A more meaningful mentorship program

The Sounding Board is a mentorship program that pairs you with a tenured Small Giant leader to help you through challenges, navigate workplace relationships, offer guidance, share wisdom, and simply listen.

A more meaningful mentorship program

The Sounding Board is a mentorship program that pairs you with a tenured Small Giant leader to help you through challenges, navigate workplace relationships, offer guidance, share wisdom, and simply listen.

Need a like-hearted mentor to bounce your ideas off of?

All leaders benefit from guidance from experienced mentors, but it can be difficult to find someone who shares your philosophies about how to lead in a purpose-driven business. Sounding Board is a mentorship program that allows you to share your ideas, challenges, and questions with someone who may have similar experiences to you, but has a perspective outside of your company. In these structured, monthly one-on-one meetings, your mentor will help you build and confirm your personal vision, collaboratively problem-solve day-to-day issues, create a sense of personal accountability, and deepen your servant leadership practices.

Need a like-hearted mentor to bounce your ideas off of?

All leaders benefit from guidance from experienced mentors, but it can be difficult to find someone who shares your philosophies about how to lead in a purpose-driven business. Sounding Board is a mentorship program that allows you to share your ideas, challenges, and questions with someone who may have similar experiences to you, but has a perspective outside of your company. In these structured, monthly one-on-one meetings, your mentor will help you build and confirm your personal vision, collaboratively problem-solve day-to-day issues, create a sense of personal accountability, and deepen your servant leadership practices.

Get Started

What Sounding Board participants are saying:

Jean Pitzo Testimonial v2
Jean Paul Testimonial v2
SB Slide 2
Kevin Testimonial

What Sounding Board participants are saying:​

“Great to have access to a mentor that understands both people and performance! Real business experience mixed with wisdom about people, purpose and vision is soooo valuable.”
Jean-Paul Lausell
Jean-Paul Lausellmentee, Zenbellum
“The Sounding Board Program has brought even more joy to my own leadership journey. I get such pleasure in hearing my mentee’s leadership challenges and being able to validate and encourage her. It is fun to be able to give back in a way that honors all of the mentors I have had along the way.”
Jean Pitzo
Jean Pitzomentor, Ace Metal Crafts
“The Sounding Board program has allowed me to develop a friendship with a business owner in a field different from mine. It is a program of mutual learning and mutual benefits.”
Tom Walter
Tom Waltermentor, Tasty Catering
“It has been a great pleasure to participate in the Sounding Board. What could be better than showing up to support another business leader who is anxious to invest in their growth and development?”
Kevin Schnieders
Kevin Schniedersmentor, EDSI
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You’ve got a friend

Here’s what you can expect from a mentorship program with your carefully-selected, like-hearted mentor.

  • Compatibility is key

Share a bit about you, your business and your goals through an in-depth questionnaire that will help us select your ideal mentor.

  • What’s your type?

We’ll administer a personality assessment to better understand your working style, natural behaviours, and communication preferences. This will help your mentor understand how to best help you develop and grow.

  • Monthly meetings

Every month, meet with your mentor and follow a consistent agenda to get the most out of your time together. Each session, you can share personal and professional updates; review your vision, goals, and action items from the previous call; discuss new business opportunities, and document new action items.

Meet the mentors

These are just some of the Small Giants leaders generously offering up their time and wisdom to purpose-driven leaders like you.

Steven Wilkinson Mentor Slide
Ellyn Davidson Mentor Slide
Carl Erickson Mentor Slide
Wynne Odell Mentor Slide
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Meet the mentors

These are just some of the Small Giants leaders generously offering up their time and wisdom to purpose-driven leaders like you.

Steven Wilkinson is the Founder & Managing Director of Good & Prosper Ltd, an education, consulting and investment company based in Co. Wicklow. Steven advises on financial fluency, visioning and how it ties to business strategy and scaling culture.
Steven Wilkinson
Steven WilkinsonGood & Prosper Ltd
Jean Pitzo is the CEO of Ace Metal Crafts. Jean advises on emotional intelligence, conscious leadership development, culture, purpose, and collaborative relationships.
Jean Pitzo
Jean Pitzo Ace Metal Crafts
Paul Spiegelman is co-founder of the Small Giants Community. Paul advises on culture, leadership, strategy, managing workplace relationships, and people-first business practices.
Paul Spiegelman
Paul Spiegelman Small Giants Community
Ellyn Davison is the President of Brogan & Partners, a full-service marketing and advertising agency in Birmingham, Michigan. Ellyn advises on transitions, team building, managing expectations, staying calm, and delivering excellence.
Ellyn Davison
Ellyn Davison Brogan & Partners
Carl Erickson is the founder and chairman of Atomic Object. Carl advises on purpose, vision, values, culture, financial transparency, compensation strategies, and employee ownership.
Carl Erickson
Carl EricksonAtomic Object
Wynne Odell is co-founder and the Board Chair of Odell Brewing Company. Wynne advises on culture, strategy, employee ownership, leadership development, and succession planning.
Wynne Odell
Wynne OdellOdell Brewing Company
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Where do I sign up for the mentorship program?

If you’re interested in getting more involved in the Small Giants Community but don’t know where to start, Sounding Board could be a great jumping off point for you. It’s a quick and easy process to get started.

Fill in the blanks

Smile for the camera

We play matchmaker

After you complete the form, a member of the Small Giants Community team will reach out to you via email to schedule a time to connect over Zoom.

We’ll schedule a casual Zoom interview where we’ll get to know you and your business, learn about your role and how you hope to grow, and share more details about the program.

Once we all decide that this is the right opportunity for you to grow as a leader, the Small Giants team will take it from there. We’ll look through our pool of tenured Small Giants leaders who come from a variety of industries and backgrounds, and pick the perfect match for you. From there, you and your mentor will receive an introduction and work out how you will best work together.

Where do I sign up?

If you’re interested in getting more involved in the Small Giants Community but don’t know where to start, Sounding Board could be a great jumping off point for you. It’s a quick and easy process to get started.

Fill in the blanks

After you complete the form, a member of the Small Giants Community team will reach out to you via email to schedule a time to connect over Zoom.

Smile for the camera

We’ll schedule a casual Zoom interview where we’ll get to know you and your business, learn about your role and how you hope to grow, and share more details about the program.

We play matchmaker

Once we all decide that this is the right opportunity for you to grow as a leader, the Small Giants team will take it from there. We’ll look through our pool of tenured Small Giants leaders who come from a variety of industries and backgrounds, and pick the perfect match for you. From there, you and your mentor will receive an introduction and work out how you will best work together.

Take the first step!

Still have some questions?

Below are commonly asked questions about Sounding Board. Want to dive deeper? Sign up for a coffee chat with one of our team members!

Founders, CEOs and any leader who is looking for one-on-one support, guidance and mentorship.

No challenge is too big or too small. Mentees can bring topics related to their role, operations, strategy, people and balancing life, etc. Some mentees come with targeted aspects of their business that they want to change, while others begin with a more vague knowledge that things could be improved, and go from there.

While there are many wonderful programs out there, what’s unique about Sounding Board is that the mentors are all practitioners. This means they have been there, done that. They’re just further along in their leadership journey and are able to work on the business, instead of in the business, and can give back and support others. They also always share from their own personal experiences. Secondly, all mentors are aligned with the Small Giants philosophy so they’re like-minded and like-hearted. 

Many of the mentors listed have participated in other Small Giants programming or have been practitioners of the Small Giants values for years. We want to ensure that every mentee has a positive Sounding Board experience, and so we make sure that all of our mentors are up to the task. 

We learn about the mentee by way of application, assessment and Zoom conversation and, based on what they want to work on, then we go to our database of mentors who we know very well and match based on shared experiences.