Did you know that there are learning opportunities all around us?

I’m a big believer in Inclusion Diversity Equity and Accessibility (IDEA). I also know that I can learn a lot from other people’s lived experiences.

There are many different ways to learn. I love reading, so I buy and read books and I follow many people on Twitter who have different lived experiences.

I also like meeting new people, and learning about them and their journeys. Even when it seems like on the surface, we are the same, we all experience life differently, and can learn from each other.

This week, I learned that the Native Women’s Association of Canada is holding a webinar called “Identifying and Removing Employment Barriers for Indigenous women, Two-Spirit and gender-diverse people with disabilities” online between 13:00 and 15:00 on Thursday March 24, 2022.

Here's some more information about this event, as per the image above: the Native Women's Association of Canada (NWAC) invites federally regulated employers to a webinar training session to learn to identify employment barriers in their workplaces.

Topics for discussion include:

• Tangible Actions to create a culturally safe and accessible environment
• Explore Insight from Research and Lived Experiences to understand the impacts of Indigenous identity, gender identity and disability on the needs of Indigenous women, Two-Spirit and gender diverse people in the workplace

While the target audience is federally regulated employers, the session is open to other interested parties. People like you and me, who want to learn more about how we can help create workplaces that are inclusive, diverse, equitable and accessible.

Note that registration is limited to 38 people, if you're interested in this learning opportunity, register now!

To register for this session email workshops@nwac.ca

I’m excited to attend, I hope you join us.

If you enjoyed reading this post you may also enjoy (click on title to go to the blog):
IDEA an Effective Leadership Strategy
Indigenous Women are Successful Entrepreneurs
Six Degrees of Networking

To get a free copy of my eBook “Networking: Identifying and Connecting with Friendly Forces” click here (note it’s easier to sign up using a laptop than a phone).

Mentoring is one of the greatest resources available for entrepreneurs.

On February 5 and March 5, I spoke about business mentoring in virtual events. One of the questions that struck me during the second talk was “what should we pay for mentoring?”

I believe with my entire being that mentoring should be “free.” I put free in quotation marks, because anyone interested in benefitting from a mentoring relationship should invest their time and energy to help themselves achieve their goals. I don’t think that anyone should be charged a fee to receive mentoring.

To me mentoring is when people act as trusted thought partners, helping each other out. They also celebrate each others success. Often the more experienced person is considered the Mentor, while the person with less experience is considered the Mentee.

I’m currently participating in 3 formal mentoring programs, two are with my professional associations, and the third is with a government funded program to help women entrepreneurs.

I’m a strong supporter of joining the professional associations that are related to your business and career. While you generally have to pay membership fees to belong, often one of the member benefits is a free mentoring program. 

For example, I belong to the Human Resources Professional Association (HRPA) which has had formal mentoring programs in place for about a decade. I also belong to the Business and Professional Women of Ontario (BPW Ontario) and I’m helping launch our first formal mentoring program BPW Ontario Women Strengthening Women.

Over the past 18 months, I’ve also been a mentor for the WE CAN Project at Queen’s University Coffee Konnections program. 

None of these programs charge mentees to participate, and none of them pay the mentors.

If you’re looking specifically for Business Mentoring and you don’t belong to a professional association or other program offering mentoring services, then I’m happy to recommend resources.

The PARO Centre for Women’s Enterprise Mentor Moments program is available to all individuals whether you are a PARO client or not. To learn more about this program click here.

MentorCity, a Canadian company, offers enterprise solutions for organizations, and they offer a free program for individuals. To learn more about the free program click here.

There are also a number of organizations across Canada that offer free business coaching or counselling. I recommend that you google “small business centre” or “economic development” along with your region, to learn what resources are available near you.

I also recommend trying to work with a free coach to start. When you’re ready to invest in a professional coach, you’ll have an idea of what type of coach you’d like to work with.  

The free coaches are generally selected through a competitive process and then paid by their organization to provide you with Business Coaching. For example, I’m a part time Business Growth Advisor for PARO. PARO pays me to coach women* starting or growing their business. Most of my PARO clients are in Eastern Ontario. 

If you’re not a woman in Ontario, then you can always contact me and pay me to be your business coach directly.  Even though this is a service I offer, I still recommend that people work with a free coach first.

* PARO considers trans women to be women. PARO also welcomes 2 Spirited people, non-binary people and agender people as clients.

If you enjoyed reading this post you may also enjoy:

Finding Mentors
IDEA an Effective Leadership Strategy
It's OK to ask for help, so I'm asking...

To get a free copy of my eBook “Networking: Identifying and Connecting with Friendly Forces” click here (note it’s easier to sign up using a laptop than a phone).