Peace & Prosperity Podcast
In the Peace & Prosperity Podcast, Jason Phillips, licensed therapist and life coach, shares personal experiences that force you to think deeply about your values, beliefs, and behaviors to ensure you achieve peace, happiness, and success in your life.
Peace & Prosperity Podcast
Navigating Corporate with Confidence: Leadership Lessons with Tiffany Ellis - Episode #80
The Peace & Prosperity Podcast is a bi-weekly conversation hosted by Jason Phillips, LCSW—licensed therapist and confidence expert based in Raleigh, NC. Each episode dives into self-love, self-confidence, and personal and professional growth, offering tools and insights to help you live with intention and show up fully in every space.
In this episode, Tiffany Ellis shares a powerful story of resilience, authenticity, and transformation. From a successful career in corporate leadership to founding a thriving wellness brand, Tiffany’s journey is full of lessons on navigating workplace dynamics as a Black woman, building self-confidence, and leveraging corporate skills for entrepreneurial success. You’ll walk away inspired and equipped to thrive—without compromising who you are.
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for me to not be perceived as angry or for people to have a difficult time believing that I was angry. It's when I'm in meetings on an everyday basis and things come up that I don't agree with not being reactionary or not giving any emotion. It's hard. You shouldn't have to do this, but if you've never seen me get upset, if you've never seen me be, if you've never seen me be.
Speaker 2:Welcome y'all to another episode of the Peace and Prosperity Podcast, Joined with one of my favorite friends. We've done a couple of things, a lot of things together, honestly. Yeah, A lot Like I've been on your podcast, You've been on my podcast. We've done IG Lives together. I've had the amazing opportunity to work with you in the corporate space, which is amazing. A lot of mutual friends.
Speaker 1:Yes. And you do amazing work and everyone loves you too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, thank you, I really appreciate that. Seriously, now, I didn't share this with you because I just asked you to come on a podcast and you was like, yeah, you didn't even know why. You know what we were going to talk about, it's you Right? So I appreciate that, tiff, but the reason being is because years ago we did a live and I turned it into an episode and it helped so many people. You talking about your corporate experience oh yeah, anytime I'm working with women mostly women but, like, if I'm working with women in the corporate space and they're struggling with confidence, imposter syndrome, boundaries, I always direct them to. I think it's like episode 19 and this would be like episode 80 something. So that just shows you.
Speaker 1:Oh wow, You've been busy.
Speaker 2:Well, it just shows you how long ago that was. Yeah, yeah, but they really appreciate you and I appreciate you.
Speaker 1:Oh, thank you for that. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2:So I'll let you go ahead and still introduce yourself, because I didn't ask you for a bio or nothing like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah that's okay, so for everyone watching or listening, I'm Tiffany Ellis and these days I am now a full-time entrepreneur, which we'll talk about in this conversation, but I am in my heart. I'm a corporate girly, spent 20 years, or a little over 20 years, in corporate America straight out of college, and I've done everything from being a frontline individual contributor to being a global program manager, national director, so I have a lot of experience in navigating a corporate space, especially for someone who comes from a family with nobody ever having been in corporate before, and I think that's pretty cool to say. Now. I'm a juice enthusiast. You know I'm always talking about healing and helping people to live and feel their very best, and so I'm the proud founder of a cold press juice company that is intentionally inclusive, and I'm very proud of the product and all the things that we're building.
Speaker 2:Yeah, gns Juices has been around like what's the birthday.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it's funny, On paper I started it in 2022, but I actually launched it January of 2023. And so, yeah, we're two years in now.
Speaker 2:And the juices are good. I'm about to start ordering some again.
Speaker 1:Thank you. Yeah, I love them so much. And for those of you who have never had a cold press juice, you want to start with us, because it's just better raw with Jean's cold press. But yeah, we take our time to create thoughtfully and intentionally crafted hand pressed juices or not hand pressed, because I use a machine but they're handcrafted juices and they're made for people who don't like vegetables, so that we can help people increase their fresh fruit and vegetable intake and prevent metabolic conditions.
Speaker 2:I know some people. When you said that, like one of my best friends, he does not like vegetables or food, really, does not like vegetables or food really. So I was like man, I see you juicing. He was like, no, that's because I don't like to eat it, so I have to get it in any way I can.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's the best kept secret. And when I say we make juices for folks who don't like vegetables, veggie lovers laugh right. But you'd be surprised that more than 50% of the people in this, in this country, don't like vegetables. Research actually shows it's around 57 percent of people don't like vegetables and actively avoid them when they're available. So we make them enjoyable and we actually change people's perceptions of beets and carrots and leafy greens and all the things because we do such a good job at blending our juices.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and they're good. So I want to back up a little bit, because you have a lot of experience in corporate and then we'll talk about the entrepreneurship world. Can you walk us through, like just like, what were some of the positions you had? Like what was your journey?
Speaker 1:like yeah, so it's interesting because I've been, I've been posting about, so we know all the things happening in DEI right now, which I'm not sure if we'll talk about that at some point. But one of the things I always lead with in conversations on social media when people are posting about Target is, you know, they were the first ones to recruit me straight out of college and I remember them vividly coming on campus at FAMU to recruit me for their leadership program. So that was my first role straight out of school. Then I pivoted and ended up in another leadership program, I think with enterprise management trainee. Then I went.
Speaker 1:I was you said, how old was I? Yeah, doing these like leadership, because even when I was in college I was working at Walmart and I started as a cashier and by the time I left I was a customer service manager. So it's just always been a part of how I've worked. I just show up and I really believe in doing a really good job and I think people see that. And so let's see, I graduated college about 21, 22. And so, yeah, coming straight out of college, went into leadership, then went into enterprises leadership program, then I pivoted into insurance and I spent most of my career there in the risk management industry and that career I love. I wish more of us knew about the insurance industry because not a lot of Black people know about insurance. But yeah, I started as a claims adjuster and by the time I left the industry I was a national training director, so I have a lot of experience in that space.
Speaker 2:Dang, so you were traveling too, I bet.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was traveling a little bit because I had people in different states who were on my training team who helped to kind of run the program and I just, you know, would pop in and check out their classes and help them with their content and stuff. And then I took a break from corporate before going back in in 2020, after everything happened with George Floyd.
Speaker 1:And I went to Amazon and that's where I spent my last few years in corporate. The last four and a half almost five years was at Amazon and it was just an amazing experience in terms of the things I was able to create. Excuse me, the exposure I was given, just the responsibility. It was a really cool experience.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I've seen you in action. People come to you, you're busy, you're managing things. All that it's. It's dope. So when it comes to leadership and something that you were taught growing up, is it like innate to your personality? How did that come?
Speaker 1:It's a good question, Jason. This is what I'm starting to learn. I feel like some of us just have that thing in us. You know that just it's a part of who we are and it just needs to be harnessed and cultivated and you have to hone in on the skill to make it something that you can actually use Right. So when I think about growing up, I'm the little girl that always wanted to raise my hand. I always wanted to answer the question. I always wanted to lead the line. I always wanted to be the security guard. You know, the little patrol always wanted to be in this like. I just always wanted to be that kid.
Speaker 1:I would often get in trouble for speaking so much, because I just love to speak up and I would do my homework quick.
Speaker 1:I wanted to do good, I wanted to get A's and so, like when I take a retrospective look at my life, I realized like this was, this has kind of always been in me, and so when I first started working in corporate, what was hard was I didn't know how to navigate corporate America, because nobody I knew ever worked in corporate before and it's a very.
Speaker 1:If you don't know what you're doing, you won't succeed, you won't last Right. And so it's me just being put in positions where I had some leaders who were willing to kind of take me to the side and say, I see this, you have the passion, kind of take me to the side and say, I see this, you have the passion. So I don't want to kill the passion, but let's, let's kind of, you know, shape it a little bit and make it more digestible for people. And I mean, people would get offended by that statement now, but for me, I'm grateful that someone took the time to show me that, because there are so many doors that I was able to get behind, because somebody took the time to teach me how to navigate those spaces.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and being a Black woman, you know I've worked in corporate spaces and different industries and I've seen Black women almost get either overlooked, overworked, kind of stepped on at times, especially in a leadership position. So did you ever encounter any of those things and if so, how did you navigate them?
Speaker 1:All of those things, everything you said, I mean you know to be Black in America. At some point your journey will intersect with some other Black person, because we all go through the same things. Right, I think we just all handle those things differently. Even yesterday I was speaking to, there was a young lady who started with me when I started in my last insurance job and she was an individual contributor and I was starting as a leader. But we were in training together and, no, you know, we didn't know who was doing what. We just knew we were all in the training class. So towards the end, she found out I was a leader and she was like, oh my God, we maintain contact.
Speaker 1:I met her in 2016. So just yesterday I'm having a conversation with her because she was overlooked for a position that she was more than qualified for and she was talking about her frustrations, right, and she was saying how, like the feedback they gave her when she didn't get it, it really hurt her because it wasn't. It had nothing to do with her candidacy and her performance. It was more about the bureaucracy and the politics of navigating the space. And you don't talk to us enough and we don't know enough about that kind of stuff and it for me. It did two things. It made me recall times when I had to deal with that same stuff. But then, two, it gave me the opportunity to give her advice that somebody gave me that helped me to get through it right. So it was the.
Speaker 1:I know this stings right now and I know this is not who you are and I know that it's gonna feel like you're being disingenuous, but I need you to go back in there. I need you to smile, I need you to ask for this, I need you to thank them for it. You know I'm kind of giving her the things to do and telling her what needs to be her follow-up so that if she wants this position within the next year, she'll have it. But if you go in there, you're mad. You're not going to talk to nobody and they're playing with me and you know all the things we feel and I'm not going to forget know what they're going to do. They're going to say, oh she's, she doesn't take feedback. Well, she can't handle rejection. They're going to put all the labels on you and it's going to stop you from being able to do the things that you should be able to do already because you're talented enough to do it.
Speaker 2:So were you ever that person where you got the feedback? You're like forget y'all, I'm just going to do my job and go home Absolutely. And then how did you? How did you shift your mindset?
Speaker 1:Look, I think about my. I said I was going to make a reel about this one day, cause it's the funniest thing, Jason, I did my first. I'll never forget my first performance evaluation when I was working for, and I'll say, the company progressive. My manager sat down and she was giving me my annual review and she's saying stuff. And I'm just like what? Cause? First of all, you don't even know me, right, this is me fresh out of Miami, fresh out of FAMU, like play with somebody else. You get what I'm saying. So she's telling me all this stuff and I'm just like I don't agree, I don't agree, like terrible attitude, okay. And so she said listen, I think you're brilliant, like I'm sure that you can do this plus more, but you can't take feedback that way.
Speaker 1:Right how courageous of her to give me that like that accountability and say yeah and say cut it out. Like, basically, cut it out, that's not how we handle things. And so I was saying to her, like, once I kind of calmed down, I was like, but this is not right, and what she had to explain to me was you know, this is a perception, this is how perceptions impact your career. And, like, she took the time to kind of break down to me how my actions were perceived right, wrong or indifferent. She also taught me how to control narratives and so that's the yeah. So, like I'll give you an example Once I understood that, for instance, black women are perceived as angry.
Speaker 1:Angry Black woman. That's a trope that is there. So for me to not be perceived as angry or for people to have a difficult time believing that I was angry, it's when I'm in meetings on an everyday basis and things come up that I don't agree with, not being reactionary or not not giving any emotion. It's hard. You shouldn't have to do this, but if you've never seen me get upset, if you've never seen me be more than mellow, if you've never seen me show frustration, if you've never seen me like, you know it's like Tiffany. If you ever hear that, I'm angry. It's like what Tiffany Cause? Like she never shows up that way, even though outside of here I'm all those things you know yeah.
Speaker 1:And here you get a certain version of me and I used to feel like it was me suppressing who I was as a person and in some respects it is, but I think also it's me reserving some of who I am, because you don't deserve all of that. You. You get to experience me in a certain way and I'm not going to come in here and say I'm just here to know, I'm here to be myself. But I understand that I have to always be aware of what's happening in the background, whether I'm a part of it or not, and how my actions will make you connect that dot for yourself and categorize me as that person. Does that make?
Speaker 2:sense it does? Because that was my next question how do you balance basically not losing yourself in these certain spaces where you, like you said, I like what you say. You don't deserve that part of me, because I can feel some people like I hear you, tiffany, but like I'm trying to be me. So what do you say?
Speaker 1:I mean, you get to be you. Look, here's the thing I had to decide In the later years of my career. I decided I wasn't going to be as suppressive, I wasn't going to play the game, and so I understood that came with consequences. Right, you have the right to be whoever you want to be, but in life, until things change, things are the way they are. And so if you decide I'm going to be me and I'm not going to suppress this, you have every right to do that. But if they start targeting you with performance improvement plans, if they start overlooking you for promotions, if they start, you know, giving you work that you don't really want, not giving you stretch assignments, it's because you're not playing the game. And so I tell people this like, if you're going to go to the game anyway, why sit on the bench? If you're going to go to the game, either stay home or get in the game and play the game.
Speaker 1:Because I came from a family with no one having worked in corporate America, and I was the first person that went to college Because I learned how to play a game. I got to put my kids in different neighborhoods than I grew up in. I was able to afford things that I never had access to. I wasn't having to work two and three jobs to make ends meet, because my one job was sufficient for the desires that we have for our life and it allowed me to be a more present parent. So I mean, in some respects, I feel like I won. I don't know that we ever really get rich, because you have to deal with the gender gaps and equity and pay and all those things are still happening, but you can still have a solid life for yourself if you want to play the game and if you decide like this is how I'm going to build until I figure out what's next.
Speaker 2:I'm loving this already, like I'm thinking about your last position. Yeah, we met. I think when we met you were just doing straight entrepreneurship and then at some point you were about to go back into corporate like shortly after.
Speaker 1:Ok so, yes, if I met you, then I met you when I was living in Tampa, because what happened was my husband's career took us from Atlanta to Dallas, to Tampa, back to Atlanta. So for me it was difficult with the job thing because his job was moving him and I was having to find new jobs and all of that. And then my son was having a difficult time because he was in middle school. So his sixth, seventh, eighth grade year he attended five different schools and so we needed some stability.
Speaker 1:We were like we need something that's stable. And so I told my husband one, I think I was out of corporate because I was just tired of all of the, all the stuff. Right, it was like all the things and it felt like too much. This was right before George Floyd happened. The world was going crazy. And then George Floyd happened, and then the world went even more crazy. But then it was like okay, now I'm in the house and now I've only known corporate. I'm not making the money I used to make. My lifestyle is potentially going to change. I have a kid who's getting ready to go into high school. I can't make this concession. And so I decided to go back into corporate and I actually went. People don't know this, but I went back into Amazon. Well, I went back into corporate in Amazon as a warehouse manager and then I ended up becoming a global program manager.
Speaker 2:And they're like how the hell did you do that? But you know, what's in the cards for you is in the cards for you. Right, my bad, but with the degree in criminal justice, right yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I always say that, but you know, so it's funny. I said the other day I was like I've never worked in criminal justice. But that's not true. When Target first recruited me, they actually recruited me as an asset protection executive team leader, and so I started with them. I was in the office where they have all the cameras watching the people who steal and catching employees who are like stealing from the store and that kind of thing. And then I used to come in every day and I was so bubbly and cheery and friendly and the director literally pulled me to the side and said this is not a good fit for you because you're too friendly. Asset protection doesn't have relationships with the employees. And so they pulled me into guest services, like customer service, because I was that better fit my personality. But that's the only job I've ever had in criminal justice.
Speaker 2:But even when you went back, you still were in management.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I was. I was an area manager in the warehouse.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So, how was it for you? I guess how did you do it, Because your trajectory, your education, being in leadership, being a mom, being a wife, how did you do?
Speaker 1:it all. So, as far as the work was concerned, there were some things that were important to me. My husband and I talk a lot about the life we live, the life we want and the life we're working to create, and we've become accustomed to certain things, and so when I wasn't working during that time, it was taking us off track from the life we lived, the life we wanted and the life we're trying to create. And so I said well, if the only job I can find right now is in Amazon's warehouse, that's where I'm going to go. Now. I didn't know I was going to be working overnight. I didn't know I was going to be. You know it was. It was not easy.
Speaker 1:What was your shift? 6 pm to 4 am and I worked. I worked Sunday, monday, tuesday, wednesday. I had Friday, saturday. Well, sunday, monday, tuesday, wednesday, and then I had Thursday, friday, saturday off from work. But I would literally those four days you wouldn't see me because I would get off of work, I would sleep until three, get up and eat, take a shower and go back to work again.
Speaker 1:And so from my son's freshman year of high school, my husband held it down. I couldn't tell you how he was doing, barely saw them, didn't cook. It was horrible, you know. And I finally told my job like I'm sorry, but I'm just not at a point in my career, cause what really made me realize I had to set a boundary was I went there, I was doing good again, and then they approached me and said hey, so I know you. We want to move you up to an operations manager, which is a level six.
Speaker 1:I was level five and they said and this is a few months into me being, maybe like eight months into me being at the warehouse. They said but we want you to start to run the sunrise tour, which started at three o'clock in the morning. You'll be the only leader in the building three o'clock in the morning until the other leaders came in around eight or nine and I was like, yeah, no, I can't do that. That's, that's, that's. This is already hard. Three o'clock in the morning means I'll be going to bed early in the evening. I still wouldn't see my family and I wouldn't be getting any quality sleep.
Speaker 1:And so they basically told me, like by saying no, that I was pretty much saying I didn't want to move up. You know they didn't say those words, but they pretty much said that. And I had a colleague who wanted to move up and she's single, and she was like I'll do it. So I said, hey, can you consider this person instead? They are interested in the opportunity. But I knew then OK, that's it, you're not going to move up here, so find another role in the company, because this is not going to. You know, but when you work in corporate long enough, you understand how to do that. So once I knew that, I told them no. Then I had to start looking for internal roles to get me out of that department so I could pivot and then continue to grow my career.
Speaker 2:Yeah, cause they like look we, you're an asset. We trying to keep pushing you up, but you started pushing you up was taking you away from your family, the life you live, the life you want to create. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I and I couldn't really like. And so the funny thing is I wanted to be present. I just couldn't. As a mom, as a wife, I couldn't show up. As a friend, I couldn't show up and I felt like a part of me was missing. And even when it came to exercise and I exercise regularly I wasn't going to the gym. Yeah, I was in a physical role, so it was okay, but I still wanted to be able to show up as my personal best and it just wasn't allowing me to be that person. So I told myself, like look for a different position. You know insurance? And it's funny, cause I didn't even know Amazon had an insurance department. They were actually kind of just starting it. But when I sent them my resume, they're like what are you doing in operations, you know? So then it was like they, I went through the interview process and came over to the corporate side and it was just that, was it from there?
Speaker 2:So you were only in that warehouse for like what, like a year, maybe like a year yeah, just under a year.
Speaker 1:And then I moved to the corporate side, found myself in insurance again. So Amazon, you know, when you see the little trucks driving around delivering the packages, those are not Amazon employees. Those are small businesses who have a contract to deliver the packages for Amazon. They're called delivery service providers.
Speaker 1:And so sometimes they get into car accidents, sometimes they hit things and people, and so you have claims that have to be managed on behalf of Amazon to mitigate risk. And I'm coming in with over a decade of insurance experience and they're like come on over here. So I helped to get their insurance program on track, which was really cool. And then, yeah, I just continued to move around, because once I started working in that space, then I had some time, because when I was working overnight I didn't have time to join employee resource groups. I didn't have time for anything. Once I got in corporate, I started networking, joining different things, and now some people started to know my name and then I started getting tapped like hey, this person has a role, can you apply for it? This person has a role, that kind of thing.
Speaker 2:So how dang. Okay, I got a couple of questions. Yeah, New to get into those ERG groups. How did I know to do it? How did you know, Like, because some people don't even know that's important and it sounds like once you did that it like opened up your opportunities.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So here's the thing when you're working in corporate America, the one thing I will tell you is a lot of people have the idea in their head I'm just going to work and go home. That is the biggest mistake you can make, because nobody can talk about someone they don't know. No one can do it right. You can't tell a person about a restaurant you've never been to or never heard of. People have to know you, and if you're at work working hard with your head down all the time, then, yeah, your work is getting done, but no one knows who you are.
Speaker 1:So when you go up for the opportunity, hey, and the other thing is, some people know this, but most companies have what they call like. It might be called something different, but it's all the same version of a process. It's a calibration process and that's where, every year, all the leaders get together in the building and they'll talk about all the individual contributors, right, and so the more leaders who know your name, when someone says Jason Phillips in the room, they'll say oh yeah, I talked to Jason, jason did this. Oh yeah, he's on this thing, you know. And then you have more people buying for your performance and saying Jason's an asset. Let's rate him higher versus I don't know who.
Speaker 1:Jason is or Jason how long has he worked here? And so I started to hear about it when I would be in these different calibration sessions as a leader. Because, understand, too, not a lot of Black people get into leadership in corporate right. So I'm one of most of the times I was one of few sitting in these rooms behind the scenes hearing these conversations and figuring out because, being from Miami, I know how to read the room right.
Speaker 1:So I'm peeping everything that's happening. I'm like, okay, so this person has influence, this person needs this person talks to this person their friends, if they agree, like I'm figuring all this out. And so I get to take all that back to my team and I'll say, listen, you need to go talk to this person, you need to join this thing, you need to do that. And that's how I kind of learned to be a part of these different things. And then, too, I'm just that extra person. I like to do the extra things I like to. If you're planning a birthday celebration for an employee, count me in. If we're having a team event, count me in. That's my area where I thrive and you've seen that with me hosting events. So it was just natural for me to become a part of the different ERGs and stuff.
Speaker 2:How do you manage being involved with everything and then also having time for yourself and your family?
Speaker 1:Oh, that's a good one. So the last time I did it, when I was my last role, I never put my email on myself. That was the first thing, because that, let me, it sounds like simple. But there's like separating church and state, right, like I'm going to check my emails while I'm working. My husband always teased me because I would get meetings put on my calendar and I wouldn't know about them until I came back in and when I was trying to manage my personal life. Sometimes there was an overlap because I didn't have my calendar on my phone. But I always told myself like when I'm at work I will give them 100%, because when I log off you don't get anything. And I don't feel guilty about not replying on the weekends, not replying after hours. That's just not my groove, like I'm not doing it.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I had to ask cause I know you go hard for your family and yourself too. Yeah, I would imagine that same principle applies to your business now, and that's probably even more hard, but we'll get to that. So you go from warehouse manager and then you're in the insurance department, and then when did you get into the global DEI role?
Speaker 1:Let's see, I left the risk management role and then I was a part of the Black Employee Network and I was told by someone on that employee resource group that there was a role coming up to support HBCUs. And you know I go hard for FAMU, my school. So I was like, ok, so the role. I had never been like a program manager before, not in title but in in, like my work. I had been a program manager before. So I was like, okay, so I meet the manager. Moving to that role, and that's when I started doing, that's when I did the beyond the yard and all the things that you. So that wasn't my last role, that was a role before my last role. But I was supporting HBCU students and students who attended minority serving institutions or Hispanic serving institutions and it was just like if there was a dream job, that was a dream job. It was just so cool.
Speaker 2:And it was so like impactful too, like that seemed like it was like a match made in heaven for you, for real.
Speaker 1:It was yeah.
Speaker 2:I still we have.
Speaker 1:I created a group me when the students came for the conference. We created a group me to communicate with. Came for the conference, we created a group me to communicate with them so they would know, like what time to do stuff. And I think students just started leaving the group me like recently, because we don't really post anything. But I mean, that conference took place. What 2023, three years ago, yeah, or 2022, 22 yeah 2022, so that's how long ago it was yeah, they're just now leaving.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and there's still some students in there, but some of the students are leaving because we don't really post anything in it anymore, you know, but it was just that experience for me. Of all the things I did while working at Amazon, I'm most proud of Beyond the Yard, and there are a few other things I'm proud of, but that one, that one, had so much impact on the students. I'm so proud of it.
Speaker 2:I was sad when you left the role I remember. Now it took your place, but then you went from that role To the global program manager role. Yeah, yeah, and.
Speaker 1:I'll tell you this. It was funny, I can share it now. So when I was in the role supporting HBCUs that summer, I mind you, my role was not a leadership role, it was. It was a leadership role in the sense of, like, I supported college students but I didn't have any direct reports. But once again, I came into the role, I was excelling. So my manager was like hey, I want to give you an intern this summer. And that's when you met my intern, because she might've been messaging you and stuff. So my manager was supposed to have the intern, but she was like I want to give you the intern instead. And so I got the chance to have the intern.
Speaker 1:And once I had her, that's when I was approached about a role that was coming up, the last role I went into, I actually started interviewing for the role and then I met my intern and I was like I can't leave her, Right, Because, like she was a young black girl and my thing was she's still in college, Right, she's getting ready to come in. I know what a difference it would have made for me if I had someone like me to be like my manager during my internship and kind of help me to learn corporate and navigate corporate. So I actually reached out to the hiring manager I was interviewing with and I was like I'm sorry, but I can't continue this process because I have an intern that I want to. You know, I want to see her through her internship to ensure that she gets the role at the end. And I said, once it's done, can I reach back out to you all? I was scared to do it.
Speaker 2:I'm going to say that I was very scared, like dang. That's neat to pass up a promotion and more money and just a super dope opportunity because you are committed to making sure that this other young Black woman has the right mentorship. Dang, I didn't know that.
Speaker 1:Yeah like once I met her I was like I can't leave her. She's so wonderful. So I was like, yeah, I backed out of the interview process. I had gone through one, two, three interviews, backed out right before they made a decision. And so then I worked with my intern over the summer, gave her her project that's when we did the thing at FAMU, mind Over Matter and that was her project that she had to work on for the summer. So it went great and we had to have her write her paper and afterwards she was offered a full-time position after she graduated. So once she finished, then I was like I reached back out to that other team, like, hey, so my intern finished, she's getting a full-time role. Is it still open? They didn't respond for a day or two so I was like, oh, I burned the bridge and then they responded and they were like, absolutely.
Speaker 2:And then they made an offer and I was like, look at that, so it was just so perfect. Yeah, it was perfect. I mean.
Speaker 1:That's selfless at its finest. Oh, thank you. You know it's Jason. I say this truly. I feel like this is God gives us things for us to give to other people, and the more he gives us and the more we give he just he has more space to keep, you know, and so it's like she's still there right now. She's thriving, we're connected. Still, I love to see the impact that I'm blessed to have on people, and I think it's like it's a privilege to be chosen to do that kind of work.
Speaker 2:Well, they got the right person, so so thank you. You're welcome. It was dope, and that's so. What's her name? Is it Wanji?
Speaker 1:Yeah, wanji, that's her nickname.
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah she's so cool. So then you are even as you were in your last role, which. Can you speak a little bit about what you were doing in the last role?
Speaker 1:Because you were busy. Yeah, yeah, I was. So you know, I'll start by saying I was a global DEI program manager. Right, and I often say this program manager right, and I often say this I don't think that people understand how much DEI covers in the workplace, because in the mass media, they make DEI about Black people or people who are a part of the LGBTQIA plus community, but they don't talk about people who are neurodivergent. They don't talk about people who I mean even people who have children and people who don't, because that's diversity, right they have different needs sometimes from the workplace. They don't talk about military veterans. They don't talk about people who are differently abled. They don't talk about all the different things that are part of diversity, equity and inclusion.
Speaker 1:And so, in my role, I was supporting the data center organization, which that's. We probably won't even have time to truly have that conversation right now, but the data centers at Amazon control most of the world's internet and most people don't even know what that is, so they don't know these careers exist, and so you have the same, you know candidate profile applying for these roles because they're aware of the opportunities, and so many of us are not aware of these opportunities. And so my job when I came in was to look at the workforce and say, okay, what's happening? Are people happy? If they're not happy, why aren't they happy? Why are they leaving? What is the different employment experience for different types of people? Dive into that data when they're leaving, why are they leaving? You know who's getting promoted, who isn't, who's getting put on performance plans, who isn't.
Speaker 1:So I'm in the data, constantly assessing how to make this workplace experience the same for everyone, and that's basically the work that I was doing. A lot of it was confidential stuff, because I'm looking at, you know, data and I'm looking at, like important stories, but I'm also the voice in the room that says, hey, this is not equitable. This manager has this many people on performance plan. They happen to have these same characteristics and these people keep getting promoted and they started.
Speaker 1:The same time was like I'm having those conversations, you get what I'm saying, and so that was one part of my work, and the other part of my work was helping people understand how to be more inclusive, and so I was proud of this program that we adopted that had a bunch of learning resources and tools, and what I would do is essentially assign different learning modules to leaders, have conversations with them, help to broaden their perspective, help them to understand that like, hey, people see the world different than how you might see it. Here are some different perspectives. But giving them resources they can also use to help them have those conversations. So as they're navigating the workplace, they're being considerate of the people they're managing and not just assuming that everybody sees the world the same as they do. Does that make sense?
Speaker 2:It does. I mean it's a lot, yeah, and the reason I want you to expand on that is because at the same time where you were in that role, you were growing GN's juices.
Speaker 1:I was.
Speaker 2:How.
Speaker 1:I don't know. Look, so that role, look, that role was a global role. So the beautiful part was I got to go to Paris and Barcelona and this place and that place, and it was just the most beautiful experience because once I started traveling globally, then I realized, like this conversation we're having about race here in America is so small compared to the rest of the world.
Speaker 1:And when I started, when I started seeing other cultures and seeing different things and I had gone to, like, the Caribbean and stuff Okay yeah, those are traditional, but like when I'm going across the globe and I'm going to different places and I'm having different experiences and different conversations, it really does broaden your perspective, right? So when I come back home now, I understand that how we see the world and sometimes because as Americans we can be very arrogant we think that our perspective is the perspective and it's like no, no, no, no, no. But I was. I was serving in the global capacity and at the same time, I had purchased the LLC to start my business. Because, you know, I told you I just started it in 2022, but I actually launched it in 2023.
Speaker 1:And so one morning I got up and, I don't know, it was just like start making the juices, like it. Just, it was like I got up with the idea to start making the juices, so I went, I called my best friend. I was like I don't know how to set up the Shopify store. Help me out, I just need to be able to just take some orders. When I tell you, it was a makeshift little site, honey, only thing I could do was take orders, and I didn't care, because I was just focused on being able to take orders. I went on Amazon, I ordered me some bottles and I started making juices. And the thing was, I had been making juices for years. I learned to make juices when I was living in Dallas in 2018. And I had been buying juices maybe for about two years before that, so I had known about cold press juicing and I started making juices every week for my family, cause I used to post on Instagram when I would fill the fridge and I used to put your Gotti song. I don't know if you remember, but I used to do that every week for our family.
Speaker 1:And so, fast forward, when I started making the juices, people were like, oh my God, this is good. And you know how, when you cook at home, you think, okay, it's good because I cooked it, but you don't know if everybody else is going to be like it's good, but my son doesn't eat vegetables. And when he, this is good, and so I'm like, if I could get him to drink it, other people will drink it too. And so, sure enough, like, people started getting the juices and they were like, oh, this is good, and I was only doing local and my brother kept saying when are you going to start shipping? I'm like I don't, I don't know. You know he's like, well, you need to figure it out. I'm like no, so he gives me his credit card information. He's like ship me some juices so we can see if it works.
Speaker 1:And so I started shipping him juices first, cause I'm like if it's, if it's bad, he ain't going to blast me. You know what I'm saying? So like I'm practicing with him. And so then, once I got going, jason, it was just like it just caught on like wildfire and people just started like supporting and it's it. For me, what was very beautiful was like you know, people always say your friends don't support your business, people don't support you, they watch you. That was not my story at all. Like all of my friends were like how do I get the juice?
Speaker 2:Okay, I had some. I think I don't know if you were shipping yet or not, but I had some in Atlanta and then you shipped.
Speaker 1:You came and got it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and they were good even when you shipped it. And then I remember you did the photo shoot. That was dope.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yes, I won. I won the pitch competition. So that's the thing. This is how God works. And I'm sorry y'all, I'm verbose, meaning like I'm long-winded because I'm so passionate about this stuff. But I started selling the juices, I started catching momentum. I knew someone who did some branding stuff and she was like sis, when are you going to do your labels for real? Cause I'm like what you got on those bottles? They don't look good and I'm like tried it, but that's okay. But you know. So I used my corporate job to start paying it in. I would do like one label here, one label there, until I rebranded everything.
Speaker 1:And then I entered this cohort with the village micro fund and I remember applying for it and one of the criteria was you had to be in business for a year. So I had only started selling that January. But I was like, ah, I bought the LLC last year, cause God gave me the idea to purchase the LLC, so I qualified that way. So I entered the program and it was a 12 week program where they taught you like business fundamentals and then you had to pitch a five minute pitch at the end of the program for $25,000. And so I was up one and I was up against. But when I say businesses, like much respect to, there were people I was competing against who have been in business longer. Their businesses are dope. I'm going to be honest, I knew my juices were good, but I didn't feel there were times when I questioned like okay, tiff, your stuff is good, but you're not really like $25,000 good. You know what I'm saying. Like that's what I was telling myself.
Speaker 1:But even in that program I came to class. Every week I showed up, I participated. I can't stress y'all If I don't tell you nothing else. When you show up, show up. If you're going to be, if you're going to go to the game, don't sit on the bench, get on the court, right. So I would come to class. I didn't feel like it. But I'm still going to speak to everybody, I'm going to answer questions, I'm going to be engaged, I'm going to. If you give me a homework assignment, I'm going to make sure I do it. Like that's how I operate. And so I think part of the pitch competition was my pitch. But I do think part of the pitch competition was how did I show up this whole 12 week timeframe?
Speaker 2:You get what I'm saying, for the same corporate, same skills you use in corporate. They helped you even in entrepreneurship.
Speaker 1:Same skills and I was literally when I was doing my job I would fly Like. One time I flew to Paris for work and was there for like a week and I saw them orders coming through on my phone. And you know I'm happy when y'all order. I swear I am. But I ain't gonna lie. When I fly overseas and I see them orders coming through, I'm like, oh, I got a juice when I get home, because you know you just want to sleep, right, right. But those are the moments when you show up, in those moments when you don't feel like it, and we've all heard everybody say this right, success is about consistency, it about doing the things you don't want to do. That's always the message. And so I was still like get off the plane, I'll sleep, I'll be jet lagged and I'm going to take myself to the farmer's market and I'm going to make y'all's juices tired as hell, cause I wanted to make sure that you got what you ordered, yeah.
Speaker 2:I got to ask a question Like did you have tell us about a time where it was like super stressful balancing both juicing and corporate, and did you ever pull an all-nighter?
Speaker 1:Yes, I've pulled several. The last all-nighter, the very first all-nighter I pulled, I remember I was doing a vending event. It was like a day party outside, like brunchella, right, and it was my very first time vending for anything, because I had not been in business before. So I didn't know what to. So I didn't know, like, what to make, I didn't know how much to make, I didn't know, and I only had two juicers at the time and so when you make cold press juices it's slow, like the time is the time, you can't make it go faster. That's why it costs so much, because it is what it is. And so I think I made like 200 juices with two juicers. And if you understand the time it takes to purchase the produce, clean the produce, cut the produce, do all the things Me and my husband he's such a trooper when I tell you I love this man so bad he not going to let me stay up by myself.
Speaker 1:So when I'm sleep deprived, he's sleep deprived too, which is why when I tell you I don't play around like I'm not lowering no prices, I know because we work hard over here, right, but yeah, he stayed up with me that whole night.
Speaker 1:We finished at five 30 in the morning and had to be up at like eight to go out there to vend outside all day. But I've done that so many times because, working in corporate, you know, I would get off work on Friday and go to the farmer's market, pray that they have the produce, because let's talk about that when you're buying real ingredients sometimes it ain't really always available. So then I'm driving around to multiple stores trying to find stuff. It's not easy. It's not easy, but I love it so much that I couldn't see myself doing it any other way. And I'm grateful for the day I get any other way and I'm grateful for the day I'm speaking into existence. I'm grateful for the day that I will have, like reliable vendors, scheduled contracts that can come deliver things and I ain't got to drive around, because right now she's not there and she drives around every week to get all of your produce.
Speaker 2:By the time I came to your house you had about five or six juices or like a bunch yeah.
Speaker 1:Five now, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and.
Speaker 1:I want a commercial one. It's like $15,000 and I'm I'm in a shared kitchen now. So I'm like, well, I won't be able to get a commercial juicer just yet, cause I don't want nobody using my stuff. But when I get to the point where I can afford to have my own kitchen, then I'll try to get a commercial juicer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean it's coming, it's definitely coming.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much.
Speaker 2:So I want to also talk about so. When I asked you to come on a podcast, I think you were still at Amazon.
Speaker 1:I was yeah.
Speaker 2:So over the past couple of months, you're not at Amazon, you're just full-time entrepreneurship. Yeah, what was that like for you emotionally? How are you recovering, how are you doing?
Speaker 1:I'm still dealing with that. I'll be honest. So here's what I'll say. I'm very grateful for the way that it happened, because I hear a lot of people losing their jobs and it's not like how I lost my job, you know. Um, they came to us and they basically said your role is being eliminated. Um, this was in September. So they're like your role is being eliminated in December. Um, as of today, you don't have to do any more work for the company, spend this time looking for another role within the company. You've done great work. If you want to stay, you know you have our blessings.
Speaker 1:If you don't find anything or you decide you want to leave, then after December you'll receive a severance, and it was a gracious severance. It was like a base pay of four weeks, no matter what, and then you got an extra week for for every six months you did and had been with the company almost five years. So, yeah, I was like okay, well, that's a few months extra pay on top of the pay, cause this is September. So I literally closed my laptop in September and I thought I was going to look for other jobs in the company, but something in me was like no, no, that's it, it's done. Much like the feeling I got when they told me to start making the juices. So I was like okay, so I closed the computer and I didn't open the computer back up.
Speaker 1:Eventually I posted on LinkedIn like hey, you know, my role was eliminated, blah, blah, blah. And people were so kind they're like oh, no, no, no, they're DMing me. I got roles in my department reach out to me and I wanted to say yeah, but something in me was just like no, no, no. And so what?
Speaker 1:I know in my head, jason, I know in my head that like I look at my company and I look at other juice companies around me and this is no shade to anyone at all but like I'm like wow, the brand that I've built, the product, I have the marketing expertise, I have the skills I've acquired from all these corporate positions. I know, know, intellectually, I have everything I need to be successful Right now. It's about my mindset. And so what this process has to do for me, if I'm going to be successful because that's the part is I have to cultivate the work ethic I have to get out of the way I've been operating, cause when you operate in corporate, it's very, it's not very easy, but it's much easier to get up. No, you got to go to work. They lay out the work for you, you do the work and you get paid.
Speaker 2:In entrepreneurship.
Speaker 1:It ain't like that. Okay, it's like I got to know what holidays are coming up, I got to know how to market, I got to watch what's happening with the economy, I got to order my stuff, I got a budget. It's like, and it's skills I have, but I haven't had to put into practice. And so now, as I've been going through this and it starts to get tough, naturally you're like did I make the right decision? Right Cause it's like now it's starting to get difficult for me and I even I'm honest, like I put on LinkedIn last week open to work. I want to go back to work.
Speaker 1:I missed the world I had where I could do my work and come home and juice on the weekends. I knew it, I understood it, it was easy, like I get it. I don't know if that's what God has. And I told my husband. I said the part of me that gets sad sometimes is like I think God means for me to be like in this business and ain't no way to run from this. I'm going to have to go through it. But I mean, you know, like I'm open to whatever the journey brings and at this point I'm just something to myself, like, if it's corporate, it's corporate. If it's entrepreneurship, I'm going to show up. But right now I'm going to focus on getting my mind right so I can show up the way I need to. So I continue to be the person I've always been in my life.
Speaker 2:Love it, love it. What's helping you the most with your mindset right now?
Speaker 1:Accountability. Here's something I learned, right, and I had to face this, jason, I thought she thought she was spectacular, and I am sometimes. But come on, there are times I am not Okay. And it's like I realized one I'm a leaky bucket where, like, if you can imagine a leaky bucket like you put water in and it's just, it's just, it's holes in it, so it's coming out. And so what's happening with me is like okay, yeah, you're smart, yeah, you're creative, yeah, you're this, you're that.
Speaker 1:And when people tell you those things, you're like yeah, I know, and you have those conversations and you waste time, you waste some time, you waste some people's time seeking validation you don't need. What you need to be talking about is how you're going to do the things you got to do. Right, you got to be growing your mind, and so I'm holding myself accountable. Like each week, I'm just trying to be better than I was last week. So if I posted two times last week, maybe I'm going to think about a different way to post and post three times this week. If I read one article, maybe I'm going to try to read two. I'm just trying to like figure out what needs to be the pattern.
Speaker 1:If I didn't send emails like last year. I never really did any email marketing, but I understand that's very effective for businesses. I'm trying to start showing up by email. I'm putting myself out there more when it comes to vending. I'm talking more because that's my gift. I know that I'm gifted to speak, and so I'm just trying to make myself do the things that feel uncomfortable until I can create a routine that can replace the routine I lost from working in corporate America so I can show up in the business. Does that make sense?
Speaker 2:A lot of sense. Yeah, I mean from accountability to it's like a corporate. The way I hear it, it's almost like a corporate mindset because like, if you can make 10,000 in a week in corporate, they're like all right, you've been making 10,000. Now we want you to make 12. Next month, 14. Like they always have that push, push mindset and I hear you, for your business, you're going to be doing the same thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm looking at like on LinkedIn. I never used to be on LinkedIn. I never used to be on LinkedIn. I'm on there now and so one of the KPIs I set for myself is okay, grow the GNS cold press LinkedIn page, right, cause it started with zero. So in a few weeks I'm at 60 followers. To me that's good, right? I'm saying to myself okay, you got TikTok, you got 47 K, can you get to 50? So now it's like trying, you know. So I'm setting those things because for me, what I'm learning is like it's about people knowing about the work. I talked about that, right, if you know who I am, you know what I do, you know where to find me, and so in the moments when it gets difficult, you don't feel encouraged to talk, you don't feel encouraged to post, you don't feel encouraged to be outside because you're trying to manage your emotions. But that's the time when you got to get out there, so folks know who you are so they can come looking for you.
Speaker 2:So I appreciate you One. I knew you were probably going to come on the podcast, but even talking about the entire journey, even the stuff that you're still dealing with right now, because that's helping somebody. My last question before we wrap when it comes to confidence, it seems like that's something that has been pretty strong and steady for you. What's the secret sauce? And then, if somebody's listening, what would you say to them if they're struggling with having the confidence to either keep going or pivot?
Speaker 1:That's a good question, Jason. I don't have anything profound to say.
Speaker 2:This is what I'll say Like you always do here's something that I made the correlation.
Speaker 1:So when I started doing the juice thing and I used to play your Gotti song, you know I got that juice, whatever, like I'm very much hood, I'm very much that girl, right? And so I would always say, like, if you look at our card that we send to customers whenever they get their order, which is it's right here, right On this card it says you were born with the juice and it has its own flavor, made with your ingredients. Never be afraid to give the world a taste. So if you think about what I just said throughout the course of this interview, what you heard me say is I'm showing up as the same little kid who was talking too much in class, who always wanted to get it right, who was answering the questions. This was the juice that was always a part of who I am.
Speaker 1:I think sometimes we look at other people doing what they do and we try to emulate that and we don't live in our truth. That's not our flavor, right? What's your flavor? So the confidence comes from understanding what your ingredients are and how you want people to experience that taste, that flavor, right? And if you're too spicy, where do you need to sweeten it up. You know if you're too sweet, where you need to add a little bit of like, figuring out. But understand your ingredients. And you can only do that by taking the time to yourself, by yourself, being introspective, being real, holding yourself accountable to who you are, and then deciding what you want from your life, what life you want to live, what life you want to create and what work you're willing to do. And that's what you got to do, that's it.
Speaker 2:I got to ask you where can people follow you and where can they buy GN's juices?
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for that question. I show up, I've been showing up a lot on LinkedIn y'all. So if you, I'm trying to figure out like the healthy balance, cause I'm not gonna lie, I don't be telling y'all all the corporate stuff on LinkedIn, Cause, like a lot of you know a lot of corporate professionals, they find and I don't want people perceiving me a way that I'm not because they're just getting a glimpse of a post but if you want to follow some of my corporate work, I'm Tiffany Y Ellis on LinkedIn. If you want to follow me on Tik TOK or Instagram, my personal page is Tiffany Speaks, so T-I-F-F-A-N underscore E, underscore Speaks. And then my juice page is G-N's Juices and you can order juices at gnsjuicescom, so that's G-A-N-N-S-J-U-I-C-E-Scom. And yes, we do ship and yes, we do deliver, but then the close Atlanta, if you're too far out, you somewhere far and we will charge you delivery fee. We'll get you your juices though.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I appreciate you. This is good, I definitely be having you back.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much, Jason. Keep doing your thing too, because you're so amazing. I really mean that.
Speaker 2:Thank you all for listening to another episode of the Peace and Prosperity Podcast. Again, if you are feeling like, hey, I'm experiencing high functioning anxiety, don't beat yourself up about it. It is OK. We all experience anxiety from time to time and I gave you a couple of things that you can do on your own, but don't hesitate to reach out to a professional to better manage what you're going through. Ok, and lastly, make sure if you have not like share, subscribe to the podcast and send this out to a friend. And if you want to hear certain episodes or have certain conversations, let me know. To hear certain episodes or have certain conversations, let me know. You can shoot me a DM or just leave a review and I will definitely follow up. All right, y'all be blessed, peace.