How To Feel Confident and Credible Coaching Clients (Even If You Have No Experience)

As a health coach, you want to feel confident coaching clients.

You want to shake off any worries about what to say to clients and how to deliver results, while also positioning yourself as a credible, higher-paid coach.

The first key to both confidence and credibility is a proven coaching method.

Step 1: Use A Proven Coaching Method To Feel Confident as a Health Coach

Real coaches don’t just show up with their clients and ask, “So… what do you want to work on today?”

Credible and confident coaches show up with a proven plan that’s been shown to get clients results no matter what they come to you with.

Full disclosure: creating your own coaching method can take some time.

However, you can get started with this simple but powerful step-by-step guide:

1. Write down what struggles you have overcome.
2. Make a list of what worked and what didn’t.
3. Add any new tools, techniques, or findings that you found helpful.
4. Put it together in a clear step-by-step system so you can guide your clients through it with no guesswork.

After you’ve put some thought into those steps, organize your program by following these 6 steps:

1. Who: Who is your program for? (Your ideal client)
2. Challenges: What are 3-5 big challenges your ideal client is experiencing?
3. Biggest Pain Point: Which of those challenges is the biggest? This should be the focus of your coaching program or method.
4. Outcomes: What benefits will participants experience through this program? What do they want?
5. Steps: Outline 3-5 steps they will take to overcome their biggest problem and achieve the desired benefits?
6. Framework: Create a framework and use it for each step. This makes content creation much faster and easier. After you create your main framework, all you need to do is “fill-in-the-blanks.”

Here’s an example framework that you can use in your coaching method or program:

1. Action Step
2. Information about the action step, educate your client
3. How to take the action step (make this simple to follow)
4. Goals (help your client set goals for this action step)
5. Tips for Success
6. Resources and Tools (Worksheets, checklists, etc.)

Keep in mind, you do NOT need to include all of these. Less is actually more! Your client just wants the results so if you can give that to them in a shorter period of time, do so!

Now that you know how to create a coaching method or program that will leave you feeling confident as you coach clients, here’s a pro tip to consider:

Pro Tip #1: Get certified to use a proven coaching system that’s been tested, covers all areas of heath, and is customizable for your clients for even more confidence!

You don’t need to reinvent the wheel or spend a lot of time creating your own coaching system. Choose a certification program that provides this for you.

Imagine… having a DONE-FOR-YOU session-by-session coaching system so that no matter what your client brings up, you will be ready and able to coach and support them with confidence – all with ZERO guesswork!

This is something that our students get when they graduate.

Ok, now that you understand how to feel confident as a coach, let’s look at how you can be seen as credible (which will also boost your confidence).

Step 2: Get Certified from a Credible School To Feel Confident as a Health Coach

Not all health coaching schools or health coaching programs are created equal.

It’s important that you do your due diligence when looking at health coach certification programs and make the best choice for you.

Pro Tip #1: Look for programs that are approved with NBHWC. AND… that don’t require you to pay to take an extra course to qualify to sit for the board exams.

For example, ITN’s Certified Transformational Nutrition Coach (CTNC) program is approved by NBHWC so you can sit for the board exam once you graduate – no other classes or investments in courses required.

Many schools require you to take a second course so make sure you ask before you enroll.

Pro Tip #2: Make sure you’re getting an actual “certification” and not just a “certificate” or “certificate of completion”.

Many programs fall short of a certification by offering a “certificate” or “certificate of completion” and you’re only “certified” once you sit for the board exam through NBHWC.

Find a school that provides an actual “certification” for more credibility and confidence.

Pro Tip #3: Specialize with a specialist certification to stand out and charge higher rates.

A specialist doctor is paid more than a general practitioner or family doctor. The same is true for health coaches.

Getting a specialist certification will help you stand out and charge higher rates!

At ITN, we offer a complimentary specialist certification of your choice (choose from 8 different topics) as part of our Certified Transformational Nutrition Coach (CTNC) Pro.

Pro Tip #4: Get educated with a comprehensive curriculum that combines the science, psychology, AND spirituality of nutrition so you feel more confident as a coach and get your clients results.

Everyone’s talking about “mind, body, spirit”, right? We all know you need all three areas to be healthy and get your clients results as a health coach. But what almost no one understands is that it’s the combination of all three, at the same time, that actually gets results.

That’s why at ITN, we teach and certify you in Transformational Nutrition.

Transformational Nutrition is the revolutionary new model of health that blends physical, mental, and spiritual nutrition into one powerful and proven system of coaching.

The bottom line when it comes to feeling confident and credible as a health coach is to use a proven method to coach and get certified through a reputable school.

If you’d like our 7-Step Checklist for Choosing the Best Health Coach Certification Program (So You Don’t Waste Thousands of Dollars and Regret It Later), click here!