3 Reasons New Coaches Don't Need More Certifications

Thinking getting another health coach certification will automatically unlock a flood of high-paying clients? The truth is, your ideal clients care far less about the letters behind your name than they do about your ability to deliver a clear, personalized transformation. Many coaches fall into the certification trap, postponing their business growth out of fear that they aren't qualified enough to charge their worth. They invest thousands of dollars into complex educational programs, believing that more knowledge equates to better coaching.

In this episode of Fuel The Flow, Valerie Feghali breaks down why over-educating your clients and handing them 20-page battle plans often backfires. Drawing on her recent personal experiences working with two very different wellness coaches, she reveals why a $2,500 program from a highly credentialed coach yielded zero results, while a simpler, more adaptable approach created a lasting transformation. True client success is rooted in adaptability, listening deeply during the intake process, and providing the exact type of accountability your client wants to receive.

You don't need an alphabet soup of credentials to show up confidently in the wellness space. Stop delaying your launch and start trusting the value you already bring to the table. When you understand how to adjust your communication style to match a client's feedback preferences, you become an irreplaceable asset. If a plan isn't working, the most valuable thing you can do as a coach is pivot quickly. Stop letting impostor syndrome dictate your business decisions—you are worthy of charging a premium for your services right now.

✨ What You'll Discover

• Why the "certification trap" is secretly stalling your business growth.

• The massive difference between an expensive, rigid program and simple, effective coaching.

• How to structure a client intake process that uncovers their ideal feedback style.

• The reason why long, complex battle plans often lead to client failure and overwhelm.

• Actionable steps to pivot your coaching strategy when a client falls off track.

 ⭐ Memorable Quote

"More certifications does not always make you a better coach... what clients need most is accountability and a plan that is structured for their lifestyle."  Valerie Feghali

0:00 - Do more certifications make you a better coach?: An introduction to the myth that more degrees equal better client transformations.

0:27 - Welcome to Fuel The Flow: Valerie introduces the podcast and today's core focus on health and business alignment.

0:47 - The certification trap (and the fear behind it): Discover why delaying your business growth to get another piece of paper is often rooted in impostor syndrome.

2:09 - The $2,500 coach: great marketing, zero results: Valerie shares her personal experience with a highly credentialed coach who failed to provide a personalized plan.

3:18 - The 20-page plan that backfired: Learn why overwhelming your clients with excessive information from day one is a recipe for disaster.

6:03 - Quick note: the AI bootcamp: A brief invitation to the upcoming AI workshop designed to streamline your business operations.

6:25 - The coach who kept it simple (and got results): Hear the contrast of working with a simpler coaching structure that prioritized active listening over academic lectures.

8:06 - Small changes that actually stuck: How focusing on one or two manageable habits, like hydration and mindful eating, creates lasting success.

9:49 - The intake question that changes everything: The specific question you must ask during an initial client consultation to ensure long-term accountability.

10:35 - How your client really wants feedback: Understanding how to adjust your communication style to match whether your client prefers gentle nudges or direct call-outs.

12:01 - Accountability without preaching: Why your clients hired a coach, not a professor, and how to avoid over-educating them.

12:45 - When a client falls off the plan: Actionable strategies for pivoting quickly and supporting your client when they stray from their goals.

13:29 - You don't need accolades to charge your worth: A final reminder to trust your value and stop letting a lack of credentials hold back your pricing strategy.

Resources Mentioned

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📺 KEEP WATCHING ON YOUTUBE

Full Episodes: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLd8ZHsfhiikkdpBAs489w1XfOd3cAhwkd

Short Clips: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLd8ZHsfhiikmK95ykcFuSAuqf9li03Gv5

Quick Fixes: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLd8ZHsfhiikmlv5GtLinn3qLC7qc9BobP

If you found value in this episode, please leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify! Your support helps us continue providing free, high-value content to help you scale your coaching business.

⭐ ABOUT VALERIE

Valerie Feghali is a physical therapist turned software CEO, helping health and wellness coaches scale their businesses without burnout. As the founder of The Wellness Vault, she provides white-label resources and strategic coaching to help you grow.

⭐ CONNECT WITH VALERIE

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/v.feghali/

The Wellness Vault: https://wellnessvault.com/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ValerieFeghali/videos

Disclaimer: 
The Fuel The Flow Podcast is for educational purposes only. The information provided is not intended to replace professional medical or business advice.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

More certifications does not always make you a better coach. And her program was very expensive. I paid about $2,500 for six weeks. Now, we did not make any progress in these sessions. You don't need to have all these accolades. You don't need to have hundreds of testimonials. And when you are interviewing your client, that very first intake that you have with your client, it's important to understand. Welcome to the Fuel Your Flow podcast. I am your host, Valerie Figali, physical therapist, turned software CEO and business coach for health and wellness coaches. We are going to be talking about all things health and business. They might be more closely related than you think. So let's go ahead and get into it. Welcome back to another episode of Fuel the Flow. Today I want to talk about how more certifications does not always make you a better coach. And it also doesn't make you more money necessarily. The trap that I see coaches fall in so often is that they feel like they need another specialty, another certification, another degree in order to get their business going. And this is really just out of fear, and they're postponing starting their business or growing and building their business. And the truth is that being more certified, having more degrees or more certifications doesn't always improve your skills. Now, yes, you're going to have more knowledge. And I'm never saying to work outside of your scope of practice, always stay inside of your scope of practice. However, what clients need most is accountability and a plan that is structured for their lifestyle, that's going to fit with them. And they also need to feel seen and connected with. And having more certifications does not give you any of those things. So if you're just trying to get another certification to be able to justify your worthiness as a coach, then I want you to put that aside for a moment and just listen. So I've had two other, two recent experiences with coaches who I'm worked, who I've worked with. And these are both wellness coaches. One of them was a dietitian with multiple other degrees and certifications. She had a very well-marketed program. And her program was very expensive. I paid about $2,500 for six weeks, I believe it was. And she marketed it very well. She spoke about it very well. It was clearly articulated what I would be getting with the program. And I signed up for it like without even thinking much about it right away. Yes, sign me up. I need this. So I signed up for that. Now we did not make any progress in these sessions. She had a beautiful program. She gave me this long, extensive battle plan that we are going to do. And I did not feel, however, that she was listening to what I actually needed in order to make progress. She had in mind what the plan was going to be, what the program was going to look like. And there was no kind of flexibility or personalization that went along with it. Now, I should caveat that that yes, the battle plan was kind of quote unquote personalized to me. However, it did not fit my lifestyle in any stretch of the imagination. So when she first gave me the battle plan, it was like a 20-page document of all these different things that we were going to eventually work on. Now, her intention was that we were going to work on one to two things per week. But by giving me that entire battle plan on during the first week, or actually, that's another point I'll make in a moment, but giving me that extensive battle plan right off the bat, my brain automatically went to, well, I should be trying this and I should be doing this. And if I'm not doing that, then I'm like failing the plan. And so number one, I felt like a failure because I couldn't keep up with it at all. And number two, I was trying to push ahead when really that wasn't an effective strategy, but I saw the plan and I wanted to move as quickly as I possibly could. And so I tried to do it all. Lo and behold, it did not work. Now, the other thing about that was that she got that battle plan to me like a week after our initial conversation. And again, this was like an extensive written-out plan. All I needed was like two page of one or two pages of action steps that we're going to take, right? Like a really simple, bullet pointed, this is what we're going to do. I did not need all of the science behind each thing that we were going to do, the reasons, the education. That those are questions that I could have asked during our sessions if I was curious, right? And that's something that I would save for the sessions. Now, we also had a one-hour meeting every single week, which again, I felt like was a waste of time because we were just, we weren't really doing much. She was questioning me on my goals and my lifestyle and my history and all the things that she should have been asking me about, but then not really tying them back into the plan. The plan was kind of staying the same the whole time. And so I felt like we were getting on these sessions to discuss these things. And then it was never really being put into action. And so I felt those hour meet long meetings were draining my time, where really I would have actually preferred like a 15 to 30 minute meeting that says, hey, you know, bullet point this, this, and this. How are you doing on this? That's not working. Okay, we're gonna adjust it. Like just really quick. We don't need to go necessarily into the depths for the first session. Absolutely. I believe that was a 90-minute session. And I also think that that was probably needed to go into the depths of my past medical history and my, you know, goals and all of that. But those follow-up sessions did not need to be that long unless something in the plan was going to drastically change, which again, it did not. And so this was a coach that I was working with who had extensive experience, who had multiple different uh degrees, and the result and transformation that I got was negligent. I want to drop a quick note before I continue. We are hosting an AI bootcamp, which is a three-day bootcamp showing you how to start building a knowledge base inside of Claude, build the brain, and then build the skills that are going to take daily, weekly, and monthly work off your plate. We are going to show you how we use it inside of our business and how you can use it in your business. I'll be hosting this with myself and my ads manager, who is an expert at AI. The show notes will have the link to the booty app, and I hope to see you there. Now let's move on to the other coach that I started working with. Um, this was somebody that I know, and so maybe his marketing plan was not as um polished, and that could potentially use some work. But his coaching is wonderful and it's simple, and that's what's getting me the result. Now, this is not somebody who has extensive degrees in this area, who has years and years of experience working with clients. But the fact is that he met with me. He listened to exactly what I felt I needed and where I was getting stuck and what I've tried in the past and what my goals were and why that was important to me. He listened to all of those things and he put together a really simple structure for us to follow just for a short amount of time. So even though our time together in total is going to be eight weeks, and I know that, and that's what I paid up front for, he only put together a plan for the next one or two weeks when we first started. And that was so that we could then reevaluate, see if things were working, and move on to the next step. So we have an underlying theme that we're following. We are doing macro tracking. So I'm tracking my macros, he's tracking the food log, he's keeping me accountable for that. So that's kind of our underlying theme. And then we have a weekly topic or additional goal that we're working towards, and that changes week by week and it builds on each other. So these are simple. These are things what we first started with was hydration, drinking, you know, 70 ounces of water a day. And that is something that we're bringing in. The next thing is more mindset and sitting down with your food and making sure that there aren't distractions like looking at your phone, right? And so these are simple things that we're kind of building on week by week and that are getting me a transformation, helping me be more mindful with my food, helping me be more um held accountable for the things that I'm doing. He's following up with me once a week. And this is just through messaging, right? So just through text messages. We're not meeting. We're only meeting once every three to four weeks, depending on how progress is going. So we have a midway check-in and we'll have an end follow-up. And otherwise, we are communicating via message, which I appreciate being somebody who's very busy, who has a family at home to take care of, who is holding up, who is running her business and passionate about that. I don't want to be on one-hour-long meetings. If it can be shorter than that, whether it's a 15-minute check-in through Zoom or even just through text, if we can do it that way, that works really well for me. And so I am getting results with this coach because he's keeping it simple and he's adjusted to my lifestyle. So he knows what I need and he's not feeling like he needs to over-deliver or be like, you know, no, we need to, we need to meet every week because that, you know, then I'll feel more valuable as a coach. Like, we got to get out of our heads about those things because sometimes that's really not what the client is actually looking for and not what they need. So when you are interviewing your client, that very first intake that you have with your client, it's important to understand what they expect from the program. What are they expecting from you? And how do they best receive feedback, right? Because if they best receive feedback, again, through just like intermittent check-ins, that's how I best receive feedback is when something falls off my food log, you know, if he can message me the day after and be like, hey, you know, I see that you kind of fell off the bandwagon last night. What happened? Like, let's go ahead and get started again, right? That works really well for me. I take criticism well. That was not always the case when I was younger and I did not take critical criticism very well at all. Now I do. I've changed. My personality has changed in that way. I want somebody to call me out. Okay. And I do very well with that. And so I communicated that with him, and that's what he's doing for me. That's the type of feedback that he is providing for me when things are falling off. When things are looking great, he's also saying, hey, checked in today, things are looking great, good job, keep it up. And that's all I need. I do not need extensive meetings, I do not need extensive, you know, hand holding or or trying to be real gentle with the feedback. Some people do. And it's important to know that. So when you are doing your intake with people, ask them, what type of feedback do you do well with and have a bit of a back and forth conversation because they might not say right off the bat what they actually need. It might be a little bit hard for them to articulate what type of feedback they feel best with. Now, sometimes people will say, I want you to like, I want you to tell me, I want you to call me out. And then they get a little bit, they actually normally we get a little bit defensive about that. But because they told you that in the first session, they'll remember that and they'll say, Okay, she's calling me out right now, but actually I told I told her to do that. That's exactly she asked me that question. We had a back and forth conversation about that, and I told her that this is what I want. And so they won't get as offended or defensive when you are doing that because they know that they told you to do that from day one. Now, again, when you're holding your client accountable, you don't need to be preaching to them. You don't need to be telling them all the science, all the details behind everything that you know as a coach and why they should be doing this and why they shouldn't be doing that. Most people don't want that. Most people don't want to feel like they're being preached to. If they wanted to go get a health coaching certification and learn all of the science behind every single thing that they're doing, they would have gone and done that already. Okay, so they don't need you to really like over-educate them. Yes, give them the gentle whys, the basic whys, but you don't need to over-educate them and you don't need to preach to them. So make sure that when you're holding them accountable, it's it's purely for that reason to keep them accountable for what they said they would do and the goals that they want to reach. Now, when your client is not following the plan, so let's say things are going awry and you've, you know, set this plan up. You said we're gonna meet every four weeks or three weeks, and we're going to um, you know, track your macros and do the XYZ. And then you realize, hey, they're actually like not doing well with this. That's when you reach out to your client and you say, I know that we were going to meet in four weeks. However, why don't we just book a 30-minute session? I see you and I see that things, you know, aren't that you're not reaching the goals over the last week or two. And I want to just figure out if there's a way that we can adjust things for you in order for you to feel like this plan is set up to match your lifestyle. That will go such a long way. If you can reach out to them in those moments and say, hey, I see this happening and I am here for you, and we're gonna go off the plan a little bit and make things even better for you. That is a massive value add for your programming. So that's something that you can easily do. The point of this session, this podcast is to show you that you don't need to have all these accolades. You don't need to have hundreds of testimonials and 10 years of experience and have own run a business that, you know, is thriving to be to start coaching and to be a valuable coach and to charge your worth. You are worth something. You are worth what you are to want to charge. Think about what is the transformation for your client? What are they getting for that from that? And if they can reach that goal, what is that worth to them from a value perspective, from a monetary perspective and charge your worth and feel confident when you are presenting your offers because you don't need to have all the bells and whistles in place to get started with coaching and make a transformation for your clients. So if this hit well with you and you know somebody else who could benefit from this, go ahead and send this episode their way. I can't wait to see you on the next one. I hope you enjoyed our conversation from today. Any links we discussed will be in the show notes below. Also, we would be incredibly grateful if you would leave us a five star review. This helps us keep the podcast going so that we can continue to provide value for all of you. I hope we see you on the next one.