September 30, 2024
This sentence made me remember how I also felt once I started researching UX and the freelance world and ended up in the same vortex of information.
I came to this conclusion after one junior designer found me on LinkedIn at the end of May with a message explaining her situation and how one of my videos gave her the courage to contact me. 🥰
The video in question:
So this junior designer turned to me for advice and my opinion as a designer on how she should position herself, well knowing I started my journey in freelancing at the very end of 2021.
At the time my mom was visiting and the summer holiday was starting so we didn’t manage to schedule our first call. I also went on my first solo travel as a business owner thanks to my hard work during the past quarter.
One thing I made specifically clear: I can’t help you or give you advice before I get to know you, hear your story and see what struggles you have at the moment.
A problem well-stated is half-solved. — Charles Kettering
And this article here, I want to serve as a starting point for documenting this new type of collaboration I am welcoming in my business.
If you have followed me for a while, you know I also tutor on the Preply platform English for other people who want to advance and practice. Hence I do not have a problem teaching and mentoring.
But up until now I have exclusively made only one exception on helping an emerging freelance developer get around the main freelance platforms I started on:
With him, we did a one-time consultation walkthrough over the most important parts of each platform. But up until now, I haven’t got a serious, concise and clear request for advice and guidance. I am intentionally not using the word coaching!
Coaching is a form of development in which an experienced person, called a coach, supports a learner or client in achieving a specific personal or professional goal by providing training and guidance.
Since our first call, I chose the word mentoring because the first aspect we are going to work on is the self. And exactly who is my mentee, what is she good at, what she will bring to the design table and how we can best evoke her skills so she can find her first client. All that with working on also growing her confidence!
“I just need guidance. Because all this information that I am consuming is in huge quantity. I feel lost and I am not walking in the right direction. I want to start working in the right direction. I want to walk and talk with confidence in 2 years and say: This is me, I can help you with this.”
Starting my business was indeed and personal and professional development journey and if I can help someone as passionate about helping others through design, I will put in the extra hours.
So, I do not have any courses or packages to sell to you! Not yet at least. 😂 I am just laying down some nice foundation and going through the archives of how I paved my way, and how someone can walk it better with all I know now.
In the future, if I create mentoring on consultation packages, you will be one of the first to know.
If you want to follow my journey as a designer and now mentor, follow me on here, Instagram, Threads and Linkedin. 😊
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Thank you for reading!
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P.S. If you want to be part of my curious journey, you can also find me on Instagram @angelova.nikoleta.design and LinkedIn (Nikoleta Angelova). Don’t forget to include a note if possible on LinkedIn. 😉
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