YouTubers - this makes you sound self-obsessed

Your hook can make or break your video's performance.

But... you already know this.

Yet most YouTubers end up damaging their retention by making a (completely logical) mistake in the first 30 seconds.

To help you identify it, take a look at this hook extract:

I assume you can see the problem.

The hook reads like a resumé, rather than a promise of value.

In fact, I used Claude to compare the instances where the YouTuber spoke explicitly about something the viewer would get from watching the video vs something they had done...

...and the results were pretty stark:

15 moments about the speaker. Their achievements. Their credentials. Their journey.

Just 1 about the viewer, and what the video would do for them.

But honestly… I understand why this happens.

YouTubers often front-load credibility because it feels like the logical way to earn trust.

But think about your own behaviour on YouTube. How many pieces of relevant credibility do you need to hear before deciding a video is worth your time?

Sure, the credibility needs to be relevant to the topic. But in the above example, if I’d simply heard...

“I grew [channel] to quarter of a million subscribers and over 650,000 euros in revenue, and in this video…”

...I can't imagine I'd be sitting there saying:

"Oh yeah, but what can you really tell me about YouTube growth and entrepreneurship?!"

No. I'd say: "Fantastic. You seem legit. Now what's in this video for me?"

Your hook only needs one piece of credibility. After that, talk to the viewer.

So... check your next hook for this totally logical - but ultimately harmful - mistake.

Or, for speed, paste your hook into an LLM using the prompt below.

Analyse the following YouTube hook transcript. I want you to identify every moment where the speaker refers to something they have done, built, or achieved (speaker-focused) versus every moment where the speaker describes something the viewer will get or learn (viewer-focused).Then produce a single HTML file that visually highlights these in two colours within the transcript, includes a bar chart comparing the counts, and ends with a short verdict summarising the imbalance.

Here is my hook transcript to analyse:

[PASTE YOUR HOOK TRANSCRIPT HERE]

(I started using Claude a LOT recently - it turns analyses like these into beautiful presentations.)

That's all for this week!

Any questions? You can to reply to this email and I'll get back to you.

Speak soon,
George 👋