Today we’d like to introduce you to Tene Francis-Phillip.
Hi Tene, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Hi! I’m Tene (pronounced Tay-Nay). I’m a Life Coach, a Mindfulness Coach and a writer, but I didn’t exactly take the straight road to get here.
After high school, I thought I was going to be a pediatric dentist of all things. But I quickly discovered that pulling children’s teeth like a deranged tooth fairy was decidedly not my calling, so I started searching for purpose. That search took me into psychology, then statistics, and eventually into consumer insights research.
I’m originally from Trinidad and Tobago, and from the age of 6, I was travelling. I’ve lived, studied, worked and have clients in places like the UK, France, Germany, the Caribbean, and here in the U.S. This global life made me endlessly curious about people, culture, and how the environments we live in shape our wellbeing. That curiosity became the foundation of my career in research.
As a Consumer Insights Analyst, I had the privilege of working on projects that gave voice to marginalised communities affected by corporate decisions. I would say that the work was meaningful, but the environment was another story. The workplace grew increasingly toxic, and when the pandemic hit, things only got worse. We were underpaid, overworked, and expected to be on-call 24/7 even as the world shut down around us.
Eventually, my body gave out. After major surgery and a rushed return to work, I was handed a massive project as if I hadn’t just come off of sick leave. That was honestly my breaking point. I resigned with no plan, just the conviction that this could not be my path.
That was a dark night of the soul that took me back to my roots. At my core, I’ve always cared about helping people live well, it’s why I studied psychology in the first place. And now that I was free to choose a new direction, I got certified as a Professional Life Coach in 2022, and later as a Mindfulness Coach and Facilitator.
Alongside that, my traumatic experiences in our healthcare system forced me to take my healing journey into my own hands, leading me to practices such as meditation, mindfulness, EFT, yoga, reiki, and Human Design. Learning my unique operating system explained so much about my life and gave me a framework to live, work and make decisions in a way that actually supported me. I saw how transformative it could be for others, and it quickly became one of the cornerstones of my coaching practice.
Today, I work primarily with professional men, entrepreneurs, and women in male-dominated fields, helping them transform their high-pressure, high-achieving lives into something more sustainable, joyful, and deeply fulfilling. I also lead mindfulness workshops and trainings for individuals, teams, and organisations who want to bring wellbeing into the workplace. Finally, when I’m not writing my own book, I’m writing or editing long-form content for my clients – think blogs, websites, white papers, research reports, books, etc.
In short, my career has taken a lot of twists and turns, but the through-line has always been the same: a curiosity about people, a passion for wellbeing, and a commitment to helping others live lives as rich on the inside as they look on the outside.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
You know those winding roads with poor lighting, too many speed bumps and hella potholes? Yeah, that was my journey for a long time.
Leaving corporate life was terrifying, even though I knew it was literally killing me. It takes a special kind of courage to walk away from a steady, 6-figure paycheck, a prestigious title and the kind of career that would make my parents proud, all without another job lined up. It felt irresponsible. It felt insane. Yet, it remains the best decision of my career to date.
Then came the scam. When I decided to become a life coach, I invested in what I thought was a reputable coaching program. Turns out, it was essentially a glorified pyramid scheme designed to extract as much money as possible while delivering little beyond mindset. That lesson cost me thousands of dollars I didn’t have to lose.
But I would say the most devastating setback was having my intellectual property stolen by my ex-business partner. Let’s just say there were some major “girl boss red flags” I should have seen coming. The love-bombing, the big promises, the “we’re going to change the world together” energy. I trusted this person with my ideas, my frameworks, my content. Then I watched them take everything and run. It made me question my judgment and made it hard to trust potential collaborators afterwards.
Then there’s the internal stuff that I think all business owners go through: the imposter syndrome and mindset challenges. Who am I to be coaching people? What if I’m not good enough? These thoughts are louder when you’re a Black, Caribbean-born woman working in a predominantly white wellness and coaching market. There’s constant pressure to be twice as good to be seen as half as credible. You have to learn to stand taller, speak louder and be unapologetic in your confidence.
Every single struggle has shaped how I show up for my clients today. I understand the fear of leaving the comfort of what you know. I know what it’s like to grapple with your own mind screaming at you that you’re not doing enough. And I deeply understand what it’s like to prove yourself in spaces that weren’t built with you in mind.
So no, smooth isn’t a word I’d use to describe my journey. But honestly? I wouldn’t change it. Every struggle has made me a better coach, a better writer, and a more resilient human being.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Some would say I wear many hats, but really, it’s just one hat that I wear in different ways.
Primarily, I’m a Life & Mindfulness Coach. So I work with clients one-on-one and in groups through my monthly mindfulness membership, “Peace in Practice”. I also facilitate mindfulness workshops, retreats, masterclasses, and trainings. I work primarily with high achievers who have all the markers of success on paper, but they feel burnt out, disconnected, or like they’re living someone else’s version of success.
On the other end of the spectrum, I’m a writer and editor. I love working with technical, long-form content like blogs, newsletters, websites, white papers, reports and even books. As of right now, I’ve scaled back on taking new copy and content writing clients so I can focus on completing my own book, but I’m always open to a writing or editing project that piques my interest or just sounds like a lot of fun.
Whether I’m coaching or writing, my thing is creating safe spaces where people can completely unmask. I mean truly unmask—not the polished, “I’ve got it together” version they show the world. My clients always tell me they share things with me they’ve never spoken about with anyone else, even to themselves. I think it’s because I learned the art of listening and I know that most people have never had someone truly listen to them before. And I’m also not afraid to say the hard thing, the truth that others might dance around because it’s uncomfortable. Sometimes people need to hear what they already know but have been avoiding.
What I really do is help people connect with their truth, their authenticity, their real desires. I integrate everything from traditional coaching to Human Design, mindfulness practices, and various healing modalities I’ve trained in. It’s about finding what actually works for each person’s unique operating system.
When people work with me and truly open up to the process, they move fast. I’m talking life-completely-transformed-in-a-few-months fast. I’ve seen clients leave soul-sucking jobs and find aligned careers, level up businesses, repair relationships, get married, move across the world, and step into versions of themselves they didn’t know could exist.
I also have a bit of a unique positioning as a woman who genuinely loves working with masculinity. I know how to create space for men to be heard in ways they haven’t experienced before—without judgment, without needing them to perform vulnerability or “do emotions right.” A lot of men come to me because they’ve tried therapy or other coaches and felt like they had to perform even there. With me, they can just be human.
But here’s what I’m most proud of: when my clients don’t need me anymore. I’m not the kind of coach who wants my clients dependent on me forever. I think I’ve done my job well when a client tells me they feel ready to move on. That’s the goal. I want to work myself out of a job with every single person I coach. Because that means they’ve found their own compass, their own truth, and they trust themselves to navigate whatever comes next.
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
Most people don’t know that I used to work with perpetrators of gender-based violence in prison.
This was during my time as a research analyst, and it was some of the most challenging and eye-opening work I’ve ever done. I sat across from men who had committed serious harm, and my job was to understand—not excuse, but understand—what led them there. It taught me how to hold space for the most uncomfortable conversations, how to listen without judgment while still maintaining clear boundaries, and how to see someone’s humanity without condoning their actions.
That experience fundamentally shaped how I work with men today. I learned that real transformation doesn’t happen when people feel shamed or defensive—it happens when they feel seen and heard enough to actually face themselves. A lot of coaches shy away from the messy, uncomfortable parts of masculinity. I don’t, because I’ve sat with some of the messiest, most uncomfortable manifestations of it and learned that everyone has the capacity for change when they’re given the right space and tools.
It’s probably why I’m so comfortable working with men who come to me saying they don’t know how to feel, or who’ve been told they’re “too much” or “not enough” in some way. I’ve seen what happens when men have nowhere safe to process their experiences. My work is about making sure they do.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.coachtene.com
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/coachtene
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@coachtene
