Lights, Camera, Tradie! Your Guide to Filming Reels

You’re listening to The Tradie Show. This is the podcast for trade business and contracting bosses like you, who want to lead with confidence, make more profit and create a better lifestyle.

Ange
We’re your hosts, Andy and Angela Smith, husband and wife team and co-founders of Lifestyle Tradie. Are you ready to have some fun? 

Andy 
Hell  yeah!  Good  day crew and welcome to yet another episode that’s set to revamp the way you think about your trade business.

Ange
And today we’re ready to deep dive into something that’s been buzzing in the trade business world more and more, using social media videos to grow your business. 

Andy 
Specifically, real type videos. You might remember we had a guest earlier on the show, Nathan from Nathan’s Lawn Mowing, who Absolutely blew up posting these types of videos.

Ange
That’s right. Nathan was a great example of the power of video.

Andy 
And we also had one of our members, Matt Ferguson from Ferguson Landscape and Design in Victoria chat earlier in this season of the podcast about his video marketing and guess what? It’s going absolutely nuts.

Ange
He is. He was talking about the high conversion of customers because they can see the quality of his work in his video marketing. What he is sharing is very strategic. 

Andy 
Now before we go any further, I know what you might be thinking. Andy, my life is super busy between dealing with customers, family life, the Phone running hot and jobs piling up. How the heck am I going to find the time to create some fancy smancy videos for social media? Plus, I don’t even know what to do. Am I right? 

Ange
Yep, I think you might be right. But here’s the kicker. Your first reel could be the key to unlocking a treasure trove of opportunities. The right type of reels or videos can bring in more A-grade customers and even attract the best team to your company. And to demystify all of this for us, we have a very special guest on the show.

Andy 
Yes, we have the wonderful Cassie Daniels with us today. And Cassie is the founder of Builds by Captive Media, whose mission is to support the construction and trade industry to improve their brand positioning and attract their dream clients and team members through video content. 

Ange
Well, welcome, Cassie. Great to have you here on The Tradie Show. 

Cassie
Thank you so much, guys. Awesome to be here. 

Andy 
So today Cassie’s going to unravel why so many of us tradies are camera shy and why we should bother with reels in the first place and how to get started. Spoiler alert, it is a lot easier than you all think. 

Ange
So let’s dive right into it and go right back to basics so that everyone knows exactly what we’re talking about. So Cassie, can you please clarify what exactly is a reel? 

Cassie
Absolutely. So a reel is basically a short form video, which means a quick, entertaining, bite sized video that can be used on the Instagram platform specifically. So it’s basically a TikTok but on Instagram and I’m sure everybody has heard of TikTok.

Andy 
Definitely, definitely we’ve all heard of TikTok and I would say that most tradies out there have spent way too long scrolling on that bloody thing. I was on it the other day and Before he knew it was half an hour later, I thought, geez, I have a crack at the kids all the time. 

Ange
You just got swallowed up.

Andy 
I just got swallowed up and spat out. So with many things in life, and when you’re looking to level up, we have to start with our mindset. And I’m assuming with this, it’s no different. So, what things mindset wise holds tradies back from doing these videos for their business?  

Cassie
Such a good question. And like all of us, we’ve all got like limiting beliefs, particularly around things that we’ve never done before. And the thing is, Most trainees have never done this before. They’ve never jumped in front of a camera. People say that the fear of public speaking is worse than death, right? 

Ange
Like, yes, I’ve heard that. 

Cassie
There’s studies that say they would rather die than public speaking. So it can feel a little bit like that when you’re jumping in front of a camera, especially if it’s on site in front of, you know, your team or whatever that looks like for you. So first and foremost, it’s doing something you’ve never done before. Doing something that can be terrifying, having to overcome those limiting beliefs around, am I good enough? Are people going to laugh at me? This feels so scary. And the thing is, it’s the same for everybody. So it doesn’t matter, you know, how much experience or exposure you’ve had to the platform, scrolling through a scroll hole on Instagram or TikTok. It’s still, doing it yourself can feel terrifying. And honestly, 99 percent of people feel like this. So you’re not alone. 

Ange
What I find interesting with that though is, I would have said that Gen Z, so these 20 year old and younger, they’re so used to using this platform socially, like in their personal life, that perhaps they’re really, and, and, and hence the older generations, this really is a hurdle for us, right? Because that’s us, genetics, blah, blah, blah. But I do think that when you switch this from personal to business, that is the bit that is really difficult for a tradie. One thing, they’re doing videos or whatever personally to their friends, so used to it. But when they go, but now you have to represent your brand and speak professionally, they don’t want to screw it up. Would that be fair? 

Cassie
A hundred percent. And putting your, your message out there into the world about your business, it opens you up to all of the, you know, judgment essentially. And so let’s call a spade a spade. That is what it is, but it doesn’t have to feel scary. There are many ways that you can flip the mindset piece in order to actually find the process quite interesting and even fun, I’m going to say. 

Andy 
It’s interesting. I, I had, um, one of our members actually that works with us and he sent me 40 videos that he’s just done. You know, um, it wasn’t on a phone. It was a little bit more professional, but he just said to me, Oh my God, I look like a stunned mullet. I’m stuffing my words up. I look like I’m reading. It’s terrible. And I’ve spent all this money. What do I do? And I said, well, what did your partner, what did your kid, what did everyone else think? And they, and he said, Well, they think it’s all okay. And I said, well, let me have a look. So I had a look and it was okay. Obviously, you know, there’s things he could have done a little bit better, but this is where we’ve all got to let go. You know, the listeners out there know I stuff my words up. I spit, I swear, I carry on. Like I’m just, that’s just me now. People just come to the conclusion that that’s me. But in that professional sense, everyone clamps up and goes, Oh my God, this is going to make me not look professional or something. But customers out there want real tradies, not, not someone that sits in an office necessarily all day. 

Ange
Well, they just don’t want you to be fake, right? 

Andy 
Agreed. 

Ange
So Cassie, can you share a personal experience where maybe a client’s story has overcome these fears that we’re talking about?

Cassie
Yeah, so I guess I’m in the business of filming tradies, right? So we do videography for construction. And I started with a new client back in January of 2023. And they have large, I guess, commercial teams of subbies and they work for sort of the bigger commercial brands. And when I first was going on site shooting, I would be doing like meeting the team content with some of the boys and girls on site. And they were like nervous. Oh my god, what is happening? This is new. This was not part of the job description. But with that said, first of all, there’s lots of ways that we make them feel really comfortable and make it organic. But over time, I’ve been filming for them for like obviously 10 months now. And I did a shoot the other day. And they were lining up to talk on camera. They were like, Oh, can I, can I just say something? Oh, can I talk about this? I’m like, yeah, absolutely. And just seeing the transformation in their confidence and the fact that it’s just normalized has been huge. And I think for tradies just starting out, it obviously can feel terrifying, but once you, you’re a beginner, you’re not gonna be amazing at it straight away. Nobody is. Lots of people are putting sh*t content out. Sorry, can I swear? 

Andy 
No, of course you can.  

Ange
We’re talking in Chinese, Cassie. 

Cassie
Yeah. Okay, fantastic. So, everyone’s putting out content that is not perfect. But, you can put out the worst content in the world, but if your message is good and on point and it’s what your customers need to hear, people will love it. And once you get past the beginner stage, there is An entire world of business for you to be winning. 

Ange
What I can hear you say is when you first start riding a push bike, you keep falling off. It’s so frustrating. You swear and curse and you don’t want to get back on. You just have to keep getting back on.

Andy 
I wasn’t doing that at four years of age, were you? 

Ange
Maybe not, but you were frustrated and didn’t want to get back on, but just keep doing it consistently and you’ll eventually work it out. 

Cassie
Yes. And just accept that you’re a beginner. 

Andy 
Yeah, that’s right. Exactly. So how do we shift that mindset from, you know, getting people to do this video creation? Because it’s such a daunting task and I get it, but how do we turn it into an exciting opportunity?

Cassie
I think people tend to start with, in the wrong place. People start with what are all the other brands are doing on social media?  Let me just copy them, what am I going to say on camera, film something that has no direction or kind of purpose, and then they put it out there and maybe it doesn’t perform very well. So what I would say to you, and like, I guess we’ll probably get into this in a little bit more detail, but at a high level, we really, really want to start by going, what do my customers need to hear from me in order to move them closer to becoming a client, or to becoming an even more loyal customer. If you think about the journey that your customer goes on, and even your future employees, because this really applies to both, it’s four stages. So there’s brand awareness, where they first hear about you, who you are, what you do. Then there’s social engagement, where they build that know, like, and trust. And they’re like, Oh, this kind of feels aligned with me. And then there’s the conversion stage. And then there’s becoming a loyal customer. And as business owners, our job is to move  Our clients and our future employees along that journey as quickly as possible.

And video content is your biggest trust building asset. And what is the thing that people struggle with most in the trade industry? It’s having people trust you, trust you as a person, as a brand. Because at the end of the day, unfortunately, the industry can have a bad rap in certain situations. So, this is your superpower. And when you flip the script from, oh my god, getting on camera is scary, to actually, this is a tool in my toolbox, which can have ridiculous results for my business when it’s done right. Yes. It actually becomes more of a business decision than a limiting belief. 

Andy 
Love that. 

Ange
So do I. So Cassie, what is a common myth about creating Reel specifically that you’d like to debunk?

Cassie
I think that people often think that you need to have these amazing technical skills in terms of filming. You don’t. You just need an iPhone or I don’t know what the other phones are because I’ve only ever had an iPhone. I’m sure they exist.  

Ange
The other brands.  

Cassie
Yeah. So I think first and foremost, you don’t need to have all of this technical gear. You don’t need to be a pro at being on camera. If you want to start easy, you don’t even need to be on camera to begin with. You can start small and work up to it. It’s just about getting reps under your belt. You wouldn’t go and lift 120 kilos at the gym without having practiced first and trained. So yeah.

Andy 
So true. So true. So let’s talk numbers. I love numbers and the real impact that you’ve seen out there, like in terms of engagement or even like a lot of people talk about return on their investment. So when tradies start using these reels in social media, what have you seen? 

Cassie
So I guess I can only speak to my own clients. 

Andy 
Yes. 

Cassie
Because I have the data, but for example, one of my retainer clients, we’ve started posting content consistently on their page. And in the last four weeks, their engagement has gone up on Instagram by 489%,  um, just by posting these videos and 280 percent on LinkedIn. So it’s just about putting a message out there.  Giving people a way to connect with you. If you’re just a social media stalker, just looking at everyone else’s stuff, right? No one’s going to know you’re there. It’s like, it’s a place to be social. Social media is there to talk and have connections and build relationships. 

Andy 
You just got to have your hand out right now. So if you’re listening right now, get your hand up in the air, give yourself a couple of slaps across the face and go, I need to do this.

Ange
It’s true. But when we’re talking about Reels, why are they particularly more compelling when you compare it to say other video formats or even other social media posts? 

Cassie
I’ll speak to the difference between video posts and Reels because this is a really common thing that people may not know about. So before Reels existed and TikTok, you could post a video on Instagram. And basically the difference is, if you post a video through a video post these days, it’s going to mainly be shown to your current following. So if you’re wanting to get more engagement from people that are already connected with you on the platform, a video post can be a really good way to do that. A Reel is designed by default to be highly engaging, short form content, and have really good hooks at the start, which get you watching more. Basically, it’s about creating entertainment. And it doesn’t have to be funny entertainment. It’s anything that gets people to watch it to the end in a short form way. So  I’m not sure, like, I’m Potentially describing this in the right way, but… 

Andy 
I know you are doing a great job because I mean the fact that the like even when I was on Tik Tok, you know, I was looking at crap, but some of it was interesting and you just seem to get hooked in, hooked in and hooked in and hooked in and I was watching fishing videos to be honest, but it just kept going and going and going and going and And, um, some of it was, you know, oh here and oh hum, but, but a lot of it was just, it was just funny and there was a bit of quirkism and it was real and it was raw and that’s what I loved about it. But within these types of reels, what are the real benefits that you’re seeing, like in terms of their business growing and, and also their personal branding. What are you seeing as an effect? We talk about people who are seeing you more on Instagram and the percentage rise of people following or, or so forth. But what about as a business as a whole?  

Cassie
Well, my girlfriend, she runs social media for tradies and I can speak to a lot of the stuff that she’s spoken about because she has a lot of like, I guess, resi builders and, and maintenance style trade businesses that she looks after their accounts. And she’s getting like, These reels that she’s creating for them are going in front of like four or 5, 000 people each and every time that they go out. From those reels, there’s obviously going to be a large percentage of people that have never seen their business before. And then as a result of those people, there’s going to be people that connect with their message and actually need that service. So it absolutely is translating into more clients in the door, which I think is a really important distinction to make because we’re not at the end of the day. Well, I am, but you guys aren’t in the business of content creation. You’re in the business of, as a tradie, we’re in the business of getting the right customers in the door. So if your content is not converting customers, then it’s not actually working hard enough for your business. So we really want to be making sure that there’s a tangible needle moving result on the business and just getting in front of new audiences, having new people know that you exist and then having clients convert has been like the three biggest things that we’ve noticed. 

Ange
So when you’re talking about putting these reels up and you’re talking about short messages, is there actually a length to a reel that’s very specific that gives you better exposure or bang for your buck or how does that work?

Cassie
So the way that I describe it is, It’s, videos should always be as short as they possibly can be without losing the message. So if you can deliver a short, sharp message in 15 seconds, do that. There’s no reason to create a longer video just for the sake of it, because you will lose people. 

Ange
Because people’s concentration is really short. 

Cassie
Exactly. 100%. Because, 

Ange
They’re like squirrels. Gone. There’s something else. 

Cassie
Our focus and attention is all over the place. You have three seconds to hook people within your reel. We’ve all been in that position where we’re in the scroll hole and we’re just going, going, going. If you can’t stop people and have them watch it in the first three seconds, then it doesn’t matter what you’ve got in the rest of your reel because obviously it’s redundant. So, yeah, in terms of length, shorter is always better. But in saying that, if you’re telling a really interesting story that’s got people hooked and you can keep them hooked for 60 or 90 seconds, Fantastic. Great for the algorithm.

Ange
So this then makes me ask the question for a tradie making their first reel, what should their core message or story be? When you’re telling me that it really needs to be short is better. 

Andy 
Cassie, just before you start that, I just want to point out what I’m seeing in reels that are working really well and obviously I’ve got a plumbing background as everyone knows but you know you’ve got those videos where someone is doing a block drain and they’ve found some tree roots and they pretty much get the camera and go hey we found some tree roots in a sewer line have a look at this and they start pulling the tree roots out and sometimes they go for six meters ten meters long and people go to themselves oh my god how is that living in my drains I mean that kind of stuff is really engaging, right?

Cassie
Absolutely. And I would flip that back to you Andy and say, why do you think that’s so engaging? 

Andy 
Well, I think as a customer or someone looking at, Oh my God, I know there’s drains under the ground. I never knew what was inside them. This is what comes from tree roots entering pipes. I’ve heard of it, but now I can see how bad it really can get.

Cassie
Absolutely. And I think the key thing from that that I take is that there’s a story and there’s a transformation. If you think about it, everybody loves the before and after. 

Andy 
They do. 

Cassie
And if you can tell the story of a before and an after or a beginning, middle, end, that is a fantastic place to start. But it’s one of the strongest performing types of reels that I see in the trade industry. Like I, I follow so many accounts like plasterers. And all, some of them, all they post is just videos of them plastering a room and you just see the stages and you can’t look away or renderers and you see them complete a section of that wall and you’re like, it’s just rendering, but it’s interesting. 

Ange
But the beauty of a trade where it’s above the ground and you can actually see that transformation and video it along the way and make that really tight. I agree with you. It’s fascinating. 

Cassie
And the tree roots are just like the cherry on top of the cake because you’ve got like this unexpected storyline of, oh my gosh, how long is this tree root as well, which just adds more tension into that story itself. 

Ange
All this has been amazing, but Cassie, I want to take you back to a tradie who’s making their first reel. And what information could you share with them to give them some advice so that they do this the best way possible? 

Cassie
Yeah, for sure. This, this is the question I get the most is where do I start? Like what do I, what am I going to talk about? And I have a five step process, which I’ve simplified it down to over the years. And, uh, I’ll share that with you today. So it actually starts before your content with getting clear on the goals of your business. So what are you wanting to achieve in the next 12 months? Because if your goal is to grow your revenue by a certain amount or attract a certain type of client, or maybe you want to position as an expert in a certain type of niche or specialist within your industry. Everything that we’re doing should be moving you closer to that, right? 

Andy 
Agreed. 

Cassie
So, starting with the goal and then going, okay, what are my obstacles in the way of that goal? Maybe you want to grow, you’ve got the work, but you can’t get enough staff. That is such a huge one that I hear at the moment in the industry. Or maybe you need to get exposure to a higher bracket of clientele to be able to sell luxury homes, whatever it is. So understanding what’s in the way of that goal next do we need to overcome? And so once we’ve got that trajectory of the business in the next 12 months, we can reverse engineer, what do we need to be talking about in order to have everything pointing in the same direction? So the next obvious step back is who is the audience that we want to attract and speak to. And I know that you guys have spoken about this before in your podcast in terms of creating a customer avatar. And it’s so, so important to know who you’re talking to and what they care about. And As humans we actually have two different types of problems. We’ve got external and internal problems when it comes to making a buying decision. And for the listeners, you guys are the same whether or not you’ve thought about it in this way before. External problems is my drain’s blocked, I need a plumber. That’s the problem solved, right? But the internal problems that I might be thinking is, can I trust this person? Are they going to rip me off? Are they going to communicate? Will they be here on time? Can I trust them around my kids and my dog? Are they going to be professional? Are they going to leave like the rubbish around the home? Like these are all the things that people might be thinking. And we make buying decisions based on our internal problems.

So the best thing that you can do upfront before you even start making a reel is knowing where the business is heading, what are the obstacles in the way, and what are the internal problems that my ideal client has that I need to talk to in my content. Because everyone knows you can unblock the drain, but do they know that you’re super trustworthy, that you’ve got kids? What are your values as a person? Who’s the team? Can we introduce? the team, like there’s so much opportunity for you to build trust with content, which is going to speak to that internal problem that your customer has. That’s basically the first three steps to understand what type of content we need to make. And then the last two are easy. It’s the message, show you the specific thing we need to say in each reel and the method is. The Reels is simply a method of creating content so you can film it on your phone and then upload them into the app or you can, you know, film it directly in the app. There’s like a ton of different ways in terms of that, but I’m not going to go too much into detail. But I think in terms of where to start, it’s knowing where you’re heading and what do people need to hear from you in order to move them closer to choosing you. 

Andy 
I, 100 percent agree with everything you just said. 

Ange
So when you’re talking about the frequency of putting this stuff up, how often should they be posting Reels versus perhaps other content on, say, Instagram? Does it make a difference? 

Cassie
I think it does. So video is absolutely the most powerful way to reach people and reels you will reach more new audiences than existing. However, Instagram have said this year that they are adjusting the algorithms a little bit to favor carousels  more in terms of content. So we’ve been seeing a lot of success from people doing a really good balance between photos, reels, and carousels. And carousels, for anyone that doesn’t know, they’re basically just like 10 photos in a row that you might swipe between. And they could be a bunch of photos or it could be graphics that you’ve created on Canva or something like that. So really, really good for educational information. I still think that reels should be about 50 percent of your content or videos in some form. It doesn’t have to be real, but carousels and photos also are performing quite well. 

Andy 
Wow. And you were also, you know, we’re talking about attracting new clients and that’s what a lot of people are out there trying to do. But what we’re seeing, and we’ve noticed it with a lot of the people we work with, it’s actually attracting some really good employees. Can you explain a bit more about that and how you think that works as well? 

Cassie
Yeah. So my background is in building and leading high performance teams in corporate, so I love this stuff, right? And the thing that I’ve noticed coming into the construction industry is that everybody has a recruitment problem, but not many people are doing things to attract the right employees. And even if your business, say your lead gen comes mainly from Google ads. People are still going to social media to check you out and it’s the same for your employees. 

Ange
Right. 

Cassie
Like if, if people are looking for a job or maybe they’re not even looking to change roles. Your job is to actually sell it to them. You’re not just selling to your customers, you’re selling to your future staff. Why should they care about working for you? The most powerful thing that you can do is to talk about what is in it for them on your social media and show  videos or photos or hear from team members that are genuinely happy. And if your team isn’t generally happy, I would start there before. 

Andy 
And what I’m hearing is, you know, people that are doing reels like we’ve talked about today are getting people to ring them out of the blue and say, Hey, I’ve been watching you for a while and I love what you do. I’d love to join your team. Are you looking for anyone? Now, most tradies out there are going, that’s unheard of. That’s ridiculous. But it’s definitely happening.

Cassie
Totally. I hear those stories all the time. And people always say, oh, I saw your videos and I saw what you guys are doing. And like, they always start, it’s such an in for people to connect with you for the first time. It’s a conversation starter. And if you can put out authentically the kind of business that you run, the kind of team that you are, the banter that you have on site, whatever it is for you guys, being authentic, showing up, people will genuinely envious of that because a lot of people wish that they could show up in that way. And so you will stand out in such a positive way if you can do that authentically to your brand.

Andy 
A hundred percent. 

Ange
And I think tradies do tradies, right? So regardless of the job they’re currently holding, think of this rock star, a player, they’ve been at some company for maybe, you know, five, 10 years or whatever. They’re constantly watching other people’s Instagram posts and reels and they’re aware of what’s going on in their, in kind of their geographic area. So I would beg to differ, they would know more about you than you even realize because humans are humans, right? And because tradies enjoy watching what other people do, especially if the content constantly comes up, uh, and now they end up following that page. I hear what you’re saying completely, Cassie. You really are layering stuff on purpose that does actually speak to your future employees so that the moment they make that decision, it’s time to jump ship, that they go, I know exactly the company I want to go to work for because I’ve seen it through their layering of their values and their, you know, their team having so much fun and their quality of their work and they look epic. I want to be on that team. I can see that.  

Cassie
Completely. 

Ange
So Cassie, all this is great in theory, but I’d love to give tradies some action steps so we can break down the process. What is the basic equipment and tools a tradie needs to create their first reel? 

Cassie
Yeah, so the absolute minimum is to have a phone that you can use to film on. And honestly, you don’t need to invest in a camera. Any phone with a 4k resolution is amazing. So that can be the only equipment that you use if you want to. But one of the things I want to point out is that a lot of people will be filming on a job site that is loud, and studies have shown that people will watch a shitty quality video, but they will not listen to shitty quality audio. So people are less likely to keep watching if the audio is bad and they can’t hear you. So something that you can invest in, which is relatively affordable, is a microphone. So something that will just plug into your phone, a little lapel mic that you can clip onto your shirt. And I can put some recommendations in the show notes if you’d like on what I think is a great option. But especially if you’re doing any face to cam, as in talking to the camera or you’re interviewing your team members, having that audio will massively level up the production quality. 

Ange
Yep. Which means they’ll watch the entire reel. 

Cassie
We hope. 

Andy 
Yeah, that’s right. And have you got like a bit of a step by step blueprint for planning and executing just a very simple reel?

Cassie
Yeah. So obviously the strategy that I’ve given is about like, what do I make content about? But say, for example, you’ve, you’ve nailed that down. You said, okay, we’re going to make a reel that interviews one of the team members because we want to showcase our people, show them that they’re valued, put them up in the spotlight and try to attract more people. Let’s call him Josh. So we’re interviewing Josh. So step by step things that you want to think about is first of all, What are we going to ask Josh to talk about in the video? Is it going to be maybe like an interview style where you ask questions or are you just going to give him some key talking points? This should always be based on what you’re trying to, you know, show or have people think about after watching the reel. So we’re trying to attract more employees. So let’s say we’re going to get to know Josh. So we’re going to ask him some questions about what he likes about the job, the business, what his goals are in his career, what he does on the weekends, his dog’s name, whatever it looks like, okay? So going in and making sure that Josh knows what you’re going to be asking, you’ve planned what you’re going to be asking, and then once you’ve kind of got your, your messaging dialed in, then we’re going to obviously conduct the little interview, which it can just literally be putting your phone on a tripod and asking Josh with the mic what’s going on.

And then once you’ve recorded that, you might want to get some footage of Josh working, which we can use the Instagram app to cut in clips very, very easily of actual footage over the top of Josh talking. So that’s a really, really effective way that you can create a more highly engaging and professional video. So we might film a few clips of Josh working and then it’s literally just putting it all together in the app. So Instagram makes it so easy and they’ve upgraded the app a lot since I first started talking about this, but it’s very, very user friendly and simple to use. And there’s a ton of tutorials on YouTube if you want to look something up. So, that would be kind of my process of actually creating the reel. 

Ange
That’s amazing. So, are there top three tips for tradies to ensure their reels stand out and get noticed? 

Cassie
Yeah. So, I think to stand out and get noticed, I’ve spoken a lot about it, but it’s so important to make reels about the right things for your business. There’s no point making an entertaining reel that gets pushed out to all of these people that aren’t your ideal customer and never going to buy from you. So really thinking about like, what do we need to be saying in our messaging in order to get the desired result? Don’t make what other people make just for the sake of it. Really, really think about how you can put your own spin on it in terms of your business and what you guys get up to on site on a daily basis. Definitely think about the hook. So I’ve mentioned that you need to connect with people in three seconds to get them to not scroll up and keep going. So the hook can be many things. It could be something on the screen in terms of text, which is like an interesting question or a rhetorical question or like a cliffhanger in a story. Like, I’ve pulled this out of a drain, wasn’t expecting what happened next. Like something like that is absolutely going to get people interested. Put yourselves in the shoes of people scrolling and go, what would make me stop?

Ange
Yeah. Yeah.  

Andy
All this stuff is absolutely fantastic, Cassie. I know the listeners are loving it as well, but I want to propose a bit of a challenge to all of our listeners listening right now. I want every single one of you to make a reel this week. And Cassie, can you suggest a very simple theme or idea for our tradies out there that are going to do their very first reel? What could they do? 

Cassie
Okay. The easiest thing you can start with is showing your process as a Beginning, middle, and end. It is obviously a lot easier to do if you have something that can be shown on camera. For example, if you’re doing work underground, like we were talking about before, it might be a little bit more difficult. But showing the process of your work is a really easy place to start because you don’t need to jump on camera and talk or put yourself out there in any way. And it just gets you familiar with filming different steps. 

Andy 
So I know. I’m a plumber, so let’s just go straight into that plumbing side of things. So you’ve got a burst hot water heater, there’s water flowing out of it. You could take a video of that showing the stain lines in the tank that has burst, maybe even buckled. Yeah, and you can talk to that picture, this is what we found, this is what we’re doing and we’re replacing it. Then you could remove it. You could do like, a version in between getting rid of the tank, putting the new tank in, and then hooking the tank back up and making it look, you know, absolutely beautiful with maybe a sticker of yours on the tank. And sort of, is that sort of the process, something like that. And, and obviously relate that back to any trade you are, but what’s something that it’s a before, middle and end process?

Cassie
Yeah. And I would even simplify that even more and just say, just film every single step in the process. Use your water bottle. That’s the best tip I can say. Like, you can obviously like buy a little phone tripod if you want to. Amazing. But just put a water bottle down and just film every single step in the process that you do. Let’s, I mean, relatively, 

Andy 
Fast forwarded sort of thing. 

Cassie
And then will you just put them all in one at a time and cut each clip down? Yep. So you might have like two seconds on step one, step two, step three, step four, step five. So in the app, you can literally just import your video clips and then adjust, trim the beginning and the end like we do on our phones with normal videos, and then you just put them all in a line. And then what you might do is create a hook over the top by putting some text on screen and the first three seconds it says, you know, something interesting about your process like behind the scenes on site doing this. Or come with me to work to achieve this, whatever it is. Stuff like that is often quite engaging to get people to watch. 

Andy 
So we want every single tradie out there. I know there’s a lot listening. So Instagram is going to be going nuts this week, but every single tradie out there to do one video, just suck it up, make it happen, get it going and watch the response. So, uh, listen, Cassie, that’s amazing. I love listening to all of this. I know everyone’s going to get so much out of it. So we also play a little bit of a game where we ask you three rapid fire questions. We just want you to answer them in less than 30 seconds if that’s okay. Are you ready?

Cassie
I’m so ready.

Ange
Okay. First question. What is one strategy you use to start your day right? 

Cassie
Um, it would be strength training and coffee. 

Andy 
Oh, one of my loves as well. I love that one. Um, what is something that has made you smile recently? 

Cassie
Um, I saw on Instagram a photography company that goes to dog shelters and finds dogs that are struggling to be rehomed and then they take professional photos of them being all cute and then they post that as their intake photos and then they get so many more people trying to change the feeling. 

Andy 
And I’m happy, I didn’t know what you were going to say but I thought in my mind it’s got to be something to do with Instagram, it’s got to be.

Ange
Totally, she’s sitting there all day in that space.  So next question, what’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received? 

Cassie
Best piece of advice would be to trust your gut and know your numbers. 

Andy 
Know your numbers.

Ange
Oh, you’re speaking our language, Cassie. 

Andy 
Ah, that’s absolutely awesome stuff, Cassie. So, thanks so much for being on the show and sharing all your wisdom and insights on promoting trade businesses with Reels. And I really hope all our listeners feel really inspired and you’re going to get out there this week and take action. 

Ange
Absolutely. This has been amazing, Cassie. Thanks so much for your time. We really appreciate it. 

Cassie
Thank you for having me. It’s been a ball.

Ange
So that’s a wrap for this week’s episode. If you’re keen to learn more about Cassie, all her details will be in the show notes. Cassie also has her own podcast called Market Your Tradie Business, which offers lots of educational content to teach how to leverage your content online and build trust faster. 

Andy 
And make sure you take on the challenge of doing your first reel this week. And don’t forget to tag us in it as well. We’d love to support you and your business.

Ange
Have the best week. 

Andy 
See ya. 

Subscribe to The Tradie Show wherever you get your favorite podcasts.  Rate and write us a review or for more information about Lifestyle Tradie, head to lifestyletradie.com.au.