How 1 Minute Media can help you create great videos on your own

 

 

Nowadays we live surrounded by technology, and everyone can use these tools and create content. On the other hand, not everyone knows how to use it properly, and that’s when it comes 1 Minute Media. But what is it about? How can it help you? And how can you get access to it?

 

 

1 Minute Media is a digital product that offers coursework and membership that empowers people to create their own great video content with something as simple as a smartphone. 1 Minute Media was initially born from real life and then it was made into a digital product.

 

 

Pro Tip: Remember that video is simply an excellent vehicle to take story where it needs to go.

 

 

How it all began

So, 1 Minute Media was an idea of mine that didn’t have a name at first, and it came from a place of doing really cool work for big companies that had big budgets. And being from Flint, Michigan, knowing that so many companies from my own home city couldn’t afford my services, I started thinking about how I could bridge the gap between the tools that these big companies with big budgets are able to afford, and getting those in the hands of smaller micro businesses, from my home city of Flint, Michigan. That’s where the idea was born. So, I’d been chewing on it for a little while I was actually working with Ryan Foland and filming a conference that he was speaking at. And another speaker there, Dennis EU, was talking about the power of video, and putting together one-minute videos, something really simple. And he challenged everyone to make a quick one-minute video somewhere at the conference, put it up online, hashtag it, and they would be given a prize to one of the people who had done that. To my surprise, only a few people participed in it. And that really blew me away. It’s like why wouldn’t people just put a cell phone in front of their face and say a few things about the conference, they’re out to win this great prize. And then I went from surprised to not surprised, because in my line of work, tools are available all the time, but people don’t always take advantage of especially a lot of the free tools that exist. So, I had this idea about developing a product called 1 Minute Media based on making a one-minute video and how powerful that can be.

 

 

The first project and the reason behind the name “1 Minute Media”

 

 

The first opportunity I had to bring this idea into life (it didn’t have a name yet) was when there was someone who was interested in shooting their own video, someone who ended up becoming a client and a close friend over time, Carol Ackerly, who is an awesome entrepreneur from Michigan, and she’s like, “I want to do this, I want to start doing video I want to set something up. And I love this idea of being able to create it on my own.” So, we actually got together, and I kind of cemented this one-minute media name in the form of just telling people about it. I just wanted to do this idea of a quick video being powerful. So, Carol amongst about four or five other people started working with me directly where I actually helped them, but she actually took it to the next level and started to learn how to edit her own videos, which is super powerful, and then she would have me animate a logo that she created in Canva. And she’s got a show now where she interviews people via zoom, edits it together and puts the music and the animations that I created all together and has her own show. And that’s actually grown to where people are wanting to be on that show, and her audience has grown because of it. It’s just incredible to see exactly what I wanted to see, which was people be empowered by the ability to create great video on their own.

 

 

Now, here’s a disclaimer. Our intention is not to talk to videographers and make them better at what they do, or to talk to someone who doesn’t do video and try to turn them into a videographer. 1 Minute Media is a digital coursework and membership to teach you how to shoot great videos on your own with something as simple as a smartphone and also give you all the support you need along the way. So, it’s all about empowering people with the bare essentials of what’s needed to create great video on your own without having to hire a company to do it.

 

 

How COVID 19 affected 1 Minute Media

 

 

Everything was doing great. I was seeing some success in the idea of people implementing this and getting traction and getting views and having growth because of it, and I also had a small investor who invested some amount of money to get me in there for a little while and said, “you need to build this out, you need to make one minute media digital, and you need to make it available to anyone who wants it. Because people need this in their lives,” and I kind of rolled with it, and started working in the Ferris wheel in downtown Flint, Michigan, and slowly developed 1 Minute Media kind of on the back burner. But as my digital company grew, it did get back burned.

 

 

And the next thing that happened was a government shutdown due to global pandemic known as COVID 19. When that happened, we found a lot of time on our hands. And one of the things our team came up with during our first meetings was we need to finish 1 Minute Media, it should have been done already. And while we were taking care of things like building the website, we thought about doing a 1 Minute Media initiative, which was all about being empathetic. So, we started helping some essential businesses that were still open during the shutdown, which were like restaurants still doing carry out and etc. We wanted to create some free videos for them to help their audience to understand how they could order from them, how they could pick up, was their menu on their website or their Facebook, all that kind of stuff. And it was super successful! We did about six or seven restaurants and two or three other businesses garnered 10s of 1000s of organic views through these videos. And that’s exactly what I wanted to have happen, I wanted the power of video and the power of that share button when someone is in your audience and they really care about what you’re trying to do.

 

 

Finishing the digital product

 

 

The next thing that happened is I finished the build, which included filming the actual coursework. And besides being a difficult task, it had to be creative, because 1 Minute Media existed in real life, as an idea and as a kind of consultation that I would take people through, but it didn’t exist digitally, where people could just click a button, get involved and start creating great video really fast. So, that’s something that we accomplished during the government shutdown. And we launched our beta version on May 1 2020. And I’m super proud of 1 Minute Media, what we were able to accomplish, what it’s done for people so far, how many people are learning how to shoot great video on their own and putting out content that I then get to see and root for them, and really see the power of people being able to create video on their own.

 

 

But another thing that I really like, is watching people get over this kind of fear that many people have about getting on camera or sharing themselves or being the face of their own business. I know it’s not easy, but there is something about being on camera and putting yourself out in front of people. That can be a little bit scary or a little bit stressful, so I’m always really proud when people do that.

 

 

How 1 Minute Media can help you

 

 

First of all, you have lifetime access to the coursework, which is great because you can brush up anytime you need to or if we update or make anything new, you got access to it for the rest of your life. And that’s where you learn the technical skills of how to shoot great video on your own. But to be honest, the secret sauce, the magic of 1 Minute Media is really the private membership. Once you sign up, the ongoing private membership is $21 a month and that gets you access to our private membership group, where I’m putting all kinds of extra content. There are other students in their different groups who are part of the 1 Minute Media Membership. Alumni like Karyl Eckerle, who I’ve mentioned before and other people who are already making videos and are more than willing to be active in the group and help out if someone’s got a question. A lot of times, I’m able to schedule zoom calls with people and walk them through problems, whatever you need in the way of support is going to be there for you. And we’ll make sure that if you get stuck, we get you unstuck because what we want to see is people be really successful up front with creating their own video, that way they can get comfortable doing it, and then start getting creative with what kind of video they start putting out after that. But if even with all those tools, you’re not digging it, you can cancel anytime, and you keep the lifetime access to the coursework.

 

 

And last but not least, I would like to mention something that has become really near and dear to me which is education, and helping others. I want to help others by making this inexpensive product available to them. And by making sure that they have all the support they need to knock it out of the park once they’re a member. And that’s extremely important to me. You know when the vet says your dog has to take this pill and the dog doesn’t want to take it? Then you put that pill inside some cheese or maybe some peanut butter. And that’s how you get the good stuff into the place where it needs to be right so people see video is a great medium for storytelling and for marketing, digital communication in general. And it’s powerful, but I’m mainly focused on story. So, I’m always trying to slip story into video anywhere I can, especially when I’m helping or educating others. Consequently, a lot of what you’ll find in the private group is me talking about how to tell great story through video, because everyone can learn how to do video, but being a good storyteller and sharing your story through your business or through your personal story isn’t always the easiest, and that is the medicine and the cheese that I like to make sure people get ahold of. It is not only about learning to create a good video, it is about learning the whole package. And 1 Minute Media will provide you this.