Evan Carmichael explains how to find a mentor by first defining exactly what help you need, then asking directly. Study successful entrepreneurs like Richard Branson and Donald Trump through books and talks as informal advisors while reaching out to people in your network who can actually help.
Chapters
Hi, I'm Evan Carmichael. Welcome to another edition of Ask Evan. In today's video, I'm going to answer a question from one of my readers, Trina, who is a single mom. She wants to run a business. She's looking for a mentor to help her. Her main vision behind it is because she wants to build a better life for herself and for her daughter who's just growing up. And I think that's something a lot of people can relate to. They want to build better lives for themselves and for their family. In terms of finding a mentor, I think the first thing you need to do is identify what you need help with. So it wasn't clear in the email that you sent exactly what you need help with. And when you're going and looking for a mentor, you want to be really specific as to where you need help. So, you know, people that you talk to are going to be able to give you advice or refer you to people depending on what you ask. So just saying you're looking for a mentor doesn't necessarily help, but if you say, "I need somebody to help me with my website idea or marketing or grow my business or raising capital," whatever it is, then you start getting people thinking about how they can potentially help you, either themselves or pass a name on to you to help you out. I see it a lot of times, a lot of entrepreneurs that I meet with here in Toronto will come and ask me for help, and I try to help as much as possible. When somebody has a really clear goal of what they want to accomplish, it's easier for me to help them. For me to mentor them or to give them connections to people who I think could help them. If they're very vague, then it's harder for me to help. Then I have to kind of drill down and try to figure out what it is that they need help with. And so people may spend that time with you, but a lot of people won't. So you want to try to get as clear as possible as to what you need help with, so that when you are talking to people, it's easier for them to give you contacts and give you advice to help you out. The other part of that is— so that's great, you're out there, you're talking to people, you're really clear, and you will get people who can help you. The second part is you don't have to get mentored by people who you actually know, and I found that I've got a lot of advice and I consider a lot of people to be my mentors and people I look up to who I've never actually met. And I learn about them through books that I read and stories online and profiles that we even do on my own website. And I call it Modeling the Masters, where you're looking at famous entrepreneurs who you look up to and you get their advice by listening to how they started their business, and I find a lot of value in that. Hopefully, you know, you guys do as well, and that's why we do the regular videos on it. But, you know, when I'm looking for marketing advice, there's people who I know who I can talk to about marketing, but I also look at guys like Richard Branson and how did they market their business, and guys like Donald Trump and how do they promote themselves. There's lessons you can learn. Success leaves clues. By looking to these famous entrepreneurs who you look up to, and it helps to look at people who are inspiring to you and whose story you really appreciate and you can resonate well with. And you can have them as your informal board of advisors. You know, how would I market like Richard Branson, as an example. And they can help you grow your business as well, even though you've never actually met them. So both sides of the coin. Again, it's still going to come down to really being clear of what you need help with. Asking people exactly for that help, and then also looking to other resources beyond your network, looking up to famous entrepreneurs and seeing lessons you can learn from their success. So hopefully that helps you start that business and grow it, and you can build that better life for, for you and your daughter. Good luck. If you have other questions, let me know. For those watching, if you like the video, please leave a thumbs up below. I always like seeing those come in, so thank you. And if you have questions, feel free to leave a comment below. If you have other thoughts as well to add to this video, feel feel free to leave it in a comment underneath, and we'll see you on the next episode.
