Author and poet Charles Bukowski wasn’t describing an online personal coach when he penned this line in Tales of Ordinary Madness: “You begin saving the world by saving one man at a time; all else is grandiose romanticism or politics.”

Now, you may not believe an online personal coach has anything to do with saving the world, and you may have a point. But, nothing gets accomplished unless you begin at the beginning. And at the beginning is the individual; the lone person seeking help.

What is a Personal Coach?

A personal coach is just another name for a life coach. A personal coach is effective in helping individuals make a life change, reach goals or dreams, or find personal happiness and fulfillment.

A personal coach does not make it happen – the client makes it happen! But, and this is a really BIG but; the personal coach helps make it happen. Here’s how.

Personal life coaches are:

• Use reflection rather than direction
• Focus on development rather than imposition
• Concentrate on pleasure rather than pain
• See potential rather than pathology
• Are flexible rather than rigid
• Learn to be adaptable rather than inflexible

Personal coaches draw out a client’s potential rather than filling in the blanks with their own personal knowledge, perceptions, and goals.

What is an Online Personal Coach?

Personal coaches who ply their trade online are online personal coaches. They may do some of their work online or all of their work online.

The Advantages of Using an Online Personal Coach

• Eliminates the problems of distance and time
• Allows clients to use everyday technology to help them improve their lives
• Allows a personal coach to follow the progress of their clients more closely and in a more timely manner.
• It creates on-demand coaching.
• Online coaching can be less expensive for clients and more cost effective for coaches.

How to Become an Online Personal Coach

Assuming you are already in the life coaching business, it’s a pretty easy to move some or all of your business online. First you need to decide how you want to coach people online. Do you want to use e-mail, Skype, webinars, online videos, or a combination of all methods? Most likely, using a combination of all methods will attract the most people and make the most money.

If you don’t already have one, you need to create a website for your business. Don’t scrimp on the website! It needs to be professionally done, have several functions and pages, and contain plenty of information on you, your services, and how you can help clients. A cheap website tells the world that you are a lousy online personal coach!

Make your presence known on the Internet. You can have your own corner of the Internet with your professionally done website, but if no one knows where you are, no one will visit you (or become a paying client).

Get your name and your brand known online. Write for blogs, post comments in forums, advertise, and network with other online coaches to mutually promote your services. The more your targeted banner ad pops up on people’s computer, the more your brand and name will be known.

Once you take these steps, you will officially be an online personal coach. You can begin saving the world one person at a time. But, if you really want to be a success in the personal coaching business, you may not want to live by another Charles Bukowski quote: “Never get out of bed before noon.”

You will probably need to get out of bed before noon to be a successful online personal coach (remember, the early bird gets the worm), but you can probably stay in your pajamas while you work as an online personal coach!

By the way… you’re invited to claim your FREE step-by-step “30-Days to Become a Coach” video toolkit. Just go HERE now to get your 30-day coaching blueprint videos.

Fred Philips
Business Coach
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