The average salary for a life coach depends on their qualifications, experience, location, and marketing efforts. A certified life coach’s salary isn’t necessarily more than what coaches without credentials earn.
However, there are a few strategies that you can apply to price yourself right and increase your earnings.
The Secret to Charging the Right Life Coach Salary
The salary of a life coach isn’t set in stone. You can always earn new credentials, learn new marketing tactics, and expand to new markets.
Ultimately, the price you charge is determined by the value you can deliver to your clients. To increase your life coach salary, you need to look for better ways to serve them.
Whether that’s learning new coaching techniques or restructuring your packages, your coachee should walk away seeing tangible positive changes in their lives. If you can deliver that, you’ll no longer compete with others on the market; you can reach as far as the buyer potential of your audience.
But there’s another secret to bumping up your earnings: taking confidence in the value you can deliver.
If you truly believe that you are competent and that you can create massive transformations in the lives of others, you’ll feel more self-assured about asking for a higher price. You’ll be more assertive when you’re selling your services because you know you can fulfill your promises.
4 Pricing Strategies for Coaches
Now, with the right mindset in place, let’s look at some practical ways you can price your coaching services.
1. Reverse engineering
One way to determine the price of your packages is to break down how much you want to make in a year and the time you want to spend working on your business.
This will give you an average hourly rate. Keep in mind that this isn’t the same as your hourly coaching session rate; you also spend time preparing for those sessions and managing your business.
This process gives you clarity on how you want to allocate your time and energy to earn the salary you want.
2. Listen to your gut
Now that you have some numbers down, don’t forget to listen to your intuition as well. Evaluate your worth and the energy you bring to each client relationship.
Before you commit to a client, ask yourself, “Does working with them at this rate excite me?”
If you feel you’ll be spreading yourself too thin, think about what price would make you feel comfortable committing to that contract.
And if you still feel icky about it, maybe the person isn’t your client. It’s always better to say no to someone who isn’t the right match and make space for someone who is.
3. Charge for results
The best alternative to having an hourly rate is to charge based on the results you promise your client.
If you can create a permanent change in their lives, they will see your rates as an investment in their future and will be more likely to refer other clients to you.
Focus your marketing strategies on proving the results you can deliver. You can do this by collecting success stories from past clients, sharing anonymous case studies, and talking about your credentials.
The more you build up your brand, the more you earn the trust of your audience, which means gradually increasing your rate every year.
4. Consider industry standards
After you’ve priced yourself according to your business goals, compare your rates with what other coaches charge.
Although it’s not an aspect to solely base your pricing strategy on, you do need a reality check to see how the market is evolving around you.
As a local coach, other professionals in your area may be more relevant. An online life coach’s salary is better compared to the global target markets the business is targeting.
Remember, you can always identify new strategies to stand out in the industry and increase your rates as you grow in your career.
Build a Lucrative and Fulfilling Coaching Career
You can always come back to these four strategies to iterate on your pricing structure every year.
Success mantras can help us through tough times and give us a boost of energy to carry on. They can empower us to have the confidence to work toward our dreams.
However, many seemingly positive mantras are actually sabotaging us.
So before we jump into the list of mantras you can adopt to uplift your spirit daily, let’s clear the air.
Here’s how Mindvalley Coach co-founder Ajit Nawalkha breaks down three popularized mantras for success that may secretly sabotage your growth and progress.
3 Daily Mantras for Success That May Be Secretly Sabotaging You
Though they seem to have a positive premise, these affirmations can limit your potential. Here’s why you should use them with caution.
1. Don’t quit
On the surface, this appears to be one of the most powerful mantras for success. To stay in the game and see things through is often associated with great qualities like perseverance and hard work.
But here’s something not many people talk about; not knowing when to quit leads to one of the biggest problems of the 21st century. And more often than not, it leads to burnout.
When you’re determined to stick to something no matter what, you’re blind to the signs that show you when you need to slow down. You could be sacrificing your health or time with your kids just so you can make a million dollars in 12 months instead of 24.
A much smarter and more effective approach is to create multiple milestones when you chart your plan for success.
Do this, and you’ll be able to reflect on how far you’ve come and whether you’re on the right track every time you hit a milestone.
You’ll also be able to change direction and choose a different goal that truly makes you fulfilled.
2. Never blow your own horn
Think back to when you were growing up. Did your well-meaning parents tell you to never talk about your own achievements? Did they tell you your work would speak for itself?
Maybe it was your aunt or a godparent who told you that “good girls” or “good boys” never bragged about themselves.
The truth is, the world we live in now is very different from the world inhabited by previous generations.
Inventions and innovations we take for granted today could only have been found on the pages of science fiction magazines a few decades ago.
While there is more opportunity now to achieve success and happiness than at any other time in history, these same opportunities have also created a highly competitive marketplace.
In the 20th century, it was the norm to go to work for the same company from the time you joined the workforce to the day you retired.
Now, jobs come and go in a flash. Entire technologies become redundant overnight (remember the typewriter?)
The only way to stand out in this noisy, ever-changing world is to talk about yourself. You need to speak up about your achievements, wins, and abilities; otherwise, you run the risk of getting lost in the crowd.
It’s not about bragging. It’s about legitimately sharing what you can do and how you can serve others in your own, unique way.
3. Always do your best
There’s nothing wrong with trying your best. However, things can go wrong when motivational mantras like this turn into perfectionism. It’s a habit that’s hard to overcome because it appears to be a success mindset.
Why not try your best and get everything perfect before you hit publish, stand up in front of a crowd, or sell your art?
The problem is, perfection doesn’t exist in the real world.
You may end up spending years—maybe even decades—looking for it, but it will never come. You’ll remain an undiscovered genius with hidden talents.
The world will never know countless works of art and life-changing inventions because the people behind them are waiting for the day they finally achieve that elusive thing called “perfection.”
Sometimes, it’s better to listen to positive affirmations like “Done is better than perfect”—so long as you find the right balance between being meticulous and getting things done.
18 Daily Mantras for Success
Following certain mantras for success and wealth without truly understanding them can lead to falling into the wrong mindset.
Instead, try adopting these affirmations that will move you toward the life you want.
Fear is temporary, but my potential to grow is unlimited.
Gratitude fuels my drive and joy in the journey.
I release negativity and embrace positive possibilities.
My thoughts shape my reality. I choose empowering thoughts.
Mantras for taking action
I take daily action, no matter how small, towards my goals.
I prioritize tasks and focus on what truly matters.
I break down large goals into manageable steps.
I seek support and collaboration when needed.
I celebrate my achievements, big and small.
I listen to my intuition and make decisions with confidence.
Mantras for challenging times
I embrace discomfort and step outside my comfort zone.
Today is a new day, filled with new possibilities.
I breathe deeply and find calm amid challenges.
I trust the process and surrender to the flow of life.
Remember, success is subjective, and finding the best mantras for success is individual. Choose the ones that resonate with your unique goals and values.
Turn Your Mantras Into a Game Plan
If your life isn’t where you want it to be, take a close look at the beliefs and ideas that are driving your everyday decisions and behavior.
Reflect on whether the mantras you use make you feel empowered or trapped, and remember to be selective.
Affirmations are great for overcoming doubts, but there’s something even more effective: a clear roadmap.
Learn an actionable and future-proof game plan for building a fulfilling and transformative coaching career in the free Become a Mindvalley Certified Life Coachmasterclass.
If you’re reading this, you’re probably quite ambitious.
If you’re a business owner, there’s a good chance that you’re always on the lookout to expand and improve not just the bottom line but also other aspects of your company, such as customer service, product development, or marketing.
If you’re an employee, you’re ready to take the courses and read the books that will take you from where you are to where you want to go. You’ll do what it takes to rise to a position that you have your eye on.
But is ambition enough?
It will work only when you’re fired up, enthusiastic, and ready to take on the world.
What about the days when you’re feeling low? What about the days when you can barely inspire yourself to get out of bed in the morning, let alone confront the tasks on your to-do list and the appointments on your calendar?
Those are the days when you need something extra to motivate you and keep going, no matter the challenges you face.
Find out how to get anything you want using these five power tools.
1. Staying Positive
This is not about toxic positivity, insisting on looking at the “bright side,” and refusing to take action even when everything is falling apart.
Being optimistic is about taking note of what went wrong, learning from it, and moving on. No dwelling or beating yourself up over the past, but looking ahead and knowing when you need to go into problem-solving mode.
A positive outlook will speed up your journey to success because you’re not wasting time worrying about what’s already happened. You’re too busy fixing mistakes and taking the next step.
2. Recognizing Self-Motivators
Successful people always pick themselves up, brush themselves off, and go, “What else you got?” These are the people who refuse to stay down, no matter how many curveballs life throws at them.
So if you’re wondering how to get anything you want in life, find these self-motivators and spend more time with them.
You’ll learn how they handle failure and frustration, the two most dangerous pitfalls on the road to success. This will help you understand what it takes to get there yourself.
3. Being Comfortable with Discomfort
You have to be. Otherwise, you’re going to get stuck inside your comfort zone, and that’s pretty much a death sentence for success. Many extremely talented people end up unfulfilled and disillusioned because they are too afraid to venture out of what they already know.
The comfort zone traps even the smartest people. It’s easy to get caught up in it, especially when you’ve already managed to achieve a certain degree of success.
You tell yourself that you’re happy with what you’ve got. You don’t need to try new things, learn more, or expand your horizons. This is the kind of thinking that will make you slip into a routine that leads to failure.
Because the truth is, there is no comfort zone. You’re either moving forward or falling backward. You can’t stay where you are forever and hope to sustain your success.
Learn to embrace the discomfort of reaching for more, building healthy habits, and improving yourself. When you do this, you will never get left behind.
4. Keeping Your Eyes on the Prize
Successful, motivated people have a laser-sharp focus on achieving goals. They find ways to keep themselves on target as they continue to do the daily, mundane tasks that will get them to where they want to go.
You can’t run a marathon if you haven’t taken the time to do the dull, everyday work of training. It’s this training period that the unsuccessful have trouble with. They can’t motivate themselves to wake up every morning, rain or shine, get out there, and do what it takes to strengthen their bodies and sharpen their minds.
Instead of focusing on the end goal, they get distracted by the dreary, day-to-day work of having to train again and again.
So, for instance, if your goal is to create a seven-figure business, what’s your big prize? Do you want to change the lives of the ones you love? Do you want to help save the environment or protect wildlife? Do you want to help educate children around the world?
Find a prize that will drive you through all that boring daily work that needs to get done, and never take your eyes off it.
5. Quitting Judgment and Blame
One of the best ways to stay motivated and stick to a routine is to make sure that you take ownership and responsibility for all that you do and everything that happens.
For instance, if you’re looking to get a promotion at work but someone else beats you to it, you don’t waste your time and energy talking about how unfair you think it is. You need to be too busy looking at alternate ways to achieve what you want. Maybe that’s moving to a new department in your company or switching jobs altogether.
Blaming and judging should not be part of your vocabulary because they will waste the energy and time you could use to start taking action to achieve your goals.
The world isn’t fair, and it will never be. That’s the bad news.
But there is also good news; you’ll be amazed at how much can go your way when you start to take matters into your own hands to design your future.
Build the Business and Life You’ve Always Wanted
These tools will help you get yourself up when you feel knocked down. They will help you reinvigorate your focus when you’re dealing with challenges.
Most importantly, these tools will help you strengthen your motivation as you journey toward your life and business goals. They will teach you how to shape your destiny rather than leaving it up to other people or circumstances.
Are you ready to build the coaching business of your dreams? Join the free Become a Mindvalley Certified Life Coachmasterclass, where you’ll learn how to build a life of financial, time, and location freedom.
As a coach and lifelong learner himself, Mindvalley co-founder Ajit Nawalkha often talks about the importance of reading. It expands your worldview and helps you gain new skills.
Now, he shares his eight best pieces of advice on how to become the author of a book so you can share your coaching wisdom with the world.
Step 1: Identify Your Intent for Writing a Book
Like with all new projects, the first step is getting clear on your intentions. This will help you clarify your unique purpose with your book and focus your energy in the right places.
Having a clear intent will also guide your actions throughout the writing process and help you through writer’s block.
Do you want your new book to inspire, educate, or entertain? Think about how you can align your writing with your values and vision to ensure your book is not just informational but meaningful and resonates with your audience.
Step 2: Choose a Publishing Model
Honestly, how hard is it to become an author today when you can self-publish a book on Amazon?
But before you rush into it, consider whether you want to pitch your book to a publishing house instead, because both routes have their benefits.
The self-publishing model is great if you consider the book as a creative vehicle to support your marketing and branding efforts. You’ll have total creative freedom, and you can take your manuscript in any direction you like. Plus, you’ll get to create a passive income source and keep most of your earnings.
On the other hand, if your objective for writing a book is to get an advance or reach a wider audience, you may want to go with a publisher. This will take quite an extensive editing process in collaboration with your publisher; however, it will make monetizing your book way easier.
Step 3: Identify What You Will Write About
This is probably the most important piece of the puzzle: defining a specific angle for your book.
Come up with topics that you are an expert in and often talk about as a coach. Consider what your unique niche most struggles with and how you can offer tangible advice and a new perspective on it. Your coaching packages and recurrent themes in your sessions may offer a great starting point for this.
Now, you have a clear angle for your book, but it can still take many different directions. This is why it’s important that you write out a detailed outline of what each chapter will contain.
This is essentially part of your pitch if you want to sell your book idea to a publisher. What’s more, it is key to making the writing flow more easily.
Sitting in front of a blank page is a recipe for writer’s block. However, knowing what you’ll need to articulate in each section will make your work much easier.
Your book should meet your readers (and potential future clients) where they currently are in their journey and then take them, step by step, to where they aspire to be.
Step 5: Write out Potential Topics for Each Chapter
Now, go even deeper. Come up with the chapter titles and start brainstorming potential topics you will be covering in each of them.
Think of this as creating an idea stack—a library of several subtopics that you want to discuss in your chapters. Once you start writing, you will get down to each of them in more detail.
This, again, gives you a framework to write your book with more ease.
Step 6: Define Your Writing Method
If you’re a frequent writer who puts thoughts into words daily, you may simply take one chapter at a time and follow a writing routine. However, if you’re new to this, you may want to experiment with different approaches to suit your working style.
You may prefer free-flowing ideation in a journal, structured outlines on a digital platform, or collaborative writing sessions with peers. Find what suits your rhythm and explore different techniques so you can take your book from inspiration to publication.
Step 7: Pick a Publish Date
You may be wondering, “How long does it take to become an author?”
The answer may vary based on the depth of research you’ll do, but writing a book is a long-term project. If you don’t want it to drag on and you want to keep up your momentum, defining a definitive deadline can be a great motivator.
This will help you backtrack and set up milestones for your chapters and sections. Having a clear schedule will make your writing more structured. It will also help you realize that when you’re stuck with a chapter for too long, you can reiterate its angle or ask for help.
Step 8: Write, Write, Write
If you’ve followed the above steps, there’s nothing else to do but get down to writing. Brush up on some writing tools for coaches and establish a consistent writing schedule.
The more you do it, the easier it gets.
If you get lost during writing, go back to your outline and see how you can add even more details to it to guide your creative process.
Start Your Journey as an Author
Writing a book is one of the best things you can do to create a long-lasting impact as a coach. Your book will stay out there for a long time, spreading your ideas and contributing to people’s lives.
If you want to learn more about how you can create time freedom as a coach and have more time for writing, join our free Become a Mindvalley Certified Life Coachmasterclass.
In it, best-selling authors Vishen Lakhiani and Ajit Nawalkha will lead you through their process of creating a lucrative and purposeful coaching business.
There’s no one-size-fits-all recipe for helping your clients transform their lives.
As a coach, your job is to help your clients identify their unique strengths and educate them on how they can leverage these traits to achieve their goals.
By adopting a strengths-based coaching approach instead of focusing on what they are lacking, you can accelerate their growth.
Let’s explore this game-changing approach to coaching, built on what your client is best at.
What Is Strengths-Based Coaching?
As the name suggests, this coaching approach is about bringing awareness to a client’s strengths instead of focusing on their weaknesses.
As human beings, we tend to focus on what is wrong, what is not enough, and what we are not good at. We think the best way to unlock our potential is to improve our weaknesses.
But this doesn’t always work.
It makes us concentrate our efforts on becoming better at something we’re naturally not good at, while we could leverage our best skills and traits more effortlessly.
As a coach, you help empower your clients and give them confidence. A great way to do this is by making them aware of what they are good at and what they are doing right.
When they are out in the real world, trying to follow the plan they committed to during the coaching sessions, they will find challenges along the way. If things go wrong, you will want them to fall back on their strengths to resolve their issues instead of being set back by their weaknesses and losing control of the situation.
Remind your client of their strengths so they can leverage them to overcome any challenge they might encounter.
An Example of Strengths-Based Coaching
How would a strengths-based coaching model unfold in real life? Let’s take a closer look:
Let’s say you have a client who is trying to lose 20 pounds and become a fitter, healthier, and more confident version of themselves. As part of their action plan, they must change their nutrition and eat a more balanced diet while exercising every other day.
Now, in your last coaching session, your client revealed to you that they have a weakness for eating out with friends and family, and the places they pick usually don’t have the healthiest options.
As their coach, you’ve also identified that your client is great at adapting and has a very supportive community that is rooting for them to achieve their health goals.
With strengths-based coaching techniques and some positive reinforcement, you can bring awareness to their strengths so they can use them to their advantage.
The next time a friend or family member invites them to eat out, they can pick the place themselves to ensure it has healthy options. They can also ask the waiters to make some changes in the way their food is prepared.
This can ultimately help them approach life from a position of strength rather than weakness and set them up for success.
Benefits of Strengths-Based Coaching
Some of the immediate and long-term benefits you can gain from strength-based coaching are that it:
Amplifies self-awareness and personal growth.
Fosters a positive mindset and motivation.
Capitalizes on individual strengths for enhanced performance.
Cultivates resilience and adaptability in challenging situations.
Promotes collaboration and team cohesion.
Facilitates goal achievement by leveraging innate talents.
Learn more about strengths-based coaching in this 3-minute video:
Start Coaching Your Clients to Play to Their Strengths
The first step to applying strength-based coaching is to know what positive traits your client possesses. You can find this out from strengths assessments or personality tests that offer an insight into the strength profile of your client.
If you want to go deeper, you can also take strength-based coaching training to immerse yourself in this approach.
This way, you can create a personalized plan for your clients that leverages what they’re good at to improve every area of their lives.
And if you want to accelerate your coaching results even further, learn the proven framework to create massive breakthroughs for your clients in the Become a Mindvalley Certified Life Coachmasterclass. It’s free!
It’s not a magic spell or a single flash of insight that puts your client on a transformative journey; it’s consistently having impactful coaching conversations.
They go beyond an ordinary chat about one’s goals. They ignite change, inspire action, and fundamentally influence your client’s life.
What makes them so powerful, though? And what do you need to facilitate them?
Ajit Nawalkha, the co-founder of Mindvalley Coach, shares the secret to powerful coaching dialogues and the techniques you need to learn to bring about transformation in your clients.
Establishing Rapport: Building Trust and Connection
The key to successful coaching relationships is building rapport. The thing is, it’s far more than a transactional interaction; it’s a connection built on trust, sincerity, and authenticity.
“This bond allows you to be able to expand this relationship and to be able to go as deep in this relationship,” Ajit explains. “It allows for your coachee to feel comfortable and really be open with you.”
When coachees feel at ease, seen, and deeply understood, they are more likely to engage actively, participate willingly, and commit to actions set during the coaching process.
So, as a coach, how can you cultivate this connection and trust?
By showing empathy. It means agreeing with your coachee when it makes sense to do so. It also means acknowledging their emotions and experiences.
Creating a safe, non-judgmental environment. Using phrases like “That sounds tough” or “I can see why that would make you feel upset” can help them feel heard and understood.
Be authentic. It is the bedrock that supports all these elements.
Be present, be genuine, and strive to understand before being understood.
Active Listening: Hearing Beyond Words
Active listening involves balancing focus, understanding, and interpretation, enabling you to get to the heart of the narrative. It’s an approach that considers verbal cues, non-verbal signals, and unspoken sentiments.
As a coach, it’s about identifying the underlying emotions, motivations, and beliefs that drive your client’s perspective.
So, how can you practice active listening?
Maintain focus. Resist distractions, and avoid planning your responses while your coachee is speaking. Be fully present and show engagement.
Validate their perspective. Paraphrase or summarize what they’ve said to ensure you’ve understood it correctly. Once again, it’s not about agreement but acknowledgment. For instance, saying, “What I’m hearing is that you’re feeling overwhelmed because…“
Be aware of non-verbal cues. Look for shifts in body language, facial expressions, or tone. These cues can reveal more about your client’s feelings and thoughts than their words. If you sense something unsaid or contradictory, gently explore it.
Encourage your coachee to fully express their thoughts. Use prompts like “Can you tell me more about that?” or “How did that make you feel?” to invite deeper exploration.
The Art of Inquiry: Asking Powerful Questions
Powerful coaching questions are like the compass of the coaching conversation. Every great coach should know how to use this tool to guide their coachee’s self-discovery journey and elicit insights.
Asking the right question guides your client’s thought process, challenges their assumptions, and helps them uncover new perspectives.
Remember, the goal isn’t to provide answers but to help coachees find their own.
Understanding the types of questions and their appropriate timing can transform your coaching conversations. Let’s take a closer look at the four main ones:
1. Open-ended questions
These are the exploratory tools of your coaching conversations, designed to provoke thought and encourage sharing.
They usually begin with what, how, who, where, when, and, most importantly, why.
For instance, instead of asking, “Are you happy with your performance?” (a closed question that invites yes or no), you could ask, “How do you feel about your performance?“
This open-ended question encourages clients to explore and articulate their feelings more deeply.
2. Reflective questions
These are designed to encourage coachees to consider their experiences and behaviors from a different perspective.
For instance, you could use a reflective question like, “What might happen if you celebrated your successes more openly?“
This prompts clients to reflect on their habitual behavior and consider alternative actions.
3. Hypothetical questions
These encourage clients to step out of their current context and imagine different scenarios.
They are particularly useful for exploring values, decision-making criteria, or possible reactions to future events.
For instance, you could ask, “Imagine you have unlimited resources and no fear of failure. What career would you choose?“
This hypothetical question can reveal much about your client’s hidden dreams and aspirations.
4. Nail the timing
The timing of your questions is just as crucial as the type.
Ask too early, and you might not have enough context; ask too late, and the moment has passed.
A well-timed question can illuminate the conversation, whereas an ill-timed one can hinder progress.
Use your active listening skills to discern the appropriate timing.
Remember, powerful questions are not about getting it right. They are tools for exploration, and their power lies in the thought process they stimulate rather than the immediate responses they evoke.
Constructive Feedback: Where Honesty Meets Empathy
Feedback is a vital component in the coaching process. It mirrors the coachee’s actions and attitudes, giving them the clarity they need to identify their strengths, acknowledge areas of development, and make informed decisions about their next steps.
When delivered well, feedback can be a catalyst for positive change and accelerated progress.
But the question is: how do you deliver feedback that empowers and motivates instead of deflating or offending the client?
Balancing positive reinforcement with constructive criticism. Start with a positive, follow with an area for improvement, and finish on a positive note. This approach can also be useful in managing potentially difficult feedback conversations.
You’re not diluting the critique, but framing it in a way that the coachee can accept and work with constructively. It also demonstrates your understanding and respect for their feelings, which can strengthen the trust and rapport in your coaching relationship.
Make your feedback more “ask” than “tell.” Invite your coachee to self-assess before you share your observations. This can increase their receptivity to your feedback and empower them to take ownership of their development.
Remember, feedback is most effective when it is specific, timely, and actionable. Avoid generic comments and ensure your feedback refers to behavior that the coachee can change.
Visionary Goal Setting: Crafting Objectives
The goals set during coaching sessions function as guiding stars, lighting the way forward, giving direction, and providing motivation. After all, what is a journey without a destination?
Goal setting in coaching is much more than deciding what needs to be achieved. The art of it lies in crafting objectives that are not only clear and achievable but also align seamlessly with the coachee’s values and life objectives.
This alignment marks the difference between goals that feel like chores and goals that inspire and motivate.
However, even the best goals will fall flat without commitment and accountability. So how can you facilitate this for their success?
Ensure they feel a sense of ownership over their goals. Let them lead the goal-setting process and provide guidance when needed.
Ask questions that prompt them to think deeply about what they want to achieve and why. When goals emerge from within, they carry an intrinsic motivation that fuels perseverance.
Check-ins regularly, get progress reports, and even provide friendly reminders—these can all help your client be accountable for their goals. It is about creating structures that support the client in staying on track.
Remember, as a coach, your role is to support, not push.
Turning Vision Into Action: Realistic and Flexible Planning
Transitioning from setting goals to planning actions often feels like crossing a chasm. It’s easy to dream big, but bringing those dreams to life? That’s where the real work begins.
Common barriers like fear, procrastination, and lack of clarity can appear monstrous and insurmountable.
But as a coach, your role is to help your client navigate these hurdles and stay on course.
Help your clients design a realistic action plan that motivates them. Guide them in breaking down their big goals into smaller, manageable tasks, each with its own mini-deadline.
Help them create a flexible plan. It will allow your clients to adapt to changing circumstances without feeling like they’re derailing their progress.
Follow-up and review in the action planning process—the importance of it cannot be overstated. Regularly check in with your clients, review their progress, and tweak the action plan as needed.
And remember, every little progress is progress worth celebrating.
Navigating Challenges: Fostering Resilience and Adaptability
The role of a coach is not to shield clients from challenges but to arm them with resilience and adaptability, empowering them to navigate the seas of uncertainty.
Setbacks and obstacles are inevitable when executing an action plan. But the question is, how do we turn those obstacles into stepping stones?
Here’s where the real coaching magic comes into play.
Encourage your clients to view challenges not as setbacks but as learning opportunities. Make it clear that each challenge is a chance to grow and evolve, refine their strategy, and develop resilience. Celebrate their effort and progress, not just the outcome.
Guide your clients to practice adaptability. If a certain approach is not yielding the desired result, it’s time to pivot and try a different tactic. Remind them that changing strategies doesn’t mean failure but demonstrates their flexibility and commitment to reaching their goals.
As a coach, your role is to be the steady beacon of light that guides them through the stormy weather. Your consistent belief in their capabilities can become their inner strength, fostering their resilience and adaptability.
The Lifelong Journey Mastering the Coaching Conversations
Mastering coaching conversations is a lifelong commitment. Like any craft, it demands practice, patience, and continual refinement. It requires an unwavering dedication to facilitate growth, not only in our clients but in ourselves too.
If you want to learn a proven framework that maximizes the impact of your coaching conversations, join us in the free Become a Mindvalley Certified Life Coachmasterclass. With Ajit Nawalkha to guide you, you’ll be able to facilitate massive breakthroughs and transformations in your clients.
All coaches are on a continuous learning curve, no matter where they are on their journey. If you, too, are wondering how to be a better coach, here are a few fundamental skills, techniques, and questions you can incorporate into your practice.
Essential Skills Every Coach Must Have
Skilled coaches do not consider themselves experts who can solve every problem or answer every question a client asks. Instead, they play a supporting role to help the client reflect and learn.
Discover how to be a better coach at work and beyond with these essential coaching skills.
1. Show empathy
This skill helps you, as a coach, to connect better with your clients, build trust, and help them achieve their goals faster. Acknowledge and validate their emotions, and let them know that it’s okay to feel the way they do.
You can also share your own experiences or struggles if they’re relevant to your client’s situation. Just remember that the session is about the coachee; you’re simply there to guide them.
2. Stay curious
Curiosity allows you to step away from your current beliefs and engage with clients from an objective perspective. Being genuinely interested in your client’s life experiences and perspectives is key to understanding where they’re coming from.
It’s an attitude that helps you discover new possibilities and alternatives. It also turns you into a life-long learner. Whether it’s coaching certification, courses, books, or podcasts, you must never stop upgrading your coaching methods.
3. Identify strengths
As a coach, you should be able to help clients identify their strengths. Even if clients may not recognize their forte, it’s your job to help them understand it better.
This way, you can help clients discover their hidden potential and capitalize on their strengths.
4. Ask open-ended questions
Although we usually approach problems with a desire to solve them, there may be more to the situation than meets the eye.
Keeping an open mind when talking to your clients is essential, and asking open-ended questions can help do just that. On the other hand, closed-ended questions can be answered with either “yes” or “no”, which may not help your client see new possibilities.
What does that look like? Here’s an example:
Open-ended question
Closed-ended question
Example
“What would you do now if there were no obstacles in your path, and anything was possible?”
“Do you want to succeed or stagnate where you are?”
5. Practice detached engagement
As a coach, it’s your job to use your expertise to help your client progress and grow. However, you need to understand that your client may not get the desired results despite your best efforts due to circumstances or a lack of dedication on their part.
Do your best to get your client results, but don’t get too attached to the outcome. Practicing a sense of detached engagement allows you to invest the required energy and effort into your work without being affected by what’s outside of your control.
6. Master active listening
You should listen to both the text and the subtext of what the client is saying. Active listening includes body language cues, the changes in their breathing, and the tone of their voice.
Sometimes a client says something, but their body language hints at something entirely different. You need to be able to pick up on these cues and let them inform your coaching process.
4 Coaching Techniques That You Need to Know
Let’s look at some of the most widely used coaching techniques that can accelerate your work with clients.
1. The Wheel of Life
One of the most popular coaching tools is the Wheel of Life, a technique that helps you measure the level of satisfaction your client has with their life.
It lets you focus your coaching process on the areas that are most off-track while reinforcing what’s already working well.
2. The Life ECG
The Life ECG helps you understand the ups and downs of your client’s life, as well as their values and strengths. All you need is a blank sheet and a pen. Here’s what you do next:
Draw a horizontal line on a piece of paper and ask the client to describe their life in chronological order.
Instead of mapping their entire lives, ask them to pick the three most important ups and downs.
Then ask them to explain why these were significant moments.
Listening to their reactions allows you to analyze their outlook on life.
3. The GROW model
The four alphabets in the GROW model stand for Goal, Reality, Options, and Will.
Goal is about knowing what the client wants to achieve. Make sure that the objectives they list here are realistic, achievable, and measurable.
Reality can be summed up in the question, “What is the client’s current situation?” To reach their goals, they need to know where they are now in relation to their goals. Your job is to guide their self-assessment to identify the obstacles that may prevent them from achieving them.
Options is about identifying the possibilities of the coachee in terms of moving forward. Help them evaluate their options and understand what each of them would require in terms of sacrifice or investment.
Will is about moving forward and taking action. Ask your client what they are willing to commit to until your next session so that they can start turning their dream into reality.
4. Journaling
One of the best coaching tools for gaining perspective and self-awareness is keeping a reflective journal. It also allows your client to take a closer look at their emotions.
You can suggest specific journaling prompts that aid the coaching process your client is currently in. For example, writing down 10 things they are grateful for every day or reflecting on their emotional triggers.
7 Questions to Measure Your Client’s Progress
It might seem tricky to measure your client’s progress from one session to another, but it’s essential for effective coaching. This evaluation tells you whether they are on the right track—and if you need to change course with them.
Here are seven questions that help you reflect on the progress you’re making with your client.
1. Has the client made any discoveries about themselves?
This question helps you understand your client’s attitude toward life before and after undergoing coaching. Look at whether they’ve gained any new perspectives, beliefs, or insights.
This could be as simple as discovering new ways to solve a problem. Teach them how to pay attention to the subtle changes unfolding so that they, too, can see their progress.
2. How useful were your specific skills or teachings to your client?
To help your client reach their goals, you may help them develop new skills and traits. However, these will only be helpful if they’re aligned with what they want.
Evaluate whether the tools and techniques you’ve introduced in the coaching process are serving your clients and accelerating their progress.
3. How drastically has the client changed as a result of the coaching?
This question helps you take a close look at who your clients were when they walked into your first session as opposed to who they are now.
Pay attention to even the subtlest changes in their habits, moods, work ethic, life satisfaction, emotional balance, decision-making, and communication.
4. Can they tell the difference?
As coaches, we create transformation. We are in the unique position of witnessing the client’s growth journey firsthand. However, it’s important they also notice how far they’ve come from time to time.
One way to help them do that is to introduce coaching questions at the end of your session that help them summarize what you’ve discussed or how they see themselves differently from a month ago.
5. Have the client’s friends, family, or colleagues noted any major differences?
Sometimes, people we spend the most time with notice changes in us sooner than we do ourselves—this is also true for your client. Ask them whether they’ve received any feedback from the people in their lives about their transformation.
Sometimes, they might notice some resistance in their environment to their changes. Help them navigate this so it doesn’t become an obstacle to further progress.
6. How will they reward themselves when they see progress?
This question establishes a reward system that recognizes your client’s achievements and celebrates their progress. Help them identify ways in which they can motivate themselves on their way to their dreams so they can keep up the momentum and increase their confidence in themselves.
7. What changes need to be made to the coaching plan?
This is a question most coaches don’t ask their clients but should during and after the coaching program. Every coach is different, and perfecting your skills will take time and constructive criticism.
Client feedback will help you make the right changes to serve people better in the future. Pay close attention to what they’re saying and find ways to make their feedback actionable to improve your services.
What to Do if a Client Shows No Progress?
If your coaching plan is not working as expected, it may need some adjusting. Here are some ways you can make changes during your session and tweak your process:
1. Set short-term goals
Short-term goals allow you to track the client’s progress better. They signal whether they are on track or if they need to course-correct.
A shorter time frame might also work better at times when the coachee is losing momentum. Hitting smaller targets first gives them the confidence to later tackle bigger issues.
2. Identify the problem
Identifying the root cause of why your client is struggling to make progress is essential for them to move to the next level in their growth journey.
Before they take any action, dig deeper and find out what the real problem is with proper analysis. It’s always better to spend more time identifying an obstacle than getting stuck with the coaching process.
3. Address areas for improvement
Analyze your client’s skills to define their most important areas for improvement. Make a list of changes that they can commit to in order to grow.
Provide some helpful analogies so that your client can grasp how those necessary skills and traits would help them in their life. Emphasizing your belief in their ability to improve and overcome these challenges.
4. Implementing changes
Once you know the problem and how to fix it, make changes and adjust your coaching plan accordingly.
Coming up with ways to fit a new plan into a previously agreed-upon time frame can be challenging, but it’s essential for them to see real results in the end.
Coach Anyone With Confidence
The only thing standing between you and your dream coaching career is this free Become a Mindvalley Certified Life Coach masterclass with Ajit Nawalkha, the co-founder of Mindvalley Coach, and Vishen, the founder of Mindvalley, as your guides.
In this immersive training, you’ll discover the proven framework to confidently coach anyone, build a flourishing business, and finally step into the fulfilling career you deserve.
Podcasts are a great way to embrace your love for life-long learning and catch up on the latest industry trends while commuting, working out, or doing chores.
These seven shows are packed with actionable strategies and insights to fuel your business. Here are some of the best podcasts for life coaches to binge on.
1. Master Coaching with Ajit
Ajit Nawalkha is the co-founder of Mindvalley Coach, a serial entrepreneur, and the best-selling author of The Book of Coaching, The Business Book of Coaching, and Live Big. He’s also a sought-after life and business coach with over 10 years of hands-on experience.
In his podcast, he lets you in on real-life coaching conversations and breaks down the insights you can gain from them as a life coach. He also answers some of the most burning questions from the Mindvalley Coach community.
If you are ready to take your coaching skills to the next level, tune into the Master Coaching with Ajit podcast.
Average Episode Length: 45 minutes
2. Coaching for Leaders
Coaching for Leaders is a podcast hosted by Dr. Dave Stachowiak, who has over 15 years of leadership experience at Dale Carnegie and is the founder of Coaching for Leaders Academy.
His motto is “Leaders aren’t born, they’re made,” and that’s exactly what he aims to do through his podcast—help and support leaders to gain wisdom and insights through powerful conversations.
With best-selling authors, leaders, and experts as guests, there’s a wide range of topics being brought up, from leadership in the workplace to personal development and networking.
This podcast has over 20 million downloads and has been the #1 show in the management niche on Apple Podcasts. New episodes come out every Monday.
Average Episode Length: 40 minutes
3. Coaching Real Leaders
If you’re looking for a way to learn coaching skills from real-world master coaches, then this podcast by Harvard Business Review is exactly what you need.
Hosted by experienced leadership coach and C-suite advisor Muriel Wilkins, Coaching Real Leaders targets successful leaders and managers who’ve hit a bump in the road and need help getting back on track in their careers.
What’s interesting is that she shares excerpts from her coaching sessions with anonymous clients, discussing their challenges. Then she sums up the best insights from her recordings for her audience.
It’s a great way for leadership, executive, and high-performance coaches to learn new coaching tools and techniques.
Average Episode Length: 40 minutes
4. Creative Confidence
This podcast is made for leaders who want to bring innovation and creativity into the workplace. It hosts open and honest conversations with some of today’s most inspiring and successful change-makers, design thinkers, and creative minds who share their personal stories of innovation.
Hosted by IDEO U executive design director Coe Leta Stafford and founder Suzanne Gibbs Howard, tune into Creative Confidence to learn about the approach these experts take to leadership, creativity, innovation, and growth, and how you can cultivate a human-centered approach to work.
Average Episode Length: 30 minutes
5. The Knowledge Project
The Knowledge Project podcast is more of a personal growth podcast than coaching-related, but it’s all the more insightful for professionals in this field. It describes itself in one simple line that pretty much says everything: “Master the best of what other people have already figured out.”
This fantastic show is hosted by Shane Parrish, the founder, curator, and mastermind behind Farnam Street. He invites best-selling authors, renowned experts, experienced leaders, and entrepreneurs on the podcast to discuss how to analyze problems, seize opportunities, and master decision-making.
Every episode is value-packed with wisdom you can use at work and home. And it exists to help you unlock your potential.
Average Episode Length: 60 minutes
6. Create Freedom: Fitness Entrepreneurship and Marketing Podcast
The Create Freedom Podcast is designed for those who want to create more freedom in their lives. It shares ideas and strategies for building a business that creates abundance and time freedom.
This business podcast is hosted by Dan Garner, a strength coach, best-selling author, and founder of Team Garner, and Kevin McClelland, an entrepreneur and online marketing and advertising expert.
Tune into this podcast to learn the latest business growth strategies, marketing tips, and productivity hacks that take you one step closer to living the life of your dreams—in less than 20 minutes.
Average Episode Length: 15 minutes
7. The Life Coach School Podcast
This podcast is hosted by Brooke Castillo, a master certified life and weight coach. She is also the founder of The Life Coach School, a training platform for coaches and individuals who want to create the impossible in their own lives.
In this show, you’ll be able to listen to master coaches and former students of the Life Coach School share their journeys to becoming coaches and key learnings.
Average Episode Length: 40 minutes
Create Freedom Through Coaching
With the best coaching and personal growth podcasts on your playlist, even 10 minutes of daily listening can broaden your horizons and help you dream bigger.
You’ll learn how to capitalize on the surging demand for coaches to build a life of financial, time, and location freedom—no matter which way the economy turns.
Mindfulness is a skill that can help us maintain a sense of balance and peace as the world rapidly changes around us. However, understanding our mind and navigating its complexities on our own is a challenging task.
That’s where a mindfulness coach comes in.
Let’s explore how you can help your clients manage their emotions and maintain balance in their lives with this powerful coaching method.
What Is a Mindfulness Coach?
A mindfulness coach is essentially a life coach who helps their clients cultivate and integrate mindfulness practices into their daily lives. They teach them new tools and techniques so they can become more present in the moment and ward off distractions.
As a result, clients can cultivate a state of flow where their worries about the past and the future disappear.
“We have only now, only this single eternal moment opening and unfolding before us, day and night.” — Jack Kornfield
Studies have shown that practicing mindfulness reduces stress and anxiety and helps people live healthier and more fulfilling lives. It allows them to enjoy the present moment, improve their concentration, and cope with events out of their control.
What Do Mindfulness Coaches Do?
Mindfulness coaches guide their clients through anchoring and grounding exercises that help them focus on their thoughts and emotions without reacting sharply. It’s a way of making people aware of what’s happening in their minds in different scenarios while also teaching them not to get absorbed in all those thoughts and feelings.
Mindfulness training is a type of attention training that focuses on the present and helps the client understand themselves better. A mindfulness teacher helps clients learn how not to be overwhelmed by stressors in their daily environment.
Unlike therapists who diagnose and treat mental health conditions, mindfulness coaches operate in the wellness sphere, focusing on preventative and personal growth practices.
They might:
Teach mindfulness techniques like meditation, breathwork, mindful movement, and body scans.
Help clients identify areas in their lives where they want to cultivate more mindfulness.
Facilitate self-reflection and awareness through coaching exercises
Help the client develop coping mechanisms and healthier ways to manage stress, anxiety, and other challenging emotions.
Hold clients accountable for their mindfulness practice and track their progress in improving their well-being.
The Benefits of Mindfulness Coaching
With the constant hustling and planning of the future, we often forget to live through those smaller moments that make up most of our happiest memories. It is all well and good to be ambitious and driven, but it should never be at the cost of enjoying the present.
Mindfulness coaching is essential in this sense, especially in a corporate culture-driven world where everyone is competing with each other. It can help to…
Maintain a work-life balance.
Keep track of our biggest priorities in life.
Remain grounded, even in the most tragic of moments.
Understand our emotions better.
Maintain better relationships with other people.
Encourage self-love and care.
Make taking care of our mind and body a priority.
Keep in mind that everyone is unique, and their results may vary. With that being said, many people do find mindfulness coaching to be a valuable tool for enhancing their overall well-being and navigating life’s challenges with greater ease and clarity.
What Kind of Results Can You Get From Mindfulness Coaching?
The results of having a mindful living coach can vary depending on a person’s goals, commitment to practice, and existing mental and emotional state. However, some common positive outcomes people experience include:
1. Increased self-awareness
Mindfulness coaching can dramatically improve people’s physical, mental, and emotional awareness. When they have a better sense of themselves and their capabilities, they’re more likely to make the right choices at the right times.
2. Higher levels of satisfaction and joy
“By breaking down our sense of self-importance, all we lose is a parasite that has long infected our minds. What we gain in return is freedom, the openness of mind, spontaneity, simplicity, altruism: all qualities inherent in happiness.” — Matthieu Ricard
Being mindful helps people find satisfaction and happiness in each moment. By anchoring them in the present, mindfulness coaching can help clients find stability and joy in who they are, what they have, and what they do in the present.
3. Increased emotional regulation
Another potential benefit of mindfulness coaching is that it helps clients identify and manage their emotions. This means that emotions can be amplified or kept at bay according to circumstances and needs. This ability can play an important role in psychological well-being.
4. Lower levels of anxiety and stress
Chronic stress is a serious problem for many adults. It can cause a variety of health problems, including an increased risk of depression and anxiety. As a matter of fact, according to the American Psychological Association, mindfulness helps reduce feelings of anxiety and stress.
Another study has shown that individuals diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder achieved a drastic reduction in their anxiety levels through a consistent mindfulness practice.
5. Better memory
A mindfulness coach can also improve their clients’ memory. In a 2019 survey, participants received either a four-week mindfulness training session or a creative writing class. Memory tests showed that those trained in attention practice showed the greatest improvement in short-term memory.
However, participants did not just remember things better; they also showed visible changes in their brains. Brain imaging showed that participants in mindfulness training experienced changes in the hippocampus, a region associated with memory.
6. Stronger cognitive function
Research shows that mindfulness can not only help a person focus on their thoughts and remember things more easily but can play a role in their ability to think flexibly and clearly.
A mindfulness coach may use techniques to teach clients how to focus attention for a while (sustainable attention), direct their thoughts and attention despite distractions (cognitive flexibility), and keep other thoughts at bay.
These cognitive skills are important for a variety of daily tasks. They allow us to think quickly and adapt to changing information. These skills also help us easily move from one task to another, making it easier to focus on the task and solve the problem more efficiently.
What Makes a Good Mindfulness Coach?
A mindfulness coach can significantly impact a person’s experience and the results they achieve. Here are some key qualities of a good one:
1. Connects well with their clients
Great coaches go beyond being likable; they cultivate genuine connections with their clients through empathy, compassion, and respect. This translates to:
Active listening that shows they truly care and understand.
A safe and supportive space to share thoughts and feelings openly.
Personalized guidance that meets their clients’ unique needs and goals.
These connections foster trust, motivation, and a sense of security.
2. Practices mindfulness in their own life
Imagine taking advice from a mindfulness meditation coach who never practices mindfulness meditation. It wouldn’t inspire much confidence, right?
That’s why the best coaches actively walk the walk. “Practice what you preach,” as the saying goes. If not, then no one will want to listen.
3. Guides well and pays individual attention to each client
The best mindfulness coaches don’t just tell their clients what to do. They explain things in a way that’s easy to understand, using examples and stories anyone can relate to.
They also pay close attention to what their client’s feelings and thoughts are and adjust their teaching style to fit their needs. This makes learning mindfulness less confusing and more enjoyable.
4. Encourages questions and curiosity
Curiosity is the engine of growth. By fostering it, coaches equip their clients with the tools to navigate their mindfulness journey, long after the sessions end.
Here are a few ways to ignite curiosity and fuel deeper learning:
Ask open-ended questions.
Create a safe space for exploration.
Actively listen and respond.
Connect the dots.
5. Knows how to take charge of a group
Leading a mindfulness group can be challenging with different personalities and energy levels. But the coach is the guide, helping everyone feel comfortable and learn together.
They can set clear rules, be flexible and pay attention, encourage connection, and handle any disruption calmly. By doing so, they create a space where everyone can learn, grow, and connect through mindfulness.
Mindfulness is more than just “being present.” Here are some scientific methods to train your clients on this important skill.
Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR)
Built around mindfulness practices, MBSR focuses on uplifting a client by focusing on their mental, physical, and emotional well-being. It has paved the way for many other behavioral coaching techniques.
MBSR therapy has shown promising results, including:
Reductions in physical and psychological symptoms.
Higher tolerance, especially in the case of chronic pain.
Higher energy and motivation levels.
Better reactions to stressful situations.
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT)
A type of psychotherapy that combines cognitive therapy, meditation, and mindfulness-based development. Studies have shown that MBCT may be effective in helping people who have experienced multiple episodes of depression.
Originally developed to treat depression, it has also proven to be effective in other uses, including:
Anxiety disorders.
Bipolar disorder.
Depression associated with medical illnesses.
Low mood.
Unhappiness.
Treatment-resistant depression.
Depression-relapse prevention.
Mindfulness-based recurrence prevention (MBRP)
Developed to combat addiction, MBRP applies the concept of mindfulness to the management of impulses and the maintenance of moderation that can interfere with addiction. Through MBRP, individuals learn to take a step back and witness the moment, recognizing that there are multiple possible consequences for the situation and that they have control over it.
The main technique used in MBRP is called “urge surfing.” It refers to using a mindfulness strategy to ride a wave of impulses rather than succumb to them.
Instead of falling into an automatic emotional response to the trigger, you can take a moment to react intentionally. By developing this ability, you will experience fewer negative emotions because you are not exacerbating difficult situations through your own actions.
How to Become a Mindfulness Coach: 4 Things to Check Off Your List
You can become a mindfulness coach by following the steps below:
1. Assess if mindfulness coaching is right for you
Before becoming a mindfulness coach, take a moment to reflect on your motivations and interests.
You can ask yourself:
Does guiding others toward inner peace and balance resonate with you?
Are you passionate about mindfulness and its power to transform lives?
Do you find joy in helping people navigate stressful situations through self-awareness and mindful approaches?
Are you comfortable guiding others on a journey of self-discovery and inner exploration?
If these questions spark a sense of purpose and excitement, then mindfulness coaching could be the perfect niche for you.
2. Complete a certification
Formal training is crucial for building your foundation as a mindfulness coach. But where can you start?
Your options include mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) programs or coach-specific mindfulness certifications. Additionally, you can opt for a program accredited by recognized organizations, like Mindvalley Coach.
3. Practice
No amount of textbook knowledge can substitute for the real-world experience of guiding others on their mindfulness journey. But you don’t have to jump into the deep end of the pool; start small.
Offer workshops or group coaching at a discount to practice your skills in a safe space and attract potential clients. You can also volunteer your services to gain experience and help others. Additionally, you can learn from established coaches through mentorship or online communities.
As you gain confidence and happy clients, your coaching practice will naturally grow.
4. Expand your services
Once you feel more confident in your coaching skills and expertise, you can expand your business to find more people to work with. Holding free webinars or being active on social media is a great way to showcase your expertise and attract new clients.
With an average mindfulness coach salary of $99,000 a year, you can build a career that’s both lucrative and meaningful.
Make Mindfulness Coaching Your Next Career Move
Building a coaching business takes long-term commitment and some risk. If you’re still toying with the idea of becoming a mindfulness coach but you’re not quite sure you’re ready to make a career transition, here’s a class that will help you test the waters.
The free Become a Mindvalley Certified Life Coachmasterclass can help you turn coaching into a prosperous full-time career. Discover how you can create massive breakthroughs for your clients that will make them stick with you.
