Rockstar Mentee, Belinda Moore explains why her mentor has been so valuable to her business.
Belinda Moore runs MeloWorld, a creative brand and design agency that works with children’s charities, educational organisations and the sustainability sector. She started the business in 2005 and currently has one other member of staff.
Belinda, who has a background in freelance graphic design, says she’d reached a bit of roadblock with certain projects within the company and become bogged down with the day-to-day admin of running of the business. After seeing Jonathan Pfahl speak at an investment seminar she was so impressed with what he had to say, she did some research and found out he mentored through the Rockstar Group.
“I emailed him with a treatment for our idea and he responded straight away,” she says. “We arranged a face-to-face consultation within a couple of weeks and presented our concept to him more formally.
“I was interested in the idea of mentoring as a way of getting some momentum going for a project that was burning a hole in the bottom of the ideas draw. I wanted to gauge the business perspective to see if the project had life beyond the drawing board and determine an appropriate strategy to develop it.”
Belinda says the mentoring relationship is quite informal. She has a regular monthly consultation with Jonathan to present ideas, but he’s flexible with his help.
“He’s very receptive to us emailing or calling him. The formal agreement is only once a month but he goes above and beyond that, which makes us feel happy he’s very much part of the team.
Belinda says her mentor’s input has led to a number of meetings and deals that she would never have been confident enough to attempt without him.
“He’s given me a huge amount of confidence, both in my ability and the value of the project, and a much better perspective, which is also having an impact on my business as a whole.
“Business owners are often guilty of not asking for help when it’s needed. We think we can solve things ourselves. This attitude may deliver success eventually; but it will take longer and cost more as a result. You can’t expect a mentor to do the work for you but in my experience, Jonathan has been the wind in my project’s sails!”