Unlocking new potential with a Mentoring Day

We love celebrating the wins from our community, so we’re delighted to be sharing Michael’s story today!

Michael is the founder of WhichDays, a digital tool revolutionising physical networking in the era of hybrid working 💪

In 2022, Michael had the chance to experience a Digital Boost Mentoring Day in collaboration with our partners at Visa and the experience totally changed the game for him and his business 🚀

📸 www.whichdays.com/

A Vision for Better Work-Life Balance

Michael has always been fascinated by the world of work and the ways it’s changed and evolved over time. Having had a long career as a consultant, he knew the power that networking could have! But in a hybrid working world, he noticed that networking wasn’t evolving with the new landscape.

Having wished hybrid working had been an option earlier in his career, he’s on a mission to create a world where we have a better work-life balance that doesn’t compromise your network 💪

Creating a purposeful business

With more of the workforce displaced due to hybrid and work-from-home roles, Michael set out to create a platform that allows people to build their networks in an organic way, going beyond the superficial connections of traditional networking sites.

“The heart of WhichDays is to help people coincide, socially, and in and around work,” Michael explains.

Shaking things up with Visa

At the end of 2022, Michael had the opportunity to join a Mentoring Day that we ran in collaboration with our partners at Visa. Along with 5 other mentees, Michael was invited to join the European Senior Leadership team for an intimate virtual Mentoring Day.

Each mentee was assigned their own personal mentoring team for the workshop and across the day, Michael and his Visa team took a deep dive into WhichDays 🥳

They analysed everything from business strategy, to obstacles, to how his audience would adopt the platform – shaking up Michael’s thinking and leaving him with food for thought.

“It was just really good to connect with somebody who is clearly higher up in their game, and considerably younger than I am. Somebody who engaged with the proposition and gave it a good shaking!”

Although Michael was put through his paces by the Visa team, he left with a new found energy.

He said, “it’s the buzz you get of engaging with somebody around something that is precious to you and that you put a lot of intellectual effort into it, and seeing them also engage with a similar level of intellectual effort – that is very satisfying”

The Path Forward

WhichDays is just getting started, but the lessons Michael has learned and the encouragement he received from his Digital Boost mentors have been instrumental in making progress. As he continues to develop and refine the platform, Michael believes in the power of challenging discussions and constructive feedback.

“I found Digital Boost and the session we did with these [mentors] immensely useful because, despite all [my] experience, I’m still learning, as is everybody. It’s interesting how Digital Boost and the sessions can provide a boost to people who are early in their entrepreneurial careers or much further into them, it doesn’t really matter,” Michael noted.

We’re so unbelievably proud of Michael and the journey he’s been on since he joined our community 🥰

We love sharing stories like these because they show just how powerful mentoring is! Whether you’re new to your journey, or you’re a seasoned entrepreneur like Michael, everyone can benefit from having a small business mentor in their life 🙌