Feeling Like an Imposter as a New Coach

Are you a new coach? Let's talk about how lost you probably feel. You just finished your coaching course, and don't even know what to do next. You've been thrown into the wild, left to fend for yourself and figure out everything on your own. You're not going to be a good coach - you've never even coached someone. You can't coach a client and assist them to reach their goals - you don't know what you're doing.

WRONG!!

There are so many fellow coaches who would be more than willing to help you, myself (Annalise) included. So, let's start with this helpful blog post.

Where do I even start as a new coach?

Well, there are different options. You could work for somebody else. Oftentimes, new coaches just want to start up their own business, online or in person, but it's not always ideal to start out this way. It can be discouraging, too, as most coaches struggle to get clients and end up feeling like there's something wrong with them due to a lack of interest.

If you do choose to jump into the online route, research pricing in your area. What do local gyms charge for in-person training? Or, what do other local businesses charge for in-person nutrition services with a registered dietician? Adjust your pricing accordingly - you don't want to charge in-person pricing for online or virtual coaching, and you surely don't want to charge as much as a RD charges for nutrition services. If you're offering a coaching bundle (multiple coaching services in 1 package), then yes, charge more than you would for just one of those services. If you'd like examples of different pricing plans, feel free to explore mine here: Pricing Plans. Another thing to note, you should showcase your pricing online. Don't keep it a secret!

If you're a new coach and feeling insecure about your approach, work with another coach. Ask if you can shadow their sessions with some of their clients until you get the gist of things. This will help to eliminate anxiety, and spark different ideas for you to do with your own clients.

A lot of times, new potential clients like to see testimonials and other forms of feedback towards your coaching. Jumping right into online coaching won't always allow you to have that, unless you decide to offer your close family and friends your service for X amount of time in exchange for a testimonial. Offering your service for free for a month or two will allow your loved ones to have enough time to give you feedback on your coaching, help you gain experience and confidence, and receive testimonials to showcase on your social media. This is also a little less intimidating to start off with, as these people aren't complete strangers.

OR, you can use yourself as a testimonial to show your knowledge. How have you improved your own life via your coaching tactics? Try having yourself as a client, and see what changes you can make. You will always be your hardest client - it is so hard to break yourself out of your own bad habits. If you can coach yourself, you can likely handle any potential stubborn and/or reluctant client that comes your way.

If you're a newly certified personal trainer, you can work at a commercial gym. This allows you to gain more experience and work alongside your fitness manager so you can learn more things. Over time, you will develop your own style of coaching and find your niche.

Talking about a niche ... FIND YOUR NICHE!!! If you decide to just go for launching your own online (or in person) business, it's important to know who you want to work with. Think: age, gender, athletic training, hypertrophy training, pre/post-natal, powerlifters, etc. Who do YOU want to work with? If you're going to start anywhere ... start by finding which population(s) you're most passionate about.

I don't coach as good as .

Drop that thought, please. Please don't go comparing yourself to other coaches. Did it ever occur to you that they were in the exact same place, feeling the same things, thinking the same things, as you are right now? Do you realize how much time it probably took for them to find their coaching style and gain enough experience to get to where they are now? I promise you, almost every coach has felt like an imposter at some point. Confidence and your own groove comes with time, practice, patience, and some constructive criticism.

Instead of focusing on how you don't coach as good as whoever you're comparing yourself to, let's do a positive reframe. Why are you an amazing coach? What is it that you have to offer? Why should a client choose you? Make a small list of pros about yourself as a coach - what things are you already good at doing, and what are you most confident about helping clients with? Then, make a small list about changes you'd like to see with your coaching skills - what do you not feel ready to work on with clients yet, and how can you go about feeling more confident in these areas?

Now, take the things that you're good at and most confident with - start selling yourself to clients. Whether you work for someone, or for yourself - how can you begin to make clients want to work with you? How can you help them reach their goals? Why are you a good fit for them, and why are they a good fit for your style of coaching? Why should this client trust you to help guide them to become a better version of themselves? How can you help them become stronger, and more resilient?

The worst thing you can do is compare yourself to anyone else - and that goes for anything in life. We are all on our own path, going at our own pace, learning and growing on our own time. Never feel like you aren't good enough. Start by applying what you know, and go from there!

But I don't know everything.

Do we ever? You wouldn't be a good coach if you did know everything. Want to know why? That would mean you aren't open-minded to learn more info, newer info, updated info. If you knew everything, that would mean you wouldn't be willing to get more qualifications that would help improve your coaching services.

As a personal trainer, do you think I walk around knowing every individual muscle in the body? I wish!! I'm awful with anatomy (but for some reason chose to major in psychology and work in the fitness industry), and I'm almost always clueless when someone asks me for anatomy terms of the brain and body. All I know is, certain exercises work a general muscle on your body, and doing it repeatedly will get you great results, LOL.

Honestly, the clients don't care about the science-y things most of the time. Break down the information you know into ways that you and your client will understand. We all learn differently, and we all remember things in different ways. Cater to your learning style - learn the information in a way that makes sense for you, and figure out how your client(s) learn so you can properly provide that knowledge to them.

If your client has a question, you may have the answer. If your client has a question, and you don't have an answer, that's OKAY!!! Sometimes, the best thing you can do as a coach is saying, "honestly, I don't know the answer to that, but I'll try to find out and get back to you".

I don't feel like my client is a good fit for me.

That is 100% okay. This all goes back to finding your niche - you might not be the best coach for a powerlifter, an athlete, an elderly client. Realistically, most coaches aren't a good coach for everyone. Some might be, and that's okay, too. Just because you might not be, doesn't mean you're not a good coach. You can be a bad coach for some clients, but still be a good coach for others.

My niche in the fitness world resides with hypertrophy training, adapting and modifying programs to my client's chronic conditions (a.k.a., finding exercises that feel good for them and their body, and avoiding things not approved by their medical professional), and helping beginners (or even regular gym-goers) get into a good routine at the gym. I like helping people become their strongest selves. I like having clients who enjoy focusing more on the numbers that they lift vs. the number that they weigh. A lot of this is due to my old, unhealthy relationship with food and the scale. I never had an eating disorder, but I struggled with my own body image for a long period of time, and always felt like I wasn't skinny enough, even when I was skinny.

Due to my past, I personally don't enjoy taking on weight-loss clients; I'll do it, but weight-loss isn't something I enjoy focusing on. I would suck at coaching an athlete (I have no athletic experience, therefore I have absolutely no knowledge of athletic training). I would suck at coaching a powerlifter or bodybuilder for a competition, as that is a whole different world for me. I could give a bodybuilder a solid workout plan, but to prep for a competition with diet and all else that comes with it? Absolutely not. Does that make me a bad coach? No. I'm just not a good coach for some populations or situations, and that's okay.

Knowing what you are capable of doing for your client as a coach, makes you a good coach. Being able to say, "hey, I don't think my form of coaching is good for you, but I will help you find someone better suited for your goals", makes you a good coach. Getting more qualifications to further your knowledge, makes you a good coach. Actively following science and finding new studies relevant to your services, makes you a good coach.

On the flip side, maybe you are a good fit for your client, and they're a good fit for your form of coaching, but this particular client is causing you more stress than sanity. They aren't listening to anything you suggest, nor are they following the plan you've provided them. They complain they aren't seeing progress and don't understand why, despite your encouragement to follow their plan. You have tried to cater to them in all different ways ... you have no more solutions.

Can you fire a client? Yes. There are different ways to go about it. You could be brutally honest, or kindly let them go. Make up a lie - say you don't feel like you're a good fit for them anymore, or some other excuse, and maybe even help them find another coach with more experience who would be willing to take them on. After exhausting all options - if they bring up the lack of progress - you could also be honest and kindly tell them that they might not mentally be ready to be coached and get out of their old habits, and to come back when they feel they're more willing to adjust to lifestyle changes needed for their goals.

I promise you, no client is worth stressing over 24/7. As a coach, you also need to learn how to take care of yourself, even if that means firing a client and putting yourself first.

Will I experience burnout?

Unfortunately, you most likely will at some point. Luckily, as a coach, you can usually set your own hours (depending on who you work for). Burnout occurs when stress overpowers the joy from your work. This is a form of physical, mental, and/or emotional stress - depending on your job. Coaching is a very social job, so taking measures to protect your mental/emotional state and social battery is important. Find ways to help recharge, and prioritize self-care whenever you're able to. You can take breaks in between clients, maybe even split your day into two segments (late morning/early evening, early morning/late afternoon, for example).

To prevent burnout, you also need to learn how to set boundaries and prioritize your time. If a client is constantly late, and you have someone right after their session, you may wonder what to do in that situation. It's simple - cut time off from their session. However many minutes late that client is, they lose that time from their session. If a client is a repeat offender and they're taking the spot from someone who's interested in working with you - this circles back to firing your client - cut ties with this client. If they aren't respecting your time, continuously, then they don't deserve your time at all.

You could set a boundary of: "If you are more than 15 minutes late to your session, you will be charged accordingly, and we will need to reschedule. If you arrive within those 15 minutes, you will lose minutes off from your session, and we will do what we can with the remaining time".

If you work for yourself, setting late cancellation and no-show policies is very important to prevent getting your time taken advantage of. I usually let the client slide one or two times, but if it becomes a constant thing, your time needs to be compensated accordingly (they either get a late cancel charge, or lose their session for a no-show). It is also extremely important to have some form of liability waiver and liability insurance. You will completely eliminate stress regarding liability claims by covering yourself in all aspects, and a huge weight will be lifted off of your shoulders.

As a coach, you are going to hear a lot of things that can contribute to mental and emotional stress (especially if you're an empath). Another way to prevent burnout is practicing detachment from your client's problems. This is a skill that may take some time to learn, and due to that, it's never a bad idea to have a therapist in your corner who can help you work through your own underlying stressors during the process.

The biggest key to preventing burnout is ... don't take your work home with you, and allowing yourself to have time to recharge.

How do I perform an assessment?

Usually, the company you went through your certification with will have assessment handouts. Although you don't need to follow these, they're a good guideline for when you're just starting out. They'll help you feel a little less clueless. You will eventually figure out what is, or isn't, relevant for the assessment process based on your targeted population.

In general, you want to learn as much relevant information about your client in the initial assessment. For fitness assessments, I always test my client's form for: push, pull, squat, hip hinge, balance (and progress to stability if they pass the balance test), core, and shoulder/ankle/hip mobility. In addition to this, I require clients to fill out a lifestyle and health questionnaire.

My assessment process is always free of charge for the client. During this time, I figure out their health history, lifestyle, assess form for fitness assessments, and also get to determine whether or not I would be good for them as a coach based on their goals.

While doing a fitness assessment, you may figure out that your client is unable to do certain exercises due to injury/disability/other physical limitations. Are you comfortable providing modifications for exercises? If not, it is important to know modifications for your client. Although you might think that your client can perform an exercise because it's "easy" for you, realistically some people can't do the "easy" things. Begin to research regressions and progressions for each exercise, and never make your client feel bad for not being able to do something. Instead, provide them with alternatives that feel good for their body!

I'm going to have to renew my certification every 2 years, and I don't know what to do for CEUs.

Start with CPR. This is something that every civilian should have in case of emergency, but you benefit from it even more as a coach. This usually counts as a CEU for most certifications. Aside from CPR, what are you interested in? Personal training, nutrition coaching, stress coaching? Maybe a group fitness certification - Zumba, TRX, Les Mills, Tai Chi, Barre, Pilates, etc. Maybe you are a personal trainer already, what other certifications will compliment your niche, or benefit you as a trainer - a behaviour change course, nutrition course, health coach, strength & conditioning, flexibility, mobility? Find something that'll benefit you, your clients, and help elevate your services.

I personally love Precision Nutrition's courses. Whether you want to be a coach for sleep, stress, and recovery, OR maybe you just want it for additional coaching knowledge to benefit your clients (not as an add-on service), I feel like every coach could benefit from learning the impact that sleep and stress have on our recovery processes. I love their courses because they're self-paced, focus on behaviour change AND science, and break things down nicely with different activities to help you understand the readings. As a visual and hands-on learner, I feel that their courses cater to all learning styles.

I want to create an online presence, how do I go about this?

First thing is: you need to be prepared for potential backlash. This point isn't being addressed to scare you, but more to make you aware of what comes with a social media presence. Not everyone is out to get you, and you may not receive any "trolls" on your accounts for awhile. It unfortunately always happens to everyone at some point, and the more followers you have, the higher the chances become. This is the only negative that really comes with social media, and also the amount of "business coaches" that'll try approaching you via comments and DMs.

Aside from that, let's discuss creating content. Canva is a great tool to create content on, as well as CapCut. Canva has photo and video templates that can be customized to your brand. You can upload your logo, customize templates, and these can all be uploaded on to any social media platform. CapCut has video templates where you can upload videos and/or pictures, which sync to the audio provided with the template.

With these templates, you can make comical, educational, simple, complex, and/or unique content relating to you and your services. Show your personality through your content. Maybe you aren't comfortable talking in videos (I'm not!!), so maybe you could record yourself doing something and do a voiceover on your video instead. Or avoid talking completely - type out a blurb on your video, and go in-depth on the topic in your caption. You can show your personality through your captions, typing in a way that you would speak.

Be consistent on your social media. Never be scared to share your own business posts on your personal pages. Join local town groups and different coaching groups on Facebook, network with other coaches on social media, make your own business cards, make a website, create a mailing list. With the mailing list, send out a monthly newsletter - you can promote your services, share fun facts, encourage people to improve their lifestyle. There are so many different, and creative ways you can go about promoting your services!

My client wants , but I'm not qualified to provide this service.

Good job for knowing your scope! If you're only a certified personal trainer, you shouldn't be giving specific nutrition advice regarding your clients macros/micros, only general advice, such as "prioritize protein intake for muscle growth", or "make sure you're fueling your body with enough carbs and protein so your body is energized". If you're only a nutrition coach, you should know that you cannot provide specific meal plans stating the exact kinds of food your client needs to be eating (this is a job for a registered dietician), nor should you be providing workout programs (especially if you have no knowledge towards exercise). If you're a stress coach, you should not be providing mental health treatment plans, as that is a job for a qualified mental health professional. If you're not qualified for other services, don't offer them - it's that simple. Stay within your scope.

Now, you could expand your expertise, or create a network. It never hurts to obtain a nutrition coaching certification as a personal trainer, or vice versa, obtain a personal training certification as a nutrition coach. A lot of nutrition/PT clients want that extra help for a lifestyle change. If you don't want to get that certification due to your own lack of interest, then create a network. Build a network with personal trainers, nutrition coaches, stress coaches, etc., so that they can help you help your client get to where they want to be. Working alongside another qualified coach isn't a bad thing, and it helps grow each other's business!

So... I've tried to address all of the most common things that I had felt when I first started, and have seen other coaches feel. I'm sure I didn't get to address everything, so if you have any other questions as a new coach, feel free to start a discussion by commenting on this post, or send an email to bindzone.biz@gmail.com. I hope that all of this information helps to ease any anxiety that comes along with being a new coach. It's intimidating at first, but it is such a rewarding job to have!

If you don't want to comment or send an email, but want to follow along to see content that I post to maybe inspire you for your own social media, I welcome you to do so! Follow BINDZONE on social media (bindzone on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Lemon8, and/or Threads; bindzone_ on X, aka Twitter). Send a DM saying that you came from this blog post, and I will follow you back! As stated before, networking is a great way to contribute to success. We all start somewhere, so having support throughout the duration of our journey is crucial, and I would love to support you on your coaching journey!

Best of luck to you, coach!