How I became a creative mentor

If I’m totally honest, I became a creative mentor by chance. It wasn’t a totally random chance – it was more like a right place, right time chance.

Looking back, now, I can see the trail of breadcrumbs leading me to becoming a creative mentor, but there was one big leap of faith that I needed to take to be able to get from where I was to where I am now, and it wasn’t an easy one.

I had to learn to invest in myself. I had to put money where my mouth was, and actually work with other people. I needed a mentor of my own.

As someone who wasn’t very good at asking for help, this didn’t come easy. But the best things in life are not only not always free (dammit!) they also aren’t always very easy. In fact, they’re usually the opposite. As was the case with me working with my mentor.

At the time I signed up with Fleur, I was feeling pretty bereft. I was 11 years into my travel writing career, had built multiple creative businesses from scratch, and was the go-to person whenever my friends needed support, cheerleading, or business advice, but I still didn’t feel like I’d made it.

I’d always said I wanted to be a travel writer – and travel – forever. I dreamed of writing guidebooks, making it into Lonely Planet and Rough Guides, and becoming a six-figure freelancer. At the time, that all felt like it was around the corner – but it was a really big corner, and I’d been trying to get there for a long time.

Still, I wasn’t ready to hang up the hat, yet, so instead, I worked my butt off to scrape together $5k and then threw it all in to sign up with a pro writing mentor.

Then came the mic drop. I loved working with my mentor, Fleur, but I didn’t think I wanted to be “only” a writer anymore. I honestly didn’t even know if I wanted to keep travelling. I also felt burned out from the hustle – and the stress of long-distance caring for my mum, who I was slowly losing to Alzheimer’s.

A few weeks in, I felt like I’d made a terrible mistake. Like I’d backed myself into a corner I didn’t know how to get out of.

In the midst of my exhausted, grief-filled overwhelm, I had one of those “fuck it, life is too short” wake-up call moments: I realised I didn’t want to be a travel writer anymore. I wanted to write, but more as a way to share all the deeper, more important lessons I’d learned from my life on the road, not just “go here, do this.” And, as I’d learned from my daily calls with my mum, I also really missed working with people.

Far from being the humongous mistake I’d feared, my mentor, Fleur, was incredible.

She listened and came up with some great suggestions. She gave me some really useful tips and advice and helped me re-envision the life I wanted. She supported me and helped me find the courage to walk away from the old dream in pursuit of the new one – to let go of the things I thought I’d wanted and start working towards a new goal.

She even helped me unpack why I thought I’d wanted what I wanted, and get clear on what I *actually* wanted – which turned out to be becoming a creative mentor and starting my own newsletter.

She also helped me see my own potential in a way I couldn’t – and even helped me break these big dreams down into easy actionable steps so I didn’t get stuck on the way. She encouraged me, even when I felt out of my depth, overwhelmed, and like I didn’t know where to start or whether I’d be any good at it.

She told me she’d felt those same things, too, back when she’d started, but now being able to help other people move through those same struggles also helped to keep her accountable and striving forward to live her dreams. She showed me that this work really is about lifting ourselves up so we can lift others up, too, and all rising together.

It’s been a wild ride, but a few years on, here I am, living those dreams; sharing stories in my weekly newsletter, Making Lemonade, offering creative mentoring and creative business building 1:1 work, running occasional workshops, writing for fun again, and loving it all.

I’m so grateful for our work together, for me for taking that leap of faith and investing in myself, and for all the work with my other mentors, coaches, and guides I’ve done over the years to get me where I am, now. I know I wouldn’t have become a creative mentor without them, and I’m so thankful to every single one of them for helping me on this path.

I’m also grateful that everyone I help with my creative mentoring work, too, now gets to benefit from their wisdom. Together, we lift each other up. The beauty of this work ripples out into the world. It’s incredible to see.

Find out more about my 1:1 creative mentoring services by visiting my creative mentoring page. If you’d like to know more, you can also drop me a line!