What is a story hook?
The story hook is the big idea behind the story. Specifically, it’s the big idea that pulls people into the story.
If I said to you, “Hey, let me tell you a quick story about how I changed my website from 40 pages to one page, and sales went up 250% overnight. That increase was enough to cover a house payment, two car payments, and the electric bill.”
That’s a hook… it’s a little long, but it’s a hook. In the newspaper business, we would call that a “lead.” The lead is normally the first paragraph, which is also the most important part of a story.
So the story hook is the idea that pulls people in and gets them to keep reading or listening to the story.
Where does a really good story hook come from? It comes from extremes. It comes from emotional highs and lows along with contrast.
When I said “Let me tell you about the time I was living in a trailer park, changed my website from 40 pages to one page, sales went up 250% overnight, and I was able to move out into a house.” That gives us high levels of contrast. We also want emotional lows and emotional highs.
Typically you find that point at the bottom of the hero’s journey story arc.
Every good hero’s journey, and especially every good sales story, goes through a story arc. And right there at the bottom is usually the best place to find the hook for your story.
Example: “Let me tell you about the time a bankruptcy judge was laughing in my face in court and I had to stand there and just suck on it!”
The bottom of the arc is the number one spot to find that hook.
The second place to find the hook is at the end of the story when the person has basically become Superman and achieved anything and everything that they wanted. That’s another place to find the hook.
So bottom line, you can have the greatest story in the world, but if you don’t have an amazing hook, nobody’s gonna listen to it.
Nobody’s gonna watch it.
Nobody’s gonna read it.
Spend as much time developing the hook as you do the actual story itself.
Do that and you’ll crush someone who spends all their time on the story, throws it out there because “it’s a good story,” and then wonders why nobody watches it, listens to it, or reads it.
By the way, I am doing a sales story masterclass this week, you can attend live for free. I’m going to teach you how to 2X, 5X, even 10X your sales in an afternoon using stories.
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How To Double, Quadruple, Or Even 10X Your Sales By Telling Better Stories In An Afternoon
Brand New MasterClass Reveals The Secrets To Better Sales Stories For Social Media, Sales Copy, and Content Marketing… NO Matter What You Sell!
FREE Live Masterclass 2/23/22 1:00 – 4:00 p.m. Eastern (there will be no free replay available).
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- The story that changed my life forever and how you can use it to transform your business
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- Two stories you can tell TODAY to increase sales, build rabid fans, and explode your reach
- How to create insanely hypnotic hooks for stories that stop customers dead in their tracks
- How to tap into an unlimited supply of original, compelling stories with this simple trick
- The #1 key ingredient that makes your story sell like crazy no matter who your audience is
- How and where to tell stories to massively increase your sales
- … and much, MUCH more!
Join us for this amazing masterclass where I’ll pull back the curtain and help you sell more with stories… no matter what you sell!
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