Transcription
Today we're talking about hooks. If you want your videos to perform better, you have to focus on leveling up your hooks. There's just no way around it.
But here's the truth. To make your hooks better, you don't need a fancy formula. You don't even need to be that good of a writer. All you need to know are six power words. If you can understand these six words and why they work so well to stop the scroll, you can essentially become a master of content psychology overnight.
So, in this video, I'm going to break down the only six words you need to know to hook any viewer in any niche. I'll go through examples, explain why they work, and pretty much just give you the playbook for writing better hooks. By the way, I'm Callaway. I have a million followers. I've done billions of views, and content is all I do all day long.
All right, let's go through the six hook power words, and this is really all you need in terms of building blocks to make hooks that actually work. The first word is called the subject clarity word. And specifically, this applies to the subject that matters for the video. It could be you, it could be we, it could be that AI company over there. When we were all in first grade, we learned the way to write sentences is subject predicate. This is the subject. For example, let's say we had a hook that said this. If I had to grow from zero to 100K subs on YouTube, here's how I would do it. Let's say that was the hook. And we're breaking these down. The subject clarity word in that hook is I. I'm basically putting myself in the seat as the subject and the viewer is seeing me and trying to replicate the action that I'm talking about. Okay, so that's the first word of six. The hook clearly has to define a subject.
The second word is the action word and this represents the action that the subject took to create whatever outcome or endstate change they were looking for. So again with that same example that I gave about growing from zero to 100K on YouTube if I the subject had to grow the action. All great hooks have some subject doing some action.
All right. Now the third key hook power word is very important and this is the objective or state change word and this really corresponds to the end result that the subject took the action to get. Now the more shocking this result, the more shocking this outcome or state change, the better. But regardless you need some result. So in our example, the YouTube growth, 0 to 100K on YouTube, the objective or endstate phrase is 0 to 100K subs on YouTube. That is the objective or outcome or end state that we're looking for. I, the subject, need to grow an action from 0 to 100K subs on YouTube, the objective. Okay. So, so far we've covered the top three words. Subject clarity word, action word, and then objective or end state word.
The fourth word is the contrast word. The contrast word is comparing the new outcome, the objective we just accomplished versus the base state. It is meant to intensify the curiosity going from A to B. So in our example, in this case, the contrast word also happens to be 0 to 100K subs. The base state was zero. The end state is 100K. We went from 0 to 100K. That is the contrast. Okay, so these are the four main hook power words.
Now, the last two are optional and they do really help ratchet up curiosity where they make sense. The fifth word is the proof word. And again, this is optional, but it helps qualify why the viewer should care about your perspective, if that matters in the type of story you're telling. For entertainment content, you rarely need proof. But for education content, you do need proof very often. So, in our example that I just went through, if I had to grow from zero to 100K subs on YouTube, here's how I'd do it. In that example, I didn't have a proof word in that hook. Now, if I wanted to add a proof word, it's very simple. I just add one word, the word again. If I had to grow from zero to 100k subs on YouTube again, here's how I would do it. All of a sudden, again, is proof that I've done it before. Now, saying grow from zero to 100K and you look down and see that I have, the proof is implied, but if you want to explicitly state it, you can use a word to intensify the clarity that I've done it already.
Now, the sixth and final word, and again, this one's optional, too, is called the time word. Now, the time word adds a time constraint or a time component that again helps map urgency or speed to effectiveness to make what you're saying more desirable to hear. So, for example, again, in the example we've been working through, I didn't really have a time parameter. However, I could very easily add one. If I did add one, it would work like this. If I had to grow from 0 to 100K subs on YouTube in 5 months, here's how I would do it. Or, if I had to grow from zero to 100K subs on YouTube, here's how I would do it in the next 90 days. You could do it either way for this example. Adding that little time modifier helps increase the intensity of the speed to effectiveness, which increases curiosity.
Okay, so those really are the six power words, the core components to every great hook. You've got the four main ones. Subject clarity word, action word, objective or endstate word, and contrast word. And then you have the two optional ones, the proof word, and the time word. And obviously, you can tell by now these can be single words or phrases, but it's easy to think of them as like chunks or pieces that you stack together.
All right, now let's go through four tactical examples of real hooks that performed really well. And I'm going to show you and highlight where in the hook each of these components live so you can see a couple different combinations of using these words. The first example we have is from one of my videos and then we're going to go through three other creators that are not me in different niches so you can see different flavors.
All right, so to find the best performing hooks from these creators, which is what we want here, I go to sandcastles.ai. I go to the videos tab. I go to the channel filter where you can search for any channel. I'm going to search for Cali. I'm going to do myself first. Search for Callaway. Find my Instagram account, which will show up in the drop down. You click that. This shows all the videos on my channel in one place. Then I'm going to filter out brand deals. So I'm going to go to the engagement rate filter. The minimum bound I'm going to go 0.5%. So there's no 0% engagement videos. And then I'm going to go up to the sort two arrows at the top and I'm going to sort by most viewed. So this is the videos I've made forever on my channel without brand deals included in order from most viewed to least. I'm just going to pick the third one and then we'll analyze this one.
Okay. So, this video got 15 million views. It's about this thing called life-size floor plans. You go into a warehouse, they project your step forep, square foot by square foot floor plan of your house. You can walk through it and like mess around with furniture. Pretty cool concept. So, let's play this video and you can hear the hook. Check this out. These are called life-size floor plans. You can literally walk through your exact home design before you build it.
All right, so that was the hook. Ignore the little check this out. I was just testing something there. So, really the hook is these are called life-size floor plans. You can literally walk through your exact home design before you build it. That was essentially the hook. Two-line hook. All right. Now, this video is more tech entertainment. So, I am not the subject. There's really two. One is life-size floor plans. The entity. These are called life-size floor plans. That's the subject we're talking about. But really, the subject is you. You can walk through your home design, right? So, I would basically highlight life-size floor plans and you as the subject words. Now, the action word was can literally walk through. You can walk through, right? you subject are taking this action. Now the objective or endstate words in this case is being able to see your own home design before you build it and actually walk through it immersively. So technically it could be any part of that phrase. This allows you to walk through your exact home design before you build it. It could be any part of that phrase. We'll just highlight a piece of it. Now the contrast word is also there as well before you build it. The base state is you can't see the designs until after you build it. The new state is you can with this warehouse life-size floor plan technology. You can before before and after that's the contrast. So here the same phrase is serving as the objective and end state as well as the contrast and that's what you see very often. If you're good at kind of writing this in a tight way you're going to use similar contrasting words that work for the objective or end state piece as well. Now for this video I obviously didn't include proof because it didn't really make sense in this context but I do have a pretty subtle time word right before you build it. I'm emphasizing the time you have to do it after normally. Now it's before. So you could make the claim that that is or isn't a time word, but I think it counts for kind of increasing the urgency that makes sense for the buyer. And so there's the first example of how I incorporated the four core power words plus debatably you could include the time word as well.
All right, let's do another example. Take this video from my friend Ava. She goes by @personalbrandlaunch on Instagram and Tik Tok. So to get her best videos, go to Sandcastles, go to the channel filter, delete my name, type in personal brand launch. That's her name. You can see them come up. Click on her Instagram. For this one, let's add in the last 12 months into the posted date. So, now we've got a grid of all of her videos in order by outlier score from the last 12 months without any brand deals. That's right there. Let's just click on the second one again and go through that.
All right, so this video got 2.3 million views. It was a 53x outlier. Absolute banger for her. Let's watch the first couple lines here. >> This is a shock value hook. >> This is why you should always wash your bread before eating it. >> Okay, so in this video, she goes, "This was a shock value hook." And then she plays the shock value hook example where in that one the guy goes, "This is why you should always wash your bread before eating it." Now, this example was a bit sneaky. Ava is doing something very savvy here, right? So her hook, this is a shock value hook is not really the hook. The real hook is her going on top of the video that was already validated. This is why you should always wash your bread before eating it. That video got 66 million views or whatever it is. She's using that as her own hook. So when we analyze this, we look past her first line and we go to the real hook, which is the first hook she played. So let's analyze that line. This is why you should always wash your bread before eating it. Now the subject in this video is you. This is why you should take some action. The action word is should always wash your bread. You should always wash your bread. Now the objective or endstate word here is washed bread. And it's kind of implied, right? They don't say you should always wash your bread. So you have washed bread before eating it. That would be redundant. So they delete the actual specific explicit objective word, but it's very well implied. You're going to wash your bread and you will have washed bread. So that's kind of the objective here they're going for. Now the contrast word here is kind of before eating it, but really it's washed. The base state is you don't wash your bread. The new reality that they're suggesting is you do wash your bread. No wash, wash. So it's like you wash it before eating it. That kind of combination is really where the contrast is. Now, this type of video doesn't need a time word or a proof word in the first sentence. However, the next sentence very well could be, "I'm a professional baker that's been doing this for 30 years." That would be proof, right? So, it doesn't show in the first line. And typically, that's why time and proof are optional because you can embed them in the second and third lines coming up if you need it.
All right, let's do two more quick examples. This next one is from Horoszi. Same thing. Go to sand castles, go to the channel filter, flip, search for Hormosi. Boom, we get it. Let's filter all his videos. Okay, let's pull the second one as well. Now, this video got 6.3 million views. Absolute banger from him as well. Let's watch the hook here. If you find a girl who believes in your dreams more than you do, who makes you want to be a better man, who's willing to work alongside you to get there, and is grateful for whatever you have right now today, no matter where you're at, just marry her.
All right. Now, this hook has all sorts of these component words in it. There's going to be highlights everywhere. I'll try to break down exactly what he did. Now, the subject word here is you. And mostly he's talking to men. So, if you like read the full hook or listen to the full hook, it's like if you find a girl that he's mostly talking to men. So, you proxy for men. The action word here is find a girl at the kind of beginning and then marry her. If you find a girl and then marry her, it's kind of separated, but those are the two actions. Now, the objective or endstate words are pretty much most of the remaining words. There's kind of a list of different objectives that if you find a girl that does these objectives, you want to marry her. That's kind of how it's set up. So, believe in your dreams, make you a better man, work alongside you, be grateful for where you're at. Like, those are the objectives you're looking for. Now, the contrast is embedded in some of these phrases. For example, if she believes in your dreams more than you do. The dreams are the base state. You believe in them X. She believes in them X plus Y. That's kind of the before and after. This one also has a time word in it as well where he says right now today. If you find a girl that does these things, right now today, you should marry her. This one doesn't have proof cuz proof doesn't make sense for this one.
All right. Now, the last example I want to go through is one from Cat GPT. And this is a different example than what we covered before. So again, last time you see it, go to the channel filter, switch, search for cat GBT. It's really that easy to find her top videos. Boom. You click it, we'll sort it, and then we'll click on this one. All right, this one got 2.9 million views and was a massive outlier as well. Let's listen to the hook. >> I think if we were smarter, we would listen to 13-year-olds more. I stud. >> Okay, so the hook is, if we were smarter, we would listen to 13-year-olds more. Now, this one is super simple, but it really crushes when you can analyze it with these power words. Now, the subject here is we. If we were smarter. It's the royal we. She's basically talking about her and then the collective of all the people that she represents or she is a proxy as a voice for. Now the action word here is actually a little bit after the objective. It's we would listen. So it really breaks down to if we subject were smarter objective we would listen action to 13-year-olds more. Now to 13year-olds more that's the contrast word because if you listen to the first part of the sentence if we were smarter we would listen. Typically you expect like older wiser you know smarter people. Instead she's saying the opposite. Not saying they're not old, wise, and smart, but like they're younger. So, it's not what you would expect, which creates that base state, new reality contrast. That's why her saying 13-year-olds was shocking and creates that contrast.
All right, so that was four good examples from four different creators in different niches breaking down different effective hooks. All four of them had the four core power words and then some of them had a combination of the two remaining words as well. Now, of course, the final question for you as the viewer after watching this playbook and starting to get your head around these six words is this. How do I actually write my own versions of these hooks on my topics using this framework with the six words?
Now, the truth is the actual words you're going to use are going to vary by topic, video to video. There's not like one set word you use for every hook every time. Here's some guidance to think about which words fit in the buckets, the six different buckets. For subject clarity, this one's pretty straightforward. It's going to either be I, we, you, or like some subject proper noun that you're talking about. For the action word, it's going to be some verb or some adverb that you're using to describe the action. For the objective, it's going to be some end state that you or the viewer would want the subject to end up with or on or resulting in. You want to make this as shocking and non-obvious as possible. But regardless, you have to have some objective or end state. Now, for the contrast, this is really about asking yourself what is the base state expectation that the viewer believes today? And then what new reality does this objective open up? And then how do we explicitly create that contrast with words? That's how you want to think about it. For proof, this is really easy. It's just about saying what you or the subject has done to qualify your take or their recommendation so that people trust it more. And then for time, think about adding some time parameter, months, days, minutes, seconds, something to add the intensity and the speed to result to increase that curiosity.
Now, if you're not a great writer, because I know a lot of people out there, they they get the formats and the strategy, but they're really not a great writer. Here's how to do this super fast. You want to do exactly what I just showed you to come up with those hooks for those four examples. There's a reason I did it that way. Go to sandcastles.ai. Go to the channels tab. Make a list of the top accounts or top creators in your niche. You know who they are. You scroll and you see who's doing a good job. Go find those profiles. Go put them into Sandcastles. Create a list in the channels tab. Go to the videos tab on the watch list filter. Click that. Select from your list. Now you've got all the best videos from all the accounts that you follow in your niche. Go up to sort, sort by outlier score and views. Use the filters to cut out videos that are too old. So if you want last 12 months, make it last 12 months. If you want last 3 months, go last 3 months. Make sure you're sorting by top views and top outlier score and filter out the ones you don't want. Now go one by one starting in the upper left and watch the videos. The transcript is right there for you. Copy the hook from the transcript. You can tell what it is. Take it to your paper. Look at that hook. Identify the word buckets, the power words that I just went through. Delete what they used and put in your topic, your subject, your action, your objective. You can twist the words around. You can switch the phrasing. Once you do this for 10, 20, 30 hooks a week in your niche, you will start to get a pattern. This is called copy work. When you write down the words that a good writer wrote, you start to get the rhythm and the flow and the phrasing in your own brain. This is called copy work. This is the easiest way to do it.
Now, if you have any questions on what I just went through, how to do the full thing, how to look at the power words, how to come up with the channel list, how to analyze them, drop a comment and I'll make sure to help you and answer those below. This should be everything you need to go from zero to crushing with hooks.
Last thing, guys, if you're a business owner and you want to improve your content, it's number one focus for you. You want to get more lead genen, you want to get more revenue into the business, I built a free community called Wavy World. 33,000 business owners, 65 other trainings just like this. It's free. I've got an invite link below if you guys want to join. All right, we will see you on the next video. Peace.