a few things to consider before becoming a coach
(Updated SUMMER 2024: original post was published in 2017)
Each week, I receive calls and emails from people who are interested in becoming life coaches. For various reasons, their hearts have called them to the profession, and they want to know more - what it's like, any tips I have, and what my experience has been like.
The tragic truth is that I see many brilliant coaches fail, or become so frustrated with their coaching practice that they abandon it altogether.
Here are three key questions to consider in order to increase your odds of success, happiness, and fulfillment as a coach.
1. WHY DO YOU WANT TO BECOME A COACH?
The answer I hear most commonly is "to help people." While this is great and noble, I lovingly say that this is not enough. You can help people in your current job, you can help people by volunteering, and you can help people through a position with a nonprofit where you still get paid.
What is your deep, compelling Why that cannot be ignored? What is your Why that outweighs walking away from your corporate job, your salary, and your benefits? What is your "why" that makes paying $12,000 for a coach training and certification program worth it?
This crystal clear Why will be essential when you start telling people about what you're up to. It will be essential for creating content that feels 100% like you. And it will be essential on the days when building a coaching practice is damn hard (there will be many of these days) and you feel like throwing in the towel.
Before moving forward with training, certification, or abandoning your corporate job for good, spend some time reflecting on your Why. If it feels squishy, or unclear, spend some more time. Journal. Get quiet and listen. Check out Simon Sinek's TED Talk for inspiration. This Why will be your home base for your business. It is the thing you can continue to come back to. It is essential, it will also help you to design your business in a way that works for you.
2. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT RUNNING A BUSINESS?
In a successful coaching practice, only a fraction of our time is spent actively coaching clients. The rest of the time is spent running a business: handling operations, building meaningful relationships, growing your skills as a coach, answering emails.
New and prospective coaches often tell me, "I just hate the sales part of coaching," or "I don't really like the business part of coaching," or “I love coaching but don’t love the business stuff.”
If this is you, I lovingly urge you: please proceed cautiously down the path of becoming an independent coach.
In order to have a thriving coaching practice, you must run a thriving business. And in order to run a thriving business, you need to either a) love running the business, b) learn to love running the business, or c) build out a phenomenal team of people to support you, who love running the business.
I invite you to spend some additional time thinking about how you feel about becoming an entrepreneur in addition to becoming a coach. The successful coaches I know run a business in addition to running a coaching practice. This doesn’t mean that your business needs to be massive or that you can’t hire people to help you. But whether your coaching business is large or small, and whether you have zero team members or three hundred, there will be aspects of running the business that you will need to pay attention to.
If you decide that the entrepreneurial aspect of coaching doesn't thrill you, there are many ways to be a coach without it. I know several people who have built out roles for themselves inside their organizations as internal coaches. I know others who are part of coaching collectives, where they are connected with fully vetted clients, in exchange for a commission or an hourly rate. They show up and coach. It is a harmonious structure for many of my coach friends who love coaching but dislike some of the other parts of running a coaching-based business.
We are most successful when we are working within our unique brilliance: the place where we are doing what we are best at and what we love. Getting clear on your unique brilliance, and specifically where "entrepreneurship" fits into the mix (if at all), will increase your odds of success and happiness with your coaching-related career.
3. HOW DO YOU WANT YOUR LIFE TO LOOK?
Oftentimes, we start our own businesses because we desire more freedom, in addition to the opportunity to serve others.
Prior to starting a coaching business, take some time to reflect not only on how you want your business to look, but how you want your life to look. How do you want your business to flow with your life? Do you want to run your coaching practice as a lifestyle business, or do you want to build a global company? Do you want to work a couple days per week and spend the rest of the time with your kids?
Getting clear on this vision up front helps us make better decisions down the line. As my business has grown, I've noticed an unintended pattern of accidentally recreating my 'old life' from the corporate world in my 'new life' as a business owner: working from 6 am until 9 pm, back to back travel, and a pace that is unsustainable. These days, I love my work so it rarely feels like work; however, one of my values is freedom. At times, I've compromised this value by saying Yes to too many things.
When I get to this point, I find that it's helpful to take a step back to connect to my vision of how I want my work and my life to look. Doing this exercise up front makes hard decisions easier, and allows us to run our business in an intentional, rather than a reactive, way. Additionally, it allows us to set a clear foundation upon which we can build. For example, I know a number of new coaches who say Yes to taking clients at all hours of the day: 7 am, 9 pm, and weekends, because they are so desperate for clients. Not only does this create challenges up front, but it forces them to attempt to unravel this aspect of their business later on, when they decide it's no longer working. Clear agreements and boundaries up front make things easier for everyone: for us as coaches, and also for our clients.
4. WHAT SKILLS HAVE YOU BUILT?
I say this from a place of love: waking up and having a personal epiphany today does not qualify you to become a life, leadership, or wellness coach tomorrow. Don’t get me wrong; I love epiphanies. I had several of them on my own journey toward becoming a coach. However, epiphanies alone do not make us qualified to be a coach.
It is possible to call ourselves a coach after having a personal epiphany or reading a couple of books about spirituality or personal development. However, we must ask ourselves: are we comfortable working with people on their most precious life-related questions, having done absolutely no training on how to do so effectively? Unfortunately, this has become more common by the day, and it means that there are a lot of “coaches” out there who have not done a single hour of training on the ethics of the profession, on basic coaching skills, or on how to hold space for people during vulnerable, difficult, or painful conversations.
If you’d like to call yourself a coach, I encourage you to invest in the appropriate trainings and certifications that will allow you to uphold the ethics of the profession, and build your skills to do so effectively.
5. WHAT HOMEWORK HAVE YOU DONE?
Before reaching out to every coach you know (or find on the internet) to have coffee, do your homework. See what information you can find online. Read books. Investigate. Be clear with your intentions. And if you are looking for help with something, be explicit about it up front and allow the other person to opt in or out.
Most successful coaches I know are busy. An hour that we spend having virtual coffee is an hour we are not spending with our clients. This is different than working in the corporate world, where we typically still get paid no matter how many random meetings we attend (or not). Saying yes to a coffee meeting with a stranger is inevitably saying no to another priority in our business. Please be respectful of this fact when reaching out.
And, if you’re serious about becoming a great coach, invest the time and money to hire one of these people as your own coach or to join a paid coach mentoring program. If you can’t or won’t do this (hire your own coach and invest your own time and money in this process), I lovingly invite you to consider: how are you going to successfully ask other people to do what you will not do yourself?
6. WHAT TRAINING AND CERTIFICATION PATH ARE YOU CONSIDERING?
Fortunately and unfortunately, the coaching industry has exploded in the last decade.
Fortunately. . . because a coaching-based approach is desperately needed in our organizations, our lives, and our world. The world becomes better when we approach life with curiosity and self management —and when we believe that others are creative, resourceful, and whole. Life becomes more colorful when we look at it through a lens of possibility.
Unfortunately. . . because the industry isn’t regulated, which means that any person who wakes up with a personal epiphany to become a coach can say that they are one. This means that a large percentage of “coaches” out there have no training; no certification; are following no standard of ethics; and are doing something that is not at all coaching. This taints the coaching industry and has led to an increase in jokes and sarcastic comments about “life coaches” —a problem fueled by the many “coaches” with no training or credentials who are pedaling their online programs on social media. (Can you tell that I find this to be a problem!? 😉)
The power of true coaching is hard to put into words. It can be truly life-changing, and as coaches, this is the gift we can offer to others if we are approaching our coaching from a place of skillfulness, intention, and care.
To do so, I recommend investing in an ICF-accredited program and not only getting trained, but certified. This process is expensive, and it takes about a year (at minimum), depending on the sequence in which you approach things, which is why I recommend spending some time reflecting on the above questions first. Here are a couple of resources to support you on your journey.
A list of ICF-Accredited Programs - you can search by delivery preference; language preference; etc. Note: if you’re on the main ICF website, you can find this page via the “Find Education” button on the far right.
CoActive - the coach training and certification program that I did, and the oldest/largest coach training program in the world. One of the “original” coach training programs that continues to be exceptional in its quality and approach.
7. WHAT READING HAVE YOU DONE?
Books are a great place to start, as you can start to get a sense of different styles and approaches at a relatively low price point. Here are a few that I’d recommend.
Expansive Impact: An Invitation to Lead in Everyday Moments - within Expansive Impact, I share a coaching framework that I teach to leaders across the country. My own approach has been deeply inspired by the CoActive model and perspective. Additionally, in the resources and acknowledgement sections of the book, you’ll find detailed notes about the programs and frameworks that have inspired my own over the years.
CoActive Coaching - the “official” CoActive coaching book. This book is required reading for many coaching programs around the country. Many of the newer programs that have sprung up over the last decade have been inspired in some way by CoActive.
The Coaching Habit - I’m a big fan of MBS (the author of this book); however, it simplifies “true” coaching just a wee bit. That said, it’s a great starting point if you would simply like to incorporate more of a coaching-based approach into your everyday leadership and life.
The Prosperous Coach - a great book about building your coaching business from a place of integrity.
BOTTOM LINE
This work is the most rewarding, fulfilling, and joyful work I have ever done. I love it, and it fills me up from a place deep within. And, it's hard. Running a business is not for the faint of heart. A business takes time, energy, sweat, and sometimes tears to build. When I moved to Iowa for two years shortly after starting my business, I knew exactly one person. Building my business in Iowa meant combing through the local newspaper each week to try to identify possible opportunities to serve, and it meant more coffee meetings than I can count. Ultimately these efforts paid off and allowed me to create a greater regional impact through my business. And, the path to get there was not glamorous. Being tethered to my Why, being committed to my business, and reminding myself of my vision for my life were essential.
What about you? What is your Why? How do you feel about running a business? And how do you want your life to look in this new chapter? For more on this topic, check out 5 Key Questions to Ask When Looking for a Coach, if you are considering hiring a coach of your own.
Wishing you much joy and success on your possible journey toward coaching.
Sarah
