Take on a mentor as early in your career as possible, two representatives of a free mentoring network that has supported nearly 100 mentees have urged.
Talking last night at The Channel Community’s latest event at Softcat’s new Manchester HQ, Kate Auchterlonie and Daniel Evans also revealed their top tips on how to pick the right mentor.
“Just do it”
Founded in 2021, The Channel Community aims to connect like-minded people across the channel who want to help individuals reach their full potential through mentoring.
As well as being its two ‘mentee matchmakers’, Evans and Auchterlonie have both benefitted from free mentorship from the non-profit firm since 2021 and 2022, respectively.
The duo are often the first point of engagement for mentees looking to match with a mentor (or ‘Channel Buddy’), as was the case recently with a young Softcat graduate.
“Don’t waste time; just do it,” Auchterlonie, who is Content Manager at SCC Digital, told compere Richard Eglon.
“It’s an amazing way to progress your career and get another perspective.
“I’d also say you don’t have to be struggling. It can just be about moving forwards.”
Evans, who is Senior Partner Manager at Distology, agreed.
“Do it as early as you can; if you want it, it’s there for the taking,” he said.
“Also, there are lots of people well into their career who are looking to make a change or transition into a different role – and I think there’s a bit of nervousness around it, because they might not have committed to do it. But it’s confidential, we can just talk and take that first step.”
“We’ll soon hit 100”
Since it was launched five years ago, The Channel Community has hosted 26 events and connected 1,461 community members, Eglon revealed.
Most importantly, it has now supported 91 mentees, with Eglon revealing the three-figure milestone is firmly in sight.
“We’ll soon hit 100,” said Eglon, who is a Channel Buddy and CMO at Nebula Global Services.
The Channel Community currently has 35 volunteer Channel Buddies waiting to take on mentees, Eglon added.
“I guarantee we’ve got somebody who’ll be relevant to whatever you’re looking for, whether that’s sales, supply, marketing, technical, personal development skills – or whatever it is,” Eglon said.
Choosing a Channel Buddy is “simple”, Evans said, stressing there is a “massive button” on each of their bios on The Channel Community’s website that links to their respective LinkedIn profiles.
“Our details are on there as well. So if you want a call with us, we’ve met a lot of the mentors and can match people up,” he said.
“I wrote a little newspaper ad”
Asked by an audience member how mentees typically go about choosing a Channel Buddy, Auchterlonie advised them to book intro calls with up to three before making a decision.
“I wrote a little newspaper ad – I knew what I wanted. I recited it to [my mentor] and said, ‘is that something you can help me with’? And she was like, ‘absolutely’,” Auchterlonie said.
Evans said his aim was to find someone who could point the way in his chosen field of partner management.
“I was trying to find a particular persona, and also someone who understood channel partnerships and had been out there at resellers trying to drive business forward,” he recalled.
“He’d been there, seen it and done it, and actually what surprised me was some of the similarities between what we were doing at the same time – even if he was doing it at a more senior level.”
“It’s got one purpose”
The duo also spoke openly about some of the limitations of mentor-mentee relationships, with Auchterlonie saying it’s important to realise mentors won’t have all the answers.
“In some circumstances, I have gone elsewhere for advice, and that’s absolutely fine,” Evans concurred.
“Tapping into that network in The Channel Community has been massive, because there are lots of different mentors – you don’t have to officially be signed up with an individual and be tied to them for life.”
The Channel Community was born out of a meeting in a pub in April 2021, with the original goal being to build a community and “trusted space”, Eglon said.
It became a Community Interest Company in 2024.
“It feels like we’ve grown into a proper entity now. And I don’t know of any other community like this that’s volunteer led and that’s not here to make money for the shareholders. It’s got one purpose, and that’s to bring together people,” he concluded.
