If you want to become a personal growth coach, I can see why: it can be a rewarding, fulfilling, and interesting career.
You get to meet people, set your own hours, and work remotely. Since I started coaching, I’ve been working internationally between Australia (my home) and Sweden (where my fiancée is from), something I could have only dreamed of doing when I was younger.
I can confidently say that coaching has changed my life. As a former professional athlete, coaching has shaped who I am. Focusing on coaching has given me financial freedom, a sense of purpose, and the contentment that comes from helping people.
So if you want to learn how to become a personal growth coach, let me give you the practical steps you need to follow to get started, and how to market yourself to get those vital first clients.
What is a Personal Growth Coach?
A personal growth coach is a life coach for personal development. Someone who helps people grow and acts as a trusted guide for self-improvement. That’s the simple explanation!
In reality, a coach can help clients grow in specific ways. That might be communication, assertiveness, stress management, or mindfulness. Whatever it is, you’re going to help them reach their full potential.
What does a personal growth coach do?
A personal growth coach meets with a client to get to know their needs. They might want to increase their confidence in social situations, for example.
Once you’ve identified the main goal, your job is to then break this down into smaller, more manageable subgoals.
Personal growth coach vs. life coach: What is the difference?
If I wanted general help with my whole life, both personal and professional, I’d go for a life coach. But for specific goals? I’d look up a personal growth life coach.
Personal growth coaches are much more specific. Which helps clients to find them. If I had an issue with communication I’d go see a growth coach that specializes in that.
Personal growth coaches are life coaches, but the key is that they focus on much more specific goals.
How much do personal growth coaches make?
I’m often asked what a personal growth coach salary looks like. It’s the million-dollar question, isn’t it? According to the most recent ICF Global Coaching Study, the average annual revenue from coaching in the US was $67,800.
If I was being cautious, I’d say that there are other things to factor in here. For example, the amount of hours you work, how skilled you are within your niche (career coaching can attract some higher paying clients, for example), and where you live. You can make enough to get by, or you can make six figures: obviously we’ll aim for the latter but it depends on your niche and your skills.
It also depends on your pricing strategy (which I’ll get to a little later in more detail). Some coaches like to offer their services for a reduced fee or even for free to begin with, but I prefer not to do this.
I’d say it’s important to get feedback on your prices from clients to help you set your pricing, but you should value your time as a coach.
Bonus pricing tip: I always try to overdeliver for my clients. I might throw in some one-to-one coaching, for example, when they weren’t expecting it. You want to set your price high enough to pay yourself a good salary, but also give your clients good value. This can take some time to balance, so don’t be surprised if your take-home pay fluctuates a little as you get started.
What Skills Do You Need to Be a Personal Growth Coach?
In my experience, you need some really useful ‘soft skills’ if you want to become a successful personal development coach. I don’t love that phrase because I actually think these are essential skills for life in general, not just good coaching skills. But good growth coaches should be:
Very good at problem-solving
The main thing you’re trying to achieve with growth coaching is, essentially, problem-solving. You’re helping coaching clients to solve their problems. So you need to be able to identify the problem and break down solutions into manageable action plans.
Flexible and adaptable
Sometimes, a solution just won’t work for whatever reason: maybe the timing is wrong, for example. Or maybe your client just needs another workaround for this particular subgoal. Personal development coaches are adaptable enough to say ‘You know what? Let’s try something else.’ Sometimes clients will have changes in their lives that require you to think on their feet.
Have strong communication skills
Communication is key for all areas of life, right? But especially for the coaching process. You need to be able to give clear advice. You need to be approachable, but to have good boundaries in place with your clients. Productive coaching relies on strong communication, including decent active listening skills.
That’s not just in direct speaking, either. A good idea of how written communication ‘feels’ to a client is a really useful skill to have and can help facilitate personal connections when you meet clients online.
Organized and efficient
Hopefully, you’ll end up with a full schedule and a ton of clients to work with. Since I started coaching, I’ve booked more than 3,000 appointments on my sales calendar. I have hired a sales team to help me.
Personal development coaches use anything from paper diaries to online scheduling software to keep on top of things: whatever works for you.
Thoughtful and personable
People will want to hire a personal development coach who is approachable and friendly. You want your clients to open up and trust you.
I also find it really helps to remember small details about your client. If they tell you that they’re going to the vet later that day because their dog is sick, for example, I might start our next conversation with ‘Hey mate, how’s your dog?’. It’s these small details that show you really care.
How to Start a Personal Growth Coaching Business
So where do you even begin? Here are some steps to become a good coach and get going in the coaching industry:
1. Certification to become a coach
Personal growth coach training is often seen as the first step in becoming a coach. Do you need to undergo a certification program to start as a self-improvement coach and help the client reach their goals?
The short answer is no. You don’t need coach certification. You can just get started without needing to go through any courses or a certification process. If you have experience in a particular area of life you can use that, rather than needing to become certified.
However, I would say that some clients prefer a certified coach and these training programs can help teach you coaching fundamentals and good coaching techniques.
So you can go through something like the International Coaching Federation, or other coach training programs, which will help you get ready to become a coach, and will also appeal to clients looking for certified coaches.
You may also want to keep your professional development up by keeping track of changes in your niche.
2. Designing the client experience
Coaches focus on helping people to reach their goals. So ask yourself questions like:
- What kind of niche will I be working in?
- What type of problems do people tend to face in this area?
- Will I offer in-person coaching, Zoom coaching, or phone coaching?
- What will my introductory session look like?
- How many sessions will I offer per client, or will it be on a case-by-case basis?
You can have a rough plan of each client’s journey with you, even if you do deviate sometimes depending on their specific needs.
3. Set up a website
A website will act as a central hub for your potential clients. It should include:
- A section about you: this includes your background, your journey of becoming a personal coach, etc
- A section about your coaching practice and what you want to offer clients
- A section about pricing
- Links to your social channels
- A link to your newsletter or blog
- A contact page
4. Intake forms
Many coaches use an intake form, which are valuable coaching tools. Intake forms act as a guide to help you gain key information before your first session, including:
- What they want to improve or achieve
- What’s holding them back from those particular goals
- Any specific history that may impact your client currently (for example, if they lost confidence at work due to a workplace bullying incident: you may need to know this so you can build some self-esteem building into their goals)
- What kind of support do they want from you
- Any industry-specific questions (these will vary depending on your niche)
5. Goal setting
You need to get really good at goal setting to do successful coaching. Top personal development coaches help clients achieve their goals and see tangible results. When you’re setting goals, you can think SMART:
- Is the goal Specific? If the goal is too vague, it will be harder to see progress.
- Is it Measurable? Can you measure the goal? For example, if a subgoal is ‘go to an industry event and make three new contacts’, you can tick it off easily.
- Is it Achievable? Sometimes you might set a goal that is too far for your client to reach. This happens; it’s an inevitable part of the process when you’re getting to know them. If so, you can make the step smaller. The goal should be achievable but not too easy, because your client wants to see real progress.
- Is it Relevant? Are the subgoals, for example, feeding back to the main goal?
- Is it Timely? Have you set a specific time limit for this goal?
6. Pricing and finances
Setting pricing for your online coaching business is one of the most difficult parts for a lot of personal growth coaches, because how do you remain competitive while still acknowledging your worth and attracting those high-ticket clients?
Using an hourly rate is pretty useful. Remember, your hourly rate needs to cover your salary and the costs of running your business too.
However, there are some downsides to hourly pricing. It kind of shifts the focus onto the amount of information the client can get in a certain amount of time.
Some coaches offer coaching packages instead. You might offer a set amount of time that you’ll give to the client (for example, a year) and a certain number of sessions within that year. They can book the sessions as they see fit.
The third option is to be on a retainer, which is where the client pays you monthly to help them achieve their personal and professional goals. Again, there are some benefits to this, but in my experience, it’s harder as a growth coach to help your clients and maintain a good work-life balance while you’re on retainer.
The end choice will depend on your coaching approach and what works best for you.
7. Admin
You’ll also need to do the paperwork: setting up your business officially, planning your business growth, and looking up any insurance you might need to officially start your coaching business.
How to Get Clients as a Personal Growth Coach
I could talk forever about marketing yourself as a growth coach. Here are some options for finding new clients:
Offering your services for free
A controversial idea! But many people find that to get the ball rolling, they need to offer some free coaching sessions to friends or family members. You can then get some valuable testimonials from them and gain good coaching experience.
Social media accounts
Social media is a big component of marketing for personal growth coaches to establish your personal brand. Depending on your niche, you may want to pick two or three platforms and just concentrate on those.
Posting valuable content
People want to get to know you, and they want to get free advice. So think about how you can share your knowledge: this might be through an email newsletter, a series of YouTube videos, or a blog. This builds your credibility and can link directly to your coaching website.
Running virtual webinars or workshops
Webinars and virtual workshops are a great way to attract new clients. You’re building credibility and offering people a chance to get to know your personality.
My own clients have had huge success here. For example, Janine Bolon, a podcaster and author, told me that after running her first workshop, “several people joined my group and 1-on-1 coaching programs.”
Hosting virtual summits
Virtual summits are another good way to attract clients. Take another client of mine, Sara Artemisia, who grew her email list by 5,00 people after working with me and hosting a summit. “I’m still getting emails from people all over the world saying how much the summit has changed their life.”
A summit gives you the chance to showcase your expertise and give people valuable information while marketing your coaching services in a way that feels natural.
In my own work, I’ve seen a huge benefit from running virtual summits. I’ve gained 5,000 to 25,000 new leads every single time I’ve run a summit, filling up my appointment calendar and giving me some valuable new clients. It can be a really successful step in a high-ticket sales funnel.
Plus, I keep these summits as an evergreen product, so people can still gain wisdom from them and I can get passive income from them.
Local directories and advertising
People still want to look for coaches near them, so check out local Facebook groups, online directories, and even newspapers for your town or city.
In-person events
In-person events can be really powerful. Whether it’s networking events or conventions, you can make some real connections by seeing people face to face. Just remember to take some business cards and follow up with people after the event itself.
One More Thing: Tackling the Tough Stuff
Sometimes your client might be going through something really difficult, or they may share something that is beyond your ability to help. I’d recommend having a list of qualified therapists, healthcare professionals, and charities/organizations just in case this happens and you need to redirect them to a more appropriate source of help.
My Final Thoughts
Honestly, becoming a successful coach has changed my life for the better, and I hope I’ve given you enough information to hit the ground running.
But before you go, make sure to check out my free training on how to start a coaching business.
