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Certified Self-Employment

Dr. Andrieka J. Austin, Master Life Coach Certification Trainer from Atlanta, Georgia is the founder of The International Center for Life Coach Training, LLC. She has trained 200 Certified Life Coaches, helped thousands via her email newsletter, and speaks to 10,000+ on her podcast, her Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram social media platforms helping them learn how to become a professionally trained, skilled, qualified, Black Woman Christian Certified Life Coach.

When and why did you join the NASE?
I joined NASE in 2021 after learning about the organization and all it had to offer to its members like affiliate partnerships, grants, the vast list of member benefits, and member spotlight features.

What inspired you to enter the field you are in?
I was inspired to leave the field of Psychology behind to enter the life coach certification training industry after becoming a Certified Life Coach in 2013 and receiving my Bachelors of Applied Science in Human Resources and Training and Development from Mercer University in 2016. I was invited to train and help certify Coaches through the same organization that certified me, one week after I graduated. After successfully hosting twenty training classes, investing over three-hundred hours into the life coaching field, and training 110 Certified Life Coaches in-person the partnership dissolved. During the global pandemic of 2020, I pivoted to offer my training online only to help Black Christian women become professionally trained, skilled, qualified, Certified Life Coaches. My goal has always been to help people heal, and I’m grateful I get to do this daily.

When and why did you start your business?
I started my business in 2020, because I, once again, was on the verge of becoming homeless. My income source of being a part-time Trainer with the previous company had dried up. Yet, I could not imagine myself doing anything else outside of training and facilitating learning. Having nearly a decade of learning about the life coaching industry and the life coach certification process, I remembered teaching (and experiencing) what was ‘out there’ in the life coach certification training space. I also remembered what was missing and having my ideas of improving an outdated training process and potentially reaching more people shot down and dismissed, repeatedly. Plus, when I was contacted for recommendations on where people should go to become certified, there was no one I trusted to send people to, as all the Coach Trainers I trained with and the training company who trained me had all disappeared. I was repeatedly encouraged to create my own training and development company for future Coaches by those who had witnessed my work and had trained with me. So, I did. I was inspired to make my Life Coach Certification trainings more up-to-date and modern, versus trainings past. I also based them on my own personal experience as a Life Coach Certification Trainer and a Master Life Coach. I implemented my own ideas of inspiration, and I specifically created it for future Black Women Christian Certified Life Coaches, because this is who I resonate with the most. I worked with a few Coaches to help me bring my coaching content online and a Marketing Mentor who helped spark the idea to create it into a home-study course. After twenty-four months of working my business part-time, my company has surpassed the six-figure mark in sales and revenue while serving 200+ Black Women Christian Certified Life Coaches worldwide who are now known as the “Ladies of L.E.G.A.C.Y” (Ladies Empowering Generations And Coaching You!).

How do you market your business?
I have an Amazon best-selling book called, The Black Life Coach where I share my journey into the life coaching industry and how I got into training Black Life Coaches. I also market my business on my Facebook profile page, where I host weekly 30-minute Facebook Live videos on how to become a professionally trained, skilled, qualified, Black Woman Christian Certified Life Coach. I share the video replay in my complementary Christian coaching community, a private Facebook group for Future Black Women Christian Certified Life Coaches where I host quarterly bootcamps and masterclass webinars. These presentations show my recently released documentary-style film that shares the details of how I dealt with dropping out of college, homelessness, the downsizing of a corporate career, and the death of my mother happening the same day as my divorce. I now use my story as my platform to share how I dedicated a portion of my purpose to the life coach training industry by designing my own Life Coach Certification Training company and coaching curriculum, and receiving an Honorary Doctoral degree in Christian Psychology.

What challenges have you faced in your business?
One of the challenges I have faced in my business is the inability to connect with the right circle of people. It has been difficult to find like-minded people who also work their semi-passive coaching business part-time while earning a full-time income and focused on their business as their main source of revenue as they live and leave a legacy for future generations to come.

Do you have any employees?
I am in the process of making myself a full-time, salaried employee. I also currently work with a Virtual Assistant on special part-time projects as needed and my plans for the future is to hire her on a more permanent basis.

What’s your schedule like, what’s a typical day for you?
A typical workday for me depends on the day of the week. My business is set up to run almost automatically, which allows me to work on a variety of things as needed. Sometimes it is client services and responding to emails, phone calls and messaging platforms while other times it is marketing on social media with Facebook Live or posting to YouTube. Most of everything that I do is from a computer and online in some capacity typically on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday between the hours of 10am and 6pm EST.

What’s the best thing about being self-employed?
The best thing about being self-employed is the creativity, time, and money freedom. The option to rise and work early, or to sleep in. The opportunity to share and get paid well for my expertise, skills and service all while working from home, car, local coffee shop or any other place I choose is what I have always wanted for myself and those I serve.

What’s the best compliment you’ve ever received from a client?
The best compliment I’ve ever received (from several clients) is how they believe I am doing what God has called me to do as a Trainer and that I have a gift to do it.

What’s the most important piece of advice you would give to someone starting their own business?
The most important piece of advice I would give to someone starting their own business is that no one has all of your answers. Save yourself time and energy by looking within for what you believe your next steps should be and allow yourself to be led to what works best for you and your organization or company.