If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you can probably tell that I’m heavily invested in my career and professional success. This can be a good thing, a great thing. It can also be a risky thing if you forget to invest in yourself. After all, you are your greatest asset and any investment you make in yourself will multiply many times over in your career, life, and overall success. Even during the busiest times at work, make time for yourself.
For me, 2016 was all about getting into great physical shape. Thanks to my amazing wife engineering a complete overhaul of my diet, thanks enjoying a more active lifestyle than ever before, and thanks to a renewed fitness routine, I lost 25 pounds while gaining lean muscle. I’m in the best shape of my life.
Continuing my theme of growth and personal improvement, 2017 is my year of knowledge. Many of you know that I made a career shift from technology into commercial real estate. I’m like a sponge, absorbing everything I can. My knowledge growth is in full effect, and I couldn’t be more excited about my professional growth.
However, I have long been aware that the greatest leaders are not just proficient within their area of focus. Rather, they become experts across a variety of subjects. They bring forth knowledge from different corners of the world to create something completely new. In fact, this is why many believe Bill Gates has his famous book retreats. It’s said that he’ll sit down with a stack of books, all of which are completely different, and read them in parallel. This process challenges the mind and forms new connections.
This all got me thinking: I want to invest more time reading. I want to greatly expand my knowledge. I know that this process will trigger exponential growth in my career, life, and overall success. However, like many of you, I realized that I just don’t have spare time. I’m willing to make some spare time, but cannot read all day.
Then, while on Facebook one day, I noticed that Tai Lopez (avid reader and social media legend) and Alex Mehr Ph.D. (previously co-founder, CEO, and President of Zoosk) launched a new business called Mentorbox. As soon as I learned about this new product, I was immediately intrigued and signed up. Now, three months later, I want to share my experience with all of you.
What Is Mentorbox?
Here are the basics on Mentorbox:
- It’s literally a box that you receive in the mail each month, packed with two curated books, helpful materials, and knowledge.
- Each month’s Mentorbox includes: two curated books (related to health, wealth, love, and/or happiness), two cheat sheets that summarize the books, two study guides that transform reading into action, two bookmarks with notes specific to each book (a small but very helpful feature), a USB flash drive with helpful videos walking you through the books, and a motivational quote magnet. It’s a lot of value for sure!
- Mentorbox costs $89.95 per month.
- It appears to be easy to cancel at any time. Before my order goes through each month, I get an email asking me if I want to keep going or cancel. I have no intention of canceling anytime soon, but feel good about the way Mentorbox treats customers.
Why Do I Love Mentorbox?
I truly look forward to receiving my Mentorbox each month. Here’s why:
- As a really busy professional, I don’t have a lot of time to curate my own books. I want to read the best books, the ones that will give me the most value. However, I just do not have hours on end to research. It has been said that Tai Lopez has the second largest book club around, second only to Oprah’s. This is the guy who reads a book a day and has leveraged his knowledge to do some pretty amazing stuff. As someone with a digital marketing background, I respect what Tai has accomplished in social media. I find incredible value in the fact that Tai and Alex are personally curating books each month, keeping me focused on the books that will drive the most value for me.
- Continuing upon the last theme, the cheat sheets and study guides save me a tremendous amount of time. It can take a lot of time to read a book, especially when one of them is 660 pages (Money: Master The Game By Tony Robbins). Here’s my strategy: I like to start with the cheat sheets. Then, I proceed to go through and start filling in the study guides. Then, I’ll read the book. I will not read every single word. Rather, I will really hone in on the chapters and concepts that appear most interesting to me. As I read through, I like to refer to the reminders on the bookmarks, too. Last, I’ll fill out the study guide if I have additional time. This process not only saves me time, but also increases my comprehension, retention, and action.
- Given all of my responsibilities, I feel like two books per month is an aggressive cadence for me, a perfectionist. I’m the kind of person that has to read books cover-to-cover, and therefore I’ve historically been a slower reader. This new Mentorbox paradigm has challenged my process and pushed me out of my comfort zone. Two books per month is currently challenging me (along with all my other responsibilities in life), but I enjoy the challenge.
What Could I Be Doing Better?
As mentioned earlier, Mentorbox comes with a USB drive each month with helpful videos. I have not taken full advantage of these yet. Why? It really comes down to time. I just don’t have much time. I have found that Mentorbox works for me without the videos. Could my experience be enhanced with the videos? Without a doubt.
I just checked out the latest USB drive and it includes so much value, including a proprietary video interview with the author of one of this month’s books, The Obstacle Is The Way by Ryan Holiday. In fact, Ryan worked with the Mentorbox team on the study guide. How amazing is that?
Here’s the critical point, however: You don’t have to take advantage of everything in Mentorbox to get tremendous value. The key point, in my opinion, is to just get started and then grow from there. I’m still evolving my own process.
Is It Worth The Money?
The value created, in my opinion, far surpasses $89.95 per month. Just think: How much do you spend on your cable television each month? What’s more important to you: reading/learning or watching TV? I’m not saying to give up TV. In fact, I do enjoy watching some good shows. That being said, $89.95 seems so reasonable to me. How much of my time would it take to simply curate two books each month? How much faster am I at reading and absorbing the concepts thanks to the cheat sheets and study guides? Can I even put a price on the fact that I truly look forward to Mentorbox each month and it motivates me to stay in my high growth zone?
Conclusion and A Closing Idea
These days, you’re going to see a lot more posts on my blog about business, investing, and growth in general. I’ll continue to include digital marketing-specific posts, from time-to-time. However, my mind is in other places these days. I’m thinking beyond digital marketing, and want to share that journey with all of you. I hope you find this review helpful, and I hope I’m able to impact at least one of you to pick up reading.
As a closing thought, I want to share an idea… Do you manage a team at work? If so, you’re probably looking for ways to add value and keep your team in high growth mode. Why not purchase Mentorbox for your company? This could be an amazing team exercise and team motivator to have this wealth of knowledge coming into the office each month.
Anybody else reading on the Mentorbox program? Please share your experience, would love to learn what you think about Mentorbox.
Support PPC Ian By Signing Up For Mentorbox
If you find this review helpful and are considering signing up for Mentorbox, I encourage you to use My Mentorbox Affiliate Link. I’ll earn a commission which helps me keep the lights on here at PPC Ian. If you sign up via my affiliate link, I’ll be forever grateful. Thank you in advance for supporting my blog.
My Mentorbox Video Reviews: Why I Love Mentor Box
If you found this written review helpful, you may want to watch my video reviews as well. In my first video, I’m thrilled to share the top five reasons why I love Mentorbox.
In my second video, I’m thrilled to unbox my newest Mentorbox right before your eyes. If you’re wondering exactly what you’ll receive in Mentorbox, this video is for you.
In my third video, I share my top five lessons learned from Mentorbox so far. You’ll get to see all of the books and materials I have received, and enjoy insights from my personal journal.
In my fourth video review, I address specific questions from Mentorbox skeptics. If you’re still unsure whether Mentor Box is for you, and you may even have some active concerns running through your mind, this video may be of particular help.
My Mentorbox 15-Day Challenge: How I Like To Experience Self-Education
As a new update, I just completed my first ever 15-Day Mentorbox Challenge. What’s this challenge all about? I pushed myself to complete this month’s Mentor Box program in just 15 days. I actually ended up finishing in 8 days (since 7 of the days were sick days). Read about my experience and check out my extensive Mentorbox diary, highlighting my challenge in its entirety. (Also, my write-up has a really neat video review too.) My conclusion: This experiment worked really well and I will always be experiencing Mentorbox this way going forward!
My Newest Mentorbox Blog Post
Learn even more about Mentorbox in my brand new blog post titled Is Mentorbox Worth It? (Is It Worth The Money?) This blog post highlights (in great detail) my journey to complete Mentorbox in 7 days! And, it goes through the question of whether Mentorbox is worth it. (Hint: It’s totally worth it.) As an added bonus, my new post has a really detailed video review of my latest Mentorbox! I put a ton of effort into this blog post and hope you enjoy it thoroughly.
My Favorite Mentorbox Book (So Far)
Here on PPC Ian, I receive many questions about Mentorbox. One of the very popular questions goes something like this: "Ian, Is Mentorbox primarily focused on sales, marketing, and business books?" While these topics are represented (and I love reading about them), Mentorbox features an amazing mix of books covering a variety of topics (all pertaining to improving one’s life). While the program includes sales, marketing, and business titles, there is also strong representation from other topics such as health/wellness and spirituality. In fact, my absolute favorite book from Mentorbox so far, a game-changer for me, is one all about spirituality. My latest Mentorbox Book Review covers my favorite book in great detail (and also offers a video review too). If you are considering Mentorbox, you will certainly find a great array of books!
Affiliate Disclosure: I am a Mentorbox affiliate. If you find my review helpful and end up purchasing via my affiliate link, I will earn a commission and be grateful for your support.
Can you give an example of what the cheat cheat and study guide look like. Love to get an idea before purchase. Also I always read kindle. Does it matter? Thx!
Hey Ian,
Such a great post! I love this. 2017 is also my year of knowledge, personal and business growth. (Also throwing physical in there as well)
I’m definitely going to look into Mentorbox. Looks like a great investment!
I’ve recently implemented 2017 as our year of knowledge at our agency. It was a great team building experience — everyone in leadership contributed to what we are reading this year. Very pumped about it 🙂
Keep up the great content, as always!
Darren
Tom,
Thanks so much for stopping by, and good questions!
I have a brand new Mentorbox Video Unboxing (see above) that goes through the materials at length. If you really want to get a flavor of what you’ll receive each month in Mentorbox, you will want to check out my unboxing video.
Regarding Kindle, I’m unfortunately not sure. A great question for their customer support team (and please report back here what you find, as I imagine others would like to know the answer to this). Personally, I really like having the full, paperback versions since Mentorbox is helping me build my library. However, I totally understand why others may prefer Kindle.
Thanks again, Tom, for stopping by and please visit again real soon.
Sincerely,
Ian
Darren,
I cannot thank you enough, my friend, for your continued support throughout the years. It seems like we are totally thinking alike regarding 2017 goals! Does not surprise me. What can I say, great minds think alike. 🙂
I am so happy to hear about your growing agency and success. Couldn’t be happening to a more deserving person/team. Sounds like your leadership style is top notch, and I imagine everyone at your agency will grow so much through your collective reading and discussion/debate around the books. I too am pumped and know that we are going to exit 2017 a lot smarter and more knowledgeable. It is invigorating to know we are growing each and every day.
Thanks again, Darren, and wishing you the most successful 2017 ever!
Sincerely,
Ian
Thank you so much for this great review. I saw Mentor box pop up in my Facebook Newsfeed and I’m very intrigued about it. Your review as a customer is very helpful. I’m excited to try this!
Brenda,
You are quite welcome! I’m so glad you found my review helpful. Please report back here on your experience once you get your first Mentorbox.
Sincerely,
Ian
Would love to get it. Just in high school and can’t afford it right now. Looking forward to when I can. Thank you for the review.
Jeremy,
Thanks so much for stopping by! The fact that you are even thinking about this type of thing when you are in high school speaks volumes about you and your potential. Keep focused on the growth mindset and strive towards your goals each and every day. You are going to achieve amazing things. Please let me know if I can help in any way.
Sincerely,
Ian
You are a remarkable human being for offering to be of any help to the young man in High school. May the lord bless you always!
I’m a busy mom and marketing executive. I love to read but can’t find time and quiet. I travel some and read them but a normal week my brain is too tired at night
I found Blinkist $4.99/month and it changed my life. It is an app that abridges business books and reads them to you. In my daily commute I can get through a book or more a day and if I love a book I listen to the full version on Audible.
I love the idea of Mentorbox but if I didn’t have time to read before how does this help except perhaps make recommendations of good books and set more focused goals to read them.
Are all of the selections related to business development, wealth acquisition, and managing teams of employees? This is the gist of the reviews I read. I am a middle school social justice teacher. How could this help me. I learned of this product from Mehr’s video on social media. It was intriguing, but the reviews are largely about business, something, sadly, I have no interest in. Thanks.
Red,
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts. In addition to including the curated books, Mentorbox comes with cheat sheets, study guides, video content, bookmarks, and even a magnet. In fact, Mentorbox is meant to work with zero reading (if desired). I personally enjoy reading along, especially the books that really capture my attention. However, I have also been experimenting with skipping the actual reading and jumping straight into the study guides. Both strategies can work quite well, so I certainly think Mentorbox could be a time saver for you (even if you choose to skip the reading and only rely on the books as references).
Sincerely,
Ian
Jeff,
Thanks for stopping by! With two highly successful businessmen founding Mentorbox (Alex Mehr and Tai Lopez), I think many subscribers (myself included) are attracted to this product because the books are personally curated by these two. While many of the titles are related to wealth and business, there are certainly other topics covered as well. The reviews you are reading could be a little biased because the reviewer is someone who really likes business and wealth creation (like myself), thus choosing to focus on those topics in the review. Mentorbox is really meant for anyone looking to improve their life in the areas of health, wealth, love, and happiness. In fact, some of my favorite books in Mentorbox have been all about philosophy and different ways of approaching life (they probably fall into the “happiness” category and a bit of “big picture thinking”). As an educator, I imagine that Mentorbox could provide some valuable insights for yourself and your students. It’s great for anyone looking to improve and get more out of life. Hope this helps, Jeff, and thanks again.
Sincerely,
Ian
What a great review! Thank you! I’ve been contemplating this, I’m obsessed with reading and just finished Unshakeable by Tony Robbins. However, I didn’t read Money Master The Game so I went out and got it and that’s going to be a nice challenge 🙂 Makes me really want to do the Mentorbox. Thanks for sharing!!!!!!
Rosie,
You are too kind! Thank you for stopping by and sharing your thoughts. I’m a huge Tony Robbins fan and was so happy to see his book in Mentorbox. Each and every month is so exciting to see which books the team selects for me.
Sincerely,
Ian
Hi Ian, thanks for sharing this amazing review.
What do you think are the disadvantages of Mentorbox?
Best,
Anthony.
Anthony,
Thanks for stopping by! That is a good question… In my personal situation, I see one disadvantage. Background: I’m a really busy guy. Between work, family, exercising, side hustles/businesses, and everything going on in life, I have very little time. Each month I receive Mentorbox, I am blown away with the amount of value and content. However, I rarely get 100% full value from the product because I don’t have time to go through everything. I have found that some months I really need to focus in on a certain aspect of the program. For example, if work gets really busy, I’ll choose one book for the month, instead of both. That being said, I still get more than enough value from the product, despite not being able to take full advantage of everything in the moment. And, I keep all the materials very organized so I can always go back in time and pick up a book/study guide I never finished. In fact, I plan on it! I have to imagine that a lot of folks reading will face this same challenge, if they are very busy and have very little free time, like me. Other than that, I really don’t see any disadvantages to Mentorbox. I love it and look forward to it each month.
Sincerely,
Ian
Why don’t you just go checkout books at the library and read them? Do you really need a cheat sheet for you to understand what some simple self-help book is selling?
Hi Brent,
Thanks for stopping by. Mentorbox is so much more than just a cheat sheet. It is a complete self-education system. It’s the combination of the videos, cheat sheets, memorization booklets, physical books, and more that make this program so powerful. I have found that the combination of the videos and the memorization booklets, in particular, has helped me achieve breakthroughs in business and life. From experience, I know with certainty that I would not achieve the same benefit just reading the books.
Also, the books are not simple self help books. The latest Mentorbox, for example, included a book by a Pulitzer Prize winner. I’m a Stanford University graduate (major in Computer Science and Minor in Economics) and a very successful businessman and investor. I personally find that these books are anything but simple. They are full of valuable knowledge.
Last, the value and scarcity of my limited free time does not allow me to go to the library. (By the way, I’m not trying to put down the library. It may make a ton of sense for others, and I definitely think it’s an incredibly good use of time in the universe of ways one could spend their time. I may change my mind, and start going at some point.) In my personal situation right now, the opportunity cost is just too high. As such, it makes perfect sense to allow the experts (Tai Lopez, Alex Mehr, and Jonathon Kendall) curate the books for me. In fact, getting the curated books from these experts alone (and receiving them in the mail each month like clockwork) is worth the entire cost of the program to me.
If you’re here, seems like you are at least considering the program. I’ve been very happy and hope you give it a try. Thanks again for stopping by.
Sincerely,
Ian
Hey man I caught some highlights on the blog here as I was seeking a review on mentorbox. I appreciate the insight you posted here. My question is this..where is your affiliate link if I wanted to get signed up?
Spencer, I’m so happy I was able to help! Thanks for stopping by! Here’s my affiliate link: https://www.ppcian.com/recommends/mentorbox/ (affiliate link)
Hi Ian (great name:) )
I am about to get this, but the payment options are $9.99 per month or $87 per year, once the 7 day trial is over. Is this correct?
Also, I’m not an entrepeneur or sales exec, are all the reviews leaning towards these subjects, or can i choose my line of interest?. e.g. trading, management skills
Sure I could ask them,but you give a nice outsiders percpective.
cheers
Ian, great name indeed. 🙂 Thanks for stopping by! I just checked my records and I am paying $88.57 per month for Mentorbox. I believe I received a special discount as one of the very first customers on the product, a long time ago. I am on the physical product (I receive the books and materials in the mail each month). My understanding is they also offer a digital product that is more cost effective.
The books I have received so far largely focus on mind state, motivation, productivity, sales, and entrepreneurship. There have also been some books sprinkled in about investing, money, and finance. Just this month, there’s one about management (your area of focus)! Over time, I hope to see more books about spirituality and also health. Overall, I’m exceptionally happy with Mentorbox and feel like the books span a nice assortment of topics.
While your area of interest lies in trading and management skills, I would say that even seemingly unrelated books can help. For example, The Power of Habit (by Charles Duhigg) was one of my favorite books in Mentorbox. While this book is about habits (and changing them), it also contains sections that pertain directly to people management. And, I literally applied the lessons to my team at work with great success! The more I take home new lessons, the more I realize that all of the books and topics are related to all areas of life.
Regarding special Mentorboxes based on your specific areas of interest, I thought I saw something like that on their website at one point. However, I did not see it when checking just now. I suggest emailing their support/contact email and asking. That being said, I would also say that you should consider the general one too. The best lessons are those ones that you don’t think you need. The next sales book in Mentorbox could provide lessons that change everything! It’s this unexpected element of Mentorbox that I love so much.
Hope this helps, and wishing you all the best!
How did you get an affiliate link for mentorbox sir? Really good review by the way, I’m going to purchase this 🙂
Hi Matias,
Thanks so much for reaching out! Really appreciate the kind words, and so happy you are going to join the Mentorbox program and family. Each month, I continue to grow, thanks to Mentorbox. I actually have another written and video review coming out soon that highlights my favorite book I have ever received from Mentorbox! Regarding their affiliate program, I signed up via their website. They actually have a little link on the bottom. It appears the link is no longer on their homepage, but it is offered on their FAQ page (all the way in the footer). Wishing you all the success in the world and thanks again for stopping by!
Sincerely,
Ian
He’s an affiliate don’t even bother reading.
Jo,
Thanks for stopping by! Please note that I am an affiliate because I love MentorBox. Also, I am a full paying customer, and have been since the early days. Hope this helps, and I certainly think my MentorBox posts and videos are worth reading and watching.
Best,
Ian