578 | The Mentorship Advantage: Why Every Small Business Leader Should Have a Mentor

Why every small business owner should have a mentor... That is coming up next!

Welcome to the Chris LoCurto Show, where we discuss leadership and life and discover that business is what you do, not who you are.

Welcome to the show, folks. I hope you're having a fabulous day wherever you are. Today, we are diving into the undeniable advantage of mentorship for every small business leader.

Now, I gotta tell you, whether you've considered finding a mentor before or, or it's a new thought, this episode is packed with reasons why it could be the game changer you've been looking for.

Now, before I get into all of this stuff and, and all of the amazingness, I wanna share with you my personal experiences with mentorship.

I am somebody who has been a coach, mentor, you know, leader of leaders for decades. It has been a very long time that I have been leading people, guiding people, coaching people, mentoring people.

It, it, it's, it's a joy of my life. This is something, being a teacher is something that I just know God made me to be. It's something that I do.

It's a part of almost everything that I do in my life. But it's not just me teaching other people. I have had an incredible number of mentors and coaches and teachers in my life.

It is something that when I was young enough, I was able to overcome a lot of the fears that people have.

By having a mentor and putting somebody who's a professional in my life, I was able to overcome those fears, overcome those struggles, and realize that there are people out there who have done the things that I'm trying to accomplish way longer than I have.

They have way more experience. And I really got into trying to see if I could find the best fit for me. Now, in that process, I have had many, many mentors.

Mentors, some good, some great and some crappy. But I haven't had just one. I-- not in just one field. I've had 'em everywhere.

I've had 'em in my early years for business in ministry. I've had many mentors. I have many, I have few, I should say high quality mentors. I'm a Bible teacher. That is something that I do.

And I have some great, amazing folks that I, I reach out to that are my mentors that guide and direct me on things that I'm trying to learn. And, and those relationships are, are very precious to me.

And it is not a wide swath of people. I have made sure that I have connected myself with people that are moving in the same direction that I am, that are, that are ahead of me doing things.

They've been doing it longer. They understand it better than I do. It's crazy powerful. When I was racing formula cars, that was a must for me.

I, I found out that one, I was spending a lot of money on just racing, period. And my gosh, I needed an advantage as fast as I could get it.

So I started a process of hiring experts in the field of racing. Now, I will tell you, this is one of those ways that you've got to learn who's good and who's not.

There were some folks that I hired that they were never drivers. They were not driver trainers. They were not driver coaches.

And so they could coach me on a lot of stuff, but then something would happen and their coaching, you know, I might miss a turn somehow.

And as they would explain to me what happened, I knew it wasn't correct. I knew it wasn't right.

It wasn't until I got a driver coach that I could explain it to a driver coach and they'd be, oh yeah, this, this, and this.

Because they knew exactly what had happened. They weren't just looking at data. They weren't telling me that I was wrong about something that I was feeling when they had never felt it themselves.

Once I got a driver, coach completely changed everything. And by what I mean, a driver coach is somebody who has raced for many years.

That changed my understanding of what I could do in a car and how I could race better and race faster. And, and, and it was just powerful for me.

I have had some driver coaches and I'm giving you all these pieces for you to be thinking about. As you look at mentors.

I've had some driver coaches that had great wealths of information and I've had some that may have had a great wealth of information, but didn't want to give me a competitive advantage 'cause they were still racing.

So you don't wanna pick somebody who's in the same field. That's a terrible way to pick a coach.

I have the, the amazing blessing in my life nowadays to actually on my, my free time or time that I'm working on The Ridge I operate heavy equipment.

I love it. I feel like a teenage boy. It is pretty darn fantastic. And I have been very smart in getting expert guidance and mentorship on what I do up here.

You know, learning how to operate the equipment the best way I possibly could, understanding how I can push boundaries, even to the point that, you know, I was saying to Matthew, my, my mentor and coach on heavy equipment, Hey, what am I doing wrong here? Tell me.

And he, he literally looked at me, he goes, you want me to just find something you're doing wrong and tell you? And I'm like, yeah, absolutely.

I want to know how I can do it better. And he was like, well, okay. And he gave me some information. I'm like, thank you. That's what I'm looking for.

I have had mentors and coaches all throughout my life. Why?

Because the simple fact that there are people who know way more about the stuff I'm trying to be good at or I'm trying to accomplish than I do, and therefore I want to gain that information.

I want to tax that intelligence as fast as I can. There are times that I know people, my son-in-law is somebody, Kevin, who just, he's amazing at researching stuff.

So I, I got a truck a couple years ago and, and I didn't even research anything I was gonna do to this truck.

I literally reached out to him, I said, and I told him, Hey, here's the situation. I've got this truck. It's gonna be used up on the farm.

What tires, what would you do with the suspension? What are other things?

And he just listed as like, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. These are the things. And I know that he has spent a lot of hours researching that stuff, because that's a joy and a passion for him.

That's something he knows and something he understands. I don't even question it. I'm like, okay, that's what I'm going with.

Turned out I absolutely loved everything that he gave me as far as information. So I'm sharing all of this with you to know that the person who you are listening to, the person who's coaching and mentoring and guiding you, guiding is a person who loves having coaches and mentors in his life.

It's incredibly important. One of the stories I shared during next level leadership live event, depending when I, there's a specific lesson I teach and I talk about, I got to race at Daytona.

Now I'm, I'm a road course guy. I love turns and elevations and all that kind of stuff. I always thought ovals were kind of silly, which Daytona is what's called a tri-oval.

I always thought that was kind of silly until I got out on one.

And man, it was an absolute blast. Now, we used the track plus the infield. It was a combination of both. So we never got to just go fully around the track at any time.

It was, you're coming off the walls and diving down into the infield and running through that and coming back out and running around. That may not make a whole lot of sense to a lot of folks.

But anyways, here's the point that I wanna make. I hired a great coach, Dwayne, who came out there to help me out. And he's helped me out multiple times.

When I, when I raced at Daytona, he'd raced there for I think 19 years. And I got out there. He is like, Hey, just go lay down a base lap.

You know, get out there and, and see what you can do. And so I went out and it, it was amazing. And how fun. It was like a big boy amusement park. It was so fun driving around this track.

And when I pulled in, I looked at my time and I said, dude, I think I need to do this, this, and this. And he goes, don't worry about that.

Here's what I want you to do. Go out and do this. And I'm like, you don't think I should do these other things? He goes, don't even worry about that. Just go do this.

So I went back out and all day long, I would go out on the track, do what he said, pick up another second. I'd go back out, pick up another second.

He'd tell me to do something else. Pick up another second. We got to the end of the day.

Right now, the, the, the practice days are long and exhausting. We get to the end of the day and he goes, now you remember the things you told me you wanted to do at the beginning of the day.

I'm like, yeah. He goes, now go do them. I went out and picked up another second and a half.

So throughout the day, I picked up an incredible amount of time because I had a phenomenal coach who knew exactly where I was, how I was driving my responses to that track, the, the very thing next thing I needed to do so I could go be successful racing at Daytona.

I took a second place there, and I think I even won one of the races there. I raced there multiple times.

I, there's no possible way I would've done that with the field I was racing against the guys that have been doing it way longer than I have if I didn't have that amazing coach.

That's the power of mentorship. The power of mentorship goes well beyond somebody telling you or giving you advice on something.

A mentor or a coach who is an expert provides expert advice. There are times I have helped people on stuff that was, and by the way, we don't just do business stuff.

There's so many times, you know, people that I coach, they will reach out and they'll go, Hey man, I just need to talk to you about something personal.

Great, let's do it. Let's focus on whatever you need right now. Right? Let's talk about that. An expert sharpens your thinking.

Think about that. They already know they've been doing it. They've probably experienced a lot of the thoughts that you've had, the fears that you've had, the experiences you've had.

They can help you to change the way you think to sharpen the way you think. They can help you to process decisions with way greater clarity.

I will tell you, having Dwayne tell me, don't do the things that you think you need to, to do, do these other pieces. Blew my mind.

I was so confident that if I just would implement these things, it would be huge. The funny thing is, is I would've only picked up maybe a second or two with the what, the changes that I had done.

But by following what he said, it changed the way that I looked at all racing on a track.

Well, at least on a tri-oval, it changed the way that I looked at it. It helped me to see it differently. It helped me to make better decisions while I was out there, right?

This is what an expert does. This is what a great mentor does.

The interaction and questions that come from a mentor can drive your thinking to clarity, in depth, even more than the mentor's specific knowledge you don't like.

For us, there's so much that we do where we don't even have to know the industry of what you, in the industry that you're in to help you become incredibly better at what you do.

That's a common question that we have from folks all the time, is, well, what do you know about my industry? Don't worry about that.

I don't need to know anything about your industry. What I need to know about is leadership. What I need to know about is teams culture.

What I need to understand is sales, marketing. I need to understand strategy. These are decision-making processes. All of these aspects of how to run a business successfully.

I can help you become powerful in what you're doing. If I help you do the things that you don't understand.

If I can help you to become an expert at the things that you're just now learning, or you, maybe you've been working at it for a long time, but you haven't looked at it from this perspective, right?

That is the power of having an expert, helping you through processes, helping you to think, helping you to make decisions.

But with all that being said, I know that all sounds fantastic. I know that all sounds great, but there are some challenges for small business owners. I will say this.

I I I say entrepreneurs and small business owners, many of them became small business owners because they didn't want to get advice or listen to somebody else.

They wanted to do their own thing. There's a lot of you out there right now going, yep, that's exactly true.

A lot of business owners struggle heavily with being vulnerable, opening up their business, opening up their financial details. All of that can be daunting in the mind of the small business owner.

Like, what is gonna happen? What, you know, should I do this?

If you have the right expert who has a teacher's heart who wants to help you be successful, who actually knows how to help you be successful, your numbers don't mean anything to that person.

Your numbers are a tool for that person to help you make greater numbers the fear of what this person is going to do.

And, you know, I think a lot of times we, we experience all this advice that comes from people that we know who've never run a business.

You know, your, your cousin who's telling you all the things that you need to do or, or your dad or your brother, or you know, somebody, a friend of yours who's telling you how to run your business and they've never run a business before.

They're not experts in it. And the way that they lead and teach is just, well, you know, what you gotta do is you gotta do it this way. You're doing it all wrong.

You're gonna mess that thing up. I think we've all experienced having those people in our lives, and it causes us to be super gun shy. Am I gonna get somebody on board as an expert?

And they're just gonna sound exactly like the people who don't know what the heck they're talking about.

Not if you find the right expert, not if you find somebody who is actually an expert, but also has the heart of a teacher that cares to teach, that cares to help develop you.

You know that somebody who is hopefully decently Altruistic that wants you to succeed.

So there's this fear that a lot of small business owners have of like, well, I'm afraid to, to, to share some of this information. Why? What are they going to do with it?

I can promise you they shouldn't have any desire to do anything with that information except help you. They're not gonna go take it and share it with the world, right? That would be ridiculous.

So one of the biggest issues that small business owners have and entrepreneurs have is the fear of being vulnerable. If I am vulnerable, are you, is this person going to destroy me?

Now, I, I can tell you, I have, I've come across some supposed business coaches, and they are business coaches by all rights.

They, they are experts in their field, but they are horrible at how they lead people. I mean, I have literally listened to some of these supposed guys.

I mean, it's been a long time ago, but I can remember listening to somebody who was just berating a, a business owner. So you got, you got 40 minutes of my time, you better get going.

What is it you wanna know? What do you want? Nope, you're doing that wrong. You gotta do it this way. And it was just like this ridiculous, what are you doing?

And then when he got off the call, he just had this smile. He's like, now that's how you lead somebody through a process. I was like, you're an idiot.

That's a terrible way to lead somebody. That person is emotionally confused right? Now. If, if that's how you led me, man, I would've hung up the phone within the first minute.

There's no way I would let somebody to talk to me like that and treat me that way, right? I'm paying you, you better have the heart of a teacher. You better have some bedside manners.

You know, you're not the, you're not the one that's so special. The person who's paying you should be the person that is, is treated well, right? That's how you get your money.

So you wanna make sure that you have got somebody who cares about you, who wants you to succeed, who is willing to ask you 14,000 questions to get to the right information so they can give you the right information, right?

We are huge on saying perspective gathering is your greatest tool. If you're gonna teach, guide, coach, mentor, anybody.

If you can't gain perspective, then what in the world are you giving advice on? How are you leading somebody if you don't have greater perspective in the process?

So important thing is, is if you're fearing being vulnerable, you know, make sure that you actually know who it is that you're gonna be talking to, and how are they gonna treat you?

For me, I will not be vulnerable with you if I can't trust you. If I can't trust you with my vulnerability, you don't get my vulnerability.

That's why it's so great through Next-Level Life, where people coming in, they come in and they get to spend time with us and learn that they can trust us, and then vulnerability happens and we're able to help them with amazing growth.

So vulnerability is a big sticking point. Fear and pride. Oh, I hate this guys, listen, I get it.

I understand it, but fear and pride, those concerns over like loss of control or, you know, having reluctance to allow that type of external guidance that has got to go. You are a grown adult.

Listen, you've got get to a place where you are not afraid and you're not prideful over somebody guiding and directing you, especially somebody who knows what the heck they're talking about, right?

That fear is holding you back, man, if I was, now here's the thing, just going back to like the, the formula car aspects. That is my car.

Well, I sold it a couple years ago, or no, last year, unfortunately, eh, missing that car right now, but that car was my car.

I'm the one behind the wheel in that car. I'm the driver. I own the car. This is my situation. I can do whatever I want.

Nobody can tell me what I wanna do, what I need to do, anything like that.

I'm in control until I'm no longer in control because my car is sliding across the, the road into a barrier because I don't know what the heck I'm doing.

Hopefully this is making sense, this pride of, oh, I am the one in control is ridiculous. It is unnecessary. You already know that you're in control of your business. You already know that you own it.

So what pride is nothing more than puffing yourself up because you feel like you're not worthy enough protecting yourself from somebody stepping in and going, Hey, listen, I see you've got these great ideas over here.

Here's these three things you wanna do out on that racetrack. Those are great ideas. Here's these three things you wanna do in your business. Great ideas.

Let me help you with something. Do this first step over here and do this, focus on this.

One of the biggest things we will push our leaders as they come into our programs to accomplish is what we call Killing the Leadership Crazy Cycle.

Because until you do, you're not leading well. In fact, there's a really good chance you're not even leading very much at all.

And we've had some of the most amazing comments of people that are like, as soon as I stopped, you know, as soon as I killed the Leadership Crazy Cycle, it changed my entire business.

I've been leading people to success like crazy. I've had time for them, I've been able to lead them. People are doing better, man, I enjoy this.

This is way better than being stuck in that leadership crazy cycle. That's the first thing we push. You know, we don't push.

You need to make more money. You need to make more sales, you need to get more money in the door. Every single time somebody, a leadership team comes through Strat Plan.

I always in the beginning talked to them about, you know, how important is it getting to new money?

If you added money right now, if you doubled your sales next week, let's say you doubled your sales next week, what would happen to your business?

And almost every once in a great while, somebody will go, oh, that'd be great. And then 30 seconds later, they're like, now, hold on a second. That probably wouldn't be as great the rest of the time.

Everybody says we would self implode. We couldn't handle double the sales, double the revenue in our business because the rest of our business is not set up to be able to handle that much yet.

Or there's problems that we couldn't take that on.

It is amazing when you realize you get past your pride and you realize that there are things that are holding you back and you may not even know about them, or you may have some clues, but you don't know what to do with them.

If you did, then you wouldn't be stuck in the situation you currently in.

But having a great mentor, a great expert, can help you get past those, can help you get to those, those things that are holding you back, put together plans and help you to fix those things.

But if you're full of fear and pride, then unfortunately you're keeping expertise from guiding and directing you, you. So don't do it.

Get past that. Recognize that fear and pride is keeping you from growing your business, keeping you from growing your team.

And by the way, I'm talking to you, small business owners and leaders, but what about your marriage?

Do you have a phenomenal coach on your marriage? Do you have a phenomenal mentor when it comes to marriage? What about parenting?

My wife and I are consistently going through, you know, we, we have a fantastic five-year-old little girl. We have grown kids, grown daughters, and we have a young daughter.

And we are consistently at this age going through and learning and growing and getting advice and getting mentorship on things that we should do.

Why? Because we want to raise a phenomenal adult. We want to raise a child who knows God and knows that God is her true father. We want the best for our child.

So it's not just focusing on business, it's not just focusing on one aspect in life. It's actually looking around at every aspect of your life going, where do I need more expertise?

Where do I need more growth? So another thing that can hold small business owners and leaders back is the emotional barriers.

So emotional challenges, like the fear of losing control with decision making, right?

So a lot of small business owners and leaders are very hesitant to get somebody to give advice because what they've convinced themselves of is that if I go after this advice, I have to do exactly what they say, which will put me out of control.

And I don't wanna be out of control. Listen, I tell people all the time, I am not here to make you do what I think you should do.

I am here to help you gain as much quality perspective as you possibly can. And then you make all the decisions that you need to make.

It's by you making those decisions, you, you're the one who's, you know, driving the ship. I'm here to give you information. I'm here to give you perspective. I'm here to give you expert advice.

You still make the decision on whether or not you're gonna plug that in. You're not losing any control, which by the way, think about it, control's an illusion, right?

So if you don't focus on it being out of control or having to be in control, then you can overcome the emotional barrier of control and start looking at stuff and going, what's the best information I can get?

I am somebody who has zero problem gaining quality, and I will say quality perspective. I will go to people, I'll ask people all kinds of questions. I'm always what we call taxing the collective intelligence.

I will look at a group and go, Hey, what would you do here? What do you think about this? Because I want to know what that group thinks.

I might not use anybody's opinion, but I will tell you what, it helps me to hear the way that other people think.

It helps me to hear the way that other people are motivated by other things in life. They have different views of stuff. They think outside the box, outside of my box, they think differently than I do.

I wanna know what they're thinking. I wanna know what they're experiencing. I don't have to take their advice and plug it in.

I'm not bound to anything I'm looking for, for more mentorship, more growth, right?

So the sooner you overcome that emotional barrier, the sooner you will be super excited about going and gaining as much information as you possibly can.

Obviously with, you know, like I'm saying, make sure that you're choosing the right type of mentor. Somebody who has the heart of a teacher, somebody who actually is an expert in the field.

You know, this isn't just somebody who failed at stuff and became, you know, a consultant somewhere, somebody who actually has the expertise.

And you can prove that out, right? So what is the advantage of having a a, a mentor?

Well, once again, gaining a competitive edge through wiser decisions and successfully navigating those, those barricades, those hurdles, having somebody to help you to make better decisions.

I cannot tell you how many times I, as I've sought mentors, that they come up with something I wasn't even thinking about.

I'm like, oh my gosh, that is a fantastic way of looking at that. I've had folks, I've been doing this for so long, and I have a lot of times people will say, man, that's, that's a $10,000 idea right there.

Yep, sure is. Absolutely. How'd you get there? I'm just not as emotionally attached to what you're doing as you are. I'm not as blinkered as you are.

I'm able to look at it from an outside perspective. I'm able to look at it through the lens of the years of things that I've done. That's how I see that, right?

So it helps you to make wiser decisions, you know, through Next-Level Life. One of the things that we do is we help people to understand how to put quality, healthy boundaries in place.

Powerful, powerful, priceless stuff, right? How do you deal with somebody who's controlling? How do you deal with somebody who wants to hurt you?

What do you do in those situations, right? Wise decision making is a great advantage of a great mentor.

Navigating those hurdles, you know, those, those obstacles that are in front of you, somebody who's already been through those obstacles can teach you how to get through them better, faster with less pain, less, less destroying your car, less running into the wall, right?

Because they've already been there. The great thing is that there is a compound effect as you're making better decisions, right?

It's leading you to greater success because having that type of mentorship can help you. For me, I am huge on trying to have the closest relationship with God.

I can, I'm huge on trying to understand him as much as I possibly can. Having people speak into my life and guiding and explaining things. And, you know, stuff.

I've been doing this for almost 30 years, right? I've been teaching scripture in some way, shape, or form for almost 30 years.

And I'm looking to the guys that have been doing it for 50 years going, what are you seeing here? What about this over here?

How, how would you, what would you decide on this thing over here? Those aspects have helped me to make incredibly better decisions, right?

That's what you're looking for. That compound effect of one better decision, two better decisions, three better decisions. All of a sudden it changes the way you think.

It changes the way you look at stuff, it changes the way you handle things. So it is super powerful on looking at, it's not just, oh, I need help with one decision.

The more you do it, the better you process, the better you think, the better the decision making you have.

Also, just being able to verbalize ideas, bouncing them off of somebody, someone else who helps you find the, the faults in, you know, the logic.

It helps you to strengthen those weak spots, right?

One of the most common things we hear folks say coming out of Next-Level Life is, I mean, and I don't even, I shouldn't even say coming out of, I mean, within the first half of the first day, one of the most common things we hear people say is, wow, that is eye-opening, man.

This is, what do you think of the event so far? Man, this is eyeopening.

It is awesome when you're able to verbalize things, talk through things, discuss things, share thoughts, share ideas with somebody, and that person is able to see through some logic errors, that person is able to, to help you process things better.

Well, I hear what you're saying there, but what is that gonna do to this thing over here? How's that gonna affect this person here?

Having somebody be able to walk through those, those weak spots and point them out and help you to overcome them, once again, stunning, incredible, absolutely needed in any aspect of growth.

I don't care if it's business, marriage, your personal life, whatever it is that is vital to your growth.

Hey, it's Joel Fortner here. I'm the Vice President of leadership development on Chris's team, and I oversee our Nex-Level Mastermind business coaching program.

Most business owners and leaders lack a clear path to succeed in business. They question whether they're making the right decisions, if they're focusing on the right things to really grow their business.

If this is you, you need a coach in your life.

Coaches help you make better decisions, navigate uncertainty, lead more effectively, and grow your business without sacrificing your life and your family in their first year.

Our clients typically see an average of 67% increase in gross revenue and an average of 138% increase in net profit and regained hours of time.

Our clients stay in the program for over three and a half years simply because of the results they get.

So if you're ready to run your business at the next level and see the growth you've been wanting, then visit chrislocurto.com/mastermind.

Again, chrislocurto.com/mastermind today.

So what do you do from here? What are actionable steps? The first actionable step is take a self inventory of the struggles you have with putting a mentor in your life.

Just spend some time alone asking yourself this question, what am I afraid of? What am I concerned with when it comes to having a mentor? Be as honest as you possibly can with you.

What is the struggle? Is it a control issue? Is it a information issue? Is it a fear of of losing control issue? What is the thing that's holding you back?

And then ask yourself, should it, should that exist? Should that be something you're struggling with? Is it actual truth? Let's say it's the out of control issue.

Are you really out of control? Let's say you put a mentor in your life and you just don't fit what that mentor or you don't like 'em, the the things that they're telling you is just not helping.

Nothing is working. Can you not just walk away? Of course you can. You're not obligated. It's you who seeking in the mentorship. So you're not obligated to anything walk away.

So spend some time asking yourself, what am what? What are the emotional barriers that I'm struggling with?

What is the fear that I'm struggling with of putting somebody in my life that can hopefully absolutely better whatever it is that I'm seeking them for? That's the first action step.

Get to a place where you are sick and tired of being worried about getting advice or input from somebody.

Now, again, as I talked about before, if you've had really bad, unhealthy advisors, as I do my air quotes here, you know, family members who don't really know what they're talking about.

You know, friends who are guiding you and directing you on, on how you need to run your business, and they've never run a business before.

Those aren't people you wanna seek. So if, if you're taking the experience from them and that is becoming you, you know that's creating the fear inside of you.

Wipe that clean, get away from that, remove that as a barrier to seeking a quality, healthy expert in your life. Second thing is you gotta find the right mentor.

You gotta find somebody who understands what you are doing, what you are experiencing.

It's gotta be somebody who understands business, somebody who understands leadership, somebody who understands business ownership.

Somebody who's been there, done it, has been successful, greatly successful on it. Somebody who has the heart of a teacher. These are the things that you're looking for.

It would've made no sense at all to take the coach that I had training me on road courses down to Daytona, if they've never raced an oval or a tri-oval and have them advise me on racing that track, that is ridiculous.

Why? Because they don't do the nuances of that track. Racing an oval is considerably different than racing a road course.

It is that for me, it's a world of difference. There's a lot of different strategies on a oval than there is on a, on a road course. I needed somebody who knew that tri-oval.

I needed somebody who understood that and could lead me to success there, right? For me, in the early phases, having a data coach helped.

And yet it hindered because it was somebody who only knew one aspect of racing that wasn't enough. Many of the other mentors in my life, maybe they were going in different directions than I was.

And so they're no longer mentors of my but the mentors that I still have in my life to this day. And I still have a handful that I just love having being a part of my life.

I've gone through the the ones that aren't gonna work out and have ended up on the ones that know what the heck they're doing.

And the funny thing is, is as you practice this a little bit, what you find is you get really good at recognizing who actually knows what they're talking about and who wants to set you up for success, and who has the heart to set you up for success.

So that's how I got to the, the group that are my mentors. So for you, it's gotta be somebody who understands business, small business ownership, small business leadership.

It's gotta be somebody who understands your unique challenges. What are you experiencing? Are they able to speak into it?

Have they been there before? You know, again, it doesn't have to be somebody who understands your industry.

It has to be somebody who understands running business, leading people, creating successful strategies, creating successful businesses.

So if you will spend time finding that, then I promise you, you will get connected with somebody who is gonna do the best they can to set you up for success.

So with all of that, make the decision, overcome the fears, overcome the the struggles, and get on it right now. Well get on it.

As soon as you overcome the fears and struggles, then get on it and get somebody in your life who can help you to operate and lead and direct your business in a considerably better way with more information.

We've got some great episodes that I think will help you out as well on more information on mentoring Episode 166, which is The Accidental Leader.

This is a great interview with Bo McDonald on how coaching and mentoring helped him become a real leader. Bo is the one, I just love it.

When he killed the Leadership Crazy Cycle, I'd pushed him for a long time to get outta that and kill that leadership crazy cycle.

His first call to me, the first thing he said was, Chris, I've led people for three days straight and I'm exhausted. Why have I not killed this Leadership Crazy Cycle before this?

And it was a great conversation. But when he finally did that, it blew up his leadership. It caused him to be able to lead people to success, grow his business better.

So fantastic. Episode 166: The Accidental Leader.

Another great episode is 330 | How to Lead an Uncoachable Team Member. So here we give you a five step framework to lead team members to clarity and ownership. And we're role playing the conversation so you can hear how to lead in real time.

So there is also a blog post that we have got on the website. It's called Why You Need A Mentor.

This is a blog post that I wrote about a conversation and experience that I had with Melissa Fuller, one of my favorite people on the planet and her family.

I've coached her, her family. Great blog post. Go check that out. Why you need a mentor. So mentorship isn't just about getting advice, folks, a fantastic level of clarity and depth in your decision making.

This is huge. How do you make better decisions? You gotta learn how to get to better decision making that elevates your entire business.

Now remember, the journey of entrepreneurship isn't one that you have to travel alone. So many people think they do and you don't.

Many business owners, many entrepreneurs think I, I've got this all by myself. That's a waste of time. Find people who are doing it and learning how to do it better by getting quality mentorship around them.

A mentor can provide you with insight, experience, and the edge you need to navigate the complexities of running a small business.

So if you're on the fence about finding a mentor, consider this the sign you've been waiting for. Until next time, here's to your success.

Keep leading and keep living well. And as always, take this information, change your leadership, change your business, change your life, and join us on the next episode.