15. Transition into becoming a successful life coach

Many people are drawn to the profession of life coaching. It is estimated that from 15,000 to over 25,000 people each year enter the life coaching field in one way or another. We at The Coach Connection recommend becoming a professional life coach, if doing so will place you in your ideal income position. We will be using the term life coach to encompass all forms of life related coaching, to include business, career, transition, executive, ADD, leadership, life and other such coaches. We do NOT consider life coaching to include sports coaching, coaching subordinates, coaching close friends or close family, or coaching other employees within the same corporation (internal coaching).

Unfortunately, the approximately 510 for profit coach training schools have become very adept at SELLING the coaching profession to anyone who will listen in order to collect their training fees. They promise that by buying their unique coach training program, graduates will become very successful life coaches, etc. and even make lots of money helping others. A very attractive and compelling sales pitch. The number of specialized For Profit coach training schools has exploded from less than 11 in 1998 to over 510 today, due to the remarkable profits they reap from selling life coach training. If you used any of the major search engines in your quest to find a coach for you, you undoubtedly had to wade through countless advertisements from coach training schools. Not everybody will be well suited to becoming a successful life coach, but the for profit coach training schools don’t tell you that and no matter how costly or long their training may be, it will rarely convert you into being successful at something you do not like or fit.

The first step of becoming a successful life coach is to discover your “ideal income position” without any restrictions or prearranged agenda (for example that becoming a life coach will be the end result). If you discover that becoming a life coach is your eventual “ideal income position,” you will be able to march right on and get it done with your coach. If you discover that your “ideal income position” is to become something other than a professional life coach, you will also be ahead of the game. You will once again continue on to successfully attain your chosen non-coaching ideal income position. You will not have wasted your time, money and efforts to becoming a life coach, when you were much better suited for something else.

One of the most important ingredients to become an effective and successful life coach is that a person must experience true professional coaching themselves. Being coached is a wonderful and remarkable process that is extremely difficult to comprehend and understand without actually experiencing it under the Key Conditions of Successful Coaching. Participating in practice coaching in school settings or in corporate settings, rarely provides the true-life wonders involved in real coaching. We have found that coaches who have engaged the services of their own life coach, and who have achieved at least one personally chosen Coachable Goal through professional life coaching will have a much easier time relating to people who want to be coached, and will be able to be much more effective in assisting their clients to success. Coaches who have personally experienced the special wonder of achieving their own Coachable Goals through life coaching, will have the confidence and knowledge to provide the same successes to their clients.

When you “Discover if becoming a life coach is Right For You, then become a successful one,” you will:

• Discover your passions, priorities, beliefs and talents to and your self imposed obstacles to become The World’s Leading Expert on You.”
• Determine your Ideal Income Position to fit your passions, priorities, spirituality, talents and self imposed obstacles.
• If you decide that your ideal income position is to become a life coach, you will be confident and focused with your selection.
• Discover the specific skills and knowledge you will need to complete your training to become a successful coach, without having to endure a lengthy, time consuming and repetitive training program.
• Enjoy the wonders of being coached, (under real life non confined conditions) so you will know what you will want your coaching clients to experience.
• Develop your skills, confidence and experience to coach others to accomplish their “Coachable Goals.”
• Actually coach others to achieve their goals with the partnership support of your coach, so you will accelerate your learning and success rate.
• Discover who your “ideal coaching clients” will be, so you will know which clients you will want to attract to achieve the greatest successes for them and you.
• Discover the truth about the differences between coaching and marketing and how to organize your marketing to suit your very special passions, priorities, talents, spirituality and self imposed obstacles. Design your marketing to work within yourself, on your terms.

One of, if not the most prevalent reason for these poor results for coaches is that they most often do not realize that they are starting independent contractor practice. They now face the same issues and obstacles of other independent contractor, one of which is being totally responsible for generating all of the income. When professional coaches recognize the independent contractor roll of creating a coaching practice, they will be able to focus on the business factors that will lead to success.