You Don’t Have to Be an Expert to Mentor Someone

I used to think mentors were people who were way ahead of me. Highly experienced, established artists. People I aspired to be like.

People who had already achieved the things I was still trying to figure out.

And yet, more and more lately, people have started asking me questions.

Young actors message me about getting into NIDA. Where should they find audition pieces? What should they know before they walk into the room?

Someone will ask if I’ll read their script.

Someone else will ask if we can have a coffee so they can pick my brain about writing, producing, acting, or navigating a creative career.

And every now and then, a little voice in my head still thinks: Why are you asking me? I’m still figuring this out too.

Hello, imposter syndrome.

Because it’s true, I am still figuring it out.

I’m not at the top of my field. I still ask for advice constantly. I look at so many other people’s stellar careers and think, Right. How on earth do I get from here to there?

But something else is also true – I know an awful lot more than I did at twenty.

I know what it’s like to write a play, mount an independent production and tour internationally. I know more about approaching agents, producers and theatres, pitching an idea, and making expensive mistakes — and, occasionally, slightly less expensive ones.

Over the past year, I’ve also deliberately worked on some of the less obvious skills involved in building a creative career. Networking (oh, the horror).

Walking into events where I don’t know everybody. Breaking the ice with strangers. Talking about my own work without wanting to crawl under the table. Learning how to represent myself, build genuine relationships, follow up afterwards and actually pitch what I do.

I’m still learning every single one of those things. But I’m further along than I was.

And increasingly, I wonder whether that is enough.

Because if I wait until I feel like an expert before I help someone coming up behind me, I could be waiting forever. There will always be someone with more credits, more experience, a bigger network or a more impressive CV.

But there are also people earlier in their careers for whom the things I’ve already learned might be genuinely useful.

I think there’s a danger in continually telling ourselves:

Not yet. I’ll help when I know more.

I’ll make the introduction when I’m more established.

I’ll answer the questions once I’ve really made it.

At some point, that starts to feel a little like closing the door behind us while we wait to feel qualified enough to hold it open.

A mid-career artist can absolutely offer something valuable to an emerging artist while still needing mentors of their own.

We can be learning and helping at exactly the same time.

Sometimes mentorship might simply be saying:

I’ve already walked this bit.

Here’s what I learned.

Come on.