The Transformative Power of Mentoring with Chelsey Baker. Virtually Anything Goes Podcast

The Founder & CEO of the National Mentoring Day, Chelsey Baker, joins host Lev Cribb on the Virtually Anything Goes Podcast Expert Series to share insights and inspiring stories about the importance and impact of mentoring.

Listen in and watch to hear how leaders from companies like NASA, Virgin, Accenture, Linkedin, and others have benefitted from mentoring and have paid it forward with their experience.

Ever wondered how mentoring can revolutionize your professional journey? Discover the multifaceted benefits of mentoring with Chelsey Baker, the inspiring CEO of National Mentoring Day. Chelsea takes us through her remarkable career shift from a senior executive in media and communications to spearheading a global initiative that celebrates mentoring. Learn how her extensive expertise in public speaking, PR, and business pitching equipped her to train thousands of CEOs and entrepreneurs. Chelsey's passion for mentoring is palpable as she shares heartwarming success stories and practical advice, proving that mentoring is a game-changer at all career stages.

Founded in 2014 by Chelsey Baker, the National Mentoring Day was inaugurated as an official National Day in the Houses of Parliament under the patronage of Lord Young, is supported by the Prince’s Trust, and has since become an internationally recognised with more than 250,000 organisations taking part globally on the 27th of October every year. 

Chelsey Baker’s award-winning career spans more than 20 years working in media, TV, communications, publishing, PR and Marketing. Chelsey is renowned as the UK's top pitching expert, training CEOs, entrepreneurs, and leaders in public speaking and business pitching. She was named “Influential Woman of the Year”, “Visionary Woman Serving Humanity”, and has won the “Excellence in Enterprise Mentoring” award at BAFTA.

Chelsey Baker has seen the positive and life-changing impact of mentoring first hand. In this episode, she shares how mentoring works and how it is accessible for every child, adult, and organisation irrespective of age, race, gender, background, or circumstance.

Whether you are a CEO of a global organisation or a 6-year old child, mentoring is for everyone and everyone can benefit from it. 

This episode is part of our Expert Series, where we speak to experts from a variety of different backgrounds, including Sleep & Insomnia, Addiction, Public Speaking, Eye Surgery, Crisis Communications, and even Magic! So be sure to subscribe and check out our other episodes on our Youtube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/@WebinarExperts 

Find and listen the audio-only version of this episode on your favourite podcast platform. 

Find out more about the National Mentoring Day at https://nationalmentoringday.org/
Or follow Chelsey Baker on Linkedin at https://www.linkedin.com/in/chelseybaker/

For more information, content, and podcast episodes go to https://www.webinarexperts.com

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

last year we had NASA Virgin Accenture. I mean LinkedIn. You know CEOs of every company are taking to LinkedIn to say who helped them in their career. They're thanking someone who's helped them up the ladder, but now send the elevator down.

Speaker 2: 0:20

Welcome to the Virtually Anything Goes podcast. This episode is part of our expert series, and each episode features a new expert from a range of interesting topics. Throughout the series, you'll hear about sleep and insomnia, addiction, mentoring, crisis communication, sales, eye surgery and even magic. You don't want to miss what the experts have to share, so subscribe and follow this podcast now, and then sit back and listen in.

Speaker 3: 0:58

Hello and welcome to the Virtually Anything Goes podcast. This episode is part of our expert series, where we speak to experts from a variety of different backgrounds, including sleep and insomnia, addiction, eye surgery, sales, communications and even magic, and if you like what you hear in this episode, be sure to also subscribe and check out our other episodes. Today, I'm joined by Chelsea Baker, who's the CEO of the National Mentoring Day, which she founded in 2014. It was inaugurated as an official national day in the Houses of Parliament and has since become internationally recognised, with more than 250,000 organisations taking part globally on the 27th of October every year.

Speaker 3: 1:34

Chelsea's career spans more than 20 years working in media, tv, communications, publishing, pr and marketing, and she's renowned as the UK's top pitching expert, training CEOs, entrepreneurs and leaders in public speaking and business pitching. If that wasn't enough, chelsea also has won many high profile awards, including Business Mentor of the Year by the Start, your Business magazine, the Excellence in Enterprise Mentoring Award at BAFTA, influential Woman of the Year and Vision woman serving humanity, reflecting chelsea's commitment to empowering and transforming lives through mentoring. Chelsea baker, a very warm welcome to you. It's wonderful to have you in the show thank you so much, lev.

Speaker 1: 2:14

It's great to be here today.

Speaker 3: 2:15

Thanks for having me on no, you, it's great to have you. Um, if this is your first time listening, just for the audience, to the virtually anything goes podcast, stick around right until the very end, when I turn control over to chel Chelsea and she can ask me her Virtually Anything Goes question. This can be any question at all, but I won't know what it is until Chelsea actually asks me. So it could literally be anything. The only caveat is that when I've answered, chelsea will then also have to give her answer to the same question. That's my safety net anyway. So with that Chelsea, today we'll talk about the important topic of mentoring, but perhaps that will take us down some other avenues as well. We'll see how the conversation goes. But let me start with this question In a world of fast business, international and global enterprises working from home and competitive marketplaces, what role does mentoring actually play today?

Speaker 1: 3:05

oh, it's a great question. It's so important for businesses and organizations. It really makes a company more resilient. Of course, it improves the workplace culture. People these days they need employees, want to feel that sense of belonging. It's all about, you know, businesses and organizations are made up of people. So when we think about the people, people mentoring helps to improve employee onboarding, engagement, develop future leaders within the company. Nurturing talent, developing talent, retaining talent it's all part of that mentoring cohort.

Speaker 1: 3:41

And I think these days the workplace is becoming more and more demanding, more and more complex and really more competitive than ever and this is why mentoring is is really, really needed. It impacts the people at the core. When we think about teams, it helps to strengthen relationships and build that trust. It's just just so important, it's vital. And these days we've got millennials, gen Zs, we've got, you know, the workforce is made up of just so many different generations and yet mentoring works across departments, across all generations. So I always say for businesses and organizations, it allows you and facilitates businesses to get to know, to really get to know its people, their people yeah, I like the idea about it's.

Speaker 3: 4:32

It spans all generations and it's a consistent part of that. I hadn't thought of that before. Um, obviously, this part, this episode, is part of our episode, our expert series, um, and I'm keen to explore what makes people into experts. So I want to dig a little bit more into your background as well. I mean, you've worked with thousands of CEOs and founders. You've helped them scale their businesses. What is your background and how did you start your journey towards what ultimately became the National Mentoring Day?

Speaker 1: 5:01

Thank you, lev. So my background is 20 years as a senior executive in media, television, publishing, communications and PR. Uh, you know, you get to a certain stage in life and you're like, right, I have all this skill stack to pass up. You know, what could I do with it? And, funny enough, I was.

Speaker 1: 5:18

I was the host of a big uh show at a uh one of the great British business show. It was at the time and I was there on stage. I'd been training people how to pitch their business to a multi-millionaire panel of investors and I came off stage and there was a sign do you have business experience to pass on to others? I thought absolutely I do. And that led me to becoming, you know, a mentor and passing on what I knew to to help others. So there I was, mentoring people on public speaking, how to speak to the media, how to write press campaigns, everything that had taught me. You know, I guess that I learned throughout my careers, and the failings as well. You know where I went wrong and what I could have done better and how I can fast track things, or you know the those tips, that valuable golden nuggets of advice, and I got chosen to be a lead mentor for a government mentoring program and that's really how things took off.

Speaker 1: 6:20

In a a massive way, I guess, because it was the government's entrepreneurship program where I was there mentoring all these young entrepreneurs on how to start a business. I'm like I was mentoring hundreds of businesses. I'm like where's all the other mentors? And that's what really gave me the idea. So, out of a problem, I spotted this opportunity. I'm'm like where's our national day? To to raise more awareness, to create more awareness on the transformational benefits of mentoring, and we didn't have one. So you know, I never had that support when I was starting my businesses and growing my businesses. So I decided to found National Mentoring Day. I saw that, the impact that it had on the lives of these entrepreneurs and it's kind of like you know, the rest is history. We needed to do this to celebrate mentoring, to continuously raise awareness on the impact of mentoring across not only business, education, society, communities. It's so important. So that's really my journey was all media, pr, public speaking and then wanting to pay, pay back, pay it forward, I guess yeah, well, it strikes me as incredibly selfless.

Speaker 3: 7:35

Um, what would you say are your sort of top qualities that would allow you to establish and grow the National Mentoring Day?

Speaker 1: 7:44

I think you've got to be bold. You know, when we start in business or we're running a business, you know you also get some negative naysayers or negative I won't say the word. You know, and I just thought I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this as part of my purpose, my legacy to the world leave this gift to the world and to have a bold mission, you need to have great communication skills. So this is why I'm so passionate about training entrepreneurs, women, ceos, to be able to communicate that message. You know we've had over four, four, 500 pages of national, global press coverage if I wasn't able to clearly communicate my why, why I'm doing this, and that you know the critical need for mentoring is paramount to getting that message out there, not only in the press, but you've got to get everyone else to buy into your vision. It's not just me, it's everyone else. So good communication skills is absolutely, you know, I guess, one of my best qualities Integrity.

Speaker 1: 8:55

It's without integrity you don't have anything, and I say what I do and I do what I say and I try and teach everyone I mentor about having integrity, and this stemmed from very, very early on in my career in media. I'd get an opportunity and I'd say yes, and if something better came along, I would always stick with whatever I was booked into the diary. You know you don't see me cancelling things and you know it's it's, it's having integrity. People then know that they can rely on you and that you know you're, you're trustworthy. Uh, I have very high morals. I grew up in a school with mother theresa plastered everywhere all over the school and and I guess she had a big impact on me. So, um, yeah, it's, it's really having integrity. And people spot it. You can't fake it. You either have it or you don't, and learn to have it.

Speaker 3: 9:50

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. It's impressive the growth you've seen and the coverage that you mentioned as well. I suspect there might be some people who have some misconceptions about what mentoring is and they may, they may feel actually that's not for me or I'm too proud to do that, even though they might not say that out loud. There might be some general misconceptions about how mentoring works. Can you tell us a bit more of what it is and how it works really?

Speaker 1: 10:19

absolutely, and what a great question that there's so many misconceptions, I think. I think we'd probably be here in another hour, but I'll wrap it up quickly. I'll try to summarize it into some one-liners for you. But I think with mentoring, people assume that maybe it's just for beginners or typically with CEOs or business owners my business is doing fine, I don't need a mentor, I don't need someone telling me what to do, and that's just not the case.

Speaker 1: 10:49

Mentoring is key and invaluable at every stage of your career, your business, your personal or your professional journey. Everyone can benefit from it. It allows you that space. As business owners, we all need space to reflect, to see and gain new perspectives and how to navigate challenges and overcome challenges, to explore different pathways. So it really is for everyone at every stage. Whether or not you're an entrepreneur, you know, have a career, it really doesn't matter.

Speaker 1: 11:24

But I think there's this misconception, especially amongst business owners, that they only seek mentoring when there's a problem, when the company's going down, when the company's struggling financially. No, you seek mentors at the great times, at the best times, at the profitable times, the profitable times, all times. So I think that's, you know, that's the number one misconception. Another one is. I think people feel sometimes that with mentoring it's it's one way, one-sided, whereas maybe it's the mentor that's providing, doing all the giving, providing the knowledge and sharing everything. It's so not that's providing doing all the giving, providing the knowledge and sharing everything. It's so not it's so mutually beneficial. I have learned so much from my mentees. It's incredible. You get this whole new perspective and you learn about industries and skills that just you know, you didn't know before. So I really believe it's the most rewarding thing ever. But you learn so much. Speak to any mentor and say, did you learn anything from your mentee? And they will say I walked away knowing so much. I guess, while we're here, we better explore.

Speaker 1: 12:45

The main myth is people think that mentoring is really similar to coaching. They are very, very different. You know, coaching focuses on a specific skill or development or to achieve a certain goal within a certain time frame. It's, you know, it can be much more structured, whereas with mentoring it's less structured. It's it's more about growing and building on that relationship and it can be really, I guess, more holistic and encompass everything the personal and the professional growth of the mentee. So you know they're they're very different and I guess.

Speaker 1: 13:26

Finally, I think people feel that mentoring might be too time consuming. You know, we live in a we live in a very fast pace. You know society, people don't have to be an all time consuming relationship. You know, having those quick nuggets of mentoring I know at C-suite level when we mentor, it can be 15 minutes to really get those nuggets of mentoring in and achieve those specific goals or overcome those challenges. It's almost like bite-sized mentoring the higher up you go, so it doesn't have to be time-consuming. You set the expectations, you set the sessions. It's there to be discussed, so it works for you both. So again, that's another myth that it's time-consuming. It doesn't have to be discussed, so it works for you both. So again, that's another myth that it's time consuming. It doesn't have to be no, and it's well worth it anyway yeah, no, I suppose.

Speaker 3: 14:32

Um, just in in over the years, thinking about mentoring myself and and preparing for for our conversation here as well, um, I guess one of my perceptions and it might be a misconception is that you can only be a mentor if you've been there, done that and are, I guess, more qualified than your mentee. Is that, is that true, or can it be on an equal level or perhaps even an entirely different level?

Speaker 1: 14:56

oh, great question. Well, that's reverse mentoring as well. So we see that now we have, you know, the, the heads of organizations and their leaders, you know, in reverse mentoring programs where a junior is mentoring the CEO. It's just absolutely incredible. Because why? Why, lev? Because you've got that exchange, that beautiful exchange of wisdom across generations. You know, certainly, at a certain age the wisdom is walking out the door. And then you've got Gen Z millennials coming in. They're the techies, they know everything. So it's so important for that exchange of wisdom within the company.

Speaker 1: 15:36

And there is this misconception I speak all over the world on mentoring that, oh, I have to know so much. I was speaking at Warwick. I was at Warwick Business School and one of the young ladies who'd, you know, just done her MBA. She came out and said oh, you know, how many boards do you have to sit on to be a mentor? I said, sorry, excuse me, anyone could be a mentor. I said, what you've been through to do to get your MBA to apply, to go through the process, I said you could really help somebody mentor them through that process. So I always like to summarize it with this everyone has skills and experience and knowledge to share and everyone has something to learn as a mentee. So we all, no matter what we do in our life, what stage we're at in our life, we all have something to share yeah, amazing, a great mindset, and I can, I can see how that would work and and does work.

Speaker 3: 16:35

Clearly, um, I can also see it probably requires a certain mind shift towards that way of thinking. If that's not what you're used to, let's dig a bit more into that. In terms of the, I guess, the some specific challenges where a mentor can help. Um, you touched on a few there, but are there sort of typical examples or is it literally anything? Can you give us a bit more of a feel for that?

Speaker 1: 16:56

yeah, I think you know, like we said, it's a very fast-paced world these days that we live in. So number one has got to be balancing work-life responsibilities and balancing in general. So, especially with a lot of business owners, when, when we mentor, who else do they have to talk to? They can't go to their employees and say that they're they're worried about this, they're feeling frustrated about this, they're nervous about this. It it provides a safe space for people to to to have that sounding board to create those discussions where you know they're to sound off and and offload. Really.

Speaker 1: 17:36

So balancing balancing is is just a key part of mentoring and achieving goals setting goals, looking at business growth, succession planning I think decision making would be a key one for me as well. Hundreds and hundreds of decisions need to be made at any point throughout the day. Having that mentor there to sound off and to discuss those ideas with is absolutely key to develop, you know, your strategic vision, your exit plans and what you're doing. Short term, medium term, long term is vital and I think, with organizations becoming so competitive as well, it's you know you can get a mentor to stay ahead of industry trends and look into things like that is is how you may be a great organization or business now, but how are you going to keep ahead of the game, how are you going to remain competitive? And, like I say, with mentoring, you have that space to try things out and to receive the relevant guidance and feedback from someone who's actually been there and, like you say, worn the T-shirt and done it before. So it's really an incredible resource, I guess I would say.

Speaker 3: 18:58

Yeah, I can see how that would be rewarding for both mentor and mentee. Let's dig into a bit more into the National Mentoring Day. It is clearly not just a one day a year kind of thing. Stuff goes on all around the year, every day of the year and year in, year out. Can you give us a feel for what that actually looks like and what happens on the ground, because, as we said at the beginning, there's 250,000 organizations involved with this globally? What does the day-to-day work look like?

Speaker 1: 19:25

Well, day-to-day work, we work all year for the one day. No, I'm only kidding, but it really does take a lot to pull off this. You know, when you think about it, there's, there's. We are the only organization that exists in the world to support mentors, mentees and mentoring programs. So it's a tall order in terms of you know, we're trying to help everybody, we're trying to support everybody. So year round we campaign on educating and raising awareness on the benefits of mentoring. But there's so many industries, there's so many sectors, there's so many types of mentoring, so it does take all year to really get that message across.

Speaker 1: 20:03

And, of course, you know it's about momentum, it's about building up in the lead up to the big day. We're supporting organizations and sharing with them what they can do, how they can take part. And we founded National Mentoring Day based on our four founding pillars, which is to celebrate, to connect, to educate and to support. So, you know, celebration. All year round we're sharing mentoring news stories, case studies and impact and achievements. So year round, if you look at our social media pages, this company did this. This is, you know, they're looking out for 50 new mentors here.

Speaker 1: 20:41

It's really about we're the amplification vehicle for mentoring. So the celebration happens as part of the year round initiative and throughout the rest of the year we're there, we're supporting and championing all these mentoring programs and educating on the benefits, um and and connecting organizations. So if you take the third sector and charity sector, they are run from, you know, volunteer mentors. That's's how they run. They have a volunteer mentoring program in nearly every charity at the moment. So it's a huge undertaking. We have to keep the wheels of mentoring turning, otherwise next generation is not going to know or do mentoring. So it's really keeping the worlds of mentoring turning for businesses to survive, to thrive, to you know, to bring about this awareness in communities. It can be life-saving for people yeah, and just be clear.

Speaker 3: 21:44

I mean it's it's not just about giving a day a special name, right? I mean this is endorsed and supported by, you know, parts of the government, even the princess trust. What does that support look like and kind of? What does that work?

Speaker 1: 21:56

that goes on there so, yeah, I mean, we, like I say with with lord young, who is our founding patron, we're very lucky to, to to get national mentoring day inaugurated in the houses of parliament and then at the welsh senate and and then, I think, in 2019, we took the initiative global. So now all over the world, uh, everyone celebrates their national mentoring day on or around the 27th of october and it's, you know, we've grown it into the largest celebration of mentoring in the world, and businesses and brands and, like I said, charities they all take part each year. But the main aim is that on the 27th of October, the big mentoring ask, the call to action, is that we ask everyone to mentor someone. Can you imagine what the world would look like if everyone stopped what they were doing and mentored? Like I said, we all have experience and skills to share with someone else and for others to benefit. So we ask everyone to mentor someone because that ripple effect is absolutely huge. Why? Because people who've been mentored go on to mentor others. So that's the big call to action People you see them on social media saying I mentor today, we mentor today, holding up their I mentor, we mentor signs.

Speaker 1: 23:18

And I think you know for the rest of businesses and organizations if they don't have a mentoring program. You know they tend to launch one on National Mentoring Day. They do a funding recruitment drive on National Mentoring Day. They do a funding recruitment drive on national mentoring day. But, more importantly, they share the impact of what they've done. It's towards the end of the year. What impact did you make with your mentoring program? Share the stats, the data, the research. And you know it's. We have everything on our website, um, for organizations and brands to get involved and they can download a free Get Involved marketing pack. We've got thank your mentor cards, thank your mentee cards. You know it's there, it's. You know it's all about PR as well. It's like you know.

Speaker 1: 24:08

I guess the very, very serious side of this is that these mentoring programs need visibility and that's why we say we're the amplification vehicle of mentoring, because there's so many beautiful mentoring programs that are helping to change lives for young children and people with all sorts of disabilities and minority programs, but where's the visibility for them? We are that resource. So it's. You know there's a very serious side to all of this. It's not just oh yeah, have a celebration. It's sharing what you do, why you do it and the impact that you've made. So, you know, typically we see a lot of brands get very, very creative. We, you know, last year we had NASA, virgin, accenture.

Speaker 1: 24:57

I mean LinkedIn. You know, ceos of every company are taking to LinkedIn to say who helped them in their career. They're thanking someone who's helped them up the ladder. And also, I find, with a lot of people, they're sending the elevator down, which is really critical. So you've had help, you've been mentored, you've reached the top of your game, but now send the elevator down, you know, and pay it forward and help someone else. So, yeah, it's incredible to see. It makes me very emotional, especially I, when I see videos of um, really, you know, young kids going happy, national mentoring day welling up really. And um, you know, like you say, there's a lot of charities and the little, the little six-year-old is saying my mentor helped me. And you know, it's just incredible to see organizations and charities and everything getting involved.

Speaker 3: 26:03

Yeah, and you mentioned impact a couple of times, so let's dig into that a bit more in terms of there must be a wealth of examples, in terms of the scale that this is happening, the amount of organizations involved with this. Can you give us a flavor for some of the success stories and the examples of specific things happening through mentoring?

Speaker 1: 26:20

Oh, absolutely. I mean, you know we're lucky to see the impact and the results and the case studies coming through from all these organizations. Let's address mental health. You know it's so important these days. People need to feel that sense of belonging and connectedness and so through mentoring we have seen the most incredible results from people who really were suicidal for business owners who wanted to jack everything in, and now their you know their business has grown incredibly. From businesses that have sold out and exited successfully and now they're going on to do other, greater things. We're just inundated with amazing success stories and the impact is working and that's why organizations are taking it seriously. In terms of mentoring programs with businesses. We're seeing retention rates obviously increase. We're seeing people really loving the work that they do and being happier in the workplace, more engaged, productivity and performance increase and you know these are organizations sharing this with us that it's having a positive impact in the workplace and certainly within workplace culture.

Speaker 1: 27:41

If you ask me personally what I've experienced, then you know I don't think there's anyone I have seen or worked with that hasn't dramatically benefited from mentoring. So, public speaking-wise, wise, when I train people, I've had people come to me with glossophobia, like people come to me shaking, saying there's no way I could get up on a stage and deliver a speech to a live audience uh-uh, not happening. And I'm like, right, well, you haven't worked with me. And then to see them blossom, to see them, send me them speaking on stage or speaking on television or doing a media interview. It's the best gift ever. It just is so heartwarming and rewarding to see someone else grow and develop as a result of your guidance. It's, it's just amazing. So, yeah, yeah incredible, amazing impact.

Speaker 3: 28:37

Clearly, and and I would, I would hope that anybody watching this, or some people at least watching this that think well, actually, you know what I? I do want to. I want to get involved. I want to know more about this. Um, how does it work to either find a mentor or become or to be a mentor sorry, become or to be a mentor Sorry. I should say become a mentor, become a mentee, I suppose? How do people get involved with this? How can they ask for help? And perhaps, if there's organizations watching this or listening to this, we say, actually we want to build a program. We haven't got this in our organization, we would benefit greatly from it. How do they go about starting that? What's the first step?

Speaker 1: 29:14

well, I think let's just take the individual first. So you know if you think right, I want to be a mentor or I want, let's go with. I want to find a mentor first. How do you go about this? You first need to define what you want to achieve through mentoring. I have emails and people say to me you know, I need a mentor In what? What do you need a mentor for? What do you want to achieve with a mentor? You really need to define this first to then be able to find someone with that skill set to match what you're looking for. So, really define what you're looking to achieve with mentoring and again, then it's easier to find someone with that experience. You can then start to seek out and identify positive role models. This could be people that you've worked with, former employees, former bosses, industry leaders. You know really leveraging your network.

Speaker 1: 30:09

There's so many different mentoring organizations out there now. I mean, you think of anything and there's going to be a mentoring program on it. For example, engineering, stem leadership there's. There's just hundreds of thousands of mentoring programs now. And I will say to the start locally, if you're a business in shropshire, for example, or a business in London, wherever you are Google mentoring programs in your area, and then that's a great, great start. You can obviously reach out to somebody and just suggest an initial conversation, but you really want to have that core message correct on. You know, I've seen that you've done this. I'm looking to do this. Would you be willing to have a coffee? Would you be willing to, you know, have a chat? I'm looking for a mentor at the moment and it's just really exploring that. Otherwise, you've got the formal side of it, where you enroll in an actual mentoring program. So, on National Mentoring Day and throughout the year, hundreds of mentoring programs are showcased on our social media channels, so it's kind of all there, um, and I guess if you want to be a mentor, then you sign up in exactly the same way you'd.

Speaker 1: 31:24

Um, I find typically people use national mentoring day. It's. This is the same. Why it's so valuable is they put their hand up and say actually I need a mentor. Um, it happens every year on the day. It's like what? We? We exist all year round as well, but it suddenly gives them permission to put their hand up and say, actually I need help, I need support, I'm looking for a mentor, and the same with the mentors. They come out on national mentoring they say, hey, uh, this is what I do. Anyone, you know I'm looking to start mentoring, let me know how I can help, and typically we see this a lot. So you know, don't wait for 27th of October. You know you can start now announcing that. You know you're looking for help Because you know seeking support and help is a strength, it's not a weakness. So it's wonderful and it's so important to seek that support whenever you can.

Speaker 3: 32:24

It's just reminded me. Actually, there's a company we work with and it was their CMO of you know large publicly traded global organization. The cmo um had approached the ceo as a, as a mentor, as in to be mentored by and you know, at that level, um, sometimes you might think, well, actually they don't need that anymore, they've made it. You know they're at the very top of of their game. But but he was sharing quite openly with us that's, he was getting advice and and they were, were working together and it was incredibly beneficial.

Speaker 3: 32:54

So I can, I can completely see how that, how that would work, and I guess it's that first step that is perhaps sometimes the hardest. When, when people get into mentoring and being a mentee as well, what do you have some advice for them in terms of how to keep it going, how to make it work, because there'll be an opportunity, an opportunity there, somebody's you know some people found each other, they have agreed they want to be mentor, mentee, and and it might not just be a a single time conversation or coffee, it might be a longer term thing, obviously. What, what, what could people do to make it work as best as possible for them?

Speaker 1: 33:30

I think the key one for me is you know listening, so listen listen listen and that is the most valuable advice I can give.

Speaker 1: 33:40

Because, as mentors, or when you say you know more experienced, um, mentors often feel they want to kind of like, I say, more experienced than the mentee, they will often feel that urge to jump in and rescue and fix and solve issues, whereas you've got to really sit back and listen to what the mentee's saying and see it from their point of view, seeing it from where they're at in their stage of life. So you know, we can't expect everybody to have what we have and and and to, to, to learn at our pace. It's very much seeing it from where they're at at the current moment and not trying to jump in and rescue and fix. We are here solely to guide, as mentors, to guide and empower the mentee on their own discovery journey. So we're not here to tell or give advice, we're here to guide and share what's worked for us. So I think with that it comes setting clear goals, boundaries and expectations at the start of the mentoring relationship. That's where you know things can.

Speaker 1: 34:51

The waters, I guess, can become really muddy if you know the person thinks that the mentee thinks, ah, you're gonna rescue me and solve all my problems. No, um, mentors aren't counselors, we're not samaritans, we're not, you know. We're there to share what's worked, um, from experience. So with that comes communication, really for both parties. If something's not working, say so. If you're feeling uncomfortable, say so. It's about fostering a safe space and psychological safety plays a huge role in this as well to communicate openly and honestly. And I always tell you know, when I'm giving all these keynote speeches and everything I just say look, mentoring has to be delivered with respect. It's about not pointing out faults, not pointing the finger. It's really, really about, you know, giving constructive feedback in a positive, encouraging way that's going to help the mentee on their journey and help them to improve. We don't do finger pointing, you know, pointing out faults. As such, it's really a very trusted relationship as well.

Speaker 3: 36:08

Yeah, I suppose. I mean diversity and inclusion is incredibly important and I guess that's related to that as well. What is mentoring today and the National Mentoring Day helping to facilitate, to make that equitable and available to everyone? How does that work? Is there a particular focus on that? Is that a big topic at the moment, or is that already established in there?

Speaker 1: 36:33

Yeah, well, I mean, when we launched um, that was my whole mission. Is that? You know, we? We created national mentoring day so that, um, everyone could have access to mentoring. We launched our whole mentoring mission around um. You know, our mission is to make mentoring accessible to every child, adult, business or group that needs it, regardless of their age, race, gender, background or circumstances.

Speaker 1: 36:57

When I speak in certain countries, they think, oh, mentoring is for the rich. Or, you know, they're very puzzled by the fact that there's actually mentoring available for people these days. So, again, huge misconceptions around it. But we are the only organization you know in the world and we support all forms of mentoring, all types of mentoring. There's many different types of mentoring, you know it's probably about 25 types of mentoring.

Speaker 1: 37:23

So, from career mentoring, reform mentoring, rehabilitation mentoring, reverse mentoring, youth mentoring you know I won't go down any other ones, you know, on this, on this webinar, but it's it's key to mentoring programs facilitate diversity and inclusion and belonging. That's that's their sole purpose, if you like, because this allows organizations to get out and to reach diverse communities and underrepresented groups across all sectors. So you know, we do a lot to make sure that mentoring is inclusive and, yeah, it's. The whole reason why we exist is so that mentoring is available to everyone, and everyone should have an opportunity to be a mentor and to have a mentor yeah, it's amazing what's available and and everything that that covers, and how far as well.

Speaker 3: 38:21

Just looking, I guess, as opposed to the future, what is what is next? We've got the 27th of October coming up later this year, but is anything else to look out for in terms of events or developments, anything new that you can share with us that's coming up that we should be looking for?

Speaker 1: 38:35

absolutely well, you know, it seems to come around so quickly each time of year, no matter how how much you prepare for it, so it's going to be a busy time. Um, we have got some exciting new plans, you know, to support the mentoring community. There's a big community of mentors out there and you know we're we're encouraging everybody to to involved, even if you're not a mentor or a mentee. You know, let's support all the hundreds of thousands of wonderful mentors that selflessly give up their time to mentor others. Let's support them and thank them.

Speaker 1: 39:08

On National Mentoring Day so I think you know we're my background's media and PR. We're expanding our media division. We're going to be profiling the organizations and the mentors who are making a difference and, you know, really launching, I guess, a whole community of global and national mentoring ambassadors, because it's key. You know National Mentoring Day is far bigger than me. Because it's key, you know National Mentoring Day is far bigger than me it's about the next generation coming along and taking leaving that mentoring imprint for future generations. So you know, hence the need for more passionate people who really believe in the transformational power of mentoring, and that's going to happen through our mentoring ambassadors.

Speaker 3: 39:54

I guess that's that's enough for this year fantastic it's, it's such great work and such important work and I think sometimes perhaps goes little unnoticed. Uh, because what you said about the start you know there's everybody's busy lives and perhaps some misconceptions about it, but it's. It's so valuable and so important and I know I've benefited myself from benefited myself from this in the past as well. So I can say as well, it is incredibly valuable and important. I want to say thank you, but we're not quite done yet. But thank you for those insights. I think hopefully it has inspired someone listening to this as well to either become a mentee or actually to offer their help as a mentor as well. But, as I said, we're not done yet.

Speaker 3: 40:34

We do have the Virtually Anything Goes question and for those of you who are unfamiliar with this, this is the Virtually Anything Goes question, where I hand over to Chelsea, who can ask me any question she likes. I don't know what that question is, but she can ask it and I will have to answer it, no matter what it is. The only caveat and I suppose my safety net is that once I've given my answer, then Chelsea has to answer the same question as well herself. So with that, chelsea, over to you. What is your? Virtually anything goes question amazing.

Speaker 1: 41:04

Thank you, love. So I'm just going to preface it with something. So I work with people to, you know, pitch, pitch for investment and to go out and you know, do uh, public speaking and presentations everything. And before we get to that stage, I always ask people why do you do what you do? Because that frames and shapes everything the whole presentation, the whole business. Why do you do what you do is the question okay, um, so I'm.

Speaker 3: 41:36

Is this for the for the virtually anything goes podcast, or is this for webinar experts?

Speaker 1: 41:40

webinar experts webinar experts.

Speaker 3: 41:42

Okay, um. So initially I didn't want to start webinar experts because I thought webinars I've done that for while I used to work in webinars for a different company and I thought I would leave that behind and focus on marketing consultancy. But I was being pulled back into it again and again and again. People were saying you know webinars so well. Can you help us with it? So I thought, actually, you know what? I'll do this for a living and continue doing this for a living, but you know, as a, as my own company and and with our own team, the reason we do it is because I believe that it is, um, something that a lot of companies need, um, a lot of companies perhaps don't necessarily have the time or inclination to do themselves, but it is so important that it is done well, because the results of running digital engagement for audiences online is incredibly important. Everything is digital and we help companies do it better and help them take the load off and give expertise in return so that actually, it is done well and we feel passionately about it. And when we see examples where perhaps there could be an improvement, we feel compelled to want to make a change and make it better Because ultimately, I think we're all digital consumers.

Speaker 3: 43:04

We all look for information and entertainment and content online, and when we feel it could be done better, then we typically judge it by our own standards of how would I like to consume this and what I would like to see and how would what would make me engage with this content more?

Speaker 3: 43:21

Um, so we use our own preferences, our own judgment of you know what would work for me to make it better for uh, companies wanting to do the same, because ultimately, it creates a conversation that way, rather than just a give and take, or perhaps even just a take in some cases, where digital content is is published, actually in return, data is just taken.

Speaker 3: 43:44

Here's something give me your data, and that's not fair. That's not fair to the audience, because they will spend time and commit time to consuming this content and sitting perhaps on a webinar for an hour or consuming multiple webinars for multiple hours, and they deserve in return something that is valuable to them. And if we can help people create that value for their audience and their audience appreciate that and give back time and, in some cases, insights on their data and so on as well, then I think we're creating an environment where it's mutually beneficial, and that comes, I think, ultimately down to what I see as marketing is a is a mutually beneficial relationship. You know, we offer something, we get something, get something in return, um, and and that, I think, is ultimately the way the world will continue to evolve and work is when we are mutually beneficial to each other. I guess a bit like bit like mentoring as well.

Speaker 1: 44:34

Oh, I love that. I love that, and I guess I have to find out as well why do you do what you do with the Virtually Anything Goes podcast? Why are you here giving up your time in the middle of your day? Why do you do what you do here on the podcast?

Speaker 3: 44:52

It's enjoyable, it's, I you know we've got. We had that series one which was all about live digital communications, you know, things that we do as a you know, for a living and getting people on to talk about why they, you know, are public speakers, why they, you know, how they generate value and and how they serve their customers, and so on. Um, now in our second series, which we're now the expert series, we're bringing on experts from a variety of different areas, and I think we do it because we want to highlight not just the expertise but actually share that information. And I'm personally interested in these stories.

Speaker 3: 45:24

The reason I've brought you and all the other guests on is because I'm interested in your story and what you do and I'm genuinely intrigued to see how it works and what makes you an expert and how things work. And I feel if I'm interested in it, then surely other people must be as well. So I think, providing that content, making it available, highlighting it, showing it, perhaps pulling the curtain to one side and just having a look and see how it works behind the scenes, I think it's just incredibly interesting and intriguing and I enjoy that and, of course, hopefully we get a large audience agreeing and listening to it as well and get a big following. That's obviously part of it as well, but ultimately, I'm interested in people's stories. I want to share that information if they're happy to share it as well and create great content, I think. I think there is a lot, a lot of content out there that is interesting, um, and I think we can add to it amazing, great answer.

Speaker 3: 46:25

Thank you, but um, thank you, no, thank you for the question. It's a great question, um, and, and not one we had before, so so appreciate you thinking of that one, um, I will. I will turn it over to you, though, um, the same question back to you why do you do what you do?

Speaker 1: 46:39

well, I guess, if we're talking about national mentoring day, I never had a mentor. I didn't want anyone else to go through the struggles that I did when I was starting out with my businesses. So I, I think you know it's it's that seeing a problem and creating a solution around it. The fact that I was also so, so busy mentoring all these hundreds of companies. I'm like where are all the people in the world that care, you know, who want to pay it forward and help other people? So, you know, out of these problems, you know, came the solution. So I do it because mentoring changes lives, it saves lives, it helps businesses survive to grow, communities to flourish, and that's what we need in the world. You know we need this connectedness.

Speaker 1: 47:28

I've dealt with the United Nations and you know, I say that all the sustainable development goals, they can all be greatly, you know, impacted and positively. You know, I say that all the sustainable development goals, they can all be greatly impacted and positively achieved with mentoring. It's the answer to some of the biggest societal issues in the world is mentoring. So, you know, this is, like I say, it's very, very serious and I just think that we don't know everything, we don't know anything. Sometimes it's like, you know, let's all start to look out for each other. Uh, we, we've all got so much experience and wisdom and knowledge that we can use to have positively impact someone's life and it really is the gift that keeps on giving. I'm a serial mentor and I know many other serial mentors now and we just say it's like, you know my purpose, I'm, I, can't function unless I'm mentoring. I, I, I, just, I, I live for mentoring. Um, it's, you know, it's just wonderful.

Speaker 3: 48:32

So, yeah, that's my why it's incredibly positive mindset and I think you know it's just wonderful. So, yeah, that's my why. It's incredibly positive mindset and I think you know, we all know what's going on around the world and we see it in the media and I think, I think that that kind of mindset is is so refreshingly positive that I can completely see why, why you have that, why and I do hope genuinely that that folks listening to this will think, actually, you know what, I'll give it a go. I will either ask for a mentor, try and find a mentor, or I will become a mentor myself. And I think what was brilliant, what I loved about what you shared, was, actually, it doesn't really matter the seniority that you have. You don't have to be a CEO or a managing director or somebody who's kind of sold and exited two companies, three companies to be able to mentor you can. You know what you said about reverse mentoring and and you know different cross-generational um kind of applications there as well. I think it's incredibly positive and and valuable and I genuinely hope and I would implore anybody watching this if you feel the need or the desire to want to mentor or become a mentee, reach out.

Speaker 3: 49:38

Obviously, national mentoring day is a great starting point. Um, so many organizations involved with that. Perhaps it's even possible within your own organization as well, and, if it's, if you're running an organization and and it's not there yet, perhaps look at a program as well. So, chelsea, thank you so much for sharing your insights and for being part of this episode. I've absolutely loved everything you had to say and getting that insight into something that, I have to admit, I genuinely didn't know a huge amount about, and I do feel like I know a lot more about it now. So thank you so much for sharing your time and your insights. It's been great to have you.

Speaker 1: 50:10

That's my pleasure.

Speaker 3: 50:19

Thank you so much for a great interview. Thank you fantastic. Thank you so much and thank you to our audience for listening and watching, as always. Um, if you liked what you saw in this episode, we have plenty more coming and plenty more available already. Uh, subscribe so you don't miss any of those great episodes that are still to come, but do take a look back as well and see what we've already covered. But thank you in the meantime for watching and listening and we'll see you next time thank you for joining us on this podcast.

Speaker 2: 50:37

We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did for other interesting topics. Go to your favorite podcast platform or watch the video versions on youtube. Just search for the virtually anything goes podcast. See you next time.