My Top Hacks for Filming Face to Camera Reels (and why you need them) [Episode 93]

Good morning and welcome back. Coming at you with my cup of coffee in hand and my lovely abundance mug from my amazing bookkeeper and um, my spiritual bookkeeper, my woo woo money mindset. Anyway, she was on a couple of episodes back. If you haven't listened to that one yet, you should. She actually got two new clients within two days of my podcast episode with her going out.

She's like that good. So Kelly, I'm thinking about you sitting here drinking out of my abundance mug. And before I dive into today's episode, I wanted to tell you a little bit about my upcoming content creation retreat happening in just outside of Charleston, South Carolina on Folly Beach, April 10th through the 13th of 2025.

So at the time of recording this, so this will come out in a couple of weeks. I don't know how many spots we'll have left when this actually goes live. As of right now, I have seven beds left and today's topic of the podcast is going to be about filming face to camera talking reels and like some misconceptions and best practices and all of that.

And so if you're either A, You know, maybe you fall in the camp where you're like, ugh, like the thought of like talking to the camera scares me or B, you're like, it doesn't really scare me. I just don't know what to say or C, maybe I just am not making the time to do it or any of the, you know, a mixture of any of those.

Then if you're just for the ladies only, then I would highly consider contacting me about my content creation retreat weekend, because. We did it last year and it's, oh my gosh, it was so, it was just so cup filling and I loved it. Like I was ready to like run through a wall as soon as it was over. Um, a lot of the women from last year are coming back.

Um, actually one, one woman bought her ticket within five minutes of me posting the link for this next year. But this year is going to be even better than last year because not only is the house going to be better. So last year's house was awesome. Don't get me wrong. It was beautiful. It was clean.

Everyone had their own bed and own bathroom, but it was like downtown Charleston and it was like right off of two interstates. It was so loud. Like everybody had a hard time sleeping because of the the road noise. But this year, like I said, we're on Folly Beach. We're only a four minute walk from the beach and the house is so badass.

It is like, I don't know how they dreamed this up or how they like the architecture behind this is just wild, but the house has been renovated to where every person is going to have their own suite that has their own bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, and living room. It's like huge. I don't know how they crammed all of this in.

There is like one or two spaces that have. like beds, like two, two people would be in it. So it's like a bedroom with a bed. Anyway, it's really cool. It's so again, if you're kind of like, Oh, I'd love to go on a retreat, but I'm more of a private person. No worries. You have your own space. It's really cool.

We also have somebody who's wanting to bring like their own plus one. And so if that's something you want to do and you want to share the space because there's like a couple spaces that have like a pullout, um, we're not selling that as a ticket, but if you wanted to bring somebody or it has like a extra twin bed, then just contact me and we could sell that as like a discounted package rate for you both to share the suite.

It starts on kickoff, Friday morning, professional hair and makeup, a photographer coming. As people are getting their professional photos taken, there's going to be B roll stations around the property, so with an instruction card at each one. So it'll say, film this video here, film this video here. And then there will also be, I don't know how many, but face to camera stations as well with outlines because we're going to have a pre retreat call.

So everybody's going to kind of know what to say and what to record. And then Saturday all day, my amazing friend, Keeley Scheider, she was actually on last week's episode of the podcast, is going to be like my co coach, concierge, tech help. We're going to be taking all that footage that you put together Friday and putting it into actual reels on Saturday.

And then in addition to that, after the retreat is over, my team will create five additional reels for you after the retreat. for you to use after, yeah, with all the footage you've got. So I am super duper excited. Like I said, last year was amazing and I learned some things. And, um, this year we're going to have my friend Kristen Spetz is going to come back and do a sound healing with breath work session.

all meals, all snacks, everything, the photography, everything's included in your ticket. The only thing that is not included in your ticket is if you do want hair and makeup, that's an extra charge. And then like the plane ticket and, or the Uber from Charleston airport to the Airbnb is, is on you, but everything else is included in your ticket.

So again, it's just, Oh my gosh, I had the best time last year and I can't wait to do it again. So I will put the link in the show notes. It's just, it's not like a straight link where you can go check out because obviously I just don't want somebody, I've never, you know, random like buying the ticket. So it's going to be like a short little wait list or application link and um, that link will be in the show notes.

You can just go to mollykahill. com slash retreat. So today's episode, face to camera reels. If you're like, I could never do this. Don't tune off, tune off, don't turn, don't turn me off. You can do it. Here we go.

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.

You're welcome. So let's come hanging out while we chat all things 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 Kristen Spetz. And I am a life coach and a sound bath facilitator, meditation and breath work teacher.

And I live in Evanston, Illinois, outside of Chicago. And I listen to Molly Cahill's Holistic Marketing Simplified Podcast. It's so great. Okay. Let's talk about. Reels. So, I feel like all I've been talking about a lot recently is b roll reels. If you don't know what b roll is, all it is, it's not a term invented by Instagram content creators.

An old journalism term that just means the footage that didn't make the original cut, like the background footage, essentially. So, yeah. Not the A footage, but the B, the B. So the B, the B. This is why I don't record early in the morning. My brain's not like, it's like at like 75 percent booted. And if you've ever been watching the local news, which I'm like, I don't know, know who watches the local news anymore, but if you think about it, so I used to live in Pensacola beach, right?

So say there's a shark attack on the beach. There's the reporter and the video is filming the reporter. She's standing there with the beach in the background and of her talking to the camera, like, that's the regular footage, right? Like that's the face to camera, that's the, I guess you would call it the A footage.

The B roll is when the camera cuts to panning the beach or like showing, you know, secondary footage. You can still hear the, uh, the reporter talking over the footage, but you're not looking at her anymore. So B roll reels are just. Those little just background clips of, you know, you filming panning your office or you walking or you sitting at your desk or whatever.

I love B roll reels and they're still very popular. I'm not saying don't do them like a hundred percent. It's still the majority of the reels I post because they're so easy. And once you've got a bank of B roll footage, you, I mean, there can be days. You don't have to film anything new. You just go grab a clip, put a catchy hook over the top of it, and use your caption.

You're good to go. I have I am sure I have podcast episodes on Reels like this. I think I do. Of like what's working right now and like messaging stuff. But also if you're not in my broadcast channel, just DM me the word broadcast. And I have a free broadcast channel on Instagram where I share trending audios with hook ideas for Reels as well.

And so, and if you're a Holistic Marketing Hub student and you're listening to this, then like this is, you have tons of this. You have tons of B roll ideas with your captions with right in your portal with the exact text to put over the footage. And, you know, if, like I said, if you're listening to this, I share this in your Holistic Marketing Hub Slack channel.

Um, I'll share like little trending audios and share, you know, your B roll ideas. So again, love them. They're easy. They don't take a lot of time. They're catchy. Great. Love my b roll reels, but face to camera reels are still very much, or should still, I hate to use the word should, because, you know, at the end of the day, I'm like, just do the best you can.

If all you can get up is b roll, then heck yeah, go, good for you. Um, but how about instead of should, I would consider adding face to camera reels to your rotation, to your strategy. The reason for this is I have, just for example, I've come to, let's say a business coach's profile before, and all they have is B roll reels and you never hear their voice.

And your voice, you're like actual, and I don't, by voice, I don't mean like your brand voice or anything like that. I'm like, your literal voice is part of your brand. People need to hear you speak, your cadence of speech, the way you talk. It plays a big role in our emotional buying decisions. So you know how you, if you're not, if you're new around here, you'll know, I talk about how much we are.

We like to think we buy things based on logical facts and features, but really we all, we all base buy things based on emotion, especially when you're in health and wellness field and you're dealing with like, Hey, I'm, you're going to be like, I'm putting my health in your hands or you're going to be touching me or whatever.

Like, I want to be able to visualize who you are, hear you. And so that's a really important piece of the puzzle. The misconception is, with these face to camera reels, that It has to be some highly produced, I get a lot of questions, what equipment do you use? I don't have equipment. I mean, I have it. I'm sitting here looking at it.

I can't tell you the last time I've used it. Fun fact. I have a Bluetooth microphone in my drawer that I bought three years ago that I've never even used. I don't even know how to use it. I'm speaking at a. Women Chiropractor Conference in Michigan in a couple of weeks. And I was like, you know, I should probably figure out how to use this microphone so that I can record my talk and you can actually hear me.

So, so I will talk about equipment in a minute. But if that's your, if that's your hang up, then that's just an excuse. I'm sorry. It is. because you don't need equipment. You don't need a ring light. You don't need a tripod. You don't need a microphone. You don't have to have your hair and makeup fully done.

You can literally just sit in your car. And that's the beauty like Gen Z, you know, they've, they've done a lot of things that us millennials or I'm an elder millennial like to like roll our eyes at. Right. And if you're Gen Z looking at, if you're Gen Z listening to this, then the one thing I really, really thank you for is The content now versus like when I first started doing Instagram work for people in 2016 is so different, but different in a good way in that people don't want the overly curated, perfect stuff anymore.

They want the real stuff. So casual, literally just chats in your car, um, not while driving. I don't, I don't know why people film themselves while they're driving. I think that's just like a recipe for disaster because what if you got in an accident and then someone was like suing you because they see that you were filming while you were driving.

So just don't film and drive. I don't care if you've got it up on a tripod thing. Just don't do it. I'll do it a lot in my driveway or when I'm in carpool line, like, so if you have kids, like carpool line, like that's a great time. Or if they're in gymnastics and you've got a little time in the car and you're gonna be like, well, I don't know what to say.

I'm going to get to that in just a minute. But again, off the cuff, the car is great lighting. It's good sound. Um, I know it's about to start getting dark earlier, but still. And if you're like me. Listen, I'm not going to lie, I am vain. And I stopped getting Botox back in March. And I don't love Botox. My, I'm, I'm learning to embrace my wrinkles.

I am actually getting cosmetic acupuncture, which I really like. I've had to take a break, um, over the last six weeks just cause it's, I was doing body acupuncture instead when I was dealing with that really bad bout of anxiety. I had to switch to like getting body acupuncture every week cause before I was like alternating cosmetic and body, but so it is, um, yeah, cosmetic acupuncture is a little pricey, but yeah.

In the long run, it's actually not that much more expensive than Botox. So I digress. If you want to talk to me about that, DM me my experience with cosmetic acupuncture. I'm loving it. Yeah. Like I'm, I am not just like trying to look 72 when I'm on there filming. And so I usually film and I've taught off top my clients this too.

I like to fill my reels or any videos in Instagram stories interface. And I use, it's called the subtle filter. It just kind of, it's not like overly filtered where you look like a Disney character, but just like a little bit. And I know that I'm going to get, some people are like, Oh, well you shouldn't, that's fake and you should be real and you should like, okay, I get it.

But if it's like a choice between not showing up at all, and then me just feeling a slightly bit more confident, like. Yeah, I'm going to do it. I film my, my, any videos in the Instagram stories app using my filter. And then once you're done, I don't post them to my stories. You'll literally just see a little, there's three dots at the top of the screen of your stories.

Once you've done, once you filmed it and tap those three dots at the top, right of your story screen, and you'll see a down arrow and that will save the video to your camera roll. I'll I like doing this as well because then you can edit out that what they call the millennial pause in the beginning. So in terms of best practices, if you are going to do a face to camera talking reel, and I see this all the time, there's always a pause in the beginning.

So it's like you're standing there and then you're like, hi. So that pause, unfortunately, is enough for people to scroll off your reel. So you want to edit your video where your like mouth is already opening, that's when you want to start the video. In terms of editing, you can edit it right in, you can edit it right in Instagram Reels or I use an app called InShot.

I just find it easier to use. And then, you know, that's where I make my face to camera reels a little tighter, meaning I cut out any pauses, ums, or like anything like that in the middle that makes the video lull. If you've never done this before and you're just getting started, Please don't think you have to do all of that.

I want you to just, I want you to crawl before you walk, before you run. Like you don't have to worry about editing out any of that stuff. I just want you to get up a couple of face to camera videos first, even if they've got pauses and ums and all of that jazz. Okay. So that's how I film them. And then the other thing to know is how to start the video.

So you don't want to start the video by introducing yourself. Nobody cares. You want to start the video almost as if you're in mid conversation. It's going to feel funny. And if the only way you actually get yourself to record the video is to start by introducing yourself, go for it. You can always edit it out or again, just, I'd rather you get something up just to kind of flex that muscle before or exercise that muscle before and you know, then we can always get on to making it like best practices.

But you want to dive right into the meat of what it is you're talking about. Like I said, like you're just like diving in mid conversation. Okay. So I know I talked about filming in your car. That's one way to do it. But another thing you can do is just filming it While walking around, like if you're outside for a walk, um, sometimes I'll film mine while I'm like walking around the house.

And that just adds a little bit of visual interest too, because people are nosy and I'm telling you those are going to perform. Not only are they easier to create and less pressure, they're typically going to perform better than you setting up a light and sitting down and like trying to be more of like a news reporter type style.

Okay. So, sorry, I just want to go back to that. So, so back to how to start the videos, like almost as if you're in mid conversation. So my friend Shannon McKinstry posted the best list of how, like viral hooks of how when you're talking to camera, face to camera. So I will link her reel down in the show notes.

Just, I don't want to like this. These were not my hooks. This is not my original idea, but it's things like you start your real by going and this like I said, it's going to feel unnatural. It's really literally like you're facetiming a friend. Okay. Imagine you're facetiming a friend and you've come in mid conversation.

So it can look a little bit like this. And if you take anything away from the story, just know that blank. So what that could look like in practice, if you starting your real is. Say you're sitting in your car, you press film, and you say, and if you take anything away from the story, then just know, double check the quality of the supplements that you are getting.

Even if you think you're getting the name brand, you might not be. And then you dive into, this is why you should use my full script or something like that. See how that's so much more compelling than, hi, I'm Dr. Molly. Today, I want to tell you about why you should get high quality supplements. Like nobody's listening to that shit, okay?

Okay. So notice how not only did I not introduce myself, but I also didn't say happy Tuesday. I'm just popping on to tell you. Nix that from your vocabulary. So again, if you need to start the video by saying all of that, because it helps you launch into the topic more effortlessly, great. You can always edit it out later.

Another idea that Shannon has was, wait, have we talked about blah, blah, blah. So again, imagine you are in your house or you're in your clinic, you're in between patients. Let's just say you're in between patients and you grab your phone really quickly, open up Instagram stories, put on whatever filter you like.

If you're like me and if you're. Like, a better woman than I or man than I, then you don't put, you don't put on your filter. And you just start talking. You say, wait, have we talked about how ear infections actually usually are viral and don't require antibiotics? And then you launch into the topic. Right?

So again, see how that's different? So much more compelling than hi, I'm Dr. Molly and today I want to talk to you or happy Tuesday. I'm Dr. Molly. I'm just popping on here to talk to you about your infections. Like you've already lost somebody. So see how that's like so much more compelling just to like dive right into it.

So again, I'll link my friend Shannon's, and if you haven't listened to good con the podcast, good content by Shannon McKinstry, I 10 out of 10 recommend it. I actually have my team listen to it as a learning. Um, like I pay them to listen to Shannon's podcast. So shout out Shannon. I'm not even going to try to reinvent the wheel because she did such a good job with these hooks.

Okay, so here I'm going to end with one more and then, um, wrap up the episode. And so this one is almost like you're again, mid story and it's this, so I'm on a blank and I'm blank and blank. So it's kind of something like example would be, so I'm sitting here doing an intake with a new patient and she's talking about how it's normal for her to have three to five headache days a week.

And I'm like, That is not normal. It might be common, but let's talk about it. So again, it's so I'm on blank and I'm blank and blank. So it's basically like, so I'm sitting here doing this and then this happened and then this. So you see how that's like, again, just so much more compelling than just introducing yourself or saying happy Tuesday or saying I want to hop on.

It's like people feel immediately drawn in and they're almost kind of like, wait, did I miss the beginning of this conversation? And they're going to watch it and feel compelled. Again, just if when in doubt, just pretend like you're FaceTiming me if you want to. That's totally fine. Like, oh, I got to call Molly and tell her about this story.

So one last best practice that I'll give you is to make sure that when you are using these face to camera reels that you have the closed captions turned on. It's a feature built right into Instagram. Uh, more than 80 percent of people watch Instagram video with no sound. So if you don't have the closed captions, uh, turned on, then people are definitely just going to scroll away.

In addition to the rolling closed captions, we like to add a, uh, like static on screen Because sometimes it takes like say you're watching a video with no sound and it takes like two seconds for the closed captions to start rolling for you to actually see what the video is going to be about. Again, I know it's sad, but that's still not enough time for someone's attention to be caught.

And so for that ear infection example, you know, you could put a little like something like, uh, if you want off the antibiotic rollercoaster for your kids, ear infections, this is the real for you or something like that. So you'd have that on there, and then you could have that piece of text like go away, and then it's still like the rolling closed captions.

If you need tech help for all of this stuff, and you're like, I don't know how to do all of this. If you're in the hub, you have step by step videos for every single thing I just said. I also have a Reels freebie that has just a basic Reels tech tutorial. You can grab that at MollyCahill. com slash Reels.

And when in doubt, YouTube it. Push buttons. It's, it's really not like, I promise you, you can figure it out. Don't let that be the thing that stops you. Okay. So I hope this was a super helpful episode. Tag me when you make your first face to camera reel. It's if you've never done it before, it might be kind of awkward and that's okay.

I look back to videos. I was telling a friend, I look back to some videos I did, um, when I first started and I look like I'm on like, Cocaine or something. I'm like trying to be overly peppy and just not natural. So that's why, like I said, this, these hooks are so great because it's just like a natural way you would speak to somebody.

So allow yourself to be a beginner. If you're not used to doing them, allow the first five or so to be weird and awkward and cringy and that's okay. And then you're just going to get better and better and better and no one is paying attention to you. in the way that you think they are. Okay? Nobody is.

Nobody cares. Everybody's filming themselves these days. All right? You're not, you're not going to be like, Oh my God, what is she thinking? Talking to the camera? Oh my God. Nobody's thinking that. Okay? Just do it. And if the issue goes even deeper and it's something where you're like, wow, I don't really know that I believe in what I'm selling, then maybe take a couple steps back and revisit your why.

Talk to your coach if you have a coach, talk to your therapist if you have a therapist. And sometimes there's, like I said, I'm giving you the surface level tips, but I'm I've been doing this long enough to know sometimes it goes a lot deeper than that. And sometimes it's truly an issue of, of you not believing in yourself and believing in your worth and what you do.

You know, I have a Rolodex of amazing coaches. So if you want that, hit me up. All right, guys, until next time, have a fantastic day. Can't wait to see your face to camera reels. 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. 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.