Warning for Life Coaches

So you like helping people, its what you do. Everyone who knows you comes to your with their problems. So how do you turn this gift into a way of living that can support you?

You become a Life Coach.

You find a good certified program and enroll on this journey with excitement and lots of positive hope. Six months to a year later you have been trained to listen, found your niche and given some basic hints and tips on running your business. You are now out there in the world as a Certified Life Coach…….exciting isn’t it.

The first thing you may notice is that you soon become bombarded with emails coaxing you into another program, usually from the school you trained with or Coaches that are associated with the school. They tell you that you need a ‘more in depth training‘ or one to help you ‘define your niche‘ better and, as you probably don’t have many (or indeed any) clients yet, you enroll. OH and most importantly, they tell you that you need to hire a coach/mentor of your own?

The trap is set and you walked right into it.

Well I’ve been there and the truth is, that it is near impossible to make a living as a Life Coach, unless you are a Natural Sales person, an SEO expert, have Marketing Knowledge and have lots of financial backing!

AND you are selling to other coaches.

Yes there are some very successful, charismatic Coaches out there but they are few and far between and often it is not their skill as a life coach that gets them there but the marketing machine they have employed. AND most of them are selling programs to other coaches…downline.

SOUND familiar?

The Life Coach Business for me is becoming a disguised pyramid scheme of sorts and that is one of the reason I left the ICF. I stopped buying programs from other coaches and distance myself from the madness.

I GOT into this business to HELP PEOPLE in need, not to make money from other struggling coaches.

So I went about it my way. Building Social Networks, Volunteering with Women’s groups, writing and blogging and creating an honest & trusted familiar face out there in the world.

3 years later, am I making money? Not a lot but it has started to roll in. People are coming to me now, I don’t have to go find them. I don’t have to go sell myself over and over again trying to convince someone they should pay me to help them………..I simply stay true to who I am and they come to me!.

So you may ask, why am I writing this blog?

Well I want to warn those of you who are just starting out, that this is a tough business……..! Be prepared to not only have to work very hard at it, with the majority of your efforts going into Marketing and Sales (not coaching). But also to warn you, not to fall for the ‘coaches trap‘ of selling to or buying from, other coaches….. because I am sure that like me, that is NOT what you started out to do. Buying training program after training program is NOT going to get you the clients you want to help……believe me.

All it will get you, is broke!

Wishing you much love and luck in this venture, it can truly be a worthwhile life IF you are doing what you set out to……….HELP PEOPLE IN NEED!

Coach Lin xx