How to Set Up Your Coach Profile: The Introduction Video

Creating a compelling introduction video is an important part of setting up your profile and generating interest in your coaching services.

Here’s how to create an effective video and upload it to YouTube.

The Setup

There are a few important factors to consider before beginning to record your video.

• Good lighting — If possible, use natural light. Face a window so that the light is on you, not behind you. If natural light is not available, make the space around you as bright as possible. You want your face to be clearly discernible.
• Distance from the camera — Though it depends on the camera, you typically want to be about 2-3 ft. away from it. Your face and upper body should be visible, but nothing below it.
• Stable wifi — Test your connection so that the video doesn’t lag.
• Background — The less distraction in your environment, the more clients will be able to pay attention to what you’re saying. If filming at home, find a location that feels a little more formal. With this video, you’re saying and showing what kind of coach you’ll be to work with.

What to Say

Introduce Yourself

Tell the client about you. Focus primarily on your professional and educational background, but you can also include hobbies, fun facts, etc. With this, your goal is to make it easier for clients to feel like you “fit” their background. Were you a first-generation college student? Did your work focus on a niche industry? Let them know!

Highlight Your Coaching Style

Provide a brief glimpse into what it would be like to work with you. For example, do you prefer highly structured sessions or more go-with-the-flow? Do you tailor packages toward a specific outcome or personalize them to the client’s background? If you have specific strengths as a coach, you can talk about those here as well.

Here are a few examples of what “coaching style” could look like in written form:

Share Client Success Stories

Providing some kind of “social proof” increases the client’s trust in your services and thus, makes it easier for them to purchase coaching. This can be either a specific story or broader statistics. For example, “I’ve worked with over 50 students and on average, I increased their ACT scores by five points after two sessions” or, “This year, I worked with a client who had a 3.2 GPA and fairly average GMAT score but with a lot of work on their essays, letters of recommendation, and resume, we were able to get them admitted into HBS, GSB, and Wharton.”

Include a Call to Action

What do you want them to do after watching your video? Is it to message you? Book an intro call? Whatever it is, include it along with some kind of encouragement - "If you’re just starting on your applications, I’d love to help you figure out your narrative. Message me and we’ll talk through your background and how to best turn it into a compelling theme for your applications.”

Recording and Uploading to YouTube

You can record your video on whatever software you’d like, but make sure it’s in landscape orientation (the example below was recorded in Photobooth). Then, head to YouTube where you’ll upload it.

In the top right corner, you’ll see a camera with a plus sign on it. Click that and then “Upload video.”

You’ll then see the following screen. Fill out the title and description as you see below.

• Title: Name — Leland Coach Introduction
• Description: Hi, I’m “[Name],” an MBA and Consulting coach on Leland. Looking forward to working with you!
• Under audience, mark “Not for kids.” Under the “Age restriction (advanced)” section, you can specify that the video does not need to be restricted.

Then, you’ll need to make sure the video is marked as unlisted. This will be under the “Visibility” step in the video upload.

Once you’ve completed this last step, the video is good to go! You’ll copy and paste the video link (that you can see in the thumbnail on the right side of the above image) into the designated spot on your Leland coach profile.

Example Intro Video

That’s it! If you have any questions or difficulties, please don’t hesitate to reach out.