LinkedIn Post: The First Seven Seconds

Source: /opt/gcv-portfolio/captions/D8WGrJQH6RE.en.vtt — GCV "how to make better video" talk with Kennedy Cooper, opener ~00:00:14–00:00:45 (California economy hook) + retention point ~00:08:42–00:08:51 ("first five to seven seconds")

I'll just tell you how the video opened, because the opening is the whole trick.

"What you're looking at right now is the California economy."

No intro, no "hey guys welcome back." The next sentence is corporations controlling our housing, profiting off the lack of affordable housing, setting up bad loans so they can foreclose, blocking rent control to jack up the price of even the most modest apartment. You're fifteen seconds in before you've even decided whether to care, and by then you already do.

That's a hook. Most people decide whether they'll keep watching in the first five to seven seconds. The research says it and I've watched it happen, so I don't give anybody a warm-up. I open with the thing that matters, said plain.

Then I think about the cold messages and pitches I get that spend their first seven seconds introducing themselves. By the time the good part shows up, nobody's there.

What's the first thing you'd say if you only had seven seconds?

draft from corpus — based on Brandyn's GCV "how to make better video" talk (D8WGrJQH6RE.en.vtt)