The One Thing I'd Change First in Almost Every Coach's Video

When a coach sends me a video and asks what they should work on, they usually expect me to say something about the lighting. Or the microphone. Or the editing. Occasionally someone braces themselves for a comment about their voice.

It's almost never any of those things.

It's the opening.

More precisely, it's the first fifteen seconds, which most people spend doing one of three things.

1. Apologising. "Sorry it's been a while since my last video, things have been really busy.
2. Warming up. "Hi everyone, welcome back, hope you're all having a great week."
3. Introducing yourself. "Hi, my name is...(your name) , I'm a...(what you do or your niche), and I've been doing this for (however many) years, and in today's video..."

None of these are wrong or a disaster. The introduction in particular feels like good manners...it’s just arriving before anyone has decided they want to know who you are. The good stuff, the reason someone should keep watching, is usually sitting there in sentence three or four, waiting patiently behind all the throat clearing.

What to do instead

Find the first sentence you'd actually say if a client had just asked you the question, then delete everything that comes before it.

Here's what that looks like in practice.

Before: "Hi everyone, welcome back to the channel. Today I want to talk about imposter syndrome, which is something a lot of my clients struggle with, and I've got three tips for you."

After: "Most of the people I work with are far more capable than they believe they are. And it's quietly costing them work."

Here’s another example:

Before: "Sorry it's been a bit quiet on here lately, things have been hectic, but I wanted to jump on and share something with you."

After: "I had a conversation last week that I haven't been able to stop thinking about."

Same person, same content, same tone of voice. Nothing has been made clever or salesy. The only difference is where the video starts.

A word about signposting

I still teach the old structure and I stand by it: tell them what you're going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you told them. Why? Because it works.

But notice where the first part of the structure sits. It works once someone has a reason to care. Delivered cold, before anything else, it's a contents page for a book nobody has picked up yet. Give them the sentence that makes them want to know, then tell them how you'll get there. Same structure, ten seconds later.

This isn't about hooks

I want to be clear, because "hook" has become a bit of a dirty word, and rightly so. I'm not asking you to shout, or to open with a countdown, or to promise something you then spend eight minutes not delivering. That wouldn’t be authentic for you, or respectful for the person watching your video.

I'm saying your introduction isn't a runway. You don't need to taxi. Once you're in, the rest of the video can be as calm and considered as you like.

Why we all do it anyway

Here's the part that matters more than the technique.

The waffle at the start isn't a skills problem. It's a warm up, and you're doing it out loud because the camera has just been switched on and your nervous system is buying you a few seconds to settle. Every single one of us does it. I do it. The difference is only whether it survives into the finished video.

So the fix is gentler than it sounds. Keep the warm up. Record it, ramble away, get comfortable, and then cut it. Or press record, count to five in your head, and start with the sentence that matters.

You're not removing your personality. You're removing the throat clearing that was never meant for anyone else to hear.

Try it on something you've already made

If you've got a video up somewhere, send me the link and I'll tell you the one thing I'd change first. No charge, no pitch, just the one thing.

I'll do this for the first five people who get in touch this week.

And...’action!"