Want to fast-track your success with the help of a mentor? Look no further! In this episode, we dive into the three essential factors you need to consider when choosing a mentor.
Table of Contents
Choosing a Mentor
Welcome to Beyond the Rut, where we empower professionals to achieve their goals and reach their full potential. In today’s episode, we’re talking about mentorship, a crucial element of personal and professional development.
Having a mentor can be a game-changer for your career, but with so many options out there, how do you know you’re choosing the right one? That’s why we’ve gathered some expert advice to help you navigate the mentor-selection process. We’ll cover the three key factors you need to consider to ensure a productive and fulfilling mentorship experience.
In this episode, you will learn:
- How mentors are different than coaches.
- The three essential factors you should look for in a mentor.
- How to find, choose, and invite a mentor into your life.
Chapter Summaries:
[00:00:05]
How mentors are different than coaches
[00:02:33]
3 factors you should look for in a mentor.
[00:06:41]
How to get a mentor.
Resources
Subscribe on your favorite podcast player.
Other episodes and posts you’ll enjoy:
Unlocking Possibilities with Mentors & Masterminds ft. Jody Maberry – BtR 342
Achieving Your Goals: Setting The Line In The Sand And Finding Accountability – BtR 337
Be a Mentor A Letter to the Church – BtR 321
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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jerrydugan/
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Transcript
Jerry Dugan 00:05
Hey, what’s going on Rutter Nation this is Jerry from beyond the rot, bringing you another segment of Jerry short. This is the shorter episode I give you later in the week that either recaps the bigger conversation I had with a guest or just something that is timely for you to grow your career. Because ultimately, I want you to live the life you dream to living and thrive in your faith, your family and your career. So hopefully these do just that for you. This time around, I want to talk about mentors, and how to find one, what do you look for in a mentor? How do you go and locate one? All those good things? And this is an offshoot of what we heard Jody Mayberry, talk about in episode 342. So beyond the red.com/ 342, if you listen to last week’s episode, you may have heard me throw this link out there and you’re like, hey, it goes nowhere. Well, now it does. Sorry about that. Well, here we go. So mentors, what are they? How are they different from a coach? Well, a coach may not have experience in the relevant field that you’re looking in. And a coach is really, you know, just digging deep and asking you questions and driving you forward. A mentor can do that, and has experience in the area you want to learn more about. So with Jody Mayberry, he talked about how he wanted to help Lee Cockrell and retired executive from Walt Disney World. He was the guy who ran the Walt Disney World resorts, and also the guy who opened up Disneyland Paris. It’s all a pretty cool guy. And Jody had run into him and interviewed him and wanted to help this guy start a podcast. So that started what became a mentorship relationship between Jody Mayberry, and Lee cockerel. And over the years, Lee has poured into God with ideas about business, how do you do a speaking career. So now Jody has a speaking career pricing sheets, he runs mastermind groups, I’m in one of them, called the Phoenix club. And it’s a networking group, not so much a mastermind. So different people from different walks of life, and we get to know each other, we learn from their perspectives, and so on. But in a sense, Jody has become a mentor to me, because something he is doing that is ahead of me is now I’m a good speaker publicly. However, I’ve never done it as a business. And Jody has that expertise around marketing, and around execution, pricing, negotiation, collecting all those things. So what are the three things you should look for in a mentor? Like, I know that I can learn things from God that I, I need to know, I think you’ve probably learned some things from me. So there are three ingredients. The first one is relevant expertise. The second is the willingness to share and the third is positive attitude. So what are each of those things? Relevant Experience makes sense? You know, for Jodi, I already mentioned, he has had a speaking career that is longer than mine. And he’s learning from Lee Cockrell, who has had a speaking career longer than his. So you want a mentor who has experience and knowledge in the field that you want to grow in, you know, if it is you want a long lasting, healthy, happy marriage, then you want to find somebody who is in a happy, long lasting marriage, somebody has been married 3040 years, they’ve gone through raising their children, they’ve gone through illness, and all those kinds of things. Those are the folks you want to learn marriage from. If you learn from somebody who’s gone through multiple divorces, you may learn what not to do, and what are the lessons they’ve learned if they’ve learned any. But it’s the couples have really done a long term relationship you want to learn from, from my wife and I, we knew a couple and we still know them, Joe and Connie Sandler, who poured into us for a good three to five year window depends on when you start counting it because Connie, connected with my wife, Olivia sooner than I got to meet them. That expertise gives us insight on how things could be for ourselves, you know, for yourself, you know, if it’s a business leader, how did they grow in their career? What are the big decision points they met, made? What were the big hiccups they ran into? How do they navigate all of those things. The second thing, you want to look for the willingness to share, you know, a good mentor is going to be willing to give you their time, their knowledge and their resources with you. Now, I’m going to say on the flip side, if they’re willing to give you their time, you need to respect that time you need to show up on time. You need to stay committed to the time they’ve made available to you. You move things around on your schedule to meet their availability. Don’t make them act like they’ve got to serve you. They don’t have to mentor you. They want to mentor you. And so you pay them back by appreciating that time and respecting the schedules that you’ve set. That’s just my caveat there. A good mentor isn’t just willing to share their time, their knowledge, they’re going to answer questions. You’ve gotten, they’re gonna be vulnerable, they’re gonna tell you the things that work, the things that didn’t work, anybody who’s not willing to share with you the struggles they faced when they are their duty, your stage of life or career, they’re really just pandering, they really just want to show off to you how great they are. And it doesn’t matter what you actually learned or not, they just want an audience. Not a good mentor in that case, but they truly care about your growth, and they want to share what they’ve experienced, hoping it’ll help you grow. That’s good. And that third thing, the positive attitude, you know, a good mentor is going to feel good about your future, your potential, your goals, and they’re going to be supportive of that. They’re not going to poopoo your idea, they’re not going to say like, oh, that doesn’t work, or hey, don’t ever try that. Or, you know, that guy’s a total jerk. You know, a good mentor is going to help you navigate the waters, and be excited about your journey and share again, anything from their own experiences that can help you move forward. Sometimes, like Lee Cockerell did, Jody Mayberry, that mentor will share their network with you, and open doors for you that were no like previously closed. So three things, again, a good mentor, you should be looking for somebody with that relevant experience to what you want to accomplish. They have to have a willingness to share their time and their knowledge with you. And a positive attitude for your success. So very supportive in you succeeding, they’re going to cheer you on, they’re going to want to see you do well. They’re going to be there for your graduations for your promotions, all those things, maybe not all that, but they’re definitely going to be happy for you. And that’s huge. And then again, the only caveat is if they give you their time, then you need to respect that time. So how do you get a mentor? Well, if they have a coaching group, sign up for one, if they’re on social media, and they’re putting out great content, follow them engage with them. That can be like a low level, low access type of thing. And then as you grow in your understanding of that person’s content, their knowledge, you can amp it up and see if they have one on one coaching, they’ll probably be your most expensive way to go. Now, some mentors don’t charge at all, they just do it because it’s where they are in their career. And you can just simply ask them, Hey, I’ve been working with you for five years. Now I want to learn what you know, can we meet for coffee once every two weeks or once a month? And just I want to pick your brain? And if they say yes, then follow through, do it. The ball is in your court if you want to be mentored by somebody. And the worst that can happen if you ask somebody is they say no, that’s it. And then you respectfully you know, accept it, and then maybe approach the topic later. But don’t don’t hound them, don’t bully them or pester them. That’s just a good way to get blocked, or escorted out the building. Right. So there you have it, the three things to look for in a mentor, how to approach them, little light on the how to approach thing, but I want to keep these things short, 10 minutes or less. I think my goal is five that you know, tomato, tomato. There you go. Now, if you’d like this short, the link with all the extra resources that beyond the rut.com/j s 009. Be sure to share this with your friends, your family members, your co workers that neighbor across the street, and we’ll just get you going forward. Now, if you work for an organization that is looking for leadership development, a public speaker to talk about resilience, about communication styles about conflict management, being a servant leader, most of all is my big passion here are just how to live and work beyond the rut. Check out BTR impact.com That is my new business. I launched it in January of 2023. Officially, although I think I filed for it a few months prior but that’s okay. I’m in business. Wow, I’m excited. I’m scared. I’m excited. I can help people with the experience I have doing leadership development, leadership coaching and consulting, training, development and consulting, training facilitation all those things. So check it out BTR impact.com. And you can always check out beyond the rut.com as well, where we have the podcast hosted. So I’m glad I joined you this week and I’ll see you again or I’ll listen to eat well, I guess you’ll listen to me in the next episode on Monday. Take care guys. Bye
