Meet the Scriptwriter Behind YouTube's Biggest Channels (Interview with George Blackman)

George Blackman is the genius script writer Behind Popular channels like Ali OBD doll Mike Shake Creator Booth Noah Kagan and many more he's taken the process of crafting a viral video which a lot of people just chalk up to luck and turned it into a repeatable formula a formula that you can learn today George is spilling all his script writing secrets and basically handing you a blueprint for how you can write videos that blow up consistent one after another and grow your channel so George tell me about this idea of making your audience feel smart

what exactly does that mean and why is it important yeah that's such a good question um this is something that is really really fundamental to a lot of especially educational videos but it's something that many people Overlook because I think a lot of the time the Instinct that people have is that they need to give the information as quickly as possible to reassure the audience that their click wasn't wasted and while that is a good kind of morality to have I guess to a certain extent the advantage and the joy of making YouTube videos and

what makes the the kind of style unique is that it's an opportunity to present the information that your audience sure could get from a blog post or could get from somewhere else online but it's an opportunity to present it in a more engaging way and so one of the the kind of key examples that always falls foul of this not making your audience feel smart problem are with listicles where you've got five six seven points that you want to talk about and the instinct is to start each segment by saying step number one is uh

you need to track your expenses or whatever it is if we're talking like a finance video where you're giving seven tips for you know uh running a better business or becoming a millionaire or whatever it is point number one track your expenses the the problem with that approach is that you're essentially giving them the answer right out the gate and then talking about the point you've just made for another one or two minutes and that is a big problem because what the audience will start to feel after a while is hey I kind of got

the idea that you were giving me from the headline I need to track my expenses I don't need to know anything more than that I know how to do that I know I'm you know maybe not doing it as well as I could but I know that I need to be doing that spending one two minutes then going into detail about oh the easiest way to track your expenses is with Microsoft EXL and blah blah blah blah blah blah it's like as an audience member that patience will start to we thin and you'll start to

feel like the Creator is talking to you uh like you're not as intelligent as you actually are and so the way to fix this and thankfully it's a really a simple fix is just by flipping when you give that reveal to the end of the point so rather than saying Point number one track your expenses you might begin the segment by saying something more like it's really easy to feel like your finances are getting on top of you uh this is something that say 80% of entrepreneurs struggle within their first year or or maybe you

open with something bigger the biggest problem that 80% of entrepreneurs face in their first year is X and now the segment is introduced in a way that gets me excited as a viewer and gets me interested and makes me feel person personally seen cuz I think yeah my expenses are always on or you know my finances are always on top of me what is the solution and then as the segment starts to move on it gives the audience time to start to figure out oh okay the point they're going to make is probably going to

be around expenses so when that reveal comes we're no longer wasting loads of time afterwards just discussing it instead it's something that you start to think ah I'm starting to see what they're doing here I'm starting to see where this metaphor is leading and by the time the reveal actually happens at the end the audience feel smart cuz they're like oh yeah I I figured it out I guess that rather than treating them like they're a bit silly telling them the point out the gate and then just needlessly extrapolate or or uh talking about it

afterwards for for for no real reason so I'm curious do you think that a lot of the time it can be good to put the main point or that kind of you know like that thesis statement for the point at the very end of the point where you talk around it you give the examples you talk about you know the situation the context and then at the very end you say so the first thing you really need to do is and then say it and then move on to your next point or do you not

normally do it that way no that that's pretty much it yeah it's like it it feels really unnatural to almost it's almost like a brief summary at the end where it's like you by the time we get to it you've probably guessed it by now but Point number one is this and then pretty much you can transition straight into the next thing so like Point number one is this but that's going to be useless unless you know how to XY Z and that's how you then transition into the next point so it's like we don't

it then it's not like a big impactful moment of hey this is what the point is because you're kind of assuming look you're a smart person you've probably figured this out by now but just in case you haven't this is the point I'm making but and then you immediately hook their curiosity again this is useless until you know how to whatever and that kind of stops you from dwelling too much on a point and and you know having the audience members start to think like I got it I got it you know I figured out

I figured it out 10 seconds ago um let's just move on um that way you really do Transition quickly into whatever the next point is and and keep the Curiosity there um because I mean side point that that's one the most important point to be aware of people losing interest is in those transition moments between points um that's the point where you know within a video you might have five or six distinct points that you're making or uh well yeah that essentially and but the conclusion of each point is kind of like the closing of

a chapter where unless you make it very obvious very very immediately what the next thing they need to care about is that is the point at which they like the YouTube symbols just up there I could cck it and go back and I'm suddenly served another 500 videos that might be more interesting to me um so you need to really sign post very quickly uh in my experience at least once one point concludes what's the next one and why does it matter to to me as an audience member so let's shift gears now and talk

about something a little bit more big picture which is what would you say are the top three differences that set apart the script of a YouTube video that gets millions of views from one that struggles to to get any views this is potentially one of those things that people think there could be like is it a quick fix thing is there one one particular thing that I need to do or even three particular things that I need to do but the the tricky thing with YouTube and what makes it quite you know a frustrating Endeavor

to some extent is that um there are so many little things that can impact how well a video performs and as a script writer this is something I've come up against where the impact I can have in terms of what I'm writing in the script can only go so far um based on what the actual video idea is in the first place and and so like I'm not even I won't count this as one of the three things because it's kind of technically outside my remit and and outside your question but the idea kind of

underlies everything else um that's not where I tend to focus that's ideation is not really my what I get brought into to do but certain videos will have a view cap and you know a view ceiling just based on what they are um but the thing is like that's not always a bad thing it could well be that you are targeting a really really Niche subset of particular um you know audience type and you only need to get 20,000 views a video and convert 10% of those people to paying customers and you've got a really

really solid business and so that's kind of like the caveat that I like to add is that a the idea you know the idea itself in many well in in many many ways is the most important thing um but that's not necessarily a problem because you don't have to be targeting million view viral bangers every single time but in terms of the script there are yeah I I I would say there are kind of yeah the three things which say the idea is good say the packaging is good the title and thumbnail you're you're happy

with those um yeah the the three things that then you know the next hurdle to get over is the script um and the first thing is we've already kind of covered it is the audience so having having a strong sense of who your audience is having a proper audience Avatar that you've you've got written down and that you feel like you understand um it is you know underlies absolutely everything else and um in terms of my script writing system and like how I teach it to people it's like it it can feel boring to have

to think about making an audience Avatar like there's nothing that sounds less fun to do than than writing that down but it's so so important and it will it'll make your life writing scripts easier because it actually cuts off certain avenues that you might have uh when you're writing a script um so that's the first thing knowing who your audience is and having it really written down um is point number one the the next thing um again it kind of flows from the audience Avatar but I I think the hook is like obviously the the

first thing that people see um and that again relies on knowing exactly who your audience is and a lot of this time I I feel like I can over complicate the stuff that I'm saying but it really is quite simple when it's kind of broken down it's knowing the audience and then showing that you know who they are in that hook so if it's an educational video it's showing that you understand uh again the fears desires they have and again I talked about extenuating circumstances before if we think of a hook for a video where

you know say it's a channel that's talking about Fitness um or something like that two different channels could be targeting people who are in the same age range uh who in theory would want to watch very similar videos but if you are targeting someone who the problem the reason they can't seem to get fit is because they have three kids and they're really busy all the time doing the school run and it's more about trying to find time in the day to fit their exercise in like knowing that about your audience member will massively impact

how you set up the video in the hook whereas it could just be somebody else uh you're targeting on a different Channel who doesn't have kids but the issue is more down to motivation and maybe they can't stop eating junk food or something like that and there's more of a kind of psychological side to it and again that would mean you're going to set up the video in a completely different way um so again all comes back to the audience uh the audience Avatar um but then using that information to inform how you set up

your hook it is it would be the second thing um and then the third thing is structure so the number one thing that I've seen and like I've reviewed hundreds of retention graphs at this point and spent hours and hours and hours and hours looking at this kind of thing is when when the audience member starts to feel lost within the overall structure of the video they are much more likely to click away so we already spoke about these transition points between segments in a video that's one point where even if you've kind of enjoyed

the segment you're watching if you get to that next segment and you start to think like what where where am I within this overall structure like why did I click on this video what am I ultimately going to find out by the end um that's a problem um and the way we can do that is is often setting up really just after the hook or even during the hook what the structure is going to be or or setting the expectation of either it's going to be seven points or this is my goal and these are

the things that I need to do to achieve it if we're talking like an entertainment video or something like that um so really clarifying early on and kind of reminding the audience throughout what the structure is so they never feel lost that's another yeah the third and final thing that um that is is Paramount okay interrupting for just a sec to say if you're watching this interview with George Blackman because you want to learn how to grow your YouTube channel then I would love to invite you to watch my free master class three secrets to

reach 1,000 subscribers in just three months this is where I break down my strategy for growing YouTube channels as quickly as possible even if you're starting at zero right now I'm going to explain to you exactly how the YouTube algorithm works and how you can and work with it to grow your channel as quickly as possible we're going to talk about how to get your video suggested and how to rank and search and which of those two things you should prioritize I'll also be covering what the best called action is for the end of every

one of your videos and surprisingly this actually is not asking people to subscribe to your channel so if you haven't already watched The Master Class check the description for the link to sign up now it's completely free and it's also an ond demand Workshop so this isn't a live thing it's pre-recorded so you can just choose a time to watch it that is convenient for you but just make sure you do find time because I know it's going to help you grow your channel okay now back to George where do you start when thinking about

how to frame up a video script so when you're in those very beginning stages before you're really writing okay you're just thinking about how you're going to put this thing together what's the first thing that you think about is it the story arc the main points the hook or something else my my system for like doing all of this is kind of broken into five five steps essentially um the first is audience spoken loads about that I won't go into that again but knowing who they are that's point one the second step is kind of

this free form brainstorm type thing where maybe I have uh like a one- sentence idea for the video but I don't really know the direction it's going to go yet um but I essentially at that second stage I'm just spamming down any ideas that could go into that video eventually so maybe those will be specific points that I want to be in the video it could be b-roll suggestions or things that like visually I'm picturing would go at certain points uh it could be music choices it could really be anything but it's like a really

free flowing stage of of the video so that's the second step then the third step is bringing structure to it so like we spoke about um figuring out what those individual points are going to be what the transitions might look like between them but ultimately then at this point we really need to solidify what the the grand payoff as I call it of the video is and the grand payoff is a tricky one because it doesn't I think a lot of the time people would picture something bombastic or explosive that happens at the end that

we're getting people you know excited for and we're setting up in the hook and um but but it doesn't have to be like that it could just be the ultimate transformation we want the viewer to have felt by the end and I think particularly with some of your audience if we're talking uh you know probably more on the educational side rather than the entertainment side um that that's something really key to land on based on my audience Avatar based on all these these bullet points that I've written down that could go into the script what

is that transformation that I am offering them and how can I clearly signpost that at the start um so that's the third step essentially is is knowing where you're going and what those key points that build up to that grand payoff are could I interrupt you there and ask a question about your grand payoff so is this normally just like the main transformation of the video when we're talking about an educational video um so by the end of this video I want them to understand you know this how how to do this this big thing

um or is it the like climactic point of the video where if I think about a story you know normally we've got this build with the plot up to some sort of climactic point and then we get out of there fast right like you end the the movie very quickly after that which sort of grand payoff are you thinking of here the main transformation or an exciting climactic point of the video yeah it's a a good question it it tends to be entertainment will be a big moment and education will be a transformation um there

were some different examples where uh for example I've done some work with a guitarist YouTube channel and the the transformation has usually been achieved by say uh 70 80% of the way through the video if it's a tutorial teaching the viewers a new guitar technique um that transformation has occurred 70% of the way through but then sometimes he will end with just a performance where he's then showing this stuff all in action um and in theory that subscribes more to the entertainment side of like this is a euphoric kind of you know moment that I'm

now getting to experience um so there's a little bit in the middle sometimes but but broadly speaking for educational stuff it tends to be the transformation is completed they've understood whether it's the final step uh or or whatever it is they feel like they Now understand what they clicked for um even if the last point in the video isn't something that is bombastic and crazy it just completes that transformation step um so that that's how I tend to think about it yeah and so then moving on to the fourth step of your process yeah I

mean steps four and five are kind of the The Upfront work has been done in steps 1 to three um and that kind of that audience awareness is so baked in that all you have to do in the fourth and fifth steps well as follows step four is just filling in the gaps so you know now you've got your skeleton you've got your structure these are the five points this is the grand payoff um and then it's just figuring out like okay I'm going to get from A to B and then B to C C

to D but there's an element in step four where I'm thinking again like I'm not being too fussy about it I'm not being too precious I just need to get my thoughts down because overthinking at that stage can you know you get analysis paralysis and you don't make any progress and it feels stressful and whatever um so just connecting the points getting them to a draft zero let's say and then the fifth step is really where you're thinking more about retention I really try not to think about retention anywhere before that final step getting draft

zero is is by far the most important thing then it's going back through it and thinking am I repeating myself anywhere are there any paragraphs that and actually this is a really good test that I like to do is sometimes if you read uh say paragraph one skip paragraph 2 and read paragraph 3 have I lost anything by not reading paragraph 2 am I losing anything in terms of information or or like the the weight of what I'm trying to say that's a really good test for thinking can I trim this down um and then

you also have things like reading it aloud in that final step just making sure that on the day when I sit down to film this am I going to find out that this doesn't actually sound like me and it's awkward to read so doing that before you you sit down to actually record is important as well um but yeah th those are the the five steps that I tend to go through okay um and then my final question for you is just about pacing you know it's so important to keep the pace moving with the

videos to keep things moving along keep things keep people focused and interested so what is the best strategy for just getting the pacing right keeping the video moving how do you make sure that happen I again there's always this breakdown between entertainment and education I I'll briefly cover entertainment in case there's uh you know anyone who has those elements in your audience who who want to know more about that but I think one thing that I've seen and and I've never used this myself but certainly working with some bigger YouTubers in the entertainment Niche who

you know have like millions of subscribers a lot of them will have this kind of uh it's like a graph almost where they're thinking about how um how tense things are throughout the video how fast we want things to be moving at a given point and they all have a way of doing that for their own channels but if you can kind of templa in your own head okay after the hook we always want to have a kind of L intention because we've like hit them with loads of information at the start now we need

to calm it down a bit then we ramp it up for whatever reason then we calm it down again then we ramp it up that's something that I've seen being done but it's not something that I've ever used but I know that some of the bigger creators out there who are entertainment based kind of use this template every single time which they've sort of formulated for their own channels um but in terms of educational stuff I think a lot of it really comes back to figuring out your structure so once you have those uh those

key mini payoffs that happen throughout the video in service of that grand payoff at the end it's really about just making sure that you are constantly progressing through those points so we already spoke about the idea of having to set up what the next payoff is as soon as you've paid off the last one so like that's the first thing is immediately setting up what the next thing is then maybe we can have a bit of a lull where there's tension as we build towards that little mini payoff so again that will be where you

are drip feeding information to your viewer you're maybe using a metaphor or something to kind of walk them through the topic in service of that mini payoff which is where uh you know you then kind of reveal what point number two is or you know the audience maybe has already guessed it as you've been drip feeding the information I find repeating that structure set up tension payoff for every segment of your video creates a kind of natural pacing shift where as you pay off the last bit of your your previous segment you go straight into

the next one uh with the setup that feels quite Pacey that feels exciting you're highlighting the emotions they should be feeling they get excited about the next point and then you can dip off a bit introduce a metaphor hold their hand for a little bit give them time to figure out what the next thing is and then pay off the segment boom transition into the next one a little bit more tense again that's really good uh in terms of how I think about it set up tension payoff But ultimately you'll find your own style and

I think the the interesting conversation with you on the whole at the moment is kind of thinking about all of this stuff less and just enjoying making the content you're making and not giving the impression that you are templatized everything that you're doing and making the audience feel like you're just having a conversation with them and we're definitely seeing Trends towards that side of things at the moment where people are kind of just backing off a bit and feeling more relaxed uh with the way they make content and that might just be the style that

you prefer ultimately YouTube should be fun so don't overthink it I would say it seems like there is that Trend going on on YouTube right now where people are really preferring more kind of Chatty conversational type content and they're kind of over the listicles mhm yeah no for sure yeah I mean one one channel that I'm really enjoying at the moment is a guy called Matt Mort who's only got 4,000 subscribers I think but he's kind of been taking Twitter a little bit by storm with his his style which is essentially he was like okay

I'm 28 years old I am 50k in debt never had a serious relationship still live with my mom uh I'm going to sort my life out and he just makes these fairly unedited videos of him just kind of going about his day interacting with his friends uh trying to get clients for his editing trying out like you know deliver and Uber Eats and things like that on a on a bike and it's so kind of raw and real and it's just it's like Pleasant to just spend half an hour with him watching this guy trying

to better himself um and I think even even I'm thinking you creators like Ryan Tran even though there is actually a lot going on behind the scenes and they are so tight with the way they cut everything together the impression that's created is that you're just spending time hanging out with someone and I think that's really really doable in terms of business stuff as well uh because ultimately you're just trying to create a connection with your audience and get them to feel like you see them and that you've been on a similar journey to what

they're going on and maybe the way to do that sometimes is actually to step back and to be a little less scripted and just to feel like you're having you know a conversation like this where it's just a bit more unfiltered and and real yeah I find that to be one of the trickiest things on YouTube these days is striking that right balance between being strategic with kind of how we are scripting the video even if we're not writing you know down every word or anything but just how we are structuring the video and whatnot

so that it has good pacing so it has a good hook all those sorts of things and at the same time having it come ac across quite naturally and conversational and because that is relaxing and enjoyable to watch it's a hard balance yeah yeah it's really hard uh and I guess that's also the joy of it as well is that it's it's constantly evolving what people want is constantly evolving and what we want is always evolving as well um and so yeah like like I said just kind of if you feel like it's getting stressful

try not to overthink it and just make content that feels good to you essentially awesome well thank you so much George thank you so much appreciate it now I hate to break it to you but this was not my entire convers ation with George not by a long shot we ended up speaking for nearly an hour about YouTube script rating for viral videos but we wanted to reserve some of the juiciest parts for our students in our YouTube strategy program Creator FastTrack so what we ended up doing with the whole George Blackman interview was cutting

it up into individual segments each focused on a different aspect of viral script writing now if you're interested in getting access to the entire conversation and more importantly learning how to grow grow your YouTube channel as quickly as possible then here is what you can do I am going to put a link in the description below where you can book a short call with me where we can talk about whether or not our YouTube strategy program might be the right fit for you might be aligned with your goals for growing your channel and if it

is I'll invite you to join the program but either way I'll give you the whole George Blackman interview just as a thank you gift for taking the time to get on the phone with me if growing your YouTube channel is high priority for you right now then I'd love to talk with you about how to make that happen so make sure you check the description for the link to book that call with me