This is one of my favourite things to do. I love connecting with strangers to pick their brains - and sometimes it becomes a friendship or mentorship. I've learned and experienced a lot as a result of this habit, so I want to outline how insanely simple this approach is.
For Mentorship:
1. Figure out what you want to do.
2. Find people who have achieved this.
3. Contact them (rules in a moment).
4. Create a good back and forth dynamic.
For Interest:
1. Identify something interesting about the person you want to learn more about
2. Contact them to ask a simple, non-overwhelming question
3. Keep the conversation going if relevant, or let it die naturally. Don't force shit.
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CONTACTING PEOPLE WHO ARE AWESOME: A PRIMER
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The following is a hierarchy for contacting people with respect to effectiveness and long term benefit.
1. WITH AN INTRODUCTION
- Face to face by third party
- Face to face with third party introduction prior
- Phone by third party
- Phone with third party introduction prior
- Email by third party
- Email with third party introduction prior
2. WITHOUT AN INTRODUCTION
- Non face to face, with an easy (and, hopefully unexpected yet interesting) question. This is actually how I contacted Derek the first time. Email is good if you can write well (do a copywriting course), and a phone is good if you can wrestle past gatekeepers (not that hard).
- Face to face
That's it. This stuff is not hard - in fact, it's easy. Don't stalk, be cool, pay it forward wherever you can.
- R
P.S. Can't get people to respond? They're busy, or you aren't interesting enough. Adjust your tact.
P.P.S. Contact details are easily found with Google - old blogs, personal blogs, deep enough on the website, whatever.
Find driven people. Go to conferences and other such events where the really passionate people are. Now? Just copy them!
It might not be a one on one coaching, but seeing how much others do while slacking of on the couch and reading about all their doings on Twitter should make you more productive.
I've known people who are perfectly willing and capable mentors, but never got asked. Ironically, they were surrounded by people who were looking for mentors, but were afraid to ask. I happened to know both sides and made the connection, but I'm sure many others fall through the cracks just because they didn't ask someone to be their mentor.
Note: Not everyone has the time, willingness, or ability to be a mentor. But I still don't think it hurts to ask. The worst you can get is no mentor, which is what you started out with anyways.
For jazz guitar I find teachers with online videos that resonate. Then I manage to contact them and pay for direct Skype chats/lessons. It doesn't have to be a formal college setting IMO.
