TJ Walker advises aspiring online video creators not to wait for perfect equipment or setups. He emphasizes using readily available tools (cell phones, webcams) to record useful, interesting content, iterating over time by adding inexpensive upgrades (microphone, better camera, simple backdrop) rather than delaying production for perfection.
Chapters
So what is the perfect video camera for making online videos? What is the perfect backdrop? What is the perfect lighting system? I'm going to tell you all of that in just a moment, Okay? You want to know the perfect camera? You want to know the perfect backdrop, the perfect lighting system? Here's the answer. It doesn't matter. Just do it. Take a cell phone, capture video of yourself saying something incredibly interesting to you and to people you care about and something useful to people. Just shoot the video. What I see time and time again with my clients across every industry, all over the world is there's still the sense that you can write press releases all day long, you can make blog posts all day long, you can create web pages all day, but video is somehow so different. We better have a committee of 14 people to meet once a week the next eight months so we get the perfect camera and studio and backdrop. No, no, no. Just take a video camera on your cell phone, your iPad, your iPhone, your webcam and say something interesting. If you want to do fancier videos and slick commercial, that's fine. But don't make the perfect the enemy of the good. Start using this format of video right away. Get stuff up, get out, get feedback, and yeah, over time, add a $10 microphone. Over time, boost the quality of your camera. This is a forty eight dollar video backdrop, folks. It's not expensive, but stop futzing around obsessing over the technical details and start creating videos of good content for your customers, your clients, your prospects, and people who care about your industry.