Choosing the right business mentor

How do you find the mentor that is the right fit for you? In today’s episode, I share a few tips on how you can make sure that the mentor or coach that you are choosing is the right fit for you at the particular stage that you are at in your business right now.

Hello and welcome to the Clare Wood Podcast, where myself and incredible guests share about money mindset, financial successes, and how to manage your money in a fun and practical way to create wealth and abundance in both your business and your life. I’m your host, Clare Wood. I’m a business coach and a money mentor. I strongly believe that money has the power to positively change the world. I can’t wait to help you transform your mindset around money, create a love of numbers and build the business of your dreams so you can live a life of financial freedom, giving and global impact.

So before we dive into the episode, I just want to share that this is not a pitch fest for my services. In fact, in today’s episode, I’m going to be sharing some people who I’m definitely not the right coach for. I want to share some of my advice around how you can find right coach or mentor, who is the right fit for you at the particular stage that you are at in business right now.

Why you should consider hiring a business coach or mentor

First and foremost, why do you actually need a mentor or a coach? I truly believe that having someone who is outside you and outside your business is an incredible way to elevate the outcomes that you are achieving. Now, this is true in many areas of life, right? If you want to get a different outcome when it comes to your health and fitness, you hire a coach or you work with a personal trainer, and it’s definitely the same in business.

Of course, you don’t have to work with a coach, but it is a faster and more efficient way to get the results that you are after. I have definitely gone through periods in my business journey where I haven’t been working with a coach and I have almost every time noticed a direct relationship between my business performance and the times when I am working with a coach. And I know that for me, it is a really powerful way to elevate the outcomes that I am achieving when I’ve got someone else, firstly, keeping me accountable. And secondly, calling me on my bullshit and encouraging me to step up and get uncomfortable. And I know these are definitely things that I do for my clients, both my private clients and my clients inside my mastermind. So I’m a strong believer in working with a coach and a mentor. And for most of the time that I’ve been in business, I have definitely had someone who is supporting me in either a private coaching capacity or as part of a group program.

If you are listening to this episode, chances are, as you know that you need a mentor or a coach in some shape or form. But if you are going to hire a coach, if you are going to jump into a program, I would really like you to think about the intention of why you want to invest first. If you are investing from a place of lack, if you are investing from a place of fear, basically, you are saying, oh my gosh, things aren’t going well. I need someone to come and help or save me. Or you think I’m going to hire a coach because I want to get really big results in my business. And if I hire someone else, then I don’t have to do any of the work.

Straight away, I would like to highlight that this is not a great place to be investing from. No one else can save you. You are always going to need to do the work yourself. I truly believe that when you are looking to invest in whether it’s a mastermind or to work with a coach, you need to do it from a place of abundance and expansion. So rather than doing it from a place of oh crap, I hope this person can save me. It’s doing it from a place of, yes, I’m ready to do the work. And I believe that this person will be able to support me to get the results that I am after. It’s a bit like a personal training relationship like I spoke about before.

Just because you go and hire a personal trainer, even if you’re spending a fortune to work with them, if you are not willing to do the work in the time that you are not with them, as well as the time that you are with them, then chances are, you probably won’t get the outcomes that you desire. And it really is the same in a mentoring relationship. So make sure that you are entering it from the right place. Look to enter your coaching relationship from a space of expansion and opportunity.

How do you choose the right coach for you

So how do you actually choose the right coach for you? I believe in the decision making process, there are two components that come into play. There is the rational part of the decision making process. And there is the intuitive part of the decision making process. And this can apply to making a purchase in any area. So if you were looking to buy a new car, for example, obviously you want to check that a new car meets your requirements. Maybe you need to have a five door car because you have children and having a two seater car wouldn’t be hugely practical. So that’s the rational part of the decision making coming into play.

And the intuitive part is how it feels. And I’m sure you’ve had this experience perhaps when like buying a house, for example. And you walk into some houses and you go, yes. Okay, it’s got three bedrooms, tick. It’s in the right neighborhood, tick. It has a nice big backyard, tick. But something about it just doesn’t feel right. It’s hard to even articulate it to someone. Like the real estate agent might be saying, well, what’s wrong with it? And you say it ticks all the boxes on paper, but it just doesn’t make me feel excited. So everyone is going to have a different amount of rational versus intuitive that comes into their decision making processes. But you will always have some level of both. And I really encourage you to do the same when it comes to choosing a mentor. Yes, the rational side of choosing the right mentor is looking at the gaps in what you currently have now. What are the areas in which you aren’t strong? And I’d suggest that probably choosing a coach who is strong in these areas is a really great starting point.

I know for me, when I’m choosing a mentor, I am quite strong in the masculine energy. I’m really strong in terms of practical execution. I’ve got a really great handle on money and numbers and money mindset. However, the areas that I need support in are feminine flow and intuition and creativity and energy. And these tend to be the coaches that I am magnetized towards, coaches that have polar or opposite skillset to myself. That’s the rational part of the decision making process. Look at where your gaps are now, and then when you are looking at mentors, check in if they are filling those gaps. You are not going to learn as much from someone who is the same kind of person as you, as you will from someone that brings a differing skillset.

Because of those areas that I spoke about before, because I have quite a strong directive energy. I’m really strong when it comes to money and practical execution, I find that I tend to attract a lot of creatives. So a lot of people who run design agencies, who are copywriters, who work in really creative industries, tend to be attracted to my energy and my skillset. So how does the intuitive part of the decision making process come into play?

Well, this is how someone makes you feel and you will get a vibe for the energy of my house, like I mentioned before. And similarly it will be the same with a mentor. I have definitely had people that I’ve looked up to in business. I really admire the results that they are achieving. And on a rational level, I can believe they have the skillset to support me. However, when I chat them or when I follow their content, something just doesn’t click about the way that they are delivering. And that’s nothing personal. People are all going to be attracted to different kind of mentors, leaders and the way that people deliver content.

It is really important when you’re choosing a mentor that it’s someone that feels good. It’s someone that delivers content in a way that you understand, that you find inspiring and that you connect with. And I really don’t believe there is a right or wrong in the balance between rational and intuition. But I think that you have to choose someone that feels good for you, but that you also know is going to be the right person to support you in the areas that you need help.

Another thing that’s really important to highlight here is someone’s pricing. And as much as we would all love to go and hire the best person in the world at something, perhaps spending a million dollars a year on a mentor, which trust me, some people do charge, is not the right fit for you right now in your business journey. It might be at a different stage, but it’s just something to check in how much you are willing to invest to be working with a mentor or in a program at a particular point in time.

Something I’ve noticed in the coaching industry a lot is that a lot of mentors don’t put their pricing readily available on their websites or for their programs. And you have to go and have a conversation with them before you can find out how much a program costs. And I want to say this in the most non-judgmental and loving way of any coaches that do this, but that personally doesn’t really sit right with me. Because I think it’s a little bit unfair to get someone committed into a phone call without them even having a guide of what the investment might look like. Yes, I understand that a call is an opportunity for some people to present the transformation that they can deliver for people. But at the same time, some people literally will not have the funds to invest at a particular level. And so it seems a bit silly to me to get them on a call, to try and convince them otherwise.

It’s one of my values and why I’m always really upfront and transparent about the packages and programs that I offer, because I want the people that literally don’t have that money to not waste their time jumping on a call with me, if it’s not the right fit for them at a particular point in time. I’m not saying this at all, to scare you off people that don’t have their pricing readily available. But for me personally, it’s something that I like to be really upfront about. And I tend to be attracted to mentors that share their pricing readily rather than putting it behind a discovery call process.

When you are looking to find the right coach, I also think it’s really important that you do your background checks as well. It’s just like hiring someone to come into your team. It’s definitely worth taking the time to go and read their reviews, check out other people’s testimonials, and if you are jumping into a community such as a mastermind, have a look at who else is in the community. Or at the very least ask the coach a bit more information about them. I have put a minimum income level on my mastermind because I want everyone in the community to be at a similar stage of business. This is not about being elitist, but there are definitely different challenges that business owners face at the scaling stage from six figures to the seven figure mark as compared to in the early stages of business. So I’ve chosen to make my community quite exclusive so that I know that everyone who’s in that community is at a particular stage in their business journey. And perhaps that feels good for you, perhaps that doesn’t feel good for you.

If you are jumping into a community, make sure that you do ask the coach or ask around about what kind of people are in the program and see if that is going to be good fit for you in terms of elevating you to your next level. Remember, you become the people you surround yourself with. So be very protective of your energy and who you are welcoming into your circle. If you have found a mentor or mentors that you are interested in working with, it can be really helpful to jump on a call with them. And many mentors will offer what’s called a discovery call where you can have a chat to each other and see if it’s a good fit.

Moving past fear when investing in business coaching

When you are making a decision to move forward, it’s important to listen to your intuition about what feels right. And remember the distinction that I’ve spoken about many times here on the podcast before, which is the distinction between fear and intuition. Your intuition is something that says this does not feel right. They are not the right person. Or this is not the right decision for me at this particular point in time. Whereas, fear is something that will invariably pop up when you do go to make a big commitment or investment. Fear is usually something that pops up at the last minute, when you go to pay the invoice or go to make that commitment, suddenly go, oh, what am I doing? Not always, but usually if it’s something that pops up in the short term, that’s fear speaking as compared to intuition.

I’ve used the example on the podcast before, but something like public speaking. So I know that speaking will be something that is really fantastic for my brand in the long term. And it’s something that I actively want to get in front of more audiences, I want to share my message with more people and help more people. So I might go out and put my hand up and say, I’m looking for speaking opportunities. And then when an opportunity comes up, when someone says, hey, will you speak at this event? I get this awful feeling that comes over me. And if I wasn’t more experienced between judging between fear and intuition, I could think, oh no, this is a bad sign. My gut is telling me no, I can’t do it. But I know over the longer term that this is something that is a good decision to me make. It’s just that it’s scary in the moment.

And for me, it’s been the same with making big investments. If it’s something that over a longer period of time, you know will be something amazing for your business and your brand, and at the last minute you feel fear or intuition. And at the last minute, when you go to jump in, you get a sinking in your tummy, perhaps that is fear that’s popping up for you.

One last thing that I do want to flag if you have made the big and scary decision to join a program or work with a mentor is that your coach is never responsible for your results. You choose a mentor or a coach for a reason. And sometimes in the process, there might be some things, some pieces of advice they offer you and you think, oh, I don’t know if that’s right for me. I would say it’s worthwhile trusting the process and remembering as well that it’s your business, your decisions to make. You need to do the work and you are responsible for the results that you achieve in your business. But the right mentor can definitely help you to have some massive breakthroughs in terms of the results that you can achieve.

So to sum up today:

1. If you are looking to invest in a mentor, it’s important to first of all, work out the intention behind why you want to invest before you jump in.
2. Then when you are making the decision about who to work with, balance the rational versus your instincts around who the right mentor is for you. When you have found the right mentor for you, make sure you do your background checks and read their testimonials and what other people have to say about working with this particular mentor. And look into their community a bit more if it is a community program that you are joining.
3. And last but not least, when you are making that big, scary decision to invest, make sure that if something does pop up at the last moment, just check in if it is your gut telling you it’s not the right decision, or if it is fear popping up.

The right mentor can completely change the outcomes that you achieve in your business and your life. So it is important that you choose carefully, but also that you do take responsibility for your results and the outcomes that you achieve in your business. If you want to find out more about working with me as your mentor in your business, make sure that you reach out to me either via Instagram at @Clare_Wood_Coach or come on over and say hi at my website, which is clarewood.com. Thank you so much for listening and look forward to chatting to you again very soon.

Thanks so much for listening. If you loved this episode, please share it with your audience. And don’t forget to tag me on Instagram at @Clare_Wood_Coach. And also make sure you hit subscribe so you never miss an episode. Have an abundant week, and I look forward to talking to you again next week.