Welcome to a new week, my dears! As you know, Monday’s around the blog typically mean a big dose of motivation and inspiration designed to encourage you towards your goals and help you get through the week. I decided I wanted to kick the inspo levels up a notch, so I created a new series that’s an offshoot of  my Motivation Monday posts.

Ladies & gentlemen, may I present {drum roll please} “Maverick Mondays!”

“Wait, what the heck is a ‘maverick,’ and what does it have to do with motivating me?” I’ve said it before and I’ll continue to say it–you always ask the best questions, my dears! Let’s delve into this a bit, shall we?

Curious as to what gave me the idea for suddenly going all maverick-ish? Well the story will give you some insight into the inner machinations of my quirky brain {ha}. So, I’ve talked a bit in other Monday posts about my own entrepreneurial ambitions, pursuits, and challenges. That said, I always trying to keep my mind open to gleaning bits of inspiration from a myriad of sources. Here’s how it went down.

First, I was watching a popular television sitcom from the 90’s called “Living Single” about 4 African-American women who are balancing careers, friendship, and love. One of the characters–the irreverent, bold, witty, ascerbic, HILARIOUS Attorney Maxine Shaw–runs for an elected judicial position with the double entendre-laden campaign slogan “Ride the Maverick!” Though there were some {super funny} bumps in her campaign road, she ultimately achieved her goal of becoming a judge by not taking the easy road…and simply by being her authentic herself.

Second, later that same day {kismet, I tell ya’} I was scrolling through Instagram {my social media time-suck kryptonite} and saw a post by the gorgeous, talented, and oh-so-stylish June Ambrose–celebrity fashion stylist; style curator; and fashion designer/entrepreneur {check out her gorg clothing line on HSN}; and self-proclaimed “Rock Mom”–that had the hashtag #MaverickMondays, and the meme it was attached to was perfect:

The timing of the quote was divine. “Make it happen for yourself…” that’s exactly what mavericks do, no?

Then, to complete the creative kismet trifecta that was clearly pushing me towards the idea of creating Maverick Mondays, while cruising the internet a week layer I stumbled across a Time Magazine article aaallllllll the way from 2012 that discussed “how maverick personalities can be secret weapons that make businesses successful.” One of the quotes that stood out to me the most was

…individuals high in ‘maverickism’ are those individuals who are innovative, independently minded, goal-focused and successful through risk-taking

It all started coming together in my mind: be you authentic self + make it happen for yourself + innovative + risk-taking  = mavericks are where it’s at in business.

I started delving into what characteristics these kinds of people possess and came across this image from a personality test website about maverick personalities.

I was so intrigued by how mavericks are almost equal parts extrovert/introvert and judging/perceiving, but are overwhelmingly intuitive. How cool is that, especially when you start putting it in the context of entrepreneurship? And notice that in the bottom right hand corner of the image that “entrepreneur” is listed as an idea INTJ personality type career match.

I then started thinking about entrepreneurs and business personalities that are considered to be mavericks–like Richard Branson and Steve Jobs–and it hit me that there was so much to be learned from maverick personalities when it comes to business. Thusly, a new blog series was born.

The goal with “Maverick Mondays” is to encourage readers with real life examples of individuals who are out in the world in full, unapologetic, courageous pursuit of their goals, dreams, and vision for their lives–those people I consider to be mavericks. Each post will highlight one individual that I’ll share background and insight on as well as conducting a mini-interview Q & A with them that is certain to not only inspire and motivate, but it will also help keep the fire under you dream-pursuing derrière {and mine!} lit.

Next Monday, I’ll officially kick-off the series with my 1st Maverick–it will be a “tasty” pick that you won’t want to miss!

#MaverickMondays