Yes, it’s really free. We’ll spend about 30 minutes together on the call. It's important to make sure Blacksmith Mentors is a good fit for what you're looking for. Equally important, we'll discuss if what you're looking for is a good fit for us.

Also, we’ll provide you with some strategies that you can put in place right now. We want you to experience an immediate impact on the very first call.

Accepting a new young man into our program is an honor, privilege, and responsibility that we don’t take lightly. Being an exceptional coach who produces measurable results takes experience, expertise, and time - a lot of time, especially outside of the scheduled sessions with the our clients. Between researching and preparing for each session, documenting and reviewing notes after each session, messaging and emailing between sessions, updating parents, etc., we simply don’t have the time to take on more than a small group of new guys per month.

Additionally, our Blacksmith Mentors coach young men because they want to, not because they need to. All of our mentors have extremely full lives outside of their coaching role. The men in our community of coaches are all extremely successful professionals. We have entrepreneurs, school principals and superintendents, CEOs of corporations, church leaders, non-profit founders, fitness professionals, teachers and more.

The [4]MOD•8|D Blacksmith Mentors Curriculum is a highly structured  program. We've found that four modules is the minimum time it takes for young men to successfully make it through the program and see dramatic, lasting results.

What is a Module? Simply put, a "module" is a segment of our curriculum. Each module consists of multiple sessions, discussions, follow-ups, etc.

The guys in our program are typically between the ages of 16 and 28. We’ve worked with every type of young man you can imagine . . . from guys who play sports to those who play video games; those who are school-loving academic wizards to those who hate everything about school; guys who are “the life of the party” to those who are painfully shy; and, everything in between. We’ve seen it all.

However, what every client accepted into our program has in common is a kind heart, amazing potential, and a desire to do something great with his life.

We'll be the first to admit that our program is absolutely NOT for everyone. That said, for the young men who are a good fit for what we do, the results are remarkable.

By the end of our first consultation call, we’ll both have a really good idea if Blacksmith Mentors would be a good fit for what you're looking for. Typically, it's obvious if we should move forward with bringing a new client into our program or support you in finding a different solution.

If it's not immediately obvious if Blacksmith Mentors is the perfect fit, we'll schedule another call to bring more clarity to the decision. 

If a client is not yet an adult, this is completely up to you and your son. Parents can be as hands-on or as hands-off in this process as they’d like to be.

Before the coaching process begins, the parent/legal guardian is provided with the coach’s contact information. We encourage parents to provide the coach with updates, successes, areas of concern, or questions as frequently as they’d like.

We highly encourage parents to communicate with their son’s coach to discuss how to best support their son during the coaching process.

For the vast majority of our late-teen clients, parents tend to let this be an experience just for their son and take a hands-off approach with the coach. At this age, it’s important for a young man to take independent ownership of his personal development (without feeling like his parents are constantly “checking on him”) and experience what this kind of personal responsibility feels like, allowing his parents to see the evidence of his focused effort.

If a client is an adult, and requests 100% confidentiality (even though the parent is paying for our services), we will disclose that request to the parent and honor that request. 

Each session is scheduled for 50 minutes. However, it’s not uncommon for sessions to run much longer than the scheduled time. The frequency of those sessions (weekly, biweekly, monthly) depends on many factors, including specific goals, schedules, personality, etc.

Please keep in mind, the [4]MOD•8|D Blacksmith Mentors Curriculum is not about the specific number of minutes or sessions. It’s about creating the desired results that are determined at the beginning of the coaching process.

Also, it's important to keep in mind that coaches are consistently in contact with their clients between sessions.

As much as we're concerned with the 50 minutes we're in direct interaction with a client during a session, we're equally concerned with the other 10,030 minutes of the week when we're not in session. 

We pride ourselves on our discretion and confidentiality. We have a confidentiality policy that protects all parties involved in the coaching process. Additionally, all coaches for Blacksmith Mentors sign an NDA.

Anything our clients say during a coaching session, or via any other communication with the coach, is kept confidential between the client and their coach which allows our clients to be honest, vulnerable, and authentic. The same is true for anything that is shared between the parents and the coach.

Our full Confidentiality Policy is outlined in our Blacksmith Mentors Coaching Agreement which all parties must sign prior to initiating the coaching process. 

In all communications and agreement documents, it will be clear that if a client ever discloses information about being in danger, or someone they know is in danger, the coach will immediately contact the parents, Blacksmith Mentors Leadership Team, and any and all necessary additional parties.

The lines of communication are always kept open between Blacksmith Mentors and each coach and all information shared about a client with be held in strict confidence.

Remember, the men of Blacksmith Mentors are all fathers. When working with young men they are constantly asking themselves, "Would I need/want to know this information if I was the parent?"

Hal Bowman, Founder of Blacksmith Mentors, personally vets and selects our coaches.

Coaches are hand-picked from a pool of hundreds of men he's personally known for years. Men are selected, not just based on what they do in life, but more importantly, who they are as a person and the value they bring to the lives of others. Before a man is even considered for a coaching position, he must provide objective evidence that he is an accomplished, high-performing, purpose-driven, ethical man of character who has demonstrated expertise in coaching and mentoring young men.

Blacksmith Mentors is truly an exclusive group of extraordinarily unique men who have committed their lives to supporting, empowering, and mentoring the leaders of tomorrow.

Mostly. With our coaches and clients spread across the nation, coaching sessions are primarily online. (We do have a few exceptions where, just by coincidence, the client and coach live in the same city.)

We typically use Google Meet as our communication platform. In between sessions, we use additional apps for communicating, tracking habits and goals, as well as organization and time management strategies.

We get that question a lot. Or, more directly, “We LOVE IT, but here’s absolutely NO WAY my son will agree to coaching!”

If after our Consultation Call we both agree that coaching is right for your son, we’ll provide you with everything you need to properly and strategically present the idea to him.

To begin the coaching experience, your only goal is to get your son to agree to the initial Connection Call with his coach. We’ll take care of the rest from there.