Life coaching can be a deeply fulfilling career: You get to spend your days helping other people realize their full potential while experiencing your own personal growth.
However, life coaching also has unique challenges. If you start your own life coaching business, you could face challenges like making tough business decisions, managing emotionally demanding clients, and finding time to market your services.
It can feel like a lot to handle — that's why resilience, emotional intelligence, and holistic training are a key part of the Jay Shetty Certification School. The transformative coach training program gives you the skills you need to build a rewarding and exciting career.
The 11 Most Common Challenges of Being a Life Coach
Everyone has tough days (or weeks, or months) during their life coaching journey. Whatever you're dealing with, you're not alone.
If you're starting up a new business, it's completely normal to take a while to build your client list and figure out a work-life balance that works for you. It's easy to overwork, get burnt out, or even feel the effects of imposter syndrome.
The good news is that no struggle lasts forever — there’s always a path through. Let's take a closer look at the biggest challenges of having a life coaching business and how to handle them.
1. Building a Client Base for Your Coaching Practice
Like any business, starting a life coaching business can be tough. You have the certification, you have the skills — but you don't have the clients yet. In fact, learning how to get clients is typically one of the first challenges new life coaches have to overcome.
Fortunately, there are lots of ways to find potential clients through social media, networking, and (once you have a few clients on your list) referrals. As you build up more coaching experience, you'll also collect more testimonials and reviews that you can use to promote your coaching services.
Some training providers also offer courses in client acquisition and marketing. If you earn your coaching certification from the Jay Shetty Certification School, you'll automatically get access to the Business Launchpad — a free, post-certification course on how to build and maintain your business.
2. Maintaining Confidence in Your Abilities
New coaches often feel uncertain when they're just starting out. But imposter syndrome and low self-confidence can hold you back if you don't overcome them.
You can build your confidence over time by gathering feedback from clients and celebrating your successes. You can also use the coaching skills you've learned to reflect on your business so far and identify areas to improve.
Ideally, your coaching certification program will also boost your confidence. For example, the Jay Shetty Certification School has regular live sessions where you can practice your coaching skills with other students in a safe, supportive space.
3. Setting Clear Boundaries During Coaching Sessions
Life coaches are compassionate people. They're trained to listen, reflect, and support their clients. They empathize with other people's lives without judgment. But there are limits.
It's easy to take on too much, such as being available at all times or identifying too much with strong emotions from clients. This is a particular risk for new coaches and those who help clients work on more personal issues.
However, you can avoid this kind of overwhelm by setting clear boundaries. To start, it's a good idea to:
- Have set days and times when you're available.
- Choose which channels of communication you accept (for example, you might accept emails after hours, but not phone calls).
- Communicate with clients about your boundaries.
- Develop a self-care routine to wind down from client sessions.
4. Managing Burnout and Stress
If you don't maintain boundaries and a self-care routine, then there's a risk of burnout. Supporting clients can take an emotional toll on you if you’re not careful. In fact, according to the International Coaching Federation (ICF), coaches may be particularly vulnerable to burnout.
The best way to protect your mental health and well-being is by being proactive. For instance, you could:
- Build time into your workday for regular breaks, including movement breaks.
- Use time-blocking to manage tasks.
- Practice mindfulness to be aware of your own stress levels and recenter yourself.
- Schedule regular check-ins with yourself or another coach to review how you're feeling.
If you're already feeling stressed, it's not too late. You can recover from burnout with the right time- and stress-management techniques.
5. Balancing Personal and Professional Life
Coaching is a flexible job that involves listening to others with compassion and learning about their professional and personal goals, values, and concerns. It's immensely rewarding, but it can also blur the lines between work and personal life.
Done right, life coaching can be empowering for the coach as well as the client. But you'll need the right balance between your personal and professional life. It's important to:
- Structure your time, with a clear separation between work and personal life.
- Set boundaries with clients about when and how you are available.
- Prioritize time for your own relationships, interests, and personal growth.
6. Handling Certain Types of Clients
In an ideal world, every client session would be a success. However, that's not always the reality. You will have difficult moments during your career as a life coach, and sometimes, you might have a client who's just not a good fit.
Some clients might be resistant to change, even though a life coach's goal is to support people in making positive changes. At the other end of the spectrum, they might have unrealistic expectations of how you can help them or how much work you’ll do for them.
You can handle this challenge by setting clear goals throughout the coaching process. You can also use empathy and active listening to make clients feel heard, even if you have to hold your boundaries firmly. Training courses like the Jay Shetty Certification School can help you learn to coach with both compassion and clarity.
7. Staying Motivated
Life coaches are skilled at motivating and encouraging their clients. But some coaches struggle to motivate themselves, especially when it feels like their business is growing slowly.
The solution is to look for support from others. You can join coaching communities, check in with peers from your coach training, or even seek mentorship to guide you through the hard times.
The Jay Shetty Certification School relies on a strong student community during the training program. Once you graduate, you'll become part of a global alumni network for ongoing support and encouragement.
"In this community, we help each other out and respect each other," explains Ada Malave. "It’s a safe space to talk, make suggestions to each other, collaborate with one another to do projects, congratulate each other on our triumphs, and even offer support when we feel stuck."
8. Navigating Negative Perceptions
Sooner or later, as a life coach, you'll come across someone who doesn't understand what you do. They might even ask you if life coaching is a scam.
However, concerns about life coaching often stem from the fact that people don't know enough about it. They might confuse it with therapy, consultancy, or mentoring — but the true role of a life coach is very different.
The answer is education. You can educate your clients and peers about what life coaching actually is and how it works. You can also use public platforms, such as social media or podcasts, to spread the word about what life coaching really means.
Life coaching is an increasingly professional industry where most coaches hold a certification. Major figures like Jay Shetty and institutions like the Jay Shetty Certification School have helped to raise the profile of coaching globally. Becoming a Jay Shetty Certified coach is another way to show that you are rigorously trained and experienced.
9. Standing Out in a Crowded Market
Life coaching is increasingly popular as a service and as a career. So it's an exciting time to become a life coach, but it can also be difficult to stand out from the competition.
One way to help your business succeed is through specialization. Once you identify your niche, you can target your marketing efforts and build a reputation. For example, rather than describing yourself as a general career coach, you might specialize as a career coach for teachers who are looking for new opportunities.
It's also important to build a strong personal brand by posting online, developing a unique voice, and sharing client success stories. All of these tactics help to build your reputation and bring in more clients.
If you're not yet sure what your niche is or how to build a personal brand, then a training course like the Jay Shetty Certification School can help you refine your vision.
10. Keeping Up With Industry Trends
The coaching industry is evolving rapidly. From AI assistance to EQ, there are new tools, techniques, and mindsets coming into play all the time, and it's vital to stay up to date.
You can continue your professional development by:
- Attending workshops and webinars
- Reading industry publications
- Training for advanced certifications and accreditations
- Participating in alumni communities to continue learning from peers and mentors
11. Competing With AI Coaching
In the past few years, AI has become accessible to almost everyone. Some people are already using generative AI as a makeshift therapist, life coach, or even friend.
However, while AI might help with routine pep talks or superficial issues, there's no replacement for talking to a skilled, empathetic professional when it comes to big decisions or tricky situations.
It's worth keeping up to date with AI coaching in case you discover a tool that's useful for you. But remember, as a certified life coach, you'll have superpowers that an AI doesn't, such as recognizing nuances in body language, speech, and behavior.
How To Prepare Yourself for Success
Whether you're considering becoming certified and starting a life coaching business, or you're an established coach looking for support, you can find your way through all the challenges above.
In fact, you can break down many of these barriers using four simple steps you can take right now:
- Invest in a reputable training program to gain the right skills and know-how from the start, such as the Jay Shetty Certification School.
- Write a business plan that describes your niche and where you could find clients.
- Develop a routine that balances work and personal life, carving out time to recharge after tough client sessions.
- Join a community of other coaching professionals for support, advice, and friendship.
Turn Your Coaching Challenges into Opportunities for Growth
Life coaching is a complex, fascinating, and rewarding career. But the pressures of running your own business, finding clients, and supporting them through tough times can also be challenging.
It's important to care for yourself, develop resilience, continuously learn, and find a community to support you. The Jay Shetty Certification School is designed to prepare you for a successful coaching career by providing coaching skills, business tips, and an active online community of alumni around the world.
Join us today and start developing the skills you need to build a thriving coaching practice.
