My first three words were too long. So I shortened them.

My first three words were too long. So I shortened them.

Let me tell you about a fix that took four seconds to make. My hook opened "Approximately eighteen months ago I started testing..." The mouth-feel was slow, and retention reflected it — 43% at three seconds.

Here's the thing — long, soft words at the very start set a sluggish pace the viewer feels before they parse meaning. I front-loaded short, hard ones: "Six words doubled my reply rate."

The result: three-second retention went 43% to 67%, no other change to the video.

The lesson: the first three words set the tempo of the whole clip. Lead with short, concrete, punchy syllables — numbers and one-beat words. Save the long ones for after they've committed. Speed in, depth later.