The Script Writing Formula That Made Me Millions — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00There is one scriptwriting formula that I
2. 0:02follow for every single video I create, and in the past two
3. 0:07years alone, the videos I've published on YouTube have helped
4. 0:10generate more than 1.8 million dollars in my business, and I'm
5. 0:14going to show you how. And by the way, if you're new here, I'm
6. 0:17Alex, award-winning marketer, copywriter, and founder of the
7. 0:20Copy Posse, where I teach over 400,000 rad humans how to turn
8. 0:24their words into dollars, monetize their message, and
9. 0:27build businesses they freaking love. And when you subscribe
10. 0:31below, you get to be one of them. I have recorded a lot, and
11. 0:35I mean a lot of videos over the last seven years. And here is
12. 0:38the part that surprises most people: talking on camera did
13. 0:42not come naturally to me at first. Don't believe me? Take a
14. 0:45look at my very first YouTube video. Topic for today is all
15. 0:50about writing. So as a copywriter, I get questions all
16. 0:54the time from people on what is it. Even now, I start and
17. 0:58restart videos over and over and over again, I have found the
18. 1:02most. And I use my hands like way too much, like way too much,
19. 1:19and I hate the way my voice sounds when I listen to my
20. 1:23content, especially my earlier videos. Hey guys, what's up?
21. 1:26It's Alex, and welcome to my next episode today. Yeah, and I
22. 1:30still feel like a deer in the headlights every single time I
23. 1:34push record. Yes, really, and yes, I have still generated over
24. 1:4015 million views on YouTube, over 10 million views on
25. 1:43Instagram, hundreds of 1000s of subscribers and followers across
26. 1:47my social platforms, and millions of dollars in sales.
27. 1:51Because despite what you may think, because despite what you
28. 1:54may think, being successful with video has nothing to do with
29. 1:57your natural ability to be charismatic, fancy equipment, or
30. 2:01being able to yap on command-it all comes down to one thing and
31. 2:06one thing only: the script. Great videos are not lucky; they
32. 2:10are scripted. You might also be surprised to find out that
33. 2:14almost every single video I create is scripted. Yeah, my
34. 2:18YouTube videos, just like this one, are scripted. My short form
35. 2:21videos on social media, like this one, are scripted. My
36. 2:24webinars, masterclasses, and live workshops are scripted, and
37. 2:28my sales videos are scripted. Now, that's not because I'm fake
38. 2:31or salesy or I don't know what to say. The problem is I have
39. 2:35too much to say, and I tend to um ramble. Yeah, that's the
40. 2:40word. Power to the people who are great at making a concise
41. 2:44point on command. Listen, I am not one of those people.
42. 2:47Scripting is how I make sure I communicate my ideas clearly and
43. 2:52actually get to the freaking point. And scripting my videos
44. 2:56helps me feel more natural and confident on camera because I
45. 2:59know what I want to say. And maybe like you, I process my
46. 3:02thoughts through writing first. After writing 1000s of scripts,
47. 3:06studying hundreds of videos, and spending literal years obsessing
48. 3:10over why one video takes off while another one completely
49. 3:14flops, I've discovered that there are four elements behind
50. 3:17virtually every successful video that you see online. I call
51. 3:21these the four forces of video persuasion. And once you
52. 3:25understand these four forces, your content creation process
53. 3:28becomes a million times easier because you're taking the
54. 3:31guesswork out of it. You are writing a script that works.
55. 3:34Then you just need to sit down and actually read the script.
56. 3:36And yes, confidence on camera comes with practice, and it gets
57. 3:40better over time. This is a learned skill, but like I said,
58. 3:43I didn't start here. So whether you want to create better videos
59. 3:47for your own business and social media profiles, or you're
60. 3:50writing scripts for your clients, in this video I'm going
61. 3:52to show you how to write video scripts that get, keep, and
62. 3:55convert attention. So let's dive in and make sure you pay
63. 3:59especially close attention to force number four because it's
64. 4:03one that almost all creators forget about, and it's the one
65. 4:05that actually turns views into results. Okay, so the first
66. 4:09force of video persuasion is attention. Obviously, right?
67. 4:13This is the hook of your video; those first few seconds or five
68. 4:17to 10 words that determine whether someone thinks, "Ooh, I
69. 4:20need to hear this, or meh, and they just keep on scrolling.
70. 4:24The bottom line is this: if you can't get someone's attention in
71. 4:26the first place, nothing else you say in the video even
72. 4:29matters. Like not even a little bit. It doesn't matter how
73. 4:32brilliant your advice is, or how life-changing your product or
74. 4:36service is, or even how much time you spent editing that
75. 4:39perfectly timed zoom in with a little ding sound effect, right?
76. 4:43If nobody stops to watch it, none of it matters. And that, my
77. 4:47friends, is why your hook is the most important sentence of your
78. 4:52entire script. Great hooks don't just tell people what the video
79. 4:56is about. Great hooks trigger an emotion, and they open a
80. 4:59question. In the viewer's mind, an information gap, if you will,
81. 5:03between what they know now and what they suddenly want to know
82. 5:07that they didn't even know they wanted to know a few seconds
83. 5:09ago. So let's rewind for just a sec and replay the very first
84. 5:14sentence of this video. There is one scriptwriting formula that I
85. 5:19follow for every single video I create, and in the past two
86. 5:24years alone, the videos I've published on YouTube have helped
87. 5:27generate more than 1.8 million dollars in my business, and I'm
88. 5:31going to show you how. Now, notice what I didn't do. I
89. 5:33didn't start the video by saying, "Hey guys, what's up?
90. 5:36It's Alex, and welcome back to my channel. Sure, that's what I
91. 5:39would have said without a script, but instead, I was very
92. 5:43intentional about the title and the hook of this video. It was
93. 5:47not an accident. In fact, my team and I spent a lot of time
94. 5:49on it. You clicked on a video about the script writing formula
95. 5:52that has made me millions. So of course, I opened the video by
96. 5:56immediately reinforcing the promise that you clicked for and
97. 5:59showing you proof of how powerful this formula has been
98. 6:02in my business in terms of cash in the bank. So here I am
99. 6:06strategically engineering attention, but here's where a
100. 6:09lot of people go wrong with video scripting. They stop
101. 6:12there. Remember, getting someone to stop scrolling does not mean
102. 6:15that you have earned their attention for your entire video.
103. 6:18Nope, you've only earned it maybe for like 123, seconds, and
104. 6:22you can lose it like that. So how do you turn those few
105. 6:26seconds into a few minutes? Well, that brings me to force
106. 6:29number two: retention. So a lot of creators think that the goal
107. 6:33of a hook is to get attention, and yes, it is. But like I said,
108. 6:36that is only half the job. The real goal here is to get and
109. 6:41keep attention, hook them and keep them hooked, because we
110. 6:45have all clicked on a video with a juicy title, and then five
111. 6:48seconds later thought, "What? This doesn't make any sense. I
112. 6:50do not care about this. And click or swipe, we are gone.
113. 6:53Right? This is where most video scripts completely fall apart.
114. 6:57Attention is not something you earn once. It is something you
115. 7:00have to keep earning again and again and again throughout an
116. 7:04entire video script, sentence by sentence. And one of the most
117. 7:07powerful ways to do this is with something called an open loop.
118. 7:11An open loop is essentially an unanswered question, a promise
119. 7:15that hasn't been fulfilled yet, an itch that needs to be
120. 7:18scratched, a tiny piece of information that your brain must
121. 7:23needs to resolve. Open loops are the entire reason you binge
122. 7:26watch eight episodes of a show in a single night. You have to
123. 7:29know what happens next. Great scripts, yes, just like great
124. 7:32Netflix shows, strategically sequence open loops so there is
125. 7:36always a reason to keep watching. You close one loop,
126. 7:40but before you do, you must open another, and you do this
127. 7:43throughout your entire video. So I actually call this an open
128. 7:47loop chain, and yes, you are in one right now. Can you feel it?
129. 7:52Remember what I told you at the beginning of the video. I told
130. 7:55you to pay especially close attention to the fourth force
131. 7:58because it is one that almost all creators forget about, and
132. 8:01the one that turns video views into actual results. Do you
133. 8:05remember how I told you that? Well, guess what? I haven't told
134. 8:08you what it is yet.
135. 8:09That loop is still open, which means whether you realize it or
136. 8:13not, there is still a tiny little unanswered question
137. 8:16niggling in your brain. Like, okay, Alex, what's number four?
138. 8:20I am strategically engineering retention throughout this
139. 8:23script, and it's something that you can and should do for every
140. 8:26single script you write for yourself or for your clients.
141. 8:30You can drop a hint of something that's coming later. You can ask
142. 8:33a question that you don't immediately answer. You can
143. 8:36create a cliffhanger or bridge one idea to another, leaving
144. 8:40something unresolved. But there is a catch because you can have
145. 8:43the greatest hook in the entire world, like the juiciest
146. 8:46attention-grabbing hook. You can use incredible open loops to
147. 8:50keep someone glued to your entire video. But if what you're
148. 8:53saying is actually just a bunch of like AI-generated garbage and
149. 8:57not actually worth listening to, none of these tricks are going
150. 9:00to save you, and that brings me to arguably the most important
151. 9:04currency in online marketing right now. Force number three is
152. 9:08trust, and I honestly think this is where a lot of marketing
153. 9:11advice gets it completely wrong. People don't buy from you simply
154. 9:14because they want what you're selling. I mean, yes, of course
155. 9:17they want what you're selling, but there are most definitely
156. 9:19dozens, maybe even hundreds or 1000s of other people out there
157. 9:23selling the exact same thing that you are. People buy from
158. 9:27you because they trust you, and video gives you an incredible
159. 9:31opportunity to build that trust. Here's what's changed: We are
160. 9:35living through the information apocalypse. Thanks to AI,
161. 9:38everyone has access to basically the same generic information,
162. 9:42and it's free. You can get it in literally 10 seconds flat. Hey,
163. 9:45you want 10 tips for writing a better headline? Well, ChatGPT
164. 9:48can give you 100. You want to know how to grow tomatoes? Plan
165. 9:52a trip to Italy? Write an email. Create a morning routine. What
166. 9:55about a meal plan? AI can literally create an entire meal
167. 9:59plan for you. Taking into account the exact contents of
168. 10:01your fridge and pantry, and staying within your macros, it's
169. 10:05amazing, right? Information alone is no longer scarce. But
170. 10:09do you know what is becoming incredibly scarce? Trust. People
171. 10:12are not just looking for information anymore. They are
172. 10:15looking for someone who can take that information, right? That
173. 10:18sea of information that's out there, and then, make that
174. 10:21information make sense for them. Someone who can relate to them
175. 10:25and their experiences, share results and proof and real life
176. 10:29stories. That is what builds trust. Someone who can
177. 10:32communicate ideas in a way that's actually enjoyable to
178. 10:35consume. And that's exactly why when I started my own business,
179. 10:39I chose to do it through video right here on YouTube. When I
180. 10:42started my YouTube channel, I had no experience in front of
181. 10:46the camera. I was not naturally good at this. I was a writer who
182. 10:50had literally never created a piece of video content in my
183. 10:52life. But I did have over a decade of experience writing
184. 10:55copy that hooked attention and converted readers into paying
185. 10:59customers. So all I did was I took what I already knew about
186. 11:02attention and persuasion and human psychology, and I applied
187. 11:06it to writing video scripts. Got myself a teleprompter, and boom!
188. 11:10Over the last seven years, I have created nearly 2000 videos
189. 11:13across all of my social media platforms. I built a
190. 11:16multi-million-dollar business centered around video content,
191. 11:20and in the past two years alone, my YouTube channel brought in
192. 11:23more than 36,000 leads and helped make $1.8 million in
193. 11:27revenue in my business. Did this happen because every single
194. 11:30person who watched one of my videos immediately went and
195. 11:34bought something from me? Absolutely not. If only it
196. 11:38worked that way, right? But every single video gave me time
197. 11:41with my audience, time to teach, time to tell stories, time to
198. 11:45demonstrate my expertise, time to show people what I believe
199. 11:50in, and over time that builds trust into something so real and
200. 11:54so substantial you cannot argue with it. Now here's where things
201. 11:58get interesting because attention will get someone
202. 12:01through the door, right? It's like, all right, you got me
203. 12:03here. Retention is what keeps them in the room. Trust makes
204. 12:07them actually care about what you have to say, and then keep
205. 12:10watching and coming back. But none of those things
206. 12:13automatically convert.
207. 12:15And remember what I said earlier in this video: this final force
208. 12:18that I'm about to share with you is one that almost all creators
209. 12:21completely forget, which means they are putting all this work
210. 12:24into creating content, and then they are leaving the biggest
211. 12:28opportunity right there, sitting on the table. You never want
212. 12:31your viewer to finish your video and wonder, okay, now what? You
213. 12:35want every piece of content to naturally lead the viewer to a
214. 12:39next step. That might be to watch another video, to download
215. 12:43a resource, to join your email list, to buy a product, or even
216. 12:47just to follow for more. Right? Whatever makes sense for that
217. 12:50piece of content. It doesn't have to be a hard sell. But
218. 12:54here's the most important part: your call to action or your next
219. 12:57step should not feel like some random commercial that you like
220. 13:00slapped on to the end of the video. You want it to feel like
221. 13:03a natural continuation of what they just learned, so that when
222. 13:07you do say it, it feels easy breezy. And if you've done the
223. 13:10first three forces correctly, you shouldn't have to suddenly
224. 13:13switch into sales mode, right? The next step should just make
225. 13:17sense, and then you're just whoop, leaving it there for
226. 13:19them. It can be super quick, and you've done exactly what you're
227. 13:22supposed to do. So let me show you exactly what I mean, because
228. 13:24this entire video has been following the same scriptwriting
229. 13:27framework that I am teaching you right now. I know, pretty meta,
230. 13:31right? I got your attention with that 1.8 million dollar hook.
231. 13:35I've used open loops throughout this entire script to create
232. 13:38retention. I built trust by giving you real value, sharing
233. 13:41my experience, and showing how these principles work inside
234. 13:45this very video, it's like a real-time example. Which brings
235. 13:48me to force number four: direction. Right, this is
236. 13:52offering that clear next step for your viewer, and I'll show
237. 13:55you an example of exactly how to do this at the end of this video
238. 13:59because I may or may not have a very exciting next step for you,
239. 14:03so don't leave yet. Because knowing these forces is one
240. 14:06thing, but knowing exactly where and how to engineer them in your
241. 14:10video content is what separates the amateurs from the pros.
242. 14:14Like, how do you write a good hook that is proven to work?
243. 14:18Where do you find great hooks? How do you come up with them?
244. 14:20What do you do immediately after the hook? Like you have their
245. 14:23attention, then what? Right? How should you structure and place
246. 14:27open loops throughout your scripts? How do you
247. 14:29strategically structure a script so that you don't end up
248. 14:32rambling for like 27 minutes? And how do you transition into a
249. 14:37call to action so naturally that it feels like the obvious next
250. 14:41step instead of a hard sell. I got you. That is exactly why I
251. 14:45created Hooked, my video script writing program. Inside Hooked,
252. 14:49I'm going to give you the exact script writing system that I've
253. 14:52developed after seven plus years of creating video content. You
254. 14:56will learn the eight Hook formulas that I use time and
255. 14:59time again. Grab attention, the four open loop frameworks to
256. 15:03keep people watching, and then this is the best part. Most
257. 15:06importantly, you are going to get my exact step-by-step script
258. 15:11blueprints for my short-form video content, YouTube videos
259. 15:14like this, live webinars, and sales videos or VSLs. This is
260. 15:19literally my entire video script blueprint toolkit, where I break
261. 15:23down exactly what each script must include to get, keep, and
262. 15:27convert attention, and to make it even better, I even created a
263. 15:31bundle of Claude skills to help you analyze and craft video
264. 15:35scripts that work, trained on these blueprints, which means
265. 15:38more views, more trust, more sales. You can click the link
266. 15:41below to join me inside Hooked, or scan this QR code, and I will
267. 15:46see you next week with a brand new video. Until then, I'm Alex.
268. 15:49Ciao for now. Before you go, if you like that video, make sure
269. 15:52to check out this one next. Ever wonder why you can be scrolling
270. 15:56on Instagram, stumble across some rando on the internet
271. 15:59saying something like, "I tried this weird trick, and then
272. 16:03before you know it, you're like 14 minutes deep into your third
273. 16:07YouTube video by this person that you've literally.