0:01 If you want your videos to perform
0:03 better, I'm going to explain exactly how
0:05 to do it. Because the truth is, if your
0:06 videos are flopping, you're probably
0:08 just making one of the same critical
0:10 mistakes over and over. Now, the good
0:12 news is all these mistakes are very
0:14 fixable if you know what to look for.
0:16 Most people don't, which is why they
0:17 keep failing. So, in this video, I'm
0:19 going to break down all the biggest
0:21 content mistakes you could be making and
0:22 then solve them for you. And if you're
0:24 struggling with even one of these,
0:25 there's a good chance your videos are
0:26 not going to perform very well. All
0:28 right, the biggest content mistakes span
0:30 four buckets. Ideas, storytelling,
0:32 hooks, and editing. We're going to solve
0:34 each area one by one. Let's start with
0:36 ideas. Now, there's three major idea
0:37 problems you might have. The first one
0:40 is that your idea or topic framing just
0:42 isn't interesting enough. This is called
0:44 the interestingness problem. Okay, so
0:45 how do we solve for this?
0:47 Interestingness comes from new things or
0:49 new ways to frame old things. If someone
0:51 has heard about a topic five times
0:53 already before, it's not going to be
0:54 interesting when you tell them the same
0:56 thing for the sixth time. Think about
0:57 it. When your drunk uncle Larry at
0:59 Thanksgiving tells the same story for
1:01 the 10th time, are you still interested?
1:03 Of course not. So, when you pick and
1:04 develop your content ideas, you either
1:06 need to find something no one has talked
1:09 about or take a common topic, but build
1:11 a more unique angle around it. Now,
1:13 here's exactly how to do that. First,
1:15 take the topic and list all the possible
1:18 facts or takes that could be true about
1:20 it. I call this 360 mapping. Now, you
1:22 want to score each of those facts based
1:24 on how shocking it is from 1 to 100. And
1:26 to do this scoring, imagine there are
1:28 100 people in a room. If you said this
1:30 fact out loud, how many of those hundred
1:31 would be shocked to hear it? That is
1:34 your shock score. Obviously, higher is
1:35 better and the most shock you could have
1:37 is 100. Now, once you score them, rank
1:40 all the facts by score and pick the most
1:42 shocking one to be the frame or angle
1:44 that you position your topic around. For
1:45 example, a few weeks ago, there was this
1:47 strange comet called ThreeI Atlas that
1:49 was rumored to be heading towards Earth.
1:50 If you wanted to make a video about
1:52 ThreeI Atlas that got the most amount of
1:55 views, how could you frame that topic to
1:56 be maximally interesting? Well, you
1:58 could just explain there was a comet
1:59 coming and report the facts. This is
2:01 more of like the newscaster angle, but
2:03 that's not that interesting unless
2:05 you're the first one to do it. You could
2:07 explain the comet's properties, kind of
2:09 like this blue light emitting from the
2:10 back of it. That's more of the scientist
2:13 angle. You could explain the history of
2:14 comets and why this one was different
2:16 from all the others. That's more of the
2:17 historian angle. Or you could explain
2:19 that if this was an alien spacecraft h
2:21 hurtling towards Earth, this is exactly
2:24 how it would look and why. Now, as soon
2:26 as you heard me say that alien angle
2:27 compared to all the others, you probably
2:29 leaned in a little bit and were way more
2:31 interested. And the reason why is
2:32 because that frame is a lot more
2:34 shocking. The point is, if you don't
2:36 solve for the interestingness problem in
2:38 the way you frame your topics, the
2:39 viewer will never watch. All right,
2:40 idea. Problem number two is that your
2:42 idea is not shareworthy enough. And this
2:44 builds on the interestingness point I
2:46 just talked about. Virality comes from
2:49 shares. Either the algo shares you for
2:51 free by pushing you or other human
2:53 viewers share you in the DMs. But either
2:55 way, those shares are how you get more
2:57 views. If your shares are low, then your
2:59 video wasn't shareworthy enough. And
3:01 here's why. Imagine someone sees 500
3:02 videos per day and they're only willing
3:04 to share one of them to a group chat. Is
3:07 yours the best one out of 500 that would
3:08 make them share? Probably not. And
3:10 that's why you're not getting many
3:12 shares. Now, here's how to increase your
3:14 video's shareworthiness. People share
3:16 because of emotional transfer. If they
3:18 watch a video and feel a strong emotion,
3:19 they'll immediately think of someone
3:21 else that they want to share that common
3:23 emotional experience with. For example,
3:24 if you have a group chat with 10 guys
3:26 from high school and you see something
3:27 funny that references an inside joke
3:29 that you all had, you'll laugh, you'll
3:31 want them to laugh, and then you'll
3:33 share it. It really is that simple. So,
3:35 if you want more shares, you have to
3:37 create the strongest emotional transfer
3:39 possible in your video. Common emotions
3:41 would be things like fear, shock, joy,
3:44 happiness, sadness, intrigue, things
3:45 like that. The video either has to make
3:47 them feel, make them think, or share
3:49 some tactical value so good that they
3:51 want to hat tip you and share it with
3:52 their friends. All three of those things
3:54 drive some kind of emotion. And if you
3:56 can't tap into that emotional transfer,
3:57 you're not getting any shares. All
3:59 right, idea problem number three is that
4:02 the TAM of your topic is too small. TAM
4:04 stands for total addressable market. If
4:05 you had a 100 people in a room, how many
4:07 of them would care about your video
4:08 topic in the first place? If you want
4:10 more views, you need to increase the
4:13 possible slice of that TAM. Now, how do
4:14 you do this? If you want more views, you
4:16 want to pick topics that are more
4:18 broadly applicable to a wider range of
4:20 people. Things like health, business,
4:22 money, family, relationships. These are
4:24 things that have broad tams. Now, if you
4:26 have a small niche and you want to make
4:28 videos that have a broad tam, you want
4:30 to wrap your narrow topic in a broader
4:32 frame. For example, let's say your niche
4:34 is reviewing vintage Jeeps. How would
4:37 you make content that expands the TAM
4:38 around that narrow topic? Well, you
4:40 could come up with some ideas like this.
4:42 This is the most expensive Jeep in the
4:44 world. Let's break down why and what
4:47 it's made of. Or, this celebrity has a
4:48 hidden collection of vintage Jeeps that
4:50 no one knew about. Let's break down
4:51 what's in their collection and why they
4:53 have it. Or, this vintage Jeep is
4:55 actually built using the same internal
4:57 components as a Lamborghini with three
4:58 distinct differences. Let's break that
5:00 down. You get the point. If you want
5:02 more views, you have to pick topics and
5:04 framing that gets more people
5:06 potentially interested in the first
5:08 place. Expand the TAM, expand the pie,
5:09 expand the views. Now, I'm going to go
5:11 into the other categories next, but let
5:12 me just say, if your videos are not
5:14 working, the real reason why is ideas.
5:16 The hook and the storytelling and the
5:17 edits, that all matters, but the real
5:19 problem you have is ideas. Anyone that
5:21 knows anything about content will tell
5:22 you that. If you're working with a coach
5:24 or guru that doesn't think ideas are
5:25 your problem, you should fire them
5:27 immediately. Everybody thinks they have
5:29 great content ideas. They usually don't
5:32 because ideas and content ideas are two
5:33 different things. It's two different
5:34 processes, two different ways of
5:36 thinking. So, if you really want to
5:37 dominate the content game and make it so
5:39 that every time you post the videos
5:41 crush, you really need to train your
5:44 brain to spot and develop unique ideas.
5:45 Now, the easiest way to do this is to
5:47 study what's already worked from the top
5:49 creators in your niche. Take those
5:52 topics, remap the 360 exercise with all
5:55 the facts, find a more shocking or more
5:57 interesting frame, and remake that idea.
5:59 If you do just that, that's how you
6:01 really close the gap when you're a small
6:03 account trying to grow in a saturated
6:05 category. Now, my tool, sandcastle.ai,
6:06 is the easiest way to do this whole
6:08 ideas exercise. I'm not going to go
6:09 through how to do that now. I've got a
6:11 video below breaking down the exact
6:13 process and system that I use for ideas,
6:15 but I'm telling you, if you don't have
6:18 this solved, the rest is just icing. The
6:20 real cake is ideas. All right, let's
6:21 keep going. Now, we're going to shift to
6:23 storytelling. The first storytelling
6:24 problem you probably have is called over
6:26 stuffing. The first reason why your
6:27 script writing and storytelling isn't
6:29 working is because you're covering way
6:31 too much ground with way too many topics
6:33 in a single video. Chorefront videos are
6:35 meant to be mini bursts, one bite at a
6:37 time. You want to stockpile one trust
6:39 coin, get them to like and trust you a
6:40 little bit, and then get out of there.
6:43 One topic, one takeaway, that's it. The
6:44 problem is that people get excited when
6:46 they know so much about a topic that
6:48 they want to slam in 5 to 10 different
6:50 things into one short form video. But
6:52 this is not what you want to do because
6:54 the average person's brain is so cooked
6:55 on the feed that they're not going to be
6:57 able to absorb more than one core idea
6:59 in the video. And this really goes back
7:01 to the selection exercise for picking
7:02 your angle. Your goal is not to
7:04 demonstrate how much you know. It's just
7:06 to frame the most interesting possible
7:08 wedge. Tell the story about one thing
7:09 and get out of there. So, what you want
7:11 to do tactically is audit your script to
7:14 count the number of unique ideas you
7:16 have. It should be built around one core
7:18 idea and maybe sprinkling one or two
7:20 other things with one single line about
7:22 them, but that's it. If you have three
7:24 to five main ideas, it's way too much.
7:25 All right, storytelling problem number
7:27 two is going to shock you and it's that
7:29 your videos are probably not optimized
7:32 to work very well when the sound is off
7:34 and that is killing you. It turns out
7:36 80% of people watch videos on the feed
7:38 with the sound off. And it makes sense.
7:39 They're probably on the bus or like at
7:40 work and they don't want to play the
7:42 sound out loud. So, they're just
7:44 watching the visuals in silence. Now, I
7:46 bet if you do this exercise, it'll shock
7:47 you. But I want you to open the last
7:49 video that you posted, turn the volume
7:51 all the way down, and watch it in
7:52 silence. Is your visual storytelling
7:54 able to hold your own attention in
7:56 silence? Are you able to follow along
7:57 perfectly without getting lost? I mean,
7:59 you made the video, so you should be
8:01 able to. But if you can't, imagine what
8:02 a new viewer watching in silence for the
8:04 first time is experiencing. This is a
8:06 huge non-obvious problem if you've never
8:08 looked for it. So, you want to make sure
8:10 your video holds without the sound
8:12 coming through. So, your visuals and the
8:14 text on screen have to be super dialed
8:15 so that all the context can be
8:16 communicated just through there. All
8:18 right, storytelling problem number three
8:20 is called poor speed to value. And if
8:21 you follow this channel a lot, I talk
8:23 about speed to value so much, but it's
8:24 so important that I want to cover it
8:26 again. The reason your stories are not
8:28 working is because you're burying the
8:30 value way too late in the script. The
8:32 reality is the first or second sentence
8:35 has to tease the value or payoff and
8:36 then you got to get to that value or
8:38 payoff as soon as possible because the
8:40 average person is only giving you 2.5
8:42 seconds to decide whether they want to
8:44 stay or go and they need some reason to
8:46 stay or why would they. So the exercise
8:48 is when you look at your script I want
8:50 you to bold the line where you actually
8:52 start getting to the value or teasing
8:54 the payoff. Again that value can
8:55 actually be information in an
8:57 educational sense or a payoff in an
8:59 entertaining story. But either way, bold
9:00 that line in the script. Now, once you
9:02 have that bolded, see all the sentences
9:05 above that. You need to leapfrog that
9:07 bolded line up higher so that the value
9:09 in the payoff comes sooner. If you're
9:11 not auditing for speed to value
9:13 religiously, you're definitely burying
9:15 it too late and people are bouncing
9:16 before they get to it and then not
9:18 acrewing trust. All right, the last
9:19 storytelling problem number four is
9:21 called boring story. And this is
9:23 obvious. Your story is just way too
9:25 boring. Even if you do everything else
9:26 right that I've mentioned so far, if you
9:28 have too many sentences that are fluff
9:30 or just unnecessary, the story is going
9:32 to drag and people's attention will not
9:34 be able to hold. Well, try this. Imagine
9:37 you had to pay $100 for every single
9:39 word that you included in the script. If
9:41 that were the case, you would cut every
9:42 single word and sentence that didn't
9:43 need to be there. This is a helpful
9:45 exercise because it trains you to treat
9:48 the viewer's time a lot more valuably.
9:49 Short form video is not a Christopher
9:51 Nolan movie. People aren't paying for
9:53 tickets and then forced and held captive
9:55 for 2 hours. You got to get them quick
9:57 and then hold them for the shortest
9:59 possible time so that they can acrue
10:01 trust. Every single sentence should need
10:02 to be there. It either has to be a
10:05 missionritical story critical fact or a
10:06 unique take that they have not heard
10:08 anywhere else. If you read your script
10:10 back and it reads too boring to you,
10:11 then it for sure is going to be for
10:13 them. So make sure to compress and
10:15 remove all the unnecessary details. All
10:16 right, we're cruising. Let's go to
10:17 hooks. Now, the reality is, if your
10:18 hooks suck and they're not hooking,
10:20 there are four main reasons why this is
10:22 happening. Problem number one is that
10:23 after the hook, the viewer does not
10:25 understand why the video matters to
10:26 them. And this can happen for two
10:28 reasons. Either the viewer didn't think
10:30 the video was relevant to them, or they
10:32 just weren't interested in the topic at
10:33 all. Now, if they weren't interested in
10:34 the topic, no worries. Your hook would
10:35 never have hooked them because they
10:37 weren't going to stick. But if they
10:38 would have been interested and the hook
10:40 didn't work, the reason it didn't work
10:42 is because you didn't signal why they
10:45 should care and stay to watch. In other
10:46 words, they didn't understand what was
10:48 in it for them. You need to speak to
10:50 them like they're an individual in the
10:52 room. Make it make sense for why they
10:54 should care. If you go back and read the
10:55 first line in the hook, does it sound
10:57 like it's for them or at least is it
10:58 clear enough so they can make an
11:00 informed decision on why they should
11:01 stay or not. If they don't understand
11:03 why it's for them, that's a huge problem
11:05 and the hook will never hook. So, that's
11:06 the first thing you have to solve for.
11:07 All right, hook problem number two. To
11:09 build on that, the hook never gets the
11:11 viewer curious enough to want to stay.
11:13 And the exact mistake you're making is
11:14 that you're not introducing the new
11:17 topic in a relative way compared to
11:19 something they already understand. For
11:22 example, if I say this new plasma is
11:23 hotter than asphalt, that's not really
11:25 going to hook you. Why not? Because you
11:27 don't really know what hotter than
11:28 asphalt means. That's not like a common
11:31 term or phrase that you have stored.
11:33 Which means the effect of the words I
11:34 was saying about the plasma don't hit
11:36 you and make you curious. But if I say
11:38 this new plasma is hotter than the
11:40 surface of the sun, you do know what the
11:41 surface of the sun should be. It's
11:44 extremely hot. And so that makes you
11:46 more hooked relative to the other one
11:48 because you know what the sun's
11:49 temperature should be. In other words,
11:51 you have a relative comparison,
11:53 something you know and now a new thing
11:55 you don't. So when you come up with a
11:57 new topic or frame or video idea, you
11:59 need to first think what is the common
12:01 understanding that a viewer should have
12:04 in this category and then position your
12:07 new topic or new idea relative to that.
12:08 Always introduce new things as a
12:10 relative comparison to something that
12:12 exists. And what this really is is
12:14 contrast. And that's the root of where
12:16 all curiosity comes from. So, if you're
12:18 not contrasting the thing you're saying
12:19 with something else they understand,
12:20 they're never going to get curious
12:22 because they don't know how much better
12:24 or worse that new idea is. All right,
12:26 hook problem number three is called hook
12:27 alignment. There are really three
12:28 components to hooks. You've probably
12:30 heard this. I kind of invented this
12:31 idea. There's the visual hook, the
12:33 spoken hook, and the text hook. The
12:34 visual hook is what is shown with the
12:36 visuals on screen. The spoken hook is
12:38 what is said with words, and the text
12:40 hook is what is written on top of the
12:42 visuals. These three hooks have to
12:44 align, meaning the visuals have to mean
12:46 the same thing as what's being said and
12:47 what's being written. If they are
12:49 misaligned, the viewer will get confused
12:50 because they don't know what to focus
12:52 on. So, make sure all three of those
12:54 things actually mean the same thing. All
12:55 right, the fourth reason why your hooks
12:57 are not hooking is because the visuals
12:59 in your visual hook are just not
13:01 stopping the scroll. Your visuals have
13:02 to cut through the feed and get the
13:04 thumb to lift up or you're going to
13:05 lose. Now, there are four ways to get
13:07 your visuals to stop the scroll. Number
13:09 one is to use an attractive or
13:11 unique-looking person. Number two is to
13:13 use a recognizable person or subject.
13:15 Could be a celebrity, could be a brand
13:16 logo, could be something the viewer
13:18 recognizes that makes them stunned for a
13:20 split second. Number three is to use
13:22 atypical visuals that contrast against
13:24 what they normally see in the feed. And
13:26 number four is to use an atypical visual
13:28 format or layout. Now, I talked about
13:29 this exact thing in my last video. So,
13:31 if you want a dedicated video breaking
13:33 down hook visuals in detail, I'll link
13:35 that below and you can watch that. All
13:36 right, let's close this loop on the
13:38 editing side. Now, I'm going to rapid
13:40 fire a bunch of the key editing mistakes
13:41 that I see over and over that are really
13:43 holding back people's edits from driving
13:45 more views. The first editing problem is
13:48 called overediting. People's brains are
13:51 absolutely cooked going into 2026. Full
13:53 mashed potatoes. The more stuff you put
13:56 in the edit, the more flashbang, sound
13:57 effects, overlays, the more stuff you
14:00 put in, the more the viewer has to wade
14:01 through to get to the core essence of
14:03 what you're communicating. Fresh brains
14:06 are able to sift through. Overstimulated
14:08 brains are not. My hypothesis for the
14:10 reason why more raw content is doing
14:11 well is because people are so
14:14 overstimulated and have such mushy
14:16 brains that they just can't wade through
14:18 all the high retention editing. So raw
14:20 videos are edited at a pace and
14:22 stimulation level that most people can
14:23 handle. Now you may be thinking, "Well,
14:25 you said my hook visuals have to cut
14:26 through, but I'm not allowed to
14:28 overedit. So which is it?" And I'm glad
14:30 you asked that, Daryl. Overediting has
14:32 to do with adding unnecessary things.
14:34 Like I said, flashbangs, crazy
14:36 transitions, overhyped sound effects,
14:38 additional layers that you don't need.
14:40 The truth is, comprehension actually
14:42 comes from deleting edits. In this case,
14:44 less actually is more. But hook visuals
14:46 cutting through is about the actual
14:48 visual and layout that you're using.
14:50 It's not all the stuff you add on top.
14:52 It's the core visual, the base layer. So
14:53 that is how they differ. Thank you,
14:55 Darl. All right. Editing problem number
14:57 two is called visual misalignment. When
14:58 you say something throughout the whole
15:01 video, the visual you show has to match
15:02 what you say. Just like the hook
15:04 alignment with the visual spoken in
15:06 text, that actually is true for the
15:08 entire edit. If you say something you
15:09 don't have a good visual for and you
15:11 slap on a random visual, this causes
15:14 confusion and the attention decays for
15:15 the viewer. So, you really want to audit
15:17 for this and go sentence by sentence to
15:18 make sure the visuals match what you're
15:19 saying. And if you don't have good
15:22 visuals, just use naked A-roll with no
15:24 overlays. All right, editing problem
15:25 number three is when the music and the
15:28 vibe of the video is misaligned. Like I
15:29 said before, the goal with video is to
15:31 create an emotional transfer that
15:33 triggers shares. The background music is
15:35 a huge factor in driving that emotional
15:37 state. If you pick a song that
15:39 contradicts the emotion of the tone of
15:40 your words or the actual words
15:41 themselves, the viewer is going to get
15:43 confused because the music doesn't
15:45 match. This is why you don't see EDM
15:47 soundtracks behind those orphan dog
15:49 commercials for animal shelters asking
15:50 for donations. It just wouldn't make
15:52 sense emotionally. So, you really want
15:54 to be careful to avoid picking the wrong
15:55 music. And I think this is something
15:57 I've struggled with in the past. No
15:59 music is actually better than the wrong
16:00 music. All right, the fourth editing
16:02 problem is called underoptimized pacing.
16:04 This is when your story is edited with
16:06 pacing that's either too fast or too
16:07 slow. And when I say pacing, I'm talking
16:10 about delivery speed of the words. To
16:11 screen for this, you want to run the
16:14 closed eye test. When you listen back to
16:15 the video without the visuals, just
16:17 audio, does it bore you? Cuz if it's
16:19 boring, the pace is too slow and you
16:21 need to go in and chop some of the space
16:23 between different sentences. But if you
16:24 listen back and it's over stimulated, it
16:26 feels like it's driving too fast, then
16:27 when you add the visuals on, it's going
16:29 to be way too much. So, you want to add
16:30 a little bit more space between the
16:32 sentences. This can be a really helpful
16:34 exercise just to make sure the pacing is
16:36 delivered optimally without being too
16:38 fast or too slow. All right, guys. That
16:39 is all we've got for this video. As a
16:41 recap, I covered the top biggest
16:43 mistakes across ideas, storytelling,
16:45 hooks, and editing that are really
16:46 holding back your videos from getting
16:48 more views. And I did my best to
16:49 rapidfire these so we could cover as
16:51 much ground as possible, but make sure
16:52 to value your time. If you can solve for
16:55 all of these, I guarantee your videos
16:56 will get more views. Now, I just want to
16:58 say this, what I just went through was
17:00 the full breakdown for short form view
17:02 maxing. If you're trying to maximize
17:04 views, these are the things you want to
17:05 focus on. But if you're trying to
17:07 maximize dollars or rev maxing, this is
17:09 a completely different list. So, I also
17:11 have that list written. If you want that
17:13 video, make sure to comment something
17:14 like, "Give me the sauce chef" and I
17:16 will know to make that. These things are
17:18 how you rev views. But if you want to
17:20 rev dollars, it would be a different
17:22 list and different focuses. Also, as a
17:23 reminder, if you're a business owner, I
17:25 run a free community called Wavy World
17:27 that is specifically designed for
17:28 entrepreneurs trying to get better with
17:31 content. We've got ideas, algorithms,
17:33 storytelling, editing, all types of
17:35 trainings just like this one. 60 plus
17:37 free trainings for you, and thousands
17:38 and thousands of other entrepreneurs
17:39 that are all working together to get
17:41 better with content. Also, one more
17:42 thing. I know I sprinted through the
17:44 hooks part in this video pretty fast.
17:45 The video that's showing on the screen
17:47 right now is what you should watch next
17:49 if you want to focus on improving your
17:51 hooks. I take a bunch of those concepts
17:53 I referenced here, but go way deeper
17:54 with a lot more examples. So, make sure
17:56 to click that one and watch it next, and
17:57 that will help solve all of your hook
17:59 issues. All right, awesome. We will see
