Steps to create 30 Reels in an hour
This checklist is based on the 1-hour-a-month AI workflow I used to grow a winery from $15K to $80K in monthly revenue featuring Destiny Lalane's Instagram workflow, published on the AI Lab by ActiveCampaign.
Get the checklist
By the end of this checklist, you’ll have a working pipeline that writes, edits, and schedules 30 unique Instagram Reels every month in about an hour. It’s the system Destiny Lalane built for Wanderlust, an Austin winery whose reservation revenue climbed from $15,000 to $80,000 a month on the back of organic Reels. Plan on a few hours for the one-time setup, then roughly one hour each month after that.
Before you start
- Set up your accounts: Google account, Claude, Buffer ($6/month), Zapier (free tier works), and Descript (the application programming interface, or API, that auto-creates projects requires the Enterprise plan)
- Get your API keys ready: an Anthropic key for Claude and, if you’re on Descript Enterprise, a Descript API token
- Gather your raw footage: 15 to 20 phone clips of your space, 15 to 30 seconds each
The workflow
Phase 1: Build the system’s brain
After this phase, you’ll have: a written brand guide that tells Claude what makes your business specific, so captions never sound generic.
- Answer three positioning questions: who your actual customers are, what offers you’re pushing, and which offers make the most money
- Write the brand guide as plain bullets: food trucks on-site, dog-friendly except comedy nights, Tiki Tuesday happy hour all night with $5 off tiki drinks. Specific beats vague
- Name your highest-margin offers explicitly: at Wanderlust these were speakeasy wine-cave buyouts for birthdays and bachelorette parties, so Reels could point at them directly
Phase 2: Shoot and organize the footage
After this phase, you’ll have: a labeled clip library you can pull from for months without filming again.
- Shoot to bring the brand guide to life: capture the specific offers you want to drive revenue against, not everything about every room
- Put a real person in frame: staff as stand-ins works and adds warmth that empty rooms can’t
- Cover the variety shots: walk slowly through each room, close-ups of signature food and drinks, exterior and signage, ambient detail like neon and candles
- Aim for 15 to 20 clips at 15 to 30 seconds each: Wanderlust built its whole library from a single afternoon and used it for eight months
- Name clips in one format: create a phone folder and label each clip [BusinessName]-[ContentType]
Phase 3: Build the Google Sheet command center
After this phase, you’ll have: a spreadsheet with a custom Reels Pipeline menu that becomes the control panel for the whole system.
- Create the sheet: new Google Sheet named [Company name] Reels Pipeline
- Paste the Apps Script: Extensions → Apps Script, paste the provided code, save with Ctrl+S
- Run the builder: select buildPipeline in the function dropdown, click Run, authorize with your Google account, then run onOpen to load the menu
- Fill in the Config tab: campaign start date (B5, format YYYY-MM-DD), posting time (B6, format HH:mm), and leave the webhook cells for the steps below
Phase 4: Connect the automation with Zapier
After this phase, you’ll have: every tool talking to every other tool, so one button click runs the whole pipeline.
- Deploy the Apps Script as a Web App: Deploy → New Deployment → Web app, set Execute as Me and Who has access to Me, then paste the resulting URL into Config B18
- Add your Zapier connections: Anthropic (paste your Claude key), Google Sheets, Gmail, Google Drive, and Descript if you’re on Enterprise
- Build the seven-step Zap in order: paste the instructions into Zapier Copilot to have it built for you, answering prompts like your Google Sheet URL
- Wire up the webhook: turn the Zap on, copy the webhook URL from its first step, and paste it into Config B20
Monthly run (about one hour)
After this phase, you’ll have: 30 scheduled Reels going out across the month, each pointing to a reservations page.
- Update this month’s overrides: in the Config tab, fill rows B25 to B29 with dates you’re closed and any events to promote
- Generate 30 captions: click Reels Pipeline → 1. Generate 30 captions. Claude reads your brand guide and overrides and fills the 30 Reels tab in 15 to 60 seconds
- Review and approve every row: read each headline and caption, edit anything off-brand directly in the cell, then set Status to Approved. As Destiny puts it, “Never outsource all of your creativity to AI. It can take you the first mile, but you should have eyes on everything it makes.”
- Create the Descript projects: click Reels Pipeline → 2. Send to Descript to auto-fire the API, or copy the prompt from the Descript tab manually if you’re not on Enterprise
- Export the videos: in Descript, export all 30 finished compositions as R001.mp4 through R030.mp4
- Bulk-schedule in Buffer: download the Buffer Export tab as a CSV, then in publish.buffer.com go to your channel → settings → General → Bulk Upload and upload it
- Attach the clips: open each of the 30 Buffer drafts and attach the matching .mp4
Quick reference
- Setup time: a few hours, one time
- Monthly time: about one hour
- Tools needed: Google Sheets, Claude, Zapier, Descript, Buffer
- Key output: 30 scheduled, on-brand Instagram Reels every month
Related
More data from the AI Lab.