Podcast
The Cliff Ravenscraft Show
Hosted by Cliff Ravenscraft · EN
I’m Cliff, and for over two decades I’ve helped entrepreneurs, creators, and leaders launch movements, build businesses, and design lives they’re proud of.
The Cliff Ravenscraft Show is where I share how I think about building a business and a life that are fully aligned. It’s a behind-the-scenes look at the decisions, shifts in perspective, and internal work that shape how I create, serve, and grow.
In each episode, I explore what it takes to do meaningful work, navigate uncertainty, and build something that reflects who you truly are. You’ll hear real-time reflections on challenges I’m facing, insights from conversations with clients and peers, and the principles that guide how I move forward.
If you’re drawn to deeper thinking, personal responsibility, and building a business that aligns with how you want to live and work, you’ll feel at home here.
36episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
826 - The Right Room Is Oxygen for the Entrepreneur
2d ago00:47:35Tap to summarizeThis past week, I attended Social Media Week Lima for the second year in a row. In this episode, I share a personal reflection on why I went, what I expected to experience, and what surprised me most. This is a reflection on how I think about live events, relationships, hallway conversations, front-row presence, peer connection, and the kinds of rooms that create meaningful transformation. For many years, my default conference strategy has been to spend less time in sessions and more time in the hallways, speaker rooms, dinners, and unscheduled conversations where deeper relationships are often formed. But this year, something shifted. I found myself sitting in the front row, fully present for speakers I respect, and I was reminded how meaningful that kind of presence can be. I know what it has meant to me over the years when peers like Dan Miller, Michael Hyatt, Pat Flynn, John Lee Dumas, Michael Stelzner, and others have sat in the room while I was speaking. This year, I had the opportunity to offer that same kind of presence to others. At the same time, some of the most meaningful moments of the event still happened in the unscripted conversations, in the VIP room, around the dinner table, and in the kind of peer dialogue that cannot be replicated. This episode is about the tension between those two forms of value. When is the right move to sit in the front row and fully witness someone’s craft? When is the right move to step into the hallway and have the deeper conversation? And what does all of this reveal about the importance of being in the right room with people who understand the journey you are on? I also share how this experience reminded me why I have been facilitating paid mastermind groups for entrepreneurs since October of 2010. The right rooms are oxygen for the business owner. If you do not currently have a room like that, I invite you to take a look at Next Level Mastermind: Momentum. Learn more here: https://cliffravenscraft.com/momentum I also mentioned my interview with Jessica Souter, founder of Social Media Week Lima, on my What Are You Creating podcast. That conversation is episode 26 at: https://www.cliffravenscraft.com/podcasts/what-are-you-creating/episodes/2149147212
Transcribe →825 - I Create Rooms Where People Rise
1w ago01:24:26Tap to summarizeThis is one of the most raw, authentic, and transparent episodes I’ve recorded in quite some time. I originally had an outline for this episode, but after starting the recording several times, I decided to let go of the structure and simply speak from my heart. In this episode, I share some of the clarity that has been emerging through my daily logging and reflection practice. This process has been helping me see the systems, patterns, thoughts, behaviors, and inner narratives that are creating both the results I desire and the results I do not desire. I also talk openly about my client creation process and the powerful role that the Prosperous Coach method has played in my business over the years. At the same time, I share a vulnerable realization: without proper filters and discernment, my generosity can begin to function more like a nonprofit ministry than a sustainable business. From there, I move into reflections on family, empty nest, aging parents, and my own identity as a father. I share what came up for me this weekend as I dropped Matthew off at the airport for his month-long study abroad experience in Japan, and how his words, “I love you, Dad. I’ll see you in a month,” opened up an emotional response in me that I did not expect. I also share two new soul songs I created this weekend: “The Life I Saw Inside” “I Create Rooms Where People Rise” These songs helped me reconnect with the deeper truth of the work I do in the world. I create rooms where people rise. Rooms where people can speak honestly. Rooms where they can name what they really want. Rooms where they can receive honest reflection and support. Rooms where they can find the next right move and follow through on what they choose. This episode is about clarity, fatherhood, business, family, emotion, calling, and the rooms we need in order to become who we are here to become. If you are ready for a room where you can rise, email me at Cliff@CliffRavenscraft.com and put “I’m ready for a room where I can rise” in the subject line.
Transcribe →824 - The Pruning Principle: Cutting Back What Has Overgrown
2w ago00:35:58Tap to summarizeIn this episode, I share a lesson that came to me while spending a full day working on the landscaping in front of our home. What began as a simple Saturday project of trimming bushes quickly became a powerful metaphor for life and business. Some of the shrubs in our landscaping had grown far beyond their intended place. They were healthy in one sense, but they had become invasive, disproportionate, and unmanaged. A light trim was not enough. Some of them had to be cut all the way back to the core. As I worked through that process, I realized that the same thing has been happening in areas of my life and business. Through my daily audio journaling practice, I have been paying closer attention to where my time, energy, focus, and commitments are actually going. That practice has revealed places where good things have grown beyond their proper boundaries. Some activities are valuable, but they have started to encroach on the space intended for something else. In this episode, I talk about how this has shown up in my business calendar, my invitation engine, my CRM, podcast production, commitments, spending, tools, and even identity. I also share how I am learning to distinguish between what needs a light trim, what needs radical pruning, and what may need to be removed altogether. The central idea is this: Unmanaged growth is not the same as healthy growth. Sometimes the next level does not begin by adding something new. Sometimes it begins by cutting back what has overgrown. In This Episode, I Talk About Why I decided to work on my own landscaping for the first time in twelve years. How overgrown holly and Japanese barberry bushes became a metaphor for life and business. The difference between healthy growth and unmanaged growth. Why some things need more than a light trim. How daily audio journaling has helped me identify blind spots and patterns. What I have noticed about my calendar, commitments, and business model. How CRM optimization began encroaching on my invitation engine. Why not every good idea belongs in the moment when it appears. The importance of pruning distractions even when they are valuable. Why pruning often looks ugly before it looks healthy. How I am evaluating my weekly commitments to The Cliff Ravenscraft Show and Podcast Answer Man. The question we all need to ask: “What has grown beyond its intended place?” Key Takeaway Not everything that grows is healthy simply because it is growing. Some things in life and business start out useful, beautiful, or productive, but if they are left unmanaged, they can eventually take over more space than they were ever meant to occupy. The work of pruning is the work of intentional leadership. Reflection Questions What has grown beyond its intended place in your life or business? What are you maintaining simply because it has always been there? What needs a light trim? What needs to be cut back to the core? What may need to be pulled out completely? Where have you confused activity with alignment? Where might things need to look bare for a season so they can become healthier later? Reach Out If this episode resonates with you and you would like help getting clarity on where to prune, where to simplify, and where to focus next, feel free to reach out. Email: cliff@cliffravenscraft.com Until next time, I encourage you to take everything you do in your life to the next level.
Transcribe →823 - The Tools We Forget to Use
3w ago00:24:02Tap to summarizeSometimes the next breakthrough does not require a new app, a new system, or a new strategy. Sometimes it comes from remembering a tool, rhythm, or practice that already worked for us in the past. In this episode, I share how rediscovering my Bose QuietComfort noise-canceling headphones and Focus@Will helped me return to a level of focus I had not experienced in quite some time. I had used this combination years ago with incredible results, then somehow drifted out of the habit. This week, I brought it back, and the difference was immediate. This episode is not really about headphones or Focus@Will. It is about noticing the tools, techniques, systems, frameworks, and environments that have already helped us accomplish meaningful work, then asking why we stopped using them. I also share how this rediscovery helped me stay focused during my Invitation Engine work, instead of drifting into CRM optimization and system tweaking during time that was meant for connecting with people, noticing signal, making invitations, and creating meaningful conversations. The question I invite you to sit with is this: What tool, technique, rhythm, or framework once worked reliably for you, but somehow fell out of your routine? If this episode helps you remember something worth bringing back, I’d love to hear from you. Email me at cliff@cliffravenscraft.com and let me know what you are returning to. The Next Level Mastermind If you are interested in a conversation about joining one of my Next Level Mastermind groups, send an email to cliff@cliffravenscraft.com with mastermind in the subject line.
Transcribe →822 - The Most Powerful Journaling Practice I’ve Ever Experienced
May 2500:50:49Tap to summarizeIn this episode, I share the newest evolution of my journaling practice and how it has become one of the most powerful tools I have experienced for pattern recognition, blind spot awareness, and personal transformation. I have been an avid journaler for many years. Journaling has always been a place where I process life, faith, emotion, business, relationships, decisions, desires, fears, and whatever else is moving through me. But recently, something has shifted. Using my Plaud Note Pro, I have been recording audio reflections throughout the day while thoughts, emotions, insights, tensions, distractions, and decisions are still fresh. Those reflections are transcribed, and then I bring them into ChatGPT, which has been trained with a great deal of context about who I am, what I value, what I am building, what I am committed to, and where I tend to drift. This has created a new level of conscious awareness throughout my day. I am seeing repeated thoughts, emotional states, moments of avoidance, distractions, aligned actions, misaligned actions, moments of peace, and the voice of my inner narrator with far greater clarity. The most meaningful part is that I am not waiting weeks, months, or years to recognize the patterns that are shaping my life. I am seeing many of them while I am still living them. In this episode, I talk about: Why this current practice feels like a new evolution of journaling for me. How recording reflections throughout the day helps me capture what I might otherwise forget. Why my life was already telling me the truth through my calendar, energy, emotions, body, attention, and repeated patterns. How ChatGPT has become a reflective mirror that helps me notice patterns and blind spots. Why this does not replace coaching, but actually reminds me why coaching and mastermind environments are so powerful. How becoming conscious of my thoughts, emotions, attention, and actions is helping me make cleaner decisions personally and professionally. Why seeing a pattern creates the possibility of making a new choice. The exact tool is not the point. The deeper invitation is to become more conscious of your life while you are living it. Notice your thoughts. Notice your emotions. Notice where your attention goes. Notice what creates peace. Notice what creates drift. Notice what you keep avoiding. Notice what your life keeps trying to show you. Once a pattern becomes visible, a new choice becomes possible. If you are in a season where you would value this kind of reflective space through coaching or a high-trust mastermind environment, I would be glad to hear from you. You can reach me at cliff@cliffravenscraft.com.
Transcribe →821 - The Business Was Created To Support The Life
May 1801:02:11Tap to summarizeIn this episode, I recorded while out for a walk just before leaving for Texas with Stephanie and McKenna to help McKenna find an apartment for law school. After several full weeks of travel, speaking, coaching, family milestones, and meaningful connections, I found myself reflecting on what it really means for my business to support the life I want to live. I have spent a lot of time building relationship engines, follow-up systems, and rhythms for creating clients through genuine connection. And yet, there are moments when the most responsible thing I can do is recognize that the meaningful work has been done for the day, close the laptop, and be fully present with the people I love. The business was never meant to consume the life. It was created to support the life. If this episode resonates with you, send me an email. I’d love to hear from you at cliff@cliffravenscraft.com.
Transcribe →820 - What’s The Next Aligned Move?
May 1000:38:05Tap to summarizeThe past few weeks have been full. Full of meaningful conversations, travel, family celebrations, coaching sessions, podcast commitments, and opportunities I deeply value. After preparing for and speaking at Social Media Marketing World 2026, logging 116 meaningful connections, spending full days with friends and colleagues, traveling home, serving clients, celebrating McKenna’s graduation, attending a concert with my dad, and waking up to Mother’s Day with more family commitments ahead, I realized something important: Even when life is full of good things, my nervous system still carries the weight of it all. In this episode, I reflect on what happens when meaningful opportunities, family moments, business responsibilities, and disrupted routines all arrive at once. The question that helped me move through the day was simple: What’s the next aligned move? Not the next ten moves. Not the whole plan. Just the next aligned move. For me, that meant calling my mom. Then being present with family. Then recording this episode. Sometimes life gives us a buffet of things we deeply value. Even then, we may not want all of it at once. This episode is about honoring the fullness, noticing what my body and nervous system are carrying, and choosing the next aligned step.
Transcribe →819 - Why More Listeners Won’t Fix Your Business
Apr 2700:47:05Tap to summarizeThis episode came from a pattern I’ve seen over and over again. So many people come to me asking for audience growth strategies. They’ve been podcasting for a while, they feel like they’ve hit a plateau, and they believe the answer is getting in front of more people. In this episode, I challenge that assumption. I share my own experience of going from a tiny audience to tens of thousands of listeners almost overnight, and what that actually felt like behind the scenes. I talk about the pressure, the criticism, and the lack of clarity that came with rapid growth before I was ready for it. Then I walk through what I believe matters far more than audience size. I talk about alignment, responsiveness, influence, and relational depth. I share how I’m intentionally building relationships with people attending my upcoming workshop, and how that same approach applies to podcasting, even if you only have a small number of listeners. If you’ve been focused on growing your audience, this episode may invite you to think differently about what kind of audience you actually want to create. Links Mentioned: Next Level Mastermind: https://nextlevelmastermind.info If this episode resonated with you, I’d love to hear from you. Email me: cliff@cliffravenscraft.com
Transcribe →818 - Why Most People Never Feel Conviction in Their Work
Apr 2000:33:36Tap to summarizeIn this episode, I reflect on a recent coaching conversation where someone told me they wanted conviction in what they are building and about the direction they were going. As soon as I heard that, I asked two simple questions: What are you building? And where are you going? What became clear is something I’ve seen over and over again. Many people want to feel certain about their path without ever choosing one. I explore why we resist setting a destination in the first place. It often comes down to a desire to maintain freedom, avoid responsibility, or protect ourselves from getting it wrong. But what I’ve discovered through my own life and business is that conviction doesn’t come before the decision. It comes after. I share stories from my journey, including the different “destinations” I’ve chosen over the years, how I’ve changed direction, and even how I’ve “missed” some of them. And yet, every single one of those choices shaped who I am today. If you’ve ever felt uncertain about your direction, or questioned whether you’re moving in the “right” way, this episode will challenge how you think about clarity, commitment, and freedom. You don’t need to have it all figured out. But you do need to choose something. If something in this episode resonates with you and you’d like support in gaining clarity around what you’re creating in this season of your life, you’re always welcome to reach out. You can email me at Cliff@CliffRavenscraft.com Also, check the Next Level Mastermind: https://nextlevelmastermind.info
Transcribe →817 - What Podcasting Actually Did to Our Life and Family
Apr 1301:46:57Tap to summarizeOver the years, I’ve told my origin story in podcasting many times. I’ve shared how I got started, how things grew, and how this work eventually became my full-time career. But what you’ve almost never heard is this story told alongside Stephanie. Recently, Stephanie and I were invited to be guests on the Our Family Invests podcast with Mike Neubauer. And after the conversation, we both agreed. This was our favorite interview we’ve ever done together. In this conversation, you’ll hear how podcasting impacted our marriage, our family, and our life as a whole. Stephanie shares her perspective on what it was like in the early days, what she saw that I didn’t, and how we navigated seasons of uncertainty, growth, and transformation together. We talk about: How podcasting started as a hobby and became something much bigger The role Stephanie played in the decision for me to leave my day job The early years of building something from nothing The unseen costs, including seasons of imbalance and overwork The turning points that led to more intentional boundaries, margin, and alignment How this journey shaped our kids and the way they see what’s possible There are moments in this conversation that I could never fully express on my own. Hearing Stephanie share her experience adds a level of depth and clarity that I think you’ll really appreciate. If you’ve ever wondered what podcasting can truly become over the long term, as a life-shaping creative practice, I believe you’ll find this episode meaningful. Special thanks to Mike Neubauer from the Our Family Invests podcast. You can find links to the podcast at https://ourfamilyinvests.com If something in this conversation resonated with you, I’d love to hear from you. Email me today at Cliff@CliffRavenscraft.com
Transcribe →