Ovietta Ruffin

I attribute my success to doing it scared. It sounds very cliche, but that was absolutely how it started. It was during COVID, everything was shut down, and my mental health was in an interesting space. I built for others what I needed for me. At the time, it just was a space to be transparent, to be honest and vulnerable with others. And then just things have grown out of that need. I think being able to tell your own story opens you up to connecting with other people with the same story that you would otherwise not have known had you not been vulnerable in that space.

The best career advice I've ever received is to ask for help. I struggle with that - I'm a 'I'll just do it, I'll just figure it out' type of person. Some of the best advice I've ever received is that you don't have to do it all by yourself, you just have to ask for help. It's still a work in progress, but I am better at asking for help than I used to be.

My advice is to do it scared. One of the taglines from my podcast that has also grown into the conference is 'Do It Scared.' The energy behind that is, it doesn't have to be perfect, you just have to start. You just gotta get started, one foot in front of the other. The idea, the intention does not have to be super polished. I think sometimes we want to have everything in order from A to Z before we take the first step, and sometimes that paralyzes us from doing anything at all. So one of the pieces of advice I would give, or that I consistently give, is to just do it scared. Just jump out there and do it anyway.

I'll start with challenges. Running a non-profit has forced me to lean into becoming comfortable asking for not only help, but money. That is a challenge for me - I'm not good at it. That takes asking for help and multiplies it by a thousand, right? Not only am I asking for your help, but it feels like I'm asking you to give me money. What I have continued to be coached on is that I'm not asking you to give me money, I'm asking you to partner and align with something that I believe in that aligns with your beliefs. As for opportunities, being able to accumulate in this lane has allowed me to meet some amazing people and connect with amazing people that I wouldn't have otherwise connected with, or partnered with, or known that I was even in alignment with. Because I really value relationships a great deal, that has been a huge opportunity for me.

The values most important to me are honesty, transparency, loyalty, honesty, and trust. Honesty and trust are definitely at the top of the list.