How Ongoing Education And Mentorship Can Transform Business Success

Forbes

28-03-2025

how mentorship and education improve business success
In today's fast-moving business world, many successful entrepreneurs and professionals credit their achievements to one crucial element: access to expert guidance and mentorship. While formal education creates a necessary foundation, the wisdom shared through mentorship often transforms ambition into achievement.
Two innovative companies are taking dramatically different approaches to adult education—one by connecting individuals with world-class experts through technology and the other by immersing participants in intensive real-world training experiences. Both models offer valuable insights into how mentorship can change careers and businesses in ways traditional education cannot.
Raad Mobrem's entrepreneurial journey began with a chance encounter. Walking down the street one day, he spotted Kinko's founder, Paul Orfalea. Rather than letting the opportunity pass, Mobrem introduced himself and asked for advice. That 15-minute conversation changed his life.
"I learned more about entrepreneurship than ever before and was inspired to take action. I felt like he believed in me, and in that moment, I decided to become an entrepreneur," Mobrem recalls.
Years later, after building a successful company that Intuit acquired—with the product becoming foundational to QuickBooks Online, now used by eight million businesses globally—Mobrem noticed a pattern among successful people he met: they all had access to advisors or mentors who guided them toward greatness. In some cases, those advisors were free or people they hired.
This observation and the pandemic's shift toward remote communication sparked an idea. Mobrem and his co-founder Tim Watson created Intro, an online marketplace where people can book video calls with the world's most in-demand business experts across various fields. Intro's network of experts includes top founders like Alexis Ohanian, the co-founder of Reddit, Spencer Rascoff, the co-founder of Zillow, and 1,000+ more.
As of late, Intro has also been adding experts who are considered specialists in domains such as marketing, sales, product, growth, fundraising, and more. To be considered, Intro has one rule: to be an expert on Intro, you must be successful in your craft and/or have helped create a well-known brand. For example, Intro recently added Matt Bowers, who was responsible for creating Zapier's SEO channel strategy, which is considered best-in-class.
"Intro breaks down walls and allows people from all across the world to have access to people who once seemed inaccessible," Mobrem explains. The platform connects users with business experts who can answer specific questions or provide targeted advice, making specialized knowledge accessible without geographic limitations. "The biggest surprise has been when we see CEOs & executives of major companies, even in Silicon Valley–people who are already well connected–use Intro as customers. When we ask them why, they tell us that Intro makes the process quicker and easier, allowing them to skip all the steps required to get to the meat of what they're looking for—personalized knowledge that can help their business grow."
Seth and Tori Bolt took a different path to mentorship. As founders of Bolt Farm Treehouse, they transformed a $250,000 investment into a $32 million business in just three years. Their luxury treehouse accommodations have earned recognition from Travel & Leisure and received Tripadvisor's Traveler's Choice Award.
But their success didn't come without challenges. The Bolts lost four years of work and significant investment when local regulations shut down their Charleston, South Carolina location. Rather than quitting, they started over in Tennessee, where they now operate 23 luxury villas on 55 acres.
These experiences—both successes and failures—became the foundation for their STR (Short-Term Rental) Workshop, a two-day program in which they share their hard-earned knowledge with other hosts and property owners.
Unlike many business workshops focusing solely on success stories, the Bolts take a more authentic approach. "We openly talk about the struggles we've faced over the last 10 years," they explain. "We take the attendees through our journey of all the struggles and screw-ups (past and present) so they can have a blueprint of the potholes to avoid."
The workshop covers practical topics like construction, guest experience, operations, automation, marketing, branding, and direct booking strategies. It also helps participants uncover hidden revenue opportunities—a strategy that helped the Bolts increase their average daily rate from $111 to over $1,100, far exceeding the industry average of $120-250.
"We grew our treehouse ADR (average daily rate) from $111 to over $1,100 through the systems and strategies we now teach," they note, adding that their properties maintain 93% occupancy compared to the industry average of 63%.
To provide ongoing support, the Bolts offer an invite-only Mastermind program—exclusively for past workshop attendees—that includes monthly live calls, in-person events, and a private online community where members continue learning, growing, and solving problems together.
Both Intro and Bolt Farm Treehouse's programs highlight why mentorship and targeted education work so effectively for adults:
Real-world application: Unlike formal education, these programs focus on practical skills that participants can apply immediately to their businesses.
Learning from failure: Both programs emphasize the value of learning from mistakes—whether your own or someone else's. CEO data from Harvard Business Review found that 84% of CEOs credited mentors with helping them avoid costly mistakes.
Community building: The connections formed with other participants create support networks extending beyond the formal learning experience. This may explain why 91% of workers with a mentor report being satisfied with their jobs.
Compressed learning curve: As the Bolts note, their goal is to help others "compress time" by avoiding the costly mistakes they made. They estimate their own errors cost them $9.7 million through direct losses and missed opportunities.
The business case for mentorship speaks through results. Research shows that 70% of mentored small businesses survive five years or more—double the rate of those without mentors. With 98% of Fortune 500 companies now offering mentorship programs, smaller businesses and solo entrepreneurs can't afford to miss this advantage.
These connections often mark the difference between struggle and breakthrough for professionals at any stage. Both Intro's expert marketplace and Bolt Farm's immersive workshops demonstrate a powerful truth: sometimes, the education that transforms your business arrives years after your formal education ends—through a video call with someone who's been where you're going or across the table from someone who's made the mistakes you can now avoid.