What's up guys, Lisa here?

Just want to let you guys know that rating review in this podcast means the absolute world to me and to encourage it on reading out weekly reviews. This review comes from A-L-B Walker. About a year ago, my boyfriend introduced me to Impact Theory, Stroke Relationship Theory. I absolutely love hearing about the journey that you and Tom have been on and gained so much inspiration from the both of you. I've just discovered women of Impact and listen to the first episode and can't wait to listen to the rest.

Did you know the your success is not predicated on your IQ? But rather, to zip code you grew up in. Think about that for a second guys. Your success is more tied to the happenstance of where you were born than how smart, intelligent or talented you are. So for all intents and purposes, today's women of impact was not meant to succeed. Growing up in one of the most dangerous cities in America and losing her father to gun violence at the age of three, she had the perfect excuse to be the victim, to be better, to be lost, to not do anything with her life. I mean, who would blame her? And that's the thing about excuses, guys. Most of the time, they actually valid. But she didn't succumb to them. She made the decision she chose to fight. When faced with a challenge, she chose to boot up and strap on like Laura Croft. When she hit a brick wall, she chose to grab a sledgehammer and swing like Babe Ruth. And if that didn't work, she would borrow Miley's wrecking ball and disintegrate that obstacle. And that fight paid off. Using art as an outlet, she very early on found solace in expressing her feelings to acting, allowing her to get out in motion she was unable to vocalize at such a young age. And that consistent hard work and cultivation of her craft finally led to her big break in the hot show The Shy. Yep, she had defied all odds and it was a dream come true. Countdown had begun and her career was about to take off into the stratosphere. Until she up and left. You see after encounter an unfortunate inappropriate misconduct with her co-star, she took up the issue with HR, but with no prevail. So she was forced to take a hard look at herself and ask what was she willing to sacrifice for her dreams? Her values, her integrity, her Dignity? Oh hell to the no. Regardless of all the naysay's declaring she would never get a role of that magnitude again, she decided, just like she did in childhood, to not stop at a roadblock, to not be the victim, to not let her circumstances dictate her outcome. So she broke her silence, rolled the dice, and bet on herself. And she took the house. Landing a role on the Amazon hit drama series Hunters, alongside Al Puccino, co-starred opposite Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington in the highly anticipated Hulu original Little Fire's everywhere. And as if that wasn't freaking impressive enough, co-star in the upcoming Netflix science fiction film The Midnight Sky directed by George Pughney. So guys, please, help me unwelcome in the woman who has become the voice to the silence. The woman who faced her challenges didn't succumb to her situation and stood up for what she believed in. Like Andy Dufrein, she may have called for a pilot crap, but Dan, as she come out for the other end, the fixer herself, Tiffany Boone. What an introduction! Welcome to the show! Thank you! Oh my God, your story is incredible. And where I want to start, that everything that I read about you, your entire career,

where you come from, it all started with a fighter's mindset. So talk to me about that. How did you cultivate that coming from the most dangerous place in America, developing that fighter's mindset and then being where you are today? What did that look like? For me, you know, it's my mom.

She had so many obstacles that she had

to overcome to be the best mom in the world, the mother that she was to me, being a young mother,

having her partner die very early on and having to raise a child alone and sacrificing so much, taking very little help from anyone. I was always with my mom. If I wasn't at school, she found a way to work and work and work and make sure the lights were always on. I always had food. I had everything I wanted and needed. And so I guess just watching her never having it skews for anything, to me it was like, oh, we don't have it skews. Like you make it happen, whatever you need to make happen, you make it happen and you do what you have to do. And so for me, it never really seemed like a fight. It just felt like I'm doing what I'm supposed to do, you know, going, like trying to get scholarships for school and college and working all those jobs. That's what my mom did. She worked two and three jobs. She did what she had to do. But my mother also realized that I think she realized that the years of code kind of determines your future a little bit. And she wound up moving us to a county where the schooling was a lot better. And she made that opportunity for me and had to drive for an hour to get anywhere to get to work and all of that just to make sure I went to a good school. So yes, I was surrounded by, you know, I would always be in the city and I would always be with my family and she owned property in the city

and there was a lot of time I was there and surrounded by that. But she made sure that I was in a safe neighborhood. She made sure that I had the opportunities that I needed to have. So again, my mother is the literal best. Do you actually think then that's what kept you going because she had sacrificed so much, because you had seen how much she had worked to get you out of the happenstance that you were in.

Did you find like almost like a certain responsibility then? Yes, absolutely. And it's not a responsibility she ever put on me. That's the weird thing. Like, you know, I think for me seeing how hard she worked and how incredible she was, I put that person or myself to be like, I have to live up to who she is. I have to make her proud because she's sacrificed so much, she's worked so hard, I cannot fail. I have to make her proud and I have to one day take care of her the way she's taking care of me. That's always gonna be something for me where I'm like, keep going, keep going, keep going to my mother doesn't have to work anymore. That's always going to be on my list. Yeah. Because there's so many people in that situation. I mean, it's scary that it's true, that where your zip code really does dictate where your life's going to end up and that's so scary. And so most people born in one of the most dangerous places, It's like they're going to succumb to that environment. But I find it's so incredible that you didn't. Getting into acting is obviously a career that I'm sure you hit a lot of nose, a lot of rejections. So what allowed you to keep going when you were auditioning? So you've come out, you've really cultivated your craft of acting. And then you put yourself out there. So, talk to me about rejection in those situations and what allowed you to just keep fighting? I'm going to keep you using the word fighting because when I read your story and everything, you're a fighter. So, what allowed you to keep fighting when you're told, no, when you don't get the jobs. Yeah, you know at the beginning,

and you're just going on a audition,

after audition, after audition,

and you're just looking for a yes anywhere, I think I was just kind of an auto drive, just like, okay, there's a no, there's a no, there's a no, there's a no, but after a few years, that gets really taunted, And that can really break down your spirit.

You start to think what's wrong with me.

You know, I'm like, am I not tall enough?

Am I not pretty enough?

Did I not work hard enough?

Oh. And that can really break down your spirit. You start to think, what's wrong with me? You know, I'm like, am I not tall enough? Am I not pretty enough? Did I not work hard enough? All of those things, and that really took a toll on me. And it came to a point where I was having anxiety attacks. I was in therapy and nothing was working. And honestly, I haven't talked much about this publicly, but I ended up on any depressants and anxiety medication. And it was really, really tough. And around that time, I stopped acting. For about a year, I stopped acting because I was like, it's not worth my mental health. And I have something going on here and I can't just blame it on acting, by the way, because if I was really well inside, then it wouldn't affect me in that way, right? There has to be something else going on. And so I had to honor myself and just take a break. And I was very scared to go on medication, but I say to people like sometimes it's just an imbalance, there's nothing you can do. And especially in the black community and communities of color, the stigma around mental health is outrageous. It's like, pray it out. What do you mean? There's God. We made it through slavery. You can't get a job girl. Okay, what's the big deal? Like that's literally what comes back to you. And so for me to go, okay, I need this, I need this medication, I need to be in therapy, I need to be meditating, I need to focus on myself, I have to put this career to the side. I did all of that and I started a flower business. It was mostly really more like a hobby because it was mostly my friend's just ordering flowers for me. And I do these flower arrangements. And through that process with the medication, with therapy, with meditation, reading, being still, and doing these flower arrangements and having this creative outlet, I was able to come back and know Find what I really loved about acting because I had so much control over the creative process and I wasn't giving anyone else the power in that I had the power and I Connected to the part that I loved which is connecting connecting with people, making them smile. Sometimes I give fire arrangements to people and they cry. I went, oh, that's what I always loved about acting, the connection. So after doing that for a while, I thought, okay, I'm ready to get back to acting. I'm ready to find that connection again. but when I returned, I wasn't desperate anymore. Hmm. So the yes or the no didn't mean anything to me anymore, right? I was going in in a room to make a fan. I was going in a room to make a connection with a person. I was going in the room to share my gift and I had control. I had the power because I didn't need the yes or the no. I didn't need anything from that person other than for them to be present with me. That's all I needed. And so I think that's how I've now learned to like take the nose and keep on pushing because I don't need it. I walked in the room without the job. I'm not losing anything. All I'm only gaining something. And I feel like I talk to a lot of young actors and say the same thing to them, like, stop needing it, stop being desperate for it, enjoy it, and whatever comes out of it is great. But the nose, the yeses, whatever it is, what it is, just take the opportunity and be present in the moment. And you'll have so much more fun and people will connect

because when you smell desperation on someone, you're like, yeah, well thank you. I'm good. You know, like it's nasty, it feels gross. But when you feel that someone's fully grounded and in their body and present, you wanna be near that person, you wanna work with that person, you wanna sit with that person, you wanna be friends with that person, right? So I love that.

And you said some great things there.

So I want to take it step by step.

But yeah. and you want to work with that person, you want to sit with that person, you want to be friends with that person, right? So I love that.

And you said some great things there.

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