How to find the right mentor and coach might be something that you are struggling with. Maybe you have big dreams but you need a bit of help turning them into reality. Or else you have a public speaking event and are terrified to stand up on stage.
I’ve been there and know that it takes confidence, guts and moments of vulnerability to make your dreams real. Mentoring has helped me during my own career, and I have had the privilege of being a mentor for creatives for over a decade.
So how do you find a mentor?
Mentors can be brilliant help to get you climbing up the career ladder, or working on a single issue. Sometimes finding them can be hard. You know what you need, but how do you get that help?
Mentoring is a relationship. I like to call it therapy for your career. You need to be able to make yourself vulnerable and open in equal doses. Now we understand that, how on earth do you find one!?
There are three places that you can look. If you are lucky enough to be part of a big corporation they may have mentoring programmes that you can access for free. (A word of warning here- it might not be the place to talk about how you want to make your side-hustle your main job!).
The next place to look is University or College if you are still a student or recent graduate. They often have programmes and courses that you can access (again for free) to help you build your career.
The final place is to look online. You may have people that you admire and know that you want your career to look like theirs. Or you can do a quick Google search to find mentors for creatives. Once you have done that you need to work out if you are the right fit for each other.
How to know if the mentor is right for you
In this podcast I talk through ways that you can tell if a mentor is right for you, how you find one, when you need one, and how they can help you.
I have used mentors at certain points during my career and they have helped me to short-cut to success.
If you are keen to find your own creative mentor, I have a few slots that open up each year. You can find out more about it here.