Insider Tips for Running Your ICF-Compliant Coaching Business
Are you an accredited coach and want to grow an “ICF compliant coaching business”? Then this blog is for you.
Coaching industry is diverse and evolving.Standards vary and regulation is lacking. Everyone can call themselves experts and coaches.
But those coaches with high integrity and dedication to their craft make sure they follow the highest standards to create a safe supportive space for their clients’ growth.
That’s why I chose to pursue accreditation with the International Coaching Federation (ICF) myself.
As an ICF-certified business coach and strategist, I’ve delved deep into the world of coaching, seeking to uphold the gold standard in ethical practices and professionalism. In this blog, I’ll share my journey towards building an ICF-compliant coaching business and share the insights I gained along the way.
International Coaching Federation: Excellence in Coaching
The International Coaching Federation (ICF) stands as a beacon of excellence in the coaching industry, setting the gold standard for ethical practices and professionalism. Founded over 27 years ago, the ICF is dedicated to advancing coaching excellence, impact, and value worldwide.
Through its rigorous credentialing program, the ICF ensures that professional coaches meet stringent education and experience requirements, demonstrating mastery of coaching competencies and a commitment to integrity.
Additionally, the ICF accredits programs that deliver coaching education, ensuring alignment with core competencies and ethical guidelines.
Central to the ICF’s mission are its core values of professionalism, collaboration, humanity, and equity. These values serve as the foundation for the coaching community, guiding interactions and fostering trust among coaches and clients alike.
ICF Core Competencies & Your Coaching Business
The International Coaching Federation (ICF) has a set of skills called Core Competencies. These competencies help coaches do their job well.
There are four main areas where coaches need to excel: Foundation, Co-Creating the Relationship, Communicating Effectively, and Cultivating Learning and Growth.
In simple words these competencies are about being honest and respectful, making clear agreements with clients, and listening carefully and actively.
By cultivating these skills, coaches can create a safe and supportive space for their clients. They can then help their clients learn new things and grow in their lives and businesses.
ICF accredited coaches have to pass tests and submit recordings of their coaching sessions to review to become certified. This shows that they’re serious about helping people and following the rules.
Of course as a client you can choose to work with whoever you resonate with. But when you choose an ICF accredited coach, you know you are working with someone who has gone the extra mile to make sure they offer a service with the highest level of integrity and safety for their clients.
Key Elements of an ICF Compliant Coaching Business
In running an ICF compliant coaching business, there are three main areas to focus on:
- It’s essential to follow ethical practices, which means being honest and respectful with clients, keeping their information private, and understanding the boundaries between coaching and other professions.
- Having the right coaching mindset is crucial. This means staying open-minded, curious, and flexible, and always putting the client first.
- Establishing clear agreements with clients is key. This involves making sure everyone understands what coaching involves, agreeing on how sessions will work, and setting goals together.
These three elements are the foundation for a successful and ethical ICF compliant coaching business.
Authenticity in business and marketing: Offering Safe Spaces for Transformation
Authenticity means being genuine, transparent, and true to oneself. For coaches, this could mean openly sharing their own experiences, values, and beliefs, allowing clients to feel understood and supported.
When clients sense that their coach is authentic, they are more likely to open up and engage fully in the coaching and learning process.
Authenticity also extends to sales & marketing efforts, where coaches can showcase their unique personalities and approaches rather than resorting to common generic or misleading tactics like unrealistic income claims or pushing people to invest in services they are not ready for.
Conducting sales and discovery calls as a coach with high integrity
One of the skills you need to master as a qualified expert or coach is mastering sales calls. There is a lot of confusing content around successful sales calls for service businesses.
Unlike marketing agencies focused solely on closing deals, ICF compliant coaches approach sales calls as opportunities to establish meaningful connections and understand the client’s needs deeply.
As an ICF compliant business coach I see these introductory calls as an opportunity to get to know the clients, their challenges , needs,aspirations, and values.
I believe the clients need to have the safety to make an empowered decision for themselves:
How can you be safe when someone is pushing you on the call to pay?
How can you feel safe with someone who is using manipulative tactics to trigger your insecurities?
You can’t!
I believe the most successful coaches embody what they coach: if you want to learn how empowering sales calls look like? Join one!
IF you are one of those coaches who never higher coaches , you will be struggling with this part massively. If you have never been on a sales call as a client you will never connect with the doubts , fears and excitement that come with being on these calls.
So instead of downloading one of those sales scripts or asking Chat GPT to create one, go on some of these sales calls, hire your ideal mentor or coach and see how the energy flows during these stages.
Instead of worrying about sales techniques that can increase your “ close rate” focus on having empowering conversations with empowered people.
When you become selective about the type of potential clients you allow on these calls and spend time with those who are already interested in hiring a coach, and are seriously exploring your services you will naturally have a higher conversion rate.
One of the mistakes I used to make early on in my coaching career was that I wasn’t always talking to empowered individuals. Instead I was inviting those with a victim mindset to test my coaching with the hope that it will change their mind and make them invest in coaching.
A person with a victim mindset does not have hope for success and growth: They might be curious to learn more about growth, and they might change their mind one day. But they are not ready to invest in high value coaching services.
They are interested, but not invested!
If you want to learn more about attracting aligned clients my free printable roadmap might be useful for you
Free Download : Get Your First Clients
Cultivating A Coaching Mindset
Having a coaching mindset is about maintaining an open-minded, curious, and flexible approach while prioritizing the client’s needs above all else. By embodying these qualities, coaches create a safe and supportive space for their clients to explore their challenges, aspirations, and potential.
I started my business only offering business consultancy services. I noticed the highest level of success in implementing strategies only happens when the person who runs the business is ready to execute those strategies.
Pushing people to do things they are not ready for using messages like “get out of comfort zone” and “just do it” or “ stop procrastinating and take action” does not work for everyone.
Holistic coaching business :Coaching the whole person
This was my main motivation to get trained as a coach to use a 360 multidimensional holistic approach in business coaching.
Walking the talk is equally essential, as coaches must authentically embody the values and principles they espouse in their coaching practice.
Owning a coaching mindset is absolutely critical for those aiming to run a holistic coaching business
Unlike approaches solely focused on pushing for success strategies, a coaching mindset emphasizes creating a balance between accountability and compassion.
This means understanding and acknowledging the complexities of the human experience, including the individual’s emotions, mindset, and nervous system responses.
By adopting this mindset, coaches can tailor their approach to meet the unique needs of each client, creating a sense of safety and trust that enables deep exploration and growth.
Rather than simply prescribing solutions, they guide clients through a journey of self-discovery, helping them tap into their inner wisdom and resources to navigate challenges and achieve their goals.
The Power of Creating your Signature Methodology
Creating your own coaching framework, or methodology, is essential for demonstrating that you don’t generate results randomly but instead follow a structured and intentional approach.
Having a clear methodology provides a roadmap for achieving success consistently.
To create your own framework you need to practice and experiment. Experience will show you what steps helped you create better results for yourself or your clients.
In my practice, I’ve developed the “Unique Business Blueprint™️,” a signature framework designed to guide clients through a systematic process of discovering their genius, creating compelling offers, and implementing effective strategies.
This framework ensures that every step is purposeful and aligned with the client’s goals, eliminating guesswork and maximizing efficiency.
This framework is informed by my training in neuroscience, transactional analysis. It’s inspired by my own philosophy of life and approach to business.
It’s influenced by my core belief that true success happens when humans discover their zone of genius and work with their strengths to connect with those aligned clients who need them most.
I expand this methodology in detail in my free business masterclass for coaches. You can access it here
Grow Your ICF compliant Coaching Business With Me
Now, maybe you recently got certified as a life coach: You spent months in coach training, prepared for the exam and have done enough free or peer coaching.
Or maybe you are growing this coaching business on the side of a corporate job or another business and you have little time on hand.You are ready to get paid clients on a regular basis.
Or perhaps you have been referred clients from friends and colleagues and you wonder if you have exhausted your network!
It feels like you have coached everyone!
You go to all those networking events but it feels no one understands what you do. And at the same time it feels like everyone is a coach.
You wonder if the personal & professional growth market is saturated.
Sometimes you wonder why someone would choose to work with you when there are so many great professionals out there?
You might have invested in marketing programs and courses, maybe you even got a marketing coach: but your progress is slow and you are not seeing the results.
You wonder how you can survive the coaching industry and create that ICF compliant coaching business.
It feels like you are competing with influencers, fitness models and others who are good at visually showcasing their success & lifestyle…but don’t have your educational background.
I am there to support you.
As an ICF certified coach who has been on this journey, I have experienced all of these states. And now after serving over 130 entrepreneurs from all walks of lives and all kinds of businesses, I am there to support my own colleagues.
I have created a free business masterclass and in 45 min you can learn all the secrets of growing an ethical impactful purposeful coaching business.
See you there!
