Use Your Business to Change Lives

Mar 1, 2017

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This week we have a great story of someone that worked really hard to figure out who she was, what she wanted from her business and life, and why. Tana Green has done some exceptional things along her journey into her second half. She decided to use her current business as a platform to accomplish her life’s aspiration to change people’s lives.

If you listen, you will learn…

How one person used her business to empower her and answer her calling in life
How Tana used her business as a platform to raise $10M for charity
The power of having access to a large workforce and contact base
How real change can happen on a large scale
Lloyd Reeb’s low-risk probes in action: the concept of trying meaningful and fulfilling pursuits until something sticks
The benefits of taking time out to evaluate your own mind
How to create a humane culture in your firm from the top down
The value of the Strength Finder system
The negative connotations of the term ‘CEO’ and how a ‘CLO’ could be the future of corporate governance

Before figuring out what she wanted from her business and life, Tana would find herself breaking down in tears on Sunday night watching Extreme Makeover on TV. The stories were striking a chord deep inside and even though she was very successful in business, she couldn’t help but feel there was something missing… Tana originally thought she could only find fulfillment outside of the world of business but once she understood the massive platform her business offered her, the sky was the limit.

Where was the turning point?

Tana attended an event put on by her CPA firm. It just so happened that the keynote speaker was one of our friends, Lloyd Reeb, from the Halftime Institute. After the event she met Lloyd for coffee and decided it was time for her and her husband/business partner, Mike, to get some next level coaching to help them figure out what was next.

What did Tana do next?

She determined that her passion was helping women stuck in domestic violence. Her personal experience pulled her to help people in need of an escape from abusive relationships. But what did that mean? After some internal reflection and help from close friends and the Halftime Institute, Tana realized that her company could be used as a platform to magnify the impact she could make. She didn’t need to completely cut ties and sell the company to do what she wanted to do. Owning a company with thousands of employees and having influence in the community gave Tana amazing resources to serve the cause WHILE still keeping her company.

How did she do it?

Tana DID NOT DO the typical thing that entrepreneurs do after they come back from a conference. She did not walk back into the business and immediately bark orders on the new direction she was taking with her role. Tana wanted to help change people’s lives and that first started with mentoring and guiding her executive team. Getting her executives on board with the new vision was a slow but effective process. She gave them the resources they needed to become the next level team that would allow her to move into a different and more distant role. Everyone on her team first took their Strength Finders 2.0 to help guide the process. After the Strength Finders, Tana set up a monthly meeting to touch base with her team. She also wrote a book called Creating a World of Difference that she gives to every employee so they can get a full understanding of the company culture and values.

What impact has Tana made?

Tana raised $10 Million for a Domestic Violence Center and became a spokesperson and board member of some of the industry’s biggest charities, i.e. SafeAlliance, to help victims of domestic violence. One of the most generous things that Tana has done is donate 2% of net proceeds from her business to a foundation that helps in domestic violence. Can you imagine trying to raise that money without a company!?

What’s next?

As a typical entrepreneur, Tana has her fingers in many different ventures. She is keeping busy in the non-profit world helping Safe Alliance and other domestic violence causes while at the same time tending to The Greene Group and her (fairly) new company, The Blue Bloodhound Group.

Contact Info and Bio for Tana:

Email: tanag@creatingaworldofdifference.com Book Website: https://www.creatingaworldofdifference.com Company Website: https://www.greene-group.com/

Tana Green is co-founder of The Greene Group, a national staffing corporation that places temporary employees in industries ranging from transportation, medical, scientific and light industrial. She, in partnership with her husband Mike Greene, established their first staffing entity more than 20 years ago. An active member of Women’s Presidents’ Organization, Tana is the driving force behind establishing Creating a World of Difference, a foundation that sets aside a portion of The Greene Group’s corporate profits to benefit employees of client companies. Honors include designation as on of INC Magazine’s Top 5000 fast growing national companies in 2007 and 2008, as well as Enterprising Women magazine’s 2006 Enterprising Woman of the Year. Tana also advocates on behalf of victims of domestic violence. She lives with her husband and business partner, Mike Greene, and their daughter, Kelly, in Charlotte, NC. Tana’s son, L.J., his wife and their baby also live in the area.

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