Do You Need To Get Certified To Become A Life Coach?

One of the biggest questions new coaches often ask me is, do I need to get certified to launch my coaching business? Where am I better off just getting started, putting myself out there and getting clients? If you’ve ever wondered whether certification is really necessary to succeed as a life coach, keep watching because you’re about to find out, Hey, my name’s Jason Moss. I’m a multi six figure business coach, and I’ve helped thousands of coaches around the world launch and grow their businesses figuring out whether or not you need to be certified. Super important question to answer as a new coach, also super important for you to know how to attract clients and what you need to do to market yourself online. So if you’ve ever wondered how you can do that and how you can get clients into your coaching business, I put together a free client attraction guide that walks through all the details and get that completely free.

Just click the link above or in the description down below to go download that right now. So when it comes to getting certified as a coach and whether or not you need to get certified in order to launch your business and get clients, it really depends. And the truth is there’s no black and white answer. For some coaches, it’s not necessary for other coaches, I recommend it. So it really depends on a number of different factors, and I want to talk through those in this video so you can get some clarity and figure out whether or not certification is right for you. So let’s talk about the cons to certification first and why it may not be necessary for you. If you’re a coach, to start getting clients to actually go out there and get certified. In many cases, it’s not necessary for you to be certified to launch your coaching business.

The most important question that a potential client is going to ask you when they’re thinking about working with you is not, are you certified or not? It’s can you help me? And if you have the skills and tools and knowledge to be able to take someone from where they are today to where they want to be and help facilitate a specific transformation in somebody else’s life, then chances are you have more than enough to get out there and go and start helping people. So in many cases, depending on your knowledge and your background and your experience, you may have everything that you need right now and you may not need a certification to get started. Now, is a certification useful and helpful going out there and learning how to become a better coach? I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. And in many cases it can help you create better experiences for your clients, but it’s not necessary in many cases to start.

It can also be really expensive. Let’s be honest, a lot of certifications out there, thousands and thousands of dollars, and you’re looking at going through a six, 12 month plus process that’s going to punt down the line, the process of actually going out there and starting your business. And if you’re a new coach and maybe you’re unsure of whether or not coaching is even for you, rather than going out and investing thousands of dollars into a coaching certification and then going out there and starting to get clients and realizing you don’t even want to do this, it’s far better for you to just start your business, start working with a couple clients and just feel it out that way and get started without investing all that money into certification, you can always go back and get certified later. So for many coaches in many niches, it actually makes more sense to just get started in your business. You definitely don’t be certified to create success as a coach. I’m not certified as a coach today and I’m running a multi six figure coaching business helping, you know, hundreds of paying clients around world.

So this is more than enough proof to me that at the end of the day, what really matters is your ability to create results and help facilitate a transformation for somebody else. And if you can do that, in many cases, you have more than enough to go out there and start getting clients. Now, there are exceptions to some of the things that I just shared, and one of the biggest ones is if you are working or thinking about working with a specific group of people that uh, has trauma or has a a specific medical challenges or mental illness or specific more vulnerable populations, that’s where having certification and having specialized skills and tools can be really useful and honestly, in many cases essential for working with those groups of people. Because coaching is unregulated right now because you can basically just wake up and say, Hey, I wanna be a coach and work with anyone.

That doesn’t mean that you should. And I think in many cases, specifically when we’re talking about more vulnerable populations, really having the tools and the skills in place to be able to support those people and navigate some of the challenges that might come up in working with them. Super, super important. So I don’t wanna downplay that. If you’re thinking about working with more sensitive groups of people, uh, or populations, I would definitely recommend certification in many cases. I also often recommend certification for coaches who just don’t feel like they have the skills today to actually be able to help someone. So if you don’t feel confident that you can go into a situation and help someone navigate a transformation and get from A to B, that doesn’t mean that you have to be the best coach in the world, by the way. So you can still, you know, kind of be on the process of learning and growing, but if you don’t feel confident that you’ve got the skills today to be able to do that, then obviously having a certification under your belt and learning more about coaching and learning more about the skills that it takes to be able to help someone is gonna be pretty important.

And so I probably wouldn’t skip that over in this case. On the flip side, I see a lot of coaches who are held back by imposter syndrome, who are held back by self-doubt, feeling like they’re not qualified to be able to help someone. When I actually look at their situation and I see their skills and their background and their expertise, they have more than enough to be able to help someone. So there is some nuance here, and you really have to ask yourself, what’s the story that I’m telling myself in my head versus what’s really the truth? Like when I look at honestly my skills and what I have to bring to the table, do I feel like I can help someone? Do I feel like if I worked with someone today that I could help them transform their life? If the answer is yes, then you probably don’t need certification unless you’re working with specific vulnerable populations.

If the answer is no, then I would probably go out and get certified. So hopefully this gives you some clarity. Obviously there’s a lot of nuance here and it’s not a black and white situation, but this should give you some guidelines and some things to think about when it comes to deciding whether or not certification is right for you. Now, getting certified and developing your coaching skills, one big key to success as a coach. Also super important that you know how to run a business and get clients. You’re wondering, how can I actually start getting coaching clients? Maybe I feel like I have the skills today to be able to help someone, but I just don’t know how to get clients. I put together a free client attraction guide that walks through all the details. You can get it right now, just click the link above or below to download that today. If you love this video, you’re definitely gonna love that one too. So click the link on the screen to go check that out and I’ll see you in the next video.