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The Psychology of Killer Hooks — Transcript

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0:00Today, we're talking about hooks. If you
0:01want your videos to perform better, the
0:03number one thing to understand is hook
0:05psychology. This is the neuroscience
0:07that explains why certain videos hijack
0:10attention so much better than others.
0:12Now look, I've studied literally
0:13thousands of the top videos. I've also
0:16made four of the most popular hook
0:18trainings on the internet. And after
0:20distilling all that research down, it
0:22turns out there's only one psychology
0:24framework that actually matters for
0:26making hooks. It's called interrupt
0:28theory. Essentially, it's the formula
0:30for how you interrupt the scroll that
0:32makes your hooks scientifically
0:34impossible to skip. So in this video,
0:36I'm going to break that whole framework
0:37down. How interrupt theory works, why it
0:40works so well, and of course, the exact
0:42tactics for how you can apply it to make
0:44your hooks 10 times better. By the way,
0:45if you don't know me, my name is
0:46Callaway. I have a million followers.
0:48I've done billions of views, and content
0:50is all I do all day long. All right,
0:52first we have to get clear on what
0:54interrupt theory actually is. And to do
0:56that, you have to understand what's
0:57going on in someone's brain as they
1:00scroll social media. Think of the social
1:02feeds like a highway. Their thumb is
1:04moving, their eyes are glazed over.
1:06Swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe. It's an
1:08absolute dopamine circus in their brain.
1:11Now knowing all that, we have to find a
1:12way to force their thumb off the screen
1:14and get them to pause for even 1 second.
1:16I call this the freeze point.
1:18Essentially, it's like yanking the
1:20emergency brake and forcing them to come
1:22to an immediate stop. Now to do this
1:23psychologically, we have to trigger
1:25what's called an orienting response in
1:27their brain. And this is actually how
1:29hooks work. It's just the neuroscience
1:31term for an involuntary reaction to a
1:33new stimulus. It's kind of like the
1:36wait, what was that? If you were to look
1:37up and see a wolf walking through your
1:39backyard. That orienting response, that
1:41freeze, is what you need to hook someone
1:43because it gets them to pause and pay
1:45attention. Now the good news is, there's
1:47a pretty predictable formula for making
1:49this freeze happen on demand. All your
1:52hook has to do is prompt and answer
1:54these two questions in the viewer's
1:55brain. What is the video about, and what
1:58will I get if I keep watching? Subject
2:00and outcome. Fundamentally, a clear
2:02answer to those two questions is really
2:04all you need to hook someone. Now, to
2:06actually make those questions pop in
2:08their head consistently, you need these
2:10four hook ingredients. I call them the
2:12four S's of hook writing. These are the
2:15building blocks of hooks and if you miss
2:17even one of these, your hook will not
2:18hook. Number one is the subject. Every
2:21hook needs a crystal clear subject. It
2:24can be a person, an object, a mission, a
2:26place, but regardless, the viewer has to
2:28instantly know what or who the video is
2:31about. Now, hook ingredient number two
2:32is the stakes. And this is the outcome
2:35side of the equation. The viewer must
2:37have a reason to care in order to make
2:40them freeze. For the wolf example, your
2:42reason to care is that your safety and
2:44health is in jeopardy. If you're making
2:46entertainment content, well then the
2:47stakes are some curiosity-inducing
2:49scenario. What's going to happen to that
2:51character? Why is the ball bouncing on
2:53her head? Will Mr. Beast outshoot
2:55Ronaldo in this soccer challenge? In
2:57entertainment content, it can really be
2:58any scenario, but the key is you have to
3:00make the viewer want to care. Now, if
3:02you're on the educational side, which is
3:04what I mostly focus on, the stakes are
3:06just the outcome that the viewer wants.
3:09This could be more views, more skills,
3:10more customers, more money, more time
3:13back with their family. And very simply,
3:15if you know what outcome they actually
3:16want, it's very easy to get them to care
3:18about the stakes. Now, hook ingredient
3:20number three is speed. You need to
3:22deliver the subject and the stakes in as
3:24few words as possible. Now, this doesn't
3:26mean talking overly fast. If you rush
3:29the delivery and the brain can't absorb
3:31the words fast enough, an unabsorbed
3:32hook is just as bad as no hook. Think of
3:34speed like compression, not just
3:37velocity. And to help this make sense
3:39for why this is so important, the brain
3:41can only hold so many words as it tries
3:43to discern meaning in a sentence. Think
3:46of it like Pac-Man eating little dots.
3:48It can only eat so many dots before it's
3:50full. If your hook is eight words versus
3:5228, it's just way easier to remember all
3:55eight and contextually map the sentence.
3:57So, keep it short and keep it fast. Hook
3:59ingredient number four is super clear.
4:02It's very critical that the way you say
4:04your hook can only be interpreted one
4:06way. Simple words, no clever word play,
4:08no vague setups. Because here's the
4:10hardest part about hooks. If the viewer
4:12has to think for even half a second what
4:14you mean, that thumb is going right back
4:16down and they're swiping away. Because
4:17the reality is temporary confusion is
4:20not worth their time in a sea of
4:22stimulation. So, those are really the
4:23four hook ingredients laddering up to
4:25those two questions. And that is the
4:27nuts and bolts of interrupt theory. But
4:29now, here's the real sauce that you came
4:31to this video for. You're not really
4:33here for frameworks, you're here for
4:34specific tactical actions. What can you
4:37do specifically in your hooks to make
4:40that effect happen and so that thumb
4:42lifts off the screen every single time.
4:44That's what I'm about to go through
4:45right now. By the way, if you like how
4:47I'm explaining this, I put together my
4:48whole short form content system just
4:50like this. It's free. It covers not only
4:52hooks, but also ideas and monetization.
4:55The exact way I'm flowing views to
4:57dollars. It's free below
4:58shortformsytem.co or you can get it at
5:00the link in the bio. Now, if you've
5:01watched this channel before and you're
5:02one of the 750,000 people that have seen
5:04this hook training, you'll know that I'm
5:06very keen on this triple hook method. I
5:09kind of pioneered this idea that there
5:10are three different types of hook
5:12components that all combine together to
5:14make the hook. You have the text hook,
5:16which are the words on the screen, not
5:18the captions. You have the visual hook,
5:20which are all the visuals that are shown
5:22outside of what's said in the text. And
5:24then you have the spoken hook or the
5:26written hook. The actual hook that's
5:28performed verbally. You even have a
5:30fourth hook called the caption hook,
5:31which is the first line of the caption
5:33above the fold. We're not going to get
5:35into that in this video, but that does
5:36influence subliminally if someone sticks
5:38on the video or not. Now, all three of
5:40those main hooks, verbal, spoken, and
5:42text, are meant to combine together to
5:44interrupt the scroll, hijack their
5:46attention, and get them aimed on target
5:48at what we're about to talk about. So, I
5:50think the most helpful thing I could do
5:51for the rest of this video is go through
5:53each of those specific hook types in
5:55critical detail and break down exactly
5:58what and how you should make each of
6:00those. And a lot of this will be stuff
6:01I've never gone through in any of the
6:03videos I've made about hooks before. But
6:04before I go through the tactics, one
6:06very important principle. All three of
6:08those hooks, text, verbal, spoken, they
6:10must be aligned. If I watch the visual
6:12hook without the words or text hook, I
6:14should be able to guess approximately
6:17what those will be and vice versa. Does
6:19the visual support the text and what's
6:21being said? Does the text support what
6:24the visuals are and what's being said?
6:25Does the spoken hook support the visuals
6:27and the text? You could have the
6:29absolute best individual hook components
6:31in the world, but if they don't align,
6:33it will cause insane confusion for the
6:35viewer and they will scroll away. Of all
6:37the business owners that I work with
6:38one-on-one for content, this is the one
6:40thing that they just get wrong every
6:42time. They work on the spoken hook, but
6:44they don't align all three hooks and
6:46that's why their videos fail. All right,
6:48now let's go through each of those three
6:49hooks and all the tactics I have. I'm
6:51going to empty the bag, empty the clip,
6:53everything I have I'm going to put on
6:54the table right here. This is as
6:56detailed as I've ever gone on each of
6:58these. And I'll explain both the
6:59psychology and the tactics with
7:01examples. All right, the first component
7:03to master is the text hook. And when I
7:05say text hook, this is what I mean. Look
7:07at these examples and where it's
7:08highlighted. It's the text on screen
7:10that is not designed like the
7:12word-for-word captions. Now, text hooks,
7:15it turns out, are actually the most
7:16important hook component by far. Few
7:18people talk about this, but they matter
7:20the most because the viewers' eyes hunt
7:22for the text and can identify power
7:24phrases and keywords faster than they
7:27can visually comprehend the image. Now,
7:29sometimes the text hook is separate from
7:31the actual captions, like in Brier's
7:33example, Mav's example, and mine. You
7:36can see how we have the text hook at the
7:37top and then the captions are kind of
7:38smaller, more less conspicuous at the
7:40bottom. Other times, the text hook is
7:42the word for word spoken hook what's
7:44being said, but it's not designed like
7:46captions. You can see in Chloe's and
7:47Ava's example, they're kind of designing
7:49it with a more luxury font aesthetic,
7:52but it's exactly the words they're
7:53saying. So, it can be separate from what
7:55you're saying or it can be the exact
7:57word for word. It can be designed
7:58plainly like the system font like Briar
8:01and Mav's or it can be designed more
8:02aesthetically like Chloe's, Ava's and
8:04mine. The point is you have options on
8:06the placement, the aesthetics and the
8:08typography based on the signature style
8:10you want to build. Now, when it comes to
8:12the actual design of the text hook, the
8:14typography and the layout, I'm less
8:16prescriptive on it telling you exactly
8:18what's going to work every single time.
8:20I recommend you either use the plain
8:22system font either through CapCut or
8:24Reels like Briar and Mav do or something
8:26more luxury and premium with better
8:28typography. But either way, making it
8:30very clear to read both in the font and
8:33the sequencing is the most important
8:35thing. I would also recommend you place
8:36this at the top of the visual about a
8:38third down from the top or closer to the
8:41middle depending on how you've composed
8:43the frame. You want it to be wherever
8:45the eyes go quickest, but you don't want
8:47it to block anything. So, if your face
8:49is taking up most of the frame, put it
8:50above your head. Don't block your eyes
8:51or mouth. Now, typically what you see
8:53with text hooks, and I'm going all the
8:55way detailed here, is that when you use
8:57the system font, it's typically
8:58separated from the word for word
9:00captions. But if you use the premium, it
9:02can be the word for word caption. That's
9:04usually the delineation. You don't often
9:06see the system font, the basic text hook
9:09also as the thing someone's saying word
9:10for word cuz it's just too boring. It
9:12doesn't visually engage enough. Now, the
9:14easiest way to figure out how you want
9:15to design your text hook is to look at
9:17the top 15 to 20 creators in your space
9:20and just look across the landscape at
9:22what seems to be working best for them.
9:24You're not going to copy them, but
9:26you're just going to get a lay of the
9:27land so that you can remix aesthetically
9:29how you want to treat it. Now, you can
9:31just scroll on the feed and try to find
9:32these or you can do what I do, which is
9:34to use sandcastles.ai. First, I go into
9:36the channels tab and I build my list of
9:38all the competitive channels that I like
9:40to watch. Then, in the videos tab, I
9:42will go one by one, I'll click the
9:44channels filter and select one channel
9:46at a time. I'll go last three or six
9:49months and I'll sort by outlier score.
9:51One by one, I'll go to the channel and I
9:53will deep analyze their top two to three
9:55videos and I will press that little
9:57folder button on the bottom right of
9:58each card and I will save those into a
10:00project. I'll call the project best text
10:03hooks. And the reason I do this because
10:05when I go to projects and I've got those
10:0730 to 50 videos in there, I can just
10:08click into one and then use the right
10:11and left arrow keys to flip next, next,
10:13next, next, next and go across to
10:15quickly see all of the different text
10:17hooks. You There's really no way to
10:19curate the best hit videos quickly from
10:2230 to 50 different examples like this.
10:25So, that's what I would do to just get a
10:26sense of the lay of the land on the
10:27design and you can pick whatever you
10:29like best and remix accordingly. Now,
10:31much more important than the design of
10:32the title text is the copywriting. The
10:35actual words you're using for that text.
10:38And that's really what I want to double
10:39click on here. I want you to be
10:40bulletproof in terms of how to do this
10:42right now. I'm telling you,
10:43understanding this one thing, how to
10:45copyright on the title text, is the
10:48highest leverage lever you could pull in
10:50improving your content. All right, so
10:52here are some core tenants for how to
10:53approach writing the text hook. All
10:55right, now the first thing is what
10:56should the text hook actually include
10:57from a substance perspective? So, I like
10:59to include a subject repeater plus a
11:02pain point reminder, a desired outcome
11:05teaser, or some future state change. And
11:08I'll explain what those things are.
11:09Subject repeater is just the name of the
11:11core subject or the proper noun, the
11:13technical term, the actual jargon
11:15describing the name of the thing. Names
11:17and terms are like attention magnets for
11:19people, especially if you capitalize
11:21them, that's right where their eyes go.
11:22A pain point reminder is just reminding
11:24someone of the pain point that you're
11:26planning to solve in the video. So, for
11:28example, if you say to avoid hook
11:30mistakes, hook mistakes are the pain
11:32you're avoiding, so if you say that,
11:34it'll remind them of it. A dream outcome
11:36teaser is obviously teasing the dream
11:38outcome that you're going to solve in
11:39the video. So, this could be something
11:41like, "Make your hooks unskippable." The
11:43dream outcome is hooks that can't be
11:45skipped. A potential future state change
11:47is just indicating that something has
11:48happened in the field that will change
11:50the future of how it works. So, it could
11:53be something like, "New storytelling
11:54method for modern virality." Right? Some
11:57new method is changing how virality
11:59works in the future. So, you're going to
12:01pick the subject repeater and then one
12:03of those three options to combine. For
12:05example, this hook by Kat EBT, one of
12:07her most viral ever, is a subject
12:09repeater plus the pain point reminder.
12:12And she says, "People-pleasing." And
12:13that's why this did so well. It's both a
12:15subject, but it's also reminding of pain
12:17she's avoiding in that she's not going
12:19to go out of her way for the annoyance
12:20of people-pleasing. This one by Mad GPT
12:23is more of a subject repeater plus a
12:25desired outcome. So, he says, "Chat
12:27GPT," which is the subject, and then
12:28says, "will sell things for you." And
12:30that's a desired outcome by proxy,
12:32making money. Now, one more example,
12:33this one from me is an example of a
12:35subject repeater and a state change of
12:38the future. So, I say, "Claude just
12:40changed social media forever." implying
12:42that something happened with Claude that
12:43will change how you do the future of
12:46content or marketing. So, these are kind
12:47of three examples of the actual
12:49substance. Now, ideally, you want
12:51whatever you write in the text to have
12:53some curiosity baked in. And all that
12:55means is that it includes teasing an
12:57outcome, a pain point, or a desire.
12:59Curiosity really just comes from some
13:00knowledge gap. What you know today, the
13:03outcome you want tomorrow, the gap to
13:05fill it is curiosity-inducing. I want to
13:07fill the gap, so I'm curious to hear
13:09more. Now, here are a few other
13:11rapid-fire tips on the text hook front.
13:13These are pretty granular, but I find
13:14these to be pretty helpful and
13:16impactful. Number one, you want to use
13:18specificity as much as you can. So,
13:20specific numbers like 22 days is better
13:23than a few weeks. Specific dollars like
13:25$2,700 is better than a few thousand. I
13:29made $97,000 in 13 days on Instagram is
13:32much better than I made several thousand
13:34dollars in a few weeks. Number two, when
13:37you're framing pain points or desired
13:39outcomes in the text hook, you want to
13:40use power words and power phrases as
13:42much as possible. I'll talk about this
13:44more in a minute, but power words or
13:46power phrases are like one to three word
13:48bundles of words that are heat-seeking
13:51missiles for attention. Like that right
13:53there, heat-seeking missiles, that's a
13:55power word. I could have just said,
13:56"They're really good for attention," but
13:58it doesn't have the same bravado.
13:59Heat-seeking missiles attracts your eye
14:02in a way because it's atypical, but
14:04amplifies whatever message you're
14:06saying. The beauty of power words is
14:08that they allow you to compress your
14:09phrasing all the way down from a full
14:12sentence to just two to three words, but
14:14it has the same effect. Tip number
14:16three, your title text should never be
14:17more than two lines on the screen. If
14:19you're using the raw system font, like
14:21the Brier and Mav example, two lines
14:24absolute hard cut off, no way you're
14:25going to three lines. The line break for
14:28where you cut off lines one and two
14:30should be intuitive based on the way you
14:32would read the phrasing of the sentence.
14:34So, if you were to read this sentence on
14:35a text hook, "ChatGPT just pioneered the
14:38future of work." The future of work is a
14:40phrase that you read together. It's not
14:42one word, but it feels like a combined
14:44phrase. So, that means the break point
14:46should look like this, "ChatGPT just
14:47pioneered next line the future of work."
14:50You wouldn't do it like, "ChatGPT just
14:52pioneered the future of work." That
14:54doesn't make sense. The future of work
14:56all goes together. So, the break point
14:57needs to be where the phrasing reads
14:59naturally. Now, if you do premium
15:01typography on the title text, you can
15:03get away with three lines. You'll see a
15:05couple examples of Ava's as well as
15:07Chloe's, but you can tell one line is
15:09heavily emphasized with big font, the
15:11other ones are more accent. You can't
15:13have all three lines with equal
15:15typography sizing or they can't read it.
15:17Rule number four, never include
15:19punctuation in title text other than
15:21quotation marks or parentheses. Rule
15:23number five, never include compound or
15:25transition words and or that, but,
15:28therefore. Don't include those. You're
15:30not writing a sentence. You're trying to
15:32write punchy trigger power words that
15:34will get someone to buy in and
15:35understand quickly what you're talking
15:37about. Now, if you want to easier way to
15:38come up with these, we already talked
15:39about the design using the Sandcastle's
15:41project, but you can also use that same
15:42project for the substance. Take all the
15:4530 to 50 that you curated, write down
15:47the actual title text, feed it into
15:49Claude, have it find the pattern and
15:51then build a skill so that anytime you
15:53feed in a topic, it will give you three
15:55to five title text examples using the
15:57winners that it already diagnosed. And
16:00the last thing about title text is the
16:01timing. You want to leave it on the
16:03screen long enough so that the viewer
16:05can actually read it. Typically,
16:06someone's going to start the video,
16:08they're going to look into your eyes if
16:09you're in the middle, they're going to
16:10look up, they're going to try to read
16:11the title text, they're going to see a
16:12few power words, look down, get a full
16:15comprehensive of the visuals, look back
16:17up, maybe read again, and then decide,
16:20should I keep watching? You got to leave
16:22the title text on the screen long enough
16:23for that to happen. It's about 3 seconds
16:25or so. If you cut it before 3 seconds,
16:28it loses its effect. Now, the second
16:29component that matters is the spoken
16:31hook. This is what you say out loud.
16:32It's also what you write down. When
16:34people refer to hooks, typically,
16:36they're just referring to the spoken
16:37hook. Now, there are two main components
16:39of a spoken hook. You've got the hook
16:41format and you've got the power words.
16:44And when you hear hooks, you may have
16:45thought of the formats before, but you
16:46probably haven't thought in the terms of
16:48power words. And I'm going to explain
16:50how I mine for power words in a second.
16:52It's very useful. All right, now, hook
16:53formats are just the grammatical
16:55structure of how the sentence is
16:57sequenced and laid out. There are about
16:59a dozen different hook formats that we
17:01typically see outperform for short-form
17:03video. Things like question hook,
17:05tutorial hook, problem-solution hook,
17:08things like that. Now, within each hook
17:09format, there are hundreds of different
17:11tiny little combinations and
17:13possibilities for how people have
17:14constructed hook format sentences. Now,
17:17I'm going to give you a framework for
17:18how to think about this, but let me just
17:20show you how you find the best hook
17:22formats and remix them accordingly. In
17:24Sand Castles, we now have a new feature
17:26called dashboard. This just rolled out.
17:28It's the sickest thing we've ever
17:29launched. If you scroll down to the
17:30bottom half of the dashboard, you'll see
17:32the content strategist section. What
17:34we've done is automatically deep
17:36analyzed up to 50 of your last videos
17:38and based on the performance, we have
17:40parsed out the top performing topics,
17:43hooks, formats, and script writing tips
17:46or techniques that seem to work well for
17:47you. So, if we click into my hooks on my
17:50Cali marketing dashboard, we can see
17:51that my best performing hook types are
17:53tutorial, secret reveal breakdown, and
17:56problem. Now, when you click into each
17:58of those, Sand Castles will tell you
18:00exactly what is and isn't working for
18:02those types of hooks. It will link all
18:04the videos you've made that tie back to
18:05those hooks. It will also list the exact
18:07word for word hooks, the best performing
18:09ones at the bottom. So, this is super
18:10helpful to kind of point your attention
18:12into what types of hooks are working
18:15best for you with your own videos. But,
18:17this is only half the equation. Because
18:19knowing the hook type is helpful, but
18:21how do we actually see other literal
18:23hook formats in that type that we can
18:25model after? In Sand Castles, if you now
18:27go to the hook tab, you will see all the
18:29individual hooks from the videos you've
18:31deep analyzed across your channel and
18:33any of your competitors, all in one
18:35place. And remember, if you want to deep
18:37analyze and get a hook in here, all you
18:38have to do in the videos tab is just
18:39press the analyze button. It'll
18:41immediately extract the hook and put it
18:42in the hooks tab. So, what I like to do
18:44is deep analyze all of the top videos
18:47from my competitors over the last 3
18:48months as well as my own so that I have
18:51everything in this one hook tab, all the
18:53best hooks. I then click the hooks tab,
18:55I sort by views, and I've got every hook
18:58from me and all my competitors in order
19:00based on performance right here. Now, I
19:02can scan this or I can just export this
19:04data and drop it into Claude and Chat
19:06GPT and have a conversation with it,
19:07have it run deep analysis. I can do
19:09anything with this data. Now, if you
19:11want to understand which hook formats
19:12are working, you want to make sure that
19:13toggle that says show formats is on.
19:16Then you'll see all the hooks in a
19:17format sense. So you can plug in
19:19different variables and see the actual
19:21grammatical structure of the hooks. If
19:23you look to the right, you can also see
19:24which hook types they correspond to. So
19:26if I know tutorial hooks are working
19:27best, what I want to do is see all the
19:29top tutorial hooks from any competitor
19:31in my niche and then start using those
19:33as options as I remix new videos. Now
19:35this format remixing, I'll say is level
19:38one of hook maxing. It's really like the
19:40preliminary level of hook writing.
19:42Pretty basic, right? You find out what
19:44hooks are working, you extract the
19:46variables out to find the format and you
19:47remix. Everybody talks about this. This
19:49is level one. Let me put you on to level
19:51two. This is where the power words
19:53really come into play. In addition to
19:54the hook formats, what you're really
19:56looking for if you want to write new
19:58hooks that crush a lot are power words.
20:00Now power words, like we said before,
20:02are just phrases or clusters of words
20:04that amplify the outcome or the pain
20:06point. So this is how I find them. I'm
20:08on that hooks tab and I just search for
20:10my channel or specific channel in the
20:12search and I flip that toggle from show
20:15formats to show original so I can see
20:17the word-for-word hooks in order from my
20:19channel. So to do this on my channel, I
20:21just type in Callaway Marketing and then
20:23all the hooks that are there are just
20:24from my videos that I've analyzed. Then
20:26what I do is I start scanning the list
20:28top down looking for these power
20:30phrases. So if I look at the very first
20:31one, the best performer, the spoken hook
20:33was this is how you turn Claude into a
20:35social media machine. Social media
20:37machine is a power phrase. If you're in
20:40another niche, you could take that to
20:41say email marketing machine, LinkedIn
20:43machine, YouTube machine, sales machine.
20:46The word machine has extra juice on it.
20:49All right, let's look at the next hook.
20:50Here's how to plan your next 30 days of
20:52content in 30 minutes. Now there aren't
20:54really any power words in this one, but
20:56the format, here's how to do X bigger
20:58task in Y shorter time, is a winning
21:01hook format that you could adapt in
21:03another niche. Let's look at the next
21:04one. Here's how to write a hook so good
21:06it is scientifically impossible to skip.
21:08Scientifically impossible to skip is a
21:10power phrase. And if you look one more
21:12down, there it is again. Scientifically
21:14impossible to skip. So, two out of my
21:16top four best videos have this power
21:18phrase, scientifically impossible to
21:19skip. All of a sudden, you have double
21:21validation of this phrase that is a
21:23guaranteed banger. Something about the
21:25psychology of that phrase causes a lot
21:27of viewers to engage in a positive way.
21:30Now, the lazy creators will just try to
21:32rip this phrase. Literally, a bunch of
21:33people will just say scientifically
21:35impossible to skip over and over now
21:36that I've said this. But, the real best
21:37creators, what the real best creators
21:39do, they remix off that phrase. So, how
21:42else could you frame that and keep the
21:44psychology the same but twist the words?
21:46You could say, scientifically impossible
21:48to ignore, neurochemically impossible to
21:51skip, psychologically impossible to
21:53resist, etc. You can just keep twisting
21:56and substituting words in to keep the
21:57same meaning but shift it slightly. This
22:00exercise is called remixing the power
22:02words. So, what you really want to do if
22:04you want to write new hooks that
22:05consistently crush, is you want to find
22:07formats and twist them, find power words
22:10and twist them, and then combine the
22:11twisted versions together. And all of
22:13that, what I just described, is
22:15data-driven when you use Sandcasts
22:16because you have the social data proving
22:19the formats and the power words have
22:21worked before. Now, like I said, if you
22:23don't want to come up with these power
22:24words yourself or you don't really like
22:25the exercise of copywriting, you could
22:27just export all this hook data with the
22:29actual word for words, drop it into
22:31Claude and say, "Hey, this is what a
22:32power word is. I want you to find all
22:34the power words, list them for me, and
22:36then remix them with five alternatives,
22:38and then mash them back together in the
22:39hook formats." You could do that as well
22:41and build a skill to do that.
22:43Personally, I kind of enjoyed the
22:44exercise of looking at the hooks and
22:45then trying to figure out new
22:47combinations of writing in a way that
22:49means the same thing but is amplified in
22:51a different way. But, what I just
22:53described is the sauce for how you write
22:55hooks that are new, but they're still
22:57data-backed. You're not copy-pasting
22:59what's already worked. That's corny and
23:00lame. What you're doing is taking what's
23:02worked, stripping out the core
23:04components, remixing them, and building
23:06a whole new thing. All right, last but
23:08not least, we have visual hooks. This is
23:10the third of the three hook components.
23:12And the reason I say visual hooks is the
23:14least important is because you can win
23:16big with just text hooks and spoken
23:18hooks if they're dialed in. And proof of
23:20that is all of the Yappers. The Yappers
23:22don't really do anything, they just sit
23:23in their bedroom and talk, but because
23:25their text hook and their spoken hooks
23:26are so dialed, it still works for them.
23:28Now, like I always say, a picture's
23:30worth a thousand words, worth a thousand
23:32pictures. So, if you can use videos and
23:33images in your visual hooks, it's going
23:36to add a lot more comprehension if you
23:37can align it with the text and spoken
23:39hooks. And there are five different
23:41categories of visual hooks that you can
23:43create. Number one is graphic and text
23:46overlays. So, this is when you put
23:48graphics or text on top of some base
23:50visual you already have. Number two is
23:52pattern interrupts or visual switching.
23:55This is when you switch the visuals from
23:56you to something else, essentially
23:58creating this stun gun effect. Number
24:00three is subject motion. This is where
24:01you physically move yourself as the
24:03subject in or out of the frame. Number
24:05four is visual effect or transition.
24:08This is where you put some visual effect
24:09on top of the footage to make something
24:11visual happen. And number five is visual
24:14selection. This is where you choose
24:15specific visuals to create some freeze
24:18effect. Now, the reality is there are so
24:20many different combinations within those
24:22five categories that again, it's kind of
24:24hard to codify a rule set for exactly
24:27what to do. In principle, you want some
24:29motion, and some color, some contrast
24:31visually, and you want whatever you do
24:33visually to be aligned, as I always say,
24:35with the text and the spoken hooks. But
24:37really, the easiest way if you're trying
24:38to get better at visual hooks
24:39specifically is just to watch a bunch of
24:41other examples from top creators, either
24:43in your niche or outside. So, to solve
24:46for this, I think this is the best
24:47resource. We built the collections tab
24:49in Sandcastle's, where we've got 105
24:51different collections of top videos. 47
24:54of them are just visual hooks. So,
24:56across those five buckets, 47 different
24:58collections, and within each collection,
25:00there's five to 10 video examples
25:02showing you how to execute. So, these
25:04are basically like the best swipe file
25:05you could have to look through and be
25:07like, "Oh, I kind of want to try a
25:08subject motion. What are my options?"
25:10Oh, I have 11 options. Oh, within those
25:1211, who's done what? And you kind of
25:13watch them and you say, "Oh, I want to
25:15try that." It's just a really helpful
25:16resource to go back to. Anyone who's a
25:18user of Sand Castle's gets access to the
25:20collections. That's at all plans. We're
25:21adding lots of new examples every single
25:23week. So, this is something where if you
25:25want to learn how to do visual hooks,
25:27it's the best resource out there. If
25:28you're trying to get the 80/20 on just
25:30how to try visual hooks, what I'd
25:32recommend is do one of these three
25:33things. Move your body in the frame like
25:35this. Move the visual in the frame like
25:38this. Or just move text on top or within
25:41the visual like this. Those are the
25:42three easiest ways to do it. Now, I will
25:44say visual hooks can come off a little
25:46bit gimmicky in the beginning if you
25:47don't really know what you're doing.
25:48Like people try to do these crazy
25:49things. You don't need to overdo it. I
25:51would focus most of your attention on
25:52text hooks and spoken hooks, and then
25:54just add something little. Some little
25:56move, a little lean in, some little like
25:58arm movement, pull your hair up,
26:00something like that. Doesn't have to be
26:01crazy. Just some visual switch or some
26:05adjustment visually to stun the viewer.
26:07I think that's all you need to do at the
26:08beginning. Over time, you can engineer
26:10more movement in if you need to, but you
26:12probably won't. All right. Now, before
26:13we end this video, for the people that
26:15are still watching and really students
26:17of the content game, I just wanted to
26:18put something in here, deep deep sauce
26:21out of the bag I haven't really covered
26:22before. Most of people will have churned
26:24by now. So, if you're sticking, this
26:25will be a bonus for you. When it comes
26:27to videos, most people focus on the
26:29hook. Obviously, that's what this is
26:30about, the first three to five seconds.
26:32But almost nobody talks about what comes
26:34right after the hook. Call it the next
26:37five to 10 seconds after. I call this
26:39the lock-in zone. And the reason I'm
26:41talking about this in this video is
26:43because the psychology of the lock-in
26:45zone, you could argue is actually more
26:47important than the psychology of the
26:49hook itself. If you think about it, the
26:51hook is just meant to interrupt the
26:53scroll, freeze the viewer, and get them
26:55to give you a chance at the video. But,
26:57the lock-in zone, the next two to four
26:59sentences, is really where you earn the
27:01viewers attention and get them to stay
27:03for the rest of it. This actually is the
27:05most important part of the script. If
27:06the hook's just the appetizer, this is
27:08really the thing that makes them stay
27:10for the whole meal. Now, there are many
27:12more permutations of what can work in
27:14the lock-in zone beyond just the few
27:16that work for hooks. So, it'd be too
27:18hard for me to map every combination for
27:20how to actually approach the lock-in
27:21zone. But, psychologically, there are
27:23only two things that happen during the
27:24lock-in zone, and this happens every
27:26time. Number one is confirming the hook
27:28claim, and number two is rapid trust
27:30evaluation. Just like on long-form
27:32YouTube, where you need to confirm the
27:34click from the title and thumbnail in
27:36the intro, in short-form, you need to
27:38confirm the hook in the lock-in zone.
27:41And this is just to help ensure the
27:43viewer they're not getting
27:43bait-and-switched. You didn't hook them
27:45on one topic and you're switching to
27:46something else. Now, secondly, and most
27:48importantly, is the rapid trust
27:50evaluation. And if there is one
27:52contrarian idea that I could hang my hat
27:54on when it comes to scriptwriting, it
27:56would be this. Given the current state
27:58of the internet with all these fake
27:59gurus, making a strong claim in the hook
28:01is not enough to get someone to lock in.
28:04They also have to trust that you as the
28:06messenger are not going to waste their
28:08time and will actually give them the
28:09outcome that you've promised. So, this
28:11lock-in zone, the two to four sentences
28:13right after the hook, is really like a
28:14trial run to see if they should stay for
28:17the rest of the video. So, your job as
28:19the creator during this phase, this
28:21extra part after the hook, is to earn
28:24their trust and get them to lock in.
28:26Now, there are four ways that you can
28:27get a viewer to lock in, and I'm going
28:29to go over these really quickly. These
28:30are kind of like the four elements. If
28:32you can manipulate these to be stronger,
28:34lock-in will happen more often. Number
28:36one is how you look. Simply put, the
28:39hotter you are, the more people will
28:41lock in. And it's not fair, it just is
28:43what it is. Girls and guys are thirsty
28:45on both sides of the aisle. The hotter
28:47the messenger, especially if it suits
28:49your credibility given the topic, the
28:51better. So, if you have the potential to
28:53be hot, you should. People don't really
28:55talk about this, but if you can get
28:57hotter in the videos, get hotter because
28:58this works to lock people in. Now, the
29:00second thing that gets people to lock in
29:02is increasing the quality of the
29:04packaging in your videos. And on
29:06long-form, packaging is title thumbnail,
29:07but short-form packaging means something
29:09different. When I say packaging, I mean
29:11the quality of the visuals, the set, the
29:14framing, the camera angles, the
29:16lighting, the audio quality, the
29:17visuals, it's everything that goes into
29:20the overall vibe and aesthetic, the
29:22production quality of the video. Now,
29:24don't think this means you have to have
29:25a crazy set in order to exude production
29:28quality. I think of someone like Jesse
29:29Jean, she's a yapper, she yaps in her
29:31house, she doesn't have a crazy set, but
29:33her videos exude quality. So, it's not
29:35about a crazy expensive set, but it's
29:37about a level of polish and care. And
29:39the reason why, just like the hot thing,
29:41is that if you have a high quality of
29:43packaging, it exudes that you care, and
29:46care equals trust. The third way to get
29:48someone to lock in is the relatability
29:50of the messenger. Specifically, how
29:52similar does the messenger of the
29:54content seem to the viewer? The
29:56demographics, the look, the vibe of the
29:58messenger is being assessed by the
29:59viewer to evaluate fit. People tend to
30:02trust others that seem like them or that
30:04seem like the character they expected
30:06faster than others. This is why Gen Z
30:08consumers of AI prefer a Gen Z creator.
30:11This is why if I'm going to pick an
30:12accounting creator, I want an old guy
30:13with glasses, a button-down shirt who
30:15writes on a yellow legal pad. This level
30:17of relatability plays a big factor in
30:19the lock-in period. Now, the fourth and
30:22last way you can get someone to lock in
30:23during this period, which is the most
30:24important by far, is proof. And I often
30:27call this the trust anchor. If you're
30:29making educational content, having
30:30concrete proof in this lock-in phase to
30:33prove that what you're claiming is true,
30:35whether it's a study, a case study, some
30:37third-party reference, some screenshot
30:40of proof, that helps a ton. If you look
30:43trustworthy, you have premium packaging,
30:45and you signal proof, you have a much
30:47higher chance during this lock-in phase
30:48of someone actually settling in and
30:50wanting to continue watching. And if you
30:52don't have any of these things, even if
30:53you have a good hook, it'll be hard to
30:55get them to lock in. All right, guys,
30:57that is all we've got for this video. I
30:59know it was a long one, but I wanted to
31:00go all the way down the rabbit hole as
31:02deep as I could on hooks for you. As you
31:04can tell, I'm trying my best to talk
31:06about the non-obvious stuff that just
31:07doesn't get covered that much in this
31:09space. to set the standard for you guys.
31:12So, if you're a business owner, if
31:13you're a pro creator, if you're someone
31:15who cares about content to grow your
31:16business, you can probably tell this
31:17will be the best channel that you could
31:18possibly watch. So, please make sure to
31:20comment, leave the chef, if you know,
31:22you know, subscribe, and just let me
31:24know what you want me to cover in a
31:26future video. All right, we will see you
31:28guys on the next one. Peace.

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