The ‘aha’ moment happened while she was driving.
Tiffany Ellis, founder of Atlanta-based wellness company G Ann's Cold Pressed Juices, was navigating the uncertain terrain of entrepreneurship when she had to remind herself who she was.
"I was like, okay, if I can just get plugged in with this person, get plugged in with that person," Tiffany recalls. "But then I thought, what are you talking about? You have literally built thriving programs for one of the biggest companies in the world with your own two hands. Why are you waiting to meet someone else?,” she continues. “Get up and move."
That one thought has been the through line in Tiffany’s most pivotal seasons. From a childhood riddled with tough circumstances to navigating college as a teen mom, then corporate life and now entrepreneurship, she’s mastered the art of rising…of pushing through her circumstances to meet the moment with everything she has.
And it all started in her childhood.
Simple Childhood Dreams
Ask most children what they want to be when they grow up, and they may say doctor, teacher, or lawyer. Ask a young Tiffany, and she'd tell you: "happy."
"I was like, man, I just want to be happy when I grow up,” Tiffany reflects. “This is too much for a young person to have to take in." Growing up in Miami, Tiffany’s household was marked by a lot of trauma. She’s the oldest of five kids, and her mother did everything she could to care for her children. Her grandparents stepped in to help raise Tiffany and her brother and to help with their younger siblings, which is a common story for many navigating similar circumstances.
"Those times just made me feel like I just want life to be different when I grow older," she says. “I just wanted different for myself.” As the eldest, Tiffany learned early that waiting for someone else to make things better wasn't an option. Leadership became instinct, a reflex born from necessity.
The Principal Who Positioned Her for Purpose
In elementary school, Tiffany’s other instincts put her on a pathway to purpose. "I got in trouble in first grade, second grade for talking too much," Tiffany remembers. She was sent to the office to be reprimanded, but instead, she got redirected.
Current Florida congresswoman Frederica Wilson, who was Tiffany's elementary school principal at the time, recognized something in the girl who talked too much. “She made me start reading the morning announcements every day. Then she made me memorize monologues,” Tiffany shares. “I became the moderator for school plays, and when we had to shut down a landfill that was built across the street from school, she gave me a script to read to the news."
Natural born leader at home. Budding speaker at school. Skills that have helped Tiffany succeed today were honed all those years ago. "You're put in certain situations to cultivate a certain skill set, unbeknownst to you, it turns into what you see today,” she says. “All these little interactions are the practice for the purpose."
The Pivot that Changed Her Path
And purpose it was, even with unexpected pivots.
Tiffany was on a promising track: a gifted student in honors courses, articulate and driven, with a future that seemed wide open. Then she got pregnant at sixteen.
Her grandparents kicked her out, and she was forced to transfer to a separate school for pregnant girls, a place that didn't offer the same advanced classes or academic rigor. Everything she'd been building was suddenly compromised.
"I'm in the school as a gifted kid who was in honors courses, on a very promising track. Now I'm put in this school where they don't offer the same classes, and the experience is different," Tiffany shares candidly. "And it just created a cycle."
But even in that cycle, she refused to give up. Tiffany was able to return to her homeschool her senior year and graduate with her class. Afterwhich, she made a life changing decision for her and her daughter. "I just gotta leave Miami,” she recalls deciding. “I gotta try to do something different."
She became the first person in her family to go away to college.
College: Rewriting the Family Story
Tiffany got her fresh start at Florida A&M University (FAMU). She arrived on campus with her daughter, a freshman carrying both textbooks and the weight of motherhood. After one semester juggling full-time work and school, she sent her daughter back to Miami to live with her father's family while she focused on graduating on time. "You don't get to waste time because you have four years,” she recalls thinking. “You’ve got to get in and get out."
Even with navigating the loss of her mother during her junior year, Tiffany managed to finish what she started at FAMU. Then years later, her daughter graduated from the same university, too. “The same daughter I was walking around campus with as a freshman, she graduated from FAMU," Tiffany says with pride. "You don't realize as it's happening that you're rewriting your family's story, but then you look back and you're like, look at what I just did."
Corporate & The Entrepreneurial Calling
After graduation, Tiffany entered the corporate world. For years, she built programs for Fortune 500 companies, eventually working for Amazon. She mastered program management, strategic thinking, and team leadership. And for the first time in her life, she had safety.
"When I hit about 30, I had attained a certain level of success where poverty was no longer a part of my immediate family story," she reflects. "At least my kids had a different upbringing for the most part than I did."
She chose stability in her marriage, prioritized wellbeing, and built a dependable household. It was everything her childhood hadn't been, but there was a cost. "Even in corporate, while people got the realist version of what was accepted of me, you didn't get the fullness of who I was because the environments didn't allow me to bring that to you,” she shares.
But when entrepreneurship came calling, Tiffany initially resisted. She'd spent her entire life building toward safety. "Entrepreneurship is scary as hell because I've been safe," Tiffany says honestly. "That safety is the one thing that kept me grounded."
Yet still, something was shifting. Then came that drive and moment of reckoning.
"I started writing the vision," she says. "I started just putting myself out there and taking the lead unapologetically.” She stopped waiting for permission and moved full steam ahead with G Ann's Cold Pressed Juices—named after her mother Gillian, the woman who modeled resilience through everything. "No matter what she was going through, she was going to fight through it. She modeled resilience for me in such a way that I never ever thought there was another option throughout my life,” Tiffany fondly shares of her mother.
The business is an extension of Tiffany's philosophy that wellness should be accessible, authentic, and unapologetically bold. She makes cold-pressed juices for people like her and her son who don't like vegetables, with a slogan as catchy and creative as she is: "It's just better raw."
Now, she finally gets to show up as her full self—bold colors, big personality, and even bigger vision.
The Purpose in Her Path
All those years of being the oldest child who had to find her voice in the midst of lots of chaos. All those monologues recited for a principal who saw her potential, and all those programs built for other people's companies.
None of it was wasted. It was all preparation.
Tiffany's story isn't about suddenly discovering a business idea that hits. It's about recognizing all the moments you’ve been cultivating the very skills that you need right now. “Anybody reading this, get your ass up and move,” she says with tough love. “Take the lead because whatever you need is already within you.”
Your Move: Tiffany's challenge is simple and direct: stop waiting for someone else to give you permission to move. What's one area of your life or work where you've been playing small, waiting for the right person to validate your abilities? And how would your life change if you decided, today, to get up and get going?
Remember, you already have everything you need to live your purpose and make your mark. The only question is whether you're willing to make a move.
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