A Quick Guide on What You Need to Know to Become a Life Coach
by | Wellness Intellectual
Life is a wild ride that can knock us down, help us back up again, and take us in directions we never even imagined. But despite the chaos of life—both good and bad—one thing has been shown to be certain time and time again: maintaining your health and a quality, overall well-being is a crucial factor in how well you’re able to handle whatever comes your way.
A healthy body, mental state, and attitude can sometimes be the only things that can take a bad scenario and shine a positive light on it—now, who wouldn’t want that? That’s why countless people have chosen to become a coach and help those around them take a more holistic approach to both their physical and mental health.
Coaches have become widely sought after in modern society. They can help us better ourselves both physically and mentally in our day-to-day lives, better prepare ourselves for upcoming difficulties and stresses, and in some cases, can even help to completely readjust one’s worldview to an outlook that is more positive and fulfilling. But, of course, it takes a student that is open to change and dedicated to self-improvement for life coaches to truly change a life. So as you can imagine, to become a life coach is no simple task, and finding work can be even more challenging—but with Wellavi, things have never been easier!
Introducing The Wellavi Platform!
Wellavi is a holistic wellness platform that is like no other. We provide a platform that experienced coaches can use to find an audience on their own terms, business models, and schedules. The personalized experience that users looking to improve their overall well-being are given uses an advanced AI algorithm to match them with the perfect life coach for their unique lifestyle, needs, and schedule—and that life coach could be you! All you need to do is reach out to us today and prove that you’ve got what it takes!
But before you apply to become a coach here with Wellavi, we’d like to use this blog to go over what it takes to become a coach that finds success in their career and answer a handful of fundamental questions both novices and professionals alike should always keep in mind. With that out of the way, let’s dive right into answering a few essential questions.
What Is a Life Coach?
At its core, a life coach is a wellness professional whose focus is directed towards helping their clients achieve a greater level of fulfillment within their lives. This can mean helping with those things we mentioned above, such as overcoming current difficulties and stressors and helping to achieve. It can also involve helping individuals to break bad habits, overcome irritability or lack of fulfillment with social interactions and work, and even unlock a creative block!
This can be done through the implementation of better self-care strategies, thorough and honest discussions, and a variety of other methods that a well-trained life coach will have at their disposal. And as you may have guessed, strategies that also improve physical and mental wellness often go hand-in-hand with a coach’s suggestions.
Am I the Right Fit to Become a Coach?
The honest answer is this: anyone can become a coach, but it may not be the right choice for everyone. There are many different niches of coaches (which we’ll get into later on in this blog), and each niche will require a coach that is compatible with its unique approaches and obligations. However, there are a few traits that coaches from all walks of wellness tend to share in common. Those traits include, but aren’t limited to:
Dedicated
First and foremost, to become a coach, you’ll need to demonstrate dedication to the trade. Coaching isn’t a profession in which you can get hired, check-in, and then check out. It requires a day-in and day-out passion for helping those around you while also maintaining your own inner wellness. A passion for coaching and a hard-working attitude are the bare essentials that a coach needs to flourish.
Empathetic
Next comes empathy. As much as coaching requires extensive experience and knowledge, it’s a job that is founded on compassionate and empathetic social interactions wherein you’re able to digest the information you receive from a student and are able to offer sincere suggestions that will help to improve their lives.
Professional
In addition to empathy, you’ll also need the professionalism to properly direct that empathy into appropriate and effective coaching. If you’re overly empathetic and can’t separate yourself enough from the issues at hand that your client is facing, you may not be able to give the right advice that they need to overcome the difficulties they face.
Flexible
Finally, to tie these traits all together, you’ll need flexibility. No, not physical flexibility—through stretching and other aerobic exercises can be a great life-coaching strategy. To become a coach, you’ll need the emotional and mental flexibility to adjust to the ever-changing nature of the trade. Every client you take on as a coach will be unique and will likely require their own personalized strategies—so flexibility is key!
If this sounds anything like you, then you may just be perfect to become a coach with us here on Wellavi!
Is It Tough to Become a Coach?
To become a coach can be an immensely fulfilling and exciting career choice—and we know that we’re ecstatic about those who’ve partnered with us here on Wellavi. However, it will require hard work and a lot of learning on your part if you plan to do so. So be sure to analyze who you are, what you want, and where you see yourself in the future before fully committing to become a coach. If everything in your life is pointing you to become a coach, then give it your all, and the process will be well worth it!
How to Become a Coach
It’s finally time to get into what the process of becoming a coach looks like. Every coach’s journey will be different, but the following five steps are the barebones, “need-to-do” tasks for anyone aspiring to become a coach.
1. Find the Niche That Suits You Best
There are countless niches that a coach can focus on to cut their own way into a career in wellness coaching. From business and academics to romantic and spiritual life coaching, all it takes is a bit of research, and you’ll find a world of opportunities. However, for this blog, we’re going to discuss the six niches that we focus on here on Wellavi—we like to call them the Six Dimensions of Wellness.
Professional Wellness
Some coaches may have previously had successful careers in other industries and choose to dedicate themselves to helping others achieve success in all their professional endeavors. The goal of a professional coach is to improve their client’s satisfaction with their careers and to help them find a more enriching experience, whether that means finding new work or achieving more in their current workplace.
Social Wellness
Social wellness coaches focus on helping their clients with improving their interpersonal relationships with acquaintances, friends, and family and even improving their ability to connect with strangers. A coach dedicated to social wellness can also help to build stronger support networks and a sense of connection to others.
Mental Health and Wellness
A mental health and wellness coach is exactly how it sounds—it’s a coach that helps with one’s psychological and emotional well-being. Of course, this isn’t a substitute for professional therapy sessions and mental health diagnoses; however, it can be immensely beneficial for clients who’ve found success in their therapy sessions and are seeking to continue and improve upon their mental self-care practices.
Financial Wellness
If you’re aspiring to become a coach and you’ve got a knack for finances, you may want to consider finding your niche in financial wellness. A financial wellness coach can help clients adopt safe and rational financial habits, such as sufficient savings, cutting out impulse purchases, and avoiding excessive debt.
Intellectual Wellness
Intellectual wellness coaches work to help patients find sufficient intellectual stimulation, whether that be through learning, creative endeavors, or some other form of mental workout. Artists, writers, musicians, and other creatives often seek out intellectual wellness coaches to help overcome those dread creative blocks people often have.
Physical Wellness
Finally, a physical wellness life coach will help their clients to develop healthier exercise routines and dietary habits to help keep their bodies healthy and happy. This can involve planning out exercise plans that are optimized to a client’s needs and even the implementation of practices such as meditation and yoga!
Each of these niches, concepts, or dimensions of wellness—whatever you’d like to call them—interplay heavily with one another. So if you’re looking to become a coach, be sure to know how your chosen niche interacts with other forms of wellness—it can make the difference between a good life coach and a great one!
2. Complete a Corresponding Training Program
Once you have a niche in mind, it’s time for the most important part of the path to become a coach—training, training, training. Your future clients will be entrusting you with their well-being, and that’s a big responsibility to take on. As such, you’ll want to ensure you receive the highest education possible! You can expect to finish this training within about 12 months, depending on which courses you opt into.
3. Apply for Your Credentials
Once you have the education you need from an accredited training program, a proper legal certification is next on your to-do list. Practicing credentials can be provided by organizations such as the International Coaching Federation (IFC) or the International Association of Coaching (IAC). This certification simply acts as legal proof that you are qualified to find work as a coach.
4. Set Yourself Up as a Business and Get Insured
Classifying your coaching services as its own business can offer you certain legal protections in case any mistakes are made or disgruntled clients come to unjustly harm your career. This process will vary depending on where you live and can also involve obtaining business insurance—though that last part is often unnecessary.
5. Become a Coach With Wellavi
The best and second most important step on the path to become a life coach is giving our Wellavi wellness app a try as your preferred medium for managing, coaching, and communicating with your clients! Our platform allows coaches specializing in any and all of our Six Dimensions of Wellness to:
- Find clients perfectly matched to your specialties
- The freedom to set and reschedule your hours as you see fit
- Reduce the amount of time you would otherwise spend handling tedious administrative tasks
- Easily manage and book your online sessions
Our coaches are the powerhouse behind the Wellavi wellness app. Without them, there would be no Wellavi! That’s why we are committed to 100% transparency in all the assistance we provide for our life coaches. Whether relief from the weight of administrative tasks is all you’re looking for, or you need more specific help with client discovery and interaction, HIPAA compliance, and more seamless business communication, we’ve got you covered.
Wellavi Is Waiting for You!
So, if your journey to become a coach has been a success, and you want a hassle-free way to find clients and handle all the tedium that comes from running a coaching business, your best bet is waiting for you right here on Wellavi. We are continually looking for the newest and best ways to promote our coaches, boost their visibility, improve their coaching practices, and more—so you can be sure that you’ll be as happy to partner with us as we are with you!
Just get in touch with us today via email if you have any further questions, or fill out our online application to get started. We look forward to helping you improve the lives of others and become a life