Before You
Become A Life Coach...

I Am Keen To Become A Life Coach. How Do I Start?

If you're thinking of a life coaching career, this information is for you.

Not sure what is a life coach?

These and other answers to some of the commonly asked questions, e.g. definition of life coach, life coaching fees, finding your own life coach, life coaching certification can be found here.

Can Anyone Become A Life Coach?

Providers of life coaching training (e.g. life coaching schools) sometimes overemphasize the life coach salary aspect. Marketing ads for potential life coaches like to highlight how lucrative and financially rewarding it can be to become a life coach, and to present the life coaching career as a path to financial freedom.

For some, becoming a life coach can turn out to be the perfect midlife career change. But before you arrive at that decision, it is important that you give this matter the same serious consideration as any other new career you may be thinking about.

As a coach, you are in a position to transform and influence lives. You are going to be working with people's values, morals and ethics. Are you ready to take on that responsibility? If yes, then it must follow that you are committed to investing in your own personal and professional development and education, that you make every effort to ensure that you are the right person for a life coaching career.

Why Do You Want To Become A Life Coach?

What is the biggest attraction of a life coaching career for you?

What are your thoughts on human potential and a person's ability to live a productive, fulfilled life by making the best career choices?

Do you really believe coaching can change lives?

Is finding a career just a simple technical exercise of matching someone to a list of careers based on a career assessment or test, or is there more involved?

Are you in it just for the money?

Is a life coaching career the right fit for your strengths, talents, abilities, experience and personality?

Who are the people you most passionately and sincerely feel you can make a difference to?

How much time, energy and money are you prepared to invest in order to make a well-informed decision?

Is your attitude I'll-see-how-it-goes, or will you do everything in your power to be the best possible coach, to promote your coaching business and to make it as recession proof as you can?

Take The Career Choice Quiz To Find Out
If A Life Coaching Career
Could Be Your Dream Career

A Quick Guide To Exploring Coaching

An excellent way to prepare to become a life coach is to hire a coach and experience the coaching process for yourself. This gives you an idea of what your clients go through when they speak with you. Use your insights to make the process as smooth and as easy for them as you would like if you were the client.

To get the maximum value out of being coached, why not let your coach know that you are investigating the coaching process and that you want to become a life coach? You could make 'Becoming A Life Coach' the goal of your coaching sessions. You and your coach can then work on ways for you to find out if coaching is the right career for you and how to identify the best career training program or life coaching training for you.

Which Life Coaching Schools Or Life Coaching Program Is Right For Me?

Besides looking for a school whose philosophy and aims match yours, you also want to know how accessible and flexible the training options are. With Internet technology, there are so many alternatives to taking time off from work. Teleseminars, webinars,teleclasses and home study courses are just some of the learning options that let you learn at your own pace.

Have a look at the coach training resources listed below.

Take a coaching class; sometimes the introductory one is free. Sign up for the free newsletters. Read the blogs. Network with people like yourself. Take advantage of the opportunity to learn as much as you can about coaching, at a cost that fits your budget.

• The Coaching Institute Melbourne
• Become a Life Coach
• Coach Training Alliance
• Professional Christian Coaching and Counseling Academy

Do I Need A Life Coaching Certification?

Do you need a piece of paper to become a life coach? It depends.

There's a school of thought that says you don't really need a formal coaching qualification. You can attend life coaching seminars, read life coaching books, take the transferable skills you have, combine that with your basic life skills and start coaching anyone.

Having said that, having a life coach certification does increase your understanding of the principles and goals of coaching, which in turn helps to build self confidence (very important when you are starting out). It is also a visible demonstration of your commitment to your personal development; it tells your clients you are willing to learn.

It gives some clients an assurance that you are a professional life coach.

It will help you answer confidently when someone asks: "So what makes you think you're qualified to coach?"

Of course, being a Certified Life Coach is no guarantee that you will be an excellent coach. It's just the first step in your own learning journey, but it's certainly a step in the right direction.

Here's an excellent article about life coaching schools accreditation that you may find insightful. It gives a different perspective of the qualification issue and highlights the value we tend to place on externals.

Promote Your Life Coaching Practice

It's great that you are passionate about coaching and ready to become a life coach.

If you want a viable business, you need to know how to go beyond becoming a life coach to building and marketing your coaching practice effectively.

Passion + Business Knowledge = Successful Coaching Business

How do you get your first client?

How do you structure a coaching call?

Should you offer free coaching sessions?

Should you coach friends and relatives?

All these are highly relevant questions. You need to think through them before you start your practice. But what are the right answers or the most helpful answers? What are the pitfalls to avoid?

Don't you wish you could also ask successful coaches how they have tackled those same questions?

Actually, someone has already done the work for you.

Your Coaching Questions Answered

10 Super Coaches Share Their Secrets is THE　life coach training ebook ｔｏ　read if you want genuine insights into the life coaching career.

It contains interviews with ten of the world's best coaches.

You will learn...

• How much top coaches actually earn
• How to find willing, paying clients
• How to find your niche, and whether you need one
• How to raise your fees without losing your clients
• Whether to keep your day job

...and much much more!

The best thing about 10 Super Coaches?

The ebook is risk-free for 90 days. Take the next 90 days to review the tips and resources in it. After that, if you don't get at least 10 paying clients from applying just ONE strategy that you have learned, you get your money back.

10 Super Coaches Reveal Their Secrets How are these life coaches earning $30,000 to $1.4 million per year? The world's top coaches finally tell how they made business boom -- and how you can do it too. Click Here