Wednesday, June 30, 2010

A Mentee's Journey: Introductions

I met with my mentor for over nearly two hours Tuesday morning at Next Coffee! It was a great meeting, I must say. Already I've learned a few things, a couple that I will pass along this post.

I'll start out by saying that Pat is already proving to be an excellent mentor. I know it's only one meeting, but he tends to mentor by introspection and deep listening. Toss in a hearty helping of humor, and honestly, we've learned much already!

We started off by introducing ourselves and gave each other a "reader's digest" version of how we came to be at this point in our lives. His background is rather remarkable and extensive, and I'm honored he shared this with me. I shared with him my background, my family, and how I came to be a graphic designer.

My homework for next week is to figure out my passion: if I could do something, even if I never got paid for it, what would it be? I think that's a good question we should all answer, at least once a year.

I learned something very interesting that I won't go into a ton of detail about just yet. Clue: most business owners know they need a sound and viable business plan AND a marketing plan. How many of you knew you also should be using a communications plan? Sounds intriguing! I'll tell you more as I learn more, but I'm researching this already. Basics: it's used to help with existing client retention!

Another tidbit I learned, though many of you already know this. Each day I need to write down my objective. Along with this, I must list the tasks that align with my objective and get them done. It's a little different from the ordinary to-do list. Well, it is from my viewpoint, anyway.

Definition: OBT = Objectives Based Thinking.

See you next week!

Cheers,
Lisa

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