As Co-creator of the most popular NLP Practitioner Certification and Coaching Program online, people are always asking me how to be a life coach.
If you’ve been scouring the web asking the same question, congratulations on finding this page because I have the answer to start you successfully.
Life Coaching is a vague name that covers an extensive area of personal coaching. It’s similar to the term athletic coach, which doesn’t say for what sport, e.g., baseball or hockey or what specific area of that sport, e.g., stick handling or pitching.
Life Coaching has grown very popular in the past 15 years, and everyone and their dog (yes, there are dog coaches too) seems to be looking for a coach these days.
Our work and personal lives are becoming more complicated and stressful when we hope life will become easier.
Working for yourself in a booming field such as coaching could be the career-changing ticket for which you’ve been looking.
If you’re wondering how to become a coach, then the next thing to ask yourself is the following three easy questions — the answers to which will get you started to make the right decision successfully.
The three questions are:
1. What Kind Of Life Coach Do You Want To Be?
The first step in how to be a life coach is to determine what kind of coach you want to be.
- What is your passion?
- What do you want to help people do?
- Do you like solving problems in business, or do you want to help others overcome personal issues?
If you are not sure how to answer these questions, then consider this.
What area of your life did you need a life coach to help you?
- If you were struggling in business and finally figured out how to succeed, you might want to be a Business Coach.
- If you struggle with your weight and fitness level and overcome this issue, you might want to be a Fitness Coach.
- If you struggled with relationships, health issues or any area where you would have needed help to overcome these issues, then that is often an excellent area for becoming a life coach.
2. What Is The Best Training For You?
The second step in how to be a life coach is establishing what the best training is for you.
Because the coaching field is broad, there are many different types of coach training programs available. For example:
If you are going to be a fitness coach, you will need to have training and certification to become a fitness coach.
If you want to be a business coach, you will need business knowledge and perhaps prior education in business. And maybe a degree or years of success in business yourself before taking a coaching program.
Unless there is a specific coaching program designed to give you the knowledge of business and the coaching skills combined, you may need more than one program.
To decide what training is best for you to become a life coach, first, you will need to determine what kind of Life Coach you want to be.
The Fast Growing Life Coach Field
Life Coach Training is often about learning great questions to ask your clients. Questions to determine where they are now and what is not working for them and then helping them decide where they want to go in life. Finally, find out what their desires and goals are for the future.
Once these are determined, the coach and the client set a timeline for these things to happen. The client is to follow through with the timeline (or plan) and regularly checks in with the coach to report progress.
This coaching dependency is known as accountability style coaching. Having a coach to hold you accountable, which you pay a weekly fee for each appointment, is a great way to accomplish more in your life than going it alone.
It is also a great deal for the coach because the client pays them over a long period.
NLP Life Coaching
Another type of Life Coaching is NLP Life Coaching.
NLP Life Coaching includes a similar process as standard Life Coaching, but it adds powerful NLP techniques and NLP processes. These powerful techniques and strategies help the coach get to the heart of the problem.
First, the NLP Coach finds the deep-rooted problem, and then they assist the client in creating a well-formed outcome. All this while helping the client overcome the barriers or blocks in their life. So you can move forward much smoother and faster than standard Life Coaching.
If you like solving problems and helping people transform right before your eyes (or ears if you are doing phone coaching), then adding NLP with Life Coaching skills is the training for you.
Beware that not all NLP Trainings are equal. And many trainers don’t add the coaching model to their NLP Practitioner Certification Program.
If you are unsure how to determine the best NLP Training for you, then watch these two free videos. We have developed them to show you How To Avoid Expensive Mistakes When Choosing an NLP Training.
Go to: NLP Training Course and Coaching Certification
3. How Will I Market My Coaching Business?
The third step in how to be a coach is knowing how to market your business.
Because once you become a coach, you will need to get clients and to get clients. You will need to know how to market your business.
I know there are websites giving you the wrong impression. They will tell you that you can take a 2-3 day course and clients will miraculously appear because the training company is so good.
It’s easy to fall for these pitches because most people don’t like the idea of selling. However, marketing yourself is not that difficult when you know a few simple steps, especially using NLP.
In summary – How To Be A Life Coach
1. Determine What Kind Of Coach You Want To Be
2. Establish What The Best Training For You Is
3. Market Your Coaching Business