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Geoff Woods is the host of The Mentee podcast (http://geoffwoods.com), and is a medical device salesman by day, and an entrepreneur by night. After hearing the Jim Rohn quote that "you are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with" Geoff set out on a mission to surround himself with high level CEOs and entrepreneurs. Fast forward, he is a now being mentored by many of these heavy hitters and he publishes the real conversations he has with his mentors on in his top business podcast The Mentee.  Geoff has been featured in Entrepreneur.com (http://entrepreneur.com/) and is considered the authority on building meaningful relationships with high level influencers and mentors.

Today we will do something a little different....

Normally every week we strive to bring you a guest with a technical ability in relation to the fields of Lean, Continuous Improvement or Six Sigma.  We talk about their experiences and their backgrounds. You hear their success stories, the failures, which we all have and then we ask for their advice.  So follow me here for a moment, the recipe is we find someone just like you or where you want to be and then provide you some insight into their thoughts or actions and provide you with some ideas to change your paradigm on Lean or Continuous Improvement.  One of the most common things that we hear from guests on the show when it comes to advice is to go get a mentor.  Today we are going to talk about practical advice about finding, approaching, and developing a relationship with potential mentors.

That’s where Geoff comes in…

First of all, Geoff is a good friend of mine.  We started our podcasts about the same time and we’ve built a friendship as we share what is working for growing our shows and having a helpful impact on our listeners, what we are struggling with, etc.  What I love about Geoff is why I asked him to be a guest on the show.  Geoff is doing something pretty incredible.  He’s upgrading his inner circle.  You’ve heard the quote, “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with”  Geoff really took that to heart and ran with it, and amazing things have happened for him.  Imagine getting advice from the guy who inspired the movie Jerry McGuire…that happened to Geoff, in fact that gentlemen is one of Geoff’s most trusted advisors now.

In this episode we talk about:

* Why it’s important to have a mentor and more than one mentor.
* The series of steps to develop relationships with mentors.
* Why it’s more important to be interested than interesting.
* How to defeat self limiting beliefs.

Interview Links:

www.findthebestmentor.com (http://www.findthebestmentor.com)

Jeff's Podcast (http://www.geoffwoods.com)

Follow Jeff of Twitter (https://twitter.com/geoffwoods)

Follow Jeff on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/pub/geoff-woods/4/477/853)

Leave Feedback for this episode (https://www.speakpipe.com/LeanLeadershipPodcast)

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