Going back to school to become a life coach was never my dream goal. It was only when I hit a roadblock in my career that I decided to try something else. I learned a few things along the way to becoming certified. But, what no one told me was how to make a living doing it.
Now, as a certified life and spiritual coach I’ve overcome hurdles I wasn’t so sure I would get over. As I rebranded myself to center more of my work on coaching and slightly less on doing therapy, it took time for people to notice. No matter what I seemed to do—change the look of my social media, or delete my therapy website, or upload coaching worksheets, I found that people continued coming to me for therapy. Was that so bad? No, not really. Yes, I wanted to grow my coaching services. And yes, I wanted to help people reach their goals quicker. But, I also wanted to have more fun helping people transform their lives in ways they couldn’t have imagined. I learned a lot along the way of shifting from psychotherapy to life coaching. Unfortunately, I don’t see a lot of newcomers to the field being advised on how to make it work without going broke. It’s the untold stories of how life coaches become successful and earn a living while doing the work that they love that I believe people need to hear more about. So, I compiled a short list of raw and real practices for those of you who may be considering pivoting careers:
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- To make enough money to survive, and ultimately thrive as a life coach, you HAVE to diversify your portfolio.
- It can take years before people pay you what you are worth, so create work that pays the bills and a little extra.
- As this industry grows and as people need more help than before, this industry will most likely become more regulated and that will change who gets to legally coach people towards achieving their life goals.
- Since the goal of a life coach is to help people reach their goal in a short period of time, you ABSOLUTELY need to have a wheelhouse of specialties and projects to continuously keep earning income.
- To make enough money to survive, and ultimately thrive as a life coach, you HAVE to diversify your portfolio.
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I hope this isn’t scaring anyone that may want to become a life coach out of doing this work. This work is quite rewarding, can be lots of fun and as your work reaches more people you can raise your rates and make a lot of money from it. However, the reality is those steps I mentioned earlier need to be considered before you look at someone’s social media and think—hey, this is it! I can quit my job and become a life coach. Pause and rethink that. Social media won’t tell you the behind the scenes truth, so here I am spilling the beans.
I was saved by the fact that I already had a growing small business with available and consistent clients in my mental health therapy practice. My plan was to continue expanding my work and building off my talents, training, and expertise so I could live a life that I dreamed and designed. Now, I am a multi-hyphenate with multiple streams of income and multiple components in my portfolio.
What began as a hope, turned into a dream and a pathway to ongoing learning, working, making mistakes, losing money, training, branding, and rebranding myself and having faith. The results—a beautifully fulfilling life and purpose-driven life work.
Are you ready to pursue a different path, even if that means it doesn’t look like what you thought it would in your mind? Let me know!
*This blog is about becoming free. It’s a reflection of introspective thoughts and experiences that have crossed miles of self-discovery. I created this blog to inspire others to live life with less self-criticism, judgment and openness to new experiences. May you find that you learn how to live a life by design and on your own terms!*