"I Want to Grow My Instagram Following. Help!"

Summary

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Help Wanted (Money News Network)

Episode: "I Want to Grow My Instagram Following. Help!"

Date: January 13, 2026
Hosts: Jason Feifer & Nicole Lapin

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Episode Overview

In this episode, hosts Jason Feifer (Entrepreneur Editor-in-Chief) and money expert Nicole Lapin tackle a modern work dilemma: how to grow an Instagram following with short-form video, especially when you don’t feel like a “native” creator. Jason seeks advice from Nicole, who has amassed an impressive following (807,000 Instagram followers at the time of recording), despite her self-professed aversion to making constant video content. The conversation is an energetic, honest, and practical look at strategy—from pinning posts to batching and bucketing content, finding what works natively on the platform, and dealing with changes in social media algorithms.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Why Bother With Short-Form Video?

Timestamps: 03:38 – 09:20

• Jason confesses to not being a fan of short-form video, neither as a consumer nor creator, citing it as “boring” and unmemorable.
• Despite his personal dislike, Jason realizes the career necessity after hearing from Vanessa Van Edwards (Science of People) how short-form video dramatically grew her audience, reputation, and speaking business.
  • Quote (Jason, 06:49):
    “She said that short-form video success has significantly improved her overall business...corporate clients are even more eager to book her...their employees follow her on social media...it gives her more leverage.”
• Jason’s own success with text-posts on LinkedIn declined after algorithm changes; he resolves to focus seriously on short-form video to keep driving opportunities.

2. Where to Find (and How to Make) Video Content

Timestamps: 09:50 – 13:00

• Jason shares Vanessa’s three content-source buckets:
  1. Podcast clips – “Tape your podcasts...that’s content.”
  2. Speaking gigs – “Get somebody to cut up your talks.”
  3. Direct-to-camera bulk shooting – “Just bulk shoot a ton of...short-form stuff...You do that and you’ll have a video a day and you’ll start blowing up.”
     — (Jason, 09:40)
• Nicole cautions that AI clipping tools (like Opus) can be helpful but are often inferior to human editors: “A lot of them, for the most part, don’t live up to the hype.” (12:32)

3. Pinning & Validating Content on Instagram

Timestamps: 13:15 – 18:45

• Nicole and Jason do a live audit of Jason’s Instagram, focusing on which posts should be pinned for maximum credibility.
  • Nicole insists Jason unpin “validator” content (a photo at the NASDAQ billboard, Michelle Pfeiffer holding his book) in favor of his highest-view videos.
  • Quote (Nicole, 16:46):
    “Actually I think the validation on social media...is the view count.…That’s your best-performing social content.”
• They discuss “native validation,” or how social proof on Instagram is less about credentials and more about engagement and reach.

4. Buckets, Batching, and Scripting—Organizing Your Process

Timestamps: 20:28 – 34:32

• Nicole details her robust system for “feeding the beast” of daily content:

  • Keeps a live document (Google Sheets) of ideas broken down by content bucket:
    • Green screen monologues
    • Stitches (reacting to others’ videos)
    • Trends
    • Collabs/skits
    • Text-over-video moments
  • Uses batching: Tapes all content for the week in one or two days, frequently changing outfits to create variety.
  • Scripts are printed and taped to her ring light for skits and monologues.
  • Editors help with technical work, like keying out backgrounds for green screen.

• Quote (Nicole, 21:13):
  “I have a running document that I keep throughout the week of stuff...I break my document down and I title it like ‘shooting schedule for the week of...’”

• Quote (Jason, 24:22):
  “Instagram has recently rejiggered its algorithm to reward videos that are rewatched...that’s also what’s amplifying those short seven-second videos.”

5. What Kinds of Short Videos Actually Work

Timestamps: 25:45 – 30:09

• Carousels: Image-based listicles are trending up for engagement.
• Text over quick B-roll: Nicole finds mundane B-roll with a large block of overlaid text explaining a news item or idea consistently goes viral, even if it's visually unimpressive.
  • Quote (Nicole, 27:00):
    “It looks like garbage...and it was shared like, five million, 2.5 million [times].”
• The “reveal” format performs well—countdown lists or numbered secrets, especially with trending audio.

6. Lead Gen, Organization & Systemizing

Timestamps: 30:13 – 33:33

• Nicole uses ManyChat to convert engagement, with comment triggers that DM users educational resources.
• She organizes content to be repurposed into Instagram Highlights (“mini playlists”) by category.
  • Quote (Nicole, 32:50):
    “If I’m finding you for the first time...what’s the best of?...Highlights as like little mini playlists.”

7. Ownership Beats Outsourcing and Consistency Trumps Perfection

Timestamps: 33:33 – 36:08

• Despite the workload, Nicole believes personally scripting and ideating content gets the best results versus agency or template-based systems.
• Imperfect, scrappy, or spontaneous content (even with typos and messiness) tends to outperform highly produced, agency-crafted videos.
  • Quote (Nicole, 34:32):
    “Only once I really took over every aspect of it has the growth truly...the 800, whatever thousand you’ve seen, has...[exploded].”

8. Time Investment & Emotional Reality

Timestamps: 36:08 – 41:30

• Producing high-quality short-form content is a major time commitment and a mental load that Nicole admits is “too much time,” estimating much of her Sunday goes into scripting and scheduling.
• Jason acknowledges he feels “overwhelmed” by the work and learning ahead, but trusts his ability to pattern-match and find a rhythm.
  • Quote (Jason, 38:40):
    “I feel a little overwhelmed. But also, I know this is doable...I have this theory about people...every human being has the same skill set, and that skill set is pattern matching...This is just a pattern I have never been excited to pick up.”
  • Quote (Jason, 41:23):
    “I’m just gonna text you all the time, and I’m just gonna say, ‘I fucking hate that I’m making this video.’ And you’re gonna say, that’s okay. I fucking hate that I’m making this video, too. And then we’re gonna make some videos, and it’ll all be okay.”

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Short-Form Skepticism:
  “I do not enjoy watching short form video...I find it boring...It’s like spending an hour doing nothing.”
  — Jason Feifer (05:43)

• On Social Proof:
  “What is actually validation? It hurts your ego because, like, the ones that I’ve pinned were like a random day that I put on a hat... But those are the ones when people stumble on you, that’s your best performing social content.”
  — Nicole Lapin (16:46)

• On Batching and Scripting:
  “I create a script, I print it out, and then I tape it to the side of my ring light.”
  — Nicole Lapin (38:14)

• On Authenticity and Messiness:
  “Whoever you hire, whatever agency, as much as you pay, it’s never going to be as good as if you do it...that’s the stuff that does better than if somebody beautifully curates whatever that content is.”
  — Nicole Lapin (33:34)

• On Mindset and Process:
  “The exhaustion is the amount that I need to absorb to feel like I’m full of ideas to then be able to do this...But I know that I need to do it.”
  — Jason Feifer (40:18)

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Actionable Takeaways

• Audit your existing social presence: Pin only your best-performing native content (usually high-view Reels), not “credential” posts.
• Start with content you’re already making: Use podcast clips and talk recordings as social video seeds.
• Organize in buckets and batch shoot: Create a weekly content schedule using categories like green screen, stitches, trends, collabs, skits, carousels, and text-over-B-roll.
• Don’t overthink “perfect” editing: Messy, personality-driven, timely posts often outperform slick studio work.
• Use tools to prompt DMs and nurture leads: Incorporate features like ManyChat to pull social media followers into your ecosystem.
• Set manageable and consistent goals: Start aiming for daily posts (or batch them) to “feed the beast” without overwhelming yourself.

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This episode offers a real, unfiltered look at what it takes to grow on Instagram in the short-form era—delivering not just process, but clear-eyed encouragement for busy professionals who feel out of place (and out of love) with the relentless pressure of social media.

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Transcript

[Jason Pfeiffer]

For most people, the end of the year means food, presents, parties and New Year's resolutions, but for business owners, it can mean paperwork. When that fiscal year ends, you have to start thinking about taxes and separating the old year from the new year when it comes to record keeping. And bleh. If you don't have a practical system in place, this can be one big headache. Our tip for 2026 make the switch to Intuit QuickBooks because transforming your cash flow can help you transform your with QuickBooks Money Tools, your accounts payable and receivables are in sync in one powerful platform, which means you get clean, accurate books that update automatically. And there are fewer manual tasks like chasing down invoices and data entry. As a bonus, that also means less passwords to remember and apps to toggle through. QuickBooks Money tools will help you get paid faster, pay bills smarter, and even get access to funding when opportunities strike. Tax season is just around the Corner, and with QuickBooks Solutions, you'll be organized, confident and ready. Get control over your cash flow in 2026. Check out QuickBooks Money Tools today. Learn more at QuickBooks.com money Again, that is QuickBooks.com money Terms apply money Movement services are provided by Intuit Payments, Inc. Licensed as a money Transmitter by the New York State Department of Financial Services.

[Nicole Lapin]

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[Jason Pfeiffer]

This is Help Wanted, the show that makes your work work for you. I'm Jason Pfeiffer, editor in chief of.

[Nicole Lapin]

Entrepreneur magazine, and I'm money expert Nicole Lapin. On Tuesdays, Jason and I answer the helpline and help callers solve their work problems.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

And on Thursdays, I give you one way to improve your work and build a career or company you love.

[Nicole Lapin]

And it starts now. You have roasted my LinkedIn.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

I have.

[Nicole Lapin]

Now it's payback time.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Bring it. What are we roasting?

[Nicole Lapin]

Okay, we're roasting your socials because you are really into short form social. Welcome to 2015.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Or 2016.

[Nicole Lapin]

Welcome. Welcome to the party.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Jason, pal, I feel very late to the party. Okay, we're talking today about, aren't we? We're talking about short form video, aren't we?

[Nicole Lapin]

We're talking about short form video because this week you sent, like, breaking news text that you're like, you know what? I've decided I want to do social video.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Yeah. Yep.

[Nicole Lapin]

And I want to hear more about this. But I was like, let's just wait for the show so you can tell me about it and we can talk about it. I can tell you what I did because you asked me for, like, my process, which is an a forever work in progress, but happy to tell you anything, and then I'm happy to tell all of our dear listeners the exact same thing. So, yeah, let's do it on Mike.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

I'm really. I'm really excited to do this. I feel committed. 2026 for me is going to be the year of understanding short form video, which is to say, like, Instagram Reels and TikTok and stuff. And I, Nicole, look to you as a source of inspiration here, because I look at your Instagram feed, you have, as of this taping, 807,000 followers, which is bananas. And you. And you, you have a video. There's like, a new video every day. And I know, because we've talked about it, perhaps even on this show, that you hate this.

[Nicole Lapin]

I do hate it.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

You hate making this stuff. But you wouldn't know that from looking at your social media. Like, it's like pumping out, and you're full of. Full of energy and you're making all the things.

[Nicole Lapin]

And it's not that I hate, hate it. It just feels like you and I are. We're elder Millennials. You're a millennial, right?

[Jason Pfeiffer]

It's like I'm like, on the cusp.

[Nicole Lapin]

Okay, you're elder. Elder, yeah, Millennial. And. And we're just, like, not super native to this. And so by hate it, I mean like, it's hard because it's not supernatural like it is for Gen Z.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Right.

[Nicole Lapin]

You know, and whatever is. And I'm younger than.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

I'm also an alpha. And maybe this is an example of not being native to it. I'm not a consumer of it. I do not enjoy watching short form video. I find it boring. Like, I really genuine. I don't watch short form video. I never go onto TikTok. I find the format boring. It is boring.

[Nicole Lapin]

Well, for listeners, you hate the general term content.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

I also hate the term content, but, like, I hate the term content because it devalues. The thing that I do care about, which is spending a lot of time creating something of value for people. And then to call that content is to flatten it into like a thing you spent a month or a year on is the same as somebody's tweet. It's all content. That's why I don't like that word. But I don't like short form video because I don't find it memorable. Because it's just like you watch a thing and you flip and then you watch another thing and you flip and. And it all. It just. It's like a bath of.

[Nicole Lapin]

Of dopamine.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Yeah. And I mean, I do this thing with my kid who watches YouTube shorts all day, every day, where after he'll be on, I'll like, pull him off the iPad after he's on for an hour, and I will tell him, I'll say, tell me one video that you just watched. Like you just watched an hour's worth of video. Tell me about one of them. And he can't because they're not memorable. None of them are memorable. So I don't enjoy it as a consumer. Again, that's why I find it boring. It's like spending an hour doing nothing. But I know that people watch it. And this very, very compelling thing happened to me. And this is the reason, this is what, this is what fired me up about short form video was I was just in San Diego and I was speaking at Limitless Live, which is a conference put on by my friend Jim Quick, maybe our friend of the show. Yes, there you go. And. And it was wonderful. And I was backstage and I was talking to a friend of mine whose name is Vanessa Van Edwards, who has a company called Science of People, and she absolutely kills it. And she told me that this year in 2025, she really committed to short form video and her following exploded. She is now getting stopped for selfies when she's like, out with her kids. It's crazy, but the thing that really jumped out at me was she said that, that the short form video success has significantly improved her overall business. And a big reason for that is because corporate clients are, are even more eager than they were before. And they were already very eager to book her, but they're even more eager. And the reason. And to spend all sorts of money on her. And the reason is because their employees follow her on social media and so they'll announce that they booked her for an event and then they'll get a ton of emails from their employees being like, oh, my God, I'm so excited. I follow Vanessa on Instagram and that makes it a success for them and that gives her more leverage. And I heard that and I thought, holy crap. Like, I cannot believe I slept on that. Because what I had been doing was investing all my time on LinkedIn. And in 2024, that worked really well for me. Like, my LinkedIn was blowing up and it really leaned into my strengths as a writer because LinkedIn posts are primarily text. I mean, LinkedIn wants you to do video, but it doesn't perform that well. So I was primarily text and it was doing really well. And then as a result, my 2025 speaking. So like 2024, I blew up on LinkedIn. 2025, my speaking business was, was on fire. But then LinkedIn changed its algorithm and my reach in 2025 on LinkedIn was significantly depressed. And now my speaking calendar in 2026 is softer than it was in 2025. I mean, I'm still getting bookings, but, like, not like I was in 2025. And I think there's a direct connection. And so now I'm feeling like I, I need to understand short form video and I need to commit to it. And I've been having all sorts of voice memo exchanges with Vanessa is, here's the way to do it. Tape your podcasts. That's content. Get somebody to like, cut up your talks, video of your talks into short form, and like, that's content. And then also just bulk shoot a ton of like, direct to camera short form stuff and have somebody edit it. And that's content. She's like, you do that and you'll have a video a day and you'll start blowing up. And I started to feel anxious. I was like, I cannot. Like, I wasted years not doing this and I need to start doing it now. But also, I don't really know. And so I look at your stuff and, and I say, I have Nicole I talk to her all the time. She is killing it on Instagram and maybe TikTok too. I don't know. I don't look at TikTok. And you're making all these videos and I know that you don't like, this is not your favorite thing in the world. And so I want to know what you are doing and. And how I can do it.

[Nicole Lapin]

Okay. And those are the biggest pro tips from Vanessa. Like, share anything else, any secrets. She has basically cut down podcasts, which I wanted to do in person. So now it's. We're talking about against one. So, yeah, let's go cut down your speeches and then do like a bulk taping of green screen.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Yeah, well, she's giving me basically three categories of where content can come from. Right. So it's like you don't have to be taping something every single day. You instead going to build video capture into some of the things you're already doing, like podcasting. And then I've got all this footage of myself on stage, which is true. I've got a ton of it. And so get that cut up. And you know, Vanessa uses an agency to do this, so. So that's how that happens. But she's like, you don't need to use an agency. Like, just use. You know, like, there's a million AI tools now that'll create cuts of video. And so I'm starting to explore that. But those were. Those are like three buckets of video sourcing that she was suggesting, which I thought was a smart way to start. And then as I was looking at Vanessa's material, I was also seeing that it's interesting. She's really pulling from everywhere. So it's clear, like, sometimes she'll do a webinar and then she'll pull a clip from the webinar and post it. And it's like in horizontal format. So, you know, you picture like a video, like a. A vertical video, and it's just a horizontal bar in the middle of that thing. And it still performs well because she's a good talker and she's built a good audience and she's saying interesting things. And so I. I liked seeing that. I saw it and it made me feel like, oh, it doesn't have to be perfect. It doesn't have to be, like, snazzily edited. It just has to be good.

[Nicole Lapin]

Yeah. I mean, at the end of the day, it does just have to be good. I would give a couple of notes to what she said. First of all, yes, your Talks are compelling. Sometimes I would say, like, not super native stuff. Harder to find resonance. Like.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Yes.

[Nicole Lapin]

And the AI tools opus is one that we've used to cut down clips. You'll get a lot of options, but not great ones. And I always find that having an editor, while it is really expensive, does help. As much as I love. I'm so, you know, the cheerleader of all these AI tools. And I try them, and a lot of them, for the most part, don't live up to the hype or the expectation that they're selling. So some of them do. And I can share all of them, obviously with you, but those would be my two notes there. And then I would think of other buckets, actually. So I do a bucketing thing, too. Well, first of all, I have some thoughts. Like, I just opened up your Instagram. How often are you posting right now?

[Jason Pfeiffer]

And I know I. This is not best practice. I'm aware right now, once a week. Oh, this week I did four. The week that we're talking, I did four because. Because Vanessa lit a fire under my ass. And now. And I got four out this week. But, yeah, but usually I've been doing one and I knew I needed to improve.

[Nicole Lapin]

So the first thing I'm gonna say is the two. So I'm on your Instagram right now. Hey, Pfeiffer, if anyone's not following, please follow Jason because he has a lot of catching up to do. The two posts that you have pinned, unpin them.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

I was thinking about that.

[Nicole Lapin]

So what are the. If. If. Can we. Because I don't have access to your analytics, but I can go on your Reels tab and I would. The most popular, the most watched reels.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Okay, so. So the first. The first two. For. For. In case people are not staring at their phones while they're listening to this. So the first two things that I have pinned are. The only two things I have pinned are. Number one, a photo of me holding my book in front of the NASDAQ billboard in Times Square, which. Where my book was. Like, there was a moment, a very, very hot moment.

[Nicole Lapin]

The hottest.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

The hottest. For people who don't know, when you see an author holding their book in front of, like, NASDAQ or some other Times Square billboard that's announcing their book, and you're like, oh, my God, that person has blown up. Actually, that person had five minutes on the screen. That's what they gave me. They gave me five minutes. I was very grateful for that five minutes. I didn't pay for it. They just Gave it to me, but it was just five minutes, so. But it's an amazing photo, and I love it. And I. It's always felt to me like a validator. It's like, oh, my God, what a big deal that guy is. So that's that. And then the second one, it's Michelle Pfeiffer holding my book because she posted about my book, and it was really, really nice of her to do so. And so I pinned those years ago when my book came out, and they've just stayed pinned, and I haven't pinned anything else. So you're saying it's time for that to go?

[Nicole Lapin]

They're going today.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Yeah.

[Nicole Lapin]

Okay. I love Michelle Pfeiffer. She's the most lovely. I sent her. She went to your office. She saw the boss bitch plaque that I gave you. I sent her one to no relation, different spelling. We love her. This is not giving the validation, because it took me a long time to actually change these pins too, because I had the same mentality you did, where I was like, let's some validation of some list or some article or some. Whatever. Whatever. No. Okay. I found the one that you should put. You have a reel that got 2.6 million views. Do you know that?

[Jason Pfeiffer]

I do. Yes. I did know that. Okay, Nicole, here we go. This feels like a leap of faith. I'm taking. I'm unpinning that really cool AZAC thing, and now I am unpinning Michelle Pfeiffer. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry, Michelle Pfeiffer, but I'm unpinning you. Okay. There you go. All right. It's been unpinned. They're both.

[Nicole Lapin]

Yay. Big news.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Big news.

[Nicole Lapin]

Okay.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

I'm so proud.

[Nicole Lapin]

Well, hold on, because the way that the pins work, I think the last one you pin goes to the left, But I would want the one with the highest views to be on the left. So let's find the three highest views. Can you find that in your insights, or should I just scroll and.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Well, yeah, no, I mean, there's 2.6. The one with 2.6 million. I. I'll pin that right now.

[Nicole Lapin]

Oh, here's one. 2.5 million. Free beer.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Oh, yeah, the free beer. Yeah. Occasionally I have some hits. They happen.

[Nicole Lapin]

I love it.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Thanks.

[Nicole Lapin]

And then look, 1.8 million. Genius Billboard with a twist.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Yep. Yep.

[Nicole Lapin]

Cool.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Yeah, we did. All right, so you want that up there because. Because. Because just view count. People are looking at the view count.

[Nicole Lapin]

Yeah.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

And they're saying.

[Nicole Lapin]

Yeah, that's actually I think the validation on social media. So, like, let's get native to what the validation really is here. And it hurts your ego for sure because, like, the ones that I've pinned were like a random day that I, like, put on a hat. And I'm annoyed because those did the best. But, like, those are the ones actually when people, you know, stumble on you that that's your best performing social content. So putting those up front and center shows people like, wow, you have, you have stuff that really hits.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

This is a good reframe. And like, even just to think about what is validating on social is a. Is a unique way of thinking about it. Like, in the same way that the insight from Vanessa that just struck me so hard was that people are excited to see the person that they follow on social media in real life. Right. Like, what that's saying is social, simply the act of following someone on social media turns that person into something like a celebrity to you and therefore it's exciting for you to see them in person. And like, that's a really interesting different way of thinking about validation and who matters. So I. So it. You just have to lean all the way into this.

[Nicole Lapin]

Yeah. But also, like, I'm going, I'm scrolling way back. You have 1.1 million from a normal Sunday line at Trader Joe's in Brooklyn. And while that's so lovely, it shows your beautiful wife, your kids. This line is crazy. It's not really indicative.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

No, it's not about my work. It doesn't contain my ideas. It's just that the line of Trader Joe's was ridiculous.

[Nicole Lapin]

So I would look at the ones in the millions and then of those, which ones are the vibe that you want to put out, and maybe the one where you collab with somebody else is not what you want to pin. I had one that was more than the ones that I pinned, but it was with somebody else, so I ended up not pinning that.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

For most people, the end of the year means food, presents, parties, and New Year's resolutions. But for business owners, it can mean paperwork. When that fiscal year ends, you have to start thinking about taxes and separating the old year from the new year when it comes to record keeping. And bleh, if you don't have a practical system in place, this can be one big headache. Our tip for 2026, make the switch to Intuit QuickBooks, because transforming your cash flow can help you transform your business. With QuickBooks Money Tools, your accounts payable and receivables are in sync in one powerful platform. Which means you get clean, accurate books that update automatically. And there are fewer manual tasks like chasing down invoices and data entry. As a bonus, that also means less passwords to remember and apps to toggle through. QuickBooks Money tools will help you get paid faster, pay bills smarter, and even get access to funding when opportunities strike. Tax season is just around the Corner. And with QuickBooks Money Solutions, you'll be organized, confident, and ready. Get control over your cash flow in 2026. Check out QuickBooks Money tools today. Learn more at QuickBooks.com money Again, that is QuickBooks.com money terms apply. Money movement services are provided by Intuit Payments, Inc. Licensed as a money transmitter by the New York State Department of Financial Services. Okay, so we've done the pins.

[Nicole Lapin]

Whoa. You did it. Love it.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Yeah.

[Nicole Lapin]

Okay, we're doing this in real time.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

All right, so what do I, what do I do next? What do you do?

[Nicole Lapin]

Okay, so the way I feed the beast is I break it down. I like the buckets idea. My buckets are a little bit more niche and specific. So I do. I recently. So thank you for noticing that it's been looking consistent because it's been a very concerted effort to get there. Hasn't always been that way. I have a running document that I keep throughout the week of stuff. So, you know, inspiration is going to hit you at different times or you're going to see something that reminds you of something. So I break my document down and I and I title it like shooting schedule for the week of whatever.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

And it's just like a, like a Google Sheets. What is this?

[Nicole Lapin]

Yeah, yeah, just Google Sheets.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Yeah.

[Nicole Lapin]

And I break it down into subcategories of the type of short form video that I do. So I have like green screen monologues. And so as I think of those ideas or I flesh out scripts, I put them in there. Then I have stitches. So, you know, you have some stitches where you've reacted to video and stuff like that.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Yeah, and it's a stitch. For example, is there was a video that somebody else made that did really well and you grab a couple seconds of it that starts your video and then it cuts to you and you react to it in some way.

[Nicole Lapin]

Totally.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Right?

[Nicole Lapin]

Yep. So I do those, I do trends that I see that I think I can jump on and give some sort of take. So as I see them, I'll copy the link or whatever and put it there and put my thoughts of what I'm going to do. Collabs. We've tried to do some Collabs with other creators. So we're doing a skit with somebody else, but I'm not with them in person. And then I do skits. Skits, for me, are super weird. It's like where you're talking to yourself. But those have done really well.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Yeah, I've seen those. So, like, sometimes it's like there are two of you in a. Standing next to each other.

[Nicole Lapin]

I think one is enough, but yeah.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Yes, okay, I've seen that. Is that, like some. There's some app that enables you to do that? Like, what is that?

[Nicole Lapin]

Oh, Jason. No, I just. I video it on my phone and then send it to editors, and they key out the background. And so all the green screens. I used to do it manually, like in the TikTok app, for, like, put the green screen of the article or whatever you're talking about in as you're going. It takes a really, really long time to do that.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Yeah.

[Nicole Lapin]

Remember when we interviewed Gary Vee, he was like, you crush it on these green screens. I don't know why you don't do more of them. And I'm like, they take a really long time. He's like, no, they don't. Maybe what Gary Vee knew at that moment that I did not is that a lot of it's just done in post. So I'll just tape my part of it and then send it to the editors. They'll change the background, they'll add the articles and. And stuff later.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

So you. You are generating all the ideas and. And the scripts. Are you scripting? Are you doing it off the top of your head?

[Nicole Lapin]

I am, so. And then there's another category of, like, text on a video, which you could crush. Like, this is a great category for you. So this is like, B roll of you walking around. I think you've done this before where you're just, like, walking around the crowd or, like, doing something cool or, like, you know, your kid, and you talk about, like, kid entrepreneurs or whatever, and you just put, like, the text on the screen and it's something shareable or it's like a quote or it's a whatever. And annoyingly, like, in my soul, it hurts because those are the ones for me that do the best, where it's a random freaking piece of video or it's a live photo that I turn into a video that lasts for five seconds. Morgan sent me an article or some study that showed seven seconds was like, sort of the sweet spot of the B roll with text over it, and then it loops again. And that's it. So that's another category, by the way.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Okay, so I have two things to say. One is just to add a piece of information of something I just recently read. And then two, I want to ask if you have found some formula for what that text is that works. So the piece of information is that Instagram has recently rejiggered its algorithm to reward videos that are re watched. And, and the reason for that I read is that likes and comments and even views can basically be gamed. You can pay some bot to do that. But Instagram is thinking that rewatching as a metric is an indication that people really liked this video and therefore wanted to watch it again. Which I actually don't think is totally true because on the occasions in which I do watch short form video and I see videos I like, I generally don't rewatch them because I just watched them. Why would I watch them again? But I get it. And so I think that that is also what's amplifying those short seven second videos. Because if people like it, then they're gonna stick around to the end, but they assume the end is probably gonna be longer than it. It's just going to loop back. They may not even realize that they watched it three times.

[Nicole Lapin]

Yeah, and that's the point too. And having more text on it is to read all the text. You have to watch it again and again.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Yeah. So wait, so like what kind of text are you putting on there? And like what have you found that works in that format?

[Nicole Lapin]

This is interesting. And the last one before I forget lately are carousels. So those are doing really well too where it's another like photo with text. Just scroll through for a list of something. So it's like a listicle as an article, but just broken up throughout pictures.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Right.

[Nicole Lapin]

So the text over video is really interesting because what I had originally found was like a reveal was doing better. So it's like the three secrets to make a million dollars by 5pm or whatever. I don't know, like something. Something catchy and then number one and then number two and then number three and then putting it with a trending song.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Okay.

[Nicole Lapin]

Then what ended up starting doing really well, which is cuckoo to me, are these ones. I know you can't see it right now, but when we start doing video podcasts you will.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

But instead, but for now, I like we're in the stone ages and I'll just describe what I'm seeing. So show me.

[Nicole Lapin]

Yes. So like this type of thing where a thing happened in the news. And I put this was a live photo or like two seconds of a video with my daughter and then a bunch of text over it.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

A bunch of text.

[Nicole Lapin]

I mean, a lot of text.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

What Nicole just showed me was a photo that's a photo of you and your daughter. There was a. There's like a. There's like three or four paragraphs worth of text just on top of it. And it's actually kind of hard to read that text because. Because, because the, the photo is. There's a lot of brightness in the photo and it's contrasting with the text. But this worked like, I just had so crazy. 5 million, 2.5 million. And it's a. It looks like garbage.

[Nicole Lapin]

Yeah. And it was shared like, what is the time?

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Say, can you read. Read the first sentence out? Like, what does that say?

[Nicole Lapin]

Michael and Susan dell just pledged $6.25 billion to Trump accounts. Enough for accounts for 25 million kids under new law. Babies born from 2025 to 2028 get $1,000 from the government in a Trump account. Like, it goes on and on. It's a whole. It's basically story. Exactly. And so more people obviously are getting their news from social media. So I'm not breaking this news.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Right.

[Nicole Lapin]

But I'm sharing what I think is something that just came out that's important. I don't have enough time to do a whole video about it.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Yeah.

[Nicole Lapin]

But I can quickly get something out that gets the news out and gets it across and kind of gives some commentary and kind of gives some. In the caption. Here's how to do it. News. You can use practical advice. Okay, so what I do with this now document that truly has only been in existence over the last few months, I fill it out throughout the week. I try to do one taping day and I. Oh, the other bucket lately are these sort of like podcast style interviews. So talking, giving a tip, talking about something. Is it a podcast? We don't really know. Are you just talking as. I mean, listen, I have a podcast whole studio. So instead of talking to the camera, I'm talking to the side of the camera.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Oh, I see. So you're setting. In other words, you're taping yourself, giving some advice. Right. Okay, so what you're showing me right now is like you in front of a microphone that could have been from a podcast, but it actually wasn't. It was just you in a studio by yourself talking. It's a fake podcast.

[Nicole Lapin]

It's. It's a podcast style.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

It's a podcast You've taped a fake podcast. I mean, you have real podcasts, so it's a little confusing.

[Nicole Lapin]

I do have. I know, I know, I know. This is a new category that we've introduced, and I used to call it Fake Podcast. And then I felt like I don't like any fake vibe, and so I. Then I just started calling them interview style.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

It's a imaginary podcast.

[Nicole Lapin]

Hey, listen, what is a podcast? Like, are your voice notes, personal podcasts? I don't know, like, what is a podcast?

[Jason Pfeiffer]

What's a podcast, man?

[Nicole Lapin]

Yeah, so those are my categories. Then I do some TV stuff behind the scenes. Anyway, I try to fill out what I see or what comes up. Mine is more like news oriented, so try to stay on top of that. Also trying to pull whatever's popular within the space.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Right. And is your goal to get something up every day? Like, are you posting? Yeah. Is that. Is that it? Once a day, five days a week?

[Nicole Lapin]

At least once a day lately. So now I'm once a day, doing twice a day.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Oh, God, the amount of work.

[Nicole Lapin]

Well, we're scheduling it. So then Sue, I have this document. Then somebody on our team, I put the videos as I tape them in Dropbox. They pull the videos, submit to editors where necessary. I've now tried to streamline this where then I got one email in the beginning of the week with everything that's ready, and then what I want the schedule for the week to be. So then I lay out each day. And then like the advanced version of this, now we're adding in this recap email each week are the lead gens that we are promoting. So this is like the manychat sequences. We do so many chats.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Explain what that is.

[Nicole Lapin]

Yeah, a service where. Where you see on Instagram, like drop the word school and I'll tell you about, like my latest class or whatever. Or I'll give you drop the word Rich and I'll tell you how the.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Rich drop being in other words, like comment. You watch this video, comment the word school, and I'll send you a thing. And so the people do, and then they get a DM from you. And that is being facilitated through a product called ManyChat.

[Nicole Lapin]

That's right. And so you have to set that up. It's a DM sequence. So when they comment to Word, they get a DM with a link to a thing. So we have a bunch of things that we call lead gens. So like, we're. We're nurturing our customers. We're giving them a thing. We're giving them a free thing. And what are those things? They're PDFs, they're lists, they're whatever. So we have some ready to go. And I kind of connect the dots each week and I say, all right, based on what's happening in the world, this is what I think could be an interesting mix. And here are the lead gens that we should include here. And also these posts should go to this particular highlight. So that's another advanced pro tip if you want. So like when you share your posts, you can set them up to automatically share to your stories, or you can do those manually and then save those to a particular story highlight. So somebody's finding you for the first time. I've now looked at highlights as like little mini playlists. So if you had categories of like you love to do ad critiques or whatever you're calling them, like advertising. Yeah, Takedowns.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

I don't know, before and after breakdowns is what I call them usually.

[Nicole Lapin]

Not takedowns. Yeah, whatever. We love all breads or whatever the like sort of niches that you have. So like, if I'm finding you for the first time, like what are. What's the best of? So maybe you give business advice or franchise advice or you know, whatever you're talking about. And so can that go into that bucket of that channel? So that's what I stipulate in my weekly. And it. And it changes too throughout the week a little bit. But then usually the next week I get the batch that I taped the week before.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Got it. And when you are saying things into a camera, are you saying them off the top of your head or are you like spending time scripting something out?

[Nicole Lapin]

I've always heard this from like the Gary Vee's of the world, your favorite bros, that whoever you hire, whatever agency, as much as you pay, it's never going to be as good as if you do it. And like some of these guys too that have spelling mistakes or like Mark Cubans of the world that kind of aren't texting in complete sentences or not, that's the stuff that does better than if somebody beautifully curated whatever that content is. So I have had help in scripting content in the past because I have this aversion to feeding the beast so much. But only once I really like took over every aspect of it. Has the growth truly the 800, whatever a thousand that you've seen has. I can go back and look. I think we started the year at 500. Like we've seen some real yeah, no, I've.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

It's. I mean, I. Whatever it was, it startled me when I looked at your, your account recently and saw the number.

[Nicole Lapin]

Do you want to take a selfie with me in public or what?

[Jason Pfeiffer]

I think I do. Yeah. I think you're, you're. You're. If you were speaking at my company, I'd be very excited because I follow you on social media. So tell me more.

[Nicole Lapin]

That's it. Like, we've gotten proposals from a lot of these different agencies to do content and frankly, it's a lot for me. I have to run a company. I'm really like hitting the max of everything right now. And so I would love to bring on help for this and I'm open to it.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Help, Want it.

[Nicole Lapin]

Oh, my God, Health is so wanted. Help has never been more wanted, let me tell you. But, but it's true. It's totally true. Like, what would piss me off more and I think you would appreciate this is if I paid a fancy agency or whatever and it wasn't doing as well, I'd be really upset. I don't have hits every day like, whatever. Like I have some that have millions and I have some that have a few thousand or whatever. And that sucks. But if I was paying somebody to get that, I'd be pissed.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Right.

[Nicole Lapin]

I'm doing it all behind the scenes as much as best I can, but I think the bulk taping is a good.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Yeah.

[Nicole Lapin]

Piece of advice from your friend. I think that the buckets is a good piece of advice. I think the AI is a little bit dicey.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Yeah.

[Nicole Lapin]

It like over promises under delivers pretty consistently.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Final thing that I'm curious about. Nicole, over the course of a week, how much time are you spending on this?

[Nicole Lapin]

Too much time.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Like, like how many hours?

[Nicole Lapin]

I don't know because it's. It's pretty. Like it needs to always be a little bit top of mind where I'm on the lookout throughout the day. I've found in my old age and also with mom brain that I won't remember. So the document idea is actually quite helpful where I'm like, oh my God, of course I'm going to remember that my taping day. And I never do. So I try to script out based on the ideas that I have. I. I've lately been trying to spend like most of Sunday putting together like my plan for like Monday or Tuesday, but throughout the week I'll add where I can and then flesh out. So I'll like see an idea or I'll see an article and I'll, like, keep it, and then I'll script it out, plan it out a little bit more.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Let's just say out of sheer curiosity to see. I've tapped on this thing. And I'm watching you, and it looks like you're talking to some. Oh, now there's multiple versions of you. There's two of you talking to each other, and one is wearing a hat that says profit. And the other one, I think, is not wearing a hat. Nope. And you're having a conversation, and that conversation starts with you saying, I am the smartest. I set up a trust. Now everything goes in, and I. Okay, so how long did it take you to make that and when did you make that?

[Nicole Lapin]

So that was on the taping day. And you'll see a few skits or a few different videos with those outfits. So I'll. I'll likely change twice that day. So I'll do all the ones in one outfit. So, like that blue outfit that you saw with solo videos. And then I'll do these skits where I'll do, like, one side of it. And so how I do that is I create a script, I print it out, and then I tape it to the side of my ring light.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Okay.

[Nicole Lapin]

And I sort of read it, and I look in one direction, and I leave the ring light in pretty much the same spot. Then I do all the ones on one side, and then I change, and then I take the paper with the tape and I put it on the other side. And then I'm the other person.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Stupid. Yeah, right. Of course. Yeah. All right. Okay.

[Nicole Lapin]

I mean, look, how do you feel right now?

[Jason Pfeiffer]

I feel a little overwhelmed. But also, I know that this is doable. Here's how I. Here's how I think of things. I have this theory about people. I don't know if I've ever shared this with you. My theory about people.

[Nicole Lapin]

A lot of theories.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

I have a lot of theories. A lot of theories.

[Nicole Lapin]

Which.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Many theories. This one is that every human being has the same skill set. And that skill set is pattern matching. And the thing that makes us different is that we're all good at matching different patterns. So some people are really good at matching, I don't know, financial patterns. And they can be a accountant or they will work on Wall street or something. I. The patterns that I think I'm good at is human communication. That's the pattern. Which is to say that if I absorb enough of how some kind of form of communication is. Is being made, then I can repeat it. Listen to Enough podcasts, I can get a sense of, like, how a podcast is paced and how people are talking on the podcast, and then I can start to do it. That's how I learned how to be a magazine editor. It's just, like, enough reading of magazines and doing it, and I picked up the pattern, and now I can do it. And this is just a pattern that I have just honestly never been excited to pick up because as a consumer, I don't enjoy it. I don't enjoy these videos, and therefore, I haven't been all that curious about these videos.

[Nicole Lapin]

And.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

And so the thing that exhausts me is, is actually not getting to the point where you're at, where you've got a system, and it's just about executing the system. To me, the exhaustion is the amount that I need to absorb, to feel like I'm full of ideas, to then be able to do this on a regular basis. Like, I just know that ahead of me are a number of months of just watching this stuff and thinking about this stuff and getting into the mindset of this stuff and, like, sort of finding the pattern of it and. But I know that I need to do it. And I also know that there have been moments in my life where I have been at the bottom of the mountain on something else, and I just, like, I know I can get up there, but, ugh, the amount of time. And then once I got into it, it became fun in its own way. You find the joys in it. I like being on camera. It'll be fine. But like, oh, my God, it's so much work. And I'm gonna have to claw that work, claw that time from something else. And I'm just gonna text you all the time, and I'm just gonna say, I fucking hate that I'm making this video. And you're gonna say, that's okay. I fucking hate that I'm making this video, too. And then we're gonna make some videos and it'll all be okay.

[Nicole Lapin]

The end.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Help Wanted is a production of Money News Network. Help Wanted is hosted by me, Jason.

[Nicole Lapin]

Pfeiffer, and me, Nicole Lapin. Our executive producer is Morgan Lavoy. Do you want some help? Email our [e-mail] for the chance to have some of your questions answered on the show and follow us on Instagram @MoneyNews and TikTok. MoneyNewsNetwork for exclusive content and to see our beautiful faces. Maybe a little dance.

[Jason Pfeiffer]

Oh, I didn't sign up for that.

[Nicole Lapin]

All right, well, talk to you soon.