So You Want to Be a...

Periodically, people contact me to get insight and information about becoming a life coach. They’ll share that they are the ones that all their friends come to for advice. They tell me how they want to help people reach their full potential. They’ll talk about the fact that they know “complainers” and people who are not happy and they want to help them find contentment and satisfaction.

As the conversation continues, the questions they ask begin to revolve around whether they should get certified, how they should market their business to get clients, and how much to charge.

I always tell them that before they do any of that, they should GET a life coach. For many, the thought never occurred to them – and I find it amusing that a person who wants to become a life coach has never thought to get one. But that’s not the kicker! Some of these people who say they want to build a business around coaching others get really quiet when we begin to talk about how much one-on-one coaching can cost.

And that always leads me to ask this question: If you (person who wants to be a coach), don’t see the value in having a coach, how can you expect to convince others of the value of hiring you?

I came across this blog entry the other day, and it sums up my thoughts exactly!
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Watch the money

"How much life insurance do you have?"

Zig Ziglar liked to say that with that one question, you could tell if someone was a successful life insurance agent. If they're not willing to buy it with their own money, how can they honestly persuade someone else to do so?

If you're in the music business but you never buy tickets or downloads, can you really empathize with the people you're selling to?

My favorite: if you work for a non-profit and you don't give money to charity, what exactly are you doing in this job? I've met some incredibly generous people in the charitable world, but I can also report that a huge number of people—even on the fundraising side—would happily cross the street and risk a beating in order to avoid giving $100 to a cause that's not their own. And the shame of it is that this inaction on their part keeps them from experiencing the very emotion that they try so hard to sell.

Money is more than a transfer of value. It's a statement of belief. An ad agency that won't buy ads, a consultant who won't buy consulting, and a waiter who doesn't tip big—it's a sign, and not a good one. Seth's Blog

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Doreen Rainey is a Life Coach and Speaker who helps her clients Get RADICAL! For a FREE 30 day membership to the RADICAL Lifestyle Women's Network or to subscribe to her bi-weekly newsletter, visit her website. Join Doreen in the Washington, DC area for the 2010 Get RADICAL Women's Conference featuring Jillian Michaels, Fitness Trainer from The Biggest Loser and Rhonda Britten, Emmy Winner Life Coach from Starting Over and Celebrity Fit Club.