Lessons - Everything You Don’t Know About Mentors | Scott Miller - Author, Speaker & EVP at Franklin Covey

In this episode, we break down the true value of mentorship and why it's key to success. We'll discuss how to find the right mentor, the benefits of learning from both successes and failures, and how to build authentic, purposeful relationships. You'll gain insights into what makes a mentor truly impactful, and how to approach mentorship in a way that leads to real growth. Mentors, mentors, mentors, people always speak about mentors, mentorship, why it's so important. What is a mentor? Well, a mentor is different things to different people. Sometimes it's formal. Like, will you be my mentor? Will you mentor me on this six-sigma process? Sometimes it's informal. It's someone that's just, you know, friend it up. They've friended someone who is more accomplished, wiser, smarter. But I think a mentor is someone who is abundant, who has wisdom to share with someone else. Not, not, not an ego to try to turn them into a mini version of you, but someone who has an abundance mentality that wants to share not just their successes, but their failures and messes. I don't know about you, but I learned more about having a successful marriage from those who are divorced. I learned more as an entrepreneur, growing my business from those who've had bankruptcies than from those who made their first million by age of 30. So I think a mentor is someone who is more concerned with what is right than being right, meaning what's right for you? What are your strengths? What are your fears? What are your passions? And can any of my journey mistakes and successes be helpful to you? That's what a mentor is. I feel like when people look for a mentor, they don't have that definition in mind. Everything you just highlighted when mentors open up, when they're vulnerable, when they teach over from their past failures, I think that's what will actually help somebody and actually move the needle. But I feel like the average person doesn't even know what to look for when they're looking for a mentor because there's this vision of a guru that can help them in all aspects of their life. And to me, that's not that's not helpful. That's not mentorship and that's not even what that's not even what your definition is. Like if you're looking for a mentor, you have to find somebody, potentially who's done something in one area of your life or one walk of your life. And if you find multiple people who've done different things in different areas of your life and you consume them and you learn from them, that's probably the best way to leverage what a mentor is. It's not a course, it's not a class. It could be, but it doesn't have to be. And I think there's something that I want to pull out because even when you write a book and the book is basically 30 people that you've connected with through your interview and you take that insight in that knowledge and you summarize it, that's a definition of mentorship. That is mentorship that people can consume through the book. So how does somebody figure out, let me think how to word this. How does somebody figure out how to build a relationship with a mentor? Is it something that you should go out and seek them? Is it something like you should just consume them on YouTube? What is an actual beneficial definition of a mentorship look like? I don't think a mentor is someone you don't know. Like I don't think Gary V is not my mentor, but I follow him and I learn from him. He's a podcast host that I listen to. I think some people confuse that your mentor is someone who is in relationship with you. It's not your therapist, it's not your coach. It's like this is even your cheerleader. It's someone that you've identified that has perhaps pursued a path similar to the one that you want to pursue and that you believe they aren't just smart but they're wise. I think that's what's different about a mentor. It's someone that is smart and wise. That they have wisdom, that they have enough confidence to demonstrate humility. To not necessarily say that their path should be your path. A mentor is someone that asks big questions that they're good listeners. That they're able to, like I said before, demonstrate humility. Which by the way is a leadership competency. Humility is a mentoring competency. But someone can't mentor you unless they know you want to be mentors. So I'd say formalize it. But make sure you declare your intent. Make sure that you're not artificially trying to be mentor because you eventually want them to seed your first round of funding. Or you want them to open their role of decks. Don't manipulate someone into thinking they are your mentor. All of a sudden you ambush them for a different reason. That's just called duplicity and disingenuousness. Find someone that you believe you can learn from. Their successes and their message. Declare your intent. My intent is try to learn from your experience. Would you spend some time with me over the next six months? One call a month for 30 minutes. To talk to me about these particular topics. And then honor that. Don't send them emails throughout the week. Don't suffocate them. Most mentors, if they're valuable, they're probably successful. They're probably in demand. They don't want to be your therapist or best friend. If it turns into that, different story, right? But I think people can't help you if they don't know you need help. So reach out. Move outside your comfort zone. Reach out to someone. Perhaps you don't even know and say, Hey, I'm trying to launch a podcast like you. On HubSpot, on SoundCloud, on Stitcher, whatever. You've done what I'm wanting to do. Could you mentor me for three or four 30-minute sessions in the hopes that I could learn from you? Most people. I have found that are successful. Have an abundance mindset. They'll help you out. As long as there's not this sort of mission creep, right? You're now their best friend and you're coming by their house and you're embodying yourself to their barbecues. Be respectful of your mentor's time and boundaries. But there is one point that is important is there is a feedback loop. There is an active feedback loop. So it's not just consuming a ton of their content. That's an important part of mentorship as well. Okay. So benefit, I want to actually bring it back because this is actually important and I wrote a couple points down here. But I think we're actually jumping the gun because we're assuming that everybody even understands the benefits of having a mentor because we're probably on the same wavelength when it comes to a lot of that stuff as I find our many high performing individuals who have seen success in their life. They have aligned to people that have mentored them to some capacity. Let's talk about the benefits of having a mentor. If somebody has never really sought out that they've done it on their own, so to speak. And they never really aligned with anyone. They felt like they couldn't ever trust anyone to give them that feedback. How do you get somebody to take that first step? And why should they? If they've already figured out their life to this point without a mentor? Well, I don't know a single person that's successful. That's ever figured out their life without a mentor. They may not realize that they have a mentor in their life. It might be a rabbi, it might be a priest, it might be a father-in-law, might have been their headmaster. So I reject the premise that people have achieved any level of significant success without some kind of mentorship. It may be that they don't realize it. But to your point, mentorship is, it can take on many forms and fashions. Mentors allow you to kind of look around corners. They allow you to turn a disappointment into an appointment. They give you feedback on your blind spots, which we all have. Whether it be our lack of vision or too big bold vision on that execution. Mentors are typically, like I said before, wise people that just ask big open into questions. So if you were to do that, what's the consequence? What's the upside? What's the downside? If you were to say that or launch that, tell me about your board of directors. Tell me about the people who are mentoring you in life. What are you reading? So I think mentorship's, mentorship isn't really about teaching lessons from your journey. It's about having your mentee know what questions to ask. Uncover, unfold, help them to understand their identity. What is their passion? What is their mission? How can they turn their fears into their strengths? I think a great mentor is someone who listens more than they talk. And so for me, mentorship is a requisite for a successful life. Is surrounding yourself people who, by the way, they may not always be older than you, might be younger. I have several people that are mentoring me on how to get on clubhouse and how to leverage TikTok and how to do different types of platforms to help launch my books and products. They're mentoring me. And I'm not afraid to say I've got mentors that are half my age. They're helping me become more relevant in a post-COVID world, right? And so mentorship, I think, can be different people to different things. It kind of is what's right for you at the moment in your life. And if somebody wants to go find a mentor, you mentioned a few things. They'd be very specific and intentional. Watch the creep of the relationship. Don't try and get a mentor to have ulterior motives and to help them invest in your, in your company. But if you do want to find a mentor, what are the right ways of going about it? Well, I think there's probably many right, right ways. One is you can make a list of your entire network. Might be eight people, might be 800 people. And you might call up some of the most accomplished people. When I say accomplished, it might mean that they'd had the most bankruptcies because the people that have had the most failures probably have the deepest lessons to teach and say, hey, Scott, I noticed that you've launched three businesses. I'm trying to, you know, do some crowd sourcing or crowdfunding over here. Who do you know that could give me some wisdom on this? Anybody know that you'd be willing to build a bridge to? Your mentor may not be in your network. It might be your attorney's accountant. It might be your ex-girlfriend's brother. It might be someone that you don't even know. So I would say the first step would be to look at your own network and find trustworthy wise people who might be able to build a bridge with someone they know. If that isn't the case, you might just reach out to someone. I mean, I don't care how big of a celebrity you are. You're still checking your Facebook feed at 839 in bed. I don't care how successful you are. You still have an email account. You still have an Instagram and you're still looking at it in the evening time when you need to break from your kids because you've worked 14 hours today. So I'm a big proponent of just putting yourself out there. And asking, most of my success has come because I was willing to, I was willing to ask. I was willing to pick up the phone and call Matthew McConaughey and say Matthew. Love to interview you. Sometimes they say no. Sometimes they say yes. And Matthew leads you to Will Smith. And Will Smith leads you to Mark Manson. Mark Manson leads you to, you get the point, right? And so there's many ways to fight a mentor. And you'll know pretty quickly if it's the right fit for you. I think what goes wrong in mentorship is when you start to treat the mentor as your friend or as your bank or as your coach or your therapist. Mentors are there to help impart any knowledge and you wisdom that they've gleaned from their journey that can be replicated in your journey. I think also mentorship goes wrong when the mentor feels like their job is to, like I said before, to kind of turn you into them. Mentorship is not trying to have someone follow your path. It's not helping them clarify and uncover their path. So when you, when you have someone that is helping you clarify and uncover your path, that's when you know you're in a positive mental relationship when it's not extending beyond that. Now, I would also just ask, how do you know when a mentor, so how would you, I guess you sort of answered how you know when a mentorship isn't working out, but even just jumping into something, what are some red flags right off the bat when you are looking for mentors? Because you're right, there's a lot of, there's a lot of opportunity out there. You may see somebody as successful is there things that you should stay away from or be wary of when you're trying to find someone to help you? Well, I think it's self-awareness knowing what it's like to coach you, knowing what it's like to be on a Zoom call with you. So some of the first is self-awareness to know what type of person would be best to match your personality. I think also is scope creep. You know, you don't want to call up Sylvester Salone and ask him if he'll mentor you for a year and a half on how to become, you know, a boxer. I don't watch his movies. I think he was a boxer. Is that what Rocky was? I think he was a boxer, right? Sorry, sorry, not a boxing fan. Forgive me to your millions of boxing listeners. But I mean, that's overwhelming, right? Slice slows like a, you know, mentor you for a year and a half. But you might say, hey, could I have a half an hour of your time? And the mentor might fall in love with you. And she or he might say, hey, you know, if you have more questions, give me a call. So I think incremental, I think it's like dating. Are you going to know the first day, whether or not you want to invite, you know, this person back or they want to invite you back? Be transparent, be open. I think be realistic. Is I'm trying to develop this skill, right? I'm trying to do this particular thing and I have identified that you may have some expertise in this. Would you be willing to coach me? And I would be very specific in a couple of 30 minute sessions. You know, if it goes well and you have high EQ, you can read into the third session, whether or not it's appropriate to ask them to extend it or not. And I also think it's gracious to break it off. If after the second call, you find that that person's expertise isn't what you thought or they're not as invested, you can simply thank them for their time. Hey, can I tell you Scott? I have so appreciate your investment in me. I'm going to actually release you from any further commitments. I'm going to go out and execute on the things that you've taught me already. And would you be willing if I needed some more time to ever give it to me? Sure. And then, and then they feel validated and you feel like you're able to break it off. I think many of those techniques can work for different types of people. Thanks for tuning in. If you found this valuable, don't forget to hit that subscribe button so you never miss an episode. And if you want to dive deeper into this conversation, check out the links in the description to watch the full episode. See you in the next one.