Life Coaching: The Ultimate Guide

A Guest Post by Kyle Cramer

Last year, Eric Zimmer helped me quit my job. My day job, that is. Because of life coaching (or behavior coaching as Eric prefers to call it) I was able to take my company from side business to full time.

I’m Kyle Cramer and after years of thinking about hiring a life coach, I finally decided to go for it in 2019.

But before I chose Eric as my Behavior Coach, I did a lot of research. I wanted to make the right choice because I knew a life coach was going to be a big commitment of both time and money. I learned a lot.

As I was going down the rabbit hole in Google, I kept wishing there had been a comprehensive guide to finding a life coach. 

When I mentioned this to Eric, he suggested I make one. 

Click on any of the links below to skip to a particular section:

1. Life Coaching: What You Need to Know
2. How a Life Coach Can Help You Right Now
3. How to Know if You’re Ready for a Life Coach
4. How Much Does Life Coaching Cost?
5. Are Life Coaches Worth It?
6. How to Find Your Life Coach

Life Coaching: The Ultimate Guide

What is life coaching? Why is it popular? How much does life coaching cost?

And, most importantly–

Can life coaching help you live a better life?

You’ll learn the answers to all of these questions later in this guide. But, if you’re impatient, here’s the answer to that last question:

In my experience…Yes. Life coaching can help you live a better life!

CHAPTER 1: What You Need to Know About Life Coaching

Your journey to a better you is about to begin. You’ve taken the biggest and most important step to positive change:

Your first. 

By asking if you might benefit from a life coach, you’ve started down a path that could lead to a better life. Your actions after this point will determine if you achieve that better life or not.

How? I’ll go over that (and a lot more) soon. 

But first, let’s start by answering some of the most common questions about life coaching…

I’ve found people call it many names: life coach, behavior coach, wellness coach, life skill coach, mental health coach.

Eric Zimmer prefers Behavior Coach. Why?

Making changes to our behavior is one of the surest ways to change the overall quality of our lives. Behavior is my main focus.

In life- we can endlessly think about, debate, discuss something until the end of time. 

But our lives change through our behaviors. The actions we take.

Even if I’m working on a larger goal with a client, I always come back to, ‘What actions and behaviors can you take to bring about the result we’re aiming for?

Eric Zimmer- Behavior Coach

What is the Life Coaching process?

Life coaching is generally a one-on-one process, where you meet privately with your coach. This meeting can be in-person, over the phone, or via video chat.

Every life coach has their own unique approach to the work.

However, with any successful coach you can expect elements of:

• Goal Identification
• Personal and Professional Counseling
• Organization and Schedule Management
• Ongoing Accountability Partnership

You’ll work with your coach on promoting sustainable, positive changes to your life over time, based on your goals, needs, and schedule.

Who is Life Coaching for?

Life coaching is for anyone who wants to make sustainable, positive changes in their life.

But let’s dig a little deeper…

Does this sound like you?

“I never finish what I start. I just can’t stick with anything.”

“I’m the kind of person who never finishes things.”

“There must be something wrong with me. I can’t seem to make the kind of progress I want to make in my life.”

Thousands of people (just like you) have thought these thoughts, felt these same feelings. 

If you’ve ever felt like this and want to see your life improve, you could benefit from life coaching, because…

A great life coach helps you rewrite that story in your head, shifts your approach, and gives you the guidance you need to see real, positive changes in your life.

“The problem isn’t you, it’s your approach. If you’re open to going about it a different way, and be open-minded and put some effort in, you can really change.”

Eric Zimmer- Behavior Coach

Life Coach vs Therapy

Is this therapy? No, coaching is not therapy. While both are very valuable in moving you past roadblocks in life, their approaches differ in many ways.

Coaching is about taking you from where you are now and moving you forward. 

Therapy often involves extensively examining your past to define how you got to the present situation in the first place. 

There are some clients who benefit from working with both types of professionals concurrently. Importantly, coaches do not diagnose or treat any psychiatric disorders or addictions.

Why is Life Coaching Popular in 2020?

You may be wondering…

Why is life coaching so popular now?

Well, when’s the last time that you felt overwhelmed?

Do you have an email, text, or call to return? How many notifications are on your phone right now? Many people juggle social and familial responsibilities with their job (or jobs…)

With all of that on your plate, when do you have time to feel fulfilled? To feel that your life is meaningful?

A lot of people are struggling under the weight of the obligations that come with our modern society, and under that weight, it’s easy to get down on yourself.

“How you feel about yourself is one of the most important things in living a happy and fulfilling life.”

Eric Zimmer

You’ll find life easier to manage with a professional Behavior Coach in your corner to help carry that weight. 

With someone by your side, cheering you on as you tackle your goals, giving you perspective you might not otherwise see, you’ll find that change is not impossible.

Life Coaching is popular because it helps people love themselves more in a world designed to make you feel inadequate. And it’s poised to grow in popularity because, when you try it and put effort into making changes in your life, you begin to notice:

You feel better.

You start to treat yourself with more compassion.

Do You Need a Life Coach?

Do you really need a life or behavior coach? That’s really up to you.

Here are some questions that can help you decide:

• Do you have problems setting or accomplishing goals?
• Do you feel like you lack the ability to succeed?
• Do you want to feel better about yourself every day?
• Would you like some help with accomplishing your goals?

While no one needs a life coach, if you answered “yes” to any or all of the above questions, life coaching could be for you!

So, you may be wondering…

CHAPTER 2: How a Life Coach Can Help You Right Now

Life coaching is a process. You need patience to see the best results. However, every journey begins with the first steps…

And you can take them right now.

Let’s get started:

Identify Your Goals

First, ask yourself:

What do you want to accomplish?

You don’t have to have all of the answers– everyone’s journey looks different!

You may have a clear goal like, “I want to start my own t-shirt company in 2020” or, “I want to go to Italy this year and eat my weight in gelato.”

But you don’t have a clear roadmap to reach them. 

You could also have huge obstacles in your way that you don’t know how to clear on your own.

Or…

You may have less specific goals like, “I want to earn more money” or, “I want to improve my relationships.” But, you need help breaking these larger, more general goals into possible, attainable tasks.

You may have no idea what you want to do, you just want to feel better. 

That is Okay.

“I want to feel better tomorrow than I do today” is a perfectly valid and valuable place to start.

It’s the next step that makes all the difference…

Plan for Success

• Find Your Coach – Do your research and find a life coach, behavior coach, or wellness coach that you believe can help you succeed. If you don’t know where to start looking, don’t worry! We’re going to go into this in-depth very soon. 

• Set Your Schedule – Work with your coach to set a sustainable schedule to meet and discuss your goals. You need to be responsible for making the time to help yourself succeed — without internalizing blame for problems that come up along the way.  Together, you and your coach can figure out a schedule that works without burning you out as you work together.

• Collaboration and Trust: The Secret Sauce – This work is not easy. To see results, clients and coaches need to be able to work together and trust each other along the way. As Eric Zimmer puts it…

Trying to make lasting change in life is hard. It just is. So I can confirm that the fact that [the client has] been unsuccessful is because it is difficult. If making these types of changes was easy most people would have done it already.”

Eric Zimmer

Life coaching isn’t a quick fix. 

It’s ongoing goal-oriented, professional support; it’s also a source of accountability.

The Accountability You Need to Succeed

Sometimes what you need most in life is someone to check-in and help you stay on target…

Especially when life throws you a big, messy curve-ball.

Your life coach will reach out to you regularly to make sure that you don’t scrap the plans you made to achieve your goals — and help you pivot around obstacles that come up along the way.

Now, that may make sense to you. Maybe you’ve tried setting a schedule yourself or having a friend be your accountability partner and things didn’t change.

It’s time to ask yourself…

CHAPTER 3: How Do You Know if You’re Ready for a Life Coach?

Here’s the good news:

If you have a goal, and you’re open to working with a life coach…

You are ready for a life coach.

Even better:

You don’t have to be a full-on believer to try out a life or behavior coach. 

In fact, skepticism about the process is a valuable thing to have.

“Being skeptical is a good idea. I don’t promise that making lasting change in your life will be easy. I don’t think it’s fair to promise that it’ll be easy. 

I do promise that you’ll be able to see the situation with a different lens. And that lens is going to be able to help you better make change and be able to accept yourself throughout the whole process.”

Eric Zimmer

It’s important for you to think about what your needs are when considering a behavior coach.

For example, if your concerns or goals are relationship-based, it may be worth seeking out a couples’ therapist or relationship counselor.

If you are just focused on changing your career, you may want to discuss your options with a career coach or job transition specialist.

You can work with a life coach on these areas too – and many others. Their job is to help you manage and improve your life in every area you want to work on. Just make sure you think through your decision. 

Behavior coaching works when you want to make positive changes in your life and you’re willing to ask for help.

However, behavior coaching isn’t free. You may be concerned about how much a life or behavior coach costs, and whether or not you can afford it.

Let’s dive into that now.

CHAPTER 4: How Much Does Life Coaching Cost?

The cost of life coaching varies from coach to coach and from client to client, based on their own unique needs. 

Now is a good time to nail down what your needs are from a behavior coach or life coach.

What Are Your Needs?

Take a moment to think about what you need from your coach.

• Do you need to meet in-person, or can you meet over the phone?
• Are you interested in meeting more than once a week? 
• Do you prefer a high level of attention and care?
• Do you need structure or a more free flowing relationship?

All of these factors can affect the cost of your life coach.

So, you probably want to know…

The Cost of Life Coaching

Well, there is no clear cut answer to your question.

Life coaches base their rates on a variety of factors, such as availability, length of commitment, and their own unique skill set, as well as your specific needs as their client.

Honestly…

Life coaching can cost anywhere from $100 to $100,000

As the client, you have to decide what coaching is worth to you. And what you can realistically afford.

Which brings us to your biggest question yet:

CHAPTER 5: Are Life Coaches Worth It?

YES. Life coaches are worth it, for one important reason:

You are worth it.

Your ongoing health, wealth, and happiness are worth fighting for…

And if you’re ready to ask for help, then you deserve to at least give it a shot.

The people who bet on themselves and put effort into their coaching experiences can see real, tangible results.

One woman I worked with was a successful author; she had published a few books in the young adult space. Then a series of things happened and she just could not write for three or four years.

Her career was just crumbling around her, and she had totally lost faith in herself. We started working together…and a couple of years later, I got a note from her with a link to Amazon…and there’s the book.”

Eric Zimmer

But here’s the thing:

Not every life coach will be the right partner for you.

You are unique, and so are the obstacles that you face. Life coaching is not a one-size-fits-all solution, and there are more factors to consider than the monetary cost.

It’s time you find out what to consider. It’s time to…

CHAPTER 6: Find Your Life or Behavior Coach

You should know:

Coaches can be found all over the world!

With modern technology, you can connect to your life coach from anywhere.  In fact, a life coach’s location is less important to consider than how they coach.

It’s more important to…

See Who Resonates with You

Do your homework. See if a life coach you’re considering has written articles, done interviews, or has a podcast. Consuming your potential coach’s past work is a great way to get a feel for their coaching style and them as a person. 

What Do You Need From A Coach?

Some coaches are more tough love, others are cheerleaders. Some choose a more thoughtful approach. Think about whose approach fits with your personality and excites you!

Speak With Your Potential Life Coach 

Most life and behavior coaches offer a free consultation. That’s how I spoke with Eric for the first time. 

If their website doesn’t mention a consultation, it never hurts to ask. 

During your first conversation, make a list of questions you want answered, be sure to discuss your goals and obstacles, and pay attention to the following:

• Does it feel like they understand your situation? 
• Can they articulate your obstacles and goals in a way that makes sense to you?
• Can they break down steps towards your goal that feel manageable for you?

And, most importantly:

Do you feel a sense of hope after you’ve spoken with them?

Hiring and working with a life coach is not easy work. It’s a commitment. 

That’s why it’s important to work with someone who makes you feel hopeful about your ability to make positive changes in your life.

I considered 5 different coaches during my search. Ultimately, I chose Eric Zimmer because of his empathy and his thoughtful, intuitive approach.

Recommendations

If you’d like a couple of other recommendations of coaches with different styles, Eric told me he thinks highly of Life Coaches Lauren Zander and Kristoffer Carter.

You Can Do This!

You have the power to change your life for the better.

Life coaching can help you make the changes you need to achieve your goals.

Remember:

You are worth it.

If you’re interested in learning more about working with Eric Zimmer as a behavior coach, check out his free video here.

In this 25 minute lesson, he teaches the #1 technique his private clients use to accomplish goals they didn’t think possible. 

If you are looking to gather more tools and skills to create the life you envision or want for yourself, consider checking out The One You Feed podcast. On the podcast, Eric Zimmer discusses a wide array of practical wisdom to help you build a better life. 

He uses his experience as a life coach to teach listeners powerful tools, techniques, and skills to help them tackle issues and challenges and ultimately overcome the obstacles in their life.

I hope this guide helps in your life coaching search. If you do your homework, you’ll find someone that’s right for you.