🍳 AI Recipe: From PDF to Video in Under 10 Minutes

Turn “Read This Before the Meeting” into a video they’ll actually watch using NotebookLM’s new Video Overview feature

📣 Quick Update

Today at 9am PT, I’m hosting our monthly Cooking with AI (Live!) event — a walkthrough of four AI recipes:

✅ ​Go from Idea to Prototype with Bolt/V0
✅ ​Log Team Decisions from Slack to Notion with One Emoji using Zapier Agents
✅ ​Build a Personal Health Coach with ChatGPT Projects
✅ Turn PDFs into Videos with NotebookLM Video Overview

Come see how each one works in practice and get all your questions answered.

Anyone can attend live for free, and paid subscribers will receive the full recording.
Hope to see you there!

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You write “Please read before the meeting,” but let’s be honest, most people won’t.
They’re slammed. What they really need is a resource that helps them quickly catch up on the key points.

This recipe gives you exactly that.

Upload any long report to NotebookLM, and it turns it into a narrated video summary in under 5 minutes. It’s fast, clear, and easy to share — no editing required.

From wall-of-text updates to async video summaries

❌ Before
You send a detailed quarterly report. Some skim. Some don’t open it. You end up repeating everything in the meeting anyway.

✅ After
You share a short, AI-generated video that covers the key points in under five minutes. People watch it, get the context, and show up prepared.

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Prep Time: 10 minutes

Difficulty Level: Easy

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🧂 Ingredients:

• A report or summary (Google Doc or PDF)

• A Google account with access to NotebookLM

• A one-sentence instruction to shape the video tone and focus

• Optional: visuals like charts, screenshots, or diagrams to enhance the video

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📖 Instructions:

1. Open NotebookLM - Create a new notebook. Give it a clear title like “Q3 Executive Summary”

2. Upload your report - Add your quarterly update as a Google Doc or PDF. Well-structured documents work best

Here’s the one I uploaded so you can compare it to the video:

Q2 2025 Acmecorp Moderntechreport

8.19KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

3. Generate the video overview - Select the three dots next to Video Overview from the Studio menu, then select Customize. Add a simple instruction like:

You are creating a concise executive summary video for Acme Corp.’s Q2 2025 results.  

Audience: Executive leadership team — busy decision-makers who want key insights quickly. 
Tone: Confident, data-driven, and forward-looking. Avoid jargon.  

Then, select Generate.

4. Watch and revise if needed - Review the video for tone, coverage, and accuracy. If it missed something important, tweak the doc or your prompt and try again.

5. Share the video - Copy the link or download the file. Drop it in Slack, add it to your meeting agenda, or send it out in an email update.

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🍽️ Serving Suggestions:

• All-hands kickoff - Embed the video in your company-wide agenda to give everyone context without a slideshow

• Investor updates - Adjust your prompt for a slightly more formal tone and use it in quarterly investor communications

• Documentation boost - Add the video to Notion or your internal wiki as a quick reference alongside the full report

• Project handoffs - Summarize your work into a short video when passing a project to another teammate or team

• Async status updates - Replace written check-ins with a narrated video when sharing progress on a major task or initiative

• Team onboarding - Summarize core docs for new hires so they can ramp faster without wading through everything

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Chef’s Insights: Pro Tips & Limitations

🧑‍🍳 Pro Tips:

• Add charts and images to your doc - NotebookLM pulls doc visuals straight into the slides. A simple chart or screenshot makes your video feel more polished without additional editing.

• Use one clear instruction - Something like “Summarize this for the leadership team with a confident tone” helps shape both the voice and the focus of the video.

• Be specific if the doc is long - Video Overviews are capped around 10 minutes. Help the AI focus by saying what to prioritize (e.g., “just highlight the metrics and next steps”).

• Tell it what to skip - If your doc includes sections you don’t want narrated (like legal disclaimers or footnotes), say so in your prompt.

⚠️ Limitations to Keep in Mind:

• 10‑minute video limit - The tool typically generates videos between 2 - 10 minutes

• Be specific with large sources - Because Video Overviews are short, they won’t cover an entire document in detail. Explicitly call out what to include to guide the AI

• Limited customization - You can shape tone or focus with a short direction, but you can’t tweak slide layout, pacing, or narration after it’s made.

• Free vs. paid limits - The free plan limits you to 3 video overviews per day

• English only (for now) - NotebookLM only supports English for video narration at the moment. More languages are coming soon.

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User Reviews:

Tried this recipe? Let us know how it worked for you in the comments.