How to Become a Life Coach

Ever wonder what life is like as a professional coach? Maybe you’ve had success in your own life and want to give back. Maybe you have a skill in a particular area you want to share. Maybe you realize you thrive on helping others have success and want to make it your paycheck.

Whatever the reason, it’s got you considering life coaching. But what is life coaching and what all is involved in becoming a coach? Let’s break it all down.

What is a Life Coach?

First, a life coach is a professional advocate/mentor/advisor who helps people reach their full potential in life. It’s a as simple as that. A coach will learn all about a client’s personal history and offer fresh perspective in order to help them find the right direction for their lives, make new goals, and grow their skills. They offer support, motivation, and accountability. Life coaches can also help people through major life emergencies and defining moments, showing them how to thrive after periods of adversity.

There are Many Types of Life Coaches

What most people don’t know, however, is that many life coaches target specific areas of life. This can be extremely helpful for someone experiencing a crisis of a specific nature or needing targeted help, say in business, relationships or sales. There are also coaches who cross over into multiple categories. If you feel called to life coaching, your specialty might depend on your specific expertise and interests.

Here are a few examples:

• Business, executive, and leadership coaching
• Career coaching
• Divorce coaching
• Financial coaching
• Fitness coaching
• Health and wellness coaching
• Life skills coaching
• Life transition coaching
• Relationship coaching
• Sales coaching
• Spiritual coaching
• Sports coaching

How to Find Your Area of Expertise

So, what’s your niche? Start by asking yourself this question. “What’s in my background that makes me more uniquely qualified to coach in this area versus someone else?” What’s your sweet spot? What hurdles have you hurdled and what obstacles have you overcome? As a coach, you can help others navigate more easily through challenges you personally found the way out of. And from there, you can look for overlap into other categories.

For instance, let’s say Ben worked a job he despised and struggled to get ahead with a boss who was stingy with giving credit and coworkers bent on getting it. This work stress caused a serious strain on Ben’s marriage. But he made a career adjustment and found meaningful work that better suited his talents and a boss who invested in him. In the process, he worked to repair his marriage and cleaned his relationships of the stress he’d brought home. If he fit the critical life coach criteria (laid out below), Ben could serve as a life coach in careers and relationships. He’d certainly feel confident helping clients work through their own similar struggles.

So how does it work? What does a day in the life of a life coach look like?

What Does a Life Coach Do?

There are a few commonalities with all the types of life coaches. Through 1:1 sessions with clients, life coaches typically will:

• Interview new clients, getting to know their personality, history, and struggles

• Administer personality and skills tests to help them understand their healthy and unhealthy tendencies

• Work with clients on specific things like money or stress management, skill-building, problem-solving, and more

• Teach interpersonal or life skills for the key topics of concern

• Help clients set achievable goals and establish clear plans to reach them

• Hold follow-up meetings to mark progress

Is a Career in Life Coaching Right for You?

Life coaches have to shine in many social and soft skills. They need to reach a level of trust with their clients so they can help make a difference in their lives. Here are a few skills life coaches require. Do you see yourself in here?

• Do you enjoy people and have a big heart? Life coaches must be highly empathetic to respond with the necessary care and kindness. They are also born motivators and encouragers, helping their clients enact a specific plan to reach their goals in life.

• How observant are you? Life coaches understand the signs that lead to obstacles and deep issues. It takes great attention to detail to uncover nuances that a client may not even be aware of. They need to ask the right questions and know what to listen for. As legendary NFL coach Tom Landry once said, “A coach is someone who tells you what you don’t want to hear, who has you see what you don’t want to see, so you can be who you have always known you could be.”

• Are you an effective communicator? To offer meaningful support for clients, a life coach needs strong written and verbal communication skills. People are unique. They each see the world and receive in their own way. You need to be able to speak their language to help them along the path to life change. This is why it’s so important to consider your natural specialties or previous experience when venturing into coaching. A life coach can be even more powerful if they fully understand the struggles and can speak the language of the client in a certain area.

• How’s your creative problem-solving? A life coach should be able to provide clients with a variety of creative ideas and resources to help them accomplish their goals. It will often require a new way of thinking to reach the desired outcome. Think of coaching as a form of mentoring. Steven Spielberg said, “The delicate balance of mentoring someone is not creating them in your own image but giving them the opportunity to create themselves.”

How to Get a Life Coach Certification

In short, you don’t need certification to be a life coach. Not technically. The industry is still largely unregulated. But the vast majority of clients will want to know by whose authority they’d be receiving advice from. If you want to grow your business, you’ll need the right training and certification.

That said, there are several life coach certification programs that offer general credentials. It’s wise to look for one backed by the International Coach Federation (ICF), who sets standards for ethical coaching. You may also need additional certifications to compete in your area of expertise, (ex. sales, leadership, health and wellness, relationships, career, etc.).

What is the Cost of Life Coach Certification?

How much will it set you back to become a licensed life coach? Prices vary wildly but having a respectable life coach certification (and get the training you need) can run thousands of dollars. Average costs from as low as $200 all the way up to $5,000 to get started.

How Much Do Life Coaches Make?

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, life coaches are included in the category of educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors. They earn an average salary of $58,120 a year, with a wide overall range of $35,620 to $97,910. Some niches, like sales and leadership coaching, can earn much higher.

As a coach, you own your own business. You manage your own schedule, clients, and expenses just like any other entrepreneur. If it’s your first time going into business, it can be helpful to learn more about entrepreneurship through online course or professional development. Some coaching niches offer help in this area as part of a team of coaches in a particular industry, if going it totally alone isn’t your preference.

Thinking About Becoming a Coach?

A career as a coach can be exceptionally rewarding – there is no greater joy than helping other people become who they were meant to be with just a little guidance. At Southwestern Consulting, our coaches are industry practitioners with a track record of success in the sales and leadership area. Our coaching programs are based on 160-year-old principles proven to produce life change and further people in their careers. If leadership or sales is your particular passion, learn more about becoming a coach here.