In this episode of Getting Raw, host Richard Toutounji interviews Wyomie Robertson of the Australian Institute of Life Coaches at the Western Australia Fitness Industry Convention (WAFIG). Wyomie explains that life coaching is essential for fitness professionals because mental factors ultimately determine client success. She describes life coaching as fostering a positive mindset, removing self‑imposed limitations, and clarifying goal‑setting. Personal trainers are portrayed as de‑facto life coaches; adding coaching skills—communication, rapport, psychology, and NLP—gives them an edge, improves client retention, and opens new revenue streams. Wyomie outlines practical applications such as setting session boundaries, packaging coaching sessions at higher rates, and using a “Mental Edge” program for athletes. The conversation highlights growing adoption among trainers at events like WaveFit and upcoming appearances at the Melbourne Fitness Expo, and provides contact information (www.startlifecoaching.com.au). The interview positions life coaching as the next major evolution for the fitness industry, comparable to the rise of personal training a decade ago.
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Welcome to Getting Raw. I'm Richard Mark Deterji, and today I'm at WAFIG— WAFIG, Western Australia Fitness Industry Convention— over in Western Australia, obviously. And what's been on my mind for a while now is the conversation that I hear about life coaching, become a life coach, NLP. And I'm with Wyoming Robertson today. Thank you for joining us. And Wyoming is with Australian Institute
of Life
Coaches. Okay, Australian Institute of Life Coaches. And you're here at a fitness convention.
That's right.
My curiosity is going and I'm thinking, fitness convention, life coaching, fitness convention, life coaching. Why are you here for— have a stand when this is a fitness convention? That's my first question. My second question is, I've heard a bit of life There's a lot of life coaching going on in the fitness industry, people wanting to advance themselves and things like that. So I want to know too what life coaching is, because is it one of those airy-fairy things you hear? And then I guess, what do you think is actually going to happen, take off in the fitness industry? So yeah, what's life coaching all about?
Sure. So, well, to answer your first question, life coaching is key to the fitness industry. That's why we're here.
Why? Key?
It's key. Because you can work all you like with people on their physical self, But in the end, it's here, mental, that'll hold them back, or it'll be mental that'll give them momentum to really achieve success.
And that's what life coaching is. It's thinking about the mind. It's getting the mind moving for you. Absolutely.
It's about positive mindset. It's about removing limitations, self-imposed limitations. It's about getting very clear about goal setting and about what it is that you truly want and how do you get that working within your own systems.
Okay, sure. So why, I guess, Are you here at the fitness industry then? Do you think there's a match or not?
Oh, absolutely, because personal trainers are basically a form of life coach now. I believe they're trying to help people achieve a goal, a very specific goal. It might be around weight loss. It might be around increasing fitness strength.
Yep.
It might be without sport.
Right.
So I see coaching as another part of personal training and a holistic if they're trying to do a holistic approach.
Okay. All right. So you're saying we've got personal trainers. They're training Jenny on the gym. Yep. How to get fit, how to eat right. Yep. And obviously they're talking to them about their life.
Yes.
So you're saying life coaching is all about understanding that conversation you're having and giving the right advice or understanding how to listen and talk and all that sort of stuff, is it?
Absolutely. So Jenny will probably talk to you about much more than her physical or fitness goals.
No way.
It's gonna happen. Unfortunately, it will. Okay. So she'll talk about her husband and she'll talk about her kids or she'll talk about her mother, how she's been criticizing her, or she's talking about not having enough money to pay you. Sure.
That's important. We want to be paid as trainers, definitely.
So having life coaching skills can assist you in creating boundaries around that particular session. It can teach you very good and very quick rapport skills, which are important not only working with your existing clients but also to attract new clients.
Okay, got you. So life coaching then doesn't have to be, okay, I'm going to stop my personal training and then be a life coach.
No.
You're saying use it.
Absolutely. It's just another skill qualification notch on the belt that can give you extra credibility and extra edge to your business.
Edge, hook, edge.
Absolutely. I have a sports program that I call Mental Edge. I work with professional athletes that have the best technical skills in the country, but it says that they need to refine their mental edge.
So we've got the skills, but you're saying the life coach is again another course. As personal trainers, we do like to do courses. We love to do courses. That's interesting. I think that makes sense.
Yeah. I mean, the sort of things you learn in life coaching are communication, rapport, psychology, NLP, which is neurolinguistic programming. It's about reprogramming your mind.
Oh, so you do do NLP a bit as well? I do, yeah.
So challenging people on their thought and behavior patterns, that's the stuff that holds people back. That's the stuff that personal trainers get frustrated with. Your clients are going okay, going okay, going okay, bam, hit a wall, fall. Right back to square one. That's number one, frustrating stuff. That's not the personal trainer's fault. Yes. Right? Life coaching is about the client is responsible. The client needs to be self-aware of those patterns. Having life coaching skills will give you the ability to identify when that's happening and assist your client
to
challenge and to break down those actual mental limitations.
It's very interesting because really that's where I guess we're going as an industry, is not just about the fitness and nutrition, it's always the wellness and And wellness involves also too around mindset. Yeah. So how's the take-up been? I mean, WaveFit, if you don't know about it, it's in Perth. It's on every year in February. There's a few different, there's like 20 or 30 different stands. What are the trainers taking? What is everybody saying? Like, what are they asking about life coaching?
Some trainers have already heard about it and have started. So a lot of our clients, a lot of our students are personal trainers. They're already on top of it. They see the connection.
So that's your biggest form is personal trainers?
Absolutely.
Very interesting. Very interesting.
Not necessarily wanting to stop personal training and start a life coaching business, but they see how it can aid the whole wellness of a person.
Excellent. I like that. So what's your story? I mean, why are you so passionate about life coaching for?
I feel like I'm natural at it. I love it. I love people. I actually—
So you have to be liking people to be a personal trainer?
Yeah, absolutely. You know, you want to work with people. People are your business.
So did you have like a dramatic experience that says, oh, you know, I want to be a life coach now? Or did you come from the fitness industry? Where did you come from?
Yeah, so I have a boxing background, so I've worked with a lot of amateur boxers. So I've had coaches that have worked on the physical stuff, but I've seen a lot of coaches, not personal trainers, but coaches, like sporting coaches, using some kind of negative, having negative impacts on the words and encouragement in terms of trying to psych up boxers.
I understand.
And I saw that there's real potential using the right words, encouragement, that can have a very It's a very big change in state of mind for these boxers to get better results.
Okay, and then that just went to the next stage of let's do a life coach course.
Yeah, so I did a course.
Okay, and the life coach course, I'm assuming it's a part-time, full-time, what's the deal with that?
Oh, it's great.
If trainers want to do it to get their business, because I'm just— this is why I'm interviewing Wami, because I just see that this may be some sort of future. There may be something here that, you know, can it increase business skills? Can it client retention? So that's what I'm very, very curious about. This life coaching is going to take off.
Yeah, it will. Absolutely will. Life coaching is where personal training was ten years ago. Yep. It'll there'll be a there is a burst. There is a surge.
It's coming. It's coming. It's coming. It is coming. You see it on Getting Raw first. Life coaching is coming, and it's gonna it's gonna dominate. So this is where you saw it first. Getting Raw.
So personal trainers that are already onto that, and they are. They've already started. They're already studying. They're getting an edge on their competitors.
Yeah. They're learning invaluable skills.
Not only professionally in the business, because part of it is doing marketing and business planning as well, but personally they're also growing and challenging themselves for better results for their own fitness, for their own lifestyle, and business as well.
Excellent. Very interesting, very interesting. I understand more about life coaching now. It makes sense to me. And so to be very clear, we can add this now to personal trainers as another, you know, I guess, letter on the business card.
Yep, absolutely. On
the website, I'm a life coach, I'm a personal trainer, I'm a nutritionist, I'm a massage therapist, and people go, yeah, this person, this is what I need.
Also, as a life coach, you can charge a lot more money.
Ah, let's talk about this, let's talk about this. Life coaching and charging money, yeah?
Absolutely. So you can say, Jenny, we're here to work on your fitness goal that you've set. Let's zip it up and work on this for the next 20 minutes. All the other stuff you're talking about, we'll have a life coaching session tomorrow, 4 o'clock, $150.
You can package it up and then you can actually have individuals as
well. Absolutely. That sets a boundary for you and for her.
I like it. So again, it's making more money. And that's what Getting More is all about, is making more money, retaining your clients longer, using different methods. So over the past series, we've talked about adding nutrition programs in. We've talked about adding kids' fitness programs in. And this is another way to actually get more value. And even if they leave the personal training, I'm assuming, well, then they can go and do your life coaching. Absolutely. You've got more legs on the table. You've got to have legs on the table.
Yeah, it's diversifying your skills and your market.
And then what about if someone goes from a life coach first and then they want to get fit? You can train them.
Oh, there you go. You just refer to yourself, don't you?
It's good. I love this. I love this. Okay, that's good. I get the gist of it. I'm really looking forward to seeing how life coaching is going to progress in the industry. So you guys are going to be around the fitness industry?
Oh yeah. Next month we're in Melbourne.
Melbourne, yep. Oh, Melbourne at the Fitness Expo in Melbourne.
Fitness Expo, and then Pilates at April, is it?
All right, excellent. Well, thank you for your time. I think that's a good insight into life coaching, what it can do for your business. Where do people find you? What— where's your company? What's the website? What's all the details?
Okay, so I do work with the Australian Institute of Life Coaches. Yep. So it's www.startlifecoaching.com.au.
Start Life Coaching, I like it. That's right. Good URL too. startlifecoaching.com.au. I know you're on Facebook and that sort of stuff. You're around the industry. So again, Life coaching on getting your heart hurt at first. Another thing to add to your credentials. Check it out. Thanks a lot.
