I’m transitioning away from my 25+ marketing career to become a life coach. After immense deep thought, introspection and BIG signs from the universe last year, I finally came to the realization that it’s time to hang up my marketing hat and pursue a career as a life coach. I have always had a deep desire to help people on a more personal level, but never knew how as I never wanted to become a therapist and the medical field is definitely not for me. With that, as I learned more and more about the coaching industry, and have been coached a lot myself, I finally realized I’ve been put on this planet to do that exact work to help people… to coach them. It’s my life’s purpose. I’m a 52 yr. old female. I’ve been a huge life learner/personal growth junkie my entire life. I LOVE sharing my learnings with everyone around me who is interested in learning/listening. I love helping people, seeing them happy/smiling/at peace, saving them from (big) mistakes I’ve made and giving sound advice so they can propel forward in their life, make wise/mindful decisions and live more peacefully. I learn from my mistakes, big and small, and always make it a point to never repeat them. I have informally coached many people/friends/acquaintances/business colleagues all through my life, have been a person people often come to for advice/a sound ear and I have immense life experience and wisdom. I come from a unique immigrant parent background and a journey of life learnings ever since I was small. Enter my coaching career: I ended my marketing career the end of 2021 to go all in on my new life coaching career. I completed a 4-day coaching fundamentals course with Coactive last September that I excelled in and fell in love with. I’m enrolled in a 9-month coaching training program that begins this month. And I’m also eager to start coaching clients now to gain experience/exposure/more skills. MY QUESTION: When I do outreach to find a couple clients within my circles, should I promote that I’m looking for two pro bono clients to coach for free for a period of time (so that I can build upon my experience/skills) or should I charge a small fee now, i.e., $50? I gravitate towards providing pro bono coaching initially until I become more comfortable/confident in my work, and then when I am more comfortable/confident, I can start charging $50 or so per each 50-minute session? I would love your thoughts on this, i.e., pro bono or charge now, and if I charge now or a little later, what my starting fee should be given my limited training to date. Thank you!