Aurelia Williams is a Life Coach and owner of Real Life Coaching.net. She followed her passion of helping other women and is now making a difference in her clients' lives through individual coaching and online marketing.
Aurelia Williams, Life Coach
Personal and life coaches are becoming more popular as both women and men realize that they need help in specific areas of life such as career, home, and personal growth.
Before becoming a life coach, Aurelia was a work from home mom where she started a home based business running a day care and also worked online for iVillage. During this time, she began looking at ways to work online and ventured into the world of internet marketing with Real Life Solutions.net.
When asked what a personal coach does, Aurelia shared the following list. A personal coach:
- Is a person who assists their clients to determine and achieve personal and/or business goals.
- Will use a variety of methods, tailored to the client, to move through the process of setting and reaching the goals that they want to meet.
- Is like a cheerleader who encourages you, and a devoted listener who is interested in what you have to say.
- Is a collaborator who works with you as you develop creative solutions to problems you are facing
- Is a guide who assists you in navigating through life.
Aurelia, why did you make the decision to become a personal coach?
I have always had a desire to help other women reach their ultimate potential in business as well as their personal life. Deciding to become a coach seemed like second nature to me.
How would you describe your job?
Fulfilling! That is the first word that comes to my mind. I love being able to assist my clients in reaching their goals, becoming stronger individuals mentally and at times spiritually and really working with them to boost their self esteem and sharpen other skills that they are seeking, such as organizational, time management, etcetera.
What type of training do you have?
I attended and graduated from Coach Training classes at Coaching Training Alliance and became a ICF Accredited Certified Personal Life Coach in 2004.
Was the certification necessary to get started?
No, actually you don't need to be certified to be a coach, but I felt it was necessary for me only to ensure that I am able to give my clients the best service possible. The tools and techniques that I learned in training were incredible and I still take other training classes to be sure that I am giving my clients the best service that I can.
What were some of the challenges you faced when you first started?
I think my biggest challenge was trying to convince myself that people would actually seek out my services. I marketed myself well but coaching can be a hard sell and I was nervous that my business would suffer because coaching was very "new" to some people.
You have a niche working with women. How would you describe this?
My niche is helping women gain more self esteem, time management skills and organization. Through this I am also a great coach for any woman that is looking to achieve certain goals in her life
How did you choose this area to focus on?
This niche kind of chose me. I have a natural knack for organizing; and because I suffered so long with low self esteem and literally pulled myself out of many ditches, I felt I owed it back to the world to extend a hand and help others do the same.
How do you set your rates?
At first when I went to set my rates I looked around at other coaches and their rates. If you look at my rates compared to most life coaches you will find that I charge almost half of what other coaches' charge. This is not because I am half as good as they are (smile), this is simply because I market to mostly moms that are in a different financial bracket than what other coaches market to. Many of my clients are stay at home or work at home moms. The last thing that I want any client of mine to worry about is the money they are spending to receive my services.
Where do you find your clients?
Actually, I am starting to see that clients are finding me. Clients usually find me through my website or through my articles that I write and submit to article directories. I do network on a few message boards and occasionally someone will request my services that way, but I don't post ads about my services. I also speak at online conferences and hold chats about self esteem and time management.
What is a typical day like for you?
I am a life coach part-time and most of my client sessions are in the evenings. Typically on the evenings that I have clients I review their session preparation form (this is the form they fill out to let me know their agenda for our session). After I review their form I go back into their form from the previous week and compare the two and take notes. I then call the client, and we have a 45 minute verbal telephone session. During the sessions I am always listening and taking notes to be sure that I am in tune with what the client wants to achieve. At the end of the session I do a re-cap of our session and reiterate the clients' goals, then I challenge the client to take action. Usually I will simply ask "What do you think you would need to do to get this result?" and the client will answer. Finally we set a deadline for that action.
After the session I review my notes, then send a follow-up email to the client thanking them for their hard work, recapping the session (again) and list the "homework" that the client agreed to do.
I touch base with my clients via email periodically to check in with them to see how their progress is coming along and often clients will email me to tell me how they are doing.
While the actual coaching session is only 45 minutes long, the entire process from start to finish for me is about two hours.
What have you done to market yourself both online and off?
Online
Besides the website, I have been on radio shows, I've held a few teleseminars, and I've been a guest speaker at seminars. I think that article marketing has been one of my biggest successes in online marketing. I participate in online forums just to gain information and to also help people if I can. This is a proven way to gain clients, but that is not the reason that I network.
Offline
I have held a few speaking engagements for woman looking to lift their self esteem.
Tell us about the newsletter you send out.
I have a few newsletters actually. You can find one at Reallifecoaching.net and another at Reallifesolutions.net. The coaching newsletter is called "Real Life Inspiration and Tips" and it was created to give women weekly tips and uplifting messages that they can use and apply to their lives.
I also pass out free reports periodically through the newsletter and great information on self esteem, life balance, time management and other issues
What is your favorite part about being a coach?
I absolutely love helping people. When a client reaches their goal, I feel as if I have reached it too. It is wonderful to help people go after their dreams whether they are big or small.
What advice would you share with someone who wants to become a life coach?
I would encourage them to sign up for some coach training classes, or seek out the help of a Mentor Coach so that they can have some help in getting their business up and running as smoothly as possible. Also I would encourage them to never give up. Find a good niche that they are comfortable with and stick to it.
