The more you know about the life coaching industry the more you will be able to make the best decision about hiring a life coach and gain the most benefits from being coached. Our goal is to educate you about all aspects of the life coaching industry whether they are pretty or not. If you intend to spend money on hiring a life coach, you deserve to know what is going on, and what to look out for.

We invite you to tell us how to make our portrayal of the Life Coaching Industry more accurate.

We want our description of the life coaching industry to be accurate, complete and clear. We try to expose the good and the bad about the life coaching industry. Please send TCC your reasons, actual facts will really work, backing up why you feel any part of this discussion should be altered. We will gladly correct inaccuracies when we become aware of them.

The Life Coaching Industry, The Good:

The life coaching industry has grown dramatically ever since it was introduced by Thomas Leonard in about 1992. Leonard invented his new “personal coaching” process to help him discover and unravel the mystery of himself. After failing to discover anything about himself by using all of the other human improvements processes multiple times over about 2.5 years. The life coaching industry has grown so fast, because Leonard’s new “personal coaching” process works so well (When done right for the right reasons) and provides such great benefits.

People achieve very valuable life and career improving goals through the life coaching process when done right that are rarely accomplished elsewhere. Furthermore, they achieved their remarkable coachable goals faster and more completely than they had imagined.

Life coaching clients become more prosperous, happier, healthier, and more confident. They virtually eliminate stress and procrastination.

Return On Investment (ROI) for engaging a life coach or any one of the different types of life coaches is spectacular. Studies report a ROI over 529%.

You will be the King or Queen of your Life Coaching Relationship

You will be the absolute center of attention of your life coach, when life coaching is done right! Your life coach will help you achieve your coachable goals on your terms, your pace, your agenda and to suit you only. There is no other relationship in the world like being the center of attention of your life coach. You will be special.

The life coaching industry has positively affected the world by assisting so many people to change their lives in such powerful and remarkable ways. The life coaching industry spent considerable money and effort to introduce life coaching to the world.

The Life Coaching Industry is bigger and more involved in peoples lives than it appears. Many life coaching clients want to keep their coaching relationships a secret, so they can fully enjoy the fruits of their coaching. Good life coaches know and encourage this secrecy, and are forbidden to breach confidentiality

The Quality of Life Coaching You Receive will NOT be Price Sensitive

When Life Coaching is done right you will achieve PRICELESS RESULTS. BUT you do NOT have to pay high fees to get excellent quality life coaching. Do not let the high prices charged by life coaches influence you into believing they provide better coaching. The other factors we list on this site are far more important than pricing.

The Life Coaching Industry, The Bad:

There is great confusion and considerable misunderstandings in the life coaching industry about what life coaching truly is. Leonard’s “life coaching” process is SO different, and SO hard to comprehend, that it remains very puzzling, even to coach practitioners themselves. In fact, The comments to a NY Times article entitled: “Should a Life Coach have a Life First” exposed the fragmented confusion about “coaching”

The life coaching industry is so fragmented, so self absorbed, and so divergent that it perpetrates this confusion. Consequently there are thousands of different interpretations of life coaching, many of which are not even close. For example; “dating coach,” “worm coach,” and “hustle coach.” Few actually know the basic life coach requirements to be a life coach.

Bad Reputation of the Life Coaching Industry.

The life coaching industry has earned an unfavorable reputation. (Some say Bad Reputation) Too many people had unfavorable experiences with a supposed “life coach” that left them confused, frustrated and even angry. They conducted life coaching under the wrong conditions. With the wrong “supposed coach.” For the wrong reasons. Signing long term contracts. Frequently accomplishing little, or worse being advised to do the wrong things. And paying way too much money.

Anyone can Call Themselves a Life Coach.

And Many people call themselves life coaches, even though they have little idea what that means. The Life Coaching Industry has No standards, No training criteria, and No qualifications across the industry. Becoming a “life coach” is as simple as calling yourself one. In the last 25 years, literally hundreds of thousands of persons have declared themselves to be “life coaches”.

Life Coach Training Schools Hustle Anyone to Buy Their Coach Training

There are more than 620 “For Profit Coaching Schools” in the Life coaching Industry. They sell their programs to people to become life coaches. Anyone can enroll and graduate, all it takes is paying the training fees. Coach training fees range in cost from $200 to over $25,000 and can take from 6 weeks to about 2 years. The quality of the training and the quality and capability of the graduates is haphazard and questionable. In fact the success rates of coaching school graduates has been dismal. Stephen Fairly reported in his book that 73% of all first-year coaches make less than $10,000 their first year, and more than 40% of all second year coaches fail to find 10 paying clients.

Yet, Thomas Leonard who founded three of the first and biggest coaching schools always stated that the best way to become a great life coach is to just coach. Coaching experience really matters

Life Coach Certifications are Sold and Mean Little

We have found that there are no “Coaching Certifications” that will separate high quality and/or even just capable coaches. Most Coaching Schools sell “Coaching Certifications” as part of their package. Most Coaching Associations also sell “Coaching Certifications” Recent research has shown that are over 60 different coaching certification labels, with many varied unknown qualifications, and that it becomes difficult to verify whether a person has actually been certified.

Life Coaching Industry Success Rates Are Very Low

Success for a life coach-client relationship only occurs when the life coaching client (Coachee) achieves his or her coachable goals, and knows it. Only the client can declare success. Unfortunately, too many life coaches do not concern themselves with whether their clients achieve their goals. Experts estimate the overall life coaching industry has a success rate for life coach-client relationships of only 20% to 30%.

Life Coach Prices Are Generally Excessive!

Most Coaching Schools and Coaching Associations encourage their students to charge very high, even fees a number of reasons. Schools instruct their graduates to charge very high fees: To justify their expensive training costs; So prospective life coaches will believe they can make lots of money by becoming a life coach; And also to promote the concept that their brand of coaching MUST be extremely valuable BECAUSE their fees are so expensive.

Most Life Coaches do Not Publish Their Fees

Sad to say, too many coaches and coaching groups hide their fees from prospective clients. Either because they are not proud of their fees or most often so they can calculate their fees based upon what the prospective clients might be willing to pay. Unfortunately, too many coaches start the trusting coach-client relationship with a distrustful pricing scheme. Read TCC’s published Life Coach Fees and Guarantees

Many Life Coaches and Coaching Groups Require Their Clients to Execute Long Term Contracts

These contracts commit clients to 6 or 12 months of coaching. These contracts are almost always strongly favor the coaches, binding clients to excessive fees and even restricting clients in too many ways. Such “Coaching Contracts” rarely help coaching clients. Prospective coaching clients are best served avoiding signing any coaching contracts. True life coaching is a completely Free Form Process where the Client is the King or Queen. Only the client can determine when he or she has achieved their goals.

Most Coaches Charge an Hourly or Session Fee.

They become sellers of their time, like lawyers. Selling time obstructs their real purpose to assure that their clients achieve their goals. Most often they charge by the session for a set amount of time. Like $300.00 for a session of 50 minutes. Sometimes the sessions are bundled – so many sessions for a given fee. Fees may range from $50 to $5,000 or more per session. ($75.00 to over $5,000 per hour)