The Confident Entrepreneur With Jennifer Ann Johnson

The Power of Mentorship with Sara Mueller

• Jennifer Ann Johnson • Season 2 • Episode 44

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Discover how mentors can serve as your personal "time machine" with Harvard-trained emotional intelligence expert and success coach, Sara Mueller. In this episode, Sara reveals how mentors accelerate success by offering wisdom, guidance, and accountability in key areas like finance, marketing, and leadership. Learn how to choose the right mentors to achieve your goals, turn adversity into growth, and build meaningful mentoring relationships. Sara also shares inspiring stories of transformation and the ripple effect mentors create in our lives.

Visit us at jenniferannjohnson.com and learn how Jennifer can help you build the life you dream of with her online academy, blog, one-on-one coaching, and a variety of other resources!

Jennifer Johnson:

Our guest today is Sara Mueller, and she is a Harvard-trained emotional intelligence expert, an international award-winning success coach and author of the Balanced Life Blueprint. Welcome, thank you so much. I'm so excited to be here again. We were just talking before we went on air. You've done a lot. You've worked with the NFL Combine, which you explained to me is like the mental health area that they have to go through to get into the NFL, yes, and behavioral health centers and Fortune Global 500 executives. You have done a lot.

Sara Mueller:

I know it's been a great career. I'm excited about that. It's pretty awesome and you have your book, the Balanced Life Blueprint that's out, yes, yes, officially on February 18th, but I do have some pre-order copies that are rocking and rolling, just fabulous.

Jennifer Johnson:

It's so wonderful. Today we're talking about mentors and paid, unpaid and everything in between. Right, mentors are so important. In my life I had mentors before I really even knew what a mentor was.

Jennifer Johnson:

They were you know they were a confidant, they were a teacher, they were many different walks of life and never really knew what that was, never really understood it until, you know, I started owning my own company and then I was looked to by other people to kind of mentor them, and mentors are pretty powerful, absolutely. So let's talk about the benefits of having a mentor in your business specifically, okay, and we can talk about in life too, yes, but I just it's important.

Sara Mueller:

Yeah, so I think that when I think about mentors, it's important. Yeah, so I think that when I think about mentors, I think of them as like a time machine and this could be in your business or in your personal life, for whatever it is that you're wanting to excel at Because we get to really take the expertise and the wisdom and the learned experience from the mentor and use that so that we don't have to spend as much time and energy and heartache and tears and money to get to the same result that they have. And so it really is like a time machine that helps us to have success in a quicker way, which I don't know about you, but I like fast results. I have so much that I want to accomplish in this lifetime that I want to keep moving forward.

Jennifer Johnson:

I love that analogy because it is like a time machine. It's like I'm back to the future.

Sara Mueller:

Yes, yes yes, yes, and so I think the other thing that's really great about mentorship is that we can get mentored in whatever area we want to grow in. So it really starts with us understanding, well, what's the biggest opportunity for my business, what specifically does it look like? And then finding the correct mentor or coach that can help us to achieve that result that we're looking to get.

Jennifer Johnson:

I love that because you're right, you can have one for the financial area, because not one person is going to hit all those buckets. Absolutely, so you could do financial, you could do marketing, you can have all of these people, and I call it filling my proverbial bench. I like that Because I need people that are not necessarily in my business every day. It's like my board of directors right, I like that, but they don't work for me. They're literally my mentor, because I don't know everything and not any one person is going to know everything, and it's like getting a second opinion at the doctor. Absolutely.

Sara Mueller:

Right.

Jennifer Johnson:

You have other people to bounce it off of.

Sara Mueller:

To make sure that you're trying to make the most informed decision that you can Absolutely, and getting that outside perspective is so valuable, especially with someone who has already been there and done that. And so, same as you, I've had a lot of different mentors and coaches in my life. I had a sort of a business launching coach, I've had a leadership coach, I've had a marketing coach Right now I'm working with book and promotion coaching and so when I've identified that biggest opportunity for my business, that's when I've then sought out that mentorship relationship, whatever that might be, whether it's someone that agrees to come on and be your mentor as a friend, or that is someone that you pay, which would be more like a coaching type relationship.

Jennifer Johnson:

Either way, it definitely impacts you with growing your business. So, in your opinion, how can a mentor help you grow your business or succeed in your business?

Sara Mueller:

So I think that they help you to see the outcome that you want to get to and to understand which steps to get there and to guide you through and to also hold you accountable, because a lot of us have great intentions and if there's not someone or something that's holding us accountable, we can lose track, we can fall off of the direction that we're going, and so the mentorship role holds you accountable and gives you that insight, and that sort of third mentorship role holds you accountable and gives you that insight and that sort of third-party perspective that you and I talked about.

Sara Mueller:

I think it's really important when we're picking a mentor. We want to work with someone or have a relationship with someone that we, of course, connect with, but we also want to make sure that they have achieved what we want to achieve Exactly.

Jennifer Johnson:

Yes, because there's a lot of people out there.

Sara Mueller:

There's people who focus on studying or the academics, and there's a lot of coaches and mentors out there that are offering services, and it can get a little overwhelming to figure out which one you want to work with or you want to pursue. And so, okay, who has actually done the thing that I want to do, whether it's emotional intelligence or starting a business or having a successful marketing campaign? Who has actually done that? And that's the person that I want to work with so I can gain all of their wisdom and their golden nuggets that they're willing to share.

Jennifer Johnson:

And that makes complete sense, because you don't. Anybody can look good on paper, right, but what did you actually do? And I love the fact that you made a comment about education so somebody could be a professor of a certain area, but maybe they'd not actually ever owned their own business Two completely separate things.

Sara Mueller:

Yes, and so I'm not saying not to seek out the education or read those books. There's definitely a lot of information in theory, but when you're looking at a specific mentorship or coaching type role, you want someone that has been there done that to help you get to that same result.

Jennifer Johnson:

Right, and this kind of goes into my key qualities that we should be looking for in a mentor. Number one they should have done what you want to do, yes, right, not where you're at right now, but where you want to go. Yes, what else would you look for in a good mentor?

Sara Mueller:

Well, and I think, to add on to that piece as well, they just need to be one step ahead of you, right as well. You know they don't need to. They just need to be one step ahead of you, right? They don't need to be 10%. And sometimes, when they are, you know, let's say, I want to grow my business to, you know, a multi, six figure business, but I only have, you know, $10,000 in revenue. You know, my business is just starting out. That might be a big leap for me. Or to say, oh, I want to, I'm going to work with a mentor that's going to help me get to a seven-figure business. That's a big leap. But if I work with someone, that's maybe just one or two steps ahead of me. It's a bit closer. It helps me to understand okay, I could probably get to a six-figure business from where I'm at now. So we want to have them ahead of us, but it doesn't need to be a huge gap, because if there is a huge gap, then your mind starts going but I'm not there.

Jennifer Johnson:

How will I ever get there?

Sara Mueller:

Right, Like we trick ourselves, and you might be able to work with that person once you're ready for that. But we really want to think about what is the thing that I need to accomplish right now. Let me work on that first, and there's always the time for further mentors. I think, too, that there's the willingness.

Sara Mueller:

If we look at someone who is I'm very grateful that I get to work with a lot of senior leaders and they are at the end of their career and they are recognizing that they have gotten to the success in their career because other people have lifted them up, they put them on their shoulders and push them up, and a lot of these leaders are wanting to leave a legacy and are wanting to pay back all of the great wisdom and experience that they got from those who mentored them.

Sara Mueller:

And so you really need to find someone who's willing to have that type of relationship with you, that's willing to invest the time, and I think there also needs to be clear identification of what is expected of that mentoring relationship, especially if it's not like a paid coach. If you're working with a coach that you're paying to help you achieve something, that's very clear. But if you're finding a mentor, someone who's willing to invest their time in you because they want to give back. Like I was just speaking about, it's best to set sort of clear expectations of what this relationship will look like for both parties, so that you're both happy and fulfilled with it. That makes complete sense.

Jennifer Johnson:

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Jennifer Johnson:

We're in studio with Sara Mueller and we're talking about the importance of a mentor in your business and really in life. I know I have had several throughout my life, not even really knowing that that's what they were at the time and in hindsight going, wow, they changed my life. Not even really knowing that that's what they were at the time and in hindsight going, wow, they changed my life. I mean, I can remember this high school teacher who, to this day, I still stay in contact with and I've graduated 30 some years ago and she has no idea what an impact she left in my life and my first job, my first big girl job. The owner of that company was someone who really inspired me to start my business, and they probably didn't even know that.

Sara Mueller:

Well and I think that's such a great thing for us to touch upon here is that we don't always recognize the influence that we're having in other people. We're definitely impacting others, and so you can be a mentor to someone else. The way that you live, the way that you act, the way that you work.

Sara Mueller:

And giving that belief in someone and that positive comment. I remember one of my teachers from middle school who basically told my parents that Sara is going to be able to accomplish whatever she sets her mind to. And I still hear that and that gives me the motivation to keep doing the work that I do.

Jennifer Johnson:

And you know I mean we have to be careful because on the flip side we've got the negative ones too right To not put energy into those and, to, you know, really allow the ones that build us up to really give us that energy.

Sara Mueller:

Yes, and it's funny because I am more of a person that's motivated by positivity.

Sara Mueller:

So, remembering that middle school, teacher that I just mentioned, but I've had other people speak about. This isn't a specific mentorship relationship, but those people who have said those sort of negative comments, you know, like oh, you'll never amount to anything. Or you know, don't even try to write a book because no one's going to read. You know that's pretty extreme, but I've heard of people hearing comments like that from their teachers, specifically in elementary, middle, high school, and they sort of use those people as fuel to accomplish what they want and in a way be like, hey, I can do this, and almost like told you so, and so it's just kind of understanding how we're motivated. Again, for me it's more positive motivation, but sometimes if that's enough to spark the light underneath us so that we can accomplish what we want, then amazing.

Jennifer Johnson:

I'm actually tearing up a little bit because you struck a chord with me Back in the day. Growing up. I was the ugly duckling glasses, crooked teeth, funky hair, everything. And I just remember not the people saying that I could never do something, but kind of being an outcast, right, Kind of being an outcast, and I draw on that every so often. Every so often, whatever I don't know why, but it comes up and I'm like kind of giving the middle finger to it and saying, screw you, no, I am becoming who I am and I'm pushing through it and I use that to fuel me. But on the flip side, I also use that positive. So I think people can use both, just depending upon what it is. And just growing up as that outcast made me really, really push to be and do what I'm doing today. So you struck a chord with me, I mean.

Sara Mueller:

And I love We've got to find as business owners, we've got to find that fire from wherever we can get it.

Jennifer Johnson:

It's sometimes a long and lonely road it is.

Sara Mueller:

So, however, we can support ourselves to keep moving forward. And then the one thing I want to add to that is that mentor that you mentioned might not even recognize the impact that he or she had on you. What a great thing for you to send him or her a note or a message and let them know the impact. I think that would be really.

Jennifer Johnson:

You know an interesting note I actually carry around with me in my handbag a rock. It's a simple rock. Someone had given that to me and said remember the ripple effect? Very cool. Right, you throw a rock into a pond and how the water ripples out. Well, that's what mentors do, and they don't even know they're doing it.

Sara Mueller:

So for sure they're expanding their impact and their influence.

Jennifer Johnson:

So for sure they're expanding their impact and their influence. You know and this leads me to my last question but our thought is how do we maintain a successful mentoring relationship with someone?

Sara Mueller:

I like to be really respectful of my mentor's time, and so this is a mentor relationship that's not like a paid coach, for example and understand that they are really giving me something of value. They are very busy, they have a lot going on, and so the way that I feel like is best to maintain that is to really think about what you want to get out of your communication with them. So I've found that, as I'm, I might have a question as I'm drafting that communication, I'm drafting that email to them. It's forcing me to get very, very clear on what specifically I want to ask. Sometimes, just in getting really clear on what I want to ask that person so that I can really be respectful of their time, I gain enough clarity that I know which way to move forward.

Sara Mueller:

So I have a mentor that I might not even be in communication with, but I'm sort of thinking, well, how would this person respond to me? And as I'm getting clear on my question, I'm getting a sense as to what that answer is. And so just understanding that, being respectful, being prepared, knowing what you want to ask for, if you only have five minutes, what's the one question or maybe three that you would ask and then if there's a way to give back, of course being appreciative, but what can you do for them? How can you give back to them? They're probably getting enough from giving back as they're wanting to leaving a legacy, but I just love being able to kind of keep paying it back and forth.

Jennifer Johnson:

I love it. I love it. I loved our conversation today Me too. Very impactful, very impactful. If our listeners want to get in touch with you or they want to get a copy of your book, yes, yes, how do we get ahold of you?

Sara Mueller:

So the best way to get in touch with me and get a copy of my book is at bookforbalancecom. So it's bookforbalancecom. The Balanced Life Blueprint is there with a bunch of free resources and a workbook to help others implement it, and look forward to seeing people there. Fabulous. Thank you so much. You are so welcome.

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