Unleash Your Potential: Harnessing the Power of Mentorship

Phil Calandra: What are you doing to be coached up in your business, in your life? And if we can provide that to people, I think it becomes invaluable. No price tag can be put on coaching somebody up to help them achieve and aspire and get more fulfillment and just be jazzed and excited about what they’re doing and thinking about why they were put on this earth.

Rob Brown: You want somebody who is your cheerleader, who’s constantly rooting for you, who can help you see past mistakes that you may make and help you fix them or overcome those challenges that happen, but can also see you cross many finish lines over the course of the year and say, way to go. You won that race. You brought that business in.

Rob Brown: Welcome to the Truest Fan Blueprint, a podcast for financial advisors and other professionals looking to get the most out of yourself and your business. I’m Rob Brown and my partner, Phil Calandra, and I promise to walk you through a journey that will allow you to take action in your business and your life so that you can be the best that you can possibly be. Thanks for listening.

Rob Brown: All right, it is time, once again for the truest fan blueprint, Rob Brown and Phil Calandra, your hosts here. great to be with you. we’ve got a great topic today. we want to talk about why it is so important to have a mentor or a coach. And that might sound self serving, because Phil and I are both coaches, but you might find this interesting to know if you don’t know our backstory. The way that Phil and I met was through coaching. I met Phil several years ago and was his business coach and led him through a number of changes in his business, growing his recurring revenues, making a decision about the ownership of his business. So Phil knows firsthand how helpful a coach can be. So, Phil, give us, kind of a quick one, two, three on why you think having a mentor or a coach is so important.

Phil Calandra: Yeah. Well, I’d like to think that I was your star pupil, too, but, gosh, I don’t know that that’s necessarily the case, because I know some of the other professional men and women that you coach, and they’re at, extremely high level. But you’re right, because in many aspects of my own journey, personal, professional, I always felt that it was important to have, a mentor, have a coach, for the simple fact that we all have blind spots. We all have those things that we just don’t quite see. And if you can’t see it, if it’s a blind spot, you can’t turn the car. You can’t navigate away from some of the things that typically will slow down whatever the pursuit is. I had a triathlon coach for the better part of 15 years, not because I couldn’t buy every book that was ever written on endurance training, racing, running, biking, swimming, but because I wanted to have somebody there to help oversee the day to day. Give me the accountability, give me the discipline, give me the swift kick in the butt, give me the sympathetic ear. And that’s what you’ve done for Trish and I in our business. I know that’s what you’ve done for so many of the professionals you’ve coached, and that is invaluable. I don’t think you can put a price tag on having somebody there that’s, kind of in the boat with you, kind of rowing alongside.

Rob Brown: Yeah. So, absolutely. Those are great points. And a couple of things jump out to me in talking about this. Um, first, this podcast isn’t about promoting Phil and I as coaches, although we’ll make you an offer at the end of how you can learn about what we do, but it’s more about thinking about your days ahead. Maybe you’re planning for next year. Do you have somebody who can look over your shoulder and keep you honest as to what you’re doing, hold you accountable? Um, I’m always blown away when, um, somebody calls me and says, rob, I’d like to consider you becoming my coach. And I would say, well, why? And one of the first words out of their mouth is accountability. And, yes, that just seems like, ah, really to be accountable. And this is because in most cases, the people that we work with already have some degree of success. Sure, maybe they’ve hit a plateau or a ceiling, and it’s easy for them to keep doing the same things over and over again when they know they need to change. So I think a big benefit of having a coach or mentor is that accountability, but also, more specifically, being a mentor and being a change agent because you want to get to that next level. Would you agree with that, Phil?

Phil Calandra: Well, a prime example, and we’ll just stray away from our, advisory coaching or business coaching. You show me or tell me of a sports team or an athlete, an elite level athlete that didn’t have a coach prior to or after they became the most elite. Look at LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, I’d say, and I don’t know how to order them. Three of the best professional basketball players of all time, LeBron James, could completely manage the minute by minute, inertia of the Los Angeles Lakers. But does he. No. He’s a player on the floor. And there are a team of coaches that have clipboards and are looking at the specifics of the game. And when they call a timeout, what do they do? They listen to the coach. We need to focus. We need to double down on this guy. We need to double team this guy. Forget about that guy. He’s throwing bricks. I could go on and on like this. Michael Phelps. Michael Phelps did not win more gold medals than anybody in the history of the Olympics without a coach. He could have got in the pool and swung laps. He knew the technique by that point, but he had a coach, and I always just come back to that. So why in our. If you want to be elite, if you want to be the best of the best, even if you are the top producer in your firm, even if you are bringing in all the assets that you’ve desired, would having a mentor and a coach to oversee it, to say, do more of this, do less of that? we talked in a recent podcast about kind of our process framework. How much better could we all be? I think it’s infinite.

Rob Brown: Yeah, because.

Phil Calandra: Price tag on that.

Rob Brown: Yeah, absolutely, Phil. And whether you’re talking about LeBron James, who as a Cleveland guy, LeBron James in scoring more points, or a financial advisor, we might work with increasing their assets under management, or a business owner, increasing, um, profits. Those are just one method for measuring which a coach can use. But a great thing about a good coach or a mentor is they ask great questions to say, well, is that enough? You’re already a successful basketball player, financial advisor, business owner. What more do you want out of your business besides the points and the money?

Phil Calandra: Um.

Rob Brown: And what will really help you feel more successful? So those questions, so that you can live a fuller, more purposeful, more intentional life in that role that you play, no matter where you are, in terms of what your career is.

Phil Calandra: Yeah. And I think one of the things that I see frequently, especially in larger firms, is your manager. Your direct boss can sometimes be a very good mentor and coach, but in many instances, they are not because they’re in a leadership position, and they’re in a position of developing the business strengths, goals and targets. And sometimes that is not transferable into the individual success. That’s why you see a lot of top performing in any industry organizations. What do they have? Training and development manager, business development, mentoring, or separate study groups. Because it’s not always enough to have your manager, your lead of advisor, to be able to take this group and the individuals to the next higher and higher level. So don’t get hung up on that, especially if you’re in a large firm. I see this, and it could be much different.

Rob Brown: Yeah, that’s very true. It reminds me of a quote that I ran into in preparation for this podcast from Bob Proctor, an old sales trainer, who said, a mentor is someone who sees more talent and ability within you than you see in yourself and helps bring it out of you. And I think that’s one of the things that we really try to do in our work with clients and why, whether it’s us or somebody else, we’re big proponents of finding that mentor who is that friend or colleague who isn’t going to just commiserate with you when things are going lousy or take you out for a beer when things are going well, they’re going to constantly be looking at you and saying, you have more talent, you have more ability, and they want to see you pull that out so you can be the fullest version of yourself that you can possibly be.

Phil Calandra: So true. Think about if you’re a financial advisor and you work with clients and you have a deep trust them and you and them, you have a relationship, you’re in a position of coaching and mentoring your client. And it gets back to the word you used a couple of times, Rob, which is accountability, being accountable, keeping you on the straight and narrow. I know that, in our years, when you were coaching me directly, you helped me think clearly. I would dare say you were even like my therapist. And that’s what people need sometimes. If you can get away from your own ego, if you can get away from your notion that you’re the elite producer, if you remove that from the equation and you allow somebody to come alongside you and hold you accountable and mentor you and coach you. Um, my son is a high school football coach. He’s been doing it only five years, and I always tell him, have a great game, have fun, and coach him up. What are you doing to be coached up in your business, in your life? Um, and if we can provide that to people, I think it becomes invaluable. No price tag can be put on coaching somebody up to help them achieve and aspire and get more fulfillment and just be jazzed and excited about what they’re doing and thinking about why they were put on this earth.

Rob Brown: That’s good stuff. Yeah, no, absolutely. And that’s why. And this is not quite the end of this podcast, although we’re getting close. We love to say we’re rooting for your success because that’s the other really, um, fun part for us of being coaches or of, those mentors that you may seek out and work with you. You want somebody who is your cheerleader, who’s constantly rooting for you, who can help you see past mistakes that you may make and help you fix them or overcome those challenges that happen, but can also see you cross many finish lines over the course of the year and saying, way to go. You won that race. You brought that business in. You, um, strengthened your team. Nothing better business in a way that it can, work without you. And so having that cheerleader and that excitement is so important, too, because even in the middle of success, you can feel down and alone. And so having a cheerleader, another word, maybe, for a mentor, is a good thing.

Phil Calandra: Yeah, 100%. I can speak for myself. You had mentioned I built a business, successful business. I parlayed that into a sizable acquisition succession plan for myself. And the next box for me was, okay, I’ve reached a level of success. I’ve been blessed beyond measure. How could I pay that back? How can I do that same cheerleading for somebody else? And that’s where it really becomes fulfilling and rewarding as you map out the trajectory of your own life’s journey. And having a mentor, having a coach, having a cheerleader, it makes all the difference.

Rob Brown: It absolutely does. And it reminds me of a planning session I was just in recently with one of my clients, with some of my private clients. I will go and do on site retreats or year end meetings for their team to help them do some planning, because maybe I’m only working with the top one or two people in the firm, and there are a, half a dozen or a dozen or more other members of those teams, and we want to make sure that we bring the planning together. And one of the takeaways from that meeting with this group was, the members of the team want the owner of the business to be a cheerleader for them. They love their jobs. They enjoy working with each other, but they felt like even though they were having or they were having a great year, they didn’t realize it because the owner of the business wasn’t coming along beside the team in the meetings, in the Gatherings that they would have talk about their success and individually, ah, applaud the team members, um, for what they were doing for the team. We kind of created a process to help my client be a better mentor, coach his team members, and he just didn’t see it he thought, well, they know we’re doing well. Um, I guess they did know, but they didn’t feel a part of it.

Phil Calandra: No, they didn’t know. I would say they didn’t know because they would have done it. And the only way they were able to discover that was with the coach. It’s seeing the blind spots. It’s identifying the areas. Like you just said, we all have it. And I know this advisor you’re speaking of, and they’re one of the best. I know how good they are. Where will it take them? It’s going to raise the bar, no doubt. I guarantee it will.

Rob Brown: Yeah. No, there is no doubt. I totally agree, Phil. So it’s time to bring this episode of the Truce fan blueprint to an end. Um, and as we do, I should say, as we like to do, we like to give our listeners an action item. And today, I’m going to give you two. I want you to stop and think about what we have been talking about and ask yourself, do you have a mentor or a coach or a cheerleader who can sit beside you and help hold you accountable for, um, those things that you want to accomplish in the coming year? Who can help bring out the best in you, who can be your cheerleader? And if you don’t commit to finding someone, because you’re probably doing some year ahead planning right now, this is a great time to have somebody look at those plans with you. So that’s the most important thing. That’s action item number one. Action item number two is you can check us out if you’d like to learn more about the way that we coach. Um, we’ve created a brand new program called the Truest Fan Roundtable, and you can try it for two weeks for free. Just go to truestfancoaching.com freeaccess. Sign up. You’ll see our core course. You’ll see the way that we do coaching with folks who join the program, because it’s another way that we can be mentors to more and more people, um, so that we can root for the success of more and more people. Because as coaches, there’s nothing we love more than seeing our clients, those people that we care about. They care about us, survive and get better. So, with that, Phil, I think we’ll call it a. Yeah.

Phil Calandra: Great, great job. Rob, always a pleasure. Thank you for your coaching.

Rob Brown: Oh, you’re welcome. It is my pleasure. So, to everybody, remember, we’re rooting for your success. We’ll talk to you next week.

Phil Calandra: Bye, now.

Rob Brown: Thanks for joining us for this episode of the Truest fan Blueprint. If you want to learn more, head over to our website. On the site, you’ll learn more about becoming a truest fan. You’ll also find today’s show notes and links to the other gifts and resources we talked about during this episode. Again, thanks for listening. And remember, we’re rooting for your success.