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