Though I might be outspoken, I genuinely have blended emotions concerning the ICF (Worldwide Teaching Federation).
As I identified in my publish Do Life Coaches Need ICF Accreditation, they clearly need to advance teaching by educating and guiding coaches towards working professionally and inside a code of ethics.
In addition they promote the co-active mannequin of teaching, which has been proven scientifically to be probably the most profitable in serving to shoppers obtain the specified outcomes.
As such, if a brand new coach can afford the money and time to take ICF coaching and it doesn’t go away them with no cash to spend money on constructing their teaching observe, I’d encourage it.
Equally, for any coach eager to work within the company sector, then an ICF accreditation, while guaranteeing nothing, might be going to be a minimal requirement.
However their insistence that there’s just one approach to coach (there isn’t) frustrates me.
And the ICF haven’t any actual energy in an unregulated {industry}.
They can not cease you or anyone else from teaching. Nor can they cease another coaching firm providing coach coaching or making outrageous claims.
Plus, and extra worryingly, your entire setup feels akin to a pyramid scheme designed to generate income than knowledgeable physique overseeing its members.
The ICF pyramid scheme – is it actual?
I acquired the next remark beneath my publish Do Life Coaches Need ICF Accreditation? in Might of 2021, and it sums up quite a lot of what I’ve learn and been advised by coaches over the previous couple of years.
I discovered this (article) actually useful as I’m within the means of getting my ACC certification.
My employer paid for my teaching coaching, however I paid for my mentor teaching ($1500) and can then need to pay the certification examination charge and processing charge myself.
It’s a considerable funding, however as a result of my employer does need me to teach, and I need to develop a personal observe of shoppers, I figured it might be value it.
Nevertheless, I used to be going by the ICF web site and realized that to resume my ACC certification 3 years after I obtain it, I’ve to undergo one other 10 hours of mentor teaching (despite the fact that, presumably, I’ll have been teaching your entire three years).
So, 2.5 years from this fall (after I count on to be licensed) I must make investments more cash in mentor teaching, as a result of the mentor teaching must be completed over a sure variety of months to fulfill ICF requirements.
That made me notice, that is an attention-grabbing little closed suggestions loop the ICF has created, and I can see why they did it.
So many coaches say they wrestle to get shoppers. Nevertheless, if individuals getting or renewing an ACC should get 20 hours of mentor teaching (10 to acquire, 10 to resume), that creates a built-in marketplace for coaches to teach different coaches.
And, the truth is, in looking out I discovered tons of internet sites with PCCs or MCCs providing “mentor teaching packages” that had been all $1000+. I’d like to know what number of of these coaches are doing teaching of non-coach shoppers, or if the majority of their enterprise is teaching different coaches?
Corollary query, does the ICF actually exist to create a “gold normal in teaching,” as they are saying?
Or is it to create a closed loop market the place coaches get licensed, renew, after which can coach different coaches and have considerably of a assured viewers/earnings stream?
I’m nonetheless going to get my ACC – I’m too far into it to desert it at this level. Whether or not or not I renew will grow to be a unique story. I determine if I get the credential, and don’t renew, I can at the very least then say I had an ACC credential, however selected to not renew it for X causes.
My schooling and expertise can be verified, however I’m simply undecided how I’m in financially propping up the ICF for the remainder of my profession.
– Michelle
Since that remark was left, I’ve acquired many extra, with none disputing what this girl needed to say and virtually all agreeing wholeheartedly.
The price of hiring a mentor coach to take care of (or obtain) ICF affiliation is important for a longtime coach, by no means thoughts one struggling to search out shoppers.
You gained’t discover these individuals teaching for $50 per hour on some shitty life coach directory.
There’s huge cash in mentoring ICF coaches.
So huge that each one the advert slots on Google for the time period ICF mentor coach are all bought to corporations and none to people.
Many coaches consider these persons are solely busy as a result of they’re continuously being paid to mentor coaches who want to add/preserve ICF accreditation.
Isn’t that the definition of a pyramid scheme? When the many individuals on the backside preserve the success of the few individuals on the prime?
Are some profitable coaches solely profitable as a result of they’re educating different coaches how to achieve success coaches?
However is any of this the fault of the ICF?
Are they not merely attempting to handle an {industry} as finest they will with an arm and a half tied behind their again due to the shortage of Authorities regulation?
Properly, sort of, however probably not.
It’s laborious getting teaching shoppers
What the ICF doesn’t inform you, and what among the much less scrupulous giant coaching organisations actively disguise, is how fucking laborious it’s to get paying clients.
Teaching is as aggressive as any {industry} on the face of the planet.
I strongly consider that as an industry-serving non-profit, the ICF has an obligation of care to advise new coaches of this elephant within the room.
Too few new coaches notice that their friends who do effectively independently of the ICF are as devoted and expert at advertising as they’re at teaching.
And that no person succeeds as a coach simply because they’re a superb or perhaps a nice coach.
The ICF may spell this out.
However they don’t, and it may very well be stated they do the other by publishing the ICF International Teaching Examine.
The ICF International Teaching Examine for 2023
The ICF publishes their survey outcomes each 3 or 4 years as a report on the state of the coaching {industry}.
The 2023 report/examine is now out (you can read it here), and as with earlier research, it reads like a piece of utter fantasy to anyone outdoors the ICF.
Word: I’ve solely learn the manager abstract (enterprise phrase that means highlights). The complete report is priced at $99 for members (I’m not one) and $149 for non-members (i’v eno intention of changing into one).
14,591 coaches accomplished the 2023 survey
That’s fairly a decent pattern measurement for nearly any survey, particularly because the coaches span 157 international locations.
Nevertheless, it’s extremely skewed as a result of the overwhelming majority of individuals calling themselves a coach should not paid-up ICF members.
I’ve labored with a whole lot of coaches one-on-one or by my programs, and I’d take a conservative guess lower than one-quarter had been ICF members.
You can not have a survey purporting to symbolize an {industry} that excludes nearly all of individuals representing that {industry}.
It’s akin to publishing a ballot on the restaurant {industry} however solely speaking with individuals who went to culinary college.
ICF coaching is dear and time-consuming.
Consequently, the coaches who’ve taken it are sometimes much more financially and emotionally invested in succeeding as a coach.
Should you cough up $10k and work laborious to get licensed for 18 months, you’re much more possible to not give up when issues grow to be robust.
Particularly when in comparison with the coach who simply purchased a replica of The Affluent Coach (number 31 on this list of books coaches should be reading) and threw up an inexpensive web site.
How a lot do coaches earn?
In accordance with the 2020 report, the common coach in North America earned $62,500.
Not too shabby, however within the new report, that determine is as much as $67,500
Most coaches would view that as splendid information.
In any case, we’ve simply been by a raging pandemic, and there’s a subsequent world recession/slowdown.
As such, any development is to be warmly welcomed.
And $67,800 is a really respectable earnings for almost all of individuals within the US and better than the nationwide common.
Is the common coach incomes $67,800 within the US?
As I already talked about, I’ve met/interacted with a whole lot of coaches, and I can depend those who earned greater than $70k on the fingers of each fingers with out having to wake my thumbs up for help.
I’d wager my home and worldly possessions that lower than 5% of coaches earn that a lot.
And I’d wager your home and worldly possessions (belief me, you’re not going to lose every little thing) on it being lower than 2% in the event you exclude coaches working outdoors the company sector.
Whereas that stat is eyebrow-raising and amusing.
The following one is belly-laughingly ludicrous.
What number of hours does the common coach work?
I not often work lower than 40 hours weekly, and I’m largely in upkeep mode.
Once I was constructing my life teaching observe at A Daring Journey, I seldom labored lower than 60 hours.
Properly, it might seem I’m a fucking fool of biblical proportions.
In accordance with the ICF, the common coach works lower than 12 hours weekly.
To be truthful, the manager abstract is imprecise, and possibly the complete report would clarify in additional element, nevertheless it doesn’t say what work means.
So, I don’t know if which means 12 hours with shoppers, 12 hours on constructing their enterprise or 12 hours in whole.
The survey additionally requested whether or not coaches had been optimistic for 2023 and 2024.
Are coaches optimistic about their future in teaching?
Properly, after all, they’re.
Then once more, most coaches could be optimistic in the event you gave them an umbrella and threw them out of a airplane at 30,000 toes.
As a result of, ya know, they’re fucking coaches!
The report says that over 70% of coaches consider they are going to get extra shoppers and earn extra income subsequent 12 months.
Time will inform.
The complete report felt as did the one printed in 2020 prefer it was rigorously designed to encourage extra coaches into the {industry}.
A part of me thinks, effectively, whtf do you count on?
However as I beforehand alluded, a part of me thinks the ICF are culpable in bloating and already bloated {industry}.
In fact, at a person stage, this needn’t concern you particularly.
Presuming that’s, you discover ways to market your providers and get shoppers.
What’s your tackle the ICF?
I’d LOVE to listen to your feedback, observations, and ideas on the ICF, both optimistic or detrimental. I’m not seeking to create an echo chamber right here; all opinions are welcome.
And please, please, share the publish with anyone you understand who could also be .
