How I Turn One Recording Into 18 Videos

Read Time: 4 Minutes

Most of my ideas flop the first time I post them.

One of them got 1.7 million views on @prestonchinspeaks. I posted the same idea again 3 months later and got 1.2 million more. Another idea took 8 tries before reaching 2.9 million views across two posts.

The idea stayed the same both times. The hook changed.

So I stopped recording one video per idea. Now I record once and walk away with up to 18 versions, each with a different opening. Here’s the video, then the steps.

Step 1: Write 6 hooks for one idea

Pick one idea. A flop works fine.

Then write 6 hooks for the idea, 2 for each kind of viewer:

• 2 for people who don’t know they have a problem yet. Open on a moment they’ve lived.
• 2 for people who already feel the pain. Name the pain in their words.
• 2 for people who tried the usual fix and still aren’t seeing results. Name the catch.

I pull mine from my 100 hook templates. Pick a template, swap in your topic and say the line out loud before you write anything else.

Here are 6 hooks from one recording of mine. Same body, same day, same sweater.

Look at the on-screen titles too. The text on screen is part of the hook. I used the “exhausted” line twice, once under “4 ways to save a video that flopped” and once under “Never run out of video ideas.” Same words out loud, 2 different tests.

Step 2: Record all 6 hooks in one take

Set up your camera once. Read hook 1, pause, read hook 2, and keep going until all 6 are done. Don’t stop recording between them.

Then record the body one time with 3 or 4 points. Make each point stand on its own, so the video still makes sense when Claude drops one.

Step 3: Let Claude cut and mix

Hand all the footage to Claude. Claude cuts out your pauses and mistakes, then mixes hooks with different sets of points:

• Hook 1 with points 1 and 3
• Hook 2 with points 2 and 4
• Hook 3 with points 1, 3 and 4

6 hooks times 3 body mixes gives you 18 videos from one recording.

My edits run in DaVinci Resolve from one prompt per video. I wrote up the whole setup in How To Vibe Edit Videos With One Prompt. Build the setup first if you haven’t, because this step depends on it.

The mixing gets better when Claude already knows your past videos and your b-roll. Claude picks a clip matching each line instead of a generic one.

Step 4: Post them as trial reels

Instagram trial reels show your video to people who don’t follow you first. Your followers won’t see 6 versions of the same idea in one day.

Here’s what I did with this recording. Version 1 went out yesterday at noon. Today I’m posting 3 more as trial reels, one every hour from 8:15 AM. The same versions reach my other channels 2 and 4 weeks later, so nobody there sees the same idea twice in a week.

I turn on the setting to share a trial reel with my followers automatically when the reel performs well. A winner finds my audience without me doing anything. I schedule every post in Metricool, one post per platform.

Before you throw out an idea, give the idea 5 to 10 tries with different hooks. Most of my best videos weren’t the first version.

Preston

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