I've made thousands of hooks in my content, and this is what I've learned. Did you see what I did right there? I used a hook. I hope it worked. And you know what? If you're still listening, it worked. Let's talk about hooks in this episode. Hooks are just that they hook your viewer, your listener, whoever is consuming your content. Hooks are arguably one of the most important parts of your content. Now, before we really dive into hooks here, I do want to share. I just recently learned where hooks originated from, and that is from TV shows. You know, when host would come out and do like a cold open or a monologue, that essentially is to hook the audience to keep watching. Saturday Night Live wasn't the first to do this, but they still do this today. Like, whoever is the guest host on the show at the beginning of the show, like, they'll come out and talk. And that is a form of a hook. It's hooking the viewers to watch the full thing. Another example you would see across social media is hooks in videos. Now there's all sorts of different types of hooks. There's visual hooks, text hooks, auditory hooks, sometimes multiple at once, but they all have the purpose of hooking a viewer in real time to keep viewing the thing that you made. The hook will make or break your content because it's the first thing someone sees. It either keeps them watching or they tune out. When analyzing what's working in your content to, you know, determine is this working or not working? It's the hook. You can look at your hook and then you can see your retention rate. Did people tune out? Were people dissatisfied after the hook? Everything happens after the hook. And there's psychological principles at play here. There's curiosity gap. If your hook opens up this idea, is the gap big enough that people are like, I need to fill in this gap. Like, I can't go on about my day without knowing what happened. A great example of this would be the news. News headlines do this all the time. Donald Trump just had a three hour conversation with Zelensky and Putin. If that was the news headline that creates a curiosity gap, which you're like, what happened? Right? That's a hook. Another psychological principle at play is pattern interruption. So in this case, it would be when you do something so wild or different than what someone was expecting that they can't help but stop and view what it is. Usually, this is combining two things that, like, don't go together. For example, if you were pouring syrup on an acoustic guitar. A wild example, but that's gonna interrupt someone's pattern of thought. Right? They're gonna be like, what? What is going on here? Now that's an extreme example, but it is a pattern interrupt. Another is storytelling instinct. And that's when you follow just the simple storytelling structure, the setup, conflict, resolution. And sometimes depending on the format that you're delivering the content, you might not actually give the resolution, which can drive people crazy and it creates open loops. Marketing experts talk about how attention is the most valuable commodity in content. And while there is truth to that, I don't think it's the full picture because what you do with that attention is arguably more important than just getting the attention. Just because you have a million people looking at what you're saying or doing doesn't mean you have magical keys to the kingdom. Right? And I think this is where a lot of people, especially just starting out, mess up is because they just want attention at any cost. So they disregard values, even maybe go against their own beliefs in an effort to get as much attention as possible. And they cheapen their brand over the long run. But here's the thing. Hooks don't really care about your beliefs and your values and things like that. You can use them for good. You can use them for bad. A lot of times, I think when we talk about hooks, it's often through the lens of viral marketing. I see it as a lever that should be pulled. Like, imagine you had the most important information to share with me for a problem that I was going through, and I'm inundated with content. I just see so much stuff, and I don't even know where to find the answer to my problem is at. And you have the answer, and you made a perfect video about it, and it's in the video, and I come across the video, but I don't watch it because I didn't even know it was for me. It didn't hook me to keep watching it. Like, your solution to my problem was in the middle of the video or at the end, but I didn't even make it to the beginning. Is it my fault I didn't make it to the beginning, or is it your fault that you didn't hook me to watch the video? I would say it's your fault because you didn't set it up. You didn't hook me. Now there's different ways to hook viewers for different problems. Pouring syrup on a guitar is not gonna work, for every industry. So for your audience, it might not be a good idea to use very unexpected type hooks. It might be better off using more curiosity driven hooks or benefit oriented hooks, or just clear and concise where there's no fluff, very straightforward. I love hooks like that. And I often think that hooks are one of the kindest things you can do as a creator because it sets the clarity and context for the rest of the thing that you're delivering. We live in a time where there's more content than ever before. We wanna be able to discern what is for us and not for us as quick as possible. And a good hook lets us make that decision. What's worth mentioning also that hooks in the context of everything I'm talking about in this episode are always at the beginning of your content. In your YouTube videos or podcasts, it's at the very beginning, the first minute or less. Oftentimes, the first like five seconds. In your social media, it could be if you're doing a carousel post on Instagram, it's the first slide. If you're doing just an image that has text on it, it's the first line. In your video, it's the first sentence. In your caption on your social media post, it's the first line. In your emails, it's your subject line, and usually your first sentence or two within the body of the email. On your blog post, it's in your first sentence. It's always at the very beginning. And the better you get at matching the right hook for your right audience, the more your retention goes up, the more your audience grows, and the more successful you'll be as a creator. I'm gonna list out a bunch of hooks. You can go to DylanSchmidt.com/hooks, and that will lead to a blog where I'll list out a whole bunch of examples so you can check it out. You know what's interesting about growth as a creator? It's usually not those massive overnight breakthroughs that make the biggest difference. It's those small shifts, those tiny insights that you can implement day after day that really start to add up. That's exactly why I started writing my weekly newsletter. Think of it like getting a letter from a friend, someone who's in the trenches with you, sharing those little moments about creator life and entrepreneurship that could shift your perspective just enough to make a difference. Each week, right around Wednesday, I sit down and write about one key insight that could help you be just 1% better than you were before. Now, 1% might not sound like much, but compound that over weeks and months, That's where the magic happens. My goal is to not overwhelm you with information. We already get enough of that already. It's about giving you something meaningful that you can actually use, you can understand, and something that helps you become more informed, more engaged, and ultimately make a bigger impact with what you're creating. If that sounds like something you'd value, just head over to dylanschmidt.com and you'll see where you can sign up. It's completely free and who knows? Maybe that next 1% improvement is exactly what you need. Thanks again for joining me today. Until next time, keep creating.