{"id":2253,"date":"2012-10-20T07:43:44","date_gmt":"2012-10-20T11:43:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kerryhannon.com\/?p=2253"},"modified":"2012-10-20T07:43:44","modified_gmt":"2012-10-20T11:43:44","slug":"meet-your-virtual-mentor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kerryhannon.com\/?p=2253","title":{"rendered":"Meet Your Virtual Mentor"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I met John Spence <\/a>a few weeks ago. He was smart, funny, generous with his advice and encouraging.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t actually meet him with a handshake, but rather a big smile and hello via my MacBook Pro screen one morning. He was at his desk in Gainesville, Florida, and I was in my home office in Washington, DC.<\/p>\n

Our visit was arranged via PivotPlanet<\/a>, a new virtual mentoring service, founded by VocationVacations\u2019<\/a> Brian Kurth, author of Test-Drive Your Dream Job<\/a>: A Step-By-Step Guide to Finding & Creating the Work You Love. PivotPlanet lets you connect with expert\u00a0advisors via one-on-one video and phone conferences. More on how this works in a minute.<\/p>\n

We talked for an hour. John is a professional speaker and author of Awesomely Simple \u2013 Essential Business Strategies for Turning Ideas Into Action<\/a>. His client list includes such top-drawer outfits such as: Apple, GE Capital, AT&T, IBM, and PepsiCo.<\/p>\n

He delivers speeches to an average of 30,000 people each year mostly around the topic of leadership. Largest audience: 8,000.<\/p>\n

And he makes an enviable income doing it.<\/p>\n

See also: How to find a mentor.\u00a0<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Why I needed a virtual mentor<\/strong><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s why I sought his help. I have a newly published book, Great Jobs for Everyone 50+: Finding Work That Keeps You Happy and Healthy \u2026 And Pays the Bills<\/a> (John Wiley & Sons) and am eager to get the word out and teach and inspire experienced job hunters on ways to land a job today.<\/p>\n

Sure, I\u2019ve been a speaker on numerous occasions over my career to a wide range of audiences from my Shady Side Academy<\/a> high school alumni group to the high-powered Executive Women in Government<\/a> audience, delivering advice gleaned from my personal finance and career books such as The 10-Minute Guide to Retirement for Women, Suddenly Single: Money Skills for Divorcees and What\u2019s Next? Follow Your Passion and Find Your Dream Job<\/a>. But I\u2019m ready to really pump it up to the next level.<\/p>\n

And I felt I needed some help from an expert on how to raise my profile as an expert professional speaker. I didn\u2019t have anyone to turn to for counsel in my own networking wheelhouse who I felt comfortable asking. So I decided to test out PivotPlanet\u2019s mentoring service.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m always preaching the benefits of mentoring.<\/p>\n

See also:\u00a0<\/strong>How to Find A Mentor<\/strong><\/a> and <\/strong>Why Women Need to Be Mentors (or Find Them)<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

I have a few mentors that I regularly turn to for help and advice, but this time I had a very specific area of expertise I was seeking to tap for guidance.\u00a0We all need someone with experience and gravitas of whom we can ask questions without fear of looking stupid or putting our position in jeopardy.<\/p>\n

Mentoring is a process<\/strong><\/p>\n

A good mentoring relationship grows organically over time. It takes nurturing. Almost universally, the workers I know who have made a successful transition to new work after age 50 had at least one person they could turn to when the ground got shaky. It was inevitably someone who was experienced with the ins and outs of the new line of work and could lend a verbal hand.<\/p>\n

Finding an unpaid advisor, however, who has the time available to listen and counsel takes time and patience.<\/p>\n

Virtual help\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

For the sake of time and desire to learn from one of the best on the circuit today, I was prepared to pay for counsel. John Spence\u2019s willingness to sit down with me, a virtual stranger, for an uninterrupted hour was a time saver for me, but also let me make a connection with someone I may never have met otherwise. I suspect, I may learn more from him over time.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s precisely what PivotPlanet has in mind. The mission of the new service is to offer easy access to expert advisors in hundreds of fields from acupuncture to financial planning to \u00a0landscape design, and more to people looking to \u201cpivot\u201d from an existing career to another. \u201cIt\u2019s networking and counseling for job seekers of all stripes\u2014from aspiring entrepreneurs to people burned out in the corporate cubicle, and baby boomers planning encore careers,\u201d Kurth says, \u201cat a fraction of the cost of hiring a career coach.\u201d<\/p>\n

My session with Spence was billed at $120. But there are sessions with, say, a vet tech for $54 an hour.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how PivotPlanet works:<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. Set up a PivotPlanet account and link it to your Facebook or LinkedIn profile.<\/p>\n

2. Send a message to an advisor requesting a one-hour live video or phone conference and provide up to 10 times and dates that work for your schedule. In-person mentorship sessions are also available. Work directly with PivotPlanet staff to schedule a full-day or half-day in-person session.<\/p>\n

3. Your advisor will suggest three one-hour time slots for the conference, based on your preferences.<\/p>\n

4. Accept and book one of the slots.<\/p>\n

5. Have a list of questions ready to go and a \u00a0pad and pen for note-taking.<\/p>\n

6. Connect with your advisor for your video or phone conference.<\/p>\n

Unlike Kurth\u2019s VocationVacations, it\u2019s not a two-day, get-your-toes wet sampler; it\u2019s designed to help build a more concrete mentor relationship that can evolve over a series of sessions at regular intervals and on an as-needed basis.<\/p>\n

For me, Spence hit it out of the park. I can\u2019t attest for other advisors, but my experience was a good one.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s some of his key professional speaking advice from our mentoring session.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Don\u2019t do anything for free.<\/strong>\u00a0At the very least, get every client to make a small contribution in your name to your favorite local charity. It\u2019s a nice way to make sure that they will take your speech seriously \u2013 and donate money to a charity you care about.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Word-of-mouth referrals are the single greatest source of new speeches.<\/strong>\u00a0 Get in the habit of asking your customers to please send a personal note with a strong referral to anyone they feel would benefit from hearing the speech you just delivered for them.<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Check out the competition.<\/strong> The best way to determine your price range is to look at five or six other speakers who are talking about a similar topic, and are on just about the same level as you, and then simply figure out a price that is about 85% of the average.<\/p>\n

I clicked out of our chat ready to roll with a list of action steps. Plus, Spence fired off an e-mail that summed up the advice he had given me and provided links to more information to help me increase my professional speaking platform. \u00a0We now follow one another on Twitter,\u00a0Facebook\u00a0and LinkedIn.\u00a0See you from the stage lights.<\/p>\n

By\u00a0Kerry Hannon<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Follow me on Twitter,\u00a0@KerryHannon<\/a>\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0the author of\u00a0Great Jobs for Everyone 50+: Finding Work That Keeps You Happy and Healthy \u2026 And Pays the Bills<\/a> (John Wiley & Sons), available here\u00a0www.kerryhannon.com<\/a>. Check out my\u00a0column\u00a0<\/a>at\u00a0AARP. My weekly column \u00a0at PBS\u2019s NextAvenue.org is\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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