Why aren't health coaches making more money?

I know it's an uncomfortable topic, but seriously, why aren't health coaches making more money? It's strange to me that we are a community of highly educated lifelong learners, and yet, there's still so much work to be done around moving health coaching into the mainstream. 

Here's what I think: there are 3 primary reasons why health coaches aren't making more money. I'm curious if you agree with me, if you've experienced any of these, and what you're going to do about it now that we're talking about this issue. 

Would you rather watch this conversation? You can catch the Monday Morning Circle I hosted on this topic earlier at this link. 

Why Health Coaches Aren't Making Money?

Reason #1: We aren’t sure how to value our services. Some coaches will say “charge what you're worth” - but, let's be honest, what does that even mean? In my experience, we are the only industry that encourages us to charge premium prices when we are just starting out. Frankly, that is just way out of alignment for me, and heading toward unethical. This has always been a major disconnect for me, and was one of the reasons I was always so confused about what to charge.

I’m not saying you should give your services away for free, but I AM saying you can charge fairly for your services. When you get better at your work, you can charge more. That’s how this works - as you get better, you can increase your pricing because your expertise has grown. So don’t overthink this part of your work - price something that feels fair, and when you start resenting the amount of work you put in for the pay you are getting, that’s a pretty good sign that you need to increase your prices.

Reason #2: We aren’t sure that we know enough. You've thought this to yourself, right? I know so many health coaches who think they need to know more, to complete one more certification, or to become an expert in -insert whatever topic - before they can start charging and making real money.  If that’s you, don't worry - you're not alone. This is something that is super common within the coaching community, and in particular within the health coach community. This issue ties right in with the first issue because let's be honest, we DO need to have some expertise and training before we can start charging premium prices. But, I'm willing to bet that you already know some things that can help your potential clients RIGHT NOW, and you can start working with clients while you continue to learn and grow. The two are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they shouldn't be. We learn more when we are actively working with clients, so that's it's own form of education and training as well. Give yourself the space to work with clients while learning, and I promise you'll find that you're able to help a lot of people and grow your skill set at the same time.

Reason #3: Health coaches aren’t making more money because they aren’t focused on the money-making aspect of their business. We have a tendency to think about new green smoothie recipes, and sharing ideas for quick meals or workouts, but not for spending dedicated, regular time developing income streams for our businesses. Now, I don't want you to feel bad about this, because the truth is that we weren't really taught how to do this in nutrition school. But I want you to see that this is an issue so you can start to do this differently. So how do we learn? I want you to focus on establishing ONE income stream that can support your business. Dive all into ONE income stream and optimize as much of it as you can. It can be as simple as your 1:1 coaching program, or it can be more complicated, but I want you to have it all set up and actually functioning (meaning, people are enrolling) before you move on to the next thing. 

Phew, that was intense! How do you feel about this topic and conversation? Is there a specific thing you know you could be doing better to help you make more money as a health coach? I'm all ears, hit the comment button and let me know how this landed for you.