Nathan Lomax

As they say feedback is the greatest gift. Drop the ego and take on the feedback. Be hungry to see where you could improve. It doesn’t have to be big wholesale changes but often marginal gains that helps you improve. You can only get better if you keep learning, you are never the finished article no matter how old or how experienced.

Honestly don’t worry about lavish gifts and big expensive gestures. A lot of mentors do this because they want to help! Just say thank you. If you need to do something maybe a hand written note. Often the mentor enjoys it just as much as you, so don’t overthink it! Just say thank you, and continue to follow up on the actions agreed, seeing you grow is the greatest gift of all!

When it comes to networking in online forums it’s all about adding value. Just like you would in an offline community, how can you help others? How can you pay it forwards, how can you make meaningful introductions and how can you add value to discussions or topics. I see this as an opportunity to build reciprocity. Imagine a game of chess. Someone has to make the first move. Have the confidence to make that first move. Do something of value for someone and start building up a bank of reciprocity. It will come back in its spades trust me! Just stick to the model, keep helping, keep adding value without expecting anything in return and it will soon come back when you least expect it!

Having access to someone that’s been there, seen it and done it is invaluable. Someone that knows when to ask questions and when to encourage you to reflect. It’s a real skill knowing when to time your responses and approaches to get the most out of your mentee. More often than not they maybe looking for reassurance or support overcoming self doubt and you find the mentee actually has the answer, it’s only until they start talking out loud and verbalise the problem or potential solution can they begin to self diagnose and solve. A mentor doesn’t have to be older in age but just having relevant experience to help you unlock the next stage of your journey either personally or professionally is vital.

For me certain social media platforms are the perfect complimentary tool to help build out your loyalty solution. Too many ecommerce stores are having to erode margin as part of their loyalty programme rather than adding value. Why don’t you create an exclusive group, or potentially an exclusive event or maybe even a group chat where you are only able to get access if you are a VIP customer. Perhaps then you can start to think about sharing early release products, getting product feedback and all sorts of other perks as well as encouraging those in your VIP network to promote the brand, become brand ambassadors and to help you scale the business. Social can be hugely powerful if used properly to enhance your exisiting loyalty offering.

For any freelancers out there my feedback would be to focus on carving out a niche and being great at something rather than trying to do it all. Whether that be Shopify development, GA4 tracking, google ads, SEO, klaviyo email marketing whatever it is, find your niche and own it. With a small team either just you or you and 1-2 others picking a niche allows you to focus your marketing efforts and go to market strategy on exactly who you want to be working with - after all your time will be spread thin as you balance business development, marketing, finances etc. Become a specialist, focus on thought leadership and positioning and hone your craft. You can then look to kick on from there by adding people or partnering with other freelancers.