Kat Millar

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How to Become a Successful Coach

In part 1 of this 3-part blog series, I posed three questions that are useful to ask yourself if you're thinking of becoming a coach.

In part 2, I shared 7 reasons why it's an amazing time to become a coach.

So, you've decided you want to be a coach. Where do you start? Here are 7 steps.


Step 1. Realise that you don't have to quit your day job

Becoming a coach is not about taking a giant leap. Many people believe they have to give up their day jobs to make coaching a career. That’s not true. Doing that could set you up for failure.

For most people, coaching is something to pursue on the side, at least at first. It takes time. Which makes it an ideal transition career to pursue.

Coaching is a perfect supplement to other work. You can build your knowledge, skills and experience while you are still in your 9-5 job. Or if you're a service-based business owner already such as a Chiropractor or Personal Trainer, it's an ideal arm to add to your existing business as you already have clients who know, like and trust you.

I have always used coaching alongside other work and I love the variety. Some people want to be full-time coaches.

For me, I like doing a range of things including running events and teaching. Eventually, I will be doing more travel, circuit-speaking and have a podcast and online course.

Step 2. Get educated

Coaching is a craft. Too many people decide to be a coach then focus all their energy on branding and trying to build an audience without spending any time on the craft of coaching. You need to be a great coach first and foremost.

One of the best ways to become a great coach is to do a coaching course.

The diversity of coaching and mentoring means that everyone will have a different route to becoming a coach.

I recommend you find a course that has a live element and a strong community attached.

Step 3. Decide what kind of coach you want to be

What kind of coaching do you want to do? What kind of people do you want to work with?

If you say you want to coach everyone, you will be invisible.

Pick something that you believe you will be great at coaching someone in. For example, business, relationships, health etc.

Think about your personal story and what you’ve overcome.

What are your gifts? What area of life are you the most passionate about?

Start there.

Step 4. Practice. Practice. Practice.

So many coaches want to start charging instantly because they think that will make them more credible. What makes you credible is your experience, confidence and how good you are.

Don’t focus on the money right now or how many clients you have. Focus on building and getting better.

Coach as many people as you can. Do it for a minimal fee or free. The payment for you is becoming a better coach.

Step 5. Decide your ideal client

This is the part of your business where you decide your ideal client – your avatar. It’s important to narrow your attention and focus on ONE target market (at a time).

Many people start creating offers or content before they are clear on the ONE type of person that they want to attract. This is a huge mistake that I see all the time.

If you'd like a worksheet to help you with this, email me with the subject line 'Your Ideal Client' and I'll send it to you.

Step 6. Locate and captivate your ideal clients

Where does your ideal client spend most of their time online?

Spend most of your time there.

I recommend that you choose a maximum of three places and do it well.

Depending on your ideal client, for most people I recommend Facebook, Instagram and either LinkedIn or YouTube.

The next step is to patiently and systematically educate and inspire potential clients through helpful content so that they want to take the next step with you – and receive value in the meantime.

Content Examples:

Your own original, valuable content such as quotes, helpful captions on Facebook and Instagram, writing articles and blogs and sharing on LinkedIn, doing live videos, writing helpful comments in Facebook groups etc.

Step 7. Invite your ideal clients to take the next step with you

Step 7 is about inviting your ideal clients to engage with you.

I recommend that you create an awesome freebie that your ideal client will get value from.

A freebie – also known as a ‘lead magnet’ are an incentive you offer to potential clients in exchange for their contact information such as name, email, phone number, etc.

You need an opt-in that attracts quality leads and build trust by helping people solve a problem, implement a strategy, or by giving them a useful tool or resource.

There are different types of lead magnets, but often they are a 1-1 discovery call or a downloadable content piece such as a valuable cheat-sheet, checklist, video series, or another type of strategy guide that is helpful for them.

So there you have it – 7 steps to getting started as a Coach.

Would you like to know more about how to build a coaching business?

I have a free 2-hour seminar called 'How to Build a Profitable Coaching Business' coming up in Sydney on Thursday 28th February at 6pm.

==> Click here to find out more

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7 Reasons Why It Is An Amazing Time To Be A Coach

In Part 1 of this blog series, I posed three questions that are useful to ask yourself if you're thinking of becoming a coach.

If you answered yes to these questions, you may be a very good candidate for being a coach.

 

So let me tell you why it is an amazing time to be a coach.

1. The demand for coaching is growing

Our desire for better mental health is getting greater and greater.

As time goes on, coaching will become more and more mainstream.

So the timing is perfect when you look at the internet and our ability to go online and offer coaching from our own home. You can actually make a very healthy six or seven figure income as a Coach. And you can do it without having to have a best selling book and without having to have a building where people come to.

Coaching has become more mainstream, so more people are actively looking for a coach and the need for coaching is greater than ever.

2. Being a coach means you get paid to help people

It's one of the most rewarding things to be in a profession that helps people grow. To see other people change because I’ve worked with them is the most rewarding thing I can imagine doing.

You get to get paid for helping people. You get to make an awesome living. A living that is very lucrative and helps people and the planet.

To be an authority in your client's life as a mentor, as a coach, is one of the highest privileges that we have as coaches.

3. Being a coach helps you understand yourself

Coaching is the ultimate personal development journey. It helps you understand yourself so much better, which in turn improves your relationships with others and the world around you.

Another reason why I love being a coach is that it requires an understanding of the mind.

I think the mind is the most important thing we can study. Our mind thinks thoughts, which shape our lives, so we must get good at understanding thoughts. I think is one of the most important things we can focus on.

Being in an industry that focuses on the mind all the time is so cool. It’s incredible to be a part of that.

4. Being a coach keeps you creating and growing

One of the reasons I absolutely love being a coach is it keeps me out of just consumption and keeps me in the role of being a contributor and creator. It’s important to balance your consumption with your creation and your contribution.

And so I love being part of something that is always asking me to contribute and to grow and to create for my students and for clients.

It requires me to continue to become a better person and that is so rewarding.

5. As a Coach, you get to work in the privacy of your own home

Working from home is ace, y'all.

As coaches we get to make our own schedules, we don't have to spend time in the car commuting if we don’t want to. We get to be in charge of our own day and how we show up within our own homes.

My coach friends and I are always like, pinching ourselves like, is this really our life? Is this really the work we get to do? Are we really part of something so incredible? Our Great Grandparents would be amazed!

6. Celebrities are endorsing coaching

I know, I know, just 'cos others are doing something doesn't mean that we should. But if you like the benefits of the first five reasons, this one is an icing on the cake.

Some of the most famous people in the world have hired coaches and gone on to talk about the experience. These include Oprah Winfrey, Metallica, Serena Williams, Leonardo DiCaprio, Bill Clinton, Hugh Jackman, and Andre Agassi.

Bill Gates supported coaching when he said, "Everyone needs a coach. We all need people to give us feedback. That's how we improve.”

Just like so many other things, celebrities are often the first to start a trend.

If you're worried that there are too many coaches out there, this reason shows that more and more people are hiring coaches and that's not going away.

7. Coaching can create dramatic changes in people’s lives

Coaching has been known to save people’s jobs, marriages, health, peace of mind and much more.

Coaching plays a huge role in helping one of the most concerning things that's happening in our culture - the increase of addictions. People need help with their unhealthy addictions which they’re turning to avoid their feelings.

People who are addicted to social media, drugs, junk food, cigarettes, gambling, over-eating, pharmaceuticals, pornography, video games - all these addictions can lead to greater problems like stress, poor health, panic attacks, depression and anxiety. It is becoming an epidemic.

As coaches, we can help people with some of these things and lead them into healthy, happy lives, which has a beautiful flow-on effect into their families, friendships, workplaces and communities.

There is no limit to the help that the world needs right now.

So, you've decided you want to be a coach. Where do you start?

In part 3 of this blog series, I share the steps to getting started as a coach.

Check it out!

Would you like to know more about how to build a coaching business?

I have a free 2-hour seminar called 'How to Build a Profitable Coaching Business' coming up in Sydney on Thursday 28th February at 6pm.

==> Click here to find out more

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Should You Become A Coach?

Coaching used to be a little-known career, but has experienced significant growth in recent years and is now a fully established and respected occupation.

Have you noticed the increase of coaches there are now?

As life is becoming more challenging for many people, help and support is often needed to stay on the right track.

The International Coaching Federation surveyed people who'd worked with coaches, and 99% of them reported being satisfied with the overall coaching experience.

As many as 96% of those respondents said they'd repeat the process. (Source: ICF 2009 Global Coaching Client Study).

Becoming a coach is definitely not for everyone, but if it’s something you think you’d like to explore, this 3-part blog series will help bring you clarity.

In this article, I share some questions to ask yourself to determine if coaching is right for you.

In part 2 of this blog series, I share 7 reasons why it is an amazing time to be a coach and in part 3, I share 7 tips on how to get started.

I started coaching in 2008. Back then I hadn’t done any type of formal coaching qualification. I was working in Auckland at Les Mills gym as a Personal Trainer at the time.

I quickly learned that most of my personal training clients needed a lot more support in their lives than simply with their exercise routines. Many people were struggling with stress, body-image issues, emotional eating issues, low self-image and a host of other challenges.

I realised that continuing to just train them over the months and years wasn’t enough. They needed much more. So I started booking them in for what I called ‘non-sweat’ sessions.

Typically, we would work together every fortnight for an hour in a cafe or in the gym consultation room and would discuss their challenges and goals and I’d help them create milestones and actions for the coming weeks ahead.

Little did I realise that doing this would lead to some incredible transformations. People started acheiving goals they'd been working on for years and hadn't been able to progress on. I absolutely loved it.

After I moved to Australia in 2012, I decided to pursue a career in coaching more seriously. I did a coaching course and an NLP course and hired a new coach for myself (coaches need coaching) and started coaching people mainly in the area of mindset.

In 2016 I transitioned to business coaching, helping service-based entrepreneurs to get more clients.

Coaching has provided me with incredible opportunities, growth, and reward. I sing its praises to anyone who will listen. It's wonderful work to do.

Coaching is one of the fastest growing fields there is. Many people now employ coaches for all sorts of areas of life - business, career, emotions, health, relationships etc. and after the experience of working with a coach, often decide to become a coach themselves because of their own personal transformation.

The demand for coaching has gone up so enormously that it's becoming that there are not enough coaches to coach the people that need coaching. This is only going to continue to grow.

Here are some questions to ask yourself if you’re considering becoming a coach:

  1. Are you committed to improving your own life?

If your answer to those is yes, you probably are invested in working on yourself and naturally gravitate towards personal development.

You will know this is you because you listen to podcasts, watch YouTube clips and attend events on personal development, human behaviour or psychology and you tell every single person you know about it, you try to help them, and many of them think you're weird.

If that is you, then you have a compelling desire to grow. It’s one of your highest values and this is a crucial ingredient to have as a coach.

If the answer is no, coaching is probably not for you, because if you don't love self-improvement and self-help, you are not going to love coaching.

  1. Do you enjoy helping people?

One of the primary jobs of a coach is to motivate and encourage people to reach their full potential.

If you find yourself doing this to your friends who aren’t paying you, you probably would love being a coach.

Seeing people light up because they have had an a-ha moment, or they achieve their goal is one of the most rewarding things ever to a coach.

  1. Do you want to be an entrepreneur?

Things have changed a lot in the coaching industry, where more coaches are being employed by corporations. This may be an option for you, depending on what type of coaching you want to do.

But for most people, coaching requires you to become a business owner and entrepreneur.

To have full control of your income, your preferred hours of working and creativity in the type of work you want to do, being an entrepreneur is one of the best ways.

It is true that not everybody should be an entrepreneur. Not everyone wants to build a business, not everybody has what it takes in terms of the grit and determination that it requires.

If you decide that you want to be a coach and an entrepreneur, that's two skillsets that you need to learn. If you just want to be a contractor or an employee, then you just have to learn how to coach and look for someone to hire you.

If you answered yes to these questions, you may be a very good candidate for being a coach.

In part 2, I share with you 7 reasons why it is an amazing time to be a coach.

Would you like to know more about how to build a coaching business?

I have a free 2-hour seminar called 'How to Build a Profitable Coaching Business' coming up in Sydney onThursday 28th February at 6pm.

==> Click here to find out more

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