Do you struggle with creating massive amounts of content for Reels? Not sure how or if it is worth it? 

Well, today on the podcast we got to chat with the LEGIT king of Instagram Reels. We can nearly GUARANTEE if you’re a creative entrepreneur you have undoubtedly seen this man’s content hit your Reels explore page. Today we are chatting with the incredible Brock Johnson. 

Brock is a 24-year-old, 7-figure entrepreneur with a passion for helping others grow their following and business on Instagram. As Co-host of a top 10 business Podcast, instructor of multiple online courses, and viral social media creator, Brock has helped thousands of entrepreneurs learn to build their business on social media, even with limited time and money.

In today’s marketing chat with Brock, we talked about ALL things Instagram and Reels. If you’re needing some help on the Instagram battlefield we gotchu today. 

Brock covered everything from the biggest mindset that’s holding you back from marketing yourself successfully on IG, the 3 biggest things to focus on within short-form video creation on Insta, what mistakes you NEED to avoid when creating Reels, how to consistently create a lot of IG content easily and quickly, and SO much more. 

 

Brock’s Story 

Brock helps other entrepreneurs, business owners, and creators grow their platforms on Instagram. Whether that’s building a business, brand, or following. 

Being raised in a very entrepreneurial family, both my mom and dad have owned businesses, Brock got his start at a young age. Never formally getting sat down and taught business lessons but learned from what his parents exemplified on a regular basis. From a very young age, he got to see the highs and lows, pros and cons of what being an entrepreneur was all about. 

Fast forward to his freshman year of college, where Brock was a student-athlete with little free time but wanted to be able to provide for himself. He knew the only way would be working for himself and starting something online. At that time he got his start helping moms keep their kids safe on Snapchat. This was in 2015 and 2016 when Snapchat was all over the news and blowing up, the way Tik Tok is nowadays. People were scared of it. Brock created a business where he would teach moms how to protect their kids on Snapchat. That blossomed into a way to help people grow their business on Snapchat and then grow their business on Instagram. 

 

The biggest mindset to get over to market yourself or business successfully on Instagram 

It’s an easy answer, it’s perfectionism. That’s something that came about because for the first 8-10 years that Instagram was in existence there was and often times still is this stereotype that you have to be perfect to show up on Instagram. We think the only business owners and content creators who are growing and reaching new people are the ones who look great, sound great, dance great, have the most beautiful lives, they’re flying on the fancy jets, have the fanciest vacations, and their kids are perfect and never throw a fit. 

Everything is perfect, that was very much the stereotype around Instagram. It was propagated and spread by “influencers” who only posted at brunch, etc. They didn’t intentionally, but we all looked around and saw that the only successful people on Instagram were who looked and acted perfectly.

Now the opposite is true. According to a lot of data and research people are really turned off by that. When they are looking around they see the presets, filters, and the fake perfect life and it is fake and inauthentic and no one connects with that. It doesn’t resonate with people. It doesn’t feel real or true to the human experience. Now when people see those fake and unauthentic posts it is a turn-off, yet that mindset still remains. There is still this block for so many people that they have to produce high quality, A+, perfect content, or else they are never going to be successful. 

 

Should you create Reels? 

Should you, yes you should. You don’t need to, it’s not absolutely necessary but you should. There is an opportunity and way any business in any industry can utilize Reels, because ultimately at the end of the day, a Reel is just a video. You can use video marketing in some way. 

 

Three biggest things to focus on when creating a reel?

1. Is it related to your niche? Every reel should be related to your niche, topic, or focus for your Instagram account. They shouldn’t be random about any old topic that you find funny or interesting that day. They should all be related to your niche. 
2. They should all have some sort of value. When we hear value we think it should be a mind-blowing seven tips that no one has ever shared before, when really value can come in many different forms. Captivating someone is valuable, entertaining someone is valuable, motivating someone is valuable, teaching, inspiring. There are a lot of different ways we can provide value to our audience. The ultimate simplified test in how to provide value is to ask yourself “Does this content that I just made, would it matter to a stranger?”. If you show it to your mom they might find it valuable no matter what it is, but if you were to walk up to a random stranger on the street and show them this content. Would it be valuable to them? Would there be something for them to gain from watching it? 
3. Generally the composition of the Reel. Can you read the text that is on the screen and is the Reel well lit. You don’t need a ring light or fancy Hollywood setup but can you see what is going on in the video and if there is any text on the screen can you actually read what it is saying. 

 

Are there any things to AVOID doing when it comes to reels? 

• Don’t ever delete your reel. The only exception is if it glitches. If something happens where your audience can no longer consume properly then delete it. Most of us are deleting our reels most of the time not because it glitches but because our ego is feeling a little bruised. We delete the reel because it didn’t get enough likes or views. Just leave it. 
• Being out of sync with the lip sync. If you are going to lip-sync, record it a few times until you get it right. The little difference of mouthing that one word right correctly could be the difference of holding someone’s attention than creating a little disconnect and them swiping by. 
• Where to share. It has actually recently changed. It used to be a little toggle switch right below your caption that would say “Also share to feed” and for most of us we would always share to our feed and that is what Brock recommends for most people. Share to your feed. Now they just changed in the last couple of days and it now says “Limit the number of followers” who now see the Reel. Here is his advice around that, if you have followers who are not very engaged, to begin with. You have followers who don’t really like your posts or are disengaged. Then test sharing it not to your followers, but sharing it only to the Reels page, not to the home feed. That way if the non-followers see it they will be engaged and your Reel won’t be shared with that group of followers who we know won’t be engaged, to begin with. 

 

Curated cover photo or not? 

It’s not necessary, less than 5% of people who ever view your reel are even going to see the photo. It’s a small minority of people who will ever see the cover. If you are in an industry that is visual, then of course the visuals matter a little more. For most of us, the problem is we hear the visuals matter or cover should look presentable. The cover should look presentable, it doesn’t have to be perfected with colors, fonts, etc. It just needs to be presentable and look good enough on your page. 

Don’t stress over how pretty your cover is, instead of pouring energy and time into creating those cover photos, think of all the content you could be creating instead. 

 

How much content should people REALLY be posting to IG?

The minimum it is at least one feed post per day. If you only have time for one feed post a day, the hope would be that it is a Reel.

Don’t aim for the minimum, the lowest recommended dosage. Aim for posting as much as you can sustain. Sustainability is key and is a huge part of consistency. If one per day is too much for you, then you might need to evaluate your goals, where you are spending your time, where you’re focusing your energy. Maybe growing a huge Instagram presence isn’t something in the cards for you in the next few months. Maybe you need to adjust your goals and know that things might move a bit slower on your Instagram account than on others. 

The minimum if you want to grow on Instagram is one feed post per day and then challenge yourself to do more. The more you post the more you grow. It is true for every account and every business. The more you post, the more exposure you get, the more potential audience members you can gain, the more you can serve your followers, connect with your existing customers and followers. 

 

How to Create Consistently 

Stop trying to create the perfect content. It is draining and overwhelming and you’re never going to be able to produce a lot of it. Just aim for good enough. Try to make a bunch of content that is C grade-level content. That will allow you to produce more. 

For a specific strategy, it’s batch producing, you create content in batches. It’s like making a batch of cookies, you make a batch of cookies and can eat that over a few days. Same with Reels, you can post them over the next few days. Creating content from start to finish in one day does not work for most, we get distracted and do not have enough time or energy. There is a different headspace to writing a caption, recording a lip-sync versus dancing versus an educational Reel. Instead, chunk content. Take the batch-producing process and break it down into smaller chunks. 

1. Save a bunch of reel audio clips, trending sounds, etc. 

 

2. When you are feeling good, looking good, and got ready for the day. Then you are ready to record a Reel. Now you record as many Reels as you can. A Reel can only be a minute long so you can record a lot in an hour. 

 

3. Go back and edit. 

 

4. Go back and add the text. 

 

5. Decide how you are going to relate this Reel to your niche. 

 

6. Write the caption. 

Doing all of that at once is overwhelming, but if you break it off into the smallest bite-size chunks as possible that is how you can produce so much content in a relatively short time frame. 

 

 

Show notes

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