Your first one-minute videos are going to be bad. Shaky camera. Background noise. Hair you do not like. Words that do not land the way they did in your head. That is not a failure. That is the curriculum.
Britain Eriksen and I were standing in Gilbert, Arizona, selfie stick out, saying out loud what almost every local business owner whispers.
Practice is the product
Britain runs Elevate Media and spends his days helping brands reach younger audiences. He does not sugarcoat the start of the skill:
Get in front of the camera, get comfortable in front of it, because it is a skill, as Dennis and I would probably tell you. We both were very uncomfortable at first when we started shooting video, especially of ourselves.
He still hears his own voice and flinches sometimes. So do I. The difference between people who grow a brand on camera and people who stay stuck is not talent. It is reps.
Britain’s challenge matches what I give every Local Service Spotlight client:
And we wanna challenge you to make your first one-minute videos, ’cause your first 100 videos are gonna suck. You just need practice. There’s gonna be noise in the background. The camera’s gonna be shaking.
Your first hundred are not content for the hall of fame. They are reps for your nervous system. You are teaching your body that the red button is safe.
Discomfort is normal — quit judging the take
On that same shoot I told Britain something I wish someone had told me earlier: if you are clear on your goal and what you stand for, let it flow.
Don’t judge yourself. Don’t worry about saying the exact right words.
Britain jumped in immediately:
And realize you have a lot of takes you can do.
Editing exists. Takes exist. What does not exist is a shortcut around the discomfort of hearing yourself on playback. You get past that by shooting again tomorrow.
This is not influencer theater. We are growing a brand so the people who already want to connect with you can hear your knowledge. Any speaker, author, coach, plumber, dentist, or mission-centered pro can do it. You do not need Britain’s production chops. You need willingness — and a real one-minute video habit.
Why “suck” is actually your advantage
After we joked about hair and wrong words, I said what we keep seeing in the comments:
But you know what we found? Is that people who are imperfect in their video actually drive the deepest connection. Because if people sound too good, it’s like an advertisement. I don’t really trust it. And you just have to be authentic.
Britain doubled down:
Authentic connections are what people are seeking. And by having raw videos, by having real videos of people talking, you know, as if they’re right here you’re gonna be able to generate the most authentic relationships, and you’re gonna be able to continue to drive up traffic to your business.
Polished can feel like a commercial. A walking, slightly windy, slightly imperfect take feels like a person. When someone needs a roof, a cavity filled, or a house shown this weekend, they hire the person they already feel they know.
Walk-and-talk is everyday life with a camera
We were not in a studio. We were walking and talking — putting the camera into the day the way you put keys in your pocket.
Just like these. Walk and talk videos. You’re just putting a camera there as part of your everyday life, and you’ll be surprised at how well these drive sales because people know you, they wanna connect with you, they wanna do business with you. So it’s not even about your expertise, it’s about you’re there at the moment where they need help with their house or their plumbing or their car being fixed or whatever it is that you sell, whatever product or service.
Connection at the moment of need beats a perfect script about your expertise. Your hundred imperfect minutes are how you show up in that moment before the appointment ever gets booked.
What to do this week
- Film one 60-second video on your phone today. No makeup reset. No “when I get the new mic.”
- Publish it. Do not wait for perfect.
- Repeat until you hit one hundred. Track the number in a simple note on your phone.
- When one of those videos lands — comments, saves, calls — that is the one you promote with Dollar-a-Day: a small daily boost behind the winner so it keeps working while you sleep.
If you want the full one-minute framework Britain and I teach — hook, body, call to action, and how to turn everyday footage into ads — watch this:
One-minute video / Dollar-a-Day training
Your first hundred will suck. Mine did. Britain’s did. That is how you get to the one that does not.
Then you put a dollar a day behind it and let the algorithm do the walking.