Welcome, welcome everybody. It is a another session of mentor Mondays. Today, as usual, I will be giving you and sharing with you different tips and tricks when it comes to your career. But I also have a special announcement. Yes. So let's first get started. And today we are talking about creating your career team, who is on that team? Who do you need, that really can help you push forward in your career? Now, you're probably thinking, oh my gosh, I don't know, I haven't thought about this. Right. So I am going to start where we generally start with is our community, our friends, our classmates, our family, right? Our social media community, people we know personally, we share great labs, we share information, even job opportunities. That is where you start when it comes to the what I call the five parts of your career community. And yes, it is truly truly important that you know what they are, and because they all play an important yet different part of you creating and helping you bill, a career you desire and deserve. So first starts your community, in your community, they oftentimes believing they, they can see you doing great things with your career. But they may not be able to answer your questions, provide guidance, provide information they need. And this often happens when it comes to people of color, not just women of color. Oftentimes, we may not be first generation college graduates, right. But we may be first generation to go into corporate America. So the barriers that we encounter, or this or certain things that we encounter with in corporate America, I parents haven't encountered, because they were educators, they work as civil servants. But you're seeing it differently and experience it differently in corporate America, but they are still part of your community, and they truly, truly support you in everything you do. The next one is really common and highly, highly recommended. I know I recommend it, I know I have been a mentor to many people, as well, as well as being a mentee. So your mentor is really you could have more than one I know I have more than one. And I've had them at different phases in my life. So whether it was before college, during college, and even in my professional career, I've always had a mentor someone I can go ask questions to someone who could guide me in the right direction, someone who kept an open dialogue with me, and guess what they always wanted to see me when, and most of the times I develop a personal relationship with this person. So don't think that your mentor has to be someone you you can't build a personal relationship with, they're only going to be there on the professional side. And that is not true. Your your mentors are someone you want to have within your life long term. And not short term. Some of them will be short term. Other times they will be there for the long run. So don't, don't give up. Don't be afraid. All right. Next, we have an ally. And you're like Michelle, what do you mean an ally. So in the workplace, you become friends with several people. Some of those people support you in different ways than others in your workplace. One of those ways is they give you inside information. They encourage you a different way. They really want you to succeed. But this ally Julie doesn't have power or a lot of power, or persuasiveness to get you to where you want to be. They make it inside scoop of something. They may understand some small things, or some very important information you're not privy to, but they generally aren't in closed door meetings, right? So let's say you want to get in a new department work or working on a new project. They may say, Hey, I know they're looking for somebody. I will see exactly what they're looking for who they're talking to you in your group in your department in your division, right, so they'll do some snooping for you some investigative work, but they can't directly impact or highly influence you getting that row, but they're out for your best interest. Next up, is really important. And they are harder sometimes to identify, they can be harder sometimes, because you generally don't pick your sponsor, your sponsor is the person who can advocate for you behind closed doors, they're invited to meetings, you're not invited to, they have the inside track, they know when it comes to the names on a list who is above the line and who's below the line. And what I mean by above the line, when it comes to promotion raises some of the best opportunities within a corporation, you want to be above the line. Those are the prime candidates for opportunity within our organization. Those below the line well, usually there is no line. If you're not above the line, you generally don't matter. You just kind of filter in Oh, we got a role here. This person is available. What uh, yeah, that's another body. Yeah, look at look at their salary, they won't eat that much of the budget, right? The below the on people really aren't paid that much attention to, but they may still make the list. So you want to stay above the line. And a sponsor is that person, they're taking your name into very important meetings, they are there, they're bringing you up when it comes to very important decisions within an organization. Lastly, is a counselor and you like Michelle, what do you mean a counselor, you mean a psychiatrist, a psychologist know what I mean by counselor, not necessarily those but you may need a life coach, a career coach someone to help you look into direction that you want to go and really push you into that direction, really help you accelerate, take some actions and steps you may not have thought about you hadn't developed a strategy to get there and you're just completely stuck or maybe not completely stuck. But you know, it's where you want to go. Oftentimes those people are only there for a short period of time could be 90 days could be a year, but they are there to push you along. And they are usually the ones that you invest time and money with to help you accelerate to where you want to go. Yes. So you do make that investment in yourself. Now you're like, Michelle, that sounds kind of interesting. And you may have more questions, and you definitely definitely should hit me up if you have questions. Because what is happening this Saturday is career strategy Saturday. Yes. On career strategy Saturday, myself and Aaron brada will be answering your questions when it comes to your career and crew and creating a career that you want. So if you have questions, if you want to push ahead in your career, simply comment below. And guess what? You will get the registration information for this live event. It is career strategy Saturday, November 10. At 2pm Eastern Time, 11am Pacific time. So Erin is out in LA. So to give her some time to kind of sleep in but not too much. She is going to join us. If you have questions, you can submit them early. If you can't join us live. Be sure to register so you can get the replay the what the replay. Yes, we would love to have you. I hope to see you on Saturday. And guess what? We will be permitted three ladies to get on. Live with us. Yes, you can join us be in the hot seat. We can answer your questions live. You can submit your questions beforehand, as well as submit them while you are there with us. So don't worry, we give you plenty of opportunity to engage in apps as some of your career questions that you haven't been able to get an answer for everybody. I'm Michele Heyward, founder of the tech company positive hire helping women of color STEM professionals find inclusive workplaces, in management, inclusive workplaces and management roles I should say in corporate America. I will see you next week for another mentor Monday. Bye everybody.