#WomenInspiringWomen.<\/a><\/p>\nYou are the first Canadian to be selected as Top Senior Wealth Advisor of the Year by IAOTP.\u00a0 As a trailblazer in a male dominated industry, how did you get your seat at the table?<\/h3>\n
First of all, it\u2019s been a great honour to be the first Canadian to receive this award. I think it\u2019s really been about hard work and focusing on excellence.\u00a0 I\u2019ve never thought of myself in terms of my gender, I look at myself as a person who has to compete in my field with other people.\u00a0 My parents really distilled the value of excellence into me as a child.\u00a0 For me, getting a good grade wasn\u2019t enough \u2013 getting the highest grade was always the goal.<\/p>\n
As a woman in a male dominated industry, you need to work twice as hard to establish yourself and you have to constantly strive to be the best at what you do.\u00a0 For me, it comes naturally because I\u2019m a hard worker.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t matter what I do.\u00a0 I have to give 100% of myself whether it\u2019s my career or volunteer work.\u00a0 I only get involved if I\u2019m really passionate about a subject, a cause or my profession.\u00a0 As long as that passion is there, it drives me and motivates me to work hard and be the best that I can be.<\/p>\n
People often forget success comes as a result of hard work and dedication\u2026<\/h3>\n
Oh, absolutely.\u00a0 It\u2019s all about grit.\u00a0 I read Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance<\/em> by Angela Duckworth and I could not agree more with what she had to say.\u00a0 The difference between a person that succeeds and a person who fails in the same line of business usually is that the person that succeeds is more persistent.\u00a0 They keep failing and trying and they don\u2019t give up.\u00a0 The person who fails is the one who gives up.\u00a0 It\u2019s all about grit and persistence, setting new goals, relentlessly pursuing them and not giving up.<\/p>\nWith the pandemic, we are living in a time where you are seeing a lot of small businesses closing.\u00a0 There are some success stories though.\u00a0 What kind of counsel do you give to your clients that are entrepreneurs to help them succeed in a time like this?<\/h3>\n
A business owner always has to hope for the best, but be prepared for the worst, even in the best of times.\u00a0 I make sure that whenever I review my client\u2019s financial planning that we have a good cushion for emergencies and that they have good lines of credit set up, even if they don\u2019t need them. The time to set them up is when you don\u2019t need them.\u00a0 When you really need them, the bank is not going to give you a line of credit.\u00a0 It\u2019s all that preparation that has to go into surviving these uncertain times.\u00a0 That\u2019s all part of good financial planning.<\/p>\n
As a diverse woman, what challenges did you face when you got your start in the financial world 30 years ago?\u00a0 How much have things improved?<\/h3>\n
I, personally, have been very fortunate in the sense that in my entire career, I have never experienced any bias because of my diverse cultural background or because I am a woman.\u00a0 I have always been proud of my Iranian heritage and have always felt that being a woman actually gives me an edge.\u00a0 I never paid attention to people who may have thought differently.\u00a0 Maybe there was bias out there, but I didn\u2019t feel it. To me, cultural background, race and gender do not matter.\u00a0 We are all people and I always expected to be treated as a person.\u00a0 I think this positive self-image has always worked in my favour.\u00a0 There are two ways of thinking about yourself as a woman, somebody who is a minority or who came from a diverse cultural background.\u00a0 You can think of yourself as disadvantaged or you can think of yourself as somebody with an edge.\u00a0 All of these things make you different.\u00a0 To me, being different is an edge.\u00a0 You aren\u2019t like everybody else.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m an immigrant, so I\u2019ve been through that painful experience of immigrating to a new country and having to establish myself.\u00a0 More than 50% of the population of Toronto are also immigrants and it gives me insight.\u00a0 For me, it has been a positive.\u00a0 I\u2019ve also thought of being a woman in a male dominated industry as an edge \u2013 we need more female advisors.\u00a0 Half of the population are women and women outlive men.\u00a0 They are the ones who will inherit all of the wealth.\u00a0 People who understand them, are patient with them, who can relate to them and help them navigate the financial market have an advantage.<\/p>\n
You have won numerous awards and were recognized in America\u2019s Leading Ladies: Stories of Courage, Challenge and Triumph<\/em>.\u00a0 With success comes many different types of pressure.\u00a0 When did you feel like you made it and how do you handle the pressure that comes along with success?<\/h3>\nI\u2019ve been fortunate to receive these awards and accolades, but I\u2019ve never felt like I\u2019ve made it.\u00a0\u00a0 For me, it\u2019s a journey and it\u2019s that journey that\u2019s important to me, so I\u2019m always looking for the next challenge and for that bigger goal.\u00a0 If I ever feel like I\u2019ve achieved all that I can, then life would no longer be interesting for me.\u00a0 It\u2019s not about feeling like you\u2019ve made it, it\u2019s about feeling motivated and challenged.<\/p>\n
We are living in unusual times with the pandemic.\u00a0 How do you stay motivated through uncertainty and what lessons will you take away from 2020?<\/h3>\n
The pandemic has been a great learning opportunity for me and my team.\u00a0 We\u2019ve pivoted to working remotely and doing webinars instead of seminars almost overnight.\u00a0 I do income tax reduction and elimination seminars for seven major charities in Toronto on a regular basis and suddenly we couldn\u2019t do seminars anymore, so we had to pivot to webinars.\u00a0 In the process, our teamwork has improved incredibly.\u00a0 We have found that we can work very effectively as a team without having to work in the same office and it has been a truly eye-opening experience for me. I\u2019ve given my employees the option to continue to work from home indefinitely if they wish to.<\/p>\n
I feel very motivated and energized as a result of the break that I had during the pandemic to improve various aspects of my business.\u00a0 Another great lesson for me has also been the importance of constant communication with my team and with my clients to help them navigate these uncertain times.\u00a0 Of course, spending some quality time with my family at home has been very refreshing too.\u00a0 It really has reminded me that the best things in life are free.<\/p>\n
Mentoring others is an important part of what you do.\u00a0 What is your mentorship style?<\/h3>\n
Mentoring is all about coaching and letting your mentee discover their own strength, find their best career path and excel in what they do.\u00a0 Of course, as a mentor, I want to help them along their journey and contribute as much as possible to their success.<\/p>\n
Everyone who has made been successful in business has had to deal with some disappointments and failures along the way.\u00a0 What have you learned from your own?<\/h3>\n
For me, every failure is a learning experience and it\u2019s a step toward your next success.\u00a0 In life, no success is possible without one or more failures preceding it.\u00a0 Persistence and being focused on your goals is much more important than being a genius.\u00a0 If you are a genius and give up too soon, you will never get anywhere.<\/p>\n
I truly believe that if you give that you will receive.\u00a0 If more people in our community would think that way, many of our social problems would be solved. For me, it\u2019s always been a fundamental value to give back to my community.\u00a0 It\u2019s given me extreme pleasure to do that.\u00a0 It has enriched my life and it\u2019s a win-win all around.<\/p>\n
What does success look like now versus when you started your career?<\/h3>\n
When I first started out in my career, obviously, I was not very selective in terms of the clients that I would work with because I had to make ends meet.\u00a0 Success at that point meant having a few new clients to my book of business each year, no matter what the fit was.\u00a0 I\u2019m now very selective about the new clients that I work with and as a result, I\u2019m now working with an amazing group of clients who share my values.\u00a0 I truly enjoy working with each and every one of them.\u00a0 Success for me now is measured not only by how much my business grows, but by the impact that I can make in my community and in the lives of my clients.<\/p>\n
Women who break the glass ceiling and get those senior leadership roles are inspiring.\u00a0 Who inspires you?<\/h3>\n
Angela Merkel is definitely a very inspiring lady and an inspiring leader.\u00a0 CEOs like Mary Berra of General Motors and Ginni Rometty of IBM are inspirations. I was thrilled when my segment in the book America\u2019s Leading Ladies: Stories of Courage, Challenge and Triumph<\/em> was placed in between the segments for Melinda Gates and Mary Berra.\u00a0 It was very flattering to me.\u00a0 I think that they are both great people.\u00a0 One is a great business leader, and the other is a great philanthropist.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Speaking with Tina Tehranchian is like listening to your own personal Ted Talk.\u00a0 Tehranchian, a native of Tehran, moved to Canada permanently in 1990 after going to school in the…<\/div>\n
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