Becoming a Life Coach
Find out how to get a Life Coaching Certification online with an ICF Accredited educational program
If you are passionate about supporting people overcoming the obstacles you have worked so hard to overcome and you are willing to be of service to others, maybe becoming a Professional Coach can be your ideal professional path. If you have a passion to manifest your dreams and desires, or you’d like to give meaning to what you do, you can consider the Coaching Profession as the right one for you. Maybe you are determined to live a more flexible lifestyle and you want to be in charge of your own business. Whatever inspires you to consider the coaching professional path, make sure you take your time to make clarity around many different key aspects that will make your choice a successful one.
1. Be clear about what moves you to become a life coach
Becoming a great life coach requires a number of personal qualities and extensive training, supervision, and experience. Appropriate qualities include openness, approachability, curiosity, and the willingness to emabrk in a journey of self discovery. That is why it is important to clarify your purpose and motivation to commit to develop the needed skills to be a Professional Coach.
Whatever pulls you to the coaching profession, make sure you take your time to clarify it. You can always … work with a coach to uncover it! We actually encourage those who are willing to embark in some coach training, to be the first to test the amazing benefits of coaching.
It is important that you reflect on what drives you to become a certified coach because this has an important impact on what type of training and education you will select for yourself. Our suggestion is to spend some time determining what is really important to you.
– What is it that brings you to coaching?
– What do you expect to get out of it?
– What type of coach do you want to be?
– What niches are you interested in?
2. Search for a coach training certification program that suits your needs
When you decide to become a coach and you are ready to enroll in a Coach Training Certification Program, make sure you choose an program that is aligned with and accredited by the International Coaching Federation (ICF). Our program received the highest ICF accreditation (ACTP) and is now equipped and ready to shift to the new ICF Accreditations Levels in order to offer to the students the best coaching education worldwide.
Learn more here.
International Coaching Federation is the largest leading global organization dedicated to advancing the coaching profession by setting high standards, providing independent certification and building a worldwide network of trained coaching professionals.
ICF developed the coaching Core Competencies as the gold standard of coaching, plus a strong Code of Ethics that protects both coaches and clients. It offers the most globally recognized, independent credentialing program for coach practitioners. It is essential that you choose a coaching education that ensure you that your investment is well valued, globally recognized and appealing to your future clients.
Our Life Coaching School is what you need
If you are serious about becoming a life coach, make sure that you get the following from a training program, which is exactly what SunLight Academy offers you:
. regular live (in-person or virtual) access to a qualified trainer and mentor
. personalized individual feedback and support
. training that is aligned with the ICF Standard and its practical application
. notions on how to set up and run a life coaching business
. a supportive Community of like-minded coaches
. easy online access to materials, resources and tool that are essential for your certification
3. How can you choose 'the right' training program?
All training programs are different. What do you need to consider to choose wisely and to accordingly to your needs and expectations?
Remember that length of the program, teaching mode, configuration of the classes, can all be different in the programs.
Be aware of what is important to you in your training, and prioritize those factors to help you decide which program might best fit into your schedule and learning mode.
For instance, does the program offer one to one training? Or training in groups?
About the Class Configuration: consider how the classes will be held.
– number of students in each class
– how many trainers per student
– how the class is presented: lecture? experiential?
– what technology you will need to access classes and eventually recordings
– what materials and books are needed
About Timing and Length: look into timing factors to see how it fits in your schedule.
How are the classes given:
– several full days in a row, once a month, once a week, whenever the student wants?
– how long is each class: a full day, 1 hour, etc.?
– how long does it take to graduate? Some ACTPs might take 6 months, others a full 2 or 3 years.
About Training Mode, you can have:
– online training via web meetings
– the trainer and student are both present during the training, with frequent give and take
– or training can be recorded
You might have
– in person and real time training
– or you can have a blend of virtual and in-person training.
And again about Exposure/Diversity: find out how the program addresses diversity, culture, different approaches to life and learning… if the program is a global one, active in different countries around the world.
Last but not least, consider the Cost:
Make sure you choose the best program that fits into your budget:
– explore what financing options are available
– does the program offer tuition assistance
Feel free to ask! Always take your time to explore because you are investing in your Self, in your activity, in your future and especially your are creating the premises to build your own profession.
4. What do you need to know about being a business entrepreneur?
Beyond the life coaching skill set that you’ll learn during the coach training certification program you will choose, you have to keep in mind that there are a number of areas related to professional and entrepreneurial development in which you will need to become competent.
Make sure that the training program that you choose offers you some training and tools on The Business of Coaching, so that you can acquire the needed information and awareness about what is required to start up your coaching business and thrive as a coach and as a business person.
Nobody tells you that when you set up your life coaching business there are a lot of different aspects to consider. The followings are a few:
- how to register your business in your country
- how to create a website with the useful and appropriate content to meet your clients’ needs and to be known as a coach
- what are the best ways to shape and describe the coaching program that you are going to offer
- what does it mean to go from ‘consumer’ to ‘creator’ on Social Media and opening your business social media pages
- what you need to create a first list of prospect clients that you can contact and to whom you can offer your services
- how to make clarity on how much and how long do you want to work (in a week, in a month, in a year)
- what does it mean to ‘be comfortable in the unknown’, which means to be ready to deal with the unexpected by finding solutions and not focus on problems.
Cristina Campofreddo
ICF Master Certified Coach & Mentor Coach
Founder & Director of Education at SunLight Academy
Cristina Campofreddo is one of the few ICF Master Certified Coaches (MCC) worldwide, a credential held by only about 4% of coaches globally. She is the Founder of SunLight Academy, Coaching Education and serves as its Director of Education.
Cristina partners with professionals in their growth, offering an exceptional coaching and learning experience through ICF-accredited coach training and mentor coaching programs. Her experiential approach is designed for professionals who are ready to elevate their coaching mastery, unlock their full potential, and transform the way they create value and impact in the lives of others.
5. What does it take to get a Professional Coaching Certification
According to the ICF (International Coaching Federation, the largest coaching organization in the world), 89% of coach practitioners receive training that was accredited or approved by a professional coaching organization.
However, learning and mastering the core coaching competencies it is not enough to launch your new business! While you are in a training program to become a Certified Life Coach, it is helpful to start planning how to set up your new coaching business. That is why we suggest that you choose a school – like SunLight Academy – that gives you the training and shares with you the expertise needed to start up your new coaching practice and business. Our school also offers to the students effective training on how to use Social Media for your coaching activity, how to set up your webpage and how to manage the needed SEO activities to be seen in the web and in the coaching world.
When you’re a certified coach with an ICF program, you’re bound by the ICF ethical guidelines. Our training is fully focused on that and on how to create your ethical approach to marketing that is fully aligned with the ICF requirements and Code of Ethic.
Before you enroll in a training program, make sure that the course you choose is aligned and accredited by an association like the International Coach Federation, which sets industry standards for ethical coaching.
During your life coach training with our SunLight Academy you learn the fundamentals of professional coaching. Together with that, you also learn how to set up your business as a Life Coach and the ethical aspects defined by the ICF, that you may need to be aware of in order to be successful in your practice. Becoming a certified professional coach can be an intense challenging process, a transformational journey that allows you to access your best talents and let them shine in your life and in your profession.
It is a rewarding journey, that is really worth all the commitment!
You need to fulfill a certain amount of hours of training before you can earn your certification. Therefore, you’ll want to make sure your intentions and motivation are crystal clear and grounded before you start your journey.
6. Consider branding, marketing, selling and administration
What kind of coach do you want to be? Who are your ideal clients? How do you want to be seen and found by your ideal clients?
Effective marketing of your coaching business is a vital, on-going task. You may be a wonderful and skilled certified coach, but if no one knows about you and about your services… all those coaching talents and resources will be wasted!
Once you’ve promoted your coaching services and the inquiries from clients start coming in, you’re not finished yet. When paying clients are coming in, then you have a business to manage!
You need to be fully prepared to take care of a set of tasks (by developing some required skills or outsource them) that might generally include:
- creating and maintaining your website, a professional one and not just an amateur website
- managing the administrative and billing tasks in a way that is sustainable for you and for your agenda
- keeping your calendar up-to-date, managing your days and weeks, replying to mail and contacts. etc.
- managing communications with clients about coaching and around the administrative side
- dedicating enough time to communicate with prospect clients (this is a very important part of your activity!)
- dedicating time to webinars, workshops, speeches and any other activity that you use to promote your business
What is Effective Training?
If you are serious about becoming a life coach, make sure that you get the following from a training program:
. regular live (in-person or virtual) access to a qualified trainer and mentor (MCC Coaches and Trainers are 4% of all the coaches in the world! Make sure you work with one of them)
. personalized feedback and support
. training that is aligned with the ICF Standard and its practical application
. notions on how to set up and run a life coaching business
7. Choose how you want to work and how much
While you learn how to become a life coach, you will also start your process to identify and refine your approach to working with clients. You can choose! You are crafting your own business and your own career, so as a coach you will be trained to decide what types of services you are willing to offer, what makes you feel satisfied in your business and what type of entrepreneur do you want to become.
When you see yourself working with your clients on their personal life, on their career, or business, or on a specific goal, make sure you are clear on what are your priorities. Coaching is about awareness, it about acting to promote change and transform what you are doing. So make sure that you want to work with your clients long enough to allow them to get a meaningful change. Coaching needs time to be effective and to create consistent lasting behavioral changes.
Make sure you are willing to spend enough time talking for free with people before they sign up and before they start their coaching journey with you, so that you make sure they’re clear about what coaching is and what is not , and that they are looking for a coach and not some other professional. You will learn that this is a scpefici requirement from ICF, included in the ICF Competencies that you will develop as a coach.
8. Be wise and plan your transition into your new career
With any new business, it takes some time to manifest what you want and succeed. Your coaching business will be no different.
You need to consider how to transition into your new career in a sustainable way, in a way that allows you to be in charge of your life, to support yourself economically during the time you will learn your new skills and during the period when you will create your clients’ relationships.
We encourage all new coaches in training to keep in mind that:
- It takes time to master the art of marketing and selling your life coaching services
- If you’re working at a full or part-time job during the transition, you need to manage your energy wisely and the journey might slow down
- Most worthwhile and lasting results might be harder and they might take longer than you expect.
It is wise to consider a time frame of 1 to 2 years before you can live off of your new coaching business income.
Coaching is nowadays a self-regulated profession. It is easy to believe false claims, or deliberately misleading messages and ads that create dangerous expectations. Be wise, select a good training program, with ICF credentialed Trainers and Mentors (like the one we offer at SunLight Academy), and take one step at a time.
You can thrive and become the unique professional life coach that your clients are already waiting to meet!
9. Commit to an ongoing learning process and develop a coaching mindset
Life coaches – professional coaches in general – are required by ICF to engage in an ongoing learning and developing process to enhance their skills, to develop and maintain a ‘coaching mindset’.
As a professional coach, after your certification, you should consider to keep on seeking out learning and practice opportunities to ensure that you deliver the best service possible to your clients.
The amount of Continuing Coaching Education programs (CCEs) can vary in relation to your coaching focus area, but all life coaches should keep on attending workshops, webinars and also retreats that can contribute to sustain their skills and expertise. ICF offers to its members free training opportunities all year long.
The best way to find out about continuing education opportunities is to be active in the global coaching community and in the ICF community. As SunLight Academy, we offer to our Alumni a series of benefits during all their professional life. Our graduates belong to a global Community that support them with different tools.
. sharing in a collaborative safe environment
. free webinars and learning opportunities all year long (with CCEs valid with ICF for credential renewals)
. mentoring programs at special prices to apply for an ICF credential (with CCEs valid with ICF for credential renewals)
. peer coaching groups and rounds to enhance the mastery of the competencies
. the SunLight Blog where students and greaduates can publish their articles and works
ICF also offers a great number of opportunities of coach training and coach practice.
Remember that when you will apply for an ICF credential, you will need 40 CCEUs (40 hours of credits approved by ICF) in 3 years, in order to renew and maintain your credential.
Online Life Coaching Certifications
Choose your successful path with us!
Our coaching, training and mentoring programs are for individuals and organizations who are determined to thrive in the new emerging world, who are willing to sustain their evolution, who want to evoke the best out of their talents and create their success according to their values. Choose your level of education to become a Certified Life Coach, Business Coach, Executive or Leadership Coach, Team or Group Coach.
Coaching Education
Level 1 – Pathway to the ACC Credential. An introductory ICF accredited program to learn the basics of the ICF coaching competencies and ethics together with the main coaching theories and models.
Coaching Education
Level 2 – Pathway to the PCC Credential. This is a comprehensive ICF accredited program that trains you at full PCC level to master the techniques to facilitate sustainable transformation and to set up your coaching business.
Coaching Education
Level 3 – Pathway to the MCC Credential. The highest level of coaching education to take your mastery of the ICF core coaching competencies and ethics to the MCC level, to apply for the ICF MCC credential.
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