▸ Why Now
Three reasons this is the right window. And the right partner.
Buyers trust people they've watched, not pages they've read.
Before a small-business buyer calls you, they Google you. Then they look for a face. A real human, on camera, explaining what their company does and why it matters. Companies whose owner is on the internet talking like a person win the trust race. Companies that hide behind a logo lose it before the call.
The AI search window prefers video.
ChatGPT, Gemini, YouTube search, Perplexity. They're all rebuilding around video answers because video is what people watch when they're trying to decide. Companies with a video presence get surfaced. Companies with only a website don't. The companies that bank a video library in the next 12 months get found for the next ten years.
You're paying for senior storytellers with AI, not an AI avatar pretending to be one.
Most cheap video right now is AI-generated avatars and slideshow content with nobody behind the wheel. Most expensive video is a production company taking four months and $80K to ship a single ad. We're senior storytellers using AI as leverage on research, scripting, and post. That's why we can ship a brand hero plus three talking heads in 30 days at $15,000.
▸ The System
More than a video. A story system that compounds.
Four levers, working together. This is why $15K from us doesn't compare to $3K from a freelancer or $50K from a production company.
Sharp story makes you memorable.
Your brand video can't just look good. It has to land a single point. We do the pre-production work most freelancers and production companies skip: figuring out what your company actually owns and how to say it on camera, so the finished video makes one thing impossible to forget.
Right narrative turns viewers into buyers.
A viewer decides in eight seconds whether to keep watching or scroll. We write to that constraint: cold open, named problem, your proof, clear next action. Same disciplined story arc whether the deliverable is a brand hero or a 90-second thought-leadership piece.
Distinctive craft earns trust at first frame.
Cinematography, sound design, pacing, color. The difference between a "company video" and a piece of content people share is craft. We don't skip the craft. Senior crew, real cameras, proper sound. Your video should look like the most trusted brand in your category, not a self-tape.
Modular shoot architecture makes the asset compound.
One shoot day, structured to produce a hero asset and a quarter's worth of distribution content. Cut differently for YouTube, LinkedIn, ads, sales emails. The shoot is the leverage point. Most videos go stale the day they're posted. Ours feed your pipeline for a year.
▸ Scope
What you get for $15,000.
Fixed scope, fixed price, 30 days. Nothing extra, nothing missing.
- ▣Story strategy and brand audit. We figure out what you have to say before we shoot a frame.
- ▣Brand video script and three talking-head interview outlines
- ▣Shot list, production schedule, location scout, on-camera interview prep for your team
- ▣One day on-site filming with senior crew, real cameras, proper sound
- ▣One 3-5 minute brand hero video, fully cut, color graded, mixed
- ▣Three talking-head pieces from the same shoot (thought leadership, executive team, customer-facing explainers)
- ▣Video content system architecture: a documented framework for what to shoot next, how to distribute, how it compounds
- ▣Captions, music, sound design on all deliverables
- ▣One revision round + 60-minute strategy walkthrough for the rollout
- ▣First month of ongoing partnership included to launch you into production
▸ Timeline
What the 30 days look like.
Story Strategy
- •90-min strategy session to unpack your story
- •Brand audit and competitive teardown
- •Story direction approved together
Pre-Production
- •Brand video script + three talking-head outlines
- •Shot list, schedule, location scout
- •Interview prep with on-camera talent
Production
- •One day on-site filming
- •Senior director on camera
- •A-roll, B-roll, talking head with teleprompter or interview-style
Post + Launch
- •Brand video + three talking heads cut
- •Color, sound, captions, one revision
- •Content system walkthrough
▸ Who's Behind It
The operators.
Mark Edwards and Alex Rollins. Two senior brand and marketing operators with 50+ years of combined experience building brands and telling their stories. Alex has directed brand video for Nestlé, Sony, Microsoft, and Squarespace, and won global awards for his video direction. Mark's the strategy and operating discipline that turns the story into pipeline.
The Story Sprint is what that experience looks like when you compress it into 30 days and a fixed price.
▸ You've Seen Our Work
▸ Why Us
Two bad options. One good one.
Most SMBs choose between a production company (slow, expensive, one-off mindset) and a cheap freelancer (no strategy, no system, gone after delivery). Here's the third option, and why it's a better fit if you want video that compounds into pipeline.
Senior storytellers. Productized system. One team, top to bottom.
- Mark and Alex on every project. No account managers, no junior producers, no handoffs between the people who pitched the work and the people directing the shoot.
- 50+ years between us. Alex's specific lane is video storytelling for B2B and SMB. The work has driven results for publicly traded Fortune 500 brands, regional powerhouses, and local businesses you see everywhere.
- AI as leverage on real strategic thinking. Research, scripting, post. That's how we ship a brand hero plus three talking heads in 30 days at a price point that doesn't exist anywhere else in this category.
- Story before camera. We figure out what your company actually owns before we shoot a frame. A great-looking video without sharp positioning is just an expensive screensaver.
- The Sprint is productized for a reason: so we can stay sharp on the ongoing distribution work, which is the part of this that compounds into pipeline.
Built for the deliverable, not your pipeline.
- $50K-$100K budgets and four-to-eight month timelines. Three rounds of bidding before anyone shoots. By the time it ships, your story has moved on.
- They sell craft. The strategy is yours to figure out, and the script too. You walk in with a brief, they walk out with a deliverable.
- One hero piece, no system. Six months later you still don't know what to film next or how to repurpose what you have.
- Their business model optimizes for the next bigger production. Your ongoing pipeline isn't on the brief.
No story. No system. Vanished after delivery.
- $2K-$5K gets you AI-avatar slideshow content that looks like every other piece of fluff online, or a one-camera shoot with no sound discipline.
- Great freelancers can be great with a camera. They can't write your positioning, prep your team on-camera, or architect a video system.
- After delivery they're gone. You get files, no thinking, no playbook for what to film next quarter.
- No connection to a content system that makes your video do compounding work. You're back to square one in 60 days.
▸ Pricing
The price.
Plus applicable sales tax. Pricing is for local shoots within the Twin Cities metro. Shoots outside the local market are quoted separately for travel and lodging.
Everything in the Sprint, delivered in 30 days. Plus the first month of ongoing partnership to launch you into production.
Bundle with the Website Sprint for $22,000 (saves $3K). We sequence them: website month 1-2, story month 3-4.
Additional shoot days, expanded production, and bundled brand work are scoped per engagement. Tell us what you're trying to build and we'll quote it.
▸ After the Build
The video is the means. Compounding distribution is the end.
A brand video that doesn't get cut up, redistributed, and built on goes quiet in 90 days. YouTube, AI engines, and your audience's attention all move on. The Sprint builds the asset. The ongoing engagement is how it turns into a compounding story system instead of an expensive screensaver.
What you're really signing up for: an ongoing thought partner and execution help to keep cutting, distributing, and building on the story you've already captured. (Same three tiers as the Website Sprint's Growth Engine. The structure is the same. The work is shaped to what you've built.)
| Tier | Price | What You Get |
|---|---|---|
| Anchor | $1,000/mo | Master file archive of your shoot library. Two short-form cuts per month from existing footage (LinkedIn, YouTube Shorts, Instagram). YouTube and AI search optimization on every cut (titles, descriptions, schema, chapters). Monthly performance review with a written take on what to film next. Standing line to us. |
| Compound | $1,800/mo | Everything in Anchor + four short-form cuts per month instead of two + scripting for your next shoot (we draft, you approve) + monthly YouTube and LinkedIn publishing cadence (we post on schedule) + quarterly competitive video teardown. |
| Operate | $3,000/mo | Everything in Compound + one additional quarterly shoot for fresh talking-head content (kept tight in scope) + one mid-length cut per quarter (90 sec - 2 min) from new and existing footage + monthly working session with Mark + Alex on what to ship next. |
▸ Fit
Who the Sprint is not for.
We're picky on purpose. The Sprint works because it's fixed scope. If any of these describe you, we can scope a custom quote, or refer you to a shop that fits better.
- ✕You want a multi-day documentary, a TV commercial, or a feature-length brand film
- ✕You need green-screen avatar content at scale (we don't fake faces)
- ✕You don't have a story or expertise worth telling. We can sharpen authority. We can't manufacture it.
- ✕You need committee or board approval to sign a $15K invoice
- ✕You want unlimited revisions
Tell us what you're working on. We'll either scope a custom engagement or point you to someone who's a better fit.
▸ FAQ
Common questions.
If your positioning isn't sharp yet, start with the Foundational Sprint ($7.5K–$20K by company stage, 30 days). It's the strategic diagnostic that tells us — and you — exactly what to build next. If you already know your positioning is locked: Website Sprint ($10K) if your site doesn't generate calls. Story Sprint ($15K) if your story isn't getting told online. Bundle both Sprints for $22,000 (saves $3K).
You can. And you'll get a polished one-off, if the freelancer is good. The Story Sprint is sharp positioning, senior craft (Alex has directed for Nestlé, Sony, Microsoft, Squarespace), AND a documented system that turns one shoot day into a year of distributable content. If you want a single video, a $3K freelancer is plenty. If you want a video system directed by someone who's worked at the level you aspire to, this is what it costs.
Because we're not running ten people through three rounds of bidding before we shoot. We're two senior operators with a fixed scope and a 30-day clock. You get senior strategic thinking and senior craft, without the production overhead. The output is fewer minutes of footage than a $50K production. The output per dollar that drives pipeline is higher.
Most aren't, day one. We've prepped a lot of first-time on-camera talent. Pre-production includes interview prep so your team shows up ready to be themselves, not ready to perform. The shoot day is structured around making it easy, not impressive.
You can buy just the Sprint. The first month of ongoing partnership is included to get you into production. After that, you're free to walk. You keep the brand video, the talking heads, and the documented system. We won't chase you. Honest answer: a video that doesn't get cut up and redistributed goes quiet in 90 days. Most clients keep us on because the math works. What we charge per month is a fraction of what an additional qualified buyer is worth.
Yes. Pricing is custom based on scope. Brand identity refresh that supports the new video look is the listed add-on. Tell us what you need and we'll price it.
We run 6 Sprints at a time, max, across both Sprint products. Tell us what you're trying to say and we'll let you know the next available start date.
You get one revision round in post. The reason we can ship in 30 days at this price is the productized process: story locked in week one, shoot day in week three. The revisions you'd want are usually settled before we roll camera. Our work is good. You'll like it.
▸ Apply
See if we're a fit.
Tell us about your business and what you've been trying to say. We'll get back to you within one business day. If we're not the right fit, we'll say so. And probably point you to someone who is.
Alex + Mark