Become a Life Coaching Success Story with these 23 tips, habits, and mindset shifts
Discover the simple formula to life coaching success and 23 life coaching tips for success you can start using these tips right now, no matter where you are on your life coaching career journey!
Jump straight to the 23 tips (most people get stuck at #14, and #22 is one of the biggest beginner-coaching mistakes we see!) or keep reading for the simplest way to understand success as a life coach.
Life Coaching Success Ultimately Comes Down to One Thing…
The consistent success of your clients!
Despite what many people may think, your success as a life coach doesn’t actually depend on where you were certified or whether you have a degree (though the right training and support can make all the difference in the types of results you’re able to help your clients achieve).
In the same way, your success doesn’t depend on how fancy or complicated your website is.
It isn’t determined by how perfectly curated your social media is or how many times a day you post.
The ultimate determining factor when it comes to the level of success you achieve in your life coaching career is your ability to help your clients create consistent, life-changing results.
Here’s the truth: The more you help others experience success, the more success you will experience. And the more success you experience, the more you can help others!
It all comes down to this super simple formula that all successful life coaching businesses are built upon:
Results-driven Coaching + the Right Clients + Commitment to Growth = Unstoppable Life Coaching Success
No matter where you are on your journey right now, if you want to become a life coaching success story, there are only 3 questions you have to be in the practice of asking and answering to ensure that you’re moving in the right direction:
1. As a coach, what is the best way for me to help others achieve the results they desire?
2. Who are my ideal, potential clients and how can I connect with and build know-like-trust with them?
3. What opportunities for personal growth and professional development can help me continue to realize my true potential?
1. Becoming a more effective coach
An effective coach isn’t the one who has the fanciest technology or the most followers. It’s the coach who has the essential coaching skills and proven methodologies to consistently help their clients achieve real results.
This is best achieved when a coach:
- Understands the universal laws impacting the results people experience and how to leverage them
- Has core competencies in evocative coaching techniques, including skilled communication, active listening, questioning, and effective support and accountability
- Understands the basic psychology driving change and human behavior
- Has mastered a repeatable system for helping their clients reliably achieve transformation
As you pursue your career goals and seek out training and education opportunities, focus on programs that do more than teach you a list of coaching techniques.
The kind of results that make life coaching success stories require a system of transformation that provides a framework to use your coaching skill set within… preferably a system that is repeatable and has a proven track record showing that it works!
As a result, you’ll spend less time second guessing what each new client needs and more time changing people’s lives… the first requirement for success as a life coach.
2. Finding and enrolling the right clients
Your coaching skills and how effectively you use them are just one part of the equation to establish yourself as a success story in the coaching industry.
Once you’ve learned and mastered the coaching skills that will ensure your clients get results, you’ll need actual people to experience the benefits and positive change you can help them achieve.
The second part of the formula begins with:
- Identifying your ideal client. Ask yourself who your ideal client is and what results they most desire (do you need deeper support on how to find your target market? Try this exercise and explore our list of the most profitable coaching niches)
- Getting to know your audience’s unique challenges, struggles, desires, and values, so that you can speak directly to them in all of your messaging and marketing.
- Building connection with your audience by consistently showing up in the places they are most likely to spend their time (virtually or in person) and sharing your story, offering real value, speaking their language, and building social proof of the results you help people achieve.
- Enrolling your clients into your services with heart-centered techniques that feel aligned for you and for them because it is a natural extension of your genuine desire to serve them and the people you’re passionate about helping.
Ideally, your training and education as a life coach will also teach you a step-by-step business model that you can follow to find, connect with, and actually enroll clients for your coaching business.
Plenty of coaching certification programs can teach you how to work with clients, but in order for you to be successful, you also need access to proven tools, training, and systems that will help you attract and enroll clients to generate income.
At Brave Thinking Institute, we call this an “economic engine” and are committed to teaching every one of our coaches how to leverage it for practical, profitable business growth.
3. Commit to personal development and learning
Your continued growth and success as a coach requires a commitment to doing your own work… both personally and professionally.
By challenging yourself to continue to learn and grow in all areas of your life, you are setting the energetic stage for your coaching clients to do the same!
You can accomplish this by:
- Investing in education and training programs that can help you be a better coach
- Seeking out mentorship from people you respect and who have achieved the success you desire
- Studying the principles of success and applying them to your own life and business
- Investing in your own health and wellbeing so that you can continue to help others
23 Tips to Help You Embody Success as a Life Coach
1. Share your story
Your unique story and personal message is what will set you apart from other coaches and attract your most aligned clients.
2. Show your face
Like sharing your story, look for opportunities to show your face on social media, in pictures and videos, on your website, and even at live events to build know-like-trust with potential clients.
3. Reframe “sales” into “service”
You aren’t selling coaching sessions. Instead, remember that you’re actually serving your ideal clients by offering value and making them aware of a proven solution that can help them.
4. What’s ripe, rots
Avoid falling into the trap of thinking you know enough, no matter how successful you become… staying on the green, growing edge of your potential empowers your clients to do the same.
5. Don’t get overwhelmed by the staircase
Focus on taking the best, next action step, and understand that you don’t have to have it all figured out. You’ll achieve your dreams and goals faster!
6. Get friendly with failure
Success is achieved by those who understand that failure is an opportunity to gather information, learn, and adjust as they move forward, not a reason to stop working toward their dreams.
7. Obstacles aren’t stop signs
Instead of thinking of obstacles as signs you aren’t on the right track, adopt the mindset that obstacles are qualifiers and overcoming them will propel you toward your dreams.
8. Be human
Perfection isn’t required to be a successful coach, in fact, it hinders it! Allow yourself to be human and connect with potential and existing clients from a place of authenticity first.
9. Do what you can from where you are
Successful coaches take whatever action they can from where they are now… don’t wait for the fears to disappear or the stars to align before taking a step forward!
10. Find a mentor
The greatest thought leaders in the coaching industry have all benefited from mentorship. Connect with leaders who have already achieved the success you desire and learn as much as you can to save time, money, and costly mistakes on your coaching career journey.
11. Schedule time for yourself
You can’t pour from an empty cup. Prioritize your wellbeing and put yourself on your calendar with as much commitment as you would a client’s appointment.
12. Practice non-judgment
The most effective coaches know how to create a safe space for their clients to be exactly where they are, without judgment. This is the best way you can help your own clients get unstuck and moving toward where they want to go.
13. Identify a coaching framework that works
Coaches who achieve sustainable, reliable results are using a repeatable system of transformation with their clients. Find one that works that you can use over and over again with every client!
14. Plan less, do more
Building a successful coaching business requires you to take action, and over-planning can sometimes be the thing that keeps coaches stuck. Put a time limit on your research and planning and commit to taking action as soon as possible (you’ll probably tackle this same problem with your clients too!).
15. Seek feedback
Successful coaches seek out opportunities to get feedback from clients, other professionals, and mentors because they understand that feedback represents a valuable opportunity to grow and achieve more.
16. Make faster decisions
Learn to make faster decisions and break the habit of letting self doubt, fear, or worry change your mind or undermine your intuition.
17. Find your community
Coaches who seek out and connect with a community of peers and like-minded people are more likely to stay motivated and focused on achieving their goals.
18. Adopt a growth mindset
Always remember that you have the ability to learn and grow in order to successfully overcome obstacles and setbacks. Your potential is unlimited and just waiting for you to tap into it!
19. Be curious
Create a habit of being curious about new solutions, approaches, and opportunities you can discover on your coaching career journey, especially when things feel challenging.
20. Don’t be afraid to go a different way
Successful coaches aren’t distracted by trying to copy every other person who appears to have success. They know that their unique story, gifts, and perspective can set them apart from the crowd, and they have tools and approaches that they know work, even if others are doing something else.
21. Use your vision
People who experience success more easily are working toward a clear vision for their future. Create your own vision of success and then use that vision as a way to measure the decisions you make on a daily basis… what moves you closer to your vision, and what keeps you further away?
22. Stop trading time for money
Successful coaching businesses diversify their offerings and expand beyond selling one-on-one sessions (so their income isn’t limited by how many hours they can work in a day!)
And, bonus tip number 23
If you want to become a life-coaching success story, one of the most important things you can do is expand your own belief that it is possible for you to achieve the success that you desire.
Need some inspiration? Take a moment to read this story from Stacy Berger, one of Brave Thinking Institute’s certified life coaches, about her own journey to success.
A Taste of the Possibilities: Stacy’s Life Coaching Success Story
“I woke up one morning about three years ago and realized that I didn’t want to go to work. That was unusual for me, because I was normally one of those people that actually jumped out of bed in the morning… I loved my job!
But in that moment, I realized I was ready for a change. There was something more seeking to emerge within me, and while I wasn’t exactly sure what that was… but I definitely felt that longing.
In 2014, I discovered Mary Morrissey’s DreamBuilder Coaching Certification Program, and it didn’t take me long to realize that this is what I really wanted to do. I wanted to combine my passions for business and spiritual development. So I quickly said “YES!” to becoming certified as a DreamBuilder Coach.
So where am I today versus one year ago? During the past 12 months, I have delivered 27 different public talks and vision workshops, to a combined audience of over 400 people. I exceeded my six-figure earning goal, which was the intention I set a year ago.
As of today, my revenue for the past 12 months has been $107,000. I am so excited that I was able to accomplish this!
But more than all of these things, I get to walk my daughter to the school bus every morning now, I get to volunteer at my son’s playschool, and I get to watch people transform in their lives. It’s just been this incredible journey. I am so grateful for all of the support that I’ve received from the Brave Thinking Institute faculty.”
This is just one way your successful coaching career path can look…
What would success look like for you?
Next Steps for Becoming a Life Coaching Success Story
As I shared at the beginning of this article, life coaching aligns your success with your client’s success.
Your success will grow exponentially when you create a life and a business that attracts committed clients who want to achieve the same goals you’re striving for: a life they absolutely love living.
Are you curious to find out more about what it takes to become a life-coaching success story, and learn how to apply these insights to your new or growing life coaching business?
Download our free Thriving Coach Checklist! You’ll get our proven framework for creating an impactful, abundant life coaching career for yourself, no matter where you’re starting from!
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