227: From Passive Listening to Massive Action: How Tiffany Berland Transformed Her Life & Business

Andrea Liebross: Welcome to the She Thinks Big! Podcast. Get ready to level up your thinking and expand your horizons. I’m your host, Andrea Liebross, your guide on this journey of big ideas and bold moves. I am the best-selling author of She Thinks Big: The Entrepreneurial Woman's Guide to Moving Past the Messy Middle and Into the Extraordinary.

I support women like you with the insights and mindset you need to think bigger and the strategies and systems you need to turn that thinking into action and make it all a reality. Are you ready to stop thinking small and start thinking big? Let’s dive in.

Hello, my friends, and welcome back to the She Thinks Big podcast. Today, what we're going to do, with the help of an amazing guest/client, Tiffany, we are going to dive into exploring how to really move from being inspired or motivated or taking what I call passive action into actually doing something, or taking massive action, and learning more, but also then implementing it.

As I mentioned, I am joined today by Tiffany Berland. She is an interior designer and a custom window specialist. Her business is called Blue Opus Interiors, and it is based outside of Denver, but she is willing to travel anywhere to do anything amazing.

She likes going on planes, especially when it's not snowing. I invited her on because she has really an incredible story of, I'm going to call it, transformation. I think that's such an overused word, but we're going to use it. It really perfectly illustrates what happens when you stop just consuming information and knowledge and courses and podcasts and books even, and you start taking real action.

So I'm going to start. I'm going to have her introduce herself, and then we're going to dig in. This is going to be juicy. So you want to make sure that you have your AirPods on full blast and you concentrate and listen, because I think this is going to be some good stuff.

All right, welcome, Tiffany. Tell us, who are you? Tell us all the things that we need to know.

Tiffany Berland: Well, thank you for having me, Andrea. It's really an honor to be here. I am Tiffany Berland with Blue Opus Interiors. I am an interior designer and a custom window specialist/expert in this field.

I've been a designer for 20 years, and I went to school for interior design to hopefully learn more about window coverings, and learned nothing about them.

Andrea Liebross: But you are one of the very few that actually did go to school for this, so there we go.

Tiffany Berland: I did, yes. I have a degree. So I ended up being trained by architects and learning all the things I didn't know that I needed to learn as well.

But while I was getting my degree, I continued to work in the field and studied color and drapery and all of the things that make spaces extra pretty. I found just that my favorite part of interior design was drapery.

While I'll still do kitchens and baths, my favorite thing is drapery and anything textile-related. So I get giddy, I get butterflies, and I can't help it. I just absolutely love the way color and textiles work together and how they're made, so that is my focus.

Andrea Liebross: She does get giddy. She gets all excited. She lights up her room with her smile when she talks about it. So I love that.

Tell us, where are you? Who lives in your house besides the cat? I think these are all important pieces of information.

Tiffany Berland: Sure. I'm married, my husband Dusty. He and I have known each other since we were in second grade.

Andrea Liebross: Oh, I didn't know that part.

Tiffany Berland: We have known each other our whole life, and we went to school together. He was a year ahead of me in school, and we just followed each other through school. Then he went to California for college and I went to Tennessee.

Later in life, we came back together after a few sad spots, and we've been together ever since.

Andrea Liebross: Awesome.

Tiffany Berland: Then we have, well, I have one child with my ex-husband, and her name's Eva. And then I have two other kiddos with Dusty, Anastasia and Barrett.

Andrea Liebross: Okay.

Tiffany Berland: Then we have two dogs and two cats.

Andrea Liebross: Because that really is what we need to add to the mix. I mean. Why not, why not have the two dogs, two cats? I love that. I love it.

So Tiffany and I, we have known each other now, maybe for probably like three years. So probably around three years. She first came to me, I think you heard me on a podcast, maybe? I don't know.

Tiffany Berland: I heard you, yeah, on Kate's podcast.

Andrea Liebross: On Kate, the Socialite podcast. Tiffany came into my world. She attended a week-long masterclass workshop I did called Design Your Ideal Summer. That was way back probably in April or May, three years ago.

Then she and I started working together, and probably worked together for about 18 months, we think. We could go back and actually look at that officially, but that's what we think. So that's just a little background. Now, let's dig in here.

Before I do these podcast audience listeners, I have my guests complete a little bit of a questionnaire so we get all on the same page. Something that Tiffany mentioned in that questionnaire that struck her from the podcast she heard me on with Kate was the idea that listening is great, but at some point, you have to do something.

She started to take action and do something. So I'm curious, when did you first realize that you were stuck in that information-gathering mode? Because I think a lot of listeners, especially podcast listeners, we get stuck in that information-gathering mode.

When do you think you realized that and what do you think you were looking for when you were consuming all that content that maybe you weren't finding?

Tiffany Berland: So I think when it first really struck me, it was after I heard you on Kate's podcast and then I started listening to your podcast, I started to binge it. It was probably the third or fourth time, third or fourth episode that I was listening to, that then you were like, “It is great listening, but you have to do something,” which I still hear you say in my head almost daily when it is like, I start to kind of go back in the, “Oh, maybe I do not have to, I can just hang out.”

It is like, no, you have to do something. So it was probably then, and then I was like, “Okay, there is something different about Andrea than every other business coach I have listened to, spoken to, hired in the past. There is something different here.” It just got me curious. I was just in a cycle of a little bit of chaos, but that is probably what it was. I think it was like three or four times.

Andrea Liebross: Okay, so I think there is the doing. You are like, “I want to do something,” or “I need to do something,” but you do have to have the thought behind it that something has got to change.

Anyone that has been following me for a while, you know that I am a big believer that our thoughts trigger how we feel, which then trigger our actions. So what is interesting here is that when Tiffany reached out to me, we could say that was an action. She realized she had to reach out, and she had to have someone probably guide her to figure out what to do. So there is the doing in the reaching out, and then there is the doing that came after.

But you had to have some feeling of, "Hmm, this is not enough," and you had to have the confidence to reach out and to make a change. So I just want you to notice, listeners, that something has got to click inside you. You have got to have a thought that, "I am ready to do something," or, "I need help doing something," in order to have the confidence to actually take action and reach out.

So you kind of went through that. It was like an evolution of listening to those couple of episodes and probably 50 million other podcasts before.

Tiffany Berland: Yeah, and I think it was too, a couple of things you probably had mentioned about that just struck me about where I was. I was at the end of my rope. I knew that moving forward in my life, I either had to quit, I had to change direction, something desperately had to change for me, for me to be a good mom, continue to run my business, and be a good wife. I had to figure out something.

So for me, it was that feeling of, I cannot do this anymore. I have tried it all these other ways, nothing is working. I had other tools that I had tried, but nothing was changing. I was still stuck.

Andrea Liebross: And I think what is interesting too, you said that you had other tools. It is not really about resources, people. Like it is so interesting. Sometimes I have clients say to me, or prospective clients, “Well, now that I have this little format, I am going to run with it, and I am going to use all the resources that I have.”

That is not just about that, is it? You could have all the tools in the toolbox, but if you do not know how to use them, or you do not know which one to pick up, or you do not have someone that is showing you how to use it, you still feel like everything is chaotic, as you like to say. You are in confusion.

Tiffany Berland: That is right. I was in a world of confusion.

Andrea Liebross: Yeah, yeah, because you had lots of tools. If we use this analogy, the toolbox was full. It was not about tools, but you were confused on what to work on, what tool to use, all the things.

If you feel like that, you are not alone. If you feel like you have got a toolbox full of tools, but you do not know which one to pick up or how to use it, you are not alone. That is how Tiffany felt.

Tiffany Berland: One hundred percent.

Andrea Liebross: One hundred percent. All right, the first meaningful action you took that started shifting things for you. So when we started working together, Tiffany called me and we said, "Okay, let’s give this a go."

Do you remember what are some of the first things that you did or that were meaningful or that started to make a difference? You might not remember.

Tiffany Berland: Well, I mean, that Design Your Ideal Summer was eye-opening to me, into the solutions that were available, that with one-on-one help was one hundred percent achievable. I had, as a mom of little kids, never had a summer go as planned.

Never knew, like if somebody was asking me, "What are your plans for the summer?" I am like, "I have no idea." But that is part of me being a creative, that it was like, "Oh, I will just figure it out as I go." Well, that is okay, but when you have kids, that is not okay.

Andrea Liebross: No, that is not okay.

Tiffany Berland: I needed to plan. So that course taught me how to plan, because I do not know that anybody in my life or any of these other tools, anything really taught me how to plan anything.

I was just kind of thrown in, and given my life situations, it makes sense as to why I just did not have a lot of structure. So it gave me the structure that I needed and a path to follow.

But then having you to be like, "Well, what about this?" and then you could help me think through things, it was like, here is my second brain for a while.

Andrea Liebross: Yeah, I love that. I love that. So I need a second brain too. That's why I have coaches to help me because it is kind of like having a second brain. It's also just saying it out loud, talking things through, and having someone that's not, I like to say, "Not in the peanut butter jar with you."

Because we all have people that are in the situation with us, or they're friends and they're just kind of commiserating. They're either friends commiserating, or they could be family members that are putting up roadblocks. I think that's probably a common situation for everybody. Just having that neutral party that's not commiserating but not putting up roadblocks, just helping you navigate what is possible and what some solutions are, I think that can be a game-changer.

Tiffany Berland: Yeah. Having somebody in my situation, that was important to me. One, you weren't in my industry, so you don't know exactly how all the interior design stuff works, which I actually needed. The other side was I needed somebody who'd already kind of raised their kids so that I could learn from your experience. But the other side of that was I needed somebody who wasn't going to feel sorry for me.

Because for me, in the situation that I was in, people could easily, and many people did, they were like, "Oh, I'm so sorry for you." It's like, I don't really need sorry. I just need solutions. I'm trying to figure it out, but I can't live in sorrow anymore. Sorrow didn't solve things. It was just a season.

Andrea Liebross: That kind of brings us to my next little question here. This is interesting. I love how you put that. I might have to bottle that up because I feel like sometimes, as a coach, what I'm doing is offering, I'll call it, tough love with a smile.

I do have empathy toward what was going on, like a hundred percent. My heart would break for you, but I wasn't going to let you float down the river. I wasn't going to let you wallow in it. And I think again, that's the difference. Friends are going to feel sorry for you and float down the river with you and commiserate.

Family might just throw their hands up or become annoyed or say, "Friggin' suck it up," but not offer solutions.

Tiffany Berland: Or they were letting me go like I was in the river.

Andrea Liebross: Or letting you go. Like you were in the river. Like I was a lost cause in a sense. So I think coaching sort of fills that void, that middle part. It's the tough love, empathy, but being so solution-focused. That is a huge, huge difference.

Tiffany Berland: Yeah. And I didn't need rescuing.

Andrea Liebross: No, you didn't need rescuing. You never asked for rescuing. You never would ask for that, too.

Tiffany Berland: Because I also, I always say that it was like I was living in a tornado or like a hurricane. I didn't need somebody to pull me into the boat to save me. I needed somebody to teach me how to swim under the waves, hold my breath, and kind of get through it.

That was the benefit of having you. You were empathetic to everything, but you also may have not, and I don't know, but you may have not known exactly what I was going through, which was good for me. I didn't need somebody who was like, "Oh my gosh, I totally understand addiction," because when you're living in that world, those people can be helpful, but I needed somebody who didn't know it. That was just an outsider.

Andrea Liebross: So backstory here a little bit. I'll catch you listeners up. You're probably like, "What's going on?" Tiffany's been very open. She supported her husband through addiction while continuing to build her business.

Lots of personal challenges that were very real, and scary, some of them, I think it's a fair word to use. And still trying to support her kids, we had that going on, and also taking care of herself, which we had to remind you to do a few times, and then also keeping this business afloat.

And not just afloat, but you had had some momentum of growth that all of a sudden came to this, I don't want to say a halt, stop.

Tiffany Berland: It kind of did.

Andrea Liebross: It kind of did. But I didn't want it to. No, no. You never wanted it to. But it did. So that's that.

Tiffany Berland: I can talk about that a little bit.

Andrea Liebross: Tell us a little bit about that. I'm like, "Okay, where do I want to go from here?"

Tiffany Berland: So what I would say is, when you talk about the big things I was dealing with, to give people a perspective: I had decided to stay in my marriage. Leaving wasn't an option. I'd made that decision years ago that I'd already been married twice in the past, this is my third marriage. For me, it was just not an option.

Divorce was so horrible that no matter what, I was going to make it through this. But the reality was, my husband was so chemically addicted to alcohol that he was either going to have to stop and get treatment, or he was going to be on a path to dying.

So I really had to figure out, "My business is not optional." I had to make sure that I could have a steady income in the event that he did pass away. I also had to make sure that my kids were safe and provided for. So all of those things. So these were, you were big. Really big things.

I mean, to be a little bit of a spoiler, he has been sober now for over a year. So I'm in a much different place and I'm very grateful, and we can kind of get into that. But those were like the big things that I was trying to figure out.

How do I regrow my business? Because I'd had my office in a retail space that closed right before I started coaching with you. Now I was moving my business to working back from home and needing all very different resources. I didn't have customers walking through the door, so it was something different.

It was a transition, and it was very necessary. So while at the time of the slowdown, if you will, it was really hard, it was absolutely crucial. I look back and go, “I absolutely needed that time. I needed that slowdown. I needed the refocusing to rebuild my dreams and figure out what I really wanted.”

Andrea Liebross: Let's go back to this information gathering versus the implementation piece. I think, probably based on what was going on, a lot of information was being thrown at you. Is that fair?

Tiffany Berland: Tons. Tons. Whether it was addiction specialists, therapists, like you name it, I was on this crazy... what my current therapist would say that she was like, "I got to help you get off this hamster wheel. Yeah. You're in this cycle of therapy, nothing's changing. You're not moving anywhere. You're just going in circles."

Andrea Liebross: Okay. Then business-wise, what information did you have that you needed to shift into implementation? Or could you even quantify that?

Tiffany Berland: I mean, I feel like I had so many tools and so many resources that I kind of, because I've been a designer for so long, I knew how to run my business. Like I'd gone through all the ups and downs of pricing and all of that. So it wasn't really that that I needed at that time.

That's not to say I haven't totally restructured since my coaching with you, which I have, and that's been a game changer, but that was the right order for me to do it in. I needed to figure out my life, and then now my business is thriving.

Andrea Liebross: Because at that point, I know, I remember you telling me, you'd taken a course on money, cash flow management. I remember you telling that, you're like, "Yeah, but I can't, this still feels," not confusing.

Tiffany Berland: It was just too much.

Andrea Liebross: It was just too much. It didn't help simplify or clarify things.

Tiffany Berland: No, it was like doing something like a senior would do when you're a freshman.

Andrea Liebross: Okay. Okay. It was the wrong order. So there was that. You had also, like you kind of mentioned before, tried to plan your time in 62 different ways that really wasn't, you had lots of info, but none of that was really working too well. I know you had moved from your, like you mentioned, you had been in a storefront with customers walking in, and now you had a home office/you could be more virtual and online.

That was kind of like you had info on that, but hadn't really implemented anything that felt like it was working. Fair?

Tiffany Berland: Yeah. Or what I wanted

Andrea Liebross: Or what you wanted, exactly. So those were all the things that really we had to shift into this solution-focused, "How do we create what we want" kind of mode.

Alright, so let's look at personally, what did you really want? What did you want things to look like? And then we'll talk about business, what did you want things to look like?

Tiffany Berland: Yeah, I mean, I think, again, it started with the ideal summer. I wanted to have structure for my life. I wanted to have structure for my kids.

I wanted, when the schedule would change, I didn't want that to upend my emotions, my kids' lives, but I also didn't need it to upend my business.

Andrea Liebross: Yeah, I remember this. Some kid was sick and you were like, "I can't have this whole week be a disaster because of this one sick kid." I totally remember that.

Tiffany Berland: Yeah. Yeah. That was, I mean, it's still kind of a real challenge, although I manage it much better now because I'm planning all these details so much better. So I would say like the Full Focus System, game changer for me, but we can get into that too.

Andrea Liebross: Okay.

Tiffany Berland: So yeah, it was just being able to structure each day so that when one thing changed, it didn't upend my whole life. But that's what was happening. But I was also moving back and forth, you know. So living with my parents and stuff.

Andrea Liebross: Okay. So in a way, you were living in a day-to-day mode based on what was happening with your husband. You were moving in and out of your house for all sorts of reasons.

So you were living day by day, but somehow even in that day, you were figuring out how to have a plan and to make things happen. So that's really key.

Tiffany Berland: It was that stress of being busy, but not feeling... I think one thing I hear a lot of us in the group would say, and women still say, is that, "I'm so busy, but I don't have time to plan."

That changed for me. It was like, planning is not optional. So I had to change that thought, because that thought for me was destructive. I had to turn it into a productive thought.

So it was through your thinking process of going, "How is that thought serving you?" Well, being busy is not serving me at all. I have to plan, so it is a non-negotiable. I had to get quiet and I had to really think, "What do I want?" And a big question for me that really helped change my life was, "What I need right now is..."

I asked myself that every day and every moment, anytime something stressful or chaotic would happen, whether it was Dusty's drinking or kids getting sick, it was like, "What do I need right now?" And then I could get quiet.

I could think about what I needed and what my next step was, and I didn't feel rushed. I didn't feel hurried, and I could eliminate that hurry and that busy feeling from my life because I was focusing on what I needed. "What do I want?" And then it happened. It progressed from there, and things started to change.

Andrea Liebross: What did you want your business to look like?

Tiffany Berland: So, well, that was fun because that was kind of something that revealed itself during the Vision to Action.

Andrea Liebross: Yeah, it did. I can still remember that. So if you're a new listener, I do a process called Turning Your Vision Into Action. It's kind of my version of business planning/life planning. I borrow some concepts from EOS, or the Entrepreneurial Operating System. Borrow some concepts from there, but then I also kind of realized, "Hey, all the people I'm working with are women, and there's the reality of all of this too. What do we want our lives to look like?"

So, all right, let's talk about this. Tiffany and I, and I think there were two other people that day, we worked through this Vision Into Action Intensive. What did you find out? Because I still remember.

Tiffany Berland: I learned to dream again. We were going through our dreaming process, might tear up. But what I wanted was, I wanted to travel the world to select fabrics for people and be in a position where somebody loved fabrics as much as me or needed something so beautiful. I would be able to go to Paris, I'd go to Italy, wherever I could meet textile designers and pick fabrics specifically for projects.

So that's kind of my big dream, to do that for people. Because of that day, and because of what I was like, "Well, if I'm going to do that, this has to be the number for my income. This is the goal I have to get to." But then we start with the ten-year, and you go to the five-year, and three-year, and one-year, and "What are you going to do in the next 90 days?" And it was like, all of that became so achievable. It was like, "Well, all of that makes sense."

So it just changed the way I set goals. It changed my focus. I needed focus to stop being on addiction and on something else, and back on what I needed. That's what came out of that.

I still like taking small steps every day. I'm going to a conference next weekend that is going to move me towards that. I've been trying to get to this conference for probably 14 years, since my daughter was two. Now I can leave my kids at home with my husband, and I can go, and I can do these things. I just made the decision.

Was it easy and is all my world perfect? No. But I made the decision. Also learning what I valued through that Vision to Action, that was all part of it. It was like, "What are my values?" And mine was that traveling is necessary for growth.

Andrea Liebross: Love it.

Tiffany Berland: So, I mean, that's so much. I could just go on and on.

Andrea Liebross: Yeah, so I just remember your face lighting up, and by being able to vocalize that, it really helped us figure out what do you want/need to do today, this week, this month, this quarter, this year. So that your actions were aligned with that, making that dream become a reality. That's why I call it Turning Your Vision Into Action.

I think it also gets back to not just gathering information. It's, "How do I take action on this? How do I implement some things? How do I make change?" So, for example, this conference—and I'm so glad you're going—you've known about it forever. You had the info, we'll call it. But now you're taking action and actually making it a reality. I love that. I love that. I love that.

All right, so see how there are things in Tiffany's personal life she had to figure out what she wanted, and then there are things in her professional life she had to figure out what she wanted. Then we had to take some action on it, not just keep thinking about it, not just keep listening to inspirational podcasts. We had to move forward.

So what do you think held you back from doing this sooner? What would you say to someone who's stuck in this info-gathering mode, listening mode, waiting till the perfect moment mode, thinking that things are going to be better next week mode? What do you think?

Tiffany Berland: Well, I mean, I've always appreciated how you say that like not making a decision is making a decision. I think that's been in some of your recent stuff, but that's what it was for me. It was the fear. Well, for me, we all know this, it was like fear was part of what was holding me back, but not making a decision to find a coach and stick with it, and just be consistent, like stop listening to the other voices, find one person.

After I did the Design Your Ideal Summer, I knew that you were that person. And so even when we did our call after that, I already went into that call. Well, first, I was a little scared of you because I was like, "This woman knows so much, and here I am, this hot mess. Is she even going to be interested in working with me?" That was kind of how I approached it.

Then just starting to work with you, I was like, "Oh my gosh, my thoughts were wrong." But I knew that I needed a coach, and you were that person. So I tell people today, you are the real deal. There are a billion coaches out there, but there are not many that are the ones that you actually need. You are that, and you were that for me. So I was grateful.

I just knew after doing the Ideal Summer that I was like, “That was a game changer.” Like in a few hours or a week's time, I had my whole summer planned when I'd had this thought, "Well, that's too much. It's too big. I don't have the time to do it." I just took a little bit of time each day. Then my whole summer was planned.

Now summers do not, and breaks, I knew I needed 10 weeks to plan as a mom and a businesswoman to block off for time with my kids. It was like, “How long have I gone?” I didn’t know I actually needed 10 weeks of vacation, not two, to manage sick time and time that they're out of school for whatever holidays. I added it up, and it was 10 weeks of the year. I was like, “That's a game changer for how I plan my life and how I manage my income.”

Andrea Liebross: I didn't realize you figured that out. That's really cool. Unless you pause long enough to figure out, "How much time really do I need off?" it doesn't happen. We just go by societal norms, like everybody gets two weeks off or whatever. Yeah, okay, love that.

First of all, thank you for saying all that. I feel honored and humbled. Something you said earlier, which I just released—we're recording this in April. So I just released an episode last week with a woman named Amanda, who you know. But that episode was about how having a coach outside your industry is super helpful versus in your industry. I think you kind of feel that same way. Is that true?

Tiffany Berland: 100%

Andrea Liebross: Because you said something earlier. I've noticed that sometimes I get resistance too by people saying, "Well, what do you know about my business?" And I know enough to know... I know enough about business, you know? So that, I just wanted to point that out.

The other thing you said too earlier was my kids are a little older than yours. They're 23 and 21 now. Oh my goodness. So I think that's also helpful, having someone that's kind of been there in a personal sense too, but yeah.

All right, tell me a little bit too, what were your thoughts about being in a group coaching situation? How did that help you in a way?

Tiffany Berland: Oh, I mean, at first, I was a little concerned because I don't like to always share with a bunch of people that, "Here I am, married to an alcoholic, and I've chosen to stay." There's usually a lot of judgment there. But that was not the case.

In fact, the women that I met in your group will be lifelong friends for me. We still Voxer almost daily in the group with Amanda. We help each other out, we work together on projects, things like this. I mean, it was fantastic. Even ones that weren't designers, that I still will have accountability sessions with. We still meet regularly and talk. So just being in the group...

Oh, the other thing was that I learned so much by listening to you coach somebody else. Even if they weren't in my industry, it helped me almost more than maybe they got out of it because now I was listening, and I like to talk—we all know this—but I really learned to listen better and to listen more. And then, again, getting quiet and being curious and kind of listening, it was like, "Oh, what she just told so-and-so, that gives me an idea." And it sparked things for me like, "Oh, I never even thought of that." So it was hugely beneficial to me.

Andrea Liebross: I think sometimes we learn more by listening to other people get coached than ourselves. Isn't that so true? So true.

Tiffany Berland: Yeah, I loved it. Because it also made me feel like I wasn't alone. It was like, "Oh, well, I wasn't going to say that, but she did, so thank you."

Andrea Liebross: Yeah, because I bet you millions of dollars, I bet everybody millions of dollars, someone else is experiencing or feeling or thinking something the same as you are. We think we're the only ones. So awesome. thank you for sharing that little piece because I don't think I've ever met anyone that says, "Oh, I love sharing all of my most personal intimate secrets in a group," like says no one ever. But there's power in that. There's total power.

Tiffany Berland: And it was immediately safe.

Andrea Liebross: Oh, that's interesting too, okay.

Tiffany Berland: There were other groups that I'd been in where it didn’t feel safe right off the bat. But I think you had obviously a huge role in that in making it safe. But it was immediately safe for me to share. I didn’t feel like I had to wait any time, but I was also in a place of desperation.

Andrea Liebross: You were turning into an open book at that point. I don’t know if you were exactly there, but the caterpillar was turning into the butterfly. Like it was happening. That's right. It was happening.

We could go on and on for like a hundred years here because this is such a good conversation. But tell me what's one simple action step that a listener could take today from our conversation to start their own—I'll go back to that ridiculous word transformation—or to get from this, "I just need to know more, I just need to gather more resources, I need to have more information," or the place of like "no one's going to understand me," into taking action, creating change, which is basically what you did. You started to create change and become solution-oriented. What do you think is one thing someone could do today?

Tiffany Berland: I think the thought that I had to have first, well, the feeling I had to have first was I needed to feel calm. I didn't know what that was. So my suggestion is to, in order to have that feeling of calm, just be curious. Stop reacting to what's happening around you and kind of have this be curious thought, like, "Oh, the dog is running in the yard," or "Wow, right now I'm feeling very anxious, but really I want to feel calm. Okay, I'm going to sit with that for a minute."

So I think getting quiet, being curious, because then you can actually think. You had given us these intentional thought and destruction and creation stuff. I keep them at my desk, obviously, because, you know, I keep all kinds of stuff. And I kind of go to this, and it's like, "Where am I at?"

So I would say, I mean, obviously having a call with you, like nobody should be afraid to have that consultation with you, it is a hundred percent worth it. You are going to get so much out of it. I know you didn't like pay me to say any of these things.

Andrea Liebross: I didn't have to pay you to say any of this.

Tiffany Berland: But it really is true. I listen to you say these things still, and I'm like, "Oh, if only people would just take a moment, be calm, be curious, and then just make that connection with you." Because my life is so much better today, I wasn't going to cry, I went into it, but my life is so much better today because of all of the work that you did to make all of this information in the world so much more understandable and actionable.

All of those books that you talk about, there's so much information in there, there's no way I could have ever read some of those books and pulled out of it what you did into a way that I could have changed my life with it. So all of your tools were like, there's just real. It will change your life.

Andrea Liebross: Oh, thank you. What makes me light up is when I see the change that people experience, like that's what I love. I love you too. So, all right, people, that is like a sappy ending, but that is how we're going to end.

I'm going to go out on a limb here. I would bet Tiffany would be willing to chat with anyone that ever wants to reach out to her for interior design, custom window coverings. She is the expert. We didn't even get into that. We could have another episode on that. Or anything else, is that fair?

Tiffany Berland: That is totally fair. Any designer that has a question about window coverings, reach out to me, and I will help you get through that challenging process so that you don't lose money because no designer wants to lose money on window coverings. It's the worst way to lose money.

Andrea Liebross: No, she will help you get through that and other things too. All right, so go follow her on Instagram, Blue Opus Interiors. That's the handle. Correct?

Tiffany Berland: Yes.

Andrea Liebross: We'll have all these handles in the show notes. We'll have Tiffany's website, all the things. If not, just reach out and follow her and make a friend because she's someone that you need to know.

If you want to reach out to me, as always, I will put all of those links in the show notes and she's right, I'm not scary. I could be scary, a little scary, but deep down inside, I'm not that scary. So let's have a conversation. Schedule a call. You have zero to lose and everything to gain. I will love you, no matter what. If we never even talked to each other ever again, I will still love you. So that's real for me. Good? We good?

Tiffany Berland: So good.

Andrea Liebross: Okay. All right, everybody, I will see you next week, right back here on this same channel. Go think bigger. Tiffany, we didn't even use the word "big," but she really did have to think bigger about what was ahead.

Tiffany Berland: Huge.

Andrea Liebross: Okay. See you next time.

Thanks for tuning into the She Thinks Big! Podcast. If you're ready to learn the secret to unleashing your full potential, don't forget to grab a copy of my book, She Thinks Big: The Entrepreneurial Woman's Guide to Moving Past the Messy Middle and Into the Extraordinary. It's available on Amazon and at your favorite bookstore.

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