I worked with a life coach, here's my experience

[playat]

I'm glad I decided to work with a coach because that's how I learn best - someone keeping me accountable for the changes I need to make. Also, it's helpful to have a different perspective on your insecurities and realize they've all been fed to you. I notice a common theme coaches help you work on is cutting the bullshit chatter in your mind and living life from your intuition and gut feelings, which is your "highest self" (I.e. the "you" that isn't ego-driven and doesn't give into insecurities). Group coaching is pretty cool because you get to meet new people who are on your level and want to make a change in their lives too - it's easier to open up to strangers vs people you already know who may judge you or not want you to change. There are so many different types of coaches out there such as 1:1 or group coaching and they all bring different things to the table. Lastly, I feel like all the self-help books make way more sense and resonate more. Before, I was just reading them and taking bits and pieces that resonated, but now i'm realizing they're all saying the same thing - you get to decide who you want to be and here are some conscious or sub-conscious things that might be holding you back.

The reason I wrote this post is to tell people who are struggling that help is out there and they should definitely consider it if they feel very lost and alone. Please don't waste any more time, time will never come back.

How to find a coach: ask friends, Yelp, Google, Instagram, referrals etc. I found one coach through a referral, another through Yelp, and my newest one on Instagram. You can start following coaches that relate to you on social and see who vibes with you.

Certification: Honestly, I looked into certifications and it doesn't really mean much. I didn't check to see if my coaches had a certification because I realize life experience/referrals were enough for me to know if someone was good - anyone can get a certification.



Hey friends. I wanted to share my experience about working with 2 life coaches in the past 2 years and now i'm on my third coach. If you asked me about life coaching a couple of years ago, I would have said "uhh, no thanks, I can figure my shit out on my own". However, in 2020 I kind of got to my wits end: I lacked motivation, I was always sleepy, my income wasn't where I wanted it to be, I had major issues with money, I would stress eat, I would feel envious of others, I would get offended easily, I would lash out, I would get hurt by others easily, I cared way too much about what people would think, I was a people pleaser, and all this while I was trying to start a business. At the time, I thought I wanted a business coach to help me figure out how to do the "left brain" side of business. I remember talking to a friend who hired a business coach and asking her how it was going. She felt so-so about her business coach, but she also was working with a spiritual awakening coach (nothing to do with religion). She told me her mind was blown. I was intrigued. The price tag was a bit high for me, so I kind of wrote it off. A few weeks later, my friend messaged me and told me the coach was doing a virtual talk and Q&A if I wanted to learn more about her and the program. I ended up showing up - it's free, why not? The coach definitely caught my attention. This specific coach was focused on women and was nailing everything I was going through (the stuff I listed above). It was group coaching, so I was a bit unsure, but I said screw it, let me try. The money part was a bit uneasy for me to digest, but honestly, I would probably spend that same amount of money overtime on clothes, eating out, drinks, travel etc.

I started the program and it was with 15 other women in my demographic and right off the bat everyone was so vulnerable. Everyone felt safe in this space to share whatever they were struggling with and I knew I was in the right spot. I no longer felt alone. I made 15 very close friends all from my computer during quarantine - that in itself was pretty magical. Our coach would cover a different topics every week (body, money, family etc) and we would talk about it. Some girls would be on a "hot seat" and we'd all learn from her experience. This is when I realized group coaching was pretty cool - we're all going through the same shit, but with different characters. The program was 8 weeks long and fast forward... I thought I just did a decade of therapy to sort through all my shit. What I love about the "coaching" part is you get your process the stuff you've been through, but the coach makes you take action to help you move forward and be the person you want to be.

End result of first program: higher confidence, new friends, quit my job and decided to focus 100% on my business (doubled my income by going on my own), cut out toxic people out of my life, learned how to respond to shitty people with grace, learned how to take up space and use my voice, learned what I needed to shed - especially stuff my parents passed down to me, processed my past, worked on self-forgiveness and realized my power as a woman.

Re: cost - I'm glad I invested that money in myself. I've been working on my money issues and seeing how investing in myself helped me make more money is evidence in itself that I was viewing money in the wrong way before.

In 2021, I starting working with an "Intuitive Business Coach" to help me figure out my business. I had a slow month and it was taking a toll on me. I was falling back into bad habits of self-judgement and talking down to myself. My gut said to search for the word "intuitive" because that's how I wanted to run my business (vs following a set of rules). I searched on Yelp and found my lady. She helped me master my mind and deeply connect with my intuition. This type of coaching was all about "thought" - understanding the chatter in my head is just bullshit chatter and it doesn't really help. Example: I would talk myself out of getting out of bed and waking up early - but she reminded me this was all mental chatter - the real conscious me can just ignore the chatter and get up. It was pretty interesting. After working with her, I realized how to use my mind to my advantage. I could choose not to feed certain thoughts as soon as they came into my mind. I was more aware of what I would think. I would say "more please" to the good thoughts or "no thanks" to the bad the ones. This was life-changing to understand - I am not my thoughts, but here's how I can use thoughts to my advantage. Working with her helped me let go of expectation and trust my gut when it comes to my business. As much as it was about business coaching, it was for my life too.

I had an epiphany the other month that I want to pay it forward and help coach others who are stuck in their heads. I've been responding to a lot of posts here, but I realized the only reason i'm able to help is because I got the help, so I wanted to share my experience.

[tot3ntanZz]

How much did it cost you? How about if someone is broke with no help (most people leave once they know you are broke)

[playat]

How much did it cost you? How about if someone is broke with no help (most people leave once they know you are broke)

While I was researching, I found a range from $50 a session (new coaches) to $500+ a session (established coaches). I would say the average is $100/session. The group program I was a part of was a bit more, $2500, but I knew in my gut this was what I needed. I saved for it every month so I could do it. She also had a payment plan option, so I didn't have to pay for it all at once - this is very typical of coaches to offer because they understand.

Cost-money value: I def made way more than what I paid for the coaching. The confidence boost was priceless. I don't think I would have quit my job and gone on my own if it weren't for my coach, instead, I would be stuck in a job I was unhappy with and not have the courage to know my worth.

Re: being broke. I highly recommend Jen Sincero's You are a Badass at Making Money book. She talks a lot about her journey of being broke and hiring her first coach. I found it very inspiring to see what she had to do to go from being broke to very successful. Also, she talks about how being broke is a mindset, which was very interesting. It honestly woke me up. I love all her books.

I recommend putting money aside to invest in yourself, even if it's saving $50 to $100 a month to put towards your self-growth fund. Whatever money I made from my side-gig (now my full-time business) I put towards my coaching fund, so I was able to put $500 aside every month towards my program.

[GodZilla]

As for me, these days you should be really very lucky to stumble upon a real life coach who can become your mentor and help you choose your life path. Personally, I was pretty lucky with this, because I stumbled upon this life coach academy https://5prism.com/life-coaching/ where I was able to communicate with several experienced life coaches at once, who helped me understand what I am doing wrong in life and helped me to decide on life priorities.
This is my experience with life coaches.