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Scott Clary
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Dr. Tiffany Moon
Part of my drive to succeed comes from knowing what it's like to be on the bottom. As long as you're working for someone else, you're just switching your time for money.
Scott Clary
Dr. Tiffany Moon is redefining success by blending science style and substance. As a board certified anesthesiologist and associate professor, she excels in medicine beyond the hospital. She's an entrepreneur, founding Aromaesthesia Candles, Three Moons Wine and the led her summit, a women's leadership conference. You broke out of this good Asian daughter script. How did you break out of it?
Dr. Tiffany Moon
The breakaway came at the age of 15. Because of my academic achievement, I was selected to go to this early college entrance program. That was my break.
Scott Clary
How do you define joy?
Dr. Tiffany Moon
I would define joy as being wholly present, not worrying about the future, just having a feeling of not just happiness, but being content.
Scott Clary
Through her memoir, Joy Prescriptions and her public presence, Dr. Moon champions authenticity, encouraging others to embrace their multifaceted identities and pursue purpose driven lives.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
When you're open to it, life presents so, so many opportunities to you. If you're just receptive, be a good person. So at the end of the day, if you're a good person and you can go to sleep at night knowing that you did the best you could, everything else will fall into place.
Scott Clary
Let's talk about this. So you arrived in America at the age of 6 not speaking any English. So how did that shape your drive for perfection? For drive, for trying to do more, to be more, to build an incredible career. Those like early days, what was that inflection point moment that pushed you?
Dr. Tiffany Moon
You know, back then, I don't even think I was trying to do more, push more, be more. I was just in survival mode, right? Because you think about it like six year old little Chinese girl, I get put on this plane, I land at jfk. You know, I meet my parents whom I haven't seen in three. So like, I don't know these people, you know, there's no FaceTime. It's like 1989 and it was literally just survival. I mean, I started first grade in the middle of the school year. It wasn't a great neighborhood. I got called all the names, all the, you know, Ching Chong things, playground bullying. I mean, you know, kids are mean. It's first grade, so it was not great. And I think part of my drive to succeed comes from knowing what it's like to be on the bottom and watching my parents struggle and watching my mom have to clip coupons so that our groceries could last the whole week. And just thinking, when I grow up, I want to be so successful that I never have to worry about putting groceries on the table for my kids.
Scott Clary
Your parents worked hard, though. They worked very hard.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
They worked their butts off. Yeah.
Scott Clary
So when you look at, like, hard work, it doesn't always equate to success.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
It's true.
Scott Clary
So what do you think drove you to think differently about just hard work? Because a lot of people, they just try and emulate what their parents do, and they emulate just, I want to put more hours in. Eventually I'll make it. But you sort of operate a little bit differently. I see that. Anyways, I see you. You're very strategic. You look for opportunities for leverage. You look for opportunities to have, like, outsized exponential results. You've done that again and again and again. So what sort of shaped your, I guess, your worldview around how you work?
Dr. Tiffany Moon
I think I just have an entrepreneurial spirit. I think as long as you're working for someone else and it's just a job and you're just switching your time for money. And I did that. I did that for over 10 years, trading my time for money, clocking in at the hospital, putting people to sleep, taking care of patients. And it wasn't until I had children, and that was sort of like the straw that broke the camel's back, you know, that I'm like, wait a second. I can't take vacation days when my kids are off school because my PTO got denied. And if I don't go to work, I don't earn money. And I thought, well, this not good. You know what I mean? But you have that realization one day, and I'm like, I need to do something where I don't need to clock in every day in order to make money. And also, what happens if I get hurt? I got in a really bad car accident. I broke my wrist. I can't intubate with a broken wrist. You know what I mean? And it's just all these things started flooding with me, and I said, I got to figure out something else else. It's like diversifying your portfolio. You can't have all your money in one stock.
Scott Clary
I've had this conversation with a lot of people because I don't have kids yet, but, like, hopefully very soon. And I'm always stressed because I work so much now. I'm always on, and I'm like, okay, so then if I have kids, where do I find the time for them? If you're always on. But a lot of my really good friends, people that I really look up to that are very successful, they keep telling me, when you have kids, you find time, you start prioritizing Things. And actually, ironically, when you have kids, kind of like what you just mentioned, you start to realize what's important. So then you don't do all the other bullshit.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
Yep.
Scott Clary
You, you really like, you're like, I can't afford to anymore.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
Right. Yeah. Everything becomes a. Is this better than being with my children right now? And if you already have a normal job, all this bullshitting weekend, three hour brunches. I used to go with my girlfriend's bottomless mimosas. You know, I'd be on my like 6th mimosa at 2pm on and just sitting around shooting the shit, gossiping. And yeah, that was fun. But after you have kids, your priorities really get aligned very quickly.
Scott Clary
You broke out of this good Asian daughter script. So what is the good Asian daughter script? And that's what I was alluding to before. Like, I always find it interesting how your parents had such a big impression on you, but then also there's a point where you have to break out of their model of who you are, their version of who you are. So was their version of who you are, this good Asian daughter? And what does that mean? And how did you break out of it? Or why?
Dr. Tiffany Moon
Oh, I was the perfect Asian daughter. I never talked back to my parents. I made straight A's. I always did the extra credit assignment. I was teacher's pet. I never got into any trouble. I never had a boyfriend. I helped with the dishes at home. I actually swept and vacuumed the floors on the weekends. I just like, if you could have a model child that was just one level above robot, that was the kind of child that I was. I just, I did everything my parents wanted me to because I felt so beholden to them that they had sacrificed their life in China to bring me to America so that I could have a better life. And they told me this. This was not insinuated. They said to me, if it were not for you, we would have just stayed in China. We came to Americ so that you could have the opportunity for a better life. And look at us, we don't know the language here. We speak with an accent. People make fun of us. We have lesser jobs here than we do in China. I mean, my dad was the manager of a factory in China that employed over 200 workers. So he was like, you know, head honcho, like floor boss. And then here in America, you know, his, his English skills are very poor. He speaks with a heavy accent and he's a computer programmer. He actually came to America to say, study B business management. But because his English was so bad, he changed his major to computer science so that he wouldn't have to talk to people.
Scott Clary
That's not fair for them to put that on you.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
But, but I didn't know that that wasn't fair. I internalized, you know, the words that they said and, and, and to me in my, you know, 6 year old, 8 year old, 12 year old mind, I was beholden to them. Wow. Look at everything mommy and daddy sacrificed so that I could have a better life. I should not make a bee. I should help clean the dishes after dinner. I should vacuum the floor. I should never talk back. Like I, I just, I, I was in constant fear of disappointing my parents. My dad especially. He is just very difficult to please. Would be putting it nicely.
Scott Clary
Hey everyone, Scott here. I just want to take a second and say thanks for listening to the podcast over the past couple years. Obviously this wouldn't be possible without each and every one of you. I have a favor to ask so I would love to get some more information about you and why you listen to the podcast and why you listen to the show and why you tune in every week. And I have put together a short survey and we are using this to help us sort of inform what type of content we want to create and the direction of the podcast going forward. This information is not shared with anyone else, so this is just for us internally and I put together a link so scottdclary.com survey where you can go and you can fill in some information so we can know what kind of content you love. Also, for the first 100 people that respond to the survey, you will be entered into a draw for a $100Amazon gift card. So we'll be giving out one of those to the first people that respond. It should not take more than two minutes of your time to fill out the whole survey. It's really not that long and it will help you shape the future of podcast. So I really appreciate each and every one of you and thank you for listening. Prolon is a success story partner. Now long weeks and busy weekends, they can leave everybody feeling depleted and tired. We work non stop and that's why I love Prolon's five day fasting mimicking diet. I love this company. Let me explain how it works. Basically, they have a fasting mimicking diet that rejuvenates you from the inside and out. They deliver plant based soups, snacks and drinks that keep your body in a fasting state while giving you nutrition. And when your body's in a fasting state this triggers cellular renewal and it actually works. This is why I loved intermittent fasting for so many years. This is the magic of Prolon. And the exciting news is that they just launched a new next gen five day program so it has all the benefits that they had before, but now they have 100% organic ingredients in their food, better taste and ready to eat meals that make the whole process easier. I've tried the original Prolon program. I felt fantastic whenever I do it. I personally cannot wait to try this new and improved version and if you've never tried them before, you're in for a treat because the old one was great. I can't even imagine how good this new Prolon five day program is going to be. And for a limited time Prolon is offering Success Story listeners all you guys 15% off site wide plus a $40 bonus gift. When you subscribe to their five day program just go to prolonlife.com Clary that's P R O L O N l I f e.com/clary to get your 15% discount and your bonus gift. Prolon life.com/clary this podcast is brought to you in part by Stash. Are you still putting off saving and investing? Because you'll get to it someday? Stash turns someday into today. Stash isn't just an investing app. It's a registered investment advisor that combines automated investing with dependable financial strategies to help you reach your goals faster. They'll provide you with personalized advice on what to invest in based on your goals. Or if you just want to sit back and watch your money go to work, you can opt into their award winning expert managed portfolio that picks stocks for you. Stash has helped millions of Americans reach their financial goals and starts at just $3 per month. Don't let your savings sit around, make it work harder for you. Go to get.stash.comsuccessstory and see how you can receive $25 towards your first stock purchase and to view important disclosures. That's get.stash.comsuccess story paid non client endorsement, not representative of all clients and not a guarantee. Investment advisory services offered by Stash Investments LLC and SEC Registered Investment Advisor. Investing involves risks and investments may lose value Offer subject to T's and sees. Talk to me about sort of early career separating a little bit from your parents, how that impacted you, how it impacted like life decisions, any of that.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
Yeah, I think the thing the next thing that my dad was really upset with was when I brought home a Korean boyfriend. I'm Chinese So he's very strict. Yes. And Korean, you know, like Asians are the most racist against other Asians. Like Koreans, Japanese, Chinese, like, to American people, it's all like, oh yeah, they're the same. They eat lots of rice, have strict parents. Right? Like, it's all the same. No, like Chinese people don't like Koreans and Japanese, Japanese people don't like anybody. But Japanese, Koreans think they're at the top of the tonal.
Scott Clary
Everyone thinks they're at the top, basically.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
It's crazy. It's crazy. And I, I don't understand where this comes from, but all I know is that when I brought home a Korean boyfriend to my Chinese dad, he was pissed.
Scott Clary
What age was this?
Dr. Tiffany Moon
This was 23, 24. Okay. It was the year I graduated from medical school that I met my now husband and I was 23 when I graduated from medical school. So it must have been around that time. And it's not like I'm some like, you know, 16 year old prom date. Like, daddy, this is, you know, Brad, I'm a freaking doctor. I'm 23 years old, I have an MD behind my name and I'm like, dad, I want to tell you something. Like I kind of been seeing this guy. And then they were super pissed because he had been previously married with two kids from that marriage and was a decade older than me. And my dad just lost it, you know?
Scott Clary
What do you think? Okay, so all these, all these interactions with your family, I think they cause like all these like little traumas. I think they, I think they cause little traumas like carry through your life. You have to be super careful. If you, if you don't address them, then it can impact everything and impact relationship with your husband, with your, with your wife, with your kids. So I, I, I don't love that he keeps pushing you like your dad keeps pushing you farther and farther away. But you're not going to change your life. You're going to keep building your life regardless. But what's the point when you sort of reconcile those differences or, or in the meantime, when your dad pushes you away, how does that impact your relationship? How does that impact your career? Does it at all?
Dr. Tiffany Moon
Career, not so much because I'm doing exactly what he wanted me to do. You know, he wants ironic brag to all his friends that I'm a successful anesthesiologist. He's always pimping me out to his friend's kids who want to go into medical school. So now I'm taking phone calls with like 18 year olds that want to know how to apply to go to medical school. And I'm like, don't you have a guidance counsel? Like, why are you calling me? And then all his friends, like, not long ago, his friend got diagnosed with liver cancer. So then he texts me asking for a same day appointment with an oncologist that I know the week of Christmas. And I'm like, this is an unreasonable request, father. And he's like, well, he's got cancer. And, you know, liver cancer grows quickly. And I was like, oh, it does. I didn't know that. Thank you for educating me about cancer, Father. I didn't learn that in medical school. School. And he's like, you better call and get him an appointment. And I'm like, it's not. I don't even know this. This is your friend. Why don't you call and get an appointment? So he always, like, leverages my relationships and expertise to help his friends, which I'm happy to do. But it. It comes with a side of like, you better do this for me. It's. It's not what he's asking necessarily, but the way in which he does it, like, I owe him something.
Scott Clary
So does that still go on to this day?
Dr. Tiffany Moon
Yeah, you know, I. I've done a lot.
Scott Clary
I keep asking you if you're. If you fix the relationship, but it.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
Sounds like it's not fixed. It's not fixed. And I just had lunch recently with my mother, and I kind of told her, I said, you know, I. I went on a women's retreat not too long ago, and we did a lot of work on boundary setting. Like, boundaries is like a very, you know, in thing right now. And I was like, you know why I have no boundaries? Because they were never modeled to me as a child. My parents, they have no boundaries. They work all the time, and they don't have boundaries with each other. They don't have social boundaries. And I'm like, I'm really gonna work this year on setting some boundaries. And one of them is distancing myself from him a little bit. Because every time we interact, I leave the interaction feeling not good enough, pissed off, emotionally drained. And all those childhood traumas just flood me again.
Scott Clary
In spite of that, how do you find joy? How did you find joy? How did you overcome these traumas? How did you not let it impact your relationship with your husband, your. Your relationship with people in your life?
Dr. Tiffany Moon
You know, I. I think I'm good at compartmentalizing. You know, I'm able to put things in silos, which is also great for work because I work at a level one trauma hospital. I see people shoot and stab each other all the time. And, you know, if. If I wasn't able to compartmentalize that, I would probably come home a sobbing mess every day. So I think I've compartmentalized my relationship with my father and put it here so that it doesn't affect my relationship with my husband or with my mother with him. And I have a close relationship with her. And I'll tell her things like, you know, it hurts my feelings when he says this, or he's constantly comparing my twins and. And I don't like it when he compares them in front of them. That, you know, one runs faster than the other. And my mom will be like, oh, you know how daddy is, and, you know, she makes excuses for him or whatever. So I've decided to just put that relationship in a little bucket over here so that the fumes from it don't, you know, seep through like carbon monoxide and poison everything else.
Scott Clary
You know, it's interesting, though, because. So I think that that relationship, it turned you into, like, a high performance individual in everything in your life, because that's sort of what was. That was modeled. It was like work, work, work, work, work. Right? Yeah. So throughout sort of your life, you've realized at certain points that even high performance isn't always the best path forward. I think that now you have more balance in your life. I mean, there was one point where you were sleeping in your car between your shifts, and you realized things like that weren't sustainable. So talk to me about sort of your attitude towards work, about high performance, about accomplishment, because you were, you know, you're going to. You graduated med school at 24, and most people are only finishing their undergrad, so obviously, like, you keep pushing yourself, but there's a time when that doesn't serve you anymore.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
Yeah, that. That was a hard pill to swallow. So I moved to America when I was six years old. I learned English. I went to the early college entrance program when I was 15, graduated from Cornel when I was 19, graduated from medical school at the top of my class at the age of 23, and then proceeded on to the best anesthesia residency program in the country at ucsf, then got married and had twins by the time I was 30. And so I just felt like my whole life, it's like these boxes had been like a to do list. And I was like, check. Go to college early, check. Ivy League, check. You know, and my mom was like, there's no way you're going to be able to get married and have kids by the time you're 30. And for whatever reason, you know the Chinese auntie folklore, if you're not, that's the expiration date. You know, if you're not married by 30, it's like, oh, what's wrong with her? And then I got married and had twins. So I was like clocked in right at 30. So I felt like I completed the checklist.
Scott Clary
Yeah.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
And then I sat down one day and I was like, shit, I'm tired. Also, what am I doing? Like, I've done everything the people told me to. But why do I feel unfulfilled? I have no creativity in my life. All I do is work. I have very little laughter in my life and very little joy. And at that time, I was like, what is joy? You know, there's happiness, there's joy. I'm like, I like shopping. That brings me joy, you know, but does it. Do your. Do your material possessions bring me joy? You know, does this Birkin keep me warm at night? No, it does not. So that's when I had my midlife crisis, as my husband likes to call it. And I started going to therapy. Listened to so many self help podcasts. I have a Kindle library full of self help books. Like, if you name a top self help happiness book, I have it in my Kindle library. And what I kind of figured out is that, like, you can't live life by a checklist. And then joy is not like a destination. It's not like something you're gonna get to like. The joy is in the journey. But my stupid ass was running so fast that I didn't get to enjoy the journey. And then I got depressed.
Scott Clary
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Dr. Tiffany Moon
People do that.
Scott Clary
I know people.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
Real Housewives came in. I know that's when Bravo TV knocked on my dorm, was like, are you having a midlife crisis? We would like to document that.
Scott Clary
So I mean, let's, let's talk about how you find. Because at this point you realize that life's good. Haven't particularly found how to live life with joy. You don't want to go to the other end of the spectrum as much as Bravo would love you to go to the other end of the spectrum. So what's your first version of Finding Joy? Like there's a lot of high performing people that listen to this show that I think do exactly what you do. And they don't focus on living day by day. They focus on some future outcome that never comes. And they realize that their whole life they're trying to keep up with some. Ironically, they achieve what they wanted to achieve two years ago, then it doesn't even in their mind, they don't even realize that where they are now would have been a dream for them two, three years ago. And they've already set future goals and then now they're upset that they haven't hit those future goals. And this is a very classic. I mean, I know, I know you're entrepreneurial at the time you were a doctor, but it's a very classic entrepreneur problem, high performing person problem. Okay, so what are the steps? We could talk about Real Housewives if you want and what that meant for you and why you even did it. But what were the steps to find Joy? I don't think Real Housewives was you finding joy. I think that there's a lot.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
No, it wasn't. But it actually pushed me to do the introspection to find joy because there's nothing like going on a reality TV show to make you take a hard look at Yourself, you have any problems, that reality TV show is gonna expose them. That's why people say there's this curse from reality TV that you're gonna get a divorce. There's no reality TV curse of divorce. It means you already had cracks in your marriage. And then the camera rolling and it magnifies whatever problems you had. Alcoholism, cracks in your marriage, you know, fragile friendships. It just magnifies that there's a couple.
Scott Clary
That expose their business problems, too.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
Oh, yeah, and their unpaid taxes. I'm like, what the hell were you thinking going on a reality TV show when you have, you know, some shady business dealings, unpaid taxes? Like, did you think we weren't going to find out?
Scott Clary
This is like. This is like the IRS now has, like, a magnifying glass on your whole life, right?
Dr. Tiffany Moon
Yeah. No, it's wild to me. Why you level. Is it, like, stupidity? I think it's narcissist or narcissism.
Scott Clary
Yeah, I think it's narcissistic.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
Like, you're so hot that you, like. It won't happen to me. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. So I. I am grateful to Bravo TV because it really made me take a good, hard look at my life. And I was like, God, what am I doing? First of all, why am I trying to impress these women who I don't even like, but, like, I want so badly for them to accept me and be a cool girl? Cause I've never, ever been the cool girl ever in my life. I know it must be hard for you to imagine, but I'm like, oh, my God, I'm finally sitting at the cool girls table. I need to, like, do shots with them and be crude and crass and all. And I was just trying so hard to fit in on the show. Like, when I watch early episodes of Real Housewives now, it's. It's so cringe to me because I was just trying so hard to. To be liked and accepted by people whom I didn't even like.
Scott Clary
It.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
It's. It's so wild to me.
Scott Clary
But everybody does that. Everybody. Everybody. This is what people live on Instagram for.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
Oh, my God.
Scott Clary
I mean, we. We're in Miami right now. You. I mean, you see it every city.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
Filter Miami.
Scott Clary
It's wild. I know people that. That, like, their whole lifestyle is rented. Everything's rented. Their whole lifestyle. I saw this. I saw this reel where it was like, four guys lived in a condo, and I guess they. They together pooled their money to rent out a Lamborghini, and they all. They split up the Days of the week that they could use it.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
Oh, like Rent. Rent Chair Lambo. That's a new one.
Scott Clary
Yeah. So this is an interesting city. Everybody is trying to show off all the time. Different than, like, I find, like, a New York where money's quiet.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
Yes. Wealth whispers. Yes, yes, yes.
Scott Clary
But this is the epitome. It's like Miami. Listen, I do love this city, but I find that Miami is like, if Instagram was a city, it would be Miami.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
It would be Miami complete with plastic surgery and rented Lamborghini.
Scott Clary
So this is what everybody deals with all the time. You just dealt with it on a show for the world to watch. But everybody has these insecurities.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
Yeah, you're right. So the show really, it made me examine my work life balance because I was working like 60 hours a week, even while filming. I was working full time as an academic anesthesiologist, you know, and then filming on nights and weekends. I barely saw my kids or husband, but filming is only 12 weeks. And I was like, you know what? I can do anything for 12 weeks. Right? Like, it's not that long. So really, it. It made me finally get the balls to ask my boss if I could go part time at work, which I did. And it freed up some time for me to explore some philanthropy that I wanted to do. And it actually freed up enough time and energy that I finally started working on my book in 2022 is when I first started working on joy prescriptions. Now it's coming out in 2025. Yeah, that's how long it took.
Scott Clary
It's. It's a lot. It's a lot to work on a book, by the way, because I know a lot of authors. It's not easy, but I think that it's interesting that you started working on, you know, joy prescriptions, the prescription for having joy in your life, when at that moment, you were trying to find it yourself, which I think is actually the most compelling content when you are literally, quite literally documenting the. The journey that you're on. So you. You working 60 hours a week force you to reevaluate your life. Do you even know what you wanted out of Real Housewives versus what you got?
Dr. Tiffany Moon
I wanted to make new friends and have fun. And this was when I agreed to join it. There was no such thing as the pandemic yet. And so I thought that Bravo was going to pay for us to go on a cast trip the year before. They had gone to Thailand the year before, maybe Denmark or something like that. And I. I love traveling and I love, you know, meeting new people and eating new foods. So I was like, well, Bravo wants to pay for me to go on a vacation. Who am I to say no? You know, my cash trip mid pandemic was to Oklahoma. I was like, this is not what I signed up for. Like, get me the hell out of here. It wasn't. It was not at all. And. And it sounds so naive now, but I honestly thought that I would go on the show and make new friends and go to parties and it would be fabulous. And I just. It sounds so naive now.
Scott Clary
What is the first sort of thought or idea around joy? Like, where. How did you want to structure life so there's joy in it? How do you define joy? Let's start there.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
I would define joy as being wholly present, not worrying about the future, and just having a feeling of not just happiness, but being content and not wanting for anything, longing for any. Like, I have everything I need right now. I feel whole that when I feel joy, like, that's how I feel.
Scott Clary
That's tough. That's very tough.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
It's very tough. Yeah. And I'm not joyful every day. You know, people always say, as an entrepreneur, you create the product you need. Maybe that's what I was doing with the book. And when I first started writing, it wasn't called joy prescriptions. It wasn't meant to be prescriptive. I didn't know at the end of each chapter I was actually going to write a joy prescription for the reader. I just started writing. I mean, I wrote so much. I wrote basically my first memories of being in China, living with my grandparents because my parents moved to America when I was three, but I didn't come till I was six. So my first formidable memories, you know, around like, four or five, are like, hanging out with my grandparents in China, going to the market, like that sort of thing. And I just wrote. I wrote down everything. I wrote what it felt like to come to America. I wrote about what it felt like to be teased. I wrote about thinking that I hate my parents and I just want to move back to China. You know, I just wrote. And then after I wrote, then I started, you know, what kind of book is this? There has to be a theme. And. And that's why it took three years to come to completion.
Scott Clary
Yeah. What did you find out about yourself when you started to do this? Like, deep introspective work?
Dr. Tiffany Moon
Writing a book is like therapy. It's like self I.
Scott Clary
No doubt. Yeah.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
But. But also while I was writing it, a lot of the Repressed feelings and memories I had, especially in those early chapters around my childhood came flowing out and I would be like sobbing and writing. I had extra therapy appointments with my therapist. During writing I would call her and she's like, we gotta have an extra session this week. Because all the, I, you know, the, the Asian way. And I don't want to speak for all Asians, but at least in my family was not to talk about feelings. We swept them under the rug. We were conflict averse. My mother and father would fight, there would be shouting. Sometimes it would get physical. And then for the next several days I would see my mother and father not speak to one another and there would be this thick tension in the house. And I'm just a kid, you know, so I'm like tiptoeing, walking on eggshells. It was a tough environment all. And when I wrote about it, all those feelings came flooding back because I don't normally ever think or talk about these kind of things.
Scott Clary
It's, it's not you mentioned. It's like a thing that was in like your culture and your family. I think a lot of people just suppress a lot of shit.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
Yeah.
Scott Clary
And I think that, and I'm, I'm curious what your advice is for people to like first go on this journey of discovering joy in your own life. But it sounds like the first part of it is to, to document, to journal, to write shit down, to, to take a look inside. Yeah. And, and, and don't be scared to unpack your childhood and what happened to you then and how it impacts you now. Because these childhood, all traumas, they just get stuck in your subconscious.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
They say the body keeps the score, you know, and, and, and I felt, I, I learned that you have to feel the feelings because for so long I tried to not feel the feelings on purpose. Sweep the feelings under the rug, go into anesthesia that doesn't deal with feelings, just, you know, very conflict averse personality. And then finally when I was writing all this like all the feelings came back up and for the first time maybe ever, I felt all the feelings. And it was a lot.
Scott Clary
Is, is when you like some of these prescriptions that you, that you tell people to. Is it part of it? Journaling, writing down? Like, is that where you start?
Dr. Tiffany Moon
Yeah. Reflecting.
Scott Clary
Reflecting. Yeah. And is there a, is there when you start to go through this process? This is like a prerequisite defining joy in your life. I think it's very hard if you haven't done the pre work to, to live with joy, with Happiness with fulfillment. Because I think that even if you try and fix your life, you, you always regress because you have these like past traumas pulling you back to your old habits. Out of all the different sort of personality traits that we spoke about, workaholism, perfectionism, what do you think is the most damaging to living a life of joy?
Dr. Tiffany Moon
Perfectionism, it, it is the antithesis of living a life with joy. Because you are always worried about what other people think, how you may appear. You don't want to say the wrong thing. And what perfectionism really does is hold you back from taking opportunities because you might look stupid and you might not know the thing. So you just don't do anything. Yeah, you don't write the book, you don't start the business, you don't start the podcast, you don't post the picture on Instagram. Because everything has to be so damn perfect that you are paralyzed by perfection and you do nothing.
Scott Clary
How do you get over that?
Dr. Tiffany Moon
You just start doing things. You just start. There's no like 12 step program to beating perfectionism. It's like, you know, therapy, just invasion therapy. Like you just do it. You, you take imperfect action and then you realize shit, nothing bad happened. And guess what? Most of the time when you're so hell bent on seeming perfect, 99% of people aren't even noticing because you're self absorbed with it. They didn't even notice like that. You know this picture, you spent like two hours photoshopping like a Kardashian, it scrolled across someone's feed for 2.5 seconds. You know what less exactly. You're so self absorbed with the idea to be perfect when you should have just done the imperfect thing and you would have gotten a lot farther.
Scott Clary
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Dr. Tiffany Moon
Yeah, because I'm like, why not? If it fails, I'll try something else. Not the end of the world. No. At least no one's dying. You know, I think when you're a anesthesiologist, you know, the, the bar is low because I'm like, well, at least no one died today.
Scott Clary
Yeah, I mean, that's a valid bar. You understand, you understand that none of this is that serious.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
Yeah.
Scott Clary
Yeah, none of this is that serious. So, so now, I mean, so tell me, tell me what you've launched just in terms of like what you've put your energy into, what's worked, what has. And I want to use it, it as a, like, I don't know, as an example for people that are sort of hesitant to do the thing.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
Yeah. My husband and I started a wine label called Three Moons Wine. We make wine out of Napa and Sonoma. I have a luxury candle company called Aromaesthesia. We just introduced a luxe collection. I have lead Her Summit, which is a women's empowerment conference that we had for the first time in 2024, but we're doing again in November of 2025. So I'm currently trying to put that together and call for speakers. We have joy prescriptions. That's coming out very near in the future. And I, I feel like this book is the culmination of my whole life story and all the lessons that I've Learned distilled into 12 distinct chapters, you know, and people are like, oh, what kind of book is it? I, I'm telling people it's part memoir, part self help or personal development, whatever that term is.
Scott Clary
Now, what do you think? Out of all the, all the lessons that you've learned sort of over your life that you've put into the book, what would be the one that you think was hardest for you to learn?
Dr. Tiffany Moon
Taking a leap of faith. Just putting yourself out there. You know, I think if it weren't for housewives, that kind of, you know, was like exposure therapy, that I wouldn't have done a lot of things. I mean, I've done a few stand up gigs.
Scott Clary
I know you're in comedy too.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
Yeah. Like, it, it's just I, I feel like when you're open to it, life presents so many opportunities to you if you're just receptive and you meet wonderful people and get to have such deep conversations with them. But if you're closed off or trying to maintain this, like, veil of perfectionism, or you're so worried about what other people might think, think it, it holds you back from like, truly living your life. And now I feel like I'm living like I'm doing the damn thing. Whereas when I was 30, like, this was not me. I was a completely different person a decade ago than I am today.
Scott Clary
I, I don't know how else to say it. Like, this is an idea that keeps coming up. Like, you have to just jump into it. You just have to take the leap. And it's so funny because even, even for people that are, I would say the people that are sitting on the sidelines are very similar to you before you discovered what joy and fulfillment is. Because they're all high performing people. They're not like, lazy.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
Right.
Scott Clary
They're killing it in their careers.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
Right.
Scott Clary
But I think there was a point in your life you missed Chloe's first steps. So when I think about what, what are you trading your life for by working? No issue with a job, no issue to W2. But if you're doing it to the extent where you're missing out on life, I think that's a problem. And I think that taking action, which ironically seems risky, is actually less risky in the long term because now you have control of your own life. So now if you ever, God Forbid, couldn't practice medicine anymore. You have a million other things that can make you money, so it's not stressful, Right?
Dr. Tiffany Moon
Yeah. Whereas before, you know, if I had gotten injured and couldn't practice medicine, I kind of been screwed. You know what I mean? I mean, yeah, you have disability insurance, but it pays like, you know, 40%. It's not. That's not right. Yeah. And, and, and the fact of the matter is I'm having fun. You know, I'm a CEO for the wine company. I take a trip to Napa. That's a business expense. I'm tasting wine. But I am doing work. I get to meet am people and learn about their journeys and their failures. I hosted a women's conference, and women came up to me crying after the conference, saying how meaningful it was to them. And I was like, oh, my God, really? It just. The impact that you have on other people's life, like, that brings me meaning. And now with the book, I'm hoping that that's impactful for people's life, that maybe they'll read it and be like, you know what? I'm going to take. Take the leap of faith. I'm going to do the thing. Yeah, yeah.
Scott Clary
And I, and that's. I. And then, I mean, that, that's sort of the goal of this podcast. I mean, it was so funny because when I started this show. So this show is called Success Story. And you know, people ask like, you know, what is, what is success? And it's. And the funny thing is when I talk about people's success stories, the whole point is to show how success is not just financial. Once you make your money, if you do not have joy, happiness, fulfillment across all other areas of your life, you are not living a good life. You do not feel fulfilled. You can make a dollar amount. A lot of people on this show have sold companies for 50, 100 million. We've had several billionaires on this show. And if their family, relationships, if their health has all deteriorated. Yes. Outward looking in people are like, wow, they've done incredible things. But three wives later, very sad, very depressed. And not a lot of people will talk about this openly. Mostly because they'll get shit on if they made any amount of money. If you say, like, I'm not happy. People that go yourself, right.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
Oh, you feel so sorry for the poor rich guy.
Scott Clary
But that's not the lesson. No, the lesson is that somebody who hasn't made the money or is earlier on in their career, they're optimizing for the wrong thing. They're optimizing for this big outcome that's never going to fulfill you. So, like, to your point, you, you have to enjoy the journey.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
You have to enjoy the journey. And the point is that joy is not the destination.
Scott Clary
It.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
It is the journey. And I'm so glad that I figured that out when I was 40 and not when I was 80, because I'm currently making a documentary about how we die in America. It's happier than that sounds.
Scott Clary
But die before you die.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
Celebrate your life.
Scott Clary
Yeah.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
While you're alive, before you're on your deathbed telling me and the hospice nurse all the things you regret. And you know what I always hear? I regret that I didn't do this. I regret that I didn't do that. Nobody ever says, I regret taking that leap of faith and funding the company or taking three months off and sailing or what. Nobody ever talks about regretting things that they did. I always hear people regret things that they didn't do.
Scott Clary
Have you ever, like, had these conversations about, like, I know your parents are old, but have you ever had conversations about.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
Absolutely not with my parents. Yeah, absolutely not.
Scott Clary
Not. Why not?
Dr. Tiffany Moon
I don't even know where we would start. I mean, we try to keep it pretty surface level. How are the kids?
Scott Clary
Because I think they're an example of somebody who does regret a lot.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
It would be an enlightening conversation for sure. I'm. I'm not sure how to get there.
Scott Clary
Yeah, it's tough because, you know, the second you, you are a little bit successful, you want to sort of share that success and some of the things that you've learned along the journey with people that you love. I think about a lot with my parents too. Like, they don't regret, but I wish they would live. Like they're retired, obviously. And I still think they could live more. Yeah, I think they could travel more. I think they could do more. Money's not a concern for them.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
Right.
Scott Clary
But they don't.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
And it's frustrating thing with my parents. I said, you know, travel. They're going to Europe. I said, Buy first class tickets. They can't. My mom said it's only eight hours. If it's China, she'll sit in first class because it's like a 15 hour flight to Shanghai high.
Scott Clary
Yeah, well, you're gonna break your legs.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
Right? She's gonna get a pulmonary embolism. I'm worried, you know, but, but they're just, she can't. And I, I'm just like, live life a little, mom. You know, go on that trip, splurge at dinner, get the lobster, and it's like they can't.
Scott Clary
I don't get it. I don't understand where that comes from. I. I've tried to figure this out.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
It comes. I'll tell you exactly where it comes from. It comes from growing up with scarcity. They cannot get out of that mindset when that they were young, they did not have enough, and now they have enough, but they're still in the scarcity mindset.
Scott Clary
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Dr. Tiffany Moon
Can't change someone's mindset for them, you know, And I mean, they're well taken care of. You know, they live in a nice house. I bought my mom a brand new car. Like, that's. It's not a money thing.
Scott Clary
Yeah, I know, but it's.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
It's a mindset thing. And you, you cannot change someone's mindset for them. I, I, for Christmas, bought my mom a cashmere sweater. You know, she unwraps it, holds it up, kind of feels the yarn and whatever, and she's like, how much you pay? And I, it was like 300 maybe, but I, like, lied. And I was like, oh, it was on sale, Mom. It was only like, like 150, you know? And she's like, yeah, quality, not so good return. I was like, this is, you know, like, forget looking a gift horse in the mouth. I mean, you know, she's like 150. No, I go to Kohl's, have better. I'm like, you know what I mean? I'm trying to, like, buy her nice things. And I bought her a Birkin once, you know.
Scott Clary
Yeah, yeah.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
She. This. She told me it was too heavy. The Birkin was too heavy. So she gave it back to me. I don't like. It's too heavy. I cannot wear on my shoulder.
Scott Clary
So she just makes things up.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
I mean, look, I was like, give it back, Mom. Just give it back.
Scott Clary
Yeah, I mean, like, give it back.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
I'll take it. Yeah. There I was trying to be nice to her. Yeah. So I bought her a Chanel medium flat bag instead. But that's. I mean, this is like six years ago. But. But, you know, it's just she can. Can't, like, I know, live in the joy, but maybe she is joyful. You know, I've never actually said to her, like, mom, are you joyful? Like, we don't have these enlightened conversations. It's very like, what's for dinner?
Scott Clary
I want to talk about just a little bit about, like, how you think about what you jump into, what gives you passion, what gives you joy. Because you. You started so much stuff as. As businesses, as an entrepreneur. So what are some ideas about? Okay, I found joy in my own life. Now I want to find joy in my career. So wine Candles, leaders summit. By the way, events are incredibly difficult to put together. So congratulations. I've tried. It's very difficult. But obviously, you follow joy in everything in your life. So I think that step one is do introspection. Step two is to architect your life so that you're enjoying every single day. You find joy in every single day. And then I think step three is let's, like, tie joy into your vocation, into your job. I think it's very important. And that's where I think a little bit of entrepreneurship comes into it and feel feeling safe, taking risk and taking a chance. Because on the other side of that chance and that risk, that's where joy in your work comes. So how do you choose what. What lights you up?
Dr. Tiffany Moon
I mean, I mean, this is going to sound trite, but I love helping people. I feel good when I make someone else's day better. And so as far as the summit went, as far as writing the book, if a woman reads that book book and it makes her laugh a little and she learns a lesson, or she learns to set boundaries, or there's some idea she's been sitting on and she's like, you know what? I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna launch my podcast. I'm gonna write my own book. I'm gonna be an influencer or whatever it is. Then I feel good. Like, I. I don't want to say that my whole worth is. Is wrapped up in what I do for others, but it makes me feel good when I'm able to help other people and. And everything. I mean, the wine, the candles, it's all self care lead. Her summit is a women's empowerment conference. Joy Prescriptions largely is a book for professional women who want that elusive work life balance, who always feel like whatever they're doing is not good enough, you know, and the point of all this is, is really just to help other people.
Scott Clary
Do you think that that's a good North Star for most people? People?
Dr. Tiffany Moon
I think it is. I think if that's your North Star, that if you wake up in the morning and you think, what can I do that would help other people? The world would be a better place. And. And I'm not. I help myself plenty. You know, in. In my quest to help other people, I help myself. Yeah, it all goes around. You know, I'm not Mother Teresa. I'm not like, you know, taking the clothes off my back and giving them to someone, you know, like, you're building business. Yes, it's business.
Scott Clary
Yeah, but it's like a. It's like a. It's centered on making someone else's life better.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
Correct.
Scott Clary
And that's sort of like the. That's the barometer for success.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
Yes. And not every day is joyful. You know, I don't want to create a culture of toxic joy where I'm like, oh, I'm so joyful. So if you don't have joy, then something's wrong with you. You know what I mean? Some days I want to throw my hands up in there and people are acting crazy and. And just, you know, conducting business. Right. Like, something's always going on. I always feel like there's some fire I have to put out. And I'm just, like, I told my assistant the other day, I was like, if there could just be one day, one day where I don't have to put some freaking fire out, that would be a lovely day. And she was like, good luck with that. But it's. It's just having an overall umbrella of joy, like, this is my North Star. And I know I'm moving towards the right place, because when I hit the pillow at night, like, I generally feel Like, I did a good job that, that day.
Scott Clary
I love that. It's just so, I think that this is an idea that I. We've sort of danced around this, but it's, it's finding joy in, in every single day. You have to find joy. You can't just find joy in big moments.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
Right.
Scott Clary
That's very important.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
Right.
Scott Clary
And I think that part of that is understanding that finding little bits of joy in, in your day to day, it could be. It could be, you know, going outside, moving around, speaking to somebody who you care about, about solving good problems that sort of progress you forward. It's not about, there will never be hard work or there will never be things that go wrong. It's about understanding that you have to find bits of joy in every single day and not sort of postpone it.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
Yes, exactly.
Scott Clary
I think a lot of people do that.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
Yeah.
Scott Clary
Because you mentioned toxic joy, which is. It's almost like you're naive, which is also not good.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
Right.
Scott Clary
Yeah. You have to find joy in everything, but not be naive. And that's. I think that that's the best message.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
Yeah.
Scott Clary
What would be one more idea from your book that I didn't ask you about that you think is useful for, for the audience to hear?
Dr. Tiffany Moon
There's, there's a chapter on comparison, and I just think comparison is the thief of joy. It truly is. And in an era where everyone is on social media, we cannot help help but compare ourselves to other people. And I always say, you cannot compare your everyday with someone else's greatest hits. It's not a fair comparison. And, and I, I made this up when I. My kids were little. This happened when they were maybe three or four, and it was their birthday because they're twins. And I gave them each a slice of cake. And I don't remember which one it was, but she said, mommy, her slice is bigger than mine. And I said, oh, my God. I said, sit down a second. We about to have a lesson. I said, you just got cake. Plenty, in fact, and there's more cake. You need to stop focusing on how big someone else's slice of cake is and just enjoy your own damn cake. And that metaphor goes for so many things in life. You see people buying new houses, going on vacations, wearing new outfits, and it's a constant game of comparison. And you simply just have to stop and enjoy your own cake because you'll never win the comparison game. There will always be Joneses to keep up with. And how do you know that these Joneses aren't you Know, in massive debt. There was like, some New York socialite or something, and the guy ended up, like, you know.
Scott Clary
Yeah.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
And they were, like, in massive debt. And. And her whole thing was like, like vacations and luxury or whatever. And I was like. And. And look what that. You know what I mean?
Scott Clary
That's an extreme.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
It is an extreme. People have to stop the.
Scott Clary
It was. It was like, tens of millions.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
It was not a amount that, like, you could get out of with a little hard work. And. Yeah, it was like. And how did you get to that point? Like.
Scott Clary
Well, he was. He was. So I think it was a few things. I think that. Well, I think he was, like, borrowing from friends or he was, like, raising money against, like, business ideas, but then using it for lifestyle expenses. I think it was just, like, he was just embezzling money, I think, because he was a developer. Oh, he was a developer.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
Yeah.
Scott Clary
And I don't want to get. I don't want to get the story wrong, right, Because I don't have all the details, like, in front of me, but I'm pretty sure, like, he was taking money for, like, business and investment, and I think that that's what he was using to fund my stuff.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
Right. And. And for what? Because they're in this game of compare. They need to keep up appearance.
Scott Clary
And all it was was, like, bougie Instagram posts, right?
Dr. Tiffany Moon
For what? For. For like. No. No one on Instagram cares about you anyway. You know what I mean? Like, if your Instagram got shut down and. Or somebody hacked it or whatever, you know, half the people wouldn't even notice you were gone.
Scott Clary
It's. It's very sad. It's very. This comparison game is very sad. Social media. There's a lot of benefits of social media with a lot of. A lot of negatives.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
Yeah.
Scott Clary
And this comparison game we were talking about how Miami's like Instagram, basically. This is what causes people to basically ruin their life, trying to keep up with everyone. But to your point, there's never. There's never an end. So most people look at Real Housewives and they'll be like, well, they're all very successful. But I can guarantee you, first of all, this is assuming that everything they. They show is real and owned and not rented or whatever. But then if you look at the next level up, right, there's going to be somebody worth 100 million. It's going to be worth somebody worth a billion. There's like, there's no end, Right? That. So instead of just, you know, having one nice house and like two cars. There's going to have, you know, a guy who has a 737 and like 20 homes.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
Right.
Scott Clary
There's never an end to it.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
Right.
Scott Clary
So why do you play this?
Dr. Tiffany Moon
It's a zero sum game. Cannot win. And. And people figuratively and literally kill themselves trying to. And you must learn that you should only compare yourself to yourself. That's it.
Scott Clary
And your past, your past version of yourself.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
Yes, yes.
Scott Clary
So you're always. Yeah. So where do you want people to go? Where do you want people? By the way, are you still going to do more Real Housewives?
Dr. Tiffany Moon
No.
Scott Clary
I don't know. I'm not as involved. I'm not as into this.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
Did I, did I sound like I felt the experience was.
Scott Clary
No, not at all. Not at all.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
You know, they asked me again. I had a terrible experience. And they're like, so you want to do it again? And I'm like, like, no, no, I don't. Thank you.
Scott Clary
Now you're done with that.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
I wish there was a show about women building their businesses. And even when I was planning lead her summit and think, you know, a speaker pulled out last minute, there was a tornado. One of my speakers couldn't come in. Just, it's an in person event. Right. Like, shit's gonna happen. And I was like, where are the cameras now? Cause this would be a good show. You know, there's an element of drama. There's sort of, of, you know, something that they want to see to completion. Like all the good makings of a reality show, but just. But not enough women fighting.
Scott Clary
Yeah.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
You know, nobody was cussing anybody out. It's just, it's not enough. I mean, there's enough drama because something's going wrong all the time. I mean, I can yell at my assistant if you want me to.
Scott Clary
Yeah, I think, I do believe that. I. I do believe that the future of business. Well, you know, like Alex and Layla Hermozi, like, you know, the Hermobi Hermozi. Excuse me, me. And they have a videographer follow them around everywhere and they turn their life into like a TV show.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
Reality. Yeah, like a YouTube series. Yeah.
Scott Clary
So I think that that's the future.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
Yeah.
Scott Clary
And I think that, listen, if they had a TV deal, if they weren't, you know, I don't think they care about that. They had a TV deal. You could take the stuff straight off their YouTube channel and just throw it on any network and that would be your reality TV show. So I think that the future of business and influence, not just business, the Future of Influence is somebody who's building something incredible, and they have somebody that documents the journey. And I think that, like, you should do that for the next summit.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
You know Any videographers for hire?
Scott Clary
Well, yes, we'll talk. Yeah. No, but I think that that's a great way. And, you know, when people think about entrepreneurship, usually the conversation turns into, okay, well, how do I build a brand online? And how to build a personal brand? That's how you do it.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
Yeah.
Scott Clary
You just document the journey.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
Right?
Scott Clary
That's it.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
And speak about what you're doing. Speak about the real experiences and not only the good ones and the bad ones. It's like my relatable stuff that. That gets the most clicks, you know, when I post a picture and it's like, you know, everything's beautiful and I'm on vacation, I mean, it's fine. But when I post my, like, I'm so tired, I want to, you know, kill my kids and my husband and that stuff, you know, like, that's. The relatable stuff, is what gets fired.
Scott Clary
That's what people care about.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
Yeah.
Scott Clary
People are starved for realness. They're starving for realness because of all the bullshit on Instagram. They don't want curated, edited, refined. They want, who's this person? What are they dealing with? Because your problems are someone else's problems, for sure. And outside of just being great content. But, you know, you talked about you wanting to help people, people. When you put yourself out there, it's super scary. I mean, not for you, because you've done it at scale, but for most people, it's very scary to put themselves out there and be an influencer and put out, you know, content and build a personal brand. I know you. You got everybody. Everybody who goes on Real Housewives gets hate and comments and everything. Right? But you get over it. And then you realize that, yeah, there's some loud haters in the crowd, but ultimately, if you do put yourself out there and talk about your problems, you're actually helping. Yeah, Way more. More. You're helping way more. And those people, it's tough because those people aren't going to go and say, hey, thank you so much for, you know, putting yourself out there. You just made me sort of normalize the stress and anxiety that I'm living with. But I think it's a. It's a good thing to do. It's a very good thing to do. Where do you want to send people? So where can people connect with you? So, first of all, the book is going to be available anywhere you can get books. I'll put it in the show notes as well. Obviously. Amazon, everywhere else.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
Yep. You can order it off. Joyprescriptions.com we have a bonus, a 30 days of joy PDF that sort of like a journaling exercise that they can get as a bonus if they pre order the book. And then I'm across all social media platforms at Tiffany Moon MD okay, cool.
Scott Clary
And joy prescriptions.com if they want to. What's the best social for them? That is Instagram, I would say Instagram.
Dr. Tiffany Moon
Instagram, yeah. It's probably the one I'm on the most.
Scott Clary
And the, the special for the, for the book, that's just joyprescriptions.com there's no perfect last question I like to ask. Obviously you've learned a lot over the course of your career, life, all of that. If you had to pick all the lessons and all the wisdom and all the insight and you only could pass one lesson onto your kids, sort of the most important thing that you've learned could be about joy. It could be about just life in general, work, whatever. What do you think that most important lesson would be?
Dr. Tiffany Moon
Be a good person. Whenever I have a challenge in my business or at work, I just ask myself, like, what would a good person do? What is the right decision to make? You know, if there's a shortcut I can take. And if I do this or in this business, if I kind of fudge this a little bit, it's not worth it. Cutting the corners, fibbing a little, working with people whom you don't like for financial gain, it's not worth it. So at the end of the day, I feel like if you're a good person and you make decisions that are rooted in integrity and you can go to sleep at night knowing that you did the best you could, everything else will fall into place. Ra.
Success Story Podcast: Episode Summary
Title: Tiffany Moon - Anesthesiologist & Author | A Doctor's Prescription for Joy & Fulfillment
Host: Scott D. Clary
Release Date: May 15, 2025
In this enlightening episode of the Success Story Podcast, host Scott D. Clary sits down with Dr. Tiffany Moon, a board-certified anesthesiologist, associate professor, entrepreneur, and author. Dr. Moon shares her compelling journey from her challenging childhood to becoming a successful medical professional and multifaceted entrepreneur. Her forthcoming memoir, Joy Prescriptions, explores the pursuit of joy and fulfillment amidst professional and personal pressures.
Dr. Tiffany Moon begins by discussing her early life as a Chinese immigrant in America, emphasizing the cultural pressures she faced as the "perfect Asian daughter."
Growing up, Dr. Moon internalized her parents' sacrifices and cultural expectations, leading her to strive for perfection in all aspects of her life. This relentless pursuit was rooted in her desire to honor her family's move from China to America in search of a better life.
Dr. Moon's academic prowess was evident from a young age. She was selected for an early college entrance program at 15, graduated from Cornell University at 19, and completed medical school at the top of her class by 23.
Despite these achievements, Dr. Moon felt unfulfilled, realizing that her life felt like a checklist rather than a journey filled with joy and creativity.
Dr. Moon candidly discusses the toll that perfectionism and overworking took on her life, leading to a critical shift in her career and personal priorities.
This epiphany came after personal experiences that highlighted the vulnerabilities of her career path, such as the inability to take time off when needed and the risks associated with depending solely on one profession.
A significant turning point in Dr. Moon's life was her participation in the reality TV show Real Housewives. Although challenging, this experience catalyzed her journey toward self-discovery and joy.
The exposure from the show forced her to confront her work-life imbalance, leading her to reduce her work hours and pursue entrepreneurial ventures. This period also inspired her to begin writing her memoir, Joy Prescriptions.
Central to the episode is Dr. Moon's exploration of joy and fulfillment. She defines joy as being wholly present and content, distinguishing it from fleeting happiness.
Dr. Moon emphasizes the importance of being present and content with one's life, rather than continuously striving for future achievements that may not bring lasting fulfillment.
In her upcoming book, Dr. Moon delves deeper into the concept of joy, blending personal memoir with self-help strategies to help others find fulfillment.
Through introspection and compartmentalization, she overcame childhood traumas and perfectionism, allowing herself to experience and cultivate joy in her daily life.
Dr. Moon addresses the detrimental effects of comparison and perfectionism, especially in the age of social media.
She advises focusing on personal growth and self-improvement rather than measuring oneself against others' curated online personas.
By taking imperfect action, individuals can overcome the paralysis caused by perfectionism and achieve greater personal satisfaction.
Dr. Moon has channeled her quest for joy into various entrepreneurial endeavors aimed at helping others.
Her ventures include:
These ventures reflect her commitment to fostering joy and empowerment in both her personal life and the lives of others.
Dr. Tiffany Moon's story is a testament to the transformative power of introspection, letting go of perfectionism, and prioritizing joy. Her journey from a high-achieving medical professional to a fulfilled entrepreneur offers valuable lessons on balancing success with personal happiness.
Dr. Moon encourages listeners to embrace their authentic selves, set healthy boundaries, and find joy in the everyday journey.
Connect with Dr. Tiffany Moon
Book: Joy Prescriptions
joyprescriptions.com
Bonus: 30 Days of Joy PDF journaling exercise available with preorder.
Social Media:
Instagram: @TiffanyMoonMD
This episode provides profound insights into achieving a balanced, joyful life while maintaining professional excellence. Dr. Tiffany Moon's experiences and wisdom serve as a guide for anyone striving to find fulfillment beyond traditional measures of success.