Before-and-after hooks for business videos

A before-and-after sets two states side by side and makes the gap as wide as it honestly is. The number that matters is not the after — it is the one thing that changed between them.

1. 18 months ago I had 2 clients and no idea why. Today I have 14 and I know exactly why.

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   Why it works. The real contrast is not the client count, it is knowing why. That second axis is what makes the video worth watching.

2. Before: 60 hour weeks and 3,000 a month. After: 30 hour weeks and the same 3,000. One change.

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   Why it works. Holding the money constant while halving the hours is a sharper claim than raising the money would have been.

3. My first shop did 400 a week. The second one, same street, did 400 a day.

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   Why it works. Same street removes every excuse, so the viewer has to accept that something the owner did is the difference.

4. Same product, same price, same me. Old page sold 2 a month, new page sold 2 a day.

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   Why it works. Three controls in the first sentence make the second sentence credible. Ruling things out is what buys belief.

5. A year ago I answered every email in 9 minutes. Now I answer them once, at 4pm.

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   Why it works. Both halves are specific behaviours rather than outcomes, which makes the change copyable by the viewer tonight.

6. In January I had 11 subscriptions and no customers. By June I had 3 subscriptions and 30 customers.

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   Why it works. Two numbers move in opposite directions across the sentence, which is the most compact way to make a point about spend.

7. Before I wrote anything down, we lost 1 order in 5. After, we lost 1 in 90.

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   Why it works. Ratios rather than totals, so the claim works whatever size the viewer's business is.

8. My old pitch took 4 minutes. My new one takes 11 seconds and closes twice as often.

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   Why it works. Minutes against seconds is a gap the ear hears instantly, and 'twice as often' gives it a consequence.

9. Last year I chased 20 leads a week. This year I chase 4 and earn more.

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   Why it works. Doing less and earning more is the promise the audience most wants and least believes, so they stay for the mechanism.

10. 2 years ago I could not take a Friday off. Last week the business ran 9 days without me.

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    Why it works. Freedom measured in days is more tangible than freedom described as a feeling.