Billy Keels  00:00

Today's conversation is sponsored by first generation Capital Partners. If you're an accredited investor, and you want to know about how we're helping other accredited investors keep more of their income, go to firstgencp.com, forward slash going long.

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00:12

You're listening to the going long podcast with Billy keels, the number one podcast for long distance real asset investing.

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Billy Keels  00:22

Welcome to the Golang podcast, we're back once again to continue to help to educate you so you feel much more comfortable as well as confident investing beyond your backyard. And guess who I am. Yep, I'm your host, Billy keels. And I'm really looking forward to sharing another solo episode with you. But before I do that, I just want to say a couple of things, first and foremost, to those of you who continue to screenshot tag and share across social media, especially on that LinkedIn platform. We really love it over there. Really appreciate you. Thank you so much for that. And also to want to just remind you, if you're still thinking about leaving an honest written review, as well as a rating, go ahead and do that. We even have a little video here. And it makes it really, really simple, very easy for you to do that. So go ahead and do that. As well as for those of you who are looking for previous episodes, the solo episodes, the guest interviews, go to first ncp.com forward slash podcast, once again, it's first ntp.com forward slash podcasts. And you can find every single episode, you can find the transcripts, the show notes, all that kind of good stuff over there. So I want to get into today's conversation. Well, I guess it's kind of a monologue, or at least a solo episode kind of thing. And it's one of the things that I'm starting to recognise. Because for those of you who want to understand the power of having a mentor, why you would want to have a mentor, like today's episode, this is really for you. The reason it's for you is because, you know, I don't know if it's at the end of yours or the beginning of yours. But typically, when you were in this like kind of new moment, there's so many different things that are happening, there's change, there's new opportunity, there are new questions that you may have, there may be situations that you have never been in before and you're completely unfamiliar with. Well, let me tell you, if any of these things, things sound familiar to you, you're really gonna want to listen to the next couple of minutes, it's going to be brief. As you know, I like to keep these solo episodes really, really brief. But if you have ever had any of those feelings, or you're currently feeling that way, it's really important to make sure that you understand that having a mentor that you can reach out to, it's something that can really helped pull you through that doubt, that fear, that lack of familiarity, and a lot of getting the answers to the questions that you have. Right. And so let me just be very clear on what I mean by the power of having a mentor, what do I think a mentor is for just some people that may think about what a coach is, by the way, coaches and mentors, very different roles, very, very different roles. So let me just say this, when I talk about having a mentor, I talk about someone who already has experience, they have the knowledge and they are willing to share number one their time, as well as their knowledge with you, because they want to help you develop and grow. So if you have someone in your life, that will have the experience that you've already are looking for, and they are willing to share their time and share their insights with you to help you grow and develop. That's what a mentor is. That's my definition for today's conversation. And before I even share kind of the power of it and why it's super important. I've already talked to you about some of the challenges that you probably have no, I'm just gonna even share my own story from when I was in corporate life, right, because as you all know, I really had a positive corporate experience, I enjoyed corporate experience, it was something that brought me lots of wonderful growth opportunities, experiences, had a chance to work and travelled throughout some 86 Different countries had a chance to live in three different European countries, I've learned for additional languages, and then a lot of that not all of it exclusively, but was thanks to the opportunities that I was able to gain from corporate life. And so with that kind of as a background, one of the things that I had a lot of a challenge with, and I will never forget one of my greatest mentors. Got a mic. So Mike, big shout out to you, you know who you are. I remember when I was going through a pretty challenging time, right? Because as someone who was in the corporate life, I was climbing the ladder. I wanted to continue to go up and continue to move up. And there were always new promotion opportunities. So you know, of course, I wanted to continue to be fast tracked and do these kinds of things. And I remember having an opportunity, and it was a promotion opportunity. But this promotion, believe it or not, I know this probably never happens to anybody else. But it happened to me. This promotion had zero compensation increase, no salary increase. And of course, most of you are like, Well, why didn't worlds even take it? Well, because this was putting me on the track to where the role the title that I was chasing because that's what I was into. I was really chasing that title. I wanted to get the title and experience Since I remember really having these really difficult kind of conversations with myself, like, Why in the world would I take this, you're not valuing me. And I remember speaking to this mentor and my mentor. When I, when I was talking to him, I was really hung up on this whole no promotion opportunity, and so or no salary increase, excuse me, no salary increase, kind of thing. And so, and I remember making the statement, and I said to to Mike, I said, Look, man, if what I don't understand is that they're not paying me what I'm worth. And I will never forget this, which is, and I know, I've shared this maybe on other kind of when I've been a guest on other people's podcasts, or just maybe speaking to people wonder one, but never hear what's going on family. And so I'm gonna share this with you, because Mike's response was classic. And he looked at me, or we were talking on the phone actually didn't look at me. And he said, Well, Billy, of course, they're not going to pay you what you're worth, they're never going to pay you what you're worth. They're going to pay you what the role is worth to them. Unbelievable. One of those things that this mentor absolutely rocked my world, because he already had the previous experience in the similar kind of context that I was looking for, which is, I was very fortunate that was able to reach out to him, I was able to get them one his time. And number two, his insights, to be able to help me with a very specific moment in time, which is what I was looking for. And so I use that only as an example. Because what that did is that helped me not get hung up on the salary increase, because you know what, he was absolutely right. Because even though the first year, I did not achieve what I had set out to do, I was actually less than 50% of my quota. The years thereafter, I was in the triple digits in terms of attainment of the quota. And so what that helped me to do was someone who had already been there before me, gave me the perspective because I was unfamiliar with this situation. And he helped me get to what was really important did I want the experience was I gaining the experience? Did I ultimately get to where I wanted to go? Yes, the only difference was I wasn't interested in climbing the corporate ladder anymore. But that was a whole different thing. So the reason I say that is because I'm continuing to have conversation, like I said, I don't know if it's the time of year or what's happening. But whether that is with friends, with EX colleagues, with the investor, family members, it's all of these different things. But the reason that I want to share with you that it's really important that you have someone that you can reach out to a mentor, is because you can draw on their experience to help give you the perspective that you're going to need to ultimately make your best informed decision. Because the decision is up to you, you have to make the decision. However, sometimes it's really nice to be able to lean on someone else's previous experience, their context of their life may be very different from yours. But at least you can draw on their experience, provided that you can get their time you can get their suggestions, you can get their advice. But ultimately, you have to make the decision because it is your life, no one can make the decisions for you. And if they did make them for you probably not really like that too much. Expect that your mentor is going to really tell you, they're not going to be asking you a lot of questions, they're going to tell you because that's what you're calling them for. That's what you're meeting with them for the coffee for, that's why they're investing their time with you. And they see that you're taking action, and you're coming back and you're telling them what the result was of that action, it may be positive, it may not be positive, but whatever the the the action is, it's going to help you to grow. And they're ultimately going to give you their perspective. So like I said, if you don't have a mentor, or you've thought about reaching out to that mentor, make it easy for the mentor help understand what is it that you plan on doing based on the interactions that you're going to have for the mentor. And then from there, develop that relationship, because having that person who can give you the perspective who's already been there who's going to tell you based on what they've learned or the situation, the context that you're talking about, that can really help you to save a lot of time, a lot of frustration, a lot of angst. And because this is something that continues to happen in it, it's not just going to help you now it's going to help you well into the future. Make sure that you are seeking out those mentors or that if you have those mentors, that you're staying engaged with them, helping them understand where your progress is what you're doing, because that's also going to give them the motivation to continue to stay engaged with you. So like I said, it's probably just to where we are in the in the year it happens. Usually at the end of the year, the beginning of the year. Maybe it's the end of a quarter, the beginning of a quarter of this kind of stuff where you have these questions, you have these doubts, you have this lack of familiarity with the situation or if that is what makes it important to get out there. Stay in touch with your mentors, reach out to your mentors and ask them for just you know, Hey, can I get 510 minutes? Or can I get a half an hour? Can I take you to coffee or whatever the case may be? So I think it's important. You're going to have different mentors for different seasons of your life that have different situations, different contexts, reach out to the mentor that makes the most sense at that moment in time and also If you're thinking about reaching out to the mentor, make it easy for them. Tell them exactly why you believe they would be a great mentor and specifically the actions that you are going to take as a result of the conversations or whatever time they're investing in you. So mentorship is extremely powerful. having mentors different points of your life, different seasons of your of your life, and different experiences, different contexts will really help you to break through and get to the decision so that you can make the best decisions for yourself that were going to also ultimately impact you and your family. So just felt like I had to share that, like it's been on my heart. So I wanted to share it with you really trust that this has been something that has been useful and you will go out, reach out to your mentors, if you've been thinking about it, reach out to them. Listen, while you are not just thinking about but actually taking into action what we talked about today. I'll be here preparing the next solo episode. So until then, gotta make it a great day. And thank you very much. Trust that you enjoy today's conversation. And once again, today's conversation was sponsored by first generation Capital Partners. If you're an accredited investor want to find out more about how we're helping accredited investors to gain their personal freedom even faster. Go to first gencp.com forward slash going long.

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