If you’re thinking about becoming a Life Coach, you may be wondering exactly how Life Coaches help their clients and what the job requires. So we’re here to fill you in!

Life Coaches work with people over a period of time to help them make powerful changes in their lives, whether it’s emotional, physical, or in their career, health, or relationships. Life Coaches provide a combination of cheerleading and tough love for their clients!

So What Does a Life Coach Do Exactly?

In a nutshell, Life Coaches help clients build a vision for their future—and then help them evolve into the kind of person who lives that vision. LIfe Coaches also help clients create and stay accountable to a step-by-step plan into action to realize that vision.

All too often, our day-to-day work and life responsibilities leave us stressed, unhealthy, unfulfilled, and burnt out. Many of us are running ourselves ragged trying to keep up with it all, and as a result, we neglect ourselves and our most basic needs.

We want to change, but many of us aren’t sure how to change and improve our lives. That’s where Life Coaches come in!

Life Coaches partner with clients, helping them achieve their goals, overcome challenges, and make changes in their lives. They help clients identify their own strengths and use that power to create the changes they seek.

Life Coaches help clients focus on three main areas of their life:

  • Physical well-being
  • Emotional well-being
  • Cognitive well-being

Sounds like a tall order, right? But if you’ve ever tried a diet, tried to save money, gone back to school, or made any other big life changes, you know that change can be hard, even when it’s change you want! It’s hard because it’s scary, but also because making changes without support and accountability can be incredibly difficult. Coaches work with clients to set goals and identify the next steps.

They provide the support, encouragement, and accountability people need in order to make the kind of changes that stick. They help clients focus, guiding them with support and direction. They challenge clients, create a plan, hold them accountable, and then celebrate when clients achieve their goals!

All of that sounds great, but you might still be wondering, okay, but how do they do it?

Life Coaches get to know their clients very well, observing behavior, listening closely, and asking thought-provoking questions to help them gain clarity. They serve as a completely unbiased observer, noticing patterns and listening for any limiting beliefs that could be affecting decision-making and growth.

Coaches meet with their clients in different ways, depending on their location and the type of client they’re serving. They can conduct a coaching session one-on-one via telephone, virtually using conference-style programs like Skype or Zoom, or face-to-face in an office setting. Life coaching sessions usually last about a half hour to an hour.

In between coaching sessions, Coaches will often ask clients to work on “homework”. This might include writing activities designed to help clients make observations about their daily life and shift their mindset. Homework may also include visioning exercises, outside reading, or quizzes and worksheets.

All of this work is not designed for a Life Coach to tell clients what to do—it’s the exact opposite, in fact! It’s intended to help clients understand how all the parts of their life are connected and then look for the answers that will help them achieve their goals. Often, clients already know the answer to their deepest questions. Life Coaches simply help them see the answers clearly.

Not sure how coaches differ from therapists? Learn more here: What’s the Difference Between a Life Coach and a Therapist?

How Do You Become a Life Coach?

If Life Coaching sounds like a great career for you, you might be wondering how you get trained as a Life Coach or how you can launch a career. Here are three steps that you’ll need to take in order to launch your Life Coaching business.

Step 1: Choose Your Training

There aren’t any regulations when it comes to becoming a Life Coach, but there are a number of advantages to choosing a credible program that provides Life Coach certification. Certified coaches can better help their clients, because their training is more comprehensive. It gives them the knowledge they need to facilitate powerful change in their clients, and also to build a successful career. Certification also helps establish trust. As with many professionals, clients and colleagues are likely to want to see proof of expertise before entering into a business relationship of any sort.

There are a lot of Life Coach training programs out there and choosing one might feel overwhelming. But doing thorough research will help you ensure you choose a school that fits your needs. As you’re researching, evaluate each Life Coach training program to determine if it fits your needs and interests (how you learn, the level of practice you’ll receive, etc.) and that the curriculum is comprehensive.

Step 2: What’s Your Niche?

The coaching industry is booming, so you’ll want to determine where, and with which clients, your coaching skills will be most effective. Ask yourself what you’re most passionate about and how you can best serve your clients in reaching their personal goals. Do you love health and wellness and want to help others make healthier lifestyle choices? Do you want to help entrepreneurs grow their business? Interested in helping clients find love or make a life transition?

By determining your niche, you’ll ensure you’re doing the work you find most fulfilling. It helps limit the competition in your field. For example, if you focus on business coaching, you’re not competing with other Life Coaches focused on relationship coaching. Additionally, you’ll be able to offer your clients more value because your life coaching service is focused around a very specific expertise.

Step 3: Get the word out!

Once you’re ready to launch your Life Coaching business, you need to know how to get the word out! Determine how you’ll market your coaching services, whether it’s through social media, word of mouth, advertising, etc. You’ll also need a website that highlights your business. Finally, investigate opportunities to network and offer a free consultation to any new potential client so you can begin to gather testimonials and build your portfolio.

For more details about how you can become a Life Coach, click here.

Three Up-and-Coming Life Coach Niches

There are a ton of different niches you can fill as a Life Coach, helping any type of client. But there are three exciting types of Life Coaching growing in popularity:

  • Intuitive Life Coach
  • Spiritual Life Coach
  • Executive and Leadership Life Coach

Intuitive Life Coach

We’ve all heard people say, “Trust your gut.” This type of Life Coach helps clients build on that innate intuition we all have, using it as a catalyst to transform their lives.

Intuitive Life Coaches help clients access the deepest parts of themselves, helping them gain clarity and see what they oftentimes already know. Intuitive Life Coaching also tends to go deeper into the source of problems, analyzing both a client’s behavior and their spirituality.

Spiritual Life Coach

Spiritual Life Coaches help clients transform their lives by changing the way they operate on a deeper, spiritual level. They help clients identify their connection to the divine and the meaning that has for their life. In essence, they help guide clients to discover their life’s purpose.

Spiritual Life Coaches live by spiritual principles, but that doesn’t necessarily mean organized religion or that they’re a religious leader.

Clients don’t need to be religious to work with a Spiritual Life Coach, or benefit from their partnership. They just need to be open to forging a deeper connection with their soul and the divine.

Executive and Leadership Life Coach

Executive and Leadership Life Coaches act as a mentor and guide for those business professionals who serve in an executive leadership role.

The goal of coaching in this arena is to develop the executive as a whole. Executive and Leadership Life Coaches focus on unlocking the business professional’s potential so they can further advance both their own success and the company’s.

Some specific goals this type of coach may help with include learning how to lead effectively, improving confidence, enhancing team cooperation and engagement, working toward a promotion, and more.

In fact, a study published in the Journal of Change Management showed that executive life coaching during organizational change can help with work goals and mental health. Study participants noted increased achievement of work-related goals, improved solution-focused thinking, increased leadership self-efficacy and resilience, and decreased depression. (1)

These are three examples of very specific niches, but there are so many more available for Life Coaches. As a future certified Life Coach, you can use your personal strengths and passions—whatever they might be—to serve your clients and help them make real, lasting changes.

Is a Life Coaching Career For You?

Life Coaching is perfect for helpers who want to use their knowledge and experience in service to others. They empower them to live their very best lives.

This career is perfect for YOU if:

  • you’re passionate about working with others to realize their biggest dreams
  • you want a career that pays well, feels fulfilling, and makes a difference
  • you love all things relating to personal growth and self-improvement
  • you know that you would thrive if you were doing what you love and inspiring others

One of the most amazing things about being a Life Coach is the career freedom it provides. Life Coaches can build almost any type of career they can dream up and the career opportunities are endless.

Some Life Coaches take the entrepreneurial route and start their own business. They work in partnership with other like-minded professionals. Some work with families or in a corporate setting. Additional career avenues for life coaches might include the following:

  • becoming motivational speakers
  • leading seminars
  • authoring books
  • selling products online
  • training other coaches

As a coach, you can put your skills to work and design your ideal life while helping others and seeing the effects of your hard work every day. We can’t think of anything more satisfying than a career that allows you to care for your family and change the world!

Another amazing part of becoming a Life Coach is the opportunity it grants coaches to also see improvement in their OWN lives. Any worthwhile career requires you to learn and grow. Life Coaching will always challenge you to learn new things and to stretch your personal development.

The best coaches are people who recognize that there is always more to learn. They are excited and energized by that fact (rather than feeling overwhelmed). Life Coaches are students of their own craft. They regularly attend conferences, read books, scour the internet for other like-minded individuals who encourage them to think outside the box, and generally aren’t afraid to try something new. In fact, some even work with Life Coaches themselves!

This willingness to always better yourself will allow you to be the best possible coach for your clients. Transformation starts with YOU. The only way to change the world is to stretch yourself. After all, you can only take a client as far as you are willing to go. If you want to ask clients to stretch themselves, you have to also be willing to grow in your own life.

Next Steps to Become a Life Coach

Coaching is a great career that allows you to help others transform their lives, while you transform your own. Health Coach Institute is the #1 rated health and life coaching certification program. Join our Become a Health & Life Coach program and begin coaching in as little as 6 months! Our Become a Health & Life Coach program is CCE-accredited by the International Coaching Federation.

References

  1. Grant, A. M. (2013). The Efficacy of Executive Coaching in Times of Organisational Change. Journal of Change Management, 14(2), 258–280. https://doi.org/10.1080/14697017.2013.805159

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Health Coach Institute provides aspiring Health and Life Coaches with the tools, training, and support to make a great living transforming lives.