Emotional Intelligence Consultant, Tiffany Gibson

Tiffany Gibson is a radical nurse leader who has been featured in Oprah Daily and Ebony magazines and proudly shares her two cents on social media and through her podcast. So when she manifested her goal on LinkedIn to book twelve speaking engagements this year, I jumped at the opportunity to invite her to be my guest because her wisdom for nurses cannot go unheard.
Tiffany is an emotional intelligence consultant and the founder of New Nurse Academy, LLC. During our conversation, she stressed the importance of emotional intelligence for nurses. She says managing oneself is crucial before managing others, and that entails understanding one's core values. Tiffany has designed a life that aligns with her core values: time, financial and recreational freedom. She believes that when nurses reevaluate their why, their core values will align, enabling them to show up authentically.
Her message isn't just for nurses, it's one that we all need to hear. Her work is vital and I am delighted she is sharing it with you.
In the five-minute snippet: Royalty is so overrated. For Tiffany's bio, visit my website (link below).
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjfHESB9nFK8VfehmzXU6nQ
X: https://twitter.com/NewNurseAcademy
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/newnurseacademy/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NewNurseAcademy/
Podcast: https://new-nurse-academy.mykajabi.com/podcasts/my-2-cents
Oprah Daily feature: https://www.oprahdaily.com/life/work-money/a38203383/theyre-taking-a-shot-at-innovation/
Ebony magazine feature: https://www.ebony.com/the-national-black-nurses-association-holds-its-50th-annual-conference-to-support-and-empower-healthcare-professionals-%EF%BF%BC%EF%BF%BC/
National Black Nurses Association Conference July 2024: https://whova.com/portal/registration/niac_202407/
Moxie Scrubs feature: https://www.moxiescrubs.com/a/blog/10-black-nurses-you-must-follow-in-2023
How Past Trauma Impacts Emotional Intelligence article: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1067509/full

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Transcript

[00:00] Michelle: Tiffany Gibson is a radical nurse leader who has been featured in Oprah Daly and Ebony magazines and proudly shares her two cents on social media and through her podcast. So when she manifested her goal on LinkedIn to book twelve speaking engagements this year, I jumped at the opportunity to invite her to be my guest because her wisdom for nurses cannot go unheard. Tiffany is an emotional intelligence consultant and the founder of New Nurse Academy, LLC. During our conversation, she stressed the importance of emotional intelligence for nurses. She says managing oneself is crucial before managing others, and that entails understanding one's core values. Tiffany has designed a life that aligns with her core values: time, financial and recreational freedom. She believes that when nurses reevaluate their why, their core values will align, enabling them to show up authentically. Her message isn't just for nurses, it's one that we all need to hear. Her work is vital and I am delighted she is sharing it with you. In the five-minute snippet: Royalty is so overrated. Well, good morning, Tiffany, welcome to the podcast.

[01:41] Tiffany: Welcome, good morning.

[01:43] Michelle: I'm really glad you're here. I have followed you for a while on LinkedIn, and then one day I saw that you posted that your goal for 2024 was to have twelve speaking engagements, and I commented that I hoped one of them was on my podcast. And you so graciously agreed. And I really appreciate that because you have such a great message to get out to nurses. So thank you for being here.

[02:14] Tiffany: Thank you for taking my proclamation seriously. I know that a lot of people sometimes say you're not supposed to share your goals with the public, but I wanted to put that out there and I'm so glad that you responded. So thank you.

[02:31] Michelle: Yes, well, you're welcome. Okay, so let's get started by giving our listeners just an introduction. Why you got into nursing, what you've done along the way, and where you are now.

[02:44] Tiffany: Absolutely. So I started out in nursing in 2008. So I've been doing this for a little bit now and always wanted to be part of the caring community, and I didn't recognize that nursing was the answer. I just knew that I was really good at taking care of people and having empathy, but also had this innate sense of love for the human body and how it worked. And when I was really young, I wanted to be a mortician, and my mom told me that no one would marry me if I was a mortician. And so I'm like, I just always kind of stay connected. I do have lots of people in my family who are healthcare professionals, my mom being one. And at the age of ten, my mom was pregnant with my little brother. She was overdue by, like, two weeks. I was home alone with her, and her water broke. So I ended up going home, I mean, going to the hospital and being a part of that experience of my brother being born. And I was like, this is what I want to do. Because the only person I saw was the nurse. I didn't see the doctor. Now, granted, at the age of ten, I was not in the room when she was pushing, but the nurse was the one who took me into the lobby, and she was the one who gave me the snacks, and she was the one who checked up on me, and brought me back when my mom was all cleaned up and ready for visitors. And that's all I remembered was the nurse. And people ask kids, well, what do you want to be when you grow up? And I no longer said mortician. My answer was, I want to be a nurse.

[04:22] Michelle: That's a great story, and my listeners know by now that I love hearing the stories of how people get into the profession. And I've had many guests like yourself that either had to have care rendered to themselves or a family member, and they entered the healthcare arena, and they just sort of got immersed in it and decided that's what they wanted to do. So, along the way, you've done a lot. Your bio is packed full of all your accomplishments, and one of the things I'd like to talk about today is that you are the founder of New Nurse Academy, LLC. So talk about the new Nurse academy and what you do there.

[05:15] Tiffany: Yes. So New Nurse Academy is a nursing professional development consultancy where I offer coaching, community consulting work, and continuing education to nurses along the spectrum. My goal is to increase the consciousness of nursing so that they can shed the identity of being a nurse and walk into life as their full, authentic self. And that has been a journey to get to that point. New Nurse Academy started in 2017. As an NCLEX prep tutor, I was a clinical instructor. My students were having some difficulty with passing school and then preparing for the NCLEX. So I started my business just to separate me, Professor Gibson from my students to a separate entity that they could pay money to because I felt like it was a little unethical for my students to be giving me money to help them study. And so I separated the two. I was a single mom and definitely could have used the extra income. But then also I wanted to provide a service to my students outside of clinical. And so that's really how New Nurse Academy started and why the name is New Nurse Academy. But over the years, through my own professional personal development and growth, I recognized that I can teach students until I'm blue in the face on how to prepare for the NCLEX. And if their mindset is not where it needs to be, it doesn't matter. I found myself getting frustrated with people wanting to guarantee, they wanted me to guarantee that their coming to me for study help and tutoring help was going to make them pass the NCLEX. And the answer is no because I'm not taking it, you are. And so regardless of what I tell you and how I help you study and whatever tricks and tools of the trade that I have, if you're not in the mindset to pass, then you're not going to pass. And so I shifted my services from NCLEX prep to professional development. I do have a master's in nursing education. I have a board certification in professional development. So I shifted my mindset into just let's develop the nurse, but not clinically, just as a whole. Like as a person. The psychosocial aspect, the humanity, the human behind the person in this title and in this role and in this space. So I started doing some work on that. Then around 2020, and 2021, my goal shifted to DEI, as did the rest of the world, and talked about emotional intelligence and empathy and nursing and how that is the key to overcoming discrimination, prejudice, and racism. So I did lots of training and work and consulting work on that. And then going through my own personal journey, I really became big into human design and gene keys and universal law, and saw the difference that going down that road meant for me as a woman and as a mom and as a significant other, and how I showed up in the world and how eventually that made me a better nurse leader. And then I said, if it works for me and it works for some of my clients, then it definitely will work for other nurses. So right now, the New Nurse Academy is about the new mindset, the definition, and the reimagining of the new nurse, because what we were doing before no longer serves us. Nursing looks completely different. The pandemic messed us up. The economy messed us up, and the business of healthcare is prominent right now. So how does the nurse still show up to provide amazing care and not lose themselves in all the hullablue they have to do the mindset work? And so that's what I do now.

[09:01] Michelle: That's amazing. And there was so much right there, and one of the things that you said at the start was talking about identity. And I want to say to you, where were you 40 years ago? I needed you so much. I spent so long in that nurse identity, Tiffany, that when I retired two years ago, it was devastating. It was devastating to not be a practicing nurse anymore. I was like, what is my purpose now? Who am I? What am I going to be when I grow up? And that wasn't a good place to be in as a 57-year-old woman who had been a nurse for 36 years and absolutely loved it and was a little burnt at the end of the pandemic, two years out, I guess. I don't know if that was the end. And looking back now, I was like, yeah, maybe I didn't really need to retire. Maybe I just needed a pause. Maybe I just needed a break. So I'm so glad that you are focusing on that identity and really helping your clients to have a more well-rounded identity instead of just, I'm a nurse, and I love how it's blossomed from talking to actual new nurses to this concept of, you're a new nurse. We're scrapping what nursing was and we're starting new because you are absolutely right. The pandemic awakened so much of just everything. I think it just shed a light on kind of all the dark spots, all the problems in nursing that we knew were there for so long, but we didn't do anything about it. So. Wow, I love what you're doing at the Academy. I want to talk about emotional intelligence because you're sort of a specialist on emotional intelligence, I would say. And there's been so much press on emotional intelligence lately, and of course, it's always been there, but I don't know, maybe we didn't have a name for it. But why do you think it's so much in the press right now? Is that something that the pandemic awakened? Talk about that.

[11:47] Tiffany: Yes, the pandemic absolutely awakened the need to understand how people manage themselves and thereby manage others, which is a very succinct, informal definition of emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence has been around since the 1970s, and Daniel Godley did a lot of work in simplifying it. There's been lots of researchers and psychologists who have done the back-end work, and it's been called different things before, but it's really been streamlined by Dr. Daniel and the pandemic showed us the need for people to be social. What happens when people are in isolation? What happens when there's tragedy? What happens when people are stuck with their own emotions and thoughts, right? So there's no distraction. You're not going out to the club. You're not going out to ladies' nights. Like a lot of outside activity doesn't look the same. A lot of inside activity doesn't look the same. So what happens when you're with your thoughts and you're struggling, but then also what happens when the reemergence occurs and you are going back outside? And there's still a level of paranoia for some people about what if I get Covid in the beginning when people were dying, right, and people were hospitalized left and right. And a lot of I think, people's unearthed emotions came out after the pandemic. And how we live life moving forward just looks different as a whole, as a society for nursing. It took us by storm because not only did we have to show up, we had no choice. We were called heroes. We were put at ground zero. We were not protected, literally and figuratively. In a lot of ways, our own life and our family's lives were disregarded so that we could serve others. And so what does that do to the humanity of a person? We're being told this is what you signed up for. It's like, no, I didn't. Not at all. I didn't sign up. There was no contract that I signed that said, these are the conditions in which I will work. And so there's so much societal pressure about what a nurse is supposed to be. And then you have nurses on the other end that really embody the title and the role of nurse, and that's how they want to show up. That's something that I will forever stand on. Like, nursing is not who we are, it's what we do. If I decided to no longer be a nurse leader and work at The Gap and fold sweaters, I'm still a nurse, right? I'm still a nurse just by way of the fact that I have a degree that says I am. I went through the program, I graduated, so I'm a nurse. But I'm Tiffany. And there are so many layers and nuances to who I am. Nursing is a part of it, but it's not who I am, and it doesn't make me. But there are some people who embody their role and their title so much that their world revolves around their profession, and that is not sustainable. So emotional intelligence is key because you first have to have the insight to say, what am I feeling? What am I thinking? Where is this coming from and why? And then how do I manage it? And how do I want to show up in the world? How do I want to engage and interact with other people? How do I manage other people who are having big emotions? That's a lot of what we do in nursing, whether it is inpatient, whether it's outpatient, telehealth, whatever. Nursing is not a solo sport, so we are always involved with other people. The majority of nursing is helping people manage illness. And so what happens when the people we are managing don't know how to manage themselves? That directly affects us because we're human. And so the emotional intelligence piece is, can you manage yourself first so that you can manage others and then have effective patient outcomes in the end? 

[15:51] Michelle: I love how you discussed the fact that when you are left alone with your emotions and there's no distractions, that sometimes that can be an uncomfortable place to be in because I think so many times we actually use distractions as a way to stop feeling things. Right. So is emotional intelligence, when I was really doing a deep dive into thinking about what it is, I felt like as an older woman I have a lot more emotional intelligence than I did when I was a younger woman. So would you say it's akin to wisdom or something just totally different?

[16:43] Tiffany: Yes, I agree. I think if you live life long enough, you kind of just know how to live life. So the older you get, the wiser you get, because you have enough experience to know how to do things differently the next time. My personal experience with emotional intelligence came when I was a single mom at two months pregnant. So dating someone for three years, and we're both professionals and we're both over 30, and we have an unplanned pregnancy, but we're together and we're in love and we're in a relationship. And then I came home from the night shift and saw that he moved out. I was like, what in the world? So that wasn't fun. And going through the emotions of everything, pregnancy, hormones, and emotions, but then also heartbreak and anxiety about the future. And this is not the life that I want for my kid. And so all the things. The nurse in me calmed my fears by saying, you have a human being inside of you that feels everything that you're feeling, your heartbeat, your blood pressure, your cortisol. Literally, everything that is coursing through you is coursing through her. You don't want this baby to have emotional trauma like day one. And that was my thing. If you're going to be a single mom, Tiff, you do not want a colicky baby. Not only was I a single mom, I lived two states away from my family. I made my life in Philadelphia after school because I started working at the hospital. Immediately I was hired as a student, and so I never went back home. So not only am I without my boyfriend in the support of him, but my family is not here. And so if I'm going to be a single mom in every sense of the word and do this by myself, I do not want to have this kid be a colicky baby, crying all the time and just stressed out because of something I did while they were in utero. That was me putting my nursing clinical hat on and my first understanding of emotional intelligence. I need to manage myself so I can manage others. It does not mean that I ignore the feelings and the emotions. It just means I have to get to the root of them. Because behavior and emotions are not the cause. They're the symptoms. A lot of times, we only pay attention to the symptoms, but we don't pay attention to the cause. So then the symptoms are going to reappear. And so for me, I needed to get to the bottom of it, which included me going to therapy and unpacking things and then finding a different way to have meaning in life, to have a new definition of what moving forward looks like. But I first had to get a handle on myself, because let me tell you, Michelle, I was big like, showing up at his mom's house and knocking on her door, like, popping up at his job, and I was big. This is not sustainable. This is crazy. Tiff, you're acting crazy. Calm down. Relax. So that was my first personal interaction with emotional intelligence, and I didn't know that's what I was doing, but I understood that I had to manage myself in order for me to manage this baby, in order for me to have this new life that was not planned.

[20:20] Michelle: That's amazing that you made that connection. And I see so many similarities between you and me. I heard you on your podcast talk about your experience that you just recounted here of being a single parent. And though you had probably ten years on me, which is a lot of wisdom, I had the same experience. And I got a little crazy, too, and did those things. And I don't think I made the connection about I don't want this child to be born on day one with trauma. Right. From everything that she's feeling I'm feeling. I did a little bit of research into emotional intelligence, and I found this great article in the Frontiers in Psychology Journal, and it's titled How Past Trauma Impacts Emotional Intelligence. Examining the Connection. And I had significant childhood trauma. I have a high ACE score, and I definitely see that in myself and in some of my siblings. The trauma has definitely affected us negatively. So if you're someone who has suffered past trauma, how can you kind of move forward and cultivate your emotional intelligence?

[21:54] Tiffany: I would say therapy is a piece of that puzzle. Having an expert to help you unpack the childhood piece of it is important, because how we show up as adults is due to how we were framed and raised and molded as a child. I am a firm believer that our love languages now, as adults, were things that we did not get or things that we didn't get enough of as children. And so that's why we crave it, and that's why it speaks our language as adults. And so having a professional guide you through what happened in your childhood and the implications that it had because trauma does shape you. Trauma stays in your DNA. Trauma stays in your cells. The body keeps score. There's a book called The Body Keep Score. Right?

[22:46] Michelle: I've read it, yeah.

[22:47] Tiffany: So having a professional guide you through that is key. And it's nasty work, right? It's hard work. It's work that a lot of people don't want to do, which is why a lot of people don't stay in therapy or don't start therapy, because as adults, it's like, I overcame it. I've been there. I've done that. I don't want to revisit that pain, but you have to. A lot of times, it's just giving ourselves permission to forgive. It's giving ourselves permission to move on. It's recognizing that as a child, it was not your fault that things happen to you. And that is the start of having really good insight and self-awareness. The other piece for me, too, is the alignment and the connectivity between body, mind, and soul. I think societally, like, socially, there is a trend in people being more connected to nature, to plant-based medicine, to spirituality. But those things have always been there since, like, the beginning of time. So it's almost like a coming home kind of, of things circling back to nature and spending time outside and the sun and spiritual practices and beliefs and routines and being connected to nature, grounding and bare feet on the ground. There is a resurgence of that that's a little bit more public and more widely accepted. And so I think the two of those things. The connection between mind, body, and soul. Understanding that your thoughts are influenced by behavior, which is reinforced by mindset, which is influencing your thoughts, reinforced by behavior, there's that cycle. That and professional help is what's going to be the start. I don't think that people don't have self-awareness. I just think people don't know what to do with it. So they know how they feel, they know why they feel that way. They're just stuck at the next step. Okay, so what do I do with it? What does it mean?

[25:00] Michelle: I think you're absolutely right on that. And I've been so blessed to find some really great therapists over the three decades that I have tried to attack some of these things from my past. Exactly. I was nodding, if we had a video, I was nodding as you were talking about that. As adults, these things come up again, right? They keep coming up in my life, and I say to myself, Michelle, I thought you handled that, I thought you handled this. And again, talking about grounding, I did that this past summer. That was great. I sat out in my backyard with my bare feet on the grass, and it was wonderful getting into all those different senses and yoga and all those things. Everything you're saying is right on and so helpful in really cultivating that emotional intelligence. So I want to talk about your work as a certified healthcare DEI specialist. And for all you NICU folk out there, it does not mean drug-exposed infants. You are a diversity, equity, and inclusion specialist. Yeah, talk about that.

[26:27] Tiffany: So, in 2019, I had an amazing opportunity to be a part of an inaugural collaboration between the hospital that I was working for and Thomas Jefferson University, where they had DEI experts from major corporations and also in the political space, create this healthcare DEI leadership certificate program where they specifically talked about diversity, equity, and inclusion, but from the lens of healthcare. And there was no other program out there like this. And unfortunately, it did not continue after a few cohorts. So it was mind-opening to me because that is where emotional intelligence was presented to me as emotional intelligence. And it was like a light bulb went off of my head and the floodgates opened up and I'm like, I actually had a name and some language and some context behind the things that I was doing and I had an understanding for. But they framed it in healthcare, and they framed it under the umbrella of diversity, equity, and inclusion. In really just saying that at the basis of it all, if you have empathy for people, if you're able to have an understanding of why someone is doing what they're doing, whether or not you agree, but you have an understanding of their point of view and their perspective, then that's really it. Just have the understanding and the respect enough to allow for their point of view. And then how do you have a discussion to embrace inclusion and to embrace equity and to move forward collectively? Or to say, this is something that I don't agree with and this is something that I can't support, but it starts with that emotional intelligence again, and the empathy event. And so it was a one-year program, and at the end, I had to do some thesis work, and I presented it at my job, and it granted me a promotion. At the job where there was a nurse who was helping patient family advocates and leadership in managing discrimination and prejudice claims, which never happened before. So it was good. And because of that, I kind of spread my knowledge and information out to other healthcare organizations to say, hey, I'm a nurse, and I do DEI work, but I do it through the lens of emotional intelligence. Are you open to being trained? And that's kind of how I got my foot out there as a public speaker.

[29:13] Michelle: What a novel program. And how sad that that didn't continue because there's a huge need for that. I had the pleasure of interviewing a fantastic nurse educator and a DNP student at that time, and I think she's probably attained that by now, Carla Stanley. And one of the things that she said, she's a black woman. And she said, if you can see me, you can be me. She said that out of the sadness and the loneliness that she felt as the only African American person in her undergrad nursing class. And she's really worked, like you, very hard to change the whole narrative. And I just love that you're putting kind of the spin of emotional intelligence on that, because, like you said, empathy, I think that's the key to, this may sound really too simplified, but I feel like empathy is the key to a lot of things. Empathy may be the key to eradicating racism when you can say, we're the same human, but our skin is a different color. That's the only thing that's different about us. And we have a lot of similar lived experiences. Just like, take you and I, for example. We were both single mothers. You wanted to be a mortician. I was really into Quincy, MD, and I really wanted to be a forensic pathologist or a medical examiner.

[30:57] Tiffany: Oh, wow, look at that. Right?

[31:01] Michelle: You lost your sister, and I lost my brother. So we've both lost a sibling. You are a pediatric nurse, same one of your podcast episodes, you said, because you are of Jamaican descent, that one of your favorite foods is Jamaican oxtail. And, man, I have to agree with you there. I have a friend, a Jamaican friend, who emigrated here and just started his own Jamaican food truck, and was very successful. And, man, his oxtail is out of this world. So here are two random people that we didn't know each other, but we have all these things in common, all these similar lived experiences. And again, I think it might be very simplified because I know there are many, many layers to racism, but I think if we started there, we would have a much better discussion. We would get more people at the table.

[32:03] Tiffany: We would at least have more allies. Yes, I agree. Because racism is such a structural component, right? It's embedded in our economics, our education, our finances, our real estate, our health care, health care, right? It's structural. So it's going to take so much to unearth it and unroute it. But at the local level and at the part that we can control with empathy, it really is just appreciating the other person for who they are and how they show up, for acknowledging the individuality of someone, but then also recognizing that if you look beyond my skin, there are so many things that we have in common, right? And the thing about humans is we are social creatures by nature, and having common ground allows us to gravitate toward people. And there's so much intersectionality that allows us to form these bonds, which is really what we need as humans. But when you automatically look at someone and say, because of their skin or because of their language or because of their religion, I cannot associate myself with them, or I have to treat them a certain way, it's like you're missing out on some really dope people and opportunity and experiences because of something that you're placing all this value in. But on the other hand, I don't want you to act like I'm not a black woman, because me being a black woman, me being of Jamaican descent, has shaped me into who you see right now. And so I want to be able to walk into a place in my full blackness and not feel like I have to code switch or not feel like I have to appear a certain way and have to assimilate to someone else's version of professionalism. I don't want to have to do that either. And so having empathy is acknowledging that you are you, and you are the sum of your experiences. But also, I'm curious to learn more about you and in my curiosity, I may find that there are things we have in common.

[34:13] Michelle: Well, you said that so much more succinctly and beautifully than I did. So thank you so much for that. As I was, like, stumbling on all my words. You are very articulate. So thank you for that.

[34:29] Tiffany: Thank you.

[34:31] Michelle: So with all the nurses, the mass exodus of the profession, do nurses need to reassess their why? Like, why are they nurses? Why are they doing this?

[34:46] Tiffany: Absolutely. I'm so glad you asked me that question. I think recently on LinkedIn, I posted something about the difference between the why and the how and the who. Absolutely. I think anybody, regardless of the profession that you're in every couple of years, kind of needs to reassess. Where are you? Where do you want to be? What does the future look like? One of the things that I realize about nurses is that a lot of people feel like, well, because I'm a nurse, that's all I can do and that's all I can be. And so the thought of doing something different and going into a different realm, it's like, what are you talking about? There are a lot of generational, cultural, and professional beliefs that we still hold on to in the nursing industry that no longer serve us. Like going to Med-Surg right as your first specialty or going into the hospital right after college. I can have a degree, which means I'm college educated and go work on Wall Street and banking. Being a nurse by education and being a nurse by profession and trade are two different things. But also I feel like people need to live life based on their core desires and their values. And so for me, my core desires are time, financial, and recreational freedom. So anything that I do needs to be able to allow me to have time, financial, and recreational freedom. If I can find that inside this industry that I've invested into being nursing because I have a ton of student loans. So I might as well just stay here then. That's great. Actually, the job that I have right now fits those three things. I work from home, as a remote regional nurse manager in primary care Pediatrics. So I have full autonomy of my schedule. I make great money so that I can have the lifestyle that I want, and with both the time and the recreational, I mean, the financial freedom, I'm allowed to do the recreational things with my family that I want. I take my girls to school every day and I pick them up every day. That to me, is so valuable that my first meetings on my calendars start at 9:15. That's when I huddle with my team. 9:15 so my mornings are for me, and at 2:45, I block my calendar. I pick my daughter up from school at 3:15, I come home by 3:30, and my calendar opens up. At 3:45, I can have a couple more meetings before 5:30, and then it's dinner time. I built my calendar that way, and my admin assistant recognizes that, like, no, Tiff has a block on her calendar. Can't schedule anything there. That's important to me. And so I want nurses to reevaluate. Why are you still in this unit? Why are you still in this service line? Why are you still in this specialty? Is it speaking your love language? Is it honoring your core desires and your values? If not move, you are not a tree. You can move, you can shake things up. You would move. In any other situation. If your significant other wasn't doing something right, you would move and you would leave. If something was wrong with your house or your apartment, you would move, you would leave. Do the same in nursing. Why are we so invested in staying in a place knowing that it's not healthy for us? Again, it's those cultural norms and beliefs. And so I think everybody should reevaluate where they are, and that's going to answer the why. But the caveat is your why is not people. So a lot of people say, I do this for my kids. I do this for my mom. I do this because, no, they're not your why. They are your who. They're who you do it for. But why you do it for them is a different answer. The answer is not the same. So, yes, I do it for my kids. Okay, but why do you do it for your kids? Because of time, financial, and recreational freedom. Your why are your values and your core desires and your who are the people who benefit from that.

[39:06] Michelle: Yeah, that's a great distinction that you make. And I think so many times we get it all muddled up, our who and our why. So thank you for that. And one of the joys of doing this podcast and interviewing almost 80 nurses now is I get to see that all the time. It's something that still, just, during so many interviews, my jaw just drops because of the things that nurses are doing now and beyond the bedside, which, there's nothing wrong with bedside, again, I will say that, and I loved it for many years, but they are realizing that they want to do other things, and there's so many nurse entrepreneurs and nurse innovators, and I'm just still amazed. And I love that you're not a tree. You can move if you want to. Well, let's talk about your podcast for a moment. Tiffany, why did you start that, and what have you found surprising in the process?

[40:12] Tiffany: I started my podcast honestly as a way to just archive my intellectual property. I am not in a space yet where I am trying to monetize it or to have it go viral. It really is an outlet for me to share my two cents, which is the name of my podcast.

[40:29] Michelle: Love it.

[40:30] Tiffany: Thank you. And to provide a different perspective on things that are happening in and around social media and nursing. It allows me to, one, archive my intellectual property and put myself out there as a subject matter expert. But for people who are open to having that conversation, it's bite-sized hot takes on my opinion. Right. So who am I? Right. Why do you get a chance to have your two cents? Well, everybody else does, and so why not me? The purpose of my podcast is to have these conversations that I've been having on Instagram for the past five years and to put them in a different space that's more accessible to people who are not on Instagram and or who don't want to dig through the archives of conversations that I had in 2017. So it's a way for me to position myself as a subject matter expert in this space, but also to really spark that conversation of, like, let's think about this a different way. Let's see, what else could this be? And I know that sometimes I can be a little bit unconventional and radical, and so that's why I have the podcast.

[41:45] Michelle: Yeah, I was listening to a few of your episodes yesterday, and so funny. It's like it would say the title and then in parentheses, explicit. And I was like, oh, this is my kind of podcast. I love it. And I love how your episodes are fairly short, like 15-20 minutes, which I really like as a listener. And in the beginning of podcasting, I was really trying to keep my episodes shorter, and my daughter was like, Mom, why just talk about what you need to talk about? Don't be so worried about the time. Because I felt like, gosh, if they're really long, people aren't going to listen. But that has not been the case. I love the title, and I love what you're doing with it, and it might just go viral whether you want it to or expected it to or not, because it's really good.

[42:41] Tiffany: Thank you. Honestly, I love podcasts. I listen to them in the car while I'm washing dishes. I'm starting to be a podcast, girly. I appreciate it. And I like the long podcast. Ironically, I don't do that at all. And really what it is, I really probably only have 20 minutes as a mom of a one-year-old and a full-time nurse manager and a full-time business owner and all the other things that I have going on. There's a dog, there's a nine-year-old. I literally only have 20 minutes to record myself, and then I have to edit it, and then I have to upload it. So release an hour, and this is all I have to give. So that's really what it is.

[43:23] Michelle: Yes. So that's constricting you a little bit, but for many people, that works because the average, I looked this up, the average commute is 20 minutes. And so a lot of people aim to listen to an episode on their way to or home from work. And my daughter also is one of those people like you, that just really loves long episodes. So that's great.

[43:52] Tiffany: Yeah. Love it.

[43:53] Michelle: Well, as we get ready to close, I'm going to ask you a couple more questions. This next question, I just recently started asking it. So is there someone that you would recommend as a guest on this podcast?

[44:05] Tiffany: Absolutely. Irnise Williams has been my business best friend forever. She's also on LinkedIn. She is a nurse and a lawyer. She became a coaching client of mine, and we just hit it off really well. We are both business owners, both moms, and both black women in this space doing things a little bit differently in nursing. And I love how she shows up on social media to teach people how to stay protected, how to understand the law and the business side of nursing, and just how to keep patients safe. And so she would be a really good person to have a conversation with.

[44:49] Michelle: I would love her. I have been following her for quite a while on Instagram, and I think I also follow her on LinkedIn. I'm not sure, but I saw that you guys were besties. And a few months ago, I put out kind of an APB where I'm looking for this person, this nurse specialty. And so I put out I'm looking for a nurse lawyer. And a lot of people recommended Kwame Liddell, which I had the pleasure of interviewing. Really great guy, doing great things. Also a nurse entrepreneur, and nurse innovator. I've wanted to talk to nurse lawyers for a long time, so I will definitely seek out Irnise. Thank you so much for that recommendation.

[45:34] Tiffany: You're welcome.

[45:36] Michelle: Well, where can we find you, Tiffany?

[45:39] Tiffany: Well, you can find me sharing my two cents on LinkedIn as Tiffany E. Gibson is my LinkedIn page and then the business page is New Nurse Academy. I am very free on Instagram. Free meetings. No holds bar on Instagram under New Nurse Academy. And then the same on LinkedIn. No. The same on Facebook, X, and TikTok. So I'm in all the social media spaces, but to be completely transparent, I run my Instagram and my LinkedIn page. The other pages are run by members of my team.

[46:18] Michelle: Okay, well, I've checked out all of those except for X, formerly known as Twitter.

[46:25] Tiffany: To be honest, I don't even know if I'm posting over there. I think once Twitter turned into X, I think we kind of removed ourselves from that space because nurses over there really aren't having the same types of conversations anymore.

[46:41] Michelle: Yeah. And I just don't have an account. But I will put all those in the show notes.

[46:46] Tiffany: Okay.

[46:47] Michelle: Yeah. Great. Wow. This has been a great conversation, Tiffany. I knew it would be. I am not disappointed in the least, and you've just brought so much value to our audience today. And I just want to thank you for saying yes to my request that you come on the podcast.

[47:08] Tiffany: Oh, no problem. I definitely enjoyed this conversation with you. I'm looking forward to listening to the episode in its entirety. And thank you so much for reaching out to me, and I appreciate you doing your research. Michelle, you asked me some really good questions that were thoughtful. So thank you so much for having me on your podcast.

[47:30] Michelle: Thank you for that. You know, I think as podcasters, and certainly other people, just people in general, I don't know, I really value the feedback, and we don't often hear a lot of it. And so thank you so much. I put a lot of thought into the questions and into getting to know you before I actually speak to you. So thank you so much for that. And, you know, at the end, we do the five-minute snippet. So are you ready for that?

[48:02] Tiffany: I'm ready.

[48:03] Michelle: Five minutes of fun, girl.

[48:06] Tiffany: Okay.

[48:07] Michelle: All right, I'm starting my timer. Okay. Would you rather work under a hot sun or in extreme cold?

[48:19] Tiffany: Under the hot sun.

[48:22] Michelle: Not me, but not cold either. I just want it perfect. Okay. Here's this or that. Shoes or slippers?

[48:31] Tiffany: Slippers.

[48:32] Michelle: I'm in mine right now, actually.

[48:34] Tiffany: Same.

[48:37] Michelle: Introvert or extrovert?

[48:39] Tiffany: Introvert.

[48:40] Michelle: Really?

[48:42] Tiffany: Yeah.

[48:43] Michelle: I hear this so much from people that I always would peg as an extrovert because you're so active in social media and just in your job.

[48:56] Tiffany: Here's the thing. Only active in the things that I'm passionate about, and then at the end of it, I am completely depleted, and I don't want to talk anymore. And I need some quiet time and I need to be alone. If it's something I'm passionate about, then I'm all for it. But if it's just being around people for the sake of being around people, no, thank you.

[49:20] Michelle: Love that. Okay. Do you have a pet peeve?

[49:24] Tiffany: Oh, yes. Tons of pet peeves. So personally, I hate when my significant other puts dirty dishes beside the sink instead of in the sink. Like, it's literally there. Just put it in the sink.

[49:42] Michelle: I can totally relate. My late husband would put his socks on the floor next to the hamper. Like inches from the hamper. Yeah, I totally get that. Okay. The last thing you searched for on Google.

[50:00] Tiffany: Pet stores near me where I could groom the dog myself was the last thing I googled, we have a German shepherd who is extremely itchy and is shedding everywhere. But he also has tons of anxiety, so we can't have other people wash him. We have to wash him. So find a pet store near us to get him washed.

[50:24] Michelle: I think you can take him to Petsmart.

[50:27] Tiffany: We have, like, what we've done in the past. We share the dog between my mother-in-love and myself. And so when he's in Jersey, it's easier for us to do it there. Here in Philly, Pet Smart, that's the closest Pet Smart to us is like 35 minutes away. So it's just not convenient.

[50:50] Michelle: Okay. Would you rather never be able to go out during the day or never be able to go out at night?

[50:57] Tiffany: Never be able to go out at night. I need the sun. I like the sun.

[51:02] Michelle: Yeah, we do most of our stuff in the day, right?

[51:05] Tiffany: Yeah.

[51:07] Michelle: Okay. Fruits or vegetables?

[51:09] Tiffany: Fruits.

[51:12] Michelle: Would you rather have a personal maid or a personal chef?

[51:16] Tiffany: I already have a maid.

[51:18] Michelle: What?

[51:19] Tiffany: Yes, Michelle. Miss Julie. Every four weeks. And she deep cleans the house every four weeks. She is not expensive. It is an absolute must-line item on my budget again, time, financial, recreational, freedom. I have to make decisions that are going to give me that. And I would rather have someone who enjoys deep cleaning because it's going to take me days and it takes her 4 hours. So I say all that to say, I already have a personal maid, so I want a chef now. I don't want to do dinner. Don't ask me what's for dinner.

[51:55] Michelle: I know I've wanted a chef for so long, and I've wanted a maid, too, but I feel guilty because I live by myself most of the time. My daughter's kind of in and out, and I'm like, you should be able to do this and you're retired. Michelle, come on.

[52:10] Tiffany: No. Just because you can doesn't mean you have to.

[52:15] Michelle: Yeah, exactly. I love that. Okay. You may have given me the ticket to hire somebody. Yes. Permission.

[52:23] Tiffany: Thank you.

[52:24] Michelle: Would you rather have Beyonce's talent or Jay Z's business acumen?

[52:30] Tiffany: Jay Z's business acumen.

[52:32] Michelle: I think you already have. You're on the road to it.

[52:37] Tiffany: I don't. I'm okay with the talent part. I need the behind-the-scenes business admin part. Yeah.

[52:44] Michelle: Okay, last question. Would you rather be royalty 1000 years ago or an average person today?

[52:56] Tiffany: Good question. Well, I'm going to say an average person today because, in my averageness, I want to be able to move mountains. And I read a quote that says, quiet women seldom make history. So in my averageness, I still want to show people that you can have such impact and influence. And so that's what I'm going to pick.

[53:22] Michelle: You're far from average. You're exceptional. And I really enjoyed our conversation today. You did great in the five-minute snippet, by the way. Thank you.

[53:32] Tiffany: Yay.

[53:33] Michelle: Yes. Thank you so much for indulging me, Tiffany, and for sharing all of your insights and your information. So I really loved our conversation today day, and thank you again, and have a great rest of your day.

[53:49] Tiffany: You, too. Have an amazing weekend, and talk soon.

[53:52] Michelle: Yes.

[53:53] Tiffany: All right, bye.