IPL Spiritually Inspired Coaches · 4. You can work from anywhere. With the internet and applications like Skype or Google Hangout you can video conference from anywhere with internet

www.instituteforprofessionalleadership.com Copyright 2016

“Why Spiritually Inspired Life Coaches have the best job,

and how you can too!”

By Maria Connolly and Nando Raynolds

Founders of The Institute for Professional Leadership, LLC www.instituteforprofessionalleadership.com


Dear Reader, Thank you for downloading this report! We love what we do and appreciate the opportunity to share what we’ve learned with you about excelling at a career that is deeply fulfilling and meaningful. As the founders of The Institute for Professional Leadership, we’re committed to helping others live more fulfilling and healthier lives. We believe that the best leaders pursue personal excellence and know how to coach themselves, so our first focus is on helping our students develop their personal skills; these form a reliable foundation for leadership. At IPL, we are creatively engaged in cultivating a world we would like to live in by striving for personal excellence through the process of inspiring and empowering others to create the lives they want. We strive to help individuals realize potential, raise performance and become more successful and fulfilled in their lives, however that is defined. We work with the full dimension of human experience: mind, body, emotion and spirit. Success and fulfillment occur when one is fully engaged, present and aligned. This is a common theme in our work: facilitating alignment with respect to identity, values, mission and life purpose, on the path to reaching one’s full potential. Please keep an eye on your inbox for more tips from us on succeeding as a life coach. We would love to hear from you! Please contact us and let us know how we can support you on your journey.

Maria Connolly & Nando Raynolds


6 Reasons Spiritually Inspired Coaching is a Great Job Before you embark on a new career you want to know that the rewards are worth the effort. We love our job, and we think that you will love doing this work too! Here are a few of the reasons why:

1. The work is fun and interesting. You get to talk with interesting people about how to achieve their goals and have more fulfilling lives. As you work with them, you get to see their dreams steadily become true!

2. You get well paid. Fees for coaching usually start at about $100/hour and

many coaches, once they become established, charge much more.

3. You get to set your own hours. Prefer to sleep in? No problem! Want to work during school hours, on the weekends, the evenings, only on certain days? No problem! Just schedule your consultation hours accordingly.

4. You can work from anywhere. With the internet and applications like

Skype or Google Hangout you can video conference from anywhere with internet and do sessions over the phone from anywhere you have a good signal. Leverage your income by lowering your cost of living by taking yourself on vacation!

5. Have more discretional time and freedom. All this allows you the most

precious thing in life, more discretional time to pursue your interests and passions!


6. Your work is integrated with your core values and spiritual inspiration. We want you to have a fantastic life while helping others to have fantastic lives as well. What could be more inspiring and meaningful? Your passion for spirituality and living a value-driven life is a precious source of energy in this work and is daily reaffirmed by the progress of your clients!

If this sounds intriguing to you, than you probably want to find out more about what’s involved in being a spiritually inspired life coach. Read on about the different stages of learning that you and your coaching clients will engage in. Life Coaches Explore the 5 Stages of Learning We are all learning. Understanding the different stages will help you understand your role as a Spiritually Inspired Life Coach.

The process of learning goes through the following predictable stages:

1. Unconscious incompetence - you don’t even know you can’t do it.

2. Conscious incompetence – you know you can’t do it.

3. Conscious competence – you can only do it if you think about it.

4. Unconscious competence – you do it automatically – autopilot.

5. Reflective competence – you understand it so well you are able to teach it.

As a coach you will help your clients go through these stages in ways that are consistent with their deepest values and that is an expression of their spiritual understanding of life and themselves. As you help your clients, you will be drawn through the stages again and again as well, deepening your own spiritual understanding and connection.


Coaching is a method for moving forward in life, as opposed to a series of prepackaged “right” answers. You do not have to have the answers for your clients. In fact, trying to provide these for others is not at all what coaching is about. Instead coaching is a process of helping your client make his or her own decisions, conclusions and plans for creating a more fulfilling life by guiding and supporting them through the process.

But what do we mean by “Spiritually Inspired” life coaching? Does this mean that you need to be a spiritual or religious expert? No! To understand this better, let's explore the four components of spiritually.

Spiritually Inspired Coaching Supports All Four Aspects of Balanced Spirituality

As a Spiritually Inspired Coach, you will coach your clients in uncovering their chosen beliefs and attitudes on spirituality. Remember, as a coach, your job is never to convince your client to share your beliefs or perspectives. Your job is to help your client understand how their personal perspectives on these issues are important and to help them clarify their own beliefs. No matter what your religious background, balanced spirituality includes each of the following four aspects, and as a coach you will be working with clients in each of these areas. This will support your own practice and understanding of these areas and help you in your personal development as well.

1. Cosmology is your understanding of the way life, the universe and

humans work. This includes questions such as, “What is the nature of God?” and “What happens when we die?” The clearer you are about your personal answers to these questions the better... as long as you are able to respect the fact that your client might believe something completely different!


2. Ethics are your understanding of right action, and the factors and values

relevant to these choices. Many clients will need support in clarifying their values and making difficult choices.

3. Mindfulness is the ability to pay attention to the present moment with

compassion towards yourself and others. Many clients will benefit from support in developing consistent mindfulness practices and in building their skills in being compassionate.

4. The ability to choose your state of consciousness is a skill that

includes day to day being able to choose your emotional and cognitive outlook and keeping yourself in a balanced mood. It also includes knowing how to deliberately put yourself into “higher” states of consciousness.

Most people can benefit from paying deliberate attention to each of these four aspects. As a Spiritually Inspired Coach, it is naturally beneficial to have these areas working well in your own life. Discussing these topics will enhance your own understanding and determination to improve. As a Spiritually Inspired Coach you do not have to be an Enlightened Master, but you do have to be prepared to support clients in their personal exploration!

How to Set-up a Successful Coaching Business

Ask yourself: “What do I want? Why? What will I get by having that? What is my mission?”

These are questions that every professional should ask as they begin their own coaching practice. You’ll find that your personal development will go hand in hand with the development of your practice. Make excellence your focus and you will stand out.

As John W. Gardner says, “Excellence is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.”


If that sounds like a lot of work…it is. But it’s crucial if you want a good foundation for when you build a sustainable private practice.

Spiritually Inspired Coaching is a skill set that you can turn into a successful business. If this is your chosen path, we will help your dream come true. Some people are blessed with a miraculous launch of their businesses and this may happen to you. However, most people have to work diligently and tolerate some disappointments to create their dreams.

“Invention,” as Thomas Edison said, “is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration.” We are committed to your success, and this includes providing the coaching and support necessary to help you make well thought out and systematic progress in achieving the personal and professional life you want.

Introducing The Institute for Professional Leadership’s Spiritually Inspired Life Coaching Training Intensive

Our powerfully inspiring, and practical training program will help you develop core competencies, quickly become skillful with advanced strategies, and build an exceptional framework to take personal excellence to a new level in your personal and professional life! This training integrates skills from NLP with our Life in Balance: The Seven Keys™ personal development program.

Learn to apply a wealth of coaching tools with yourself and others. Our program includes a component on marketing to help you launch your new career! Click here to learn more.


Do you have a question about pursuing a career as a Spiritually Inspired Life Coach?

Please contact us to schedule a complimentary 30-minute consultation. We look

forward to helping you determine if this is the path for you.

Maria Connolly, MS, LPC, CHT, GCFP

Maria is a Master Practitioner and trainer of Neuro-Linguistic Programming. She has a passion for provoking thought and inspiring action toward living more authentically and successfully.

In the past several years, Maria has broadened her skills to include modalities that enhance and build upon NLP technology. Among the most extensive are Hakomi and Sensorimotor psychotherapy, Self-relation/Generative psychology and Ericksonian Hypnotherapy. The most recent addition to Maria’s tool kit is The Feldenkrais Method of Somatic Education, a natural extension of the principles of NLP and a great somatic approach to both personal and professional development.

With over 15 years experience working with women, she developed the program: Women’s Empowerment & Self Leadership, which contains powerful tools to change unconscious limiting beliefs and promote personal and professional mastery. She is also the co-author of the Life in Balance: The Seven Keys, a comprehensive wellbeing and skill development series. As a presenter and educator, she has both the warmth and the depth to provide practical take-away value in a lively and entertaining way.

In addition to training, Maria currently maintains a private therapy, coaching, consulting and mentoring practice in Ashland, Oregon.


Nando Raynolds MA, LPC

Nando brings 25 years of counseling experience and his own personal integration of material from Hakomi, NLP, and Energy Psychology to his work.

His interest in blending the wisdom of the mind and body has led him to study and teach T’ai Chi and qigong for 30 years, In addition he has his 5th degree black belt in Karate and his third degree black belt in Kenpo. He has practiced and taught massage, and Contact Improvisational dance.

His MA is in Transpersonal Psychology and he’s committed to bringing practical spirituality to his teaching, consulting and coaching.

Nando is the Clinical Director of the Community Counseling Center of Ashland, a low fee counseling center where counseling interns train and practice while accumulating the experience needed for their next step towards state licensure. In addition, he is an adjunct professor at SOU. He’s published a book and DVD on T’ai Chi and a self-help workbook: Transforming Your Inner Critic Into an Inner Coach.

As a presenter and trainer, he is known for his clarity, enthusiasm and humor. He’s excited to help people integrate their work with their core values and to develop the skills that will make them outstanding in their fields.

IPL Spiritually Inspired Coaches · 4. You can work from anywhere. With the internet and applications like Skype or Google Hangout you can video conference from anywhere with internet

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