People often view personal coaches and life coaches as catalysts, the necessary ingredient for life transformations. There are hardly any formal degrees for life coaches, implying that almost anyone can become a coach. And yet, it isn’t an easy profession if you’re not up for it.
But for those who want to help others, can see solutions no matter how daunting the problem, and have the discipline to walk the talk, life coaching might be the ideal online career.
Here are a few things to keep in mind if you want to earn online as a personal coach.
Understand the opportunity and challenges
People live stressful lives; on both personal and professional fronts, their lives are often unsatisfactory. The added pressure of portraying a perfect life on social media too adds to their unhappiness. This is the demographic you’re going to be working with; these are the people you would be coaching.
Understand them, their problems, and how best you can solve them. Keep in mind that your help needs to be sustainable – something that your clients can implement in their daily lives and see incremental benefits. Once you understand the opportunity and its unique challenges, you will be able to help your clients improve their situations and live their best lives. Remember, if your help doesn’t bring about perceivable change, it will be impossible for you to monetize your coaching.
Build your skill sets
As a life coach, empathy is your superpower. You have to be able to put yourself in your clients’ shoes to guide them uniquely as per their unique situations; no two clients will come to you with the same issues. You should also stay up-to-date with what other life coaches are doing – read books, watch TED Talks, listen to podcasts, etc. Learn from others and broaden your horizons so that you can synthesize everything that’s out there into actionable coaching for your clients.
Market your brand
Would you trust a football coach who doesn’t know how to play the game? As a life coach, you should be able to demonstrate that you are winning in life – show your clients that you have goals in life, and you achieve them consistently. Use social media to document your life and implement your own advice in your life to see favourable results. Be consistent with your posts – both in terms of frequency and the message you’re trying to convey. Leverage social media to make yourself a recognizable ‘influencer’ without being preachy.
Build a members-only community
To monetize your online life coaching venture, you need a community of paying clients that depend on you for help and guidance to transform their lives. Create a members-only space and provide value consistently.
Keep an eye out for feedback and questions, and address them promptly; in addition to gaining new clients, always keep a focus on retaining existing ones. These questions and feedback should also drive the new content you create, fulfilling your audience’s needs efficiently. To disseminate your coaching, you could try creating different types of content formats such as:
- Ebooks
- Audiobooks
- Meditation sessions
- Newsletters
- Merchandise
- Online courses
- Podcasts
- Youtube videos
- Instagram and TikTok short videos
- Downloadable habit and progress trackers
- Live Streams
- Time-bound transformation programs (21-day/14-day challenges, for instance)
- Blogs and other written content, etc.
Offer 1:1 sessions
A paid community is great, but personalized 1:1 coaching is the best option to offer optimum value. It helps you connect with your clients, regardless of whether they are members of your paid community, and offer help and guidance that is unique and on-brand for you.
Your advice is your differentiator, so make sure it is as customized and original as possible. Your clients should want to come to you instead of scores of other life coaches; tailor your content keeping this in mind. Carefully listen to what your clients have to say and have empathy; the rest will fall in place organically.
Expand your reach
Once you have a basic setup in place, use content marketing methods to attract new clients. Grow your brand on social media, and use targeted advertising for a better ‘casual audience to paying client’ conversion. Do regular giveaways, live Q&A sessions, etc. to keep your community members engaged.
Evaluate whether your initiatives serve your clients and help them transform their lives – don’t waste your time on anything that doesn’t align with your audiences’ requirements. Your efforts must focus on your clients, their needs, and how effectively you can help them shape a better tomorrow!
