Choosing the right transformational coaching certification is a critical step in becoming a successful coach. In this insightful episode of The Abundant Coach, host Lauren Brollier Newton breaks down the six essential criteria you need to consider before committing to a certification program. From ensuring that a program aligns with your values to selecting a curriculum with proven results, Lauren covers everything you need to know to make an informed decision.

Whether you're a seasoned coach seeking further certifications or just starting your coaching journey, this episode will guide you in finding a program that not only equips you with the tools to be an exceptional coach but also supports you in building a thriving coaching business. Lauren shares how strategic and spiritual alignment can lead to sustainable success and why business training is just as important as coaching skills. Tune in to discover how to choose a program that returns your investment in time, money, and happiness.

00;00;03;23 - 00;00;31;29

Lauren Brollier Newton

Welcome to the abundant coach. I'm your host, Lauren Brollier Newton. This is a weekly podcast about creating full spectrum success with a thriving coaching business, while making a profound difference in the world. Each week, you'll discover insights, strategies, and inspiration to help you attract your ideal clients. Facilitate real transformation in their lives, and grow your coaching business while living your purpose with true freedom and fulfillment.

00;00;32;02 - 00;00;56;05

Lauren Brollier Newton

Well, welcome back to the Abundant Coach. I am super thrilled to be here with you today. As we look at the six criteria that you would want to use to confidently choose the best coaching certification program for you. Now I'm going to go through the six criteria, but let me give you an overarching theme here and let me say, if you are already a certified coach, don't turn this episode off because I know a lot of you.

00;00;56;10 - 00;01;16;28

Lauren Brollier Newton

You go out and you get multiple certifications so that you can continue to increase your expertise and your ability to serve your clients well. So I would also say evaluate this as you're taking new programs, new certifications. And for those of you who are brand new and thinking about becoming a coach, this is going to be really highly valuable for you in making a decision that really serves you and the clients that you're dreaming of serving.

00;01;17;00 - 00;01;36;22

Lauren Brollier Newton

So I want to share that when I was building my coaching business and now as the director of coach Certification at Brave Thinking Institute, one of the things that I think leads and adds to the success that I've been able to create is that I don't look at things just strategically, and I was trained that way from my mentors at Pre Thinking Institute when I was building my own business.

00;01;36;25 - 00;02;06;22

Lauren Brollier Newton

Yet that yes, there's a level of strategy you want to look at always. Am I going to have a return on investment for this? Am I going to be able to create what I want to create based on this? Absolutely. We want to look at strategy and we want to look at logic. However, the real big moves and big growth moments in my business and here at the Institute come when the spiritual alignment is in place, when spiritually something feels right to me, even if it doesn't always make perfect sense on paper.

00;02;06;28 - 00;02;31;09

Lauren Brollier Newton

Those nudges, those gut feelings we have, we really, really want to look at those, honor those, be dialed into those because I believe the infinite is speaking to each of us. Whatever word you want to put on that God, life, spirit, higher self, you know, meant to be waves and particles. I don't care what name you give it, but there's something in there for each of us that I want to encourage you to look at as we're going through these six criteria.

00;02;31;09 - 00;02;50;26

Lauren Brollier Newton

Because ultimately, here's the thing with pros and cons lists, so to speak. If the pros are weak and the cons are heavy, you know, if the pros are surface level, but the cons or spiritual level, it doesn't matter if there's more pros, because spiritually the cons feel too heavy, right? So I'm going to give you six powerful criteria to look at.

00;02;51;01 - 00;03;11;21

Lauren Brollier Newton

That is not just strategic, but it's also spiritual in nature because it's very important that everything is in alignment when you're thinking about your coaching certification. So that said, I want to give you, now I'm going I'm going off script here. Not not that I ever use a script, you know, I just speak, I channel whatever comes comes.

00;03;11;26 - 00;03;31;27

Lauren Brollier Newton

But, before I get into the six criteria, I want to talk just briefly about when you're making an investment in yourself or in your future. When I talked about return of investment earlier, let's put this as an umbrella over the six criteria. There's three things that I personally look at that helps me to keep it spiritually aligned, not just strategically aligned.

00;03;31;29 - 00;03;58;24

Lauren Brollier Newton

So the first of which is I always ask myself three question is this investment going to return to me in money? So monetarily, financially, in time and in happiness, am I going to get money back? Am I going to get time back? And I'm going to get am I going to get a happiness return on this? So when you're thinking about your coach certification, yes, most people get certified as a coach because they are starting a business, want to generate income.

00;03;58;24 - 00;04;22;01

Lauren Brollier Newton

So is this going to help me generate the income I want to create? That's question one. Question two is this going to give me time back. So as an example and we're going to go into this when we go with the criteria here. If you have to do everything yourself and try to start a coaching business from scratch with no guidance, no certification, it's going to take you a hell of a lot of time.

00;04;22;04 - 00;04;35;07

Lauren Brollier Newton

So is this going to return to me in time? Is it going to return to me and money? And then finally, is this going to return to me and happiness? Because if it returns to me and happiness, I've like, for example, I've wanted to help people my whole life and I've never found a way to do it until now.

00;04;35;12 - 00;04;53;28

Lauren Brollier Newton

That actually, to me, has such an important investment aspect to it, and we don't often look at that. So I'll often use the example I live on in Wyoming on a five and a half acre property, five and a quarter acre property. I have a horse. That horse is likely never going to be a return on investment in terms of money.

00;04;53;28 - 00;05;14;18

Lauren Brollier Newton

I could have her have a couple more babies and maybe generate money from there, but likely the amount of money invested in her is not going to return to me financially, but the amount of happiness that that horse and being able to ride her and seeing her out in the field and having that connection with her, I'm happy to invest what I invest in her, you see what I mean?

00;05;14;18 - 00;05;36;26

Lauren Brollier Newton

So this is what I mean about, yes, we can look at strategic financial decisions, but I think there's, other, other decisions to make as well. So does it increase my financial wealth, my time, and my happiness? Now, in the beginning, when you're making investment in coach certification, sure. You can get a piece of paper and get certified for $20 online.

00;05;36;26 - 00;05;57;12

Lauren Brollier Newton

But let's all be real. That's not going to give you a coaching certification. We're talking about real study. Like I actually have to study and perform coach certification. Is it going to be an investment upfront? Yes. You're going to have to invest money in getting that certification. So when I say is it going to return to me financially, you need to look at the return on that investment, okay.

00;05;57;12 - 00;06;25;11

Lauren Brollier Newton

To return on time and three return on happiness. One more thing I want to say before I get into the six criteria. Coaching is sort of the Wild West right now. There is no governing body for coaching. There is no government regulated system or anything like that. Like if you're going to become a therapist, for example, there are certifications that you legally have to have to call yourself a therapist, a marriage and family therapist.

00;06;25;11 - 00;06;49;26

Lauren Brollier Newton

There's certain licensing coaching does not have that. And don't be fooled that there are accreditations and things like that. Nobody's governing that. So people can call themselves an accreditation, source. And they do an excellent job of giving, getting people prepared. But that's not governed by anybody. Anybody can call themselves an accreditation source. So coaching, life coaching, business coaching, that kind of thing.

00;06;50;02 - 00;07;12;29

Lauren Brollier Newton

It is not regulated by anybody. So just know that people can call themselves accreditation sources. But the truth is it's not governed or regulated by a, you know, United States system or, you know, whatever country you live in. It's not regulated in that way. Okay. That said, do I believe everyone should have a coaching certification if they want to become a coach?

00;07;12;29 - 00;07;42;01

Lauren Brollier Newton

I'm going to say, absolutely. And here's the reason why. When you're asking for an exchange of funds from a client and you're promising an outcome, it really helps when you've got your training from a place that knows that certain curriculum or things of that nature have a result. And so just keep in mind, as I go through these six, criteria, that there is no governing body.

00;07;42;03 - 00;07;58;02

Lauren Brollier Newton

And so that means anybody can be a coach. You don't have to have a certification to be a coach. And yet I'm going to recommend a certification because it's going to help you get the results you want from your client. It's also going to help you keep in integrity that you did something to be able to call yourself a coach.

00;07;58;04 - 00;08;17;19

Lauren Brollier Newton

All right. With that said, let's get into the six criteria that I would recommend when you're evaluating different coaching certification programs. And there's many, many excellent ones out there. Obviously this is a great Thinking Institute podcast. Do I think we have the most awesome coach training on earth? Yes I do, and it's not for everybody. It's definitely not for everybody.

00;08;17;19 - 00;08;40;04

Lauren Brollier Newton

So I want to help you figure out what the best one is for you and discover what the best one is for you. So the very first question I want you to ask yourself, criteria number one of the six criteria. Do the values of this program align with my own? Do the values of this certification program align with my own?

00;08;40;07 - 00;09;05;09

Lauren Brollier Newton

So at Brief Thinking Institute, just as an example, we have a very spiritual component, transformational component to our life coach. Certification doesn't follow necessarily one religion or spiritual practice or anything like that. However, we believe a program without honoring the higher self, the infinite side of your nature is going to leave you empty. That's what we believe. We believe that we are all spiritual beings.

00;09;05;09 - 00;09;27;28

Lauren Brollier Newton

Having a human experience. If that doesn't resonate with the perspective client of the institute, we're not a good match. We don't want you to get certified here because you wouldn't enjoy our certification nor would you go out into the world and, share the values of this certification program. So when you're looking at a certification program, whatever it is, you're looking for something that aligns with your values.

00;09;28;00 - 00;09;46;09

Lauren Brollier Newton

If someone doesn't align with we are all spiritual beings having a human experience. This is not the certification program for them. Now, for me personally, because I really do love the spiritual. I'll tell you two things that wouldn't work for me personally. Not because I want you to know more about me, but just so that when you're measuring it within your own self, you have somewhat of an idea of what?

00;09;46;12 - 00;10;10;03

Lauren Brollier Newton

Of what I mean by this. So let's say I personally look at a coaching certification program and it's very, tactical only there isn't a spiritual component. There isn't a higher self component. We're not really looking within. We're not using our own inner guidance system to decide things. And it's all just you have to do this. You have to do that to build your business.

00;10;10;03 - 00;10;28;06

Lauren Brollier Newton

That would not resonate with me. It would not resonate with me if it was a prescribed. You have to do these things. There's not really a lot of wiggle room, and this is the one way to do it. That would not resonate with me, because I'm sort of a rebel and I'm also, I believe that there is a spirit component that you can't always explain with strategy, as I mentioned earlier.

00;10;28;06 - 00;10;46;18

Lauren Brollier Newton

So that would not work for me. That would not, number one, do these programs values align with my own? No. But on the other end of the spectrum, I'll tell you another thing that wouldn't align with my values a spiritual program that has no practicality to it. It's all spiritual. It's all like philosophy up in the air. But there's no, like, tactical.

00;10;46;18 - 00;11;07;09

Lauren Brollier Newton

This is how you build your business. That would work for me. So as I'm looking at my own values, I believe we are spiritual beings having a human experience. I also believe that inspiration without practicality is just leaving us, like floating up in the sky and not grounded on planet Earth. Okay, so if I were looking for certification, I would be looking at that.

00;11;07;14 - 00;11;36;00

Lauren Brollier Newton

I would be looking at those values. So that's number one. Do the values of this program align with my own number two, does it use a curriculum that has proven success? I believe this is extremely important. Many people who want to become coaches have their own level of expertise. If they're going to be a life coach, they have their own level of wisdom that they've gained over the course of their life that they want to share.

00;11;36;00 - 00;11;56;27

Lauren Brollier Newton

If they're going to become a business coach, they have their own experience that has helped them in business. If they're going to be a health coach. Many people who want to become a health coach have their own experience in what made them have great health. And you're one person. So yes, we want to share the experiences we've had, and I would encourage every coach to do that.

00;11;56;27 - 00;12;19;29

Lauren Brollier Newton

And we also want to have some grounding in at least some experimentation that this works with other people. And so if you're going to go out and not get a certification that comes with a curriculum, then lots of certifications come with sort of a overarching philosophy, but not an actual curriculum that you can use in a curriculum book, like a teacher.

00;12;20;01 - 00;12;53;03

Lauren Brollier Newton

Okay. Why would I suggest you have a curriculum? Because a curriculum is usually proven and tested. And so, you know, when you're exchanging money funds, transacting with a prospective client that this system is going to actually get them results if it's worked for you, it's great. But do you know that it's going to work for other people? So that means if you're a coach and you're not going to get a certification and you're going to write your own program, that likely one would hope that you're going to do some beta testing or you're going to do some experimenting, that these principles that I'm teaching are going to work for people.

00;12;53;06 - 00;13;10;12

Lauren Brollier Newton

And what can be the gap for a lot of new coaches is you're so inspired to write your own program, which by the way, I encourage you to do, even if your coaching certification comes with a proven curriculum, you can still go out and create your own curriculum with your own experiences and wisdom, or infuse them into the curriculum you're trained in.

00;13;10;15 - 00;13;30;09

Lauren Brollier Newton

But what usually happens for coaches who go the route of, I'm not going to get a certification, I'm just going to create my own is a lot of analysis paralysis, a lot of beta testing, a lot of charging very little money up front because you're still testing it, you're still testing it. And then for those of you who don't have a background in curriculum development or teaching, you're left going, okay, this worked for me, but how do I teach it?

00;13;30;09 - 00;13;54;13

Lauren Brollier Newton

How do I how do I create a curriculum week by week? How do I make sure my clients are getting what they need? How do I formulate a session? You're going to be just creating that out of kind of in the dark, out of the blue. So if you get yourself a certification where there's already a curriculum that has proven success with clients that you can use, you can start generating income and you can start helping people as you infuse yourself into it.

00;13;54;13 - 00;14;28;05

Lauren Brollier Newton

And as you learn how a curriculum is actually built. Because I will tell you, a lot goes into it a lot goes into building a curriculum, the curriculum that all of our coaches here at Brave Thinking Institute are trained and certified in was basically 35 years of study from our founding, member of the Institute, Mary Morrissey, studied for 35 years, taught for 25 of those years, before she wrote that curriculum that's now been proven tested.

00;14;28;05 - 00;14;45;22

Lauren Brollier Newton

Now, I'm not saying it's going to take you 35 years. I'm just saying when you have a place that is giving you a curriculum that's proven, you're standing on the shoulders of a lot of research, a lot of trial and error, a lot of money invested to make sure the thing works. And that can take a lot of time, a lot goes into building a curriculum.

00;14;45;24 - 00;15;04;22

Lauren Brollier Newton

I built my own curriculum in addition to the programs I'm trained and certified in at Brave Thinking Institute. When I had my own coaching business and it was a lot of freaking work. Let me just say that not just writing the curriculum and bringing it to 1 to 1 sessions. But then what? If you want to grow beyond 1 to 1 sessions and do some group teaching or some teaching from the stage?

00;15;04;29 - 00;15;27;05

Lauren Brollier Newton

It takes a lot of work, study and organizational skill, high executive functioning skill to be able to build that. So what I'm going to share is that I believe that you want to look at your certification program and say, is there a proven system of success for my clients that I can use to. Yes, combined with my own knowledge and to get started.

00;15;27;07 - 00;15;57;20

Lauren Brollier Newton

All right. So let's review the two criteria we've reviewed so far. The first criteria was does this values of this program align with my own end criteria. Number two was does it use a proven, curriculum for success. Number three and I spoke a little bit to this, but let me expand on it. Is the methodology repeatable, flexible and able to be used with any niche, repeatable, flexible and able to be used with any niche.

00;15;57;20 - 00;16;22;12

Lauren Brollier Newton

Let me break those down. Repeatable. I don't have to keep reinventing the wheel with every client. It will feel personal to them. But it's but it's repeatable with every client that I want to serve. And the success is repeatable, meaning I don't have to keep tweaking things to help that client get success, that it's general enough that it can be repeatable with every client I serve.

00;16;22;14 - 00;16;40;27

Lauren Brollier Newton

But then comes the second part flexible. Flexible enough that if that client is going through something that's different than the last client, that it's flexible enough that I can repeat what I did, but flexible enough that I can I can mold it to what that client is going through, or at least I can show them how it serves them.

00;16;40;29 - 00;17;00;09

Lauren Brollier Newton

I'm also looking for a level of flexibility in that yes, it's a written curriculum, but I can add my own wisdom story skill. It's flexible enough that there's they're not telling me you have to say this. Exactly. Or else you can't be certified as a coach with us. So, like, as an example, Brave Thinking institute, we give you a proven curriculum.

00;17;00;09 - 00;17;20;12

Lauren Brollier Newton

It's worked with literally tens of thousands of people around the world. It has proven success story. It's based in research. It's based in spiritual principles as well. But when I taught it, I didn't have to teach it exactly as it was listed in the curriculum. There are some institutes that require you to not add anything to their methodology.

00;17;20;14 - 00;17;45;24

Lauren Brollier Newton

And so that for me didn't wouldn't have worked because I love to add my own stories, my own wisdom, some of my own tools and skills to this already proven methodology. So repeatable, flexible, and then able to be used with any niche. Many of you, you want to be working with women over 50, or you want to be a relationship coach, or you want to be a health coach and you're the curriculum.

00;17;45;24 - 00;18;05;18

Lauren Brollier Newton

You want to be able to use it with that niche. But then if someone has an additional issue, you want to be able to say, okay, I can, I can expand to this. So for example, our program at Brave Thinking Institute, it is not for everyone for sure. People have to have a certain level of interest in order to be able to, work with the curriculum.

00;18;05;20 - 00;18;26;09

Lauren Brollier Newton

However you can use it. If someone wants to build a relationship, you can use it if someone's wanting to change their health, you can use it with all those different scenarios. So it's flexible to any given niche. So that can be really helpful because otherwise you're going to have to get multiple certifications if you want to be able to work with different niches.

00;18;26;11 - 00;18;56;08

Lauren Brollier Newton

So you want to be thinking based on who I know I want to serve and where I'm going, or if I don't yet know who I want to serve and what problem I'm solving. But I do know that I want to help people. Is my methodology repeatable, flexible, and able to be used with any niche so our programs are able to be used with people wanting to grow their business, people wanting to grow their relationship because the principles of transformation are the things that create success, are not niche specific.

00;18;56;11 - 00;19;17;02

Lauren Brollier Newton

They are specific to how results actually are created in people's lives. So that is personally, what blew my mind when I got my certification is we all know what to do. Like if you really think about it, if I want to lose weight, I know what to do. If I wanted to grow my business, I pretty much know there's a couple steps I can take that I haven't taken yet.

00;19;17;05 - 00;19;47;21

Lauren Brollier Newton

It's usually not about this niche specific strategy people need. It's they are doing something that is stifling their transformation strategically, spiritually, emotionally. And so if you have a certification that can touch on, I don't care if you're building your business or fixing a relationship or wanting to write a book and you haven't been able to write it yet, there is something in this universe that causes someone to go from one result to the next result that is strategic.

00;19;47;21 - 00;20;21;08

Lauren Brollier Newton

You look at every successful people you read success magazine, you watch Shark Tank. I don't care what it is, where you're watching people go from scratch, you know, rags to riches. There's something that they're doing in their that's causing them to transform. That's what our particular certification teaches. And that's what I would suggest that you look for, is that is there something about transform forming beyond just this only works for women who are 50, you know, or this only works for relationships because now, which is fine, you're in a niche that you want to serve.

00;20;21;11 - 00;20;45;19

Lauren Brollier Newton

You will have way more return on your investment. If you have a, certification that can serve multiple niches. Okay. Criteria number four that I would recommend when evaluating a life coach certification program. Will it help me master the tools I need to run a successful business? Now, I could record a five hour episode just on this on my soap box.

00;20;45;22 - 00;21;05;19

Lauren Brollier Newton

It is not enough to be a great coach. I wish it were. If it was enough to be a great coach, this world would be transforming. But being a great coach is not the same as being a successful business owner. And if you're going to become a coach, you have to learn what it is to be an entrepreneur and a business owner.

00;21;05;21 - 00;21;25;28

Lauren Brollier Newton

In the beginning, is it possible that you could be hired as a coach within a company? Yes, but they're going to want to see some skill and some background with that. Right? So you are absolutely going to be required to build a business market and sell yourself. And that scares the you know what out of a lot of coaches, because many, many coaches are heart centered.

00;21;26;03 - 00;21;49;07

Lauren Brollier Newton

But wouldn't consider themselves business people. So how do we solve for that? If you're in a coaching certification that aligns with your values, which we've talked about is going to give you a curriculum to help people, is going to give you something flexible enough to put your own, secret sauce into it is niche, flagship, flexible so that whatever audience you decide to serve and whatever problem you decide to to solve, you can use your certification.

00;21;49;10 - 00;22;18;08

Lauren Brollier Newton

You're good on the coaching spiritual part. It's aligning with you. Now. You want your certification to actually show you how do I how do I find my first client to serve? And the reason I'm so passionate about this is because there's so many certified coaches out there who aren't helping anyone because their certification didn't give them the business skills and so it's very, very, very important that your certification has a broad, training in you building your business.

00;22;18;10 - 00;22;44;27

Lauren Brollier Newton

And it's worthy investment. So in our in our company, we give you the coaching, the curriculum, the coaching training. But we also give you a business building, marketing and sales. And our certification is not the cheapest certification on the planet. You know why? Because we actually teach you how to build a multiple six figure business. And I actually used this our certifications to go way beyond multiple six figures.

00;22;44;27 - 00;23;05;09

Lauren Brollier Newton

Now, I might not be the average coach because I'm super passionate and driven. But I will tell you strategically, I was able to build my business because I had the business marketing and sales training, and so I would highly recommend that whatever certification that you're going to go for, that they give you some tools to help you build the business, because here's what's going to happen.

00;23;05;09 - 00;23;28;13

Lauren Brollier Newton

If they don't, you're going to get your certification, and then you're going to have to go out and find somewhere that's going to teach you the marketing and the sales. And here's where the challenges with this. I just went through this with, coach this week, if you get your certification and then you go and try to get some marketing training from somewhere else, what's going to happen is that marketer, they're not a certified coach with wherever you got certified.

00;23;28;17 - 00;24;03;13

Lauren Brollier Newton

So they're going to give you a marketing system that doesn't always match your certification. And you're going to have to bridge that gap. But you're saying to yourself, wait a second, I'm not a marketer. I don't know how to bridge that gap. Exactly. I was just working with a coach this week, this past week that, got her certification and went to a different marketing place, and they told her to do something that completely I wouldn't recommend for the type of certification that she had, because the type of certification that she had and the marketing system that she already had in place was not going to work with what the marketing company suggested.

00;24;03;13 - 00;24;20;22

Lauren Brollier Newton

Now, that's not to the full to the marketing company. They have their marketing strategy, they've used it with different kinds of businesses, but not with a coaching business. And so if you get your certification in one place and then you're trying to build your marketing skills in another place, and then you're trying to build your sales skills in another place, it's going to take a lot of you bridging the gap.

00;24;20;22 - 00;24;46;15

Lauren Brollier Newton

And if you don't have that business skill, it can be very, very frustrating. And the reason why I'm so passionate about this, and actually why I left my own business to become a part of Brave Thinking Institute, is I saw all these principled coaches and what I mean by principled really out there to help people. Now, not out there just for money or just for their own time freedom, but really on a mission to support this planet, not being able to do it because they don't have those business skills.

00;24;46;15 - 00;25;09;06

Lauren Brollier Newton

And so I was like, I want to come to Bray Thinking Institute so that I can get these principles out here. First and foremost, these principles that help good people get great results. But those good people having the actual business marketing sales skills. Why I love recording this podcast to be able to bring this to the world. So I'll step off my soapbox now, but I will just tell you, if you don't have the business skills, don't fool yourself.

00;25;09;08 - 00;25;27;03

Lauren Brollier Newton

Do not kid yourself that just being a good coach is going to be enough to get good results. If working hard were all it took to be successful, everyone on this planet, most people on this planet would have better results. If being a good person was enough, more people on this planet would have good results. That's not it.

00;25;27;05 - 00;25;42;27

Lauren Brollier Newton

So remember at the beginning I said, put an umbrella over this whole episode? Will this return my investment? Will this return on my time? And will this return on my happiness? Return on investment? You don't have the business part. I promise you, you're not going to have a fast return on your investment. This is not a negative Nelly thing.

00;25;42;27 - 00;26;08;24

Lauren Brollier Newton

This is real life. What it takes. Energy, loves structure. If the energy of you as an amazing, heart centered, loving coach doesn't have a structure to funnel through, forget it. So please, please, please, when you're looking for your certification, make sure that they're helping you actually know how to have a business market to people and be able to enroll them in your programs.

00;26;09;00 - 00;26;30;25

Lauren Brollier Newton

All right. You also want to know how long it's going to take you to complete certification. And I will say faster is not always better, but you don't want it to stretch out forever. So let me hone in on this. How long it takes you to complete certification is something that you don't want to just get a certification where you took a quiz online and for $20, your certified coach.

00;26;30;25 - 00;26;52;12

Lauren Brollier Newton

I mean, if that feels good to you, go for it. But that's not going to actually help you help people. So you want a certification that has enough depth and breadth that you are going to get all that you need to be a successful coach and a successful entrepreneur. However, you don't want to drag it out forever, because if you drag it out forever, you're not going to be able to serve people and you're not going to be able to get a fast return on that investment.

00;26;52;14 - 00;27;16;07

Lauren Brollier Newton

So I'll just give you an example of what we do on our at our at our company. And then you can take it and you can compare it if you'd like, to other companies and see what feels good to you at Thinking Institute, our certification program as it sits at the recording of this episode can take anywhere from three months to six months, depending where you are in your journey, and then longer if you need extended payment plans and things of that nature.

00;27;16;09 - 00;27;37;15

Lauren Brollier Newton

That's great because you get some depth and you can get there quickly. But here's the cool thing that we've added into that is you can get provisionally certified once you've completed your studies, even if you haven't done your full certification yet. When you've completed enough of your studies that we feel like, okay, they could go out and be in integrity and be a great coach in this world, and we feel like they've mastered that enough.

00;27;37;18 - 00;27;57;21

Lauren Brollier Newton

You're provisionally certified and we've had people get provisionally certified in as little as 30 days because they've done all the training. They said, I'm not working right now. I'm going to invest, you know, enough time every day into this. I'm going to practice. I'm going to do what is required. We let people get out and start coaching, because then you can start making return on your investment.

00;27;57;21 - 00;28;20;08

Lauren Brollier Newton

So not every program works like that. Come talk to us if you want to see how long it would take you and your particular situation and your financial situation and all of that. But we have, a pretty in-depth certification with a lot of studies that depending on how fast you want to go, you can actually start serving people quickly, but still get all that training that ultimately is going to put you in.

00;28;20;08 - 00;28;38;29

Lauren Brollier Newton

The world is a really, really great coach, so you want to know how long it's going to take you to complete your certification and see if that works for you. If the certification program you're looking at takes a year, how does that feel for you? Is there a provisional certification component? How does that feel for you? Take a look at it and see really measured against what you're looking for.

00;28;39;02 - 00;29;03;11

Lauren Brollier Newton

All right. And the sixth criteria, the final criteria is what kind of support will I have access to during my program and after I finish during your program, will you have someone you can ask questions to? Will you have, the support of a community? Will you be have access to the wider coaching community? Is there anything that happens after certification at our highest level of certification here at our institute?

00;29;03;13 - 00;29;23;02

Lauren Brollier Newton

But let me say this at all levels of certification, we give you a program, concierge, someone that you can call or text any time with questions. We have that baked into the cake for our programs in our highest level program, we give six months of after support. You're certified, you're out in the world coaching, and six months we give you two times a week.

00;29;23;02 - 00;29;41;15

Lauren Brollier Newton

Expert faculty support, me included that you can come on and ask me a question. I can help you build your business. We offer that twice a week for the six months after you get certified in our highest level of certification. So again, I'm just giving you Brave Thinking Institute so you can start to think about the kind of questions you want to ask when you're getting your certification.

00;29;41;18 - 00;30;02;16

Lauren Brollier Newton

But that is something that I would highly recommend, is looking at the level of support you're going to get while you're in that process. So let's review the six. Do the values of the program align with my own? Does it use a curriculum that has a proven success and a proven system? Is the methodology repeatable, flexible, and can be used with any niche?

00;30;02;19 - 00;30;21;29

Lauren Brollier Newton

Will it help me master the tools I need to run a successful business? Because being a coach is not enough. How long will it take me to complete this certification, and what kind of support will I receive after I'm finished? Then you can see what you're really looking for with that six and measured against the different certification options that you have.

00;30;22;01 - 00;30;46;24

Lauren Brollier Newton

But let's go back to how I started this. If I'm going to invest in anything for my business, I'm asking three questions. Will this return to me financially? Will it return to me in terms of giving me back time? Will it return to me and happiness? I believe that if you can answer all these six questions satisfactorily for the certification that you're looking at, you will absolutely get a return on your investment.

00;30;46;27 - 00;31;07;25

Lauren Brollier Newton

Even if you invested $100,000 in a coach certification, it's a lot less than a franchise. I mean, ours is not that expensive, but I'm just saying, even if you did, you could not buy a franchise on planet Earth that would cost that little and return to you six figures every year. The coaching certification has that potential, so don't get afraid when you're looking at different companies.

00;31;07;25 - 00;31;33;04

Lauren Brollier Newton

And the investment might be five, ten, 30, $50,000. When you can make $100,000 every year, you've got to be willing to take a look at that. Will this return to me on my investment? Second question will this return time to me? I believe if you answer all these six questions with a yes, with whatever certification you're going to start off, save so much time because you're going to be trained in a proven curriculum, and you're going to be trained in business and trying to piecemeal that together on your own.

00;31;33;10 - 00;31;55;14

Lauren Brollier Newton

I know people who try to piecemeal together businesses by watching YouTube. You can get started that way. But I will tell you, it takes so much more time when you're trying to piece things together and will it return my happiness? If you've been wanting to become a coach for a long time, for a long time, then this is really, really going to help you to just get her done, get her done.

00;31;55;17 - 00;32;28;08

Lauren Brollier Newton

Just get it done so that you can have the happiness of all this that you've been looking forward to. Help people stop waiting. Get into it so you can have the happiness of having that fulfillment, being passionate in your life, being passionate about what you wake up and do every day, and helping people. So if you think everything I've shared with you about brave thinking Institute is the fit for you, please, please stay for my outro that you're going to hear in a second, because I'm going to give you a link that you can use to get certified with us at Brave Thinking Institute.

00;32;28;11 - 00;32;42;08

Lauren Brollier Newton

If what I've said doesn't resonate with you, go out, use this criteria. Find the one that's a fit for you. I would love to be your mentor. I would love to be the one that helps you. I can do that through our certification program. So listen to my outro. Why am I having you listen to outro? Full transparency.

00;32;42;08 - 00;32;58;00

Lauren Brollier Newton

I can't remember the link off the top of my head in this moment, and I don't want to fumble around and keep you waiting. So listen to my outro. Get connected with us and if it's not us, please go out and share your gifts and talents with the world. It's really important you wouldn't feel the calling inside of you if you didn't have something to give.

00;32;58;02 - 00;33;03;19

Lauren Brollier Newton

I love you all very much. I will see you in the next episode. Bye for now.

00;33;03;22 - 00;33;28;12

Lauren Brollier Newton

Thanks for joining me this week on The Abundant Coach. Visit our website at Brave Thinking institute.com/coach certification where you can dive even deeper with additional resources and exciting opportunities. Be sure to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your podcast so you'll never miss an episode. And while you're at it, if you loved the show, please rate and review.

00;33;28;14 - 00;33;42;13

Lauren Brollier Newton

To find out how to jump start your abundant coaching career and more about my journey to seven figure coach, check out our free. Meant to Be a Life Coach quiz available at bti.com/coachquiz. I'll see you in the next episode.