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2026 Guide to Pricing Your Coaching Sessions · Six Figure Certified

• 0:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: If you are a coach, whether you're new or seasoned, and you've ever thought to yourself, what should I be charging at my under-charging at my over-charging, who's charging what?
• 0:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: Where do I land in the home mix?
• 0:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: This episode is for you.
• 0:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: We are going to dig into everything you need to know to be able to confidently price your services about undervaluing yourself, or tracing your ideal clients way far out of what they're even capable of paying you.
• 0:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: If you haven't been here before, or if you have, welcome to the show, I'm Live Chapman.
• 0:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm the co-founder and CEO of IGC Coaching School where we have trained and certified thousands of credentialed ICF credentialed coaches.
• 0:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm going to give you the exact questions you can ask based on your personal and professional experience based on your credential or lack there of so that you can get it right and ultimately
• 0:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: have the confidence to shut it from the rooftops.
• 0:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: This is exactly what I charge.
• 1:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: Let me give you a little bit of back story.
• 1:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I first started one on one coaching.
• 1:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: I was doing career coaching mostly back in 2013.
• 1:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: I started at 125 procession or $500 a month for weekly coaching.
• 1:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: This was in 2013.
• 1:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: As we know, the price has gone up.
• 1:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: The price has definitely gone up.
• 1:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: Not just for me personally, but the price of everything has gone
• 1:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: So, that was my starting point.
• 1:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: It may be someone here starting point, but anything below that, I don't know that people can really take seriously.
• 1:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: And if you are listening to saying, people can't even afford that.
• 1:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, they can.
• 1:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: Actually, they can.
• 1:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: People can afford coaching.
• 1:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: They do all the time.
• 1:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's one of the fastest growing industries in the world.
• 1:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: But I will tell you, if you want to nearly guarantee results for yourself as a business person, as a coach, you're going to want to get that credential.
• 1:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: Because there is actual research from the International Coach Friday Federation from the ICF that shows that coaches with credentials are the ones who are making all the money.
• 2:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: So let's get into it.
• 2:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: 125 can be your starting point.
• 2:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: Like I said, that was where I started back in 2013.
• 2:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: It did feel a little bit.
• 2:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: So it was recommended to me that I started at 150 an hour.
• 2:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: I felt like as a public schoolteacher who was making nothing that that was absurd, but for some reason, my little P brain said, but 125 sounds about right, but it doesn't matter because at the end of the day, the price is made up.
• 2:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: The price is made up, every price in the universe is pretty much made up, especially when it comes to coaching.
• 2:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: But the key is you gotta find that sweet spot where you feel like your work is valued, your personal and mostly professional expertise is counts, it's important, it's taken into account for, and where you can ultimately feel the most confident saying what that price actually is.
• 2:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: Some people are paying for the transformation.
• 2:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: They're not really paying or like,
• 2:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, but you coach me for 59 minutes or this, you know, no, no, you're best clients.
• 3:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: The people that you actually want to work with, they are in there because you're offering them four sessions a month or 45 minutes and you're sending notes after and you're going to send them all these, they do dots and those are nice, those are nice.
• 3:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: But I can promise you that what they're really, really paying for is the transformation that you offer through the work together.
• 3:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: People want the end result.
• 3:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: They want to know that they're going to get something out of it that is worth their time
• 3:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: The other thing you want to consider here, just because, for example, you went through a break-up, does not mean and you survive.
• 3:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't mean that you can tell other people how to get through a breakup.
• 3:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: You use your story to enhance your marketing, you use your story to connect with prospects, but you have to have a good product, which in this case we're talking about is coaching.
• 3:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: That comes from training, it comes from practice, it comes from feedback, it comes from testimonials,
• 3:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: it comes from knowing for sure that you're really really good at what you do.
• 4:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: So ICF International Coach Federation does an annual report of coaching across the globe.
• 4:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: So what the data tells us.
• 4:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: According to the ICF data, fully credentialed professional coaches at the PCC level two level are averaging in North America $297 per session and internationally around 265.
• 4:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now, you could say, you know, coaches at church this, the church this, that I don't, I, cool, you, like I said at the beginning, prefaces entire episode with the prices made up.
• 4:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: But typically, intelligent human beings who want to have a fully functioning, sustainable business, they want some data.
• 4:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: They not only want some data from a coat, an organization that has been credentialing, professional coaches for
• 4:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: decades, but they also want to do a little market research.
• 4:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: They want to know what their specific niche is, what coaches in that particular niche are charging.
• 4:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: How else do you plan to have a sustainable business if you don't know this information?
• 4:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: Again, this episode and usually most of my stuff is for people who are taking this as a serious business or career move versus, oh, I can just
• 5:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I see, if, yes, they have this data that comes out, we show it.
• 5:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: It is important, it is also important to note in that data that most coaches who are credentialed have an average client load of around 9 to 12 clients a week, okay?
• 5:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: So if you're wondering, like, how do people get hired?
• 5:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: How do people, it comes with being a professional.
• 5:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: It comes with having a credential and being taken seriously.
• 5:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: Here's what I want you to do.
• 5:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: with all of this information that I've shared.
• 5:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: I want you to answer these five questions while you are deciding what to charge for your services.
• 5:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, number one, what does, and if you don't know the answers, this is your homework.
• 5:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: This is what you're doing in between, in between our sessions.
• 5:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: Number one, what is the market already pay for this transformation?
• 5:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: If you don't know that, so if you know you want to get into career coaching, you know you want to get into health coaching, you need to go and find out.
• 5:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe find some people on social media, find some people locally.
• 6:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: You know, coaching can be done anywhere.
• 6:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: So locally, I tend to steer away from the people are still typing into their computer.
• 6:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: Career coach Washington D.C.
• 6:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: because people don't always know, consumers don't always know right away that a lot of coaching is done virtually.
• 6:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: So regardless, locally social media, people you already know, people you already follow, do a little investigative work, figure out what your competitors are charging.
• 6:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: look at your niche specifically, look at these people's level of training and compare it to yours.
• 6:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: If you know that people are getting paid in paid well to coach, it is a good idea, especially if you're just starting out to get yourself somewhere around that price point.
• 6:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: Again, if you have extreme professional experience at warrants a much higher price tag, we had a student that went through our course.
• 6:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: a while ago, who had been coaching kind of unofficially at a major Fortune 500 company for years.
• 6:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: She was kind of like the one day if you've ever seen billions.
• 7:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, amazing woman.
• 7:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: She wanted to branch out of that company and go off out of her own and she started at charging $550 an hour.
• 7:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now, she was in a crowd of people.
• 7:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: She was in a network of high-high earning individuals who already had a reputation for being at this level.
• 7:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: That is fine.
• 7:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: You can do that.
• 7:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: You can far go above and beyond what that average is, but if you are not there yet, I'm giving you some starting points and you need to do a little bit of research.
• 7:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: At the end of the day, you get to decide, but that's number one, what is the market paying for your particular niche for that transformation?
• 7:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: Number two, how in demand an urgent is the problem you solve.
• 7:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: This also translates into marketing, but how urgent is a problem you solve?
• 7:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: Are people willing to pay for it?
• 7:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: That is why at IGC we teach there's kind of these niche buckets if you will, and if you're trying to do something way outside of that results not your due, okay?
• 7:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: But especially today, people are paying for results that they actually for a problem that they actually need to have solved.
• 7:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: and need to have salt pretty quickly.
• 8:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: Those kind of big buckets, if you will, health, anything that's going to make them healthier, hotter, skinnier, whatever, wealth, anything that's going to help them make more money.
• 8:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: And
• 8:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: love people pay the big bucks for love.
• 8:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: So find a problem in one of those areas that people are willing to pay to have solved.
• 8:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: You got to start there and urgency does make a difference.
• 8:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: I strategically chose to market myself as a career coach when I was living in DC because read the room.
• 8:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: How many 20 30 somethings in DC hated their job?
• 8:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: like all of us, okay?
• 8:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: Number three, what is your level of professional training and credentialing?
• 8:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: Are you just trying to, you know, skirt the protocols of you well?
• 8:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: Are you trying to just get yourself out there as a coach without me training without any certification?
• 8:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you can still charge whatever you want.
• 8:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not going to sit here and be like, you must go through training.
• 8:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: You don't have to.
• 9:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: you have to, if you don't know what you're doing, you have to, if you don't feel confident charging money for your services and you have to, if you don't know how to actually coach someone.
• 9:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's like I can't sell someone a balloon arch because I don't know how to make a balloon arch.
• 9:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: So obviously, no, anyway, what is your level of critical credentialing and training?
• 9:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: The market pays more for coaches with credentials.
• 9:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: If someone is telling you otherwise, they are selling you a marketing course.
• 9:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: They are selling you a sales course or a marketing course.
• 9:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: They are not telling you the truth.
• 9:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: The data shows that coaches who are credentialed make more, they have steadier client loads, and they ultimately have longer lasting sustainable businesses.
• 9:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: Next.
• 9:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: Number four, what experience do you have helping other people?
• 9:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: I do say that we are often our own first client.
• 9:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: So your personal experience, again, it helps, especially when it comes to marketing and especially when it comes to branding and putting yourself out there.
• 10:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: But it takes more than just living through something to be able to help others with that.
• 10:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm just asking you, what do you already know?
• 10:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: Have you coach anyone around an issue repeatedly?
• 10:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: Do you know what happens when clients get stuck and how to help them?
• 10:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: Do you have tools, frameworks, best practices?
• 10:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's what people pay for.
• 10:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: people want to know that not only have you gone through it, but you have been successful in leading others through that transformation as well.
• 10:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: If you're like, but I need to get my first client, good.
• 10:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: Take them on pro bono.
• 10:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: I have not one of those people that says charge your worth and you should never do anything for free.
• 10:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.
• 10:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: You're watching this or listening to this.
• 10:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: What you have gone through.
• 10:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: I did take pro bono clients.
• 10:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: No one paid me.
• 10:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: I wanted to make sure I was good at it.
• 10:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: They knew they were kind of beta testing me as a coach and they trusted me.
• 10:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: If you need that to make sure that you know what you're doing, do that.
• 10:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: You're literally wasting time wondering about all these other things.
• 10:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: Go make sure you know how to create a transformation first.
• 11:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: All right, number five, can you say your price out loud on a sales call or discovery call without flinching, without making it awkward, without feeling uncomfortable, without then being like, this is what I love.
• 11:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's $3,000, but like at that, you know, you get all this and you get all this and you get all this and like don't forget like you're gonna get this and like I guess maybe I could, you know, I also do a little bit of a discount if you need a discount like, that's another episode.
• 11:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think we have an episode on how to run sales calls and we'll link it here.
• 11:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: you just need to be able to confidently get on a sales call and say this is what a cost to work.
• 11:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: That comes from practice, but it also comes from feeling really confident in your pricing and you get really confident in your pricing by being really confident in your Prada, which in this case is the transformation you've created with clients, okay?
• 11:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: So those are all five questions.
• 11:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: Let me run through again with my notes because you know I always have notes.
• 11:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: Number one, what is the market
• 12:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: Number two, how in demand an urgent is a problem that you solve.
• 12:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: Number three, what is your level of professional training or credentialing?
• 12:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: Number four, what experiences do you have helping other people?
• 12:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: Number five, can you say your price outline out loud on a sales call without making it weird?
• 12:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, if you can do all of these things, well, you need to ask yourself all of those things, and you clear on all of those things to feel super confident in your pricing.
• 12:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: Next order of business, just in practical starting points.
• 12:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: So if you're a coach in training at IGC, we recommend that you start around 150 a session.
• 12:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: If you don't feel good about that, drop it down a little bit.
• 12:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's what I did.
• 12:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: Once you're done with training, we do recommend once you're done with training and credentialing that you charge the national average so around $300 a session depending on where you live.
• 12:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: And we have clients, students, all of the world, 40 something odd countries.
• 12:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: The ICF puts out data in all the different regions.
• 12:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: Go back and look if you need to, we recommend not charging lower than that and building up that confidence if you need to to be able to charge that because at this day and age now and the very end of 2025 you are going to get taken more seriously not by discounting your services but by standing tall and communicating the value of your coaching and the price tag that goes with it.
• 13:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: Somebody who really underpricis themselves, people are not going to have as much energetic buy-in into the process.
• 13:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: There's going to be a little bit of skepticism and a little bit of doubt.
• 13:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: Very important that you stick to the average or above, especially once you're trained.
• 13:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: Here's the truth.
• 13:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: We need more coaches in the world doing really good work.
• 13:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: The only way that you're really, really able to coach other people is if you have a coaching package, you actually get to work with those people.
• 13:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: That means you have to sell them coaching.
• 13:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: But before you can sell them coaching, you have to have a package that you feel really, really good about.
• 13:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: So with all that being said, go reflect on those questions, go figure out what you need to do to get to the price point you want to be at, and if you're like, know that you need training, you need to book a call with our team.
• 14:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: So that you can get that credential that's going to unlock so many doors for you, not just as a business owner, but potentially as a coaching career, working in different organizations, working for different companies, offering coaching services, that is there is no faster way for you to be able to get out of the nine to five grind to be able to get out of the job that's draining you to be able to get out of the corporate headache, all of that stuff to be able to stay home with your kids if that's what you want, this credential can unlock those doors for you.
• 14:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: It is an investment, but it also comes with a return.
• 14:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: All right, and you should think about your coaching packages exactly that way, too.
• 14:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: Exactly that way, too.
• 14:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: All right, leave any questions in the comments below as always.
• 14:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's the end of the year, so happy holidays.
• 14:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: Happy new year, I can't wait to see you guys back, or maybe in this will be in 2026.
• 15:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: So happy new year again, happy January.
• 15:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: We'll see you next time.