The Mentor Handbook

I built Leverage because I spent twenty years watching capable people work everything out alone, when the person who could have saved them a year of guessing was one conversation away.

You're that person. This platform exists to make your experience easy to share, properly valued, and impossible to lose.

Anything unclear, email me at hello@leveragementoring.com.au.

A private workspace where you and your mentee prepare for sessions, take notes together live, and finish with agreed actions. The next session picks up where the last one ended.

Video, agendas, notes and progress all live in the one place. Nothing to install. Sessions are never recorded, and conversations stay private to the two of you.

The platform supports the whole relationship, end to end, including the conversations themselves. Nothing gets lost between sessions, and your mentees come to you with intention and accountability: prepared, clear on what they want, and following through on what you agreed. Your time is never wasted.

Being a mentor pays, in every sense. In one well-known study, mentors themselves were promoted six times more often than colleagues who didn't mentor. Research also links mentoring to stronger leadership skills, higher job satisfaction and a renewed sense of purpose.

And on Leverage, your experience earns directly: your rate, your hours, paid automatically after every session.

What you learned the hard way keeps working after you. Someone's trajectory changes because you showed up.

An invited mentor. Someone who trusts your judgement invited you into their workspace. You join free, always. No fees, no listing. You mentor that one person with the full platform behind you. Many mentors start here.

A Leverage mentor. You're part of the Leverage Mentor Network, listed with the Leverage badge. Members find you, watch your intro video, and book paid sessions at your rate. You set the price and the hours, and you're paid automatically after each session.

You can be both at once. The rest of this handbook is mostly for Leverage mentors, though the session guidance applies to everyone.

Founding mentors are the first cohort of Leverage mentors. Same badge, same way of earning, plus what comes with being first:

• The Founding Mentor badge on your profile, permanently
• Founding rate, locked in
• A direct line to me. Founding mentor feedback changes the product, often within days
• First access to new features as the Network grows

The cohort is small on purpose. I meet every mentor personally before they're listed, and not everyone gets a place. That's what makes the badge worth having.

Go to leveragementoring.com.au/become-a-mentor and press "Start your mentor profile". Setup takes about 15 minutes, four steps.

1. Profile. Photo, headline, your story, your rate. No CV needed. If the blank page is a pain, tell me and I'll draft it for you from our conversation. You just edit it.

2. Availability and rate. Sessions are 30 or 60 minutes. You choose what you charge and when you're free. Pause any time. Only set slots you'll keep.

3. Training guide. A short read on how we run sessions. Please read it properly.

4. Payouts. Handled by Stripe. We never see your bank details. Follow the prompts, and once Stripe finishes verifying, the step completes itself. Individual or company accounts both work.

Then submit for review. I review personally, usually within a day, and you're live.

Your profile carries a short intro video. It's how members meet you before they book, and it does more work than anything else on your page.

How to record one, with examples: Intro video guide

Coming soon

Some members will want a quick word before booking. A free 15-minute intro call will be available on request. They ask, you decide. Declining is fine.

Keep it to shape: two minutes to set the frame, most of it listening to their situation, a couple of minutes on how you work, and close before the clock runs out. Give one genuinely useful observation and be straight about fit, both ways. Afterwards, mark "Happy to mentor" or "Not the right fit" in the app. They never see your reason, just a kind message.

You get an email and an in-app notification with the member, the time, and what you earn, plus a calendar invite. Reminders go out 24 hours and 1 hour before. The video room opens in your shared space 15 minutes early.

The member fills in their session prep before you meet, so you never walk in cold.

Cancellations. More than 48 hours out, they get a full refund. Between 24 and 48 hours, a session credit. Inside 24 hours, the session stands. If you cancel, they're always refunded in full. Please respond to bookings quickly. It matters more than you'd think.

Use the built-in video or meet in person.

Start by getting to know each other. There's an ice-breaker if you want one. Then move to the focus topics your mentee wants your guidance on.

This is where your experience matters. Ask questions that spark curiosity and insight, and share what you've lived through as one way forward, not the only way.

Use the shared canvas to take notes, add agreed actions, and drop in any resources that come up.

Complete the session when you're done. That locks in the recap, and the next session opens with what you agreed. That's why mentees rebook.

85% of every session fee is yours. Leverage keeps 15% to run the platform. Change your rate any time; booked sessions keep the price paid.

Payment is automatic. Money lands in your bank about 4 business days after each completed session, through Stripe. No invoicing, no chasing.

The guarantee never touches you. Members get a first-session guarantee. If a session is refunded under it, Leverage wears the cost, not you.

Ways to give, if you want to:

• Offer a session at base cost. You can choose to run a session at $20, the minimum charge. That $20 covers the platform's video and workspace costs, and you take nothing. A clean way to help someone who can't stretch to your rate.
• Discount codes for people you know.
• Donate some or all of your income to a charity you choose. It shows on your profile.

All optional, all your call.

Your own network is your first bookings, and your badge says you were chosen to guide others. Put both to work:

• On LinkedIn: add "Mentor @ Leverage Mentoring" to your headline, pin your profile link in your Featured section, and add a line to your About, something like "I mentor founders and leaders through Leverage, sharing the lessons I learned the hard way"
• Put your profile link in your email signature
• Message the person, not the crowd. "I've started mentoring, and you're exactly who I had in mind" converts better than any post. Send it to three people this week
• Know an SME owner wearing five hats? Send them leveragementoring.com.au/for-teams

You'll receive a sharing kit when you go live, with ready-to-edit posts and your badge.

One address for everything: hello@leveragementoring.com.au. I read it personally, usually same day.

• Something doesn't feel right or unclear? Tell me.
• Profile needs work? I'll draft, you edit.
• Payouts? Your Stripe dashboard has every payout and your bank details.
• Need a break? Pause your availability. Your profile and badge stay.
• A difficult mentee situation? Tell me early. You don't handle it alone.
• Got an idea? Say so. Founding mentors shape this product.