The unpredictability of life is what makes it exciting. Because you don’t know what will happen next, you always tend to look forward to what is coming ahead and how you can make the most out of these opportunities. But, not all people know how to prepare for the future; most of them stress about the things that will still happen, making it challenging for them to continue to function.

Working as a life coach can be your ticket to help these kinds of people. Getting a certification from reputable training platforms, such as iNLP Center, and working as a certified life coach qualifies you to assess people’s goals, develop tailored-fit plans and strategies to help clients achieve these goals, and ensure that clients are committed and motivated to their respective goals.

Being a life coach can be a very rewarding career as it allows you to help clients perform at their highest levels and assist them in achieving the best possibilities. However, before you can work as a certified life coach, you need to follow these steps first:

  1. Determine Your Life Coaching Aptitude Score

Your role as a life coach can significantly affect the life of your clients. They will likely follow all of your pieces of advice, which means that your efficacy working as a life coach can affect their ability to seize opportunities and improve the quality of their lives.

Being a life coach is a very rewarding career because you get to help other people, but on the other side of the coin, this job also requires a lot of responsibility. You want to be known as the life coach who improves the lives of their clients and not one who ruins them, right?

Before you look for training and certifications on how you can become a licensed life coach, start by knowing your life coaching aptitude first. This is a great way to know if you’re truly fit to become a life coach and if your abilities are suitable in the working environment of a life coach. Moreover, identifying your life coaching aptitude score will also help you determine whether the career is something that can meet your expectations.

For you to easily determine whether or not being a life coach is a suitable career for you, take a life coaching aptitude quiz available online and offline. Although taking these quizzes isn’t the sole deciding factor of what your eventual profession will be, it can be a great indicator of your suitability for the career.

Since these quizzes are unbiased, these can give you honest feedback on your coaching aptitude so you can have a better idea of how to adjust to becoming a world-class life coach. Just as long as you’re taking the quiz with all honesty, expect that your results will be true and honest, as well.

If you scored very low on your life coaching aptitude quiz, don’t worry too much about it. This can only mean that you have to exert more time and effort in your training and improving your craft. This step is only the first towards your journey to becoming a life coach, so be ready to receive the necessary training.

  1. Identify Your Niche

Life coaching is an utterly vast field, which means that you’ll have a lot of things on your plate once you decide to work as one. More often than not, you’ll have clients who will need help with their business, romantic relationships, career transitions, and academic issues, among others. Aside from the types of problems that your clients have, expect that each of their problems will also involve different details and will come in varying levels of severity.

And, although it can be very tempting to work in all of these areas to serve more clients, it isn’t ideal if you want to thrive as a life coach in the long run. Attempting to offer many services can mean less time and energy for you to find your specialisation and create an authority in the industry. You’ll end up being the jack of all trades and master of none if you attempt to cater to all of the facets of a client’s life.

For you to excel as a life coach and easily create a reputable brand in the industry, it’s best if you identify your preferred niche and spend more time mastering this area. Generally, you can choose from the following specialties when you work as a life coach:

  • Confidence Coaching: Although intangible, the amount of confidence a person has can determine their success in life. Regardless of how talented a person is, if they don’t have the confidence to show off their abilities and even talk to other people, they will continue to stay in their comfort zones and miss out on a lot of opportunities.

    When you focus on confidence coaching, you can help your clients by improving their confidence and self-esteem. With this specialization, you will be responsible for helping your clients battle their insecurities and lessen their risk of anxiety and depression. Through your help as a life coach, your clients will eventually become fearless and reach their fullest potential!

  • Business Coaching: Starting a business is extremely beneficial as it allows individuals to spend more time with their family and earn a higher profit. Being an entrepreneur can also serve as a platform for individuals to acquire personal and professional skills to help them become more well-rounded individuals.

    However, running a business can also become a challenge. This is especially true for individuals who are still new or small in the business arena. Without proper guidance and support, these people will likely end up going bankrupt and losing more money instead of earning.

    If you have a background in business and management and you’d like to help new entrepreneurs maximize their businesses, consider specializing in business coaching when you become a life coach. This career will always be in high demand as more and more individuals are choosing to run their own businesses over working for employers.

  • Career Transition Coaching: A lot of individuals have been stuck in the same career for decades and would want to switch to another soon. Although this task can sound pretty easy, most individuals don’t have any idea on how they can transition from one career to another. They might also struggle with finding another job that is completely different from their current careers or starting with a clean slate.

    When you choose to focus on career transition coaching when you work as a life coach, you’ll be able to help these individuals. You will provide the necessary strategies for your clients to easily ace any type of interview and adjust to a new career. In some cases, your clients might even have to rely on your services to determine what type of career they should choose later on in their lives. 

  • Relationship Coaching: Relationships can affect people in a lot of ways. If you have harmonious relationships with people who always guide and support you in your endeavors, you’ll likely be able to do more in life. In fact, these individuals can be your motivation to achieve more. Having sour relationships, or, in worse cases, being isolated from your own social circle can also have adverse effects on your life.

    As a life coach, you’ll have clients who regularly experience the latter, and it’s up to you to turn things around. If you choose to focus on relationship coaching, you will help your clients find happiness by improving their present relationships with their friends and family, and encourage them to take control of their love life.

  1. Find The Best Life Coach Credentialing And Training For You

As mentioned, how you work as a life coach can affect the quality of your client’s life in more ways than one. These people will use their hard-earned money to avail of your services, and they will base their decisions on the guidance that you provide to them.

For you to become an efficient life coach and ensure that all of your clients’ lives are steered in the right direction, find the best life coach credentialing and training for you. Depending on your current skill set, schedule, and preferences, you can engage in in-person training (the most traditional way of learning life coaching), blended learning (a combination of online and live classes), or purely online sessions (classes that encourage independent study with minimal supervision).

To help you decide which life coaching training to avail, here are the pros and cons of each style:

  • In-person Life Coach Training

Pros:

  • In-person and real-time feedback
  • A set schedule will be followed for you to complete your training
  • Personal interaction between you and your trainer

Cons:

  • One of the most expensive training platforms to become a life coach
  • Inconvenient as you’ll have to travel to personally see your trainer
  • You won’t be able to learn at your own pace

 

  • Blended Learning Life Coach Training

 

Pros:

  • Generally affordable for everyone
  • Flexibility on your training schedule
  • No travel required and you can work at your own pace

Cons:

  • Can be challenging for individuals who are not comfortable with using technology or do not have a reliable Internet connection at home
  • Real-time feedback is not always guaranteed
  • Not every student has the commitment to learn or find clients on their own

 

  • Purely Online Life Coach Training

 

Pros:

  • The most affordable learning platform available for aspiring life coaches
  • Flexible schedule and learning pace
  • No travel required

Cons:

  • Can be challenging for individuals who don’t know how to use technology on their own or who don’t have a stable Internet connection in their location
  • Trainees are solely reliable for the completion of any requirement and the course itself
  • No peer community and feedback is not immediate

All of these life coach training platforms come with their own advantages and disadvantages. For you to choose one, determine the amount of time and effort you’re willing to give for the training. If you still have enough time and money to attend training in a brick and mortar setup after working, then in-person training might be suitable for you. However, if you have a tight budget and hectic schedule, you might have to consider life coach training that’s done purely online.

But, regardless of the training platform you’ll choose, it’s important that you also scrutinize the services that you’ll be getting. Even if you will only take your life coach training at home, remember that you will still exert a lot of effort and even change your schedule in order to make the most out of your training.

Generally, a reputable life coach training platform should provide the following to trainees like you:

  • Regular or scheduled session with a licensed and qualified trainer
  • Provision of adequate training materials and personalized feedback whenever necessary
  • Comprehensive instructions that discuss the backgrounds, theory, practical applications, and core coaching methods on life coaching
  •  Access to up-to-date or ongoing development support and resources appropriate to your life coach training (additional content, virtual classes, articles, and webinars)
  • Affordable and flexible payment options and a thorough cancellation and refund policy
  • Certificates of completion after completing the training
  • The learning platform should also be accredited by internationally accredited coaching organizations, such as the International Coach Federation. The more accreditation a learning platform has, the better. 

Be An Entrepreneur

Aside from being a licensed life coach, you also need to become an effective entrepreneur if you want to succeed in this industry. If you want to jumpstart your career as a life coach, you should know how to reach your clients and how to attract them to work with you because, obviously, more people seeking your services means more revenues.

Along with the necessary certifications and licenses, knowing how to become an entrepreneur will make it very easy for you to dive into the industry and haul in clients. Being a life coach and entrepreneur are two different things, which is why you should exert time and effort in learning to be both.