“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 and unimaginable abuse. As is common for victims, nobody believed her and her cries for help went unheard. After she attempted to run away at age 12, her father sent her to an “institution” in a misguided attempt to “fix” her. There, she endured three years of torture and continued abuse. She was finally released a the age of 15, only because she had fallen violently ill.
At age 17, with just two dollars in her pocket, Tiffany left home on a quest for a new life. With no high school diploma, Tiffany survived by working various jobs—including as a waitress in a strip club. Along the way she experienced a multitude of setbacks and challenges, from spending a year in jail for drug-related charges, to giving birth to her first child. The pivotal life change of becoming a mother 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 west of Utah Lake. 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 eight lawsuits. Everyone sat back and waited for her to fail. 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 at a time when outsiders were not accepted, Tiffany faced a host of additional hurdles. To the surprise of many, the tenacious entrepreneur quadrupled the investment, 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 one of very few female real estate developers in Utah undertaking every complex aspect of vertical and horizontal development for residential, industrial, and commercial projects. From land negotiations to red carpet galas (as a self-professed tomboy!) she navigates her personal and professional lives with determination and unapologetic confidence. Her journey has been defined by conquering new heights in the face of overwhelming skepticism and criticism. Now, she shares her very personal story with hopes of inspiring women everywhere to embrace their power, dreams, and femininity.