I just read an email from a woman I consider a mentor from afar, and it really resonated. She asked a question that I’ve heard a million times, but this time, it hit different. It’s like I was meant to see this email and read it on this exact day to have this exact realization.
The question was: Who are you taking your advice from?
As I said, I’ve heard this a million times. I’ve always been mindful to only take advice from people who have a life that I would actually want. But the thing is, my life has completely changed over the last year. The people I would take advice from three years ago, heck even one year ago, are completely different now.
A few years back, I was just getting into the world of entrepreneurship, looking to develop my skills as a business owner while living freely, traveling the world, and doing whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. My life doesn’t look like that anymore. It makes sense that I would be looking for something different in a mentor now.
This email also included a line that stuck with me: "The only business advice I take now is from women whose days get rearranged before 9 AM." I’m future-casting a little bit here, because my little guy is still only nine months old, but I know that time is coming and I want to be prepared.
Don’t get me wrong, I have so much love and respect for the business mentor I chose for my entry into the entrepreneurship and online business world. She was the perfect mentor for me because, in her presence, I was able to achieve all the things I had been dreaming of for years.
As soon as I stepped into her mentorship, I actually launched a business 🤯. I learned thoroughly how to run ads and create an automated business; I learned the basics of sales, taking calls, and talking to leads. I learned how to build a business "on the move" while traveling the world as a nomad. I stepped into her energetic field and allowed myself to see the energy she was putting out to help others live the lifestyle she had built for herself. That was such a valuable experience for me and something I will keep with me forever. Choosing her was one of the best decisions I ever made.
However, there comes a time when life changes and you have to move on from mentors whose lives no longer match the energy you are in.
To be honest, it makes me really sad. There has definitely been a grieving period. It’s taken me time to fully accept that I need a new mentor... one more aligned with the life I’m living now as a mother, as a partner in a relationship, and as someone looking to build relationships and businesses within my local community rather than online. Plus, I’m seeing money in a different light now (goodbye solo Jos, hello, motherhood).
My brain has literally been rewired, and it’s still rewiring... This brain knows that I can have immense gratitude for past mentors and stay connected in some capacity, but also knows that I need to be seeking out the next guides who are aligned with the life I am living now.
Despite all these feelings and emotions about moving on from past lives and mentors, I’m so excited for what’s to come. I am in that space of the unknown, of ideas and cultivating creative energy, while at the same time raising a small human who takes up 99% of my brain space.
I am literally speaking into the notes on my phone to write this right now. It’s probably going to get published with very minimal edits, but that’s what I know I have to do. That is exactly the permission this new "mentor from afar" gave me this morning: Permission to put my thoughts out there, even while not being 100% focused on the execution.
And it feels so good.
I’m sharing this with you because if even just one of you reads this and feels like you have permission to take "messy action" (a concept I learned from my first mentor 😘 love you forever), then I am so happy.
Signing off now because I know my little guy is going to wake up any minute, and I want to push this out to you right now!