7 Ways To Attract Mentors To You
Posted on September 1, 2010 | No Comments
Ronald C Cagape asked:
I often get asked, “Can you be my mentor? Can you please help me?”
There are literally hundreds of possible and better mentors all around you. You just need to look and be persistent in getting their attention.
The great thing is they’re also looking out for people to mentor, especially those in the business of mentoring. Nothing gives a mentor greater satisfaction than seeing a student succeed. It’s actually in our best interest to see you succeed.
Where To Find Mentors
Mentors are literally all around you. You just need to be on the lookout.
They could be in your family. Are your parents successful in their field and in their finances? Although, we often do not enjoy when our parents preach to us, you are wasting a valuable resource if you don’t ask your parents to teach you! They’re free and they love you. It will give them great pride if you succeed. Larry Gamboa was fortunate to have his mother as a mentor.
Do you have relatives or relatives of friends who are successful? Robert Kiyosaki had his best friend’s father whom he called his Rich Dad. Trace Trajano had his aunt to mentor him.
How about your boss or your boss’s boss? Or how about a senior executive or the top salesman in your company? I’m confident they’d be eager and willing to share some time with you and spill their own secrets.
And finally there are those in the business of mentoring. They write books, give seminars and conduct coaching programs. They are usually more structured in their approach and have a system of teaching in place. If the program has been running for some time, you can also be assured that the program works.
Mentors differ in style, values and approach to teaching. Before choosing one, get to know yourself first and understand the best way you learn. Understand your own values and see if there’s a match with your prospective mentor.
Once you find a few prospective mentors, you need to have a plan to attract their attention and get them to notice you and eventually help you.
Mentors are also people. They respond to influence if done properly.
How To Influence Mentors To Share Their Best Secrets
Like everyone else, they respond to psychological cues. They also look for praise, affirmation and generosity. They have needs just like you and me.
Here are 7 ways you can attract them and influence them to spend an extra effort to teach you.
#1 Patronize their products
Buy their books, attend their seminars and enroll in their coaching programs. This is the best way to get the attention of mentors. Understandably, some of you might have doubts about shelling out money for books and training, especially if you are tight on the budget.
Think of it as an investment and not an expense. As with any investment, expect a return.
If you are really tight on budget, find out if your prospective mentor has a blog or forum and subscribe. Participate and generously give feedback. Ask questions and help others. By being active in their space, you are essentially marketing yourself as an action-oriented go-giver.
Every mentor would love to have a student like that. This puts you on their radar of people to watch. This separates you from the pack.
Personally, I have literally spent hundreds of thousands of pesos in books, trainings and coaching. I needed to spend every peso to change my mindset from a poverty mentality to the entrepreneurial mentality. Even in the future, I predict I will spend millions in pesos to get more books and training.
#2 Ask for their signature and have your pictures taken
If you bought their books, look for opportunities to introduce yourself and ask for their signature. Then while he or she is signing, ask a quick question. If it’s a book signing, most likely there’ll be a line so you only have a few minutes. But if the mentor is not in a public event, you’ll most likely have time to pick his brains and get advice.
Asking questions personally lets the mentor associate a face to the name. Actually, if you buy their book often then you have a higher chance of getting name and face recognition. You’ll be moving from a faceless nobody to an actual acquaintance.
#3 Take them to lunch
This is actually a low-cost way to get 1-hour of their time. Of course, not everyone may say yes to this but who would turn down a free lunch to an upscale restaurant? Even mentors have to eat and you might have the slim chance that they are free for lunch on a weekday.
The advantage of having lunch together is you have their undivided attention and you get to enter in a back-and-forth conversation. That helps you to better qualify what you want to get advice on.
You lose nothing by offering to take them out to lunch except the minimal amount of paying for their food. Just make sure you give them time to chew and swallow their food.
#4 Put their teachings to action
This is one of the most important actions you need to take. This will make or break your relationship with your mentor.
Nothing can irritate a mentor more than a mentee who doesn’t translate teachings to action. I’ve been on the receiving end of it.
It’s like being scolded by your parent.
If you don’t put things to action, nothing happens and you yourself will not experience progress. You also lose.
Your mentor will also feel he’s wasting his time helping you. I actually remember Trace Trajano cancelled our weekly chats because we were not delivering results. Good thing he brought it back sometime later.
#5 Follow-up and Follow-Through
As you go along in your journey, take the time to give them an update. This accomplishes two things.
One, keeping in touch gets your mentor to recall you and not forget you. If they are a public figure, they deal with hundreds and probably thousands of names and faces in a month. You can quickly be forgotten.
Second, it also keeps you accountable. By constantly updating your mentor on your progress (or lack of it), both of you will see your progress (or lack of it). Your mentor will enjoy sharing more if you show progress.
If you are doing everything he tells but you’re not getting results, update them anyway. They can at least give you some insight on how to adjust or what you need to do.
You don’t need to update every day though. A weekly email or Facebook message would suffice.
#6 Persist through the growing pains
Every one will progress differently. Don’t fret if you don’t see results.
I have found that if I continuously market, I will get leads. I will get opportunities. Some opportunities convert to money quickly and some don’t.
But you have to persist and persevere. You won’t get the reward if you quit.
#7 Promote them
Finally, if your mentor and his material has been helpful to you, take the time to promote them and increase their business. Mentors who provide good value should be rewarded with more customers that they can help also.
Share their blog posts in Facebook, forward their emails to friends and talk about them to your friends. If it’s worth sharing, why not?
You may also make money from promoting them if they have affiliate marketing programs for their products. This is a good way to make money both ways.
If you are the top affiliate, you can also get bonus prizes especially if there is a contest.
Not only that, mentors love top affiliates. This separates you totally from the faceless herd. This ensures that your mentor will never forget you.
These 7 tips are designed to get mentors to help you succeed. If there’s one thing that is a guaranteed shortcut to success, this is it. Remember tip #4. Now go and put them to action.
Caffeinated Content – Members-Only Content for WordPress
I often get asked, “Can you be my mentor? Can you please help me?”
There are literally hundreds of possible and better mentors all around you. You just need to look and be persistent in getting their attention.
The great thing is they’re also looking out for people to mentor, especially those in the business of mentoring. Nothing gives a mentor greater satisfaction than seeing a student succeed. It’s actually in our best interest to see you succeed.
Where To Find Mentors
Mentors are literally all around you. You just need to be on the lookout.
They could be in your family. Are your parents successful in their field and in their finances? Although, we often do not enjoy when our parents preach to us, you are wasting a valuable resource if you don’t ask your parents to teach you! They’re free and they love you. It will give them great pride if you succeed. Larry Gamboa was fortunate to have his mother as a mentor.
Do you have relatives or relatives of friends who are successful? Robert Kiyosaki had his best friend’s father whom he called his Rich Dad. Trace Trajano had his aunt to mentor him.
How about your boss or your boss’s boss? Or how about a senior executive or the top salesman in your company? I’m confident they’d be eager and willing to share some time with you and spill their own secrets.
And finally there are those in the business of mentoring. They write books, give seminars and conduct coaching programs. They are usually more structured in their approach and have a system of teaching in place. If the program has been running for some time, you can also be assured that the program works.
Mentors differ in style, values and approach to teaching. Before choosing one, get to know yourself first and understand the best way you learn. Understand your own values and see if there’s a match with your prospective mentor.
Once you find a few prospective mentors, you need to have a plan to attract their attention and get them to notice you and eventually help you.
Mentors are also people. They respond to influence if done properly.
How To Influence Mentors To Share Their Best Secrets
Like everyone else, they respond to psychological cues. They also look for praise, affirmation and generosity. They have needs just like you and me.
Here are 7 ways you can attract them and influence them to spend an extra effort to teach you.
#1 Patronize their products
Buy their books, attend their seminars and enroll in their coaching programs. This is the best way to get the attention of mentors. Understandably, some of you might have doubts about shelling out money for books and training, especially if you are tight on the budget.
Think of it as an investment and not an expense. As with any investment, expect a return.
If you are really tight on budget, find out if your prospective mentor has a blog or forum and subscribe. Participate and generously give feedback. Ask questions and help others. By being active in their space, you are essentially marketing yourself as an action-oriented go-giver.
Every mentor would love to have a student like that. This puts you on their radar of people to watch. This separates you from the pack.
Personally, I have literally spent hundreds of thousands of pesos in books, trainings and coaching. I needed to spend every peso to change my mindset from a poverty mentality to the entrepreneurial mentality. Even in the future, I predict I will spend millions in pesos to get more books and training.
#2 Ask for their signature and have your pictures taken
If you bought their books, look for opportunities to introduce yourself and ask for their signature. Then while he or she is signing, ask a quick question. If it’s a book signing, most likely there’ll be a line so you only have a few minutes. But if the mentor is not in a public event, you’ll most likely have time to pick his brains and get advice.
Asking questions personally lets the mentor associate a face to the name. Actually, if you buy their book often then you have a higher chance of getting name and face recognition. You’ll be moving from a faceless nobody to an actual acquaintance.
#3 Take them to lunch
This is actually a low-cost way to get 1-hour of their time. Of course, not everyone may say yes to this but who would turn down a free lunch to an upscale restaurant? Even mentors have to eat and you might have the slim chance that they are free for lunch on a weekday.
The advantage of having lunch together is you have their undivided attention and you get to enter in a back-and-forth conversation. That helps you to better qualify what you want to get advice on.
You lose nothing by offering to take them out to lunch except the minimal amount of paying for their food. Just make sure you give them time to chew and swallow their food.
#4 Put their teachings to action
This is one of the most important actions you need to take. This will make or break your relationship with your mentor.
Nothing can irritate a mentor more than a mentee who doesn’t translate teachings to action. I’ve been on the receiving end of it.
It’s like being scolded by your parent.
If you don’t put things to action, nothing happens and you yourself will not experience progress. You also lose.
Your mentor will also feel he’s wasting his time helping you. I actually remember Trace Trajano cancelled our weekly chats because we were not delivering results. Good thing he brought it back sometime later.
#5 Follow-up and Follow-Through
As you go along in your journey, take the time to give them an update. This accomplishes two things.
One, keeping in touch gets your mentor to recall you and not forget you. If they are a public figure, they deal with hundreds and probably thousands of names and faces in a month. You can quickly be forgotten.
Second, it also keeps you accountable. By constantly updating your mentor on your progress (or lack of it), both of you will see your progress (or lack of it). Your mentor will enjoy sharing more if you show progress.
If you are doing everything he tells but you’re not getting results, update them anyway. They can at least give you some insight on how to adjust or what you need to do.
You don’t need to update every day though. A weekly email or Facebook message would suffice.
#6 Persist through the growing pains
Every one will progress differently. Don’t fret if you don’t see results.
I have found that if I continuously market, I will get leads. I will get opportunities. Some opportunities convert to money quickly and some don’t.
But you have to persist and persevere. You won’t get the reward if you quit.
#7 Promote them
Finally, if your mentor and his material has been helpful to you, take the time to promote them and increase their business. Mentors who provide good value should be rewarded with more customers that they can help also.
Share their blog posts in Facebook, forward their emails to friends and talk about them to your friends. If it’s worth sharing, why not?
You may also make money from promoting them if they have affiliate marketing programs for their products. This is a good way to make money both ways.
If you are the top affiliate, you can also get bonus prizes especially if there is a contest.
Not only that, mentors love top affiliates. This separates you totally from the faceless herd. This ensures that your mentor will never forget you.
These 7 tips are designed to get mentors to help you succeed. If there’s one thing that is a guaranteed shortcut to success, this is it. Remember tip #4. Now go and put them to action.
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