Finding a Great Business Mentor - A Secret to Success

by Will McGuire
Mutually Marketing

(or What the heck is Over-Delivery?)

It started with high school daydreams. Daily daydreams blanking out hours per day of school tedium. Detailed, technically oriented dreams in which I invented things and flew to other planets. Dreams in which I, with the aid of my super technology, rescued damsels and saved villages and countries from tyrants and villains.

Internet Lifestyle?

There was no Internet (ARPANET existed). As I entered Grade 12 in 1968, pleasant fantasies gave way to the reality (?) of wondering "what am I going to be" when I grow up. I hadn't yet figured out that what I would Be and what I would DO were 2 separate and distinct concepts.

A quick fast forward brings me to 1996: My first excursion onto the internet. Seemed kinda clunky. Lots of plain text pages. Awfully slow. But for the first time in 25 years, daydreaming started becoming part of my life again. Kind of cool that I could communicate around the world, without stamps. And I'd seen where computers had come from since 1975 (When I'd worked on mainframes. I got my first PC in 1983).

I saw some of the potential of the Internet; to change lives, to change the world (and like any paradigm shifting revolution the potential was not all for good).

Whoops! 1999 arrived....Divorce...Depression...Bankruptcy....anyhow emerged from where-ever I went a few years ago and found a Dream Machine. The Internet had evolved more than I had ever imagined.

The opportunity to build business and change life-style was obvious. A new phrase was coined. "Internet Lifestyle." The success stories were innumerable. In fact, the fundamental ability of the Internet to massively increase the speed, volume and specificity of information, had made the task of sifting relevant information, business and otherwise, from irrelevant, misleading, or simply mis-information, an overwhelming task.

I strongly believe that learning from those who succeed is the best way to ease the road to success, so...I bought a few business products from "gurus."

These were people who had proven that they were successful with their Internet Business concepts. They were, and still are, very well known names in the world of on-line business.

Their products, however, didn't deliver on their promises. They invariably asserted that their product was the secret to succeeding on the Internet. (seen one of those offers in the last 10 minutes?)

It's possible that by spending enough money on the offered up-sells, I might have achieved the success I was searching for, BUT, I felt kind of funny sending a bunch of money to the same person who'd ripped me for a smaller amount....Maybe it's just me but, having run my own non-internet business for 25 years, I've come to believe that . customer service is about over not under delivery of product.

Where in this Wilderness (you might agree with me that the Internet is pretty wild) do you find someone who's:

Successful
A good teacher
Willing to teach rank beginners
Doesn't require you to put $497 (it's never $500, is it?) or more up front to determine whether or not they meet the first 3 criteria

Well, relax. They are out there. Not a lot of them, but they exist and I can tell you how to find them.

Look for content.

If you're trying to discover how to build a strong Internet Business, whether from scratch or by transitioning your traditional business to the Internet, you know there's no shortage of people willing to take your money and show you how. Almost all such offers, are free or inexpensive (initially). Some will simply not apply to your situation. A significant number will appear very attractive. So do you check them all out?

Well, if you've investigated I/N business at all, you've heard that the Money's in the List (not necessarily true, but that's for another article). The intent of these offers is to get you on that marketers mailing list. Nothing wrong with that, so the answer is, yes, check out the offers.

What you're looking for once you subscribe (and it doesn't take long to find out) is:

The quality of the Content. Helpful? Understandable? Implementable? Or recycling you've already seen 20 times before?
Does the marketer offer other bits of quality content on a consistent basis through the course of his or her auto-responder sequence? Or is it sell, sell, sell? Cross-promote, Cross-promote, Cross-promote?
Do you get a feel for the marketer's personality and is it someone you'd like to associate with? At least as important as the other criteria if your goal is to find a mentor to help you build a successful business. Not so important if you're just looking for a few specifics to round out your knowledge.
Do you feel good about the product you received? In other words, did the marketer over-deliver? Did you get more value from the product than the money you spent?

If the criteria aren't satisfied, unsubscribe from the list. Very occasionally, this may be a pain. If it is, warn others and avoid this marketer like the plague.

Some people are turned off by up-sells. Don't be. Remember, once you find someone who satisfies your initial criteria, you'll want to invest more in their products. The object of any investment is to generate a return greater than the amount invested and you're an investor. Just don't invest in an up-sell, until you're totally comfortable that you'll profit from the investment.

That happens once you're totally satisfied that the marketer you're investigating consistently over-delivers. Find someone like that, and you're well on the way to achieving your Internet Lifestyle.

http://willmcguire.com

I was able, through this process, to finally find a business mentor who more than fulfilled my expectations. Feel free to check out my link and find out more.

Will McGuire

"Enjoy the journey to success"

Article submitted Friday, May 27, 2011 & read 7 times.

Will McGuire is the founder of Mutually Marketing, http://willmcguire.com, and creator of Instant Internet Lifestyle Review at http://willmcguire.com/leemcintyre, a look at a marketer who consistently over-delivers. He lives in Maple Ridge, British Columbia, with his loving spouse, Milly, two kids (one dog each), and a demon cat named BLACKY. He is interested in on-line marketing (government pensions being what they are), health and nutrition, and education. His current means of support are on-line marketing and tutoring high school math students and an Old Age Pension that starts in Sept/11.

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