How to choose Your Life Coach

I have a confession:

My Industry annoys me.

Its the frustrating truth.

There's a lot of hype, and not too many ways of differentiating good, from the not-so-good. Anyone can be anyone online.

Life coaching is - despite every second person I meet seemingly having the qualification - still a relatively new industry.

A very fascinating field, a very important industry in the future of human beings, and yet, near impossible to regulate.

When someone asks me what I do, I tell them I’m a life coach - and then I have a little giggle to myself, anticipating a somewhat predictable reaction - a set of rolled eyes at how many “douchebags" this person in front of me has already met, who have also called themselves a life coach.

It’s almost cringe-worthy. I don’t want to be put in the same category as everyone else, but that’s just how it is.

I am a life coach. I’m a darn good one, but that’s only something one can discover for themselves.

Truthfully, I’m more than just a life coach. I’m even a “health coach”. I’ve studied life coaching, health coaching, business coaching, become a master practitioner and trainer of NLP and hypnosis, and I’ve even taught it around the world.

But actually, I don’t give a hoot about any of that - I rarely share that with people.

I know most of my power, passion and excitement (and not to mention results) in my coaching comes from mapping across the insights I’ve had from travelling the world solo for a few years and winning 9 Martial arts world titles. That’s what I’m excited to tell people about. Not the courses I’ve done and the pieces of paper that came with them.

Heres what you should be aware of when picking a life coach:

Much like personal trainers, the label can be hideously misunderstood.

Some personal trainers for example, did a one-time, generic weekend or intensive course and now, (professionally) overly-patronisingly and very loudly, count fatties through the same, generic, sweaty routines they all hate and loathe, all day, and then go home and stuff their faces full of processed foods, drugs and alcohol - because they have no idea about bio-individuality, or wellness, or actually embodying what you teach. Work Hard, Play hard, get paid, look hot at the party.

Other personal trainers - people with the exact same title mind you, devote their lives to the success of their clients. They take on extra knowledge and travel far and wide to obtain the best, and most well-rounded ideas about the human body, motivation, success, personal development and even spirituality, for the sake of their clients wellbeing, longevity and sustainability. They can’t help themselves but spend the extra few hours with their clients helping them prepare meals for the week and taking them shopping to show them exactly what’s in their food, or talking through a challenge over the phone when they want to turn to their old vices in a tough situation.

The best personal trainers are also, in a way, life coaches.

These are 2 very different approaches, with the same title.

And what’s even more confusing, is that actually, these 2 trainers could still be telling you exactly the same thing. One is telling you from experience, and with heart. The other, from a textbook.

"Life coaching”, in it's generic sense, is not too different.

And that’s the absolute, disappointing truth.

So what really matters then in picking the right person for me?

The results.

Who gets the result out of you?

Who says it in exactly the way you need to hear it?

Who do you look at, and listen to, and feel inspired from?

Who lights up the fire under your butt every… single... time?

Who makes you feel like your world is opening up in a few short sentences?

Who sees the things nobody else has seen?

Thats what matters.

You’re not paying for your coaches qualifications. You’re paying for your results. Long term.

Some of the best life coaches I know have learnt on the job. The School of Life, they call it. They’re so powerful because of where life has taken them that they radiate their message and their lessons with every wink.

Some of the worst life coaches I know have studied the darn skill for decades. They have no life experience to draw from. No fire in their heart.

And some of the coaches I have employed, have had the worst personal lives I’ve ever seen - but boy oh boy did they get the results outta me.