This is Why You Need an Advisory Board of Amazing Mentors for Your Life

May 2018

Today’s post is about creating a personal advisory board for your life so that you can get to where you want to be.

What is an Advisory Board?

Many companies have ‘advisory boards’. They consist of subject matter experts who fill in gaps in organizational knowledge. These advisors have no governance function and do not represent shareholders as a traditional ‘Board of Directors’ does. They simply provide advice and support and act as a sounding board for the organization.

Why Do I Need My Own Advisory Board?

Just like companies need people to help them, you need mentors to help you! Remember, most people are not successful by themselves, and none of us have all the answers. By leveraging a personal advisory board of mentors, you are standing on the shoulders of giants – or at least people who know more than you do about certain areas of life. No one knows everything. In fact, there was a point in time when Bill Gates didn’t even know what a computer was! Just chew on that one for a minute. But don’t be rude, please chew with your mouth closed. Ok, stop chewing.

So, What Does A Personal Advisory Board of Mentors Do?

Good question, personal advisory boards of mentors have a variety of functions, such as:

Giving advice.
Acting as a sounding board.
Challenging you.
Asking you questions.
Offering different perspectives. Remember OPV?
Teaching you things based on their expertise.
Supporting and encouraging you.
Expanding your personal and professional network.

Who Is on a Personal Advisory Board?

That’s the cool thing about personal advisory boards – anyone can be on them! In fact, sometimes people don’t even have to know they are on it. And sometimes, they aren’t even alive.

You see, some members will be people you already know who give you advice in different areas of your life – such as family, friends, and established mentors. Some will be people you contact in person, via the internet or phone when you need something.

Then there will also be ‘virtual mentors’ – people that you have never met and will likely never meet who you can study or learn from at a distance. For example, people who write books, give TED talks or podcasts on subjects or areas you wish to learn about. Some, such as historical or public figures, may have even passed on, but their legacy and your ability to learn from them lives on, in the form of videos, audio, and books.

One last thing, every advisory board has a chairperson. This is someone that is the leader of the board which is a very important position and carries a lot of responsibility, as they are the glue that holds the board together.

Can My Personal Advisory Board Change?

Yes, of course. It can and should change over the long term, as your needs change. This will happen organically; sometimes through attrition and sometimes just because things change.

The cool thing is, sometimes you can fire them, and they won’t even know! And unlike in business, you won’t have to deal with HR to make it happen!

Just remember, your personal advisory board of mentors can and will change as your life evolves, as you grow and your needs and outlooks change.

What Does a Personal Advisory Board Look Like?

I’m glad you asked, let me show you my personal advisory board as an example. Better yet, let me show you how my personal advisory board has evolved throughout my life. While I have only come up with a ‘formal’ advisory board of mentors in the past several years, I have had informal advisory boards throughout various stages of my life, as you will see below.

Now, seeing as how you won’t know or care about most of the mentors on my personal board, I will only share some notable ones:

Childhood Advisory Board

My childhood advisory board was a relatively small one compared to what it is today. Some of the founding members included my little friends, teachers and:

Mom and Dad – Mom was the Chair of the board at that time as she gave me life and I literally needed her to eat.

Cookie Monster – I was a big fan of Sesame Street and this guy was probably the reason I ate anything and everything as a kid. He’s also the main reason that I ran around the house driving Mom nuts yelling “Me Want Cookie!”

Mr. Rogers – Contrary to popular belief, he was not a Navy SEAL covered in tattoos under his famous sweaters. He was simply a great American role model.

My ‘blankey’ – My security blanket was a trusted ally and mentor and went everywhere with me, well that is until his untimely passing in the washing machine due to ‘old age’. #RIPBlankey1972-2000.

Early Adulthood/Teenage Advisory Board

As I moved into my teenage years and into early adulthood, my advisory board changed as you would expect:

Mom and Dad – Dad succeeded Mom as Chair due to the fact we started having more in common (i.e. hockey and football), plus Mom’s boobs became useless (at least to me) once I started eating real food, like a little champ. Mom and Dad will always be on the board, but I will exclude them from now on as you know they are there.

Bob and Doug McKenzie – 2 of the best Canadians ever, if you never saw them on SCTV or Strange Brew you need to check them out. They taught me the importance of patriotism and being proud of where you came from.

Wayne Gretzky – What Canadian kid didn’t idolize and want to emulate ‘The Great One’? I learned a lot about hockey and how to carry yourself with class.

Catwoman – This was more about my teenage hormones running wild than anything else.

College Advisory Board

Going off to college, my board evolved. Some notable additions included football coaches who taught me discipline, hard work and leadership. College friends and teammates who taught me a lot about life and were amazing debauchery co-conspirators. There were also a few people you may be familiar with:

Arnold Schwarzenegger – I started getting into lifting weights and read all his books and watched ‘Pumping Iron’ too many times to count.

Michael Jordan – Watching him and being inspired by his will to win and succeed inspired a generation of athletes, including this one.

Dr. Ruth – Always gave me sage sex advice and was a key mentor over the radio. By the way, in her opinion, morning sex is the best. Who am I to argue with a living legend?

Post-College Advisory Board (current)

My current board consists of many friends, including PYP’s Bri, and mentors, including PYP’s Howie, as well as some others you may be familiar with:

The late W. Edwards Deming – He was Howie’s mentor at NYU, and Howie introduced me to his management philosophies that I have studied carefully through videos and books. He has had a profound impact on how I think about things.

Dale Carnegie, Wayne Dyer, and Tony Robbins– All self-improvement gurus whom I have studied through their books, videos, podcasts etc. and who have helped shape my outlook on life.

Tim Ferriss, James Altucher, Jocko Willink, and Gary Vaynerchuk – I have really got into podcasts lately and have learned a lot with respect to writing, internet marketing, social media marketing and mostly just success in general from these guys.

Wait, Why Don’t Your College or Current Advisory Boards Have a Chairperson?

Ah right, good catch. I almost forgot to mention the most important part of my college and current personal Advisory Boards! Thanks for reminding me.

As you learned earlier, Mom and Dad did a great job chairing my board early on in my life. But as my life evolved, I needed to find someone else to take over the reins as Mom and Dad had done more than their share and put up with enough of my crazy shit.

To answer your question, yes, my current advisory board does have a chairperson. But unlike the previous chairpersons, this person has served since college and will remain as chair for the rest of my life.

In fact, we have the same chairperson, you and I, let me explain…

I knew early on in my life that this person was extremely special and that he would chair my personal advisory board one day. He just needed to mature and grow into the position. Even though he was a mischievous little bastard for most of his childhood, I knew he had potential because he was smart enough to rarely get caught.

There are a bunch of reasons why he was, and still is the ONLY choice for the job:

For some reason he has an innate ability to recommend who I need to add or get rid of from the board.

No matter how badly I mess up, he never gets mad at me. He always forgives me.

Every time I fall down, which happens a lot, he is ALWAYS there encouraging me to brush myself off and to get up and try again.

His opinion on things matters to me more than anyone else’s. In fact, his opinion is the ONLY one that truly matters – that’s how much I value his opinion.

I love his open-mindedness and his ability to look at things from different perspectives.

He expects more out of me than anyone else does, and it’s not even close.

He has always been there for me and will always be there for me, you could say he always has my back.

Many times, it’s just him and I having quiet conversations and just reflecting about life without anyone else from the board present. I learn a lot during those quiet times.

He believes in me more than anyone else. In fact, he has 100% faith that I can accomplish anything if I put my mind to it.

As long as he is happy, I am happy.

Finally, he loves me more than anyone else on my board, which is saying a lot. It’s just like your chairperson loves you more than anyone on your board.

The current and forever chairperson of my personal advisory board is…

Me.

You know how I said you and I have the same chairperson? I didn’t mean that I am the chairperson of your board, although that would be a stellar choice by you – just kidding.

I meant that YOU should be the chairperson of your board.

At the end of the day, you are the most important person on your personal advisory board. If you don’t love and believe in yourself, no one else will.

Until next time…

From one personal advisory board chair to another – cheers! Please take some time to think about your personal advisory board and as always…PYMFP!

–Rick

Use It or Lose It – How Do I Create a Personal Advisory Board for Myself?

To create your own personal advisory board:

Think about the areas of your life where you need advice, a sounding board, someone to learn from, someone to challenge you, someone who doesn’t always tell you what you want to hear.

Some areas may be finances, relationships, career, your physical or mental health, areas you wish to learn about etc.

You can formally ask them to be a mentor or advisor.

Or you can just put them on your board without them knowing – it’s easier to fire them that way.

If it is someone that you don’t have personal access to then figure out how you can learn from them via books, the internet, YouTube videos, podcasts etc.

What Do You Think?

Do you have a personal advisory board? Who is on it? Please share in the comments section below!

If you enjoyed this post, it would mean the world to us if you shared it via any of the social media platforms below!

2 Replies to “This is Why You Need an Advisory Board of Amazing Mentors for Your Life”

Dave Savadge says:

May 16, 2018 at 4:05 pm

I like your concept of personal advisors – to be honest I’ve never thought about people as such, but in retrospect, its true. Two particular elementary school teachers come to mind. Miss Eagan for 1st grade, an Irish spinster who taught me how to read, for which I am ever grateful. Miss Kelly for 2nd grade, another Irish spinster who made learning fun, especially if a subject intrigued me. The fact that I can remember these two ladies just shows how much they influence they had on me. I still read and study subjects are fascinating, the kind of stuff for which nobody has developed any sort of formal curriculum. There have been advisors that never knew I existed, such as authors whose books I have bought for reference. There are those who began as “never met”, but who I have since spoken with and shared knowledge at symposia and conferences, and even sometimes via phone calls.

I suppose today my greatest personal advisor is my lovely wife, who come this December I will have known 50 years, of which 46 we have lived together. I have a tendency to be a bit (that’s saying it mildly) hotheaded. When I totally screw the pooch (and many pooches have been screwn), either publicly or in private, she brings me back to reality. I think she practices OPV without even knowing that such a concept exists. Or maybe she’s just too smart for my own good.

Keep up the good writing. It’s both entertaining and practical.

1. Rick, Bri and Howie says:
  
  May 17, 2018 at 5:40 am
  
  Hi Dave, it really does show you what an impact those teachers had in your life that you still remember their names years later. You bring up a great point, I don’t think many people realize what a profound impact teachers have on us! You are very lucky to have your wife, she sounds amazing. But she is equally to have you. Thanks for the support, Rick