How to Become a Life Coach | Pro Advice From 4 Coaches

Looking to become a life coach and start your fulfilling business? You can find steps to become one practically anywhere. And they are not that hard. The question is, HOW you implement those strategies to be a successful life coach. 

In this article, you are about to find out:

• What’s a life coach?
• What do life coaches do?
• Is the procession of a life coach still in demand?
• How can you become a successful life coach and start your business?
• Tips and strategies from top-performing life coaches. 

What is a life coach?

We hear so much about life coaching. But what is life coaching actually about? A life coach is a professional who helps individuals set and achieve personal and professional goals and make progress in different aspects of their lives. 

A great AC-accredited life coach Ruth Kudzi, defines life coaching in the following way:

“I remember thinking a life coach was someone who’d lived a lot and who would share all of their knowledge, experience, and advice. But it’s actually the opposite. A life coach is somebody whose job is to help the client take action toward their goals. They uncover what’s going on through excellent questioning”. 

 

Ruth Kudzi

Life coach, CEO of Optipus Coach Academy

Life coaches use various techniques and strategies to support clients in identifying obstacles, creating action plans, and staying accountable to their objectives. They provide encouragement, guidance, and feedback to help their clients make positive changes in their lives. 

In this sense, the job of the life coach can be confused with that of a therapist. Therapists typically have formal training in psychology or counseling, while life coaches may have diverse backgrounds and certifications. At the same time, life coaching focuses on transforming clients’ lives. Yet, therapy deals with a client’s past problems and works toward overcoming emotional challenges and solving behavioral issues. 

Life coaching and therapy also differ in terms of the actions they use. For example, life coaching uses goal-setting techniques, but the therapists use different therapies to help the client. 

Is there a demand for life coaches? 

Yes, there IS demand for life coaches. 

Market demand for life coaching increases. If we take a look at U.S. statistics, the market size is expected to have around a 4.85% annual growth rate from 2023 to 2030. It’s growing 3.2% year over year. 

If we rely on Google's data for the monthly average searches for terms like “life coaching” and “online life coaching,” the results go beyond 1M. 

• Life Coaching - 100k-1M 
• Online Life Coaching - 1k-10k, 

Do all these people look for life coaches? Of course not, as life coaching is so broad. Instead, they are looking for people who can help them achieve a specific goal. Let’s find out what those goals are. 

What does a life coach do exactly?

Life coaching is a vast industry. As a life coach, you can specialize in areas such as career development, relationships, health and wellness, or personal growth. 

Consequently, there are several things a life coach is responsible for depending on the specific niche they choose, including 

• Helping clients clarify their life goals and priorities.
• Assisting clients in creating actionable plans to achieve their objectives.
• Providing guidance and support to overcome obstacles and challenges.
• Encouraging clients to explore their values, strengths, and passions.
• Holding clients accountable for taking steps toward their goals.
• Offering tools and techniques to improve time management, productivity, and decision-making.
• Facilitating personal growth and self-discovery.
• Supporting clients in making positive changes in various areas of their lives, such as relationships, career, health, and well-being.

“Life coaches help people with their confidence. They help people to get a better balance. They can help clients be more productive”. 

Ruth Kudzi

Life coach, CEO of Optipus Coach Academy

As you can see, life coaches can be all shapes and forms. So, how can you become a life coach? Here comes your easy step-by-step guide. 

5 achievable steps to become a life coach 

To become a successful life coach, you will first need to get specific about your niche. Think about who you want to help as a life coach. Then, consider getting relatable training and starting to practice your life coaching skills. However, the skills and life coaching experience are not enough to establish a strong life coaching business. You will also need entrepreneurial skills. 

Let’s discuss all the steps in more detail. 

Understand who you are 

The first thing you want to pay attention to is that whatever arena you choose to coach in life coaching, be sure that you are the living embodiment of it. For example, think of what a perfect fitness coach should look and feel like for a moment. Aren’t they good in shape, energetic, supportive, and all positive? 

The same applies to life coaching, as you want to preach what you do and become the leading example for your client in a specific area. Speaking about the area, your first step on the way to becoming a life coach is getting a specific niche. 

As discussed above, life coaching can take all sorts of shapes. You can be the one who helps the client stay organized, the one helping with time management, the one helping to get into the right mindset, or get that job, or have that lifestyle. You get the idea! 

So, think about:

• Which life coach am I?
• Who do I want to help?
• What problem do I help to solve? 

If we are to put this into one clear statement, that would be:

I help (WHO) to do/get (THESE RESULTS). 

And if you cannot really decide what specific area to choose, here is what Courtney Sanders, an  ICF-certified life and business coach, recommends:

“You want to think about what the things that people ask me about all the time are? What are the things that people say, wow, you are really good at that? How did you figure that out? Dig that expertise out. Look at the places that you think are no big deal, as this is where your greatest expertise lies.”

Courtney Sanders

Once you figure out your specific niche, consider what people constantly complain about. This is going to be something you can help them with. If you start life coaching with a specific aspect of people’s lives, you can reach recognition easier than when starting as a general life coach who is a “Mr/Mrs know-it-all.” 

Get training as a life coach 

The next thing you need to consider if you want to become a life coach is getting official training for it. Start looking for some training programs that fit you best. 

And here comes the most commonly asked question: Should I get a certification to become a life coach? The short answer is no, and the long answer is yes! 

“If you want to have a really good idea of what life coaching is and best practices for coaching, then I DO think that it’s very beneficial to go through a certification course. But if you have true expertise, you get a lot of positive feedback, and you have your system down pat, I don’t necessarily think that you have to go through a coaching program”.

Brinya Bain, 

Certified Life and Business Coach

Let’s say you have specialized in finances for 10 years now. People in your network know you to be the best in your industry. In this case, getting that certification is not extremely necessary. 

However, you are always encouraged to get any sort of training to turn your expertise in a particular field into a coaching expertise. 

We also want to make one thing clear. 

You DO NOT need to spend $10.000-$40.000 on a life coaching certification. Not at all! There are certification courses that are much more affordable. Just make sure your life coaching certification program is accredited by the International Coaching Federation (ICF). 

Do strategic research 

The next step you could take as a future life coach is to find other life coaches who already help your target audience with similar services. Why would you do that? There are two good reasons to conduct such kind of research. 

First, you get a pretty good idea of what other people are offering to the market. This way, you get super inspired about what you can do and how you can improve and differentiate your services. And we are not saying you should copy other life coaches' strategies and implement them for your business. Absolutely not! What you want to do is develop your 360-degree thinking, network with other life coaches, learn from them, practice your ideas, and get feedback.  

Second, you start to understand what your prospects are looking for. How does an ideal coaching program look to them? What problems are they trying to solve, etc? 

To get answers to all of these questions, you will need to get another research done: audience research.  While it is one of the most critical steps for any coaching business, most coaches tend to skip it. So, what do you do at this stage?

Your task becomes interacting with people you are willing to help as much as you can. Only this way you get to know what they care about and what their most common struggles are. Doing so makes you resonate with your prospects well, which makes you 10 times better of a life coach. A couple of ways you can conduct audience research include:

• Meeting your prospects personally and chatting with them about their needs
• Joining Facebook or any other groups where your clients spend time and try to engage with them while being helpful
• Introducing yourself during relevant events, trying to find people you can potentially help

As you engage with your prospects on a deeper level, you will also be able to validate that one idea of your coaching program you have. Now let’s see how you can create your life coaching program. 

Create your coaching package 

To have a life coaching business that is successful and profitable, you need to have something that you sell to make a profit. That is where your life coaching package comes in. 

The research you conducted during the previous step is what is going to help you with this. Knowing quite well what your clients are looking for you will be able to create an irresistible offer they can relate to.  

Your goal here is to create something of value that can transform a client’s life, bring them results and solve their problem. Think about the lessons they need to know, resources they need to have, skills they need to master, or changes in their mindset. 

Peter Feysa, who helps lots of coaches to create their signature coaching programs, mentions some of the resources people actually want to pay for, including:

• Systems
• Toolkits
• Step-by-step guides
• Formulas
• Done-for-you-KITS 

Once you put your life coaching program together, you will also need to name it. 

“Naming your coaching program gives it legitimacy. Here, you want to focus on the thing that gives the actual result. You do not want to focus on the way the clients get the result.” 

Peter Feysa

High-Performance Coach

For example, Dave Ramsey’s coaching program, “Total Money Makeover,” or Tony Robins’ “Creating Lasting Change.” S, be sure to include the result or the promise in the name of the program.  

Build your life coaching brand 

You should start building your brand from the very first day you decide to undertake life coaching. 

Your life coaching brand is how your business is represented. It is about how people perceive you based on how you represent yourself. The first thing that comes to mind when we say “branding” is the visual elements, like the colors, logos, fonts, and the like. Sure, they help to bring familiarity. However, they are not the only thing to pay attention to. 

You also need to pay attention to the inner elements of your life coaching brand. And those include: 

• Your mission: why are you doing what you are doing?
• Your story: why did you start life coaching in the first place?
• Your investment: how do you actually solve a problem and bring transformation?

Now, all these are more important than that gorgeous logo you have. Your story will help you build a connection with your target audience, making them realize that you are one of them, that you know what they want, and that you went through that. 

How are you going to deliver that message? Yes, you are right: posting on social media comes to help! And when saying posting, we mean both posts for raising awareness and posts for bringing conversions. 

The posts that raise awareness attract people to your audience. They can educate or entertain your prospects and make them feel seen and heard. The conversion posts have calls to action and speak about your coaching brand. 

FAQ about life coaching

Throughout this section, you can clarify for yourself the most common questions you haven’t found the answers to yet. 

Do I need certification to become a life coach?

Yes, and no. Now, let us elaborate. 

Technically you can start an online life coaching business without certification. However, are you sure you are able to provide the value that a certified specialist does? Being passionate about a certain area does not make you an expert in it. 

So, if you have time to invest in your education as a life coach, we recommend you take certified courses (aim for internationally accredited certifications). 

Certifications will benefit you in multiple ways. For instance, you will have to learn various modules and methodologies for working with clients and stay up to date with the latest trends. You will be more efficient and trustworthy as a coach. Plus, as a beginner who does not have past clients, reviews, or testimonials, displaying a certificate on your webpage will increase the trust factor toward you. 

How much can I earn as a life coach?

Income may vary from coach to coach. On average, life coaches make anywhere near $5000 to $15.000/mo. 

The usual price per hour of life coaching is anywhere from $75 to $200. Meanwhile, monthly packages or a wholesome program range from $200 to $3000 per individual. 

As a beginner, you can start with a monthly price of $350. Thus, gathering the first 15 clients during the first month will give you $5250. 

Do you need a website to start life coaching? 

A website is a powerful tool to showcase your expertise, connect with potential clients, and establish your online presence as a life coach. So yes, having a website as a coach is one of the most essential steps. Your website provides you with a way to share your story, services, testimonials, and helpful resources, making it easier for people to find and learn about your coaching offerings. 

Plus, having a professional website boosts credibility and trust, helping you stand out. 

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