Salary of a Life Coach

Salary of a Life Coach:  How Much Can You Make?

The salary of a life coach is six figures for only 10 to 20 percent of coaches, according to Forbes.com. Since the median salary for life coaches in the United Sates is only $30,000 to $40,000 per year, it means that there are a lot of coaches who are making much less than $30,000.

 

Avoid The Salary of a Life Coach That Will Make You Sell Your Furniture to Pay Your Rent

What type of life coaching training will you need to get the salary of a life coach that allows you to live the life of your dreams?  Will you need life coaching training?

The Secret to Getting ‘Guru Level’ Salary of a Life Coach:

You are going to have to work harder than you think, for longer than you want, and learn how to go beyond where you are comfortable. And yes, you will need life coaching training.

I have often read that you don’t need specific life coaching training or a degree to become a life coach…That may be true, but you will need life coaching training and experience to become a life coach who makes a decent salary. According to pay scale.com, the median salary of a life coach who works for him or herself is greater than coaches who work as employees. But your chances of winning the lottery are better than landing a steady job with a company unless you have life coaching training and experience.

Options For Gaining a Salary as a Life Coach

No matter where you get your training, you are ultimately going to have to produce a salary somehow.  There are several options you can choose from and each one fits with only a few personalities.  Ultimately, you’ll probably find a good fit with one or two of these options, while the others will feel like a waste of your time, or worse… impossible.

OPTION #1:  Work For a Big Coaching Conglomerate

If you work with one of these big conglomerates, you’ll probably get some free training, and you’ll most likely be given coaching clients to work with and be paid to coach them. That means you’ll absolutely have a job and you won’t have to wonder where the next client is coming from. For some, this is a perfect place to start coaching because everything is laid out for you and you can go right to work as a coach.

However, you’ll likely be trained only in the information the organization wants you to parrot to their customers. These big conglomerates have a vested interest in only sharing THEIR information with their customers (because it helps them indoctrinate their customers deeper into working only with them), so you probably won’t have a lot of freedom about what you are going to coach about. In fact, many of these coaching organizations are simply call centers with a ‘boiler room’ full of ‘coaches’ that are given a script to read to their clients. It’s more like teaching a particular curriculum or re-selling a customer on what they already know.

The income potential for work with the big conglomerates is quite limited, because they aren’t looking for ‘genius level’ coaching. This is the ‘McDonalds’ version of coaching… They have set up an idiot-proof system that almost anyone that speaks English should be able to run, so they don’t expect to pay a lot of money for their planned ‘mediocre’ level of labor. You probably won’t make much more than $30,000 per year working at a big coaching conglomerate. Because it is an already grown and ‘mature’ organization, there won’t be a lot of opportunity for promotion and big raises in salary.  The good news, however, is that it’s pretty much guaranteed and consistent income.

Here are some of the big coaching conglomerates where you might look for a life coaching job:

1.  Stephen Covey

2.  Robert Kyosaki

3.  E-Myth (Michael Gerber)

4.  Mike Ferry

5.  Tom Ferry

6.  By Referral Only

7.  Brian Buffini

OPTION #2:  Grow Your Own Coaching Practice Organically

This method can be a bit slow, especially if you don’t already have much of a personal network with money to spend (and a reason to spend it) on coaching.  However, if you want to run your own ship and you really care about people, this can be the most rewarding and growth oriented approaches to take.  You’ll need to generate your own coaching leads, and get them signed up for free sessions with you.  It’s a ‘one person at a time approach to getting coaching clients‘.  You can’t help but grow when the main way to bring income is to talk to new people every day and help them change their lives for the better.  WARNING: For most people, this is the most challenging approach.

Option #3:  Start a Training, Teaching, or Education Business

This method is available to savvy entrepreneurs that have some education in direct marketing or building a client base of hundreds or thousands in their life coaching business.  There are large income potentials here (in the millions), but remember that there are also potential failures that could cost you lots of money as well.  Don’t go into a large business approach to coaching unless you either have the experience, or are willing to learn the lessons of a large information marketing business first hand and go through the school of hard knocks.

One of the business oriented models that can work quite well in bringing in lots of life coaching income is to run groups.  Group coaching can multiply your income per hour quickly, but remember that you’ll need the life coaching skills to pull off a group that is happy with what they’re paying for, not to mention, you’ll still have to be a savvy enough marketer to bring in enough clients to fill up a few coaching groups.

The salary of a life coach is dependent on his or her skills, not only in coaching but in sales and marketing. If you are looking for an easy way to make $30,000 a year, I recommend finding a job. If you want to make $30,000 a month as a coach, you will need some really great life coaching training and mentoring if you don’t have the skills and experience already. You will also have to pull up your sleeves and work. It can be done, but ultimately it’s up to you.

Hard Work Brings in The Money

When I first started my life coaching career, I looked at this as a bad thing. But think about it… If you were coaching a high achiever to the next level, would you expect them to stretch? Of course. Do you think that you wouldn’t have to do the same for yourself? If you expect others to stretch, you’d be a hypocrite to not expect the same from yourself (not to mention an ineffective life coach).

Life Coach Salary Comes From Life Coaching Training

Don’t let yourself fall into a mediocre life.  Don’t let your clients be mediocre either.  Make the decision to be the coach that can create the life coaching business you know is possible.  Seek the greatness inside you and you will find it, and you’ll be able to cultivate it in others as well.

SPECIAL BONUS — If you would like step-by-step blueprints for generating a massive income from high paying coaching clients, I invite you to claim your FREE ACCESS to the “Life Coach Salary Secrets” video toolkit.  Go HERE to get it FREE.

Colette Seymann

JTS Advisors Bi-Designated Coach

Jeffrey T. Sooey

Founder, Coaches Training Blog community

CEO, JTS Advisors