​Have you ever felt a pull to make a living helping other people live their best life? Do you find that people tend to naturally confide in you and turn to you when things get hard? Are you wondering if you can make a lucrative living out your gifts?  

If you said yes to one or all these questions, I’m writing this article to help you determine how to turn your passion into a paycheck. It is very possible, and your future clients need you!

TIP ONE: Determine Your Direction & Get Trained

I keep seeing some bad advice floating around coaching forums. A person who is considering becoming a professional coach will ask for advice on what training is best. Then someone chimes in eventually and says something to the tune of, “You don’t need training! There is no legal requirement to be licensed or certified, so just hang your hat as a coach and start charging.” 

Gulp. First, we should be clear and careful. While this may be true for consultants who are paid advisors, this is not true for life coaching and counselors. 

​I’ve come across many untrained coaches who aren’t actually coaching people (and many don’t even know what coaching actually is). They are counseling people without proper training or a license, which in most states is illegal. 

If you want to give people guidance, advice, and help them heal emotionally from wounds and traumas, then you will want to pursue a degree in counseling and psychology. Therapists diagnose and treat mental and emotional illnesses. Therapists are licensed at the state level.

However, if you want to help people find their own answers, develop their own wisdom, live through their gifts, and reach an empowered state so that they can reach their life goals, then you will want to pursue a PCC level certification in coaching.

Being properly trained also ensures you are: 1) trauma-informed, 2) understand ethical standards, and 3) have been assessed to hold the highest competencies. 

A credentialed coach and licensed therapist are able to get a client exactly what they need and understand all of the underlying principles behind growth and healing. 

TIP TWO: Learn Business

The only reason I’ve seen well-educated professionals fail to make a decent living in private practice is because they don’t understand business, or they don’t have a business mindset. As my son’s football coach said, “There is no problem education can’t solve”. It is the same with business.

For example, if you cultivate at least 3-5 referral sources that consistently give you referrals, you will be in great shape! 

You will also need to learn what effective marketing communication looks and feels like. 

There are many excellent marketing and business resources out there! There are also a lot of overpriced options that yield little results. Buyer beware.

When it comes to being a success, as a therapist or a credentialed coach, use a referral-based approach that is based on community and connection! Build relationships, cross refer, and get referrals from your new clients. 

We include referral-based business growth strategies in our coach training programs because they are so important for success. Without this education, no matter how good you are at coaching or counseling, a business can flop. With this education, you can flourish!

Even during a recession, there are millions of people who are still investing in services and support. If you understand the power of relationship marketing and how to pivot in business, you can easily switch gears. 

As one coach put it when she was in her first year of client building, “I went through a scary moment because I had most of my clients finish their programs all at the same time. Then I realized, I don’t need to be scared. I just need to go out and get more clients.” She did because she understood the power of referral sources and authentic relationship building.

TIP THREE: Give Yourself Space

I’ve found that the coaches and therapists who are successful in their first year of practice are the ones with prior education or experience in business.

If you are completely new to business, give yourself at least 1-2 years to get your business fully engaged. If you are an extrovert and love networking events or speaking, this timeframe may be shorter. If you are an introvert and prefer to write articles, this might take longer. Everyone has their own unique success formula. Honor your timing. Give yourself the space to grow into your practice.

Is there something in your life you have a true passion for? For me, it is budgeting (yep, geeky I know) and rock climbing. My husband makes fun of me when it is time to do the monthly budgeting. I light up like a kid on Christmas morning. 

​Both of these activities light up my heart and bring me to life. I can’t wait to do them again. What about you? What brings you to life? 

In this article, I’ll be exploring how to turn your passion for art, investing, leadership, health, adventuring… whatever it is you love, into an additional income stream.

Your passion can also be a paycheck. You can take what you love doing, what you feel called to do, and help empower other people’s lives. Whatever it is that feeds your soul can also make an enjoyable career track or business endeavor. 

There are hundreds of people who feel called to try to do what you do so naturally, but don’t know where to start. You can help them succeed. You can help them get unstuck in their life. 

Even in a recession, there are many people who remain unaffected and are seeking help to accomplish the very gifts you have dialed in. When you take them on as clients, you get the benefit of seeing the joy in their eyes when they’ve reached a success with you by their side.

You can coach clients. Coaching is an evolving career choice and often misunderstood. If you add coaching to what you would teach people about, you can take your clients ten times further than other professionals! 

Why Coaches Kick @ss!

There are two journeys to human potential. On the first journey, people are shown the way. For example, you might teach someone investment skills, or how to do yoga, or healthy cooking. People reach their potential on the first journey by receiving guidance and education.

On the second journey to reach human potential, one must journey into themselves to explore their own truth and develop their own wisdom. In the past, people took this journey alone. They embarked on spiritual quests or sat in contemplation and prayer. Now, we have professional coaches who are trained to help people dive deep within their own potential and access their own wisdom. A true coach helps someone access their own answers, often hidden within. 

We can be the expert of external things. I’m willing to bet you have some expertise in the area you are passionate about. We can help teach others how to master those things. However, it is good to humbly note, that we will never be the expert of someone else’s internal truth. That is where the power of coaching steps in. Professional coaches take someone on the second journey. 

And coaching is the only profession, skillset, and approach developed to take people on that second journey. When you become a trained coach, it gives you a huge advantage over any competition in your niche and passion.



How Does Your Passion Show Up?

If you love hiking and leadership, you can take leaders on a coaching journey. If you love art, you can add coaching to your art class and help people realize more about themselves. If you teach yoga, you can offer a coaching session on the mat. If you have mastered budgeting or financial wealth building, you can offer a coaching program to help people overcome their internal mindset blocks. And so on and so on. 

The sky is the limit!