Wanted: Life Coach, Boston
As an award-winning coach and best-selling author in Boston, MA, I’m often asked about life coaching.
Although I’m now a business coach, I was a life coach for quite some time before I transitioned to full-time business coaching. And I’ve been on both sides of the life coaching relationship, both as coach and coachee, so I’m well-qualified to answer some of your questions about life coaching.
Here’s what we’re going to cover:
So let’s get straight to it.
1) What does a life coach do exactly?
A life coach is someone who helps you order your thoughts, feelings and priorities in your life and career, in order to create a life you want to live. They help you live with intention, so that you achieve the goals and dreams you have for yourself – even the big dreams that you barely dare admit to yourself.
Working with a life coach can be challenging. Growth comes from understanding your fears and being prepared to confront them in order to live a life that is truly fulfilling.
‘But wait a minute,’ I hear you cry, ‘Aren’t you a business coach, not a life coach?’
And yes, I am a business coach. I’m so pleased you’ve been paying attention! 😊
But before I was a business coach, I was a life coach. So I know all about life coaching, and how it’s different from business coaching. As I developed my life coaching practice, I discovered that I enjoyed the strategic business-focused elements of my client interactions the most, so after a while I naturally transitioned into full-time business coaching, and that’s what I do today.
2) Who should hire a life coach?
Life coaches can help all kinds of people. Anyone who is ambitious and sets themselves goals should consider hiring a life coach.
Life coaches often work with people who are going through challenging times in their personal lives. They might be going through a divorce, or a career change, or they might even have lost someone they cared about. Big moments in life are often the times we need the most support, so it’s a good time to enlist an external person to help you navigate difficult times. Another reason why people often hire life coaches is at times when they want to make certain behavioral changes to attain certain life goals like finding a life partner and or getting a promotion at work.
3) What’s the difference between a life coach and a business coach?
A life coach will help you navigate all aspects of your life and personal development. A business coach will help you navigate specific challenges within your business, including areas of personal development that are needed to reach the next level of success within your business.
So there are certainly areas of overlap. There are elements of life coaching that creep into business coaching. This is to be expected. When you’ve receiving business coaching, you will need to be bold and honest with yourself and your coach, and carefully and honestly answer their questions in order to get to the fundamental truth of what you want for your business. There are components of life coaching in business coaching.
These days, I’m a business coach rather than a life coach, as I’ve already mentioned. But what I’ve found over the years is that my background in life coaching helps me to guide clients through challenging times by asking the right questions, and coaxing their thought process in the right way, in order to make them into the best possible entrepreneur for their business.
With business coaching, the goals of the individual very much focus around their goals for their business. Entrepreneurs tend to be ambitious people, with work bleeding into so much of their lives and influencing their identity so much. Sometimes it’s hard for them to know which type of coaching they need.
I sometimes talk to potential clients, and during the conversation I have with them, it becomes really clear to me that they would benefit more from working with a life coach than from working with a business coach. In those situations, I recommend they talk to a trusted life coach within my network, who might be a good fit for them (either in the Boston area, or further afield), rather than proceed with business coaching with me.
4) What’s the difference between a life coach and a therapist?
People are often confused between the roles of a life coach and a therapist. And to be honest, if you aren’t familiar with either area of expertise, it’s easy to see why.
Both work in 1:1 settings on a regular basis with clients and work with them to help overcome a specific challenge or set of challenges.
The difference lies in the type of challenge that you’re facing.
A therapist is someone who is a mental healthcare professional, and who can help you navigate any personal and emotional mental health challenges you are facing.
A life coach is someone who will work with you to set and work towards achieving personal and professional goals.
If you’re going through a rough patch and are feeling lost, it might be a really good time to hire a life coach. If you’re suffering with distressing feelings that you don’t understand, you should speak to a therapist (and often also a doctor or trained medical professional, depending on the severity of your case).
5) How often should you see a life coach?
Life coaching is a process that requires careful thought and consideration, and time to implement changes between sessions, so very often, a cadence once a month is appropriate.
If you’re going through an acutely challenging time, or feel like you need more intense support for a short period of time, bi-weekly meetings might be something you could consider.
When I was working as a life coach, I met with my clients twice a month, and occasionally more or less than that. There’s no right or wrong answer here though: if you and your life coach decide that quarterly checkins are more suitable for you, that can work too.
6) How can we work together?
If you liked what you read here, you’re curious to learn more about business coaching, you might also like this other article I wrote: How can a business coach help me?
And here are a few more ways you can get more support from me to become the best entrepreneur you can be:
Accelerate your growth with this free handy download.
Read my bestselling book, The Up Level Project
Join my group accountability program: Business Growth Achievers
Work with me: Book a 1:1 consultation with me here
