Mentor: Mr. Joshua Meek

Profession: Founder of Meek Industries

Location: Virtual Zoom Call

Date: October 14th, 2020

Time: 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM

Assessment:

With my mentorship with Mr. Meek, I have learned that impact investing is not sitting behind a computer and analyzing technical financial terms or observing the movement of a stocks. Rather, it is a combination of experiences that culminate in the development of a strong individual with grounded morals, excellent oratory skills, and the technical knowledge required. Through this understanding, I have understood how every opportunity Mr. Joshua Meek provides me with serves a purpose in my growth as an individual. Similarly, Mr. Meek’s offer for me to present a campaign speech on behalf of his campaign for the Frisco City Council was an amazing platform for me to test my communication skillset.

Through this mentor call, I was looking to reconvene with Mr. Meek after our call regarding impact investing and the research he had mentioned I should conduct. However, I was taken by surprise when Mr. Meek began to talk more about his campaign and presented me with this opportunity. This was the highlight of the meeting as I did not expect to be offered such a large platform to demonstrate my public speaking skills while helping my mentor, an individual who has greatly guided me. Most of the call after this offer was briefly discussing Mr. Meek’s political stance and what I should be talking about to effectively emphasized the emotional aspect of our journey together to promote Mr. Meek as a candidate.

An important aspect of this call was the lessons Mr. Meek taught me about public speaking and connecting with an individual. He mentioned how, with any activity in life, you must be “in the zone”. It was then that I further understood what it really means to be hyper focused and the importance of staying concentrated and living in the moment while completing a task. In addition, another learning I gained was speaking to what the people want to hear. As every individual is different, every message is different, and one will only experience success when communicating is the person ways what his or her audience wants to hear. As most of the audience would be mid- to old-age couples, they would greatly value a story about a high schooler being guided by a mentor to, therefore, display the positive qualities of the mentor. Ultimately, I was immediately able to take this advice and apply it to construct a basic framework of what I wanted my speech to be like.

The most important aspect of the interview was what followed as I was able to give a speech about Mr. Meek’s campaign to voters in a neighborhood and to the other candidates that are running. Essentially, this call did serve as both an interview and an observation. At the actual event, although it was difficult to connect with individuals as they were significantly older than I was, I remained composed and present my speech rather eloquently. By directly applying what Mr. Meek had taught me about public speaking, I could draw on the emotions of the journey Mr. Meek and I had shared to subtly transition into the positive characteristics of Mr. Meek and how he can imitate those in the political sphere. All in all, I was able to deliver an impactful speech.

In conclusion, the primary lesson I have gained is that everything happens for a reason. Rooted within each experience is an opportunity to learn and grow or celebrate and grow, but the main aspect is to grow and move forward. I look to do the same with my journey this year as I, in conjunction with the help of Mr. Meek, mold myself into a balanced yet unique personality.