To explain
It can be a lonely existence for a female entrepreneur, trying, on a daily basis to work out whether you are making the right decisions or not in most things that you do. You can spend days in solitude trying to find ways you grow your business on top of the day to day admin that is required, it can become dizzying. Networking groups are amazing and if worked in the right way can really help to expand who you are connected to.
One to ones from your network group are also incredibly beneficial, they are a great opportunity for you to lay your business out to someone and ask for further connections and in my blog post Join the Elite World of Super Connectors I talk more about how you do that.
However, there comes a time when you just need to talk through an idea, learn on a deeper level or consider new angles that would not have crossed your mind.
Also, on the flip side, you have to recognise how much your talents, knowledge and expertise can help someone else on their own entrepreneurial journey.
I talk, rant, write a lot about the power of a tribe and surrounding yourself with the right people and a brain exchange is a powerful way to exercise this.
So what is a Brain Exchange?
Simply put it is two minds getting together to exchange knowledge. A powerful meeting of minds, each with the inspiration to help the other and to, themselves, grow in knowledge.
By arranging a Skype call or a face to face meeting but with the agenda of a brain exchange. Each person getting an equal amount of time. You can spend your time exchanging knowledge and truly helping each other to grow personally and in your business.
It is easy to understand but important for your mindset.
What for?
I have several amazing female entrepreneurs that I have brain exchanges with. The wonderful and incredibly giving Mel Noakes of www.MelNoakes.com we brain exchanged, regularly, on ideas as to how each could grow our businesses.
The incredibly talented Nicola Wordsworth, www.NicolaWordsworth.com and I have often had brain exchanges with the title and attitude of Get Shit Done. The purpose was share ideas as to how we could take our business to the next level. We arranged a regular time and stuck to it. The sessions were powerful and incredibly inspiring.
And this year I already have plans with the kick arse Cheryl Laidlaw of www.londonwebgirl.com This is with the pure intention of learning, learning more about data and analytics and what we can do to grow our profiles and our blogs and of course our businesses.
You see there are many reasons that you can create a brain exchange, it can be with a liked minded business person so you can share ideas in a similar industry or it can be with someone so far outside the box that it prompts you with new ideas that you may not have thought about for your business.
They can be ad hoc, they can regular and with the power of Skype you can carry these out with people from all over the world.
The rules
Brain exchanges have to be fair, there are a few, but strict rules,
- Each person must have equal time
- Don’t use these session to get for free from someone that you should really pay for.
- Don’t mess people around, there is a value to each person’s time, so if you agree a time with someone stick to it.
- Stick to the intention of the meeting, it is not time to gossip, it is a specified time for you to grow your knowledge.
If you stick to these rules then you show respect for what you want to achieve and respect to your brain exchange partner.
Just what you need
So be brave, arrange your first brain exchange of 2018 with someone you admire, trust and know you can give back to, this action will be immeasurable when it comes to the growth in your business.
They really are truly inspiring and can clear the mist on those days when you can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel and can lift you higher than you can even imagined. You come out of a brain exchange with renewed energy.
In my blog post How to kick the arse out of 2018, I talk about the importance of constant and consistent learning and a brain exchange is an incredibly powerful way to do this.
