In this episode, we tackle a common challenge for mentors: navigating conversations when clients bring up personal struggles that take the focus off their business. You'll learn how to acknowledge their feelings empathetically, pivot the conversation back to actionable business strategies, and use simple phrases to refocus on what you can control. By staying in your role as a business mentor, you’ll help clients achieve the results they need while still showing care and support.

How to Pivot the Conversation (2-3 minutes)

• Use Future-Focused Questions:
• "What’s one thing we can work on today to help you feel more in control?"
• "How can we make sure your business feels like a source of stability while you’re dealing with this?"
• Redirect to Actionable Steps:
• "Let’s focus on something we can change right now—what’s the top priority in your business today?"
• "I know this is a tough time, but let’s make sure your business is supporting you. Where do you feel stuck right now?"

Short Phrases for Refocusing (1-2 minutes)

• Share these go-to lines:
• "I can see how much this is affecting you. Let’s focus on making your business as strong as possible so it can support you through this."
• "That’s really tough. Let’s make sure we’re taking steps today to give you peace of mind on the business side."
• "I can’t imagine how hard that is, but let’s focus on what we can control right now in your business."

Hey everyone, welcome to this quick cast. Today I want to talk about something that's not often said out loud, but I think it's very powerful when we are on our mentee calls and our goal is to deliver results, and that is that as business mentors, our role is not to be liked, is to help our clients get results, and that sometimes means having tough, honest conversations, just like in our business, our role is not to be liked by everyone, by our clients, but to make the best decisions that serve our business and our team

and as business mentors, we wear a very specific hat. We are there to guide, challenge and help our clients succeed, but our value isn't measured in how much people like like us. It's measured by the results that we help them achieve. And in fact, there is this dialog I always have running in the back of my mind when I'm on mentee calls and I'm about to say something challenging or direct, and it goes something like this, my role here isn't to be their friend or to sugar coat things, to hold them accountable to their goals and deliver results. If they want a friend, that's fine, but mentorship, that's a different thing, and I think that it's also like important to nurture our relationships outside of our businesses and outside of our roles as mentors, so that we don't have this craving to be liked in every aspect of our life, because it's unrealistic.

So I think that one last thing that I want to give you this week is the difference between being kind and being nice. Being nice often looks like telling people what they want to hear. It feels good in the moment, but it doesn't move the needle. And being kind, on the other hand, means telling people what they need to hear, even if it's uncomfortable, it means framing back, framing back what I told you, framing feedback in a way that's constructive, but it's not sugar coated. It's direct. Think of it as think of being kind versus being nice. This way being kind is about serving their growth, not their ego.

So how do we actually navigate those situations when we need to have hard conversations? Or how do I do it first I check in with myself and remind myself my role here is to help them grow, even if it feels uncomfortable and it's okay to feel uncomfortable. It's a normal human emotion.

It's okay to have the urge of being liked, also very human. And then I just tell myself, how human of me to want to be liked, but I still want to do the right thing for the role that I'm here to do and to execute. Then I try to approach the conversation with empathy but clarity. I acknowledge their effort or progress, but then pivot, pivot to the heart through its so.

So for example, I see that you are working hard on delivering these client classes, but these current strategies isn't getting closer to your goal. I had a similar conversation with a gym from the UK that weren't growing because they didn't want to let go of group coaching. They were charging very little money for it, and they were complaining that they don't have the time energy resources to offer more PT, more semi private training, and then we had to have this conversation of, why are they basing their decisions based on fear, not on what they said they wanted to do? And the hard word is that they're sticking to the wrong thing. And so this way, I hope at least I show them that I care about them, but I'm also focused on what they said that they want to achieve.

And so results matter more than being liked.

And it doesn't mean that we can't build great relationships with our clients, but it's important to remember that the safety of being liked or making friends is something we save for other roles in our life, like our family, our personal relationships or our social circle, and in mentorship, our role is to be the guide people need, not the friend they want, because the truth...

Today's Help Best episode is from James Engesser.

He really gets the principle of Golden Hour: every day, do one thing to grow your business. Some of those things are marketing reps that are repeated daily. And some are Projects, that get worked on until they're done - even if they take multiple days.

In this Quickcast, James shares how he assigns Projects based on the Eisenhower matrix.

To watch the video, click here: https://www.loom.com/share/918854fe07f1443ca1e0e4f25c1abc82?sid=a648b43e-b6cb-44f2-809e-ef6b9498f43a

Transcript:

Speaker 1 adapted the "golden hour" concept for a client feeling overwhelmed by her growing gym business. They created an individualized program using a two-step process: a "hidden time worksheet" to track daily activities and an Eisenhower matrix to prioritize tasks. The matrix helped the client focus on urgent and important tasks, delegate non-critical but urgent tasks, and eliminate unnecessary activities. Key actions included hiring a CPA for bookkeeping, defining SOPs for gym tasks, and ensuring the client's coach focused on certification studies. This personalized approach aimed to help the client manage her workload more effectively.

https://otter.ai/u/FvnqdOP_YdbAemqTqrAySKDOZOg?view=transcript

• [ ] Hire a CPA to handle the client's bookkeeping on a weekly and monthly basis.
• [ ] Create an SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) to delegate the gym's programming to the coach Ben.
• [ ] Stop spending time helping the coach Amanda study for her certification, and have her focus on passing it herself.

Chris Cooper introduces a new AI-powered tool called Mentorbot, designed to help users, particularly business clients, find answers to their questions quickly and efficiently. The Mentorbot is currently in a trial phase for 1,000 customers, with plans to expand its capabilities. The bot is programmed with information from the growth toolkit and is intended to complement, not replace, human mentors. It aims to assist clients in finding answers to common questions, improving their ability to self-serve, and ensuring they can get help even when mentors are unavailable. The bot's responses can be rated and refined, and it can also be used to find information from public resources like blog posts and podcasts.

1. It’s achievable in about 2 years from today

2. It’s challenging enough to require hard work and focus (it won’t just happen on its own)

3. It will make a meaningful difference in the life of their family (at least 25% improvement, or from losing money to making money, etc.)

4. It’s approved in advance. If the mentor does not get the goal approved in advance no incentive will be provided as it is not considered an “approved” goal.

See the Project Plan here: https://members.twobrainbusiness.com/courses/growth-toolkit-2024/lessons/how-can-i-make-a-plan-for-the-future/topic/your-annual-plan-2/

If a Growth stage client is a "yellow" avatar (flat, stalled, lost or swerving) the Golden Hour Challenge might help. Listen to hear how it will work for them!

0:01: My name is Storm Strout and I'm a two brain business mentor in a recent conversation with Chris.

0:07: He pointed out the statistic that 64% of my current clients have either met their annual plan net owner benefit goal or they are on pace to achieving their net owner benefit goal.

0:19: Chris highlighted the fact that that statistic is about two X R company average.

0:24: So naturally, his follow up question was, what are you doing with your clients that is resulting in these outcomes for them?

0:33: The simple answer to that question is that the client's net owner benefit goal is at the forefront at all times, the clients that owner benefit goal is the anchor of every conversation, every call, every email, all correspondence between our calls.

0:55: The N O B goal is referenced during celebration of bright spots.

0:59: While we're trying to overcome obstacles, the client is going through when they bring ideas to the table, when they're swerving when they're stuck.

1:06: A O B is always the foundation and the anchor to our conversations.

1:11: Let's talk about what this looks like in practice.

1:14: We'll start with an easy one from a mentor standpoint when the client comes on a call and they're elated storm.

1:23: I am so excited.

1:25: I just made the largest sale of my career $1200 front end revenue.

1:31: My first response is going to be Bethany.

1:34: I am so happy for you.

1:37: This moves the needle on your primary goal of 100 K net owner benefit today.

1:44: Congratulations.

1:47: Maybe better yet.

1:49: I'll ask Bethany a question.

1:51: Oh, my goodness, Bethany.

1:52: Congratulations.

1:53: I'm so happy for you.

1:55: How much money of this front end revenue are you prepared to carve out today to contribute to your monthly net owner benefit?

2:05: And remember based on the targets that we set for your annual plan, it's probably gonna be around 30% and let Bethany highlight the fact that she gets to put X amount of dollars towards her net owner benefit for the month because of the sale that she made.

2:26: Always anchoring the moment back to the goal.

2:31: So let's talk about some more challenging moments in keeping the net owner benefit goal at the forefront.

2:38: Let's say a client brings a new bright idea to the call.

2:41: They want to put in a new recovery center in their gym and it's going to cost them several tens of thousands of dollars.

2:50: They want a fleet of saunas and a fleet of cold plunges and a bunch of other accessory items.

3:02: My very first question for the client is going to be one.

3:06: Can you remind me of your goal and sometimes they'll give you a softball.

3:13: Yes.

3:13: My goal was 100 K net benefit or fill in the number other times they'll tell you that they don't know or that they don't remember.

3:19: And together you'll just pull up the annual plan, share the screen and point out the fact that the pie in the sky is that benefit goal from there.

3:29: Your follow up question is, does this recovery center move you closer to or pull you further away from that N O B goal?

3:40: If the answer is no, they're the ones to say it.

3:44: If the answer is yes.

3:46: Now we get to map out a plan to bring that to life.

3:50: But the client is reminded why we're doing this thing and how it's going to help them achieve the actual goal.

4:00: I believe that by keeping the net loader benefit goal as the forefront of all the work that we do with our clients, it helped keep them centered, keep them grounded and keep them focused on the task at hand.

4:15: No matter how exciting, distracting, challenging or overwhelming the situation that they're in might be.