Hi there and welcome to the Everyday Entrepreneur podcast where I, Caitlin Fritz help you reach your entrepreneurial potential. Together we can build your dream social impact business so that you can leave a legacy beyond your nine-to-five. Hello, hello, and welcome to this week's episode of Everyday Entrepreneurship. My name is Caitlin and I am so excited to have you here. I hope you are as excited as I am to talk about this week's theme, which is Mentorship. So if you're new here, and maybe you don't know anything about me, I am an award winning EdTech entrepreneur. I've been in your shoes from ideation stage to building and, you know, raising funding, scaling a business. But I've also been supporting entrepreneurs worldwide through educational kind of workshops, one on one coaching, accelerator hubs, and one of my favorite things, which is Mentoring, which is the theme of the day. So mentoring, I feel like is this term that gets thrown around a lot, especially in the startup space, get a mentor, get a mentor, get a mentor. And it's one of those things where you're just like looking out into the abyss and you're like, okay, I need a mentor, but. What, how, where? And that's what we're going to talk about in this week's episode. So first, let's break down what mentoring really means. So mentoring is a bit different than coaching. So coaching is where you have an individual who can get you from point A to point B. in productive sessions, whether that's online or in person. And it's really about accomplishing a goal. So what I like to do is think about it as athletes. So if your business was a swimmer, you would get a coach to help you improve your time, your stroke, your diving, whatever. The same thing is with business. So in business, you would have someone who could help you coach you in improving your social media strategy. Uh, creating a YouTube platform, outlining your sales funnel and path to profitability. It's getting from point A to point B. That's a coach. A mentor is much more of someone who is acting as a sounding board. So maybe, yes, there are goals, but we're not working at the same sort of diligence as a coach. It's much more conversational, someone who you can have a longer term relationship with than a coach. Because to improve your YouTube strategy, that might only take you three months. A mentor might be someone you have for six months, a year, two years, that you keep coming back to as that individual. You can pick up the phone, get advice, and have a sounding board on you and your business. Mentors are also awesome because They are able to tap into their own experiences to offer you advice and share maybe connections or contacts in their network. I would never ask a coach to be like, okay, can you put me in touch with so and so who I know you're connected with on LinkedIn. But I definitely would ask my mentor that. So, in summary, a mentor is someone you can have longer term relationships with. honest conversations, get feedback and advice, and get those insights from a sounding board. A coach is much more strategic, someone who can get you from point A to point B through more tactical, hands on lessons and workshops, and someone you're probably going to have a shorter term relationship with than a mentor. So when I talk to newer entrepreneurs, I recommend that first. You need to understand what a mentor is, which, check, we've done that. But second, you need to identify your mentorship needs. A mentor for your very early stage of your business might look different than a mentor two years from now when you are sitting on the shelves at Tesco or Sainsbury's. That is okay. Mentorship can come in seasons. Who you need now might not be who you need in the future. So identify where you need mentorship. Both from a founder's perspective, like, Hey, I need someone who can help me with growing my confidence, growing my thought leadership skills, growing my own, you know, ability and mindset. But it can also be mentorship in things like, I need someone who's an expert at business strategy. Someone who's been there and lived it, and maybe pivoted and scaled. I want that sort of long term business strategy mentorship. And after you identify those needs, I like to put them in different bubbles on a piece of paper. Consider people you know, admire, or follow in those spaces. So for example, if I was looking for someone who is really good at honing their voice, really self confident, that person might be a really awesome female founder who's a few more steps ahead of me, who I've known in different, um, founder communities. And that person looks very different than a business strategy expert who might be someone has grown a business and has retired and now is just giving back to entrepreneurs like yourselves. And when you have these names listed down, think about You're on your own network, the names you probably mentioned, there might be individuals who are doing similar things or like minded things in your network. And there might be someone in your network who's able to introduce you to those individuals, because don't get me wrong, I would love to have someone like Melinda Gates be my mentor. But, one of my favorite mentors is a social impact minded female entrepreneur who has lived experience, MBE and all. So you can get those same qualities and attributes with individuals in your own network. Then I recommend And this is the hard part, the scary part. Start reaching out. Start having virtual coffees, conversations, you know, following up with them after you connect at an event, a workshop, an open night. Share with them your value proposition in your business and kind of what you're looking for when it comes to a mentor and if they're open to having these conversations because mentoring really is a series of conversations. You don't just ask someone, Hey, will you be my mentor? It's getting to know this individual. understanding their time commitments, their areas of expertise, and then building that relationship with them, whether that be maybe meeting once a month, meeting, you know, once every other month in person, this is a personal commitment. relationship. Even though it's under, I would say, the guise of business, you are still working with someone at an individual level, having these kind of closed door room conversations. And the person you might have written down from the bubble exercise, after you meet with them once or twice, uh, might not be the right fit. And that's okay, too. It's really important you have those conversations to really validate, is this the right person for me, my business and where I'm at right now? And on the flip side, because this is a relationship, does this person have the time, the bandwidth and the knowledge to give to someone like me right now? When I say, um, search for mentors Yes, that does feel like you are in an Amazon jungle with probably a butter knife. But, start small. I would much rather have one really great mentor who I can have those conversations where I pick up the phone at 8 o'clock at night when everything's going wrong, than ten really weak relationship mentors that maybe don't really know what I'm doing or can't really open up their network or is being standoffish. Start. Small, practice these relationships, and also really reflect on these relationships, because I have had a mentor. I've had a couple of really great mentors, but I have had one that has been with me since 2017, 2018. And she is much more valuable than I would call the drive by mentors that some people like to just have one meeting with, quote unquote, pick their brains, and leave. If you want that, then call it what it is. That is more a consultation session than a mentoring relationship. So those would be my steps on what it is like to find a mentor as a new founder and I encourage you to Um, you know, put yourself out there and try. I know it can be really intimidating. Guess what? People are going to say no. They're going to say it's not the right time, not the right fit. There's going to be a rejection, but there's also so much reward when you can have a quality lasting mentor relationship and that you really can't put a price on, um, like you could probably consulting, uh, chat. So those are my insights on what it is like to find a mentor. Um, if you're interested about learning more in mentorship, drop me a line. I am a qualified business coach and mentor. If you're a mentor listening and you want to kind of upskill your mentoring relationships, always happy to have a conversation about that as well. So I look forward to hearing about your success stories. I'm cheering you on to send that LinkedIn email, make those handshakes at networking events, pick up the phone, or drop a line to a potential mentor. And hopefully, This time next month, I will hear some really great mentoring relationships blossoming. Thanks for listening. If you want to learn more, be sure to check me out on Instagram, LinkedIn, my website. I'm always, uh, shouting about things around entrepreneurship for the everyday individual. And if you've enjoyed this, give it a thumbs up and subscribe to my channel. Go ahead and give it a like, a subscribe, a review, a rating. Genuinely, I do a happy dance every single time someone shares this with a friend or drops in some of those stars. So I appreciate you, I look forward to hearing how your business is going, and until next time this is Everyday Entrepreneurship. Thank you for joining me for this episode of Everyday Entrepreneurship. To stay tuned and most up-to-date, subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. You can follow me Caitlin Fritz on Instagram. And if you have any questions about building your business with Impact, drop me an email with the link in the show notes.