Most people assume life coaching should happen on video. And I get it – video calls are the default meeting type for work, and it feels like it should be the most similar to an in-person meeting since you can see each other.
But here’s my hot take: I get better results with my clients on the phone. And with a few exceptions, phone coaching is all I do.
Let me share why.
Phone Coaching Puts the Client Fully in Their Own Space
When we’re on the phone, clients aren’t watching my face, trying to interpret micro-expressions, or wondering if they “look okay” on camera. They’re not performing.
They get to be fully in their own life, in their own room, in whatever clothes feel comfortable. There’s a grounding that happens when someone is in their own space rather than sitting upright in front of a camera.
The session becomes more about them, not how they appear.
There’s a Different Kind of Connection on the Phone
This surprises a lot of people, but phone calls can create a deeper type of connection than video. Silence lands differently. Pauses feel more natural. We’re not checking each other’s faces to see who speaks next—we can just be in the moment.
Clients tend to look inward more easily. They reflect instead of perform.
When the visual distraction is gone, we get to work with what really matters: their thoughts, their emotions, their honesty.
Video Posture Is Surprisingly Limiting
Here’s something I’ve noticed from years of coaching (and it’s something nobody talks about):
The posture people hold on video is not the posture of big thinking.
Most people slump toward a screen. They keep themselves “in frame,” which means holding their body still in an unnatural zone. Asking someone big, expansive questions like “What do you really want?” while they’re physically constrained… it just doesn’t land the same way.
Being on the phone enables you to move, to expand, to be bigger and think bigger.
Movement Changes Everything
On the phone, clients can walk, lie down, stretch, pace, look out the window—whatever helps them think and be present.
That natural movement often opens up new insight. Coaching becomes something that happens in their whole body, not just from the neck up.
And Let’s Be Honest: Zoom Fatigue Is Real
I hear this all the time: “I love that our calls aren’t another Zoom meeting.”
By the time clients arrive at coaching, they’ve often spent hours looking at screens. Phone coaching gives them a different quality of attention—softer, clearer, less performative.
I almost did my graduate research on phone coaching versus Zoom coaching. (I ultimately pivoted and studied hope and physical activity instead.) But the topic still fascinates me, and my experience keeps reinforcing what I suspected:
Phone coaching creates a deeper, more grounded, more flexible coaching space.
I think coaching works best when clients have space—physically, mentally, and emotionally.
For many people, the phone creates that space better than video ever could.
