Congrats on the LDs!

The reason it was so easy for you is because you were completely confident about it. They will continue to get easier from here because you know that you can do it now, and the experience you gain in the LDs will also give you more confidence with your dream control. Thinking about and visualizing LD success right before sleeping will also help immensely, especially when doing DEILDs, which directly induct you into the dream.

1-2 minutes is a pretty solid LD for light sleep. It sounds like you might have been able to salvage it though, since you were able to enter another dream directly after that. Did you try doing some clarity increasing techniques as the dream was fading on you?