they sell. I was like, oh, what's the supplement? And she's just like sitting in her office chair holding it, holding the supplement in her hand, and she's just kind of like talking about it and how she uses it, and it's just very casual.

After you do that, like I said, you've got so much content that you could use. So another idea. If you know, you're like, okay, I wanna schedule a photographer, but I also wanna film some reels in the meantime is look at your schedule and you know your office best. Okay. So if you look at your schedule and there's like, oh my gosh, there's an hour block on Tuesday where I've got an athlete, a pregnant mom, a baby, a dad who's, you know, whatever.

I've got a grandfather. Like you just kind of have like maybe like a good variety of the different types of patients that you see. Then call them ahead of time or text them ahead of time and be like, Hey, would you mind when you come in for your appointment if I film a couple videos? Because I've had it go two different WA ways.

One time I went to film for another local client that was like about an hour away, and when I got there, they hadn't asked the people ahead of time, like hadn't said, Hey, somebody's gonna be here filming, and not one single patient said yes to being filmed, which was fine. We ended up just using me as a model and the front desk gal as a model.

And like I said, I did talk to one of the patients, I was like, Hey, can we at least like do your like film your feet, like doing a leg length check? She's like, absolutely. So it worked out. But then again, like I said, for my other local client, the one that's closer to me, they didn't ask ahead of time and every single person was okay with it.

Like I said, except for that one family that was like, yeah, we're fine. Just don't get our kids faces. So it could totally go either way, but I would prefer if I'm the one that's asked to be a model, I'd prefer to know ahead of time. Because I know one time I showed up with like no makeup on wet hair, and they're like, can we film you?

And I was like, no. Like maybe face down, but I look like crap. You know what I mean? Another tip is for storing these videos in photos. If you have a bigger clinic, like even, well, not even, I'm wanna say bigger, even if you're just like a two person, like you've got a front desk and you've got a provider. I mean, even if you're like a one woman or one man show, I can still see merit to this.

They sell unlocked to iPhones on Instagram where you just connect it to wifi. Like you don't need like Verizon or at and t or whatever, and that can be your clinic phone that almost like stays in the tripod and stays hooked up at all times. They're not expensive at all. That can be like just like I said, a really easy no brainer, like I've always got the tripod in there.

I always have this unlocked clinic iPhone where we shoot everything. If you've got a bigger clinic, I super recommend this because then you're not always like, who grabbed that video? Was it on your phone? Will you send it to me? There's not a lot of back and forth. The other like added bonus to having a clinic phone is I teach inside of Holistic Marketing Hub and inside of the Content Sprint, my group coaching program, how to use the Instagram edits app and the Instagram edits app, like for reels and stuff, you're able to label and name your reels and.

And all of those reels are, it's not a cloud-based storage system. So if you create a reel in the Edits app, it's only on the device that you created it. So if you have the edits app downloaded on a clinic phone, all your clinic reels can live in that clinic edits app. And like that could be a good way, if like you've got front desk creating the reel, then the provider wants to like check it before it gets posted.

Be like, check the clinic phone, check the edits app. It's all there. So that's one way. If you don't wanna do that, you can have like a shared iPhone album. If everyone has iPhones, you could have a shared Google Photos album. What we do for our Instagram management agency is a Google Drive for our clients that we share with them.

Make sure that you label the photos if you're gonna do that. Like, okay, these are all like pregnancy, or these are like B roll of the office, or something like that, because just trust me. Some of our clients that we've had for years and years and years. If we had not started labeling their videos in the beginning, it would be a nightmare.

I mean, that's like my own, I should take my own advice. Like when I'm looking for B roll on my own camera roll, I'm always like, where is that video? It's because I haven't taken my own advice, labeled them properly. I hope that this episode was super actionable and super helpful. Like I said, all of this stuff I have mentioned, I will link in the show notes.

But this is just a beautiful way, like I said, to get started to, and this isn't just for your Instagram either. If you want a website that actually works for you, then you need to have photos of you and not just like a grainy headshot from 2002. If I go to a chiropractor or acupuncturist or massage therapist or whomever's website and I just see somebody like frolicking through a field like that, doesn't exactly give me an idea of who you are.

Or even worse, some random guy in a white coat. I'm like, what? That's not you. So. Yeah, the photo shoot also serves a purpose for more than just your Instagram. Um, and if you haven't grabbed my pinned post freebie, then you'll also use these photos that you get because also make sure the photographer doesn't just grab photos of you, but grabs photos of like the office, if you steal supplements, grab photos of that.

The front of the office, the sign. All of that stuff, and you'll use those photos on the pinned post for your Instagram. If you haven't grabbed that one yet, it's just molly cahill.com slush pinned. As always, if you have any questions, please DM me and I have a final favor. Would you please if you have not yet, stop and take a second to leave me a review.

If you listen in Apple Podcasts, that's the best place to do it. You'll just go to my show, scroll all the way down, and you should see like the review thing there. And that would mean the absolute world to me. Thanks guys. Hope you have a great rest of your day. Thank you for listening to Holistic Marketing Simplified, and hey, you know how every podcaster at the very end of their episode asks you to rate and review their podcast?

Well, that's because it's super important. These podcasts take a lot of time and heart and effort to produce, to bring you free information. So in order for me to be able to continue doing that, we need more people to find out about the show. So if you could please just take like two minutes out of your very busy day.

To leave me a rating and share this on your Instagram stories and tag at Molly a Cahill, that's C-A-H-I-L-L. I would greatly, greatly appreciate your support. I know your time is valuable and I can't wait to see you in the next episode.