Shelley Mentor — Motivational Speaker, Business Accelerator, Dynamo, Change Agent

It is another edition of "What's Involved". This time I'm chatting to a lady that, well, we've actually tried a couple of times and we keep missing each other. It is Shelly Mentor. Hello to you, Shelly, how are you doing? - Hello, hello David, I'm well and how are you? - Well, you know, we're adjusting to a new reality and I think during the course of our discussion, perhaps we'll chat a little bit about that and what our new reality is. But let's start off and tell me a little bit about Shelly. What are you currently doing? And maybe we can start off with where did Shelly come from? - Where did Shelly come from? Well, I'm born and bred and very proudly South African. Josie is my hometown, although I was born in KZM. And I suppose everybody has a story and everybody has a tale to tell. You know, did the normal things that everybody did went to school, wasn't really in a position to go to university. So kind of hit the corporate market straight out of school and spent about a decade in the corporate market in the financial field and got to a stage where I think you kind of, you know, you reach a glass ceiling and you just start looking for more. You know, when you wake up in the morning and you kind of say, what I'm doing right now is not getting me out of bed.

And it wasn't through lack of achievement or lack of desire for the industry. I just sort of got to a stage where I said, you know what? I need to try my hand at something different. And I had this real burning desire within me to start up my own business, which I did. And yeah, went into entrepreneurship, started my own brand in the finance industry and stuck with that for about 18 months. And again, got to the stage where I was sort of like, oh, no, this is really not exciting for me anymore. I think I'd sort of gone through the challenges of, you know, putting a business together, getting the products aligned, getting the funding in place. In fact, in the first 18 months, did one of the biggest RCT transactions in the country, which is great for a startup business, but it just, again, wasn't doing it for me. And my roots have always been in marketing and branding and decided to buy an existing agency, very, very small agency. So did the research and the homework. And I've had that for about, again, over a decade and grew that to have a national presence dealing with real boutique niche brands in the corporate market. And then kind of reached the ceiling in that again. So I think it's, you know, the message in terms of, if you look, where did I come from and where am I at now?

It's sort of saying, always be pushing forward. You know, at that point in time, it just, the business was running, I put things in place that it could run without me. And I decided that the time had come for me to really help entrepreneurs. I had a good background, obviously, from a financial and a corporate perspective, as well as marketing, running my own business, starting my own brand, buying companies, selling them, buying my competition arts. And I thought, you know, with all of that knowledge, it was time for me to start giving back. It was time for me to start working with other entrepreneurs who were maybe stuck, also existing businesses that kind of felt like they plateaued a little bit. And so have done a lot of work with a lot of companies and a lot of entrepreneurs and business owners in terms of taking them to the next level. And then again, reached that ceiling. And about a year ago, started doing my own events. And again, aimed at the business market, not so much the corporate market, but the SME market. If we have a look in South Africa, it's a massive, massive market. And I was actually fortunate enough to do quite a lot of international travel and work with global companies and global entrepreneurs and brought a lot of that learning back here to really just upskill the South African business owners to say, you know, sometimes you get a little bit stuck, but it's not about staying there.

It's about how you progress and how you move forward. So that's really a little bit about my journey from a business and a professional perspective, from a personal perspective, I have a daughter, I'm married, we love animals. Always one of my biggest things in life has been dealing with people and working with people and getting them to reach their true potential. And that's kind of what gets me going. - I think that's fantastic. And it sounds like you've really managed to fit quite a lot of living into your life so far. And I know, you know, often when I talk to people who are of an entrepreneurial nature, they kind of go, oh yes, you know, I did this, I did this, I did the next thing. And it seems to flow very easily, but it's often not like that. There often are some great challenges that successful people have had to go through. And this is what enables them to be able to share what they do with other people. Would you say that's part of your journey as well, overcoming some obstacles? - Absolutely, you know, I think there is, part of what makes every successful person successful is taking every challenge. Because, you know, it's not a straightforward journey. You may have a plan that kind of says, this is what I wanna do, this is what I wanna achieve.

But there's always gonna be, you know, curve balls that are thrown at you, or things that you maybe don't expect, or, you know, the writing may be on the wall, but you don't see it. And absolutely, I mean, it has not been an easy part. There has been massive challenges. But through those challenges, I think it's always been what has helped me is saying, and taking every single challenge and saying, well, we're, and I know it sounds a bit cliche, but where is the opportunity in this? Because, you know, they talk about the best place to discover new opportunities is find out what your customers are not happy about. And that's often things that, you know, as a business owner, people don't wanna explore that. It's kind of like, if they're not saying anything, let's just keep going. And I think in every single challenge, if you find the way out of that challenge, then that's your next level success. So absolutely, you know, it's not a straightforward path. And the beauty and the benefit of it is diving into it and coming up the other side. And, you know, we don't always have the luxury of, you know, playing, playing seas. But as I always say, if you, you know, calm waters never made strong sailors.

So you've got to take those challenges and you've got to look at them and say, well, how do I turn these into real opportunities? 'Cause often we're looking for something, but it's actually right in front of us. - Yeah, I have had that experience myself a couple of times. My special guest on this edition of What's Involved is Shelley Mentor. We'll be talking a little bit more to Shelley about some of the places that she's been and some of the people that she's met when we come back. It is What's Involved. Right, and we're back. And as I said earlier, I'm chatting to Shelley Mentor. It's, I have to ask, and I'm sure you've been asked this question millions of times, but I just, I've got to do it. Did you think your surname had anything to do with your path in business life? Because you're a coach as well, aren't you? - Yes, I am, I am. And, you know, it's so interesting because when I was doing my eight city tour through South Africa working with business owners and entrepreneurs, a lot of people said to me, you know, is that your real name? And, you know, people talk about your destiny will always find you. And, well, I was fortunate enough that I got that surname through marriage, but I suppose there is an element of truth to it that your destiny does always find you in one way or another.

And I think my surname is very true to my character in that I love to see people achieve, I love to, if there's something that I've learned on my journey that can benefit other people, then that's what I need to do to give back. You know, you talk about, you know, there's a big difference between mentoring, coaching and consulting. And mentoring is, you know, mentoring's for free. You don't pay for that. And there's certain, I mean, I obviously have clients that do pay for my coaching and my teachings, and that's, you know, completely separate. But there is a lot of mentoring that I've done along my journey. And I kind of feel like that's sort of the rent we pay on earth, that's our give back. And, you know, if people benefit from where you've come from, not everybody will, but if you can impact or help one person, that's one person closer to their own success goals. - Yeah, and I mean, it's something I've always believed in. I'm glad to hear you talk about SMEs and that, because that's one thing I've always been very passionate about is the smaller businesses, the small medium businesses. I think that's where ultimately, you know, South Africa is gonna grow and go because, you know, big corporates, yeah, okay, they're there, do they need help?

Yes, they do, but it's the emerging entrepreneurs, the emerging market that I think needs as much help and support, and that's my motivation behind doing the show is that I get to chat to people like you, and we can share some information with people who are either in business, just starting out, that kind of thing. But Jenny, I wanted to talk to you a little bit about, you seem to, well, you mentioned travel, but you certainly seem to have gotten around the world. One person I see that's been mentioned, well, there's many. I mean, it's like a who's who of people that you've interviewed and chatted with. Brooke Shields, you've had vanilla ice, the list goes on and on. Tell me a little bit about JT Fox, though. Why don't you come across JT? - So, you know, ironically, we often see, like a Facebook ad that comes up, and I had never actually heard of JT Fox, and in fact, that was probably, I think I have been with the organization now for about 18, 20 months, and like most people, you see an advert, and you think, oh, that appeals to me. And one of the adverts that I came across, it was for a free event that was being hosted, and I thought, let me go check this out. It was kind of at that stage where I was, teetering on, I'm looking for something new, I'm hungry for something different.

And I went to a free event, and a lot of people, you call them free event junkies, a lot of people go to a lot of free events, and I suppose it's like anything in life. If you get free, you get a certain limit. And there was just, you know, when he got up on stage and spoke as a coach, what he was saying resonated with me, and I decided to jump in. I thought to myself, you know what? I've gone this journey of living in a corporate world, and I've had my own mentors along the way, and starting my own businesses, but I've never really had a coach for me. And I thought, you know what? Now is your opportunity. And it just, there was so many things that he said. He has a very, very interesting way of taking complex issues and making them very simple. And I decided to sign up, and I thought, okay, well, you know, let's see, you know, at that point in time, I didn't really know too much, and I got involved, and through that, I've had one-on-one coaching with them. In fact, while we're in downtime, I've still got coaching set up. And, you know, if you're gonna be a coach, then best you have a coach. You know, it's kind of like if you're a gym instructor, then best you have someone who's helping you.

You know, you can't sort of be pushing a course forward if you're not actually accepting it for yourself. And through that organization, I have met so many international entrepreneurs. And in fact, you know, that's what kind of got me into my speaking journey. You know, ironically, talking in public was something that petrified me, but it was something that when I heard about it or I spoke about it, it excited me. And I thought, you know what? And I always talk about you have this gut worm inside you. And I thought, something's tugging here for a reason. Let's explore it. And through my coaching with JT, not only on a business level, but getting coached to speak, and what to speak about and how to position yourself, I have learned and I have grown so much. And it's even me, the ability to go out there and talk in front of thousands of people, which if you had asked me a few years ago, which shall have ever been that, everyone who knew me would have said no ways because as much as I love people, I didn't like the feeling of being on display. And through my journey with the various coaches in the organization and with JT, I've learned to overcome a lot of that and position myself and in fact, have established a global brand through it.

- Well, I gotta say, I mean, chatting to you, I've talked to many people and also, you know, entrepreneurs and speakers from across the country and across the world, you certainly don't sound like somebody who's, you know, not a professional speaker. I mean, if you hadn't told me the story, I would never have believed it. I must be honest. You come across incredibly well. Everybody that I've spoken to, when I've mentioned your name, you're highly respected in those circles. So you still, your journey with JT is ongoing, but you do coaching as well. You mentioned your speaking, your corporate speaking gigs. What sort of stuff are you into now? Where are you going now? - You know, I think it's such an interesting, an interesting question. If I recall back to when our president, Mr. Sura Ramaphosa sort of implemented the first level of let's do social distancing. And I was actually a way industrial for the weekend, ironically, to have a look at my existing businesses and, you know, what changes did I need to implement? I'm a firm believer in, sometimes you need to pull yourself away from the noise so that you can get clarity. And I kind of spent the whole weekend putting my plans in place.

And then the Sunday night, you know, press announcement happened. And I thought, golly, I've just wasted a whole weekend. And then I came back and I thought to myself, you know, truth to form, Michelle, you've got to find the opportunity in this. And ironically, whilst a lot of the country and a lot of the world, in fact, is shutting down, I have never been busier. And I put it down to the fact that it's about being a speedboat and being able to turn really, really quickly in those muddy waters. And, you know, from when we've gone sort of into the two-week social distancing, and then we've had full lockdown, and then we, you know, everyone was kind of like, oh, how will we get through 21 days? And then guess what? You've got an extension. And, you know, the whole country sort of went, whoa, what are we going to do now? And I've been doing a lot of mentoring. I've got existing clients who, you know, if you have a look at where their businesses were at, they're not sure what the future holds. And a lot of people have kind of gone, okay, let me just be numb in this state because I don't have the answers. And there's a lot of businesses that are sort of saying, no, now is the time that we should actually be working.

And the best way to work is to have someone hold your hand through that process. To have a look at, you know, what is your business? What is it about? What can you change? How do you need to reinvent the business for whenever it is that, I call it, when the lights go back on. And, you know, ironically, a year ago, our biggest issue was the fact that we had load shedding. And what were we going to do? And now all of a sudden, just 12 months later, we're sitting with this. But a lot of people came out of load shedding stronger because you have to adapt. So at this point in time, I'm doing a lot of course creation. I'm doing a lot of content writing. I'm doing a lot of my own personal development. But I'm also doing a lot of work with business owners to say, let's have a look at your business. Because what happens is when you're in it, you can't see the opportunity. So it takes a independent person looking at your business to see it through a different set of eyes. So that's kind of what I've been busy with and am busy with and remain committed to the process. And so until the new normal arrives on our doorstep, whatever that may shape, professional form that may take on. - Yeah, that's the interesting part, of course, is what is this new normal going to look like?

'Cause I don't think any one of us actually has an idea. I mean, I know when this thing all started happening, we thought with our business, we were like, okay, we do training. And my fiance does online learning development. She's a graphic designer as well, we thought. We get a need to start doing something and suddenly bang, there we were, and all of our face-to-face in-person training was suddenly canceled. I must admit, I've had some numb days, I really have. But I think we all go through a bit of things like that.

- Absolutely, you know, I think in this process, it's about keeping your mind active. And we talk about the numb days because we just, it's kind of like that blur of what is the next? What is the new normal? How does industry look? And I think if you have a look at, if your business, and I talk about does your tomorrow have a future? And if what you were doing before is still something that the market will be attracted to, then the focus right now is on having a look at what is your business process. And one of the things, and in fact, through my coaching, where JC talks about facial fears, because whatever it is that you're not good at will be the thing that holds you back. And apart from speaking in public, which I've worked really, really hard at mastering that, my biggest fear was technology, which sounds crazy because everything is digital today, and you're talking about digital, and you're talking about online, and there's a huge, huge opportunity for it. And I kind of, I have a look at a lot of businesses, and as entrepreneurs start their businesses, we don't, people don't really put in long-term sustainable processes that deliver efficiencies for all stakeholders. I'm sure you can recall back to the beginning days, you kind of went, okay, everything's on Excel, and let's get licenses so that we can have email, and that's not technology, there is so much automation.

And I think as small to medium-sized business owners, they're very scared of those words, because when you think about it, you think of the big players like Oracle and SAP and all of those, and that comes with high-ticket corporate pricing. So for the smaller market, it almost seems a little bit unattainable, but there's so many simple things nowadays that you can automate in your business and in your process. And in fact, on one of our businesses, we automated the entire process, which is, it probably leads me to my next passion in terms of automation of processes and businesses, because we talk about saving time, and the thing is, is you never save time. Everybody gets 24 hours, it doesn't matter who you are, it's not a bank account where you can apply for an overdraft. And in the age where everything is moving so fast, if you're not leveraging and optimizing every single process in your business right now to look at how you can automate it, you're gonna waste a lot of energy going forward. When we talk about when the lights come on to the new normal, how are you geared if the floodgates and when the floodgates start opening? And the only way that businesses are really gonna survive is through automation.

- Shelley, can we talk a little bit about automation when we come back, because it does fascinate me. This is what's involved, and we have my special guest with us today. We are talking to Shelley Mentor. As we said, when we come back, we'll talk a little bit more about automation, because I gotta be honest, I was asked a question by Shelley earlier, and my response was pretty much a, "Huh?" So when we come back, we'll chat some more about that. It is what's involved, my special guest, Shelley Mentor. - Okay, I told you I was gonna tell you about it. And on the end, on the show, I'm not tried to admit my failings, few and far between as they are. But Shelley said to me earlier on, she's having problems with Skype, because I'm recording this, obviously we're all working from home. So she said she's having problems with Skype, and she went, "Why don't you use Zoom?" And I was like, "Uh, never used Zoom before." That's one of the things where we talk about automation and embracing the new. I mean, it took me long enough to get used to this weird Skype thing when, you know. And initially, particularly when people wanna do video, 'cause I'm like, "Do you want to actually what? "Do you want to see me?

"I'm a radio person, you don't see us. "We're not TV people." But that's a prime example. I mean, a lot of us are afraid and nervous about new technology.

- You know, you've hit a stress on the head, and I think the best way to embrace new technologies or technologies that are so accessible to all of us nowadays is to actually just go in online and check it out, and check out multiple different platforms, you know. And I love the fact that you say here, live on air, that Zoom, what is that? You know, I've just mastered Skype. And I think one of the big things that's happened, you know, with this lockdown and corona and everything that's going on in the world is people have got over those fears a lot quicker. I mean, you just look at the health industry and you just look at, you know, personal trainers. And to me, they have become the most innovative. They embraced it very, very quickly because they kind of looked at it and went, "How do I reach my audience?" You know, it's almost like the tech's been shut off. I can't see people. And, you know, the irony is that, yes, in the age of digital, we are so starved for human contacts. And online gives us that ability to have that contact on various platforms. And, you know, I've seen some incredible things happening where people who would never sort of do live videos or they would never sort of, you know, they've got to have it perfect.

And here's the thing, you know, David, there is no version of perfect. If everybody waited for perfection, no one would ever get anything done. So, you know, I suppose it's like anything. You've got to try it. And the first time it's scary, it's like getting on a bicycle and you think, "Oh, I'm a bit wobbly here. I don't quite know." And then the next time,

you know, the worst thing that happens is you either fall off or your legs get a little bit stiff. And you can deal with both of those. And I think what a lot of people who were, it's kind of bridged the gap where before, you know, I know obviously dealing with a lot of international people, that's how we operate it, because you can't get on a plane and get to everyone. So it was never really strange for me, but yet my South African clients would almost be like, "Can we meet for coffee?" And I'm like a real stickler when it comes to my time. Every single moment of my day is managed with some level of productivity. And I used to say, "What are we meeting for coffee about?" You know, as South Africans, we love to get together for a cup of coffee or whatever it may be, you know, with no real purpose. And yet now you say to people, "Okay, let's have a Zoom." And they're fine with it. They've kind of sort of gone, "Okay, well, you know, how do I do that? Click here and what's the worst that can happen?" You know, we've seen a lot of funny sort of videos where people have maybe left their videos playing or not quite sure who come in the room. And that's all a learning curve for everybody.

But I think the new way going forward, you know, irrespective of how this kind of pans out is people need to be preparing for how do I keep that connectivity? And the thing is that you're far more productive nowadays 'cause you're not sitting in traffic. I mean, you just take the average time that people were sitting in traffic and you sort of say, "What is my hourly rate?" And could I be earning that in an hourly rate per se? How much more am I making in a week by not sitting in my car? So I think it's almost forced people to make the uncomfortable comfortable. - I would agree with you because, you know, I've spent many, many years in radio and I'm very passionate about radio. And I always used to say, you know, people would often ask me, "Can't we do a telephonic interview? Can't you do a Skype interview or whatever?" And I used to say, "No, I prefer having bums on seats. I want a real live body sitting across from me that I can talk to." And then along came Karani, she said, "Guess what?" Yeah, you know, and I've had to. I've had to make that change because we can't go into the studio, you know. And I have to admit, it's not perfect. I don't think the sound quality is perfect, which is what I struggle with.

I like perfection and perfection, you cannot obtain it, but it's good enough. It works. The quality is good enough. It's not as though, you know, when you try and listen to an interview that we do now, the way we do it, it's not like somebody's dragging their nails down a chalkboard. So, yeah, you're absolutely right there. - 100%, and the thing is, I mean, if you just look at your own journey and obstacles that you've had to overcome in your life and what you've gone through, I mean, if you look back on that, connecting to a Zoom link or having a video call or, you know, it almost seems like it pales into insignificance. But I think something that has helped is that we're all in the same boat. Do you know what I'm saying? So it's not kind of like where before maybe you thought, oh, I feel a bit intimidated by this, or I'm not quite sure about that, but I don't really know how to say it. Now people are openly saying, well, I'm a bit stuck with this, what do you mean? And you know what? Through that, we're all sharing information and finding new ways of actually working.

- Yeah, you're absolutely correct there. I mean, my Zoom thing was a prime example because now I'm gonna go figure it out, okay? 'Cause I've heard all the bad things about Zoom. And I heard one of our ministers got hacked the other day and people showed pornographic material on a Zoom meeting, which, you know, is rough, but there's a funny side to it. But I'm gonna go and learn about Zoom. As soon as we're done talking today, that's gonna be what I'm gonna dedicate some of my time to. But Shelley, you know, we make a lot of this. And when we come back, if we could, let's just talk about, you know, what do we do in these times? I think the Americans have got a lovely saying, they call it sheltering in place. We just call it lockdown 'cause we're South Africans, you know? But what do you do? What sort of advice do you have for people? When we come back, can we talk about that? - Fantastic, look forward to that. - It is what's involved on this particular Monday. And my special guest is Shelley Mentohill. We're back, Shelley. I said just before the break that we're gonna talk a bit about, you know, what do we do now? Because, you know, I think, you know, for me, all of my in-person training, my fiance in-person training, all of that just went, bang, it was gone.

In the space of three days, we lost all of that training. And in, you know, with this, the gift that we got of the extra two weeks, anything we might've had there is gone. So we went into this thing looking at absolutely zero income coming in. A friend of mine owns a company called the Sales Institute. He also suddenly, you know, there was a couple of big corporates. I work a lot with him from the communications aspect, couple of big corporate jobs that we were gonna be doing, gone, gone, gone, gone. So we're sitting there thinking, yeah, you know, all those times we told people they need to be prepared to pivot, I think this is one of those moments. But a lot of people are lost. A lot of people don't know what to do. Do you have any advice for people?

- You know, I think as we kind of all go through the motions and, you know, people go through, and I hear you because in one of our businesses, we also, and I call it zero based revenue, you know, here today, gone tomorrow. And I think it's been a jolly good wake up call because sometimes maybe there is a bit of complacency. You know, you have a contract in place and you know what you're gonna be delivering. But having said that, it is very scary to know that you have revenue coming in, you have work for people, and all of a sudden, you know, how do you go from having a business that's running to having zero, to all of a sudden saying, well, what's gonna happen now? And, you know, I think there's two things. One is about continuously keeping your mind stimulated with the right things, and looking for areas of growth within yourself. You know, I went out, in fact, for the first time yesterday, only because I needed to go and search some medication for the family, and I popped out. And I almost, it's like people have almost gone into a, like a bit of a brain drain, if you'll call it that, with, you know, not wanting to offend anybody, but you gotta keep yourself mentally stimulated, you know?

If your brain starts sort of, you know, going quiet and it's not developing and it's not staying positive and it's not looking for opportunities, then you kind of just sort of become that vegetable on the couch watching TV. And, you know, when this is all over, you go, well, what happened? How did I spend my days? So I think it's really, really important to, you know, there's a lot of free webinars at the moment. There's a lot of really good content to keep your mind active. But then in terms of your actual, of your business, and I've sort of said to people, having a look at the business that you had, where does that fit in the new world? Now, my coach, JT, he talks about always look at things from a best case, a worst case, and most likely. And, you know, if you can kind of put a plan in place for all of those and then start looking at what, you know, what are the other opportunities? I mean, out of this, there is, you know, it becomes a level to everybody. And a lot of people that, a lot of people are gonna surprise us through this process because I always say there's nothing more determined than someone who's hungry. Now, hungry could be hungry in your belly or hungry for success or hungry for something.

And if you've got that hunger within you, you're gonna look for the opportunities. And, you know, before, maybe we weren't looking for the opportunities because we were busy. We had businesses to run and things were just going. And now you've got to get a little bit creative and you've got to step out of that comfort zone and say, "Okay, well, let's start from zero base." And, you know, whether you have a bit of money stashed away or you're still running with a business that's able to operate, I'm working with some companies at the moment and they are keeping the lights on right now. But they're also looking at how do they change in this process. And I think it's about trying to figure out what is the market going to need? You know, I think if someone had the magic wand and said, "That's where you need to go to." But I think the more you keep your mind stimulated with the right information, the more you will open your mindset and your way of thinking to look for those opportunities. And then also through that process, being able to evaluate and assess, are there actually good opportunities? You know, a lot of people are going to be selling their businesses, you know, and just like the property market, it's going to be a buyer's market.

You know, I've got a lot of people that are sort of sitting going, "Well, you know, I just want to get rid of it. I just, and start over." So there's going to be a lot of those opportunities that come along and perhaps things that people have never really thought about. You know, when everyone says, "I want to start my own business," they don't think about buying an existing business. And now it's a buyer's market. So there is a lot of opportunities, but they're not going to land on your doorstep. You've got to make sure that you're seeking that opportunity. And I was talking to someone the other day, and I said, if you imagine what the highway is like at the moment when you get in there, you know, you're driving, every lane is open. So pick one, pick a lane and go for it.

That is some sound advice. And, you know, this is one of the things, and we've tried to do it, and we frantically working on our online stuff. But I've got to be honest, like I said to you, there was right in the beginning, I was numb. We talked about that numbness. But these days when it's, you know, all suddenly become a little bit too much. And what I do, I don't know if it's something that you've experienced or would advocate, but what I do is I decide, "Okay, you know what? Today I'm having a panic day, okay? I'm looking at it, I'm going, "Oh, I'm doing a chicken little and the sky is falling on our heads." And I give myself a set period of time. And I say, "Right, I'm going to have my pity party, and I'm going to stress and do everything for X amount of time, whether it be a couple of hours, half a day or a day. Get it out of my system, and when I'm done, get back to the cold face and carry on working." Is that something that would resonate for you? - You know, it's interesting that you bring it up because I was talking to someone the other day about the exact same thing. And I said to them, "It's okay." It was actually a lady, in fact. And I said, "It's okay to stamp your stilettos, but when you're done, you need to put that lipstick back on and get out there." Because I think you sort of, you've got to appreciate where you are at.

And I think that it's a great skill to be able to identify that. I truly do, David, because a lot of people see it, but they can't give it a term and they don't know. They just feel off. And you know, you are going to have, every day is not great. Every day is not great for me. And you know, the irony is when you're not having a day, that's good for you and it's not going your way, then acknowledge it, but then move on when it's over. And as you were saying, now, give yourselves a time. Okay, I'm writing all this afternoon, but tonight I'm back at it. Or tomorrow morning, I'm going to wake up with a fresh man's stage. And also what I've been trying to say to people is, lose the guilt if you have a bad day, because you're going to have a bad day. You've gone from having a life of activity to having to create activity in your own life. - Yeah, yeah. And I think that is exactly that is that, because I experienced that initially as well, is that you kind of feel guilty that you're having a crappy day. And you're like, but I should be doing this. I should, no, you know what? Have a crappy day. Get it over with, get on with it, because you feel much better off to it. - Absolutely, you know.

And with every crappy day, as it were, you need to make sure that you reward yourself with setting yourself up for a good day after that. Because, you know, sometimes you just need to remove yourself from the situation. It's like anything, you know. When we were working in a, let's call it the old normal, not every day was a good day. So nothing's different, but how you manage it and how you manage it within yourself is different. And, you know, I want to say surround yourself with people who, we surround ourselves with people that we're locked down with, absolutely. But, you know, if you sort of don't sit and troll social media or, you know, don't do anything that's going to make you feel worse. You know, just be you in the moment. - Absolutely. Shelley, before we wrap up though, in terms of your business, where you're going, et cetera, et cetera, two questions for you. What is going to be next for Shelley Mentor? That's the first question. Second question is if people want to get hold of you. Maybe they're people that are listening now and they're going, "Hey, this makes sense, "but I do need some help. "I'm going to need somebody like a Shelley to talk to me." Are you open for that?

- Absolutely. You can, I have a website, www.shelimentor.com and you can pop me a note there. I'm on every social media channel. I've got a lot of people that just message me directly. So Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, you know, and you talk about what is my next. I don't think there's a concrete plan in place, but I definitely, in looking at where the world is and where the country is at the moment, my calling right now is to help entrepreneurs and to help business owners, people who were looking at starting out or people that have existing businesses and brands and saying, "How do we reinvent you? "How do you come back stronger from this? "And how do you move forward? "And let's put those plans in place now." So that really is my short-term goal. And if I have a look at it, you know, from an eventing perspective, we don't know when that's gonna be safe again. But, you know, you mentioned it a moment ago, all your online training courses and stuff like that. And I'm working really, really hard at stuff that will add value back into the SME market to help people grow stronger through this process. - Absolutely. Well, Shelley, we wish you all the very, very best. Thank you for taking the time out and having a chat to us.

No doubt we're gonna chat again sometime in the future. And when we do chat, I trust it'll be under a new normal that all of us find acceptable. Thank you so much for having a chat to us today. - Thank you, David. It's been fantastic to be on your show. An absolute privilege to be with you. And thank you so much. - There we go. That is Shelley Mentor that we were chatting to. The website again is ShelleyMentor.com and her name is spelled S-H-E-L-L-E-Y-M-E-N-T-O-R. So that's ShelleyMentor.com. Give it a shot. Check out the website and we'll be back again. We'll get some more great interviews right here on the What's Involved show.