Whilst one hour mentoring sessions was what Kris Deichler was paid for he did very often go over the allotted time and it was appreciated that I was not cut off half way through a discussion (like some psychologists do) and I made it clear that I appreciated it every time.
But I never, ever asked for it. I never requested he keep going after the hour was up, nor did I call him in the middle of the night or on a Sunday in a crisis.
Nor did I ever use my negotiating power as his largest and most loyal client to squeeze him on deal i.e. buy 5 or 10 and get 1 free. I always paid full price.
Therefore as far as I was concerned like every other coach, mentor, personal trainer or mental health specialist etc it is their responsibility to keep an eye on the clock and wrap up sessions on or just before or just after the 1hr mark and so I never felt guilty or that I was taking advantage of this extra time as I knew that if at any time he did not feel like his time appreciated or if he wasn’t getting a win out of it he could easily rein in all sessions to be 1hr each without any resentment.
Moral Debt into £££
However in Spring 2018 I learnt that in his mind this was an “investment” and that the time had come to pay the piper. I was pitched on an ongoing basis throughout Spring 2018 until I left mentoring in November 2018 (due to burn out) an “opportunity” to give Kris Deichler £15,000.
For what purpose I do not know, except to invest in his own personal development but being that Lighthouse mentors do not go to seminars, or attend courses run by other personal development organisations I suspect it was 15 grand to just pay down some of Kris’ debts.
Shares / Loan / Gift?
At first it was framed as an “investment” but when no details of a loan period, monthly interest & repayment and no talk of x shares in y company was spoken of I asked Kris point blank “Is this a gift?” to which his response was “Call it what you want“. Being that it matched all the criteria of a gift (no paperwork was offered) that is precisely what it would have been.
From my prospective the only way that he could ask for a £15,000 gift with a straight face and clear conscience is that in his mind he’s retroactively charging me for all the times that he went over the 1hr mark and so the “value” of that was deemed to be 15 grand. It was effectively an invoice.
Leaving aside the fact that I was never advised I was on a meter and never asked for more then I paid for it appeared that I was nonetheless being advised I had raked up a debt that needed clearing.
I was not the only one hit up for money it would seem. A comment by “Broad_You_1385” on the website Reddit (post >) which Kris Deichler later identified to be his sister stated that he had attempted to offer this “opportunity” to friends and family too and that in the words of his sister “it made us all super uncomfortable about it“. The comment has also been screen shot below…
Stepping Away
Because I was not that enthusiastic about just giving Kris £15,000 (which is post tax of course and so it would have been more like what was left over from £20,000 of my salary) and being pitched again and again many other ways to give him and Lighthouse International Group money I pulled away from the 121 mentoring.
Unfortunately he tried to pocket 1 months worth of mentoring that he never provided and so our relationship ended with legal proceedings being issued. Story here >
Summary
And so should you choose to engage in mentoring with Kris Deichler I would highly recommend that to avoid any future confusion / friction in your relationship that you take the lead in ending sessions at the 1hr mark to avoid being advised months or years down the line that you’ve built up some kind of moral debt that needs offsetting with your cheque book. And finally based on my experience I would recommend paying for mentoring as you go rather then pre-paying in bulk.