FBC – 52 – Finding a mentor

Today we are going to talk about Finding a mentor. How and why you should look for a mentor……

So today I wanted to talk to you guys about mentorship. I wanted to touch base with that to see why it's interesting to get a mentor and how to find one.

So my mentor wasn't someone who taught me anything about like online business and stuff. I had mentors in different fields of business and personal as well. And both my mentors where in the first company I started working for and they taught me a lot.

And so my mentor is my good friend Dominic. He's also the one who helped me out when I couldn't walk. I couldn't go to work, so he was picking me up every day and then driving me back home and stuff. And he's the one who actually went to my house to get some clothes for me because I was all by myself in England.

What he taught me was something so precious and I applied it to the rest of my career and it always worked. And it still works and I told people about it. I actually I do have a full blueprint of what he told me and then I tested it for myself and improved it. Basically what he said was, you know that management is never going to give you anything on a silver platter.

If you need something from management, go and get it. And you need to basically present it in a way that management is going to understand it and take action on it. I've applied this throughout my career and I managed to have everything I ever wanted. He gave me some invaluable advice that I have applied and ever since, it’s worked for me.

Finding a mentor

The other mentor that I had was my boss at the time in same company. If you’re listening Joanne, it's you. You're one of my mentors. She taught me everything about how to manage a team and how just to be a good person and how to care about the people in your team.

I haven't met anybody who cared more about her team than she did right. She was fighting for us every single day. And this is something she taught me. And I've applied it ever since. I think not that I'm the best boss on the planet but I think I care for my team.

I mean these are my examples of mentorship you know because then afterwards when I had to learn everything that I'm doing now. So I had different mentors but it just was just like online. About some courses and stuff and I followed it you know. So somehow they were my mentors but it wasn't like the mentorship where you shadow these people and stuff.

So to answer the question, why is it important and useful to get a mentor?  You will be able to skip so many steps because these people have been there where you want to go. So they can show you the exact map of how to get there. So let's say for example I tell you that there's a treasure hidden somewhere in the city. You might find that it will take you a lot of time to find it but if I tell you, take a left then take a right and here is the treasure, you'll find it easily.

And this is what they can bring you and make no mistake; the people you see on top today spent an awful lot of hours and money testing other solutions testing stuff that doesn't work. Testing everything until they found what works. And getting that information from someone, it's so precious.  Sometimes you can get 20 or 30 years’ experience in just a matter of months by shadowing someone.

Basically mentorship is training yourself on someone else's money, because while you're training yourself on your money right you have to buy those tools. But if you have a mentor and you know sometimes depending on the kind of mentorship you have with someone, you know there are different ways of going at it but you could be working for someone. And basically they have tools and you get to use all those tools. And basically you're training yourself on someone else's money which is awesome.

It's a win win for everybody. So I don't think that man I'll be using someone and using their tools. No it's a win win. If the mentor has you working on their stuff you're giving them a service by performing some tasks for them and in exchange you get free training on tools that you probably can't afford yet and you get the best training ever.

So that brings me to the different kinds of mentorships, because there are different ways to go at it. So there is a mentorship where you will actually work for that person. As I was saying before so you will find someone who is very successful. And while you're going to work for that person as you know I like the same thing as an employee.

So they will take you to meetings and you know you'll be able to shadow the person and they'll give you some tasks and these tasks have one objective which is prepare you for the next step. So w if you find a mentor then this is something you could do. I know people who are who have decided to work for free for a mentor. And the reason why you would work for free is you're trying to achieve something which is important to you.

Finding a mentor

You can also find a mentor where you have some sort of like relationship where you're allowed to ask them some questions once in a while. You know so you meet twice. You know once per quarter or something and you can pick their brain on stuff you know and they will take the time to answer your questions. So my friends Connor and Ellen have a mentorship with someone like this. It's someone really successful.

I think the dude's like a billionaire or something. And obviously I mean the dude is very busy and stuff. So you can't have him like 24/7 but they manage to you know get access to the guy because they met him at a mastermind or something and they made friends. He thinks they're very interesting and he's ready to devote a little bit of his time to help them out and they can pick his brain once in a while and that will be a one kind of mentorship.

And the other one will be when you pay someone. You know you pay someone to basically mentor you too. Yeah it will be more coaching.

So how do you find a like a mentor? So it’s actually not too complicated. There are certainly some people you admire or some people you follow and you like their ideas. You like what they're doing like their consistency in their values and everything and they're right where you want to be, right? So try to reach out to these people.

You know people usually have like a contact section or something or a social media or whatever. The best way is to just to contact them. If they don't answer, don't take it personally. It could be that they're just busy and it takes a little bit of time to answer emails and stuff. So you know be patient and don't give up.

The most important thing you have to do is this; when you contact someone like this, don't under any circumstances tell them what they can do for you OK!!  Because this revolves around you. If you want them to accept mentoring you or anything, you need to show them what's in for them as well as you.

Do a little bit of research before so before you contact them. Then you can say that you have a skill and there's something that they're missing and you have identified it and you can help. So the fact that you've done your research and you have identified this, is also a key factor in your future mentors mind, like “oh this person actually did their homework”.

So don't be don't be shy. If you really want to work with them and if you really want to achieve your objectives and see your dreams happen, then just write them an e-mail.