Speaker: 0:01

Welcome to The Heart-Led Business Show, where compassion meets commerce and leaders lead with love. Join your host, Tom Jackobs, as he delves into the insightful conversations with visionary business leaders who defy the status quo, putting humanity first and profit second. From heartfelt strategies to inspiring stories, this podcast is your compass in the world of conscious capitalism. So buckle up and let your heart guide your business journey.

Tom Jackobs: 0:36

Welcome to The Heart-Led Business Show where passion meets purpose. Today we are beyond excited to spotlight the incredible Dr. Jaime G. Raygoza, the brilliant mind behind Rainbow Career Coaching. With a heart full of compassion, and a mission to empower LGBTQ plus professionals. Jaime transform stress into success like turning lemons into joyful rainbow flavored lemonade. Join us as we dive into Jaime's inspiring journey of resilience and creativity in the world of career coaching. Jaime, welcome to the show.

Jaime Raygoza: 1:11

Thank you for having me. I'm super excited.

Tom Jackobs: 1:13

Yes, me as well. I'm especially excited to learn more about your story and especially how that car accident when you were 23, reshaped your life. I think that's gonna be a really interesting story to dive into. But first, the first question I always ask is, what's your definition of a heart-led business?

Jaime Raygoza: 1:33

It's a business where you come in authentically as yourself, you keep your morals, your uh, the things that really make you you, and not compromising that along the way. Being able to really, stick with your mission, stick with like the reason why, like having a strong, why you're helping your clients and not lose a sense of that.

Tom Jackobs: 1:55

Nice. And I like that, you know, bringing your whole authentic self, but also not compromising your values as part of the business. Do you feel like you've run into people, or maybe you've had that challenge as well, where you were perhaps compromising your own values just for the business?

Jaime Raygoza: 2:14

Yeah, definitely. It can be difficult because sometimes, like I've been in situations where I've worked with someone else and they are, you know, sometimes finances can dictate where we go and if the finances aren't there and, and you have one client that is not necessarily treating your staff correctly or it doesn't really align with your values, but. They are the client that keeps you sustainable. It's hard to kind of like make that decision. And I've had that as, as for other people where they make that decision of like, we have to keep this individual regardless of if they match with what we believe or not. However, there's always, if there's a how, there's a way. Even though it may seem like you don't have any other option. There's always another option. You just have to kind of be creative, think outside of the box, and find innovative solutions to the issue that you're currently having. You don't have to compromise yourself along the way. It's just really trying to work a little bit harder. The easiest way is not always the best way.

Tom Jackobs: 3:13

Yeah, I think it's a really slippery slope when you go down that path because once you start working with people like that, and I had a previous guest on the show that said that she canceled a you know, a difficult client, I think she called him an asshole, but, um, fired the difficult client that was a six figure deal and ended up refunding the entire amount because she just was like, I cannot deal with this, and the business did better because all that energy going towards a difficult client. You know, it can be used for, you know, getting new ones that align with the values of the company. So yeah, that's really good advice too, in terms of just not having, not, not going down that route and knowing that there's other pathways. So thanks for, thanks for sharing that. So tell us a little bit about the car accident and how that can reshaped your life. I'm really interested.

Jaime Raygoza: 4:06

Yeah, so that was a big pivoting point in my life. I just to give you a little bit of background, when I was 23, I had, I was working full time. I believe it was from like five in the morning till two in the afternoon, Monday through Thursday. From there I would go into my internship, which I would work from three to eight, three to six I believe, and then from six to eight I would be driving to school to do my master's program. From eight to 11 an single day.

Tom Jackobs: 4:37

Oh wow. For how long?

Jaime Raygoza: 4:39

Yeah, the days I had off, I would, I would try to like stay up as much as possible so I can work all my homework and all of the assignments I had to do. So I was just like running back and forth and that was the only thing I knew how to do that I was taught at a young age that if you had time to rest, then you were being lazy. Then you weren't working hard enough. Right. That was what my dad ingrained into me.

Tom Jackobs: 5:00

Yes.

Jaime Raygoza: 5:01

So I always like tell myself, I don't have time to rest i'll, and it was like a common phrase of like, and it's, you probably have heard of this I'll rest when I die, type of thing,

Tom Jackobs: 5:09

Right. Yeah, that's.

Jaime Raygoza: 5:10

you know? So it was, it was hard. So what ended up happening was. I ended up getting tired. I was not getting enough sleep. I believe the day that the accident happened. It was, I had maybe two or three hours of sleep most that day. And then like throughout the whole day, each day that week my body was giving up, I saw little signs where my eye started twitching. I started having mu muscle spasms all over my body. I just kept dozing off. And I was driving home from class, it was 11 o'clock I just felt like this blanket of heaviness all over me. I just could not for, for the life of me, like really fully be aware as I was driving. So I stopped by a coffee shop. I think it, it was a local Starbucks and I got. I think it was an espresso with like six shots. It was like crazy. I was just like, I need, I need to do this. Like I told her, gimme the most you can, that you can, you can pump up that coffee'cause I need to like, make it home. And I chugged it and I kept driving, but my body was just so tired. Like I kept, I kept dozing in and out, in and out and I was probably 15, minutes away from my home when I just, my body just kind of like dozed, like knocked out. The next thing I remember, I felt the crash. I had a lamppost right in front of a nightclub. And that lamp, as I hit the lamp, lamppost it like trajected me, like, flew me into the air, started spinning, hit a couple cars, hit a couple, like I was bouncing around like, like a ping pong ball all over the place. My car was demolished throughout this whole time. I just coming, going in and out of consciousness. Pieces of my car were everywhere. And the next thing I remember is just like flashes of like red and blue. Somebody like screaming at me as I was upside down in my car, like, we're gonna get you out. And I just like knocked out. I woke up, I was in the hospital, all white, and I just started panicking. A nurse overheard me, she ran in, she's like, John, John Doe finally woke up. And I was like, what the heck? And, doctor came in, doctors came in, police officers came in. The nurses came in. They all had questions for me because I had been unconscious for three days and they did not know what happened. So, crazy.

Tom Jackobs: 7:33

Wow, that is crazy. Wow. And so how did that change your trajectory of your life?

Jaime Raygoza: 7:40

Yeah, it was really the doctor that told me and showed me, like the police officers that came in, showed me the pictures of the accident, trying to get all as much information as much as possible. And the doctor told me, based on the photos and based on the, how the incident happened, there's really no reason why. Like you're, one, alive, and two, you came out unscathed, you had a few scratches and, but no major bruising, not no major accident. So he is like, I think you have a bigger purpose than what you have, so take this as a second chance to do something with it.

Tom Jackobs: 8:10

Wow.

Jaime Raygoza: 8:10

So, it just really clicked in me like, you know, this is something that, this is not the lifestyle I wanna live. This is not what I wanna do. So from that point on, I started researching and just went in a whole different trajectory.

Tom Jackobs: 8:24

Wow. What were you going to school for and what was the trajectory then versus what it's now?

Jaime Raygoza: 8:30

So I was doing public administration and I really wanted to work for government, so I wanted to do the government branch and try to work my way up that ladder.

Tom Jackobs: 8:41

Yeah. Wow. And then you shifted over into psychology.

Jaime Raygoza: 8:47

Yeah, so I started researching psychology. Primarily, like what motivated people, what burned out people, what stress was, and really seeing like what makes people do what I did, like, you know, why do they go to those extremities to sacrifice themselves at work and study like burnout and seeing how, can I stop people from repeating my mistakes?

Tom Jackobs: 9:13

Yeah, I'd heard too that sleep deprivation and driving is almost, if not worse than, than drunk driving, like having a couple cocktails and then going behind the wheel. So it can have the same, same effect in terms of devastation. So you are so lucky to be alive. Yeah, I think that doctor's right, you have a bigger purpose. So tell us a little bit about kinda that purpose and what took you to having your own business in the consulting firm.

Jaime Raygoza: 9:41

So it was primarily really. If I really were to like, be really, really honest, it was a phone call that I made after the hospital where it was, I called my boss at my internship and I was like trying to explain to them like, Hey, this is what happened. I know I've been MIA for a little bit, and my boss told me, well, we really let you go. You were three days no show. Like we can't function without that. We call that job abandonment. So we already put your posting up. And I told'em like, well, this is a situation. And HR literally told me, well, that sounds like a personal problem. We already put your job up. Like you're, you're even let go. It is what it is. You can reapply

Tom Jackobs: 10:22

Wow.

Jaime Raygoza: 10:23

if you want, but there's no likelihood you're gonna get the job.

Tom Jackobs: 10:26

Wow.

Jaime Raygoza: 10:26

And I was like, I was putting all these hours in, I was doing all this work. So that right there was where I was. You know what? You can't sacrifice your whole and your identity to become an employee, you have to be able to find more meaning in life, have more of a work-life balance, and that's kind of what I teach a lot of my clients. And that's kind of what really is a foundation of able career coaching, showing that you have to be yourself. And in order for you to be yourself, you need to know who you are. And a lot of us tie our identity to our work. So we live, breathe, and do everything work. So when, like you, we probably all have those client, those uh, colleagues that we go out to dinner with or drinks with. And the topic of work never leaves our mouth. That's all they talk about because that's all they are.

Tom Jackobs: 11:17

Yeah.

Jaime Raygoza: 11:17

So in order for us to really, I know ourselves, we need to really separate our identity from work and find out who are we, how do we relax, how do we have joy in life? And kind of rediscover that aspect of ourselves.

Tom Jackobs: 11:31

Yeah, but now what if work is like your purpose and that is what lights you up and drives you and all that, is that still okay to talk about work because that is kind of your, your life, your hobby and, and your interest, your passion.

Jaime Raygoza: 11:45

Definitely you can, you can have work, be your passion, but it cannot be your everything because it's too much eggs in one basket, like asking yourself as well. What other things light you up? What other things bring you joy? Because if, if, if you eat too much, if you do too much of a good thing, it turns bad, right? So if you have too much cake. You end up gaining weight, diabetes, other things, if you end up having too much candy or too much, like even if you exercise too much it can hurt you. You can start, end getting injured. So you have to be able to take it in increments and then diversify what you consider joy and still have the good thing there and have, even if it inspires you to keep doing it, you shouldn't be working 16, 18, 20 hours a day.'Cause look at what happened to me.

Tom Jackobs: 12:27

Yeah.

Jaime Raygoza: 12:28

So really picking and finding like how can I ingrain self-care ingrain other aspects of my life to really balance myself out.

Tom Jackobs: 12:38

Yeah, is that similar to like the, the seven points, life life points, or life areas or five? I always forget what the. Like you have your, your spiritual self, your work self, your, you know, family, all that, and making sure that that whole, that it's a circle and not flat on one side, like a, a flat tire because you can't go very fast or with a flat tire. Yeah. You have to have,

Jaime Raygoza: 13:02

Exactly. And I believe it's the eight sections of wellness. So like social,

Tom Jackobs: 13:04

Okay.

Jaime Raygoza: 13:05

emotional, intellectual, environmental,

Tom Jackobs: 13:08

Yep.

Jaime Raygoza: 13:08

physical, all of those should be balanced out and really focusing where is a passion in each one and seeing are you feeding that part of your soul of your life?

Tom Jackobs: 13:19

Okay. Very cool. So how did you start your, your Rainbow Consulting and Rainbow Coaching Company?

Jaime Raygoza: 13:26

So, I was in mental health and I noticed that a lot of the staff that I was working with, were asking me questions outside of my scope. So I was a very inquisitive person and I was like, I really wanted to help people. So I started researching more and I started doing more and I would meet with my staff outside of work hours just to kind of be able to practice this coaching thing that I just got certified in, and mentoring and all that jazz. And it wasn't until one staff member told me. I think I'm gonna pay you for this,'cause this is something that like you're doing way above and beyond that I know you're not even getting paid for this, so let me pay you for the services you're providing. And I was, at first I was like, wow, what? I'm just doing this outta the kindness of my heart.

Tom Jackobs: 14:12

Right.

Jaime Raygoza: 14:12

I want you to be able to do good. And she's like, no, like you have something here. You should really consider maybe opening up your business and repeating this with other people

Tom Jackobs: 14:22

Wow.

Jaime Raygoza: 14:22

'Cause you really have helped me than any other supervisor, and I think you're going beyond, above that. So that kind of like hit the light bulb moment. And I started doing research and saying, this even a career? Is this something I can actually do? And to my surprise, yes. A lot of people do it and it's pretty, it's pretty lucrative. And I was like, okay. So I started pitching myself out there on TikTok and Instagram and LinkedIn and just stopped spreading the word. And a lot of my clients came from word of mouth and Rainbow Career Coaching was born.

Tom Jackobs: 14:59

Wow. And how long have you had that now?

Jaime Raygoza: 15:02

So officially, you know, on the government books three years, but I've been, been doing this for roughly five.

Tom Jackobs: 15:09

Oh wow. Okay. Very cool. And so, you know, making that transition, working for somebody else to owning your own business, everybody has kind of their different journey going through that. What was your journey like making that switch?

Jaime Raygoza: 15:24

It was difficult. It was not easy. And being a child of first generation immigrants, it was difficult to kind of steer off the path. Like I definitely scared my parents and my family when I said, I'm gonna quit my job and just go this thing. And by no means did I go full-time like right away. I, I started off part-time. I started off seeing like taste, testing the water, seeing like what my clientele was learning more about business and just taking clients here and there. And one of the best advice I've ever gotten was to do a split percentage. So put 20% here, 80% in your current job. Once your revenue increases, then do 40% here, 60% over there, and then just try, keep doing that, that split. Until your revenue from your, your side business is becoming your, your main income.

Tom Jackobs: 16:19

Yeah.

Jaime Raygoza: 16:20

Once you see that you're growing and it's sustainable, then consider potentially moving full time. And if you have like the investment, if you have the collateral to be able to do that then go for it. Or sometimes you can even get like loans to help you out. Then whatever, you can then do, take the leap of faith.

Tom Jackobs: 16:42

Nice. And what was the duration between, you know, you knowing you wanted to start your own business and then being full-time in your own business?

Jaime Raygoza: 16:50

So that took roughly like about two years.

Tom Jackobs: 16:54

Okay.

Jaime Raygoza: 16:54

So it wasn't like, it just, it didn't happen overnight.

Tom Jackobs: 16:56

No, and nor should it, I think in my own personal opinion, unless you have millions of dollars in backing, then

Jaime Raygoza: 17:03

Exactly.

Tom Jackobs: 17:04

That's, that's another whole, whole nother story. But most heart-led business owners, it's all bootstrapped and it's your own investment. That's incredible. It took me about a year to make that transition from corporate to owning a business as well. But you know, the, and I. I think it's really poor advice that a lot of influence, especially Instagram influencers, talk about just burning the boats, going all in. You know, forget about the day job. Just do your passion. I think it's completely irresponsible because you don't always know, like if one, if you're gonna like it, two, if you're any good at it, and three, if there's even a market for what you have to offer. But in that, so in that three years. What were some of the business pieces that you learned that you wish you would've learned sooner?

Jaime Raygoza: 17:51

I would've learned, one, you have a skill to be able to do whatever you put your mind to. I think imposter syndrome is something that comes really, really heavy, really early on, I was judging every single step of the way.'cause I would tell myself, I don't think I can do this. From getting my first paying client to getting my first thousand from getting my first 10 K month, like each time, it was kind of like a surprise. Like, oh wow, that's kind of a, I didn't know that I had that in me. And each time I'm like. Eventually it starts sinking in, like, oh, this is actually real. I actually do have the capacity of doing this. But just trusting yourself. You've got yourself to this point in life thus far, you can get yourself to the next one as long as you go in with a inquisitive mindset. You, you ask questions and you realize that it really doesn't take walk in science in order for you to do this, you can pick up a book and learn this.

Tom Jackobs: 18:45

I think that's, that's a, that's really good advice too, being inquisitive because I think a lot of people going into business feel like it's an island just of their own and nobody, and you can't really ask for help or if it feels weak to ask for help and it's until you are questioning, could this be better? Is this the right way? Then you don't know. You don't know what you don't know. And it's always good to surround yourself with people that know a little bit more and, and when you ask and are inquisitive, that's, that's great. Really good advice.

Jaime Raygoza: 19:17

Yep. And it takes a community, kind of like you mentioned, it's like surround yourself with people that are in the same path as you, that have the same aspirations as you. And there is a saying, try to surround yourself not with people at your same level, but a little bit higher, so that they challenge you, so that they teach you. And you'll be surprised at how many people actually want to help you thrive

Tom Jackobs: 19:38

Yep.

Jaime Raygoza: 19:38

and help your business grow. like I was, it always surprised me at like when I would ask questions, people will deliver.

Tom Jackobs: 19:45

Mm-hmm.

Jaime Raygoza: 19:46

It's like how did you market? How did you do this? Like there's no secret sauce that people are like, we're not gonna help you. They're very open to help you.

Tom Jackobs: 19:53

Yeah. Yeah, no, that's, that's great. And you know, I, I heard one billionaire say once, he's like, you know, I'm not the smartest person around, but I will outwork anybody. That's, it's really, you don't really, you don't need all the smarts. You can, you know, get that from AI now, but, but it's doing the work necessary to get to that result. And yeah, I think that's, that was really good lesson that I learned, uh, from that guy. But, and what you said about surrounding yourself with, you know, people that are smarter than you as well, I heard another quote that was, if you, if you're the smartest one in the room, you're in the wrong room.

Jaime Raygoza: 20:29

Exactly.

Tom Jackobs: 20:31

You should be at the front of the room and then go to another room where you, you're learning from somebody else. So it's always this continuous improvement to continuous learning as well.

Jaime Raygoza: 20:41

Mm-hmm.

Tom Jackobs: 20:41

So what, what's kinda over the years, so you've had your business officially three years. What, what kind of surprises have come up from being a heart-led business versus just being focused on, on the profit?

Jaime Raygoza: 20:54

It's the type of work that you do and why you do it? I've seen other coaches and other people in this industry try to help everyone and not really niche down. And when you're starting off, it's okay.'cause you're trying to figure out what, what sticks, kind of like what is like your niche. But after you've gotten the groove and you know who you're supposed to be helping, you should not be helping everyone because then you're not really sticking with your values. So for example, I've had people that come to me that really do need therapy. Like they, there's not, there's no amount of coaching that's gonna be able to focus on trauma. Like that is going to heal trauma and heal the past. That is something that therapy does. And that even psychotherapy or even psychiatry. So knowing the boundaries of your scope of work and what you have to be able to do and not make promises you can't keep. So I've had clients that come to me and they're like I just got a divorce. I just have like, so much like, you know, I was hit as a child. A bunch of other things that they start sharing with me and I'm like, okay. So in coaching you have to be able to be goal-oriented. What is the goal here? If the goal is to heal that of the past, go to therapy. If the goal is to be able to move forward from those, act from, from that past and try to make actionable steps to be able to work on a better future, then I can, we can work together here and seeing are they just a good fit or can I refer this client to somebody else that may be more specialized in their what, where they need help.

Tom Jackobs: 22:30

Yeah, yeah. You know, ni niching down is, is just so important for a number of reasons. One, you can target exactly the right messaging for that market'cause you can speak the language that everybody in, in that niche understands and can relate to. But also you, you appear as the expert. You're a specialist in this niche, and that's, that for me, just alone will catapult somebody's relevance way above somebody that's just a generalist. I, I can help anybody, which ends up helping nobody. Right?

Jaime Raygoza: 23:08

Exactly.

Tom Jackobs: 23:08

Because you're not able to really, really dive into, you know, certain markets and, and. People that are in groups, you're able to really understand everything that's going on so that you're able to help them at a much deeper level and, and speak their language too. I think that's, that's really smart. Yeah.

Jaime Raygoza: 23:27

Exactly and stick with what you know.

Tom Jackobs: 23:29

Yeah.

Jaime Raygoza: 23:30

For the longest time I was very resistant.'cause I, like I said, I'm in, I worked in mental health after that accident, so I was in mental health, advocacy, social work, and I told myself, I don't wanna work with those people. Like, I wanna work with like other people. This imaginary population that I had in my head that I, know, I was like, there's this other people that I work with. I gravitated towards working with mental health workers, and that's who I help right now. They're the ones who are the B burned out the most, and they need that, that assistance. And I know their lingo, I know their language. I know exactly what they go through. So I was like, I stopped resisting and I was like, that's what I need to do. So stick with what you know, and you'll be surprised that probably where you, where you're meant to be.

Tom Jackobs: 24:09

Yeah, that's great. Yeah, you, uh, definitely rise to, to where you're needed when, when you have that attitude anyway. And especially when you come from the heart as well.'cause people can definitely feel that versus just a transaction, uh, going on. So how can people learn more about your coaching and, and potentially get ahold of you?

Jaime Raygoza: 24:29

Go to my website at rainbowcareercoaching.com. I'm also, if you just Google Rainbow Career Coaching, you'll find me at any social media out there. So just shoot me a dm, shoot me a message and we can talk and see if you're a good fit for us and see if we can help you.

Tom Jackobs: 24:43

That's awesome. Cool. We'll make, make sure to link all of that up into the show notes as well, so it'll make it easy for everybody. And Jaime, thank you so much for coming onto the show today and sharing your story, sharing your journey through, you know burnout, complete burnout where you, I can't believe that you're, they fired you and wouldn't take you back just because you're in a co, in a coma. How am I supposed to call in?

Jaime Raygoza: 25:11

Yeah. Yeah, I know. Still surprising me to this day. But thank you so much. It was a pleasure being on here, and thank you so much for, for letting me tell my story.

Tom Jackobs: 25:20

Awesome. Yeah. You're very welcome and thank you listeners for watching the show today and listening to the show. We really do appreciate it and make sure you're checking everything that Jaime is doing, and we'll provide all that down in the show notes so it makes it super easy to just click and connect. And if you could do me a favor while you're down there, look around for that review button, and if you could give the show a rating and review that helps spread the word for more heart-led businesses to get some advice from people that have been there and done it before. So until next time, lead with your heart.

Speaker 2: 25:55

You've been listening to The Heart-Led Business Show, hosted by Tom Jackobs. Join us next time for another inspiring journey into the heart of business.