How Mentors Change Your Business And Life

After about six years of running our real estate investment firm on our own, my partner, Travis, and I were burnt out, struggling to expand and frustrated with our inability to hit our goals while working so hard. We listened to other investors who claimed on their podcasts to be doing over 100 deals a year, and it sounded like such nonsense to us. But you don't know what you don't know, as we would soon see. We contacted a few of these mentors and found a mastermind group that was like-minded, transparent and a good cultural fit for us. The ensuing 14 months were (and continue to be) life-changing.

We reached out to our mentors to gain insight into their struggles and how they overcame them in their business. They opened their doors and let us see the inner workings of their day-to-day operations while being transparent about both their strengths and their shortcomings. As entrepreneurs, we tend to believe that we’re the only ones struggling to build a great business, but that's simply not true. Being around humble and honest mentors as they share insight into their business and personal battles has changed our perspective about how to overcome and persevere through our own.

The benefit of being able to call people who care about us, our families and our business in a holistic way, ensuring that we maintain a healthy perspective and work-life balance, has propelled us to new heights. When you find the right mentors, you’ll be able to grow spiritually, stay focused on your family and, since you started your business to be free, not be a slave to work. Finding a mentor can be a daunting process, often costing tens of thousands of dollars in mentoring and mastermind group fees, just to hope they are a good fit. We simply found people with the same type of business as ours and asked a ton of questions, while being open and honest about what our needs were. Our mentors were exactly where we were just two short years ago and where others were 10 years ago. The combination of their knowledge allowed us to do five times our total revenue in 12 months, and we’re on track for 10 times our revenue in the 24 months since beginning our mentorship. Choose your mentors wisely!

As we continue to grow together with our mastermind members and mentors, we experience the benefit of networking with like-minded people. Our mentors have introduced us to people who have become closely involved in our business — marketing firms, mail houses, sales trainers, investors and other mentors! I have often heard people say your network is your net worth; this is especially true if you are not counting your net worth by value, but by the people you surround yourself with. That kind of mentorship adds value to your life in immeasurable ways. Even as I write this, my wife and I are preparing to spend a week in Costa Rica with our mentors to discuss business, life, goals and experience the joy that comes with having these people in our lives. Seek out people who are willing to support you in your dreams, and watch those dreams flourish.