There I was in a meditation retreat.

As you’d expect, my mind was rather calm. Nothing would have been able to disturb the tranquility. Except, for the middle-aged lady apparently. This middle-aged lady (whose name I still don’t know to this day) had just cut in line for washing plates.

The calmness was long gone, replaced by anger. Seething anger.

How could she!!?

So inconsiderate of everyone standing behind her. Some of the people in line were even older than she was.

Just when I was about to confront her, I noticed the slight limp in her left leg. Clearly, she had a physical issue. :\

This detail changed everything.

The question was – Was cutting the line justified? Or inconsiderate?

​

What’s the right thing to do?

That’s when the ethical dilemma began. Should I go and confront her? Asking her to be considerate of all the people behind her, especially the older ones? Or should I be considerate of her condition and let this ‘mistake’ slide?
​

We face such ethical dilemmas everyday

In our lives and in our work. When the decision-making is tested. Both sides seem equally compelling and we are unable to decide.

Which shirt do I wear for a client meeting?

Which font do I use in my presentation?

Which hook should I write for my client’s LinkedIn post?

And while ‘wardrobe choices’ and ‘fonts’ are outside my expertise, let’s talk about hooks.

As a ghostwriter who develops ideas, concepts, and stories for my clients that eventually turn into LinkedIn posts, writing hooks is a key part of my job. And that is one area where I struggle the most.
​

Traditional advice about hooks

Is all about shouting louder.

– “You only have 2 seconds to grab their attention.”

– “Stop their scrolling.”

– “Do anything and everything in your power to shock them.”

​

And when this advice is taken seriously, hooks like these are born –

– “99% business owners don’t know this one big secret”.

– “3 habits that are keeping you poor”.

– “I made 3 million yesterday. Here’s how you can do it too”.

I don’t know about you, but I feel icky in the pit of my stomach as I read these.
​

But that’s what we need

In a way, this is justified. Social media is getting noisy and we do need to get their attention. We do need to stop the scrolling. We do need to say something that intrigues them. In fact, there is content on LinkedIn that uses such hooks and gets good engagement. Here’s an example of such a post –

​
​But do likes translate to trust?

Not if your content lacks substance and depth. ‘Likes’ might seem like we’re making an impact with our content, but they’re nothing more than pseudo-signals that don’t really mean anything. A good hook might grab the attention of your audience, but does your content deliver on the extravagant promise your hook makes?

Your aggressive hook might get their attention, but does it resonate deeply?

​

Here’s my point: The danger of using overly aggressive hooks is that we might create LinkedIn content that promises big things but offers little substance, harming the brand in the long run.

So here, I am again. Stuck between two extremes.

My Morals vs. Business results

Awareness vs. Resonance

Quick results vs. The Brand

Being torn in 2 directions.

Either

1. I write aggressive hooks that grab attention but feel icky

Or

2. I write a boring start to a LinkedIn post that fails to grab attention.

Which one do I choose?

​

The binary view is unhelpful

What helps is looking at it as a spectrum. Wes Kao calls this the “Brand vs. Performance Marketing Spectrum.”

According to Wes Kao,

“There are few philosophical stances that will influence everything about your marketing thereafter. Deciding to prioritize brand versus performance is one of those things.

I call this the Law of Brand vs Performance Marketing. It states:

All marketing activities are a trade-off between immediate conversion and brand equity.

(Here’s the link to the original article).

Okay, so it seems that a good question to ask myself is – “Where do I want to lie on this spectrum?”

It’s no longer either/or. It’s not black and white. There apparently is a 3rd way. And I get to choose that 3rd way from this spectrum.

​

Introducing ‘The Wholesome Hook’

A wholesome hook, unlike the aggressive hook, grabs the attention of the audience while providing substance.

The best way to figure out if your hook is actually a whomesome hook is by asking yourself –

Did my ideal customer feel better after reading the LinkedIn post?

Did their life change?

Did my content fulfill the promise that was made by the hook?​
​

But there is another filter

Which is your gut. Your intuition. That inner feeling that provides guidance.

Did I feel good after publishing this post?

Did I feel that the curiosity I was creating was justified, or was it pure hype, a stunt merely to grab attention? ​
​

Here’s an example of a wholesome hook

​
​

A few observations –

1. The hook delivers on the promise.

2. The hook is concrete and provides substance.

3. The hook is counter-intuitive but not sensational.
​

Okay, now that we have some idea of what a wholesome hook looks like, the next likely question is how to create one.

One of the best ways I know is to ask tantalizing questions.

​
​Questions gently invite people into the conversation

Questions create a healthy tension and gently invite people on a journey. They create an open loop, and the only way to close this loop is to read what’s written next. Here’s another example of a wholesome hook I used for my client recently –

Pretty nice, right?

Arriving at these questions seems pretty easy. Or does it?
​

You can ask good questions

Only if you know your audience. A prerequisite to asking questions that create healthy tension is knowing what’s keeping our audience up at night.

What is their pain?

What’s their suffering like?

When you start with a question that touches upon a problem, the audience is much more likely to pay attention to what you have to say.

Going back to the hook created by Jonathan, the audience is already struggling with daily publishing. And yep, that’s exactly why they will pay attention.

Now imagine if Jonathan creates a sensational hook

Something like ” How do you create a billion-dollar company?”

It would totally work, right?

Of course not.

Of course, he might get some engagement.

The hook is ‘sensational,’ and while it might generate engagement, it will not generate meaningful trust.

Jonathan Stark’s real audience doesn’t want to build a billion-dollar business. They are happy being solopreneurs and intentionally want to stay small. There should be no dilemma about the kind of hook he should use.
​

Because that’s the thing about dilemmas

I never had a conversation with the lady at the meditation center. Unlike a movie, this doesn’t have a ‘happily ever after’ ending. But if I had had a conversation with her, I would have probably said, “Hey, you don’t need to stand in the line. Let me wash the plate for you.” Perhaps that would have been the ethical thing to do.

Quite often, the answer isn’t as black and white as we think. It’s not that we must sacrifice one thing for the other. There is always a 3rd option.
​
​