“Statistically I should be dead or in prison.”
While not everyone in life is dealt a fair hand, Tiffany Walden survived a harrowing deck of cards and came out on top.
Growing up in Florida with an absent mother, Tiffany faced repeated abuse, molestation and rape from close family friends. Her father’s response to her pleas for help and attempt to run away at the age of 12 was to send Tiffany to an institution to ‘fix’ her. Instead of being rehabilitated and receiving necessary treatment at this “therapeutic” school in Orlando, she endured three years of torture on a warehouse floor. She was finally released at the age of 15, only because she had fallen violently ill from developing Crohn’s Disease.
At age 17 with just two dollars in her pocket, Tiffany left home on a courageous quest for a new life. She made her way from Florida to California and survived by working various jobs, including as a waitress in a strip club. Along the way she experienced a multitude of unanticipated situations, from spending a year in jail for drug-related charges, to giving birth to her first son. The pivotal life change of having a child gave Tiffany the determination to provide her son with the stable upbringing she never experienced.
“I just keep coming back stronger, smarter, and better looking.”
Tiffany relocated to Eagle Mountain, Utah where her father had acquired land in what was a deserted area south of Salt Lake City. For the next ten years, Tiffany absorbed everything she could about very complex aspects of land development, including land easement negotiations, infrastructure planning, construction, and property management, all while raising a child as a single mother.
When her father prematurely passed away from pancreatic cancer in 2017, he left her 20 companies and seven lawsuits. Everyone counted on her to fail. And with Tiffany’s tumultuous past and lack of formal education, the odds were stacked against her. Being a woman in a male-dominated industry and an outsider in the prevalent LDS culture posed additional hurdles. Much to the surprise of many, the tenacious entrepreneur transformed two million dollars in assets into 20 million, propelling her to become one of Utah’s most successful businesswomen.
Charismatic and unfiltered, Tiffany has no qualms about using her street smarts to her advantage when conducting multi-million-dollar business deals. She is fueled by a great sense of self-empowerment and resiliency. Redefining what it means to be a modern mogul comes naturally to Tiffany. She is the only woman real estate developer in Utah who undertakes every complex aspect of vertical and horizontal development for residential, industrial, and commercial projects. From land negotiations to red carpet galas and being a self-professed tomboy, she navigates her personal and professional lives with determination and confidence. Her journey has been defined by conquering new heights in the face of skepticism. Now, she hopes to share her story and inspire women everywhere to embrace their power, dreams, and femininity.