Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Tanarra Schneider. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Tanarra, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

When I look back at what I am the most proud of, in my almost 30 years in design roles, isn’t a product or service. It’s the teams that I’ve led. The cultures that I’ve helped create or the moments where I’ve been a life raft as a leader when the cultural waters have been toxic. After being laid off from my last role amidst another acquisition – I knew I couldn’t just go back to ‘making more things’ or patching more holes in moth ridden company cultures.

My LinkedIn tag line used to be Leader By Design, Badass by Nature. When I reflected on what was next, I realized that the tagline was wrong. I was a leader by nature, and a badass by design. I have been in leadership roles my entire life. And not always because I was the best at the ‘hard skill’ but because I am really good at sitting between perspectives, individualizing, and teaching by example. But what I had to design over the course of my time in corporate spaces was how to be a leader that people wanted to follow. And more importantly, how to be a leader who was willing to serve people – lift them up, grow them, protect them when necessary, and challenge the status quo when it no longer served our business.

Choosing to be a coach in the current work landscape isn’t revolutionary. The field has been growing steadily since just before the pandemic, and has really exploded since 2020. So, if I was going to coach, and definitely if I was going to be a consultant, I needed to do it in a way that felt fresh, that honored my roots in leadership, design, and also my deep appreciation for bravery in leaders at all levels.

I figured out, through a lot of grieving my past corporate experiences, talking to friends and former colleagues, and through a happy accident, that I wanted to teach people how to deeply embrace and practice the qualities that leaders need to return humanity to the workplace. To be the kind of leader, colleague, friend, and partner that the people I admire have shown me how to be. I was working on a project a couple of years back, and one of my colleagues said “You know, it sometimes feels like being human at work is like committing an act of treason.” And that stuck with me. Like really stuck with me. A sabbatical, 18 months at a different company, a layoff, and a summer of reflection later… Rebel 75 was born.

It doesn’t hurt that I am a child of the 70’s, raised on Star Wars, and believe the line from Rogue One – Rebellions are built on hope. Initially, Rebel 75 was named after my kiddo, who’s initials are REB. They are a natural born rebel. But it wasn’t intended to be the actual name. The longer I used it in casual conversation, the more I thought about it, it was just right. My instincts must have known more than I did.

Rebel! Yup. I want to create Rebel Leaders. I approach this work from that space. Let’s commit beautiful acts of treason. But how, right? Well, first, let’s really unpack the BEHAVIORS that come with vulnerability, empathy, openness, curiosity, trust, and even love – in the workplace. But let’s do that in respect to relationships, and build tools to build healthy relationships. Not just healthy individuals. And also, let’s not just coach, but let’s look at the rituals (how you practice these things regularly, together) and how that supports the flow, or rhythm of your business. Some of this pulls on my youth as a dancer. Some of it leans into what I learned culturally as a designer, observing human behavior, connections, and community intelligence. And then, let’s support those leaders and team as they embed that into their business. Even as they push back against existing norms that might challenge new ways of thinking. Rebels, one and all. In service of building a more human workplace and a more connected world.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I feel like I answered some of this in the first question – so feel free to refer back if useful.

I stumbled into my work. Multiple times. I think that I’ve been in the business of making ‘work’ more human and approachable since before I realized I was working. As a dance instructor, I was good at breaking things down to make them simpler, but also meeting dancers where they were capability wise. So, when I needed a gig after leaving grad school, I fell into Corporate Training and eLearning design (it WAS the 90s). I loved the idea that I could take things that were hard for folks, and felt high stakes – learning Windows as an Admin Assistant who had only used a typewriter, for example – made me want to understand more about how adults learned, but also to dive deeper into how those tools were being used to make work better (or often worse) for people.

If I fast forward through the next 28 years on 1.5 playback speed, what you see is patterns of me not only building products, like one of the first streaming cooking school platforms, but also designing entirely new methods and tools for performance management for a company of 500k+ people, new customer facing experiences while helping a company reconsider how it’s culture would better enable innovation, and then helping to design new offerings across product design, leadership, and culture at one of the worlds largest consulting companies.

But as I said, what I am most proud of is how I have built and fostered teams at every company I’ve worked in. I have had led teams since I was 19, and managed P&Ls of over $20M since the age of 26. I understand what it feels like to need to grow people in multidimensional teams (designers, engineers, strategists, PMs, operations, and more). I have experience navigating the politics of big and small organizations, while trying to deliver quality customer facing products and services – and keep your people motivated. And I’ve had to lay people off, fire people, discipline people, grow people, and keep going while growing myself.

And I think that’s what I want people to know. I was a consultant a few times in my life. I’ve also worked inside of organizations. I’m not a coach or consultant who is detached from the realities and consequences of leadership. My passion for leading with humanity, creativity, and learning to rebel against what no longer works comes from almost 3 decades of deep service. I believe in understanding context, holding perspectives not opinions, and helping you gain tools so you can continually sense and respond to your environment. And I know the consequences when we lose our humanity at work.

I want to help you, your team, and your organization be fully integrated humans with the skills to think creatively, build and rely on strong relationships, and meet the pace of business and change head on without losing hope or yourself. I believe in leaving things better, stronger, and more human than I found them. And I believe that happens through tiny rebellions, everyday.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

In truth, my journey with Rebel 75 is just getting started. But resilience is built over time, through reps. Like… muscles. Embracing the hard work, the challenges, is what builds your ability to be agile and move, pivot, and recover. I think my best example is personal though. My kiddo struggled last year with severe anxiety and ADHD, leading to OCD, at the same time my mother was still mid cancer treatment. And while so much of that meant I was a supporter and observer from the sidelines, I am also a single parent and my mother’s only child. And I was changing jobs, just beginning to realize that whatever was next for me likely didn’t lay in the corporate world anymore.
Rather than panic, I stopped. I actually leaned into the role that they needed me to play, paid attention to my heart, and filled it with as much love and patience as possible to weather to the storms. And out of that, and the things I shared previously, Rebel was actually born. Each of their stories has helped to forge my own. I learned from my kiddo’s journey how to let go of “should do” or “should be” and just be present. To feel deeply, and to realize that there are many paths to achieve “success.” I learned from my mother that you have to rest. Even when it’s frustrating. When there is no more capacity to push – change the rhythm. Pause. Breathe. Rest. And rebuild. I think Rebel is, in many ways, the product of building and exercising new muscles. It’s the manifestation of my resilience.

Any advice for managing a team?

Without getting into the semantics between managing and leading, I’d advise the following:

Actually design how you are going to work together as a team. Intentionally. Doing whatever work you do – be open about what your team needs from one another, and from you, to do that work well. And revisit it when new projects come up, or when the business is scaling, changing, shifting, or when things are tough.

Empower your people and delegate work. Trust them to do their jobs to the best of their ability, and when something doesn’t go well, or needs attention, coach them. Get their insights before you judge. Create space for them to learn, grow, and repair, if needed.

Approach differences or new things with open curiosity, admit what you don’t know as a leader, and learn in the open. Be that vulnerable.

Deliberately mentor and sponsor people to be on the path to take your job. Even if its years away, or they leave your company, you will be better for it, and so will they.

Invite dissent. Embrace pushback as a constructive tool, and open the door for THEM to create new solutions, ways of working, and to try new things within the rhythm of the business.

Celebrate wins and acknowledge losses equally.

Remember, culture and morale come from the little things that happen everyday. Not the grand gestures. And definitely not from happy hour. Maybe from coffee chats. ;)

Contact Info:

• Website: https://rebel75.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanarra/
• Other: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rebel-75

  Rebel 75’s LinkedIn and Website will launch officially on January 21.

Image Credits

All photos taken by me in various workshops.