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I’ve always wanted a mentor. Someone I can turn to help guide me through my personal and business related developments. Someone who is willing to help me start a business and grow it into something sustainable. Or someone who bounce questions and ideas I have in my personal life. Unfortunately, I do not any formal relationship with anyone, however, I’ve found the next best thing. I discovered a world of virtual mentors who I can “crowd source” for information on the questions I’m facing. We’ve never met but they help guide me more than they’ll ever know.
“But, Joe, there are so many people out there peddling their Cure All’s, how do we know who to trust?” It’s a good question. There are tons of people out there, including me with this blog, who are looking to help and share what they know, many even come with a cost. It can be difficult to know who to trust. Where are the individuals we will actually find helpful and who are the snake oil salesmen/women? (I don’t want to discriminate against salespeople.) Most importantly how do we find them?
These are important questions. How do we cut through the noise and the garbage to find the people we can trust? Here is the best way I’ve found to find quality virtual mentors:
Start with One: Cutting through the noise and finding quality mentors comes down to this one simple principle: Start with One. What does this mean? Well, we find one person we trust, whether personally or virtually, learn as much as we can from them, and find out who they trust. Then the cycle begins again. Our “One” could be a parent, friend, celebrity, or someone we heard about on the news. Maybe it’s Warren Buffett or Steven King or our Dad. The important thing is to find someone, just one person, to start the process. Typically, this is someone in a field we’re interested in but we can start anywhere.
Once we’ve found, and learned from, our “One,” we find out who they trust, usually through interviews, books, or personal blogs, if they have one. It doesn’t them long to mention at least one or two people they like, follow, are reading, etc. If they aren’t famous or don’t have much information out there on them, check social media profiles. It’s easy to check to see who they follow on Twitter or Instagram which gives us more people to check out. Then it’s a matter of looking into these new batch of people to hear what they have to say. If we like what we hear from this “New One,” we assimilate it and repeat the process. If what they say doesn’t resonate, move on to the next person on the list.
I started collecting virtual mentors when I found podcasts in 2014. It started with a show called Barbell Shrugged and they were interviewing Joe De Sena, the founder of the Spartan Race. Having wanted to run a Spartan Race for some time, I decided it was worth a listen. I LOVED IT! The interview was intriguing, the conversations were fun, and the hosts were interesting and knowledgeable. I felt it was an all-around great show. From this point on I was hook.
Later the hosts of Barbell Shrugged created a second show, called Barbell Business, where they discuss the ins and outs of running a gym business. Since I was currently the admin of a CrossFit gym in the area, I soaked up every piece of information form ever episode. In one episode they shared the business books they believed helped them the most. This is where I found Tim Ferriss, his book the 4 Hour Work Week, and, soon, others who would change my life.
I picked up the book on Audible and blew through the 13-hour recording as quickly as I could but it wasn’t enough for me. I wanted more Tim Ferriss as soon as possible. This led me to his blog and eventually his recently started podcast. I subscribed to the show, started from episode 1 and continued to work my way through the list. Each episode was filled with new and interesting people I had never heard of, spider webbing the number of people I turn to for advice and guidance.
It’s not a quick process but, when done well, can lead to a mountain of quality mentors. I’ve found new “mentors” from podcast interviews, blog post mentions, reading lists, social media suggestions, Google search rabbit holes, friends, family, and more. This process, which I unintentionally started when I listen to that fateful Joe De Sena interview, has blossomed into a network of virtual mentors in a variety of categories, which still continues to grow. People who I “know” and trust the information they share.
It’s said knowledge is power but I believe the right knowledge is even more powerful. Finding the right people to listen to and trust can easily set us up and apart from those around us. It is this drive to learn and be better which will eventually help us grow into who we want to become. The best part? It only takes “One!”
*I’m curious to know who you consider your “One.” Let me know in the comments.*