What does it actually take to succeed as a coach?
Coaching is an incredibly rewarding, transformative career – and it can be a lucrative one too.
Whether you’re a solopreneur, an in-house coach in a bigger company, or you’re incorporating coaching skills into your existing role as a manager or leader, being able to actually change the way people think, feel and act is a skill with an unlimited ROI.
But most people have the wrong idea about what coaching is, what coaches do, and who is best positioned to make coaching a focus of their career.
I certainly did. That’s why I spent years as a lawyer and academic “joking” about becoming a coach before I actually took the leap to do it.
Ten years later I’ve changed thousands of women’s lives, created $28 million in revenue, hosted a top-ranked podcast, and written a New York Times-bestselling book.
But this isn’t about me.
It’s about YOU. Your goals, your dreams, your possibilities.
If something in you has been whispering that coaching might be a career or a skill-set you want to explore, I want you to know the truth about what it requires so you can make the right decision for you.
That’s why I created this 5-question quiz for you.
After answering these five questions – and reading the explanations – you’ll know:
- What credentials you need, or don’t, to become a coach. ICC? ICF? PhD? There are a million acronyms out there you shouldn’t need to research and decode.
- What coaches actually do in a session (hint, it’s not telling people what to do, and quantum vibrations are not involved).
- The single best predictor of coaching effectiveness. It is not your CV, your degree, or how much you’ve personally healed. Most people considering coaching as a career or skill-set already have it and don’t realize it counts.
- Four ways to be a coach without starting a business. If not wanting to be an entrepreneur is what’s been stopping you, one of these four is probably the answer you didn’t know existed.
- The one thing most coaching certifications don’t teach you that makes the biggest difference. It almost never comes up, even though it determines almost everything about your coaching and your success.
Ask Me The Questions!
THIS IS FOR YOU IF…
- You’ve worked with a coach (or listened to every self-development podcast you can find) and the work changed something real for you.
- You’ve caught yourself thinking “I could do this” and immediately followed it with “that’s not realistic.”
- You’ve quietly Googled coach certifications at midnight and closed the tab before anyone could see.
- You’re a teacher, lawyer, therapist, manager, parent, or career-switcher who keeps wondering if there’s a version of your work that feels less like grinding and more like the thing you’re actually here to do.
- You don’t want a fantasy. You want to know what’s real, what’s required, and whether it’s for you.
Kara Loewentheil is a Master Certified Coach, the founder of the Socratic Coaching Academy, a Yale and Harvard Law graduate, and the author of the New York Times-bestseller Take Back Your Brain. Her podcast, UnF*ck Your Brain, has 60 million+ downloads. She’s spent a decade training coaches and coaching thousands of women – so the answers in this quiz are based on reality and experience, not vibes.
