The year 2020 has shown me lots of things about myself, my habits, my needs. One aspect of understanding both my habits and needs is also taking a look at my inner circle that I go to for advice. Those people that I go to when I’m working through professional changes and hurdles. If you look at your circle, or some call the group their tribe, did those mentors and guides get into that place of importance recently or decades ago? Do they know they are one of your go-to people?

I launched a new series with Connect Change & Challenge podcast called Quick Chats, where we dive into topics brought up in previous guest episodes or just hot issues. The first topic is one I hold close to my vest, talking about your inner circle. So, are you intentionally choosing your inner circle? When you look at the people that are around you, are those people helping you? Are they pushing you? Are they building a safety net for you? What purpose do they have in your life? And this stems from a conversation about intentionality that we talked about in Episode 7, with Dena Bunnel. Dena is now just getting settled in and in Nigeria, in her role with Nuru International. Dena is a great example of how you can build a career, networks, connections. She focuses on growing herself, pushing herself out of her comfort zone while helping others achieve a life of self-sufficiency. She has done this very intentionally and we dive into this discussion in that episode. Here is the link to that bigger discussion on intentionality. https://stacymayomartinez.com/episodes/beintentional

For the Quick Chat, I talk specifically about being intentional with your inner circle or go-to peeps. Here are the highlights for questions to consider:

• Do those in your inner circle know they are part of this group for you?
• Who are the people in your circle? Are their experiences different from you? Do they ask you hard questions or just agree with you and your concerns?
• When you go to your guides, do they know what you need from them? An ear, advice? Do you define your expectations for your conversation?
• If you see an experience is missing from your circle, how do you look to grow? Where do you go find new connections, how do you make that bridge to listen first before you connect to new people?
• When you ask a connection to help connect with you to another professional, what are the rules of making new connections to care for it appropriately?

These exercises are something I have found helpful as I grow and evolve once again in my career. I hope you can find them useful in your personal-professional growth. Please share your feedback on how you grow your circle intentionally; I’d love to learn from your experiences! Also, if you have thoughts on the quick chats, please share. They are only worth it if they are helpful to others!

Looking for a way to learn more about yourself? Check out my FREE Personal Brand Evaluation course: https://stacymayomartinez.com/brand