The Personal Hook Challenge

These weekly challenges are a way for me to hone my skills and get familiar (and creative) with the new formats and tech, applying everything I’ve used to direct and coach others. And I hope they help you too.

If you take the challenges with me, you will be getting content done, which is more than most people, and you will be building skills you can use.

Now let’s do it.

This week

Viewers are people who come across your content as they go about their day.

Followers, subscribers, commenters, sharers… these are your audience.

The purpose of any piece of content you make is either to convert viewers into audience or to serve your audience. In this challenge, you’ll be building a key tool for when you’re making content to convert viewers into audience.

You are going to share something unique about you that is relevant to your area of expertise. Your goal is to build some credibility and make the viewer curious about you. You want to boil it down to a tight sentence.

You don’t need to say everything about yourself, you don’t need to say the perfect thing. You just need to drop something interesting that informs your perspective. Leave them wanting more.

When they want more, they subscribe, follow, or comment. They convert.

You want in this sentence whenever you make a video aimed at reaching new viewers who aren’t already in your audience. It’s part of your brand, like a logo. It’s your personal hook.

For example

Here’s a video from popular TikTok creator @jawnski215. If you don’t see the embed, follow the link.

@jawnski215

“if you cant be passonaite be timely” oc : thanks @slimkim! #fyp #howto #foryou #contentcreator #foryoupage #fulltimecreator #fypシ #jawns... See more

For those of you who decide to build on TikTok, this video has some great tips to get started. Bookmark it for later. But for our purposes, this creator absolutely nails the personal hook.

Near the beginning, after the stitch and after he tells us what to expect, he says “I’m no guru, I’m just blessed that my particular brand of autism happens to be really good at TikTok.”

This sentence tells us something unique about him, and he gets credibility by saying he’s good at TikTok, but doesn’t lose points for ego by basically blaming it on his autism.

“You don’t have to listen to a word I said in this video, but I do have more felonies than I have face tattoos and I really hate working a 9-to-5 job and I no longer work a 9-to-5 job.”

He no longer works a 9-to-5 job (credibility), he hates working a 9-to-5 job (just like you do), and he has more felonies than face tattoos (curiosity).

The Personal Hook Challenge

For this week’s challenge, you are going to write a personal hook - a sentence that reveals something unique or intriguing about you and gives you credibility.

You’re going to start your video by answer the prompt “When was the first time you knew you were going to be a ______ (your niche goes here - “content creator” or “cinephile” or “political junkie”), and you’re going to end it with your personal hook.

You’re going to film on your camera until you have a single recording that you feel good about. Then you are going to upload that video to Tik Tok, add a title and captions, and publish.

You’ll need

• iPhone or phone with camera you can record on

• microphone that plugs into your phone

• TikTok account

Skills unlocked

Step-by-Step

1. First spend a little time on TikTok - watch a bunch of videos until you find some with a personal hook. This may take a while depending on your algorithm, so you can do some searching too. Take note of what you like and how they tapped into curiousity and credibility.

2. List qualities or experience that you have that make your perspective important. It might be enthusiasm, knowledge of the topic, published work, or something viral you’re known for, etc. Depending on the niche, it could be something super specific.

3. Now start listing unique and interesting facts about you, that you’ve done, and have happened to you.

4. Compare the two lists and think about which of the facts about you speaks to one of the qualities you listed. Try to find non-obvious connections. Once, my partner Jeff and I were making a documentary about an attorney who had spent his career representing death row inmates. We wanted to show that he was incredibly dedicated and put his clients over himself. So we revealed to the audience that he’d had two heart attacks before he reached the age of 30.

5. Take your best connection or two, and start working on a sentence that boils it all down. Remember, video communicates emotion, not information. You’re going for a hook. Don’t explain it, tease it.

6. Authenticity, self-awareness, and vulnerability are the most important things you can communicate to generate curiousity and credibility. This has to come from you and your lived experience. That said, here are some helpful frameworks to get your juices flowing:

   I may not have x, but I do y

   I’m so x that I once y

   I’m the person who x

   I’m not x, I just y

7. This sentence is your personal hook. Try to commit it to memory, get comfortable with it so it rolls off your tongue. During this process, you probably will want to continue to edit the sentence. All good, just do it.

8. Plug in your mic, turn on your camera, aim it at yourself and start recording.

9. Start your video by answering this prompt question: When was the first time you knew that you were going to be a _____________? (the blank is your niche… doctor, content creator, data nerd, sneaker head, etc, etc). Then end with your personal hook.

10. The format is flexible. If you want to use your hook up front, or in the middle, do it. The purpose of this video is to get used to using your personal hook.

11. You want to get one full take that you feel good about, so keep going until you do.

12. Upload the video to your TikTok account. Add an onscreen title that will stay up throughout the video that says “When did you know?”.

13. Add captions to the video.

14. Post that video!!!

Until next week, be spontaneous.

Best, ae