Mentoring
Mentoring
Mentoring
Tel 07966 790 820
“If better is to come, good must stand aside.”
Carl Jung
For everything listed here, I always offer a half-hour introductory session at no cost (normal fee between £40 and £45). This is a key aspect of what I do. Time and money are precious and must be used wisely:
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You must feel I am the right person to help you
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I must feel I am the right person to help you
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I need to ascertain what it is you need
If all the above key features are met, we can proceed.
1. Writing your Story
“Your life has marked you in unique ways, and these marks – whether you know it or not – will determine how you live your life, what quests you pursue, and what you are equipped to say with passion and authority …”
Michael Rabiger
Story is everything. It is crucial. A maker’s story is about provenance and authenticity and connection. Work only exists because of the maker who created it. A personal story, well-crafted, sets a maker apart from their immediate competition and the world of the mass-produced. However, knowing what to write and how to write it, can prove daunting for many makers ...
“Help! I’m not a writer!”
Don’t worry, with this process you don’t have to be. In this easy and supportive process, we work together to build all the necessary elements you will need to produce a powerful personal story that represents you, and most of all sounds like you.
“I don’t know what to write!”
Again, don’t worry, this process will provide everything you need to produce your story.
A well written story is useful in all settings: on your website, in galleries (both in person and online), on social media and at events. A good story is like a Swiss Army Knife, it has a gadget for every situation!
Process
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Three focused 1-hour mentoring sessions with homework
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Homework to be sent to Dan the day before each session for him to review
What is the desired outcome
500-800-word personal story for use in all situations: online, in person, on printed materials
Cost: £360
For example: (please note, this story is fictional, written by me purely to act as an example):
Margery Jones, Ceramicist
Basic Story
“Margery lives in North Wales. She trained as a potter and now makes sculptures in coloured clays with colours she mixes herself. Her work is inspired by her family and her local area.”
Personal story with authenticity and provenance
“I am Margery and I live in Bethesda in North Wales, the home of my Welsh ancestors. I trained as a business consultant, but my life changed 10 years ago when I discovered ceramics, by chance, in an evening class.
Having lived all my life in London, I had a yearning to return to my ancient roots.
I gave up my job, sold my suburban home and moved back to the town where so many of my ancestors once lived, working, as they did, in the nearby Penrhyn Quarry, once the world’s largest slate mine.
My work, made from stoneware, stained with oxides to make the clay a dark, metallic grey, is inspired by my forefathers and the quarry. Slab-built, in layers like the slate itself, it is burnished to evoke the finished slate products that were shipped from Wales all over the world. My work is a nod to my personal history and the history of the local area.
My pieces are tactile and weighty, with a quiet, brooding presence, much like my beloved grandfather, Wyn.”
2. One-to-one coaching and mentoring
“A mentor is someone who sees more talent and ability within you, than you see in yourself, and helps bring it out of you.”
Bob Proctor
This is a process where a maker can, with assistance, address specific issues within their business or their general approach. As a coach and mentor I am an outside eye, an ear to bend, a sounding board. Through listening, observing and analysing, I glean what lies beneath a mentee’s concerns and identify where answers may be sought. Problematical areas of a maker’s practice are addressed in a non-judgmental and supportive space.
What a maker can expect:
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Objectivity
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Honesty
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Patience
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Guidance
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Constructive criticism
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New perspectives
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Insight
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Support
What is expected of a mentee:
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An idea of what needs to be addressed in your personal practice or business
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Commitment
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A willingness to take risks, to accept criticism, to be open
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Honest interactions
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Homework completed on time
Coaching and mentoring like this can take place weekly, monthly or even yearly.
Cost £80
(The fee includes an hour of my time one-to-one and an hour’s prep time working through each session’s homework, by me, before each session.)
What is the desired outcome
For a maker to locate, and work through, any thorny issues in their personal approach, or their business. Areas that feel challenging or which are blocked. I steer the maker to discover the answers for themselves. The most powerful, and long-lasting results always come from self-realisation.
3. The Maker Self-Discovery Process
“The mind is not a vessel that needs filling, but wood that needs igniting.”
Plutarch
This is rich, intense work and deeply personal. Looking in detail at your business from the outside in, and the inside out, it explores your competition, your strengths, your weaknesses, why you make, and the customer for whom you make. As the process unfolds it also builds a coherent and powerful personal story as you focus in on what inspires you, and what in your wider experience has had an impact on you as a maker.
Lasting on average between 5 and 8 sessions, this process runs until you discover the essence of your making: what you as a maker stand for. As your coach and mentor, I spend many hours throughout the Maker Self-Discovery Process process studying what you have written and what you have said, guiding you towards the key patterns in your thinking until you can find what it is that underpins your life, and your making.
What is the desired outcome
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A deeper understanding, and appreciation, of why you are maker
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An understanding of how your life has shaped your making
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A tangible portrait of your customer, allowing you to:
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Tailor your website and social media to reach those people
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Pinpoint the events you do and the outlets with whom you work to reach those people
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A more comprehensive understanding of your competition (in your own discipline and others)
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A personal statement for use in all areas of your making – website, social media, in event and gallery applications, at shows – that is fully realised, impactful, powerful and represents you
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Your essence. What you as a person, and as a maker, stand for. This is the ultimate goal of the Maker Self-Discovery Process
Two options for this process:
Option One
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Working through the document in your own time
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Returning the document to me for evaluation and notes
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Meeting on Zoom to talk through the new version of the document and to note discoveries.
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Homework set again
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The process repeats
Option Two
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Working through the document ‘live’ together online for as many sessions as it takes to feel comfortable with the process and then continuing as above.
Cost £95 (per session)
(This includes one hour working together and time for me to go through your completed homework before each session)
I speak a lot about authenticity and the power of voice. While encouraging others, as I do, to embark on this process, I feel it is important I share my own experience with both.
4. Package Option
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3 mentoring sessions on Story
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website appraisal with written feedback
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website appraisal one-to-one session
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100-word personal statement
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500-word “about me”
Cost £600
Extra Information
A 7-day cancellation policy for all sessions.
If you want to work on your business then there is no time like the present.
I look forward to hearing from you and sharing your journey.
Call me on 07966 790 820 or send an email by clicking the button below.