Mentors: Fueling Business, Nurturing Entrepreneurial Minds

Syndi: Hey everybody, I'm Syndi Nelson.

Noel: And I'm Noel Trevino.

Syndi: And this is Help! I'm an Entrepreneur, a podcast for those who have taken on the challenge of entrepreneurship, and who love tips and advice from successful entrepreneurs who have overcome tricky obstacles along the way. Today, I welcome back Noel Trevino, a fitness and nutrition coach who helps transform his clients into competitive athletes, fit moms, and everything in between leading to healthier lifestyles and achieving their goals.

So, Noel, one of the most often given pieces of advice for entrepreneurs is to get a mentor. They provide guidance, wisdom, knowledge, and so much more.

Did you have a mentor or even more than one that was able to help you over your journey to grow from a personal coach to now having your own gym?

Noel: Yes. That's a really good question. That's a really good you know, way to go about life. I think if you can do that, you're gonna win. Yes, I have many mentors.

I actually have one now. He's awesome. Just helping me maneuver through life. You know, there there's a lot I felt like I needed to learn.

And one of my mentors and, you know, even one of my best friends and we're just doing life together. And I feel like you can have a lot of little mentors. Some of the most concrete ones were my buddy Steven and then I had a coach named Brandon Arnold and phenomenal trainer. Phenomenal trainer.

Syndi: Yeah!

Noel: Yea, oh yea you worked with him! And, man, I saw a great coach in him, and I wanted to be like him. And he's a phenomenal... a lot of what I learned, a lot of being secure in my route... was, you know, man, we're thinking a lot alike, it must be the right way. And just the encouragement through him. And, you know, I can't say I really had, like, an older man, like mentor, like, sit down and, "how are you doing today?"

Syndi: Kind of like that "sage" that you imagine?

Noel: I have one for life and, you know, with marriage and business and you know, we're three years in business and it really cn make an impact on your life like positive and negative way. I think when we think about business, we think about all the positive stuff, ninety percent is you're gonna be dealing with negative.

Syndi: A lot of difficult. Yeah.

Noel: You're gonna be dealing with a lot of...

Syndi: Hard times.

Noel: ...hard stuff to bring you down.

Syndi: It's a lot! Is there a hard time that you remember having that a mentor really helped you get through?

Noel: I'm gonna say maybe one of the hardest times in my career. Like, self-doubt, that's not hard. I'm not like, if you have self-doubt, that's just normal.

Syndi: It comes with the territory.

Noel: Yeah. It's just, you know, you're in the right place if you have self-doubt. You know? Hard times are gonna be like, I don't think I can keep going because my mental health isn't there. And last year, I took a spill like that where my mental health and panic attacks were happening every day, probably for about three months.

Like, it'd be a little one and then a big one and I'm really... it's really hard for me to ask for help sometimes until it gets bad. I'm like, I can figure this out. It's like a chess game or like a jigsaw puzzle. I can figure it out. I know I can do it, but I got to a point where I was like, okay.

I don't have myself. My wife is a very strong woman, and I can see in her eyes that we need help. And when I hit that point, like... it's very scary. And so I reached out to, my mentor now, his name is Dr. Pickering. And there's a lot more to maneuvering through life than just, you know, stress is a really unique thing.

You know, I'm not gonna say it's really hard. It's unique because you just don't know what it's gonna do to you. You know, it will bring on like strong urges of self-doubt, which can get very scary.

Syndi: Mhmm, it's like a spiral.

Noel: Yeah. Yeah.

Syndi: All kinds of stuff.

Noel: Think about a bird and like the wing of a bird's broken and it starts to go down.

Syndi: Mhmm. That's exactly how it is.

Noel: Yeah. You can kinda use the wing to guide yourself down. But if you don't have the right tools, you're gonna go crashing down. You don't

Syndi: You don't know what you're gonna hit on the way down.

Noel: Yeah. And with a business surrounded around people, and showing up daily. Man, I don't even know, like

Syndi: You're hoping something will catch you almost and you don't wanna ask for something to catch you.

Noel: What I think would catch me was I would have a little success. And I'm like, oh my gosh. Like, I think I am, like, my business is worth going for. And I am making it. I can make it to the next week.

I can make it to the next month. And I can keep going. Just let me use this weekend to rest. And, you know, I almost felt like I was in a depressive state because all I did was lay in bed, sleep, and get ready for Monday to train people and try to get it going.

Syndi: Yeah. Just enough to get through it.

Noel: Yeah. That's the way it was... so...

Syndi: So you asked your mentor for help?

Noel: Yeah.

Syndi: And how were they able to help you get through that?

Noel: Just give me the tools to have a sound mind.

Syndi: Yeah.

Noel: Yeah. And church was a big deal. And the mentor kind of reciting, hey, this is what life is about. And giving me the tools to keep myself whole and have peace of mind. Now that I've learned more about mental health and reading a lot of books and doing a lot of so-called research, you know, like, reading stuff on mental health, it just let me know how "young" I was.

You know, how lost I was thinking, I'm about to build this business. "Day one". "Here we go". And then it's, like, far from that, you know, like, you you gotta know who you are because if you wanna make it, make it and I'm still in the up soar of it, kind of like gettin' to where I wanna be. I've had some really good months and years.

And if you wanna make, you gotta have some tools in your toolbox. Yeah. And so

Syndi: And so your mentor really helped give you some of those tools?

Noel: Yeah. It's kind of like a father figure in my life saying, hey, you're gonna be okay. You're gonna be okay. Keep going that's normal.

.

It's okay to feel that way because you start feeling things that you've never felt before. Like, I remember feeling my body kinda numb at one point. I'm like, oh my gosh. Like, what is this feeling? Don't tell your mind that because your mind will go off on like thirty different thoughts.

Like, am I gonna have a heart attack? Am I gonna you know, I mean, it's kind of like my first bout of anxiety and a panic attack. That's what I thought. Because, not even physiology. I'm like, uh-oh.

Like, my heart's being hard. And I'm kind of confused. And is this it? My mentor just kind of helped me set my foundation again because you need to be reminded who you are.

Syndi: Oh, yeah.

Noel: You're gonna hit some hard times, and I think that's what's gonna build you to keep growing.

Syndi: When most entrepreneurs think of mentors for their business, The sage advice that's thought of is usually a combination of business strategy, growth, resources, skills, and the like. Noel reminds us all that in the excitement of starting and running our businesses. Many of us forget to load up our toolbox with tools to help the most important part of the business - ourselves, the highly driven and ambitious entrepreneurs.

Through Noelle's story, we discovered that mentors can also be impactful when it comes to sticking to the path of who you are as a leader when facing mental health challenges in addition to seeking the conventional mentorship advice that we've come to know and love today.

In the next episode, we have a special segment to uncover some confidential "tea" with a behind-the-scenes story from Noel. What happened to Noel? And how did it affect his business? Join us next time to find out.

You can find out more about Noelle on Instagram.

Check them out at fitnessinspiredbynoel, and don't forget to subscribe scribe to our podcast at helpimanentrepreneur.com, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify for the opportunity to get early access episodes and to get answers to your entrepreneurial questions from our guests and more. I'll see you next time!