How to Be a Life Coach

Keep your part-time job. Let's just get this out there right outta the gate: while there aren't a ton of fees associated with becoming a life coach (in comparison to paying for a decade of medical school, say), there's a definite delay in income. Not only do you need something to keep the lights on while you're getting trained, but you'll need that savings while you get started, too. After four months of classes, people won't exactly be knocking down your door to pay you for advice. These things take time.

• It could take years to build up a steady, sturdy clientele base. This is not a get-rich-quick scheme. While some life coaches can charge exorbitant amounts of money for just a quick phone call, most aren't so lucky. With less experience, you'll have to charge less money (in addition to having fewer clients). And you'll probably have to start out doing work for free -- so don't go flipping your boss the bird yet.

Work for yourself...probably. While a few life coaches get hired by corporations and those businesses looking to improve their employee retention rates, most life coaches are self-employed.^{[citation needed]} This means you'll handle your own paperwork and have to get bogged down by the business side of it all, but it also means you set your own schedule.

• You'll need to pay self-employment tax along with invoicing all your clients yourself and establishing methods and schedules of payment (just to name a few). If you're unsure of all the bases you need to cover, talk to someone else who is self-employed -- or other life coaches! What a nice set-up for the next step.

Be mentored by an established life coach. Just as therapists receive hours of counseling during their training, new life coaches need to get mentored by experienced coaches to supplement their training. Mentoring may occur in group sessions or with individual coaches over the phone if your school provides one for you -- or you may have to seek one out yourself. You've been networking, right?

• The other side to this equation is that you need to see what a life coach actually does. You may think it's all, "You're ruining your life -- do this instead," when it's really anything but that (if you're a good life coach, at least!). To get a better grip on what you'll actually be doing, you should have a life coach yourself.
• If your school doesn't provide one for you (or at the very least give you a few names to hit up), find one either through your friends/school buddies/teachers or through a directory -- much like your future clients will find you.

List yourself in various coaching directories. There are several online directories in which you can list yourself so that Internet wanderers may find you if they decide they'd like a little life assistance. There are tons of people out there you'll never reach by word of mouth -- putting yourself out there on the web is the only way to find them.

• Most websites will charge a fee to put your image and information up. Make sure it's not a complete hoax/waste of time before you hand anyone your credit card information or money. There are plenty of scams out there, so step lightly.

Find your niche. Some life coaches specialize in coaching people on defining visions for their lives and seeking ways to improve overall. Some coaches focus on helping clients choose and train for careers, while others coach executives in how to run their businesses; and still others coach clients in managing their interpersonal relationships. Decide on what area of life coaching you wish to specialize in (hint: it should be something you know personally). Here's a list of possibilities to start you off:

• Business coaching
• Carbon coaching (helping others reduce their carbon footprint)
• Career coaching
• Corporate coaching
• Executive coaching
• Relationship coaching
• Retirement coaching
• Spiritual and Christian coaching
• Time management coaching
• Weight and body image coaching
• Work/life balance coaching

Market yourself. Now that you have the title "Certified Life Coach" behind your name, it's time to start handing out business cards, getting ads online, in newspapers, in community pages and journals, setting up a Facebook page, tweeting, heck, even plastering your name on the side of your car. The more name recognition you have, the better. People can't come to you if they don't know you exist!

• Consider marketing yourself as a specialist. You've got your niche, right? What might your prospective clients be reading, viewing, or listening to? If you want to reach executives, you wouldn't post an ad at the local daycare -- but you might want to do that if you want to reach new moms or women balancing career and family life.
• Studies have shown that coaching is just as great for employees as it is for employers. Companies that spend $1 on their employees (be it through coaching, personal wellness, etc.) make $3 in savings for decreased turnover and the processes that go with it. If you're considering walking up to a business and suggesting they provide you as a coach (and if you weren't, you are now), arm yourself with these facts.

Get some guinea pig clients. After you're fresh off the certification boat, you'll need some clients. However, with zero experience under your belt, they're going to be pretty hard to come by. In an exchange to be able to say you have experience working with living, breathing people, ask your friends and family members if you can work with them for free. You'll get your hours in and they'll get some much needed me-time (and hopefully some great pointers and a dose of reality).

• How many and for how long you do this is up to you. The correct answer is "until you feel comfortable charging for your services and confident that you can truly help others enrich their lives." It could be weeks, it could be months. Luckily, there's no wrong way to go about it. However, waiting until you feel completely "ready" will delay the work of truly helping people, especially if you're a perfectionist. At some point, you're going to need to jump in and make the decision that you are running a real business.

Get some real clients. After a few months of working with your sister's coworker and your friend's friend's pizza delivery guy, eventually word of mouth will do its job. You'll get that first phone call that makes you jump through the roof. Congratulations! It's money making time.*Word of mouth is NOT something to depend on. You need to learn to market your business and set up a plan, not wait for others to talk about you. Get a business coach if you really want to run a business and not have a part-time hobby that barely brings in any money.

• ...But how much? Quite frankly, that's up to you. Do you want to charge a daily rate? A monthly rate? And what is that rate? Consider how steep the challenges are for this individual -- both for you and for them. What can they afford? What can you afford? What demographic do the majority of your potential clients fall into? When in doubt -- ask around about the competition! * You need to learn to charge for results, not by the hour or day. Worrying about what the competition charges and trying to undercut them is why very few coaches make money. You'll need to hire a business coach to learn the correct way to set up your services and price them so that you can make a good living and eventually quit your day job. It's also important to set up longer-term programs, and not just meet with a client one time or let them hire you monthly.

Start with an in-depth interview. When it comes to life coaching, there is no judging books by their covers. When a client comes to you, have the first session be an in-depth, cover-all-your-bases interview. What do they want from you? What part of their lives are they looking to change? What are their goals?^[3]

• Most people will come in with an idea -- a very specific idea (hence the reason most life coaches have specialties) of what they want to accomplish. Whether it's weight loss, wrapping their minds around their blooming business, or tackling their relationship issues, they know. Let them guide you initially and listen.

Stay organized. Once you set up a base of clients, it's gonna be easy to refer to one in your head as that-one-guy-who-drinks-coffee-addiction-who-still-has-narcolepsy. Don't do that. He won't like it. Keep portfolios of all your clients, get the details down, and keep them straight. If you don't stay organized, you'll end up missing a call with client number #14 who abandons you the next day.

• It's also important to make them feel like they are your most important client. Every little detail they've told you needs to be something you remember and take into account when you're working with them. Not only will they be impressed and trust you more, but you'll be able to make more accurate decisions on what would help them if you keep your facts straight.

Set up a doable schedule. You'll soon find what works best for you, but most coaches say they work with each client around 3 times a month. Some clients will require more work and some less, but three times a month is average. The length of time for each session is up to you and the client.

• You don't necessarily have to do the sessions in person, though those are obviously the most personal. You could also do them over the phone or even via programs like Skype. If you're corporate or executive, you may find that your clients are traveling a lot and session over the phone are the only option. If you want to really be successful, you'll want to open up your business to clients all over the World. Skype is a poor option in many countries and areas as it drops frequently. Learn to use other systems such as Google Hangouts where you can meet face-to-face without the frustration of poor technology as with Skype.

Don't just give instructions. Life coaches aren't just expensive advice givers. That'd be terrible. It's about helping others explore their choices and figuring out what's best for them. It's only the bad life coaches that dispense advice and hang up. You're really working at changing the behavior -- which is about a million more times valuable than simply telling a client what to do.

• No one else needs another person (much less a virtual stranger) telling them what to do with our lives -- we all get that from our in-laws, our siblings, and the occasional high school friend who thinks they know everything. You're answering the "how," not the what. You can give them the process.

Give homework. To a certain extent, you're a teacher or guide. When you hang up the phone with a client, your job doesn't just end there. You have to make sure they're putting into action what you two have discussed. You need to give them homework. Whether it's exploring different business plans or talking to their ex-husband, you have to give them actions that lead to change. What would be best for them? And how do you make sure they do it?

• You will have clients that don't cooperate. You'll have clients that don't agree with you. You'll have clients that think you're wasting their precious time. These will happen. You have to take the good with the bad and know when to cut your losses. If a client doesn't like your style, then it could be resistance and fear coming up. Don't take on a client you don't get along with, and you won't have these problems. As you work with more clients, you'll be able to discover in your discovery session whether or not you will be a good fit. If you don't know how to do a discovery session (it is NOT a coaching session), then you need to learn how to do one right away. See your business coach or group for help.

Help them reach their goals. In the end, that's ultimately what it is about. We all struggle with this thing called life and a life coach is there to shine the light for us down that dark, scary tunnel we're all wandering. If you've done your best to hit all their goals and have shown them the options, you've done your part. They'll be better for having worked with you.

Be a caring, empathetic individual. Much of the work a life coach does is helping people set goals and encouraging them to achieve them. This requires being someone who likes being in touch with people in a friendly manner. If you're a negative Nancy or a Debbie Downer or a Sad, Sad Sally, your clients will be running for the hills in no time at all.

• Face-to-face contact is not always necessary to be a life coach, as many coaches work with clients over the telephone. However, it has many advantages: it is less inhibiting and therefore easier to build trust. It's convenient as it is global and flexible.

Sincerely want the best for everyone. Some of us (read: 99% of us) aren't always nice and understanding. Even if we think of ourselves as possessing these qualities, we still have the occasional slip-up. And sometimes it happens with a certain type more than another. That really pretty coworker may make us feel envious or that really dumb friend of Joe's just irritates us so much we become cold and aloof. Whether it's intellect, appearance, or just obnoxious laughs that get to you, you have to put that all aside and be willing and eager to help everyone.

• You're probably going to have clients that you wouldn't walk across the street to have a 5 minute cup of coffee with in the next life. That's fine. We can't all mesh with everyone. But that's fine -- you don't have to have coffee with these people. All you have to do is help them. Help them and want them to succeed. Even if you find their personalities akin to fingernails on a chalkboard, still have their best interests at heart.

Know that you are not your clients' friend. Just like the previous step got at, you're not having coffee dates with these people. You are not grabbing drinks during happy hour before the game starts. You are there to push them, not to enable them like friends often do. It's important to keep this line clear to maintain a professional relationship. When you become their friend, they stop paying you.

• When you cross the line from coach to friend, your clients will feel less of a push to do what you're suggesting they do. You'll also feel less inclined to be real with them -- one day you'll need to be harsh with them and they'll get personally offended if you're friends. It's just general good, logical practice to keep the boundaries clear.

Be flexible. Our lives often take unexpected turns. You're likely to get a call at 9 on a Friday night from a client who would love to schedule a session the following day. If you can, work with them! They're not being disrespectful -- they're practically as surprised as you are. You won't have the most constant work schedule, but it definitely won't be your standard behind-a-desk 9 to 5 gig. * You need to set up appointments with your clients in advance, not let them wait until the last minute like this. Only by helping them plan longer term will they begin to organize their lives better and start making lasting changes. Allowing them to make last-minute changes or appointments is only enabling their bad behaviors and is not conducive to achieving positive results. Emergencies are one thing, but otherwise a good coach will have 2-4 weeks of calls scheduled in advance for each client.

• In addition to being flexible with hours, be flexible in terms of an open mind. What you see working for this person may not be something that actually does. In the end, everything is relative. If they're not keen on something, you may have to respect their wishes. You are always working with a unique individual. Cater your program to them as specifically as you can, but leave a little wiggle room for improvement.