Last week I launched the 2nd edition of my book Full Steam Ahead! using Twitter as the primary platform. It seemed obvious that my next blog should be on what I had learned and experienced. However, I am still processing the experience and couldn’t condense my thoughts into less than 3000 words. Today I discussed my frustrations with my friend and social media mentor, Becky Robinson. Her wise counsel was to wait until I was ready.
What especially delights me about my relationship with Becky is that she is almost young enough to be my daughter. We usually expect our mentors to be older than us, but that is not the case here. Discussing a recent post on the importance of mentors by Gwyn Teatro. I asked Becky to write a guest post based on our experience. Thank you, Becky!
Guest Post by Becky Robinson
About ten years ago, I went to a church where my husband and I — in our early 30s at the time — ranked among the oldest people in the group.
Many of the younger women expressed disappointment about that; they hoped for older, more experienced women to mentor and guide them.
Honestly, I felt the same way. As a new mom expecting my second child, I wanted role models to follow. I longed for a guide to lead me through the challenging new experiences I faced.
Whether we are young or older, we learn best when we can find seasoned mentors to share their knowledge and expertise with us.
Most often, we may assume that we will find mentors in an older generation. We might think that mentors will be people who live in close proximity to us, in our communities. We may think that our best mentors will come from within the organizations where we work. We may envision mentoring as a formal, long-term, and intense relationship.
Social media channels have completely revolutionized my view of mentoring.
Mentoring can happen across the miles. There is no reason, anymore, to lament the lack of mentors in our communities. We can connect with people online who share our interests. They may live nearby or across the ocean. We can look for people who have the specific knowledge or experience we lack. We can look to them as our mentors.
Mentoring can be long-term or in the moment. When I joined Twitter in May of 2009, I quickly found a host of people willing and ready to share their knowledge. Some, like Wally Bock, have been beside me from the beginning, offering a steady stream of encouragement, support, and direction. Others have connected with me briefly, passing on specific information or inspiration. I view both groups of people as important mentors to me.
Online, age is meaningless… what matters is sharing what we know. I can learn from someone who is twenty or someone who is sixty. I can teach, coach, and mentor anyone: my peers, younger friends, people who are many years older than I am.
Mentoring others is a gift. Mentoring is a gift I give and a gift I receive. I feel privileged and honored when people are willing and open to learn from what I know. I share my knowledge as a gift, but what I receive in return feels far more precious than what I’ve given: connection, friendship, and the opportunity to learn from what others know.
Becky Robinson is a mom, wife, friend, and mentor. She is the Director of Social Marketing for the Kevin Eikenberry Group and she blogs about social media, leadership, and life at weavinginfluence.com.
Jesse
Having Becky guest blog is never a bad idea. I’m glad to see both of you spreading the word that age is essentially meaningless online. We need more people to realize that mentors can be younger as well as older. It’s also important to realize that the old paradigm that mentoring is one way, is no longer valid, if it ever really was. Thanks for helping to spread the message. I highly recommend that people check out #GenYChat if they are seriously interested in reaching across generational boundaries and eliminating the gaps. Chanelle Schneider has put together a great forum for connecting across the generations.
Becky
A great complement to your own blog post today. I especially love the quote that “Online age is meaningless”. I’d add to that, that gender, race, religion and a multitude of other things that shouldn’t, but sometimes do, separate us are also meaningless. That is one of the greatest gifts of social media in my opinion.
Dean,
Thanks for your kind words.I love the way social media channels break down barriers between people and make what we have in common far more important than our differences.
Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts and to add value sharing your connection to Chanelle and #geny chat.
Can’t wait to meet you in person, too!
Thanks, Dean for your suggestions in how to intentionally reach across boundaries. As Dan Rockwell pointed out, social media offers the potential to open doors. I think one of the reasons doors open is because we don’t have access to much of the superficial data we usually use to make assumptions about each other. Becky had been helping me for quite some time before we discovered our age difference. Once those assumptions are challenged, the doors stay open to future possibilities. Thanks for adding to the conversation. Hope you visit again!
A totally encouraging post about the potential of social media to open doors to relationships. Thank you!
Dan,
Thanks for taking the time to comment on this post. You are a fine example of someone who has come alongside to mentor and encourage me on my journey.
I am grateful for all you give to me and others. You make a difference!
Becky
Having connected with Becky–and been encouraged by her–through Twitter, I agree wholeheartedly with her! The Internet and social media provide new ways to mentor & the chance to connect with people we might have missed meeting in years past. And yes, mentoring is a two-way gift, not a one-sided action.
Hi Beth,
Thanks for your comment here. You and I are just at the beginning of this. 🙂 I am confident that you have a lot of life experience, knowledge, and expertise that I can learn from!
I am grateful for the ways you are intentionally connecting with and encouraging me. I hope that I will be able to build into you as well.
Becky
As someone currently searching (and praying) for a mentor in my writing, this post was very encouraging. So thank you for taking a moment to “mentor” this young writer across the miles. 🙂
Casey,
Feel free to send me an email. I would love to be able to encourage you in your writing journey! I also know lots of encouraging writers and I would love to help you make a connection to others also! You can reach me at becky at weavinginfluence dot com.
Glad to have made a difference for you with this post! 🙂
Becky
I encourage you to reach out and ask for help, Casey. It takes some courage, but when I do, I am always amazed by the response.
A great post, Becky! It is also one that blows the doors off our traditional mindsets about mentoring and the value of social media in our lives.
Thank you! ~ and for the kind link above 🙂
Gwyn
Gwyn,
I appreciate your encouragement, always!
Becky
Awesome post, Becky. Reverse mentorship is a great concept – we can each learn from the other. I happened across this blog a few months ago, and it sums up the opportunity that we should all be considering our upcoming youth as a great avenue to teach us, too!
It has been one of my more successful guestblogs
http://mentoronline.wordpress.com/2011/01/22/prof-michael-robertos-blog-reverse-mentorshp/
Meryle Corbett
@merylecorbett
http://mentorsonline.wordpress.com
Wonderful post, Becky and thanks for your kind words. I’m truly pleased that you mentioned how mentoring benefits both the mentor and the protégé. One thing that seems different to me today, compared with thirty or so years ago, is that the giving goes back and forth earlier in the relationship and that roles shift, depending on the topic.
Wally,
There are times that I feel woefully inadequate to give anything at all… and other times that the value that I can add is obvious and immediate. I am thankful that most of the folks I’ve met — like you — are not keeping accounts at all.
One of the things that is amazing to me is that when we are seeking to help others, we always end up receiving exactly what we need as well.
Though my relationship with Jesse might have begun with my offer to encourage and help as she began her blogging journey, I quickly discovered that the encouragement I gave came back to me multiplied.
I hope that encouragement has been multiplied in your life as well, Wally!
Becky
Funny you should write this, Becky. I’m going through some life changes right now and I have met so many wonderful people via social media. I’ve made some really nice connections, you being one of them of course! If I may just name a few who have helped guide me such as Lolly, Chris, Dan, Kevin, Jesse et.al. And lately I have been finding myself saying “What would Ted do?” Another great leader and coach; Ted Coine!
I have three books on my kindle right now ripe for my reading not to mention the blogs and chats and posts! Where to begin? Anyhow, thanks for the wonderful post. John
Thanks for your kind words, John.
Thanks for a really encouraging post, Becky (and for inviting Becky to guest post, Jesse).
I’m in my late 50s, like (the much younger)John Feskorn, going through some major changes. One of things I’ve been doing–and, really, everyone, don’t wait as long as I did to start doing this–is not feeling guilty because I have dreams and ambitions (love Lolly’s post on that, Own Your Desires).
I’ve been blogging now for a couple years, learning as I go, getting help from young geniuses like John Saddington (@TentBlogger). Being inspired by young preachers like Steven Furtick (@stevenfurtick). Learning about the next generation from people like Tim Elmore (@TimElmore, who is in the midst of a series of great posts on 9 Elements you Cannot Separate from Leadership).
When I first signed up on Twitter, I had to learn quickly how to separate wheat from chaff. Now it’s a matter of really good wheat and really REALLY good wheat.
There is so much wisdom available for the teachable. Even more encouragement.
Thanks so much for sharing your own experience, Charles. It sounds that like me you have found wisdom and support in many generations. Delightful, isn’t it?