Thank you to Deborah Melkin for hosting TSQL Tuesday this month! I’ve always considered mentoring and sponsorship very structured. Now, I wonder if they’re also small things we do for one another. In the past, I thought mentoring was one-on-one meetings with another person to deep dive into our innermost desires or sponsorship with some large donation to a conference. It would be something very visible or visceral. But does it have to be so deep, intensive, or expensive though? It’s all-or-nothing for me to think it has to be huge or nothing at all.
I never had long-term, formal mentorships or sponsorship relationships — that’s a lot of ships! Honestly, my experience has been more like ships passing in the night. I’d pick up knowledge here and there, sometimes from a blog post, a conference talk, or a YouTube video. I had a couple of wonderful mentors at my first two big conferences, though: Leslie Andrews and Grant Fritchey. They helped guide me through and made the presenting experience much easier.
But I see now that people who give away their knowledge for free are mentoring even if they don’t know who or if anyone reads their blog, watches their videos, or gets any use out of any of it. People put it out there with the hope of helping someone. Bloggers and speakers had a big impact on me. They didn’t know they were mentoring me. They were putting their ideas out there and it inspired me to put my ideas out there. I learned a lot from them.
Let’s say it’s a paid course or subscription that still falls under mentoring because even if you are paying them for a service, it doesn’t mean they aren’t mentoring you to help you improve yourself in some way. For example, with a life coach or coaching in general, if you can afford that, then more power to you, or technical courses, too. It’s an investment in yourself, and that teacher/coach is helping to mentor you, and you are helping to sponsor them.
When I was younger, I used to wish I had a formal mentor. It seemed like having that one trusted guide would’ve made things easier — someone to ask questions, offer advice, or reassure me I was on the right track. Looking back, I realize I found those people in less formal ways. It may not have been as structured as I imagined, but it still made a difference.
And maybe mentoring and sponsorship are broader than I once thought. Even something as simple as sharing someone’s blog post with a colleague could be both mentoring the person you’re giving the post to and sponsoring the writer by amplifying their voice.
I love writing my blog, and I hope it helps people. I never thought of it as mentorship, but I suppose it could be exactly that. Ultimately, it’s about doing the little things you can do and not worrying that you aren’t doing super big things.
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