E226 Tiffany Huntington

This week's guest is Tiffany Huntington joins us from Scottsdale, Arizona. Tiffany has spent over two decades working in the service industry as a bartender, manager, and booking agent. Currently, you can find Tiffany slinging drinks and fucking shows at poor decisions out in Old Town Scottsdale, Arizona. In our interview with Tiffany, she shares her journey from growing up in California to moving to Arizona, transitioning from getting an education and working in film to working in the service industry.

We talk about the differences in the bar and restaurant scenes between Venice Beach and Scottsdale. Tiffany talks about some of the more memorable experiences working with live bands, both good and bad. We talk about the current bar Tiffany works at poor decisions, and we cover a life-changing incident that happened to Tiffany, and how giving to the community through her career paid dividends as the community was there for her when she needed the most. Plus, we cover a number of other topics as well in our interview.

You can find Tiffany online at Thugwife on Instagram, and the I in Thugwife is at number one. Or as always, just check the show notes for all the links. Enjoy the show. Hey, we're back with another episode of the industry podcast.

I'm Kip. This is Dan. What is happening? Just hanging up being awesome, as always.

Nothing changes. Week to week, man. Another weekend here in lovely Canada. And hanging out.

Still boring. What about yourself? Some weeks here, Lucy. Some weeks are Charlie.

This has been more of a Charlie week for me. But the weekend's over. It's been an interesting experience at the bars this weekend that we don't really need to get into. It's one of those weekends.

Talk about after couple drinks. Yeah, it's one of those weekends. But let's not talk about that. Let's talk about looking forward to the future.

We have a great guest as usual coming up shortly. Before we get to our guests, we will talk about what's happening here in Kitchen and Waterloo. If you would like to make my weekends better, come check out my bars here in KW. Sugar Run at Sugar Run Bar.

That's downtown Kitchen. That's the Speakeasy. Lots of shit going on there all the time. So check us out at Sugar Run Bar.

I'll tell you why to do it. It's Babylon Sisters at Babylon Sisters Bar. Come check us out there. If you just like to get drunk at home or if you're a bar or restaurant in my general vicinity, I have a big territory.

You can reach out to me Kip at Babylon Sisters.ca, K-Y-P-P-4. Help securing amazing spirits from a Laura distilling company, Malabar Winery, or Terwar Winenboards. Check all of those out. Dan always puts them in the show notes.

Lovely of him to do that. You also want to check out our friend Alchemists.ally at alchemists.ally. She's there for whatever you need, private bartending. If you're hosting a party, if you want to do some cocktail education, perhaps a cocktail class or any help with the bar program, just give Alchemists Al-Ring.

We got her contact info on the show notes as well at alchemists.ally on Instagram. That's right. And if you maybe don't even need a home bartender, just want to learn about bartending yourself, check out our good friends at in Biblia. In Biblia is the app for not only home bartending, but just bartenders in general.

Trust me, it's the ultimate cocktail resource. If you're stuck in a cocktail and we all are, we've all fucking been there. If you were behind a bar ever, someone's going to come up to you at some point and ask for a drink that you can't remember how to fucking make. This is what this app is built for in Biblia.

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Zakana. All right. That's better enough. That's enough.

I'm already out of breath. The promos are getting longer and longer. So let's just get to our guest joining us now is the lovely Tiffany Huntington from Scottsdale, Arizona. How are you, Tiffany?

Good. How are you guys? Thank you for having me. Yeah, thanks for going.

I appreciate you taking some time out of your work day to come and hang out with us. It's my day off and I couldn't want to spend any other way. Oh, you're better. No, it's good to have a day off.

You've got a lot of shit going on. Yeah. So you are currently working at Port Stations in Scottsdale, Arizona, where you also promote shows for them, correct? Yes, sir.

I put a lot of the shows here myself. I have a long list of bands in my portfolio. So it makes it that much more fun, that much more work too. So I wouldn't change it.

But you're from California originally? Really from California. I've been here since 2006 though. So I'm pretty much a native, right?

Yeah, yeah. I wear all the jerseys. Oh, okay. So when you were growing up though, what part of California?

Venice Beach. Okay. And were you, like was your first service industry job in California or in Arizona? It was in California.

I was like all of us kids like that. We were going to school. We all kind of worked at the same pizzeria. Like the cool kid that was, you know, in our group of friends, his parents owned it.

So all of us worked there. And so that's kind of like, I mean, we were probably too young. And that's also where I learned how to bartend too young, but still, we're not saying any names. It's too late for the cops to come after you.

That's right. Yeah. So yeah. So that was your first job.

And then when did you move to Arizona? How old? 24. 24.

So how many service jobs have you already done before you moved to Arizona? Like, did you already know that you were going to probably pursue a service industry career at this point? I went to school for film. Like, I had this passion for creating and whether it be cooking, making, you know, cocktails or, you know, anything, anything creative.

And so while in school, that's how, you know, you still keep up the lifestyle and pay for the school and have the nice things. And the ones I was done with that was an editor. Because you have to be an editor to be a director. I was like, wow, 18 average days.

I don't get to say no, anymore. And I don't have $500 a day in my pocket anymore. I'm like, I gotta go back. What's that rewarding as much as like being in this industry is?

So that's like kind of was like, I'm back guys. Yeah. Yeah. So what prompted the move to Arizona originally, though?

My boyfriend had just returned from deployment. And I had just finished school. So he wanted to move here to go to school here. And even though like we're like the next state over, I had never been here before.

If you're from the beach, you don't leave the beach. We don't even go into the city. Well, it's also like next state over, but not necessarily close. Like, it's not like a two hour drive from fucking Venice Beach to Scottsdale.

Right. Like cool dude or something. I mean, I've been here to golf before, but yeah. So you move out here.

So your boyfriend was in the armed service with obviously. Yeah, he was a Marine. Oh, he was crazy. So yeah, he was he was s up and then he wanted to do like he wanted to build bikes, sport bikes.

And there's a school here that specializes in that industry. So that's exactly where you want to go. Let's talk about it. I want to spend this GI bill.

So we came here and I was like, cool, let's do it on to the next adventure. Right. And how it's been since then. And you're like a malleable profession where you can like kind of do it everywhere.

So yeah, so easy transition, easier transition for you. Yeah. And you were up for the adventure and that's cool. So how have you found like, I'm always curious with people because Canadians are a little more, what's the word I'm looking for?

Like we don't move around as much. I find like people go up and they like kind of stick where they are way more than Americans do. Actually, it's funny. I just read of this giant little long article about how Americans used to move around way more than they do now.

Like there was a thing called moving day in the US like in the 1800s or like late 1800s early 1900s where people just like move, pack up the shit and just fucking moved to another house or apartment or state or country. Now you don't do that as much as you use to, obviously. But you guys do do do that a lot more than a lot of people all over the world. So maybe not as big a deal for you to like pack up and move from Venice Beach to Scottsdale.

But I'm always curious about like what's the difference in like the bar and restaurant scene in say Venice Beach to Scottsdale. How would you describe the differences? Well when I initially here like my shifts basically during the day, you know, like I was getting up kind of like y'all getting up to do your real job, right? And then I would be all working five because like there it was like, you know, it's a beach.

We day drink. Right. But you know, the day drink is there all the time. So when I first moved here, I'm like, man, y'all don't day drink?

Like this. You know, like even though now being in my 40s, I'm like day drinking count me in. I'm going overnight. But oh my god, it's way better.

The older you get, the better day drinking gets and the worse night drinking gets. Unfortunately, me and my friends still managed to stay out till two still. I know. Well, I know.

Tiffany, you're actually in the worst situation right now where you very much support the day drinking but still love the night drinking. I just need to be drunk the whole time. There's always something to do and somewhere to go. But yeah, we're just moved here that like there wasn't much of a day drinking spots or things like that.

I was like, ah, this is boring, you know, and but then I ended up finding this place and obviously it wasn't for daytime. Everything was very much like nightlife. And back then back then, people would go out and they would have plans and dress nice and go out to be at a certain spot, indefinitely all night long. Like have reservation for bottle and do all that stuff.

Things have evolved massively since then, you know, I mean, that's still very much in place. But now there's way more places to go and everybody's open during the day. Now there's day drinking here. So yes, there has been about 12 years now.

But people bounce around more than they do. But I think that's industry wide all over the world. Like, like the same with us. Like when we grew up, we were in university, we would sit at the same bar and get drunk for like eight, three hours.

No one does that anymore. Like now you need for a bar to succeed. You need to be in the neighborhood of a community of other bars. Yes, thank you for saying that because I can't tell you how many times we've had like a new bar pop up and half of my staff is salty.

And like, why are you mad? It's going to bring people to the ground. Yes. And then like, oh, I get it.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

And so some of that I see that you have maybe more than people like in your in your exact vicinity when you're talking about it probably comes from your concert promotion as well, because you know that you need a community for promoting concerts also. Yeah, I mean, I just I just like to do it. Like anytime, like, like, you know, there's a bartender that you'll see on her phone when they're there. I'm not like, I'm sure I can even have a phone.

I am chewing people's ears off getting to know I'm chatting about because it's I think it would be strange to have somebody sitting at my bar and have them just, you know, they're me and my phone. I mean, I think you'll be like, you know what I'm saying? So I like to try everybody out. Now that I've been here this long, I know everybody.

I bet if I ran for mayor, I might have a chance to actually be on the real thing. And I'm like, I'm a personal experience. Don't do it. I'm gonna stay in my lane.

I'm just saying like, I really come to love like knowing the community around here and being out of it's a border of everybody's business and especially the local music like scene. It's huge. Just so many artists here. I want everybody to know that.

And I want everybody to know each other. Yeah. And so when did you like, obviously even in the service industry for a while now, bartending, what have you, when did you start to transition into promoting concerts? How does that happen?

Was it just sort of organically or? Yeah. So when when I got here, like I worked like at some pub, like back home that we had like bands come in on start days, whatever. But when I got here, I was it was hard to find a job.

So I didn't know anybody and you had to know people and then there wasn't like, Hey, look at how many followers I have. It wasn't like that. And I got here. And even though I like, I had like a long list of credentials that show that I can do this, but I don't know anybody, you know, they're gonna be like, eh, like, I'm cute.

You know, so I turned the corner like route and I'll be like, turn the corner onto like this one street here in Old Town. And there was like, the, it was a big deal. They paid the city to fence off the street. They put up a huge bandstand.

There was a band playing in the middle of the street. And it was like 80s cockrock band. And I was like, Oh, my eyes just split. I go, I must work here.

And it was about maybe a week later. I was at the strip club and I walked by this guy and like, good, the hands are probably like, like, peek out. He's looking down at his phone. And I actually turned around after I was walking by and he was like, looking that way.

But it doesn't turn his head looked right at me. Like, Oh, shit, he got me. And turns out he was the manager there. So, yeah, started working there.

And that's where it was. Like the live music thing being that I worked with the bands and the bands would come to me for their drinks and everything. I got to know like big, big names, like big ass artists from, you know, Snoop Dogg to CyberSeal all the way down to like all of our amazing local talent and moving forward when I had opened up other venues just because I had so many of these people in my pocket as a good before with that scene. That's when I started booking all the shows.

Like then you still right now that I don't work for it will reach out to me if they need something. Like I need a band, my band cancels whatever I'm like, here you go, you know, or try to find them whatever they could, whatever they need. So like if you do that for a different bar, do you take like a cut or like, are you just doing that or you're a goodness or your heart? Yeah, no, I don't.

I just want to see a community. That's good for you. Like that's exactly what we need. We go back and forth.

Yeah. And like it'll come back to you as well, like that'll help you out. That's also right. So, so obviously you brought in a bunch of big acts at this point.

Like we always like some good stories. Do you have any good stories about somebody acts or anyone who was a total dick or? I do. I go, I've got stories.

Some of them I can't shouldn't say but this is one of my favorite memories of working at that venue I was telling you about. So we had Cypress Hill and it was just like, and I was like the young one in the bar by the way, everybody else is there very seasoned, whatever and I'm thinking like, oh my god, that's like, I'm serious. And everyone's just like, yeah, whatever. And it was such a big thing.

It was like back in the day when that rock superstar song launched, you know, that one. And we are patched to the gills. Like there is like that in a security, the place is like, you could hear the field of earth move and this is back when, you know, we it's not legal still and the place like the stage, the back of the stage was a garage door that rolled up, you know, to for ease and everything. But the the pot smoke was just billowing out the building.

And there every cup in Scottsdale was surrounding the building outside just like ready to like run in there and end the show. My boss is my best friends that were there. They were outside going, please man, please, please, it's gonna start a riot. You're gonna make it worse.

I promise you everything's fine because nobody like nobody was fighting. But they were like out there just ready to go. They thank him and begged him and begged him and they didn't. They're like, all right, man, we hear anything now and he's just like, y'all can hang out.

It's fine. Just please don't run it. Please don't do that. And he's like, all right, being that we've never had any issues with the police.

We have a very good report with them as well. And they're like, okay, whatever. And then while all this is going on, all of us bartenders, it got to a point of such hype. Like all of us bartenders, like I could see because there's like several bars in the venue.

Everyone was like, step on the bar and they had these signs. I'm like, what is that? Everyone wrote Rock Superstar on napkins and was holding them up. All of us bartenders ended up getting on our own bar holding up the signs.

No one's getting a drink at all, but nobody cared because everyone was like, so what we were doing and started shouting Rock Superstar, you know. And then they stopped and they were doing it. And they went back and went back and the whole place went crazy. It was just the most memorable night of my career, I think, just because how high everyone was.

The entertainment room is top tier. Unmashed. So much fun. And that was like far from what I came from.

You know, the lazy beach bar? That was shit. That was shit. Yeah, yeah, that's a completely different experience, right?

Having that sort of day drinking on the beach bar atmosphere to people on the bar going nuts, worried about cop intervention. That's like, yeah, it's completely different scene. Like that, our whole staff, it was pretty lawless in our bar, but not, but it was like positive lawless. We've heard, no one ever got like, slapped out of control.

And like, our guests didn't either. It was just always a very friendly environment. Kind of also just because we always kept it together and do what it was to do, we kind of got away with everything we were doing too. Okay, so you know, honestly, though, like a ball of concerts you've promoted, who was the biggest diva or dick that you had to deal with?

Should I say that? Yeah, you can say it. So Kings of Leon. Okay.

This is a story. Yeah. He wasn't, he wasn't a dick per se there, but he played our venue, which is much smaller, but it's still larger than you, but it's not like amphitheater, right? It's a bar.

Then they played our venue the very next night, they were booked in an actual marquee theater, like big, big event. And it was also sold out, you know, and the first thing really, when he got on the stage and hit the mic, he got at least started going, man, this shithole we played out last night, man, I like, you know, just like defaming the place and we're like, oh, really? And thing is like, we also had, I work with them as well. And also the guy, the owner is our friend.

The guy that looks at all the shows is our friend and our fans are blowing up like people there like, man, he's talking shit about tell, you know, but why? Why do you think like, did something happen or nothing happened? He was just like, I don't know if he just had nothing to talk about. Like it was a smaller venue and he was disappointed that he'd been booked at a smaller venue, maybe or like the place is large.

But not an amphitheater. Like you said, like, yeah, hate you to do that. Yeah. You took the money.

You don't talk shit on us. I'm sorry. We got like, gang members as friends, we got police as friends, like, yeah, self-enload from too much booze in and partying and stuff. Yeah.

Well, and also yeah, I don't think they were that good in the first place. Like, I still don't care for the band just because of how that transpired. That's shitty though. It's like, yeah, like you didn't like the venue didn't do anything wrong.

Like, yeah, so he's happy. He thought he was happy. And he took the fucking money. I mean, it's not like, it's not like, you know, the Viper room, have you been to the Viper in Hollywood?

No. I love the grimy old Hollywood where they're just a show. That's Johnny Depparo, right? Yeah.

Yeah. So, but we got his ass. We went after him like the gal, he went after his ass. I'm just like, okay, you can't, you can't do this.

So we had them agree to come back and play a show again for absolutely free. Really? Oh, he apologized and he did that shit. I'm like, okay, but you know, I'm like, I'm the friend that people warn their friends about just because I'm very protective.

I'm like, this is my family. So, yeah, everybody else is cool with them, but now I'm all like, fuck that guy. But that's cool that I ended up happening. Like, it's good to know that that can't happen because a lot of this shit is like, most people don't even bother, right?

It's like, oh, you slide my bar. What are we going to do at this point, right? So, for the fact that they followed up, that's great. That's a good story.

They had to. Otherwise, they was going to, we were going to get paid back. Because we're going to just do his ass. And so, I was like, that was a fair agreement.

We really don't want to be, we don't want to be in lawsuits. We don't want to be up in any kind of argument. Everybody. No, I just mean the fact that you guys went after them, because most bars would just take it.

Really? Yeah, I think so. Yeah. I guess you would know, because you don't know how that legality of shit is going to turn out, right?

So, you might just pay lawyers to do something nothing comes from it. So, that's a good story that you did it and won. Yes. That's what I mean.

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Like, most places would be like, fuck it, what are we going to do?

It's a good fight back story. So, tell us about poor decisions. When do you start working there? And tell us about the bar in general.

I still love that name. That's great. It's definitely not wrong. People come here and do some poor decisions, but that's how we do this.

Safely, of course. So, the place is very new, very new venue. And it's on the side of Scottsville Road that used to be Big Bang and 25 years ago. And now it's almost like the other side of Scottsville Road has gotten grown so much bigger.

But now we're kind of like bringing it back. Very new venue. It used to be those ringos way back in the day. And like, this was the prime time spot.

And then I had, you know, closed, fizzled a couple of other things that went in here that failed and then my friends bought it. They completely remodeled it. So, it's like, it's like a patio type place, but very elevated. It's very pretty.

You know, it's like we're not trying to make it too elevated where people aren't like comfortable up to like chill, but it doesn't look like a cantina on Juarez anymore. It's beautiful. So, and we met the owners about maybe, I think it was maybe a year after they actually opened it and they're, they owned places in another borough here like a Chandler. So, Scottsville is a whole other animal.

Like, you got to really got to hit the ground running in your opening of a place here and they didn't have that with them. And now that we're a part of it and have been for about two years, a year and a half now, it's really doing very, very well. We have live music, Tuesdays are like Fridays for like the happy hour Friday night, Saturday night will either have a major DJ that we fly in or like a major act. Saturdays and Sundays during the day, we have DJ and drummer happening like during brunch.

And we just recently opened our doors seven days a week to be open during lunch hour because we have great food. And there's a lot of business around here where like the entire other side streets like salons, techs, people, teeth whitening, you know, and then people, there's a lot of air VVs as well. So it's like, it's walking distance to everything. So that way, you know, we're here to, you know, we need lunch or if you want to show sports, UFC, we got it all.

And it's not like we've been looking up to interview a few different people who are working or owning bars in the Scottsville area. Like, I think that people don't realize how Scottsville and Phoenix are kind of like what almost sister cities, right? Like you're close, close. So, and I know nothing about Arizona is why I only learned this by doing this show.

But I know I really do because I think you should bring the show here and put it on stage. It was so cool. We should do that because we have actually interviewed so many people from Arizona now. And like everyone we've interviewed has been awesome.

And the bars that they work at or own seem awesome. So it's like, yeah, like, I do think we need a live industry podcast from Arizona at some point. It'll also get down to the house. But yeah, like, I think that would you agree that Scottsville is kind of a sneaky, awesome bar community?

Yes. Like, if you don't know about it and then you come here, people go, Holy shit. Like, I can't, I don't want to like say, Oh, many Vegas because it's got nothing on Vegas because Vegas is, it's a Vegas like, but I just can like treat you like shit and there's something that $25 for the podcast. You're like, you got to be you got to be mad hot.

You got to have mad followers. Like there's because there's no shortage of like people like us, you know, that can do this and and are hot. You got to bring it. And I appreciate that's about this community because it's big and it's growing bigger every day.

It's wild. And if you've not been here or heard it, like, be ready. And there's like, you kind of have everything now, right? Like you have like a bar like yours, which is like, like does kind of everything live music, good food, sports, whatever.

But then you have like really sort of smaller high-end cocktail bars. Like, yeah, you guys got it. You kind of have everything now. There's so many like, speakeasies here and there and they do not disappoint.

They got really cool menus, super crafty. And there's speakeasies. There's also like peppered throughout all of these, these areas. There's diapers, like the smaller ones that have been here that are absolute like staples that you can't come here without hopping in that diaper, you know.

What are some of your favorite joints outside of your bar? We hang out at Goodwood and it's not far. You can walk there from here. It's my friends owned it and bought it and opened it 10 years ago.

I don't think knowing how big it would get just for just all they did was open the doors, you know. And it's huge now. And it's just, you know, everyone that works there is a veteran. Everyone that works there has been here for, you know, a long time.

Like, I have everyone knows them. So the place is just packed to the gills and then even if people don't know about it, like say they're just visiting, they're like, I heard you're going to put good with it. And I'm like, yes. So we're not here with there.

So it's very much like the industry spot, you know. And they didn't have to do anything like no frills. The food is amazing. And it's just like elevated diaper food, but it's inexpensive.

It's not crazy, busy, like that. And then you can be there for like games and whatnot, say darts that you said, full table of anymore. It's the best. You've literally just laid out the roadmap for a bar that gets people in the industry to come there.

Yeah. Yeah. It's like the food's good. It's a little tiny.

It's like, you know, like, yeah, it's open late. There's games. Perfect. Every bartender is going to go there.

Yeah. And that's why they didn't need to do anything special. They just did it. Right.

That's how you do it. They didn't have to come with a crazy crafty cocktail menu doors and like I said, the annuals. Yeah. And I kind of wish I'm like, yeah, I should have bought that.

Every two late I suppose. So doing what you're doing now, I know it's like we did obviously trying to do some research with our guests. Like you guys also have DJs at your bar all the time, clearly. What like what are some of the big acts that people can look forward to like on their board of decisions?

So me right now, our guest list or our set list are unreleased. And I'm not the one booking booking of the upcoming shows right now. I have a crazy story about why I couldn't work a little bit. I had a brain surgery.

So now that I'm coming back. I'm sorry. What? Yeah.

What happened? Yeah. What happened? Another story.

I just didn't want to bring up a piece of his bummer. You cut it out. No, no, no, this is great. I mean, if you're willing to talk about it.

Oh, no, sure. I just want to like the. No, no, no, no, no, no, tell us. It was 19 months ago.

I was the GM of the spot in Tembi. And my roommate Jason, I work for since I moved here. He came in as like driver operations and he's like all these, all these venues that they have under the umbrella needed help. But this one needed a lot of help.

So he's like, Hey, I need you home. Like, will you come run this place and clean it up and whatever? And I'm like, absolutely. And so I come in there.

It was kind of like a top adjustment because the locals and the regulars at our time. Here goes by that I'm there. Place is great. It's rock and roll in.

And I had a show that night. They're always done wrapped up around 12. So when it's about 2 a.m, it's pretty empty. You know, there's only like a handful of the locals that are always there.

And this tonight, there was like two people that I've never seen before in there. And he started like getting that's with my bartender. So attempting to diffuse it, I was like, okay, and he's a big man. Big man with a big beard, but he's never mad, you know, being that he was that and I was like, whoa, go take the trash out.

Like just go and I'll turn around and you listen. Like, all right, time to go. So the guests took his anger out on me now, you know, saying all kinds of crazy stuff to me. And I was like, yeah, whatever I was like, for the ship for.

And I go out from around the bar to go towards the front door to like just prop it open as I like back out. And the dude hits me so hard that it knocked me out. And I hit the ground and I had to have made massive brain hemorrhage and they had I had brain surgery to stop the bleeding took out piece of my soul and didn't think I was going to make it through the night. I was not supposed to make it through the night.

They said crazy, crazy. And then being that I did make it, they didn't think I was going to have all recovery because I had a hard time walking and I came along with how long with the recovery. I take like the first three months, I felt like I was living in a dream land. It was really like the whole everything was fuzzy.

You know what I mean? Like, you know how a dream feels that you remember? Like, oh, that's weird. That's what it was.

But it only took me it only took me like three weeks to go from Walker Kane to nothing. I could walk again. I don't know why you lose. I don't know why you lose that when I have to open up your brain.

That's just the way it goes. You know, I had a hard time. I bought myself a dope ass cane though because we had a we had a you know what I mean? I can't look cool.

Yeah, I have the booze. You can hide the booze inside them too. Or it has a dagger on the other side. There's no it's a lion head and it's gold.

That was like a Mississippi camp. Like it was all of the news like every every news channel come by and interviewed me and then my people the people that I've been working with like in the live music community and you know, bar and street, they came together and put together a massive benefit for me. 10 bands played, 10 of my bands played. I walk in and there was this whole while like I'm glad I'm not crying right now.

I just didn't expect to receive this amount of love. You know, like I just do what I do because this is what I do and that's my that's my character. Like we're here to have fun and make money and like try to you know, give everybody our best and promote whatever. When I watch in this building for my benefit, the entire room was full.

Everyone just stopped. It was stood up and clapped. Yeah, there was like news teams and it was it was just amazing. So obviously for that reason, it's probably the only reason why I recovered so quickly.

Like I've done very well. Yeah, like the sort of emotional support you got. Yes. Yeah.

And the benefits are given back to the community when you need to help the community get back to you. What a great that's a great fucking story. Honestly, it's like that's like I get what you're saying like when you start the story, like I don't want to bring this down. But that's like one of the more positive stories you're gonna hear.

Okay, good. Yeah. Like I'm obviously terrible to that happen to you. But like like the end of it, like you're fine.

Yeah. And yeah, like clearly no mental issues. You're a smart, lovely person with a good sense of humor. Like none of that has stopped.

So like that's the positive outcome and like that whole story about like that benefit for you. What an uplifting story to know, especially because like none of us are like famous people, right? Like you're just someone who put a lot into your own community through through your work. And like and giving back to the bars around you, like we already talked about this previously on the show like you did like helping other bars promote concerts, all this stuff and stuff that you've put into the community around you.

That's not even your own home fucking community. And but it's become your home. And like you've done all this and then it comes back to you. That's like that's a great uplifting story.

Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, it was great. I mean, I, but I had to take a break from like working all together of course, like just for like, you know, health reasons and like there's comes along with that like some trauma like, you know, I've got to go through the motions of trying to get ahead of this PTSD.

Yeah, I've now diagnosed with and that it's not it's a subconscious thing, especially when you've never had an issue before. But now it's just something that our body does as humans. So can I ask you about that? Do you can I ask you about that?

Do you if you don't want to talk about it, we can cut this stuff out. So like the PTSD part of that, because that's the thing that immediately I thought about like, and you're going back to working bars late night. Like, how do you deal with that? So I like really like thinking about it like before when I was like taking my break from from being anywhere, I had like a good like six months of not leaving the house at all.

Like, I got this weird agoraphobia where I was like actually diagnosed with it and like, that's that's not me. Like, that's the polar opposite of me, because I'm always out, I'm always out, always everywhere. And always I've been clearly, right? Yeah.

So like that was a huge battle to like feel like comfortable enough just to go to the grocery store. And I don't know what it was like, I can't like, I can't like just say like, Oh, I'm just afraid to be outside because whatever somebody's going to hit me, it's not like that's not like my, you know, frontal lobe process. It's the subconscious that kind of shut me down because I didn't realize that was happening until I actually tried to go somewhere like, Oh my God, I'm gonna hit a panic attack like, I gotta go, I gotta go, I gotta go. So like that was that was a battle.

And I still, you know, speak to therapist, I'm still going through all of the motions just to make sure that like I remain myself. Right. Like a gradual progression to the point where you were felt more comfortable going out again, and then back in the bars, like obviously doesn't happen overnight. It's not like a light switch fucking thing.

Yeah, I wasn't, I like, I wouldn't be comfortable to come back to work somewhere new. Right. This place, my roommate, best friend is also a director of operations here. And like, I'm comfortable with my people.

Like I like my security team that's here has been my security for years. And like everyone, everyone knows very well what's happened. And I feel safe. So how long do you feel like it took to get to that point where you were like back to being okay to work in the bar again and film?

I'll say a year. Oh my God. Oh, over a year. Yeah.

I'm not surprised. Like that seems fast to me. Even so good for you. Yeah.

I've been told that I've come a long way, yeah, such a short period of time. And I appreciate it hearing that because I feel like I'm not doing anything. It's kind of make me crazy. You know, like, so just live in your life.

Yeah. It was hard to to try to accept it. Is this my life now? I'm just like, hell no, I don't.

I'm gonna get fat. There's nothing to do here at the house. So I'm happy to be back at it. And I definitely feel good to be moving around and back in my group of like speaking to people and also feeling safe within my element.

And you know, they kind of, I think they kind of go like the extra mile to make sure that like, no, nothing pops off in here. But really, and that's also a very, very nice area. They're really, you don't hear about fights and bars. It's like, it's not like that can happen in any bar.

It can't for sure. Right. Like, it's like, yeah, it's like, like, I think that, like, a lot of people would hear a story like that and be like, Oh, what a much better than shitty area. I'm like, no, like, I've been in the nicest bars ever and seen like ship pop off.

Like it just takes one asshole. Like that's right. That's right. Like an asshole's code to every bar on earth.

And if anyone's listening to this show, mostly over industry people, we all know we deal with assholes. So yeah, like they're everywhere. Yeah. That's just kind of fun for me though.

I'm like, like, being challenged. Like, I can not like somebody's not being a dick right off the bat. I'm like, okay, okay. I'm gonna turn this sucker around right now.

Like, instead of giving it back, you know, that's that did it take you a while to get back to yourself in that situation after something that happened to you. Or did you find that once you got back into it, you just reverted right back into your person? Like, so when I come back to work, all I do is like, you know, post something Instagram, I always put my ships and went, I'm gonna be there. This place was packed with everybody.

I know I was just like, you know, all over the place. I'm like, Oh, yeah, how are you? And you know, I just mean like, are you, are you more nervous about like giving a customer shit? No, I mean, I do it in like, in friendly dancer.

Yeah. No, like, you were probably doing it that way that night too, right? Except to the point where they pushed you too far. Like what it was, it was like, I already pissed at the bartender.

Yeah, you were just trying to intervene. Yeah. I was just like, yeah, okay, I was just like, get the fuck out of it. I don't care.

I heard this before. Yeah. Yeah. But that part of you, the no nonsense part has not changed.

No, yeah. Well, that's good. Because like, because I think that that would be the thing that I would be most worried about, be like, Oh, am I gonna be too meek or like to deal with the situation like that in the future? Because of what happened to you?

So if you've already gotten over that part, I was worried, but I didn't, I wouldn't know until I was actually in the mix, you know, and once I was in the mix, I'm like, it's a fucking great. I'm not the best day ever. And like, and my energy has not come down since. Like I was so happy to be back and, you know, running around and I'm back on my bullshit.

Like, I was having a good time, you know, that's amazing. To me, honestly, what like, you've had an amazing career, like for what you've done, like in the industry, and then to go through what you went through, which we didn't even know about before we started talking to you. So I really appreciate you sharing that story. Thank you very much.

I appreciate that. No, like, we appreciate it because like, that's a crazy story. And it's like also like, such an uplifting story for someone in the industry to go through something like that and they come on the other side and still be you. Yeah.

Thank you very much. Yeah. I want to remain, I want to remain the survivor, not the victim, you know what I mean? Like not, I want to do that victim shift.

That's less survivors and that's just keep going. I can't imagine that you could be that person now that I've gotten to know you over the course of this interview. So, but like, but honestly, like you easily could have been after that situation. So good for you.

And thank you so much for coming on the show and talking to us. Like, this has been awesome. Like, yeah, one of the better, like, we don't really have that many survivor stories on the fucking show. Yeah.

We've got a couple of, we've got a couple, yeah, of course, right. But we've had a couple, but like, this has been like one of the better ones and like to see how well you're flourishing after something that could have been what you could have been dead. So, yeah, I love you. Or specific or even like continue to live and be terribly damaged.

And that's obviously not the case either. And you're right back doing your shit. And it's a great story. And everybody please go see Tiffany at work decisions, make some poor decisions with Tiffany.

Yeah. Someone wants to find you on social media. You mentioned you post your shifts on Instagram. So what is your Instagram handle?

My Instagram is bugwife, but the I and wife is a one. That's right behind that. Like I got bugwife tattooed in my stomach. I'm very heavily tattooed just because I thought it was hilarious.

And it kind of stuck with me. And now it's kind of a nickname. That's why I had to just do that. Yeah.

All of it. It's rolling. Yeah. The eyes are one.

Perfect. I'll put a link to that. The show notes. Yeah.

Honestly, Tiffany, you're amazing. Thanks so much for coming on the show and doing this. Super fun conversation and like a very inspiring conversation quite honestly. So thank you very much.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you guys. I'm just got to say I got a spot for you to hang out.

Right. Whatever. We're doing a live show in Phoenix or Scottsdale at some point. Yeah.

We'll do it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. Thanks again, Tiffany. All right, guys. Thank you very much.

Have a good one.