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The ONLY 6 Words You Need to Hook ANY Viewer | Kallaway | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: The ONLY 6 Words You Need to Hook ANY Viewer
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Core Theme
To create high-performing video content, focus on mastering the "hook" by understanding and applying six specific power words that tap into content psychology and viewer curiosity.
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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 @ personal brand launch 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
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