#036 How to Make Money as a Life Coach

In this article, I talk about an uncommon or overlooked but very important topic. 

This applies across the board, for all human beings. 

It’s the psychology of business. How to create something amazing, how to create an impact in the world, and make money while you’re doing it.

For the last 25 years, I’ve been in the people business. 

The psychology thing has always been a part of my journey. It’s been that way since my teens.

Initially, it was a personal thing but when I entered the corporate world, it was about dealing with people and getting the best out of them.

Understanding human psychology and human behavioural sciences was really important to me. 

Anyway, in that process, I spent 25 years in sales and marketing and building consultancy businesses. 

I’ve trained, an untold amount of salespeople, business development consultants, business executives, and just general business coaching that I’ve done over the years.

This is not to blow my own trumpet but rather to let you know it’s the real deal. This stuff works.

I’ve been using it in different sectors and markets for many years. 

You can create a thriving coaching practice.

A very impactful business where you’re serving the world, serving Allah(swt) by serving the world, creating an impact, and making a lot of money while you’re doing it. 

The focus here is the business of coaching, as opposed to the psychology of the mind. 

Of course, it’s all interlinked. They’ve always been interlinked. 

When we talk about sales, in the Islamic sciences, this comes under Kitab al Bay which is the buying and the selling.

It’s all about managing relationships and managing expectations. Managing the connection between human beings. 

So even the rules are always about that. 

This is all about relationships, all about giving value and service. And in return for that, of course, you’re rewarded with a financial return. 

Why focus on business coaching? 

Simple. Because there’s no impact in the world if there’s no connection to money.

I’ll explain.

The more impact you have, the more money you earn, the less impact you have in the world, the less money you earn. 

That’s the way it works.

Money is just a tool to magnify your impact and you need it to invest in your coaching practice, to actually grow your coaching practice, and get it out to more people. 

FIRST BASE TO FINANCIAL FREEDOM

Unless you cover first base, your financial needs, all the desire in the world to have an impact and help people will start to diminish.

You’ll resent the people that you’re trying to help. So you need to make money in order to help people.

All the professionals in the world who are paid a handsome salary, or who make good money in their businesses, create an impact on the world.

You’re talking about doctors, therapists, lawyers, accountants, whoever they are, whatever they’re doing, they’re all having an impact.

They’re providing a service that isn’t required. But if they were not getting paid, then they wouldn’t be able to do that job. 

GETTING FUNNY ABOUT THE MONEY 

A lot of coaches get really funny when it comes to sales or money.

They get funny because it’s our nature to want to help people.

So immediately, when you think of helping people and supporting people, you equate that to being voluntary and free. 

We do a lot of stuff that is voluntary and free. Volunteer work has its place, no doubt. 

But at the same time, unless you have a financial system or a business of coaching, you won’t have an impact in the world as a coach.

Neglecting the financial side of your coaching business will stop you from having a substantial impact. 

You will become too busy doing other things to make money and too busy doing other things to run your household. And you won’t be able to do the coaching.

SERVING THE WORLD AND MAKING MONEY 

You’ve got to focus on the business of coaching, just as much as you focus on the actual practise of coaching.

When you’re helping people, you have to focus on both. 

Otherwise, the coaching business doesn’t exist. 

Unless your intention is to work within the corporate field and apply your coaching there in a leadership manner or in a coaching manner.

If that’s what you’re doing, that’s fine. 

But if you’re looking to take this and impact lives and transform lives, then your focus is on the two key things. 

I train my coaches to transform lives.

We’re in this business to help people, to transform their lives. 

We don’t work on short-term fixes, we work on permanent fixes. 

Whether that’s therapeutic coaching, performance coaching, peak performance, or whatever, it’s still all about having an impact and providing a service. 

Helping people change their lives. 

To do that, you’ve got to make money. 

People will tell you, “Listen, you should be doing this for free. How can you call this help?”

No.

When you do it for free, you serve a certain group of people.

But if you want to serve a huge group of people and have a societal impact, you have to have money amplifying your effects, amplifying your work, and really getting it out there. 

So you decide to play big or to play small.

PLAYING THE BIG GAME VS THE SMALL GAME 

If you want to play small, that’s fine. There’s nothing wrong with that.

By playing big or small I mean having a big impact or a small impact. So don’t take that as something derogatory.

I’m teaching you how to create the business of coaching, as well as the actual practice of coaching. 

To have the maximum reach, you must learn the business of coaching as well as the actual practise of coaching. 

These two things must be in place.

3 FUNDAMENTALS FOR SUCCESS

I’m going to share three things that you must do as a coach in order to succeed in the business of coaching.

These are essential, and you might think this is so basic.

But I’ve built businesses to multiple six figures and I can tell you that this is the foundation.

If you get this part right, you could build a six-figure or multiple six-figure business before you go into any advanced strategy.

Advanced strategies are for when you’ve established the foundation of a business.

I call the foundation of a business, you getting it up to six figures.

Once you get up to six figures, you’ve got your foundations, and then you go into advanced strategies( More about this in the future)  

For now, we’re looking at what you need to go from zero to six figures. 

It doesn’t just apply to the coaching world, this applies across the board in all business development. 

OVERCOME THE MONEY RESISTANCE 

A lot of coaches who aren’t used to the business side, actually creating the business, but who are used to providing the service, start getting this icky feeling when the conversation is about sales. 

You might have this icky feeling, and think, I don’t like the sound of this.

I hate selling and selling is sleazy and you have all these thoughts going through your mind. 

When that happens, you start having these negative feelings.

You actually feel like running. 

You’re happy to have a consultation with a prospective client but when it comes to actually talking about the business, you want to run.

The prospective client may even say, so how do we work together? 

The minute they say how do we work together, you’re agitated.

I experienced this myself, many years ago. And I see it with the people I train.

As soon as someone starts talking about the money, they start feeling funny, agitated, and anxious, all because of the thoughts that they’re having at that moment. 

When that happens, you mess up the opportunity.

Someone is asking for help but because we’ve got this problem with the process of providing a service, making an agreement because we have a problem with the process of selling, we start feeling like a fraud, feeling like we’re there to cheat them. 

It’s like you’re not good enough to coach this person, and you start having these random self-sabotaging thoughts. 

And when you have that inner exploration call or a breakthrough call, or consultation, whatever you call it. 

When you’re having this conversation, it becomes all about the money in your mind. Then you start to feel awkward. 

You get fidgety and you don’t look them in the eye. 

If it’s over the phone, there’s a lot of umming and erring. 

Next thing, not only do you feel like a fraud, but the person on the other side starts to feel awkward.

If you’re giving off this awkward vibe, they’re going to feel awkward and they’re going to think, I don’t know if I can work with this person. 

The minute you start making them feel awkward, they’re starting to second guess themselves and think, hold on a minute, do I really want to work with this person? 

I don’t feel quite on the same plane, as this person. 

When that happens, and this happens all the time, you mess it up.

I hear it with the coaches that I’m training. I’ve heard it with the business development consultants I’ve trained.

This is a normal thing in the process and you’ve got to learn how to get over that. 

The reason you get all uncomfortable is that you have these thoughts about yourself and how you’re not worthy or you don’t have what it takes.

Or you’re feeling that you’re going to let them down, you’re going to fail them and you start to doubt yourself.

But the minute you start giving voice to these thoughts, immediately you start having all these doubtful feelings that create awkward feelings. 

Then you “mirror reflect”.

You talk to the person and you see an awkward look on their face. 

Or they go silent when you tell them the price, so your heart sinks. You start to feel like you’re cheating them or you’re trying to do them over. 

Then you wonder what they’re thinking about you. And when that happens, it just totally messes things up. 

That’s an example of things going really messy. 

But after that, we give ourselves an emotional beating. We completely rubbish ourselves. 

And then you’re in the situation where you’ve had such a bad experience trying to enroll someone, you run away from doing any more breakthrough calls or enrollment calls or consultations. 

You stopped doing the calls. You actually hate during the calls. 

That’s what happens to most coaches when they’re first starting off, but I want to give you three simple things that you should be focusing on to build your coaching business. 

If you do that, you get lots of clients. 

You see the money, you create the impact, and you give yourself financial stability. 

And after you give yourself that financial stability, you get to financial freedom, but you don’t go straight to financial freedom.

Financial freedom is something that comes after financial stability. That’s first base. 

So, what are the three things that every coach must do to build their business?

These are the foundations. 

Number one: You’ve got to build your communication skills. 

Build a strong Hello philosophy, where you build genuine connections. 

Number two: 

Tell the world that you’re a coach.

Number three: Make offers to help people without being creepy, without being awkward. 

It sounds pretty simple, but don’t underestimate this.

I taught this to people who have gone on to make six figures and more in their businesses, just based on these three things. 

Communication skills are all about your ability to build connections, to connect with people, and to accustom yourself to getting out there and touching base with many people and giving them some value in their lives. 

Communication skills are about how you communicate with people, and how you show up in the world. And unless you actually show up in the world and actually connect to people, you’re not going to develop that.

It’s a skill that needs to be developed. I’m not talking about friending everyone on Facebook, and then pitching them and sending them DM’S.

You have to connect with people. You can friend people on Facebook and attend networking events.

You could do it online, you can do it offline. There are many different ways of doing this. 

Now in the process, you will widen your scope and potential as a coach.

And your only goal is to connect with people. That’s your only goal.

No mass pitching and trying to sell them stuff. That’s not what you want to be doing because that’s the key to failure.

You want to connect with people, genuinely get out there, and build your communication network.

One person at a time, just connect with someone, and you’re in a pond that is growing. That’s what you really need.

People set up social groups in their locality or they’re meeting up in business networking groups or there are coffee mornings, there’s all sorts of stuff that people do.

It’s just about meeting people. Getting out there. 

The other way is doing it on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or other social networks people are into. 

Now, avoid going into other people’s groups and pitching people.

That’s just going to get you in trouble and thrown out, and then you’re going to have bad thoughts about other people. 

The absolute aim is just to connect to people and widen your scope, widen your network.

Now get creative, because you have the natural creative ability to just think up an idea and just run with it.

Don’t worry about it working or failing, you just run with it. 

By doing that over and over again, you’re going to build up your creative ability.

You’re going to build up your tribe of people that you’re connected to, and you’re not trying to sell to them.

Don’t do that. Because that repels people.

It happens to all of us. Someone friends you and then next thing, they’re sending you a message trying to sell you something, or they’re trying to pitch you on something.

That puts you off immediately. You don’t want to talk to them. 

If you want to connect to people, don’t do that, that doesn’t work.

But you must connect to people, human communication, and relationships.

You just begin, you grow, and it doesn’t need to be in-depth conversations.

They’re not going to become your best friends, but they become a part of your network. And when you meet these people, just help them.

That’s what it’s about. Just help them in whatever way possible. 

If you do that, and you’re meeting people, and you’re treating them like they’re just people in your social network or in your group, then you’re going to grow. 

If you’re authentically helping people, they’re going to see that.

Whereas getting creepy and treating everyone like a prospect, like a potential client, then that’s going to come through in your behaviour. 

That’s going to really mess things up for you. So don’t do that.

But just go out there and offer value. Help people as much as much as you can within your scope. 

Obviously, you don’t give away all your gold. But do something to help other people.

Number two: get out of your shell and let people know what you do. Claim your identity as a Coach. 

People are afraid to tell other people what they do. That’s a big problem I’ve seen.

You must tell people that you’re a coach.

Go out into the world and just tell everyone that you’re a Life Coach.

You will have some resistance to that especially if you’re a new coach.

Ignore that feeling because it’s just the discomfort of doing something new. Just tell people. It’s important. 

They will be interested in hearing what that is because most people don’t have any idea about what that really is. 

People will get curious and they’ll ask you a few questions. 

And you can tell them in a conversational manner. You’re going to learn how to speak about what you do. And that’s natural and authentic. 

The more people that know about it, the better but do that without pitching them. 

Organically growing yourself as a coach to become really confident in who you are and what you do, you’ve got to be out there gelling with people, communicating with people, connecting to people, and they will come to you. 

Now, I’m not saying that you shouldn’t go out there and be outwardly working on your business, creating offers, and bringing in the people. 

When you’re starting off, and you want to hit the multiple five figures and get to the 6 figures, you have to grow your base if you want to do it for the long term.

You don’t want to be a one-hit wonder, and do a couple of deals here and there and get a couple of clients. Because a lot of coaches pick up clients but they lose clients just as quickly as they pick them up. 

And you don’t want to do that. 

Set your foundations. Create clients and grow it organically, before you start putting money into Facebook ads or whatever else you might want to do. 

I’m not saying you shouldn’t do those things, but you have to grow that basic foundation first. 

Don’t pitch people immediately.

Create connections, and offer to help people. 

Show them that you’re able to help them. 

Become a master of offering. And I guarantee you, you’re going to create something.

Let’s focus on the three key things again.

The first is to build your communications. 

In other words, the Hello philosophy, connecting to people and building your network.

Number two >> Tell everyone in the world that you’re a coach. 

Numer three >> Make offers to help people without being creepy.

Offer to help. That’s exactly what it is. Serve them, serve them, serve them, serve them. 

And there will be a big difference in your approach. 

SERVICE BEFORE SALES 

Having the service approach will make people respond to you. 

They will want you to make them offers, they will ask how they could work with you. 

If you master this way of working with people, connecting to people, letting them know what you do, and then making them offers of value and service, you build a six-figure business. 

There’s no doubt about it. 

If you do that, you will work with people over and over again, and you will learn so much just in that process. 

When we’re coaching people, we’re in the business of helping and serving people. This is why psychology is such an important thing to understand because you’re in the business of people. 

When you’re offering, serving people, helping them, they want to work with you. They’re even going to refer people to you. 

People will just come from where you didn’t expect. 

I’ve built my practice, I’ve helped my clients build theirs and I can tell you without any shadow of a doubt, that you can build your business just based on those three things.

Get out there, communicate with them, grow your network, connect with people, create relationships, and then tell everyone that you’re a coach.

Don’t be afraid to tell people you’re a coach. Don’t be afraid because you have to accept and live who you are. 

Identify with who you are, or else people won’t know who you are. 

Become clear about who you are so you become clear when you go out there and tell the people, and then of course make offers to help people. 

Offers don’t mean you give it all away for free. 

Offer them a service. But when you’re connecting to people and expanding your network, that’s not the time to make an offer.

When you have demonstrated that you can help a person, you’ll become like a magnet.

People will come to you.

That’s how you want it to be. You want to be in the service of people, helping people and creating an impact and legacy. 

And while you do that, you want to make lots of money. 

Making lots of money doesn’t mean huge fees.

There are many coaches who charge huge fees and I’m not saying it’s wrong, horses for courses.

But when you’re starting off a business as a coach, and you want to get to your six figures, you’ve got to be focused on this. 

A lot of people will start saying, money’s not an issue, money’s not my thing, I’m in it for the good. 

If you’re in it for the good then sure, do the good. 

But if you don’t get some sort of financial remuneration from this, soon enough, you will stop doing it. 

I see this across business sectors. People do the good stuff, they help and serve, volunteer, and everything. 

Until the money dries up, and then the service dries up, even in the voluntary sector. 

Take the three things and practise them. 

Communication skills, tell everyone you’re a coach, and make them offers to help. 

Do these three things consistently. Even though you don’t feel like doing it, you’re going to become a master of it. 

And when you become a master of that, you become a master of the basic foundations of building a coaching business.