You Fixed The Openning. Now The Middle's Leaking Viewers

Last week I wrote about the first fifteen seconds of a coach's video, and how most of us waste them apologising, warming up, or explaining what we're about to explain. The fix was simple: start with the first sentence you'd actually say if a client had just asked you the question, and delete everything before it.

Plenty of you tried it. So here's what happens next.

You nail the opening. You say your true first line, and for a moment you sound exactly like yourself. And then, somewhere around sentence four, something shifts. The warmth drains out. Your shoulders creep up. You stop talking to a person and start delivering a lesson.

I see it constantly. The opening is a conversation. The middle is a broadcast.

Why the middle sags

The opening felt like the scary part, so once it's done, your brain quietly goes: "Right, now the actual content." And "the actual content" is where most of us switch into teacher mode. We square up to the camera, we get a little more formal, we start addressing "everyone." The one person we were talking to in that first line disappears, and a vague audience takes their place.

It’s what I call the ‘you guys’ phase.

But nobody watches a video as part of an audience. They watch it alone, usually on a phone, usually half-distracted. So, the second you start saying "you guys” and speaking to "everyone," you stop speaking to them - and ’they’ stopy listening.

What to do instead

Keep talking to the one person. That's the whole fix.

Picture the client who'd most need to hear this, and don't let go of them when the opening ends. Say "you," not "you guys" or "a lot of people." Keep the register you had in that first honest sentence all the way through.

Here's what that sounds like.

Broadcast: "So the second thing a lot of coaches find is that when they're recording, they tend to overthink, and what that does is it creates a kind of block."

Conversation: "You've probably noticed you overthink the second the camera's on. That block is real, and it's fixable."

Same point. One is a lecture. The other is you, talking to one person, the way you would in the room.

One more thing

While you're at it, make a point instead of covering ground. If you've got six tips, the temptation is to give all six equal weight and march through them. Don't. Pick the one that matters most, give it room, and let the others be quick. A video that says one thing well beats a video that says six things flatly, every time.

Your opening gets people to stay. The middle is where you actually earn it.

If you've ever watched yourself back and thought "that's not really me" by about the two-minute mark, this is usually why. It's fixable, and it tends to click fast with a bit of outside feedback. If you'd like a pair of eyes on one of your videos, I run a free discovery call, and you can book one HERE.