Resources required To become a Life Coach

[Elton]

Dear All Life coaches,

My name is Elton Mascarenhas and using the Life Purpose course I have found out my life purpose a few months ago, I reside in Mumbai in India and Life Coaching is not so popular here, here counseling is more popular and people don't like to visit psychiatrist or psychologist (at least the people who I know) (maybe its a limiting belief).

Can any Life coaches out there help me as I don't know which courses I can do to become a Life Coach, Please help me with where I can get a certified degree so that I can start practicing this for REAL. I would also prefer online courses to do from home so that I could transition from my current job to becoming a coach.

I am also worried about not being able to make a living if I do become a coach. As these professions are not so popular here.

@Leo Gura you are one, my role models, for many years please suggest. @MIARIVEL you are also one of the two coaches I know, so I would want your advice too.

any other life coaches please give me suggestions regarding the courses and I would like to hear feedback regarding the earning potential too as I don't want to die of poverty.

 

[MAYA EL]

In this day and age everybody wants to be a leader but nobody wants to put in the work . There are plenty of people telling other people how to live life  I suggest you focus on your self and do your inner work and if you do enough of it you will reach a point where people will just come to you no advertising needed.

[Vipassana]

Wow! Quiet a predicament you are facing. 

You are living in a place where people are very confused about personal development. What you refer to as a life coach, Hindus refer to as a Guru. Modern Personal development is confused with orthodox spiritual schools.

Quiet frankly, You won't be able to thrive as a life coach in India unless you offer something very unique. Everyone in the east enjoys telling other people what to do without doing it themselves.

However, You have to realize that there is A LOT of potential if you begin to do something unique.

My vision for you is to put yourself out on social media & teach personal development to Hindi Speaking audience. A deep study of spiral dynamics & the Indian culture will help tremendously. Also, teach teachings that integrate eastern philosophy with western science. There needs to be a process of you "proving yourself" to the Indian audience before you are able to work 1 on 1 with clients. I don't think a certificate will help you that much in the initial stages of building an audience but once you find your niche & build remarkable skills, there are a lot of stage orange people in India that want to step it up a notch. 

[Nahm]

@Elton

One person feels better, more assured, believes in their self and their dream...and tells another...your calendar fills up with the love, trust, and honesty given. 

Here’s a good example for a reference, as well as a “coach of coaches” if you’re interested in his services... 

https://www.kiloby.com/

The greatest life coach that has ever lived recommend this book to me, and I was surprised to find how easy & effective the right questions, and creating the space for another can be. 

https://www.amazon.com/Coaching-Questions-Coachs-Powerful-Asking/dp/0979416361

The NCA site. http://www.nationalcoachacademy.com/best-life-coaching-books

My site is in the signature below if you want to check it out as another reference. I started this around 2 years ago, and it is going far better than I could have imagined. If you have any questions pm me anytime. 

Also, @Emerald is a life coach, and I’m sure would be happy to help as well. 

[Emerald]

As a life-coach myself, I recommend reading a few books on the topic first to get the general idea.

Now, certification is not required because it's a new profession. But you'll want to be sure to mind the boundaries between life-coaching and psychology. So, it's important to know the distinction.

But the certification and all that is not so important. There are only two things that are really important:

• Can you do the job well? Can you ask questions intuitively to promote self-exploration?
• Can you find clients on a consistent basis?

The latter is the real killer for most coaches.

Now, I make my living as a life-coach, ONLY because I had already created an international platform to find clients. I have a YouTube channel with over 30k subscribers. So, all I have to do is mention that I do life-coaching at the end of my videos to find clients. 

So, you'll want to set yourself up a social media presence through YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter (or ideally all four) so that you can give away a BUNCH of free content. Give it for the sake of putting value out into the world. But also know that it's your bait and your net for getting clients. Use it as an opportunity to show your skills.

Life-coaching is not an easy sell anywhere. Very few make a living in the profession because they don't have a way to acquire clients. 

But if you build it, they will come. 

 

[Meetjoeblack]

Buikd a following. Even one willing to pay 1$. A million followers means millionaire status. 

 

[Leo Gura]

You are not going to learn to be a life coach online. This is something that needs to be learned face-to-face.

Serious coaching programs usually cost $5,000-$10,000. Such a program will teach you most of the basics. But even then, your ability to earn money is not guaranteed. Being a successful coach requires knowing how to run a small business -- because that's what coaching for pay is. So you will also needs to develop business and marketing skills. Then you'll have a chance at success.

Being in India makes things a lot more complicated because the level of development of that country will probably look down upon life coaching. You could find ways to make it work but you'll have to get creative and innovate to find what solutions are needed by the people in your country.

Realistically I'd say your first step should be to find a way to study aboard. Then maybe you can return back and build a business there.

Research online for various coaching programs. I did this one and recommend it:

https://www.ipeccoaching.com

They offer a training in Singapore. But it costs about $10,000. But if you think about it, $10k for a career training is actually very cheap. A university degree would cost you a lot more. At least in the US. Not sure about how it works in India.

[Annoynymous]

@Leo Gura i have got an university degree from Bangladesh, it's a neighbour country of India. My degree cost me around 400 dollar. Lol 

[Adam M]

@Annoynymous haha awesome! Here in Canada you're looking at minimum $10 000 PER YEAR....most degrees are 4 year programs...and that's just for UNDERGRAD

[Matt23]

@Leo Gura and anyone else, how much do you think one's level of Spiral Dynamics effects success in business, and particularly coaching?  I heard Leo, or someone, mention that you can't really help people who are above you on the spiral.  Being someone, I think, who is lower on the spiral myself, lower than most people in my culture (Canada/Orang-Green, I think I'm around Purple/Red/Blue), would you even recommend creating any sort of business (especially life coaching) since most people probably won't find value in it, and wait till one is at or above the Spiral stage of one's culture?

[Annoynymous]

@Adam M yeah but not that much awesome because the education system in Canada is way more better than that is in Bangladesh. So i think the cost in Canada is justified if you compare with Bangladesh.

[Leo Gura]

On 1/14/2020 at 0:50 AM, Annoynymous said:

@Leo Gura i have got an university degree from Bangladesh, it's a neighbour country of India. My degree cost me around 400 dollar. Lol 

Well, you could probably buy a wife in Bangladesh for $400.

On 1/14/2020 at 1:05 PM, Matt23 said:

@Leo Gura and anyone else, how much do you think one's level of Spiral Dynamics effects success in business, and particularly coaching?  I heard Leo, or someone, mention that you can't really help people who are above you on the spiral.  Being someone, I think, who is lower on the spiral myself, lower than most people in my culture (Canada/Orang-Green, I think I'm around Purple/Red/Blue), would you even recommend creating any sort of business (especially life coaching) since most people probably won't find value in it, and wait till one is at or above the Spiral stage of one's culture?

Firstly, I don't know why you're so low. Orange/Green should be fairly attainable for you with a bit of personal dev work, which you'd be doing anyway as part of your coach training. Dare to aim high!

Secondly, there still exists a lot of stage Blue people even in Canada who you could specialize in working with if you wanted to.

Realistically, to be a good coach, you should be fairly decently developed and mature. That's sort of the point of going to a coach. If you're not mature enough yet, that's okay, just plan to be a coach later in your life and in the meantime train and work in some related fields. I wouldn't recommend becoming a coach if you are younger than 25 or even 30. You need some life experience first.

[Matt23]

@Leo Gura Thanks for the advice.  I dunno, I might be misinterpreting/conflating emotional issues with SD levels.  I think I'm also gay, yet have been masturbating to women for most of my life (I'm 27)... suppressing or not even being aware of my feminine/gay sides could have significantly stunted some aspects of my growth for some reasons.  I dunno either though.  Can you still have emotional issues (depression, anxiety, etc.) even if you're at stages Blue, Orange, Green?

[Leo Gura]

2 hours ago, Matt23 said:

@Leo Gura Thanks for the advice.  I dunno, I might be misinterpreting/conflating emotional issues with SD levels.  I think I'm also gay, yet have been masturbating to women for most of my life (I'm 27)

They are not mutually exclusive. You could like both. So explore both then. Or whatever you like.

2 hours ago, Matt23 said:

Can you still have emotional issues (depression, anxiety, etc.) even if you're at stages Blue, Orange, Green?

Of course

[Danial Walker]

If you are serious about becoming a professional life coach because you really enjoy helping people, what you read will encourage you. We have outlined the process very clearly to facilitate the transition to your new coaching business. We also recommend that you take the Life Coach aptitude test to find out what skills you should focus on in your Life Coach training.