SUMMARY BY CHATGPT

In this episode, Tom Antion explains how AI tools like Captions.ai can help entrepreneurs and content creators make more effective videos without needing advanced editing skills.
The biggest challenge today is getting and keeping attention. Viewers decide almost instantly whether to keep watching, so videos need a strong opening hook, fast pacing, and visual engagement.
Key Takeaways
• Captions are essential.
Many people watch videos with the sound turned off, so on-screen text helps keep viewers engaged and prevents them from scrolling past.
• AI simplifies video editing.
Captions.ai can automatically add:
o Animated captions
o B-roll footage
o Graphics
o Zoom effects
o Jump cuts
These features make basic talking-head videos look more professional and interesting.
• Modern video rules have changed.
Techniques like jump cuts, which were once considered poor editing, are now common because they create faster, more engaging content.
• AI eye-contact correction is a major advantage.
Captions.ai can adjust your eyes so it appears you are looking directly into the camera, even while reading from a phone teleprompter. This helps creators deliver scripted videos while maintaining a stronger connection with viewers.
• You don’t need to memorize long scripts.
Record one sentence or section at a time, pause, check your notes, continue recording, and edit the pauses out. This style is accepted today and makes video creation much easier.
Bottom Line
AI video tools like Captions.ai allow creators to spend less time struggling with editing and more time creating valuable content. Strong hooks, captions, fast pacing, and professional presentation can dramatically improve how many people watch and engage with your videos.

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Episode 1142 - Captions
[00:00:08] Welcome to Screw the Commute. The entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money, with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multimillionaire, Tom Antion.
[00:00:24] Hey everybody, it's Tom here with episode 1142 of Screw the Commute podcast. Today we're going to talk about a program called Captions. This is also something you should have on your videos. So we'll get into that in a minute. Hope you didn't miss episode 1141. That was Zapier. This is a program that connects programs for you to automate things, and it connects programs that normally don't connect together. So a very handy program and much easier to use than it used to be. And pick up a copy of our automation book at screwthecommute.com/automatefree. Version 3.0 is still up there, although I'm three fourths of the way through version 4.0, but grab 3.0 because 4.0 is pretty much just going to add to 3.0 rather than change it a whole lot. And check out my mentor program, greatinternetMarketingtraining.com and my school at IMTCVA.org, certified to operate by SCHEV.
[00:01:24] All right, let's talk about this program captions. But the bigger picture is, is that lots of videos now require a great hook and very fast pacing to have any chance of being seen, unless you already have enormous numbers of loyal followers. When people see this that don't know you, if it doesn't grab them and then keep them interested, you're basically you're dead in the water. So this program takes out the editing skill that is required to make those kinds of things. Now you still have to say something good in the first. Guess what? 1.7 seconds.
[00:02:08] The latest study show that you need to hook people and grab them. And there's various I think I did, uh, episode 1018 on hooks, different types of hooks, but takes a lot of editing skill to do this by hand. And most of us, including me, don't have that high level of skill. So there's programs coming on and AI stuff that's coming on that's going to help you with this. And captions is one of them. It's not the only one. I don't know the other ones. I just happen to use this one because it's it works really good. So what you do is you upload your video. Let's say you do a talking head video for a Facebook story or a reel or something like that, and it adds dynamic captions. Now, this is ultimately critical nowadays to have captions on your video because the some of the latest studies say that 80 plus percent of people scroll with no audio on. So if there's no text on the screen, unless it's some outrageous, crazy thing where you're chopping your own head off. All right. As a visual hook, which visual hooks are very powerful too, but most of us are not going to do crazy stuff to get that. I mean, I'm willing to, but, you know, it still doesn't really promote your brand that much. If you're doing wild stuff as your hooks and then you're trying to sell financial planning stuff.
[00:03:40] All right. So so they don't some things don't mix. But anyway, you got to have something on the screen. So captions will do that for you. And it'll also add what they call B-roll. B-roll is where you hear you talking, but some other video is on the screen or a graphic or something like that, supporting what you just said. So that's called B-roll. Well, a lot of times you have to shoot that separately and then edit it in at the right place and all that stuff. Also, you have zoom cuts and jump cuts, which used to be taboo in the video world I grew up in, and now they're highly common and expected to move things fast. And then of course, graphics and things like that. So these things can take a boring talking head video and make it fantastic. And another thing it can do is it can also translate into different languages, which we're getting ready to do that because that just ups the potential of people that can watch your video. And this one is really crazy. All right. Besides, it'll create avatars that'll talk and do your message for you. But really, we want to connect with people ourselves. But this last one is freaking amazing. And it's something that I've fought with my students for years. And it has to do with your eye contact when you're shooting videos.
[00:05:11] And see, I've always had good quality teleprompters where I can look directly into the lens and read text, and a lot of apps came out for your cell phone, but the slightest little difference between your eyes reading the text and the lens, which is typically on the edge of the cell phone. Like I'm looking at my iPhone here, the back camera, which is greater lenses, you can't see the teleprompter. And if you turn it on to the selfie one, the front camera, I think they call this, then you, if you're reading the text, you are not looking directly at the edge where the lens is. And so, and I've had enormous teleprompter training and I'm Sag-Aftra, which in the actor's union since, you know, 30 plus years and we had extensive teleprompter work and I did tons of teleprompter videos over in my studio and looking right into the lens. Well, again, no matter what you do with the cell phone, I mean, if you move it far enough away from you on a tripod and make the text big enough, you can't kind of tell you're not looking at the lens, but that's such a hassle and you got to make the text so big to read it that you don't want to squint to be reading. So, so it's just been a big mess. So captions has figured out a way to fix this.
[00:06:53] So you can put a teleprompter app so you can get your whole script on your cell phone and read it. However, when I say read it, you still have to. Like I said, with all the extensive teleprompter training I've had, you move your head, you smile, you look away, you gesture, you know. So it's got to look smooth. You can't look deer in the headlights. Just reading with your eyes like, you know, pinned open with toothpicks. You know, it just looks stupid. You do still have to practice. But what captions has done is it has an eye fix thing where you can read your script, and then it will change your eye angle to exactly in front of the camera. This is just crazy, folks. So you can use a teleprompter app on your cell phone, fairly close up, and still look like you're looking directly into the lens. Now, I haven't tested it because a lot of times I'll look away to look more natural, or I'll look down at my notes pretending I'm looking at notes, and then back up to the teleprompter. I'm not sure how it handles that, but it's certainly worth it if you don't have a fancy teleprompter. And I have an Elgato here, and I have one over in the the other building that you put an iPad or an iPhone on it, and it reflects into the the glass so that you can look straight through the glass and read your your text and while still looking in the lens.
[00:08:23] So I have those fancy ones. But if you don't and you want to, and you're having trouble remembering complete scripts, this is a way with captions to change the eye. So it looks into the lens. Now I'll give you a one that doesn't require any kind of software. If you don't want to get captions, I don't care if you do or not. I'm just telling you it can really up your game and people will watch your videos more if they're exciting. But the way to get out of the memory problem where you don't have to memorize a whole script, well, it used to be you'd have to memorize it and then cross your fingers. You didn't mess up and start over again. But now with jump cuts being allowed, you can do one sentence at a time. You can memorize one sentence and then stop. Look at your notes, get your next sentence, deliver your next sentence. You could actually move the camera angle for more interest and excitement and deliver the next sentence. And then in editing, it cuts apart the you have to manually cut the space between the sentences and it goes bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. And you didn't have to memorize the whole thing. And that's acceptable nowadays. All right. So there's some video stuff I've said.
[00:09:48] I've been in video business for 30 plus years and doing all these, uh, you know, different cameras and different shooting techniques and all kinds of editing techniques. But like I said, stuff now that's perfectly acceptable and expected used to be taboo in the old days. All right. So but it is a lot easier now. Okay, so that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Check out my mentor program. Greatinternetmarketingtraining.com, where we give you actual one on one training with this stuff. You when you visit our retreat center, you stay. Um, well, we're in construction right now, but you still have access to our TV studio where we will shoot video to train you and all this stuff as part of your year long program. So that's my mentor program. Plus, if you're in the mentor program, you get a scholarship to my school. IMTCVA.org that you can either use for yourself or gift to someone. And it would be one of the best legacy gifts you could ever give to a person because they can get a mark, a highly marketable skill, in as little as six months. And we had people making money long before they graduated. All right, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. We'll catch you on the next episode and we will see you on video. Check out captions. Oh, it's captions.ai by the way.