What no one tells you BEFORE you spend your hard-earned money on professional coaching school.
I LOVE being a professional coach. Best investment I ever made — for my spirit, not my wallet. I didn’t ask many questions before I wrote that check for several thousand dollars, but making a ton of money as a coach was never my goal. It still isn’t. It’s helping people find their WHY. (You could call me naïve, but I’ve already heard that from my wife.)
“He who has a WHY to live can bear almost any HOW.” Friedrich Nietzsche
First let me share with you some facts; perhaps some you’ve never read.
1) The coaching profession is unregulated. Anyone can put up a shingle and call themselves a coach. The Harvard Business Review calls executive coaching, which is the most lucrative segment of the coaching industry, the “Wild West.[i]”
2) Some of the most famous and successful coaches in the world don’t have any credentials. (Think Tony Robbins)
3) Untrained and incompetent coaches have damaged the reputation of the coaching industry.[ii] In response, most new coaches seek professional training.
4) It’s estimated there are 500–1000 coaching schools worldwide. Rates run from $22 (e.g. — Udemy — don’t ask me what you get for $22, but I’d buy a Domino’s extra-large pepper barbeque pizza for the family instead), to over $20,000 for a one-year program at a prestigious university.[iii]
5) The International Coaching Federation (ICF) is the most widely recognized Coaching Association worldwide. The ICF requires coaching schools to meet minimum standards and offers 3 levels of professional certification for coaches: ACC-100 hours, PCC-500 hours, MCC- 2,500 hours.
6) There are over 200 coaching programs/training schools listed on the ICF website. In addition, there are 6 more Professional Coaching Associations (The IAC, EMCC, CCE, WABC, ICC and APECS) that certify coach training programs worldwide. Disclaimer: There are probably more, but the coaching association in Timbuktu only offers classes in the Songhay language, so they didn’t make the cut.
7) If you aren’t confused yet, there are an unknown number of coach training schools worldwide that offer their own certification diplomas. I suspect some of these diplomas are best used to wrap fish.
Now for the BAD NEWS. (I promise some good news…soon)
1) According to Market Research.com, the personal coaching market appears to be getting saturated.[iv]
2) Most graduates of coach training schools never make a full time living as coaches. (I’m going out on a limb here because I could find no statistics on the percentage of graduates of coach training programs who go on to a successful career as a coach or even pass the ICF exam.) Think about that. If you signed up for a 2-year program to get nurse training from a school to get your Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN) credential would you want to know what percentage of graduates pass the state ADN certification test and land a job as a nurse? (I never asked. You should.)
3) The average income for an ICF coach in North America is $62,500.[v] That number is skewed by a small number of highly successful coaches making six figure incomes. The median income for an ICF coach in North America is closer to $35,000. (Think 50th percentile -middle- of the bell curve.) Note: That’s income, not profit after expenses.
4) Many, not all, coaches who train students in coaching schools make more money training pupils than they make as professional coaches working with private clients. (Assume you charge $7,500 per student for a 40-hour coach training program. If you get 12 students for a 12-week program with 3 coach/teachers then each coach/teacher would gross $30,000 for 12 weeks of work.) Teaching coaching to a group of students can be a better business model than one on one coaching, which has led to a proliferation of coaching schools.
5) To get ICF certification (ACC level) you need 100 hours of coaching hours and then you must pass both a written exam and a recorded coaching session scored by the ICF. It typically takes 1 to 5 years to get your credential. I got mine in 10 months because according to my family and friends, I have no patience.
Finally, the good news:
1) You can make a living as a coach, but you need to find clients with money willing to pay you to help them solve a problem, be it weight loss, dating, retirement, relationship, productivity, etc.
2) Done right, coaching is terrific for the soul, both your client’s and yours.
Now that we’re done with the good news….
(I know, 12 bad and just 2 good. I promise to write another article about the good stuff, but I’ve got to wrap this up because your boss is monitoring your screen time on Medium while you work remotely.)
3) Before you blow all the money you squirrelled away for 3 years for a camel tour of the Gobi Desert that got cancelled and spend it frivolously on coach training, ask yourself:
a) What’s my goal? If you want to develop your coaching skills to be a better manager at work, that’s far different than if you are living out of your van and crave a 6-figure income.
b) Is the median income of $35,000 or the average of $62,500 for an ICF certified coach enough? It will take a few years to build your business.
c) Do you have the persistence, passion and purpose to spend 1 to 5 years to get your credential and build your business?
d) The coaching market is getting increasingly specialized. What market segment inspires you?
e) You will spend more time chasing clients than coaching them, at least for the first few years, until you build a referral pipeline. What’s your plan to attract clients? My plan is to write informative articles to help people make smart decisions about their lives and careers.
How am I doing? Email me at 2coachgary@gmail with feedback.
f) How can you make your marketing fun? If it isn’t fun, you’ll burn out before you become the next Tony Robbins.
Gary Gilberg is a certified executive and life coach. His website is https://garygilberg.com/
[i] https://hbr.org/2004/11/the-wild-west-of-executive-coaching
[ii] https://blog.marketresearch.com/top-6-things-to-know-about-the-personal-coaching-industry
[iii] https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/07/your-money/training-to-become-a-life-coach.html
[iv] https://blog.marketresearch.com/top-6-things-to-know-about-the-personal-coaching-industry
[v] ICF Global coaching study (2020) Executive summary, pg. 12
