Mentor guide

Thank you for doing this. Here is how the clinic works and what your job is.

The idea

Thirteen students, five mentors. You cannot sit with everyone, so we do not try. Each mentor has a pod: the same two or three students, every Saturday, all season. The clinic's AI interviewer does the one-on-one drafting — the interview, the plan, the revisions. You coach the plan. You are the person who knows them.

The goal for every student is the same: first paying customer in 30 days. Not a perfect business. One person who pays.

Your Saturday

• 0:00 – 0:05 — Opening. Sit with your pod.
• 0:05 – 0:30 — Scott teaches one topic. Listen; you'll coach on it in a few minutes.
• 0:30 – 0:40 — Return and report, in your pod. Three questions to each student, fast. How many jobs did you do this week? How much money? Did you hit last week's goal? If they didn't, ask "What stopped you?" — never "Why not?"
• 0:40 – 1:25 — Work block. Each student works their plan in the portal on their own screen. You float between your two or three. This is the hour.
• 1:25 – 1:30 — Commit. Each student names one thing for the week. Write it down. You will ask about it next Saturday.

How to coach

Ask, don't do. The plan is theirs. The fastest way to make a student passive is to type for them, decide for them, or "just fix" their price sheet. Ask the question that helps them see it. Then wait.

Coach the checklist. Every student's plan in the portal ends with a 30-day checklist with dates. Open it together. What's checked? What's next? What's in the way? That's the whole conversation, most weeks.

Get specific. "Who?" "How much?" "When?" A vague plan is a plan that doesn't happen. If they say "some people at church," ask for a name.

Make the call in the room. If a student has been "going to call" a competitor for two weeks, have them do it right there, on speaker, with you beside them. Same for texting the practice-run customer. The work block is for doing, not planning to do.

Celebrate the small wins out loud. The first competitor call. The first flyer. The first $100. Say it to the pod.

When a student is stuck

• Doesn't know what to charge → the three-competitor call, today.
• Has no customers → three names, from their own life, today. Then the text.
• Afraid of the practice run → you can be the customer. Book it.
• Too many ideas → one business. Ask which one someone has already paid for.
• Portal question they can't answer → they can tell the interviewer "I don't know yet" and it will make finding out a task. That's fine.

If it's a hard case — a life situation, not a business one — bring Scott over. Don't carry it alone.

Boundaries

• No legal, tax, immigration, or insurance advice. Not even if you know the answer. Say: "That's a question for the ITIN session" or "for a professional." Week 5 has a guest who does this properly.
• Their business is theirs. You are a volunteer offering education and encouragement. Every student signed an agreement saying so. Don't take money, don't take a stake, don't become their supplier or their landlord.
• Confidential. What you learn about a student's situation stays in the pod. Their plans and transcripts are on the roster for mentors only. Don't share them.

The roster

`smallbusinessclinic.org/admin` — Scott will give you the passcode. Your students are marked with your name. Open each one before class: their plan is at the top, the interviewer's two-line summary is on the left, and the whole transcript is below. Five minutes on Saturday morning and you walk in knowing where each of them is.

If a student has lost their link, copy it from their page or email it from there.

Between Saturdays

Optional, and it makes a difference: one text midweek. "How's the competitor calls going?" Thirty seconds. Students who hear from their mentor on Wednesday show up on Saturday with something done.

Using the AI yourself

The interviewer is Claude, the same tool the students learn to use. Watch what it asks a student and how it turns answers into a plan — that's the method. If you don't use these tools at work yet, this is a good place to learn. Ask Scott.