4 Ways The Diary of A CEO Hooks Their Audience

Over the past few days, I’ve broken down 7 of the most recent intros from the Diary of A CEO podcast.

It combines amazing editing and storytelling with raw, emotional, interviews you don’t get elsewhere.

The host does his research then asks his guests tough questions that make them open up and share more intimate details about their lives.

When it comes to editing, their ability to hook the viewer into the full interview is unmatched.

After watching 7 of intros, I found 4 main editing tricks they use to get your attention and make you curious to watch the full interview.

Cut off the Answer

In a trailer, you want to tease the audience to what is coming next. Instead of letting the whole answer play out, cut it off.

Cutting them off at this point, will make your audience think “what were they going to say?”

Make your audience curious. Don’t give them all the answers, make them work for the answers by giving them a preview first.

Setup → Context

The opening 10 seconds of each of these intros had one thing in common.

Open with a heavy answer or question, show the guest, and the straight into the context of the guests expertise or status.

This immediately tells the audience why they need to listen to the guest and their opinions.

Make the first thing the audience sees the most controversial or impactful statement the guest says then immediately tell the audience why they should listen by adding context.

The 3 second rule

Cut. Every. 3. Seconds. Roughly.

In each of the intros, they set the pace by cutting fast.

Generally they seem to be cutting every 2.5 to 3 seconds unless there is an emotional reason to hold the shot.

The editors extend or shorten based on the emotion of each scene. More somber parts of the intro move slower.

It’s not always easy to cut every 3 seconds.

The Diary of A CEO team has many tricks up their sleeves to hide the cuts and make it engaging.

First, they cut in and out on the people. Almost every time they cut, they add a sound effect like a boom to help hide the cut. The boom helps to hide the cut and set the pace.

Second, they use animated text. Their text helps the audience focus on something else while a cut may happen during a change in the animated text.

Third, they cut to a different person. This is the ultimate way to hide your cut. Especially if there is a good reaction from the other person.

Cut to Black

The editors cut to black after the intro is done. The audience then knows the intro is done and there is going to be a change of pace.

The Diary of A CEO editors do this masterfully.

They adjust the ending based on the emotion of the moment.

A sad, somber moment, is matched with music that enhances the moment, then the fade to black is fit with a fade to silence.

The fade to silence here is important. It lets the emotion and moment set in for the audience. To cut straight into the intro would be jolting for your audience. They’d quickly be going from a high emotional state to something that doesn’t match.

The silence allows the audience to feel with the guest and host. The fade to black allows them to process, and ease into the actual interview.

A controversial statement, on the other hand, is met with a boom and fade to black.

This boom sound effect, allows the audience to know the intro is over and keep the energy for the video high.

That effect is not needed in a more emotional ending. It matters more to let the emotional ending to sit with the audience.

Each different intro helps the audience adjust to the change of pace for the actual interview.

Intros and trailers can be incredibly effective in telling your audience why they should stay and watch a 1 hour+ long video on YouTube. Especially if you can keep the energy and set the tone of the interview.

These are just 4 of the biggest patterns I noticed in each of the 7 intros for the Diary of A CEO. There is much more to learn from each of them.

If there is anything else you’d like to know about the intros that I broke down email me and I’m happy to share more insights with you.

For those of you that read this far, here’s a link to a playlist with all 7 of the intros I looked at to create this newsletter.