Here is one of our most requested Zoomcast discussions and that is what it’s like to be a mentor and what it’s like to be a mentee. Both Tommy Chambers and Colby Schneider were paired at James Madison University. Tommy is a JMU alum. Colby is now a JMU alum, but at the time he was a student and they got magically matched through our algorithm and they ended up working together for a semester, which is typically our finite timeframe. However, for these two, it went beyond that and I thought I would choose them today because I wanted you all to hear from the individuals who participated in this early and hear about their experience. We have a lot of mentors who they are giving of their time or they might be interested in doing something like this. They want to serve their younger self, so to speak, in a capacity of mentorship.
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Tina Fox:
Hi everyone, this is Tina Fox, CEO and Creator of TERN Mentoring. Today, we have our most requested Zoom cast, and that is that you all want to know what it’s like to be a mentor and what it’s like to be a mentee. And I happen to have an outstanding pairing from a couple of years past. Both Tommy Chambers and Colby Schneider were paired at JMU. Tommy is a JMU alum. Colby is now a JMU alum, but at the time he was a student, they got magically matched through our algorithm and ended up working together for a semester, which is typically our finite time frame. However, for these two, it went beyond that and I thought I would choose them today because I wanted you all to hear from the individuals who participated in this early and hear about their experience. So I will start with you, Tommy, if that’s all right. We have a lot of mentors who are giving of their time or they might be interested in doing something like this. They want to serve their younger self, so to speak, in a capacity of mentorship. And we at TERN like to say, live your legacy through mentorship and you’ve done that several times. So, what does being a mentor mean to you?
Tommy Chambers:
Well, Tina, first thanks for having us on. When I hear this great pairing, I think of peanut butter and jelly, and Colby, you’re so much more than either peanut butter or jelly. But when I think of good pairings, that’s what I think about. Also, Tina, with TERN mentoring, I’d love to tell you more about my experience, but first of all, thank you for what you are providing to other people. I mean this provides win, win, win, win, this chain of wins. And I love the word legacy for you in this because the legacy of winning and giving in it’s selfless in that you’re creating more for others through your business and your program at TERN. So thank you for what you’re doing and thank you for allowing me an early opportunity to become a mentor in your system. It turns out it’s been a great start.
Tina:
Wasn’t supposed to be a cry fest, so thank you for that. That’s very kind, very kind.
Tommy:
So the question was what does being a mentor mean to me? I thought this was interesting especially in terms of having an interview with Colby today because the term mentor, you can look up the definition, but also there’s the term formentor, and a formentor is an electrical engineering apparatus that basically helps to form and shape other things. And I thought it was kind of neat that Colby’s coming from an engineering background and we’re talking about mentorship and I’d never looked up formentor and mentor as a derivative of each other, but to shape to other things. My experience as a mentor with TERN has been the honor of having an opportunity to learn from the mentees, to learn as a mentor, not just to try to share experiences or give advice and to be part of shaping other people’s perspectives while it’s also shaping mine has been a fascinating part of the experience for me.
Tina:
I love that about you Tommy, because there are different ways to learn. There’s learning up, learning on the same level as you, and then also learning from those who maybe don’t have as much experience as you, but just seeing it from a different perspective. So I love your definition and thank you for giving me something new to look up and to think about. So, on that note, you and Colby were matched, but you all aren’t of the same major, so you’re not of the same industry. Tommy, can you tell us a little bit about your background and what you majored in, and then we’re going to switch it over to Colby?
Tommy:
Yeah, I was lucky enough to be a JMU Duke and I majored in marketing and economics or minor in economics. So the intention was always to be in the business field, not industry-specific. And for me it’s one of the things that actually created a fascinating pairing for me was to have somebody that didn’t think like me, that I could share perspective from my experience, not from my qualifications and to learn from Colby, his perspective coming from a different industry angle than my qualifications were as well. So it really made it a really interesting pairing and fascinating two-way learning experience.
Tina:
Now you graduated with a marketing econ degree, but what are you doing today?
Tommy:
Now I have a conglomerate of real estate service businesses. We have brokerage and property management as our core business service. So innovating in the space and not just doing it the way it has been done and finding ways to do it better, still constantly improving.
Tina:
That’s awesome. So Colby, you are an engineering major, you just graduated from JMU not that long ago. You get paired with the guy who was not an engineering major and now he’s running this conglomerate in the real estate industry and he’s an entrepreneur. So when you first got paired with him, what were your thoughts on being paired with somebody who was not an engineering major?
Colby:
Yeah, so that’s a great question and first I just wanted to say the second one, Tommy said thank you so much for being a champion of this program. Oftentimes when people ask me about it, I say it is single-handedly the most influential decision that I made was to become a mentee and take this chance and take this leap. And I’m very happy to have this opportunity today to share my story because if it wasn’t for a very enthusiastic prior mentee, my sophomore year roommate Homer, I probably would not have hopped on this and taken this chance and taken this opportunity. So I’m hoping maybe I can spark some enthusiasm to some students who may be a little skeptical of whether or not to make that change.
Tina:
I’m going to have to take that leap. Colby, I did not know Homer was your roommate. I’m just learning that right now. And you know what, Homer jumped. He’s a graduate now too, correct?
Colby:
Yes, absolutely. He just got a new job out for a startup actually, which is pretty cool. He got a new job out in Carlson, South Carolina.
Tina:
So you want to know how this is a full circle moment? Homer ended up on one of our calls the other week to onboard as a mentor. So now that he’s graduated, he’s moving this full circle and he’s coming back and he’s serving the students that are still coming behind him. I’m going to get you on that as soon as I can too. So that’s going to be my ask later on.
Colby:
Absolutely. That is awesome. I’m glad for him. He is a master storyteller so he is going to do a great job. I already know that. That’s awesome for him. I didn’t know that. That’s terrific.
Tina:
So here you are paired up with Tommy. You don’t have necessarily similar backgrounds, but what was that experience like for you?
Colby:
Yeah, so I didn’t necessarily know what I was going to do after college. I obviously wanted to go into the engineering realm, but I always had a kind of instinct to kind of work for myself. I’ve always liked leading projects. So that’s what kind of attracted me to the mentorship program itself to be paired with the entrepreneur. When I found out that Tommy was in real estate, I was a little bit taken aback. At first I was like, well, I’ve never really thought about going into real estate. I didn’t know everything. I didn’t know what I could really learn of value that I was interested in. Boy was I wrong. It was so much more than just learning about his side of the business, actually it was a very small fraction of that. Most of it was weekly meetings where we would challenge each other, we’d set goals and I think the biggest thing that, one of the most valuable things that I took out of it was in the beginning of our mentorship, we did an Enneagram test.
Colby:
I was a three wing two, that’s the achiever. The main group is the achiever and the wing group is the caregiver. And one of the main weaknesses of that group is that they have a very significant fear of failure. They need to feel validated by others. And what I got out of this mentorship, one of the many things I got out of this mentorship was to learn to validate myself – that I’m enough. I don’t need somebody else’s validation. I myself am inherently valuable and I can go out and produce that and that my confidence in interviews, I’m telling you since this mentorship, every time I’ve had to sell myself, whether it be an interview or a project I’m pitching, I have not lost. So just because we had different backgrounds, I was an engineer, I’m still in engineering, I work for an engineering firm at the moment; just because we were from different backgrounds, different fields, the learning that I took from that was so much more than just real estate property management.
Tina:
That is amazing. So I’m feeling that Colby because I’m a three wing too. So we have that in common. And interestingly I know Tommy to be an Enneagram of three as well. So it looks like we’ve got a lot of commonalities here. So even though the differences were in the backgrounds of study for you two, there were other commonalities. For instance, the fact that you both matched up in Enneagram being a three. And I love the confidence build. I also love the fact that you all decided to do these reflections within each one of your conversations. I think that’s what made you all a really magnanimous team. So those are just a great story. Thank you for sharing Colby.
Tommy:
Yeah, I would add to that it takes two, right? Or in this dynamic of a mentor and mentee, it can’t be all one sided on either side and it matters less as to the background or the qualifications or the field of study or the industry or whatever it might be. It matters a lot more about the engagement between the two people. And was Colby willing to engage? Was I willing to engage and was I willing to listen to where he was really struggling or what he was looking for value out of the mentorship instead of me just deciding to bring advice that maybe would not have been as valuable to him because I wasn’t listening to him right. So it took two, we both had to engage and listen to one another in a way to make that dynamic and that relationship productive for both of us.
Tina:
Yeah, absolutely. So it does take two and the fact that you two are coming from different backgrounds but willing to participate in this program and Colby, you had a roommate that encouraged you to come into this program. What would you say to other students that are contemplating, well I’ve got this collegiate to career transition. Would you give them any advice on how mentorship may or may not serve them? Any tips and things that you could share with them?
Colby:
Yeah, absolutely. So I mean I think if you’re considering, if you’re even the slightest bit interested in pursuing a mentorship, being a mentee, do it. Take that leap, take that chance first. My first thing is it’s low stakes, but the potential is high reward. I mean it is a class, you’re in college, there’s not millions of dollars on the line. The worst thing that could happen is that you just don’t click and you go away. You still have a connection and that’s that. Secondly, you’re going to learn things that I always say 10, 15, 20 years of experience. There’s not a textbook in the world that can fit that information in. And if you have somebody who’s willing to share that with you, by all means go for it even if it’s not through this specific TERN mentorship, if you have somebody who’s willing to share that experience with you, go for it.
Colby:
Absolutely. And then another one, so during my time interviewing, not only did I learn this was to quote my last interview from this job, they said, you’ve been trained well, you’ve been trained well because I was just voicing all the things that they really wanted to hear. And it was because of what I’ve learned through this mentorship program to name a couple I was making clear asks, I was voicing agreements versus expectations. That was a big one. That was one of my favorites. And I even, I’ll tell that story in a little bit, but I have some friends who just moved in together and they’re having some issues and that roommate stuff, it’s like listen guys, agreements versus expectations, it’s the resolver of all conflict. But you having that experience, that mentorship experience shows that you went out of your way to improve upon yourself, self-reflect and try to learn something new that you weren’t familiar with. And that just shows future employers, even if you don’t want to be an entrepreneur, it just shows future employers that you’re willing to take that risk. You’re willing to learn and you’re willing to better yourself.
Tina:
Colby, when you speak in your answer, you have this smile that there’s a story behind that smile. I mean you’re giving us a nibble, but if we had all the time in the world, and I’m going to ask you at some point in life, there is a smile behind that whole story of, oh man, if you could have seen me in the interview and to feel what I felt going through that. And I was like, I got this. I love that smile. I love that smile about you.
Colby:
And I will say prior to this I was not the best interviewer. I would get nervous, I would overthink, and there’s always still some nervousness always. But I felt, I don’t know it’s crazy the difference between before and after this experience with Tommy and I’m just grateful to have had the experience.
Tina:
Well Tommy is a master, so I know you were taught by one of the best. So Tommy, I was at JMU the last couple of days. I was talking to a bunch of seniors and I mentioned to them that at their time of life they’re used to the three Ps. They’re used to their parents, their peers and their professors, and those are the groups in which they operate. And what we’re trying to offer is we’re trying to offer them a fourth p, this other person and or professional that has decided to volunteer their time and give of their heart and share their opinion based on the wisdom they’ve gained through their experience. So my question for you Tommy, is what if somebody is wondering whether or not they should get into mentorship and become a mentor? Sometimes people are thinking, wow, that’s a heavy lift. How long is this going to last? Do I need to be this person’s best friend? What are we going to talk about? There’s a lot of things that keep people from wanting to be a mentor or that other, that fourth P. What would you say to them?
Tommy:
First, I thought you were going to call me a pirate as the fourth P.
Tina:
You do have the sword. You do have the sword, which I know people looking are going to say, what’s that sword?
Tommy:
I’d say this, and Colby, I really liked the way you said it, and the thing is what Colby’s expression has been. Every time he says something like that or what his experience was, I felt it too. And when I say I felt it, not just the gratitude but also I experienced learning in what he learned. I grew when he grew, it changed my perspective as well and it provided value to me as a professional. And at the same time it seemed to provide him value. It reinforced, it made me a better manager. It made me a better CEO. It made me a better father to be able to learn how to interact and practice. Colby and I, we practiced interacting, we practiced the interview. I made him interview with me even when he was like – “my interviewer…am I in an interview right now or am I not?”
Tommy:
And it was strange, but I was like, no, I’m going to keep asking the question until you feel confident about the answer and then when it’s authentic that you’ve answered it the way you want to answer it. But just to my team yesterday in a team meeting, I was like, hey, we need to talk about clear asks, do we have any clear asks of one another? And last week I was having a conversation with my wife about expectations versus agreements on giving our kid a cell phone and this whole type of thing instead of being like, oh well she was expecting that this was okay and I was having a different expectation. We had to agree on it, but it reinforced things when I discovered them again with you. But for other mentors it has purpose and it gave me meaning in what I do. And I’d say I seek out the things that make me feel like I have more purpose or more meaning. And it’s similar to what Colby said about, hey, what’s the worst that can happen versus the upside potential of engaging in this program? I mean the worst that could happen is, hey, I spent a couple of sessions, spent some time trying this thing out. And the upside is you can expand your network. You can learn how to be a better parent, boss, spouse. You can learn how to be.
Tommy:
For me, one of the things I wrote in Colby’s recommendation letters is that I have new hope for the entire generation after Colby. I call him the Luke Skywalker of his generation because Luke Skywalker is the new hope. And I was like, man, I did not have a really high opinion of the millennials I had interacted with before and I was trying to avoid hiring millennials before Colby. And after my engagement I was like, wow, there’s people out there like this. I’m ready to re-embrace hiring this new generation now. I’m willing to look at this differently and engage differently based on what I know someone like him can do. I mean it gave me more meaning. It gave me new engagement to better my business by hiring the next generation. Learning how to engage with that. I mean the upside potential is huge and there is really not any downside potential besides a few hours of time. So the other thing I’d say is if you are a believer in that meaning and purpose and giving and teaching others in life, the mentorship program is that opportunity to pull that sword out of the stone. It’s there if you want to take the next leap as a leader, then you need to practice mentorship in order to learn how to take the next step as a leader of your business. So for me, I mean it was an opportunity to pull the sword out of the stone.
Tina:
If anybody doesn’t know Tommy, I’m going to tell you right now, he is a clever guy and I knew he was going to work that sword into the conversation and there it was. So thank you for that, Tommy. Okay. I love what you said about the reinforcement for you in the discovery in your mentorship with Colby. So that was the key that I’m pulling forward because I have heard that from many mentors in that sometimes as we move through experience, we get mired in the details and having to re-engage with a different generation and getting out of all the details because they’re not involved in the details of what it is that we’re doing and reset to more of a general discussion sort of helps clear the air and gets back to what matters. And I’ve certainly seen that with you all. So the ripple effect of how this has affected you has, thank you for sharing that because that was another thing I wanted to touch on with mentorship.
Tina:
People think, oh, this goes on in perpetuity, how do you get out of this thing? Right? So you all knew that when you were coming into this program, what did you think about, I’ll start with Colby on this. What did you think about the way the program was set up as far as the number of sessions and the amount of time that you were supposed to connect in a semester? How did that work for you? Because you’re a student, you’re busy, you’ve got extracurricular activities, you want to go hang out with friends. How was that as far as the amount of time and the expectations and the agreement that we had you becoming a mentee?
Colby:
Absolutely. To kind of give some background as to how busy I was, not only was I doing this mentorship program, it wasn’t that much of a time commitment. It was a few hours a week. However, we did agree upon sometimes certain weeks that we’d spend a little extra time either writing down goals or just doing small little personal growth challenges like that. But I was an engineering ambassador on the executive board, which is like first off, that was another great decision I made. But we won’t get into that because that’s not for this. But that’s one of the most engaged student organizations in the engineering department at James Madison University. I was in 16 credit hours, which is a lot. And I had several in my engineering program. It’s a project-based curriculum. So I had several projects going on during that time, as well as a girlfriend who I’ve been with since sophomore year of high school, and friends like you said.
Colby:
And so all those things, that’s a lot of things to juggle, but the time commitment was not that bad. And one of the things that we talked about was being intentional with your time and that alone kind of helped me prioritize what to focus on and being able to say no to other things when they come around, that’s another characteristic of a three. They have a hard time saying no to things. And I actually did turn down a couple things that I was trying to do in order to kind of balance my time load and the time load wasn’t getting overwhelming because of this mentorship program. It was getting overwhelming because I kept saying yes to everything, but definitely a good use and a valuable use of the time.
Tina:
So I appreciate you mentioning what your workload looked like. I remember you being a very engaged student and I think that people that are contemplating coming into mentorship probably are very engaged students and it’s all a function of time. One of the things we wanted to make sure of and the way that we have it set now is about 30 minutes of agreed upon time per session knowing that perhaps especially with pairs that match really well, they may exceed that. So you guys certainly did that, especially because you are agreeing upon, the more you got to know each other, the more that you guys got involved with each other. So there are folks that I’ve also heard that are gung-ho to be mentees, gung-ho to be mentors, and they’re saying, well, your program is only for this amount of time. And I said, yeah, and that’s done on purpose, but we don’t dictate what happens thereafter. So you two are a perfect example of the thereafter, and that’s why I wanted to bring you on here because you have a really healthy mentorship relationship that not only extended beyond the program while you, Colby were still at JMU, but even outside during the summer et cetera. So Tommy, I guess can you talk to, as a mentor, what were you seeing in mentoring Colby that made you decide this is someone I want to stay connected with?
Tommy:
Yeah. Well, I mean lots of things. However, Colby, what I’ve started to see through both in our discussions with him doing our goals together, but also listening to what those other stresses were in his life and how he just pursues excellence in everything he does, was this guy’s got a Midas touch. Everything he touches turns to gold. And one of the greatest compliments I had ever received in my life was, Tommy, you were the catalyst for success at this one particular thing. It was one of the greatest team accomplishments I had been a part of in my life. And to be called the catalyst for that success was very meaningful for me and still to this day is one of the best confidence boosters I’ve ever received. And I started to see Colby through the mentorship experience as, wow, this guy’s a catalyst. He’s a catalyst for success. Everything he does, he pursues it to excellence and he turns it into gold. And I had this moment where he was describing, oh, I’m overloaded in my schedule, I’m really stressing out. I think your car was breaking down Colby.
Tommy:
He was working 10 hours a week at Food Lion for minimum wage basically to help pay some of his college bills while he was doing extra curricular stuff for school and engineering and the ambassador program. And he was like, I don’t know what to say no to. I don’t see where I can give something up and create a win. Because he valued his relationship with his girlfriend, he valued the value of the education. He was committed to the projects, he was not willing to take a B on, he was going to pursue to get an A plus in everything he was doing. And I was like, wow, this kid’s a catalyst and yet something’s got to give. And he was too stressed to see it. And I said, look, this was not the plan at the beginning of the mentorship. However Colby, I’d like you to interview with me right now and the interview opportunity is you’ll work virtually for me for five hours a week.
Tommy:
So you cut five hours out of working instead of spending 10 hours with Food Lion, you just spend five hours with me and I’ll pay you double what food Lion’s paying you. So you’re not giving up any income, but you create more time in your life. And we worked through that interview process. There were certain things I wanted to hear from him and I wanted to make sure it was something that he wanted, not just something that I wanted. I saw the opportunity for him to create a catalyst for my success. And true to form he said yes, I’m in. He’s still the best intern I’ve had since I started my own company and what he brought, and the research he did, and the one hundred percent he gave towards it. And I really believe we created a win-win. Colby didn’t have to sacrifice any income and created an extra five-plus hours in his week to create more room for the things that he wasn’t willing to give up.
Tina:
That’s awesome. That is absolutely. So you guys ended up in this internship relationship and then I get a call from you, Tommy that says, Hey, I’m doing something with my company out in Bend, Oregon. I just bought this company and I’m thinking about partnering with Colby. Can you describe that because that ended up being this next level ripple effect that I was just so amazed by because you extended this beyond one student, you ended up tapping into almost what 40 students. It was just an amazing situation. So maybe Colby, you can describe what that was like since you got the call from Tommy. So how’d that go?
Colby:
Yeah, so this was one of the cooler things that I got to do during my college time. Tommy had this vision, still has this vision of this kind of luxury living space called Nobilitree. The idea is that it’s going to be a biomimicry residential facility that mimics a tree or a forest in a way that is also sustainable and a place where people really want to live in all aspects of life, recreational uses. And he brought this vision and that was kind of the basis, the start of our internship. He wanted me to look into it, so I got to do all sorts of cool things. I made this huge model of this Nobilitree village and I got to explore all different things, all different types of renewable energy, energy storage, how to get sustainable water infrastructure and all sorts of things. And it was so at the time I had no idea I’d be doing what I do now, which is I’m a land development engineer, so I’m a lot better equipped now Tommy, if we want to go a second round.
Colby:
But I had no idea that that would lead to what I’m really doing in my career now. So after that internship ended, that was during the school year, kind of took the summer off actually, that was the end of our agreement. At the end of the school year, I went back home. I delivered a product to him that kind of detailed the ideas that I had for Nobilitree Village and that was kind of that. And then at the start of my senior year, I got a phone call from Tommy saying, Hey Colby, what do you think about doing a Nobilitree design challenge, not just through the engineering department but for the school? And he pitched it to me, I said, let’s do it now. I’ve done some design challenges with little kids for an hour before through engineering ambassadors, but I’ve never done anything like this. And it was quite the challenge, but it was so fruitful. We ended up getting, I believe it was over 50 students. We had 10 teams, we had some other majors. They were primarily engineering majors and getting about 50 students, that’s like 10% of the engineering program.
Colby:
It’s not a very big engineering program. So I was very happy that we were able to get that larger percentage of the entire engineering program throughout all four years to engage. And we were able to set up a design challenge where they went in and there were different design parameters and they got to pick what challenge they wanted to focus on. They made an engineering solution and then they got to present it in front of a bunch of real entrepreneurs, engineers, people in that field. And it was so meaningful for me to be able to provide that to my peers, that opportunity. That could have been the difference, that experience could have been the difference of them getting that summer internship that they were wanting, well hey look, this is what I did. I presented this in front of these stakeholders. I placed first, oh man, I’m forgetting the one kid who went out there, his teammates ended up dropping off and he ended up being a team of one. We allowed it and he went out there and he absolutely killed it. I was like, wow, this is the coolest moment. Just went up there by himself. He was a freshman, I believe he was either a freshman or a sophomore. No, he was a freshman. He’s a freshman. And he goes up there by himself in front of these stakeholders and has this polished presentation. It was like, wow, man, just being able to provide that opportunity.
Colby:
It was just astounding.
Tina:
I can’t
Colby:
Say anything else.
Tommy:
And yet it doesn’t happen without Colby’s engagement on the inside of JMU, right? This is the thing. Yeah, I had a vision and idea and then Colby and I worked on it together and we met our agreement and then it was like, okay, well here’s another idea for the next semester. Could we do something like this? And when he decided to be engaged, I knew it was going to be a success just because he was the catalyst and involved. So it was no shortage of work on your part, Colby, but it was something that really was a special program that I’d really like to do. Again, I really need to find a mentee that’s willing to engage at the next level.
Tina:
Well, and you guys did a masterful job in including the professors, because I remember the professors were amazing in the engineering department to look at their syllabus and figure out a way in which to take the classroom experience, marry it with this opportunity. And what I thought was even more crazy was that there was cash on the line that Tommy decided to give. And so these students walked away with an opportunity to earn a little bit of money while they were doing all of this hard work in a class that they needed to take anyway. And they had this real life practice to go along with it. I just love that you were talking to Tommy about all the wins. I loved all the wins you all created well after the fact in your relationship.
Tommy:
Absolutely. And it all starts with the seed of mentorship, right? And what can grow from there. And when I say mentorship, it’s the dynamic or the relationship between the mentor and the mentee that can really produce a lot of fruit. It can really grow into something really special. It can grow into a Nobilitree.
Tina:
Exactly right. That’s exactly right. Well, I want to wrap today. We always do a mentorship moment because you can learn just as much in just a few moments of time as you can in six sessions or over a semester. So having gone through this and knowing what mentorship can do for you, I wanted each one of you to maybe share a mentorship moment to pass on to the viewers of this. So I’m going to start with Tommy. What’s your mentorship moment?
Tommy:
For me, it really was that moment when I said to Colby, Hey, I would love to have someone with your dedication to excellence, helping me to explore and grow this vision and do some research and hire you as an intern. And that moment where he realized he was overfilled and stuff with his life, with all these different things that he was saying yes to, and him realizing that saying yes to this one meant actually adding time to his life and adding value to his life instead of saying yes to something that takes away. So for me it was that moment because it just springboarded us to the next step of our relationship and it continued to grow and build more legacy from there.
Tina:
That is awesome. And Colby, do you have a mentorship moment that you’d like to share?
Colby:
Yeah, I do. Now. I could share a lot more of Tommy’s, but I think I will take this time to kind of shout out another mentor that’s been in my life, my best friend’s dad, Walter Campbell. So I mean, mentorship is a lot about growth, right? But there’s something about being a child. There’s certain pieces of that you don’t want to lose that kind of excitement, that wonder that pays for adventure. Everything’s new, everything’s exciting, everything is engaging. And my friend’s dad, Walter Kim, we call him Big, big Walt, he taught me from a young age to find something that makes you feel like a kid and make time for it.
Colby:
He’s a very busy man. He’s president of a nationwide property or community management group. But just last night I was out there surfing with him. That’s his thing that makes him feel like a kid. And when he’s out there, he is probably in his mid to late fifties. And when he is out there, he still surfs with his friend, his childhood friends. When he is out there, you think it’s just like a bunch of 10 year olds out there just having fun, relaxing, and just kind of having a good time, having an adventure, feeling that release, getting excited about the natural world. And so that’s my one piece of mentorship advice that I’ve gotten from him is find something that makes you feel like a kid and make time to do it.
Tina:
Well say thank you to Big Walt for us and to my two catalysts at TERN, mentoring both Tommy Chambers and Colby Schneider. It’s always a pleasure to chit chat with you all. I hope those that are listening are inspired by your story, inspired by your friendship, your relationship, the mentorship that the two of you provide to each other. And if anybody’s interested in TERN mentoring, you can always reach us at [email protected]. We’re also online at TERNmentoring.com. We will enter you into one of our cohorts, either as a mentee or a mentor. We’re also on Instagram. You can check us out at Fox Paradigm, which is my umbrella company. So we’re bringing up a TERN mentoring one at some point. But I cannot say thank you enough to the two of you. I just think you’re amazing human beings. Tommy, I know you are making waves in this world. And Colby, I know that as a catalyst moving forward in the engineering world, I can’t wait to see what it is that you’re going to be doing in the years to come. We hope that we get to stay in touch. And my ask to you, Colby, is I do want you and as a mentor, because it looks like between Big Walt and Tommy, you could be passing on some good knowledge to yourself.
Colby:
Right? Alright.
Tommy:
Great to see you Colby. Thank you Tina. Absolutely.
Tina:
Alright you guys, you have a great rest of your day and we’ll chat soon.
Colby:
Alright, thank you.
