How to Become a Storytelling Genius (Dopamine Ladders)

[00:02] trick you should be using every single time. It's called the dopamine ladder. framework, you'll become a master of attention overnight. Now, I know this works because content is all I do all day long. I have a million followers.

[00:17] I've done billions of views. And I've spent years studying exactly how to use media and YouTube. So, in this video, I'm going to break down the six levels of the dopamine ladder. how it works, why it works, and most importantly, the

[00:31] to your advantage. All right. Now, before I explain the dopamine ladder, it's critical to understand the psychology of how attention actually works. Like, what is really going on in a viewer's brain when they watch a

[00:44] unlock for you. There are six stages of that release increasing amounts of dopamine. And if you can ascend them watched your entire video and want to come back to watch more. Now, eventually

[00:58] dopamine ladder and you do that consistently, you will create a Pavlovian effect. And this really is the ultimate goal if you're making content. proved classical conditioning. Every time he rang this bell, he gave a dog

[01:12] food so that eventually whenever the bell rang, the dog's mouth would water because it represented that sound with getting food. You're really going after content. Because the ultimate sign of attention mastery is when you can make

[01:25] dopamine release in the brain of a viewer just by seeing your name or face without actually watching any of your content. And if you can do that, you've basically created a super fan that will watch every single thing you make. This

[01:37] attention land. Now, if you can learn to do this on command, you can pretty much It's that powerful. Okay, so the And how do you make your content so that the viewer ascends through the dopamine

[01:51] response? And that's what we're going to break down right now. All right, the very first rung in the dopamine ladder is the exact same for all visual form, it applies the same. And this first rung is called stimulation. Okay,

[02:06] the very first one to two seconds of the visual stun gun that gets someone to stop and lock in on one thing. It's like out of the corner of their eye, and they can't resist the urge but to pick up

[02:20] their head, look, and lock in on that one spot. Now, dopamine from stimulation comes from colors, motion, and brightness that is picked up initially a combination of colors, motion, contrast, and brightness that is

[02:34] sees, they're going to get a hit of dopamine, and they will pause for a to earn the space to get them to level two. Now, to prove this is how it works, I'm going to show eight 9x6 images on the screen with colors and motion, but

[02:47] I'm going to blur it out so you don't know exactly what they are. I want you which one your attention goes to first. All right. Now, for most people, these were the two that they noticed and visually focused on. See, your eyes go

[03:00] color, and brightness. That's just how your subconscious brain works. You can't you in another way, if you were to watch your social media on grayscale or black and white, I guarantee it just wouldn't be as interesting to you. What's really

[03:14] neurochemistry is that your brain is processing things in two stages. The first stage is the rapid subconscious processing stage. It's called bottoms up processing. And this processing happens so fast in like 200 milliseconds that

[03:27] your eye and brain are just catching vivid colors in motion. They're not seeing. But knowing this is how you hack people on the treadmill to pause and pay you, the tactical tip is that when you're making your own content, you need

[03:41] able to visually stun them for the first 1 to 2 seconds. But here's the thing. If everybody copies the exact same motion, color contrast pattern, the viewer will feed will have it and then that will stop working. This is why coming up with

[03:56] color palette, the motion, the aesthetic it helps you cut through the feed and trigger this subconscious stimulation. stimulation is the weakest and the shortest of the dopamine releases, but

[04:10] it's a very important precursor like we said because if you don't trigger the matter. All right, level two in the dopamine ladder is called captivation. And this is where the comprehension of what you say and how you say it really

[04:23] literally just visual brain hacking. But here, this is where the sauce really starts coming in. Now, captivation is the curiosity stage. Massive amounts of brain as soon as they are captivated by an open question that they ask in their

[04:38] own head. Many people call this a curiosity loop. Your video must drive an open question that puts the viewer into a loop so that they hunt for the answer. Now, the reason curiosity loops work so well for triggering dopamine is because

[04:50] the human brain is a problem-solving machine. It evolved to be really good at complex questions and solving them. The bigger and more non-obvious the higher the stakes, and the more dopamine that gets released. The more relevant

[05:05] the curiosity, the higher the stakes, and the more dopamine that gets video that got a viewer to ask the question to themselves, hm, I wonder Well, this is a pretty huge question. So, it could be very curiosityinducing.

[05:20] then it's not going to be relevant at all and they're going to churn. They it's important to ask yourself these couple questions as you're structuring the hook to make sure you're setting up the best possible question. First, what

[05:33] is the most curiosityinducing question that I could ask about this topic to trigger in the viewer's mind? And second, how well will that question map to something the viewer cares about given the ideal avatar I think I'm

[05:45] attracting? And then you have to figure out what words you say and visuals you in their head. Now, there's two ways to get a question to implant in a viewer's mind. You could literally ask it like rhetorically the way I just did, or you

[05:59] can imply it with details and try to get them to put it in their own head. Either way, as quickly as possible in the video, you need the viewer to pop a very they're not going to be captivated. And if the question doesn't pop or it's just

[06:11] to bounce and you have no chance. So, for example, let's say I was scrolling the feed and I saw this really attractive person with this red and orange vivid graphic behind them that was moving. I might be stimulated enough

[06:23] from level one to pause for a second and see what they have to say. But then, if "Here's how you do your makeup for the holidays." The questions that are going to pop into my mind are the following. How does she do her makeup? Why is she

[06:35] of questions that pop into a curious mind regardless of who it is. But for topic of makeup at all. And so that's not relevant to me and I'm churning immediately. Basically, she got me on the stimulation and bought me into the

[06:48] first kind of question posing period, but then she didn't get me on the hooks are not hooking, it means that the question that popped in the viewer's mind is either not relevant to them or just not interesting enough to hold

[07:01] dopamine ladder. If you want to captivate the viewer and get them to curiosity based loop in their mind from the question. The act of opening that loop will release dopamine. Now, here's a few pro tips for triggering a massive

[07:15] amount of curiosity in this process. For one, you can use contrast, where you compare a known thing to an unknown thing. Or two, you can frame a super shocking or weird premise that they've never seen or heard before. Typically,

[07:28] unknown things pop curiosity better than anything else because curious people never seen. All right, level three in the dopamine ladder is anticipation. So far, you've stimulated them initially to get them to give you a chance and then

[07:41] you've captivated them by opening a curiosity- based question in their head. powerful and this is really where people get locked in into the video. Anticipation is what happens when a viewer begins to guess in their head

[07:54] what the answer might be to the question you just posed in level two. This is essentially a mystery novel playing out in their head in real time as they watch soon as a question pops in someone's head, they immediately are trying to

[08:07] It's kind of like this subconscious guessing game that goes on. Now, the helps them anticipate what the answer might be, the more curious they're going revealed. The highest level of dopamine is achieved just before the answer

[08:22] comes. So what you want to do is give them details to get that anticipation close. Ratchet up that curiosity and then just before you deliver the answer, another direction. Typically adding misdirection, non-obvious twists, and

[08:35] head fakes is a great way to reset the curiositybased anticipation loop. And get distracted, pop a new question, and then restart the process. This is why it's called a curiosity loop. The loop is them seesawing between question,

[08:50] don't want to yank away the answer, you could give them the answer and then pop a second question right after that. Either way, this looping game of new questions and new answers is how you build anticipation. Now, here's a big

[09:02] pro tip on anticipation. The viewer is only able to anticipate what the answer might be if they're clear on the facts that you're giving them. If you throw a really make sense with the question or they can't understand the facts that

[09:14] you're presenting, they're going to get confused and bounce. So tactically for want to ratchet up anticipation, you want to ask yourself this. Based on the question the viewer should have in their head from level two, what should they be

[09:27] anticipating the answer to be? And based on that answer, what additional facts or context can we give them to get them closer to it? From there, should we give them the answer or is there a way to head fake or tease them away from it to

[09:40] reset that curiosity loop? This curiosity anticipation process is kind world. Now, if you've ever seen those someone's about to get hit by a car, the car is like slowly approaching. This is

[09:53] on. The reason these work so well is because you originally see the person question, is that person going to get hit by a car? Is that car really going to run them over? And then as the car slowly approaches, you start

[10:06] wait. I think they might they might be getting hit by the car. Ah, and he comes really close. That anticipation building is in real time working to drive that curiosity in you. It releases dopamine as you anticipate what might happen.

[10:21] on the anticipatory instinct in your brain and they work super well at level in the dopamine ladder, level four, is called validation. Validation comes when you do end up giving them the answer to the question that you popped

[10:35] in level two. In other words, level four is you closing the loop. Now, the goal reward or answer with something that was nonobvious that they wouldn't have entertainment content, this is the resolution of the story. You don't end

[10:49] up the loose ends and close the loop nicely. For example, in the case of the get hit by the truck and they end up loop. Once that loop is closed, you realize the story is complete and more

[11:03] dopamine gets released as that's finished. On the education side, the validation or reward in this case would be you actually sharing the tip or the story or the recommendation that gives them concrete value that they can use to

[11:16] solve a problem. If the viewer leaves this flow without the loop being closed, won't release that final dopamine. So, it's curiosity, question, anticipation, what could the answer be? And then validation, giving the actual answer.

[11:30] All three phases release dopamine at each time. are the first four levels we ladder. These are kind of like the base levels that you can pull with any script and visual storytelling. And again, those were stimulation, captivation,

[11:43] validation. But the last two levels of the dopamine ladder is really where you start building cult fandom. This is where you ascend beyond the individual first four have to do with the video itself. We'll call that the message. The

[11:57] last two are more with the messenger. Level five is called affection. Now, affection is the stage where the viewer starts taking a liking to the creator or story. And this is why it's kind of hard for Faceless content to fully ascend to

[12:12] that Pavlovian peak. It's easy for Faceless to get those first four levels, like, when there's no personality to attribute that taste, trust, and like brain. As the viewer begins to realize they like and trust the person that's

[12:27] delivering the message, more dopamine is released. And think about it, if you give them a lot longer leash when you watch their content. For a stranger, you might churn right away. But if it's someone you like and you already know,

[12:39] there that buys a lot more time of your attention. Now, as long as that viewer recognizes it's you, that likability will carry over from video to video. So, that everyone asks is, "How do I improve my likability so that I can speed up

[12:53] that process to get through level five?" And here's four ways to improve your liability. The first one, attractiveness is a massive factor. Now, I hate to say it as someone who has a face for radio and a voice for vaudeville silent films,

[13:05] but the reality is when you're attractive, people just like you more. It's subconscious and it's how humans behave. So, if you're good-looking, lean guarantee the liability will go up. The second thing that improves likability is

[13:18] way you dress, the way you sit, your posture, the way you carry yourself. All of that signals silently to someone and you more or not. The third thing, smiling is great for subconscious

[13:31] likability. Joy is an emotion that transfers through the camera lens. So if passionate, people will feel that warmth themselves when they watch you. And then fourth, and this is the easiest one, if you're making education content, if you

[13:44] actually solve a problem for them, max trust and likability will be somebody to like you and trust you is to actually help them with something they're struggling with. Agnostic of how attractive you are, how smiley you are,

[13:56] etc. Number four is the strongest one. So, likability is one of those things time. But the reality is you don't want to force it. Just be yourself. Be authentically passionate in what you're doing and then try to live that out. The

[14:08] valuable you can be, the more likable and trustworthy you will seem to the level six, and this is really where the Pavlovian response really starts kicking just recap where we were. The first level was stimulation. This was

[14:22] brightness. All you have to do is get somebody to focus, a little bit of them in, right? So, that's the precursor. Then, we talked about the three levels that really have to do with the specific video and the storytelling

[14:35] in it. And that was captivation with initial curiosity, anticipation, getting maybe leading them through a head fake or zigzag on that curiosity. And then ultimately validation, giving them the

[14:48] get that dopamine release on the full cycle. Those were 2, three, and four. Then level five is likability. Right? So you've got the answer from the video, message into the messenger and we're going to likability. If the viewer likes

[15:03] you, they'll give you more leash. They'll have dopamine release every time that they like you and that'll be helpful. Level six, the final level, the final frontier, is called revelation. And this is really where the viewer

[15:16] be a continued source of value for them over time. Now, typically both entertainment and education content can ascend from level 1 to 5. But it's much easier for educational content to ascend from five to level six, revelation.

[15:30] Entertainment content can only get to level six if the viewer decides that that creator is going to be a consistent source of maximum entertainment for them. Meaning, every piece of content they see is going to for sure be above

[15:42] entertainment. And this is just a really hard bar to achieve. Maybe Mr. Beast has Anytime someone sees his face, they know it's going to be entertaining. But if you're not Mr. Beast, you're competing with Netflix, the NFL, Kaisat, Mr.

[15:57] Beast. It's just hard to beat the best maximum bar in the entertainment category. But on the education side, if you solve specific problems for people that they have in their life, they will tie you with a consistent source of

[16:10] value for solving in that area. And when they have this revelation that you're releases max dopamine whenever they see you because you've trained that you equal value. That is the Pavlovian response. As a corlary, imagine dating

[16:24] time after spending a lot of time with them, you always feel good and you future whenever you hear their name, you're going to get a huge hit of positively and feel those feelings again. It's the same way here with

[16:38] content. Now, the way to achieve this level six revelation, especially with education content, is to deliver non-obvious differentiated value over struggling with a problem that you talk about, it might only take a couple of

[16:52] from level one to six and then build that Pavlovian response. If they're not that much and it's more of a nice to have, it might take a lot more pieces of content for you to build that Pavlovian bond. But either way, when you can hit

[17:05] this level six state, you have won the attention game because it means if they your name, even without watching the content, they're going to get the it. All right. All right. Now, super quick before we end this video, I just

[17:19] want to show you one live example of an actual short form video and break down as I narrate through the dopamine ladder and the different levels as we ascend short form video because it'll be easier to watch. And because I always do

[17:31] entertainment example on this one. All right. So, this example is from a creator named Citizen. If you don't know him, he's kind of like a musician that his music. So, we're going to pull the video up on the side. We're going to

[17:44] watch it and then pause it a lot as I narrate through the different pieces. ladder, as we know, is stimulation. And this happens fast. Right away, there's a slight zoom in. You see two people hugging. You kind of see this like

[17:59] something you don't normally see on the feed. That alone is all that's needed to narrow my focus on the video. Next, we go to level two, which is captivation or

[18:11] go to level two, which is captivation or curiosity. questions that are popping in my head is this. First, who are these people? Why are they hugging? Do I care? This almost made me churn cuz I was like, why do I

[18:26] care about this? Then I look down and I read that little just witness?" And that pops the question in my head, "What are we about question in my head, "What are we about to see?" Now I'm curious again.

[18:39] the car, I notice the shoelace stuck in the door and I notice him noticing it. he aware? Is she going to drive away? What's going to happen?" Right? Three or four rapid questions in succession. So at this point, my curiosity is pretty

[18:53] and I'm really curious to see what's going to happen. Next level three is going to happen. Next level three is anticipation. anticipating, is he going to get out or is he going to get dragged by the car?

[19:08] happen. That's me anticipating the solution. to anticipate what's going to happen. Is

[19:20] actually going to film this? Right? I'm still really curious. Now, level four is let me off. >> And in this case, he falls backwards like I would have expected, but then it hard cut match cuts away to him getting

[19:33] dragged singing a song. The audio comes in and he starts singing. That's not validation of closing the loop that he's okay, but also this shocking headfake moment where the answer is not what I expected. And because now I know he's

[19:47] not hurt, I get that dopamine release of that initial anticipatory loop closing. But also, I'm kind of interested in why is he doing this? Does this music video strategy work, etc.? All right, level five now is affection. Now, here,

[19:59] seen of this guy, you probably haven't seen enough to determine if you like or content, as I mentioned, it's a lot harder to determine affection and revelation than it would be with education content. But I will admit, I

[20:12] and I kind of give a hat tip to him. So, if I saw another video from him, I'd see what crazy stunt is he going to come up with next. Now, level six, the last taken me probably several other videos, but eventually I would have realized

[20:26] this guy is like a viral marketer meets music, which is kind of an interesting category. And if I like marketing or music or his music, I might realize get entertained in this unique way and also get to see his song. So I may

[20:40] drip with him. Now, in this case, I'm effect because this is an entertainment use case, but you can imagine how this ladder would work for educational content, and if he was giving me a tip

[20:52] that I could use in my life, I might have that Pavlovian effect much faster. So, this is a great example of how the dopamine ladder works in content. And when Citizen made this video, he specifically engineered those pieces to

[21:04] trigger you through those loops so that you kept watching. And I promise you, if content that has worked on you and you analyze it in this way, going through these levels in the dopamine ladder, it'll all be there clearly why you liked

[21:17] have to do is figure out how to reverse engineer that when you make your content guys. That is all I've got for this video. As a recap, we covered the full dopamine ladder, all six levels that you need to get the maximum dopamine

[21:32] them to keep watching for longer. This if you can do it consistently. Your goal, as I just mentioned, is to use these levels, this framework, as a checkpoint, as a checklist that you can

[21:44] ascend the viewer through. Are you driving the right curiosity? Are you driving the right dopamine releases? This is a great framework for that. As best to cover the non-obvious stuff that gives you an edge when you're trying to

[21:57] entrepreneur or a business owner, I built a completely free community called Wavy World that has 65 other trainings just like this one. So if you want to learn the advanced mode of YouTube and social media, it's in there for free.

[22:10] Also, there's 37,000 other people in there that are all teamed up, partnered you want a peer group that's in the content trenches as a business owner, free invite link for you below in the description. All right, we will see you

[22:23] description. All right, we will see you guys on the next video. Peace.