3 Simple Questions to Discover What Type of Life Coach You Should Be and 21 Different Types You Should Consider

If you’re thinking of becoming a life coach, there’s one important question you need to answer long before you ever see your first client…

What type of life coaching would you love to do?

Life coaches are in high demand, but how do you know what type of life coach you should be for the greatest level of success and fulfillment?

By the time you finish reading this, you’ll know what kind of life coach you should be and have a clearer vision for your successful life coaching business– and all of the abundant income and life-changing impact that comes with it!

Jump to: 

• Three questions to ask yourself to find out what type of life coach you should be
• The full list of 21 most successful types of life coaches
• Types of general life coaches: Help people improve their overall lives
• Types of life purpose coaches: Help people design meaningful lives
• Types of spiritual life coaches: Help people create lives they love using spiritual principles
• Types of business coaches: Help people create professional success
• Types of health & wellness coaches: Help people create physical wellbeing
• Types of skill-based coaches: Help people improve specific areas of their lives
• Get your Coaching Success Blueprint: The perfect way to start for any niche!

How Do You Know What Type of Coach You Should Be?

I want to set you up to get the most out of this list!

After all, you could spend hours reading list after list, and you’d probably come up with enough results to keep you second-guessing yourself for years.

My goal is to help you make an empowered decision in line with your specific goals and your unique makeup.

So, before you read our list of 21 different types of life coaches, ask yourself these questions:

1. What kind of problem would you love to help potential clients solve?
2. What type of client do you feel the most passionate about helping?
3. What skills, personal experiences, and expertise do you already have?

1. What Kind of Problem Would You Love to Help Potential Clients Solve?

If you have a toothache, you go to the dentist.

If your dog is sick, you take them to a vet.

If your kitchen sink is leaking, you call a plumber.

Why? Because you know that those are the people who are most qualified to help you solve the problem you’re having.

Life coaching is no different– life coaches help their clients solve a problem.

As you’re exploring what kind of coach you might want to be, think about the types of problems you would most love to help people solve.

Do you want to help business owners who are struggling to reach their professional goals? Do you want to help people have better relationships? Would you love to help people improve their physical health?

Brainstorm the types of problems you would feel most excited to help your future clients overcome and the personal goals you would enjoy helping them achieve. Be specific!

This will help you choose the best type of life coach to be. It will also help you get clarity on the audience you’ll be serving as you build your life coaching business.

2. What Type of Client Do You Feel the Most Passionate About Helping?

After you’ve identified the specific issues you would love to help people with, take some time to dream up your ideal client.

As you begin your life coaching journey– or even if you’ve already started out as a life coach and are hoping to refine your business to have more success– it’s important to remember that no one can help everyone.

You may have enough passion in your heart to want to help anyone and everyone, but the life coaches that have the most success are clear on the specific people that they can best serve.

Clarity about your ideal client is an important step in creating a thriving life coaching business.

As you imagine the person you would love to work with in your life coaching business, ask yourself:

• Who is your ideal client? Give them a name and a story.
• What feelings, values, and goals do they have in their life right now that would make them a great fit for working with you?
• What problem do they have and what result do they desire? What challenges are they facing in their life right now?
• Where does the person you’d love to work with spend their time? What social media sites do they love, what do they do when they aren’t working or going to school, and what other gurus or celebrities do they follow and look up to? Where do they consume most of their information?

You may not be able to answer all of these questions right now, and that’s okay! 

You’ll continue to build on these specifics as you lay the foundations for your business, but getting an idea of who you would most love to help can help you decide which type of life coach you might want to be.

3. What Skills, Personal Experiences, and Expertise Do You Already Have?

The things that make you unique as a life coach are your story, your own experience, and your skills. These are the things you bring to the table as a coach that no one else does.

Let me be clear– you don’t have to come up with a brand new coaching idea that no one’s ever heard of. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel, as they say!

Instead, think about what you’re already doing in your life and your career.

What kinds of problems do you already help people solve?

What advice or questions are people in your life coming to you for, over and over?

What skills and expertise have you already built in your lifetime?

What challenges have you overcome? What goals have you achieved? What personal growth have you experienced?

Your answers to these questions will shed light on the type of life coach you should be

As you explore all of the wonderful life coaching niches available to you, some will clearly align with the insights you had answering these questions.

And it will be clear that some are a fit for you and your goals.

As you map your next steps and begin to consider training and certification programs, you’ll want to choose a program that:

• Provides you with proven, transformational methods that you can rely on
• Has a track record of successful, master coaches who are living what they teach
• Helps you master the business management and marketing skills necessary to build a life coaching practice with abundant income
• Provides you with ongoing support and a repeatable coaching framework you can apply to any niche you choose to work with

At Brave Thinking Institute, our comprehensive Coaching Certification program is designed to give you the freedom and flexibility to work with any population you choose.

And even if you aren’t sure what kind of life coach you want to be yet or you change your mind down the road, you’ll still be able to use the same, proven approach we teach.

Start now with our Coaching Success Blueprint — a great way to confidently start your coaching business in any niche, at no cost to you!

The 21 Most Successful Types of Life Coaches

1. General Life Coach

The type of life coach that most people think of first are general life coaches. This kind of personal life coach takes a whole-life approach to personal development. They help their clients gain clarity, set goals, and achieve results in whatever area of life they want to improve. 

This niche is the least targeted, but might be right for you if you want to focus on the whole person, rather than a specific area of life.

2. Accountability Coach

An accountability coach isn’t limited to a particular focus. Instead, they employ specific strategies and support to empower people to achieve goals. This type of coach helps their clients get clear about the results they want to achieve and works with them to reach the finish line. 

This might be a good fit for you if you value productivity or you find that you love motivating people to reach for the next level of their potential to become their best selves.

3. Empowerment Coach

Empowerment coaching helps individuals tap into and utilize their personal power to achieve goals and improve their lives. Empowerment coaches focus on building confidence, igniting ambition, improving self belief, and overcoming fear. 

You might choose to be an empowerment coach if you are passionate about helping others believe in themselves and believe that people are at their best when they can show up in the world in powerful, unapologetic ways.

4. Mindfulness Coach

A mindfulness coach is someone who teaches others to be in the present moment. By helping others learn to practice techniques to increase their awareness of themselves and the environment, they help them feel less anxiety, lower stress, and lessen physical and mental tension. 

You might make a great mindfulness coach if you are passionate about using tools like yoga and meditation to promote ease and relaxation.

5. Life Purpose Coach

A life purpose coach helps people find deeper meaning in their own lives. These coaches focus on identifying the purpose an individual is meant to fulfill and help them find the direction to do so. For a life purpose coach, goals are an extension of one’s greater purpose. 

This coaching niche might be a good fit for you if you believe people are meant to live with intention and you would enjoy empowering people through a sense of purpose and direction.

6. Self Discovery Coach

Self discovery coaches help their clients develop deeper awareness and understanding of themselves to empower them to create inspired, aligned action in their lives. They help people identify and overcome fears, release limiting beliefs, discover their personal values, and create lives in full alignment with who they truly are.

Self discovery coaching might be a good choice for you if you enjoy helping people explore what makes them who they are and supporting them on a path to authentic fulfillment.

7. Spiritual Life Coach

Spiritual coaching represents a fast-growing niche in the life coaching industry.  A Spiritual Coach believes that the best way to help people create and sustain change in their lives is through deeper, spiritual principles. Rather than focusing on surface-level behavior changes, spiritual coaching prioritizes helping people embody their full potential through the use of things like the Universal Laws, connection to a Higher Power, and a sense of deeper meaning through spirituality. Spiritual coaching does not have to be affiliated with a specific religion or belief system, though it can be. 

Spiritual Life Coaching may be a good idea for you if you believe in spiritual principles as methods for transformation, have been on a spiritual journey of your own, and would love to help people connect to deeper parts of themselves as they improve their lives.

8. Transformational Life Coach

Transformational life coaches help clients transform their lives by tapping into their innate wisdom using spiritual principles. (Brave Thinking Institute coaches learn how to do this through evocative coaching techniques.) Transformational coaching maintains that lasting change requires deeper work than just setting goals and changing outward behaviors. 

Explore this path if you want to provide your clients with more than answers to their current problems, and instead, desire to help them create sustainable, internal change on a deeper level.

9. Abundance Coach

An abundance coach doesn’t just help people with financial growth. Instead, abundance coaching helps people create abundance in all areas of their lives. By helping clients release limitations of scarcity, an abundance coach works with them to lessen their struggle and open up pathways to manifesting a life they love. 

Abundance coaching might be a good fit for you if you are passionate about manifestation principles and would love to help people receive more than they ever thought possible in every area of their lives.

10. Executive Coach

Executive coaching improves business outcomes by helping company leaders be more effective and maximize their productivity. Unlike other forms of business coaching, executive coaches work specifically with C-suite, VP’s, and upper level company executives, rather than focusing on teams or the company as a whole. They provide strategies and support to amplify personal performance, effective leadership, and better decision making. 

This might be right for you if you have a background in corporate environments and enjoy the challenge of confidently working with already-accomplished individuals to create change.

11. Business Coach

Business coaching, unlike executive coaching, focuses on revising strategy, identifying needs, and providing tools to build success for an organization as a whole, rather than individual team members. They are well-versed in team-building, organizational productivity, and market research. Business coaches can also specialize in certain types of businesses, for example, small business coaches might help small businesses clarify a business plan, improve their online presence, or budget for the coming year.

You might want to be a business life coach if you have a background in growing a successful business or are passionate about motivation, productivity, and good business practices.  

12. Professional Development Coach

Professional development coaches work with individuals in a wide variety of careers to improve their professional lives. Without being limited to a specific company or field, this type of coach works with clients to help them achieve particular professional goals. They might help a professional get more comfortable speaking in front of groups, master the necessary skills for a job promotion, or improve their leadership skills. 

You might want to be a professional development coach if you love helping people attain professional success and have a professional background in any industry.

13. Organizational Coach

Organizational coaches work with individuals and teams in order to achieve goals and bring about change within a company. These types of coaches often work with companies and nonprofits on a short-term basis and are brought on to assist during times of change and reorganization. They work to improve company cultures, promote leadership, and increase productivity. 

This might be a good fit for you if you’re transitioning to life coaching from a corporate career and are passionate about positive company culture and leadership.

14. Career Coach

Career coaches primarily support people in achieving specific career goals, navigating a career change, or finding a career path that’s right for them. Career coaching may also help people master specific skills required for them to reach their professional goals, like building self confidence, identifying their skills and the respective fields they’d be qualified to work in, or resume and interview skills. 

Career coaching might be a good path for you if you’d love helping people with both intangible goals like identifying their passion and purpose, as well as tangible skills like navigating the hiring process and crafting a compelling resume.

15. Health Coach

Like some other life coaching niches, health coaches can be divided into a number of subcategories. Put simply, health coaches help people achieve goals related to their wellbeing and give them the tools and support necessary to create a healthy lifestyle that works for them. Examples of this include a fitness coach who helps clients through exercise programs and physical activity, a nutrition coach who helps people improve their health through food and supplementation, or a weight loss coach who helps people achieve their healthy weight goals. Health coaches may also help people navigate specific health diagnosis through diet, exercise, and lifestyle changes. 

You might make a great health coach if you have a background in healthcare, want to transition from a current career in the healthcare field, or are passionate about holistic approaches to improve physical wellness. (Some forms of health coaching may require licensure as a medical professional. Be sure to follow your state’s requirements for working with health-related concerns.)

16. Mental Health Coaching

Mental health coaching fills the gap between life coaching and services provided by mental health professionals. While mental health coaches are not qualified to diagnose or treat mental illness, they share common goals with other mental health professionals in their desire to help people navigate their non-clinical mental health struggles. For example, a mental health coach may choose to focus on working with clients who are experiencing anxiety, troublesome memories, or a lack of motivation. Clinical disorders like Generalized Anxiety Disorder, PTSD, and Clinical Depression, on the other hand, can only be addressed by licensed professionals.

Mental health coaching could be right for you if you are transitioning from a career in the mental health field, are a licensed counselor or mental health professional who wants more income and time freedom, or have experience overcoming a non-clinical mental health concern yourself.

17. Recovery Coach

Like general life coaches, recovery coaches help people overcome obstacles and tap into their unique strengths. However, recovery coaches work specifically with people who are recovering from addiction to alcohol, drugs, food, work, or any other addictive behavior. They act as a guide, help provide a structured support system, and offer a resource for accountability outside of what might be offered in a traditional 12-step program. 

You might make a great recovery coach if you have your own successful recovery story or are passionate about helping others start over and create new lives for themselves.

18. Financial Coach

Financial coaches aid people in the area of their finances and money. A financial coach might help their clients create and stick to a budget, learn to save money and achieve savings goals, or help them invest for retirement. 

You might want to pursue financial coaching if you are transitioning from a career in finance, have learned how to master your own money story, or are passionate about helping people learn specific financial skills, like investing or budgeting.

19. Relationship Coach

There are many types of relationship coaches, but they all aim to help their clients improve the state of their connections to others, very often their romantic relationships. Under the umbrella of relationship coaching, you could be a divorce coach, helping clients with the end of their marriages, a dating coach, helping clients gain confidence as they find the right person for them, or even help people improve their existing relationships. Relationship coaches can support their clients with a variety of skills – from communication skills to conflict resolution – to benefit a variety of relationships – from spouses to friendships. 

You might be called to be a relationship coach if you’re passionate about understanding human connection or even if you’ve overcome your own relationship challenges.

20. Skills Coach

Skills coaching is intended to help people master a specific skill set in order to achieve a goal. A skills coach might help adolescent or adult clients master various life skills for independence or success. Or, they might work in something much more specific, such as helping students learn to study more effectively or helping a person improve their athletic performance in a specific sport. Regardless of the set of skills this type of coach chooses to specialize in, the focus of skills coaching is the development and mastery of practical knowledge. 

You might choose skills coaching if you are passionate about a particular performance area or enjoy planning, preparing, and executing practical learning experiences. 

21. Creativity Coach

Creativity coaches help people tap into their own creativity and inspire new ideas. Sometimes, these coaches work with artists, writers, and other creative professionals to help them reconnect to their creative passion. Other times, creativity coaches work with non-artists to help them connect with their inherent creativity to solve problems and find inspiration. 

You might make a great creativity coach if you believe all people can benefit from creative processes or you are passionate about the arts and enjoy supporting artistic endeavors.

As you can see, there are so many great ways that you can help people thrive as a life coach!

Remember, choosing the path that’s right for you only requires you to imagine what you would love. Of all these paths available to you, one will speak the most to your unique passions, skills, and calling.

So, what’s next?

How Do I Get Started and Become a Life Coach?

If you feel called to make a greater impact and greater income by becoming a life coach, there are clear next steps you can take no matter what kind of life coach you choose to become.

I believe that the longing you feel to help others is sacred. As you start your business, meet with your first clients, and step into your calling to make a real difference in the world, I want you to be confident and prepared. 

Confident that you are doing the work you’re truly meant to do and making an abundant living at the same time. 

And prepared with the tools, techniques, and support you need to expand into your greatest potential as a successful life coach, no matter what niche you choose.

At Brave Thinking Institute, we’ve been training, certifying, and supporting 6 and 7-figure life coaches for over 40 years. We know a thing or two about attracting clients, building scalable businesses, and making real differences in people’s lives.

I want to help you take the first step in the direction of your dreams today. 

Download our Coaching Success Blueprint – it’s completely free for you and will help you confidently start your coaching business journey no matter what type of life coach you want to become!

You’ll discover: 

• Two key business systems you can implement quickly to grow an abundant income
• Proven coaching techniques to achieve powerful, transformational results for your clients
• Three traits all highly successful coaches have in common
• Three beginner mistakes to avoid to save time, money, and energy
• How to overcome your own blocks and limiting beliefs keeping you stuck
• And what you can do next to build your own 6 or 7-figure coaching business!

This is first hand insight and advice from real life coaches dominating the industry in a variety of niches – you don’t want to miss this value-packed, easy-to-follow resource! 

Download your free Blueprint now.