Meet Tiffany Norris | Owner & Instructor

We had the good fortune of connecting with Tiffany Norris and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Tiffany, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
Before starting my business, I didn’t think of myself as an entrepreneur. I grew up surrounded by several friends and family members who struggled with obesity or eating disorders, and I saw the way it affected not only their lives, but the lives of the people who loved them. It was very heavy on my heart to create a safe, nonjudgmental place for people to come and work on their physical and mental health. I am very passionate about positive body image, and I want Adrenaline to be a space where people feel seen, where they feel loved on, and where someone is excited to see them every time they walk through the door. We don’t really ever talk about weight or things like that in our studio. It’s not about losing weight, it’s about feeling good in your own skin, and feeling like you have a community there to support you. It’s just as much about mental health as physical health. Social media nowadays is so body-image focused, and you’re always seeing these filtered and edited photos, so we try to focus on what’s real, and that’s how you feel about yourself.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
I think our approach to fitness is what really sets us apart from other places. We don’t focus on weight loss or making huge muscle gains. We focus more on creating that space where people can feel good about working out, where they don’t feel judged, and where they know we’re excited to see them. It’s about physical health, but the mental health benefits are just as important. Dancing is all about self-expression, and we really want people to come in for an hour and leave the rest of the world at the door. Whatever problems they have, whatever struggles they might be going through, they can come into the studio and just have fun dancing with their friends for an hour. And as a result of that, of course, people do lose weight, and they do get stronger, and they do develop a happier, healthier relationship with their bodies.

I can’t say that it has been easy to get to where we are. I don’t think many small business owners would tell you it’s easy, but it’s definitely worth the effort. We got to where we are now by building a team of really passionate people who believe in our mission and who really want to spread that joy to other people. Adrenaline is really more than a fitness center or a dance studio–it’s a community of people who are supportive of each other and who cheer each other on. That’s what I’d say I’m most proud of–the community that we’ve built.

A major challenge that we faced was COVID, of course, and the community is what kept us going. We actually grew during COVID when a lot of other small businesses were really struggling, and I think it’s because people really needed an outlet for all the stress and fear and isolation they were feeling. It was tough because of course people couldn’t come dance together in the studio, so that’s when we pivoted to streaming our classes online. We also did a lot of outreach initiatives and virtual group challenges to keep everyone engaged. I was hand-delivering T-shirts to people’s houses and dropping them off at the door just to try and keep that human connection going. It was a tough time, but I think it really brought the ADF community closer together, and I think it really captured what’s so special about our business.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Oh, this is tough, there are so many great spots in Greenville. I’d start with brunch at Fork & Plough. That’s definitely one of my top brunch spots in town. Next, I feel like you have to take everyone to Falls Park if they’re visiting, so they can have that quintessential Greenville experience. Maybe we could check out some games at Group Therapy or a show at the Peace Center.

If I had to plan a full week, there are a ton of places I’d want to hit in Downtown Greenville, a handful of which are Curean, CAMP, Gather, and Society. Maybe we could hit up a Greenville Drive game, especially on Dollar Beer Night, or maybe check out the Greenville Zoo. There are some great spots in West Greenville too, like the Rabbit Hole for cocktails or the Village Grind for some great coffee.

I would definitely want to show them all of the awesome businesses that share a space with us at the Junction at Downtown Airport. There’s Cohesive Coffee, White Duck Taco, and Elevation 966 Winery, so there’s coffee, lunch, and a wine date right there. Then we could head next door to the Greenville Humane Society to meet some pups, or play a game of glow-in-the-dark putt putt at Takeoff Mini Golf.

I love hiking, so we could even check out Paris Mountain or Jones Gap. Afterwards, we could hit downtown TR for drinks at Community Tap and pizza at Sidewall.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
The very first person who comes to mind is Janna Rhoads. Janna is a member at our studio, and she has been my biggest supporter from day one. When we moved into our second location, we had to do a lot of renovation work on the space, and Janna spent full weekends helping me demo walls, carry out heavy debris, clean, paint, and whatever else needed to be done, just purely out of kindness. She is always looking for little ways she can help improve the studio. She hand-painted a window sign at our old studio so we would be more visible to people, and she hand-painted one of the murals in our current space. Recently, she and her dad spent a Saturday repairing our dance stage flooring for us. She’s the first person to greet people when they walk in, and she always encourages new people who might be a little nervous or uncertain. She’s front row at just about all our events. Honestly she’s just always there, cheerleading for Adrenaline because she believes in the mission so much and really wants to see us succeed. I’m really grateful for her. She’s just an amazing person.

Website: https://www.adrenalinedancefitness.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adrenalinedancefitness

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/adrenalinedancefitness