3 Ways I deliver value as a mentor

Many times when people meet with a mentor or coach they walk away not sure of what they received from a 30-minute or one-hour meeting that will help them build more momentum towards the vision they have for their business or career.

Having worked with more than 200 CEOs, small business owners, leaders, young professionals, and startup founders over the past 5 plus years I’ve identified these 3 ways that I consistently deliver value as a coach, mentor and consultant to the people I serve.

I provide at least one nugget of value for each business OR career discovery session.

Most of us have meetings all the time. Some of these discussions are in a conference room with a group, on a Zoom call, or in person 1-on-1. Whether they are 30 minutes or an hour long, if its a successful meeting - you’ll come away with at least one nugget of insight that was valuable.

For businesses, in the initial discovery session, I focus on making sure you walk away with at least one valuable nugget about your business that will help you succeed, build more momentum, or grow closer to achieving your vision for your business.

I tend to focus the conversation on important things like a comprehensive marketing audit/review, go-to-market strategy, differentiation and competitive advantage, developing new channels for growth, and how to get more from existing clients. This can differ depending on where you are at as a business.

For career coaching sessions, in the initial discovery session, I focus on making sure you discover something valuable about yourself that with help further your career. We may chat for an hour about you and your goals. You might learn a ton from me or just one valuable nugget, but I make sure that you walk away with more understanding about where you’re going, how you’re going to get there, and what makes you valuable.

For one client, they discovered how to better answer interview questions that both showed their value and expressed how they would impact the employer if hired. In our coaching sessions, this same client was able to discover his superpowers and top ways he provided the most value to an employer.

I work on aligning your biggest values with your goals, skills, and experience. In follow-up sessions I provide recommendations, and this tends to lead towards additional sessions where we focus on things like resume optimization, how to hunt for the right job, interviewing strategy & practice, and salary/offer negotiations.

Identify differentiating drivers as a business OR finding your superpowers.

For businesses, there are typically a dozen or so most common ways you can uniquely differentiate your business from the competition. I’ve utilized all of them. Unfortunately, many leaders find themselves pigeon-holed around low pricing and discount offers.

This is definitely an important area where I audit the business and product to determine current differentiating features and competitive advantages. Then I provide recommendations on how my clients can further differentiate their business against competitors and take chunks of market share.

While leading marketing in the US & Canada for Maytronics, I was able to implement programs and educational campaigns that grew our market share from 35% to 70% in just 3 years - in the multi-billion dollar pool industry.

For career coaching clients, focusing on finding your superpowers is very important. I like to explain the $10/$100/$1,000 rule. It’s a simple rule to help discover your strengths.

Begin by writing down all of the skills you have or things you do that people are paying your for or would potentially pay you for. Next to each income generating skill write whether a person or business would pay you $10, $100, or $1,000 per hour for each of these activities.

The activities that are $1,000 are your superpowers and the ways that you provide the most value. However, the $100 activities could have room for improvement. Maybe you’re not getting an “A” in those yet, but you could grow those skills into superpowers with training, coaching, or education. So don’t ignore $100 per hour skills when thinking about the future.

The $10 activities are things you should avoid, hire someone to do for you, or not focus on at all in your business or job search. There is only one caveat and that is if one of these $10 skills is something you greatly enjoy doing and is part of achieving a future personal, business, or career goal.

Aligning these superpowers with your education and past industry experience will make you more desirable in your job search and showcase more perceived value when interviewing. However, I know income potential is not the only variable, and we discuss in detail in my coaching sessions.

Give recommendations that build momentum towards your vision.

After an initial career discovery session or business audit, I carefully work through building recommendations tailored to each client. There are usually many lessons learned and value exchanged in those first few meetings. I find that the clients who spend the most time with me, tend to receive more benefit (obviously), but that’s entirely up to each person.

After we shift past strategy and recommendations, the conversations are more about implementation and building momentum towards your vision. I’m able to help you with the big picture initially and then coach you on all the tactical stuff. My goal is to help you reach your vision for your business or career.

For one brand, I helped create their go-to-market strategy for selling their pool product in the US market. I had a retail business client that I over-hauled his merchandising strategy and local advertising to grow his small business from $100k to $500k in 6 months working. For another client, I created a Shopify eCommerce store from scratch on a $20k ad budget, and grew it from zero to $300k in revenue in 90 days. There are 100s of examples.

On the career coaching side, one of my long-term coaching clients went from $11 per hour to six figures while I provided regular coaching over 3 plus years. For another coaching client, I helped him land a new job by upgrading his interview strategy.

If you’re looking for an outside view of your business or professional career, you can schedule a free 30-minute 1-on-1 coaching session with me HERE.