In this post, Stefan James will give some practical tips on how you can get started as a life coach, how you can get started as a life coach and build a successful business coaching and the lessons that he has learned that have helped him get to where he is today as a coach.
1. Forget Local Coaching, You Need To Use The Internet!
Forget the idea of branding yourself as a life coach in your local city. The demand isn't going to be big enough and you're likely going to have to compete with too many people. You also don't want to be limited to working with ONLY people in your local city, you want to expand and use the internet.
The internet is what will give you the opportunity to reach THOUSANDS of people easily and also make more money from coaching. You're not limited to one city, you're able to now reach the entire world. With Project Life Mastery, I reach people literally all over the world and I've coached people from everywhere. The most common locations I've coached people from are USA, Canada, Europe and Australia.
2. Start A Blog And Create High-Quality Content
You absolutely need a blog and need to create high-quality content. Forget just a “website” with a picture of yourself and your biography. Who cares? Nobody does. Why would anyone want coaching from you? People just want RESULTS and the only way they will know that you can produce results for them is based on your credibility.
A blog allows you to show people your expertise. It allows people to connect with you and learn about you. They get to see whether or not you're the REAL DEAL – if you walk your talk. When people sign-up for coaching from you, they aren't buying your coaching… they are buying YOU. There are tons of people out there that offer coaching. The only reason they will sign-up with you is that they believe in you and trust you. They want to be like you and have results that you have.
If you can start a YouTube channel and offer videos, then even better. You can do a podcast also. This helps people connect with you and build a relationship with you even more.
3. Stop Trying To Promote Yourself, Let Them Come To You
I've never tried to actively get coaching clients or market myself as a coach. I simply don't have the time to take on many clients anyways and only prefer to work with a few people that I actually want to work with.
One of the biggest mistakes life coaches make is they try to go after clients and try to sell them on their coaching. This reeks desperation and why would this person who's successful have to try to convince people to hire them as their coach? It doesn't make any sense. A coach needs to be someone that is SUCCESSFUL already, and someone that is successful isn't desperate to get clients to work with them. The truth is, most life coaches are struggling to get clients and also usually struggling in their lives. Most life coaches are BROKE.
My advice is to get your life together first before you consider offering life coaching. When that happens, continue putting out blog posts and videos. If your advice and content are good, people will COME TO YOU FOR COACHING. That's right… gone are the days of having to convince people or pursuing clients. They will literally come flooding your inbox asking for more advice and help, in which case you can offer your coaching to them.
You need to create the DEMAND for your coaching first, which is done through high-quality content over the internet.
4. Get Your Life Together
I already mentioned this briefly above, but it's worth mentioning again. Before you consider coaching, get your life together. You need to have RESULTS in your life first before you consider giving advice to others. If you want to be teaching people how to make money online, you damn well better be making a ton of money online already first. If you want to be teaching people how to get in great shape, then you better be in amazing shape. The same goes for ANY OTHER AREA OF LIFE. I can't stand going to the gym and seeing these personal trainers supposedly helping people get in shape when they aren't even in shape themselves. You need to be a living, breathing, walking example of what is possible for them. You need to be their INSPIRATION and by having the results, you will be credible.
5. Help People For Free Or Inexpensively
When you're first starting out, you should just start by helping people for free or inexpensively. Your goal at the beginning is to just get some exposure and some experience coaching. This will help build your confidence. It will also help you get some great testimonials that you can use on your website or blog later. Testimonials can be extremely important.
As you get busier and get more in demand, then try raising your rates. If you raise your rates and you're still extremely busy, then raise them again. The more in demand you are, the more valuable you become. Your time becomes worth more and more.
Tony Robbins can charge a lot more for coaching than I can, simply because he is more in-demand than me. He has people that are WILLING to pay him millions of dollars to work with him and be coached by him. He has the reputation, credibility, and he gets results. In your case, the more valuable and in-demand you become, then the more you can justify charging higher rates. You'll also have a following that is willing to pay higher rates because they want to work with YOU over anyone else.
6. Always Be Growing And Improving Yourself
Over the last 10 years, I've devoured hundreds of books. I've been to dozens of seminars around the world. I've hired and worked with dozens of coaches and mentors as well. I've probably invested more than $50,000 into myself over the last 10 years in self-improvement materials alone. Everything that I consumed, I did my best to apply to my life. All of this self-development… it is a big part of who I am today. Everything that I teach and share is really just information that I've learned from OTHERS that has changed my life for the better.
To be a really great coach, you always need to be growing and improving yourself. Everyday. You also need to be achieving bigger results in your life. This is what is going to enhance your coaching skills and make you a really great coach. The more successful you become in all areas of your life the more you have to teach and share. You also become even more credible and people will look up to you even more.
7. You Better Have A Life Coach
If you want to be a life coach, then you BETTER have a life coach yourself. How can you expect to sell anyone on life coaching if you don't even have a coach yourself? You need to BELIEVE in the process of coaching. You need to be working with a coach, so that you can learn how THEY coach and become a better coach yourself. It's extremely incongruent if you are wanting to be a coach but don't even have one yourself.
I have coaches in a variety of areas of my life because I BELIEVE in coaching. Coaching has enhanced my life and that's why I'm so passionate about it. I can tell people that coaching will change their life because it has for me. I've experienced it. I know what it's like to fork over a lot of money and hire a coach too, so I can relate to people when they want to hire and work with me.
Also, working with a coach is what allowed me to learn how to be a coach today. I copied and used some of their coaching strategies and how they run their coaching business, which has allowed me to offer my own coaching service. So please, make sure you get a coach first before you consider being one.
Concluding Thoughts
A great coach is a caring coach. If you really want to impact someone and really add the most value to them possible, then you really need to care about them. You need to see them as a friend, not just as a “client”. You need to care about their needs, wants and desires. You need to work hard to really understand them and do whatever it takes to help them succeed. You need to see their greatness within them. You need to see their potential, and more importantly, BELIEVE in their potential… even though they may not even believe in it themselves.
Author: Stefan James
