It is beneficial to exhibit and develop certain traits to be considered a great life coach for your customers to become one of the top 10 life coaches. For those starting and are interested in becoming a life coach, you are still trying to figure out what is and isn’t a practical necessity to become a reputable life coach. However, you are still confused about what is and isn’t necessary.
Eleven traits of an extraordinary life coach range from positivity to having the ability to challenge themselves and their clients. These traits will develop naturally or develop over time. There are many attributes to becoming a life coach and a process of having your own life coaching business.
Read more about what makes a great life coach, how to become a life coach and the eleven traits of a great life coach.
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What Makes a Great Life Coach?
To make a great life coach, various traits are beneficial to develop to gain your clients’ trust and become a reputable life coach. Some of what makes a great life coach can include:
- Passionate
- Ability to network and market yourself.
- Prioritize your clients on an individual level.
- Ability to problem solve and listen to your clients.
- You want to continue learning, growing yourself as a better life coach and improving your business.
These and many other attributes will help you become a great life coach and have an even more excellent and more reputable business. However, people, and maybe even yourself, wonder if age and experience matter to becoming a life coach.
Read more to know whether age and experience have a specific qualification to become a life coach.
Is it Experience or Age that Qualifies a Life Coach?
Technically, neither. You can be of any age and qualify as a life coach. However, some clients will look at a person’s age, usually older, and determine whether they are a good fit for their needs. But, again, if you are young, that is still not a disqualifier to become a life coach as long as you are becoming one for the right reasons and exhibit maturity.
But, you are also wondering if experience qualifies you as a life coach, and, again, the answer to that is, technically, no. It is, however, an added benefit if you do have the knowledge and experience, but it is not a requirement. The job of a life coach is to help clients achieve their set goals, but you do not need to give them all of the answers.
A benefit to becoming a life coach is that both you and your client are always learning, so you will be able to use the knowledge you’ve gained with your clients to improve yourself as a life coach for the next client. Again, as long as you are moral about your reasonings for wanting to become a life coach and displays competency, then anyone is qualified to become one.
Now, with the knowledge that age, nor experience is not much of a necessity, morality is, there are steps that you can take to become a life coach and have your own business.
Read more about how you can become a life coach and start your own business to attract clients.
How Can You Become a Life Coach and Start Your Business?
To gain clients as a life coach, it is excellent to develop a business to go along with it to attract clients. You can take steps to become a life coach and start your own business at any age.
Read more to learn about the different steps to becoming a life coach so that you can start your own business.
Figure out Your Niche
Figure out your niche. What interests you the most, and build your business around that. Life coaches inevitably focus on all aspects of life within one’s relationship, health, or personal life but having a single niche that intrigues you the most should be your starting point. After figuring out your place, you will feel more confident and comfortable marketing yourself because it is what you are the most passionate about.
Complete Training Program and Get Credentialed
Complete a life coach training program and become credentialed. Reputable training programs should last between one to two years. With these programs, you will be learning about the core principles of becoming a life coach, how to communicate with your clients, and how to conduct assessments to determine what your clients do and may not need to reach their goals.
There are three ways to complete your training program: in-person, online, or blended online classes, which means you will be able to conduct your studies online, but it will be with a live class. All have their pros and cons, but whichever you choose is entirely based on your convenience.
After completing the training program, you can apply for certification within your program. It is not required to become certified, but it is an added benefit for your business and makes you accredited in your eyes and the clients.
Register Your Business
Once you’ve completed your training program and become credentialed, it is time to register your business once you’ve come up with a name. When writing a company, you need to determine whether you are an LLC, sole proprietorship, cooperation, etc. If you are unsure of your business entity type, then search through your secretary of state business to help you determine which is the best route for you.
Create a Market Plan
Create a market plan. Creating a market plan will determine how you will attract potential clients to your life coaching business. Many forms of self-promotion can include offering discounts to first-time customers, existing customers, social media self-promotion, or word of mouth. Also, networking with other life coaches by attending conferences and events can be a helpful way to self-promote yourself and display friendliness and reputability towards others.
Develop a Social Media Presence
Develop a social media presence to bring in new clients. If you plan to have a life coaching business solely online, a social media presence and professional website will attract interested customers. When conducting your coaching sessions with your clients, ensure that you have a quality camera, a decent computer, and the ability to take professional photos of yourself and record quality videos.
Decide on Pricing and How You Will Work With Clients
Decide the pricing for your services and how you will be working with your clients. What types of services will you be offering to your clients? Will there be a payment plan offered to your clients or will you take it on a case-by-case basis?
Some life coaches offer packages. 30-minute sessions, however many hour-long sessions, etc., can be provided to clients and however, you want to charge them is entirely up to you. A way to determine to price is to scoop out the competition and see what they are charging per session and package.
Think About Continuing Education to Continue Gaining Knowledge
Think about continuing your education to gain more knowledge for your life coaching business. It is beneficial for life coaches to continue with their expertise by attending a life coaching events and workshops, participating in social media communities that center around life coaching, etc. The more knowledge you gain, the better that you will be able to provide for your clients and further succeed in your business.
As mentioned initially, having a life coaching business is good to have a niche. Life coaches cover different topics that entail their client’s wants and needs.
Read more to learn about the typical topics that life coaches typically cover.
Typical Topics Life Coaches Cover
Life coaches, in general, cover more than one niche that entails their clients’ needs and wants and gain more knowledge. Some of these topics that life coaches will cover include:
- Productivity and Time Management
- Relationships and Sexuality
- Career Change
- Health, Fitness, and Wellness
- Finance
- Accountability and Changing of Mindset
Many other topics can be covered by a life coach, as well. Life coaches do not have to be entirely knowledgeable about the issues they cover but can guide you in accomplishing your goal and learning. The ability to want to challenge themselves and their client is one of many traits that makes a great life coach.
Read more about the eleven traits that make a great life coach.
11 Traits of a Great Life Coach
Many traits make a great and reliable life coach. Read more about the eleven qualities that can make a great life coach.
Positive
A positive attitude among life coaches can help motivate and inspire themselves and their clients. Maintaining a positive attitude toward your clients reinforces that you believe they can achieve their goals and showcases that your business is built on positivity and uplifting.
Great Listener & Observant
Life coaches are great listeners and great observers. Life coaches who listen to their clients can have the clients feel like they can be open with their coaches. Great listeners also ask good questions and, through observing their clients, determine what solutions are best for them.
Non-Judgmental & Empathetic
Non-judgmental and empathetic life coaches are the most approachable, and clients will feel as though they can be more open with their life coaches. Being non-judgmental and compassionate is an essential aspect of being a life coach because their job is to make sure that the client can take steps to achieve their goals with the right tools.
Honest
Honesty is always the best policy and shows that you have continued integrity and will never back down on your morals. Being honest but respectful with your client helps build a rapport with them and shows that you are trustworthy and reputable to others. Also, as a life coach, you can feel good about yourself because you are sticking to your morals.
Passionate
To be a passionate life coach means you have a want and yearning to help others achieve their goals. You want to teach them to believe in themselves and show them that they have support along the way by keeping them accountable and cheering them on from the sidelines. Having a passion for life coaching will come through authentically and help you have more empathy and an understanding of your clients.
Innovative
Innovative and creative life coaches can think outside of the box and figure out different ways to solve a problem their clients may have. Being a creative life coach can be beneficial for clients who want to expand their creativity and those who want a career change or to start a business.
Challenges Their Clients and Themselves
An essential aspect of a life coach is the ability to challenge their clients and themselves along their journey. Challenging their clients helps the client understand the root of the issues that they are having. Along with wanting to challenge their clients, the life coach also challenges themselves. As life coaches, Challenging themselves helps them succumb to better problem-solving skills and the ability to learn as they use that knowledge for the next client.
Willingness to Improve Themselves
Life coaches are willing to learn and improve themselves as people and businesses. They are eager to learn by attending conferences and other events and improving themselves through the feedback of their past and present clients to better themselves as a business.
Questioning Skills
Excellent questioning skills are a bi-product of being a good listener to their client’s wants and needs. Asking good questions can help clients pinpoint a starting point or the origin of why they are feeling, or doing, how they are feeling. Questioning your client also shows that you are a great communicator.
Business-Oriented
Life coaches know how to be professional and implement their business skills. They can use their skills and become creative with different marketing strategies to attract various clients. Life coaches develop other skills for their business, are their finances and other business developments, to find other ways to reach a broad audience.
Organizable with their Time
Many great life coaches are very organized with their schedules for their multiple clients. With many schedules and clients, life coaches are able to make various notes so as not to become confused and mix up their client’s wants and needs. Being an organized life coach makes them look professional.
Final Thoughts
So, now that you’ve read about the eleven traits that make a great life coach, and knowing that age and experience do not necessarily matter, you can determine whether being a life coach is for you. Also, you have learned about how to become a life coaching business and some of the different topics that a life coach can cover.
