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Podcast: StartupCamp
Episode:

How To Find A Strong Mentor
Category: Business
Duration: 00:26:46
Publish Date: 2015-07-08 17:59:56
Description:

I’m 30 years old. I have a healthy marriage. A great relationship with my children. Zero debt. And I make almost $1 million a year. None of this would be true without a few strong mentors in my life. Here’s what you need to know. 

In this week’s podcast lesson (above), I discuss my view on mentorships, the true goals of this type of relationship, and how to find one. Below, I have outlined what was discussed in this episode.

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Mentorship is the quickest way to success. It’s almost like cheating… I call it growth hacking. This single relationship will provide you the wisdom, velocity, and life protection you can’t find anywhere else.

What exactly is a mentorship?

At the core, mentorship is a safe and vulnerable relationship between two people. Typically one is older (and wiser) and the other (the mentee) is younger and untrained. The goal for the mentor is to both teach and hand down legacy. The goal of the mentee is to grow and learn from the mentor. In essence, the entire purpose of a mentor relationship is summed up in this statement.

Self evaluation is helpful, but evaluation by another is essential.

There are two critical roles for the mentor:

  1. Reveal Blind Spots: The mentor should help their protege see obstacles and dangers they do not see. This could be anything from bad habits and attitude adjustments to bad business decisions and red flags.
  2. Provide Shortcuts: The mentor has insight, leverage, clarity, and history. From these areas of expertise, they can offer accelerated transit toward the mentee’s goals.

There are three types of mentorships:

  1. Organic or Traditional Mentorship: An unpaid relationship between two close, safe individuals. Typically focused on more intimate personal and professional growth.
  2. Paid Mentorship: Regularly seen in a one-on-one or group setting. Often times this type of relationship is expensive. The learning is less intimate but still powerful.
  3. Curriculum Based Mentorship: Often seen in a community setting led with videos, tasks, and homework. Similar to our curriculum here at StartupCamp. Price is typically cheaper, focused on specific growth, and a great place to start.

Below, I will briefly outline a few rules for each of the three types of mentorships. My hope is this clarity will enable you to adopt one of these options for your life.

Rules Of An Organic or Traditional Mentorship:

  1. An organic mentorship must evolve from a strong relationship. Asking a stranger who you admire to mentor you is inappropriate. A relationship must be established first for an organic mentorship to work.
  2. A mentorship is not solely friendship, it’s a relationship built on growth and teaching. If you don’t place clear boundaries, milestones, and expectations around your mentorship, it won’t work.
  3. A mentorship must feel emotionally safe. Most of our healing comes from dark parts of our lives, if you won’t allow access to these areas, you won’t make much progress.

Rules Of A Paid Mentorship:

  1. Consider this an investment into your success. Often times there is a cost to growth, this one is worthy.
  2. The growth model should be focused. It’s common that paid mentorships are for specific areas of learning. The mentee should clarify expectations, goals, and desired results before jumping in.
  3. Mentorships aren’t short. Don’t plan for anything less than 3 months at a minimum of 6 sessions. Because it requires time to feel close, the real growth won’t occur until later in the journey. My suggestion is plan for 6-12 months to see prime results.

Rules Of A Curriculum Membership:

  1. This requires dedication. Because a curriculum mentorship lacks the direct one-on-one accountability, you will be required to remain disciplined on your own. No mentorship program works for quitters, especially curriculum programs.
  2. Pay attention to the content quality. Because the content is your teacher, you should expect the utmost quality in their videos, writings, PDF’s, and more.
  3. Make sure it includes a community. The best curriculum programs have a tight-knit community of fellow students. For StartupCamp, it’s our private Facebook group. You need a place to build relationships with people who are sharing your journey.

In reality, you can go slow or go fast. You can retire at 65 or 35. You can dream or you can live your dream. The difference will likely be found in your ability to navigate these three types of mentorships.

If you’re interested in checking out our curriculum mentorship on how to start your own business or blog, I have provided a video for you below.


Chase My Dream

Do you have a mentor? Have you had a mentor? Do you want a mentor? Let me know how I can help in the comments below.
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