The short answer: Get a selfie stick that also stands up as a tripod, with a small wireless remote. It holds your phone steady, lets you film without anyone else in the room, and folds up small enough to travel. It is inexpensive, and it is the first thing I recommend to every client I coach. The one I suggest is the Liphisy 50" Selfie Stick Travel Tripod.

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Illustration of a phone on a selfie stick tripod, angled down to film hands working on a quilt square, with a small wireless remote on the table

Why this comes before everything else

Most of the people I coach are starting a business later in life. They have a smartphone, a story worth telling, and a skill people want to learn. What they do not have yet is a steady way to film it.

Shaky video is the first thing that makes a beginner give up. You prop the phone against a coffee mug, it slides, you start over, and twenty minutes later you have nothing you want to post. A tripod fixes that on day one. The phone stays where you put it, and you get to focus on what you are showing instead of how you are holding the camera.

What to look for

You do not need anything expensive. You need four things:

  • It stands on its own. The legs fold out so it works as a tripod on a table or the floor.
  • It extends. You can raise the phone to eye level or reach over your work for a better angle.
  • It has a wireless remote. You start and stop recording without walking back to the phone or touching the screen.
  • It folds up small. You can toss it in a bag and film wherever you are.

The Liphisy 50" Selfie Stick Travel Tripod checks all four boxes, and it is priced for someone just getting started.

How my clients use it

Faceless videos. Many of my clients would rather not be on camera. That is fine. Set the tripod so the phone looks down at your hands and your work: a quilt coming together, a recipe being made, a tool being used. Your hands tell the story.

Talking to the camera. When you are ready to show your face, the tripod holds the phone at eye level so you look like you are talking with a friend across the table.

On the road. Visiting family, a trip to a park, a project delivered in person. It packs small, so the content comes with you.

Your first step

Order the tripod, take it out of the box, and record one practice video of anything you are working on. Do not post it. Just watch it back and notice how much steadier it looks. That small win is how every channel starts.

If you are one of my coaching clients, bring it to your next session and I will show you how to set it up for the kind of videos you want to make.