Congratulations! You decided to become a coach. At this point, you start hectically gathering all kinds of information and getting really overwhelmed. How much should a good coach training cost? Do I have to decide on my coaching niche before enrolling in a coach training? Is it ok that I don’t have an education in psychology? Which school to go to?

Cool your heels, breathe… and let’s look at some common myth-conceptions when thinking of becoming a coach.

Myth #1. Coaching is a shortcut to success and freedom

You may be saying to yourself, “Very quickly, I’ll be able to quit my day job. Financial independence, here I come!”

You may have an idealized vision of yourself on a beach sipping lemonade (or something more exotic) and making lots of money talking to clients. It’s not your fault. You’ve probably been fed these stories romanticizing coaching profession. It is, in fact, a wonderful and very rewarding profession but any successful coach will tell you that it didn’t happen overnight. It takes months and most likely about 2-3 years.

The thing is… it’s not much different from starting any other business. That means investing lots of time and energy into building it, getting your networks involved, creating new connections, starting (or continuing) with social media, etc., etc., etc. Yes, it will take work and you must be realistic about it. The difference from other helping professions is that you really can build a successful coaching business on a shoestring budget. Simply because you don’t need to have an office space. Unless you want to. The only real financial investment will be your coaching education.

On that note, beware of coaching schools that promise you a line at your door of eager coaching clients as soon as you finish their training. Wake up! It would be nice if it would be true but in your heart of hearts you know it’s a scam. Run!

Coaching schools are not job placement agencies. Even an agency wouldn’t promise you a job placement but they’ll try — because it’s their business. Coaching schools are in the business of teaching and selling their courses. Guess, what’s going to happen when you complete a training at a school that got you in with false promises? That’s right, they’ll probably try to sell you more courses with more pie-in-the-sky promises — versus getting you coaching clients.

Myth #2. Coaching is easy and will take very little effort to learn

The truth is, learning to coach effectively is almost as challenging as learning another language. Even though you don’t have to learn new words for coaching, there is a completely new way of listening, providing feedback, and asking questions.

For instance, if I were to introduce myself in Italian, the literal translation would be, “Hi, I call myself Marianna”. Sounds weird in English, right? Yet, it makes perfect sense in Italian. Similarly, in coaching we have a certain phraseology and structures that may feel “weird” at first. Yet, in order to become a coach, we must become fluent in “coaching language”. It just takes patience and practice.

Prepare yourself for making lots of mistakes as you learn the coaching craft. Yes, you are absolutely guaranteed to make lots of mistakes — regardless of your prior academic and professional achievements. You may have your PhD or Master’s degree, feel proud of your accomplishments — and you might have forgotten that learning any practical skill is accompanied by making mistakes. It’s natural and expected. In fact, it’s how you learn!

And yet, it may be hard for you to imagine that you will stumble, and stumble again. Imagine learning a new dance and awkwardly stepping on your partner’s toes. And yet, when you’ve practiced enough and learned all the moves, what a joy to find yourself dancing smoothly and possibly even with a flair! You get the point. When you dedicate yourself to learning and practicing new skills, eventually they become a natural part of you. This is how you establish a solid foundation on which you begin to develop your own coaching personality, your own coaching voice.

Once you realize that you have to allot the time for studying and practice, you’ll excel quicker and will be able to learn the “coaching dance” much faster. And if you embrace making the mistakes and stop judging yourself, you will also enjoy the learning process. It will actually become fun! And you won’t be alone. You’ll be supported by your teachers and fellow students in class, who are going to be in the same position as you.

Myth #3. I won’t have to do my homework and/or practice coaching. I already know how to do it

Since coaching skills are a form of communication skills, there may be an illusion that learning coaching is not only going to be easy, but that there is nothing new to learn. Since ICF Competencies talk about deep (active) listening, creating rapport (trust and safety), being present, and creating awareness — you may decide that you have been doing that already — officially or not.

That illusion may be intensified if you are coming in from other helping professions that may utilize some coaching skills — such as therapy, social work, teaching, mentoring, etc. People who believe that myth usually take the training in order to be able to display their coaching certificates on their walls, websites, and social media. When they realize that they are required to actually do homework and practice coaching, they wrongly assume they can wing it.

However, when they coach in class, it becomes very obvious that they either didn’t practice their new coaching skills and/or didn’t study. Getting together with peer partners in-between classes without doing homework means that they are still relying on their old approaches rather than practicing their new skills. Their comments and questions in class will usually reflect the level at which they are studying (or rather not studying) the lessons.

One of my students wrote in her feedback, “You can’t hide from Marianna.” It’s true. At our school, in classes with just 6 to 10 (max) students, it’s impossible to hide. You can’t wing it. You have to study, and then practice. I’m going to revert to another dance analogy. You can be a really good hip-hop dancer but it doesn’t mean you can dance in a ballet. Each category of dance is very different and has its own rules and foundations. It is the same with communication skills and coaching.  There is much to learn! You must come to every lesson with an open mind, eager to not only gain new knowledge but to actually gain the skill to put it to use — and make it look easy!

Myth #4. I must have background in psychology

Although coaching utilizes a lot of techniques and approaches from different areas of psychology, you don’t have to have any formal education in psychology prior to enrolling in a coaching course. A good school will provide you with all the knowledge you need to become a good coach. Our course, for instance, offers a variety of approaches based in psychology from the perspective of their application in coaching.

Myth #5. I have to pick a coaching niche before enrolling

If you choose a coach training program that focuses on a specific coaching niche or a coaching philosophy, it better be the one you think of practicing after completing your education. However, picking your coaching niche is certainly NOT a prerequisite.

If you already know your demographic or a specific topic you prefer to coach your future clients on, it’s great. Most people do not. How are you supposed to know your niche if you are just discovering coaching for yourself? In most other industries you must become a generalist before choosing your specialty.

Personally, I think that the very idea of niching in coaching is kind of confusing since coaches don’t provide consultations. The idea of a niche suggests that you are an expert on that topic and therefore should be providing advice on it. (I explore this in greater detail in a book I co-authored about Personal Branding, “Me, My Brand and WHY”).

In fact, ICF applications for credentialing don’t require any information about your niche, and you are being assessed on how skillfully you implement ICF Core Competencies. Period. It’s important to be trained conceptually from the position of ICF Core Competencies, without the need to prematurely pick your niche. So, unless you’re totally committed to a specific niche, a more logical approach would be to enroll in a training that offers all popular coaching niches and approaches. You can always choose your niche or area of specialization later on, if you choose to do so.

Myth #6. The more expensive the training, the better it is

We tend to believe that we get what we pay for. On the other hand, a high-priced training program could simply be an overpriced offer and not the Rolls Royce of training. It could also be a scam. Buyers beware. You must know your budget, as well as looking carefully at what you’re actually getting for your money. It’s important to seek out verifiable recommendations, like on LinkedIn — where you can also find the profiles of teachers and school directors.

Myth #7. I can get my coaching education dirt cheap

While you shouldn’t be mortgaging your house to pay for your coach training, you must realize that a solid, comprehensive coach training program doesn’t come cheap. Sure, there are some programs promoting short-cuts to coaching education. There are also a lot of programs that are not even accredited by ICF. Chances are, when choosing such a training, you will get what you pay for. Your criteria for a coach training should include an ICF-Accreditation Level 1 or Level 2 program that is conducted live with hands-on experience in class under a tutelage of a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) or Master Certified Coach (MCC).

With this criteria in mind, you’re not going to find a legitimate, 6-month course for under $1000 that will allow you to promote yourself as an ICF-certified life coach. The price is going to start at about $3000 for Level 1 at a school that doesn’t have an MCC presence or is too new to have established a trusted reputation in the industry. You probably don’t want that. Next, you’ll see an average price tag for Level 1 in the range of $5000 – $9000. That’s when you must become a savvy buyer and study the differences in school offerings.