March 26, 2025 • 53 mins
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.
✨ This episode is proudly sponsored by G Ann’s Cold Pressed!
G Ann’s Cold Pressed creates fresh, cold-pressed juices for people who prefer fruits, need veggies, and care about taste. Their flavor-forward blends support your health so you can pour your passion into your purpose.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
for me to not be perceived as angry or for people
to have a difficult timebelieving that I was angry.
It's when I'm in meetings on aneveryday basis and things come
up that I don't agree with notbeing 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 mebe, if you've never seen me be.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Welcome y'all to another episode of the Peace and
Prosperity Podcast, Joined withone of my favorite friends.
We've done a couple of things,a lot of things together,
honestly.
Yeah, A lot Like I've been onyour podcast, You've been on my
podcast.
We've done IG Lives together.
I've had the amazingopportunity to work with you in
(00:49):
the corporate space, which isamazing.
A lot of mutual friends.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Yes.
And you do amazing work andeveryone loves you too.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Yeah, well, thank you , I really appreciate that.
Seriously, now, I didn't sharethis with you because I just
asked you to come on a podcastand you was like, yeah, you
didn't even know why.
You know what we were going totalk about, it's you Right?
So I appreciate that, tiff, butthe reason being is because
years ago we did a live and Iturned it into an episode and it
(01:18):
helped so many people.
You talking about yourcorporate experience oh yeah,
anytime I'm working with womenmostly women but, like, if I'm
working with women in thecorporate space and they're
struggling with confidence,imposter syndrome, boundaries, I
always direct them to.
I think it's like episode 19and this would be like episode
80 something.
(01:39):
So that just shows you.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Oh wow, You've been busy.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Well, it just shows you how long ago that was.
Yeah, yeah, but they reallyappreciate you and I appreciate
you.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Oh, thank you for that.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
So I'll let you go ahead and still introduce
yourself, because I didn't askyou for a bio or nothing like
that.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Yeah that's okay, so for everyone watching or
listening, I'm Tiffany Ellis andthese days I am now a full-time
entrepreneur, which we'll talkabout in this conversation, but
I am in my heart.
I'm a corporate girly, spent 20years, or a little over 20
years, in corporate Americastraight out of college, and
(02:19):
I've done everything from beinga frontline individual
contributor to being a globalprogram manager, national
director, so I have a lot ofexperience in navigating a
corporate space, especially forsomeone who comes from a family
with nobody ever having been incorporate before, and I think
that's pretty cool to say.
Now.
I'm a juice enthusiast.
You know I'm always talkingabout healing and helping people
(02:40):
to live and feel their verybest, and so I'm the proud
founder of a cold press juicecompany that is intentionally
inclusive, and I'm very proud ofthe product and all the things
that we're building.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Yeah, gns Juices has been around like what's the
birthday.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Yeah, so it's funny, On paper I started it in 2022,
but I actually launched itJanuary of 2023.
And so, yeah, we're two yearsin now.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
And the juices are good.
I'm about to start orderingsome again.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Thank you.
Yeah, I love them so much.
And for those of you who havenever 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 tocreate thoughtfully and
intentionally crafted handpressed juices or not hand
pressed, because I use a machinebut they're handcrafted juices
(03:29):
and they're made for people whodon't like vegetables, so that
we can help people increasetheir fresh fruit and vegetable
intake and prevent metabolicconditions.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
I know some people.
When you said that, like one ofmy best friends, he does not
like vegetables or food, really,does not like vegetables or
food really.
So I was like man, I see youjuicing.
He was like, no, that's becauseI don't like to eat it, so I
have to get it in any way I can.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Yeah, it's the best kept secret.
And when I say we make juicesfor folks who don't like
vegetables, veggie lovers laughright.
But you'd be surprised thatmore than 50% of the people in
this, in this country, don'tlike vegetables.
Research actually shows it'saround 57 percent of people
don't like vegetables andactively avoid them when they're
available.
So we make them enjoyable andwe actually change people's
(04:15):
perceptions of beets and carrotsand leafy greens and all the
things because we do such a goodjob at blending our juices.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Yeah, and they're good.
So I want to back up a littlebit, because you have a lot of
experience in corporate and thenwe'll talk about the
entrepreneurship world.
Can you walk us through, likejust like, what were some of the
positions you had?
Like what was your journey?
Speaker 1 (04:36):
like yeah, so it's interesting because I've been,
I've been posting about, so weknow all the things happening in
DEI right now, which I'm notsure if we'll talk about that at
some point.
But one of the things I alwayslead with in conversations on
social media when people areposting about Target is, you
know, they were the first onesto recruit me straight out of
college and I remember themvividly coming on campus at FAMU
(04:57):
to recruit me for theirleadership program.
So that was my first rolestraight out of school.
Then I pivoted and ended up inanother leadership program, I
think with enterprise managementtrainee.
Then I went.
I was you said, how old was I?
Yeah, doing these likeleadership, because even when I
(05:20):
was in college I was working atWalmart and I started as a
cashier and by the time I left Iwas a customer service manager.
So it's just always been a partof how I've worked.
I just show up and I reallybelieve in doing a really good
job and I think people see that.
And so let's see, I graduatedcollege about 21, 22.
And so, yeah, coming straightout of college, went into
(05:41):
leadership, then went intoenterprises leadership program,
then I pivoted into insuranceand I spent most of my career
there in the risk managementindustry and that career I love.
I wish more of us knew aboutthe insurance industry because
not a lot of Black people knowabout insurance.
But yeah, I started as a claimsadjuster and by the time I left
the industry I was a nationaltraining director, so I have a
(06:02):
lot of experience in that space.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Dang, so you were traveling too, I bet.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Yeah, I was traveling a little bit because I had
people in different states whowere on my training team who
helped to kind of run theprogram and I just, you know,
would pop in and check out theirclasses and help them with
their content and stuff.
And then I took a break fromcorporate before going back in
in 2020, after everythinghappened with George Floyd.
And I went to Amazon and that'swhere I spent my last few years
(06:29):
in corporate.
The last four and a half almostfive years was at Amazon and it
was just an amazing experiencein terms of the things I was
able to create.
Excuse me, the exposure I wasgiven, just the responsibility.
It was a really cool experience.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
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 leadershipand something that you were
taught growing up, is it likeinnate to your personality?
How did that come?
Speaker 1 (06:57):
It's a good question, Jason.
This is what I'm starting tolearn.
I feel like some of us justhave that thing in us.
You know that just it's a partof who we are and it just needs
to be harnessed and cultivatedand you have to hone in on the
skill to make it something thatyou can actually use Right.
So when I think about growingup, I'm the little girl that
always wanted to raise my hand.
I always wanted to answer thequestion.
(07:18):
I always wanted to lead theline.
I always wanted to be thesecurity guard.
You know, the little patrolalways wanted to be in this like
.
I just always wanted to be thatkid.
I would often get in trouble forspeaking so much, because I
just love to speak up and Iwould do my homework quick.
I wanted to do good, I wanted toget A's and so, like when I
take a retrospective look at mylife, I realized like this was,
(07:38):
this has kind of always been inme, and so when I first started
working in corporate, what washard was I didn't know how to
navigate corporate America,because nobody I knew ever
worked in corporate before andit's a very.
If you don't know what you'redoing, you won't succeed, you
won't last Right.
And so it's me just being putin positions where I had some
leaders who were willing to kindof take me to the side and say,
(08:01):
I see this, you have thepassion, kind of take me to the
side and say, I see this, youhave the passion.
So I don't want to kill thepassion, but let's, let's kind
of, you know, shape it a littlebit and make it more digestible
for people.
And I mean, people would getoffended by that statement now,
but for me, I'm grateful thatsomeone took the time to show me
that, because there are so manydoors that I was able to get
behind, because somebody tookthe time to teach me how to
navigate those spaces.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Yeah, and being a Black woman, you know I've
worked in corporate spaces anddifferent industries and I've
seen Black women almost geteither overlooked, overworked,
kind of stepped on at times,especially in a leadership
position.
So did you ever encounter anyof those things and if so, how
did you navigate them?
Speaker 1 (08:41):
All of those things, everything you said, I mean you
know to be Black in America.
At some point your journey willintersect with some other Black
person, because we all gothrough the same things.
Right, I think we just allhandle those things differently.
Even yesterday I was speakingto, there was a young lady who
started with me when I startedin my last insurance job and she
(09:01):
was an individual contributorand I was starting as a leader.
But we were in trainingtogether and, no, you know, we
didn't know who was doing what.
We just knew we were all in thetraining class.
So towards the end, she foundout I was a leader and she was
like, oh my God, we maintaincontact.
I met her in 2016.
So just yesterday I'm having aconversation with her because
she was overlooked for aposition that she was more than
qualified for and she wastalking about her frustrations,
(09:23):
right, and she was saying how,like the feedback they gave her
when she didn't get it, itreally hurt her because it
wasn't.
It had nothing to do with hercandidacy and her performance.
It was more about thebureaucracy and the politics of
navigating the space.
And you don't talk to us enoughand we don't know enough about
that kind of stuff and it for me.
It did two things.
It made me recall times when Ihad to deal with that same stuff
(09:45):
.
But then, two, it gave me theopportunity to give her advice
that somebody gave me thathelped me to get through it
right.
So it was the.
I know this stings right now andI know this is not who you are
and I know that it's gonna feellike you're being disingenuous,
but I need you to go back inthere.
I need you to smile, I need youto ask for this, I need you to
thank them for it.
You know I'm kind of giving herthe things to do and telling
(10:06):
her what needs to be herfollow-up so that if she wants
this position within the nextyear, she'll have it.
But if you go in there, you'remad.
You're not going to talk tonobody and they're playing with
me and you know all the thingswe feel and I'm not going to
forget know what they're goingto do.
They're going to say, oh she's,she doesn't take feedback.
Well, she can't handlerejection.
(10:27):
They're going to put all thelabels on you and it's going to
stop you from being able to dothe things that you should be
able to do already becauseyou're talented enough to do it.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
So were you ever that person where you got the
feedback?
You're like forget y'all, I'mjust going to do my job and go
home Absolutely.
And then how did you?
How did you shift your mindset?
Speaker 1 (10:46):
Look, I think about my.
I said I was going to make areel about this one day, cause
it's the funniest thing, Jason,I did my first.
I'll never forget my firstperformance evaluation when I
was working for, and I'll say,the company progressive.
My manager sat down and she wasgiving me my annual review and
she's saying stuff.
And I'm just like what?
Cause?
First of all, you don't evenknow me, right, this is me fresh
out of Miami, fresh out of FAMU, like play with somebody else.
(11:09):
You get what I'm saying.
So she's telling me all thisstuff and I'm just like I don't
agree, I don't agree, liketerrible attitude, okay.
And so she said listen, I thinkyou're brilliant, like I'm sure
that you can do this plus more,but you can't take feedback
that way.
Right how courageous of her togive me that like that
accountability and say yeah andsay cut it out.
(11:30):
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 notright, and what she had to
explain to me was you know, thisis a perception, this is how
perceptions impact your career.
And, like, she took the time tokind of break down to me how my
actions were perceived right,wrong or indifferent.
She also taught me how tocontrol narratives and so that's
(11:53):
the yeah.
So, like I'll give you anexample Once I understood that,
for instance, black women areperceived as angry.
Angry Black woman.
That's a trope that is there.
So for me to not be perceivedas angry or for people to have a
difficult time believing that Iwas angry, it's when I'm in
(12:14):
meetings on an everyday basisand things come up that I don't
agree with, not beingreactionary 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 mebe more than mellow, if you've
never seen me show frustration,if you've never seen me like,
you know it's like Tiffany.
(12:35):
If you ever hear that, I'mangry.
It's like what Tiffany Cause?
Like she never shows up thatway, even though outside of here
I'm all those things you knowyeah.
And here you get a certainversion of me and I used to feel
like it was me suppressing whoI was as a person and in some
respects it is, but I think alsoit's me reserving some of who I
(12:57):
am, because you don't deserveall of that.
You.
You get to experience me in acertain way and I'm not going to
come in here and say I'm justhere to know, I'm here to be
myself.
But I understand that I have toalways be aware of what's
happening in the background,whether I'm a part of it or not,
and how my actions will makeyou connect that dot for
(13:17):
yourself and categorize me asthat person.
Does that make?
Speaker 2 (13:19):
sense it does?
Because that was my nextquestion how do you balance
basically not losing yourself inthese certain spaces where you,
like you said, I like what yousay.
You don't deserve that part ofme, 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 (13:37):
I mean, you get to be you.
Look, here's the thing I had todecide In the later years of my
career.
I decided I wasn't going to beas suppressive, I wasn't going
to play the game, and so Iunderstood that came with
consequences.
Right, you have the right to bewhoever you want to be, but in
life, until things change,things are the way they are.
And so if you decide I'm goingto be me and I'm not going to
(13:59):
suppress this, you have everyright to do that.
But if they start targeting youwith performance improvement
plans, if they start overlookingyou for promotions, if they
start, you know, giving you workthat 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
(14:19):
game anyway, why sit on thebench?
If you're going to go to thegame, either stay home or get in
the game and play the game.
Because I came from a familywith no one having worked in
corporate America, and I was thefirst person that went to
college Because I learned how toplay a game.
I got to put my kids indifferent neighborhoods than I
grew up in.
I was able to afford thingsthat I never had access to.
(14:42):
I wasn't having to work two andthree jobs to make ends meet,
because my one job wassufficient for the desires that
we have for our life and itallowed me to be a more present
parent.
So I mean, in some respects, Ifeel like I won.
I don't know that we everreally get rich, because you
have to deal with the gendergaps and equity and pay and all
(15:03):
those things are still happening, but you can still have a solid
life for yourself if you wantto play the game and if you
decide like this is how I'mgoing to build until I figure
out what's next.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
I'm loving this already, like I'm thinking about
your last position.
Yeah, we met.
I think when we met you werejust doing straight
entrepreneurship and then atsome point you were about to go
back into corporate like shortlyafter.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Ok so, yes, if I met you, then I met you when I was
living in Tampa, because whathappened was my husband's career
took us from Atlanta to Dallas,to Tampa, back to Atlanta.
So for me it was difficult withthe job thing because his job
was moving him and I was havingto find new jobs and all of that
.
And then my son was having adifficult time because he was in
(15:51):
middle school.
So his sixth, seventh, eighthgrade year he attended five
different schools and so weneeded some stability.
We were like we need somethingthat's stable.
And so I told my husband one, Ithink I was out of corporate
because I was just tired of allof the, all the stuff.
Right, it was like all thethings and it felt like too much
(16:12):
.
This was right before GeorgeFloyd 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, nowI'm in the house and now I've
only known corporate.
I'm not making the money I usedto make.
My lifestyle is potentiallygoing to change.
I have a kid who's gettingready to go into high school.
I can't make this concession.
(16:32):
And so I decided to go backinto corporate and I actually
went.
People don't know this, but Iwent back into Amazon.
Well, I went back intocorporate in Amazon as a
warehouse manager and then Iended up becoming a global
program manager.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
And they're like how the hell did you do that?
But you know, what's in thecards for you is in the cards
for you.
Right, my bad, but with thedegree in criminal justice,
right yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Yeah, I always say that, but you know, so it's
funny.
I said the other day I was likeI've never worked in criminal
justice.
But that's not true.
When Target first recruited me,they actually recruited me as
an asset protection executiveteam leader, and so I started
with them.
I was in the office where theyhave all the cameras watching
the people who steal andcatching employees who are like
(17:16):
stealing from the store and thatkind of thing.
And then I used to come inevery day and I was so bubbly
and cheery and friendly and thedirector literally pulled me to
the side and said this is not agood fit for you because you're
too friendly.
Asset protection doesn't haverelationships with the employees
.
And so they pulled me intoguest services, like customer
service, because I was thatbetter fit my personality.
(17:37):
But that's the only job I'veever had in criminal justice.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
But even when you went back, you still were in
management.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Yeah, yeah, I was.
I was an area manager in thewarehouse.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
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 (18:00):
it all.
So, as far as the work wasconcerned, there were some
things that were important to me.
My husband and I talk a lotabout the life we live, the life
we want and the life we'reworking to create, and we've
become accustomed to certainthings, and so when I wasn't
working during that time, it wastaking us off track from the
life we lived, the life wewanted and the life we're trying
(18:20):
to create.
And so I said well, if the onlyjob I can find right now is in
Amazon's warehouse, that's whereI'm going to go.
Now.
I didn't know I was going to beworking overnight.
I didn't know I was going to be.
You know it was.
It was not easy.
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
(18:47):
Thursday, friday, saturday offfrom work.
But I would literally thosefour 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 goback to work again.
And so from my son's freshmanyear of high school, my husband
held it down.
I couldn't tell you how he wasdoing, barely saw them, didn't
cook.
It was horrible, you know.
And I finally told my job likeI'm sorry, but I'm just not at a
(19:09):
point in my career, cause whatreally made me realize I had to
set a boundary was I went there,I was doing good again, and
then they approached me and saidhey, so I know you.
We want to move you up to anoperations manager, which is a
level six.
I was level five and they saidand this is a few months into me
being, maybe like eight monthsinto me being at the warehouse.
They said but we want you tostart to run the sunrise tour,
(19:31):
which started at three o'clockin the morning.
You'll be the only leader inthe building three o'clock in
the morning until the otherleaders came in around eight or
nine and I was like, yeah, no, Ican't do that.
That's, that's, that's.
This is already hard.
Three o'clock in the morningmeans I'll be going to bed early
in the evening.
I still wouldn't see my familyand I wouldn't be getting any
quality sleep.
And so they basically told me,like by saying no, that I was
(19:51):
pretty much saying I didn't wantto move up.
You know they didn't say thosewords, but they pretty much said
that.
And I had a colleague whowanted to move up and she's
single, and she was like I'll doit.
So I said, hey, can youconsider this person instead?
They are interested in theopportunity.
But I knew then OK, that's it,you're not going to move up here
, so find another role in thecompany, because this is not
going to.
You know, but when you work incorporate long enough, you
(20:13):
understand how to do that.
So once I knew that, I toldthem no.
Then I had to start looking forinternal roles to get me out of
that department so I couldpivot and then continue to grow
my career.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Yeah, cause they like look we, you're an asset.
We trying to keep pushing youup, but you started pushing you
up was taking you away from yourfamily, the life you live, the
life you want to create.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Yeah, and I and I couldn't really like.
And so the funny thing is Iwanted to be present.
I just couldn't.
As a mom, as a wife, I couldn'tshow up.
As a friend, I couldn't show upand I felt like a part of me
was missing.
And even when it came toexercise and I exercise
regularly I wasn't going to thegym.
Yeah, I was in a physical role,so it was okay, but I still
(20:57):
wanted to be able to show up asmy personal best and it just
wasn't allowing me to be thatperson.
So I told myself, like look fora different position.
You know insurance?
And it's funny, cause I didn'teven know Amazon had an
insurance department.
They were actually kind of juststarting 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, Iwent through the interview
(21:19):
process and came over to thecorporate side and it was just
that, was it from there?
Speaker 2 (21:24):
So you were only in that warehouse for like what,
like a year, maybe like a yearyeah, just under a year.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
And then I moved to the corporate side, found myself
in insurance again.
So Amazon, you know, when yousee the little trucks driving
around delivering the packages,those are not Amazon employees.
Those are small businesses whohave a contract to deliver the
packages for Amazon.
They're called delivery serviceproviders.
And so sometimes they get intocar accidents, sometimes they
hit things and people, and soyou have claims that have to be
(21:53):
managed on behalf of Amazon tomitigate risk.
And I'm coming in with over adecade of insurance experience
and they're like come on overhere.
So I helped to get theirinsurance program on track,
which was really cool.
And then, yeah, I justcontinued to move around,
because once I started workingin that space, then I had some
time, because when I was workingovernight I didn't have time to
(22:13):
join employee resource groups.
I didn't have time for anything.
Once I got in corporate, Istarted networking, joining
different things, and now somepeople started to know my name
and then I started gettingtapped like hey, this person has
a role, can you apply for it?
This person has a role, thatkind of thing.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
So how dang.
Okay, I got a couple ofquestions.
Yeah, New to get into those ERGgroups.
How did I know to do it?
How did you know, Like, becausesome people don't even know
that's important and it soundslike once you did that it like
opened up your opportunities.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Yeah.
So here's the thing when you'reworking in corporate America,
the one thing I will tell you isa lot of people have the idea
in their head I'm just going towork and go home.
That is the biggest mistake youcan make, because nobody can
talk about someone they don'tknow.
No one can do it right.
You can't tell a person about arestaurant you've never been to
or never heard of.
People have to know you, and ifyou're at work working hard
(23:12):
with your head down all the time, then, yeah, your work is
getting done, but no one knowswho you are.
So when you go up for theopportunity, hey, and the other
thing is, some people know this,but most companies have what
they call like.
It might be called somethingdifferent, but it's all the same
version of a process.
It's a calibration process andthat's where, every year, all
the leaders get together in thebuilding and they'll talk about
all the individual contributors,right, and so the more leaders
(23:33):
who know your name, when someonesays Jason Phillips in the room
, they'll say oh yeah, I talkedto Jason, jason did this.
Oh yeah, he's on this thing,you know.
And then you have more peoplebuying for your performance and
saying Jason's an asset.
Let's rate him higher versus Idon't know who.
Jason is or Jason how long hashe worked here?
And so I started to hear aboutit when I would be in these
(23:56):
different calibration sessionsas a leader.
Because, understand, too, not alot of Black people get into
leadership in corporate right.
So I'm one of most of the timesI was one of few sitting in
these rooms behind the sceneshearing these conversations and
figuring out because, being fromMiami, I know how to read the
room right.
So I'm peeping everything that'shappening.
I'm like, okay, so this personhas influence, this person needs
(24:18):
this person talks to thisperson their friends, if they
agree, like I'm figuring allthis out.
And so I get to take all thatback to my team and I'll say,
listen, you need to go talk tothis person, you need to join
this thing, you need to do that.
And that's how I kind oflearned to be a part of these
different things.
And then, too, I'm just thatextra person.
I like to do the extra things Ilike to.
If you're planning a birthdaycelebration for an employee,
(24:41):
count me in.
If we're having a team event,count me in.
That's my area where I thriveand you've seen that with me
hosting events.
So it was just natural for meto become a part of the
different ERGs and stuff.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
How do you manage being involved with everything
and then also having time foryourself and your family?
Speaker 1 (24:59):
Oh, that's a good one .
So the last time I did it, whenI 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 separatingchurch and state, right, like
I'm going to check my emailswhile I'm working.
My husband always teased mebecause I would get meetings put
on my calendar and I wouldn'tknow about them until I came
(25:19):
back in and when I was trying tomanage my personal life.
Sometimes there was an overlapbecause I didn't have my
calendar on my phone.
But I always told myself likewhen I'm at work I will give
them 100%, because when I logoff you don't get anything.
And I don't feel guilty aboutnot replying on the weekends,
not replying after hours.
That's just not my groove, likeI'm not doing it.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
So yeah, I had to ask cause I know you go hard for
your family and yourself too.
Yeah, I would imagine that sameprinciple applies to your
business now, and that'sprobably even more hard, but
we'll get to that.
So you go from warehousemanager and then you're in the
insurance department, and thenwhen did you get into the global
(26:00):
DEI role?
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Let's see, I left the risk management role and then I
was a part of the BlackEmployee Network and I was told
by someone on that employeeresource 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 programmanager before, not in title
(26:25):
but in in, like my work.
I had been a program managerbefore.
So I was like, okay, so I meetthe manager.
Moving to that role, and that'swhen I started doing, that's
when I did the beyond the yardand all the things that you.
So that wasn't my last role,that was a role before my last
role.
But I was supporting HBCUstudents and students who
attended minority servinginstitutions or Hispanic serving
(26:46):
institutions and it was justlike if there was a dream job,
that was a dream job.
It was just so cool.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
And it was so like impactful too, like that seemed
like it was like a match made inheaven for you, for real.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
It was yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
I still we have.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
I created a group me when the students came for the
conference.
We created a group me tocommunicate with.
Came for the conference, wecreated a group me to
communicate with them so theywould know, like what time to do
stuff.
And I think students juststarted leaving the group me
like recently, because we don'treally post anything.
But I mean, that conferencetook place.
What 2023, three years ago,yeah, or 2022, 22 yeah 2022, so
(27:24):
that's how long ago it was yeah,they're just now leaving.
Yeah, and there's still somestudents in there, but some of
the students are leaving becausewe don't really post anything
in it anymore, you know, but itwas just that experience for me.
Of all the things I did whileworking at Amazon, I'm most
proud of Beyond the Yard, andthere are a few other things I'm
proud of, but that one, thatone, had so much impact on the
(27:47):
students.
I'm so proud of it.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
I was sad when you left the role I remember.
Now it took your place, butthen you went from that role To
the global program manager role.
Yeah, yeah, and.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
I'll tell you this.
It was funny, I can share itnow.
So when I was in the rolesupporting HBCUs that summer, I
mind you, my role was not aleadership role, it was.
It was a leadership role in thesense of, like, I supported
college students but I didn'thave any direct reports.
But once again, I came into therole, I was excelling.
(28:21):
So my manager was like hey, Iwant to give you an intern this
summer.
And that's when you met myintern, because she might've
been messaging you and stuff.
So my manager was supposed tohave the intern, but she was
like I want to give you theintern instead.
And so I got the chance to havethe intern.
And once I had her, that's whenI was approached about a role
that was coming up, the lastrole I went into, I actually
(28:42):
started interviewing for therole 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 thingwas she's still in college,
Right, she's getting ready tocome in.
I know what a difference itwould have made for me if I had
someone like me to be like mymanager during my internship and
kind of help me to learncorporate and navigate corporate
(29:02):
.
So I actually reached out tothe hiring manager I was
interviewing with and I was likeI'm sorry, but I can't continue
this process because I have anintern that I want to.
You know, I want to see herthrough her internship to ensure
that she gets the role at theend.
And I said, once it's done, canI reach back out to you all?
I was scared to do it.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
I'm going to say that I was very scared, like dang.
That's neat to pass up apromotion and more money and
just a super dope opportunitybecause you are committed to
making sure that this otheryoung Black woman has the right
mentorship.
Dang, I didn't know that.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
Yeah like once I met her I was like I can't leave her
.
She's so wonderful.
So I was like, yeah, I backedout of the interview process.
I had gone through one, two,three interviews, backed out
right before they made adecision.
And so then I worked with myintern over the summer, gave her
her project that's when we didthe thing at FAMU, mind Over
Matter and that was her projectthat she had to work on for the
(30:01):
summer.
So it went great and we had tohave her write her paper and
afterwards she was offered afull-time position after she
graduated.
So once she finished, then Iwas like I reached back out to
that other team, like, hey, somy intern finished, she's
getting a full-time role.
Is it still open?
They didn't respond for a dayor two so I was like, oh, I
burned the bridge and then theyresponded and they were like,
(30:22):
absolutely.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
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 (30:30):
That's selfless at its finest.
Oh, thank you.
You know it's Jason.
I say this truly.
I feel like this is God givesus things for us to give to
other people, and the more hegives 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 impactthat I'm blessed to have on
(30:52):
people, and I think it's likeit's a privilege to be chosen to
do that kind of work.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
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 (31:03):
Yeah, wanji, that's her nickname.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
yeah, yeah she's so cool.
So then you are even as youwere in your last role, which.
Can you speak a little bitabout what you were doing in the
last role?
Speaker 1 (31:17):
Because you were busy .
Yeah, yeah, I was.
So you know, I'll start bysaying I was a global DEI
program manager.
Right, and I often say thisprogram manager right, and I
often say this I don't thinkthat people understand how much
DEI covers in the workplace,because in the mass media, they
make DEI about Black people orpeople who are a part of the
(31:40):
LGBTQIA plus community, but theydon't talk about people who are
neurodivergent.
They don't talk about peoplewho I mean even people who have
children and people who don't,because that's diversity, right
they have different needssometimes from the workplace.
They don't talk about militaryveterans.
They don't talk about peoplewho are differently abled.
They don't talk about all thedifferent things that are part
(32:01):
of diversity, equity andinclusion.
And so, in my role, I wassupporting the data center
organization, which that's.
We probably won't even havetime to truly have that
conversation right now, but thedata centers at Amazon control
most of the world's internet andmost people don't even know
what that is, so they don't knowthese careers exist, and so you
(32:22):
have the same, you knowcandidate profile applying for
these roles because they'reaware of the opportunities, and
so many of us are not aware ofthese opportunities.
And so my job when I came inwas to look at the workforce and
say, okay, what's happening?
Are people happy?
If they're not happy, whyaren't they happy?
Why are they leaving?
What is the differentemployment experience for
(32:43):
different types of people?
Dive into that data whenthey'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.
So I'm in the data, constantlyassessing how to make this
workplace experience the samefor everyone, and that's
basically the work that I wasdoing.
A lot of it was confidentialstuff, because I'm looking at,
you know, data and I'm lookingat, like important stories, but
(33:07):
I'm also the voice in the roomthat says, hey, this is not
equitable.
This manager has this manypeople on performance plan.
They happen to have these samecharacteristics and these people
keep getting promoted and theystarted.
The same time was like I'mhaving those conversations, you
get what I'm saying, and so thatwas one part of my work, and
the other part of my work washelping people understand how to
(33:27):
be more inclusive, and so I wasproud of this program that we
adopted that had a bunch oflearning resources and tools,
and what I would do isessentially assign different
learning modules to leaders,have conversations with them,
help to broaden theirperspective, help them to
understand that like, hey,people see the world different
than how you might see it.
Here are some differentperspectives.
(33:48):
But giving them resources theycan also use to help them have
those conversations.
So as they're navigating theworkplace, they're being
considerate of the peoplethey're managing and not just
assuming that everybody sees theworld the same as they do.
Does that make sense?
Speaker 2 (34:01):
It does.
I mean it's a lot, yeah, andthe reason I want you to expand
on that is because at the sametime where you were in that role
, you were growing GN's juices.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
I was.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
How.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
I don't know.
Look, so that role, look, thatrole was a global role.
So the beautiful part was I gotto go to Paris and Barcelona
and this place and that place,and it was just the most
beautiful experience becauseonce I started traveling
globally, then I realized, likethis conversation we're having
about race here in America is sosmall compared to the rest of
the world.
(34:37):
And when I started, when Istarted seeing other cultures
and seeing different things andI had gone to, like, the
Caribbean and stuff Okay yeah,those are traditional, but like
when I'm going across the globeand I'm going to different
places and I'm having differentexperiences and different
conversations, it really doesbroaden your perspective, right?
So when I come back home now, Iunderstand that how we see the
world and sometimes because asAmericans we can be very
(34:59):
arrogant we think that ourperspective is the perspective
and it's like no, no, no, no, no.
But I was.
I was serving in the globalcapacity and at the same time, I
had purchased the LLC to startmy business.
Because, you know, I told you Ijust started it in 2022, but I
actually launched it in 2023.
And so one morning I got up and,I don't know, it was just like
(35:19):
start making the juices, like it.
Just, it was like I got up withthe idea to start making the
juices, so I went, I called mybest friend.
I was like I don't know how toset up the Shopify store.
Help me out, I just need to beable to just take some orders.
When I tell you, it was amakeshift little site, honey,
only thing I could do was takeorders, and I didn't care,
because I was just focused onbeing able to take orders.
(35:41):
I went on Amazon, I ordered mesome bottles and I started
making juices.
And the thing was, I had beenmaking juices for years.
I learned to make juices when Iwas living in Dallas in 2018.
And I had been buying juicesmaybe for about two years before
that, so I had known about coldpress juicing and I started
making juices every week for myfamily, cause I used to post on
(36:01):
Instagram when I would fill thefridge 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.
And so, fast forward, when Istarted making the juices,
people were like, oh my God,this is good.
And you know how, when you cookat home, you think, okay, it's
good because I cooked it, butyou 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, andso I'm like, if I could get him
(36:25):
to drink it, other people willdrink 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 keptsaying when are you going to
start shipping?
I'm like I don't, I don't know.
You know he's like, well, youneed to figure it out.
I'm like no, so he gives me hiscredit card information.
He's like ship me some juicesso we can see if it works.
And so I started shipping himjuices first, cause I'm like if
(36:47):
it's, if it's bad, he ain'tgoing 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 andpeople just started like
supporting and it's it.
For me, what was very beautifulwas like you know, people
always say your friends don'tsupport your business, people
don't support you, they watchyou.
That was not my story at all.
(37:09):
Like all of my friends werelike how do I get the juice?
Speaker 2 (37:12):
Okay, I had some.
I think I don't know if youwere shipping yet or not, but I
had some in Atlanta and then youshipped.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
You came and got it.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
Yeah, and they were good even when you shipped it.
And then I remember you did thephoto shoot.
That was dope.
Speaker 1 (37:25):
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'mverbose, meaning like I'm
long-winded because I'm sopassionate about this stuff.
But I started selling thejuices, I started catching
momentum.
I knew someone who did somebranding stuff and she was like
sis, when are you going to doyour labels for real?
Cause I'm like what you got onthose bottles?
(37:47):
They don't look good and I'mlike tried it, but that's okay.
But you know.
So I used my corporate job tostart paying it in.
I would do like one label here,one label there, until I
rebranded everything.
And then I entered this cohortwith the village micro fund and
I remember applying for it andone of the criteria was you had
to be in business for a year.
(38:07):
So I had only started sellingthat January.
But I was like, ah, I boughtthe LLC last year, cause God
gave me the idea to purchase theLLC, so I qualified that way.
So I entered the program and itwas a 12 week program where
they taught you like businessfundamentals and then you had to
pitch a five minute pitch atthe end of the program for
$25,000.
(38:28):
And so I was up one and I wasup against.
But when I say businesses, likemuch respect to, there were
people I was competing againstwho have been in business longer
.
Their businesses are dope.
I'm going to be honest, I knewmy juices were good, but I
didn't feel there were timeswhen I questioned like okay,
tiff, your stuff is good, butyou're not really like $25,000
(38:49):
good.
You know what I'm saying.
Like that's what I was tellingmyself.
But even in that program I cameto class.
Every week I showed up, Iparticipated.
I can't stress y'all If I don'ttell you nothing else.
When you show up, show up.
If you're going to be, ifyou're going to go to the game,
don't sit on the bench, get onthe court, right.
So I would come to class.
I didn't feel like it.
But I'm still going to speak toeverybody, I'm going to answer
(39:10):
questions, I'm going to beengaged, I'm going to.
If you give me a homeworkassignment, I'm going to make
sure I do it.
Like that's how I operate.
And so I think part of thepitch competition was my pitch.
But I do think part of thepitch competition was how did I
show up this whole 12 weektimeframe?
Speaker 2 (39:25):
You get what I'm saying, for the same corporate,
same skills you use in corporate.
They helped you even inentrepreneurship.
Speaker 1 (39:33):
Same skills and I was literally when I was doing my
job I would fly Like.
One time I flew to Paris forwork and was there for like a
week and I saw them orderscoming through on my phone.
And you know I'm happy wheny'all order.
I swear I am.
But I ain't gonna lie.
When I fly overseas and I seethem orders coming through, I'm
like, oh, I got a juice when Iget home, because you know you
just want to sleep, right, right.
(39:53):
But those are the moments whenyou show up, in those moments
when you don't feel like it, andwe've all heard everybody say
this right, success is aboutconsistency, it about doing the
things you don't want to do.
That's always the message.
And so I was still like get offthe plane, I'll sleep, I'll be
jet lagged and I'm going to takemyself to the farmer's market
and I'm going to make y'all'sjuices tired as hell, cause I
(40:15):
wanted to make sure that you gotwhat you ordered, yeah.
Speaker 2 (40:18):
I got to ask a question Like did you have tell
us about a time where it waslike super stressful balancing
both juicing and corporate, anddid you ever pull an all-nighter
?
Speaker 1 (40:29):
Yes, I've pulled several.
The last all-nighter, the veryfirst all-nighter I pulled, I
remember I was doing a vendingevent.
It was like a day party outside, like brunchella, right, and it
was my very first time vendingfor anything, because I had not
been in business before.
So I didn't know what to.
So I didn't know, like, what tomake, I didn't know how much to
(40:50):
make, I didn't know, and I onlyhad two juicers at the time and
so when you make cold pressjuices it's slow, like the time
is the time, you can't make itgo faster.
That's why it costs so much,because it is what it is.
And so I think I made like 200juices with two juicers.
And if you understand the timeit takes to purchase the produce
(41:10):
, clean the produce, cut theproduce, do all the things Me
and my husband he's such atrooper when I tell you I love
this man so bad he not going tolet me stay up by myself.
So when I'm sleep deprived, he'ssleep deprived too, which is
why when I tell you I don't playaround like I'm not lowering no
prices, I know because we workhard over here, right, but yeah,
(41:30):
he stayed up with me that wholenight.
We finished at five 30 in themorning and had to be up at like
eight to go out there to vendoutside all day.
But I've done that so manytimes because, working in
corporate, you know, I would getoff work on Friday and go to
the farmer's market, pray thatthey have the produce, because
let's talk about that whenyou're buying real ingredients
(41:51):
sometimes it ain't really alwaysavailable.
So then I'm driving around tomultiple stores trying to find
stuff.
It's not easy.
It's not easy, but I love it somuch that I couldn't see myself
doing it any other way.
And I'm grateful for the day Iget any other way and I'm
grateful for the day I'mspeaking into existence.
I'm grateful for the day that Iwill have, like reliable
vendors, scheduled contractsthat can come deliver things and
(42:12):
I ain't got to drive around,because right now she's not
there and she drives aroundevery week to get all of your
produce.
Speaker 2 (42:20):
By the time I came to your house you had about five
or six juices or like a bunchyeah.
Speaker 1 (42:27):
Five now, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:30):
Yeah, and.
Speaker 1 (42:30):
I want a commercial one.
It's like $15,000 and I'm I'min a shared kitchen now.
So I'm like, well, I won't beable to get a commercial juicer
just yet, cause I don't wantnobody using my stuff.
But when I get to the pointwhere I can afford to have my
own kitchen, then I'll try toget a commercial juicer.
Speaker 2 (42:45):
Yeah, I mean it's coming, it's definitely coming.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (42:50):
So I want to also talk about so.
When I asked you to come on apodcast, I think you were still
at Amazon.
Speaker 1 (42:56):
I was yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:58):
So over the past couple of months, you're not at
Amazon, you're just full-timeentrepreneurship.
Yeah, what was that like foryou emotionally?
How are you recovering, how areyou doing?
Speaker 1 (43:10):
I'm still dealing with that.
I'll be honest.
So here's what I'll say.
I'm very grateful for the waythat it happened, because I hear
a lot of people losing theirjobs and it's not like how I
lost my job, you know.
Um, they came to us and theybasically said your role is
being eliminated.
Um, this was in September.
So they're like your role isbeing eliminated in December.
(43:30):
Um, as of today, you don't haveto do any more work for the
company, spend this time lookingfor another role within the
company.
You've done great work.
If you want to stay, you knowyou have our blessings.
If you don't find anything oryou decide you want to leave,
then after December you'llreceive a severance, and it was
a gracious severance.
It was like a base pay of fourweeks, no matter what, and then
(43:52):
you got an extra week for forevery six months you did and had
been with the company almostfive years.
So, yeah, I was like okay, well, that's a few months extra pay
on top of the pay, cause this isSeptember.
So I literally closed my laptopin September and I thought I
was going to look for other jobsin the company, but something
in me was like no, no, that's it, it's done.
(44:13):
Much like the feeling I gotwhen they told me to start
making the juices.
So I was like okay, so I closedthe computer and I didn't open
the computer back up.
Eventually I posted on LinkedInlike hey, you know, my role was
eliminated, blah, blah, blah.
And people were so kind they'relike oh, no, no, no, they're
DMing me.
I got roles in my departmentreach out to me and I wanted to
say yeah, but something in mewas just like no, no, no.
(44:35):
And so what?
I know in my head, jason, I knowin my head that like I look at
my company and I look at otherjuice companies around me and
this is no shade to anyone atall but like I'm like wow, the
brand that I've built, theproduct, I have the marketing
expertise, I have the skillsI've acquired from all these
(44:56):
corporate positions.
I know, know, intellectually, Ihave everything I need to be
successful Right now.
It's about my mindset.
And so what this process has todo for me, if I'm going to be
successful because that's thepart is I have to cultivate the
work ethic I have to get out ofthe way I've been operating,
(45:17):
cause when you operate incorporate, it's very, it's not
very easy, but it's much easierto 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 (45:28):
In entrepreneurship.
Speaker 1 (45:29):
It ain't like that.
Okay, it's like I got to knowwhat holidays are coming up, I
got to know how to market, I gotto watch what's happening with
the economy, I got to order mystuff, I got a budget.
It's like, and it's skills Ihave, but I haven't had to put
into practice.
And so now, as I've been goingthrough this and it starts to
get tough, naturally you're likedid I make the right decision?
Right Cause it's like now it'sstarting to get difficult for me
(45:50):
and I even I'm honest, like Iput on LinkedIn last week open
to work.
I want to go back to work.
I missed the world I had where Icould do my work and come home
and juice on the weekends.
I knew it, I understood it, itwas easy, like I get it.
I don't know if that's what Godhas.
And I told my husband.
I said the part of me that getssad sometimes is like I think
(46:10):
God means for me to be like inthis business and ain't no way
to run from this.
I'm going to have to go throughit.
But I mean, you know, like I'mopen to whatever the journey
brings and at this point I'mjust something to myself, like,
if it's corporate, it'scorporate.
If it's entrepreneurship, I'mgoing to show up.
But right now I'm going tofocus on getting my mind right
so I can show up the way I needto.
So I continue to be the personI've always been in my life.
Speaker 2 (46:32):
Love it, love it.
What's helping you the mostwith your mindset right now?
Speaker 1 (46:36):
Accountability.
Here's something I learned,right, and I had to face this,
jason, I thought she thought shewas spectacular, and I am
sometimes.
But come on, there are times Iam not Okay.
And it's like I realized oneI'm a leaky bucket where, like,
if you can imagine a leakybucket like you put water in and
it's just, it's just, it'sholes in it, so it's coming out.
(46:58):
And so what's happening with meis like okay, yeah, you're
smart, yeah, you're creative,yeah, you're this, you're that.
And when people tell you thosethings, you're like yeah, I know
, and you have thoseconversations and you waste time
, you waste some time, you wastesome people's time seeking
validation you don't need.
What you need to be talkingabout is how you're going to do
the things you got to do.
Right, you got to be growingyour mind, and so I'm holding
(47:20):
myself accountable.
Like each week, I'm just tryingto be better than I was last
week.
So if I posted two times lastweek, maybe I'm going to think
about a different way to postand post three times this week.
If I read one article, maybeI'm going to try to read two.
I'm just trying to like figureout what needs to be the pattern
.
If I didn't send emails likelast year.
I never really did any emailmarketing, but I understand
(47:41):
that's very effective forbusinesses.
I'm trying to start showing upby email.
I'm putting myself out theremore when it comes to vending.
I'm talking more because that'smy gift.
I know that I'm gifted to speak, and so I'm just trying to make
myself do the things that feeluncomfortable until I can create
a routine that can replace theroutine I lost from working in
(48:02):
corporate America so I can showup in the business.
Does that make sense?
Speaker 2 (48:05):
A lot of sense.
Yeah, I mean fromaccountability to it's like a
corporate.
The way I hear it, it's almostlike a corporate mindset because
like, if you can make 10,000 ina week in corporate, they're
like all right, you've beenmaking 10,000.
Now we want you to make 12.
Next month, 14.
Like they always have that push, push mindset and I hear you,
(48:25):
for your business, you're goingto be doing the same thing.
Speaker 1 (48:28):
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 ofthe KPIs I set for myself is
okay, grow the GNS cold pressLinkedIn page, right, cause it
started with zero.
So in a few weeks I'm at 60followers.
To me that's good, right?
I'm saying to myself okay, yougot TikTok, you got 47 K, can
you get to 50?
So now it's like trying, youknow.
So I'm setting those thingsbecause for me, what I'm
(48:50):
learning is like it's aboutpeople knowing about the work.
I talked about that, right, ifyou 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 feelencouraged to talk, you don't
feel encouraged to post, youdon't feel encouraged to be
outside because you're trying tomanage your emotions.
But that's the time when yougot to get out there, so folks
know who you are so they cancome looking for you.
Speaker 2 (49:12):
So I appreciate you One.
I knew you were probably goingto come on the podcast, but even
talking about the entirejourney, even the stuff that
you're still dealing with rightnow, because that's helping
somebody.
My last question before we wrapwhen it comes to confidence, it
seems like that's somethingthat has been pretty strong and
steady for you.
What's the secret sauce?
(49:34):
And then, if somebody'slistening, what would you say to
them if they're struggling withhaving the confidence to either
keep going or pivot?
Speaker 1 (49:41):
That's a good question, Jason.
I don't have anything profoundto say.
Speaker 2 (49:44):
This is what I'll say Like you always do here's
something that I made thecorrelation.
Speaker 1 (49:53):
So when I started doing the juice thing and I used
to play your Gotti song, youknow I got that juice, whatever,
like I'm very much hood, I'mvery much that girl, right?
And so I would always say, like, if you look at our card that
we send to customers wheneverthey get their order, which is
it's right here, right On thiscard it says you were born with
the juice and it has its ownflavor, made with your
(50:15):
ingredients.
Never be afraid to give theworld a taste.
So if you think about what Ijust said throughout the course
of this interview, what youheard me say is I'm showing up
as the same little kid who wastalking too much in class, who
always wanted to get it right,who was answering the questions.
This was the juice that wasalways a part of who I am.
I think sometimes we look atother people doing what they do
(50:35):
and we try to emulate that andwe don't live in our truth.
That's not our flavor, right?
What's your flavor?
So the confidence comes fromunderstanding what your
ingredients are and how you wantpeople to experience that taste
, that flavor, right?
And if you're too spicy, wheredo 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.
(50:56):
But understand your ingredients.
And you can only do that bytaking the time to yourself, by
yourself, being introspective,being real, holding yourself
accountable to who you are, andthen deciding what you want from
your life, what life you wantto live, what life you want to
create and what work you'rewilling to do.
And that's what you got to do,that's it.
Speaker 2 (51:16):
I got to ask you where can people follow you and
where can they buy GN's juices?
Speaker 1 (51:22):
Thank you so much for that question.
I show up, I've been showing upa lot on LinkedIn y'all.
So if you, I'm trying to figureout like the healthy balance,
cause I'm not gonna lie, I don'tbe 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 thatI'm not because they're just
getting a glimpse of a post butif you want to follow some of my
(51:45):
corporate work, I'm Tiffany YEllis on LinkedIn.
If you want to follow me on TikTOK or Instagram, my personal
page is Tiffany Speaks, soT-I-F-F-A-N underscore E,
underscore Speaks.
And then my juice page is G-N'sJuices and you can order juices
at gnsjuicescom, so that'sG-A-N-N-S-J-U-I-C-E-Scom.
(52:09):
And yes, we do ship and yes, wedo 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 juicesthough.
Speaker 2 (52:19):
Yeah, I appreciate you.
This is good, I definitely behaving you back.
Speaker 1 (52:23):
Thank you so much, Jason.
Keep doing your thing too,because you're so amazing.
I really mean that.
Speaker 2 (52:31):
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 beatyourself up about it.
It is OK.
We all experience anxiety fromtime to time and I gave you a
couple of things that you can doon your own, but don't hesitate
(52:54):
to reach out to a professionalto better manage what you're
going through.
Ok, and lastly, make sure ifyou have not like share,
subscribe to the podcast andsend this out to a friend.
And if you want to hear certainepisodes or have certain
conversations, let me know.
To hear certain episodes orhave certain conversations, let
(53:19):
me know.
You can shoot me a DM or justleave a review and I will
definitely follow up.
All right, y'all be blessed,peace.
for me to not be perceived as angry or for people
to have a difficult timebelieving that I was angry.
It's when I'm in meetings on aneveryday basis and things come
up that I don't agree with notbeing 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 mebe, if you've never seen me be.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Welcome y'all to another episode of the Peace and
Prosperity Podcast, Joined withone of my favorite friends.
We've done a couple of things,a lot of things together,
honestly.
Yeah, A lot Like I've been onyour podcast, You've been on my
podcast.
We've done IG Lives together.
I've had the amazingopportunity to work with you in
(00:49):
the corporate space, which isamazing.
A lot of mutual friends.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Yes.
And you do amazing work andeveryone loves you too.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Yeah, well, thank you , I really appreciate that.
Seriously, now, I didn't sharethis with you because I just
asked you to come on a podcastand you was like, yeah, you
didn't even know why.
You know what we were going totalk about, it's you Right?
So I appreciate that, tiff, butthe reason being is because
years ago we did a live and Iturned it into an episode and it
(01:18):
helped so many people.
You talking about yourcorporate experience oh yeah,
anytime I'm working with womenmostly women but, like, if I'm
working with women in thecorporate space and they're
struggling with confidence,imposter syndrome, boundaries, I
always direct them to.
I think it's like episode 19and this would be like episode
80 something.
(01:39):
So that just shows you.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Oh wow, You've been busy.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Well, it just shows you how long ago that was.
Yeah, yeah, but they reallyappreciate you and I appreciate
you.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Oh, thank you for that.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
So I'll let you go ahead and still introduce
yourself, because I didn't askyou for a bio or nothing like
that.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Yeah that's okay, so for everyone watching or
listening, I'm Tiffany Ellis andthese days I am now a full-time
entrepreneur, which we'll talkabout in this conversation, but
I am in my heart.
I'm a corporate girly, spent 20years, or a little over 20
years, in corporate Americastraight out of college, and
(02:19):
I've done everything from beinga frontline individual
contributor to being a globalprogram manager, national
director, so I have a lot ofexperience in navigating a
corporate space, especially forsomeone who comes from a family
with nobody ever having been incorporate before, and I think
that's pretty cool to say.
Now.
I'm a juice enthusiast.
You know I'm always talkingabout healing and helping people
(02:40):
to live and feel their verybest, and so I'm the proud
founder of a cold press juicecompany that is intentionally
inclusive, and I'm very proud ofthe product and all the things
that we're building.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Yeah, gns Juices has been around like what's the
birthday.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Yeah, so it's funny, On paper I started it in 2022,
but I actually launched itJanuary of 2023.
And so, yeah, we're two yearsin now.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
And the juices are good.
I'm about to start orderingsome again.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Thank you.
Yeah, I love them so much.
And for those of you who havenever 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 tocreate thoughtfully and
intentionally crafted handpressed juices or not hand
pressed, because I use a machinebut they're handcrafted juices
(03:29):
and they're made for people whodon't like vegetables, so that
we can help people increasetheir fresh fruit and vegetable
intake and prevent metabolicconditions.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
I know some people.
When you said that, like one ofmy best friends, he does not
like vegetables or food, really,does not like vegetables or
food really.
So I was like man, I see youjuicing.
He was like, no, that's becauseI don't like to eat it, so I
have to get it in any way I can.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Yeah, it's the best kept secret.
And when I say we make juicesfor folks who don't like
vegetables, veggie lovers laughright.
But you'd be surprised thatmore than 50% of the people in
this, in this country, don'tlike vegetables.
Research actually shows it'saround 57 percent of people
don't like vegetables andactively avoid them when they're
available.
So we make them enjoyable andwe actually change people's
(04:15):
perceptions of beets and carrotsand leafy greens and all the
things because we do such a goodjob at blending our juices.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Yeah, and they're good.
So I want to back up a littlebit, because you have a lot of
experience in corporate and thenwe'll talk about the
entrepreneurship world.
Can you walk us through, likejust like, what were some of the
positions you had?
Like what was your journey?
Speaker 1 (04:36):
like yeah, so it's interesting because I've been,
I've been posting about, so weknow all the things happening in
DEI right now, which I'm notsure if we'll talk about that at
some point.
But one of the things I alwayslead with in conversations on
social media when people areposting about Target is, you
know, they were the first onesto recruit me straight out of
college and I remember themvividly coming on campus at FAMU
(04:57):
to recruit me for theirleadership program.
So that was my first rolestraight out of school.
Then I pivoted and ended up inanother leadership program, I
think with enterprise managementtrainee.
Then I went.
I was you said, how old was I?
Yeah, doing these likeleadership, because even when I
(05:20):
was in college I was working atWalmart and I started as a
cashier and by the time I left Iwas a customer service manager.
So it's just always been a partof how I've worked.
I just show up and I reallybelieve in doing a really good
job and I think people see that.
And so let's see, I graduatedcollege about 21, 22.
And so, yeah, coming straightout of college, went into
(05:41):
leadership, then went intoenterprises leadership program,
then I pivoted into insuranceand I spent most of my career
there in the risk managementindustry and that career I love.
I wish more of us knew aboutthe insurance industry because
not a lot of Black people knowabout insurance.
But yeah, I started as a claimsadjuster and by the time I left
the industry I was a nationaltraining director, so I have a
(06:02):
lot of experience in that space.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Dang, so you were traveling too, I bet.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Yeah, I was traveling a little bit because I had
people in different states whowere on my training team who
helped to kind of run theprogram and I just, you know,
would pop in and check out theirclasses and help them with
their content and stuff.
And then I took a break fromcorporate before going back in
in 2020, after everythinghappened with George Floyd.
And I went to Amazon and that'swhere I spent my last few years
(06:29):
in corporate.
The last four and a half almostfive years was at Amazon and it
was just an amazing experiencein terms of the things I was
able to create.
Excuse me, the exposure I wasgiven, just the responsibility.
It was a really cool experience.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
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 leadershipand something that you were
taught growing up, is it likeinnate to your personality?
How did that come?
Speaker 1 (06:57):
It's a good question, Jason.
This is what I'm starting tolearn.
I feel like some of us justhave that thing in us.
You know that just it's a partof who we are and it just needs
to be harnessed and cultivatedand you have to hone in on the
skill to make it something thatyou can actually use Right.
So when I think about growingup, I'm the little girl that
always wanted to raise my hand.
I always wanted to answer thequestion.
(07:18):
I always wanted to lead theline.
I always wanted to be thesecurity guard.
You know, the little patrolalways wanted to be in this like
.
I just always wanted to be thatkid.
I would often get in trouble forspeaking so much, because I
just love to speak up and Iwould do my homework quick.
I wanted to do good, I wanted toget A's and so, like when I
take a retrospective look at mylife, I realized like this was,
(07:38):
this has kind of always been inme, and so when I first started
working in corporate, what washard was I didn't know how to
navigate corporate America,because nobody I knew ever
worked in corporate before andit's a very.
If you don't know what you'redoing, you won't succeed, you
won't last Right.
And so it's me just being putin positions where I had some
leaders who were willing to kindof take me to the side and say,
(08:01):
I see this, you have thepassion, kind of take me to the
side and say, I see this, youhave the passion.
So I don't want to kill thepassion, but let's, let's kind
of, you know, shape it a littlebit and make it more digestible
for people.
And I mean, people would getoffended by that statement now,
but for me, I'm grateful thatsomeone took the time to show me
that, because there are so manydoors that I was able to get
behind, because somebody tookthe time to teach me how to
navigate those spaces.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Yeah, and being a Black woman, you know I've
worked in corporate spaces anddifferent industries and I've
seen Black women almost geteither overlooked, overworked,
kind of stepped on at times,especially in a leadership
position.
So did you ever encounter anyof those things and if so, how
did you navigate them?
Speaker 1 (08:41):
All of those things, everything you said, I mean you
know to be Black in America.
At some point your journey willintersect with some other Black
person, because we all gothrough the same things.
Right, I think we just allhandle those things differently.
Even yesterday I was speakingto, there was a young lady who
started with me when I startedin my last insurance job and she
(09:01):
was an individual contributorand I was starting as a leader.
But we were in trainingtogether and, no, you know, we
didn't know who was doing what.
We just knew we were all in thetraining class.
So towards the end, she foundout I was a leader and she was
like, oh my God, we maintaincontact.
I met her in 2016.
So just yesterday I'm having aconversation with her because
she was overlooked for aposition that she was more than
qualified for and she wastalking about her frustrations,
(09:23):
right, and she was saying how,like the feedback they gave her
when she didn't get it, itreally hurt her because it
wasn't.
It had nothing to do with hercandidacy and her performance.
It was more about thebureaucracy and the politics of
navigating the space.
And you don't talk to us enoughand we don't know enough about
that kind of stuff and it for me.
It did two things.
It made me recall times when Ihad to deal with that same stuff
(09:45):
.
But then, two, it gave me theopportunity to give her advice
that somebody gave me thathelped me to get through it
right.
So it was the.
I know this stings right now andI know this is not who you are
and I know that it's gonna feellike you're being disingenuous,
but I need you to go back inthere.
I need you to smile, I need youto ask for this, I need you to
thank them for it.
You know I'm kind of giving herthe things to do and telling
(10:06):
her what needs to be herfollow-up so that if she wants
this position within the nextyear, she'll have it.
But if you go in there, you'remad.
You're not going to talk tonobody and they're playing with
me and you know all the thingswe feel and I'm not going to
forget know what they're goingto do.
They're going to say, oh she's,she doesn't take feedback.
Well, she can't handlerejection.
(10:27):
They're going to put all thelabels on you and it's going to
stop you from being able to dothe things that you should be
able to do already becauseyou're talented enough to do it.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
So were you ever that person where you got the
feedback?
You're like forget y'all, I'mjust going to do my job and go
home Absolutely.
And then how did you?
How did you shift your mindset?
Speaker 1 (10:46):
Look, I think about my.
I said I was going to make areel about this one day, cause
it's the funniest thing, Jason,I did my first.
I'll never forget my firstperformance evaluation when I
was working for, and I'll say,the company progressive.
My manager sat down and she wasgiving me my annual review and
she's saying stuff.
And I'm just like what?
Cause?
First of all, you don't evenknow me, right, this is me fresh
out of Miami, fresh out of FAMU, like play with somebody else.
(11:09):
You get what I'm saying.
So she's telling me all thisstuff and I'm just like I don't
agree, I don't agree, liketerrible attitude, okay.
And so she said listen, I thinkyou're brilliant, like I'm sure
that you can do this plus more,but you can't take feedback
that way.
Right how courageous of her togive me that like that
accountability and say yeah andsay cut it out.
(11:30):
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 notright, and what she had to
explain to me was you know, thisis a perception, this is how
perceptions impact your career.
And, like, she took the time tokind of break down to me how my
actions were perceived right,wrong or indifferent.
She also taught me how tocontrol narratives and so that's
(11:53):
the yeah.
So, like I'll give you anexample Once I understood that,
for instance, black women areperceived as angry.
Angry Black woman.
That's a trope that is there.
So for me to not be perceivedas angry or for people to have a
difficult time believing that Iwas angry, it's when I'm in
(12:14):
meetings on an everyday basisand things come up that I don't
agree with, not beingreactionary 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 mebe more than mellow, if you've
never seen me show frustration,if you've never seen me like,
you know it's like Tiffany.
(12:35):
If you ever hear that, I'mangry.
It's like what Tiffany Cause?
Like she never shows up thatway, even though outside of here
I'm all those things you knowyeah.
And here you get a certainversion of me and I used to feel
like it was me suppressing whoI was as a person and in some
respects it is, but I think alsoit's me reserving some of who I
(12:57):
am, because you don't deserveall of that.
You.
You get to experience me in acertain way and I'm not going to
come in here and say I'm justhere to know, I'm here to be
myself.
But I understand that I have toalways be aware of what's
happening in the background,whether I'm a part of it or not,
and how my actions will makeyou connect that dot for
(13:17):
yourself and categorize me asthat person.
Does that make?
Speaker 2 (13:19):
sense it does?
Because that was my nextquestion how do you balance
basically not losing yourself inthese certain spaces where you,
like you said, I like what yousay.
You don't deserve that part ofme, 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 (13:37):
I mean, you get to be you.
Look, here's the thing I had todecide In the later years of my
career.
I decided I wasn't going to beas suppressive, I wasn't going
to play the game, and so Iunderstood that came with
consequences.
Right, you have the right to bewhoever you want to be, but in
life, until things change,things are the way they are.
And so if you decide I'm goingto be me and I'm not going to
(13:59):
suppress this, you have everyright to do that.
But if they start targeting youwith performance improvement
plans, if they start overlookingyou for promotions, if they
start, you know, giving you workthat 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
(14:19):
game anyway, why sit on thebench?
If you're going to go to thegame, either stay home or get in
the game and play the game.
Because I came from a familywith no one having worked in
corporate America, and I was thefirst person that went to
college Because I learned how toplay a game.
I got to put my kids indifferent neighborhoods than I
grew up in.
I was able to afford thingsthat I never had access to.
(14:42):
I wasn't having to work two andthree jobs to make ends meet,
because my one job wassufficient for the desires that
we have for our life and itallowed me to be a more present
parent.
So I mean, in some respects, Ifeel like I won.
I don't know that we everreally get rich, because you
have to deal with the gendergaps and equity and pay and all
(15:03):
those things are still happening, but you can still have a solid
life for yourself if you wantto play the game and if you
decide like this is how I'mgoing to build until I figure
out what's next.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
I'm loving this already, like I'm thinking about
your last position.
Yeah, we met.
I think when we met you werejust doing straight
entrepreneurship and then atsome point you were about to go
back into corporate like shortlyafter.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Ok so, yes, if I met you, then I met you when I was
living in Tampa, because whathappened was my husband's career
took us from Atlanta to Dallas,to Tampa, back to Atlanta.
So for me it was difficult withthe job thing because his job
was moving him and I was havingto find new jobs and all of that
.
And then my son was having adifficult time because he was in
(15:51):
middle school.
So his sixth, seventh, eighthgrade year he attended five
different schools and so weneeded some stability.
We were like we need somethingthat's stable.
And so I told my husband one, Ithink I was out of corporate
because I was just tired of allof the, all the stuff.
Right, it was like all thethings and it felt like too much
(16:12):
.
This was right before GeorgeFloyd 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, nowI'm in the house and now I've
only known corporate.
I'm not making the money I usedto make.
My lifestyle is potentiallygoing to change.
I have a kid who's gettingready to go into high school.
I can't make this concession.
(16:32):
And so I decided to go backinto corporate and I actually
went.
People don't know this, but Iwent back into Amazon.
Well, I went back intocorporate in Amazon as a
warehouse manager and then Iended up becoming a global
program manager.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
And they're like how the hell did you do that?
But you know, what's in thecards for you is in the cards
for you.
Right, my bad, but with thedegree in criminal justice,
right yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Yeah, I always say that, but you know, so it's
funny.
I said the other day I was likeI've never worked in criminal
justice.
But that's not true.
When Target first recruited me,they actually recruited me as
an asset protection executiveteam leader, and so I started
with them.
I was in the office where theyhave all the cameras watching
the people who steal andcatching employees who are like
(17:16):
stealing from the store and thatkind of thing.
And then I used to come inevery day and I was so bubbly
and cheery and friendly and thedirector literally pulled me to
the side and said this is not agood fit for you because you're
too friendly.
Asset protection doesn't haverelationships with the employees
.
And so they pulled me intoguest services, like customer
service, because I was thatbetter fit my personality.
(17:37):
But that's the only job I'veever had in criminal justice.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
But even when you went back, you still were in
management.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Yeah, yeah, I was.
I was an area manager in thewarehouse.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
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 (18:00):
it all.
So, as far as the work wasconcerned, there were some
things that were important to me.
My husband and I talk a lotabout the life we live, the life
we want and the life we'reworking to create, and we've
become accustomed to certainthings, and so when I wasn't
working during that time, it wastaking us off track from the
life we lived, the life wewanted and the life we're trying
(18:20):
to create.
And so I said well, if the onlyjob I can find right now is in
Amazon's warehouse, that's whereI'm going to go.
Now.
I didn't know I was going to beworking overnight.
I didn't know I was going to be.
You know it was.
It was not easy.
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
(18:47):
Thursday, friday, saturday offfrom work.
But I would literally thosefour 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 goback to work again.
And so from my son's freshmanyear of high school, my husband
held it down.
I couldn't tell you how he wasdoing, barely saw them, didn't
cook.
It was horrible, you know.
And I finally told my job likeI'm sorry, but I'm just not at a
(19:09):
point in my career, cause whatreally made me realize I had to
set a boundary was I went there,I was doing good again, and
then they approached me and saidhey, so I know you.
We want to move you up to anoperations manager, which is a
level six.
I was level five and they saidand this is a few months into me
being, maybe like eight monthsinto me being at the warehouse.
They said but we want you tostart to run the sunrise tour,
(19:31):
which started at three o'clockin the morning.
You'll be the only leader inthe building three o'clock in
the morning until the otherleaders came in around eight or
nine and I was like, yeah, no, Ican't do that.
That's, that's, that's.
This is already hard.
Three o'clock in the morningmeans I'll be going to bed early
in the evening.
I still wouldn't see my familyand I wouldn't be getting any
quality sleep.
And so they basically told me,like by saying no, that I was
(19:51):
pretty much saying I didn't wantto move up.
You know they didn't say thosewords, but they pretty much said
that.
And I had a colleague whowanted to move up and she's
single, and she was like I'll doit.
So I said, hey, can youconsider this person instead?
They are interested in theopportunity.
But I knew then OK, that's it,you're not going to move up here
, so find another role in thecompany, because this is not
going to.
You know, but when you work incorporate long enough, you
(20:13):
understand how to do that.
So once I knew that, I toldthem no.
Then I had to start looking forinternal roles to get me out of
that department so I couldpivot and then continue to grow
my career.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Yeah, cause they like look we, you're an asset.
We trying to keep pushing youup, but you started pushing you
up was taking you away from yourfamily, the life you live, the
life you want to create.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Yeah, and I and I couldn't really like.
And so the funny thing is Iwanted to be present.
I just couldn't.
As a mom, as a wife, I couldn'tshow up.
As a friend, I couldn't show upand I felt like a part of me
was missing.
And even when it came toexercise and I exercise
regularly I wasn't going to thegym.
Yeah, I was in a physical role,so it was okay, but I still
(20:57):
wanted to be able to show up asmy personal best and it just
wasn't allowing me to be thatperson.
So I told myself, like look fora different position.
You know insurance?
And it's funny, cause I didn'teven know Amazon had an
insurance department.
They were actually kind of juststarting 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, Iwent through the interview
(21:19):
process and came over to thecorporate side and it was just
that, was it from there?
Speaker 2 (21:24):
So you were only in that warehouse for like what,
like a year, maybe like a yearyeah, just under a year.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
And then I moved to the corporate side, found myself
in insurance again.
So Amazon, you know, when yousee the little trucks driving
around delivering the packages,those are not Amazon employees.
Those are small businesses whohave a contract to deliver the
packages for Amazon.
They're called delivery serviceproviders.
And so sometimes they get intocar accidents, sometimes they
hit things and people, and soyou have claims that have to be
(21:53):
managed on behalf of Amazon tomitigate risk.
And I'm coming in with over adecade of insurance experience
and they're like come on overhere.
So I helped to get theirinsurance program on track,
which was really cool.
And then, yeah, I justcontinued to move around,
because once I started workingin that space, then I had some
time, because when I was workingovernight I didn't have time to
(22:13):
join employee resource groups.
I didn't have time for anything.
Once I got in corporate, Istarted networking, joining
different things, and now somepeople started to know my name
and then I started gettingtapped like hey, this person has
a role, can you apply for it?
This person has a role, thatkind of thing.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
So how dang.
Okay, I got a couple ofquestions.
Yeah, New to get into those ERGgroups.
How did I know to do it?
How did you know, Like, becausesome people don't even know
that's important and it soundslike once you did that it like
opened up your opportunities.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Yeah.
So here's the thing when you'reworking in corporate America,
the one thing I will tell you isa lot of people have the idea
in their head I'm just going towork and go home.
That is the biggest mistake youcan make, because nobody can
talk about someone they don'tknow.
No one can do it right.
You can't tell a person about arestaurant you've never been to
or never heard of.
People have to know you, and ifyou're at work working hard
(23:12):
with your head down all the time, then, yeah, your work is
getting done, but no one knowswho you are.
So when you go up for theopportunity, hey, and the other
thing is, some people know this,but most companies have what
they call like.
It might be called somethingdifferent, but it's all the same
version of a process.
It's a calibration process andthat's where, every year, all
the leaders get together in thebuilding and they'll talk about
all the individual contributors,right, and so the more leaders
(23:33):
who know your name, when someonesays Jason Phillips in the room
, they'll say oh yeah, I talkedto Jason, jason did this.
Oh yeah, he's on this thing,you know.
And then you have more peoplebuying for your performance and
saying Jason's an asset.
Let's rate him higher versus Idon't know who.
Jason is or Jason how long hashe worked here?
And so I started to hear aboutit when I would be in these
(23:56):
different calibration sessionsas a leader.
Because, understand, too, not alot of Black people get into
leadership in corporate right.
So I'm one of most of the timesI was one of few sitting in
these rooms behind the sceneshearing these conversations and
figuring out because, being fromMiami, I know how to read the
room right.
So I'm peeping everything that'shappening.
I'm like, okay, so this personhas influence, this person needs
(24:18):
this person talks to thisperson their friends, if they
agree, like I'm figuring allthis out.
And so I get to take all thatback to my team and I'll say,
listen, you need to go talk tothis person, you need to join
this thing, you need to do that.
And that's how I kind oflearned to be a part of these
different things.
And then, too, I'm just thatextra person.
I like to do the extra things Ilike to.
If you're planning a birthdaycelebration for an employee,
(24:41):
count me in.
If we're having a team event,count me in.
That's my area where I thriveand you've seen that with me
hosting events.
So it was just natural for meto become a part of the
different ERGs and stuff.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
How do you manage being involved with everything
and then also having time foryourself and your family?
Speaker 1 (24:59):
Oh, that's a good one .
So the last time I did it, whenI 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 separatingchurch and state, right, like
I'm going to check my emailswhile I'm working.
My husband always teased mebecause I would get meetings put
on my calendar and I wouldn'tknow about them until I came
(25:19):
back in and when I was trying tomanage my personal life.
Sometimes there was an overlapbecause I didn't have my
calendar on my phone.
But I always told myself likewhen I'm at work I will give
them 100%, because when I logoff you don't get anything.
And I don't feel guilty aboutnot replying on the weekends,
not replying after hours.
That's just not my groove, likeI'm not doing it.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
So yeah, I had to ask cause I know you go hard for
your family and yourself too.
Yeah, I would imagine that sameprinciple applies to your
business now, and that'sprobably even more hard, but
we'll get to that.
So you go from warehousemanager and then you're in the
insurance department, and thenwhen did you get into the global
(26:00):
DEI role?
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Let's see, I left the risk management role and then I
was a part of the BlackEmployee Network and I was told
by someone on that employeeresource 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 programmanager before, not in title
(26:25):
but in in, like my work.
I had been a program managerbefore.
So I was like, okay, so I meetthe manager.
Moving to that role, and that'swhen I started doing, that's
when I did the beyond the yardand all the things that you.
So that wasn't my last role,that was a role before my last
role.
But I was supporting HBCUstudents and students who
attended minority servinginstitutions or Hispanic serving
(26:46):
institutions and it was justlike if there was a dream job,
that was a dream job.
It was just so cool.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
And it was so like impactful too, like that seemed
like it was like a match made inheaven for you, for real.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
It was yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
I still we have.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
I created a group me when the students came for the
conference.
We created a group me tocommunicate with.
Came for the conference, wecreated a group me to
communicate with them so theywould know, like what time to do
stuff.
And I think students juststarted leaving the group me
like recently, because we don'treally post anything.
But I mean, that conferencetook place.
What 2023, three years ago,yeah, or 2022, 22 yeah 2022, so
(27:24):
that's how long ago it was yeah,they're just now leaving.
Yeah, and there's still somestudents in there, but some of
the students are leaving becausewe don't really post anything
in it anymore, you know, but itwas just that experience for me.
Of all the things I did whileworking at Amazon, I'm most
proud of Beyond the Yard, andthere are a few other things I'm
proud of, but that one, thatone, had so much impact on the
(27:47):
students.
I'm so proud of it.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
I was sad when you left the role I remember.
Now it took your place, butthen you went from that role To
the global program manager role.
Yeah, yeah, and.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
I'll tell you this.
It was funny, I can share itnow.
So when I was in the rolesupporting HBCUs that summer, I
mind you, my role was not aleadership role, it was.
It was a leadership role in thesense of, like, I supported
college students but I didn'thave any direct reports.
But once again, I came into therole, I was excelling.
(28:21):
So my manager was like hey, Iwant to give you an intern this
summer.
And that's when you met myintern, because she might've
been messaging you and stuff.
So my manager was supposed tohave the intern, but she was
like I want to give you theintern instead.
And so I got the chance to havethe intern.
And once I had her, that's whenI was approached about a role
that was coming up, the lastrole I went into, I actually
(28:42):
started interviewing for therole 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 thingwas she's still in college,
Right, she's getting ready tocome in.
I know what a difference itwould have made for me if I had
someone like me to be like mymanager during my internship and
kind of help me to learncorporate and navigate corporate
(29:02):
.
So I actually reached out tothe hiring manager I was
interviewing with and I was likeI'm sorry, but I can't continue
this process because I have anintern that I want to.
You know, I want to see herthrough her internship to ensure
that she gets the role at theend.
And I said, once it's done, canI reach back out to you all?
I was scared to do it.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
I'm going to say that I was very scared, like dang.
That's neat to pass up apromotion and more money and
just a super dope opportunitybecause you are committed to
making sure that this otheryoung Black woman has the right
mentorship.
Dang, I didn't know that.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
Yeah like once I met her I was like I can't leave her
.
She's so wonderful.
So I was like, yeah, I backedout of the interview process.
I had gone through one, two,three interviews, backed out
right before they made adecision.
And so then I worked with myintern over the summer, gave her
her project that's when we didthe thing at FAMU, mind Over
Matter and that was her projectthat she had to work on for the
(30:01):
summer.
So it went great and we had tohave her write her paper and
afterwards she was offered afull-time position after she
graduated.
So once she finished, then Iwas like I reached back out to
that other team, like, hey, somy intern finished, she's
getting a full-time role.
Is it still open?
They didn't respond for a dayor two so I was like, oh, I
burned the bridge and then theyresponded and they were like,
(30:22):
absolutely.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
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 (30:30):
That's selfless at its finest.
Oh, thank you.
You know it's Jason.
I say this truly.
I feel like this is God givesus things for us to give to
other people, and the more hegives 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 impactthat I'm blessed to have on
(30:52):
people, and I think it's likeit's a privilege to be chosen to
do that kind of work.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
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 (31:03):
Yeah, wanji, that's her nickname.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
yeah, yeah she's so cool.
So then you are even as youwere in your last role, which.
Can you speak a little bitabout what you were doing in the
last role?
Speaker 1 (31:17):
Because you were busy .
Yeah, yeah, I was.
So you know, I'll start bysaying I was a global DEI
program manager.
Right, and I often say thisprogram manager right, and I
often say this I don't thinkthat people understand how much
DEI covers in the workplace,because in the mass media, they
make DEI about Black people orpeople who are a part of the
(31:40):
LGBTQIA plus community, but theydon't talk about people who are
neurodivergent.
They don't talk about peoplewho I mean even people who have
children and people who don't,because that's diversity, right
they have different needssometimes from the workplace.
They don't talk about militaryveterans.
They don't talk about peoplewho are differently abled.
They don't talk about all thedifferent things that are part
(32:01):
of diversity, equity andinclusion.
And so, in my role, I wassupporting the data center
organization, which that's.
We probably won't even havetime to truly have that
conversation right now, but thedata centers at Amazon control
most of the world's internet andmost people don't even know
what that is, so they don't knowthese careers exist, and so you
(32:22):
have the same, you knowcandidate profile applying for
these roles because they'reaware of the opportunities, and
so many of us are not aware ofthese opportunities.
And so my job when I came inwas to look at the workforce and
say, okay, what's happening?
Are people happy?
If they're not happy, whyaren't they happy?
Why are they leaving?
What is the differentemployment experience for
(32:43):
different types of people?
Dive into that data whenthey'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.
So I'm in the data, constantlyassessing how to make this
workplace experience the samefor everyone, and that's
basically the work that I wasdoing.
A lot of it was confidentialstuff, because I'm looking at,
you know, data and I'm lookingat, like important stories, but
(33:07):
I'm also the voice in the roomthat says, hey, this is not
equitable.
This manager has this manypeople on performance plan.
They happen to have these samecharacteristics and these people
keep getting promoted and theystarted.
The same time was like I'mhaving those conversations, you
get what I'm saying, and so thatwas one part of my work, and
the other part of my work washelping people understand how to
(33:27):
be more inclusive, and so I wasproud of this program that we
adopted that had a bunch oflearning resources and tools,
and what I would do isessentially assign different
learning modules to leaders,have conversations with them,
help to broaden theirperspective, help them to
understand that like, hey,people see the world different
than how you might see it.
Here are some differentperspectives.
(33:48):
But giving them resources theycan also use to help them have
those conversations.
So as they're navigating theworkplace, they're being
considerate of the peoplethey're managing and not just
assuming that everybody sees theworld the same as they do.
Does that make sense?
Speaker 2 (34:01):
It does.
I mean it's a lot, yeah, andthe reason I want you to expand
on that is because at the sametime where you were in that role
, you were growing GN's juices.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
I was.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
How.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
I don't know.
Look, so that role, look, thatrole was a global role.
So the beautiful part was I gotto go to Paris and Barcelona
and this place and that place,and it was just the most
beautiful experience becauseonce I started traveling
globally, then I realized, likethis conversation we're having
about race here in America is sosmall compared to the rest of
the world.
(34:37):
And when I started, when Istarted seeing other cultures
and seeing different things andI had gone to, like, the
Caribbean and stuff Okay yeah,those are traditional, but like
when I'm going across the globeand I'm going to different
places and I'm having differentexperiences and different
conversations, it really doesbroaden your perspective, right?
So when I come back home now, Iunderstand that how we see the
world and sometimes because asAmericans we can be very
(34:59):
arrogant we think that ourperspective is the perspective
and it's like no, no, no, no, no.
But I was.
I was serving in the globalcapacity and at the same time, I
had purchased the LLC to startmy business.
Because, you know, I told you Ijust started it in 2022, but I
actually launched it in 2023.
And so one morning I got up and,I don't know, it was just like
(35:19):
start making the juices, like it.
Just, it was like I got up withthe idea to start making the
juices, so I went, I called mybest friend.
I was like I don't know how toset up the Shopify store.
Help me out, I just need to beable to just take some orders.
When I tell you, it was amakeshift little site, honey,
only thing I could do was takeorders, and I didn't care,
because I was just focused onbeing able to take orders.
(35:41):
I went on Amazon, I ordered mesome bottles and I started
making juices.
And the thing was, I had beenmaking juices for years.
I learned to make juices when Iwas living in Dallas in 2018.
And I had been buying juicesmaybe for about two years before
that, so I had known about coldpress juicing and I started
making juices every week for myfamily, cause I used to post on
(36:01):
Instagram when I would fill thefridge 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.
And so, fast forward, when Istarted making the juices,
people were like, oh my God,this is good.
And you know how, when you cookat home, you think, okay, it's
good because I cooked it, butyou 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, andso I'm like, if I could get him
(36:25):
to drink it, other people willdrink 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 keptsaying when are you going to
start shipping?
I'm like I don't, I don't know.
You know he's like, well, youneed to figure it out.
I'm like no, so he gives me hiscredit card information.
He's like ship me some juicesso we can see if it works.
And so I started shipping himjuices first, cause I'm like if
(36:47):
it's, if it's bad, he ain'tgoing 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 andpeople just started like
supporting and it's it.
For me, what was very beautifulwas like you know, people
always say your friends don'tsupport your business, people
don't support you, they watchyou.
That was not my story at all.
(37:09):
Like all of my friends werelike how do I get the juice?
Speaker 2 (37:12):
Okay, I had some.
I think I don't know if youwere shipping yet or not, but I
had some in Atlanta and then youshipped.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
You came and got it.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
Yeah, and they were good even when you shipped it.
And then I remember you did thephoto shoot.
That was dope.
Speaker 1 (37:25):
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'mverbose, meaning like I'm
long-winded because I'm sopassionate about this stuff.
But I started selling thejuices, I started catching
momentum.
I knew someone who did somebranding stuff and she was like
sis, when are you going to doyour labels for real?
Cause I'm like what you got onthose bottles?
(37:47):
They don't look good and I'mlike tried it, but that's okay.
But you know.
So I used my corporate job tostart paying it in.
I would do like one label here,one label there, until I
rebranded everything.
And then I entered this cohortwith the village micro fund and
I remember applying for it andone of the criteria was you had
to be in business for a year.
(38:07):
So I had only started sellingthat January.
But I was like, ah, I boughtthe LLC last year, cause God
gave me the idea to purchase theLLC, so I qualified that way.
So I entered the program and itwas a 12 week program where
they taught you like businessfundamentals and then you had to
pitch a five minute pitch atthe end of the program for
$25,000.
(38:28):
And so I was up one and I wasup against.
But when I say businesses, likemuch respect to, there were
people I was competing againstwho have been in business longer
.
Their businesses are dope.
I'm going to be honest, I knewmy juices were good, but I
didn't feel there were timeswhen I questioned like okay,
tiff, your stuff is good, butyou're not really like $25,000
(38:49):
good.
You know what I'm saying.
Like that's what I was tellingmyself.
But even in that program I cameto class.
Every week I showed up, Iparticipated.
I can't stress y'all If I don'ttell you nothing else.
When you show up, show up.
If you're going to be, ifyou're going to go to the game,
don't sit on the bench, get onthe court, right.
So I would come to class.
I didn't feel like it.
But I'm still going to speak toeverybody, I'm going to answer
(39:10):
questions, I'm going to beengaged, I'm going to.
If you give me a homeworkassignment, I'm going to make
sure I do it.
Like that's how I operate.
And so I think part of thepitch competition was my pitch.
But I do think part of thepitch competition was how did I
show up this whole 12 weektimeframe?
Speaker 2 (39:25):
You get what I'm saying, for the same corporate,
same skills you use in corporate.
They helped you even inentrepreneurship.
Speaker 1 (39:33):
Same skills and I was literally when I was doing my
job I would fly Like.
One time I flew to Paris forwork and was there for like a
week and I saw them orderscoming through on my phone.
And you know I'm happy wheny'all order.
I swear I am.
But I ain't gonna lie.
When I fly overseas and I seethem orders coming through, I'm
like, oh, I got a juice when Iget home, because you know you
just want to sleep, right, right.
(39:53):
But those are the moments whenyou show up, in those moments
when you don't feel like it, andwe've all heard everybody say
this right, success is aboutconsistency, it about doing the
things you don't want to do.
That's always the message.
And so I was still like get offthe plane, I'll sleep, I'll be
jet lagged and I'm going to takemyself to the farmer's market
and I'm going to make y'all'sjuices tired as hell, cause I
(40:15):
wanted to make sure that you gotwhat you ordered, yeah.
Speaker 2 (40:18):
I got to ask a question Like did you have tell
us about a time where it waslike super stressful balancing
both juicing and corporate, anddid you ever pull an all-nighter
?
Speaker 1 (40:29):
Yes, I've pulled several.
The last all-nighter, the veryfirst all-nighter I pulled, I
remember I was doing a vendingevent.
It was like a day party outside, like brunchella, right, and it
was my very first time vendingfor anything, because I had not
been in business before.
So I didn't know what to.
So I didn't know, like, what tomake, I didn't know how much to
(40:50):
make, I didn't know, and I onlyhad two juicers at the time and
so when you make cold pressjuices it's slow, like the time
is the time, you can't make itgo faster.
That's why it costs so much,because it is what it is.
And so I think I made like 200juices with two juicers.
And if you understand the timeit takes to purchase the produce
(41:10):
, clean the produce, cut theproduce, do all the things Me
and my husband he's such atrooper when I tell you I love
this man so bad he not going tolet me stay up by myself.
So when I'm sleep deprived, he'ssleep deprived too, which is
why when I tell you I don't playaround like I'm not lowering no
prices, I know because we workhard over here, right, but yeah,
(41:30):
he stayed up with me that wholenight.
We finished at five 30 in themorning and had to be up at like
eight to go out there to vendoutside all day.
But I've done that so manytimes because, working in
corporate, you know, I would getoff work on Friday and go to
the farmer's market, pray thatthey have the produce, because
let's talk about that whenyou're buying real ingredients
(41:51):
sometimes it ain't really alwaysavailable.
So then I'm driving around tomultiple stores trying to find
stuff.
It's not easy.
It's not easy, but I love it somuch that I couldn't see myself
doing it any other way.
And I'm grateful for the day Iget any other way and I'm
grateful for the day I'mspeaking into existence.
I'm grateful for the day that Iwill have, like reliable
vendors, scheduled contractsthat can come deliver things and
(42:12):
I ain't got to drive around,because right now she's not
there and she drives aroundevery week to get all of your
produce.
Speaker 2 (42:20):
By the time I came to your house you had about five
or six juices or like a bunchyeah.
Speaker 1 (42:27):
Five now, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:30):
Yeah, and.
Speaker 1 (42:30):
I want a commercial one.
It's like $15,000 and I'm I'min a shared kitchen now.
So I'm like, well, I won't beable to get a commercial juicer
just yet, cause I don't wantnobody using my stuff.
But when I get to the pointwhere I can afford to have my
own kitchen, then I'll try toget a commercial juicer.
Speaker 2 (42:45):
Yeah, I mean it's coming, it's definitely coming.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (42:50):
So I want to also talk about so.
When I asked you to come on apodcast, I think you were still
at Amazon.
Speaker 1 (42:56):
I was yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:58):
So over the past couple of months, you're not at
Amazon, you're just full-timeentrepreneurship.
Yeah, what was that like foryou emotionally?
How are you recovering, how areyou doing?
Speaker 1 (43:10):
I'm still dealing with that.
I'll be honest.
So here's what I'll say.
I'm very grateful for the waythat it happened, because I hear
a lot of people losing theirjobs and it's not like how I
lost my job, you know.
Um, they came to us and theybasically said your role is
being eliminated.
Um, this was in September.
So they're like your role isbeing eliminated in December.
(43:30):
Um, as of today, you don't haveto do any more work for the
company, spend this time lookingfor another role within the
company.
You've done great work.
If you want to stay, you knowyou have our blessings.
If you don't find anything oryou decide you want to leave,
then after December you'llreceive a severance, and it was
a gracious severance.
It was like a base pay of fourweeks, no matter what, and then
(43:52):
you got an extra week for forevery six months you did and had
been with the company almostfive years.
So, yeah, I was like okay, well, that's a few months extra pay
on top of the pay, cause this isSeptember.
So I literally closed my laptopin September and I thought I
was going to look for other jobsin the company, but something
in me was like no, no, that's it, it's done.
(44:13):
Much like the feeling I gotwhen they told me to start
making the juices.
So I was like okay, so I closedthe computer and I didn't open
the computer back up.
Eventually I posted on LinkedInlike hey, you know, my role was
eliminated, blah, blah, blah.
And people were so kind they'relike oh, no, no, no, they're
DMing me.
I got roles in my departmentreach out to me and I wanted to
say yeah, but something in mewas just like no, no, no.
(44:35):
And so what?
I know in my head, jason, I knowin my head that like I look at
my company and I look at otherjuice companies around me and
this is no shade to anyone atall but like I'm like wow, the
brand that I've built, theproduct, I have the marketing
expertise, I have the skillsI've acquired from all these
(44:56):
corporate positions.
I know, know, intellectually, Ihave everything I need to be
successful Right now.
It's about my mindset.
And so what this process has todo for me, if I'm going to be
successful because that's thepart is I have to cultivate the
work ethic I have to get out ofthe way I've been operating,
(45:17):
cause when you operate incorporate, it's very, it's not
very easy, but it's much easierto 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 (45:28):
In entrepreneurship.
Speaker 1 (45:29):
It ain't like that.
Okay, it's like I got to knowwhat holidays are coming up, I
got to know how to market, I gotto watch what's happening with
the economy, I got to order mystuff, I got a budget.
It's like, and it's skills Ihave, but I haven't had to put
into practice.
And so now, as I've been goingthrough this and it starts to
get tough, naturally you're likedid I make the right decision?
Right Cause it's like now it'sstarting to get difficult for me
(45:50):
and I even I'm honest, like Iput on LinkedIn last week open
to work.
I want to go back to work.
I missed the world I had where Icould do my work and come home
and juice on the weekends.
I knew it, I understood it, itwas easy, like I get it.
I don't know if that's what Godhas.
And I told my husband.
I said the part of me that getssad sometimes is like I think
(46:10):
God means for me to be like inthis business and ain't no way
to run from this.
I'm going to have to go throughit.
But I mean, you know, like I'mopen to whatever the journey
brings and at this point I'mjust something to myself, like,
if it's corporate, it'scorporate.
If it's entrepreneurship, I'mgoing to show up.
But right now I'm going tofocus on getting my mind right
so I can show up the way I needto.
So I continue to be the personI've always been in my life.
Speaker 2 (46:32):
Love it, love it.
What's helping you the mostwith your mindset right now?
Speaker 1 (46:36):
Accountability.
Here's something I learned,right, and I had to face this,
jason, I thought she thought shewas spectacular, and I am
sometimes.
But come on, there are times Iam not Okay.
And it's like I realized oneI'm a leaky bucket where, like,
if you can imagine a leakybucket like you put water in and
it's just, it's just, it'sholes in it, so it's coming out.
(46:58):
And so what's happening with meis like okay, yeah, you're
smart, yeah, you're creative,yeah, you're this, you're that.
And when people tell you thosethings, you're like yeah, I know
, and you have thoseconversations and you waste time
, you waste some time, you wastesome people's time seeking
validation you don't need.
What you need to be talkingabout is how you're going to do
the things you got to do.
Right, you got to be growingyour mind, and so I'm holding
(47:20):
myself accountable.
Like each week, I'm just tryingto be better than I was last
week.
So if I posted two times lastweek, maybe I'm going to think
about a different way to postand post three times this week.
If I read one article, maybeI'm going to try to read two.
I'm just trying to like figureout what needs to be the pattern
.
If I didn't send emails likelast year.
I never really did any emailmarketing, but I understand
(47:41):
that's very effective forbusinesses.
I'm trying to start showing upby email.
I'm putting myself out theremore when it comes to vending.
I'm talking more because that'smy gift.
I know that I'm gifted to speak, and so I'm just trying to make
myself do the things that feeluncomfortable until I can create
a routine that can replace theroutine I lost from working in
(48:02):
corporate America so I can showup in the business.
Does that make sense?
Speaker 2 (48:05):
A lot of sense.
Yeah, I mean fromaccountability to it's like a
corporate.
The way I hear it, it's almostlike a corporate mindset because
like, if you can make 10,000 ina week in corporate, they're
like all right, you've beenmaking 10,000.
Now we want you to make 12.
Next month, 14.
Like they always have that push, push mindset and I hear you,
(48:25):
for your business, you're goingto be doing the same thing.
Speaker 1 (48:28):
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 ofthe KPIs I set for myself is
okay, grow the GNS cold pressLinkedIn page, right, cause it
started with zero.
So in a few weeks I'm at 60followers.
To me that's good, right?
I'm saying to myself okay, yougot TikTok, you got 47 K, can
you get to 50?
So now it's like trying, youknow.
So I'm setting those thingsbecause for me, what I'm
(48:50):
learning is like it's aboutpeople knowing about the work.
I talked about that, right, ifyou 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 feelencouraged to talk, you don't
feel encouraged to post, youdon't feel encouraged to be
outside because you're trying tomanage your emotions.
But that's the time when yougot to get out there, so folks
know who you are so they cancome looking for you.
Speaker 2 (49:12):
So I appreciate you One.
I knew you were probably goingto come on the podcast, but even
talking about the entirejourney, even the stuff that
you're still dealing with rightnow, because that's helping
somebody.
My last question before we wrapwhen it comes to confidence, it
seems like that's somethingthat has been pretty strong and
steady for you.
What's the secret sauce?
(49:34):
And then, if somebody'slistening, what would you say to
them if they're struggling withhaving the confidence to either
keep going or pivot?
Speaker 1 (49:41):
That's a good question, Jason.
I don't have anything profoundto say.
Speaker 2 (49:44):
This is what I'll say Like you always do here's
something that I made thecorrelation.
Speaker 1 (49:53):
So when I started doing the juice thing and I used
to play your Gotti song, youknow I got that juice, whatever,
like I'm very much hood, I'mvery much that girl, right?
And so I would always say, like, if you look at our card that
we send to customers wheneverthey get their order, which is
it's right here, right On thiscard it says you were born with
the juice and it has its ownflavor, made with your
(50:15):
ingredients.
Never be afraid to give theworld a taste.
So if you think about what Ijust said throughout the course
of this interview, what youheard me say is I'm showing up
as the same little kid who wastalking too much in class, who
always wanted to get it right,who was answering the questions.
This was the juice that wasalways a part of who I am.
I think sometimes we look atother people doing what they do
(50:35):
and we try to emulate that andwe don't live in our truth.
That's not our flavor, right?
What's your flavor?
So the confidence comes fromunderstanding what your
ingredients are and how you wantpeople to experience that taste
, that flavor, right?
And if you're too spicy, wheredo 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.
(50:56):
But understand your ingredients.
And you can only do that bytaking the time to yourself, by
yourself, being introspective,being real, holding yourself
accountable to who you are, andthen deciding what you want from
your life, what life you wantto live, what life you want to
create and what work you'rewilling to do.
And that's what you got to do,that's it.
Speaker 2 (51:16):
I got to ask you where can people follow you and
where can they buy GN's juices?
Speaker 1 (51:22):
Thank you so much for that question.
I show up, I've been showing upa lot on LinkedIn y'all.
So if you, I'm trying to figureout like the healthy balance,
cause I'm not gonna lie, I don'tbe 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 thatI'm not because they're just
getting a glimpse of a post butif you want to follow some of my
(51:45):
corporate work, I'm Tiffany YEllis on LinkedIn.
If you want to follow me on TikTOK or Instagram, my personal
page is Tiffany Speaks, soT-I-F-F-A-N underscore E,
underscore Speaks.
And then my juice page is G-N'sJuices and you can order juices
at gnsjuicescom, so that'sG-A-N-N-S-J-U-I-C-E-Scom.
(52:09):
And yes, we do ship and yes, wedo 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 juicesthough.
Speaker 2 (52:19):
Yeah, I appreciate you.
This is good, I definitely behaving you back.
Speaker 1 (52:23):
Thank you so much, Jason.
Keep doing your thing too,because you're so amazing.
I really mean that.
Speaker 2 (52:31):
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 beatyourself up about it.
It is OK.
We all experience anxiety fromtime to time and I gave you a
couple of things that you can doon your own, but don't hesitate
(52:54):
to reach out to a professionalto better manage what you're
going through.
Ok, and lastly, make sure ifyou have not like share,
subscribe to the podcast andsend this out to a friend.
And if you want to hear certainepisodes or have certain
conversations, let me know.
To hear certain episodes orhave certain conversations, let
(53:19):
me know.
You can shoot me a DM or justleave a review and I will
definitely follow up.
All right, y'all be blessed,peace.
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