The Invisible Mentor is where the self-motivated come to mentor themselves! My name is Avil Beckford, also known as The Expert Interviewer.

Learn from the Experiences of Others!

Consider me as a matchmaker of sorts. I match people with mentors, not the traditional kind of mentors, the invisible kind, and I don’t match you in the traditional way. Invisible Mentors are the kind of people you learn from, by observing them from a distance – role models. Sometimes you get lucky and you meet your invisible mentors, but more often than not, you never do. The Invisible Mentor blog is a non-traditional mentoring program – I present you with mentors through the form of expert interviews with successful people, and wisdom of life profiles, and you take the initiative to learn from their experiences.

I am an expert interviewer, have been interviewing people for over 18 years. Initially, I interviewed them as part of a research project to gather information. But more recently, since 2004, I have been interviewing people who I wanted to learn from, to hear their experiences.

One morning in the fall of 2007 while taking a long walk in High Park in Toronto, it suddenly occurred to me that the people I interview are my invisible mentors. About 18 months later, in 2009, The Invisible Mentor blog was born. Since then, the blog has been morphing as I have been evolving as a person, and as I have been learning to be a better matchmaker.

Many of the people I interview, when I ask them about how mentors influenced their lives, they talk about being mentored by the books they read, by people they have never met. They are talking about invisible mentors, except they are not calling it that because the concept is not widespread yet.

I cannot succeed in this matchmaking business without your help. We have to do this together.

I have often wondered how I could share my passion, my passion for ongoing learning. I have this theory that we can use yesterday’s ideas to solve today’s problems. But the thing is this, we can’t get stuck in the past, so I thought it important that we have a bridge to connect the past to the present, yesterday to today, and that’s what I’m trying to do with The Invisible Mentor blog.

Each day on The Invisible Mentor blog, I bring you invisible mentors, they are in the form of the people I interview that I present on Mondays for Adventures in Learning who give us insights into their area of specialties, or the people I interview that I present on Thursdays and Fridays who share their work and life experiences with us, or the SummaReviews (hybrid book summary and review) on Booked for Mentoring, some of which are timeless classics that are still relevant to us today, or the wise people I profile for Wisdom of Life or Women in Wisdom on Wednesdays, who were not afraid to make the world a better place than they found it.

My intent is for us to expand our knowledge together in a safe way through invisible mentors. Today we have to go both deep and wide in our knowledge. Deep in our field of specialty, and wide, by learning a little about a lot of things. This is important because we’ll always have something to say at cocktail parties and other events, but it’s also a great way to build our general knowledge which helps us in more creative problem solving.

How you can help me become a better matchmaker

Comment and let me know how I am doing, how I can improve, and help me spread the word about invisible mentors. When I present profiles of wise people for the Wisdom of Life series, who you resonate with, learn more about them. I usually include sources that I pulled the information from so that you can read more. If you like a SummaReview, read the book for yourself. For Adventures in Learning, if the information that the experts present, whets your appetite, take the time to learn more about the field. If you enjoy the interviews I feature on Thursdays and Fridays, take the time to extract the pearls of wisdom and do something with it. Become an active participant, and that’s when you’ll get the most from The Invisible Mentor blog.

I commit to bringing you diverse invisible mentors, and over time, with your feedback, I’ll be better able to fine tune the way I match readers with mentors, and become a better matchmaker in the process. This is a different way to mentor, but because it’s different doesn’t make it less important. Invisible Mentors do not take the place of traditional mentors, but they make great complements to them.

If you are interested in my expert interviewing service, and/or other products and services, please visit The Invisible Mentor Products and Services.

Note of  Disclosure

To make it easy for you, if you like a SummaReview, I have included the link for you the purchase the book easily from Amazon. All Amazon links on the Invisible Mentor Blog are Affiliate links.

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