288 MINISODE Jill Raff: Overcoming Idea Mania

Jill Raff is a customer experience strategist obsessed with helping businesses Transform Transactions Into Interactions™, by putting people first. Founder of The Jill Raff Group, she shares her advice for entrepreneurs: Focus on the ONE thing that feeds your soul AND your wallet. We talk intuition, self-value and how to focus when you have too many ideas.

Melinda Wittstock:         Jill, welcome to Wings.

Jill Raff:                                Thank you, it’s so great to be with you. Thanks for having me, Melinda.

Melinda Wittstock:         It’s great to have you on as well, and I always want to start with what’s inspiring you?

Jill Raff:                                What’s inspiring me is I have, my mom and my mother in law both have been in and out of the hospital and rehab in these last few months. And honestly, it might sound strange, but they are both so inspirational. My mother in law’s 96 years old and has been through hell and back and is recovering and she just is such a fighter. She is so strong, it’s amazing. And my own mother, at 87, chose to have her hip replaced. But my mom has always been an inspiration to me. She is an artist, a sculptor, and even in her recovery is making submissions to have exhibits different places around the world. And she’s truly an inspiration.

Melinda Wittstock:         Gosh, it’s amazing to live so long. My mom is almost 91.

Jill Raff:                                That’s great.

Melinda Wittstock:         And it’s great to see the inspiration in older people. You know, we always think so many things are new, but whatever we think is new has been around a long time.

Jill Raff:                                Absolutely! Might be new to us, but …

Melinda Wittstock:         Exactly. Oh my goodness. So what is challenging you right now in business? I mean, we all have challenges as entrepreneurs. It comes with the territory, no matter where we are in our journey, whatever stage we’re at in our business, there’s always something. What’s challenging you right now?

Jill Raff:                                100%. I think as an entrepreneur everyone can relate to having a lot of ideas.

Melinda Wittstock:         You’re describing me!

Jill Raff:                                There you go. Exactly.

Melinda Wittstock:         And like, what to do with them all, right?

Jill Raff:                                Yes! It’s like, my husband’s like, “Oh, squirrel. Squirrel.” And it’s like, no, I’m trying to put on big dark sunglasses so I’m not attracted by the shiny kind of objects. But it’s taking all my ideas, figuring out how to make an organized brain dump so that I don’t lose it, but how to stay focused and where to put my energies most. And really, bottom line, I think there’s two things. One, most importantly, where is going to be that revenue driving factor so that I can make it a business and not just a hobby. But also, what’s going to feed my soul? What’s going to continue to light me up and make me excited about what I’m doing? And the two have to merge.

Melinda Wittstock:         Oh, that is so true. I love what you said about the two merging. And what’s so interesting about it is if you do get the alignment right where you’re really creating in joy, the revenue and all of that follows.

Jill Raff:                                Yes.

Melinda Wittstock:         And you know, all too often business owners make the mistake of thinking the revenue, “Oh, when the revenue comes, then I’ll be able to do what I want.” But actually, it’s exactly the opposite of that.

Jill Raff:                                Right, you’ve got to live your life. Life is now. And don’t have regrets and don’t    put anything on hold. Live it every day.

Melinda Wittstock:         That’s great. And what a great segue into our advice section of the Minisode. What are your top three go to pieces of advice? Everything you’ve learned along the way, Jill, in your career. Your expertise as a customer service, I have to say maven, and as an entrepreneur. What are the top three pieces of advice you’d give women in business?

Jill Raff:                                Number one, I think go after your dreams. Dream big, and live with no regrets. Because you know, everything that we do, we see what others are doing and we compare ourselves and we see the challenges and the obstacles. But instead, look at it as an adventure. I see life as an adventure. And trying to live with those, not having regrets. And so what I’ve experienced and learned across so many cultures and languages and skills and all those things is, having that attitude of approaching it as an adventure. And really go after your dreams. That would be my first one.

Melinda Wittstock:         Lovely.

Jill Raff:                                Thank you. And second is, I think as women especially we need sometimes to dig deep to really live confidently and out of fear. Fear is a big one that will always pop up, but if we remember our value and our worth then we’re bringing out not only our awesome strength as women in particular but I think our kind insight and our creative visions will come from that.

Melinda Wittstock:         I think that’s so, so important. I mean, I see so many women underprice themselves because we don’t value ourselves enough. So that’s very good advice. And so what’s number three?

Jill Raff:                                Number three: follow your intuition. This summer I was traveling, I went to Bali, and I found this awesome little thread bracelet that’s the chakra of intuition. And I wear it all the time, because I haven’t been and I’m more recently remembering, follow my intuition. And I think as women we’re particularly connected to this higher insight and power, and if we listen to it and follow it I think we’ll be happier and more things will show up as we wish.

Melinda Wittstock:         Yes. I’m saying yes. I mean, I just personally spent so much time, so many years, in that over analytical. Sorry, I’m just going to say that again. IN that over analytical left brain, where if you’re there, often you don’t spot the bigger picture, you don’t spot opportunities, and you cut out that natural way that we can really connect to source or inspiration. So I love that you said that. So Jill, how can people find you and work with you?

Jill Raff:                                Sure. They can find me at jillraff.com. My last name is R like Robert, A, double F, F as in French fry. Dot com. So that’s jillraff.com. And, definitely reach out to me, let’s have a phone call, talk about your customer experience, what’s going on, and I’d love to be able to help others have a bigger impact and grow their business.

Melinda Wittstock:         Wonderful. Thank you so much for putting on your wings and flying with us today.

Jill Raff:                                Thank you.