We recently connected with Tanya Hayles and have shared our conversation below.

Tanya, appreciate you joining us today. So, let’s imagine that you were advising someone who wanted to start something similar to you and they asked you what you would do differently in the startup-process knowing what you know now. How would you respond?

If I was starting over (if we’re talking about my pre-pandemic business) – I would be louder about shouting my accomplishments from the rooftops. Years later, I am behind the folks who put themselves out there, didn’t have a closed-off Instagram account and didn’t always remind people of the amazing work that was doing. You are only as good as the receipts that people can see.

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.

My event career started when I landed a job at Big Brothers Big Sisters, doing special events and fundraising. And I loved it. I loved that my job had a purpose, that it was different every day, and was doing something that was really a lot of fun. And so that set me on a path of event planning for a decent period of time, I would say. So I really did fall into event planning by accident, but it took me to different nonprofit organizations and charitable organizations. I made the leap from that world to event catering, doing all sorts of different events weddings, galas, funerals, you name it, which then led to me doing my own business in 2016 until I was forced into retirement by the Pandemic. So that’s definitely one stream of me. But when it comes to the creative side, whether it’s public speaking or writing, I think that I’ve always done that. When I think back to when my first kind of passion and iterations for those kinds of things, writing came first. I was always a writer and always a lover of words. From high school. Public speaking took me a minute. I was, believe it or not, very shy in high school and was able to go to some leadership conferences. That really pulled me out of my shell. And I really credit those things back then for setting the stage for what would come later on. I would say from a business standpoint, really my goal is to tell stories and teach people through storytelling. I think that it’s the world’s oldest form of communication. That’s how we pass down recipes. That’s how we learn how to create fire as humanity. And I think it continues to be the best way to reach people on a human level. You can have any topic, but if you can come up with a story, people are kind of taken back to the days of sitting on the kindergarten classroom floor listening to their teacher. Right? They activate their curiosity in a different way. So that’s definitely what I try to do when my clients hire me, whether it’s to share a story through the written word or through public speaking, one thing that I would say that sets me apart from others is the approach that I take. I really try to make these conversations real and relatable. I never want to come across as a know it all or an academic, and not that there’s anything wrong with that. But I think that if you are constantly using big words or saying 100 words or writing 100 words when 50 would do, you lose people and then defeat the entire purpose as to why you were engaged to teach in the first place. What I’m most proud of, I would say everything. I’m really proud of all the pivots and all the opportunities that have come my way, whether it’s doing a TEDx Toronto talk or building my nonprofit into a global village, the rooms that has gotten me in and the stages that’ve gotten me on. All of it, being able to pivot and utilize skills during the pandemic that were different from the ones I was actively using for 15 to 20 years prior. All of it is something that I’m really proud of, for sure.

Have you ever had to pivot?

So a story of a time when I had to pivot would be in 2015. I was an eight year veteran of this particular company. And I loved what I did. I loved that my days were different. I got to interact with different people, corporates, personal, every level, every part of the city. Morning, afternoon, night, weekends. Tons of fun, right? Always out in the streets and always learning on how to be better. But the unfortunate part is the environment wasn’t healthy and I needed to make a choice.

And so I went on stress leave from that particular place of employment and that was December 2015. At the time I was freelance writing for a small startup in the US and talking with the founder there. And she said I told her what was going on. She’s like, oh, why didn’t you tell me? I’m like, well, didn’t realize we were on kind of level. She’s like, well, we’re going to start doing events. Do you want to do them? And just like that, I went from being a tentatively unemployed employee to an entrepreneur. And I never foresaw myself as being one, especially since at the time my son was a toddler and I didn’t think entrepreneurship and single motherhood went together. I didn’t know anything about entrepreneur. I didn’t have entrepreneurship, role models. I didn’t know what it entailed. And if I could go back, there’s definitely things I would do differently if I could turn back the hands of time. But being able to pivot really quickly from the security of a paycheck to hustling. And I went from planning events in the city where I grew up to planning events in a country that I only really visited on a tourist basis. So there’s definitely a lot of growth for me there and challenges for sure. I realize I’m a very good event planner, but I don’t know the first thing about running an event planning business. I don’t know how to price myself. I don’t know what my contracts are to look like. I don’t know what my niche is. There was a lot of learning, but it was great and it was a beautiful relationship and it led to other opportunities, which was wonderful. And then the world closed and I had to make another decision on what I wanted to do. And ultimately I chose to retire, mostly because my brain was just not in the same function that is required for events. But more specifically, I know me, right? I know that I need the texture of events. I need the sound check, I need to smell the coffee brewing, I need the vacuum lines on the carpet. I want to see all the candlelights twinkling on the tables. Those things you would never get and don’t get with virtual events. And I knew I wasn’t going to be able to do it well with the same amount of passion and excitement that I had had for the previous 15 some OD years. So there’s two Pivots in that mostly external journal but was able to switch gears. And if you listen to the general society says, oh, event planner, you’re type A and you’re rigid and you’re always to plan and always to schedule. And I would challenge everyone to say a good event planner actually can pivot and can adapt because an event is a living, breathing thing and you need to be able to say, okay, this speaker has missed their flight. What are we going to fill this time slot with what are we going to do in its place? Can we get them there? Can someone else take them up? If you were always just to plan and to the plan that’s on paper, you would never make it as a good event planner. So really proud of those Pivot stories.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

Every opportunity that I have gotten in the past, let’s say five years, have either been from people in my professional or personal circle sending recommendations. And the second would be social media. And specifically, I would say Instagram and Twitter x has its now known as of course. But yeah, I think really just when I was putting myself out there and I would say for someone who lives on socials, I am terrible at them. I definitely always want to be the person who’s consistent and the content pillar buckets. And I know all the things I think because I’ve never really had a life, a career life of being nine to five and very rigid, it’s very hard for me to stay inside those lines on social media. Okay, post. Every Monday it’s a quote, and every Tuesday it’s a this, and every Wednesday it’s a this. That’s not how my life has gone. That’s not how my career has gone. And so it’s really difficult for me to try to curate a social media presence that follows that. So I’m very much like, hey, this is what I’m doing and this is what I want. And I put it out there once and maybe go back to it six months later. But it’s usually the people who are paying attention to what I’m posting and or know me personally who say, here’s an opportunity, I think, that you’d be good for or that you might be interested in and definitely grateful for that.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.tanyahayles.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetanyahayles/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/teehails
• Linkedin: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/thayles
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/tanyahayles