KBDi is pleased to welcome Patricia La Torre to its mentoring team. Patricia is a long-time KBDi member, a multi-award winning designer, and the owner and principal designer at Melbourne firm, OUTSIDEINSIDE Building Elements.
Patricia is looking forward to sharing her knowledge on topics such as:
- Where to start when starting out on your own
- The value of networking and avoiding isolation
- How to wear your many hats in a busy small business
- Client/designer relationships and learning how to listen: it’s not all about you!
- Avoiding burnout with balance and time out
KBDI’s mentoring program is a complimentary service that is available exclusively for the association’s current financial members. A team of professionals, with a wealth of combined experience, are able to assist when you find yourself in situations such as yearning for a colleague’s brain to pick about a business concern or needing a creative collaborator to help get through a design dilemma.
Patricia says “Joining the mentoring team was always something of interest for me. Following over 20 years as a Social Worker in my previous life, one of my roles as Senior Counsellor was to supervise and mentor staff and new graduates. The skills gained over all those years are so applicable to my everyday design contact and practice with clients and mentoring is an additional skill that I would like to share with the design community.
As an advocate of “always giving back” to the community so the cycle of giving continues, mentoring is my opportunity to say thank you to the design industry.
My decision to leave my previous profession was not out of dissatisfaction, but recognising it was time to focus on my passion for design and creativity. Having re trained, worked with Designers, Builders and other various positions in order to gain knowledge, experience and confidence, the decision to go out on my own was a challenge and certainly a journey. Mentoring is an opportunity to reflect, share and facilitate for and with others. What a privilege!”
For more information on KBDi’s mentoring program, visit kbdimembers.org.au/mentoring
