Nancy: Being a successful life coach requires more than just coaching skills. You need to develop the business and marketing abilities to effectively promote your services, manage your finances, and handle administrative tasks. It’s crucial to understand the business side of coaching and be prepared to invest time and effort into these areas.
So again, this is why we have created this Alumni Springboard because as much as you are a coach, you also need to be a business owner, an entrepreneur. You need to be a marketer and a promoter. So it’s not just about being trained and certified as a coach, it’s also being trained in how to run your coaching business.
Nancy: Welcome to Your Permission Prescription. I’m Nancy Levin, founder of Levin Life Coach Academy, bestselling author, master life coach, and your host. I train life coaches, aspiring coaches, and anyone who wants to add coaching skills to their current career to elevate their life and their business. I’ve coached thousands of people to live life on their own terms, and now I coach, train, and certify other coaches to do the same.
Welcome to another episode of Your Permission Prescription. If you’ve been with me for a while, then you know I am the founder and CEO of Levin Life Coach Academy. If you are new to me, I’ll simply say I train and certify aspiring and current coaches in proven models and methods to build a sustainable business that changes lives, including their own.
And I thought I’d take a little bit of time here today to share with you about the life and business of coaching, really the truth about becoming a life coach, and the reason I decided to start Levin Life Coach Academy. So I have been coaching for over a decade, and about five years ago I noticed that consistently coaches were coming to me for coaching. So people who’d already gone through a certification were coming to me for coaching, and they were specifically coming to me to help them understand how to get a client as well as what to do with the client once they got one.
So I was coaching and training essentially coaches to be able to utilize their coaching certification as a business. And I was also coaching people who were coming to me who wanted to become coaches, who were aspiring coaches, who wanted to be a coach like me, they said. And because the place I got my coaching certification from was no longer in business because my mentor and teacher, the great Debbie Ford had passed. I recognized that there was a gap in the marketplace, if you will, and I didn’t have anywhere to send people. And so I got about the business of creating my own program by which I would train and certify coaches and they would absolutely know what to do with a client and how to get one.
And what I know now is that the confidence to coach and to own being a business owner, to build a business around coaching, really stems from the foundation of feeling skilled and prepared. And so I knew that in LLCA, I wanted to be sure that we were not leaving any stone unturned and that anyone who got certified in our program could literally start coaching the next day and know exactly what to do and know exactly how to get clients.
So, you know, becoming a life coach can be a very rewarding and fulfilling career for any of us who have a genuine passion for helping others and facilitating personal growth. However, it is very important to understand the realities and considerations involved.
So I’m going to share with you some truths about becoming a life coach. And one of the things that I’ll say upfront is so many people come to coaching as a career because they’re the ones in their families or in their circles of friends who people tend to reach out to for advice or tend to reach out to because they’re a good listener and they hold space well.
So if that identifies you, you may very well be a wonderful candidate for life coaching. But what I wanna say up upfront is coaching is not advice giving. Coaching is predicated upon the client’s commitment to their own evolution, and the coach is committed to holding the client accountable to what the client desires.
So this is not about the coach having an agenda or the coach driving the client, it is essentially about the coach partnering with the client to get on the roadmap of the client’s vision and the coach guiding the client to bring the vision to fruition via action. So forward motion, action and momentum along the path.
Now I wanna talk a little bit about training and certification because there is no universal requirement for certification or formal training to become a life coach. There is no governing body of life coaching, even though the ICF, the International Coach Federation, would have you believe differently. So one of the reasons that I did not want to align Levin Life Coach Academy with ICF is that LLCA is a far more robust program, and there are elements of LLCA that go far beyond what the ICF includes.
Now, there are a sort of standard set of essential coaching skills, which we absolutely cover and we absolutely train you in. And the reason it is essential to undergo some form of education or training program and certification is to truly enhance your skills, provide you with a solid foundation in coaching techniques, and increase your credibility with potential clients.
It’s not just about being able to hang your certificate on the wall, it’s really more about showing that as a coach you are embodying a coaching mindset. You are embodying a client-oriented mindset. You are familiar with and trained in active listening. You know how to be agenda free. You are very clear on your own boundaries as a coach. So in this day and age, there are countless coach certification programs out there, some that you can even do in a weekend.
Levin Life Coach Academy is not that. Let me be very clear upfront. It is like entering a master’s program for coaching. It is a deep in depth real time program. And by that I mean it is not prerecorded, it is not repurposed, it’s all happening in real time with me and with Levin Life Coach Academy certified and trained master coaches and mentors. And the reason you wanna go through a training and certification is so that you are creating a foundation for yourself where you are coaching correctly, where you are truly embodying what being a coach is, not being a therapist, not being a consultant, not being a cheerleader – being a guide. And ultimately a guide for your clients to discover their own answers.
In addition, what’s remarkable about going through a training and certification program for coaching is that to be an effective coach, you really need to be committed to your own personal growth and development. So this includes expanding your knowledge continuously, honing your coaching skills, working on your own challenges and limitations, self-reflection and a willingness to evolve are crucial.
And inside of Levin Life Coach Academy all of this is built right in. In fact, in our very first module, you are in the seat of the client and I am coaching you through the very first coaching model of mine, Reinvention Coaching, that you will ultimately be certified in. So you have your own experience of going through the coaching model as a client to do your own deep inner work first before you ever begin coaching. And we continue this post certification. So the opportunity to continue your own self-development continues post certification in our Alumni Springboard, and then even further in our Advanced Alumni Training Program, and then also in our Alumni community. So the learning never stops.
Another important element when we’re talking about the truth of becoming a life coach is knowing your niche and your specialization. So it’s not something you need to come in with knowing, but it is beneficial to find and define a niche or area of specialization within the coaching field. You know, life coaching is really an umbrella term that encompasses so many niches, including career coaching or relationship coaching, or health coaching, transition coaching, financial coaching. All of these are really under the umbrella of life coaching.
So when you have a niche, it allows you to focus your expertise, market yourself more effectively, and attract clients who resonate with your specific niche. This is something we cover in detail in Levin Life Coach Academy. And knowing your niche and specializing supports you in being able to build a client base. Starting a coaching practice typically involves building a client base from scratch. However, you can double down and leverage areas in your life where you know your clients are hanging out. And this means that you might be bringing with you people who can benefit from your coaching from other places that you’ve worked, from organizations in which you’ve been a part of. So you know, this can be a gradual and ongoing process that absolutely requires marketing, networking, establishing a solid reputation, and it is important to have realistic expectations about the time and effort required to attract clients and build a sustainable business.
So you know, I said upfront that one of the reasons I started LLCA is that I had all of these certified coaches coming to me saying, I don’t know how to get a client and I wouldn’t know what to do with a client once I got one. This is why we have the Alumni Springboard. So immediately following certification, we dive deep into how to start your business from scratch, how to get clients right away. And this is an invaluable opportunity that doesn’t exist in other programs.
Another element here is continuous learning. And you know, the field of coaching is constantly evolving, so it is essential to stay updated with different techniques and trends. Also, staying up to date by filling your toolbox with additional coaching models. So I mentioned that Reinvention Coaching is the first coaching model of mine that you will get certified in. However, there are several additional coaching models of mine that become available to you in the additional alumni programs that follow certification. So you are constantly adding to your coaching toolkit and you are constantly having your own experience of going through these coaching models as a client as well.
All of this is in support of your clients and maintaining your effectiveness as a coach. The other piece here is recognizing that being a successful life coach requires more than just coaching skills. You need to develop the business and marketing abilities to effectively promote your services, manage your finances, and handle administrative tasks. It’s crucial to understand the business side of coaching and be prepared to invest time and effort into these areas.
So again, this is why we have created this Alumni Springboard because as much as you are a coach, you also need to be a business owner, an entrepreneur. You need to be a marketer and a promoter. So it’s not just about being trained and certified as a coach, it’s also being trained in how to run your coaching business.
Of course, there are ethical considerations. As a coach, you have a responsibility to adhere to ethical guidelines and maintain client confidentiality. It’s very important to establish clear boundaries, maintain professional standards, and prioritize the wellbeing of your clients. As a coach, you might discover, as part of your establishing boundaries, you might discover you have a different capacity than you thought. Coaching can be emotionally demanding as you’ll be working closely with people who might be dealing with personal challenges or feeling stuck in difficult areas of their lives.
So it’s essential for a coach, every coach, to have self-care and self-connection practices in place to prevent burnout and to be able to come into coaching sessions, to be able to come into coaching sessions as a clean, clear vessel and post session to clear whatever isn’t theirs.
So these are just a few of the elements of becoming a coach and the life and business of coaching and what’s true. You know, there is tremendous potential in coaching and the income potential can vary widely. So factors such as your niche, experience, reputation, marketing efforts, all of these can influence your earning potential. And this is not a get rich quick or get rich overnight scheme, This is really about an investment and it’s an investment in yourself. And as far as I’m concerned, who better to invest in than you?
Alongside the client transformation, you will experience your own ability to achieve your goals, overcome obstacles, and grow in a personal way that is incredibly fulfilling and satisfying and meaningful. Being a coach really requires genuine commitment to supporting others in their ongoing development as you are also continuing your own ongoing development.
Being a coach requires you to have the willingness to consistently embrace the challenges and rewards that come with the role. It is really essential to approach this career path with the knowing that you are going to be able to help other people make a difference in their own lives. And along the way you are supporting yourself to create the change you desire most.
So I hope you enjoyed this episode all about the life and business of coaching and the truth about becoming a coach. There is lots more from where this came from So stay tuned and I’ll see you next time.
Thanks so much for joining me today on Your Permission Prescription. For even more, I invite you to head on over to nancylevin.com and sign up for my newsletter, The Practice, and follow me on social media.
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