In this comprehensive guide to become a Christian career and life coach, you will learn:
Should I Become a Christian Career and Life Coach?
Free Webinar – Become a Christian Career Coach
About the Lifework Design Coaching Academy
Who Does a Christian Career & Life Coach Help?
What Does a Christian Career Coach Do?
The Difference Between a Career Coach and a Life Coach
Benefits of Being a Career Coach
How Much Do Career Coach Jobs Pay?
ChatGPT Can Help You to Become a Career Coach
Eight Steps to Become a Successful Career and Life Coach:
1. Assess Your God-Given Design
2. Reality Testing
3. Get Trained and Certified
4. Capitalize On the Niche of Career Coaching
5. Join Industry Associations and Online Organizations
6. Gain Practical Experience
7. Develop a Professional Brand
8. Develop “Marketing Funnels” to Get Clients
Summary
Should You Become a Christian Career and Life Coach?
-Up to 80% of Americans are dissatisfied with their work. Would you love to help them find rewarding, fulfilling, and meaningful work?
-Would you like to guide Christian men and women in using Biblical principles of stewardship, God’s will, and God’s calling to find work that is a calling and not just a job?
-Would you like to quit your job and become a career coach with a six-figure income?
-Are you interested in helping people use job search strategies that reduce their job search time by half and help clients negotiate higher salaries?
-Would you like to significantly impact people’s lives as they identify and achieve their career goals?
-Do you have a strong desire to assist individuals in discovering their career and life calling?
-Are you interested in using active listening, communicating, empathy, problem-solving, and researching skills?
-Are you someone who wants to help others achieve their professional dreams and fulfill their highest potential?
-Does helping others who feel stagnant in their career seem like an exciting challenge for you?
-Do you want to help those struggling with their job search, having numerous interviews, and hearing nothing back?
-Are you eager to serve others in a new career?
Are you willing to obtain a certification to become a successful career and life coach?
If you answered yes to even one of these questions, we invite you to explore becoming a Certified Career and Life Coach through the Lifework Design Coaching Academy.
Free Webinar – Become a Christian Career Coach
Subscribe to our free Christian Career Coach newsletter to be notified about our future free webinar, Become a Christian Career Coach. Discover Your Purpose, and Coach Others to Theirs.
In the meantime, we encourage you to take the Free Career Fit Test™ and upgrade to the Premium comprehensive report and action plan.
We also encourage you to purchase Live Your Calling: A Practical Guide to Finding and Fulfilling Your Mission in Life.
These two resources, Career Fit Test™ and Live Your Calling, are used in our Christian career coach certification.
In the rest of this guide, you can learn more about what a faith-based career and life coach does, the benefits of being a coach, and how to become a career and life coach. Before diving into the guide, here is information about the Lifework Design Coaching Academy and its founders.
About the Lifework Design Coaching Academy
For more than 30 years, Kevin and Kay Marie Brennfleck, National Certified Career Counselors, have been blessed to work as career counselors and coaches specializing in helping Christian men and women. They are the founders and directors of ChristianCareerCenter.com and ChurchJobsOnline.com – websites used by more than 8,000 people monthly. In addition to coaching thousands of clients, they speak at Christian events, webinars, television, radio, and podcasts.
Kevin and Kay Marie are the authors of “Live Your Calling: A Practical Guide to Finding and Fulfilling Your Mission in Life,” which has been used by more than 30,000 individuals, church groups, and college classes. They also are the creators of the Career Fit Test™, which has been used since 1990 by Christian organizations, including Insight for Living, CRU, Wycliffe Bible Translators, World Vision International, World Impact, Azusa Pacific University, Houghton University, and others.
The Career Fit Test™ has also been used by thousands in workshops and individual career coaching. In addition to their work as career coaches, they have also provided training to certify college admission staff and career directors as career coaches. You can learn more about receiving training to become a certified faith-based career and life coach.
Who Does a Christian Career & Life Coach Help?
Career and life coaches offer a diverse array of services, from aiding individuals (of all ages from high school to retirement) in clarifying their professional aspirations to delving into avenues for advancing their careers. They also provide invaluable support throughout the rollercoaster of seeking new job opportunities.
Career coaches help people who:
-feel stuck in their career;
-are dissatisfied and unengaged in their work;
-want to feel work is a calling and not just a job;
-desire to have work-life balance;
-want to design a life of meaning, purpose, and calling;
-are students and unsure about a college major and career direction;
-want to get a raise or promotion;
-are conducting a job search unsuccessfully;
-want to learn how to negotiate a higher salary;
-need to update their resume, cover letter, and LinkedIn profile;
-need help setting and taking action on short-term and long-term goals;
-need to ace their next interview;
-and need to succeed in a new job they love.
Christian Career & Life Coaches serve the following people:
Career Novices and Recent Graduates: Individuals at the outset of their professional journey can derive immense value from career coaching. It assists them in understanding their strengths, discovering their career and life callings, setting educational and career goals that align with their faith-based values, and devising a roadmap to reach those objectives. By using assessments such as the Career Fit Test™, certified career coaches can help students make initial decisions about college majors and career direction. The faith-based career coach can also help recent graduates target work and conduct an effective job search to find meaningful and rewarding work.
Quarter-Life Young Adults (25-35): Many individuals in this age group experience uncertainty and self-doubt about their career choices and the work God calls them to do. This can lead to feelings of confusion and frustration. They may question their career path, seek purpose, and strive to balance their professional and personal life. Career issues in quarter-life young adults often revolve around pursuing meaningful, purposeful work, finding a stable footing in a competitive job market, and navigating the complexities of decision-making and God’s will for their lives. Using career assessments like the Career Fit Test, the career coach can help individuals in this age group better understand their God-given design and find purposeful and rewarding work.
Mid-Career Professionals: For those experiencing a lack of purpose, dissatisfaction, and even a “mid-life crisis” in their current positions, career coaching provides a way to move beyond success to significance in their careers. Faith-based career coaches help Christian men and women to align their careers and lives so that they can use their God-given design in work that is meaningful, purposeful, and a calling instead of just a job. Career and Life Coaches assist people in being wise stewards of their career opportunities, resources, and influence within their professional sphere. The faith-based career coach can also help them conduct a successful job search that cuts by fifty percent or more of the time needed to find work they love.
Career Explorers: Individuals contemplating a significant career change, whether driven by personal motivations, shifts within their industry, or a desire for more fulfilling work, can reap substantial benefits from faith-based career transition coaching. The Christian career coach can help them discover new career options that God may be calling them towards and guide them in being a wise steward of the gifts that God has given them. Using the Career Fit Test, the career coach helps them understand the design’s puzzle pieces better but also helps them enlarge their vision of how they can use their gifts for God’s glory.
Return-to-Work Aspirants: Those planning to reenter the workforce after a hiatus, such as parents or caregivers, can utilize career transition coaching to reassess their skills, update their resumes, and prepare themselves for a successful return. The Christian career coach encourages clients by debriefing assessments of their transferable, personal, and content skills from the Career Fit Test and showing them how to explore and target jobs that best use their gifts. The career coach can also assist the client in developing a targeted resume and other marketing tools to prove they can meet the employer’s needs.
Retirees and Those Preparing for Retirement: Even individuals on the cusp of retirement can leverage career coaching to explore God’s will for them in post-retirement work opportunities, including part-time roles, consulting, or volunteer work. This is when many Christians can make new choices as there may not be as much need to produce as much income as in the past. The faith-based career coach can empower people at this stage to discover their “encore” or career or “Third Act,” which is a pivotal phase in life where individuals actively pursue purpose, passion, and a profound aspiration to create a meaningful impact during the post-retirement chapter of their lives.
In summary, the faith-based career and life coach can guide individuals in weaving their spiritual beliefs into their professional lives, ensuring that their career choices reflect a deeper sense of calling and stewardship.
What Does a Christian Career Coach Do?
The professional Christian career coach helps clients find work that fits who God has created them to be – fulfilling, meaningful, and rewarding work. Many Christian clients seek Christian career coaches because beyond finding work they love, they want to discern their calling, seek God’s will, and glorify God as they are a wise steward of the gifts God has given to them.
These coaches help clients navigate the steps to discovering and living their calling. These are also career development steps that include:
-using knowledge of career development, career theories, and debriefing career assessments to help clients discover and live their calling;
-helping clients to understand a Biblical perspective on calling, discerning God’s will, and stewardship of their gifts;
-using valid and reliable career assessments to identify their skills, interests, values, and personality traits;
-helping clients “widen their vision” by exploring careers that haven’t been considered and fit their assessment results;
-assist clients in using their “Skills Map” to brainstorm creative ways to use their God-given design in dream jobs and career callings;
-using career assessment results, career exploration, and decision-making strategies to make career decisions within the will of God;
-helping clients to develop mission statements, SMARTIE goals, and action steps that start with the end in mind;
-empowering clients who are job hunting to use job search strategies that include finding openings in the advertised and “hidden” job market where approximately 80% of jobs are found;
-coaching clients in developing the “big six” marketing tools (targeted resume, Strengths Summary, LinkedIn, advertised job cover letter, personal contact cover letter, and direct employer cover letter), interviewing successfully, and negotiating a higher salary.
-and using strategies to help clients overcome “calling” blockers, including fear, failure, busyness, money, negative thinking, childhood wounds, and trying to go it alone.
The personalized advice offered by Christian career coaches extends to identifying clients’ strengths and weaknesses, crafting strategies to enhance skills, and unlocking their full potential. In today’s intricate and competitive job market, individuals often turn to Christian career coaches for guidance in making informed choices, adapting to changing work environments, and finding fulfillment in their careers.
The impact of a Christian career coach goes beyond career success, encompassing the improvement of job satisfaction, work-life balance, and overall well-being. By providing direction and motivation, these coaches empower clients to pursue successful professional lives and meaningful personal lives.
As a Christian career coach, staying abreast of career trends is crucial to providing relevant insights. Given the diverse backgrounds of your clients, each coaching relationship will be unique, demanding flexibility and adaptability in your approach.
Your success as a Christian career coach will be measured by the tangible progress your clients make in their careers and the positive impact you have on their professional lives. Choosing this career path means opting for a gratifying and meaningful vocation where your guidance contributes to the holistic development and fulfillment of those you coach.
Career coaches with writing and speaking skills can leverage their career knowledge and skills to help many people simultaneously. Here are some of the ways they do this:
-Webinars, Workshops, Courses, and Speaking: Conducting webinars is an effective way for career coaches to connect with multiple individuals simultaneously, offering valuable insights, strategies, and advice to a diverse group of participants. Webinars provide an interactive platform for addressing common career challenges and sharing their expertise with a global audience, enabling them to help more people seeking to enhance their professional journeys. Furthermore, speaking engagements at conferences, workshops, and seminars allow coaches to engage with a live audience, sharing their wisdom and empowering individuals to make informed career choices. A great strategy that career coaches use is offering free webinars with a call of action to enroll in a paid course or individual career coaching.
-Writing articles, blogs, and books: In addition to webinars and speaking engagements, writing articles and even authoring a book can further extend the reach of a career coach. Articles on career-related topics can be shared widely online, providing a resource for individuals seeking guidance in their career pursuits. By distilling knowledge and experiences into a book, coaches can offer an in-depth resource that provides comprehensive guidance for those looking to excel in their careers. Written content can reach countless readers, providing practical advice and giving credibility to a career coach. This can result in more people finding their career coaching services.
-Media, Television, Radio, and Podcasts: Writing and speaking can result in career coaches being asked to participate in radio, television, and podcast shows. Career coaches can significantly amplify their influence and reach in the field by gaining media mentions and appearing on podcasts, television, and radio shows. Media exposure bolsters the coach’s credibility and offers a platform for them to share their expertise and insights with a broader audience. It allows a coach to impart valuable career advice, discuss industry trends, and inspire others on a larger scale. Being featured in the media also reinforces the coach’s status as a trusted expert, attracting potential dissatisfied clients. By participating in podcasts, television programs, and radio shows, career coaches establish themselves as a go-to resource for career-related topics, enhancing their impact and helping more individuals.
The Difference Between a Career Coach and a Life Coach
The roles of a career and life coach often involve distinct approaches and responsibilities. Functioning as a career coach, they can take on roles such as assessor, information provider, referral agent, guide, and tutor. They assess their clients’ skills and goals, provide information about job markets and industries, refer clients to relevant resources or networks, guide them in achieving career objectives, and tutor or teach specific career-related skills. Career coaches often prescribe strategies and advice related to career development.
Conversely, life coaches do not advise or tell clients what to do. The International Coaching Federation (ICF) defines coaching as “partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.”
The roles functioning as a life coach typically involve listening, asking powerful questions, and empowering clients to find their own answers. Life coaching focuses on the client’s personal growth and self-discovery rather than providing specific career-related advice or solutions. Life coaches encourage clients to explore their own paths and make informed decisions rather than prescribe specific actions.
Regarding career issues, a client will typically not know about career assessments, career exploration tools, the use of career theories in career development, decision-making strategies, or how to conduct a successful job search.
Sometimes, a career and life coach will ask probing questions of their clients. Other times, to effectively meet a client’s needs, they function as a career coach who is an assessor, information provider, referral agent, guide, and tutor. While life coaches encourage clients to find their own answers, career coaches tell clients about their strengths and weaknesses from career assessments. They advise clients on how to explore the right careers, and they teach clients how to write a resume that gets results.
The career and life coach can best serve a client’s needs by listening carefully to them and then putting on the hat of a career coach or life coach as appropriate. The blending of being a career and life coach provides many tools to help the client succeed in work and life.
Benefits of Being a Career Coach
Some of the benefits of being a career and life coach include:
Making a difference: As a career coach, you can help people find jobs they love, advance in their careers, and achieve their goals. You can significantly impact their lives and help them fulfill their potential. And, as a Christian career coach, you have the privilege of assisting clients to discover and live their calling in meaningful, rewarding, and purposeful work.
Flexibility: Many career coaches work independently, so they can set your schedule and work from anywhere. This can be especially appealing for those who value work-life balance or want to work from home.
High demand: There is a high demand for career coaches as many workers are dissatisfied with their work or are between jobs and need help to find the right job faster. In the article, The Top Five Most Profitable Coaching Niches of 2023, career coaching has been named the second most profitable coaching niche. The U.S. Career Counseling Market was estimated at $32 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach $53 billion by the end of 2030.
Gallup polls consistently find that only 35% of workers are engaged in their jobs. The other 65% are just putting in their time or hate their jobs and are actively disengaged. These dissatisfied employees are often “Quiet Quitting,” defined as doing the bare minimum on their jobs without leaving. This definition came after the “Great Resignation,” which, during COVID, resulted in millions of workers quitting their jobs.
Those dissatisfied with their work are prime candidates who benefit significantly from working with a career coach. They are seeking rewarding, meaningful, satisfying work. Many also want to find their calling or purpose in life. What could be more important?
Also, as the job market becomes increasingly competitive, more and more people are turning to career coaches for help navigating the job search process, developing their skills, and advancing in their careers. This means there is a continually growing demand for career coaches.
Variety: As a career coach, you work with people from all walks of life in many industries. This can be an exciting and rewarding experience as you learn from your clients and gain new insights into different fields.
Financial: Career coaching can be lucrative, with self-employed coaches typically charging between $75 to $150 per session (usually 50 minutes long). However, some career coaches charge as low as $50, and others charge over $500 per session. Many coaches offer career service packages with several sessions, testing, and materials. These packages can range from a few hundred to several thousand.
How Much Do Career Coach Jobs Pay
Self-employed career coaches can earn more than $100,000 a year. A six-figure income doesn’t happen immediately for most career coaches, but by learning to be an excellent coach and how to market your services, it is very doable to produce more than $100,000 per year. For example, if a career coach starts offering services at $100 per session, they can earn more than $100,000 annually by averaging 20 weekly coaching sessions. And if a $2000 career planning and job search package is offered, it only takes 50 clients a year to produce $100,000.
Career coaches can also find salaried positions at colleges, outplacement firms, and companies that have in-house career coaches. Salaries with these different positions vary, with college career counselor salaries between $53,000 to $100,000 annually, outplacement consultants between $73,000 to $122,000 annually, and executive coaches who coach high-level executives at companies being paid $95,000 to $160,000 annually. Those paid higher salaries typically have many years of experience and multiple certifications, including ones approved by the International Coaching Federation (ICF).
ChatGPT Can Help You to Become a Career Coach
ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot trained to understand typed prompts and generate content that sounds human. It is the fastest-growing web platform ever. It’s not perfect, but it can help you to become a successful faith-based career coach. For example, ChatGPT can write business and marketing plans for your career coaching business. These documents can help you to prioritize your steps in developing a successful career coaching business.
ChatGPT can also save time writing content by developing article titles, outlines, and even content you can adapt. ChatGPT will also help you in writing marketing materials for your website. Remember that you need to check for plagiarism and inaccurate content that it may provide.
Danny Iny, the founder and CEO of Mirasee and best-selling author, describes effective and ineffective ways to utilize ChatGPT. He encourages people to consider ChatGPT an exceptionally diligent but moderately skilled assistant. It’s always ready to execute your requests but lacks judgment, discretion, and expertise in your field. If you had such an assistant, you might task them with initial research or drafting an article, but you wouldn’t rely on them to create polished, ready-to-publish pieces. Their advice should be treated as a starting point rather than a final recommendation. Nevertheless, ChatGPT can be a significant time-saver. It’s a valuable tool for jump-starting tasks like article writing, allowing you to review its output, identify what’s correct and what’s not, and request revisions for the desired outcome.
The wrong approach in using ChatGPT is expecting it to provide expertise in areas where you lack it. It’s not suited for creating complex content like ebooks or reports unless you already possess the required expertise.
In this guide, we will include ChatGPT tips that can be used to become a successful career coach.
Eight steps to being a successful career and life coach
Introduction
Unlike therapists who must meet education and license requirements, anyone can hang out a “shingle” and call themselves a coach. The same applies to any niche area of coaching, including career coaching, where anyone can market themselves as a career coach without experience, education, training, or license.
The good news is that the coaching field can be a viable option for those with the God-given design to do this work. The bad news is that way too many people call themselves coaches than there should be. Some estimate that more than 100,000 people are attempting to work in the coaching field. Of those, it is reported that the average income for a coach across all 50 U.S. states is $38,330 per year, and .02% of coaches in the U.S. earn more than $100,000 per year.
So, as we have seen, it is easy to become a career coach. Let’s now look at becoming a successful career coach, working full-time (if desired), and earning an income that supports their needs and desires.
1. Assess Your God-Given Design
Assessing a client’s strengths, interests, personality traits, and values is critical to understanding their God-given design, helping them explore the right job areas, making good career decisions, and conducting a successful job search.
Before you help others as clients, you must complete career assessments yourself. CareerFitTest.com, Strong Interest Inventory, and Myers-Briggs Type Indicator are essential career assessment tools to complete. You will also find assessments in our book Live Your Calling: A Practical Guide to Finding and Fulfilling Your Mission in Life. You can read the first chapter for free. These assessments will help you determine if becoming a Career and Life Calling Coach is the right choice. They will also help you understand how to use these career assessments with clients.
For work to be a good fit, it must use a person’s strengths, interests, and personality traits and their ideal working environment. Here are some of the components that need to be assessed in this area: “Mission of the Organization,” “Types of People to Serve,” “Ideal Working Environment,” “Preferred Geographical Location,” and “Desired Salary.”
The trained and certified career and life-calling coach can use tools like CareerFitTest.com to assess clients’ skills, interests, and personality traits. Next, the career coach will help the client to organize assessment results so that it is easier to see the consistent patterns of the client’s design. The CareerFitTest.com organizes the user’s skills and interests into a CFT Skills Map™. With our clients, we arrange additional assessment results into a Professional Life Calling Map™.
2. Reality Testing
Reality testing is a crucial aspect to consider when contemplating a career as a coach. It involves a realistic self-assessment of your skills, qualifications, and competencies. Understanding your strengths, weaknesses, and areas of expertise is essential before starting a career as a coach. Additionally, assessing the profession’s demands, the necessary training and education, and the level of commitment required to provide effective coaching services is vital. By conducting a thorough reality check, you can be well-prepared for the responsibilities and expectations of being a career coach.
Beyond using assessments like CareerFitTest.com, you can reality test by conducting informational interviews. I (Kevin) did this before becoming a career counselor. The Yellow Pages was the easiest way to find career coaches and counselors. I called several career coaches/counselors and ended up sitting down with three of them, asking questions such as, “What are you doing during a typical week?”, “How did you get into this field?” “What would I need to do to become a successful career coach?” “What do you like? What do you dislike about your work?” “As a freelancer, how long does a new career coach take to produce $70,000 annually?” “How do you get clients?” “Can you refer me to a couple of other career coaches?” Questions like these will help you “reality test” if becoming a career coach suits you.
A step beyond informational interviewing is “shadowing” a career coach during a session and part of their day. The career coach will need to get permission from their client for you to do this. After sitting in on a session, you can ask the career coach to debrief the session with you so that you can understand their approach to helping clients. This will also help you reflect on whether this work would fit you well.
These days, you can easily find career coaches by doing Google searches, using LinkedIn, and through online associations such as the National Career Development Association.
3. Get Trained and Certified
Certified Career Coach: Today, the term “coach” is open for anyone to adopt. Consequently, the coaching industry has become inundated with individuals looking to exploit unsuspecting job seekers seeking guidance for a new career. Obtaining career coaching certifications sets you apart in this crowded coaching landscape and underscores your dedication to the profession. Furthermore, professional certifications offer an ideal platform for refining your expertise, enhancing your coaching skills, and giving you confidence as a gifted career coach.
Although it’s not required, certification can demonstrate your expertise and increase your credibility as a career and life coach. For more information about our Certified Career & Life Coach Program through the Lifework Design Coaching Academy, sign up here for our newsletter, and you will be one of the first to know about our upcoming certification training and webinar – Become a Career Coach – Discover Your Purpose, Coach Others to Theirs. In the meantime, we encourage you to take the Free Career Fit Test™ and upgrade to the Premium comprehensive report and action plans.
Develop your career coaching skills: Coaching requires a unique set of skills, including active listening, asking powerful questions, and providing feedback. Practice your coaching skills through role-playing, mock coaching sessions, and seeking input from others. Career coaching also requires knowledge of career assessments, career development, career theories, and career coaching strategies from a Christian perspective. Our Certified Career & Life Coach Program will train you to develop career and life coaching skills that prepare you to work successfully with clients.
Certifications from recognized organizations can boost your credibility and confidence as a career coach. Clients will feel more confident working with a certified career and life coach, as it ensures a certain level of quality and professionalism.
No matter what profession you choose, you have to be willing to push yourself to get better at your craft, and that starts with professional development. Research emerging trends, attend workshops and webinars, read related articles, participate in training, and invest in certifications. Certifications can be pretty expensive, and many organizations offer them. Be sure to research the organizations providing the certifications to be sure they are up to date on the latest information and that you will learn from what is offered.
Remember that certifications alone don’t make someone a good coach. For example, I was able to write effective resumes for clients before getting certified as a National Certified Counselor (NCC) and National Certified Career Counselor (NCCC) (this certification is no longer available). Some people are certified as resume writers, and their resumes produced for clients are poorly written. Certifications, however, will help you develop better skills as a career coach and can be the difference between success and failure. To become a Christian career coach, you can start by getting certified as a Certified Career and Life Calling Coach through our Lifework Design Coaching Academy.
4. Capitalize On the Niche of Career Coaching.
There are thousands of coaches in the coaching business. This has occurred because anyone can call themselves a coach without training, certifications, or licenses. Some people think they will make a lot of money fast and be able to work from home as a coach. It is estimated, however, that only 10% of these people are successful in producing a full-time income as a coach. Beyond the lack of training and certification as a coach, one of the main reasons is that 90% of coaches who are just starting in the coaching industry fail to focus on a niche.
With the market flooded with so many people providing the same services, you must find a way to stand out. Deciding on your ideal client and how to market your services to them is critical to a coach’s success.
The good news is that when you become a career and life coach, you have chosen a niche that is considered one of the top coaching niches. As mentioned earlier, career coaching has been named the second most profitable coaching niche. There is room in this billion-dollar industry for people with the proper certification, business development knowledge, and experience.
While a niche of being a Christian career coach can be specific enough for some coaches, others want to be even more specific. For example, a niche as a career coach could be helping recent graduates to find their first job. The coach can then focus their marketing efforts on this type of client and build a reputation as a thought leader in this field of expertise. Specialization can help you stand out and attract clients with specific needs.
Find Your Niche:
At ChristianCareerCenter.com, our specialization is working with Christian men and women from ages 16 to 70. We work with people seeking their calling and not just a job.
Career and life coaches often specialize in specific niches to cater to their client’s unique needs and preferences. Here are some other niches for career and life coaches:
Career Transition Coach: Specializing in helping individuals navigate career changes, such as switching industries or roles, reentering the workforce, or transitioning to entrepreneurship.
Millennial or Generation Z Career Coach: Tailoring coaching services to address the unique challenges and aspirations of younger generations in the workplace.
Creativity and Artistic Career Coach: Focusing on individuals in creative fields, such as artists, writers, or performers, to help them harness their creative potential and navigate the challenges of creative careers.
Work-Life Balance Coach: Concentrating on helping clients achieve a healthy equilibrium between their professional and personal lives to reduce stress and improve overall well-being.
Second Career and Retirement Coach: Specializing in guiding individuals transitioning into a second career or planning for retirement, helping them explore post-retirement options.
Job Search and Interview Coach: Aiding clients in crafting effective resumes, improving interview skills, and strategizing job searches for successful employment.
Resume and LinkedIn Profile Writing Coach: Specializing in creating professional resumes and LinkedIn profiles to enhance clients’ visibility to potential employers.
Tech and I.T. Career Coach: Focusing on coaching professionals in the technology and I.T. sectors, helping them advance in their careers and stay updated with industry trends.
Sales and Marketing Career Coach: Specializing in coaching professionals in sales and marketing to boost their skills and advance in their careers.
Career Development for Women and Diversity Coach: Focusing on the career advancement and development of women and individuals from diverse backgrounds.
Career Exploration Coach: Assisting students in exploring various career options, choosing a major, and planning their career paths.
You can use tools like UberSuggest to determine how many people search for the niche you are interested in. Enter keywords like “career coach” or “job search coach,” and you can see how many people search for those terms monthly. That niche could be viable if even a few people search for those keywords. If no people search for those keywords, you will want to conduct other research to determine if a niche could sustain a career coaching business.
Choosing a niche allows career coaches to provide targeted and specialized support to better meet their client’s unique needs and goals within a specific area of expertise.
5. Join Industry Associations and Online Organizations.
Networking: While we love being career coaches, no job is perfect. Being a solo career coach can be lonely, even while meeting several clients daily. For introverted coaches, having time alone can be a good thing. However, even if you are introverted like us, career coaches can sometimes feel lonely. Joining career services organizations/associations is a great way to receive support from people who may face the same challenges.
Examples of career associations include the National Career Development Association (NCDA), Career Directors International (CDI), and the National Résumé Writers’ Association (NRWA). There are also many career development Facebook and LinkedIn groups that you can join. The key is to get involved in virtual and in-person events to connect with others during conferences, workshops, or networking events.
Continuous Learning: The field of career coaching is dynamic, and it requires you to stay current with industry trends, job market changes, and coaching techniques. This continuous learning can be intellectually stimulating and personally enriching. Stay updated through career associations with the latest trends in career coaching. Attend workshops, conferences, and webinars to enhance your skills and stay informed about industry changes.
Professional Development: Entering a profession that involves empowering individuals through knowledge like career coaching entails a significant learning curve. Staying updated in this dynamic field is imperative as it evolves constantly. Joining career development organizations and collaborating with industry professionals can be highly beneficial. These affiliations offer networking opportunities, access to exclusive publications, and the added advantage of enhanced credibility in the eyes of potential clients. Professional development can occur by attending workshops and webinars, staying informed through relevant articles, participating in training programs, investing in certifications, volunteering for roles in the association, and submitting proposals for speaking at association conferences during breakout sessions.
6. Gain Practical Experience.
To further reality test being a career coach and to gain some experience, it is advisable to start working with a client as soon as possible. Introduce your career coaching services to friends, family members, neighbors, and selective colleagues. Explain that you are beginning a part-time practice as a career coach, and because you are new to the field, you are offering a low-cost or pay-what-you-can fee structure. Even if you are being paid $10 per session, this can be a great way to develop your skills and obtain testimonials.
Initially, you may also want to market your services using gig sites such as Upwork.com, Freelancer.com, Thumbtack.com, and Fiverr.com. Career coaches and resume writers charge from $5/hour to $100/hour or more on these sites. It is crucial on these sites to have testimonials. An excellent way to obtain testimonials is to offer your services at a low rate. You then can increase your rates as you have two or three testimonials. These initial clients can also become a referral source for future work.
7. Develop a Professional Brand.
Your brand is how you differentiate yourself from other career coaches and attract clients. Developing a professional brand through an online presence, encompassing a website, LinkedIn, and other social media platforms, is essential to the success of your career coaching practice. Here are some of the ways to develop a professional brand:
Website: Your website serves as the digital hub of your brand, offering a centralized location for showcasing your expertise, services, and achievements. It should be user-friendly, aesthetically pleasing, and contain engaging content that people will value and other sites will want to link to. If you are new to developing a website, we suggest using a content management system like Wix.com or Weebly.com. These are “drag and drop” platforms where you can quickly use a template to produce a professional-looking website. While Weebly has a free option that you can start with, choose one of the paid options to use your domain name for your site. The least expensive option we are aware of for obtaining a domain name is Cosmotown.com. Some people also use WordPress.com, although you will likely need someone to help you with this content management system. You can hire web developers at sites like Upwork.com.
Search engine optimize your website: Potential clients need to be able to find your services. This is why search engine optimization is critical to your success. Every page of your website should have an SEO title and description. Your keywords for a website should related to your specialty or niche. For example, many of our pages at ChristianCareerCenter.com are search engine optimized for the keywords “Christian career coach” and “Christian career counseling.” You can learn how to search engine optimize with the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Starter Guide that Google provides.
When crafting content for SEO (Search Engine Optimization), it’s essential to balance user-friendly, valuable content and search engine visibility. Effective SEO content naturally incorporates relevant keywords into the text, optimizing titles, headings, and meta descriptions.
Write content that answers common search queries and addresses the needs and interests of the target audience. High-quality content that offers unique insights, valuable information, or solutions to problems performs well in search results.
It’s also crucial to structure the content with headers and subheadings for readability and to enhance SEO. Regularly updating content, monitoring performance, and responding to user feedback are all part of maintaining a strong online presence. Ultimately, SEO content should prioritize user experience while maximizing visibility and relevance in search engine rankings.
LinkedIn: Your LinkedIn profile is another cornerstone, functioning as your online resume and networking tool. Ensure it is comprehensive, including a professional headshot photo, a branding headline, a well-crafted summary, and detailed work history descriptions. Actively participate in LinkedIn groups, sharing valuable insights and connecting with professionals in your field to expand your network. Not only is this a place where potential clients might go when looking for a new job, but people can search for career coaches on this platform, and you can advertise here as well. Take five minutes each day to add new connections. You can then send messages to your connections, letting them know about your services and asking for referrals to your website and call to action.
Social Media: Leveraging social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and others can be a highly effective strategy for career coaches to attract and engage potential clients.
Firstly, establishing a professional presence on these platforms is crucial. Set up business pages on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Customize your URL for each of these sites.
For Facebook and Instagram, use Meta Business Suite to manage your posts. Meta Business Suites is a “one-stop shop where you can manage your marketing and advertising activities on Facebook and Instagram. It centralizes tools that help you connect with your customers on all apps and get better business results.”
You can also use third-party tools such as Hootsuite, Buffer, Sprout, Later, SocialBee, Zoho, and others to post automatically to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
Craft compelling profiles that reflect your expertise, share a professional photo, and clearly describe your coaching services. Regularly post content showcasing your field knowledge, offering tips, insights, and success stories to demonstrate your value to potential clients. This can be content that you are also using on your website. Engage with your audience by promptly responding to comments, questions, and messages, fostering trust and approachability.
Consider using paid social media advertising options to reach a broader audience and drive engagement. These can be highly targeted to reach individuals seeking career coaching or related services. Furthermore, take advantage of industry-specific groups and forums within these platforms to connect with professionals in your niche and share your expertise. Collaborating with influencers or posting on relevant blogs can boost your visibility. Social media is a dynamic tool to build your brand and connect with potential clients seeking guidance.
8. Develop “Marketing Funnels” to Get Clients.
For most coaches, obtaining clients is the hardest part of being a coach. Getting career coaching clients requires a proactive and strategic approach to marketing and networking. You could be the best career coach in the world, but if you don’t learn how to market your services, you won’t have enough clients to make a living.
A marketing funnel is a step-by-step process that guides potential career coaching clients from initial awareness of what you offer to start coaching services, a course, or a career coaching program with you. It begins with a broad audience and progressively narrows down through stages like awareness, interest, consideration, and decision. At each stage, businesses use targeted strategies to encourage specific actions, ultimately aiming to convert leads into clients by delivering a personalized and persuasive experience that aligns with their needs and preferences.
Here are examples of how you can develop a marketing funnel for obtaining new clients:
-Craft Compelling Website Content (i.e., Articles and Blogs): Content is king on the Internet. Writing articles can help your website rank higher for keywords that relate to your coaching niche. In our case, that has included articles such as “God’s Will for Your Career.” Create engaging and valuable content on your website that speaks to the needs and aspirations of your target audience. This can include blog posts, articles, career planning, and job search resources. At the end of each blog, article, and resource, have a Calls-to-Action (CTA), which, for example, invites the reader to sign up for a webinar, schedule a free consultation, or subscribe to a newsletter. Make it easy to take the next step.
-Lead Magnet/Opt-In Incentive: Develop a lead magnet or opt-in incentive, such as a free ebook, career assessment tool, or webinar, to encourage visitors to provide their contact information in exchange for valuable content.
-Optimize Landing Pages: Create dedicated landing pages for your lead magnet or opt-in incentive. These pages should have a clear and persuasive call-to-action (CTA) and capture essential information from visitors.
-Email Marketing Campaigns: Implement an email marketing strategy to nurture leads. Send a series of emails providing additional valuable content, sharing success stories, and gradually introducing your coaching services.
-Schedule Free Consultation Calls: For web pages that describe your services, encourage visitors to schedule a free consultation with you. Use persuasive language and highlight the call’s benefits in knowing their best next steps.
-Offer Free Webinars: Host webinars to attract a larger audience. Use these events to showcase your expertise, answer common career-related questions, and promote your coaching services. Free workshops or webinars can also attract potential clients while showcasing your expertise. We have found this to be a very successful strategy. If you are interested in learning how to do this successfully, we can help. Contact us for more information.
-Networking: Community networking will also be highly beneficial for obtaining clients. Career coaching is a profession where referrals go a long way—much like when someone is looking for a hairdresser, doctor, or therapist. Often, people start by asking their friends. The more contacts you have, the more friends will talk about you. You can let your network know that you offer a free consultation.
Summary
In conclusion, becoming a career coach is a rewarding and fulfilling journey. It involves a combination of education, certification, and honing your coaching skills. While the coaching field lacks strict regulations, professional certification and ongoing learning are crucial for success. Building a solid online presence, finding your niche, and effectively marketing your services will help you attract clients and make a meaningful impact in their lives. The steps outlined in this guide will help you to become a successful certified career and life coach. With dedication and a genuine desire to empower individuals in their professional pursuits, you can embark on a fulfilling career as a trusted career coach.
Sign up for our next free webinar – Become a Faith-Based Career Coach – Discover Your Purpose, Coach Others to Theirs. In the meantime, we encourage you to take the Free Career Fit Test™ and upgrade to the Premium comprehensive report and action plan.
