Episode #064: The Layers of Mentorship: Finding and Leveraging the Right Mentors
The Layers of Mentorship: Finding and Leveraging the Right Mentors
On this episode of Not Your Average Online Marketing Podcast, we dive into the layers of mentorship and discuss how to find and leverage the right mentors.
We'll explore the concept of finding the right mentors, and how to make micro-commitments before you jump into high ticket offers.
Throughout the episode, Zach shares personal experiences with different types of mentorship, including high touch coaching, masterminds, group coaching, courses, and books.
I'll provide guidance on how to determine the appropriate level of mentorship for yourself.
At the Not Your Average Marketing Podcast, we believe that mentorship is crucial for growing a business - and by the end of this episode you'll have clear strategies for independent learning and finding mentorship.
Join us as we explore all the layers of mentorship on this episode of Not Your Average Online Marketing Podcast.
LINKS MENTIONED:
TIME STAMP OVERVIEW:
00:00:53 The Mentorship layers and finding right mentorship/coaching support
00:04:53 Move from high level info to connections; podcasts, blogs, books, mentors.
00:06:51 Searching, finding mentors and resources online
00:12:47 Different approaches to learning and mentorship.
00:13:44 Mentorship versus group coaching for guidance and community.
00:17:50 Bonus tip: study mentors from different industries.
00:21:28 Different levels in business; and an invite to incubator coaching.
FULL TRANSCRIPT:
[00:00:00]:
This is Not Your Average Online Marketing Podcast, episode number 64. And in this episode, we're talking about the layers of mentorship. How do you find and leverage the right mentors? So if you've been trying to get additional support, coaching, feedback, or just aren't sure what to do next in your business, this episode might just help you, so stay tuned. Hey, hey, hey, not so average marketer. Welcome to another episode of the podcast. Now this is a podcast that I have been talking about doing with my team for quite some time now, and I'm always really hesitant to talk about this topic if I'm being completely honest, and that's because everybody has mixed feelings about coaching and mentorship and feedback and, really, what we should be doing to get the support we need in our business.
[00:00:53]:
And what I'm gonna do today is talk to you about what I call the layers of mentorship. Kind of like, if you're getting started and you're thinking, I don't know what to do or I don't know where to focus. I'm gonna help you figure out how to find mentorship that meets you where you are and the different layers of mentorship that I've gone through to find the people that I've taken, you know, high-touch coaching or high-touch masterminds or group coaching or courses or books from. And I'm gonna share with you really how to figure out where you should be right now. Also, in this episode, at the end, I'm gonna share an opportunity to apply for our group coaching program called The Incubator, which we are opening up for our July through September cohort, Q3, starting very soon. So all that being said, I think the best thing we can do is get right into it. So I wanna start by talking about why I think mentorship is so important.
[00:01:56]:
In the online coaching world, a lot of times we hear "You need mentorship" or "You need a coach" and it's really just an excuse to sell us something really expensive. Right? I think we've all been there where we hear, like, you need coaching, you need support. You need to join my program because you can't do this alone. And the reality is I think with mentorship, you need to find mentorship that meets you where you are currently. So, what I do when I'm looking for new mentorship or I'm trying to find someone to mentor is I first figure out what problem am I trying to solve. Right? Most people they go into mentorship saying, I wanna grow my business. And there's something wrong with that. I'm not saying that wanting to grow your business is a bad thing.
[00:02:38]:
What I am saying is how do you wanna grow your business? Right? What kind of business do you have? What is the goal for your business? What is your market? What is your price point? Right? There's just so many things to consider. So, for example, in our business, we're looking to scale our membership. Right? We wanna get our membership to over 500 members by the end of 2023. Right now, we're sitting at about 300 members, and my goal is 500 members. So, I have actually just joined a mentorship program, a small group mastermind style with 1 on 1 coaching as well, And the reason I joined it is because the person who runs it runs a wildly profitable membership. They have overwhelmingly lower ticket products. They are doing it very successfully in the CEO role of their business. They're very I don't wanna say hands off, but they're very high-level with what they do.
[00:03:36]:
And they empower their team to make incredible decisions for the business. Right? All things that I'm looking to do. But what I had to start with was - what is it that I need support with? Right? Because if if my thing was like, oh, I need to learn to run Facebook ads better, I might have gone to a completely different mentor. If my thing was I need to get better at my podcast, I might go to a podcasting mentor. Okay? But the thing is that comes up for people is like, well, where do I go to find a mentor? Right? That's the big question. And here's what I tell people. Get started with good old Google YouTube University.
[00:04:18]:
Look up what you're working on. Okay? For example, if you google 5-day challenge launch, I will come up, which is pretty cool. We spent a lot of time working on that. But if you Google 5-day challenge launch, a website comes up. Right? That's a really specific, I know, example. But if you're like, I'm working on a 5-day challenge launch, go google how to launch with a challenge. Right? See who comes up. And then I love Google and YouTube because you wanna move from a problem into what connects with you.
[00:04:53]:
So, this could be podcasts, this could be blogs, this could be newsletters, but start moving from just high-level information from random people to start seeing whose name keeps popping up? What trends am I seeing? Who or what is continually being brought up? Maybe it's a course or a program or a person. Right? What keeps coming up and what do you want to connect with? Right? And that to me is the the 2nd layer of mentorship. So layer one is getting started by searching for your problem or solution. Right? The second layer is moving into what connects. So this is like podcast blogs, and I think that there's this secondary layer, which I love, which is books. I am a huge fan of books. If I'm completely honest, I took a break from personal development books for several months just because if I'm being honest, I just felt like I was reading a lot of the same stuff. And it's also really easy to burn out on books when everything is like, how does this grow my business? How does this make money?
[00:06:00]:
But here nor there, I like to read books, and I get suggestions in books of other books. So it's very common in the online marketing, business, personal development space for one book to talk about other people, other authors. And so the way that I kind of see this happening is almost like a spiral. Right? You're kind of like in a vortex, and you're getting sucked into the middle. So perfect example was I was sent a book from one of my friends whose program joined called Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martel. We'll link that up in the show notes. Really good book that I just finished And that book referenced a bunch of other authors and a bunch of other books. And even some of the courses and trainings that author has.
[00:06:51]:
And so I've started googling some of the things that they offer and some of the people he's connected to and his Instagram and who he's interviewing on his Instagram. Right? And so what's cool about the way that I like to find new mentors and new places to get feedback is that I start with a problem I move into what's connecting with me, and then I either buy or receive, you know, from programs or trainings, advice, or physical book, and then those books link me out to all of these things. So to give you a really specific example, Dan Martel, who wrote Buy Back Your Time, if you go look him up on Instagram, you're gonna see that he doesn't just post his own content. Right? Yes. He posts a lot of content, but he also posts, like, places that he's learned from, other people, people that he's interviewed with, people that he's been on their show, people whose show he's, you know, had or people who he's had on his stuff. Right? So I think it's really cool to go out and say, like, once I find someone who I connect with because I liked their website, which took me to their podcast or their blog, which took me to their book, that also creates this expansive reach of like, oh, here's all these other cool people that I can check out. Right? Now I get it. Not everybody has a book, and that's okay.
[00:08:11]:
But a lot of people have podcasts or blogs, and those operate in a very similar fashion. So just to recap, I think layer 1 is searching for a solution to your problem. Layer 2 is moving into what connects with you on a free level, whether that be podcast books or blogs. Then my next layer of mentorship is what I call moving into what scales and implements. Okay? So I have personally loved the surge of low-ticket products that have come about in the online marketing space. The products ranging from $30 to $100 bucks that cover a very specific problem. I love these.
[00:08:50]:
And I'm constantly buying them. I just bought one the other day that honestly had nothing to do with online marketing, but had to do with something that I was working with in my personal life and I love this because what you can do is start to say, okay. I like the free information. I like this person. What is it like when I get what I call more formal mentorship. Right? Here's the thing. A book is great. Right? And I love books.
[00:09:16]:
A podcast is great. A blog is great. But those are often very high-level all encompassing areas of work. If you connect with somebody and you like their stuff, go download or buy something from them. Right? And I kinda skimmed right over that, but I wanna add that downloading something that somebody has created for you, even if it's a freebie, is a great place to start. Just continuing down the path of what I talked about, that book from Dan Martel, Buy Back Your Time, is a resource workbook. It's a 400ish page workbook that you can download to start implementing what you learn in the book. That's a great next step if I like his system, and I wanna keep going, which by the way, I do, and we did download the workbook.
[00:09:57]:
Right? But I just want you to start thinking, what are the ways that you can not super-commit, but commit to a mentor. Right? So moving into what scales and and converts or connects is really about making an initial commitment to someone. Right? Giving them your name and email so that you get their regular newsletters, paying them $50 to a hundred bucks, maybe even buying a $200 to $300 course. Right? I wanna know what happens when I pay somebody without having to spend $2000 on a mastermind. Right? So moving into what scales, not just for your business but also at scale for their business, starts to show you what is this person like in a more formal setting. Okay? Once I've done this, the big key here is that there's to me, a very clear break between this layer and the next layer. Okay? The biggest thing is that there's what I call an implementation layer. And what do I mean by that? Well, here's the thing.
[00:11:04]:
Everything sounds good on paper. Okay? And I say this a little tongue in cheek, but, like, for example, I read this book from Dan Martel, great book highly recommend it. But but now I have to implement it. Right? Reading a book, reading a blog, buying a course does not create results in your business. Let me say it again. Reading a book, buying a course does not create results in your business. What creates results in your business implementing the things that you learn from these freebies, books, low-ticket offers, courses. So I think that there needs to be a clear distinction between the time that you get these things and the time that you start going to the next layer, which we're gonna talk about, and that is the implementation phase.
[00:11:49]:
So you have to take some of what you've learned and you have to implement it. See if it works. See if it works for your business, because here's the thing. Everybody has their own process, framework, thought process, way of doing things, but not every way or process of doing things will work for you, your business, or your values. Right? So I'm a huge believer that before you say, I'm gonna give you a little sneak peek. The next step in getting direct support, you wanna implement something at that is at scale for the mentor you're interested in. I also wanna just take a moment to state that just because you have a mentor in the form of a book, or a course or one on one coaching doesn't mean that the results will typically be, you know, a million times better, worse, or same from thing to thing. It also depends on you.
[00:12:47]:
Right? So some people are like, I just need the outline in the book, and I'm good to go. Some people are like, I need the book and my hand held to make it. And there's nothing wrong with either. It's just the reality that everybody's a little bit different. Right? So but what I like to do is say, what would this look like if I didn't have somebody holding my hand? What would this look like if I just tried it on my own? Right? I think that once you've done this, once you've kind of gone through these 4 layers, finding your the solution to your problem. finding something that you could connect with and studying, moving into what scales and converts, and then implementing layer 4 The 5th layer of mentorship to me is getting that direct support. And there's technically 2 ways that you can do this. There's group coaching where you're smart of a small group, and then there's straight up coaching mentorship 1 on one support. Now, typically, I like to be in a group coaching setting.
[00:13:44]:
I have worked with people 1:1 from time to time, but I like to be in a group coaching setting. And I do that for two reasons. I actually like hybrid group coaching programs. And a hybrid group coaching program in the way that I'm defining it is it comes with not just, oh, here's how to you know, get on a group call, it also comes with 1 on one calls or one on one touch points or a one on one onboarding or, you know, quarterly or annual check ins with the person running the program. I like those because I crave 2 things, guidance and community. Okay? For me, that's the big thing. I want someone that can look at my individual business and give me feedback, but I also want a sense of community I wanna be with people who are working in the same direction as me. And the big question then becomes, will If I want direct support, if I want group coaching or mentorship, that tends to be more expensive.
[00:14:39]:
And I'm just gonna be blunt. It does. It does tend to cost more money. We just invested in a group coaching program. It's, just full transparency, about $12,000 for 6 months, and I did that because I'd gone through everything else. I got to know the person running the program. I've studied some of the things. I've looked at their mentors.
[00:14:59]:
I've looked at who they're learning from. Right? I love to learn from people. But when it comes to a big investment like group coaching, or mentorship, I wanna work with someone who I know has gotten results for myself or people that I know. Right? So let's just run through these 5 layers of mentorship again. Number 1 is kind of the getting started layer where you're googling, youtubing, kind of identifying people that you can learn from. The second thing is moving into ways to connect with those people for free, whether that be podcasts, blogs, books. And within this layer, you're also looking for recommendations of similar people, other books these people recommend or have read or written, other people that they've worked with, mentors that they have had.
[00:15:51]:
Right? Then we move into the offers they have that scale. So this could be downloading their freebies and getting on their newsletter, buying a low ticket offer from them, buying a course from Then we move into the implementation layer. And this is where, you know, the the reality is everything sounds good on paper. Let's test if the things that you're learning from this mentor in a scalable fashion actually work and apply for your business before you go, oh my gosh. This is so good. I have to hire this person for x1000 of dollars. Right? Then once you've gone through your implementation layer, you get to move into the direct support layer. And, again, this comes in two forms, in my opinion.
[00:16:34]:
There's group coaching and there's 1:1. I personally like a hybrid of the 2, group coaching with 1 on 1 mentorship touch points. So last thing I wanna talk about is just what I call kind of the bonus layer. And the bonus layer to me is what I call out of industry mentors. So I personally have run multiple businesses in the online marketing space agency courses, membership, but I've also sold physical products. We used to handmake and sell candles. I've sold crystals before. Like, we've had some cool businesses.
[00:17:09]:
And I like to study from out of industry mentors from those other businesses. So I pay attention to what people in the physical product space are doing. I pay attention to what people in the software as a service space are doing because here's the really cool thing. A lot of times we get pigeonholed in the online marketing space into, oh, this is a great way to run a webinar, but a webinar is not the only way. Right? And that's just a general statement. I'm not saying that everyone's touting webinars. It's it's just a blanket statement of, like, sometimes we get so zeroed in on our industry that we forget. People are doing totally different things in totally different industries that may work great in our space.
[00:17:50]:
I have a friend who took an advertising course. He's in the online marketing space, and he sells digital products. And he took a physical product advertising course applied some of the principles from that to his business, and he was seeing incredible returns on his ads because he was doing something different from people in our space. So just a little bonus tip bonus layer, if you will, is also study out of industry mentors. Sign up for newsletters, buy books from people who are, like, running completely different companies than you and learn from them. Right? Now as we start to wrap up this episode, I promised that I would share with you how you could join our hybrid group coaching 1 on 1 program for mentorship. Now every quarter, we run what I call The Incubator. And The Incubator is a 90-day group coaching hybrid where you're gonna get everything that you need to create massive growth over the next 90 days in your business. So with The Incubator, what I love about it so much is that people say, "Well, what is the what is the thing that I'll create?" Well, the biggest thing you're gonna create is a custom 90-day action plan.
[00:18:57]:
And what we do is at the beginning of The Incubator, we meet as a group, and we help you develop exactly where you need to focus over the next 90 days and after you do that, you essentially have this plan to follow. Now we break this down into quarterly, monthly, and weekly actions. So quarterly, we build our road map together, and then I build a curriculum from everyone's road map. We only take 12 people in the program, you submit your road map for the 90 days, and I build a personal curriculum personalized curriculum for the entire group. Then every month, you get a one on one group or I'm sorry, not one on one group, a one on one call with myself where you can reach out, and we literally have a one on one call every single month. Okay? Now weekly, we have a group call. So on that weekly group call, I offer a weekly training, which is based on everyone's 90-day road map and their intake forms so that we have a weekly action that is relevant to the group as a whole. We also do laser group coaching in that setting.
[00:20:11]:
So, everybody gets 10 to 15 minutes of personalized coaching with me during the weekly call. And then we also do open Q&A and group feedback because we teach you. We coach you, and then we wanna give you time at the end to get all the feedback that you need. Now the cool thing about this is that you also get access to a private Facebook group. You know, I mentioned earlier community is important to me. We only take twelve people into this program per quarter max, and we put you inside of a private Facebook group. You also get access to all my resources and courses that I've created that'll support you along with 3-month access to our membership program. So if it sounds amazing, you know, you might be wondering what's the investment.
[00:20:52]:
Full transparency, the program is $2500 for the quarter. We also offer 3 payment options. As of the time I'm recording this and releasing this, we have three spaces available for the next quarter. So if you wanna learn more or apply, you can head over to heartsoulhustle.com/apply. Again, that's heartsoulhustle.com/apply, and you could fill out an application to join The Incubator program. I know that might sound daunting, but, yes, we do have an application because we don't accept everyone who applies. Not because we don't want to. We wanna support you.
[00:21:28]:
But because we understand that everybody's at a different level in their business, and we wanna make sure everyone that joins The Incubator group coaching program is at a similar or comparable level so that we can support all of you together. Now, again, if you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out. You know I'm more than happy to answer, but that's the layers of mentorship, how to find and leverage the right mentors. So I hope you got lots of value from this episode. If you have any questions or feedback, of course, you can always ping me on Instagram @heartsoulhustle, but we will have a complete transcript and show notes with timestamps over at heartsoulhustle.com/nyap064. Again, that's heartsoulhustle.com/nyap064. We'll have, like I said, the full transcript, some show notes for all that good stuff, links to those books we mentioned. And I just hope that this inspires you even if The Incubator is not a good fit for you right now, that's okay.
[00:22:32]:
I hope this inspires you to say, how can I get more mentorship in my life? It doesn't always require a $10,000 coach. Right? doesn't always require a $2500 coaching program. But if you're at the point where you're ready for that, great. If you're not, grab a book. Grab a blog. Grab a podcast. Start studying. Start implementing.
[00:22:50]:
I hope you got massive value from today's episode. And until next time, stay not so average.
