A mentor - possibly the most valuable (and understated) resource professionals & entrepreneurs can benefit from! At one point, the most successful people you know were just starting out and unsure of how to navigate gracefully.
A mentor is someone who has achieved or taken a path that you desire for yourself and has made all the mistakes on the road to success, learned from them and is willing to pass on advice to you. They can help you proactively face problems, avoid mistakes, open doors you never thought of and introduce you to connections. Below are a few tips on where to connect with potential mentors both in ATL and online.
LinkedIn's Career Advice is a relatively new feature that helps connect members across the LinkedIn network with one another for lightweight mentorship opportunities. Whether you need advice on your career path, switching to a new industry or best practices for a project you’re working on, Career Advice can help you find and connect with the right person who can help.
Whether you're looking for a Mentor to help you down a career path or someone who knows the ins and out of starting a business - you will undoubtedly find a MeetUp group fitting what you're looking for. Many join these groups solely to network and meet others with the same interest - so you're already ahead of the game to finding a compatible mentor match.
Use Local Resources
SCORE Atlanta - SCORE Atlanta is a non-profit resource partner of the Small Business Administration. Every year, SCORE volunteers help thousands of entrepreneurs start small businesses and achieve new levels of success in their existing businesses. Even if you aren't looking to beginning a business - meeting with a mentor here could lead to new connections and valid advice. Request a meeting with a mentor here.
Atlanta GLOW - Founded in 2014, Atlanta Growing Leadership Of Women (Atlanta GLOW) is a faith-based, 501c3 nonprofit organization that serves young women, ages 14-25, by providing creative resources and networking opportunities such as one-on-one mentoring, workshops, and conferences to ignite each young woman’s leadership potential and equip her with the tools to take action and thrive in her home, school, workplace and community.
Online Resources
Shapr and Ten Thousand Coffees are kind of like online dating apps, but they're focused on connecting you with other professionals to develop relationships whether it be partnerships or a mentor-mentee relationship. With that being said, it's a lot more difficult to build a lasting relationship through the internet - but it can useful if the other person is interested in meeting for a quick coffee meeting and building a relationship from there.