SYLVIANE NUCCIO

You can turn your passion into a profitable career as a life coach or mentor. Maybe this is something you want to do. The only problem is that you’re not sure where to start. here is some advice that might help you. Even though such an opportunity can seem like a pipe dream to you right now, it’s possible to achieve it.

Perhaps the idea of someone paying you for your advice might seem like a foreign concept to you. Maybe you’ve become so accustomed to providing guidance to your friends and family members for free, that you can’t imagine someone paying you for it.

If so, you need to remember that there are plenty of people (your potential clients) who understand the value of having a knowledgeable mentor. People need coaches in business, relationship, accounting, leadership, and many other areas of life and business.

1. Take an ILM Coaching Course

The Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) has designed a number of courses to help business and lifestyle coaches and mentors become more proficient in the skills necessary to deliver powerful and captivating advice and guidance. Thus, ILM coaching is one of the best educational resources you can utilize to begin building your skillset as a coach, mentor, or consultant in any industry.

By completing these courses, you’ll not only improve your ability to coach, but you can also earn an ILM Level 5 Coaching certificate through a course provider like the BCF Group. The BCF Group offers a variety of course options for coaches and mentors, including ILM 5 courses – click here to view the ILM L5 options available.

2. Create a YouTube Channel

Providing advice on YouTube is a great way to start establishing yourself as an authoritative coach while also practicing your speech delivery skills. Many life coaches use YouTube and other video marketing platforms like Instagram to generate a following.

This is a wise strategy because there’s a good chance that some of your channel subscribers could become clients later on. The comment sections below your videos will also give you an excellent source of accurate feedback, so you can see who people are receiving and reacting to your content in real-time.

3. Provide Advice on Social Media

Every aspiring life coach or mentor should have an active social media page and should serve as the administrator of a few groups as well. Keep in mind that many business professionals visit sites like Facebook and Twitter searching for an escape from their mundane or stressful realities, so there are plenty of life coaching clients to be found in the social sphere.

Plus, prospective clients will notice and appreciate that you’re always available and easy to contact on their favorite social platforms.

4. Specialize in a Niche Topic or Industry

Serving an ultra-targeted client type can help you become established as an authority on a very specific kind of life coaching. For example, providing life coaching to stock market investors or hedge fund managers could be an angle. Essentially, in that example, your pitch would be that you’re familiar with all of the challenges associated with trying to maintain a life-work balance as a busy financial professional, etc.

Creatively using this approach instead of marketing yourself as a general guru can help you appeal to groups of professionals who haven’t even been targeted by other coaches yet.

5. Start Building a Client Base

Now that you’ve taken the steps necessary to obtain advanced training, establish a presence on social media and video sites, and specialize in a niche topic, it’s time to start actively seeking your first clients. Typically, the best way to achieve this is to start by offering discounted hourly rates and exclusive offers.

As you build more experience, you can eventually increase your rates or move from the hourly pay structure to a higher-paying, ongoing plan-based catalog of services.

Surprisingly, There’s a Shortage of Experienced Life Coaches

When you consider how comfortable, prestigious, and fulfilling a job life coaching is relative to the average career difficulty, you’d think that the industry would be saturated with qualified coaches and mentors. While there are plenty of aspiring life coaches and some who have even gained a few months of experience, the number of coaches and mentors who have more than 2 years of experience is tiny in comparison to the number of people who are searching for experienced coaches.

By thoroughly heeding the quick tips given above as soon as possible, you can get that experience clock ticking and set yourself on the path to becoming an elite, high-paid coach or mentor within the next few years.