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"Your path is wide, and it's our job to narrow it down to get to that impact that we were put on this earth to create." - Tiffaney Florentine
Tiffaney knows what lights her fire up and loves to help others discover this for themselves. In this week's episode, she shares her journey from being a factory worker with a limited worldview to designing her successful coaching business. She is on a mission to change the health and wellness industry's focus from a diet-centric approach to a client-centered one rooted in mindfulness.
There were a few twists and turns along the way, including time with the military, CIA, management consulting, and even becoming an American Gladiators Finalist!
Through this journey, Tiffaney realized that it is essential to take note of the moments that light you up and to build a life that honors those moments. She shares her stories, insights, and practical tips to help others identify what lights them up and get after it!
Are you a business owner? Or are you on the verge of taking that side hustle to the next level? Or curious about the world of entrepreneurship? Join Vivian Kvam, Co-Owner of Tandem Works, each week for a behind-the-scenes at small businesses and what it takes to succeed.
Each episode is full of inspiration, education, tips, and great conversation with people like you, people who are figuring it out. Take your business to the next level with insight from expert guests in business, leadership, and marketing.
Vivian Kvam
Welcome to today's episode of writing. Tandem Works. I just want to say one of the most incredible things happened to me about almost a year ago, almost to the day, I believe, and it was kind of a funny thing. I am on a lot of social media groups. And this post I'm pretty sure it was a post. And for whatever reason, it captured my attention. I left a comment on a perfect stranger's post. But it was intriguing to me. And it's interesting how that comment turned into a very magical relationship and a great messenger conversation, which led to a phone and zoom conversation, which then led to me just getting to know a fabulous human, Tiffaney Florentine. And she's been awesome, and I'm excited to welcome her to the show today and, in fact, so awesome she's become a friend, but also a health mentor, a fitness mentor, a business mentor, a tame the squirrel's mentor, and just a friend and encourager in my life. And so welcome, Tiffany. I'm glad to have you today.
Tiffaney Florentine
Thank you so much for having me. I'm really honored to be on this show. And, yeah, I'm just honored to be your friend. You've brought so much inspiration and light to my life. So thank you for being you and for having me on.
Vivian Kvam
Yeah, absolutely. There's so many things to unpack here, and I already know and we've talked before this that we probably have, like, eight episodes worth of content. But before we do that, I want to give everybody who's joining in just a little background on you just to kind of set the stage, and then I want it all from your words. So we'll just go from there, but if that sounds good. So Tiffany is an entrepreneur as well, and that's one of the ways we first connected, being an entrepreneur. And at the time, Tiffany was looking specifically to work with some female entrepreneurs, and I was like, I'm one of those. And then everything else that you put out, I resonated with because her main focus is health and wellness, the health and wellness space. And I love how you put it that you're on a mission to change the industry's way away, I should say, from diet centric focus and to a client-centered approach rooted in mindfulness empowering women to unlock their connection to themselves and to the moment so that they can become the best versions of themselves. And that's definitely something I experienced. But you also describe yourself, and I love this part here as a recovered management consultant. So we'll talk about that for sure and dive into that more. But you are also a proud veteran and fun fact, also an American Gladiators finalist, which I have seen American Gladiators, so that's pretty cool. And then just the last bit here, which is some of just incredible information about you, is that you successfully built a gym that has a super unique business model. I totally want to talk about that more, but after you successfully sold it, picked up, and moved across the US, fun stories there, and you're just obsessed with building potent, engaging, and wildly efficient mind and body experiences now very specifically focused on powerful women, you can help us show up at our best each day. And before we dive in, I want to say yes, you specifically focus your audience really on powerful women. But my friends out there who are not women, you can still gain so much. So keep your earbud in and don't tune out right now. Is that fair to say?
Tiffaney Florentine
Yeah, absolutely.
Vivian Kvam
Awesome. So I could go on and on, but Tiff what I would love is to fill in the moments from your life that would help us understand you and who you are, and what has led you to your journey today with mindset, to movement, and all that you're doing.
Tiffaney Florentine
Absolutely. Goodness. So the moments that kind of have led to what I'm doing and the path of impact that I'm on would really be every time in my life where I've had a transition from a career or professional standpoint. I believe that there are these inflection points where you're like, I like my job, but is this the end destination or career path that I'm on? And we ask ourselves these questions what's next to me? There's these inflection points that we have along the way where we can make decisions in the moment that either get us closer to what we believe, our purposes, or our destination, or where we can bring the most impact to this life. We have these points or we can kind of go down the track that we think we're supposed to, maybe with more money, more security, that kind of thing. So when you ask that question, like the most formative moments, I think about where I started and the decision points, I didn't know I was supposed to go to college, so I ended up working in a factory when I was 1819. And I got to a point, a lot of things happened. I was taking care of my dad who passed away, and I had this moment where I was like, wait, I'm working in this factory, and I'm hanging out with these 40-year-old women, going to the bar with them, and I'm 19. Like, is this what I want to be doing? I said, hell no, right? It was an inflection point. And I just knew I wanted to grow, and I knew I wanted to be part of something bigger than myself and drive impact. And that was right when 911 happened. So with those parameters, I didn't know the destination, right? You don't necessarily know your purpose in every moment. It's really purpose and energy versus a destination. But I knew in that moment I had decision-making parameters, which was the impact, right, and being part of something bigger than myself. So I joined the military post 911. And then after I had done that about five, six years, I was like, oof, a military cop in the air force. This is not scratching my itch anymore, but I know I want to make more of an impact. What do I do? And I ended up in the federal government and the CIA. I can say that now. So I was in the CIA. And then I kept thinking, I'm like, okay, I'm doing this, but is this the end all be all right. I just kept refining my path. It's like, your path is wide, and it's our job to narrow it down to get to that impact that we were put on this earth to create. And I think people get caught up jumping from path to path, just keep honing in, just keep getting making a better decision at every inflection point. And so with the CIA, I thought, I want to make more of an impact again, and I want it to be more in my wheelhouse and more around people. I wasn't quite sure, and I found myself asking, where can I make the most impact? And it was in management consulting because consultants are always at the forefront of business problems. Other companies called them in and say, fix this stuff. That's really broken. And so I got closer to what felt more authentic to me, which was big impact in management consulting. And I also went into human capital consulting specifically to get closer to people, because how people work was really fascinating to me. And while I was at Deloitte Consulting, for a few years, I was working 80 hours a week. It was insane. Sometimes 90. I was working in Michigan and different welfare offices, hopping around, and to be honest, my mind was everywhere. I was bananas, stressed out, and anxious. Being in that experience, like during a technology system go live at a big management consulting firm, that was more stressful than being deployed in the desert during the war. Believe that. But anyhow, I was there and I had this other it was so stressed, I was like on the brink of just like, breaking. And then a friend proposed that I try out for American Gladiator. And so randomly I drove to Chicago and tried out one weekend, and that started a few month auditioning process. And then that landed me on the show after, like, trying out with 14,000 other women. So I went from working 80 hours a week to then going to Los Angeles to film the show in Los Angeles Clippers Arena for several months. So you talk about doing a 180. And so when I was out there, I was like, this is really cool, obviously. Then I came back to Deloitte and I was like, what am I doing? This is post gladiator depression. So I had another moment where I'm like, what am I doing? So in these moments, we can feel them in our body when we know know we're not on the right path, and we know we have to make a decision. Again, another point where I had to say, where do I go from here? So I knew I wanted to make an impact, be part of something big. I knew I wanted to work with people. And then after coming back from American Gladiators, I was like, I want to work with people around health and wellness. Because when I was working at Deloitte, as the shows were airing, I was on three, people were coming up to me and saying, what are you doing? How do you keep healthy? How do you work out? Right? To be honest, I did some things that were solid, but I had enough knowledge to be dangerous to start sharing with people and helping people shift into better wellness physically or from a nutrition perspective, just helping them a little bit. I mean, I barely scratched the surface, but I could see that light and that empowerment that people had. And I was like, wow, they're looking at me, they're asking for advice. I could get better at this. This feels damn good. So I was like, okay, got to move on from Deloitte. What's next? So again, I didn't have the damn answer, but I had those parameters now. It was health added to the mix, narrowed the path even more. So I went back to grad school to get my MBA in health care, thinking I changed the healthcare industry as well as strategy, trying to figure it out. So I went that direction. And then I ended up going to another management consulting firm to work in healthcare consulting, thinking I changed the US in healthcare, yeah, we don't need to go down that path. But I just kept narrowing it. And I ended up, after going to Gallup Consulting and behavioral management consulting, realizing that still wasn't scratching the itch around health, I started my own company. And that was ten years ago specifically to really make high end fitness, high end, we'll say offerings more emotionally accessible and financially accessible to people. And so those were the different situations or decision points that I had. I didn't always know the answer, but I knew how to whittled out my past based on the parameters. So hopefully that answered your question.
Vivian Kvam
Yeah, it does. And this is one of the things that we talk about actually a lot here in interviews on the show. And then just in my personal life, I get approached kind of like you with the Gladiator experience, where they're like, oh, you're doing this business thing. Tell me how. Right? And one of the biggest ones is, how do I know if my passion is worth following? How do I know if I'm on a whim or if this is like for real, if this is really the direction I should go? How did you narrow and feel comfortable as you were narrowing that path? Because you mentioned knowing I want to be around people. You kind of added that to your list. Did you have a running list going? Do you keep that somewhere? How did you refine what those points were?
Tiffaney Florentine
Purpose. People tend to believe that it's a destination. Purpose is an energy that we live in. So purpose is available now in this moment for anyone. Meaning when I really take a pause and I really ask myself what lit me up over the last week or two, over the last couple of days, over the last month, when I think about what were the highs that I had, like, that is what we really need to be tuning in on. That like complete engagement, maybe immersion in the moment. Maybe we were talking to a friend about a book we read. Maybe we were doing something new experience. Maybe we were working on something we get to work on once every couple of months. And so to me, being more in tune with my body and what felt good along the way, I know it sounds fluffy, but really honoring when we're like, that was really goddamn cool. Like, that felt good. Honoring those moments. Right. If you start to reflect on that, if you're listening, I would say just get out a pen and paper and noodle on over the last six months or a year, when did you feel lit up? And then you'll start to see themes pop up. Oh, gosh. When I'm talking to my friends about new ideas, oh, God, when I am painting, when I am researching workouts, whatever it is, just collect those really engaging and moving experiences and start to put them into themes or buckets. And once you know that, and once I figured out those themes, then I'm like, can't get rid of those themes. I want to bring as many of those along the way as I can now. It doesn't mean you're going to have every one of those themes or every one of those ideal experiences in your job or career, but damn, you need to be creating your life around those things. If they light you up, then build them in. It could be a hobby, and it could be three of the six things are in your job that you created. And so you said, how do you know when your passion is worth following? I'd say it's always worth following. It's on you to figure out how to integrate it into your life. But it's really I knew by taking an inventory along the way and honoring those feelings of engagement versus saying, like, is it worth it? Just honor it. Just, like, put it in a notebook, put it in a feel good notebook, and just keep building the themes.
Vivian Kvam
I love that. And that's one of the things that you talked with me about. So a little background here. I ended up engaging in one of your offerings last year, the beginning of the year. It was January for about six, seven months, I want to say it was yeah, until, June. And at one point, I engaged with you from the aspect that you were building this container to help entrepreneurial women with their fitness, with their mindfulness, and with their nutrition. And I was like, yes, all of those things. Yes, I'm in I want to grow in those areas. But I remember when I first engaged you, it was more of, like, thinking kind of fitness, nutrition, mindfulness. I was like, yeah, sure, of course. And at one point, I remember and we've joked about this, I asked you, and you're like, yes, I get asked this a lot. I was like, So are you my fitness health coach or you like, my business mentor? We were covering so much, and one of the things you walked me through was and just going through that exercise, and I thought it was super helpful. And one of the things that came out of that, when I look back over time, I went way back to high school projects. It was like, anything that lit me up, I just wrote it down. Like, oh, I loved that. I remember loving that. I remember loving this. And some of the things that came out was, I love teaching and encouraging, and I love learning and being curious. And so it was part of what led to this podcast, and that's really fun, and it was fun to have those conversations with you so helpful.
Tiffaney Florentine
I appreciate your openness in digging into that. And I think people are hesitant to do that work because they think it's not possible, right? Like, oh, of course I love learning, or I love hanging out with people. How do I make that into a job? Right? That's not a real thing. Or I like painting. You don't have to make them into a job or a career or a new business. You just have to build them into your life because ultimately, we're aiming to be in a better energetic state and to love our lives. Your job is to build those things in that light you up in the way that makes the most sense to you and not say it's not important. Build them in.
Vivian Kvam
I think one of the things that came out of that, too, is going back to our team and saying, what is something that you want to do? Just personally, like, we set business goals and we have these quarterly goals, but we built in at one for one of our quarters. What's something you want to do that's personal for you, and that you're passionate about? And one of the things Michaela came up with was she, like, I love having family photo albums. So we made that. Part of our business check-in is, are you setting aside time to do your family photo albums? And she did. She ended up with these. And it was delightful. And because of it, it can sound like, okay, but why were you doing that in your business? What does that have to do with anything? When she was able to fulfill that passion, she was so much more passionate about everything going on at work, too. And I had my own goal, which was to meet with my dad once a month. And just having that good, connected relationship, it influenced everything. It influenced our work, our job with clients, everything. It's pretty crazy.
Tiffaney Florentine
Yeah. So if it feels good, honor it, build more in.
And if you're like, how does this fit into the bigger vision? I want to build a business or do that. You don't have to know that now. Just build and feel good things. If for any reason, because it feels good. And also for inspiration, knowing it'll get you to the next step. If we're operating from an inspired and a present state, doing the things we love, we will go forward.
Vivian Kvam
Yeah. I'm curious if I dig into this a little bit. You shared your story, and you talked about and you have so many details to put in. But what sticks out to me is you say, I went from a factory worker who didn't know that I could or should go to college to what you're doing now. Inspiring people, encouraging them, lifting them up, and and having those mindset shifts. To me, that's a big leap. If you were to go from the point where you are now, you can't skip all those steps in between. Right?
Tiffaney Florentine
Yeah.
Vivian Kvam
But how do you look back on that now and that experience of did you ever imagine being in the mindset you are now?
Tiffaney Florentine
No, I just put 1ft in front of the other, focusing on the next feel-good step. Right. And I think that's just a part of how I'm hardwired. I didn't come from the best family upbringing. There was definitely a lot of things going on. But one of the best lessons I've learned, it's also proven that it's just a really powerful way to live life. To be in the moment is like focusing on one step in front of the other versus the end destination. What am I doing now? What is the next step? So I think that has been probably early on, more of a survival mechanism and now one of my greatest gifts.
Vivian Kvam
Interesting, right?
Tiffaney Florentine
Of course, I can step out and say, like, what is the big vision? I love to look at the vision, but at the end of the day, it's like taking the next step. I remember being at Gallop. They would talk about Gallup, which is like behavioral eco consulting. They would talk about studying the Navy Seals because you want to know which guys are going to make it through the school. If we can screen for that upfront, we won't waste a lot of money on this. And they had a common denominator, which was the subsession on the next rep. Right? Let's say we're doing 500 push ups. If I'm like, oh, shit, I have 400 more to go, right? No, I have one right now and one more in the next one and the next one. So it's a succession over the next step and just being in the next step. No, I'm not saying that's perfect, right? But if we have that mindset, what is the natural next step? We're really empowered versus ruminating, versus being stuck on what ifs or could or that sort of thing. It allows you to get out of your mind and into the moment.
Vivian Kvam
Have you ever been afraid to take even just that one step? Have you ever had a moment or is it broken down so small that that just makes it easy? It makes it easy to do.
Tiffaney Florentine
I am pretty fearless because I've had big situations in life that I can look back on and go, I trust myself to figure it out. My dad passed in my arms when I was 19, and I was his primary caregiver for seven months. I took care of him by myself as an 18 year old, essentially for, like, seven months. That situation going through that I'm like, I can't do anything if I did that, right? So that gives me power. And I'm not saying, like, you need something that difficult to go through, to channel power through. What I would say is another thing I do. Not just that situation, but I look at hard times. If I'm hesitant to take the next step, I look for proof. Proof that I've done something similar or like, it in the past that I can get through it, right? Because I can either say, oh, God, what if? But I'm like, no. Will I have the discipline to do this next step? I could say, oh, I demonstrated discipline here. So when I have that noise in my head, which I like to call squirrel zipping around, I try to disprove those little buggers. And another thing I lean on, too, I'm very decisive because I know taking time and indecision is pain and time wasted. And so if I'm on the crux of a decision or, like, fearful of taking a step, one of the biggest go to things, which I would hand to the audience, I would employ this as well. My biggest takeaway is just going. Just do it, because you're going to learn. If I'm thinking about it, I'm wasting time. So if I make a bad decision but I do it fast, that also means I can learn fast. Right. Quick decisions also mean quick learnings. So, yeah, if I'm a little bit like, well, I'm like, just go hit the gas, I'll figure it out. Because I'm yeah, then I'm closer to the better decision, the next best decision.
Vivian Kvam
I really love that, and I love telling people that. And then I have to remind myself, oh, yeah, and you need to do that, too. You know, don't hit the brakes and the gas and the brakes and the gas. Like, go and you'll know when you're supposed to hit the brake and then hit the brakes and the next step, too.
Tiffaney Florentine
Totally. And can I have something to that? A little bit of flavor?
Based on what we were just talking about, right. We have this big path where we're, like, constantly carving it to get closer to what we're supposed to do in this world. It's really asking, like, hey, I've learned that these things feel really good. Like, am I getting closer to that? So that like energetic bullseye. I feel good doing working with people. I feel good working in fitness. I feel good making a big impact. I know that. So if my next decision has anything to do with those damn things, I'm making a good decision. If I was deciding on going all in on more wellness stuff tomorrow versus going all in on a master's degree for underwater basket weaving, it would make perfect sense not to hit the gas in that direction because it doesn't fit here.
Vivian Kvam
Right.
Tiffaney Florentine
But I could say if that feels good doing that, I have to blend it into my life, but I'm not going to bail on these other things that I know feel good. So it's like bringing that bigger picture with the themes that work that we proposed earlier, bringing that into the mix when you're making a decision that's the bullseye, am I getting closer to that? Give it a go.
Vivian Kvam
I love that because there's so often people who have an entrepreneurial streak in them, whether they're pursuing that in a business or within their job, it can be easy to be like, wow, shiny. That looks fun, and go, oh, it all feels good, though. TIFF. I promise it all feels good. So I have to work it all in at 100% versus saying, okay, but I've honed in my bullseye for my business or career, and I'm honoring that. I want to do this underwater basket weaving, and that's my Saturday hobby until something tells me it's not right. And that's, I think, a good lens to put things through, because it's also easy to add a new offering. Oh, we should be offering that. Let's offer that. That's a great service, and we could do it, and we're amazing at it, but it's not really in line. And so we start adding on all of these products or services or new businesses and revenue streams, and then you're like, Whoa, what happened?
Tiffaney Florentine
Yeah. And that's a really good point to bring up. Focus in entrepreneurship is everything, right? And if we have all these themes of things that we love and we're scratching all these itches and we have four different service offerings or four different products and services, although those things are important, we really have to decide. Do I want to pursue these five things because it feels good? Or do I want to pursue one, be really successful and then bring in those other things? And so that's a learning that I've had over the years, like, ten years in. It's like, I'm getting closer to my core offering. I've landed on it. Now I have my core offering that incorporates everything I'm passionate about, and I am in my purpose, like, in the most potent damn way. It took me a minute to get there. Now I know anything that comes into the mix, other products and services. Although it's fun, I have to practice some discipline to bring this to life. If I bring this to life with, like, deliberate focus, with velocity, over the next two to three years, I'm going to have a foundation of knowledge, curriculum making, all kinds of impacts. I'll have a huge springboard to work from, and then I can do other things. But it is so key to focus on one avatar, one offering, crush it with that thing, get to a million, get to 2 million, 10 million before you move on to the next thing. And so I've learned that over the years, and now I'm being really intentional about it, and I'm clear on where I need to go to make the most impact. And I'm tenaciously focused on that. And it is tempting to bring in shiny objects, so you really have to ask yourself, what's more fulfilling, a shiny object or having financial stability? A really large audience of reps in the game and knowing this thing and then adding to it later. So there are definitely trade-offs with it, but I don't want to lead people down the wrong path. Focus as an entrepreneur is everything for long-term success and longevity.
Vivian Kvam
I love that. Speaking of okay, so interesting piece of your story. Just happened recently, you made a decision rather quickly to pick up and move from the Windy City of Chicago to sunny San Diego. Talk to us a little bit about that decision and what led up to it because I know you had also the gym offering. Speaking of narrowing, right. You shed a little bit in a really positive way and had this pretty incredible move, which I think is you.
Tiffaney Florentine
On the way and I got to.
Vivian Kvam
Meet you on the way. Drove through Council Bluffs with my penske.
Tiffaney Florentine
Truck and a car on the back.
Vivian Kvam
Yeah, talk to me a little bit about that and then and then we'll dive into some more here.
Tiffaney Florentine
So that decision so essentially I had a brick and mortar facility that was open six or seven years and I sold that facility business offering to another gym owner that is still living. It's very exciting. But I decided that I didn't want to be tied to a brick and mortar facility because I wanted to be more mobile. I didn't want to manage employees at that point and it wasn't lighting my soul on fire because I knew there was also a much more potent way for me to make an impact. And so I decided after gosh running that facility for so long, I decided to combine all of my learnings together, which is around mindfulness spirituality along with nutrition and fitness, together in one offering. And the audience I was serving wasn't the right audience for what my passion and my vision was and how I can make more impact in this world. I knew I had to go online and I wanted to be online to be mobile. So I really took the things that lit me up when it came to an environmental perspective. I've learned that I have to be aggressively in my power, basically, like working in my wheelhouse. I have to wake up every day knowing that I am creating the most impact I possibly can. And I wasn't feeling that with the gym. So then I asked myself, like, how do I feel the most inspired? And so I know because I've moved about 22 to 25 times in my life, I know that a new environment really lights my soul on fire. And so since I sold the gym, my lease was up. I was like, where do I want to go? So I was like, literally, YouTubing thinking about where the most inspiring place would be and where do I want to be to just a crush business and just build. For the next few years, I knew I needed nature, sunshine, I needed a certain vibe of human. Like some city feels super liberal, like I had different ingredients that I had dreamed of, like, ideally in one to get the ideal, most inspiring environment. And so I picked San Diego because I thought that would be the right vibe for me. Based on one visit and some YouTube channel, YouTube digging. And so I picked a place to live. I came out here for a week and found an apartment and then moved my things cross country. And so I've been here about six months now, just building, taking locks every day, enjoying nature. But to like put a bow on all of that, I just took all of the ingredients that I needed for an inspiring environment.
Vivian Kvam
Well, I say there's so many things we're going to have to have another one just about the sale of your business and the trip out because there's a whole adventure there. But one of the things you've talked a lot about to me that I think is so valuable is that environment piece. And you've literally changed your entire environment, like your home, your state, your everything, which I think sometimes is necessary or is perfect. But you've also talked to me about just changing your environment for success. Of if you want to eat well, have these things lying around or easily accessible. Or if you find that if you get on the treadmill for ten minutes before a call, make sure the treadmill is in your office room if possible, or put some weights on the floor. So you've talked about this idea of environment to me a couple of times and I would love for you to unpack that a little bit for us. Like when you say that environment, what kinds of things are we talking about?
Tiffaney Florentine
First, I would need the audience or the person to noodle on what feels good physically, emotionally, mentally, what feels good. I like to call these things shifters. Like for example, if I were to grab two dumbbells and put them overhead for 1520 times, I would shift emotionally, physically, mentally. If you were to walk on your treadmill, you get that. If I take a walk outside or things like that. If you know what your shifters are, then you can start to gear your environment towards that. Eating a healthy meal, doing some breath work, like sitting and meditating, right? So we always have a better feeling state accessible to us if we find ourselves in the past or in the future. And we find our shoulders creeping up and we're just stressed, like we can feel it in our body if we're not in the moment. So then I curate my environment with things to prepare so I don't get in that energy. Number one, do that early in the day and then things, if I catch myself in that energy, they're available to me. So curating the environment. I had my barbell, like a full size rogue barbell in my dining area the last week because I was like, oh, I don't have time to go down to the gym. No, like I left it out. Like I'm going to run into it. So I'm going to get my 15 minutes workout in. My meditation cushion is right behind me. On the floor. I sit there in the morning. I sit there if I feel a little angsty in the middle of the day, not to bliss out and just to catch my breath for a minute. Right? People tell me all the time, because they deal with nutrition, they're like, I don't have the willpower not to eat those chips or the chocolate-covered almonds. I'm like, I don't either. Keep them out of the house. Nobody does. So that's curating the environment. So that's speaking of the almonds and the chips, the best thing to do is practice discipline at the purchase point, not when it's in the house. But it's being so deliberate. If these things are around me, it will impact how I show up in every moment.
Vivian Kvam
Yeah. And I have to say, going through just training with you and encouraging calls and talking through these things, it has shifted. I love the word shifters because that's exactly what's happened, where I'm like, oh, yeah, why do we keep the exercise equipment in the basement? Then I have to go down to the basement and it's cold and it's dark, and that's one of the things you and I talked about. I'm like, Well, I actually like working out. I enjoy it. I know it helps set me up. When I have a big meeting coming or even a podcast, something, I make sure to drink my water. I like to run for about ten minutes. It just gets me ready. But I have to go down to the dark, cold basement. And you were like, Vivian, why is it in your basement? Has it ever occurred to you to just put those next to your home desk or at the studio? I work in an office space. People around I can't necessarily leave a barbell out in the studio space because of other people. But I can have things in my drawer ready to go, or I can step outside. I can go for a walk around the block and invite my partner Mikayla along with me. So there's been so many of those things, and I'm like, yes. And especially as a business owner, aren't we creating the business to work for our lives? Most of us get into it for that reason. So who's to say that we can't put in an extra room in our office and say, this is where we go if we want to sit and meditate for a minute, or there is a place here to work out, or just put them next to your desk.
Tiffaney Florentine
Yeah. This is so tied in and worth mentioning, too, if you're talking about shifting all the time, the biggest thing that I would say to take away from this is just ask yourself what feels good in every moment. If you catch yourself again, like, tense and feeling bad, ask yourself what felt bad over the last 10, 15, 20 minutes. Was it being on my email while I was answering my phone, while I was clipping my I don't know, whatever. If you're doing 17 things at once, it's probably what felt bad. Another thing is the things we have in the background thinking about in our environment, like conscious consumption. I like to say if I wake up and the news is on or if I have background noise, that's not going to feel good. So constantly thinking about what you're consuming and what's around you, and most importantly, the more things you do at one time, the worse you are going to feel. Meaning the human mind, we think we multitask, but we're actually task hopping. People are like, oh, I'm good at multitasking. No, you're good at hopping from task to task. But studies show that you're dumping 40% of your productivity. So if we're thinking about shifting, the most potent thing you can do is one thing at one time. If you're listening to this going, oh, group multitask, I'm sorry, you're not go read the research. Nobody is. You are task copying, dumping energy. So if you want to feel better and save a ton of time and actually be more productive, do one thing at one time. And if that's hard, I totally get it. It's a new skill. Be gentle with yourself.
Vivan Kvam
That's a great tip. Speaking of great tips, okay, so I'm thinking about the time of year. New Year's is around the corner, and everybody goes, I'm going to do a better job with my health or my fitness routine. Like, you have to hear this all the time. Being in that space. I'm curious, what do you think of New Year's resolutions? What's your opinion? What's your take on that?
Tiffaney Florentine
If New Year's resolutions create resistance, they're awful. If they put you in a flow state, they're beautiful. And let me explain that there are truly two energies in this life. One being resistance, which is stress, anxiety, irritation, fear, worry, just angst. It's a bucket of muck that is resistance. The other camp, the other energy, is flow. Peace, calm, contentment, excitement, self, trust, love, joy. All of that magic. Energy is either moving towards resistance in any moment, or it's moving towards flow. It's never stagnant. The problem with New Year's resolutions in the diet industry and nutrition and fitness in general is that they tend to be extremely rooted in resistance. Meaning, like, oh, God. Here's january 1. I'm going to work out seven times a week, and I'm going to eat 200 calories. I'm going to do it this time. That's pretty stressful. That makes me pretty anxious just saying it. I feel bad. I, like, tightened up from that. So if any habit, any new plan, any New Year's resolution leaves you rooted in resistance, know that the more you are in resistance, your resistance creates resistance. Meaning if I'm anxious and stressed about my fitness or nutrition plan on New Year's lawn or even thinking about it now, it's a never ending, just vicious loop of all or nothing mentality, and you're going to end up in the pantry eating the chips. Okay? If you want to be productive on January 1, I say, actually, why not do it now? Because it wouldn't be stressful. You'd be asking yourself, is this stressful? Do I love this? Change every step of the way. The best thing to do at any point, not just on January 1, is to say, what can I do today? One small habit to move the needle forward. Once I nail that, I'll add another small habit. So it's small habits and patience. And being completely rooted in flow is the only way to achieve your goals and keep those things in place, shift your identity, keep the weight off, and live in more happiness and joy like the way is flow. And so always ask yourself, is this plan going to cause more resistance, or will it cost flow? And from my experience, ten years in the industry, I know that taking plans off the shelf keto, intermittent fasting goodness, the cabbage soup, diet, whatever, optavia all these things, if I take them off the shelf and I squeeze them into my life and they're not built for me, that tends to be a resistance highway. So I say, instead of trying to hang on to someone else's bandwagon by your fingernails and then falling off and getting back on, build your own damn wagon. Be the driver of that wagon. Build that thing from the ground up so you cannot fall off what that looks like. If I were to prioritize right now, what you could most likely do that would literally be sleep, right? Working on your stress, working on your hydration. Maybe if you're drinking 20oz of water, go for 40, right? I would start with those things. And if you want to change your nutrition, I would change quantity first, and I would stop eating while you're onscreen. Start paying attention to your food. If I were to change movements right now, I'd say go for some damn walks. People overemphasize movements, go for 15, 2030 minutes walk every single day. That's what I would do. And again, really focus on the shifters, because if you're shifting into a better energetic state, if I get up and I dance every morning to put myself in a better state and I go for a walk, guess what? I'm going to fuel my body differently. Okay? So in summary, whittleing all that down, do what feels good. Small habits. Just love the process.
Vivian Kvam
I love that. I'm curious if, as people who are joining in hear this, if they want to reach out and chat with you, what's the best way to do that? And are you engaging any new clients right now? What does that look like?
Tiffaney Florentine
Yeah, absolutely. I always encourage people to reach out because I love connecting on these topics. So whether we work together or not. Reach out and I'll offer you free advice. Whatever you want, just reach out and say hello. The best way to get a hold of me is on Instagram. It's Tiffany. T-I-F-F-A-N-E-Y. Very unique florentine on Instagram and send me a direct message. We can chat. At this point, I typically take a handful of clients. Twelve to 15. I do have some spots opening up in January, and if you don't make that one, you get on the wait list. But either way, reach out and I'm going to give you some tips to help you get some momentum and check out my content, too. I'm putting out a lot of new reels that can help you really dig into these topics and make some progress on your own.
Vivian Kvam
Yeah, I love catching your reels.
Tiffaney Florentine
Oh, thank you. Thanks for your help with those. You're pretty good at coaching, with marketing and engagement.
Vivian Kvam
No problem. I love the reels. They're good. I'll be sure to link everything, too, and so people can find things in the show notes. And I know we have to hop, but I do want to ask this one question to wrap up. I have two that I've been going back and forth with as kind of a wrap up question here. And so I was like, okay, which one here's what I'm going to ask you is if you could turn back time to about that 18 year old self, what would you tell her? Goodness, I know they get deep.
Tiffaney Florentine
My gut was like, I won't tell her anything. She was perfect, right? Like, she learned every step of the way. But if I had to choose, I would tell her about shifters. I would be like, you feel bad now or you're stressed or you're anxious? Like, here are the different tools you can use to get out of your damn head and into the moment. Back then, I didn't start living until six or seven years ago when I realized that I could actually live in the moment and not live in stress. I don't regret, but it would have been pretty cool to learn these skills on the daily management of my energetic state so that I wasn't chasing around squirrels in my head, them pulling me, like me being on autopilot, chasing these buggers and anxiety. Now I put them on a leash, and I am deliberate with how I show up in the moment. So now that I'm deliberate in the moment, I love myself. I love others more, I love life more. And that is just a skill that needs to be cultivated. So I would have sat her down and taught her that for about 30 minutes if I could go back in time.
Vivian Kvam
Yeah, I love it. I loved how you talk about squirrels and then putting them on a leash. It's like they don't go away, but we can have those squirrels around.
Tiffaney Florentine
Yeah.
Vivian Kvam
And how to manage them.
Tiffaney Florentine
It's normal. Like two-thirds of our emotional regulators in the brain. The amygdala is fight or flight response. So we wake up and these squirrels are off to the races. So to live our lives, to be happy, and to reach that joyful state more frequently, it takes daily maintenance to reel in the squirrels. Nobody is unique. We need daily work to put the outfit on for our inners. That could take three minutes, five minutes, ten minutes. But it is daily work to show up in the moment. It's just maintenance.
Vivian Kvam
I love it. Well, thanks for your time today and hopping on it's. Nice to catch up too.
Tiffaney Florentine
Yeah, absolutely. Let's do this again. I would love to.