Mentorship When You Don’t Have Time for Every Coffee

If I could clone myself, one of the Lauras would spend an awful lot of time having coffee with emerging creatives.

Another might go back to teaching singing.

One would definitely be at every screening, reading and independent theatre show I’m invited to.

Unfortunately, science has failed me on this particular scheduling solution.

Mentorship is a gift I’ve received throughout my creative life, and one I genuinely love paying forward. I love the coffees, the phone calls, reading scripts, talking through auditions and showing up to other people’s work.

I’d love to say yes to all of it.

The challenge is time.

I stopped teaching singing several years ago. It was a deliberate decision: teaching was taking up a significant part of my working week, and if I wanted to properly pursue my own acting and writing career, something had to give.

And yet, I still receive enquiries about singing lessons almost every week.

There is a part of me that would happily lean right back into it. Finally finish my Estill Master Teacher exams. Keep learning everything I can about the science of the voice and offer that training to anyone who wanted it.

Similarly, I regularly hear from young actors trying to get into drama school.

Can I help them choose their pieces? What should they expect in an audition? What did I do when I applied to NIDA?

Could we have a coffee?

Could I read something they’ve written?

And it genuinely pains me that I can’t dive into every one of those conversations.

The same goes for supporting other creatives’ work.

I’m enormously appreciative when somebody invites me to their screening, reading, show or opening. I know how much it means when people actually turn up.

I also know I physically cannot get to them all.

But I’m a working actor, writer and director trying to continue building my own creative career, and I’m raising two little boys.

There are only so many hours.

So I’ve started thinking about how I can stay generous and accessible without pretending I have an infinite supply of time.

Keeping my DMs open

I might not always be able to offer an hour-long conversation, but I can often answer a question. Point someone towards a resource. Suggest where they might look for a piece. Tell them the thing I wish somebody had told me.

Writing about my experiences.

One coffee lets me answer one person’s question. A blog about something I’ve learned — including the (many) things I got wrong — can potentially answer that same question for a whole lot more people.

Sharing my stories online

I’m trying to get in front of the camera more, to share my actual journey: auditions, agents, producing, networking, rejection, mistakes, things I’m learning as I go.

Not because I think someone else’s path will mimic mine, but sometimes knowing how somebody else navigated something gives you a place to start.

And while I’d love to Facetime every person who wants these questions answered, my hope is that this type of content is a step towards the next best thing.

Building mentorship into my work

Where I can, I’m deliberately choosing projects where mentorship can be built into the work. Directing and supporting the script development of COOKED was one recent example.

I’m also developing a podcast with mentorship built into its structure — a way to make some of those conversations I would happily have one-to-one useful to many more people. Stay tuned on that.

I still wish I could say yes more often. I’d still love to have all the coffees.

But I’m learning that giving back doesn’t have to mean being endlessly available.

Sometimes it means sharing what you can, in the form you can, with the time you actually have.

And in this particular season of my life, this is the way I can give back.