How to be a successful life coach, part 1

Family Portrait by Florine Stettheimer

How to be a successful life coach part 1

You don’t have to be an extraordinary life coach. But you do have to be competent.

You have to be so good at what you do that your clients get the results they’re looking for and then some. We have a responsibility to be the best coaches we can be because our clients have placed their trust in us.

I’m going to be talking about all the following in no particular order. These are the elements necessary for success. I think you can be successful without every single one but not secure in your success unless you’ve got each area mastered.

Niche, mindset, coaching competence and skill mastery, business sense, interpersonal and business boundaries, personal development, mentorship, continuing education/training, business development & marketing, and community/support systems, and a proverbial room of one’s own for creative pursuits.

Ah where to start…

The desire to coach: This is where it all starts. Without this desire, the rest won’t work. It’s not enough to want to help people. You have to want to coach them. And there is a difference. Ask yourself, why am I called to this profession? What do I believe I have to offer my clients? Why do I want to coach? What warrants someone putting their trust in me to help them? You need to be able to answer these questions if you want to be successful in coaching.

Entrepreneurial spirit: You also need at least an inkling that you want to be in business for yourself. Women come to this decision for various reasons but strong ones are freedom, flexibility, and income potential. For me, it was exclusively related to freedom. I wanted to be in charge of my time, my schedule, my lifestyle, and my professional work. You need to have the kind of spirit that will work to create something for yourself in business.

Niche: Who are you going to coach? Who are you going to serve? Some people are very specialized. Other’s take a broader approach. You can be successful in either case but you will need to communicate how you specialize in a specific area or problem. You need to know who you serve. And it needs to be clear to your potential clients.

Now it gets a little more complicated.

Client Attraction: Otherwise known as business development and marketing. You need to attract clients to your coaching practice to work with you. You need a system to do this so that it happens predictably over time. This is a big nut to crack and it’s something that we work on in the Authentic Wholeness Coach Training Certification program as well as the 90 Day Coaching Confidence & Marketing Mastery course. Your systems need to be on repeat so you can tweak them as you go but the foundation is there and consistently attracts your ideal clients.

Mindset: Oh this is so vague but so important. In order to be a successful life coach, you need to maintain the mindset that you can and will make it all work, no matter what. It’s part of human nature to lose hope or to doubt that we’ve made the right decision or chosen the right path. Your mindset must be such that its sink or swim. If you think there’s an escape route, your mindset will start to work against you. Fear and doubt will creep in and you will go get a job or just call it a day. This can’t happen. Your mindset must always be the glue that holds your coaching practice together. The mindset is one of growth, possibility, and commitment.

Straight talk from fox by Mary Oliver

Listen says fox it is music to run

over the hills to lick

dew from the leaves to nose along

the edges of the ponds to smell the fat

ducks in their bright feathers but

far out, safe in their rafts of

sleep. It is like

music to visit the orchard, to find

the vole sucking the sweet of the apple, or the

rabbit with his fast-beating heart. Death itself

is a music.

Nobody has ever come close to

writing it down, awake or in a dream. It cannot

be told. It is flesh and bones

changing shape and with good cause, mercy

is a little child beside such an invention. It is

music to wander the black back roads

outside of town no one awake or wondering

if anything miraculous is ever going to

happen, totally dumb to the fact of every

moment's miracle.

Don't think I haven't

peeked into windows. I see you in all your seasons

making love, arguing, talking about God

as if he were an idea instead of the grass,

instead of the stars, the rabbit caught

in one good teeth-whacking hit and brought

home to the den.

What I am, and I know it,

is responsible, joyful, thankful.

I would not give my life

for a thousand of yours.