← Build Your Tribe | Grow Your Business with Social Media
Build Your Tribe | Grow Your Business with Social Media
Instagram Reels Tutorial 2026: How I Actually Edit My Posts - 897
00:17:34
Loading summary
Transcript1 lines
- [00:00]
A
As I've said before, not all AI tools are created equally, but especially when it comes to shipping. Oftentimes what separates a basic tool from a good tool and a great tool is what the AI is built on. Shipstation's AI is built and trained on over 20 years of experience, so that means it's designed to help you optimize, not just execute. ShipStation is smart enough to adapt to your unique business. It can alert you when stock is low, recommend the best carrier and automate tasks so that you can focus on other areas of your business and stay one step ahead. Over 1 million businesses already use and trust Shipstation to to optimize and scale their shipping needs. We are all already using AI in our day to day life to make things simpler, easier or more efficient and we should do the same with our shipping as well. And if you're going to use AI to help you out with the shipping process, then why not use the company that has more experience than anyone else? The sooner you switch, the sooner you start saving time and money. Get started with Shipstation today and get your first 60 days free at shipstation.com with code by T. Again that's S H I P S T-A-T-I-O-N.com and use code BYT to get your first 60 days free. Taxes and fees apply. Today's episode is brought to you by Shopify. More than just a program, it's truly a partner in online business. You can learn more about them@shopify.com tribe or I'll tell you more later in this episode. How do I actually edit my reels in 2026? As a full time business owner with a team of over 25 people who post five plus Instagram Reels per day, I'll tell you exactly how I'm able to manage it all without spending more than to 20 minutes per day on editing my Instagram reels. For most business owners and people trying to grow a personal brand on Instagram, editing their reels is a real bottleneck. And so in today's episode I'm going to share with you my three keys to being more efficient with your editing to save time, energy and effort and increase your output without having to bang your head against the wall. This is my live Real Time follower tracker. I am on the road to 1 million followers on Instagram and I have the lofty goal of hitting it this year. I'm currently at the time of recording this at 900 7072. So if you want to help this Tracker go up. Just make sure that you're following me on Instagram. My Instagram username is Brock11Johnson and I'm always surprised how many people follow me on Instagram but don't listen to my podcast or they watch these YouTube videos every week, but they don't follow me on Instagram. So just do me a favor real quick and just double check that you are following me on Instagram. And anyways, I appreciate you and we'll get back to the episode. The first key to editing faster and better for your Instagram reels is that easy editing comes from intentional filming. And here's exactly what I mean by that. Number one, I almost never record without at least an outline. I don't prefer to use a fully typed out script because I end up trying to be too perfect and I second guess myself if I know I'm veering off the script. So instead I like to use a bullet point outline and then I allow myself to talk extemporaneously from that outline. This makes the recording process much more streamlined and efficient. And then when I'm editing, I can refer back to that outline to see what I was thinking at different points and what the exact order of the video was. And because sometimes you have to shoot things out of order, the second thing I do to make my life and my editor's life, I'll tell you more about that easier, is I stop between sentences. This isn't something that I necessarily do when I'm recording a podcast, but when I'm recording a reel for Instagram, I will stop between each sentence or even stop between each independent clause. Which, not to get too literary, but my 6th grade English teacher will definitely be proud of me for this one. An independent clause is a section of a sentence basically that can stand on its own. Like if you were to put a period at the end of that phrase, it could be its own sentence. Oh, and if I ever mess up mid sentence, I can then just go back to the beginning of that sentence and say it again. And I know that if I make it to the end of that sentence without a mistake, that was a good take. And I can move on if I have some sort of mistake or, or pause or I just don't like the way I said something, I can just go back to the beginning of that one individual sentence rather than having to go back multiple sentences. Tip number three for this intentional filming thing is to pause the make eye contact with the camera and maybe even smile between each take and smile at the end of each Take, even if it's just for half a second, it will make your editing life so much easier. And you'll avoid those awkward clips where you're having to start mid word, or you're having to, like, cut off part of the word that you were saying before because you didn't pause for long enough. So just make sure that you hold eye contact with the camera before you start your sentence. And after that last word of your sentence, and just sit with it for a second. Tip number four is to use visual markers. So something that I often like to do is I'll hold my hand up in front of the camera because that's a very obvious visual when I'm editing to say, oh, even though there was this long section that I thought might have been good, if I'm scrolling through my editing bar and I see my hand up in front of the screen or something like that, I know that I can cut or remove whatever was right before that section. And then my fifth tip for intentional filming is that the last take is the best take. Now, I know this isn't necessarily how they do things in Hollywood. I know that in Hollywood, they'll do like seven or eight different best takes. And then the professional editor who's getting paid hundreds of thousands of dollars, I think that's how much they make, can decide which take is best, or the director or whoever decides that, I don't know, can decide which take is best. But come on, let's be real. We're making reels for Instagram. Let's be real. Pun not intended, but pun very much funny. What I'm saying is, when you say the good take, stop right there. Don't second guess yourself and be like, ooh, could I say that better? Could I say that more concise? Could I say that again with different emphasis? Once you say it, good. Good enough is good enough. And stop right there and move on to the next sentence or the next phrase or the next clip. Because if you don't do this, what can end up happening is that you have a good take and then you want to get a better take. So you do like three or four more versions of the sentence, but you don't quite say it right. And then you eventually go, eh, you know that good take from a few minutes ago, that was good enough. We'll stick with that. But then when you're in editing, you have to find that from the pile. Instead of being able to just scroll right to the end of your clip and know that the last take was the best take. Now that we've talked about intentional filming, let's talk about my actual editing stack and what different editing apps I use. Number one, the app that I use most often is Capcut Desktop. Now Capcut has a mobile app as well. And that's actually one of the things that I really like is that I can start something on my phone and then switch over to my laptop and continue editing it as long as I'm logged into the same account. I also really like the advanced features that Capcut has. It's rare, I would say it's almost never happened where I've wanted to do something or wanted to achieve some sort of effect and haven't found it possible with capcut. Now I do have the Cap Cut premium subscription, so I do pay for that. But that in my opinion is a very wise business expense. And I use the capcut desktop app for one of three different kinds of edits. And number one is what I will call a medium edit. This is an Instagram reel where it would take more time to upload the files, write on instructions, send it to a professional editor, wait for them to edit and get it back than it would for me to just edit myself. This is an edit that's only going to take, I would say, five to 30 minutes at most. The second kind of edit that I use the capcut Desktop app for is complex edits that don't take very long. This is something that would be like for example, a seven second reel. So something that it would be silly to send off to an editor and write instructions for. But it requires an edit that isn't really possible on the Edits app or in Instagram. So I need an app with a little bit more features and that's where CapCut Desktop comes in. And then the third kind of edit that I do on the Capcut Desktop app is long or complex edits that I need asap. I don't have time to send it off to an editor. I don't have time to wait for someone else to make it for me. I need this done within the next few minutes because maybe it's Instagram breaking news or something that just really needs to be covered today. And so I will edit that myself when need be. The second tool that I use in my editing stack is Gling AI. Gling AI is a tool that I've recently discovered that I have been a really big fan of for rough cut edits. Basically, Gling can take any long form video and cut it up to remove all of the filler, all of the bad takes and all of the mistakes that you made along the way. So this can take literally a 20 minute long file and cut it down to the 11 minutes of usable footage for, for a YouTube video. But this can also be used for your Instagram reels. If you were to, let's say, film 17 different clips for your Instagram reel and each clip was like 10 to 15 seconds, you could put all of those into Gling and then it will do the rough edit. It will do the work of removing all the fillers, removing all the bad takes, and it could even add closed captions and zooms if you wanted to. It could add all of those extra effects. However, I like to use it for just the rough edit. Like that first step in the process that oftentimes is very tedious, takes a lot of time, and it doesn't really require any creativity or taste or personality. And then you can bring in your creativity, taste and personality for the final edit where you're maybe adding sound effects and adding closed captions and adding any sort of visuals on the screen that you might feel to be helpful. But I do want to be clear that Gling is different than some of these other AI tools that just take YouTube videos and then pull out clips of them. For Instagram reels, this is different. This is literally taking your raw footage footage and turning it into an actual usable output. It's not necessarily making a judgment call as to, like, what sections are the best. It's just saying, hey, if this was the best take out of these three, we'll remove the first two and then we'll keep the third. And like I mentioned, Gling can do short form content like reels or long form content like YouTube videos. In fact, the YouTube video that you are watching right now was rough cut by Gling. And then my professional editor went in and did all the final splicing. The motion graphics and all those sorts of things. Shout out. Kylie. It's my job to give you the latest marketing strategies. But even with the best strategies, if you're using the wrong tools, you're not going to get very far. Imagine if you were running a marathon with perfect form, but you were wearing sandals. It would be a pretty painful experience. And in all honesty, my first few years of online business were kind of like running a marathon in flip flops. I was trying a bunch of different tools, I was bouncing around from idea to idea and I just never found the right platform. And that's why today I'm excited to tell you about an E commerce platform. That's more than just a platform, it's a partner. And that's none other than Shopify. With Shopify you don't have to be an E commerce expert because it itself is an E commerce expert, handling everything from merchandising to international shipping and handling returns so that you don't have to. And if setup time is your concern, don't worry. They've got you covered there with hundreds of pre built templates that you can click on and experiment with to find what you're looking for in less time. That way you can build a beautiful online store that fits your brand and if you ever get stuck, they have 247 award winning customer support to help you out. It's time to turn the what ifs into with Shopify. Today, sign up for your $1 per month trial at shopify.com tribe. Again, just go to shopify.com tribe that's S-O-P-I-F-Y.com T R I B E the third editing app that I use in my process is the Edits app right on my phone. Now I want to quickly dispel a myth. You will not get preferential treatment for using the Edits app, nor will you get diminished views on your reels for using Capcut or any other editing app. It does not matter where you edit your reels. But I do like to use the Edits app if I'm doing like a quick edit or something that I need to do while I'm on the go, while I'm out and about because I love the mobile aspect of the Edits app. And I specifically use the Edits app if it's a trend that has to use Instagram specific audio because then I can import the saved audio right right from Instagram and I can edit to the beat. And I can do all of those sorts of things that I really couldn't do on any other editing app, at least not easily. And then I can post it right from Edits onto Instagram. And then fourth, last but definitely not least, I do have professional editors who do work on the team. One of them is Kylie who I mentioned earlier. Hi Kylie. He's the one who edits these YouTube videos. So shout out to him. And then the other one is Hannah who has been editing my content on Instagram, my reel specifically for the last three or four years. And I mainly use Hannah for editing my reels when it's something that's really long and complex, when it's something that I don't need in a quick turnaround. Like I need it within a week or two, which is still pretty quick. But it's something that I don't need to edit it myself. I don't need to post it, like this hour. I can wait and let someone else do it for me. Or if there's something that's just outside of my pay grade, something that I'm not very good at, maybe there's a kind of edit or a style that I want her to achieve that I know I can't do myself. Or at least not easily. Not very efficient. I will pass that off to her. And I don't think it's absolutely necessary to hire an editor just for your Instagram reels. But if you're someone who really wants to be a business owner and focus on growing your brand, growing your business, I do think that bringing on an editor can make a big difference. Because sure, you might only be spending 30 minutes here, an hour there, 15 minutes here editing your reels, but that can add up and that is time that you could spend on other areas of your business. So again, I still do my quick edits myself. And by quick I mean things that either are not going to take a lot of time or I need them very quickly. But I do try to pass off the rest of my editing and the rest of my reels to Hannah, which, by the way, I'll put her link down in the description below if you want to check her out. She has an entire team of editors now who work for her who help edit reels on her behalf and with her, and they've all been trained by her. So anyways, I'll link her up in the show notes. Now, with all of that being said, let's talk about the actual tips and in the editing process that can make things more fast and efficient. And these are tricks that I've picked up over the last really 15 plus years, because I don't talk about this all the time, but I actually took three years of video production in high school and I minored in film studies in college. So this was kind of my thing. This was my jam before I ever knew that I would go into content creation. And I should say, with that being said, I'm not claiming I'm an expert. I'm not claiming that I am like a professional editor or anything like that. But I have picked up a few tricks and tips that might make things more efficient. Tip number one is edit on your desktop. I know that I already talked about capcut desktop, but editing on Your computer is so much faster than editing on your phone. And most apps have additional features or capabilities on your computer, on your laptop, on your desktop, than they do on just the mobile app. Tip number two is to edit based off the audio, not based off the video. What I mean by that is as you're scrolling through your timeline and you're editing your content, don't watch the entire video and actually don't even watch anything at all. Don't look at the actual preview window, just look at the audio file down at the bottom, and you'll be able to tell when you were talking and when you weren't. That way you can jump right to the actual clip, right to the actual moment where you were saying the sentence or the phrase. And if you're using the strategy that I talked about earlier, where it's last take, best take, you can fast forward right to the last take, and you can cut right at the moment the sound waves begin, and you can add a second cut right at the moment the sound waves end. And there, within a matter of just microseconds, you have your good take cut out. Tip number three, and this one is only possible if you're editing on a desktop and not actually on your mobile phone, is to use commands and shortcuts, which make the whole thing more efficient. For example, there's the classic command C for copy and command V for paste. But also, most editing apps have command B for blade, which cuts whatever you're looking at right then and there. Also, most editing apps, if you tap just the A key, and not even command A but just the A key, you will cycle your cursor between different actions. So you can move from just the normal cursor to the cursor, where you can click and drag to the cursor that actually operates as a blade. And then any place you click automatically cuts the video right there. And there are dozens of keyboard shortcuts that you can use in your desktop editor that make it so much more efficient. And then my final tip for making your editing more efficient is to do one task at a time. In fact, the day that I filmed this podcast, I recorded about 15 reels on my phone, but I haven't touched any of them yet. I haven't uploaded any of them yet. I haven't edited any of them yet, because that's part of this entire process. Film a bunch at once, edit a bunch later. But even within the task of editing, do one thing at a time. So instead of doing each individual clip, editing it, removing the bad takes, doing the lighting, doing the coloring, doing the cropping, doing the sound effects and doing all of that. Just do one thing at a time. In one pass through your video, remove all the bad takes. In the second pass through your video, improve the lighting or the positioning, the cropping of your content. Then in another take, maybe you're going to do the filtering of the video to make sure that the colors look correct. Then in another take you're going to go through and make sure that all of the audio sounds good and all of the audios are leveled so it's not one clip super loud and one clip super quiet. Then the second last thing I do is I add the closed captions and I make sure that those look how I want to. And then the very final touch that I do is sound effects or video effects or any sort of like filters or like and I'm saying like body filters or face filters, like the funny filters or anything like that that I want to add onto the screen. I do that very last once the rest of the edit is done. But when you break down this big task of editing into these smaller chunks, you allow yourself to stay focused and thus be more efficient with each step in the process instead of having to jump from this task to this task to this task within the editing process. If you found this episode helpful, don't forget to hit the thumbs up button. And if you want a in depth tutorial about some specific editing feature or some specific editing effect, maybe in the Edits app or in Cap Cut, let me know in the comments below. And I always read through my comments. Thank you so much for being here today and as always, happy networking.