Whether you’re a freelance writer, a designer, or some other creative professional, you’ll almost always benefit from having a mentor. Someone who’s more experienced to show you the ropes, answer questions, maybe even pass along a few juicy leads. But how do you find such generous, wonderful people?
Everywhere!
I met one of my long-time mentors when she was the keynote speaker at a young professional women’s breakfast. Four years later, I still look forward to her emails and texts, asking how things are going or sharing news about her latest book. I’ve also found mentors by reading their blogs and emailing them for advice (usually I’ll comment first so my name will look familiar and they’ll know I’m truly interested in what they have to say). Often that blossoms into a cyber-mentorship and sometimes a face-to-face mentorship when one of us visits the other one’s city.
And mentors aren’t necessarily older versions of you. I’ve taken classes from entrepreneurs in other fields who gave me a fresh outside perspective on strategies for running a business. Questions like “why does it have to work that way simply because other writers do it that way?” challenges me to think bigger or differently.
What about you? How have you found mentors? And what did you learn from them?