Lead Like A Queen Coaching and Consulting, LLC

Tag: liveops

  • What Creative Activities Do I Lose Myself In and How?

    What Creative Activities Do I Lose Myself In and How?

    Daily writing prompt
    What activities do you lose yourself in?
    View all responses
    Our Creativity is Beautiful Because Our Creator Made Us Like Himself.

    What is losing myself?

    Losing myself to me means that I am “in the zone”. It means I am in a meditative space where my whole focus is just on that one thing. There’s no multi-tasking when I am in the zone. And it’s kind of a place of selfishness or self-centeredness, also, which, ultimately, can be a blessing to others who benefit from my creative endeavors.

    Note: This is not a place of self-harm or of neglecting or abusing others. That’s not the type of losing myself that I’m referring to. This is not about whigging out / or blanking out while attacking others, nor about numbing out or vegging out to the point of self-neglect or the neglect of my responsibilities to others.

    Why I Now Embrace Unique Activities

    Making time for things I love is so important to me, at this stage of my life, even if it’s not things that others around me also love. It took me until I got to about 40 years old to finally give myself permission to focus in on things that I love without a seal of approval from others around me. Sometimes this is called codependency… being reliant on others to approve your activities. And I realize that I was miserable and anxious before I started doing that, and I have no plans of returning to that place of being on pins and needles worried about what others think of me and my unique interests.

    Another Note: Full disclosure, I started making these changes for myself in my late 30’s or early 40’s, but I didn’t really understand why this is important for me until my 50’s, when I began seeing a therapist that specializes in healing from complex post-traumatic stress disorder, along with co-dependency and narcissitic abuse.

    My Unique Activities

    Obviously, I am a blogger (and author), and have been blogging since before it was called blogging (year 2000)… it used to be called online journaling. I’ve also been making YouTube videos and podcasting since I first started homeschooling my kids when they were little (about 2008), and they’re now all young adults. Nowadays, I have been using these skills in other ways, including sharing a series about healthier ways for dealing with grief.

    Losing Myself In My Unique Activities

    I am an extroverted introvert, meaning that I am able to speak in public, be on camera, and talk with strangers, but I still LOVE being alone and delving into creative activities. My creative activities lately have included:

    • Creating a podcast and YouTube channel that is designed to help women leaders who have survived trauma (including caregivers) and are now striving towards their lofty goals despite the setbacks of life
    • Creating a mentorship program for my co-workers to help them improve their independent LiveOps businesses so they can have better quality work and get paid more

    Focus / Meditative Processes or Activities

    Ok so things I do that really help me get into and stay in my “creativity bag” or “stay in the zone” include:

    • Putting my iPhone (and all ios devices) into Personal Focus mode for 1 hour so that no notifications come through at all for that period of time
    • Attending co-working events with a group of trusted Women leaders who are doing the same, focusing on their own important activity/work
    • Turning off all inputs, radio, tv, podcasts, youtube, everything, and just sitting in quiet so I can listen to my own heart-spirit because that’s when/where God’s Holy Spirit speaks to me and boosts my creativity the most

    What I Mean By Meditation

    Meditation has come to mean different things to different people. For me, meditation literally means just that. Sitting and thinking (or not thinking) while breathing and just existing in a quiet space. But, it is also sometimes walking or doing another activity that is “mindless” while I am alone with my own thoughts.

    And, with the help of my therapist, now I also sometimes incorporate tapping. It’s an EMDR therapy to help with healing from post-traumatic stress. I use this when I am upset and recovering from recent hard things / traumas, such as when a family member went missing. This has been a very useful and helpful therapy for me, and it’s surprisingly simple, but what’s not simple is remembering to use it when there’s a high-pressure situation going on.

    When Do I Have Time For Meditation

    My main time for meditation is early in the morning before my youngest gets ready for school. This is my time for prayer, for reading and/or listening to Holy Scripture, and for meditation because I need to give Father God, by His Holy Spirit, time to speak back to me after I have concluded praying and laying my heart out to Him. This is the time when I know that no one and nothing will interrupt me.

    To make meditation even more effective, sometimes journaling also helps, including: a) the type of journal that is discarded after brain dumping, and b) journaling the responses that Spirit speaks back to me in answer to my prayers

    However, I’ve also started using my lunch times for meditation, which means that I spend less time on my phone scrolling, and more time just sitting in quiet. This lunch time to focus and listen to my own heart also helps on the days when I was more rushed in the morning and didn’t get my early morning time in. And sometimes I do this when work has been more stressful than normal, so that I can center myself before I get back to interacting with others.

    Making meditation time a priority has become more prominent in my life because I can see the fruit of it in my life. I am definitely calmer during crisis. I am definitely more resilient after dealing with trauma. So having time for meditiation is my choice, and I choose it more every day.

    Segmenting my time, not just daily, but also yearly, quarterly, monthly and weekly, also helps me to have more time for meditation. So, for instance, I took off from social media and from meetings during the first two months of the year to ensure that I had more time to rest, recover, and refill before pouring out my creativity for the benefit of others. I am confident that choosing to set aside these months, along with weekly times (e.g., on Sunday’s) are helping me to hear my own heart more clearly so that I am not as easily distracted by shiny objects or not as easily swayed by other people’s priorities (agendas) for me that do not align with my own priorities.

    Conclusion

    Viewing my time as the treasure that it is has really helped me to stop letting others waste my time and to make more time for my unique interests. Finding a good place and time to meditate helps open up my creativity more and brings me into a place of being refreshed and refilled. In this way, I am able to be a better leader and to serve others from a full pitcher as I pour out into their cups/pitchers. And it also helps me to remember to keep stopping for my regular refills of my pitcher by those who I trust with pouring into me, including the Holy Spirit and other people who God is using in my life.

  • Finally! I Updated My LiveOps Testimonial

    Finally! I Updated My LiveOps Testimonial

    For those of you who may have been interested in my updated testimonial about my experience of becoming an Independent LiveOps Agent, the original testimonial from last year is at this link. And the newly updated story from after I was an agent for over 1.5 years is at this medium link.

    In both articles, I shared my genuine testimonial of my own experience. And in the newer article, I also shared a testimonial from someone else who I referred that was accepted by a LiveOps client and has been working in her very own Independent LiveOps Agent business for a little while now. I would love to share more details like the names of the people and of the clients, but I am maintaining professional confidentiality.

    If you register to become a LiveOps agent (use my referral link if you like), then I would be able to share more details with you as a fellow agent and can introduce you to other agents. The most important thing I love about LiveOps is that I am part of a real community of real people that I know care about me. They show me each and every weekday. I am so very grateful. Have a look at that new article to see more about why I say this.

    ENCOURAGEMENT FOR REMOTE WORKERS AND SELF-EMPLOYED

    If you’re a person who has been experiencing some type of trauma, crisis, or hardship, and you refuse to give up hope that you can still set big goals for yourself and even have your own business to work from home, you might also enjoy hearing my podcast to learn more about why I chose this kind of work. The podcast is called “Plant Your Seeds of Transformation” and is on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and most other podcast platforms. In one of the episodes, I shared about what you can do to let go of money shame so that it won’t keep making you feel bad about yourself and keep you stuck in bad cycles.

    When you’re starting a new venture or an unconventional type of work, like remote work, sometimes you need as much encouragement as you can get. I hope you’ll check out the podcast show, check out the new article, and share if you find value in what I’m sharing through my writing and podcasting.

    I hope all is well for you and yours. Thanks for reading.

    ~ Coach Donna Marie

  • [FALL WINTER UPDATE – TESTIMONIAL] Becoming A LiveOps Agent

    [FALL WINTER UPDATE – TESTIMONIAL] Becoming A LiveOps Agent

    Why and How I Became a Product Coach & Remote Customer Service Agent

    SCROLL DOWN FOR MOST RECENT UPDATES ABOUT MY JOURNEY AS LIVEOPS AGENT

    REFERRAL LINK FOR JOINING LIVEOPS*: CLICK HERE

    FALL-WINTER UPDATE 2022

    NOTE – What to expect in 2023: I will be incorporating more content related to the topic of remote work/business in my YouTube channel and podcast. Also, I will be adding some exclusive remote work content to my Patreon community for patrons only.

    I have been very busy training and working with a new client so I just was not able to really update this blog very much. Also, now I’m waiting to hear if I am going to be picked up by a second client.

    So things are going well and moving forward for me. I also have referred at least three new people who have applied because of what I have been sharing.

    Everybody’s process with developing their own remote customer service independent business is different. What I am sharing here and also on my Instagram videos (@LeadLikeAQueen) is to give you a little bit of insight into my journey, but you will have your own journey. If you connect with me on Instagram, I hope that you will share about your journey.

    MY BACK STORY

    After I finished my master of arts in executive leadership in 2021, I could see so many different paths to take with my career and my business, and that plethora of options actually became overwhelming. I applied for a lot of jobs in different industries with different titles, and where all could use my skill sets as a coach and a small business owner. I will say that I wasn’t extremely excited about many of those jobs that I found, but at the very least, I tried to target the companies that I liked the most in terms of their corporate culture and corporate responsibility.

    Why did I choose to become a remote customer service agent with LiveOps?

    Initially I wanted a remote customer service job simply because of the flexibility and freedom of doing my own business from home and getting paid by a major corporation. During and after the actual training for the job it became more about helping people, and less about the money, even though that financial piece is still high on my list of priorities.

    Because I’m already very familiar with their product, I felt very confident that I would be able to learn well during the training and use what I learned to help their customers with excellence. Also, prior to choosing to work for this client, I had an opportunity to preview their training and knew the quality of the training was on par with what I needed and expected. I did my own due diligence before choosing this path because this was not my first time choosing a remote customer service position. I was with a previous remote customer service company, and the training was not as good as this training, so I felt like I wasted my time with the other company and didn’t want that to happen again.

    Please note that the training for this type of position is not paid, but it is lengthy, detailed, and rigorous, so if you’re not confident that this is the work you want to do, that training period could be very frustrating.

    After actually getting on the phones with the customers, I can see how my skills as a coach are coming into play. I am very happy that this particular client is very focused on soft skills, which is an area of strength for me. It feels good to be valued for my strengths. Similar positions I’ve sought in the past were very focused on the products and the technology, and not as much towards helping people as towards selling. So, it was a pleasant surprise to see that it is different here.

    “I love that I’m being rewarded for focusing on people and helping them, and not just for trying to get them to purchase more products.”

    ~ Donna Marie Johnson, Product Coach / Customer Service Agent

    When I’ve interviewed for lots of different jobs and applied for lots of different jobs, it always felt like I was just tweaking my resume to fit into whatever container they wanted me to fit into, instead of me just highlighting what I’m already strong in that would align well with the position being offered.

    HIGH-QUALITY TRAINING

    I would say that I also came to respect their training process and trust that they care about me as a person enough to give me the support I need for improving over time. I feel like they have realistic expectations that I can fulfill now and can improve for going forward. So this also speaks to my own mental health journey, which I’ve shared about in my blog, podcast, and interviews. It’s important for me to stay away from toxic perfectionism, so having work that aligns well with this part of my priorities is super important to me.

    The care that this corporate culture shows towards the customers is extended to the agents and I appreciate that. And this culture is very balanced with a rigorous environment that expects us to set high standards for our own performance, while at the same time, we are provided with the training and metrics reporting we need to continue improving our performance over time.

    Furthermore, they are super committed to also keep improving the training process and the way that they run this program. Seeing their devotion to an iterative (or continuous improvement) process gave me confidence to know that this is the right kind of company with a good culture that cares about the people and about excellence, but not at the expense of the people.

    The process of training and doing this work is very rigorous, and in the midst of it all they show they care by making sure that I and fellow agents have what we need to do our best and I appreciate that. Even so, the handholding here is limited and so anyone who is not able to stay self-motivated and to continue improving their own performance will not do well here. The other agents are often very supportive, and so we come together in groups to chat and help each other and give each other advice and encouragement, but these groups are comprised of individuals who have their own businesses that literally have to compete for some of this work. So, if you happen to find a good group with people that are good-hearted and willing to help you, you need to reciprocate and be willing to help in that group, as well. It’s not good to just get in these types of groups to get support and never offer support, it needs to be reciprocal.

    Again the training is very rigorous and not everyone responds well to this type of rigor. Also this client is very popular and so agents have to compete to get the work. Not everyone is up for this type of competitive situation.

    So I would never set you up to think that this is a perfect situation for everyone, however I am sure it’s a great situation for a lot of people because I am only one of many happy new agents, and that doesn’t even include those agents who have been doing this work for over 20 years. I have been so blessed to get to know some of the more senior agents.

    I am a person who is well known for keeping personal and proprietary information confidential. I have worked in the mental health arena, in corporate executive headquarters, and of course in my own business for clients. Therefore I cannot talk details about my work, but I am sharing transparently on the things I can speak on without breaking confidence.

    UPDATE (8/21/2022)

    I am, as always, going to share the authentic truth and reality with you, without disclosing proprietary or confidential information. So, to be honest, even though the hot season for the client was lucrative for me, things quickly cooled. As a result, despite my performance and being praised by management, I was removed from serving that client due to lack of hours which is a breach of contract. CAVEAT: No work was available to me for at least two months (not my fault). Despite this, I continued to check in and check for hours, but nothing was there (absolutely nothing … and they know that and they warned us of that). I held onto the position thinking that things would be picking up in the fall, but now that seems to be out of reach due to the removal. I feel that removing me is short-sighted and unfair because the lack of hours was not within my control, but, alas, it’s all about that contract. This is a business, after all, so I get that. However, I am a human being and would love to know that other human beings have their eyes on the situation and will give me some consideration. So, I await a response to my email. I will update this if I hear back.

    Just be forewarned that if you decide to work with a client, be careful about attaining the required hours as listed in the contract, even if there are little to no hours available. And if there are none available, you may want to move on to another client, instead of sticking around to wait for another peak season, as I have done.

    Regarding moving on to other clients…

    I did try to get in with many other clients, and, unfortunately, they just did not have enough spaces for all of the applicants (the CEO told us this himself). So, then I had to move on to other things, like getting back in school to finish my MBA in Executive Coaching. I also had to make a shift in my schedule due to a shift in my family’s schedule. So, after the first several tries, I was no longer able to commit to a new client due to the rigorous unpaid training requirements conflicting with my new schedule. So, again, I was waiting to due another bout of seasonal work for the same client, but now this looks unlikely.

    LIVE UPDATES VIA INSTAGRAM (@LeadLikeAQueen)

    For the most current updates, connect with me on Instagram and check my stories/reels. Here is a live I did recently about what’s been going on:

    Next Steps…

    Now that my summer semester is finished and my family’s schedule seems to be more predictable, my next steps will be to start applying for new clients (and re-apply for the old one). I will be able to fit a two-week unpaid training into my schedule now, so I am optimistic about this. Also, they recently announced that they’re expecting a lot more work to become available this Fall. If you’re interested, use my referral link below… and stay tuned for my updates.

    If you want to apply for a remote customer service job*, use my referral link below:

    (*Note: This is a 1099 contract job.)

    WOULD YOU LIKE SUPPORT FROM COACH DONNA MARIE?

    If you want coaching support as you move forward with your life, career and business, use the links below:

    VA and Remote Worker Coaching | Lead Like A Queen | Lead Like A Queen