Jasmine Agyeman-duah, Founder of Nubian Jae Apparel, UK

When I first came across Rare Birds I was a part-time blogger unsure of exactly where I wanted to take my “brand”. Fast forward 6 months, I now have a clearer vision of exactly where I want to be and how I wish to position myself and my brand in my specific market. I signed up to the peer mentoring just so I could communicate with someone who was somewhat in the same position as I was. It’s always refreshing to meet strangers who don’t have a biased opinion on what you want to do in life – and visa versa.  When I was partnered with my peer mentor it was like I’d known her for years. We had so much in common that our weekly catch ups easily felt like I was speaking to a long lost friend. We were quite good at keeping each other up to date with our progress and we had excellent communication which is why I think the partnership worked as well as it did. I got a lot of ideas from my mentor and we bounced off of each other quite well (so much so that we still keep in touch). The mentoring really helped me to structure my work and become much more pro-active – I have definitely made progress in these past 6-8 weeks!