The Focus of Mentors with Elizabeth Hill

Welcome to this episode of the Million Dollar Mastermind. I'm Larry Weddell. And before we get started, if you want to know exactly how to win again and again, go to Wydell on winning.com webinar now to watch something I've put together for you. Now let's get going into this episode of Million Dollar Mastermind.

I am with Elizabeth Hill, attorney and entrepreneur out of Lubbock, Texas. And the gold winner from Texas Tech School of Law, graduate of the last decade. Pretty darn amazing. And so let's talk the role of mentors. And as you got out, was that the first time you'd had mentors in your life?

I, you know, I had mentors from an early age, and that's something that I have found to be very valuable. And you know, one of the things that I think I was just always so curious about is how they got to where they are and how could I do something similar. And so I loved picking mentors brains and finding out what they did. And really, even in law school, from the beginning, I talked to whoever was in charge of the career services and really wanted to find out more information about how it worked. How do you get hired? What do you need to do? What's important? What should I do that first summer after my first year? Should I get a job or should I work for a judge? And so I made sure I found people that could give me some feedback and perhaps some advice on how to get there. And, you know, in my career, as I'm trying to develop my career as an appellate attorney, for example, is there someone I could call that, you know, I could say, hey, I've got this situation generally, what do you recommend? And that's been invaluable for me.

And how do you, I did the same thing before I went to that's really saved my rear, you know, it's really part of the reason I, many years ago, I will say about 10 years ago, I realized I was sitting on a whole lot of information and because I had a pretty successful life. But probably none of that would have happened had it not been for about five key people in my life that were at key times giving me key phrases or watch out for this or when you go there, you know, don't fall, there's a hole over there, don't fall in it, you know, and that can save you, that can make or break your career. Because so much of success is doing the right things, enough of the right things within a fast enough to be successful. You know, success in Business, in life, a lot of it has to do with speed, you know, and you got to be patient. It takes time to get, but you have to get things done. You know, you got to be productive. And so if you have people that are showing you the ropes, like you're always going to run into forks in the road. And if you just have someone who says go this way, not that way, and you know that they're a local, well, that saved you going down the wrong road, you know, and when you think about it, we've got, for my generation, the kids were our mentors when it came to computers.

Oh, yes.

So it doesn't have to be someone older. They don't have to have degrees, they don't have to be million dollar earners. They just have have to know what you don't know. And you need to know now. And I've heard this, a trial and error is the greatest teacher. Unfortunately, the tuition's too high to learn it on everything, you know, to make all the mistakes yourself. If you could learn off the mistakes of other people, you can save a whole lot of time. And so where did this come to you? You know, you said early on, you know, growing up as a kid, this, that the other, you had mentors. Where did that idea come to you? To where you didn't just necessarily charge off on a venture. You got. You had enough presence about yourself to realize there's things out there, I don't know that might influence what I do when I do it, how I do it, who I do it with. And so I'm gonna ask somebody. You know, I personally have no trouble asking for directions. They say that men don't like to ask for directions. I don't like being lost. I'll ask directions, you know, I'll ask for help. And so where did this come to you? How would you get that in your mind?

You know, that's a great question. I don't know if I've ever really thought about how I learned to look to mentors. But as you were speaking, I thought about my mom because she is a voice and piano instructor. And whenever I was about 12, 13, 14, she was getting her degree in voice, and she had this wonderful mentor who was her professor and her instructor. And I saw how she worked in her life and how she led her down the road of how to develop a career in music. And so I think that's probably a big. Had had been a big influence on my life to see my mom have a mentor like that.

And.

The thing about Mentors is. How would you advise people to go out and get mentors and start to add them into your life to give you. They can give you unlimited advantages. You know what I'm saying?

Yes, yes. Well, you know, for example, in the legal community, we have several local community organizations, we have the local bar. There's actually even a lunch group that is targeted to be mentors to young attorneys or to people that are going attorneys that are going out on their own and opening their own practice. And so there are people out there that really enjoy and find it rewarding to be mentors. You just have to kind of put yourself in situations where you can connect with them. And so that was one thing I did. I found out who are the appellate attorneys in Lubbock. And so I tried to connect with them, tried to build a relationship, which I was able to do. And that was really invaluable for me and helped me tremendously in figuring out how to become board certified as quickly as I did. Because it is, it is really hard to get board certified. Not only do you have to have all of these cases that you've handled, but you also have to jump through all of these hoops as far as you have to be the lead attorney and you have to argue before courts. And then of course you have to take a test. And so I had a really incredible mentor as an appellate attorney and that has been invaluable to me.

And how did you select him?

I just, I, I connected with him through.

How did he stand out to you?

Well, I knew he was board certified. I knew that he handled a lot of appellate cases and that gave him the credentials.

He had the certification you wanted and he obviously had your respect. So he was doing something with that. He was operating at that level and an outstanding way to where it got your attention, is that safe to say?

Yes, absolutely. And you know what's interesting about that relationship is that recently he was appointed and won an election to be a justice on one of the appellate courts in Texas. And what's neat about that is not that that gives me any advantage, but his clients that had been using him then heard about me and came over and was able to attain a lot of those clients. Now become one of only two board certified attorneys in Lubbock. And so that's been a really good journey for me.

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Yeah. Wow. And so unforeseen benefits from the mentorship thing. And have you found that people are pretty friendly? I mean, if you're, you know, everybody's busy, but, you know, if you approach them in the right way? I think you got to get to the point in your life. And part of that getting to the point in your life is where you realize you don't know everything. You got to get to that point. Come on, folks.

Yes. Yes, you do. And you know, what's really incredible about finding a good mentor is that you find out not only what they know how to do in the law, but you find out about how they balance work, life balance, and all those incredibly important areas, for sure. And you mentioned, you know, being friendly. That is something that I think attorneys sometimes mistake as being too soft. I found that I get more done in my cases. I get more respect from the judge and from the other attorneys if I am friendly and cooperative with my opposing counsel. And I've also gotten referrals from people that I've been against in a case because, you know, they have a conflict or they don't practice that type of law, and so they send them over my way. And so I always, you know, every once in a while, I'll get a client that says, well, I really want a bulldog. And I'll say, well, in my experience, respectful and courteous attorneys get more done and represent you better.

Yeah.

And so you. And you can be tough and you can be zealous and all of those things without being discourteous or disrespectful or backhanded or any of those things.

And you can. That's another thing from observing people can be your mentors, and they don't know it because you're just watching them. You're learning from them and watching them. And you see the style that. The thing about robot, along with I talk. I've got a course, online course, and I talk about, along with mentors, role models. And the advantage of a role model, I don't necessarily go hero, but the thing is, a role model gives you a picture. It's either a picture that is okay. You know, you can do it that way, or it's a picture of, no, I don't want to do it like that at all. But what's so good about even a negative picture is you see in detail what's wrong. You know, the bad attitude or trying to be overly tough or abrasive or this. Like, you know, those role models are great because they, you know, they picture for you what you don't want to be. And when you got a picture in your mind, that sure helps cement the picture you want to go after. And you see somebody whose style you like, that's a great shortcut to getting that image in your mind and giving you a dimension for not just what, but the way that you want to accomplish things. And as you. You need to know people if you want to get some mentors. First of all, you got to get off your butt and do something. When they were approached from Elizabeth, they knew she had some Cha Ching behind her, some bling, some accomplishments, some notoriety, some buzz about how seriously she took the legal profession. So they felt like, I'm passing. You know, it's like the Bible says, don't cast your pearls before the swine. You know, people are going to be able to read you. And if you're not going to work, if you never have worked, they're not going to waste their time on you. But if you've got some credentials, you've got, you've accomplished some things. And the thing is, they don't even have to know what it is, because winners can smell a winner. You know, you can. I promise, Elizabeth, when people walk in front of you, they can say two or three words and you got them, you know. You know, if they're going to be trustworthy, you know, if they're honest, you know, things like that, you know, and they're, you know, solid citizens, or they're just putting on an act because they're in front of the attorney now, and winners can tell. They can tell of your voice. And so you've got to. You earn respect in advance by running with what you know and doing the most you can with what you know and have yourself on track to do something bigger, you know, and that's the only reason to go to a mentor is where you want to do something bigger and you want to be better and you want to move up. And if you approach them, you've got this kind of background, more than likely they're going to hear it in your voice. And even though they're busy, if you do it the right way, they're going to start to give you a little time. Ask them for an opinion, ask them for something specific, and then see if you hit it off and it can turn into something. Any other ideas or tips on dealing with mentors other than let them know that you appreciate it? You know, find a way of helping them out in other ways, you know.

Yeah. You know, one thing that I would say is don't be discouraged if you, if you had thought that someone would be perfect to be your mentor and it doesn't work out because I've had that happen. And then down the road I figure out that, oh, well, it, it was meant to be because I encountered this mentor that's so much better for me. And so that's one thing that, you know, it's part of that winning mentality that you're not going to take no for an answer. And whether it may be that this mentor was not receptive to you or didn't want to be a mentor, don't take no for an answer and finding one. Go find someone else who is probably meant to be your mentor.

Absolutely. Thanks so much, Elizabeth. This has just been a great time of sharing and hearing how this approach that you've had has, you know, this winning approach you have, how it was formed and how it works in your practice, in your personal life and your new business, your new entrepreneurial life. So thanks so much for sharing all these things with us.

Thank you, Larry. It's been so much fun.

If you enjoyed what you've heard and are dead serious about finding out for yourself exactly how this works in the real world, I've taken the most valuable business lessons I've learned over 40 years and put them into something for you to watch. Go to Whiteellumwinning.com webinar now in order to move up as fast as possible. I'm Larry Wydell and I run the Million Dollar Mastermind. Go, go, go.