A YouTube Strategy
for Radical Mentoring

What if someone searching "how to find my purpose" landed on a Radical Mentoring video and discovered they weren't meant to figure it out alone?

The Opportunity

People are searching for exactly what Radical Mentoring teaches. They just don't know Radical Mentoring exists yet.

4%

of churches prioritize men's ministry

Lifeway Research, 2025

25yr

high in male church attendance

Barna Group, 2025

8%

of pastors confident their discipleship works

Lifeway Research, 2026

The gap: Men are showing up to church at record rates, but almost no one is making content specifically for them about identity, purpose, and what it means to walk with Jesus. The supply is tiny. The demand is growing. Radical Mentoring already has the content and credibility to fill that gap.

The Shift

Moving from videos organized around what Radical Mentoring needs to videos organized around what the searcher needs.

Current State

Organized by Radical Mentoring

  • Testimonials
  • Website Videos
  • Pete's Story
  • Radical Mentoring Impact
  • Radical Mentoring Partnership

Great for people who already know Radical Mentoring.
Invisible to everyone else.

The Vision

Organized by Felt Need

  • "I don't know who I am anymore"
  • "What is my purpose?"
  • "My marriage needs help"
  • "I want to be a better dad"
  • "How do I grow spiritually?"

Discoverable by anyone searching for answers.
Radical Mentoring becomes the guide they find.

Two Platforms, Two Jobs

YouTube

Discovery

YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world. When a church leader searches "how to start a mentoring group" or a man types "finding identity in Jesus," YouTube is where they will find Radical Mentoring.

  • Free to upload, free to watch
  • Algorithmic recommendations put Radical Mentoring in front of new audiences
  • SEO-optimized titles and descriptions drive search traffic
  • Shorts expand reach to people who have never heard of Radical Mentoring

Vimeo

Impact App

The Impact app is where mentors go for training resources, and it embeds video directly into the platform. Vimeo is the right player for this because the experience stays clean and feels like Radical Mentoring.

  • Full removal of Vimeo branding so it looks like part of the app
  • No end-screen distractions pulling mentors away from training
  • Custom player colors matched to the Radical Mentoring brand
  • Domain restrictions keep training content inside the app

Why not just YouTube everywhere? YouTube embeds show the YouTube logo (no way to remove it), recommend unrelated videos when a video ends, and do not allow custom player colors or domain restrictions. Inside the Impact app, that means a mentor watching a training video could get pulled into a rabbit hole of unrelated content. Vimeo keeps the experience clean.

Upload every video to both platforms. YouTube gets the public-facing, SEO-optimized version with searchable titles and descriptions. Vimeo gets the same video for embedding inside the Impact app with clean, branded playback. Same video, two jobs.(Confirmed by Duane Priddy at Impact.app)

The Library

15 videos, four playlists, ready to go on day one. As the library grows, new playlists will be added when the footage is there to fill them.

Start Here | Radical Mentoring

2 videos

What Is Radical Mentoring?

This playlist goes first on the channel homepage because first impressions happen once. Someone who lands on your channel and immediately understands what Radical Mentoring is will keep exploring. Someone who doesn't will leave.

  • Ripples: How It All Started | Pete Loescher | Radical Mentoring

    Pete’s journey from Regi’s dining room table to leading Radical Mentoring. One man’s obedience 25 years ago, nearly 30,000 people through the journey.

  • Identity, Community, Purpose | Men in Mentoring | Radical Mentoring

    Seven men share what happened when they stopped hiding. Identity, community, healing, and what it means to be fully known.

Mentee Stories | Radical Mentoring

3 videos

How Mentoring Changed Everything

Personal testimonies from men whose lives changed through the process. A pastor evaluating Radical Mentoring wants proof of transformation. A man considering mentoring wants to hear from someone who did it.

  • What Happens When You Stop Pretending | David Wright | Radical Mentoring

    David was 35, married with three kids, and spiritually empty. A dead man walking behind a mask. The mentoring table was where he experienced being fully known and fully loved for the first time.

  • You Think You’re Not Worth It | The Hensleys | Radical Mentoring

    After losing their son and then Dave’s father-in-law, he could barely get through the day. He almost didn’t stay in the room. Dave and his wife share what happened when he did.

  • The Lies I Believed About Myself | Mark Stewart | Radical Mentoring

    Mark was driving through a fog he couldn’t see through, living on lies the world told him. Around the table, other men helped him battle back with truth. His last line: “God loves me more.”

For Your Church | Radical Mentoring

3 videos

What Radical Mentoring Did for Our Church

Church leaders talking to other church leaders. When a pastor is deciding whether to bring Radical Mentoring into their church, they want to hear from a pastor who already did.

  • Why Mentoring Accelerates Discipleship | David Anderson, Pastor | Radical Mentoring

    David Anderson, pastor of adult disciplemaking at Johnson Ferry, on how Radical Mentoring became the accelerator in their discipleship pathway.

  • How Mentoring Creates Ready Leaders | Pete Buhls, Men’s Pastor | Radical Mentoring

    Pete Buhls, men’s pastor at Johnson Ferry, on how Radical Mentoring alumni are the first men he calls when the church needs leaders.

  • What 10 Years of Mentoring Did to Our Church | Whit Smith, Pastor | Radical Mentoring

    Whit Smith started with two groups of 15 men. Ten years later, Radical Mentoring has infiltrated every part of Athens Church. It started with a wife stopping him in the hallway.

Mentor Training | Radical Mentoring

7 videos

Everything You Need to Lead Well

Training videos serve a different purpose than testimonials. Someone searching 'how to lead your first mentoring group' should not have to scroll past 20 testimonials to find it.

  • Everything You Need to Start Mentoring | Equipped to Lead | Radical Mentoring

    Pete Loescher walks through the free equipping center: customizable playbook, resource library, digital tools, mentoring guides, and a national community. All free, paid forward by churches who’ve gone before.

  • How Mentoring Changes Your Church | Impact | Radical Mentoring

    How mentoring groups create intergenerational community, produce ready leaders, and change church culture. “People don’t leave churches where they’re known and needed.”

  • Why You Shouldn’t Do This Alone | Partnership | Radical Mentoring

    What partnering with Radical Mentoring looks like: ongoing training, mentor huddles, community, and personalized guidance. Tour guides, not travel agents.

  • How the Mentoring Season Works | Pete & Trey, Part 1 | Radical Mentoring

    The three-legged stool of identity, belonging, and purpose. How the 10-12 month season is structured and why every piece is built on purpose.

  • How Each Meeting Works | Pete & Trey, Part 2 | Radical Mentoring

    What mentors and mentees do each month. Prep guides, agendas, books, growth assignments, and why the scaffolding always comes second to the people in the room.

  • Why Story Changes Everything | Pete & Trey, Part 3 | Radical Mentoring

    Story is woven through the entire season, and the story retreat is where it clicks. “We can’t belong until we’re known, and we’re not truly known until we’ve shared the truth about ourselves.”

  • How to Be a Good Mentor | Pete & Trey, Part 4 | Radical Mentoring

    Listen, learn, then lead. Balancing grace and truth. How to keep growing after your first year, and how to tap into the Radical Mentoring mentor community.

Naming Your Videos

YouTube is a search engine. The naming convention is built around that single reality.

The Formula

Searchable Hook  |  Person or Category  |  Radical Mentoring

Searchable Hook

What Happens When You Stop Pretending

The first 50 characters carry the most weight in YouTube's search index, and get truncated first on mobile. The topic goes first because that is what people are searching for.

Person or Category

David Wright / David Anderson, Pastor / Pete & Trey, Part 1

A name adds authenticity. For mentee stories, use the person's name. For church leaders, add a short title (Pastor, Men's Pastor) to lend credibility. For training content, use a category label.

Radical Mentoring

Radical Mentoring

Brand consistency across every video. Always there, never fighting the hook for attention.

Good Titles

  • What Happens When You Stop Pretending | David Wright | Radical Mentoring
  • Why Mentoring Accelerates Discipleship | David Anderson, Pastor | Radical Mentoring
  • How the Mentoring Season Works | Pete & Trey, Part 1 | Radical Mentoring

Bad Titles

  • Radical Mentoring Testimonial: David's Story
  • RM Impact Video - Church Discipleship
  • Pete and Trey Training Series Episode 1

The test: Anyone on the team can title a video correctly by asking one question: "What would someone type into YouTube to find this video?" That answer goes first. Everything else follows.

Writing Your Descriptions

The first 125 characters show up in YouTube search results. Everything after that gives the algorithm context. The bottom half is the same for every video.

The Template

First 2 Sentences (The Hook)

[What is this video about? Include the primary keyword naturally in the first 25 words. Write it like you're telling a friend what they're about to watch. Never open with "Welcome to Radical Mentoring" or "Don't forget to subscribe."]

2-3 More Sentences (The Context)

[Expand on the story or topic. What will the viewer gain? Why does this matter? For testimonials, name the transformation. For training, name the skill. Use the primary keyword 2-3 times naturally throughout the full description.]

Closing Line

[One sentence that tells the viewer who this video is for. "If you've ever felt..." or "If you're a pastor wondering..."]

Timestamps (Videos Over 3 Minutes)

0:00 - [Opening]
[Add chapter markers at each natural section break]

Same For Every Video (Copy-Paste)

== ABOUT RADICAL MENTORING ==
Radical Mentoring equips mentors with a discipling roadmap and guides them as they awaken mentees to their unique design, belonging, and purpose in Jesus. We believe discipleship belongs to everyone, not just pastors.

Start a mentoring group: https://radicalmentoring.com/start
Email: info@radicalmentoring.com

== CONNECT ==
Instagram: https://instagram.com/radicalmentoring
Facebook: https://facebook.com/radicalmentoring

#RadicalMentoring #ChristianMentoring #Discipleship

The rule: The first 125 characters are the only ones people see before they click. Put the topic and the keyword there. The boilerplate at the bottom handles brand consistency and links so the person writing the description only has to focus on the story.

  • Aim for 200-300 total words (custom section + boilerplate).
  • No links in the first 125 characters. Links go in the boilerplate.
  • Every description must be unique. Never copy-paste the custom section between videos.

Two Sample Descriptions

Mentee Story

Sample 1 of 2

What Happens When You Stop Pretending | David Wright | Radical Mentoring

David Wright was 35, married with three kids, and spiritually empty. In this video, he shares what happened when he stopped pretending and let a group of men see who he really was.

David grew up in church and knew all the answers, but decades of doing life alone led him to a dark place. A mentor invited him into a Radical Mentoring group at the end of his rope. When he finally shared the unpolished version of his story, something broke open. He calls it the first time he ever felt fully known and fully loved. That changed his marriage and the way he shows up for his family.

If your faith looks right on the outside but feels empty on the inside, this story is for you.

== TIMESTAMPS ==
0:00 - David's story begins
0:55 - "My inside does not match my outside"
1:48 - Sharing vulnerability with the group
2:07 - The fly fishing metaphor
2:59 - How it changed his marriage

== ABOUT RADICAL MENTORING ==
Radical Mentoring equips mentors with a discipling roadmap and guides them as they awaken mentees to their unique design, belonging, and purpose in Jesus. We believe discipleship belongs to everyone, not just pastors.

Start a mentoring group: https://radicalmentoring.com/start
Email: info@radicalmentoring.com

== CONNECT ==
Instagram: https://instagram.com/radicalmentoring
Facebook: https://facebook.com/radicalmentoring

#RadicalMentoring #ChristianMentoring #Discipleship

For Your Church

Sample 2 of 2

What 10 Years of Mentoring Did to Our Church | Whit Smith, Pastor | Radical Mentoring

Whit Smith started Radical Mentoring at Athens Church with two groups and 15 men. Ten years later, mentoring has infiltrated every part of the church. In this video, Whit shares how it went from a test run to something the whole church now runs on.

Whit jumped into the first group himself. When he shared his story, he expected shame. Instead the men just said, "Thanks for sharing." He calls it the first time he actually experienced grace, not just read about it. His lead pastor came to the celebration, heard men share what happened to them, and said the next day at staff meeting: "We will always do this." Two years later, a wife stopped Whit in the hallway and said, "Whatever you're doing to my husband, I want." They started doing it with women the following year. Now over half the staff and elders have gone through the mentoring process.

If you're a church leader wondering whether mentoring can take root and grow in your congregation, this is the story you need to hear.

== TIMESTAMPS ==
0:00 - How it started at Athens Church
0:49 - "I didn't know this was possible"
1:15 - Experiencing grace for the first time
1:44 - The lead pastor's response
2:19 - The wife in the hallway
2:47 - Ten years of impact

== ABOUT RADICAL MENTORING ==
Radical Mentoring equips mentors with a discipling roadmap and guides them as they awaken mentees to their unique design, belonging, and purpose in Jesus. We believe discipleship belongs to everyone, not just pastors.

Start a mentoring group: https://radicalmentoring.com/start
Email: info@radicalmentoring.com

== CONNECT ==
Instagram: https://instagram.com/radicalmentoring
Facebook: https://facebook.com/radicalmentoring

#RadicalMentoring #ChristianMentoring #Discipleship