If you’d like to participate in an upcoming program session, reach out to us here.

Please note that the next full program would not be until 2027, but if you have a small group or would like 1:1 mentoring between now and then, we may be able to arrange a shorter program.

Requirements for enrollment:

• Aspiring entrepreneurs and creatives

• Ages 18 to 24 at the start of a program year

• We focus on youth with greater social and economic disadvantages, like racial inequality, poverty, and aging out of foster care.

💭 What is the Rock Your Genius mentoring program?

It’s a year-long mentoring program that helps young entrepreneurs and creative pursuers (especially those with greater social and economic disadvantages, like racial inequality, poverty, and aging out of foster care) launch their careers.

💭 Can anyone enroll?

We only mentor young entrepreneurs and creatives at this time (ages 18-24 at the start of a program year) and try to focus on those with greater social and economic disadvantages, like racial inequality, poverty, and aging out of foster care.

💭 Is there a fee to enroll?

No.

💭 Where does the mentoring take place?

The Rock Your Genius mentoring program is fully remote and conducted online via Zoom. Occasionally, at the discretion of the group, we may have optional in-person events, especially if the group members live in the Chicago area.

💭 Is Rock Your Genius a non-profit?

No. We (me, an accountant, business advisors) deliberated on this one for a bit, but I’m a dyed-in-the-wool social entrepreneurship believer and promoter. Any work for the mentoring program is funded by me, my husband, and our businesses.

I believe in entrepreneurship as a vehicle for change, I am an entrepreneur, and the RYG mentoring program is about entrepreneurship. It seemed hypocritical almost to change that stance. And it’s fully possible to do both—run a profitable business and give back at the same time, and from within the same organization.

💭 How do I enroll (or recommend someone I know)?

Get in touch here.

💭 Can I be a mentor?

Absolutely! We'd love to have you as a guest mentor. Reach out here to see if we have a program in progress. Please note that all mentors are volunteer only at this time.

Rock Your Genius started in 2009 and originally helped clients launch everything from websites to full-scale businesses. In 2020, its entire mission changed.

It started with the pandemic. My brother (a soon-to-be senior in high school) and my nephew (a soon-to-be junior) were out of school with the lockdown. I kept hearing how disrupted things were (education-wise) and how kids in their last year or two of school might face major changes (and challenges), especially in launching their careers.

Of course, running Rock Your Genius, my perspective was skewed toward action. I’d been a entrepreneur since 2003, so when I kept hearing the same stories, I thought, "They (the kids) have to get ahead of it, make their own opportunities, don’t wait for schools or adults or anyone else to figure it out for them. They can make their own way." (Meaning, they have what it takes without others or adults.)

I told my sister that my nephew should make a portfolio website for himself and start building skills, making connections, doing projects, accumulating experiences. In fact, I said, if he wanted one, I’d build it for him and pay for his first year of hosting.

Around this same time, after the death of George Floyd, the protests began. I wanted to help, support the movement, but how? What could I do that wasn’t just trite talk? What could I do that would actually make things better, even in a small way?

Over the days that followed, I kept thinking about the promise I’d made to my nephew. I meant it. I would do anything I could to help him get a better start in life. But then I thought about my brother.

My brother was being raised by a single mom who didn’t have a lot of money (the same single mom who’d raised me and my two sisters as a single mom who didn’t have a lot of money). They didn’t have Internet. They didn’t have a computer. They didn’t have the same resources and opportunities my sister and nephew now had, and I knew that my brother needed the help even more than my nephew did.

Then it hit me. If my brother needed the help, imagine a young black kid on the south side of Chicago. Growing up in the US, he had the added social disadvantage caused from the simple fact that his skin color was black.

While I don’t know what it’s like to grow up black in the US, I do know what it’s like to be poor (and the social inequalities that come with it). I know what it’s like to wish for a level playing field, to wish for the same opportunities I saw other kids getting that I didn’t have (like simply not having to worry about if they’d have running water or food on a given night).*

I know what it’s like to start out after high school and feel lost and way behind already (which is frustrating and confusing, because you haven’t even started yet—how can you already be behind?).

That’s when I knew what I could do.

I could help kids set up portfolio sites, build them and pay for their first year of hosting. We could meet regularly for mentoring calls, with every business owner and leader and artist I could find who might have insight and experience to help the kids level up in life and their career and creative pursuits.

So, I got busy.

I began partnering with nonprofit organizations who were focused on helping young people with social disadvantages (like racial inequality, poverty, and aging out of foster care), and over the course of the year, the program started to grow.

Before I’d even reached the six-month mark, I’d exceeded the number of kids interested in the program (and my original personal budgetary limit!) by triple, but it was a good problem to have. It meant kids wanted the support and were willing to show up week after week to work on their dreams and lives and careers.

And so that’s what we did.

I’ve met and had the privilege of working with so many exceptional young entrepreneurs and creatives over these last years, many of whom I still talk with or mentor to this day.

And it really hasn’t been all that hard, just showing up when they need, listening, and providing even a little bit of direction where I can. I hope it’s helped in some small way.

So, that’s the back story.

—

* P.S. To be sure, throughout my life, I’ve had advantages and opportunities that others didn’t have, too. I’ve known and experienced both—poverty and privilege, depending on the time in my life. Reflecting on it now, maybe that’s my biggest advantage (and the biggest thing I have to offer), having seen both sides (poverty and privilege) and recognizing the blindness that can exist in plain sight.