15 Life Coaching Tips Even Seasoned Coaches Forget

life coaching tips

Every life coaching business is unique. But our challenges? Not so much.

When we get stuck with a client or feel overwhelmed by our everyday “business as usual,” we often blame ourselves. We feel like an impostor and question whether we are right for the job. After all, if we can’t keep it together, how can we help our clients do the same?

That’s when we forget something important—coaches are humans too.

Whether you ask new or seasoned life coaches, chances are that they have all struggled with the same problems at some point—and probably still do from time to time. A life coaching business has its own set of challenges, such as dealing with difficult clients or marketing yourself as a professional.

In this article, we’ve gathered some evergreen advice to help you enhance your life coaching business and let go of any roadblocks holding you back from growth.

Life Coaching Tips to Improve Your Practice

Listen to What’s Not Being Said

This is one of the golden rules of life coaching that helps you get out of the rut when you get stuck with a client’s progress. As humans, we’re brilliant at fooling ourselves—so much so that we often fool our coaches too.

Pay attention to the “wiggle” that might show up when your client says one thing but deep down feels another. It’s the perfect opportunity to throw in a follow-up question on the subject. Ask them what future their current decision would paint for them. Or simply ask them: How do you know?

More often than not, elaborating on the question will help them differentiate between their own truth and the one they picked up from someone else. If it’s not serving them, they can now let it go.

Get Comfortable With Silence

When our client is quiet, it’s tempting to ask another question to stir the conversation forward. But moments of silence usually indicate that the wheels are turning in your coachee’s head. They might be having an aha moment or reflecting on what you’ve just said. From the outside, this might just look like staring into space.

Give them some space and time to process their new insights. Perhaps they’ll return to you with an important revelation that neither of you had thought of before. Taking a moment of silence once in a while also creates more trust between you and your client—a safe space where they have permission to share their raw thoughts and feel confused.

[ Read: Are You Using All 5 Of These Coaching Styles In Your Practice? ]

Overcome the “I Don’t Know” Obstacle

“I don’t know” are perhaps the three most dreaded words your coachee can answer to your question. So where do we go from here?

Again, a moment of silence is usually all you need to give space for your client to reflect further. If that doesn’t work, you can simply ask them, “What if you did know?” or “What do you reckon?”

Another solution is to rephrase the question and ask it in a different way. Always aim for open-ended questions, especially when you’re trying to get your client unstuck. If their answer is short or you sense that there’s more beneath the surface, you can help them with the simple follow-up question, what else

Life Coaching Tips for Dealing With Difficult Clients

Set Firm Boundaries

The earlier you set your ground rules in your coaching practice, the less likely you will need to deal with difficult clients. To avoid last-minute cancellations, ask for advance payments and set a 24-hour cancellation policy. You can also determine a grace period for being late to sessions to ensure your time is respected. These rules should, of course, go both ways so it’s a fair game.

You might also find that some clients message, call, or email you in between sessions. It won’t seem like a big deal to just get back to them quickly, but you’ll soon find yourself giving free coaching through chat and wasting a lot of time and energy.

If you do decide to be available for accountability or follow-up conversations between coaching sessions, set clear parameters for how this works, and make it a part of your packages. This way they’ll know how soon you’ll get back to them and what they can expect from you. You’ll also make sure you’ll get fairly compensated for your time.

Make sure you include your terms in your coaching contract and talk them through with your clients during your discovery session.

[ Read: How To Create A Legally Binding Coaching Contract From Scratch ]

Is It Really About Them?

Before you dismiss the discomfort or the lack of progress you experience with a client as their negative behavior, have a reality check with yourself.

Have you communicated your boundaries clearly when they hired you?

Are you triggered by something personal that bubbled up in you while working with this client? 

Are you trying to control the direction of the coaching conversation at the cost of giving your client what they really need?

These are probably the hardest questions to ask yourself as a coaching professional, but they are also the ones that will make you grow in your career the most. So be honest with yourself.

And if you find that you’ve done everything you could and things just don’t work out between you two, don’t hesitate to make the hard decision and…

Learn to Let Go

Being accommodating to keep a client relationship that’s draining your energy is never worth it. Ever. It will affect your personal well-being and your work with other clients too, so it’s better not to let it drag on for too long.

Some potential reasons you would want to fire a client are:

  • They keep trying to bargain a discount on your set prices.
  • They miss payments or repeatedly show up late and cancel at the last minute.
  • They exhibit narcissistic behavior or they are disrespectful towards you.
  • They don’t put effort into working on themselves or they simply aren’t coachable.
  • One of you seems to be developing romantic feelings for the other.

If any of these are true (or you simply feel uncomfortable working with someone), it’s better for both of you if you end things. Breaking up is never nice, but you can (and should) do it in a professional manner and tell them that they are no longer a fit for you.

[ Read: How To Fire a Coaching Client (The Exact 3 Emails to Send) ]

Life Coaching Tips for Boosting Client Retention

Set Clear Progress Milestones

Right from the start, establish specific, measurable goals and set up regular checkpoints to evaluate your client’s progress. They will be more likely to stay engaged when their successes are visible to them.

Use these milestones as opportunities for reflection and celebration. This will help clients recognize the value of ongoing coaching and keep them motivated to continue investing in the process.

Check-In Between Sessions

Another great way to improve client retention is to regularly reach out to them between sessions. A quick check-in via email or messaging shows clients that you’re invested in their progress beyond scheduled sessions.

Even a few words of encouragement or a powerful reminder can maintain their momentum and make them feel supported. Again, make sure that the extra effort you spend on check-ins is incorporated into your packages.

Offer Personalized Resources

Resources like articles, worksheets, or book recommendations specific to your client’s unique situation can add significant value to your coaching. They can reinforce lessons from your sessions and deepen their insights.

With Paperbell, you can easily make these materials a default part of your packages so you don’t have to fish around for them each time and remember who you’ve sent them to.

Life Coaching Tips for Your Marketing

Start Building an Email List

Social media may seem an easier or more fun way to engage your audience, but an email list is an absolute must for coaches (albeit, quite overlooked). If one day algorithms change, or god forbid, you lose your social media account, your email list will always be your sure-proof channel to reach out to your prospects.

An email newsletter also has a higher visibility and conversion rate than social media posts that your audience easily scrolls through. It allows you to divide your audience into sublists and communicate with them in a more personalized way, for example, by calling them by their first name. There are plenty of easy-to-use email scheduling platforms that you only need to set up once and then make a part of your weekly business as usual.

[ Read: The Overwhelmed Life Coach’s Guide to Marketing ]

Consistency Over Frequency

Managing your various marketing activities as a life coach can be overwhelming. Keeping up with social media platforms, seeking out collaborations, networking in groups, and growing your email list (oh, and by the way, coaching people) is a LOT.

While all of these are excellent opportunities to bring in more business, you don’t have to do them at full speed or all simultaneously. Setting up a whole email campaign might seem daunting, but you can squeeze in one monthly newsletter to keep your list engaged. You won’t become an Instagram influencer in a day, but you can start with posting two to three times a week.

It’s better to start small and then build yourself up over time than overcommitting and quitting when it gets too much. Consistency, no matter how small, pays off in the long run.

Testimonials Are Your Most Valuable Assets

The best marketing is what other people say about you. Make sure you always ask your clients for a testimonial when their experience with you is still fresh (although, there’s no shame in reaching out to older clients either).

If you’re just starting out, you can offer a few free sessions to collect testimonials for your business. Present them on your website, in your Instagram highlights, and on other promotional materials you’re sharing with prospects.

Life Coaching Tips for Managing Your Business

Document Your Processes

Documenting your processes and key coaching materials will help you optimize everything you do in the long run. Keep separate documents for your client onboarding flow, marketing plan, and other systems you use as part of your business.

The good news is your welcome packages and intake surveys can be completely automated with Paperbell. Grab your free account to try all client management features!

Outsource Everything but Coaching

It’s always tempting to save money by doing things yourself but does it really help you earn more, or does it hold you back from scaling up? Even if you can only set ten percent of your revenue aside for outsourcing things that take up a lot of your time (or that you hate doing), it will create space for your business to grow and pay off big time.

If you’re on a tight budget, hiring an accountant should be the first thing you invest in as a coach. The next in line would be any kind of research for your business and repetitive tasks that don’t require you to do them personally.

Centralize Your Contracts, Bookings, and Billing

Paperbell can handle your admin work and keep all your contracts and client data neatly organized in one place. Onboarding will be a breeze, as your clients will pay you before they book their first session, so you’ll never have to chase them for outstanding invoices.

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Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in November 2021 and has since been updated for accuracy.

By Annamaria Nagy
Annamaria Nagy is a Brand Identity Coach and Copywriter. She's been writing for over 10 years about topics like personal development, coaching, and business. She was previously the Head of SEO at the leading transformational education company, Mindvalley.
September 12, 2024

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