If your story is anything like mine, you left (or desire to leave) a soul-sucking 9-to-5 corporate job. Mine was more like 8-to-8, but you know what I mean.
You’ve woken up to something that you can’t quite pinpoint and all you might know is that you just can’t put your energy in a meaningless job anymore.
You probably started to learn about health and wellness, spirituality,manifestation, energy, and the power of your mind to create your life.
If you’re anything like me, it became an obsession. So much so that you want to awaken and enlighten everyone you know.
Your life purpose started to naturally unfold, totally unexpected: You wanted to guide others to experience the deeper connection with their mind, body, and spirit, just as you’ve experienced.
And pretty soon after you realized that the “logical” thing to do is to become a life coach, health coach, yoga teacher, or the like.
You might have taken a yoga teacher training … or two.
Attended IIN, or completed a health coach certification.
Or became a certified life coach.
You had this bright vision of a future where you worked for yourself from wherever you want in the world while making great money doing it.
However, it doesn’t seem to be working out that way.
You wanted to become a coach to help others.
You wanted to become a coach to create time freedom so you can live by your own schedule.
You wanted to become a coach to create financial freedom. Working for yourself can create unlimited possibility.
BUT, you may have come to realize after a while in this business that you’re working your butt off and still not making financial ends meet.
It’s not exactly the future you'd envisioned for yourself.
The sad part of this story is that so many of us are awakening, wanting to “give back” and teach others how to live a life of their dreams, but secretly we’re struggling.
The financial part of living your purpose is still a challenge for many. If you’re finally living your purpose as a coach, but struggling to make ends meet, you’re not alone.
Here’s what to do:
1. Learn the skill sets you're missing.
You might be an expert in health and wellness, but if you’re honest you might hate marketing yourself, and therefore you don’t. Spend time with those activities that may not come naturally to you, or hire someone to help you with them.
2. Drop the "starving artist" mindset.
So many of my clients have obvious money blocks when it comes to selling themselves and their services. Deep down, they feel that charging well for their work is sacrilegious because it’s helping others and that should be “free,” while a doctor or lawyer can charge upward of $200/hour for their services. What we do is important. The sooner you learn to charge, the sooner your clients will greatly respect your work, and actually stay accountable to the change they want.
3. Get a side gig.
But not any side gig. When one of my clients moved from Minnesota to LA, she was concerned about how to make it financially. She had started her coaching business but still wasn’t making enough to make ends meet. She thought of returning to an old job she knew quite well: nannying. It just didn’t light her up. I suggested she find a job with a more established coach or aligned business so that while she earned income, she learned about the business she wanted to be in. She did just that, and it’s been a very positive experience.
4. Get a little risky.
There will be moments that you will need to make investments, trust your gut, and even be willing to fail and it won’t feel good. The other side of that is success.
5. Diversify.
It’s smart to create multiple streams of income. The good news is that you can do this even if you don’t feel called to invest in real estate or the stock market. There are ways to stay in alignment with your purpose and create supplemental income streams in businesses like network marketing, products, affiliate programs, books, retreats and events.
