So here I am, sitting in a Starbucks at 10:54am on a Friday, using part of my day to finally brainstorm on how I am going to create a damn Life Coaching business. I so proudly locked in three hours on my schedule today to REALLY figure things out. Three hours. Cute, right? As I usually do, I went to the internet for help.

Enter Google search: "starting my own life coaching business"

This keyword title caught my attention. It was the second link on the first page. It's worth a read: What They Don't Tell You About Starting a Coaching Business.

After you're done reading the article, if that is indeed what you decide to do, come back and read what my experience as a life coach has been like thus far. The correlations between my experience and the article I mentioned are uncanny, but not surprising.

Context Of This Article

As a Life Coach, my intentions are truly to help people breakthrough their blocks, be empowered beyond limitation, achieve every result they can imagine, and experience life filled with grand emotions and fulfillment.
BUT, the journey of becoming or being the coach that can actually produce those results has been daunting
actually getting clients to buy into that shit has been...not a walk in the park
OH, and let's not forget the money aspect...or lack thereof...

Being a Certified Coach Doesn't Guarantee Jack Shit

It took me over 8 months to complete my training program and be a certified professional coach. Although I was proud of that achievement, I knew that just like getting a college degree, earning a certification doesn't guarantee jack shit.

Life Coach training is great for developing the skill of coaching. It does not, however, develop the skill of building a business. At all. Two separate worlds.

"What The F*ck IS 'Life Coaching?'"

The assumption I made was that anyone in their right mind would want a coach if they truly knew the value it has. In my opinion, the space and service that a life coach provides for the client...the HUMAN...is something so profoundly unique and powerful, and cannot easily be found in the world.

The issue...is that it took ME a while to even get what the hell I do as a coach. And to be honest, it's kind of esoteric in its foundation - at least in my opinion. I truly think that life coaching has a divine aspect to it. Really. I digress.

The issue has been making life coaching a relatable service for people in the world, who don't really think the problems they have can be well served by a life coach.

The Life Coaching Industry Brand is Not Sexy

The damn label itself, "life coach", infers some kind of handicap or lack of ability to handle one's own life. "Why the hell would I need a coach for my life?" is something I imagine people with no understanding of what life coaches do would say. I don't blame them.

"Life coach" does not have a very popular, or sexy meaning to it in the general public. I'd argue that the two words, "life coach" don't have much meaning at all. It doesn't have much of a brand. And the brand it does have, is not a desirable one - not to the general public at least.

The TRUTH is that a lot of very successful people have life coaches. And they pay good fucking money to have one. But, in my mind, it's not just CEOs and high performance athletes that can stand to benefit GREATLY from using a life coach to up their game. It's EVERYONE.

How much Money, and How Many Clients has Gabriel Santos the Life Coach had?

Well, let me give you the facts.

Since December 2016, when I was officially certified, I've made about about $500 through coaching. Only $999,500 to go! Laughable.

I had one client pay for three coaching sessions in advance, for a total of $300. Which was amazing. I had one client pay $10 a session. I had another pay $60 a session. So it's been all across the board.

I've had about seven clients (4 of them paid), and about a handful of complimentary coaching clients. The longest coach-client partnership I've had is about 6 sessions. The shortest I've had, not counting the 1-time complimentary clients, is two sessions. As you can see, the idea of having one client for a lifetime, to continually pay you money, has yet been the case.

To be fair, I have not been attacking the creation of my coaching business with full tenacity. I've been dabbling, trying, kind of all in, but not actually. So my results truly do reflect my own growth and action taking (or lack thereof).

SO, WHAT NOW?

Well, what I've come to accept is that creating a coaching business is not going to happen on its own, and I am not entitled to anything, especially my dreams and aspirations of making millions and transforming millions of lives.

And that I can't expect to create my dream results by "trying." I must commit...my life, really...to creating this dream. That's my take at the moment, at least.

A Raw Message From My Heart & Soul

Look, my sincere belief is that people generally live an okay life, slightly above average at best. I'm not just talking material results, I'm talking the quality of experience as well. I'm not just talking about being able to afford vacations. I'm talking about actually enjoying oneself, on vacation or not.

The amount of stress and insecurity that goes on, day to day, moment to moment, is extremely taxing on the human body and spirit. It's a very heavy experience.

Not to mention the power of the mind, both to bring us happiness and be our worst enemy.

My goal is to coach people to live on a higher plane of existence, in all forms. God, that was a fuckin mouth full that didn't really make sense in every day language. Let me translate.

My goal is to coach people to make hella money, eat hella good food, experience the fucking awesomeness of life regardless of what's going on around us (vacation vs work vs a crying baby), and to be people who spread joy and love to those around them.

To really make living life feel like a dream. To enjoy life as we live it. reaching for future goals AND enjoying our lives - NOW. And not enjoying as a verb, like fishing or fucking, but enjoying as a function of how we experience being alive.