You have a very short time to capture the audience’s attention in a presentation. Many people won’t follow your material if you don’t use this opportunity well. We need to capture the audience’s attention in the first seconds if we are recording short videos that are a few minutes long. The best way to grab attention is to create curiosity. If I tell you, “In this video, I want to tell you about the most crucial factor in business failures…” this sentence is a hook because the audience says to themselves, “Let’s continue for a few more seconds until our curiosity is satisfied.” If the rest of the explanation is good and engaging, some people will stay with you until the end.

Attention is Everything

Attention is the most valuable thing that is not easily accessible. We compete with thousands of other videos and messages to capture the audience’s attention. At any moment, the audience can divert their attention to something else. So, never waste the first 10 seconds with cliché talk and lengthy pleasantries.

The Hook in Longer Teachings

Mr. “Mike D’Angelo,” a famous film critic, conducted an interesting study on films. In 2015, he published an article titled “What I Learned from Watching the First 10 Minutes of 500 Films.” One of the results of his research was that if a film fails to capture the viewer’s attention in the first 10 minutes, it has no chance of success. In other words, it doesn’t matter how attractive the rest of the film is. Many people form their judgment about a film within less than 10 minutes. He said, “When I reached the tenth minute of a film, which was interesting, I watched for ten more minutes. If the interest continued, I reached the thirtieth and fortieth minute. If I watched a film until the fortieth minute, I finished it.” Of course, he emphasized that some films were exceptions, and despite having a tiresome start, they fascinated him later on.

Indeed, the appeal of films is much greater than our teachings. Films have various scenes and actors. Our job is more challenging! Following this ten-minute rule in live presentations and recording long videos is a good idea. If we delve into an introduction in the first ten minutes, we’ll lose a significant portion of the audience’s attention.