Mentorship is a significant factor in one’s entrepreneurial development. Having a guide along the challenging path of the entrepreneurial journey helps accelerate one’s growth, progress and momentum. The good thing about mentorship is that it can be done over a specific period or can be repeated at certain points of the journey or can be done continuously, depending on one’s need.
For Costa Vasili, CEO of Ethnolink, this is not the first time he is taking part as a mentee. “It’s my second time in the mentorship program. I had a really good experience in 2019 and learned a lot of helpful experiences, particularly around leadership and people management. This time, I was looking for a mentor who had skills in significant growth and also who had potentially exited a business at some point in their career as well. I was really looking for something different just for a different type of mentorship experience. They're both very different, but both are very, very helpful.”
This year, Costa’s mentor is Stuart Marburg, Director of TenPaces, who was once an EO member himself. Stuart accepted the invitation to become a mentor this year to support other entrepreneurs. “I’ve been doing it for a number of years. I used to be an EO member myself and I thought some of my experiences could be helpful to other EO members who are growing their business, that's why I got involved.”
Despite this being his second time in the mentorship program, Costa admits that he still has a lot to learn and that there’s always room for improvement and growth. He is thankful that through his mentorship sessions with Stuart, he is able to acquire additional knowledge. “My blind window of what I don't know is being further opened by Stuart because he knows so much and has experienced so much in his career, and I get to learn from his experiences in a considerable way. For me, that's been the most important part. It’s not just getting advice but actually learning about things to avoid and hearing stories about similar experiences that he's gone through or similar issues or challenges in his career.”
Stuart’s entrepreneurial story is something that Costa finds very inspiring. “Stuart sold his business to iinet - one of the largest telecommunications companies in Australia in 2010. He and his business partner were the shareholders and they sold Netspace for $40m. In order to do that, they were able to grow the business to a significant level in a relatively short amount of time and position the business in a way that was really desirable for a potential acquirer. In that case, they were able to have a really strong exit. So, they had a great business and they sold it for a really great price and I think that, in particular, has been really, really insightful for me,” Costa shared.
On the other hand, Stuart acknowledges that he also learned from Costa during the mentorship process. “I’ve enjoyed it and I hope he has as well. I’ve learned some different things about his business. Hopefully, some of my experiences have been helpful for him. I just find it interesting learning about different businesses and different ideas, different ways that different people market and run their business and the like, especially in this current era of everything being online and having to manage people remotely,” Stuart said.
It also helps that Costa and Stuart found a lot of commonalities when it comes to their values and goals. Costa expounded on this, “I can tell that Stuart's a very caring person. He cares about his family, he cares about his people, he cares about what he applies himself to as well. He's extremely considerate in the way in which he approaches issues. He fights for fairness and he's just a very, very ethical person. Working with someone in a mentorship capacity who is similar to me in that way has been really, really helpful because I don't feel as though the advice I’m being given is in direct conflict with my own values.”
Stuart added, “The common ground is that I was an EO member, he is an EO member and I’m pretty passionate about helping people who are truly on their way to having success in the business and growing their business.”
Costa is grateful for all the positive things that mentorship has contributed to his growth and the growth of his company. “Stuart's been instrumental in helping shape the strategic direction of Ethnolink for the next five to ten years. Without his push and without his mentorship, I probably wouldn't have been able to find the courage independently to make some big decisions about the future of our enterprise. Absolutely, I'd say it's been very life-changing,” Costa acknowledged.
He appreciates taking a break in between his mentorship programs to fully absorb all his learnings and being able to apply them to his journey. “Because I took a break between 2019 and 2020, I found that having that one year break just gave me a bit of time to absorb the year prior. So, it gave me time to reflect and review the notes from the mentorship. One thing I find about coaching or mentorship, in general, is that sometimes it's just so fast-paced, always doing and always executing, rather than having the opportunity just to settle and reflect. So, I think having a year off the mentorship program was really helpful for me to also find that renewed vigour to go in for this second year,” he explained.
Overall, it’s something that Costa and Stuart recommend for entrepreneurs to experience, whether as a mentee or a mentor. Stuart remarked, “I think that just for the same reason they've joined EO and for the same reason that they contribute and go to a forum that's why they should do it. At the same time, they need to be open about themselves and be open to their mentor and to them (Mentorship Committee), I think it's James who runs the mentorship, about what they're trying to get out of it so that the right mentors can be paired with the right mentees.”
What are your experiences having a mentor or being a mentor to someone? EO Melbourne will be having another run of its Mentorship Program for its members in March 2022. To learn more about the program, visit https://www.eomelbourne.org/mentorship.