Have you ever had a business question and wondered:
If there only was an expert I could talk to!
As a business founder, I certainly had that thought many times before. I'd have been willing to spend good money on it, since it's often such a shortcut, saving you hours and hours googling the web.
What if I told you that I found a platform with hundreds of experts, offering free consulting calls? Doesn't that sound a bit crazy?
At GrowthMentor, there are countless mentors with very successful careers – running their own businesses or holding high-paid jobs at renowned companies – who offer free consulting calls.
Free? How is that possible?
Great question. The primary reason is that the mentors had success in their life and like to give back. Many of them had successful exits, selling their companies. Others hold corporate jobs and just like to help people while building their personal brand.
If you are worried that at the end of the call they want to sell you something, don't be. I never had that happen. My mentors were genuinely nice, and all they expected in return was a positive review. I even asked one of them if I could hire him, but he told me that he's not even interested in ongoing work outside of the GrowthMentor platform.
GrowthMentor Pricing - Is it really free then?
No, you need to sign up for a GrowthMentor subscription, which starts at $50/month (Light plan). Keep in mind that you have to pay for at least 3 months as they charge the fee either quarterly or yearly. The good thing is that you can cancel anytime.
So if you have an important project going on and want to get educated by an expert coach, you can subscribe for 3 months and have up to 9 coaching calls.
There are also higher plans (Pro and Team) but honestly, I wouldn't even be able to do more than 3 calls a month. Just because I also need time to implement all that great advice.
The main advantage of the Pro plan is that, in addition to unlimited calls, you can post Help Requests. These can be particularly useful when you are looking for specific skills that are not easily found via search.
I recently posted a Help Request because I was seeking a mentor with experience in creating an online course. Given the specificity of my question, I received only two responses, but I have just scheduled a call with one of the respondents.
The main reason why I switched to Pro was because GrowthMentor made me a really good yearly offer with a large discount. But I could've easily stayed in Light as well.
Oh and it's also worth mentioning that not all mentors offer free consultation. After they have done 3 successful calls, they can charge a fee per call (e.g. $50 for 30 minutes). But most of them don't.
Let me know if you'd like a free session invite. Subscribed members have an allowance of 3 gift session per month. Please keep in mind that it doesn't work for existing GrowthMentor accounts. Just send me a message.
My calls and how they went
I've had four calls so far. The first one was with Agata, who helped me with our internal organization structure for Tooltester. This led to the appointment of our first manager within the team. So that call alone was so valuable to me.
My last call, which I just had very recently, with Elena, a branding expert, was also notable. She lives and breathes branding and gave me so many ideas of how we can communicate our brand values better. She is also a true motivator and got my blood pumping.
Pros and Cons of GrowthMentor
Let me summarize everything I like and don't like about GrowthMentor:
+ Amazing community giving you direct access to experts in business and marketing
+ The platform itself is done so well. It's easy to navigate, it's well-designed, it just works.
+ Live chat support. Not that I needed it much but that one time I contacted them they helped me quickly and easily
+ Local groups: there are many local groups ("City Squads") that you can join for in-person meetups (we have one in Barcelona, for example, so it's worldwide). That's something I definitely want to join very soon.
– The cost of the subscription can be a bit high if you are just starting out.
– The mentors are mainly marketing and business people. I don't think there are any engineers on the platform, for example.
– If you are looking for a mentor to have ongoing sessions with, this may not be the ideal platform for you, as the calls are typically meant to solve one issue at a time.
– The search feature could be tweaked, I found that some important skills categories were missing (e.g. "branding").
– The ratings can be slightly misleading sometimes. It's extremely rare to find a mentor who has less than a 4.8 rating. Who would rate someone badly who gives them a free mentoring session? One metric I would be looking at: how many sessions took place and how many ratings resulted from that? Unsatisfied mentees tend not to rate the mentor at all.
Do you want to give it a try? They have a referral program that I joined, so if you end up becoming a paid subscriber, I would get a commission. You can trust me that I genuinely like the platform and wouldn't recommend it otherwise.
Try GrowthMentor (14-day money-back guarantee)
Let me know if you have any question about the platform in the comments below!
P.S. If you message me via the contact form, I can also gift you a free session. Just let me know if you are interested!
FAQ
Can I join a mentor call with another person (e.g. an employee or a colleague)?
I don't think there are any general rules but I recommend you to ask your mentor beforehand. I had two calls so far with one of my employees and the mentors welcomed it every time.
Updates:
-26 Feb 2024: Small update in cons
-15 Jan 2024: Pricing changes reflected