Mentoring is the transfer of skills and insight from experienced hands to inexperienced ones. One of the most valuable assets you can have is a mentor to help guide you through the inevitable rocky shoals of building a successful business. However, finding suitable mentors willing to truly help us out was once difficult or even impossible —until now. Read on to see how you can be mentored by some of the top people in the business from the comfort of your Web browser.

The problem with good real estate mentors is that they are: a) hard to find, b) often unwilling to take us on, and c) can be expensive.  This traditional model of mentoring is just not a practical reality for most sales associates. However, thanks to the Internet, there is an entirely new model that makes it possible for everyone!

Have Web, Will Mentor

Perhaps the best way to describe iSucceed is an online resource with the stored, in-the-trenches-proven experience and wisdom from 175 of the best producers in the industry today. This site has six main areas:

• Success Modules - these are topic-based trainings given by the top-producer mentors that use the same principles in their own sales practice.

• Counseling Calls - these are regularly scheduled live conference calls with the mentors

• Ask The Mentors - this is where you can ask questions via the Web and review the questions/answers from other people.

• Agent Toolkit - actual marketing tools, scripts, forms, graphics, reports, etc. developed and used by the top producing mentors in their own business. NOTE: You can use them "as is" or modify them to suit your particular needs.

• Skills Training - online training modules that focus on greatly improving a specific set of sales, negotiating, etc. skills for your business.

• Bookstore - where you can purchase books, tapes, training programs from the mentors at a good discount.

That's a lot of mentoring, and all of it is as close and convenient as your Web browser! And the best part —iSucceed costs less than $30/month with no long-term contracts.

Now before you go hog-wild about sucking in all this great, proven experience, there is something you should be aware of. (Ahem, it's time for a bit of mentoring from yours truly...) There is so much awesome information on this site that it can be very intimidating.  My Dad had a subtle way of putting it: "It's like trying to get a drink of water with a shot glass from under Niagara Falls." The fact is, if you are not careful you will drown in all that information! Here is a strategy you can use to get the best that this site has to offer without becoming overwhelmed.

Analyze, Research, Implement

The first step is to analyze your immediate needs. For example, let's say you want to generate more listings. Then you login to iSucceed to research its FSBO and Expired strategies, listing presentations and perhaps a course on handling seller objections.  Just stay focused on those things you want and don't be looking around to see what else is cool. Otherwise you will become frustrated in a hurry.

Finally implement those strategies, materials, trainings etc. that best fit your way of doing business. You can even hire a Virtual Assistant to customize and implement many of the materials and strategies you pull from the site. This way, you are not distracting yourself from your day-to-day business as you work on your business.

One of my biggest regrets in business is that for the first 29 years of being an entrepreneur, I always wanted, but could never find, a suitable mentor. As a result I worked much harder and made many more mistakes than I would have otherwise.

Never wait to take advantage of accumulated experience and wisdom —it is there waiting for you. And all you have to do is put it into action.