​Seeing Systems...

​Hearing Patterns...

​Intuitive Journey...

Tana was lead to the work of building communities by focusing on individual dreams and strengths of people as a result of pursuing her own dreams. She arrived in British Columbia from Saskatchewan at the age of 19. "I started work as a dive tender and relief skipper on an underwater seafood harvesting boat. From the rough waters of ocean living and the hard life of working the boats, I began to not only fall in love with the ocean, but also the people who work hard and dream of better things both for themselves and their families". Tana believes that building entrepreneurs is a powerful way of building communities.

It was that vision that led her to a management position at the Steveston Harbour Authority, creating systems that helped diverse communities of harbour users thrive. “Our processes took an organization out of chaos and mis-management, and built a financially sustainable, future-focused and people-first system that worked for the community” Tana recalls. It was these early successes with re-structuring and re-vitalizing communities that led Tana to launch out on her own and create a company focused on building up communities of entrepreneurs. Process prevent politics.

Hurricane Winds...

Tana has a unique ability to see possibilities where others only see problems. In 1996, driven by the urgent need for conservation, the federal government declared a mandate for a massive reduction in salmon fishing, including the likelihood of eliminating entire sub-industries (such as gillnetting) on the west coast within two years. This single statement threw the entire west coast fishing community into chaos, fear and confusion. It was like a hurricane wind hitting their boats!

People were losing their livelihoods, many of whom had fished on the coast for generations, had devoted their lives and life savings into this industry and simply didn’t know what to do, or how to respond to this unprecedented and sudden change.

Tana knew she had to do something. And she knew it started with listening to the people. So she launched her own consulting business, and using that as a vehicle, got the funding for, created and staffed a toll-free support service, the Fisheries and Oceans Information Line. Tana listened as 17,535 calls came in and people told their stories of how this 'hurricane wind' was impacting them. People were angry. They were stressful, anxious and sad. Families were breaking up. Whole communities were falling apart. When the president of the Area 'D' Gillnet Association called her and asked in a plaintive voice, “What will I tell my members? What will our members do”? Tana recalls. “It was heart-breaking, but exhilarating at the same time, because as the conversation went on, we slowly began to see possibilities and dream of ways we could turn it around and create something new and different.”

And so that’s what they did. Just like her earlier work at the Steveston Harbour Authority, Tana set about creating structures and systems to help bring people out of chaos and fear, and into order and hope. Her work with fisheries and the fishing communities resulted in new demonstration fisheries, pilot projects for sustainable fishing, programs and services for the fishing communities, and ultimately, her client won the Governor General’s award for Selective and Responsible Fisheries. You can create order and hope out of chaos and confusion.

Something's Missing...

The Triumph & The Downfall

After a successful career making an impact in the fishing industry, and having two children, Tana decided to enter into the world of entrepreneurship in a bigger way. Together with her husband Randy, they founded Premier Building Products Ltd., a manufacturer and distributor of high-end, panelized, custom homes, and Premier Enterprises USA Inc., a general contracting firm based in Washington state. Within three years, their BC company grew from revenue of $50,000, to $1.5 million, and was one of the top 3 finalists for the 2001 BC Export Awards, Exporter of the year.

Then, like the fishermen facing fisheries closures, Tana and Randy experienced their own ‘hurricane winds’ on September 11th, 2001 when terrorists attacked the World Trade Centre in New York. The economy experienced a downturn and residential developers in the US (representing 100% of their customer base), ceased building whole subdivisions. The bottom fell out of the market. Despite efforts to re-tool and resurrect their business into new Canadian markets, the business was sold by 2005. “We had taken it as far as we could, but at the end of the day, we had built a business that was totally dependent on ourselves and on the whims of one singular market” Tana explained.
Effective business systems design can shock proof your business.

Cultural Harmony...

Tana continued her work as a consultant and community builder in regional communities throughout British Columbia. Having started her first business at age 18, Tana particularly enjoyed mentoring young entrepreneurs as a way to give back. These pictures are from volunteer events and activities with the Canadian Youth Business foundation, now known as Futurepreneur, the Bradner Entrepreneur Bootcamp, and international students from both Simon Fraser University and Trinity Western University. 

To learn more about our commitment to diversity and inclusiveness in the workplace, visit our Resources section or Food For Thought YouTube channel.

Royal Roads University...

"Maybe it was their youthful influence that inspired me to pursue a long time dream of earning a Master’s degree in Leadership before I turned 50". Regardless of what fuelled the inspiration, Tana has always been a deep thinker, and been able to develop systems, programs, and tools that could bring order, clarity and hope to troubled organizations and hurting communities. By questioning how to make better connections between teams and systems, Tana entered the School of Leadership Studies at Royal Roads University in 2011 where started her Master’s degree, supporting deeper thought and searching for something that could pull all these experiences together. At this higher level, the process she automatically knew how to do when implementing projects became both explainable and teachable.

The E-Myth Influence...

While achieving her Leadership degree, Tana's academic advisor suggested she contact Michael Gerber, the well-known American author of the E-Myth series of business books and founder of E-Myth Worldwide. A mentor and fellow systems thinker, Michael had been teaching business owners to think more like entrepreneurs and to work 'on' their business instead of 'in' their business for decades. Connecting with Michael Gerber was an epiphany for Tana. He was able to inspire the language and structure for what she'd been doing and trying to explain to others for decades. He was the answer and the mentor she was searching for!

Representing Canada on Michael Gerber's global leadership team was that epiphany that led Tana to where she is today, founding the Discovery Centre for Entrepreneurship, achieving Canada Revenue Agency recognition as a private career training organization, and delivering programming for entrepreneurs, business owners, and community organizations.

As a catalyst of business growth for over twenty five years, Tana's had more than 22,000 critical conversations with business leaders about their labour market challenges. She's conducted extensive research and tracked performance trends and behaviour patterns across economic regions for over two decades. She understands barriers to growth, workforce challenges, professional goals, and personal desires. Problems are not personal, they're systemic. Great entrepreneurs learn how to overcome invisible barrier to success by building systems that serve the needs of their customer, employees, suppliers and investors.  

                                                                                                                      The Epiphany
Tana explains, “What I realized was that I had fallen into what Michael calls the trap of the manager. With Premier Building Products, we had only built a business to the manager stage, and not a true entrepreneurial company that could stand the test of time and essentially run on its own.”

The systems and ideas that Michael Gerber taught Tana over the five years they worked together provided enormous insights for saving communities and families from stress and trauma similar to what Tana had felt during the collapse of Premier, and the fishermen and their families felt when fisheries collapsed. "In hindsight", she said, "It's easy to fall prey to misconceptions that you're on top of the world and will live 'happily ever after' when things are going good. The moment you stop creating you've already begun to slide backwards and consume what you worked so hard to create". That's when Tana realized something she'd known in her heart all along. 

                                         Entrepreneurship - taught right - can change lives, elevate families and heal communities.

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Tana is ready to help you find your truth and create a system for success on your terms—to help you live fully, work effectively, and build courageously. She is here to remind you that time is our most precious resource, so let’s use it wisely. After all, no one will remember you for what you didn’t do, so be who you are meant to be. Start today. Contact Tana.

Contact Tana