The nicest problem I've had in a while

Mentorship

Jul 28

When I put it out there that I was taking on a few mentees, I never expected the response I got. I launched the service on a Thursday lunchtime... by Friday noon I had 15 enquiries in my inbox and the first eight meetings already booked.

What I'd pictured was a gentle trickle, but what I got was more like a flood. Application after application from creatives I'd happily talk to all day. Founders, freelancers, studio owners, people at every stage and in every discipline, each one with a story I found fascinating. It's been, hands down, the loveliest problem I've had in ages.

It's also left me doing the very thing I keep telling everyone else to do: taking my own medicine.

I spend these conversations gently encouraging brilliant people to stop trying to do everything all at once – to protect their attention, to take away rather than add, and to pick the few things that matter so they can let the rest go. And then I looked at my own overflowing inbox and realised I was about to break every word of it.

So I've made a decision. I'm pausing any new mentoring enquiries until the end of October. It's only fair that I concentrate my time and energy on those who've reached out thus far. And hey, I don't want to overwhelm myself or jeopardise my own ventures. If you've written to me and you're waiting: thank you for your patience. (You're so worth the wait, and I'm getting to you. Promise. Cross my heart!)

What all these conversations have taught me

Here's the part I didn't see coming. When you chat with this many creatives in a short space of time, you start to notice the odd pattern here and there.

The specifics always vary – different disciplines, cities, chapters of a career – and yet, all that aside, so many of the questions match up. There's the 3am query that's never really about the thing it claims to be about. The little gap between how good someone is and how seen they feel. The person who's far more comfortable buried in the work than standing out in front of it (sound familiar?). The wildly talented soul who's convinced they need to become more, when what they actually need is to become more visible – to give themselves permission to be known for what they already are.

I can't tell you whose stories these are, and I definitely wouldn't want to – those conversations are sacred, and confidence is the whole point of them. But I can tell you there's an enormous amount of quiet, brilliant, slightly-stuck talent out there, and it has moved me more than I expected. So many people doing lovely work and wondering whether they're even allowed to want more from it. (The answer, for the record, is yes.)

Why I'm loving this so much

I started Creative Boom the best part of two decades ago because I wanted to champion creative people… to shine a light on the ones who deserved to get noticed and maybe weren't getting it. This mentoring, it turns out, is part of that same mission. Except this time, it’s just me and one person and their 3am question, and the enormous privilege of being trusted with it.

I hadn't fully realised, until these past few weeks, how much I'd love doing it. But I do. Properly. It might be the most energising thing I've added to my working life in years.

So… a good problem, a busy inbox, and a full heart. If you're one of the people I've yet to meet, I'll see you in the autumn. And if you're reading this and recognising yourself in any of it (as in, good at what you do, and secretly wondering whether you're allowed to be seen for it), then consider this your little nudge.

For the record, you are. Come and find me when my door's open again.