Hey, ba Fam, I don't even know what to say exactly and how to prepare you guys for today's show other than that I am so freaking happy to see this woman's face again. It has been such a long time, and I know that y'all have been keeping Tiffany and your thoughts and prayers and praying for her and sending all the dms and sending all the ba fam love her way, and we have been patient and given tiff all the time that she needed to heal and to
be ready to come back. And I just want to say Tiff, like, I'm so grateful to have you back, and it feels very surreal to have you back. But I'm so ready to be back to broad ambition as we envisioned it, which was the two of us, you know, bouncing off one another and welcome back.
Well, I say back ish, back ish to my life. Thanks.
It feels, I guess, a little nerve racking and good to be because well, I just want to be fully transparent. I'm still resetting what it looks like, what the new back. It's like, you know, Brown's New Black or Orange is New Black, whatever that show was. It's like, back is the new back. You know, I don't know what that looks like for me yet. You know, one of the things I'm sure who knows you know, you might not
for those of you who listening might not know. My husband passed away about five months ago, and so I took obviously time away fortunate and that I have created a business or several businesses. I like for myself, Well, I don't have to work anymore. The truth is I could have been stopped working a long time ago, but workaholics don't know how to not stop working. But you know, now I'm really conscious that, you know, I don't have
to work anymore. And if there is a silver lining, it's like, oh, the things I've been teaching y'all through the budgetiest to like. I mean, I knew that it wasn't just rhetoric, but like, when life really got real, I got to see, like, oh, this is really life changing information because you know, it put me be in a position that I don't have to work, and not because of insurance money whatever. I don't have to work
because of the work I did prior period. So I really got to sit back and ask myself, what did I want life to look like? I'm still figuring that out moving forward, because a lot of what I was doing before was a lot of just autopilot. You know, you work because you're work it because you work bigger and bigger, bigger, more and more and more, and not even so much for the money truthfully, because you know,
I'm always wearing my target's best. Literally, this t shirts from Target, and as are my jeans, and I'm sure even my bra I believe it's from.
Targeting, like I.
So it's not that it was more so that, like I had this mentality like if I can get a B, can I get a If I can get a can I get a plus? If I can get a plus, I get a plus plus. And I thought that that's
how life was supposed to progress. But death is really clarify and you know, I have a new sense of Yeah, I don't care anymore now, meaning like I don't care about collecting the things along the way that show me that I'm doing better that like how I am when I was a preschool teacher to budding business Tiffany to now mogul Tiffany is each one of those stages was enough if I decided so that I can you know, I don't need to to quantify my worth by adding
things to it. And so I'm getting you know, I'm still seeking clarity about what does that look like. I am partially retired because I know it's like I went live on IG and I told everybody else backsh and like the floodgates open. But it's a new Tiffany, so the boundaries are here and I'm just like, yeah, no, I'm not doing that.
I'm not doing this. I don't want to do this.
And even with the podcast, I told myself like, I'm giving myself a mission to decide while I do it because I Mandy and I you know, you know, she's been such an amazing friend. You know, we spoke obviously, you know, I mean we haven't been here, but Mandy has been there for me, and we talked a lot. And my knee jerk is like, like, oh, I got to come back to brand Ambish because I miss Mandy.
And I'm like, well, missing Mandy and Brown and Bishon are two different things, you know, And so I'm giving myself permission to say, you know, see how you like, see how you feel, you know, because I knew, so I went to BALI for like almost two months, just to like.
Get space away and clarity.
And I came back maybe like a less than a month ago, a few weeks ago, and I got to write down the things that I did not miss and the things that I did miss, and there were things that kind of fell in between.
And one of the things I knew that I.
Miss I said brand ambition, but I realized what I was saying is I miss Mandy. I missed talking to my friend every week, and I want to see if.
That's tied to this.
I mean, I'm still seeing and I want to give myself permission, but also I want to give transparency for y'all when it comes to that. I don't know, you know how I feel after taping if I'm like, Okay, this is too much, or if I'm like, oh yeah, I really miss doing this because I don't want to give false yess, which I've been doing, like and so many women we do this like.
Your whole life.
It's like, sure, I do it, it's not that big of a deal. I want to please. I want to make sure that people are not angry or upset or everybody. Everybody in my life got to get what they needed except for me, And I'm just not willing to do that anymore, especially now, because you know, the lessons that I've learned is like, well, what is the point and the purpose if you don't also get looked after, you know, if you give away all of that to everyone else.
And I'm just not willing to do that anymore. But yeah, it's been I mean, I don't know that you ever heal from like a great loss, but I do know, like I'm grateful of an amazing therapist. If y'all have been being listeners for a while, you've heard me talked about talk about doctor green my coach, and she was an amazing Oh I needn't. I had felt I needed a therapist like some years ago, but I couldn't find a good one.
So someone suggested a coach to me. Her name is doctor Greene.
She's the sister I love her and so she so she was like, okay, I can I can coach you. Although she's, like I said, a therapist because she didn't have her license in New Jersey. But then, by God's grace, honestly, I reached out to her when I was really like in the depths of despair and I was like, I just,
you know, can you suggest a therapist to me? And she was like, just a week ago because of quarantine, the pandemic or whatever that I guess at a federal level, they have given therapists like passes to other states and.
You can apply for them.
And she had applied and gotten her therapy passed basically for New Jersey, so she could actually be my therapist and I could have wept with joy and so I you know, so this person who's gotten to know and grow with me the last few years, you know, she has really helped tremendously through this really.
Like difficult and time.
It's just it feels surreal, like if you guys are listening, you know, like the joke is that Darrell's gonna open the door. We're all gonna be like every time I tape the podcast, you're gonna hear the creek like it's gonna be him, Like you need a sandwich, you need that. I'm like, I'm taping with Mandy and I thought, okay, okay, cow be back and like to know that that's not gonna happen again.
It's just like, yo, it just never like I.
Was just talking to you either it was because you know that somewhere there's Darrell loving you, you know, being his wonderful self in the background, and.
So it just I don't know, I don't know anything other than like.
That.
I'm just gonna take it one day at a time, honestly figure out.
You don't have to know a damn thing. Tiff, and I think, as I think, the most beautiful gift we can give each other as friends sometimes is the space to not know and to not have an answer, and to literally say I don't need anything from you, you know, like of course I want I want your you know, as long as somewhere in the world Tiff is a happy person and she's feeling fulfilled that, you know, whether or not I am near or the show is near. I think that's the gift as a friend that maybe
even took me a long time to realize. But and through the pandemic too. You know, you have friendships that you feel have just had these like ebbs and flows to them. I guess all I'm just trying to say is it's fine. You don't have to say another word. And when you're when you want to come, this is
a space you can come to. You know your passion and your knowledge and the gifts that you have to share in whatever form you want to share them when like, I don't see you ever stopping doing that, and if this is one of the platforms where you can do that, like we're all the luckier for it. I love you a lot.
I love you too, Mandy, And honestly, you know, I don't if you guys have listened with us from the beginning.
I mean, you really, we have grown so much. We were just like two single girls when we started off.
You know, and we've been here. I mean, you've seen us get married. You see Mandy have her beautiful baby. I mean, all the things you've seen her like crushing in corporate. You've seen me grow from like baby budgetista to where I am now. You know, then you've seen her strike out on her own. It's just, you know, it's like this living diary of like this part of our lives. You know that I'm really grateful for.
You know, I want to say, we're going to have time to sit down and listen to three hundred hours.
I don't let them ever do that. But it's out there. At least it's out there.
My son's going to be like Mama, let's talk about you almost didn't marry.
Let But if I could like impress upon y'all any like kind of like words of wisdom. One take so many pictures in video. I'm not for the sake of posting, but just for the sake of for the sake of it. I mean, like almost like diary your life. Because Drug's mom had passed away when he was in his twenties, and that was one of the things he said, I don't have enough pictures of her, and I have no video.
But Jirelle, he was like a secret vlogger.
Like after he passed, I went through his phone, Mandy so many pictures in video, like of just like him.
Talking like today was a good day. I did the laundry, although Tiffany didn't cook. That's all right, I'm like, you know what. So but to go through and see all those things that I created like.
A Google drive, and I added all the pictures, all the video, and then I every person that came to see me. There's this thing you could do in Google where you can say, if this face appears in your phone, added to the drive. And so we have thousands and thousands of pictures in videos, so at any moment in time, you know, you can hear him laughing or play or singing or just saying I love you or whatever, so that you know, that's like such a blessing. Like I mean,
it's not just like when it's birthdays. I'm just talking about it's just a Tuesday, you know, And so like collect that for yourself and especially the mom's out there. So often you're taking pictures of the babies and you're not in it, you know, make sure like turn that camera around it and put yourself in it as well. And then two, honestly get your financial house in order, like Jirella and I were about eighty five percent in order.
And there were things we dragged our feet on, like, oh, like, for example, I did not have a will and needed did he because.
I'm like, I mean he's forty one.
We'll get Even though I've been working with Antili, my financial advisor, for like three years. We met with her quarterly, the both of us, and every time we met, are you guys done with that will? I had Tony, who's my attorney. Tony, every at least twice a year, she'd be like, let's get this will done because you like you can't anticipate that.
But but even though Jurrell.
Didn't have a will because we had to findincial advisor and everything else, I knew exactly what he wanted and as did everyone else. And so there's very little that like slipped through the cracks that the will had to cover. So that was good.
But update also your beneficiaries because like maybe just a year ago, Angelie was going through our beneficiaries and for example, though the one he had at his job, it didn't he still had Melissa's mother on there, you know, from what he started that job when he was like twenty two, you know. And so update your beneficiaries because there was one there was one life insurance policy that he had ordered the beneficiary update form for because it was like his homework and I saw this inbox.
He never signed it, and so that life insurance policy is not signed to ALYSSA and it ought to be. So that was kind of like, you know, thankfully, like I have grown more than enough wealth that like she will always be fine. But that was really it, Like it was like because we had done all of the other work, you know, those small things. You know, it's not small because the life insuring policy wasn't a little bit of money.
But honestly, I.
Can make that money back really quickly. But still I thought to myself, you know, if I was still preschool teacher, Tiffany, that could be devastating, you know, the loss of that and that insurance policy. So I'm sharing this transparently because so many times we wait, Like literally, my dad is in his eighties and I was like, yo, his will is still from when I was six. It was until like I put my foot all the way down. I
had Tony. I didn't know this, but I one of the reasons why we didn't do a will is because I thought it was going to take a long time. And I was like, oh, I don't have time to dig through all my stuff. It was a thirty minute conversation with Tony.
That was it.
And in that conversation she asked me all these questions and then she created the will. I was like, wait, that was it. All this time, what I've been avoiding. I thought I had to collect. I thought it was like doing the will was like doing your taxes. You
have to collect all of your stuff. And so I had her and she then Tony said I told her about my parents are my worry that they didn't have a will, they didn't have a health care directive, and she's like, I can create it, just a general one which just basically says something happens to dad, it goes to mom.
Something happens to mom, it goes to dad.
And I said, yes, create it, because if I had to sit down with them and had these questions, you're not going to do it. She created it their healthcare directive as well. I went to them, they read it over, they were like, this is good. We went to the bank, the bank and had them signed in front of the bank, and the bank notarized it for them, all within a couple of days. And so I just because because of the work we did, I get to just miss Jerrell.
You know, he didn't leave any dead. He didn't leave any like financial responsibilities that I'm like, what am I going to do behind?
You know.
We paid off both of the houses we have, you know, including our rental property.
We like, his car was paid off.
There was no The last thing on his credit card was some sneakers that he bought me, you know, but he didn't have any like real credit card that I think it was like you know, like eighty dollars or something like that.
And so the blessing in that is I get to just miss Jarrell.
And you know, we talk about money here and kind of like this like outside way, but like it really hits home, like update your beneficiaries, get a well done, you know, put put yourself in a position that you can just miss your loved one, or if it's you, your loved one can just miss you, you know, because if there is you know, there are things despite the grief, that I'm grateful for, and that's one of them.
And I want that for all of us.
Yeah, I mean I think as a mom, nothing makes you think about dying more than having a kid, like all the time. It's a horrific thought. It's a horrific thought. I never want that to happen, but it is. And I and you know, I was kicking myself after having like conversations with you about not getting that kind of stuff in order before I had the baby, because even those conversations only got more difficult when it was it
wasn't just me and you know, my husband. It was imagining a world where I wouldn't be there for my son. But it's very possible, and like, am I going to let that get in the way of preparing or creating a soft place for him to land and giving him.
You know, exactly what he needs.
So I hear you on that too, and I think for a lot of it's just like face, it's it's silly that fear that we have to face the reality that you know we're all heading one place. You know, it's it's a certainty, just you don't know. The great trick of life is you don't know when and you know it is that like estate planning and getting the
best beneficiaries in place. And then it's also, you know, the beauty of your message I feel like too, is that financial empowerment on an individual level, so that if you're the one left behind, you have those resources so that you said you can you can grieve on your own time and make choices that are healthier for you. How many people get up and go to work the day after something like that because they have no other choice.
I was like, Manny, how it made me so much more empathetic as a person. I'm like, how do you carry this grief and wrong with you and still have to go to work.
You know, it's just I was.
Thinking that, honestly, I said, because that's one of the things like doctor Green, you know, like she let me reach the conclusion on my own. But it was like in the beginning, I kept saying, this is the worst thing that could have ever happened, This is the worst thing. And then one day I realized, like I was in Bali and I'd taken that time, and I thought, it's not the worst thing that could have happened, because it is a terrible thing that happened, but in such a
way that I am financially cared for. There is no financial burden left behind. I don't have to go back to work if I don't want to. I am surrounded by family and friends that loved me and support me. Like it's not the worst thing because these things still exist.
The worst thing is if everything is gone, and everything isn't gone, so there is still gratefulness to be had in the grief, and you know, I just kept thinking, like, you know, it's not the worst thing, but it's you know, there are I thought about, like the folks in Ukraine who literally some of them their whole family is wiped away, you know, that's not what happened to me or people who suffer every day from abuse. There was a woman who told me that her husband too, suffered from an
aneurism and he was in a coma. I want to say she said it was like three months. And when I tell you, I can't even imagine, because Jurell would go into the hospital on Tuesday and was gone by the weekend. Those few days in between were a nightmare
because every day you don't know if this is the day. Literally, I would literally be putting on my clothes to go to the hospital and say, please, please, please, don't let this be to day, Please please put you know, because every day thinking is this the day that it gets ripped away from you? So I cannot imagine doing that for ninety days straight. And then he came to from the coma and did not remember her. And they've divorced, since divorced, and she is gutted because she's like, he's
still gone. It's like, you know, there's solace in knowing that he's alive, but he's gone from me. I cannot even or he Jorelle could have lived but then been a vegetable for me. It's like I don't even.
Know what do you do.
There are caregivers. I don't know how they manage honestly, It's just it just life is just such a crazy thing.
You know.
You you're going along.
As every as if everything small matters, and then something huge happens and you.
Realize how little those things mattered.
And so that's just what I'm trying to spend the rest of my time doing, is really identifying what actually matters and focusing on that, you know, because in the end, like I feel.
Like Jarell cracked the code.
Like if you knew him personally, he was one of the few people that lived as though they had enough. I used to I used to wonder, like, you don't want to why don't you start this business? And why don't you do this m No. I was like, oh my god, he's not motivated. No, Derell's like I have enough, Jarrell.
I mean, when I looked at his bank account, I was like, so we had personal checking, personal savings, and then we had joint checking, joint savings, so you know, like every pay period I set it up from his bank account or from his paycheck at work that it would automatically deposit like and filter where needed to go.
His personal checking and savings was almost depleted. And all you saw because he was used to write himself notes A thousand dollars for such and such friends so they could do this, two hundred dollars for such and such friends, so they could do that, such and such straight aids on har redport card five hundred here, And I'm like, this man gave everything away because in his mind he was like, I have enough, Like he had fifteen hundred
dollars left in his savings account. And I know for a fact because I heard him the Sunday before he passed away. One of his friends was struggling to buy a car, was like, I could put a thousand on it, like you know, I got you like, and I'm looking like, you have fifteen hundred dollars. Obviously we had, you know, he knew we had investments. You know, we had, like
I said, our joint saving. But when it came to the money that he he meta for himself, Drell gave everything away because he always felt like he had enough. He gave so much of himself away because he always is like it's enough, and now it's just whereas I like I can tell by where I give from the places where I believe that there's enough, you know, And to see him give holistically let me know that he just was really living this life where he was just
like I am enough, this is enough. I have more than enough to give and share, really giving from a place of abundance, where so much I was giving from a place and so many of us from a place of fear, you know, and like I could just I could, I can do this, But I don't know if I could do that, you know, that's just enough or I have to work extra, extra, extra hard because the millions that have already accumulated, even though I don't even spend them,
can't possibly be enough. And I just was like, yeah, I don't. I don't want to subscribe to that anymore. The get it, so just just to get it, you know, you know, me and Manny, you know, we had that chat the other day about like entrepreneurship, and you know, like how much really is enough when it comes to making it. I know that if I put my mind to it, I can build a company that makes one hundred million dollars a year.
But at what cost?
Everything costs, especially money, At what cost to grow to one hundred million? At what cost to my personal life, my spiritual life, my professional life, at what cost? And so only you can decide that for yourself. But there's just so many lessons that I took away from living a more filled and fulfilled life, you know, because I look at him and I'm just like, you really.
Cracked the code, babe, you like you did.
And sometimes I wonder maybe that's why he's not here, because he's like, well, I ate this thing called life. I'll see all on the other side, you know, whereas I'm just like, wait, so millions are enough.
Well, it's like this notion in America that six billions and billions and being incredibly wealthy and founding your own company and revolutionizing some industry, that that is what the ultimate success is. And I think for you know, it sounds like what you're saying, and what I believe to be true too, is that does that is not what
makes you happy? And fundamentally, like when you when you go back to that, like you know, that vision of you as a preschool teacher and who you are and it being the same as today, I think that's that's the key. Can you put yourself in any situation with any amount of money and still say that you're content
and happy. That for me is the that's the mountaintop, you know, that's what I'm going for, and it doesn't And for me it's of course financial gain is important in building wealth because then what can you give back and what you know, how can you do it? But I want to be in the right mindset so that when you know I have those resources, that I'm then able to use them in a way that aligns with my values and what I feel is important, you know.
So it all feels good and not like you're being pulled in anyone direction that you don't want.
To be because it's like, if you get this like outward success, how will it meet you? Like I wanted to meet me healthy, happy whole, because if not, then what is it that we're really saying. We see a lot of people with a lot of money and there's no joy there, you know. So it's like then they accumulate more and there's even less joy, And they accumulate more and then there's even less joy. So it's like, oh man, I want to meet a healthy, happy whole, you know. And so yeah, I just I don't, like
I said, I don't know what that looks like. But I'm trying to give myself the space and the grace to decide without the say yes because don't let this person be mad at you or so yes because you said yes last week. I'm the type I would have said yes to you ten years ago and be like I got to say yes because ten years ago, you know, I said I going to do it. It's like, yeah, no, you have you know, certainly, you know you try to keep your promises, but the biggest promise that you ought
to be keeping is to yourself, you know. And I don't think I ever really believe that anymore, but I'm really leaning into that now. For example, like y'all know, I have my online school, the Literature Academy. I step down as CEO because when I say death is so clarifying.
I had like a list of things that I wanted to do that I was like if first I got to do this, and then like I got to make sure this and that was like and then one day I was just like Tiffany, I've been wanting to step down the CEO for some time, but finding a CEO and putting the company in position and d d no. I just was like, so, I'm not doing this anymore, So Tam.
You're up.
And she's working with PEP since the beginning of the academy, and certainly she's never been a CEO before. But I had my business coach, Diane, who has been coaching me for the last two years now. He coaches her and she and I speak whenever she needs to. But we have a standing call every other week, and it's my expectation that we will see a dip in revenue this year, maybe even next year. But she'll be just fine, you know, because the truth of the matter is, you know, and
I let everyone know. It's either that or we shut it down because I'm not doing it anymore.
You know.
I love the mission of the Literature Academy and what it does, but I don't like being a CEO. I like being a teacher. It's not as sexy or as fancy or as I'm a CEO. I don't care about that. So it's either this or ain't no Literature Academy. They're like, we'll do this, so I'm like, yes, I'm sure, and that company is very successful, as y'all know, we made eight figures in twenty twenty with ten million. We've hit our first ten million, and I was like, okay, and
I will walk away from it. And I just want to do the budgeonista. I just want to be a teacher, you know, I just want to That's it. And so it was also hard to because a budgetista. You know, I'm someone where I wanted to hire as many black women as possible, and so I did. We had a like twenty something women and they were getting good money. You know, I would say, you know, maybe one fourth
six figures and above. But as a result of doing them and they were like, you know, awesome, it forced me to work at a certain level that I didn't get as many breaks as like like I needed to, Like you know, I took Fridays off and Wednesday's light, but I'm talking about like really not having days where or even weeks or even months where I didn't have to work, Like I had to work to support the people that had hired, who were awesome, and it was hard.
But I had to let some of them go, not because of any faults of their own for the most part, but because it was like, who do you get to choose, Tiffany, you work yourself to the bone so everyone else can eat, or you get to decide you've done enough. That's been like the buzzword for me. It's enough, Tiffany. You don't owe someone your whole life. And the thing is so crazy. They never asked for that. My team wasn't like girl
hit the track so we could eat. When they found out that I wasn't taking me a salary from the budgetista so everyone else could get a bigger one, they were like, why I over sacrifice And I was like, enough, Tiffany, no one is asking you to continue to over sacrifice. So we went from like twenty people down to three. And I'm one of the three. It's myself, my admin, Rose and logan, my content person.
That's it.
And when I tell you it's been so awesome that like I would say, of the seven days out of the week, maybe I work two days.
This is my only thing today. This is it. I'm taping the podcast. That's literally it.
I went to the post office earlier to just mail something off to a friend of mine, but this is my and tomorrow I think I have a call in the morning, and like it's so crazy. Because when I finally realized I don't have to, I thought to myself, well, without all these people were going to make less money as long as we make enough to just cover Roses salary and Logan salary.
But that wasn't true.
I came back from my hiatus to almost a million dollars worth of business. I'm talking about spokesperson work, contracts, speaking engagement contracts, brand and bachelor of contract eight hundred and fifty thousand dollars. And I was like, and I'm being candid about this because I want you to see them the like what happens when you align yourself because I had told myself the story that if I slow down, it means business also slows down and fails, and that's
not true. Life was like, yeah, actually, no, you're actually doing way less work and surprise, here's almost a million dollars.
For you when you come back. And I was like, wait, what you know?
So it just is like so many times, you know, you tell yourself a thing and you believe it's true, and then you lock yourself in the prison of that thought. And you know, what I'm learning is that like I can step away and business continues. I have done the work necessary and required to do, so I can put someone else in place and business continues. I can take
a break and business continues, you know. Like so it's just like all these lessons that I'm like learning from myself, and it just you know, like that one in particular, is like I had told myself all that time, like wait, I can really be gone gone. Remember I took those like you know, like that four weeks off or whatever, that month off, you know, and even that I had not really learned the lesson. Now I'm really like, no, you can be gone and you can never come back
to that capacity and still be more than fine. And so my one of my mentees is she asked me, she said, do you think you couldn't have gotten You could have gotten here without the work that you did prior. And the truth is no, I'm not going to pretend as if you can start off at two days a week.
That's just not how it looks.
That.
There's a lot of planting and the podits you have to make.
And it's only because.
I've reached the level of mastery in what I do that I'm able to now pick from the garden that I I've grown I'll never not pick because.
Of so many seeds that I planted.
So yes, you might be in your sowing seeds and it is a little hectic and crazy and.
A little overwhelming.
But the key, and this is Mayday, and I chat about this before, is that my garden has been overflowing for a few years now, and I was still sowing seeds as if I had just started. I had seen my goal and I ran past it and just kept running. I didn't even know how to stop. I'm like, wait, so the goal was like two years ago, we hit it. Okay, you want to pay off your parents' house done, student alone, deat done, debt free done, no mortgage done, all the things done, done done?
Why are you still running so fast?
And so like I'm finally finally, finally slowing down, you know, and like I hate that it had to take the loss of Darrell's life to teach me how to live, but sometimes that's how that's how it goes.
But yeah, all right, well let's take a quick break. We'll be right back with more of brown ambition. All rightba fan, we're back. While you were talking, I kept envisioning the p and es in my garden that the previous owners of this house planted. And I get to every and I'm waiting. I see they're sprouting up right now, and it's mid May.
Around mid May. Every year they.
Bloom and I just get to enjoy it, and I hate it because it's so quick. You know they're there, and then they last for a couple of weeks and then they're gone. But that whole analogy around sewing and planting and like looking but actually getting to sit down and look at it and appreciate what you've built. Hell, no, you are not an overnight success and you're just you know,
able to do this. I don't think anyone who's listened to the show, you know, could could ever kid themselves that you haven't, you know, worked incredibly hard to get to where you are now. And I think the message there is like, if you're in your like, can you say a season of sewing, keep sewing, keep going so that when something, you know, whatever the whatever the need is, whatever the emergency is, whatever the unknown is, that you
have thing that you had that foundation to lean on. Yeah, I mean, you know, I'm incredibly just like proud of you and also as much sitting back with wide eyes, just wanting to see how you blossom and grow from this, because I know it's going to be extraordinary as it already has been. I mean, you haven't become you are backish. Now do you want to talk about your how you approached your new Can you call it a business venture? You new Patreon membership community?
Yeah? Numbers? Now it's so crazy.
I want to hear about it. Well, tell abroad ambition, like what is the community? What was your thought behind it? And yeah, what's going on?
So I said, like I was talking to Mandy and I was just like, you know, figuring out like what what? Like when I was in Bali, what did I miss? And I missed going live. I missed teaching basically, and one of the ways that I used to teach like a lot is I you know, if you follow me on social media, I would go live, especially on Instagram, and I missed it so much so that even when I was in BALI supposed to like I had taken
the social media everything hiatus. There were times when I was tempted to download Instagram just to go live because I would have learned a lesson that day while I was at the waterfall or learned a lesson while I was like, you know, hiking or whatever, and I wanted to share it.
And I realized, Okay, Tiffany, you really loved teaching.
But honestly, I dislike social media, and for myself now I used to really enjoy it.
But it got to a place where it's, like I did.
Social media is like, you know, you're like in this movie and you're ready to sit down and people are running past you, and you feel like, well, I guess I should run too, even though you're tired you want to sit down. And so social media kept showing me that like, get up, keep going, get up, keep going, And it was really it was hard for me to say, you don't need to run. I don't know what stage those folks are in their race, let them run. But it was hard because it was a daily reminder of girl,
you ain't doing enough, maybe getting lazy. Oh, you're losing your touch. And so I was like, so I've been pulling myself back from social but I'm like, well, then how do I reach my folks and teach like I like to without being on social So I thought about it like logan, and I like, I said, there's only three people let on the team. I was techt the telling logan. I said, you know, here's a list of like the twenty things that the budgetista does and how
it makes money. I'm not doing all that spokesperson working in Brandon bassador work, which's kind of like one and the same that I'll keep speaking engagements. I like speaking, and then I want to do something where I get to like teach live. Those are the three things I'm committed that I like doing.
What do you want to do? That's what I told her. She was like, hmmm, well I like these three things.
I said, all right, as long as you make your salary, I don't, you know, like that's on you.
And she was like okay.
So we took our two or three things off the table, and so the live thing, I said, you know, I'm going to create a Patreon. I had thought about it last year, about doing digital mentoring because I've got like ten like mentees that I speak to on a regular basis, but I really can't add on like you know, as many people.
That ask me.
And I thought, well, what if I can Instead of going live on Instagram, I can go live here on Patreon because what I love about Patreon is that once I'm done, it's just us.
It's not the whole world.
Like Patreon, you get to live in your own bubble on your Patreon page.
And I said, what if I do that?
And so I went live kind of like where it was like my backash live maybe like two weeks ago on Instagram and like all my social platforms, just to kind of get people an update, like I shared with y'all, and I told folks like you know, my Patreon's open. The purpose of it is digital mentoring. It's less budget needs to more Tiffany Elyche, meaning like we already have my literature academy, you already have my social I'm not going to teach you how to raise your credit score over there.
We're not budgeting over there. We're not. It's not about debt.
It's about personal and professional development and for business and business and entrepreneurship.
That's it.
Personal professional development, business entrepreneurship. That is my Patreon. It's about like how do you go from here to here as a person, but also as a business while you're growing your business.
So it's specifically for that type of woman, especially black women.
Right, although I don't turn anyone away, but like it just know, I'm gonna say sis and if you are assists head white man, as long as you don't mind that, hey, Sys, you can get it too, you know. And so I said, I'm going to launch it, and my goal in my head was a thousand people by the end of the year.
I was like, I think I could do it. I think I told me that.
I was like, do you know, within twenty four hours a thousand people signed up?
Yes. I was like, wait what sorry?
Soone knowoying how you don't realize.
And so right now we're at like twelve hundred. It's like like eleven ninety three. So about twelve hundred people
have signed up and it's been great. We did like So the thing is that I've sly had clear boundaries that I am going to promise one live lesson a month, you know, like if you'll be able to watch it live and like participate, like I tell you ahead of time when I'm going to go, and you know you can watch the replay it's posted forever, and like I will I will share regularly, like resources and tools and the things that I'm using or have used for success,
whether it's getting you know, writing a New York Times bestseller, launching a successful podcast, like hiring firing in business, you know, how to hit your quotas, all these types of things I've learned in business, being fourteen years in business and so yeah, and cause I see a lot of people, I'm not here to like shame anyone with their high ticket item.
But for me, I feel like one of.
The roles that I play in the marketplace is to give an accessible amount, you know, so minus just ten bucks a month on purpose because although I don't need a reason to quantify, but I like to for people to understand, like, you know, like why at that price point. It's like, one, I want it to be accessible to many people as possible. Two, you're not going to stress me out for ten bucks a month. I'm like, don't.
I'm not answer every question individually. No, I'm not jumping on the call like you know, Like I'm like, you know, like if you if you mad, certainly you can withdraw your ten dollars. We all right here, sis And you know, so even though I say one a month, one live a month, the truth is I do more than that. But I wanted to give like this is what's guaranteed, And I'm really enjoying myself over there. The audience has
been like you know, my mentees over there have been awesome. Actually, our next by the time this comes out, you'll have missed it. But our next live is actually on Tuesday,
because today's Monday. We're taping is we're doing a business and an entrepreneur Q and A. And so I'm taking questions right now from my mentees, putting them in a spreadsheet, seeing like because some questions kind of overlap, and for like an hour and a half, I will answer as many questions as possible, both live and the ones pre given.
And so that's our next mentor live session.
So I'm excited about it because some of the questions I'm like, oh, this is a really good one and they're gonna.
Be shocked by the answer.
How how like what a great tool resources I can share And so I mean I'm sharing everything from like my contracts to my book proposal, like the one that got me nine nine big publishers wanting to sign me and that got me my multi six figure.
Book proposal deal.
So like yeah, it's just a place where I get to share all of my knowledge and so yeah, and so I can't believe my sister said, only you within twenty four hours to launch a six figure business, because you figure one thousand people times ten dollars is ten thousand bucks a month, and that's what one twenty a year,
although patron takes like a percentage. But do you see it's crazy because I thought to myself, wow, look at the seeds planted that I can share this thing and then have a thousand people sign up within twenty four hours and you know, make ten thousand dollars a month from the rip. But that is the because I first I used to tell doctor Green, like, oh, I wish maybe I had done things differently. She said, no, you don't get to judge past Tiffany. Pass Tiffany is the
reason why you don't have to work right now. Passtivity is the reason why you don't have to worry about financially. She did what she had to do, and you're here as a result. And I'm like, true, past Tiffany has created chilling Tiffany. And so but yeah, if you're in you can It's just called mymntor Tiffany dot com. And yeah, you can join us over there. It's good fun times.
Yeah, it's you and Ray for me. You're my team Patreon. That's the level of adoration.
It's you an Ray.
Well, I mean congratulations and I mean and it's also as painful as that big business that I don't want to like discount the business decision that you had to make and the personal decision you had to make to let go of seventeen budgetisto or liverat er you know, staff body, And I think for anyone listening like that is the that is what happens when you sometimes put
yourself first. I mean those difficult decisions. You know. I coach a lot of women now on how to leave work environments, how to quit and move on to a better situation for themselves. And the agony and the time and the stress and the anxiety over inconveniencing other people
or doing something that is persue. You know that you can perceived to be for you and not for someone else, even though I think you know you also gave those women an incredible opportunity to work for a black female CEO and to watch from the inside a business like that go grow and thrive. I can't even say I got to experience that through my career, I never got to work for a black female CEO, and how many of us don't write, So that takes nothing away from
the job experience. You gave them the opportunities to advance the safe community, the Unicorn Squad, like those connections that they've made, and I think when we look at it that way, and I mean I encourage anyone to look at it that way, it is it's all positive and even if it had to end at this moment in time, it takes nothing away from the value you know that you starting your business from scratch gave to them, and also the message that now you can move forward with
clarity and do this new community in the way that you want to and feel good about it without having to keep something else running because you feel some sort of loyalty or like you said, like obligation to that you can be free and lighter and be light and chill Chill Tiffany.
I like Chill Tiffany. I know, I like her.
It feels like I get to know you all over again in a way, but it's not what life is. I feel like we change, we do. It's impossible for you to not change after going through what you've been through. Wow, all right my mentor Tiffany, So don't email her anymore if you get your ten dollars ready.
Yes, like us over there we have Honestly, I'm really that is a happy place for me. I'm just like, I love it there. I'm there all the time, you know, just like you know, like I said, I don't be answering every question, but I read out and I'm like I'll answer that.
I'm live.
Yeah, so it's you Rose and Logan. Dang.
I know it's awesome though, because we don't do I hate meetings, but I'm not gonna lie I hate meetings. We don't do meetings like I'm like I told Logan, if you push myself on my on my calendar, I better see a power point. It better be that you like.
Yes, there, it's funny how you coming well. I know, back lowercase b back ish to Brian, ambition understood, message received. But when you know, we used to have like a monthly meeting with our network that was always like I could never really find the right time for it, never really to be that important, but it was always on the calendar and when you were coming back and it was like, Okay, let's look at the time for this meeting and having you. I'm like, is this worth Tiffany's
Is it? If it's not worth Tiffany's time, let's not do it, you know what I mean? Like, and I just knew this does not have to be a meeting. It has to be an email. It's fine, but I needed you to sort of like to think of other than myself because if I was honest, it wasn't worth anyone's time really to happen.
It could be a message or a quick call or because I'm like, lookan, I can be a target right now? Why you put this on a calendar because now I'm sitting in front of my computer like girl, like cause you know, because most.
Of times it's like because I've want one people who.
I hire, I actually like them, you know, and so like logan and I will chit chat and I could be a target like ooh, girl, did you know me?
Ask jeez? Let me see send me a picture.
So like I was saying about today's post, you know, like i'd rather I when I say I hate meetings, I hate formal meetings, but no informally quick phone call we talk. I check up on you, how's your mom, how's your You know, I loved, I loved connecting, and so I just realized, so we don't do that. The only standing meeting I really have is Tamra because I want to make sure that she has the support she needs.
And my finance person I meet with her once a month just to go over the monthly P and L statement and how things are going.
But the truth is, like I do quick.
Like I called my finance person this morning, Georgia, and I said, hey, for Patreon, you know the money is in there. Should we should we have it connected the paypaler strike. I said, can you do a financial analysis to see where we get the most because each of them takes their own kind of fees and where you know, And she was like, okay, I was a five minute call versus me because before it was let me get on Tiffany's calendar to do that. No, you know, like
text me real quick. It might be just a quick yes, no maybe. And so like I love the fact that we don't. I don't have standing meetings with Rose.
Or Logan because also one of the lessons that I learned in business is that if I have to run behind you, then I already know you're not right for that position, meaning like you know, if I have to, oh, let me check, like I don't when I tell you how little I'm in my inbox now. And I realized that I was in my inbox a lot before because the admins I had before, although there were great folks, they just weren't the right person for that job.
So I always have to like double check to make sure nothing slipped through. With Rose, don't I know that if it's important and she doesn't know what to do, she'll let me know, you know. And she's awesome at
what she does. I mean, like everything from sending flowers to my mom for Mother's Day to I had her negotiate our first contract, like a speaking engagement that didn't want to pay me my full amount, and I knew if I got on the call then I would close the deal, because you know, I get on the call, they're like, oh yeah, let me say, I'm like, give me my money, and they're like okay.
But I said, Rose, you don't negotiates. She was like me. I was like, she said, but what if I don't get it?
I said, so, so I said, one we made our quoter for the year. Already I had a number in mind that I wanted to make that everybody got paid well, including me for once, and I said, we already made that number. So worst case scenario, they say kick rocks, and then they kick rocks and we keep it moving. So I told her exactly what to say. I told her what they were likely to say and the motivation behind it, and she said everything. And they went from asking us to give them a discount to saying, we
found the money. We can't wait to work with you. She was so excited, but now she's empowered. I'm like, girl, because I'm not trying to get on another damn meeting if I don't have to, like, let Rose do it, and so like girl like cause I'm like, yo, I want to tell you I'd be walking three hours a day and listen to my audible. I'm like, that's my day. Like today after this, I'm like, if it was raining outside, that's what I'll do next. Maybe I'll do laundry today,
you know. I'm just like, I don't know. Maybe I'll like like go hang on my sister because the kids should be back from school soon, and maybe I'll go play with the crazies, like that's my niece and my nephew. That's what I call them, and so like it just this is how I want life to go. One where it's just like you know, maybe I'll call one of my mentees and pour into them and so like, yeah,
I just I'm excited about this this shift. But yeah, this is like you know, but it does feel good to be back here, Like I I'm like eager to see like what it all shakes out to be, especially now that we're Webby Award winners.
You see us we say that.
I was like, you know, yeah, well yes I'm social, but not officially.
Yes, not here, thank you all.
Yes, yes, he see and also listen brown, ambition is a garden that we sowed seven years ago for me. It's ambition has sewn like we sew those sees so many years ago. Seven years now. We've been doing this a long time. We're like geriatric podcasters almost. I had a very frustrating phone call, my first frustrating phone call with a coaching client. I've coached two hundred women since
last July. It's been phenomenal this journey. And and I've yet I had yet to have an interaction with one where it was like just not the right fit, you know what I mean in this particular one, you know, someone who was starting a podcast and and I was and had asked me for feedback and I and I was giving it. And the resistance to the notion of organic audience growth and that it takes time and it takes consistency and showing up and there's no I had no secret tricks. If you want my advice and how
to build a podcast, I got. I got no secret tricks in terms of, oh, pay this exact amount in ads or you know, do this amount of promotion. There's no tricks we tip and I have shown up, you know, for the most part, every week for seven years and created content that people enjoyed and kept doing it and kept doing it. And I think what is great about the whole award situation is it's nice. Let's not kid around, like it's nice to get recognized and about damn time,
you know what I mean? Okay, Plutus Awards, where the hell y'all at? We keep getting a nominated and never went. But anyway, like there's there's and it feels it feels nice and gratifying to have that recognition. But Tip and I, we haven't done this show for that. It was always, you know, to make ourselves and our audience feel good. And I think that that's why we continue showing up. If you're showing up for the awards and for the numbers and for the sponsorships and things like that, what
an empty, unfulfilling way to approach it anyway. And I think that it was good to have that kind of awkward interaction because it reinforced for me why there's not going to be another broad I aint gotta worry, you know, there's not another Brown ambition because we get it. I think at the end of the day, why we're here and what we're doing it for and take away the awards and we're still showing up, right, So thank y'all,
Thank you so much for voting. Thank you dream Catchers, thank you VA Fan, thank you Logan, thank you Amber on our social team at VA for promoting it. Yeah it feels damn good. Do we get a trophy or something? I don't actually know what happens now.
Yeah, we have to ask because we got not just like the people's choice, but the judges too, which is like, oh, we went on BOLLS because you know, just like for full clarity that that was amazing that it was like, oh wow, y'all voted and we won, but also the judges.
We got an award from the judges, which is like.
So you know, it's not often that you can win on both sides of the aisle, which is like the people love you, but then like you know, the powers that be, So it's like we out.
Here, we out here, We've been out here and even through and y'all have stayed so loyal and you know, the show has grown this past year. And I think for there was a time, you know, Tiffany after Darrell had passed or even I had no idea what the future of Brown Ambition was and I had made my peace with it. I'm like, okay, you know, this was
an amazing journey. It's me and Tiffany or bust, you know what I mean, Like, I didn't know what it would be like doing it or trying to do it solo, and it y'all have shown up like and continue to show up, and you know, I think that's a beautiful testament to that, you know, the like the relationships that we've built with our audience and you guys.
It's just like you've grown, you know, from like this corporate badass to like this entrepreneur like you know, you're sorry and now you're like this like go to influencer. So it's like you got a chance to like flex your chops. You know, I don't even know if that's worried. You know, like hone, your chops flex yours either way, you know what I mean. I'm so my dad's daughter. He always mixes up all metaphors and like simply I'm
like flex for chops. I'm sure that's not the word, but you know what I mean, you really got a chance, Like I love to see how you have stepped in to this space and are like shine and shining, and it's just like, you know, in only one year, that's incredible. I mean, I know you look at it like wow, like girl, dude, any idea what I was doing year one?
I know, I know, I know, which I'm like, yes, I get it. It's fine, I know, it's yeah. I'm going to do a lot more reflecting and coming up on my one year anniversary in one month of establishing my LLC, and it's hard to wrap my head around it too, But I got to get some reflection and gratitude affirmations in my head real quick, because the anxiety started. Anxiety and doubt dog, my ugly doubt dog that kind of like sits on my desk and yeah, sent me
every once in a while. It's been coming back, and it's more of that mindset work that I'm trying to do now, and just like, appreciate what you have done. Of Course I wasn't replacing my corporate salary in a year, you know, but I've done, I've done. Okay, I've done.
Okay, First of all, Nanny's being.
She's being humble because first of all, her corporateality wasn't she was making surgeon money. Okay, I'm not try to put a business out here, but it's not like she had a regular corporateality. So of course she's not replacing that old, big old paycheck in one year. And then on top of that, she's done really well. Like first year,
I made fifteen thousand gross, take home five thousand. I'm laugh because I was living off of French fries and meanwhile I was a whole thirty one Okay, it what was it?
Like, well, that's because she were nineteen. No, I was a grown lady.
And so year two I think I made thirty five thousand, year three fifty. Then year four I think I made like seventy five, then one fifty, and then it you know, like success is is cumulative. It layers on top of each other. And so you have put in the work and so you are like, yeah, you are doing literally ten times better than I was when I first started.
And so I'm just really proud of you because it's only going to grow.
So because and this is not just for Mandy but for everyone, Like you don't have to work on being more yourself, like Mandy is a hard worker and smart. That part is the easy part. It's like you ain't got to work on that, girl, We get it.
You're smart your heart, Like at any moment of time, if you know, let's just say you had a week, month or whatever, you know, you could do you know, financial editing on the side and make the coin. You need to make sure that the family's fine, so that part is secured.
It's really the other part that you said about the anxiety, the am I good enough?
Am I?
That if you master that part of you, Mandy, Oh my gosh, you will be unstoppable.
So many of us.
Work on the parts of ourselves that are already developed, and then we're like, you know, we're like a baby in this other part. But it's like, really, success is self mastery. Self mastery. Do you know how to have the hard conversations? Have you stopped people pleasing? Have you looked in the mirror and said, hey, I am good enough. Do you take your mistakes personally and you have you learned how to stop doing it?
That's self mastery. If you can do that, then it opens the door and unlocks everything else.
Like I so much of Like I could have been much more successful in business if I worked on like, you know, not needing their approval of others because it forced me needing their approval, had me hire people who, you know, weren't always the nicest because I was.
Like, well, I don't want her to be mad at me. Da da da, Oh my god, girl.
If I could have been like, actually you can go, I could have grown faster. You know, if I had self mastery and you know, like being more assertive, you know, I could have gotten more money from brands that I know we're trying to just plain me.
But do you see when you master that, that other stuff becomes easy?
And so like, yeah, I tell that to my mentees all the time because I always wanted like tricks and tips about marketing and and you know, like scaling and all that stuff, and I'm like, yeah, I'm gonn show you that stuff, but it's not going to be as effective until you master these internal struggles within you, because then it's gasoline on the fire of those external things because most people don't work on those internal things.
You do that, you know, Sky is the mother at the limit.
I get that, and for me, it's a daily There's days when I got it and there's days when I don't, and I think I'm making peace with the days that I don't, and realizing as someone who deals with like clinical depression, especially after having my son, you I made peace with like there are going I'm there's going to be lulls, Like there's going to be times when the but then what are your support systems and what are your you know, what are your what levers can you
pull to get yourself through it? Because there's happiness and there's you're going to get back to that place of strength, you know, on the other side of it, and going with those flows has really really helped me as an entrepreneur. I didn't realize how I had set myself up for success in that way, already working on so much mindfulness around anxiety and depression and the you know, in twenty twenty after having my son and dealing with that, because
as an entrepreneur it's the same thing. It's like, at the end of the day, I wasn't gonna be able to control my child and fix him as I was trying to do through my anxiety, and as a business owner, I've had to make peace with you know, there may be things that fall through. It may not work out
how I always envisioned it. I may you know, screw up something or could it on this better or whatever, But Okay, that's the thing that's happened, and you've got to move through it and learn from it and do better the next time and don't put so much damn pressure to have everything perfect. And like you said, sometimes I'm a lot easier about easier on myself about my mistakes than even other people. And I'm like, damn, almost be hard on yourselves. Like I just made a mistake.
It's not that big of a deal. You know, we all make mistakes, but you're right, it's that mindset. It's a mindset mastery. And who's other Who are the other voices that influence I'm going to allow into my little protective into my little bubble, and what voices are there. I'm so glad that your voice is back in the mix. I have to say that, Yeah, well.
Welcome back is yes.
If you guys, I mean honestly hopefully this is this is not just for y'all, like if you're like, if you have not invited somebody to listen. Tobout Ambition Evans is a really great episode for them to hop on in because I feel like there's going to be a message for so many people here about what it looks like to master yourself but also to to like to find enough in being okay with that. So we welcome you, to welcome your bestie, work mom, even your work dad.
He can listen to.
We couldn't we couldn't not tape this show seven years ago. We weren't here, you know what I mean, Like we've grown and matured in such like extraordinary ways. The show is never the same and for those of you, I hear them all the time on like dming me. I just started listening. I'm starting at the beginning. I'm like you about to go on a journey. So you think you're talking to twenty fifteen Mandy. Now how.
Many different animal Yes? Oh my gosh, what.
A privilege, What a freaking privilege. And this also feels like a reset for what does even brown ambition mean. It's not just accumulating wealth for the sake of it, It's really not. I still love our show title because it gives room for that. But yeah, if I could, if I could define brown ambition today versus what I thought of it seven years ago, it is the understanding that you can. It's there's nothing wrong with wanting more and wanting to achieve things, you know, if they matter
to you. But it's also about understanding that as especially black and brown people, and our listeners are largely black women, we have to take care of ourselves along the way so that data, you know, that ambition actually leads to happiness and not just more misery. We deal with enough of that shit waking up, you know every day. That's a beautiful thing. I think, and I'm proud to be a part of brown.
Ambition needs to me. It's like.
Seeking health, happiness, and wholeness and peace in this brown skin. So whatever that looks like for you, And so like the ambition part is really like, you know, working toward that, you know, the holistic version of yourself that does include money and finance also because you know, we're we live here in the real world.
You know. But it doesn't it doesn't exclude the other parts because they're just equally as important.
So absolutely, well we did it.
We did it. Yeah, well, no, we didn't do Brown Break, Brown Boost. I think they'll forgive us for a long show, for this backshow.
Oh please, this is gonna be one hundred percent people watch them and listen to the entire show through. Yeah, I need to like dust off my brown booth, Brown Boost, Brown Break muscle. I don't know what that even is anymore.
I forget. We used to have like a song, but we don't think. We don't figure it out. Yeah, we don't figure it out.
All right, it will be right back with Brown Boost, Brown Break. All right, bea fan. We're back, We're black, We're brown.
Yes, Well, since it was a pretty long shot. I'm just going to do just a real quick brown boost to asking for help. You know, sometimes it's really hard, especially for us brown folks, to allow people to look after themselves. When I when I went to Bali, I thought to myself, I'm here to learn how to take better care of myself self care, you know, self self, self self care, you know that's that word self self. But what I realized because the Bolanese are known for
their kindness that is non transactional. It's not inexpecting, you know, they don't tipping is not this huge thing. And people are literally not just kind to you as a tourist, but kind to each other. And I thought to myself, it like it took me almost a whole trip to realize, Oh, one of the lessons I'm here to learn is not how to take care of myself, but how to allow
others to take care of me. Because like, like literally like I had like a woman would come every every other day and she would take my laundry or they would come and clean because I'd read to the villa and so I found myself cleaning and she was like after like the fourth time, she was like stop, I'm like.
No, but I feel back, so I don't want you know, She's like, no, this is Tiffany.
You are a blessing. For two years we've had no tourist. They've been they were shut down during the pandemic. For two years, we've had no tourists. The fact that you're here and I can clean the villa is a blessing to me and my family. Like, you're doing me a disservice by cleaning, because if you do that, then the villa owners gonna be like, well, we don't need you.
So I learned for me to be like Tiffany, like allowing people to take care of you is one of the best gifts that not only can you could give yourself, but to give to other people. I didn't realize that my friends who wanted to lean in and help me through this time, blocking them wasn't I wasn't shielding them from anything. I was actually making life harder for them
as well. And so like asking for help and allowing people to help you, that is my brown boost that you are are deserving of allowing people to lean in and to look after you. And so don't don't be afraid to ask for help.
So does that mean, you'd like to order another dozen chocolate chip cookies because bringing.
Them cookies, I'm gonna lie. They were so me And Alyssa she's like, Maddie, why chocoatip cookies? Like we have been dogging those Dagon cookies. They were just amazing. And I'm like, manby no more, Okay a little bit.
I'll put you down for another order. It's been a while, Okay, only round twice. I'm gonna do a boost. I would love to boost Mandy money Makers. I just opened applications for my third cohort. I can't believe in January this was an idea that didn't even really exist, and now I am about to welcome my third cohort of Mandy money Makers. So if you want to join the June cohort, you can go to Mandy money dot com and apply. You know, when I approached Mandy money Makers, I thought,
let's make this small. I didn't want to create a business where I felt like I couldn't really connect to people. So as I'm figuring things out, at least in my first year, I was like, I want to do small group coaching sessions and I want there to be magic in the air. I want people to come, women to come and to feel like they are learning every day from me but also from one another. And it's just
been this largely incredible journey. So my second cohort is about to graduate, my second well cohort in Many money Makers, and I'm ready. I decided I'm going to start in June. So mandimoney dot com to apply and I need to apply. Write words in your application. Sorry, what how many people are you taking on?
What's the match?
I'm maxing it out at forty. So my first cohort was about twenty five, second one is about twenty and I wanted them to stay small, but I think I'm gonna I'm gonna experiment going a little bit bigger this time and just see how that feels. This is all an experiment, and I'm just kind of opening myself up to Okay, let's see how this feels. Anything over fifty starts to feel I just don't know if we would ever have the personal connections that we're having with one another.
And then each time Mandy money Makers graduate from the program, you get inducted into or you get the option to continue in the alumni community. And I have ongoing events. We just had Janice Torres Rodriguez from Joky Dinero was our first guest speaker at our alumni event, and oh god, I fucking love her.
She's amazing.
And she talked a lot about mindset too, because you think that she started that brand overnight and she's a success. No, but yeah, it's been, it's been wonderful. Yeah, so I'm really proud of that. I can't believe it's my third cohort.
God, Mandy, look at that. Yeah, they tried to marry you, but they didn't know you as a seed. Let's not talk about the.
Yeah, it's it's phenomenal. And June's also going to be my one year entrepreneur versary. I don't know what I'm going to do, but I'm gonna freaking acknowledge it. I'm going to freaking acknowledge it.
Because you deserve. Like, I'm really proud of you, And.
We never got to say congratulations to you either on your amazing Like we all know you're a New York Times bestselling author, but right before you took your hiatus, you were about to cross over one hundred thousand books sold.
Mark right, No, even no before I don't even know why Penguin said that. I think they were talking about hardcover, but in books total, I was already over one hundred, meaning like ebooks as well as as well as Kindle
and audio. So now I want to say we're at one hundred and forty one thousand books sold, and just for context, like twenty five thousand they consider good, fifty they considered great, one hundred thousand they consider I'm talking about in the lifetime and so to have done that with Unicorn No.
Twenty five, I've heard ten is what you can hope. Ten thousand is what a really good debut, And I've heard that from someone who works on nonhait.
I mean with the first year, you mean within the first week.
In the first year, like ten k, ten k, that's like, that's like, here's what you can expect. Ten k is good, Like that's a reasonable goal to make. So you're like fifteen X. Everyone probably has their own, you know, their own subjective opinions about what's a good debut and what's not, but we can all objectively agree that's phenomenal.
And then they told me that, like one thing I did learn is that like in twenty twenty one, Giga with Money was the number one selling new personal finance book of the year. Like I was like for Penguin, They're like, no, for all personal finance books that were categorized as such that year that launched in twenty twenty, twenty twenty one, you're sold more than any of them.
I'm like, but like some of these big names came out, They're like, I know, just so that just that's just incredible, you know, like just letting that like settle for me, because sometimes you get like onto the next don't you know. I'm not doing that anymore. So I'm just like, or how I used to call myself baby millionaire. I member, I used to say that, and I'm like, oh, tyfinitally, stop with the bullshit. You're a fucking millionaire. It's fine,
it's happened. I just didn't want to acknowledge. I felt like awkward and bad and I felt bad, and it's like, no, it's okay to acknowledge the good work you've put in. And this book is like, yeah, I'm really proud of it. Yes, for the numbers that's hit, but what I really really really am proud of how many people come up to me and said this was really helpful. Like I was at like I was someone out last night and this guy came up to me. He said, I got my
girlfriend your book for her birthday. And he showed me a picture of how he put it in a basket with like a bottle of wine and so she can have like a zen night. And he was like, because I got it for myself at first, and it was so helpful so many men. That's what shocked me too about it. Like I'm like, really, because you know it wasn't it's not anti man, not at all.
But in the book, you know, my audience is largely women. So I say, sis, and girl get that dress from Target, Like I say that, and so yeah, it's just amazing. I'm a look at us girl and girl continued success. You pave in them way, dude.
I mean, you're literally and more women of color will get book deals because of the success of that book. So that, I mean, if you need someone to remind you how fucking amazing it is, just talked to me.
Thanks, because I know.
For a fact the proposed like the success of future black female authors who want to write personal finance books, Your book is going to be in every single proposal as someone as an example of, because that's part of the proposal is where you have to talk about the market and who else is out there. The success of your book is going to make publishers less afraid to work with women of color and put them on the title, put them on the cover. You know what I mean.
That's incredibly a proposal grew. You got to be what you meant anyway, So we're gonna post it, but I'm give you a copy.
All right, Tiff, Well that is the show, you guys, thank you so much for listening. As Tiff said, tell a friend, tell a friend, tell a friend, take a screenshot, tag us in this post, tell us how excited you are to see Tiffany back, and of course all positive love and thoughts to Tiffany. Don't or I guess if you can't, you know, reach out to Tiffany on ig anymore, say hi, logan.
A little bit, but yeah, largely logan, but yeah I am the every once in a while, once we got poked my head in and like, or she'll send me a screenshot if you guys, send me something nice, like you know, she's like, look, isn't this sweet? I'm like it is. Tell them I said hi.
And what's the website again?
For the Patreon It's my mentor Tiffany dot.
Com, My mentor Tiffany dot com. All right, beautiful, that's it.
We did it. Yeah, we did it.
Joe, Hey, ba fan. We could not do this show without your support or the support of our team behind the scenes. The Brown Ambision podcast is produced by Cumulus Podcast Network. It's edited by the wonderful Emani Crosby and produced by Tanya Bustos. Dennis Stimplinsky is our in house tech guru, and I am Bandy Woodrid Santo's your co host and I will see y'all next week. Six