To outsiders, Bielijo Mullet is a woman who keeps her mind firmly in check. She is smart and educated — a registered nurse who works for a medical insurance provider — and balances her career with a busy family life.
In many ways, Ms. Mullett, who lives in Minoa, New York, has figured things out, which is why she still hasn’t recovered from a life-coaching experience she describes as a “pyramid scheme” that swindled thousands of dollars from her.
“I'm an intelligent person,” said Ms. Mullet, 46. “We all think it'll never happen to us. That's the really scary part.”
She is part of a growing group speaking out about the murky side of life coaching, an unregulated industry that often comes with exorbitant prices and costs far more than the money spent.
Originating in the late 20th century with a trend towards self-improvement, life coaching broadly involves a programme of goal-setting and talk-therapy-style sessions aimed at improving a person's circumstances and well-being.
The business is growing rapidly. The International Coaching Federation, the world's largest non-profit coaching association, estimates that the industry will reach 100% by 2020. $4.6 billion in 2022 and number of coaches 54 percent increase Between 2019 and 2022. Because the industry lacks standardized accreditation, this is most likely – one of the dangers of life coaching is that anyone can claim the title of life coach.
And while many firms operate with integrity, and provide thoughtful and structured advice to their clients during challenging times, the unregulated nature of the industry makes it easy for people to be taken advantage of.
an expensive dream
In 2018, Ms Mullet was exhausted from the hustle and bustle of the corporate world and struggling to create a blended family with her now-husband when she discovered life coaching.
“My friend recommended a podcast, and I immediately felt it was exactly what I was looking for,” she said. “The host was talking about how our thoughts affect our feelings and our behavior. I got hooked.”
Ms. Mullet began watching videos on the host’s website. The host, a life coach whose name Ms. Mullet asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution and harassment, combined the language of successful businesswomen with the promise of a new career in which women could take control of their work and schedules, help others and improve themselves.
“There were videos that said your brain is the most valuable thing you can invest in,” Ms. Mullet said.
He withdrew $18,000 from his 401(k) account to take his first course at a leading life coach school, hoping it would bring a much-needed change to his career.
The course was not what she had expected. Ms. Mullet described a confusing and low-quality program of online lessons — one hour a week for six months — in which aspiring instructors discussed chapters they had read outside of class and practised coaching each other. She said students were often underestimated and discouraged from questioning the intelligence of the instructors leading the course.
But Ms. Mullet remained hopeful and believed she had learned some valuable things, for example, that she had the ability to focus only on the things in her life that she could control. She had spent an extraordinary amount of money on certification and kept working to fulfill the dream that had been sold to her: making good money while pursuing her passion for helping others.
“It’s hard to let go of that dream,” he said.
After completing the program, Ms. Mullet was certified by the school and hoped to begin coaching. But although she was initially told that her certification would give her “everything I needed to earn my first $100,000,” Ms. Mullet found herself short of clients and having difficulty generating any income. What was the solution she was suggested? Spend more money on coaching.
He said he was told, “If you're not paying for coaching yourself, how can you sell the value of coaching to somebody?”
Ms Mullet felt pressured to continually spend large sums on coaching classes and business advice, supposedly to boost her budding career. She started with a $2,000 course and when she thought it might give her business a small boost, she enrolled in a similar course costing $5,000 and then spent an additional $10,000 on coaching.
“I wasn't making money,” she said. “I was spending money.”
Vulnerable to exploitation
Máire O'Sullivan, a marketing lecturer at Ireland's Munster Technological University and an expert on multilevel marketing schemes, said schemes such as Ms. Mullett's were one reason for the rapid growth of the life-coaching industry.
“This boom is being fuelled by the desire for life coaching, but it's also being fuelled by artificial means,” Ms O'Sullivan said. “There's a problem in the industry of coaches coaching other coaches to become coaches.”
Although The surveys show Coaches charge an average of $244 per hour, a fee that is probably biased by some of the top names in the industry who charge thousands of dollars for hourly sessions. Some coaches charge as much as $244 per hour. Over $6,000 for half day sessions and $200,000 for a 50-hour package. Most coaches are also limited by demand – most report coaching around 11 hours per week. This means many coaches have to expand their business in other ways.
This can be done by hiring other life coaches and taking a cut of their profits, building a downline, or selling things like coaching certificates to your followers.
Sunny Richards was first introduced to life coaching by a friend. Ms. Richards, 52, lives in Dallas and previously earned six figures working as a project manager in information technology. She struggled with loneliness after her husband was forced to lose his job and was laid off from two jobs within 18 months. She said she was “in a state of depression” when she signed up for a life coaching course, which cost her $300 a month.
For Ms Richards, this was the start of six “emotionally and financially devastating” years. She spent about $3,000 a month upgrading her coursework in the hope of becoming certified as a life coach. She said that once she was certified, she was “bombarded” by other coaches trying to sell her additional courses or qualifications.
“The industry kind of ate into itself,” he said. “There were the celebrity coaches, and then there were the rest of us, and the rest of us were competing for the coaching spot.”
Although Ms Richards had grown skeptical of the industry, she said her persistence forced her to stick with it. “I'm not going to give up,” she said. “I saw the problems very early on, but it was very hard to walk away.”
Ms O'Sullivan said this experience was common among people who found themselves lured into expensive life coaching offers. “Life coaching tends to attract people who are vulnerable to exploitation,” she said.
The extent of this exploitation has recently been highlighted by high-profile legal battles and criminal charges against a number of coaching organisations. In the United States, founders of NxivmA multilevel marketing scheme and sex cult that began as an executive success coaching program, was convicted More than 1,00,000 cases of human trafficking, sexual crimes and fraud were reported in the year 2019.
In Britain, a life-training organisation called Lighthouse was established. Recently closed after The members said He was isolated from friends and family, told to cut back on mental health medication and asked to sell his home to pay for counseling.
Carrie Ebner, vice president of credentials and standards at the International Coaching Federation, said in a statement, “Coaching is a self-regulated industry, meaning anyone can set up a coaching practice, regardless of their training or professional background.” She added that clients should make sure they're working with trained and experienced coaches who have credentials.
Ms. Ebner said coaches certified by the International Coaching Federation agreed to abide by a code of conduct. “If a client feels a coach has not acted in accordance with professional or ethical standards, there is a formal process available for the client to hold the coach accountable,” she said.
A two-sided industry
Stories like Ms Richards’ are familiar to Eva Collins, who started life coaching after becoming heavily involved in yoga and self-improvement around 2010. Ms Collins, 40, was a life coach for many years and worked on the sales and marketing teams of some of the industry’s most prominent coaches. That’s when she discovered the “insidious pyramid scheme element” of many of these businesses.
“They threaten people for money,” he said. “You're not allowed to question the head coach. You're not allowed to disagree.”
Ms. Collins, who lives in Sacramento, is now a Instagram Page Who shares anonymous comments about the worst life-coaching offenders. He said he gets dozens of messages every week from people who are in debt. Some even had to mortgage their homes to pay for coaching.
Ms Collins believes many trained life coaches are legitimate and doing good work, but said the industry also has a serious problem with scammers.
“Most people get into life coaching because they love helping and supporting people,” he said. “They don't start out thinking they're going to screw people or take all their money. But sometimes that's what happens.”
For Ms. Mullett and Ms. Richards, the process of distancing themselves from the world of life coaching has been long and difficult.
Ms Mullett said she had to undergo therapy for the financial and emotional damage. And after leaving the industry last year, she has struggled with guilt and shame over having spent so much time and money on what she now believes was an elaborate scam.
Ms. Richards estimated she had spent more than $30,000 on life coaching, and said she was consistently spending more than she was making. Still, the decision to walk away was not an easy one.
“Finally letting go is emotionally devastating,” she said. “This was my dream. I went from a six-figure income and a 401(k) to desperately trying to find a minimum-wage job at a time when I thought I'd be at the pinnacle of my career. I didn't think I'd be trying to start over at 52. This is not how I saw the story ending.”