The Care Girl Podcast
The Care Girl Podcast
The Path to Personal and Professional Alignment with Debbie Morris
Discover how to balance your values and prioritize success in our latest episode featuring Debbie Morris, the inspirational founder of Live, Learn, Serve. With 15 years of corporate HR experience and a passion for positive psychology coaching, Debbie shares her incredible journey and provides actionable insights into aligning your career with your personal life goals. Through our conversation, we explore the concept of balance, the importance of flexibility in addressing various life priorities, and the significance of staying true to one's values. I also recount my own story of leaving a job that no longer resonated with my values, underscoring the need for change to maintain harmony in life.
Navigate the complexities of time management and productivity with practical strategies that work. From managing overlapping schedules and syncing calendars to the essential role of rest, we uncover the secrets to juggling multiple responsibilities effectively. Debbie and I discuss the advantages of utilizing virtual assistants and system automation, shedding light on how these tools can better manage your professional and personal commitments. Personalized strategies and role models in time management are highlighted, offering listeners a tailored approach to enhancing their productivity.
Embrace an abundance mindset and understand what it means to "finish well" daily. We delve into how this mindset can significantly impact personal growth and relationships, allowing you to believe that there is enough in the world to meet your needs. Wrapping up the episode, we clarify the role of a coach in navigating life's challenges and the profound impact of external perspectives on achieving clarity and breakthroughs. With a focus on setting daily intentions and seeking guidance, we encourage you to define what "finishing well" means for you personally and strive to meet that goal every day. Thank you for joining us, and don't forget to follow the podcast for more inspiring episodes.
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Hi everybody. It's Alexandria the care girl. We talk about health, wellness and mindset on this podcast and today I am so happy to have our beautiful guest, debbie Morris, on. Debbie Morris is the founder of Live, learn, serve, an organization dedicated to helping people and organizations that find clear pathways to the best versions of themselves. Debbie, thank you for coming on. Can you tell us a little bit more about that? I know you've done corporate. Are you still doing corporate now with this as your business, your coaching business? Are you fully doing this full time and just give us a little roundabout about this organization and what you're doing?
Speaker 2:Sure.
Speaker 2:So I have been in corporate corporate HR, specifically talent management, for over 15 years.
Speaker 2:Right now I'm not in corporate, but I will tell you a lot of the reason why I got into coaching and I've discovered that this is a passion of mine is through my work in human resources and corporate spaces.
Speaker 2:So my coaching is typically around the niche of positive psychology, which is the science of happiness, the science of well-being and happiness, and I decided to sort of blend the two just because in my experience the people that I've helped people in corporate employees, friends, family they've often come to me with questions and just wanting help navigating their careers and in that I learned that you know people will come to me to say, hey, I want to get another job or I need help with, like, my resume. And then when you start asking more questions about, well, why do you want another job or this job that you want, how is it going to help you get to your end vision or your goals in life, I discovered that people necessarily had not thought through what they want their end to be Right. So what are we all working toward? What kind of life do we want? And people don't necessarily have that figured out. You know they just kind of want to get the next job.
Speaker 2:But you know, in terms of my support and my health, I want to see people live their best and greatest lives and I want you to get a job or a career or a skill set that really aligns to who you want to be in the future. And so really, that's why I kind of started the coaching was because, although I know I can help people get jobs, I can help people navigate their careers, but I think there's a bigger question to be answered about who you are and what kind of life you want to live, and your career is a pillar of that. It's just one thing that goes into a big life.
Speaker 1:I love that. I love that. So, uh, for me, I, uh, I know we met at an event and we've been seeing each other at different events and we're out there, you know, taking names, kissing babies, shaking hands Um, we're, we're doing the things right. I want to ask you, uh, is there such a thing, you know, cause you're a mom of two, um, I mom of three. Is there such a thing as balance? And if so, what is what is balanced to you and how? How can you, how can women add balance? Because my, I'm gonna give you my answer after yours.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay, balance. I bet that's. That's tricky. I mean, I think a lot. I think of life as this one big okay, it's this one big thing. And there's integration. Of all the things that you do right Now. Will that integration be like? Well, 50% of my time is at work, 50% of my time is family. That's not always going to be the case. It's never. For me, it is never a perfectly balanced thing, but over time, I think we all have seasons to our life, right? And so there are moments when our family needs us more than the job, right, or there are moments where our personal health needs to be addressed and needs to be a priority focus than the job. So I think balance for me is having the flexibility to be able to address the priorities in the moment that I need to, right, and then you're out of balance when you feel stressed and then when you feel like you don't have the bandwidth to address your own personal needs. But you know life, you know like life be life and life life, life right.
Speaker 2:It's unpredictable, but at the end of the day, it should be everyone's right to be able to address their needs in the moment. So we're all balancing different things. Some of us are caretakers, some of us have, you know, elderly parents, some of us are parents, and then parents of specially special needs kids. Some of us have really big jobs and careers or, you know, are supporting communities in some different way. So we all have things that you know are important to us and then people who are depending on us, but at the same time, you need to be able to flex to support your needs as well as the needs of others.
Speaker 1:I love that, I love that. So, so you're saying that there is some type of balance. For me, I would say you have to realize what your values are. Yeah, and any situation that you enter you know a job, a business training, you know school make sure that you're in alignment of those values. So if you say, hey, I put my family first, then that's what you do. If you say, hey, you know God first, family, you know myself, or whatever, or however that goes, you, you, you just stay in alignment with those things.
Speaker 1:And, um, I found, I found um, when I recently left um my job a while back. Um, it just wasn't in alignment with me anymore. And when it's not in alignment anymore, it will. It won't feel like it fits in your life. Right.
Speaker 1:And I think sometimes we need to. We need to realize, when we've hit that, when we've hit that, that ceiling of you know I want more, I need more or I need something different. Because a lot of times we feel stuck. We feel stuck in a place to where it's like, okay, well, you know, if I, if I don't do this, I'm not gonna be able to pay my mortgage, I'm not gonna be able to keep up my lifestyle. Um, to me, I would rather downsize a lifestyle than put extra stress on my body. Um, in my mind, mental health, um, and and um, just really be able to be happy, right?
Speaker 1:So sometimes you've seen people go into the backpack lifestyle or, you know, leave a whole house mansion in downsize because they were tired of living something that they didn't really want, right? So I think we have to ask ourselves what is it that we want? What I can say, what is it? What is it that we want? Do you want that life? Do you want this life, or are? Are you? Um, just looking at the joneses, right, I was listening to a guy the other day where he said that, um, we're in a in a financial crisis as a black community, um, you know, and it's just been ongoing, ongoing, ongoing.
Speaker 1:And he said people follow what like 5 000 people to 10 000 people on instagram or facebook, and they're the same people and they are comparing their lives to them, versus themselves. You know, and it's like, okay, everybody's not buying new cars, everybody's not buying new houses, everybody's not starting new businesses. Uh, in the entire world, it's like you, you're basing your, your life off a small percentage of people who may not even be able to afford the thing that they're showing you on social media.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:So I think a lot of women um do need that coaching and they are afraid to step into that next phase of their life. So someone like you would would definitely be um a great person to help them transition. So, as for knowing me, um, you say, how would you coach me? You can give me one of your questions I can answer. I think I struggle with the most, really like time management, because I do do so much and just really like maybe I get paralyzed with the. What do you call it? Procrastination? Yeah, I do have a procrastination thing and I get things done, but they may be done right when it's due and you know it's done great, but it's just. I definitely need to get out of that mindset, but I can't, I can't seem to shake it. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't, but I fall back into it and I'm really working on prioritizing and not procrastinate.
Speaker 2:So I mean in terms of so it sounds like there are two questions there. So it's just like how do I coach? Like how do I coach women on you know, sort of them being their best selves? But then you pose like a specific thing that you are challenged with. So with the first question it's more like okay, so when women come to me and they are typically in a moment of transition, they are uncomfortable with where they are in life, so they might be employed, they may not be employed, but there's something that is sort of on their mind in terms of I am not feeling completely content with the choices that I've made.
Speaker 2:And so, in terms of overall coaching, what I do like to do is start off with where did they feel like they were supposed to be? What does ideal look like for them? Right? And so we get to that through a series of exercises. We also talk through their strengths, their values. What you've mentioned before is very important. That's definitely part of the process is identification of values, what the world needs from them and things that they're interested in, and then it's going through a process of identifying exactly what a potential problem or challenge could be for them, and then we talk through ways to resolve that. So they come up with ideas and like how are we going to test these out? It's more about getting on a path to testing out real things that they can do immediately to get to the life that they want Now for you I have a few questions for you.
Speaker 2:Okay, time management. So I guess my first question to you would what would be what is good time management Like for you? How have you defined being successful at time management?
Speaker 1:I haven't. I'm not successful at it. I'm on time when it comes to when I'm at meetings and things of that nature. But I think, like I said, some projects I kind of let get out of the way and then I don't allocate enough time to certain things. And then I may fill my calendar. Uh, you know, maybe one day I have three different things, that each thing may take more time. So, just just being more detailed, um and and um, strategic on on maximizing the time that I do have, I think that that's something that I can do. So, uh, so I've, I'm successful with being on time, I'm successful with managing myself, but I am managing a whole entire family. So that that's something that I'm still working with. And I do have my mom. She's here, she helps with the boys, so that's, that's a major help, but sometimes, you know, she does work too. So I still have to kind of add everybody into my schedule and then on top of that schedule, I have my schedule. So it's like whoo, you know.
Speaker 2:Right, right, right. So have you do? You feel like you've seen someone that you would aspire to be in terms of of time, time management, Is there? Is there someone that you can think of that you feel like, oh they, they've gotten that under control.
Speaker 1:I, I, I don't know. I actually have not. I think I have a lot of people that I know that struggle with the same thing.
Speaker 1:So I haven't really seen a high performer and that I know per se. That can balance it. We all have our little quirks. I think I would say Oprah, but I don't know what her time management is. I'm pretty sure President Obama's wife, I'm pretty sure she has a great time management, but I think, I think I need to know what it looks like for me. I, that's what I need to really define for myself.
Speaker 2:Right, and then how do you know that it is not working? What are, what are the top one or two reasons or or things that are happening that tells you that you need support there?
Speaker 1:or things that are happening that tells you that you need support there.
Speaker 1:Well, I have to reschedule sometimes a lot on different things, because sometimes different things that I do, it may go into the next thing and I'm like, oh, wow, I can't even do that because I'm still doing this. Or, like I said, double book myself, not for the same times, but each task that I was doing may take longer than expected. So I think, really just giving myself the time to get things done and say, hey, okay, you can't do everything in one day.
Speaker 2:Okay. So for you, what I'm hearing is that, while you are scheduling things, you may not be scheduling enough time for those things. Yeah, okay, and why do you think you do that?
Speaker 1:I think I try to maximize my time, but it's the intentionality of it that I should be thinking of. And sometimes people will try to book meetings and I let them book on my calendar and I'm like not syncing all the calendars and I'm like, oh dang, I already had something that day, so now I got to move that. So it's like, but I don't want to look like on my end like I'm just dropping the ball Right when, when I have to sync my calendars and look and say, okay, I'm available for this, or have my calendar link needs to be updated with all my calendars. So I think it's just a simple tweaking of you know my systems um, that I use too, because I definitely can't keep it all in my mind and just just giving myself time on on that table, especially if I have to travel to the person and you got to deal with Atlanta traffic and I've been thinking like maybe just one major task a day, like versus trying to do a lot of things.
Speaker 1:And I have a virtual assistant now too in my business. So, for those who don't know, I have a home care agency in Georgia and we take care of sick kids and adults. So it's a major. It's a major service. Um do manage a team of women and some men and um it's it's definitely a women at times and I'm I'm looking to add an operator soon, so that will free me up a lot, because I am the face of the business. On not only that, I'm the face of the brand as well.
Speaker 2:So okay, well, I mean, based on what you just said you, I heard three sort of commitments that you could actually make to make your time management better, right? So we talked through. Um, you have a virtual assistant, right? Yeah, I think you mentioned something about the tasks or identifying, you know, the right amount of time for specific, specific tasks. And then you said something else. What was the second thing you just said?
Speaker 1:The syncing the calendars and making sure the automation, the syncing the calendars?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so syncing the calendars, so making sure your processes match or support the needs that you have.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, Because I'm like I know I haven't updated some of the calendar links and when people book I'm like, oh, that's not, that ain't gonna work. Yeah.
Speaker 2:So OK. So those are three things. Anything else that you feel like would help with your time management.
Speaker 1:Allocating the proper risks.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, tell me more about that.
Speaker 1:Sometimes, you know, I don't get enough rest. So I have this, I have the, the, the, the whoop thing on. So it's giving me like data on my sleep and recovery. So it's telling me like right now it's telling me like I need to have at least six hours, seven hours and 30, 30 minutes of sleep to really perform at a high, at a higher pace than I have been um and just really to maintain because you need risk.
Speaker 1:So I think prioritizing risk, uh, will help me with time management too and order and I need to go to bed on time to wake up early, right, okay, I'm not. I'm not a 5, am girly. Yeah, not a 5 am girly.
Speaker 2:but yeah, not a 5 am girly. I'm not a 5 am girly, but should I be Probably so I aspire to be as well, but I'm not there either. You say you're not there, I'm not there, I'm not there. And every morning I lay there, I'm like, okay, you can get up and I don't.
Speaker 1:But how do you manage it? Uh, time, and you know, being a mother and everything.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, I think, um, for me, the things that make the most impact are definitely thinking of my day the day before. So that's one tactic that I use to make sure that I'm productive the next day. So I don't know if my my thing is time management. I think my biggest obstacle can be more productivity. Like am I being? Productive with the time that I do have the time that I've set aside.
Speaker 2:It's more productivity for me. But getting back to you, though, I want to make sure that we get a commitment, but then also, you feel like you're going to move forward with that commitment. So like, in terms of the things that you've mentioned, what things can you start next week?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I can fix the automation issue and sync the calendars and I need to really just survey what's on my calendar and block it. I need to block that time off, even if it says 30 minutes on my calendar.
Speaker 1:Maybe put an extra 20-minute hole in there just in case especially if there's travel involved and even planning the day before, or I can take today to plan for the week Because I am the productivity part. Yes, that that is something that has to get better because of my time limit limitations, um and, and I think there's a lot of busy work, but, uh, it's not translating into money.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Right, so I need to do way more of the money generating activity Right.
Speaker 2:Right, right. What else in terms of the commitment? Maybe it's not this week, but over the next two or three weeks.
Speaker 1:What else did we mention? I know we said the automation prior, so the risk part I'm doing now. I believe everything that we said is applicable. I can do all those things. Okay, wonderful, wonderful.
Speaker 2:Well, I will be checking in on you. So that's, I think, in terms of this, this coaching session. I think it's important for your audience to understand, cause I get a lot of questions about what is a coach, right? So the interaction that you and I had, you did most of the talking. I'm just asking you questions and you're resolving a lot of the things, a lot of your challenges, on your own. So, essentially, a coach is just helping you navigate those challenges. They're not giving you advice, though they are, you know, helping you come up with a resolution for your challenges.
Speaker 2:But I know that there's, you know, some coaches out there that people go to for help on specific things. They are giving a different type of service, that's more advisory service, are giving a different type of service. That's more advisory service. Right, I agree, right. So coaches I mean someone would go to a coach essentially to help accelerate their progress in a certain area, because that coach is asking very deep questions. It's allowing them time and permission to reflect and they're holding them accountable because, likely you would be, you would continue that relationship with that coach, right, right, so that's that's kind of the difference. I know people are like well, what, what does a coach do? How is that different than anyone else? A coach is mainly there to accelerate your progress and they're looking at you and your future goals and helping you get to a point where you're achieving those future goals.
Speaker 1:Right, and I I've I've had coaches before now life coach, no. Career coach, no. I've. I've had business advisors and and different people that I've paid to advise me and and and they have put, put me into a new place that I never thought I'd be in. And because I, you know, but you have to apply the information and they know the right, they know how to get the right questions, because sometimes we, we have a mental, we don't have that mental clarity, right, we don't have that mental clarity and and um, sometimes it's somebody outside looking in they can say, oh, you just need to do that, right, you know? Why don't you just do that, you know?
Speaker 1:oh, you just need to do that Right, you know why don't you just do that? You know more of this and less of that, and it could be a simple aha moment where you're like, oh wow, you know, and it could change the whole trajectory of your career, business or life, just from that one aha moment.
Speaker 1:So I think for me, that's that's what a good coach does, um, even even with the career um, uh, with the career coaching and life coaching, um, I, we, we had a, we had a good talk uh at the render conference about, you know, career, women and dating and all of that.
Speaker 1:And it was hilarious because we were having a sidebar conversation with the gentleman and, um, and you didn't agree with what he said.
Speaker 1:Uh, I can't remember in particular what the conversation was, I think I think he was talking about dates or something and you just was like I don't agree with that, but I really, I really liked how, um, you know, you're, you're, you're very feminine and you're very um, but you're, at the same time, you, you stand your ground and and you're, you're, you're very feminine and you're very um, but you're, at the same time, you, you stand your ground and and you're strong minded and I love that. Um, for me, uh, some women who are, you know, single, divorced or just just wanting to be married, uh, and they're ambitious and everything, uh, what, what would you say? Uh, how to navigate that? Or because you, you told me, you said I just show up and you know if they come, they come. Like you said something to me that was just so profound it's like you're not looking to be found or anything like that. They just they're going to arrive or something, and it was just like I was like oh, child, stay again.
Speaker 2:Well, and I don't want to give you the impression that I have this topic locked down by any means, but I think it's just more so for me uh, uh and uh how I view life, and you know how I view opportunity and people. Um, so like, in my coaching I talk about an abundance mindset and so like that is necessary, feel like in order for someone to be coachable by job, I got to hold on to this man because if I let it go, this is all that I have right.
Speaker 2:Whereas an abundant mindset is there's more than enough in the world for all your needs to be met, right?
Speaker 2:So in the conversation we were having about dating and love, and I think what I disagreed with was that this gentleman was saying that he didn't necessarily have a need to be with someone that was lesser, was less than him, right, which you know, which, in a sense, you know you shouldn't be with someone that that's less than you or that you feel like doesn't, you know, satisfy the needs or the things that you want in your life.
Speaker 2:But he felt like he had to, and so that was the disagreement that I had. I'm like you don't, people don't have to do anything you don't want to do. Like, if you feel like you want a specific type of person, my belief is that that person is available to you and you should not, you know kind of be in a relationship or, you know kind of take hold of someone who you feel like at the onset is not a match for you, because that person deserves to have love and that person deserves to have someone that feels that they're like the greatest thing in the world. So, like, the conversation around settling is. That's the part that does not that's the conversation. That that's the part that does not align to my core beliefs, just because I believe that there's enough for everyone out there and everyone should be able to get what they feel like they want.
Speaker 1:I agree a thousand percent. I just I like the, I like how you worded it and how you was. You was not taking no nonsense and it just gave me some power. I was like I love that. Where can everybody find you online to in order to get your services and all of that.
Speaker 2:So my website is live learn serve dot com. I can be found on Instagram and it's live dot learn dot serve, and so those are probably the best two places to find me. I'm on LinkedIn as well, under Debbie Morris. You can reach out. I'm on LinkedIn as well, under Debbie Morris, you can reach out to me on. Linkedin like you did, but yeah, that's how everyone can reach me.
Speaker 1:All right. Well, any further questions for me? I know we were doing our session.
Speaker 2:I know. No see girl, I think you have it all covered. I know you are doing a lot in managing and balancing many different things. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm working on it. That did give me some clarity there. Ladies, please get with Ms Morris about coaching. This is something that is an investment into yourself. When I started investing in myself maybe seven years ago. I keep doing it more and more and the better I get, the more return I get. Return on investment I get. Your best investment is yourself.
Speaker 2:Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Give me three things. People describe you as If I were to ask who is Debbie Morris?
Speaker 2:Well, I would say patient, positive and curious I love it.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay, curious, curious. I love that. Leave us with one inspirational quote. That or you know bible verse we have whatever is is your, your flavor.
Speaker 2:uh, that will inspire someone oh, that's hard off the top like that. Wow, okay, um, there's just one that, and it's not a scripture. It's it's that and it's not a scripture. It's something that I got from a sermon years ago and it's super simple. It's just finish well, daily.
Speaker 1:So my pastor was just talking about finish well daily.
Speaker 2:So it's all about what is well, defining what is well for you, right? And so the goal of the day is not to, you know, check off the boxes, like you were talking about earlier on social media. It's not everyone else's yardstick, it's your own yardstick and just you know, at the beginning of the day, you know you're just like Lord, just you know, kind of help me finish well. And that is the goal for the day is just to finish well.
Speaker 1:Finish well. Oh, with that being said, you all finish well. Thank you so much for coming on and I hope you have a great rest of your day. Okay, thank you. This is a career podcast, you all.
Speaker 2:Follow us on all platforms.
Speaker 1:All right, thank you. Thank you for having me. Thank All right, thank you. Thank you for having me. Thank you for coming on. Okay, all right, all right.