Are you ready to conquer your fear of reels whether it’s of the tech or just being the face of your brand? Expert advice is you have to show your face on video and you need to start using reels to increase your reach. That is only partially true. But here’s the thing, you can actually use reels without showing your face!
Today’s guest is Allison Scholes and she is going to share some tips that will help you push through the fear that has been holding you back! She also shares some time saving tips to help with content creation that you don’t want to miss.
Shannon Baker
So I want to thank everyone for joining me for this week’s podcast, which is a chat. It’s actually the first chat on the podcast this year. And I’m excited because I’m chatting with my biz bestie, coffee buddy, podcast bestie. We’re like sisters, like soul sisters – like deeply. It’s Allison Scholes. And she’s actually been on the podcast before. So if you want to check out that episode, it’s episode number 39. And Allison shared tips to help us learn how to use Instagram effectively to grow our business as busy mompreneurs. So she gives tips that are going to save you some time. And we’re going to even expand on that a little bit more. But specifically, talking about reels today and getting over the fear of using reels on Instagram. So, Allison, since you were on the podcast, before, your business has gone through a little bit of change, because we were talking about before I started recording. So this kind of came to mind because both of us are entering like new phases of our journey as mompreneurs. Spring is coming, so this new season this like renewed energy, the ways we show up taking action, which this fits right in. So what’s on the horizon for you? Because I know we talked about it a little bit.
Allison Scholes
Oh, gosh, I feel like there’s so much on the horizon, right? You know, it’s funny, because we were just talking about, like our journey, or evolution of our businesses, and how the two of us have changed so much. And, you know, to really like get through the change is just to get clarity on like, what you want in life and what you want for your business. And that’s how I kind of had this recent evolution because I was feeling that I was getting pulled in all the directions and feeling very stretched. And as a creative entrepreneur, I think being creative can be a double edged sword. Because yes, it’s great to be creative. But then you also feel that you’re going to do all the things. And that’s kind of where I was for a while I was doing all the things. I recently just told you that I actually had to pull back on my podcast a little bit. I asked God for clarity on that. And you know, I just got the answer that I needed. But right now I am just diving deep into helping my busy Christian mompreneurs create the content that they want. But they’re going to do it in a way that’s faster, and it’s easier. And it’s just going to help them be more consistent, where they want to show up and just do what feels good to them. And not feel that these social media platforms, especially Instagram is sucking their soul. I’m all about making, creating content and showing up online and a fun way and not let it be overwhelming and daunting. So I feel like it’s always this roller coaster ride. But I have to enjoy it and I have to embrace it. And I know you have embraced your roller coaster ride as well.
Shannon Baker
I mean, even to the point where as you mentioned, social media can suck the life out of you. So I mean, that’s why I took like a four and a half, almost five month break from it. Because I just needed the space. And as you mentioned, we’re constantly creating content, social media, your podcast, like everything, and it’s like you’re always in creation. Well, even if you’re recreating using what you already have, it still requires some effort and for all the things we have going on outside, you’re a homeschool mom, you know, when you put mommy into the the everyday things that we do. And then I’m also mom, my daughter is older, but I have a day job. So it’s like we have all these different things that pull out us. Time is always of the essence. And I appreciate your approach to content creation because it has definitely saved me a lot of time. Helped me simplify my thinking. And my approach. And the great thing with it is you can use the content even outside of Instagram, even though that’s you know what we’re gonna talk about specifically. But your approach to content creation works across the board. Yes. So now when it comes to using Instagram, how do you suggest we approach getting that into like our system especially to help market and grow our business?
Allison Scholes
So I think when it comes to Instagram, a lot of people will initially think of all the features and they’ll immediately start thinking about Instagram Stories, Instagram reels, the DMs, and video. So you can think of Instagram is just a bunch of different little cities or communities right? And you’re constantly running to one or the other. And that’s why it gets so overwhelming, in my opinion. So I think it’s a really great idea before you tell yourself, like, I’m going to get on Instagram, and I’m going to build my presence, and I’m going to get the leads. And I’m going to get the sales. We’ve all said that. I know I have said that in the past. I’m sure you thought that too in the past. But I think we need to take a step back. And we need to look at the big picture of Instagram, because it is a massive community, you’re not going to get on and have that overnight success, which I don’t think overnight success even exists for anybody in the world, unless you buy a lottery ticket, and you happen to win, but most likely, you’re going to blow it within the first year because you really don’t know what to do with it.
But when it comes to Instagram, what the big picture is, is I’d like to call it my three C’s and Shannon, I know you have heard my three C’s to how to approach Instagram. And what they are is clarity, content, and consistency. And in the beginning, most people roll their eyes and go, I’ve heard that before. But you might have heard it from experts or gurus when they’re talking about a specific feature. They’re not talking about the big picture. So when it comes to clarity, you have to really decide for yourself, who you are, and what you’re meant to do. But also when it comes to clarity, what do you want to be known for? Because we really show up on Instagram, and what do we do, we start consuming everyone else’s content, and we’re watching what everyone else is doing. And you’re gonna fall into the hamster wheel of mimicking what they’re doing. And I’ve done it too. I’ve seen other amazing Instagram coaches like Jasmine star, two years ago, I was probably copying her exact strategy because she seemed so successful to me. But I didn’t have clarity on myself. I didn’t understand who I wanted to be, and what I wanted to be known for. So I think you have to work through that first, before you can even begin to create your content.
And once you know what you stand for, and what you want to be known for, that’s how you can really start to create your own authentic content. And I know that’s another buzzword. A lot of people are so sick and tired of hearing about authentic content. But to me, all it means is it, you just take what you’ve learned. Because I’ve learned so much from other coaches, I’ve taken so many courses and listening to other podcasters. take what you’ve learned. And all you have to do is infuse your personality with it. And infuse your experience and your overall life experience with it. That is authentic content. And that’s all it needs to be it doesn’t need to be something that is completely brand new. Because really is there anything really brand new, it’s all been done before. It’s just you’re doing it in your own way.
And then the last part of that is creating consistency. And the good news is you get to define what that is for you do not listen to any coaches or gurus or mentors saying, Well, if you want growth, or you want the 10,000 followers, you need to post two times a day, seven days a week for three months. I’m sorry, being a mompreneur. And I think she would agree with me that is not sustainable. No way and you will not repeat that. So your consistency is really your consistency pattern. What can you do over and over and over to show up for your audience. Serve your audience make an impact online. That’s all consistency is it’s creating that pattern that’s sustainable, so you can have that long term growth.
Shannon Baker
And to piggyback off of what Allison said about authenticity, if you follow her online and you’re a Marvel fan, she is a Loki fanatic and always reminds us don’t be Loki when it comes to your content because that is frustrating because it’s not really you. So I also love your approach because it’s like okay, here’s an idea for you that you can use in your content. But do it your way, even down to using reels, which Allison knows I’ve only dabbled into reels because of her help in her urging me because I am not a reels fan. But keep that in mind. For me. It wasn’t really fear. It was just um, I was over it before it even got started. Because to me, it mimicked Tik Tok. So reels to me was like Loki. Right. So, reels is the popular trendy feature right now on Instagram. How can we start using reels and get over that initial fear that many people have?
Allison Scholes
First of all, I would identify what is the fear? Is it getting your face in front of the camera? Is it the tech? Is it a fear of what other people will think about your reels? Is it a fear of time? Do you feel that you’re going to spend so much time creating the reels, and you’re not going to get anything out of it? So I think first identifying getting specific of what really that fear is about reels, identifying what that is, is actually going to help you take responsible responsibility for that reel. And then tell yourself okay, now that I’ve identified it, I’m not going to let it take control. And now I can move on. So I think number one, identify what that fear is. Secondly, it’s super easy to fall into the scroll of reels. There’s nothing wrong with getting ideas and watching what other people are doing. But I think and like you said, it’s like watching, you know, Tik Tok’s, twin sister, or you know twin brother, and they’re everyone’s pointing to text bubbles and doing these crazy dances. I’m going to tell you right now, you do not have to do that to be successful with reels or so called go viral. I don’t like that term go viral. Just get that out of your head. Don’t worry about that. You have to identify what is your goal with reels? Why do you even want to do them in the first place? Think about your audience. Are they going to consume reels? Think about the time that you have? Think about your niche, all of that stuff. What is your overall goal with reels? Are you trying to get a target audience? Or are you just trying to get more visibility and more eyeballs on your account. So you have to think about that first.
But my best advice when it comes to starting with reels is stay within your niche. Don’t get too caught up in all of the trendy fun reels. There’s nothing wrong with doing that once in a while. But you want to make sure that the reels that you’re going to do, you want it to relate to you;what you stand for; like who you are and your business. Because you’re going to get the reach. But you want to make sure that you reach the right type of people. A lot of times all the I see a lot of mentors or gurus out there saying if you do this trend, this trend, trend alert, trend alert, use this audio and point to these words, and you’re gonna get like 6,000 views. But if you do that, you’re getting all like these crazy usernames, and they’re not going to follow you with you and they’re not going to engage with you. So what was the purpose of getting all those views? Is it just so you can feel good about yourself, just to get metrics that really don’t mean anything.
So don’t get caught up into the whole views, I would rather have less views. But it’s to my targeted audience. And I’m getting more comments and more saves and shares. Because that tells me in my Instagram insights that my audience likes the kind of content I’m putting into these reels. And they’re saving it for two reasons. Either they’ve learned something from it, and they want to refer back to it or it gave them a content idea. And they would like to do it for themselves in their business. So when you’re first starting out with reels is just do two things, speak to your audience and show your face. All you have to do is share one to two tips or hacks that your audience can get a quick win, or they can implement immediately. And yes, you can use trendy music as background if you want to try to get the reach and the views.
But think of your target audience every time you’re going to create a reel and instead of opening reels and dealing with all the tech and being nervous when the record button hits, I’m sure most of the audience has been in Instagram stories. So just open up Instagram stories because now it allows you to record up to 60 seconds which is amazing. Speak into the camera and give your one to two tips right there, download it to your phone, right, and save it for later. And then you can upload it to your Instagram reels, you can add some text trending background. But there you go, start your Instagram stories where you’re already familiar with that neighborhood of Instagram, you already know how the buttons work, create your video right there, put on the fancy filter if you want, so you can look good, right? We all have our favorite filters. And that’s how I would get started is just teaching your audience something within your niche. And you really just need to start out with maybe one reel a week. And do that for a couple of months and see how it works for you.
Shannon Baker
And then if the fear which you taught me because it was It wasn’t necessarily a fear for me. But once you’ve been working at home, you kind of get into a rhythm of, you know how you show up every day, which is not with the perfectly styled hair and the full makeup in the style clothes and all of that. So that may hold many of the listeners back from actually showing their face. But one thing I quickly learned from you was, I don’t have to show my face. But I’ve learned to do a combination of the two. So I may do a quick clip where I’m talking about what the reel is about. And then the rest of the reel is not my face, it’s me showing something else that like works really great. And then sometimes I don’t show my face at all, except for the cover image of the reel is a still shot of me that I’ve uploaded from my camera. So like with little tips like that any other tips that you can share to help those who buy might be like, Okay, I can do this, but I’m still not quite ready to show my face.
Allison Scholes
So if nobody wants to show your face, there’s a couple of different content type ideas that you can do. You can do a screen recording tutorial, and you can do a voiceover you can record your voice and Instagram reels. Or you can also record your voice in one of my favorite apps that I talk about all the time it’s in shot, I find it so easy to use, you can do all your videos in there if you wanted to. You can even do like a photo collage with voiceover or trending music. You can even do a time lapse of a process. So if you are, I don’t know, maybe a fitness person, do a time lapse of your morning workout. Or if you are in to nutrition. And you’re always sharing recipes, do a time lapse of you putting together like maybe you bake gluten free bread, or you have the best smoothie recipe with all your greens and all your collagen and all of that packed in one little shake, you can do a time lapse.
Let’s say you have physical products, maybe you can show the packaging of your product from how it starts on the line to how it’s being shipped out to your customer, do an office tour. That that would be a fun one, do your office tour and show on a daily basis like your three or four must haves that you can’t live without. And I guarantee the number one thing for Shannon I will be our big cup of coffee, that would definitely be in there. Or even take a tour through your your workday. Just take little video snips of how you start where you’re at mid morning. And then how you end your day. Maybe it’s always me putting my feet up in my basement with my kids and getting ready to binge Netflix like that’s how we end our day.
You can even do testimonials, it would be awesome just to go in Canva and do the 9 to 16 ratio, which is the Instagram reels ratio. And you can do a nice animated slide of your testimonials. Or you can even create presentations right in Canva. So there’s a lot of ideas of not showing your face but trying to do voiceovers would actually be great practice. So the audience is like hearing your voice as you’re kind of giving a tour to whatever you’re going to teach that day.
Shannon Baker
And one thing I’ve done to kind of test things out as well instead of uploading some reels to my actual feed, I just share them into stories because it’s just it’s a fun way to put little clips together. That still gives you the practice of using reels but you can kind of test run it by sharing it in stories. Now of course I have to record it and download it which I do automatically anyway because I’ve been the one to do all the stuff in reelsand then go to share it and it’s gone. Number one, and when you start using reels, make sure you download your reel before you get out of Instagram, or you will lose it, you could lose it. So we’re gonna save you from that happening. But you’ve shared some great ideas to help everyone get started with reels, because like I said, it’s been a game changer of you helping me kind of reframe my mindset around using reels. And it’s a great way to convey information quickly. And it can be entertaining, without you having to do the bubble pointing, dancing, or the fancy transitions that most of us don’t have the time to practice and you know, get down. I love to see it. But no, I don’t know how to do the jumping out of your clothes thing. It’s a little too complicated for me.
Allison Scholes
I do have one more tip because I think some people get stuck on Well, what kind of content do I put out? You know, they’re like, Okay, I’m gonna do a tip, or I’m gonna record my face or my voice, but they don’t know what to do. So if you’ve been on Instagram for a while, the first place that I would point you is your Instagram insights. Look at the posts for like the last year, or like the last three months, and see the top six to nine posts, which posts gave you the best reach the most saves and the most shares. Just repurpose that as a real so if you had a carousel that gave like three tips, and it was it was the top performing posts for you will take the content and then just repurpose it as a real so then now you can just speak those three tips because I’ll tell you something. I think a lot of people are really afraid to repurpose or reshare their content. But I’ll tell you right now, nobody remembers. Nobody remembers to be honest. Shannon is my online biz bestie I couldn’t tell you what she posted yesterday. I don’t remember I don’t even remember what I had for dinner yesterday. Um, when nobody remembers your content. So reshare, repurpose, reshare. Repurpose, like crazy. People probably think that I create endless content all the time. No, I don’t. That’s all I do is I use my insights. And I go grab the best performing content, and I tweak it and repurpose it. That’s all I do.
Shannon Baker
And I started doing that. And even for things that were great tips, but maybe just the format wasn’t that great. I’ve taken carousel posts that kind of fell flat and taken the content and put it into a video moving animation through Canva. It skyrocketed and it did well. Took the same content and just did like you said either still clips with the words, transcribing across the screen. Haven’t done voiceovers yet. So that’s next on my list. But it’s the same content. It’s just in a different format. So people are like, Oh, this is great. This is new. I’m like I share these tips like three times.
Allison Scholes
Yeah, uh huh. I know, I get that all the time. They’re like, Oh, wow, this is awesome. And I’m like, Yeah, I shared that like four times already. But all right, great job!
Shannon Baker
No, that’s great. So just shows you don’t always have to be recreating content. Just use what you already have. And reels is a great way that we can repurpose our content. get over that fear showing our face because we don’t always have to be seen. There are a lot of, some of my reels is just my hand on my desktop. But people recognize my face so they know it’s me.
Allison Scholes
Exactly! And think of the two because a lot of people use the word fear. But if you think of the word fear, and excitement – is the same feeling in your body. So change the word fear to excitement, like, Okay, I’m excited to try reels. Like, if you just have that mindset shift, and just changing the definition and changing that one word, then you’re going to be able to do it. And it’s okay, if it’s your first couple of reels stink. Mine stunk they were terrible. If I scroll back over a year ago, and look at like the first six reels, I’m like, Oh, my goodness, I actually put that out there. But that’s how you evolve. That’s how you learn. That’s just how you grow. I mean, no one is perfect, perfect. Perfection does not exist. And the only way that you’re going to get good at reels is if you actually take action and do it.
Shannon Baker
Exactly! So now these have been some great tips. And you also have something that you’re going to give away to those who wanted to help them with kind of sprucing up Instagram going back to that spring thing. What is that gift for the listeners?
Allison Scholes
I do have a download. It’s a three part Instagram makeover. And this goes back to what I was saying in the beginning that you really have to fine tune your foundations. If you have a rocky foundation, it’s going to be really hard to have that long term success. So it goes back to the clarity, the content, the consistency that that will really help you. Fine tune your brand on Instagram, that way, you’re going to be able to put out the content that you want. Yeah, so yep, that’s what I have.
Shannon Baker
Okay, great. So one, I’m gonna put a link in the show notes to that freebie, you can grab that from Allison. And if you want to connect with Allison, you can find her on Instagram. Allison, what is your Instagram handle?
Allison Scholes
It’s @allisonscholes.
Shannon Baker
Great. And one bonus if you want more one on one, stock images, like you name it when it comes to Instagram and social media. And I can attest that this membership that Allison recently created is the bomb.com. It’s Insta-Accelerator Academy, you need to be in it. If you really want to change your approach to content creation and make social media easier. Plus, you get a call with Allison each month where she gives us so many ideas and coaching that it really is going to be game changing. Did I miss anything?
Allison Scholes
No, I mean, that’s why I created it. Because last year, I was all about the one on one coaching or the boot camps. And what I found is, after the coach call, or after the boot camp, after a few weeks, I saw the implementation in the action just decrease and they were going back to their old ways, their old habits and they were losing what they learned. So what I like about this membership, it is the kind of the culmination of it is a self paced course, put together with group coaching. So every single month, not only is there Instagram content, but I bring in a guest expert, because obviously I don’t know everything, I’m not going to pretend to know everything. And of course, Shannon was one of our guests, experts as well in there. But there’s so many things in there of how to learn how to create a great lead magnet, how to get more clients, learning airtable, learning Canva…all the different facets of your business rolled into learning Instagram as well. You’re part of an amazing group. And then we have our our monthly coffee chats, which I just love. That’s my favorite part.
Shannon Baker
Yes, and it is great. And it really is a great springboard to get us in the routine of creating content because Allison, if you do not know also has a second life as a photographer. So she provides some amazing photos for the members, as well as some done for you captions that you can customize and tweak to help you get into the practice of creating content. All of this is included in more inside that membership. So definitely consider that if you want to simplify your social media content creation process. So I knew this was gonna be a wonderful conversation. And it’s a great time for as we are rounding out Q1 of the year, where most people are kinda like getting their footing and know where the direction they’re going in the rest of the year. So now’s the time to really embrace your social media plan. And this I think will be a great way for them to learn how to do that. So thank you, Allison, again, for coming on and sharing these great tips. And hopefully everyone will at least give reels a try before they kind of put it on the backburner like I’ve done. But I’ve taken it off and I’m working with it.
Allison Scholes
Thank you so much, Shannon! It’s always so much fun to talk to you.
Shannon Baker
Always even offline-online. We thought they get almost every day for them. Yes. Be sure to connect with Allison online. She’s very responsive. Her reels are educational, and sometimes entertaining as well. And definitely in her stories. Will you get a combination of both.
