Maybe you just had an idea for a video. Maybe it's been sitting in your notes for months. Or maybe you've already shot the footage and now you're just staring at it, no clue what to do with it.
Because somewhere between the idea and the final video, you just don't know what this video should be anymore. Woah, woah, woah, woah, woah, woah. That's so dramatic.
But you know, I had that problem all the time until I realized something very simple. Because the idea was never really the problem. It was always because there was [music] no story.
And I didn't really see that difference for a long, long time. But after years of owning a video agency, directing commercials, and now doing YouTube, the most important thing that I've started to notice is that there's a big difference between a video and a story. And it's often the reason someone either clicks off or keeps watching your video and actually feels something when they're watching.
So, how do you get from one to the other? Well, that's what I want to show you today and it's surprisingly simple. It comes down to three simple steps.
That's it. And once you understand this, you will be able to look at any idea and immediately know [music] what your video actually is. Also, at the end of this video, I will show you a free little tool that I built that makes this even easier so you can try it with your own ideas straight away.
But before you do all that, before you think about even these three steps, there is one important question that already changes how you look at your idea. It is the question, what do we want? We have to know that, you know, we have to know what the idea is moving towards.
So, ask yourself, what do you, and most of the time your audience, want from it? Like this video you're watching right now. You know, what do we want?
Well, we want to turn our ideas into videos that people actually watch. That's it. That's what we want.
Or another example, you know, my first YouTube video, if you haven't seen it yet, it's a personal story about my self-doubt and finally starting on YouTube. Well, what did I want there? I wanted to become a YouTuber.
That's it. That's all that I wanted in that video. [snorts] The dream was that I wanted to be a YouTuber.
Just like most of the world today. So, that was a big cinematic video and that's a big personal transformation example. But, if you want to make just cooking videos, for example, it could be something simple like I want to cook the perfect pasta.
So, just to get that clear, you just need one line of what you want because everything else, the reason to keep watching, will flow from what we actually want. So, then once you know what we want, the first thing to look for is tension. You know that feeling when you're watching a video and something just keeps you from clicking away, even if you're not sure why, but you just want to keep watching.
Well, most of the time that's some sort of tension doing its job. You know, it's the feeling that something in the video isn't resolved yet, but you want to see it resolved. So, you just really want to know how it ends.
And that tension, that force, can come from two places. It can be internal, so it's more like the obstacle inside of you. Could be emotions like fear or doubt holding you back or just a very uncomfortable feeling like wanting to start your YouTube channel, but every time you sit down to film, the fear pulls you back.
But, it can also be something external. So, the obstacle is in the world around you. For example, someone is hiking up a mountain and the weather is turning and they're not sure if they're going to make it to the top.
Or with the cooking video where we're simply trying to cook the perfect pasta, but it keeps sticking together all the time. Whatever you're trying to do, you just can't figure out why. That's also tension.
Now, here's the thing. If an idea ever felt interesting to you, there's almost always some sort of tension hiding inside it. But, sometimes you just have to find it, and you have to dig a little bit deeper.
And I will show you exactly what that digging looks like in a minute with a full example. But, for now, just remember that tension is the force that you need. So, either internal or external, or even both.
But, without tension, you still just have a topic instead of a story. And we want to tell a story. So, the second thing to look for is change, because tension alone doesn't really make a story.
Something has to be different at the end than in the beginning. Just like tension, change can be internal and external. So, internal change is when something shifts within the person.
So, a realization that lands, or a fear that gets faced, like someone who has been postponing their first YouTube video for years, and then finally creates it and posts it. That was an internal change within the person, which made it possible to eventually resolve the tension that was there. Then, external change is when something in the world visibly transforms.
So, that same hiker who wasn't sure if they would make it because of the weather conditions is now standing at the top. And the view at the end is really different from where they started. Or again, this could be something really simple, like the pasta example.
The pasta kept sticking together, but now finally comes out right. And actually, there are many movies that have both. But, for now, you should just get one clear answer to the question, what changed by the end?
Either internal or external. If you can answer that, combined with the tension, you already have the core of your story. And once you have that, once you have the core, you're ready for the third and the most important step, because this one will tie everything together and gives you a compass for your story that you can use to create a video that actually works.
But before we go there, I just want to have a quick word about the sponsor of this video, Audio. Because if you've been making videos for a while, you've probably noticed that a lot of music platforms out there are now using AI-generated music. Well, Audio is doing the exact opposite because every track in their catalog is and will remain made by humans.
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Then immediately after checkout, you can click on the sound effects link and use the code sfx50 to add the sound effects if you want those as well. Okay, now back to the video, to step three. So, the third step is to write the whole thing down in one sentence.
Just one sentence that captures the core of the story. And it follows a simple logic. What we want, but the tension, until the change.
So, that's the formula, want, but, until. So, for [snorts] the hiker, want, but, until, I wanted to reach the top of the mountain, but the weather suddenly changed and I wasn't sure if I would make it, until I just kept going through the storm and made it to the top eventually. Or the pasta example, I wanted to cook the perfect pasta, but it kept sticking together, until I learned this trick.
That's it. It's very simple, but that's your compass. And that sentence actually is one of the most important work that you will do the whole video, because when this is clear, you know exactly what your video is trying to say.
And when you get lost during the video creation process, and you will definitely get lost because everyone does, uh but you can just come back to that sentence to give you a bit more direction again. So, let me show you what this looks like in practice with a real idea. So, one that starts as a topic, then fails the test, and then becomes a story once we dig a little bit deeper into it.
So, let me show you this with a travel video as an example, because almost everyone has wanted to create a travel video at one point. So, for example, you went to Japan and you want to create a video about that. Makes sense, right?
So, maybe the idea could be a video about a food market I visited in Japan. So, what do we want here? Well, the most obvious thing would probably be to find and try the best street food in the market.
It's pretty simple, pretty clear. Uh so, that makes a good starting point. So, is there any tension?
Um not really, you know, there's a direction, but there's clearly no tension yet. And is there any change? Well, nothing is really changing.
We know where we want to end up, but we don't know what's changing or what happens along the way or how we end. So, this idea is failing the test. Right now, it's still a topic.
And you know, you could still use this topic to create a video, you know, you could walk through the market, show the food, talk about what you tried, but it's just going to be a tour of the food market and not a story. So, let's dig a little bit deeper and ask yourself, what was really worth remembering? You know, maybe there was something that didn't go as planned or a moment that you felt lost or overwhelmed or just really out of your comfort zone.
Maybe you walked into the food market in Japan and you couldn't just read a single sign, and you also couldn't speak a word of language. You know, all the stalls, they all looked incredible, but you had no idea what everything was. So, that is actually a tension because you're in a place where nothing is familiar, you can't read anything, and a part of you just wants to leave.
And you can notice here that tension can be both external and internal at the same time. You know, the signs that you can't read, the language that you don't speak, those are external tension, and the feeling of really wanting to turn around, the uncomfortable feeling, you know, that is internal. So, [snorts] sometimes that's just how it works because one tension can create the other, and both are valid.
Uh you can just lean more into one of both, uh the one that's most important to you. So, now [snorts] we still have to look at what changed. Well, maybe when you were at this food market, you just decided at one point to just start pointing at things, and that is how you ended up eating the best thing that you ever tasted, and having a great experience with all the people there, and that is really change.
And then now let's write it in one sentence. The want, the but, the until. So, I wanted to find the best food in Japan, but not speaking the language made it feel impossible until I just started pointing at things and saying yes.
Well, that works very well already, and of course we can still refine the line however we want, but it already gives a really clear direction to create an actual story around your travel video about food in Japan instead of just a tour on a market. So, I actually created a tool that helps you with all this because it walks you through the same three questions step by step and then generates your sentence at the end, and even refines it a little bit. And also, if any of your answers aren't strong enough, it will help you to dig a little bit deeper.
Uh so, let me take you through it. All right, so this is the landing page of the tool, and it will first ask you a little bit of what's your video about, and you can type in anything here. So, let's just pretend you want to start a YouTube channel, but you're not sure what to create videos about.
So, uh what's your video about? Well, it's about my first video on YouTube about starting on YouTube. All right.
What do we want to happen? Well, maybe it's the same thing that I wanted to happen 1 and 1/2 year ago. I want to become a YouTuber.
Next. Now, what creates the tension? I had a lot of self-doubt and every time I tried, I got stuck.
All right, feels like tension. What changes by the end? Well, let's say you're just saying here I just started.
So, as you can see, it analyzed the story and now it's giving some feedback. So, in this example, the change is really not big enough. So, now it says until I just started.
So, it's asking me what was it that actually shifted? Right now, this reads the same as what you wanted. Did you realize something or did you do something differently or see it in a new way?
And that's exactly what we're looking for here. So, the answer could be at one point, I just realized that the only way to beat my self-doubt is to just finish one small video first. Approve my story.
And now it says it's strong and has the core of a story. So, the refined version now is, I wanted to become a YouTuber, but I had a lot of self-doubt and kept getting stuck every time I tried until I realized the only way to beat my self-doubt was to just finish one small video first. Great.
So, that is how the tool can help you. Let me know if it helps you when you use it. And one more thing that's really worth is that not every story needs an obstacle or a struggle as tension, you know?
If you make wedding films or after movies, for example, the tension is often just anticipation. You know, if it's a wedding, the whole day is is building towards one moment. Everyone is waiting for something that hasn't happened yet and that is tension, too.
It's just very different, but it's really as powerful as uh of negative tension. So, the next time you're looking at an idea that feels interesting but you also feel stuck, don't just try to force a script out of it straight away. Just start here.
Ask what we want, find the tension, find the change, and just write your one sentence because that sentence is your compass, and you [music] can come back to it every time you get lost. And once you have your one sentence, you maybe want to watch this video next because it's teaching you how to turn it into a full story structure. Thanks for watching, and I'll see you in the next video.
