Mindset, Marketing & Money … and Mentors

I  have been longing for mentoring in business. I have mentors in the areas of spiritual life, education, writing, but need a stronger connection with women who understand business and know how to achieve work-life balance—contemporary Proverbs 31 women. I want mentors—even a whole community—who know when to protectively tuck me under her wing and when to swiftly kick me out of the nest.

I think I found them.

Today’s first major conversation involved a variety of women via a conference call to introduce a new training series by Kim Page Gluckie of MPowered Marketing, Stephanie Pollock of Inspired Coaching, and Tina Pratt of The Accountess.

The call and the website do a great job of introducing the series, so I won’t outline it here. What I will do is tell you how these ladies have helped me so far.

#1. When I moved to Calgary mid-November, my first goal was closer proximity to my boyfriend Kevin. The long distance relationship thing was killing us. Check. I found a room to rent just 5 minutes from him.

#2. My second (and overarching) goal was to clarify and establish my business in order to make a living. Check-ish. I’ve got lots of streams for generating revenue: books (Martha, BlueBeary) and CDs to sell, workshops to present, concerts to perform, and more.

But transition is never easy, especially with a car accident (Dec 6th), with unsuccessful attempts to find part-time work that supplement the self-employment. Stressful. Without good coverage on the bottom line, I would swing wildly between highly motivated to get bookings and sales or deeply depressed and exhausted from lifting a ton of feathers. Some days, if it wasn’t for chiropractic and massage appointments (thank you SGI) or going to see Kevin, I don’t know when I would have left the house! 

Enter Kim Page Gluckie.

Before moving to Calgary, I searched online for resources and events to help with Goal #2. I must have used search words like “women” and “entrepreneurs” and “calgary” and “se”. Somehow, MPowered Marketing surfaced. So I took Kim’s online survey and registered for her November 18th event: “Time & Money Are Limited Resources: Make marketing choices that save both!” That event energized me so much! I stayed to help Kim clean up and we had a good chat.

A few days later I went to Vancouver to work with Kathleen McMillan on BlueBeary and Open Eyes Books, eager to be serious about our business.

From Kim I learned about Stephanie Pollock, so took advantage of her free half-hour consultation, during which we especially talked about overcoming my “fear of the ask.”

From these ladies I’ve gleaned valuable Information through their blog posts and resource links on their websites.

Through Kim’s MPowered Marketing and Stephanie’s Inspired Coaching I’ve started developing community with other women/mom entrepreneurs through in-person contacts and social networking like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

The special guest at the December 16th workshop was Paula McGarrigle, author of A Baby Guide to Calgary. I just knew I should be there. Again, I was inspired, and we had opportunity to pitch our business & products. I also got a kick in the butt from Paula, who was impressed with BlueBeary and asked, “Are you in Monkey Shines?” (a local children’s bookstore). “No,” I said, “I’ve only been in the city for a month.” Paul replied, “That’s no excuse.” And she was right. BlueBeary was in Monkey Shines AND in Owl’s Nest by the end of the week.

And I got to meet Stephanie Pollock in person that night. I also got to meet Tina Pratt aka The Accountess. Score.

Tomorrow I have an appointment with Tina to talk about finances. 

By Sunday midnight I will claim my $300 discount and register for one of the 7 Series …

Here we go!