Without doubt the most common question I get asked after “Where are you from, Australia?” and “Oh really, you’re from England? Do you know my buddy John, he lives in London?” is “How do you become a Life Coach?”
Just this week alone I’ve had three people e-mail and ask me about Life Coach training and I thought now would be as good a time as any to broach the topic seriously.
I say seriously, because I have already written a post entitled ‘How To Become A Life Coach’ that is heavily sarcastic, but funny and well worth a read.
If you have absolutely no interest in reading about how to become a Life Coach, check out my latest post over at How To Be Rich and Happy and find out why sneakers are worth more than gold.
Before we start, you have to really want this. I don’t know many wealthy life coaches and it’s not an industry you enter looking for easy money.
It’s important to understand that unfortunately, Life Coaching is not regulated in either the US or UK. In fact, to the best of my knowledge it isn’t regulated anywhere in the world, but you may know different.
The reason I say it’s unfortunate, is that the low cost of entry means there are lots of ill equipped people running around declaring they are Life Coaches with little or no idea of what that really means or their responsibilities as a coach.
And trust me I know first hand, because I’ve spoken to a few and cleaned up after several more.
There are times I’ve wondered for every person that realized they’d just hired a crap coach and looked elsewhere, how many others presumed Life Coaching doesn’t work or they were uncoachable?
Also, whilst Life Coaching remains unregulated I doubt health insurance companies will ever consider paying for it. It’s ok to seek out a psychiatrist even if you don’t really need one, and they’ll cough up the $200 and upwards an hour sometimes for years on end, but for a Life Coach? Are you kidding me?
Health insurance companies in my opinion are not about providing good health either physically or mentally, they’re about generating as much money as possible for their shareholders. Ok, rant over, let’s get back to the post.
Is Life Coach Training Necessary?
This is a tough question because there is no definitive right or wrong answer. On the whole I tend to believe formal training is important if only to help protect clients from clueless coaches. I would imagine even the cheaper courses spend time on the core skills you need to become competent.
Having said that, I am sure there are brilliant unqualified coaches and terrible qualified ones, so a piece of paper doesn’t necessarily demonstrate somebody will be a great coach. It just increases the likelihood.
Other than the cost and time needed to complete formal training the only other real downside I see is that you will only be exposed to one type of coaching model. Not that there is anything necessarily wrong with that, but I know from personal experience I like to flick backwards and forwards depending on the clients needs.
If you get trained in co-active or solution coaching for example, you may well hold on to the idea that if you can’t elicit the answers from the client with cunning questions, then there’s nothing else you can do.
I’m sure really skilled practitioners can achieve great results like this, but I’m equally sure that a minority of clients will prove difficult for them because they require a more direct kick-ass approach.
On a side note, I hear the word ‘kick ass’ a lot in terms of self-development. It really isn’t helpful and most people don’t respond as well to having their ass kicked as some people seem to imagine.
At the end of the day the training is a starting point because you really only learn to do this job by doing this job.
I liken it to learning to drive. Ok so you get your driving license when you pass your test, but you really start to learn how to drive when you get out on busy highways on your own.
Who Should I Train With?
Training to be a Life Coach is expensive in the US. The most recognizable and respected qualifications are issued by the ICF (International Coach Federation) and are CPC (Certified Professional Coach) and MPC (Master Professional Coach).
If you want to do corporate work I would suggest at the very least you’ll need the CPC. Otherwise it’s unlikely you’ll be taken seriously by the HR Department and never get your foot in the door. I doubt they’ll be swayed too much by the fact you bought a $25 certificate online after filling in a short questionnaire gauging your suitability.
NOTE: According to Amanda in the comments it looks like I have the abbreviations wrong with this, so do your due diligence and check out what the ICF has to offer. In any case, it is their qualification that is most highly recognized no matter what it’s called.
I have seen all sorts of prices for coaching qualifications ranging from about $6k up to $10k and timescales ranging from 6 months up to 18 months.
As I have no first hand experience it would be unfair of me to comment on how good any of these courses are, and which are the credible training companies. If you have trained in the US or anywhere else for that matter, I’d love to hear your recommendations or warnings in the comments.
Do your due diligence and try and get to speak with people that have used the companies you’re thinking of training with. Remember though, people usually gush about training they have done (nobody wants to admit they blew $6k even to themselves), so dig as deep as you can as to what they really got out of it.
I trained with a company called Achievement Specialist in the UK. I’d read a book called The Life Coaching Handbook by Curly Martin one of Europe’s top Life Coaches and noticed she had her own training company in Bournemouth, England.
The course was great, but fairly basic only spanning a weekend. However, to get the qualification I then had a number of modular assignments to complete followed up by a final thesis. Concurrently I has to chalk up a number of client hours, I think it was 75, but I’m honestly not sure now it may have been a few more or a few less.
It took me about 7 months to complete although I know people that got done in under 6 and some that took over 12, it was very much dependent on what speed I wanted to work at.
If you want to know what type of company NOT to train with, check out my post ‘Get Rick Quick – Become A Life Coach’
Can I Train Myself?
If there is genuinely no way you can afford to pay for life coaching (and that isn’t the same as not wanting to pay which simply demonstrates a lack of commitment) then that shouldn’t be a barrier to you chasing your dreams. You can teach yourself if you’re prepared to do the research and read the books.
I’ve read and listened to hundreds of books on life coaching and self development and it is something that I never tire of. Amazingly I’ve spoken to coaches that have read a handful of the more well known intros into the topic and think that’s all they need to know. It isn’t.
Start with books purely on life coaching before you move into self-development because that way you’ll learn the fundamentals first.
Also do whatever you can to hire a coach of your own to help you. Better still work with 2 or 3 to see different styles. This will prove way cheaper than paying for training and you will get a real insight into how different coaches operate and which methods you like best.
What Next?
We talk a lot on How To Be Rich and Happy about asking for help. Try not to get wrapped up too much in how to do something, think more of who can help you do it.
I love to talk about life coaching and will often take time out to have a coffee of chat with somebody that wants to join the industry. Most coaches become so because they want to help people and as such will often do what they can to help you.
I have done this in the past and it’s a great way to pay it forward for coaches. Having said that I’m sure I have lots of ways of doing things that aren’t in the manuals. So somebody trying to copy my way of coaching would probably be a recipe for disaster resulting in some rather large legal cases.
Ask around for help. You can learn a lot from speaking with people that have done what you want to do. Some people will say no because they don’t have time or they’re just miserable bastards, but some people will be happy to help.
How Do I Get Clients?
One of the sessions on my initial training was about how to sell the concept of life coaching to potential clients. It was only an hour or so and covered off some relatively basic stuff for anybody that has worked for any length of time in sales.
The session was just after lunch and I’m guessing close to half the people were either completely disinterested or not even there.
80% of life coaches in the US earn less than $20,000 per year.
The biggest single reason for that is because they have no idea how to sell or market themselves. If you fit into that category go and buy Bob Poole’s book, ‘Listen First – Sell Later’
If you can’t sell yourself and your services, you’ll be living under a cardboard box by the end of year one. I don’t care how brilliant a coach you are, you have to sell that to people.
We’re all sales people, it’s just that some people get that and other refuse to accept it and suffer accordingly.
What About Ongoing Education?
Ongoing learning is crucial to being a good life coach in my opinion. If you have your expensive shiny new certificate hanging on your wall and think that’s all you need, you’re not serving your clients very well. And you’ll certainly never be the best coach you can be.
There are lots of different approaches and tools out there that can help you help your clients more effectively.
I’m sure you know I’m a big advocate of NLP and it is without doubt the most important tool I have. It isn’t the panacea for all ills as some NLPErs foolishly claim, but I lean on it heavily and quite honestly I’m not sure how I would do my job effectively without it.
If you want to know more I’d encourage you to read this post: What Is NLP?
I’m also a qualified hypnotherapist although I don’t practice hypnotherapy. I learned it more for the language side of things so I could help shift clients thinking in more subtle ways.
I also want to learn the Sedona Method and EFT at some stage because both have proven track records of helping people, and that’s what I do.
Can I Be A Great Life Coach?
I genuinely believe that the vast majority of people can become good life coaches if they’re prepared to put the work in. All the requisite skills such as listening and questioning ability, rapport building, flexibility, selling yourself, marketing and even creativity can be learned, if the will is there.
However, if you think simply because you’re friends insist you’re a good listener, that is enough to be a good coach, then you’re probably going to get very frustrated when you come across more challenging clients.
Life Coaching is a practice and as such it is a constant process of refining and adjusting your approach. I am a far better coach than I was 5 years ago, in fact I’m a better coach than I was 1 year ago, but I’m not as good as I’ll be next year.
There really is no substitute for experience and working directly with clients. It doesn’t matter how many books you’ve read, course you’ve attended or Life Coaches you’ve spoken to, it’s all about client hours.
I sometimes get asked if there is a minimum age and it’s a really tough question to answer. I want to say no, anybody over the age of 18 can do what I do. Then again, I’m not sure if I believe it’s true, because I do think life experience is important.
Not only that, but being too young creates a real barrier to attracting clients as they may see you (rightly or wrongly) as lacking credibility and not give you the chance to prove you’re capable.
I know I couldn’t have done this job in my twenties, but people are different and theoretically it’s about your ability as a coach to help your clients reach their goals that really matters.
So there you have it. This isn’t exactly a comprehensive guide to starting up as a Life Coach, but it may have provided you with some ideas to mull over. If you have any more questions, rather than e-mailing me, drop them in the comment section and I’ll do what I can to answer them. You may also want to check out ‘What is a Life Coach?’.
Now go and download the extended version of the free download for How To Be Rich and Happy. And by the way I kid you not when I say How To Be Rich and Happy is a useful tool for any coach, especially one that wants to do more client work round beliefs and values.
Hey Tim, thanks for writing this up! (And a pat on the back for myself for being one of the 3 people this week who inspired you to write this…)
As far as questions – can you recommend some good books on life coaching?
Granted I’m not a life coach and have little knowledge of this profession and no experience. Tough, dare I say another factor that factors into the quality of a life coach is how wise the person is.
One could get all the training in the world and yet have a dangerous philosophy or a philosophy that simply doesn’t translate into results. And it’s all about results, isn’t it?
For example, if the life coach is obsessed with the “Law of Attraction,” I consider that a problem, personally. Actually… one of the most detrimental things I’ve noticed with books that focus on the law of attraction is that they miss the most important point of all: How to increase motivation; how to get people to have a strong will to change and thus tap into their inner resources.
Law of attraction centered books speak over and over again about how when you believe in a given result it will manifest. But there’s a big problem here: People self sabotage themselves all the time. So, you can tell a person to believe in something all day long and yet, that’s not going to translate to action because that person’s subconscious continues to associate more pain with giving up the bad habit than with changing for the better.
So from my perspective, one of the best and most effective things one can do for another in helping the other to change is simply to drastically increase the pain their minds associate with NOT changing.
For all I know, what I discussed above is part of the training you undergo to be a life coach. Just wanted to throw this perspective out there, though.
This is a great post, Tim. Not enough emphasis can be put on the point you made about going out and getting experience coaching people. That is so crucial in building your skills and abilities in actually helping your clients sincerely, but it’s also a great way to determine your “style” and understand what types of clients are a good fit for it. I’m an advocate of screening each client in a consultation. It’s important to understand when there is or isn’t a good fit.
Before I decided to start charging for the coaching I do, I gave free sessions away to many people. I wanted to make sure I could actually help people affect REAL change in their lives consistently. It was a great experience that I learned some invaluable lessons from.
@ Vlad – The Curly Martin book is a good starting point. Michale Heppell’s book ‘Brilliant Life’ is cool for offering some basic tips. ‘Co-active Coaching’ by Whitowrth, Kimsey-House and Sandahl, Life Coaching By Neenan & Dryden and the best of the lot ‘How To Be Rich and Happy’!
@ BF – I agree with that, there will always be an element of knowing when to apply the methods that you have learned and which ones will work best.
You know my take on LoA coaches, but that’s a whole different ball game.
The method you spoke of will indeed help some people change, but it will paralyze some other people.
@ Craig – I did the same. I had done way over 100 hours before I even thought of charging. It was a pain because people that are getting free coaching tend to assign it a lower priority so I suffered a lot from no-shows.
BTW, very much liked you post on the The Sedona Method and I’m going to run it next week, thanks.
Hey Tim.
I like that you provided all the real-deal information here. Most wouldn’t say that you can coach yourself if you put in the time and effort, as they would feel it would weaken their business, but it only increases your credibility.
Your messages about the available certifications, and the things one will want to do to become accredited sure make sense for those wanting to go a professional route.
The thing you said about how healthcare will joke about life coaching as a serious option sure is valid. It is okay, according to possibly large companies, that $5000 is spent on some health procedure, but not that $400 is spent to prevent the procedure from being required. This makes sense from a business standpoint, and we have to keep this in mind.
Thanks for this.
I have also written about this subject, but with a heavy flair to the Canadian market:
http://hubpages.com/hub/vancouverlifecoach
I agree with the author. It is a competitive field. You need some really fortified dedication to make it. But, best of luck to all of those who consider this and still try!
Cheers
Once again a great article from the lovely Tim!
This was very interesting.
“80% of life coaches in the US earn less than $20,000 per year.”
Maybe they are in the wrong job? It’s not by saying they are no good but I guess they are just the average and if I would pay them to coach me, my life wouldn’t change after it, otherwise I would recommend their services to all my friends. I’m not in the field so I may be wrong. What do you think?
Getting down to brass tacks, isn’t it difficult to “sell” people on a $150/hr coaching fee when they could see a licensed psychologist for a $10 copay? How do you do it?
Yours Truly,
Devil’s Advocate
@ Armen – Aint that the truth. It is ridiculous how much we spend on the cure and how little we invest in prevention.
@ FLC – Fortified dedication, I like it.
@ Hannah – Thanks a lot, not seen you on Twitter much lately.
@ Oscar – In theory I think you’re right, but ity tends not to happen wuite like that. I have had many clients who don’t want their friends and sometimes family members to know they have worked with a life coach.
Some people seee it as a sign of weakness, which is a real shame, but there you go.
@ Derek – You’re absolutely right! I’m not even sure if I do do it. Obviously some people don’t need a psychologist and if it’s things like goal setting, accountability etc then They wont get the results they wont and I doubt would even be seen.
The big selling point for me would be the fact that I move rapidly. I don’t spend 6 months digging around in peoples past and making them feel crap. No doubt there is a time and a place for that, but I can honestly say I have had clients who have achieved more in 6 weeks than 6 years in therapy.
That isn’t meant to toot my own horn (much), but coaches have access to tools that can effect rapid change.
@ Tim: I tend to be a little bit skeptical to the whole digging into the past thing. If anything, by focusing on the past we’re dwelling on the past and that can make us downright miserable and immobilized.
Since life is now, better to focus on what choices and thoughts we can have now that will enhance our life.
I suppose there is a time and place for uncovering the past, but I’m not sold on it yet. This is, of course, an opinion of someone who isn’t that well studied in the field, but my own intuition and common sense says that focusing on the past can be a really bad measure for trying to help someone else live the very best life they can.
Dr. Wayne Dyer has a great metaphor about how the wake of a ship is what’s left behind but it isn’t what actually drives the ship!
Let Life be your Teacher ;)
You can look at it as a comparison to sport, any sport really.
A 25 year old isn’t going to be coaching a team any time soon, experience counts. Coaches have usually had to have ‘played’ the sport they’re coaching, and have been half good at it! You’d want to hope the life coach you chose was kicking arse in life.
Unfortunately people don’t get relegated down to the lower divisions to know they should probably get a coach or new coach! If only…
Tim do you see anyone ‘regulating’ life coaching any time soon? The near future could just see a lot of sales people talking a big game and taking people for a ride?
@ BF – I actually agree with that. It’s right in certain circumstances for certain people I guess, but on the whole it’s used too much.
@ jon – Doing that everyday bud ;-)
@ Andrew – Good points about other coaches, that never really crossed my mind.
I don’t think so, it would be a legislative nightmare trying to get all the coaches up to scratch. The option would be to give established coaches grandfather rights I guess, but I still don’t think it’ll happen any time soon.
Hi Tim
Just wanted to pick up on the paragraph you wrote about the ICF which, unless I’ve missed something, I think was inaccurate… You wrote “The most recognizable and respected qualifications are issued by the ICF (International Coach Federation) and are CPC (Certified Professional Coach) and MPC (Master Professional Coach).”
The actual ICF credentials are ACC, PCC and MCC (see below). I’m an ACC with the ICF and about to become a PCC, so this is why the paragraph jumped out at me!
From the ICF website:
“There are three ICF Credentials: Associate Certified Coach (ACC), Professional Certified Coach (PCC) and Master Certified Coach (MCC). Each credential requires a specific set of required hours of coach-specific training and coaching experience.”
The ICF is in the process of moving towards an ISO accreditation but from my understanding as an ICF member, the new credentialing system won’t be fully in place for up to another 2 years.
Hey Tim,
Great Post,
I too started with Curly Martin’s book. I remember reading an article in a National Paper about a journalists experience with a life coach and the coaches approach just seemed so stale and with no imagination.
I am an unqualified coach but I started off by going to Seminars by Tony Robbins, Chris Howard, Deepak Chopra John DeMartini and I think you get more from those kinds of courses than you do from specific coaching courses. Personally I don’t thinks there’s a lot that those kinds of courses can teach me which is why I’ve never invested in one and to be honest anything over 3K in my opinion is extremely extortionate.
I think one thing you missed in this post is that to be a great coach you HAVE TO learn to coach yourself and when you have no doubt in your abilites, to yourself, you make a far more effective coach. I coached myself to lose weight, get fit, do Stand-up Comedy, do Radio, work with challenged kids etc etc but if I couldn’t get myself to do all of those things I don’t think I’d be an effective coach.
People have to be honest with themselves. If they can’t help themselves they’re not going to do well helping others. Yes we all have space for improvement but if you don’t make regular leaps and jumps and progress and you you’re at constant battle with your own problems then you’d be silly to begin coaching others.
I love your blog by the way and I’m thinking about being your groupie! :-p
Amit
@ Amanda – There you go, that’s why I knew it probably wasn’t wise giving an opinion I knew nothing about ;-)
I’m actually wondering, could they have changed in the last 4 years? I did a fair bit of research when I was originally thinking of moving over here about 5 years ago. Or I’m wondering if I have them confused with the Coachville recognized certification?
Either way thanks for pointing it out and I’ll go an do a quick bit of editing!
@ Amit – Hmm, I’m not sure about that. I think there is a large element of truth in what you say, but I also think there will be coaches that are unfit and overweight that can still add a lot of value.
Oh, don’t get me wrong Tim, I’m still 19st and I’ve got a long way to go however I can out-run most people half my weight. Dr Phil hardly has a six pack yet he coaches people in losing weight and eating well. I didn’t mean with losing weight specifically but I’m talking about people who want to call themselves coaches yet can’t even take care of the simple things in their own lives.
I’ll give you another example. People have said to me that they want to coach other people but yet they suffer from depression…a lot! I’m not perfect and I’d be lying if life didn’t get on top of me once in a while but I get over it quickly and move on fast. It’s a simple skill.
What I’m talking about overall is a kind of ‘Self Leadership’ in a sense. If a person cannot take care of their own issues and learn to grow, they I truly don’t believe they will be able to coach others to do that either.
Amit
@ Amit – No worries I understood what you meant and it is definitely a fine line we have to straddle. OTOH we all have our own ‘issues’ and will have to our dying day, it’s a work in progress thing.
At the end of the day it’s client results that matter, although we need to have some credibility for the client to hire us in the first place I guess.
I finally decided to write a comment on your blog. I just wanted to say good job. I really enjoy reading your posts.
@ r4 – And glad you did mate, thanks for the feedback!
This is a brilliant post, Tim.
I qualified as a life coach in Australia a couple of years ago. The one thing I learned is there’s so much more to learn and you need an unquestionable passion to want to help people lead more fulfilling lives.
As an aspiring coach I think it is so incredibly important to get coached.
Hello from Texas,I stumbled accross your site when I was looking for information on becoming a Life Coach. I have pondered over becoming a life coach for awhile and you have given me some great information. I was wondering is there is an other name you might use other than “Life Coach” that would describe your profession if you chose to do so.
Your views are so detail and useful for who are thinking of life coaching as their career.
Today I’m so happy that I found you this website, I like it!
Hello Tim!
Thank you for writing this great article. It really is a great source of information, that I will refer back to often. I am an aspiring life coach. As a matter of fact, I have my life coaching business online (link is on my name).
The problem is, I am 17 years old. I feel like life is too short to wait to do what you love. I have dealt with a pretty severe illness. I know what it’s like to set goals, and attack them. I’m not extremely experienced at the game of life. But for a 17 year old, I have played a pretty difficult game in these past 2 years. What do you think of me being in the coaching industry? What would you do in my situation?
Thanks a lot!
Josh Lipovetsky.
@ Kelly – I guess personal coach, career coach, business coach are variations on a theme although the patter two are different skill sets. Life coach isn’t a great title because few people know what we do, but it’s a start!
Good luck with it.
@ Josh – I think it will be tough for you to do it, but by no means impossible. It’s unlikely a 40 year old is going to hire you, but what about people your age?
Maybe you could focus on the niche of high-schoolers, or even one that have been through what you have been through whilst being at school?
The fact is with VoiP you can coach all over the world (I have clients in the UK, Switzerland, Belgium, Australia, Argentina and all over north America) without worrying about cost. That makes forming a niche a whole lot easier because you have 7 billion people to choose from!
Do what you’re doing, read/listen to as much as you can on the topic and if you can somehow do some training that would really help. Also, get to know SEO and marketing because marketing and selling yourself will be crucial.
One final thing, don’t listen to anybody that says you can’t do it ;-)
Best wishes!
Tim, that was a great and insightful post. I have considered breaking into a niche. I think that your words may have pushed me over the border. I am feeling more optimistic towards my future. Thanks a lot for your comments. Oh, and Skype for $12.99 per month (world) is an excellent service! I will most definitely consider it when I have marketed myself.
Thanks again,
Josh Lipovetsky.