Megan Riksen:

Hello and welcome to the Work Like a Laker podcast. I'm Megan Rickson, and Dani Lauer is here with me today. Hi Dani.

Dani Lauer:

Hi Megan.

Megan Riksen:

And today we're gonna be discussing the topic of mentoring and more specifically what it's like to work with a professional mentor. So professional mentors, just to kind of define that a little bit. These people can be very beneficial to your career and to your personal growth and all of that good stuff because they often assist with guidance on career decisions, expanding your network, receiving feedback, and really a lot more. So not to mention gaining insight from someone with experience in your field, which is always helpful. So according to multiple studies, individuals with mentors are actually promoted five times more often than those without mentors. Which I found fascinating.

Dani Lauer:

Yeah.

Megan Riksen:

That's five times significant.

Megan Riksen:

That's big and the reason that is mentorship really does facilitate skill development, leadership growth, which of course, those things are gonna increase the likelihood of career progression.

Dani Lauer:

Yeah. Makes a lot of sense.

Megan Riksen:

Yeah, it does.

Dani Lauer:

So what exactly is a mentor? And so we can define this in a couple of different ways, but really when it comes down to it, a mentor is someone who's experienced in a certain area that you're interested in growing within yourself. This person is gonna provide guidance, advice, and support to help someone else. Hopefully you to develop professionally. It could be someone who helps you develop personally, or a little bit of both and this. When you think about a mentor, they share their expertise. Maybe they're sharing their network with you, maybe insights on how to navigate challenges, make decisions, grow towards whatever goal you might have set for yourself.

Megan Riksen:

Like it really is accountability, right? You have this person who you can bounce your ideas off of who can keep you on track.

Dani Lauer:

Yeah. Kind of just like a big brother, big sister.

Megan Riksen:

Exactly.

Dani Lauer:

Helping you out, right? Making sure you're doing the things that you're saying that you want to do and really these relationships can be formal, you know, think structured, goal oriented, or maybe more informal. Maybe you're just having an organic, conversational type of relationship with somebody that you want to learn from. So while there's a lot of different types of mentors today in this episode, we're gonna focus more on the aspects of professional mentors.

Megan Riksen:

Awesome. Yes. We are so excited to do this. And to help us with this topic, we are going to be bringing in a very special Laker alum here to speak with us. Jermale Eddie, Jermale currently serves as the director of business growth for SpringGR, which is a business accelerator program where he assists entrepreneurs in creating, growing, and scaling their business. He has over 10 years of business experience in the food and beverage industry, both as a retailer and wholesaler of Malamiah Juice Bar, and the Malamazing Juice Company. He is a highly sought after business advisor, business coach, and Speaker. Jermale has been the recipient of many community and state awards, and he has been featured on Michigan Public Radio's, stateside and PBSs under the radar. He is a proud member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated. His vocational sweet spot is the intersection of faith, business, and community development. He believes that people and their experiences are the community's strongest assets. So we are so lucky to have Jermale speak with us today, and we know you're gonna learn a lot from this interview. So now I'm gonna actually turn it over to you, Dani.

Dani Lauer:

Awesome. Thanks, Megan. Great. Well, hi Jermale. Thank you so much for being on the podcast today.

Jermale Eddie:

Glade to be here. Thank you.

Dani Lauer:

Well, we will just dive right into some questions. So, to get us started, can you share a little bit about your own journey with mentorship?

Jermale Eddie:

Yeah. I mean, I think a lot of us, if we're honest, we've had mentors like our entire lives. Whether it's a, a parent, it could be a sibling a neighbor. And so, I mean, I can think back to, I would say my, my first mentor probably was my cousin. And in my immediate family, she's kind of known as the one who helped teach me how to read and she was older. So I would say she definitely mentored me in that way. And then I look around my neighborhood growing up and there was definitely some older, older men there who seemed to, in my mind, had it going on and I would definitely watch them and ask questions, and they would give me a guidance and what not. But overall, I would say, as, as a young adult and as an adult I've oftentimes looked to individuals that I would say looking back were mentors. I don't think I used that framework or that word at the time. But they were definitely individuals who I could speak with, ask questions to get some real, like sound life wisdom, but also career wisdom.

Dani Lauer:

Yeah and I think that's such a good point, is you might not always have used the term mentor, but that's not to say that they didn't serve that role in your life or provide that guidance that you were seeking at the time. So what advice do you have for someone who's looking for a mentor but isn't sure where to start? And maybe thinking more on the professional side of things? What would you, what would you say to them?

Jermale Eddie:

Well, first I would say that for me, mentorship on that professional side, honestly, I would say I've had mentors who I never met and what I mean by that is there's been books that I've read, there have been podcasts that I've watched and I think about it's kind of funny. I would say one of my mentors is Brené Brown. Never met her! Ever! But I'm like, oh, yeah, that's my girl, Brené, you know, just reading some of her books. They hit home. But I, so first and foremost, you know, to me that's a form of mentorship. But when it goes to professional, even career mentors, I would say that for individuals, it's like really looking at your circle and see who you're connected with.

Jermale Eddie:

And in some instances, maybe it's a parent of a friend who you see, okay, they're doing something there. Maybe they're in the C-suite and you have the thought process that you want to be in there, reach out to them, talk with them, see if you can grab coffee. But I really think a lot of those type of professional mentorship relationships happened organically with something like that. I remember I had one gentleman who wanted me to mentor him, and I was like, no, I'm good. And it wasn't because of him. It was like, I had someone who I was mentoring, and I'm not one of these individuals that are like, oh, I got 50 mentees. I'm like, I want to do great with one or two. And he said, well, I'm gonna call you and bug you.

Jermale Eddie:

And so he would call every so often. But it was like on a regular basis every so often and then one day he told me, he said, I remember when you told me no, but I figured I'd figure out a way to get it anyway and so he did. So he'd call me, Hey, coach, I got a question. I'd answer it and hang up and keep it going. But that was his way of still getting what he wanted, even though I said no. So he was very persistent with that. I respect that so much.

Dani Lauer:

That's really, I love that, and I love that a mentor can be somebody you don't even know, just a, a person you're following their books or their podcast or somebody in your circle. And you kind of touched on this with the the last question, but what, how does someone approach a person who they're interested? You said call or like, what would that look like? And maybe if it's somebody you don't really know that well but you're wanting to get to know, how would you approach them?

Jermale Eddie:

I mean, I would still try to figure out a way to set up a call, set up a you know, everybody's doing coffee. Usually people want to do coffee with me, for instance. And it's like 10, 11 o'clock, and I've already had my morning cup of coffee or two, so I'm like, we have to figure something else out. Can we do ice cream? But I would say, really reaching out to an individual and introducing yourself and really be, I would say, open to what you're looking for as I'm looking for someone that can help guide me in this, or help guide me in that. I remember years ago I reached out when I had my juice bar, I reached out to Bob Fish, the co-founder and CEO of Biggby Coffee.

Jermale Eddie:

I liked their growth and so I sent them a message on Facebook and I remember it started off with, Hey, this is Jermale Eddie. I'm the owner and founder of the Juice, this Malamiah Juice Bar, yet I went through all of that stuff and then I complimented their business and their growth strategies. And I said, Hey, I would love to just get some of your wisdom and some of your advice and so that could be me sending, if you're open to it, you a couple questions to answer, or you can send me three bullet points, we can talk over the phone. I think I went through the list and I was like, or even, I would love a face-to-face and then I ended it saying "you probably don't respond to your own messaging".

Jermale Eddie:

You may have an assistant to do it, but if you get this, please reach out. Sure enough, he reached out and was like, by the way, I do respond to my own stuff and this is me and I want to invite you to our home office in East Lansing and so I got to meet him, talk with him, get some advice and then he told me this, he says that he said, "I'll always give someone that first meeting, but based on how they respond to any", quote unquote "homework or assignment", whatever you want to call it, he said, "then I'll determine if having another meeting is worth my time or theirs" and so he gave me the second meeting. Then the second time though, he was like, I would love to meet your wife, and that was totally different.

Jermale Eddie:

We went up there, and again, so we've been friends with with the Fish family for at least about nine years, eight or nine years. It started with just reaching out, almost like cold calling. I tell people, no one is safe from me if there's something, some knowledge or something that someone has that I want, I'm gonna reach out and be pretty persistent. However, if it doesn't happen, I'll find some other resources to get some of their knowledge, again, whether it's following their podcast or their Facebook pages or something like that.

Dani Lauer:

Yeah, and I think that's a great mentality. Like, you don't have anything to lose when you send that email, make that phone call so why not reach out? See what happens. You could have an eight, nine year long friendship that results from that.

Jermale Eddie:

Exactly, and again, I think that's just really respecting that human element of just reaching out, not necessarily having to go jump through a whole bunch of hoops and then also what it was for me too was to just not have any fear. Again, the worst situation would've been that I would've been in the same predicament, which was never have talked to him. So I would've picked up a book.

Dani Lauer:

Yeah, and I like also that you name some specific things that you reached out to him for that reason and so naming, like, this is what I'm seeing in you that I'm interested in learning or I want to find out this specific thing. I think people respond to that really well.

Jermale Eddie:

Yeah. I mean, I learned a long time ago that nobody wants to return your call to pick their brains like, period. Like picking someone's brain costs money. However, when people ask that question or make that statement, they're wanting it for free. They want you to come and download everything that you know about X, Y, and Z and that's just not the best approach. It's better to get super specific on, for me, it was business growth. It was business growth, work culture, and customer service. Those were the three things that I really appreciated about the Biggby franchise and that's what I wanted to talk more about.

Dani Lauer:

Yeah. That's great. So I'm wondering, like, how do you navigate, like maybe a challenge comes up in that relationship? How do you navigate that? When do stop meeting or move on from this type of mentor relationship? Anything there?

Jermale Eddie:

I think that it would be as simple as starting off with a timeframe maybe and, and again, you don't have to meet every day. You don't have to meet every week. It could be monthly but as you seek to come to the end of that timeframe, you may find out that actually you have more in common than not, and perhaps out of that mentor relationship a true relationship develops, and therefore, you just kind of stay in touch in whatever way is best and so it would be, maybe, asking that person, "Hey, how can we continue to stay in contact and in communication with each other?" and they might tell you, "just reach out, send me, shoot me a text every so often", or they may invite themselves to just shoot you a text message just to check on you and I would say if there are any issues that may come up within that mentoring relationship, it's best to just talk it out because I believe at that point there'll be opportunity and room for vulnerability. Again, shout out to Brené Brown on the vulnerability where true healing comes through vulnerability and I believe that in those mentoring relationships, that's where something like that can happen at, and therefore you come out on the other side being a better person.

Dani Lauer:

That's so true and I think that almost rolls into the next question I have for you. Which is really about those unexpected benefits. I mean, you spoke to friendship vulnerability. Anything else that comes to mind about something you maybe didn't expect out of a mentorship relationship that you had?

Jermale Eddie:

I would say, honestly, one might be a unofficial therapy session.

Jermale Eddie:

I've had a mentor, and honestly, again, I told you before, I never really used the word mentor and mentoring, but I had someone that like, in public, like talking to people, I'd be like, so-and-so's my mentor. He's one of my mentors. But when I thought about it, I honestly had never really brought any situations to him again, vulnerability. I had never been vulnerable in bringing situations to him and then had a little something happen and started talking to him, reached out to him at his office, and I think he probably took it pretty serious. Probably, because I had never talked to him in that way with those type of things and so went to him and met and got great marriage advice and got some great career advice.

Jermale Eddie:

I remember the one thing he told me, he said, sometimes in life you may have to choose on important things. So is it business career or are you gonna put your marriage and your family first? I mean, if you know anything about my story I closed my business after 10 years, so it's clear what I chose and it was through that mentoring, but I would even say more than mentoring, it was more like unspoken counseling for a brief moment where I was able to kind of clear the fog and the smoke to really see what I truly wanted.

Dani Lauer:

Yeah. I mean, truly probably didn't expect that to happen but what a decision making, like, I don't even know how to word this, but like, the way that they allowed you to help you make that decision, I guess.

Jermale Eddie:

Yeah, and it's kind of like asking questions and you hear yourself answering, or there's those extended pauses which allow you to reflect or shrink back or whatever that is. But it's there. I would also say another bonus or benefit would be social capital as you spend time with someone, especially- professionally- they begin to know you. They get to know you a little bit, and therefore when they're when they have the opportunity to say something about you, they will, even in rooms that you're not at and so I believe that out of mentoring, your name can be brought up, or your presence can be brought up in rooms and in conversations and circles that you have no idea what's happening, but you'll benefit on the backend when someone maybe randomly reaches out to you. Maybe it's a job offer or a contract or whatever, but it was because said person could vouch for you because they were able to spend enough time with you where they know your heart, they know your mind, and they know your passion.

Dani Lauer:

Yeah, your network really expands when you have people speaking on your behalf in rooms. All right, just two more questions. Kind of rapid fire, what is one book or resource you'd recommend for someone who's just looking to grow professionally? So super open-ended but maybe one that's really helped you on your journey.

Jermale Eddie:

Yeah, I would say, and this is going to be interesting, but, there's a book I can't think of the other co-author, but it was a book that Oprah co-authored called "What Happened to You?" and that book really gets into trauma, like in terms of like a lot of times we ask the question of other people and ourselves, like, what's wrong with them? What's wrong with me? But in that book, it goes a step further and says, well, what happened to you? And so it's on trauma, but it helped me professionally because I was able to do two things. One, dig deep within myself to say, okay, I'm doing these things, or I've been told about these things, now I have to understand what happened to me to get me to that place.

Jermale Eddie:

Why am I doing that? Something happened at some point in time, and I mean, that was like ripping off layers, and then the other thing, I would ask that same question of other people. So it could be a coworker who may be missing a mark or a supervisor who I'm like, "there's something about them I don't like". So I would, instead of saying, man, what's wrong with that person? It's like, what happened to that person? Maybe it's as simple as what happened to them professionally. So maybe they had a supervisor or a boss or someone who scarred them and now they're leading from their pain and then that allows me to then in some ways, mentally be on equal footing. Like, okay, again, I mentioned the human element. Now I can see that person for who they are and recognize that they're flawed based off their situations or the history that they have. Similar to me now, we can kind of relate a little bit better. I become more compassionate towards them and myself.

Dani Lauer:

I love that piece of self-awareness and we often forget that. I think we try to like, keep our personal lives separate from our professional lives. But it's all, you can't do it.

Jermale Eddie:

I mean even when I'm mentoring a lot of business owners and founders of startups and what not, and you can't separate your personal finance history from your current business history. If you had a hard time growing up where maybe family struggled, you're gonna be looking at money that you make in your business differently and so again, all of this does intertwine. It really is you. You can't be a great employee unless you dig deep into understanding who you are and how you got to where you are. So it all goes together.

Dani Lauer:

I love that. All right. Last question for you before we wrap up. What's a quick tip for our listeners around just building meaningful connections within their industry?

Jermale Eddie:

Well, I think it starts off as a funnel you're gonna start going to different events. You should go to different networking opportunities in your city, but also kind of in your profession, whether it's a conference or trade shows just do a Google search and see what's out there and obviously you won't, maybe you could be, but maybe you won't be friends with every single person in the room but you can kind of narrow it down and have your eye on one or two people. Or when you're at a table at a gala or something like that, you're sitting there with someone you don't know, kind of keep your ears and eyes open to see is there someone you're sitting next to or in your immediate area that you might be able to connect with on a deeper level.

Jermale Eddie:

Maybe they're in an industry that's similar or they could be someone who retired from an industry that you're in and they may have something that you can connect on and you want to learn from their gained experience. So I think it's always being open and I talk about the funnel, because it starts really huge at the top, really wide. And then as you press a little bit further to see what it is you desire, you need, and what you want, it starts to get slimmer and slimmer and maybe at the end, you end up with a circle of maybe three or four people, but you were in the room with 2000 people.

Dani Lauer:

That's great advice. Anything else you want to share with our listeners before we end our episode today?

Jermale Eddie:

I would say you're never too old or too far in your career to have a mentor and I truly believe that a mentor might be younger than you. Sometimes it doesn't have to be someone older. It could be someone the same age, someone younger than you. So be open.

Dani Lauer:

I love that. That's great advice. Thank you so much Jermale for joining us. And thanks to all of our listeners. We hope you enjoyed our episode and tune into a future episode soon.