Week 1 · Tuesday
Open the Inside These Walls series by naming the fear every pre-1980 Charlotte homeowner carries after closing, and position Proper Wire as the straight-talking source who will actually open the panel and show them.
Posting window: Tuesday, 7:30 PM PT
Posting times shown in Pacific Time (PT) — adjust to your audience's timezone in your scheduler.
Hook options
Pick the one you’ll use — the script opener updates to match
The thing nobody tells you about buying an older Charlotte house.
"Electrical updated" on a disclosure doesn't mean the panel was touched.
Do you even know what brand your panel is?
I run a two-truck residential shop in Charlotte. Here's what I keep finding.
You bought the house. Nobody's opened the panel since.
Script
Opener (0:00 – 0:10)
The thing nobody tells you when you buy a pre-1980 Charlotte house is this: whatever the seller's disclosure says about the electrical, the panel usually tells a different story.
Body
I pulled a cover last week on a 1967 house in Elizabeth. The disclosure said "electrical updated 2019." What was updated was one outlet in the kitchen. The panel was still a Federal Pacific — the breakers on these do not trip reliably under overload, and that is not my opinion, that is documented in failure studies going back thirty years. The homeowner had owned the house four years. Nobody had opened that cover since she closed. That's the gap. The inspector checked a box, the disclosure said a word, and the thing that actually matters was sitting behind a steel door that nobody looked inside.
Close / CTA
If you own a house built before 1980 in Charlotte and nobody's pulled your panel cover since you bought it, I'd want to know what brand it is. Drop it in the comments and I'll tell you what I'd be watching for.
≈ 177 words · about 71 s at single-take pace
On-screen graphics
Planned from the script at your reading pace. Times are approximate: drop each graphic over the line it belongs to.
| About | They say | Graphic | On screen |
|---|---|---|---|
| About0:00–0:03 | They sayYour hook, as you open | GraphicTitle | On screenThe thing nobody tells you about buying an older Charlotte house.Picture: a closed steel panel door on an older home, the cover screws still in |
| About0:14–0:16 | They say“a 1967 house in Elizabeth” | GraphicLabel | On screen1967 — ElizabethPicture: a small tag pinned to a simple house outline |
| About0:18–0:20 | They say“electrical updated 2019” | GraphicHeadline | On screen"ELECTRICAL UPDATED 2019"Picture: a line from a disclosure form, highlighted |
| About0:20–0:22 | They say“one outlet in the kitchen” | GraphicKeyword | On screenONE OUTLET |
| About0:24–0:27 | They say“still a Federal Pacific” | GraphicTitle | On screenFEDERAL PACIFICPicture: a simple panel door with the brand name across it |
| About0:27–0:33 | They say“do not trip reliably under overload” | GraphicUnderline | On screendo not trip reliably under overload |
| About0:35–0:38 | They say“thirty years” | GraphicCounter | On screen30 YEARS |
| About0:42–0:45 | They say“That's the gap” | GraphicHeadline | On screenTHE GAPPicture: a steel panel door, closed |
| About1:04–1:05 | They say“what brand it is” | GraphicKeyword | On screenWHAT BRAND? |
Paste it into Claude, ChatGPT or another AI tool to build these graphics as clips.
Production paths
- 1.Set up before the next panel job: phone vertical on a small tripod or leaned on the truck toolbox, panel visible in frame behind you, cover still on. Shoot in 4K 30fps if your phone allows it.
- 2.Film in natural light if possible — garage door open, or on the porch next to the meter base. Avoid harsh overhead shadows across your face.
- 3.Record the full script in one take, straight to camera. Keep hands relaxed, gesture naturally toward the panel when you say "behind a steel door." Shoot it 2–3 times so you have options.
- 4.Shoot three cutaways after the take: (1) a slow push on the closed panel cover, (2) the cover coming off and the breakers revealed, (3) a tight shot on the Federal Pacific label or a similar brand label if you have one on the truck for reference. 5–8 seconds each.
- 5.Open CapCut on your phone. Drop in the best take as the base layer. Trim dead air at the head and tail — the first word should be the first frame.
- 6.Lay the three cutaways over the matching lines: closed cover over "behind a steel door," cover coming off over "I pulled a cover last week," tight brand shot over "still a Federal Pacific." Keep cuts minimal — this is single-take delivery with light b-roll on top, not a chopped edit.
- 7.Add the on-screen graphics from the cue sheet, one per cue, over the line it belongs to. Use CapCut's default bold sans in white with a thin black stroke so it reads over any background.
- 8.Add captions using CapCut's auto-caption feature. Review and fix any mis-heard words — especially "Federal Pacific" and "Elizabeth." Position captions in the lower-middle, above the TikTok UI safe zone.
- 9.Export at 1080x1920, high quality. Save a clean copy without captions burned in as a backup for Instagram (Reels auto-captions handle it natively).
- 10.Save a still from the moment you say "behind a steel door" — see the thumbnail note below.
Platform captions
Pre-1980 Charlotte house, inspection said electrical was fine, nobody's opened the panel since. This is what I keep finding behind the cover. If you own one of these houses, tell me what brand your panel is in the comments and I'll tell you what I'd be watching for.
Hashtags
Episode 1 of Inside These Walls. When you buy a pre-1980 house in Dilworth, Plaza Midwood, Elizabeth, NoDa — the seller's disclosure says a word, the inspector checks a box, and the panel sits behind a steel cover nobody opens again for years. I pull covers for a living. This is what's actually in there. If nobody has opened your panel since you closed, drop the brand name in the comments and I'll tell you what I'd be watching for.
Hashtags
First in a short series I'm calling Inside These Walls. If you own a pre-1980 home in Charlotte and nobody has opened your electrical panel since you bought it, this one is for you. The seller's disclosure and the inspection report are not the same thing as somebody taking the cover off and looking inside. Tell me what brand your panel is in the comments and I'll tell you what I'd be watching for. Happy to answer questions.
Thumbnail brief
Build this in Canva — it's a design brief, not a prompt to paste.
Save a still of your face from the recording (Record → Save a frame) and open it in Canva — the brief builds everything around the face. Which frame: The frame right as you say "behind a steel door that nobody looked inside" — eyes on the lens, mouth closed or just finishing the word, panel cover visible over your shoulder. Pick a frame where your expression is direct and settled, not mid-blink or mid-word.
- Crop
- 9:16 vertical. Crop to a tight medium shot — chest up on you, with the closed panel cover visible over your shoulder on the right third of the frame. Leave the top third clean for overlay text.
- Words
- WHAT'S / IN YOUR / PANEL?
- Placement
- Overlay text stacked in the top-left third, large and bold. You are centered-left in the lower two-thirds, eyes just above the horizontal middle. The panel sits in the upper-right third, giving the eye a path from the question to the panel.
- Colors
- Overlay text in bright white with a thin black stroke so it reads over any background. A small accent block behind "PANEL?" in Proper Wire's brand accent (use the color from your truck wrap / logo). Keep everything else neutral — don't tint the photo.
- Element
- A small circular badge in the bottom-right corner: "INSIDE THESE WALLS — EP. 1" in two lines, white text on the brand accent color.
Scheduling
Tool: Metricool
- 1.Log into Metricool and open the Planner.
- 2.Create a new post. Select TikTok, Instagram Reels, and Facebook as the destinations.
- 3.Upload the exported 1080x1920 video. For Instagram, use the clean export without burned-in captions so Reels can generate native captions.
- 4.Paste the caption and hashtags for each platform from this pack — do not use the same caption across all three. Metricool lets you customize per-platform; use that.
- 5.For Instagram Reels, set the cover frame to the still saved from the recording (see the still note above). Upload it as a custom cover.
- 6.For TikTok, upload the same still as the cover and select the 9:16 crop that keeps your face and the panel both visible.
- 7.Set the schedule to Tuesday, 7:30 PM Pacific (10:30 PM Eastern — Charlotte local).
- 8.Double-check that location tagging is on for Instagram and Facebook — tag Charlotte, NC.
- 9.Hit schedule. Verify in the queue that all three platforms show the correct time.
Lead capture
Where this should drive
This piece is the series opener and the first video in a brand-new content push — it's a top-of-funnel awareness and credibility play, not a conversion ask. The soft engagement CTA (asking viewers to name their panel brand in the comments) does three things that matter more than a link click right now: it feeds the algorithm the exact signal it rewards on short-form video, it surfaces warm leads by name in a comment thread you can reply to and DM from, and it starts building the comment-section reputation that research-first Charlotte homeowners read before they call. The conversion asks come later in the arc — piece 9 and piece 12 drive to the site, piece 11 drives to the newsletter. This one earns the right to ask by first proving you're the person worth asking.