Gage Mitchell

I've had many mentors in various subjects over the years and always find it valuable to get insights from people who've done what I'm trying to do so I can avoid common mistakes and give myself better odds at success with my endeavors. A brand strategy mentor is no different. If you want to be a brand strategist or get better at it, find someone who can help guide you... and you never, know, they might also have opportunities to send your way.

Many times the relationship is casual, where you can lean on your mentor as needed to get advice when a specific comes up. However, you can also set up a more formal structure where you meet with your mentor regularly, like once a month, to discuss a range of subjects. Either way, you, the mentee, should come prepared with a list of things you want to learn so you don't overburden the mentor with needing to figure out what you know and don't know first.

You can find a good mentor by looking for people a couple of decades ahead of you in your chosen niche, by looking at the speaker lists at brand-related events, by reading books or articles in brand-related publications or blogs, by looking at who's interviewed on brand-related podcasts, by looking at who's talking about branding on Linkedin, etc. Find a few people you're interested in learning from, follow them for a while, then start to engage with them at events or in their social feeds, and eventually, once there's a bit of familiarity, reach out and ask if you could pick their brain on a subject. Over time you'll develop a relationship and can ask them to formally mentor you, but should also look for ways to offer value back to them.

By getting support from someone who's been around the branding a block more than a few times, you're tapping into their lived experiences. While reading books on branding can help you learn the processes and frameworks, they don't typically cover all the things that can go wrong, or tell you all the different approaches you might need to take when you're up against a unique challenge. That's where a mentor comes in. They've likely gone through the processes so many times, from so many different angles that they can help you avoid some common traps, or help you find solutions to sticky challenges you're facing.

A good brand strategy mentor is someone who's done the work so many times themselves that they've found the patterns in what works and doesn't work in different situations. Their knowledge has moved beyond what you can find in a book. They might be experts in one narrow category, like branding for impact-driven food companies (like me), or they might have a broad knowledge base across a lot of different industries, sizes, and stages of companies. Either way, a good mentor will have valuable lived experiences they're willing to share, and you, the mentee, are hungry for that wisdom and ready to learn.