A 10 minute YouTube video usually holds eight to twelve moments that can work as shorts on their own. Most creators post one or two and leave the rest on the timeline. Here is the process we use to pull ten out of a single recording.
1. Read the transcript before you watch
Export the transcript and scan it with one question in mind: where does a single idea start and finish in under a minute? Mark every spot where you make a claim, tell a short story, give a number, answer a common question or disagree with popular advice. Those are your candidates.
2. Score each moment on three things
- Does it make sense alone? Someone scrolling has not seen the rest of the video.
- Is there tension? A problem, a surprise or a strong opinion keeps people watching.
- Does it pay off? The clip has to deliver what the first line promises.
Keep the ten with the best scores. If a great moment needs context, it can still work with one line of on-screen text that sets it up.
3. Write the hook first
Each short needs its own opening. Sometimes the best first line is buried in the middle of the clip, so move it to the front. Add a title on screen that tells the viewer exactly what they will get. We cover this in more detail in what makes a hook work in the first three seconds.
4. Cut tighter than feels comfortable
Remove breaths, filler words and any sentence that repeats the one before it. In short-form, a pause of half a second feels long. Keep the rhythm of a real conversation, though. Jump cuts every two words look nervous.
5. Reframe for vertical
Crop to 9:16 and keep the face in the upper third so captions have room below. If two people are talking, a split screen keeps both in frame. Leave space at the bottom and the right side, where each app puts its buttons and description.
6. Captions, sound and one visual change every few seconds
Word-by-word captions in a clean font are the standard. Add a light music bed and a few sound effects on key words. Every three to five seconds, change something on screen: a zoom, a b-roll shot, a graphic or a caption style. This keeps the eye busy without distracting from what you are saying.
7. Post them over two weeks across three platforms
Ten shorts covers two weeks at five a week. Post the same clip on Instagram Reels, TikTok and YouTube Shorts, with captions written for each one. Watch which topics travel furthest and record more long videos about those.
What this looks like on a monthly plan
On our Growth plan, four long videos a month become twenty shorts, five a week. You record once a week and your calendar fills itself. See pricing or send us a link to one of your videos and we will tell you how many shorts we would pull from it.