Daily Inspiration: Meet Jodi Jill

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jodi Jill.

Hi Jodi, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
What I love is puzzles! I am the Founder of Puzzle Day (January 29th) and Puzzle Month (January), a professional puzzle designer, an avid puzzle player, newspaper columnist (it’s a weekly puzzle of course) and creator of over 7,000 puzzles in my career.

I got my start by creating a day about puzzles celebrated by millions of people! It’s called Puzzle Day every year on January 29 (International Puzzle Day in other parts of the world.) When that was started, I thought one day coming together to meet people who love puzzles would be enough, but it wasn’t. A few years later I created Puzzle Month (which is all of January). It’s an opportunity to engage, explore and have fun celebrating puzzles.

People buy their puzzles primarily in January because of the fun reminders of Puzzle Day and Puzzle Month. In the USA the yearly sales for new puzzles (all types) is over 2 BILLION dollars and over half of that sales is now in January.

Puzzle Day is an organic collection of millions of people who love to celebrate puzzles on one day. As it’s grown, institutions, schools, companies and others have gotten involved with their community to host fun puzzle opportunities. The best part? You can solve with friends, you can get together with others and you can even get involved on social media. People indulge on their favorite puzzles and it’s delightful to see!

For me, as the founder of Puzzle Day, every year I work towards offering Puzzle Day ideas and Puzzle Day activities that are free for the public, puzzle lovers and educators for their using. I have taken my puzzle passion and made it a puzzle journey.

What I can’t believe is how blessed I am. Millions of people support Puzzle Day and share in the fun of solving. The impact of this opportunity is more than I ever dreamed of seeing. And it’s so very humbling to find puzzle people who love puzzles as much as I do. And not only do I celebrate puzzles on Puzzle Day every year on January 29th as it’s my career to celebrate puzzles every day too!

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Puzzle Day is always about the fun of puzzles and our fans, no matter their age have been with us celebrating side by side. When you grow, you have growing pains. And having millions of people celebrating puzzles is an honor and privilege, I take very seriously and always do my best. Which is why my puzzle art is important to me. It helps kids think about jigsaw puzzles (and puzzles overall) in different ways and hopefully sparks an interest. Which is why it’s awkward to talk about struggles and situations. We all want good things for our projects, but realistically the bad events and struggles make us stronger.

One of the most horrific things and made me struggle months afterwards was two years ago at the Los Angeles Book Festival. One of my art exhibits of full-sized jigsaw puzzle robots celebrating Puzzle Day was destroyed by an exhibitor. Eyeballs and jigsaw puzzle pieces were flying everywhere. Thankfully nobody was hurt, but the Puzzle Robots completely were ruined. It took a year to get the funding for a new set of Puzzle Robots. Honestly, it was the first time I saw jealousy about Puzzle Day in a physical form and I was shocked.

Another struggle I have had is to watch in silence while someone else takes credit for my work. I believe every creator should rightfully acknowledged. Which is why, when I watched a live St Louis segment a few years back about Puzzle Day, I broke down in tears. A puzzle outlet associate whom I’ve never met, stood in front of the camera showing my jigsaw puzzle for Puzzle Day and blurted out that he created it. When someone takes credit for your work it’s a blow. Especially when you are aware that they only do it because they perceive they are untouchable. There are people who use people for their pocketbooks. Every few months I take out this video and watch it to remind myself that I’m not like that. I report to the people who love and play puzzles.

My purpose of founder during Puzzle Day and Puzzle Month comes with an amazing journey. I met so many wonderful people, but then there are the struggles faced when you realize that a puzzle company or book company views my position as one to use for their sales. Our 30th anniversary of Puzzle Day is coming up (Puzzle Month will be 21 Years) so the wonderful people love my work and puzzles too.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
As Puzzle Day founder, I find ways to promote, share and discuss puzzles. I know almost too much about puzzles from how they are made to what makes them entertaining and more. There are over 900 puzzles and you might even find yourself attracted to a new puzzle in the newspaper as more keep popping up. Additionally, there are different levels so you can find your sweet spot and enjoy.

Right now I’ve been on a journey of repurposing Jigsaw puzzles. Yes, you can recycle puzzles, Upcycle puzzles and even repurpose puzzles. One thing I’ve noticed is after a jigsaw puzzle has been loved, it heads to the landfill. We hope it goes to the recycling center, but with the small pieces and the facility, it just might not be possible to recycle as desired. So how do we repurpose jigsaw puzzles one more time?

With jigsaw puzzle crafts! I’ve created an entire book of ideas using random jigsaw puzzle pieces and then sheet pieces of jigsaw puzzles. Which is fun for kids, adults, puzzle lovers, educators, classrooms, libraries and more. The best part? Some of the simplest ideas even a 6 year old can create in less than 15 minutes.

Not only is repurposing used jigsaw puzzles fun art (and low cost as everyone seems to have an old jigsaw puzzle in their closet) it’s also eco-friendly. So many puzzles are completely loved and hitting the landfill. The world has not had a discussion on what we are doing with our old puzzles after we hit the store for new ones. Trust me, there have to be many, many puzzles out there for repurposing. Especially if we are buying over 2 billion dollars of puzzles every year.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.puzzledayfun.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jodijillinla/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JodiJillinLA
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jodi-jill-57b14530