Agents want you to get to the hook immediately.
No fluff, no preamble and no promotion before value is given.
Not just in Shorts and Reels, I’m seeing that extend to every form of content.
This came up in a chat with Matt Bonelli and Garrett Frey, podcasters and founders of Life at Ten Tenths.
If you don’t know their names, they’re the guys who walked away from hosting the Ninja Selling podcast…and TONS of downloads…to start their own community (more on that in a future edition).
Non-Obvious Insights from our Conversation:
You can speed up with editing tools…but not too much
“I had to speed up one of our clips… it actually worked..But if you go too far, it feels inauthentic and people disengage. Authenticity is non-negotiable, especially with younger audiences who have zero tolerance for AI-generated or fake-feeling content.” - Garrett
And where is the point where you’ve sped up too much? Hard to pin down. So if using editing tools to speed up your content isn’t an easy answer, what is?
Try Re-Creating rather than Repurposing
“You can take a long-form conversation, pull out the top themes, and then re-create that as a new, tighter piece of content. This lets you restate the hook and deliver value quickly, rather than relying on editing to force a good short out of a long conversation.” - Matt B
This also works for taking insights from long videos or podcasts and doing shorter videos or podcasts. I call these “piggyback” episodes, because you’d record the long-form content with a guest, then piggyback by recording a shorter, solo episode. Share the main takeaways from the guest along with your commentary and insights.
Whatever you do, get to the hook…FAST
“ You almost need to deliver value or prompt a question that will then get people to want to explore the value so that they can actually watch past those first 3 seconds.” - Matt B
This is where almost everyone struggles and where new opportunity lies.
Brands struggle because they want to put their brand front and center.
Tech companies struggle because they want to put their tech front and center.
Many thought leaders struggle because they want to put themselves front and center.
So who’s creating zero-fluff content for the next generation of agents?
The next generation of thought leaders.
The ones with no brand to protect. No tech to sell. No big offer to push.
So they can get to the hook faster than you.
The question is…what are you going to do about it?
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Want to go deeper? Click on the audio file above to listen to the full chat, also available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Or Hit Reply and tell me what you’re seeing
Have you noticed your own content consumption habits change?
Has your tolerance dropped for slow-developing content?
I know mine has. And I can lose myself in books for hours, so it’s not an attention span issue. It’s one way we’re all responding to a world of abundant content.
Steal This:
Take one tactic or key “ah moment” from your long form content, and re-create in short form content. Video, written post, whatever you’re comfortable with.
But the key is this: Challenge yourself to get to the hook IMMEDIATELY.
No fluff, no preamble and no promotion before value is given.
Quick Links & Resources
We’ll feature more of Matt and Garrett in an upcoming deep dive on community building. I’ve got some incredible insights from Tristan Ahumada and a couple others to share. It will be a beast to write but I’m excited so keep an eye out!
Talk soon,
-Matt
CEO - MicroFamous
Author - MicroFamous
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