Happy New Year! We are celebrating a one-year anniversary of WeMentor Mondays with Nancy podcast program. A collection of thousands of listeners like you, tuning in to meaningful conversations of your entrepreneurial peers on the journey of personal mastery, leadership revolution, and life success, has led to our success thus far. Although, WeMentor, inc. has been in existence since 1992 helping small business owners plan, build leadership skills, and innovate, we also keep innovating. Thank you for tuning in.

Keep listening! Keep reading! Keep learning! Keep innovating! Keep dusting yourself off and picking yourself back up after a fall! 

The first 2017 mentoring conversation begins with a discussion of how Pete Machalek, the co-founder of SagePresence, and I met through LinkedIn. His partner, Dean Hyers will join us in February.

How can you make your LinkedIn connections more meaningful? What is your reason for expanding your LinkedIn network?

Comic books, publishing, and movies played an important role in Pete’s early years as the youngest of eight siblings. Pete found 11 years old a good time to move from Kansas City, Kansas to Lakewood, Minnesota. His family pursued a publishing opportunity eventually leading Pete’s Dad and most of his siblings into a family-owned publishing business.

Our conversation about when Pete co-founded SagePresence unfolds like a spy novel. A call from a Federal Law Enforcement training center in Georgia leads to a start-up company helping train covert agents? This story alone is worth a listen.

Often, I wonder how many start-up founders think of themselves as non-risk takers, and launch anyways? Pete uncovers something we learned from Kathy Flaminio (December 5^th, 2016, episode 50), what if your biggest challenge in life is your gift? How much unhappiness and discontentment did Pete feel before he took a leap of faith into the unknown world of business ownership?

Mentoring Tips:

• Think through your LinkedIn strategy for 2017. Answer the question, how can I best utilize LinkedIn and other social media to advance meaningful connections?
• Connect with me today, nancy@wementor.com to take charge of your leadership development in 2017. We are starting new WeMentor Entrepreneurial Leadership and Mentoring LABS combining yoga, meditation, and leadership development. Now is the time to take your leadership to a holistic new level!
• If you are unhappy, self-judging, and discontent with your work life, make a list of what ifs.
  • What if I could design each day around the work that energizes me? What would that look like? How would I feel? What would I be experiencing in my heart and mind?
  • What if I take my special talents and gifts, experience, and areas of expertise and combine it into a package? What would I name it? What revenue streams would I create?
  • What if I uncovered my passion today? What then would I do? What opportunities would be in front of me? How could I change my life going forward?
  • What if I became curious about doing purposeful work every day? What could my day look like? Where would I invest my time? Who would be working beside me? What could we be doing?
  • What if I became the leader I envision myself to be? How would I lead differently? What would be the core values lighting my way? How would I communicate them to others? How would I motivate influencers to get behind my new way of leading? Who would be in my inner circle? Who would leave my inner circle? What kind of support would I need? What skills would I need to learn?
• Go to insighttimer.com download the free meditation App. There are over 3,000 guided meditations, music tracks, talks, and courses to choose from. Every month the Insight Timer community meditates for more than 1 million hours. Participate in the peace and calm promoting movement. Or, join us as we start our work week meditating every Monday.

A LinkedIn Encounter, Episode 54   www.sagepresence.com

Download this episode. (right click to download)

Next Monday’s Mentoring Conversation:

Steven Berg, fiber artisan, is back for a third mentoring conversation. Ripe bananas, what is in this season may not be in next season. Hiring decisions, working with others, and Steven’s experience and views on location expansion. A surprise in how revenues at StevenBe’s spiked in 2016.