Podcast Episode – Mentor

Intro:

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• A mentor can help you grow your business.
  
• Build a long term relationship with your mentors.
  
• Mentors give you their time
  
  
• They have more life experience than you
  
• 'On my walks, every man I met is a superior to me in some way, and in that, I learn from him.’ – Ralph Waldo Emerson
  
  

Preparing:

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• Inspirational mentor.
  
• Need a network of different types of mentors. Can change throughout life as we grow and develop.
  
• Have a plan
  
• You need to know what your good at and weak in before looking for a mentor so you can find a mentor which will help you grow.
  
• Ask yourself what are your strengths, skills, what are you good at and where you need to grow?
  
• Your mentor is there to up skill you.
  
• Mentors give feedback to help us improve.
  
• Who do you look up too – ask who you want to be in life, visualise it, visualise someone/people you admire.
  
• You can learn from mentors by watching them or reading there work.
  
• List the people you want to connect with and become mentors and research these people and their connections to see if you have any links so you can get a warm connection through someone else.
  
• Look for someone with a great network already that they can draw on to help you.
  

Finding a Mentor:

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• You can plan for a mentor but sometimes mentors will just appear in your life
  
• Have more than one mentor for different parts of your life-network of mentors
  
• Someone in your network could introduce you to someone or has a connection to a mentor you would like.
  
• Have the courage to connect with people.
  
• It’s great to ask your manager to appoint you a mentor in the workplace.
  
• Not all good mentors are in the same field as you
  
• In his Ted X Talk Doug Stewart voiced the idea that there are 51/2 types of mentors.
  
• Mentor type 1 – World View – Someone who can see past your prospective and help you navigate towards your vision
  
• Mentor type 2 – Street view – Stands with you in your prospective
  
• Mentor type 3 – Time machine – People in your past – can be anyone
  
• Mentor type 4 – Stealth mentor – Those people that are mentors but don’t know to
  
• Mentor type 5 – Categorical – Like a filling cabinet of information which you can take bits of information from
  
• Mentor type 5 1/2 – Anti-mentor/Half a mentor – The person that shows you what you don’t want to be
  

Working with a Mentor:

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• Take ownership of your own opportunities
  
• Prove to your mentor that you are worth the time they are investing in you
  
• Once your mentor has agreed to work with you than take the ownership of the opportunities and get the most out of it.
  
• Also take ownership of all the other opportunities your mentor provides you and make the most of them.
  
• What to ask your mentor
  
• Take intuitive and be vocal about what you want to learn - Mentee’s should be the driver of the relationship
  
• Ask them questions about their life, how they have handled certain situations, what their opinion is, what books they read, what they like to learn about
  
• Help guide your mentor by showing them what you want to learn
  
• Personal responsibility and countability – Mentorship is for yourself with the help of other people.
  
• Be grateful
  
• Your mentor may have a difference of opinion to you so remember to change or adapt your thinking
  
• If your mentor does correct you than listen to their feedback – they are not picking on you
  
• We can vent our frustrations to mentors but remember that once we have vented we need to fix the problem.
  
• Learn how to mentor from your mentor.
  
• Giving back to your mentor-use what your good at – listen to episode 3 for more ways to give back to your mentor
  
• As you grow and your life changes your need for mentors will change.
  
• Mentors may not last a life time but we should always be grateful for the impact they have had on our life
  

Celebrate:

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• Celebrate your success with your mentor.
  

End:

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• Mentoring can be a very mutual relationship - A mentor mentors the you but sometimes can mentor your mentor
  
• Give back and make a better society by mentoring others and pass on the knowledge you receive.
  

Check out our website for more information: www.aquaticmentors.com.au

Take a look at Katrina van Eyk's other services: www.regionalswimclinics.com.au