We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Tiffany Ellis a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Tiffany, thanks for joining us today. Was there a moment in your career that meaningfully altered your trajectory? If so, we’d love to hear the backstory.

The defining moment happened last September, just after my 42nd birthday. I received a call that my role as a global DEI program manager was being eliminated, and I was given two choices: look for a new internal role or accept the severance. For two years, I had been building my business quietly, squeezing it into the margins of my life, never fully imagining it becoming anything more than a side hustle. People would often tell me I should go full time, but I never saw myself as an entrepreneur. I just wanted to do meaningful work that felt aligned with who I was becoming.

That call forced me to pause and get honest about my desires, my purpose and the life I truly wanted. And even in that moment, I did not fully understand what I was stepping into. I just know that when I hung up with HR and my VP, I closed my laptop and never opened it again.

The company gave me a little over 60 days of paid time to search for another role, but instead, I poured that time into my business. I prayed and asked God to let my severance be enough to clear my debt if His will was for me to walk into entrepreneurship full time. When the amount came back exactly as I prayed, I knew it was confirmation. I knew it was time to stop treating my calling like a hobby and step boldly into the life God was trying to hand me.

Stepping into full time entrepreneurship has been the most faith filled decision of my life, but it has also been the most aligned. My mother’s legacy lives through this work, and every bottle we press reminds me that purpose does not chase comfort. Purpose calls you higher. Saying yes to this journey taught me that when God clears the path, your only job is to walk it with courage. And I have been walking ever since.

Tiffany, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I never started juicing to start a business. I started juicing to solve personal problems, and a business was born through that process. I grew up pretty veggie averse, and the few vegetables I did enjoy were usually smothered, sautéed or stripped of their nutrients just to make them flavorful. As I grew older and began building my own family, I knew I needed healthier habits for my children and our household. My husband and I have lived active lifestyles for almost two decades, but eating well has always been a challenge for my son.

When I started juicing, it was to support my digestion, address nutrient deficiencies after my thyroid gland was removed and find a solution for my son who wanted nothing to do with vegetables. Crafting recipes that made beets, kale, carrots and even herbs like ginger and turmeric taste enjoyable showed me I was solving a much bigger problem than my own. I had no idea how many people were veggie averse or that 90 percent of Americans do not consume enough fresh fruits and vegetables. Today, so many of our customers share how our juices have supported their digestion, mental health, blood pressure, menstrual cycles and overall wellbeing. Those stories keep us grounded in purpose.

G Ann’s Cold Pressed offers ready to go handcrafted cold pressed juices, functional shots and nut mylks. We also teach hands on juicing workshops for people who want to learn how to make their own juices at home. On the corporate side, we provide wellness activations, educational experiences and speaking services that highlight how consumption impacts creation and output. We host free community wellness events every month in partnership with the Russell Innovation Center for Entrepreneurs, lead group fitness initiatives like our 10 Milly Steps Challenge and offer branded merch and apparel that reinforce our mission. In 2026, we are relaunching our podcast, Heal Sh*t, which focuses on helping people heal so they can experience life more fully and intentionally.

What sets us apart is our authenticity and our deep connection to the community we serve. As a Miami native, I infuse my culture into every part of the brand. That is why our colors are bold, our branding is vibrant and our messaging is raw, honest and relatable. I want people to experience pieces of my upbringing every time they interact with us, and they do. I also want them to feel the presence of my late mother, Gillian, who is the heart and inspiration behind this company. I am most proud of the ways her legacy comes alive through our work.

We show up fully. We embody who we are. And because of that, our brand looks, feels and operates differently than anything else on the market. We are also the only juice company dedicated to serving veggie averse consumers and helping them increase their vegetable intake in a way that feels approachable, delicious and sustainable.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I started my professional journey in the property and casualty risk management industry, and for more than a decade I built a solid career in insurance claims. I worked my way from a front line role to a national training director and, while I was successful, I was not fulfilled. I could do the work, but the work did not speak to me. By 2018, passion started tugging at me in ways I could no longer ignore. I remember sitting with a friend, a true foodpreneur and serial entrepreneur, mapping out business ideas because I needed a place for my creativity, innovation and voice to live. The insurance industry is very conservative, and the version of me that thrived there was not the version of me that felt alive.

That led to my first business, Perennial Resolutions, which was created to support Black and brown millennial professionals who were struggling to acclimate into corporate environments. That work was personal for me. I had navigated predominantly white spaces for years and supported so many marginalized employees who lacked psychological safety at work. The company didn’t unfold the way I originally imagined, but I did create offerings like Pods & PR and The Virtual Connection during COVID, which became healing and development spaces in partnership with mental health practitioners. Those experiences strengthened my belief that community and wellness had always been calling me.

When I returned to corporate, I knew insurance was no longer aligned, so I sought out a company that would allow me to operate in my zone of genius. That search led me to Amazon. I started in operations, transitioned into corporate and eventually built a career in global program management. I led HBCU recruitment initiatives, deployed the HBCU Conference Beyond the Yard, created a mental health program for college students called Mind Over Matter and developed diverse recruitment pathways that helped shape the future of data center careers. I learned how to ideate, deploy, iterate and scale meaningful programs on a global level.

Every one of those pivots — from insurance to entrepreneurship, from operations to global programs, from corporate structures to wellness-centered community work — created the version of me who now leads G Ann’s Cold Pressed. Even the operations experience, which I once questioned, became foundational to how we build SOPs, systems and best practices for our juicing operations.

Looking back, each pivot was preparing me. I didn’t know it then, but every role, every challenge, every transition was shaping the woman capable of building a wellness brand rooted in purpose, legacy and community. And now, I see how every step was ordered.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

One of the biggest lessons I had to unlearn was the idea that everything is a competition. In corporate America, collaboration is encouraged, but competition is rewarded. At the end of the year there is always a bell curve, and whether people say it out loud or not, you are being measured against the very people you work beside. Your performance is assessed in comparison to your peers, and someone wins while someone else loses. That is simply the nature of corporate structures.

The environment shapes you. When you spend enough time in a place where advancement is tied to outperforming the person next to you, you naturally become less collaborative. You start guarding information, guarding opportunities and guarding relationships because you know everyone is operating inside the same system. Yes, there are people in corporate who do not operate this way, but those are usually people who are content with where they are and have no desire to move up. For those of us who wanted more, being collaborative while competing was a delicate dance.

In my first run in corporate, I was focused on being the best and doing my best. I absolutely supported people, but I always knew we were being compared to one another, even when we worked toward the same goals.

When I returned to corporate years later, my mindset began to shift. I understood the real value of collaboration, not as a performance strategy but as a leadership principle. Working in AWS allowed me to embody a collaborative spirit in a way that felt authentic. I was able to mentor and support emerging professionals, lead teams to success and leverage everything I learned in risk management to help others grow. And at the same time, I had my own world outside of corporate — the world I was quietly building through entrepreneurship — that gave me the freedom to move fully, intentionally and in alignment with my heart.

I saw the beauty in building with others. I saw how collaboration shaped outcomes that aligned more closely with my values. I learned that when people feel seen and supported, their work deepens, their courage expands and their ideas multiply. That revelation softened something in me.

So by the time I stepped into entrepreneurship full time, I no longer felt the need to compete in the way I once did. Do I still believe in showing up as my personal best? Absolutely. But now I focus on what makes me different, not what makes me better. That clarity allows me to collaborate without fear and to celebrate the brilliance in others without shrinking my own light.

Unlearning competition allowed me to step into leadership in a way that feels grounded, generous and aligned. It taught me that we grow further, faster and fuller when we grow together.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Www.gannsjuices.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gannsjuices?igsh=a3d6am9hemhvZWNq&utm_source=qr
• Facebook: https://www.linkedin.com/company/g-ann-s-cold-pressed/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/g-ann-s-cold-pressed/
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@gannscoldpressed?si=rp0Ej5LlvmtdH5Ph

Image Credits

Images taken by Nikki Rumph. Model: Harmony Kelly