The ‘Invisible’ Hook That Makes Your Videos Impossible to Skip (Subliminal Influence)

0:00If you want to get more views on your videos, there's a key piece of your script you've probably been ignoring. It's called the lock-in zone. Now, everybody talks about the importance of your hook, and it is important, but it turns out what you say directly after your hook is the real reason why your videos hold attention. The hook gets the attention, but the lock-in zone is what really locks it in. Now, I've studied thousands of the top videos across every niche, and there is a super clear formula for how to approach the lock-in zone that'll make your videos outperform. So, in this video, I'm going to break down the six different ways you

0:33should be approaching the lock-in zone with tactical examples. I'm telling you, this is advanced level storytelling psychology, but if you can learn to do this right, your content will dramatically improve overnight. By the way, if you don't know me, my name is Callaway. I have 2 million followers. I've done billions of views and content

0:49is all I do all day long. All right. Now, just to make sure we're all on the same page, the hook is the first sentence you say and the two to three seconds that you show on screen visually. You got the spoken hook, the text hook, the visual hook. And I don't want to downplay it. Your hook is critically important. It is the

1:07beachfront real estate in your video. Without a good hook, you are dead in the water. So, you must have a solve for this. Now, if you want to learn how to handle the hook, I've got plenty of other videos for that. I think the one I just made a few weeks ago is the best I've ever done. I'll link that below if you want to learn more. Now, psychologically, the hook's only job is to capture the attention. It stops the scroll and then it aims the viewer so that they can decide whether to opt in or out to keep watching. But when I say lock-in zone, I'm talking about the one

1:33to three sentences that come directly after the hook. Now, I've never really talked about this concept in this depth before, but this is one of the secrets that has allowed me to go super viral while still aiming and filtering my content for the exact audience I want. Think of the lock-in zone like a ratchet on curiosity. The hook takes you from zero to one curious, but the lock-in zone really takes you from 1 to 10. And when you're watching a video, you don't even realize it's happening, but the lock-in zone has this subliminal influence effect. It is the thing that

2:03is holding you on the video for longer. Now, I will say not every single video has an answer for the lockin zone. Some videos go straight from hook to body, but I've analyzed a ton of top video data through Sand Castles, and the data shows using one of these six methods will dramatically increase the performance of your video. So, for each one, I'm going to frame what it is, give you a couple examples of it in action, and then break down when you should use it or when you should use a different one. All right. Now, the first method for handling the locking zone is very

2:31straightforward. It's called teasing the proof, and it works like this. In the hook, you make some bold claim that maps to the desired outcome the viewer wants. Then, in the lock-in zone, you give very concrete and tactical proof that proves what you're about to say will get them that outcome. This is obviously very

2:49straightforward when I say it like this. Make a claim and then show proof. But you'd be surprised at how few people use concrete tactical proof to qualify their hook. Here's the first example of this lock-in zone method from a video that I made. You can now have Claude optimize the CTAs in your videos. I ran this one time and it increased my leads per video by 4x. It's pretty wild. Now, in this video, my bold claim in the hook is that you can now use Claude to optimize the CTAs in your videos, right? So, it's very clear and direct on what I'm promising, but it'd be completely fair

3:19for someone to dismiss that if they didn't think it was real or interesting enough. In both scenarios, where they doubt me or just get bored of me, the video flops. So, what you need is proof backing up that that claim actually works to make the video worth listening to. And so, my lock-in zone here was very simple. I ran this just one time and it increased my leads by 4x. Just that extra sentence alone is enough to make someone who cares about upping their CTA conversion to pause and then keep watching on the video. Without that, the video might not hold their curiosity. Now, here's a second example

3:52of this first lock-in zone type from Minnow Lee. it. and I'm going to give you all six viral hooks in 60 seconds. And the last one got me 30 million views and 100,000 followers. Now, again, his hook claim was pretty compelling, but it kind of lacks proof. He said, "I'm going to give you all six viral hooks in 60 seconds." That's interesting, but only if I know who he

4:10is and trust the results he's saying. But by him adding that proof teaser in the next line, him saying, "This last one got me 30 million views and 100,000 followers," it validates that what he's going to say has credibility. So, this first lock-in zone formula works extremely well. And of course, you would use it if you actually have concrete and tactical proof, numerical proof, statistical proof that you can easily defend your claim with. [music] Typically, this one is used for educational channels that are trying to build authority around a result that they've gotten or they've gotten for clients. And obviously, if you don't have concrete proof, you would skip this

4:46one and use a different one. Only use this if you actually have real proof. All right. All right, lock in method number two is called teasing a favorable transformation or effect. And this really is like a cousin to the first one. You would use this if you don't have statistical or concrete proof, but it is very easy to identify the transformation the viewer wants. So, for example, if your viewer wanted to become more confident, if you made a hook claim, then the second line in the lock-in zone would be something about showing why doing that thing would give you more confidence. Becoming more confident is not like a quantifiable

5:17metric. So that's why this falls into bucket number two. Now the first example here is again from my content. Here's how to write a hook so good it is basically unskippable. This is called the desire hook method. And if you do this right, it'll turn viewers into buyers at a crazy rate. So the first hook claim I had was here's how to write a hook so good it is basically unskippable. And that's a pretty bold claim for me to make without some version of lockin coming right after. So the lock-in zone part was two lines. It was me saying this is called the desire hook method. And if you do this right,

5:46it'll turn viewers into buyers at a crazy rate. So here in the lockin zone, I'm signaling the transformation that they want, which is to make content that can turn viewers into buyers. Now, honestly, what would be better here is if I would have used concrete proof. But I didn't have concrete proof for this specific claim. So I defaulted down to the transformation. And this video still got a couple hundred thousand views. So

6:07the transformation can work on its own. Obviously, you want to bias towards concrete proof if you have it. Now, here's a second example for me, also my video, but on the tech side. So, completely different niche, completely different audience. And this one is about AI home design software. This is the future of home design. It's called Zuru. And their AI software makes building your dream house feel like you're playing a video game. So, the hook for this one, the first line was, "This is the future of home design." And then for the lock-in zone, I added, "It's called Zuru, and it makes designing your dream home feel like

6:37you're playing a video game." Again, in this one, I started with this broad, bold claim of this is going to change the future of home design. But then, even though that feels sensational and big, it doesn't really connect specifically to the viewer. And so, what I figured was a cool transformation they might want is to make it feel fun, like a video game to design your home. And so, that's why I added that second sentence during the lockin zone to make it feel like a transformation they wanted. You see how just adding a couple lines in the lockin zone helps contextualize what I'm saying and make

7:04it way more specific for the viewer. Typically, if you add an extra line like this, signaling a transformation they would want, even if you don't have proof, the video will do much better. All right, the third lock-in zone method is rapidly introducing contrast. And what you're really doing here is immediately stating the common belief about whatever the topic is and then introducing some alternative. As I've said many times in previous videos on this channel, curiosity comes from contrast. All curiosity and intrigue is

7:31just based on an A verse B scenario. [music] He did this. She did that. What's the difference? This is one scenario. Now I'm doing this. Why' you change? What is different about them? All curiosity is rooted in a state change from A to B. So this lock-in zone method is explicitly painting that state change on purpose right away. Now, the first example is again from my marketing content. The reason your videos don't hold attention is because you're using the wrong story arc. This is what we were all taught in

7:59school. The traditional story arc. initial conflict, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution. But on social media with our cracked out brains, this fiveact story no longer works because most people scroll away before the rising action ever gets good. So instead on social media, you want to use this, the modern story arc. Now, that one is a little bit of a longer lock-in zone. It's four to five sentences, but it does a really good job of ratcheting up the curiosity. So the initial hook was the reason your videos aren't holding attention is because you're using the wrong story arc. Now, what I did in the lockin zone over those

8:30four to five sentences is first tea up the existing belief, the traditional story arc that everyone knows. List out why that traditional belief might be wrong and then propose an alternative, creating the contrast between traditional and the modern. By doing this, I set up that A versus B comparison in your brain and the curiosity just takes over. You really want to know what's wrong with traditional that modern solves. And that question, you wanting to know is what locks you in. Now, the second example is from Brier. He's like my cousin in the content world. If I ever were to do a long form podcast just chopping it up

9:02about content strategies, it would be with Brier. So, if you want to see that, drop a comment below. So, let's watch his video here and I'll break this one down as well. If you're a creator and you do not understand hook stacking, then you need to watch this video. Okay, this is the difference between a creator who really gets watch time that pushes into the 50-second, maybe even the 60-second mark and a creator whose skip rate is like really, really high. and no one actually watches their videos. Now, in a meta way, his hook stacking concept is kind of like similar to the lockin zone. I just realized that when I

9:34watched it, his hook in this one is if you're a creator and you don't understand hook stacking, then you need to watch this video. And this does a pretty good job of creating curiosity on its own just by introducing the premise of hook stacking, which is one of the other lock-in zones I'll go through in a second. But what really locks you in and makes you want to watch the whole thing, is what he says in the next sentence. He says, "This hook stacking is the difference between a creator who can hold attention for 50 seconds and

9:58someone whose skip rate is super high." Again, essentially framing the good, what you want, verse the bad, A versus B. Now, because he added that second sentence and he obviously knows what he's doing. He did this on purpose. He qualified that initial claim of why hook stacking was important. So, it made you so much more interested in wanting to hear more. Now, to be clear, when would you use this lock-in zone method over the other ones? You would use it when your hook frame is not that interesting to begin with. When I said in my example, "The reason your videos don't hold attention is cuz you're using the

10:27wrong story arc," the concept of a story arc is kind of mid on its own. It's like, "Yeah, it could be interesting, but it's not like grabbing me to want to listen to more." So, if you're afraid that your topic or your claim is not that interesting, you need to ratchet it up by forcing the curiosity in there. And that's what the contrast does. So, that would be your telltale sign for when to use this method. if you just feel like the intro premise is just kind of boring. All right, so that's the third lockin approach, explicitly making contrast. Before we go any further, today's video is sponsored by Meta. They

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12:25method is called framing the magic box. And actually, on a couple of the examples I've shown already, we did a conjunction of the magic box plus one of the other ones. I often do this one. This is like my go-to. Framing the magic box is when you say some term or method or framework. You give it a name that someone doesn't know that you're going to clarify how it works later in the video. It's really term branding and kind of creating brandable terms. Now, you don't have to do it on every single video like I do, but when you do have something that comes up that you think

12:53you could give a name to, this is a very powerful way to increase curiosity. We're just going to do one example for this one to keep it super quick since like a lot of the other ones have it as well, but this would be a video from me doing this. Here's how to make your storytelling so addictive it is scientifically impossible to skip. This

13:08is called the dopamine addiction loop. It's only four steps, but it uses the exact same psychology casinos use to keep people gambling. Now, my hook here was here's how to make your storytelling so addictive it is impossible to skip. And my lock-in zone here with the magic box was this is called the dopamine addiction loop. It's only four steps and it uses the same psychology casinos use to keep people gambling. Now, this one works really well when you do have a method or framework, some container that you can brand and wrap around the concept. By calling it the dopamine addiction loop, I made it feel novel,

13:41like there was some answer that you had to wait to find out. And so, like I said, you would only really use this one if you had some unique name or method. And you could stack this one on some of the other lock-in zone formulas. This is the one that can be combined most easily. By the way, guys, before I finish this video with the last two methods, I've actually linked below a doc with my eight core storytelling principles. These are like the go-to things to use in short form content when you're writing scripts if you want to have better psychology and drive more retention. It's all free down below. You

14:12can have it if you want. And also, if you're struggling with your script writing and storytelling and you feel like that's your biggest bottleneck, I recommend checking out SFA. This is my program where I work one-on-one and in group sessions with business owners. And the number one thing that we accelerate up is their hookw writing and their script writing. I have all of my frameworks, all of my systems super dialed. And this just helps you avoid 12 months of like posting and trying to figure out what's wrong. I literally watch your video live, decompose it, tell you exactly what to change, and this really would be the fastest way to

14:41improve your script writing. So, if you're interested in that and working with me directly, I've got links below. All right, the fifth lock-in zone method is called objection handling. And this is very common to do when you're in sales or on sales conversations. Objection handling is proactively hearing, handling, and addressing whatever the number one concern would be when someone's starting to listen to your hook. Because if you make a bold claim, even if it's good, but then they come up with a reason for why the video doesn't apply to them or they have some excuse, they're just going to scroll away because they're going to caveat

15:12whatever you're going to say next. So, this one is great to use whenever you have a topic or premise that is very bold or contrarian and you know there's going to be a common objection. Here are two examples to show you what I mean live again. The first one is me from my marketing channel. This is best viral formats episode 3 yapping. Everybody's loving yaps right now because they seem so easy to make. But the irony is all the best yaps that go viral are following a set formula. Now in this one for the hook I started with this little series thing. You can ignore that. But

15:39basically in the hook I said this is best viral formats episode 3 yapping. But the real hook line came next. Everybody loves yapping because they seem so easy to make. But then my lockin zone was immediately handling the most common objection around yapping. So I said, but the irony is most of the best yaps going viral are all following a set formula. And so what I'm really doing from a psychology perspective here is this. The most common objection that would prevent someone from wanting to yap is either I don't have anything interesting to say or those people just

16:08have amazing personalities and I don't. Right? People come up with one of the two and they're like I can't do it. And so they're objecting. And so what I'm doing is handling that objection proactively and being like no. All of these are following a very set formula. It has nothing to do with their personality and it's not having something interesting to say. It's a formula. And so by doing this when you hear it in real time, I dismiss that objection and you're like, "Oh, there's a formula. I wonder what it is." And

16:29then that's what keeps you watching. Now, here's another example from Jaden in the content space. His stuff is great. Are four YouTube videos that you must watch to instantly make better content. And here's the catch. None of these have anything to do with social media. So, his hook here, pretty standard listical. Here are four videos to watch that will

16:45make you instantly better at content. Now, many of these types of videos have been made and flopped in the past. So, why did his not flop? My posture would be it's what he said in the lock-in zone in the next line. He probably thought the most common objection when people make these videos is that people are sitting there being like, "I've watched all this before. Like, I've seen this and it never helps me, right? Something like this." So, what he did was lean into that and handle the objection right away. And he said, "But the trick is none of these videos have anything to do with social media." Which immediately

17:13swerves the objection and opens the curiosity back up. They're like, "Oh, one of these might be actually the tip I've been looking for." And that's what holds them to keep watching. It seems like a very little thing, but this actually is the main reason why someone didn't just scroll after 3 seconds and actually sat there for 30. Now, again, you want to use this one if there is a clear and obvious objection for why someone would scroll away. If there is

17:35no objection, then don't use this one. Use a different one. All right, the sixth and final lockin zone is called the bold claim double down. And this one is actually pretty straightforward as well based on the name. In this one, you make the claim in the hook and then you intensify and double down right away in the lockin zone. Essentially, what you're doing is saying a thing and then saying it again, but like a slightly different way. Now, the reason you would use this one is if the claim in your hook that you're making is

17:59sensationalist, but not really clear. This often happens when you're introducing something brand new that not a lot of people are like aware of or the term they can't resonate with. You need to say it again to basically clarify and double down. And what this really does is give you two chances at the clarity. It buys you a little bit more time for the viewer to kind of wrap their head around the concept before you move

18:19[music] past. So, here are two examples. One for me on the marketing side and one for me on the tech side. Let's do the marketing one first. This is how to get people addicted to your storytelling, even if you talk about super boring topics. It's called the illusion of novelty. And this one framework is the ultimate storytelling hack for boring businesses. The hook I used for this one was this is how to get people addicted to your storytelling, even if you talk about super boring topics. And obviously the key claim of this whole frame was boring topics. Now this entire video falls apart if the person didn't hear

18:49the word boring topics or like know what boring topics meant or connect with it cuz everything coming later was about this idea. So what I did is doubled down in the lockin zone and mentioned that again. So I said this is called the illusion of novelty and this one framework is the ultimate hack for boring businesses. I literally repeated

19:06myself boring topics, boring businesses. I said the word boring twice and I did that because boring was loadbearing. It was like the purpose of the whole video. So, I need to make sure that stuck in their mind. And by the way, I didn't even think about this, but if you actually like these marketing videos that we're showing in the examples, you can just follow me at Callaway Marketing on Instagram. Not even like a plug. I didn't think about it, but if you want to, I'll link it below. I have really tight animated oneshot like bite-size psychology storytelling stuff that I think you would like. Channel's growing

19:33super fast, so I'll link it below. Now, the other example I wanted to show on this one is from my tech channel. And I do this double down a lot in my tech videos because the concepts I'm sharing are so new that when I introduce the frame or the name of it, I wouldn't expect a lot of people to know it. I'm the first one bringing it to them for the first time. So, I often do this double down to make sure they know what I'm saying. This is wild. What you're seeing is not F1 cuz if you look closely, those cars don't have a human

19:57driver. So, in this one, the hook was what you're seeing is not F1. Because if you look closely, those cars don't have a human driver. Now, I knew this was a banger hook and a banger idea, but the problem is I couldn't risk someone seeing the visuals of the cars and not really knowing what that meant. Not having a human driver, like not even being aware that it's possible you could have autonomous F1 cars. So, what I did is I had to double down and say it again in a slightly different way to make sure they heard. And so, I said, "This is the Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League, and

20:25they're pioneering a whole new category of driving, one where the cars drive themselves." And so you can see by now I've said it twice like don't have a human driver drive themselves. If you're not clear now, you just don't understand English, which is probably a problem for many people watching me. But the people that do understand English would be very clear on the topic. And again, these seem like small things, but these tiny tweaks in retention early in the video are the difference between 10,000 views and 2 million views. Now, you guys can probably tell by listening to this video, I'm an extreme nerd when it comes

20:54to storytelling and psychology. I have gone as far as you could go down the rabbit hole to really master how to hold someone's attention in content as a medium. If you want to get better at storytelling, scripting, hooks, persuasion, like somebody sees my video, they hear my words, they trust me, they want to buy from me, that is like my specialty. If you want to get better at that, the best way is just to work with me directly in SFA. Like I said earlier, I'll put all the links below. You don't have to, but if you really want me to like infuse my brain in you, that's the

21:23only way. All right, guys. That is all I've got for this video. As you can tell, I'm trying my best to push the boundaries for stuff. This locking zone thing has never been covered. Definitely never been explained in this way ever that I've seen. So, hopefully you got a lot of value from that. If you're a business owner and you're trying to build a machine that can increase the views, but mostly turn the views into dollars and grow your business, that is

21:43what I specialize with on this channel. This is all made for you. So, make sure to like, subscribe, and drop a comment below. anything you're stuck with on the content front. I really do use the comments to guide what videos I should make next. So, I'll be checking that out. And please make sure to check the description. I have tons of free stuff

22:00as well [music] down there. Awesome. We'll see you guys on the next one. Peace.