What's the Difference Between Coaching, Consulting, and Mentoring?
I get a lot of e-mails and comments from people seeking coaching, consulting, and/or mentoring. While on the surface these terms seem to mean essentially the same thing, they are actually much different.
I think by laying out how these things are similar and different will help coaches, mentors, and consultants market their skills correctly to the right audience, and will also help those seeking these types of assistance to seek out the right type of person.
I have a lot of beefs with the coaching, consulting, and mentoring industry. I'll save that for another post. My main complaints however are these...
Many if not most coaches have no business coaching
Many people seeking assistance, are really seeking someone to do their work for them.
Many people put their success or failure on their coach instead of themselves
Many people don't understand you can't write a check for success
Many coaches are nothing more than glorified hand holders or baby sitters and don't bring much to the table in terms of practical knowledge.
Many coaches, consultants, and mentors are not people you want to emulate or take advice from.
Hand holding can sometimes be a dis-service. Entrepreneurs need to be self starters and problem solvers.
The Differences Between Coaches, Consultants, and Mentors
Coaches
When I think coach I think of a life coach. I sort of think of that industry as being completely bullshit. I'm not saying coaching has no value but coaching isn't teaching a specific skill-set or showing you how to do something so much as is asking you questions, trying to help you organize your ideas, and basically being a sounding board to bounce stuff off of.
A coach typically isn't going to show you how to setup your Shopify store so much as they are going to ask you things like "What do you think a Shopper is looking for in a online store?" They are basically sort of just guiding you through figuring out things on your own.
If you're someone who says I want to start making money online, but you don't know what you want to do or where to start a coach could be helpful. They may take an inventory of your skill-sets, passions, and interests and try to find the best fit for you in terms of what business is right for you.
There's nothing wrong with that, and honestly that can be helpful, however know what to expect when you hire a coach, as opposed to a consultant. A consultant would likely be the one to actually teach you specific skills and show you how to do things or make concrete suggestions on things you should do.
A while back I signed up for a site called Coach.Me. I kind of wanted to see how other people structure their coaching and I also hoped maybe I could find someone to help me up my game or teach me some new skills.
I hired a coach and quickly found that he was not helpful at all. He would basically ask me questions and nothing more. I would basically make a list of things I should do or learn and he would basically say let's touch base next week and see if you've done these things.
As you can see, more a glorified baby sitter or parent than someone really helpful to me in business in any way. I actually signed up to be a coach on the site as well and was disgusted with the training materials. I would almost encourage you guys to signup and go through the process just so you can see what bullshit it is. Essentially they want you to not provide any meaningful knowledge or expertise to people but to just lead people in roundabout discussions that accomplish nothing. Ask them questions to maybe spur some thoughts within themselves and then tell them to come back next week and they'll make sure you did whatever you said you would do.
Needless to say I wasn't impressed.
Consultants
When I think of a consultant I think of a business consultant. I think of someone who will come in, take a look at my business and make some concrete suggestions on how I can improve.
They may say I think you need to lower your cost, or I think we could be doing this activity or that activity more efficiently, or I think we need to offer a wider array of products. They are an expert in their area and will make concrete suggestions which you can actually take action on. What they won't do is what a coach will do which is act like a psychologist or counselor just asking you a series of questions that don't accomplish much.
Where as a coach as discussed above is maybe better for someone trying to find direction, a consultant is more for someone who is already engaged in some activity and is looking to bring in another set of eyes to see if there's a better way to do things. Someone looking to bring on a consultant typically has some concrete problems or issues they are seeking assistance with.
Where as a coach is there to help you organize your ideas, to motivate you, etc, a consultant is there to fix your business and help make you more money. While some of the tasks or things coaches and consultants both do may intertwine, they are really very different in the type of assistance they provide.
Mentors
I think people have a skewed idea of what a mentor is. I think most people when they think of mentors think of Tail Lopez, Mark Cuban, or Elon Musk being their own personal Guru. I think many people expect mentors to come in and turn them into someone who's not successful into someone who is successful.
Mentors aren't magicians, a mentor really is nothing more than someone with a bit more life experience and/or business knowledge helping guide you or taking you under their wing.
I personally have never had a web marketing or how to make money online guru come into my life and bring me the secretes to success. My mentors have been my father, maybe some previous bosses, etc. They never showed me how to do e-commerce analytic research nor how to setup a squeeze page. They were simply people in my life who maybe were there for me to bounce ideas off of, to offer some inspiration and maybe some tips on money management or investing.
I contacted Score.Org a while back to get a mentor and had a very accomplished fortune 500 CEO reach out to me and offer to mentor me. Stupid of me I never really took him up on it. I think at the time I had the mindset that many of you have. Well if they can't show me how to make money online it's not worth my time. When in reality I'm sure this guy who's an extremely accomplished businessman, maybe couldn't directly show me the things I wanted to learn, but I'm sure could have dropped some widsom on me in other areas.
If you're looking for someone to take your hand and show you how to do a specific skill you need to seek that person out. Furthermore, I would add, don't seek out someone at the top of their game. Your not at a point where you need "their" type of help, and they probably don't have time to mentor you. If your a complete newbie and you want to get into affiliate marketing, go find a guy making $50 a day and offer to pay him $50 for an hour of his time.
He will understand the level your at and how to get to his level. He will have the time for you and the $50 will be worthwhile enough to him for him to take time out of his day to help you, and he will get you to making $50 a day. At that point you can get rolling on your own and maybe down the road you can reach out to the guy making $500 a day and seek his assistance.
I heard Becker made a great comment a while back in a video about mentors. Something to the effect of if you're just learning how to play hockey, you don't need Wayne Gretsky to mentor you. Someone who played some college hockey can show you how to lace up your skates and shoot a puck. Once you have years of practice under your belt and are at the top of your game, maybe then, maybe at that point do you actually need the best of the best to show you how to take your game to the next level. My point is reach out to someone who is just above you, get to that level and then seek out someone else.
One last tip about seeking a mentor. Be someone that someone would want to mentor. While I'm not taking on any mentees at the moment, the person I would want to work with isn't the person who says "hey I wanna start in e-commerce can you help me. The person I want to work with is the guy who says "dude, I really need some help. I've setup 5 Shopify stores, I try marketing through social media, I've spent $50 on ads, I write a lot of content but I can't get traffic, my site doesn't sell anything."
Personally I would want to work with the person who's a self starter, the person who's a go getter, the person who not only has some ideas and direction but the person who has done something to get started and actually has concrete problems they are facing and need solved.
The guy who wants me to hold his hand and walk him through setting up an eBay account or a Shopify store, he doesn't need my help he needs to watch a Youtube video, or read a blog or a Shopify tutorial. My point is be someone who deserves a mentor, be someone who someone accomplished would want to work with.
Mentors are sort of a hybrid between coaches and consultants. A mentor oftentimes will work for fee. It's oftentimes someone who enjoys giving back and helping others and will "take someone under their wing" so to speak to offer guidance and assistance free of charge.
That's not to say mentors can't charge money, but oftentimes a mentor is someone successful in business or another area who gets enjoyment out of helping others and sharing knowledge.
A mentor will often do the job of both a coach and a consultant. For anyone looking for a free Mentor checkout Score.Org a business organization where established business people will run free seminars or offer free one on one coaching to budding entrepreneurs. Check out their site and you should be able to find a free mentor in your area.
The one thing I will mention about Score mentors is that you can't really expect their area of expertise to be exactly what you are doing, but that doesn't mean they don't have valuable knowledge for you to garner.
For example, when I contacted Score.Org seeking a mentor I was seeking someone knowledgeable in e-commerce, online marketing, and tech. I wound up being paired with a guy who ran and was CEO a very successful Fortune 500 fire sprinkler company. While he may not be able to show me how to craft the perfect landing page or tell me what Amazon product I should sell, he definitely has valuable info I can learn from. My point is don't think just because someone doesn't have the exact skills your looking to learn doesn't mean you can't learn something from them.
Anyhow guys, that's my thoughts. I know a lot of people are seeking coaches, consultants and mentors, but I feel like while people are seeking this they don't really know what they are seeking. I think many people expect someone else is going to come in and hand them the secret sauce to finding success and making money and it's just not going to happen.
While a mentor or coach or consultant can help cut down your learning curve, they can't do everything for you, nor should you expect them to. I think most people who are seeking a mentor or some type of assistance typically could go a bit further themselves and should try to.
That's my rant for the day guys, hopefully I imparted some knowledge on you to help you get started and get rolling, and hopefully those of you who have taken action and done something and are seeking a hand up have a better grasp of what you should be seeking out and how to go about getting that.
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