Yalor Arnold
Jul 20, 2017 · 6 min read

Let’s talk about mentors

The concept of having a mentor is something that has been evading me for sometime, so I wanted to share my first foray into the process. I am a part of a ton of groups on Facebook and follow all kinds of start up founders but I don’t have “a mentor” Someone I turn to for guidance, the people I meet are either too egotistical or too busy to be of any value.

One of the groups I’m a member of is called Stacking Growth, started by a Seattle dude/ Internet marketing wizard, Justin Wu. Members join this group, and they are able to introduce themselves and tell a little bit about what they do. Recently I was browsing the group, to see who the new members were, and I came across this really compelling introduction — a guy named Blake Jamieson. I’m going to read it to you because I want you to see what I saw.

“Hey, everyone. I figured I’d make an intro post, though I suspect a handful of group members might already know. I worked in digital marketing for eight years, from startups to publicly traded companies. About two years ago, I left digital marketing to become a full-time artist. I’m finally doing something I’m passionate about. So, ‘working’ is a lot more fun. As an artist, I paint mostly portraits, and focus on offices and businesses. Most emerging artists are competing for attention from art collectors, while I try to build relationships with founders and CEOs. My work hangs on the walls of Vayner Media, Hawke Media, One Nine, Hyatt SFO, Glassdoor, and a ton of home offices. If you ever want to add some flavor to your office walls, holler at me. Fun fact: I did an experiment on Tinder in 2014, and once held the world record for Tinder matches. I’m assuming it’s been passed by now, but not sure.”

So that had me hooked right away, the line where he said “I left digital marketing to become a full-time artist. I’m finally doing something I’m passionate about” I wanted to know more immediately. So I went and looked up this tinder experiment. It’s called Tinder Hacks. This guy spent thousands of hours, literally, hundreds of conversations with women, finding out exactly how to make the perfect Tinder profile. It was so interesting. Then, he went on, and he wrote a book, an ebook, that he sold to people — Tinder Hacks. You can actually find that if you go on Facebook or to his website, although if you’re a member of the group, you can actually get it for free. Anyways I downloaded it and read the entire thing in about an hour and a half and found it fascinating.

Even though I don’t care about dating at all, I found the whole experiment incredibly interesting. I loved the way this guys thinks, so I looked him up, I found him everywhere and I added him. The next morning I was watching his Instagram story, just to see what he was up to, he’s like in a barn painting or something. I’m thinking, “Who is this guy, right?” Then I realize, he’s the guy that did a painting for D-Rock, who’s the photographer for Gary Vaynerchuk, and I saw it on his Instagram story three months ago, and I thought, “How cool is that?” So, literally, I said to myself “Iv’e got to reach out to this guy.”

I sent a little message using the new reply feature on Instagram stories, and I said, “Only an artist would be wearing a t-shirt with his own name on it,” because it says “Art by Blake Jamieson” on his t-shirt. He sent back a smiley face, and we struck up a conversation. Long story short I finally asked him, “Hey man, would you ever be interested in taking on somebody as an internship position?” I wanted to offer something of value to him so I could learn from him. He said, “Yeah. Show me what you got.” So I shot him a follow up email, and here’s the exact text from the email:

“Hey Blake, Taylor from Instagram. After reading your post in the Stacking Growth Facebook group, I got really inspired, and I felt like I had to reach out. Be forewarned, I am not certified as any type of marketing specialist or guru. I don’t have a degree or any special training, other than what I research on the interwebs. I’m a community college art major, with a genuine fascination in marketing, copywriting and storytelling, who has dreamt of building my own empire, since the earliest I can remember. Last year, I helped run a Kickstarter campaign that generated almost $100,000 in startup capital for a Seattle artist. (Full disclosure, since my departure, the company has gone bankrupt, as many do). I’m a big fan of Gary Vee though, and when I saw your D-Rock painting some time ago I finally connected the dots. A friend of mine in Jackson Hole uses a similar collaging technique in his artwork. You might dig Jason Borbay. We did something very similar during our Kickstarter campaign with the Casey Neistat.

*I included my famous Casey Neistat Meme 😎👇🏼

Anyways the point is, I’m looking to learn and develop my skills as an internet marketer, content creator, social media strategist type dude. I would love to pay some Obi Wan Kenobi master to bring me up in the ways of the Jedi but I have zero budget for that. What I do have is time, energy and persistence, (which in my opinion outlasts money anyways)

Lastly, I totally understand if you are like, what the fuck? This guy is crazy and never respond to this email. You wouldn’t be the first and you won’t be the last but I hope you don’t, cheers, Taylor J.

I got that last part from my virtual mentor Tim Ferriss he mentioned in his podcast not to end your emails with, “looking forward to hearing from you” because that implies that the person you’re emailing owes you something, when the reality is these are busy people and they owe you nothing. So I left it open ended, he emailed me right back and said he was “100% down to put something together” and work with me, commending my hustle and approach. The email thread ended with us setting up set up a brainstorming session to talk over the weekend.

Now that conversation hasn’t happened yet but I think this approach of finding mentors by thinking outside the box and offering value upfront is the key. Once again, Tim Ferriss recommends having mentors as a key element of becoming successful, surrounding yourself with people who will give you insightful and constructive feedback, getting these people to advise you to look at your stuff and tell you if it’s terrible or great is a really, really valuable thing, and you can’t always afford it, I know I can’t. But you can offer something of value, anything whatever you have, time, energy, connections, work. You’ve got to ask yourself “ What do I have that they could benefit from” then you leverage that to get into conversation with them. Maybe they like you, they teach you, they open up a world of possibilities you have only ever dreamed of.

That simple, that effective, that valuable

As an added bonus it also gives me content to write about, I made an Anchor post and this Medium article all based off of one conversation that might not have happened, had I not taken action when I did.

So now that the ball is rolling, it’s time to see where it rolls off to….

I put an offer out to my Anchor audience, and I wanted to do the same for my medium readers. If you are interested in getting a mentor but don’t know where to start or how to reach them, drop their name in the comments and I will give you my best “ How to land a mentor” strategy tips

If you enjoyed this then hit that 💚 button and I will post a follow up article after our conversation.

So bye 👋🏽 for now, see you on the internet 👨🏽‍💻


😍<Instagram>📸<Facebook>🌐<Anchor>🎙<Twitter>🙈<Snapchat>😳

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