Cameron HeroldFounder of the COO Alliance & Invest In Your Leaders Training

I Asked a High-Level Exec to Mentor Me—Here’s What I Said #mentor #mentorshipmatters

27 May 2025 · 1 min

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Cameron Herold recounts a personal anecdote (circa 2003–2004) about how he sought a mentor at Starbucks. He prepared a list of seven skills to improve, identified potential executives via the org chart, was introduced to Greg Johnson by franchisee Drew Boyle, and successfully persuaded Greg to mentor him through unpaid, regular monthly calls and quarterly in-person meetings.

Chapters

Years ago, I was looking for a mentor for myself. So I made a list of the top seven things I wanted to get better at. Then I talked about the kind of person I was looking for. I wanted someone with multi unit operations, a good brand, really good leadership programs. And back in 2003, 2004, Starbucks was one of those brands. I went online on the Internet and I found the org chart and there's three people that seems like their titles might be the kind of person that might be able to coach me in operations. And one of our franchisees, Drew Boyle, sent me a note. He goes, I used to report to Greg Johnson. He's the guy of those three that you want to mentor you. So when I called Greg, I said, I want you to mentor me. Here's what I'm looking for. Here's why I'm looking for it. Here's how I identified you. Oh, and by the way, I want you to do a one hour call with me every month and I want you to come and meet with me in Vancouver once a quarter. And then on the next quarter, I want to come and meet with you at your head office for a full day each quarter. And I can't pay you. He goes, you can't pay me? And I said, no, let me correct that. I don't want to pay you because I want you to give back to me because I know someone helped you in your career. And he said, that's the best pitch I've ever been given. I would be honored to coach you. Let's do this.