Magazine Cover Feature

I am on the cover of The National Association for The Self-Employed as a ‘Self-Informed’ Business Spotlight feature 💕

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Certified Self-Employment

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
Certified Self-Employment
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

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ideas of improving an outdated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
Member Spotlight
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.