So, you've decided that maybe hiring a mentor to help you take your doula career to new heights. Great! Now you have another dilemma. How do you find a good mentor?
I'm here to just offer you a few tips.
Before looking for a mentor, figure out what it is that you need and want from mentorship. Once you know what that is, you can start looking for the right mentor for you. Not every mentor will specialize in the same thing. Some are great at contract building. Some are great at social media and marketing. Some are great at website designing. Some are great at pep talks and confidence building. Need I continue? Lol.
Your potential mentor should be open to consulting with you before you move forward with a commitment. Let them know that you would like to ask them some questions about their experience.
Make sure that you understand exactly what is included in your mentorship. How often do you have communication with your mentor? Do they have any special offerings that come with the mentorship?
A big question many people have when looking for a mentor is "How much is reasonable for a mentor to charge?". There's no right answer. No one person can tell a mentor how much they're worth. Each mentor sets their price based on what they feel the value of their knowledge, experience, time, and offering is worth. It's up to you to decide if YOU feel it's worth the investment. It's taken me over 8 years to learn all that I've learned. I have a lot of knowledge and experience. I've helped people establish non-profits, retire from their job, boost their outreach and income, and more. My offering is in demand which limits how many people I can take on. This increases the value of my offering. Some days I feel as though I'm still not charging as much as I could be, but I don't want my service to be unaffordable either. Especially since I'm primarily catering to newer doulas who are usually already spread thin with funds when they're just starting out.
The right mentor can change your life and your career. Stop spending money to buy all these cool doula tools for your doula bag, meanwhile you don't even have a contract, nor do you even know how to conduct a consultation with a client yet. (OOP.....is that you? Ummmm Hmmm) Invest in a mentor as one of your first steps. FB groups are great for advice in a pinch but stop relying solely on that.
Now, who's ready to get in line to book their mentorship?