We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Tiffany Catron a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Tiffany, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?
One of the greatest pieces of advice I have been given in business is to persevere. Resilience is all about mindset. Obstacles are always going to come at us, but we need to be able to persevere past them, and trust in God to see us through. However I will admit, it is easier said than done. To achieve anything great in life it takes steadfast commitment and endurance. I think of it like training for a marathon, it’s going to be challenging but also incredibly rewarding to have completed it and not given up. If you try to sprint the whole marathon you won’t make it past mile 7, but if you take it step-by-step, mile-by-mile you will reach your destination. We need to think of our business in the same light. There are challenges we are going to run into at mile 10, 15, and 20, but if we keep going and persevere past them overcoming the challenge and not letting it defeat us, we will finish our race.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
Hi, my name’s Tiffany! I am a small business owner but I really just like to think of myself as a creative entrepreneur. I like to make things that inspire, uplift, and (hopefully!) blesses people. Which is why a few years ago I decided to create a greeting card line. I wanted to create a greeting card collection that spoke to the ups and downs of life. The excitement of celebrating an engagement, or finding out your friend is finally pregnant after trying for months. Or consoling a loved one when the doctor comes back with the report that despite their strongest efforts, it’s just not looking good. All of these moments are life, and whether you’re celebrating a win or needing comfort from a loss, I wanted Lavender Vines to be a brand that was there for you.
It took me a while to find my own style, but once I did I launched my business in June 2024 and it has been quite the adventure ever since!
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
1. Keep creating!! Ira Glass says it best, “Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work.”
2. Be patient with yourself – sometimes our greatest enemy is the expectations we put on ourselves. We expect to be amazing at something even though we only just began. Or we expect to make over 100K our first year in business when we have no idea what we’re doing. By demanding overnight success from ourselves we kill the joy of the journey, and drive us into negative thinking like “I’m not good enough”, “I knew I would fail” or “I just want to quit”. Don’t do that. Be patient with yourself and enjoy the process.
3. Always be learning – If we are wanting to improve a weak area in our lives, we need to put in the time and effort required to educate ourselves and improve in that area. We need to think of it like a muscle. If we recognize we have a weak muscle, that doesn’t mean we suck and there’s no hope for us, it simply means we have now been made aware of a muscle that is weak, that needs to be strengthened. So if your marketing game is a bit weak, don’t think, “I’m just bad a this and there’s nothing I can do.” Instead we need to think, “I am weak in this area, what can I do to grow and strengthen my marketing abilities?”
What was the most impactful thing your parents did for you?
I truly have amazing parents! They’re the kind of people that told me anything was possible. I was raised believing that if I had a dream to do something, and if I worked hard enough for it, it just might happen. The sky was the limit. I am so, so grateful for them. They never made me feel like I had to do one certain thing, or limit myself to one career path.
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- Website: https://lavendervines.com
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