INDIVIDUAL MENTORING
Artists
Of all of the different aspects of being human, the artistic aspect is one of the most profound because art expresses our internal landscape into an external manifestation of physical, visual and auditory representation in the world. Art is a fundamental and unique human expression of “This is me, this is who I am.” Sadly, if our parents were not supported and allowed to express their art, then they cannot support their children in expressing their artistic selves to the world. As a result of this the world has lots and lots of unrequited artists. How I know this to be true is because in one form or another we are all artists. Remember back to a time when someone handed you a piece of paper and crayons. Manifesting art was as easy as breathing. For lots of us the disconnect with art happened and our artistic self was lost. There is nothing that can connect you, calm you, excite you, relax you or bring you into the here and the now as that moment when you are making connections with your art. It has been my privilege throughout my counseling and my mentoring career to help artists discover and refine their artistic selves and ultimately their artistic expression. We hear cliché statements like life is art, or that art imitates life, but I am here to tell you that life and art are one and the same. So it would be my privilege to help you connect and bring forth your internal artist in whatever artistic endeavor you are attempting. I always make the assumption that everyone is an unrequited artist in some form or another. We have a limited time here in this life, and you are here to express the art of your life.
Entrepreneurs
I’ve helped all kinds of people open up all kinds of businesses and partnerships. I’ve guided them through the transition from their current job into launching their entrepreneurship. I’ve helped them to write letters to obtain resources, grants and acquire financing. I’ve coached them in how to ask for and receive the resources that they will need for their enterprise, and if need be, I have accompanied them to any meetings that are necessary for them to become an entrepreneur. I’ve been there at the moment they’ve received their business license, and the moment when they’ve made their first sale. Businesses I’ve mentored my clients into opening include (but are not limited to):
art galleries
restaurants
bakery
real estate
musicians
singer-songwriters
music promotors
script writers
novel writers
psychotherapy practices
coaching practices
medical practices
midwifery practice
film makers
film directors
film producers
theatrical directors
actors
consulting firms
law office
yoga studio
Executives
I've helped executives in many ways, primarily how get promoted to the career position that is meaningful to them in the corporate structure. Corporate structures for some strange reason are often more interested in hiring and promoting from outside of their company than promoting from within. I have helped numerous executives build cases to convince the hiring team to promote them rather than hire from outside. I’ve helped my clients get the job instead of having my clients have to train an outside person to do the job that my client is already qualified to do.
Interview Preparation for All Types of Businesses
Interviews are an important gateway for everything in life. You may not think about it in this way, but proposing marriage to someone is actually an interview! I have helped people prepare for all kinds of interviews including: asking for loans, job interviews, grants, internal company advancement interviews, convincing a board room of people to consider a major proposal, convincing a college to accept you even though the application date has expired (as far as I’m concerned nothing has an expiration date if you know how to ask the right way), and yes, asking for someone’s hand in marriage.
Musicians
I’ve helped many musicians devise alternative marketing plans to get their music out to the general population. Most of the industry channels are only available to a handful of musicians in the industry, so I’ve had to devise ways in which music clients can develop their own followings in the absence of having unlimited music corporation funds. I have also helped musicians determine what genre they were in to determine their best target market to get their music out there. I’ve evaluated their stage performance and helped them modify it to attract the largest possible audience—this is very different than choreography—humans have a herd mentality and there are many things that we can unconsciously do out of fear or other reasons that we ourselves and the audience are not consciously aware of that can make or break the connection between the performer and the audience. This is not about molding or shaping their image, it’s about helping them to allow themselves to be more of who they truly are—unleashing their true, unique artistic self. For some reason a lot of people think that when you are doing public performance that there’s an inherent need for it to be artificial. My experience has been is that it needs to be real, but that being real in front of lots of people can be very scary and once the fear is present, the connection between the performer and the audience is gone. As a performer, we can’t see ourselves in the world, so it’s very important to have someone we trust who sees us and relates back to us how our performance is coming across.
People About to Retire
I’ve helped people determine that they’ve arrived at that place in life when it is time to retire and transition from lifelong careers into fulfilling the dreams that they have harbored for many years that were precluded by their work life. Sometimes in life our dreams have to be postponed because they are perceived as impractical to support us financially. So we choose to do something other than our dreams to support ourselves. When time for retirement has arrived this affords an opportunity to re-explore and ignite dreams that were previously seen as impractical. This can be difficult because we may have forgotten over the years what our dreams are; or the habitual behaviors that came with the career that we supported ourselves with may still be so strong that trying to fulfill our dreams can be difficult. In short, we may have to change the way we think and feel about a lot of things to create the mindset to rekindle unrequited and still-harbored dreams. Many people try to switch from a working context to a dream-fulfilling context on their own, and cannot accomplish it--it's necessary to have someone who's outside of the situation to help guide you out. The same is true for people who have done a specific career for years that they do not like. Unless you have a guided transitional period it is highly probable and more than likely that you will recreate the same set of circumstances that you are trying to escape from and end up right back where you started. It's interesting that we can be motivated to work in a career that does not suit us or that we don't like, and then when we're given the opportunity to do what we want, we can't stay motivated because we can't shift into the new context. Having a mentor help you make this shift removes a lot of pressure and makes the whole issue of retirement easier. You have financial planners who help you figure out your money for retirement--doesn't it make sense to have a planner who helps you figure out your life as a retiree so that it feels fulfilling?
Public Speakers
As with musicians, I’ve helped public speakers evaluate their speeches in order for them to have the most impact and connectedness with their audience. And again, I’ve helped them to be more real, and thus deliver the most authentic presentation of their topics.
Students
In this day and age, making the decision to become a student can be a difficult choice. First of all, most of us are going to have to have more than one vocation during the course of our lives. Secondly, the cost incurred and the length of time it may take to repay the debt on any college loans that you obtain for school is a major economic and energetic committment. Let’s talk about vocation. Trying to figure out a vocation, or in other words, a destiny, in regards to a career is a very difficult thing to do. It requires a lot of self-understanding, and knowing who you are at this point in your life, and knowing who you will become as you go through the process of life. So a lot of reflection is involved, and a lot of research. For some of us, this will be a very difficult scenario because an awful lot of what we’re going to be working at has not even been invented yet. Inevitably, due to environmental, economic and political issues, the world as we know it is going to have to go through a massive transition. A lot of work that people are doing right now will not exist in the near future, and a lot of work that is only in someone’s imagination is going to come into reality. So figuring out school is going to be intense. The steps for helping guide you through this unusual labyrinth of change involves helping you figure out who you are based upon your specific talents and gifts, what you’d feel like you’d want to do, and then also trying to guess what the future will hold. As far as the monetary part, I’ve helped many students keep the cost of education down by acquiring funding for college studies that are available to the general population but not necessarily advertised. This is important considering that at a minimum you might have to go to college twice in your life.
