Own your future - Creative Mentoring for Women

Image credit: Jing Xi Lau from Unsplash

The concept of mentoring is not a new one. In fact, the idea dates back 2000 years to Homer's epic poem, The Iliad. If your knowledge of ancient Greek poetry is a little dusty, here's a brief recap:

Athena, the goddess of wisdom, disguises herself as Mentor to act as both a teacher and guardian to Odysseus' son, Telemachus. Under Mentor's (Athena's) guidance and wisdom, Odysseus and with his son by his side, slaughter the enemy and make a triumphant return back home to Ithaca. Now the question remains, how much of a role did Mentor play in Odysseus' success?

"The key to being a good mentor is to help people become more of who they already are--not make them more like you."

Suze Orman

Mentoring: the low-down

A mentors central role is to facilitate safe and inspiring learning by instilling their skills, expertise and experience upon their mentees. Consider them as your personal Greek goddess here to lead and guide you through what may be unfamiliar territory for you, but is very much a well-trodden track for them. Your mentor shares precious knowledge and unearths hidden information and knowledge gained through years of experience.

Studies have shown that mentoring is a proven tool to help individuals reach career milestones, feel more confident in making career and business choices, and create a more harmonious work-life balance. Essentially, your mentor is your sounding board, providing you with the opportunity to reflect, assess and plan your next move. Sounds like a heavenly match!

Who makes a good mentor?

Think you have some Athena traits in you? In addition to holding an abundance of experience and knowledge in your relevant professional field, you must also be able to:

• Create a safe and non-judgemental space: You want your mentee to feel relaxed and comfortable enough to openly share and carry out honest discourse around their goals and objectives.

• Listen and question: Help your mentee get to the heart of the problem/topic/goal at hand.

• Provide valuable feedback: This is where your knowledge and experience comes into play!

• Compassionate and empathetic: You're not in the business of shattering someone's dreams and aspirations; be kind and understanding to their quest for development.

This isn't a one-sided party either, with the mentor/mentee relationship being very much mutually-beneficial. The mentor gains:

• The satisfaction of helping another.

• Interpersonal skills.

• Passing down of valuable and experiential knowledge.

• Grow a personal and professional network.

"Just start. Don't worry that you don't have all the answers yet."

Alli Webb

Who is mentoring for?

If you're looking to achieve personal and professional goals of any kind, mentoring is a valuable avenue worth pursuing. It can help you navigate areas such as:

• Planning a career change

• Accelerate career progression

• Launching a business

• How to self-promote/market oneself

• Develop new ways of working/work-flow systems

• Improve performance at work

• Seeking out leadership opportunities

• Managing additional workload/multiple professional endeavours

• Broaden your professional network

• Learn how to set goals and objectives

Now that we have a more rounded understanding of a mentor and mentee relationship, let's jump back into our Athena and Odysseus analogy...

Would Odysseus have survived without the help of Athena? There is no doubt that Athena comes to Odysseus' aid many times, providing him with the tools and strategies to protect him from his opposers. But one can also not overlook Odysseus' own bravery, which is present throughout all his adventures.

In the end, it all comes down to the individual's actions; you steer the ship, and your mentor will be your compass.

If you've been looking for a mentor, or to be a mentor, applications are now open for Series Two of our CWC Member Mentoring Program: a member-to-member mentorship program for creative women. Find out more here.

Working with a Business Mentor

Ever wondered what it’s like to work with a business mentor? We ask Jane Vandemeer, CWC treasurer and board member for her advice.

Jane Vandermeer is a creative & entrepreneurial thinker who doesn’t thrive under red tape or lots of rules. Having worked within the Fashion industry for 30 years, you can definitely say that fashion and small business is in her blood! Her strengths are to problem solve, particularly with a small budget, and to look into a small business to see what areas need help and guidance. Read Jane’s advice on working with a business mentor, and what you can get out of it.  

Part of my story

Not sure about you but I often found it challenging to cost up my garments. There was also the difficult task of promoting myself. Whether I was producing a range, making one-off pieces or providing a service (they were harder actually!), there was always the conundrum:

How do you price something when you are not sure how long it might take?

Perspective customers need a price or price range. So many times, I wanted the sale so I guessed the price, hoping that I was close to right. But it can be hard to remain competitive, cover your time, costs & make a profit!

Having a professional mentor can help

A professional mentor will look at your business from a different perspective. It is so hard to do that yourself when you are in the thick of small business.

Life gets in the way. It can be hard to keep yourself accountable. It is easy to push things to ‘next week’, particularly the things you don’t love doing.

One of the benefits is that having regular meetings with a mentor creates accountability and deadlines. It is one big way that can help propel your business forward, and significantly quicker.

Who is mentoring suited to?

• You are at the start up stage and not sure where to start. This includes important things like where to focus or spend money first.

• You have been in business for a while, feeling like you are working around the clock but can’t seem to get ahead and not sure why.

• You are looking at an exit plan but not sure how to do that

• You are passionate about so many things

• Those who are willing to take advise & learn

• Those who are brave to grow

• Many creatives’ are multi-dimensional but this can be overwhelming. Then comes paralysis…so you do nothing! A mentor can keep you going.

Tips when selecting your mentor

I often describe selecting a mentor as like selecting a councillor. Working one-on-one with a mentor is such a personal experience. If you are going to invest in a mentor, you need to connect and align with the right person.

A good place to start is to spend time at an initial meeting to ‘get a feel’ about a perspective mentor before diving in. If after the first meeting you don’t think you’re the right fit, that’s totally ok. Be upfront - they might also be able to recommend someone who is. 

Do you want your perspective mentor to be someone you admire?

Are they someone who has achieved or brings experience within the areas you need help & support?

Considerations for offerings/packages

In the initial meeting together, whether that is online, on the phone or in person, ask lots of questions. Make sure you are both clear on things like fees and what the mentoring service involves. 

Mentors might have different fee structures depending on the type of service you require. Here are some examples:

• An hourly rate. This is good for casual mentoring where something is project/problem based. 

• A program with a set number of modules. This type of structure gives perspective clients an idea of prices up front, so there are no surprises.

Some areas to consider:

• Appointment/meeting duration

• Frequency of meetings

• Does it include support such as emails, resources, phone calls outside of meetings?

• Are there certain days you can communicate?

• How is the payment system structured?

• Many do offer payment plans. This is often great for cash flow for small businesses.

Don’t be afraid to ask for clarity if you are not sure and get everything in writing. 

Expectations

It is good to set some expectations between yourself and your mentor too. Do you want someone to ‘teach you’ how to do various tasks/aspects of your business? Or do you want someone to ‘do it for you’?

Different mentors will have different approaches. For me, I have always come from the space of teaching & sharing knowledge, so that you are empowered to know, understand & grow. Everyone works in their particular way and there will be a mentor which will suit your style. 

Here is an example of what a mentor does…. 

A beautiful client of mine had been in business for over 5 years (so not a start up). She was working very hard yet not making enough at the end of each month.

After spending the time to understand her costs and sales. I discovered that she was only making 2% profit margin on many of her services!

We worked on a solution which gave her four options/strategies to increase profit within those existing services. The important thing was that they were all practical & easy to implement.

Her services were back up to 75-90% profit margin and best of all, it didn’t require that business owner to work any harder. 

A final note…

Different ideas can provide a different perspective to a business. Professional assistance can help set up ways to attract prospective clients who happily and joyfully pay for your beautiful and considered work!

Jane is the owner of Finesse Business and Style which provides services in business mentoring and styling. She is also the founder of Intuitive Whispers which provides intuitive products for the heart and soul.