How to be a successful life coach, part 3

Belle Goldschlager Baranceanu

How to be a successful life coach, part 3

We’ve covered so much already like the desire to coach, mindset, niche, coaching skills, personal development, business sense and more. In this discussion we are going to focus on the remaining elements necessary for success as a life coach: mentorship, continuing education & training, support systems and the time and space for creative pursuits.

When you set up your environment for success, you are putting things in place that help pull you toward your ultimate vision for your life and your coaching practice. That means your work space needs to be intentional. It needs to be designed for crystal clear focus when you are doing administrative tasks. It also needs to be warm and welcoming—a place you want to spend your time. But there’s also the need to have a space designated for your creativity, your imagination, and your dreaming life.

A room of one’s own: In her extended essay of the same name, Virginia Wolf declared that every woman needs a literal and figurative room of her own. And you do. I realize this may not be possible for all of us, but if it’s not possible in your current home or office, at least try to create a room of your own symbolically. Maybe it means clearing out a closet and putting a small writing surface in there to do writing, or it means locking your bedroom door and engaging in creative pursuits for an hour at time. Whatever your means, you can create an environment that is intentionally designed to feed your creative spirit. Perhaps you will need to create it anew each day, but a space of your own is vital to have space for thinking and creating.

Mentorship: Mentor (n. an experienced and trusted advisor, via French and Latin from Greek Mentōr, the name of the adviser of the young Telemachus in Homer's Odyssey). When you have a mentor, you have a different experience of your life and your business. You don’t feel so alone. You feel like you’ve got someone rooting for your success. You have a welcoming and available professional who is invested in your growth and wants to see you prosper. We should all be so lucky as to find a kindred spirit who can be a mentor. There is nothing so valuable in life or business as someone who truly believes in you. Seek out mentors.

Continuing education & training: You need to always be sharpening your skills professionally, and growing in your coaching abilities. This is non-negotiable. Your clients expect it and deserve no less. A lot of coaches will take a broad approach to their training, trying to get credentialed in a gazillion modalities. That will certainly keep things interesting. But when it comes to truly helping our clients peel back the layers of their own roadblocks and barriers, going deep is more effective than going broad. And that requires a certain skill set.

In the Authentic Wholeness Coach Certification program, we take a depth psychological approach to coaching. When you take this approach with clients, they are almost invariably excited about the work and make substantial strides. One of the best ways to keep your practice hopping along and thriving is to have ultra-satisfied clients who’ve really done great work with you and have achieved the results they were striving to attain.

Support systems and a sense of community: Life feels different when you are connected to a support system and a community of others. Often times as solopreneurs, we can indeed fell isolated. Coaching is an insular profession in a lot of ways, and its unilateral meaning it goes in one direction—your attention and care goes toward your clients. That means you need some care and keeping of your own self. You can do some of that with self-care and being a solopreneur requires significant self-care.

But it also requires that you seek out community and support from other practitioners and solopreneurs. It makes a huge difference in your ability to stay the course and get to the level of sustainable success and income you’re looking for. If you’re looking for a sense of community and sisterhood, the Authentic Wholeness Certification program provides a year-long opportunity to develop strong and supportive connection with fellow coaches.

So there you have it. It takes more than you think to be a successful life coach. And almost none of it is about marketing funnels or facebook ads. You’ve got to have everything else lined up first. So here’s your list. Now get started on making it a reality in your life and your coaching practice.

Of a Forgetful Sea by Kelli Russell Agodon

Sometimes, I forget the sun

sinking into ocean.

Desert is only a handful of sand

held by my daughter.

In her palm,

she holds small creatures,

tracks an ant, a flea

moving over each grain.

She brings them to places

she thinks are safe:

an island of driftwood,

the knot of a blackberry bush,

a continent of grass.

Fire ants carried on sticks,

potato bugs scooped

into the crease of a newspaper.

She tries to help them

before the patterns of tides

reach their lives.

She knows about families

who fold together like hands,

a horizon of tanks moving forward.

Here war is only newsprint.

How easy it is not to think about it

as we sleep beneath our quiet sky,

slip ourselves into foam, neglectful

waves appearing endless.