Meet Tanya Stinson | CEO/Founder of Leaning Towards Change, LLC

We had the good fortune of connecting with Tanya Stinson and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Tanya, is there something that you feel is most responsible for your success?
The most important factor behind the success of my woman-owned small business is word of mouth. I have not had to advertise a lot, which is blessing in itself. Being a member of several large healthcare based organizations such as the North Texas Chapter of American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHENTX), the North Texas Association for Healthcare Quality (NTAHQ), and National Association of Latino Healthcare Executives (NALHE), just to name a few, has been a great way to meet and create great relationships with people from not only around the DFW area, but from all over the world. When I meet people, I consider them to be friends, and I like to communicate and have long term relationships with them. I am truly blessed to have a large bandwidth of friends and work family who share information about my small business with others. It makes me so happy when I get referrals from people who have been through the courses themselves in the past. It is always good to hear about others who are interested in learning more about process improvement, change management, and improving quality, safety, and the patient/employee experience.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
I have a woman-owned small business and I am currently the only employee. It has grown naturally via word of mouth, and for that I am thankful. I don’t know if this sets me apart from others, but I just love people and I love helping them! It fills my cup and makes my job worth it, and for that, I am thankful.

I am very passionate about process improvement and change management! When these tools, methods, and techniques are used the right way, they help people. This includes people doing the work, and the people impacted by the processes or services that have been completed.

By utilizing process improvement and change management tools, methods, and techniques, we can eliminate errors, defects, wastes, and inefficiencies from day-to-day processes that negatively impact people every day. I love implementing process improvements and making positive changes in healthcare especially, as I know that I am helping the patients, patients’ families, clinical and non-clinical staff, and them never know my name. It feels good to know that I have helped patients in getting discharged faster from the ED, decreasing blood culture contaminations, and decreased blood wastage just to name a few. I know that the work I am doing is important, makes a difference, and that makes it all worth it for me. Another awesome thing is, process improvement can be implemented in ANY organization, not just in healthcare.

I know there a lot of people who have businesses and teach/coach others on how to do these same things, but I think what sets me apart is my personal connection with people. I want everyone to know that they are important to me. I feel that networking and relationship building is one of the most important aspects for me and my small business. I am very interactive when I coach/teach and I want to ensure that all of my candidates are successful. If they are passionate about PI and Change Management, I want to ensure that I can do whatever I need to do to help them grow on their journeys!

I have been blessed to have been invited to speak on several podcasts to talk about PI and my small business, like the Becker’s Healthcare Podcast, the Cutting Edge podcast, and the Healthcare Quality Cast, where we discuss the importance of speaking up for safety, as well as ways to improve upon quality and other aspects by implementing long term, sustainable process improvements.

I am thankful that I had gotten the opportunity to meet the lovely Judy Hoberman, who introduced me to Jeff Crilley. Jeff invited me to be on his TV show where we discussed Leaning Towards Change, process improvement, change management and other topics. I had tossed around the idea for years of starting my own podcast, but I was scared. I had a grand vision and goals for the podcast, but I was afraid people would judge me for my looks, my size, and other negative things and not truly hear my voice or the voices of my guests. For those that don’t know, it is my goal and motto for my small business to change the world, one improvement at a time. Jeff and Judy really inspired me to improve upon myself by not listening to the negative. So, I made a personal improvement. I stepped out of my comfort zone and have recently started a podcast. The goal of my podcast is to help people. I am hoping when people listen in, they leave with a way to improve upon some aspect of their personal or professional lives.

The podcast is called Leaning Towards Change with Tanya Stinson. I am thankful that I get the opportunity to talk with great improvement leaders who have shaped the PI culture we have today. I am hoping the information we share as part of the podcast will inspire others to want to learn more about process improvement, change management, servant leadership, as well as ways to improve upon culture, quality, safety, costs, and other important topics.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Oh, my goodness, this is so exciting! I am a true country girl, so I was raised on meat and taters, so to speak. My selections may not be the healthiest choices, but to me are certainly some of the tastiest “vittles” you will ever eat while visiting the DFW area! I also love history, so most of the places that I have mentioned all have a historical aspect to them as well as being fun and delicious!

On Saturday morning – We are headed to Grapevine, Texas. I just LOVE Grapevine! Founded in 1844, Grapevine is the oldest community in Tarrant County. I lived there for several years, and plan to retire there one day. For you to learn about Grapevine history, here is a walking tour that may help give you helpful details: https://res-1.cloudinary.com/simpleview/image/upload/v1/clients/grapevine/HistoricDowntownWalkingTour_4b2b9ff0-e422-4a45-9fae-3838d39675f0.pdf

Grapevine is also called the “Christmas Capital of Texas”, so the best months to visit Grapevine are in November and December, as the entire city is decorated in beautiful Christmas lights. Each storefront has their own special decorations. They have a super tall singing Christmas tree on the square, his mouth actually moves. It’s cool! Santa also comes to visit downtown and they have a huge Christmas festival every year. We also have the Gaylord “Ice” Festival each year which is super fun to go to, as you get to see cool, themed ice sculptures, like “Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.”

For Breakfast, we are headed to Old West Cafe – Grapevine for their famous Cinnamon Crisp French Toast and homemade Peanut Butter syrup. Yummmm! After eating, we will walk off those carbs by heading to the old downtown Grapevine area, and will shop til’ we drop! The little shops there in downtown are awesome, and you can get some good deals there.

For Lunch while walking in downtown Grapevine, we can stop in at Farina’s and have a small baked lasagna with a glass of wine. It is very good.

For Dinner, we will be heading to Colleyville to the famous La Hacienda Ranch, as they have mesquite grilled steak and chicken fajitas that melt in your mouth! They also have a fire roasted salsa that is served warm with your chips. This place is hard to beat! The Sangria Swirl margarita is also very yummy!

After dinner, we will head back to downtown Grapevine for the Night Watchman Ghost Tour that starts at the Grapevine Springs Winery! You will learn a lot about Grapevine’s haunted history on this tour!

For staying the first night, you will need to make reservations at the newest hotel by the Grapevine train tracks, called Hotel Vin. This is a boutique hotel and has a lot to offer while staying there.

We are going to sleep late on Sunday morning, as we got in late from the Ghost Tour, and need to refresh. Then we will stop by Kountry Donuts and grab an Apple Fritter on our way to church. After church, we will head back downtown and purchase tickets to ride the Cotton Belt Train on the Grapevine Vintage Railroad from Grapevine to the Ft. Worth Stockyards.

Once we get to the Stockyards, we will walk around the area, take pictures of cool statues, old eclectic buildings, go shopping, and walk to Billy Bob’s to get a look at the largest Honkey Tonk in Texas! There are some guitars signed by famous country artists and concrete hands of artists displayed on the Wall of Fame that would be fun to take pictures of! I would convince you into riding the bucking bull just to see how long you will last until you get bucked off!

We will eat lunch at the famous Cattleman’s Steakhouse Restaurant in the Stockyards, as I encourage you to try the “Calf Fries.” Once you ate one, I would then tell you what they are!

After more shopping, we will hop back on the train and head back to the depot in Grapevine.

We will then leave Grapevine and go to Del Frisco’s in Southlake for dinner, as you must try their Lobster Truffled Mac and Cheese, its super good. This is my favorite place to get Coconut Pie! It’s heavenly!

After dinner, we can head take the boat out and head to Grapevine Lake for a sunset boat cruise and watch the sailboats out on the water. It’s very pretty and peaceful to watch.

On Monday morning, we will head to Georgia Brown’s in Lake Worth, Texas. They have the best homemade cinnamon rolls! You must try their cinnamon roll French toast. They take a homemade cinnamon roll, slice into 3 slices, and grill it. Its Yummy, but oh so sweet! I always love looking for old antiques, so we can go antique shopping in the area to burn some calories!

For lunch, we will head to Roanoke, TX to Babe’s Chicken House. They serve their food family style. You get a choice of either Chicken Fried Steak, Chicken Tenders, or Fried Chicken as your meat. You get endless sides of salad, biscuits, creamed corn, mashed potatoes, and gravy. It’s hard to choose which meat to eat, as they are all so good!

After lunch, we can head down the street to purchase a slice of pie from the Oak St. Pie House. Their pies are just so good, especially the Peanut Butter Pie or the Coconut Crème Pie! I feel like the world’s problems can be solved while eating a slice of pie!

After lunch, we can head to the mall. There is a lot of nice places to shop at the Tanger Premium Outlet Mall. It’s right beside Buckee’s, so when we get done with shopping, we can go there to grab a drink and a t-shirt.

For Dinner, we will head to North Richland Hills, to Sweetie Pie’s Ribeyes. They have the best homemade yeast rolls in 3 counties, just saying! Their smoked pork chops are like none other! They taste like grandma’s freshly fried ham and red eye gravy! Make sure you buy two, as you can always take the other one home, chop it up, and have it with scrambled eggs the next morning for breakfast! Yummm! And don’t forget to try Cowboy Custard! It will make you slap ya’ mama! Afterwards, we can go back to my house and go for a late night swim. That’s the best time, as you can swim and watch the stars. It’s very quiet and peaceful, reminds me of being at home in the country. You can hear the cicadas singing.

On Tuesday morning, we will head to Haslet, Texas. We will eat breakfast at the Texan Diner. Other than Old West Café, this restaurant has the best homemade French Toast. They make their own bread and pies at this place! I visit this location because of the homemade Butter Pecan Flapjacks! The chef also makes homemade Butter Pecan syrup that is served warm and goes right on top of those huge flapjacks! You can order farm fresh eggs and thick bacon to go with it. I can’t ever it all, so we may have to share! Sharing is caring!

After breakfast, we can head to Decatur so I can take you to visit the old, creepy but cool Waggoner Mansion called “El Castille” that is right outside of town across the railroad tracks. It’s a cool but creepy place to take pictures. Paul and I mistakenly happened up on it thinking it was the courthouse, finding out that it was an old, abandoned mansion just about a mile from town. I would like to purchase this place and turn it into a Bed and Breakfast! From what I have heard, there are Limestone Walls that are 2 foot thick! I have also heard than an old movie starring Elizabeth Taylor was filmed in this house! If only the walls could talk, I bet they would have a story to tell!
After leaving the mansion, we will head out to visit the Alien crash site in the Aurora cemetery. A lot of people stop by there to take pictures and leave a memento for the alien buried there at the crash site, so we will have to leave something too! There are several historical markers at this cemetery. If you love reading about old history, there are several to read here.

Then, we will dash over to Bridgeport to “Yesterday’s 50’s Diner” for lunch to see if you can take on the famous “Big Daddy” challenge! If you eat it all, it’s free!

After you wake up from your food coma, we will take the Jeep and head to the Bridgeport Northwest OHV Park, Off-Road & ATV Trails. We will spend the rest of the day having fun out there getting our Jeep Gladiator, “Tough Ombre” dirty and muddy! Once we have had enough of the bouncin’ around, we can head home to Saginaw.

For Dinner, we can stop at the Eagle Point Bar and Grill. My personal favorite is the G.O.A.T. It’s a bowl of creamy mac and cheese loaded with grilled shrimp, jalapeños, chopped bacon, goat cheese crumbles and chives! Man, it’s makin’ my mouth water just telling you about it!  If you want, we can sneak away and catch a Rangers game in Arlington afterwards!

On Wednesday morning, I will make homemade biscuits and gravy with fried eggs and bacon at home. We have been going out to eat so much, we need to save money! I make homemade buttermilk biscuits the way my mom did em’, and they are huge! Countryfolk call them “Cathead biscuits”. And they are so dang good, you won’t ever want another biscuit from a restaurant again! We can kick it around the house and swim at the pool, and Paul can grill us some burgers and brats on the grill so we can chill! After lunch we can head to Eagle Mountain Lake for some fun in the sun! We can ride the tube and go fishing for most of the afternoon. We can stay until dinner time and eat sandwiches and chips on the boat as we chill on a late night sunset cruise! We are going to take plenty of hooks, bobbers, and worms, just in case we want to do some catfishin’ at night while we are out. You never know what you might catch if you just throw a line in the water!

On Thursday morning, we will wake up, grab a Honey Butter Chicken Biscuit from Whataburger, and go antique shopping! There are some cool antique shops in North Richland Hills! You will burn calories just walking around looking at all the old, eclectic things at these antique shops! My favorite one is called the “Painted Tree Vintage Market.” It has a very cool, custom designed piano that plays music but is also part of a live water fountain! Water runs right through it as it is playing music! I have never seen anything else like it! It’s stunning!

For lunch, we can head over to Campfire Grill Texas Kitchen in Watauga to get some homemade from scratch Chicken Fried Bacon and homemade Bacon Gravy! Shut the Front Door! I told you, I am a country girl, it’s meat and taters for me! In saying that, you gotta try the Smothered Pork Chop with mashed potatoes topped with Bacon gravy and crispy fried okra. You will want to come back just for the gravy! It’s as good as my homemade gravy is for sure! And I don’t even have to clean the kitchen!

We can continue to go antique shopping around NRH and into Alliance for the rest of the day. We head over to Sam Moon’s in Alliance to get some goodies for ourselves and grab a smoothie at Smoothie King. There are lots of shops over there we can go to and spend a little extra money.

For dinner, we can eat at P.F. Chang’s. Their Mongolian Beef is super good. The meals are so large we can share. Then we can catch a movie afterwards at the Cinemark Alliance Town Center. We can buy some tickets and sit in the D-Box seats. When you watch an action flick, the chairs move like you were on a ride at Universal Studios! Fun stuff!

On Friday morning, we can stop by QT for some yummy brisket tacos. We will gas up so that you can get ready to be on your way the next day. We can do some last minute shopping, just to make sure you have gotten gifts for everyone, even one for the cats and dogs at home. On the last day, we will take a trip to Dallas, and go to the Perot Museum. I have never been, so it’s a memory we will both never forget, I am sure. Once we leave there, we can head to the Galleria Mall to do a little ice skating. Don’t worry, as I have never done that either, so if we break a hip, we can nurse each other back to health!

We can eat at Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers and you can try their dipping sauce, its super yummy! Then we can go get a Boba Tea and for dessert we can get some gelato! Before we leave, we have to ensure we stop by Bath and Body Works for some good smelling candles! Those always make good gifts for people!

For Dinner that night, we are going to eat Cajun food at Boo Ray’s in Eagle Mountain. This place is a little pricey, but if you get the platter, you get enough food to feed like 3 people. They have the best fried catfish, crab cakes, red beans, and rice with andouille sausage, etouffee, and boudin around! For your last treat, we will mosey over to Andy’s Custard for a late night custard with Oreos, or whatever you want, all the custard mixes are awesome!
Then, it’s off to bed and back home you go on Saturday morning!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
First and foremost, I would like to thank God for the opportunities that I have been given and the awesome people he has put in my path since moving to the DFW area. I know a lot of what has happened these past few years that would not have happened if it wasn’t for him. I am truly blessed and thankful to have a large network of people that I call friends. I am also thankful for my husband, Paul, and my kids, as they have supported me through many ups and downs and continue to support me to this day.

I have been blessed to have made many friends and connections by becoming members of several organizations and then volunteering on various committees/boards. I am very thankful for the opportunities to volunteer for activities in our communities. It makes me feel fulfilled and full of happiness when I can help others.

There are way too many personal friends and connections to “shout out” and name them all, and I would not want anyone to get their feelings hurt if they weren’t mentioned. So, I will just say thank you and I love you to all of them. To show my appreciation and let everyone know how thankful I am, I send out LinkedIn posts quite often to thank them, as there are so many who have helped me along the way, and I don’t want them to ever forget how important they are to me and how they have made such a positive impact in my life.

When I moved back to the DFW area in 2017, I did not know a lot of people. I wanted to find a place where I felt welcome. I read LinkedIn posts that were created by my good friend, Jennifer “J” Alexander, from the North Texas Chapter of the American College of Healthcare Executives, or ACHENTX, and they drew me in. The photos showed a very well connected group of happy people who were networking, having a good time, and learning as well. I decided to go out on a limb and attend one of the events. I had met with “J” and many more people in 2018 and have since became a very active member of our North Texas Chapter. Since then, I have created many great relationships with other leaders across DFW and beyond. I am currently the Co-Chair of the Women’s Health Executive Network (WHEN) as part of ACHENTX. It has been wonderful getting to meet and get to know many ladies who work in healthcare and other organizations. I am super excited, as next year I will be the WHEN Chair! It was also a blessing to be awarded the 2020 ACHENTX Mentor of the Year award. I know it’s been three years now since I had gotten that award, but I am very proud of that accomplishment.

With the connections and friends that I have made through networking and ACHENTX, they have opened doors to where I could get connected to other groups of wonderful people. I was introduced to Christie Hutchinson, who is a board member of the North Texas Association for Healthcare Quality (NTAHQ). Christie chatted with me about NTAHQ and what it was all about. I was instantly interested in becoming a member. So, I became a member of this great group and have since become a board member. Each month we have speakers from different organizations who speak on ways to improve healthcare quality, safety, process improvement and other aspects. So grateful for the different speakers who volunteer their time and share lessons with us on what they have learned.

I also met Lorie Thibodeaux. She was the Founder and is currently the Advisor of the National Association of Latino Healthcare Executives DFW Chapter. I am thankful to have met her and learned about NALHE. NALHE DFW is a great organization with welcoming people. I have since become a member of the NALHE national organization and am thankful to have met with people from all over the world by teaching/coaching the NALHE La Mesa Emerging Leaders about Process Improvement and Change Management. It has been such a pleasure to network with this group and be a part of this organization.

For those that want to network and create great working relationships with people, ACHENTX, NTAHQ, and NALHE are all great organizations to be a part of. If anyone is interested in hearing more, reach out to me, as I would be happy to help! Thank you so much for reading about me and my passions! I am super thankful to have gotten this opportunity to thank everyone who I have had the pleasure of meeting and getting over the years! If you are interested in learning more about process, performance, or quality improvement and change management, reach out to me, as I would be happy to help you grow on your improvement journey! I am very active on LinkedIn, so message me anytime! May God bless you all! Much love!

Website: https://www.leaningtowardschange.com/

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/tanya-stinson