Life Coach vs Life Mentor

I call myself a life mentor instead of a life coach for 2 reasons. Firstly, in the last 20 years the wellness field has grown exponentially, which has seen many people wanting to work as a life coach, this led to an industry being developed to service such demand. Fast forward to 2025 and there are many individuals who have completed a life coach course, with courses ranging from 1 week to 1 year. Because of this oversupply of life coaching graduates most people who complete such courses will never derive a livelihood as a life coach.

In my case, I completed an applied science degree in 1996 (majoring in physical & emotional wellness thru the lifespan). Over the next 15+ years I mentored thousands of people at Australia’s leading Health Retreat, in how to move closer to a better way of living (whatever that meant for each person). So because of my degree qualifications, and the significant breadth and depth of my 15+ years of experience working with clients at Australia’s leading Health Retreat, coupled with the last 11 years of having 6000+ 1:1 conversations with clients, I feel it diminishes the enormity of my offering if I was to call myself a life coach.

Secondly, the breadth and depth of my skills/ experience is such that it goes beyond merely coaching an individual to improve their performance across various areas of their life. I call myself a life mentor because in addition to coaching performance improvements, I also facilitate growth and development which impacts all areas of my clients’ lives.

If You’re Not Sure

Common reasons clients approach me to be mentored;
• They want to be the best they can be
• They want to look after themselves better, eg “I want to give myself a bigger piece of the pie”
• They want to thrive in their loving relationships better, eg “often I just see the kids before they go to sleep”
• They want to have sustainable high performance at work, eg “I live on a plane”
• They want to be the best parent that they can be, eg “my father largely had a performance relationship with me, he did his best, but I want a deeper connection with my son/ daughter”
• They want to feel more purpose and meaning in their life, eg “I have a big hole inside me that I can’t fill with a great lifestyle”
• They want to transition to the next stage in their career, eg “I want to transition from GM/CEO/business owner, to a portfolio career”
• They want to transition to the next stage in their life, eg “I know what I want, and I need your expertise to navigate my journey towards it”
• They’re doing a program with me because their father was my client, and the father wants his son at 18,19,20,21 to have a bigger lens to look at life through compared to the father at the same age, eg “I want you to teach them the tools for a great life that you taught to me”
• They don’t want to have any regrets
• For some clients it’s about addressing many of the above