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

Tanya, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you tell us about a time where you or your team really helped a customer get an amazing result?

In mid 2018 I started working with an exceptional female entrepreneur and producer who was looking for her next big idea. I have a program for entrepreneurs called “my next big idea” and Svetlana Dvoretsky was referred to me by a mutual friend of ours who is very successful and has great intuition. This program helps entrepreneurs create their passionate vision of the future in alignment with their core values, legacy mission and desired lifestyle, then take the steps to radically shift their mindset to develop and deliver on their next big idea. We worked steadily for an entire year while Svetlana continued to open herself and her mind to opportunities. In 2019, she took a trip to Paris along with a group of colleagues to see a show that ultimately, everyone agreed had no potential, except Svetlana. She immediately saw what others didn’t and recognized it as her next big idea. She returned to Toronto, brought in 2 partners and launched a new company called Lighthouse Immersive. Together they brought Immersive Van Gogh to Toronto and against all odds, launched it at the very start of the pandemic. When every other entertainment venue was closed due to covid, Svetlana’s innovative thinking and unstoppable attitude turned the walk through venue into a the first drive through art exhibit in the world and Toronto patrons were able to enjoy the show from the safety of their cars. As the pandemic evolved, so did the shows success. With the introduction of a flow through immersive experience, the government gave them the green light to operate and thousands of patrons came to see this exceptionally moving and uplifting show during the height of the pandemic. I was brought in to teach World Class Customer Service training to empower the teams to go above and beyond despite the strict mask and social distance restrictions. The show garnered exceptional reviews and Lighthouse Immersive grew into venues across the US and went from zero to 1,600 employees in 1 year. I was brought in again to keep the teams and culture growing with World Class Leadership training. Svetlana and her team kept growing Lighthouse Immersive with brilliant new content that featured artists such as Klimt, Fred Khalo and introduced the world’s first Immersive Ballet performance. Today their success continues to grow into the global market with a new partnership with Disney to celebrate the 100 Year anniversary of Disney animation. I’m honoured to continue to facilitate their team training with new rounds of World Class Customer Service to keep their teams performing at their best.

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 was raised to believe that anything is possible. My family immigrated from Moscow Russia to Winnipeg Canada in 1980 to leave antisemitism and communism and create a life we loved. My mother was a european dermatologist who created creams that healed gangrene without amputation. In Winnipeg, she ran her own natural skin care clinic in the heart of downtown Winnipeg where I started working at 12. By 13 I was enrolled in the European School of esthetics and graduated as the youngest government licensed esthetician at 14. My first career had officially begun! By the time I graduated university in 1995 with degress in Business and Psychology, I had a full clientele and seven years of her incredible mentorship. I moved to pursue bigger opportunities in Toronto and joined one of Canada’s largest esthetics distributors to open up the province of Ontario as a bilingual sales representative for their brands. In my first few years, I exceeded my sales targets by 300%, won awards for #1 sales rep of the year and was promoted to education and business development. I enrolled into the Dale Carnegie Institute for public speaking and continued to volunteer for their programs to get more practice. My goal was to move to Europe and work for skin care laboratory and in 1999, I packed my bags for France to work for a private laboratory of seaweed skin care off the coast of Brittany. I worked for them for 3 years traveling 22 countries each year, teaching in places such as Finland, South Africa, all across Australia, London, Taiwan, Hong Kong and more. I innovated the industry and wrote protocol books that were translated in 11 languages. In the meantime, my mother had invented a non-surgical facelift system and asked me to come back to Canada to help her develop it for sale. It took a year of production trials and errors but we managed to create the Time Reverse Facial Support System – the very first actual “face bra” along with 5 immune building skin care products that I launched on the Canadian Shopping Channel. We became the #1 fastest selling anti-aging product in the history of the shopping channel and I went on to air on QVC in the US, and other shopping channels in the UK, Australia and Russia. We grew our company to 1 million dollars in revenue in the first year and opened our online store. I was ready for a break from the skin care industry, as my passion for public speaking and business education continued to grow. Determined to grow my reach and inspire others, I took a job with Skill path seminars, north america’s largest training company and went on the road to eventually teach 30 different soft skills subjects from leadership, management, conflict resolution, communicating with diplomacy, organizational behaviour, customer service and embracing change.

After several years of being a #1 rated speaker, I certified in consultative sales training with a company out of NYC and decided to open my own consulting practice. My first global client was L’Oreal. I went on to be their consultant on record for over a decade and delivered business growth training to thousands of entrepreneurs and professionals in the salon industry across Canada, the US and Europe. I was brought in to help businesses embrace change in the Ukraine and Russia just as the 2008 economic crash had come upon us and again to lift the economy and help salons across the US stay profitable despite the 2011 crash in the US. In the meantime, in 2006, I turned my passion for my own personal growth and supporting women into a company called Courageous Living with my incredible business partner Joanna Andros. Together we have led thousands of women through our incredible 6 stage process to write the next inspiring chapter of their lives. in 2013, we published our first book called UnderMind that helps people discover the 7 subconscious beliefs that sabotage their lives and how to overcome them. It went on to become an Amazon #1 best seller and I went on tour to use this work to help thousands more people and entrepreneurs breakthrough their subconscious blocks and create a business and life they loved. My speaking tours have continued to take me to ver 60 countries to include 10 cities in India, Nepal, Dubai, Bangkok and more. I was honoured to accept the award for Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women from the Women’s Executive Network (WXN) as well as Iconic Women Leaders of the Decade by the Women’s Global Economic Forum. I continue to work with these organizations to lift women as I rise through dedicated mentorship programs. Since then we have grown Courageous Living and have partnered with the WXN to run the #1 most powerful personal development program for professional women called the RAW Courage Coaching Program. Today, I continue to be a sought after corporate trainer for market leading brands to develop World Class Leadership, Sales and Customer Service as well as a super power Executive coach to leaders who want to reach their full potential. My greatest accomplishment is my loving marriage and our delightful son!

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I serve both a personal and professional market for the work that I do. Working to help people grow often means that I’m also meeting them during their intimate time of struggle. This is a vulnerable intersection and I believe that my reputation has been built on 3 key aspects.

1. Being client focused.
I become wholly dedicated to understanding my clients psychologically, emotionally, even spiritually so that we can get through the various layers and reveal the source of their struggle as well as create their ultimate vision for success. Whether it’s a keynote, corporate training or coaching, their goals become my goals and they have a powerhouse driving them to exceed their expectations.

2. Creating trust and a safe place to grow
Growth can be messy, confusing, painful as well as exhilarating and rewarding. No matter what place we start, the only way is through. I’ve seen people go through everything you can imagine, I suspend my ego and create a compassionate, empathetic and empowering place for people to embrace their journey, be kinder to themselves and feel safe to grow.

3. Unconditional Success
I believe in possibility. I believe that we can declare ourselves to be unlimited and achieve success, regardless of the circumstances, I teach the non negotiable principles for success along with the unconditional mindset and ability to hear your intuition. With these empowering tools, people truly can accomplish anything. Every single client who has ever worked with me as an individual or as an organization has grown personally as well as professionally to exceed their goals and attain heights beyond their imagination.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

We live in a very different world today and what is required from management has changed over the last decade.

Today managers have to lead with vision and be dialed in to their team to offer the right balance between empathy and empowerment along the way.

Here is what every employee fundamentally requires to feel unified and motivated to achieve a common goal.

1. Lead with your company’s vision, mission and values.
Help your team understand that they are a part of an organization that has a meaningful purpose and they are a part of a daily mission to make a significant impact – and they do it as one unified team.
Consistently review your team values and put them into context when you assign projects, solve problems, ask people to raise their standards of excellence and deliver on results. The more everyone buys into the common vision, mission and values – and you can show them how they are an integral part of it, the better they will work together.

2. Be Clear
Most problems stem from miscommunication, misinterpretation and not enough feedback along the way.
Be super clear about assignments and show people how they affect the big picture, use key performance indicators so people can objectively evaluate their results.
Check in along the way with specific well thought out feedback and praise.

3. Assign a purpose not a task
A task is a means to an end. Help your team understand the outcome you are trying to accomplish and why, then discuss (have dialogue and let people speak) what steps are required to get there. Then you will have big picture buy in with room for your team to offer ideas and innovation along the way,

4. Know your team’s strengths and assign accordingly
Various personality tests / strength finder and the like are helpful ways to reveal what your team members are best at and keep them working in their zone of genius.

5. Give meaningful praise
One of the most prevalent employee complaints is the lack of truly meaningful praise and recognition. I teach a class just on that alone and it can transform a broken team into brilliant performance. Learn to give feedback that makes people well up with tears and show them how amazing they are.

6. Practice fear management
It’s easy for teams to get off track when there is uncertainty. It leads to passing judgment, gossip, and the fear of the worst case scenario. Ensure you are constantly injecting clarity of vision, even if you don’t have answers, share the answers you do have and share them positively. Constantly listen for negative limiting beliefs or concerns and use thought leadership to elevate your team’s mindset, passion and stay on track by being open, optimistic and flexible as you grow.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.tanyachernova.com
• Instagram: @tanyachernovaofficial_
• Facebook: Tanya Chernova
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanyachernova/
• Other: www.courageousliving.com