Being a personal weight loss coach isn’t easy. It takes training, skill, knowledge, patience, and flexibility. To be successful, you have to be able to attract and retain a decent amount of clients. You need to have outcomes that your target group is seeking.
Weight loss is tough, and being a coach who helps people with their weight issues is even tougher!
Anyone Can be a Weight Loss Coach
Anyone can hang out a shingle, print up some fancy business cards and call themselves a personal weight loss coach. Anyone – no legal requirements for training, education, expertise, or knowledge. However, the coaching industry is booming and more individuals are looking to coaching as a rewarding career path.
If you are a weight loss coach, you have competition and that competition is increasing every year. You not only need to know how to be a good coach, you also need to know how to avoid being a terrible coach.
How to be a Terrible Personal Weight Loss Coach
Knowing what it takes to be a terrible weight loss coach will actually help you avoid becoming one of those. Terrible personal weight loss coaches won’t be coaches for very long – clients will leave and word of mouth will soon discourage anyone from paying money for terrible coaching services.
Here are a few ways to be terrible at weight loss coaching:
Don’t Possess Enough Knowledge
Assume your initial coaching training is even and skip any continuing education. There are professionals out there with fancy degrees and letters after their names (R.D – registered dietician, R.D.N. – registered dietician nutritionist, etc.) and some people will navigate to them because those letters after their names sound like knowledge. You have to show you possess as much knowledge as them, even though you are only a coach!
Don’t Understand Your Clients
Everyone is different and everyone has different needs. One person’s metabolism may be far different than the next. Goals, medical issues, motivations, and time frames may be different for different clients. Take some time to truly understand each client and what they want. Coaching, and especially weight loss coaching, is not a one-size-fits-all formula. Make it personal – for each and every client! If you don’t you’ll be a terrible personal weight loss coach!
Make it About Money Not Clients
Though coaches need to make money, if you make it about money, you may not be doing the best for your clients. You’ll be a terrible coach, and one quickly out of business. However, if you do your best for the clients, the money will come. Being a personal weight loss coach is your income producer, but making it about money will most likely make you a worse coach.
Forget About Money
Yes, it isn’t and it is about money. In your coaching, it’s about the client, first and foremost. But, you do have to operate your business and you need to make business decisions which will make money and boost your business. If you forget that it’s a business, you’ll be a terrible business owner and quickly out of business!
What to charge, what additional products to make, what to give away for free are all decisions that are about making money (or, not losing money). Being a successful personal weight loss coach is both about putting your clients first and putting your business first – yes, they can be tied for first! Forgetting about the clients or the money will make you a terrible weight loss coach – if that’s what you want to be.
By the way… you’re invited to claim your FREE step-by-step “Life Coaching Business Blueprint” video toolkit. Just go HERE now to get your life coaching business blueprint videos.
Fred Philips
Business Coach
Writing Team, Coaches Training Blog Community
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