Virtual Mentors: Using Social Media For Success

In James Altuchers new book, Reinvent Yourself, he talks about having mentors. The part that opened my eyes was when he wrote about having Virtual Mentors.

Today I wanted to elaborate on my recent post: Is Social Media a Personal Branding Platform Or The Devil!?, I wanted to talk about one of the most positive things around Social Media. That is if you follow the right people.

Mentors can be anyone you look up to, anyone whose work and ideas inspire you to do something yourself. The people I am about to describe might not even know I exist, but their content they create be it through their own blogs or their tweets, keep me going every day. I look at these people as my own Virtual Mentors. People that have forged their own space in this world and who I get infinite knowledge from. The most beautiful thing about it? These people are doing it for FREE.

Every single day these people are writing, tweeting, or creating videos. They are offering their deepest wisdom right on Social Media platforms. Where most people use Social Media for bullshit, mine is full of the most inspirational people I have ever come across.

I look up to these people. Their content has helped me improve every day. Today, I am sitting in front of my computer typing this up. I would have never done it without these Mentors.

The people below are who I consider being my Virtual Mentors. The names will be linked to their Twitter and the websites will be in parentheses.

My Virtual Mentors:

Victor Pride (boldanddetermined.com):

I can not start a list of Virtual Mentors without naming The Godfather of the NWR. Victor Pride has single handedly got me from coming home at night and playing video games to CREATING.

I wrote a review of his fantastic new book New World Ronin. And while the book is groundbreaking and a blueprint for success, nothing has ever hit me as hard as when I stumbled across his post You, Inc.

You, Inc. is a hard hitting, no bullshit blog post. If you can read that and not want to change your life then you may not have a soul. I sat in my car that day and after reading this brilliant post, I decided that my life was going to be different from now on.

I made a decision to do something I always wanted to do and that was to create. No longer was I going to be like everyone else and mindlessly consume. In that moment, I decided to be a PRODUCER.

The days of coming home and relaxing were over. I was going to do something for myself and that was to start my own blog, which I also registered at Victors very own BADnet.

Gary Vaynerchuk (garyvaynerchuk.com):

I do not know of a person that is blunter and to the point with business than Gary Vee. The man exudes confidence from every word he speaks.

The dude can sell salt to a slug. I listen to his podcast daily and every single one is pure fire.

If you ever think of quitting what you’re doing or giving up on your hopes and dreams, listen to Gary talk. You will instantly have a fire lit under your ass to go out and execute.

Not only does Gary teach incredible work ethic, he also teaches about caring about your audience.

In his book, Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook he talks about how the meaning of the title is Give, Give, Give, Ask. He preaches to always be giving value. You give value to the world and you will get that back tenfold.

Gary is someone I can always go to for that motivation to keep creating. He inspires me every day. I would HIGHLY recommend following him on all social media platforms because he’s constantly on all of them crushing it with value for his audience.

James Altucher (jamesaltucher.com):

If Victor Pride got me into starting my own blog and Gary Vaynerchuk lit the fire under my ass to give value every day, then James Altucher is the Mentor I look to for how to write.

James is my favorite author at the moment. I do not know one single person who is more vulnerable and bleeds on the pages more than this dude. He takes his deepest and darkest moments of his life and spills them on the page for all to see. James writes about his successes and failures to show you how to better yourself from it.

James Altucher is the guy who as soon as his new blog post hits his site, I am over and reading it. I aspire to be as vulnerable in my writing as this man is. If you are ever feeling like you lost it all or that you can’t make it in this world, then gives James’ books a try. You will forever be a fan, I promise.

Ed Latimore (edlatimore.com):

Ed Latimore is a boxer and a writer. He is the guy you want to follow if you want to see how to Twitter. The man creates 100’s of inspirational tweets every single week. He has Twitter down to a science and for that is another of my Virtual Mentors.

Every single time I look up my Twitter Highlights, Ed has something of value on there. I sit and wonder sometimes just how he comes up with so much great content on the daily. He is a smart dude who’s blog is one of the best on the internet. If his tweets are gold then his full on writing is the treasure chest.

I follow Ed because of, not only what I mentioned above, but the dude is kind enough to engage his followers. Ed has liked and retweeted my responses to him multiple times. He cares about his following and that is the reason the man will be here a long time.

Alexander Juan Antonio Cortes (alexanderjuanantoniocortes.com/):

Ok, so far we have Mentors for Blogging, Executing, Writing, and Tweeting. This next Virtual Mentor is all about fitness. Alexander has his own site as listed above, but where this Mentor excels is in his email newsletter.

Every single day this guy sends out 3 emails. Some are short but most are full blown blog posts. To be honest, they come through so much I get backed up on my reading of them. But that does not take away from the fact he is providing value multiple times a day. And once again, FOR FREE.

If you want to get health and fitness emails that are some of the best writing on the subject, make sure to sign up to his newsletter. You will not be disappointed.

Amy Schmittauer (savvysexysocial.com):

The Vlog Boss! Amy is a newcomer on my list of Virtual Mentors. I stumbled upon her from Gary Vaynerchuk’s newsletter. He recommended Amy to anyone that is looking to get into Vlogging. Being that I want to get better skills in all of my content creation, I bought her book.

The book was fantastic. I did a review on it that you can see here. Amy brings her personality in her writing. Not only does that make it enjoyable the whole way through, it is super informative.

If Victor Pride wrote the blueprint to create a blog, Amy wrote the blueprint to get started in the vlogging world.

Thanks to Amy I am now creating a video for every single blog post I write. I also do a weekly video podcast with my good friend Nasum.

Same as Ed Latimore above, Amy cares deeply for her followers. She engages her audience and promotes their work on Twitter and other social media platforms.

Amy is the YouTuber I aspire to be as good as one day. And from the value she provides on her YouTube channel and blog, I feel that I will get there.

Dylan Madden (calmandcollected.com)

Dylan is the creator of Calm and Collected, as well as Sites Delight. He writes great blog posts and also creates videos for YouTube. While Dylan has been in this game a lot longer than me, he is one of the dudes I can most relate to.

He is working on his brand just like I am. Even though he is further on his path than I am, he is someone I can watch to see how to do things from the ground level.

Every single day Dylan is creating videos and blog posts that inspire me to keep going down this path of Personal Branding. He is a great writer and content creator.

Funny story: I have been tweeting at people for a good 3 months now and I never knew why it seemed like no one ever saw it. Then one day, after I see Dylan had followed me back, I receive a direct message on Twitter. He was telling me that my privacy settings were turned on and in order for people to see and share my content, I would need to open up my Twitter account.

Needless to say, after that I was getting my tweets liked and retweeted. Thanks Dylan for that tip!

Conclusion:

The people I have described above are the reasons why a social platform like Twitter can be so influential. If you follow positive people you will have a positive experience on whatever platform you use. It is when you follow junk that it becomes the time waster that adds no value to your life.

Social Media is a powerful tool. You just need to optimize it in your favor. Not only do you have something uplifting to read every day, it’s also a platform that you get to engage with people you otherwise couldn’t have.

I encourage everyone to start following inspiring people and take advantage of all the free value these people provide. You will start to see how amazing Social Media is when you start using it the right way.

If you have any questions or comments, please leave your thoughts below.