Attracting a Mentor

As a man in my mid 20’s, I still have no clue what tf I’m gonna do with my life. A reality I’m sure everyone else in this world has dealt with.

However, there’s 3 things I think remedy this anxiety better than anything else. These are:

Now, I want to use the rest of this email to elaborate on #3. We can revisit the other 2 in the future :)

Put yourself in that potential mentor’s shoes. They’re probably incredibly successful. They’re probably getting asked for advice daily if not by the hour. They’re probably pressed for time with everything they’re already juggling. To be frank, they probably don’t want to talk to you at all….

That is, unless you can bring some kind of value to their lives. No matter what industry your ideal mentor is in, they’re focused on bringing maximum value to whatever market they operate within. If they’re an athlete, they’re trying to train as hard as they possibly can to increase the likelihood of a win for their team and their fans. If they’re in business, they’re focused on increasing value to their customers and shareholders. If they’re a musician, they’re spending hours trying to produce masterpieces that will resonate with their fans.

All of this takes time. A LOT of time. Why would they set aside precious minutes to teach you what they know?

But you’re gonna be different. You’re gonna present them with one of your skills that could advance their lives in some way, shape, or form.

In my own personal case, I met my mentor at a football game at Virginia Tech. I looked up his background, studied everything he had done, and decided he had achieved a career in business that aligned with my dreams, plans, and aspirations. He began his career in finance in NYC, joined a startup that eventually IPO’d, build another similar company that he sold to a public firm, created a foundation that supports cancer research for children, is an active donor to Virginia Tech, and operates a number of other businesses.

I kept trying to get time with him over and over and over…but no luck. He had WAY too many things to take care of…which I didn’t like, but respected.

Until one night, I ran into him at an event in Roanoke, VA. We got to speaking about athletics and what I had been up to for the past year. I explained how my season was going, my obsession with content creation and the audience I was building, and how I was selling door-to-door to earn a bit of extra cash on the side. Accidentally, I had presented value that he needed. He had a startup in the college athletics space and needed help with growing the brand and bringing new partnerships to the table for our athletes. Bingo. I had found my way in.

What did he offer? He offered me a job paying a bit less than the one I have coming up, but he offered me access to him whenever I had questions about life, career, and business. DEAL!

I felt like something finally clicked for me…it was the capitalistic exchange of value that made life work that had just hit me over the head.

He needed help where I had expertise, and he had all his life experience to share when I could actually pin him down.

Looking back, it seems so simple. Provide value in exchange for value. But, when you’re young, you feel like you don’t have a lot to give.

I challenge you to review your skills and see what you’re capable of. What can you bring to the table. Maybe you can offer something as simple as health and fitness coaching in exchange for some mentoring sessions. Maybe you have some photography and videography skills and offer to shoot an event they have coming up. Just look deep inside and ask yourself, “Where can I help?”

If you can do that, plenty of people will respond to your messages. I promise.

So best of luck in your search for a mentor…and shoot me a message when you find one :)