Who would you pick?
I had the CEO of American Airlines and the CEO of Allstate Insurance as mentors.
And they opened doors I never knew existed, providing me with opportunities that felt like cheating.
They filled my brain with knowledge and believed in me more than I did myself.
All the success I’ve had is because of what my mentors have done for me. There was no way back then I could have repaid them.
But if you don’t have a mentor, how do you convince someone super successful to take you on?
Here’s the “secret”:
Study their materials and know them by heart– that will place you ahead of 99% of the random people that hit them up for free consulting, money, introductions to Mark Zuckerberg, or whatever.
Write articles and make videos about what you’ve learned from them, demonstrating mastery of the material– not blowing faint praise.
Boost your top posts for a dollar a day, building up your personal brand and getting exposure to what you’ve said to this person and their peers.
They will see it and maybe even reach out, like your tweets, etc…
As you’re doing this, you’ll see the alignment between what’s important to them versus what matters to you– your 3×3 grid and their 3×3 grid intersecting.
Hint: don’t make it about money or the external trappings of wealth.
That means you must have a solid mission and demonstrated competency.
After you’ve done this for a couple of months, only then reach out to them. And instead of asking for favors at your first encounter, ask what you can do for them.
The reason I know this works is because this is what I do– at scale.
And it’s what our young adults do to build their network.
And it’s what our clients do to build their personal brands systematically.
I spent the first 10 years of my career learning.
I spent the last 10 years of my career doing this.
For the next 10 years of my career, I’m focusing on teaching.
#LDT (Learn > Do > Teach)
Find people like me who are wanting to give back.
I’ve had 50,000 hours of digital marketing experience and there’s nothing that makes me happier than seeing other young leaders get the same opportunity that I got 20 years ago.
