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Ever had a marketing mentor?

by Ed on 23rd March 2009

Have you ever paid someone to mentor (or ‘coach’) you?

Some years ago I paid a moderately well known Stateside expert a healthy sum of money to give me advice (by email) on a couple of areas I felt I needed improvement.

The advice I got from him was sound… but the way he delivered it was absolutely shocking.

He was very rude (borderline obnoxious). And his response to my questions were frequently either late — or not at all!

Many times I had to send reminder emails and the one liners that came back were usually “Never received it. Send again.” The funny thing is that the reminder emails I sent him never got lost. Hmmm!)

And there where other aspects to his mentoring approach that meant the whole experience was, not just underwhelming, but actually one of the most negative learning experiences I’ve ever had.

Luckily there is an upside.

I’m about to launch my own official Ed Rivis Web Marketing Mentor™ programme, so I can use the experience I had with that guy to make absolutely certain my mentoring programme is first rate, and delivers awesome results.

One of the biggest lessons I learnt is that mentoring programmes need structure.

Because in my experience a great mentor should not just leave it up to the student to figure out what to ask next. The process should be driven by the mentor.

If a student knows — in advance — what tactic and strategy specific questions to ask, and what order to ask them in, then it begs the question… do they need mentoring at all? Probably not!

So how about YOU?

Have you ever paid someone to coach or mentor you? If so, how was that experience? Was it good (did your sales and profits increase) or was it bad (no effect on your sales and profits… or worse, did it even cause you to lose money?) Why?

If you can spare a few minutes I’d love to hear your thoughts on this subject, and your experience with mentors if you’ve had any.

Even if you’ve never had a mentor – your taking this survey would really help me refine my own programme for the future.

==> Click here to take my short survey.

Thank you to everyone who spares me a few minutes of their time — I really appreciate it. I’ll share the results of this survey shortly.

Ed.

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Article by Ed Rivis

I'm the Amazon 5-star rated author of three books about web marketing, and since 2008 have spoken to more than 4,000 business owners at conferences and seminars around the UK. I've also developed software that automatically generates lead pages and home-study programmes that help small business owners like you generate more sales-leads and win new customers and clients, online.

Ed has written 326 awesome articles.

  • http://www.digitalsignagecontent.co.uk Lewis

    I’ve had good experiences with mentors. Some of them have been great at giving me advice and getting me to think about business in different ways. Some of them have been more of a sounding board for my ideas.

    One thing they’ve all had in common is that they’ve all been sucessfull in business and wanted to give something back – they didn’t charge me for their help. I’ve always though of mentoring as somthing free but maybe that’s not normally the case?

    Lewis

  • http://tooembarresedtoadmititsaddress!!! Andy T

    Hi Ed

    I think the most important aspect of mentoring is forcing the client to impliment the mentors concepts and then ensuring they do.
    It is my belief that the EASIEST thing for a mentor to do, is to throw ideas up in the air and not ensure the client is doing it. This is how a lot of folk give mentoring a bad name.
    I think it is very hard for a mentor to push clients on issues, and it takes up the mentors time, which is why it is not done anywhere near as much as it should be.
    Mentors, by default, are probably very self driven and “implimentors”. The people they are mentoring often have boundaries in thier business or mindsets that need knocking down.
    It is easy for a mentor to set up a program and get some serious money in quickly. To then deliver is another thing.
    Unless I have been mislead for the last few years, I am sure your principles are such that your mentoring program will be a good one. I hope it will be great.
    Best wishes

  • http://www.thekissbusiness.co.uk/ Karin H.

    Hi Ed

    Mentors come in all kinds of shapes and forms – as long as your willing to notice one. Most appear out of nowhere – or as the famous quote goes: as soon as the student is ready.

    Been very fortunate to have ‘stumbled’ on two great mentors in my life. And am still benefiting from it with every marketing project we start (or we are challenged to set up by my mentor – always great fun -afterwards ;-) )

    Side-note: not all mentors come with a price-tag attached – but like I said, I’m very, very fortunate.

    Karin H. (Keep It Simple Sweetheart, specially in business)

  • Rob Locke

    Ummmm! could really do with a mentor . . . *like yesterday* – let me know how much ASAP. Starting a new sales project, we’re selling a range of electric concrete breakers. Currently subscribe to your monthly webs profits news letter and thoroughly enjoy all your words of wisdom. I have also tested a number of your ideas and they really work.

    Many thanks – Rob

  • http://www.stevenlohrenz.com Steven Lohrenz

    Hmm, let me guess who it was… :-)

    I have to second your observation – if the student knows the right questions to ask to move their business forward, they probably don’t need to be mentored.

  • http://www.thekissbusiness.co.uk/ Karin H.

    Kind of half agree Steven. A mentor might know a better answer, or even better, make you retrace your steps how you got to your answer in the first place and see if there are better/simpler solutions.

    A mentor is more than a ‘walking encyclopaedia’ ;-) He should challenge your way of thinking, working – not give you the solutions on a tray.

    Karin H

  • http://www.thekissbusiness.co.uk/ Karin H.

    “I’ve always though of mentoring as somthing free but maybe that’s not normally the case?”

    No such thing as a free lunch ;-) They do make you work hard – and the reward they receive, when not charging a penny for their time and encouragement, IMHO is knowing the mentee (is that the right word?) will do them proud by listening, learning, implementing their ideas and advice and another business they helped growing.
    (At least that’s my personal experience)

    Karin H

  • http://newlifecleaning.com Phil Dixon

    Nothing to do with the blog topic Ed but there’s a lot of money riding on your answer ;-) In the ultimate Web Marketing System DVD’s what are the objects in the blue background? We have bets running on skulls, balls and God knows what.

  • http://www.edrivis.com Ed

    @Lewis – You mention two really important aspects of mentorship – not just good advice but also good delivery. I think the latter is as important and it’s the thing one of my mentors really let me down with. (Mentioned in the blog post above.)

    As for mentors not charging – some do, some don’t . I’ve given away a lot of free advice since I started this blog (although not as much lately.)

    My mentor programme will take a lot of my time so I’ll be charging for it, and also to limit numbers. Also one thing I’ve noticed is that very few people seem to implement free advice – many people are a lot more more likely to implement when they’re paying. My programme will be 100% results oriented so the returns will be substantial for my students.. but it will only be suitable for ‘action takers’ committed to using the web to grow their business.

    Great comments thank you.

    @AndyT – You totally hit the nail on the head. Implementation is King. A facet of my mentoring programme is that anyone who doesn’t implement at least some of my advice will be politely asked to leave. That may sound tough top some people, but I don’t want to waste anyone’s time or money (either mine or theirs). I’ll take ‘delivery & execution’ very seriously because as you rightly point out, it’s critical.

    @Karin – “When the student is ready” …love that quote! Happened to me quite recently too.

    @Rob – Thanks Rob. Hopefully speak soon providing my mentor programme is what you expect. The launch letter will explain in full. If it is suitable for you then I look forward to speaking shortly. Either way your project sounds interesting and I wish you all the best with it.

    @Steven – ;-)

    @Karin – Great comment about effective mentor being to challenge their way of thinking.

    @Phil – Tell me what you’ve bet the background is… then I’ll announce that as the background and we’ll split your winnings ;-)

    ** Thank you to everyone who commented. **

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