I Studied 1,000 Hooks, These ACTUALLY Blow Up Right Now

        If you're having trouble getting views in your short-form content, it's probably the first three seconds. But not because you write bad hooks, it's because you're thinking of hooks the wrong way. Because recently thousands of creators sent me their reels in for review, and most of them make the exact same mistake that gets their content buried instantly. And the funny thing is, yeah, it is the hook, just not the part they think it is. So today I'm going to break down three real creators and show you the exact hook fixes they need to actually blow up. All right, so this is Mario, and he helps people basically get in shape, right? Pretty competitive, but that's actually a good thing. Now, this is the video I want to take a look at. So let me first play it here, then we'll take a look, and then I'll fix it. Stop being out of shape, man, and do this push workout. Start with three sets of dumbbell lateral raises, and aim for 10 to 12 reps. All right, so there's a bunch of things at play here. First of all, the hook sure sounds like a hook, but it's actually the worst way to start a reel. Let me just play it again for you. Stop being out of shape, man, and start, and do this push workout, right? This line sort of feels like content creator 101, and an audience can, people just smell it instantly. It's like somebody talking down to me, and it just sounds like a hook. And in 2026, especially nowadays, when a hook sounds like a hook, it stops working because people see through this bullshit. It's basically a throwaway line. And it also kind of feels confrontational without me trusting the person. I don't like strangers telling me what to do, talk down to me, and somebody's like, stop being out of shape, man, you fucking asshole. Do this push workout. So my senses are instantly up. Plus, like we said, it sounds like a hook. It's speaking, I'm trying to hook you. So my senses are up, my shield is up. I'm like, why do you want to hook me? What do you want to get from me? Go away, right? So this is all garbage. But here's where I'm going to make your life a lot easier. There's actually a hook hidden in this whole reel, because if we look right afterwards, when he's like, okay, start with these three sets of dumbbell and lateral races, this is the hook right there. It gets right into the action and it doesn't scream to me, oh, this is a hook. Let me play it for you really quickly. Start with three sets of dumbbell lateral races. I named for 10 to 12 reps. Because just looking at this, first of all, the frame and what he says and what he does, it's very concrete and it tells exactly what the video is about. Instantly relevant to me, if I want to do this, we're going to talk about this in a second. And it plants a clear expectation. We know it's about some workout. Everything happens in literally right there and then, within not even half a second. Plus, and that's the important thing, it kind of feels natural and not written like a hook. So the first thing we're going to do is we're just going to get rid of this crappy hook. Now, if you want to be included in one of those next content breakdowns, whatever that might be, link is down below totally for free. Now, here's the part that most creators miss and it actually wrecks everything. If he were to just start off with this, it's a lot better than with a hook, but there's still no angle for his audience to instantly be like, okay, yeah, this is actually for me. I was waiting for this type of content. Right? Because even if I'm, let's say a person that's like, I need some exercise right now, I see him. I even see this right there. And I'm going to be like, well, no, it still doesn't really catch me. Right. And for that to happen and for you to catch your actual target audience the right way, you have to understand who you're targeting in the first place, right? Your actual real target audience. So if we take a look at his target audience right there, it's basically career driven men and women getting shaped by restoring their metabolism and hormones. And if we go to his website, he helps executives, entrepreneurs, leaders who want physical presence that commands respect in the boardroom, blah, blah, blah, high performance. Okay. That's important because you're going to need to know that for yourself as well, because your hook needs to speak to your avatar's actual language. And if we go back to his initial hook, for example, where he was like stopping out of shape, man, and do this push workout. I don't think executives feel like they're being spoken to right now. Plus there's another thing he uses right in there. He uses the word push workout, which is also in complete conflict with his actual target audience, right? Because his target audience, busy professionals, executives probably have no idea what a push workout is, right? They see this and they're like, well, I don't even know. The only thing I know is I need to get in shape. So push workout, I don't even know, probably not for me. Right? So the next point naturally for you to nail a hook like this is to figure out the exact pain points of your target audience, ideally broken down to the uttermost core. My clients and I actually have an AI specifically trained for extracting this for different target audiences with tons of data. So it's actually easy to spot the pain points, but having done this millions of times at this point, I kind of know what this whole thing is about. Because if we were to take a look at his avatar and his case, executives, leaders and stuff like this, in the hook right there in this case, we need to target them. We need an executive, a leader, whatever that might be to feel instantly like, okay, this is for me. I need this. Right? And, um, usually gurus that you might listen to as well might say something like, yeah, then just put in the word executives in the text hook and say, well, executives, here's what you need to know about, uh, getting in shape. Well, actually not that bad to be honest, but honestly, I still don't think that speaks to their pain point. Right? Cause they are probably like, well, I'm pretty busy. I know I have to get in shape. I just don't have time for that. Right? Which is my actual pain point right now. I'm part of the Bartley in this target audience. So if we were to break this whole thing down to the core, it would be something like this. Basically people probably thinking I don't have time to go to the gym. And that's exactly what we're going to put in the text right there to establish who is for. So first thing we're going to do is no time for gym, get stronger in 20 minutes, man. I think that's a very good hook, right? No jargon, nothing, no push workout. It should be instant clear. Okay. We don't have time and we want to get stronger or whatever it is. Right. And this clearly gives me an expectation. What's about to happen in this video, especially when it starts like, okay, start with three dumbbells. So I'm like, okay, awesome. I know what to expect. It's a 20 minute workout. Exactly what I need. And that's the difference between, well, just get in shape, man, versus, oh, that's exactly what I need. And just by changing this whole thing, people view him as a mentor, as a coach, who's not just like pointing fingers, but who's actually like, okay, well, I know your problems. You're busy. Here's something that actually fits your life. And that helps you get ahead, right? Without wanting to have anything in return. That's the magic bullet right there. Now there's two more things we need to fix right there to make this hook a viral worthy hook. First of all, he's talking and nothing's happening. So this kind of makes me confused. So what I would do is literally just use one of those reps and put it right there at the beginning to kind of start off as a voiceover. You know, I'm just playing around right here. Obviously I can't make it perfectly because I don't have the exact footage. And the other thing is you can probably already see it where this whole thing is overlapping everything. And there's two ways you can put the text hook either up there, which is a strong contender in this word, in this case, or you put it in the middle. Honestly, I think both works. So let's just play around with it. Honestly, not bad. And that's basically part of what you need to do here is just play around with it and try to make it look good. Now let's just compare this original one. Stop being out of shape, man. And do this push workout. Start with three sets of I don't care. I don't have a reason to stop to this one. No time for gym, get stronger. Start with three sets of dumbbell lateral raises. I named for 10 to 12 reps. Beautiful. So to kind of recap, here's the big takeaway here. Number one, his first line ruins everything. It sounds like a hook. And when a hook sounds like a hook, cold viewers don't respond to generic confrontational lines anymore. Number two, the real hook was actually already inside the video. And coincidentally it was not the one he thought of as being the hook. It just naturally occurred. And that's actually a thing that happens a lot. And what I love to do a lot with my clients is write the script and then just cut the first part, right? Even record it, but just cut it out like we did right now. A lot of the times, just that alone does the trick. And number three, really know your avatar and paint their real pain points because then you can really break it down to talk to their core needs and to actually make them stop scrolling. That's literally the only reason why people stop scrolling. Now let's move on to creator number two. This one's a little different because the problem here isn't as clear as before. This is Tim who helps barbers basically get more clients, which is an awesome idea, but people don't really stop scrolling here. We could see it in the retention graph right there, right? Nobody really stops for the hook at all. And if we take a look at the video right here, let me just play really quickly here. And again, then we'll fix this whole thing to make it go viral. Barbers, I pulled in 7 million views this month and gained 30 new clients. Using the tool you keep leaving in your pocket. Too many barbers still think word of mouth and waiting for clients to walk in is how you become fully booked and charge premium. All right, so the first thing we can clearly see here, the same rule applies as before. The whole first hook, it's just crap. And we can literally get rid of it because if we cut here, it suddenly starts to make a lot more sense. Too many barbers still think word of mouth and waiting for clients to walk in is how you become fully booked and charge premium prices. So that's actually a pretty okay-ish hook to start out with. Barbers, I pulled in 7 million views this month. I don't care who you are. You pulled in 7 million views. I'm a barber. I don't want views. I just want clients, right? People are gone. And even if some people watched, you're like, okay, I did this. Using the tool you keep in your pocket. And then you show the phone. You basically close the loop. You're like, okay, I just need to use your phone. And barbers will be like, crap. Actually, let's take a look at the retention graph because I'm sure we can see it right there. Because this is roughly when he gives away the answer, which is just use your phone, right? The few people that stayed actually left here as well. That's the tough world that we're in right now. So the first order of business as before, I'm just going to delete this whole thing. But that's actually not the only problem right here, because even if we cut that first line, something much bigger is still destroying this video in less than half a second. And we can kind of already see this. His first frame right there would be dark, right? And there's zero clarity. But even if let's say we go a little ahead, there's still zero clarity as to who this is for and what this whole thing is about, right? Too many barbers still think word of mouth, blah, blah, blah. And now we're two seconds in already. But even at this point, we simply still don't care because there's just not enough information to get a barber to kind of get it. To kind of be like, oh, this is exactly what I wanted to watch. This is for me. And here's the really important part. You need to find and introduce some elements that trigger your target audience right from the start. And every niche basically has these certain what I call brain triggers, which are specific words or visuals that kind of make the right audience stop just for half a second, just to give them that sense of familiarity in there, right? And that's exactly what we need to reverse engineer right now, right? So the spoken line here that he uses is actually pretty good, but in order for that to work, and that's what lots of creators do wrong, is we need more elements to stack on top of it to actually make hooks work nowadays. Number one is obviously the text hook that needs to be there right from the start that needs to trigger some sort of clarity response to your target audience. And number two, we want to up the ante right here and stack another visual cue that signals the same thing, right? So just so the brain kind of processes it and just gives us half a second more, which is exactly the half second that we need. Because when you combine these two things, a trigger visual and a text hook, and then a clear spoken hook, perfect trifecta, you're basically stacking multiple of these brain triggers. And that's exactly what kind of hacks people's brains to stop scrolling. You probably notice it yourself when you scroll, that's exactly what happens. Just try to reverse engineer it yourself at some point. Here's what I will actually do to fix this. And you can basically replicate this in any niche. Number one, fix the first frame context. Because if we look at this, does really, right? If you speak to barbers, does that speak to barbers? You have a microphone there, you have some light leaks and some crappy animation things going, get rid of those. Just looking at this frame without playing the text. I don't understand that this is for barber or whatever. You look like a crazy, you look like me actually kind of. Black t-shirt and microphone, almost the same microphone, right? So, well, that doesn't do the trick. So what I would do here is think about again, like before your target audience, what about barbers? What would they recognize? Obviously a barber shop or a barber chair or something like this. So the first thing I do is just film your hooks in a barber setting. And you're kind of doing this right there towards here, right? You can literally just film the hook right there. And this is actually what I did already. Something fairly creepy right there, because I just wanted to know what this whole thing looks like. I basically put myself into a barber chair using AI and it looks so creepy, man. But it is actually a good way to kind of engineer your first frame and think of, where could I film my hook? What could I do? I basically just re-recorded his hook line and put it on top of my AI video. So here's what it looks like. Too many barbers still think word of mouth and waiting for clients to walk in is how you become fully booked and charged premium price. Like I said, I'm nauseous just looking at this because something feels off, but still honestly, it's instantly miles better because we can see again, I'm in a barber setting. People see this, as opposed to this one right here, random creator, plus even these types of, yeah. Let's just put this on top of it right here. But one thing again, that's missing. We have another visual clue. The second thing that's missing is obviously the text hook. And because in this case, we clearly have the visual there. We know it's in a barber shop. And then you say, too many barbers still think word of mouth and wait. Too many barbers still think word of mouth. Okay. So we kind of already do the instant clarity part. What we now need to get done is just the text hook. That's saying something like struggling to get booked or something like this. Honestly, pretty good, right? Too many barbers still think word of mouth. Instantly a barber is like, okay, I know what's up. You got my attention. So the three big takeaways from this one are, first of all, the first frame needs to introduce clarity and trust, right? People need to instantly know what's going on, right? Forget light leaks or heavy editing and like this, bad, right? Just don't, don't. Second of all, think of visual triggers your audience feels familiar with. Barbers don't resonate with talking head and microphone, right? As probably do runners or even cooks. I can be like, okay, let me show you. Hey, cooks, this is how you cook the perfect egg. And then there's nothing about any cooking thing. You get the idea. And number three, that's the main one here. The real hook was buried again, deeper in the video. It wasn't even thought of as being the hook, right? So yeah, you get the idea. Right. So creator number three takes this whole thing a whole step further because on a service level, you might think this is another hook issue, but she actually has a completely different problem. Now this is Janine. She's a personal development coach. And I guess she just wants to get more reach, more engagement and clients, right? Coincides. Now let's take a look at the video first, right there. Well, we're not going to play the audio because of copyright reasons, but we can see what's going on right there, right? You can see it's a B roll type of video, which honestly is a pretty powerful way of getting sort of easy content out and fast content out. But this is a big trap most creators actually fall into because this reel and ultimately her content is not failing because of the hooks. It's failing because of something way bigger. And once you understand this thing, you'll instantly see why her retention graph, for example, looks like this. 70% of people skip the seven second reel, right? Means nobody cares. Nobody stops. Nobody even reads this wall of text right there. Now generally on a very short B roll, seven second clip, the retention should be pretty much flat because you're competing with a ton of very good, really short content, right? So in a sense, short for B roll clips are kind of easy to film, but they really need to sit. I mean, here's the comparison of a retention graph to one of our clients with a similar length video. And you can clearly see the difference right there. This is how it needs to look closer to a hundred percent watch time, if not longer. Now, despite all of this, this is actually still not a hook problem that we see right there. It is a structural problem because first of all, her first frame, which is her whole frame, is a random B roll clip of a woman, right? With a guitar, even that, right? Could be stock footage. Obviously it's stock footage. We can just notice that. Now remember, she's a mindset coach, not a musician. So even the choice of stock footage does not really fit right there. Just that alone confuses the algorithm, especially if you don't have a lot of views and shows it to people who are into guitars. Obviously the opposite of what you want, right? And then if we take a look at the whole text right there, and for sure, the first thing people see is also the guitar. And then if they read this text, if they do, and as we see, most people don't, it doesn't really make sense as a whole. So the viewer's brain goes, well, I don't even know what it's about. Let me just swipe. I want to see a monkey. Second of all, talking about the text, yes, there are some B roll clips that that work, but they still need to have a clear hook, a clear distinct pain point they trigger or something, right? This one here, the text is kind of generic, to be honest, and it doesn't really trigger anything. This is going to, even though it says it's going to trigger people who prefer you quiet, but that's the point. This needs to be way more clear. There needs to be some sort of tension and some sort of clarity part, again, in terms of people watching this to be like, oh, this is me. I understand, right? I'm quiet or something like this. Now, the other part about these short sort of B roll reels is the whole reel is a hook. So you want to set this thing up, problem, whatever, second hook to kind of make people read through. And then it shouldn't be done by the seven seconds because you obviously want them to keep reading in the captions and to have something else in there, whether it's real value. So they actually save it or engage with it or some common trigger, whatever it is. Point being, you want the whole experience of actually guiding people to read through this and the caption to be longer than seven seconds or longer than the length of your reel. That's really, really important in this case. Usually a lot of times, what works really well with these types of videos is attaching a mini chat automation, actually to collect leads. This could be a reel that makes you thousands of dollars. It takes literally a minute to create, right? If done the right way. So let me show you how to do it the right way, actually. So ultimately we have to come back to the Janine's problem and Janine's goal here, which is she's a coach who can help people with a problem, right? With confidence or whatever mindset, whatever that is in this case. But as you can see, this is not Janine. This is some random person and people really have a very high shield barrier guard against random B roll footage right now, especially with AI and faceless content and stuff like this. People telling you faceless content, blah, blah, blah. Honestly, this is going to be the next thing that actually crashes because yeah, let's not talk about this right now. But point being, we're in a pretty big trust recession and it's only getting started right now on social media, especially for coaches and people who want to sell something. So people absolutely don't trust anyone whose content looks like a Canva template and then doesn't even have themselves in it, right? We're way past that stage that used to work, but it's over. In a sense, her content doesn't fail because of the hook, because honestly, it's not that bad. It fails because there's no structural reason for a stranger to stop and then check out her profile and be like, oh, I want to listen to her, right? It's somebody that I value her opinions and stuff like this, right? So let's actually fix this whole thing, right? To make this same idea be really, really awesome. So the first point, if you want to create B roll videos is first of all, you need to be using your own B roll. People need to attach to you, right? If you don't speak, ideally you speak on camera or with a voiceover, but if you don't speak, at least have your voice be kind of coming through in the captions, stuff like this, but people need to see you do things, right? People need to understand there's a real person at the end of the line. So first of all, block out three hours every month or something like this and film yourself doing something, whatever it is, right? Something real life stuff, right? So once a month, film 20, 30 different everyday moments, right? Could be anything like making coffee, drinking coffee, different angles of you doing the same, driving a car, stepping out of your car, journaling, writing down some stuff here. Oh, I'm reading, I'm opening the book and stuff like this, right? Just making you human. That's the most important thing, right? Whatever it is. And just doing that will instantly make you a hundred times more trustable and people will be inclined to stop because some people see you and they'll be like, oh, I relate to her, right? Just because they relate to people, right? We can't always know why. Second of all, what we kind of said before, but these visuals, whatever you create, need to match the emotional state of your niche, right? So if you're a coach here, for example, your visuals need to match this, right? Don't show yourself play tennis when you're a mindset coach, right? Unless you're a mindset coach for tennis players, obviously, right? And then with the text that you have there still, you need to have some sort of hook at the beginning, target a specific pain point, right? Anytime content, that's the easiest way of actually getting attention here and getting the algorithm to show and people to stop. And in this case, especially with motivational content, we're kind of past that just motivational kind of content phase because people are over it. So we need some sort of real world scenario that people can attach, that people can see themselves into. So for example, does your stomach drop when somebody asks you for a favor? Just that sentence alone paints a picture in my head and I'm going to relive, I'm actually going to think of this happening to me in the past probably. And that's what you want to get across, especially with this short form B-roll content. There's a lot of storytelling in this sort of easy, simple to make seven second content. So I actually did some digging and I found one example of content that first of all, blew up 160,000 likes. And that does exactly what I just talked about. So let's take a look here. It's basically the same content, just 100 times better. First of all, it has a clear visual hook right there. You're so quiet. And then we can kind of match this, what's happening in there. So people, exactly what we just talked about, people can find themselves in the same situation they were in probably at some point. It's literally a very simple B-roll of an everyday situation, not overproduced, filled with a phone, right? They just literally pop the phone right there and that's it while drinking some whatever. So it doesn't even feel like it's being set up, even though it was, but it's from a real life situation. We instantly know it's some real creator and not just some AI generated or some bot or some stock footage crap. And just take a look at these two things side by side, right? Obviously you can see what's going on here. I don't even know who she is or what she does actually, but I would buy her stuff if I were part of her target audience. At least I would consider it. The other one, it's so far away from me actually considering buying or whatever it is, right? And that's what it's all about, right? We connect to people. We relate with people. After all, it's still called social media. It's not really social anymore, but this is the part of social media that it's still social in a way. Now, if you want to be included in one of those next content breakdowns, whatever that might be, link is down below totally for free. But here's the one thing I forgot to mention before. Fixing these first three seconds and the hook is only half of the game because a real hook that actually goes viral only ends when your whole video actually does. So let me show you what to do exactly after what you just learned here to keep people watching and to really blow up videos here.