Dan Martell - How To Talk To A Mentor Without Feeling Nervous

00:00:00.000 For all of you guys that keep asking me,

00:00:01.460 is this a green screen?

00:00:02.460 This is a, this is a real wall.

00:00:12.520 How to talk with an advisor or mentor.

00:00:15.180 You know, in your life you may feel

00:00:17.180 like you're running blind.

00:00:18.180 You don't have anybody to talk to in your business

00:00:19.980 and you're struggling to really find the right way

00:00:21.920 to do things or you've got a ton of priorities

00:00:24.700 and lists of to-dos going on and on and on

00:00:26.800 and you're trying to figure out like,

00:00:27.860 what do I start with today, right?

00:00:30.960 Or you feel like for the last five years

00:00:32.900 you've been working on your business

00:00:34.200 and especially at this time of year,

00:00:36.740 you're looking at your numbers and you're saying,

00:00:39.300 where's the progress?

00:00:40.440 You know, I've been working,

00:00:41.780 I'm trying to get free from my business

00:00:43.740 and I just don't feel like I'm making the right moves.

00:00:46.780 The number one thing you could do is reach out to a mentor.

00:00:49.780 Having somebody, you know, people say

00:00:52.280 that entrepreneurs don't have a boss

00:00:53.620 and then somebody will joke and they'll say,

00:00:54.720 well yeah, they have a boss, it's their customer.

00:00:56.720 The truth is, is your customer's not gonna call you 0.58

00:00:58.600 on Sunday morning and tell you to get out of freaking bed 0.53

00:01:00.560 and run to the office, all right?

00:01:01.920 So having an advisor or mentor provides accountability.

00:01:05.840 It provides insights.

00:01:07.040 Being able to call somebody who's been there before

00:01:10.200 to give them some of your biggest challenges

00:01:12.240 to provide actionable insights.

00:01:14.740 I mean, that is just an incredible opportunity

00:01:17.340 that everybody watching this video has.

00:01:19.860 Or being exposed to their network.

00:01:22.100 If they've already been through this process before,

00:01:24.000 they have a company or understand the industry very well,

00:01:27.380 then they'll be able to introduce you to people

00:01:29.660 like lawyers, accountants, marketers that can help

00:01:33.820 unstuck you, get you unstuck in whatever challenges

00:01:36.180 you are having in your business.

00:01:37.980 I know this personally, but this morning I was talking

00:01:39.780 to an entrepreneur, walking her through how to get prepped

00:01:43.000 for a call she had with an advisor.

00:01:45.100 And after the call, I realized there was an opportunity

00:01:47.740 for me to share this with you guys to make sure

00:01:49.800 that you understand the exact same process

00:01:51.960 that I go through when I do coaching with my clients.

00:01:54.860 So this is something, you know,

00:01:56.640 finding an advisor I've known for, you know,

00:01:58.900 almost going on 10 years when I was building my company,

00:02:01.280 Spheric Technologies, two years in,

00:02:03.260 doing about a million and a half in revenue,

00:02:05.460 and at the end of the year I'm looking at

00:02:07.180 my utilization numbers,

00:02:08.840 because we were a consulting business,

00:02:10.400 and realizing I had just hired too many people,

00:02:12.400 I didn't have enough projects,

00:02:13.720 and it kind of sent me into a tailspin,

00:02:16.340 almost a depression.

00:02:17.540 And I reached out to the former premier of the province

00:02:20.340 that I lived in in Canada, New Brunswick,

00:02:22.380 a guy named Frank McKenna, cold email,

00:02:24.840 and he replied at like one in the morning,

00:02:27.120 right around Christmas, with a few names.

00:02:29.140 There was Ken Nickerson, Jerry Pond, and Steve Palmer.

00:02:32.120 And those guys have since become people

00:02:34.820 that I turn to for advice.

00:02:36.120 Some of them become really good friends,

00:02:37.800 but at the end of the day, if I didn't have that level

00:02:40.260 of advice and knowledge, I wouldn't have been able

00:02:42.720 to get unstuck or get through that challenge.

00:02:44.660 But even more important, I really learned through that

00:02:46.940 process of having advisors or mentors

00:02:48.900 how to communicate with them and that's what I want to share

00:02:50.940 with you guys in this video.

00:02:52.400 So, number one, when you have a meeting or first call with an

00:02:56.440 advisor or mentor, you want to be prepared.

00:02:59.120 You want to make sure that you sit down and you think,

00:03:01.280 what do I want to talk to them about?

00:03:03.480 What are the talking points?

00:03:04.640 I share this a lot with entrepreneurs that I train,

00:03:06.780 that they need to never go into an important sales meeting,

00:03:09.520 partnership meeting or meeting with a mentor advisor without

00:03:12.820 being prepared with talking points.

00:03:14.820 Three to five talking points that as the conversation's

00:03:17.800 flowing that you can reference back.

00:03:19.700 You can write it in your journal, on a flip card,

00:03:21.540 whatever it is, but that is your guide for the conversation.

00:03:25.640 So being prepared is number one to make sure that you don't

00:03:29.680 allow the anxiety or the nervousness or the overwhelm

00:03:33.440 of where your business is at to take the best of you

00:03:35.280 and kind of veer you off and at the end of the call you go, 0.99

00:03:37.520 mm, shit, I should have said this or I should have said that 0.98

00:03:40.460 or why did I ask that question that way? 1.00

00:03:42.820 Being prepared is number one.

00:03:44.420 Second thing is you want to make sure that you share,

00:03:47.060 if you've never talked to them before, your origin story.

00:03:49.700 If you search origin story on my channel,

00:03:51.300 there's many other videos that kind of goes through

00:03:53.800 how to position that.

00:03:55.260 But I think it's really important that if I'm talking

00:03:57.200 to an advisor mentor for my first time,

00:03:59.400 that I share with them why I started the business,

00:04:02.040 how I got there, and why it's important to me

00:04:04.740 to kind of move it forward.

00:04:05.920 Now, if I've already talked with them,

00:04:07.620 then I want to share an update, all right?

00:04:09.420 Last time we talked, we talked about this.

00:04:11.360 Here's what I've done since then.

00:04:12.520 Here's where I'm at now, the context.

00:04:14.460 You need to provide one of those two things.

00:04:16.120 first call, origin story, if you're ready to talk to them,

00:04:19.260 context and an update.

00:04:21.000 Then to me, it's going through the list of questions, right?

00:04:24.560 You want to have at least three to five questions

00:04:27.560 that you've prepped and you've prepared for before the call

00:04:30.600 that you start going through, but there's a format

00:04:32.640 that I want to share with you on how to ask those questions.

00:04:34.600 That's number three.

00:04:35.980 The first thing you want to do is share the challenge.

00:04:37.740 So for example, maybe it's revenues.

00:04:40.280 Our goal for this year was to hit a million in revenue,

00:04:42.320 we're at 700K, and here was the challenges around that.

00:04:46.020 Then you want to present solutions.

00:04:47.720 Here's what I'm gonna do to fix that.

00:04:50.320 So we were short, I looked at the numbers

00:04:52.520 in the last 12 months of operation

00:04:54.720 and here's where we fell short.

00:04:56.360 And going forward, Q1, I'm gonna do this.

00:04:58.600 Q2, I'm gonna do this.

00:05:00.100 And then after you present your solution,

00:05:01.900 then that's when you ask for feedback.

00:05:04.180 So to me, you always say, here are the challenges.

00:05:08.180 You share your numbers.

00:05:09.680 Then, number four, you offer solutions.

00:05:12.180 And number five, you ask for feedback.

00:05:15.220 Most entrepreneurs make the mistake

00:05:17.080 when they talk to an advisor or mentor

00:05:19.040 by saying, I need to improve my marketing,

00:05:21.220 what do you suggest I do?

00:05:22.480 That is the worst question you could ever ask.

00:05:25.000 Why?

00:05:25.840 Because it's lazy.

00:05:26.680 You put it on the other person 0.90

00:05:27.520 to try to just come up with ideas.

00:05:28.980 It's like my buddy Jason, who reminded me,

00:05:31.520 we're at a kind of a networking event

00:05:34.000 and I was meeting with somebody I just met.

00:05:36.300 At the end I said, let me know if I can ever be helpful.

00:05:38.520 And Jason pulled me aside and he said,

00:05:39.720 hey Dan, I just want to kind of suggest

00:05:41.740 a little bit of an edit.

00:05:42.980 And he said, by you saying, how can I be,

00:05:45.420 let me know if I can ever be helpful,

00:05:46.660 you put it on them to come up with the ideas to be helpful.

00:05:49.680 Whereas if you said, you know, let me circle back

00:05:52.180 with a few ideas on how I can be helpful,

00:05:54.160 then you take the ownership to create value

00:05:56.100 for that other person to offer some solutions

00:05:58.960 to ways you can help them.

00:06:00.560 And I feel like that's the same thing

00:06:01.860 with an advisor or mentor is, you never wanna be like,

00:06:04.900 my challenge is cash flow, what do you think I should do?

00:06:07.540 You should say, my challenge is this,

00:06:09.500 here are my solutions, and then ask for advice.

00:06:11.740 When you ask for the feedback, the number one thing

00:06:13.800 that you can do to screw that up is you keep talking.

00:06:16.040 Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. 1.00

00:06:17.880 You need to shut up. 0.99

00:06:19.220 You need to listen with your ears open 0.97

00:06:21.020 and let the mentor or advisor give you that advice.

00:06:24.380 Share the stories, because some people are like,

00:06:26.520 well, I'm talking to this person.

00:06:27.860 I really wanna ask them, what were the revenues last year?

00:06:30.860 I'm gonna tell you the way to get that

00:06:32.720 is you tell them your revenues

00:06:35.140 and you tell them your top three challenges

00:06:36.840 for getting those revenues

00:06:38.200 and then you ask them for advice

00:06:39.760 And if you do it right, and you're open, and you're honest,

00:06:42.220 and you connect with them on an emotional level,

00:06:43.900 on a friendship level, they're gonna say,

00:06:46.200 you know what, here's where we're at.

00:06:47.860 Here's what we did to get that.

00:06:49.200 Here's where I think you can make some tweaks to get there.

00:06:52.040 And I think that format of talking to an advisor or mentor

00:06:54.880 and that structure will really change the game for you.

00:06:58.180 Now, number one challenge that comes up

00:07:00.420 when I share this strategy with entrepreneurs is like,

00:07:02.180 hey, that's great, Dan, but where do I find a mentor

00:07:05.120 or an advisor?

00:07:06.020 And here's my number one tip I'm gonna give you.

00:07:08.380 You wanna write this down?

00:07:09.220 If you don't have a pen, go get it.

00:07:10.880 In your city, there are non-profit boards.

00:07:13.960 There are non-profit organizations,

00:07:15.960 fundraising, they usually help the library, the hospital,

00:07:19.440 all these different groups of people,

00:07:21.640 and they have boards put together.

00:07:23.160 And on those boards, there are entrepreneurs.

00:07:25.600 There are businessmen in your community.

00:07:28.280 Those people are pre-qualifying themselves as good people.

00:07:31.840 They care about their community, they wanna give back.

00:07:33.480 So if you live in the city, and you reach out to,

00:07:36.080 let's say, 10 of those people, and I'm talking cold emails,

00:07:39.020 This doesn't work for everybody else you want as a mentor.

00:07:41.360 But you have these people that sit on charitable boards

00:07:44.220 and you reach out to 10,

00:07:45.900 you'll pretty much get a 70 to 80% response rate.

00:07:48.700 And the email format follows the same strategy

00:07:51.500 that I shared with you guys on how to actually

00:07:53.400 ask for advice.

00:07:54.340 Be open in the email.

00:07:55.740 This is my business, this is our revenue number.

00:07:57.500 That's what got me the response from Frank McKenna

00:08:00.440 is because I told him, our revenues are this.

00:08:02.780 Here's my challenges, here's what I'm trying to do.

00:08:05.080 Do you know anybody in this community,

00:08:07.280 in this province or state that might be able to help me and

00:08:10.420 he replied with three names.

00:08:11.920 And the key after you do all of that, you have a great call,

00:08:14.660 you have a great connection with a mentor,

00:08:16.460 is you always have to follow back.

00:08:18.560 Following up and letting the person know how their advice

00:08:21.560 impacted or changed your strategy and had in your business

00:08:25.040 is the value and the repayment for them investing that time.

00:08:29.140 So that is the strategy.

00:08:30.400 One, be prepared.

00:08:31.300 Two, share your origin story or give an update.

00:08:33.700 Three, make sure that you share your challenges with numbers.

00:08:37.040 Four, you want to make sure that you offer

00:08:38.800 one to three solutions that you're actually going to

00:08:40.720 execute that you think will fix the problem.

00:08:42.580 And then finally, ask for advice or feedback

00:08:44.820 on that strategy. 0.96

00:08:46.220 Shut up, listen, and take that advice, 0.99

00:08:49.280 execute it, and follow up. 0.99

00:08:50.860 Hope this video finds you incredibly well.

00:08:53.060 As per usual, I want to challenge you to live a bigger life

00:08:55.160 and a bigger business, and I'll see you next Monday.

00:08:57.320 If you like this video, be sure to subscribe to my channel.

00:08:59.800 I'd also encourage you to join my newsletter

00:09:01.860 where I share exclusive events and opportunities

00:09:04.460 for other free training videos.

00:09:05.760 If you're ready to get going, I've got a couple more videos ready for you to go.

00:09:08.920 Have an incredible day.

Dan Martell - March 06, 2017

How To Talk To A Mentor Without Feeling Nervous

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