As a business owner, I have tried both business networking platforms like Alignable and LinkedIn, at the recommendations of others who knowing what I do felt that these platforms could help grow my business by helping me make valuable connections. However, what I found was more of the same ole, same ole. Grandstanding, exclusivity, and inauthenticity. People try to sell you on their business without wanting to get to know you. Marketing dressed up as connection. As a therapist by trade, this was not my cup of tea.

I was made to feel like “a means to an end.” Like not a person but a prospect that could help create some cash flow for someone’s business. Inboxes full of sales pitches with no greetings that left me feeling cheap. People who wanted to sell me their services but did not want to have a relationship with me. This method of marketing was predatory and screamed capitalism. I was wondering if I was the only one feeling this way…

I talked to some other friends and did some research online (mostly Reddit because those people are brutally honest) and found that I was not alone. Posts complaining about the same themes with Alignable and LinkedIn and feeling like they were both very Spammy. One person cited that Alignable had sent emails to all their phone contacts without their permission and it had damaged their reputation. Another sharing that LinkedIn felt more like Facebook than a place to grow your professional network. All of these sentiments I concur with as I’ve spent several months on both and have only taken a few connections off that platform, despite spending a lot of time on each.

So not being invested was not the issue. The issue is these platforms which were once curated to deliver valuable connections, help people find jobs, or grow one’s business are not measuring up to their initial premise for many. I understand as a business owner the feeling of being hungry and wanting to get your business off the ground but we must respect the boundaries of others at the same time. No one wants to be sold to. No one wants to feel like when they are talking to you that you have an agenda. People want to feel a sense of belonging and community and that is the real reason that most people join these platforms.
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I can’t say I am not guilty of making the same mistake but I can say I have a better approach when it comes to the business of selling than most. I am not pushy and will not even attempt to continue discussion about our platform if the person on the receiving end is not interested. We have the right to decline things that do not serve our interests. We also have the right to match and unmatch from connections that were never really about connecting but just getting your business. We have the right to feel like the people that are a part of our virtual world are genuinely interested in our growth and our success as much as we are invested in their own.

Reciprocal business relationships are hard to find but not impossible to identify. There are people out there that genuinely want to help others. Not to line their pockets, but because giving back fulfils them. Giving back is something that they enjoy doing and they yearn to expand their reach. These are the types of people I meet all the time in my line of business and can tell that this philanthropic spirit lives inside of them. They just need an avenue to be able to do this more because of their lack of visibility on social media.
I call these “hidden gem mentors.” People who are steadfast in working their business but are humbly successful and don’t need a lot of fanfare. They know what they are talking about but are not loud about it on social media. They are not identified as thought leaders on the internet but they most certainly have the knowledge to impart on others once you speak with them one on one. Speaking to these types of mentors is not only refreshing but restores your faith that they are good people in this world. I am glad to know a few of them.

Anyway, I am realizing that what we have built on Wite Collar is exactly the platform I have been searching for and that the relationships we have curated with our members are the model that we want to create for this world. We may not be an established brand or big business but what we are is just as valuable. We are bringing back “good humanship” where people are more invested in helping others than helping themselves. A people helping people community that creates a straightforward path to career or business success.
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If you haven’t found your “right fit” for a community either, consider joining ours.

See you soon,
Kira~ Wite Collar app founder

You read that right. Me and LinkedIn are through! Not by choice but by force. LinkedIn been acting funny and I decided it was not for me anymore…
Initially, it started with my views going down significantly in the last couple of weeks. At first this was strange given that I had consistently been getting very high views for the last six months. Thousands of views now went down to just hundreds in the last few weeks. Could it have been because I was posting less? Perhaps. But it felt very much like I was being shadow banned and LinkedIn was hating on me.

As you can imagine, the lack of views affected my engagement. Now I don’t get a huge amount of engagement on LinkedIn since I am fairly new to the platform (six months newbie here) but I was slowly building up my followers and I had a few regulars liking our posts. But what got us was those regulars suddenly disappeared and I no longer saw them. Or was it they no longer saw me? Who knows….

The final straw is that I reported someone’s repost of a post I made yesterday and it flagged my account and now my account is restricted. Multiple messages along with tickets have been sent to LinkedIn Customer Support but to no avail. It’s like a merry go around of sending in tickets and then verification of id details page comes up but no ability to submit any identification. Or my sign-in page gets stuck on the Security Check screen. It’s like LinkedIn is playing with me. My vigilance caused my own account to get flagged, LOL! And now the universe doesn’t want me to get back with LinkedIn.

It wouldn’t be so bad if I had not just advertised for a job on LinkedIn. There was plenty of interest during the three day trial when I posted the position but now I am unable to reach those applicants because of the account restriction. It’s frustrating but it taught me a hard lesson. Never rely on social media to do business. Get that customer data immediately and take the communication off the platform. The platform is just there to assist with the connection not to be the main form of communication. You never know when the platform will shut you down. It can happen due to anything they consider an infraction. Whether they are right or not doesn’t matter, the results are the same; you can’t reach your business connections. So, it’s crucial that you get their contact information ASAP so you can continue to connect with them online elsewhere.
Thank God, I have contact information for all my business connections. Otherwise, this would be another sad story of an entrepreneur having to start over because of some mishap on a social media platform. I always feel bad for those creators who are so distraught about having lost access to their account and then forced to create a new one to regain access to their connections. Good thing I am not a content creator and am not dependent on my followers. LinkedIn and I can take some time apart and see other people. It’s all good. If my account ever gets restored in the future, maybe I will give LinkedIn another chance but if not, I will be just fine without it. My peace won’t be disturbed because of a social media platform. I can make do without LinkedIn being a part of my life. It didn’t make or break me before…

There’s nothing wrong with connecting on social media. Social media makes communication more accessible and attainable and allows you to have a wider reach. However, never put all your eggs in one basket and only use social media to communicate with those you connect with. Be sure you have other ways to access your business connections to keep the communication going. This assurance will make you more resilient if and when a social media platform you are on decides to cancel your account because now you have a back-up plan.

Remember, social media is a tool not a replacement for good communication in business. Don’t ever over-rely on social media.
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Connect with us on email at [email protected] or text at 1-877-892-8868 if you want to learn more about the Wite Collar platform. We also have office hours today between 1-2 pm EST if you want to meet with us and ask questions.

See you soon,
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Kira ~ Wite Collar app co-founder

“People don’t fear the price, they fear the risk” ~ John Diaz (LinkedIn)

When I saw this post on LinkedIn, this answered a question I had been pondering for some time.

When people don’t jump on your business offers, it makes you feel like a failure. You question your business, yourself, what is wrong with you that people don’t see the value in what you’re doing?

Should you lower your prices? What adjustments should you make to create a more attractive offer? Are you doing enough to grow your business and make it a success?

But most likely, it is not the price that’s the issue…it’s the perceived risk by the customer.

If your business is not a recognized brand, if you are not a recognized brand, people assume that your offer is not going to live up to their expectations.
Doesn’t matter how good your product is, people assume that it has no value and because of that, they don’t want to pay for your offer.

We are not marketing specialists so this business has been a grassroots build with a small community of folks we have met that see our vision.
We are not clout chasers and we are not the popular kids in school. We are the late bloomers who have finally blossomed and through that transformation, learned our purpose in our 40’s. We want to share our product with the world but recognize that in the world we live in today, social media is KING and we are not dominating in that space…yet.

We are hoping that once things get going, that word of mouth will spread about what we do, which in turn will make our offer more appealing. Hopefully, people will become less skeptical about investing their time and money into our services once they have social proof. In the meantime, we plan to keep going.
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We advise that if you are in our position, you do the same…

Turning your pain into purpose is how people turn solutions into businesses.

Long ago, I had a situation occur that created a barrier to me becoming licensed as a therapist. I had to find someone in my niche who could offer me post graduate supervision/mentorship to become licensed or I couldn’t work in my field. It had to be in person meetings with this person and there were only 3 people near my area that could offer me this service. Called all three, only one returned my call. Then I met with this supervisor for over a year and just a few months before I was to finish my hours for licensure, he hiked up the price on me with no notice. He said it was due to losing other mentees and so I, a broke and emerging clinician, had to pay that price. I had no alternative options and had to stick it out because I was too close to getting my hours. What he did was unethical but what he knew was I couldn’t start over and he was right.

Wite Collar, a mentor marketplace, was born out of a need to create options for folks who need Mentorship for career or business advancement but it puts the power in the Mentee’s hands. They select the Mentors, we provide the options. We also provide oversight and regulation to protect Mentees and prevent scamming and abuse. If you are wanting Mentorship but fear is holding you back, do not let it! Wite Collar is here to help provide you with support and open the door to new opportunities for you if you are willing to walk through that door.

If you are interested in receiving Mentorship with Wite Collar, please fill out our Jotform here:

We hope to see you soon,
Kira ~ Co-founder of the Wite Collar app

You ever started a partnership with someone and after some time of working with them, you realize the person is not a good fit for what you are trying to accomplish?
This happens all the time.
This happened to me.
A mismatch can be devastating.
You try to figure out how to break things off but it is difficult.
So you keep trying to make the relationship work but it just isn't working.
It's a misalignment despite your best efforts.
Eventually you have to have that difficult conversation and end the relationship which means your joint project or partnership comes to an end.
Perhaps, you jumped in to quickly with this person and didn't ask the right questions.
Or you misjudged their personality and thought it would be a good fit.
But despite who was to blame, the results are the same; work has gone undone and now the project is stalled.
Bad position to be in, right?
If you have ever been through this before, you understand the importance of a right fit or match for a partnership or collaboration.
Alignment is ideal for the success of any joint venture.
But it can be difficult to know if alignment will occur without working together first and seeing if you are a good fit. However, this causes the stakes to be high if things go wrong.
That's why me and my co-founder created Wite Collar.
On the Wite Collar app, not only do we have a matching algorithm but we vet professionals before they even get to you.
We also allow you to un-match from business professionals that are not a good fit for you without having to have the dreadful breakup conversation and find someone else that is more to your liking.
Not convinced that it's that easy???
Sign up for our office hours and we will share more of what we do.
Our office hours are every Tuesday from 1-2 pm EST and it's a drop-in meeting so that busy career and business professionals can attend and stay as long as their schedule will allow.
If you want to participate in one of our meetings, text MENTORSHIP to 1-877-892-8868 or email us at [email protected].
See you soon.

Wite Collar is matchmaking platform that matches professionals with an interest in career advancement or business growth. We are looking for ambitious professionals to join our platform who are tired of engaging in time consuming and fruitless networking and just want to be referred to the right people that align with their interests and have the expertise to help them reach their goals.

        If you are not sure if Wite Collar is for you, here are some things to consider before joining our mobile network:

1. Do you have the time? As a Mentor or Mentee, being on the Wite Collar platform requires a time commitment to invest in building a relationship with the professional you have been matched with. If you are busy growing your business and time is scarce, it does not make sense to sign up to be someone’s Mentor. This is why we are looking for established professionals who have bought back their time by reaching a level of success that allows them to give back to those coming behind them.
2. Do you have the patience? When joining a platform such as ours, it is important that you do a self-evaluation before sending or accepting a connection request from someone within our community. Are you in a place in your life where you can willingly give to another individual? Do you see yourself becoming impatient due to your overwhelming responsibilities? Timing is everything and you must realistically evaluate the amount of time you have to invest in another human being who may desperately be seeking your help or may be sacrificing time away from their family or business to help you. No one wants to spend time with someone and it feels rushed or the person seems frustrated or disinterested in being there. If you are unsure if the timing is right, it is better to wait than to jump into a relationship such as Mentorship which can be time-consuming, especially in the beginning.
3. Are you responsible? Life does get busy but that’s what calendars are for. We take what we do as hosts of this platform very seriously and actively vet ‘time wasters’ who miss meetings or commitments with others. We vet our Mentors to ensure that our Mentees have the best experience with the business or career professionals we connect them with. This is why we require a meeting with every Mentor before they enter our digital platform. If the Mentors that show an interest in joining our platform continuously miss our office hours, we do not move forward with them. This is to protect our Mentee community and ensure that they receive the quality mentorship that they pay for. We also have expectations set forward in our terms of use regarding Mentor and Mentee behavior on the platform to ensure that the platform is safe for all involved.

 
      If this sounds like a platform you would be interested in, join our texting community (text MENTORSHIP to 1-877-892-8868) so that you can receive notifications about our office hours. Office hours are every Tuesday from 1-2 pm EST and they are drop-in meetings so you can come and leave at any time.

   We realize that our platform is not for everybody and we want to be connected to the right people who will help build this platform and take it to the next level. If that’s YOU, please connect with us. We also have a cash referral program that allows you to refer members of your network to us while making money for each referral you send.
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See you soon!

You know what job that never stops.
Being a parent.
No matter whether you are sick, tired, or just plain old don’t feel like parenting, you got to show up and do it.
You got to feed the kids, get them dressed, make sure they get to school, do homework with them, take them to extracurricular activities, among other things.
You know what makes this job harder.
The responsibilities of paying bills and keeping a roof over their head.
And you know what makes the job really suck.
Not having enough money to do it all and struggling to keep it together.
You work a job you hate to keep the lights on.
Days become months and months become years.
Soon enough, your kids are grown and either have gone off to school to pursue their own dreams or are at home working jobs of their own.
You have entered a new phase of your life where you are closing in on retirement and after 30 years of working nonstop, you retire.
This is what you have been waiting on. Being able to relax and enjoy your golden years.
However, you realize for some strange reason, you are not happy.
Something is missing from your life but you can’t exactly figure out what and you are puzzled as to why you have this persistent feeling of discontentment.
This causes you to have an identity crisis as you try to navigate your ‘new normal’ as a retiree.
Then you will eventually die never realizing that thing that was missing from your life…
The thing that kept you up at night that made you feel so uncomfortable in your own skin…
The thing you were looking for that never was found…
It was your purpose.
You never connected to your purpose and now…
You never will.
Don’t let this story be your story.
Connect with us today for Mentorship that will help you to unlock your purpose.
Because your purpose is waiting for you.

I’m a degreed professional who is newly unemployed.

My employer, shortly after I joined the company, has decided to close their doors indefinitely. This happened to me right after being laid off six months from another company who is barely keeping their doors open and has to conduct layoffs every quarter in order to do so.

I’m in healthcare, which is a pretty secure and sustainable field.
What I’m learning is that no job or career is safe in 2025. My degrees no longer offer job security and my profession, although in high demand, does not protect me from layoffs. I’m just as disposable as every other professional now. My profession is nothing special.

I will say that my skillset, not my degrees, has made it easier for me to be more resilient and find another job easily. I also interview really well. Once I can get in front of the hiring manager, I’m set. But that’s another issue. Due to all the massive layoffs, the competition has become more stiff and artificial intelligence is now being used to screen applications, making it more difficult to get through to the interview process. There are also less jobs available to apply for due to job creation being down since this summer.
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The jobs that are mostly available in my field are fee for service positions where I only get paid for how many clients I can see in a week. I HATE those kind of jobs because they are heavy laden with paperwork and treat clients like they’re in a puppy mill. I don’t mind hourly work instead because I can make more money than salaried professionals so I have been applying to a lot of those. However, it is hard to remain positive with a job market that is so dismal and bleak.

You may be wondering why a tech founder is even looking for a job. Because I have bills to pay and our business is not yet profitable. When you first start a business, this is always the case for a few years. I can’t allow my family to suffer for my dreams. I have responsibilities that require a steady income so that I can re-invest my business profit back into my business rather than utilizing that revenue to fund my lifestyle. This is business 101 and sometimes business owners need jobs too.

I would highly suggest that every business owner look at having something outside of their job. As an employee, you need to create your own financial security. I thought that being in healthcare was mine but I was wrong. It is the wild, wild west out there in this current economy and you have to look out for yourself. My current job didn’t even offer me another position within their healthcare system. They just gave me a month’s notice and sent me on my way. These jobs do not care about you. It doesn’t matter how good you are at what you do. You are always disposable and insignificant when it comes to their bottom line.

Be safe out there, folks!

It is tempting as a Mentor when you are not reaching your financial goals, to start lowering your price to accommodate for more accessibility. We have been tempted to do so ourselves in the past when we first created this mobile app. We started off with a much lower price point because we wanted to be more accessible to those who were marginalized and disenfranchised. Then we realized that those who were in this lower income bracket, did not have the expendable income to pay for Mentorship when they are just trying to survive day to day. That to ask these people to make this type of commitment was unreasonable and maybe we should look at partnering with some organizations that could offer this opportunity to the underserved for free. Our solution was enterprise accounts that could help these folks take advantage of Mentorship without being financially burdened.

We also recognized that the middle class is slowly dwindling and need support now more than ever to revamp and revitalize their skillsets to remain competitive in the job and business market. The working middle-class have more disposable income and were far more likely to be able to pay for a subscription for Mentorship if they deemed the experience valuable. People pay for what they prioritize. Plus paying for a subscription based service is much easier because you can budget for it. But you can’t or won’t budget for something that you simply don’t want badly enough no matter what the price tag is.

As Mentors/Coaches, we have to recognize that although some folks may be well-intended, they are not in the phase of their life where they are ready to make the necessary steps to better themselves. They know they should want to because they are not where they desire to be in life but they simply can’t bear to make changes. It is not the price point that is stopping them, it’s the mindset. The price point is the excuse they make to allow them to feel better about making the choice not to take action towards self-improvement, but the real reason they do nothing is they are scared to make a change. As a Mentor, you have to understand that not everyone is your customer and to not take it personally when people don’t jump on your current offerings. They are not your target audience and you will have to learn where to find your customers.
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Just remember, you have VALUE as a Mentor. You don’t have to charge your customers exorbitant prices to show that you are valuable but you do have to make a living desirable enough for you to do the hard work of mentorship. If you find that you have to constantly lower your prices to drum up customers’ interests, maybe you should be pitching somewhere else. Because eventually if you keep working at a reduced price, it will feel like you are doing more charity work than running a business and you will become resentful. And no one wants to work with a bitter Mentor who does not really enjoy helping them because they can’t make a living doing so.

We hope that you realize that the caliber of folks you are looking for are out there and not to give up looking for them. They are billions of people in this world and there is a Mentee or group of Mentees that are perfect for you and only you. Just be patient with the process and don’t sell yourself short. You will find “your people” if you continue to craft good offers that are mutually beneficial for both you and your Mentee (s).

Your target audience is out there. Don't give up. 

In mental health,  clients have choice when it comes to counselor selection. When that therapist isn’t a good fit, clients are often encouraged to find a therapist that is a better fit to help them on their healing journey.

When I was a case manager, I used to discuss counselor selection with clients and explain that it was important for them to find the right fit because the therapeutic alliance is what’s most important for prognosis, healing, and reaching desired personal goals.

However, when I began the journey into Mentorship as a Mentee, I noticed that things were different. Maybe it is because it is an unregulated industry but people don’t often get choice as easily when it comes to Mentorship.
Many times, when enrolled in a Mentorship program, they are given whatever Mentor has availability.

Few programs allow you to select the industry you want a Mentor in. And those programs that do, also select a Mentor for you.

Social media platforms like TikTok, IG, and FB, are an avenue where you can search for Mentors in a junk drawer of other offerings, but how do you know you are getting someone you can trust? Sometimes, you find more scam artists than actual industry experts that can help.

I study Mentors in these platforms and the question I always come to is “If you are really a successful business owner, how do you have time to be on lives for 4-5 hours at a time? There should be emails that need to be answered, calls that need to be taken, presentations they need to present. How is it that they have time as founders to be on a TikTok live for half the day during business hours? Maybe they have automated processes or employees who handle everything. However, it still seems like they should be at least somewhat involved in the day to day, correct? Most of them are still small business owners rather than Fortune 500 corporations so I would imagine they can’t completely take their hands off their business to do something as trivial as going live. I could be wrong…

However, that line of thought makes me question if these business owners are simply snake oil salespeople. Appearances are not everything and they may seem highly successful because they talk a good game but they have no measurable success that you can verify off the app. Do people check their references? Do they even have references? Most of them are asking for a hefty financial investment upfront for mentorship but yet many don’t question paying them this without doing appropriate research.

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could go somewhere to find industry experts that vet the Mentors so you don’t need to? A place where the choice for a Mentor lies with the Mentee? Well, we created that platform.

What is beautiful about Wite Collar is we are subscription based service for Mentorship. This creates the opportunity for micro Mentorship relationships. This means that as a Mentee, you can have your desired Mentor for as long as you want and then end your subscription at any time. You don’t have to feel beholden to the Mentor and continue the relationship for their desired duration. You don’t have to stay with a Mentor who is not a good personality fit. You don’t have to remain with a Mentor who is verbally abusive or behaves inappropriately. Or a Mentor who ghosts you and is never available to meet. All, you have to do is contact Wite Collar and then you can disconnect from the Mentor and be connected to another Mentor on our list of recommendations that we provide you on your home page. It’s as simple as that. You have freedom and flexibility to move around as you see fit. You can also have as many Mentors as you want consecutively depending on what you are looking for. For example, you can have a Mentor in Artificial Intelligence, Book Publishing, and Content Creation all at the same time. Our app allows you to curate and customize your own advisory team.
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You can find our app on Google Playstore and Apple Appstore. Just look for our logo and download our app today. The onboarding process is simple and doesn’t take long. So come see about us!

See you soon.