Female Founders: Tiffany Hardin On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Ambition — Recognizing that your ambition does not mean your work ethic. Knowing that your ambition is a deep desire to build something radical that only you can create. Building that ambition with determination to succeed.
As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Tiffany Hardin.
Tiffany is the founder of boutique consultancy, Gild Creative Group, and is an award winning marketer focused on elevating the well-being of culture through strategy, partnerships and communications. Her work experience with entertainment, advertising and tech has allowed her to hold positions and consult with world class organizations — such Ovia, Target, HBO, Airbnb, WeWork, digitalundivided, Cobble, and Black Girl in Om. She spends her time working with ambitious brands on procuring diverse talent for branded content partnerships and strategy concepts. Tiffany is a self-proclaimed Conscious Hustler™ — and is launching a professional development course of the same name to help elevate a new generation of mindful leaders.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I always knew I was going to work with creatives — I was one myself constantly writing poetry, song lyrics and would perform in choirs, talent shows,etc. I realized that while I enjoyed my creative pursuits, it was not going to be my career path as a professional performer. I became interested in talent management and even managed a rock band in highschool which was the case study for me to go to Columbia College Chicago to graduate with a degree in Arts, Entertainment and Media Management. It was this experience that kick started my career.
In the early days, I immersed myself in the music business and marketing working for successful Black entrepreneurs and executives like John Monopoly, Mona Scott-Young and Steve Stoute. Working with these executives I learned a lot about people, business, creating opportunity, and getting things done big or small. I learned how to build budgets, manage relationships and delivery expectations. Chicago and New York City were the perfect cityscapes in my 20s where I learned how to harness my hustle. While I was in college I started a social metrics company, but by the time I was 25 years old with more experience under my belt, I started Gild Creative Group. My clients range from brands to startups to agencies to influencers.
My agency is a manifestation of my lessons and experience from working with moguls, talent and developing strategy and implementing tactics to amplify and empower culture.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
The biggest plot twist in my career has been moving my company from NYC to Nashville, TN. It was not something I planned, but turns out was the best thing for me and my business — plus no state sales income tax! While I thought my next move was LA, God had other plans and I am blooming where I’ve been planted. The entrepreneur and tech scene here are growing — I love to see it!
Managing a large remote team has been challenging in the best of ways as we all had to over-communicate and be mindful of expressing our needs to get the work done and be collaborative.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
When I first worked for Mona Scott-Young, I was her assistant at Violator Management, and was responsible for Missy Elliott’s travel. It was my first week on the job, and I recently just moved into my new apartment. I went to sleep thinking all was well with Missy’s morning flight, and woke up to missed messages and phone calls. Missy had missed her flight, and I missed fixing it. I was mortified because that meant Mona had to handle it at like 5AM because I was asleep. I called her as soon as I got the messages, and she said ‘I hope you enjoyed your REM sleep. Keep your phone in your bed.’ It was a classic rookie mistake. The bigger lesson is, never assume your plans will go accordingly — and do not sleep unless the job is done! These days I don’t sleep with my phone, but I learned rigor in my work and expect my team to have these values as well.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
As a creative person, who runs a business, there are plenty of times when I was highly resistant to systems. It took me years, but I finally allowed myself to find the beauty in creating operating systems for my work. It has allowed me to grow and expand quickly. I am grateful to my operations team — Amanda, Nicole and Sierra for helping me see how supportive and easeful systems can be to progress the business.
In your opinion and experience what is currently holding back women from founding companies?
While I believe everyone should own a business, I know that entrepreneurship is *NOT* for everyone. I may have an unpopular opinion, but I do believe that the most successful businesses have three parts, a visionary, an operator, and an integrator. I think women who do not want to found, fund, and run a business need to be connected to other women who can support their zone of genius within a shared mission & vision.
Outside of this, I’m less concerned with women starting businesses, but operationalizing and scaling our businesses for peak performance and revenue opportunities. If we are afraid to go BIG, we have to examine what internal programming keeps us complacent?
Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government, to help overcome those obstacles?
If you would rather buy Kim K’s fragrance and not your friend’s products or services, then you need to quit or buy both! Please, buy the ticket, the candle, the membership, the combo package, share the post,provide a testimonial, etc. Be a part of another woman’s success story.
As a society, we should encourage women to grow in their ambition and provide tangible support which includes funding, mentorship, etc. Women need more than a few empowerment brunches, we need operations experts, sales experts, pressure tested systems support, etc. The government has resources, but it can certainly market those resources to keep up with the times, and how people receive and process information.
This might be intuitive to you as a woman founder but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?
God Bless the child that has their own! Always have your own money. Get YOURS and inspire your sons, daughters, sisters, nieces and nephews with your ability to provide for yourself and your family — even if it’s ‘side money’.
Women have a lived experience that makes us uniquely qualified to solve problems and a resiliency that is unmatched. Just take a look at Sara Blakely & Spanx for inspiration & a testimony.
We have the ability to tap into the masculine energy of ‘getting it done’ and the feminine energy to ‘nurture’ the business; we have life force energy, and it’s in our nature to create, to care, to build.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?
The myth that you have to have it all figured out before you begin is just one that I cannot disagree with more. I have made mistakes, faced difficulties and came through on the other side with more knowledge and skill sets than if I would have never made the decision to start my own company. I have built a network and team of powerful conscious hustlers that can jump into any situation and figure things out with me. Finding the right people to teach you, mentor you and guide you is all a part of the process of growing your business.
Is everyone cut out to be a founder? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful founder and what type of person should perhaps seek a “regular job” as an employee? Can you explain what you mean?
I don’t know when this happened, but being a 9–5 employee has become villainized in recent years. Listen, I am the beneficiary of a father who worked in upper management for years before he retired. I have never missed a meal because of the consistency of his effort. That 401K money doesn’t hurt!
I do not think running a business full-time is for everyone and there is a spectrum to this depending on the type of business you’re running. There are plenty of entrepreneurs who started as employees and made the switch, or work part time as an employee or as an entrepreneur. Like missy said ‘Ain’t no shame ladies, do your thing, just make sure you’re ahead of the game’
Successful entrepreneurs know that if they are the ‘vision’, then they will need support, employees, contractors, and the like to bring it to life — they can not and should not do everything themselves.
One thing every founder must have is tenacity and emotional agility. As the boss, you are the head coach of the team — when things go wrong, because they will go wrong, can you still see the opportunity? Can you still lead your team of conscious hustlers and encourage them? Can you regulate your own emotions so that you are communicating your expectations?
Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. Based on your opinion and experience, what are the “Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder?” (Please share a story or example for each.)
- Ambition — Recognizing that your ambition does not mean your work ethic. Knowing that your ambition is a deep desire to build something radical that only you can create. Building that ambition with determination to succeed.
- Support — Having the right team in the right positions is key. Your team is the backbone to your business and if they can’t run your business without you for a day, then you don’t have the right support.
- Network — The value of your black book is priceless. Always build and maintain professional connections that could eventually come in handy when they’re needed. You never know who knows who and how far a good word can go.
- Curiosity — You need to have a mindset of cultural curiosity. What is happening in the world, in the media, and keeping pace will help you evolve and grow. Your ideas will grow and develop over time but sometimes they will pivot and that’s ok. Having the ability to reflect on what matters and making the right adjustments is important.
- Heart — Knowing that what you are doing is making a difference and putting your heart into what you do will eventually lead to a successful career or business. And you most definitely need a powerful heart to share it with the world.
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
For over a decade, we have cultivated relationships with brands who prioritize their impact amongst diverse audiences and all types of talent/ practitioners who lend their craft and voice to execute hundreds of brand influencer campaigns that support innovative ideas, products and movements in the culture. As a nimble and resourceful agency, we best serve clients who thrive on developing culture stories that can be appreciated and shared. The result of this is cutting checks throughout the years for hundreds of thousands of dollars to talent, and being a diverse vendor for brands and agencies.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
It’s my ambition to raise up a generation of mindful leaders with my curriculum for Conscious Hustler. It’s meant to serve as a provocation for self-inquiry to help us align our intention, ambition and pursuit of excellence in the workplace and break down patriarchal ideas of our identity & worth being tied to our productivity.
12. We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
I would love to have a private boozy lunch with Brene Brown. She has given relatable language and feeling, based on her research, to the complexities of how we relate to ourselves and others in the various aspects of our lives. Her work has changed my life more than a few times over. Plus, she’s Texan — and I love me a good fellow Texan.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Female Founders: Tiffany Hardin On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.