Over the past week, I have been participating in a 10-day blog challenge.  It is called Natalie’s 10 Day Freedom Plan Blog Challenge, and you can read about it at that link, if you desire. 

If anyone has noticed the tone of my articles have shifted slightly from my typical content, this is why.  I hope I’ve done a good job so far of relating the challenge exercises to topics relevant to you, and that you might have thought about these things just a little bit too.  But today’s challenge is a bit different, in that I am to highlight some individuals that I would love to meet, and to indicate what I might ask them if I had the chance.

So, for this one, I don’t think I can directly relate it to your day-to-day tasks…but perhaps I can encourage you to find some mentorship in your life, for your career advancement, or just for improvement of your skills.  The perspectives of more experienced individuals can take you miles down the road, and give you insight you may not have imagined for several more years on your own.  They can save you a lot of risk and mitigate failure along the way too.

My modus operandi has changed significantly since leaving my past corporate life, and I have relied heavily on the world wide web, on social networks, and on online coaching and training to learn so many new things, and to expand my network.  

So for my list, I am keeping the focus on people I have found and followed through social media - there were many over the last couple years, and all were helpful on my journey of entrepreneurship, and learning about all that goes with it.  But a few people have stood out for me.

Natalie Sisson

Our very own blog challenge initiator, I have followed Natalie for quite some time, most frequently these days on her podcast, The Suitcase Entrepreneur.  She shares so many great tips, tools and insights that have helped me out tremendously as I’ve waded my way through startup. 

It was through just one of her previous blog challenges that I broke my mindsets around putting my voice out there, of writing online, and I have been regularly blogging ever since.  I, too, started without a blog site - using private journals like Penzu, and then creating a special webpage just to post my blogs somewhere live, before building my own business website and growing from there.

I have been waiting until I’m ready to attend one of Natalie’s retreats to learn more juicy tidbits from her, and when I saw that I will be in San Diego on the day of her next 1-day session, I was very excited.  I would meet THE Natalie!

Until I realized it conflicted with my commitment to be present and answer questions in my area of expertise at the PMI Global Congress that day (the main reason I’m going to San Diego).  While I’m very excited to be given such a huge opportunity to demonstrate my expertise at the conference, I was disappointed I had to miss out on her workshop too.

At any rate, I think it would be really cool to just meet Natalie and say hi, and thank her for all the positive work that she does for all of us entrepreneurs, us "freedom fighters", just getting started! 

Bill Baren

Like Natalie, I began following Bill quite some time ago, but particularly via his podcast, The Big Shift.  The way he talks about the ease of enrolment, and breaking mindset barriers to move forward is amazing, and he gives a real sense that we can all get there - we can achieve our goals.  He has such great insights and his story-telling style of communication is very relevant - he helps you to see exactly what he means every time.

I took a chance and applied for a scholarship ticket to his next event Unstoppable Live, and am lucky enough to have been granted a ticket, so I will be there to meet him in person.  I haven’t decided exactly what question I want to ask him just yet, since there are too many to post here!  But I will make sure to make the effort of chatting with him at some point during the weekend, and maybe even volunteer for a hot-seat coaching moment!

Danny Iny

Founder of Mirasee, and several lines of training for online business, I have been a member of Danny’s audience for about one year now, and I listen to the interviews on his excellent podcast as well.  I am working through some of his online training now, so I can ask questions of his team at any time.  However, I’m not a member of his 1-1 mentoring just yet, and he’s only been available live with us every so often.

I think if I could sit down with him face to face, I would like to explore how I can better apply some of the techniques I’m learning to my particular audience and content, as well as see if he has any insights into how I might adapt to appeal to a larger, broader audience over time.

So there you have it - there are many others I could mention, but these 3 were the first to come to mind. 

I will say that I just took the leap to work with a local business mentor - Greg Sutton, CEO and co-founder of TinyEYE, thanks to the Raj Manek Mentorship program for a great match!  We’ve met, we clicked, he thinks the way I do (strategic-visionary-mapper!), and he has a very successful business too!  I’m really looking forward to learning as much as I can from him over the next year...

Do you have a mentor?  Is there anyone you would like to reach out to for some guidance?  

What is stopping you from doing it?