Tiffany's Journey: From Hustle to Real Estate Legacy

Real estate, coaching, and a legacy builder. Meet Tiffany Santana, an entrepreneurial force in real estate and a confidence coach, as she reveals her journey through family business legacies and innovative real estate investing strategies. In this episode, we explore how her real estate mindset, honed from a rich lineage of business owners, has fueled her success as an entrepreneur since she was a little girl. 

At the helm of GMS Property Solutions and TD Santana Consulting, Tiffany shares invaluable insights into what is to side hustle in 2023, providing practical ideas and advice on family business partnerships. Her story is a blend of faith, family dynamics, and effective business partnerships. Listen in for a conversation that’s not just about single entrepreneurial tracks but how to leverage all gifts any must monetize and make a profit. Her recent business expansion as a Confident Coach for personal and professional growth expands on her family legacy. Get ready to be empowered with actionable business partnership advice inspired by Tiffany's journey in family entrepreneurship.

📚 RECOMMENDED readings and programs:

🧠 On Mindset - Soundtracks: the surprising solution to overthinking, https://www.amazon.com/dp/1540900800/ref=nosim?tag=unexpectedl0e-20

💬 On Communication - The 16 Undeniable Laws of Communication: Apply Them and Make the Most of Your Message, https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BZBD1HZ4/ref=nosim?tag=unexpectedl0e-20

📈 On Scaling Your Business through Synergies - Who Not How: The Formula to Achieve Bigger Goals Through Accelerating Teamwork, https://www.amazon.com/dp/1401962327/ref=nosim?tag=unexpectedl0e-20

🎧 Listen to the show:
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/66x3kimKtCA4dSHE51IOEj?si=486ebbd41f284f3d
🍏 Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/un-expectedly-successful-the-podcast/id1691434992

💌 GET IN TOUCH WITH ME 
🎓 DrGriselda.com
💼 Economic Development Consulting: ascendostrategies.com
📧 Partner With Me - griselda@ascendostrategies.com

Who I AM:  
I am Dr. Griselda Martinez, your transformational business coach, speaker, and consultant dedicated to empowering seasoned professionals like you to step confidently into entrepreneurship. After reaching the peak of my career, I realized my true calling was not in the corner office but in guiding women to unlock their purpose through business ownership. 

Join me and a community of passionate, purpose-driven entrepreneurs making a real difference. Subscribe to become part of the un-Expectedly Successful tribe, and let's elevate your business journey together. Share your aspirations in the comments and discuss how we can achieve them. Ready to redefine success on your terms? 

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

There's no use of sitting on skill sets that can make you money, whether it's a full-on income or whether it's additional income. I've always looked at ways that I could take what I can do or what I do well or what I do easily and make some money from it. And again, I think that comes from how our family was wired. You know, if you can mow lawns and you can take care of plants, go start a landscaping business. If you're great at putting together weddings, then get paid for it.

Speaker 2: 0:36

Welcome back to another episode to Unexpectedly Successful the Show. And today I have an amazing, incredible person here with me and I will tell you about her, and then I tell you why she's so special to me. Her name is Tiffany Santana and we know her better as Santana Santana Santana, and she is the owner of multiple businesses Currently. One is GMS Property Solutions, in which she's a member and co-founder, and the mission of this business is to buy beachfront condos and turning them into luxury short-term rentals. The second one, the second part of this business, is flipping and selling properties, and not too long ago they also own commercial property, which now they don't because they're revamping their portfolio. But it's a really interesting approach and we'll dig into that in a little bit. And the even more exciting part of this is the freshly out of the oven launched company, and the name of it is TD Santana Consulting, in which Tiffany is going full force into coaching, speaking and instruction, and we go deeper into what that means for Tiffany. So, tiffany, welcome back.

Speaker 2: 1:55

Welcome to Unexpectedly Successful Show. Now on the other side, as my guest speaker. How are you today?

Speaker 1: 2:03

I'm good, I'm so excited to be here because, I've told you many times, this is my favorite podcast, so I'm ecstatic.

Speaker 2: 2:09

So for my audience. This is why this woman is so special in my heart, because literally, she's my number one cheerleader and I'm honored to have this conversation with her and understand her journey as an entrepreneur. So let's get into it, Tiffany. So tell me what is to be Tiffany for you.

Speaker 1: 2:32

I have heard you ask this question many times tonight. I have a lot of time to think about it.

Speaker 1: 2:38

I, first and foremost, am a follower of Jesus Christ. I love my relationship with the Lord. I've been a Christian since I was a child and that anchor has been one of the most solid, amazing anchors in my whole life. So that's first. I am also a wife to Richard Santana. We've been married for 23 years and it has been an amazing roller coaster of a ride. I'm a mom of a teenager. I am a member of a multi-generational family.

Speaker 1: 3:14

We have four generations living in one house, my grandmother is 105 years old and I love being her granddaughter and I love that my son gets to live with his great grandmother. And I am a businesswoman, but I'm also a teacher, a best friend, I am a giver. I am someone who is passionate about helping people. I lead a domestic violence nonprofit because I want to make sure that people are whole and healthy and healed. And I'm kind of goofy and silly, which some people know and some people don't. But that's me in a nutshell.

Speaker 2: 3:53

I love it, tiffany. Yeah, you had some time to prepare for this one. You knew I was going to get deeper from the labels, right, yes? So, tiffany, what, out of all of this exciting life, is the one that you are most in awe, in your career, in your profession, in your journey as an entrepreneur?

Speaker 1: 4:19

I think I'm most in awe that I'm even doing this. I have spent my life doing a lot of things and for a while I used to give myself a hard time because I would never settle on anything long term. I would do something for five years or seven years and then switch because I felt called to do something different or because my interest shifted. And I probably didn't give myself as hard of a time as other people have given me because I didn't do a straight 40 years and one thing and retire from it and all that. I've always been open to what the next thing is and I'm really proud of the fact that I'm open to flexibility and that I'm open to exploring and open to gaining new skills and learning all the time. That's just how I'm wired. I always want to know more and I always want to be more efficient and more effective.

Speaker 2: 5:13

So that's what I'm looking for. I love it. I love it. So it's an ever evolving process for you. So, tiffany, you talked about how you are here, just in all of you being here and with the multiple things going on right now currently but can you tell us about how you got here? In our offline conversation, you talked about you being an entrepreneur even from childhood, so can you share about that?

Speaker 1: 5:44

Yes, I come from a very entrepreneurial family. I can go back all the way to my grandfather, who was a landscaper. He had a third grade education and was one of the most brilliant men I ever knew and he started his own business in Washington DC taking care of the lawns of the people in the Northwest the wealthy people in the Northwest of DC and he really built a really solid business there and he had a trash disposal company. He had one of the first ride share Uber type companies. Oh wow, he would take senior citizens, even when he was a senior citizen. He would pick up senior citizens from retirement homes and take them to their appointments and things like that. He was just always entrepreneurial. And he owned real estate too and would help people to get their first houses, because back in the day 70s, 80s, there was still a lot of racism in home ownership and he would help people. He would be a second on their mortgages to help them to get mortgages to get their first homes. And we know that home ownership very often is a pathway to wealth in the United States. So he would help people in the community by backing them up and getting their mortgages. So that was the root of probably our entrepreneurship. My mother was an entrepreneur. She owned a wedding services business. She did an in-home daycare for many years. She did two rounds of that, but she was the head of a real estate education department and a real estate firm. So she extended our knowledge of real estate in that.

Speaker 1: 7:37

And I always wanted to make money for myself. I used to do as a kid I would sell things, I would sell lemonade, I would sell clothes, I would wash cars. I wanted to be self-sufficient, even at an early age, and I wanted to be able to have my own money and spend it. And so those are the ways. Before you could even work or have a work permit, I was 10, 9, 8 years old. I would just start doing things for myself to make money, asking people if they wanted me to do things for them, go shopping for them, pick up things, whatever. So I think I had the entrepreneurial bug, maybe genetically.

Speaker 2: 8:18

Wow, that's amazing. So, Tiffany, you mentioned that currently you have a household with four different generations. Was that the case as you were growing up, or how were you exposed to your grandfather that you mentioned and you know in depth what he did and how he did it? How were you exposed to that?

Speaker 1: 8:37

So we didn't. That was his dream initially, for all of his family. He really wanted a compound where all of his extended family lived on one property, and it wasn't the case when I was growing up, but I spent a lot of time with them, even as a little kid. He would scoop me up when I was three or four years old and I'd be in the backseat when he'd be driving and picking people up and doing different things for the church, and I would spend full summers with my grandparents. I spent so much time with them every weekend just about when we were growing up. So they were. They were my parents too, and we had a really close relationship. So I had an opportunity to to see up close. I don't know if I exactly knew at the time what I was observing and taking in, but I had an opportunity to be in the in the front seat, really watching all of these things evolve, wow.

Speaker 2: 9:29

That's that's so cool. That's a very unique experience of of just being able to have that level of closeness to your grandfather and and learn from them. Right, it's usually the parents. So, in terms of your mother, how, how do you pair the grandfather, the mother experience to you? Now, being an entrepreneur and the real estate is in the bloodline, right?

Speaker 1: 9:57

Yes, yes, I think that's definitely in the bloodline with my mom because I was her child. I was very involved in her businesses. When she had the wedding services business, she would take me with her to weddings and I would participate in helping out and I got to see the inner workings of that business. I got to see at home what it was like when she was working on on weddings and working on actually developing the business. I remember we were, the internet was kind of coming of age as my mother was doing that business and so she was open to using that new technology to help her business.

Speaker 1: 10:34

So, that kind of gave me the bug also for incorporating tech into the things that I do. Wow, because I always wanted to know the next best, most efficient way to do a thing, and so I embraced technology at a young age too. So I think, just being a close family, you can't help but to see what people are doing and how they're doing it, and so I learned so much from that Wow.

Speaker 2: 10:57

That's so cool that key pieces to what you do now came from that. So, tiffany, as a daughter, as a granddaughter and now as a mom, what are your takeaways of being an entrepreneur? I know my mom's been an entrepreneur is a busy journey, right. It's always on the go and Sometimes you feel like you have to make decisions on how to spend time. What would be a message for moms out there, or for daughters out there, as takeaways from your experience, not necessarily as detrimental, but in the positive?

Speaker 1: 11:43

I think one of the things that my parents did really well because they worked hard. My parents and my grandparents worked really hard, but it was always the quality of time that they spent with me, not necessarily the quantity of time when we were together. We were together, they were present, they were involved in what I was doing, they were instructive, very loving, very affectionate people and I always felt secure and always felt warm and always felt very loved. I think that's the key is just making sure that the time that you spend together is important time that you are doing the things that make your family feel loved and make them feel secure, and that you use the time that you have very wisely and explain what you're doing.

Speaker 1: 12:34

I always knew that my parents and grandparents were working to build a good life for us. They always talked about what they were doing and they always talked about the importance of working and taking care of yourself and being self-sufficient. I understood why they would work the hours that they did or why they weren't home at certain times, because they were actually out working and providing for us. They made us very self-sufficient. In the process, I was grateful for the kind of life that we had. I felt very loved, very connected to my family and very understanding of the sacrifices that they had to make.

Speaker 2: 13:15

I love the quality of life, but just the fact of explaining the mission of the family. It was not about them, but it was about a team effort. We do our part so you can be better, so you can be just another stronger team member. I love that. Just explaining that's powerful, Simple, but I don't think that we think about saying that to children. Thank you about that, sharing that with us. Let me take a turn. Take us from that child who wanted to be independent and be self-sufficient, your first business as an adult, when you actually had risk and skin in the game and you're like I want to still be a business owner.

Speaker 1: 14:12

I always worked. I've worked since I was 12 years old, so I always had a job. My first business, my first actual I got an LLC and went to the county and got all my paperwork was in 2009,. I started a writing services business. That was my first one. I was still a school teacher at the time and I had just finished a grad school project where my master's degree is in professional writing. I did a project for one of my classes where I worked alongside an artist and wrote quite a bit and found that there was a need for writing in the arts, that artists needed proposals written and they needed artist statements written and things like that, and they want to focus on creating the art. They don't necessarily want to focus on the written products. So I started Obscribe writing and editorial services in 2009 to write primarily for artists. I wrote for other people as well, but that was the niche.

Speaker 1: 15:19

And it's funny that you say risk and skin in the game, because one of the things I did learn from my parents and I think it's why I didn't mind jumping into entrepreneurship was because we always had a if all else fails clause in our lives.

Speaker 1: 15:36

My mom used to say if all else fails, I could be a secretary, or I could be a server at a restaurant, or I could do at home daycare. If all else fails, I could do that. So I always had those things in the back of my mind if I jumped into a new venture. If all else fails, I could be a school teacher. If all else fails, I could work in a restaurant. If all else fails, I could be an administrative assistant or something. There was always a cushion so that you weren't fearful of jumping into the business, and so I never felt terrified. One time I felt a little scared because I jumped all the way in, but I still had family support. But I always had an if all else fails clause in the back of my head which made it easier for me to take those risks into business.

Speaker 2: 16:27

How interesting. So right now, tiffany, as you still a full-time employee with the different businesses running, do you still have the if all else clause, if all else fails clause? Do you still operate from that perspective?

Speaker 1: 16:48

I do, I do, and right now I'm building these businesses, but I have my full-time W2, which is also my full-time W2 is really a part of my calling, so it's not even like work, but having Bethany House and having the ability to serve in this way and earn an income while I'm building the businesses over here is my if all else fails. If all else fails, I'll keep working on my calling over here helping women to get free, and if all else fails, I'm learning skills over here that will help me to transition into something else if need be. So the key is, I think, taking every single experience that you have and putting something in your toolkit so that you can continue to grow and so that you'll be resourceful for your next, whatever that next may be.

Speaker 2: 17:41

You know I love it because it's not about like, oh my God, I started a business, it failed and now I'm done. It's just like what is next.

Speaker 1: 17:51

Right.

Speaker 2: 17:52

It just like and it brings me to one of the comments you had about yourself that you're most proud about your resilience.

Speaker 1: 18:02

Yes.

Speaker 2: 18:03

So can you dig into that, Tiffany?

Speaker 1: 18:05

Sure, I mentioned one of the businesses that I was kind of terrified to take the jump into.

Speaker 1: 18:11

I resigned from school teaching in 2013, and that was the first time that I quit working to dive into entrepreneurship, and I started a fitness business in 2013 with my husband doing personal training and doing a women's boot camp, and the business lasted for about five years and it was relatively successful.

Speaker 1: 18:34

It never got to the level of success that I envisioned when I started it and I ended up closing the business in 2018. And I didn't know what I was going to do next and I had no ideas about what would come, and thank God for for our family at that time. We were already living multi-generally generationally at that time, and so I had a little cushion there to be able to figure out what was next. I homeschooled my son in those two years, so I felt like that time was being put to good use, spending time with him and growing him and allowing him to explore education in a different way. Then the pandemic came in 2020. So it was like, oh no, I know I was sitting at home for a while because I didn't really be home, so it was training for when you needed it in 2020?

Speaker 2: 19:30

Absolutely.

Speaker 1: 19:32

And then by the end of 2020, 2021 is when I came to serve at Bethany House, and so God's timing is always perfect. He always works things out the way that they need to. But in those two years of not working or being very active in a business, it really gave me time to, number one, spend time with my son, but, number two, really evaluate what was what was going to come next and who I was as a person at that time and what was going to be fulfilling to me. And I think that's important for entrepreneurs to have moments where you just be still and evaluate where you are and what your next might be, or evaluate what you need to do in the current business or how you might need to expand it or shift it. I think those times of quiet and still are just really important.

Speaker 2: 20:26

Awesome. So you talked about in another offline conversation that you became a board member to Bethany House and then, in the process, you became the executive director. So how did you decide between in this entrepreneurial journey of yours? So you went from 2013 to 2018, closed the fitness business, you were home, and then you became engaged with Bethany House and then you started that full time job. Did you have the other businesses going at that time? And how did you decide, yeah, go ahead.

Speaker 1: 21:12

Actually, the way I got involved with Bethany House is because of the fitness business.

Speaker 1: 21:16

Our model at the time was to tie the day of time to the community, and so when I started Conqueror Fitness back then with my husband, we wanted to take one day a week to volunteer somewhere, and we thought it would be different places each week, but it ended up being Bethany House every year and that was really.

Speaker 1: 21:37

I wasn't ever really on the board, I was just a volunteer, but I learned so much of the organization from being a regular volunteer. I became really close with the staff and supported them. I learned everything about the business and did anything I could do for the, for the nonprofit, and so I built their website, I planned events, I did the newsletter, I organized the pantry. Whatever they needed me to do and whatever my skills would do for the organization, I did it and spending that much time so that was the full extent of my time with Conqueror Fitness. I was also volunteering at Bethany House, and so I was very well familiar with the organization by the time. They needed new leadership in 2021. And so it was actually a really seamless transition from volunteerism in that way into leadership, because I just was so familiar with the organization.

Speaker 2: 22:36

So, tiffany, how do you, how do you merge all the different responsibilities? How has the decision-making being from being a full-time business owner to then transition to not having that business, to then volunteering full-time, then becoming the executive director while having the businesses? What has been your decision-making strategy behind all those moves?

Speaker 1: 23:11

I think that's such a great question. I have always been the type of person that I operate on how God leads me. I'm always very keenly aware of when a season is closing and when a new season is opening.

Speaker 1: 23:28

I get very restless, I get very uncomfortable, I almost get stressed when the season is coming to an end because I think that's God's way of telling me I need to shift. I've never had a problem closing a season to start something else, because if I'm in a season where it's time for me to move, I can't be comfortable there anyway. I've always just followed that. Even with school teaching. I knew it was my season to finish the school, thought I was very effective, but in my heart I felt like it was just time. I knew that I wasn't working as optimally as I could. I knew it was time to transition. Same with conqueror fitness. By the end of that fifth year I was really starting to feel like it's just time. I've helped the women I was supposed to help. I did the things I was supposed to do. It's now time to transition to something else. I don't know what the something else is At that time I didn't know, but I just knew it was time for that season to close.

Speaker 1: 24:32

I've always been aware of seasons and when it's time to do something else. That helps me to make the decision. I think also because I love so many things and I'm passionate about so many things and have so many skill sets and keep acquiring them. I always want to use what I have. I'm always open to exploring how to use a certain skill set in a different way, or always open to helping a different group of people in a different way. I don't ever want to box myself in. I want to really live this life to the fullest. If that means that I do something completely different in one season than I did in the last, then so be it. I just want to make sure that I leave everything on the court by the time it's time for this life to close up.

Speaker 2: 25:21

Wow, I love that Everything on the court. Leave it all out there. Tiffany, you mentioned a number of things there. Usually in our culture, when we are at the moment where we need to make a decision, we tend to feel a sense of loss or a sense of failure. What has been your tactic to see it as seasons to have a smoother transition, especially business ownership?

Speaker 1: 26:00

I have definitely had those moments because I'm a high achiever. If it doesn't go the way I saw it, it can be very jarring for me. I can't say that it's always been like, oh, I'm off to the next season, this is great. I have definitely especially at the end of Conqueror Fitness and then moving into the pandemic, I did in 2020, go through a season where I was feeling really depressed because I didn't know what I was doing. I knew I had all of these gifts and talents and abilities, but I didn't know why am I just sitting here? What is there to do? In retrospect, I know it was rest time. I needed that time to just be still in rest For a while. I did feel just really heavy about not I don't know if I felt a failure as much as I felt like I was wasting gifts, talent and time.

Speaker 1: 27:00

I just wasn't getting clear on what the next thing was. I think it was because I wasn't supposed to have clarity. I was just supposed to sit still Once. I worked through those emotions of not being active because, I told you, I've been working since I was 12, so to sit still all that time was a challenge. But I think that grew really my perspective, really looking back during that time and seeing that at every season I gave my best.

Speaker 1: 27:33

Where I was, I gave my all and I helped people. I knew that I was successful in helping people. It changed my perspective from failing at a thing to understanding that that was the season, that was the time that particular thing was supposed to happen. Now you're just supposed to move on and do the next thing and serve the best way you can in the next season. That freed me up that mindset of feeling like I had to do one thing for 30 years and be the most successful at it. Just being open to God, moving me in different places where he needed me to help whoever he needed me to help at that time. That has just been everything that has changed my whole perspective. I think that happens for women, especially when they're in their 40s. This fourth decade is all the things. Let's do it all. This fourth decade is everything really coming in, to understand exactly who you are and what you're here for, just fully embracing yourself. It's just been fantastic.

Speaker 2: 28:42

That is so cool. Okay, so I have a few questions from that. You mentioned right now who you are and before you said who you were in that moment of just being quiet and still. Who were you and who are you now?

Speaker 1: 28:59

I think I was a person who was seeking. I think I was a person who was discovering. I think I was a person who was reevaluating what my worth was to me. I think I was a person who was really seeking God about what he wanted me to do next. I was unsure at that time. I was a little uncertain.

Speaker 1: 29:28

I think all of those things are healthy as long as we don't sit in them for way too long and make them our identity. I think now I am a person who is open and a person who fully embraces the fact that I'm different and unique and that I don't have to do things one specific way in one particular box, that I can be both and and that is really exciting to me Just embracing the fact that I have a unique design and embracing the fact that I don't have to do one thing. I can do multiple things. I can do multiple things well. I can employ other people and encourage other people to go after whatever they want to do. So that's exciting to me. That's the who I am now, just embracing that I am me and me is different and unique and special and okay.

Speaker 2: 30:25

I love it. I love it and actually it's our competitive advantage. That uniqueness right, that unique design is. It was meant to be that way. I love it. So I have a question strategically, have your businesses been side hustles or have your businesses been your core, with the option of, if nothing else? What has been your perspective in that regard, tiffany?

Speaker 1: 30:55

That's a good question. I think that most of them have been side hustles. Conqueror Fitness was the first one that I dived in head first and it was my living for those years. I don't know why I don't like kids that like strings. I don't see the Western side of your business either. I would say have been side hustles until. The real estate business right now is a side hustle until Once it is fully established the way that we envision it, I'll have some decisions to make about my level of participation in it, if I want to go all the way into that and for a go with W2, or if I want to do less of the W2, I don't know or if I want to do the W2 for free, because if I am financially set over here in the businesses then I might not take that salary from the organization and serve pro bono. So it will at least give me more options. But I would say in this season those businesses are side hustles until Okay, all right.

Speaker 2: 32:05

so for the audience, for this woman out there thinking of a side hustle, well, and you mentioned different things that you've done with the skills that you already have. Right, by the way, Tiffany is an Abbot kickboxer and I love her because of that. I used to be a kickboxer. My bag is hanging with no use there, but how have you been able to identify opportunities in the market that have allowed you to start those businesses? And it's through your childhood, then early career and now as assistant professional. So can you walk us on the strategies on how to identify opportunities?

Speaker 1: 32:51

I think that what's helped me the most is being coached, being in programs and being in educational environments where people encourage you to look at your unique design and look at your skill set and see how you can monetize it. I didn't know that that was a thing. The word monetize was introduced to me deep into my adulthood. I didn't know that some of the things I was doing was monetizing, and so once I realized that there's no use of sitting on skillsets that can make you money, whether it's a full on income or whether it's additional income I've always looked at ways that I could take what I can do or what I do well, or what I do easily, and make some money from it.

Speaker 1: 33:40

And again, I think that comes from how our family was wired. You know, if you can mow lawns and you can take care of plants, go start a land-stripping business. If you're great at putting together weddings, then get paid for it. And so always evaluating what do I do easily and what do I do well and what am I passionate about and how can I turn that into an income of some sort. And so that's really how my approach to starting businesses you know where's the need, how can I serve people. What problem can I solve and how can I make a little cash?

Speaker 2: 34:19

woman, yeah, yeah, make cash, little or lots. So I have a question, because usually when we are really good at something, we think it's something natural for everyone. So in that particular case, how can what would be a hack of someone saying you know, yeah, I'm good at many things, but that's normal, it's for everyone how can you recognize where you are uniquely?

Speaker 1: 34:50

talented? That is such a good question because that has been my story for most of my life.

Speaker 1: 34:56

I have really taken for granted a lot of times. What comes naturally to me and I think one of the hacks is what do people always ask you for help with? And I actually started one money making strategy by helping people do that. People were asking me about technology. How do you do that? How do you use Microsoft Office? How do you build a website? How do you create an information management system? And when people kept coming to me asking me for help with those things, I'm like well, people can pay for that. If they need it to support their life and their business, they can pay for that. These are things that I do very easily. Don't even think about it, but people always ask me for help in those things. So that would be my suggestion. What are the things that people always come to you for? If it's advice, maybe you need to consider, you know, being a mentor. If it's help with technical things, maybe you need to consider offering your services that way.

Speaker 2: 35:58

If it's writing or editing.

Speaker 1: 36:00

some of us are just easy natural writers in because we are. We forget that that's a really highly sought after skill, and so look at the things that people always ask you to do and monetize it.

Speaker 2: 36:16

So Tiffany, explain to us what is to monetize.

Speaker 1: 36:20

It means to create a system for bringing an income based on a service or a product that you can create easily or efficiently or well, and so taking a skill or taking a natural ability and putting it in a system for you to help someone else and earn income for yourself.

Speaker 2: 36:47

Awesome and for my audience. Sometimes we think about starting a business and we think it's make it or break it. If we go all the way as a side hustle and it doesn't work, our lives are going to be ruined. And as we have seen in her, from Tiffany, she's gone from lemonade to writing, to fitness, to now real estate, now short term luxury rentals. I mean it's the once you open, the possibilities is really endless, right, because we have so many skills and talents as individuals that really it's like pick one and get going. And, tiffany, you mentioned something about about a year ago. Two years ago, you went clear on your next and with the newly launched business, tell us, tell us that that pivoted moment where you said this is it, this is my next.

Speaker 1: 37:48

I am so excited about this. So for the last year and a half or so I have thrown myself into personal development and professional development. So I've joined a professional development group, I have joined several coaching groups and in that just really learning how to zero in to clarity about what needs are out in the public and how my unique design can support those needs. And so I recently was certified as a coach, recently was certified as a transformational speaker, and I was congratulations, a slight note coach and speaker and speaker.

Speaker 1: 38:34

So I want to use those things. I think both of those things came relatively easily for me. I just needed the, the coaching, the polish, the training to use those things more effectively to help people. And so, after working with coaches and continuing to work with coaches, I still have a coach that helps me to work through those things but I really learned that my niche, my place to contribute to society, is to help people with their confidence and specifically with their confidence to take the big leaps to go after their life's purpose.

Speaker 1: 39:15

To me, that is so important because I feel like in our society so many people are going through depression and they're going through stress and they are so bound because they're outside of alignment with their purpose and they're ready to go after their purpose because going after their purpose involves some risk or going after their purpose is scary, because they don't think they have the stuff for it. And I want to help people. I want to coach them into having the confidence to go after being and becoming the person that God created them to be and walking out the purpose that they have for their lives. And you are one of those people that initially set me on the path to getting clear, because I was.

Speaker 2: 40:03

Tell us about it, Tiffany.

Speaker 1: 40:05

I was in a coaching group with you and I unfortunately was not able to make every single meeting, although I got to watch your replays Thank you for having replays and one night I was in the group with you and we were walking through an exercise and, like lightning poof, I just had this moment of clarity that helped me to bring all of these ideas into one funnel, in one place, and so I don't know if I really fully expressed that to you, but you were really one of the people that helped me to start down this path of getting really clear about who I'm supposed to help and how I'm supposed to help them. So thank you.

Speaker 2: 40:45

You're welcome. It's the best testimonial received in my podcast and from a participant of my coaching program. Thank you, tiffany, and so you. So in that moment, everything makes sense. And then what happened next? Like if somebody is seeking clarity, what would you tell them to do?

Speaker 1: 41:07

I would tell them really keep moving. Sometimes, I think, because we're not clear, we get stuck and we stop, and there's no reason to not keep learning and to keep exploring while you're trying to get clear. I would also say that getting a coach is. I didn't even know about coaching until a year or two ago, but getting a coach, having someone walk you through the process of thinking, through thinking yourself clear, is just so important. Someone who's objective, someone who is invested in you but not subjective, someone who can help you to ask the important questions of yourself, to help you to get clear.

Speaker 1: 41:55

That, to me, is just one of the best things that you can absolutely do. But keep moving as you're trying to get clear, keep learning, keep trying new things. Don't be afraid to pivot. If you think you got really clear and boom, I got it. And then something else comes in, take a moment to sit with that and see how that fits into your overall picture. But I would just say keep going, like, keep going, keep moving, keep learning as you're getting clear, and work with a coach. 100%, get a coach.

Speaker 2: 42:24

Yes, coaching is powerful. I mean, tiffany and I have been program participants, we've been coached and I don't think neither one of us would be here at this moment if we had not been coached through a lot of Limiting leaves, limited possibilities, just lack of confidence. I mean, I'm speaking for myself, it's powerful and we're evidence of that right this moment and I just love that. And we have more to grow right, and this is a process until we go, but it's really a catalyst for opportunities and possibilities. I totally support coaching. I agree 100% with Tiffany. So, tiffany, in this crazy journey, what has been one of the scariest moments that you're like, wow, how did I get here and how am I going to get out?

Speaker 1: 43:27

I think probably again back in Conqueror Fitness when I was coming toward the end of that last year and business was slowing down. I couldn't figure out the secret sauce to how to make this work and I didn't have a next planned.

Speaker 2: 43:48

And that was scary.

Speaker 1: 43:49

That was really scary because, like I said, I've always worked, I've always contributed to the household and in this situation I just wasn't. Things weren't working.

Speaker 2: 44:00

And.

Speaker 1: 44:01

I didn't know what was coming next. I didn't know what to do, I didn't know how to fix it. I just knew that it wasn't working and I probably needed to shift and close up. That was a really tough decision, like closing a business, because I did have clients that were depending on me, the loyal clients that had been there with me from the beginning. They still, I felt like, needed my services but I just not keep that business afloat and it wasn't fair to them, certainly because I wasn't emotionally able to give them my best because I was feeling so detected. But it was scary because I didn't have a backup. I had a if all else fails, but sometimes all else fails takes a minute to get back to and I didn't really want to go back to the if all else failed because I knew that that season was finished. So that was probably the scariest time. Not really knowing that I had to close this season, but not knowing what the next was was probably the scariest time.

Speaker 2: 45:13

Do you regret having closed that business, Tiffany?

Speaker 1: 45:16

No, not at all. Why Not at all? And I just knew it was the end of the season. I just knew it was and I knew that keeping something beyond a season is not going to benefit anybody.

Speaker 2: 45:28

Wow, that's powerful and bold just to own that decision and say you know it was the end of it and actually closing it opened up other opportunities that you hadn't even seen they were coming your way.

Speaker 1: 45:41

That is super cool.

Speaker 2: 45:43

So, as a business owner, what are you most thankful for?

Speaker 1: 45:48

I'm most thankful for being able to work alongside my family. Some people ask like whoa, what is it like to live with your family and work with your family? How is that? But I am so proud to work alongside my favorite people in the whole world.

Speaker 2: 46:06

And so, tiffany, can you expand on who the family members are, because I am so excited for my audience to hear who your partners are.

Speaker 1: 46:15

Yes, my partners are actually grandma, who's more of a silent partner, but she's, she's on the books, she's 105. My mom and dad and my husband. So, the four very active members are my mom, my dad, my husband and me.

Speaker 2: 46:31

Wow, including grandma. Yes, that's so amazing. What is the recipe to make a family business successful?

Speaker 1: 46:40

That's a great question and people ask us that all the time, and I think the recipe is boundaries and communication. We are very clear and we're still working through it because things change over time. We grow, we change, but making sure that we make clear lines between business and family, even something as small as when we do business together outward, facing to the public. I call my parents by their first name, which like growing up.

Speaker 2: 47:15

What are you doing?

Speaker 1: 47:18

We made a decision as a business partnership that for us to make clear lines in our minds, but also for people who do business with us to see us as partners and not as family members. That is one thing that we do, but we make. We have family meetings and we have business meetings. They're different. We make sure that we draw those lines. We give each other specific assignments and roles in the company and we try to make sure that those roles are very clear and we continue to talk through those roles because sometimes, because we're family, those roles have to change periodically because of whatever's going on.

Speaker 1: 48:01

One family member might have to step out of working in the business to take care of something in the house, and so just being communicative as much as possible, making sure that we draw clear lines and clear boundaries, revisiting those things all the time and at the heart of everything, knowing that we have a vision for the family, that we have goals for the family, that we love each other because sometimes in business and in family you have your disagreements and you can have your moments but really learning how we communicate as business people and not getting easily offended by things, because sometimes when you're in business, you just have to move quickly and maybe your responses aren't as sweet as they could. Yes, and understanding that at the heart and the root of it is love and no one's out to hurt anybody or anything. We're all trying to go in the same direction. So communication boundaries, clear lines between family and business.

Speaker 2: 49:02

And you know, tiffany, I think you're coming full circle to how you express, how you grew up as a family. Right, it's a mission-driven effort. It's not to make money or in particular, but it's a family mission and having that common thread makes those other pieces easier to speak, right? So just that is so powerful that you are continuing to implement what you learn as a child, as a granddaughter, as a daughter, now being, I'm, curious of your son coming into the business one day soon.

Speaker 1: 49:44

Yes, yes, I would love for him like my ideal. He's a talented photographer and I would love for him to lean into marketing and photography and that artistic part, but we're leaving it open for him. Yes, he can be as involved as he wants to in the business or not, but the goal is certainly to leave a legacy for him.

Speaker 2: 50:07

So that he can be set up well. I love it. I'm going to take a twist here. Tiffany, can you please describe success for you as a high achiever?

Speaker 1: 50:19

Wow. Success for me, I think, is having the ability to live the kind of life I want to live, A life that involves doing things that I really enjoy doing, a life that involves helping as many people as I can. One of the threads of our family life is service. We are committed as a whole family. We even have a small family ministry called one at a time ministry where we help people. If there's a need in front of us and we can fill it, then we fill it.

Speaker 1: 50:49

So we do angel tree at Christmas time and we serve the children of people who are incarcerated. We just are all about making sure that we serve, and so success to me is living a good life, eating good food, traveling, making sure my family is happy and healthy, making sure that other people are happy and healthy, and just having the freedom to be able to do the things that I want to do when I want to do them. That's success for me. Making sure that I walk in my purpose, making sure that I contribute and give back and that I find fulfillment. If I'm fulfilled, I'm successful, whether that's money or not. If I'm fulfilled, then that's success.

Speaker 2: 51:32

That's awesome, and my next question is do you consider yourself as successful?

Speaker 1: 51:39

I do. We've had that conversation before I know. I know we had this conversation offline and.

Speaker 2: 51:46

I wanted to bring it back.

Speaker 1: 51:48

You make me sit with it for a while and after thinking about it, absolutely because I am fulfilled, I am happy, I am in a good place in life, I feel like I'm contributing, I feel like I'm helping my son to get positioned in the places that he needs to get positioned. I have really good friends in this season, really supportive people. So, yes, I'm successful.

Speaker 2: 52:17

Awesome, I love that answer. And the next question is were you expected to be successful as a business woman, Tiffany?

Speaker 1: 52:27

My family history would say yes, in my own mind, I did not expect to be successful. I probably did, but not. I expected to be successful in a different way. How about that?

Speaker 2: 52:40

What would be that different way?

Speaker 1: 52:41

I think that initially I always expect I always expected success to be big and grand, and I'm realizing that sometimes the best successes are very small personal successes, very small one-on-one successes, or finding an avenue for fulfillment that I didn't know existed. Those are beginning to be the more successful things. And then, even with things like real estate and having the anchor of our family be to help people, watching people move into homes where they're happy to be in that home, or people who come to our vacation condos we have a group of women who come every year. They're four senior citizens and they come on their girls' trip every year and we provide that really comfortable space for them to do that. Those things are key successes for me, and so I think I expected to be successful, but I think I expected success to look different than it actually does now.

Speaker 2: 53:49

And I'm happy with the success Wow. Wow. That's a really powerful reflection and self-awareness of what you thought it was going to be versus the level of fulfillment you're feeling right now, and redefining what success is. So thank you for sharing that with us. So I know we have a lot more to talk, but I'm going to wrap it up. In your journey as a businesswoman, how would you summarize it in one word Crazy, crazy. I love it, crazy, crazy. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Both, both.

Speaker 1: 54:33

Mostly good.

Speaker 2: 54:35

Mostly good Because, as entrepreneurs, we know there are lows and we know there are highs, but do you think that the effort is worth the investment?

Speaker 1: 54:48

100%. I would much rather try it and find out it didn't work than to live with the regret of not even trying.

Speaker 2: 54:57

So absolutely Awesome. And the last question, tiffany if somebody is listening and they're not sure whether or not to take their next step, what would you tell them?

Speaker 1: 55:08

I would tell them to have a side hustle until.

Speaker 2: 55:14

Side hustle until I love that. I love that, I love it. Is it practical? Short, sweet, Wow. So from my audience, Tiffany, you have this new business as coach, as a coach, as a speaker, as an instructor, and also the real estate. How can they get in touch with you?

Speaker 1: 55:36

So you can find me on my newly launched Instagram page. I'm Tiffany on purpose. I'm Tiffany on purpose. You can find us at our website, gmspropertysolutionscom. You can find me on my personal business website, TiffanyDSantanacom. And just be on the lookout for some of the other things that are coming, because they're coming rapidly.

Speaker 2: 56:06

Exciting things are coming from Tiffany. Stay tuned because they're going to be powerful. And, tiffany, it's been an honor I'm going to have a second part to this conversation soon enough with the things coming up for you, and I really thank you for your time, for sharing and for being a cheerleader to me and to other women who are pursuing their purpose, and so thank you so much for being one of my guest speakers today.

Speaker 1: 56:38

Thank you so much for having me. I have enjoyed it. Can't wait till the next time.

Speaker 2: 56:42

I know Part two coming up sometime soon For my audience. Stay tuned. More to come with Unexpectedly Successful. I hope that this session was as impactful and powerful as it was for me and get going with your side hustle until next time.