You Betta Werk: You Don't Know It All Boo, Get A Mentor!

Don't call it a come back!

I am really feeling these old-school, hip-hop lyric greetings. I think I'm going to stick with the trend for a while lol.

On another note, there's been so much going on as of late, that I wasn't really in the spirit to blog; however through this blog I can be a light in a dark place. To those of you reading this, feeling hopeless and exhausted, take care of yourself. Don't get so caught up in caring for others that you forget to take care of yourselves and self-care also includes doing things that bring you peace.

Anywho- I'll touch basis on all of the current events at a later date, maybe I won't, I don't know. I'm too in my feelings at the moment... as for now, it's time to get to this WERK!

Since I can remember, I've always aspired to work in the creative industry. I not only want to work in the creative industry but I kind of want to be a media maven i.e take the world of media by storm *inserts villain laugh here*. I've embarked on many entrepreneurial endeavors; most not as lucrative as I hoped they'd be, but a learning opportunity and milestone none-the-less. Through my failures, I've learned things that I can one day lend to the media mavens to come after me, so they won't make the same mistakes I did.

*Light bulb* If I can take my learning experiences and lend them to someone else so they can avoid the obstacles I faced, wouldn't be even more dope if I had someone to do the same for me??? Welp, I found one! While I have many people to look up to, I don't know many people personally that have experience in the industries I aspire to be in. Lucky for me, one of my mother's besties used to be a celebrity stylist and now travels abroad to teach.

This one connection inspired me to take the steps I took in order to become a writer with Jones magazine and it led to connections with other individuals in my desired industry. Here's the thing, I know we're grown and love to think we've got it all figured out, but we don't and there's nothing wrong with that. The most successful people you know didn't have it all together at once but I promise you, if you pick their brains for just thirty minutes, you'll gain some valuable knowledge and it will save you so much time on your journey.

Your mentor may not be a family member or friend of the family but social media makes the world a much smaller place. Stay active on Linkedin and connect with people that have the job titles you aspire to have; message them and thank them for accepting your request and try starting up a convo about a current event in their industry. Let's not count out Twitter and Instagram; It goes down in the DM ! You aint eva scurred to slide in the DM's when you tryna get "potential bae's" digits, so don't be scurred to hit up someone you admire and aspire to be like to arrange a meet-up over coffee.

If you're still SOL with this mentor thing, be honest, be vulnerable, message some people you know and ask if they have any people in their network they can introduce you to for mentorship. If you associate yourself with people that genuinely want to see you do well this shouldn't be an issue, you should have plenty of people willing to help you with this and if you don't....you need new friends boo.

I think you guys get the point now. When you reach those milestones you've always dreamed of reaching, don't forget the people that pushed you just a little closer to them and don't hesitate to be that extra push for someone else.

I hope this 'You Betta Werk' post was of help to you.

If you don't like who you work for, find a way to make it work for you! In the meantime, YOU BETTA WERK BOO!

-XoXo,

Mani