by Rachel Waxman | Apr 28, 2017 | Action Planning, Entrepreneur, Mindfulness, Strategy
A while ago a friend of mine said to me, “I’ve had a mentor for everything I’ve done in my life… So why would pregnancy be any different?” Now, months later, my friend has a baby…. And I can see that she was exactly right.
This is hardly a novel concept, there are plenty of articles about the importance of mentorship for advancing your career. What I’m learning is that mentors can be helpful for more than just career decisions. You could have a mentor to help when buying your first house, a mentor for leading better presentations, or a mentor to consult about a serious relationship. Here are some of the many ways mentors could be huge value adds in your life…
1. You Don’t Need to Reinvent the Wheel
Chances are someone has already successfully done the thing you’re trying to do. And those are the people you should consider when looking for a mentor. Go out, find them, and ask how they did it. If you take advice from those you admire and then attempt to follow in their footsteps, you’ll likely achieve the same successes.
2. Build Valuable Skill Sets Today
…Even if you won’t need it until later. Recently, I’ve been asking mentors for specific advice on specific things and I’ve found it really rewarding. In fact, I keep imagining what a strong professional I’ll be in five years if I keep practicing these skills now. And that includes the skills that aren’t directly related to my current job role!
3. Serious Validation
A mentor can validate your work in ways that your friends and your family cannot. They’ll be honest when you’re doing well, and they’ll be honest when you need to improve. Great mentors may even lead you on the path to improvement and show you specifically how to get there.
Finding a Mentor
Now that you’re sold on how a mentor could provide value in your professional and personal life, let’s talk about finding one.
First, find people who inspire you. Use whatever tools you’ve got! Subscribe to blog posts, podcasts, LinkedIn posts and Instagram feeds of people whose work you admire. I’m a big reader, so I queue up influential books I hope to read on the Good Reads app.
Next, see if anyone you know can make an introduction between you and one of these people you admire. Most likely, this method will get you a response.
However, if you can’t get an intro, send an email or LinkedIn message out of the blue. A genuine message about something specific is hard to ignore. Something like, “I am so impressed with how gracefully you spoke on that panel last week. Your words about failure really resonated with me, and have since inspired me to think more carefully about how to get my own business off the ground. I’d love to pick your brain and hear more of your story. Do you have any time to grab coffee next week?”
Lastly, always make the coffee/lunch ask! Worst case scenario: they don’t respond. Best case scenario: they’re flattered and excited to meet you. (Please note: being ignored really is the worst case scenario. No sane human would ever respond negatively to a kind message that compliments their work.) It doesn’t always work, but you have nothing to lose by trying!
by Rachel Waxman | Apr 7, 2017 | Action Planning, Entrepreneur, Nonprofit Management
If you’ve set goals and you’re serious about meeting them, then you’re inevitably going to have to give up other tasks in order to achieve your goals. If you’re spending your time on little tasks that aren’t integral to moving toward your overall goals, then you need to get comfortable with asking for help ASAP.
Let’s say you you are a marketing professional. Then you should not be reconciling your company’s financials. Sure, you could do the books. But if there are a finite number of hours in a week and you bring in the most money by doing marketing work for your company, then you should be spending all your time on the marketing work and asking (or paying) someone else to do the books.
I must admit, though, I am horrible asking for help. I usually get caught up in one of three Delegation Fears.
1. I don’t want to waste time explaining how I want a project done.
I try to remember something I once heard in a web design class, “Everyone has a scholarship to Google University.” And it’s true! If you delegate a task, the person you sent it to should be able to figure out how to accomplish the task, even without you holding their hand and leading the way.
2. I could do it better myself.
In situations like this, I’m reminded of another piece of advice I first heard from one of Hilary Rushford’s webinars, “Perfect is the enemy of good enough.” If you like things done a certain way, I urge you to challenge your instincts. Seeking perfection is unrealistic and will set you up for failure. Instead, recognize when your work is good enough. Get it done, and move on.
3. Oh, it’ll only take me five minutes.
But imagine how many of those five minute tasks you pile on each week. Tally up those five minutes each month, and consider how much time you’ve lost in an entire year. Identify your strengths and what you bring to the table that offers the largest ROI. Delegate any tasks that aren’t within your strengths or are wasting company time.
Of course, you should work hard. But you also need to work smart. Your time is finite, so if you’ve got a lot on your plate, make sure you’re doing those tasks that will get you the most bang for your buck. Those of us who work for startups, small businesses, or nonprofits, are constantly juggling multiple tasks and projects. But when it comes to achieving the goals you’ve set for yourself and your business, you need to make sure you’re spending your (limited) time doing what is most impactful for your organization.
by Rachel Waxman | Feb 17, 2017 | Marketing
Do you think your company is successful?
Does your company have a “brand?”
In today’s ever-evolving, incredibly intricate technological market, every organization needs a brand if they want to be successful. You may think you’re doing well without a cohesive brand, but you’re probably only doing ok.
The good news is there’s room for growth.
Without a cohesive brand, no matter how you think your company is doing, you’re likely making about a 10th of the total potential impact you could make. Creating a brand, or identity, for your company is essential in today’s market. It’s the language everyone else in the world is speaking today, and you need to get on board if you want to move your organization forward.
Today’s market is incredibly competitive. And today’s audience is incredibly judgmental. But they’re also unwaveringly loyal, genuine, and relatively easy to reach. In order to tap into that potential, your company needs to create its own personality. Essentially, you need to establish a “look and feel” for your company, as if it were a real person. That look and feel will help you denote a logo, font, and color scheme that embodies your organization. And, if done well, it’ll effortlessly attract like-minded customers without much extra effort from you or your staff.
Have I convinced you yet? It’s time for a rebrand. And while you’re here taking my advice, let me give you a few nuts of knowledge I’ve picked up by taking my organization through a rebrand process:
- You need FULL buy-in from your management and executives right from the get-go. The decision makers at the top need to understand the utter importance of the brand, and they need to completely trust you to execute it properly.
- Create buy-in points along the way. Invite executives and stakeholders to be a part of the rebrand brainstorming. Collect feedback throughout the process and send regular progress updates to stakeholders and executives.
- Set deadlines with your team and your executives before you begin the process. Make sure everyone has the same expectations for when decisions needs to be made, how long the entire process will take, and which people will be responsible for which work.
- Delineate one point person and one ultimate decision-maker. (Those roles can fall to the same person, if that is best for your organization.) It’s incredibly important that all parties agree that those two people have those two roles throughout the life of the entire project. All participants, stakeholders, and executives need to trust that the point person and the decision maker will make educated decisions that are always best for the organization.
Creating a brand for your company will be a lot of work, and may take a lot of time. Be patient! And remember that if you prepare properly, you will be beyond satisfied with the incredible results your new brand yields!
