Is Monetizing Career Coaching Worth It?

What I wish the gurus and mentors shared with me 4 years ago.

When I started my career coaching business 4 years ago, I wish I knew what was waiting for me. The gurus and mentors either painted a rosy picture of how easy it was going to be or scared me enough to feel like I wouldn't make it without paying a ton of money for their services.

Today, I'll share with you a realistic unbiased self-assessment to help you evaluate if you are better off keeping coaching as a hobby or turn your coaching into a business:

How would you answer the following questions?

• Do you believe in yourself?
• Do you have a big idea?
• Can you wear multiple hats?

If you answered no to any of these questions, I invite you to keep reading to figure out how you can develop your skillset if there's a voice inside you that keeps telling you that you still want to try.

If you answered yes, I encourage you to keep reading. Not because I believe I'm an expert but because I've fell on my face enough times to know what doesn't work, while building a 6-figure career coaching business. My hope, by learning from my mistakes, you'll accelerate your business growth journey and feel more confident along the way.

Do you believe in yourself?

Before you help people believe in themselves, it's critical you believe in yourself. Not believing in yourself puts you in the following vulnerable situations with:

• The Car Salesman Gurus: If you're unsure who I'm talking about. These are the "business coaches" who exploit your desperation to make money then promise you'll make $10K (or some other revenue target) within X days and pressure you to pay them before you hang up.

One time I was lured by the idea of landing a TedX talk. I got on a coaching call with an organization that "guranteed" I'd get a TedX talk by submitting applications on my behalf. My conversation with the salesperson led me to believe my entire self-worth was tied to landing a TedX talk to the point I was ready to shell out $20K I didn't have. The salesperson wouldn't let me off the phone, while I tried to transfer funds from my line of credit only to get a notification letting me know I maxed out my loan. Embarrassed I let him I red lined all of my credit sources. Instead of backing off, he persisted and tried to convince me that it'll be worth it instead of doing the ethical thing and encouraging me to focus on improving my profitability before chasing shiny objects.

• Your Competitors: Ever heard of Cirque du Soleil? It was founded by a onetime Canadian accordion player and stilt walker during a time where the circus industry was dying. Kids preferred playing video games, people preferred watching sports events, and animal groups were protesting. Rather than competing with the confines of the existing industry or trying to steal customers from rivals, Cirque developed an uncontested market space that made competition irrelevant. That's what I call Blue Ocean Strategy vs Competitive Strategy.

"How am I going to compete with career coaches with 20+ years of recruitment and HR experience," I remember asking myself. Yet, within a year of starting my career coaching business, I was getting invited to speak at reputable organizations like Scrum Alliance to share my unique approach. Shortly after I got approached by a news reporter from the Globe and Mail, Logitech, Women in Agile, and UserTesting.

The key is identifying your zone of genius and believing in yourself enough to not imitate others. Repeat after me: "I don't need to help people with their resume to become a career coach"

Let me know in the comments if you'd like to learn more about how to use 'Blue Ocean Strategy' and identify your niche.

• Your Clients: Unpopular belief - it's ok to have imposter syndrome. A wise person once said to me when I was just learning to drive: "Maybe it's a good thing you are terrified. Otherwise you'd drive recklessly and make no effort to improve." The reality is you're impacting people's lives. It doesn't mean you shouldn't coach if you're a beginner. It just means that you need to be fully aware of your limitations and seek support or mentorship from someone further along in their journey. This will ensure you're not giving people advice that might cost them like losing an offer or getting fired. In addition, I openly share that I've worked with a licensed therapist the entire time I've built my business to deal with my own trauma, so I don't easily get triggered by difficult clients or my clients' trauma. Being a coach requires you to be coachable and accept help. Your self-care practices and ability to set boundaries are also vital to practicing ethically.

When I was first starting out, one of my clients saw the resume I wrote for him and exclaimed: "You made me look fake. You misrepresented me. I hate this." I had to take a deep breath and not internalize his fear, then patiently went through the information he shared with me and what I translated on paper. After it sank in, he realized that he was projecting his fear of failure on me. The work I did in therapy gave me the tools to recognize my triggers, learn to trust myself, and believe in myself.

Remember, if you want to help people believe in themselves then you need to role model it by continuously working on yourself and practice listening more than talking.

If you'd like me to elaborate on this topic or have questions let me know in the comments.

Do you have a Big TedX idea?

Before you panic, I'm not saying you need to be a TedX speaker to become a career coach. You need to know what is it that you want to help people with, beyond reviewing their resume, converting interviews into offers, or getting a promotion. You need to figure out your why and the social impact you want to create. The best way to figure this out is by shaping and sharing your story.

I remember the light bulb go off for me when I worked with an origin story coach. I realized after I wrote my story that I felt helpless in my career; I felt the companies I worked for determined my fate and I was determined to help others know they could drive their career rather than let toxic bosses and organizations determine it for them. I especially wanted to help people like me, who came from a non-traditional career trajectory, had a difficult childhood, or did not feel a sense of belonging as an immigrant. Full disclosure, I know help people write their origin story but it's not something I do at scale because it takes a lot of energy to help someone revisit their entire life and frame it into a compelling narrative. If that's something you're interested in, DM me. Otherwise, for those of you who may not be able to afford my services, leave a comment to get on the waitlist for my $97 origin story course.

Knowing your big idea will help you create a compelling offer that will help you stand out, while coaching people in an area you are confident in.

Can you wear multiple hats?

In a poll where 72 of you voted here, 64% of you voted you wanted to learn how to monetize a career coaching business. There's no other way to say this but if you want to turn coaching into a business rather than a hobby, you need to love being an entrepreneur. If you don't, you'll fail. It's simple as that.

I was one of the very few coaches from the career coaching certification I graduated from who was able to 100% live off a coaching business without being employed. Some coaches either gave up, decided to work for someone else part time, or turn coaching into a side gig.

Now, I'm not saying you can't be a coach unless you go all in or monetize coaching, nor am I saying that you're not a "real coach" if you don't charge for coaching. All I'm saying is if you want to monetize coaching, here's my recommendation:

• Get over the idea that marketing = being manipulative: The reality is it's hypocritical encouraging your clients to market themselves if you don't believe in the idea of marketing yourself and your services. As someone who now specializes in helping startup and scale-up founders build powerful personal brands, I can write 100's of articles on this topic but I'll leave you with this 1 golden nugget. Learning how to better market yourself will save you the headache of attracting the wrong clients or wasting your time on long-winded sales calls, just to realize the person was fishing for free advice. Be confident, be honest, be authentic, and you'll build a community of people who will have your back as much as you have theirs.
• Coaching is 80% selling and you'll need to love it to succeed: I'm not just referring to selling your services. I'm also referring to selling your ideas, your approach, and your recommendations. Learning to sell involves connecting to the RIGHT people and understanding their pain points. To succeed in sales you need to understand the concept of 'authentic alignment': the intersection of your zone of genius + your passion + what your clients need. The quicker you learn that, the less salesy and more ethical you'll come across. Selling isn't about forcing people to value what you offer. It's about building trust and long term relationships with the RIGHT people.

• Anyone who encourages you to spend less time on fulfillment and more time on sales and marketing is a liar: I'm a firm believer that if you have a great product you'll sell more easily because your happy clients will do most of the selling. If you overly focus on marketing and selling without creating client satisfaction, your business will fail in the long run. It's a delicate balance of setting boundaries, setting clear expectations, and asking the right questions. 33% of you voted you'd like to learn how to improve your coaching, and that's where you need to start if you want to truly monetize and scale your business. Becoming a better career coach isn't about following the templates you've learned from your certifications or forcing people to follow steps. I can't summarize how to improve your coaching in a single bullet but it's something I definitely want to address throughout multiple articles. If you want to learn more share your challenges in the comments and I'll do my best to respond.

My journey as a career started in 2020. It's been quite a learning going from quitting over text to building a 6-figure business. You can read my full story here.

In 2024, I realized I plateaued doing the same thing day in and day out as a career coach, despite transforming people's lives and helping professionals up to the VP level land fulfilling careers. I decided to apply my own advice and take the next step in my career, so I completely retired my career coaching business end of June 2024 and dedicated 100% of my focus helping founders recreate the success I've had in building a powerful personal brand through storytelling and authenticity. You can find the rest of the story here.

A friend of mine encouraged me to write about my mistakes to overcome my own imposter syndrome, as I build a train the trainer program that helps aspiring and experienced career coaches build an ethical business that not only transforms other people's lives but also brings them joy.

Whether you are a career coach, an aspiring career coach, or someone who is a coach I hope this article helps you.

To summarize, if you want to unleash your awesome as a coach and build a business you are proud of:

• Believe in yourself
• Be clear about your big idea
• Be great at wearing these 3 hats: marketing, sales, coaching

Which one of the 3 criteria do you want me to dig deeper into? Write a comment and we can exchange more about it.

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