This is a guest post by Kayla Matthews.

Being a life coach isn't exactly living the easy life. Sure, the coaching itself might come naturally to you, but it's still a business and you're self-employed. Which means that if you want to qualify as employed, you need to do something before you coach anyone — you need to sell yourself to them.

Being able to sell yourself isn't always given the amount of appreciation it deserves. It's the first step to any business transaction, whether you're trying to land a job, get a client or convince a client to pay their bills. Luckily, we aren't stuck writing in to Dr. Amy and waiting for a weekly response in the newspaper anymore. Now, you have access to millions of potential clients with social media.

Here are some tips on how you can use YouTube to scale your coaching business.

1. K.I.S.S.

K.I.S.S. stands for keep it simple, stupid! This is especially important on a video sharing platform.

Short, concise videos that get to the point and deliver a well-researched and valuable message are going to get the most views.

The top videos are all under 10 minutes and YouTube has a search function that allows you to filter by video length, with short videos being under four minutes. This is especially true for introductory videos.

Life coach Christine Hassler keeps most of her videos brief, while also creating playlists that let viewers separate them into categories and find what they're looking for. Remember, you aren't keeping it simple for yourself, you're keeping it simple for the people looking for you!

This isn't to say you can't make any longer videos. You certainly can do the occasional half-hour-long session, but those longer videos should be the exception on your channel, not the rule.

Most people want to tune in and get the information, not wade through details that may or may not be pertinent to their situation.

2. Brand your channel

Your YouTube channel needs to be a reflection of how you work as a life coach. You'll want to customize as much as you can, including everything from the background to the music to the topics you're discussing.

One thing people love about YouTube is that it gives you an anonymous place to talk about difficult issues, so don't shy away from the hard stuff.

Dig into it and set the groundwork for your business. People who are looking for a life coach are usually struggling somehow, so start off by showing them that you can deal with the difficult issues.

A great brand that talks about difficult topics and gets people thinking about self-improvement is Ted Talks. The brand and style are instantly recognizable, even if you come in at the very end of a video, and they hit on some important topics.

3. Repackage your videos

One of the best parts about using videos to share your work is that you can change them up for different mediums.

It's not that complicated to learn how to pull the voice-over out of a video and upload it as a podcast. You could also take a short clip and post it on Instagram or as a GIF on Facebook.

When doing this, make sure to include closed captions. Viewers can turn it off, but people who are hearing impaired will notice if you do that.

Some people reverse this by taking the work they have done elsewhere (from a blogpost, ebook, podcast, etc) and turn it into a YouTube video. Dick Ray, owner of Dick Ray Master Plumbing in Kansas, takes his radio show and makes it available on YouTube, so anyone can get the information they need whenever they want it.

Recording yourself during personal sessions could work to your advantage this way as Dr. Cheyenne Bryant has also done. Just make sure you aren't crossing any confidentiality boundaries!

4. Offer credibility

No one wants to pay you to give them advice that they could get from their mom.

You're a life coach and you need to reflect your skills and experience in your videos. The information you offer should be backed up by credible resources whenever applicable.

If you can reference studies to demonstrate why you're providing the advice you are, you instantly gain credibility. Big Think is excellent at building credibility. They use as many experts in their fields as they can and reference their work directly.

5. Involve your viewers

Since you're a life coach, involving your viewers is more critical than it would be for a lot of other careers. Life Coach Shawn excels at this, taking inquiries that viewers send in and responding to them in short but accurate videos.

With over 100,000 subscribers, she can't address every question, but she takes the ones that she thinks will resonate with her audience and uses them to promote her style of coaching. Tackling issues that relate to your potential clients is a great way to establish yourself as an expert in your field.

Life coaching is a hard profession to get into. It's easy to get overwhelmed with the day-to-day routine and forget about continually trying to broaden your audience, but it's essential that you continue to do that. Social media and especially YouTube are great tools to help you do that.

Don't let them fall through the cracks!