Hey guys. I haven’t shared a mentoring project with you in a LONG while, but I haven’t stopped mentoring. In fact, I recently started a mentorship group, (Sawdust Squad) and will be inviting my mentees to share some of their journey with you.
Mentoring
For the last four years, I’ve been virtually helping people tackle projects in their homes, all over the world. In the beginning, my clients were required to write a weekly journal to share with you on the Sawdust Diaries. It was very time consuming to manage editing my clients’ photos and journals into posts to share –in addition to my own projects, videos, photos and posts. After a year or so I stopped sharing those projects with you, but I didn’t stop mentoring.
This year, as I took on even more personal projects (taking on transforming whole houses with my Sister in 30 day stints), I stopped taking new clients. I love mentoring and want to keep it up until I’m 99, but I currently can’t do weekly sessions with individual clients.
Soooooo, I recently started a “Mentorship Squad”. We have monthly, small group sessions, via Skype. My goal for this group is to stretch them out of their wheelhouses to learn new techniques and skills. Each month I will issue a challenge (for instance November’s challenge is to learn a new joinery technique), and then they will create a project that allows them to feature that a “new to them” technique.
Mentoring sessions have given me a lot of ideas for articles to share with you here. The questions asked by one person are usually the things that lots of other people would like to know too. In addition to the tips, tools, techniques and tutorials I create to share with you, my mentees will be sharing something from their “skill stretching experiences”. All my mentees are bloggers so photography and writing (and all the editing and everything else that goes with blogging) is part of the skill set they are honing — so that part of sharing this adventure with you all won’t be on my shoulders.
I am looking forward to watching these awesome ladies as their skills grow and improve. Hopefully you’ll enjoy the creative projects and posts that are going to come out of this new venture too!
p.s. I wish I could mentor every single person that expresses an interest, but it’s just not possible. My SG Squad members have to be able and willing to turn what they learn in our sessions into teaching moments for our readers. Here’s a few requirements:
- Must be a blogger and share unique DIY/”maker”/woodworking/cabinet making/ home renovation type content on your blog.
- Must be interested in stretching your skills in one or more of these areas: woodworking, “making”, home renovation, cabinet making, DIY kind of stuff.
- Squad members will create one piece of unique content, exclusively for SawdustGirl.com, each month.
- Photography and writing skills are important blogging skills.
If you are interested in being a part of my SG Squad, you can email me and tell me why. This is definitely a test.
shane hertzog says
Hi sandra my name is shane hertzog from australia and i watch you on utube.You are excellent at woodworking you are precise with your joinery and you have great brands of machinery.
Sandra says
Hi Shane! I want to visit Australia someday. We’ll have to meet up when that happens.
Julie Spear says
This is such a cool idea, and very cool of YOU to share your knowledge like this! How can we see these bloggers’ projects, who are part of your group of mentees? Is there a search term we can use to find their blog posts of these projects theu are learning?
Sandra says
Well none of them have shared posts yet. I’ll introduce you to each one as they share their posts. Tomorrow will be our first one!
Tammy says
I like that idea, unfortunately I am not that talented. I just love following you…!! You do WONDERFUL WORK..!!!
Sandra says
Thank you for sharing my journey with me! Your encouragement and excitement in what I’m doing helps me keep going!
mike harley says
Hi Sandra
I just discovered your site while searching out some dimensions for building a flip-up queen sized bed. (That is a whole other story.) Regardless, your blog on the Calderwood Cottage is cooler than cool! Nicely Done!!!
My wife and I have been working on a similar project for the last year or so. We decided to build our own home in very rural south-east Arizona. We are not quite as aggressive as you. We hired a builder to do all of the construction through sheetrocking and taping. We have done the rest ourselves – painting (of course), hanging inside doors, floor tiling, building all of the cabinetry, wall tile, trim, etc.
I do have a blog where I have commented on our successes (and failures) through the build process, similar to what you have done with your Calderwood project. It is located at: mtacres(dot)net.
If you are interested in the details of how I did the cabinetry or why I did it in the order that I did, please start reading from about May or June 2017 and read forward. Otherwise, I thought I was a couple weeks ago, but wife gave an arm sized list of a BUNCH of other woodworking projects she wants. So I guess the house is not done and I am happy as a clam in woodworking purgatory.