Big Idea

The argument in one line.

Carousels take a third of the work of a reel, reach as many people, and can feed a lead-magnet funnel, so a repeatable reference-and-checklist workflow makes them the best-value Instagram format.

Who This Is For

Read if. Skip if.

READ IF YOU ARE…

A coach, consultant or founder building a personal brand on Instagram who wants a lower-effort format than reels that still generates inbound leads.
A creator who posts reels, gets inconsistent results, and wants a cheap way to test topics before investing hours in video.
Someone running a small team or editor who needs a step-by-step carousel SOP with clear go or no-go criteria.

SKIP IF…

You want advanced Instagram analytics or paid ads strategy; this stays on organic carousels and DM funnels.
You already have a working carousel pipeline and lead-magnet automation in place.

TL;DR

The full version, fast.

Gabe Chia says carousels are Instagram's highest-ROI format because they need about a third of the steps of a reel, let viewers set their own pace, can now surface on the Reels tab when given a song, and are a cheap way to test topics before remaking them as reels. He covers six types: storytelling, tutorial, this-versus-that, transformational, listicle and educational. A carousel works as the appetizer, and a lead magnet delivered by comment-triggered ManyChat automation turns it into DMs. His team's flowchart picks a content pillar, finds a reference, requires two of four criteria, then designs with fixed fonts, readable images and negative space for text.

Free for members

Chat with this breakdown — free.

Sign in and you get 23 free chat messages on us — ask for the hook, quote a framework, find the exact transcript moment, generate a markdown action plan. Bring your own key when you want unlimited.

Create a free account →

Chapters

Where the time goes.

00:00 – 03:33

01 · Why carousels are the highest-ROI format

Lower effort than reels, self-paced viewing, Reels tab eligibility, and cheap topic testing.

03:33 – 09:07

02 · Six types of carousels

Storytelling, tutorial, this-versus-that, transformational, listicle and educational, each with a real example.

09:07 – 11:08

03 · Carousels as an inbound lead engine

Carousel as appetizer, lead magnet as the main course, delivered through ManyChat comment automation.

11:08 – 17:10

04 · The workflow: pillar, reference, criteria

Flowchart for choosing a pillar, studying a reference, and checking a topic against four criteria.

17:10 – 23:42

05 · Design: fonts, images, negative space

Script structures, font standards, image questions, negative space and overlays, then posting.

Atomic Insights

Lines worth screenshotting.

A carousel needs roughly a third of the production steps of a reel, so the same story can cost 25 minutes instead of three to four hours.
More effort does not mean more views: Gabe's carousel version of a story got almost three times the views of the reel he spent hours on.
Carousels let viewers control pacing, which removes the reel problem of being too slow to hold attention or too fast to follow.
Adding a song to a carousel lets it appear on the Reels tab as well as the home feed, doubling the places it can be discovered.
Test a topic as a carousel first: a 737K-view carousel proved the concept, and the reel remake of it reached 1.5 million views.
Think of a carousel as the appetizer and the lead magnet as the main course; keep slides bite-sized so people want more.
Four carousel posts produced almost 8,000 DM conversations through comment-to-get-the-resource automation.
One educational carousel with eight slides generated over $70,000 for Gabe's team via a comment keyword and a free resource.
Instagram's second-chance feature re-serves a carousel starting on slide two, so slide two must be as strong a hook as slide one.
Only posting short this-versus-that carousels can build a big audience that never learns who you are, so mix in story and authority content.
A topic should hit at least two of four criteria before you make it: relatability, sensationalism, stakes, and value.
If your image has no negative space, a 30 to 50 percent black overlay under white text keeps it readable.
Use one header font, one body font and one accent font, and never let body text get small or chunky.
The biggest carousel image mistake is having no clear protagonist, so show your face in the hook slide at least.

Takeaway

Why carousels beat reels for lead generation

WHAT TO LEARN

A carousel costs a fraction of a reel to make, reaches as many viewers, and converts through a lead magnet, provided every idea passes a simple filter before design.

A carousel needs about a third of the steps of a reel, so the same story can take 25 minutes instead of three or four hours.
Adding a song lets a carousel appear on the Reels tab too, and slide two should be as strong as slide one because of the second-chance feature.
Use carousels to test topics: a concept that earns 700K views as a carousel is a validated candidate for a reel remake.
Choose the carousel type that fits your goal: story builds connection, tutorials and educational posts show expertise, and this-versus-that posts spread widely but need other content beside them.
Treat the carousel as the appetizer and offer a lead magnet through a comment keyword and DM automation to turn views into conversations.
Screen ideas against relatability, sensationalism, stakes and value, and only build ones that hit at least two.
Design with three fonts, readable body text, images that match the words, a visible protagonist, and negative space or a 30 to 50 percent overlay under text.

Glossary

Terms worth knowing.

Carousel: An Instagram post made of multiple swipeable slides, which can also carry a song and show up on the Reels tab.
Lead magnet: A free resource such as a checklist, video walkthrough, Notion template or swipe file that a viewer gets in exchange for engaging or sharing contact details.
Content pillars: Broad categories of content that serve different jobs. Gabe uses authenticity for connection, authority for expertise, and growth for trend-driven reach.
Second chance feature: Instagram behavior where a carousel that was scrolled past is shown again to the same viewer starting on its second slide.
Negative space: A plain, uncluttered area of an image where text can sit without competing with the background.
Bureau bank: As transcribed, a categorized library of the creator's own photos and footage that a team can pull from for carousels and reels.
ManyChat: A DM automation tool that sends a lead magnet to anyone who comments a trigger word on a post.

Resources

Things they pointed at.

00:00linkMiro board breakdown ↗

10:40toolManyChat DM automation template ↗

14:30toolCanva carousel templates

00:00channelGabe Chia on Instagram ↗

Quotables

Lines you could clip.

00:00

“The one Instagram format that everyone is sleeping on is the carousel.”

Clean contrarian opener with a number attached.→ IG reel cold open↗ Tweet quote

01:30

“Just because you put in more effort, it doesn't mean that you'll get more views.”

Short, counterintuitive, stands alone.→ TikTok hook↗ Tweet quote

09:30

“Your carousel acts as the snack or the appetizer.”

Simple metaphor for funnel design.→ newsletter pull-quote↗ Tweet quote

The Script

Word for word.

Read-along

Don't just watch it. Burn it in.

See every word as it's spoken — crank it to 2× and still catch all of it. The same dual-channel trick behind Amazon's Kindle + Audible.

The one Instagram format that everyone is sleeping on is the carousel. I've generated over 50 million views for myself and my clients using this one format alone. It's gained us over seven figures in track revenue in the past two years.

In this video, I'm going to be breaking down exactly why this format is such a killer, the types of carousels that exist, how to actually create and design them in under 15 minutes per carousel, and how to increase your inbound leads by over 10 times. So the very first thing we want to talk about is why the carousel is the highest ROI format.

The first reason, is because carousels require much lower effort compared to reels. Imagine this, you're creating a reel.

These are the different steps that you actually have to take to master and create a full -fledged video. First, you gotta script, you gotta think about music, you gotta think about your sound effects, you gotta think about lighting, framing. editing, pacing, speech delivery, all these different things that make or break a reel.

Whereas if we come and look on the left side with the carousels, your main steps to take, script out your carousel, insert your music, and then find photos that match that carousel. Essentially, you are almost just doing a third of the steps required. And I just want to share these examples.

These are basically very similar stories in which I've told in my own Instagram. And one of it is in the form of a reel that got 23 .8k views. And one of it is in the form of a carousel that got almost three times as many views.

So the truth is the active time that I took for this reel was anywhere from three to four hours, while it only took us 25 minutes to create the carousel. Just because you put in more effort, it doesn't mean that you'll get more views. All right, the second reason the carousel is one of the highest ROI formats, it's because it is optimized to each viewer's engagement habits.

What does that even mean? So when a viewer is swiping through your carousel, they actually have the liberty to control the pace at which to consume the content. They're able to swipe back and forth at their own time, at their own speed, and they don't feel like they're being rushed or being...

slow when they're consuming this piece of content. On the other hand, if a viewer is watching a reel and they feel that it's just way too slow for them, they may actually get bored and swipe away early. And if the Reel is too fast, they may get lost in the details, get confused and swipe away early as well.

And that's the beauty of the carousel. You're almost minimizing the impact of a viewer's attention span because they get to pick how they want to consume it and what speed they want to consume it. And reason number three for why the carousel is one of the best formats is because it can actually now appear on the Reels tab.

So carousels used to be only shown in the main feed and that limits the potential views because it's only on one feature of Instagram. But now, if you actually add a song to it, it can show up on your Reels tab as well. And now you can be discovered on two different features on Instagram.

And I've actually included an example right here. As you can see, this is the Reels tab. And Alex Eubank has put a music here and it's being shown as a carousel right here, as you can see on the Reels tab.

And on the other hand, the same post is also showing up on the home feed and this unlocks the potential for much more exposure. And finally, the carousel is so good because there is a much lower barrier of entry to test topics and later subsequently recreate them into Reels. And I've actually included an example of a carousel where I used to test a topic and eventually turned it into a Reel.

So these are the stats. As you can see on the left -hand side here, this is a carousel I did about my... with my girlfriend and how we split our expenses, this carousel went on to get 737 ,000 views.

This proved to me that it was a great concept and I could recreate this into a Reel to increase its potential reach. I went ahead, took the exact same format, turned it into a Reel, and we actually got even more views. We got 1 .5 million views with over 14 ,000 likes.

And we probably took less than 15 minutes to create this carousel on the left, garnering over 700 ,000 views, validating our concept and allowing us to recreate it to get an extra 1 .5 million views. So this allows much fu - testing of your content topic and doubling the results when you repurpose a proven topic from a carousel into a review.

So moving on, what are the actual types of carousels that you can create for yourself? Starting off strong, we have the storytelling carousel. This is a carousel where you share personal stories, reflections, wins, struggles.

Let's take a look at an example right here by Leila Homozy. Here, she's telling the story about how she moved across the country at 21 with just $5 ,000 to her name. And within the entire carousel, as you can see, it's not crazily designed.

It's a bunch of texts um i believe she did it native in instagram as well and she's basically sharing the story of how she started off really unconfident and how she grew that confidence and eventually decided to bet on herself sharing her story as the evidence to show people that she's done it and they can do it for themselves as well next we have what we call the tutorial carousel this is where you show a niche step -by -step process or framework or acronym that helps your viewer take a step in the right direction in whatever industry you're in so let's take a look at one of the examples that i've actually create it.

So here, as you can see, I've written down how to get infinite content ideas. In this entire carousel, I'm basically breaking down the exact framework that I use to generate infinite content ideas week in and week out. So every slide here is basically a step towards coming up with those ideas and showing my viewers the exact breakdown of how I go through my process and how they can do it for themselves as well.

So whatever industry you're in, think about if you have any framework, any SOPs that you can actually craft into a carousel to give your viewers free value. Third, we have the Harrison Carousel, or what I like to personally call the this versus that.

This could be, you know, a do versus don't, a right versus wrong, and old versus new. This carousel done by Kate. At the top, she says graduated at 34, not at 22, first car at 30, not at 18, married at 31, not at 25, and so on and so forth.

This actually got 1 .4 million likes, which is insane. But the whole idea of this type of carousel is to really put things into perspective. And what Kate here is doing is really to show you that, you know, sometimes we rush ourselves and we think we're always behind.

And just showing the reality that... Some milestones can come a little later and that's fine, right? Everyone's running their own race.

Personally, I think this type of carousel is super relatable because firstly, it's very consumable, like really short text. And people also like to see like that before and after in the same slide. What I personally say is that even though these types of carousels can go really, really viral, if you only do these carousels and no other strategy in your personal brand, you're probably going to build an audience that doesn't really know who you are.

It doesn't really connect that well with you because you're never really telling your day -to -day stories. It's all just short sentences. Remember that, yes, while you can use these carousels to go viral, you still have to have an overarching strategy where you tell your story, show your authority, show your expertise and build that connection with people as well.

So moving on, we have the transformational carousel. This is where you show the before and after result and explain the step -by -step as to how you got there. So let's take a look at this example from nine to five to a $30 million founder in under five years.

And no, it wasn't luck or family money or something anyone could do if they understood what I'm about to tell you. So right off the bat, you have this crazy transformation in the tech soap alone from a... corporate worker, this dude has now become a $30 million founder in the span of just five years.

You already trust him because of his credibility stack. And then he goes on to tell you that whatever he did is actually accessible to you. It wasn't luck.

It was not family money. It's something anyone could do if they understood what I'm about to tell you. This incentivizes a viewer to keep swiping because they want to know how he got there.

So as you swipe on, you know, he really speaks to the majority of people that are in a nine to five, maybe looking to break out, maybe looking to start their own business. He was there as well in consulting, same routines every single day. And he really shows the transformation that he took going from desk job to content creation to starting his R &D and eventually building it up to a point where he was able to build his first product and now scaling into different department stores, scaling to different pharmacies and even building his entire team out.

So I want you guys to think about your own journeys as well. A lot of the times people tend to just show the highs, but often forget to show the struggles that they've actually been through because the struggles are... what really helps people relate a lot better, they realize that you are just a normal human being like them and that whatever you've built is also possible for themselves.

Or if another business owner is on the other side watching it, they may also relate to the struggles because they have been there and done that and now they can emotionally connect so much better with you. Moving on, we have the listicle carousel. This is where each slide basically shows a new point on your list of maybe a certain value that you want to provide to your viewers or maybe a certain opinion that you want to share with your viewers.

So let's take a look at this example here. As you can see, Creator Kari here has done one where he lists out the best investments he's made in his 20s.

Very, very consumable because it's really short and to the point showing people what he's invested in. And other people can easily look at this and think whether they resonate or not. On top of that, what's interesting here is he actually gives out a free resource talking about building his second brain.

And he's giving out a free resource if anyone comments the word system. And this is a great way to get leads, to get inbound leads. And as you can see here, you got over 3 ,000 comments just from that.

So we're talking about this entire inbound lead system just in a bit. And last but not least, we have the educational or informational. carousel this is where you give an educational tip hack or information so i've actually created something like this before the hook of this is i studied the top 50 personal brands here's what you can steal immediately i'm fronting the carousel with huge credibility because i'm showing all these different faces that people probably recognize and you know people want to see like what have i actually learned from it and what they can actually steal each slide basically again it's information or education to teach people what they can do for their own personal brand looking at the top ones that are doing it so this carousel we actually also did a comment sequence where people could comment the word PB, and we gave them a free resource to start building their own personal brand.

And what was interesting is we got over 1 ,800 comments, and this actually gave us a bunch of leads that we could work through in our DMs. And fun fact, this post actually generated over $70 ,000 for us from just these eight different slides. Now, I want to talk about how your carousels can actually lead to real business for you.

Leads that care about your business, your service, and actually want to pay you money. So first thing to understand is that your carousel acts as the snack or the appetizer.

It gives your viewers a small glimpse into what you do or how you help people. So whatever educational tip, trick, or any sort of value that you provide your viewers, now is the time where you can convert. those views into actual conversations.

So your carousel should be bite -sized and easy to consume, as we mentioned before, leaving people wanting more. So what exactly does more refer to? That more equals your lead magnet.

So as you can see, these are actual leads that we've gotten through our carousels. Just four carousels here. And these are actual conversations that we started in the DMs because of the carousels we've posted.

1 ,100, 4 .6K, 600, 2 .9K. And if you just add these numbers up, that's almost 8 ,000. leads from four carousel posts.

Just think about what that could do for your business. So a lead magnet essentially is extra resource that can help your audience get step closer to where they want to go. So what should your lead magnet be?

It could be a one -page checklist that gets them to understand the exact steps they have to take to get to a certain destination. It could be a, you know, X -minute video walkthrough where you explain certain topics, certain breakdowns. It could be a notion template that they could plug and play different things.

It could be a fill -in -the -blank script or a Google Docs swipe file. These are some examples of lead magnets that we've posted. done with my personal brand.

We've led them to a 24 -minute video breaking down exactly how to create authentic storytelling content online. We've given them different My Robots, showing them different frameworks. We've also given them different databases where they can rip videos from.

So these are some examples to give you an idea of what a lead magnet could be and how you can actually create lead magnets for yourself. And the entire lead magnets procedure is actually built out on ManyChat. And don't worry, I got you.

My entire free template is actually in the description right down below. I'm not affiliated to them. I don't get a commission if you do this.

but this will really help you set up this entire flow from left to right to get people clicking on it and getting their emails as well as getting them to eventually follow you and giving them the eventual guide. Okay, so the last and final step that I want to take you guys through is our exact SOP, our exact workflow in my internal team that helps us to push our carousels so fast with less than 15 minutes of active working time for each carousel.

And if you have any questions, please feel free to DM me on Instagram where I'll personally get back to you. So at the very top of the flow chart, this is where you decide you want to create a carousel. So the first thing that ask yourself, it's what pillar does this carousel actually fall under?

If you're not familiar with content pillars, we've actually broken down content pillars into three main categories. You have authenticity, authority, and growth. So each of these pillars actually serve different purposes.

One is to build a more personal connection, one is to show your expertise, and one is to really, you know, use a trendy topic or trendy format and go viral with it. So once you figure out what pillar you want to create, we move down the flow chart and ask ourselves firstly, is there a reference of something similar done?

Why do we ask ourselves this question? Because first, we truly believe that everything is just a remix of everything.

And a video or a carousel that's done well before will probably do well again, but please, please, please never ever copy it wholesale. You can copy the format, you can replicate the way that they design it, but never copy it wholesale and always put your own twist because that's how you remain authentic and true to your own voice.

So if there is a reference, you take the route to the right. Basically, firstly, ask yourself, what part of the reference can I actually reference from? So what kind of visual...

did they use was it aesthetic cinematic or was it kind of dodgy and raw what was the reference as hook how can i contextualize this to my own story what was the structure of the reference what the types of fonts use what's the layout of the carousel are there any overlay images that they use okay write all this down so you know exactly why it went viral and how you can copy it for yourself then we go down the flow chart and one question you have to ask yourself is Does my carousel topic check off at least two of the following four criterias?

So these are the four criterias that we realize are super important as to whether a piece of content does well in general. The first one is relatability. Is the topic relatable to a large enough total addressable market?

The larger the total addressable market, the more likely it will go viral because simply put, there are more people that could relate to it and more people resonate. Thus, more people will be viewing it. Second, sensationalism, the wow factor.

What is so extravagant or so big or so little that gets people intrigued because of how out of the ordinary it is? Third, stakes. Are there any stakes involved in this topic?

So maybe you're telling the story about how you took a risk to chase your dreams, for example. When there are stakes involved, people often want to see what happens in this journey of yours. So you'll get them to keep watching and the retention goes up.

And finally, is there value in any form in this topic? Classically, many... people think value refers directly into education but sometimes value is just entertainment or sometimes value is also just helping someone feel seen feel heard so essentially what you want to make sure is that you have at least two of this following four criterias because that will give you a much higher chance of your carousel succeeding and if you go through this entire process and you realize that this one or fewer than four of those criteria is met, I would advise you to ditch the idea and move on to the next.

But if your carousel checks off at least two of these, then I will go down the right route again. So next, we're moving into the actual design phase of the carousel. One thing to ask is, are you creating this carousel based off the reference design or based off an internal template?

So when we say internal template, this actually refers to our internal team's Canva templates, where we have a bunch of different templates to choose from so that you don't have to start from scratch. Don't worry, I got you again. single thing here as you can see they have all been linked to the canva templates go ahead click on it and duplicate it and you can start using our templates for free but if you choose not to use our canva templates and you choose to start from scratch what i advise you to do is just try to replicate the reference design as closely as possible so everything that i've mentioned above that i asked you guys to take a look at here right the visuals that we use the reference hook the reference structure moving on we talk about our script structure but before we touch on that i want to actually share with you guys this interesting feature on Instagram carousels.

So it's actually what they call the second chance feature. I don't know if you guys realize this but actually some of the Instagram carousels sometimes start on the second slide. The first slide isn't shown.

you actually look at the second slide first. And essentially what happens is if a viewer actually sees your first slide and scrolls away, doesn't engage with it, Instagram will actually push out the exact same carousel again to the same viewer, but instead of showing them the first slide this time, they're going to be showing them the second slide.

And this is why they call it the second chance feature because essentially your carousel gets a second chance to get a viewer to engage. So make sure that both your first and second slide are equally hook worthy so that... If your first like fails to capture someone's attention, Instagram will test your second slide and it could actually get pushed out even harder.

Looking at my stats actually right here, as you can see, my second slide actually has more likes than my first. This proves for me that my first slide actually was less liked compared to my second slide. Thankfully, I decided to put in effort into my second slide so that it could still go viral.

So now we move on back to script structure. So these are the basic host structures for the different types of carousels that we've discussed. As you can see, it's very simple, oftentimes for story.

storytelling carousels, we really just follow the classic storytelling structure of hook, context, conflict, resolution, and call to action if you need to add one. For listicles, it's usually a very strong hook, give a little background information, and then, you know, break down your different concepts, your different learnings, your different values, your different tips and tricks into each individual slide.

And for before and after, oftentimes it's always going to be a half and half as you've seen before, and the top is often the before state or the old state, and then the bottom is always the after state or the new state. So moving on into the actual designing, what we usually do is we always choose a standard.

So we always have one header font, one body font, and one accent font. So this is where you really want to choose and dial in on your different brand identity. Maybe you have brand font, brand colors to already use.

Perfect. Use those. For us, as I mentioned, these are the standards that we adhere to.

As you can see, we have one header font and one accent font, a little scribbly kind of font. Okay. We also make sure that our body font is not too small.

and not to you know too long and too chunky because that makes it a lot harder for a viewer to read it okay so don't over complicate it make sure that your fonts are very very easily readable we've talked about fonts we've talked about text copy now let's talk about images images are so important because they're what people see first now you gotta ask yourself are you going the aesthetic route where you have really nice cinematic images or really dark moody vibes or are you going the raw route where you know using images from the past that may be a bit grainy blurry but also that works because it may show a more raw and true side of you.

So if you choose to go the aesthetic route, these are some questions about your photos that you have to ask yourself. Firstly, is there good lighting? Secondly, is the setting visually intriguing, right?

Do you have a good view? Do you have a nice setup behind you? Next, is the background organized?

Is there random things lying around or are furnitures placed nicely? Can you imagine this image on Pinterest? And last but not least, do the images used relate to whatever the text says?

The closer the images are to what the text reads, it's going to be a lot easier for a viewer to kind of match them in their brain. and tell the story a lot clearer subconsciously for them. You don't actually have to always shoot it on a camera.

iPhone photos do work or Android photos do work as long as they adhere to the above prompts. Another thing to note is that you can actually also use videos if you want to. Just note that if you use videos and there's music.

that you put onto the carousel, the videos will be muted. But if you want the audio of the videos to be heard, then you wouldn't be able to add native music on Instagram itself. If you decide to go the other route and to go raw, these are some questions you have to ask yourself.

Does this image elicit the emotion that you're trying to convey? Whatever emotion, sad, happy, anxious, stressed. For the photos that you may not possess about a time in your past, are you able to recreate it?

For example, if I had gone through a breakup five years ago and I do not have an image of that. Can I recreate, reenact a scene to kind of help to elicit that emotion as well? Or is there any images I can ask my friends, maybe they have of me, my family, if they have of me, so that I can really help to tell that story visually so much better?

And thirdly, are there images of you within the carousel that can be clearly seen to show that this is your story and not anyone else's? The biggest mistake I see a lot of people make is that there isn't a clear hero or a clear protagonist in the carousel. It has to be very clear that it is your story.

And with that being said, you have to be showing your face in at least one or two, usually the hook especially. So once you've decided what kind of images you want to use and whether to actually check through these different questions, then the next question to ask yourself is, does your image have negative space? Because this will help you understand where you should put your text.

So to give you guys an example of what negative space means, take a look at this carousel that I've actually done. As you can see, maybe at the forefront, there's a lot of going, there's a lot of things going on, as you can see the lines here. But actually this area here is perfect for...

us to put text on. It's pretty plain, pretty simple, and I can fit my text right there. Ask yourself, is there anywhere in the picture, in the frame, that I can actually put text where it's not too busy on the back, the background isn't too messy?

So the clearer it is, the easier it is for your audience to actually read, the better your retention does in general. And a lot of the times with your images, what we actually do is we extract them from our bureau bank. So if you have never built a bureau bank before, please do, because it's going to save you a lot of time.

If you categorize every single part of your life, it's going to be a lot easier. for you or your team or your editor to extract these images to use it for your carousels as well as your reels. So yeah, if you have negative space, go ahead and put your text right on that negative space.

One thing to consider is whether your negative space is white or it's any other color. So if your negative space is white and you're using a white font, make sure to reduce the highlights and exposure until the text over the white negative space can be readable. Okay, so for example, in this picture, the background is actually white.

And what I've actually done is really... to lower the brightness of the base image so that the text can really pop because imagine if it was so much brighter as you can see the text starts to blend in okay so what i've actually done is actually layered two different images so this is the main image and i'm actually going to duplicate this now i have two over the same image what i'm going to do on the top image is to remove the background so let camera do its thing and once the background has been removed as you can see i'm just a solo human now so that i can actually reduce the highlights and the brightness of the base image so that my text can now pop.

But the main subject, which is me in this case, is still able to stand out. I'm standing out, I'm bright, but my text is still very much readable. If your negative space is any other color, don't really have to worry.

Just go ahead and write your text over the images, okay? And just to backtrack a little bit, if your image doesn't have any negative space, what you can actually do is to just add a black overlay with a 30 to 50 % transparency over the image so that your white text can pop. Let me show you a very, very quick...

example so as you can see here this image there's actually a lot of things going on at the back there's buildings there's lines there's circles squares all that stuff so what we're going to do and what we actually have done is edit this layer and if you don't know how to get that layer all you have to do is just click on elements in canva search square or rectangle click on one with graphics go ahead and make this um full screen and then what you want to do is just reduce the transparency as i mentioned 30 to 50 let's say 30.

And as you can see, we now have this layer over our entire image. And what you want to do is actually to make sure that the text is over the image, because if you accidentally put the layer to the back, then it's going to be basically covered by that 30 % and it doesn't stand out anyways.

So make sure you're doing that if you do not have negative space in your image. So moving on, let's go down into the final steps. If you've already done your copy, you've already done your images, now you ask yourself, do you have to add in any supplementary photo overlays?

for any claims or proof or anything to amplify the story so oftentimes we use this if we want to show evidence of a specific amount of money we spend or a specific amount of views we've gotten so make sure you're adding these overlays to help you amplify your point so for example here as i'm talking about building the world around you i have actually put these images over it and if you decide to attach a lead magnet make sure you're creating that free resource connected to manychat and yeah again my template for manychat is in the description so you can get started with that And the very last step, post it up.

I know it sounds like a bunch of questions to ask yourself and the workflow can be pretty long, but as you keep doing this and getting the reps in, it's going to be so, so much easier. And with that being said, that's all you really need to know to start executing on your very own carousels for your personal brand, to grow your brand and generate leads for your business.

So do drop a like if this has helped you and don't forget to subscribe as I'll be sharing a lot more about how to grow and scale your personal brand.

The Hook

The bait, then the rug-pull.

Gabe Chia opens with a claim of 50 million views and seven figures in tracked revenue from a single format, then spends 23 minutes showing why carousels outperform reels on effort and how to build them fast.

Frameworks