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

Alright, Tiffany thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Is your team able to work remotely? If so, how have you made it work? What, if any, have been the pitfalls? What have been the non-obvious benefits?

Remote work has been a game changer. I opened 2 brick and mortar locations during the pandemic when a lot of businesses were closing. I was able to leverage DoorDash along with the locations but it felt like the pandemic wouldn’t stop. All the different variants causing smaller temporary shutdowns caused slowing in foot traffic. In June of 2022 I made the executive decision to close my mall location for lack of foot traffic, it was bad. Some days I sat for hours before seeing a customer. Once closed I totally leveraged remote work, I stepped up my catering, Meal Prep, and personal delivery service. Without the overhead of a brick and mortar I was able to pivot my remote business structure. I’m able to offer same day delivery service for food and merchandise locally. Today it’s important for small businesses to be able to adjust to what’s going on in the business world, the Original business model no longer exists.

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 am a 50% deaf entrepreneur, I got into holistics by trying to heal myself of personal ailments like migraine headaches. I became a master herbalist, psychological Food coach, and finally a holistic practitioner in search of an alternative to medicine. I knew if I was having these concerns others were too. I decided to bring the brand to fruition allowing my community access to herbs and living foods that were not at their fingertips. I was able to bring awareness to the deaf/hoh community while doing all of this. I would get asked multiple times a day “What does the name mean?” That question allowed me to explain my story of hearing loss and creating a lane for disabled entrepreneurs like myself. It’s necessary for young boys and girls to see inclusion in fields like holistics and I’m glad to be able to be a part of that.

Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?

I use the Shopify platform to sell my merchandise and food products. They are great they have so many options, sales channels, social network connections, and delivery options it allows me to run my business the way I need to. I am able to offer same day delivery locally, offer shipping to other states, and sell on larger platforms like Walmart. I recommend them to any small business. You can start with a free trial and scale accordingly. It’s user friendly, they have Shopify experts to help you navigate and plenty tips and testimonials to help using the site it’s just a great platform.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

Growing clientele can be hard, but I’ve figured out that if you stay true to yourself and your brand the customers will come. Never try to keep up with the next business. Like Steve Jobs said “Don’t compete, be different.” When I heard that in his biography it changed my life and mindset about business. That is my number one motto, I just try to be different.

Contact Info:

• Website: Freshtodeafliving.com
• Instagram: @Freshtodeafmiami
• Facebook: @fredhtodesfmiami