It's hard to find bright sides to the current pandemic and quarantine procedures around COVID-19, and when you do, it doesn't always feel appropriate to celebrate them. Each day, we're all seeing more people we care about be directly affected, often in tragic ways, by the disease.
But if we don't take some time once in a while to look at the rays of sunlight that peek through the clouds, just staying motivated at all could become an unwieldy weight to carry each day.
That's why it felt good for me to write up a piece in this week's issue of Adweek about how one-on-one networking and mentorship are booming in this era of quarantine.
The reasons are pretty simple and likely relatable: We have more time, we have more privacy, and we have far too few ways of feeling productive day to day in a world where marketing often feels superfluous.
If you haven't yet found a mentor or offered to be a mentor, I definitely encourage you to take the time. It starts as easily as tweeting out the offer to help or the request for advice. Someone in your network will likely point you in a good direction.
You can also sign up to offer a portfolio critique (or have yours critiqued) via the Fellow networking app's Quarantine Junior Book Review spreadsheet. The One Club also today announced its own Online Portfolio Review.
If you're not looking to mentor or be mentored, there's always good old peer-to-peer networking. To me, that's often even more productive than being mentored, because you're chatting with someone who's in the trenches facing the same kinds of challenges and obstacles that you are each day.
And as always, if I can help, don't hesitate to reach out. You can reach me at the email address below or at @Griner on Twitter.
David Griner
Creative and Innovation Editor, Adweek
David.Griner@Adweek.com
