Wait! Before you reshoot!! Just clip it, baby.

If you’ve ever tried to “make content” you know the absolute headache it can be.

You film a Reel three times because your eyebrow is doing something weird (speaking from personal experience). You script a TikTok that sounded hilarious in your head, but the delivery is giving… hostage video. And let’s not even talk about how awkward it is to be “naturally relatable” in under 30 seconds.

The truth is, long-form content is usually kind of, well, easier.

Podcasts, webinars, YouTube rants, even an Instagram Live; these let you settle in, ramble, and actually explain yourself. But the other, more painful truth is: the platforms don’t care. Short-form is the golden child. And if you’re not feeding the feed, you’re invisible.

Let me introduce you to the wonderful world of clipping.

Instead of forcing yourself to reshoot, you take the good bits hiding in your long-form stuff and slice them into snack-sized posts. Suddenly, your 30-minute Zoom monologue about client red flags is a 20-second “omg, same” clip.

Why clipping is freaking magic

The algorithm worships short, fast hits, which means those 20-second snippets often travel farther than your carefully crafted 20-minute video. The beauty is you don’t have to reinvent the wheel every week (because whomst tf has the time for that?) You already have the raw material; it just needs trimming.

And the best part about it is imperfect snippets often feel more authentic than anything you’d script from scratch. That’s why brands and creators are literally hiring professional “clippers” - digital editors who slice longer content into scroll-stopping short clips for TikTok, Reels, Shorts, and beyond. Some of these editors are pulling in $30K a month, and their campaigns routinely rack up hundreds of millions of views.

In other words: clipping isn’t some janky little hack; it’s a legitimate skill. And if you’re a solopreneur or small business, having even a DIY version of that skill in your toolkit can make your content work ten times harder (or smarter, whatever way you want to look at it.)

So, here’s my DIY clipping masterclass (for noobs, like myself):

• Pick your source: Podcasts, YouTube videos, even client calls (with permission, please.)

• Find the moments: Look for mic-drop quotes, funny slip-ups, or little aha! lessons.

• Trim the fat, ruthlessly: 20–45 seconds is your sweet spot.

• Add context: Always use captions. A bold title frame (“freelancer red flag #1”) makes it even clearer.

• Batch it: Slice 5–6 clips from one long piece and boom, you’ve just fed your socials for a week.

And some handy tools that won’t melt your brain (or worse, make you hurl your laptop out your second story window):

• CapCut: Free, easy captions, phone-friendly

• Descript: Edits video like a Word doc; delete text and it cuts the clip

• Veed: Great for adding captions, headlines, and resizing for different platforms

• Opus Clip: AI tool that auto-finds highlights in long videos

Look, clipping isn’t necessarily glamorous, but it’s leverage.

It’s about turning one big chunk of effort into endless little dopamine hits. So before you pick up the ring light again, check your hard drive. Because you probably already filmed your next 10 posts.

You’re so welcome x

-Sophie Randell, Writer