MANSFIELD — It’s OK to be clueless.
“We have to feel at least a little stupid to learn something,” said Artie Isaac, keynote speaker at the Richland Young Professionals’ annual celebration Tuesday night.
Isaac spoke about mentorship — more specifically what he’s learned about mentorship through his own mentors – before RYP presented 2017 graduates from its own mentorship program.
“If you believe in mentorship, you invest in it,” he said.
Isaac resides in Columbus and leads corporate “brainstorming and idea generation” programs. He has taught a class on creativity at the Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business and other classes on marketing and ethics at the Columbus College of Art and Design. He also owned an award-winning advertising company.
But he never found a mentor until he was already 30-years-old.
“I thought asking for help would be a sign of weakness,” Isaac said.
He advises others to find a mentor sooner. In fact, he challenged the audience to identify their own mentor and mentee by Wednesday morning.
He said the best mentors should ask questions and challenge their mentees. He suggests following an agenda when meeting with a mentee and stresses the importance of speaking to them as an equal.
“Talk to people like a year older than they are,” he said.
The third RYP mentorship program graduating class consisted of 12 pairs (mentors and mentees) who were matched based on a questionnaire and have met once a month for the past six months.
“I could not have asked for a better mentor,” said Tawni Lee, who works in the Clerk of Courts office and as a realtor.
Her mentor was the mayor of Ontario, Randy Hutchinson.
Lee was considering a path in politics, which led to her pairing with Hutchinson. So while she’s not certain about this career path anymore, she is determined to make a difference and “give back” to her community.
“She’s a very energetic young lady,” Hutchinson said. “She has some great skills, and it was fun working with her.”
Courtney Cline of Design by Cline was paired with Bob Cohen, CEO of Braintree Business Development Center.
“I think we worked well and I understood her business,” Cohen said. “We had similar business and personality traits, and I’d like to think she picked up a few tips and things that were helpful for her business.”
Cline agreed that the experience was beneficial.
“The more effort you put into it, the more you get out of it,” she said.
