BUSINESS MENTORING / COACHING

Do you wish you could afford a business mentor that understands what it’s like to build a business from nothing?

For the past 5 years, I have been mentoring wonderful women doing it tough in business and others who had a great business but needed clarity on how to niche or diversify and grow. A few of them are now friends.

I am not a high end of town business coach with lots of theory and no experience charging big dollars $$$
I have had my own successful businesses and probably walked a mile or two in your start-up business shoes.
If your business turns over less than a million, or maybe only just gives you a wage, I’ve been there.

Firstly, let me be real, we will have a complimentary clarity call, where I don’t a hard sell because I don’t want people I can’t help. That serves no one.

I want to partner with business women who want a combination of mentoring born of experience and coaching techniques that allow you to uncover answers you have within you. When you discover what lights you up and how your business can align with your values, amazing transformations start to happen.

Copy the link below if you dare and it will take to my booking page for a complimentary clarity call. You can tell me all about your biz. I’m excited to speak with you and get to know who YOU are, what you do and what lights you up.
Book a session here: https://mina-sedgman-consulting.as.me/clarity-call

Bring your challenges and let’s shine a light on them and transform them into opportunities.

My business mentoring is affordable.

Imagine the momentum you could create and the income you could generate, with a business coach in your corner. Especially if you are currently feeling stuck.

If you know you need this, email me or comment below if you want to introduce yourself first. Or simply book in and let’s discover if I can make a difference in your business.

Monthly payment plans available

You may want to cyber stalk me
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mina-sedgman-59739637/
https://www.facebook.com/minasedgmancoaching/

I almost always give to homeless people, even when I was young and backpacking. I often wonder why it so offends some people that I am generous to strangers. I try to remember them as whole humans, not broken. When I give I feel deep compassion. Sometimes I am given a smile that lights up my soul. When I see a homeless woman, I will give $20. I have been given beautiful heartfelt blessings and words of appreciation. I will always ask homeless women if they are aware of various shelters and charities that they can access. Often they are waiting for government housing. Homeless women are growing in numbers and are extremely vunerable.

A friend I traveled with years ago never gave anything to anyone and thought I was a little crazy giving money away when we had so little ourselves. Somehow I always believed money would come to me. I worked backpacking, I worked from a young age, but I also innately knew I was looked after and not just by my parents, I felt a much stronger presence in my life.

I give to beggars and almost always tip even when it’s not expected. I remind my husband to tip. The pizza guy the other night was so thankful. My husband beamed as he told me how happy he made the pizza guy and I thought, look how happy you are! Where it’s not custom or appropriate to tip I give a warm smile, eye contact, and friendly conversation.

Recently I saw my own mothers tell a homeless person to “go home”. I was shocked, she is eighty and I told her to be careful saying things to people who are on the street as they often have a mental illness and might lash out at her.

I know why my mother has no sympathy for homeless people. No one had sympathy for her as an immigrant in a strange land with a sometimes physically abusive husband. She never took nor was given a handout, or helping hand. She created her own home, security, business, investments and wealth. No one gave it to her. She worked, minimum wages, often exploited as a dressmaker. She worked for most of her life, to provide for her family and acquire her security. Her stand is, in Australia, we have social security, so no one should be homeless.

So I wonder was my generosity easy when I was younger simply because I always knew, if the shit really hit the fan, my mum would be there to bail me out? I do not judge others who are not generous. I simply am grateful that I can give. I walk past the homeless man in front of the local supermarket almost on a weekly or fortnightly basis and know I will give him $5 and others will walk past and frown. I have been laughed at by children, stared at by adults and an elderly couple said out loud, “why would she do that?”

I like to keep $5 – $10 notes on me in case I see homeless people. The other night I walked past and said I’m sorry I don’t have any cash tonight and kept walking feeling rather badly for him. I checked the console of my car and I had coins. I went back and his head was hanging low as usual, I said I have some coins and gave them to him. Through his dirty unshaven face, he thanked me and smiled. I have never seen him smile before. What a gift to both of us and it cost me only $5.20.

My earliest memories are of growing up in a Milk Bar that my mother ran. So my little girl brain was primed for business very young. Unfortunately I don’t have any photo’s of the shop. It was in the 70’s and mum stocked the shop full of continental foods. She introduced spaghetti and pasta sauce to the local Australian mums. They would cook it up on a Saturday after their boys come home from playing football.

My parents had immigrated from Italy. Their honeymoon was a 6 month trip to a new land. The ocean liner they boarded sailed half way around the world and used the Suez Canal to get to Australia. Every thing was a cultural shock to my parents. They had never seen native Africans and mum was frightened as she had no idea people could look so different.

My dad liked to play cards and so did the captain of the ship. That earnt my parents a place at the captain’s table for dinner most nights. I’m sure the money my dad lost playing cards with the Captain more than covered their meals. However my dad never talked to us about his losses. Gamblers always tell you about the wins.

My parents landed in Port Melbourne in 1961 and their new lives began in a shared house with my father’s sister and her husband. I was born 2 years later and my cousin Robbie was born 6 moths later. We grew up very close. When she became ill years later in our teens, I spent many days in hospital with her while she fought the effects of lupus. She survived and I was bridesmaid at her fairytale wedding!

My favourite memories of the early years are of mum’s Milk Bar. One day I came home from primary school and the most spectacular red bubble gum machine was sitting outside the front of the shop. I was so excited I ran across the main road without looking. A car screeched to a stop and narrowly missed me. I can still clearly see the fear in my mother eyes as she ran out of the shop towards me.

My first foray into a real business (apart from my play dates of “shops and selling” with my Barbie) was out the front of the Milk Bar. Not content selling cigarettes to adults and candy to children in the shop I decided the real opportunity was outside the shop. Next to the red bubble gum machine.

My diet of day time television when I used to get home from school consisted of old black and white movies. I absolutely loved the 1940’s movies with the cigarette girls. To me they were glamorous and beautiful and onto a great idea. So I made myself a cigarette tray. Mine had a red ribbon around my neck and was filled with candy cigars and cigarettes. Mum wouldn’t let me sell real cigarettes on the street. As a business venture, it was not that successful. Luckily I didn’t have to pay for my stock as I am sure I ate quite a few candy “fags” and cigars while waiting for customers.

You have probably read the story about Kate Spade’s suicide. It was tragic and must be truly heartbreaking for her family. Her dad said he had spoken to her the night before and she seemed “happy”. Kate Spade battled with anxiety and depression for years. It can be a devasting disease. Yet she was envied for her cheerful, “happy” brand. The business person is often envied and sometimes perceived as having it all, a great business and great life.

The truth is, business people often have financial, emotional and physical stresses that are unique to being self-employed. Often people assume because you have your own business you are “living the dream”, successful and carefree.

Hearing of Kate Spade’s passing is confronting and difficult for all business owners, especially if we struggle with depression or anxiety. A reminder we need to care for each other. We need to ask for help when we need it. And we need to be willing to accept help.

We also need to be willing to allow people to be vulnerable, to speak the truth about their struggle and hold a nonjudgemental space. We need to stop trying to fix everyone that doesn’t fit into our version of the world.

When was the last time a friend came to you, opened their heart and you simply let them tell you their story? Did you listen without judgment and without offering solutions?

When we offer “quick fix” solutions, we disempower the other person. Workshopping a solution if they are ready and open to it is helpful, however, are you doing it for them or you?

Trying to fix them on the spot is not a solution. It might feel good for you to have been the hero in the situation to have come up with a solution, but you simply end up shutting the other person down and increasing their feelings of “I’m not good enough.”

We are all good enough just the way we are. We are all perfectly imperfect. To be human is to be gloriously imperfect.

Allow the gift of imperfect to free yourself, your family and friends from perfection. Allow the gift of imperfection to allow others to share their story or struggle without judgment.

If you need help and are feeling overwhelmed, seek help from those equipped to do so. In Australia, your GP can give you a mental health care plan where you have 10 subsidised session with a Psychologist available to you every 12 months. Mental health is as important as your physical health.

Talk therapy with a compassionate and skilled psychologist helped me overcome my feelings of overwhelm, deep sadness, extreme stress and not feeling “good enough.”

There are many wonderful therapies, counseling services, life coaching and even business coaching that can help with feelings of overwhelm in your life and business.

However, if you are having bouts of depression, anxiety, and feelings of self-harm, you will benefit seeking out a health care professional trained and resourced with the tools to guide you to back to your center, back to feeling OK.

We have this one precious and glorious life. Let’s take care of each other and ourselves. Don’t let business stress overwhelm you, your family or friends.

If you are feeling overwhelmed by your business I offer a complimentary clarity call. We can discuss whether business mentoring and coaching might ease your overwhelm. Or whether you might benefit from a professional therapist. Sometimes the best therapy is simply talking about the overwhelm and acknowledging how you are feeling. Talk to a friend, talk a therapist or talk to me. I am always here for women in business because we are all here to walk each other home. You don’t have to walk your business journey alone.

https://mina-sedgman-coaching.as.me/clarity-call

Do you know how can we support our family & friends in business? And it’s FREE!
Do you know that most people in small business suffer from physical or mental exhaustion, emotional or financial stress along their business journey?

There are small things you can do, that make a BIG difference to your family & friends!

1/ Liking, commenting & sharing their Facebook & Insta business posts
(Facebook no longer has the organic reach it once had, we need to like, comment and share to create reach.)

2/ Liking their facebook business page & following their Instagram
(I have over 500 fb friends and most have not like my business page. I like nearly every biz page when asked.)

3/ Giving a 5* review on facebook if you have purchased a product or used their services. If they deserve it, tell them!

4/ Leaving a great review on their website blog etc.

5/ Asking your friends to like their business pages.

6/ Referring their business to your friends.

7/ If you see a Facebook sponsored add by someone you know, support them, they are paying for it! Please like, comment and share like a raving fan!

All this involves no money.
Let’s support small business.
Let’s support each other  x

How do you feel when you say out loud “I love sales!”?

May I suggest, if you don’t love sales, you may not understand what sales represent?
If you are offering value to your clients, the “sale” is the “reward” or payment for that value.
Giving Value = Receiving Reward

Simple, but not always easy because we can wrap our self-worth in our ability to make sales when we are in business.

Our worth is unlimited. We simply can’t get life wrong when we align with our values and we express how we truly want to “be” in the world.

When we attach our worth to the money in our bank or the number of sales we make or the number of clients we serve, well it gets messy.

We have attached our worth to external things. The material world is not a measure of your true worth. The material world is a measure of our ability to “play the game of life”.

The joy we feel every day, the connections, the compassion, the love is not measured by external things.

The perceived value we offer, and the ability to be able to articulate that value attracts to us the money, the job, the promotion, or the clients, and the sales.

Love sales and we love the value we offer.
Love sales and we love our business.
Love sales and we love our clients.

When we wrap our self-worth in our ability to make sales we put a lot of pressure on ourselves and our businesses. This belief is conditioning by our western society. Many people believe that material wealth is a measure of their worth. This is a critical flaw in our collective thinking.

Want to tackle your resistance around sales?
Keep reading. You can also book a session with me.

Sales are a measure of our ability to articulate the value of our offer or product to our clients.

Our worth is not measured by our sales. Our worth is unlimited, immeasurable, undeniable.

Selling is a game. Have fun. Play full out. Then measure, adjust and continue playing. If you have resistance to sales you will not make it in business. This is the cold hard reality of the game of business.

Stop attaching your self-worth to your sales. Understand that selling is an essential and natural part of business.

And if you still feel like sales are “icky” or hard, you can read this post every day. Or every evening repeat this mantra, “My worth is not my money, my worth is unlimited, my value is immeasurable. My worth is my value as a human being, not a human doing. The sales I make are a reflection of how well I play the game of business. Sales come to me easily, effortlessly and reflect the value I give to my clients. I am valuable, lovable and worthy simply being me.”

Repeat every evening, until you can say with absolute honesty and with no resistance …
“I love sales”.

Simply be you, Hugs, Mina xxx