life coaching – THE CEO DRIVEHER

LOOKING AT THE DRY ERASE BOARD

DRY ERASE BOARDS A PICTURE BOARD FOR THE BRAIN.

A DRY ERASE BOARD WHEN USED IS THE CHAOTIC MIND ORGANIZED TO BRING CLARITY & complete tasks.

It is now 5:47 a.m. so this serves as an impromptu writing of the sorts. I was about to close my laptop, the laptop I’ve been sitting in front of for at least 10 hours today, even when eating my dinner.

As I was finishing up some organizing of my soon to be released ebook, I glanced to the left side of me where my dry erase board sits. I looked over at the numerous listings of tasks that needed to be completed by the close of Sunday evening which is less than 48 hours away. Mind you when I wrote it out earlier I thought I could have it all done by the end of well now morning lol! Wishful thinking I guess. *shrugs*

There with bullet points stand seventeen tasks, most of which are very large in nature. The irony is I felt at peace looking at it. I feel reassured the tasks will be done, now, do I feel overwhelmed? Well of course, but I also have visions and semi feelgoods envisioning the sense of accomplishment I’ll have, having completed them all.

So I just wanted to write this quick reminder of the importance of not only visualizing the end result, but writing out the tasks. See a lot of our anxiety and built up frustration comes from us failing to organize our thoughts. So what happens is the brain goes in overdrive. Though I write a lot for a person like myself I honestly still do not write enough. Every time I pin up, write down, journal, or map out my plans; I am beyond pleased with my outcome and usually finish well ahead of schedule. Writing is the ultimate manifestation weaponry. Write it down and it is sure to happen!

So not only will I complete the missions listed on my dry erase board, I will be thrilled to dry erase those task with pen in the other hand ready to update with newer ones.

Dry erase boards are the new age canvases for thinkers and task rabbits, I don’t think we, well I, use them enough and sadly I have 3 of them that are in my bedroom office, ha. This canvas for thinkers are such a beautiful picture of the mind in a way. As you write on it you can feel your mind come at ease almost reassured that yourself heard yourself. The mind lacks confidence in us, or maybe it knows we’re procrastinators, or maybe it just likes to torment us repetitively with thoughts; either way it seeks reassurance, and that only comes when it can mirror itself on paper, sticky notes, or even a dry erase board. Thoughts are often like looking at an atom through a microscope, just chaotic to see, busy and beautiful, but no order, no structure.

So bust out those dry erase markers of all sizes and colors, hang up that dry erase board, and transcribe those pesky tasks and thoughts of “to do’s” in numerical order and get to work! Heck I even had put on the board “make up bed” and “hang up clothes from laundry day”, write it all, make sure they’re task that you can accomplish within 48 – 72 hours, give yourself some time, but they must be done by then. For longer dated tasks use a separate board and make sure wherever you place these boards they’re highly visible.

For more of my writings and services be sure to check out my website at https://www.ceodriveher.shop and subscribe to my blog for more simple daily prompts and thoughts for the digital nomad. gigger, entrepreneur, and/or freelancer.

THE PRETENDERS… STORY OF A WANNABE BOSS IN A NEW DECADE

From ecommerce, to gig economy, to YouTube, and Instagram fame money is at our fingertips like never before with most not needing to contribute anything of much value. We’ve lived in a decade of fame and riches advertised to be easily obtained with little effort and I believe this notion is causing many to self-destruct in their desires of obtaining financial freedom and peer recognition for success.

I’ve always been in business for myself since a teenager on some level. Whether selling cigarettes on campus, babysitting, to life-coaching and resume building I always looked to earn income on the side and grow a business of some sorts, from my early teenage years throughout my adulthood. I loosely say I’ve been an entrepreneur my entire life because a large portion of me being in business for myself I’ve always had the protection of a traditional job looming in the background, hence clouding my true responsibility of managing and scaling my side businesses. It wasn’t until I went full-time entrepreneur and embracing the gig economy that I gain true perspective of business ownership.

In my observation of business owners, which began with myself I quickly seen I had been a fake, playing the role of a boss, a business woman, when in fact I knew nothing of running a business, especially one to be self-sustaining. Now, almost three years of gig hopping, freelancing, and entrepreneurship has taught me more than than any business school or mentorship program in my opinion. It has truly been trial and error for me, constant investing in thousands of hours of university YouTube, reading numerous books, partaking in online classes, and working alongside those that did not run their businesses right, but learning from their wrongs! I am still learning how to articulate all that I have learned, but one thing is certain my keen ability to see those that are lack luster and not true to their business dealings.

The Pretenders. These individuals are not easy to identify from the surface, but to true business owners you’ll identify them in minutes; in just by asking a few questions they easily reveal themselves without their own knowing. Us business owners tend to be smooth talkers, a-whole-lot of talk and very little actions. We are the kings and queens of procrastination, we live in the clouds and rarely come down to the valley of reality. We have a good game plan, but never execute them, we have all the answers for others, but when we have the answers for ourselves we fail to adhere to them. The Pretenders, can be the worse types, they like the idea of success and often they have everything they need to be successful, but lack implementing the hard work and self-investments required to acquire success.

How to quickly identify “The Pretenders”

All talk no fruit of their labor.
Lacks consistency in their endeavors.
Quickly switching earning options.
Fail to invest in higher education i.e. online courses, workshops, etc.
Have the ability to make money, but half-ass complete opportunities.
Lacks advertising their services through various media outlets.
Slow to move on changes required of them to level-up.
They tend to piggyback or rather lurk in the background of others success somewhat posing it off as their own.
Looks to obtaining clients through mere existence and no true connective approach.
Actually lazy! The lazy part seems hard to identify because they come off highly motivated and active, but in fact they’re just good at moving around looking busy.

Pretenders look for help and even welcome it, but once instructions are given they’re slow to move upon suggestions and actions. Pretenders are often highly skilled and gifted individuals, but the problem I believe is they lack from a variation of work ethics. Remember when I opened up in the beginning of the blog with the worker types from this past decade, a bunch of individuals with money at their fingertips with an high expectation of gaining income /clients with little effort. This seems to be the new playbook of ecommerce and business, due less make more, provide little effort and value but inflate costs and make it big! There’s only one major factor, many aren’t being profitable in their approach, and instead of becoming cognizant of the needed change they’ll double down on their methods continuing to earn less to little with this inflated fallacy of business success. Us as entrepreneurs are constant dreamers, creators, of grand ideas for making money, but that execution part and commitment to constant investing is faint.

I have a business that tagline is “Driving to Fund our Dreams”, those there at the CEO DriveHer understand that often we must invest our time diligently elsewhere to make our dreams a reality elsewhere. We’re committed to investing/funding our businesses through learning, earning, and planning; nothing is given all is earned! So I ask you, are you pretending, are you acting like a boss or are you a boss, do you understand that business ownership is not glamorous, nor easy, and when done for earning income you must actually have passion and skill to consistently scale your business for permanent growth. You sir or mam constantly throwing darts in the dark masked as a “boss” or “business owner” will be short lived if you continue to pretend while in your endeavors.

For more blogs and vlogs checkout my website at http://www.ceodriveher.shop where I provide media content on IG and YouTube, also be sure to checkout my services if you need help in the gig economy or business consulting for entry level business owners.

UBER SAFETY FEATURE GOES UNUSED: AWESOME TOOL FOR FEMALE RIDERS & DRIVERS

If you’ve ever been victimized on the smallest scale often it’s not the actual event that is tormenting, but rather the constant thought of “what could I’ve done different” that cycles through your mind, especially as a woman. Hi, I am Kimberly Nuzingah Bradley an ex-officer that worked within a jail facility in multiple capacities and yes I too have been the victim of assault (a number of times) so I am speaking from first hand knowledge. I am a practicing Life-Coach and Holistic Wellness Coach that serve women of all ages and backgrounds. In addition as I continually build my practice my true passion is writing; I use various types of gig economy jobs to help fund my dreams. Of all the various gig jobs that I do hands down UBER and LYFT are the larger of them all and the riskiest. When I do rideshare I tend to utilize UBER the most both for riding and driving, the functionality of the app I am just more accustomed to. In this blog I want to quickly share with you a feature in the UBER app I believe is vastly overlooked and barely used. The feature I speak of is in the app for both rider and driver and it’s known as the “Share my Ride” tab. The setup takes literally less than a 30 seconds and is a great form of accountability. Above is a small clip from my youtube channel The CEO DriveHer on how to set it up for both user types beit rider/driver. Now I have specified “women” only because that is my target audience, but this feature is of course for everyone.

The setup is so simply the last thing you needed was a video tutorial, but for my newbies I wanted them to go right into the app without fail and quickly set this up. Dads, fathers, uncles, grandpapas, brother, and sons of the world if you have young teenage daughters 17+ and above, mother, sister, wife, etc. this feature is a must! This maps their travel in realtime and holds them accountable too. I know some people don’t like the tracking idea, but it’s all about accountability and safety. If someone is traveling 2-3 miles up the road, but the trip is taking 35 minutes you may want to phone in and check on the person.

To set-up the “Share my Ride” feature it’s this simple in the UBER app:

Log into account.
Click on you profile pic. (for Drivers only)
Click on tab at left corner w/3 lines (for Riders only)
Click on tab that say Account.
Scroll down to App Settings and click.
About 5 rows down is the SHARE TRIP icon, click on it.
Once in follow the setup instructions and customize as you like.

Mind you the app is always being updated and/or looks different for different account holders. Not sure how this workers with corporate accounts, but for personal UBER accountants the above instructions should relatively be this method.

For my female drivers you ladies rock, but I know like me you can get a bit to comfortable doing this and we tend to get a little lack in our day to day dealings when doing rideshare. We must always be alert and aware of who is getting in our vehicles. One time I use the app to my advantage, I had a dude that was making strong advances and would not back down in his requests for my number and to take me out. I was able to squeeze in the fact (casually) of how all my rides are monitored and shared for my safety. Now do I believe he was going to do physical harm to me? No. But to be on the safe side I wan’t to plant the seed that there is a monitoring system along side if someone has it, along side of a dash cam. I believe if these monitoring systems are used more often the word will get out that they too are being watched be it driver or rider.

Let’s continue to put safety first ladies, I am not trying to scare anyone. It seems like a look but in fact it isn’t. If you set yourself to use/take security measures all the time in your day to day activities it becomes 2nd nature, it becomes part of you! Remember to always go off you instinct, never silence that internal voice, it’s quiet but speaks volumes. Take care and stay tune to daily and weekly blogs and vlogs in reference to creating passive income, maximizing the gig economy and freelance culture, and rider and driver safety.

RIDESHARE SAFETY FOR WOMEN RIDERS & DRIVERS

Is a female driver really better to have than a male driver? Do you feel safe as a female rider and/or driver? What can you do yourself to ensure your own safety? Are there tools to help reinforce our safety and are you using those tools?

My questions and suggestions are endless! This blog couldn’t possible contain them so I’ll be revisiting this subject matter over and over again from various viewpoints and perspectives. For the pass week or two the subject matter with riders is about the young college student in South Carolina horribly murdered by someone who she thought was her UBER driver. I will not be diving into the issue, but I must be clear to express that matter is least likely to happen to any of you. This lone individual that committed this heinous crime was an opportunist, a monster, on the prowl and took the opportunity to carry out his sick drive.

Some of you may know, but I have almost 14+ years in law enforcement serving in multiple capacities having dealt with all types of criminals as an officer. If there is anything I can say about most criminals it’ll have to be they often commit their crimes due to the individuals taking control of this situation. If you give them an inch they damn sure will take a mile and then some! Now ladies I will first have to help you get out of your mind that male rideshare drivers are creepers. Don’t carry around that notion. I know plenty of great male drivers that would never violate you. That also go for female rideshare drivers, do not fear being victimized sure some men will overstep their boundaries, but ultimately you have control and you must know how to own that control.

It is my goal to show both you women rideshare drivers and riders how to ensure your own safety. Today we are going to focus on two aspects of being able to do so and here they are.

PRESENCE!
VERBAL COMMANDS!

Ladies anytime I’ve been somewhat victimized it was on a micro level. No one has ever put their hands on me, but they have been pushy and in aggressive in their approach sexually. Often these men have had a bit too much to drink, but never was I not able to assert myself and speak up for myself to take control of the situation. Don’t just limit these suggestions to rideshare, but use it in your everyday dealings. I am not one to be easily offended, but I refuse to be disrespected. In this day not even passive aggression should be tolerated, nip it in the bud ASAP!

Presence, is a very powerful weaponry. In my years of law enforcement one thing was clear to of those that were victimized and that is they lacked presence, they had no situational awareness and was a bit to carefree. Predators look for this so that they have full advantage of taking advantage of you. As a female rider and driver, assert your presence, make eye contact always, speak clear, and don’t engage in conversation that is not professional. Sit straight up and always appear to be attentive. Head up, shoulders back, and get your face out of your cell phone. If you are a female rider pay attention to the navigation and don’t go to sleep in the car. Verbal Commands, speak up and assert your voice, not don’t be mean but be direct in your tone. If anyone tries to divert the conversation to a more sexual flirtatatous context, quickly assess the situation and avoid any form of response that will have them to think they can pursue the conversation further. Vocalize you’re not interested nor do you entertain such conversations. Be weary of those that overly compliment your beauty, features, clothing, etc. Always take control of the situation and be prepared to stand firm on your standards, establish firm boundaries and never allow them to be crossed by NO ONE! Some people will try to violate you and honestly believe they did nothing wrong because you chose to avoid speaking up for yourself. They will literally say “well they never said nothing”.

One time I had a CoCa-Cola executive who had been drinking get way outta line. It was a long trip from like Atlanta to Duluth on a Thursday night or so. At first I took his advances as typical drunk guy talk and I casually dismissed it. He then leads into suggesting sex for pay and how he’s willing to tip me greatly ($200-$300 bucks whatever I like) for “extra service”. I kept acting dumb because I literally wanted him to make clear of what he was asking. Once tired of his shit I quickly took control of the situation and began reading his ass his last rights so to speak. I advised him of the rules and how someone especially of his caliber should not be doing this. The irony is his wife called in the middle of all this! I told him I’d have to stop the trip if he continued. His drunk ass for the last 10 minutes of the ride of so kept apologizing, he then realized I wasn’t some dumb little girl looking to trick off to make some extra cash. I think some of these jerks think we are desperate for money and willing to do anything so they passively try to take advantage of those in rideshare. He clearly grew fearful of me opening my mouth, I even think he used the CoCa-Cola corporate account so surely he didn’t want this to get back to them. He asked me to drop him off down the street from his house (guess he forgot the address is in the app), so I did so, rated him a 1 and left clear notes on the rider in the app.

When I ruminate on the incident I know where I messed up, I allowed his conversation to go to far assuming he’s drunk, he’ll pass out, he don’t know what he’s saying when in fact he was fully conscious of his actions! I was a bit to friendly and should’ve addressed the matter ASAP! I felt dirty and as if I knew better, I wanted to rip that dudes face off after thinking about it more. I grew angry at myself for underestimating him and being to passive in my approach. Sometimes it’s the mental aftermath that is damaging causing you to question yourself over and over again, so don’t let that be you! Take control, have a firm presence, meaning be in the moment and fully aware, and vocalize anything you do not like or agree with regardless of the consequences!

GAME PLANNING YOUR GIGS FOR THE WEEKEND (VIDEO INCLUDED)

Most gig economist bet on highly profitable days, among those days are weekends and holidays. The problem is they themselves and everyone else are banking on the same thing sometimes causing highly saturated markets causing little to no money being made. You cannot bet blindly, you cannot afford to assume the pickings will be plentiful, trust me I use to do that until I started having a form of strategic planning to maximize my profitability in the gig economy business especially as it pertains to rideshare.

ASSESSING: I say this all the time, but it is key, you must be able to gauge the climates in which you work, yes both natural element climate and economic climate. There are many variables that play into this but for the sake of keeping a short blog I will stick to these few:

Weather, if you’ve done gig jobs weather plays a big part in the construct. If you do gigs such as GrubHub, UberEats, DoorDash, you usually will see a spike in demand because people choose not to travel in the rain especially here in Atlanta when the driving is horrific in the rain. Depending on the time of day you can really make bank.
Events, this seems easy, but you must be strategic here as well. Sure you can simply wait outside of venues hoping to catch a unicorn ride or slight surge but I can assure you a lot of wasted time. I believe if I am out my wheels need to be moving at all times! When you check out the events are sure to check out the venues too, take note of the capacity and see if online the events were sold out. This will help you really see if it’s worth working the area.
Hotels, call your local hotels and ask the help desk if they are booked to capacity or go online and see what rooms are available and the price. If high prices I can assure you the capacity level is high. They raise the prices due to demand!

Assessing the local economy and possible demands will help you game plan. Sometimes I do the complete opposite of what I know most will do. Take for instance big concerts, I avoid them especially at a venue that holds 40,000+, the reason being I know most drivers will flock there in hopes of making big bucks. What ends up happening is the driver is left in gridlock traffic and the probability of a rider going over 10 miles is slim. Unless the pickup is somewhat early and the pickup is strategically placed it just not worth it. I, on the other hand, will work 5-8 outside of that area catching the bleed overs making often much more than those stuck in standstill traffic.

Take for instance the Shaky Knees concert that will be her May 3rd, 4th, and 5th. The draws in a nice crowd full of locals and out of towners. This crowd will be widely spread out and the pick-up area is well organized so it will be worth working. I know this because I’ve already done my research and can somewhat gauge the demands.

Another thing a lot of gig workers that tend to do more of the food delivery services will hop on driving more this weekend, which will leave me the opportunity to play the other side of the field in slow times with rideshare. The human conditions can be very easy to predict, so I use that to my advantage. So let me ask you the following:

Do you plan on using multiple gig platforms?
Are you willing to take 1-2 hours to research some data to see what areas may be profitable to you?
Have you assessed the climate of the weekend? What’s coming to town? i.e. Here in Atlanta we have a 3 day music festival/concert, Amazon is hosting a free conference which has brought thousands, there are other major conferences in town, and Sunday is Cinco De Mayo; as for the weather it is projected to rain Friday, Saturday possible thunderstorms, and more rain on Sunday. All these variable make a huge impact on how one is to work their selected gigs.
Do you have a daily budget and goal of pay?
Do you have specific times you want to work? This is important, you don’t want to just be driving around off and on you ought to and must set time schedules as to when you do your gigs. If you don’t you will burn out!

In all make your assessing measurable, keep it simple, think of a plan, write down the plan, execute the plan. Always leave room for flexibility and chance; if anything changes or through you off at least you have your plan to revise and assess. This will help you with future plans and what will begin to happen is you’ll start noticing trends, profitability, and consumer patterns. This is how you develop a 6 sense if you will for these gigs. I strongly suggest you write down your assessment / strategic plan either on 1 full sheet of paper or in your notes on your cell phone. This will keep you on task and focused on the bigger picture!