⭕️ I Met My Mentor this Week, Here was my Biggest Takeaway

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Hey there,

I finally feel a bit settled in Toronto and I have started catching up with people I care about. Over the weekend, I met one of my mentors who I have known for almost 6 years now and just like always, he gave me so much to think about.

Today, I share with you one of my biggest takeaways from our chat and how I plan to take action with this.

p.s: read until the end to check out a major announcement we made on our socials this week

What to Expect This Week:

• Opportunities: Youth Innovation Program, Watson Fellowship and more

• Deep Dive: A Life-changing lesson from my Mentor

• Behind the Scenes: Client Pivot, new Co-founder and more

read time: 4 mins

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Opportunities This Week

In addition to these, here’s the living document of 50+ Youth Leadership Opportunities.

Building a Personal Advisory Board

I have always known about the power of mentorship (as I am sure you do) but when my mentor talked to me about building a personal advisory board, it intrigued me.

You see most companies and organisations have advisory boards. Their role is to hold the executive team accountable, provide strategic advice, and support the team.

A personal advisory board, plays the same role.

As I went down the rabbit hole of understanding this concept better, I came across this paper from MIT:

The paper explores the 6 types of people you would want to have on your personal advisory board.

They did this by looking at two studies: i) in depth interviews of 64 professionals and ii) 176 speeches of hall of famers.

Here is what they came up with:

1) Personal Guide: this is someone who’s been of personal support in the past, but you currently have limited interactions with them. Now they are mainly considered as role models or as a source of inspiration.

Eg: Think of someone you see once a year but when you see them it feels like nothing has changed. This person inspires you and always has your back.

2) Personal Advisor: this is someone that plays an active role in your life. Someone that provides you emotional support, can be a sounding board and will always make you feel validated.

Eg: Whether you’re happy or sad, this person will never judge you and will always listen. These are usually the first people you call when anything happens in your personal life.

3) Full Service Mentor: this is someone that provides you both with personal and professional support. This person is fully invested in your success and wellbeing and is someone you see very frequently.

Eg: this is the person that will go above and beyond for you to win. They have a wide range of experiences and can understand you both from a personal but also professional level.

4) Career Advisor: this is someone that that predominantly serves your professional needs. They are in your industry and help you “climb the ladder”. You interact with them frequently but once your needs are fulfilled, they may not be part of your life.

Eg: think of this person as your professor at school, manager at work or an industry connection.

5) Career Guide: this is someone that usually steps in when there are critical changes in your professional journey. You may have had a close relationship with them in the past but now have limited interactions with this person.

Eg: this is the person you would usually call if you’re considering a career change or something major has gone wrong in your professional life.

6) Role Model: as the name suggests, this is someone you are massively inspired by and look up to - especially in a professional context. In a lot of cases, this person doesn’t have to be someone you have a direct relationship with.

Eg: this is the person you’ve studied in and out. You’ve watched all their podcasts, read all their books, etc. When making a decision, you would ask yourself “what would X do in this situation?”

Now that I know the types of people I should have on my advisory board, I plan to make a list of who these people are in my current life. Based on my list, I hope to narrow it down and then reach out to these people to set up more regular chats based on what role they play on my board.

I am curious though to learn from you. Have you heard of this concept before? Who are the people on your advisory board? How often do you meet them? Any roles you would add/ remove?

15 min chats

As I have shared in the past, every Friday I have 15 min chats with people in our community. During these chats, I try my best to get to know you and see how I can support you in your journey. The chats are what you make of it. Some of the people I have chatted with in the past have landed scholarships, gotten into fellowships and even been featured on the newsletter. Usually, you’ve to refer 5 people to the newsletter to get access to this. But since today is about mentorship, I am opening up new slots for 10 people that reply to this email. Simply reply to the email, tell me more about yourself and what you would like to chat about.

Behind Leaders of Today

• Client Pivot: As I may have mentioned before, one of our clients on the agency side of our business is d’Skills. Initially we were building out a newsletter for Parents in Tech for them but we have now pivoted to building one for students. Our goal is to get 3000 subscribers for them on their newsletter that simplifies the world of AI for you as a student. Check it out here:

• Announcement: As you may have seen on our Instagram, we just announced that my brother Aamil will be joining us as the new cofounder of Leaders of Today. Check out the video explaining what sparked our decision:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Leaders of Today ⭕️ (@joinleadersoftoday)

My friend, summer’s coming and I am feeling a sense of momentum building. Our team is growing, we have some ambitious goals and there’s lots of travel planned in the next couple of months. I just want to say how grateful I am for you for supporting us on this journey. It’s still early days for us and we have so much planned for the rest of the year. Thank you for taking a bet on me and Leaders of Today so far. If there’s any way I can support you, you know where to find me 😉 

Hope you have an amazing rest of your week,

With love,

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