Why Your Reel Should Be the Last Thing You Build, Not the First

I cannot count the number of times a speaker has come to me and said something like "I need a reel that helps me figure out my positioning." That is exactly backwards. And it is exactly how projects go sideways.

The easiest thing in the world to change is words in a document. You move a sentence. You swap a phrase. It takes thirty seconds. The hardest thing to change is a finished reel. It costs money. It costs time. It costs the relationship with the client who already fell in love with a version that does not serve them.

Getting the positioning wrong at the start and discovering it at the end is one of the most expensive mistakes in this business. For the speaker and for the editor.

This is why I do not open a footage folder until the positioning is locked. Not approximately locked. Written down. Agreed upon. Signed off. Because every editorial decision I make, every clip I choose and every clip I cut, every music cue, every moment of silence, flows from the positioning. Without it, I am guessing. And the reel is too important and too expensive to guess.

For coaches, this means the reel should come after your work is done, not before. You shape the message. You lock the positioning. You build the keynote. And then I come in and prove it in two to three minutes of video. We are two halves of the same outcome. But the sequence matters. Message first. Proof second.

If a speaker comes to me and their positioning is muddled, I do not take the project. I refer them to a coach. Because I would rather lose a $5,000 project today and gain a partnership that sends me ten projects over the next two years. The coach gets the speaker ready. I make the speaker undeniable. In that order.