Is Life Coach Training right for you?

Lisa and I get a lot of people interested in our training programmes to become Life Coaches and Practitioners. Many are making enquiries through curiosity - as they may have experienced Life Coaching themselves and would love to help others in the same way they have been helped or they have always liked the idea of becoming a Life Coach, but are not 100% sure what it entails.

In this article I'll cover the most frequently asked questions on how to tell if Life Coaching is right for you and discuss the different options out there in order to train in Life Coaching, so you can make an informed decision.

What is Life Coaching? (and what it isn't)

A Life Coach is a person who can help you make progress in your life within your chosen area towards greater accomplishment and fulfillment, such as career, relationships, clarity, finances and health etc

Life Coaching isn't therapy and it isn't healing. A Life Coach tends to deal with the present and look into the future around someone's goals, and while it can sometimes be necessary to discuss previous experiences of events, a Life Coach isn't there to counsell someone when they've suffered a traumatic event for example.


Is Coaching the same as Counselling?

Coaching is focused on helping people fulfil their future potential whereas a Counsellor is focused on helping someone come to peace with their past. Counselling can include discussions around sexuality, trauma, mental health conditions and family dynamics whereas a Coach would be helping someone clarify future goals and where they are in relation to those goals and help them formulate a plan to achieve them.

I've heard of Trauma-Informed Coaching - what's that?

A Trauma-Informed Coach is someone who has taken additional qualifications to that of a basic Life Coach and can therefore look through a trauma-informed lens at issues that maybe preventing their client from taking the necessary steps to achieving their goals, such issues that are trauma related are beyond scope of practice at a basic Life Coach level.

What does a Life Coach do?

A Life Coach holds either one to one or group sessions to enable a person to clarify their goals and also identify what barriers maybe holding them back from achieving these goals, these maybe both tangible and intangible barriers and a coach will help discuss strategies in a non-judgemental way to help overcome these barriers. A coach can also provide on-going support and accountability for someone to help them achieve their goals.


How do I qualify to become a Life Coach?

There are two main routes that currently exist to become a Life Coach. Online self-study or Blended Learning of Live and Online Self-Study.

If you'd like to find out more about our Blended Style Coach Training Programme - please check out the link here: Becoming 360 Accredited Advanced Life Coach Training Programme

Can I operate as a Life Coach once I've done one of these?

Yes providing you have the necessary insurance to cover you to operate in your country.

What's the pros and cons of each type of training?

Online Self-Study Pros

- Cheap - you can find self-study courses for less than £20/$20
- Convenient - you can study when and wherever you choose
- For the most part, many online self-study are very comprehensive
- Often there will be a Facebook community connected with the course which you can use for support
- Course materials are downloable and some are brand free for you to be able to re-use for your clients

Online Self-Study Cons

- You need to be very self-disciplined to complete
- It'll require you to understand the recorded trainings without option to ask for clarity
- No practice opportunity available in real time to help build skills or confidence
- No opportunity to experience coaching from others or work on own issues during training
- No set standard or examination to achieve which means results will vary massively in someone's comprehension of the course
- Often due to cheapness of course and lack of examination people may experience 'imposter syndrome' once course is completed due to feeling a lack of credibility
- No supervision from trainers to give feedback and help with issues from clients that come up and coach feels they need help with
- Many insurance companies do not recognise the online qualification
- Many accreditation bodies do not recognise the online qualification

Blended Learning Pros

- Confidence. In many blended learning courses you will get the opportunity to practice your skills with other participants which means you get real time experience
- Quality standard. Often you will be asked to complete case studies and an online examination which means you have to reach a certain standard of understanding and ability
- Competence. You will have to demonstrate a certain level of competence in order to qualify.
- If you have the opportunity to be coached during your training, it means you get to work on your own stuff at the same time
- Accountability. You usually have timescales when you have to complete your work by which means sticking to a timetable of completion is easier
- Credability. Learning in a live environment can help you to feel more credible as you get real time feedback from trainers
- Supervision. You have support and help from your trainers on dealing with issues that may arise from your clients.
- Many insurance companies favour this type of qualification.
- Accredited bodies favour these types of qualification
- Benefit of self-study modules to refer to.
- Support and help from fellow students
- Cost efficient. Many programmes offer payment plans and the opportunity to earn while you learn.

Blended Learning Cons

- More expensive. Due to the live training element from experienced trainers, the cost is usually considerably more than an online self-study.
- Time inconvenient. You may have to book time off work or find childcare to do the live training as often they can be an entire day or weekends worth of training.
- Examination. You often have to do an examination to get the qualifications to prove you have the right level of competence.
- Case studies. You often have to find people to do coaching sessions with so you can do case studies although you may also be able to swap with fellow students
- It can feel out of your comfort zone as you get to practice on real people.
- You usually have to work on your own stuff during the training, so you become a clearer channel to coach others, this may feel uncomfortable at times.
- Time bound. There is sometimes a time limit on when your study has to be completed by.
- Accountability. There is a higher degree of accountability.
- If you miss a live session you may have to redo the entire course.
- You usually have to attend all the live sessions in order to qualify.
- You still may struggle with Imposter Syndrome afterwards.


How do I know if Life Coaching is for me?

Questions we suggest you ask yourself are:

1) Am I a good listener?
2) Do people naturally come to me with their problems?
3) Do I enjoy helping people?
4) Am I naturally curious about people?
5) Am I interested in what's going on underneath what someone says?
6) Am I good at reading between the lines?
7) Do I have good intuition about people?
8) Do I enjoy chatting to people about their challenges without the need to jump in with mine?
9) Do I like helping people create plans to achieve their goals?
10) Am I good at getting on with different personality types?


What types of Coaching is there? Here are a few below...

The key thing with any type of coaching is you find the type that lights you up. For example Lisa and I tend to work with female entrepreneurs on soul aligned business strategy, money mindset and spiritual healing (we're both Reiki Masters and qualified in Quantum Holographic Echo Healing and we bring energy work into our coaching businesses).

- Mindset Coaching - this would mainly involve working on clarity, confidence, goal setting and working through limiting beliefs.
- Business Coaching - you may specialise in a particular business, for example fitness instructor businesses, direct sales, corporate business or creative businesses for this one, or you may go more general and work across the board with entrepreneurs and work on business goals and marketing etc
- Spiritual Life Coach - This would be where you'd introduce spiritual / energy tools to bring a more holistic approach to your coaching.
- Law of Attraction Life Coach - Similar to Spiritual Life Coach but you'd focus mainly on bringing in the Law of Attraction teachings to your coaching
- Health / Weight Loss Coaching - focusing on health issues, this may or may not involve nutrition or fitness coaching too.

You may also decide to specialise for example I've seen Coaches who are...Menopause Coaches, IBS Coaches, Money Mindset Coaches, Confidence Coaches, Self-Love Coaches etc

The truth is, you can coach on any area people want to experience progress and you can help them, if it's a subject you're passionate about and understand about it at a deeper level due to your education on the subject or your personal experience of it.


Once I'm a Life Coach what additional costs are involved of running a Coaching business?

Depending on if you intend to work online or via premises will determine whether you take on an office space or use a room in your house (you'd need to check with your landlord or mortage company if this is permissible and get the relevant public liability insurance)

Online you can pay monthly to Zoom (approx. $17.99 per month) or Skype

ICO (Data protection) for storing records (approx. £40 per year)

Insurance can vary (From approx. £20 per month)

Accreditation costs - At time of writing accreditation with IAPC&M is approx £385 for accreditation and approx. £165 per year thereafter (This is optional at this point if you decide you want to become accredited.)

You also will want to look at registering as Self-Employed with HMRC and getting a Business Bank Account.

Plus as a self-employed person you will need to submit yearly accounts, so you may want to consider hiring an accountant.

How much can I make as a Life Coach?

This is of course a bit like saying "How long is a piece of string?" because Coaching charges are not set in stone and it depends on how many clients you want and what you feel comfortable charging.

Many of our trainee coaches whilst training charge £35 per hour and then, once qualified increase to £75 per hour. However more experienced Coaches can charge what they feel happy to charge and they feel the marketplace will pay for - this can vary massively from £35 per hour to £50,000+ packages (the marketplace is incredibly elastic within the coaching world, the only limitation is the one you put on yourself with regards to how much you want to charge)

We usually recommend our Coaches sell programmes rather than one-off coaching sessions and these may range depending on length of contract.

Here is an example of potential income:

Imagine you're charging £75 per session and have someone book a programme of 8 sessions = this programme would be £600.
Now imagine you're charging £125 per session - this programme would be £1000.

4 Clients at £1000 would be £4000 for 2 Months Work.

Or say you want to have 1 Client per day, 5 days per week. You see your clients twice a month and they sign up for a 4 month package which you've priced at £1000 per package. This is 10 clients per month giving you an income of £2500 per month.
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Plus you could introduce Group Coaching into your business, which means the cost per person is cheaper. For example you may sell an 8 week Group Coaching Programme at £200 per person with a  maximum of 10 people which would bring you in £2000.

This of course doesn't include opportunies to create pre-recorded courses or run live workshops which you could also promote too.

The amount you make is really your choice, based on what you want to charge and how you market yourself. But the possibilities really are endless.

How will I market myself?

Initially social media and existing contacts are a great place to start and get the word out, business networking, both live and virtual are also great places to begin. Starting an online community, such as a Facebook group or a Whatsapp/Telegram group may also be a great place to attract your ideal clients. These relatively low costs forms of marketing can serve you well for a good length of time when you first get started.

You'll need to be consistent in your approach and understand who you're marketing to for it to be the most effective way to build your business.


OK, I'm interested in training, what's next?

Do your research, of course there are a lot of credible coach training companies out there and you have to choose which one feels right for you, based on what you want from your training. If you'd like to find out more about our Coach Training Programme - please check out the link here: Becoming 360 Accredited Advanced Life Coach Training Programme

We have 2 Options to get started with us:

OPTION 1 - Becoming 360 Core Life Coaching Certification (Accredited) - Includes 3 Accredited Diplomas (Life Coach, Clarity Coach, Limiting Beliefs Coach)

OPTION 2 - Becoming 360 Advanced Coach Practitioner Diploma (Accredited) - Includes 6 Accredited Diplomas plus (As above plus Chakra Balancing,Law of Attraction, Meditation & Mindfulness, Vision Board Workshop Facilitator Course Creation & Sacred Sales Skills training)

Prices start from £3000 (or 12 payments of £275) and includes 10 days of live training as well as access to a self-study portal.

In our Advanced Accredited Therapeutic Coach Training programme we will also teach you how to 'Earn while you Learn' by giving you the tools to run one day Workshops - this is a fabulous way of building revenue and confidence.

One of our students, Lorna, within 6 months had lined up 6 workshops with 6 people attending each one - this has been a fabulous launch pad for her Coaching business.

Feel free to book a call by emailing us at: info@becoming360training.com

We hope this page has answered your questions, if you have any more please feel free to contact us.