The global coaching industry generated a whopping $4.6 billion in revenue in 2023 and is estimated to reach ~$12 billion by 2032. This unprecedented growth is creating new and exciting opportunities for aspiring online coaches. With people seeking guidance in nearly every area of life–from career and business to health and personal development–the demand for specialized coaching is higher than ever.
Becoming an online coach offers a lucrative path where you can make a meaningful impact by helping others reach their goals. Since there are different types of coaches and coaching specializations, you can build a career tailored to your passions, strengths, and expertise.
In this article, I’ll cover what a coach is, how coaching differs from counseling and consultancy, ten types of coaches, how to choose the right type of coach for your needs, and how to build an online coaching business with Thinkific.
Skip ahead:
- What is a coach?
- Types of coaches and their specializations
- How to choose the right type of coach for your needs
- Build a lucrative online coaching business with Thinkific
What is a coach?
A coach is a professional who partners with clients to help them achieve specific goals, whether they’re related to personal development, career growth, health, or other areas of life. The purpose of coaching is to help clients reach their potential through a structured, forward-looking process. Coaches provide guidance, encouragement, and support as clients work toward their goals, offering tools and techniques to overcome challenges, improve skills, and build confidence.
The benefits of coaching include:
- Personalized guidance. Coaches tailor their approach based on each client’s unique needs, aspirations, challenges, and strengths.
- Clarity and focus. Coaches help clients identify, set, and prioritize specific, achievable goals, creating a clear path forward.
- Accountability. Coaches organize regular check-ins and goal tracking to keep clients motivated and committed to their progress.
- Skill development. Coaches offer tools, techniques, and strategies that improve clients’ skills, building confidence and competence.
- Objective perspective. A coach brings a fresh, unbiased view that helps clients see situations from different angles and make informed decisions.
- Increased self-awareness. Coaches encourage reflection, which helps clients understand themselves better and make meaningful changes.
Coaching vs. Counseling
While both coaching and counseling aim to help individuals improve their lives, they differ significantly in their focus and approach. Coaching is primarily future-oriented and results-driven, helping clients set and achieve goals in different areas of life.
For example, if you’re a mid-career professional aiming to transition to a leadership role in your company, you’d hire a career coach to help you develop the skills you need to advance. In your sessions, the coach will work with you to set clear career goals, build your leadership skills, and improve your time management to handle increased responsibilities. Your coach will provide the guidance you need, as well as tools (like assessment tools) and accountability, focusing on your growth and future achievements.
Counseling, on the other hand, often delves into a client’s past experiences, addressing emotional or psychological challenges that may be affecting their well-being. Counselors are typically trained to work with clients on deeper mental health issues, providing therapeutic interventions that help clients process emotions, heal from trauma, and develop coping strategies.
So, if you’ve been feeling overwhelmed and anxious due to recent changes in your personal life and perhaps unresolved stress from past experiences, you’d see a counselor to explore these issues in depth. In your sessions, you and your counselor would discuss your emotional responses and talk about the past events that are affecting your current well-being. The counselor would help you process your emotions better and address your anxiety so you can heal and develop emotional resilience.
Coaching vs. Consultancy
Coaching and consultancy are alike in that both coaches and consultants provide expert guidance, support, and tailored advice based on the client’s unique needs. However, a consultant typically diagnoses issues with a particular area and prescribes actions for improvement. Conversely, a coach works collaboratively to empower clients to find their own solutions through self-discovery, accountability, and skill development.
Say you’re looking to transition from being a full-time employee to being a business owner, but you’re having a hard time organizing your affairs. You’d hire a business coach to guide you on transitioning smoothly and managing your time/projects better.
But if you already own a small business that is growing rapidly but you’re unsure how to streamline workflows and manage increasing demands, you’d hire a business consultant who specializes in operations. They would assess your current processes, identify bottlenecks, and recommend specific systems to help you improve productivity without overwhelming your resources.
Types of coaches and their specializations
There are many types of coaches in different specializations. Here are a few of them:
Life coaches
Life coaching is a type of coaching focused on helping folks achieve personal development goals and improve various aspects of their lives. They work with clients to clarify their goals, build productive habits, and find motivation, ultimately empowering them to create sustainable life changes.
Some common types of life coaches include:
- Goal-setting coaches. Life coaches focus on defining and achieving specific personal or professional goals.
- Habit-building coaches. Coaches help clients establish and maintain positive habits that align with their life goals.
- Motivational coaches. Life coaches provide inspiration and support to clients who are struggling with motivation and self-doubt.
- Mindset coaches. They work on helping clients develop a positive, resilient mindset to overcome obstacles and embrace growth.
Read: How Much Do Life Coaches Make in 2025?
Career coaches
Career coaches help individuals achieve their professional goals, whether trying to get a job, navigating a career transition, or seeking promotions. These coaches assist clients by identifying their strengths, defining career goals, and developing a strategic plan for achieving these objectives.
For individuals looking to change careers, career coaches may offer insights into transferable skills and help them create a transition plan. For those aiming for advancement, a career coach may provide guidance on skills development, networking, and professional branding.
Career coaching covers a variety of topics essential for career growth, including:
- Career planning. Career coaches help clients outline a clear career path, considering long-term aspirations and identifying the steps needed to get there.
- Resume-building. Coaches guide clients in creating resumes that highlight relevant skills and experience, making a strong impression on hiring managers.
- Interview preparation. Through mock interviews and feedback, career coaches help clients build confidence, practice responses, and master techniques to communicate well in interviews.
- Job search strategies. Coaches offer insights into networking, job searching, and using digital platforms effectively to find job opportunities aligned with their career goals.
Health and wellness coaches
Health and wellness coaches specialize in helping clients improve their physical and mental well-being through holistic, personalized support. These coaches collaborate with clients to set health goals, develop action plans, and create habits that lead to a healthier, more balanced life.
By focusing on both physical and mental aspects, health and wellness coaching benefits extend beyond just physical transformation and promote overall well-being and resilience.
Some key areas of health and wellness coaching include:
- Nutrition. Wellness coaches help clients make healthier dietary choices and establish eating habits that align with personal health goals. For example, a health and wellness coach may draw up personalized meal plans for clients, depending on their goals (e.g., losing weight, gaining weight, healing stomach ulcers, calming lactose intolerance, etc.).
- Fitness. Some health coaches create fitness routines (or workout plans) that suit clients’ lifestyles and physical abilities, promoting consistency and sustainable results.
- Lifestyle changes. Health coaches support clients in making lifestyle adjustments that contribute to their overall well-being, such as improving sleep habits, reducing stress, and setting wellness boundaries.
- Mental health support. Although not a substitute for therapy, wellness coaches can support clients in building positive mental health practices, like mindfulness, stress management, and self-care routines.
Executive and leadership coaches
Executive and leadership coaches help individuals in management or leadership roles develop essential skills for guiding teams, making strategic decisions, and leading organizations effectively.
An executive coach partners with leaders to identify strengths and areas for growth, providing tools to elevate their performance and adaptability. For those looking to refine their decision-making skills, an executive coach helps leaders analyze situations more thoroughly and approach solutions with greater confidence and insight.
Executive and leadership coaching typically focuses on these critical areas:
- Leadership skills. Coaches guide clients in developing core leadership competencies, such as emotional intelligence, effective communication, and delegation.
- Decision-making. Executive coaches work with leaders to hone their decision-making process, ensuring they consider various perspectives, assess risks, and make informed choices.
- Team management. Coaches provide strategies for managing teams effectively, including motivation techniques, conflict resolution, and building team cohesion.
Financial coaches
Financial coaches specialize in helping individuals develop skills and strategies to achieve financial stability and reach their money goals. A financial coach helps clients create realistic budgets, develop debt repayment plans, and set financial goals.
By focusing on these foundational skills, a financial coach helps clients make smarter financial choices, reduce money-related stress, and forge a clear path toward financial security.
Here are some key areas of financial coaching:
- Budgeting. Financial coaches help clients develop and stick to budgets that align with their income, expenses, and goals, giving them better control over their finances.
- Debt management. Coaches help clients create strategies to reduce or eliminate debt, offering tools for prioritizing payments and avoiding future debt.
- Financial planning. Coaches work with clients to set both short-term and long-term financial goals, such as saving for emergencies, retirement, buying a home, or other significant life milestones.
Relationship coaches
Relationship coaches help individuals and couples improve the quality of their personal and romantic relationships. They help folks identify and overcome patterns that may be hindering their relationships and empower them to make changes that support lasting intimacy and trust.
Relationship coaching typically focuses on:
- Improving communication. Relationship coaches teach clients how to express themselves openly and respectfully, listen actively and empathetically, and handle difficult conversations. This helps prevent misunderstandings and promotes a deeper connection.
- Relationship-building. Relationship coaches guide clients in building emotional intimacy, trust, and mutual respect, as well as creating healthy boundaries. This creates a solid foundation for a lasting relationship.
- Conflict resolution. Coaches equip clients with conflict resolution skills, enabling them to manage and resolve disagreements in healthy ways that strengthen rather than weaken their relationships.
Performance coaches
Performance coaches help clients optimize their skills, increase productivity, and achieve peak performance in their personal and/or professional lives. They work with clients to identify habits, routines, and mindsets that support–or hinder–their performance.
They also help clients set clear, actionable goals and build structures to manage time effectively, ensuring that tasks are completed with maximum efficiency. These strategies empower clients to tackle challenges, improve focus, and maintain motivation, all of which contribute to sustained peak performance.
Performance coaching typically emphasizes:
- Achieving peak performance. Coaches guide clients in reaching and sustaining high performance levels by improving focus, mental resilience, and consistency.
- Time management. Performance coaches teach clients how to prioritize tasks, avoid distractions, and structure their time to get the most out of their day.
- Efficiency. Coaches provide tools to improve productivity and work smarter, not harder, which ensures clients achieve their goals without burnout.
Sports coaches
Sports coaches work with athletes to enhance their skills, improve fitness, and develop the mental resilience necessary for success in competitive sports. While most people think sports coaches are only concerned with building athletes’ physical skills, that’s not the case.
These coaches also help their clients strengthen their mindset to overcome setbacks (losses, injuries, mistakes), handle pressure, and stay motivated.
Sports coaching typically includes:
- Sports skills. Coaches work with athletes to refine specific techniques and skills essential for their sport.
- Mental toughness. Sports coaches develop athletes’ mental resilience, teaching them how to handle stress, stay focused, and maintain a positive attitude, especially when things aren’t going their way.
- Physical training. Coaches design physical conditioning programs to improve strength, endurance, and flexibility, ensuring that athletes are physically prepared to meet the demands of their sport.
Confidence and self-esteem coaches
Confidence and self-esteem coaches specialize in helping individuals recognize their strengths, tackle limiting beliefs, and present themselves confidently in various situations. These coaches provide tools, techniques, and advice for boosting self-assurance, which helps clients feel more empowered and capable in both personal and professional contexts.
Confidence and self-esteem coaching often includes:
- Overcoming self-doubt. These coaches help clients identify and address self-doubt, providing strategies to manage negative thoughts and build inner confidence.
- Public speaking. Coaches provide strategies to help people with glossophobia (fear of public speaking) manage anxiety and stage fright, practice effective communication skills, and nurture their ability to speak confidently in front of an audience.
- Positive self-image. Confidence and self-esteem coaches guide clients in viewing themselves with compassion and appreciation rather than criticism. They encourage clients to speak kind and positive words to themselves instead of engaging in self-flagellation.
Skills and hobby coaches
Skills and hobby coaches focus on helping clients develop specific abilities or interests, from writing to painting to playing the piano. These coaches adapt their guidance to support clients in honing their skills, achieving personal growth, and enjoying their hobbies more fully.
A writing coach, for example, works with clients to develop their writing skills, from structuring ideas to building worlds to improving language and style. For those interested in creative pursuits like acrylic painting and portraiture, skills coaches offer support in cultivating these artistic skills (what pencils or paints to use, mixing colors to get different shades, adding depth and shadows, infusing meaning into a work of art), fostering creativity, and developing personal expression through various media.
Read: 20 Best Online Coaching Platforms and Tools for 2025
How to choose the right type of coach for your needs
Choosing the right coach begins with understanding your goals and the specific areas where you need support. Since each coach has a unique specialization, aligning your needs with their expertise can ensure a more effective and rewarding coaching experience.
If you’re thinking of hiring a coach, here are some tips to help you make the best choice:
- Define your goals clearly. Before searching for a coach, reflect on your goals. What do you want to achieve? Are you looking to improve specific skills, boost your career, achieve fitness milestones, or enhance personal/romantic relationships?
Having a clear goal will make it easier to identify the type of coach best suited to help you reach it.
- Research coaching specializations. Once you’ve defined your goal(s), explore different coaching specializations. Each type of coach–be it a career coach, wellness coach, or skills coach–offers unique expertise and approaches.
For example, if you’re trying to improve your work-life balance and overall well-being, a wellness coach might be ideal. But if you’re looking to scale your business, an executive/business coach would be better suited to your needs.
- Consider experience and credentials. Coaches often bring various certifications, backgrounds, and years of experience to their roles. Look for coaches with credentials and/or proven experience in the area you want to work on.
A financial coach with a background in personal finance, for example, will likely be more effective than a generalist in helping you manage money better.
- Assess compatibility and coaching style. A coach’s style can greatly influence your experience and success. Schedule introductory calls or consultations to get a feel of their approach, communication style, and personality. Choose a coach you feel comfortable with and who motivates you because having a good rapport with your coach makes you more receptive to their guidance.
- Evaluate flexibility and accessibility. Consider the logistics of working with a coach. Some coaches offer in-person one-on-one sessions and group coaching, while others work entirely online. Choose a coach whose availability, location, or digital accessibility aligns with your preferences and lifestyle.
- Find reviews or testimonials. Look for feedback from other clients who have worked with your chosen coach. You can find this on the coach’s website or social media handles.
Reviews/testimonials can give insights into the coach’s impact, areas of strength, and the results their former (or current) clients have achieved. Real-world examples of success stories can help determine if the coach’s approach will work for you.
Read: How to Get 10 New Coaching Clients In the Next 90 Days
How to assess a coach’s credentials
During your introductory call/meeting with prospective coaches, it’s good practice to inquire about their qualifications, experience, and coaching style. This way, you know what you’ll be signing up for should you choose to work with said coach.
Here are some practical tips for assessing a coach’s credentials, experience, and style:
- Look for relevant certifications and training. Many coaches like to hang their certifications on the wall behind them, so you might see those right away when you begin the call or walk into their office. If not, ask them if they have any certifications from accredited programs, such as the International Coaching Federation.
While certifications don’t guarantee success, they often indicate a foundational understanding of coaching principles and ethics. Review their qualifications to ensure they align with the area you’re focusing on, whether that’s career, life, health, or skills.
- Ask about their coaching experience. Experience matters, especially if your goals are specific or complex. So, ask the coach about the length of their coaching c career and if they’ve worked with clients facing similar challenges.
As a rule of thumb, the longer a coach has been coaching, the more likely they are to be able to help you. While there are exceptions to this rule, coaches with more experience have likely worked with clients across a broad spectrum and have honed techniques and insights that can be invaluable in guiding you effectively.
- Inquire about specialization. Some coaches have expertise in niche areas. For example, some nutrition coaches specialize in specific diets (vegetarian/vegan, ketogenic, pescatarian), while others specialize in diets for specific categories of people, such as pregnant people, folks with food allergies, picky eaters, people with gastrointestinal disorders, etc.
Choosing a coach with a specialization that matches your goals ensures you get more targeted support. So, ask about their specialization and any unique training or experience they have in that field.
- Ask about their coaching methods. Different coaches use different methods–some are more structured, while others are highly adaptable. Ask if they use specific frameworks or tools, and how they tailor their approach based on individual client needs.
Also, during your intro call/meeting, observe how the coach listens, asks questions, and encourages you to think about your goals. This interaction, as well as the information they provide about their methods, will give you insights into what your coaching sessions might look like if you hire them.
- Evaluate their availability and commitment. Ensure that the coach’s availability matches your needs. If your schedule is demanding, a coach with flexible hours or virtual sessions may be preferable.
Also, consider how committed they are to your progress–do they offer resources, follow-ups, and goal-tracking? If they do, that may be a sign that working with them can propel you to reach your goals as quickly and sustainably as possible.
Read: How to Improve Your Coaching Skills: 10 Proven Methods
Build a lucrative online coaching business with Thinkific
If you’re considering starting a coaching business but aren’t sure how, don’t fret. With a robust tool like Thinkific, launching and scaling an online coaching business is more accessible than ever. Thinkific provides a platform designed to help coaches like yourself build a profitable coaching business and connect with clients through various formats.
Thinkific’s Coaching and Webinars feature supports flexible coaching models, including one-on-one sessions, group coaching, live webinars, consulting calls, and interactive sessions like AMAs (Ask Me Anything). This versatility allows you to tailor your offerings to your strengths (and schedule) and your clients’ needs. Not only will these sessions help you generate income, but you’ll also be able to build stronger relationships with your clients/audience and help them reach their goals.
As you grow, Thinkific allows you to expand your coaching business by creating and selling online courses, allowing you to share your expertise on a larger scale. Our Online Course Platform includes tools for creating engaging, high-quality courses, such as:
- A drag-and-drop course builder;
- Pre-built course templates;
- Different content formats (text, images, videos, downloads, audio);
- Learner progress tools (quizzes, surveys, exams);
- A branded mobile app, etc.
These features help you deliver value to your clients in a structured, professional format, and when monetized, they help you generate steady passive income for your business.
If you’d like to know how Thinkific can help you start and grow an online coaching business, sign up for a 14-day free trial today.