Young and Profiting with Hala Taha - Hala Taha: Hook Your Audience in 8 Seconds and Stand Out Online

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Starting point is 00:01:27 As always, you can find all of our incredible deals in the show notes. ["Sweet Home"] Young and Profiters, welcome back to the first ever episode of the YAP Creators series. This series is a deep dive into the art and science of content creation. Everything from mastering attention to understanding the psychology that fuels audience engagement. Every piece of content you put out should be meaningful, intentional, and ultimately drive action.

Starting point is 00:02:03 This series is all about giving you the tools to make that happen. Throughout these episodes, I'll share insights from powerful creators who have been guests on the show. Experts like Sean Cannell, Gary Vee, and Alex Ramosi. Today, we're kicking things off with a critical first topic, the psychology of attention and content creation. In a world where attention spans are shorter than ever, mastering this is essential. The goal is to make people stop scrolling, engage, and stay with you until the very end. In a world where attention spans are shorter than ever, mastering this is essential. The goal is to make people stop scrolling, engage, and stay with you until the very end. Top content creators use sneaky tactics to hook you into their videos and get you to

Starting point is 00:02:34 want to keep watching them. With about only 8 seconds to make an impact, it's crucial to stand out. Imagine a crowded street where everyone's shouting to be noticed. Your goal is to make viewers stop and pay attention. On platforms like YouTube, thumbnails and titles are your first chance to hook in viewers. Thumbnails act like curb appeal. The more visually striking and straightforward they are, the more likely that people are to click.

Starting point is 00:03:00 Titles should be direct, keyword-focused, and hint at the value that you'll deliver. Bold titles that spark curiosity or make clear promises set the stage for viewers to stay engaged. Sean Cannell, who built his YouTube channel from scratch, stresses the importance of thumbnails and titles as a strong first line of offense. He recommends clean, simple thumbnails with bold colors, minimal text, and a clear focal point. A cluttered thumbnail or a vague title is not going to spark curiosity.

Starting point is 00:03:29 It's just going to confuse people. Less is more. The goal is to create a pause effect that stops viewers from scrolling and makes them want to watch. If you've been creating content for a while, you've probably heard a lot about titles and thumbnails. But Sean adds another key element. Topic. Here's what he has to say about that. YouTube is recommending brand new channels, but here is the painful part for you listening

Starting point is 00:03:56 to this. If you get a chance on this free platform to get in front of a complete stranger, are you gonna miss that opportunity or are you gonna get it? Good news is it doesn't just come once in a lifetime, but what I've noticed is that sometimes when those channels get recommended, I'm like, that title doesn't really grip me, that thumbnail is not that great.

Starting point is 00:04:20 And those are gonna be the two metrics. What is included in that topic, right time, right place. So it's the topic itself and then a good title that makes it even more interesting, like that's an irresistible video. And so you want to get the click and those are what you're optimizing for. Sean says the biggest factor to grab people's attention

Starting point is 00:04:39 is having a topic at the right place and the right time. Gary Vee calls this the TikTokification of social media. When we spoke earlier this year about his new book, Day Trading Attention, Gary broke it down for me. I'm one of the biggest LinkedIn marketing experts. I teach like a two-day class. It's the most popular class and I can hack the algorithm, and that's why people hire me.

Starting point is 00:05:00 One of the things that's happening this year is that they're prioritizing interest relevancy over engagement probability. It used to be that you would post something motivational, something inspirational. If people shared it, you'd go viral. Now it's all about posting a specific topic, educating people, and then LinkedIn will match users based on the things they like, the interest graph. Exactly. So I actually wanted you to...

Starting point is 00:05:24 Can you go super deep on the interest graph because I feel like this is the major trend happening with all social media sites. And that's what I, from your book, I was like, oh, he's right on the money. This is, yeah. I told my brother that I thought Tumblr was gonna be bigger than Facebook and Twitter.

Starting point is 00:05:37 I went Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr in my investing. Those are the first three companies I invested in, in my life, out of a liquor store in New Jersey. It's like funny, it's like I'm like, you can see I'm laughing at my, it's so improbable, like it's absurd. Comma, I thought Tumblr was gonna be the biggest because of this conversation,

Starting point is 00:05:53 just took 15 years for it to happen. Again everybody, social media for the first decade plus was very simple. It was like email marketing. You would get as many people to follow you as possible, and then you would post, and a percentage of those people would see it. That was the simple. It was like email marketing. You would get as many people to follow you as possible, and then you would post, and a percentage of those people would see it. That was the game.

Starting point is 00:06:09 And that was easy for me to figure out, because I did email marketing in 97, 98, 99, when that was like new, and I was a big winner in that game. That was underpriced attention. I was competing against liquor stores that were making catalogs, but I was getting to the customer for free

Starting point is 00:06:24 instead of how much a catalog costs and getting to them faster. It was huge. It was foundational. So I saw the same thing in social. So I masked big followings. That was the focus. Tick tockification of social media,

Starting point is 00:06:37 like I talk about in the book. That interest graph algorithm is now gonna eat up everything because it's better. It keeps you on the platform longer. Let's use common sense. You go to your Facebook, you're now 27, you went on Facebook at 18, the people you followed

Starting point is 00:06:51 are people you met like one night hooking up or at a random party or whatever, and now you're seeing posts of them in Ohio with their aunt and you're like, I don't give a fuck. But just like email, we don't unsubscribe from our fucking list, we just delete it or archive it. Like we don't put in the work to clean up our shit. So you kept seeing shit you didn't give a fuck about,

Starting point is 00:07:11 which made you not spend four hours on it. It made you spend 14 minutes on your feed. Then you go to TikTok and you're seeing unlimited shit that you fuck with. And four hours later, you're like, what the fuck just happened? That's good for TikTok, that was bad for Facebook. Now all of them are gonna be like TikTok

Starting point is 00:07:25 and every social network is gonna have the for you page DNA in them for quite a while now. Maybe forever, cause it's more humanly true. That's what I focus on and that's why focus on your niche is about to fuck up everyone. You're gonna need to talk about more things than ever that are true to you, because you're gonna need that talk about more things than ever that are true to you, because you're gonna need that content

Starting point is 00:07:47 to find more different audiences for you to be as big as you want to be. I was gonna ask you, does that mean riches are in the niches now because of the interest graph? But to your point, if you've got multiple topics. It's an and game. Got it.

Starting point is 00:08:00 Think about how weird I am. The reason I know everybody from afar, especially in the game you're in, are like what? Like garage sale videos. Then I, my grid has been fucked up for 12 years. And I was like, make a good grid. It's gotta be on brand.

Starting point is 00:08:13 I'm like, you fucking have no idea what you're talking about. The grid is like 5% of the consumption. The feed is the whole game. So you go to my fucking thing, you're like, who is this? Jets video, garage sale, keynote, board meeting. Like I'm confusing the shit out of people because I don't care about the grid. I care about being as relevant to as many different people

Starting point is 00:08:36 as humanly possible. Let's talk about viral. Sure. I'm gonna use baseball. I know it's not as popular anymore, but it's the easiest one. Going viral is hitting a grand slam. Do you know anything about baseball? A little, I know enough. Enough as popular anymore, but it's the easiest one. Going viral is hitting a grand slam. Do you know anything about baseball?

Starting point is 00:08:46 A little, I know enough. Enough can be dangerous. You know what a strikeout is? Yes. Good. Most posts are a strikeout. Okay. Right? Doesn't do what you want it to do. I'm in the business of singles and doubles and triples

Starting point is 00:08:59 with the occasional home run and grand slam, but could give a shit about hitting a grand slam. Or if you don't follow baseball, everyone, I won't use an analogy. I don't ever think about going viral. Ever. I only think about making good content that is valuable to the people on the other side and that means that most of my stuff

Starting point is 00:09:17 will consistently do solid. Occasionally do better than solid. And once in a while go viral. I believe that most people suck at social media because they try to go viral on every post and when they don't, they cry to mommy. So you're more about posting as much as you can, hopefully they all do pretty good.

Starting point is 00:09:33 And posting as much as you can is also based on self-awareness of like, I start with like, do I have something to say that could bring someone value? Again, I need everybody to hear this. That comes in all shapes and sizes. I mean this. If you're funny and you do a skit, like King Bach,

Starting point is 00:09:50 that's value. You made somebody smile. And it's a fucked up world out there and the feeds are fucking negative and media's negative and like that little ha ha ha. If you're attractive, like people like looking at attractive people. If you know something about LinkedIn,

Starting point is 00:10:02 that's valuable to the people that want LinkedIn. Like we all have value. If you know something about BMX or wine or sneaker, value, value, value. I think people have niched themselves in a corner. What happens if you know a lot about sneakers and you know a lot about bourbon? Post both. Like Gary says, you have to pick your topics and don't be scared to have more than one topic. The algorithm will do its job to feed your content to relevant audiences if you have a clear topic. Gary also mentions that value comes in all forms.

Starting point is 00:10:33 This is really important and we'll get back to it in a bit. But first, let's move on to openings and introductions of our content. At Young and Profiting, we're intentional with our intros because we know the first few seconds are everything. The best way to capture attention right away is by creating a curiosity gap. The curiosity gap is a psychological concept that refers to the space between what people know and what they want to know. It's used in marketing and storytelling to entice audiences by providing just enough information to spark curiosity without fully satisfying it.

Starting point is 00:11:06 This prompts people to take action, like clicking, reading, watching, to close the gap and satisfy their curiosity. You want to keep opening curiosity gaps throughout your content. One way to leverage the curiosity gap is by using a headline overlay, an overlay like seven ways to avoid burnout. This immediately tells the viewer what value they're going to gain, and it sets expectations by sparking curiosity. Well, what are the seven ways? And notice that I used a number in this example,

Starting point is 00:11:36 number seven, seven ways to avoid burnout. Numbers attract attention because they're specific. What are the seven ways? It makes you wonder, well, why is there seven ways and not eight or nine ways? Odd numbers are more specific. Numbers that are not whole numbers are even more specific and attract more attention.

Starting point is 00:11:55 Numbers immediately tell the audience what to expect, giving the hook more of a defined promise. Seven ways is definitely more enticing than just the ways to avoid burnout. And lastly, you can increase the punch to your hook by adding more numbers like revenue targets, timeline, or implied speed. And nobody knows how to hook viewers in more than somebody like Alex Hermosy, who has basically blown up overnight and become one of the top brands online through his engaging videos.

Starting point is 00:12:25 Here's him demonstrating how to spark curiosity with numbers in the intro of a recent YouTube video. In this video, I'm gonna show you how to turn $1,000 into $45,000 through email. And over the last 90 days, we spent just under 10 million emails from acquisition.com and we generate tens of millions of dollars across our portfolio using email itself. And in this video, I'm gonna break down emails Aside from hooking people in with a text headline overlay, you can also hook people in with

Starting point is 00:12:58 action at the beginning of a video. In the example that I just played, Alex holds up two sheets of paper when he says how to go from 1K to 45K. Action could also be something like a hand gesture, a close up of a sizzling frying pan, jumping into the frame, running through a brick wall, anything that's going to surprise and shock your audience and get them hooked. The last thing that I'll say about intros is that you should be intentional about sharing what your audience can expect right at the beginning. This gives them a reason to stay engaged. Promise something

Starting point is 00:13:28 and then you have to deliver on that promise throughout the video. Former YAP guest Ken Okazaki, who heads up Oz Media Global and helps his clients generate millions of dollars from video marketing, summarized this best. Let me paint a quick picture for you. Say you're a drug dealer, right? And social media, by the way, I see the closest analogy is it's like a farm, right? And like you got to plot the land on the farm. And the person who owns the farm is, you know, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, they own the farm and you are leasing a plot. Now what's going on is when you create content, then the product is your content.

Starting point is 00:14:05 And they use that and they sell it. The only thing on social media, universally across all platforms that is a universal currency is time. People buy time. The advertisers buy it from the farmer. And you're just the person who's volunteering to create, you know, to work the farm for them, which is, you know,

Starting point is 00:14:23 amazing that they convinced us to do this. But so now that we've got this analogy where time is the monetizable product, it actually is money. It's bought and sold every single day, millions of times, billions of dollars. And when you understand this, then what you got to think is like, well, if I am buying and selling time and that's the currency of social media, when someone watches a video, let's say they spend three minutes, they pay you three units of time. And what are you getting in return? What you got to give them is a dopamine hit, because otherwise they will not get addicted, they won't come back, they won't feel like they got their money's worth.

Starting point is 00:14:59 So if you say, hey, get over here, you know, spend three minutes with me, and I'm going to give you a dopamine hit, they come, they pay their three minutes, and you don't give it. Two things are gonna happen. Number one, they're gonna feel like, hey, you are a scumbag. And number two, I'm never coming back, and I might even tell people to avoid you.

Starting point is 00:15:15 And that's what happens when the promise doesn't meet the delivery. So what you wanna do is give them a dopamine hit. And I think another way to say this is aha moment. If you could get people, like right now, I see you're nodding, I love that. When I see people nodding, I'm like, we're on the same page, they're having an aha moment here.

Starting point is 00:15:34 And that transaction was successful, very likely they'll come back. So you just gotta deliver what you say you can deliver. If you say, I'm gonna teach you the most mind blowing strategy to use Chat chat GPT, that will earn me $12,000 in the next 30 days. And then you actually show screenshots and demonstrate it. That is a good fit.

Starting point is 00:15:52 But if you say it and then give some general advice without showing anything that's actually believable, not a high chance that people will continue coming back. They'll be disappointed. Okay. Let's move on to how we can keep listeners engaged after the intro. The concept of pattern interrupts can be extremely effective in longer videos. Pattern interrupts are unexpected elements in the content that

Starting point is 00:16:14 break up the usual flow and give users something to focus on, which re-engages their attention. These can be sudden zoom ins, quick cuts, unique sound effects or color changes. Another approach is to build in novelty with small surprising elements. This could mean adding a quick animated graphic, a pop of color, b-roll footage, or a brief audio cue that stands out from the usual rhythm. When used sparingly, these surprises act as mini-resets for viewers to refocus and help them stay

Starting point is 00:16:45 engaged. Tools like OpusCup can help you find the most emotional or action-packed parts of your videos, and also can make your videos more engaging and boost watch time by automatically adding AI b-roll to your videos. Grabbing attention with video editing tactics can help your videos move fast-paced, it can help them be more engaging. People remember stories far more than they remember facts. Why?

Starting point is 00:17:08 Because stories involve emotions and emotions make things more memorable. You wanna use a value-first approach in your videos that gives your audience insights that hook them in from the start. Then you wanna guide them through a mini story throughout the video that keeps them engaged until the end. When we create content, we want it to be more than just information.

Starting point is 00:17:28 We want it to feel like an experience. One way to create this feeling is through a simple, relatable, three-step storytelling structure. 1. Introduce a common problem. 2. Share a relatable struggle. 3.

Starting point is 00:17:41 Provide a solution. Think of it like this. The problem is the hook, the struggle is the emotional connection, and the resolution is the payoff. This arc makes viewers feel invested in the outcome because they've emotionally connected with the journey. Relatability is key here because people connect with stories that mirror their own challenges. Maybe you're talking about work-life balance or the pressure to succeed in a competitive market. These are experiences that many people relate on

Starting point is 00:18:08 on a deep level. And when you tap into this emotional common ground and when you share your own stories, you're not just holding attention, you're creating loyalty. Your audience feels like they know you and more importantly, that you know them. This mutual understanding builds trust and engagement over time. Storytelling is a skill I think that we should all spend time improving. Yastrakhan,

Starting point is 00:18:31 one of the most sought after public speaking coaches in the world, recently came on and gave me his three Rs to good storytelling. The most important thing that I feel that storytelling does is it's just memorable. People just remember for much longer. So if I asked you, do you want people to remember what you said? Yes. OK. Do you want to share your message in a way

Starting point is 00:18:53 that people remember it? Yes. Then you must do it in a format of a story. How many of your three-hour lectures do you remember from college, Hala? Like, none. Exactly. How many movies since you were a child you remember?

Starting point is 00:19:05 Plenty. And all of those are stories. I imagine none of those were 30 bullet points from start to finish, right? No. So you have to learn to create imagery and you have to get people to feel something. If they don't feel anything, they will not remember. So talk to us about how we can become better storytellers. How can we start to infuse stories and the things that we do and get better at it?

Starting point is 00:19:27 Is there a formula or how should we think about it? There are three things that I talk about. The three R's to be remembered. The first R is your story has to be repeatable. If I hear the story, can I hear it long enough to then repeat it to someone else? If you've heard your favorite standup comedian, you have this bit that you like,

Starting point is 00:19:46 oh, he has a great bit on dating or great bit on whatever. You can repeat it to other people. If I can't repeat it, I won't remember it. So first thing has to be repeatable. Number two, does it relay emotion? Do I feel something when I hear your story? I can tell you about how I got into my car and I got gas and I came back home. What's the point? It's a pointless story, but is there a point to it?

Starting point is 00:20:08 And you'll be shocked how many things you can make sound emotional. Like earlier we talked about cleaning the dishes and just with the volume, we made it sound a little bit emotional, right? Someone asked me in a conference of 500 loan officers, napkins, and we made napkins emotional. So can you talk about that with emotion? Can you resonate and relay your emotion? And number three, I feel like this is the strongest thing when it comes to storytelling.

Starting point is 00:20:30 Can you reframe an existing belief? If your story tells me what I already know, it's not changing my belief. Can you take me from point A to point B and reframe how I look at the world? That's what a good story does. So three things, it has to be repeatable, you have to relay emotion, and it has to reframe how I look at the world. That's what a good story does. So three things, it has to be repeatable, you have to relay emotion,

Starting point is 00:20:47 and it has to reframe your beliefs. It's so true. Stories like really trigger our own emotions. We feel more relatable to the person talking. And to your point, it helps us question like our own beliefs. And that's the point. And that's, especially with social media, gets people commenting and giving their thoughts,

Starting point is 00:21:05 they're agreeing, they're disagreeing, and it kind of like causes a lot of engagement. So like you heard it from Yasser, storytelling is so important to connect with your audience. So before you start your next video or content piece, think about structuring it as a mini story with three parts, the problem, the struggle, and the resolution. Even if it's a short clip,

Starting point is 00:21:25 this structure can make it feel like a complete journey, keeping viewers engaged from start to finish. The goal isn't just to get them to watch, it's to make them care for long enough to get the value. And when you get them to care for long enough to stay and get the value, they're going to come back for more and become engaged fans.

Starting point is 00:21:44 And that wraps up the first episode of the YAP Creator series. value, they're going to come back for more and become engaged fans. And that wraps up the first episode of the YAP Creator series. Today, we explored the psychology of attention and content creation, touching on everything from hooks to pattern interrupts. In this landscape where attention is currency, those first few seconds count, but providing value while you hold attention can keep your audience coming back for more. If you're new to all of this, please don't feel overwhelmed. Content creation is a journey and you don't have to apply everything all at once.

Starting point is 00:22:11 Start by choosing one or two techniques to be discussed today. Maybe experiment with a stronger hook or try adding pattern interrupts into your videos. Small consistent changes can lead to big results over time. Opus Clip has been a huge help for us at YAP Media in pinpointing high-impact moments and transforming our longer content into bite-sized, engaging clips. In fact, Opus Clip can help you stitch together scenes from different parts of a long-form content video to highlight a specific theme and produce professional-grade storytelling in every clip.

Starting point is 00:22:45 It is such a game changer. It is such a time saver. If you're looking to streamline your content, you can try Opus Clip at opus.pro slash clip anything. You can try it totally for free at opus.pro slash clip anything. That's opus.pro slash clip anything. Well, I can't wait to dive into our next episode. We're going to explore the art of building trust and authenticity online, two key elements that help create a loyal, engaged audience.

Starting point is 00:23:11 Thanks for tuning in, and I'll see you in episode two of the YAP Creators series. you

Young and Profiting with Hala Taha - Hala Taha: Hook Your Audience in 8 Seconds and Stand Out Online

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