Hi there! I think there are three kinds of people reading this post today:

A. The Mentor and

B.  The Mentee.

C. Those wondering if having a Mentor is really worth it

Are you A, B or C? Or a little bit of all three? Lol.

First off, to our mentors in the House, we say “Thank You” for your continuous efforts for setting businesses up for success. We appreciate you all for being pillars of support, and source of constructive criticism when needed.

Signed,

Jemimah

President, Association of Mentees

(I sincerely hope there isn’t such an Association in which case, I have usurped the position of the current leader.😅)

To the Mentees, Congratulations! You just signed yourself up for phenomenal growth.

If you find yourself in the third category, then I hope these lessons I picked up at the IG LIVE session with Lanre Adisa will help you see how important a Mentor is for your business growth.

Today I will be discussing my Key Takeaways from the IG LIVE session we had with Mr Lanre Adisa. Before I get started, I would like to give you some background gist (trust me for that).

 

Bellafricana's stand on current happenings

Prior to the Launch of our new membership platform, we had a line up of insightful IG LIVE series and Webinars. (Catch up on how the Launch went down here). One of such IG Live Series is the one I mentioned. Mr Lanre Adisa has been a longtime supporter of the Bellafricana Brand and an awesome Mentor too.

Bellafricana has come a long way, but that journey will be incomplete without Mr Adisa’s name in the story (look at me talking like I was actually there😅), so who better to discuss the topic: “Leveraging on Mentorship for Business Growth”

First of all, who is a Mentor? Oprah Winfrey says: “A mentor is someone who allows you to see the hope inside yourself.”

Wikipedia defines Mentorship as “a relationship in which a more experienced or more knowledgeable person helps to guide a less experienced or less knowledgeable person”

So the Question is : Just how important is a mentor to your business growth? Who can be a mentor? How best can you maximize this relationship?

Here are some things I learnt:

1.  A Mentor inspires you to achieve your GOALS

It is a mentor’s job to inspire, and if need be, push you to achieve your GOAL. Why is the word “goal” emphasized? Because before you approach your mentor for help, then you can’t be clueless. So, make sure to have something you’re working towards.

2. Your Mentor can support you in ALL ways, however monetary assistance is not obligatory

Yes! A lot of Mentees go into relationships with Mentors because they expect financial support. There’s nothing wrong if a mentor wants to provide monetary support, but he is not obligated to. A mentor can however provide links, or information as to how financial support may be achieved,

3. A family member can be a mentor

A family Member as a mentor? Yes, that’s totally fine because most times in the end, what you build with Mentor-Mentee relationships transcend professionalism and evolve into something more filial

4. Want to make your relationship with your mentor valuable? Do your due diligence:

If you want to cultivate a seamless relationship with your Mentor, you need to play your own part. Make research, do your homework, so it’ll be easier to get the help you need. This is not to say that you must have everything worked out (If you did, why do you need a mentor then, right?) But be sure to be prepared, to the best of your ability.

So, I’ll just stop here and hope you were able to learn a thing or two from this IG LIVE session just like I did.

Were you in attendance? Please leave a shout-out and let me know what I missed out.

PS: Here’s a replay of the session in case you missed it!