Unlocking Success: The Power of Mentorship, & actualizing strategy

Ever wondered how a mentor could change the trajectory of your life? Discover the transformative impact of mentorship through personal anecdotes and real-world examples. From young adults trying to embark on their career journey to seasoned professionals; whether you’re seeking formal coaching or casual advice, this episode reveals how mentors offer invaluable knowledge and resources that can significantly propel your journey forward. We chalk out the very many avenues, modalities through which one can offer or receive "mentoring".

In the latter part of the episode, we tackle the often-overlooked importance of simplicity in strategic execution. The KISS rule—Keep It Simple, Stupid—is not just a catchy phrase but a practical approach to achieving your goals. By setting clear, manageable objectives and committing to consistent daily actions, the path to success becomes less daunting. Listen as we break down the steps to streamline your goals into achievable tasks, ensuring you "say what you'll do and you do what you say ".Through this strategic yet straightforward approach, you can enhance your ability to turn plans into results. Tune in to learn how keeping it simple can make all the difference in your personal and professional growth.

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Episode Transcript

Vai Kumar (00:00):
What about mentors?
I really heard you say I thinkyou leaned on someone.
Your restaurant manager seemedto have really guided you and
showed you the way, so why don'twe talk about how significant
that could be in someone okay,be it a man, woman, student,

(00:21):
whomever that may be yeah yeah.
Even being able to realize that, okay, this is my opportunity
or this is what I can go after.

Mitch Savoie Hill (00:31):
Yes, I love this question because it hits on
two of my biggest passions andone of them is mentoring young
people.
One of my endeavors is tomentor foster children that are
aging out of the foster caresystem because they have no

(00:51):
parents.
They grow up sometimes in grouphomes, sometimes, you know,
switching, and there's nobodythere to guide them, to mentor
them.
So I love to mentor youngpeople that are about to hit
adulthood, about to go out thereand do their thing right.
But you mentioned mentors inthe work world and that's, you

(01:11):
know, one of the biggestresources.
When I say to people, lean onyour resources, the first thing
they think is money.
Well, I don't have any money.
I'm like well, money is justone of many resources.
Right, there's your contacts,your skills, the things that
you've learned along the way.
Those are all resources, but asfar as mentors, I think that's
one of the biggest sources ofsuccess and people don't lean on

(01:36):
them enough.
So you know, when I firstbecame a director of business
development in the constructionindustry in Florida, I was still
learning my way around.
I knew sales, I knew businessdevelopment, but I didn't know a
lot about construction.
So I found people in theconstruction world through
National Association of Women inConstruction, a lot of really

(01:57):
high-powered women that were inthe construction industry for
years and I leaned on them.
I said can I take you out for acup of coffee and drink?
Can I?
Can I buy you lunch and ask yousome questions?
Right, it's the easiest thingjust to say may I, may I ask you
some questions?
May I?
When you ask somebody, can yoube my mentor?

(02:18):
Sometimes that feels like aheavy question.
I would say more like can Itake you out for coffee and ask
you some questions?

Vai Kumar (02:48):
no-transcript in front of our eyes right, and you
clearly pointed out earlier,it's almost like you know when
it comes to opportunity.
Clearly, your case is anexample of okay, when one door
shuts, another opens, right.
So it's just a matter of ustrying to identify what those

(03:12):
avenues are.
And the mentors, as I hear yousay, they are like great avenues
for I mean, like make it asnormal as hey, I want to have a
chit chat, like a conversation,just like you and I are having
here on this podcast.
Sure, just ask some questionsand even you know, as we are

(03:34):
talking, as much as you areeducating the listeners, I'm
learning from you here Back in amoment with our guest on
Freshly Forever.
So how important is it forsomeone to trust this resource,

(03:57):
mitch, and how does that happen?

Mitch Savoie Hill (04:02):
Well, you have to, I believe, try many
different things and see whatworks for you.
You might have one mentor tellyou to do something one way and
that's their way of doing it,and you try it and it doesn't
really work for you.
But you know it was a good.
It was a good trial, right, andthere's many different ways to

(04:24):
lean on that type of resource.
You can hire a coach.
When my business saw thepandemic hit, the first thing I
did was hire a coach and a lotof people said are you sure?
Do you want to spend that money?
Is that the right place to putyour money right now, when your
business is?
You know you're not even makingmoney, but I'm a coach.
So of course I believe incoaching and it was the best
thing I did In a year when otherbusinesses were shutting down.

(04:49):
I grew my business.
So a formal relationship like acoach can be fantastic, or just
a more informal relationshipwith a mentor, and sometimes it
takes you finding anorganization.
If you're, for example, inconstruction, maybe you join the
National Association of Womenin Construction and then you

(05:11):
become active and then you meetthe other women and you learn
from watching them or from doingnetworking events so many.
Every for every business there'ssome sort of a professional
organization.
So I'm very big on joiningorganizations and becoming very
active in them.
You join a committee, serve.
If you serve the organization,the organization will serve you.

(05:33):
So I coach my businessdevelopers to be very active in
their professional organizationsand my entrepreneurs.
I'm a speaker, so I'm part ofthe National Speakers
Association.
I've learned so much from otherspeakers, from listening to
their talks or just watchingthem or following them on
Facebook and LinkedIn and seewhat, how do they do what they

(05:54):
do Right.
So there's different ways to tolean on a mentorship and
sometimes it doesn't have to bethat formal of a mentor Like
you're my mentor, we're going tomeet once or twice a month for
coffee.
Like sometimes it's justshooting them an email and
saying hey, I'm running intothis, what do you advise?
They may answer, they may not.
You know, sometimes justfollowing them on LinkedIn.

(06:14):
I use LinkedIn a lot and Ilearn a lot from interacting and
commenting and joiningconversations on LinkedIn.
The resources really areunlimited.
I had one person say what if Idon't have resources?
I don't feel like I have anyresources and I said dig deeper.
They are there.
They are there, but sometimesI'll tell you, as a coach, the

(06:36):
two areas I probably spend themost time, and you would think
it's the planning part, likecreating the plan and
actualizing the plan.
It's not.
It's clarifying the vision andthen getting them to actually
see the resources that they haveso that they can lean on them.
We spend a lot of time on that.

Vai Kumar (06:54):
So it's like you're saying you know one can be, or
we all can be, stronger together, right, yes, so how is it that
you know we make thisrelationship, say between mentor
and mentees, work or likeorganization?
Is there like any other recipethat you have, so to speak, you

(07:19):
know, for all of us to be like,stronger together?

Mitch Savoie Hill (07:23):
I mean, the recipe is just, it's very simple
.
It's it's like going out andplanting a garden.
The care that you put into thatgarden is what's going to yield
the result the lush plants andthe flowers growing.
So with any mentorshiprelationship or just with you
trying to lean on other peopleto help you whether it's men,

(07:46):
women it boils down to you beingwilling first to serve you,
saying how can I help you, whatcan I do for you, how can I
serve you?
Not always being on the takingside.
And for somebody who says, well, I don't want to bother that
person by asking them to be amentor, then maybe it'll make

(08:06):
you feel a little bit betterabout reaching out to ask for
some mentorship, as long as youknow in your mind, hey, this
person will help me, and thenI'm going to pay it forward

(08:27):
later.
Does that make?

Vai Kumar (08:29):
sense.
Oh well, said Actually, I wasgoing to say even your own
example from this conversationitself, like your manager at
that restaurant helped you growand then transition somewhere
else by pointing you out to someleadership opportunities.
And then you said you starteddeveloping people there and they

(08:51):
all felt so good when theyrealized, okay, this is what I
can achieve, being my own, youknow, being a leader in my own
whatever segment or whateverarea that they have been
assigned with right.
So that's just, you know, veryimportant, I feel, and that's
interesting.
As far as the actualizing aplan Mitch, how important is it

(09:17):
for someone to be strategic andpurposeful?

Mitch Savoie Hill (09:20):
Oh, it's key.
You can have all the vision andall the opportunities and all
the resources in the world thatif you can't execute a plan, you
still might not get there right.
So there's a lot of coachingand there's a lot of you know
speakers who speak about goalsand their smart goals and then
how to make a goal, and it canbecome really complicated

(09:43):
sometimes.
I don't know, my mind worksreally well on simplicity and I
feel like the more complicatedthings get, the harder it is to
execute anything.
So I coach my clients in thedirection of what I call the
KISS rule.
Well, I didn't come up with it.
That's an old rule, right?
Keep it simple stupid.

(10:03):
Keep it simple stupid.
So we focus on, first off, whatis the main thing, what is the
main, most important thing thatis going to get you to the next
step, and then maybe come upwith three things, three things
in three months, for example.
Well, what are the three thingsin three months that you're
going to accomplish that aregoing to get you to that next
step?

(10:23):
Well, now, if you're focusingon one, two, three things and
you're strategizing around that,it becomes a lot less
overwhelming.
So maybe for a salesperson Iwill say you know well, make
sure that you make three callsevery day, three sales calls
every day, and as long as youjust be consistent, right, and

(10:51):
so that's easy.
Ok, I'm just going to make threecalls every day.
That's one easy thing to focuson, right?
Or, if you're trying to loseweight, then it's well, log your
calories and get some exercise.
Well, log your calories and getsome exercise.
20 minutes, 30 minutes everyday, instead of being
overwhelmed by should I do paleo, should I do keto?
Look, just log what you'reeating and get out there moving
every day.
Oh, that's easy, right.

Vai Kumar (11:12):
Yeah, don't overthink it, but just keep it simple.
Keep it simple, stupid.

Mitch Savoie Hill (11:19):
And then do it.
So somebody asked the other day, when I did a talk like this,
what do you mean by actualize,what do you mean by execute?
And I said well, what it whatit says.
Say what you're gonna do andthen do what you say you're
gonna do that's fantastic, youknow, that's so, so important.

Vai Kumar (11:36):
again, that simple you know to hear or listen to,
but there's a lot involved.
You know like, yeah, say whatyou do and do what you say, and
yeah, that's definitelysomething useful.