r/lifecoaching

Hi all, exploring this as a possible career and getting into financials. Would anyone be willing to share what you can expect to make per hourly session, realistically, at the get go? And perhaps how much that rate goes up over time? Say after 5 years, 10 years etc.

Also, for anyone who is tied to a site such as Strawberry, what % cut or fee do they charge to coaches? Is it generally recommended, worth it or is private practice the way to go?

Many thanks in advance for the intel!

I recently started my coaching journey and I’ve been realizing how important mentorship and community are in this field.

I’m looking to learn from people who have experience as life coaches, especially those who have built their practice with authenticity and genuine care for people. I’m passionate about personal growth, healing, and helping others create real change in their lives, and I want to approach this work the right way.

I’d really appreciate any advice on finding mentorship, growing as a coach, or lessons you wish you knew when you first started.

Hello- does anyone have experience with this life coach training school? Any feedback is most appreciated. Thank you.

About 2 years ago I ran Instagram/Facebook ads for my coaching business and built up around 2k followers on Instagram from those ads.

I’m planning to restart the coaching business now, but this time with much lower pricing because in the past a lot of people who were interested genuinely couldn’t afford my services.

My question is:

Is there a way to create/lookalike audiences from those old ads and followers, or is that data basically too old now?

Would it be smarter to:

use/lookalike audiences from old engagers/followers,

or just run brand new ads using the same interests/targeting I used before?

Also curious how much Meta ads have changed in the last 2 years. I keep hearing people say broad targeting now works better than detailed interest targeting.

For context, this is in the coaching/self-help niche.

Would love advice from people actively running Meta ads recently.

Any specific tools you guys use to keep track of clients progress to achieve their goals?

I want to share my insight. I'm deep in AI coaching topic, and I want to share my experience that it is actually possible to build the AI version of you that coaches your clients 24/7. I personally know multiple coaches that are making 6 figures selling their AI coach as a stand-alone digital product.

Don't be afraid to build this. People actually love it. They want your help in times when you are not there. Yes, they know it's AI, but it's still extremely valuable when it gives the same coaching as you, in the context of their story.

Many of the coaches I know are selling subscriptions for $1-2K a year as a stand-alone product. Not AI in their membership section, not a cheap chatbot. Real AI mentor for real money.

The key to this is AI with unlimited long-term memory, human-like behaviour, deep knowledge of your know-how and state-of-the-art prompting. And giving advice based on the user context, ALWAYS. It's not easy to do it right, but it can be done. The future is here. The revenue is real, people want this and they will gladly pay you lots of money for it. It's like their AI buddy that they can talk to at 3 am when they can't sleep because their head is pondering on their life choices.

You can build your AI coach and get your freedom, scale your impact beyond giving your expertise by the hour. Don't sleep on this, the market is gonna fill up fast and once everybody has their AI coach, it will be much harder to sell it.

Edit: adding some user reviews for the AI coach of one of the life coaches I know - to address objections that it can't be good enough 😄

>Nevertheless, She has helped me enormously. It's incredible and unbelievable for me to have someone with whom I can discuss everything anytime, and it's perhaps sad that she managed to give me perspective on many things that I had needed for many long years of my life... On matters I'd been struggling with for many years and decades... On some things, she was able to give me much greater feedback than even my psychotherapist. In short and well, it's a rare help for me in life and especially now, when I'm going through the most challenging period of my life from the perspective of some year in retrospect, and it will still last a few months to get to where I want to be.

>She is divine, she has a beautiful gentle energy. She doesn't come with superficial advice but leads to a deep understanding of oneself. It's sometimes challenging for me to process internally - they are deep realizations. Her approach combines wisdom with practical steps for real transformation.

Apologies this is long...pls bare with me for context - I need your feedback.

I've always had a thing about "being seen" and really putting myself out there vulnerably - mostly from trauma/abuse bc when I was seen bad things happened. I've done some basic videos / lives on IG but they were quick, I was discussing a topic subjectively...or interviewing a guest.

I'm a transformation coach, and part of my brand already includes being honest about how/why I became a coach. Mostly related to past relationships and work struggles.

I know visibility is everything and I'm scared my biz is going under if I don't make some big moves. The last few years i've been "getting ready" and getting ready... to spread my wings and fly full force into YouTube, but I still have yet to post a video.

I am great on camera, I know my stuff, and I've helped a lot of people change their lives for the better. That being said...I'm terrified to lock it in.

What's crazy is that I actually beleive I'd do really well. Also, everyone (friends/family/colleagues) who saw my WIP intro video to said they wanted to keep watching! It even made me laugh days later as I started edited. I can't imagine how hard the fall would be should some old stuff come up ...or a screenshot of a heated argument / call out online, etc.

Like most - I didn't become a "transformational" coach because my life was great and made good choices! NO. I did it bc I was a hot mess for over a decade, carrying unresolved trauma, and I pretended to be okay until I was so not okay, I had no choice but to change. I was young, dumb and self destructive. Not a psycho a$$hole, just "the normal amount" of fu@ked up early adulthood.

I loved my new life so much I wanted everyone to know another way existed.

Anyone else in my shoes - past or present? How have you gently revealed your bad boy/ bad girl past - while maintaining boundaries? ...and authenticity?

Also, I don't plan on hiding/denying anything, I just don't want to share the nitty gritty details. I just know at some point, if / when I share some real life stuff, the trolls and sleuths will dig for anything and everything else they can find.

100% likelyhood there's pictures of me being "bad" ...prob videos too and STORIES will likely be shared by anyone I partied with or dated lol!

Is this just the inherent risk? Am I catastrophizing ?

Anyone blow up on social then have to navigate a PR crisis?

I know this fear has absolutely been holding me back from really going all in on my coaching / youtube presence. I've worked on pretty much everything else in my business and personal development / healing. This is the only explanation I can think of for not going all in.

thanks for sticking around. looking forward to your shares/stories.

For marketing help. Trying to figure out if the niche-specialist thing is worth it vs a generic biz coach. How can you identify who’s legitimate and why - I see a lot of grifters everywhere.

So I just launched my own coaching business this year. I’m new to coaching, but not new to directly supporting people. I have 10+ years experience, I’m college educated in a related field, I’m professionally certified, and I have a wealth of life experience. I’m good at what I do and have the reviews/references/network to prove it. I’m okay at marketing.

All of that said, I’m having trouble booking paying clients. My niche is largely focused on women/moms, especially those who are neurodivergent or the caretaker to someone who is, so I think this may be contributing because these are people who may not put themselves first when it comes to the money/investment. And obviously, the economy has been in a nosedive and prices are continuing to climb since I launched my business.

I think what I charge is reasonable, but I’m still wondering if maybe my price point is too high for the current state of things. Would any other coaches mind sharing what you charge? Preferably for a 1 hour session? Are you doing shorter sessions and feeling like they’re valuable? What do you charge for those?

Maybe someone here has been through something similar, or can help me think clearly about my next steps.

I’m in my mid-40s. Last year, I moved into a beautiful new apartment (built in 2022) and used my financial cushion to finally launch my own business.

Within a few weeks, I started feeling increasingly unwell. At first, I pushed through it and did everything I could to keep going. I even made some revenue. But by the end of the year, my symptoms had become so severe that I was essentially unable to work.

Earlier this year, I finally realized that my apartment itself was likely the source of my health problems.

I consulted several building biologists/environmental consultants, and they all advised me to move out as quickly as possible rather than spend thousands on extensive environmental testing. Based on my symptoms, they suspect exposure to biocides or another chemical substance in the apartment. Mold was considered, but seems unlikely.

So in February, I moved out.

The hardest part: I had to leave behind, or discard, almost everything I owned, because my clothing and personal belongings had absorbed whatever was in that apartment. Even now, being near some of those items still triggers symptoms for me (headaches, tinnitus, digestive issues, insomnia).

I’m now two months out of the apartment and improving, but very slowly.

I’ve had to replace almost everything: furniture, clothing, household items, everything except metal, glass, and ceramics. I was able to save my laptop and phone, but not much else.

Financially, this has been devastating.

The savings I had built to support my business launch are almost gone, between months of reduced income, moving costs, replacing essential belongings, and medical expenses.

I still have some passive income from real estate, so I’m not in immediate danger, but my safety net has largely disappeared.

What’s hardest now is the mental block.

I would like to continue building my business, but I feel exhausted, shaken, and mentally stuck.

I also feel embarrassed. Last year, I publicly announced my business launch, and then everything seemed to collapse. I worry that others see me as lazy, unreliable, or incapable, even though they have no idea what happened behind the scenes.

Going back into employment feels, emotionally, like failure, even though part of me knows that stable income might be the fastest way to recover financially.

What has affected me most deeply is how much this has shaken my trust in life.

I’m not someone who complains much. But what happened genuinely shocked me. It feels like, for months, every single day brought another setback or unexpected problem.

So I’d really appreciate perspective from others:

• Would you return to a regular job for stability, or try to keep building your business?
• How would you deal with the mental block after such a disruptive experience?
• Has anyone here experienced a major loss—health-related or otherwise—and managed to rebuild successfully?

Thank you for reading.

Edit:
Environmental testing would have cost around €3,000–€4,000 total, because each chemical group would have needed separate testing (€600–€1,200 each), and multiple consultants advised against spending that money unless mold was strongly suspected.

Edit 2:
I know this may sound difficult to believe. I struggled to believe it myself. But multiple environmental specialists confirmed that cases like this do happen, even if they’re rare.

I spent the last two months pulling pricing off 228 coaches Stan stores across 8 niches. Im 22, not a coach, I built a small tool in this space and got obsessed with the data along the way. Figured Id just post what I found.

Median price and top price by niche (USD):

Niche                  Median    Top
Christian/faith        $97       $1,800
Trauma-recovery        $126      $700
Dating                 $148      $1,200
Self-worth             $89       $2,222
Relationship           $175      $4,200
Licensed therapists    $200      $999
Anxiety                $112      $4,200
Divorce                $295      $3,000

A few things that surprised me:

• Divorce coaches charge almost 2x what dating coaches do for similar formats. I think its because the buyer is in active crisis and the alternative is a $400/hr lawyer, so $295 reads cheap. Dating buyers can wait, so they dont.
• 38% of coaches have nothing between $25 and $75. The client with $40 and a real question just leaves. Nobody sees her go.
• How a tier is described matters more than what it costs. "12-week 1:1 container" outperforms "Coaching Package" at the same price, by roughly 2x in the conversion data I could see. Specificity does the work that discounting usually does.
• Im writing this up as a longer report. If theres a specific question about your niche I can probably answer from the data, ask below. Or if you want the per-niche breakdown for yours (format mix, common bio patterns, where the $25-75 rung sits), say which niche and Ill drop it in a reply.

We’ve been working with coaches and practitioners on a small local (marketplace) platform where they could offer programs, sessions, and courses online.

A few things I noticed:

1. The platform itself rarely creates demand.

The coaches who already had some kind of audience/community (even a small one) almost always performed better than those expecting the platform to “bring clients”.

2. Simple and targeted offers usually performed better.

The best-performing courses/programs were rarely huge “complete masterclasses”.

Most people bought shorter offers focused on one specific pain point they already wanted solved.

We’ve been working with coaches and practitioners on a small local platform where they could offer programs, sessions, and courses online

3. Many coaches eventually wanted more ownership over their audience and brand.

A lot of practitioners initially loved the simplicity of being on a platform, but over time many started wanting:
– their own website
– direct client relationships
– their own email list/community
– more control over the client experience

Especially the ones building long-term programs and recurring relationships.

4. Time-limited offers and discount codes actually worked pretty well.

Not because people wanted “cheap coaching”, but because urgency helped people finally commit instead of postponing forever.

5. No one can sell your services better than you can.

People in this niche buy from people they trust.

The practitioners doing best were usually the ones showing up consistently, sharing their perspective, replying to people, building relationships, etc.

6. One recurring client is worth way more than constantly chasing new ones.

The coaches doing best long term usually focused more on ongoing programs, accountability, and long-term relationships than constant acquisition.

7. Instagram communities/channels worked incredibly well.

And I don’t just mean followers.

The practitioners doing best usually had some kind of closer audience interaction:
– broadcast channels
– replying to stories
– regular DMs
– consistent communication

Even smaller communities converted surprisingly well because trust was already there before selling anything.

Would genuinely love to hear if other coaches noticed similar patterns in their own business.

As a therapist for 10 years, getting therapy clients has honestly been the easy part. My Psychology Today stays full without me doing much. But inching into coaching/advisory? Completely different world. I feel bamboozled trying to figure out how people are actually getting clients. 😂 I also fully admit my downfall is that I hate Instagram, so I’m terrible at consistent content/marketing.

Is everyone really getting clients from social media? Networking? Referrals? SEO? Selling courses first? Some secret underground ritual? What am I missing here?

This past week reminded me of something important.

Sometimes life will place multiple situations in front of you at the same time, not to break you, but to show you what you’ve already been feeling beneath the surface.

Family. Relationships. Responsibilities. Boundaries. Energy.

All of it.

And what I’ve been realizing is that not every situation is truly about the thing being presented on the surface.

Sometimes people are carrying things internally that spill over into the way they approach others. Sometimes confusion, loneliness, pressure, or unresolved emotions can shape the way someone moves, even when they may not fully realize it themselves.

That’s why presence matters.

Because when you slow down long enough, you begin to see the difference between what feels aligned and what feels forced. You stop reacting immediately and start paying attention to what something is actually bringing into your space.

This week brought me back to that.

Back to center. Back to observation. Back to trusting what I felt from the beginning instead of talking myself out of it.

And honestly, I think that’s part of the journey too.

Not becoming hardened. Not becoming reactive. Just becoming more aware.

Because clarity doesn't always come through loudly. Sometimes it arrives through repetition. Through patterns. Through the same lesson returning until you finally sit with it fully.

And once you do, something settles inside of you.

Not because life suddenly became perfect, but because you can finally see clearly enough to move with intention instead of confusion.

And I think that’s why spaces for reflection matter so much.

Clarity isn’t about being told what to do. Sometimes it’s simply having the space to sit with what’s already trying to show itself.

I am interestd in becoming an astrology and healing coach remotely. What is the range of income here? What might be some big hurdles with this choice?

Thank you all!

Which online payment processor(s) do you have an account in or use?

1️⃣ Stripe
2️⃣ Paypal
3️⃣ Square
4️⃣ Shopify
5️⃣ Other

Doing some research into what the biggest pain points are when building a coaching business. Please answer with your own experience. Thank you!

1. Client Onboarding: the process of welcoming new clients into your business

2. Discovery call follow-up system: is an opportunity to address objections raised during the discovery call or anticipate concerns the prospect might have.

3. Content repurposing pipeline: is the process of taking existing content - a blog post, video, podcast episode, or social media post - and adapting it into new formats for different platforms, audiences, or purposes.