How to Find a Life Coach | What to Look for in a Life Coach

If you’re ready to take your life and business to the next level, I’m here to explain how to find a life coach and what to look for in a life coach so that you can get the support you deserve to help you accomplish your biggest life and business goals faster and easier. This article dives into What is a life coach?, Why hire a life coach?, What does a life coach do?, What types of life coaches are there?, Who benefits the most from coaching?, What’s the right type of coach for you?, What to look for in a life coach?, How to find a life coach?, and Why you won’t want to hire a life coach? This is the ultimate guide for how to find a life coach and what to look for in a life coach for entrepreneurs

Working with a coach drastically changed my life and business.

I used to work a 9 to 5 that sucked my soul dry, and now I am running a 6 figure business that lights me up every day.

I used to think vacations could only last 2 weeks a year, and now I am travelling full time for 6 months with my family. I used to think my income would never exceed 50K, and now I earn twice that amount working half the hours.

What changed?

I invested the time and energy to figure out what I really wanted my life to look like and what would fulfill me in the long term; I worked with a coach that helped me overcome my limiting beliefs about what was and wasn’t possible; and I had the support I deserved to hold me accountable to my life vision and help me overcome the challenges along the way.

My personal and business growth has been exponential over the last year, and it’s all because of coaching.

If you’re looking for a life coach that can support you in your own personal growth journey, or you want to achieve your most important goals faster and easier, this article will help you understand how to find a life coach that is a perfect fit for you and what to look for in a life coach.

Whether you’ve worked with a coach before, or never knew that coaches exist, this article will help you pinpoint the right support for getting you to your next level.

Ana McRae life and business coach explains How to Find a Life Coach, What to Look for in a Life Coach, What’s the right type of coach for you, Who benefits the most from coaching, Why hire a life coach

What is a life coach?

Before I tell you how to find a life coach, let’s get clear on what a life coach is…

A life coach is a professional that helps you overcome the challenges that are keeping you from achieving your goals and living the life you want to live.

Coaches are thinking partners that help you see where you’re stuck inside your own stories, where your subconscious fears, limiting beliefs, and self sabotaging patterns of behavior are holding you back from reaching your full potential.

A life coach is someone that has the skills and experience to help you identify what’s getting in the way of what you want, help you overcome the mental roadblocks to your success, create a strategic roadmap for achieving your goals, and hold you accountable to stepping into your full potential.

Coaching is the process of partnering in a thought provoking process that inspires you to maximize your personal and professional potential.

Why hire a life coach?

Working with a life coach is one of the best and fastest ways to level up in your life.

Hiring a life coach allows you to accelerate your personal and professional growth so that you can fast track your happiness, fulfillment, and success.

The reason life coaching works so well is because we humans get so wrapped up inside our own heads:

the stories we tell ourselves about what we are and aren’t capable of often keep us stuck
the cycles of analysis paralysis we fall into when making big and small decisions prevent us from taking the action we need to take to achieve our goals
the way our brain is programmed to resist change and maintain the status quo makes it too easy to procrastinate, avoid, or back out when working toward a big goal.

Working with a life coach allows you to get out of your own head, see past your excuses, and create the results you know you’re truly capable of in your life and business.

What does a life coach do?

A life coach can help you identify what exactly it is that you want, see the ways in which your brain is keeping you from achieving it, and hold you accountable to making decisions that align with your values and your vision so that you can create your desired future. Knowing how to find a life coach allows you to work with someone who can help you create a life you truly love.

two woman talking about how to find a life and business coach and what to look for in a life and business coach

If you’re an entrepreneur that’s struggling to balance life and business, a life coach can help you identify what’s blocking you from living a balanced life while growing a thriving business, and assist you in making the shifts (mentally and strategically) required to get to the place where your business and your life feel completely aligned.

If you’re a professional that’s feeling unfulfilled at work, a life coach can help you figure out what you’d really like to be doing with your life, and start to make the changes toward that vision while tackling the fears and limiting beliefs that accompany big decisions and changes.

If you’re a woman that’s feeling overwhelmed by her to-do list, stressed about the future, and exhausted from never making time for herself or setting boundaries, a life coach can help you build the habits that will allow you to be more productive and happy

If you’re a business owner that has ambitious growth goals, a life coach can help hold you accountable to focusing on the things that are going to make the biggest difference and provide a level of accountability that amplifies your momentum.

Hiring a life coach is one of the most amazing decisions you can make when you’re ready to transform your life from what it is, to what you want it to be.

The reason working with a life coach is so incredibly valuable is because you can’t see the illogical stories you’re telling yourself that are limiting your actions, like…

I can’t make money doing what I love. Work is meant to be boring.
Business requires hard work and sacrifice. I can’t take time to rest.
I have to complete my to-do list in order to be happy.
Money is a reflection of my worth. I have to make more to be worthy of love and belonging.
I don’t have enough experience. I can’t work with x client or run x level business yet.
Making more money means working harder. Business will never feel easier.

Your brain resists self reflection and is too caught up in its own narrative to think differently.

A life coach helps you look at your thoughts objectively, and stop and question the ones that limit your perspective so that you can see a new way forward to achieve your desires.

It’s really difficult (if not impossible) to coach yourself (similar to trying to tickle yourself). It’s why the best life coaches also have life coaches: you need that outside perspective to help you change your thinking so that you can change your life.

None of us transform our thinking on our own. We need someone outside of our heads to help disrupt our thinking.

What types of life coaches are there?

There are over 4 million coaches in the world, and 1.8 million in the US. If you’re wondering how to find a life coach, there is a coach for just about anything.

While the process of coaching stays the same – helping you identify your ideal state/goals, what’s standing in the way, and overcome those challenges so that you can take action and achieve the outcome you desire – coaches apply this process to different problems and specialize their tools and approaches to support specific types of challenges.

You can find every type of life coach, ranging from:

Life coach
Purpose coach
Career coach
Mindset coach
Business coach
Parenting coach
Wellness coach
Lifestyle design coach
Leadership coach
Speaking coach
Goals coach
Spirituality coach
Confidence coach
Happiness coach

Identifying what type of life coach is right for you is the first step in finding the right life coach to support you in achieving your goals.

Related post: How To Define Your Core Values

Who benefits the most from coaching?

Literally every single human on this planet would benefit from coaching. That’s not a blanket statement I make because it’s convenient… It’s a belief I hold because I’ve experienced the power of coaching myself and have seen it’s impact on hundreds of people.

Humans in all walks of life benefit from coaching because it helps them get intentional about what they want and strategic in overcoming the barriers to achieving it, so that they can live their ideal life sooner rather than later.

In my experience, you’ll get a lot of benefit from working with a life coach if…

If you’re ambitious and have big goals for your life or business, working with a life and business coach or a mindset coach will help you get through the endless mental blocks and limiting beliefs that come up when leveling up in any area of your life or work, and having someone hold you accountable to staying focused on your success

If you’re overwhelmed and feeling like you’re always behind in life or business, working with a mindset coach or a life coach will help you assess the expectations you have for yourself, get clear on your priorities, and set boundaries that allow you to thrive instead of just survive

If you’re feeling unhappy in your job or unfulfilled by your business, working with a purpose coach or a career coach will help you with pinpointing your purpose and creating a plan of action for making a change in your direction

If you’re struggling to grow your business, working with a business coach will help you nail down the strategy you need to achieve your goals and hold you accountable to stretching out of your comfort zone and doing things differently

These are just a few examples of who benefits the most from coaching.

In the last few years I’ve spent supporting these people as a life and business success coach for women and entrepreneurs, I’ve definitely been blown away by the things my clients can accomplish in a short period of time working together.

What’s the right type of coach for you?

The right type of coach for you is someone who specializes in the problems you’re facing and can help you achieve the goals you have.

If you find impostor syndrome, fear of failure, self doubt, or overwhelm getting in your way, a mindset coach may be perfect for you.

A mindset coach can help you identify the limiting beliefs, mental blocks, and automatic thought patterns that are creating these negative feelings and stopping you from taking massive action.

girls researching how to find a life coach and what to look for in a life coach

If you are not sure about what you want to do with your life, feeling unhappy at work, and looking to change directions, a life purpose coach or career coach may be the right coach for you.

A life purpose coach or career coach would have the tools to help you identify what lights you up and how to pursue it as a profession.

If you are struggling to grow your business to the next level, a business coach may be the right coach for you.

A business coach would have the tools to help you design your offers/products, manage the back end processes, create a marketing and sales strategy, and start hitting your revenue goals.

You can identify the right type of coach for you by looking at what your goals are, what’s getting in your way, and then seeing what type of coach might be worth chatting with.

The right life coach for you has tools they can share with you to help you overcome the challenges you’re facing.

What to look for in a life coach?

When you’re looking for the right life coach for you, you might be wondering what to look for. After all, coaching is a significant investment of your time, energy, and money so it’s important to find the right life coach for you.

Personality

When looking for a life coach, one of the most important elements is whether or not their personality jives with yours. A great way to get a feel for this is by reading some of their work on their website or on their social media platforms to understand their story, their values, and how they see the world.

Most coaches also offer a free call where you can get to know them and see whether you’d feel comfortable opening up to that person and spending time with them week after week.

Experience

The second biggest thing that makes a life coach great is the amount of experience they have coaching. Look for life coaches that have been in the industry for multiple years and can point to clients that have experienced great results.

Ask for testimonials or look on the coach’s website to see how effectively they can coach. Of course, experience comes with an increased cost, but the results you see when you work with an experienced life coach are exponentially bigger than those you might get with someone who’s new to the industry.

Certifications

Because coaching is an unregulated industry, certifications can be obtained rather easily. I would say a coach’s certifications are not nearly as big of a predictor of their effectiveness as experience and fit, but it may still be valuable to inquire where a potential coach learned the art and science of coaching and what processes they use to help you achieve results.

Related post: Building A Meaningful Life

Long term relationships

The results you’ll see from working with a life coach grow exponentially as time goes on – long term partnerships allow for a deeper understanding and connection, which amplifies the power of coaching. Look for coaches that offer long term partnership (6 months at a minimum) so that you’re able to build a solid rapport that allows for more impact.

Ask the coach how long their clients typically stay with them – it often reflects on how happy people are with the services being provided.

Passion

Look for coaches that love what they do. When a life coach is genuinely invested in your goals and passionate about solving the problems you’re facing, they show up to the calls with a completely different energy. You deserve a coach that’s there because they genuinely want to be there, and not because they’re getting paid to be there. Usually, you can tell the amount of energy a life coach has for their work when you get on a free call to connect with them.

How to find a life coach?

Search online for a life coach

Many life coaches have an online presence where they share not only what their services are, but lots of content that you may find valuable (whether it’s articles, free workbooks, mini ebooks, video trainings, etc.)

When you search Google, Instagram, LinkedIn, or Facebook, you’ll be able to find many different coaches to choose from.

Get a feel for their mission, their niche, and their coaching style. See whether you find their free content valuable. Find a few life coaches that you resonate with and ask to get on a call with them to find out more about their services.

person typing on computer wondering how to find a life coach and what to look for in a life coach

Ask your network

Life coaching is in high demand, especially after the years of uncertainty we’ve experienced, people are looking for help figuring out what they want their life to look like and how to make it happen. It’s very likely that many of the people you know are working with coaches. Ask your peers where you can find out more about the coach they’re working with, whether they’d recommend that coach, and how you can get in touch.

Why you won’t want to hire a life coach?

Financial investment

One of the biggest objections your brain is going to have around hiring a life coach is how much it costs.

Of course, life coaches range in their pricing from $100/hour to $1,000/hour but regardless of the amount they charge, the financial investment can feel stretchy.

My first business coach came with a $12,000 price tag, but the return on my investment was well over 3x that amount by the time we were done working together.

If you’re not looking for business coaching, it can feel more difficult to quantify the ROI (return on investment) of coaching. Consider what you want your desired future to look like, how you want to feel, and the goals you want to accomplish, and then determine what’s that worth to you?

When I was looking to get out of my 9 to 5, having someone help me figure out what to do and how to do it was worth every penny I had, because I could no longer stand showing up to a job that I hated.

When I was building my business, having someone help me figure out what I was doing and how to generate consistent paying clients so that I wasn’t constantly stressed, confused, and feeling like it would never work was so worth the upfront investment.

1 year, 5 years, 10 years from now, where do you want to be? How do you want to feel on a day to day basis? What accomplishments do you want to have under your belt? What’s that worth to you?

Honestly, it’s never going to feel like the “right time” to invest in yourself. Many people question if they’re even allowed to spend this much money on themselves and their own lives.

But your financial investment to the process of changing your life is an important factor in your commitment. When you invest in yourself, you show up.

Free coaching doesn’t work.

Time

You might not feel like now is the “right time” to work with a coach. That was the excuse I had used for many many months before I pulled the trigger and invested in my first life coach.

Every coach’s process can look different, but you can expect everything from an hour long call once a month, to a 90 min call once a week, plus the time it takes to do the actions you committed to in between calls.

This may seem like a big time commitment, and it is, but there is no better way to spend your time than on creating the life you want for yourself… literally.

In reality, there is never a “right time” to work with a coach, to launch a business, to make a career change, to start a family, or to do any of those things that we often tell ourselves we’re unprepared to do.

If you’re worried that now is not the right time, usually there’s an underlying fear there (whether of failure, or success, or discomfort) and time isn’t actually the problem.

Guarantees

A lot of people hesitate to work with a coach because they’re not sure “if it will work.”

While some people have had negative experiences with coaches that weren’t a great fit, most people see incredible results.

When you find a coach that is the right fit for you and has the experience and tools to help you solve your challenges, and you show up fully prepared for the calls and do the work in between, you are going to see momentum toward your goals.

Coaching can’t come with guarantees because your coach can’t make you do the work, or make you open up on the calls.

In coaching you are responsible for creating the results you want to see in your life and business. A good coach can help make that a heck of a lot easier for you, but they can’t do your work.

Your coach can’t guarantee your results (and if they do, they’re lying to you) but if you show up for the process and give it 100%, you will blow your own mind with what you’re capable of.

Necessity

“I don’t NEED a coach.”

It’s true. Nobody NEEDS a coach.

You are fully capable of achieving anything you set your mind to.

The problem becomes when your mind disagrees and sends you into spirals of self doubt or overwhelm, and instead of processing through the limiting beliefs creating that fear and taking action anyway, you procrastinate, avoid, and self sabotage your own success.

The problem becomes when you aren’t even aware that you’re holding yourself back and playing small instead of having a coach that empowers you to dream bigger and take on more challenge.

The problem becomes when you’re too focused on one strategy, one goal, or one way of doing things that you’re blocking opportunities or finding your life out of balance, instead of having an objective opinion to help you think differently, approach things from a different perspective, and point out where you’re compromising.

So no, you don’t need a life coach. But even the best athletes have coaches, the most powerful entrepreneurs have coaches, because coaching is something that helps you get better faster.

You can do it alone. But you don’t have to.

Only you can decide to get the support you deserve to achieve your biggest goals faster and easier.

Once you find a life coach that can help you define your goals, overcome the obstacles to achieving them, and create your desired future, you’ve basically won the lottery…

You won’t be able to believe what you’re capable of doing when you have someone helping you rise to your full potential.

It’s too easy to settle for mediocrity. If you’re here to achieve exceptional things in your life and business, working with a coach will make the journey much faster and easier.

If you’re been wondering how to find a life coach and think working with a life & business coach might be the right next step for you, book a time to chat with me here.

We’ll jump on a Zoom call for 30 minutes to identify what your goals are, what challenges are getting in your way, and what it looks like for me to support you in overcoming them so that this can be the year it all takes off for you. You’ll get a feel for my coaching style and be able to assess whether this is a good fit. And if it’s not, I’ll be able to help you identify next steps in the right direction.

Book a free connection call today

Let us know in the comments below, have you worked with a life coach before? What questions do you have about how to find a life coach?

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