Mentoring Mondays – Your Network is Your Net Worth

women at event

By Valerie Freeman, Imprimis Group CEO

What a concept!  Speed mentoring, kind of like speed dating, only for dispensing career advice.  That was the goal of BizWomen Mentoring Monday, founded and supported by the business journals all over the country, and, in this case the Dallas Business Journal.  Forty women mentors, local business experts and leaders, sitting down and proffering career advice to over 300 mentees. Freeman+Leonard President Kathy Leonard and myself both served as mentors for the event.

 

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Carol Roehrig, President of BKM; Kathy Leonard, Freeman+Leonard President; Valerie Freeman, Imprimis Group CEO; and Renee Arrington, SVP Pearson Partners

Each mentor spent 7 minutes with each mentee for an hour, which meant mentoring about 8 mentees each.  That might not seem like a lot, but believe me, the mentors were all exhausted by the end, and I’m sure the same for the mentees.

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Afterward we all got to network further with all of the mentees and each other and relax with Candy Smith’s great cocktails, Honey Bee and Lemon Drop.  Candy recently launched her own cocktail products and doing quite well in the marketplace.

Several themes emerged from the mentoring sessions:

  1. Don’t be afraid to try a new assignment, take on different duties even if you don’t know it all or even half of it.
  2. If you want to get ahead, be prepared to work very hard and look at problems as challenges – and be easy to get along with i.e. don’t be a jerk at work.
  3. Find a mentor, sponsor or others you can learn from and network with – your network is your net worth.
  4. Toot your own horn – make sure the powers that be know of your accomplishment.
  5. Read, study, learn, keep up with what’s going on in your field or the one you want.

 

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