Last updated on November 24th, 2023.
Known for their inspirational speeches and positive life mantras, famous names in the life coaching business such as Valorie Burton, Tony Robbins, and Lucinda Bassett have been doing it for years and have gained much success along the way. But what does a life coach do?
What does a life coach do exactly? Life coaches offer a range of services, but they all pertain to helping individuals reach their own specified goals in life. Much like how a sports coach supports a team, a life coach’s job is to help guide a person or group through obstacles to meet a goal.
A life coach is very similar to a therapist. However, their coaching can reach far beyond that of a traditional therapist. Along with the individual or group they are working with, a life coach helps to identify strengths and weaknesses both individually and collectively.
Using these strengths and weaknesses, a life coach will then work with the client or clients to develop a plan to enhance the strengths and minimize the weakness to reach the goal in mind.
What Does A Life Coach Do Exactly?
Think of the responsibilities that a sports coach would handle. Along with their team members, they make a plan to tackle the weaknesses of the team as a whole. Throughout the season, it is the coach’s job to motivate the team in order to reach their goal of working together and winning over their opponents as much as possible.
Apply those same responsibilities and principles to life and thus you have a life coach. A life coach is there to hold your hand and guide you to reaching your full potential. This is not to be confused with the ability to magically make all of your life’s problems disappear, however, as life coaches do not have the ability to do that.
“And there’s kind of this idea that a life coach will help fix your problems. Yes, there’s accountability in terms of helping you achieve your goals and move toward where you want to be in your life – but a really good life coach walks alongside you while you’re living your life.”
Life coaches help to bridge the gap between what a person thinks they lack the ability to do and what they are actually capable of doing, giving them the keys to access their true potential and work towards whatever it is they wish to accomplish.
Coaching, regardless of the type, is all about guiding someone through the obstacle or obstacles that are preventing them from reaching their goals, whether professional, social, personal, etc. These obstacles can range from having a lack of motivation to being resistant to changes in life and more.
Contrary to popular belief, a life coach, though similar in many ways, is much different from a traditional therapist. Therapists are more or less concerned with helping someone use experiences from their past to help them move forward in the present and onward.
A life coach’s duty is to help someone identify what is affecting them in the present. Once the obstacle is identified, the life coach helps that person surpass it to create the desired future. Life coaching is all about putting into action the wants and desires a person or group has in mind to meet a goal or ideal in life.
(Is being a life coach a real job? Find out the answer and everything else you could want to know in that article!)
Is A Life Coach Worth It?
If you think of yourself as a headstrong individual who’s fully capable of reaching your full potential all on your own, the idea of inquiring the help a life coach may seem pointless or a waste of time.
Hiring a life coach may actually be a lot more useful than you think, for one reason, doing so can help you identify things about yourself that you’re unaware of.
For instance, the majority of us are concerned with finding our purpose in life, but not exactly sure of what that purpose is, much less how to go about fulfilling it. While I can’t guarantee that hiring a life coach will help you pinpoint your destined purpose in life, I can promise you that doing so can at least provide the tools to go searching for it.
None of us can really be sure of our purpose in life is, although if you are, then you’re one of the lucky ones! At the end of the day, the worthiness of seeking a life coach depends on the direness behind the issue or obstacle you wish to overcome.
If you think hiring a life coach is the missing piece you need to reach your potential, go for it.
Can A Life Coach Help Me?
Many life coaches are self-employed and therefore charge their own personal fees. The average life coach charges about $200 a month and a highly ranked life coach can charge upwards of $1000 a month. These fees are for sessions lasting between 30 minutes to an hour or are held two to four times each month.
The rates can also be per session as well. Many life coaches also work for large companies or are part of a larger practice that comes up with its own fees. For life coaches working under a practice, the fee per session can range from $100 to about $150.
Furthermore, the more experienced life coaches, whether self-employed or working under a practice, charge higher rates. Be mindful also that these rates can vary depending on the life coach, their level of experience, and your proposed budget.
Some life coaches will have payment plans or income-based rates in place for clients who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford to pay all at once or higher rates. Be mindful though, that a life coach is much different from a therapist, doctor, or similar provider who could otherwise offer rates to be covered by insurance.
The cost of a life coach should not deter you from seeking one however, if you don’t think you can afford one, consider searching around for alternative options first. The great thing about the modern digital age is that many life coaches offer services online for rates cheaper than if you were to receive in-person coaching.
Online life coaching sessions are great for their affordable rates and even better for those that have a hectic schedule that prevents them from meeting in person.
Blush Online Life Coaching offers life coaching services for rates that fit your own personalized budget. You can find more information on their website here.
Additionally, if you’re reluctant about going for the more affordable option of online life coaching, you can read Lifehack’s online life coach guide for advice on how to safely hire a life coach online. You can find the guide here.
How Do Life Coaches Get Clients?
So, if you tend to get complimented on your people skills and ability to easily motivate others, perhaps you should consider becoming a life coach. With a hefty amount of training and hard work, the idea is definitely attainable. You’ve become a certified life coach but then what? You, of course, have to find clients, but how so?
Becoming a life coach is the hard part and getting clients can be even harder, but it’s certainly not impossible if one utilizes the right resources properly. By putting your good people skills to use, you can easily gain your first few clients through common methods such as networking and social media.
Although this can be easy for some, getting clients and keeping them is not an easy task for all. One thing a life coach must do is attract clients whether that’s with experience, a unique philosophy or approach to coaching, marketing, and more.
According to an article published by Forbes, “12 Strategies To Attract Clients To Your Coaching Practice,” one thing motivated life coaches must be concerned with before making lots of money is how they help people and how many people they can help overall.
Additionally, networking with other life coaches is also emphasized as a great source for getting more clients.
As a life coach, it’s also important to identify your ideal clientele. Some life coaches are concerned with helping people who are looking to redeem themselves after experiencing major failures while others specifically help those interested in succeeding in their careers.
Not all life coaches are interested in helping the same crowd of people, so this aspect is important for understanding who it is you’re willing and able to help.
What Do You Talk to A Life Coach About?
Life coaches are specially trained to listen to the needs and concerns of their clients and for that reason, it’s important that you’re fully open to discussing the things that are most preventing you from reaching your goals in life, your career, relationships, or finding meaning in your life.
Being able to move past any obstacle in life requires being vulnerable to yourself and others willing to help you. Before anything, one of the first things a life coach will ask you is your reason for seeking their help.
Think of how the first appointment with a doctor or therapist would be. First, the doctor or therapist would conduct a preliminary consultation to understand your reason for seeking their help and how they can best help you.
The same goes for meeting with a life coach, they will first conduct a consultation to understand what it is you need help with and how they can best help you. Depending on what is it you wish to gain from working with the life coach, they will ask you what your strengths and weaknesses are, any life experiences affecting you, the quality of your relationships, etc.
If you are interested in becoming a life coach, you should check out these NLP certification courses online!
Final Thoughts
Having a life coach can be very beneficial for you to organize your thoughts, process your feelings and become accountable for the goals you are trying to achieve. If you are looking for a life coach, or wanting to become one.
There’s plenty of options for you to either hire a life coach for yourself or apply for a training course to become one. If becoming a life coach is what interest you most, you can look at the things you should know before becoming a life coach in that article!
