The Biggest Differences Between Coaching, Consulting, and Mentoring

I still remember telling my best friend, “I want to be a professional mentor.  Do those exist?”  

Now, to set the stage – I was already teaching for a couple of years and loved the personal growth aspect of my work, but didn’t necessarily love working in a traditional school environment, and wondered if I could shift my focus from working with children to working with adults.  I was grappling with trying to match my skill set to the job title, and figuring out how I like to best show up.  

At the time, I had no idea that the coaching industry existed, let alone that it was a rapidly growing one.  I just had an inkling that I loved helping people become better versions of themselves by clarifying and achieving their professional goals.  

Fast forward to today, I am a business coach and mentor – and I absolutely love it.  But it was quite the journey to figure out my niche and find my sweet spot in this industry.  

The biggest challenge in deciding what you’d like your job title to be is that the coaching industry is unregulated.  As a result, people have different ideas and impressions of what a coach is and should be.  

So, my intention of this post is to define terms like coach, consultant, mentor, and strategist and highlight the differences so you can pick what resonates most to you and your scope of work.  Whether you decide to double down on one, or blend a couple, I hope that you find your sweet spot in combining your strengths with what will best serve your clients.  

Coach

A coach truly believes that the client has all of the answers, and it’s the coach’s role to uncover what that may be.  A coach is an expert in mindset, personal growth, and providing accountability/action steps, and is focused on helping the client achieve future-oriented outcomes.  

Consultant

A consultant is an expert in their field and works with proven frameworks.  It’s the consultant’s role to assess what the client needs and to provide a recommended strategy and solution.  

Mentor

A mentor is someone who has wisdom, knowledge, and strategies gained from personal experience.  A mentor may support a client to find their own solutions, and may offer advice and suggestions to a client’s challenges.  

Strategist

A strategist is someone who focuses on creating a personalized strategy (more than focusing on mindset) to help the client achieve their goals.  

Teacher

A teacher is someone who offers training in their area of expertise so the client gains knowledge and skill development.  

Looking over this list, what resonates most with you?  

I love to tell my clients who are deciding on their job title to think of it like you’re trying on a pair of jeans.  You’ll try one on to see what you like and what fits you.  You can also evolve it over time.  

For example, I consider myself a business coach and mentor.  I am a coach because I truly believe that my clients are the experts in their own business, and it’s my role to partner with them to uncover their mindset blocks, set a smart and personalized strategy, and create efficient action steps.  

I’m also a mentor with years of experience as a business owner in the online space (and being a part of the behind-of-scenes of other business owners).  I’m honest and happy to share about what I’ve seen work and not work to help clients accelerate their learning curve and learn from mistakes that I have learned the hard way.  

I have an education background so I provide business training and templates so clients can grow their skills and confidence in visibility, sales, and client experience. 

I leaned into each job title at different points of my business, but today, I blend all three to help my clients learn business foundations like visibility, sales, and leadership and coach them to find their way of doing so. 

I’d love to know, what role(s) YOU resonate most with!  DM me on Instagram to let me know your biggest takeaway.

With Joy,

Deciding on your job title is a helpful start to clarifying your business message.

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