If you're thinking about whether you should pursue a career in life coaching, then you probably already are someone who feels passionate about helping the people around you succeed. But there are also some changes and adaptations that you'll need to make within yourself. Life coaching is a demanding profession and many people particularly struggle to market their services effectively.
I've been life coaching for about 15 years now and have seen some dramatic changes in the field as it has developed. So I want to spend some time talking with you about the steps you should take if you want to prepare yourself to succeed as a professional life coach. I want to go over this step by step, because it is easy to miss the trees for the forest when you're starting out your career and there often aren't any clear roadmaps for new coaches to follow through the early phases of launching a practice.
I'll tell you straightaway that you will need to feel comfortable spending a certain amount of money to get your practice off the ground. Remember, you're starting a business. The bad news is that most small businesses don't turn a profit for the first two years. The good news, however, is that a life coaching business has less overhead than a lot of other types of enterprise. But you do need to be ready to invest in yourself and your business if you want to succeed. There are also some things that you can do to get the ball rolling while you're still learning how to become a life coach. You can effectively pre-market your coaching practice while also making some direct capital to put back into your business. I'll go into the details on how to do that in a little while. For now, let me begin with the first (and most often overlooked) step to becoming a life coach:
1) Get Your Head Right
When you're working as a life coach, one of your main jobs is to help people to clarify their goals. You'll find that it's very difficult to do that if you aren't 100% certain that you are headed in the direction that you want to be heading in your own life. You just need to clarify your decision-making process so that you're not out there trying to convince your clients to live out your own dreams.
Probably the best way to do that is to attend an Anthony Robbins workshop. Tony Robbins is himself an outstanding life coach, so you will not only get to see a master in action, but you will also have the benefit of receiving his guidance for your own life and career. Most people who read this will go ahead and get their life coaching certifications and maybe get themselves some royalty-free coaching products to jump-start their business with, but only a few will go to the trouble of buying the tickets, booking a flight, and attending a Tony Robbins coaching workshop. But the simple truth is that the ones who do are going to be more likely to succeed in this business. Every successful life coach I know has been to an Anthony Robbins seminar. I feel strongly enough about his seminars that I signed up to help promote them as an affiliate.
Here's why: "life coaching" sounds like a job description, right? Well, it's not really that simple. There are a number of different areas of specialty that you can focus on. Different people are looking for help in different areas, and your past experiences will determine how good a fit you are for what these clients need. For example, if you have a lot of background working in the business world, and have successfully held positions there and understand corporate structures and power dynamics, then business and management coaching might be a good fit for you. Without those experiences, you're simply not going to be as well-trusted by the clients that are looking for that type of coach. You may want to hang back and focus more on motivational or leadership coaching.
On the other hand, if your background is in healthcare or mental health, then focus on leveraging that expertise into health coaching, personal coaching, relationship coaching, etcetera.
There are thousands of little things you won't have thought of starting out, unless you have taken this opportunity to clarify your own strengths and goals by going to one of Tony Robbins' weekend workshops.
2) Become A Certified, Professional Life Coach
When I started coaching, you didn't need to have any kind of certification. But, then, a lot fewer people would pay attention to you in those days, either. Life coaching is many hundreds of times more popular than it was then, and consequently people want to know that they are receiving a certain basic quality of service. So even though you're not required by law to get certified in most states, you will still benefit immensely from enrolling in an accredited program and earning your certificate.
Some people I've talked to have wanted to go and get a Master's degree in Counseling in order to become a life coach. I'll tell you what I've told them: that's a very expensive way to get something that is not exactly what you're looking for. If you get your Master's degree, you'll be able to get licensed as a counselor. It will take you about 3 years, and somewhere around $50,000, and at the end you'll be a counselor -- not a life coach. And when you work with clients, you'll both be able to tell the difference right away.
So what is going to happen, 3 years and $50,000 later, is that you will do what you should've done straightaway, and that is to enroll in a life coaching certification program at The Institute For Life Coach Training. There, you'll learn the knowledge and skills that are needed for coaching, not counseling. That's not to say that there is no benefit to getting an Master's degree; there absolutely is, if you want to be a professional counselor. I got my Master's degree in Counseling, and it was worth it because I am a psychotherapist first and a coach second. But if you want to become a professional coach, then it is pointless to get a degree.
I recommend the The Institute For Life Coach Training and am proud to be a member of their affiliate program because it is headed up by a legitimate Doctor of Education, and because it has full accreditation from all the major certifying bodies for professional life coaches -- that includes the International Coach Federation, The International Association of Coaching, and the Association of Coach Training Organizations. Since life coaching isn't standardized by the government, it's really easy to get ripped off when you're looking to do the right thing and get certified. The Institute has all the right credentials, the right curriculum, and the right connections to help you find mentoring and start a successful practice.
3) Market Yourself As A Life Coach
If you're lucky, you'll get to start out your coaching career at an established practice, usually someone you have been mentored by during your life coach training at the Institute. Then you can gradually build up your own client list through word of mouth, until you are ready to open a practice of your own.
Unfortunately, there are a lot more people starting out their careers in life coaching than there are opportunities for apprenticeship. So, you have to find ways of building up your own client list and getting a brand new practice off the ground on your own -- not an easy feat!
Until you have a steady stream of word-of-mouth referrals, the best way to get new clients is to give something away. Offering free workshops on topics that are popular within your area of expertise is a great way to connect with potential clients and demonstrate that you have something valuable to offer them. You can offer these types of workshops at local libraries, small business associations, and community centers. Then announce these free workshops through local mailing lists, meetup groups, and associations.
Prepare a packet for each attendee that includes your business card, as well as information about the specific services that you offer and your qualifications for doing so. However, do not expect that many of these people are going to become regular coaching clients straightaway. It simply doesn't work that way.
Hiring a life coach is a big commitment. And people aren't going to want to make that kind of commitment it until they feel really safe and secure in the knowledge that it will be a good decision. To get your potential clients to that point, you need to first identify their primary motivations. What is it that they would hope to gain from life coaching session with you?
Once you know this, you can develop a value ladder of products and services leading up to your actual one-on-one coaching sessions. As clients move higher on the value ladder, they grow increasingly involved with you and trusting that you can give them what they want. For example, the first time you ever speak to someone, you might offer to send them to a free newsletter with tips to help them achieve their goals. Or, you could offer them a free booklet on the subject that offers up the same kinds of insights that they might expect to receive in a coaching session.
The second time, you could offer them an audio or video program, or a chance to attend a lecture you’re giving. Never be afraid of giving away too much information; people will always be willing to pay to hear you personally repeat the exact same information that they read for free. The same way we’re willing to pay more for an audiobook than for a printed book, and we’re willing to pay more still to hear that same author give a lecture on the same topic. What you’re doing by giving information away is building trust. Once a potential client trusts you enough to believe that you can help them to succeed, then they will become an actual client.
The problem with this whole process is that it takes an enormous amount of time and energy to put together an entire line of products. Writing books and newsletters and reports is usually not the first thing anyone wants to do after they get their life coach certification. The simplest solution to this problem is to use royalty free coaching products. These are information products–newsletters, books, and pamphlets–that are basically all ready to use. They were put together by a successful life coach for the specific purpose of leading potential clients through the process I just described. And when you buy these products, you can modify them any way you want, adapt them to your own opinions, put your own name on them, and use them as if you had created them yourself from scratch. This can save you thousands of hours of work and can dramatically increase your ability to hit the ground running.
One of the nicest things about these royalty free products is that you don’t have to give them all away. In fact, it’s better if you don’t because you are building up the expectation in your clients’ mind that you are delivering increasing value to them. People never value things they get for free as much as the things they pay for. When you buy the royalty-free coaching products, you get a full range of them so that you can start out with simple free reports or newsletters, and then step up to selling actual books. These are great books by an experienced life coach, so you know they’re going to build up the client’s trust in what you have to offer. And on top of that you get to sell them for whatever price you think people will pay. You keep all the profits. This is really one of the best ways for a new life coach to get started, and it’s something that just wasn’t available a few years ago. Following this strategy will advance your coaching career at least a year or two beyond many of your peers from the coaching institute.
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