Life Coach? Really?

Everyone is a "Life Coach" now, I just watched a video of a woman talking about how she had to bartend and waitress to make cash while she was building her life coaching business, I admire her desire and there certainly isn't anything wrong with being a bartender or a waitress but it proves that she was BROKE before she started her life coaching business.

Being successful because you built a life coaching business is absolutely rediculous. It makes no sense, it simply means you marketed yourself well enough, avoided enough questions, had a very charming personality and convinced people into thinking that a broke person with no real career or business could help them in their own life. 

Isn't the idea that the person is successful in their own life first, if all of your success has come from being a life coach, that seems a bit ass backwards to me.

She's not the only one of course, there are many, most have success financially first at least, Internet enrepreneurs love to name brand themselves, in many cases, it's a must for success anyway, so they find business success, they find they have a lot of people following them on Facebook and Twitter, they build large lists, they have huge downlines or thousands of customers and they decide that they will add "Life Coach" to their portfolio of income streams.  As an entreprenuer, it's only reasonable that they look at their business and see what they can do to add income to it, most of us are serial entreprenuers anyway, that's how we get into Network Marketing, Affiliate Marketing and Internet Marketing in general.

The issue is, how does this help you, as the client?

The person who has had business success should be a business coach, right?  Not a "Life Coach".  Life Coach is too broad, it implies that they will help you in all aspects of your life, but what is their qualification for that?  Making money online is not a qualification for relationship or parenting advice.

I have noticed in my 11 years online, that people that become successful online, especially in Network Marketing, tend to become ego maniacs, this is because the success rate is so small that they convince themselves that because they were able to become successful in the industry where most people fail, they must be special, they must be smarter, more driven, more attractive, etc.  This all may actually be true, what is also true, is that most were complete failures before they found the network marketing industry.

You have heard all of the stories, I lived in my car, I lived in my parents basement, I lived in a one room apt. with rats the size of cats, I lived on the street and on and on, the I was broke, homeless, stupid and ugly story and now I'm rich, smart, beautiful and live in a huge mansion, thanks to Network Marketing or Affiliate Marketing and you can do it to, just buy my course or join my downline. 

That doesn't annoy me half as much as, I was broke and had no clue what I was going to do with my life so I decided to be a Life Coach, c'mon, that's just not right on so many levels.

To top this all off, most are 20 somethings with no wife/husband, no kids, no life experience, their entire life has been lived online, their only success, if they had any at all, has been in Marketing themselves online, which is great, but again, that qualifies them to be a marketing expert or Internet business coach at best, not a life coach.

Don't talk to me about relationships if you have only had six girlfriends, all under 25 and all lasting less than 2 years. 

Don't talk to me about parenting if you don't have any kids.

Don't talk to me about mind-set, happiness, positive thinking, law of attraction, and all that good stuff if the biggest problem you have faced in your life was that you didn't know what career path to take.

There are two types of people that should be life coaches.

Those that have always been successful and happy in all areas of their lives and have experienced what most people are experiencing, that includes, relationships, marriage, children and financial areas.

Those that have been to Hell and back.  That means, you were really down and out and have clawed your way to the top financially (not by starting a life coaching biz), have built strong relationships, have a wonderful marriage, have children that are exceptional and thriving and are so happy you have wrinkles from smiling so much. 

That's it, otherwise, pick a new name, Business Coach, Marketing Expert, Network Marketing Guru. 

I have to add that this business has taught me so much about people and relationships, so it does have more value than just money, the way I was taught, by someone who had been in the industry for many years, offline and online, was more about the psychology of the Network Marketing business than how to show up on the first page of Google, really did help me when dealing with all of the people in my life, including my children and of course, financial success does help your marriage, money is one of the top reasons for divorce, but overall, especially now with Network Marketing being less and less about dealing with people and more and more about getting traffic to your web site, I don?t see how your Network Marketing success or any business success for that matter qualifies you as a Life Coach. 

Donald Trump is brilliant in business and with money in general, I believe he is on his 3rd marriage.  I don't have a problem with getting out of an unhappy marriage and maybe he was not to blame for any of them, but it at least means he has an issue with knowing whose right for him, picking the appropriate person to spend your life with would seem to be an important trait to have, so life coaching would not be for Mr. Trump in my opinion.  So if one of the most famous, wealthy men in the world should not be a life coach, what in the world makes anyone think that the ex-waitress who figured out how to market herself online should be? 

Even Tony Robbins, who I think is just amazing, will admit to not really creating any new ideas, he studied others and puts out the information in a way that appeals to the average person.  That's all he did originally, take solid information from successful people and share it in a way that was easy to understand, fun and interesting.  He has come up with some of his own stuff now, after years of helping people and that's to be expected, but if Tony Robbins was simply sharing what he learned from others when he started selling Personal Power, then your success with Youtube, FaceBook and Twitter doesn't give you any insight into how to help people with real life, real world problems.

It's just silly.

It also shows how important packaging is.  Tony Robbins re-packaged old information and got rich.  The hot new Internet video marketing chicks that I mention in another post have great packaging and are doing very well because of it, the charming, charismatic new breed of Internet marketers that are all too aware of the power of name branding have great packaging, even if they have to hire a designer to make it for them, this is selling, this is marketing, but when it comes to Life Coaching, shouldn't their be more substance, more quality, after all, this person is going to advise you on your life, which is everything to you. 

I don't even mean to pick on that one person who started me ranting, I've actually been thinking about this topic since a well known Network Marketing Guru has started telling everyone how to live their life on his videos.  My first thought was not, oh goodie, he's going to teach me how to live, it was, Wow, if there is a pill that lowers your ego, he should be taking it. It's like celebrities that start getting all into politics or wealthy people that start talking about the power of ZEN and are all of a sudden Buddists or Scientologists. 

It's all good for them, whatever makes them happy, but it doesn't help you at all.

They simply cannot imagine that you would not want to do what they are doing, the problem is, they weren't doing it first, what they are doing now did not make them successful and that is what it all comes down to, what did you do that made you successful is what's important to others, not what you are doing now after the fact. 

Before you go giving your money over to a life coach, maybe it makes more sense to figure out what is wrong in your life, what would fix it and if you can or cannot fix it yourself.  If you cannot fix it yourself and you need help, buy a book, if that doesn't work, try different tactics, if that doesn't work and you decide that you really need to hire a person to help you, find a person that specializes in that area, relationships, marriage, health, wealth, business, whatever it may be and make sure they had success in that area of thier life before they started coaching others on that subject.

That makes sense to me but I'm no Life Coach, so you really shouldn't listen to me anyway.

 

Jim Vigilante
Not a Life Coach
http://www.jimvigilante.com