COMING FOR 2027
In 1987, I was scheduled to open for Sally Rogers in Madison, Wisconsin. The late great Art Thieme introduced me to her in a way that made me cringe. “You have to hear this girl! She sounds more like you than you do!” At 27, I knew enough to say as respectfully as I could to Sally when I met her, “Someday I want to sound as much like Lynn Noel as you do like Sally Rogers.” At 66, Sally and I are colleagues, and I still admire her as much as I ever did. We sing a lot of the same songs, and she has her voice and I have mine. That’s the foundation for unison in harmony.
I will be talking with lots of people for the rest of this year about how to shape a mentoring relationship that feels organic, intentional, and productive. Everyone’s busy, including me, but I want to hold space to do the kind of work I’ve valued doing informally with April Grant and Cate Clifford and others over the years. I admire them tremendously as colleagues and friends, and I love how each of their artistic voices have emerged so they sound most uniquely like themselves.
I don’t know yet who the first Fellow will be. I know that talent and commitment are foundational, but there’s more. There’s a willingness to get out of your own way involved (because it makes me nuts when I can’t help someone), so the lightbulb has to have a sincere desire to change. There’s a fierceness and a softness about both April and Cate that I genuinely respect, and that level of respect has to go both ways. I’m kind of hoping that a Fellow will find me, because like I said in a blog post once, “You can’t make yourself a guru. Only other people can make you a guru.” I’m wondering who on the team will make me one. (read more)
That article talks about the TED talk by Derek Sievers “On Building a Movement,” and describes the crucial role of the Lone Nut. That’s me right now. I’m out here imagining something on my own with DHC. There’s another crucial role of the First Follower: someone whom the leader embraces as an equal, and they do something simple together, and then others join in.
If you think you might be a First Follower, then take a look at my article and tell me what you think. We might start a movement.