0:01 Today we're talking about hooks. If you
0:03 want your videos to perform better, you
0:06 have to focus on leveling up your hooks.
0:07 There's just no way around it. But
0:08 here's the truth. To make your hooks
0:11 better, you don't need a fancy formula.
0:12 You don't even need to be that good of a
0:15 writer. All you need to know are six
0:17 power words. If you can understand these
0:19 six words and why they work so well to
0:21 stop the scroll, you can essentially
0:23 become a master of content psychology
0:25 overnight. So, in this video, I'm going
0:27 to break down the only six words you
0:29 need to know to hook any viewer in any
0:31 niche. I'll go through examples, explain
0:33 why they work, and pretty much just give
0:35 you the playbook for writing better
0:36 hooks. By the way, I'm Callaway. I have
0:38 a million followers. I've done billions
0:40 of views, and content is all I do all
0:42 day long. All right, let's go through
0:44 the six hook power words, and this is
0:46 really all you need in terms of building
0:48 blocks to make hooks that actually work.
0:50 The first word is called the subject
0:51 clarity word. And specifically, this
0:54 applies to the subject that matters for
0:55 the video. It could be you, it could be
0:58 we, it could be that AI company over
0:59 there. When we were all in first grade,
1:01 we learned the way to write sentences is
1:03 subject predicate. This is the subject.
1:05 For example, let's say we had a hook
1:06 that said this. If I had to grow from
1:09 zero to 100K subs on YouTube, here's how
1:10 I would do it. Let's say that was the
1:12 hook. And we're breaking these down. The
1:14 subject clarity word in that hook is I.
1:16 I'm basically putting myself in the seat
1:18 as the subject and the viewer is seeing
1:20 me and trying to replicate the action
1:22 that I'm talking about. Okay, so that's
1:24 the first word of six. The hook clearly
1:26 has to define a subject. The second word
1:28 is the action word and this represents
1:31 the action that the subject took to
1:33 create whatever outcome or endstate
1:35 change they were looking for. So again
1:36 with that same example that I gave about
1:38 growing from zero to 100K on YouTube if
1:41 I the subject had to grow the action.
1:43 All great hooks have some subject doing
1:45 some action. All right. Now the third
1:48 key hook power word is very important
1:50 and this is the objective or state
1:52 change word and this really corresponds
1:55 to the end result that the subject took
1:57 the action to get. Now the more shocking
1:59 this result, the more shocking this
2:01 outcome or state change, the better. But
2:03 regardless you need some result. So in
2:05 our example, the YouTube growth, 0 to
2:07 100K on YouTube, the objective or
2:10 endstate phrase is 0 to 100K subs on
2:13 YouTube. That is the objective or
2:15 outcome or end state that we're looking
2:18 for. I, the subject, need to grow an
2:20 action from 0 to 100K subs on YouTube,
2:22 the objective. Okay. So, so far we've
2:24 covered the top three words. Subject
2:26 clarity word, action word, and then
2:28 objective or end state word. The fourth
2:31 word is the contrast word. The contrast
2:33 word is comparing the new outcome, the
2:35 objective we just accomplished versus
2:37 the base state. It is meant to intensify
2:40 the curiosity going from A to B. So in
2:42 our example, in this case, the contrast
2:45 word also happens to be 0 to 100K subs.
2:47 The base state was zero. The end state
2:50 is 100K. We went from 0 to 100K. That is
2:51 the contrast. Okay, so these are the
2:53 four main hook power words. Now, the
2:55 last two are optional and they do really
2:57 help ratchet up curiosity where they
2:59 make sense. The fifth word is the proof
3:01 word. And again, this is optional, but
3:03 it helps qualify why the viewer should
3:05 care about your perspective, if that
3:06 matters in the type of story you're
3:08 telling. For entertainment content, you
3:10 rarely need proof. But for education
3:11 content, you do need proof very often.
3:12 So, in our example that I just went
3:14 through, if I had to grow from zero to
3:16 100K subs on YouTube, here's how I'd do
3:18 it. In that example, I didn't have a
3:20 proof word in that hook. Now, if I
3:22 wanted to add a proof word, it's very
3:24 simple. I just add one word, the word
3:25 again. If I had to grow from zero to
3:28 100k subs on YouTube again, here's how I
3:30 would do it. All of a sudden, again, is
3:32 proof that I've done it before. Now,
3:35 saying grow from zero to 100K and you
3:37 look down and see that I have, the proof
3:38 is implied, but if you want to
3:40 explicitly state it, you can use a word
3:42 to intensify the clarity that I've done
3:44 it already. Now, the sixth and final
3:45 word, and again, this one's optional,
3:47 too, is called the time word. Now, the
3:50 time word adds a time constraint or a
3:52 time component that again helps map
3:54 urgency or speed to effectiveness to
3:56 make what you're saying more desirable
3:58 to hear. So, for example, again, in the
3:59 example we've been working through, I
4:01 didn't really have a time parameter.
4:03 However, I could very easily add one. If
4:05 I did add one, it would work like this.
4:07 If I had to grow from 0 to 100K subs on
4:09 YouTube in 5 months, here's how I would
4:12 do it. Or, if I had to grow from zero to
4:13 100K subs on YouTube, here's how I would
4:15 do it in the next 90 days. You could do
4:17 it either way for this example. Adding
4:20 that little time modifier helps increase
4:21 the intensity of the speed to
4:23 effectiveness, which increases
4:25 curiosity. Okay, so those really are the
4:27 six power words, the core components to
4:29 every great hook. You've got the four
4:31 main ones. Subject clarity word, action
4:33 word, objective or endstate word, and
4:35 contrast word. And then you have the two
4:36 optional ones, the proof word, and the
4:38 time word. And obviously, you can tell
4:39 by now these can be single words or
4:41 phrases, but it's easy to think of them
4:43 as like chunks or pieces that you stack
4:44 together. All right, now let's go
4:46 through four tactical examples of real
4:48 hooks that performed really well. And
4:50 I'm going to show you and highlight
4:51 where in the hook each of these
4:53 components live so you can see a couple
4:55 different combinations of using these
4:56 words. The first example we have is from
4:58 one of my videos and then we're going to
4:59 go through three other creators that are
5:01 not me in different niches so you can
5:02 see different flavors. All right, so to
5:03 find the best performing hooks from
5:05 these creators, which is what we want
5:07 here, I go to sandcastles.ai. I go to
5:09 the videos tab. I go to the channel
5:11 filter where you can search for any
5:12 channel. I'm going to search for Cali.
5:14 I'm going to do myself first. Search for
5:15 Callaway. Find my Instagram account,
5:17 which will show up in the drop down. You
5:19 click that. This shows all the videos on
5:21 my channel in one place. Then I'm going
5:23 to filter out brand deals. So I'm going
5:25 to go to the engagement rate filter. The
5:27 minimum bound I'm going to go 0.5%. So
5:29 there's no 0% engagement videos. And
5:31 then I'm going to go up to the sort two
5:32 arrows at the top and I'm going to sort
5:34 by most viewed. So this is the videos
5:36 I've made forever on my channel without
5:38 brand deals included in order from most
5:40 viewed to least. I'm just going to pick
5:41 the third one and then we'll analyze
5:42 this one. Okay. So, this video got 15
5:43 million views. It's about this thing
5:45 called life-size floor plans. You go
5:47 into a warehouse, they project your step
5:49 forep, square foot by square foot floor
5:50 plan of your house. You can walk through
5:52 it and like mess around with furniture.
5:54 Pretty cool concept. So, let's play this
5:55 video and you can hear the hook. Check
5:57 this out. These are called life-size
5:59 floor plans. You can literally walk
6:01 through your exact home design before
6:02 you build it. All right, so that was the
6:04 hook. Ignore the little check this out.
6:05 I was just testing something there. So,
6:07 really the hook is these are called
6:08 life-size floor plans. You can literally
6:11 walk through your exact home design
6:12 before you build it. That was
6:14 essentially the hook. Two-line hook. All
6:15 right. Now, this video is more tech
6:17 entertainment. So, I am not the subject.
6:19 There's really two. One is life-size
6:21 floor plans. The entity. These are
6:22 called life-size floor plans. That's the
6:24 subject we're talking about. But really,
6:26 the subject is you. You can walk through
6:27 your home design, right? So, I would
6:29 basically highlight life-size floor
6:31 plans and you as the subject words. Now,
6:33 the action word was can literally walk
6:36 through. You can walk through, right?
6:38 you subject are taking this action. Now
6:40 the objective or endstate words in this
6:42 case is being able to see your own home
6:44 design before you build it and actually
6:45 walk through it immersively. So
6:47 technically it could be any part of that
6:49 phrase. This allows you to walk through
6:51 your exact home design before you build
6:52 it. It could be any part of that phrase.
6:54 We'll just highlight a piece of it. Now
6:56 the contrast word is also there as well
6:58 before you build it. The base state is
7:00 you can't see the designs until after
7:02 you build it. The new state is you can
7:04 with this warehouse life-size floor plan
7:06 technology. You can before before and
7:09 after that's the contrast. So here the
7:11 same phrase is serving as the objective
7:13 and end state as well as the contrast
7:15 and that's what you see very often. If
7:17 you're good at kind of writing this in a
7:19 tight way you're going to use similar
7:21 contrasting words that work for the
7:22 objective or end state piece as well.
7:24 Now for this video I obviously didn't
7:26 include proof because it didn't really
7:28 make sense in this context but I do have
7:31 a pretty subtle time word right before
7:33 you build it. I'm emphasizing the time
7:34 you have to do it after normally. Now
7:36 it's before. So you could make the claim
7:38 that that is or isn't a time word, but I
7:40 think it counts for kind of increasing
7:42 the urgency that makes sense for the
7:43 buyer. And so there's the first example
7:45 of how I incorporated the four core
7:47 power words plus debatably you could
7:49 include the time word as well. All
7:50 right, let's do another example. Take
7:52 this video from my friend Ava. She goes
7:54 by @ personal brand launch on Instagram
7:56 and Tik Tok. So to get her best videos,
7:57 go to Sandcastles, go to the channel
7:59 filter, delete my name, type in personal
8:01 brand launch. That's her name. You can
8:02 see them come up. Click on her
8:04 Instagram. For this one, let's add in
8:07 the last 12 months into the posted date.
8:08 So, now we've got a grid of all of her
8:11 videos in order by outlier score from
8:12 the last 12 months without any brand
8:14 deals. That's right there. Let's just
8:15 click on the second one again and go
8:16 through that. All right, so this video
8:19 got 2.3 million views. It was a 53x
8:21 outlier. Absolute banger for her. Let's
8:23 watch the first couple lines here.
8:24 >> This is a shock value hook.
8:26 >> This is why you should always wash your
8:27 bread before eating it.
8:29 >> Okay, so in this video, she goes, "This
8:30 was a shock value hook." And then she
8:33 plays the shock value hook example where
8:35 in that one the guy goes, "This is why
8:37 you should always wash your bread before
8:38 eating it." Now, this example was a bit
8:40 sneaky. Ava is doing something very
8:42 savvy here, right? So her hook, this is
8:45 a shock value hook is not really the
8:47 hook. The real hook is her going on top
8:49 of the video that was already validated.
8:51 This is why you should always wash your
8:53 bread before eating it. That video got
8:54 66 million views or whatever it is.
8:57 She's using that as her own hook. So
8:59 when we analyze this, we look past her
9:01 first line and we go to the real hook,
9:03 which is the first hook she played. So
9:05 let's analyze that line. This is why you
9:06 should always wash your bread before
9:08 eating it. Now the subject in this video
9:11 is you. This is why you should take some
9:13 action. The action word is should always
9:15 wash your bread. You should always wash
9:17 your bread. Now the objective or
9:20 endstate word here is washed bread. And
9:22 it's kind of implied, right? They don't
9:23 say you should always wash your bread.
9:25 So you have washed bread before eating
9:26 it. That would be redundant. So they
9:29 delete the actual specific explicit
9:30 objective word, but it's very well
9:32 implied. You're going to wash your bread
9:34 and you will have washed bread. So
9:35 that's kind of the objective here
9:37 they're going for. Now the contrast word
9:39 here is kind of before eating it, but
9:41 really it's washed. The base state is
9:43 you don't wash your bread. The new
9:44 reality that they're suggesting is you
9:47 do wash your bread. No wash, wash. So
9:49 it's like you wash it before eating it.
9:50 That kind of combination is really where
9:52 the contrast is. Now, this type of video
9:54 doesn't need a time word or a proof word
9:55 in the first sentence. However, the next
9:57 sentence very well could be, "I'm a
9:59 professional baker that's been doing
10:00 this for 30 years." That would be proof,
10:02 right? So, it doesn't show in the first
10:04 line. And typically, that's why time and
10:05 proof are optional because you can embed
10:07 them in the second and third lines
10:08 coming up if you need it. All right,
10:10 let's do two more quick examples. This
10:12 next one is from Horoszi. Same thing. Go
10:13 to sand castles, go to the channel
10:15 filter, flip, search for Hormosi. Boom,
10:17 we get it. Let's filter all his videos.
10:19 Okay, let's pull the second one as well.
10:20 Now, this video got 6.3 million views.
10:22 Absolute banger from him as well. Let's
10:24 watch the hook here. If you find a girl
10:25 who believes in your dreams more than
10:27 you do, who makes you want to be a
10:29 better man, who's willing to work
10:31 alongside you to get there, and is
10:32 grateful for whatever you have right now
10:34 today, no matter where you're at, just
10:36 marry her. All right. Now, this hook has
10:38 all sorts of these component words in
10:39 it. There's going to be highlights
10:41 everywhere. I'll try to break down
10:42 exactly what he did. Now, the subject
10:44 word here is you. And mostly he's
10:45 talking to men. So, if you like read the
10:46 full hook or listen to the full hook,
10:49 it's like if you find a girl that he's
10:51 mostly talking to men. So, you proxy for
10:53 men. The action word here is find a girl
10:55 at the kind of beginning and then marry
10:57 her. If you find a girl and then marry
10:59 her, it's kind of separated, but those
11:00 are the two actions. Now, the objective
11:02 or endstate words are pretty much most
11:04 of the remaining words. There's kind of
11:07 a list of different objectives that if
11:08 you find a girl that does these
11:10 objectives, you want to marry her.
11:11 That's kind of how it's set up. So,
11:13 believe in your dreams, make you a
11:14 better man, work alongside you, be
11:15 grateful for where you're at. Like,
11:17 those are the objectives you're looking
11:19 for. Now, the contrast is embedded in
11:21 some of these phrases. For example, if
11:22 she believes in your dreams more than
11:24 you do. The dreams are the base state.
11:26 You believe in them X. She believes in
11:29 them X plus Y. That's kind of the before
11:31 and after. This one also has a time word
11:33 in it as well where he says right now
11:34 today. If you find a girl that does
11:36 these things, right now today, you
11:38 should marry her. This one doesn't have
11:39 proof cuz proof doesn't make sense for
11:40 this one. All right. Now, the last
11:42 example I want to go through is one from
11:44 Cat GPT. And this is a different example
11:46 than what we covered before. So again,
11:48 last time you see it, go to the channel
11:50 filter, switch, search for cat GBT. It's
11:51 really that easy to find her top videos.
11:53 Boom. You click it, we'll sort it, and
11:54 then we'll click on this one. All right,
11:55 this one got 2.9 million views and was a
11:57 massive outlier as well. Let's listen to
11:57 the hook.
11:59 >> I think if we were smarter, we would
12:01 listen to 13-year-olds more. I stud.
12:02 >> Okay, so the hook is, if we were
12:04 smarter, we would listen to 13-year-olds
12:06 more. Now, this one is super simple, but
12:08 it really crushes when you can analyze
12:10 it with these power words. Now, the
12:12 subject here is we. If we were smarter.
12:13 It's the royal we. She's basically
12:14 talking about her and then the
12:16 collective of all the people that she
12:19 represents or she is a proxy as a voice
12:20 for. Now the action word here is
12:22 actually a little bit after the
12:24 objective. It's we would listen. So it
12:26 really breaks down to if we subject were
12:29 smarter objective we would listen action
12:31 to 13-year-olds more. Now to 13year-olds
12:33 more that's the contrast word because if
12:34 you listen to the first part of the
12:36 sentence if we were smarter we would
12:38 listen. Typically you expect like older
12:40 wiser you know smarter people. Instead
12:41 she's saying the opposite. Not saying
12:43 they're not old, wise, and smart, but
12:44 like they're younger. So, it's not what
12:45 you would expect, which creates that
12:47 base state, new reality contrast. That's
12:49 why her saying 13-year-olds was shocking
12:51 and creates that contrast. All right, so
12:53 that was four good examples from four
12:55 different creators in different niches
12:57 breaking down different effective hooks.
12:59 All four of them had the four core power
13:01 words and then some of them had a
13:03 combination of the two remaining words
13:04 as well. Now, of course, the final
13:06 question for you as the viewer after
13:07 watching this playbook and starting to
13:09 get your head around these six words is
13:12 this. How do I actually write my own
13:15 versions of these hooks on my topics
13:17 using this framework with the six words?
13:19 Now, the truth is the actual words
13:20 you're going to use are going to vary by
13:22 topic, video to video. There's not like
13:24 one set word you use for every hook
13:26 every time. Here's some guidance to
13:28 think about which words fit in the
13:30 buckets, the six different buckets. For
13:32 subject clarity, this one's pretty
13:33 straightforward. It's going to either be
13:37 I, we, you, or like some subject proper
13:39 noun that you're talking about. For the
13:40 action word, it's going to be some verb
13:42 or some adverb that you're using to
13:44 describe the action. For the objective,
13:46 it's going to be some end state that you
13:48 or the viewer would want the subject to
13:51 end up with or on or resulting in. You
13:52 want to make this as shocking and
13:55 non-obvious as possible. But regardless,
13:56 you have to have some objective or end
13:58 state. Now, for the contrast, this is
14:00 really about asking yourself what is the
14:02 base state expectation that the viewer
14:04 believes today? And then what new
14:06 reality does this objective open up? And
14:08 then how do we explicitly create that
14:10 contrast with words? That's how you want
14:12 to think about it. For proof, this is
14:13 really easy. It's just about saying what
14:15 you or the subject has done to qualify
14:17 your take or their recommendation so
14:19 that people trust it more. And then for
14:21 time, think about adding some time
14:22 parameter, months, days, minutes,
14:24 seconds, something to add the intensity
14:27 and the speed to result to increase that
14:29 curiosity. Now, if you're not a great
14:30 writer, because I know a lot of people
14:32 out there, they they get the formats and
14:33 the strategy, but they're really not a
14:35 great writer. Here's how to do this
14:37 super fast. You want to do exactly what
14:39 I just showed you to come up with those
14:41 hooks for those four examples. There's a
14:43 reason I did it that way. Go to
14:45 sandcastles.ai. Go to the channels tab.
14:48 Make a list of the top accounts or top
14:50 creators in your niche. You know who
14:52 they are. You scroll and you see who's
14:54 doing a good job. Go find those
14:56 profiles. Go put them into Sandcastles.
14:58 Create a list in the channels tab. Go to
15:01 the videos tab on the watch list filter.
15:03 Click that. Select from your list. Now
15:05 you've got all the best videos from all
15:06 the accounts that you follow in your
15:09 niche. Go up to sort, sort by outlier
15:12 score and views. Use the filters to cut
15:14 out videos that are too old. So if you
15:15 want last 12 months, make it last 12
15:17 months. If you want last 3 months, go
15:18 last 3 months. Make sure you're sorting
15:20 by top views and top outlier score and
15:22 filter out the ones you don't want. Now
15:25 go one by one starting in the upper left
15:27 and watch the videos. The transcript is
15:30 right there for you. Copy the hook from
15:32 the transcript. You can tell what it is.
15:34 Take it to your paper. Look at that
15:36 hook. Identify the word buckets, the
15:38 power words that I just went through.
15:41 Delete what they used and put in your
15:44 topic, your subject, your action, your
15:46 objective. You can twist the words
15:48 around. You can switch the phrasing.
15:51 Once you do this for 10, 20, 30 hooks a
15:53 week in your niche, you will start to
15:55 get a pattern. This is called copy work.
15:57 When you write down the words that a
15:59 good writer wrote, you start to get the
16:01 rhythm and the flow and the phrasing in
16:03 your own brain. This is called copy
16:04 work. This is the easiest way to do it.
16:05 Now, if you have any questions on what I
16:07 just went through, how to do the full
16:08 thing, how to look at the power words,
16:09 how to come up with the channel list,
16:11 how to analyze them, drop a comment and
16:13 I'll make sure to help you and answer
16:14 those below. This should be everything
16:16 you need to go from zero to crushing
16:17 with hooks. Last thing, guys, if you're
16:19 a business owner and you want to improve
16:21 your content, it's number one focus for
16:22 you. You want to get more lead genen,
16:24 you want to get more revenue into the
16:26 business, I built a free community
16:28 called Wavy World. 33,000 business
16:31 owners, 65 other trainings just like
16:33 this. It's free. I've got an invite link
16:34 below if you guys want to join. All
16:35 right, we will see you on the next
