Last month was National Mentoring Month. According to the Harvard School of Public Health, 15 million young people in the United States are in need of a mentor.

Have you ever thought about mentoring? You’ve probably heard that mentor programs help decrease youth violence, lessen drug abuse, reduce the high school dropout rate, and help send thousands of young people to college each year. This evidence alone could be what motivates you to call up your local nonprofit today and sign up as a mentor. However, for those of you still sitting on the fence, you may want to know that mentoring not only helps a young person advance in their life, but it also helps you.

Step Up Women’s Network

Tasha Oldham, filmmaker and founder of My Story Inc., is a mentor to aspiring filmmaker Nicole Tut, a 17-year-old high school senior in Los Angeles. Tasha was given the opportunity to mentor Nicole through Step Up Women’s Network (http://www.suwn.org), a non-profit organization dedicated to connecting professional women with underserved teen girls. The mentoring program, called Young Luminaries, is a six-month, one-on-one partnership. Right now Tasha is helping Nicole prep for an upcoming paid summer internship, and ultimately, her dream career.

“Since we’ve started working together, I have seen a change in Nicole’s confidence, her ability to articulate her needs, a change in the way she carries herself and her belief in herself,” said Tasha in an interview with me. “The dirty little secret in service is that we think it is so selfless of us to serve, but we are really the ones being served. It’s really me who is learning,” said Tasha.

Nicole says that interacting with the women at Step Up has literally brought her back to life. “The insight that I receive from my mentor Tasha allows me to see my future in a positive way instead of being fearful to approach it,” she said in an interview.

Step Up, with centers in Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, secures paid internships for the teen girls through their network of professional women. Most of the girls live at the federal poverty level and are the first in their family to go to college.

WriteGirl

Another mentor program for teen girls in Los Angeles that I have been inspired by is called WriteGirl (http://www.WriteGirl.org). This nonprofit pairs professional women writers — from songwriters, to playwrights, to journalists, to executives in corporate communications — with teen girls to explore the power of writing. “When you hear what comes from the pen of a 15-year-old, it inspires your own writing,” said Susanne Ferrull, a former journalist and current public relations professional, who has been a WriteGirl mentor for eight years.

I first learned about WriteGirl a year-and-a -half ago at Maria Shriver’s Women’s Conference when WriteGirl was awarded a Medal for Service as the 2010-2011 California Nonprofit of the Year. At the conference I met Ali, an 18-year-old WriteGirl graduate, who told me that her mentorship helped her not just in English classes, but helped her articulate her ideas in math and science classes. “It helped me take writing and make something so simple as math interesting, and fun, and poetic,” she told me.

When I spoke with Keren Taylor, executive director of WriteGirl, she told me that when she first met Ali, Ali was really shy. This is clearly not the case now. “To see her be so incredibly articulate five years later, that’s what gets me up every morning — to see what WriteGirl does for young women,” said Keren.

You don’t need special skills to become a mentor

Many people think that in order to be mentor, you need to have a special set of skills. The reality is that to be a mentor, you don’t need special skills, you just need an ability to listen and to offer friendship, guidance and encouragement. As Jenni Luke, executive director of Step Up Women’s Network says, “All you have to be is an expert in your own story.”

Mentoring doesn’t require as much time as you may think

Most people think that being a mentor requires a lot of time and don’t want to do it because they already have very busy lives. It’s true, some mentor opportunities require a weekly commitment, which may be time that you don’t have right now. Both Step Up and WriteGirl, however, offer different levels of mentoring opportunities so that women with limited time can still have an opportunity to mentor. For example, last month I was given the opportunity to mentor a Step Up teen for a day. We focused the day on my mentee’s career dreams. As I asked Sophia questions about her interests, passions, and gifts, and listened intently to her responses, I witnessed Sophia gain more authority and pride in her talents as she spoke. I know from the experience that one day can truly make a difference. Even in just that short amount of time, I saw a boost in Sophia’s confidence.

You will learn and grow

It’s not just your mentee who will learn and grow. You will too. According to Step Up Shannon Gabor: “Being a mentor is the most inspiring thing you could do because not only are you giving back, you get such a sense of self-worth on your own end, feeling like you are inspiring someone and having an affect on the rest of their life.”

If you are still sitting on the fence, I’d like to offer you 10 reasons to become a mentor.

10 Reasons to Become a Mentor

1. You will help your mentee build confidence and self-esteem.
2. You will help your mentee build her communications skills so that she can express her ideas.
3. You will help your mentee see that her voice is important and that she matters.
4. You will help your mentee see her gifts; you will help nurture those gifts; and you will help her get into college.
5. You will help your mentee see that her dreams are possible.
6. You will constantly be inspired by your mentee.
7. You will improve your communication skills.
8. You will get so much satisfaction from seeing your mentee learn and grow.
9. You will have a mirror held up to you so that you can see your own potential.
10. You will start to believe in your own gifts.

With 15 million young people still in need of a mentor, there’s no time like the present.

To find out about Step Up mentor opportunities, please visit www.suwn.org.

To find out about WriteGirl mentor opportunities, please visit www.writegirl.org.

To find out about mentoring opportunities in your community, visit www.nationalmentoringmonth.org.

Tabby Biddle
tabby@tabbybiddle.com
www.tabbybiddle.com

But somehow, that tree manages to grow.  Though the soil is hard and barren, and the watering is inconsequential, somehow the branches reach a little higher for the sun, and the roots dig a little deeper towards the ground.

Come spring, it catches a dream on the breeze.  From its prison, it dreams of wide open spaces, where its branches can grow, where the soil is rich and moist, where it is in the company of the ancient one, and its roots can intermingle like those of a lover.

The tree grows bigger, and somehow it survives while the others have fallen.  Its only company now are the cars on the street and the occasional dog who uses its lap as a toilet.    Even though a branch is mangled by a careless truck, still it grows – though now a little off balance.

The stakes are still there, the wire wrapped around the trunk, long forgotten.  And though once upon a time, they did their duty, holding the tree upright in buffeting winds, they now cut into the flesh of the ever expanding trunk.

Do trees cry, one wonders.  As this tree grows, as cell after cell pushes below the cells above it, the wires do not give.  And so it grows, until those wires are embedded so deeply we could not remove them if we wanted to.

And as the tree grew, so do its roots.  Having no place else to go, they sidle up and out, shifting dirt and cracking concrete, finding just a little relief.  ‘Aaaah,’ it must breathe in: some air, some room.  ‘Aaaah,’ it sighs again, stretching toes.

But the prison is meant to remain intact, and the men cannot have the tree leaving its limits.  And so one day they come with their saws blazing and their picks hammering, and they cut.  And they cut.  And they cut.
Do trees scream?  As their roots are slashed and their branches hacked.  As their bark is stripped, and their tops lopped.  Do they scream?

Or perhaps, in their agony they drift away to a better place.  Perhaps they dream: of a place high up on a mountain where the air is still clean.  Where the splash of the nearby stream soothes their parched souls.  Where the cooling of the temperature slows their blood and their leaves burst out in an explosion of color?  Where their branches are filled with birds and insects that build homes in their hair.  And when the breeze rifles thru their leaves, and a sweet shudder runs thru their limbs, do they quiver in delight.

Do trees dream?

Marianne Simon
Marianne@Poeticplantings.com

Do you want next year to bring your increased sales, connections, fulfillment and success?

Ten Ways you Can Create Massive Success Next Year:

1. Get clear about what it is you really want to accomplish in the upcoming year. This means sit quietly, alone and think. Listen to your heart, your intuition and your gut and gain clarity. That is the first step, and the one that most people miss.

2. Make a list of all the goals and objectives you want to meet in your personal and professional life. Remember, goals and objectives should be answerable with a simple yes or no. You either met them or you did not. They are not airy fairy things that you answer “sort-of” to. As a business owner, you need sales goals at the very least.

3. Determine how you are going to network, build your list and attract more traffic to your online business or your bricks and mortar location. Traffic, list building and your platform are the keys to conversion rate (how many people buy your products or services) and, if you don’t have enough, you will not hit your sales goals.

4. Find an accountability program, coach or group to be part of. The funny thing is, when I launched The Social Business Academy, the first thing people asked is “Will we still have a private forum on Facebook?”. If you are a business owner, you need to be surrounded by like-minded people to keep you energized and focused on your goals. And, if you are a creative type like me, you need accountability to get things done – hence the program or coach. This is the ultimate way to fast track your results if you are serious about growing your business.

5. Map out time in your calendar for yourself. Most people start a business because they want freedom, and then they fail to create any freedom for themselves. Instead, they create a job rather than a business and work themselves to death. By planning time in your calendar and working with someone to hold you accountable, you will see not only a shift in your business but also in your life.

6. Get clear on all the things you need to measure for progress and make a point of scheduling time to look at those numbers once a month. It kills me to hear about people who waited until the end of the year to see how they did. That is not how you run a business. Your financial acumen, ability to read, interpret and strategize your business results is imperative.

7. Reverse engineer those goals and objectives. Take a look at each one, break it apart and identify what action you need to take in order to make it happen. Then, set quarterly milestones so you do not get overwhelmed by all there is to do in your business.

8. Take time to read, learn and invest in yourself. We have all heard the expression “Work ON your business, not IN your business” and the only way you, as the leader of your business, can become a better leader, strategist and visionary is to work on yourself first.

9. Take a look at your brand – the brand of you, and your business. Make a plan to behave in the manner that you wish others to perceive you starting immediately. Do not minimize the importance of brand and personal appearance. We make impressions on others all the time by the way we look. Dress your best, and take time for proper grooming. It does make a difference. The same is true for the impressions you make on Social Media sites. Are you positive, upbeat and acting as a leader? Or, are you getting caught up in the negative and diminishing the brand of you without even realizing it?

10. Blog, if you don’t already. Blogging is one of the best ways to share new information with your list, and to position yourself as a thought leader. Learn all the different ways to blog, vlog, and leverage that content into other areas of your business.

One of the reasons I love what I do so much is I walk the talk that I teach my clients. I will be teaching people how to do these things and more in The Social Business Academy. The Academy is the perfect place for entrepreneurs who are passionate about learning to ignite success in their business.

What other ways do you create success at the start of a new year?

As it usually happens when I’m taking a shower; what is about being in the shower that triggers the mind to start having aha moments? I don’t know, but whatever it is keep ‘em coming! Okay, back to the shower… I began to ask myself, “So where exactly am I trying to arrive? What’s this constant ‘need’ to search for more answers? What keeps me hopping from one self-development tool to another? Always looking for the next one that is going to deliver my life on a silver platter. The one that is going to finally confirm that I am not a screw up after all and that I am indeed enough?” I call myself the tool chaser! I’m like those people who get a major thrill out of chasing tornadoes! What are they looking for? What am I looking for?

What if I am enough just the way I am? How many more times do I have to hear the experts say, “You need to find your purpose! You need to live your life this way or that way?” What if I’m already living on purpose? What if my purpose was to be right here, right now? Of course I like to be challenged and live a life that in the end I can say I have no regrets. But what if I got to the end and had no regrets no matter what my life looked like? Why do I need to judge how much I accomplished? What if I’m happy just the way I am, where I am? Hmmm… maybe I’m the one judging my own experiences…

As I step into that “expert” role as I create my business, my approach will be more like something that asks, “What if you are enough? What if you didn’t judge yourself for what you have not yet been able to accomplish and instead you acknowledged and celebrated the beautiful being that you are?” I don’t know… I think I like that cheerleader attitude, “You are awesome! You rock! You go, Girl!” I have gained so much from the tools I have gathered along the way and I love having them all beautifully placed in my Princess Tool Box, where I can just open it up and pull the right tool for the right job.

I guess deep down, I’m looking for confirmation that who I be is someone who makes a difference in people’s lives; someone who is a contribution to the planet; someone who is living life powerfully and loving it. It’s that unanswerable question that keeps us always searching for more, peeling away those layers. Maybe what I’m really looking for is the core of my being; that place within myself where everything is still; it’s that point where people call the zero point; where no judgment of self (and others) exist. Everything just is, perfect, whole, and complete, where the soul is aware of itself. Oh the joys of being a human!

What tools have you gathered that make the most difference in your life? How do you celebrate and honor you?

At the age of 8 my parents nudged me into the world of theater.  Perhaps they thought it would help me with my shyness.  Perhaps, being artists themselves, they believed that everyone needed to discover their creative abilities.  I ended up studying with A.C.T’s student program in San Francisco.  I then went on to get a theater major at San Francisco State, and finally, in 1988, moved to Los Angeles with my sister to pursue ‘the dream.’  But for whatever reason, whether my skin wasn’t tough enough, or I simply didn’t believe I could do it, once my daughter was born, I let go of that dream altogether.

But here’s the interesting thing:  even though I let go of the dream, the dream didn’t let go of me.  Even though I discovered an exciting new profession as a landscape designer; and even though I delighted in the journey I’d undertaken as a writer that little voice just kept on nudging.  It whispered that I still wanted to be up on stage, in the spotlight, reading my work.

Now doubtless, as many actors can attest, there is something to be said about changing costumes in a cold alley, playing to the near empty theaters, and finding yourself paying dues just for the privilege of getting up on a stage, that does wear thin with age.  And it certainly made the resistance all that more understandable.  As did understanding all the underlying fears.  After all, what if my writing wasn’t any good?  Or what if it was good, but I’d never be able to write anything as good again? Or perhaps the worst fear of all, what if it was simply ordinary…?

But as they say, ‘the truth will out.’ And one afternoon, after sharing my frustration with a friend, I committed to researching and performing at an open mike.  On December 14, after a 20 year hiatus, I finally got back up onto the stage as a performer.  And it was stepping back into the river, and yet, different.
It was still a tiny black room, with a small raised stage, the lights shining bright in my face.  The audience was eclectic, full of other performers, but oh, so supportive.  There was the same tumble of butterflies in my belly as my trembling fingers put the pages down on the podium.  I told them, my new friends, that I hoped it was just like riding a bicycle.  And I began to read.  In the beginning conscious of the effort – to speak slowly, loudly, to look up at the audience.  But after the first poem, I recognized the waters, and I was swept up, by the words, the characters, the emotions.  Yes!  I thought when I was done and the applause had ended.  Yes!  That’s why we do it.  We do it because for those moments on stage we are transported.  We become another being, rich in passion and emotion.  We are so present, so alive, nothing else matters except expressing what is on the page and what is in our heart.

And for me, as a writer and a re-born performer, it brought the creative process to its rightful conclusion:  the poem – written, spoken, and heard.

So as 2011 comes to an end and I look forward to the promise of 2012, I can count December 14 as a huge accomplishment.  For on that day, I realized that change happens when the need finally becomes greater than the fear.   On that day, I brought one of my great joys back into the light.

I look forward to bringing this old/new passion dancing into the new year.

Wishing you all a joyful, passionate, abundant new year!

Marianne Simon
Founder, Poetic Plantings Landscape Design
Marianne @Poeticplantings.com
Poeticplantings.com
310-399-4899

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Contact Ariel at healnaturally@gmail.com

Join us on Tuesday, February 7, 2012 for our First Tuesday LA Event featuring special guest Carol Allen who will be presenting “Love is in the Stars” for the evening’s special program.  Click here to learn more about the First Tuesday LA February 2012 “Love Is In The Stars” Evening.

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We feel so strongly about the 27 day Challenge program we are offering that we want to give you an opportunity to experience what Liz and I will be teaching. So we have put together the:

27-day Challenge—Mini intensive + Laser coaching *F*R*E*E online event Wednesday January 18th 5-6:30 PT

http://www.creativegeniuslovescompany.com/27daychallenge.html

What Liz and I have discovered has worked to take our businesses to the next level. Be a fly on the wall as we lazer coach and experience exactly how the 27 day Challenge will work for you.

You never know, you may be the lucky person who gets selected to be lazer coached!

See you there!

Breathe Deeply, Laugh Loudly & Be Audacious

Ann Bennett /irresistiblemarketing.net & Liz Pratt / workwithliz.com